Chapter Text
Why was this happening?
“You couldn’t have just waited a couple more years?” The question left the older man’s mouth with spite and anger, a coldness that made him freeze. “You couldn’t have just started college and married off?!” The horror in Kaito’s face grew with each icy word, “I would have made everything stop naturally! I wouldn’t have needed to kill you! If only you just let yourself be entertained a little longer.” Everything was wrong, and he just wanted to throw up.
Kaito has been working relentlessly for the last couple of months. Shinichi had dismantled his organization, returned to normal, and, with the help of the detectives, finally had those people in a corner. He had to leave home because he received threats as his day persona. For a month, he had been living on the run, with multiple attempts on his life. One of which resulted in Jii being attached to a machine, fighting for his life. He found a small bolt hole and worked hard on getting everything rounded up with this group. He hacked into very difficult systems, gathered evidence, and, after a very difficult connection between accounts and burner phones, he finally tracked down the leader. He had secretly led the police to every single one of their rat holes, and the only den left was this one, filled with the proof of the many atrocities and illegal movements, their links, and ofcourse the person who had been moving them behind the scenes. He ambushed this person; they fought, and a small smoke bomb gave Kaito a slight advantage.
Or so he thought
However, whatever advantage he thought he had won disappeared when he found himself with his own iconic scene from Star Wars.
“But you had to find out! You had to take Chikage!” Toichi kuroba stood in front of him. Angry and cornered after their fight, they pointed a gun at him.
Alive.
A face he didn’t recognize, one that didn’t appear in any of his memories, one filled with hatred.
Hatered for him
For his son.
“Father wha-” he didn’t get to finish his sentence as a bullet flew past his ear.
“Don’t call me that, looking for pity, Kaito!” Nothing that came off this man’s mouth made sense! What was he saying? Why was this happening? His card gun, which he still held up high, pointing at him, trembled slightly in his hand. Probably, under the influence of the powerful somnifacients that Kaito used on his smoke bomb, and that Toichi seemed resistant to, the older man’s facial composure disappeared, and all that was left was the raw truth: “God, you are so weak, yet you made it to this point! For what?! Getting your mother back? Your precious family? Why are you here, Kaito? Huh? To take what's min-”
“SHUT UP! Just shut up! I don’t understand a word you are saying!” Something beyond fear, confusion, or anguish bubbled in his throat. “Why are you here? Why are you with these people? What is the meaning of all this, Father? I just wanted to put these people behind bars! I just wanted justice, I just wanted to avenge you!”His voice shook, but it didn’t interrupt his sentences. “WHY ARE YOU HERE?!” he shouted without really knowing what to do with all those bottled-up emotions.
All these years trying to perfect his poker face, bottling up every single feeling in his chest, all the pain, the loneliness, the fear, everything came crumbling down at the sight of his father. Not only that, he had abandoned his own poker face as well.
“Stop saying crap, you unwanted child! You just wanted what's mine!” The other man’s gun, a real gun, clacked as he reloaded it. “You should have gone on with your life. Play this little game I had for you and just go on your merry way.” The man spoke as if his existence were nothing but a comedic act. “And we all would have had what we wanted.”
“What game?! Explain please”
“Pathetic to be honest, and you call yourself a Kuroba? Don’t you think? Do you not have the capacity to connect dots? Whatever... it just makes it easier to get rid of you.” Toichi finished, almost bored, and pressed on the trigger.
A loud bang reverberated in the room.
And though Kaito was expecting to feel the pain, it never came.
Was it the shock? The adrenaline? Did he die?
Was it all a cruel prank from his not-so-dead father?
No.
He knew it wasn’t. The shot didn’t miss. He saw everything almost in slow motion.
Instead
The man in front of him clounched his shoulder, and the gun just fell beside him.
A dangerous smile crept onto Toichi’s lips, mysterious as he had always been, but with eyes that screamed anger. “Inspector Nakamori, it has been a while,” he said, acknowledging the newcomer with cool indifference. “To what do we owe the honor of your presence? I thought you were enjoying my decoys.” The decoys, people caught in a deadly trap, their fates sealed as they set off body bombs, were a cruel distraction for the police. “You always seemed to enjoy the chase, endlessly drawn in by my tricks.”
“I will not allow you to hurt him.” The voice coming from behind Kaito sounded firm and warm. Something coming from a real father. Ginzo paid no mind to the obvious attempts of getting under his skin and continued to point his arm at the man. “Toichi Kuroba, you are under arrest for charges of armed robbery, illegal firearms possession, illegal firearms trafficking, domestic terrorism, financing crimes, and attempted murder,” he said that last part as if it hurt or disappointed him more than anything.
“What makes you think that you can even touch a hair of mine?” The man scorned, standing straight again, “You couldn’t in the past, you won't be able to now.” his laugh bordered into maniac “In my entire life i hadn’t met a police inspector quite as incompetent as you, and incompetent man, uninteligent and who prides himself in being a good father when he couldn’t even bother to remeber her daughter’s birthday! Pathetic that you think YOU of all people can stop me!” Kaito couldn’t understand what this being was in front of him, which went so against every cherished memory he had of his father. “When I'm done with you two, she will be next, just so you both die knowing you won't be able to protect her!”
Nakamori looked startled and let his gun down, as if the words had cut open deep, old wounds. It was exactly what the older magician wanted, to play with his mind, to make him let his guard down so he could strike-
But just as it was getting down, a shot was fired directly at the taller man’s knees.
“Turns out I have good aim and a good reason to shoot at you now. I’m done playing games, Kid.” Toichi grunted as he hit the floor, still smiling darkly. The inspector rushed over, ready to restrain and arrest him.
But Kaito saw.
And though everyone thought he was too deep in shock, too loyal to his father to do anything, his hands moved faster, and as he pressed the trigger, he felt the pain of taking something precious.
Not a life, no.
But the connection between him and his father.
He severed what may have been the second most precious thing for both of them.
Toichi let out a shriek, panic overtaking his face as the bloodied daggers he was about to throw tumbled uselessly from his grip to the floor.
His hands shook uncontrollably as he looked at them covered in the red fluid. As two fine, sharp cards stuck out from his palms.
Deep enough to cut the tendons.
For as long as he could move them, he would see himself free one way or another.
The horror on his face turned into anger. Unable to stand up, unable to move his hands, unable to do magic, the man he once looked up to, the man that for all his life had been nothing but an example, a star and idol, let out a roar as he looked at him with hatred.
His father hated him.
And if he didn’t have any reasons to before, it was well deserved now.
Nakamori put on the cuffs and picked up the radio. Still visibly shaken by everything, but he called for help, as the injured man was still losing a fair share of blood.
And Kaito.
He was just.
An unwanted child
Everything has been a lie, hasn’t it?
He tried reaching for something, hoping to steady himself and escape before Nakamori could cuff him too, but he just stumbled and fell to his knees.
There was nothing left.
“Get up.” The voice was commanding, and through his spinning vision, he saw the inspector talking to him while restraining his progenitor on the floor. “Get up, go home, and get to Aoko; she has been worried sick.”
“Inspector-”
“Now it's not the time, Kaito-kun, though I'm afraid that I will have to take you in eventually, please go home. We will talk later.” Those words were enough to warm him up, to mend the broken child he was left as, at least enough to walk away.
He stood up as he was told. And picked up the pieces of his mask to talk again.
“I am most grateful to you, inspector, we will be seeing each other for I don’t intend to run away anymore, my goal was already met after all.” Kid spoke, as always, with a gentlemanly smile on his face, which probably made Toichi's blood boil. “As for you,” This time he directed his look at the man whom he used to call his father, “I will not deny my last name, as I am and will continue to be your son. As much as you seem to hate that fact. And Mom- Chikage-san, seemed rather fond of me, regardless of what you thought.” Kaito wasn’t stupid. The way he was talking about his mother made it obvious that this was some kind of derranged jealousy attack, and if he wanted to hurt him even a little, those were the words that made him roar in rage again.
He disappeared in a poof of smoke.
But waited patiently outside the window untill reinforcements and the ambulance arrived.
The old magician didn’t speak a word. As he was taken away, he looked over his shoulder, his eyes full of resentment.