He heard nothing more. The cape was discarded and, to be safe, destroyed as well. The bug itself had been made small enough to stick inside a shoe tread, so naturally it had no tracking function.
For a moment, Conan wondered whether Yimi had deliberately stepped on the gum and stuck it to Kid's cape. When he asked how she had spotted Kid, she only answered, "I saw him changing clothes." Even if she really did have a cat's dynamic vision, that should not make her immune to a flash bomb.
He could imitate voices and disguise himself as anyone he wanted. In that case, he had definitely been deliberately impersonating Kudo Shinichi to cause trouble.
As for motive, the moment Conan saw Kid, he remembered something from before he had shrunk. Inspector Megure had owed him a favor and agreed to let him ride in a helicopter. A master thief happened to be trying to steal the jewel embedded in a clock tower, so Conan had the helicopter move in closer.
Naturally, he had interfered with the theft. Afterward, he had forgotten to ask who the thief was. He only vaguely remembered that the guy had been dressed all in white... So this was revenge against him?!
On the luxury cruise ship, Conan checked his watch.
The limited ammunition was a huge drawback. The Anesthetic Needle could fire only once, and Conan wondered whether he could find a chance to ask Professor Agasa to improve it into some kind of rapid-fire mechanism.
It did not matter that much. Even if he ran out of Anesthetic Needles, he still had the power-enhancing shoes Professor Agasa invented. One kick could send this guy flying from one end of the ballroom to the other.
"Conan, stop holding onto me. Yimi wandered off, so I need to go find her." Ran looked down at Conan helplessly.
He had been holding Ran's hand the entire time, making sure she was never left alone long enough for Kid to swap places with her.
Kid's notice, which he had left behind while tossing the flash bomb, said that he would steal the Black Star at the party on April 19.
The party was being held aboard a luxury cruise ship. Almost everyone attending was rich or powerful, so there was no way the event could simply be canceled.
"So you're Ran's little sister. Fishing from a ship underway is very dangerous. Look, you could duck under that railing just by lowering your head."
On the deck, Sonoko's mother, Suzuki Tomoko, sternly lectured the little girl in front of her.
Sonoko had complained to her that Ran had suddenly gotten a little sister with prematurely white hair. Tomoko had wondered just how prematurely white it could possibly be... but this had to be dyed, right?
Still, she really was a fresh, adorable little girl. One look was enough to make people instinctively like her.
"Who are you?" Yimi looked up at her.
The party guests had only just gathered in the ballroom, and the food had not been brought out yet. Yimi had found a fishing rod in a corner of the ship and run outside on her own to reminisce about life in the seafaring world.
"Nice to meet you. I'm Sonoko's mother." Tomoko crouched down and reached out to shake hands.
She had only happened to notice through the window while getting ready in her room that a little girl was doing something so dangerous, so she had come over to warn her.
Yimi freed one hand and pressed it against Tomoko's palm.
"..."
Tomoko decided to count that as a handshake.
She looked down at the fishing rod Yimi clearly had no intention of putting away and could not help frowning. Who had been careless enough to leave a fishing rod on a cruise ship that was about to sail and let a child dig it out?
Besides, there was no bait here, and the ship was moving. How could she possibly...
She got a bite?!
Under Tomoko's baffled gaze, Yimi worked her little arms and legs together to reel in the line, then expertly tossed a strong-looking sea fish into a fishing bucket that had somehow been filled with water.
The little girl put away the fishing rod. "Can we eat now?"
"The food is ready now. Want me to take you there?" Tomoko tried to take her hand, only to find that Yimi was using both hands to carry the fishing bucket.
A child's world really was simple. She could come to a party like this with no goal beyond eating.
Yimi looked down at the fish in the bucket and only now began thinking about the conversation they had just had.
This woman was Sonoko's mother. Ran had said Sonoko's family invited them here to eat.
The little cat used both hands to lift the bucket as high as she could. "This is for you."
"Thank you, but I can't accept a gift you got through something dangerous." Tomoko declined with easy grace, though she still patted Yimi on the head.
Who would not like such an innocent, cute, well-behaved child? Aside from the part where she secretly ran off to fish by herself, of course.
Tomoko looked down at Yimi again. "Oh my, you didn't open the box they gave you when you boarded? We did tell everyone not to open them yet, but I thought a child would be too impatient to resist."
"This?" Yimi took the box out of her pocket.
Actually, she had already opened it. In Tomoko's imagination, any little girl who loved pretty things would immediately pin it to her chest and show it off. Yimi, however, had no idea what it was. She had bitten it once, discovered it was not food, and put it back.
This was an idea Tomoko had come up with. Kaitou Kid wanted to steal the Black Star, right? Then she would give every guest a fake and tell them only one was real. Let's see how he managed to steal it then.
Originally, she had not planned to give them to the children. Any idiot knew valuables should not be entrusted to kids. But that seemed unfair to the guests and might make the children fuss, so in the end she had prepared one for every name on the list...
Any idiot knew?
The realization hit Tomoko like a bolt of lightning.
That was right. There were so many guests here. Most of them were famous people too proud to stoop to petty tricks, but Kid was almost certainly hiding among them. And any idiot knew something so valuable should not be entrusted to someone else. Her little trick suddenly seemed almost laughable.
Once she told everyone to put them on, Kaitou Kid might already be hiding somewhere laughing at her.
That idea was useless now. So what should she do?
The most dangerous place was the safest place.
Tomoko pulled Yimi farther away from the edge of the deck, looked around to make sure nobody was nearby, and said, "You can open it and take a look now. Also..."
She removed the dull, lusterless jewel from her chest. "How about Aunt Tomoko trades with you for a while? We'll switch back when we get off the ship. Don't let anyone know about this, and don't let anyone take it from you, okay?"
This was far too dangerous. Tomoko would probably have to keep her attention fixed on this child the entire time. But Kid would definitely never expect her to dare do something like this.
* * *
"Come on, Yimi, open wide. Aunt Tomoko will feed you."
"Aunt Tomoko, when did you get so close to Yimi?"
"Because she's just too cute. She even said she wanted to thank me for inviting her to eat and everything."
"Haha..."
Kid would never expect it.
Never expect it? Like hell he wouldn't! Your eyes go back to that brat almost every three seconds, and you don't even dare stay too far away from her.
Watching Tomoko dote on Yimi, Kid seethed inwardly.
If he did not have a sharp eye and know his subject, why would he announce his target before stealing a jewel? Pearls lose their luster over time, and this particular pearl had been a Suzuki family heirloom for decades.
Among all those dazzling pearls, there was one dull one. And Tomoko kept looking at the brat, even personally feeding her so nothing would fall onto the pearl. Did she really take him for an idiot?
But for the moment, Kid genuinely did not dare make a move. He remembered Akako's warning: "I can barely believe it myself, but that white-haired little girl who chased after you may be an angel on earth. I don't know what would happen if you did something bad in front of her."
An angel? That superstitious, ridiculous claim had nearly made Kid laugh. But once he remembered that people who could use real magic really did exist in this world, he found it a little harder to laugh.
He did not steal things to do evil anyway. But what exactly was the point of having this brat personally wear the thing he wanted?
Confident in his own skill, Kid had disguised himself as Ran even earlier than Conan expected and lowered his head to work out a plan. Even after meeting someone who could use real magic, deep down he still did not particularly believe supernatural creatures existed...
Then he saw Yimi staring up at him.
"..."
Had she found him out?
Cold sweat ran down Kid's back.
Yimi reached a paw into the bucket, took out the fish, and stuffed it into the hands of Kid, who currently looked like Ran.
"Hold this for me."
There was too much water in the bucket, and keeping it balanced aboard the ship was troublesome. She wanted to pour some water out first, but she was afraid the fish would spill out with it.