More Than A Gemstone (Kaishin)

A Messy Morning

Kaito couldn't help but snort and fetch his vaccuumer to clean up the mess. His company wasn't quite sure what this device was going to do; he had tried to scoop up as much of the cereal as possible to dump it into the trashcan Kaito had shown him the evening prior. Eyes growing wide, the boy jumped at the loud noise of the machine and watched in awe how it sucked in crumbs over crumbs until everything was just as clean again.

"Good enough. I need some breakfast..."
Kaito flashed a glance at his guest, contemplating. He surely would like some breakfast, too. How did he even survive in that statue, without either oxygen or supplies? Not even talking about the age?
His eyes drifted back towards his chest. There was hope, somewhat, deep down at the back of his head that this was the gem he had been searching for. Kaito wanted to take a look at it so badly.

But how?

The only method he knew of exposing the real Pandora was to shine it into the moonlight. Quite much impossible if this gem was part of a certain male's chest. Could he take it out or was it in some way grown in? Kaito hadn't been able to take a too good look beforehand, and just forcibly undressing him wouldn't exactly befit a gentleman thief.
He knew for sure this boy wouldn't trust him the slightest bit to even glance at his gem, even if he could take it out. Was it the boy's life source? Was it Pandora? Or another gem?

Kaito hadn't ever been exactly sure if Pandora existed, he just knew that this was what had killed his father and he wanted, no, craved the revenge. Yet now seeing this jewel inside someone's body, he could imagine... if the possibility of Pandora being real was there, nothing was opposed to the existence of other magical gems.
"You gotta stay inside when I'm at school, got that?"
The male flashed a glance from the table towards Kaito, no sign of understanding the point. Kaito paused, then tried it. In French. German. English. No reaction.

Kaito didn't feel well, leaving him alone. He still hadn't said any word and Kaito honestly believed he was mute, at least at this point. How was he going to communicate? He couldn't exactly keep trying to make hand gestures. He couldn't have been deaf, he was always reacting to his words and any else noise that he produced.
And yet, there was nothing to be done. Kaito had to appear in school as fresh and motivated as ever, else Hakuba was going to be trouble for him.

***

Shinichi stared down at the crumbled statue that used to hold last night's target. He still couldn't believe it.

Did I destroy it? I only knew the general direction to aim at... Did it miss KID? Did KID do this?

Shinichi knew the pieces and the ball were in too much of a weird angle to have been connected to one another. KID must have destroyed it. But why? He wasn't exactly the type of guy to destroy priceless artifacts.

He couldn't get out the gem? No, he would have stolen the entire statue instead.

The detective pushed one of the crumbled pieces a little with his foot, deep in thought. This... was fishy. Something didn't fit in. He picked up the piece, examining it. The inside and outside was smooth in the same way. Had it been hollow from the inside?
Shinichi shook his head, impossible, he had felt it with his hands and taken a very close look at it just two days prior. It hadn't been hollow, he knew that from the bottom of his heart.

Had it been filled by anything else? Did KID destroy the statue because he knew about it? What's even more interesting... did he take what was inside instead? Together with the gem?

"Kudo-kun, you won't believe it. We found footprints!"
One of the agents waved him over and Shinichi perked up, interest all over his face.
"Footprints? KID doesn't leave prints."
"Not normal ones. Look."
Shinichi froze the moment he saw what the agent had tried to tell him.

Bare... feet...?

Small and slightly dusty footprints led away from the crime scene, down a quiet way, the opposite Shinichi had come from the night before. Too small to be KID's. He knew KID's height just well, those didn't fit him the slightest.
"An accomplice?" Shinichi thought out loud, and received a hesitant shrug from his colleague.
"Which accomplice of KID would walk around barefoot?"
"I will have to take a better look at this... Please document the prints and try to find a DNA sample among them."
Kudo gave him a small nod as a goodbye before stalking down the hallway of the exhibition, thoughts running wild.

Barefoot? Prints leading away from the statue that had become somehow hollow?

He sweatdropped, shaking his head. What on earth did KID pull out of it? It must have been the one leaving the prints, right? KID wasn't ever stupid enough to walk around barefoot. It must have been deeply important and it must have caught him off guard...

He didn't even announce his exit. He just vanished after silently attaining his target. That isn't his style. Something must have happened.

Shinichi nodded to himself, frowning. He was going to drill further into this during the next heist... He just had to catch KID alone and set an irresistably enough trap for him. Maybe he was just going to wear the next target himself? Oh, Shinichi hoped from the bottom of his heart it was going to be something small.
And he sincerely hoped to find a match, if the Task Force was able to gain a sample from the print's DNA.

"A hollow statue that hadn't been hollow before... Footprints that don't match KID... And an exit so unlike his usual ones... This will prove to become very interesting."
Shinichi smiled to himself.

Very interesting.