You and me, against the world [Kaishin/Shinkai] **eng version**

Admission #3

Kaito's view:

Ten seconds left.
Nine,
eight,
seven,
six,
five,
four,
three,
two,
one.

The light was switched off and thus it was pitch dark. I took advantage of the few seconds I had left to change my clothes in no time at all. When the light came back on, I was already standing on the display case of the diamond and held it loosely in my hand.Really stupid these policemen...

"Ladies and Gentlemans, thank you for attending. I hope you enjoyed my show today!" My face took on the usual poker face while I saw in the corner of my eye Aoko's father forcing his way through the crowd to get to me.

"Sorry Kid, but that's the wrong jewel you've got." My grin widened even more when I heard Inspector Nakamori's words.
"Because the real stone is here." He reached into his inner coat pocket with a grin. Right after that, his smile subsided. Again and again they tried, and again and again they failed.

"I think you mean this one." I showed him the real diamond. I saw how a noticeable number of people had gathered around him and how he nervously stepped from one foot to the other every now and then. It didn't suit him, so as soon as it got dark I dared to take a quick 'peek' into his coat pocket. And lo and behold, the stone is now in my hand.

Besides, every child saw that the diamond in the showcase was just a cheap fake. That always made me sad and sometimes even angry. After all, with a fake, you're just mocking the wonderful original, aren't you?

"But how... then where is the stone in the showcase?!"
"Oh, that one? It's here." I held up the fake stone with my other hand.

I drew attention to the diamonds to conjure up a smoke bomb from my sleeve while dropping a dummy. It was almost strange that they actually fell for it every time. Almost as if they were programmed to fall for my dummies.

I made my way to the fire escape that led to the roof. As I climbed up rung by rung, my eyebrows inevitably furrowed thoughtfully.It disappointed me inwardly every time the policemen fell for my tricks. I should be happy about it in normal circumstances, which I was in my first raids, but as time went on, I missed the thrill. That certain something that made it so exciting and thrilling, which was lost more and more with each successive raid.

My face relaxed again and a warm smile adorned the corners of my mouth. There was in fact only one person who always had a surprise in store. It was Conan, or rather Shinichi. Where does this dwarf hang out anyway? Just now I felt the urge to appear in front of him, only to disappear again at the same moment, so I could see his annoyed look following me.

My hands touched the last rung on which I pulled myself up. A gust shot toward my face, making me squint my eyes and grip my top hat tightly. I quickly sought the solid ground beneath me before a new wind hit.

I let go of the top hat and opened my eyes as I did so. But instead of advancing, I stopped abruptly. For a few seconds, I thought I saw an illusion. After blinking a few times, I finally realized that it was indeed a person who looked confusingly similar to me. Every little detail was noticed.

His elegant hands, clad in white gloves, hung as if on puppet strings. The puppeteer let the rope a little looser and they fell into the pockets of my copy. The moon shone down on him like a bright spotlight. It almost looked as if his white cape was one with the wind, playing with it and caressing it. The sight of him was a beautiful example, made for eternity. Never would I forget this image. Even if I would want to, I could not. It would haunt me in my sleep at the very least.

"Who are you?" I asked the person. Why on earth did he remind me of him?
"Who I am? Don't you see? I'm you, for better or worse. Can't be helped."Something about that sentence struck me as odd. But before I even had a chance to think about it further, he turned around.