Accomplice__ Kudo Shinichi x Kaitou Kid, Kaito Kid x Kudo Shinichi

Part 24:Just an Intern, without payment

Kuroba chuckled, "Of course, it's a piece of cake. But first, take off these handcuffs."

Inspector Megure blinked, trying to contain his shock. "You... you're..."

"How am I supposed to help you with my hands behind my back,Metantei?" Kuroba tilted his head. "And time isn't as abundant as you think. You might have less than half a day left. Just like the bomb Inspector Chaki had—if you don't start working on it immediately, it will explode."

"What?! How do you know that?" Inspector Megure was horrified.

Kuroba Kaito explained, "The heat—I'm guessing the bomb inside might be a simple device that continuously generates heat until it reaches a critical point and explodes. The heat inside had already built up to a certain level. If you don't deal with it soon, it could blow up at any moment."

Kudo considered this for a moment. "How about I become your hands then?"

Kuroba shook his head and sneered. "Metantei, only I can decipher the patterns. Or maybe when you become fully blind."

Behind the thick, transparent glass, Kudo Shinichi felt an inexplicable sense of unease. Kuroba Kaito knelt down, carefully holding the small Hyakushi Box in his hands. As he touched it, his suspicion was confirmed—it was like a complex puzzle with six sides, and the intricate patterns on its surface were too delicate for an ordinary person to decipher. Sending it to a lab could trigger the bomb, leading to disastrous consequences.

"Kaitou, if you can't do it, step out. We'll think of something else," Kudo suggested.

Kuroba Kaito took a deep breath and looked seriously at Kudo. In that moment, a powerful and familiar aura emanated from him. The smile that spread across Kuroba's face was no longer playful but filled with a hint of challenge—it was the smile of Kaitou Kid, confident and unyielding.

He straightened his tall frame, and his hands moved with focused speed. To everyone's amazement, the rough-looking wooden box revealed itself to be composed of tiny wooden blocks, like a large, complex Rubik's cube.

"Metantei, don't you trust my skills?"

Within minutes, the Hyakushi Box disintegrated into wooden blocks, scattering fine dust that ignited with a crackling sound. Kudo instinctively sensed danger. He swiftly pulled open the isolation glass and yanked Kuroba out of the chamber. Wherever the dust settled, sparks flew, but the bomb squad quickly activated fire extinguishers. The flames weren't large, and after rapidly extracting oxygen from the chamber, the fire was extinguished.

"Are you two okay?" Hattori asked as he pulled them further away. The two coughed a little from the smoke but were otherwise unharmed. Kuroba Kaito pointed to the mess inside. "There are still some parts that haven't reacted. If you take them back to the lab for analysis, you might be able to figure out the contents. I think the culprit intended to explode these wooden blocks from the inside, using the high temperature and flames to cause a secondary explosion of the dust dispersed in the air. Some of the blocks inside were white and yellow, likely made of phosphorus powder."

"Kuroba-kun, you've got some paint on your face," Hattori pointed out the spot near his brow. Kuroba raised his right hand to wipe it away, and that's when Kudo noticed the marks on Kuroba's wrist—deep, overlapping, and crisscrossing.

"Your... your wrist..." Kudo began.

Kuroba turned to him, puzzled. "What? Is there more paint?"

"I told you to let me help, didn't I? And those wounds on your wrist... are you sure you're okay?"

"It's nothing," Kuroba shrugged it off. "I thought it was interesting. That bomb was pretty easy to disarm."

"You should really get that treated," Kudo insisted.