#but i really think mycroft!yusaku and 400IQ!kaito will be the ultimate intelligence showoff

[headcannonballs]

The thing about Yusaku and Toichi being friends and rivals (and Toichi once mentoring Yukiko) is that it strikes me as extremely strange that Toichi's 'accident' should be left uninvestigated for so long.

Which leads me to my headcannon:

The Kudous and Kurobas are family friends due to Toichi and Yukiko's mentor-student relationship. They are close enough for their toddler sons to play together, but not so close as to know everything about each other.

When Toichi's accident first occurred, Chikage's first instinct was to leave Kaito with the Kudous while she investigated what happened. But when she got hold of Jii who told her what had happened, Chikage reconsidered her position.

Toichi was a phantom thief, as was Chikage herself. Although this is history now (Toichi being dead and Chikage having retired), it would still reflect badly on the family and may even affect Kaito's future. So she definitely did not want police involvement in the investigation.

Yusaku, however, is not actually law enforcement himself. If he could be persuaded to help... But no, the Kudous had a young son too. Chikage has no idea how dangerous Snake might be, and she doesn't think it would be right to involve them in such danger.

Chikage was determined to revenge Toichi's murder, but it needed to be done without involving the Kudous. And the only way to do so without the nosy Yusaku (and even curious Shinichi) budging in would be to leave. So that is what she did.

Chikage took Kaito and left without notifying the Kudous. Being a former phantom thief, she did have some way of hiding her traces. And Yusaku, faced with a friend's sudden death and their family disappearing naturally tried to investigate. However as Toichi's death officially was regarded as an accident, the crime scene was not protected and any evidence quickly became contaminated.

Chikage's disappearance was also regarded as taking a break to mourn her husband's death, and by the time neighbours discovered otherwise the trail had gone cold. Combined with the fact that he had his family and his editors waiting on him, Yusaku had no choice but to let go.

A couple of years passed. By themselves, Chikage and Jii had not made much headway into tracking Snake. Finally, Jii suggests himself dressing up as Kaitou Kid to draw Snake out. At first, Chikage is reluctant, but the news that the Kudous are moving to America seems to be a sign. At the very least, it means there is no one else who could recognize the original Kaitou Kid, and Yusaku would not be alerted to their presence. Unlike Toichi, who was always very confident in his skills, Jii was way more careful, and each heist was meticulously planned before execution. Thus there were long intervals between heists to ensure all safety precautions have been taken, and the search for Snake remained slow and arduous. But Chikage didn’t give up.

Unlike his parents, Shinichi remained in Japan. As Shinichi grew up, he can vaguely remember an uncle Toichi, auntie Chi-chan and a childhood friend Kai-chan. But he never connects it to the world famous magician Kuroba Toichi because they had always felt more like family friends who came over occasionally to play with him. He had assumed they moved away (as some family friends do) and he never connected it with the magician’s accident (which felt like some important thing which affected lots of people and couldn’t possibly have anything to do with funny uncle Toichi who always tickled him too much).

However, the clock tower heist drew his attention to the mystery of Kaitou Kid. A little research had revealed his father had been investigating Kaitou Kid’s thefts and was even responsible for naming the thief. As such, Shinichi became even more determined to catch the phantom thief, but without telling his father about it, so that he can at last prove himself better.

As for Kaito, he does remember the Kudous somewhat fondly as an interesting family (what a pretty old lady!), but is aware that Chikage is keeping away from them. Although curious, he doesn’t pry out of respect for his mother. It is only after his discovery of Kaitou Kid’s lair that he connects the dots. Thus he actually actively tries to keep away from Beika and Shinichi Kudou, to prevent his identity from being found out. It was not until the clock tower heist that Shinichi accidentally happens upon the thief. And Shinichi’s sudden disappearance, although intriguing Kaito, was actually a relief as well.

That is, until he meets Conan. In the queerest case of deja vu, he has the feeling of meeting Shinichi all over again, not only because they knew each other from before, but because seeing Conan is like seeing Shinichi back at the age when they knew each other as childhood friends. In fact seeing Shinichi as a 17 year old would have taken Kaito longer (by a few seconds) to recognize him then seeing Shinichi as Conan did. But of course, Conan does not recognize him in return.

Kaito assumes that the age shrinking has something to do with magic (maybe Shinichi attracted the unwanted attentions of another witch like Akako) and thus just treats Conan like a long-lost friend and rival. He doesn’t ever really endanger Conan during heists (hell the tazer felt reasonable as he knew Shinichi was really 17 and didn’t think that size mattered), and helps Conan out of tight situations. Even more so than with his Kaitou Kid taskforce, Kaito treats the matching of wits with Conan like a game, precisely because he knows who Conan actually is. Just like the way they played together when young.

It is just as well that Chikage has never met Conan and doesn’t know who he actually is, or else I bet she’ll be furious that after all that hiding and moving away, dear little Shin-chan still got involved in the Kaitou Kid mess.