I dressed as a security guard to eavesdrop between Leo and that boy about Kaitou Rubin's heist.

"I'm honored that you can make it to help us, Holmes-kun, they said that you are the very best." Leo said, a smile creasing his face but his eyes weren't. I assume that his pride couldn't take the fact that he needed a 6-year-old's help.

"I see that my reputation precedes me. King Wyvern specifically told me to come here to help in a matter that could use my expertise, but he didn't elaborate. I wonder if you can tell me," the boy said.

Leo's smile tightened, "A rising phantom thief who calls himself, Kaitou Rubin, had sent a notice to steal Mayura's Necklace and with your help," Leo said almost disdainfully, "-we are to capture Kaitou Fenix once and for all, and to give the justice that he deserves."

Good luck with that, I thought.

"Kaitou Rubin? I've read of him. And Mayura's necklace? Isn't Mayura the beauty goddess where legend says she gifted a necklace of enhanced beauty to the first Fairy Queen ever?"

"That is right." Leo nodded shortly. "Kaitou Rubin has said that he will come to steal the necklace when Prince Drake gives it to Princess Wyvern. We have already prepared a suitable countermeasure for Kaitou Rubin and in complete truth, don't need your help," he finished loftily and with a pained voice.

"That's OK, I understand," he said cooly, "But since I'm here, I might as well enjoy the party and if you need me, you know where to find me." the boy said that and left like he didn't care at all.

At that, the boy did leave and a few CB officers with Leo erupted all at once.

"Sir, how can you do that to the great detective who solved a million of cases despite being young?"

"John Holmes from Sherlock and Co. is an extremely valuable asset in capturing Kaitou Rubin! Why did you let him go?"

"What do you plan if you don't want to use Holmes-kun?"

Leo held out a hand stopping everyone's speech and said slowly, "I know all that, however we, CB, do not need a 6 year old child to do our duty. We will catch Kaitou Rubin ourselves and deliver the justice like we should. Kaitou Rubin plans to steal the necklace once Prince Drake gives it to Princess Wyvern. Traps have been prepared everywhere. We, guards, will use the element of surprise to surround Kaitou Rubin and while battling him, activating the traps, leaving him nowhere to run. We can do it!" He ended with a raised fist and raised morale.

Everyone just copied the gesture and continued their duties, more determined than ever.

Little did they know, they lost their element of surprise. Fools, I thought.

But I'm curious about John Holmes. The funny part is his name's part John Watson and part Sherlock Holmes and the company...

I wonder whether this was just coincidence or a cosmic joke from the previous chapter...

Either way, I'm curious about John and he already went to the party...

I telepath'd Lia (clone and owner can do that to each other) and she answered immediately, "Yeah? I'm dancing with a guy named John Holmes. What's up?"

"John Holmes?!" I telepath'd at her, "Lia, I want to know a bit about him. He's a famous detective from Sherlock and Co. who's supposedly sent by King Wyvern himself to capture me."

"Sherlock and Co.?" Lia laughed inside my head, "You've gotta be kidding me!"

"I ain't. So will you help me?"

"Yeah, I will telepath the info when I get it but you owe me one," Lia said.

"Tell me later at the Mindscape and thanks." I cancelled the communication and proceeded to hearing more of Leo's commands to the officers.

Once done, I blended myself into the background where I tried to find all those traps.

It wasn't too difficult. Leo's predictable.

10 minutes left to my heist and Lia came back with me with info via telepathy, of course.

"Hey, Ro, you wanted info and I got some. Apparently, John's just gonna observe your heist but must be way more than that. Due to the reluctant CB, that's all he could do anyway. But knowing Detective Conan, I advise you to be careful.

"How do you know he's gonna be like Detective Conan, anyway?" I asked. The cosmic joke couldn't go any further with coincidences, right?

"Well, 6 year old boy with the genius of an adult and seriously, how many 6-year-old kids do you expect to make it in the detective business and he just gives the vibe, I know it, but at least, he doesn't have that hellish football thing."

I laughed telepathically and telepath'd her back, "Yeah, yeah, but what does he have?"

"Well, water and lightning powers, y'know? He also told me he has a pet that helps him with his investigation called Watson. That's all I have, now I'm hanging out with Alex. Ciao!"

Haha, that girl. But seriously, a pet named Watson?! This cosmic joke is seriously biting me in the butt.

And an unusual duo of powers... This is gonna be interesting.

Oop... it appears that Red-san is about to give that necklace to Alyssa-san.

"Dear Alyssa, for your birthday and as a sign that I'm happy being your betroth, I give you this necklace," Red opened the box to reveal the most spectacular necklace, Mayura's necklace. A beautiful blue-purple topaz with a silver chain that sparkles with every little movement.

"Thank you," Alyssa said, a bit overwhelmed. I sent the notice to Red with King Wyvern present but no Alyssa. Apparently she doesn't know what I'm stealing, though everyone else knows. Guess it was kept in the dark.

As he was about to put the necklace on Alyssa, an arrow suddenly struck down from the ceiling from yours truly. I planted it before the party and planted many things for the heist.

Everyone gasped in shock. The CB and guards were protecting Alyssa and Red while some are approaching the arrow with caution.

Before they could even touch it, the arrow suddenly burst to flame and disperse to swivel around the castle, confusing many.

"Get everyone out of here and Aqua team, douse those flames!" Leo roared.

Haha. I can't believe I made a lot of fuss from a fire show. They ain't even harming no one.

As the Aqua team doused out some of the flames, a flame approached Alyssa and Red without prior warning and...

"The necklace is gone!" Red shouted.

Leo was turning bull red. He dived for the flame but all he achieved was a bruised head by falling face forward for not catching it.

Soon, all the guest have already evacuated, most of the flames doused and the CB intently aware for my arrival.

The necklace was stolen and it was their job to retrieve it! Surprisingly, I don't see John anywhere, but I do not know much about him to label him as a threat.

One of the flames landed on top of the stairs and grew larger until you could see a silhouette and heard a laugh...

"That's Kaitou Rubin!" Leo shouted and activated the traps.

An electrocuted cage surrounded the flame and arrows ready to be fired, and all weapon known to mankind pointing at the cage while the CB stood around all that with each of their weapons raised. Leo laughed triumphantly.

"That was foolish of you, Kaitou Rubin, now hand over that treasure."

...

"How about no?"

The voice was not coming from the cage but behind Leo. Everyone swiveled to see me, Kaitou Rubin standing near the door and throwing something upward, catch it and repeat the process again and again while everyone simply stared. That something was Mayura's necklace!

"KAITOU RUBIN?!" Leo shouted "But what, how?!" Leo spluttered. He turned back to the cage to find the flame slowly burn out and reveal nothing.

"Man, you are so easy to fool nowadays that this was so boring..." I yawned pointedly to prove my point. "Well, that was fun. Ciao!"

I burst into flame and turned into smoke which blurred everyone's vision and planned to escape from the window, but...

"Ouch!" The window shot a lightning bolt at me and actually struck me! I fell down to be surrounded by CB officers. Leo had a smirk on his face.

"What you did not know, Rubin, is that when I activated that trap, I also put this entire castle into total lock down, there's no escape now!" With that, Leo laughed maniacally. This old geezer... the thought came although Leo's probably in his mid-thirties while I rolled my eyes.

"Now... you are going to come quietly and hand over that treasure or-" Leo was interrupted by me swinging my whip sword toward him, knocking several officers out and giving me enough space to escape.

No one dared chase me for a moment as one of my heist was favorably remembered. One time, I knocked an officer out so hard he was unconscious for 2 weeks! After that, everyone carries a shield or raise their weapons around me, trapped or not to block those vicious attacks. Unfortunately, those officers weren't very fast.

Wait, did I say 'unfortunately', I meant lucky me!

I'm stronger than I thought.

"AFTER HIM!" Leo roared to the rest of the officers when I went out from the door which was mercifully open. "CATCH HIM!!!"

Being a phantom thief means you need to have a Plan A-Z, which meant that for this event occurring, I already prepared an escape route which I double checked during the party to escape after getting the treasure. I made myself invisible with the cloak.

"He's over there!" An officer shouted, but he's in another room chasing a dummy. Once touched, they will burst into fire and smoke which will knock them out for a few hours. I planted enough dummies for them to keep busy. Just like a scavenger hunt.

"Nearly there..." I murmured. Peace of cake.

Later, I realized how he higher ups try to make everything to some kind of punch line to a damn cosmic joke because...

A bird suddenly appeared and took the treasure from me.

I then jerked my head toward it. How the heck is a bird here?

It then landed on it's owner, a boy with blonde hair and midnight blue eyes. I narrowed my eyes, I should have never underestimate him!

"Come out, I know you are there!"

A swish flew by the boy and the treasure was tugged by him but the bird held on to the treasure for the boy. Swearing could be heard but it did not even fazed the boy.

"Is that all the famous Kaitou Rubin got? I expected better..." the boy said.

I revealed my identity just then. He scowled, guess he wasn't a fan of flamboyant style or just didn't like criminals. I bowed to him.

"You amazed me for a 6 year old boy, John Holmes and your bird is indeed remarkable."

That bird is indeed Watson but I'm not exactly sure what species, the light is dim where I am.

"The bird's name is Watson and he's a deagle."

A deagle? God, those birds are as annoying as the parquette for criminals. Deagles are friends of law enforcers and enemies of criminals. As useful as heck, enhances the element of the owner and highly faithful pets. Watson indeed! Deagles are little detectives themselves and help their owners in their pursuit of justice!

"Well, it's nice chatting with you but you are going to fall unconscious for the CB to catch you," he said nonchalantly. He starts twisting his belt which I have never noticed.

Deja vu hit me while I thought of that awfully painful football, but instead a bomb came out in John's hand.

A bomb? A BOMB?! What the hell?!

Lightning buzzed out from his finger enhanced by Watson to light the fuse and threw so damn quickly at me that I barely dodged, it hit the wall instead and already created a crack without it exploding yet and exploding, it made a bigger crack.

This is so much worse than that football. The castle is absolutely strong, doomsday devices have been unleashed upon this castle that didn't even cause a dent and a 6 year old kid could...

He kept throwing bombs at me which I swatted away with my whip bombs, back at him but he simply took them back and threw them back at me. Insanity!

Some of them cracked the ground and the ceiling etc. etc.

"Do you ever run out of those bombs?!" I shouted, totally fed up.

"Giving up already?" John chuckled, "What happened to the great Kaitou Rubin?"

I smirked, time to leave. Without his knowing, I've already set a trap and all of this was just a ruse. I whistled and Watson has taken the jewel and put in my hand.

"What?!" John was shocked at the betrayal from his bird.

I took the treasure and in fire, made it disappear, stroke Watson and found the little device. I showed it to John who looked confused and angry.

"Hypnotic device. When I was supposedly trying to steal the treasure from you invisible, I was really putting this device on your bird so he could steal the treasure from me."

Watson flew back to John, crying in it's language at me, angry after I destroyed the little device. It was definitely peeved at me for hypnotizing it. Ah well, I'm a thief after all and I do what I do.

"Then, why didn't you do it earlier? Why-" John was interrupted by incoming CB including Leo charging to me and John crying out obscenities at me.

"So I can see the look on all your faces when I escape. This was fun, I hope to see you soon, tantei-kun," Once I said that last two words, John froze up but seriously, everyone knows what they mean and I always wanted to say that once I found my equal and today's event tells me that John Holmes was. Knowing where I was, giving me a harder time than the others... My own Detective Conan. I chuckled.

I tap the floor with my foot and the ground just went out, making me fall along with it as dust swiveled along. I could still see their faces. Worth it! I escape through the tunnel there which I created for this heist and got out of the castle with no problem.

Once I was a safe distance from the castle, I finally took the necklace and inspected it, totally real. Inspecting it more, when it reflect with the moonlight, something astonishing happened.

A strange ancient text was reflected from that necklace to the ground. Picturing this in my head, I made a note to decipher it in the Mindscape. May be this could be a lead to the Arceus Diamonds after all! To great adventures!