When Pandora's Box Is Opened
is a Case Closed/Magic Kaito Fanfic by mangaluva, notable for being one of the series' oldest Continuation fics (its original Fanfiction.net posting dating back to early 2009) and, at ninety chapters totaling almost 250,000 words, almost certainly the longest.
Two years after the "birth" of Conan Edogawa, every thread in Beika - and beyond - begins to converge. A seemingly routine Kaitou Kid heist puts Conan and his allies on the trail of one Kaito Kuroba, while a new breakthrough in Haibara's Apotoxin research just might give Shinichi enough time to say everything he needs to say to a soon-to-graduate Ran. But The Syndicate, too, is making leaps and strides - toward a mysterious "Pandora" that threatens to offer much, much more than the eternal life so many believe its powers amount to...
This fanfic provides examples of:
- Adults Are Useless: Averted, except in the case of Kogoro. Eri Kisaki, Yuusako and Yukiko Kudo, Heizo Hattori, Ginzo Nakamori, the police, and the FBI are all quite competent.
- Babies Ever After: Ran and Shinichi has a baby girl at the end
- Belligerent Sexual Tension: Heiji and Kazuha, Kaito and Aoko, Kogoro and Eri.
- Busman's Holiday: Carries over from the series. Constantly Lampshaded. In the Omake, ten years after the fall of the Organization and Shinichi's return to full size, the "curse" seems to have lifted.
- Cain and Abel: What the relationship between Gin and Akako ultimately turns out to be. Where he always took pleasure in the assassin life, she ultimately developed a conscience and ran away, eventually pledging her soul to Lucifer for protection and to lock away all her troubling memories.
- Canon Welding: It's a Crossover fic between Case Closed and Magic Kaito, but takes it even further than Conan itself has gone: Not just Kaito, Nakamori, and Hakuba show up, but just about everyone else from MK does too. Aoko, Akako, Snake (also code-named Sake, he's part of the Organization,) Jii, Chikage, and in a couple of flashbacks, Aoko's (dead) mother.
- The Cameo: Inspector Zenigata shows up for a cup of coffee with Inspector Nakamori. Also, some of the author's friends make recurring cameos, including the suspects (and victim) in the first murder.
- Cherry Blossoms: They remind Heiji of his first love, Kazuha, as seen in Movie 7.
- Clothes Make the Superman: A variant, carried over from the original: Conan/Shinichi's mind is as sharp as it ever was, but in the body of a kid, he's no match for an adult, hence his gadgets.
- Continuation: More accurately, an "endgame" fic - when it was originally written, the canon was (as it remains today) still ongoing. However, said canon's infamous
Arc Fatigue has led countless authors to attempt their own take on the Final Battle against the Syndicate, with this particular take remaining one of the most in-depth. - Doorstopper: Not by general fanfic standards, but stories north of 200K wordsnote have typically verged on nonexistent in the Detective Conan fandom. In any case, it was definitely the first such Conan fic to crack that word count.
- Dreaming of Things to Come: Akako does this, often deliberately. One dream has been coming to Eta for centuries.
- Drives Like Crazy: Yukiko and Sato. Comes in handy at least once each. Early on, Yukiko brings Heiji to the train station fast enough that he's not late picking someone up. On a more serious note, she manages to get Shinichi back to their house before he shrinks. And Sato saves her life and the life of Takagi after the brakes were cut and the acceleration sabotaged.
- Early-Bird Cameo: The aforementioned friends of the author show up at a Karaoke place before being involved with a murder.
- Earn Your Happy Ending
- Enemy Mine: Everyone ends up working together to bring down the Organization, including multiple amateur detectives, the police, the FBI, and the Kaito KID. Inspector Nakamori and Saguru Hakuba both say at least once that they'd rather catch the BO than the KID.
- First-Name Basis: Overlaps with Japanese Honorifics, of course. Also mentioned by name when Kaito wonders when Saguru Hakuba and Akako got onto first name terms.
- Flashback: Several, mostly to scenes in the manga/anime or movies. The prologue is entirely flashbacks, starting with the death of Toichi Kuroba, and Time Skipping forward through a few more moments.
- Gratuitous Japanese: The author was studying Japanese at the time, so honorifics are used. A few other words, too, note but it's done decently well.
- Great Detective: Too many to count.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Kazuha has been jealous for years of Heiji's First Love. It's her, of course. And he tells her so.
- Invasion of the Baby Snatchers: When Conan was kidnapped by Vermouth and everyone panics. Those who know the kidnapper have even more reason to fear because the Black Organization has no problem indoctrinating young children into complete loyalty to the organization. Jodie has a brief vision of an older, ruthless Conan preparing to kill a victim and is appropriately horrified.
- Killed Off for Real: Superintendent Hakuba. Also pretty much every canon Syndicate member except Vodka, though probably few tears were shed for them.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: Happens to Conan/Shinichi, after his kidnapping. He gets better.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Heiji's comment about Kaito.
- That Man Is Dead: Haibara chooses not to take the antidote and remain shrunken, telling Conan/Shinichi take Shiho Miyano died the day she took that pill.
- Prequel: Roughly a third of the way through the story, the author began publishing a supplement titled The First Woman In The World, detailing the Start of Darkness for Ano Kata and Vermouth (AKA Ushi and Eta). Interestingly, it doesn't just inform the present-day storyline but directly intersects with it, Vermouth telling an abridged version to Shinichi/Conan shortly before inflicting the aforementioned amnesia.
- Shout-Out: A few.
- In chapter 50, a Dalek is mentioned.
- Inspector Zenigata shows up for a cup of coffee with Inspector Nakamori.
- At one point Ran suggests visiting the Higurashi Shrine.
- Together in Death: Ushi and Eta - aka Ano Kata and Vermouth, whose charred skeletons are ultimately found with hand-bones fused together.
- Victorious Childhood Friend: All the ones from canon. Shinichi and Ran, Heiji and Kazuha, Kaito and Aoko. Also Inspector Shiratori and Kobayashi-sensei, and Ran's parents get back together.
- "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: Chapter 88 wraps up what happened to the other cast of characters by their status at Shinichi's 19th birthday party:
- Haibara didn't move back in Agasa, but her identity was fully realized thanks to the Witness Protection Program. Jodie and Akai, now a couple, became her official guardians
- Heiji and Kazuha ended up together, although much hasn't changed for them. Their arguments do end in make up kisses now instead of huffs.
- Akako continued to stay with Hakuba and had a new identity created for her in Koizumi Akako.
- Sato and Takagi ended up engaged, while Shiratori, now dating Kobayashi, gave them their blessing. Yumi and Chiba celebrated with high fives.
- Kogoro moved back in with Eri and operated the agency from there. He was gaining successes of his own, and being reunited with his wife did wonders for his confidence to the point he stopped drinking, to Ran's joy.
- Hidemi resigned from the CIA and returned to broadcasting under her identity as Rena. This made Eisuke return to Japan and he now lives with his sister.
- Sonoko never got around to maiming Shinichi, mostly because Makoto stopped his travels to finish his high school education.
- The Detective Boys were upset about losing Conan, but they bounced back. With some teaching from Shinichi, they were likely to become Meitantei by middle school.
- The Shadow Syndicate received lengthy sentences for their crimes.
- Kaito and Agasa's houses were eventually rebuilt, along with Cafe Poirot, which had expanded thanks to Mour Detective Agency vacating. Kaito asked for a few changes to be made his house to help with his mother's rehabilitation. She would make a full recovery, but there were scars of those cirmes.
- Yusaku's leg was unfortunately beyond any hope of fully recovering, but Yukiko was more than patient enough to help him. They did agree to stay in Japan for a while longer though: after all, they can't leave their son alone with the house now that he's in a serious relationship now, can he?
- Xanatos Speed Chess: Quite plenty. The protagonists often find themselves in one long game of chess against the BO.
