One of my headcanons is that Hakuba and Shinichi would have beef, especially over who gets to be Kaito's no.1 rival.
Hakuba may be slower to act than Shinichi. He may sometimes be not as fast as Shinichi when solving crimes. He may not have much screen time in both series.
But unlike Shinichi, who needs time to figure out who KID could be, Hakuba would walk into the room and recognize Kaito immediately.
Blessed
Excuse me while I basically make Azure Throne into a hakukai fanfic.
This got... really long, and veered off from what I intended for it several times, but is basically at heart as I said, a look at Azure Throne through the lens of "what if we work on the assumption that Hakuba knew it was Kaito from the start, and/or they're actually outright flirting."
Hakuba: Kuroba what are you doing here. Why aren't you even in a disguise- oh, I see. This is interesting.
Kaito: Oh god it's Hakuba he's going to see through me like I'm made of cellophane or something. Please don't call me out here. I am pretending not to know you. Shush. PLAY ALONG.
I had to make one last point before I stop for the night, which is this:
This is after Kaito has already gone and flown off. This is Hakuba accurately spelling out what Kaito did at the start of the case.
Gosho didn't even bother with re-drawing it. He probably just copy-pasted that part of the file.
The reason I'm stuck on this, though, is that, well...
Shinichi can take Kaito's tricks apart, and predict what he'd be planning to do, to the point that Kaito's aggravated by it.
But Hakuba?
Hakuba knows how Kaito's head works enough to be able to figure out what he'd have been thinking.
Almost to the word.
Shinichi can understand how Kid plans things and works, but Hakuba can understand Kaito.
Which is to say that Hakuba's able to pay attention to Kaito-as-Kaito, but also, he's willing to, as well. Shinichi doesn't seem to feel the need to, since that part won't solve the heists, but Hakuba - who, remember, makes a big deal out of asking why do you do that? - understands Kaito's motivation as a person.
Which isn't to demean anyone, because if they all noticed the same things they wouldn't be different characters, and I think that for Shinichi, seeing things from the criminal's perspective and not demonising them can sometimes be something he needs to work on and is part of his actual character development in-universe, whereas that's Hakuba's strength.
never quite over hakuba giving kaito an international call to give him info that would help him on a heist and tell him to do his best im just. im so. why
hakuba: "my name means 'white horse' so naturally i don't want the person in white to be losing against an ominous dark crow".
bitch. son. please. the person in white you're talking about is literally a guy called kuroba kaito...son. your excuses to protect mr. black wings/clover ;__;
Kaito really become so stupid when it comes to Hakuba, Conan is like: "Don't get baited by him" but he got baited anyway and put forth that stupid suicide theory and of course holmes boy hakuba immediately gets sus bcs it's such a dumb deduction no way shinichi kudo savior of japanese police is the one who made it you must be kid
