Mikau: Good afternoon (or whatever time it is where you are)! Thanks for stopping by. You may have noticed that I've been on a bit of a roll lately, but don't expect it to keep up for too long. I've got midterms coming up. Gasp. Actually, I'm looking forward to it. I like to show off on tests. I'm studying wills, trusts, and probate right now (I study law), and they're pretty interesting, but I don't think it's anything I'd want to do long-term. Now, without further ado, I present to you: Becoming "Tantei-san".
Disclaimer: If I owned it, there would be a whole lot more character development and flashbacks and the like. I'm really big on fleshing out characters and backstory and all that. At least I try, anyway.
…
"Murder, murder, kidnapping, murder, arsine, murder, murder, robbery, rape, and murder," Hakuba Saguru recited in an uninterested monotone as he flipped through the case files.
"Not over breakfast, Bocchama," his housekeeper, lovingly called Baaya, tutted, bopping him on the head with a napkin as she set his tray on the table. "There will be plenty of time for debauchery after you've had your meal, Saguru. You can't go chasing killers on an empty stomach."
"I suppose you're right," the young master said with a sigh, setting the manila folders aside and removing the cover on his toast and ham and vegetable omelet. "Looks delicious, Baaya. Thank you."
"But of course, Love. I'll be right back with the Earl Grey."
As soon as his caretaker had her back turned, Saguru cracked open one of the files, taking a peek at the details. "Death by exsanguination." He flipped to the crime scene photos and raised an eyebrow. "Gruesome, that. Probably the lover."
The next murderer looked to be the best friend. The motive was probably stolen intellectual property. It said in the notes that the two had worked on some projects together in the past. What were the odds that the victim's new and successful invention he'd just gotten patented really belonged to the best friend? Saguru was thinking that the probability was high.
As for the kidnapping…the victim had been gone for a month already by the time he'd gotten the case and was most likely dead. Saguru had a few ideas where they might be finding the corpse.
The next murder made him roll his eyes. It was the butler. Obviously. He was losing faith in British law enforcement. They couldn't even pick the right suspect out of a lineup.
Now the arsine—
"—Bocchama," Baaya scolded, glaring at him from the doorway.
The Hakuba heir smiled sheepishly and snapped the folder closed. "Sorry."
"I swear, Saguru," Baaya sighed, setting down the tea.
Saguru's expression darkened. "Baaya, I'm bored."
"Well, you'll have your cases to keep you busy after breakfast." She turned to head back to the kitchen, but he caught her by the skirts, like a small child.
"Baaya…I've solved practically half of them in the time you went to get the tea. These cases aren't difficult enough," he replied softly. "They're not hard enough…complex enough…"
"Then go outside and play when you're through. Take a walk, Saguru; it's a lovely day," Baaya suggested, wishing this child she had raised had more…ordinary hobbies.
He sighed, letting go.
"What do you want, Saguru? A serial killer?" She matched his sigh exactly. She hated seeing him like this.
"Might be nice," he thought, but did not dare say out loud. "I need…a nemesis. Someone I can match wits with."
"People don't have nemeses, Saguru. You're not a storybook hero. You're a sixteen year-old boy who has too much of a brain for his own good. Go play minesweeper or chess against the computer or something, if you want a challenge," she snorted, giving up and sitting down across from him, opening up the paper.
"Is there really no one, Baaya?" he muttered, reaching out for the cases once more.
"I don't know, Sweetheart," she whispered, swatting his hand away. "Breakfast first."
…
"I hate London Bridge High School," Saguru moaned, letting his head drop to the table in exhaustion. "Whose bloody idea was it to send me here? I was perfectly content to stay out in the countryside at Mother's manor."
"No, Bocchama, you were not. You were driving the entire household crazy, including yourself," Baaya informed him, putting his afterschool snack of celery, raisins, peanut butter, and milk tea on the table in front of him.
"There weren't enough cases out in the countryside," Saguru mumbled in his defense. "But there aren't enough cases here in the city, either. At least in the countryside there was the woods and the pond and the creek and the horses and the bugs and the wildlife and the stars…" He turned to the window (from whence could be heard the clamor of the big city) and shouted, "And the solitude and the quiet!"
"You hated living in Mistress Helen's Manor. You and your mother do not get along, if you'd forgotten." Baaya just shook her head at her insatiable charge.
"I hadn't forgotten," Saguru muttered ruefully, sitting up and beginning to munch apathetically on the celery.
"Don't be sullen, Saguru." Baaya, frowned, tired already of the teenage angst; how many more years did they have to go until they were out of Saguru's teens? "What's wrong with your school now? Are they bullying you again?"
He shrugged. "It doesn't matter. I was a foreigner in Japan; I'm a foreigner here. No matter where I go I'll always be just a bit too Asian or a bit too Western or a bit too big or a bit too small or a bit too blonde or a bit too…smart. I'm just too smart for them. All of them. My idiotic classmates who are all jealous, the stupid officers at Scotland Yard who refuse to take me seriously because they think me an infant…"
Saguru trailed off, and Baaya was silent. Truthfully, she didn't know what to do for her child. What could she say to make it all better? What could she do to make them all see how brilliant and sweet her Saguru was? Finally she decided that a loving pat on the head was all she could give.
The young detective leaned into the touch.
…
It was another dreadful morning in London for Hakuba Saguru. As the days went by, he only seemed to grow more agitated.
Shutting a case file with a great sigh, he groaned, "Human beings are such dreadful creatures. All they do is hurt one another and multiply across the earth, destroying other creatures' homes and depleting our natural resources. I question God's judgment sometimes, letting humans have dominion over everything."
"You're awfully chipper this morning," Baaya observed, wishing for not the first time that her charge wasn't so terribly jaded. "Any special occasion?"
"I found my serial killer." Saguru pointed to the file he'd just been looking at. "He chops up little children."
"Lovely." Baaya's nose scrunched up in disgust. "Saguru, Honey, why don't you take a break from crime fighting for a bit? I'll buy you some more French novels to read? That should occupy your free time nicely."
"No thank you, Baaya." Saguru easily waved her suggestion away. "If I don't do something about people like this, who will? There's no one else in this country smart enough to track them down."
She hated when he said such egotistical things in that smug voice. Her boy was bright, yes, but certainly not as smart as he thought he was. Or, at least, everyone else wasn't as dumb as he believed.
She feared the day someone knocked him down a peg. Saguru was proud, and he was under the impression that his mental faculties were his only asset. He honestly believed that he possessed no other gifts or talents. While Saguru was rater full of himself, he was also very insecure. She was very afraid of what it would do to him to learn the truth.
…
"Bocchama, perhaps a change of scenery is what you need. Your father was just saying how he'd like to see you when I talked with him this morning; how would you fancy a trip to Tokyo?" Baaya crossed her fingers.
Truthfully, Superintendent Hakuba hadn't even asked if his son was still alive and well, but Baaya was desperate to help her foster-son, and this proposed visit to Japan was her last-ditch attempt to do so.
"Did…Did Father really say he wished to see me?" Saguru slowly looked up from the atrocious murder he was reading about, an apprehensive and tentatively hopeful look in his eyes. It was the expression of a young child too afraid to truly believe what he was hearing. "Father wants me to visit him?"
"No, Sweetheart." Baaya did her best to smile convincingly. "Of course, Saguru."
The detective sighed. "No, he doesn't. Don't lie, Baaya; it's unbecoming."
…
Finally, one morning, salvation came in the form of a newspaper. The Asahi Times to be exact. Saguru had always subscribed to several foreign papers so that he could keep up on global news, and it was that morning in the Asahi Times that Saguru first met the Kaitou Kid.
"What the deuce is this?! There's a nut-job in a white tuxedo running around, sending out heist notices, and outwitting the Japanese police," the young master exclaimed in outrage.
That was the most emotion Baaya had seen her boy show in weeks.
"Oh?" She came to read over Saguru's shoulder. "Oh, yes. Phantom Thief Kid. Your father mentioned him the other day. It seems that thief has been giving Division Two a bit of trouble the past month or so. He also said that this particular thief hasn't shown his face for about eight years now and is finally making a comeback."
"Would a thief really go underground for eight years?" Saguru puzzled over the picture on the third page. "It' probably a copycat or the original's successor or something. It says in the article that this thief is quite the acrobat. I doubt an older individual would be able to pull off those kinds of stunts."
Saguru shrugged, folding up the paper. "Well, he'll be caught within the month."
But, to Hakuba Saguru's immense surprise, the Kaitou Kid remained free to heckle. This…peaked Saguru's interest, to say the least. He began purposely looking for the Kid articles in the paper, subscribing to an additional three newspapers in order to get maximum Kid coverage.
"Saguru, I do believe you're turning into a bit of an aficionado of this criminal," Baaya clucked lovingly one day two months later as her boy was engrossed in his morning paper.
"He's not a common criminal, Baaya," Saguru snorted, waving her away without ever looking up from the latest Kid article. "He's a genius. He's the kind of nemesis I need. He would be able to challenge me…. Besides, he's not just a regular crook. He's got a purpose…. He must if he steals only to return. I'd hate to think him a mere adrenaline junkie."
Baaya nodded, stifling a chuckle. Her son was intellectually smitten with this thief, and better a serial thief than a serial killer.
But then one day Kid disappeared. No one heard anything from him for a long time. Days stretched into weeks, and weeks became months, and every day when Saguru came home from school, he'd look at Baaya with sad, hopeful eyes and ask, "Was there anything in the news about Kid today?" or "Has any word come from Kid?" as if Saguru were waiting for a personal notification of the Kid's reemergence. The child looked a bit lost, like a friend had suddenly stopped speaking to him and he just couldn't comprehend why.
And then Saguru went back to his murders and arsine and kidnappings, and Saguru went back to being irritable and bored and disillusioned.
Baaya found herself praying that that thief would come out of hiding and steal something for her ward's sake.
Then, one day, on a day like any other, the thief came back.
Saguru had been sneaking peeks at the morning's case files when he thought Baaya wasn't looking, an expressionless look on his face, when his caretaker brought in that day's newspapers.
Baaya set them down on top of the cases with the Japanese papers at the top of the stack.
How Saguru's face lit up when he read the headline, "The Moonlight Magician Returns!"
…
"Baaya, I want to go to Japan," Saguru announced at the start of winter break. "Can we go? Please?"
"I'll call up your father and make arrangements for us to visit, as soon as I get the chance, Saguru," she had assured, causing the young detective to frown slightly and bite his lip.
"Actually…I didn't want to just visit, Baaya," Saguru tentatively clarified. "I want to move there. Please?"
Baaya stared up at her boy and blinked twice. How he had shot up over the past year. He'd become a great, lanky thing, towering over her. What had happened to the child she'd nursed and rocked to sleep?
"Please, Baaya?" he repeated when he got no response.
"You want to move to Japan?" She continued to stare incredulously.
"Yes?" He smiled sheepishly. "Please?"
Moving halfway across the globe was a bit of a big deal. He'd have to transfer schools, and there'd be plenty of paperwork to do. It was already three-quarters of the way through the school year over there, and she had no idea what they were learning. Saguru hadn't been to Japanese school since he was an elementary student. Would the classes be too difficult for him? Of course, not. The boy was fluent in both of his mother tongues. It would take some getting used to, but Baaya firmly believed her charge could easily assimilate into Japanese school life, given some time.
However, there was the issue of taking all of the tests to prove he was fluent and competent enough to be taking classes along with regular Japanese students. And they'd bully him. She knew they'd bully him with his blonde hair and golden eyes. He'd be treated as a foreigner, even if he were to stay there the rest of his life.
Speaking of which, Saguru was a young, teenage male. He was bound to fall in love over there once he was out of the all-boys school environment and interacting with young women. Baaya wasn't quite ready for her baby to fall in love yet. And if Saguru fell in love and got married, he'd never be coming back to England, which would mean that Baaya would never be coming back to England, because she'd be damned before she left her baby all alone in that country where he didn't understand all of the customs and the culture.
"For how long?" she finally asked.
"You know. Not for too terribly long." Saguru shrugged one shoulder in a carefree manner, dodging the question.
Baaya began to grow suspicious. "And just why are you suddenly wanting to move to Japan, Saguru? I had been under the impression that you'd wanted to move back to the countryside with your mother."
"No. I'd much rather move to Japan. I've been thinking about it for a while. I mean, I haven't seen my father in years, and…and I think it would be a good idea to go and learn more about by roots. I am half Japanese, you know. I should go learn something about the people and the culture and…and maybe the Japanese police force while I'm there. I was thinking maybe Father could get me some sort of internship or something…perhaps…for Division Two or something like that."
Baaya smirked, her lips stretching into a lopsided grin. "The Kaitou Kid. You want to go to Japan to meet the Kaitou Kid."
Saguru forced a smile.
Busted.
"Please, Baaya? Pleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleaseplease? Please? Pretty please with a strawberry on top and caramel sauce and chocolate syrup and…and sprinkles shaped like cartoon characters and chocolate chips and whipped cream and one of those little Hawaiian umbrellas that they put in alcoholic drinks and—"
"—Oh, stop. Please stop," she sighed. "Saguru, Honey, you can't move to Japan to go chasing after a criminal. You know practically nothing about that country other than the language and police procedure. Your life is here. In England. Your family is here; your school is here; Scotland Yard—who need you desperately, Sweetheart—is here; your friends are here; and—"
"—What friends, Baaya? What family? What life?" Saguru looked back at her with those piercing eyes.
It was quiet for a moment, those words hanging in the air above them.
And then she realized he was right. Her son woke up, solved murders, went to school where he worked on solving crimes with his free time during the breaks because the other students bullied him and he had no friends with which to talk and joke and play, came home, solved all manner of deplorable cases for Scotland Yard, and went to bed, reading the Kaitou Kid articles in the newspapers whenever he had a free minute. He woke up the next morning and did it all over again. He had no friends. She and the bird were his family, and he, arguably, had no life.
Baaya had to face the facts that her child was not thriving in England. Perhaps it would be better to let him go and try to make a life in Japan.
"Alright, Saguru," she replied at last. "You are to call your parents and tell them about the new arrangements. I'll start on the paperwork to get you transferred to a school over there and us moved to your father's house."
Saguru's face lit up like a sparkler, and he threw his arms around her, squeezing her tight. "Baaya, you are the best! I love you! I'll never forget this; thank you so much!"
…
The paperwork, the transfer, and the move all took too long for Saguru's tastes, but by the tail end of February, Baaya and Saguru had arrived in Japan, just in time for Saguru's debut with the Kaitou Kid Taskforce.
Baaya stayed up that night, waiting for him to get home. She was nervous. Saguru had, of course, been unbelievably cocky, bragging about how the thief would be going home in Saguru's handcuffs tonight, but she knew that her foster-son would be disappointed either way—either in his lack of ability or the Kid's.
The front door closed with a soft click, startling the nanny out of her thoughts. Saguru was home, trying to be quiet so that he didn't wake the house's other two occupants.
Baaya rose to her feet and hustled to the entryway. "Well?" she demanded.
Saguru gave a start at her sudden appearance when he'd expected everyone else to be sound asleep. "'W-Well?' what?"
"Did you catch him?" Baaya held her breath while she waited for the answer.
"N-No," Saguru replied with a bit of a blush. "He…got away."
"And?" She wasn't sure if she could be relieved yet. "How do you feel about that?"
"Good, surprisingly," Saguru laughed, scratching the back of his neck. "He…Kid wasn't as great as I thought he'd be, but I think that was only because he's not used to having an adequate challenge either. The police officers he's used to competing against are a little…well, to be nice, incompetent. I imagine he'll be stepping up his game for me next time, and I'm very much looking forward to it. He's the one, Baaya. He's my rival…and I'm going to catch him one of these days and unmask him."
Baaya's lips slowly spread into a warm smile as she stepped forward and hugged her boy. "That's wonderful, Sweetheart. I'm so glad you made a friend."
"Baaya," Saguru lightly protested in embarrassment.
…
Weeks went by and then months and then a year, but still Kid eluded capture. Saguru took a break every once in a while, but Kid…or Kuroba Kaito as they were now calling him…never lost Saguru's interest. The relationship, however, did seem to change.
Saguru didn't seem to be taking unmasking this thief very seriously anymore. In fact, if Baaya weren't absolutely positive it was not the case, she might even go so far as to say that Saguru had begun assisting this thief in some small ways—making long-distance, international phone calls from France, and that sort of thing.
And then Kuroba Kaito started coming over…and staying for dinner…and staying the night…. But by that time, Baaya had come to terms with the fact that Kaito-kun was a nice boy who most definitely had a good reason for going out and getting shot at in order to steal and then return priceless gems…and also the fact that she probably wasn't getting any grandchildren. But, so long as her child was happy…
And Saguru did seem happy. He'd made friends at school, had colleagues that respected him, and even smiled frequently nowadays. If that was what it took, Baaya was willing to accept the tuxedo-clad jewel-thief-by-night, magician-by-day along with it.
The
End
…
v(^v^)v v(\ v /)v v(!v!)v v("v")v v(*v*)v v(0v0)v
Mikau: A bunch of birds sitting on a telephone wire. How was it? Hopefully it was an enjoyable read. I really wanted to do some Hakuba backstory because really, when we first meet him, all we get is this cocky, quirky, blonde git that shows up to chase our favorite thief. (Sure, he eventually mellows, but…) I really wanted to show how he got that way in the first place with never having a serious challenge back home in England and how he never fit in and wasn't taken seriously. I wanted to show how that all affected him and turned him into the inverness-clad, time-obsessed know-it-all who shows up in volume three. How'd I do? If you have a moment, I'd really appreciate your thoughts. Thanks a bunch! Until we meet again!