Here goes! Gah, a multiple-shot already XD But the idea wouldn't leave my head!
"My help? With a murder case you're working on?" Kaito tossed his well-worn, overstuffed book bag onto the floor of his bedroom with his free hand after his friend had finished explaining that he needed some assistance at a murder scene, and rather hastily if at all possible. A soft thud emitted from the tan carpet where the bag hit, followed by the slightly larger thud of Kaito plunking down onto his bed and laying on his back, holding the phone to his ear with a thoughtful expression afterward. Well, the only thing I really had on the agenda for this afternoon was some biology homework, which I'm more than happy to get out of...
"Yeah," replied Shinichi quickly and somewhat snappishly, his current bad mood due to the corner he'd suddenly found himself pressed into. Shinichi really really didn't want to bring another false tantei into the strange brew that he'd already so carefully created, but his back was against the wall at the moment and the police were of little to no help since neither Satou-keiji or Takagi-keiji was there to grease the wheels. Both of them were so used to following his hints by now- and him so familiar with the best methods of providing those same hints to the pair- that it would have made the current case much easier to work on. He would have even settled for Megure-keibu, but there was no such luck since this was out of that particular homicide unit's jurisdiction. Shinichi decided that explaining what was happening to Kaito as briefly as possible was the best course of action- maybe he could raise Kaito's interest to the point where he'd be willing to assist.
"I can't use Sonoko because she and Ran are off at the mall and Ran's not picking up her phone, Mouri-ojisan's off at some stupid pachinko parlor somewhere similarly refusing to answer his damn phone and Hattori's too far away to be able to get here in time. Agasa-hakase, the guy I would usually use as an emergency backup in this situation, has laryngitis at the moment so it would look just a little weird if he suddenly started talking." This hushed commentary was followed by a cough from the meitantei and some very muted background noise of chatter and shuffling. "The miming attempt he and I tried a few minutes ago didn't go so well." This was followed by two more light coughs and a muttered "Damn dust."
"Wait a minute," Kaito interjected after Shinichi's rather breathless explanation finished sinking in. What is he talking about? Miming attempt? Emergency backup? "What do you mean by use? That sounds pretty weird when you put it that way, Kudo-"
"It's the method that I've had to use to solve cases since I wound up getting shrunk." Shinichi sighed. "I found out really quickly that the police don't listen to a little kid most of the time or, this being the more common occurrence, they take my hints the wrong way and get ready to arrest the incorrect person. The meitanteis 'Sleeping Kogoro' and 'Sonoko the Deduction Queen' are both so competent because I'm solving the cases using their voices after I've knocked them out with a sleeping dart from my watch. Just get here alright? Please. I'll explain in full detail once you arrive." He rattled off an address that Kaito recognized as being in the very upscale Ginza district of Tokyo. "These cops aren't the ones I normally work with, so it's difficult to-" This was followed by the sound of a door opening and a woman's shriek, then some muffled apologies and a few moments of what sounded like running feet. "Sorry, maid walked into the linen closet I was hiding in to call you. Gotta find a different spot."
"Give me forty-five minutes to get there, do you think you can manage to buy that much time?" Kaito hoped so; he had an idea that would help Shinichi (he hoped) but it depended on at least some time to prepare before he left.
"I'll try to," came the quiet response from his friend as Shinichi frantically looked for a private spot to finish their conversation. The victim just had to die in the middle of a freaking masquerade ball that he was throwing...Fifty guests, twenty cops still busy rounding them up and interrogating them and all this in a large three-story house that I can't seem to find a single empty room in. "Luckily they're still interviewing and taking statements because there were so many people here. But why do you need that long?" Shinichi let out a soft, irritated growl as the response of a dial tone in his ear indicated that the master thief had terminated the call without answering the question. That long is like an eternity where a case like this is concerned...His house isn't that far from here, is it?
Did you manage to get a hold of whoever you were trying to call?
Shinichi was a bit thrown off when a torn piece of paper with that written on it was placed directly in front of his face while he was walking. He stopped rather clumsily before turning around and giving the placer an irritated glare that his young face and false glasses didn't do much to reduce the intensity of. "A little warning next time, eh Agasa-hakase? Even a tap on the shoulder would have been nice."
The white-haired scientist made a sheepish face and waved his hands back and forth in front of him in a 'sorry' motion.
"Yes, I talked to him and he agreed to come," Shinichi began grudgingly as Agasa's face brightened. The meitantei was somewhat wary; he really wasn't quite sure yet how much he wanted the older man to know about Kuroba Kaito- and more specifically and to the point, his friend's unusual, rather illegal nighttime occupation. "The problem is that we have to figure out how to waste about forty more minutes until he can get here." Agasa frowned and began scratching something else out on the piece of paper.
Who did you call? Mouri Kogoro? That friend Hattori of yours from Osaka maybe?
Shinichi just looked up at him blankly before a sarcastic expression crossed his face and filled his voice as he replied. "Ha, ha. You're funny. No, it wasn't Kogoro-ojisan. That guy's buried himself in a pachinko parlor somewhere, he won't even pick up his phone. I already told you I couldn't get a hold of him. And Hattori won't be able to get here on time."
I'm going to run out of paper- just tell me who it was!
This was, of course, one of the root problems that lay behind Shinichi's hasty, frantic phone call to Kaito.
Since he couldn't talk, Agasa needed to communicate through notes written using whatever paper he could find laying around, and the victim had had a rather severe phobia of paper of all the bizarre things to have. Shinichi had thought it ridiculous when he looked around and saw not a single scrap of paper or product made from paper anywhere in the entire house after that fact had been related, but the head maid had explained that her master was absolutely, deathly afraid of paper and refused to permit any of it into his home. Everything was done through a computer or via telephone so as to create a totally paperless environment. The notepads Agasa had very thoughtfully brought with him had become quickly filled with fruitless attempts at assisting the police.
Now the phobia, of course, meant that the rather emotionless suicide note he'd left behind was utter crap and the guy had been murdered...by one of the forty-five people that he'd invited to the masquerade thing he'd suddenly decided to put on a week before his death- or one of the five house staff trying to throw the police off the scent. Someone who was very unfamiliar with him and his phobia had killed him by placing a rather liberal quantity of arsenic in the brandy he enjoyed drinking so much. Or could the victim have been very carefully faking the phobia for some reason or reasons unknown?
Shinichi always had hated the very beginnings of his cases, the mad internal scramble within him to try and get his bearings regarding the facts at hand and his first impressions of the victim and possible killers. Of course, the sheer size of this particular suspect pool was one hell of a headache just waiting to happen, and the rather bizarre facts at hand weren't helping much either. The meitantei's mood did not improve when he realized that he did indeed feel the first warning twinges of a headache announcing itself at the edges of his his temples.
"Oh, Conan," came Agasa's voice in a scratchy, weak singsong after he'd entered the hallway they'd gone into the room from, "a friend is here to see you." Shinichi wondered how his laryngitis had gotten so suddenly cured, then remembered that it had been a good two or three days; perhaps it was beginning to clear up.
Shinichi blinked, very confused. No way that it's been forty minutes already...What the hell? He checked his watch quickly and confirmed that only approximately twenty minutes had passed since he'd called Kaito. His puzzlement was only heightened when the perfectly put together Hakuba Saguru entered the room with Agasa-hakase a few moments later. No way...Did Kaito call him or something and tell him to come? Shinichi's eyes instantly narrowed as his head shook slightly, the thought dismissed by him almost as quickly as it was formed. No, that can't possibly be right. Not only does Hakuba chase Kaitou Kid but Kaito said that he would be the one coming- Shinichi felt his face freeze up for a moment as he realized his sheer level of stupidity. Actually, this was a really great idea on his part. Hakuba's already got a well-established reputation, now we just have to hope that the police here have heard of him.
"What's that look for, Conan? You're the one who called and asked me for my help a little while ago." 'Hakuba Saguru' walked over and asked this in his usual perfectly cultured voice before kneeling down by Shinichi and shooting him a rather wide and most un-Hakubalike grin once Agasa's back turned to them as he began to exit the room. "I figured tantei-san would be quicker than tantei-han since I didn't have to do the tan body makeup for him and I was right," whispered Kaito under his breath to his friend in his normal voice before getting back up and clearing his throat as he walked towards Agasa a bit. It took Shinichi a couple seconds to realize that 'tantei-san' was referring to Hakuba and 'tantei-han' to Hattori. I see...tantei-kun, tantei-san and tantei-han, huh?
"So Kudo Shinichi asked you to call me and have me work this case, eh? I wonder how he knew I'd be in this neck of the woods tonight. Well, no matter. There's a murder to solve. What does Kudo think is going on here so far? You didn't provide me with many details other than that a papyrophobe apparently fixed himself a rather fatal cocktail after leaving a suicide note." Shinchi was first amazed that there was actually a name somewhere for the phobia of paper, then deeply grateful for how quickly that Kaito could think on his feet, the trait most likely having been developed over the course of his brazen, larcenous career. And he was also thankful currently for the fact that Kaito really was almost creepily, eerily good at becoming whoever he was disguising himself as; the master thief somehow managed to exude that same slightly standoffish, superior aura that Shinichi has sensed around Hakuba. All he was missing was the hawk, and Shinichi figured that if he was questioned on its absense Kaito would come up with a brilliant excuse on the spot.
