What's in a name?
Disclaimer – TVDverse is mine. DC and MK are not.
". . . and keep a look out for dogs." – Koizumi Akako, chapter Eleven.
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It was the beginning of the evening before they were due to debrief with the police, and the unlikely suspects were gathered around a table in the newly 'secret' room of Hakuba Saguru's large house. On one side were Kudo Shinichi, high school detective and still getting used to being a vampire, complete with predatory instincts. Next to him is Hattori Heiji, also a detective, although with a hotheadedness that balances out with the half-English Hakuba Saguru himself who is sitting opposite him. The last, and perhaps the odd member of their group, was Kuroba Kaito, currently tinkering with something small and being stared at by the other three. He finished after only a few moments and put the small tools down with an accomplished grin.
"Done!"
"Done what, exactly?" asked Hakuba.
"They're radios," came the statement of the obvious in an Osakan accent.
"I am well aware of what they are," said Hakuba in tones of tried patience, "but what exactly did you mean by –"
Kuroba tossed the radio that he had been tinkering with over to Kudo, who caught it easily.
"Needed modifying," said the thief to the detective across from him. "Volume was set too loud."
The Osakan and the vampire's eyes widened fractionally in understanding, an action that did not go completely unnoticed by the blond. Kudo nodded once and put the disguised piece of communications machinery into a jacket pocket.
"Thanks," he said.
The thief grinned and waved a hand in dismissal. The other three green heart-shaped objects came out in the same movement, landing just in front of their respective new owners.
"I presume," Hakuba said blandly, "that these are for our expedition tonight and our forays with the police."
Kuroba shrugged.
"Thought they might be useful. 'Specially since Kudo's old one doesn't fit anymore and we'd be running around like headless chickens without them," he said, grinning. "Mind you, there'll be no way of knowing who's who, unless we use some sort of system."
"Codes."
"Yeah. Them." The thief said this with a sort of relish that came from doing too many things that most law-abiding people only dreamt of.
A similar light could be seen in the green eyes of the Osakan detective, though for slightly different reasons. A slow smile started to grace his features.
"I play dibs on Queen."
The vampire and the phantom thief snorted; the half-English detective pinched the bridge of his nose in irritation.
"Hattori-kun. . . no. Just – no. I am well aware of your. . . passion . . . for Ellery Queen. But no."
Hattori, who looked about ready to get into an argument over this, thought better of it when confronted by sniggers coming from the other two. Maybe having a codename that was synonymous with a female regent and a British rock group wouldn't be the best idea.
For a few minutes the four pensively considered their choice of name, keeping in mind that whatever it was, it couldn't be too ambiguous or specific. At long last, Kudo spoke.
"Shiro," he muttered under his breath, just loud enough so that the others could hear him. He looked up sharply, luminescent eyes catching the two across the table from him. "You two are going to be the more important part of the plan," he said, tones now strong and clear. "We might as well use something to make it easy to tell if it's one of you about to say something, then."
Hakuba blinked, temporarily confused.
"Like what?"
Kuroba snapped his fingers, accidentally spraying a small amount of glitter around his hand and making Kudo sneeze. Ever the consummate showman, he didn't show anything on his face, but made a mental note to find out why that happened and make sure it didn't happen again. Wouldn't do to make the guy sneeze at the wrong time.
"I know," he said. "Double-you." He pronounced the letter's name in English, Japanese having no true equivalent. "White. White Horse and White -," he gestured vaguely in the direction of the part of the room where his suit was, with its various spare pieces of fabric.
"I believe, Kuroba, that I would prefer Knight. Horse is too specific."
Kuroba nodded. "Yeah, yeah. . . sure, makes sense."
After all, not only was the Hakuba family name literally White Horse, but the family crest/business logo was an actual illustration of said horse. Knight wasn't too far off from this, but it was at least something, and a something that could be confused with Kid by the uninitiated.
"What about you?"
That was Kudo, sounding interested and curious.
The Magician grinned again, mischief and magic in his eyes.
"Wizard, Tantei-kun. What else?"
Kudo rolled his eyes.
"All right," he said with a smirk. "So what would you say was a good moniker for me?"
The thief made a pretence at thinking about it for a moment.
"Well, I guess since Van Helsing would be in bad taste. . ."
"Kuroba."
". . . and I don't think you'd want to be known as Koumouri, either . . ."
"Kuroba!"
Hakuba simply didn't understand why, when Kuroba quickly shot back with "Bloodhound!", Kudo glared. Something might have tugged at his memory at the word, but the glare was somewhat distracting, even when it wasn't directed specifically at one.
"Eh. . ."
Everyone stared at Hattori.
"What about me, then?"
"Samurai," Kudo bit out sourly, likely remembering not only the fact that the kendoist's bokken was made of wood, which could and did hurt him, but also that his friend had laughed along at the thief's jokes.
For a few moments the others wondered at his bad mood as he left, but not for very long – time was running out.
A while later, Hattori made a face, realising that he had somehow become the one with the least imaginative code name.
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AN: Just a bit of fun. The vampire jokes came from the fact that originally, their nicknames might have been based on radio code, and because more than one of them has the same initial, Shinichi might've been getting Victor. V, for vampire. . .
Van Helsing was the vampire hunter in the original Dracula book. Koumouri is the Japanese word for bat, which is the animal most associated with vampires. If you want to know why I chose White Knight for Hakuba rather than anything else, look up the Nightmare chapters of Magic Kaito. White Wizard has a couple of sources – one of them is Ryou Bakura's Monster World persona. The other is Lord of the Rings. . . which I'm sure they've all read.