Mikau: Hello everyone! Thank you for coming back for another installment of CTM. Also, thank you to Aniki-xvi and ObsessedConanFan for reviewing. I'm happy with chapters four and five, so you guys get two today. Please enjoy more Hakuba torture.

Disclaimer: If I owned it, Ran's hair wouldn't be pointy enough to put a person's eye out. Anyone else notice that it gets progressively more pointy? Check out the first volume. It was fine the way it was! Also, Conan's cowlick gets more cowlicky too…

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Detective in the Doldrums

Hakuba Saguru sighed, looking himself over in the mirror.

What was wrong with him? Why couldn't he catch a single bloody thief? It wasn't even a real thief either.

He was chasing a circus performer, in it for the kicks. Kid wasn't even serious; he was there for the attention. This was all a game for him; Hakuba was the only one taking this seriously.

The blonde sighed again, running a hand through his hair. At least he was blonde again. He'd half expected the lemon juice to have some kind of chemical reaction with the dye, making him look like even more of a fool.

He thanked the higher powers for small miracles and went down for breakfast.

Baaya had made Belgian waffles—one of his favorites. She must have noticed that he was a bit down in the dumps.

It was a monthly cycle really. He'd start the month full of energy and determination to find evidence against Kuroba, catch Kid, and finally earn his father's respect. As the month wore on, he'd find himself growing more and more frustrated by the day. The kaitou remained elusive in both his civilian and professional lives, causing Hakuba pain and humiliation in the classroom and during heists. The final week was the worst as he settled down into despair and depression. After a few days it wore off, and he'd start the next month's cycle all over again.

"Thank you, Baaya." The young detective managed to dredge up a smile for the woman who had been a mother to him.

"Chin up, Bocchama." She returned the grin and patted her surrogate son on the head.

"Ah, Saguru. I was hoping to catch you before you left," a big, burly man said gravely as he entered the room.

"Good morning, Father," the golden-eyed boy replied. "Did you need to speak with me about something?" He hadn't really seen much of the man since he'd moved to Japan, and it was highly irregular for his father to talk to him. Something was up.

The Police Superintendent sighed as he took a seat across the table from his son, a serious look in his eyes. "Saguru, it's about this thief that you've been chasing. You need to either catch him or go home."

"To…England?" Saguru paused with his teacup halfway to his mouth.

"Where else?" His father scoffed. "That's where you belong, isn't it?"

"Yes, Father." The teenager looked down at his plate.

Truthfully, he didn't really belong anywhere. Wherever he went he either looked too Asian or too Caucasian. He didn't fit in well in either country, but he had always considered both 'home' for lack of any other place. Did his father just think of him as a guest? Was this not his home?

"Saguru, people used to respect you, you know. Now you're just a laughingstock. That thief makes you look like a fool. How do you expect to get a job with the police force like that? You used to be a great detective, but now that thief has gone and tarnished your name. You've got two weeks; either catch him or go back home to solve murders. Do we understand each other?"

The blonde blinked, staring blankly at his father. "T-two weeks?"

"Yes. You've spent more than enough time fooling around here. It's time to get serious. Are we clear, Saguru?"

As if he hadn't been serious then entire time.

"I…I don't want to solve murders anymore," he replied, head reeling, making it hard to come up with anything else to say.

The officer snorted. "Really? So you just want to waste your life away and end up like Nakamori? Is that it? Tell me, Saguru, if you don't want to solve murders, want do you want to do? Do you have some hidden talent that I'm not aware of? What else are you good at?"

Saguru was silent.

"That's what I thought." His father stood and clapped him on the back. "Two weeks."

000

"So…catch yourself a thief last night?" Kaito chuckled as Hakuba entered the classroom.

Saguru didn't bother replying. He really didn't need the magician's heckling at the moment.

"You should probably just give up at this point, you know?" Kuroba continued, oblivious to his classmate's mental and emotional stress.

'Don't reply. He'll stop if you ignore him.'

"I'm actually surprised that you've still got a job," the playful teen snickered. "I would have sacked you by now. Though, I guess you're a good fit for the taskforce. You're all utterly useless."

Saguru bit his lip to hold back the tears. 'Don't give him the satisfaction.'

"Hey, maybe you all should consider joining the circus. You could be clowns. It's a thought, right? I mean, since no one would hire a detective as lousy as you."

He closed his eyes as they began to sting. Why did Kuroba have to rub salt in the wounds his father had just inflicted not even a half-hour before?

"You're so bad, you couldn't even find a—"

"—S-stop," Hakuba responded in a small voice. "Please, stop."

Kaito blinked and turned to actually look at the detective.

The blonde's eyes were screwed shut and tears were streaming down his cheeks. His hands gripped the edge of his desk as if he were holding on to a building's ledge.

It was a pitiful sight, really.

"Are…you okay, Hakuba?" The magician blinked, thinking, 'Did I do that?'

"Excuse me." The Englishman grabbed his things and bolted from the room. He went up to the roof for a bit so that no one would see him crying before he headed home for the day.

He was determined to spend his last two weeks in Japan in bed.

…

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Mikau: It's my masterpiece. If you can't tell who it's supposed to be, don't tell me; I'll cry. Also, while you all have your first volume of Conan out, looking at the progression of hairstyles, can someone do me a favor? I only have my Japanese copy with me (mostly because I don't own it in English, but…), so I can't check myself. In the first volume on page sixty where Conan tells Ran his name, on the lower right-hand part of the bookshelf, above "Road to Oz," in the Japanese version there's a copy of volume one of Magic Kaito. Is it still there in the English version? I have to know. Please tell me? (Commenting upon the chapter is optional, but I've just go to know what became of that book!) Thank you so much for reading.