Well, guys, things have been tough, but I'd say that updates are gonna be fine. Hopefully. Eh, maybe a slight one ore two difference in updating every two weeks, but hey, at least I won't put this story on hiatus...
Kaito groaned. So did Shinichi, and did Hattori.
The girls had gone out shopping, leaving nothing but a note and a group of sleep-fried boys. Ran, Kazuha and Aoko decided to write up a list of chores for the boys to do with the warning that if they didn't, Aoko would chase them with a mop, Kazuha would wack them on the head five times with that heavy wallet of hers, and Ran would smash leftover dinner in their face, and along with a sentence of being grounded for as long as they lived (maybe).
"The organization was out last night," Shinichi whispered to Hattori. They were showered with cake sprinkles.
"Hey guys, include me, too!" He protested, although truthfully, he had heard them with the keen ears he had. Perhaps they were talking about those nasty old fat black men who took away his father. He hoped not, because if so, then it would be a small world after all.
"As long as ya don't shower us anymore," Hattori promised with a scowl on his face.
"I won't," He yelped with an obedient facade on. He put his hands behind his back and marched to the note. "Can I read it?"
"Sure..."
"Shinichi, Heiji and Kaito:
We have left some...ah, fun stuff for you guys to do. Get started, or else Kazuha will smack you on the head five times with her wallet, you know how heavy it is, and Aoko will chase you with a mop. Then Ran will smash last might's dinner on your faces. and maybe a lifelong ground. Good luck!
1. Eat breakfast and clean yourselves.
2. Wash all the dishes and take in all the dried clothes from the washing machine, fold them, and distribute them correctly.
3. Tidy the bookshelves.
4. Wipe clean all the kitchen counters and all the other tables or glass.
5. Make sure everything is organized and that all you boys' rooms are at least decent.
6. Water the plants."
"Well...did it say when they're coming back?" Shinichi asked.
"Uh...noon."
"One hour...we have to hurry! Um, I will, um, eat breakfast with you guys, then wash all the dishes and take in all the dried clothes from the washing machine, fold them, and distribute them to each of our rooms," Shinichi proclaimed.
"I'll tidy the bookshelves and make sure our rooms are decent," Hattori piped up, and scrambled to the kitchen to eat breakfast.
"I'll just do the rest," Kaito agreed flexibly, and sometimes, it can be literal. Shinichi hadn't forgot the day Kaito balanced between two branches of an oak doing the splits.
"Hai," Shinichi agreed too.
x
They ate breakfast in no more than a few minutes, and Shinichi lagged behind to wash the dishes while the rest dashed to their next task. Halfway to the hallway, Kaito must have remembered he was supposed to also do kitchen work, so he did a back-flip and slid to his destination while Shinichi almost crashed a plate on the floor because of the sudden thump.
Kaito grabbed a rag and flexed his arms on the counters like a windshield wiper of a car. With that done, he scrambled all over the house swiping at this and that, rubbing every dot off the windows, and at last slumped over the bathroom sink, awaiting the water to fill the jug.
"Uh, Kaito, you can just spray everything with the sprinkler outside," Hattori tiredly, grumpily vocalized. He pointed a thumb at the snaking garden hose out the window.
"But to get every little plant so the girls won't get angry, I'm afraid this is the only way," Kaito almost snapped. Hattori grabbed the towels and went to the rooms to clean. Soon, everyone heard a crash from downstairs and realized that Hattori had fallen down the stairs clumsily. Sometimes your day just doesn't work out, eh?
"I'm fine," He called, and after almost jamming his toes while kicking the stairs, he started the mess of Kaito's room.
Kaito slunk away to the garden, and jabbed the nose of the water jug under every plant's branches. With that done, he shot water in the air with the sprinkler as a finale and then cracked his butt on the couch.
"You guys done?" He called up, mimicking the sight of a girl having a heat stroke and fainting.
"About," Shinichi banged the door of the cupboard and slumped into an armchair. "Now I am."
"Me too," Hattori closed his eyes and attempted sleeping. Shinichi turned on the news.
"The latest news: Famous Hakuba Saguru has been unseen for about a week; and by the looks, he's being chased. Let's just pray to Kami-sama that he's safe," An elder lady reported, shut her eyes and prayed.
Hattori snorted. "That Hakuba is 'unseen'...serves him right..."
"He might be in the grasps of you-know-what," Shinichi warned. There was no doubt that a detective like him could be in the snaring tendrils of such an evil, dark, expanding syndicate.
x
A few hours later, the boys were all fed up with the news, and Kaito, for Hattori, because of the silly string Kaito had been spraying on his clothes. The girls were still out, doing whatever girls did, spending priceless hours picking out clothes that they probably weren't going to buy. Every boy knew what a girl was up to when they went shopping, most stopping to eat this and look at that, and drool at the expensive outfits. That was what they all called 'a waste of time'. Why be just checking things out when you could be watching movies, or something else that was FUN?
"When are the girls coming back?" Kaito munched on crackers he found laying in the cupboards, with his feet up and his hair almost mopping the floor. (You know how you lie upside down on the couch, your feet above and...yeah...)
No soul in the house could figure out he could successfully eat the crackers without them going up his nose. There was almost no time until the sun set, and that would mean exploding the kitchen for the boys. Especially since the only one that could actually work in the kitchen somehow was Kaito...and he wasn't really trusted.
"Most likely in a few more minutes...they've been gone the whole day," Shinichi replied. "If they don't come back in...twenty minutes, we'll go look for them."
"Well, someone loves a girl," Hattori muttered.
"Just making sure they don't get caught in THEIR webs," Shinichi eyed him with venom.
"I know," He replied meekly.
For the next twenty minutes, the three boys were off in their own oblivion, one staring off into space preparing war plans that made no sense, such as leaping off a cliff and making the Black Organization follow them, another thinking about the dinner and how he could somehow add chocolate into it, and the other just re-reading the letter Vermouth sent him and making up a parody-ish version of it.
The time ran down the hourglass, but there was no sign, not even a shadow, of the girls.
"Let's go," Hattori realized that if they weren't going to say it, he had to.
"Hai," Shinichi agreed.
x
By the time the boys had searched all the stores, their stomachs were rumbling with protest and the stars were twinkling at them. There was no Ran, no Kazuha, and no Aoko. Nearly every corner of the city had been searched and the result: nothing. That's when they went home. And found what? A note. And worse? From Vermouth.
"IOU three brunettes," Kaito read aloud from the note. "Vermouth." He looked up to find Shinichi frozen and Hattori's eyebrows almost featuring icicles.
"Vermouth," Shinichi repeated as if his brain word processor was jammed. "Vermouth."
"Anything else?" Hattori questioned him almost as if he was in jail and was repeating lines that would get him out.
"Um, there is a tiny word on the bottom... Tropical Island," He scrunched his eyebrows. That led Shinichi to the poison, then to Gin, Vodka, and the deal, then~the poison. The poison. Where did she say it came from? A pharmacy in the syndicate. Where did she say it was located?
Underground?
"Kaito, are you up to blasting holes in subways and in subway tunnel walls?" Shinichi questioned Kaito.
"But what about dinner?"
"Baka, FORGET IT!"
Sorry, got caught up, but yeah. Thanks if you read this chapter!