Dungeons and Detectives

by LostInTheDreams

Kaito thought he had faced the most difficult of odds in the past, but nothing could compare to being trapped in a game of dungeons and dragons with a bunch of amateurs and a little witch calling all the shots. Is there a way out or will they be trapped forever? Worse, what happens when their hit points reach zero?

11. Red and White

IMPROTANT A/N: Okay, I can't take this anymore. It's hard to handle three different character sheets at once and I noticed three issues that came up that are pretty big but there's no way I can change more than one of them.

First, Kaito was supposed to pick a white dragon, not a blue. I have no idea what got into me. I can fix that one (and have. Doesn't change anything).

Second, I gave Conan a spell way back when that he wasn't supposed to have until next chapter, that came with his race. I can't do anything about that as it was part of a battle. I can try and work around it at some point, as a 'produce flame' would have had the same result, so I'll try and fix that.

The third is Saguru wasn't supposed Primal Awareness until this chapter/next, which is where he can sense the animals. I'm sorry about that. I had planned on having them level three characters when I started this story and, since I started them at level one, that one slipped right passed me.

Sorry *bows*

Chapter 11: Red and White

Kuroba couldn't very well sleep and stay on the deer at the same time. Saguru fashioned ropes they would work like reigns, for both deer, he had come across. They were female and old enough to carry them and that was good enough for him. He would have liked something bigger, stronger, faster- but these would have to do.

Kuroba-kun was leaning back against him while he held the rope and tired to steer the animal in the general direction he wanted her to go. Hattori-kun couldn't see well enough at night, and the animal to be trusted to stay the course, so they'd had to pair up this way – Conan-kun just behind him and controlling the second animal.

His classmate winced every time the deer had to jump over an outcropping or fallen tree, pushing harder against him. Saguru wished he could have allowed him some sleep to heal up the wounds but they were being pressed for time and it seemed, whether it was called sleep or not, Kuroba-kun couldn't rest while in pain and riding.

That didn't mean he wasn't as good as dead weight against him.

"Kuroba-kun, since we have some time, do you mind explaining to me more about how this disease works?"

"Mmm." Kuroba reached up, touching invisible keys as he spoke under his breath, Saguru hearing it catch when the deer swerved to avoid a clump of trees. "It's going to eat away at my skin for a while, the damage that's going to be done depending on luck I suppose. I have at least a day if I get bad luck. Day-" Kuroba was startle out of his sentence again with a small cry, forcing Saguru to hold tight to the rope and slow the deer down as his classmate threw him off balance. "Days meaning twenty-four hours, not sunrise and sunset kind of stuff," Kuroba finished, clenching his teeth. Even with the darkness and Kuroba having a natural blue tinge to his skin now, he looked pale. "That, or my body, with that luck, fights it off on its own by tomorrow."

"You should have run."

Kuroba shook his head. "Thing's too fast to outrun. Besides, it would have caught the little guy before it caught me."

Saguru had nothing to say to that and hoped that Kuroba's pain tolerance could hold out until they were somewhere safer. While he normally wouldn't have wanted to agree with Hattori-kun, one creature usually meant more.

The deer slowed long before Saguru wanted, the creature sweating on top of its coat, shifting while the second slowed to a stop as well. Letting out a breath, Saguru dismounted, making sure to help Kuroba down as well. "So, are we walking the rest of the way or waiting until morning, after we rest?"

No one spoke up and Saguru realized that, even though he hadn't admitted to it, he'd somehow taken lead when it came to hunting and, when they were together in a group, he had looked to Kuroba-kun to lead them.

"I need rest." Kuroba held his side, still leaning heavily against him. "Please."

It wasn't as if Saguru could say no to that. He took his pack off, Kuroba's hanging off his older shoulder. He made sure his classmate was standing on his own as he took out the bedrolls, Kuroba-kun sliding into one of them with a mutter of thanks and passing out.

Saguru let out a deep breath, looking towards the other two who were still standing and had made no move to settle in for the night. They were all new to this, far newer than they wished they were, and he didn't feel right leading them himself. There was so much he didn't know.

But Conan-kun was a child, had already gotten himself and Kuroba-kun into danger if what he was told was even half true. Hattori-kun couldn't see well in the dark, would made a bad lookout right now, and would be next to useless in a fight if one sprang up.

"Hattori-kun, get some sleep. Conan-kun, you take the first watch while you're not tired. I'll take the second and wake you before dawn, okay Hattori-kun?"

"Sure." The dark skinned teen, looking so much like himself still that it bothered Saguru – maybe made him jealous – didn't bother getting out his bedroll or taking off his armor. He simply laid down on the grass and fell asleep.

"You too," Conan-kun urged, looking towards him. "I'm a fairly good judge of time. We'll each take four hours."

Saguru knew he'd wake up anyway, because he wanted to wake and this body knew just how much sleep he needed to function. Knowing they wasted time while he was hunting and them more so eating, since they needed the meal, he hoped he hadn't cost Kuroba-kun more time than he could afford to lose. "We should reach the town by tomorrow. We aren't that far. You and Kuroba-kun only traveled a day, though you were in a wagon for some time. I'm hoping the deer will make up for the same amount of ground covered."

"We'll have plenty of time. From what we were told, this is the only main town in the area. The other one was the one we never made it to, and don't have an exact location of. If there's no one there to help, we're not going to find someone in time anyway. There's no need to rush."

Saguru blinked, watching the child in the darkness. While the other apparently saw the night around them, everything was painted as clearly as a picture to him. It wasn't faded or dulled or anything, while sunlight had almost the opposite effect. The boy's red hair was unruly, far more so than it usually was, likely from the ride. He spoke with such a certainty of the facts, empty of the emotion he knew would have choked his own words, and he had to wonder what Conan-kun had been through to make him so jaded.

The words were the truth though. They'd make it long before Kuroba's two day limit, and if there was no one in town to help him, there was no way they could make it to the other in the time they had left. At least, not without a lot of luck.

Calming from the initial scare, Saguru relaxed as well. If Kuroba was ever playing a game, he knew his classmate would be the last to lose. This was no different. "So, we help him, then finally get back on the road to the other town. Considering I had expected some quest-giver or the like where we're heading back to and found none, as I would have expected from such a game, wandering around aimlessly does seem to be the best course of action."

Conan smiled. "The best thing is to do nothing at all then."

"I suppose you can say that. None of us have passed this area before, either, both because we were being held captive at the time. Do you think you'll be alright if I take a look around? It shouldn't long. I don't very much like not knowing where we are."

He had expected a smile and a yes, as that was what he normally received from the boy. Instead, Conan tapped his fingers against his leg and looked towards the other two.

"I had wanted to try and fight some enemies, both to get used to this game and to not be so weak. I haven't had the chance to do much. The both of you are likely why we already leveled." Conan spoke quietly under his breath, touching the air in front of him as he reread the invisible words. "We're not that far from leveling, though I haven't been able to get a good look at what experience basic animals get. If you're awake and unhurt too, I'd rather go hunt down some forest creatures. It feels wrong to just kill them for the sake of killing them, but at this point I'd rather not run into another monster… and we're still far too low on the food chain."

Saguru had to think on that. He was a good hunter and knew he'd be even better so late at night, but there was a catch there. "I've had Hattori-kun with me so I haven't had to worry about getting hit myself. He is still slightly injured from earlier. There's nothing I can do at close range, or at least not much, and there is no way I'd want you to take the forefront in a fight, so the odds of us losing are rather high."

"We'll never get stronger if we're afraid of the danger."

"There's running into danger prepared and running blindly. I'm starting to see why you and Kuroba-kun keep winding up in such messes." Saguru didn't want to kill Conan-kun's eagerness, especially when any other child likely wouldn't be fairing as well, but he didn't want to be the reason that the fell either.

"If it's too dangerous, we run. You said that before and I don't mind that."

"And if we can't run?" Saguru tipped his head. "Kuroba-kun stated to me earlier that it hadn't been an option just a few hours ago. It may not be an option in the future either."

Conan tapped his hands on his leg some more, looking into the forest now. Saguru checked just to be sure the boy wasn't seeing something that he missed.

"I should be able to go alone. I can see just fine and I shouldn't have issues hiding."

Saguru let out a breath, holding out his hand. "Give me your dagger. If I'm going to go with you and attempt at all to defend myself, I'm not going to be fighting at point blank range with a bow."

Conan stood up and tipped his head, going into his robe. "You have a sword still, don't you?"

"Kuroba-kun is able to use both so I don't see why I can not." Saguru, now that he was slightly different, had thought it imperative to look over his character stats as well as his abilities and attacks. Most were memorized though he still had issues with a few of the game statistics. For one, he could use a shield. He eyed Hattori-kun's for a moment before accepting the dagger instead. If something happened while they were gone and they couldn't get back in time, he didn't want to rely on a wounded rogue and an unshielded fighter to take care of themselves.

"Please, Conan-kun, listen to me then if I tell you to do something. I'll listen to you as well, unquestioningly. Neither of us are very good at this game, though I have a feeling we know things that the other doesn't know as well. For one, I can find us something to fight that won't kill us, but I won't be able to do this again. If it weren't into the next day I likely couldn't even do it now." Saguru took in and let out a breath, reaching out his hand in front of him. "And please, I'll speak but don't speak to me while I'm doing this. I only have a minute and it's a lot of information to sift through."

He couldn't tell what the boy's response was but, considering it wasn't vocal, he took it as acknowledgment. Focusing on the area around them, Saguru let whatever strange magic he had in the forest echo in his mind, much like he assumed echolocation worked. There were pings here and there, lots of them, and he frowned in concentration.

"There's a small hill like area around here. I can sense the bats that likely roost there all spread out in the forest. I'm going to assume they're too weak individually to make much difference but I'll check into that after. There's a small grove up ahead with a pond, to the Northeast. Near it is a large tree on the northern side where a family of chipmunks is sleeping. There's a heard of deer that's on the move I won't be able to track off to the east as well. A few wandering foxes are in the area and we'll only run into them by luck. There's a bear… I believe it's a brown bear judging by its size, over to the west that I can barely feel. That's much too far to walk or run so we'll leave him be. Six miles." Saguru added the distance since he wasn't sure if Conan-kun knew how far he could sense. Saguru frowned. "And something closer, two or three miles, that I think is a leopard. It's hard to tell but…" he gave it a few moments, focusing on that creature to get it's size, shape, the feel of how it's footsteps hit the soft ground without a sound… "Yes, it's a leopard."

Saguru opened his eyes, feeling slightly light-headed now that he was relying on sight again. "Do you think we can take on a leopard? I'd risk a bear with Hattori-kun, but I'm unsure about a mountain cat. They'll be fast, though likely not stronger."

"It should be fine. Animals are the basics to any starting game, aren't they?"

Saguru had to assume so, though he couldn't be sure. The cat was up in a tree, where it seemed to be sleeping, so he had little fear that it would make it down to attack them before they killed it. "In any case, it can be breakfast. I've never had leopard before."

Conan chuckled quietly, waiting for him to lead the way.

…

It wasn't a far walk before they were both standing behind a tree, watching the sleeping leopard not far from them. Neither of them needed to get close but If they didn't attack quickly, the animal would likely fall out of the tree very much alive and run for it. Drawing his bow and watching Conan raise his hand and meet his eyes, Saguru let loose, the boy quickly made a gesture with his hand.

The arrow hit first, striking the animal in the skull and leaving Saguru with little doubt that it had lived. Conan cut off whatever word he was speaking and let the energy in his hand disappear, the white light it gave off almost blinding.

"Well, that was easy."

"It tends to be when you attack a sleeping creature. It saw nothing which helped as well." Saguru put the bow over his back. "Is this the first fight you've won so easily?"

"Ah, yeah, actually."

Saguru chuckled a little. Maybe he and Hattori-kun were simply better at planning. There were enough forest creatures that fell before him that he couldn't say this was anything new. It was the first time he had taken out a larger animal with one shot though.

"What do we do now? That wasn't enough." Conan put his hands to his side. "Want to go look for those bats?"

"I'm sure they are wandering about at this time. Bats are nocturnal creatures and do not roost during the night."

"I know, but you sensed them and they'd be around the cave, right?"

They likely wouldn't be far and Saguru hadn't sensed anything dangerous that direction. He shrugged, looking down at the red-headed boy. "Sure, why not? Neither of us are going to be getting any sleep then."

"We have time before we're forced to rest and we can do that in town. I'm sure wasting four hours of time while Kuroba-niisan likely will need to get more health back won't be terrible."

That was a good point and he wasn't very tired right now. "Okay, come on. Be quiet though. You never know what could have moved into this area."

Conan nodded, following, their footsteps nothing louder than the grass bending. He went towards the cave, wondering how they would attack a flying bat and figured the game made it easy enough. There wasn't any way such a small creature would be able to dodge around them and pose that much of an issue.

Saguru blinked at the first bat they came to, turning around and walking back a bit before staring wide-eyed as Conan followed close behind him.

"Since when are bats taller than me?" Saguru asked quietly, looking around the tree once more and wondering if the creature could hear him. That was one big bat.

"Well, it is a game. Maybe that's how big bats are."

Saguru took in and let out a breath. That thing was bigger than the leopard had been. That being said, he wasn't sure how to take it on. "Is there a way to tell if we can beat it? I can't even guess at it's strength."

Conan nodded. "I think so. I was trying to ask Kuroba-niisan about skills before. I'm pretty sure this has to do with nature and the woods and we can get a good guess on it. Lets see…"

Saguru watched, Conan's eyes flashing green for a moment before the boy sighed, smiling to him. "It's weaker than it looks. Once we hit it I'm sure it won't be up to much fighting. It's those teeth you have to worry about but, between us, one bat should be easy."

He wasn't sure how much he trusted those words. Conan-kun had lead them into enough danger.

"That and, if something goes wrong, I can distract it really well with a simple spell. That make you feel better? It will give us time to get out of here."

Actually, that did make him feel a little better. "And if you miss?"

"I can't miss. It's an automatic cast once I do."

That finished off any of the tension and Saguru drew out his bow, turning around and nocking an arrow, blinking a few times when he noticed the bat was gone. "Hey, did you see where it went?"

Conan looked around as well, mostly up, and he caught him shake his head. Saguru wasn't sure he wanted to waste the last spell he had on finding the bat when it would last only a minute and distract him enough it could easily take a bite out of him while his concentration was elsewhere.

There was a movement in the tree and Saguru looked up in time to see the large bat coming down out of them, the trees hiding all but it's immediate decent. He was not going to admit he yelped but he did shift his bow to face the oncoming threat.

Said threat going towards Conan-kun that didn't even see the thing coming at him over his shoulder.

The little guy missed those sharp, fang like teeth as the he moved out of its way on pure instinct, the bat flapping its wings as Conan-kun side-stepped to spin and face it, a noise that hurt his ears coming from the mutant of a creature

He was completely unaware when another bat came from the other side of the forest, Conan side-stepping from this one as well. Saguru realized he wasn't sure that the creatures had seen him and equally unsure that, if they had, they weren't just going for the smaller, easier to reach creature. He had little time to think about it as he shot an arrow at the first bat, hitting it in its furry chest and watching the wound bleed out around the wooden shaft. He likely got a lung with that.

One bat swept at him and he noticed a blur of wings as the other went for the boy again.

It had been some time since he was in the front lines like this, aside from the bandit lair. That wasn't a fight, it was a death wish. He would forever remember how much the large fangs of the predator felt going into his back and chest, the creature ready to take off with him if it could, though his apparent 'scream' was enough to get it to let go and back off once more.

Going for another arrow and drawing it against the sting was incredibly painful and he briefly looked over to see Conan-kun was just fine before firing off a second shot at the creature he'd hurt, watching it as it hit between its wing and body, causing the creature to fall the small distance to the ground and let out that screech again.

There were no hand moment, no spoken words. Conan just looked at the bat before him and then the one Saguru thought was still too close for comfort. There was a light glow, almost pink if he was making the color out right, and, just for a moment, it kind of looked like Conan-kun had a pair of faint, butterfly-like wings and… glittered.

The bat in front of the boy seemed to slow it's flapping, falling a bit to the ground, its mouth closing.

"Fly away," Conan spoke in an odd tone. "Fly as far and as fast as you can."

And then the bat listened to him, like an obedient pet. It took off back into the forest further than Saguru could see.

Of course, the remaining bat, hurt and angry, didn't care that it was going to die or that it had just lost it's attack companion, and came at him again, having issues flying, missed him, and fell to the floor where Saguru quickly put an arrow into its back, watching the creature stop breathing.

Sighing, he put a hand to his wound. "Well, that was harder than I had thought it was going to be. I recall someone saying it would be easy."

"I didn't know there were two bats. Besides, that was easy." Conan went over to the dead bat, checking it over. "I think the leopard is easier to carry but a bat might taste better. I doubt they have as much muscle."

"You carry it then." Normally Saguru wouldn't suggest the child do it, but he knew he could not personally carry much and, currently, he was wounded.

Conan didn't seem fazed, grabbing one of his wings and putting it over him like a cloak. He could swear there was still some pink in the boy's eyes.

"Can I ask you what you just did while we walk back?"

"Oh, the charm?" Conan tipped his head, looking far too adorable, even for the child he was. "It's a fairy thing. It's new. I kind of am part fairy."

Saguru snorted, having not meant to and put his hand up to his mouth. "Sorry about that."

"It was that or become part demon. I like the charm better then the telepathy though." Conan grinned, some evil malice there that Saguru wasn't used to seeing. "Though apparently being a warlock means I'm not one of the good guys. I suppose I'm a contradiction."

"I'm pretty sure between you and Kuroba-kun we should not have issues speaking with the good or the evil then. We have a thief dragon and now a… fairy wizard?"

"Fairy wizard warlock genasi," Conan corrected him. "Apparently those four things mean something in this world. I guess Genasi were new to this game or something. Its apparently not a very common race. I'm sure a lot of people play it in the game though."

Saguru nodded. He did remember that bandit leader saying something about his own race as well. Unlike Conan-kun and Kuroba-kun, his and Hattori's characters were rather simple. "While I believe I would benefit from scales, as Kuroba-kun has, I think I'll focus on my own abilities for now. Changing them around seem dangerous, and not to be mean, but you two have fairly bad track records when it comes to battles won."

"Look who's the one bleeding."

Saguru had nothing to say to that so he faced forward, not wanting to laugh at the small boy carrying the much larger bat in any case. It wasn't funny, it was simply so absurd he found the want to do so.

They arrived back to find the other two still sound asleep. Saguru turned to the bat, knowing he'd have to cook the meat now before I started to decay. A few hours in the night wouldn't hurt it but was going to attack unwanted attention. If he just took what he wanted off of it now, he could have Conan-kun dump it further in the forest for the other animals to eat.

Taking out the dagger he was much happier to have, he simply went at it like he would a turkey. "This should be disgusting me more than it is."

"It's weird. When you are constantly expecting something five times worse to come out at you any second, it kind of makes it easy."

That it did. It was a hard thing to always be on guard though, and wary of the new surroundings. This game was meant to be a fighting and interaction game, and they had been doing little interacting this far in the forest. He almost wished they'd run into that druid again.

Carving up some of the meat and finding it a dark color, he took a portion to save for later as well, instructing Conan-kun to leave the carcass far from the campsite. Before he left, the boy threw some fire onto the a few sticks of dried wood Saguru gathered along the way. It was very helpful. He had learned to make fire on his own, but it was time consuming. It would take him a while to cook the animal but Kuroba-kun could also take up watch while the rest of them slept, hurt still or not.

Speaking of which, he looked over at Kuroba. He was still in the same position he had fallen into. There was a constant, steady breathing that eased up the worry. He was sure his arm wasn't a pretty sight but Kuroba had said it was possible to fight this illness on his own as well.

Conan came back, sitting down and yawning as he rubbed one of his eyes. "We still didn't make enough to level. One more fight."

Saguru sighed, watching the meat spit at him from the fire. "I suppose, as it will help. If we manage to level ourselves, we might be able to make this disease take longer as well."

"That, and we're still too weak. You're hurt pretty bad."

Saguru would admit to that. He put his hand back to the puncture wounds he still had from those teeth. He'd heal once he slept, which wouldn't be long from now, but they made using the bow painful. "I'll live."

The boy shrugged. "There's nothing to look for on purpose so we'll be wandering after you get that cooked."

"Which I'll be doing now in case I pass out." Saguru eyed him a moment, seeing Conan-kun was eager to get on with this. The boy hadn't been hurt but he wasn't sure if he had all his spells from his earlier encounter with that disease-ridden dog. "Don't get too eager and over-shoot our luck."

"I won't. You're still mostly fine and I didn't get hurt. Tell me when you're ready." The boy walked off, never going far enough to be out of his sight as he wandered around their little area.

The meat cooked and stowed away where, hopefully, no creatures could smell it over the carcass, he stood and went with Conan-kun to wander the forest for something other than a giant bat this time.

Saguru found himself wishing for that giant bat less than half an hour later when they came across a man, clearly with his throat slit, and his blood fresh.

Rubbing his fingers together to test the consistency, Saguru looked around the area. "It was a knife wound so either another person did this or there's something with a very sharp claw around here."

"Couldn't have been more than an hour, but I'm not sure how far this game takes accuracy." Conan-kun moved the man's fingers. "If it's anything like normal, it was within the last half an hour."

"I can't sense people or anything like people when I scan an area, so they could have been here, alive, longer than that." Saguru stood. He was not going to be caught unaware by this man's murderer – human or not. "I doubt a monster would have left him for dead. He has no money on him, so I gather he was robbed. Goblins or anything with humanistic traits could have done this, but they never would have been tall enough to slit his throat."

"Maybe it was a stray group of bandits from the mountain."

That was highly likely. It was a compound and, at times, a home, but it was not an inn. He was sure the bandit gang had to be larger with as big as that place was. "Which means they could be somewhere around here and we are still very close to where we left the others." It had not rained in some time but Saguru was sure he could pick up some clues as to what happened here, being that they actually stayed here. "We should go back and ignore this."

Conan sighed. "I really don't want to."

"I know but I don't want the other two dying and having them weaponless when we return will be just as bad if they are simply robbed." Saguru didn't know what to do. He wanted to go back, protect them, but if they followed this attacker they might be able to both get what they needed from him and end any future violence.

"You're a lot better at tracking so if you say we go back, I'm going to have to wander around and probably get nothing done until you get back and then want to leave, likely leaving some of us behind. Help me now and that won't happen. If we find tracks and they lead towards the camp, we'll go back. Is that okay?"

It seemed logical and Saguru had no choice but to stand up and nod, looking around the body. He spoke as he did. "It was a level ago that you and Kuroba-kun faced a group of bandits, was it not? How many were you unable to take on?"

"Four."

They could probably take on four now but he wasn't sure if he wanted to risk that with only two people.

"Then if it's less then four, we do something about it. If it's not, we let things be." Saguru brushed his hand over a light shifting of dirt. "It was a human here, but it looks like only two, if I'm reading these right. There can be more elsewhere, like we have a camp, so we can't assume that's all until we get there."

Conan nodded and Saguru took his time, finding and losing and finding the trail that the attacker had gone. It was hard to tell except for the random broken branch, pushed aside branch, or other small signs.

As he had expected, they came to an area with light. Partially closing his eyes, Saguru moved from tree to tree before he could see two figure, clearly drunk and laughing over a camp fire. He wasn't sure what was in the pot they had over the flame but he could smell that it was burning, neither man there enough to care.

Saguru drew out an arrow but found it falling to his side. He knew they couldn't see either of them, being human. Sight was something he had learned well enough, considering he had to baby sit Hattori-kun more than a little once the sun went down. "I don't know if I can purposely kill humans, not just so I can level."

Conan shook his head, going past him. "Beating them is all we need. We don't need to kill them. Just aim for pain and not death." The boy didn't bother with anything else, going forward as quietly as he could, making Saguru frown and wonder what he was up to.

The bandits didn't seem to notice much but Conan-kun had the bad luck of not looking where his feet were going and snapped a rather loud branch under his feet, making both men jump to their feet unsteadily and look around.

"Who's there!?"

"I am!" Conan said eagerly, waving one hand. Saguru drew the arrow now, aiming at the bandits. They'd have to come closer to hurt the boy and he'd hit at least one of them before that happened if he had to.

"I am?" Both men went for their swords, drawing them out but seeming very unsure about what they were supposed to do with them. "Who's 'I am"?"

"Me!" Conan spoke just as cheerfully back. "The boss sent me. He said you guys might need some help."

"Pft. The boss knows we don't need any assistance. We're the best team there is." One man lowered his sword to grin at his partner, hitting the back of their fists to one another. "No one can beat us." He seemed angry when he turned back. "Now come out of those shadows!"

"I'm right here."

Saguru's grip tightened on the arrow significantly when Conan-kun moved not twenty feet from them, into the frail light of the fire. Another step back and he'd be hard to see but he'd given up that advantage for some reason. "The boss isn't going to be happy that you didn't listen to him and look, I brought something special just for you."

The boy had his fist closed and his hand outstretched. Saguru couldn't see what he was holding well from the angle he was at and he had no clue what Conan-kun was up to.

"Hm? What is it?" The man doing all the talking took a step forward and he barely caught Conan-kun speaking something so low he had trouble hearing it, something small falling to the floor slowly from in front of the boy.

Both men simply fell to the floor, no blood or anything in their wake.

Conan-kun turned around with a smile and a tip of his head. Saguru frowned, watching the green start to flash around his vision.

"How…?" Saguru asked, going over to Conan-kun and seeing the other two passed out. "How did you do that?"

"Just a sleep spell. Normally that wouldn't be enough but bandits are weak on their own. It was the leader that was so hard to beat." Conan stretched, yawning. "But anyway, lets level in the morning. I don't want to have questions and no one to answer them."

Saguru nodded, agreeing to that, but still surprised at what the boy had managed to do. He had defeated both men and without so much as lifting more than his hand. "That was still pretty amazing. I'd say we should take them back to town but it is hard enough getting all of us to fit on the deer. I do not want to tax them too much. Leaving them with no repercussions though seems wrong. Are you opposed to stealing from a thief?" Saguru lifted part of his bloody clothes. "I'm in the market for a new shirt."