WARNING: The story gets a lot more violent from this point on. Thus the rating of Teen from the start.
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Chapter 29: Twin Reflections

"No need to shoot anybody." I spread my hands out, still protective of Hakuba. "Well, no need to shoot anybody again."

My easy manner and laughable speech was enough to diffuse the tension that hung in the air. Hakuba's father, whose name was escaping me since I'd had no reason to learn it, loosened his grip on the firearm but his carefulness showed years of familiarity with the weapon, so it didn't mean much.

"Now what exactly is going on? Someone's been kidnapped you say?"

The comment was thrown out easily but I didn't let the gravity of the situation completely escape my question. The older man eyed me suspiciously before looking behind me at his son. I couldn't see Hakuba's reaction to anything besides his initial outburst of his father's identification.

"I was ordered to kill anyone that he was with so you should get out of here and count your blessing. It's believable that I found him alone in the forest. Saguru, you have to come with me."

"Wait, wait, wait." I pushed the detective back with my body as I took a few steps back so that he couldn't make any rash movements that I couldn't prevent. "You didn't answer me. There has to be a peaceful solution to whatever the problem is."

"My ex-wife and her sister were taken. The one who did it left a note with me that they were the ones that originally tried to bribe my family into handing my son over to them. I was smart enough to recognize their intentions and put a stop to it but my hands are tied now. I can't risk my whole family for just his life."

So the organization was going to extraordinary means to track down the detective now that he'd escaped them so many times. I looked down at Kudo who narrowed his eyes and continued to look inconspicuous. I couldn't converse with him out in the open when there was the off chance that someone from the organization was around.

"Are you alone?"

Hakuba's father looked at me strangely. Sure it was odd that I was calmly talking to a man I essentially didn't know – who was pointing a gun at me – and sure I was putting myself in the way of their family problems when I wasn't a part of it, and sure, to make matters more strange, I was acting more like a detective than any of the three actual detectives who were there. Not that I could control any of that.

"Yes, I'm alone. Too many people wouldn't have been good and whoever these kidnappers are have remained out of physical contact. I knew Saguru would be wherever his bird was and I had to wait to get him alone. I didn't think I'd get a better opportunity than now."

"So you were going to shoot your own son?" This man wasn't the type to kill anyone. How he even made a career as a cop was beyond me since he looked so easy going in a normal setting.

"No, I wanted Saguru to know I was serious. I just nicked his arm."

So the organization had Hakuba's family members as ransom for the detective. They were willing to take more as well. I wasn't going to let that happen and I wasn't going to let the man use his son in such a matter that I knew would eat at him for the rest of his life.

"Ok then, if you need to give them Hakuba Saguru, then that's who they'll get." I reached into my jacket pocket and pulled out a bottle. Jii had come up with the concoction years ago by condensing the chemical agents in bleach and Hydrogen Peroxide. It was terrible on the hair but worked well. I shook the bottle and spread it along the top of my hair and splashed some more in with my fingers before flattening it all down with hair cream. Hakuba was taller than me but they wouldn't know that and it was only a few centimeters. "Let's go."

"Kuroba!" The harsh voice behind me was too loud in my ear and the detective grabbed my shoulder tightly. "What do you think you're doing?"

"I'm going to see if I can get you off the hook. I'll have to go home and retrieve the disc first and I'll see where things go from there." I made my voice sound just like the detective, a lilt to it that mirrored Hakuba's English accent perfectly.

"You most certainly are not. What is it that you think you can accomplish that I can't? This is my responsibility."

I didn't have to slip out of his hold to bend down and grab Kudo's hand before turning the small detective's watch on Hakuba and hitting the pressurized switch. The dart hit Hakuba in the leg, sliding easily between the fibers in his pants above his knee.

"Ouch, what was that?" It only took seconds for the detective's eyes to start losing focus and I helped him slid to the ground.

"I can't let your father hurt you anymore. It's obviously hurting him too." Hakuba managed to look confused before his eyes closed.

I took his jacket off and put my own around his shoulders so he wouldn't be cold. If I was going to turn myself into the organization as the detective, the smoke bombs and other items wouldn't be of any help; they would only give away my identity. The detective's longer brown jacket clashed terribly with my black and gray clothes but was acceptable enough that it wouldn't stand out. It wasn't like the detective had any fashion sense anyway, if anything, the mismatching clothes helped.

I took my phone and one other item out of one of the pockets so I could make a few calls before everything took a turn for the worst, and twisted to face Kudo.

"Make sure he understands when he wakes up. I'll leave the rest to you Tantei-kun."

"You didn't have to do that." Kudo looked up at me with accusing eyes and I could only shrug.

"If Hakuba was awake he'd only try to dissuade me. If I know one thing about him it's that he's stubborn once he's set his mind on something. Moreover I can't help with any of the planning so I'll try and stay alive until you rescue me." I winked at him, trying to ease my own fear. "I'll be waiting."

I walked over to Hakuba's dad and tipped my head to the side. "Shall we go?" I let my voice take on Hakuba's again. I could pull this off.

The man looked between me and his son who was currently unconscious. Without the detective's serious tone and straightforward manner he looked very young and vulnerable. As an officer, Hakuba's father turned back to me and saw that I was putting myself in danger, but as a father he couldn't find any room to argue with it.

"Sure."

I waved backwards at Kudo and walked with the large man, trusting he knew his way out of the forest.

"Who are you?"

A straightforward question and one I expected him to ask me once we'd started to make our way out.

"A friend."

He nodded at the unelaborated answer and turned away, unable to look me in the eye.

"Thank you."

"It's fine." I flipped open my phone and switched on a small device that my father had made so my call couldn't be traced back to me. I dialed and put my finger up to my mouth so that the detective's father wouldn't say anything while I was on the line.

"Hello?" The voice was agitated and had the rough tones of going too long without water.

"Hello there, Nakamori-keibu. Nice day, isn't it?" From what I knew, Hakuba-san had no reason to be familiar with my voice as Kid. He hadn't stayed for any of my heists long enough to see me.

I could hear Nakamori swear on the other end of the line and I smiled, getting what humor I could out of the situation.

"That's not what I actually called to talk about though. There have been" - I hadn't thought about how to state the hellish circumstances that had been flying around recently–"problems. If you would listen closely to me it could save a lot of lives."

That shut him up and his intensity turned into silent fuming. I laid out basic instructions for him to follow before hanging up. If the man listened to what I said it could certainly help Hakuba and the others. If not, it was worth a try.

When we came to the edge of the forest I took out the other device I had taken out of my jacket and put in the detective's. Small and black and unassuming as it was, I took it and crushed it up in a paper bag before discarding it on the edge of the road. I took a little piece off of it before hand and swallowed it. Hakuba-san watched me with quiet assessment but the sad look in his eyes didn't lessen.

We got to his car which was an older yet dependable model with a newly painted white finish. I let myself into the passenger seat and the man got in his own door. Instead of starting the car he lay his head down on the steering wheel and questioned me under his breath.

"How old are you?"

I could have lied to him but there would have been no point. "I'm almost seventeen in a half."

"Why are you doing this? This is a family situation and I don't mean to sound ungrateful, I just want to know why."

"Doing things this way leaves a chance at more positive outcomes then if I'd let you take your son in." And I am the only one who knew where the disc is so Hakuba couldn't have gotten it without me anyway.

Hakuba-san stared the car with a morbid expression. I couldn't say anything to reassure him. If the organization was as bad as Kudo hinted, then there was a very possible chance that I wouldn't be seen again. If that happened, then it would happen. I wouldn't go down without a fight.

I had Hakuba's father drive to my house and I dug through my closet to find Hakuba's jacket. The disc was safe in an inner pocket where I hadn't noticed it the first time, kept unbroken in a plastic see-through case. I threw the jacket back into the corner and went outside to rejoin the detective's father. I was happy that mom was still with Jii at the hospital because I couldn't tell her what I was about to do. Couldn't face her right now when she might be losing the only remaining family she has left.

I gave the man a few more directions to follow before taking me in. I had to set things up just right so that my ploy was believable. He followed them without question as atonement for his complacency in allowing me to go through with my plans.

We stopped by a museum, one I'd stolen from in the past so their schedule was still imprinted in my brain. I walked in with the CD, garnering no attention since it was late enough to be afterschool and there were plenty of other teenagers there. Hakuba-san didn't follow me in.

Maintenance was done thoroughly once every month. I could hide the disc and be certain that it would be found in just less than two weeks when the crew came in. I added a simple note, written in Hakuba's handwriting, for anyone who found it.

I went over to the display case I was looking for after viewing a few other exhibits so that it wouldn't look suspicious, one with a rather large amount of gems too small to be of any use to me. I slipped it under near the covering so that it could easily be removed and found by whoever opened the glass display. That done and all the plans that I could make set, I went back out to the car.

Hakuba's father and I sat in silence when I told him there was nothing else I needed to do. The man was kind and it went against every atom in his body to turn me in to these killers when he knew that they wanted his son. It was a father's selfishness.

"I wish there was some other way."

"There isn't, so let's just get this over with." If I was going to put up a fight, I wasn't about to sit in doubt and fear right before that time came. As patient as I was during a heist, none of that mattered when lives were in danger, someone else's or my own. Actions needed to be taken.

"Right." The man flipped through his phone and came to a number. He hit the call button and I was surprised that the organization had given him a way to contact them. It was probably either a pay as you go mobile or stolen, but it still surprised me.

"I've got my son, what do you want me to do now?" He voice was flat and held all the emotional withdrawal that was written across his face.

There was a curt answer and a click as the line was cut. Hakuba-san hung up the phone and started to drive off without a word or glance towards me. I couldn't fault him for it.

The trip took less than half-an-hour and we were in what appeared to be a high-class hotel. We both got out and I let my face display my anger and need for revenge at the people who'd already threatened so many others. If Hakuba were here he'd be feeling the same way.

We went up to the second storey, walking to a hotel room that looked just like any other except for the fact that it wasn't. There was no evil premonition, no darkening of the sky, just simple naked fear in me for what lay on the other side of the door. I kept repeating over and over to myself that I could not let these people kill me. I would not die by their hands. Kid wouldn't die by their hands - any mercenary's hands - ever again.

Hakuba-san walked in with only the briefest pause and a sympatric look in my direction that switched focus before I could meet it. He opened the door and I could see two people in the room. One was the man with the bleached hair who'd been chasing me and the other was a man in his thirties, hair dyed just a few shards darker than Hakuba's natural color and glasses that stood out sharply against his pale face.

"Took you long enough," the man in the glasses said as he got off the bed and strode over to us. On closer inspection I noticed that the skin tone of his hands and face didn't quite match up. I hid the surprise behind my hate and faced the man with steely eyes.

The brunette man lifted my hair and I suppressed the shivers when his fingers drew too close to my neck for comfort. The bleached spots weren't large but it looked like a fast and sloppy dye job in reverse.

"I suppose you cut your hair with a razor or something? You didn't do a very good job."

I knew my hair did take on a funny shape when it was laid flat down. I could pull off Kudo's look with gel but I didn't want to risk it now so I'd used natural means to make it stay flat, still defiantly sticking up in places. The difference in length could be put off to a rushed hair cut as well. "Scissors actually. I'm not very good with them when I don't have a mirror."

The detective's voice and accent were enough to make the person in front of me believe I was him. They let go of my hair, but I didn't let my stance relax like I normally would since I had to keep up the act. Lithe carelessness was notone of Hakuba's traits.

"Do you have the disc with you?"

"No." I smiled, not too confidently, but boldly. "I don't."

The attack came fast and I wasn't able to avoid it. The butt of a gun, pulled out of his pocket quickly enough to blur in my vision, struck the side of my head and I fell to one knee as the blow temporarily messed with my senses.

"Stop it!" Hakuba's father walked in front of me to block any follow-up attacks and I couldn't tell if he was doing it because he wanted to keep up the charade or if he really cared about what happened to me. I had to guess it was the latter and it made me feel bad for what they were putting him through.

"Move." I heard as the safety on the gun was clicked off.

"Get out of here dad," I pleaded with the man. I was having a hard enough time protecting myself. Protecting both of us at once against two armed men was going to be next to impossible.

Hakuba-san looked down at me and I gently shook my head to get rid of the annoying aftereffects. The headache would take longer. I meet his eyes after several seconds of this and saw the cool steadiness of an officer that still lingered there, even as the man was getting on in years.

"Go," I said again.

The man's shoulders slumped and he moved from in front of me to slink out the door before the click signaled he was gone.

"My, aren't you noble."

The man with the glasses was back in my face, gun just a few inches from my cheek as he forced me to meet his eyes. Hakuba's were so much lighter than mine that I'd had to risk contacts since blue eyes stood out. "Let's see how long that lasts."

"This isn't the best time. We need that disc." The burlier man stated the facts as clean and emotionless as could be. He didn't seem to mind at all that I was obviously a teenager, and they were both prepared to kill me.

"We can get the location of it later, can't we? It'll be fun to see how far we can push him."

My breathing unintentionally sped up to match my heart and I had to consciously clamp down on it. I wasn't going to show how afraid of them I was. There was a chance now, I could escape if I had to, but everyone would still be in danger and that would accomplish nothing.

There was an intense amount of pain as the man with the light brown took his gun and struck me near my good shoulder, connecting the metal base with my collar bone. It hurt terribly and I couldn't stop crying out in pain. The man smiled as I fell against the wall trying to get away from him.

"Yes this will be fun."

He pulled me up by the hair and, for the third time, struck me with the gun instead of shooting me. I scarcely felt as it connected with back of my neck before I blacked out.

...

I woke up alongside a plaster white wall with my feet half laid out in the floor in front of me and my body held a few inches in the air. All I was aware of was pain.

The position I was in offered me with no location I could move in that would alleviate the stinging in my collar bone or completely get my own weight off my wrists as metal cuffs cut into them. It was done purposely and to cause me as much suffering as it could. The funny thing was they didn't even know they were hurting my other shoulder as well, stretching the skin near the bullet wound.

There were a few things I'd kept on me when I'd left Hakuba with my jacket. A small pin to pick the lock was one of them.

I tried really hard to forget about it. If I got out of the handcuffs now it would leave a lot of questions on how I'd done it. There was no handle or inside lock on the door either so it could only be opened from the outside. As long as I couldn't escape there was no point in freeing myself. I'd just have to deal with the pain.

There was an almost two hour difference from when I woke up to when someone opened the door and looked in on me. I was sure that was done purposely as well.

"Seems you're awake now." A young man strode in, all cockiness and attitude. He couldn't have been twenty and the black outfit he wore didn't accentuate his older features either. He had a small, rounded face and thin arms with raggedly cut black hair that just went over his ears underneath his black hat. The only thing that made him stand out to me was the narrowness of his pupils and the sadistic smile on his lips. The man with the glasses that had knocked me out followed him in, also smiling down at me.

"Do you plan on telling us where the disc is? We can do this the easy way or the hard way." The boy crouched down in front of me as the older man asked the questions.

"I need to know that you've let my mother and aunt go first." My tone was quieter than I wanted but I held up the accent. Apparently I was thirsty and I could guess why since all I'd eaten was potato chips.

"Is that why you didn't bring it?"

"Of course." I smiled, keeping it subdued.

I noticed that there was something sticky near my eye every time I blinked. I could just see something dark colored out of the corner of my right eye and I moved my head slightly to see where I could feel the breeze. The congealed blood started below my hairline and dripped down my face. When he'd hit me with the gun he'd apparently broken through the skin.

The man with the glasses was on the phone and put it up next to me before putting the speaker phone on, staying clear of my feet in case I decided to kick him.

"One of our operatives is with them now but only one and they'll let them go. If you don't cooperate we'll just get them back later."

The phone was quiet for a second before I heard the soft sounds of weeping. There was rush of noise movement as the phone was passed over.

"Saguru?"

The woman sounded hysterical. I smiled and relaxed against tension I didn't know I was holding. Hakuba's family seemed to be alive at least. Some part of me doubted it since they'd come into contact and Kudo had said that the organization didn't let people live after knowing of them.

"Are you alright?" I was tempted to add mother at the end of the sentence but I didn't know if it was his mother. I'd never heard her voice and, if she'd been taken along with her sister, there wouldn't have been much difference in their accents.

"Saguru! I'm fine! Lucy's fine too! Where are you? Are you ok?"

I shook my head slightly. The woman's fear was such a tangible thing and it made me more determined not to let my mom feel that way.

"I'm fine. I need you to get to a police station right now. Any close by will be all right. Let me talk to one of the officers."

I looked up at the man in the glasses and he just shrugged before speaking into the phone himself. "Give the cell back to the man with you for a moment."

"Saguru?" The woman's fear came back.

"It's alright," I reassured her. "Listen to what he says."

The noise of the phone being handed over came back.

"What is it?" The questioning voice was guff. I could tell by the tones that the man was older, someone in his forties.

"Let the ladies have your cell and come back here."

The man followed orders immediately and the woman, who I had to assume was Hakuba's mother, came back on.

"Saguru what's wrong? What's going on? Are you safe?"

"I'm fine." It was an outright lie and the man holding the phone let out a small laugh that the receiver wouldn't pick up on. "Just do as I said and go to the nearest police station."

"Ok." The word came out as a whisper, a pleading noise that said she wanted to believe what I was telling her was true.

It took about ten minutes before they were able to make it to a station. The boy in front of me got bored and started pacing around the room, the other man held perfectly still, keeping his smiling face on me while I hung limply from the wall. I wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of seeing me squirm.

"Saguru we're here" she said at last. The phone was handed over again after a few words between her and one of the officers.

"Hello? This is the Saitama police prefecture headquarters, Kenai-keiji speaking, how can I help you?"

Perfect. They'd be safe there. I listened closely to the call to make sure that the man was who he said he was.

"What's your badge number?"

It was easy to remember the listed codes and files that officers were mandated to have on the job. For Saitama the regions code should always end in a 384 digit.

His recited badge number matched up.

"Is there something I can help you with?" The curiosity was obvious since most people didn't ask him his badge number when calling in for help.

"Yes my mother and her sister are there with you now. We've been having political problems and I would like it if you'd keep them safe until my father is able to arrive."

A good cover story and one that my captors wouldn't find threatening to them.

"Of course."

"Thank you."

The man with the glasses clicked the end button and closed the phone. The sound it made as it snapped shut was plastic and I could see its poor craftsmanship. It was a cheap phone and couldn't be traced back to them.

"Are you satisfied?"

"Yes." I breathed in a relieved sigh and told them exactly where the disc was. There weren't any traps I'd set up, as easy as it would have been, and they'd be able to reach it within the hour.

"You'd better not be lying to me." The man raised his hand and the boy took out a small gun. I could tell he was going to shoot me but I had no way of dodging it.

The bullet tore into my side, purposely missing any important organs but still a grave wound. I screamed but cut it short so my own voice wouldn't be heard.

The boy laughed when I pushed my head against the wall with clenched teeth. He laughed. It was wrong and disturbing and almost enough to distract me from the wound.

"If we find out that you've been deceiving us then there'll be much worse to come."

"Ha," I let out through a gasp of breath, panting but not being able to stop. "You weren't… planning on… letting me leave… anyway."

"No," came his answering smile. "But we can do it the easy way or the hard way. If you're telling the truth I'll make sure to kill you quickly."

He leaned over close enough to my ear that I could feel his glasses brush against my cheek every time I took in air. "Too bad your magic friend couldn't save you."

The smell that hit me at such a close proximity made me smile along with the words he spoke. Well, the words she spoke.

"I'm afraid you're wrong." I let a breath to try and get myself to speak in complete sentences. I dropped Hakuba's accent all together and said quietly, so only she could hear me. "I think I've helped… quite a lot."

She backed up as if I'd bitten her. Vermouth attempted to hide the shock in her eyes but it was there and made me smile all the more since the boy wasn't about to piece anything together.

"Why?" She hissed with a man's voice. "Why did you?-" She shook her head. "Never mind. You've dug your own grave."

I dropped my humor and tried to stop panting. The blood flowed down over my side and down my leg where it couldn't stain my black pants. I realized now, sickly, why they had made the room white.

"Give it to me," Vermouth told the young boy. The older teenager looked up with disappointment.

"But you said I could play around this time."

His eagerness to torture people sickened me and it looked like it bothered her as well.

"You're much too greedy. Control yourself and next time I'll let you play around."

"Fine!" He handed over bandages with controlled frustration and left the room.

Vermouth moved to kneel beside me and she unbuttoned my shirt. The bullet wound was on my right side and I could see it clearly flowing now that she'd removed the material.

"This is just so you don't die before we get what we want," she assured me when she placed the gauze on the wound to stop the bleeding. She reached around me to wrap the tape fully around my waist. "I can't help you."

"I wasn't expecting… you to."

I closed my eyes and tried to ignore all the pains that were running through my body. It wasn't as easy as it was to fake wellness as it was when I'd first gotten shot. I was worn down and there to too many injuries to let me focus my attention elsewhere.

Vermouth took something out of her coat pocket and poured it onto a handkerchief. "At least this way you won't have to feel the pain." She put the cloth up to my face and I could smell the chloroform. It was held far enough away from me to let in air so I wouldn't be suffocated.

I watched her, thankful for small favors. If the detectives were able to come up with a plan then that would be great, if not and I was killed, I preferred not to be awake for it.

"Be thankful that I owe Toichi-san a lot."

The comment drew me out of the haze I was falling into.

"What do you mean?" My words were slurred and I continued to breathe in the chemical as I spoke.

"I don't know what the man was to you but you've got the same tricks he had. I'd only figured out he was Kid after he died. The man helped me out when I didn't deserve it and I was happy for a time. Since you're Kid now it was easy enough to guess you were close to him. I never did get to repay him so I'll settle on trying to help you. Don't expect too much."

I nodded, half because I heard that she was trying to help and half because I couldn't understand all of what she said and didn't know what else to do. My eyes closed and the pain had all gone wonderfully numb. I stayed half-awake and half-asleep for a few minutes, peacefully content.