A/N: This begins several hours after the events of chapter 2, 'First Clue'. (Also technically after the events of chapter 6, 'One Choice', but Saguru doesn't know that.)
The ~S~ indicates scene change/time skip.
Saguru closed his eyes and let his head drop into his hands. Hours of searching the entire building, and neither he nor the Taskforce had found anything that might lead them to Edogawa-kun. The single security camera that had caught images of a pair of potential suspects might look like a lead, but Saguru wasn't optimistic. The cameras hadn't caught a clear shot of either suspect's face, and the distinctive coats the men had been wearing could easily be removed and potentially could have disguised the suspects' true builds. The Taskforce would still investigate and attempt to trace the pair, of course. Saguru rarely hoped his conclusions were incorrect, but this was one time he would prefer to be wrong.
There was, however, an avenue of investigation that the Taskforce had overlooked; KID himself. The thief had long since left the heist building, of course, but unlike the officers, Saguru had not been convinced by Kuroba's…'alibis'. Kuroba was Kaitou KID, and as the person who was likely the last to see Edogawa-kun, Kuroba was currently their best chance at finding the child.
As much as he'd like to march to the thief's house and demand answers, Saguru knew that at best it would result in Kuroba being stubbornly uncooperative. However, Saguru was unwilling to ignore a potentially vital source of information.
Phone call it was, then. Before he could second-guess himself Saguru dialed his classmate's number, somewhat impatiently waiting for Kuroba to pick up. A frown appeared on his face as the call continued to ring without an answer.
"Yo! This is Kuroba Kaito, Magician Extraordinaire~ I'll get back to you as soon as I'm finished with my grand performance!"
Mentally wondering how anyone could listen to this voice message and not think Kuroba was KID, Saguru sighed and simply said, "Kuroba, we need to talk. It's important."
Staring at his phone after hanging up, Saguru considered how likely Kuroba was to ignore his message on principle (very) and resolved to keep calling until the thief gave in and actually answered.
—Yo! This is Kuroba Kaito—
BEEP
"Kuroba, answer your phone."
—Magician Extraordinaire—
BEEP
"I'm serious, this is an urgent situation."
—I'll get back to you—
BEEP
"I need your help, dammit, pick up!"
—as soon as I'm finished—
BEEP
"Kuroba, if you're ignoring this on purpose I swear I'll—"
—with my grand performance!—
BEEP
"What the hell are you even doing at three in the morning that you can't even answer…your… phone."
Saguru stared blankly at the wall as his annoyance and frustration dissipated in the face of rapidly mounting worry. Kuroba wasn't ignoring his calls—he couldn't answer. Had KID seen something happening to Edogawa-kun and tried to interfere? Was the thief injured—or worse? He needed to check on Kuroba—at this point he didn't care if he angered the prankster as long as he could confirm the idiot was in one piece.
A few minutes later and he was attempting to convince an unimpressed Baaya that yes, he needed to go and check on his friend now, no he really couldn't wait until morning. Thankfully, she eventually relented and agreed to drive him to Kuroba's house. ("I can see that if I don't you'll walk there yourself, botchama, don't even deny it, at least this way I can ensure you won't make yourself sick wandering around in the cold for hours in the dead of night.")
Despite the knowledge that he was taking action, Saguru was on edge during the entire drive, mind spinning with various possible scenarios. What could he do if Kuroba was seriously injured? Saguru had basic knowledge of first aid, he could disinfect and bandage a cut, but a bullet wound? He'd be going on luck and prayer if he tried to patch the thief up—and that was assuming Kuroba even let him try to help.
Arriving to see all the windows at the Kuroba house dark, Saguru took a breath to steady himself and strode to the front door to ring the bell. He waited impatiently, occasionally knocking or ringing the bell again, but when fifteen minutes passed with no sign of any response, he felt certain that Kuroba was either absent or unable to come to the door.
It was that second possibility that prompted him to search his memories and dig out the spare key he'd once seen Aoko-san pull from one of the rose bushes. Thankfully it was still there, and Saguru was able to enter the house without difficulty. Pulling a penlight from his pocket, he proceeded to search the house for any sign of Kuroba's whereabouts. Unfortunately for his nerves, there was no indication in the empty house that the thief had been here at any point after the heist. The sight of Kuroba's phone sitting on his bedside table was both worrying and relieving—worrying because he now had no way to contact Kuroba, and relieving because it meant KID was hopefully not incapacitated to the point of being unable to even answer a phone.
Well, Kuroba was unlikely to miss school the next day, so Saguru would be able to make a plan based on the prankster's actions in class—and whether Kuroba showed a reaction to the string of messages Saguru had left.
~S~
Kuroba wasn't at school.
Saguru had asked Aoko-san about it, and his classmate had scowled and told him that the house had been empty when she went to drag him to breakfast.
It was exceedingly worrying. In particular, it was worrying that the neither the school nor the Nakamoris had apparently been given notice of or excuse for Kuroba's absence.
Disappearing off the face of the earth the day after a heist was something Kuroba wouldn't have done unless he had no other choice; it could be far too easy for the disappearance to kindle suspicions of his night-time criminal activities.
Aoko-san informed him a day later that Kuroba-san forgot to inform anyone that Kuroba would be moving in with her and transferring schools. Saguru thanked her for the information and politely refrained from denying her assumption that he was worried for Kuroba's health. (He's not quite willing to admit that he didn't deny it because it's true.)
The story in itself was suspicious to Saguru—if Kuroba-san had informed the school the first day Kuroba was absent it would have been much easier to overlook—but Aoko-san was convinced that the Kurobas were just 'like that' and Kuroba-san is just as known for doing such things on a whim as Kuroba is for pranking his classmates. Saguru was still doubtful that Kuroba's mother would forget to inform the people who were taking care of him in her absence if Kuroba was actually moving away. But the excuse had been made, and Saguru's classmates were already gossiping about Kuroba's transfer.
Saguru wasn't as easily convinced, but he refrained from sharing his doubts— if the situation involving KID necessitated such a cover-up, it was likely something had gone very wrong on the thief's end of things, and attempting to reveal Kuroba as KID could have dangerous repercussions.
Whatever KID had gotten himself into, he (or his assistants) had concluded that he would be unable to return in a reasonable amount of time—potentially indefinitely. That the cover had been a day late suggested that the thief hadn't initially expected to need one and encountered unexpected complications.
Saguru wasn't sure if he should hope that Kuroba's absence was because he'd been involved in Edogawa ending up missing, or hope they were completely disconnected situations.
~S~
Discovering a week later that KID had sent out a heist notice had Saguru utterly furious. He'd been worried about the bastard, and Kuroba had disappeared to plan a heist?! It didn't help that the Taskforce had hit a dead-end trying to track Edogawa-kun's suspected kidnappers.
The child had been missing for a week, a week during which Kuroba might have been able to help find him…if the thief hadn't disappeared off the face of the earth. It was infuriating. Saguru would corner the damn thief during the heist and force some answers out of him, no matter what KID tried to pull to get away.
A/N: I am so, so sorry it's taken me over a year to update this! I got stuck on a plot point and then just couldn't figure out what to write next...
This chapter was written during NaNoWriMo, along with next chapter (that will take a few days though because it has to be edited still)
Luckily I think I actually do have a few ideas for what chapters come after that (although I may have to go edit some already posted chapters for one of them. *sighs* that's what I get for trying to write this kind of fic with my writing style)
Anyways, thank you so much to everyone who is still reading this story! I hope you continue to enjoy it despite my abysmally inconsistent updates.