Disclaimer: I don't own DCMK

Sky Colored Eyes

35: Pickup Sticks

Lying on his bed with his arms folded behind his head, Kaito watched the shadows creep across his bedroom ceiling. It had been an eventful day, but despite that, he found himself wide awake. Or perhaps it was precisely because it had been an eventful day that he found sleep eluding him. A tiny grin tugged at the corners of his lips. Things certainly had been interesting, hadn't they?

There was just something supremely satisfying about pulling off a good deception. Looking back, this particular disguise might have had more in common with his true identity than he'd originally intended, but it was still a good creation. He decided to file it away for the future, just in case it was ever needed again. What had really piqued his interest, however, was the glimpse into Shinichi he'd gotten through the escapade.

He didn't know if Shinichi was aware of it, but the character he had chosen to portray had painted a picture of the detective's own thoughts that the thief had been all too ready to capture.

The thing that was nagging at him now though was the image of those brilliant, blue eyes framed by round glasses. It wasn't just the physical resemblance that was striking. It was the expression in those eyes when he was focused on a puzzle and the gleam of stubborn determination when he made up his mind to do something. Shinichi gestures and expressions were just like Tantei-kun's too. Kaito was no expert on genetics, but he had a hard time believing that distant cousins would be so similar in so many ways.

Now that he thought about it, he'd first met Tantei-kun shortly after Shinichi had disappeared from the public eye. And he'd lost track of the elementary school detective shortly before Shinichi transferred into Ekoda High.

Kaito circled that thought for a moment, examining it from all angles. If the two people involved hadn't been a young child and a teenager, he might have thought that the former was the latter in disguise. But while he had gone out of his way to prove that an adult could masquarade as a child in a pinch, that had been under very specific circumstances. It was a temporary illusion only achievable under controlled conditions. It wasn't actually possible for an adult to wander around as a little kid. Good acting and cosmetics could only do so much.

Even so, it was still quite the monumental coincidence.

It seemed like it should all mean something. Yet the only conclusions he could come up with were impossible. He had to be missing something.

He could ask Shinichi directly, but he doubted he'd get an answer. The boy was rather touchy about his two years away even now. And that was strange too, wasn't it? In his experience, detectives had a hard time keeping their mouths shut, especially if a case of some kind was involved. They all seemed to have been born with an irrepressible urge to explain.

Well, Kaito had his own ways of finding things out. He might not be a detective, but he was most definitely an information hog.

Sitting up, he hopped off the bed and headed for the door, intent on getting himself a drink of water and possibly a midnight snack. He paused by the open door of the study room where a large, open space in the corner marked the place where the monstrous desk had been. Now that it was gone, he could almost miss its hideous presence.

Almost, but not quite. Though he supposed it was a reminder of how change, even good change, could be unsettling. Hmm, he should probably take down the camera he'd set up to monitor the thing with shouldn't he? It was rather unnecessary now.

The only thing he truly lamented about the desk's migration to a new home was that he'd never gotten to see it walk. It was a shame, but you couldn't have everything.

X

"You know. If you think about it, it's kind of frightening."

Hakuba looked up from the magazine article he'd been reading. Beside him, Aoko had sat back in her seat, fingers idly tapping on the mouse as she gazed at the computer monitor glowing before her. The hum of the machine was clear in the silence that pervaded the library. Brown eyes shifted automatically to the open internet browser that the girl had been reading. He skimmed over the contents. It appeared to be a news article covering the sinking of a luxury cruise liner.

"It is certainly rather tragic when such disasters come out of careless mistakes," he agreed. Tragic, but not what he would have termed frightening.

Aoko blinked, attention snapping back to the present. "What? Oh, no, I wasn't talking about the article. I was just thinking about, well, all this." She waved a hand at the computer. "The internet and stuff. It really does make it so that people can create entire new identities. I mean, Dad's always warned me about not believing everything you see online and not trusting anyone you meet over the web because of all those scammers and other cyber criminals out there, but I guess I never really thought about it. All these people—if you can even call them that—could be completely made up, and we can't ever know what the real intentions of their creators are. It's kind of scary, you know?"

"It does open up a whole new world of crime we have to find a way to deal with," the blonde replied. "However, if you remember to be cautious then I feel that there is little need to be afraid. It is the people who are standing beside you who are truly dangerous."

Aoko nodded slowly. "I guess. Um, so… Did you find anything?"

"Unfortunately, no. Though there is a brief interview with Yagami in here, it is limited entirely to his methods and advice to others considering the life of a freelance writer."

"I can't find anything either," said Aoko. "He's written a lot of articles for different sites, and those are easy enough to find. But there's very little about him personally. I got the impression from some of the websites he writes for that Yagami Shintarou might be a penname, but there's no proof either way. His blog mentioned once that his mother was from America, but it only came up because he said his next series of articles would be about the different national parks in his mother's homeland. Apparently it was her dream to hike through them all with her husband and son."

The detective straightened in his seat, leaning forward slightly. "You said he has a blog?"

"An old one, but yeah."

"Can you show me the entry he mentioned his mother in?"

"Let me see if I can find it." The next few minutes were filled by the clatter of typing keys interspersed by the high, thin clicks of the mouse.

"I found it!" Aoko cheered before remembering where she was. She blushed and ducked her head, hand flying up to cover her mouth. A surreptitious look around revealed that no one was looking in their direction. She let out a breath of relief. "Um, anyway. It's this blog entry. Oh, it looks like it was actually the last entry he posted."

"And the date is from the end of last year," Hakuba observed, pointing to the aforementioned date. They both read the entry over again.

"It almost seems like maybe he was planning to actually go to America when he wrote this," said Hakuba. He copied down the entry and the blog's URL and opened another browser window to email the information to himself and Aoko.

"So you mean he's out of the country?"

"It is a possibility. Did any of his other articles have dates from this past year?"

"Uh, let me think… There were a few that might have been. I think there was one covering a Kaitou KID heist from about eight months ago. There was also one covering a car accident that turned out to be murder." As she talked, Aoko pulled up the articles in question. As she glanced down the list of related articles, her eyes locked onto one and refused to move on. She gasped.

"What is it?" Hakuba said, concern making his words come out sharper than he'd intended.

"It's…it's Chishima-kun."

"What?"

"It's from several years ago, obviously, but… He wrote an article covering the accident that Chishima Jinta was in." She clicked into the page and began to read. "It's definitely them. Do you think this means Sai's met this man?"

"I think perhaps the better question would be if this man is how Chishima-kun's personal affairs ended up in the ears of the Master of the cult. It would explain how the man knew so much about him the first time they spoke to each other."

"So it really is a trick then," Aoko murmured, more to herself than to her companion.

Hakuba arched one blond eyebrow. "You sound almost as though you are disappointed."

"What? No, of course not." The inspector's daughter blushed. Deep down though, she knew that wasn't entirely true. But why?

X

"You mean to say that the cult leader we have been searching for all this time is the very man who purchased Kuroba's antique desk?"

Shinichi nodded. "To be more precise, the buyer fit Sai's description. We'll need more proof before we can say for certain that he's the guy. He wouldn't let us take the desk to his house for him, which could mean something, but he wouldn't be the first person who didn't wat random strangers going to his home."

"And his name?"

"He called himself Ryuga Takashi."

"Well then, what was he like?"

"He was…" Shinichi hesitated. 'Different' was the first word that came to mind, but that wasn't a helpful description by any standards. "He was actually quite amicable. We didn't get to talk a great deal, but when we did talk, he seemed very forthcoming and willing to listen. He didn't share much about his personal life, but he had a lot of ideas and theories to share about other things."

The blond detective turned this over as he sipped at his tea. He glanced at the clock on the café wall out of the corner of his eye. Aoko had had to stay after school because she was on cleanup duty. If his calculations were correct, she should be joining them in less than ten minutes. Realizing that he was letting his thoughts wander, he took another gulp of tea and fought down the twinge of embarrassment.

His tablemate didn't appear to have noticed his momentary distraction however. Shinichi's sapphire blue eyes were fixed on the depths of his coffee as they often were when he was deep in thought. The chair next to him was surprisingly empty. Hakuba didn't know why Kuroba hadn't joined them today, but he had decided just to be grateful for the reprieve.

"So is there any chance that you will be able to arrange another meeting with the man?" he asked.

"I doubt it. As far as I am aware, we don't have any more weird antiques he might want to buy—or at least Kaito hasn't mentioned any. And there really iasn't a good reason for Taoki to show up at the home of the man who bought his grandfather's desk."

"…I assume you are referring to Kuroba's disguise for your joint venture into the world of antiques."

Shinichi nodded absently. "I wonder if we should have tried creating characters that had a chance of being invited into their group."

"If this man does as much research into potential recruits as I suspect he does then I doubt that that would have made a difference."

Shinichi's gaze focused back on his fellow detective's face. "You mentioned that earlier. It would make sense, but then how would you explain his choices? Or have you changed your mind about this being some kind of scam?"

"We have very little conclusive evidence upon which to build solid theories at the moment, but I still believe that this man must want something from those he chooses to induct into his group. No one goes to such extremes for no reason. There is also still no signs as to how he came by his considerable wealth. When we find the connection between these two points, that is when we will have him."

"Assuming they really are connected," Shinichi muttered under his breath.

"Are we going to continue focusing our efforts on locating and getting to know the property owners now that we've found our suspect?"

"I was planning to do so, yes. I still believe it will help us understand the kind of person—or people—we're dealing with. I don't want to jump to conclusions."

Hakuba's lips quirked into a smile. "It is wise not to jump to conclusions."

Shinichi turned to a fresh page in his notebook and wrote Ryuga Takashi across the top accompanied by a small question mark. Down the side, he wrote the names of the five property owners. "So, so far, we've met Banji-san and Kogane-san. Banji-san, from what I could tell, really respects the man. He was still comfortable with him though. Maybe because the man was also one of his clients. It seems like they may have known each other for quite some time. Next we have Kogane-san, who, thus far, has no connections to either of the previous two but who does show signs of possibly being a cult member because he talks about his deceased mother in the present tense. He loves models, and over all seems to be very reclusive, but he spends some time hanging out with friends he didn't want to tell us about."

"Then there is Yagami Shintarou, a freelance writer whose career seems to have been built entirely online. He wrote about the Chishimas' tragedy, and so he may be one of the leader's sources. He hasn't updated his blog in over a year, but he has written a few articles on happenings in Japan since then despite the suggestion in his last blog entry that he would be headed for America. All the connections on his end are circumstantial—if you could even call it that much."

"So we still need to hear from Higuzashi. He hasn't called either Kaito or me yet, but we think we shouldn't send another email until we've given him at least two weeks to respond."

Hakuba grunted. He despised non-punctual people. At least he wasn't the one doing the waiting.

"And the police?" he asked. "You said you sat down with one of the sketch artists."

"We did. They got us this picture." Pulling a sheaf of white paper from his folder, Shinichi slid it across to Hakuba. "You can keep that one. I have another copy. This is what the sketch artist came up with from what we described. It's a pretty good likeness. Now they're going to see if anyone with either that face or name shows up in their databases. Although Satou-san said that they just got saddled with a pretty big case, so it may be a while before they get back to us."

"I see. Then I shall conduct my own investigation into this Ryuga Takashi. Somehow, I doubt that that is the man's real name."

Shinichi shrugged. "It might not be, or it might be. It's not really that important in the end. Names can only mask so much."

"Indeed." The British detective's teacup landed on the table with a click. "That reminds me, there is something I have been meaning to talk to you about for some time now."

Shinichi looked up at him strangely. "Is it about the case?"

"Not…exactly. Though it may not be entirely irrelevant."

"And?" Shinichi prompted.

"You said that both you and Kuroba wore disguises to meet the antiques dealer and his client."

"We did. It didn't make sense to go as ourselves. I don't think people buy antiques from teenagers."

"And I suppose it was Kuroba who designed your disguises."

"Only in part. We each came up with our own characters. He just helped us fit faces to the names and stories."

"Does it not seem…coincidental that Kuroba is so greatly skilled in these matters?

Shinichi shrugged. "He's a magician. It seems like it should all be part of his craft. Magic is really just deception elevated into an art form."

"But does it not seem strange for a mere teenager to exhibit such well-practiced skills of deception?"

Shinichi gave the other detective a wry smile. "I think, perhaps, that a bunch of teenagers who sit around dissecting crimes over coffee and tea may not have a lot of ground to stand on from which to point fingers in the strangeness department."

The blonde had to concede the point. "Even so, wouldn't you agree that—"

A cheery, melodic tune broke into the conversation. It took a split second for Shinichi to recognize the sound as the ringtone for the phone Kaito had given him.

"Excuse me," he said quickly, rising from his chair. "I need to get this."

Hakuba blinked after the other detective's retreating back. If he didn't know better, he would have thought that whoever was calling had timed said call just so it would cut him off. He shook away the thought.

Strange. He didn't remember Shinichi's phone being so peach.

"Saguru!"

He found himself smiling even as he turned to greet the newcomer. "Aoko."

X

Shifting to keep a hold of the small, furry bundle squirming under his arm, Kaito raised a hand to knock at the apartment door before him. He had tried the doorbell first, but it appeared to be broken.

"Come on little guy, stop struggling already," he told his captive, knocking again. The furry bundle barked back furiously, twisting its head around and trying to sink its teeth into his arm. He shifted his grip again. It was a good thing he had so much experience handling animals. He wasn't sure how much longer he could avoid getting nipped though. The dog, though small, was quite the unruly handful. Although he supposed he couldn't really blame it for its bad behavior, considering he was the one who'd kidnapped it from its home, carefully leaving behind signs that it had accidentally escaped on its own.

He allowed himself a silent breath of relief when the sound of hurrying footsteps reached his ears. The door was jerked open an instant later. The woman framed by the doorway gasped, relief writ clear on her face.

"Nisa!" she exclaimed, sweeping forward and gathering the dog into her own arms. "Mommy was so worried when she came home and you weren't here! It's dangerous to be outside by yourself. Don't ever do that to me again!"

Kaito scratched at the back of his head. "Uh, I was gonna ask if it was your dog, but I guess the answer's yes."

Now, finally, the woman looked at him. Her startled expression suggested that she hadn't even noticed he was there until he'd spoken.

"Oh, were you the one who found her? Where was she? Thank you so much for bringing her home! I don't know what I would've done if something had happened to her. " She shuddered and clutched the dog more firmly against her. Kaito observed that the dog wasn't any better behaved now that it was in the arms of its owner. Then again, this lady definitely looked like the sort who'd spoil her pets.

"It wasn't any trouble," he said. "I just saw her wandering 'round the park a few streets over. She didn't seem to be with anyone, so I just sorta picked her up and asked around to see if anyone knew where she lived."

"Nisa always did like running around that park," the woman laughed, scratching the little dog under the chin. "Oh, I'm just so relieved! I thought for sure I'd never see her again! I have to thank you. Do you like cookies? I was just baking some for my sister's birthday party."

Kaito grinned. "Cookies sound great. But you really don't have to thank me. I have pets of my own, and I know I'd hate to lose a single one of them."

"Really, I have to thank you. A few cookies are the least I can offer."

A few minutes later, Kaito was seated at the woman's kitchen table. The table itself was all but invisible beneath the trays upon trays of cookies that had been spread across it to cool. Some of the trays were half stacked on top of other trays—balanced on the edges to keep them from squashing the cookies beneath them—because there just wasn't enough space. The entire kitchen smelled divine. Kaito had to admit that his mouth was watering. He didn't pick one up until the woman herself took a cookie and began munching.

"I guess I should put more chocolate chips next time," she muttered as she did so.

Without warning, Nisa leapt from the floor onto the table, heading straight for a cookie. Her attempt to sneak a bite was thwarted, however, as her owner caught her around the middle and lifted her up. "No, no, Nisa, you can't eat those. They're not good for you. Here. These are yours."

She set the dog back on the floor before placing yet another tray of smaller cookies in front of it. Nisa fell upon the offering, and the kitchen filled with the sound of rapid crunching.

"You baked dog cookies too?" Kaito asked in surprise.

"Nisa really loves them," the woman said by way of explanation, smiling fondly down at the dog who had already devoured half her portion of treats.

"Um, you might want to be careful though. She might be getting a little overweight."

The woman sighed. "I know. I'm trying to cut down on her food, but you know how they are. They always know just how to look up at you to make you feel guilty for not feeding them more. So now when I give her snacks, I give her smaller portions at mealtimes to compensate."

Kaito didn't think that sounded like a very effective plan, but he wasn't a dog expert, so he supposed he couldn't really give her advice.

"Go on, you can have as many cookies as you want," the woman continued, turning back to him and plucking another chocolate chip studded cookie from a tray for herself. "I bought a whole load of ingredients, so I'll be baking several more batches. So you don't have to worry about taking too many. You can give me suggestions too if you think they're not sweet enough or too sweet. I'm not the world's best cook, though I like to think I'm an enthusiastic one."

"Enthusiasm is a great virtue to have," he replied, laughing., "You'd be amazed just how many obstacles you can blow away with a little positive thinking."

"I know! So how is it?"

Kaito munched through his first cookie in less time than it took the woman to ask her question. "It's good," he decided. "It could use more chocolate, and the baking time could be adjusted a bit too, I think, to make them less dry."

"I was thinking about doing a batch of peanut butter cookies, but I lost my recipe. I don't suppose you know any?"

"Nope. But my mom makes some extraordinary peanut butter cookies. I can ask her how she does it if you'd like. She's always interested in sharing tips and stories with other cooking enthusiasts."

"Really? Wow, that…that would be really great." The woman laughed. "You know, it must have been fate that you were the one who found Nisa for me. I've always wanted to find other people I could cook with, but I just never had the time."

"My mom goes to this meeting for amateur cooks once every other week where they just mix and experiment with things, learn from each other, show off—that kind of thing. If you're interested, I could give you the number for their event coordinator. I'm sure they'd love to get a new member."

"Would you? That would be really cool. Wow, this is—I don't know what to say. Here, have another cookie."

Kaito chuckled. "Can't go wrong with that one."

As the humans laughed, Nisa cocked her head to the side, wondering what all the commotion was about. At least it seemed the intruder wasn't actually an intruder because Mommy had invited him in and was giving him food. In Nisa's simple view of the world, that made the strange boy okay, even if he didn't know how to treat a lady such as herself.

"Sorry Misa-san, but I really have to get going," Kaito apologized, getting up out of his chair. "I had a lot of fun though. It was great meeting you, and I'll definitely recommend that my mom call you about those amateur cook meetings."

"You're welcome, and I would be ever so grateful. Here, take these with you."

"No, really, I couldn't—"

"They're for your mother then. A thank you for raising such a good and helpful son."

Kaito laughed. "Yeah, she'll probably think you met the wrong person."

"Nonsense. Anyway, be careful on your way home. It can be a little strange around here at night."

Kaito paused at the threshold. "Strange? Do you mean it's dangerous?"

Misa hesitated a moment before shaking her head. "We don't have that much crime, if that's what you mean. But…well, some of the neighbors can be a bit strange. Just two days ago, one of the men who lives upstairs left in a great hurry in the middle of the night. I wouldn't have noticed except that Nisa's barking woke me up. The guy didn't come back until almost morning the next day, and when he did he was talking to himself."

"Talking to himself?"

"Yes. He does it a lot, actually. Almost everytime I see him. Though the strangest part is that I think he thinks he's talking to his mother, but I've never seen the woman."

Score! He hadn't expected results so soon. "That is pretty strange."

"Isn't it? It's just weird little things like that. They're harmless for the most part, but I still think it's better to be careful. You never know when people like that will snap."

"Better safe than sorry."

She nodded. "Exactly. Well, take care then. Feel free to drop by any time. I'm sure Nisa would be happy to see you again."

If only she knew, the magician thief mused.

"Thanks, I will."

So, two nights ago… That would be the same day he, Shinichi, and Hakuba had visited Kogane.

His phone began to trill.

"Oh hey Shinichi. I was just about to call you. What's up?"

"I got a call from Higuzashi-san."

TBC

A.N: For anyone who's interested, the Ouran High School chapter of Travelers Chronicles is up now. ^_^

On an unrelated note, I only recently got to watch the sunflower movie, and I liked it quite a lot. I'm not sure why some people didn't. I do think it's one of those movies that are better the second time you watch it though, since then you know exactly what's going on and can pick apart the different layers of what's happening, etc. I liked how it was very clear that Kaito was three steps ahead of everyone else the whole time (he really got to show off, hehe), and it was interesting that he got involved at all because Jii asked him to. It was also kind of funny that his only miscalculation was that he thought Shinichi would pick up on things faster ^.^U Er, I could ramble on, but I'd probably better not. Anyhow, I hope you liked the chapter. See ya!