AN: Thanks to Snickerer and RandomImagination (despite computer issues) for invaluable betaing. Additional thanks to Ellen Brand and WrenTruesong for letting me write at them, and kdm1412 for helping give momentum to finish this chapter.

A Woman, Woman

But to what purpose
Disturbing the dust on a bowl of rose-leaves
I do not know. Other echoes
Inhabit the garden. Shall we follow?
~Burnt Norton (I.15-17)

By the time the evening wound to a close, Shinji and Touichi had managed some level of reconciliation with Hanako, the twins had erupted into no fewer than three arguments over color, and Saguru had another headache to go with his mediocre sense of accomplishment. He had, however, weathered the spikes of sense-imagery that accompanied the arguments without hopelessly overloading, and Koizumi had been satisfied enough with the evening's outcome to return his sunglasses with a smile.

"If you think you can handle it," she said, "leave them off for a while in the morning. Shinji-kun is spending the night at Kaito-kun's and Conan and the other teenagers are camping with the Takagis, so you'll only have three adults to contend with."

Saguru let the interesting tidbit slide in favor of the immediate matter of concern. "And the more time I spend around tolerable input, the faster I'll acclimate."

"Within reason, yes. I trust you can judge that for yourself." She raised an eyebrow at him, but it didn't have the same impact on him from safely within the blissful silence of the bronze chain-loop.

Saguru smiled. "Of course."

Once the house cleared out, Kudou set them up with a pair of futons in the den and donated two pairs of sweats and two t-shirts (Instant Human, Just Add Coffee and I Think, Therefore I am Dangerous) to substitute for pajamas. Saguru made a mental note to take advantage of the downtime and launder their poor, miniscule, abused wardrobes. Kaito had had other things on his mind lately, but hygiene could only be stretched so far.

As they settled in for the night, Kaito asked how the session with Koizumi had gone. However, since Kaito seemed to be half-lost in other thoughts and also under the influence of a dose of Solomon's tea, Saguru simply answered: "A step in the right direction."

"Good." Kaito flopped onto his pillow, head turned to the side to make important considerations like speech and breathing easier. "'S good. Hate for you to be stuck having trouble…"

His voice trailed off into a snore. Saguru simply shook his head and followed him into sleep.

In the morning, he took Koizumi's advice and kept the glasses in the breast pocket of his shirt. There were really only two people to deal with, since Kuroba was still sleeping like the dead by the time Mouri finished preparing breakfast. (Even if she was technically a Kudou now, it was easier to think of all of them by the same names as their counterparts.) The meal passed in much the same way as dinner had the night before, though this time the range of topics for comparison extended far beyond their immediate families.

Kudou and Mouri were pleasant, low-key company, barely even needing a background mental-hum of music to keep the extra input tolerable. As a result, the sudden entrance of five teenagers into the house was jarring, but not completely overwhelming. This was good, because suddenly he was in the middle of a whirlwind of introductions, Kudou providing a nutshell background on his behalf with a mention of Kaito, still asleep upstairs. Genta, Ayumi, and Conan crowded around him with enthusiastic interest {inquisitive puppy, wet nose under shirt collar} while Mitsuhiko and Ai helped the adults clean up the dishes.

"Have you been many other places?"

"How does it work?"

"Why can Kai-kun do stuff like that?"

The barrage of questions came too quickly to differentiate between speakers, let alone comfortably sort out a reasonable order to answer them in while trying to stay not-overwhelmed by the associated sense-images. To say nothing of also trying to simultaneously formulate any sort of coherent answer. Summoning memory of another chess game helped with the former, but for the latter...

"Ahh, a few other places, not too terribly different from here..." Saguru hesitated, trying to figure out what was safe to tell without making it obvious he was still leaving things out, especially with this disconcertingly enthusiastic—and detective-trained—group. The teens were already leaning closer in expectant interest. "Kuroba-kun has some magical ability not entirely unlike Koizumi-san's, though I'm really not qualified to go into detail, but it's something he was born with and more recently learned to consciously manipulate."

"What kind of stuff was different about the places you went, then?"

"Have you ever been to a place where you and Saguru-ojisan stole stuff rather than chased criminals?

"Or where Kaito-ojisan did the chasing—or didn't do card tricks?"

"...Well..." Saguru hedged, only to be inundated by more questions when he took too long to answer.

"How do you get from one place to another? What do you have to do to make that work? Is it something you can learn?"

"What does it feel like?"

"What did you think about it, the first time you went to a different world?"

Saguru froze. Different world—but—no, wait. Of course the teens wouldn't realize that there could be different terms for talking about paranormal types of travel. Not when he and Kaito had been so careful to only mention the parallel dimensions their presence made obvious, avoiding any hint at the other myriad worlds that existed within each of those dimensions—much less the Heartless that dominated the memories of his first experiences with either kind of travel—

{Cold-dark-hungry, writhing, prowling, merciless gravity pulling and behind that sentience enough to want to eat-eat-eat the tasty thing, reaching to DEVOUR}

—closing in, can't run, can't fight, pain, tugging and tearing and twisting at things never ever meant to separate while a person is still whole—

THUMP.

The world went dark with an abrupt, ringing silence and dull impact about his head and shoulders, the shock knocking Saguru out of the flashbacks. His breathing restarted with an involuntary gasp, and he blinked at the sudden blurry distortion in his vision.

…It wasn't that his vision was blurry, there were bars across—a round pane of glass that Ayumi was peering at him through in concern?

"Steven-kun?"

"I'm all right," he assured her, brushing aside the memories and their implications for consideration much, much later, and brought up a gloved hand to explore the odd surface of his unexpected… was this a diving helmet?

Bewildered, he started to lift it off, only to stop short as it was immediately pushed none-too-gently back down.

"Really, Steven-kun." —Oh, no, that was Koizumi's voice, oddly echoing and muffled through the rounded metal—"I thought we discussed this. I said to practice, not blithely fling yourself into the deep end at the earliest opportunity."

"What did you do that for, Akako-neesan?" Genta demanded.

"To spare our new young friend unnecessary distress, and to make a point that may perhaps sink in this time."

Saguru folded his arms in what was most certainly not a sulk. "I assure you it was not intended that way. I was caught off guard and didn't want to appear rude."

"Because possibly going catatonic on someone without warning rather than doing something to avoid it isn't rude at all." The version of Koizumi that he knew had never managed to sound quite that dry.

He was annoyed, not sulking. Definitely. "I was not aware that that was a possible consequence of a simple introductory conversation."

"Of course you weren't." But her tone was closer to irritated acceptance than biting sarcasm.

"Wait," Ayumi broke in, sounding mildly alarmed, "what do you mean, 'going catatonic without warning'?"

"Well, not now that he's got this on him, he won't," Koizumi answered in what was probably supposed to be a reassuring manner.

"You mean he's got photosensitive or agoraphobic triggers?" Saguru could see Conan eyeing him inquisitively through the barred glass faceplate.

"Close. He does have a hypersensitivity, so when he's not wearing his protective gear—which he wasn't—he's vulnerable to sensory overload. We're trying to improve his tolerance, but…" She trailed off, and he almost imagined he could hear her shrug.

Saguru sighed. "I did manage this morning without incident."

"Right up until you didn't," she replied with perfect equanimity, and he decided that it might be in his best interest to not argue further.

"What kind of hypersensitivity?" Genta sidled into view to join Ayumi and Conan's scrutinising committee.

Saguru eyed them right back, as much as the ridiculous helmet would allow, and concluded he didn't have any dignity left to lose. "…Emotive. You all feel very… brightly." In the pause that followed, he twisted to bring Koizumi into view. "I promise that I have learned my lesson and will be more prepared to use my safeguards. Now, may I, in your infinite wisdom, be trusted to have my peripheral vision back?"

He pulled his glasses out of their pocket and case, displaying their readiness to hand.

Koizumi tapped a forefinger against her lip, making a show of considering it. "You may, for now. But I think I will be hanging onto this for the duration of your visit. Just in case."

With that cheerful declaration, she did finally pull what did indeed prove to be an antique bronze diving helmet off his head, letting him get a breath of fresh air that made him disinclined to complain. Even if she did then tuck the thing back under her arm in a pose that suggested she was entirely prepared to keep it there indefinitely.

He managed to repress a wince at the sudden return of {concerned puppy noses at ear} along with proper sound and light and hastily slipped the glasses back onto his head, breathing a little easier as the sensation returned to manageable levels.

"Your thoughtfulness is too kind." He moved to carefully smooth his hair back into a semblance of order, trying to ignore the curious gaze of the other teenagers, but had barely begun when Kaito's voice came from the doorway.

"Wow, what'd I miss?"

From behind the couch, out of sight, Saguru heard Akiko pipe up, "Mommy put Steven-nii in a time out!"

Saguru very carefully did not swear, and instead dropped his face in his hands as Kaito tried and mostly failed to restrain himself from snickering, the other three teens joining in. "My day is now complete."

Of course, the day had barely begun. By the time the others arrived, Saguru and Kaito had managed to tap-dance through a satisfactory explanation of their respective magic with a few tidbits about places they'd been without edging too close to all the things they couldn't mention without inviting a host of questions they really didn't want to deal with—and then watched it be re-summarized for Mitsuhiko and Ai when they rejoined the conversation. Mitsuhiko listened with the same sort of enthusiasm the other three had displayed, while Ai gave Saguru and Kaito a considering look, head cocked to one side.

"Do you know versions of all of us, then, where you call home?"

Kaito paused a moment, and something sparked in Saguru's memory. Something his de-aged counterpart had said and that Kuroba had tacitly confirmed: the implication that more than once, the drug's inventor had ended up at its mercy right along with Kudou-Conan.

Red-brown hair. A demeanor that was merely uncommon at this age, but would have been startlingly mature in an eerily familiar way ten years previously. As well as the simple fact of her presence within this select little group.

Sherry.

...Well. Shiho.

As Saguru was still processing the realization—that this girl was ex-Syndicate, even if one who had been born to it and eventually fled—Kaito answered, "Yeah, I've met all five of you a few times."

Something flickered in Ai's expression, though not something that Saguru could read, before she nodded slowly. "Your world isn't very different from ours, then, in terms of history."

Kaito shrugged slightly. "I guess not, but it's hard to say for sure."

The conversation might have gone further, but the adults had finally organized themselves and the gang of offspring and were ready to send them off to the park for the requisite few hours. Genta was apparently staying behind to assist on the culinary side of things, and Ai had similarly arranged to help decorate since Kaito and Saguru were more than enough to substitute for her presence in the park. Mitsuhiko had looked inclined to stay as well until she squeezed his hand with an indulgent smile and told him to go play soccer with the other boys, at which point he allowed himself to be dragged away by Touichi and Shinji.

Beika Park was only a short distance from the Kudou house, a pleasant walk in the mid-morning sunshine. There was just enough breeze to justify wearing a coat, though, and Saguru took advantage of that to keep his collapsed staff in easy reach. The muted concern among the adults, especially the Kudous and Kurobas, had been too pervasive to ignore.

Kaito seemed to have picked up on it, too, going by the faint bulge of the card gun at the back of his waistband. The justified caution still didn't stop Kaito from joining the soccer game with the other boys and Hanako, though, while Saguru agreed to push the twins on the playground swings with Ayumi.

Ayumi was good company and quickly deduced that Saguru had experience with younger kids, which led to the topic of Aidan. Over an hour passed as they swapped stories of the trouble young charges could get in to, as well as the trouble they'd gotten into themselves when they were that age. During his researches into Conan's full history in his spare time between the detective competition and Kaito's return home, Saguru had mostly found records of cases that Conan had solved in Hattori's company. To hear a firsthand account of some of the other various trips-turned-murder-scenes and treasure hunts was nothing short of fascinating.

"You truly stumbled across a drug-smuggling operation in a children's area of a public library?"

Ayumi laughed. "We did. And Conan-kun got us home safely, like always. We got better at that sort of thing after Shinichi-niichan came home and apprenticed us."

"I would imagine. Kudou-san wouldn't want his brother's friends to need protecting."

"Not on your life. Ran-neechan and Kazuha-neechan taught me—"

Whatever Ayumi had been going to say, the words were forever lost in the wind as a black, unmarked van suddenly screeched to a halt right next to the grass where all the soccer players had finally collapsed in happy exhaustion, and nearly half a dozen men with masks and tranquilizer rifles piled out.

"Kaito!" The warning was unnecessary—Kaito and the other teens were already rising as he sprinted across the grass, wrenching the staff out of his coat pocket along the way as he cursed the distance. Conan stopped one goon short with a soccer ball to the diaphragm, Mitsuhiko grabbed the three kids to run, and Kaito was firing the card gun with one hand and reaching towards the cardcase on his hip with the other when the first round of tranqs fired.

Conan and Kaito crumpled.

Forty feet.

Saguru barely heard the scream echoing in his ears, barely noticed the whine of a dart buzzing over his shoulder as Mitsuhiko fell too, followed by Touichi.

Thirty feet.

Two goons had Kaito and Conan.

Twenty feet.

Two had reached Mitsuhiko and Touichi, one already starting to bend, the other halting in mid-motion on glimpsing Saguru. That one turned and fired a dart that merely grazed Saguru's cheek without breaking skin, judging by the sudden muted sting but total lack of diminished adrenaline-rage.'

Ten feet. Five feet. Swing.

The goon who had shot at him went over like a felled tree. Saguru slammed the butt of the staff down once to make sure the bastard stayed put, heedless of the faint crunch that was likely cracking ribs, and raced after the one sprinting toward the van with Touichi.

Even running flat-out again, he wasn't fast enough to make up the lead. The goon rushed past his fellow sniper into the van, and Saguru attacked his only remaining target just as the third shot at taking him down struck home. Momentum brought his staff strike around anyway, and the thug crumpled to the sidewalk just in time to catch Saguru's weight as he fell forward, vision swimming. The van squealing back into traffic was the last thing he heard before everything went dark.

"-ven-kun?"

Saguru lunged upward on instinct as the world faded back in, and only the fact that Ayumi was already standing two feet away from the bed kept her from being caught in a grapple.

"Wh-Ayumi-san? What happened?"

Ayumi smiled bravely at him, lips trembling only a little. "I called Shinichi-niisan and the others. They brought everyone back to Shinichi-niisan and Agasa-jiichan's houses, until they can track Vermouth down."

Saguru's heart sank. "They got away. You're sure it's her?"

"Well… They think it's her. And they'll find out one way or another, because the two men you hit didn't get away."

"Mmm." Poor consolation for the fact that Kaito was likely in the hands of his living worst nightmare. "Did they give them to the police, or are we trying to handle things ourselves?"

He'd spent too much time around Kaito. Civilian vigilantism actually sounded like the better idea.

"Ourselves. The police would take too long, and Shinichi-niisan is pretty sure that Vermouth doesn't officially exist as anyone, anymore. "

Saguru nodded, taking in the much more open architecture of his surroundings for the first time. "This is Agasa-hakase's house, then?"

"Mmhmm. It's just as safe here, and we're not underfoot until they get answers."

"How long has it been?"

"A little over half an hour. I should go tell Shinichi-niisan—it'll help narrow down the radius, since she's probably based somewhere close enough for one of their tranquilizer doses to last the whole travel time."

"I'll go with you." Saguru swung his legs of the bed and stood, swaying only a little even before Ayumi caught him by the arm.

"Careful! Are you sure?"

He nodded firmly. "I want to know if they're close yet, and to make it clear that I'm not to be left behind when they succeed."

Ayumi eyed him critically. "You might manage it. Shinichi-niisan's really overprotective of us, but you're different…"

"I'm going—even if I have to ziptie myself to someone to make it happen."

She giggled, tone only slightly strained from stress and worry. "I believe you."

When they went next door Hakuba seemed to believe him, too, which was good because Saguru had the necessary ziptie in his bag.

Hakuba squeezed Saguru's shoulder. "Kai-kun will probably need someone familiar, anyway, and you're the only one who really qualifies."

Saguru just nodded. The urge to hurt Kaito's kidnappers aside, Kaito did not need his sanity and peace of mind stretched any thinner than it already was. Saguru wasn't entirely certain what he could do on that front—hurting and catching perpetrators was so much more straightforward—but at least he could be there, just in case.

"Stay here until we know more, then. We'll be moving quickly when we do. Ayumi-chan, if you could go back and help Ai-kun and Genta-kun with the children…"

Ayumi sighed, and gave Hakuba a resigned smile. "I know, I know… Our parents would kill you if anything happened to us, and you know ahead of time that this will be a little bit dangerous. I'll make sure the girls don't give Agasa-ojiisan any grief."

"Thank you." When she had gone, Hakuba said, "I'll be going upstairs. It would be best if you stayed on the first floor, but make yourself at home."

"Of course." Saguru watched him go, then went to find his and Kaito's bags.

He didn't have to know. He didn't want to know what Kuroba and Kudou might do for the sake of family, or what Hakuba or Koizumi would do for friends as near as. He was rather afraid it might be as far as he would go for Aidan, and… he'd never entirely admitted to himself how far he would go for that, because it was very far indeed. Almost as disturbing was the quiet realization that the distance he would go for Kaito—and for Aoko, and not only because if something happened to her then surely Kaito would break in equally unpleasant ways—was rapidly gaining ground on Aidan.

…He did the laundry. Kaito would want to come home to clean clothes.

A shout from upstairs startled Saguru out of the meditative blankness he'd managed to fall into, waiting for the dryer cycle to finish, and Kuroba and Kudou raced out the door towards Agasa's, presumably with news for their wives. Hattori clomped downstairs only a shade slower and headed for the living room, from where Saguru soon heard what sounded rather a lot like a hidden safe being opened and systematically emptied. Hakuba appeared a few moments later, Koizumi leaning on his arm as they descended, and the older man mustered up a smile.

"Five minutes, Steven-kun. Are you ready?"

"As I'll ever be." He hadn't let his staff and coat out of arm's reach since he woke up. All he needed was his shoes, and those were by the door. "Where are they?"

"Old office building, just under thirty minutes drive northwest of here."

Hattori re-entered, carrying two wooden katanas and three long drawstring bags. "Got our stuff. You hangin' in there, Akako-san?"

Koizumi smiled, despite the new dark circles under her eyes. "I'll manage, thank you."

Saguru's eyes narrowed. "Wait… is it just your energy that's been drained, to find them?"

She nodded carefully. "Not enough to keep me home, of course."

"Yes, but—wait just a moment." Saguru scrambled back to their bags and rooted through the pockets, shoving aside spare clothes and toiletries and the small padded tin of the precious apotoxin sample he'd wheedled from the rescued Kudou while Kaito'd been preoccupied. Saguru quickly found one of the vials of green liquid—elixirs, Riku had called them, what felt like an age ago. Kaito normally relied on his own energy, since recovery time would restore that energy eventually; they saved the vials Riku had gifted them in case of dire need, but surely getting Kaito back counted.

"Please—take this, if you would," he offered as he returned, holding it out to her. "It's a bit of magic we picked up from elsewhere. It will help… I don't even know if you'll need all of it."

"Oh?" Koizumi took it and carefully removed the cork, delicately sniffing the contents with a sense of professional curiosity.

"Kuroba-kun didn't think much of the taste, but it helped him keep going once, when it was important. If it will help get him back safely, and keep everyone else safe in the process, I'd like you to use this one."

She studied the liquid for another long moment, during which Saguru mentally admitted that the unnatural green was a bit off-putting if you didn't already know it could and did work, but then she tossed her head back and downed half the small bottle in one gulp. The only acknowledgment of the taste she made was a slight pursing of her lips as she replaced the cork, and then she suddenly straightened and took a deep, satisfied breath.

"Oh… that is lovely…" She smiled at him. "Kai-kun was spot on about the taste, but it works quite well. Might I keep the rest?"

"Please do, especially considering where we're going."

She nodded and pocketed it as Kudou and Kuroba returned with Mouri, Touyama, and Aoko, the last of whom was carrying what looked like the pole of a pushbroom with the brush head screwed off.

Hattori grinned approval at it. "Good, you found one. Kudou, here." He handed over one of the bags he and Saguru now both carried. Kudou opened it and pulled out a rifle and a belt with a full complement of darts as ammo. Licensure at least made the rifles more legal than if Kudou owned three handguns, and even if possessing the requisite drugs for the darts and intending to use them on humans was rather more dubious territory, it was still preferable to any of the potential alternatives.

Satisfied with the equipment check, Kudou replaced both items and surveyed those gathered. "Right. Let's go."

Three cars (Kudou's Infiniti, Hakuba's Lexus, and Agasa's Beetle) made for something more like a procession than a stealth operation, but quick, private transportation was crucial. On the way, Aoko informed him his job was to stay with her and make sure no one that the others took down would get back up before the police arrived. The rest of the ride was quiet. There was nothing more to be said.

Even once they arrived at the unassuming-looking office building, the whole group was almost eerily quiet—equipment was readied without a word, including gloves and a large handful of zipties per person. Then a faint crackle of electricity from Koizumi shorted out what cameras Saguru could see, and quite possibly more that he couldn't. Hattori, Mouri, and Touyama immediately spread to cover the building's exits with a brief exchange of hand signals and nods, before Kuroba and Kudou led the rest of them to the main entrance. After the briefest of pauses, they burst inside, and then the adrenaline took over.

The lobby was empty except for a few fritzing cameras, though it didn't stay that way for long. Two men, similar to those that had been at the park, burst out of the stairwell with guns drawn. Kudou and Kuroba had some of the best reflexes Saguru had ever seen, however, and both men dropped before they could even pull a trigger—fortunate, as the group quickly confirmed that, unlike before, these opponents carried fully functioning illegal handguns.

Saguru and Aoko swiftly bound the men together while Hakuba stowed the safetied guns well outside of reach on the off-chance they would wake up. The other three checked the stairwell, and Saguru didn't pay much attention until a FOOM accompanied by a wave of faint heat reached them. His head snapped up to see a faint smoke trail drifting toward the ground in more light than had been present earlier, and heard a shout of combined surprise and utter terror from somewhere above. The light hadn't even faded before Kudou and Kuroba rushed forward in the wake of… what had quite possibly been a fireball. Saguru made a mental note to never truly annoy the Koizumi back home in case she knew or eventually figured out how to do the same. Then they were on the next floor, hallways and rooms and more hired thugs occasionally punctuating the out-of-date decor.

In the absence of a clear line of sight ahead, Saguru concentrated on not tripping over the downed goons and making sure they were all effectively restrained. There was a protective, desperate viciousness in the air as they cleared floor after near-identical floor without finding their quarry.

The floors were nearly starting to blur when they burst out of the stairwell again and Saguru abruptly heard Kaito, voice hoarse, cursing Sharon Vineyard out in approximately three languages at the top of his lungs. Another wave of heat swept in front of them, and Saguru gritted his teeth and forced himself to follow behind as they first cleared the floor of immediate danger before Kudou wrenched the most likely door open.

The litany of curses cut off abruptly, and Saguru pocketed his staff and shoved forward into the room. "Kuroba-kun!"

He stopped short, just for a moment, at the sight of Kaito strapped thoroughly into a medical exam room chair, barefoot and with mittens duct-taped over his hands.

Then Kaito ventured, "Hakuba-kun?" in a far too plaintive tone, and Saguru darted forward with a muted snarl to tear off the offending bonds as soon as he managed to remove his own gloves. He had his sunglasses, so it shouldn't matter much that Kaito was in short sleeves, and the tape wrapping straight onto bare wrist needed the use of fingernails.

"Yes. We're here. We're getting all of you back home, right now. Are you all right?"

Once freed of the straps, the hand that Saguru didn't immediately start working free of the duct tape clamped onto Saguru's arm in an almost painful grip, even through the mitten. "Just… get me out. Vermouth?"

Saguru shook his head, ignoring the group behind him as Hakuba sent the others off to continue searching the floor. "Still looking, but they'll get her."

"...They'd better." Kaito didn't seem too inclined to preserve what was left of his voice, because he continued, raggedly, "She'll just do it again. Maybe even get more the next time, steal as many as she can to make into her agents—her little puppets with the faces of those she was never supposed to possess. And it'll be okay if it takes her another ten years to break 'em into that because that's half the fun, watching all the fight bleed out a day and week and month at a time until when she says jump they just ask how high—"

"Kuroba!"

Kaito's mouth clicked shut into a rictus of a smile, his breath hissing through his nose and tightly clenched teeth. Saguru squeezed the wrist he was still working to free and hurried to provide a distraction from what was obviously a reaction to a combination of the false memories and whatever Kaito had pieced together about the situation since waking.

"They'll find her," Saguru promised, and hoped he wouldn't be made into a liar. "What happened to your possessions?"

"…Took 'em. Vermouth wanted the gun; she hadn't expected me to have it, I swear she almost looked like she'd figured out who I had to be, no matter how impossible, just from it... said it was worth grabbing the puzzle after all." Kaito shuddered noticeably, but then after a moment's pause, continued, "The guy who searched me said his kid might like my Deck."

There was something in Kaito's tone that made Saguru pause. Losing the card gun, yes, he'd have expected that to hurt, but the Deck was still so new for its loss to evoke such a visceral response, unless...

"It left you alone in your head again." Kaito hadn't always sounded grateful to have the occasional mental conversation, but to have had it unexpectedly torn away from him like that... Saguru wished he carried his own Deck on him, rather than stored away in his bag. Though the cards were different, it might still have been better than nothing.

"…Except for the memories." Kaito kept his eyes on their hands, and Saguru was forcibly reminded that even before the nightmares started, Kaito hadn't seemed to like spending much time without an outside distraction, mental or physical, to focus on. The connection might have been useful in more ways than one, if it hadn't been yanked out of his reach.

Saguru bit back a growl and finally freed one hand of the blasted mittens, careful to not take a patch of skin with the last of the tape, and started on the other before Kaito could get the bright idea of trying to do it himself.

"Would you recognize his face?" he asked.

"Square jaw, short hair, thin musta—"

"I get the picture," Saguru interrupted, because a thorough description would only waste time and leave Kaito's voice even worse off. "We'll start on this floor, then. Do you need a drink? There's a drinking fountain just down the hall that should still work..."

Kaito's smile was slightly forced, but still better than it had been a moment ago. "Yeah."

"Right. Just a tick to finish this..." It took less than a minute to remove the tape completely, though it felt like much longer. Saguru quickly replaced his gloves—all other reasons aside, no one wanted to leave fingerprints here—and looked around. "Do you know what happened to your shoes?"

Kaito shrugged impatiently. "Took those, too."

"We'll get you new ones," Hakuba said. "She wouldn't have made something like that easy to find, and it'll be easier than searching the entire building."

"...We don't have funds for that," Saguru admitted reluctantly. The extra taxi to deal with the other Vermouth had eaten most of the slush money he'd brought, particularly when Saguru knew that Kaito's shoes were the most expensive article of clothing the magician owned. They were what let him run.

"I wasn't including the two of you in that 'we', Steven-kun," Hakuba answered with a hint of amusement.

"...Oh."

"Consider it partial recompense for getting you dragged into all of this in the first place."

Saguru hesitated, an automatic refusal of the charity dying before it passed his lips. Debt and obligation were not things to be taken lightly, but... this was his counterpart. Hakuba was close enough a reflection that he had to know that just as well, and so not make such an offer if he didn't mean it. And… it really had been a long day, for everyone. Perhaps it wouldn't hurt to simply accept.

"Thank you; we appreciate it." Saguru turned back and offered a hand to help Kaito stand. "All right to walk, then?"

To Saguru's faint surprise, Kaito actually took it and stepped down carefully from the chair. "Think the sedative left me light-headed. Never been good with meds."

"Mmm. ...Do you want to walk, or lean?" In the moment Kaito took to debate his options, he swayed a bit, and Saguru shook his head. "Never mind."

He carefully slipped an arm around Kaito's back, and was relieved when Kaito didn't protest the steadying brace but instead let Saguru take some of his weight.

Before they could start moving a faint buzz distracted him, and Saguru looked over to see Hakuba checking his mobile screen. After a moment, a very wolfish grin spread over the man's face. "Hattori says Ran-san caught Sharon going out an exit. She had Kai-kun's card gun on her, too."

Kaito sagged further, letting out a shaky breath of relief. "So it's safe. And..." It was barely a pale shadow of his normal grin, but it was still the closest Saguru had seen since the park. "She's not going to be able to pull anything like this again."

"Never," Hakuba confirmed. "Let's finish up in here and see for ourselves."

When Hakuba led the way out, Saguru realized that he'd been so focused on Kaito, he hadn't even registered the sounds of the successful discovery of Touichi and Conan—both of whom were now being hugged within an inch of their lives by their respective family. He exchanged a tired, pleased smile with Hakuba and Kaito, then guided Kaito to the drinking fountain. Once Kaito had inhaled enough water to challenge a dehydrated camel, they started a slow tour of the unconscious goons to find the missing Deck. Kaito was leaning perhaps a little heavier than might be strictly necessary for his current physical status, but at this point Saguru really couldn't care less.

"There. Him." Kaito was still hoarse, but less so, enough that Saguru dared to cautiously hope that Kaito would still have a voice tomorrow. They maneuvered over to the limp man and managed to kneel together without falling over, and Kaito unerringly retrieved the case from an inside coat pocket before cradling it to his chest, eyes drifting half-closed and lips twitching faintly in unrealized smiles and unspoken words. Saguru let him have the moment in silence.

When Kaito finally looked up again, a small handful of his far-too-many ragged edges seemed to have smoothed back into place. "Okay."

"Off we go, then."

The whole group headed downstairs together to the outside, where Hattori, Mouri and Touyama had Vermouth seated on the hood of Agasa's Beetle, thoroughly restrained and wearing a poker-face smile Kid might envy. Mouri was on the phone, a sweetly victorious smile on her face as she finished giving directions to the other party. After a few more pleasantries, she ended the call and pulled Conan into a tight hug, smiling at Kudou over Conan's shoulder.

"Jodie-san and Akai-san will be here in twenty minutes."

"They're still in Tokyo?" Saguru asked, surprised, though given the circumstances perhaps he shouldn't have been.

"Jodie-san was never at peace over Vermouth getting away, either," Kudou answered. "They're not active any longer, as far as I know, but they would have stayed in touch with Black-san. The FBI can take her and good riddance."

Saguru nodded. "And her lackeys?" The question was more out of a habit of being thorough than any true care to know.

"We'll send an anonymous tip to one of the Takagi-keibu after we're gone."

Still leaning slightly against Saguru, Kaito glanced back at the building. "…Did you get a good answer about what she was trying to do?"

Kudou smiled without much humor. "Getting a straight answer from Vermouth is slightly less likely than a personal appearance by Sherlock Holmes. As for the truth, though, I think your little rant earlier wasn't far off. She's… patient, and likes to go for the heart as much as the throat. After the kids were born we realized that when Conan turned seventeen, Shinji and Touichi would be six—and she's got the twisted sense of aesthetics to want to play with parallels."

"…Yeah," Kaito agreed quietly, "she does."

Kudou sighed and shook his head. "That's still speculation, though. We'll have to see if their computers have anything more concrete." He looked at Koizumi. "How did we do?"

Koizumi offered a catlike smile and patted several computer cases she'd apparently acquired during the trip through the building. "Anything portable is ours; anything not is currently so much melted slag."

Saguru decided he was better off not asking exacting how she'd managed that, particularly not when he thought he could feel the adrenaline crash looming. Instead, he acquired Hakuba's keys and made a wide berth around Vermouth—she'd been watching them intently since the previous exchange began, and he had a gut-clenching suspicion she probably knew more about the two of them than they would have ever wanted her to suspect, even without the chance of seeing her again.

He bundled Kaito into the backseat, ducked in the other side, and half-collapsed into his own seat in exhaustion.

"Let's not make a habit of this, yes?"

Kaito had already started listing sideways before Saguru had made it inside the car, and a few more moments of gravity at work saw to their shoulders meeting. Kaito relaxed slightly at the contact.

"I won't if you won't."

Saguru felt far too aware of the fact that Kaito's other associations between Saguru and Vermouth included his death at Kaito's hands and near-death at Kudou's, and he didn't move other than to reach up and lightly muss Kaito's already hopeless hair before leaning back to wait for their ride.

"Deal."

One hour and twenty-three minutes later, Vermouth's custody had been successfully transferred and the minor caravan made it back to Kudou's house. Another massive round of hugs ensued, somehow pulling Saguru and Kaito in as well, until someone remembered that none of the kidnapped trio had shoes and they all got bundled into the house to be fussed over in better comfort. Saguru was rather bemused to discover his apparent inclusion in the category of "those to be fussed over", which appeared to involve blankets, hot food courtesy of Genta having saved the birthday meal, and being engulfed in the pile of teenagers and kids confirming for themselves that Conan and Touichi were home safe.

Admittedly, it was a bit nice. Reminiscent of how Mum and Baaya had treated him when he'd had bad days in the past. ...Successful retrieval mission notwithstanding, this probably counted as one of those days. It couldn't hurt to let being the responsible one slide for just one night, particularly when he had started to excuse himself to check on the abandoned laundry only to be informed that it was already taken care of.

He let himself relax beside Kaito, vaguely aware of the way the other teen alternated between withdrawing quietly from the various conversations and slipping back into the center of attention with a lively story or magic trick. Saguru didn't quite lose track of time, but it was still a bit of a surprise to abruptly realize the adults were arranging a small sea of futons across the floor, and the younger children had fallen asleep where they sat.

Hakuba gently lifted Akiko from between Saguru and Mitsuhiko, and smiled at Saguru and Kaito. "We're only packing in like this for tonight, most likely, but Kudou and the rest of us would like you to stay longer than just through tomorrow—at the very least until you've recovered from today on top of everything else."

Saguru exchanged a glance with Kaito, who had a glint in his eyes that might have been mulish before the skin around the left eye abruptly twitched, and the expression melted into a mixture of resignation and gratitude. "Yeah, okay. I guess we could use it."

"Indubitably," Saguru murmured. He felt inclined to not move for at least a week, with a preference for Kaito being in view, if not arm's reach, for the duration. "And perhaps if anyone feels in the mood for tea…"

Kaito nodded, a bit grimly. "I need to refill the thermos anyway."

The statement might have worried Saguru with how quickly the tea container was approaching empty, but at this point he would happily douse Kaito in the stuff if it would keep Vermouth and the twisted reflection out of Kaito's dreams until there'd been enough time for actual processing of the past week or two to occur. Of course, at the rate things had been piling up, it felt like they would need a full month to even approach that point.

Hakuba nodded. "I think your recipe would be appreciated tonight all around, except for the young ones. I'll help you navigate the kitchen."

With tea summarily made and distributed, Saguru quickly prepared for bed and settled on his designated futon and tried to savor the drink for being, well, tea, rather than just a ward against nightmares. Kaito downed his own tea with a lot more speed than care—scorching his tongue in the process, but Saguru couldn't blame him for caring more about the effects than the delivery medium—and flumped down on the adjacent futon in a manner oddly reminiscent of the night before.

"Won't have to stay long," Kaito mumbled, yawning. "Get you back home to Aidan-kun soon. Day or two 'fore we go… deal with things."

"Of course," Saguru agreed easily, and didn't believe it for a moment. In theory, they could leave whenever they liked, but he would feel better about it if their counterparts agreed that their self-assessments of recovery were accurate. Especially with Kaito's tendency to push himself too early and too far.

In the end, Saguru was right. They stayed another seven days, thirteen hours and twenty-seven minutes, and they needed every second of that rest.

Thanks for your patience; please continue to read and comment!

Ocianne

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