Just a reminder: first names outside of dialogue refer to the protagonists, while surnames outside of dialogue refer to Kaito and Saguru's counterparts. Thanks to RandomImagination and Snickerer for betaing.

Long, Hard Road (Part 1)

...the mind is conscious but conscious of nothing
...
Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought:
So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing.
Whisper of running streams, and winter lightning.
~East Coker (III.22, 27-29)

Why is there a kink in my neck?

Kaito blinked, reorienting, before it flooded back: the portals, the theft, the Other Guys, and the soundtrack of distressed realization to which he'd lost consciousness.

"Kuroba-kun?" Saguru's voice simultaneously came from above him and hummed through his skull. After a moment, Kaito realized this was because his head and shoulders were half-tucked against Saguru's ribs, which also neatly explained the neck kink.

While he would trust Saguru at his back without a qualm, the detective made a terrible pillow. Kaito shifted to establish some personal space and checked that Saguru had his glasses and looked reasonably composed. Both, thankfully, were the case. "Sorry about that."

Saguru gave him a faint smile. "Somehow, I think I'll survive. Are you all right? It's been several hours."

"Yeah, I think so. I just pushed myself doing so much at once. I'm better now..." He did feel rested, far better than he could remember managing lately without the tea—Waitaminute. His eyes widened in sudden overwhelming realization. "I didn't dream. Not once."

Saguru at least had the sense to not ask if he was sure, though he appeared equally surprised. "Something's different, then."

Kaito nodded, glancing at the still, coat-shrouded shape beside the Inspector. Hakuba seemed to pick up on at least part of the question in his eyes, because he shook his head. "Hasn't moved an inch in the past five hours and twelve minutes. If I couldn't still see him breathing, I might have started to worry."

"Oh. I... don't think he's had much actual sleep for a while now."

Hakuba smiled in wry amusement. "So Saguru-san mentioned, earlier."

"Heh. I guess you guys did have plenty of time to talk," Kaito admitted, massaging the back of his neck. "I don't know, after the day we've had... the lack of nightmares could be from anything at this point. Maybe we should just see if it happens again." As little as he might look forward to the prospect of their return.

Saguru nodded. "Unless you're still feeling tired, it can wait. Inspector Hakuba's internal clock is past midnight, and now that there's three of us awake we can outnumber Kuroba-san in shifts."

Kaito tried to not feel jarred at Saguru's use of his name to refer to his counterpart. Even after recent events it was still hard to think of him like that. Carefully ignoring it, he scrubbed a hand across his eyes and stood. "Sounds good. Though I don't know about you two, but I could use some food first. Have you both been on guard here the whole time?"

"We did eat the last of what we packed with us," Saguru admitted, "but it didn't seem the best plan to leave only one of us here."

Kaito considered the situation and nodded. "Alright. I'll go see what there is out there that's actually edible."

The answer, it turned out, was 'not much.' The astonished noise he made after opening the clearly-long-neglected fridge prompted Saguru to call from the bedroom, voice carefully neutral, "Everything all right out there?"

"Fine," Kaito called back, still staring at the barren fridge interior. "Just—what has that guy been eating for the past few weeks?"

"You honestly think he's had much of an appetite?" Saguru asked. "Is there anything anywhere?"

Kaito checked what few cabinets there were. "Assuming you mean actual food—unless you count tofu you couldn't pay me to touch without bleach, half a bag of rice, and an open package of what's probably stale crackers, all he's got is half a dozen cans of juice and a few bottles of water." On a hunch, he took a quick look in the trash; there wasn't very much, mostly empty packaging from more crackers and biscuits, some cans, and what looked like cup ramen further down.

Saguru sighed. "I suppose you'd better go on a shopping trip, then, and we'll save the juice for when he wakes up."

Kaito heard Hakuba ask, "Is it safe for him to go out looking like that?"

Saguru's dryly amused answer was definitely pitched to carry. "Almost certainly not, but I doubt that he plans to."

Kaito grinned as he re-entered the bedroom. "I didn't, no." He rummaged up the miniature disguise kit he'd restocked thanks to supplies from the future-Kuroba of the prior world. Gel-flattened hair, thickened eyebrows, and slightly padded cheekbones later, he turned back around and grinned even wider at Inspector Hakuba's expression.

"You should see it when he's actually trying," Saguru commented with fond exasperation.

Kaito half-bowed acknowledgment. "I aim to please."

Saguru let out what was for him a spectacularly expressive snort. Kaito beamed and headed for the door, disregarding the Inspector's raised eyebrow at them both.

Luckily for Kaito's wallet, over their week in the previous reality every single couple had slipped him some cash under the excuse of an "early birthday present." While mildly discomfiting, knowing that Saguru's wallet had already been emptied and Kaito himself was running low had led him to not refuse it any longer than was polite. As a result, he could actually afford lunch boxes with plenty of funds left over.

A reassuringly incident-free shopping trip later, Kaito divvied up the food between the three of them and turned to Saguru. "So, what exactly did you cover while I was out?"

Saguru took the time to wolf several bites and put his thoughts in order. "Quite a lot. As much as I could recall of exactly what happened when we first arrived, for one." He nodded in the direction of Kaito's unconscious older counterpart. "Beyond that... what little else I could contribute about what we've learned of his life from the dreams. A bit more about our timeline, at least from my perspective, and some of the stories of our counterparts in the other timelines we've passed through. And of course a bit about our extras," he tapped the sunglasses pushed up on his head, "so that if events do become... more interesting than we might prefer, it won't come as a total surprise if, say, I have an unfortunate reaction to something, or you need to sic a dragon on someone."

"Sounds like quite a thorough briefing," Kaito managed to respond through the rather unique mental sensation of a dragon choking in indignant amusement.

"It seemed sensible," Saguru demurred. A moment later, he added, "Also, it gave us something to do besides counting the seconds."

Kaito gave Saguru a considering look. "You actually do that, don't you."

"Only at the outermost reaches of utter boredom, when even logic puzzles have been exhausted," Hakuba said.

"Also, it tends more toward mental arithmetic than simple counting—"

"Stop!" Kaito clapped his hands over his ears. "Spare me! I'm sorry I asked!"

Both of them chuckled at him in slightly disconcerting harmony before Saguru continued, "We were also comparing our own personal histories before you woke up and while you were gone." He nodded at Hakuba. "Apparently, when he was young, he idolized Lestrade rather than Holmes."

"And while I'm sure it enlivened matters, I think I may be grateful that my own high school experience did not involve nearly as many confetti smoke-bombs," the Inspector added in a mild tone.

"You don't know what you were missing," Kaito started with an automatic grin, which fell flat as his brain caught up with his mouth. He swore under his breath.

Hakuba favored him with a grim smile. "I've been well informed."

"And there are more important things to consider at the moment than what might have been," Saguru said, deftly redirecting the conversation. "For one, how likely is Vermouth to come looking, given that Kuroba-san seems to have been neglecting basic self-care, let alone outside communications?"

Kaito glanced over at the futon. "It's... hard to say. It's really hard to say. Everything about him that I know for certain is from, well, before the evening we nabbed the Inspector from." He nodded at Hakuba. "I can surmise what happened after that from what this place looks like and how he was reacting earlier, but... really, nothing like this has happened before. I'll probably just have to ask him about it after he wakes up. He did seem to be considering the possibility of uninvited Syndicate visitors earlier, but given how he was debatably lucid at the time, I can't tell how much stock we should put in that either."

Frowning in thought, Kaito absently folded an empty wrapper through a series of geometrical shapes. "Given how high-profile your disappearance would have been, it would have been reasonable for him to be ordered to stay low for a while. But for how long, I don't know. I somehow doubt he's been paying attention to any messages or orders he has been sent, if there even were any; certainly not for the last few days."

"...So there could be a retrieval team headed here at this moment."

"...Yeah," Kaito sighed, flopping back against the wall. "And to make things even better, Vermouth loves to confound expectations, so that it's never completely certain which way she'll really jump. I should—"

"Kuroba-kun," Saguru interrupted, paling, "I didn't think, not until just now, but—would she be the sort to bug a supposed haven of independence?"

Kaito's blood ran cold at a sudden flash of dream-memory, a well-worn deja vu: any dawning hope and triumph at successful escape always being ended by the sudden appearance of that smile. They hadn't thought, hadn't checked; what if she was listening and laughing and noting down every detail, every implication they hadn't thought to guard against revealing? What if she'd only been waiting until they finally got smart enough to realize and now she would be on the move—

:I suppose,: Lupin's genteel purr interrupted Kaito's thoughts before he could work into full panic, :that now would be an appropriate time to mention thatthere is no need for concern about such a possibility.:

Kaito froze. You're sure? You're absolutely positive she hasn't been listening?

:You doubt me?: Lupin somehow managed a perfect balance between gracious understanding and mild offense.

No, I... Thanks. The dream-memory smile of hers flashed again. Does she have other ways to track him? He couldn't recall any, but the scraps of shared memories he retained had more holes in them than a task force perimeter.

There was a moment's silence. :Nothing that would not be best explained by his own words.:

Kaito decided it wasn't worth pressing why Lupin didn't want to explain what was clearly some form of yes, and tried to get himself to breathe evenly again instead. "No bugs. Lupin-san's sure of it, even if she is the type."

Saguru breathed an audible sigh of relief, while the Inspector looked thoughtful. "Lupin-san is one of the interdimensional beings like the dragon Hakuba-kun mentioned earlier, I take it?"

The description was close enough. "Got it in one. But even if she hasn't been listening in on us, there's still no guarantee that she or a team might not be on their way over anyway, just because of him. They're not the sort of people to let a significant asset get away with going AWOL for very long. I should be able to get at least the three of us out of here if there's an emergency before he wakes up, but I really hope I don't have to. Where would we go? And I don't want to leave him behind, but not leaving him would look more suspicious. Not to mention that I don't think he'd react well to being moved without being asked, let alone being informed only after the fact."

Saguru sighed. "If it becomes necessary, we'll deal with the fallout as it comes. However, regardless of suspicion, if we do make an abrupt exit we should at least try to take his electronics with us." So saying, Saguru retrieved the laptop, phone, and carrying case that had been left haphazardly on the couch in the other room. "I'll cover item transport, Inspector Hakuba will carry Kuroba-san, and you can concentrate on getting us out."

"Right." Kaito eyed the laptop warily. "Of course, she'll have done hell-knows-what to both of those. I want to make sure there's no physical trackers even if we don't turn the things on right now." He paused for a moment, hand hovering above the case. "Though we are operating blind at the moment. Unless someone walks in on us, we won't know anything about what they're planning or what instructions she might have tried to send him if we don't take the risk and boot them up anyway."

Hakuba looked dubious. "Her remote surveillance capabilities aside, given that we don't know what his state of mind will be when he awakes, are you certain that's a wise idea?"

Kaito tried to picture how his still-unconscious counterpart might react to finding they'd been going through his digital things without supervision and came up with half a dozen wildly different scenarios. "Positive? No. But if I'm careful I should be able to leave no traces on this end, and he's been so sleep-deprived that if he stays nightmare-free too now, I doubt he's going to wake up anytime soon."

Hakuba didn't look any happier, but he nodded. "Keylogger or GPS tracker would be easiest, though it would have to be something well-hidden if he checks for those sorts of things."

"I would certainly expect so," Saguru replied, displaying the phone to show a small piece of opaque tape covering the camera. "He's already got any and all camera lenses covered on both of them, so that's remote video monitoring taken care of, at least."

"That's a start, then," Kaito said. Jii had taught him an insane number of computer security system workarounds not long after he started as Kid, 'just in case'. It wasn't a guarantee, especially given that this was technically the future and Kaito'd never seen a laptop that small before, but it was better than nothing. "You check the phone, I'll check the laptop."

Saguru passed the laptop over. "Have you any idea what the phone's password might be?"

Kaito gave him a blank look, before a memory from one of the dreams stirred. "...Four sixes. It's "black" backwards, and kuro is... what she did to his name."

Inspector Hakuba narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean?"

Kaito looked away, letting his eyes settle on the sleeper. "It's not the clearest, but... I'm pretty sure Kuro is all he was ever called, when she finally gave him a name at all. Well... 'Crow', really, she always wrote it in katakana with the elongated vowel, and any other agents he came in contact with followed suit. He... he knew he used to be Kuroba Kaito? But more the same way a person kept in the dark for twenty years might know there's such a thing as the sun." His mouth flattened into a thin line, bits of dream-memory knowledge falling unpleasantly into place with his own understanding. "I don't know if he's even realized, but I think... it feels like she did it so that if he ever encountered it, it would only ever mean her name to him, anymore." The one she'd given him, not the one that had been his. It made a twisted sort of sense, that Vermouth could—would—find a way to steal even his own name from him.

"I see." Hakuba expression turned pensive.

Saguru interrupted the serious mood with a faint noise of satisfaction. "It was right; I'm in. "

"Good. Inform me if you find anything. I," Hakuba said with a slight grunt, easing his way into a standing position, "am going to pace the other room until I regain full feeling in my legs, and then I'm getting some sleep."

He gingerly limped out of the room without waiting for an answer.

Kaito exchanged a glance with Saguru, shrugged, and very, very carefully got down to work.

Several hours and emptied drink cans later, there had been no interruptions by outside visitors or by either of their older counterparts so much as stirring from unconsciousness. Inspector Hakuba had been logical enough to stretch out on the bedroom futon rather than risk being caught unawares on the couch in the front room. As for Kaito's counterpart, Kaito had decided to think of him as Kurou. Leaving him nameless or using the codename Vermouth had chosen rankled; shifting the syllable association to the name-kanji for 'long time' and 'skilled' felt appropriate—and if she could try to steal the word then he had every right to steal it back. Kurou had wedged his back against the wall in such a way that he took up very little space on the luxuriantly wide futon. The silence was broken only by Hakuba snoring every once in awhile.

Kaito sighed and closed the laptop. "This one's clean, unless the tech involved has gotten a lot more subtle. And it looks like he's supposed to make a meeting this weekend, but he hasn't actually missed anything. Well, nothing important, or that they would expect something from him for."

Saguru nodded. "There's nothing here, either, except an old voicemail from someone I don't recognize inviting him out for a drink, and a very cryptic text that I assume is from Vermouth, going by the archive of similar texts. From what I could decipher, I believe it advises him to lay low for a while, but I'd require several more hours and some decryption software to feel absolutely certain." He slid the phone into the computer case's pocket. "There's also a few chess puzzle apps that appear to be nearly all beaten, but those seemed of secondary importance."

"Heh. Probably." Kaito massaged his eyes. "Of course, compared to what we actually showed up to do, all of this is one big sidetrack." Their goal in coming to this world at all had been derailed by the urgency of dealing with his counterpart's situation and the repercussions of the resulting temporal misadventure.

"A not unworthy one, however," Saguru offered.

"Well, sure... but we originally came here for information, and we're practically in the negative. We're worried about a surprise visit from Vermouth, but what if whatever—whoever—started this whole Shadow mess knows we're here and is planning a welcome we'd rather avoid?" Kaito looked back at the sleepers. "I can't just leave them like this, but what if we're missing something important?"

Saguru paused for a moment. "Then we'll deal with it when we find it."

"Mmm." Kaito closed his eyes, seeking the familiar presences at the edge of awarenessof green crystal-shine and moon-shadow in smoke.

Am I being paranoid? Can you sense anything more specific about the origin of that Shadow-thread now that we're a whole lot closer?

:Well—that is—: Meraud began, before Lupin interrupted smoothly.

:There is no present threat from that quarter. Best finish the task at hand before seeking other paths.:

Kaito waited a bit to see if anything else was forthcoming. No present threat? So either it doesn't know we're here, or doesn't care? Would it be able to sense us through that Dark thread?

:There is no danger of that.:

It would be nice if Lupin was corporeal so Kaito could favor the being with a proper dubiously skeptical look. What aren't you telling me?

:Nothing you need concern yourself with now.:

Before Kaito could growl, physically or mentally, for Lupin to give better answers, a tight grip on his shoulder brought him back to the real world. Saguru urgently tipped his head toward the futon, and Kaito looked to see Kurou stirring from his huddle under Hakuba's coat.

The process felt slower than it probably was, the way the man uncurled slightly from the wall and raised his head with a few sleepy blinks, coat sliding back to only half-cover his hair. Inspector Hakuba's eyes flew open when the futon shifted and he immediately sat up with a guarded expression, though he made no attempt to get out of range. Kurou's gaze snapped to follow the movement, and when recognition hit he froze in the act of levering himself upright, eyes wide and something almost desperately sad flickering in their depths.

After a long moment, a harsh croak escaped from Kurou's lips. "You're still here."

Hakuba's expression was as utterly neutral as his voice. "Yes."

"...Hah." It was more a breath or an acknowledgement than a laugh, but it seemed enough to let Kurou collect himself, because he pushed himself the rest of the way to sitting. He opened his mouth, but then the slide of the coat around his shoulders distracted him. There was a breathless silence as he quickly pulled the material back around him like a blanket. Or a shield. Pale fingers gripping the dark cloth so tightly they went bloodless, his lips pulled into a faint, resigned smile. "So this is how the dreams are going to go now, huh?"

The Inspector raised a perfectly deadpan eyebrow. "You think you're still dreaming?"

"Or hallucinating. There's no place left for you but in my head." The smile faded into deeper resignation. "I don't usually get consistency like this, but waking to the real world has felt more nightmareish. I wonder if that's the point? Make me prefer it like this, so I don't bother waking up at all?"

He sounded far too unconcerned by the prospect, but before Kaito could interject, Hakuba answered, "While a tenable theory, it is, at least this time, untrue. You're awake, Kuroba-san, and I'm sitting here before you due to several circumstances that should be outright impossible but exist anyway." He glanced over his shoulder at Kaito and Saguru and Kurou followed his gaze, eyes widening.

"You—you can see them? But they're not—and I saw, I watched you—" He broke off as his already hoarse voice wavered, and somehow managed to shrink further inside the coat.

Kaito grabbed the spare can of juice he'd never bothered opening, and slipped out from Saguru's grip to approach the futon. "We're not actually hallucinations, either. I just happen to be the Kuroba Kaito whose life you've been dreaming." He held out the juice can as a peace offering. "I don't know what all you saw, but I hope it was enough to realize that I can't let Vermouth and those bastards win in any reality."

Kurou swallowed convulsively at Vermouth's name, but otherwise seemed too stunned to do anything but stare in bewilderment. Kaito set the drink against Kurou's fingers, waiting until Kurou's hand moved on its own to grip it before letting go. "Drink that. You must be dehydrated, after last night."

Kurou looked from Kaito, to the drink, to all of them again, and back to the drink. His free hand reached out from the coat and, with infinite gentleness, poked at Hakuba's arm. When it stayed solid and warm, his eyes caught Hakuba's again with a kind of desperate hunger. "How can you be real?"

In a surprisingly patient tone, Hakuba said, "Drink the juice." Kurou glanced at the juice as if he'd never seen it before, then opened it and took a few small sips with his attention riveted to Hakuba's face. Hakuba continued, "You're already aware of the internal consistency between sleeping last night and waking now. As for that night, what you thought was me was in truth a clever substitute." Hakuba's tone made it clear that he hadn't forgotten the security guard, but was waiting to bring it up. Kurou flinched slightly, but said nothing.

"At this point," Kaito offered before Kurou could wilt beneath the coat, "you have two choices. Believe that this is a dream, and let her win by having taken everything that matters, or believe that we're real and there's a way out of the abyss. A real way out, that starts with atoning for the people you were made to hurt."

Kurou clutched at his drink, cynicism and hope warring together in his expression, until he seemed to reach a decision and took a deep breath. "...When does Aoko visit my grave?"

Hakuba's eyes narrowed, lips thinning briefly into a tight line. "On your supposed deathday, we go together; on your birthday, she goes alone. On both occasions, she insists on leaving chocolate instead of flowers, and asks you to share them with her mother."

After a moment's scrutiny, Kurou inclined his head a fraction. "I never got close enough to hear what she says."

"Then you accept, at least provisionally, that you're properly awake?" Hakuba asked.

Kurou nodded slowly, then murmured, "I'm sorry. I can never say it enough, but..."

"A litany is unnecessary."

After a moment, Kurou admitted, "I don't know if I can stop."

"Mmm." Hakuba leaned forward, close enough to fill most of Kurou's vision. "This is what will happen: first you will help me catch Vermouth, and then you will help me break your—this organization like an egg. Based upon the outcome of those two ventures, I will present your case to my father and he will determine whether your efforts are sufficient redress or whether you will still stand trial with your previous handlers. If at any point you attempt to break my custody, I will catch you. And you will deeply regret it."

Kurou's lips quirked with more heartbreak than humor. "It will never be enough. But it would be a start, if I could go with you."

Hakuba raised both eyebrows, this time. "Why would that be an issue?"

Kurou took a large gulp of juice, stalling, then finally replied, "Because there's a tracker between my shoulder blades."

Kaito's oath echoed with the others', fingernails digging into his palms. That rather neatly explains why he never tried running as an adult. "Outside of assignments, you had a radius limit, didn't you."

Another nod, hair falling over his face. "The only discreet clinic nearby is one of our—" he stopped, and retried with careful deliberation, "is one of theirs."

Before silence could stretch, Saguru inquired thoughtfully, "If you left the radius, would she come after you herself, or send someone?"

Kurou shivered, pulling the coat tighter around his shoulders with one hand. "I've never tried. But... it's always been her for anything else. Just her."

"Then if we can choose where to go to deal with that, we can ambush her."

Kurou looked at the floor. "And do what with them? You can't hold her for long, and if you—" he glanced up at Hakuba, "out yourself as alive, you won't last a week."

Hakuba bristled, but Kaito jumped in first with, "Kudou will be interested. Or there might still be American law enforcement in the country who could take care of her quietly, and help with going after the rest."

Kurou flinched slightly at Kudou's name, but then appeared distracted from his guilt by the rest of Kaito's comment. "The Americans? They turn up at the fringes occasionally, but the grapevine said they'd had a few failed ops and left…"

Kaito shrugged. "We have a few names to check that might still be around. But now that you're awake and semi-coherent, we need to focus on getting out. One, do you have any clothes that would fit Inspector Hakuba, and two," Kaito wrinkled his nose, "when was the last time you had a shower?"

Kurou assessed Hakuba from head to toe in a swift, practiced glance. "The less you look like yourself, the better, so second drawer in the right side of the closet has shorts and jeans and at least one t-shirt that should fit your shoulder width. And the baseball cap on the top shelf has an adjustment strap, since your head is a little bigger than mine." Professional spiel over, the confidence inspired by the familiar topic seemed to leach away. "...I lost track. I can clean up… you'll stay, right?" he added, still watching Hakuba, who gave him an unimpressed look.

"You seem to have already forgotten that you're in my custody, Kuroba-san."

"Oh. Right. ...I have to remember you're real."

"You're wearing my coat, which I would eventually like returned, thank you. After it's been dry cleaned," he added with a raised hand when Kurou began reluctantly removing it. "Which I suspect may not be possible for some time."

"I'm—"

Kaito deliberately steamrollered the apology by saying, "Jii-chan should know one. He knows everyone," which arrested both Hakuba and Kurou's attention.

"Who is this?" Hakuba said, while Kurou's brow furrowed uncertainly.

"Jii Konosuke, the old magician's assistant to Kuroba Touichi," Kaito explained.

Kurou's face cleared. "The old man who helps when you wear the white Kid suit."

Kaito nodded. "Also, at least where I know him, owner of a pool bar, a car, and a little black book full of people, usually who owe him a favor or two."

"Wait," Hakuba ordered, eyes narrowed, "You mean Jii-san of the Blue Parrot?"

Saguru chuckled. "You enjoy billiards too, then?"

Wait, what?

Oblivious to Kaito's surprise, Hakuba answered, "Yes, and I like the atmosphere there."

"That might simplify matters of introduction, then, but we should be certain you're not easily recognizable to approach him." Saguru shooed a hand at them. "Kuroba-san, clean up and take a nondescript appearance. Hakuba-san, we'll be in the front room to let you change." Kurou hesitated, seeming unsure whether he wanted to accept orders from a younger doppelganger, then nodded and reluctantly uncurled from the futon.

Kaito let Saguru herd him to the front room, then demanded, "You go to the Parrot?"

Donning a hat swiped from Kurou's closet, Saguru chuckled wryly. "On occasion, though I hadn't realized you knew him as well. The game is relaxing, and people often gossip at such places. I sometimes wonder if Jii-san doesn't encourage it." Saguru's expression sobered. "You're certain he'll be able to help?"

"As sure as I can get," Kaito admitted, scrubbing a hand through his hair. "If I thought he could be a physical match for... this guy, as well as someone he would have listened to, we might have avoided all the rest of this stuff."

"But you don't, and we didn't, and I don't think you actually regret it. Let's stick to what we are dealing with."

"Easy for you to say." Kaito refocused on the sensation of Lupinin the back of his mind. I still want to know everything you aren't telling me.

:My boy, that could fill entire libraries.:

You know what I mean—why Meraud said to wait in the storeroom, for one, and why you're so sure taking care of all of this first won't come back to bite us—hell, why you're sure the attention we're trying to avoid either doesn't know we're here or doesn't CARE.

:Patience. One does not feed the doves and pull them out of a hat simultaneously.:

Your analogies could use work. But Lupin hadn't lied... yet, at least.

"We'll start with the Blue Parrot and Jii-san," Saguru said, returning Kaito to the present. "The rest we'll take as it comes."

"Right." Given who they were planning to deal with, however, Kaito made certain to snag a familiar-looking blonde wig from Kurou's closet before they left.

*Note: In Japanese, roku is six and kuro as it is written in Kuroba means black. The pun sadly does not translate well into English.