A/N: This occurs a few days after Hakuba's confrontation with KID (chapter 1, Missing).

Hakuba was tired, annoyed, utterly frustrated and mentally cursing flamboyant phantom-thieves as he made his way to the house where (he hoped) someone could translate KID's odd message and give him a lead. He'd been hoping that KID knew what had happened to Edogawa-kun and could give him information. Useful information would have been wonderful (that wasn't entirely fair to the thief, but Saguru was too frustrated to care). True, he now knew that Edogawa-kun was alive, and had been kidnapped to use as leverage against KID by a (presumably) organized criminal group who were (somehow?) watching the police and probably KID himself to ensure that they went undiscovered.

He'd spent the last few days analyzing every possible meaning of what KID had said the night of the heist, attempting to come up with some kind of hint he could use to investigate the group that was responsible for this entire mess. Unfortunately he'd only managed to exhaust himself. There were just too many possibilities based on the few clues he had.

All of which meant that most of what KID had told him was useless, because Saguru could do absolutely nothing with it. He couldn't give any evidence to the official investigators, because the (still unidentified) criminals would likely kill Edogawa and KID as soon as they got wind of a rescue attempt. He couldn't tell Aoko-san that her idiot friend was alive and well (for now) and not ignoring her calls and texts deliberately or with intention to discard her friendship, because she wouldn't believe Kuroba was KID, and (even if he convinced her this time) if anything happened to further link KID and his civilian identity (other than the fact that Kuroba was suspiciously absent) and the criminals confirmed it, the situation would become more complicated (and probably more dangerous for everyone involved, as if he didn't have enough problems already). Similarly, Mouri-san could not be informed that her charge was (relatively) unharmed, for most of the same reasons (she would want the police investigating, or want to know his source of evidence, both of which would end badly), with the added factor of being currently unable to guarantee said charge's return to her (because he didn't even know what city they were keeping Edogawa-kun in).

If Saguru was being honest with himself, half of the frustration stemmed from the fact that resolving this case would require for him to actively work with KID. The annoying, riddle-spouting, prankster magician was now his most helpful ally. It took serious effort not to cringe at the thought.

Mentally shaking himself and checking the slip of paper he'd scrawled an address on, he walked up the drive of house 222, block B in Beika. His research into KID's oddly-worded message had led him to believe that Haibara Ai was most likely to be the 'small but scary' friend of Edogawa-kun's. The police officers Hakuba had asked about the Detective Boys (under the pretense of finding out how they were coping) had all said that she seemed mature for her age, though he wondered how she'd managed to make so much of an impression on KID that the thief's automatic descriptor for her was 'scary'. Since Hakuba had also found that she lived with an eccentric inventor, he hoped that the 'badge and glasses' message would mean something to one or both of them. Ringing the bell, he hoped the other Detective Boys were not present. He was taking a leap to even come here to talk to a seven-year-old, but he was (reluctantly) trusting KID not to send him to someone who couldn't be helpful (and if this Haibara-san was as oddly mature and knowledgeable as Edogawa-kun was, it might just work).

He was pulled rudely out of his thoughts when the door jerked open and a dark-skinned teen half-shouted at him, "What're ya doin' here, Hakuba, ya jerk?"

Saguru closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose in resignation, "I was hoping to make some progress in my investigation regarding Edogawa-kun's kidnapping, but I can see that's not going to happen."

Hattori responded angrily, "Oi! Ya can't just walk in here an' act like ya're th'only one tryin' ta help K—Conan!"

You are the one being actively unhelpful, Saguru thought, replying, "I implied no such thing," He felt his frustration spike and couldn't resist taunting the other teen, "I merely wanted to investigate a possible lead, while you've prevented me from doing so. Have you found any leads recently, or do you intend to wait for the police?"

"Why, ya smug little—"

"Hakuba-san, was it?"

Saguru blinked in surprise at the girl who'd just silenced the hot-headed detective by glaring, "Yes. Are you Haibara-san?"

She nodded and asked, "What has you so convinced you've found a lead when every police investigator has come up with nothing?"

It was a practical question, but he knew it wouldn't be wise to answer her outright while he was still standing out on the doorstep. He eyed the girl in consideration, "Would you happen to know of someone who refers to you as 'small and scary'?"

Her eyes widened in shock, "You talked to him? Does he know where Edogawa-kun is?"

"I spoke with him, yes," Hakuba paused to eye the Osakan still blocking the door. "May I come inside, Haibara-san? I believe this conversation should be had in private."

Haibara nodded, shoving Hattori out of the doorway and ignoring his sputtered protests. "Do come in, Hakuba-san, I hope I can contribute to your investigation."

A/N: Sorry for the cutoff, I couldn't get the scene to flow from there...it just all came out clunky and awkward...maybe the continuation will be in a future chapter.

Anyway, my plan at the moment is for next chapter to be from Kaito's POV. Hopefully the writer's block will stay away when I find the time to actually type it...

Edit 11/15/19: Fixed Agasa's address

12/29/20: Minor edit for continuity.