Saguru didn't find out what happened with Takumi right away. It wasn't until he went to Kudo's home a few hours later that he realized Takumi had taken a route none of them had expected and had chosen to confront Kuroba. He arrived in time to hear yelling the moment he stepped through the door. A wide-eyed Midori greeted him and glomped onto his leg before he could really process anything.

"He's been yelling and Kaa-san isn't sure what to do," Midori said.

"Where is your father?" Saguru asked, gently touching her shoulder.

"Tou-san took Hanae-neechan to get stuff at the store..." She looked up at Saguru, fear and worry clear on her face. "He's not going to hurt Kid-san is he? Kid-san is nice and reads us stories and is still getting better, Kaa-san said."

"He's not going to hurt Kid," Saguru said.

"You sure? He's really mad."

Saguru crouched closer to her level, and she let go of his leg to grip his hand instead. "Takumi-kun is upset right now, but he cares about Kid very much and is scared because Kid is hurt. He isn't going to hurt him more." The worry in Midori's eyes faded a bit. Saguru gave her a smile though he felt anything but optimistic at the moment. "Can you ask your mother to make some tea? I think we're going to need some."

Midori hesitated, then nodded and ran off, glad to feel useful. The worst feeling was feeling like you couldn't do anything. Ran met Saguru halfway down the hallway with Midori at her side. Here Saguru could hear Kuroba's tense voice answering back between pauses in Takumi's voice.

"I would have pulled him out of the room," Ran said, "but it seemed like they needed to get this off their chests."

"They do," Saguru agreed. "If I can get them to calm down, tea might help transition it to more of an actual conversation..."

"Of course."

Ran took Midori and Saguru continued down the hall.

Takumi was barely in the doorway to Kuroba's room, the space between him and Kuroba's bed a chasm. His shoulders were tense and hands fisted as he yelled at Kuroba and it was the most upset Saguru had seen him, and perhaps the most like Aoko. He didn't have Aoko's flash-fire anger, but once angered, it burned in his eyes the same way, missing only the violent edge that Aoko's rage had always carried. Kuroba had always had a cold anger that Saguru personally found much scarier than explosive anger. Right then, Kuroba was closed up and defensive and angry as well even if he wasn't expressing it the same way.

"Right," Takumi said, "because just stopping because you're asked is so hard!"

"And I already said, it's not that simple—"

"Fuck simple! It shouldn't have been a choice! Kaa-san asked you to choose and you chose Kid over her and me! You chose your goals and clinging to the past over what you had in that moment and you don't think that hurts me?"

"Aoko didn't even give a choice, she just left!"

"You think she wouldn't have come back if you'd quit? All you did was make her angrier and angrier by digging the knife deeper all these years and for what? You nearly dying over and over again? You should have just ended it!"

"I've been trying!" Kuroba yelled back. "It just won't end!" The air felt fragile as he stared at Takumi with such a broken expression that Saguru wanted to hide his face away, smooth the pain back into the calm Kuroba usually had and take all his problems away. They were both near tears, but it was Takumi who broke first, glaring through them. "I want to end it so badly," Kuroba said into the hush his raised voice had left.

"Then do it," Takumi said. "This," he jabbed a hand at Kuroba's injured state, "is never happening again. You are never going to paint a target on yourself again. It ends here."

Saguru cleared his throat, stepping in before one or the other got back up to yelling again. "Actually, that is what we are currently working on," Saguru said. "It was too big for Kid on his own, but working with detectives with his years of resources and proof, we should actually be able to stop them and let Kid rest."

"Kudo-san," Takumi said, putting pieces together instantly. "And you. And Kaa-san?"

"She's helping. Kudo-san has American contacts and I have a few British ones. Kudo-san has reached out to other detectives he trusts that have been involved with Kid, and they are surely looking through their coworkers to those that they trust. We're moving this along as quickly as we can, but it's a global organization and there are decades of information to sift through." Saguru let his voice go softer, watching some of Takumi's tension ease at knowing someone was doing something. "We don't want this to happen again either."

Takumi rubbed hands along his arms, lip trapped between his teeth and a frown still scrunching down his brows. He wasn't yelling anymore though. "You're all still detectives though. And Kid's still a thief."

"Something that will have to be worked out," Saguru acknowledged. "Considering the sensitivity of things, Kid could probably manage to be put on a witness protection plan and most of his crimes excused due to the evidence he's provided."

"Not all, and no guarantee."

"No."

"I could go to jail," Kuroba said. "But I could have gone to jail at any point the last seventeen years. There's always a way out if I look for one."

Takumi sent his father a glare. "This isn't something to joke about."

"Who's joking?" Kuroba said. "If I need to vanish, I will."

"And just leave me?" Takumi asked, voice small, and ah, that was the root of it all. Losing Kuroba to some extent in the divorce, almost losing him to the sniper, possibly losing him to the justice system, and now maybe to Kuroba's survival instinct. Under all his anger, Takumi was a boy who didn't want to lose his father.

"Never," Kuroba said with conviction. "I'd never leave you without a way to find me."

Saguru looked away as Takumi crumpled, uncomfortable to watch him break here and now where it felt too personal. "I'm so mad at you," Takumi said. "So mad."

"I know," Kuroba said.

Takumi hiccupped on a sob he tried to suppress, and Saguru glimpsed Kuroba lift the arm not in a sling in the offer of a hug. Takumi took it and Saguru retreated from the room. They needed to have their moment.

Ran was in the kitchen with water heating on the stove for tea as Saguru had requested. Surprisingly, Kudo was back too, with Hanae. They had bags from a conbini with eggs, milk, and colorful candy-coated chocolate. Kudo was in the middle of mixing up what appeared to be pancake batter, a handful of chocolates going into the mix.

"It seems I missed the excitement," Kudo said.

"They should be alright now," Saguru said. "I'm sorry I didn't think to send you a message that Takumi-kun might show up..."

"He figured out Kid was his dad then?" Kudo said.

"Clearly."

Ran hummed, pulling out teacups. "Well, at least they cleared the air. Hopefully now that it's out in the open they can move past it. Do you think they'll want tea now?"

"In a bit," Saguru said. "Now that they're not yelling, they should talk." He hoped they would talk, though whatever they talked about, Saguru hoped it wouldn't lead to Takumi yelling more.

"They can have tea and pancakes when they're ready," Kudo said, spooning multicolored batter into a pan. "It's funny, I should have expected that Kid's son would show up just like he has a tendency to do."

"You know, I honestly thought he was too polite to do so until this morning when he picked my lock," Saguru mused. "Then again, he did spend the first few weeks as my student pranking me. I had the impression that acting out is an anomaly for him though."

Midori tugged at Saguru's pant leg and he leaned over to hear her. She whispered loudly in his ear, "If they start yelling again, Kaa-san gets to put them in a time out."

"I think that's a very good idea, Midori-chan," Saguru said, mirroring the girl's seriousness.

She nodded and went back to helping her sister set the breakfast table. Honestly, if they started yelling again, separating them would likely be the best idea until everyone calmed down.

The smell of pancakes and sugar filled the air. The faint sound of a knock echoed down the hall; the front door. Ran want to get it. Saguru looked at Kudo. Kudo shrugged. Not expecting anyone then. Ran's voice, the sound of another female voice answering her, then the door closing again a few moments later. Ran returned to the kitchen. Aoko followed after her.

"Sorry to barge in on your morning," Aoko said looking at the domestic breakfast scene. Her eyes lingered on Saguru and she grimaced.

"Nakamori-keibu," Kudo said, setting down his pancake batter. "What can I do for you? Was there an update with the case?"

"I'm not here on police business." She glanced at Saguru again. "I'm actually here to pick up my son."

There was a pause. Kudo hid his surprise well, or maybe it wasn't all that surprising considering how many of the pieces he'd had all this time. Maybe he'd already put them together.

"I guess I have you to thank for the idiot not dying," Aoko added. "So thanks. I'd hate for Kid to die and escape justice that way."

"Not even death can catch him before I do?" Saguru said lightly. The day was too heavy. He missed Kuroba's jokes and Kuroba wasn't in a joking mood much lately.

"Isn't there some English idiom about pots and stones?" Aoko said.

"Pot and kettle," Saguru said.

"Yeah, that." Aoko looked like she hadn't slept in the last twenty-four hours and was running on will and caffeine alone. "Anyway, I'm here for Takumi and he's grounded until he's twenty, so sorry to interrupt your breakfast."

Ran and Kudo shared a look over Aoko's head as she rubbed a hand across her eyes. Ran made for the coffee pot while Kudo picked up the batter again. "Takumi-kun is still talking with Kid," Kudo said, "but you're all welcome to stay for breakfast. It's pancakes."

"With chocolate candy inside!" Hanae added. "I got to choose what went in it!"

"I wanted strawberries," Midori said. "But I like chocolate too." They were already getting another plate and fork to add to the ones at the table.

Aoko frowned, clearly intending to refuse. Saguru touched her elbow. "Stay a bit? You look like you could use a break."

"It's not even your house," Aoko said, but she sat in the nearest chair. "Thank you."

"Not a problem," Ran said. The coffee pot sputtered beside her, adding the smell of fresh coffee to the pancake scent. "We were planning for more people anyway."

"Are we taking pancakes to Kid-san?" Hanae asked. "Or can he come out and eat here?"

"He's still supposed to stay in bed," Ran said.

"I'll take him some," Saguru said. He ignored Aoko's eye roll and sat next to her. "I take it you followed Takumi-kun's phone here."

"Of course. He was supposed to go to lacrosse and only to lacrosse, not break into your apartment and run off to Beika," Aoko sighed. She rubbed her eyes again. "What is even happening lately? Takumi's always ignored curfew when he's visiting the idiot, but he never just ignores me like this. I'm not being unreasonably strict am I? Is that why he's acting out? I don't even know what to do at this point."

"I think it's less any one thing you did as a parent and more Takumi-kun reacting to the situation as a whole," Saguru said.

"He's also a teenager," Kudo added from the stove. "Teenagers push boundaries. I know I was at that age."

Ran snorted. "You were living on your own at that age; there weren't any boundaries to push."

"I disagree. I pushed Agasa's boundaries, school and police boundaries and dragged you into all kinds of trouble."

Aoko listened to their back and forth with something between a smile and a frown, too tired to really react. When Ran gave her a cup of fresh brewed coffee, she drank it, still folded in on herself. It was wrong to see her looking so defeated. By the time Shinichi's pancake batter was gone, she'd drank a cup and a half and looked a bit more calm than when she got there, though no less exhausted.

Saguru excused himself with a tray of tea and pancakes as the Kudo family put their breakfast in order. Kuroba had moved over on the bed enough to make room for Takumi on the edge. When Saguru got to the room, Takumi was tucked against Kuroba's less injured side, half asleep. They looked wrung out and frayed at the edges, and Kuroba didn't have his mask up. Saguru felt a bit bad to intrude since it looked like things were finally calm, but Kuroba met his eyes when he walked in.

"Breakfast," Saguru said, lifting the tray a bit higher. "And not one that Haibara-san would approve of." For the most part she'd had Kuroba on a strict diet in meeting all the nutrients that would speed up his healing. Saguru set the tray on the bedside table as Kuroba kept running a hand down Takumi's back like he was a child much younger than fourteen. "Aoko is here," he said softly.

"Ah." Kuroba sighed. "Should have expected that. Guess I don't have much a façade to hide behind anymore do I?"

"Not much of one," Saguru agreed. "Is Takumi-kun okay?"

Takumi stirred against Kuroba's side. "I'm fine," he rasped. "Kaa-san came to get me?"

"Yes."

"Is she angry?"

"More tired than angry, I think." Saguru sat on the bedside chair. "You're grounded until you're twenty though."

Takumi nodded. "Sounds like Kaa-san." He sighed. "So much for lacrosse."

"You made the choice, kiddo." Kuroba side hugged him one last time before letting go.

"I know." Takumi's eyes were red rimmed and his face splotched from tears and spent anger. There wasn't much anger left in him now, just the same exhaustion Saguru saw in Aoko. "I should apologize to the Kudos, shouldn't I..."

"That'd be a good place to start," Kuroba said with a parody of his usual light tone.

Takumi nodded. "Sorry for breaking into your apartment earlier today, Hakuba-sensei," Takumi muttered as he moved for the door.

"I'm used to it," Saguru said. "I still stand that you are welcome any time."

Takumi paused in the doorway, then nodded before hurrying away. As soon as he was out of the room, Kuroba's small smile slid off his face. He looked twice as tired as Aoko and Takumi both, made worse by the long stretches of pink and scabbed skin along his right side.

"Are things going to be okay?" Saguru asked. He caught Kuroba's good hand.

Kuroba squeezed back. "I hope so. He's still angry and he has every right to be. I don't know if he's going to trust me again."

"He loves you," Saguru said. Just like Aoko hung between them, unspoken and unacknowledged. "You'll just have to work to prove he still can."

"Yeah." Kuroba closed his eyes and sighed. When he opened them again, he was focused and all his stress pushed to the side. "So how weird was it to wake up to Takumi breaking into your apartment?"

"I thought he was you until I woke up enough to remember where and when I was."

Kuroba laughed softly. "I didn't think he had it in him to do that."

"He's your son as much as he is Aoko's."

"Yeah." Kuroba slid his hand free of Saguru's. "So, you think Aoko's going to come back here and yell at me?"

"There's always that possibility, but I think she really wants to go home and sleep more than she wants to yell at the moment."

"That's a first."

"Hm." Saguru brought Kuroba his breakfast tray. "Have some pancakes. Hanae chose the chocolate in them apparently."

"Good taste," Kuroba said.

*o*o*

It was a bit surreal to see Takumi and Aoko sitting at the same table as Ran and Kudo and their children, all peaceably eating color-splotched chocolate pancakes. Takumi was seated between Aoko and Midori, and Midori seemed to have forgotten to be nervous about him as she chattered on about some of the shaped pancakes Kudo made for them in the past. Her and Hanae's pancakes looked vaguely like five-petal flower shaped blobs today with more chocolate in them than the rest of the pancakes on the table. Kudo and Ran both gave Saguru a smile when he sat at the last open spot.

"Everything okay?" Ran asked.

"All is well," Saguru said. "Kid passes on his compliments for the pancakes."

Aoko snorted. "He's such a chocolate addict." She had a single pancake on her plate, picking at it slowly. Saguru knew for a fact that Aoko also loved chocolate, but it seemed she didn't have a taste for it at the moment. "Are we going to ignore the elephant in the room or...?"

"What elephant?" Midori asked.

"It's an idiom," Kudo explained. "Meaning the obvious topic no one wants to acknowledge."

"What does that have to do with elephants?"

"Elephants are hard to ignore." Kudo sipped his coffee and raised an eyebrow. "It's also hard to ignore who Kid is when his ex-wife and son are at our breakfast table."

Midori muttered something that sounded a lot like "idioms are stupid" into her pancakes as Kudo and Aoko locked eyes.

It was Takumi who broke the staring contest with an irritated huff. "I don't think they're going to go arresting him after keeping him in the guest bedroom for several weeks," he said. "Might as well put all the secrets out in the open." Aoko's lips became a white line of disapproval, but she didn't stop Takumi when he gave a sarcastic wave of a hand and introduced himself. "Hey, I'm Kuroba Takumi, and that's Kuroba-nee-Nakamori Aoko, and you're housing Kuroba Kaito. We're all one little messy family. Nice to formally meet you all under a slightly less messed up scenario than last time."

"Kuroba...Kuroba... As in Kuroba Toichi?" Kudo asked.

"Yup. One time great magician, original Kaitou Kid, father of Kuroba Kaito, current Kid." Takumi stabbed a bite of pancake.

"Huh." Kudo took another sip of coffee. "I think I met him once... He taught my mom disguise skills."

"Small world."

It somehow wasn't surprising in the least that Kudo would have connections to the original Kid in addition to Kuroba.

"He also taught another woman who was with the crime organization I took down. Never did find out what happened to Vermouth. You'd know her better as Sharon Vineyard. Or Chris Vineyard. They were both the same person really."

Saguru blinked and glanced at Aoko. She looked equally caught off guard. "Kaito had stories about an Aunt Chris, but they were mostly all from before his dad died."

"Well isn't that interesting," Kudo said with a pensive look. It was a look Saguru had come to associate with Kudo piecing together facts.

"Does this hint that Kid might have at one point cooperated," Saguru wondered aloud, "or more indicate that they had someone watching him from early in his career?"

"I wonder," Kudo said. "There's still no proof that the group I dealt with is the same one Kid's been fighting." He frowned at nothing for a moment before visibly pushing the thoughts aside. "At any rate, that's not something we're going to solve over breakfast."

No, Saguru thought, that would be what Kudo likely tried to do the moment he could lock himself in his study again and put the full force of his brain into the question. It was curious though that this Vineyard woman had had connections to Kid and Kudo's organization and, if Saguru was remembering his celebrities correctly, a successful career as a movie star. Even more curious that a woman would pretend to be her own daughter. Sharon Vineyard should be almost old enough to be Saguru's grandmother by now, but Chris was supposed to be younger that Saguru's mother. Very odd indeed when Kuroba was dealing with a group obsessed with immortality—presumably of the eternal youth and vitality sort.

Either there was something not adding up, or things were more complex than Saguru had information for.

Aoko shoved her pancake around her plate a bit more. "I guess this means we can work together," she said.

"I'm sure pooling resources will go quicker," Kudo agreed. "Is this going to make things more complicated in keeping work out of it though?"

Aoko grimaced. "No more than it ever has I guess. I ...understand why Hakuba didn't tell me upfront where Bakaito was. I would have reacted stupidly and probably have stormed your house. It might not even be good to be here now since I know I get followed sometimes." There were serious looks around the table, Takumi gripping his fork too tight and shoulders up by his ears. Even Midori and Hanae were quiet, tuned into the tension of the room. "But I haven't gone after Kid outside of heists, and I'm not going to arrest Kaito while he's on bedrest and can't escape if he had to. I'm not that angry at him."

She sighed. "About work though..." She glanced at the children at the table. Takumi met her eyes with a defiant stare, daring her to try and shoo him off. Ran stood up smoothly and tapped her daughters on the shoulders.

"I think Kid-san might like to see what you drew him last night. Maybe we could finish up breakfast giving him some company?" Ran said with a smile.

Midori jumped up immediately. Hanae glanced at the other adults. She at least had been paying attention and didn't look like she wanted to get cut out of the conversation. It was clear that she wasn't going to be allowed to hear anything more about the topic of Kid or what Aoko's news was, so she let her mother bustle her out the door.

Kudo watched them go with a grateful smile. It turned all business when he looked back Aoko's way. "Yes?"

Aoko gave Takumi a pointed stare.

Before Takumi could be backed into a corner, Saguru cut in. "I don't suppose it would hurt for him to hear that we're actually making progress in keeping Kuroba safe?"

Aoko slumped in her chair. "Fine. Fine, but for fuck's sake, he's not doing any investigating."

"Of course not," Saguru said diplomatically. He and Kudo had both been detectives by Takumi's age, but they weren't going to interfere with Aoko's home rules. "You were saying about work?"

"There was another lead," Aoko said bluntly. "Not so much with Ichiyose's murder so much as around the buildings we believe the sniper was in. It's pretty clear they're trying to find leads on Kid, or what happened to the gem. I think they know something's up because even injured, Kid never leaves a gem this long before returning it, and he has plenty of ways of returning things even if he's too hurt to do it in person."

"It would be the perfect time for a trap," Saguru said. He could see it easily enough; any sighting of Kid or hint of the gem would draw someone at the moment. But it could easily be a trap for Kid as well. Which meant that they would have to do better, out think them if they could. "If we could catch someone and observe who acts in making things disappear—catch those people in the act..."

"Then we could use it as a catalyst for the rest of it," Kudo continued, "using the momentum from that to explore police corruption and reveal that coverups have been happening for decades."

There was silence around the table for a moment, a hopeful, anticipatory sort of silence as they all saw the possibility of an end in sight.

"You need a Kid for the trap," Takumi said into the silence. "Tou-san isn't going to be able to be Kid."

"The wonderful thing about Kid," Kudo said, "is that no one knows what he looks like and he's known for taking on other faces."

"Yeah, but he only has the one when he's in uniform. They're going to be on the watch for copycats."

"It isn't terribly hard to pull off his persona," Saguru said. "Kudo or I could pull it off easily."

"Yeah, but you can't run if you had to, and Kudo's the one with half the police connections that he'll probably need to be directing." Takumi glanced at his mother. "With Kaa-san of course." He straightened his shoulders. "You'd still need a Kid, and who better than a Kuroba to do it?"

"Absolutely not," Aoko and Saguru said at the same time. "There is no way in hell you're putting yourself in line of fire," Aoko continued. She gripped the edge of the table so hard her knuckles were white. "I let you stay in the damn room, but you're not having any part of this."

"Kaa-san," Takumi said setting his jaw in the stubborn surety of a Nakamori knowing they were right, "they have to suspect who Tou-san is. If it's me, they'd think he's dead. That I'm the next Kid and that I'm no threat. They'd be letting their guard down."

"The point would be to have them think that Kid is perfectly fine," Kudo said, "not that he has a successor."

"But they know he's not fine," Takumi said. "They saw him go down and even if you cleaned up the scene, there'd still be traces of blood there to show he was injured. They're not going to believe any able bodied person is Kid, so why not let them think it's his successor?"

"Which does not have to be you," Saguru pointed out. "Again, Kid could be anyone."

"But they knew Kid was Toichi, and they must know by now that Kid is Tou-san, so they're going to be watching me anyway because of that. They'd believe I'd try to be Kid to avenge Tou-san because that's exactly what he did for his dad. It should be me."

"Wow," Kuroba's voice said from the doorway, falsely light and noticeable tense. "No. Good use of argument, nice presentation of your points, still no." Kuroba leaned against the wall, a bit pale as he held his used dishes in one hand. His other arm was out of its sling—no doubt Haibara would give him hell for that later—and being used as a counterbalance whenever he didn't move quite how he intended.

"Kaito," Aoko said, locking onto him. She took in the raw pink skin on his face, disappearing down his shirt collar and the red skin of his bad hand, the brace on his leg and the myriad of healing bruises painting his skin greenish purple. He didn't have a mask on for once, face as in the open as his given name.

"Aoko," Kuroba said, flashing a false grin in her direction. "I expected more yelling to herald your arrival."

"I see your shit sense of humor survived intact," Aoko shot back.

"Where are Ran and the girls?" Kudo asked.

"In the study," Kuroba said in the same airy tone. "I said I liked the chocolate pancakes, they asked if I liked anything else. I said I liked doves and missed mine so the girls decided to draw me 'the best dove ever.'" It was disconcerting to hear Midori's voice come from Kid's mouth, even more disconcerting to be close enough to see how Kuroba's throat shifted to produce that high of a voice. "I pretended to need the toilet."

"You need to stop pushing yourself like this," Saguru sighed. He pulled out a free chair. "Sit before you hurt yourself."

Kuroba flashed him a much more sincere smile and took the seat. "Now that that's established," he turned on Takumi, "there is no way in hell you're going to be Kid. That's over my literally dead body, which so help me I'd find a way to resurrect just to tell you hell no all over again."

"You were Kid around my age!" Takumi sputtered. "You have no room to talk!"

"I was sixteen," Kuroba said in a clipped, eerily upbeat voice, "when I first had a gun pointed at me. Sixteen the first time I was shot. By the time I was seventeen, I'd been shot at over two dozen times with the scars to prove it. I had criminals shoot at me, police shoot at me, Kudo and Nakamori both shot at me at least once that first year. Sixteen. That was almost two decades ago and I lost count of how many near misses and glancing hits I've had since then. You are fourteen. You are not going to end up like me."

It almost pressures Takumi into silence, but Takumi was just as stubborn as Kuroba and Aoko both at his core. "I wouldn't be alone. I'd have half the Tokyo police working to help."

"Tokyo police supposedly cleared the museum before the last heist," Kuroba said pointedly.

Aoko twitched, probably feeling called out by that. "That was a stupid setup with too many uncoordinated groups and you know it," she muttered.

"And what exactly are you all trying to pull off now?" Kuroba said, words digging deep into the vulnerabilities of their plans.

"A hell of a lot more than what you've been trying," Aoko shot back, voice rising.

Kuroba gave her a smile that was chilling enough to stop her rant before it even started. "Can we not. Just for today. Feel free to go back to cursing me out tomorrow, but there's been enough yelling in this house today already."

Takumi looked between them like he was waiting for everything to explode.

"We all want the same thing," Kudo said diplomatically. "We want to take out this organization and all its parts. That's why we're here and that's what we're going to do, one way or another." He met the eyes of everyone at the table. "If we play bait, I'll be Kid. Nakamori-keibu is more than capable of wrangling the police and I can have a communicator to keep in touch the entire time to change plans on the fly."

Kuroba frowned at Kudo. "You have a family," he said quietly. "And this will be painting a target on you."

Kudo shrugged. "I know. That's why we have to do this right." Kudo added, "And you have a family too, so you can't keep taking chances waiting for your luck to run out."

Kuroba deflated from his defensive posture. "I know." He leaned back in his chair, looking at the ceiling for a moment. "How long would it take to put everything into motion?"

Saguru looked at Kudo. He'd told him about Kuroba Chikage's files and plans. They'd stepped up their plans in addition. Kudo's connections in the US had picked up the trail of quite a few tendrils of the group, putting forth the manpower that they were lacking here. Kudo's police connections in Japan had been digging into discrepancies as carefully as they could for several weeks, and Saguru had heard from Millard once, informing him that his hunch had been correct and that Millard had found a fresh trail. Even with all of that... And yet they couldn't leave things too long or they lost the opportunity for the trap here and now.

"Another week and a half," Saguru said, speaking for them both. "It's not going to be as complete as we'd want, but any longer and we might miss the chance to catch an organization member."

"It's enough to jumpstart the whole investigation openly," Kudo added. "How long it will take to conclude..." He shrugged. "It took a couple of years to go through everyone back when I took out the Black Org. But it only took a few months for it to be safe enough to return to living in the open, and that's about the most we can hope for."

Kuroba nodded, like it was nothing more or less than he'd expected. "Fine. I can work with that." He drummed fingers along the edge of the table. "Hakuba, I need a favor."

"Yes?"

"I need you to talk to someone who's been helping me. With everything that's happened this month, it's something that can't really be put off. And when you make your move, we're going to need a bit more insurance."

Insurance how? Kuroba looked at Aoko at his elbow and past her at Takumi, bit his lip. Takumi stared back, still stubborn and Saguru knew that the argument about Takumi taking a part in this would continue even though none of them would back down on the necessity of Takumi staying out of it. Kuroba looked back at Saguru and Saguru reached out to put a supportive hand on his shoulder. Whoever it was, Kuroba didn't want to contact them.

"I need you to talk to Koizumi," Kuroba said finally. "She can help with the details."

"Koizumi-san?" Saguru said as Aoko said, "Akako-chan?"

"You kept in touch with Koizumi?" Saguru asked. "I was under the assumption you disliked each other."

Kuroba grimaced. "Mm, more she kept in touch with me. We came to an agreement of sorts after high school." From the expression on Aoko's face, there was a high likelihood that she'd pull that story out of Kuroba before the day was out whether he wanted to talk about it or not.

Saguru hurried to keep them on topic. "And what sort of help could Koizumi-san possibly be?"

Kuroba snorted. "Ah, Hakuba. It's Koizumi. She placed herself right in the middle of a bunch of powerful people with them at her beck and call. Can you really expect anything different?" So...she'd be useful due to her connections? Kuroba hadn't actually answered Saguru's question, but there was something in Kuroba's eyes that told him not to press at the moment.

"...and what is this aid going to cost?" Saguru asked.

Kuroba waved a hand. "...We've made deals in the past. She knows where to find me to get the payment after. It's nothing I can't afford, so don't worry about the details. She'll help you if you come to her saying 'Kuroba would like to make another exchange.' She'll take care of the details."

That also wasn't an answer. Saguru had a sinking feeling about all of this. "Alright. Tell me where to go and I'll talk to her."

"Thanks, Hakuba." Kuroba's grin wasn't the least bit reassuring.

"Deals with witches was it?" Kudo said out of the blue, sounding like he was quoting something.

Kuroba waved his hand. "Or something like that."

Aoko frowned. "It's rude to call Akako-chan a witch, Bakaito."

"She calls herself that and worse, Aoko."

"Still."

Kuroba rolled his eyes and pulled out a piece of paper and pencil from...somewhere. How he was managing sleight of hand when he was still recovering was beyond Saguru. His borrowed yukata only left so many places to hide objects too. "Here's her address," Kuroba said, jotting it down left-handed. "Don't worry about calling ahead. She'll be expecting you."

"...I'm not sure when I'm going yet."

"Trust me. She'll be expecting you."

The paper was warm from Kuroba's body heat. Saguru curled his fingers around it on automatic, brushing against Kuroba's hand in the process. Saguru didn't have many significant memories of Koizumi Akako, but the ones he did have hardly gave him the best impression. She had been a young woman surrounded by admirers and beautiful enough to catch even Saguru's attention despite his disinterest in the female form. She had been at once both enchanting and unsettling, all for reasons he couldn't put a cause to. She'd always fixated on Kuroba too, and that was possibly even more a cause for concern...

Kuroba turned back to the table, crossing his arms with an air of authority. "Now," he said, "we plan."

For the moment, Saguru put the problem of Koizumi Akako aside.