More fun!

Finally, thought Kaito as Jii went out to pick up some food. Now I can get up and walk around and try to figure out what's going on around here.

"Owowowowowowowow..." he groaned as he slowly, excruciatingly made his way out of the bed; swinging his legs over the side of the bed had nearly made him pass out. OK, walking around isn't the right term. Shuffling around is more like it, he thought crossly after he recovered. The aches and pains were even managing to get through the dulling effects of the extra-strength aspirin he'd happily taken about an hour ago. As he eventually made his way out to the hallway after a slow, laborious dressing procedure, every step taken and limb moved an extreme effort, he realized that there was no way in hell he was going to have the time he needed to search the entire house before Jii returned. OK...if I were trying to hide something in this house, where would I do it? Of course, his problem was amplified by the fact that this was not his own house. If it had been, he could have named off thirty different hiding places on the first floor alone (and ten of those his mom hadn't even found yet.) So in this case he was going to have to rely on his instinct, and a lot of luck.

There's something missing here, he realized as he entered what he guessed was a combination of living and dining room, aching and sweating from the exertion. He ticked off what he was seeing in his mind. Three-section sofa...a love seat...A dinette set with 4 matching chairs...Some copies of paintings...A couple small houseplants. He moved further into the room, continuing his sweep A stereo system that's not plugged in with its power cord dangling and no power socket in sight...A bare wooden coffee table (wait, where are the newspapers or magazines?)...A TV hutch...

Without a television in it.

That's interesting, Kaito mused as he approached the empty television stand. The fact was made even more interesting due to the fact that some peripheral dust lines very clearly indicated that there had been a television- or at least some sort of large, roughly square-shaped object- in the now-empty hutch and that it had been removed in a hurry. Enough of a hurry, in fact, that Jii hadn't bothered to clean up the dust that gave away that something had been there. So you decided to move your television, or whatever was here. But why? The obvious answer was that there had been something there that Jii hadn't wanted him to see.

Or something on the television that he hadn't wanted him to see, which Kaito's gut told him was the more likely of the two scenarios, at least until he got more evidence pointing to something else. Well, this combined with the fact that Jii-chan won't tell me where he picked me up from last night doesn't bode well, he thought wryly. What the hell happened? He needed to figure out what day it was- at least that would be some sort of start. He happily discovered a large tree-themed calendar up on the kitchen wall that Jii-chan even had the courtesy of crossing out dates on in a small, neat hand.

A trickle of fear-filled sweat slid down his back as a black hole emerged in his stomach and began eating at said stomach. If he was reading this right...today was...

Tropical Land.

"Ugh," Kaito muttered simply as he sank down into the couch, barely noticing the twinge of pain as he sat, his mind far too focused elsewhere at the moment. Aoko angry was one of the things he liked facing least in life, and he was going to have to face her while in what he knew was going to be one of her 'bite-Kaito's-head-off' moods thanks to his having completely skipped out on meeting her. Not only that, he was also going to have to come up with a plausible explanation for injuries that he himself could not recall sustaining. Well, he supposed that first things first was to call her and least let her know that he was still alive (though he probably wouldn't be for long once Aoko got a hold of him.)

Now...where was his cellphone? Wait, scratch that. Where were his clothes, for that matter? Jii had actually had to buy him clothes- Kaito had removed sales tags, after all, and Jii had mentioned having to guess at his size. So that meant that Jii had found him without clothes...? Or in nothing but his underwear, at least. So where was his Kaitou Kid outfit? One of his last clear memories was packing the hat with his usual assortment of tricks, so he knew whatever he had gone to do last night before waking up in this state, he had gone to do it as Kid.

So who the hell had...taken it off of him last night? And why? And how had they knocked him out? As improbable as the scenario seemed, it was the only one that made sense based on what he had heard and learned so far. He knew that Jii would have let him know immediately that he had collected the outfit if he had found it when picking Kaito up from wherever he had picked him up from last night, apparently knocked unconscious and very beat up. Had someone interrupted him during changing after a heist?

Kaito shook his head, dismissing that scenario quickly. If that had been the case, Jii wouldn't have needed to buy him new clothes because his clothes would have been there with him. Kaito needed to figure out where he had gone, and for what purpose, before he could begin to really piece things together. A jolt of fear followed this musing as he realized that whoever had taken it off of him would definitely have seen his bare, un-monocled face minus the hat. Which meant that they could probably identify him from a photo.

Oh shit...

Fear turned to full-fledged panic as he realized that not only could whoever had knocked him identify him, but they also most likely had his cellphone, which he usually carried tucked inside a hidden inner breast pocket of the tuxedo (albeit turned off while he was performing his heists.) So if they found it and turned it on they would not only have his face, but his name to go along with it. Hoping he could locate Jii's telephone somewhere nearby, Kaito hauled himself up off the couch with a wince and began searching for a telephone to call Aoko with. After he took care of that, he would begin thinking of ways to try and piece together what had happened so he could get completely out of whatever mess Jii had begun trying to extract him from. We're having a good, long talk about last night when you get back, Jii-chan. I can tell you're trying to protect me from something, but I need to know. Then we can sort this mess out together, whatever it may be. Now, to find that telephone...

"I knew it," Saguru whispered to himself as he read the details of the year-old paper. No wonder he had thought of this case, if only subconsciously at first; this old robbery and the current one that Kid was accused of mirrored each other so perfectly in detail that it was eerie. The only difference being that it had been another robber, a masked bandit who'd acquired the nickname "Buddha Thief" as he had seemed to have quite the obsession with small Buddha figures, especially of the jade variety. His spree had gone on for nearly six months, and according to the police a total of at least three small figures had been taken in a six-month span. He finally got caught after an eyewitness pointed police in his direction, the eyewitness having seen him running, statue in hand, away from the museum on foot after his final theft. A theft in which a guard had been shot and killed.

BUDDHA THIEF PROCLAIMS HIS INNOCENCE OF GUARD'S MURDER, shouted the year-old British headline. So, his real name was Marc Jacobsen. And...they also caught him on camera shooting the guard before stealing a small jade Buddha statue that had been on loan to the museum. Saguru's eyes narrowed in response to this revelation. And he kept insisting that he hadn't done it all the way up until the trial was slated to begin...

Well, now Saguru wanted to know what had happened after this date. The paper in his hand was dated fairly close to when Marc's trial had been due to start, so he would have to hope that the library that was three miles away would have suitable archives- he was only hopeful because this was an English and not an American daily. "Sorry girl, but you'll have to stay here. No predators allowed in the library," he remarked with a grin to Watson, and he swore that she shot him the avian equivalent of an annoyed glare in reply as he gently closed the door behind her once she entered. After finishing he walked out and called down the stairs "Do you mind taking me to the library for a bit of research, Shiori-san?"

"I'm sure she wouldn't but I most certainly mind," came his mother's reply up the stairs hard as diamond. He knew that tone: a steel glove surrounded by velvet that meant there would be no changing her mind and that trying to do so would merely get him into trouble. "Your father said you're to have a total, complete break from crime while you're here. You're lucky I even let you sneak some Holmes with you," she finished, cool Bristol accent brooking no argument. Saguru let out a very quiet annoyed huff and went back into his room before releasing Watson, who displayed her displeasure at being caged, however briefly, by greeting her owner with a small nip to the ear followed by a screech directly into it. Normally he would have scolded her, but...

"I feel the same way," he muttered to the hawk as he let her settle on his shoulder before poring over the old newspaper again. Caged and irritable, he thought darkly. Well, he would just have to make do with what he had for now: An old newspaper, full of inaccuracies and flaws that would render him no aid in figuring out what exactly was going on. Hell, it didn't even have the only other piece of information he was interested in- namely who had loaned the statue to that museum. He had been wondering if there was some sort of link there...

"What are you working on?" Shiori's faint voice issued from the other side of the door and Saguru went to open it, greeting his guardian-turned-sometime compatriot in crimesolving with a brief, tight smile. "Well, I found this paper from a year ago that has a story in it that's a lot like the one you brought me this morning," he explained as he showed her the two papers. "I wanted to go to the library to see how this old trial played out and to do some research into the statues themselves, but-"

"Mmm. I see." Shiori gave a conspiratorial wink. "I forgot some supplies; I'll be going to town again. Maybe you should write down any, ahem, supplies you'll be needing." With that, she turned and exited the room. Saguru scrambled to find a paper and began writing down in a neat, precise hand the information he was looking for and the approximate dates as well.