SAGURU
"Really, Sa-chan? Those shoes with that skirt? They go with the blouse but will ruin the overall look of the outfit." Saguru huffed in irritation, trying to resist to the urge to bang his head on the worktable. "I'm just trying to help," the man in front of him pouted.
"Here, Sa-chan," his aunt Kikyo said as she brought over a pair of shoes. "These are similar to the ones you picked out. They have a bit of a heel, but I can assure you that they will be comfortable to wear."
"Ah! Excellent choice, Kikyo, my love," the man beamed. "Those go much better with the skirt and even complement the accents on the blouse. And speaking of the skirt, Sa-chan, are you sure you don't want something shorter? You have beautifully long legs and a shorter skirt would show them off better. And a pencil skirt is so dull. Lets pick out something that will give you a better shape to work with the figure you're going for."
This time Saguru did bang his head on the worktop.
Last week after Saguru had started working in the studio workspace he'd rented from his Aunt Kikyo, he'd had the misfortune of having his plans and materials left out when she and her husband, Tahito Lyle, had poked their heads in to say hi.
Uncle Lyle was the son of a Japanese father and French mother. He had been schoolmates with Hakuba's mother and had been working as a model for a Beau Vous fashion show when he'd first met Kikyo. She'd been assigned as his stylist that day and it had been a love-at-first-sight kind of deal. Lyle was unique, to put it mildly, and the opposite of the kind of spouse the Hakuba family had wanted for their youngest daughter. Kikyo went along with everything he threw at her and she didn't bat an eye when he spontaneously cross-dressed. She helped him coordinate outfits, actually, and Saguru had once caught them out on a date pretending to be a lesbian couple. He supposed that it was the carefree and happy way that Lyle lived his life that had attracted Kikyo to him.
Fortunately – or unfortunately, depending on how one looked at it – Uncle Lyle's eccentric lifestyle made him the perfect consultant for Saguru's challenge. Ever since his aunt and uncle found out what his "project" was, they'd been very enthusiastic with helping him. They hadn't even bothered to ask him why he was cross-dressing. It only mattered that he was doing it and that (in Lyle's opinion) he was in need of some serious help.
"Fine!" Saguru finally huffed in answer to his uncle's suggestion, "but nothing too short. It needs to be long enough to hide the custom spanks I'm going to be wearing underneath."
"Done!" Lyle beamed as he left the room to pick out something else.
"I'm probably going to have to pick out a new blouse and another pair of shoes to go with it too," Saguru grumbled. "Bloody hell!"
"He means well," Kikyo chuckled warmly. "I think he's just excited that you're trying something like this. He's wanted to dress you up for ages and now's his chance to pass along some of his knowledge."
"I know. I'm not sure who's worse, him or Mum," Saguru sighed, running a hand through his hair as he returned his attention to the molds that he'd left sitting overnight. He'd spent a few days sculpting facial prosthetics on a life cast of his face and a chest appliance on a body cast. It had been a little disconcerting coming in that first day to see that his aunt already had up-to-date facial and body casts of him ready. However, it had saved time and he decided to just not think about how his aunt had come by them (though he had a sneaking suspicion his mother was involved somehow). He'd actually been in the middle of sculpting his chest piece when his aunt and uncle had paid him a visit and discovered the nature of his project. Being a "professional" cross-dresser himself, Lyle had suggested some great ideas on how to smooth out Saguru's facial structure.
Saguru already had high cheekbones and a somewhat feminine look around his eyes (much to his irritation). It had just been his jaw structure that needed to be softened and rounded out. Make-up would take care of the rest. As for the body, Lyle agreed with Saguru's assessment that having C-cup range breasts was better than going around with huge knockers on his chest.
Saguru thought that Lyle had taken a little too much delight in pointing out that Saguru already had a slim willowy figure that made a great base to build up from. Saguru was aware that he was a little narrow in the shoulders, which was why he wore suits with shoulder pads all the time. In this case, though, his slim body type would be a good thing. He didn't have to worry about having to hide bulky muscles in his torso and calf-muscles.
Lyle returned with a new skirt that was a lot shorter than the one that Saguru had originally chosen, but it was at least the same color, so Saguru wouldn't have to change any of his other clothing choices.
"When are you going to try it all on?" Lyle asked. "If Kikyo and I need to make adjustments and change any fittings in the clothes, we need to know soon. You're going out in this over the weekend, aren't you?"
"Yeah," Saguru sighed, setting aside the clean facial mold to work on cleaning out the clay in his chest appliance mold. "I'll have to. There is no other time before I fly back to England to help Mum with her charity event."
That was another wrench thrown into the works. A few days ago his mother had called to check up on him and to ask him to come home so that he could help her with a Halloween charity event she was hosting. "Please, Sa-chan," she'd begged. "I'm just in way over my head. Michael DuPont has injured himself and I need someone to cover for him as head of the makeup department. The other artists are great, of course, but they lack direction and don't know what I'm going for! You're so good at costume make-up and take charge of a situation so well! I really could use your help on this, sweetheart."
His mother really had sounded as if she were at her wits end so Saguru had agreed (though she could have been acting – it was hard to tell over the phone). Now he only had a couple more days to pull his own project together in order to fulfill the challenge in a timely manner, and he had to somehow let Kid know about his plans to leave the country. He could always just tell Kuroba, but the magician was stubborn. Kuroba and Kid were to be treated as separate beings because Kuroba would never admit to being Kid. It was too bad, really. Saguru was going to have to miss Kid's Halloween heist. At least he would get to see it on video due to the parameters of the thief's challenge, but that was never the same as actually being there. Oh well.
Saguru set aside his clean molds and took a look at the clothes that Lyle had laid out for him. He'd chosen a nice cream blouse with a slight v-neck that didn't dip down too much into cleavage territory, with a designer jean jacket to go over it. The new skirt that Lyle had brought out for him was navy like the long knee-length pencil skirt he'd originally chosen, but this one stopped several inches above the knees and flared out a bit with furls of satin material, giving the skirt a layered wave look to it, with little sparkles and sequins sown in that flashed when they caught the light. Now that Saguru looked at it with the blouse and jacket, he realize that the glittery bits of the skirt tied into the glitter accents on the jacket, and the sheen of the satin tied in to the creamy sheen of the blouse. The shoes Kikyo had suggested were navy two-inch-heel sandals with the same kind of glitter accent on them as the jacket and skirt, tying the whole thing together and creating a tasteful, girly appearance.
"I'll try everything on once the chest appliance is done," Saguru declared, "so hopefully tomorrow evening everything will be ready for a fitting." He and his aunt carefully poured the silicon and foam latex mixtures into the right molds and set them aside to settle. "Well that's all we can do this evening," he sighed.
"We'll see you tomorrow," Kikyo promised. "Have a good night, Sa-chan."
"And don't forget to shave your legs!" Lyle winked.
xxxxxxXXXxxxxxx
KAITO
"Wake up, lazybones, it's almost noon." Kaito pulled the covers further over his head, hoping that maybe if he couldn't see Aoko, she couldn't see him. He was willing to invoke child's logic if it meant getting more sleep. He'd been up all night plotting for the Halloween heist and had finally collapsed into bed around seven.
Lady Luck must have also been exhausted, however, since Aoko yanked the pillow out from under his head and bopped him with it. "C'mon, Kaito, you promised you'd come with Aoko today."
"I did no such thing," Kaito replied from under the comforter, though he'd given up on going back to sleep at this point. "You informed me last week after the soccer match that I would be going with you to the Tokyo Tower today, and I'm really quite sure I said no."
"Please? There's a special event today at the Guinness World Records Museum." Kaito was reluctant to admit it, but that museum – one of the many attractions in the building at the base of the Tower – was pretty cool. Plus, Aoko had said please, and heist planning could wait when friendship called.
He sighed melodramatically, rolling out of bed. "I suppose I could come with you. Give me twenty minutes to get dressed and eat something, m'kay?" Aoko smiled brightly and left the room to put on a kettle for tea. Kaito wrestled on a pair of jeans and battled the dresser for a clean t-shirt before following her down to the kitchen.
Aoko, as it turned out, was a master of bait-and-switch. This wasn't news to Kaito, of course, having known her for ages, but after minimal sleep, he was less than capable of detecting when she was going to turn "just one museum" into "an all-day outing". He grumbled when they disembarked the train much too early to be headed towards the tower, but allowed Aoko to lead him around the city. They hit two bookstores that were having sales, and both teenagers left happy. Aoko picked out some how-to guides for sewing projects and a romance novel, and Kaito bought three manga he knew she wanted and a popular technology magazine.
Aoko found a cute black dress in one of the clothing boutiques, trilling cheerfully that she was going to dress up as a witch for Halloween this year, even though she was just handing out candy. "Where do you think Aoko could find a witch's hat?"
"Koizumi's lair," he coughed. Then, louder, he answered, "We passed a costume store that had Halloween decorations up in the window displays. Maybe they have something." They did indeed have witch's hats, to Aoko's delight.
"The museum's next," Aoko promised after two more clothing stores, a chocolate shop, and half a dozen places filled with knick-knacks.
"Silly Aoko. We're not going to want to carry all of this around in the museum. Plus, I assume we're going to end up in the Trick Art Gallery, one of the restaurants, and the tower's observatory too."
She didn't look ashamed at all, grinning widely. "Yeah, probably. The Aquarium Gallery's out of the question today."
"Or any day when I'm with you, for that matter."
Aoko laughed. "Alright. We're not that far from Ekoda. Let's drop our stuff off at home and then hop over to the tower. Does that sound like a decent plan?" Kaito nodded.
The lines for the Guinness World Records Museum were atrociously long. "Want to go to the observatory first?" Aoko asked.
"Good idea. There will probably be fewer people in line as soon as dinner time rolls around."
"Awesome." Kaito told bad jokes in the elevator on the ride up to the main observatory, which Aoko appreciated immensely and an elderly couple from the Netherlands did not. She was still snorting as the doors opened, and Kaito let out a couple of chuckles too before stepping onto the floor. Aoko rushed to the windows to get a look at the city, and Kaito followed her at a more sedate pace, interested in the people mulling around the observatory. Most visitors had cameras, ranging from old, cheap point-and-shoots to some really sweet DSLR's that Kaito would love to play with. There were tourists from all over the world, judging by the assortment of languages being spoken and the differences in attire. The majority of folks here were in groups, trying to crowd everyone into the camera's view while one member gestured to so-and-so to move to the right, no, the left, no, just a teensy bit back, yeah, that's perfect, say cheese! Some avid photographers were alone, focused on capturing the entirety of the cityscape in the late afternoon light.
About a quarter of a way around the floor was a girl leaning against the bars, like other tourists, but she was facing inward rather than straining to take in the outside view. From the way her gaze swept around, she was also inspecting the crowd. She was tall, with honey blonde hair piled artfully atop her head and sandals that boosted her another couple inches. The heel on the sandals did wonders for her already exceptional legs, which led smoothly into her indigo skirt. Kaito's eyes moved up her torso. One arm was draped casually on the bar with a disposable camera in her grip. Her makeup was tastefully well-done, and those eyes –
Holy.
Fucking.
Shit.
Kaito felt his jaw drop. That was Hakuba. As in Hakuba. As in oh my gods he knocked this challenge out of the park! How did he do that? He didn't habitually cross-dress like Kaito did – or at least, that's what Kaito had assumed. The magician had thought that it would be interesting to see what Hakuba had learned from Kid's disguises, and had anticipated that the detective's attempt would be amusing, but this was totally unexpected. Lady Hakuba looked extremely comfortable in her apparel, including whatever apparatus was strapped on to give her a nice chest. Damn.
Kaito glanced back at Aoko, who was snapping away on her mobile phone's camera. He wound his way around vaguely in Lady Hakuba's direction, trying not to make it look like he was zeroing in on her. He could introduce himself and do a couple magic tricks. It was well within character for Kaito to strike up a conversation with a stranger, and depending on how the exchange played out, he might even hint that he recognized Hakuba. It wouldn't do to say so outright, because Kuroba Kaito wasn't supposed to know that Hakuba had been dared to masquerade as a woman. Kaito could offer to take her picture with the camera, since Hakuba had clearly come alone and was supposed to bring physical evidence of completing the challenge to their next post-heist meeting. Kaito hadn't expected to see Lady Hakuba in person, but this was a pleasant surprise.
Hmm. Another teen girl jogged up next to Lady Hakuba to look out the window, and Hakuba turned and said something to her. Kaito couldn't tell from this distance if Hakuba had done something to change his voice, but the Japanese girl wasn't looking at him oddly, so Lady Hakuba must sound all right. The stranger smiled and nodded, holding a hand out for Lady Hakuba's camera. Kaito's plan to take a souvenir photo for her had come mere minutes too late, it seemed. He edged closer anyway to see if he could hear what they were saying.
"Thank you," Lady Hakuba was saying to the girl in a convincing, throaty alto with a hint of a French accent as Kaito got within earshot. "I'm visiting from France, so I'm afraid I don't know too many people here in Japan. It's a pleasure to meet you."
The girl with green eyes smiled again. "Tha pleasure's mutual. Ya've gotta good grasp on tha language fer a foreigner. My name's Toyama Kazuha."
"Renee Benoit. Ah, my apologies, it's 'Benoit Renee' here." It was an intentional mistake, but it made sense for the tourist persona Hakuba had donned. "Are you from Tokyo?"
"Nah, I'm in town fer tha weekend with some friends. I live in Osaka. Ya should definitely visit there if ya haven't already."
Kaito opened his mouth to introduce himself when a teen with a baseball cap stormed over, drawing both the girls' – er, Hakuba and Toyama-san's – attention. The guy was muttering about how some people always ran off without waiting for everyone else. Toyama-san took a deep breath to give him a what-for when Kaito recognized him from Kid's research: Hattori Heiji, Detective of the West and friends with that miniature menace from Beika.
Kaito had… borrowed the Detective Koushien case files from the police station after everything had been sorted out, because really, how could he pass up information about a gathering of teenage detectives? Two of Kid's most fervent troublemakers had been in attendance, and he'd needed to see if the group would ever join forces for a Kid heist.
Oh. Kaito realized something else: Hattori knew Hakuba, and they didn't get along, and Hakuba was here dressed as a woman. Kaito didn't actually want Hakuba's reputation to be destroyed. These challenges were supposed to be a bit of fun, not harmful. Therefore, Kaito might have to run some interference if Hattori started looking at her chest too closely.
Kaito opened his mouth again to introduce himself.
This was about to get interesting in a variety of ways.
xxxxxxXXXxxxxxx
SAGURU
Saguru had been apprehensive after he'd put the whole disguise on that morning. Everything fit great and his chest appliance had come out even better than he'd hoped, the seams being perfectly thin and easy for his aunt to blend into his skin for a flawless and natural look. The custom padded spanks also helped to give him a figure while also helping hide his male bits. Then there was the choker. Saguru knew that he was a decent actor, but he also knew that he'd never be able to pull off speaking consistently in a female voice like Kid could, so he'd made a voice changer and fit it into the choker he was wearing to hide his Adam's apple. The device stimulated Hakuba's vocal cords and, after some mild adjustments and calibrations, helped heighten the pitch of his voice from a male's tenor range to a woman's alto.
Saguru had also decided at the last minute not to wear a wig. He was afraid that if it got caught on something or someone pulled on it and he'd be revealed. So he'd spent a good chunk of his morning sitting in a salon chair, allowing his aunt to color his real hair a couple shades lighter and added long hair extensions – which thankfully they could do. Saguru made a mental note to get a hair cut after the challenge was over. It was getting a little shaggy. While getting his hair done, Lyle had started painting his toenails – because what self-respecting woman Saguru's age wouldn't paint her nails if she was going to be wearing sandals and a cute outfit while out on the town? – and applied acrylic French-manicure fingernails.
After his aunt and uncle were finished dressing and making him up, he'd had to blink in bewilderment at the mirror. He looked great. Now he needed to perfect the assumed identity that went with the appearance. Fortunately, he'd thought of that. "Uncle Lyle, do you have Renee's passport?"
"Her things are right here," he answered, pointing to a bag on the table. "Her eyes are a bit different from yours, but you could suggest that the glare from her glasses affected that. The difference in hair color can easily be explained with hair dye." Saguru had met Uncle Lyle's niece Renee Benoit a few times on some of his visits to Paris and found her to be as eccentric as her uncle. During the planning stages for this event, Lyle had called his favorite niece up and asked if it would be alright for Saguru to borrow her identity for an afternoon. Now a normal person would (should) have been appalled to have their identity borrowed (unless it involved Kid and they were fans), but Renee had actually been excited to learn about the project and had given her permission on the condition that she be sent pictures of "her time in Tokyo." She had even asked if she should come out to Japan for the occasion, but Saguru shot that idea down quickly before Lyle got any more ideas (probably something dealing with the two of them pretending to be sisters), and reassured Renee that it wasn't necessary for her to come out. The girl had mailed him her passport and one of her cellphones anyway "for authenticity sake," and said she would see him when he returned to London for his mother's charity event. God, was everyone in his family with European blood nuts? If so, Saguru could only wonder about his own sanity. He was willingly cross-dressing and having secret late-night meetings to exchange challenges with the thief who was probably the closest thing he'd ever had to a best friend. Lord help him.
Irrational antics from his relations (and quite possibly himself) aside, Saguru gathered what he needed, grudgingly including Renee's passport and cellphone. After the first few nerve-wracking moments upon leaving the studio and catching a bus to Tokyo Tower, Saguru had started to relax and actually began to enjoy himself. He could now kind of understand why Kid chose to disguise as a woman a lot of the time. People opened doors for him, allowed him to take their seat on the bus, and were generally nice to him. The downside was the lechers. He'd had a rather uncomfortable moment on the bus when a man was leering at him and had patted his ass as he walked past to get off. That Saguru could have done without.
Now he was at Tokyo Tower and bought a disposable camera at the souvenir store. There was some kind of event going on downstairs, so Saguru decided to just head up and have his picture taken on one of the observation deck floors. Keeping in character, Saguru took a selfie of himself on the camera for Renee, before looking around at the crowd, hoping to find someone to take a couple decent pictures of him for his challenge.
To his surprise and unease, he saw Kuroba and Aoko as they exited the elevator. Saguru made sure not to openly watch them, taking a moment to compose himself. He kept tabs on Kuroba out of the corner of his eye, though, and it was amusing to see his rival staring at him with a slack jaw. He couldn't be sure if Kuroba had recognized him or not, but this was starting to become fun. Maybe he could mess with Kuroba a bit. His classmate was clearly intent on making some kind of contact with him, as the trickster slipped away from Aoko and started subtly making his way over towards Saguru.
When a girl his age came up next to him and he asked her to take his picture, she started up a conversation and he lost track of Kuroba. Then one of Toyama's companions joined them, and it was Hattori Heiji. Shit. Saguru recovered quickly from his shock while the hotheaded detective and Toyama bickered, but now he was feeling nervous. Hattori might be a rather rash individual, but he was perceptive… and so was the little boy that Saguru could now see ducking between legs to reach them. Crap. Edogawa Conan was here too with his guardian, Mouri Ran. Edogawa was even better at noticing things than Hattori. After a minor internal panic attack, Saguru reassured himself that his disguise was well put together and neither of his fellow detectives had reason to suspect he was anyone other than Renee Benoit.
Saguru would've excused himself to find someone else to take the damn picture, but Toyama had his camera. "Ah, pardon me," Saguru tried to speak up over the two Osakans' growing argument.
"Ah! Sorry!" Toyama exclaimed, turning back around to face him and ignored Hattori altogether. "I was gonna take yer picture fer ya."
"Geez, Kazuha," Hattori huffed, noticing Saguru. "Sorry, 'bout my friend. She's a bit scatterbrained. Name's Hattori Heiji."
"Benoit Renee," Saguru said, introducing "herself".
"Oi! Heiji-niichan! Kazuha-neechan!" Edogawa's young voice piped up.
"You two shouldn't wander off like that," Mouri huffed as she joined them. "We almost lost you in the crowd."
"Ah, sorry, Ran-chan," Toyama gasped, bowing deeply in apology.
Hattori, who had been criticizing Toyama for the same offense, changed the subject. "Kazuha, ya still got Benoit-han's camera," he pointed out.
"Shut it, ahou, I know that," Toyama scowled at her friend before returning her attention to Saguru. "Sorry. Where did ya want yer picture taken?"
"Uh, I think here is good," Saguru replied with a smile, trying to relax even though both Hattori and Edogawa were watching him. While Kazuha snapped a couple pictures, Edogawa's eyes were sharp and intense and Hattori was staring at him with a curious expression. Did they suspect something?
"Have we met somewhere before, nee-chan?" Edogawa asked in that childish voice that didn't fool Saguru for a moment. Hattori's eyes narrowed a bit, looking at him.
"I don't believe so," Saguru responded, frowning. Edogawa's gaze didn't lose any of its intensity.
"Ya know… ya do look familiar," Hattori mused. "Ya ever been ta Osaka before?"
"No," Saguru answered truthfully, shaking his head, "though I have visited Tokyo a couple times before now. I have some family here." He smiled at Toyama as she handed the camera back to him.
"And yet I don't see anyone accompanying ya. Did ya come here alone?" Hattori asked, an eyebrow rising.
"Shouldn't someone be showing you around, nee-chan?" Edogawa asked. "You're not familiar with Japan, right?"
"My relatives are rather busy today," Saguru replied, "and I can take care of myself, thank you very much."
"Heiji, quit pestering her," Toyama snapped.
"Yeah, what's with all the questions, you two?" Mouri asked. Hattori and Edogawa looked like they were about to respond when someone called out to Saguru.
"Ah! Benoit-chan!" Saguru blinked in surprise, not having expected Kuroba to appear even though he knew that his classmate was around.
"Hello," Kuroba smiled, nodding his head in acknowledgment of Hattori's group before returning his attention to Saguru. "I believe we met at the Ota Memorial Museum the other day. What a coincidence that we'd run into each other again. I'm Kuroba Kaito, if you don't remember." Kuroba paused and Saguru tried to gather his scattered thoughts, wondering what the magician was up to. After a moment, Kuroba continued with a smile that seemed uncomfortable, "Perhaps I was mistaken." He magicked a rose into his hand and held it out to Saguru as an apology.
Well, if there were any doubts before about whether Kuroba had recognized Saguru, there weren't any now. Kuroba was up to something, but Saguru didn't have time to deduce what it was because Hattori-bloody-Heiji was standing there trying to figure out why Renee Benoit looked so familiar. "Ah! No, you were not mistaken. I've been to so many museums in the past week that it took a moment to place you. Pleased to see you again. Kuroba-kun, right."
Kuroba beamed. "How's your visit going?"
"It's been great," Saguru smiled, startling when his cellphone suddenly rang. It was Lyle. Saguru made a mental note to switch over to French. "Bonjour?"
"How's it going? You haven't run into any troubles I trust?" Lyle answered back in French.
"Nothing I can't handle," Saguru sighed, leaning against the rail. A sudden idea struck him. Hattori and Edogawa were suspicious because Saguru still looked enough like himself to be familiar. Well if he was ever going to get them off his back… "How's your project coming?"
"Project? Ah! You have run into some trouble, haven't you?" Lyle chuckled.
"You've run into some trouble?" Saguru huffed, switching back to Japanese and playing up Renee's character. "If you're that concerned about it, ask Saguru. He'll be able to tell what looks authentic and what doesn't, unless he's ignoring you."
"Ah! You wound me! Why would my sweet nephew ignore me?"
"Why indeed," Saguru commented dryly. "Ask the detective himself. Well, I'm fine. I'll see you when I return. Au revoir." Clicking his phone shut, Saguru returned his attention to the group before him. "Sorry. That was my uncle checking in."
"I couldn't help overhearing, but is your cousin a detective too?" Mouri asked.
"Too?" Saguru asked, feigning confusion.
"Heiji an' Ran-chan's dad are detectives," Kazuha explained.
Saguru smiled. "Ah. Then maybe you know my cousin, Hakuba Saguru."
"Hakuba?!" Hattori gaped. "Yer related ta that guy?"
"He's my uncle's wife's nephew," Saguru explained. "I see him all the time when he visits France. Tell me, are you a Holmes fanatic as well, Hattori-san?"
"Hell no!" Hattori protested. "Kudo's tha Holmes nut." Edogawa narrowed his eyes at Hattori and started demanding what was wrong with Sherlock Holmes.
Saguru was relieved to see most of the suspicion gone from Hattori and Edogawa's eyes. They'd bought it. Kuroba looked torn between amusement and surprise. Saguru winked at him.
xxxxxxXXXxxxxxx
KAITO
Either Hakuba did this regularly, or he had composure made of iron. Kaito was surprised at the wink that came his way, but he was quick to reciprocate. Lady Hakuba – or Renee Benoit, as she'd introduced herself – had neatly deflected the suspicion of the other two detectives.
Now that a pair of overly nosy gumshoes wouldn't be following, Kaito made a move to extract Hakuba from the situation. "Benoit-chan, do you have dinner plans this evening? There are several restaurants downstairs, and my dear friend and I would be delighted to have extra company. I believe you'd get along splendidly with us." He held out an arm.
Hakuba gave him a very sarcastic quirk of the eyebrows before he returned to the façade. "I'm sure I will." He looped his arm through Kaito's, though not without a brief moment of hesitation. Turning back to the group, he bowed to Toyama. "Thank you, Toyama-san. I can hardly wait to send these pictures home."
"Not a problem," she beamed. "Here, lemme give ya my number, in case ya ever come ta Osaka." She tore a corner off of a receipt from her purse and scrawled a phone number on it. Hakuba thanked her again before he and Kaito left them.
"Your hair is stunning, Benoit-chan," Kaito commented blithely as the two crossed the room back to where Aoko was standing. "Are you a natural blonde?"
"You flatter me, Monsieur Kuroba."
Kaito smiled. So they'd be keeping up the façade in public even when no one was listening. Cautious as always. "You're the kind of girl that deserves to be flattered. Adventurous, intelligent, lovely."
"How could you have drawn all those conclusions about me?" Hakuba asked. There might have been some subtle batting of eyelashes. "We've only met twice."
Kaito ticked off the three points on his fingers. "It takes bravery to venture out alone in a country where your primary language isn't spoken. You studied up quite a bit about the Japanese language, culture, and art, as evidenced by our encounter at the museum. And dear, it doesn't take a detective to tell that you're gorgeous. That was the easiest deduction this humble magician could ever make."
"You've got quite the way with words, Monsieur Kuroba."
"I come by it honestly." The conversation ended as they reached Aoko, and Kaito introduced the "girls" with a smile. "Aoko, this is Benoit Renee. We met a week ago at a museum and I just spotted her here. I just learned that Benoit-chan is Hakuba-kun's cousin. Sort of. She's visiting her family here. Benoit-chan, this is Nakamori Aoko."
Aoko held out a hand to shake, apparently remembering the western custom. "Pleased to meet you, Benoit-san."
Hakuba shook her hand. "The pleasure is mine. I hope you don't mind that Kuroba-kun invited me to join you. I'd hate to intrude."
"Not at all. Aoko would love to hear about your travels so far. Where else have you been since you got to Japan?" Kaito smiled to himself as Aoko took a genuine interest in Renee, asking all sorts of questions while they rode the elevator down to the restaurants. She didn't stop when they were seated, and every once in a while Kaito would toss in a question to test the limits of Hakuba's cover story. The light kicks under the table proved that his mischief had not gone unnoticed.
Hakuba finally got a chance to take a sip of his water when Aoko excused herself to the ladies' room. Kaito caught sight of the fake nails and grinned. Hakuba had been very thorough with the details. Hakuba saw the direction of his gaze and kicked him again.
"Benoit-chan, so forward! Only the second date and you're playing footsie with me."
"I think you're the forward one, Kuroba-kun. I wouldn't call these chance encounters dates. You'd have to be quite a bit more charming for that." The retort was followed by a scream from behind Kaito, and the magician whipped around to find the source. On the other side of the restaurant there was a woman who'd knocked her chair over and was pointing at one of the other people from her table. The man had fallen onto the ground and lay there unmoving, his glass spilling a light liquid and a handful of ice down the tablecloth and onto the floor.
When Kaito turned back around to see Hakuba's reaction, he found the cross-dressing detective's chair empty. "So much for staying under the radar," he muttered, and took off after Hakuba towards the crime scene. And what a coincidence, the trouble magnet was eating here too, along with the three teens he'd come with.
Hakuba whipped his camera out, snapping shots of the scene and the victim. Hattori sidled up beside him, trying to keep other people away. Someone else at the table – not the hysterical woman – had contacted the police, and the munchkin had gloves out and was examining the body. The two teenage detectives were getting along better than Kaito had expected, but then, Hattori didn't know who he was working with.
"Benoit-chan?" Kaito ventured. "Doesn't forensics usually take the photos?"
Hattori answered for him. "It's tha ice. By the time tha cops get here, it'll all be melted. I don't know the stats for folks puttin' poison in ice, but it's better to have them in case that's what happened." He looked over at Hakuba. "Do ya follow your cousin's cases or somethin'?"
"No," Hakuba answered, "I've just heard enough about some of them during his visits and I read enough mystery fiction to know the gist of things."
The authorities showed up and Hattori took charge to inform them what had happened. Hakuba was remarkably staying out of things for the most part, but wasn't afraid to butt in and add anything that the Osakan had missed, and the bespectacled boy made sure to ask the right question, in that innocent voice of his, to people's attention. Kaito just stood there alone, trying not to get in everyone's way. Aoko hadn't wanted to leave him and "Benoit-san" but she had to go home after a call from her father. Something about taking their cat to the vet.
Finally, after what felt like forever to the bored magician, it looked like the underage detectives were satisfied with the proceedings and the culprit was being taken into custody.
Hakuba looked surprised to see Kaito still standing there. "I thought you'd left."
"Benoit-chan, I wouldn't abandon a lady in distress."
"Distress?"
"It's late and you haven't eaten yet because the case came up. C'mon, I'll take you somewhere with good food, okay?"
More surprise. "If you insist." Kaito held out his arm again, and this time Hakuba didn't hesitate to take it.
Halfway through the main course at a restaurant on the other side of the city, Hakuba's phone rang. He frowned, but answered. "Hello?"
Kaito could hear the other end of the conversation from his seat. "This was the phone number left to the Minato police division by Benoit Renee. Is this her?"
"Yes."
"We'd like you to come in about something concerning the incident at Tokyo Tower."
Kaito watched Hakuba start to panic a little. "Is there a problem?" He'd needed to show them his passport as identification, Kaito remembered. Had they found something wrong with it?
"I'm sorry about the oversight, but because things were so busy at the scene, we neglected to collect your camera, which contains photo evidence. Please bring it to the station at your earliest convenience."
"You're confiscating my camera?" Hakuba clarified, looking defeated.
"Temporarily, yes. As soon as the case is wrapped up, we will return it to you. If you've left the country by then, we can have it mailed to your address." What Kaito realized, and what Hakuba had undoubtedly already thought of, was that all of the evidence that Hakuba had collected for Kid's challenge was on that camera. If Hakuba handed it in, the police would hold onto it for at least a month, way past the date of Kid's next heist.
Hakuba sighed heavily. "I… alright. I'll bring it in as soon as I can get there."
Kaito nudged the detective's foot after he'd hung up. "Don't look so gloomy, Benoit-chan. You can always get another camera and take more pictures of this beautiful city." And get the proof he needed for Kid.
"I'm leaving the country tomorrow to visit my relations in England. Today was my last opportunity."
There was still a way, though: "Could you take pictures in England?"
"Not a chance."
"Oh. Are you coming back to Japan?"
"Eventually." Ah. Too late for the Halloween heist and too late for their next meeting.
Unless he came up with something soon, it seemed like Hakuba was going to fail his challenge.
xxxxxxXXXxxxx
SR: Woo! And that was chapter five! We're leaving things on a rather interesting note this time, aren't we MG? God this chapter was so much fun to write, though I think every chapter for this story has and will continue to be fun to write. I think we were both laughing as we wrote this and read each others' parts. I really needed to be reeled in on this one. Between Lyle, Saguru and Renee, my plot bunnies ran wild. And we got to introduce Hattori and Conan! That was really fun to have them show up.
MG: Yeah, this was an interesting ending. What is Hakuba going to do? And our West and East detectives will definitely be brought up again eventually. Also, in case you were worried, Kaito hasn't outed himself as Kid to Hakuba by recognizing the detective in drag. At some point he questions Hakuba about the event, and of course Hakuba won't tell him why
SR: In case any of you guys were wondering, a lot of the stuff from Hakuba's first part involving the prosthetics and chest appliances was based off of what I've seen on Sci-Fi Channel's Face Off. I have been watched Face Off for the last couple of months now and got totally hooked. It's actually what inspired this whole challenge to begin with as well as a lot of aspects in what I've integrated into Hakuba's character and his family. The plot bunnies would not leave me alone and way back when we were still writing the start of the Alphabet Heist/Word Challenge, I had to tell MG about my idea and we agreed that because we're nearing Halloween, it'd be Hakuba's next challenge and worked off of it to come up with Kaito/Kid's challenge. Speaking of which, I can NOT wait to see how Kid's Halloween heist goes down, MG.
MG: I'm looking forward to it too! Kaito's going to have a blast. Thanks for reading, and please leave a review! We appreciate every bit of feedback