Act 3 Scene 3 マスク [Masuku] 'Mask'

Kaito could feel panic setting in. Conan's shaking voice spurred him into action. "Get Ran's mother's replacement in place! One of the organization snipers was spotted near her office, where's she's working late. I'm texting you the address!"

Ms. Kisaki's replacement hadn't come in yet, and wasn't scheduled to for two days. There wasn't time to find Officer Satou; he'd have to do it. The play was simple – get the civilian out of harms' way without arousing suspicion. Normally a phonecall was used, but Conan had some reason to believe that both her cellphone and her business land-line had been bugged. It could be the enemies of her client, or it could be the organization. He couldn't blame Conan for being paranoid.

He called Jii first, who showed up quicker than a taxi to speed him to Ms. Kisaki's office. Meanwhile he called as many replacements as he could, instructing them about the changes and telling them to tell the others. The journey took longer than they'd hoped, as they had to go around several streets blocked with overturned cars and angry yakuza glowering behind them. Finally, they screeched to a halt at the office building, and he sprinted inside, his disguise tools in his backpack, and waited for the elevator, hopping from foot to foot. Twenty flights of stairs was too much to finish with hands steady enough to apply the masks. He pulled his baseball cap lower over his eyes. Finally the elevator reached the ground floor. Luckily, it being long before business hours, and there wasn't anyone else getting on.

Ding!

They were at the twentieth floor. Ms. Kisaki had been working all night to prepare for a trial in a few days. Hopefully this wouldn't shock her too much and make her uncooperative. He could always knock her out, he reasoned. Luckily, her secretary and assistant had already gone home. He slipped through the doors of her office, and hid behind a wide bookcase. Luckily, there was plants and plenty of cover by the windows. He might be able to pull this off.

"I'm busy," she started, furious and sleep-deprived.

"You're Ran's mother, right?"

"Yes, but-" She started to look up.

"Don't look!" He ripped off his backpack and started stripping his shirt. "There's a hit out on you. I'm going to disguise myself as you, so they don't realize that you're not there, and if they take a shot, I'll be wearing a bullet proof vest, and won't get hurt, at least not much."

"How do you know this?" she snapped.

"Conan Edogawa's friends and family are the targets. A known sniper was spotted in the area. I need your clothes." He was putting on a flesh-toned bullet proof vest. It was slimmer than a police-issue vest, to avoid getting in the way of his disguises. It forced him into a straight-backed ballet-like pose. Unfortunately, that meant it wasn't as strong. It was better than nothing. "Get up and walk around the corner like you're going to get yourself another cup of coffee. Don't run. You'll have to open the door a little wide so I can sneak through below."

She slammed her work down on the desk, snatched her coffee cup, and marched into the secretary's office. Kaito darted through, crouched low.

"You're quite nimble," she observed. "Now who are you and what the hell are you doing here?"

"I'm Kaito Kuroba. You can call your daughter, and she'll confirm my identity. As for why, I already told you that." As he spoke, he put on a bra that had rubber flesh-toned latex boobs already in them. Glancing at Eri, he pumped some extra air into them.

Eri pulled out her phone, but Kaito yanked it out of her hands. "Use mine, it's clean."

Arching her eyebrows at the boy, she dialed Ran. It barely rang at all, and her daughter answered. "Kaito?"

"Guess again, Ran."

"Mom? Are you okay?"

"Dear, there's a strange young man here who's dressing himself in drag in my secretary's office. Do you know him?"

"That's Kaito. He's a disguise expert. I don't have time to explain, but do whatever he asks, okay?"

She sighed, trying not to look at the young man who was stripping off his pants. "If you say so, dear."

"I've gotta go, Mom. I've got the FBI on hold right now."

"Then by all means, dear." She hung up, and turned to face the teen. He was holding a t-shirt and a pair of sweats out to her. "Your story checks out. What do you need?"

"Hurry up and strip, we don't have time." He blushed suddenly and turned away. "They'll get suspicious if you suddenly are wearing different clothes when you come out."

"Why don't you give me the bullet proof vest, and let me pretend to go home?" Eri said, unbuttoning her shirt.

"Sorry, I only had the one on hand, and it's designed to fit me. I'm a lot smaller than you."

She pulled off her clothes and tossed them over to where the young man was. The replacement clothes he'd given her were too baggy and smelled like they'd just come off of the clothing rack at a store. Fully dressed, he handed her a mirror, and had her hold it up beside her face.

"You can't be much older than my daughter. Are you still in highschool?"

"Just graduated, ma'am," he mumbled, applying a temporary latex mask. It was one of his father's inventions – it had two layers, a slowly hardening under layer that conformed to the wearer's face, and glued itself to him. It also was pliable, and he could make facial features stronger or less obvious with it. After only 30 seconds of fiddling, and a quickly applied wig, Eri Kisaki was looking at herself. "Do you have your make up with you, like for touchups?"

"It's in my purse, by the entryway."

"Thanks." He slipped out of the door, and was back with her purse moments later. He even had her stride.

The mirror went back up, and he carefully put make up on that looked like it'd been neglected for hours.

"Yetch," he sighed. "Normally I do a better job, but I wasn't prepared for this. As long as no one looks too hard, we'll be fine." He cleared his throat, and continued in Eri's own voice. "Stay back here until help arrives. Under no circumstances are you to go outside. Not even if you hear me get shot. Understood?"

"When did you kids start doing the adults' jobs?" she asked, with a wry smile.

"Ask the adults that don't do their jobs." He poured some old, cold coffee into her cup, turned off the light, and walked back into the room. She heard him drawing the blinds. Then the telephone rang.

"Hello, Kisaki speaking."

The window shattered, and she heard the boy hit the floor with a scream, and the telephone clatter across the office floor, breaking. She held her hand over her mouth, to keep herself from making a noise. Then she dialed Ran again.

She answered immediately. "Mom what's-"

"That boy, he's shot!" she whispered. "I don't know if the phone's still connected, and if they can hear me or not. They called the office to make sure it was me, and he answered with my voice…"

"Okay Mom, we'll let them know. Is he alright?"

"I can't tell. He told me not to go outside the secretary's office until help arrives."

Kaito's muffled voice came from outside. "Ooowww… I'm fine, Ms. Kisaki. I ripped the phone cable out when I fell. I can't move; I'm talking into the carpet. Get them here fast so I can move because this huuuuurts…"

"He's hurting but alive, it sounds like."

Ran took a deep breath of relief. "Good. We're definitely going to get him full immunity."

"Full immunity?"

"That's Kaitou KID, Mom. Conan and I caught him, and got him to help us out."

"Did I hear 'full immunity' just now?" Kaito called from the other room. "If so please please please and a side of Ran doesn't get to beat me up any more?"

Kisaki chuckled to herself. "I may have to represent him. Also, have you been beating up that nice boy?"

"Mom! He stripped Sonoko naked and left her locked in the bathroom! Then he did it to Masumi too!"

"Well then, if you were protecting your girlfriend's chastity, then I suppose you have every right." Her voice had a sarcastic edge to it.

"Hey! I didn't strip Sonoko! We had a bet going that the other Karate-freak she was dating wouldn't be able to tell the difference between us; she LET me strip her!" he yelled. "And I honestly didn't know Masumi was female. She even went into the men's restroom!"

"Young man, you aren't helping your case. Stripping people naked and leaving them places isn't excusable, no matter their gender."

"Ewww! I always leave the underwear alone!" That last statement made him cough involuntarily. "Maybe I should… be quiet…"

His breathing sounded labored. "Ran dear, he's hurt more than he's letting on. How far away is the rescue?" She bit her lip. A teenager better not die to save her.

"They've got the shooter! The CIA took him down, right after he shot Kaito actually."

"The CIA? What on earth have you been up to?"

"Help is in the lobby, heading up to you soon. You can't go out there until the paramedics arrive, just in case there's a second shooter. The FBI hasn't gotten back to us on that yet." She heard Conan's voice in the background. "Dad's safe!" Ran exclaimed. "The FBI just got the sniper that was aiming for his replacement. They also caught an agent trying to slip a bomb up close to him. Mom, be careful, there may be more than one assassin. Make Inspector Megure check the identities of all of the paramedics. He's heading up to meet you."

"Thank you dear. After this, I'm taking you shopping and giving you thirty early birthday presents. Next time let me know ahead of time when something like this is happening. Don't leave us adults out. Are you sure you're safe?"

"The lights are off, and it looks like we're asleep. They're taking their time. We think they'll try to get us when Conan leaves for school in the morning." Ran was sounding so professional, so concise. When did she grow up like this?

"Mom, I have to hang up. The Beika police department is calling again."

"I love you dear. Stay safe!" The call disconnected. Or maybe it's the recklessness of youth, the feeling of being unstoppable, immortal. She'd felt like that once. It also made her do stupid things, but nothing this insane.

The Police burst into the office. A few came into the secretary's office, and Kisaki relayed the instructions, and included a few of her own. She came out, and the curtains had been drawn, and a metallic screen set up. She breathed a sigh of relief. Safe. Finally.

Kaito's disguise was in pieces around him, as the paramedics worked. They'd cut or ripped it all off, even the delicate mask. His bullet proof vest had been shattered, and the Kevlar was bloody, but there was no hole in it. It'd been a high velocity round.

Inspector Megure joined her in watching them work on the teen. "It's hard to believe that a kid could deliberately put himself in the sights of an assassin to save a stranger. Not many adults I know could do that."

"Most adults I know aren't that stupid."

Megure chuckled. His phone rang, and he turned away to answer it. Then he blanched and leaned on a bookcase to steady himself. "I'll let her know," he said, choking on his words.

Eri Kisaki snatched his shoulder and hissed, "What's happened? Is Kogorou hurt?"

He shook his head. "Please sit down, Eri." He rubbed his eyes, holding back tears, and sat down with her. "A few minutes ago, a car-bomb exploded outside the Mouri Detective Agency. Other than that, we have no news. Emergency response vehicles have been unable to get there, there's traffic jams all over Beika, from multiple car accidents and other explosions. Conan and Ran are beyond our reach."

"What?" yelled Kaito from the ground, struggling to get up. "Are Pipsqueak and Ran okay?"

"Stay down or we sedate you!" ordered the paramedic wrapping Kaito's bloody side. His abdomen was one large bruise. He'd been bleeding out into his own body. The cuts from the shattered vest were only scratches.

Still begging for news, they strapped him onto a stretcher and rolled him towards the door.

Eri jumped up. There was no use in staying there. "I'll go with him to the hospital," she told the paramedics. "That way we'll both get updated at the same time." She smiled at Kaito. His face was becoming far too pale. He stopped struggling, and didn't let Eri get out of view the entire trip, until he was sedated for surgery at the hospital. Eri took the phone Kaito had given her, and called the number labeled, "Mom."

Author's Note

To continue the theme we started last time, let's go over some ways that we can put Japanese politeness into prose and dialogue.

You'll notice it mentioned every now and then in the fanfic – bowing when saying "thank you" or greeting someone or making a request or apologizing. That's a fairly well-known bit of Japanese culture. Some things that you may not have known is that when bowing to someone who is your better in some way, it's polite to bow lower than them. Women typically bow lower than men as well... 'cuz... sexism. When you bow, you keep both hands down, at your sides. Clapping one's hand in front of one's face is reserved for the Kami in Shintou shrines. Or comedic begging scenes. I've never seen someone do that outside of cheesy Japanese dramas (usually when pleading for one's life from someone heavily armed and likely to kill you), or Americans being dumbasses.

One way that I see a lot of writers attempt to do but not get quite right is honorifics and name usage. I prefer not to use honorifics (obviously) because if you don't speak enough Japanese to know what they mean, they are very confusing. I like people who read my stories to not be confused unless I'm trying to make them sympathize with the characters' confused states. For example, if it was an American who didn't speak Japanese visiting Japan, I'd have them meet a lot of Japanese dialogue, because they wouldn't be able to understand it, and most likely, neither could my readers, making them feel a bit of the confusion and frustration that the character is feeling.

So, how does one do name usage in a way that reflects Japanese culture?

Let's look at this in a hierarchy. At the top, the most polite and "distant" is one's family name with an honorific. To get this across, I use Mr./Mrs./Ms./Miss/Sir/Ma'am and so on with the person's last name. Pretty simple. Using the last name with an honorific is common for friends, coworkers, classmates, and acquaintances. Dropping honorifics means that the relationship is very close and perhaps intimate – often used to indicate that two people are dating. Shinichi addresses Haibara and Hattori without honorifics, to show how close they've become. Using a first name with honorifics is about the same level of intimacy, or more intimate. A first name with no honorifics? You're probably family. Or going to become family. Ran and Shinichi refer to eachother by their first names without honorifics, as do Heiji and Kazuha.

Children have different rules for name usage. They refer to people older to them relative to how much older than them they are, like "Granny" and "Grampa" (old enough to be their grandparent) "Auntie" and "Uncle" (old enough to be their parent) "Big Sister" and "Big Brother" (old enough to be an older sibling). These are used like honorifics and attached to the names of whoever they are addressing. For their peers, they use last names for strangers and acquaintances with an honorific, and for friends they use first names with honorifics. If they are really close, first names or nicknames are used. You may remember a cute storyline from DC, when Ayumi decided to make Haibara her friend, but felt nervous about calling Haibara "Ai-chan", her first name with an honorific, because Haibara is so cool and aloof.

The rules for adults addressing children are different too. Usually the first name is used with an honorific, but if they are close, like family, an adult will drop the honorific or use a nickname.

One last note – when referring to yourself, you never use an honorific. One common mistake I see is thinking that "Edogawa Conan, tantei sa" is "Edogawa Conan, tantei-san." The "sa" is a childish version of "da" which means "am/is/are/be". He's saying, "I'm the detective, Conan Edogawa."

So, I use the "granny/grampa" and "auntie/uncle", but I don't use the "big sister/big brother" because that's just too awkward in English. I used family names versus personal names in the dialogue to reflect what would be used in Japanese, with simple "Mr." or "Mrs." to reflect honorifics. This way, I hope to get across this bit of Japanese culture without throwing a much of words you don't know at you.

また来週！ (See you next week!)
dreamingfifi