Mikau: Hi everyone! I'm steadily working on things here on this end. My life got busier with my internship, but things are going well. I'm actually role-playing a lot these days on the Poirot Café Forum. I play Hakuba, so check it out if you're interested. I've actually got the next HP chapter and two new HakuKai fics up for you today too. They're called Somewhere Safe and Compulsory Conversations. They're daily word prompt projects that got to full one-shot size, so take a look at them if you have a chance. CC is in the Magic Kaito section. Speaking of word of the day prompts, this is one too. The words were: spade, pride, rain, catastrophe, and ambulance. So, this one's a little sad, if you hadn't guessed. By the way, thanks so much to all my reviewers from last time: Blue Waters 52, Lady of the Shards, incandescent stars, Bunnyz-chan, and Miss Emotion! Enjoy!

Disclaimer: If I owned it, I'd have the Magic Kaito 1412 anime stop jumping around so much. I understand that they're doing their best to stretch out what little plot they have, but…the chronology was screwy to begin with. And now it's worse. I think they're doing a good job overall, though.

…

As the Rain Falls

The Ace of Spades had arrived in the mail for Hakuba Saguru one autumn morning in late September. And all he could do was stare at it, thinking that there must be some kind of mistake.

Was this supposed to be a death threat? Who would want him dead? All of the names that came to mind belonged to people back in England. He hadn't done much to make enemies since he'd come to Japan. He'd basically just been rather unsuccessfully working on catching Kid. Maybe it was a Kid fangirl?

He considered going to the police, but the more he thought about it, the more it hurt his pride as a man to ask for help defending himself against some deranged fangirl. He'd be fine.

He did, however, after the last bell at school that day, show the card to Kuroba Kaito as he walked past, chuckling, "You should keep your fangirls in check, Kuroba. They've escalated to the level of death threats."

But Kuroba didn't laugh. Kaito's face went as white as sheep's wool, and his eyes widened in horror, unrestrained by his usual poker face.

But Saguru didn't see it. He hadn't waited for his rival's reaction before making his way to Baaya's waiting car. She was giving him a ride home today in part because of the driving rain but mostly so that he'd have more time to prepare for the Kid heist later that evening.

Back in the classroom, Kaito was panicking. He raced after the detective but was too late. The car had pulled away as Kaito dashed out of the building, and there was no way he was catching up with Baaya (aka: "Lead Foot Maggie").

Next he tried to remember Hakuba's phone number. The Brit had only called that one time, and Kaito had foolishly not saved the number, but still he struggled to think back to that moment when his phone had rung, the instant he had looked at the readout. God, what had that number been?!

On the third try Kaito got it right, but it went straight to voicemail because Hakuba still had the phone turned off from being at school.

In a frantic fit, Kaito hurried over to the Hakuba Manor to stop Hakuba in person, but by the time he'd got there, Hakuba had already left to make early preparations for the heist.

Kaito stood on the Hakubas' doorstep in the pouring rain and took a deep breath. Yes, this was an absolute catastrophe, and he had every right to panic, but running around hysterically was not going to help matters. He had to be methodical, logical.

He pulled out his phone once more and made some calls to cancel the heist. No heist, no gunmen. No gunmen, no shooting. No shooting, no dead Hakuba. There. No heist, no dead Hakuba. Problem solved.

And then he tried to reach the man himself once more anyway…but no one picked up. Hakuba probably didn't hear it ringing over Nakamori-keibu's booming voice and the enthusiastic replies of the officers.

Next Kaito raced over to the museum, but security was tight, and they wouldn't let Kuroba Kaito in, despite being the best friend of the Inspector's daughter and a classmate of one of the lead detectives.

No matter. This is where a good Aoko disguise comes in handy. They let him right in with fond greetings and friendly waves.

But Hakuba wasn't in the lobby with the others.

"He said he was going up to the roof to investigate something." The Inspector had shrugged. "What do you want with that detective brat anyway?"

But Kaito was already running for the roof, taking the stairs two or three at a time. He burst through the door and spotted both Hakuba and the gunman.

"Get down!" he howled, knocking the blonde to the ground as the gun went off.

Saguru had come up here to look into suspicious, shadowy figures on the next rooftop over. He'd identified what seemed to be at least three men in dark trench-coats holding semi-automatics. And then he'd surmised that the Ace of Spades had not been sent by a fangirl, that he should have mentioned the threat to the police, and that he was royally screwed. He'd only taken his eye off of the shooters for just a split second when the roof access door flew open with a bang, but that was enough time for one of the killers to take a shot.

And now things were going in slow motion. That was Kuroba's voice that had shouted out, but that was Aoko-kun's face. The seeming paradox was reconciled in Saguru's mind immediately because of course Kuroba had dressed up as Aoko to get in, and it was definitely Kuroba that was tackling him at the moment.

And then there was blood on Hakuba's jacket. He took a minute and inventoried his various appendages. No. That wasn't his blood.

"Kuroba," Saguru whispered in a panic, gently rolling the magician off of him and onto his back. Saguru gasped when he saw that his classmate's shoulder and chest were drenched in blood.

Thinking fast, Saguru applied pressure to the wound as best as he could while he dragged Kuroba's body inside and away from possible further attacks. He pulled out his phone and dialed 110, thinking to remove the latex mask from Kuroba's face and quickly construct a believable cover story before the paramedics arrived.

Saguru insisted on riding along in the ambulance while Inspector Nakamori stayed behind to help in the effort to catch the shooter and to try to get ahold of Kuroba's mother, whereabouts currently unknown.

It was still raining, and the ambulance ride seemed to last for hours.

Saguru reminded himself to focus. Kuroba had risked his life for him, and now Saguru had to keep sharp, be vigilant, and protect Kuroba's identity until the magician-thief regained consciousness.