"So there you are, Kuroba. I take it you've already heard or seen something about what happened down in Osaka." Saguru paused and sipped his morning tea before carefully centering the brim of his baseball cap, more than slightly irritated that washing his hair a total of eight times since getting up hadn't made much headway into getting rid of the bright orange shade. The fact that he'd actually been forced to go meet Nakamori-keibu with said carrot-toned hair had put him in an even more uncharitable mood, especially towards the prankster-slash-temporary houseguest who'd done the dying.

"No. Just because you're in the habit of reading stuff that'll be lining your bird's cage later doesn't mean that I am." Kaito sat down and began drinking some coffee, something he'd been very happy to find in the kitchen while scrounging around for something besides water, milk or tea. Just the death glare that Saguru had given him for daring to use one of his teakettles to brew the coffee with had been totally worth it as far as he was concerned. "Besides, I had just gotten up when you got back from wherever you were at, remember?"

"Apparently there was yet another magician kidnapping last night that took place during a finale. The second magician who was kidnapped around three weeks ago was left tied up in the other magician's dressing room, interestingly enough." The blonde shifted his paper around a bit, studying the write-ups on the case that were in the early editions. "That returned magician was also left with a note addressed to Kaitou Kid pinned to his suit."

"Oh really? I wonder what they want with that guy." What was that post that got deleted so quickly yesterday referring to? That 'strange group' it mentioned…I should check with Jii-chan later on, maybe he'll know something. Could they have been talking about those guys dressed all in black?

"Well the police haven't made the note public yet- they're still debating on how best to release the contents." Saguru poured a fresh cup of tea from a pot that was to his left. "Of course, thanks to Nakamori-keibu calling me down to the station I was able to get a hold of a copy of the note early this morning while some of us were still sleeping." Watson shifted slightly on his shoulder as the meitantei took another sip of tea. "It's an interesting conundrum. I'm curious how Kaitou Kid is going to handle the situation."

"What do you mean by that?" Kaito quickly chided himself mentally for sounding anything more than mildly interested, but he couldn't help it. "Do the kidnappers want him to steal something for them or something like that?"

"Take a look for yourself. Here's my copy of the note." Saguru slid a piece of white paper that had previously been hidden under a section of newspaper over to Kaito. After giving the magician a few moments to absorb the note- and noting that there was definitely some fear and puzzlement crossing Kaito's face while he was studying said note- Saguru shrugged lightly and continued the conversation. "It appears, as you can see, that they want Kaitou Kid to surrender himself to them at his next robbery. And they're using the lives of the other missing magicians to force him to cooperate."

What the hell do these guys want with me or from me? What do they mean that they're 'getting impatient'? If I don't cooperate with them, though, it looks like they'll just keep kidnapping magicians…and not only kidnapping them, from the sounds of it likely killing them as well. There was absolutely no mistaking the somewhat mocking, very thinly veiled threat in the last line of the note. He hated that he was probably going to wind up going along with their demand , but the jerks had sucker-punched him with his own No One Gets Hurt policy and Kaito knew that they knew that as well- doubtless the reason that they'd threatened the other magicians in the first place. Watson's screech brought Kaito back out of his wildly spinning internal thoughts.

"It seems that whoever the kidnappers are have collectively decided to put Kid in between a rock and a hard place, eh?" Just what are you going to do now, Kuroba? Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

"Well, Kid seems like he can handle almost anything. I'm sure he'll figure out some way to take care of things." Just as soon as I can think of a plan, that is. Deciding that he wanted to move away from the topic as quickly as possible, Kaito changed the subject once he remembered the meeting that he'd arranged the other day. "Hey, that's right- Didn't you have some meeting the other day, Hakuba? Was it Kid coming to your for help or something?"

"Very funny, Kuroba." Saguru got up and walked Watson over to where her usual plate of cut up meat was sitting, the hawk expertly gliding from his shoulder to her perch before beginning her meal. "No, it was actually another tantei- Kudo Shinichi. I was surprised to get a call from him; he hasn't made many appearances in the last few months."

"Oh. What did he want to meet with you about?"

"He wanted to speak with me about the kidnappings, actually. " As if you didn't know exactly what he came here for, since you were the one that left me that message and forced him into the meeting with me in the first place. "He suspected, as I did, that the vanishings had something to do with Kaitou Kid long before that hunch was actually confirmed and he wanted to meet with the person considered one of the leading authorities on Kaitou Kid."

So he did manage to show up after all…and he must not have been a little kid. I wonder how Kudo managed to pull that one off? I was expecting him to call him on the phone or something like that. Oh well, time to go see if I can get some more information from Jii-chan…

As soon as Kaito left the room, Saguru picked up his cell phone and called Shinichi. "Can you talk?" After Shinichi responded affirmatively Saguru hurriedly began to impart information since knew that Shinichi might have to return to playing the role of Edogawa Conan at a moment's notice. "I showed him the note like we discussed this morning; now I suppose we'll just have to wait and see what he actually does about it. Knowing him, it will probably be something brash and thought up on the spur of the moment." He watched Watson eat as he listened to the shrunken meitantei's questioning reply. "Why do I think that? You've seen him at his heists; flying by the seat of his pants once he's cornered - and somehow managing to make an escape work despite impossible odds- is his stock in trade." After Shinichi asked another question, Saguru cocked his head slightly in thought, mulling the question over and waiting a few moments before replying. "He seemed to have about as much of an idea of who's behind this as we do, actually."

"Jii-chan, do you know anything about a group of magicians or a secret society that Dad might have possibly belonged to?" Kaito had decided to go to Jii since he suspected that if anyone would know his dad's dirty laundry, it would be Kuroba Toichi's longtime stage assistant and compatriot in crime. He supposed that he could have gone to his mom, but Kaito wanted her to focus on her recovery rather than trying to answer questions that might bring back painful memories. The questions would also probably only make her worry about him even more than she already was. Besides, it was crystal clear that whatever these guys were after, it was something to do with Kaitou Kid and it was Konsuke Jii who had been- and still was- Kid's faithful assistant.

"Well, I know he belonged to a few different groups that arranged things like charity performances at hospitals and similar things. You seem to have something different in mind, however, young master."

"Yeah. These magician kidnappings that have been happening lately? Hakuba showed me something that proves that the guys are after me- well, Kaitou Kid." Kaito pulled out the note that he'd 'borrowed' on the way out and handed it to the older man, letting Jii study the note closely.

"I…I see. And they've also shot an arrow right into Kid's Achilles' heel." Jii handed the paper back to Kaito after a few moments and walked over to his couch and sat down, an expression of concentration on his face. "You know, I wonder if this has anything to do with whatever it was that your father stashed away over at your house- well, in his hideout I should say. He never would let me see what it was, kept insisting that it wasn't anything I should concern myself with. It stuck out in my mind because it was one of the only times that I ever saw him hide something from your mother as well as myself."

"Well, maybe we should go over to my house and check the pit then?" There was a small section of Kaitou Kid's hideout that was little more than a massive stockpiling of different items that his father had collected by legitimate means over the years, organized in a somewhat haphazard manner that had never really made any sense to either Kaito or Jii the couple of times that they'd attempted to make any headway into figuring it out. Kaito had decided a while ago to stop even trying to make sense of it and just left it alone aside from an occasional round of dusting as a sort of memorial to his late father, giving it the nickname of 'the pit' because it really did seem like a hole that his dad had randomly tossed things into.

"That's an excellent idea. That probably is the most likely hiding place for something that Toichi would want to hide." Jii followed this by frowning lightly before looking at Kaito closely. "Are you sure that it's the smartest idea to go back there? After what happened and everything…"

"Well, it's really the only possible lead we have at this point, right? Besides, if anyone did try and get into the house without me they would have sprung one or more of the traps that I rigged before I left."

Ten minutes later, the pair was outside of the Kuroba home and Kaito finished temporarily disarming the last of the various traps he'd placed on and around the front door.

"Let's go then. The quicker that we're in and out of here, the better I imagine." Jii waited for Kaito to open the door, then followed him inside as the magician disarmed a few more traps that he'd set.

"Come back this way. Stay right behind me or you'll probably set off something, alright?" Kaito carefully picked his way through the maze-like set of traps that he'd constructed

"I gathered as much," replied the older man with a chuckle. "Although I do wonder what state the house would be left in if your poor mother came to try and pick some clothes up without you."

"Eh, she knows where most of these are. She could probably pick her way through, not that I want her coming back here until those kidnappers have been taken care of." Along with the guys that put her in the hospital…

"I wish that I knew a little more about the weeks leading up to your father's death," commented Jii after a few moments of the pair slowly making their way towards the portrait that held Kuroba Toichi's picture. "Then perhaps we could get this mystery solved that much sooner."

"With Hakuba nosing around it'll get solved eventually. The guy's a real pit bull once he gets going, something that's actually a good thing for me for once." Not to mention that I have Kudo Shinichi working on it too- well at least I hope so. I still want to know how he pulled off showing up for that meeting with Hakuba in person considering how he looks now. I'll have to check the recording from that bug I planted in the library later...

"Perhaps." Jii let out a sigh as Kaito activated the portrait of Toichi, the painting whirling about to reveal the first Kaitou Kid before stopping and allowing the pair inside. "I always did wonder just why he started stealing...That was something else that he never fully explained to me."

Kaito paused and whirled around to face Jii, staring in open amazement, his tone also conveying that disbelief. "Are you telling me that you helped Dad all that time and you didn't even know why he was doing what he was doing?"

"I was his friend and he needed the help," Jii replied with a shrug. "Besides, I figured that he had a very good reason for looking for something large and shiny that had something to do with the moon." He then grinned before adding "Of course now we know exactly what it was that he was probably after thanks to the conversation you overheard back when you first started your heists- Pandora seems to fit all of those those criteria pretty well."

Could Dad really not have known what exactly Pandora was? But then again, he did steal a much wider variety of items than just gems, going off of what I've heard from Jii-chan. "OK, let's get digging."

After an hour, the pair had systematically gone over every single item in the pit, both deciding that there didn't really seem to be anything out of the ordinary after all and the pair equally disappointed that their only real shot at a lead had failed to produce anything. "Oh well. It was a shot in the dark to begin with after all, young master," began Jii in a conciliatory tone as he noticed that Kaito was studying a very plain-looking wooden box with a somewhat puzzled expression. "What is it? Did you find something strange?"

"Maybe, maybe not. Did Dad ever do any charity work for or belong to a-" Kaito brushed the inside of the medium-sized light-toned wooden box with his fingers, apparently studying something engraved in it- "Do-na Par Society?"

"Hmm? I don't recall that name, no. Why do you ask?"

"This box- It's empty, but it was tucked way back in the very far corner of one of the shelves and turned at a weird angle so that it was barely visible. And it was the only box I came across on all of the shelves that was positioned like that." He handed Jii the box, which was empty and rather nondescript except for the inside of the lid, which had two lines of text and a somewhat stylized clover burned into the wood.

Thank you for your contribution.

Dona Par Society