Disclaimer: As before, Push & Detective Conan/Magic Kaito belong to other people; the author's just borrowing them for fun.
Warnings: Supernatural themes, light bad language
Authors Notes: Not much to add here; again, thanks so much to Kudostalker for effort, time and diligence. Any mistakes are entirely mine!
Please enjoy & review
Chapter One: Foundations
One Week Earlier
Saguru Hakuba shoved his hands into the pockets of his heavy coat. It was a wintry day, not quite into the snow season but you could taste ice in the air streams. It reminded Saguru of England, with a slight stirring of fondness in his usually unsentimental heart. At least it was an improvement on the summers in Japan, which could reach a muggy, stifling heat Britain hadn't seen since before the last ice age.
It promised to be a long night. One of the Kaitou Kid's infamous notes had been received and started the usual frantic panic to prepare for whatever International Criminal 1412's truly twisted ingenuity could contrive. Tonight's target; the ninety eight carat clear white diamond known as the Star of the Western Sea, currently being displayed at the Kuzuryu Art Gallery.
Good grief, Saguru appreciated the Task Force's enthusiasm but by this point in his pursuit of the infamous thief he had abandoned the idea of a solid plan of attack. There was no set procedure that could take the Kid, whose ability to twist known reality until it creaked verged on the supernatural. Instead, Saguru was embracing the idea of fluidity in his plans – having only a goal and a set of tools and variables, and then letting the flow take you where it would, using it to your advantage. If this was one thing the Kaitou Kid could teach you, it was how to dance the dance.
Saguru was sure Nakamori-keibu had to know the same by now. In fact Saguru was getting fairly sure the Inspector only assigned the insanely detailed prep work to the Task Force as a sort of reconnaissance hiding under busywork – lord knows, by the time every detail was in place every cop assigned knew the lay of the land down to inches. There were members of the Task Force that knew more about the layout and infrastructure of the local museums and galleries than the architects who built them.
He turned up the drive of his Japan home, just in time to get the door open for his housekeeper - who was juggling shopping, dry cleaning, car keys, house keys and for some unfathomable reason, a stiff bottle brush type broom on an improbably long handle with an impressive amount of finesse.
"Thank you, sir," she sighed graciously as Saguru chivalrously motioned her in, neatly taking possession of the long brush and two bags when she passed by.
Saguru regarded the brush with amusement. "The last time you attempted to clean on your holidays, Baaya, your sister didn't speak to you for a week."
The spry old woman rounded on him in shock. "I know you're one for deductions, sir, but how on earth did you know that?"
"Well, I could say that I've noticed you do work as a sort of leisure activity, like other people play squash; I could also mention that when you got back from your last holiday you were out of sorts and clearly not wearing the ring you share with your sister. But, most of my knowledge did in fact come to be via the rather…forthright letter your sister wrote to me at the time."
Pure horror flashed across the woman's face. "She didn't!" she cried, aghast.
Saguru grimaced. "She did indeed. She was quite vehement about you being overworked, underpaid…"
"…where does she think the car I bought her came from, an egg?"
"…and institutionalized like a prisoner in service of yours truly."
"Oh, sir!" Baaya's hands had risen to her mouth.
Saguru held up mollifying hands. "It's alright, Baaya. She cares about you; she thinks you don't rest enough. I found it quite touching." He raised an eyebrow. "And for the sake of the laundry, I do hope you're not going to start another quarrel with her," he waved the brush.
"Oh no, rest and relaxation as demanded by the head tyrant, sir," the old woman gave a wry smile. "Not you, of course, but her. It's just that we're going to Australia this time…"
"Ah, the spiders."
"Yes, the spiders," Baaya held the brush like a soldier presenting arms. "They're absolutely full of the…the monsters down there, sir. I can handle anything else, anything, but spiders. I thought it best to be prepared. One sweep and all the webs will be gone."
Saguru kept a straight face, because he liked and respected his housekeeper and felt there was nothing to be gained by mentioning that quite a few spiders didn't have webs, or visible nests. The woman needed a break, and certainly didn't need any stress. "A pre-emptive strike. Very direct." He substituted.
"Yes sir. Oh, there's some mail for you, sir."
Saguru felt the hairs on his neck give a slight tingle. "You collected the mail this morning, didn't you?"
"There was some extra in the box when I looked later on, sir."
Saguru nodded, and headed for the foyer and the mail rack.
Yes, there it was - a Note from the Kid himself. He could recognize that little caricature blindfolded. And interestingly, a second envelope which looked like a Chinese yāsuì qián, otherwise known as a red packet; a red and gold envelope for gift money, bribe money and a symbol of luck and fortune in the New Year.
Kid Note first. Saguru opened it carefully, but without much overt concern. If it had been placed in the letterbox the chances were good it wasn't booby trapped. The Kid hated innocent bystanders and without a doubt knew he had a housekeeper who handled the mail.
Just another little taunt, by the looks of it. Looking forward to tonight's performance. I hear there will be many pigeons roosting in the eaves.
Saguru's eyes narrowed. Well, that was certainly succinct, cryptic and annoying. Pure Kaitou Kid, as a matter of fact. He filed it away for study later; the Kid was the master of the double, triple, and quadruple meaning.
There was a note on the slip of paper inside the yāsuì qián, and this on the other hand didn't look like the Kid's work. A carefully rounded yet slightly sloppy hand had written 'Confucius say, 'when an unexpected marble interrupts your path in life, take the opportunity to throw it at your opponent'. Be seeing you at the clock with no workers, only minders, and no hands but a dial. Midnight. See?'
Saguru frowned and reread the whole thing. It was highly strange and definitely not the Kid. The Kid had much better riddles than this at his disposal. The minute Saguru read it he knew where this supposed meeting was to take place.
But why?
And now it was time for the heist.
Saguru cursed as he chased the dancing figure across the museum's rooftop and followed his across to the next building with the ease of long practice, still shedding a few feathers. This heist would definitely be one for the books. How in the hell had he managed to get that many pigeons into the ventilation system? And keep them quiet? For that matter, how the hell had he simply gotten that many pigeons? There had been hundreds, raining down from the vents, scattering up from the stairwells, from behind paintings, and from inside urns. Of course, in the ensuing moment of complete brain freeze, the Kid had been in and out, and was currently making his escape with his prize.
Saguru blamed himself for this. He knew he should have studied the Kid Note more carefully, but the other note in the red envelope had distracted him. He should have known better than to let that happen.
Nevertheless, here they both were. The Kid because he could practically defy the laws of physics at will and had gotten through the skylight and Saguru because even though he hadn't thought properly about the Note, he had at least the notion that height would somehow be important; and had therefore staked out the rooftop. He was therefore the only one in a position for pursuit.
The Kid looked like he was having fun tonight. Saguru could hear him snickering as he leapt and dodged onto gutters and fire escapes and tenements. The Kuzuryu Gallery wasn't a major one, and it wasn't in the richer parts of town where there was a better spread of buildings. This area was mostly residential – though the Task Force had taken some pains to cordon off a wide area – and filled with odd twists and turns of buildings huddling together through time and economics, much like the people inside. Here and there scaffolding jutted into the dark sky, showing developers growing interest in the otherwise low key area.
"So close, tantei-san, so very close!" the Kid grinned as Saguru zigged and zagged, trying to track his path.
"Just wait," Saguru gritted out, leaping over a gap and onto the next building's flat roof in hot pursuit. The Kid just laughed.
In front of them, a storey or so taller apartment building rose up, showing an ironwork fire escape on which some hopeful green thumb had hung potted plants and stuck some window boxes on slats balanced on the rails in the hope they would get more sun. Immediately to the left, and indeed embracing parts of both buildings was another developer's scaffold, with slats and ladders and equipment piled and stuffed wherever there was space, even overflowing onto their rooftop.
Saguru took note of all this between one breath and the next. It never hurt to know your surroundings.
The Kid was heading for a leap onto the scaffolding. From there, he would have the advantage – that thing was a giant playground to someone with the grace and fearlessness of the Kid. Saguru lengthened his steps.
Kaitou Kid flashed him an evil smile as he twirled as the parapet's edge, and his card gun whipped seemingly out of nowhere, and fired. The sharp edged card (Two of Clubs, Saguru noted absently as it went past), and sliced open a bag of cement mix as it curved behind him. Ducking away from the dusty cascade cost Saguru a precious few steps as the thief ahead gained the parapet and prepared to leap.
Neither noticed the card had turned almost a full curve, and stuck a bucket left on top of square structure holding the roof door. The bucket canted, pivoted on one edge and clattered onto its side, throwing a it's hidden cargo across the top of the roof door and down onto the rooftop proper to bounce with a skit-skit-skit completely unnoticed in the pounding footsteps and hiss of falling cement dust. The tiny anachronism ended its entrance in a roll, rebounding off another bucket, rolling along the line of a broken slat of wood and into the pile of cement dust, where its course was altered by the random piles gathered and was sent off towards the roof edge.
Saguru felt his foot land on something and slide sideways, and suddenly he was trying to compensate for the unexpected skew of his leg. He bent his other leg, trying to exert enough opposing force to pull his sliding foot back on course, but whatever he'd stepped on was round enough to act like a wheel, his foot shooting out while the thing rolled underneath. Saguru was forced to plant his opposite knee to keep himself from dislocating his hip or wrenching his skewed leg, stopping his forward momentum with one hand slapped forward. Anyone with slower than his lightning fast reflexes would have probably cracked their head into the pavement.
Saguru could already taste bitter defeat. His bent knee was complaining about the drive into the hard concrete, and even if he could move at his former speed he had lost too much ground. Damn it! He reached over to grasp whatever mindless object had thwarted him from where it was trapped under his foot, which was necessitated by a kind of hamstring posture only a yoga aficionado would attempt.
Of course, the Kid's snigger from the rood edge was not improving his mood. "Very healthy, detective! Everyone should stretch after exercise." Kaitou Kid paused long enough to bow to his audience
Saguru growled at the cocky thief taking such delight in his humiliation. He couldn't believe he'd been defeated by….
…a marble….
A red envelope, slip of paper, and round, misshapen writing flashed out of his photographic memory.
Saguru looked ahead to where the Kid was finishing his bow. Well, it wasn't as if the night wasn't a complete embarrassment anyway…
He flicked the marble in a quick sweeping movement of his hands perfected from years and years of pub darts. It torpedoed towards its target, who was forced to flinch out of the way. "Temper, temper!" was the Kid's amused assessment.
And then….
….Saguru was never entirely clear on what happened next, but after reconstructing it later he thought the chain of events proceeded as follows:
The marble ricocheted off one rail of the fire escape on the next building, giving it an upward vector which sent it arrowing to land a strike on the hitherto unnoticed cat sleeping two floors up. The highly indignant tabby let out a fierce yowl and took off in full bristle, knocking several terracotta pots off their perches.
Said pots plummeted down, one meeting its demise against one of it brethren sitting on a board of wood on the railing below, which in turn knocked one end of the board to fall to the ground, leaving one end jutting over the rails and having all the pots that had been lined on the makeshift shelf slide towards the ground end.
Into the picture came yet another falling pot, which stuck the board end still jutting up over the rail, turning board, pots, plants and all into a crude catapult which flung its load into the scaffolding across the way.
The thrown pots bounced against a ladder left leaning on the scaffolding, which canted sideways and just caught the edge of a pallet loaded with more bags of cement mix. The ladder was just heavy enough to cause the pallet to pivot as the ladder moved against it, pushing sideways and out.
A scraping pallet nail caught on a length of rope left half coiled next to the pallet as it teetered and fell. It must have either caught on a knot in the rope or the rope had looped pretty tightly, because the pallet and ladder ended up dragging a heavy toolbox that was tied to the other end of the rope along for the ride, as the pallet and ladder, still entangled, fell off the scaffold. The tool box was almost coffin sized, and stuck between two stanchions with a bang.
Pallet, cement bags and ladder all fell through several levels, with a tremendous cacophony of bangs, snaps and shatters, and worse, dragged at the tool box with all their combined weight.
There was an ominous creak from the scaffolding and from the rope, but whoever had secured the rope to that box for lifting into the scaffold had been a damn fine knot tyer. With an odd shudder, the scaffolding gave one last groan and then ripped itself apart as the box was yanked through the stanchions like a loose tooth, snapping them to splinters in the process.
Saguru felt adrenaline saturating his system at the sight of a good tonne of wood and metal bear down on his thief. He bore himself up and leapt for the Kid, catching the back of his costume and yanking him away from the falling debris. They both ended up taking flying leaps and rolls away from the tidal wave of construction that broke over the building and rained into the alley below.
"Look out!" The Kid yelled over his shoulder as he was pulled off the parapet by Saguru, follow by yells and stampeding from the alley below. The wood and piping shattered and rang out into the night, accompanied by a high pitched smash of breaking glass.
Both Saguru and the Kid rolled upright in time to see a bundle of timber come flying off the stop of the crumbling structure to come at them like a giant wooden hammer, but the Kid's card gun came out again, expertly severing the ties that held the bundle together. Slats of wood fanned out like a flower in midair, their forward energy dispersed enough for both thief and detective to split up and escape the bouncing pieces.
Eventually there was silence, broken only by the odd bang or clang of wreckage, settling on the roof or on the alley below. The scaffolding was completely gone, leaving only a few jagged pieces of wood and piping still jutting up like a torturers spikes, and miscellaneous piles of broken detritus.
The whole unlikely, unbelievable act had taken about twelve seconds.
"Well," the Kid's eyebrows were up. "Not bad for a night's work, detective."
"I'll say," Saguru replied blandly, holding up his unexpected prize. "As I've got your gem." It had been nothing more than dumb luck; he'd felt the stone in his hand when he'd grabbed the Kid's costume, and whatever leaping and rolling they had done to escape being crushed had somehow loosened it from however it had been affixed. It had come out in Saguru's hands as they parted.
Kaitou Kid's eyes narrowed, and he looked decidedly vexed.
"If you want it," Saguru challenged softly. "Please come and take it."
The Kid's just flashed him another tight, predatory smile. "Beware, detective. One should not poke a tiger then turn his back."
And then he was gone, off the edge of the roof and gliding away like a shadow.
Saguru watched him go with an uneasy roil in his stomach. The blonde detective really didn't like what he'd seen in that smile. The Kid was not exactly known for taking humiliation gracefully.
He took a moment to look around at the utter chaos around him and grimaced. A night's work indeed….
There was a skit-skit-skit noise coming towards him, and Saguru reached out reflexively to snatch whatever it was from the air. Yes, yes, it was the same damn marble; somehow rolling and bouncing its way back to its point of origin from wherever it had gone.
He looked closely at the thing which had caused such a huge chain reaction. It was a large clear glass marble, perfectly smooth despite the knocks it had taken. As Saguru turned it over he noticed there was a crudely drawn pattern scratched into the otherwise pristine surface.
And suddenly, Saguru's personal universe came to a full, whiplash inducing stop, ice filling his brain and trickling down his spine.
On the marble, there was a carved flower.