Chapter 9: Enemy of Mine Enemy
I had to give it to Hakuba, he was brave. When he understood the danger we were in, he sent the glider into a steep dive. We picked up the necessary speed quickly, allowing us to get away faster but also putting us closer to the shooters.
When we were about even with the buildings a bullet hit him somewhere in the back and he winced, making the glider tremble.
"Did it hit you bad?" I still had a few toys in my coat but nothing I could use on the shooters from this far away.
"No, it grazed me." He took control of the gilder again and a few more bullets tore at the white material, missing the frame. The glider was built for maneuverability and flight; I didn't think the frame could stand up to a shot even if it only snagged the frame.
A few nicked my legs but nothing deep, it wasn't even a graze, just a few light brushes of pain that only left scratches. After a few minutes Hakuba raised the nose and our decent left us only fifteen feet from the ground. He was going through trial-by-fire and pulling off spectacularly, I only wished I could have looked so good the first time I tried to fly.
There was a screech of tires and I swore to myself.
"Hakuba-kun you have to land. Any roof will do but don't put us on the ground."
"A roof? You do realize we're in the city and still miles from the suburbs. There aren't any roof-tops this low."
I searched around our immediate area. Staying in the sky, even though Hakuba's outfit blocked most the glider, would make us an obvious target. His outfit was probably what had kept us alive so far and why most of the bullets had hit me.
A convenience store a few feet ahead made a promising hideout. "Dip the nose low when you reach the store, when you're a few feet off the ground, retract it, and we should be able to land."
"Kuroba-kun I think you're forgetting something again."
"What?"
"We're tied together. If I retract the glider before you get off we're going to fall on top of one another."
I laughed out loud at the picture in my head. "I guess you're right. When you get close I'll get off myself. You have to be careful because without my weight the gilder will rise, so force the nose lower."
We were almost at the store and I unhooked my belt, Hakuba grabbed hold of my good arm and I let go of everything else. I nearly fell because we were both still wearing gloves and they made bad handholds.
"Kuroba-kun I can't hold you very long, it really hurts." I winced for him, I'd forgotten he's hands were still burned.
"Just decline a little more and I can jump." We were still ten feet off the ground which I could have tolerated but if I got off now the speed would throw me off my feet and I'd wind up hitting my head on the pavement.
The tires were closer, still screeching as they turned to corners way to fast. We were down to a little less than eight feet. Close enough.
"Hakuba-kun you need to hurry and get down. Fly a little longer before you close it." I let go of his arm without waiting for acknowledgment. The jump wasn't that bad; I tripped over my own feet but regained my equilibrium before I impacted with anything.
Hakuba was still going and passed the store because he couldn't get it low enough to drop. I saw a bullet just miss his head, startling a reaction out of him. Not taking any more chances he closed the glider and I took out my card gun, seeing if whoever shot at him was close enough for me to target.
The detective wasn't as lucky as me. He landed badly on one foot, tumbling forward and hitting his shoulder against a brick building.
"Hak-" Wait, using names was a bad idea especially if I was about to shout it down the street… "Hey idiot, get over here quickly!" That would work.
"Who are you calling an idiot." The detective was panting from the short run to me but didn't look like he'd hurt himself.
"Forget it." I peeked inside to look for cameras. There was only one and it was trained near the register and door; I took aim and hit it to the side with the card gun. I aimed another card at the back of the register where a young clerk in their early twenties with beached hair was looking bored.
After firing, the motion and noise from the card caught his attention and I shot in with Hakuba. "I have to use your bathroom!" I yelled to the guy while his back was still turned, getting in and closing the door before he could catch sight of us.
"Here Hakuba-kun put this on." I handed him a plain blue shirt. "Keep the pants on, I don't know if my other spare will fit you." I took out an outfit from myself, mine being a light green shirt and dark grey pants.
"Don't put anything on yet." Hakuba told me, picking up my blue shirt I'd just discarded. "You're bleeding all over the place and there's no way that it's going to go unnoticed."
I looked down at my not-so-white outfit. My shoulder and a lot of my right side were completely covered in blood along with a few spots where the other bullets had scraped me. A quick look in the mirror showed a nasty amount of blood covering my right ear and running down my neck, though the actual wound was hidden in my dark hair.
"Do you need this…never mind." Hakuba started ripping my blue shirt into strips and wrapped it around my head. What was left over of the shirt he used to wipe off my face and neck with and threw it in the garbage.
"I feel sorry if someone finds that." I commented.
"I'm too busy feeling sorry for us."
I laughed "I guess you're right." I got the light shirt over my head without staining it and found the European cap that Hakuba had worn earlier to cover the most of the dressing, giving me a delinquent look. I took another shirt I had, I tended to change clothes often, out of one of the larger pockets of my coat where I kept my disguises. I cut this one up and turned to Hakuba.
"Here, let me wrap up your back too so that it doesn't bleed through the shirt." It took him a second to take off his shirt. The wound was bad. It was deep in places and would need stitches near his shoulder blades. Including where it had shallowly gotten him, the cut was easily ten inches long.
After the large slashes we both had were wrapped up, I did the little cuts that were on my arm and legs. Once that was done with and we were both dressed, I opened the door casually and waved to the cashier, hiding our remaining clothes in a small bag.
"Sorry about that man, we really needed to use you're restroom." I made sure my tone of voice held different inflections than my own and was pitched slightly higher.
"Together?" He looked confused and a little disgusted at us.
"No, no, nothing like that. My friend here just lost a bet to me and had to eat a ton of salt. He ran to your bathroom to wash his mouth out and I was laughing at him. You've got to take all the fun you can get with this guy." Hakuba gave me a dark stare that only helped the story.
"That's why I'm not a betting man," The cashier responded and went to leaning against the counter. "Is there anything else you wanted?"
I wasn't going to leave the store with Hakuba while those people were still out there, whether they were Snake and his group or some other assassin. "Yeah, we're waiting for a friend and I'm a bit hungry. " I picked up a chocolate bar and placed it on the counter. "You want anything?"
"Let me look around." Hakuba was stalling too, good.
"I'll see what else is here too." We both walked away from the counter towards the back of the store.
"So now there are people trying to kill you as well." The detective said it so nonchalantly that I wasn't sure what was bothering him, besides the fact that we'd almost been knocked off.
"No."
He looked at me but I didn't explain.
"Kuroba-kun I don't speak your language, you know. I need more information than that." He wouldn't remove his eyes from mine.
"They've been after me for a while, it's nothing new." I opened the fridge and pulled out a sugar-loaded fruit juice, pretending it didn't bother me. Hakuba didn't look relieved.
"How long have people been after your life?"
Silence.
"Kuroba-kun…"
"It's been a few months," I admitted. I was a little surprised that he didn't know. Inspector Nakamori had come close to Snake once now and indirectly a few times. There must not have been enough evidence to connect all the incidents that involved guns to place it on one person or group.
"How much is a few?"
I sighed. "I don't know, six?" I brushed it off again to get him to leave it alone.
Hakuba looked downward at nothing in particular and you could tell he was thinking about something.
"Drop it." The command snapped him out of his trance. I had made my voice lower and scarier then I had meant to and I saw confusion and fear playing around in his eyes when he looked up.
"Let me guess, you're protecting me and I shouldn't take it further."
I nodded and went back to the counter with the juice. I saw Hakuba grab a small bag of pretzels on the way.
My smile was strained when I greeted the man.
"Is that all you want?"
I nodded and he rang us up.
"That will be 463 yen." I counted the money out of a small wallet I kept for heists incase I needed some cash. Of course there was no ID or anything in this one. "Thanks." The man gave us our stuff and I dug out the chocolate bar, eating it instead of waiting until we'd left.
"Are we still going to wait for Nazumi-chan?" I asked Hakuba carelessly, throwing out whatever name came to my head.
"I think we should or she'd kill us. You know how that girl can get," he played along. I smiled, thinking about Aoko.
"Yeah, but you know what they say, tough on the outside and sweet on the inside." I took the juice out and drank a sip before putting it back in the bag. "You know what, I need something else."
I left them both at the register and went down an aisle, out of the way of the snacks, and put a hand to my head as I grabbed some pain relievers.
I took them back to the counter and gave Hakuba an annoyed look "It seem like I've had a headache everyday recently." After taking two of the pills I offered them to him with my drink. "Need some?"
"Thank you." He took both and handed them back to me. "Do you know how much sugar's in that?"
"Of course, I only wish they didn't include the juice." We both laughed in time for a man in a dusty brown suit to run in.
"Have you seen anybody run in here?" He had a large nose and close set eyes of some dark color. His hair was black and slicked back.
"Just these guys." The clerk pointed to us.
I waved to the man "Hey what's up? Who are you looking for?"
His eyes went over us for a few silent moments and I let my smile falter purposely so it didn't look like I was hiding something. Satisfied the guy and two teenagers in front of him weren't who he was looking for, the man left the store. "Never mind."
My luck must have really been running on empty because Snake himself pushed past the big nosed goon and strode up to us. He grabbed me up by the front of the shirt like I was a ragdoll.
"What are you doing? Let me go." I fought him off weakly, not really trying to get out of his grip because I was afraid I'd make him mad. In the position I was in I didn't think it would be a smart move.
He eyed me, looking for anything recognizable. Finding nothing he threw me roughly against the counter, hitting my bad shoulder sharply. I lay limply on the floor and breathed through my teeth, trying not to show how much he had hurt me.
"Hey, you can't just go picking fights with people." Hakuba chose his words well, I would have believed we were two teenagers just visiting a local store if I didn't know better.
Snake grabbed Hakuba as well, not lifting him off the ground as he had me. They both eyed each other and you could see the defiance in the detective's stance. Dark hair and blue eyes matched mine so well that I was afraid for a minute. I had gotten most of my dominate features from my father and now Hakuba shared them with me as well thanks to cosmetics. If Snake saw the resemblance he'd kill him.
Someone must have been decided that we'd come across too much bad luck and offered us a bit of restitution. The man behind the counter spoke up for the first time.
"Hey, knock it off. These kids are just here waiting for a friend of theirs. They didn't do anything to you." Ah, if you can fool your friends, you can fool your enemies. Snake released Hakuba with a shove and both he and his accomplice left the store.
Hakuba stared after them for a bit and I couldn't see the cashier's reaction over the counter. When they were safely gone Hakuba bent down to my level.
"Are you okay Kuroba-kun?"
I moved off the wall and most of my chest and back shot pain through my body. "Ouch, nope, I'm not okay. He hurt my back." I could see as a blood stain was making itself known bellow my collarbone in the front as well, most likely from him grabbing me. "I think I'm going to need more pain killers."
Hakuba sighed and helped me up. I cringed at every little motion we made leaving the store, bearing my teeth against the pain. When we were out, he slung my good arm around his neck.
"I'd put you on my back if I could but…" Hakuba sighed after making sure my arm was high enough that it wouldn't be hitting his wound. "We'll have to walk the rest of the way unless you have a better idea."
"We'd never make it back." If we walked home it would take hours to get to my house, even longer to Hakuba's, and I couldn't make that. Jii and mom didn't own cars since both lived so close to where they worked. Hakuba's housekeeper wouldn't fail to notice how injured we both were and she seemed like the protective type. The only person I knew who owned a car was Inspector Nakamori and I didn't feel like getting the cops involved. "I don't have any open options, do you?"
The detective shook his head. "Baaya's the only one I know who drives and I've yet to make older friends in Japan who would have access to a vehicle."
An idea came to me but I pushed it away before it could flourish. "There's no way we can get back on the gilder is there?" He rolled his eyes this time and didn't answer.
There had to be an option out there that I wasn't seeing besides the one I didn't want to rely on. We were both standing on the sidewalk in the cold air, trying to think of something. After ten minutes it was clear neither of us had any alternative.
"Damn it" I let go of Hakuba. "Do you have your phone on you?"
"Sure." He dug it out of his pocket and handed it to me. "Do you have someone you can call?"
"I'm not sure, they're not a friend." I flipped the phone open and dialed one of the numbers I had myself memorize, this one was one of the most challenging to get and had taken me weeks along with a personal trip to steal it.
The phone rang for a while before going to voicemail. I hung up and looked over at Hakuba. "What time is it?"
He took out his golden watch that matched his natural hair color and examined it in the dull light that surrounded us. "It's almost two in the morning."
"Damn" I swore again. I hit redial to try again. It was ringing so it wasn't turned off and I had to get through. I knew the only things Hakuba had brought along were his phone and watch though he may have had his notebook as well, and I didn't have enough money for a hotel.
There was still no answer and I tried one last time, hoping that our receding bad luck would back off; detectives always seemed to bring the weirdest karma around with them.
A tired voice answered me as I was about to hang up.
"Hello? Who's this?"
"I apologize for the hour but I've gotten myself into a rather bad situation and need a ride. Is there any way I could persuade you to pick me up?" I added to the timbre of my voice so it sounded slightly different then my own, the voice I used as Kid.
The receiver went quiet as the person on the other line kicked their brain into action.
"Where are you?"
"I'm just passed Yokohama, near…" I looked around and noticed I had no idea how far we'd gone on the glider, I glanced over at Hakuba.
"We're a mile north of Yokohama's Chinatown." He answered and sat down against the wall. I repeated what he said into the phone and sat beside him, hoping that we were going to get the ride.
"Who's with you?" They must have heard Hakuba's voice over the phone.
"Tantei-san is here as well and he's in a bit of trouble too. We would both appreciate the lift." I could already feel myself falling asleep. I leaned against the wall, using it to cool my injuries.
"I'll see what I can do." I could hear as he open and closed a door accompanied by the sound of wind dying.
"Thank you Kudo-kun. I'll be sure to return the favor."
He scoffed at me, "I'm not doing it for you."
"Of course not, forgive me." I heard the click as he hung up. I handed the phone back to Hakuba.
"Is Kudo-kun coming?"
I shook my head. "No but he said he'd try to get someone else to pick us up." I should have known better than using his name so openly but my mind wasn't working too well after its run in with the bullet.
I let my head fall against my knees. Hakuba took the cape from my bag and threw it around my shoulders, wrapping the black one around himself to keep away the chill of winter. I should have brought long-sleeved shirts but they were harder to carry.
"Kuroba-kun, if someone's coming to get us should you really stay looking… more like yourself than Kaitou Kid?"
I looked down at my normal clothing and felt my real hair brushing my neck under the small cap. The blue shirt tied around my head hid most of my hairstyle but the t-shirt and pants showed off my body type.
"It'll have to be good enough." I wrapped the cape tighter around me. Kudo already knew that I was young though I never asked him when he'd figured it out. I had some temporary hair dye and a wig but both would irritate the bullet wound and I didn't want to deal with more pain.
I let my eyes close and figured I'd worry about everything that could be put off until later and hope it didn't bite me in the butt.
…
Hakuba elbowed me what felt like seconds later and handed me his phone. It was open and the light blinded me as I took it in my hand.
"Hello" my voice still spoke of sleep but I kept the inflection. "What do you need?"
"I called to say we're near the Chinatown and was I hoping to get directions. I don't have a built in radar." I took the phone away from my ear for a second to look at the time and couldn't believe it was a little after two-thirty, I'd fallen asleep for half-an-hour.
"Sure thing Tantei-kun, what street are you on right now?" for the next five minutes I was guiding them over the phone to our position, now that I knew what our position was.
I felt comforted when the prominent yellow Beetle stopped across the street.
"Let's go Hakuba-kun." He put the black cape away and held onto the bag for me.
I slid into the seat behind the Professor so that the little detective wouldn't be nervous having me behind him. Hakuba got in and both occupants turned to look at us.
"So are you going to tell me what happened?" Tantei-kun started. His eyes were on me and I pulled the cap lower in a fruitless attempt to hide my eyes.
"Can it wait until another time? I'm not in the mood for a conversation right now." My smile was small and my eyes were closing. "I repay my favors."
Kudo continued to look at me, eyes scanning me better than any machine could have. He let his glace travel to Hakuba and took in the detective and his new look.
"I've been missing something."
"Nothing too important, the world always has problems. If it didn't you'd be out of a job." I rested my forehead against the window and seat, seeing my breath fog it up as I breathed out. "Sometimes it's good to be left out."
My eyes closed and I doubted myself for a second for trusting yet another detective with my identity. I was too tried to scrutinize the situation and fell asleep. I could have sworn the Kudo asked me something else but I didn't catch it
A few words did enter my sleep deprived brain.
"They both look so exhausted Shinichi-kun. I wonder what's happening."
"I don't know and I hate it when I don't know something. I'm going to make a few phone calls tomorrow and I want to use your computer when we get back to see what I can dig up."
"Shinichi-kun I don't understand something, why is the detective with the thief?"
"I don't know Hakase... I'm sure there's a good reason for it, I know Hakuba-kun well enough and he doesn't stand for anything illegal. If he's working with Kid he's desperate."
"Is that really the Kid?... He looks so young."
"Yeah, he is. Did you see the blood?"
"Blood?"
"They both have blood on them, though the Kid looks like he may be hurt badly."
"What are we going to do with them now?"
…
I would have really like to catch what they said after that but my subconscious stopped playing the live feed and I fell into a dreamless sleep.