Sorry this took so long to put up.
And for those who need to know, the orginization comes in, in chapter 29
(so almost, I just have to wait for everything to be corrected)
THANKS FOR EVERYTHING EVERYONE!
(and sorry about lack of action once again)
Chapter 25: Lost in Transit
Stupid detectives. I didn't know what Kudo was thinking, letting the children go with them to whatever mess he stumbled into this time. Unless they had gone out to eat, both detectives were going to be hearing about it from me. Granted, I'd hold myself back to hear them out since it was unlikely that anything less than 'utterly important' would have made them take the children out of the house.
No signs of distress negated the possibility of them having had to leave for some reason that involved their safety. Still their absence made me uneasy.
Hattori was too tired. Since he hadn't gotten more than a few hours rest, he quickly passed out on the couch. I would have liked to have gotten some sleep too, but instead I just let myself not-think for a while. As tired and sleepy as I felt, I sincerely doubted that I would be able to fall asleep; I would probably just lay there awake anyway. After a few moments of nothing, I went to the bathroom and took all the makeup off. I decided to forgo a shower, despite how badly I probably needed one, in case anyone came in while I was still in there.
Heaven forbid I did take a shower and run into Ran afterwards. Water would do its job to flatten my hair just as well as gel.
I took my phone and tried to call Kudo. It rang for a while, but he didn't pick up. I tried Hakuba's number too, but his went straight to voicemail.
"Why won't anyone pick up their phone?"
Wait a minute. Why hadn't they tried to call me? Or Hattori? Hakuba had my number and Kudo was sure to have the Osakan's, so why hadn't they tried to call us when we didn't meet up with them at the scheduled time? They must have left right after arriving then.
"You could still pick up the damn phone," I muttered in frustration at my own black cellular. I'd gotten it from home earlier when I'd picked up Kane, though it had been turned off since then.
"No use thinking about it." My eyes closed and I finally let myself drift off into sleep, though I never fully made it there. I was aware of the cold breeze blowing through one of the windows that were left partially open, of Hattori's breathing that was deeper than my own, and of how strangely content I felt in the house, on the couch, of the temporary resident detective that was just as full of mysteries as I was.
…
Some loud noises from the stairs brought me to my senses. I heard someone who sounded a lot like Hakuba cursed as he bumped into something.
"Hey," I nudged Hattori. The Osakan stirred a bit and looked up at me with bleary eyes. "They're back."
"Who?"
I looked at him with raised eyebrows and Hattori took in the room. "Oh." He rubbed his eyes. "Where're they?"
"Coming," I pointed towards the closed agency door as whoever was in the lead reached the top.
"This is why children shouldn't come with us!" Kogoro shouted behind him as he opened the door, making Hakuba wince as the man yelled right in his ear. Kudo was safe, being closer to the ground though he did give a slight cringe at the shout.
"Who the hell?" He turned to face me and Hattori. I waved at him, making the slightly intoxicated detective madder. "Why is my house suddenly filled with children? Ran's enough for me. Get out!"
"Dad," Ran was suddenly at his side, trying to make her father more placid. "I'm sure they only came because Hattori-kun and Hakuba-kun are working on the same case, remember?"
"Of course I– what?"
"They're on a case, though I don't really know what it is. I think we distracted Hakuba-kun from his own business, so you shouldn't get so angry."
"Who would trust children with a case? They should have come to me!" Everyone was in the room at that point as Kogoro put his slightly red face in front of Hakuba's. "Just what is it? I'll have it solved in seconds compared to your slow going. You'll thank me."
Knowing how much the detective hated his personal space being messed with, I fully expected Hakuba to back away like he always did with me. However, despite my expectations, Hakuba remained still, even though Kogoro was just inches away from him.
"In the words of my friend Kuroba-kun, who's standing right over there, 'I wouldn't trust you with my left sock.'"
Hattori couldn't hold in a laugh, but Kogoro didn't seem to take the insult badly, surprisingly. He just shoved his hands in his pocket and looked disapprovingly at Hakuba. "Fine, suit yourself. Go ruin someone else's day then." Kogoro snuck off to the kitchen, where I could hear him open a can of beer before taking up several others in his arms, judging by the clattering sounds of aluminum.
"Sorry about my dad," Ran apologized to Hakuba as soon as her father had left the room. "Please don't take him too seriously. I'm kind of embarrassed at what he did to you."
"It's quite alright, Ran-san. You didn't do anything to apologize for."
"Ran-neechan," Kudo spoke up, in his 'Conan' voice. "I'm thirsty, but Oji-san is in there." He put on a bright-eyed pleading expression, mixed with a bit of shyness and uncertainty. "Can you go get it for me?"
"Sure Conan-kun," she smiled in understanding, "What do you want?"
"Juice."
"Does anyone else want something to drink? I don't think anyone but me going in there right now is a good idea."
"Um," I waved to at her from the side. "Can I have some chocolate milk?"
"Sure, we've got some."
The others shook their heads as Ran ventured into the kitchen.
"Sorry Hakuba-kun. Oji-san can be rather dimwitted at times. You should just let it go." Kudo and Hakuba shared a knowing look, before the latter nodded.
"I'm aware of that. The only good thing that came out of today was that that so-called great detective didn't blow my cover. I had enough trouble trying not to talk while she was here. I couldn't have remained silent if he'd gone against his word."
"Hey, good goin' there. I've never seen anyone else stand up to-"
"Hold on Hattori-kun," I told him. "All this is very interesting and," I turned to look up at Hakuba, "I didn't know we shared the same thoughts about Mouri-san, but there are a few questions that I need answered. Preferably right now."
"I can answer those questions, Kuroba-kun, which I am guessing there are two. One, the children are with a friend of Conan-kun's. We both felt it safe to trust her, and that she doesn't know anything. The second thing you wanted to know was where we'd gone to, correct?"
"If that weren't obvious, yes."
We sat down on the couch, in the order we had arrived with Hattori and I sitting on one side and the other detectives opposite us. Ran soon brought me and Kudo our drinks. Since I hadn't gotten a good meal in a while and had been thirst for even longer, I finished my glass in seconds. There was a content feeling in my stomach afterwards. Milk always did do a great job of filling me up.
"If you guys need something, I'll be upstairs finishing my homework." I heard Ran say as she said goodbye to us and made her way up the stairs.
"Heh, chocolate milk," Hattori whispered next to me with a grin. "I thought Kid was just a nickname."
"Shut up," I whispered back half-heartedly, watching and waiting for the other two detectives to be ready to talk.
Hakuba and Kudo both sighed and shared an identical look that ranged between annoyed and angry. When Hakuba breathed in, I noticed his breathing was shallower than it normally was. And what I thought was tension from being in Kogoro's presence, was still present after the man was gone.
I scrutinized him closely after that. The black hair dye that I'd put in his hair was gone, replaced by an identical raven black of a more permanent nature. The contacts were still in so his eyes were still brown and his clothes had random stains that hadn't been there before. One particularly small stain looked like blood, but the rest looked like motor oil. Now that I was paying closer attention, both detectives smelled like the inside of a car engine. His clothes were physically ripped in places, as was Kudo's. The most telling sign that something was wrong was the stiff way Hakuba held his arm at his side, always keeping it slightly bent.
"What happened to you two?"
The detective turned his head to the side. As he moved, his hair blew away from his face to expose a large bruise across the left side of his forehead, and a small cut showing where he'd hit it hard enough to break open the skin. The wound was quickly hidden again by his bangs, but I had seen it.
"After we got here, we were going to wait for you, like we originally planned," Kudo calmly stated. "Oji-san was already with a client at the time. Considering who and what it was about, we just had to look into it…" He gave a small smirk, the closest to a smile he gave since the detectives had walked in. "Guess who it was?"
"Ku- Conan-kun, yer not the only one's had a long day. I'm not in the mood fer guessin' games." Hattori's comment held more bite to it than usual. Not surprising considering what we'd been through; neither of us were in the mood for playing around.
"A Mrs. Narumi Ciara, mother of Narumi Kei." He laughed, somewhat bitterly, "She didn't go to the police at least."
"She was here? What happened?" I asked before Hattori had a chance to.
"Needless to say we kept the fact that the children were upstairs quiet," Hakuba intoned. "It was Conan-kun who came up with the idea, and a rather brilliant one at that, to hide them. He brought some of his clothes over and we went from having two girls to two boys. Where you got clothes that fit Hisa-chan though, I'm not sure," he said, turning to face the small boy.
"Anyway," Kudo gave a small cough as he quickly changed the subject. "Instead of having Kei and Hisa-chan, we now had Kai and Akira-kun, relatives visiting from Nagasaki. Oji-san went along with the idea, after Hakuba-kun said that he was on a case. At first, the old man didn't care, which was fine. However, the problems started when she described her missing daughter. Her descriptions fit Kei-chan too well, even with the hair dye, to be overlooked so easily."
"Hakuba. if you think I missed that, you're losing your touch. We'll get back to you in a second though," I told the detective as he forced his right hand to relax after he'd just grabbed his side in pain.
"I doubt you'd miss a speck of dust landing on the nose of a cow a hundred meters away."
"Damn straight. So what happened? I doubt both of you got roughed up because of her."
"No," Kudo continued. "Oji-san had a talk with Hakuba-kun out in the hall while Ciara-san was here." Turning to face Hakuba, he asked, "He didn't hit you or anything, did he?"
"No," Hakuba clarified. "He called me a dirty liar and pushed me back, but besides that, he didn't do anything else."
Kudo nodded as he already came to that conclusion, but wanted to verify it. "When he came back in, the old man didn't say anything about the girl to Ciara-san. Instead, he kept throwing accusations at Hakuba-kun around her. She didn't catch on, but Hakuba-kun had to stay quiet so that she wouldn't recognize his voice."
"Mouri-san took full advantage of the opportunity my muteness provided."
I never thought I'd see a murderous look from the detective before now, but he pulled a way-beyond-pissed-off look better than I thought he could.
"He fails to miss the point ninety-percent of the time, so don't take it personally that he thought you were the one in the wrong."
"I don't like being the bad guy."
"You didn't seem to have a problem with that last time. In fact, I recall you actually volunteering for the role," I smiled, trying to make the detective feel better.
He smiled a little back at me. "I didn't feel like the bad guy then. That just scared the hell out of me."
"So what happened?" Hattori asked, reverting us back to our original topic.
"Ciara-san left almost immediately after she'd told her story to Oji-san. It was a good thing Sato-keiji called when she did. Otherwise, something may have happened between Hakuba-kun and Oji-san after Kei-chan's mother was gone."
"Anyway, apparently one of the officers wanted Mouri-san's help on a case, and she asked Conan-kun to come with him. Why anyone would want that man's help is beyond me, though I did get the impression that she wanted Conan-kun there more than him."
Kudo took over from Hakuba again, the two taking turns telling the story so that both of their perspectives could be shown. "The crime scene wasn't that far away, but if either of us were to stay behind to watch the kids, we wouldn't be able to watch Oji-san's actions. Ran somehow convinced him to take all of us with him while I got Hakuba-kun to talk to Sato-keiji about watching the kids. She sent them to her house and had one of her relatives go over there to watch them, so they're safe for now."
"Conan-kun and I identified the murderer of the case and resolved it, despite the fact that Mouri-san was the one who had been requested. During the entire case, that man himself acted like the fool that he is." Hakuba was clearly angry at Kogoro. His seething words were filled with emotion, surpassing the anger he verbally showed me when we'd first fought at the bus station. He wasn't even trying to mask it now like he did back then.
"The criminal tried to get away, which was when Sato-keiji jumped into her car. I followed in after her. And since there was no way Hakuba-kun was going to stay with Oji-san, and since he had been staying close to me, he hopped in as well." Kudo turned to him for verification again, to which Hakuba nodded.
"Kuroba-kun, I vow never to insult your driving again after what that woman put us through." There was real fear in his eyes.
"I'd like to meet her."
"Kami forbid that," Hakuba's tone wasn't even lighthearted. "All motorists and pedestrians alike would run in fear, including whomever you two managed to bring with you into the vehicles."
"That's where the fun lies though. Sato-san, huh?" I smiled, but the name didn't ring any bells. I wasn't that familiar with the division one officers, though I had a few fresh memories of them that dealt with a stolen painting. "Does she have short hair cut close to her head? Late twenties, with a very nice pair of legs?"
"Yes…why?" replied Hakuba with a little hesitation.
"Just making sure." I took the picture I had of her in my head and mentally added her name and the words 'good driver' to it, as if I were writing down a note.
"So what happened to yer clothes? Ya got so scared that ya destroyed them?"
"No," Hakuba sighed and a small tremor went through his body. "The suspect was desperate. When we rounded a corner, he forced our vehicle off the road and the squad car flipped."
Hattori and I remained silent while we looked at Kudo and Hakuba.
"Yer ok though, right?"
"I'm fine. Granted, neither of us was wearing a seatbelt. Luckily though, when we hit the median, Hakuba-kun grabbed me before I could get thrown around. I'm sure you're hurt far more than I am," Kudo turned once again to Hakuba, with our eyes following his, and we all watched the detective for any reactions.
"It's nothing serious," he tried to hold his hands up, but winced and drew back his left one. "I banged my elbow against the door. Since the area is sensitive, it hurts to move it, but nothing is broken or fractured."
"Based on your movements, you also to have a large bruise on your back, probably just below your shoulder blades. There's that dark smear across your forehead too that doesn't look like you got it from picking flowers. Not to mention the fact that you just grabbed your side while we were talking."
"Kuroba-kun," he sighed. "I got the mark on my forehead before the car flipped. I was ill prepared for her driving, and this was the result. Also, how exactly could you tell I hurt my back?"
"Your movements are too stiff. I thought it was your arm just bothering you at first, but when you sat down, you took care not to touch your back against the seat too quickly."
I was great at reading body language, just not so great at finding clues and being able to put them together to catch a murderer. I guess that was what made me a great thief, and not a great detective; one had to be able to read the movements of those around you in order to blend in, or trick them. Granted, it was strange that I wasn't better at finding and piecing clues together since riddles were my specialty.
"You shouldn't be so good at seeing things."
"It's nothing," I said truthfully. "Conan-kun noticed too but when, I have no idea, since I haven't been watching him."
I looked over at the Osakan who had a small smile on his face "But I'm sure Hattori-kun noticed all of that as well."
"Is everyone here better than I am?" Hakuba muttered somewhat sadly, which was out of place for the usually confident, almost to the point of arrogant, detective. "Conan-kun even determined who the murderer was before I did."
I was tempted to say something, but I was a thief, not a detective. Therefore, my words wouldn't mean as much to him. However, the words of other detectives would.
"That's not it, Hakuba-kun," Kudo reassured him. "We all look for something different when we first observe a scene. I notice facts, Kuroba-kun notices details, and Hattori favors action and reactions. But you, Hakuba-kun, you notice emotions first. The rest comes to you later."
"It's not a bad thing," Hattori added, with a small grin. "It just makes ya more like him than us."
"Him?"
Hattori jabbed his finger in my direction. "Its kinda what makes ya such a poor detective," he told me, "Ya can't see the culprit over a dead body."
"Seeing emotions is good, but you have to follow through with them. Take last time. Just because the man was nervous didn't mean he was so because he was the killer. Crook yes, killer no. You have to take everything else around you into consideration as well before making assumptions that you can't take back." Kudo looked at him with remorse, as he noticed how harsh his words sounded.
"Last time?"
Hattori waved me off as he understood what Kudo was talking about. Unlike me, who was pretty much in the dark about the situation. I hadn't known that the detectives had all met before now. Although, it didn't matter if I knew about it or not, there seemed to be an understanding between the three of them regarding their personalities and methods.
"When you're not dealing with other criminals, you can find the true culprit easy enough. I was actually a little surprised. You were just one step behind me the entire investigation, even though there were false trails."
"Those were easy to see. Having dealt with Kuroba-kun, I can tell when someone is lying to me…if I look for it that is." The detective casually blew off the compliment, not realizing that it was a good thing to be one step behind Kudo. Everyone, with a few exceptions like Hattori and yours truly, usually weren't in the same ballpark as tantei-kun. Even then it was hard to keep up with the little guy.
"Hakuba-kun," I asked him, with a hint of worry leaking into my words. "You admitted to your other injuries, but what about your side?"
"I think I bruised my ribs." He tentatively put a hand up to feel the indentation of the bones under his skin and winced, keeping his breathing shallow. "In the worse case scenario, I fractured one or two of them. There's nothing I can do, so I'm not going to worry about it." I could see now how tensed up he was, and how desperately he was trying not to move more then he had to.
Hattori met Kudo's eyes and tipped his head in my direction. "He hurt his foot too. I think we got enough injuries ta go around now. Yer the only one who's not hurt."
"Because I at least try not to put myself in harm's way when dealing with these people. That and I have more experience at not being seen."
"I'm sure yer whole class at the school festival will attest ta that," Hattori grinned.
Kudo narrowed his eyes in response.
"Well, what I was sayin' was I think we should all get some rest. I ain't tired anymore, b-"
"Wait a minute." Hakuba put one hand up, seeing as the other hurt too much for him to bend. "When did you hurt your foot Kuroba-kun?" he looked up at me with confused eyes and a smile. "Did you fall off the train?"
I fell off something.
Hattori and I looked at each other. I politely gestured for him to start with my hand since he was the one who'd gotten us involved.
"That sucks!" I said out loud to no one in particular, as I suddenly noticed something, before Hattori had the chance to speak. "I haven't gotten the chance to make any trouble. First Hakuba runs off on his own, then Conan-kun does the same, and now everything that just happened is because of Hattori-kun. When am I going to be able to have any fun?"
"Kuroba-kun, I'm not in the mood for your illogical, yet somehow optimistic, attitude right now." Hakuba put his hand up to his forehead in exasperation, throwing a hard look my way in the process. "You're pointedly trying to change the topic of the conversation."
"My bad. If you could proceed then Hattori-kun as I'm still not clear on everything you did since I wasn't going to get too close."
"Good thing too. Ya have no idea how much my dad was just itching ta get at ya." Hattori turned to face the other two. "I've a much easier way of tellin' ya what we've been up too. Kazuha hasn't stopped textin' me about it the whole time ya've been talking."
"I was wondering why you weren't imputing your opinions." I hadn't even noticed that he was answering his phone; it must have been on silent.
"Yeah, well it coulda been 'cause it was you or it might have been 'cause it was my dad. Either way," Hattori got up and went over to the small television on Mouri-san's desk and turned it to face us. "Apparently, it was news worthy."
He turned it on and then had to find a news station to tune into, since Kogoro had better things to watch than the daily broadcast.
A female newscaster came on the screen, in front of the building that now looked very different in the light of day. No blood adorned the walls; any trace of the ugly mess had been taken away. I couldn't help but see what should have been there and what was there just hours before. Judging by Hattori's hard stare, I didn't think the detective was any different.
'We have yet to be granted an audience with any of the police officers so far on whether or not this was the work of the notorious Kaitou Kid or some other criminal. However, the murderer is still on the loose and extremely dangerous.'
The scene cut to show the tearstained face of a woman in her thirties. 'My father wouldn't have done anything to hurt anyone. I can't understand who would want to do this to him.' She stuttered, a small hiccup in her voice.
It cut again. This time it was a man of strong build around the same age. 'Whoever killed my brother is a murderer! To all those people out there, you're defending someone who killed four people for no reason! So what if he's never done it before? If they let that murdering vigilante go because of you!-' the rest of the man's conversation was cut off as a man and a woman in their twenties came on. The way they looked at each other proved they weren't brother and sister.
'How can you keep saying Kaitou Kid is guilty? There's no way he would do something like that!'
'Opinions are divided here at the scene of the crime where four men's lives came to a terrible end. With no word from the police, we are unable to announce a criminal or a motive in this mysterious case.'
"Enough of that," Hattori turned it off and sighed. "Sorry. I thought my dad would be able ta clear ya before the TV guys got there."
"It's fine." I smiled and touched my hand to my chest. "I have some pretty dire-hard fans out there. I'm sure they'll be able to keep my name above water while the police sort everything out. Considering your dad and Nakamori-san didn't come for an interview with the press, I'm sure that they're doing something important."
"Yeah, I guess." Hattori scratched his head. "He's just usually so fast."
"Excuse me." Hakuba waved his hand in our direction. "But that didn't explain anything. If anything, I think we have more questions."
"Sure it did." Hattori started renaming the facts off. "Four men died. They thought Kid did it. However, since we all know he was with me, that's impossible. We went over there." The Osakan looked at me and I sighed, giving him a small smile. "Ok, well, I went down there. He followed. We proved to 'em that he didn't do it. Kinda. And we left."
"Then how did you hurt yourself?" Hakuba asked me again. Hattori looked at me puzzled as he tried to figure out how I could have been injured as well.
"When we were on the building." 'We' being a loose term since it implied Hattori, though he wasn't quite there with me. That and I was technically on the building.
"When? Did ya suddenly decide ta have a foot fight with the wall when I passed out?"
"No," Kudo stated coolly. "You're missing it too, Hattori." He turned to Hakuba, giving me an angry look along the way. "You provided the opportunity so I'm going to take advantage of it. Hakuba-kun," the detective looked at him upon hearing his name, "what do you see?"
"Hm?"
"Kuroba-kun has provided us with a mystery. So tell me, what do you see?"
I was a little confused at what Kudo was getting at. The small detective turned to face me, stealing a glance at Hakuba before putting his fingers up to his eyes and returning his gaze to me. "How did you get hurt?"
"You just asked me that."
"Answer it again for me please."
"I got hurt while we were on the building. It's no big deal."
"His finger twitched slightly, and there was a slight pause in his wording." Hakuba said so quietly that I could just barely make the whole sentence out.
"Yes, but you're dealing with Kid now," Kudo whispered back, "So, what does that mean?"
"Nervous tick, maybe?"
"No."
"You're right," he put his head up to his head to rest it. "It's Kuroba. I'd have to guess then that it means we're too close to something."
"Right." Kudo turned back to me. "Where were you in the building when you got hurt?"
"I was outside and I only went in for a little while later on." I felt like a mouse in a maze. I could see that Kudo was using me to test Hakuba, but I didn't want the detective to be able to read me. I had no way of stopping his little experiment so I had to play along.
"No movement."
"and…?" Kudo gestured his head for the detective to continue.
"Because it's Kuroba, it means he's tense or nervous. He's always in motion, especially when he's calm or confident." When he looked back up at me, I was smiling in amusement. If the detective thought he could figure out what I'd been doing, let him. I sincerely doubted that he could, but that didn't mean it couldn't be a fun process, and I didn't have to keep the information from him if Kudo was going to rat me out anyway.
Hakuba didn't remove his eyes from mine. I never really stared at him for so long before, except maybe when he was unconscious. The dark brown eyes didn't suit him at all.
"He's not lying though, so I'm guessing that he's just hiding something," the detective spoke up after a few moment of silent contemplation.
Was I really hiding something? Why was I even thinking that way? Hakuba was my partner, at least for the moment, so I shouldn't have been hiding anything from him. Kudo and the detective had both been honest about what had happened with them, even if some of the information had to be wormed out of the detective. I shouldn't be hiding anything from Hakuba and I considered playing along willingly with this game of Kudo's, but that didn't mean I wanted Hakuba to know my thought process and actions. I had to make it my own game.
"Hakuba, so far I've answered all your questions truthfully." I smiled. "You figured that out easily enough. I'll answer all the others just as truthfully, though you'll need to know which ones to ask."
"That makes it too easy," he smiled back.
"We'll see."
"Fine then. Who were you outside with? Hattori-kun clearly has no idea where you'd gotten injured, which means he wasn't with you at the time."
"Who says I wasn't alone?"
"You did," he chidingly looked at me. "My memory isn't as bad as you seem to think it is. So, who was there with you?"
"I was with the Inspector." Vague again. I wasn't going to make this easy for him. It could have been with any Inspector. Though I had mentioned Nakamori's name earlier, that didn't mean I had to be with him.
"Where were you and the Inspector?"
I looked at him, confused as to why he hadn't had me clarify anything, like which Inspector I was with.
"We were outside."
"Where outside?"
Hakuba was looking at the bigger picture instead of the details. "Near the edge of the building."
"Near it? I didn't ask you where you were near, I asked where you were."
"Fine then, Hakuba," I smiled. "We were at one of the windows."
Both detectives gave me puzzled looks. Even Kudo seemed a bit confused, not comprehending what I said.
"How could you have been outside with the Inspector, yet at the window? That would put you inside the building."
"Who's to say I wasn't outside and he was inside?"
"You did Kuroba-kun. Now quit trying to throw me off with your questions. The only way that you could have both been outside and at a window would be if you were on the ground floor, but that still doesn't answer the question of how you hurt yourself."
Hakuba sighed and thought silently to himself for a while more. Kudo seemed to have figured out what was up because his half-lidded eyes stared back at Hakuba in annoyance.
"Hakuba-kun, you're thinking too one dimensional again."
"He's right." I smirked at the detective. He was close enough to the truth that a little help from me and Kudo could get him the rest of the way. Even if I didn't assist him, he would figure it out eventually.
I took a red cloth into my hand. Hakuba looked at me warily, scarcely glancing at the material. "It's red, right?"
"Yes."
"I've told you its red. I'm not lying. It is red. You've seen it with your own eyes too. All in all, it can't be anything but red, right?"
"That would seem to be the case."
I turned it inside out and now the cloth was blue. "The cloth is still red."
"What are you talking about Kuroba-kun? This side is blue."
"I never said it wasn't blue. I just told you it was red and yes, part of it is red, so I wasn't lying. I just neglected to tell you that it had two colors."
Hakuba eyes widened as he got my meaning.
"You were outside, yet you were at a window. You've already implied that you weren't on the ground floor, but there's no where else you could have been…" the detective continued to think of other possibilities, "You're Kid… that should definitely be taken into consideration because what you do is not normal so I shouldn't be looking for something normal. I guess that you could be outside the building, but how could you have been with the Inspector at the same time? …Unless you taught him how to walk on thin air as well."
"Now you're thinking too much Hakuba." I turned the cloth over to the red side. "It's still red. I haven't changed it."
"Hm," He said quietly, taking in the new information. "Simpler than walking on air then. Let's see. You were outside the building. You were not on the ground floor. That means you must have been on the side of the building then because you weren't on the roof either." He looked up at me now with narrowed eyes. "Were you both hanging out the window or something?"
"Close."
"When I left ya, both of you were on the roof? Why'd ya stay together? I thought you were tryin' ta get away from him?"
"Yes, Kuroba-kun wouldn't willingly stay by officers unless he had to… and they were on the roof." Hakuba eyes widened when he thought of something. "You were hanging off the roof!" He smiled, finally connecting everything together. "You were near the edge of the building, you were at the window with the Inspector, you were outside, and you weren't on the ground floor. So you were both hanging off the building after, what I can only guess, falling off the edge where you consequently hurt your foot."
"Bingo." I put up a finger and smiled at him.
"You fell off the buildin'?" Hattori shouted in my ear.
"I did not fall off the building!" I defended myself. "I jumped!"
"What?"
"The Inspector fell off the building and I had to go get him. I do not fall off of buildings." I crossed my arms and eyed the Osakan, rubbing my shoulder against my damaged ear where his voice had echoed way too loudly in.
Hakuba reached over and grabbed the handkerchief from me before I could put it away, gasping in a sharp breath but hiding the pain away quickly as he sat back down. He turned it over. Both sides were a solid red color.
"Kuroba-kun, how did you do that?" He looked up at me with awe and amusement. He'd never seemed impressed with my tricks before now, but then again, I hadn't really performed much around him since I was afraid it could have given me away.
"I can't tell you, but at least you were able to figure everything out. Maybe next time you can do it without the clues."
"I couldn't even follow some of that," Hattori sighed, looking disappointed in himself.
"No, it was easier for Hakuba-kun because he knows Kuroba-kun better than we do."
"Then how did you follow all that?" Hattori inquired, his eyes narrowing in suspicion.
"I'm just that good." Kudo's returned smirk was just a few shades down of conceited. Toned down purposely because of what I could only guess was past failure.
"Kuroba-kun, how'd the Inspector fall off the building?"
"He was sitting-" Stop. I told myself. If I was going to trust Hakuba, I was going to have to tell him anything that concerned the case. And this certainly qualified as being something to do with the case. "He was sitting on the edge, which had been purposely chipped away so that when someone sat on it too long or moved too much, they would fall. The Inspector had the bad luck of being that person and I had to jump off the roof to get him. When we stopped, someone tried to shoot at us, but they missed. We got back in the building through the window and I haven't seen the shooter since."
"And you weren't going to share that situation with us?"
"It took me a while," I confessed. "I did tell you though, didn't I?"
"You did, this time." Hakuba watched me closely and I looked up to meet his eyes before wandering and noticing him messing with the cloth. He held it back out to me, though he kept his arms close. "But I don't want you playing these kinds of tricks on me. Partners don't lie to each other. That includes misleading them and withholding information. I don't want our partnership to be like this cloth, changing its colors to suit you whenever you please."
At some point while dealing with Hakuba, I'd lost the difference between myself and Kid. I was able to freely do everything I had as Kaito, but still keep my serious tones as Kid when something upset me, taking on the burden without having to act like an idiot. I didn't know when I'd stopped seeing myself as one or the other, but I was sure I hadn't done so before this whole case started.
"Yes, tricks are better played on our adversaries." I took the cloth and shook it once more, its color changing to a sudden, bright green. "But that doesn't mean I can stop little things like this."
It was the one thing I could never drop, as both Kid and Kaito. One thing I knew that my father had been unable to drop as well. Mysterious world-renowned thief or high school class clown, when it came down to it, with either persona, one thing always came first…
I was a magician.