Disclaimer: It's all Gosho's and Square-Enix's, except for the insane little plot that's been brewing… Credit goes to Ellen Brand for Chapter 12's title.
This should be the last chapter on the DC/MK world, for now… but it's another long one. And there's still quite a bit to go before Kaito and Riku can catch up with Sora. Yep, still evil.
Chapter 12: Duet for Hysterical Thief and Worried Detective in B Flat
Riku awoke to a scream that could have shattered glass.
Kaito flew upright in bed, hunching over slightly, chest heaving in erratic, shuddering sobs and quickly approaching hyperventilation.
"Kaito-kun!" Riku put a hand on the magician's shoulder. He'd been worried about Kaito's dreams, but he'd hoped for more than—he glanced at the bedside clock's glowing red digits—four hours of restless sleep before nightmares set in. "Slow down, breathe. Everything's fine, provided you didn't wake up the entire neighborhood."
Kaito didn't even look up from whatever nightmare danced across his unfocused gaze. His breathing slowed marginally at Riku's voice, but remained far too fast and shallow for Riku's peace of mind.
"I'm right here," he continued, but was interrupted when Kaito began mumbling in spurts, broken only by his desperate need for air.
"Killed him—killed Hakuba-kun—my fault. He's dead—he's deadhe'sdead! Couldn't stop—didn't wanna shoot…"
"Kaito-kun, Hakuba-san is fine. You saw him right before you came home."
No sign of recognition. Kaito shrugged Riku's hand off and curled up further into a ball, rocking back and forth slightly. "Saw 'm die—looking at me. I'm sorry—sorry, Hakuba-kun."
Riku felt the beginning of panic set in. Kaito's mother wasn't home from work yet, and he was obviously having no luck in reaching Kaito. The thief's dismayed, broken babbling varied wildly in pitch, from the voice of a young girl to an old man and everywhere in between, but didn't stop and didn't calm.
From what he said, Riku had a sinking suspicion he knew what Kaito had seen to unnerve him so badly. And he could only think of one thing that was likely to help. Riku reached out mentally towards the heart he'd gotten to know over the past week, and a corridor flared. He plucked Kaito out of bed, hooking arms under the boy's knees and mid-back, and ducked through.
Hakuba Saguru had not been having a good morning. In fact, he hadn't even bothered to go to bed after the heist, so in a way the disastrous evening had never ended. After Yuushi had gone home to Kuroba, he'd examined Connery's corpse more closely. One of Kid's white gloves lay loosely clenched in the dead man's right hand. Saguru'd immediately hoped that Yuushi would get home in time, because it looked like Kuroba had not only protected Nightmare's identity, but grabbed the man when he fell. For Connery to have slipped right through the thief's fingers…
Saguru had quickly glanced at Nakamori, who was occupied with Nightmare's mask and the earrings, then pocketed the precious white silk. He hadn't been ready to think about the possibility of confirming Kid's identity from anything that could be found in the glove's inner lining. He hadn't wanted to give Nakamori the opportunity to think about it, either.
As he did so, he'd been surprised to notice that the man's right cuff and jacket sleeve were oddly wrinkled, far more than the left. Almost as if he'd slipped out of a grip on his sleeve as well as one on his hand… but it had hardly been the time for clinical analysis when there were more pressing things to worry about. Like the little boy beside him, still crying.
Saguru'd gently pried Kenta away from his father and ushered him back into Aoko's keeping. No child his age should see a corpse, let alone one of a family member. At her concerned inquiry, he'd given her a brief explanation of what had happened. He had no idea what was going to happen to the newly made orphan, but he had a hunch that Kenta was going to spend at least a night or two at the Nakamori's home before he went anywhere else.
As he'd watched Aoko kneel beside Kenta and enfold the distraught boy in a comforting hug, Saguru'd wondered if a similar incident had occurred with Kuroba, ten years ago. Then the boy had winced, and pulled out the medicine for his headaches, and Aoko had whispered to Saguru how Connery had promised his son that once Nightmare disappeared, Kenta would be able to chase the 'bad horseman' (Nightmare's symbol was a black chess knight, after all) out of his head.
When Saguru's mind had put Aoko's new information together with the rest of what he'd already known about Nightmare, his jaw had begun grinding his teeth together all on its own. Since there was nothing pressing for the Task Force to do any more, he'd commandeered one of the squad cars to give him a ride home. His grandmother—technically his father's housekeeper, but she'd been grandmother, aunt, and nanny all rolled into one whenever he'd visited his father in Japan while growing up—had been waiting up for him, and didn't comment when he headed for his father's library-study rather than his lab.
She'd brought him a snack and then gone to bed, closing the study door behind her to let him work in peace. He'd been glad about that, because it meant that neither she nor his father were awake to see him break into Superintendent Hakuba's laptop computer rather than search among the books. He wasn't a brilliant hacker, but the use of his father's identity and security codes gained access to quite a lot of information legally, including the majority of Connery's financial records and Kenta's medical history. He'd spent the next several hours assembling little hints and data inconsistencies to find the hidden accounts holding the money from Nightmare's takes. Once he tallied all of Connery's assets, plus the massive life insurance policy the man had taken out as an ICPO agent, Saguru realized there was enough to cover the projected cost of Kenta's surgery.
Connery had managed to provide for his son, but he'd made the boy an orphan to do it.
Damn the man.
To top it all off, Saguru had just decided to turn off the computer and clean up his small mess of notes from the coffee table and couch he'd taken over for his research, hoping to get to sleep for the first time in almost 24 hours… when the order of the universe went twang.
The unexpected thump of shoes on carpet, accompanied by the advent of a hysteria-edged voice with a range that could only ever belong to one person, caused Saguru to look up from his work in shock.
Yuushi hurried forward from the corner of the room in which he'd somehow spontaneously appeared, wisps of shadowy smoke dissolving behind him. But Saguru didn't have any time to think about how he'd gotten there, because Yuushi set a hunched, shivering, gasping figure down on the couch beside the blond, heedless of the papers being crushed.
"Kuroba-kun?"
At his stunned voice, Kuroba twisted and huddled against him, latching onto his left arm with a death grip. Eyes unfocused, the dark-haired boy buried his head against Saguru's shoulder, as if he were afraid of what he'd see if he looked up. Even slightly muffled, however, his words were unmistakable.
"Killed you—shot you—sorry—only trying to help me—shot you—watched you die—don't want you dead—I'm sorry…"
Saguru gaped. He'd been worried at the warehouse for Kuroba's state of mind, given the outcome of the heist, but he'd managed to ignore it while chasing Connery through cyberspace, especially after he'd sent Yuushi to look after him. He hadn't wanted to believe that anything could truly disturb the other boy's equilibrium. Kuroba without his lively, teasing grin was unthinkable. In fact, the extent of his imperturbable cheerfulness was practically a legend around school.
But now… it had shattered.
The part of Saguru's brain that had been attempting to parse the magician's unceasing litany of apologies and broken explanations suddenly registered that Kuroba was apparently having a breakdown because he'd somehow gotten the idea that he—Saguru—was dead.
The world tilted a bit.
Out of all the nightmare fodder that Kuroba'd been through in the last 24 hours, it wasn't Nightmare or even the magician's own father whose death was apparently sending him over the edge. It wasn't even his own guilt for not being able to save Nightmare. No, of all the things to have a breakdown about, he was choosing the one completely out of left field.
Saguru'd just gotten used to the idea that Kuroba filed him in the category of 'trustworthy ally' for some unfathomable reason, and possibly even 'friend.' He hadn't been ready to discover that the line had been moved to 'integral part of my universe.'
"Can't be gone—wasn't Kid, Kid was dead too—just me left—chased like always, but you shouldn't have—"
He looked over at Yuushi, his mind processing the other man's unheralded appearance more easily than Kuroba's unnerving behavior. He didn't even care that Yuushi's silver hair, for once unhidden by his usual cap, seemed to not only be defying gravity, but also half the laws of physics.
"What the hell is going on?"
Yuushi settled on the couch arm on Kuroba's other side, peculiar amber eyes watching the magician worriedly. "Nightmare," he said in English. Saguru couldn't even bring himself to be surprised that Yuushi seemed to default to English instead of Japanese, though the small part of his mind that always watched his life from a semi-detached perspective wondered if the man was speaking it for Saguru's benefit or for his own. "Kaito-kun… needed a friend."
Which was completely truthful, without answering any of his questions as to exactly why a nightmare had left Kuroba in such a mess, or how Yuushi had known how to get to his house, or especially how the man had bypassed the house's security measures in order to enter the study without being noticed.
"Tried to help me, but I shot you—you died—Don't want you to die chasing Kid—chasing me—Not worth dying to catch me, it's not—"
Saguru froze, blanking out the rest of Kuroba's ramblings. Setting aside the fact that Kuroba seemed to think that not only was Saguru supposed to be dead but that he was the one who had killed him, Kuroba had just as good as admitted he was the Kid.
Saguru'd been sure of it for a long time, of course, but Kuroba had always denied it. Even now, when obviously traumatized, in shock, and not thinking clearly, Kuroba had still previously been referring to Kid as a separate entity. Saguru had suspected for some time that Kuroba regarded Kid as a role for a performance, able to deny being Kid with the sincerity with which any actor might deny being the character he played, and so maintained that thread of plausible deniability between them. Saguru'd used it to justify the friendly rivalry between him and Kuroba's civilian identity, and had tried not to think about what would happen if they lost it while he was still chasing the Kid.
Now it was gone, like smoke in the wind. The distinction Kuroba had so carefully constructed had been catastrophically shattered, and Saguru had no idea what was going to happen when Kuroba rejoined the real world from whatever private hell he was stuck in.
Kuroba's grip tightened painfully, and Saguru returned to the more pressing concern of pulling his rival back to the land of full consciousness. They could deal with the fallout later. He hoped. They would have to.
Yuushi shifted uncomfortably on the other side of Kuroba, and Saguru seized an idea floating at the edges of his fog-laced brain.
"Er, Yuushi-san, there's tea in the kitchen down the hall. It might help calm Kuroba down, and I think I need the caffeine. Please try not to wake anyone else up."
With a relieved nod, Yuushi disappeared, and Hakuba returned his attention to the trembling ball of magician attached to his arm. He tentatively covered the exposed nape of Kuroba's neck with his free hand, hoping that deliberate interaction would convince the dark-haired boy that the dream had only been a dream, and that this was reality. At the contact something stirred faintly in the depths of his mind, like an old memory just beyond recall. He ignored it in the face of a far more worrying realization: Kuroba was disturbingly cold to the touch, probably due to shock. He quickly grabbed the blanket draped over the back of the couch and pulled it around Kuroba's shoulders as best as he could with one hand.
"Kuroba-kun, I'm alive, all right? Alive. Whatever you're thinking, you did not kill me. Although you're rather successfully blocking all the blood flow to my arm," he added wryly.
A harsh, choking breath, and the fragmented rambling stopped. Kuroba loosened his death grip only to recapture Saguru's arm in a makeshift hug, and didn't move otherwise. Encouraged by the response, no matter how minimal, Saguru rested his free hand on the back of Kuroba's neck again, murmuring reassurances. No, this had not been a good night for him, but Kuroba's had been worse.
He looked down at where Kuroba's face still hid from view under comb-eating spikes, and worry crept into his tone. "Listen to me, will you? Not dead."
When the magician still failed to respond, he shifted, prying free of Kuroba's grasp with a combination of more reassurances and simply overpowering the other boy. The nightmare seemed to have exhausted Kuroba, and while his grip had been absurdly strong, he couldn't put up much resistance otherwise against Saguru's superior strength. Physical touch seemed to be acting as some sort of lifeline, however, so Saguru didn't do more than wince when Kuroba's hands locked onto his wrists instead. The boy's head remained bowed, his body practically vibrating with tension, like a coiled spring. Taking Kuroba's head in both hands, the dark-haired boy's grip shifting to keep holding onto him, Saguru tilted it up and looked into horror-struck, unfocused blue eyes.
"No one's—" Damn, that wasn't right. Someone was dead. "Kuro… Kaito-kun, I survived, all right? You haven't killed anyone."
Eye contact, Kuroba's given name, and persistent denial of death seemed to be having an effect. Slowly, a sliver of hope crept into Kuroba's devastated expression.
"'Kuba-kun?" he whispered, voice hushed. He still seemed to be looking right through Saguru, but listening on some level.
This was a good sign. Saguru tried to think of something to ground him with. "Ku—Kaito-kun, if you don't snap out of this and tell me what's going on, I'm going to be forced to subject you to fish."
A bark of a laugh escaped Kuroba, his eyes closing. He slumped bonelessly forward, hands going limp and forehead coming to rest against Saguru's. "Only Aoko 'n' Mom c'n use fish 'gainst me. Y're real?"
"I'm real. I promise."
To prove it, Saguru continued to hold Kuroba up for as long as he could stand. When the invasion of his personal space became unbearable he turned away, readjusting the blanket to give himself a reason for letting go. Kuroba opened his eyes when Saguru changed positions, watching the blond's every move with a kind of desperation. Saguru tried to meet his gaze, but it was disturbing beyond words to see the magician looking so vulnerable. Kuroba had worked so hard to create an image of unconcern and invulnerability, Saguru'd unconsciously come to think the magician truly was like that.
He wasn't.
Yuushi interrupted them when he entered bearing two cups of tea. Grateful for the distraction, Saguru shoved one into Kuroba's hands, not liking how chilled the boy still felt. "Drink. Pull yourself together." And then tell me what I need to know, he added silently.
Kuroba blinked sleepily, huddling over his cup, but he drank without protest. He continued to watch Saguru as if afraid the other boy would disappear when he stopped paying attention. Saguru savored his own tea, letting the caffeine make up for his lack of sleep. Yuushi joined them with another cup, sitting on the couch's armrest again and drinking in silence.
By the time all three teacups were empty, dawn was lightening the sky outside. Kuroba's eyes had finally lost their vacant look, but once his situation had seemed to sink in, he'd withdrawn as much as he could. Sliding to the end of the couch furthest from Saguru to the point where he was practically melting into Riku's side, he stared straight ahead at the bookshelves on the other side of the room. His expression betrayed his minimally successful attempts to reconstruct his usual unconcerned mask to hide behind.
Even though Saguru knew about Kid's perfect memory, and realized Kuroba was probably trying to process everything he'd just said and done while not fully in command of himself, it still hurt.
Saguru swept his stray notes into a pile simply to give his hands something to do, and then leaned back into the armrest on his side of the couch, watching Kuroba's profile.
He hadn't expected that seeing the mask come back up would hurt.
"Kaito-kun?"
Kuroba glanced over reflexively at hearing his given name. Saguru strongly suspected he would otherwise have gotten no response. The magician's eyes were alert but shuttered, trying to hide the shadows still lurking there. Saguru thought he saw guilt flash for a moment too, before the blank expression could conceal it.
He raised an eyebrow. Kuroba looked away, pulling the blanket tighter around his shoulders.
After several more minutes of silence, he spoke, staring at the floor.
"Hakuba-kun… when you first met the Kaitou Kid, you asked why he stole. He said that your job as a detective was to figure it out." Kuroba spun his handle-less teacup on his finger, a delaying tactic that Saguru waited silently through. "How much did you find out?"
Saguru paused to order his thoughts. He'd sometimes hoped for an opportunity like this, to share what he'd discovered, but never imagined circumstances quite like these. And if Kuroba was referring to his other persona in third person again, now wasn't the time to bring up the other teen's confession.
"Why does the Kid steal?" Saguru mused. "Because there's something out there worth killing for, or worth dying for, depending on your perspective. The first Kid died, and the second one nearly has…" Saguru was slightly surprised that Kuroba didn't react at that, before concluding that the other boy was simply too drained for anything to provoke much reaction at the moment. "But neither has ever killed. So I conclude that he's looking to protect something." He glanced at Kuroba, hoping that he was right. "He steals because something is so important to him, he's willing to stare in the face of death and laugh. If I'm right about his identity, he may be looking for some answers, too. Or revenge. He's never told me which."
Kuroba turned to sit sideways on the couch again, back against Yuushi's side, and looked at Saguru, tired and pale and drawn. He seemed to have finally given up on his masks, lacking the inner reserves to draw upon. Now he simply appeared raw.
"If you knew who the Kid was, what would you do?"
Saguru saw Yuushi tense almost imperceptibly. He couldn't really blame the man. His past record in dealing with the Kid wasn't anything to inspire confidence.
"Before you disappeared, I might have been able to answer that. Now, I simply don't know." He honestly didn't. He felt rather like he was sitting on a barbed wire fence.
Kuroba stared at him blankly, as if such an answer from his mouth were inconceivable. That hurt, too, but it was even more bewildering. Kuroba had evidently incorporated Saguru into the foundation of his world, and yet he still expected the detective to try to capture the Kid at his first opportunity. Saguru realized with surprise that from what he knew about Kuroba, he was probably the dark-haired boy's closest male friend. And given how obsessed he'd been about catching the Kid, back when the thief had still been an impersonal quarry… It was no wonder Kuroba's attitude towards him seemed full of contradictions.
Of course, the same was true of him, if he was willing to admit it. Saguru didn't make friends easily, but Kuroba had slipped through his walls almost as if they didn't exist. They made quite a pair, really: friendly rivals by day at everything from Aoko's attentions to who had the highest grades, and by night playing their tacit game of cat-and-mouse, though the roles of predator and prey seemed constantly in flux.
"Not good enough." Yuushi laid a protective, supportive hand on Kuroba's shoulder. "You can't maintain your balancing act any longer, Hakuba-san. It's time for you to choose. Will you attempt to capture the Kaitou Kid… or will you be a friend to Kaito-kun?"
It was one of his worst nightmares come true. Certainly not the worst—that honor was reserved for the dream that had started after Kuroba had disappeared, where he finally got the Kid in handcuffs only to see a sniper's bullet go through the thief's head the moment he could no longer dodge. The nastiest variation included Aoko beside Kuroba, killed while trying to protect him. The situation he found himself in now was not much more pleasant, however. No more deniability, no more masks, simply the choice between the laws he'd always considered paramount… and Kuroba.
He briefly covered his face with a hand. He'd known this was coming, ever since Kuroba had vanished and he'd been forced to confront the idea of what he would do if Kuroba died, or if he caught the Kid. He just hadn't wanted to face it.
When he looked up again, Kuroba had leaned his head back against Riku, eyes closed. His expression held a faintly grim resignation, and Saguru realized what Kuroba thought his decision was. He swore mentally.
He could not arrest Kuroba. Not with the sneaking suspicions he'd formed about the details of Kuroba's undertaking, and not with the more-friends-less-rivals-to-the-death friendship they'd been forming since Kuroba returned home.
In fact, when he thought about it… he'd already made his choice, when he stole a glove for Kuroba's sake.
"You'd better have a damn good reason for being the Kid, Kuroba, because you've just forced me to restructure an entire paradigm for you."
Kuroba jerked up in astonishment, eyes flying open.
"Are you serious?" His hushed, half-hopeful voice crushed any lingering doubts Saguru might have had. This was Kuroba.
"I may need to have my head examined, but… yes. I'd rather not see you in jail, Kuroba. And as much of a pain as you are when you're Kid… I don't want to see you killed, either. I believe tomorrow I'll call Nakamori and inform him that I'm turning my hiatus from the Task Force into an official retirement."
Kuroba stared at him, and then a wondering smile slowly spread across the magician's face. It was the most heartfelt expression Saguru ever seen from him. He kept opening his mouth and then closing it again, as if he wanted to say something but couldn't find the words.
Saguru still felt slightly off-kilter from the magnitude of the decision he'd just admitted to, and waited a few minutes to see if Kuroba would ever return to proper coherency. When Kuroba finally shook his head, Saguru took it as his cue to introduce the next pressing question.
"Kuroba-kun… what are you looking for?"
Kuroba looked down at the carpet, silent for a minute. "When I started, I was looking for answers. What happened to my father, mostly. What I managed to learn put me on the trail of something else."
"What, then?"
"A myth."
"I did notice your later track record favors gems with legends attached, often related to healing or immortality… dear God." Saguru paled as several key pieces fell into place. Kuroba watched him impassively. "That's what you're after, why you've got people shooting at you. That's why you're willing to die for it."
"They're not the only ones who have tried to kill me… but they're the most persistent, yes."
"What do they want?"
"From me? They'd be happy if I did their work for them, I'm sure, although one or two would much rather see the Kid dead before I can cause too much trouble. It's why Kid isn't always shot at. As for specifics… I don't even know how much was lost in translation and over time, but supposedly in the light of a comet that comes once every ten thousand years, a gem called Pandora will cry tears of immortality. It hides within a larger gem, identity unknown, but can be found because it glows red under the light of the moon."
"I always wondered why there never seemed to be heists on nights of the new moon. I put it down to vanity after a while, but it didn't seem a good enough reason."
Kuroba gave him a ghost of a smile. "Vanity wasn't sufficient?"
"You're the Kid, Kuroba-kun. Kid never does things without a good reason. Although I take issue with you for essentially setting yourself up as a bloody walking target."
That got him a single, voiceless, mirthless chuckle. "It was my only lead to them."
"I know." Saguru briefly covered his face with a hand again. "That doesn't mean I have to like it."
"Young master? Are you in there?" A soft knock on the door announced his grandmother's presence. Kaito and Yuushi exchanged glances and disappeared behind the couch just before she opened the door.
"Did you stay up all night?" Her expression of fond amusement took the force out of her reproving tone.
He smiled faintly. "I was going to go to bed earlier, but I got distracted."
"Shall I see about breakfast, then, or do you plan on taking a nap first?"
Saguru weighed his possibilities. Sleep sounded rather attractive at the moment, but he still had Kuroba and Yuushi to deal with. While the past day's events had been more exhausting than most, this certainly wasn't the first time he'd stayed up all night. He'd done it many times, especially while chasing Kid.
"Breakfast," he said decisively. He'd go to bed early tonight instead.
She smiled at him and went off, leaving the door open behind her. He waited a moment to be sure she wasn't coming back, then turned to look over the back of the couch.
Kuroba and Yuushi were gone. In their place, one of his pages of notes rested innocently on the carpet. He picked it up, and found a hastily scribbled message on the back.
H-
Sorry to disappear. If you still want to talk, can you come over?
-K
Saguru simply shook his head in disbelief. He was definitely going to visit Kuroba's house today, if only to ask how on earth they managed to materialize and vanish like that. He hadn't had time to think about it when they first showed up, but if anyone else could figure out that trick then it meant there were some serious holes in his security system.
Because Kuroba's arrival had been so early, Saguru prepared for the day, ate enough breakfast to satisfy his grandmother, and still made it out of the house well before he'd usually be leaving for school. He felt less guilty about heading straight for Kuroba's since it was a Saturday, and missing the half-day of extra study at school wouldn't matter much for either of them.
The more he had time to think, the more he wanted answers. He'd always considered home to be safe, until Kuroba had managed to punch holes into that belief along with everything else. He wasn't stupid enough to think he'd gone unnoticed by the people after Kuroba; he was too high profile. He'd liked to think, however, that even if he did manage to catch their interest, then the manor security would hold good against attempted intrusions. To know that Kuroba had gotten inside undetected, when his potential enemies were probably better at infiltration than the Kid… it left him highly disconcerted.
At his knock, Mizuki opened the door. "Ah, Saguru-san. Kaito said you might be coming over. Please, come in."
Feeling slightly self-conscious, he obeyed, wondering what exactly Kuroba had told her. He didn't even know if she was aware of her son's activities.
When they entered the den, Kaito greeted him with an enthusiastic "Hakuba-kun!", coming over with a grin. "You got here earlier than I thought you would."
"You managed to arouse my curiosity," Saguru responded dryly.
Kuroba paused to look him up and down. "You wear that on a Saturday?" Kuroba wrinkled his nose. "You have got to get some casual clothes, Hakuba-kun."
Saguru glanced down at his outfit: a high quality, short-sleeved polo shirt and tan slacks. "This is casual, Kuroba-kun."
"Like I said. Do you even own a t-shirt?"
"I happen to like collared shirts."
Kuroba gave him a long-suffering look. "Do you ever bother to just act like a teenager?"
"If I do, no one will take me seriously," Saguru pointed out in a perfectly reasonable tone of voice. Of all the things for Kuroba to be arguing with him about, Saguru's fashion sense hadn't been something he'd expected. "It's fine for you, but I work with the police. I get enough flack for my supposed inexperience without juvenile behavior compounding the offense."
"But you're not always at work!"
"I have an image to maintain," Saguru countered, hating the stiffness creeping into his tone. "The Hakuba family is a prominent name in British society."
"…At the expense of having a life?"
Mizuki laughed. "Now, Kaito, play nice. I'll leave you alone, since I should be going to bed anyway. Oh, and Kaito?" she added, almost as an afterthought. Kuroba looked up expectantly. "If I'm still asleep, wake me up to say good-bye before you leave?"
Kuroba nodded and when she was gone, shooed Saguru towards the empty couch. Saguru sat, and promptly shoved Kuroba's legs off the couch when the magician attempted to prop his feet on Saguru's leg. Kuroba responded by bending his knees just enough to stay stretched out on the entire couch except for Saguru's spot on the far end. Yuushi occupied the nearest chair, forming a lopsided triangle between them.
"I am not a pillow. And must you always sprawl?" Saguru inquired, temporarily sidetracked.
"Yep!" Kuroba responded brightly. Too brightly. Wondering if Kuroba felt nervous over his impeding interrogation, or whether he was still fighting the residual effects of his nightmare, Saguru casually dropped his hand from his leg so that his arm rested on top of Kuroba's sock-clad feet. The dark-haired boy immediately unwound just a little bit. Still wanting to confirm Saguru wasn't a figment of his imagination, then. He left his hand there.
"How did you get in and out of my house?"
"Magic," Kuroba said with an impish grin.
"Kuroba-kun, between the enemies my father's collected over the years and the fact that I'm not far behind him, our security is supposed to be state-of-the-art. If you can get in… You may be the world's greatest magician, but that doesn't mean someone else can't use the same trick. I need to know where the hole in my security is, so that I can fix it."
Kuroba and Yuushi exchanged glances. "It's… not a problem with your security, Hakuba-kun," Kuroba said finally.
Hakuba raised an eyebrow. "Then what?"
Yuushi sighed. "I guess this isn't something where you'll be able to take our word for it?"
"When Kid's enemies are willing to threaten Kid's friends, and I've just set myself up as the latter? No."
Kuroba flinched slightly, but Saguru wasn't sorry for saying it.
"I can't believe I'm making this kind of exception again…" Yuushi shook his head. "Hakuba-san, will you swear that what you're told won't go any farther than yourself? Not even Aoko-san."
"Yes," he answered without hesitation.
"You may not like the answer."
"Yuushi-san, I need to know. If for nothing else, than for my peace of mind."
"Then do try and keep an open mind about this, will you?"
"I haven't had Kuroba-kun committed yet, have I?"
Yuushi smirked faintly in response and reached out a hand. A wall of what looked like dark smoke rose between them, then dissipated a moment later. Yuushi was gone.
"When Kaito-kun said magic… he wasn't lying."
Saguru shot upright and spun around. Yuushi stood behind the couch, arms crossed.
"…I see Kuroba-kun do that on a regular basis, and I know it's just a smoke bomb," Saguru said levelly, firmly ignoring the part of his brain that tried to point out that no smoke he'd ever seen moved quite like that.
Yuushi glanced over at Kuroba. "I was afraid of this. Do you mind?"
A mischievous smile emerged on Kuroba's face and he shook his head as Yuushi walked around the couch. Before Saguru could react, Yuushi grabbed him and pulled him forward into another dark something that formed behind the taller man. A riotous confusion of color and darkness confronted Saguru's vision for a split-second, and then he was standing outside on a cold, clear night, staring directly toward the spotlit Lord Nelson's Column across the way. Riku let go of Saguru's arm and gestured to the nighttime panorama before them.
"Is this or is this not Trafalgar Square?"
Saguru goggled, confirming that all the landmarks stood in their proper places: Canada House, South Africa House, Whitehall, the four plinths, even a few pigeon flocks bustling about and harassing tourists, despite the late hour. He looked behind him and found Kuroba dividing his attention between the view and Saguru himself, a faint smile on his face. Saguru returned to more important considerations, such as how they'd suddenly traveled over halfway around the world and through a dozen time zones in the blink of an eye.
"I'm a detective. I can't exactly deny what I'm seeing… but how?"
"The same way I can do this." Yuushi snapped his fingers, and dark fire blossomed in the air. This time, however, it floated above his fingertips instead of vanishing.
The instinct to run warred with complete fascination at the sight. Hakuba forced himself to maintain his usual aplomb and said, "You did that trick already. All that proves to me is that you have pyrotechnics, not that it's supernaturally based. What is it, a miniature flamethrower somewhere?"
"It's not technology, Hakuba-san…" The fire flared and vanished. Riku used the same hand to indicate Trafalgar Square. "How else do you explain being here?"
"I'm trying to. You're not helping. I admit that you seem to have just demonstrated teleportation, but you have yet to provide any evidence that it is due to magic rather than technology."
Kuroba stared at him for a moment. "I never thought I'd say this, Hakuba-kun, but I think you read too much science fiction. And what about Occam's Razor, then?"
"I find the existence of more advanced technology a much simpler explanation than magic," Saguru replied dryly. "And surely even you've heard that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
"Oh, give it a rest, Hakuba-kun! Skeptic…" Kuroba muttered.
"Your friend Akako-san has her own unusual abilities, after all, if you've noticed…" Riku pointed out. Saguru nodded reluctantly. He'd been trying rather hard to not notice, but it was difficult to ignore some of the girl's… peculiarities. "It's just not normal here."
"Which means… what, exactly?"
"It's why you couldn't find any records of Yuushi Riku last week, Hakuba-kun," Kuroba offered. "He doesn't actually exist here."
"Then where does he exist, Kuroba-kun?"
Kuroba grimaced. "…Another world."
"You're telling me alternate realities actually exist?"
"To be honest? I wouldn't put it past them," Kuroba admitted, with a shudder that piqued Saguru's curiosity as the dark-haired boy moved a step closer. "But that's not quite what I meant. These other worlds aren't necessarily reflections of our own. Some are similar, but others have no connections whatsoever, and all of them are just as self-contained and real as this one."
"I… see. And he's from one of them?"
"'He' is standing right here, and yes," Yuushi interjected, "I am. Not everyone could do magic there, either… but a friend and I managed to be exceptions to the rule."
"The same way you managed to miss 'normal' when it comes to eye color?" Saguru couldn't help himself—Yuushi's eyes had been subtly bothering him ever since he'd caught a glimpse of them the night before.
Yuushi's expression darkened. "Something like, yes."
"Then, while you've supposedly been gone with that magic troupe… you've been traveling between worlds?"
"Well, yes, though I would like to point out that the traveling magician part was true," Kuroba answered. "But you see why the cover story was necessary now, right?"
"…I can't believe I'm actually taking you seriously."
"That's your fault for being a detective. You have to follow a trail of evidence to the end… and then you can't deny your conclusions."
"I'm perfectly aware of that. It doesn't mean I always have to be happy about it. I'm not entirely convinced that all of this is necessarily magic, but I'll grant you that it's certainly not normal, and that other worlds may actually exist."
"Still your own fault. Back to your original question," Kuroba went on. "As you can see, no one else is about to circumvent your precautions the way Riku-kun did."
"Yuushi-san, you said that you and a friend were exceptions… can anyone else do what you can do?"
Yuushi gazed across the square. "Those who can aren't going to come here. They've got more important things to do."
Something clicked in Saguru's mind.
"Those people… they're why you're both leaving again, aren't they?" He narrowed his eyes at Kuroba. "They're doing something out there that's even bigger than what you're trying to accomplish as Kid."
And having just learned the specifics of what Kuroba was trying to do, the idea that the magician had gotten himself mixed up into something worse than snipers and seekers of immortality did nothing for his peace of mind.
Kuroba nodded slowly. "We would have left earlier if Nightmare hadn't happened. We need to catch up with Riku-kun's friend and give him a hand with some stuff."
His expression was unusually serious, the innocent-and-clueless act stripped away. In its place was the calm focus Saguru'd known had to exist, but which Kuroba'd always been careful not to show around him except on heists. Without the costume, this was neither Kid the thief nor Kuroba the class clown, simply… Kaito.
Saguru almost had to smile at the absurdity of the thought that popped into his head. But chasing Kid was practically expected of him by now, wasn't it?
"Can I come with you?"
After waving his hand in front of Kuroba's stunned face, Yuushi said, "I think you broke his brain again."
Kuroba seemed to visibly restart his mental processes, and started shaking his head. "Oh, no. Bad idea. You'll make everyone worry about you, especially if you've already submitted your resignation from the Task Force. People will wonder if someone blackmailed you, and then made you disappear."
Saguru shrugged. "I'll tell Inspector Nakamori I'm going back to England instead, then. I hadn't planned on staying in Japan, you know."
"And your parents?"
He thought for a few minutes. "…I'll tell them that I got a lead on Kid and want to chase it down in my own time, or something. It is the truth, after all. I already dropped out of my classes in England when I transferred back into Japan's school system, so I don't have any obligations waiting for me at home."
"But why?" Kuroba spread his hands helplessly. "You're not involved. And this is not a safe trip."
"I don't know. Because you think it's important. …Because you need someone to watch your back."
Kuroba looked torn, crossing his arms and staring out at the Square's nightlife.
"Kaito-kun," Yuushi said quietly, "if Hakuba-san retires, then his uncharacteristic behavior may well cause him to become a target if Kid disappears again."
Saguru jumped on Yuushi's train of thought. "Whereas if I can't be found, I won't be in any danger until you're around again to give them hell for it. Besides," he added, thinking back on Kuroba's recent behavior, "I'm sure you'd probably rather keep an eye on me to know for sure just how much danger I'm in at any given time. Better the devil you know than uncertainty, right?"
Watching Kuroba's profile, Saguru saw the magician's eyes close and his lips thin. "You're being entirely too reasonable about this."
"Possibly. Things are boring when you're not around."
Kuroba blinked. "They are?"
"I miss having the chance to regularly think in Escher."
Kuroba snickered briefly, but then became serious again. "None of this has to be an issue. Hakuba-kun, some of the things out there… there are worse fates than dying. You can stay and simply keep your semi-hiatus from the Task Force, whether or not you stay in Japan. It's moot which you do, because either way you're not going to have a Kid to chase. No unusual behavior, no reason to become a target. And you stay safe."
"Kuroba-kun—"
"I don't want to hear it," Kuroba cut Saguru off. "You have no good reason to convince me to take you with us, and I'll be damned before I let you risk your life for a bad one."
Saguru eyed Kuroba briefly, and then sighed. He obviously wouldn't be able to get Kuroba to back down on this one. "Fine. At least give me the courtesy of seeing you off."
Kuroba gave him a suspicious look, not trusting such an easy win, but eventually nodded. "We're leaving this afternoon. If it'll help you worry less, we'll stop by on our way out."
"It would." Saguru hid a massive yawn behind his hand. "Now, I'm sure you have lots to do where I'll just get in the way, and I never made it to bed last night. Would you mind taking me home, Yuushi-san?"
Yuushi obligingly made a portal, and they left England for mid-morning Japan. "Kuroba-kun?" Saguru said before they left him alone in front of his house. "Give Aoko-kun a proper goodbye. She's more worried about you than she shows."
Kuroba nodded. "I know. Why do you think we're not leaving until this afternoon?"
After they were gone, Saguru hurried inside and up to his room. True, he'd gotten no sleep and had wanted to be taken home, but he never told Kuroba that he'd be going to bed… He had some phone calls to make.
Several hours later, he was on a leave of absence from school in Japan, Inspector Nakamori believed he had obligations back in England he couldn't ignore any longer, and his parents both thought he was leaving to track down a private case. His mother hadn't been very happy about his news, particularly when he informed her that his phone service wouldn't be working for an unknown length of time, but she couldn't exactly stop him from half a world away.
He also had a small bag with several useful items hidden inconspicuously beneath his chair—close enough to grab quickly, but out of sight from Kuroba's too-sharp eyes. He couldn't say exactly why he felt so driven to go through with this, but now that he had made his decision, he was going to very thoroughly and methodically prepare to see it through. He was nothing if not efficient.
Which left one last important conversation: Aoko. Sighing, he dialed her number and waited to ring through. They'd become good friends over the past year, especially in the weeks Kuroba had disappeared. He might have even asked her out someday, were it not obvious to everyone but themselves that she and Kuroba had eyes only for each other.
"Hello, Aoko speaking!"
"This is Saguru, Aokokun. Have you seen Kuroba-kun today?"
"Yes, he came over for a while because he's leaving tonight. Why do you ask?"
"He said he would stop by on his way out of town, but didn't say when. Anyway, I had another reason for calling."
"Yes, what is it?"
Saguru sighed. "I'm leaving for a while, too. I'm sorry to give you so little warning, but I got a private lead on a case that I need to follow up right away. I'll probably be out of touch while I'm gone."
For a moment, all Saguru heard was Aoko's quiet breathing. "You can't let the police handle it?"
Thinking quickly, he replied, "Private detectives have more recourse for investigation than the police force, Aoko. You know that. This one goes beyond their reach."
"You're sure you have to go?"
"…Yes, I'm sure. I can't tell you about it, but this is important."
"You and Kaito both, gallivanting all over Japan on a moment's notice. Hmph!"
"How about this? If I meet up with Kuroba-kun while I'm gone, I'll guilt him into calling you."
Aoko giggled. "I'm holding you to that!"
"All right. Thank you for understanding, Aoko-kun."
"I'm sure that whatever case you have is important to someone. You can't turn it down just to keep me company."
In the background, Saguru heard a young voice suddenly call, "Aoko-neesan!" He blinked.
"Is that Kenta-kun?"
"Hold on a moment…" Aoko's voice became muffled briefly, and then she returned to the phone. "Yes, it is." She lowered her voice, presumably because Kenta was somewhere relatively close in the house. "I wasn't going to let him go back to the nursing facility last night, not after what happened… To be honest, Saguru-kun, I don't want to let him go back at all. He doesn't have any living relatives, and I'm afraid of what might happen to him."
Saguru paused, processing the implications. "Aoko-kun, are you seriously saying you want to keep him?"
More silence, longer this time. Then, in a very small voice, Aoko replied, "Yes."
Saguru closed his eyes. "It's your decision, Aoko-kun, provided you can convince your father to agree. Just be sure you think it through, all right? He's not a pet."
"I know. But I know that if I let him go… I'll always wonder about it."
"If you do take him in, I'm sorry I won't be around. Although…" he trailed off as a stray thought demanded attention. "Since you don't really know anyone Kenta-kun's age, I've a passing acquaintance with a girl who is also raising a young boy. You might enjoy getting to know her, and the Beika district isn't far from Ekoda."
"Really?" The sudden hope in Aoko's question confirmed just how serious she was about Kenta, and her awareness of how big an undertaking she was looking to acquire. To have someone to turn to for advice, or even just commiseration… And with both Kuroba and Saguru gone for an indeterminate length of time, Aoko could use another friend besides Keiko.
"Her name is Mouri Ran. If you explain the situation, I'm sure she'll understand. The boy's name is Conan. He's been there for several months, though I'm not positive what his family situation is." After a quick search through his cell phone database, he gave her the number for the Mouri Detective Agency.
"Thank you!" Pure relief colored her voice. "Um… do you think you could tell Kaito when you see him? Kenta-kun was taking a nap when he came by, so we didn't talk about him." She laughed softly. "Tell him I'll be too busy to miss him this time!"
A smile tugged at Saguru's lips. "All right, I will. I'm sure he'll be glad to hear it."
"I need to go now. I still have to talk to Daddy about this, but I'm pretty sure I can convince him."
"You can convince your father of nearly anything when you try, Aoko-kun."
She laughed again. "Daughter's privilege, I guess. Take care of yourself, Saguru-kun."
"You too."
They said their goodbyes, and he ended the call with a thoughtful expression.
"What is it I'm supposed to be glad to hear?"
Saguru jumped slightly in his chair and looked around. Kuroba stood on the far side of the room with Yuushi, grinning.
"How long have you been there?"
"Just in time to hear you say I'll be glad to hear something. So what is it?"
"Aoko-kun is determined to try and gain custody of Connery Kenta. She said to tell you that taking care of him will make sure she's too busy to miss you while you're gone this time."
A look of deep relief appeared on Kuroba's face. "So that's what happened to him. If Aoko's watching out for him, then he'll do okay."
"Connery-san also had a trust fund set up for Kenta-kun." Saguru gave Kuroba a significant look. "Between that account and the man's life insurance, Kenta-kun can have his surgery."
Myriad emotions flitted across Kuroba's face in the blink of an eye. Were Saguru feeling more alert, he might have been able to analyze them. As it was, he felt too exhausted to even try.
"That's… good." Kuroba shook his head as if to clear it. "We really do need to go, now." He leveled a glare at Saguru. "Look… Don't go looking for trouble, all right?"
Saguru let a hint of a smirk develop. "I don't plan to go after your snipers while you're gone, if that's what you're worried about."
"Good. I don't want to come back to find you dead, Hakuba-kun," Kuroba said quietly.
"You won't."
"Take care of yourself, Hakuba-san," Yuushi said, walking across the room and extending a hand for a Western-style goodbye. Saguru shook it firmly.
"You, too."
Yuushi opened a portal and stepped through. Pausing, Kuroba threw Saguru a final, inscrutable glance and followed behind. With no time to stop and second-guess, Hakuba grabbed his bag and dove through the shrinking doorway before the route could close.
Credit goes to Ellen Brand for coming up with the Black Phantom AU concept, which was appropriated as the template for Kaito's nightmare in the previous chapter.
7/07