Promenade 23: Quietude
After a few hours of channel surfing, where the only interesting thing on was an extreme sports competition, Kaito'd had enough TV and headed back to the kitchen. Hakuba and Solomon had stayed ensconced in the shop the entire time, so rather than simply raid the fridge Kaito decided to go ahead and make lunch for three. Multiple portions were no more difficult than one, and doing something to help Solomon would be a nice change from the past few days, and, well... cooking was a refreshingly normal activity. These days, comforting familiarity was something in rather short supply.
When the food was ready, Kaito poked his head into the shop and found, to his amusement, Hakuba retrieving a game box from a high shelf that Solomon would have needed the stepladder hidden behind the counter to reach, while the older man rang up the purchase for the waiting customer. Hakuba caught sight of Kaito as he turned around, and smiled with faint embarrassment at Kaito's grin before approaching as the customer exited, leaving the shop empty.
"Good afternoon, Kuroba-kun. You missed the mid-morning rush..." Hakuba shrugged slightly. "I was recruited."
"You didn't have any problems with that many people?"
"No more than could be expected. I made... considerable progress this morning towards keeping people out; it's currently a matter of refinement and practical testing."
Kaito hid an internal wince at the reminder of Hakuba's earlier state, and smiled. "Well, I have good timing, then. I made lunch for us."
Hakuba smirked. "Sushi?"
Kaito glared, but without much real ire. "No."
Solomon gave them both an amused look, as if he'd suddenly solved a puzzle, but didn't comment. "Why thank you, Kaito-kun. Let me close up for now and I'll join you two in a moment."
He did so, and they ate in companionable conversation for a short time, joined partway through by Riku, who gratefully claimed the portion Kaito had set aside for him. After they had finished eating and cleaned up the kitchen, Solomon excused himself to return to the shop.
"Games don't sell themselves, you know!" He declared with a smile.
After Solomon had gone, Hakuba added, "I also have my own work to practice, if you'll excuse me."
"Same here," Kaito agreed. "I was going to steal Riku and head out for a while.. You mind?"
Hakuba slowly shook his head. "No... I'll see you when you get back."
"We'll say hi when we get back."
"All right."
Hakuba returned to the study, closing the door behind him, and Riku looked at Kaito expectantly. "What did you have planned?"
"A couple of things, actually. First I need to ask Solomon-san a question, but if I get the answer I'm hoping for we're going to need cash. Do you still have any crystals worth selling after getting those potions? And I still need to get a couple of those from you, too," Kaito added as an afterthought.
"They're both in my cloak, if you want me to get them."
"That'd be great. It's up to you if you want to grab the cloak too - I was hoping you could help me practice aiming for people over big distances, after."
"Good idea. I had enough of sitting around back in Tokyo."
...Translation, you're still worried about losing your edge, there's not much for you to do around here, and the last thing you need is the time to sit and brood over the whole Sora and Ansem fiasco.
"Meet you back here, then."
As Riku headed back upstairs, Kaito backtracked to the game shop. No new customers had appeared yet, so Solomon immediately gave Kaito his full attention.
"Is something wrong, Kaito-kun?"
"No, everything's fine, I just had a question..." Kaito perched on the stool he'd used the first time he'd been in the game shop, learning about Duel Monsters. "Hakuba-kun is developing his shields, and has the gloves, but... he can't wear gloves all the time, and any wall can be breached. Is there any... I don't know, anything that would help act like another layer of shielding? A failsafe, if that kind of thing exists, or just anything we could use as a backup if he hits a bad situation?"
Solomon looked thoughtful, then smiled slowly. "As it happens... yes, I think I know of something that should work." He leaned back a little, opening a cabinet just far enough to tap the plaque on the base of a trophy on the shelf. Kaito arched a skeptical eyebrow.
"...Chess skills?"
Solomon coughed. "No, no. The bronze." He leaned forward, enthusiasm growing as he continued to explain. "It's because of what's in it, you see. Copper and tin. Copper conducts, you know — not just electricity, but also many of the energies involved with, well, extraordinary abilities. Tin, on the other hand, holds and stabilizes. Put them together to make bronze... and depending on the shape, you can use it to do all sorts of things. If you have a loop, for example, you can use it as a barrier - it'll catch anything trying to pass through, and keep it trapped going around in circles until it gradually leaks out harmlessly."
"So it acts as a dampener," Kaito concluded, focusing on the important point.
"Hmm. It might be more correct to say that the trap would function as a sort of dampener...but yes." Solomon looked at him for a moment. "The gloves I gave your friend are actually specially made, you know — there are fine bronze threads worked into the fabric precisely because of the slight shielding they help provide. Given the precise nature of Saguru-kun's ability, I suspect direct contact will help enhance the trap's effect."
"Hmm." Kaito narrowed his eyes thoughtfully. "If he's already got bronze in the gloves... that should help block anything getting to him through his hands. But if they're not working for some reason, or if he loses them somehow... maybe something at his head? That's where this really affects him, right? Only if it needs to be a loop..." Kaito snorted faintly. "I don't think even I could get him to wear a necklace."
"Something with a closed circle would be most effective, yes. Maybe a circlet of wire concealed around the brim of a hat?"
Kaito chuckled. "He hasn't been big on hats since I got him to quite wearing the deerstalker. I doubt he'd be willing to wear a headband, either. But... I think I might have an idea that would work. Thanks, Solomon-san." He grinned, then headed back into the house.
Riku was waiting in the living room, cloaked in black and holding two potions and the bag of crystals. He held out the potions, which Kaito took and held up to the light. The translucent green liquid inside sloshed a bit at the movement, almost seeming to sparkle as it shifted.
"So what exactly does this do?"
Riku shrugged. "According to DiZ, they provide everything you need to heal along with something that speeds it up. Your body still has to do the work, though. This is the strongest type — that's why I only have a handful. It will still leave scars, but... it cures just about everything." Riku's hands absently brushed along his ribs.
"Definitely worth it, then." Kaito pocketed them both, then took possession of the bag of crystals. A significant chunk of the higher quality ones were missing, but there were still a few left.
"Perfect," he declared with satisfaction. "Come on, Riku-kun... time to go shopping."
"Dare I ask for what?"
Kaito grinned. "For a surprise."
Two hours later, Kaito had all the supplies necessary for his scheme except for a soldering iron, but he was ninety-nine percent certain that Solomon had one at the game shop. He pocketed the last acquisition, a length of fine bronze chain, and glanced over at Riku. "We've still got some time before Yugi-kun gets out of school. Ready to play some time-delayed hide and seek?"
Riku smiled. "Sure."
"I'll come after you in... five minutes, my personal time. You'll be somewhere by then if you don't run into trouble, right?"
Riku nodded. "I'll be waiting." Half a moment later, smoky darkness surged from the ground and engulfed the taller boy completely, then faded away into nothing.
Kaito stared at the empty air thoughtfully for a few moments. The nearby pedestrians apparently hadn't so much as noticed Riku's disappearance into a dark void.
"I didn't know he could do that," he announced to no one in particular. It had looked oddly like Riku were being consumed by the dark, rather than stepping into a path as he'd always done before. "It's just as well this entire town seems to have a built-in Somebody Else's Problem Field."
Shrugging, the magician leaned against the nearest patch of wall and pulled out a deck of cards. Five minutes wasn't a long time, but Kaito felt loathe to waste even that small interval doing nothing at all. He practiced shuffling and a few sleight of hand basics until the time was up, then ducked into the nearby alley out of habit. Focusing on not-in-thin-air and out-of-sight, he reached for Riku and stepped through the passage as soon as it opened. Kaito let the rift fall closed behind him before anyone could notice the anomaly and glanced around to get his bearings.
He'd ended up at the back of a large hall nearly full of people, though no one seemed to have noticed his arrival. The milling crowd buzzed with an air of anticipation, everyone present unconsciously oriented towards the empty stage at the front of the room. The people themselves were an extremely eclectic bunch: men and women, gradeschoolers to grandfathers; a sprinkling of costumes of animals and other oddities, including at least half-a-dozen imitations of Sherlock Holmes' deerstalker and cap; and a general prevalence of naturally unnatural hairstyles and colors, despite the surrounding conversations being held in familiar Japanese.
Evidence for a theory of Shadows on a Sliding Scale — the more a world's hairstyles look like they belong in an anime from back home, the more present the Shadows are, and the more 'normal' things are, the harder it is to reach the Shadows.
After a few more moments of searching, Kaito caught sight of Riku in one of the nearby corners. The other boy was looking around, but didn't seem to have noticed Kaito yet, attention caught by the antics of various members of the crowd. Kaito ghosted through the various groups occupying the distance between them and stopped just at the edge of Riku's personal space.
"Having fun?"
Rather than startling, Riku glanced over with a little smile. "Some of the people here are amusing. Quite a lot seem to be obsessed with mysteries, and they're all apparently here for some sort of exam in order to gain entrance to an exclusive training school for detectives."
"The Holmes and Hercule Poirot cosplay outfits gave them away. How'd you know that I was right next to you?" He'd been trying to sneak, after all. If those skills were deteriorating, he was going to be in trouble once they made it back home.
"You weren't trying to hide in the Shadows. If you don't, I can tell when you're far away or close by. Since you'd just gone from the former to the latter, I figured you were about to find me."
"Cheater."
Riku snickered, but before he could reply, the entire room went dark and a voice began to speak over a loudspeaker.
"To those who have gathered to take the exam, the exam will now commence. Please look at the screen in the front."
An image immediately appeared at the front of the hall, a photograph of a room in disarray, only to disappear a minute later. The voice on the loudspeaker spoke again, naming the photograph as one of several clues intended for the examinees to use to determine the identity of a murderer. It then went on to describe the circumstances of the crime in detail, including a photograph of the scene as it was found by the police, and information about the victim.
During a brief lull in the explanations, while the crowd around them was busy discussing possible theories, Riku murmured to Kaito, "If we leave while it's still dark like this, no one will notice us disappear."
"Ehh... Not yet, this is interesting." And, conveniently, good practice.
Riku shrugged in acquiescence, and then the room blacked out again. A moment later spotlights switched on, framing the six costumed school staff who were acting the roles of the case's murder suspects. The room abruptly hushed for a moment in surprise as the crowd took in the appearance of the sixth suspect.
"...Is that a cactus?" Riku demanded.
Instead of a person on the stage, the sixth position was occupied by a giant, potted cactus. Wearing a sombrero.
Kaito laughed approvingly as the individual suspects were further described over the loudspeaker. "I'm going to have to remember that one. It's perfect."
"Perfect for what? Or do I not want to know?" Riku replied.
"Unpredictability. I like that person's sense of flair, although suspect three is the culprit."
Riku raised an eyebrow at Kaito's abrupt deduction. "Okay, how do you know it's three?"
Around them, the lights came on and the suspects began to walk away from the stage, each heading for a different exit. The voice on the loudspeaker instructed the examinees to follow their chosen suspect, as the murderer was headed for the site of the second half of the exam.
"Observation, deduction, and tailing abilities... this school doesn't mess around." Kaito strolled casually toward the exit on the trajectory of the third suspect, a nondescript man except for the bandaged ankle peeking out from under his left pant leg.
"As for why this guy, the culprit took the victim's shoes when he escaped. The only reason he'd need them is because he didn't have a pair himself, and the only time a person would be out in freezing temperatures without shoes, around lakefront property, would be because he were wearing ice skates." Under his breath, Kaito added, "Winter sport from hell." He still hadn't figured out why, when he had perfect balance for everything else, he could not conquer the slippery nature of ice.
"If he needed to take the victim's shoes," Kaito concluded, "it would be because he couldn't wear the ice skates any more. Three is the only one with a leg injury."
Riku smiled. "You've been around detectives too long."
"It's not my fault I attract them..." He grinned at Riku's look of frank disbelief. "Okay, it is. But I can't out-think a detective unless I can anticipate how he thinks, as a frame of reference for where it'd be most effective to pull a right angle and a few steps down an ascending staircase on him."
Riku just chuckled and shook his head as they reached the exit, where a group of close to thirty people had begun tailing the third suspect. "So, are you hoping to pass the exam yourself and join the school, or do you want to keep practicing?"
"We can head out. They've probably got at least an hour's worth of tailing the guy before they get anywhere." Kaito smiled. "See you in a few minutes."
Riku smirked. "Stay out of trouble."
The people nearby were too focused on following the third suspect to take any notice of them, so a moment later Riku let himself simply vanish into a Darkness corridor. Kaito amused himself for the next few minutes by sticking with the crowd and making private bets about who would pass the test, and who would fail. He wasn't sure about the rest, but one trio of young adults that seemed to be working together had some promise. Seeing the younger of the two boys, the one with a turquoise tint to his hair and innocent enthusiasm to his movements, fall partway into an uncovered manhole was almost enough to make him revise that opinion, but... that naivete wouldn't necessarily prevent him from being a decent detective.
"Come on, Megu, Kinta!" the boy cheered. "Let's go!"
"Watch where you're going next time, or we'll lose him," the older boy grumbled, but without any real anger.
"Ehehe..." Embarrassed laughter trailing behind him, the first boy hurried onward, once more intent on their quarry.
Kaito almost followed them, but it had already been five minutes. He let himself fade into the background instead, and once sure that no one was paying attention to him, reached again for Riku-out-of-sight and pulled,stepping through into another new world.
Author's note: ...Yes, it's been a while. Real life, it kills me. It kills my beta, too. However, I have not stopped writing Promenade, nor will I so long as I have betas to bug me about it (read: it will be completed).
This chapter's world cameo is the beginning of the Tantei Gakuen Q anime. It's all about the cactus.
11/08