*** aira2889, anamanga9, RiriaKazeKage, Liia-P, Rietto, xChibiChanx ...

Is there a meaning to this A/N? There is no meaning to this A/N.***

Chapter 2: Sigh

09:50 AM

Rin rang the doorbell; hoping to not get the same result as yesterday... Having to wait for ten or so minutes. It was Len who decided when they would meet, so he should be up. To Rin's surprise, it was Iroha who opened the door.

"Rin! You finally made it!" Finally? Rin was ten minutes early.

"When did you get here, Iroha?" She came inside and went to the living room. There, Len was putting his artificial arm on.

"She has been here since seven." Len answered her question, irritated. Who wouldn't be annoyed and bothered by the sound of bells in seven in the morning? And all Iroha said to her was... She wanted to be early.

"Did you get enough sleep, at least?" Rin caught him yawning.

"I'm fine." That wasn't so convincing.

"We should get started, right? It's not ten yet, but, you know. It's close to ten. I've put up posters all around town, so I think it's better if we-"

"Hold on, we don't even know what your cat looks like." Len stopped her.

"My cat… First of all she's white, and wears a cute pink ribbon." Iroha ended it there… She thought just that would be enough to solve everything. She didn't mention the kind of the cat, the special characteristic... What could anyone do? Just put a pink ribbon to a random white cat in the street and... They could end the case there.

"And?"

"Her name is Kittyler!" Len would facepalm himself if he could, but Iroha wasn't joking. Really? He's really expected to find a cat just by that? It made him curious on what the posters looked like… White, with a pink ribbon. No wonder no one called.

"Where should we look now?" Rin couldn't help but wonder why Len was following Iroha… And by 'following' she meant, saying yes to everything she said; no matter how odd/weird/strange it is.

To sum up what happened:

1. Iroha came knocking at Len's mansion on seven in the morning, and Len didn't complain despite looking... annoyed.

2. Iroha constantly nag Len about her cat. He didn't seem to be responsive to it, which apparently had made her nagging worse. Rin was on the verge of having headache herself.

3. Iroha didn't give much details on something important to her, which didn't help at all. If this was an interrogation and not fact-gathering they were handling, Len would demand more facts. By force if necessary.

Or maybe Len still thinks it's a stupid, trivial case, thus didn't care even if the said cat lost forever.

Well, Len was rather proud of his job, so it's probably not true.

Maybe Rin was paranoid and was just a little bit stressed.

"Rin?" Len called out for the twentieth time. She snapped out from her fantasy world and came back to earth.

"I'm sorry, what? I didn't pay attention…" Rin had no idea why she just spaced out like that… Oh, right. It was Len's weirdness and Iroha's odd determination and vagueness.

"We're going to leave town, it'll take quite a while to get there… Even with a carriage. I'm sure we'll be there by noon though." Rin nodded. It's been a week, but would a cat really wander… That far? Iroha was apparently the leader there, so Rin couldn't complain.

"Ah, before we leave… Have you eaten breakfast yet, Len?" It's Rin's job to serve him breakfast and tea after all, a detective couldn't start work with an empty stomach. Even if that detective's been through worse situations like serial killers, mad scientists, or yakuzas. He still needs breakfast.

"We-"

"I felt bad on waking him so early in the morning so I cooked him breakfast." She smiled brightly. "It was worth it I guess, he said it was delicious! Come on, let's look for a carriage already~" The hyper girl skipped along, leaving the detective and his assistant alone in the living room.

"-sigh- We better get going before she gets hit by a carriage. Come on, Rin." She slowly followed behind him, lost in wonderland again.

It's weird how she has served Len for more than half a year… And Len had never said anything about her cooking.

'… should I ask Miku to teach me?'

"This is so troublesome…" Len sank down on his seat on the carriage; he massaged his temples, sighing. Even though the carriage obviously fits four people, Len said he'd use the carriage with Rin, and Iroha could use another carriage.

"I don't know how long this little play will go on."

"What are you talking about?" Rin looked out the window, Iroha's carriage just behind them.

"Haven't you noticed it? That client of ours is being annoying and I 'pretend' to follow her around. There are too many inconsistencies…" Right… That was on Rin's head a few minutes ago in the mansion. So she wasn't hallucinating or paranoid (maybe just a little bit), Len really was acting the whole time.

"Then why did you accept the case? You could say no, but you didn't." Or call the cops for somehow breaking into someone's mansion.

"I got curious of her. No one should have been able to enter my mansion. I made sure of that." Len plainly answered. That wasn't really a reason to accept the case…

"When she got in, I thought she came from the window… Maybe you forgot to lock one of them? A back door, maybe?" Sure, there are some rooms in Len's mansion which are locked, Rin only knew a few rooms, in fact there were still chances of her getting lost in the mansion. Small, but the odds existed.

"I wonder about that. The windows were all locked when I checked them and, while yes, there is a 'back door', it's locked too. I know my own mansion, Rin. When I say it's impossible to enter, I mean it." Rin could somehow see where this was going.

"Maybe… She could pick locks." Iroha looked too innocent to actually… Do any harm. Accept being irritating to some people, but that couldn't be categorized as harm. It's categorized as... annoying.

"Even if she did pick my lock, the lock would break and none of them were, I checked. Also, she's not normal. I could tell by her perfume that she's a noble, or at least rich because admittedly I don't remember her at all. No normal parents of a noble would ever let their precious daughter learn something so… roguish." Right… Rin read books, no… It's not just books, outside the carriage's windows, she could see it for herself. The ones who's usually able to pick lock would be poor and had to resolve to bad things to survive. Certainly not a noble.

"That goes to another question. She knew how to cook, I had to say her cooking was delicious, she knew table manner and etiquette, the latter almost hidden by her annoying childish behavior though. More evidence of her being a noble, and so… If she really is one, don't you think she has enough money to ask the police about the cat?" Rin was finally convinced that Iroha was someone not to be taken so lightly.

Never judge a book by its cover…

"Why of all people, why did she ask me?" Maybe Iroha was secretly an assassin… Ready to stab him literally in the back soon. There he goes again, thinking up the worst case scenario.

"I think she knows who you are, though." Rin shrugged… Overall, it was Miku's fault. The apparently-not-so-normal girl might actually… Be up to something.

Take the cat case Miku said.

It'll be fine Miku said.

She's even more mysterious than her missing cat!

"Until when are you going to play along? If we wait too long…" They had all the right to be suspicious and paranoid. Just a month ago, they (Len, Kaito too) destroyed few branch offices of an organization mostly known for killing and experimenting humans. Not the killing part, but experiments were killed during the… Testing part. It's possible that the other branches knew who they were.

What if they wanted revenge?

Scratch that, Len knew they wanted revenge. The time is the real mystery; when they're going to do it.

"By the end of the day, in a place where there are lo- Ah, right, a market! That way she can't do anything…" Trusting people… Seemed way harder than it was before. There were always possibilities of people lying.

12:40 AM

Ah, that wonderful, wonderful smell of the sea. Iroha's first stop was the harbor… Rin and Len didn't question how and why would a cat be lost somewhere so far away from the big city where Iroha came from, they just played along.

"Why did you take us to the harbor, Iroha…?" Sure, there was a chance that Iroha might actually kill them in the near future and dump their bodies at the sea, but it's best to make sure.

"There should be lots of fishes in the harbor, right? It's only common sense, cats love fishes!"

Rin couldn't say the obvious that a marketplace would have more easier to reach, easier to get fish. Plus that it's closer than the harbor.

Rin and Iroha watched the ships all around the harbor, it reminded Rin of the trip from England to Japan… Those weeks of staying in the ship. It was boring, full of sea sickness, turbulence, and rare moments of fun.

Rare... very rare...

"Ugh, what's taking that master of yours so long? It shouldn't take that long to pay a carriage, right?" Iroha stomped her feet.

"Maybe they don't have a change i-"

"We should start looking by ourselves! Come on, we'll met up with him again eventually!" Iroha grabbed Rin's arm and started pulling her away.

She's as energized as a powerhouse!

"I'm not sure if Le-"

"Again! We'll meet up eventually, stop worrying and help me find my cat!" Before long, Iroha loosened the grip on Rin's arm and Rin started to walk by her own. If Len could do it, so could Rin. She could play along, if Iroha really is up to something. What's the worst that could happen?

12:50 PM

They're gone.

One second he was paying the carriage men, extra so they could wait a little bit and take them back to the mansion again. A second later the girls were gone, out of sight, nowhere to be found.

Len tried to find a reason on why he should not panic. First of all, they could be anywhere. Iroha seemed somewhat daring, she could even be in one of those ships dragging Rin along. Or worse. They board one of the ships… And there were… Uncountable number of ships in the harbor coming and leaving.

"Ah, excuse me? Have you seen two girls, one is blonde with a ribbon on her head, and the other one… Is very noisy and her pink hair is tied back?" Len asked a nearby fisherman.

"There was a really noisy girl and a quiet one… I think they boarded that ship over there." The old man answered, he pointed at a large boat… Large enough to fit three hundred or so passengers. Ready to board, ready to set sail, and judging by the size, that ship might be leaving somewhere outside of England.

And that's bad.

"Thank you." Len said and quickly ran to the ship. Anyone with eyes and common sense could determine the fact that the ship was about to set sail any minute. And if Rin is set off to an unknown mysterious land or get thrown off board for not having a ticket Len knew who'd be on his murder list.

It was... Truly a miracle, Len could somehow slip inside the ship without being asked a ticket. In any other day, he'd question why the security of a ship so magnificent looking is horrible, but not today. In a matter of seconds the stairs connecting the ship to the harbor, and also the anchor of the ship would be raised and there'd be no turning back.

"Excuse me, but I'm looking for a friend of min-" Len asked one of the sailors in the ship. His jaw dropped when the sailor turned around to face him.

"… K-Kaito?" He was as surprised as Len was, they had the same questions in mind. 'What is he doing here?' and 'What are the odds of me meeting him here?'

"Len! What are you... God... I didn't know you're going to… France? Without Rin? Are you sure that's a good idea?" So the ship's destination was France. Great. Len just needed Rin off the ship before it set sail and interrogate Iroha later on.

"…Why are you wearing a sail- Th-that's not important right now, I'm looking for Rin. Have you seen her anywhere?"

"Isn't it obvious? I'm a sailor. It's my new job, so… Rin, right? I'm not sure, I think I saw her, but, there are lots of blondes in this ship, it might be someone else." He shrugged. It was weird… Seeing Kaito in a sailor suit… But that's not important at that moment.

"I need to find her fast bef-" They felt the ship budged, little by little. It didn't take long for them to realize the ship had already…

"Kaito, you're a sailor, turn the ship around! I don't have a ticket, and I've no intention to go to France!" Len tried to calm himself down… Keep calm… he's definitely not going to the country of love without Rin!

Wait, that sounded awfully wrong.

"I can't do that! Len, this is my first week on the job, I can't get fired now! Once we set sail, we can't turn back!" Len sank to the floor, he wasn't ready for another week or two in a ship to France.

Feeling rather awkward, Kaito used the binocular tied around his neck and searched for the harbor… And that's when he found it.

"Funny, that person looks like Rin from here. Blonde, wearing black, a ribbon…" With that description, it could be anyone. "And there's a girl with her… Pink hair tied back, seems rather childish, and a pretty dress. Does that ring a bell?" Len quickly stood up, and Kaito handed him the goggles.

Yep, there they were.

"Are you really sure you couldn't turn the ship around? I don't have a ticket, you need to turn it around." Len saw as those two girls became smaller as he drifted farther into the sea.

"The least I want to do in life is argue with my boss." He answered with a sigh as he patted Len's back.

"I guess you're stuck in here for a while, pal. Welcome aboard."