The next day, it had taken Saguru a while to sneak Conan out of the clinic after school. He had been trying to convince Mio to let him out. However, she wasn't having any of it. Finally Saguru had to resort to smuggling the still injured kitten in his schoolbag. Since The detective had scoured the park, the next place to look was Kaito's house. There was a chance that The teen could've gotten away and left a clue there.
The detective looks up at the house. Somehow the placed looked forbidding.
"Well as best as I can guess, this is the next place to look. He glanced down at the small black kitten that was staring back up at him.
"Meow!" The kitten struggled out of Saguru's grasp and headed for some bushes beside the front stoop.
"Get back here!" Saguru hissed. He immediately got on his knees and looked under the bushes. Two glowing eyes stared back at him underneath. "Don't do that! If you want to start looking here that's fine but I want to stay close." The kitten nodded and started to crawl around. Carefully sniffing around for something. Saguru sighed and straitened to his full height. He could hear Tentei Kun rustling the bushes. Saguru looked around the side of the house. All windows seemed to be in place. He carefully walked through the bushes and tried to open the windows. No good. The windows were shut. The teen walked back to the patio door and gave it a jostle. Everything seemed to be locked tight. Suddenly, he heard a yowl coming from the bushes.
"Conan!" Saguru ran around the house and came to where the noise had came from. A few moments later, Conan came out of the bushes tail first. He was carefully dragging something along the ground. The kitten stopped and looked up at Saguru and waited. Saguru squatted down to get a closer look. His eyes widened in shock. On the ground, barely the length of his hand, was Kaito. As delicately as the teen could, he scooped up Kaito and cradled him in his hands.
"Kaito?" He asked softly. The figure didn't respond. Saguru took out his magnifying glass from his pocket and examined the shrunken thief. The clothes he was wearing were from the last time he saw the thief. However, they looked to be soaked to the skin. Kaito was covered from head to toe in mud. The detective adjusted his glass and breathed a sigh of relief when he noted that Kaito's chest was moving. Saguru noted that the other teen looked deathly pale. What worried him most was how blue Kaito's lips and fingers were.
"He's alive but has hypothermia." Saguru stated in a matter of fact tone. He looked up to notice that the kitten was missing. "Conan, come on we need to go!"
Conan came around the corner with a small key in its jaw. "Is that the key to the house?" The kitten nodded. "Let's head inside then.
Once inside, Saguru carefully placed Kaito on the couch in the living room and took off his school coat. "Alright where is the bathroom?" Conan climbed the stairs and the teen followed. The bathroom was small, but it fit their needs. Saguru filled the sink with cold water. Conan left the room and walked down stairs. After Saguru had everything gathered, he went downstairs to grab Kaito. As he entered the living room, he was greeted to the sight of the kitten curled around the small unconscious figure. As soon as he heard Saguru entered, the kitten bolted. He disappeared under some piece of furniture.
Saguru walked over and took a deep breath. Now comes the real challenge, get Kaito out of his mud soaked clothing. Preferably without twisting off his arms and legs.
After about 20min of careful tugging, he was able to free Kaito. Carefully Saguru picked up Kaito and took him upstairs. In the bathroom, Saguru gently placed Kaito in the cool water. Delicately, the detective rubbed the teens hands and feet to help with circulation. As time passed, Saguru slowly increased the temperature of the water in the sink. After some work it seemed that blood was flowing again, Saguru turned to cleaning the rest of his classmate. Saguru couldn't help thinking that this could be the most embarrassing thing he had done in his life.
"Mrow?" Saguru looked down and saw Conan sitting at his feet.
Saguru couldn't help but grin slightly. "I'm almost done. Just hang on." Saguru said calmly. After pulling Kaito from the water and wrapping him in a towel, the teen carried Kaito out of the bathroom. Conan was scratching at one of the doors, so Saguru opened it.
"Is this Kaito's room?" Saguru asked.
Conan nodded. "Meow." Saguru placed Kaito on his bed and looked around. His eyes fell on the life sized poster on the wall.
"Kind of tawdry isn't it?" The kitten looked at him with a knowing smirk. "Anyway, you guard him and I'll figure out how to clean his clothes. Conan nodded and curled up beside the towel.
The fist thing Kaito realized when he gained consciousness was he warm. That wasn't right, last thing he remembers he was stuck outside his house in the rain. He slowly sat up and stretched. He was sore but nothing serious. The room was dark, and could only see basic shapes. Suddenly something shifted in the edge of his vision.
"Hello?" He asked, his voice horse. Suddenly the shape lunged for him. Kaito shrieked and quickly crawled backwards. The shape faltered. It slowed, carefully circling around the shrunken thief. Suddenly the room's light was flicked on. Kaito whipped his head around. Saguru was standing at the door. Hand still on the light switch. Kaito looked back at the supposed beast.
"Tentei Kun?" Kaito asked shaking. The kitten gave a little meow in acknowledgement. Conan walked over and rubbed his face up against Kaito.
"Cut that out!" Kaito cried as he simultaneously tried to push Conan away and get cat hair out of his mouth. "It's ok." He reassured as he placed his tiny hand on top of the cat's head."
"He was really worried about you." Saguru chimed in. "Since we found you he's never left your side." Kaito made no attempt at to turn around to look at Saguru.
"Is that so." Kaito stared with no humor in his voice.
"Y-yeah." Saguru said. He was put off by the attitude Kaito was giving him. "Oh, I was able to clean your clothes." Saguru fished out the tiny outfit Kaito had been wearing earlier out of his pocket. He laid them beside Kaito on the bed. Kaito started putting them on, without so much as a nod toward the other teen. "You must be staving, I'll go get us someth…"
"Actually that won't be necessary." Kaito stated. "I want you to leave, now."
Saguru's eyes widened. " You can't be serious."
Kaito stared angrily at Saguru. The detective marvelled at how the magician could this threatening when he was this small. "I want you out of my home. Now." Saguru noticed that even though his voice remained even, the tone was growing more and more menacing.
"I'm not going to do that Kaito." Saguru stated in a matter of fact way. He reached over to pick up Tentei Kun when he felt something slice the back of his hand. It was enough to pull his hand back in surprise. He inspected his hand. There was a thin red line right across the back. Soon the line began to thicken as blood began to flow from the fresh cut. It started to drip down his wrist and onto the floor.
Saguru whipped his head around at Kaito who still had his card gun drawn. "What the hell?!" Saguru blurted out.
"I told you get out!" Kaito shouted " Next one gets embedded into your hand."
"This is crazy!" Saguru shouted. "You guys are tiny. How can you look after yourselves in this state?"
"We were doing fine until you came along!" Kaito shouted back.
"Oh were you?" Saguru snipped. "You had a kidnapped minor in your house! I'm surprised you lasted as long as you did!"
"We were doing fine until you showed up and ruined everything!" Kaito fired back.
"How is this any of my fault?!" Saguru could feel his face starting to go red. "I didn't turn you into this!"
"You just had to stick your stupid, arrogant face into something that should have been left alone!"
"I was worried about you and the kid! I didn't even know that the kidnapping and Akako's behaviour were related!"
Kaito raised his weapon. "I'm not asking again."
Saguru straitened. "You know what? Fine, I'll leave. I've got my own problems and don't have time to deal with your attitude. If you want to stay trapped in this house, it's fine by me. He then proceeded to turn on his heels and leave through the bedroom door. Slamming it behind him.