A/N: This chapter is being posted very late due to a combination of business, tiredness, and personal circumstances. I apologize and don't expect it to happen too frequently, but it may indeed happen again if circumstances conspire.

This chapter is a little OC heavy, in that it involves the KID Task Force and my and miladyRanger's version of Hakuba's father, who is functionally an OC despite technically existing in canon. So, it seems like a good time to remind you of something that will also be relevant a few more times over the course of the fic: I like filling in blanks in canon by adding OCs and/or fleshing out canon characters, but I'm not about to let minor characters, either mine or Aoyama's, take over the fic.

Also, when it comes to Jii-I translate "bocchama" to "Young Master" when it stands alone but leave it untranslated as an honorific. Hope that's not too confusing to anyone.

Chapter 11

The one best suited to solve this riddle is the reason I write it:

The game is not afoot, nor will it be for some time

I am not an old man in Sussex but a student in Norfolk

Concern yourself with lost cubs rather than me.

Nakamori Ginzou looked up from the note lying on his desk and shouted, "KID Riddle, all hands!"

"The h***?" Kusakabe demanded, sidling up to the desk. "It's only been a few days! Is he escalating?"

"You shut your mouth," Harada said curtly, coming up behind him.

Harada was from Ginzou's generation, and the nicest of them didn't appreciate implications that KID was actually some sort of violent, disorganized psychotic. The surliest were liable to punch people for those accusations and end up in Human Resources or anger management classes.

"It is weird, though," Miuta said. "Does it look like another impersonator?"

Half the Thefts Division let out an audible groan at that. Despite department gossip-mongers implying the opposite, not every KID impersonator ended in dead bodies—but most did. And even the ones that didn't tended to leave mass property damage in their wake, like that idiot department store employee and his fiasco of a Christmas heist.

No one liked seeing dead bodies, no one liked having to negotiate jurisdiction with Megure's firebrand star detective and her prickly alpha male fanclub (okay, Takagi, Chiba, and Shiratori were okay, but Satou needed to take things less personally and the rest of the squad was a pack of overgrown hooligans) and no one liked the fact that those cases more often than not got wrapped up by KID and/or Megure's pack of tagalong private detectives and not the police. It was d*** embarrassing.

"It ain't a normal KID note, but…" Ginzou trailed off. "Miuta. After Hakuba, you're probably best at this s***. Whaddya make of it?"

There was a heavy silence as Miuta inspected the note. They'd been on the case of Hakuba's disappearance for weeks now, and they'd gotten exactly nowhere. A few false trails, sure. Even a kid in Hokkaido who turned out to just really look like their missing member. But no actual leads.

Chikage's drunken claim that he was in Paris at some point was as close as he'd gotten to one in all this time. And in a missing person case, that went straight past bad and all the way to "probably fatal."

With things this far along, Ginzou was starting to dread the day that one of his men came up to the desk with a folder from Division Two, saying they needed to transfer the case because they'd ID'd the kid's remains.

From the expressions on some of the other guys' faces, he could tell he wasn't the only one.

"I think this is about Hakuba," Miuta said. "...I think it's referencing Holmes. I don't know. I've seen like two episodes of Sherlock Bones and I watched one of the Basil Rathbone movies with subtitles at two a.m. once."

Harada glared at him.

"I know Japanese trivia; this is English stuff," Miuta said, crossing his arms. "I specialize a bit, is that a felony?"

"We gotta get Oyaji," Yoshida declared suddenly.

Miuta cocked his head to the side. "This has to be hard enough on him without pulling him into our attempts to solve a KID riddle."

Nakamori blinked. "Someone want to explain?"

"You really didn't hear about that?" Harada asked. "The rookies call the superintendent-general that since he mentors a lot of them. Well, that, or frickin' ninja, because they were calling him "Mom" 'til he started sneaking up on people whenever they did it and politely asking them to use the right gender, at least."

Nakamori made a sort of choked noise.

"There's a couple guys over in Traffic who call him "ninja-dad" but he doesn't really like it much," Yoshida reported.

"How did I not hear about this?" Ginzou managed.

"Probably too busy cursing at KID," Kusakabe said, smirking.

No one disagreed, and a couple people grinned.

"Wipe those grins off your faces, and someone get the superintendent-general!" Nakamori growled. "And I don't care what you call him in private; in the office you will address him by his proper title."

Inwardly, though, he laughed. Frickin' ninja. Wow, sir, that's just impressive.

A few minutes later, Yoshida and Komori reappeared with the superintendent-general close behind.

"You think the KID note concerns my son," the superintendent-general said, frowning.

Nakamori nodded and handed the card to his superior, who scanned it, expression grave.

"You're correct," the man said, after a moment.

"Then, you get it?" Miuta said.

The superintendent-general nodded. "Officer Yoshida told me you were the one to notice that it was some sort of Holmes reference. Good work." He grinned a bit tiredly at Miuta, who all but lit up.

"The first line is saying that the note would be easiest for Saguru-kun to decode, right?" Miuta asked.

Tsuyoshi nodded. "That's right, given the second line. It starts 'The game is not afoot,' which is a modified quote from both Shakespeare's Henry V and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Adventure of The Abbey Grange. But combined with the first line—no one in the Task Force is a Shakespeare expert, but my son is both absent and a Holmesian."

"You're really well-read sir," GInzou commented.

"We all have hobbies," Superintendent-General Hakuba said dismissively. "As for the rest of the line…'nor will it be for some time' combined with 'the game is not afoot'...I heard from Saguru that KID, at least, has been known to treat your encounters as a contest."

Ginzou nodded. "That's right."

"So, he's calling some kind of halt to heists," Superintendent-General Hakuba said, frowning at the note a bit.

Ginzou tried not to be obvious about monitoring the sudden restlessness among the men. Even if more than half of them hadn't been around for the first hiatus, they all knew about it, and if this was an announcement of a second, well...they weren't gonna take it well. Months of effort and planning and training would be down the drain in a moment, never mind the fact that the snipers at recent heists made it possible that the retirement wasn't so voluntary, and some of the younger officers with bleeding hearts would worry. Not that Ginzou wouldn't. Eight d*** years, he'd spent waiting. How many years would it be this time?

"The third line...Holmes, as an old man, retired to Sussex to keep bees," Superintendent-General Hakuba continued, frowning at the note slightly in concentration. "So...I believe he's saying this isn't a retirement."

"So he's saying he isn't retiring," Harada said.

Ginzou did not slump in relief, but only because he couldn't be a bad example for the rookies watching.

Superintendent-General Hakuba nodded, pleased. "The second part, 'a student in Norfolk,' is a reference to a less popular case set during Holmes's college years, while he was vacationing in Norfolk. So he's saying this is a vacation. The last line is, I believe, a reference to my son's nickname in the papers-they call him the Wolf of Europe."

"That a**hole of a thief," Ginzou all but snarled. "The h*** does he think we're doing now?"

"I don't presume to know what goes on in such a man's mind," Superintendent-General Hakuba said quietly.

And, somewhere, buried under burgeoning panic at the prospect of yet another hiatus, Ginzou's instincts twinged. The superintendent-general's reaction was off and it was important, somehow.

"It is a hiatus, isn't it, sir?" Yoshida asked anxiously, fidgeting a little as he looked up at Ginzou.

"Now, we don't know that for certain," Harada said. "KID's taken breaks since the last hiatus."

"But he's never felt the need to warn for them like this before," Miuta pointed out, with a dull sort of certainty to his tone.

"He didn't warn for the hiatus, either," Harada argued.

"What are you all doing standing around here gossiping?" Ginzou thundered, deliberately ending the conversation. "The note's solved, speculatin' aimlessly won't help anything, and you all have work to do! Now get going!"

His subordinates scattered, and Superintendent-General Hakuba likewise turned to leave.

"Now, you, sir, you I'd like to wait just one second," Ginzou said.

"It's as you said," the superintendent-general said. "We all have work to return to."

"I think my work right now involves talkin' to you," Ginzou said. "You said that when Holmes was in, er, Nolfikk or wherever, he ended up working on a case, right?"

The superintendent-general nodded, obviously wary. Ginzou plowed onward, more sure than ever that his instincts were on the right track.

"So why didn't you at least suggest that KID was saying he was working on something while he was on break?" Ginzou asked. "That woulda been a possible explanation, too."

"I suppose I simply thought that the fact that there was a case had more to do with the source material than with KID's meaning...you can hardly find any part of Holmes to reference in which he is not working on a case."

"Then why not explain that to us while explainin' the heist note?" Ginzou asked.

Superintendent-General Hakuba's frown tightened.

Ginzou's eyes narrowed. "There's something you aren't tellin' me, and I don't like it," he said.

Superintendent-General Hakuba looked away, expression defeated. "I was...advised...that, given circumstances, there was a chance that KID would be more successful in locating my son than I or the police force at large would be. At first, I was loathe to even consider the claim, but given how much time has passed…"

Ginzou stared at him, wide-eyed. "THE H***, SIR?"

Superintendent-General Hakuba made a soft shushing noise, and looked around furtively. Fortunately, by this point, Ginzou cursing loudly was more-or-less a non-event in the Thefts Division. People only really started looking up if the cursing was being used to punctuate orders.

"What would you do, if it were your daughter?" Superintendent-General Hakuba asked.

"I sure as h*** wouldn't trust that d*** sneak-thief—" Ginzou broke off as the superintendent-general's gaze drove into him, exhaustion and desperation just barely held together with the dedication to his duty that had earned the man his office in the first place. Chastened, he actually considered the question.

"If it was Aoko, I might do a lot of desperate s***," he admitted. "Maybe not the particular thing you did, but probably some pretty stupid stuff."

"I should think so," the superintendent-general murmured. "So, yes, I suspect my request is among the reasons behind this break...and if I may be so bold, it is one of the reasons I believe it to be only a break, rather than a hiatus."

"Tell that herd of rookies ya got calling ya oyaji that, if ya want, but I ain't worried," Ginzou said firmly. I ain't. He'll be back. I know it.

"You're a good man, and a poor liar," the superintendent-general said quietly. "Perhaps it was a mistake to allow Saguru-kun to continue working with the police, but I think you were one of the best possible choices for him to work under."

And with that, the man strode off, leaving Ginzou blinking, confused, and wondering what exactly had just happened.

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

"It's been some time since I've seen you here, Young Master," Jii said, a hint of admonishment to his tone, as Kaito walked into the empty Blue Parrot.

Kaito ducked his head in acknowledgement, grinning through the spark of pain the motion sent racing through his neck. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you about the heist. It was a stupid idea, but I thought I needed to do it and I knew you'd try to stop me."

"True," Jii said mildly. "It seems you've at least learned something, but I can't help wishing you'd been able to learn it a bit less painfully."

"I'm not hurt that badly," Kaito said, waving a hand and not letting a single twinge show on his face.

Jii cocked an eyebrow. "I'm a few decades too old to be fooled so easily, Young Master."

Kaito slumped onto one of the barstools. "You could at least humor me?"

"That doesn't mean pretending that I don't notice when you're hurting," Jii said. "I don't think that's what you want from me. Or were you lying to your mother?"

Kaito sat straight, ignoring his the way the muscles in his back protested. "So, she's already talked to you."

He hadn't known Jii was capable of smiling so coldly...but, really, knowing the man was a former pool shark, he shouldn't have been surprised. "I've listened to her, but that doesn't mean I've agreed with everything she's said."

He sighed. "She was hurt deeply by Toichi-sama's death, but that's a reason, rather than an excuse. It's not my place to interfere in your family's affairs, beyond being of help to both of you when you need it, but you have no need to worry that what you say to me will make its way back to her. Of course, I'll ask that you don't ask me to tell you exactly what she's said to me, either."

"That seems fair," Kaito said, relaxing again. "I don't want you to feel like you're stuck in the middle of all of this."

"Well, I can't help feeling as though I might have prevented it, if I had—" He broke off. "But such regrets aren't for your ears. There's another matter, however. One thing I did not tell your mother was that the nights you haven't been at home or with the Nakamoris weren't spent here, either. But now that I have, frankly, no idea where you've been...I have to confess, I'm a bit concerned. Particularly with Hakuba-san missing…"

"About that...how much do you, uh, know, about that situation?" Kaito asked, carefully.

"I haven't been concerning myself with it," Jii began. His eyes narrowed. "But you have. What did you do, Kaito-bocchama?"

Kaito held up his hands. "Uh, first you have to promise you aren't going to tell Mom."

"I don't like where this is going, Young Master," Jii half-growled, expression thunderous.

"Promise, or I swear I won't tell you, and this one, you won't guess," Kaito said.

"I promise," Jii said wearily.

"I may or may not be helping some detectives look for Hakuba," Kaito said.

"Young Master!" Jii exclaimed, scandalized.

He wore the sort of expression a normal family friend might get on his face if Kaito had announced he was planning to steal the Three Sacred Treasures of Japan. Of course, this was Jii, so if Kaito had actually announced a plan to steal the Three Sacred Treasures, Jii would probably get excited and start drawing blueprints, until he remembered the religious significance and got just a little guilty.

"As Kaito, or as KID?" Jii demanded.

"As KID," Kaito said. "I've been going in disguise, they agreed not to arrest me while I was helping them find Hakuba, and it's generally been as safe as I can make it. I showed up injured last night and they probably could've arrested me if they wanted to but they didn't because we have an agreement and I think I'm growing on them."

Jii gave him a sideways look. "Don't rely on that. You may think a detective is your friend, but the law will always come first for them."

Kaito let out a small snort of a laugh. "I'm not so sure."

Jii raised an eyebrow.

"These guys are big on the truth and finding who's responsible, but if little laws get in the way, they're kind of cavalier about breaking them," Kaito said.

Jii gave him a searching look. "What kind of detectives, exactly...did you actually find Kudou-kun?"

Kaito startled. "What made your mind leap to Kudou?"

"He had a gun, at the Clocktower," Jii said, expression flat. "He's not even old enough to have a permit in most countries where they're legal. Japan, if you'll recall, is not one of those countries. And that Edogawa child you're so wary of is a relative of his."

"Look, never mind which detectives," Kaito said. "They're good at what they do and I don't think they're going to turn on me."

Jii's expression turned serious. "Do not get involved with Kudou-kun, Young Master. I don't know exactly what sort of trouble he's found, but an old acquaintance of mine is a family friend of his, and he says it's nothing good. You have enough difficulties of your own."

Kaito grimaced. Yeah, and they're difficulties with the same exact people as Kudou.

Jii raised an eyebrow. "Young Master. You aren't telling me something else. What is it?"

"I'm not saying that Kudou is one of the detectives I'm involved with," Kaito said, wincing. Don't like lying to Jii, but I don't like the idea of telling Jii something that could put him and Kudou in danger. Both of them have enough stress. "But...it's a long story, but maybe I know something about what kind of trouble he found, and it probably involves friends of the people shooting at me."

Jii pursed his lips. "That would explain a great deal, yes," he said quietly. He gave Kaito a searching look. "You aren't planning anything with Kudou-kun beyond looking for Hakuba-kun, right?"

"I said it wasn't Kudou!" Kaito protested.

"Yes, of course," Jii said, with a patronizing smile.

"But no, any detectives I am working with, I'm only working with to find Hakuba," Kaito said. "Any information we shared, we shared because it was relevant to Hakuba's case."

"But you did share information," Jii said. "Young Master, be careful."

"I will be, I swear," Kaito said.

"I would be more convinced were it not a few days after a heist we both know you should never have even attempted to hold," Jii said, tone deceptively mild once again.

"I...I wasn't thinking, about who'd be worried and how dangerous it would be," Kaito admitted. "I am now. Does that count for something?"

"Perhaps," Jii said. "It might count for a bit more if you were to spend the evening here, where I could keep an eye on you."

Kaito smiled sheepishly. "I didn't even bring my homework!" he protested.

Jii gave him an unimpressed look. "Are we pretending, now, that it won't take you an hour to complete when you get home?"

Kaito slumped in defeat, keeping a smile on his face all the while. "I guess not."

"Good," Jii said.

"So," Kaito ventured. "Did you change your mind about letting me try the alcohol that tastes like chocolate?"

Jii gave him a flat stare. "No."

"But—"

"Young master, you are below the drinking age."

"Awwww…."

"But I do have chocolate syrup and a shaved ice machine, so if you'd like…"

Kaito grinned.

Jii gave him a suspicious look. "Was that your goal all along?"

"A magician never reveals his secrets," Kaito sing-songed, leaning across the bar as Jii sighed and got the syrup out of the mini-fridge beneath it.

Thanks, Jii-san, he thought, grinning.

A/N: Next chapter will get us back to the main plot a little, so please look forward to it!

I appreciated last chapter's reviews so much, and any others you'd be willing to leave would be equally appreciated.