Disclaimer: I don't own DCMK
A Curse Marked Fate
51: Half Baked Words
Agasa had fallen into a fitful sleep on the couches in his own front room while waiting for Kaito and Shinichi to return from their self-appointed quest. So the sound of his doorbell had him jolting back to wakefulness in a less than put-together state. Worried, hopeful, and still half asleep, he tottered off the couch and stumbled to the door, flinging it open—to be faced with Mouri Ran and Suzuki Sonoko.
He nearly slammed the door right then and there, but his good manners kicked in, and he managed what he hoped was a convincing smile.
"Oh hello Ran, Sonoko. What brings the two of you here so late? Weren't you at that big business party?"
"We were," Sonoko replied. "But it was winding down, and Ran insisted we had to come talk to you."
"Where's Shinichi?" the taller girl demanded. She stepped past the portly inventor and surveyed the house's round interior with a critical eye. "And Kaito-kun? They never called Dad, and they're still not here, are they?"
It wasn't really a question.
Agasa felt a bead of cold sweat trickle down his back. "Um, well… They just…"
He trailed off—partly because he didn't know what to say and partly because Ran wasn't listening anyway. She had already strode past him and into the house. She proceeded to check each room.
Still hovering at the front door, Agasa watched her helplessly. His gaze flicked over to Ai, but the little girl had already gone back to reading her magazine.
Sonoko let out a breath of irritation as she took it upon herself to shut and lock the door. "Seriously, you're all being really weird. You know that right? I mean really, first Kuroba-kun ditches us. I expected better from him. I guess he's got all that stuff going on with the fire and his parents though, so I can overlook that. But then the little detective geek sneaks into my party to leave us some nonsense note instead of coming over to talk like a normal person. So now we have to come here because he told us to, and is he even here to explain himself? Of course not. Doesn't he realize I have better things to do than play pointless guessing games?"
"Wait, what was that?" Professor Agasa exclaimed, wondering if he'd misheard. "Shinichi was at the party?"
Ai looked up from her magazine, eyes sharp but expression impassive.
Sonoko looked nonplussed. "That's what I just said."
"But… I thought… I mean, are you sure?"
"I didn't see him in person, if that's what you're asking," the petit girl replied, growing distinctly peeved. "Like I was saying, he dropped this weird note off disguised as my cell phone and just left."
"And Kuroba?" asked Ai. "Did he feature in this non-appearance as well?"
"He must have. It's not like our little detective geek can create illusions. That part must have been Kuroba-kun."
"Illusions?" Agasa found that he was growing more confused as opposed to less.
Ai let out a sigh that was half exasperation and half concern and set her magazine aside. "I think perhaps you two should start from the beginning."
A few minutes later, she, Agasa, Sonoko and Ran were seated around the professor's dining table as the two teens described the strange piece of mail that had brought them there and the even stranger circumstances in which they had received it.
"And just to be sure, neither of you saw either Kudo or Kuroba?" the little scientist asked.
"Not a hair," Sonoko agreed, idly stirring a spoon in the teacup sitting on the table before her.
"And you brought the letter?"
"I have it here." Ran pulled a piece of folded paper from her pocket and slid it across the table to Ai.
The little scientist unfolded it. Silence reigned as she read it over once, twice then again. A frown etching itself deeper into her face with each rereading. Beside her, the professor leaned over to read the note as well. In his case, his eyebrows rose to meet his hairline. Then he seemed to come to some sort of realization because the confusion on his face gave way rather abruptly to an expression of horror then deep concern that did not go unnoticed by either girl—Ran because she was watching for it and Sonoko because you learned a thing or two when your family was always up to its neck in business dealings and one of your two best friends attracts trouble like there's no tomorrow.
"They did something, didn't they?" Ran said, breaking the two researchers from their thoughts as she leaned forward over the table, eyes hard and intent. "This has something to do with the Foundation that tried to kill Shinichi. That's the bit about your old home, isn't it? They're saying they're actually somewhere at the Foundation."
"That…would be the logical conclusion, yes," Ai said reluctantly.
"So, what, are you telling us that the brat and Kuroba-kun have broken into the Choice Foundation and are now on the run?" Sonoko asked, her words clashing horribly with the tone of utter boredom with which she was speaking. "Honestly, this is why that idiot's always getting into trouble. He just can't leave well enough alone."
Ai looked momentarily amused. "That seems unlikely. If they were on the run, it would hardly make sense to detour by your party even to deliver a letter. Coming here would have been much easier, safer and more direct. If they were at the party, they must have been there for a reason."
Sonoko didn't look convinced. "Like what?"
"Perhaps they tracked a person of interest there," the little scientist hypothesized. "Or they were already in hiding there and happened to see you. It was a Foundation building after all. Their investigations could have led them there prior to your arrival."
"Oh. Yeah, okay, I guess that would make sense."
"What about the rest of the note though?" Ran asked impatiently. "I get that they wanted us to contact you two, but what do they actually want us to do? Are they asking for help?"
Ai skimmed over the letter again then shrugged. "I would say not yet. They appear to be asking for five days. That, or they feel they have five days before things go seriously south. Either way, they do not appear to be in any immediate danger. If they were, I doubt they would have chosen such a round about method of asking for help. That means we don't have to rush to do anything just yet. Instead, we should work out the rest of this message. I propose that our first step should be to contact Kuroba Toichi about this invention log."
X
As a police officer, Nakamori Ginzo was no stranger to odd hours. As an officer of the law, he was well used to the idea that he had to be ready to respond at any time should the need arise. All considered, criminals generally didn't adhere to the standard working man's schedule.
However, just because he was accustomed to the idea that he might be called upon at any time did not mean he was thrilled to receive guests at one in the morning.
On the bright side, said guests had called ahead. On the down side, their idea of calling ahead had been a brief phone call announcing that they would be on his doorstep in five minutes.
It didn't improve his mood that those friends would have already been at his house and therefore would not have needed to wake him if they hadn't announced just that evening (er, the evening before?) that they would be going back to their own place tonight to finish running certain security system checks. If they were going to change their minds, couldn't they have done so at a more reasonable time?
Honestly, he expected his old friends to have better manners than to just invite themselves over at such an unwholesome hour. It was only common sense. Of course, as soon as that thought crossed his mind, he had to take a moment to try and decide whether common sense and the name Kuroba had ever had much to do with one another. But then he'd decided that it didn't matter because common courtesy would do, and he was pretty certain that that at least was something all three Kurobas professed to possess.
Yet here they were just as they'd said over the phone five minutes ago: the two elder Kurobas carrying what Ginzo suspected was a large, heated pitcher of hot chocolate, followed by a little girl he couldn't remember ever having seen before, two teenage girls (one of whom looked strangely like his own daughter's long lost twin and the other almost certainly one of the Suzukis' kids), and an elderly man whose face Ginzo knew he had seen but which he couldn't place until the man apologized to him for the late hour and proffered him a handshake and a name.
"Oh right, Agasa Hiroshi, the inventor," the officer grunted, shutting the door and gesturing to where the spare slippers were kept for guests. "Those special audio de-scramblers the station got last year were your work, weren't they?"
The portly man brightened at the recognition, and Nakamori found himself returning a grudging smile of his own. The little gadget in question had been a whiz at taking a doctored sound clip and restoring it to its original form and matching those clips not only to people but to locations through ambient sounds. It had turned out to be quite helpful for tracking and catching scam callers.
"So what is it you lot wanted? It had better be important," he continued, turning his attention to Toichi. At the sight of his old friend's tense expression, however, the last traces of his own irritation evaporated. Whatever the problem was, it was definitely serious.
"I'll make coffee," he decided. "Sit wherever you'd like. This won't take long."
"We have hot chocolate for anyone who'd prefer that," Chikage offered.
"Right. Well, you know where the mugs are."
Taking the comment as an invitation to help herself to said mugs, Chikage entered the Nakamori kitchen and began doing just that. Not far from her, Ginzo set the coffeemaker to brewing the strongest coffee he had on hand.
By the time they were all seated with their own mugs of coffee or hot chocolate or coffee with hot chocolate in front of them, they had been joined by a sleepy-looking Aoko. She had been woken up by the unfamiliar sound of several people moving about the house at a time when guests were definitely not normal and come to investigate. In truth, she had been a little on edge ever since that horrible attack on Clover Institute, and half of her had been expecting the worst. So she was pleasantly surprised to be greeted not by intruders but by friends.
She was also very confused.
"Sorry Aoko," Chikage said. "We didn't mean to wake you."
Ginzo couldn't help but think that it would have been nice if they hadn't meant to wake him either. Sighing, he downed half his coffee in one gulp.
"So what is all this about?" he asked when he felt more ready to be civil.
The visitors all looked towards Toichi, but the man seemed still to be collecting his thoughts. It was an odd look for him, Ginzo thought. He was used to his sly old friend always being one step ahead of everyone else. Even when he wasn't, he was the kind of man who made it feel as though he was. He had, hands down, the best Poker Face Nakamori Ginzo had ever known. His son had taken after him in all those ways and then some—which often worried Nakamori, but that was a discussion for another time. For now, seeing that expression on his old friend's face was enough to tell Nakamori that, whatever this was, it was serious.
Suddenly, the hour didn't matter at all.
As a police officer, it was his job to help make people safe. As a friend, it was his job to help his friends feel safe. The former required action, but the latter required a different approach—that of listening and speaking and patience (or at least the attempts thereof).
Lost in thoughts that he would admit had begun to wander due to simple tiredness, he was caught by surprise when it was Chikage who broke the silence first.
"Someone is targeting Toichi," she said. And though they could hear the concern in her voice, they could also hear the steel. Chikage was not a woman who would stand back when her family was in danger.
Ginzo's thoughts immediately flashed back to the Institute fire and assumed the worst. "What happened?" he demanded. "Were you attacked again? Did they get into your house?"
But Toichi was already shaking his head, gesturing for Nakamori to calm down and resume his seat. It was only then that Ginzo realized he'd shot to his feet. Embarrassed, he bent over to retrieve his chair and sat back down again. The other half of his coffee went the way of the first, and he accepted when Chikage offered him the hot chocolate pitcher.
"This is a different issue," the archmage said. "But first, are you familiar with the Matsuhara Corporation?"
TBC
A.N: Happy lunar new year!