Current location:	US, Arizona, Tucson
Current mood:	accomplished
Current music:	Rows of houses, all bearing down on me. I can feel their blue hands touching me
Entry tags:	magic kaito

[Magic Kaito] The Kings and Queen of Mayhem
Title: The Kings and Queen of Mayhem Aka: The one where Saguru is not crushing on Kuroba (but might be crushing on the Kaitou Kid, just a little)
Author: Icka! M. Chif
Word Count: 12,538
Rating: General
Writing Music: Radiohead: Street Spirit (Tiesto Remix)
Author Notes: Saguru POV always gets running music to write to. Huh. Anyway, random fic that blossomed, combining a lot of plunnies. Non Hakuba/Kuroba pairing for once, some KaiShin undertones.
Happy Birthday to Kuroba Kaito/Kaitou Kid and Aoyama Gosho!
Summary: Saguru had begun to feel like the life of an internationally famous travelling teenage detective was... lacking in something.

---

Saguru had begun to feel like the life of an internationally famous travelling teenage detective was... lacking in something.

He wasn't quite sure what it was. Life in London was fine, school was... well, school was school. He was there to learn, not socialise. Not that he had much time for socialising, it was hard to keep track of people when whenever there was a break, he was somewhere in the country or across Europe, solving cases that the local police had difficulty with, much to the delight of newspapers everywhere.

It was supposed to be exciting, and yet the lustre on the lifestyle had worn off when he wasn't looking. Travel was long and boring; with huge stretches of doing nothing. Casework was engaging as ever, but it was mere moments of intense challenge and then extremely dull periods of nothing.

He needed something to constantly challenge him, not these infrequent flashes of brilliance.

And then he heard about the Internationally Wanted Criminal 1412, making reappearance in Japan. More specifically, in the same area his Otousan worked. He'd nearly jumped out of his chair in excitement upon reading about this 'Moonlight Magician' whom no one was able to catch. Plans, theories and variables began rattling through his brain at record speed, as if he'd just stuck his finger in an electrical socket, filling him with energy.

Mum had smiled and shooed him off to Japan with a wave and an admonishment to find what he was searching for.

The thought haunted him on the flight across the globe. What exactly was he searching for specifically? A challenge? More than a challenge?

What was Mum seeing that he wasn't? She did that occasionally, no matter how skilled of a detective or observer he became. Mum said it was a Mother thing.

Otousan didn't seem to mind his appearance or company, smoothing the way for Saguru to use his Uncle's laboratory and joining Nakamori-keibu and the Task Force to catch the 'Kaitou Kid' before leaving him in Baaya's care.

Not '1412', as Nakamori was quick to jump on. Kid. Even if Nakamori didn't know the slightest bit of information about the Kaitou Kid, even the gender.

But it was an odd name for an odd thief, Saguru had mused as he discovered the knocked out officer in the back of the patrol car and cut the ropes holding the balloon the thief had obviously hidden for his escape.

It was almost a disappointment, seeing the smoke bomb and the obvious trick that sent Nakamori and the Task Force fleeing to find the thief. The thief who picked himself up off the ground with a faint cough as the officers scattered and picked up the painting, commenting on his lack of understanding of art.

While Saguru privately agreed, 'The Adam's smile' was hardly what he would call art.

Late teens, maybe early twenties if he pushed it. Male. Took the train to the heist, lacking in funds or unable to drive, Saguru analysed as he talked with the thief as the white-clad Kid scampered up to a balcony to make his escape, which was no longer possible.

"I'm curious to know," He drawled as he walked towards the cornered thief. "How did you come to be a thief? What is your purpose in stealing?"

What he got back was possibly the most annoying answer he'd ever been given. "Isn't it your business to find out the answer?"

Even as the Kid's cape turned into a hang-glider, --a feat that Saguru was privately impressed by, even if it was a terrible night for flying due to the strong winds-- and they snarked back and forth about Batman, the thief's words echoed in his head.

And then the idiot had thrown himself out of the window. Falling right into Nakamori and his men.

Saguru had watched as the Kid had taken off onto the ice skating rink. There was a moment of trouble as the Kid flailed, then a cloud of smoke appeared and there were suddenly TWO Kaitou Kid.

One laughed and jumped into the air, spinning with the gracefulness of a ballerina on ice, while the other... slid across the ice face first.

Nakamori and his men chased after the first, who quickly disappeared into the distance as the other slid away and vanished. Saguru watched them both go, recording his observations in a small notebook. Kid was either extremely good at ice skating or extremely bad. Unusual contradictory behaviour.

He mulled over the information that night, almost not waking up in time to go to school. He made it in time, doing his standard introduction, stating the time and where he had formerly gone to school. There were the usual cheers from the girls and one very unusual boy falling out of his chair that he didn't think too hard about at the time.

He didn't really pay much attention to the falling boy and his lovely female shadow until she asked him out to a concert and he turned her down. Which was wholly unacceptable, a gentleman never refused a lady their attentions.

Besides, Saguru had heard about this 'Prince Prince' and the idea of a pretty girl attending the concert alone filled him with uneasiness.

So he offered to go in her friend's stead.

Her friend responded by laughing insulting them. He'd allowed his anger to get the best of him and offered a wager. If he caught the Kaitou Kid, tonight, on air, he'd take the lovely Aoko to the concert. If not, her friend had to take her, which is what she wished for in the first place.

A win-win situation all around.

Unfortunately, it didn't quite work out that way. He'd caught the Kid, true, wrestling for the sleeping mask in the basement of the Ekoda Museum, and then promptly succumbed to the gas. The Kid had masqueraded himself as Saguru and almost made off with the statue, had Saguru not chained it to the ground.

Kid still made his escape unscathed and Saguru woke up from the sleeping gas with the strange feeling of someone having slept next to him the entire time. Which, of course, was ridiculous. Kaito took Aoko to the Prince Prince concert and was happy.

So Saguru was happy. Sort of. He was not disappointed. Not even remotely, a tiny infinitesimal bit. At all, even as Aoko smiled at him with merriment, asking if he was a troublemaker.

Maybe slightly.

Aoko and Kaito, spats aside, were nearly inseparable, to the point of almost completing each other's sentences when they weren't sniping at each other. Even then, sometimes it was like they only spoke half the things they were saying, filling the end of each other's insults with near telepathic precision and continuing on.

He found himself watching them watching them probably a bit more than was wise, but there was just something about the way they interacted that caught his attention. He watched Kaito insult Aoko, then flip around the classroom as if his spine were that of an eel's, performing acrobatics that made Saguru's back hurt just watching them. He watched Aoko running track, hair streaming behind her as her long tanned legs ate up the dirt as if she were part deer instead of human.

They sparkled in what would otherwise be a very dull period during the day.

Then the Kaitou Kid stepped up his heists, pulling three heists in a row, driving the Task Force insane trying to keep up with him. But in the process, he got sloppy.

Saguru got a hold of the Kaitou Kid's hair, which gave him access to thief's deoxyribonucleic acid, his DNA.

He spent a feverish night going over the information he had gathered, adding what he had observed and Nakamori's own observations. The results had come back that the Kaitou Kid was his age, a high-schooler between 15 and 17. Which didn't add up if Nakamori had been chasing him for over 21 years.

But when he put that together with the thief's pattern and his disappearance eight years ago, it became obvious.

There were two Kaitou Kid. The original, most likely crippled or deceased, and the copy cat.

... He'd spent a little bit of time sulking, once he realised that he was chasing a copy cat. But whoever the copy cat was, they were as good as the original, and the thought cheered him up considerably.

Which then brought him back to the original question, who was the Kaitou Kid, past or present?

He spent a feverish night, pouring over the High School Databases, trying to determine this. And come to a very, very annoying conclusion.

One that he settled that morning when he dragged himself to school, to find Aoko snoring softly on Kaito's shoulder. Kaito muffled a yawn behind his hand as well.

The number one suspect that fit his analysis was in his own classroom. Kuroba Kaito. All the data, save weight which seemed to fluctuate, pointed to him. And even the weight discrepancies could easily be explained by the varying amounts of equipment that thief carried. Even te death of Kaito’s father corresponded with the Kaitou Kid’s original disappearance.

Kaito grinned and teased Saguru on his haggard appearance, even as he moved his arm around Aoko a little bit to prop her up better. She snuffled in her sleep and nuzzled closer, mumbling about how it was his turn next, sending a pang of annoyance through Saguru. Didn't she know who she was snuggling against?! Irritation that Kuroba, no, the Kid, would to that to someone innocent like that made him growl.

He invited Kuroba to the Kid's next heist, at the Ochima Museum, to unmask him once and for all. With Kuroba there next to him, if the Kid failed to show up, they would have definitive proof who the Kaitou Kid was, confirming Saguru's conclusion.

An unexpected protest came from an unusual person. Koizumi Akako, otherwise known as the Red Queen of Ekoda High, showed up and dragged Kuroba away, leaving Saguru slightly surprised. He'd known about Koizumi, of course, but he'd never realised that she was in the same classroom as they were.

... Perhaps his observational skills were starting to lag, explaining how he hadn't put Kuroba and Kid together earlier.

Aoko woke up as Kuroba was dragged away, admonishing him not to do anything obscene.

Saguru's irritation was slightly soothed as Kuroba tripped and landed face first on the floor, Koizumi blushing red as she stared back at a determined faced Aoko.

Shouts of 'It's a Trap' that brought to mind too many Star Wars references echoed from the rooftop shortly thereafter. Kuroba returned, looking fairly smug and confident in himself. Koizumi followed, looking worried.

Aoko appeared with Kuroba that night at the museum, much to Nakamori's surprise. Saguru couldn't help but to needle him about his so-called 'Magical Skills' when Nakamori brought up the idea of Kuroba stopping the Kaitou Kid. Aoko merely rolled her eyes and excused herself to the ‘Little Patrolwoman's Room’ at their antics, calling Saguru a ‘mayhem maker’.

Kuroba nervously laughed and attempted to follow along. Which was when Saguru sprung his plan into action, handcuffing Kuroba to him. Kuroba, needless to say, was not happy about this, especially as Saguru explained his late night research and his suspicions that Kuroba was the Kid.

The officers counted down the seconds until the Kid's appearance in hushed worried whispers, the word 'zero' hanging in the air.



Silence.



"What?" Someone's wavering voice asked from the back of the room. "... He's not coming?"



"Ha ha! It looks like I win!" He gloated, turning to Kuroba, who looked like he'd just bit into a lemon, a bead of sweat sliding down his face. Elation swelled in his chest. This was it, this was what he was looking for, solving the unsolvable riddle, catching the uncatchable. "You'd better confess how you really are!"



-Which was the moment that the Kaitou Kid showed up, dropping in from the skylight above.



"What?" He was vaguely aware of Kuroba echoing his sentiments next to him, both of their jaws on the floor as the Kid grabbed the large jewel and thanked them for giving it to him.



With that, the thief pulled out a control and pressed the button, a helicopter type propeller spouting from his back, spinning rapidly and sending him soaring up through hole he'd just fallen through.



"DON'T LET HIM GET AWAY!!!" Nakamori's voice bellowed. Officers reached into their jackets, pulling out handcuffs on ropes, throwing them in the air. Some of them grabbed the fleeing thief.



"Kyaa~!" The Kid gasped in a very feminine voice.



Saguru blinked. What?



"'Kyaa'-?" Nakamori repeated, confused as well.



*pft!* Saguru was aware of a jerk on his wrist and glanced over. But before he could see more than Kuroba's grave face turned the other direction, the lights went out.



*pft!* *pft!* *pft!* He felt a brush of air as something flew past him. There were shouts as the ropes holding the thief in a stalemate suddenly fell, landing on the police below. The sound of the Kid's blades rose, the shadow of the thief escaping through the broken skylight illuminating the Kid's getaway. Saguru felt the elation inside of him fall away, dropping him into the pits of despair.



....He'd failed.



"Dammit." Kuroba hissed next to him. "Troublemaker."



Such an odd thing for someone who was the Kaitou Kid to say... He shook the thought from his mind, releasing Kuroba with a mumbled apology as Nakamori started bellowing. There had to be some sort of trick, a trap, a way for Kuroba to get around it. Some of the officers bellowed back, starting a shouting match.



"There are TWO Kids!" Saguru joined in, elbowing in on the fight as he attempted to shake off his melancholy. One who was Kuroba, one who was covering Kuroba's ass.



"He's a witch!" Someone else shouted.



"What are they talking about?" Aoko demanded, making reappearance, standing next to Kuroba. Kuroba shrugged back. He was aware of them listening for a minute as the claims got stranger and stranger.



"Maybe he's an Alien!"


"-Or Superman!"



-What was it with the comic book references?



"Actually!" Aoko shouted, adding in her two cents. "The Kaitou Kid is-"



"Is what?" A nearby officer inquired.



"-Is Gay!" She said with determined look on her face. "Definitely."



One of the officers fell down; starting a cascading effect that resulted in most of them sprawled on the floor. "o-Oi." Kuroba protested.



"What?" Aoko looked down at him. "Guys don't go 'kyaa'."



"She's got a point." Someone pointed out.



Saguru sighed and gave up. "I'm going home."



He spotted Koizumi sitting on a rooftop edge on the way home, watching the museum with a grin on her face, kicking her feet back and forth as she giggled.



He stared at her, backlight by a sliver of the moon and wondered why he came.



He spent the next several days ignoring his classmate’s existence and working whatever cases people had asked Baaya for his assistance for. Many many cases got solved in a short amount of time, much to Baaya's pleasure. She worried about him.



Aoko worried about him as well, catching him about a week later to make sure he was fine. He assured he was and went back to the textbooks, doing his level best to not pay any attention what so ever to Kuroba or Aoko. And failing.



Or to the Kaitou Kid's appearances in the newspaper, including one what appeared to be one very bizarre act of vandalism, firing off fireworks from a skyscraper that was lit up to wish someone a happy birthday.



He only partially succeeded.



Not completely.



It was even harder a few weeks later; with details of another Kaitou Kid heist was splashed across the papers after cancelling the heist to steal the then appearing to steal the Red Tear, a large blue cursed ruby from the magician Jody Hopper. Nakamori and his men had been chasing someone who had been chasing Kid with a gun. It was... worrisome, to say the least.



Try as he might, he still made mental notes, even as he mentally chided himself, swearing he wasn't going to add to the Kaitou Kid file at the moment.



Aoko showed up to school the next day with bruised ribs, the result of an unfortunate collision with an inattentive person on a bicycle going home the previous day. Kaito's face was tight and drawn, concern for Aoko written in every line of his body as he hovered around her. Not that Saguru blamed him.



But it kind of hurt, like a dull ache he'd mostly forgotten about, watching Kuroba flutter around her with so much obvious concern. She smiled tiredly and bore it with surprising good humour.



He wondered the last time someone had worried about him that much and failed. Maybe Baaya or Mum when he was younger, but not for quite a while.



It wasn't jealousy, but he was at a loss to name it. It feels like loss, pieces of a jig-saw puzzle that he is missing, sliding out of his grasp, rendering him unable to see the final image, unable to put the picture together.


The school semester ended shortly after and he returned to England, to London, to Mum. He had piles of cases waiting for him and he spent a great deal of time abroad, solving mysteries and helping people. He adopted and re-habituated a hawk, named Watson, who travelled around Europe with him. The hawk had been named that when they'd met, the co-incidence of the name amused him greatly.



He got news occasionally, of what the Kaitou Kid was up to. Stealing a clock tower for one thing. The Black Star, a large pearl that was the good luck charm of the Suzuki family. Appearing at a Magic User's Club in attempt to stop a potential murder.



There was the mental debate occasionally, if he should return. He was still restless in London, but Ekoda wasn't precisely home either. Perhaps Mum was correct; there was something he was searching for. It was the curse of his name, Saguru meant 'searching'.



Then Baaya called. He'd been invited back to Japan by 'The Phantom Child Abandoned by God'.



It didn't take an unrecordable IQ to be able to translate that one. He couldn't stop the giddy feeling in his chest that the Kaitou Kid had invited -him-.



He was on the earliest flight he could manage, Watson along for the ride. It didn't dawn on him until he got there that had arrived slightly early. Which just gave him some time to go over the gory past of the Twilight Mansion, and the mysterious mass murder that had happened 40 years ago. The other detectives began to trickle in, each watching the others for signs that they were the Kaitou Kid.



It was amusing, in a twisted sort of way. Like a bunch of hungry cats, all circling each other as they hunted for the rat. And then the final players arrive and everything closes together, like the steel jaws of a trap. Only wasn't just the Kid that is caught, but all of them.



Saguru realised the long term effects of this, sending Watson out to Baaya with a note and to let her know what's going on. Watson is surprisingly co-operative, eager to leave the blood drenched building.



Which was just as well, Saguru's had a gut feeling who the Kid is and stuck to him as obliquely as possible. He was not sure it worked, but when the guns come out to play, it seemed to do well enough to draw out the real villain in this play, thanks to the aid of a most unusual little boy.



... It was slightly unnerving not to be the youngest detective around. Especially by such a large margin. Granted, the next oldest detective was 12 years older than Saguru, but there was a much greater difference in terms of maturity between 17 and 29, than 17 and 7.



He had been shocked when Kid had actually uncovered himself. Not so much by the uncovering, both he and the diminutive Edogawa Conan were watching him like hawks, but throwing himself out of the helicopter was just a -touch- on the dramatic side.



... The Show Off...



He couldn't help the smile on his face as he watched the Kaitou Kid fly away, free as a bird in its native environment. Even if none of them had caught the Kid, there was just.... something about seeing him. As the Kaitou Kid disappeared as a white speck into the distance, Saguru felt something slide into place, like he'd just found a missing piece of his puzzle. A slight peace like he hadn't felt since he'd handcuffed Kuroba to himself several months ago.



After the true meaning of 'Twilight Mansion' was revealed, exposing quite a large amount of gold in the process, Saguru made arrangements to stay in Tokyo for the next unforeseen while.



Which meant returning back to Ekoda High. And Kuroba and Aoko.



He dreaded that return.



He didn't quite slink into the classroom, but he arrived with a lot less fanfare than he had previously, finding an empty seat and sitting down, pretending to read a book while he watched his classmates mill around.



Aoko was the one to notice his return, her arm looped around Kuroba's as she ran up beside Saguru's desk. "Look! It's our detective!" She cheered.



Kuroba gave him a grin that was just slightly less smug than Saguru expected. "So the prodigal son returns." Kuroba drawled. "Welcome back."



Saguru cleared his throat, finding it uncomfortably tight. "Ah. Thank you."



"You sticking around for a while this time?" Aoko asked, leaning forward to peer at his eyes inquisitively. "It's been boring with out you."



"Aoko!" Kaito elbowed her in the ribs. She straightened up, looking at him indignantly.



"What?!"



Kaito rolled his eyes. "Adrenaline junkie. Just hafta make things harder." He muttered to himself.


"Like you're one to talk." She snipped back before leaning forward again, her shirt collar drooping down to the 'dangerously teasing' area. "But seriously, are you going to disappear for a semester again?"


"Ah..." He flailed around for an answer. "... I am not sure." He admitted.


Aoko pouted at him, her lower lip sticking out before sulking her way back to her seat.


"She missed you." Kaito said quietly, turning to face Aoko. "Don't play the game unless you're going to stick around."


Saguru had the odd hunch that he was missing something. "Okay."


Kaito nodded grimly before sticking his hands in his pockets and sauntering away, leaving Saguru with the distinct feeling he was missing a lot more than he realised.


Classes resumed. Saguru stayed mostly by himself, people not wanting to put the effort into making friends with someone who might just randomly up and disappear. Which was fine with him, he still had his casework and the Task Force.


The Kaitou Kid went underground for a while, being unusually quiet. This had happened before, Saguru could pull out documented timelines and potential reasons for it, and while it was annoying, he didn't worry overly much. Kuroba was still his primary suspect for who the Kaitou Kid was and Kuroba was in class being harassed by Aoko, so life was still fine as far as he knew.


He went back to Europe for the summer break, promising to return when break was over. Of course, with his damnable luck, the week after he left, the Kaitou Kid was challenged to a duel by a French thief, Chat Noir.


And there just wasn't enough time to return to Japan to chase the Kid.


He spent several hours in contemplation, then went out and started doing what he was good at. Footwork and analysis. It was a race against time, he'd agreed to go to the Paris Collection with Mum to see what the spring fashions were going to be.


When he was satisfied with what he had uncovered, he called Kuroba. It was almost comical, he could almost picture the other boy's annoyed face as Saguru greeted him as the Kaitou Kid. Kuroba protested slightly, but listened to Saguru's information before Saguru had to run off.


It wasn't much, but it was the best he could do by way of an indirect apology or an olive branch. He still thought Kuroba was the Kid, but lacked the definitive proof.


He wondered if he ever would.


Aoko grinned at him when school started again. Kuroba gave him a few sideways looks, but didn't say anything. Kuroba's attitude seemed to thaw slightly towards him afterwards, which made it worthwhile. It was slightly awkward to hold a conversation with 'So I Still Think You're The Kaitou Kid' looming over their heads.


Things died down and were quiet for a while until Suzuki Jirokichi challenged the Kaitou Kid to a duel. It was almost laughable, the effort the old man was putting into to attract attention.


"You coming?" Aoko asked as Saguru eyed the smug looking Kuroba who was doing everything but cackling manically at the images in the newspaper.


"I'll watch." He agreed, nodding his head. "I don't think I'm going to chase this time." The amount of people and cameras at this things was going to be -insane-. He didn't even want to think about what a full-out sprint was going to be like with that many people, it'd be more like a mob or a mosh pit than anything else. Too many potential pit falls for his taste.


"Don't have to chase to make observations-?" Aoko chirped.


"Precisely." Just watch.


"Hmm." She made a thoughtful sound, watching Kuroba with a fond look on her face. "Well, let me know what you deduce."


Saguru paused, staring at her for a minute. No one had ever asked him that before. "Seriously?" The word spilled out of his lips before he could censor it for something more dignified. He hastened to correct his mistake. "I would have thought you heard enough about the Kaitou Kid as it is."


"I almost used to hate him." Aoko wrinkled her nose cutely. "Kid. 'Touchan's been chasing him longer than I've been alive and Kaito's, like, his number one fan boy. I wouldn't be surprised if Kaito shows up to school one day with the Kid's autograph on his chest or something, swearing he'll never bathe again."


... That was not a mental image he particularly needed. He shook his head, attempting to forget it as quickly as possible.


Aoko shrugged, apparently not noticing his discomfort. "But I figured I could get angry all the time, or just go with it. Kid's not bad as far as criminals go, he's mostly harmless. 'Touchan's chased worse."


"True." Saguru admitted, resting his chin on the palm of his hand, elbow on the table. -He'd- chased worse before, not that he was going to inflict those kinds of horror stories on Aoko. He briefly wondered if that wasn't what caught his attention first about the white-clad thief, that he wasn't a complete homicidal maniac, just manic.


"Anyway, Kaito and I are going with Kaito's Uncle." Aoko gave him a grin. "Wave if you see us, okay?"


"Certainly." He agreed. It was unlikely, but it didn't hurt to agree. It was the little things that seemed to make Aoko's smile, something he felt was a worth while endeavour, seeing as she was constantly stuck with Kuroba's company.


Actually, Kuroba really wasn't that bad.


He didn't see either Aoko or Kuroba in the mass of screaming people. He did see Edogawa Conan and the Kaitou Kid walk in mid-air however, and had to privately admit he was impressed. No one could think or pull off bat-shit insane quite like the Kaitou Kid.


Aoko and Kaito were giddy and cackling throughout school the next day, leaning against each other and whispering conspiratorially between themselves before quietly laughing. Koizumi would glance over occasionally, watching them with an almost fond look on her face as they did so, making Saguru wonder what precisely her involvement was with the troublesome twins.


He was no closer to any of the answers the next night, after the Kid's accomplice was revealed to be in one of the many helicopters labelled '8'. Tracking down the pilots afterwards was even more of a nightmare for the Task Force, there wasn't a local airport big enough to accommodate all the helicopters, making checking for any fakes that much harder. To add to the task, they had no idea who the Kid's accomplice might be, meaning that they might not even be disguised.


It was a monumental, near impossible task. Saguru refused to call it 'impossible' and helped Nakamori and the rest of the Task Force shift through the data, putting his analytical abilities, computer skills and laboratory to use.


He was almost late to school the next day due to this, but managed to escape detention. Aoko tracked him down during lunch, following up on his promise to tell her his deductions. She was surprisingly insightful when it came to extrapolating ideas, although some of them were more silly and far-fetched than anything else.


But it was still nice to be able to talk to someone his age about it.


The ink on the paperwork required by the police departments had barely finished drying when news of another Kaitou Kid appearance came through the wire. There was no note, apparently Edogawa's insane luck had held true, his group of small intrepid miniature detectives stumbling upon the Kaitou Kid doing preliminary work for a heist. The Kid had saved the lives of at least one of the children, if not all of them.


He wasn't sure who had the stranger luck, Edogawa or the Kid. Make that the worst luck. Because -honestly-, who went exploring an abandoned house, only to find dead bodies laying around? It was almost absurd, but that did seem to be the way things happened around Edogawa. Kid just got large sparkly jewels.


Shortly after that, Nakamori and the Task Force got called out for a prank call, the Kaitou Kid being framed for murder. To say that Nakamori was not pleased about it was a severe understatement. The Kaitou Kid did not -kill-. And while a cynical part of Saguru's brain wanted to mock Nakamori for his faith in the thief to maintain his non-murdering ways, he had to agree.


He could -not- see Kuroba as a murderer.


Saguru worked on some other cases before Baaya summoned him to another case, this one involving a contest between the Teenage Detectives of Japan. He was the 'Detective of the East', something he thought was rather ironic. Considering his other residence in England, he would have thought 'West' or 'North' to be more appropriate.

He arrived early to take a scope of the land, as was his wont from chasing the Kid. The island was peaceful, the scent of Lavender floating in the air. The only other person on the island was the Caretaker, a rather sour-faced old man. They talked a little bit, but primarily left each other to their own devices.

Eventually, the other detectives showed up, Edogawa in tow. It was interesting, seeing the small detective again. He doubted anyone other than Edogawa's self-appointed protector, one highly irritating Hattori Heiji, realised Edogawa's rather disturbingly sharp deduction ability. So it wasn't a huge sacrifice on his part to give the position of 'Detective of the East' over to the boy. And it served the double purpose of antagonising Hattori.

Saguru wasn't entirely sure why Hattori got on his nerves within seconds of meeting, but it was obviously mutual.

Another one of the party, Natsuki, caught his attention. For some reason, Natsuki reminded him of the Kaitou Kid, despite the fact that Natsuki was female. The thought was distracting, especially since he couldn't pin point what it was exactly.

Hattori's sloppy style also annoyed him, rushing headlong into a crime scene without a thought for preserving it.

They raced to find the killer, a three-way contest between himself, Hattori and Edogawa. He was strangely mixed when the true murderer was revealed, sadness for Natsuki and her friend and oddly relieved at the same time. bearing Hattori's teasing that he was better off chasing thieves than murderers with a slight giddiness.

Not the Kid. He was fearing that.

In retrospect, it was probably the presence of Edogawa and the miniature detective's penchant for finding murders that had cast his mind down paths he normally wouldn't tread.

Aoko smiled at him when he arrived at school the next day, asking about the case, Kuroba reading his ever-present newspaper, obviously turned to the 'Detective Koushin' case, with Hattori, Edogawa and Saguru's pictures prominently displayed. He smiled back, telling about the case and adding the bit about better at thieves than murderers, just for Kuroba. He got a muffled snicker from Kuroba and a giggle from Aoko, releasing some tension from his chest and making him feel lighter.

After the publicity of the 'Detective Koushin' case, life sped up a little bit, people calling more frequently for assistance, keeping both him and Baaya busy. He saw less of Kuroba and Aoko as he was pulled farther and farther away from Ekoda.

And then the Kid made the spotlight again. Saguru watched as the trap closed around the Kaitou Kid... Only for the thief to slip away at the last moment, vanishing almost like magic.

And then it was announced, the Kaitou Kid was teaming up with another internationally wanted criminal, Nightmare. He gathered the information he could find about this 'Nightmare' as quickly as possible, not liking what he uncovered. Nightmare had a history of 'teaming up' with prominent and skilled thieves, and then killing them after the job was done.

The news was quickly passed on to Nakamori's boss, Chiaki, who was not pleased about the information. Nakamori was even less pleased. Saguru debated for a short amount of time, then 'accidentally' left a report on Nightmare on Kuroba's desk when Aoko wasn't watching. Kuroba looked at him suspiciously, then slipped the pages of the report into his newspaper, reading them with an increasingly grim expression while Aoko was busy talking with their classmates.

He rushed through his homework before getting Baaya to driving him to the art museum. He was a bit dismayed to realised that they were stuck in traffic, Baaya having fallen for an obvious trick by the Kaitou Kid to delay his arrival. It was kind of flattering that the Kid would go to the effort of preventing his presence.

Saguru ran through the bumper-to-bumper traffic, ignoring the odd looks that he got as he did so. Fortunately, the art museum wasn’t more than a mile away. He called Nakamori, wincing slightly as he realised how little time he’d been spending with the Task Force lately at Nakamori’s exclamation that he’d returned. He listened to the heist, the black opal earrings floating on the water in the sealed tank. A trick. But by the time he got there, Nakamori had already opened the case, the earrings missing. As he rushed through the huge amount of officers, he did spare a moment to if Suzuki Jirokichi was involved this time as well, although he hadn’t heard anything about it.

He quickly figured out the trick that the Kid had used to steal the stones, deducing who the Kid must have been disguised as just as an officer an up, reporting that Curator Condo had been found in the Kid’s favourite hiding hole, the men’s toilet.

Which then left finding the Kaitou Kid, and more importantly, Nightmare. Before the Kid was killed. Saguru, Nakamori and the officers quickly fanned out, searching the side streets for any sign of the white clad thief flying through the air. What they found first was Aoko’s voice, talking to a small child who was urgently looking for his Papa. The small boy was Kent Connery, son of Jack Connery, the Interpol officer in charge of catching Nightmare.

Saguru was just about to comment that this side trip was a waste of time when Kent exclaimed that he’d heard his father and they all went running off. Saguru caught a glimpse of something white up on a cat walk, then the unmistakable sound of the Kid’s cardgun, followed by something hollow rattling across the ground.

They found Jack Connery laying on the ground, a pool of blood behind his head, clearly dead. The black opal earrings and Nightmare’s mask with an ace of spades embedded in it lay nearby.

Kenta cried over his father’s body as Nakamori spat curses, jumping to the conclusion that Connery had died protecting the jewels.

continued in part 2