Chapter Text
Two months prior…
Saguru’s heartbeat pounded in his ears as he sprinted up the stairs. His footsteps should have echoed off the concrete surrounding him, but long practice kept them nearly silent. He grabbed the handrail and pivoted across the landing to the next flight of stairs, slowing both his steps and his breathing so he could tiptoe up the direct path to the rooftop door. He climbed the stairs as silently as possible, preparing to slam the door open and hopefully surprise the Kaitou Kid before the thief could make his usual airborne getaway.
Saguru was two stairs from the top and the door when he could finally hear the voice on the other side. Kid’s booming showman’s voice was unmistakable.
“Well, Meitantei, I believe that’s my cue. Be a dear and return this to Nakamori for me, would you?”
Saguru slammed the door open as he had planned, even though he knew it was too late. As he stepped through, he saw Kid standing with his toes over the edge of the roof. Kid glanced over his shoulder and his usual manic grin spread a tiny bit wider.
“You’re too late tonight, Tantei-san. Try again next time.” Without waiting for a response, Kid launched himself forward and away from the building. After 3.52 seconds, Saguru could see the large white triangle of Kid’s hang glider illuminated in the bright moonlight, and knew the thief would make a safe getaway again.
“I’ll catch you next time, Kid!” Saguru shouted, more from habit than conviction. He sighed heavily, and turned to the other figure on the rooftop.
Edogawa Conan was standing there. That wasn’t surprising - the mysterious seven-year-old was one of the most adept at keeping up with the thief, better than most of the Task Force officers. Right now, the child looked mildly uncomfortable - he was holding the Princesses’ Whisper, the large diamond that had been the target of tonight’s heist, carefully in front of him so even his jacket didn’t touch the gem.
The child held up the jewel as he raised his hand in greeting. “Hakuba-niichan! I didn’t get here much before you did, but Kid returned the diamond already, see?” Edogawa’s voice was in its higher register. Saguru wasn’t sure why the child seemed to have two separate speaking voices, but he seemed to use this chirpy voice more often, especially when his guardian, Mouri Ran, was around. When he was distracted or deducing a mystery, his voice seemed lower and more authoritative, which was strange to hear coming from a child whose tufts of hair only came up to Saguru’s waist. However, that wasn’t the strangest thing at the moment.
Saguru frowned. “I didn’t hear anyone else on the stairs,” he observed, silently noting that the boy didn’t look winded either. Was he lying about how long he’d been up here? Why? What would the child have to hide?
Edogawa looked nervous for a brief moment before he smiled proudly. “I was trying to be extra-quiet and sneak up on Kid. But he looked bored when I got here. I think he was just waiting around for someone to catch up so he could brag. He wasn’t surprised at all when I showed up.”
Edogawa was definitely lying, Saguru could tell, but he hadn’t yet figured out why, other than it probably had to do with Kid. Kid’s voice had sounded more friendly than taunting, even though all Saguru had overheard were parting words. Saguru knew he could ask the child about the lie, but with as intelligent as Edogawa was, he would be able to cover his tracks pretty well if he realized his lie had been found out. For now, until Saguru came up with questions to figure out what Edogawa was hiding without alerting the child to his intent, he pretended not to notice the incongruity. “That sounds like Kid alright. Hey, could I have that diamond? If we can put it back tonight, that’ll save loads of paperwork in the morning.”
“Sure!” Edogawa agreed enthusiastically, handing it over. “Hakuba-niichan, you can say Kid gave the diamond back to you if you want the credit. I’m too tired for paperwork.” The child held up the diamond as he walked up to Saguru, then continued past the older boy and down into the stairs after handing it over.
“Thanks, Edogawa-kun.” Saguru mumbled. He turned the diamond over in his hands as he thought. The statement had been innocuous enough, with all the whininess one would expect from a child who was asked to fill out forms. In fact, Saguru was sure the two of them had had a similar conversation once or twice before. But tonight, since Saguru was already suspicious about the child’s behavior, the request sounded almost manipulative. Giving Saguru the credit for besting the thief meant that there would be no real paper trail acknowledging that Edogawa had been face-to-face with the thief. There was no record that the child had probably spoken with the thief. If Edogawa was hiding something, if he was helping Kid, offering Saguru the credit was a sneaky way to cover his tracks.
Saguru shook himself out of his thoughts and followed the child down the stairs, closing the door carefully behind him. Perhaps at the next heist, he would have a chance to gather some evidence. For now, he would just wait and listen and watch.
~~~~~~~~~~
Author's Note:
Hello, dear readers. Welcome to my current baby, I mean story. Hopefully you will become as invested in the outcome of these events as I am.
The prologue is un-beta'ed. I was going to write it last, but when the story got long, I had to hurry and write the prologue so I could post everything in order.
A quick comment: The only Japanese language you will find in this fic are titles and honorifics, for example, the nicknames Tantei (detective) and Meitantei (great detective) that Kaito uses for his "critics" and Kaitou Kid's title. Kaitou means Phantom Thief, but if I translate the name to "Kid the Phantom Thief", I lose the pun on Kaito's name, and I rely on that pun for some light-hearted ambiguity. Speaking of Kaitou Kid's title, I know that KID was an acronym, but since people use it like a name, I am only capitalizing the K, and that will be consistent throughout the fic.
Well, I suppose if Conan does much deducing, I might also keep his "Ah-le-le?" intact in Japanese ("hey, what's this?" doesn't have the same ring to it at all), but that's seriously it on Japanese. Besides, this fic is more about Saguru making deductions while the others get into trouble, so I guess we'll see if Conan gets any murder-solving screentime. Probably not, given what happens in chapter three, but you'll have to wait and see what's keeping him occupied.
Currently the plan is to update once a week, on Friday or Saturday. Today (Sept 17, 2015), I'm actually putting up both the prologue and chapter 1, which means no chapter this weekend. I got about five chapters written in the past three days, but I know I can't keep up that pace, so I'm leaving myself a bit of a buffer so I won't have to abandon you readers without warning.
Leave reviews if you don't mind. Praise, hate, predictions, asking for clarification... I'd like to know how I'm doing at telling the story that has taken over my mind.
Thanks. You're all lovely people.
Oh, and obviously I own none of the characters nor Beika and Ekoda (the fictional places in Tokyo) nor anything else about these anime/manga. But do I really need to tell you that on a fanfiction website? I didn't think so.