Chapter Text
Kuroba Toichi died two weeks ago. The once world renowned magician passed on in his bed at seventy-three. Such an unfitting end for a man who deserved a more adventurous ending. Saguru had seen Toichi survive so much it had never even occurred to him that he could die. Death had taken him in slumber because he had outwitted it at every turn while awake. Taunting it, unwilling to accept his final destination. A fluttering, fleeting man. A lover of rooftops, with only the moon to guild him. That damned poker face should have been the end of him, maybe his former night activities, never just… going to sleep and never waking up.
The funeral so far was of course a somber affair. It was just empty. Empty words and empty feelings. Most people in Toichi’s life had already said their goodbyes long ago. He had cut himself off from most of his loved ones and others had long since passed. If he ever had them in the first place. Saguru knew of a brother, but they probably hadn’t talked in a decade, if not longer.
It felt right to fund and plan his funeral, Saguru had thought. He’d known the man since he was sixteen, and in the thirty four years since, Saguru had probably seen him more than his own father. Especially as the years started to trickle on and on, passing the time with children, a book deal, the fading of his career as a detective…
Of course, that was only because of…
Well, Toichi hadn’t been KID in a long time. Saguru had never proven in the court of law that he even was Kaitou KID, but all the evidence pointed in that direction. Toichi had been in Paris around the time KID was first spotted. KID had started an eight year hiatus around the time of…something horrible. By the time he felt close enough to ask Toichi for the truth and nothing but the truth, KID had already gone into retirement. Saguru still made sure the monocle was present and perfect on the shrine for all eyes to see. It was positioned beside a glinting red gem that did glow in moonlight, but that’s all it ever did.
He stepped back, admiring his work and glancing back at the room. Saguru had made sure one of his staff had sent off invitations two weeks prior announcing the date, but the room was still rather empty. There were a few familiar faces, some of them former officers who had been smart enough to figure out Toichi’s ruse and likely here to pay last respects to their thief. Sadly absent was Nakamori Ginzo, but he’d been gone awhile now. Toichi had once spoken with seeming pride that he’d outlasted Nakamori, but who knew what Toichi really felt.
Standing here now, Saguru wondered if this meant it was time to leave. Go back to England permanently, even though he’d grown quite attached to his home here. Maybe he could turn his summer villa in France into a permanent home instead.
He had only intended to return to Japan for as long as Spider was supposed to be here. Saguru hoped back then that his exit from the country would come with Spider’s arrest and his praise in the news. Spider was somewhere in Switzerland now avoiding extradition, and Saguru had mostly remained here in Japan due to finding friends worth staying here for.
It had nothing to do with the fact that his father had caught onto the scheme, and had forbidden his son from continuing to traverse the globe in pursuit of such a dangerous criminal. At least he was still allowed at KID heists.
And KID was finally truly gone now.
What else was there for him then?
“Dad, are you okay?” The concerned voice broke Saguru out of his stupor, as his arm was shaken in turn. He turned weary eyes to her, his oldest child and only daughter Sarah. She was almost level with his height, so he wasn’t sure how he’d missed her approach. “I mean, as well as you can be…”
“Of course I am dear,” Saguru claimed, even if he didn’t feel that way. “I just…” Saguru gaped at her, before his mouth returned to a thin line. She always looked remarkably like him, but when had she gained that white stripe in her hair? He knew she was thirty three now, not the little child he’d held so closely at a crime scene, and yet-
“Can't believe he’s gone?” Another person finished for him. Saguru’s wife Nancy came to stand with them. “I still don’t see what you saw in that man.”
Sarah’s grip on his arm turned into a gentle squeeze. “Mum,” Her tone was teasing and light. “Dad loves charity cases; he’s allowed to be upset that his biggest one croaked.”
“I’m just saying, he probably didn’t deserve even this funeral after everything he’s done.” Nancy had made it incredibly clear to him this morning at home that she was only here to support Saguru and Saguru alone. They had spent the last three decades together, and she never had a nice word for Toichi in that entire time.
“I…had my problems with him too, but that doesn’t mean his life meant nothing.”
Toichi’s life had been marked by tragedy and ego, by good and bad -mostly bad- but it still meant something.
“Ignore mom. It really is okay to miss him. He was basically your dad. I definitely liked him more than some other grandparents that shall not be talked about.”
Saguru snorted. “If you say so, Sarah. I’m sure any…anything he ever pretended to feel was because his own son died young, and he sometimes felt like filling that void with us. You know, his son was only a year older than me…” Toichi had once proudly showed off a picture of his late son and runaway wife, talking on and on about how the boy had just figured out a specific sleight of hand trick. He was eight, and already more advanced than some magicians in their twenties. Toichi had planned to show him something slightly more advanced after ‘the show.’
Toichi always called it ‘the show’
It was one of the few times Saguru had seen the man’s poker face truly break.
That was how he knew Toichi wasn’t the monster in the closet everyone was trying to treat him as.
Saguru would have had that photo up on the shrine with the rest of Toichi’s important personal effects, but when Toichi had been found, the photo had been tucked in his pajama shirt pocket. Saguru had thought it proper to have the picture digitized and then the original burned together into Toichi’s urn.
“Maybe you two would have been friends. I bet uncle Toichi would have loved that.” Sarah was rarely this optimistic. Saguru leaned and kissed her forehead.
“Thank you for trying.”
Nancy shuffled awkwardly, her gaze turning to the urn and then she asked “You know we love you, right, Sunny?”
“I do.”
“Then please don’t spare that bastard a thought after today.”
Could he forget a man who had defined so many important moments in his life?
“...I’ll try…”