&quot;How come you did that?&quot;

“Ya better watch how ya talk ta yer ‘Nii-san, brat,” he seethed coolly. “Whatever business ya’ve goin’ ‘bout here might jus’ need ta wait ‘til later. Much, much later.” A twitch of his fingers—something the not-child might’ve felt in that tight grasp—reminded Sazerac of how terribly easy he could toss this foreign shrimp into Teimuzu River. Wouldn’t it be so easy just to have their problems over and done with doing that?

“Besides, ya set yerself up. I gave ya a pretty damnable excuse, didn’ I? No matter how easily it would’ve been seen through.” He tried to reel in that murderous urge, really; he was a detective, too, and annoyingly perceptive at times. “Keep flappin’ yer jaw like that an’ I might turn ya in ta th’ cops fer a lost an’ found—clouds know that they’d jus’ love ta chuck ya ta some adoption home like a stray. I don’ see ya comin’ up with any name fer yerself.”

The Osakan refused to let the not-kid win with even the slightest barb—at least, not without inflicting one of his own. “Now spill, an’ maybe I might actually give ya a hand in whatever it is ya need done.”

#osakansax #M!A #Let's see when my internet will allow me to post this

Just as he had anticipated, the other detective immediately took the chance to rub in the situation just a little bit more. 'Who is actually the "brat" here?' Saguru thought to himself, but chose to keep that opinion silent. It was clear who had the upper hand and he was not one to simply throw himself into situations he knew he would lose. But there was still something irking him quite a lot - yes, the usual hot-headedness was there, but today there also seemed something refined and controlled about it which the Osakan usually did not have. Or maybe it was just the change in size that made the other seem more intimidating.

"Are you proposing I should have a reason to lie to you about my identity? Of course I could have done so should it carry enough importance." Annoying as it was, the other was right and although Saguru hated it, he would have to step down from his high horse, at least as much as physically possible for him, which was not a lot. But the thought of the very Hakuba Saguru stuck in some home for orphaned children, that was just too ridiculous.

It was also honestly spoken when the brunette detective continued. "Your assistance is not required, thank you very much." Sure Hattori was bound to have medical knowledge to some degree, but Saguru was perfectly capable of taking care of things himself as soon as he had gone back to normal. "But if you absolutely must know, why do you not try to use that brain of yours? Surely it is not just for decoration. What do people usually do at hospitals, great detective of the West?"

(So... The M!A was supposed to end yesterday I think but my internet has been practically non-existent (I've been playing a mix of Minesweeper, Solitaire and Mahjong for the past 7 hours in its absence) so I shall be prolonging it. But right now... I desperately need sleep. So yeah, that's all, Matantei over and out.)

#OOC

heiseiholmes

Shinichi deadpanned at the odd introduction. “I still don’t know who you are.”

#Magic Kaito #Kuroba Kaito #Hakuba Saguru #Oh look it's this scene again : D

"So even my name strikes no recognition?" This was very peculiar. Surely they had not met on many occasions, but he had not though Kudou one to easily forget names and faces. "Say Kudou-kun, are you perhaps suffering a loss of memory?"

#heiseiholmes #M!A

lolyeahshinichi

To mix it up a little, I’ve decided to make this not just Shinichi-related. (Other people have to have their moments in the spotlight, too.)

heiseiholmes

“Are you talking to me? Who are you?”

#heiseiholmes #M!A #Look at us blindly fumbling our way around #But we'll do it together~!

"Ah, I suppose even this Hakuba Saguru is not so easily recognised in such a tiny frame."

"Hn? Kudou-kun? Oh, so you have been hit as well."

#heiseiholmes #M!A #How do I even Saguru when chatting

“Interrogation? Big words, still—so it’s detective novels ya read, ain’ it?” The being referred to as a big brother was all the more amusing. The Osakan agent had to wonder how many blows the foreign detective was suffering to his pride—though that brought the thought to what exactly he was doing here to begin with. Surely he wasn’t trying to visit the hospitalized thief? They didn’t let him in, so why shouldn’t the guards extend the same courtesy to a child?

Well, when one individual such as Sazerac attempts to have fun and it’s somehow ruined, some drastic measures are taken in order to keep the entertaining part alive. “Shady people, ya say? Come on now, ya know perfectly well who I am an’, ‘cuz’f that, there ain’ nothin’ troublin’ ‘bout my offerin’ ta take ya out fer a bite ta eat…”

With one swift motion the Kansai detective scooped the not-child up with a paw and looked at him square in the eye. “Ain’ that ‘bout right, Guruguru-kun~?”

Why did he even bother hiding it? He was obviously doing a terrible job pretending to be a child mostly due to his own stubborn pride, and not fully knowing what had actually happened he did not find it terribly necessary to keep hidden. Of course there was the obvious fact that no one was going to believe that he was the famous detective Hakuba Saguru when he carried the appearance of a child not older than six or seven if he were to judge by the looks that had been reflected in the mirror and the height of his field of vision. So the only reason Saguru was really keeping silent was to not give the hot-heated idiot an excellent chance to point and laugh at him.

But as he was yanked up as if weighing nothing - which was actually the case compared to his usual adult weight of 65 kilograms - it became evident that his attempts were after all absolutely futile. Saguru has expected as much, but he did not at all like being handled so roughly and mindlessly.

"I see there has been no change in your utter lack of courtesy and acceptance of personal space," he said, wanting to get out of the grasp the other had of him, but knowing only too well that he did not have the physical power to do so. "To furthermore possess absolutely no resemblance to a creative naming sense, such a lack of any productive skill is absolutely astonishing Hattori-kun."

#westdetective #M!A #I SWEAR I HATE MATHS SO MUCH!

"Work? Ah? Then, whut're y'doin' out here on th'streets alone, kid? It's danger'us, y'know? Should Ah walk y'home?" He swore to the high heavens that if he had to deal with a case involving any children - even ones who looked like ahous who couldn't stay in their own country - he was NOT going to have a good week.

Why did his luck have to be so terrible? In his pocket he could still feel the vial containing his own blood, the sample he had taken only one hour, 45 minutes and 36.84 seconds ago. He needed to get it refrigerated but somehow he managed to keep stumbling into these bloody annoyances. Why, of all days, should the Osakan choose to feel friendly today? “I do appreciate the offer, but I fear idiocy might be contagious.” Unintentionally Saguru slipped back into his usual bickering with the other male, as he was really just eager to get a move on.

"John Smith?" First, Heiji thought of all the possible John Smiths he knew, which was none. Then, he analyzed the name. John Smith. English, surely. The boy was young, but fluent in Japanese. Maybe born and raised in Japan with English parents who hadn't been living in Japan longer than a few months before he was born? They also had zero creativity. "Ah? Really?" he questioned. "Whur's y'parents?"

He had to admit it was not his best, but when it came to a cover name, the first inspiration he had found was either in his hero Sherlock Holmes having recently read His Last Bow yet again - although Altamont was perhaps too peculiar a name for modern standards - and a certain popular show he had occasionally been watching back in England. So John Smith it was.

When the other detective asked about his parents, Saguru shot a glance at his silver pocket watch. 18:14:53.25, it was not exactly normal seeing children about at this hour all on their own. Oh, so despite the rash and hot-headed personality, he actually had a caring side like this? The brunette had to admit he was slightly impressed although that did not change his general opinion of the other teen. Holding back the words he truly wanted to say, that he failed to see what concern it was of the other’s, Saguru thought of what his father would be doing at this time. “I should imagine he is still at work.” His mother was back in England, but he never really did have much to do with his parents, mostly having his baaya take care of him.

#westdetective #M!A

"Ah?" Heiji glanced down at the little Hakuba lookalike. However, the Osakan had no idea that the child was indeed Hakuba Saguru. However, the brat did look somewhat familiar to Heiji. He just couldn't put his finger on it. One of Kudou's little friends? No. "Who're ya?"

Why did he always get the idiots? It was a brief moment of displeasure that spread on the now child-detective’s face as none other than a certain obnoxious dark-skinned Osakan appeared, although that was quickly turned into the usual professional and maybe slightly sugary smile that he would usually drown out his real emotions with. And of course the guy went straight for such bothersome formalities. Saguru had not considered the fact that he would need a cover name, and so he roamed his mind and picked the first and the best that popped up. “My name would be John Smith, Onii-san.” Oh how badly he wanted to spout out the name with the usual subtle superiority in his voice, but that he could not to right now. “It certainly is a pleasure to meet you.”

#westdetective #M!A

“That so, that so?” Sazerac didn’t think so of course, but what an opportunity wasted to make up for a backstory he supposed. His loss. “Say I did believe ya. What sort’f books do ya read on a perfect day that should be spent in a library instead?”

He was wasting time that both of them needed to not be here, but this was an opportunity he simply couldn’t pass up. Not for the sake of his reckless equivalent, anyway. “How’s it that a brat such as yerself can help someone like me, let ‘lone have business that needs attendin’ ta, hm? Ya seem so sure that it ain’ ya that’s needin’ a little help on th’ side…”

Place more questions and hope to get answers that sounded nothing a child should say. It was off-handed brashness that would continue to give rapid evidence that he obviously had a run-in with these predicaments in a casual setting. Granted, it would be so easy to just come blunt with the knowledge, but where was the fun with that? The Kansai agent stifled the urge to let out a fox’s chuckle at the situation. “Perhaps’f ya’d tell me what’s troublin’ a little kid like ya I can… try ta sneak ya out fer somethin’ sweet ta drink or munch on.”

A sigh left the detective-turned-child at the other's stubbornness. Of course he knew he himself was no better - in the fact had Hattori by now accepted his bad excuses and been misled Saguru should be terribly disappointed in his skills as a detective, but that didn't make it less bothersome. Was this how Kuroba usually felt having to cover up all the time? No, he should not be starting to feel sentiment towards a thief.

"Is this an interrogation, Onii-san?" the small Saguru asked looking up at the dark-skinned Osakan, the professionalism in his smile not at all fading. It was bothersome enough to have to look up whenever addressing him, he did not wish for an apparent difference in mental superiority as well. There was no need to feed the ego of the Osakan too much.

From another pocket he took out his precious silver pocket watch with the family emblem horse engraved on the lid and checked the time purely by habit. 16:34:13.03, it had already been four minutes and 49.78 seconds since he extracted his own blood and put it into the vial. There was no time to be fooling around with this guy. Had it at least been a beautiful lady it would not be as annoying. Closing the watch and putting it back where it belonged, Saguru shifted his glance back up at the other detective, this time forcing out a brighter smile. "Oh my, Onii-san, are you offering to buy me an ice cream? And here I thought I was not supposed to leisurely follow shady people offering sweets." This was a battle he was not going to lose.

Fingers jerked briefly, though the sensation odd to him this time around. Such an impression only struck him if he allowed his memory to rewind to the deaths caused by the hands he protected—he certainly didn’t feel like he’d been mentally pulled back to those times, but the rage of satiating revenge began to brew a storm within him. A need to kill not out of the want to protect that stupid original persona, but out of all the times of humiliation and seething flashes of anger he’d gone through in the presence of this individual and because of this individual who shouldn’t have shrunk—

Sazerac sucked in a deep breath in an attempts to quell that internal gale of brooding thoughts. Grace of the Shintou gods, he was in a hospital—he must have hold of himself. The last thing he wanted to do was give into raw emotions that weren’t his and pour it through one strike of a knife into a vulnerable kid. A kid, he might add, who seemed to be using some jargon that much fitted that foreign detective who rattled the Osakan agent’s mind with anger. While the possibility of him having been fed that traitor’s poison was the first thing to come into mind, the current piece of evidence wasn’t exactly helping matters to deter him from that theory. He really didn’t want to believe that the talons of the Organization—the ones he’d been so tightly grasped in—reached this far to strike another detective with secrecy.

Still, he reminded himself that such hopeful tendencies were unbecoming of him, and such a reminder replaced that rage on his expression with a grin worthy of the Cheshire cat. How fortunate was it that he had this knowledge to one up a person that both personas so loathed? Kudou needed the secrecy… but right now in this moment in time, that need didn’t feel like it should be extended to this detective. “Hey now, kid. Ya’re usin’ mighty big words there… yer ol’ man a language teacher or somethin’?”

That smirk, the tone of voice and the choice of words. There was no doubt about it, the other was on to him. Honestly Saguru had doubted how long he would be able to keep up the charade; he was a detective, not an actor and like Hattori also so nicely pointed out he had absolutely no idea how to act like a child. His own childhood was too far back to be properly remembered and in general the brunette detective preferred the company of adults rather than younger peers.

"To be honest he is not," Saguru answered the question truthfully, well knowing of the sarcasm behind the inquiry. That was the only other aspect the two of them were alike in - their fathers' occupation and high position within the police force. Saguru's own father had the title of Superintendent General while Hattori's, if he wasn't much mistaken, carried that Superintendent Supervisor. But whatever titles their fathers had carried absolutely no significance when it came to the capabilities of the two detectives indivitually, so Saguru preferred not to dwell on such matters. "Would describing myself as an avid reader be a passable excuse? I often fancy a lovely little afternoon read."

The glass of the vial in his pocket felt cold against his fingers as he was fiddling with it, and it was reminding him that he had no time to waste. He needed to get the sample refrigerated as soon as possible before the test results should be altered or any other unfortunate events should happen to the contents. "However, you did not answer my question. Can I help you with anything? I should love to have myself excused as I have... business to attend to."

He’d slipped away from the ward where the KID was secretly checked into, glad that the guards nearby had accepted the excuse that he wanted it delivered as an apology gift. In a way, though, it was as close as Sazerac was going to get to verbally admitting fault without someone taking a shot at his own pride. The Kansai agent, regardless, thought to leave here as soon as possible—he knew the heavens and their deities residing there were certainly not in his favor and that could spell much trouble when his naive equivalent deserved none of that disfavor. Perhaps if he was quick enough to not get spotted by Subaru while getting his things ready, he could leave city limits before the sun set and if he went off-road, the bike would reach Neyagawa just in time for supper…

Such hopeful thoughts didn’t suit the turned agent, and that realization came to him when he neared the elevators. Hoarfrost eyes sharpened like knives when they spotted one child sneaking out from one of the rooms and, while he had not met him as this darker persona, the memories he could sift through all directed him to a rather pompous foreign detective… an individual who shouldn’t be like the silver bullet he’d been keeping alive.

If looks could kill, the glare upon Sazerac’s expression would probably be deemed an illegal means for carrying out capital punishment.

It was very known to Saguru how much this guy, this Hattori Heiji disliked and disapproved of him, and that resentment was probably their only common ground. But the look the other detective gave him today carried much more hatred than usual. No, it would probably be more safe to say unlike the usual glare that was merely full of displeasure. Despite not being a great supporter of 'auras' years of working with criminals, some more dangerous than others, had taught him how to tell apart displeasure and wishing the other gone from the surface of the Earth.

And all this was despite his new-found charm in the childish outer. Had he already been lured out? Maybe that Osakan actually deserved more credit than what Saguru usually gave him if only by a bit. Although there was no way the brunette was going to let his rival and cause of much annoyance know of this. Likewise he was not going to admit to the feeling of being slightly intimidated by the glare. In fact had it not solely been due to the fact that Saguru knew of the detective's view on morality he shouldn't so readily be disregarding it.

"Can I help you with anything?" he began, overcoating his tone with sugar to hide the true emotions beneath. "I should much prefer it if you could refrain from sending me such uncanny glares, Ha- Onii-san." Just in time Saguru had caught himself from blurting out the other detective's name, but it was definitely much forced when he changed to the usual honorific a child would use towards an older teen.

“…Bakame.” Sazerac knew he wouldn’t be meeting that white magpie for a while (or so he hoped) but taking the situation into account, the least he could do was have the decency to confirm that a possible hallucination had some sort of reality injected into it.

Ah how troublesome this all was. A whole research laboratory at your disposal and yet you have to sneak around the local hospital merely to get a blood sample. But he was curious, he wanted to see how this thing worked, whether there was any traces left in his blood, any noticeable changes, anything he could possibly discover. But sadly the researchers working under him left a lot to be desired on an intellectual level and he doubted many of them would believe him were he to explain the circumstances, let alone let a mere child boss them around. Prideful idiots were too troublesome to deal with.

And of course it was just his luck when Saguru left the small room for spare equipment to stumble upon yet another example of one of these. What was that guy doing in Tokyo anyway? "Oh, look at what the cat dragged in..." he unintentionally mumbled to himself, not at all feeling like dealing with the hot-headed Osakan in his current state. Well at least it was better than the thief.