Impressively enough for a six year old, she actually grabbed a letter opener and stabbed it shaft deep into the table right between Shinichi’s fingers.
Trash. Don’t you push your luck around me. Do I look like your errand girl or secretary? I already had it with you ordering me around when your ever incompetent subordinates got kidnapped. Where’s my prada, huh? We had a deal Kudou. I don’t take people breaking their word well. You dare treat me like your servant making me do your work around every damn corner. Make fluffy do it if you must. He can take a break from being a decoration for your viewing pleasure by actually making himself useful.
“Sure, Kudou-kun. How about I take care of them with a blast furnace. And then I’ll throw you in as well.”
Go get recycled. Trash.
HOLY FUCK HAIBARA.
That was his initial train of thought, but he actually expected this. Well, half. Just not to this extent. Shinichi was a king at this thing called ‘drama’ and if you must, Haibara could be labeled as the queen. How frightening. But was it really needed? Eh, they both always over did it.
Speaking of that prada, had you reminded him gently or just taken his credit card like he half expected you to, you would probably receive one in about 3 days. Anyway, that was besides the point.
His eyelids lowered and he pursed his lips.
“Okay” he replied meekly. He was asking for a dire favour from partner to partner this time, but supposed that held no actual value to her. And he tried so hard to smile it off too, damn. “I’ll ask C-ta then, even if he’s going to be a little more busy already.” Whatever, if she was going to hate him for that, then she was going to hate him much more for what he was planning to do soon anyway.
“Sorry for angering you.” It came out so neutrally that he almost started to hate himself. Where was his usual self that was careful as to not make her mad her even more? God, this guy had a lot of personality issues.
The young detective retrieved his hand and fingers, hiding those away from the knife as it honestly did not felt comfortable to stay near with. Perhaps this amount of adrenaline that ran through his body right now was his punishment.
“If you could look after Kid, the hedgehog,” he pointed to a certain box, “though; then that would be grand. Sorry for asking so much of you.”
Ok. That was more like Shinichi. Haibara was honestly relieved. She didn’t let it show on her face though. She just calmly walked up to a chair, crossed her legs and waited a couple minutes before speaking. Let him sweat it out.
“Finally. You’re too much of an adrenaline junkie to stay cooped up in an office whole day. Besides, everyone can fill out paperwork while cases only likes of you can solve are waiting out there.
If that’s how it is, she’d give him her support approval. Not that she minded him staying out of danger but he would go crazy at this rate. Coffee crazy. While his safety was indeed important, she did NOT like the shape she found him in when she first arrived in the city. Not at all. Bunnies died when lonely. Detectives died when stranded away from mystery. Or trying to solve a mystery at some cases. Just like what almost happened to Kudou with her own brand name drug. And several times afterwards.
Anyway, if he was going to suffer anyway he could at least be happy. Not like she gave a single damn about the force besides the fact it was important to Shinichi..
"Pity about the office though. And I wouldn’t suggest leaving the force. You might still need access to its resources. Going through third parties would waste your time in life or death situations” Not to mentions it put her at ease to know he had some reliable comrades watching his back..
Huh? What the Hell was Haibara even talking about now? Well, whatever. She seemed to be in her own world anyway. Something about losing the office and quitting the Defense Force? Shinichi obviously can’t recall ever saying that to be honest.
Going on as a solo detective and quitting the rank of Chief Detective honestly meant way less than she thought.
“Oh, by the way, Haibara.” Now is your chance to run, really. Whenever he called out the other’s name in a normal tone, you knew something was up. Actually, he was being awfully cheery about it; to the point where he raised a hand in a cheeky way and winked.
“I’m gonna need some time organize some things, so take care of my paperwork while I do, okay?” SMILES VERY INNOCENTLY. “Please, I’m counting on you!”
That’s her mother. And you’re lucky she’s more used to the term angel being used to refer Ran. Not that it makes things better for you. Mind.
“Want to be? You’re already one of the best detectives in Japan, if not the world. What’s going on, Kudou-kun?” She didn’t do flattery. Just stating simple facts here. WAs he having some sort of existential crisis or something? A turning point in life? She honestly couldn’t imagine Shinichi having a future that didn’t involve investigating, snooping around, mysteries, detective-ing. He’d be like a fish out of water or a monkey naked in space. She was almost worried.
Whatever, they were both dead female descendants of the Miyano family. Either way.
“Yeah.. You’re right.” He leaned his face into his hand as he glanced away, not wanting to face Haibara under these circumstances. This was almost stupid. Why was this young girl always so good at analyzing and understanding him? Sometimes it was almost like they didn’t need to talk for mutual understanding, but right now that wasn’t the case. Rather.. it felt like Haibara would be left confused if he kept quiet.
“I’ve been thinking of going solo… something like that.” A sigh. What a selfish thing of him to say when he was the one to build the Defense Force together with Munukata. “I’m not cut out for all this boss stuff, you know?”
The proper term is ‘speak of the devil’ Kudou. “Am I not allowed to visit my favorite detective-” Well, her only detective. “-just because I missed him?”
Ah yes. Bliss. She had a lot of sarcasm dying to get out of her system as of late. Especially considering Shinichi was the only one she was actually comfortable talking face to face in this city. Visit more often you baka.
”Now fess up. What are you acting so shady for this time?”
Not when your sister was known as Hell’s Angel. He knew his terms right, but his timing was just the worst. This was just a play on words. A cruel one, too, on top of that. But it’s a good thing he had never said that out loud.
“You got me…” he let out a sigh before he laughed softly. Like usual, Haibara was quick to see through the façade and would immediately cut to the chase. Hiding anything from her was useless. How to say things though? Mystery. So he’s got to take it slowly.
“Well… to begin with, you know how I want to be a detective, right?”
Lo and behold who walks in 15 minutes late with starbucks.
“Oh… Haibara?”
Ah… speak of angels, she really came. How convenient. Or well, now that she had actually come, he felt something blocking his throat. It wasn’t really his thing to have trouble swallowing, but right now… Right, he should just pretend like everything is like normal.
Puts his hands together in contemplation. Something has been bothering him a bit more lately, but he actually hasn’t talked about it to anyone. Confirm if his plans are right? Nah, he’ll just execute them.
A part of him feels like he needs Haibara for times like these…
Uh huh. Whatever helps you sleep better at night, you hormonal idiot. You’re lucky I can keep secrets when it matters.
That said, you’re the only one he calls meitantei.
Cough. Moving on.
If you must know, she can’t find any challenge with so many identical copies of the same riddle going around the city. Not to mention the lack of actual effort. Then again, they’re probably not trying to cover up some unspeakable crime either. The sender is obviously-
“Hm… From the way the clues are disturbed, the sender is obviously not targeting a specific group. That is, discounting the fact all recipients are Toshi citizens. Obviously. They’re probably treating this like a game. Unless they’re actually screwed up enough to turn a truly distressing matter into one. And looking at the number, there are at least three variations for clues.”
Uh… so much for not helping. Heck habits. Whatever.
“Well, good luck with whatever comes up, Kudou-kun. Try not to spoil everyone else’s fun too much.”
W.. what?! What he calls me has nothing to do with this!
Let’s stop talking about Kid indeed, you seem to have arrived upon some bold assumptions about them together. It wasn’t like they had anything between them or anything, gosh!
“Haha… me spoiling the fun?” As usual, Haibara was rather cruel with her words. Nonetheless, it seems it may be true. After all, whenever Kobayashi-sensei gave the children a mystery, he was always called away because of his intelligence. But that made him think a little.
“Oi, Haibara” he finally voiced out, not ready to let the young girl leave yet. “You’re free right now, right? So accompany me.” And here it was. Here came the punchline.
“Let’s visit the library together.”
A rather bold request, but what was even bolder was the fact he dared doing this after having received only one riddle piece. Would the third piece really talk about the location?
Well, if there are pages he must part, he might as well go to the library for it. After all, with so many books there, there was plenty of choice. Not to mention… the Mayor’s riddles can’t be that hard, right?
Chill out cowboy. Holmes. Whatever. Do you think I honestly care about some mysterious murder with no relationship to me? I’ll listen all you want me to if it ever puts you in danger. Also stop being so homo with all your nemeses. Not that we know the mayor’s actual gender. (Or species for that matter.)
Anyway. Don’t come to me if KID ever gets jealous.
“Sucks to be you, huh. Still this whole thing feels far to amateurish to pursue even with just one clue in. Forgive me if I choose to opt out. You’d hardly need any help with a prank of this level anyway.” Seriously. What’s so fun about posting riddles if you don’t even incorporate some code or foreign language or punctuation trick or invisible ink.
At this point, one might notice the DC peps are far too gone in the land of needlessly outrageous mysteries.
What do you mean, he was being homo with all his nemeses?! That totally wasn’t the case at all! He and the Mayor were on neutral grounds. Like okay, he felt often too played and annoyed by him (although he found some fun in that), but you can’t call that homo, right? Perhaps you were referring to his relationship with Kaito Kid? But that was normal between fated detective and phantom thief.
Don’t make it sound like there was something between them! Why would Kid even get jealous? He has plenty of detectives of his own. You were just daydreaming again, gosh. Way to be a trusting partner.
E… either way, what Kid does or feels didn’t matter right now.
“That’s fine I suppose.” Shinichi wouldn’t mind much if Haibara pulled out, since this mystery seemed more for fun than anything serious anyway. Why was it that she wasn’t interested by it though? Gosh, that girl had no idea what fun was.
“Anyway, solving this mystery with only one piece is supposed to be hard…” A pause. “But since I’m used to worse, I’ll solve it somehow.”
“Let me guess. It involves an unsolved murder slash suicide.” You’re really easy sometimes Shinichi. Mun wishes she had a SHAFT head tilt Haibara icon at times like this.
“Well. It’s better if you see for yourself. In case there are any tricks with the font or ink.” Don’t start. Just take the letter. We both saw tricks far more convoluted.
[3.] But the story is not over
And the pages you must part.
“Ah… Maybe something like that.” Case Sion was a case entirely different on its own, with a whole city that became the suspects for it. Not to mention, the Mayor as the prime suspect of all– almost taking the blame for the death on top of that. At least Shinichi prevented that, but since they never apprehended the culprit, he didn’t feel too collected about it.
Still… He couldn’t think of the Mayor as the bad guy. It was almost like that time Kid was accused of murder as well. Those two felt the same in some way, and perhaps that was why he couldn’t leave either of them alone.
“Fine, fine–”, the impatient teen took the letter and glanced at it. She was right though, they had encountered far more difficult messages in the past. Not to mention that he solved all those.
Yet a sound of disappointment left his lips. Then a small groan. “It seems like we got the same hint” he uttered. The detective then let out a sigh and took out his own letter for comparison.
“Not to mention, they seem to have been printed on in the same manner.”
“Well… Considering your fixation on him…” Your thief, your mayor, your Sion, etc. etc. I didn’t mean it the Hidenori way. “Oh. Apparently they’re supposed to differ at points. In case you want to compare.”
No comment.
“… Maybe he interests me a little bit… but with fair reason.” It’s safe to say that Shinichi has been in this city for a year now to figure out the mystery of the Mayor. Huh? A year already? Just how much has he been wasting his time? Can’t believe we missed the anniversary.
“That’s obvious, since he already said the riddle would be split into several parts. What does yours say?”
