Chapter Text
Life is full of mystery. Or in other words, the human itself is the mystery. While other living creatures are content to follow the natural law, humans rebel against anything, trying to figure out how this world works and hacks their life around.
But one of the most mysterious things for humans, maybe the so-called "fate".
What is fate actually? Is it something that has been decided beyond human power or it is the result of decision from humans themselves?
Because for Hakuba Saguru, he never really believes in fate. But strangely, his life is full of interconnected fate of threads tangled around. He never knows how to make out of that.
"Say, Hakuba-kun, why are you suspecting Kaito as Kid?"
Hakuba blinks his eyes. The girl beside her, Nakamori Aoko, who carries a pile of books from the library for the next lesson, is suddenly asking him an unexpected question. Hakuba adjusts the books in his hand while pondering.
'Why now?' he asks in his mind. He has been suspecting Kaito for Kid for months. Heck, he even enrolled in this very school just to follow Kaito around. He has been waiting for this question to come sooner, for him though, the momentum has lost.
"I have been waiting for someone to ask me that question honestly," he says. He knows that Aoko is suspecting her childhood friend too. No matter how many tricks Kaito has played to deceive her, the lingering doubt is never gone.
"Because there was Kid and Kaito in the same place, you know about that too Hakuba-kun! Aoko wants to clear her head, so she can stop imagining things."
He feels a little pity for his classmate. Kaito has almost driven her insane. Hakuba can relate to that feeling.
The reason for why he suspects Kaito as Kid, huh? He has prepared so many answers for this question, but now someone is asking him, Hakuba is rather speechless.
"It is fate, I guess?" Hakuba says while smiling.
Aoko tilts her head in confusion and Hakuba just ignores her.
It is simply too long to answer why and Hakuba is too paranoid if Kaito is listening to them from somewhere.
Fate, as funny as it sounds, may be the best word to explain why he became tangled into this Kaito Kid shenanigans in the first place.
o0o0o0o
As soon as Hakuba arrives at home after school, he enters his bedroom and pulls a big folder file. There is no title, rather strange for his neat freak nature.
As he opens the buttons of his gakuran uniform, he also opens the folder file.
Right, this is where all of this so-called 'fate' begins.
He traced a picture of a young boy with blonde hair and a middle aged man with a raven hair and a mustache.
Kuroba Toichi.
He wonders how Kaito will react if he knows that Hakuba has met his father before.
There is a clipping newspaper beside the photo, written in English.
"A Famous Japanese Magician Solved A Stolen €10.000 Worth Jewelry Case."
Hakuba laughs a bit. Right, it was his first unofficial case. Why unofficial? Because he asked someone to help deliver the deduction for him.
Even though Hakuba can barely recall the man's face, it was an unforgettable event.
Flash Back
Hakuba sighs, he watches the commotion around him with a tired face. He was never fond of parties, especially grown up parties. It is his aunt's friend's birthday party, it is held in a big ballroom of a hotel. The reason why Hakuba is there is because supposedly there will be some show from a famous magician and his aunt brought him along.
But before the party started, the birthday woman screamed that her very expensive and specifically made for this party, a necklace, had gone.
Now there are police, confused and upset guests, and bewildered and angry family members.
If it is possible, Hakuba wants to go home. But since the jewelry is gone, the police conducts searches throughout the building to find it and of course, the guests can't go home.
Hakuba hopes he can find things to keep him entertained. But the only interesting thing here is the case itself. He is only 8 at the moment, he wonders if he can sneak in to the crime scene unnoticed.
His aunt is too busy chatting and gossiping with her friends anyway.
The guard of the crime scene is not too tight, it happens in the dressing room beside the hall. Hakuba slips in when the officer on guard is busy talking with his friend.
It is his first time doing something like this, if he gets caught, he will get severe punishment from his family. But Hakuba wants to try to deduce things just like his favorite character, Sherlock Holmes. This may be his only chance to try the real deal, so he decides to be brave and starts to inspect the crime scene.
Unexpectedly, nothing looks weird. Everything is in order, he had always imagines the crime scene as a disarray room. It is as if nothing had happens here.
He looks at the bust up mannequin on the other side of the wall. That is where the necklace is supposed to be. His aunt's friend was supposed to wear it after she finished her makeup. There is also a long table vanity with several chairs. The table is full with makeup equipment. And there is a big fish tank in the corner of the room.
Hakuba walks around as quietly as possible and he feels like he steps on something.
He picks it up. A small crystal? Hakuba knows this is just ordinary glass crystal though, not a jewelry. What is it doing on the floor?
"Boy, what are you doing here?"
Hakuba gasps and turns to see the policeman. He smiles awkwardly and runs away before he can ask more things.
"You can't go inside again!" the police shouts.
Hakuba runs to the end of the hallway and catches his breath. He feels bad for being , but he also feels excited. He examines the crystal again in wonder. This is really small, a pin head size. Someone could mistake this as a real jewelry.
But from the picture he sneaked to peek before, the necklace is like a web full of white and blue diamonds.
But, this is only an ordinary glass crystal, he still wonders where this comes from.
"It looks like some crystals seeds for glass flowers."
Hakuba turns around and finds a middle aged man smiling at him. He has an Asian face and Hakuba can hear some strange accent in his words.
"Crystal seeds?" Hakuba asks back.
"Ah sorry, I don't know what it is in English. You see, just like this glass flowers here," the man points out at a vase full of flowers made from glass just beside him. He puts his hand inside and pulls off many grains of crystals.
"These crystals are made this way to help the glass flowers stand better in the vase."
Hakuba blinks and approaches the vase. The man gives him some of the small crystals.
"But these crystals look like rice... This one is different..." Hakuba shows the crystal he picked earlier. But the man laughs.
"Rice huh? I guess it looks like that... What is your name?"
Hakuba feels rather reluctant to give his name, but he answers it anyway. "Hakuba Saguru."
"Japanese?" the man asks. Hakuba nods.
"Half Japanese."
"Ah I see, then do you understand Japanese?" the man asks again. Hakuba shakes his head fast.
"No, just some words..."
"Okay, okay, lets just talk in English, Saguru-kun."
He never hears someone call his name like that, but Hakuba shrugs that aside.
"Just like you said, this crystal is different. It almost looks like diamond, it is as if this is from a fake jewelry," the man inspects the crystal in Hakuba's hand.
Hakuba nods. He doesn't think his aunt's friend ordered a special made fake jewelry though, her family is a wealthy one. Hakuba can't imagine a reason why there should be fake jewelry in the dressing room.
"I see... Are you playing detective?"
Hakuba blinks his eyes and turns to see the man smiling again at him.
The little boy blushes a little, he never imagines someone will call him detective. Even though it is in a playful way.
"If you need help, just ask me. I will be around, I have to do something. Good luck, little detective."
Hakuba just watches the man walk away. Hakuba is never really fond of adults, but that man feels different. Like, he is very cool but also somewhat fun? Hakuba can't describe it well.
He shakes his head, he needs to focus on the case now.
He needs to think in order first.
His aunt's friend noticed her necklace gone around 2 hours ago. She said it was still there when she dressed and did her make up. There were two other people in that room, her assistant and makeup artist.
Then the assistant went out from the room and came back to inform her of something wrong at the arrangement of the party. So his aunt's friend came out from the dressing room for around 45 minutes.
But her father came to the room 5 minutes after she was gone and said that the necklace was still there. He came to use the phone in the dressing room to call his wife. The makeup artist went to the bathroom for 30 minutes.
Then the makeup artist came back and prepared makeup tools while the father was still on the phone. After the father ended the call and went outside, the make up artist came out from the dressing room again to find the birthday woman at the same time, both of them said that the necklace was still there. The make up artist and his aunt's friend were back in the room in 5 minutes but then both of them noticed that the necklace was gone.
After that, people tried to look for the necklace for 30 minutes before finally they called the police. The police came, they searched the whole building and did body search on all the guests but found nothing. From the guard of the hall, he said no one came out from the hall. The emergency exit is also not far from the lift beside the guard.
How could someone steal a necklace so fast and hide it in just several minutes?
The people start to say that there must be some outsider stealing the necklace. But...
Hakuba walks around again. He doesn't know what to search but he just tries to find anything weird. The police can't find the necklace so maybe it is also impossible for him to find it by himself.
His eyes catch something blinking below a table. He picks it. A screw. Hakuba tilts his head.
Why does he keep finding random things? He believes a nice hotel like this will clean the hotel throughout several times a day, so there is no reason something like this is lying around.
Hakuba looks around, is the screw from around here?
He finds a big air ventilation on the wall. There is one screw gone. It looks like the screw in his hand matches up with the rest of the screw.
He has seen it in the movies, people crawling around in the air ventilation. Does the culprit hide the jewelry there?
But, in only 5 minutes? To unscrew, to crawl, to hide it quite far, then to crawl back and screw it again, Hakuba isn't sure someone can do it in 5 minutes.
And more some police have tried to search the necklace here too, they went quite long and found nothing.
Though, Hakuba suspected they didn't try to crawl to the end of the air ventilation, but then again, it is impossible to hide it so far away in the air ventilation in just 5 minutes.
Hakuba sighs. No, he hits a dead end. Like what he expected, being a detective is harder than in novels.
"Are you giving up?"
Hakuba jumps out in surprise. He turns to see that man again.
"I can't figure out the trick...," Hakuba admits it.
"You are right, it is quite hard," the man agrees. "Maybe you also need to look at the people too, not just some non-living objects."
Hakuba frowns, why does this man act as if he knows how to be a detective? But Hakuba follows his suggestion anyway.
He doesn't think he can ask any people questions though.
He finds the father of the birthday woman in the corner of the hall. He looks tired and he applies some eye drops to his eyes.
Hakuba is staring at the eye drops.
"Are you wondering what this is?" he asks. He is a round and big old man, maybe around 50-60 years old.
Hakuba nods a little.
"This is a medicine. You see, when you are getting old, you can't see very well. The doctor said I need to get surgery after this party, but now that the necklace is gone, I think I will be busy for awhile..."
Can't see well?
Hakuba stares at the small crystal in his hand.
There are also some glass flowers at the crime scene. And then, a fish tank with many rocks inside it...
That's it!
Hakuba has figured it out.
But oh no, he didn't think there was solid evidence. The crystal in his hand and the screw is too small to detect for fingerprints. How could he do it...
Hakuba approaches the dressing room again, it seems the officers become restless because they are hitting the dead end too. Hakuba needs more evidence but he isn't sure he can slip into the crime scene again. If his deduction is right, there should be more evidence, visible from naked eyes.
"I guess, you need some help?"
Hakuba turns to see the man already beside him. Why does this man always appear unnoticed?
"Yeah, I need to get more evidence from the crime scene."
"Let me help with that."
The man approaches the policemen and talks to them, Hakuba can't hear him but then the policemen run to the other side in a hurry.
"See, let's check the inside," the man smiles. Hakuba thinks that the strange man told police some lies. Would he be alright later?
Nonetheless, Hakuba enters the crime scene once again with the man and walks to the glass flower vase. Hakuba puts it in his hand and tries to find what he wants.
He finds more round pin head sized crystals. He puts his hand deeper and his fingers feel something weird.
"What is this?" asks Hakuba. It looks like a nail, but it is really colorful and full of ornaments.
"I think this is a fake nail, or artificial nail. Women like to use this a lot, especially for nail art," that man answers.
Ah, Hakuba has seen his mother and aunts wearing them. But to think this is inside the vase, it could be a good solid evidence. Hakuba jumps and runs to the fish tank. He can see some rocks shining inside. Hakuba smiles, just what he expected.
Now, he needs more evidence about the artificial nail.
"I think there should be a photo for that."
Hakuba gasps, that man smiles at him, like he can read his thoughts.
"There is a photographer here, he kept taking pictures of everyone before the police arrived, so I think he has what you want."
Hakuba is a little confused. He doesn't explain anything and yet it seems this old man follows his way of thought. It is a little scary. Or maybe, he already solved the trick before Hakuba did?
"I will find the photographer, then you can have a deduction show for everyone, okay Saguru-kun?" he says.
"Wait, there is one thing!" Hakuba shouts, to make the man stop leaving. "There is one thing I can't understand, this trick won't work if Mr. Herald didn't use the phone in this room... such a coincidence like that... isn't it too risky?"
The man smiles, like he already knows everything. To be honest, it makes Hakuba pissed a little. It feels like Hakuba has squeezed all the cells in his brain to make this deduction, while the man does it in a breeze.
"Someone said to me, as a detective, you can't believe in 'coincidence'. You really need to prove whether it is really a coincidence or not."
Hakuba blinks his eyes, trying to absorb that man's words.
"You see, Mr. Herald's wife is traveling around Europe right now. Mr. Herald always calls her at a fixed time, every night, using the phone, because he can't see words in the cell phone really well. The nearest phone from the hall is in this dressing room, now, can we call that a coincidence?"
Hakuba shakes his head. "And there is one more thing," the boy says with a troubled face.
"What is it?"
"I can't deliver the deduction to everyone. It is impossible. I'm only a kid."
The man stares at Hakuba for a while, and the blonde boy almost cowers at those sharp eyes. Hakuba can't explain his family situation. The real reason why if his family finds out what he is doing, he will receive harsh punishment.
"Okay... I understand. It is my first time playing detective, but I have no choice I guess... So let's talk about our deduction, let's see if we guessed the same thing."
o0o0o0o
"The culprit is you, Ms. Sarah Smith, aka, the makeup artist for this party."
Hakuba watches the man deliver the deduction just like a climax in a mystery drama. That man knows how to do it even though he said it is his first time. Does he copy someone else he knows?
"I'm not the culprit! Are you insane? The necklace was still there when I came out from the dressing room with Mr. Herald. No way I come back to steal the necklace again in just 5 minutes and hide in somewhere else where even the police can't find it."
The man smiles, with such confidence. Hakuba watches him in awe.
"Of course not. Because the necklace has been gone way before you and Mr. Herald came out together from the dressing room. Right, it was when you said you went to the bathroom for 30 minutes!"
The suspect is shocked. The suspense is real. Hakuba guesses, the real deal is much more interesting than fiction.
"No way!"
"It is a simple trick. This is what you did. You have prepared a fake necklace beforehand. Then, you also have planned some trouble at the party so Ms. Katie would come out from the dressing room. Then, you switch the real necklace with the fake necklace before Mr. Herald comes in as you predicted. You see, Mr. Herald has a bad eyesight, so he couldn't tell whether the necklace is real or not. Then you come out from the dressing room, you hide the necklace somewhere else. I think 30 minutes is a long time to hide things in a faraway place, like in the air ventilation."
As if it has been planned before, a policeman comes out from the air ventilation with a little bag in his hand. "Inspector, I found this necklace in a really deep place in the air ventilation!"
The suspect is cornered. "But you don't have proof that I'm the one who did that!"
The man smiles again. "When you come out from the dressing room for the second time, I believe you set some thread to the door to pull out the fake necklace. It is already made to be easily broken away and scattered to many places. When you entered the room again with Ms. Katie, you pretended to search the necklace while in fact you were hiding the scattered fake jewelry. Right, you hide the blue crystal ones in the fish tank, people won't see it with all those stone decorations. And the white crystal ones inside the vase."
The suspected woman grits her teeth as the man is talking. "But, I bet you hid the fake jewelry in a hurry, so you didn't notice that one of your artificial nails came off and got into the vase."
The man shows an artificial nail. The woman shows that her fingers are free from any kind of nail art. "No need to argue more. I already found some photos that showed you use this particular artificial nail with a very distinct nail art. Unless you can explain how your artificial nail can end up deep inside the vase, then I guess, you can't deny that you are the culprit, Ms. Katie."
The woman's knee suddenly gives up and she falls to the floor.
Hakuba watches everything with twinkling eyes. He has never seen something as cool as this before.
There is a commotion of police and angry guests surrounding the man and the culprit, Hakuba just smiles and turns around. The case is over, finally he can go home.
"Congratulations for your deduction, little detective."
The man, once again, has appeared right beside him. He pats Hakuba's hair gently. Hakuba feels embarrassed.
"I think you can do it well even without me," the boy says.
"I only can guess how the trick works, but you are the one who found all the proofs. You are the detective in this case, I am only able to see it from a different perspective."
Hakuba's face reddened more. Then the man suddenly pulls out a handkerchief then when he pulls the handkerchief away, there is a miniature medal in his hand. "For your very first case, congratulations. It is a little weird coming from me, but I think you can be a great detective, Little Holmes."
Hakuba picks the small medal and watches the man smile at him. Finally, Hakuba smiles back at him.
“Thank you.”
Flash Back End
Hakuba pulls the drawer below his desk. He picks the small medal, it is made from a coin with some makeshift fabrics. To think that Kuroba Toichi is the one who pushed him to be a detective, no one would believe that.
And more, Hakuba even forgot that man’s name before. He just knew him as a magician. Once he got older and became a better detective, he finally tried to find out the man identity that turned out to be Kaito’s father.
What kind of fate is that? Hakuba smiles to himself.
He turns the page and he frowns. Two whole pages full of articles about Kuroba Toichi’s sudden death. He was devastated to find out that the magician had passed away before Hakuba could say thanks.
But the weirdest thing happens next. It was also by chance. He only passed some free time by watching a show about some unsolved case. Then, the show was about Kaitou Kid. Hakuba can still remember that exact episode.
Back then, it was just after Kuroba Toichi’s 7th death anniversary. And the show also mentioned that it has been 7th year since Kaitou Kid's last appearance. What a coincidence.
But, just like how Toichi has told him before, Hakuba will always prove whether it is really a coincidence or not. Because, not only the matching time, but also the fact that Kaitou Kid used magic to steal, and Kuroba Toichi was a famous skillful magician. Not to mention, 75% heists happened in Japan. It was way too many coincidences to be ignored.
And then, Hakuba opened and skipped some pages, it was full of Kuroba Toichi’s data and he arrived at Hakuba’s messy scribbles of deduction. No one can understand this beside himself. He only did this to get rid of suspicion of Kuroba Toichi being a Kaitou Kid but only became more suspicious.
He matched the time when Kaitou Kid has heist outside Japan with the time Kuroba Toichi held a magic show outside Japan.
And the matching resulted in a 65% match. It is still too suspicious to be a mere coincidence.
He also tried to record whether Toichi ever held a magic show in Japan at the same time with Kid’s heist and the result only showed 15%.
When he first did this, he didn’t know how to make it out of it. Kuroba Toichi was dead, Kaitou Kid had disappeared. He guessed he wouldn’t know the truth, not to mention he was in England so it was hard to conduct deeper research about that. It would be forever a mystery. Or that was what he thought.
Hakuba skips some pages again.
But then a year later, Kid showed up again.
Then, the reason why Hakuba suspects Kaito as the Kaitou Kid?
He opens the previous page, where there is some article about Kuroba Toichi identity, works and family. Of course there is also Kuroba Kaito listed there.
At first, Hakuba wonders why after 8th year, Kid showed up again? Why did he need 8 years to come back? Does he find another reason to keep stealing again? Did he need 8 years to be able to steal again?
Then again, no one can make sure whether the new Kid is the same Kid from 8 years ago. It wasn’t too hard to copy his style, even his trademark sign card is easy to be fabricate.
But then again, the same question, even for copycat, why 8 years? People almost forget about Kaitou Kid, there are many other thefts around the world to use as a copycat source.
Yeah, it hit Hakuba hard when he noticed that Kuroba Toichi’s son, Kuroba Kaito is the same age as him, it means he is 17 years old now.
Just like how Hakuba has blossomed into a better detective, it was a decent age to continue parent’s heritage.
Hakuba just can’t ignore it anymore. So, he decided to go to Japan to investigate on his own.
His suspicion becomes solid when he finds out how skillful Kuroba Kaito is as a magician. He even moved into the same school, so he can prove his suspicion.
Hakuba sighs and closes the file.
He doesn’t think anyone can understand nor follow his way of thought.
It is true that it can be everything just a coincidence and he is wrong this whole time. But, first, like always, he needs to prove whether it is really just a coincidence or not.
If he hadn’t met Kuroba Toichi back then, he won’t be a detective just like he is now, and then he won’t be suspicious about Kuroba Toichi as Kaitou Kid and he won’t even bother to move into a highschool in Japan and chase the current Kaitou Kid.
What a strange tangled fate.
There is just one point though.
He doesn’t mind if he is wrong, even, deep in his heart, he wishes he was wrong with all of this suspicions. Because it will be hard for him to accept the fact that the man who inspired him to be a detective is actually Kaitou Kid. Then not only that, he also has to put his son behind the bar.
“I hope I will find the answer to why we have to meet that day, Toichi-san. What kind of fate will wait for me after this? Somehow, I’m not too eager to find out,” Hakuba mumbles with heavy eyes.
He knows he needs to do what he can do, even though he isn’t sure what he wants to do at this point. But, maybe, he will find the answer later. The answer of tangled fate that caught him to solve someone’s mystery.
To Be Continued