justonetruth | (no subject)

That got Hakuba a very sour look. "Not escaped," Conan said loftily. Escaped would imply that the seal wasn't enjoying himself. "I expect he wandered off. It took me sometime to get the curtain rods down. I don't think seals have a very long attention span. He'll come back."

An attempt at holding back a smile and taking this all very seriously for the sake of this small child.

"I have not yet noticed any seals wandering the halls, but I don't think he would be difficult to find."

Damn -- Hakuba's observation is very true. Conan wavers for a moment between pride and searching for his new friend but eventually, sense wins out. "He won't be."

In fact now that he's looking for them its almost ridiculously easy to see the traces of the seals passage on the carpet and down the hall. Conan fetches the trolley, dragging it behind him so he can observe the trail unimpeded.

Hakuba follows Conan, watching as the boy tracks down the seal. It won't be that hard until they get to the basement, where he spend a good deal of time wandering around. Although, if Edogawa is thinking of somewhere other than the basement when he opens the door that the trail leads to, they won't even get that far.

Conan is in detective mode, intent on keeping a clear mind and letting the facts speak for themselves (he also knows where the basement door is). He abandons the trolley at the top of the stairs, jumping down them two at a time. The trail doesn't give him any trouble until he reaches the point where it weaves back on itself, becoming an indecipherable mess.

This gives the small detective pause. He crouches down, with the expression that means that he is not going anywhere until he's solved this puzzle.

"You're rather good at this." He leans against the wall, watching the smaller detective.

Conan makes an indistinct noise in response. He hasn't heard Hakuba; point of fact he's forgotten the detective is even there. Instead he gives the door nearest him an exploratory sniff.

Hmm.

Onto the next door.

Is he going to check every door here?

There is method to his ... method. Conan confines his investigations to doors within the limits of the traces of the seal in the corridor. Apparently reaching a conclusion he looks back over his shoulder, and gives Hakuba a much friendlier smile as he remembers his presence. "Hakuba-niichan? Can you help me a second?"

"Of course." He walks over and crouches down to the boy's level. "What do you need help with?"

"I need you to stand about here ..." Conan shepherds Hakuba to stand at the farthest extent of the seal's wanderings. "I'm going to check the rooms one by one. Let me know if you see my friend come out." He's clearly counting on the fact that the stairs should discourage the seal from escaping that way.

"All right." And he takes his position, standing guard. The stairs would certainly discourage the seal from trying to get away, he'd had enough trouble getting down them that up would have been a nightmare.

Conan gives him a brief smile of gratitude before setting to work on his room-by-room search. Hakuba may be amused to know that Conan clearly considers the seal both male and able to read -- he avoids opening any of the dressing room doors assigned to females.

Well, considering the seal is both male and able to read...

"Is there a reason you're not checking all of the rooms?"

"Those are girl's rooms."

"He must be a very intelligent seal." Edogawa had been more perceptive than this on the few occasions he had worked on cases with the boy.

Conan reconsiders. Carefully. "Not that intelligent. He left before I could give him a bath." But he might have been a girl seal. Conan opens an Aoko's door doubtfully.

"Smart enough to read?"

Conan hesitated. "I'll come back to those last," he decided, closing Aoko's door after a quick scan. "Seal aside, I'm not sure I should be looking in there."

"You do have a point."

Conan resumes his examinations. Hakuba's room comes in for a lengthy examination -- one that includes crawling under the bed, opening the wardrobe and giving the room a sniff test. Conan sits down in the middle of the floor, thinking hard. He's sure the seal was here ... but where is he now?

Hakuba pokes his head inside the door, eyes fixing on Conan in the center of the room.

"Did you find something interesting?"

"The seal was here ... but he's not here now. And I don't know how he got out again unless someone took him out ..." Conan gets up to take a look at the name on the door.

There is a pause and then a considered look. "Did you take my seal?"

"How many Hakuba Saguru are in this mansion, Edogawa-kun?"

"I'll interview them later."