GA:

[Clears throat] I, er, apologize for the long wait, and I have an announcement to make regarding this fic's update schedule and my personal life. If you are sensitive to the following topics, please don't read this announcement: mental health, self harm, suicide. Skip straight to the bold (A).

Back in early May - to be exact, May 4th - I suffered from a self-inflicted overdose. I was subsequently hospitalized in first a medical hospital, then a psychiatric facility. I have since then been on treatment for severe anxiety and depression, which includes both medicine and therapy, not to mention I've been having to fill out paperwork for both hospitals and my school, to which I'm planning to go back in the Fall. Now, I love Divine to death, and I truly appreciate those of you reading it, but:

(A) My mental health comes before fanfiction, so updates may, and will, be much slower coming. That could mean weeks, or even months, between chapters. If you still would like to follow Divine, I'd be grateful, but I don't blame you if you'd rather drop it. And also...

(B) I don't have a good track record with multichapter fics in the first place. People who read TBC or any of my other ventures can attest to this: I can update three times in quick succession, then not update for months on end, then start another fic, and then finally update my original multichap. It's a bad habit, and I know that you as my readers may hate this kind of skipping around, but I honestly can't help it.

I would also really appreciate it if you don't send reviews on other fanfics that I write asking about any of my other fics. It makes me feel like shit (see point A), and also it's not going to make me publish it any faster. Feel free to PM me occasionally, maybe just to stop by and ask me how it's going, or even leave a review on Divine/DCF itself, but don't ask me about it through a review on a completely unaffiliated fic. That means don't ask for Divine/DCF on any non-DCF oneshots I may post, don't ask for, I don't know, STK on any Divine/DCF updates I may have, etc.

REGARDING THE BIRTHDAY ERROR IN CHAPTER 2: Iwent back and deleted that entire scene and added in another in its place. I'd advise that you read it (despite it being only one or two paragraphs difference), because it brings up an important piece of information that I had only mentioned in the author's note before.

REGARDING NAMES: I have decided to go back to proper Japanese formatting (surname, given name) because I've grown more used to it through RP. I'll try to update the chapters before this one ASAP, but seeing how long this chapter took...I have to prioritize new chapters over editing past ones for the time being. And now, onto...

REVIEWS

Tohda: Ah, thank you! I'm curious, though, what part of them don't you like? I like hearing people's reasons for liking/disliking characters. Call me Hakuba, but "how come" is my favorite word(s). Haha, chapter 2 had been up for a while, but it looks like you got twice as much to read this time, so enjoy~.
RPhysics: Screeches quietly, I love Alaena F. Dragonstar? It's legitimately such an honor to be compared, since to be honest I barely hold a candle to her works, but still thank you so much! Hehe, I'm sort of a mythology buff, so I'm really enjoying milking it for it's worth.
ForgetfulDaffodil: Ah Heiji, ever the comic relief. He won't stay that way for long, though, even if he's still the butt of most of the jokes. Wait no longer, because the next chapter is upon you-!
Assasin8: Woohoo, plot! Haha, I'm glad you like the character interactions, they all have their nuances between each other. Shinichi is definitely making an appearance- in fact, he'll be playing an extremely pivotal role later on in the second half of the plot~. Conan's going to have a lot of fun with his powers; there's one incident in this chapter involving Ran and a birdbath...
Miss Emotion: Aah, Hakuba doesn't get much screen time in canon, so I'm trying to write him as best as I can. As serious as he is, he has no secrets to keep from the rest of the group, so instead he plays the know-it-all who spends his time digging up other people's secrets and then doing what he pleases. I may not have written him as conscientious of social etiquette as he should be, oops. Note to self: don't punch anymore people through walls.
Eyeinthesky: I've never thought about a Western element line-up, but it makes sense. Hot-headed Hattori, cool calm Shinichi, flighty easy-going Kaito and down-to-earth Hakuba, huh?
Marie Ravenclaw: Hehe...yeah...I, er. Deleted everything about that scene. But thank you nonetheless!
Guest: Haha, thanks! Heiji does seem to be shaping up to be the comic relief so far...and don't worry about pressuring me, honestly, just saying "hope you update" or "can't wait for the next chapter" is kind of nice to hear.

And now that that's over, this chapter is extremely short, but...I felt the need to cut it in half, because I had a lot of important announcements to make here that I wanted to get out. Next chapter's A/N won't be so long - I doubt I'll have much to say.

NOTE: I had to cut this chapter short in order to get this A/N out in a timely manner, I apologize. It's still approximately 3500 words long, but the meat of the chapter will really be in chapter five.

Enjoy!

CHAPTER FOUR: SHOTS FIRED (KIND OF.) PART 1

Ladies and gentlemen, the great magician of flames and faith beckons you;
A deed unanswered by the white dove that calls the right metal prison its home,
Try to search for my feathers, North, East, West- but never South, for
Every great wizard must at, some point,
F
A
L
L
!

Love forever always,
Kaitou KID

Conan had fallen asleep on the way back to Beika, and when he awoke, it was already morning and there was a dove tapping on the window. It stopped and flew off as Conan shot it a venomous glare, which left no doubt in his mind as to its owner. Idiot thief should be paying attention to his own problems, and keeping out of Conan's.

Still, he grumbled a thanks that went unheard as he went through his morning routine of getting ready for school. "Conan-kun," Ran greeted him as he trudged down to the office, "you look a lot better today. Did you have fun with Kaito-kun?"

Oh, tons of fun, he thought sarcastically, thinking back to how it had really just boiled down to babysitting Hattori, but bit back the retort and replaced it with a genuine-looking grin. "Un! We visited Heiji-niisan, too!" Before he could divulge much more information, the doorbell rang, and Conan jumped slightly, surprised by the noise. In retaliation, one of the wilting flowers in a vase on the coffee table sprung to attention, looking more vibrant than seconds before, and Conan glared at it slightly until it returned to its original drooping position. Thankfully, Ran had went to check the door and hadn't seen his unfortunate burst in abilities, but Conan still wasn't convinced. Even the slightest amounts of nature around him were reacting to every single of his actions, and while he had to admit that they were useful in life or death scenarios, it would be both unfortunate and hard to explain if something too drastic happened in public.

"Conan-kun, it's your friends!" Thankful for the distraction, Conan made his way to the front door to put his shoes on, listening in on Ran and the others. "Oh? Where's Ai-chan?"

"The Professor-" that was Ayumi's voice, "-said that Ai-chan was sick today, and can't come to school." Haibara never got sick, and most definitely not without prior notice, which meant that she was probably researching another lead into the antidote. Well, as much as he enjoyed her company at school - really, there weren't many other child genii to talk to, it was a shame - her work was more important to them (to him, since he was almost positive that she had no desire of taking the antidote herself). It was best to leave her to her business than to go through the hassle of making her socialize. Anyways, she would probably try to get him to talk about what happened over the weekend, and he was in no hurry to explain his circumstances to the ever-logical shrunken scientist. "Conan-kun," Ayumi sang as he finally appeared in the doorway, "hurry up or we're going to be late!"

"Coming, coming..." He gave a quick hug to Ran - still awkward, always awkward - before joining the rest of the tanteidan on their way to school. Genta, Ayumi and Mitsuhiko argued amongst themselves as to the latest plot device in Kamen Yaiba - the hero's new nemesis was obviously his civilian's love interest's best friend, come on - while Conan paid more attention to their surroundings, keeping a close eye on anybody he deemed suspicious and, a new routine thanks to that weekend's antics, any rose bushes that decided to suddenly bloom out of season. They only ran into one unfortunate mishap on their way, when a shop owner accidentally dropped a flower pot full of tulips and the flowers threatened to turn the already-broken pot into dust with their writhing roots. Conan was glad to have handled that situation quickly enough so that most around them would pass it off as a delusion, but it was still too close for comfort.

And when they finally did get to school...well. That was a disaster in and of itself.

"Conan-kun, what did I tell you about bringing your work to school?" Kobayashi-sensei sounded more exasperated than upset, however, as he walked into his classroom and found an annoyingly familiar caricature sketched in bright colors on the chalkboard.

Block-kanji spelled out a coded riddle that undoubtedly nobody else would be able to decipher, but to Conan it was clear as day. 'Sorry for the mess, tantei-kun, but I didn't know which locker was yours!' It was also clear as day that Kaito was a lying bastard, but that was a thought he wasn't going to share with the class. Instead, he picked up one of the many small business cards littering the floor and sighed at yet another riddle, this one a heist notice. "Sensei," he called out in a singsong voice, "I'll clean up after class, don't worry."

Kobayashi-sensei just sighed and rested her head on the desk. The things she put up with.

The shounen tanteidan were really stubborn, Conan had to admit that much as he tried to shove the three of them out of the room so he could clean up. "I can do it myself," he practically shouted over their grumbling and offers to help (well, Ayumi's offers to help, really, since Mitsuhiko was ambivalent towards the matter and Genta really just wanted to eat). It took him much longer than he anticipated, but he managed to finally shuffle them out and close the door, leaning against it as he tried to make the potted plant on a shelf above him lock the door for him. A green tendril shot out from the bottom of the pot and wrapped itself around the door handle, keeping it firmly closed for the time being. It was close enough, Conan decided before turning his attention to the multitude of cards that were still scattered across the floor.

They were stock paper, which meant plant product. Kuroba was thoughtful enough in that regard, at least. Would that be enough of a connection, though, was Conan's question as his hand twitched slightly. His eyesight faded into shades of green, just as it had the day before when he had quietly threatened Hakuba, but this time it was willed into existence, not just a sudden burst of green. He wasn't quite sure how he did it himself, but the instinctive focus on nature was a plus for honing his powers. The only things that didn't give off a green hue were...everything, really, but at the same time he could pick out explicit details between the colors; metal bolts, the chalkboard, plastic chairs and tables. Those without a connection to nature were illuminated instead with a white glow.

the KID cards, just replicas of the same one that he had picked up earlier, glowed even brighter as he concentrated on them, willing them to converge until they were in a single pile. Some were more vigorous than others, flying across the room and sticking themselves halfway through the carpet, while others wiggled slowly to join the growing pile of cards. It took no more than two minutes of deep concentration, but by the time they were all in a tidy little group, Conan felt more tired than he had the day before, while dealing with the other three. "Practice makes perfect," he muttered to himself, slapping his cheeks in motivation before unwrapping the vine from the doorknob and taking a seat in the far corner of the room. Nobody would bother him during lunch, anyways, so he took the moment to pull out his cellphone and call up the only other divine beast whose number he had (although he undoubtedly had Kuroba's in there somewhere, considering who he was dealing with).

"Yo, Hattori, did you get the-"

"Tha heist notice? Yeah, the idjit only carved it inta the side a' my house. Took me a good five minutes ta come up with a reason fer dad why Kaitou KID felt the need ta caricature the roof." Hattori sighed and leaned against the metal slats that comprised the top of the house, idly molding the zinc under his fingers so that another portion of the burnt-on drawing slowly disappeared. "Ya think he sent Hakuba the message in a bottle a' water 'r somethin'?"

"Hakuba probably didn't get one," Conan's voice echoed out of the other end, even though he knew that they both knew that already. "I'm heading over to Ekoda after school; if Hakuba didn't get a notice, then the Task Force probably won't be able to decipher the note." Considering the fact that it was explicitly written for the Si Xiang, that much was a given. "Are you going to be there?"

"A' course. Whaddaya take me for, Kudo?" A few choice words were exchanged after that comment, alongside their usual witty banter, and the two hung up with a plan to meet with Nakamori-keibu after school. Now, if only they knew how to deal with the unruly thief they were plotting against...

Nakamori Ginzo was not having a good time when the two teenage detectives (or rather, the teenage detective and the child he was babysitting) walked into the conference room, each holding a piece of cardstock with the heist notice on it. It was bad enough that Hakuba's landlady - or whoever she was to him, he didn't really care - had insisted that he not be informed of the new heist notice, but it was also the hardest riddle to date.

"And you brats think you've got the answer?" Conan was used to the treatment from Nakamori-keibu, needless to say, even after however long he had managed to out-smart the thief, but Hattori wasn't quite the same way, and the younger detective had to keep the Osakan in line as he spoke.

"We do, actually." Conan set his card on the table, willing it to stay still despite its magnetic attraction to his hand. Hattori did the same, and they both took seats, unnerving Nakamori with Conan's intense calm and Hattori's sharp fire. "We've managed to figure out the time, location and heist target; the only problem is the requirements that KID has set up for the next heist."

He started by pointing out the obvious. "This heist note is in English, which means that obviously he's going to be hiding hints that aren't as obvious to non-English speakers or, in this case, readers. First, we have to take into account the code that he left in the directions given."

"North, south, east an' west," Hattori explained, taking over as Conan watched with sharp eyes. It was with unease that Nakamori noticed how in tandem they worked, almost seeming to have perfectly scripted the entire explanation even though the police (and hopefully the detectives) had only received the notice mere hours ago. "He refers ta the South as having fallen; coupled with tha fact that tha poem's in English, ya can decipher the meaning ta be th'American South-"

"-which is a reference in and of itself to civil war in general. There is a large displaying of blood diamonds - diamonds that were sold directly from mines to fuel government rebellions and civil wars - and the largest of which is the Red Trench, which would be the optimal target, all things considered."

"That's the target," Nakamori growled, irritated but begrudgingly accepting of their conclusion. "And the location, since the exhibit's being held at the Ekoda conference center. What about the time?"

"Sixty forty-four in the morning," was Hattori's immediate response. "He's based everythin' round the FALL at the end a' the riddle. If ya read the first letter of each line, it reads late. Tha 'late fall'- the fall a' the moon, AKA the sunrise. And on Saturday, tha sun's s'posed ta rise at six forty-four AM."

"But the location isn't the conference center," Conan interjected, surprising both Nakamori and Hattori - the fact that the latter was just as shocked gave Nakamori-keibu at least some smug satisfaction, at least he wasn't the only one thrown for a loop. "I've been trying to decipher the three lines from before - they can't just be placeholders for his acrostic. In fact..." The frown on his face deepened greatly, and he swore to himself, words that any other seven-year old shouldn't have acquired yet.

"No, the location is the conference center. I think he's planning on holding two heists at the exact same time."

"An' he doesn't want the British bastard goin' ta either one? What, has he gotten tired a' seein' Hakuba's face 'r somethin'?" Hattori was agitated, rightly so, for a whole slew of reasons. The first was the most obvious, the fact that Kaito had decided to hold two heists at once; either he was planning on having his accomplice disguise as him to pull it off, or he was going to use whatever powers he had to make it seem as though the thefts were simultaneous.

The second was the fact that Conan had flat-out refused to explain his reasoning behind his deductions, giving neither the details of the target gem and the location nor the clues that had led him to that conclusion. He hadn't even told Hattori, instead stalking out of the building muttering about stupid phantom thieves and idiot birdbrains.

At the moment, though, he simply ground his teeth and scowled at the street ahead of him. "I don't know why Hakuba wasn't invited, but I'm damn well going to-"

"Going to what?" Both Hattori and Conan spun around at the sound of the third voice, both surprised and not at all by its owner. "Pray tell why I had to personally visit Nakamori-keibu before anybody decided to bother telling me that KID was holding a heist. They didn't even let me see the riddle for myself, and then I receive word that it had been handled by you two." The disdain in Hakuba's voice was evident; they were encroaching on his territory, two teenage homicide detectives solving puzzles usually reserved for the Brit.

However, Conan determined, it wasn't time for Hakuba's piss-poor attitude, and it sure as hell wasn't time to stand around and make petty excuses. "KID doesn't want you at his heist," he muttered, making sure to emphasize heist - both a warning for Hakuba not to attend, and a sharp jab at Hattori to not mention the second heist. "And we both know that KID won't go to a heist where his terms and conditions have not been met."

"You...as to be expected of the KID killer." Your ego's growing past your body size. The second meaning was poorly hidden, and would have been in extremely poor taste if Conan knew that Hakuba was aware of his identity. As it was, though, he simply snorted and shot the blond the best deadpan he could muster at the moment. Anything else, your majesty? "Just be careful at your heist. I would hate to see one-" his gaze flickered to Hattori for the first time since the start of the conversation, a haughty gesture that didn't go unnoticed. "-or rather, both of you get humiliated beyond belief."

As Hakuba took his leave, Hattori scowled at his retreating figure. "He's gonna go ta the first heist, ain't he. Nothin' we c'n do ta stop him." His anger melted into interest, though, as he turned back to Conan. "'S that why ya refused ta explain ta Nakamori-keibu? Ya knew he would try ta bully his way inta the heist, so ya withheld information that mighta slipped."

"Nah," was Conan's simple response. "If that were the case, I wouldn't have told Nakamori-keibu about the second heist at all. I fully expect Hakuba to show up at both - and if not both, then the second for sure." He frowned. "I couldn't explain the notice, because it relies heavily on what we know about the divine beasts. It was tailored specifically for us."

Upon seeing Hattori's confused glance, he continued. "The great magician of flames and faith - obviously, he's talking about himself here, referring to the powers Suzaku has over fire and the bird's deification. That's basically all it is, a title for him to slap onto his name. A deed unanswered by the white dove...that one was a bit harder to decipher, but I managed to figure out that it was just a play-on words. White dove is redundant, however doves in Japan are just known as white pigeons - in Japanese, hato."

"Quite the bird fanatic," Hattori pointed out, at which Conan snorted.

"That's not the half of it. Hato, which also sounds like heart in the English that the heist notice was written in - that leaves an unanswered deed of the heart, or rather a confession. That by itself isn't enough to go on, but then the next part of the line says that the dove calls the metal prison of the just its home. A prison would be enough, but a metal prison, and one of the just. There are too many details in those two words."

"Metal's obviously a callout ta me," was the Osakan's reply, "since Byakko controls metal. But the just part...that makes no sense. Just as in, lawful? What's that s'posed ta mean? Just, lawful..." his brow furrowed slightly as he realized where his train of thought was leading him. "...the right side a' the law. He's equated just with right, and if ya take the double meanin', ya get a right metal prison."

"Mhm." Conan nodded slightly. "And coupled with the heavy influence on the cardinal directions, he's equating right with West. East, by default, then is left. His coupling South with falling, though, means South equals down while North equals up. A confession to the right, and a warning to never look down, or risk falling. What does that sound like?"

"The Satsuko Conglomeration buildin' that's directly ta the right of the Ekoda conference center, if ya were to be facin' North - 'cause obviously, he doesn't want us lookin' ta the South." However, something didn't sit well with the explanation. "Okay, so we got the location and the time a' the new heist, but you started on yer explanation with the confession, and we still dunno the target gem. It ain't like the Satsuko conglomeration keeps a bunch a' gems layin' round."

This time, the look the shrunken detective gave his friend was one of the proverbial canary-catching cat. "Yes, but the Satsuko family has a particular prison for all of its valuables - a vault on the very top floor. There was a murder in the building last year that the old drunk bastard was called in for, and I got to scope out the rest of the floor while the others were paying attention to the corpse. Apparently, they've managed to grab hold of one of the nine largest peridots in the world, and it's been kept a secret in that safe for years now. Unnamed, but still precious enough to be considered a big gem. Anyways, that's not the reason why I didn't want Nakamori-keibu finding out about the second heist. The gem isn't the only reason he wants us there."

There was a beat of silence, before Hattori's face went through a full range of emotions - confusion, realization, shock, smug satisfaction. "'Cause he's gonna be givin' us that confession ya were hintin' at, eh?" Conan nodded. "And considerin' there's only one other part a' the riddle ya haven't touched yet, I'd say he's searchin' fer somethin'. Izzat right?"

He only hummed lowly in response. "I guess that's for us to find out."

GA: That riddle was shit. I'm shit. I'm sorry that was an extremely bad chapter I'll try to finish up Part 2, but things happen.

'Til next time, I guess.

~G. Annihilator