ShIROI Mi is back! The ART of disguise. To fully enjoy this you need to imagine the scenes~

Here goes:

"Hmm. So guys with liquour in their names…" hakuba muttered in response to something Hattori had just explained.

The two of them were in the corner of a room. Hattori was recounting the major events to keep Hakuba updated.

Meanwhile, in the opposite end of the room, Kaito was giving Shinichi his very first lesson in disguise.

"It is very important. You MUST do it." kaito insisted.

Conan gave him a half-disbelieving and half-insulted look.

"Yes. It is of VITAL IMPORTANCE!" Kaito stressed. "that we work out all of facial muscles appropriately so that we can pull off any expression and faces when needed to!"

Well, it wasn't that Shinichi couldn't see the logic in that but to be expected to laugh and very loudly and uncontrollably at nothing very funny is outright weird and disconcerting.

Kaito sighed.

"You see. You are always frowning, if not doing this… this… or this…" Kaito said as he pulled of the Kudo's face exaggerated. "You hardly ever work your smiling muscles! You MUST!"

Shinichi gave a sigh. Kaito was dead serious about this. Well at least maybe he could try to give a big smile….

"Just pull you cheek muscles outwards and upwards. And let air through your mouth. It is very easy! Come on tantei-kun!" Kaito continued saying, getting exasperated.

He didn't expect getting tantei-kun to so difficult to handle. Isn't laughing a natural human expression? His father had always told him to begin his disguise lessons by stretching muscles and laughing.

Seeing's Kaito's continued insistence at this small little thing, Shinichi gave it a try. He pulled back his cheek muscle as far back as he could and closed his eyes in the process.

Upon seeing that, Kaito was beyond shock. He was flattered that tantei-kun was trying so hard for his sake but… THAT would definitely in no dictionary be defined as a LAUGH or much less a SMILE! It was positively in every aspect a GRIMACE!

After Shinichi did that, he turned to look expectantly at Kaito for some form of comment on his efforts. Kaito sincerely didn't know what to say without sounding to harsh.

"arh…" He began, looking uncomfortably into tantei-kun's eyes. "That… is a good attempt." He said weakly. "You need to relax your jaw line a bit more and relax your lower cheek muscle so that when you pull back your higher cheek muscles, it will curve up more."

Kaito did a demonstration. He gave Shinichi a perfect smile. Teeth shown, mouth opened, perfectly symmetrical and brilliantly shining.

"Why not you give it one more try?" Kaito said gently.

"Hmph. Fine" came the response as Shinichi pulled, yet another, grimace. Kaito gave a resigned sigh.

"Ok that will do for now. Please practice your smile and laugh some times in front of the mirror." Kaito said. Maybe turning to another practice would be better and more suited for tantei-kun.

"So let's move on to exercising the various facial muscles besides the most commonly cheek muscles. In disguise, you need to be able to pull off the various expressions that the person you are imitating often do, including their own slight variations. Even if it is just a smile, there are many many many variations and everyone do each variation differently. That's why the master of disguise observes very keenly and notes this little changes. I'm sure you can do that without a problem but the problem is in how you translate what you see onto you own face.

To be able to do that, you need to be able to have individual control of each muscle group on your face." Kaito explained.

"Well, let me give you a demonstration. Mouri Ran. You are familiar with right?"

Shinichi gave a nod.

"her smile is caressing and free, open, with nothing to hide. Like this." Kaito gave a smile that belonged more to Ran's face than his. Shinichi could see the distinct resemblance. When Ran smiled, he always noted the slight tilt of her head and the sincere feel of it, just as the smile on Kaito's face now.

"and compare to Suzuki Sonoko's smile. Hers is a tad more uptight and a little on the more self-assured and self-confident side." Kaito smiled again. This time, it had the feel of a rich, well-to-do gentleman.

"Of course, since I may not in full make-up. You might note slight differences in the feel of the smile. But you get the principles right?" kaito asked.

Shinichi gave a nod. The smiles, the same muscle groups but so totally different. He was very amazed.

Kaito gave his Kuroba smile (not the KID grin) at his eager and keen student.

"So to be able to do these, you need to be able to control your muscle groups well. So let us start exercising them now." Kaito said.

"look into the mirror and try to copy me." He instructed. Both of them turned to face a mirror.

Kaito pulled a face. His forehead squashed together towards the center, his nose winkled with tension and his mouth squeezed towards the center to form an expression much like a person pulling an angry face.

Shinichi tried to follow. But it turned out to look more constipated than angry, totally unnatural.

Every few seconds, kaito would change his expression and Shinichi would try as much as he could to follow. The result was a bizarre series of weird faces.

This caught the attention of the other two.

"What on earth as they doing?" Hattori said with a frown as he watched the two almost look-alike brothers pulling strange faces into the mirror.

"weren't Kaito saying about disguise or something?" Hakuba said as he turned around to look at them as well. It was quite bizarre and strange, unsettling even.

"Well, it looks more like a freak show!" hattori said.

Hakuba pushed his glasses up a bit. "Truth to be told, I can't dispute with that comment."

The two laughed softly together. Then turning back almost simultaneously, they continued their discussion about the black organization and the current progress of the alliance.

After an hour of torture to both Kaito and Shinichi, the two were exhausted and they decided to stop the lesson there and then. Shinichi was exhausted because he was pulling muscles that his had never never felt the need to use them before and kaito exhausted from teaching.

He had expected things to go unexpectedly or something but he never expected tantei-kun to be so… so… he couldn't even find a word to describe it!

Kaito thought back to the time he watched Shinichi shift easily from Conan to Shinichi and to the reserve, playing the role that was expected of him but when asked to do so on command seem to just too far out of the league for tantei-kun. Well, things will get better as they go along. Kaito consoled himself and he too, took a deep seat into the sofa, liking the cushion of the sofa embrace his tired body.

"Oh you guys are done?" Hattori commented as the two of them both slouched into the sofa, heads tilting back to rest on the sofa backing.

"Yeah more or less. How's the talk?" Kaito was the one who spoke.

"Oh we completed long ago. Hakuba's just checking out some information about those guys." Hattori replied.

"Information?" Shinichi sat up, eyes opened with hope.

"No tat much, you're thinkin'. Just some bits here and thare" Hattori said.

"Not as much as I hoped Kudo-kun. Well, it's just that Interpol's database is pretty big and without knowing exactly what we are searching for, it is like finding a needle in the haysack." Hakuba explained. "we have a list of possible files that might be related to them but it will take time to examine them. If your search citeria is just black, organization, the pool of information is kind of very big."

"Oh… I guess that's to be expected. We need more defining characteristics." Shinichi said, as his closed his eyes again and leaned back to rest his head.

"Well, it's still something." kaito added in the followed silence. "And just out of curiosity, Hakuba what did Hattori-kun tell you about me? I have to make sure that truths are not being twisted." Kaito said with a grin.

"Well. I think Hattori said it quite reasonably. You met Kudo during a magic show right? Somewhere in Osaka which is why Hattori was there. By the way, I never knew you performed magic show professionally. Back to the topic, you got sniped by some guy. A guy from the organization that you guys are after and kudo and Hattori saved you." Hakuba recounted calmly. "Well at that part, I'm sure Hattori-kun here added just a bit of melodrama about blood and the way he carried you like a potato sack and stuff, but I get the gist of it." Hakuba said.

"Oh…. Ok." Kaito replied tentatively. He eyed Hattori who gave him a smile back. Hattori had not told Hakuba of his identity yet.

"it is more of your story to tell, if you wish." Hattori's eyes said.

'Thanks' Kaito eyed back

"Did I miss something?" Hakuba asked, noting the lack of response and the strange silence that he felt. It seemed as if an unspoken conversation had happened without him inside.

"No. That's about right. Although I must insist, that it was Kudo-kun here who saved me." Kaito stressed, giving them a grin.

And the meeting then broke up and the four males left the Hakase house their own ways. Hakuba walked out of the front door which he had came in. Hattori snuck out the back. Shinichi led Kaito through the secret pathway from Hakase's that lead into the basement of the Kudo mansion while he himself left through the front door of hakase's after Hakuba as Conan.

Next chapter is an unexpected peak, one that I really love: A night visit.

HAKUBA vs KID =3

Shiroi Mi