In retrospect, Hakuba mused, that was not one of his wiser moves. He made a mental note for the future to avoid the Kaitou Kid around glowing rocks. Yes, strange unusual glowy things were bad.

Beneath him, the Kid tensed, his head coming up and glancing around. "St-"

::POOF!:: Kid vanished in a cloud of pale pink smoke, Hakuba hitting the rough stone ground as the Kid's body disappeared.

"Teme!!" He shouted after the escaping thief. The bastard. "Get back here!!"

Too late, the Kid was well and truly gone. "Kuso." He grumbled, rising to his feet and dusting himself off. Well, crap. The motion brought the other inhabitants of the room to his attention, a giant suit of armour and a short boy dressed in red and black. "Gomen nasai." He apologized in Japanese. "Did you see which way he went?"

Gold eyes looked at him warily as the owner shifted to a fighting crouch. The man in armour looked at him as well, eyes glowing at him from the depths of the helmet. Not Japanese then. He switched over to English. "I apologize for the interruption."

No recognition. "Je vous demande pardon." He apologized in French.

He was trying to remember if he knew any Italian or Russian that might help him with the smaller boy spoke up. "Wo kommen Sie?"

It took a moment for his brain to catch up and translate. 'Where did you come from?' Hakuba relaxed slightly. "Sprechen Sie Deutsch?"

The boy blinked. "Ja."

They spoke German. Which was good and bad. He knew the language, but it had been quite a while since he had used it on a frequent bases. "Ich heiße Hakuba." He belatedly remembered to switch his name around when introducing himself, family name second instead of first, like in Japan. "Saguru Hakuba."

They had communication.

+++ Edward +++

Okay... now they were making some sort of progress. Ed relaxed marginally. He wasn't about to rule out the idea that they were dealing with Homunculi, not with the other figure having disappeared in a cloud of smoke like that, but Saguru at least didn't quite feel like one. And they'd yet to run into a Homunculus that had blond hair for some reason...

"Edward Elric." He introduced himself, rising out of his fighting crouch. "This is my younger brother, Alphonse."

Al waved from his sprawled position on the ground, looking much like someone who had just eaten too much and had passed out. "Nice to meet you." Al said politely.

Saguru bowed slightly in response. "The pleasure is mine." Ed resisted the urge to roll his eyes. If Saguru turned out to be as polite as Al, they were never going to be able to get anywhere, each trying to motion the other to go through a door first.

"I apologize for my speaking." Saguru's forehead wrinkled, clearly searching for the correct words. "I am afraid I'm rusty with this language."

"Where did you come from?" Ed repeated. There was something odd about the eyes... the golden colour reminded him of Al's, from when they were children, but the shape of the eyelid was just a bit off.

"Ekoda." The word sounded strange, the vowels pronounced differently. "Nippon, known as Japan."

"Japan?" He exchanged looks with Al. Al shook his head marginally. He'd never heard of it either.

"Ano... I've also lived in Britain for a great many years." Saguru continued, clearly reading their expressions. "London, to be precise."

Ed shook his head again. Saguru's face fell into a thoughtful frown. "Where are we?" He finally asked.

"We're currently in a cave." Al supplied helpfully.

"Thank you, Al." Ed grumbled. "We're..." He trailed off, his brain catching up as he scoured the area, realising his hands were empty. "The Stone! Where did the stone go!?"

"The Kaitou Kid probably still has it." Saguru sighed, adopting a long-suffering tone. "He was holding it when we..." A hand waved circles in the air, a silent fumbling for 'tumbling through the portal and crashing into the hard ground.'

"Kitty Kid?" Ed growled. The boy in white who had disappeared. He was going to hang him from a very tall object then squish him to death. He lost the stone! How could he have be so stupid?!

"Kaitou." Saguru corrected, backing up a step. "A thief. But if he has it, he'll probably return it to you shortly."

"A thief who returns what he steals?" Alphonse echoed, slowly getting to his feet, swaying a bit. "How interesting. Has he ever been caught?"

"No." Saguru shrugged. Ed almost spared him a snicker. Obviously a sore point. But they had sealed up the walls behind them when they entered the room to prevent anyone from following them or preventing them from getting the stone, so there was a limited number of places someone could hide in the room.

Like nowhere. All he could see aside from the fairly smooth walls were himself, his brother and the strange Saguru.

There was still that 'poof' thing, a new kind of magic perhaps? Teleportation ability?

"Then I'm sorry to break his record..." Alphonse opened up his chest cavity and pulled out a startled looking lanky teenager in white clothing by the collar, like a magician pulling a rabbit out of his hat. "But I think you should come out now before my brother gets really mad."