AN: Hello all! This one's based off a tumblr prompt, and it's pretty much what it says on the tin. I'll definitely be coming back to this idea at some point in the near future, so look forward to that! I really wanna give a thank you to everyone on the detco discord server that I'm on for helping me bounce around ideas- I've got a whole bunch, so as promised earlier, look forward to more sometime!
In Reverse
One
"So? Where is he?"
Mouri Ran was not the type to easily be intimidated- it took much more than the admittedly rather intense glower of an unknown stranger to leave her with any feeling of danger. What was the issue, however, was the fact that she completely hadn't expected to be confronted with such a thing today. She'd been hoping for a pleasant outing with a new friend- not a confrontation with a young man speaking with a rather thick Kansai dialect.
"Where is who?" Ran blinked, instinctively moving her arms so that she brought Conan a bit closer to herself. He squirmed at it, but he'd thank her later if this got out of hand. "You're going to have to be a little more specific than that."
"What do ya mean, who? Yer with him, aren't ya?" Leaning back, the young man cast a skeptical look down towards her, one brow shooting up. "Kudo, I mean, that Kudo guy! Who else would I be talkin' about?"
"Kudo?" For a moment, Ran found herself briefly dumbfounded, as much as she knew exactly who he meant. It was everything else that was thoroughly confounding her- namely who this person was, what his problem with Shinichi was, and why he thought he'd be here with them to begin with. "If you're asking about Shinichi, he's not here."
"So that's the bastard's first name?" Folding his arms in front of his chest, the young man didn't appear satisfied by her answer. "There's no way that guy's not here! Not with the way Kazuha was goin' on about meetin' him here today, ta show him around Osaka, he's not. And if he's the type ta ditch her..."
"Who's the type ta ditch me?"
Judging from the way the young man nearly jumped out of his skin the moment he heard her voice, it was clear that he was fully aware he wasn't supposed to be here right now. Slowly turning around, coming face to face with a rather impressive glare on the girl's face, a hand strayed up behind his head, nervously scratching it.
"What, Kazuha, ya came back faster than I thought!" For a moment, it seemed as if all of his anger had been taken out of him in one swift, fell swoop- before it bubbled back to the surface again. "More importantly, where's this guy ya keep talkin' about lately? This Kudo bastard that ya won't shut up about? Ya said he was comin', didn't ya?"
"Idiot, I didn't say that." Letting out a long sigh, Toyama Kazuha shoved past him, her gaze flickering over towards him as she took the seat she had left next to Ran. "I said I was goin' ta show Ran-chan an' her family around Osaka today, that's all. Ya went an' decided on yer own that Kudo was goin' ta be there!"
"Well, ya said it yerself, didn't ya?" Heiji asked, still not looking satisfied with this. "That he's close with this Neechan over here. I thought fer sure if she as comin', he'd be comin' along too."
"Like I said, ya just went an' decided that on yer own!" Kazuha repeated, narrowing her eyes, before she heaved a long sigh, turning back to her guests. "An' yer botherin' Ran-chan an' everyone, so why don't ya apologize already?"
With a sour look still on his face, the young man turned his gaze back towards the trio of guests that Kazuha had been showing around Osaka today. He'd quickly ruled out the old man as being 'Kudo', since he'd seen the mustached geezer's face in papers lately, and he knew there was no way it could be the shrimp sitting in the girl's lap. For a moment, he'd briefly considered it could have been the girl herself- but she sounded a bit more like this Ran person that Kazuha had mentioned once or twice, rather than this mysterious Kudo.
Perhaps it was inevitable that Kazuha would be smitten with another high school detective- but he just didn't like that idea! Sure, she was free to be interested in whoever she wanted, but while she might be a genius at solving mysteries, she was really too trusting! What was he going to do if she fell for some kind of scum bag without realizing it?
As her childhood friend, he definitely couldn't allow that.
Still, well... he guessed she had a point. If that Kudo guy really wasn't here, there was no reason he should continue acting like this. Besides, there was a kid here- he might not be good with them, but even he knew you weren't supposed to blow your top around a kid.
Letting his sour expression dissipate, a grin surfaced on his face. "Then, sorry about that, I guess. I thought fer sure that... well, I guess it doesn't matter much now what I thought. I'm Hattori Heiji, by the way. I'm this idiot's childhood friend, regrettably."
"Hah? That should be my line!" Kazuha shot back, the slight tension that had been in her shoulders washing out now that the situation had been defused. Honestly, when she had heard Heiji's voice demanding that they bring out Kudo, for a moment, she thought that the gig was up.
Thankfully, she was wrong, and it was just a misunderstanding on his part- or well... mostly, it was. Kudo wasn't here with them- but that wasn't really true, either, she thought, her gaze briefly falling down towards Conan, who was watching her with slightly narrowed eyes. Okay, perhaps she had been speaking of him a bit too freely- but she didn't think it would have blown up into such a big situation.
Honestly, leave it to Heiji to try and confront the person that she had been speaking so favorably about. If she didn't know any better, it was almost like he was jealous.
"Childhood friends, is it?" Her voice now taking an interested tone, Ran perked up right away at this information. "That's just like Shinichi and me, then."
"That's right, Heiji!" Fixing her gaze back up at him, motioning with one hand for him to sit down already, since it didn't look like he had any plans to leave any time soon, Kazuha felt a hint of a smile cross her face. "Kudo-kun is Ran-chan's boyfriend!"
"N-no, it's not like that!" Turning a bright shade of crimson, Ran quickly denied that claim, barely taking notice of the fact that Conan's cheeks had turned a matching color. Honestly, saying such a thing in front of her father!
"She says they're not." Heiji noted, taking the seat next to Kazuha, his gaze briefly flickering down towards the kid that Ran had sat in her lap. Weird kid... he could understand Ran's reason, but why was he so red too?
"That's cause Ran-chan's just shy!" Kazuha told him, her tone rather matter of fact. "More importantly, Heiji, don't tell me that ya've followin' us all this time? How did ya even manage ta keep up with us?"
"Asked Otaki-han fer a favor." Heiji said simply.
"Excuse me for asking, but..." Piping up only now that he was one hundred percent sure the situation was safe, Kogoro couldn't help but frown. "By Hattori, is there you chance that you're related to Osaka's chief of police?"
That had evidently been a mistake, as Kogoro found himself subject to even a more intense glare than the one the young man had been wearing just before. "He's my old man. Why ya askin'?"
"Ah, no..." Trailing off fore a moment, Kogoro cleared his throat, choosing perhaps wisely to drop the entire conversation there.
Sensing that there was a need to once more defuse the situation, Ran decided that she ought to ask the thing that had been on her mind ever since she had first heard Heiji say Kazuha's name. "By the way, is there any chance the two of you are going out? You should have told me before if you had a boyfriend, Kazuha-chan!"
For a moment, the expression shared between the two childhood friends was exactly the same- a rather dumbfounded one at that, as if such a notion had never once crossed their minds. That was odd... she had been almost certain that Heiji's actions had been born out of jealousy, but maybe she had been wrong?
"No, no, it's nothin' like that!" Kazuha said, waving her hand with a laugh. "Heiji an' I are just childhood friends, like I said earlier. If anythin', I'm like his older sister, always watchin' over him ta make sure he stays out of trouble."
"I don't wanna hear the person who noses her way into murder cases tell me that." Heiji pointed out, quirking a brow. "If there's anyone who needs ta stay out of trouble, it's you. It's me who should be insistin' that ya keep that charm on ya, not the other way around."
"Yer the only one of us who forgets it." Kazuha shot back. "Did ya even properly bring it with ya?"
"Charm?" Ran couldn't help but interrupt, her curiosity piqued.
With a blink, Kazuha turned back towards Ran, reaching into her shirt as she did so to produce a charm. "Yeah, see? I made them when Heiji an' I were in middle school, an' they've been bringing the two of us good luck ever since then. Or well," her gaze flickering back towards Heiji, "...comparatively speakin'."
"Shut up." Grumbling a little at her words, if only because he knew she had a point, Heiji reached into his shirt, pulling out his own charm just to prove to her it was there. "Fer someone who usually goes on an' on about how this sort of thing is fake, I can't believe that ya put so much faith in them."
"I don't want ta hear that from someone who thinks that sorta stuff is real." Kazuha retorted. "It's just a comfort, a comfort."
"Comfort ya say." Quirking a brow, Heiji almost looked as if he wanted to say something else for a moment- before he changed his mind. "Well, whatever. Now that I'm here, I might as well stick around. Unless ya got some kinda problem with me comin' with ya, Kazuha."
Sensing that there was something going untold, a slight frown crossed Kazuha's face- before she decided that here wasn't the place. She knew that look in Heiji's eyes, though it had been brief- though she didn't fully believe in it herself, the least she could do was ask him about it later.
"No, no problem. As long as ya behave yerself, Heiji."
"What are ya talkin' about, Kazuha? I'm always on my best behavior!"
When the body fell from a roof on the front end of the police car that Kazuha had borrowed for their tour of Osaka, Heiji felt something seize within his chest. Were the conditions not wrong, he would have stopped Kazuha from racing up the stairs entirely, and could only breathe a sigh of relief when the figure on the roof turned out to be largely unrelated to the crime.
She noticed, of course she had. She'd known him forever, she knew what the warning signs were. It came as very little surprise to him that the second they had a free moment, she was confronting him about it.
"So? Are ya gonna tell me what it was about?"
The demand was direct and straightforward- leaving no room for him to deny anything. She knew him too damn well for that, knowing that if she gave him an inch, he'd slip through it, avoiding the conversation entirely. He didn't like talking about them- if he talked about them, it almost felt as if they would come true.
But well, seeing as that guy hadn't actually turned up, maybe it wouldn't help to tell her a little bit about it.
Letting out a long sigh, letting a protest about her having an investigation to deal with die on his lips, Heiji glanced down at her. "Fine, fine, ya got me. I had one this morning."
"I guessed that much from the bags underneath yer eyes." Kazuha noted, placing her hands on her hips. "I was askin' what it was about, not if ya had one, Heiji."
"I was gettin' ta that." Heiji snapped, before letting out another sigh. Reaching a hand behind his neck, he nervously rubbed it, averting his gaze somewhat from hers. "It was about... that guy ya know, that Kudo bastard ya keep talkin' about. He went with ya on some kind of case, an' got himself killed."
"Eh? Kudo-kun did?" Kazuha blinked, a look of alarm crossing her face. "Are ya sure, Heiji? Ya've never even met the guy."
"Yeah, I know, that's why it pisses me off- that I had ta be woken up at two in the morning cause of him." Heiji pointed out, quirking a brow. "What are ya lookin' so freaked out fer anyways? Guy's not even here, so I'm probably wrong this time."
"A-ah, yeah, you're right." Kazuha said, nodding her head, trying to school her expression into one of composure. If she slipped up here, there was a chance that he might be able to figure it out. Still, she couldn't help but worry- for Heiji to have a dream like that...
It was true that she didn't put much stock into this sort of thing, but Heiji's dreams had been right before. She couldn't help but be a little nervous now that she had heard that Shinichi was involved with one of them- how was she even going to convince him to be careful? She didn't think he was the type to listen to this sort of thing...
Well, maybe if she just passed it off as worry from a friend, then...
"Oi, Kazuha, ya there?" Heiji asked, his words breaking her out of her thoughts. "Sakata-han's callin' ya. Somethin' about a link between the two victims."
"Ah, right!" Quickly nodding her head, Kazuha put a smile on her face. Well, as long as she kept an eye on him, probably nothing would happen. There was no way that she was going to allow something to happen to him, not while he was here in her hometown! "Then, Heiji, I'll talk ta ya later, okay?"
"Yeah, later." With a curt nod of his head, Heiji tucked his hands into his pockets, watching Kazuha go with a frown. Maybe with just much, the future that he had seen might be averted- and at the very least, this time, Kazuha would be in familiar territory, in the company of police officers that she knew well. As long as she was with them, then...
Then he wouldn't have to worry about seeing her pale, lifeless face appear in reality.
"So? Why did she take that kid with her?"
"Conan-kun, you mean?" Ran asked, glancing up towards Heiji. "I don't really know, but Kazuha-chan seems to get along with him really well. They're a bit like siblings."
"Well, Kazuha always has been good with kids." Heiji remarked. "What, that kid want ta be a detective himself or somethin' like that?"
"Yeah, something like that." Ran told him. "Back home, he's a member of a group called the Detective Boys. They go around and solve cases together."
"The Detective Boys, huh?" Letting out a slight laugh, one that almost sounded vaguely bitter, Heiji forced a smile onto his face. He didn't have it in him to begrudge a kid's dream, after all. "Shouldn't ya be more worried about him? They're chasin' after a guy who has killed four people now."
"I'm sure it'll be alright." Ran told him, swallowing her own worries. Of course she was concerned, but she didn't think it was right to burden someone who she had just met with her own worries. "Kazuha-chan is with him, right? Sakata-san too. I'm sure neither of them would allow anything to happen to him."
"I guess that's true." Heiji admitted, shrugging his shoulders. "Kazuha's amazin' when it comes ta aikido. Ya seen it before?"
"No, not yet." Ran told him, shaking her head, almost relieved that this conversation was going easier than the one that from earlier. When it came down to it, it seemed as if this Hattori Heiji was a rather friendly, the type that was easy to get along with. "She's told me about it though. What about you, Hattori-kun? Do you practice it as well?"
"No." Shaking his head, a broad grin flashed on Heiji's face. "What I practice is kendo. Ya should come down an' see one of my tournaments sometime, Neechan! I can promise that ya won't be disappointed!"
"Then, I'll think about it sometime." Ran told him. "Don't you worry about her though? Kazuha-chan, I mean."
"Of course I worry about that idiot!" Heiji told her frankly. Especially now. "But she can handle herself fer the most part. What about ya, though? From the sound of it, yer pretty close with that Kudo guy Kazuha keeps talkin' about."
"Of course I worry about him!" Ran told him. "Especially now that he's off on some case, and won't even tell me what it is that he's up to. But at the very least, I can promise you that Shinichi isn't someone that you need to worry about doing something bad with Kazuha-chan, Hattori-kun."
"Really?" It was clear from his voice that he was thoroughly unconvinced of this, if that much wasn't obvious from his expression already. "I'll decide that fer myself once I finally get ta meet the guy."
When he'd acted as if he was begging to stay with Kazuha, he'd expected that his fellow high school detective would lend him a hand. Her reaction, suffice to say, did not live up to his expectations.
"Now, now, it's okay!" With a bright smile on her face, Kazuha knelt down in front of him, earning them a little bit of privacy as she did so. "This is Osaka, after all! I know this place like the back of my hand, an' you an' Ran-chan are my guests here. I can't exactly drag ya into this anymore than I already have!"
"But-!" Conan tried to protest, not liking this development one bit. There was no way he wasn't seeing this case through to the end, damnit!
"But nothin'!" Kazuha insisted, her gaze, for a moment, flickering back towards Heiji. Now that it looked like they were closing in on an answer, it would be the safest if Conan went back with the others, and left the rest of the case to her. She did feel a little bad about it, but...
The last thing she wanted was to see him get hurt.
But even if she tried to chase him away, she knew the guy well enough to know that he would just come right back, the first chance that he got. He was stubborn that way- though she supposed he really wasn't one to talk. With that in mind, Kazuha let out a long sigh, her shoulders slumping.
"Yer just gonna come right back first chance ya get, aren't ya?" Kazuha asked frankly, her expression not even shifting as Conan eagerly nodded his head. "Fine, fine. In that case, at the very least, you can take this with ya."
"Take what-?" Conan opened his mouth to ask, quickly shutting it as her actions revealed the answer. Watching as she removed her charm from around her neck, he could only blink as she looped it around his own, carefully tucking it into his hoodie. "Your lucky charm?"
"That's right." Kazuha said, nodding her head. "But don't get me wrong, Kudo-kun. I'm only just lendin' it ta ya! Ya had better make sure ya give it back ta me once this case is over an' done with, okay?"
Slowly nodding his head, sensing that this was a matter he shouldn't press, Conan merely placed a hand over where it had been hidden. There was a strange feeling from it when he pressed his hand against it- was there something in there? It felt a bit like a link of chain, though he didn't understand why such a thing would be there.
"Well then!" Standing up straight before Conan could ask her anymore questions, Kazuha scooped him up, carefully passing him over towards Ran. "Here ya go, Ran-chan! Why don't ya take them back ta yer place, Heiji? Yer mom's makin' one of her specialities tonight, isn't she?"
"Ya sound like it's easy ta feed three extra people on short notice." Letting out a long sigh, Heiji cast a glance over towards the kid, briefly wondering what he had been doing with Kazuha just then. "Well fine, I guess. I'll give her a head's up that we're goin' ta be havin' company tonight. I guess she won't mind that much."
"That's the spirit!" With a bright smile on her face, Kazuha turned back towards Conan, an apologetic look written into it. He was obviously mad at her- not that she could blame him! "Then, I'll see ya later tonight, Conan-kun! Make sure yer mom saves some fer me too, Heiji!"
He was going to maintain his current opinion on the kid named Edogawa Conan- he was weird. No matter how curious they were, most kids wouldn't slip out of the car to follow after a police officer when they knew that there was a chance that a dangerous criminal might be lurking somewhere within the woods.
Most children, he decided, were not Edogawa Conan.
"So does he do this kinda thing often too?" His gaze flickering over towards Ran, Heiji vaguely wished he had the forethought to bring an umbrella with him today. Quite frankly, he'd rather stay in the car- not that he was afraid of the murderer, of course. He was willing to bet that he could take him, push come to shove.
He'd just rather not be out in this downpour, if anything.
"From time to time." Ran admitted, giving him something of an apologetic smile. He seemed a bit grumpy- though she guessed it was understandable. She didn't much care for when her day was interrupted by a murder case either, much less a serial murder case. She was going to guess that as the childhood friend of a high school detective, Heiji very often had to put up with the same thing.
Though, she supposed she really couldn't blame Shinichi for all of the cases that she got mixed up in anymore- he'd never turned back up after that murder case at that diplomat's house. He had called once or twice since then, but she hadn't actually seen him in person since then.
Come to think of it, back then was the first time that she had met Kazuha. She had been surprised, when a pretty girl she didn't know had come to the detective agency, asking where she could find the high school detective, Kudo Shinichi. For a moment, she couldn't help but recall the other time it had happened- but thankfully, she hadn't allowed those jealous feelings to take hold of her this go around.
After all, the first time had turned out to be nothing, so she probably didn't have anything to worry about. It turned out she was right too- Kazuha had never actually met Shinichi before, but had merely decided to look into his disappearance, after noticing that he hadn't been in the papers as often lately. She was a bit glad now- she had been able to make friends with the girl, and now she hoped that she could expand her slowly growing network of friends to include Heiji.
Though he really needed to stop saying such things about Shinichi, if this was really going to work out. That said, she suspected she had an idea as to why he was saying them. He might have denied it himself, but...
"Yeah, that sure looks like a place a serial murderer would hide out in." Heiji noticed, quirking a brow as he glanced up towards the old cabin before them. It looked as if nobody had used it for years, but based on the sound of Otaki's voice that he could just make out from the outside, they had probably found their man.
Good, now they could go. He was starting to get a bit hungry himself now.
"Geez!" From the sound of it, that Neechan had found the kid too. As expected, she might try and sound understanding, but in truth, his behavior clearly bothered her. "How many times have I told you not to bother the policemen's work?"
Well, that was that, he guessed. Turning on his heel, Heiji paused for a moment, making out the faint sound of something clattering on the floor, a sound that was followed by a very loud shout.
"Move it!"
It happened in a near blur- the first thing he knew, that serial murderer was pointing the hidden knife towards that Ran girl, and the next, that boy had thrown herself in front of her. Almost certain that he had just witnessed the murder of a small child, Heiji pivoted on his heel, grabbing a nearby stick, knocking the knife out of the man's hands, allowing Otaki to restrain him again.
"Oi, Neechan, is that kid okay-?!" Dropping the makeshift weapon, now broken, Heiji paused mid-sentence, blinking as he watched the child who he was certain had just been stabbed, sit up with a groan. For someone who had just had his little body pierced by steel, he looked to be doing remarkably well.
He couldn't say that he wasn't happy for it- the hell kind of person would enjoy seeing a child killed in from of them? It was what he pulled out from underneath his clothes that caused Heiji's blood to run cold, instantly recognizing it as an object that shouldn't be in his possession. Mentally, his thoughts flashed back towards Kazuha's strange actions when they had parted ways, remembering the way that she had been doing something with the kid at the time.
Had she given him her charm? Why? Sure, it saved his life, but that meant...
No, no, even without it, she would be fine. After all, Sakata was still with her, not to mention the other police officers who had gathered at that guy's place. There was no reason to think that...
Why did that kid have that kind of expression on his face now anyways? All he was doing was looking at a photograph, and yet he was acting as if it was more terrifying a thought than almost being stabbed. Tilting his head, wondering what he was looking at, Heiji's lips twisted in a frown, only able to see it as an old driving school photo for a moment.
If there was one thing that bothered him... didn't that old guy look an awful lot like Sakata?
She'd been shot.
For a moment, Heiji felt as if his entire world had dropped out from underneath him. Thankfully, the officer on the other end of the line was quick to supply that she had only been shot in the leg, and that she was already on her way to the hospital, and would likely recover.
Still, it could have gone much worse than that. What was she thinking, trying to wrest control of the gun from him like that? He could understand that she didn't want him to kill himself- he'd known Sakata for a number of years now himself, and serial murderer or not, he couldn't say that he wanted the guy to die. But still, putting herself into danger like that...
Well, not that he couldn't claim that he wouldn't do something that reckless himself. That didn't mean he couldn't mad at her about it, though.
Especially without her lucky charm... honestly, sometimes he didn't understand what that girl was thinking. The other person that he had seen in his dream had been Kudo Shinichi- so why had she given it to that weird glasses wearing kid? Well, even that had turned out alright, but still...
"Heiji, ya listenin'?" Kazuha's voice snapping him out of his thoughts, Heiji glanced up, knowing that the expression on his face give away the fact that he hadn't been right away. She didn't even need deductive reasoning for that one.
"Ya weren't, were ya?" Kazuha asked, narrowing her eyes. "Yer still sulkin', aren't ya?"
"Idiot, I'm not sulkin'!" Heiji protested, even though he knew full well he was. "After all that fussin' ya do about me not leavin' behind my charm, ya go an' give it away ta someone else. Honestly, yer an incredible woman, an' I'm not sure I mean that in a good way."
"I'll take it as a compliment regardless." Kazuha said lightly. He was as angry as he looked, she knew that much- he was just covering for how worried he was about her with it. For someone who was usually straight-forward, he played it awfully close to the vest with these sorts of things. "But isn't it a good thing that I did? Because of that, Conan-kun didn't get hurt."
"Well, I'll give ya that." Heiji noted with a shrug, leaning back in his chair. "But it's weird... I thought fer sure the one in my dream was that Kudo guy. So why did that kid get stabbed instead?" Rubbing the back of his neck, his frown deepened. "It's almost like he's that guy's replacement or somethin'."
"W-well, does it really matter?" Kazuha nervously asked. "More importantly, Heiji, what happened ta that apple ya were peelin' fer me? What's a girl gotta do ta get some service around here?"
"I don't see why ya can't peel it yerself." Heiji muttered, picking the apple back up. "Ya hurt yer leg, not yer dang hands."
"Just shut up an' peel, idiot."