Title: Semblance
Author: Kkwy
Rating: PG
Characters: Heiji Hattori, Shin'ichi Kudo, Ran Mouri, Kazuha Toyama
Pairings: none (yet)
Summary: Shin'ichi Kudo looked down at Heiji Hattori. "You look like an eight year old," he said finally.

"Idiot! I told you we should have left sooner. Look, it's already dark out."

Heiji Hattori, teen detective, pretended not to hear his friend's complaints as they navigated through the crowded amusement park.

"How was I supposed to know there'd be a car crash on the highway? Get real, Kazuha, this isn't my fault."

The pair of high schoolers was approaching the Mystery Coaster when a heavyset man in a black hat and trench coat shoved past them. Heiji watched silently as the man glanced back, and then ran into the alley created by two food stands. It was already dark out, and the man had been wearing sunglasses. You didn't have to be a detective to know that the man didn't want to be recognized.

"Don't you dare, Hattori!"

"What, I haven't done anything!" Heiji spun around to face Kazuha, and found her on the ground. "That little push didn't hurt you, did it?" Wearing all black at an amusement park? And the sunglasses were highly suspicious…

The Osakan girl began to turn red in anger. "We're here to have fun, don't you dare go off on a case now!"

Heiji scoffed. He was a detective! Not only that, he was the Great Detective of the West! It was his duty to investigate things like this. Kazuha would just have to learn to accept that.

"Sorry Kazuha." And with that, Heiji Hattori ran off in pursuit of the man in the black suit.

Heiji stood flat against the brick wall and strained his ears to hear what the suspects were saying. He had seen a black briefcase and glimpsed its contents. His suspicion had been confirmed. The man in black was involved in some kind of criminal transaction. Heiji was betting it was smuggled weapons or drugs.

The man in black was saying something, but Heiji was too far away to make out exactly what it was…

From behind him, Heiji heard footsteps on the damp grass. The Osakan youth turned around just in time to avoid the thick pipe aimed at his skull. If he hadn't been taking kendo for years, he wouldn't have been able to dodge the assault.

A commotion behind him alerted Heiji to the fact that the man in black had noticed him as well. It was unfortunate that Hattori allowed all of his attention to be taken up by his blond haired attacker. Otherwise, he might have been able to escape when the man in the black suit pinned him to the ground.

With what felt horribly like a gun muzzle on the back of his neck, Heiji couldn't move a muscle. Instead, he listened to his captors hurried argument. He didn't hear a third voice, maybe the other criminal had fled? As his mind began to wander, something small and rubbery was forced into his mouth. All rational thought fled his mind as Heiji struggled to free himself. A vial of a liquid he hoped was water emptied into his mouth, and someone held his nose closed. The reflex to swallow was unavoidable. A searing pain shot through Heiji's chest, and he didn't even notice the man in black and his partner in crime retreating into the night.

To Shin'ichi Kudo, high school detective, seeing a dead body and a crying murderer was not a shocking occurrence. In fact, it seemed to happen most weekends. That is not to say that it didn't bother him a little, but really, wasn't Ran overacting a bit? He wasn't heartless, just…disillusioned.

However, even having a detective for a father, the murder on the Mystery Coaster had shaken Ran Mouri.

As Shin'ichi watched his childhood friend wipe tears from her face, a strange noise caught his attention. Apart from the clamor of the park he heard the sound of a scuffle on grass. Shin'ichi turned his head in the direction of the sounds in time to see two shadowy figures saunter away from the area.

"I'll catch up with you later, Ran," Shin'ichi mentioned to his friend as he took off after the figures that he recognized, at a distance, as the two men from the Mystery Coaster.

Shin'ichi slowed his running and gazed around him. It was no use, the two men had been too far away to follow. He was about to turn back and salvage the night with Ran when someone's muffled scream reached his ears. The teen detective was on full alert as he did a quick search of the area.

There was a boy in the shadows to his right. He was curled up and clutching his chest, letting out whimpers of pain periodically.

Shin'ichi swore; heart attack? The boy looked about Shin'ichi's age, and a bit young for a heart attack. Maybe he had heart problems?

Shin'ichi rushed to the boy's side and reached for the cell phone in his pocket. An ambulance would be good, right now. He looked back at the victim as he dialed.

A sweaty hand grasped at his shirt and the cell phone dropped from his hand. The victim pulled Shin'ichi closer to him and tried to say something through ragged breaths. Shin'ichi was too shocked by what he saw before him to listen, however. Where a teenage boy had been a moment before, a small child now lay. Shin'ichi stared at the boy for some time, until a police siren distracted him.

By now, the boy had relaxed and had fallen unconscious. His breathing was even and his pulse was fine.

For reasons he wouldn't remember, but would later be infinitely grateful for, Shin'ichi declined taking the shrunken boy to the hospital, and instead picked the child up and began to walk home.