AN: With this, we've reached the tenth chapter of Powered! This is quite exciting, I'll be perfectly honest! Ten whole chapters! To celebrate, I'll be writing a special bonus chapter that'll be coming soon, that will serve as something of a flashback to a point earlier in the story, featuring something this chapter briefly brushes on. Look forward to it!

Powered

Chapter Ten

The Moon Sets in the West

"Who's a suspicious lookin' guy?" Glowering at the newcomer from underneath his hood, Heiji briefly couldn't help but wonder if Kudo had any idea that he had some kind of doppelganger running around. Upon further examination, it became apparent that this unknown teenager and Shinichi didn't look exactly alike- but they appeared similar enough to almost be a little too close for comfort.

"Who else would I be talking about other than you?" Folding his arms in front of his chest, Kaito cast a skeptical look towards the young man in front of him. There was only so much he could make out of his face with his hood raised the way it was- the fact that he was keeping it up when indoors was more than enough to be a little suspicious in his book. It only became all the more so after he'd gotten a phone call from Aoko's father asking him to meet up with Aoko at the new ice cream place by the station, a distinct note of considerable worry easy to make out in the Inspector's voice. "So, who are you supposed to be?"

"Geez, don't be so rude, Kaito!" Puffing out her cheeks, Aoko shot him a look. "He's not a suspicious person! He helped Aoko out, in fact! You should try being a bit nicer!"

"Is that so?" Blinking, Kaito frowned a little, glancing back towards the dark skinned young man sitting across from Aoko. It was true that Aoko might be a little bit naive at times, but she wasn't the type to be tricked by someone who actually meant her real harm, so if she was vouching for him, perhaps he'd been a little hasty. Even if he did get the strong feeling from this person that they were attempting to deliberately hide their face. "In that case, I apologize. If you really did help out Aoko, I should probably thank you."

Still looking somewhat annoyed, Heiji nevertheless decided to try and put it behind him. Jodie was right, he was pretty suspicious if one knew nothing about his situation "It's alright, forget about it. I take it ya know him?" He asked, eyes flickering back towards Aoko.

"Yes!" Nodding her head, Aoko looked over towards Kaito, sliding over in the booth and patting the seat next to her, inviting him to take it. After a moment's thought, he seemed to take her up on the offer, sliding into the booth next to her. "This Kuroba Kaito. He's Aoko's childhood friend!"

"And?" Kaito asked, taking a seat across from the hooded boy, quirking a brow. He couldn't help but still be a little suspicious of the guy, even if he doubted he had any bad intentions towards Aoko. She was friendly enough to make friends with people who might be more than a little trouble, after all. "Do you have a name yourself?"

Especially as he noted the way that the young man paused before answering him, his lips twisting in a slight frown. "Heiji." He told him after a moment of consideration. "My name's Heiji."

"Got a last name?" Kaito asked, locking eyes with him. Blue, he noted to himself, carefully studying his features in a manner he usually reserved for assessing the faces he was going to steal for a heist. If something did happen to Aoko, he wanted to memorize this guy's every feature.

Blue eyes with somewhat long eyelashes, dark skin, an Osakan accent. He looked somewhat around their own age, though it was possible he might be at least a little bit older than them- with his face partially obscured, it was hard to pinpoint his age exactly.

Taking a note of the way his eyes seemed to narrow from underneath his hood, Kaito couldn't help but feel more and more that his initial assessment of this guy might not be terribly off the mark. Finally, Heiji closed his eyes, deciding to give him an answer. "Takahara." He said simply, pulling the last name off of one of his other aliases. The fact that he'd unwittingly given his real first name out to the daughter of a police Inspector was bad enough, she didn't need his real last name too.

"And?" Kaito began, looking down towards Aoko, who was merrily making her way through the parfait she had bought for herself, briefly wondering where exactly she was putting all of that. "How did the two of you meet, exactly?"

"Aoko first met him the other day!" Aoko explained, pausing to wipe her mouth a little. As she thought, the ice cream at this place was great! "He didn't seem like he was doing very well, so Aoko called out to him. Ah, but speaking of that, Heiji-kun, are you really doing alright now? Back then you really didn't look all that great, so Aoko can't help but worry."

"Y-yeah." Slowly nodding his head, Heiji flashed her a small smile. "I'm fine, ya don't have ta worry about me, Aoko-han. It was just somethin' of a spell."

"If you say so..." Aoko frowned a little, before she quickly perked up. "But you did seem fine even after all that running, so maybe Aoko is just overthinking things."

"That's right." Heiji's grin growing somewhat, he gave a dismissive wave of his hand, all but brushing aside such concerns. "I'm as healthy as they come. Ya couldn't kill me if ya tried."

"What's this about running?" Kaito asked, almost feeling as if this suspicious frown of his was going to become a permanent part of his features from the way it hadn't left his face once in the past several minutes.

"Ah, well that's-" Aoko began, before being cut off by the sound of a cellphone ringing. The three occupants of the booth reached for their own phones in response, Aoko only stopping midway as she recalled that her own phone was broken at the moment.

"Ah, sorry, it's mine." Answering his phone, Heiji got to his feet, stepping a little bit away from the booth. "What's up?"

Watching him with a careful eye, Kaito couldn't miss the way that the young man seemed to start from whatever it was the person on the other end of the line had said. Being a thief had given him rather good ears, so even though Heiji had quickly dropped his voice to a whisper upon answering the phone, he could still somewhat make out what he was saying.

"What do ya mean, yer here? Ya could have still found a way to bring me that information less directly, right? Even if it is important." Half glowering into his phone, Heiji heaved a slight sigh, rubbing his forehead. "Alright, alright, I got it. If ya've already come this far, I'll come meet ya. Are ya certain nobody noticed ya doin' any of this? That guy ya work with seems pretty sharp, ya know."

Now that was a suspicious sounding conversation if Kaito had ever heard one. As Heiji hung up his phone, the magician quickly slipped on his poker face, acting as if he hadn't overheard anything strange.

"Sorry, that was a... friend of mine." Heiji said after a moment, quickly tucking his cellphone back away. "I have ta get goin', they turned up in town suddenly, so I have ta go meet them."

"Well, that can't be helped then." Aoko said, giving him a small frown. "Then, take care of yourself, Heiji-kun. And thank you for helping Aoko today! You really saved her!"

"Like I said, don't worry about it." Heiji told her, giving her a small smile, before casting a slight glower in Kaito's direction. He really didn't like that guy, he decided- though perhaps if they'd met under different circumstances, his impression of him might be entirely different. His gaze quickly flickered back to Aoko, however. "But don't forget what I said. Ya should probably have this guy accompany ya home. Be careful, Aoko-han."

Waving a hand, Heiji quickly made his way out of the ice cream shop. Kaito had half a mind to follow him- but he was honestly more concerned about what he'd said to Aoko, turning to look at her. "What did he mean by accompany you home, Aoko? Did you get into some kind of trouble."

"Ah, about that!" Aoko nodded her head, her eyes going wide. She hadn't exactly forgotten, but now that she was safe and sound, it was a little surreal to think back on what she had just experienced. "Someone was following Aoko today!"

"Following?" Realizing that he'd leaned in a bit closer to her than he had intended, Kaito slinked back somewhat, trying to quickly make up for the slip in his poker face. If his childhood friend had told him that someone had been following her, it was only natural that even he, the great Kaito Kid, would flinch more than just a little. "Who?"

"Aoko doesn't know." Aoko said, shaking her head. "But Aoko noticed that someone following behind her ever since the shopping street near her house. At first she thought it was you, Kaito, but those weren't footsteps at all! After she realized this, Aoko got really worried... and that's when Heiji-kun showed up and helped me get away from him!"

Narrowing his eyes a little at that explanation, Kaito couldn't help but find it somewhat strange. So some random guy that Aoko had only met once before had noticed someone seemed to be following her, and had decided to help her out? That would be nice if it were the truth, but something about it didn't add up. In the first place, how had he been able to notice that someone was following her anyways?

And he was pretty certain that 'Takahara' wasn't his real last name. The way he tried to his face bothered him too, as well as that suspicious sounding phone call. He didn't quite get the impression from him that he was a bad person, but he certainly seemed to be involved in something.

Either way, if it was true that Aoko was being followed by someone, that was more than a little worrisome. His first instinct was to think that it might be related to those guys somehow- the ones who periodically showed up at his heists to make trouble, the ones who had killed his father and were searching for the mysterious legendary stone, Pandora. But somehow he didn't feel as if that were quite right. Recalling the worried phone call he'd gotten from Inspector Nakamori telling him to meet him here in the first place, Kaito's mind then drifted to an early conversation he'd had with the Inspector- something about another hacking attempt on the database containing that list.

Was this related to that?

"If that's true, we should probably go to the police after you finish your parfait, Aoko." Kaito said after a moment, an expression on her face that was designed to keep her from starting to worry.

"But Aoko still needs to get her cellphone fixed." Aoko said after a moment, glancing down towards her purse. "Well, Aoko's worried too, though... Do you think it's because of dad's work?"

"It's not impossible." Kaito said after a moment, giving her a small nod. The last thing he wanted was for Aoko to panic. As long as they were around other people, they'd probably be fine- he'd keep a sharp ear and an even sharper eye out for anyone making any suspicious moves towards her. Like hell anyone was going to do anything to Aoko under his watch. Besides, if someone really had been following her, then it was probably a good idea if her cellphone actually worked. "Then, let's go to the station after you get your cellphone fixed. What's wrong with it anyways?"

"Ah, well about that..."

"Ah, Inspector Megure. I'm hoping this isn't a bad time."

At the sound of the voice on the other end of the line, Megure couldn't help but start. He had, after all, just been talking about the young man that it belonged to with Takagi only a short while ago. Glancing down at the file folder that was still placed on his desk, Megure suddenly realized he hadn't given the young man in question a response, and quickly cleared his throat.

"Ah, Kudo-kun, it's been awhile." Megure said, more than a little surprised by the timing of the call. Narrowing his eyes, he diverted his attention towards the other case files on his desk, photos of the four missing teenagers staring back at him. Given the timing, he couldn't help but wonder if it had some sort of connection to this case after all. "Why the sudden phone call? Has something come up?"

"You could say it's something like that." The Inspector of course had no way of knowing that the voice he heard on the other end of the phone was coming not from a high school student, but rather a child. On the other end of the line, Conan double checked his surroundings, making sure that he was well and truly alone, where nobody could overhear him. After checking out the warehouse, he'd spent more time scouring around Osaka, talking to people who had known Heiji when he had lived here, when a thought had struck in his mind.

"I need you to search for some case files for me, actually, if it's at all possible." Conan told him, suddenly finding himself very grateful for the ability that he had deemed useless before he had shrunken down into this childlike body. It was strange that he needed his own ability to use his own true voice, though.

"Certainly, Kudo-kun." Megure nodded his head. "You've helped us countless times in the past, so I would be more than happy to assist you now. What is that you need me to look up for you?"

"Any incidents involving John Does from the past six months or so." Conan, using Shinichi's voice, told him. "If you could work to pull any such reports from other Prefectures as well, that would be a huge help to me, Inspector. Especially if the John Doe in question is a young man."

"A young man?" Blinking, Megure gave a small frown. "I don't have any issues with that, Kudo-kun, but might I ask as to why? Are you searching for a missing person, perhaps?"

"Ah, yes, something like that." Conan told him. He didn't want to get the portly Inspector too deeply involved in this, but he didn't have any way of searching the police records himself at the moment. "If you could leave the files in question in the care of the Professor Agasa, I'll be able to come pick them up myself."

"With the Professor?" Megure asked, recalling the portly Professor in question. The old man had developed a habit of sometimes helping the police solve cases as well, come to think of it. Was it possible that Shinichi was working alongside him in regards to whatever case it was that had pulled him so far away from home? "That's fine by me, Kudo-kun. I'll see to it that any files matching that description find their way towards you."

"Thanks, Inspector! That's really a big help to me!" With a smile on his face, Conan was certain that Megure would follow through on his words, and that he'd find those case files waiting for him when he returned from Osaka on Monday morning. There was a distinct possibility that during his travels, Heiji might have shown up somewhere on the police record as some kind of John Doe- especially before he had joined up with Jodie and the FBI around a month ago.

It was worth checking out, at the very least.

Really, he had wanted to specify to the Inspector that he was specifically interested in cases that involved a corpse suddenly going missing, but he felt that might be getting a little bit too specific, and he didn't want to show his hand that easily. So he'd settle on a more general sweep of the police records- who knew, that might turn up something in it's own right.

"Ah, that's right, Kudo-kun," Megure began, glancing back down at the files in front of him. "Have you by any chance caught wind of the current matter?"

"Current matter?" Blinking, Conan couldn't help but frown, recognizing that grave tone in the Inspector's voice to mean nothing good. "No, I don't think I have. Could you be a bit more specific, Inspector Megure?"

"In our district alone, four teenagers have gone missing over the past three days. Ones right around your age, in fact." As he spoke, Megure's tone grew all the more serious still. "All four missing teenagers had tested positive for having the potential to develop abilities, and it's not just happening in our district as well. All told, at least sixteen-" The man paused, recalling the current count. "No, it's seventeen people now who have gone missing at the moment. Each and every one of them had their names on that list."

"The same list that two separate hacking attempts were made on this month. Something serious is going on here, Kudo-kun." Megure told him, his brows knitting together in deep thought. "If we don't do something about this soon, it's entirely possible that all of them could disappear."

Conan couldn't help but feel his blood run cold, his grip on his cellphone tightening. Swallowing a little, having to increase his focus to keep his voice from switching back to Conan's, he managed to keep a hold on Shinichi's voice. "What other Prefectures are reporting missing people?"

"In addition to our own, there's also reports coming out from Shizuoka, Nagano, Gunma, Kyoto, and Osaka." Megure told him. "At the current moment, I'm afraid that we have very little information to go on."

"Can you leave copies of the case files in question with the rest, Inspector?" Conan asked, trying to not let his tone betray him. He had a sneaking suspicion that he knew what was going on here, and it wasn't one that he liked. Suddenly he didn't like the idea of being in Osaka, so far away from his hometown, so far away from his home turf- and unable to see what it was that his fellow high school detective was doing. He had very little doubt that this information would have made it's way to Heiji by now, and he could only hope that he wasn't doing something foolish.

This smelled strongly of an attempt to draw him out- as well as something else. If Absinthe could reach her claws out all the way towards Russia, there was no doubt in Conan's mind that she could manage to kidnap teenagers living within Japan itself, even quite a large number of them. It was a bold move, and if the rest of the Organization wasn't paying attention to her actions before, there was no doubt they'd be wondering what she was up to now.

And that wasn't good.

"I'll do what I can to help." He finally finished, realizing that he'd left the Inspector hanging. "And Inspector?"

"What is it, Kudo-kun?" Megure asked, somewhat unnerved by the grave tone that the high school detective's voice carried with it.

"Be careful."

"Oh, if it isn't Kazuha-chan. What brings you to the station today? I had heard that you were entertaining some friends from out of town this weekend."

Somewhat taken by surprised by the tall woman who had suddenly called out to her new friend, Ran quickly realized that she had been gaping, and just as quickly shut her mouth. It wasn't ever day that she ran into a woman who towered over her as much as this one did- and even though she had a very friendly look on her face, she couldn't help but be more than just a little but intimidated. She must have been over six feet tall!

"Ah, Kurosawa-san!" Kazuha couldn't help but beam at the woman. Realizing that this was someone she obviously knew and trusted, Ran felt herself growing more at ease. "Actually, I was hoping to speak with my father. Is he in?"

"No, he's out on a case right now." The woman shook her head, giving her something of an apologetic look. "But I can pass something on to him if it's important."

"Actually, it's about this," Reaching into her purse, she pulled out the flyer, passing it over towards the woman. "We met the mother of this boy this afternoon, passing out flyers for her missing son. I wanted to ask if he could maybe find some time to look into it. I know he's a homicide officer, but..."

"I'll pass it on to him." Tucking the flyer away, the woman case a look towards Ran, giving her a curious look. "Who is this, by the way? The friend in question from earlier?"

"Ah, yes!" Nodding her head, Kazuha took a step back, placing a hand on Ran's shoulder. "This is my friend, Mouri Ran. Ran-chan, this is one of my father's subordinates, Kurosawa Ayame. She's a homicide detective."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Kurosawa-san." Bowing her head a little, Ran gave the tall woman a smile. Now that she got to talking to her a little, she really wasn't all that scary, and she couldn't help but feel a little bad about her first impression.

"It's a pleasure to meet you as well, Mouri-san." Ayame told her, brushing a stray black hair out of her face. She kept her hair short, cut off just past the ears, and had dark brown eyes that a slight spark of recognition seemed to pass through. "If I'm not mistaken, aren't you the girl from the news report awhile back? That Powered girl who stopped the runaway bus."

"Ah, yes." Nodding her head, Ran couldn't help but be a little more flustered that he reputation had spread all the way out here. "I am."

"That was amazing, you know!" Ayame told her, a bright smile on the woman's face as she spoke. "Not many people could just jump in like you did, even if they did have super strength. You should be proud of yourself."

"Ah, no, it was really nothing." Ran said, feeling her cheeks heat up as she spoke. "I didn't even really think all that much about it, honestly, my body just acted on it's own."

"That's all the more impressive, isn't it?" Ayame asked, but thankfully seemed to sense that she was flustering the much younger girl, and seemed to decide to change the topic, turning back towards Kazuha. "At any rate, Kazuha-chan, I'll pass the flyer on to your father when he comes back, so you should just enjoy showing your friend here around Osaka."

"Thank you, Kurosawa-san!" Beaming at her, Kazuha reached out to take Ran's hand. "Let's go, Ran-chan. There's still a few things that I want to show you, especially since you have to go back tomorrow!"

"Okay, Kazuha-chan!" Nodding her head, Ran briefly turned to look back at Ayame, giving her a small nod. "It was nice to meet you, Kurosawa-san."

More or less at her wit's end, Jodie Starling found herself taking a short break on a park bench, letting out a deep breath. She'd hurried back to her apartment only to find that Heiji was nowhere to be found. For a brief moment, she'd almost been worried that he might have jumped town, but judging from the fact that he'd left behind what few possessions he owned, she didn't think that was the case. Still, she couldn't help but be worried about him, especially because it seemed as if he'd switched his cellphone off.

Hattori Heiji was almost more trouble than he was worth sometimes, she couldn't help but think.

She knew full well that running around Beika in a panic wasn't going to do her any favors- if anything it might draw undue attention towards her, something that she didn't want. It wasn't as if she could ask people if they'd seen the Osakan detective either, for that very same reason. For all intents and purposes, the two of them needed to seem as unrelated to each other as they possibly could.

Really, she wished that she could allow him to live openly. He should have been living openly, back in his hometown of Osaka, rather than running around and spending his time hiding from the nefarious woman that wanted him, and the equally nefarious Organization that she belonged to. It was part of why she'd tried to convince him to join the Witness Protection Program in the first place- he would have to take on a new identity and leave his homeland behind him, but at the very least he could live freely the way he wanted when he got there. His English certainly was more than good enough to allow him to live in America without any issues, she thought.

She could only hope that at the end of all this, returning to a normal life was something that would be possible for him. It wasn't just the Organization who were interested in unlocking the secrets of immortality- she'd heard whispers of other groups operating within Japan who desired very much the same thing. If they managed to catch wind of the immortal teenager in question, they probably would stop at nothing to get their hands on him.

As would the world at large, Jodie grimly thought to herself, getting to her feet. He'd be deemed as a medical miracle, and in the same breath, he'd probably be viewed as something less than human by the same people. It would have been nothing new, really- although by and large society had come to accept the existence of the children known as the Powered, there were still those among them who thought that they needed to have tighter controls placed on them, who frowned at the idea of people with such abilities being able to live freely.

People like that disgusted her- and she knew that they disgusted Shuichi all the more so. He'd mentioned something once about having a little sister who had an ability of her own- although quite frankly, Jodie didn't know anything more beyond that. When it came to his private life, her coworker had always been incredibly secretive of it, keeping such things close to his vest. Perhaps it was simply in his nature. He'd had to leave them all behind in order to infiltrate them in the first place, as much as that had turned out to be a bust in the end.

But she supposed that she wasn't really one to talk, in the end. As much as she wanted to do everything in her power to protect him now, the first time they'd met, she'd been so startled by him that she'd accidentally shot him. In the end, it was something that the cheerful Osakan boy had managed to laugh off, treating it like it was no big deal. He couldn't really blame her, he'd said, anyone would have been surprised.

He had, after all, revived before his body had finished completely regenerating. Her first impression of him hadn't been that of a troublesome but cheerful high school detective, but rather something that wouldn't have been entirely out of place within a horror movie. It'd have probably gone over a lot worse if his response to being shot in the head, was to crack a joke about her likely being able to survive quite well in a zombie movie, now that she thought about it.

It was only then that the FBI agent realized that she wasn't dealing with some kind of monster, but rather a perfectly sensible human being- if not one who was capable of carrying out a conversation with her while having a bullet hole in his head. The fact that it was something he could actively joke about spoke in ways that he wouldn't that he'd already been through far worse.

Whoever it was from Nagano that he all but seemed to implicitly trust must have known his secret, and they must have had a considerably different reaction to it than her own, she couldn't help but think. It really was a testament to his trusting and honest nature that Heiji was able to trust her after that incident in the first place.

He was a good kid, she thought to herself- even if he could also be a tremendous pain in the ass at times. Like, for example, right now. Honestly, where had he gone?

"Well if it isn't Jodie-sensei!"

At the sound of the voice that called out to her, Jodie momentarily froze. Drawing in a breath, she prepared to face the person behind her with a bright smile on her face, not alluding to the fact that she had long since seen through their disguise. "Araide-sensei!" Calling out the name that she knew didn't actually belong to the person she was using it for, Jodie turned around, a look of pleasant surprise on her face. "Fancy running into you here! Did you come for a walk in the park?"

"It's a rather nice day out, I thought I would get some fresh air." The person posing as Tomoaki Araide gave her a smile, not betraying the fact that they'd long since determined the woman in question was an FBI agent. "What about yourself, Jodie-sensei?"

"I was on my way to run an errand, actually!" Jodie told him, keeping her bright smile on her face. "It is a very nice day out though, isn't it? But before long, I imagine it will become quite hot out!"

"It's best to enjoy this kind of weather while it lasts." Inclining his head, Araide didn't let the pleasant smile on their face slip. Running into Jodie had been a complete coincidence, but they'd never pass up a chance to fish for information. "Would you care for some company on your errand perhaps? I would be more than happy to carry any bags that you might have, sensei."

"Ah, no, that's quite fine!" Shaking her head, Jodie carefully assessed the person in front of her, hiding it behind a mask of pleasantries. There was no way that she could allow them to go anywhere near her apartment, after all. "But thank you kindly for your offer, Araide-sensei."

"Oh no, it's no trouble at all." Shaking his head, Araide assessed that he was about to overstay his welcome here, and decided it was best to make an exit for the time being. "Well in that case, I won't hold you up any longer. I'll see you at school on Monday, I suppose."

"Yes, I'll see you then." Nodding her head, Jodie watched as the man made his way into the park. She half wanted to watch him until he had completely vanished, but she knew that doing so would only arouse his suspicions, so she forced herself to turn on her heel and head down the street, relying on her instincts to tell her that she wasn't being followed. Thankfully, that didn't seem to be the case.

Breathing slightly easier once she realized this, Jodie felt her shoulders slump. She always found herself growing slightly tense when that woman was around, however skilled she was in masking this. It was to be expected, perhaps.

But they wouldn't fail to catch her this time. Whatever new troubles Absinthe was determined to bring with her to this investigation, Jodie had vowed not to lose sight of her original goal, one that had her leaving behind her own homeland in pursuit of- to see to it that Vermouth would face the justice that she so rightly deserved.

Finding the hotel that his contact had indicated hadn't been very difficult. As Heiji made his way into Beika Hotel, having already gotten the room number ahead of time, he made his way straight to the elevator. Still grumbling to himself about the fact that they had come out all this way in person, he had to begrudgingly admit that they did have a point- it wasn't as if he had a permanent address that they could send things to. After all, it wasn't like he could ask them to send things like documents to Jodie's apartment- but he still would have preferred going to meet them as opposed to them coming here to meet him.

Ducking into an elevator, Heiji made his way up to the eighth floor, carefully keeping tabs on his surroundings to make sure that nobody was watching him. Nobody had stepped off the elevator with him, which was good, he thought to himself as he made his way towards the room where he was supposed to meet that person.

Knocking on the door, Heiji stepped back slightly, tucking his hands into his pockets. Hearing the sound of a lock opening up, he glanced around again, making sure that the hallway was still empty. When the door swung open, and the person within invited him inside, he finally let out a breath, pulling down his hood.

"Geez, ya really didn't have ta come out all this way." Grumbling to himself, Heiji made his way further into the hotel room, looking around it. Making himself at home in the only chair, he spun it around so that he was looking up towards them, giving the person a small smile in spite of his words. "Well, I guess I am glad ta see ya after all this time. How are things back in Nagano, Torada-han?"

"I've told you before, Hattori-kun, it's Uehara now." The woman in front of him told him, the hint of a smile in her face betraying the note of frustration in her voice. "You were still there when I went back to my maiden name, so I'm not sure why it's so had for you to remember."

"Ah, sorry, sorry." Rubbing the back of his head, Heiji gave her a sheepish look. "So, how are things back in Nagano, Uehara-han? Are ya sure that partner of yers didn't notice anythin' when ya left? That guy's really no pushover." He noted, recalling the several close calls he'd nearly had back in Nagano all because of that one guy.

"Kan-chan didn't notice anything. I told him I was coming to Beika to meet up with a friend of mine from college." Yui told him simply. "Well, that's not entirely a lie, after all. I did arrange a meeting with her, since it's been awhile. But I really am glad to see you still in one piece, Hattori-kun. After I heard about that explosion in Gunma, I couldn't help but be worried."

"Ya don't have ta worry about me." Flashing her a wide grin, Heiji pushed the chair back a bit. "I won't die even if ya kill me, ya know that much. Anyways, what was it that was so important that ya had ta come give me yerself? Ya already told me all about the kidnapped potential Powered, I don't think there's anythin' about that that ya can't discuss with me over the phone."

A serious look crossed Yui's face then, as she quickly pulled out her suitcase from underneath the bed, removing a single, slim folder from it, which she then passed over towards him. "For the moment we're keeping this matter tightly under wraps, so getting a copy of this wasn't easy. Someone spotted her."

Instantly realizing who 'her' was, Heiji opened up the folder in his hands. "When?" He asked, glancing down at the photograph in question. The person in question obviously wasn't the main focus of the picture itself- in fact she could only just barely be made out in the background of the image.

A young girl his own age with dark brown curls, being escorted into a vehicle with tinted windows. Without a doubt, she was the missing Saint of Russia.

And close behind her was a woman that Heiji recognized all too well, traces of the burn scar that took up half her face peeking out from underneath her hair.

Absinthe.

"Three days ago." Yui reported. "The photograph was taken in a small town in the Nagano Prefecture. Someone happened to be there taking a photo shoot by coincidence, and noticed it when they were developing the film. Luckily they came to the police with it right away, and we were able to obtain both the photograph itself and all negatives. We've also convinced them to keep their silence on this issue."

"I can give you the address of the location the photograph was taken, but I'd advise you to wait a little bit before you go check it out yourself, Hattori-kun. We're still in the middle of investigating it ourselves." Yui told him, giving him a small smile. "Kan-chan's right in the middle of it. Really though, I don't see why you don't want to trust him. I've known Kan-chan since childhood after all, he would be a good ally to have at your back."

"Even if ya say that..." Heiji frowned a little, rubbing the back of his neck. "He's got a face that's hard ta trust."

"Well, I can't really argue with that." Yui noted, letting out a small chuckle, before a far more stern expression crossed her face. "But I'm giving you this information in good faith, Hattori-kun. Please don't rush off and get yourself captured like you did last time."

Grimacing a little as she brought that up, Heiji got to his feet, taking the photo from the folder and carefully tucking it away inside of his hoodie. "I got it, ya don't have ta lecture me. I'm in no hurry ta get captured again either, once was more than enough. Is there anythin' else?"

"No, that's all we know at the current moment." Yui told him frankly, shaking her head. "If we learn anything else, I'll contact you again. Do be careful out there."

"I should say the same thing ta you all the more so." Heiji told her as he pulled his hood back up. "Honestly. Fer someone who can't die, I sure have an awful lot of people worried about me. Do I really seem that reckless?"

"Yes." Her reply was instant and direct, leaving no room for an argument. "I'm giving you fair warning, Hattori-kun. If I lose contact with you again, I'm going to go straight to Kan-chan and tell him everything, and the two of us will find you again."

"Well, in that case, if I do get captured again, I'll be countin' on ya." Heiji flashed her a grin, half grateful that his hood was already pulled up. Honestly, as much as he liked to insist that he would have found a way to escape from that place even without the FBI getting themselves involved, he honestly didn't know where he would be right now if they hadn't. It was entirely possible that he might still be in that place, and with nobody who knew where he was, in that place he might have remained for a long, long time.

So needless to say, he really had no intention of getting captured again.

"Well then, Uehara-han. Enjoy yer visit with yer friend." Giving the woman a mock salute, Heiji made his way out of her hotel room, briefly checking to make sure there was nobody in the hallway as he left. Suddenly he was itching for Kudo to come back from Osaka already- he had a feeling that this was something that the shrunken detective would very much be interested in investigating with him.

The press conference playing on the television in the background did not do much to distract Vermouth from the phone call. As she half listened to one of the superintendents of the Tokyo MPD explain the current situation to a flurry of reporters, she devoted most of her attention still to the voice of the man on the other end of the line.

Honestly, she didn't expect her provocation of Absinthe to result in something like this. But that woman had always been bold, she supposed. Really, she should have expected something like this to happen- especially if her half held hunch were really true.

"This is too bold, even for her." The man on the other end of the line argued, and she couldn't help but raise a slight brow at the annoyance in his tone. "Even if she's not leaving any clues behind, this is quickly turning into a media circus."

"She said she was doing some very important research." Vermouth said simply. "So important that I could only scratch the surface of what she was up to when I infiltrated her lab's computer systems. But I learned enough to know that she's dealing with something very interesting, and something that's quite related to the Organization as a whole."

"And that's why you called me." The man on the other end of the line said. "Very well, Vermouth. I'll head over that way. It's in our vested interest that she doesn't draw in more attention than she already has without us even having an idea of what she's researching."

"As reliable as always." Vermouth observed, blowing smoke out of her cigarette, choosing not to mention that she had a very good idea of what it was indeed that the woman was researching. "I'm counting on you." reaching out to put out her cigarette, Vermouth rose to her feet, striding over towards the television, switching it off. "I'm looking forward to hearing good results," She began, a hint of an amused smile dancing on her lips.

"Bourbon."