AN: Oh hey, it's the tenth chapter! Double digits! I've been a little out of it lately, writing wise, so if anyone is wondering why fic updates in general are coming out at a somewhat slower pace, that's why. I actually had to revise this chapter a few times before I came out with something that I was content with. Still, I want to thank everyone for reading, and remind you to leave a review on your way out, if you can! Until next time!
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Chapter Ten
Lucid Dreaming
"I don't mind looking it up for you, but if you don't mind me asking, what exactly does the FBI need with shipping information from fifteen years ago?"
"I'm afraid that I can't go into any detail." Giving the woman behind the reception desk a rather polite smile, Jodie Starling nevertheless made sure to pick a tone that impressed upon her that any further digging for information would not be appreciated. "Only that it's very important to our current investigation that we find this information out, and as soon as possible. Is there a problem?"
"Ah, no." Slowly shaking her head, the woman flashed her an apologetic smile, clearly wary of getting on the wrong page with someone involved with the FBI. Hurriedly typing in the information that Jodie had brought from her, taken from the label on the envelope that Makino Suzume's research data had been contained within, the receptionist carefully scanned the database. It had been easy enough to find the postal office that the package had been sent from- thankfully enough, it hadn't changed locations in the ensuing fifteen years. Still, it was a bit of a long shot to assume that they might still have records of who might have brought such a package in fifteen years ago, but it was a long shot worth looking into.
Sometimes when you gambled, you won.
And as someone who still had access to certain important things- like an FBI badge, something they might need to get the information they were looking for, Jodie had been the one that Shuichi ended up asking to do this leg of the investigation. She didn't mind much- especially when he brought up the chance that perhaps there was more of a link than they had first suspected between Kawaguchi Souma and the Organization. While the FBI had long since suspected that the so-called accident hadn't actually been an accident, they had lacked definitive proof, something which she now realized that the Osakan police had been working to keep from them. Given the reasons behind the cover up, it wasn't as if she could entirely blame them. Even she wasn't sure what those working with the Bureau back then would have done if they had learned that one of the clones created in that lab had survived, or what would have come of it.
So far, she hadn't passed on any information about this to her boss just yet- although she felt that James would be fairly understanding. A fair amount of time had passed since the explosion, and whatever circumstances he might have come from, there was no denying that there currently was a human being by the name of Hattori Heiji living in this world- even though he might have been created by unconventional means. Even if she had only really met him once, she was having a hard time truly wrapping her head around that detail.
Still, at the very least, she could understand a bit more why the Organization would have been interested in Kawaguchi Souma. And why they had to be careful to not raise any flags within them while trying to investigate his current whereabouts. Shuichi seemed fairly convinced that he was still alive, and Jodie wasn't about to argue with his instincts. Someone like that wasn't the type to die that easily, after all.
If he was really still out there somewhere, there was no doubt that the Organization would commence looking for him at once if they were to learn there was a chance that he had survived.
"Ah, here we are. It would seem we do have some records of that package still." Halting her fingers mid-type, the woman carefully read the information over, before she turned the monitor around to show Jodie. "Fifteen years ago, in late July of that year, a woman by the name of Makino Suzume came into the postal office, and asked us to hold onto a package for her, and that if she didn't come back for it in a month, that we were to send it off to the address on the label. It was a bit of an odd request, but we apparently nevertheless accepted it. Since she never did come back for the package, it appears that we did deliver it to it's intended recipient, one Makino Fujioka."
"So the sender was Makino Suzume herself?" Jodie blinked, a slight frown crossing her face. They had been underneath the impression that she had trusted someone to send it out for her at a set point in time. If she had been the one to bring it to the post officer herself, that left no one to question about the matter- she doubted she would have gone to much into detail to a random postal worker. "Was there anything else? Perhaps any information about the person who handled the package?"
"I'm afraid not." The woman apologized again, shaking her head, turning her monitor back around. "It was fifteen years ago, after all. Did the package never show up?"
"No, it did." Jodie told her, shaking her head. "By any chance, has there been anyone else who came to perhaps ask about this matter?"
"Mm, I wouldn't think so." The woman mused, placing a finger against her chin. "I can ask around the postal office to find out if there was anyone, but I haven't heard of any requests being made before this one."
"Please do. I'll give you my number." Jodie told her, carefully jotting down her number on a scrap of paper, passing it over to the woman, who accepted it, tucking it away in her pocket. "If you learn anything else about the matter, please give me a call. And in the event anyone else comes asking about this package, please refrain from telling them anything, and contact me."
"Is this package really that important?" The woman behind the counter blinked, a slight frown crossing her face. "Ah, sorry. You probably can't tell me that, right?"
"I'm afraid not." Jodie said, flashing her an apologetic smile of her own. "Well then, thank you for your assistance, miss. Please have a good day."
With that said, Jodie made her way out of the post office, waiting until she got back into her car to pull out her cellphone, quickly dialing Shuichi's number- or rather, the number of the phone that belonged to his current alias. Tapping her finger on the steering wheel as it rang, Jodie let out a slight breath when it was picked up, a voice that she knew was being produced by Shuichi's voice changer coming across on the other end of the line.
"It was Makino Suzume herself who requested that the package be delivered, a month before the explosion, Shu." Skipping the prelude, Jodie dove right into the information she had gotten, leaning on her steering wheel. "She had them hold onto the package for a month, and told them to send it to the specified address on the label if she didn't come to claim it before the month was over. Naturally, she never did."
"I see." The voice that she knew belonged to that of his alias, Okiya Subaru, came across loud and clear on the other end of the line. Frankly, she just couldn't get used to it. "So in other words, there's a high chance that Makino-san might have been aware that something might happen at the lab soon. For that reason, she wanted to ensure that her research data was safe."
"It's not impossible." Jodie noted, a slight frown crossing her features, her brows knitting together. "But honestly, my instincts are telling me something a bit different, Shu. I don't doubt your theory that the Organization might have had some relation to the explosion, but I can't help but feel that Makino-san might have had an unrelated reason for sending her research data to her father."
"Oh?" Subaru asked, and she swore she could almost hear the arch of his brows over the phone. "Let's hear it then, Jodie. I'm rather curious to hear your take on things."
"This is a woman who gave her own life for the clone that she was creating." Jodie observed, leaning back in her seat, closing her eyes, trying to picture the situation that the woman must have been. "Given the notebook that you found with her research data, I can't help but wonder if she was planning to escape with the clone. The fact that she had been researching something like a stabilizing agent in the first place might be a hint to that. Given what I've read about Kawaguchi Souma, I don't think he would be particularly concerned if a bunch of prototype clones lived or died, so long as he got what he needed from him. The fact that there's a high chance he might have trapped the researchers and clones in the burning lab himself is evidence enough of that."
"That certainly does make a fair amount of sense." Subaru noted with a slight frown. "It's not impossible that Kawaguchi-san caught wind of her plan, and rigged the explosion himself in order to prevent that from happening." However, there was something about that theory that didn't quite sit right with him either- even if the odds were low, and even if the Osakan police had gone to lengths to cover up the existence of a survivor, the fact that one of the bodies found hadn't burned to death wasn't exactly unknown. If he had been monitoring the situation after the explosion, he would have surely taken notice of the sudden appearance of a young boy that had suddenly appeared in the family of the first responding officer- one that matched the description of one of the clones that he had created exactly.
The fact that he for the large part seemed to be unaware of the existence of Hattori Heiji, in spite of fact that he eventually came to receive media attention of his own, felt out of place in regards to that theory. Given how similar they looked, it wouldn't have been that hard for someone that brilliant to draw the same conclusion that others had- that the boy was a surviving clone from that experiment. From what he understood of the man in question, he wasn't under the impression that he wouldn't take an interest in this, and rather directly at that.
"There's still the presence of the one unidentified adult body found at the scene. Since it seems we're under the impression that it wasn't Kawaguchi Souma himself, that brings up the question of who exactly it was, and why they couldn't identify him." Jodie noted. "You didn't hear anything about anyone being sent out to look into his research during your time infiltrating the Organization, did you?"
"I only heard that the Organization had an interest in him." Subaru told her, digging through his memories to recall the exact words. It had been something that he had heard mentioned offhand, and not something he was ever able to get any further details about. Since the researcher had been assumed long dead at the time, he hadn't thought about it much back then. "But I don't know how far they might have got into recruiting him. At the very least, he doesn't give off the impression of being a man who would work underneath someone else's orders."
"It certainly not impossible that he rigged the accident to destroy both his research, and the one sent to recruit him, in other words." Jodie said. "And probably used that as a chance to escape from the Organization's eyes. Considering that the Bureau from back then was searching for him during those ten years before the accident, and didn't find a trace of him until then, he's probably quite skilled at hiding himself. Since they seemed to be under the impression that he was dead while you were with them, it's possible that he managed to fool them just as well as he did us."
"I suppose the only one aside from Kawaguchi-san himself who might know anything would be Hattori-kun himself." Jodie observed. "But from the sound of it, I doubt he remembers anything from that time, otherwise this search would be a lot easier. It's probably better to not dig up memories better left forgotten, anyways." With a slight pause, she tapped a finger against her steering wheel in thought, something tugging at her own thoughts. "But still, Shu, wouldn't the Organization have realized that one of their own had been killed? If he really did rig the explosion in part to kill whoever it was that was sent to try and recruit him, they would have realized that much. That would explain why the police couldn't identify the body, if he was really member of their number, but still... I don't think the Organization would be fooled into thinking Kawaguchi-san was dead that easily, especially if their man never returned."
"It's possible that rather than being a member of the Organization, the unidentified corpse belonged to a body double." Subaru observed. "Considering it was too badly burned to be identified, even with the DNA sample provided by his younger sister, it's not that unlikely. Someone involved in the business of creating human clones had to be getting research funding from somewhere- if it wasn't the Organization, it's possible he had his hands in with other criminal elements, or at the very least, some rather unscrupulous investors. They probably would have easily been able to secure someone that nobody would notice going missing to take his place."
"There's any number of wealthy people with very few morals who would be interested in what he was offering. Not to mention an endless array of mafia bosses and crime lords on top of that. There's probably even government officials who would have been keen to support his work in secret." Jodie observed. "A way to live forever, in the form of transferring your memories to a clone made in your likeness. It sounds like something straight of science fiction, really. But at the very least, we can't deny that he did manage to create clones, even if the only one that survived is now having to endure his body breaking down."
That much had been confirmed for them by none other than Edogawa Conan- and in the back of her mind, Jodie couldn't help but wonder how much the person in question knew about the situation himself. Perhaps it would be better if Heiji were kept in the dark for the rest of his life- it was the sort of thing one was better off not knowing.
"For the time being, try following the money, Jodie. You're better equipped to deal with that sort of investigation now than I am, I'm afraid." Subaru advised her. "If you're able to uncover where it was he was getting his funding from, you might be able to discover a lead."
"That's a rather tall order." Jodie observed, even as she started up her car, feeling the engine hum. "But I'll see what I can do, Shu. What are you going to do?"
"There's something that I've been wanting to check out." Subaru noted. "For the past few days, Amuro Tooru has been taking time off from his post at Cafe Poirot. Ever since the morning after Hattori-kun collapsed. I'm afraid that there's a chance that this might not be a coincidence."
"If that's the case, we can only hope he's looking into the matter for the Public Security Bureau, and not for the Organization." Jodie said grimly, narrowing her eyes. "Even if it's for the former, there's a chance that he still might try and get in our way, given his grudge against the FBI. Be careful, Shu. If he learns who you really are, he won't let you go easily."
"I don't intend to allow him." Subaru told her simply. "But I must say, you seem pretty invested in this matter yourself, Jodie. You've only met the boy once yourself, haven't you?"
"I'm not really a fan of watching children die." Jodie said simply. "Besides, we owe that Cool Kid quite a bit, you and I. I don't intend to let him down in his hour of need."
He knew this place.
He always got that feeling whenever it appeared in his dreams- and he was, in fact, dreaming, he had enough awareness to realize that much. It was no different than any of the other dreams he had been seeing lately, if not more vivid, more clear, than the others. It felt as if he were in a long, long dream, really- he couldn't help but wonder how much time had passed since he had fallen asleep again. The last thing he could remember was the doctors trying to get his nosebleed under control, and after that, he couldn't really recall anything else. As much as he had tried to keep himself from falling asleep in the middle of the crisis, in the end, he couldn't resist it's siren's call, letting it lull him back into it's less than peaceful embrace.
He knew it was a dream, not just for the hazy, dreamlike quality to it, but also because a dream was the only thing that would make any sense. If it was a dream, then the fact that it felt as if he knew this place he had never been to in his life would make perfect sense. If it was a dream, the fact that he couldn't understand anything anyone was saying, words that he felt should have been in plain Japanese coming out as nothing more than garbled nonsense, would make perfect sense.
If this were a dream, then it surely would go a long way to explain the man who not only shared his face, but his voice as well. He couldn't make out the words, or rather, he couldn't understand the meaning of them, but at the very least, he recognized the sound of his own voice, if not one that had been altered a bit with age, and was slightly shifted due to the rather monotone quality that it had. It would explain the blank expression on a face that was so much like his own, if not one that was a bit older, an expression he was pretty sure that he himself wasn't capable of making. If this were a dream, it would also go a long way to explain the matching blank expressions on the faces of the children whose features mirrored those of his own at that age far too closely for his own comfort.
He didn't know where he was, but he knew this place. The scenery felt as if it had been etched into the far reaches of his memory, as if it were a scene that he had seen countless of times upon opening his eyes, to the point where even as it faded from what he could recall easily, it never really disappeared from his mind. Even without the garbled sounds of their words, the voices of the people outside were muted in a strange way that she couldn't place, the sounds muted in the same manner. Perhaps that too, was just because this was a dream- but it felt too familiar, as if it were something that he had once experienced long ago.
He didn't know who any of these people were- not even the man who looked too much like him, nor the children who looked too much like them both. Not even the bright face who smiled at him, whose garbled words carried with them a warmth that he could recognize, even though he couldn't understand a thing that she said. It almost felt as if she were the only one with any light in her eyes- everyone around him looked on him as if he were something to observe and study, a cold, clinical expression in them. Even in the middle of his dream, it kind of pissed him off. And yet, in spite of not knowing who they were, he still felt as if he knew them- as if these were people- especially the man who looked too much like him, and the cheerful woman, that he had cause to know.
Even though it didn't really make any sense.
Come to think of it though, he felt as if this weren't the first time something like this had happened. There had surely been other times when he had seen this same scenery in his dreams before- when his head was clouded with a fever, or even further back, when he was much younger than this. He felt as if he had seen dreams similar to this countless times when he was a child. Whenever he had spoken about them to his parents, his father had gotten such a strange look on his face, that he had stopped bringing them up.
Somewhere, in the back of his mind, even in the middle of the dream, he could faintly make out the conversation that he had with his father before he had fallen asleep again- that the two of them weren't related at all. Somewhere, in the back of his mind, he could make out the strange look that had crossed Kudo's face when he had brought up his dreams, the way that there were too many things going on that nobody was telling him. Such thoughts were faint and vague, twisting in and out of his consciousness, just as the strange, almost nostalgic dreamlike images did, never staying for too long, never really giving him any time to fully understand them.
In the end, all that they left him was a lasting sense of strangeness, and the knowledge that he knew this place. Just as he felt like he was beginning to understand them, they would fade away from him again, replaced with other images. Some of them he understood better, even if they made just about as much sense as anything else he was seeing- there were people that he knew he knew in them, and not just in a vague, uncertain sense. His father and mother, Kazuha and her parents- people that he knew, though younger than they were now.
Fond images, if not strange. Perhaps it was because a dream, that none of them made sense- he didn't remember anything like this at all, after all, no matter how much of a memory like edge they seemed to have to them. Among the garbled nonsense that came out from their lips, there was one word, over and over, that he got the feeling that he knew more than the others. It was only near the end of his long, long dream that he slowly began to understand that was probably his own name- a word not spoken by the man who looked too much like him, nor the cheerful woman- although in hushed nonsense, gaze darting around as if she was worried someone would hear her, there too, seemed to be a name on her lips, one that he could not understand.
It was when he heard his own name, the one that he knew so well, loud and clear, past all the nonsense, that he realized that the dream was drawing to an end. As if he were using the voice that he knew as a thread, he slowly felt himself stirring, leaving the strange dream, and the strange yet familiar images that it brought with them, behind. Opening his eyes onto a world that was almost brighter than he would have liked, the very first thing his eyes focused on were a field of green- a lush, vibrant color, that he watched relief spread through, a hint of tears which he recognized were not those of sorrow.
"Heiji!"
It was only thanks to her lips pressed against his own, that he realized he was no longer wearing an oxygen mask over his face- he seemed to dimly recall something like that. As he slowly began to shake off the vestiges of what felt like a rather long nap, as he slowly began to understand what was going on around him, his brain slowly kicking into gear, he felt his cheeks slowly begin to heat up, turning bright red as what was going on here dawned on him.
When she drew away from him, almost as if she didn't want to stop being so close, her face was equally a bright shade of red, even with the relief that was etched into every corner of her face.
"Kazuha," Heiji managed to croak out, not liking the way his voice cracked, wondering how long it had been since he'd used it, for how many days he had been asleep. "...ya know, this wasn't exactly how I pictured our first kiss."
"Shut up, idiot."
"Stay still, Hattori-kun." With a long suffering sigh, Ai fought back the urge to swat the young man who was making the process of giving him an injection far more difficult than he needed to, all the more annoying since they were rather pressed for time. She didn't want to imagine or find out what the reaction would be if one of the hospital staff, caught what they thought was an elementary school girl injecting an unknown substance into a sick patient under their care. Even if said unknown substance was what was keeping him alive and mostly stable at the moment.
It was easier now that people weren't constantly lingering around his hospital room, coming and going without much warning. Only his mother had remained behind in Tokyo- both his family, Kazuha and her family, had returned home to Osaka. With the immediate death sentence that had been hanging over Heiji's head seemingly having passed, it had allowed them to relax somewhat. While Kazuha came by every evening to come see him and spent the weekends here, and while his father would sometimes show up, securing time alone with Heiji had become a bit easier.
"Sorry, sorry." Flashing her something of an apologetic look, Heiji tried to once more steady himself, leaning against the pillow that they had propped up for him. Since waking up from what had turned out to be a week long medically induced coma- no small wonder then Kazuha had been so relieved to see him awake- his condition had seemed to improve somewhat. He still didn't have much strength, something he quickly discovered when he had tried to get out of bed on his own, but at the very least, he was breathing without aid now "I've never been good with gettin' shots. Especially not from first graders."
"Under what circumstances besides this would you ever get a shot from a first grader?" Ai couldn't help but dryly remark, letting out a small breath as she was finally able to successfully finish the injection. "There we go. With this, you'll be fine until tomorrow. I'll come again after school to give you another one. Still, if your condition worsens for any reason, make sure to page the nurse."
"Thanks, little Neechan." Rubbing his wrist where she had given him it, a slight frown crossing his face, Heiji tugged his sleeve back down over the small mark left behind by the needle. It wasn't really a problem if someone found it- he'd been given so many other shots while he was here, had so much blood drawn from him, that nobody would really think twice about one extra needle mark. Still, it never hurt to play it safe. "I really owe ya one, it seems. I'll repay the favor one of these days."
"If you really wanted to thank me, you could start by remembering my name." Ai observed, carefully tucking the needle she had used back away in the case that she had brought it in, tucking that back away in her backpack. "But there's really no need to. This is only just a temporary measure, Hattori-kun. You're not out of the woods yet."
"Believe me, I know that better than anyone else." Heiji observed, frowning a little as he glanced across the room, flashing a small smile towards the second not-child that sat there, one who almost seemed to avoid meeting his eyes once he did so. His frown deepening, he leaned down a bit closer to Ai, brows knitting together in thought. "Did ya know if I did somethin' ta bother Kudo, little Neechan? He's been like this since the other day."
"He just has a few things on his mind, that's all." Ai said simply, getting to her feet, slinging her backpack over her shoulders. She had half a mind to lecture that one herself too- if he kept acting this way, Heiji might get the wrong idea about it somewhere down the line. "I'm sure he'll talk to you about it in due time. He's been fairly busy lately."
"Still lookin' fer my birth parents, huh?" Heiji asked, tilting his head a little. "It almost feels like they're harder ta find than that shady Organization of yers. Ya really think they're carryin' somethin' that will let ya sort out this whole mess?"
"I would hope so." Ai told him simply, sparing a long look back towards Conan, who flinched a little at it. In the end, in spite of his big words about Heiji deserving to know the truth, when it actually came down to it, he hadn't been able to say anything. Heaving a long sigh, she turned back towards Heiji, giving him the kind of practiced smile that she normally reserved for people who had no awareness of what age she actually was. "They share the same DNA as you, after all. I'm certain that the answers we're looking for lie there. In the meantime, all we can do is keep giving you daily injections, at the very least until I perfect a formula that will last a bit longer than that."
That had been a matter that had been discussed with Hattori Heizo- or at the very least, Kudo Shinichi had gotten in contact with the man to inform him that the reason behind Heiji's sudden improvement was due to his aforementioned 'very reliable scientist'. She knew that he had been asking for a chance to meet with her, something which she had been thankfully able to turn down. The less Miyano Shiho had to come out of hiding in the mostly secure location that was Haibara Ai, the better, really.
"Well, do yer best. I'm dependin' on ya." Flashing her a quick grin, Heiji once more peered back over towards his friend, heaving a slight sigh. "Oi, Kudo! Ya just gonna sulk over there, or are ya actually gonna come an' talk ta me? Just because yer not makin' any progress right now, doesn't mean that ya should be so down in the dumps."
"We're making progress just fine." Grumbling a little, Conan got to his feet, making his way over towards Heiji's bedside. He knew full well that he was acting a bit out of character towards him- but he couldn't help it! As much as he had promised Heiji he'd tell him the truth, in the end, he couldn't manage to spit a word of it out- quite frankly, he didn't even know where to start.
The fact that his own investigation into Kawaguchi Souma hadn't been getting very far didn't help matters much. It would appear that Jodie had found an angle to approach the matter from, but it wasn't one that he could help her out very much with. She was following the trail of funding that Kawaguchi Souma had gotten for his research fifteen years ago, a trail which her predecessors in the FBI had left behind. After it was assumed that Kawaguchi Souma had died in the fire, it would appear that the investigation into the accident, and into his actions during the ten years prior to that, since he had vanished from the public eye had more or less been shelved. After some digging, she had managed to find a lead- but it was also a lead that had required her to leave the country to pursue it.
He'd gone so far as to debate calling his own father about this matter- but for the moment, the less people who knew the truth, the better. Besides, he'd rather not have the very first time his father met Heiji involve something like this. If it got to the point where he thought that his father's contacts in Interpol might become useful, then, and only then, would he begrudgingly ask him for help.
Subaru himself had been rather hard to come by lately as well, which annoyed Conan more than anything else. Although he counted the man as an ally, he knew full well that there were things that he wasn't telling him- and if Kawaguchi Souma really had more of a tie to the Organization than first thought, it was entirely possible that he might be trying to keep him out of whatever leg of the investigation that he was looking into right now. Of course, it was also possible that he was simply unable to contact him right now.
Before he had left, he had passed one thing on to Conan- an object that felt as if it were burning a hole in his backpack. A notebook left behind by Makino Suzume, the researcher who had been in charge of helping to create the one who would eventually become known as Hattori Heiji. By all rights, he knew that it was something that Heiji should have- just as Subaru had suspected, there wasn't much information in it that was useful to any of them, only things that confirmed things that they had already since deduced- but there was no way that he could give it to him without first telling him the truth about everything. The truth about himself, the truth about what he was, how he had come into this world and the reason why his body was now trying to leave it, and what sort of man had been the chief force behind his creation.
There was no doubt that the notebook was something that very much belonged to his friend. Perhaps reading it would make the blow of the news that he carried with him easier- he could only hope that was the case.
As it turned out, feeling that Heiji deserved to know the truth, and actually being able to tell him about it were two different things. Even if speaking the truth was usually his whole deal, this instance was proving to be harder than just about anything else he'd ever done- and he'd had to give voice to some pretty difficult truths during his time as a detective. It wasn't that he thought Heiji wouldn't believe him- even though he might think he was joking at first, it wouldn't take him long at all to realize that he was being serious. It was just... more difficult of a subject to breach than he had expected it to be.
How exactly did one tell their best friend that they were an artificially created clone in the first place? Even though he knew Heiji would be able to stand the blow in the end, even if he knew that he would be able to live with it in a way that most people wouldn't be able to, it didn't mean that there wouldn't be one, at first. Breaching the subject with him was proving more and more difficult by the day, especially as a strange new sense of normalcy began to settle over everything, in place of the tense, urgent atmosphere that had been looming just before. In the first place, was it really necessary?
Of course it was. Not telling Heiji was taking the easy way out- and even if he was struggling to find the right words, and the right timing to say them, he did have to tell him eventually. He wasn't going to run away from the truth- he'd be a shame to detectives everywhere if he did. Besides, it was better that he told Heiji himself, rather than have him find out the truth later, and learn that his so-called best friend had known everything the whole time, and hadn't said anything to him.
The last thing he wanted was for Heiji to get the wrong idea about why he was keeping silent. He didn't want him to think that this information had maybe changed something about the way he viewed him. While it was true that even though he had long since accepted the truth as a fact, he was still having a bit of a hard time fully wrapping his head around the idea, and everything that it meant. But it wasn't like it changed anything that actually mattered in the end- however he had come into this world, Heiji was still Heiji, and he was still his best friend, and trusted rival, someone that he considered to be his equal. He was who he was not because of the circumstances of his birth, but because of those around him, those who had shaped him growing up.
On top of all of this, there was still no word as to what it was that Amuro had been up to- although he had eventually turned back up at Poirot after a few days, he was mum as to what he was doing during that time. Whenever Conan tried to ask, he gave him one of those fake smiles of his, and told him that he was busy conducting an investigation for a client. Given the timing, the odds that it was a coincidence were fairly low- and he just had to hope that he wasn't looking into the matter for the Organization. The Public Security Bureau would have doubtlessly had their eye on Kawaguchi Souma at one point, and he could only hope that Amuro wouldn't go too far.
He could only hope that it wouldn't come to that. The last thing Heiji needed to be doing in his condition was getting mixed up with the Organization- especially not if it was him that they were after. As a living sample of the research that they had been trying to recruit Kawaguchi Souma for, nothing good would happen if they managed to get their hands on him. He wanted to help Heiji, not to have created the very sequence of events that would lead him to be used as a lab rat- if he had known that something like this might happen, he would have never asked for him to fill in for him at that Halloween party on that boat.
Because if there was anyone in the Organization who would have cause to know about it's dealings from fifteen years ago, it was Vermouth. It was all he could do to keep a sharp eye out and hope that the researcher had never managed to catch her interest enough to remain in her memory.
"So ya say." Heiji noted, casting him an assessing look. "But I've known ya long enough ta know what that look on yer face means. Any idiot could tell that something's troublin' ya. What's goin' on, Kudo?"
"It's really not like that." Conan told him, shaking his head. "I'm just a little frazzled, that's all. My best friend is in the hospital, how could I not be troubled underneath these circumstances? You don't even really have the strength to walk, Hattori."
"I can walk, just not very well." Heiji protested, sharply narrowing his eyes. As reasonable as his excuse seemed, he wasn't buying it for one second- there was definitely something that Conan was keeping from him. And if he didn't miss his guess, his father, and even the little scientist girl were in on it too. He didn't like the idea of them keeping something important from him- especially not when he suspected it was about him. "I am feelin' better, ya know. At the very least, I can breathe on my own now."
"You still should be careful to avoid exerting yourself, Hattori-kun." Ai noted, sparing him a look. "As I said before, you still have a long way to go before you're out of the woods. I know you have a rather hotblooded side to your personality, but do try and contain it for the time being."
"Yes, yes, ya've told me that much already." Grumbling a little, Heiji leaned back against his pillow, forcing a long sigh from his lips- one that caught him up in a short coughing spell. Holding up a hand to tell the concerned parties that there was nothing to worry about, that it would pass in just a second, he finally took in another long breath of air, glancing back towards them both. As much as he hated to admit it, she was right- he was nowhere near well enough to be up and moving around, even though he was well enough to have that chafe at him. He didn't like being placed under limitations, not for any reason- not even for the sake of his own health.
But he also wasn't about to completely ignore them. As much as he wanted to know what was going on around here behind his back, it wouldn't do him any good if he made himself worse by trying to look into the matter. Kazuha would never forgive him if he did something like that, and he had to put his faith in Conan's promise that he would tell him the truth eventually. He'd come close, very close to it, the first time they had spoken in private when he had come back out of his coma, but in the end, he had backed away from it, as if he somehow weren't ready to say it.
Which, frankly, didn't bode well for whatever it was that was being kept from him. This was about something more than just his biological parents- although they were definitely involved in the matter somehow, whoever they were, wherever they might be. And whatever their reasons were for apparently abandoning him. Whenever he thought about it, his mind invariably found it's way back towards the strange images that he had been seeing in his dreams- and the less he tried to think about them, and what they could mean, the better off he would be.
"We're only just worried about you, Hattori." Conan told him, giving him a small frown. If there was nothing more that Ai could do for him other than what she they were doing now, then he would have to live with this kind of body for the rest of his life- and that wasn't something he wished on anyone, much less as someone who had been as vibrant and active as Heiji had. "Can you blame us? You do tend to be... pretty impulsive sometimes. Act first, think later."
"Well, ya don't need ta worry so much about that." Heiji told him, sparing his friend a glance, somehow managing to give him a quick grin that he didn't entirely feel. "Can't do much actin' in the first place if my body won't let me. Speaking of that, little Neechan, are ya sure there's nothin' that you can do fer my sense of taste? Can't taste a damn thing. Even hospital food's not supposed ta be this bland."
"I'm afraid not." Ai said simply, shaking her head. "Just be grateful that it's the only of your senses that have decided to abandon you. It could be worse, Hattori-kun."
"I guess that's true." Heiji mused, folding his arms in front of his chest. Considering that his condition had been described to him, in no uncertain terms, as his body literally shutting down on him, she definitely had a point. "Well, I won't hold ya up any longer. Kudo's got that look in his eyes like there's somethin' that he's gotta check out," and Heiji held his gaze for a moment longer, long enough to deliver a message that he was expecting to be included in this at some point, "...an' I'm sure the both of ya have yet had the chance to delve into the thrillin' world of first grade homework."
"Hilarious." Conan remarked dryly, acting as if he hadn't purposefully broken off eye contact with him. It was a gaze that he couldn't yet hold. "Well, we'll see you tomorrow then, Hattori. Take care of yourself in the meantime. Tell Kazuha-chan that we said hello when she gets back here from Osaka."
"Tomorrow's Saturday. She'll be stayin' over at the agency anyways, so say hi ta her yerself, Kudo." Heiji remarked. Watching as the two not children left his hospital room, Heiji closed his eyes. Already, he was feeling the tug of sleep pull at him, and even though he knew that it meant he would have to see those same strange dreams again, the ones that he didn't want to think about too hard, he knew there wasn't much he could do to fight it.
Perhaps nobody had said it in so many words to him- but he didn't have to be told to know full well that he was very much still dying. Just at a far, far slower pace than he had been before. After all, he understood his own body better than anyone.
Or at least, that was what he had thought. Amidst everything that had been going on lately, he couldn't help but feel that maybe that wasn't quite as true as he had always thought.
"Pardon me, but might I take up a moment of your time?"
As the nurse working at the receptionist desk glanced up from her paperwork, she felt a faint tint of pink creep into her cheeks. It wasn't that often that such an attractive young man came by here, she couldn't help but take note of the rather politely smiling young man who had called out to her. "Ah, yes, of course. What is it that I can do for you, sir?"
"I'm looking for a patient who I believe is staying here at the moment." The young man told her, his smile not wavering from his face. "His name is Hattori Heiji."
"Ah, him?" A look of understanding seemed to draw across the woman's face, her hands hovering over the keyboard she had been about to type in. With that patient, there was no need- there wasn't a single person working in the hospital who hadn't heard of him by now, really. "He's on the third floor, in room 305. I must warn you if you're thinking of paying him a visit, he might not be awake right now."
"That's fine." The young man said, shaking his head. "I can wait. I have plenty of time."
"Well, suit yourself then, I suppose." The nurse told him, before she paused. "Ah, one moment though. Is there a chance that I could get your name before you go? I need to record it down for the visitor's log."
"Of course." Turning briefly back on his heel, the young man gave her another polite smile- and this time, she couldn't help but take notice that his eyes, at least, weren't smiling.
"I'm Amuro Tooru."