AN: Sorry for the wait, but here's chapter eleven! I actually had to rewrite the beginning of the chapter three times, because I wasn't too hot with the two previous versions, but I think I'm pretty happy with how it turned out in the end! We're moving out of this arc and into the next, but before that, we'll actually be getting a Heikazu featured bonus chapter based on an event briefly mentioned within this chapter- it was something I wanted to write out but couldn't fit within the narrative before this chapter, even though it takes place a bit before this arc, actually. So look forward to that!

Anyways, that's all for today! Until next time! And don't forget to leave a review if you could!

(Don't) Believe What You Know

Chapter Eleven

The Fun Part of Most Everything Involves Ample Amounts of Violence

Conan had come to know Hattori Heiji as a rather expressive person, the type who always wore his heart on his sleeve. And while this could cause him his fair share of problems, Conan frankly didn't mind having someone around him who was so easy to read, who wore his emotions freely for everyone see. Certainly his temper could be something of a chore to deal with at times, but it was part of what he'd come to like about his rival over the past year or so.

But never in all that time had he seen Heiji make an expression anything like this one. Conan might have no idea what it was that set him off in the first place- but whatever it was, it was probably bad news.

"Hattori?" Conan spoke up, realizing that his voice hadn't caught his friend's ears. "Oi, Hattori!" He spoke up again, raising his voice again, this time managing to catch his friend's attention. Watching as Heiji looked almost startled to realize that he was still here, before a long look of consideration drew across his face, Conan narrowed his eyes, feeling the hairs on the back of his neck prick up.

"Ya didn't feel that, Kudo?"

"Right, sorry. Stupid question. Of course ya didn't."

What the hell was it that Heiji had apparently 'felt' that he hadn't? Casting a considering look towards the room that had fully drawn Heiji's attention, Conan's eyes narrowed, trying to pick out whatever it was. He got the vague feeling that the temperature in the house might have dropped by a few degrees- but he didn't think something as minor as that would have caused such an expression to cross Heiji's face. It had to be something else.

Although he was willing to bet the temperature drop was probably related.

Turning back to face Heiji, Conan locked eyes with him, his own narrowing in thought as he did so. "Did something happen, Hattori?"

"Ah, well..." Trailing off a little, his eyes darting back towards the room- it was both the scene of the crime, as well as the location of what was probably the mirror that Heiji was supposed to be looking into. For a witch, of all things, he had said. When he'd told him such a thing was absurd, Heiji hadn't gone so far as to laugh at him, but he'd definitely been amused at his adamant denial.

Any trace of teasing and amusement were gone from the Osakan detective's voice now, leaving behind only a mix of concern- and a trace of anger he thought, though Conan didn't think it was so much directed at him as it was someone else. Maybe the witch that Heiji had mentioned before- or perhaps the murderer behind this latest case. Potentially both.

"No, nothin' happened, Kudo!" Able to pinpoint the very moment where Heiji decided that he wasn't going to tell him the truth about whatever it was that had earned such a never before seen reaction from him, Conan couldn't help but narrow his eyes, even as his friend flashed him a wide grin. "What are ya talkin' about? We've got a case ta solve right now, so let's not worry about anythin' else aside from that, shall we?"

"Hattori." Conan began, not missing the way his friend flinched slightly at his sharp tone- before he heaved a long sigh, rubbing his forehead. Somehow he got the feeling that trying to force his involvement into whatever it was that was worrying Heiji at the moment wouldn't help him.

He was coming to understand more and more that whatever it was that Heiji was mixed up in outside of his usual detective work, it really was something that was beyond Conan's understanding. That said, he did want to attempt to try and understand it- even if it meant abandoning the beliefs that he'd held for his entire lifetime. Be careful of clinging too closely to previously held beliefs, indeed. More and more the fortune he'd gotten at that shrine was turning out to be spot on.

Briefly, he couldn't help but recall that Heiji had also gotten a bad fortune from the shrine- and suddenly, he couldn't help but wonder what it was.

"W-what is it, Kudo?" Heiji stammered, averting his eyes from his shrunken friend, gaze darting around literally anywhere but there. "Shouldn't ya go look up information about that filmin' location we were just talkin' about? Ya know, the one they suddenly decided not ta shoot at, right around the time when they started ta have their fight?"

Casting his friend a long look, Conan finally let out another long sigh, breaking eye contact with him, noticing out of the corner of his eyes the way that Heiji's shoulders slumped in relief as he did so. He'd press him about all of this later, but something told him that now was not the time to be doing so- and if he didn't miss his guess, Heiji was all but trying to rush Conan out of the house, since he'd have to do just that to check the information on his phone.

He got the feeling that Heiji knew full well why the house had suddenly become a reception dead zone, and why it was that his own phone was the only one that worked. He decided to save his questions regarding that for a bit later as well, once everything was wrapped up. Both the case, and whatever the hell it was that Heiji had come here to do in the first place- which seemed to be more than running an errand for a supposed witch.

Haruaki Souji was probably right about one thing- that Hattori Heiji was definitely not what he seemed to be at first glance. But what Conan knew was true was the fact that he was an almost stupidly honest idiot, who was earnest and frank with his emotions, and cared perhaps a little too much for the people in his life that he had decided to value. If Heiji was anything more than that, anything other than that, well... it wasn't like it erased the truth that Conan had already come to know well about him.

All it meant was the fact that he was perhaps a little more complex than he had first expected.

"You're right." Conan said finally, giving his friend something of a reassuring grin, watching as a look of relief bloomed in his eyes. "That's a good place to start. Between the two of us and Hakuba, we'll probably be able to wrap this case up soon enough. After all, there was something a bit strange in the words of that person..."

"Ah, ya noticed that as well?" Heiji blinked, a more familiar grin crossing his friend's face, one that Conan was almost glad to see. "I've been thinkin' about that myself too. Well then!" Clapping his hands together, his grin only growing as Heiji placed said hands on Conan's shoulder, literally turning him around to face the staircase. "I'll see ya soon, Kudo! Good luck!"

"Hattori." Conan paused, casting a glance up towards him. "Are you going to do something weird while I'm gone?"

"Define weird, Kudo." Heiji said after a moment, a considering look in his eyes.

"Anything you would consider normal that I wouldn't." Conan told him frankly, watching as his friend couldn't help but snort at his words.

"Yeah, in that case, I'm definitely about ta do somethin' weird." Heiji told him frankly, a quick grin gracing his features. "But well, I've got good reason fer it so, uh, it's best if ya just go along with it."

"Somehow I get the feeling I don't have very many options here but to." Conan dryly observed, before shaking his head. "Well, good luck to you as well then I suppose, Hattori. Whatever it is you're up to, be careful yourself."

"Cross my heart, Kudo." Heiji promised him, patting him on the back, before folding his arms in front of his chest, giving him a rather cheeky grin. "An' promise not ta die."

Wataru Takagi had seen any number of strange things while working with division one- especially lately, within the past year or so. But this? This probably took the cake. He'd been anticipating the disbelieving look that his report would earn him from Inspector Megure, one that had persisted until he had shown the portly Inspector the scene of the crime himself- or at the very least, where the scene of the crime should have been.

He had dealt with any number of strange cases with equally strange tricks, but this was probably the first time an entire room had just completely disappeared. The only person who didn't look flabbergasted by this strange turn of events was Hattori Heiji- at least, not until he caught people looking at him, and then he tried to pull the worst attempt at acting like he was that Takagi had ever seen in his life.

"It couldn't have just disappeared." Hakuba Saguru was saying, carefully placing his hands against the wall where he knew, logically, the door leading to the crime scene should have been. Ever since Heiji had knocked it off of it's hinges, it had been left there, hanging by them, nobody really seeing the sense in trying to fix it- so shutting the door should have been impossible in and of itself- nevermind making it appear as if the room just didn't exist in the first place.

It had to be some kind of trick, some kind of clever illusion- the entrance to the room was probably still here, he just had to feel it out, figure out where it had been hidden, figure out what kind of mechanism had been used to conceal it from them in the first place. Perhaps there was a secret, secondary door built into the wall that had been slid in place by someone. He wasn't certain who, all of the suspects had been gathered in the same room, with both the Inspector and himself keeping watch over them.

Nor did he understand for what reason- the corpse had already been found and taken away, and the scene had already been examined- unless there was something that the culprit realized that they had missed, and wanted to prevent them from checking into further. But wouldn't doing something like this only allow the police and the gathered detectives to draw such a conclusion in the first place? It didn't make any sense.

What made even less sense though, was that no matter how much he looked, no matter how much he carefully traced his hands up and down the wall where the doorway should be, he couldn't even find one trace of it. It was, quite frankly, as if the room had simply disappeared.

He must have shot some kind of look towards Kaito in the middle of his search, because he found the magician by his side, carefully studying the area himself. Perhaps there was something that the magician could pick up on that Hakuba himself wouldn't be able to- and for a brief moment, he was almost grateful that he was here.

But when Kaito glanced up at him, giving him a rather befuddled shake of his head, Hakuba's brows only furrowed more. It was one thing for him not to be able to find a trace of the trick used to hide the room, but for even the likes of Kuroba Kaito- who was very likely Kaito Kid, if he didn't miss his guess, was something else entirely. Allowing his gaze to trail over towards Heiji, who he couldn't help but notice briefly flinched the moment his eyes fell on him, he couldn't help but wonder why he hadn't even shown the slightest ounce of curiosity in relation to the suddenly missing room.

Surely he couldn't have- no, no. That would be absurd. Rash and impulsive though he might be, Heiji was every inch the same kind of detective as Hakuba was- there would have been no reason for him to suddenly try and hide the crime scene like this. Nor did he think Heiji had the capability to do something on this scale to begin with- certainly the Osakan detective was clever, but he doubted that he'd be capable of thinking up a trick that could fool even the likes of (probably) Kaito Kid.

Even if he had been the only member of their party that nobody had been watching, especially not since that Edogawa Conan child had apparently gone outside the mansion, to look up some things on his phone. Catching a glimpse of something out of the corner of his eye, Hakuba took notice that the boy in question was just only now returning, cellphone in hand, a troubled expression on his face- before he looked up, and noticed that everyone was gathered in the hallway.

"Did I miss something?" Conan couldn't help but ask, a brief look of confusion crossing his face- before his gaze almost instinctively trailed over towards the crime scene. Or where it should have been, really. The moment that Conan noticed that the doorway was now missing, and that it appeared almost as if there had never been a room there to begin with, his eyes narrowed, for a moment, almost seeming to fight the urge to turn his gaze in a certain direction.

Towards Heiji, Hakuba couldn't help but note, a slight look of confusion crossing his own face. Was there something going on here that he was missing?

"The, ah, crime scene appears to have gone missing." Takagi was the one who spoke up, answering the question even though he knew Conan had come to understand the situation quite well. "Hakuba-kun and his friend here have tried looking for it but it seems we've somehow managed to misplace it."

For lack of a better word.

"Ah." Conan said simply, clicking his tongue a little as he tucked his phone back away in his pocket. Briefly exchanging a glance with Heiji, Conan couldn't help but wonder if this is what he had meant by doing something weird- which, yes, making the entire crime scene vanish into thin air was definitely something that he would file under weird. Impressive, but also definitely weird.

Heiji had told him that he had good reason for it, and Conan could only assume that he was telling the truth. He got the feeling that whatever said reason was, it had nothing to do with the case, and everything to do with the mirror that also happened to be in the room with the corpse.

"First we can't get through to the police on our phones, then the front door won't open, and now an entire room just disappears?" It was Nagasawa Kazuya that had spoke up, Conan took note, and the man all but looked ready to tear out his hair. "What the hell is with this house?"

"I thought this sorta thing was supposed ta be yer area of expertise." Heiji couldn't help but quip, unable to mask the slight amused expression that rose to his face. Judging from the way that Conan was looking at him, he knew full well that his friend had already realized that he was the one behind this- and from the look that Kaito had sent towards him as he came to the conclusion that no, he couldn't find the secret behind this trick, he had a feeling that the magician suspected him as well. "But well, what else can ya expect from a bunch of frauds?"

"I don't suppose you have anything to do with this, do you?" It was Haruaki Souji who spoke this time, turning a sharp gaze towards Heiji- though he flinched the moment the Osakan detective looked towards him, locking eyes with him. "You and whatever is in this house are probably in cahoots."

"Okay, one, this is literally the first time I've ever been here in my life." Heiji began, lifting up a single finger, which was soon joined by another. Okay, so the dude was right about the first part, but he wasn't about to give him the satisfaction of that. Besides, he did have a reputation to keep here, and he wasn't about to let it falter now. "An' two, seriously dude, what do ya have against me anyways?"

"Well that's-" Souji began.

"That's not really important right now." Hakuba spoke up, placing himself between the two of them, almost feeling as if he were supervising children, not someone his own age and someone nearly a good ten or twenty years older than them. "Inspector, for the moment, I believe we should take the suspects back to the room we were keeping them in the first place. I'll look into the mystery behind the missing room for a little longer."

"I'll go with you, Inspector!" Conan chirped, glancing towards the suspects, his gaze fixing on one in particular. He had managed to find some rather interesting rumors about the old tuberculoses ward that they were supposed to film at around a month ago, only to suddenly cancel, and one of them in particular had caught his interest. Should such a rumor be actually true, and if they had really stumbled upon such a truth, Conan could imagine that something like that would spark an argument between them- especially if some of them were looking to profit off the find, to save their show from their gradually declining ratings.

Needless to say, there were a few new questions that he wanted to ask of them. He'd worry about whatever the hell Heiji had pulled to make an entire room disappear later- there was probably a good reason behind it, just as he'd said, even if Conan had no idea what that might be.

How was it that he was the one who had been shrunken by a mysterious poison, and yet Heiji was the weird one?

"So can all detectives use magic, or is it just you?"

"String a damn bell around yer neck or somethin' Kuroba, the hell do you keep doin' that?" Suddenly getting the distinct impression of why the way that he often showed up out of the blue bothered people who didn't know him all that well, Heiji cast a glance back towards Kaito, quirking a brow. "An' what makes ya think I can use magic? Aren't you the one that's supposed ta be the magician here?"

"I have quiet footsteps." Kaito observed, a quick grin flashing across his face, before he rolled his eyes. "I might not be a detective, Hattori-kun, but I know enough to know that you and Akako are in the same camp."

"I take offense to the implications of that statement." Heiji observed, narrowing his eyes. "I'm nothin' like Koizumi."

"That wasn't quite what I meant." Kaito noted. "I just meant that the two of you are involved on the side of real magic and not just," With a quick wave of his hand, Kaito released a slight burst of confetti, "...the tricks of a skilled and clever magician."

"Modest too, I see." Heiji couldn't help but observe, a slight grin quirking at the edge of his lips. "But fine, yer right. But to answer yer question, generally speakin', no. It's just me." He admitted, folding his arms in front of his chest, casting a brief wary eye towards the room he'd sealed off. It was still there, of course, but all it had taken to fool the senses of both great detective and a so-called magician alike was a simple illusion spell, with an extra sensory touch added to it.

Trick the brain into thinking a door has disappeared, and those looking for it usually won't try and force against the feeling of solid wood brushing against their fingertips. If they had, the would have found that they would have been able to pass through effortlessly into the room- for the moment, he could use this measure to buy time, and hopefully keep anyone from entering the room with the mirror. That thing needed some kind of host to get itself all the way out- and he wasn't about to let anyone wander in there and become one.

"Ah." Kaito arched his brows, glancing over towards the disappeared room, before looking back towards Heiji. "So I would be correct in assuming that you had something to do with that after all, didn't you? I was a bit distressed when I assumed it was just a clever trick, but I'll admit, knowing that real magic's the culprit behind it does make it a bit easier to swallow."

"Magician's pride, or somethin', huh?" Heiji couldn't help but ask, quirking a slight grin towards Kaito. He was a rather curious fellow in his own right, and Heiji couldn't really find it in him to dislike him- even if he did ask too many questions that Heiji really didn't care to answer. He was sure what it was that he had done to catch Kaito's attention in the first place, nor how he had managed to hear the term Guardian anywhere, but all in all, he was far more of an agreeable fellow than the likes of his classmates.

He was pretty damn sure he had no idea what the term actually meant. Considering that he was an outsider, that didn't really surprise him.

"You could say that." Kaito gave him a slightly placid smile. "So what are you exactly, Hattori-kun? And don't say detective this time."

"I mean, I am a detective." Heiji said with a slight shrug of his shoulders. "I'm just other stuff too."

"Like a guardian?" Kaito inquired, only showing the vaguest hint of the flinch that he felt as Heiji turned a rather sharp gaze towards him, schooling his expression into obedience. "I'm only curious, Hattori-kun. It's not as if I'm going to go out and spread strange rumors about you."

"An' why are ya so curious, Kuroba?" Heiji observed. "We've never met before, after all." With a slight pause, Heiji's brow furrowed a little, as he placed a hand on his chin, taking a slight step closer towards him, peering into his eyes. "At least, I don't think we have. Unless, perhaps, I'm wrong?"

There was one person that Heiji had cause to cross paths with recently whose interest he might have caught, after all. If Akako had gone to the Dragon's Egg heist with more than just an interest in the egg itself in mind, if she had some kind of interest in the phantom thief who was supposed to be stealing it, like he gathered from her words, then...

No way.

"We haven't, I assure you." Kaito said simply, his poker face fully raised up, concealing the pounding of his own heart as Heiji studied his face a little more closely than he would have liked. If it really was the detective of the west who had been behind the disappearing Dragon's Egg, then he probably would have had ample time to get a good look at Kaito Kid's face, so the less he studied the face of Kuroba Kaito, the better, really.

"If ya say so." Heiji said with a simple shrug of his shoulders, stepping back. Well, even if that was really the case, he was hardly in a position to rat him out himself. If he was right, then there was only one reason why he might have caught the attention of the white clad phantom thief to begin with- and that was his own activities from that night. Which were of course, better if they never came to light. "Ya really should stop hangin' around Koizumi, though."

"Believe me, I would if I could." Kaito said simply. "But my childhood friend likes her, thinks of her as a friend."

"Koizumi's got friends?" Heiji's brow shot straight up, a skeptical look crossing his face. "Yer childhood friend must be a damn saint, Kuroba."

Snorting at the description of Aoko being a saint, Kaito shook his head. "So? What are you going to do about whatever it is that's in the mirror? It must be something pretty bad if you sealed off the room entirely."

The fierce grin that crossed Heiji's face at his question truly brought home just how much of an opposite the detective of the west was to Hakuba. "My job, of course."

If there was one thing about this whole affair that was insanely frustrating, it was watching Hakuba take what Heiji felt should have rightfully been his spot. Standing next to Kudo and chatting with the shrunken detective about the case was where he should be right about now- and would be, if he didn't have other things to focus on right now. Things that were, admittedly, a little more critically important than a murder case.

He might have admitted to Kudo that he hadn't originally set out to be a detective at first, much as it had been his childhood dream. But it was true enough that he loved being one- solving a case was like a rush to him, sometimes to the point that he would drown everything out that wasn't involved with it. There was one thing that he never forgot in the middle of everything, however- and that was what his actual duty was. The actual reason why he existed, here and now, what he had been put on this earth to do in the first place.

That all sounded a bit overdramatic, but it was hardly an exaggeration.

There was a reason that Hattori Shizuka had been called to that place, the place where he had been born, seventeen years ago. There was a reason too, why it had been her, out of everyone who could have heard the call, that ended up responding. It was the right place for him, the right location for him. Osaka was a city rich with history, and also a city that sat smack on the middle of the largest boundary line in all of Japan, one which the Hattori household sat practically right on top of and had for generations.

Which was again, hilarious, given what a staunch skeptic his farther was. Funnier by far was just what kind of son he'd ended up raising in the first place, all while holding the firm belief that there was nothing truly supernatural in the world. The fact that he put faith in Heiji at all was touching, really, and while he never changed his staunch skeptic views even as their son struggled with seeing things that nobody else could, he never once gave Heiji the same feeling of disbelief and disapproval that he'd gotten from so many other adults.

He might not believe in it, but if his son said that he could see something in the corner of the room that he couldn't, then he believed him, and wouldn't complain when Heiji insisted that he wasn't going to go anywhere near it. Granted, Heiji kind of wished that the place he had been born hadn't waited twelve or so years to call him back to where everything had begun for him, leaving him to puzzle out why he was so different from everyone else on his own, but hey- better late than never, he guessed.

The explanation that he had gotten was a bit shocking, all things considered, though he had long since come to accept the truth as an easy thing. It answered so many of his questions, and he saw no reason to reject it. Some aspects of it were a little harder to accept at first than others, but such a time had long since passed, and he'd grown comfortable in his own skin in a way he never truly had been before.

When you understood that the reason as to why you were different than everyone else you knew was because of the fact that you weren't actually quite human, everything actually became somewhat easier in turn. The container was perfectly human, he'd been told- but the contents were something entirely different. And if the truth came with a duty that he couldn't escape from, one that had been set in stone from the day he had been born, then he could live with that.

There were pieces of the truth that he didn't want anyone else to know- namely just how long he'd been sleeping in that place, waiting for someone to find him. That he had nothing to do with himself- his own blood mother had everything to do with it, hoping that the very last of them would carry on their wishes to the distant future, a time in which she could not even begin to imagine. Technically speaking, Heiji supposed he was the very last of his kind- not that it bothered him much. From the sound of it, his kind had been rapidly falling into depravity- which was why they had been all but wiped out in the first place.

Which was why he had so staunchly vowed to not use any of his own magic to directly interfere with human affairs in the first place. He wouldn't even break such a vow for Kudo, though it was tempting at times- one wrong step and it would be all too easy for him to head down the wrong path, so he vowed never to do it, no matter how tempting it was- not unless someone's life was on the line, at the very least. That he got the feeling he would break his self imposed vow for.

There were more things in this world than his good friend and rival knew- and Heiji was one of those very things himself. It was that, more than anything, that required him to set such a condition on the truth such as Kudo having to uncover it himself, otherwise he knew that he would never believe him. Unlike Heiji, who was born and bred into this world, Kudo didn't believe in the supernatural, and probably never had. If he didn't work to chip away at that disbelief first, he knew exactly what kind of reaction the truth would get him from his friend.

Not something that he wanted to see.

Kazuha, who had grown up with him, who knew him better than anyone else in the world, had accepted the truth with ease- with surprise to be sure, but also with ease. Then she'd punched him in the gut for keeping things from her for so long, when they were so important, which he admitted that he had deserved.

Begrudgingly sensing that Hakuba and Conan more than had this situation handled, Heiji watched the two of them for only a moment longer- before he quietly crept out of the room, slipping out before anyone noticed he was gone. Placing a hand on the door, a crackle of golden sparks danced from his hand, as he turned his attention back towards the room that he had hidden from sight, his eyes narrowing. Casting away the illusion that he had used to conceal the room from view, Heiji took in and let out a deep breath, before a fearsome grin crossed his face, feeling his blood boiling in anticipation at what lay before him.

Demon though it may be, dealing with such ilk- those creatures from beyond the boundary line who decided to interfere with the human world in malicious ways- was quite literally, what he had been born to do in the first place. It was his role in the world, one of many, just as being a high school detective was, and just as being Kazuha's childhood friend was, just as being Kudo Shinichi's trusted friend and ally was.

Trust that he really ought to repay back to him sometime soon- because he could sense that the time was coming soon when he would be able to confess everything to his friend- from what it was that he did when he wasn't looking, to what it was that he was.

"Right then." Turning his full attention towards the mirror, Heiji couldn't help but let a glint of excitement dance in his eyes. This was always the fun part of his duty- when he could fight without having to hold back. "How about you an' I have a nice little chat then, ya damn demon?"

Hakuba Saguru felt like he was on the cusp of getting a headache.

First the door to the room they had all gathered in simply refused to open, no matter what they did. Given the fact that they had managed to corner the culprit behind the murder, they had ever reason to need the door to open. There had been a very good reason as to why Haruaki Souji had been so insistent that something supernatural had been involved in the case, and it was that which had first roused Hakuba's suspicion towards him. He had very little sympathy for the man, not when his motivation involved wanting to use the mass grave of long dead tuberculosis patients that they had discovered at the filming location they had canceled their shoot at to let the ratings of their show skyrocket, rather than report it to the police.

Hokusai Reiko and Kawasaki Aki had been against it from the very start, insisting that they should take this information to the police- and they were about to, even though it appeared that Souji held some kind of card over the pair. That was when Souji decided to kill them- and he fully intended to kill the both of them, which was in part why Aki had bit his tongue, fearing for his own life.

Most curious was the fact that while the deduction show was going on, Heiji was nowhere to be found. Even more curious than that, however, was the fact that when they finally got the door open, they soon discovered that the room that had gone missing had apparently come back- and that in the time they had been locked inside the room across the hall, the mirror that the corpse had been leaning up against had been shattered into pieces. The entire room actually appeared to have been trashed, deep cuts and gashes on the walls and furniture.

It was also only then that Heiji had finally resurfaced, kneeling down next to Conan and asking him how everything went with a curious look in his eyes. When Conan paused to whisper a question to him that Hakuba couldn't quite catch, Heiji had just broke out into a wide grin, patting the kid's shoulder and giving him a loud burst of laughter. For his part, the child had just rolled his eyes, an exasperated expression crossing his face.

When asked if he had anything to do with the current state of the crime scene, or the missing door from earlier, Souji had just shot Hakuba a dirty look, telling him that he had nothing to do with that. He had thought his insistence that Heiji had anything to do with the odd things that had been going on in the house was just part of his act- taking advantage of the odd reaction of his electromagnetic field detector around the Osakan detective to string together some kind of foolish story.

But perhaps there was more to it than that.

"Hattori-kun, might I have a word with you?" Hakuba finally asked, approaching the pair.

"Hakuba!" Heiji almost seemed to perk up as the half-British detective approached him, a wide smile on his face- before he clapped his hands together, casting an outright glower towards him. "No."

Slightly flabbergasted at the outright refusal, he could only vaguely make out the squeak of protest that escaped Conan's lips as Heiji scooped him up, tucking him underneath one arm and all but carried him away. The sound of Kaito's snort was something he caught a good deal more easily, and found himself shooting the magician a slight glower of his own.

It wasn't until they were out of the mansion and well out of earshot of Hakuba that Heiji finally set Conan back down, the shrunken detective's look of complete offense at having been transported in such an undignified way completely washing over him without so much as sinking into him even a little. Dirty look turning into an exasperated sigh, Conan carefully studied the one who had somehow or another managed to become his best friend, watching as the dark skinned young man knelt down in front of him, a bright smile on his face as if he hadn't somehow locked them all in a room and then proceeded to trash another one.

With some kind of bladed object, from the looks of it, and he couldn't help but wonder where Heiji was even hiding such a thing. He didn't seem to be carrying any kind of sword on him, at the very least, and there didn't seem to be any found in the house itself. And he knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, without even having to ask, that Heiji had everything to do with the odder events that took place in the mansion.

"I thought you said you were trying to obtain that mirror for a witch." Conan said finally.

"I never said that." Heiji said frankly. "I only said that I was lookin' into it for her. I don't even like that damn witch." He told him, a slight glower in his expression. "She sent all four of us here an' straight into danger without so much as even a warnin'. Let me tell ya, if I hadn't been there, things would have gotten way out of hand."

"Besides, I did get a piece of it, an' that's all that really matters." Heiji noted, reaching into his pocket and pulling out the shard of the mirror that he had secured within his handkerchief. At the sight of it, and at the disgruntled sound that Conan made, Heiji could only grin a little, tucking it back away. "C'mon Kudo, I did warn ya that things were gonna get a lot weirder the deeper ya dove. Did ya think I was makin' that up?"

"I underestimated how weird." Conan admitted. "My mistake, obviously." With a long sigh, he rubbed his forehead, trying to deal with the increasing feeling of a headache that this day had been giving him. Whatever it was that had been plaguing Heiji had seemed to have vanished without a trace, leaving behind the usual cheerful and energetic Osakan detective in it's wake.

"What exactly did you do, Hattori?" Conan asked. "And no lies."

Slightly glancing away from Conan, Heiji rubbed the back of his neck, wondering how best to phrase things. "I uh, took care of the problem that Hakuba got sent there ta investigate."

"And that involved trashing the room and breaking the mirror?" Conan couldn't help but note, quirking a brow. "With what, exactly? Don't tell me you've taken to carrying knives with you."

"I mean, I've got a few of those tucked away, because they can come in handy sometimes, but I actually used a sword, this time." Heiji replied frankly, a mischievous grin dancing across his lips as an incredulous expression crossed Conan's face. "An' yer obviously wonderin' where they all are."

"Well, yes and no." Conan admitted after a moment. "Yes, I'm curious, and no, somehow I'd really rather not know, Hattori. I get the feeling the answer will only give me a headache." Closing his eyes and pinching the bridge of his nose, Conan peeked one eye open. "Hattori you're really not like other people, are you?"

"I'm one of a kind." Heiji was quick to say, his smile only growing all the wider as he did so. "I mean, does it really matter that much anyways? At the end of the day, I'm still Hattori Heiji. That's the most important truth, isn't it? That one truth or whatever it is that ya like ta keep goin' on about."

The slight smile that made it's way onto Conan's face was a rather genuine one, as he dropped his hand away from his nose. "I guess that's true. You'll tell me though, won't you, Hattori? What is your one truth?"

"Are ya prepared fer it if I do?" Heiji asked- and Conan didn't miss the hint of apprehension that danced within his eyes. He'd long since grown past being a child, but such times had seemed to left their own invisible scars on Heiji. It was no mystery to him that the reason why he'd been keeping such things about himself a secret all this time was not because he didn't trust him- but because deep down, he was still afraid.

"I'm ready as I'll ever be, Hattori." Conan replied simply. "Though maybe not today. I do feel like I'm getting a bit of a headache." He admitted.

"Fair enough." Heiji snorted, reaching over to ruffle his hair. "C'mon, I'll head back with ya ta Neechan's place. Should probably say hi ta her anyways since I'm in Tokyo."

"No carrying me." Conan noted sharply, sending a glare up towards Heiji.

"Aw, yer no fun." Heiji grumbled, half joking as he tucked his hands into his pockets, his usual broad grin surfacing on his face. "Oh yeah, by the way, Kudo- did ya eat that candy that ya got from the old ladies yet?"

"No." Blinking a little at the sudden question, Conan shook his head. "I still have it though. Why do you bring it up?"

As Heiji's grin only managed to grow at his question, Conan couldn't half help but regret asking. "Eat it tomorrow, first thing in the mornin' after Neechan an' that Uncle have already left. You'll definitely be in fer a real surprise, Kudo!"