Started February 5th

Completed February 7th

Chapter Twelve

Confession

Confession: (Noun) an acknowledgment or declaration, especially of one's faults, misdeeds, or crimes.

o.O.o.O.o.O.o

It should have been endlessly hard to tell them. And at first, it kind of was. But then, as more words came out of my mouth, I found it becoming easier and easier to speak. I found it miraculous that, when it was all said and done, I didn't regret telling them.

At least, not yet.

Of course, immediately following the dramatic tale, we received a visitor. A very unexpected visitor.

I should have expected it.

o.O.o.O.o.O.o

Luckily, they had made it to the hospital with no incident. Upon arrival, Shinichi had been taken to the back room, thoroughly examined, and, after Heiji had gotten the all-clear from Haibara, his gunshot wound stitched up. The entire process had taken but a few minutes over an hour, so 3 a.m. found the four boys in a private recovery room set up at the back of the south wing. They were left with pretty easy-to-understand orders. Press the red button mounted on the wall if any assistance was needed. Push it once if it wasn't too serious, and three times if they needed assistance right away.

Heiji sat in one of the chairs lined up against the wall just a few short feet away from his friend's bed. He glanced over the charts that had been left upon the table, frowning slightly as some of the numbers garnered his attention. Blowing out a quick sigh, he set them back down, glancing quickly at the slumbering Shinichi. He had been sedated as soon as the check-up had finished in order to allow the pain medication work to a fuller affect. They still had some time on their hands before they would be confessing the secret that the two had been protecting for over a year.

"I'll be back. Gotta make a call."

With that quick statement, he stood from his seat and excused himself from the room, shutting the sliding door behind himself just as he produced his cell phone from his pocket. Hakuba blew out a quiet sigh himself, shifting position in the uncomfortable chair to ready himself for the long wait. Kaito, however, couldn't deal with such silence anymore. He stood, wandering around the room and poofing random things into existence, exchanging the bland white walls of the room for vibrant pinks and greens.

"Hospitals are too boring!" he snickered at Hakuba's questioning eyebrow. The blonde detective merely shook his head, rolling his eyes to the now-purple ceiling. "Typical," he muttered.

It was true that the temporary truce that they had silently made was probably null and void at this point, but still… He couldn't help but feel like he had some thinking to do after that night's events. After going through so much and witnessing something completely impossible happen (with no explanation yet) and KID—Kaito, he stubbornly amended in his head—doing the best he could in order to keep them all safe…

He couldn't help but feel he was missing part of the big picture.

And then there was the whole assassin thing… There was no doubt that there was something that he was missing. Something that put the entirety of Kaitou KID—Kaitou 1412 into perspective. Hakuba felt that it would be best to gather information associated with KID before he hastily set off with the intentions to put the egotistical thief behind bars.

(To be honest, he was more than a little weirded out that he was considering the chance that he wouldn't (or didn't want to) put the thief behind bars… And he was already jarred up enough, thankyouverymuch.)

Kaito snickered at Hakuba's quiet, scathing comment. By now, he thought that the detective would have been jumping on his back in order to unmask him. Then again, it could be he was just keeping quiet until he found out the deal behind Con—Shinichi before plunging into anarchy. He knew that he was burning with the same curiosity and confusion as himself. Speaking of…

The young magician trotted over to the abandoned charts, glancing over the figures with a mildly puckered face. He honestly couldn't really see what drew tantei-han's attention. Other than elevated blood pressure and mild fever, there really wasn't anything else that really stood out. It was really typical of a gunshot victim's stats to look like these…

He continued to gaze over the charts, losing himself in thought. Then again, maybe that was just the thing. It was obvious that Kudo Shinichi wouldn't have the same sort of healthy characteristics as the average adult.

And that brought him around to the winning question.

What have you gotten yourself into meitantei-san?

o.O.o.O.o.O.o

"Ya on yer way, 'jou-chan?"

An irritated huff sounded over the line. "Yes, I'm almost there."

"So? Whatchya think?"

From the front seat of Agasa's yellow slugbug, Haibara leaned back, staring into the darkness outside of the front windshield. "Honestly?" The small girl murmured. "It sounds a lot like the same stuff we're dealing with."

Heiji nodded to himself. "I thought so, but…"

"Kudo never told you?"

The Osakan blinked, rubbing at his tired eyes for a moment. Now that the adrenaline was wearing off, he was starting to get a tad bit sluggish. "Tol' me? What?"

Haibara sighed, shaking her head when Agasa shot her a questioning look. "Of course the stubborn baka wouldn't tell you. He's too stubborn," she muttered. Louder, she said, "The Organization has more than just assassination on their list. They have various sets of small goals all leading up to a greater whole. I was a scientist—but I never thought up drugs for the sole benefit of getting rid of someone."

By the stretching silence, she knew that the dark skinned detective was listening with rapt attention. She continued. "They have various divisions. The Research and Development division—where I was stationed—and the Elimination division—which includes Gin, Vodka, and Vermouth. These are the two divisions that we're most familiar with…" She paused, blatantly avoiding the sorrowful look that the older professor was shooting her from the corner of his eye.

"…But there are others. Others dedicated to searching out information in order to use as blackmail, others dedicated solely to infiltrating the government. I don't know how many—they would never disclose too much information to anyone—but there are more. It's a very wide-stretching organization."

Haibara's eyes slipped shut as she thought once more of the person who slumbered away in a hospital bed, barely having retained his life.

"…And that's what makes them so dangerous."

Heiji agreed, silently pledging once more to do whatever it took in order to keep them all safe. So, he internally concluded, there's a large chance that KID has tangled with 'em before.

"It wouldn't surprise me if Kaitou KID has gained their attention and somehow earned his way onto their blacklist," Haibara echoed his thoughts aloud. He heard the distinct sound of a car engine cutting off.

"We're here. We'll be up in a few."

They hung up without a word further. He only had to wait a good 3 minutes before Haibara rounded the corner, followed by an out-of-breath Agasa-hakase. Haibara carried a small satchel, matching the larger one currently being lugged around by Agasa—no doubt holding her personal medical tools. Heiji nodded to the both of them, guiding her to the door of Shinichi's room.

She moved to open the door when Heiji made to stop her. "They're still—" The door opened, drawing the attention of Hakuba and KID.

"…Inside," Heiji muttered. Haibara paused for a moment before she was crossing the room, setting her satchel beside the bed and pulling out her tools. The detective and thief still left in the dark on the entire situation watched with burning curiosity, thoughts and theories plowing through their brains. Haibara made quick work of looking over Kudo's charts and then she was cutting straight to the chase, re-conducting a few medical tests and then adding a few of her own in order to check the credibility of the results. Finally, she drew some of his blood, all the while ignoring the existence of the 4 other men in the room. Her tests took but a few minutes—made quicker by the fact that her patient was unconscious and had already garnered most of the results.

Having done all that she could do for the moment, she packed away her things, intending to return home in order to conduct a few tests on his blood. The small sandy-haired child paused, eyes roving over the still form of the detective she had become rather fond of over the course of the past year. She took in his vulnerable state, dressed in the standard hospital gown (one side left off of his injured shoulder in order to keep it from being constricted) and, oddly, looking better than she had seen him over the past month. Her eyes trailed over the bandages wrapped around his exposed shoulder, a frown twisting at her lips.

"Glad you survived, Kudo," she murmured. Then she picked up her satchel, making her way to the door with Agasa hurrying along behind her. He almost stumbled over the tiny girl when she stopped, turning and aiming a serious gaze at Hattori.

"Call me if something happens, though he's still got time. And… Be sure to check the room." She pointedly swept the entirety of the room with her eyes before allowing her gaze to fall on the two silent young men occupying the chairs on the far wall for the first time since her arrival.

Heiji read the message loud and clear. Don't worry about him changin' back, but check fer bugs, he mentally tallied off with a nod. His eyes softened. "I'll take care a him."

Haibara faced forward once more, ignoring the soft smile that Agasa was aiming at her. "You'd better," she said, tone imbued with a soft warning. They mutually trusted one another when it came to Shinichi. Someone had to partner up to keep him from getting himself killed.

As the door slid shut behind the pairing, the room grew silent once more. The minutes passed by in a slow trickle, agonizing for the two men hailing from Ekoda. Just as Heiji had begun dozing in his chair, Kudo had started to stir, blankets crumpling haphazardly around his legs. His eyes opened sluggishly, mind muddled and groggy.

"Hey, Kudo. You awake?" Heiji called, leaning forward into his friend's peripheral view. Shinichi angled his head slightly, blinking to rid his eyes of the fog clouding them. He lifted the arm attached to his good side, pawing at his nose before murmuring quietly, "Hospital?"

"Yeah, we made it."

The Eastern detective made a move as if to sit up and Heiji was immediately wrapping his arms around him to help him up. When he was finally situated, Heiji pulled away to hand him a lukewarm glass of water and then resumed his sitting position beside the bed. Shinichi accepted the offer graciously, gulping the water down before setting it down with a clink. His eyes trailed to the opposite side of the bed, where he found Hakuba and KID watching him avidly.

"…Hello," he mumbled, suddenly overcome with a nervous nausea. The two seemed to notice or realize that he felt a bit uncomfortable, both breaking into soft smiles. Hakuba nodded, murmuring a quiet "good morning" in return. KID applied his usual charm. "Welcome to the land of the living, sleeping beauty. Have pleasant dreams?"

Shinichi raised an eyebrow in inquiry, not noticing the way Heiji watched the interaction with calculating eyes. Finally, he cracked a smile, slowly shaking his head. Suddenly, he didn't feel so nervous anymore. He glanced down at his wounded shoulder, brushing his fingertips against it ever so slightly.

"It apparently didn't hit anything major and oddly enough, didn't go as deep as we thought it had," Hakuba called aloud, speaking for what seemed the first time in hours. Must have been an effect of the transition from child to adult, Shinichi rationalized silently. He nodded in acknowledgement, lips quirking curiously when Heiji asked, "How ya feelin'?"

"Fine, I suppose. Though I would assume that would be the drugs working."

He got a simultaneous nod from all other occupants of the room, confirming his conjecture. He then released a heavy breath of air, bowing his head in a relenting fashion. "Speaking of drugs…" Shinichi chuckled dryly.

Heiji stood, knowing that Shinichi was about to spill the beans. "Gimme a sec, Kudo." He crossed to the far wall, running his hands along the plaster and glaring down at the tiles, checking every little indistinct mark and groove. He combed his way across the room in a hasty but thorough manner. After a couple of minutes, Heiji sighed, having finished but still a little wary.

KID reached into one of his many pockets, producing a tiny, bite-sized device resembling a high-tech rubix-cube. "I have this… Though it's battery life is only a few hours long."

Heiji blinked before smiling. Shinichi gave a wan smile, too, before making a gesture to hand it over. The thief leaned over, dropping it onto his palm. A jamming device. Why was he not surprised that Kaitou KID would happen to have one of these on his person?

Without a further word, Heiji made his way over and resumed his position on Kudo's other side, taking the device from his friend and activating it. After the click of setting it onto the table, the room descended into a heavy silence.

"Where to start…?" Shinichi ventured, voice lilting somewhat nervously at the end. Kaito, ever observant, came to the rescue.

"How about the beginning?" He smiled cheekily, pulling the hat a little lower over his face. The room was still pretty dim, but… That didn't mean he was going to risk it. Shinichi simply blinked and shook his head, restraining the smile that threatened to break over his lips. Hakuba and Heiji watched the exchange in minor curiosity, noting that the thief seemed to have a calming effect on their fellow detective.

…As ironic as that sounded.

Shinichi blew out a sigh, expelling the tension from his body and mind. Finally he began a story of a year past.

"Back in September of last year, I went to Tropical Land with Ran. It was just a normal day, hanging out with a good friend of mine, when, of course, I stumbled across a murder."

Shinichi paused, brow pinching. "Or rather, it stumbled across me." He glanced over to KID and Hakuba, miming a slit across the neck, eyes dulled in detachment. "The man who had been sitting behind me during one of the rides had his head chopped off."

His two avid listeners shuddered minutely, mildly disturbed at the fact that he could say such a thing with such a straight face. Shinichi continued, not noticing the way his audience squirmed in discomfort.

"I quickly realized that it had been a murder and began interrogating the other passengers that had been on the ride along with me. There were a few other people that were suspicious in their own right, but it was generally obvious who had done it. But… there were two men that piqued my interest."

Hesitation enveloped him for a moment, the realization that there was no going back after this pounding through every pore of his being.

"…They were dressed head to toe in black, non-distinct clothing." He saw the way that Kaito tensed from the corner of his eye; saw the way he seemed to be cramming the pieces together in his head.

"After revealing the trick and the evidence, the murderer was apprehended, leaving the other suspects free to leave. But those two men…" He shook his head. "Something really bugged me about them. Something told me that, though the murder had been committed by someone else, they could have easily done it, too."

Shinichi shifted, leaning a little more comfortably against the headboard of the hospital bed. He slipped his eyes shut, a little wary of their reaction to the upcoming part of his story. It was true that they already generally knew the outcome, but… to hear how it had come about…

"I got the feeling that they were hiding something big. So when they slipped away, I kept an eye on them. When I was talking to Ran afterward, I saw one of them out of the corner of my eye, acting suspiciously. So I told her I'd meet her back home and decided to go check it out."

Deciding to just keep going without pause, Shinichi plowed right into it.

"It had been the shorter of the two. I followed him around back behind one of the lesser-visited bathrooms in the park. It turned out that he had been blackmailing a CEO who had been smuggling guns illegally into the country. I pulled out a camera, intending to get hard evidence of the transaction, but I was so focused on what I was watching…"

Pounding adrenaline and an almost twisted sense of excitement. Pain pain pain. Deep breath. Breathe.

"…That I hadn't heard the footsteps approaching from behind." He opened his eyes, belatedly realizing that he had hung his head at some point. Gaze planted blankly on the starch material of the blankets pooled in his lap, Shinichi persisted in his story, oblivious to the reactions of his listeners or of Heiji's second time hearing it.

"I had forgotten about the other man. He approached me from behind… and hit me upside the head with a baseball bat." Shinichi almost laughed at the subtle intake of breath from the two young men listening intently. He snapped from his stupor, glancing up and giving a crooked smile. "It hurt quite a bit. I couldn't move, the pain was so intense. All I could do was lay there on the wet grass…

"I remember them saying something about a new drug that their 'organization' had developed. That it was an untraceable poison that hadn't been tested on humans yet." He shrugged with his good shoulder. "I was force-fed the poison. The next thing I knew was the pain. It was excruciating. The hit to my head had nothing on it. There's no way to describe it."

The shudder that tore through his body came unbidden. He shut his eyes to shield himself from the brunt of the vivid memory. "I remember thinking, 'It's hot. My bones are melting. I'm dying.' I think I passed out then." Shinichi glanced up, meeting the gazes of two people who had reached realization. They had connected the dots. But still, he found himself continuing.

"I woke up to a light in my face. I remember my first thought was, 'Ahh, so the poison doesn't work on humans.'" Shinichi's snort was understandably sarcastic. "I was confused when the security officers kept referring to me as a little boy. 'Are you okay, little boy? What happened, kid?'At first I didn't really notice anything until one of them had picked me up. Then I realized that my clothes were a lot less fitting than they had been previously. And then I heard one of them say that they thought I was in grade school—probably six or seven years old."

The Eastern detective relaxed up against the headboard, sapphire eyes concentrated on a time that the three young men beside him couldn't see.

"I think I was in shock. I couldn't comprehend what had happened. Maybe I thought I was in a dream—I honestly don't really remember. Then it was like I never noticed the fact that my clothes were too big or that they thought me to be in grade school. When I was brought back to the medical ward, I tried to tell them what had happened but they wouldn't listen. Then they referred to me as a little boy again. Of course, I snapped back at them: 'I'm a Junior in high-school!'"

A wry, belittling grin twisted at his lips. "They burst out laughing. I was so confused… until I turned and saw myself in the mirror. I almost froze at what I saw." The grin faded away into a mask, the other two detectives and thief watching unblinkingly. "But then I heard them talking about taking me to a crèche. I immediately ran. I didn't really know where I was going, I was just trying to get out of there.

"I ended up in front of my house on the verge of a panic attack. About that time Agasa-hakase botched one of his inventions. Again." He snapped from his unseeing state with a mild chuckle. That old man never failed to amuse with his inventions…

"Somehow I managed to convince him that I was Shinichi—the very same one that had lived next door for almost the entirety of his life. When I told him what had happened, we were discussing it and went to my house to dig up some clothes that would actually fit me. We decided… that it would be best that nobody got involved. That nobody would know what had happened to Kudo Shinichi."

He made a sardonic face. "Of course, that's when Ran showed up, wondering what the hell had happened to me. I realized that she would probably connect two and two together by my appearance—she was my childhood friend, after all—so I put some of dad's glasses on at the last minute. And when she pressured me into introducing myself…"

Shinichi's embarrassed chuckle spoke volumes. "Well… Edogawa Conan was born."

Both Hakuba and KID sat in silence, frozen with information overload. It was impossible for such a thing to happen, and yet… They had seen it first-hand. They had, in a way, witnessed the story in its entirety. There was no questioning the authenticity of his narrative. Though, Kaito admittedly had the advantage over Hakuba in this sort of situation. He had witnessed the weird stuff that happened around a certain witch first-hand, too…

Shinichi sighed, rubbing a hand over his face. He moved to shift again, idly cursing the hospital bed for being so needlessly uncomfortable. The young detective halted in the process when a wave of pain tore through him.

"Nnngh!" He grit his teeth against the pain, hand snapping to grip his shoulder. Heiji stood from his chair, reaching forward to keep him from finishing the movement. "That'd be the pain killer wearin' off, then." Shinichi gave a sharp nod of the head, a small part of him finding the way that Hakuba and KID had sprung up to help amusing. The detective and thief duo hovered anxiously beside the bed, fervently ignoring the fact that they were standing right next to one another.

"I'm buzzin' the nurse," Heiji stated, reaching over and pressing the nearby red button mounted on the wall once. It took a few moments for Shinichi to wind down, but when he did, it was like all the tension just melted away in an instant. He suddenly released a breath, limbs falling limp.

Heiji cautiously sat on the edge of the bed, careful not to shift the mattress too suddenly. "Mizumi-san should be here soon," the dark skinned young man murmured, eyes riveted upon the bed-confined detective. His nurse, Shinichi assumed. The silence was pensive as they awaited the arrival of Shinichi's nurse. Shinichi's eyes slipped shut as he thought over the fact that he had just revealed his secret again. Oddly enough, he felt a bit relieved. Like the weight on his shoulders had lifted just that much more.

"You know… I decided to live with Ran so that I would get a chance to find information on Them," he suddenly said, smiling when he felt the attention of the room directed his way again. "I decided that my best chance of getting my body back. That's when Haibara found me."

"The quiet, serious girl of the Shounen-tantei-dan," KID supplied. Heiji nodded with Shinichi. "She came in while you were out earlier," Heiji murmured.

"Ahh… So you've probably figured it out by now. That she's like me."

The wounded detective didn't have to open his eyes to know that KID and Hakuba had nodded in response. They had always been good at connecting the dots. "But then, I bet you haven't figured out what her story is." He opened his eyes to watch the confusion pass over their faces. By the way he had tensed slightly, he knew Heiji was looking forward to their reaction, too.

"She was the one who made the drug. She is the creator of the 'traceless poison' that turned my life upside down." He kept a firm grip on the laughter that threatened to bubble out. If the two sitting to his right hadn't been in shock before, they certainly were now. He held up a hand to keep their imaginations from spiraling too far out of control.

"Long story short, her parents had been in the Organization, and when it was discovered that she was a talented scientist, they forcefully brought her in."

He gave the two a meaningful look. "They threatened her sister's life." Shinichi gave a weak, lopsided shrug. "So she spent a while working in their Research and Development division. Until they broke their promise. I was there when they killed her sister." The Eastern detective frowned, eyes clouded over by memories of the turmoil he had experienced that night. It was always jarring when he could have saved someone but ultimately failed… That night had been one of his biggest regrets.

"She rebelled and was imprisoned. She wanted nothing more to do with them, so she took the poison that she had created…"

He gave a dry chuckle. "…And happened to get that one-in-a-million chance of ending up like me. She had heard about my death being unaccounted for, so she immediately realized what had happened and came looking for me. She's been a great ally ever since."

Hakuba looked visually staggered. "That's…"

Suddenly the door to the room slid open, admitting a small, red-headed nurse with a bob-cut. "You buzzed?" she asked with a smile. Heiji nodded, jabbing a thumb toward Shinichi (and ignoring the way that Hakuba and KID seemed to still be coming to terms with the information they had just heard). "Yeah, he prob'ly needs another dose a pain killers." He motioned to the I.V. that was running suspiciously low on fluids.

The young woman nodded, disappearing from the doorway for a moment before she reappeared with a cart covered in various medical supplies. She wheeled the cart in before pausing to slide the door shut behind her. She took a moment to glance through his charts before she got to work setting up the new I.V. bag. "So how are you doing right now, Shinichi?" She had just finished changing it out as Shinichi raised an eyebrow. The petite nurse didn't seem to notice the action, moving around the bed to access the other tools that she had brought in.

"I'm doing fine… Just the typical pain," he answered evenly, eyes never leaving her face as she carefully wrapped the blood pressure cuff around the bicep of his right arm. She had just started compressing the pump when he asked in return:

"How are you doing, Vermouth?"

The young nurse curved her lips into a devious grin, overlooking the way that her patient's Osakan bodyguard knocked his chair over in his haste to stand. Hakuba and KID stood off to the side, confused at the sudden tension that filled the air.

The redheaded woman took a moment to record the reading before she looked up and answered, "I'm doing great, Cool Guy."

Chapter Twelve

End

…Did I mention that I'm a cliffhanger whore? No? My bad.

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