A New Method of Persuasion
A/N: I am so late... I have no excuses. The artist for this chapter's song title is Bruce Hornsby, good song, you can find it at youtube under this extension v=GlRQjzltaMQ
Only thing left is the thank yous. 60 of you have this favorited, and 80 of you have it on alert, that is not counting however many people have me on author alert. As per my new normal, huge thank yous to: Kat-Sakura, Aniki-xvi, fangirl666, ZeroPanda, Kuroange1, angelwingsonline, Seirei_Nightlord05, Smexyforever, vetis1056(sorry for making you crazy there for a bit), and Firestorm2130 (it was very fun talking with you.) You all brighten my day considerably, now on with the show!
PART TWENTY NINE- THE WAY IT IS
It was astonishing to Heiji that Kudou had simply showed up in his hospital room, looking something akin to a kicked puppy. It was his downcast expression, the way he kept sighing, and the way he would glance out the window as if looking for something that simply wasn't there. Kudou was acting… like a kicked lovesick puppy. What had Mouri san managed to do to her detective?
"What is wrong with you Kudou, you're being awfully quiet for you," Heiji prodded, poking the detective verbally. Kudou looked at him with an unreadable expression and in response, he sighed with agitation before demanding, "What the hell is going on, that has you acting like such a… girl. You're acting like one of those love sick fans we get to 'gently' let down all the time. Did Mouri san say something to you?" Kudou finally moved away from the window and sat in the chair facing the hospital bed Hattori lied in.
"No, Ran didn't say anything to me. But I can't help but think she'd have some sort of advice on the matter," he almost mumbled to himself before he sighed. Again. "I feel so confused… It's like part of me wants to believe there's something human underneath the mask he wears for the world. There's other parts that just can't… can't understand his motives. There is no justifiable reason to kill another being. No matter what any of these criminals come up with, not one reason is good enough… and yet…" Kudou's next sigh was so heavy that it burdened the air of the entire room.
Ah. So that was it. "So it's the mysterious man with the broken arm then. CIA or FBI? I never did get the chance to ask," Heiji smiled and the pint-sized detective frowned. Wait, was Heiji mistaken? Kudou had asked him to provide a cover story to Ran and the brats, but who had the detective actually been with at that time? He had just assumed that it was the broken armed man.
"Neither." Kudou replied, "I really can't go into it Hattori," Kudou's expression made it look more like Heiji was trying to pull teeth out rather than just trying to get a straight answer out of him, "its vastly over complicated as it is. You knowing more about the situation really wouldn't help." Ah, while it wasn't an entirely straight answer, there was a distinct lack of an actual 'no' there.
"So it is about him. So what were you two up to this weekend, that has me scrambling for answers," Heiji poked verbally again. Kudou's face dropped visibly, and Heiji realized perhaps he should have let it go, but his inner detective shoved him forward with cruel enthusiasm.
"Remind me to harass you the next time Kazuha gets pissed off at you, that way you'll have a better understanding of this. I solved a case, and then I…" Kudou's eyes shifted towards the window as he thought of how to phrase it, "I screwed up. I made a mistake, and a costly one at that. Now… I'm pretty sure things are back to square one." Heiji raised an eyebrow at that, the phrasing and indications were of attraction and rejection. It was the delivery and the subjects that were throwing the Osaka detective off.
"Did you have a fight about your feelings towards your 'secret agent' man with 'secret agent' man? What about Mouri?" Heiji assumed this would constitute as stoking the fire, or pouring salt on an open wound and rubbing it in with cruel glee.
It seemed however that his fellow detective was feeling somewhat better, because he was getting it out there and not dwelling on it. The annoying sighs had stopped at least!
"Not so much a fight, it was like I was cut off entirely. I solved the case, he walked past me, never even thanked me for proving it wasn't him, and then he… he forgot his change of clothes," the detective blushed heavily and almost stammered before moving on, "since his arm is broken I wanted to see if he needed any help. So I did, I opened the door to ask and…" Suspense filled the air, and Heiji wanted to scream in frustration. It was like the evidence drying up in front of you with no clues on which direction to go. What the hell did Kudou mean by he forgot his change of clothes? There had to be more to this!
"And? What happened next Kudou?" Heiji realized at that point he might have sounded like a starved soap opera addict waiting for someone to tell them the next great plot twist. He mentally sighed, and made a note to apologize to Kudou for also acting like such a girl at a time when he needed a friend. However there were more pressing matters at the moment, and the truth must be found!
"And…" Kudou was about to continue when Mouri san and Kazuha walked in.
RAN
When she walked in to find Conan with that expression she mental checked over her Shinichi expression charts for what it might mean. She found that it was one that Shinichi had never showed her, and therefore one she had yet to place under any sort of category. Hattori's expression of surprise told her two things. The first was that Kazuha had not in fact told Hattori they were coming, the second was that Hattori kun really wanted to know what Conan had been about to say.
"How was your trip with Ishida san Conan kun?" she asked hoping that he would get some sort of answer out of the boy. Hattori's eyebrow raised, so he didn't know about Ishida san either? How was she not surprised, Conan kept secrets better than most Teitan Secondary level students did. "Conan kun." She gave it her motherly tone she had been working on, it was more of a growl than anything else.
"Ishida san was pleased to have my help, we solved the case he was worried about," Conan responded quickly, "Not without further aggravating his previous wounds. He is leery to be around people still, so I ended up doing a lot of the legwork, but everything happened just as he suspected." Hattori was scanning his statement as well, it was the same look Shinichi often got when he was listening to witnesses.
"Ishida san is it?" Hattori questioned with an interesting eyebrow, "so you'll tell Mouri san, but with me you neglect to give me a name?" Ran almost snorted at the amused look Conan gave Hattori, it was the 'but of course I would' look. It also told her that Heiji had indeed heard about Ishida san, but Conan had not used a name whenever they discussed the man. The hurt look and the understanding that crossed Hattori's face told her that much.
"Ran neechan needed to know who I was with, you did not Heiji niisan. She is the only looking after me," Conan's voice had a small comparison to Sonoko's I told you so voice at that time. How it raised ever so slightly in pitch, and was annoying to the person it was intended for. Ran giggled at the frustrated look Hattori kun used to convey said annoyance.
"I forgot, you still need a babysitter Bozu," Hattori looked like he wanted to say something else, but was holding his tongue. Ran was betting it was the affectionate 'ahou' he normally called Kazuha san. Conan looked mildly affended, but shrugged it off. Ran also noted that a very ugly retort was about to rear its head.
"Only because of my age Heiji nii-san, not like you who actually needs one to keep you out of trouble. Or danger," Conan's comment had its desired effect. Hattori attempted to launch himself out of the bed and straight at Conan. Kazuha, knowing Hattori kun better than he knew himself at times, restrained him easily by grabbing his ear and yanking the opposite direction.
"Don't get mad at Conan kun just because he's telling the truth," Kazuha scolded. Hattori's face went bright red as she released his ear and turned away from them. Conan was grinning like a smug idiot, Ran decided some retribution was in order. She ruffled his hair with her knuckles, and Conan's expression turned slightly pained, but no more so than when her father did it.
"A-tata-tch," he complained softly, "Ran nee-chan that hurts!" She smiled innocently, stopping the action momentarily, Conan looked at her slightly puzzled. She wondered what the look was about, because under normal everyday situations she looked to Conan for answers. What could puzzle her little mini Shinichi?
SHINICHI
This day was just not going well for Shinichi. Heiji had been irritating, but he was the mini detective's hope for an objective answer. Was Shinichi going crazy? He hadn't been able to explain anything to the Osaka detective, but Heiji instinctly knew how to question him and get to the bottom of things. Now that Ran and Kazuha had entered the hospital room his hopes of an answer were dashed. He would have to let his thoughts linger on that subject until it came to its logical and improbable conclusion. He knew something was wrong, but Heiji's observations had been both helpful and unsettling.
How could he be acting like a 'kicked lovesick puppy' after this weekend? That wasn't how Heiji phrased it, but it was how he implied it. It made the mini detective scowl inwardly as he considered the idea, but the more he considered it, the more it appeared true. He cared about what the blond thought about him, that much was true at the very least. He could not however concede that the feeling was love or admiration, maybe disappointment or fear, but not love… It made no sense.
Ran was ushering him out, and he was grateful she was taking some sort of action while he was preoccupied thinking on the matter. Heiji knew him, and he understood the way Shinichi's mind worked most of the time. The Osaka detective also knew bits and pieces of the stories around Gin. He did not know however that Ishida san was Gin who was also the very same Gin from the stories about him being shrunk. Objectively this put the other detective at a disadvantage for understanding the situation as a whole, but it also left him unbiased about the situation.
Heiji would call later, and he would wring the story out of Shinichi. By that time he would have made some sort of conclusion about the matter. Ran might have some advice on the matter, but he would have to ask when Kogoro was either drunk or out for the night. As they crossed the street back to the agency Shinichi wondered if perhaps he could ever make sense of what was going on. Why he wanted to change his actions during that one moment so badly, or rather his reactions…
THE CONTINUATION FROM CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT (as Heiji would say this chapter, "and?")
Shinichi slipped open the door, Gin was viciously snarling as he fought a particularly difficult knot in his hair. The tiny detective froze, it was the most human thing he had seen the blond do. He would have laughed had it been anyone else, but for the moment he was struck dumb. The blond was so absorbed with his hair he didn't hear Shinichi slip in, the detective finally met the consequences for not announcing his presence. A loud breath on his part surprised the assassin, he had been foolish.
Gin had him lifted up off the floor and pinned to the wall by his throat before Shinichi could blink. The assassin was on autopilot, and Shinichi realized this too late as he struggled to fend off the hand that was choking him. Slowly Gin's eyes widened as he realized exactly who was pinned against the wall struggling in his hand. The hand was withdrawn leaving the shrunken detective to tumble down the wall into a heap on the floor. His face paled as the assassin backed up stone faced, there was no expression on his features.
It made Shinichi's blood run cold in that instance, he was being blocked out and it scared him. He couldn't read anything from the blond when he did this, he didn't understand what sort of action he was supposed to take in response. The blond's stony expression was also more of a death glare than he remembered.
"What are you doing?" the blond all but growled at him. Shinichi attempted to back up, his attempt was rewarded with a swift bash to the back of his head. Dazed he tried to put together what just happened, there was a hand moving his head forward and checking the spot where… He winced as the blond's fingers probed the bump forming on the back of his head.
"Itai…" he muttered keeping his eyes closed. He had the assumption had just majorly fucked up, and he didn't want to make things worse. "I was trying to ask if you needed any help… itai." Gin's fingers brushed over that spot again, Shinichi bit his lip as his head was tilted up and the blond watched his eyes intently.
"No concussion," the blond announced in a dead pan, "I don't think you're in a position to be helping anyone at the moment Fox." Shinichi realized that perhaps he wasn't mad so much as in shock, the blond didn't do shock, thus the lack of expression. At least that's what Shinichi kept telling himself. "Trying to help with what exactly?" The raised eyebrow was a surprise, Shinichi thanked whatever gods there be that expressions were back on the field.
"It can't be easy working with that much hair one handed…" Shinichi trailed off, it didn't sound like such a good idea any more. Even if it had been an entirely innocent plan to start with, he felt his cheeks start to flush with embarrassment. "I shouldn't have thought about it… I'll leave you to your mane." The eyebrow raised further, the blond shook his head slightly sending the wet strands back over his shoulder. Shinichi felt his face heat further, had he just noticed? Oh Kami this was bad… "Gin… wait!" The blond had already made the move to stand, the already loosened knot getting ready to fail.
Before it could completely fail Shinichi had sprung to his feet, hands poised to keep the towel in place. The blond's skin was warm beneath his fingertips, and he could feel the assassin tense at his actions. One large hand reached down and took over for him, and as soon as Gin did that Shinichi was out the door. He had threw it shut and made for his bag where he placed the antidote in a protective case before having a mental meltdown.
A/N: Mental note, while Ishida may be Ayumi's last name in the series, but Gin's fake name has nothing to do with her. I was 'borrowing' the Ishida from Mitsunari Ishida after finding his character so fascinating from Warriors Orochi 2. Youtube video v=e1cWJXv_PLY will explain everything at the end of it, but his defeat an officer line is: "I should stop expecting so much". My favorite one of all time is Cao Pi's officer defeat line, "Why do they even bother?" See ya next time, Hittocere
