Heiji knows that cat is that normal. He's known since the Holmes case. The cat itself has admitted such; it said so. Explained in no unclear terms that it was a highly intelligent spirit that had a heart set on solving crimes via possession. He accepted as much— Heiji was not so superstitious that he didn't know when to not take things at face value, but he was the sort to accept fairly black and white facts laid out to him by a talking cat. What other explanation could there be…?
But things just kept getting weirder than that— the thing seemed to have some sort of connection to Kudo. The cat was found in Kudo's house a day after the guy had gone missing, according to Ran. This was enough to just shrug off as nothing, but things continued to pile up.
The first thing asides from that Heiji noted was that the creature would tense at any mention of Kudo— and with Ran and him at a tea party Kudo himself sent them to, of course he was mentioned. Any time the conversation turned to Tokyo's teen detective, Heiji would notice the cat prick up in anxious listening. When something significant was mentioned, like Kudo's birthday or his absence, Heiji could feel the bakeneko go rigid on his shoulders. Considering that the cat avoided his curious gaze, he wasn't going to share what he knew.
Next, the voice thing was downright weird. Conan had some kind of strange affinity for Shinichi's voice, and didn't even connect that he was talking in a voice not his own when he forgot to, in his words, "switch." And damn if he could not pull that voice off. It was not just vocal mimicry— when Conan mimicked Shinichi, he mimicked Shinichi. Unlike Kogoro or other "sleeping sleuths" the cat used—who if you really paid attention you could observe the lack of normality in a vague sense of small wrongs adding up— Conan was able to seem exactly, uncannily like Shinichi. There were no wrongs, nothing abnormal to Kudo, and he was able to switch back and forth between that and his "normal" personality with ease he was unable to achieve with his stilted speech possessing Kogoro.
This was clearly able to convince others, too. Heiji had definitely not bought that Kudo magically squeezed through the gaps into the damaged cinema building when the bomb squad took forty minutes to arrive. The cat could easily squeeze through those gaps, and mimic Shinichi down to a T. But Ran did claim that she talked at length about things only Shinichi would know— how would an act be that convincing in the face of a childhood friend? Based on his shoddy acting in the past, a little of Conan's original persona would inevitably slip through in something incongruous.
But… even his normal personality was in question, though. When the cat had been in Osaka with Heiji, it had been fairly laid back; introverted and quiet but fairly friendly, and had a burning curiosity and a sharp mind and wit. With Ran, the latter two things remained, but other things changed. The cat became a bit haughty, gained a superiority complex, and distinctly became more mischievous. Heiji couldn't figure out how this connected to Kudo or if it even did, asides from the fact that they both distinctly reminded him of his fellow teen at different sections of the act— mostly when he was observing clues, but also his cocky sarcasm that was distinctly Kudo.
So… what was the connection…? Clearly, they had some kind of bond, possibly resulting in Kudo's personality rubbing off on the cat— Heiji didn't pretend to know the complexities of a yokai's personality, as they tended to have multiple personas even across a single iteration of a story. Still, for a personality to so closely mimic another was more than just "rubbing off." It didn't make sense that Conan would be bad at acting as other personalities of people he was relatively close to but could do Shinichi, and it didn't explain how Conan had talked at length with Ran about things only Shinichi would know.
Heiji briefly entertained the joking thought that Kudo was cursed to be a bakeneko somehow, laughing a bit. No, he wasn't that desperate for an answer— stewing on this longer and observing Conan longer would surely bring a less crazy answer, right?
xXx
Heiji called the number that Conan had hesitantly given to him, saying it was the number to the phone-collar. Callar…? Hm, too close to be a good pun…
"Yo!" Heiji greeted.
He heard a faint surprised "oh" that sounded weirdly not like Conan's ordinary androgynous rasp and faintly like Kudo's voice. There was a faint click and then Conan asked "what do you want, Hattori?" in his ordinary throaty voice, projecting that mask of superiority. Something sounded tenuous about it; nervous and quick, as though the "oh" was a mistake.
"I wanna talk to ya!"
"You are," the cat said back, and Heiji could hear the eye roll in his voice.
"Eh, 's not the same! Visit Osaka sometime soon, ne?"
"Eh? Is that it…? Realy? That's all you called me for?" he continued mumbling exasperatedly. "It's only barely been over a week since I was staying with you," he finished.
"Cheh, is it that surprising I liked your company?" Heiji chirped. Well, it wasn't a lie, even if it wasn't the exact reason he called—
"Oh," the cat said, seeming a bit flustered. It was odd; any genuine compliment got Conan to completely slip on any personality he was grasping at, and just seem confused and overly touched. Maybe cats just weren't good at that stuff…?
"I'll come as soon as I can," the cat said shortly, sounding a bit embarrassed— another thing that always followed a compliment; he'd shut down and seem ashamed. Heiji didn't know bakeneko customs nor did he know this particular bakeneko all that well yet— but it was the yet that was important, and the yet that made him feel like he needed to get him used to ordinary affection.
xXx
Conan found Heiji easily enough at the train station, and the pair easily jetted back to the Osakan's house on his motorcycle.
Now, the cat was shuffling awkwardly on his counter, for lack of ability to fidget.
"So," Heiji drew out deliberately, eyeing the cat closely. "Kudo," he said, keeping the subject nice and simple.
Yeah?" he asked, ears tipping forward fractionally. Heiji watched as a brief flash of tension passed over the cat, and his ears made to flatten down before the cat forcibly stilled in a frozen picture of interest. Too frozen. "What about him? He's that other detective, yeah?" Conan continued, sounding strained.
"Don't play dumb with me," Heiji barked, watching as the creature's blue eyes widened in panic.
"I- it's not-" he squeaked, stuttering.
"I know ya have a connection with him!"
The cat went stock still.
"...What?"
"Yanno! Yer connected to him, somehow! The house, the way you can perfectly act like him, the whole blown up tower thing, all that!"
The cat seemed taken aback. It was hard to read its expression- humans weren't exactly keyed into minute cat tells- but it seemed caught between laughing and crying.
Thankfully, Conan settled on an explanation.
"You got me," he sighed, and Heiji squinted at him again. If he was going to confess and explain, like it seemed he would, why could he practically see a mask sliding into place…?
"I have a pact with the guy."
"A… what?"
The cat looked into their air, as though trying to formulate an explanation that he would understand. Or coming up with a lie.
"I helped him out of a dangerous bind, see? Something, something poison. Contract confidentiality- and now he owes me one."
"I thought Kudo was pretty much the most non-believer in the supernatural world," Heiji said. The cat's gaze flitted to the side, as though guilty- or… hiding laughter…? Dangit his face was so hard to read!
"Yeah, I might've done it discreetly," he meowed with a mischievous wink.
"How're you going to get him to repay ya if he doesn't believe in you?" Heiji asked, confused.
"There are ways around it," the cat drawled. "I can cash in favors unknowingly."
"Oh?"
"I may or may not be crashing at the guy's house," Conan drawled, cocky grin deliberately in place on his muzzle. Heiji raised his eyebrows at that. "It's comfy!" the cat defended.
"Alright then," Heiji accepted, filing away the oddities for further inspection. "So, how about we go find a mystery to solve together, yeah?"
"There's no guarantee that we'll come across a mystery," the cat huffed.
"With our luck combined, you know there is. Remember how many we came across durin' our one week of bein' together?"
"That- yeah. Fine. Let's go find something to do," the cat sighed resignedly, and Heiji laughed.
xXx
fun thing about shinichi's personalities: they're closer to what he is in canon in my opinion. i think shinichi has been wearing masks and acting cocky and over inflated his whole life, when in truth he's just kind of a dorky introvert who doesn't have many friends outside of ran. how he acts with heiji is closer to the "inner" shinichi, a mix of sarcasm and introverted intelligence. the bakeneko is kind of a supernatural twist to that cocky mask; sarcasm and smarts still there, just being used more as barbs. both are "real" in their own ways and all that; acts like this require grains of true personality to be embellished.
Also, it's simply a lot easier for Shinichi to act as a cat, since people have a MUCH harder time picking up on any tells/microexpressions, and are a lot more likely to dismiss any oddities as "bakeneko weirdness." On top of that, he really only talks to Heiji and Ran, so he's lying a lot less.
anyways i had a very fun MLK weekend! went skiing and to the western stock show!
donkey kong says trans rights