Tokyo: 8:50
Panay: 7:50
Hidemi clicked on a flashlight and held it in her left arm, resting her right forearm atop it with her gun pointed forward. After taking in a full view of her surroundings she motioned for the others to follow her. Camel was the first to enter followed by the four Beika police officers, who all wore the same hardened expression.
"Camel-san, do you see the door ahead of us?" Hidemi whispered, pointing her flashlight at a steel door ten meters ahead of them. She turned to receive his nonverbal answer and he nodded "Go ahead and enter through it, I'll cover you"
"Hai" and with that Camel proceeded forward. As he drew closer to the door Hidemi turned to her subordinates and motioned for Sato and Takagi to move forward to her left. They both nodded and moved, bringing themselves to her direct left
"When he opens the door and gives us the okay, I want you two to follow him in. We'll come in after you" Takagi nodded but Sato seemed confused
"Why would we change our strategy now?" Sato asked, seemingly genuinely concerned with the prospects of such a risky venture
"Trust me, this is in everyone's best interest" Sato nodded but still wore an expression of puzzlement and scrutiny
"Kudo look at this" Heiji said in with a hint of excitement in his voice
"What?" Shinichi turned, his interest having been peaked by the inflection in his counterpart's voice
"That guy we took down, turns out he was a security guard. These are all security video feeds" Shinichi looked at the wall of screens with a superb grin on his face
"Look!" he exclaimed, pointing to one of the screens. Heiji turned his head to investigate the cause of his outburst
"Isn't that-"
"Gin and Vodka." Shinichi spat out. Heiji remained silent for a moment, feeling no need or desire to analyze his friend's thoughts
"If the duct tape under the screen is correct, he's on the fourth floor down but it looks like he's on the move" Shinichi rubs his chin for a second as he looked around at all the screens in front of him
"It looks as if the fourth floor is the lowest level of the compound. If we move now we should be able to cut him off in the stairwell" he deduced, moving to leave. Before he could make it out the door Heiji jumped out of the chair had been sitting in and ran in front of him, impeding his progress
"Kudo, that's a stupid plan. What the hell do you expect to do once we see him?" he asked, knowing full well Shinichi hadn't thought that far ahead. He was out of sorts and Heiji knew it
"I…" Shinichi seemed disturbed by the fact that he had no answer
"There's only one way we're going to be able to take these guys, and that's if we outsmart them. We have no real weapons plus we're here to arrest them and I guarantee a fight with them would be to the death" Shinichi conceded with a nod, allowing himself to fall against the wall behind him
"Let's think then"
"Is it usually like this?" Jodie asked, still walking behind the disguised Vermouth with one hand on her cuffs and the other on her shoulder
"No, this is strange there usually there are guards everywhere especially on the entry level of the complex" Vermouth continued to observe her surroundings with a feeling of concern, something she undoubtedly shared with Jodie
"Where now" Jodie barked as the two arrived at the front desk, used aesthetically to turn aware unknowing visitors
"Behind the desk there's a map of the whole building" Without responding Jodie released Vermouth and reached over the desk, finding a laminated piece of paper. Without a verbal exchange Jodie held the map in front of Vermouth, who analyzed it carefully for a view seconds
"Well?" Vermouth turned her head to look at Jodie
"If we go to the far end of this hallway there should be a stairwell. We go down one floor and his office should be there" Jodie nodded and they started to move
"Gin" Vodka said to get the attention of his partner, who seemed to be slightly outside his usual frame of mind
"What" he responded hurriedly as he opened the door to the third floor of the building and began to inspect the area
"Does he know that KID is here?" Gin stopped in his tracks and turned to face Vodka
"We'll see him once we have KID in our hands" Gin said in a cold tone. He and Vodka looked at one another for a moment before they continued their search
"Kaito where are we going?" Aoko asked quietly
"This duct should lead to-" Kaito stopped mid-sentence as his head lightly smacked against a wall of thin metal. Aoko, be ill-prepared for the stopped bumped into Kaito butt, pushing Kaito's forehead against the wall again "Baka!" Kaito exclaimed in a relatively hushed voice
"Gomen gomen, but Kaito why did you stop?" Kaito chuckled slightly as his hands ran up the alleged wall
"I found our way out"
'Shinichi…' Ran thought longingly as her mother drove at a frenzied pace toward the airport. Eri managed to steal a glance at her daughter who had never been great at masking her emotions
"Ran, what's wrong?" she asked gently, despite the aggressive manner with which she was navigating her way through the dense freeway traffic
"I'm just…worried" Eri smiled at her child's seemingly ridiculous fears
"Ran, you've witnessed Shinichi-kun do amazing things. He's solved cases, saved lives including yours all while pursuing a syndicate of dangerous criminals and remaining undercover" Ran knew where her mother was going but remained silent as she recalled all of Shinichi's amazing feats "You just need to have faith in him"
"But 'kasan it's like you said, these people are dangerous and they want to k-kill him. I can't help but worry about him" Eri continued to smile at the genuine concern in her daughter's features. After a minute or so of silence she changed her voice's tone to a lighter one and started
"So I heard Shinichi-kun is taking you to dinner tomorrow"
"There" Hidemi said to the two agents to her left as Camel waved his hand at them, giving them the 'O.K' to move forward. Without hesitation Sato and Takagi moved ahead, much to Camel's surprise. He didn't take much time to process the change however as he turned back to the room he had entered and started to move forward. Soon Camel, Sato and Takagi were all in the new room together and Sato and Takagi were now wielding flashlights
"Ready" Hidemi said to the two men behind her. Shiratori and Chiba nodded and with that Hidemi moved forward toward the door. She paused for a few seconds at the threshold cautiously
"Hidemi-san?" Shiratori asked from behind her. Hidemi shook her head and walked into the room, leaving Shiratori once again feeling a twinge of concern in regards to Hondou Hidemi
"Now what?" Camel asked, sensing Hidemi approaching him. Hidemi took a second to look around the room, noticing only one door excluding the one they had just entered through
"We keep going, but be on your guard we don't want to walk into a trap or an ambush" Camel nodded and in the same formation they had used before they entered the next room
"Ready?" Shinichi asked Heiji, who gave him a confident nod. The two had decided that given the direction Gin and Vodka seemed to be going, they could easily sneak up behind them if they timed it correctly. After waiting for the appropriate time the two made their way to the stairwell entrance that Gin and Vodka had used. Now the two were in the stairwell making their way down. After a fast paced descent they found themselves in front of the door that led to the third story of the building. With a deep breath Shinichi turned the knob and pushed the door opening, making sure to be discrete about his entrance. What he saw sent a shiver down his spine 'Gin…..'
"Kudo?" Heiji whispered as he stared down at his dumbfounded friend who has still frozen in the doorway. Heiji voice seemed to pull Shinichi about of his thoughts and he promptly went forward, followed closely by Heiji. As he entered the room he saw what had made his friend stop in his tracks 'So that's him' Heiji thought, taking into perspective all of the trials his friend had endured because of him 'That's Gin'
"Eh?" Ran questioned, almost leaping out of her seat "H-h-how did you know about that?" Ran asked, in absolute amazement
"Well"
~Flashback~
"What did you do to her Kudo!" Kogoro asked, leaping up in his chair when Shinichi appeared with an unconscious Ran in his arms
"Don't worry, she just fell asleep" Shinichi said laughing internally as he recalled the exact way she had fallen asleep
"Would you calm down dear, he's not hurting her" Eri scolded, grabbing Kogoro's sleeve and yanking him back down into his chair. Kogoro growled at his wife who wore an amused grin
"Stupid punk brat bastard…" Kogoro continued to mutter obscenities as he relaxed and fell asleep. Eri giggled at her husband and leaned her head back onto his shoulder. She watched out of the corner of her eye as Shinichi gently placed Ran the chair to Kazuha's right, seeing as the one to her left was consumed by her head
"I take it you couldn't carry both her and the food?" Eri asked lightly, causing Shinichi to grin
"I tried but after a few steps I realized there was no chance I would make it up a flight of stairs with everything" Eri looked over at her husband then back to Shinichi
"I think he'll be alright, and I will too." Shinichi sent her a smile of appreciation for her understanding then continued adjusted Ran body to fit comfortably in the chair. Once he was satisfied he stood up stared at her sleeping form "I always knew" Eri said under her breath, causing Shinichi to turn his head
"Hm?" a soft smile played on her lips as she initiated eye contact with the teenager
"I knew you two would end up together. Your mother and I used to always talk about your wedding and our grandchildren" Shinichi's cheeks tinted pink as he waved his hands in front of his chest frantically
"It's not like that!" Eri only chuckled at his denial
"So you don't return her feelings?" Eri asked suggestively, staring right at Shinichi with unrelenting eyes. Shinichi opened his mouth to reply then turned to the girl sleeping in front of him. He couldn't help but reacknowledge her beauty, as he had dozens of times in the past. After a few seconds of thought he turned back to Eri but avoided her eyes
"Monday, I was going to take her back to the Beika Observatory Restaurant and…"
~End Flashback~
"Wait kasan what happened?" Ran asked, nearly screaming
"That was it, when I asked what he planned to do he said he was tired and went to sleep" Ran slumped down in her seat, torn between feelings of confusion, anticipation and annoyance. As her daughter fell silent Eri grinned, remembering the details of her conversion with Shinichi which she chose to omit
~Flashback~
"Propose?" Eri chimed back, nearly knocking Shinichi off of his feet
"How did you…" Eri looked away from the now fidgeting young man
"When Ran told me about the last time you took her there, she told me you had 'something' you kept wanting say but couldn't because you were too nervous. Then she told me a waitress told her that a 'legendary proposal' occurred there and that it was a detective who proposed. Of course I remembered the place where you father proposed to Yukiko-chan and from that I concluded that was what you had planned to do" Shinichi blushed hard and thanked his lucky stars that Ran hadn't inherited her mother's deductive reasoning, otherwise he'd have been found out a lot sooner
"Is…it okay?" Shinichi asked timidly, scratching the back of his neck, one of his telltale nervous habits. Eri felt her husband shift against her head, it was as if he could sense the topic of marriage being discussed
"If she accepts, what place do we have to refuse? Although convincing him of that may be troublesome" Shinichi nodded as Eri motioned toward her husband who was fast asleep with an unintelligible expression on his face and a faint line of drool on his jaw
~End Flashback~
'I hope you make it back for your dinner, Shinichi-kun'
"Kaito what are you doing?" Aoko asked as Kaito started to rise to his feet
"This air duct leads up. That's where we have to go" Although it wasn't visible in the dark Aoko was staring at Kaito's leg with a look of annoyance
"Do you expect us to just climb up?" Aoko asked irately, earning no immediate verbal response from Kaito. Instead he lowered himself down and took her hand
"Stand up" he said concisely, leaving no room for argument. She nodded and complied, allowing his hand to lead her upward. She stood up slowly and cautiously, making sure not to hit her head. Once she was on her feet she realized that their upper halves were inside the narrow vertical duct, and that they were only centimeters from one another. For the second time since they had entered that duct Aoko's cheeks were bright red
"K-kaito…" she trailed off as he placed an arm around her shoulders
"Hang on" he ordered, and she obliged him, wrapping both of her arms snuggly around his torso. Despite the tight space Kaito managed to reached for his grappling gun and point it upward. He angled it slightly, aiming for the fan positioned at the top of the duct to his right
"What are you-" her question was left half completed as Kaito fired the hook end of his firearm up, stinging both of their ears with its blast. After a second of waiting the hook latched onto the fan as Kaito had predicted and abruptly the two teenagers were shot up toward the ceiling. In one fell swoop the two were thrown to the right of the duct, where their heads came within a few centimeters of the fan
"Too close…." Kaito muttered to himself, still squeezing Aoko as if his life depended on it. Aoko's eyes were open but her face was still buried in his chest and her arms were still around him. They both opened their mouths to speak when they noticed something that silenced them both: moonlight, streaming through the window behind the fan. It was accompanied by a cool breeze that smelled of the ocean and left them both with goosebumps. They were both entranced until reality rushed back into the forefront of their minds and simultaneously they separated
"Kaito"
"Come on, let's go. We're almost out of this"
"Gin"
"I heard it. He's still in the ducts, that way" Vodka nodded and the two of them started off in a sprint toward the stairwell on the opposite side of the hall. Their hasty departure left them unaware of the two teenagers trailing them
I know it's been a while but you know, school is a drag. Anywho, I'm gonna try to finish this off as soon as possible so stay tuned and remember
Reading is Mandatory
Reviewing is Appreciated
