Thanks for the comments/favs/follows! Please enjoy this update! Updates will be slow for the duration of this month as I've got a LOT of exams to study for!
Summary: In which, with the help of Heiji, Kaito and Shinichi break into a police station to find Shinichi's hidden case files.
"I can't believe I'm doin' this," Heiji mutters under his breath, pocketing his phone. It's not even nine a.m. yet and he's already stood in the middle of a police station, preparing to abet two criminals and add more broken laws to his ever growing list of faults.
If his father ever finds about this… Heiji shudders, decides that it's best not to think about that, and looks in the bathroom's mirror. He wonders, not for the first time, if he'll be able to convincingly lie to those around him, asks himself whether his facial expressions will give him away.
It doesn't matter, he tells himself, because it needs to be done.
Kudo needs those files, and from the moment he'd first decided that Kudo was innocent, Heiji had promised himself he'd do what it takes to prove it. Sure, it might mean breaking some laws… but if he balanced it out, a few broken laws were worth it, especially if it meant they could bring down a ring of organised crime.
Heiji knows this, and yet-
He slaps his cheeks, forces a smile onto his face and readies himself to leave the bathroom. Outside, Kazuha leans against a wall, waiting for him to return. She glances up at him, offers him a smile in return to his own, and pushes herself forward.
"So where are we headin'?" She asks, grabbing onto his arm and pulling him back towards the main corridor. "Are we goin' to th' same place as yest'rday?"
Heiji shakes his head, letting her pull him back towards the reception. He says, "we're goin' up ta division one's headquart'rs. They used ta work with Kudo, so hopefully they'll give us some insight to wha' he was like."
Kazuha squints at him, "but you've met him?"
"Yeah," Heiji says, and suddenly he is the one pulling her forwards, their positions shifted as Kazuha follows him, "but I only met 'im after his case was solved, not before. I wanna ask them about wha' he was like then."
Kazuha nods behind him, and Heiji, nervous about what comes next, attempts to unscramble his thoughts. The CCTV room is just down from division one, and Heiji knows that he's only got a maximum of five minutes to figure out how to get inside. The idea is unsettling, and Heiji runs a hand through his hair trying to think.
It shouldn't be so difficult, he thinks, to get inside the room - if he asks to look at the old tapes, they'll let him sit inside and watch. Getting inside the room isn't exactly the difficult part. Getting inside without Kazuha joining him is.
"Tha' makes sense I guess…" Kazuha mutters, wrapping her arms around herself when Heiji lets go of her hand. "But, why'd ya never tell me you were talkin' to a criminal?"
She speeds up in her pace so that she's equal to him, walking beside him rather than behind. Then, after a short pause, she jabs Heiji in the side, glaring at his lack of response.
"I'm thinkin' how ta put it into words." Heiji scowls, looking down at her. "It's jus', when I learnt that Kudo was apparently th' one who committed those murders, I wanted ta ask 'im why. But askin' the old man only got me a no… So I went behind 'is back…"
Kazuha wrinkles her nose, the way she normally does when she pieces things together, her lips pursing. She continues for him, "and ya didn't say anythin' to me 'bout it, so there was less of a risk of yer dad findin' out?"
Heiji nods. It's not a lie, per se, but it isn't the full truth. Maybe at first he'd not told Kazuha about Kudo because it had meant getting in trouble with his father, but then he'd learned some of the truth, and it had transformed, leaving him stuck in something much bigger, and extremely dangerous.
Before he'd even had the chance to tell Kazuha about the situation, he'd learned that it would be stupid to talk about it with anyone he didn't want to endanger… The only person he'd talked to about the case had been Hakuba, a fellow detective, someone he'd thought would have helped prove Kudo's innocence.
"Sorry," Heiji says, "I just didn't wanna make him mad again."
Kazuha grimaces, shrugs. She says, "it's all water under th' bridge, don' worry 'bout it."
Offering her another smile, Heiji nods his head, turning left and stopping in front of the entrance to division one. A glance at the clock tells him that it's 8.53, and he pushes forwards, gaze flittering from detective to detective in a search for any of the detectives he had met the day before.
As soon as he spots Inspector Megure, he makes a beeline towards the man, glances at the frown lines on the man's face and decides that while it's going to be a long day for him, it's going to be an even longer one for the police.
"Inspector," Heiji says, grabbing the man's attention as soon as he sends another detective off for work. "Do ya have a minute?"
The inspector turns, raises an eyebrow and says, "I thought you kids were coming back at ten?"
Heiji offers a sheepish smile, rubs at his neck and says, "ah, I was told to be 'ere for nine… Did we say ten..?"
He's not lying… not really, and so he's certain he comes of as truthful - maybe Hakuba and the others had all agreed on meeting again at ten o'clock, but he'd also agreed to show up at nine to help Kudo and Kuroba. It's something Heiji hates, half truths, and yet, it seems to be all he's used these past two days.
"It'll take too long ta go away an' come back again…" Heiji continues after a second, "…say, I meant ta ask yest'rday, how did Kudo know those he killed were criminals?"
Megure frowns, his brows furrowed, stroking his chin. He says, "the victims hadn't set foot in division one… so the only place he'd have found files for them, would have been in the archives? Kudo-kun went down there a lot."
Heiji pauses, adjusts his cap and asks, "do you have any CCTV from back then? I want to see if we can spot when Kudo first… changed… and decided to become a criminal."
Megure falters, takes a moment to think, before nodding his head. When he speaks, there is forced hesitation, as if it almost… hurts… to talk about anything related to Kudo. It's hardly surprising, Heiji thinks, especially when the inspector was close to Kudo Yuusaku, having in response, been one of many police officers who'd watched Kudo grow up.
"Yes," he says, "I'll get Chiba-kun to take you to the CCTV room and set it up the video player."
Heiji nods. And just like that, he's on his way to the CCTV room.
"Takagi-kun?" Detective Satou calls, as Kaito ties a gag around Detective Takagi's mouth, binding his wrists together with cable ties. He does the same with the man's feet, binding them, before glancing over at the storage room towards the side of the stairwell.
He doesn't have enough time to throw him inside, and so he jerks his head towards the entryway, signalling at Shinichi to go out an answer the poor detective before she picks up anything odd. He knows that Shinichi isn't the best at mimicking voices, but a quick test on the way to the police station had shown that he could mimic shorter sentences if he needs to.
"Satou-san?" Shinichi asks, poking his head out of the stairwell.
As Kaito pulls the detective up by his arms, he drags him backward, nearing the storage closet. He leaves the real Takagi sprawled across the floor, keeps the door semi open and makes his way back to the entrance, holding his taser up.
There's more conversation, although Kaito doesn't think too much of it, prepares himself for the moment Detective Sato steps through the doorway and-
Electricity sparks, the air crackling.
Unlike Takagi however, Sato doesn't pass out quite as quickly. It's a risk they'd had to take, he'd be a fool to expect both detectives to go down without any trouble. Sato drops the box she's holding, the thump echoing through the stairwell, and jerks her elbow backwards into Kaito's stomach.
Kneeling over, Kaito lets out a breathless laugh, gasping for air, winded. Sato staggers forward, turns with a raised leg, kicking out in Kaito's direction. He grins, side steps and raises the taser up.
"KID," she gasps, swaying, hand going to her hip - she hesitates when she realises that she's not wearing her holster, and curses. She glances at Shinichi, notices the blank expression he's giving in response to her, and pales. "Kudo-kun."
"It's been awhile, detective." Shinichi says, and his fingers tremble against polystyrene coffee cups. "You look well."
Sato stills, and then frowns. Eyes narrowed, she glances between the two of them, bites at the side of her lip. She says, "I'm sure you're well as well, Kudo-kun, beneath that mask."
Shinichi tilts his head, and smiles. On Takagi's face, it looks deluded - Kaito's going to have to teach him later on about not making himself out to be a psychopath, because smile's like that aren't going to help him when he pleads his innocence to others.
"Sorry to cut things short," Kaito says as soon as he can see the tips of Sato's fingers twitch - she's going to make a run for it, he assumes, either that or she's going to attempt to fight back. He won't allow either option. "But we really are running short on time."
He lunges.
Despite already having been tased, Sato's reflexes are quick. She heaves herself backward on shaky legs, moving just out of reach, as Kaito pivots to follow after her. She's just fast enough that Kaito has to push his own reflexes to the limit.
He grins, lowers the taser in his hand and leaps again.
This time, he moves to far in front of Sato, and she uses the time to lift her leg into a kick. Kaito anticipates it, shields himself and doesn't try to dodge.
It feels momentarily, like his ribcage is going to snap.
Kaito lets out a laugh - and yes, maybe it sounds a little manic, but he's enjoying himself - and moves forward, just enough to grab hold of Sato's wrist.
Pulling the detective back, Kaito smiles, pushing the taser into her stomach.
More electricity - this time, he holds down just long enough for Sato to sag against him.
Once she goes limp, he pauses, before pressing down on the button again, not entirely sure whether the detective is really unconscious, or simply playing pretend. She jerks, but doesn't give off the impression of someone who's conscious.
They throw her into the storage cupboard as well, along with the box of her files, locking the door behind them. As they're making their way up the stairs, Shinichi having passed him Sato's coffee - disgustingly black coffee with little sugar. The things Kaito does for this guy - he hears the phone ring in Shinichi's pocket.
"Pass it to me," Kaito orders, as Shinichi pulls the mobile from his pocket, "we need to be moving while talking, and I'm the only one capable of fully mimicking voices."
Shinichi passes the phone over without a word, and Kaito answers the call, the two of them reaching the first floor.
"Detective Sato speaking," Kaito says when he brings the phone up to his ear, his voice a mimic. If it throws Hattori off, there's no mention of it, just a click of his tongue. "You're in place?"
"Yeah," Hattori answers, and there's shifting in the background, almost as if he's moving in his seat, "I can't see either of ya in th' cameras - yer still in the stairwell?"
"We got a little held up," Kaito says, "nothing we couldn't handle. We'll give you the details later. And you, did you manage to lose your friend?"
Hattori heaves a sigh, leans back in his seat. Kaito can almost hear the exasperation in his voice, the readiness for this break-in to be other with already. He says, "I asked her to get some drinks from th' coffee shop across th' street. Given tha' it's th' morning rush, we should have a wide enough window to get you guys in an' out before she gets back."
"Plus," Kaito chirps, "you get a drink for all of your hard work. Congrats."
Hattori lets out a long suffering sigh. Beside him, Shinichi snorts - the thing about being inside enemy headquarters, Kaito thinks, is that they haven't even been inside for longer than twenty minutes, and it's already driving them both insane.
Well, not exactly, but Kaito's going to pretend that's the reason.
"You worry me," Heiji claims, when they've reached the second floor and push out onto the corridors. "Oh - wait, I can see ya on th' cameras - I'll tell ya if I see anythin' worrying, just stay on th' line, alright?"
Kaito says, "yes," and creates a fake conversation for the phone, conjuring a fake murder case from thin air. He thinks it's a mix between one that Shinichi had told him about during their imprisonment, and fiction, but it comes of as a usual conversation for Sato.
They take a left down the first corridor, turning right into a second, before Heiji's voice cracks from speakers.
"I'm assumin' ya don't want the Inspector to talk to ya," he says, "so take a right an' wait for 'im to walk past."
They do as Heiji suggests, leaning against the wall as if having a conversation with one another. Shinichi doesn't speak, other than to ask what Heiji's saying - Kaito mouths the answer, 'Megure's walking past, we don't want to get roped into any work.'
"Okay," Heiji continues, "keep going."
Kaito hasn't had to come down into the archives before, hasn't actually needed to visit anywhere other than theft, but he does know the route. From the first time he'd entered the station as KID, he'd made sure to know every single exit without the building.
He short sigh, continues with his fake case, and keeps walking.
Every step feels more serious than the last.
"You're going to need to pick the lock," Shinichi says when they reach the archives, the corridor empty of people. Kaito nods, reaches into his pocket, to where he's brought actual lock picks.
"I'm going to need you to be our cover," Kaito says into the phone, before passing the phone over to Shinichi. He throws the coffee cup - still half full - into a nearby bin, before glancing at either end of the corridor. "Speak up if you see anyone coming, okay?"
Shinichi nods, and Kaito approaches the lock.
Heiji glances between three screens, trying to blank the others from his mind. Phone pressed to his ear, he doesn't really listen to anything he can hear - it's mostly nonsense words, nothing valuable that he needs to hear, so he focuses all of his attention on the camera feed instead.
For a moment his thinks that someone's coming, but they stop walking half way down one of the connecting corridors, talking to a colleague who's just left the bathroom. Heiji takes a deep breath, tells Kudo that they should both pick up the speed, his gaze flickering back to the two connecting corridors.
"Apparently the locks are stiff," Kudo says - in the absence of any people, he's dropped any pretence of a fake voice, which makes the situation a lot less creepy. "It won't take long, but we're going as fast as we can."
Heiji holds his breath. Glances at the corridor with the talking colleagues, watches them as they break apart and one starts walking in the direction of Kudo and Kuroba.
"Someone's comin' yer way," Heiji warns, his voice weirdly choked. "Either open the door or walk down the corridor and come back in a minute."
He glances at the other corridor - someone's walking down that one as well. If he's right, then it's someone from the KID taskforce.
"Give us a second," Kudo whispers.
"I can't give you anything." Heiji says, "ya need to either get tha' lock open, or keep walkin', there are people coming from both directions."
A pause, in the camera, Kudo surges forward, towards Kuroba, leans in to whisper something in his ear. The other shakes his head, curls in on himself around the door, before pushing it forward.
"Get inside," Heiji hisses, "It's not gonna be good if ya both get caught-"
The sound of footsteps echo in his ears, and then, there's a gasp. Heiji doesn't notice it at first, mainly because he's staring up at the figures of Kuroba and Kaito throwing themselves into the room, the door slamming behind him.
Then, it registers.
Cheeks paling, Heiji turns from the cameras, breath hitching in his throat. His legs feel weak, as he takes in the figure, the wide-eyed stare looking back at him.
"What th' hell is goin' on?"
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