A small groan escaped Hakuba's lips. Blooms of emergency lights greeted him when he tried to open his eyes. All around him were distant sounds of unintelligible voices and vehicle engines. After a few hard blinks in an effort to clear his vision, he noticed that there was an oxygen mask attached to his face. The teenage detective was rewarded with a pounding headache when he tried to sit up.

"Ah, please refrain from moving. Everything is alright now. Just lay down." A frazzled paramedic approached him upon realizing that Hakuba had regained consciousness.

"What...happened?" His voice was hoarse and his throat felt dry but he spoke nonetheless. The need to know stamped out the feeling of discomfort. Not soon after he spoke, Hakuba made another attempt at sitting up. From where he lied, he could see nothing but emergency vehicles parked haphazardly in the area. He could also spot other individuals being treated inside the cordoned off space from his peripheral vision.

To his surprise, the medical personnel responded in a mocking tone. "Really, Detective? You should listen to professionals more often unless you want to make things worse for yourself."

Hakuba snapped his head towards the 'paramedic' that was standing over him, now wearing an all too familiar and irritating grin on his face. The sudden jerking motion of his head caused another stab of pain to go through his skull. Letting his body go limp once again, the blond detective swore under his breath. "You little..."

Kid let out a wholehearted laugh, but only loud enough for both of them to hear. "At least we know that you still have some fight in you, so that's good. You'll be back to full health in no time!"

Hakuba huffed out, trying not to let the thief's remarks get under his skin. "Alright, Kid. Enough jokes. What's happening?"

The magician lifted an eyebrow under the mask and stared at the detective wordlessly for a few seconds before answering. "I rescind my previous statement."

"Just tell me!" Hakuba flinched when he felt the deep throbbing in his head intensify when he yelled.

After looking around for potential eavesdroppers, Kid proceeded to kneel down so he could talk in an unusually serious tone. "You were pretty lucky. There was a fail-safe self-destruction mechanism in the entire facility and you just happened to be above grounds." Having nothing else to hint at, he stood back up. "Enjoy your bedrest, Detective! There are people that need me elsewhere. May we meet again another time." With a cheeky wink, the phantom thief masquerading as a paramedic walked out of sight.

Once he finished hearing what Kid had said, Hakuba felt a wave of recollection flood his mind.

It was a few hours earlier that the half-British detective received a call that signaled that the agreed upon plan had been put into motion.

The past few weeks were filled with strange revelations. One of them being the fact that the brilliant elementary school child, nicknamed 'Kid-killer', was in fact Kudo Shinichi. Even now, Hakuba still had trouble grasping how 'Edogawa Conan' was the same age as he was. Finding out that a fellow high school detective had been shrunken down due to a drug was a hard truth to accept. Even more worrying was how Kudo Shinichi had become entangled with the affairs of a crime syndicate.

Unable to remain content on staying on the sidelines, Hakuba offered his assistance in taking the Black Organization down. Much to his dismay, Kaitou Kid had also been invited to join them during their war councils.

In order to keep their raid from attracting the Black Organization's initial attention, they started it with a small party. Unfortunately, their plans began with misfortune. One of their best informants, another pseudo-child under the name of Haibara Ai, was taken by a wildcard femme fatale of the organization. This sudden turn of events caused Kudo and Hattori to hasten their moves.

As the chaos unfolded through his radio transmitter, all the blond detective could do was wait patiently outside for the signal to send in the cavalry, putting his familial connections with the police to good use, despite how he disliked relying on that. He still remembered how agonizing it was to stare at the seemingly inconspicuous multi-story building, imagining what kind of things was occurring just inside. Anybody passing by would believe that it was a typical office building.

At the sound of gunshots and a pained cry from the Osaka detective coming out of the walkie-talkie, Hakuba decided to give the signal for the police to come in full force. He could no longer bear hearing the two detectives endanger themselves inside the lion's den. However, due to the rushed nature of the raid, help from the TMPD took a while to come in full power. Feeling antsy, Hakuba decided to head inside, much to his father's protest.

The inside of the edifice looked like a normal lobby, safe for the armed officers rushing in and arresting any staff members. Using his loudest voice, Hakuba tried to direct manpower towards finding their way to the underground section where Kudo and Hattori had infiltrated. It was the best he could do since he was not provided with a radio to communicate with the majority of the officers.

Suddenly, the entire building shook. The detective shielded himself from falling debris when he heard Kid radio in an alarming message. "Evacuate! There are several explosives built into the infrastructure and they are rigged to an emergency switch. I managed to delay the ones on the upper floors, but I'm afraid it won't last long."

Hakuba responded promptly. "Then what was that just now? Don't tell me it's-"

The voice confirmed his fears on the other end. "The basement level ones."

With urgency, Hakuba relayed the news to his father. Almost as quickly as they rushed in, the police force retreated, taking along any straggling building employees with them in handcuffs.

Despite the hasty evacuation, one thing still bothered him. There were no signs of his teammates. Grabbing the radio device, he spoke with impatience. "Hattori-kun, where are you two? Respond! Kudo-kun?"

Nothing.

"Shit." He swore uncharacteristically. With most of the officers heading outside, Hakuba could only think of one person that would be stupid enough to be heading deeper inside. "Kid, where are you? Kudo-kun and Hattori-kun aren't responding."

While he spoke, Hakuba looked around for any signs of his comrades. Dark grey smoke was beginning to pour in from the underground levels.

Crap, there's a fire. Even though he knew that it was wise to leave, he couldn't bring himself to do so while knowing that people he knew were still inside.

After a prolonged stretch of silence from his communication radio, a garbled yet enthusiastic voice appeared. "I found them. Most of the basement levels have collapsed from the blast, but they're with me in the stairwells, which are still intact. Seems like Detective-han here lost his radio during a gunfight."

For once, the thief's voice was welcomed by Hakuba. "But it seems like the floor above us has caved in. We're stuck."

The blond detective rounded a corner and spotted doors leading to a set of stairwells. And true to what Kid said, a section of the floor in front of the entranceway had collapsed. The smoke level was high, bellowing out from the opening. Putting his arm in front of his face, Hakuba carefully stepped closer. His eyes stung from the fumes, so he had to squint. He felt no heat coming from below, so it meant that the fire was not too close by.

Movement caught his eyes. Through the wall of smoke, Hakuba saw the familiar shape of a distinct hairstyle.

Cupping his hands over mouth, he yelled out. "Kudo-kun, over here! I'll see what I can do to-"

He stopped mid sentence. The ground underneath him no longer felt stable. Cursing his luck, the detective saw the floor bend and crumble down into the next floor. He instinctively headed towards the walls, hoping he could avoid falling to the story below.

That was all he could recall. Seeing that he was knocked out, Hakuba guessed that he did fall down. Supporting his deduction was the oxygen mask he was given. He must have inhaled quite a bit of smoke. The soreness of his body also lent credence to his recollections.

Feeling better after a bit of remembering, Hakuba propped himself up with an elbow. It was the best he could do without feeling his head pulsating with pain. Just beyond the ambulances and fire trucks, he saw the building in question. The first aid stations were several blocks away from the site. And for good reasons.

As soon after, a low rumbling came and it collapsed in a shower of broken glass and crumbled concrete. A massive pillar of dark smoke rose into the city skyline, illuminated by the fire that engulfed the mangled structure at its base.

The teenage detective watched silently in shock alongside the rest of the witnesses around him. It was a haunting sight, much like a funerary pyre for the Black Organization.

Author's Note: Thanks for clicking on this and reading!

This is technically my first online published writing, but not my first fanfic. I've been lurking on this site and AO3 for a long time actually. (still can't believe I wrote 37k+ words for a fandom and didn't post it. I still don't plan to though, it's too cringe for me now.)

Anyways, this story is probably the most 'vanilla' of the bunch I have planned/thought about. Meaning that it's not an AU and stuff is pretty much the same as canon. Although I have already written some chapters and laid out a plot of sorts (the ending is going to be uh...questionable since I didn't think about how to stick the landing yet.) I will be putting this lower on my priority list since I have other fanfics I want to work on! (and also I can't be bothered to name the chapters) Thanks for reading this too!