What you recognize I don't own. This is an AU of the other story, what if instead of Akechi and Kenmochi being thought dead it was Li who was believed dead? Li was captured by a different group who hated police and tortured and killed officers shortly after capture most times but not with Li, instead they did their best to brainwash him with partial success in that while he forgot that he was a police officer and he also forgot his true name he wasn't part of the group willingly and he never killed unless he absolutely had to, thus he was moved around to various groups to try and get him into compliance which simply never worked and so he was relegated to being a prisoner that was locked up and tortured on a regular basis, whenever he was moved he was blindfolded and never told where he was. This story starts differently due to how long it takes to brainwash people (or at the very least torture someone into a particular way of thinking) as such it's been four years since Li was abducted and three and a half years since he was declared presumed dead, with Akechi and Kenmochi alive Kindaichi has mentors from the start when he joins the police force after graduating high school. Also texts are in asterisks, it's understood that they're speaking Japanese, English will be bold while foreign language is italicized. And phone conversations will be completely written out for the most part

Kindaichi finished signing a piece of paperwork, looked up at the clock, sighed and then got up and went over to Akechi's desk and tapped on the shoulder of the person currently at said desk seeing as how the person had nodded off

"Come on ossan, nap time over"

Kenmochi looked up, got up and stretched and then simply nodded

"Thanks for the reminder Kindaichi, is Akechi back?"

"Not yet, then again..."

"Yeah"

They both look at the calendar for the nth amount of time to the rest of the department and then Kenmochi speaks up again

"Think Akechi will make it back in time for tonight?"

"Not sure, but remember that he said not to wait up for him if he doesn't get back on time"

"True, just hoping that he does make it back considering..."

"Considering how important it is and our private vow"

"But as police officers we also knew that this was a possibility from the start"

"Yeah"

And hour later and the person the two were talking about walked into the department looking tired but his eyes said everything to the two who knew him best

"Got the confession and the true suspect?"

"Yes, didn't think I would and would be forced to stay but I did it"

"How'd you manage to get a flight back so quickly?"

"It was already arranged by the department with the airline"

"Got it"

And so the group deals with reports and everything else until an alarm goes off and with that alarm Akechi stands up and taps both Kenmochi's and Kindaichi's shoulders

"It's time you two"

"Right"

And so the three leave the office for reasons unknown to all but those above Akechi. An hour later and the three were at a private, and secret location, with matches at the ready the three wait for sundown before lighting two torches that were next to a large piece of stone which Kindaichi kneels in front of to put flowers down and then after he stands up speaks as already agreed upon

"Hey Li...been four years since...well since that day and three and a half years since...the result of that day, we're still trying to find them for you and everyone else on this stone but it's slow going...it's hard you know, we miss you a lot"

"I think he would be proud of you none the less Kindaichi, both in your insistence on learning English as well and as quickly as possible and the way you've handled the private and separate investigation while still doing your best on your main assignments"

"He would probably also be proud of how you've become a detective in only two years of being on the police force"

"Would've joined sooner if not for that incident setting me back a year"

"Couldn't be helped unfortunately, that situation was a bomb waiting to explode and it did"

"Yeah, just wish it hadn't exploded when it did, set a lot of people back a bit"

"We know, you took the worst of it though in how long you were delayed"

With that the three simply remain silent for over an hour standing vigil when finally Kindaichi speaks up

"You know, it's still hard whenever I remember the day we found out about his disappearance"

"We wanted to keep you and Nanase out of it but...at the same time we couldn't due to history"

"You know you never did say how long you kept it a secret amongst yourselves"

"We waited a day after we found out ourselves to give the Hong Kong police time to search by themselves"

"Then again they themselves ultimately waited three days to tell us"

"Thus why we're lighting the torches today instead of in a few days from now"

"Yeah"

Unfortunately the three could not stay their vigil all night long and were forced to leave four hours after lighting the torches so that they could get home and get sleep, but since they all had the day off the next day they knew that they would all meet up at a small restaurant to truly remember their lost comrade, and have Miyuki beside them at that time seeing as how she was currently not even in Japan but was expected to be back by the time they met up for lunch. The next day the four of them meet at the agreed time and simply have coffee and lunch and eventually Miyuki speaks up

"It's hard to believe it's been almost four years since we learned of his disappearance"

"Yeah"

"Do you guys think we would have ever been told if it hadn't been Li's wish?"

"Hard to say, I do know that Hong Kong would have at the very least informed us about the group that abducted Li at some point, especially if it looked like we were going to be threatened with their presence and not already know about their movement and activities"

"That's something at least"

"Have you two been..."

"Keeping up with our Chinese like you and Ossan have Akechi? I know that I have, don't know about Miyuki here though"

"I have been, not as easily as you three since I don't have anyone to practice with but I've kept it up"

"Hey I don't practice with those two, I have my own person I keep my practice up with"

"I see, though I wish you two hadn't learned of it that ways"

"It was probably for the best we did find out that ways unlike how you two found out Ossan"

"Maybe"

And with that all four of them are remembering how they had found out about Li's disappearance