Well, what do you know, another chapter.
Sorry about there being no update for SD yet, guys. But have no fear, it will come. Meanwhile, the response to Dominoes has been spectacular! i love seeing everyone rave about the characters and their situations in the comments. It's nice to see everyone getting so riled up!
This chapter was rewritten so many times, not a single scene in it is from the original draft. Whoops. And all Kaito and Aoko's scenes got bumped to next chapter, replaced with Heiji's. Whoops again. Also, a big reveal at the end?
But, on a more serious note, this chapter is dedicated to the best cat in the world, and my best friend of eighteen years, who sadly passed on last week. I miss her a lot.
Thank you all for your wonderful reviews, and please continue to support Dominoes!
Chapter 3: The Rotten Core
"And then KID-sama appeared! Like a star!"
The star and the baron, dancing across the sky.
the baron the baron is his father father father father
"God, Ran, he was amazing! He just appeared out of the darkness under this spotlight!"
A dark, empty room. A spotlight on the center. A spotlight on the star, the star is falling falling falling hitting the ground
White stained red, red seeping across the ground, glittering like ruby, ruby like the stone clattering free in the dark, dark like the baron the baron the baron killed-
"Everyone watching was like 'Woah!' Like, everyone was screaming."
His own face reflected back at him on the other side of the stage, pale and slack with blue eyes wide open, open like the ceiling revealing the sky, revealing the face of the star no no no no father father father
"Even on the TV you could hear how loud it was. And the Irregulars just couldn't keep up! KID was in and out with the jewel in no time!"
the baron the baron like a shadow, mask grinning grinning grinning, hands red with blood and ruby the ruby the ruby all this for a ruby
"Alright, Sonoko, we get it."
Murderer. Murderer murderer murderer
That's not his father.
The baron is not his father.
"Really, because I'm pretty sure Kudo-kun here didn't listen to a word I just said."
Only half awake, Shinichi untucked his head from his crossed arms, blinking blearily in the bright afternoon light. Both Ran and Sonoko were watching him, Ran seated at a desk, Sonoko on top of it. "As if I could sleep through your obnoxious voice, Suzuki."
She made a face at him. "Oh look, he lives."
"I wasn't asleep." He'd barely even dozed, having just put his head down for a couple minutes as class winded down. His head had been spinning with thoughts and half-constructed plans and ideas and a lost boy's picture. As his mind had clouded, he felt like he remembered something, some distant recollection that came to him in the spaces between Sonoko's words.
What had he been thinking of? He felt like it had been important.
Sonoko snorted and slid off the desk. "Whatever. I've got to get to club. You should hurry, too, Kudo-kun." The brunette waved to Ran as she hurried off, following the last vestiges of their class out the door. Soon enough, it was just him, Ran, and the day's clean up crew dusting down the boards.
"Are you alright? Tired?" Ran asked, and her eyes were tracing his face. He hoped he didn't have imprints of his sleeves pressed into his cheek.
"I'm fine. That last class was just so boring."
"Well, the teacher wants to make sure everyone remembers what we learned before break. Not everyone has your memory." Ran smiled, showing him her notebook. The page was lined with careful notes. She hadn't always been such a dedicated student, but since she started missing more school this year, she'd started working harder in the classes she did make. If he had half her dedication to education, he'd be top of the class.
Well, she could use the grades on her school record, since she quit karate. A regional champion suddenly missing tournaments and competitions, and ultimately leaving the club entirely didn't look too good to universities.
Shinichi knew that one from personal experience. The soccer coach really wasn't going to be happy to see him after he skipped out on training camp again.
Together they moved out of the classroom to the lockers. He didn't feel guilty when he took out his sports bag anymore, but he could remember how he used to.
Ran looked at his bag, eying it suspiciously. It was bulky, but not in the right places for his soccer things. "You're skipping practice, again?" Ran gave him a disapproving look as she toed off her shoes, trading her indoor ones for her outdoor pair. "Honestly, Shinichi! The big tournament in coming up! Your coach is going to kill you!"
He shrugged. It wasn't like he had much choice. He almost didn't even bother coming to school at all, but he was already on the homeroom teacher's last nerve. If he skipped the first day after vacation, he'd probably spend all of the next day's classes outside with a bucket, which always managed to be even less interesting than class itself.
Ran prodded the bag with her foot. "You're going to investigate something, aren't you?"
Shinichi didn't bother with a reply, since they both knew she was right. Instead he gave her an expectant look, waiting for the inevitable insistence that she came along to keep him out of trouble. He didn't know how many times before that they'd played this game, but they both knew it well enough to guess each other's next move. He'd try to run off on his own, playing coy like he didn't want her to come chasing after. And she'd catch him anyway and declare that if he was going to go anyway, he might as well not go alone.
She pursed her lips at him, and he bit down on a smile. He loved that look. "Is it dangerous?" she prompted, seriously.
That question didn't have a simple answer. Everything he did somehow always turned out dangerous, whether it be walking home from school or going to a pottery class. Ran, though, seemed to be in a firm state of denial about that, as if she believed if he just shut his eyes and stopped looking for trouble, it would stop showing up at his door. He settled on the middle ground. "Shouldn't be. There have been some suspicious incidents-"
A sharp ringtone interrupted him. Immediately, Ran slipped her hand into her pocket and flipped her phone open, reading something intently. He hadn't thought she was waiting for a message. What did it say, and who was it from? Curious, he stood taller, trying to peer over the top of her phone. She flipped it shut with a smile. The same smile she wore as kids, whenever she was nervously hatching a stupid plan to get her parents back in the same room, and trying to hide it from him because she didn't want him calling her an idiot again.
He didn't like that smile, but he'd been seeing it more and more recently these days. A dark feeling squashed his curiosity, and suddenly, he didn't want to know.
Ran shoved her phone back in her pocket and snatched up her bag. In an instant, she was by him and heading out the door.
"Sorry, but I have to go! Urgent business. I'll call you later, okay?" She waved with an apologetic smile as she ducked out the exit. Soon enough, she'd disappeared in the crowd of other students leaving the building.
"Right." He said to no one, feeling his eyebrow twitch in aggravation. That was so suspicious.
He tried not to feel disappointed as he made his own way out, but it was hard not to. While Shinichi didn't mind investigating alone, hell, he even preferred it that way, something about watching Ran's retreating back always left a bad taste in his mouth.
He refused to overthink it, though, as he boarded a bus downtown, instead focusing on the case ahead of him.
Daichi and his net of vagrant informants had been able to provide him a list of places to check out. If there was anything to find, his best chances at finding it was by heading to each place personally.
He disembarked deep downtown, just blocks away from the first destination on his list. Despite the bright sunlight and the handful of other people around him, he felt uneasy. While this district hadn't been so much as touched in the recent attack, the stench of melted concrete and the skittish atmosphere permeated the air even here. Life went on, but the terror was still fresh in the city's memory.
And he couldn't forget the shadowy figures he'd seen the other day, gathered on the edges of Tokyo's gaping wound like a flock of blackbirds. Somehow, they seemed ominous.
Knowing what he did now, part of him wanted to run into them again. The other part recognized that that was a very reckless train of thought.
After all, once, he was a forgettable passerby. Twice, he was recognizable.
A hand caught his shoulder.
Shinichi jerked underneath the grip, pulling away. His heart did a little leap in his chest.
Hattori Heiji grinned apologetically, pulling back. "Sorry, sorry. Didn't mean to spook ya."
"Hattori! What are you doing here?" Shinichi asked, and the Osakan detective grinned wider.
"Investigatin' stuff." Informative. "Whatcha doin'? Lookin' for a story? I'll give ya an exclusive, if ya want." Ugh. They'd done that one before. Shinichi had been tempted to just title the article 'Awkward.'
"No thanks." Shinichi rolled his eyes and turned away. He wasn't in any mood for nonsense.
"Now wait a sec, Kudo!" Hattori tugged him back by his shirt collar, a clingy arm stubbornly entrapping his shoulders as the detective slung it over him. "These addresses. What ya got 'em for?" Shinichi found himself blinking at his own note, hanging in front of his nose. Instinctively he checked his pocket, and well, nothing.
"Just some places of interest."
"Don't tell me…" Hattori gave him a long considering look. Just great. If this were Hakuba, he'd probably already be dragged home. "You're investigatin' the arson cases too!"
"Uh." Shinichi said very intelligently. The what?
Wait. The fires at all the warehouses. To someone who didn't know about the kidnappings, all the different events would look like a suspicious pattern in supposedly unrelated arsons.
Well, investigating a couple weird fires was a lot less dangerous that a shifty group of kidnappers. He could totally get away with this, if he played his cards right.
Hattori was chattering away. "Great minds really do think alike, eh? That's what I came up here for. I should have known you'd be on it." After the whole mess in India-so much fire. So, so much fire-that was actually a fair assumption. A wrong one, but Hattori had a way of coming to perfectly reasonable wrong conclusions.
"You came all the way here to investigate the arson cases?" Shinichi had no idea just how much time Hattori spent actually in Osaka. Couldn't be much, these days.
"Well, ya know how it is. 'Cause of that new rail system, travel's so quick and cheap. I figured I might as well look into it."
Shinichi raised an eyebrow incredulously. Hattori spluttered. "Aw come on, ya know arson is my specialty!" Things did have the most bizarre tendency to burst into flames whenever Hattori was in town. It was probably a miracle that a historic city like Osaka hadn't burned down already.
Oblivious to Osaka's impending fiery doom, Hattori shook the list. "I was about to go check some of these addresses myself, plus a couple of others."
That refocused Shinichi. "Others?" He'd been almost excessively thorough in his interviewing of the city's misplaced youth. It was unlikely that he'd missed any crime scenes.
"Three or four more that aren't on your list."
"Really?"
Hattori pulled out his phone and presented Shinichi with a similar list. There were a couple addresses he didn't recognize, and a few missing. "Yup. How about we work together?"
"Us? Work together?"
"Don't look so surprised. Yeah, I know, your old man doesn't want ya in the detective business. But I figure that won't stop ya, so we might as well just go together."
Shinichi's jerk reaction was to say no. He'd never really worked alongside anyone before, and there was a fair chance Hattori hadn't run into him by coincidence. This could be another one of his father's machinations. But on the other hand, working with someone didn't sound so bad. It would certainly be refreshing.
And he wanted to hang out with Hattori.
Shinichi bit his lip, uncertain, before realizing what he was doing and reining his expression back in. Hattori wasn't a sneaky guy, and there was no guarantee this was part of a harebrained scheme. Maybe someone just wanted to spend time with him for once, and he shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth.
Shinichi forced his paranoia to the back of his mind and took a chance. "...Alright."
Hattori grinned, obviously pleased. "Great! Let's go!"
They visited several of the sites in rapid succession. Practically all the buildings had been razed to the ground, leaving behind husks of rubble and scorched remains. In another time, there would have been very little they could tell without each building's individual blueprints, but this was the era of Google Maps and search engines. It was easy to find pictures of what each building once looked like, inside and out. Most of the scenes had a great deal in common: old, out of use buildings. For most, a little investigation revealed why. Not enough exits and fire escapes, no ramps, halls too tight, foundations too careless.
At visiting the last address on Hattori's list, an old factory in the eastern quarter, they settled down to discuss.
Except Shinichi was still playing catch-up on whatever was going through Hattori's head. Thankfully, Hattori began. "So what are ya thinking? Insurance fraud?"
Insurance fraud. It made sense, if one didn't know about the whole missing kid thing. "Normally, yes. All the buildings burned down were old, not in use, but still owned. None of them could be sold without prior renovations to meet up with the city's safety standards." The city had been updating its workplace codes almost troubling often over the past three years, trying to hone worker evacuation and accessibility down to an art, not to mention requiring large building to have strong, sturdy foundations to prevent as many collapses as possible. "The owners will probably win big on insurance if they have the right lawyers working the claims, and so many cases in such a short period could be attributed to the debates over the upcoming insurance laws. The owners' might have been afraid that the policies would change."
But Shinichi knew that wasn't quite the case, but it was also one hell of a coincidence.
"That's exactly what I was thinkin'." Hattori nodded. "Problem being, almost all the buildings were owned by different companies and insured by separate agencies."
"They can't all be insurance fraud," Shinichi said, uncertain how else to go on. He hesitated to spill everything he knew. The last thing he needed was any of this getting back to his father, and Hattori tended to have a big mouth.
"If we add your list to my list, we've got a total of nineteen buildings, twelve companies, and seven different insurances." Hattori stared at his phone contemplatively, before huffing out a breath. "How the hell do we tell which ones to focus on? It'd be a pain in the ass to investigate 'em all."
Shinichi shifted on his feet, weighing his options. But didn't he already decide to take a chance? He wasn't one to go back on his decisions. "Hattori, subtract my list from your list."
"What?" The detective blinked at him.
"Just do it."
Hattori held up the two lists side by side, frowning. "That leaves five buildings."
"Who owns those five buildings?"
Hattori checked their notes, a knowing grin already spreading across his face. "Tendou Motor Supply Co. LuckyFish. Petrola. Ah! Tendou Motor Supply Co. again and… Petrola."
They grinned at each other. There was nothing quite like the feeling of honing in on a target. "We need to look into LuckyFish." Shinichi had never heard of the company before, but that wasn't really surprising. It would be impossible to know every single business in a huge city like Tokyo.
"I bet they're a shell company for one of these guys." Hattori pocketed the lists and pulled out his phone for some quick research. "Looks like we've got our insurance fraud. But what about the other places?"
"Unrelated arson cases." Shinichi said confidently. Hattori glanced up at him, brow furrowed.
"Okay...? Think someone in those companies noticed the arson cases and decided to use them as camouflage to cash in?"
"That's exactly what I think." However, he wasn't entirely convinced the other arsons had nothing to do with fraud. It could be a two birds one stone situation. He'd look into each individual case anyway. The thought of all that legwork and research made him want to groan.
Hattori was still watching him, a little suspicious. "But how did ya know that all the one's on your list were unrelated?"
"Because I wasn't investigating the arson, specifically, from the start." Shinichi fessed up with a shrug.
Hattori blinked. "Then...why?"
"Kids have been going missing from the streets throughout the city. And almost every time a kid disappears, a building nearby goes up in flames."
"And you don't think the kids got caught in the fire."
"No. I think someone is trying to cover their tracks."
"Hell of a dramatic cover-up. Haven't these guys ever heard of soap and water?"
It was a bizarre way to handle things. But the only reason Shinichi had a lead at all was because, for some reason, they missed one. Why was the warehouse he visited a few days ago left still standing, or alternatively, why did all the others need to be so thoroughly destroyed?
Wait. The buildings that weren't on Hattori's list. They hadn't checked those, and he hadn't thoroughly looked into them. It was possible one of them had survived.
"Why don't we go find out?" Excitement bubbled in his veins at the thought of another lead. He couldn't help throwing Hattori a smirk. "I've got an idea."
The first building wasn't burnt, but it had collapsed in on itself, like a birdhouse someone had shattered with a hammer. The second had been destroyed in the disaster on Saturday.
The third remained, and best of all, it was easy to break into.
Hattori watched him jimmy the lock. Hakuba or Ran would be disapprovingly breathing down his neck, but Hattori just seemed curious. When the door gave and swung open, they found the insides to be almost well lit. For the most part, the factory was a wide-open expanse, littered with dusty machinery and boxes and barrels that had been abandoned. The ceiling was lined with frosted windows, illuminating the doors leading deeper into the building in the back.
It was a creepy place. The atmosphere was bad, and not just because of the dust. Shinichi felt suffocated-no, enclosed in a place he couldn't escape.
The door swung closed behind Hattori, the lock automatically clicking back into place, and Shinichi forced himself to take a deep breath. Something about this place was wrong. It felt almost like they were being watched.
A trap.
"Hattori, try the door."
"What?" Hattori grunted, but he seemed to catch on to Shinichi's nervousness. He first tried the doorknob, but it didn't budge. Then he tried to twist the lock.
Except the lock's knob was missing. There was nothing to turn.
A door that could only be unlocked from the outside. Not a good sign.
"Uh, Kudo?" Hattori looked around the room again, this time ten times more wary. "This seem weird to ya?"
Shinichi didn't bother with a reply, heading further into the factory. The only way out was through now. Just great. As he walked, he rummaged through his bag until he found his camcorder. It was a comforting weight in his hand, and their hazy surrounding seemed a little less confining through a camera lens. Just to be safe, he hit record.
The same feeling was clawing up his throat, drying his mouth. He felt like an animal being corralled, forced to run himself right into the snapping jaws of a bear trap.
The worst part was not knowing if the feeling was his own, or someone else's.
They stopped at the doors at the other end of the room. "Guess we gotta chose one." Hattori sighed. Each had been labeled, once, but if the blocky black lettering had ever meant something, there was no telling now. They checked each, but all the doors lead down almost identical halls that weren't nearly as well lit as the main room. Figuring that finding an exit was probably first on their priorities, Shinichi chose one closest to the adjacent wall.
Hattori activated the flashlight on his phone. It wasn't much, but it helped. Shinichi didn't think he could handle the dark closing in on them too, especially in such a narrow hall.
Carelessly, he bumped his hand into the wall. A rush of fear coursed through his arm like ice water.
Whoever had been trapped here before hadn't had a flashlight, and they had been terrified of the dark. But turning around hadn't been an option for them, either.
A child, Shinichi realized. This was the primal, unfiltered fear of a child. They passed more doors. Offices, it would seem, but the windows of each door reflected most to the light Hattori shined through, so it was hard to tell.
Shinichi brushed his fingers over each doorknob, opening the mind he usually tried so hard to keep closed. He wanted to know, and for that he needed to feel.
Hope, fear, frustration.
The child had fought with each door, clawing and shoving, but none of them gave. There was nowhere to hide. Each time he ran further into the hall, hearing the pounding of footsteps behind him alongside the pounding of his own heart, he tried another. One them had to open, one of them just had to give, they were going to catch him, they were coming he had to run there was nowhere to run hands were reaching towards him in the dark he couldn't see but they had to be there monsters of the dark bogeymen that stole children-
"Shinichi!" Hattori shook his shoulder, breaking him free from the memory. "Do ya hear that?"
Shinichi froze, listening. Those pounding footsteps weren't just in his head.
"Come on!" He grabbed Hattori's arm and forced him further down the hall. As they ran, he kept one hand on the wall. The child had been running and running, there had to be a way out, there just had to be.
Despair hit him like a train.
Hattori stumbled to a stop. A dead end.
Cautiously, Shinichi tapped the far wall. He needed to know the end of the story.
Pain of an impact. No no no. Cold hands, harsh grips, his screams resounding off the walls.
"Damn. Guess we gotta go back. Thinks it's the cops?" Hattori sighed, turning around and flicking off the light.
God, Shinichi wished. But he knew it wasn't.
They crept back the way they came, and this time Shinichi didn't touch anything. He needed the calm of his own mind, his own confidence. Whatever was waiting for them, he could handle it.
He'd faced down thugs before. He'd been thrown from helicopters and buildings. He'd been held at gunpoint, and he'd held a gun of his own. He'd been in collapses and fires and messes beyond his own imagination.
Whatever was waiting on the other end of this hall, he'd shine a light right in its face and reveal just whatever it really was.
Heiji hadn't been expecting trouble.
But the moment they opened the door they came through, Shinichi hissed right into his ear, "Get down!" Shinichi dragged Heiji down by the arm, hiding them behind the bulky machinery. On the far side of the room, past tall boilers and steel catwalks, the door farthest from them slammed open. A group of men marched in, and god, Heiji only needed one look at them to tell they were bad news. No innocent mechanics or factory workers could ever look so suspicious, dressed up in black and on the prowl. At the head of the group was a behemoth of a man, taller and more muscular than anyone Heiji had ever even seen before, dressed for business but with a face more suited for a shootout.
Heiji was pretty sure Shinichi was expecting the latter.
"It's them." Shinichi said, with a voice softened by breathy surprise. His face was caught in an expression of excited intrigue, his eyes narrowed and bright. Heiji couldn't really blame him, his own heart was hammering, but part of him did wish the crazy reporter could chill for half a second. "We have to get closer."
Well, Heiji wasn't exactly that good at being careful either.
They crept closer, moving slowly and quietly between covers. Shinichi's eyes were constantly darting around, but there was a distinct coldness to his expression now: it was a face that meant business. Together they measured up the group of thugs as they lurked around the premise, obviously searching for something. Even in the echoing room, it was difficult to make out the words being said, but it seemed like whatever the bad guys were looking for, they weren't finding it, and that pissed them off.
The big guy had a hideous moustache to go with his 1960's hat, which would almost be too cliché to take seriously if there wasn't something so inherently intimidating about him.
Heiji could totally take him though. There wasn't anything to be worried about.
Except Shinichi was with him.
Yeah, picking a fight now would definitely impede on that secret identity thing.
Oblivious to Heiji's ramping concern, Shinichi held up his camera higher, to get better shots of the thugs and their faces. From the distance, Heiji had thought they were all wearing sunglasses, but now that they were closer, he realized they were wearing black masks with sharp hooked noses, like bird beaks.
Heiji liked this situation less and less. He'd never run into thugs with bird masks before, never even heard of them, but somehow, that wasn't comforting.
"No sign of the package, sir." One of the masked men reported to the big guy.
"Check the other halls." The big guy snapped back. The others hurried to comply, moving in groups to each door. It was easy to tell who was in charge.
"We're still behind quota, Tequila sir." One lackey hung back at the big guy's side. He must have been higher ranked than the others or something.
"Tch, a city full of mangy runts and yet, we can't find any. There's got to be at least one in here." Tequila growled. Tequila. What a name. Heiji focused on him. He could probably take the big guy with just minimal use of his powers, but his priority was getting Shinichi out safely.
He was so focused, that he failed to react in time. The lackey looked up, right in their direction. "Seems they've wizened up a bit." They threw themselves down out of sight, but not fast enough. Heiji felt a chill run down his spine as Tequila caught his gaze before he was down. "Or maybe not."
"Shit. Shit, shit, shit." Heiji hissed.
"Run." Shinichi said, quick and simple, slinging his bag firmly over his shoulder, before he booked it back towards the exit. Heiji quickly scrambled after him. Fuck the lock, he'd break the door down if he had to.
They kept low, ducking and weaving as they dashed between shelters. Just when they were dashing across the open floor, two sharp sounds sent them scrambling in opposite directions for cover.
Gunshots.
"Cover the exits! Don't let them escape." Tequila barked. The birdmen came running at his command, spreading out through the room. "And preferably, get them alive!" Preferably alive. Comforting.
Heiji peeked over the top of his—bench? Yup, he was hiding from guns behind a concrete workbench. He, who could melt bullets before they could even touched his skin. Seven bird-creeps were making their way across the warehouse towards him. The others were heading right for the exit, guns in hand. And Shinichi was roughly fifteen meters away, stuck behind a boiler and still filming. More thugs were pouring out of the halls, emerging from the shadows like bats in a cave.
Too many to fight off without his powers.
But if they had abandoned the halls...
Heiji took another glance at Shinichi. Tequila said he wanted them alive. Shinichi would be fine. Heiji would be back in a couple minutes, tops.
He took a breath, and let it out. "Sorry, Kudo!"
Shinichi turned his way. "What-?" But Heiji was already running, back the way they came. The bird creeps were caught off guard, and reacted to slowly. In an instant, Heiji had broken their line and was sprinting back into the hall they had escaped moments before.
"Hattori!" Shinichi yelled furiously, somewhere behind him.
The last thing he heard from the room was Tequila's voice. "What a fool, cornering himself. Grab the other one."
Three minutes, later, Heiji took another deep breath and readjusted his mask for a better fit. He was flying low, as close to the factory as he could manage, and peering through the windows into the main factory.
Tequila stood in the center of the room, surrounded by his lackeys, two of which were restraining Shinichi's arms.
Heiji felt a little bad for those two. Shinichi's glare alone was terrifying.
"Where the hell is the other one?" Tequila was yelling. He was holding Shinichi's camera.
"Seems like he broke down one of the office doors and jumped out a window, sir." One of the thugs reported. He shuddered when Tequila shifted to look at him.
"Tch." Tequila turned away and the thug visibly relaxed without the boss's attention on him. Instead, Shinichi became the new object of the bastard's ire. "So all we've got is some measly fucking reporter?" Shinichi glared back at Tequila with icy eyes. Neither of them flinched under the sharp gaze of the other.
Heiji held his breath, muscles tensing. Where was Kazuha? Probably still kilometers away. She wouldn't arrive in time if things came down to a fight.
Inside, the stare down continued. Shinichi held his head high, despite his position kneeling on the floor. It would be a cold day in hell when Kudo Shinichi bowed underneath a criminal's glare.
Suddenly, Tequila snarled and smashed the camera on the ground at Shinichi's feet. Heiji jerked forward, keyed up and ready to burst in, but Shinichi didn't even blink, not until the scraps began to spark.
The thugs holding Shinichi lurched back, dragging him across the floor with them.
The camera exploded. It erupted into red and blinding white and black smoke. The force of it knocked all three to the ground.
None of them got back up.
"Shit, Kudo!" It was stupid, hanging back to get a grasp of the situation! It was stupid; he should have known it was stupid, because it was how Hakuba did things. Heiji should have just charged headfirst like he always did.
With anger rushing through his veins, he pulled back his fist, feeling his entire being rippling with burning power. One blast was all it took to shatter the factory wall into half-melted debris, and immediately, all eyes, and guns, were on him.
Heiji didn't care, shooting down through the opening into the factory.
"Stop right there!" He barked, but he didn't really expect them to listen. "By the authority of the-" A bullet interrupted the rehearsed spiel, melting into nothing just centimeters from his cheek. Fine by him, the whole 'surrender now' bullshit was his least favorite part. "Guess we're skipping right to the tryin' to kill each other thing."
He kept to the air, flying close to ceiling, so all shots were focused up. The last thing he needed was Shinichi's unmoving form getting riddled by ricochet right now. It took just a few plasma blasts to send the thugs scrambling for cover, and just a couple melted bullets for them to realize their guns meant shit.
Karma. That was just what the assholes got.
"A wannabe hero, eh?" Tequila said. He didn't sound concerned. "Came all the way here to save a reporter?" He was the only one left, standing tall and unimpressed. With a careless shrug, he gestured at Shinichi, who wasn't moving, crumpled on the ground like a discarded doll just meters away.
A rush of fear seized in Heiji's chest. But he wasn't going to give Tequila the chance to take advantage of it. "Ya asshole!" He shot right at the giant man like a molten hot bullet, but Tequila didn't even bother to dodge. They collided head on, and it was like running full force into a steel wall. Or like the time he and Ran accidently flew right into each other in their first battle.
The collision sent him reeling, skidding across the concrete. The floor bubbled against his skin. Tequila's clothes were burning, and so was his skin, but the injuries weren't as bad as they should've been. The bastard was tough.
Well, that was fine, because so was Heiji. He shot right back into the air for round two.
"You're out of your league, brat." Tequila grinned, a nasty, cruel smile that stretched too far up. Heiji felt something like unease tickling in his veins, but he forced it back down and rushed the bastard again. There was no way the jerk could take another of those hits.
Too late did Heiji see Tequila pull back his fist.
The first hit, he took to the face. Tequila punched him with the power of a freight train, momentum carrying Heiji right into the blow. Another came from below, the uppercut catching him right in the gut.
It hurt. God, shit, it hurt.
The force of the second hit launched him right back into the air and into the ceiling, which shuddered with the impact. Then, he fell back down, plummeting right back to the floor.
Tequila was waiting with that same damn grin. The third hit was a kick to the ribs as he went back down, launching him into the far wall, which crumpled under his weight.
For a moment, the whole world went black. All he could hear was Tequila laughing, and his own raspy attempts to breath. He wasn't getting any air; it was like someone had dropped bricks on his lungs.
The pain almost overwhelmed the burning.
"What did I just say, you little fuck?" Tequila's voice echoed along with the ringing in his ears. Everything hurt. "Think you can win a fight by just throwing yourself around? Think you can save someone just because you put on a mask?"
He was lying on his stomach in the remnants of the wall, heavy stone settling on his legs and back. Just opening his eyes was a struggle. The world was blurry and took too long to focus, but when it did, Heiji shuddered. The henchmen were creeping back in, and Tequila was striding back over to Shinichi. "You lot! Grab the reporter! We're getting out of here before any other nuisances show up."
Fuck that, Heiji thought. His head was reeling, his sight was bleary, and he couldn't breath, but he'd been taught well. Trained until flying was easier than breathing. He lifted off the ground, shaking of the debris. He forced his chest to open, to expand, and the first breath was hard, but the second was easier.
The mooks scattered at the first sight of him, and Tequila turned back his way.
The jerk was still grinning. That was fine, because Heiji was going to punch that smile right off his ugly mug.
Tequila opened his mouth to say something, but Heiji charged a blast and released it in rapid succession. The plasma hit with a flash of light, but when the light faded, Tequila was still standing, unbothered. It was too weak to do much, but it gave Heiji a moment to regain his breath.
"You should have just played dead, brat." The bird mask covered Tequila's eyes and nose, but there was a dangerous air about Tequila as he reached into his jacket, and pulled out a handful of bullets. With a nasty grin, he tossed them in the air.
Heiji hesitated. What was he-
The camera.
Shit.
Heiji barely twisted around the first explosion, but still felt the pressure of it rippling through the air. The force of the first sent him careening right into the second, and then the third.
The explosions weren't large, in fact, they were tiny, but they were strong, precise, and hurt. And while Heiji was dense enough to take just about any kind of impact, he felt his head reeling with the force of them.
He didn't even want to think about what would happen if one of these hit someone else.
But worst of all, the bullets were small objects in free-fall, and god dammit, he was a high-density mass with his own gravity. They gravitated towards him in the air like magnets. It was going to be impossible to dodge them all.
So why bother?
Heiji brought up his arms to give his head at least some cover, and took a deep breath. It didn't calm the pounding in his chest, or ease the burn consuming his whole being like a wild fire. He took another, just for luck, and flew right through the midair minefield. The explosions hurt like hell, and almost knocked him off course, but momentum carried him through.
Tequila wasn't expecting that. The asshole's grin fell right off his face as Heiji rushed right at him again.
And that? That was worth it.
Heiji was angry, he was hurt, and he clung to the fury, the rage. It just made him burn that much hotter. This time, Heiji pulled back a fist and charged it, feeling the burn of plasma in his palm. It was like holding the sun in his hand, he'd once told Kazuha.
She had laughed. He hadn't.
He slugged Tequila right across the face with a two thousand degree sucker punch.
That knocked the bastard back with a choked scream, but still he didn't go down. What would it take? Just what could bring this monster down?
Probably more than Heiji could offer. Plus, he had other priorities. He flew right over to Shinichi, who was struggling to sit up, blearily blinking at the ceiling. Carefully, he cooled his arms down as much as he could manage, which was sadly still probably unpleasantly hot, and helped Shinichi up the rest of the way.
Shinichi was pale, and a little listless. Not quite concussed, but he'd definitely hit his head. He put more weight on Heiji than on his own feet, and still teetered sideways.
Just a couple meters away, Tequila had a hand to his face, groaning. Heiji flinched when Tequila's hand fell away, revealing hideous red burns and melting flesh. Clinging to his sleeve and unsteady, Shinichi made a gagging sound, unfocused eyes blown wide.
There was blood caking the ground, already half dry.
Staring Heiji right in the eyes, Tequila, with one side of his mouth burned black and bloody red and hanging almost loose, smiled.
"Remember this, hero." Bile fought to rise in Heiji's throat as Tequila spoke, stretching the grisly wound on his face. "Because next time we meet, I'm going to tear your face right off and wear it."
Tequila reached into his jacket again, and Heiji tensed. This time, Tequila tossed the bullets straight up.
Heiji pushed Shinichi down and shielded him with his own body. For once, Shinichi didn't protest. The bullets came back down, and erupted into flashes of blinding light and smoke.
When the smoke cleared, the bad guys were gone.
Shinichi had spent more than his fair share of time sitting in ambulances, getting checked over for injuries. Most days, he walked away just fine. He would again, today, if a little unsteadily. The EMT prodded at the back of his head gingerly, frowning, but they both knew that there'd just be a bump there tomorrow.
He'd gotten lucky, the EMT said. Shinichi didn't bother to disagree aloud. He would have preferred to be luckier.
Shinichi didn't remember as much as he would have liked. The kidnappers-he was certain that was what they were-had been pinning him and Tequila had been staring him down and then the camera exploded and everything after that was a blur of flashing lights and deafening noise.
He distinctly remembered Heliopause heaving him off the ground, feeling too hot skin against his own, a whole lot of explosions, and Tequila's face being half-burned off. That last bit was going to be hard to forget.
He also remembered Hattori literally leaving him to the birds.
Jerk.
But most of everything was impressions of pain, anger, and the sickening desire to hurt, to crush, to cause pain. Everything else was just flashes and blurry and useless.
He couldn't write a report on this. Police and other reporters were buzzing around the area, which was filled with more flashing light and too much noise. Apparently Banshee had been there too, but he didn't remember her at all.
Heliopause and Banshee, and apparently, Hattori, had given the police a full recounting of both their shares of the afternoon's events while he was in the ambulance.
The police would wait until tomorrow to hear out Shinichi, though. Apparently, he wasn't in any state to give full, sound-minded report. They wouldn't even let him back into the building to get a sample of the blood Tequila left. A reputable detective would have been let back in, probably, but not a reporter. Most policemen distrusted the media, either on principle, or because of their own previous bad relations.
Where was Hattori? Gone, like he always was when Shinichi actually needed him.
"Kudo!" Well, most of the time. Hattori suddenly emerged from the surrounding crowd, rushing over. He didn't look good, streaked with dust and sweat, and there were some scrapes exposed on his arms. What had he done to escape? Jumped out a window, right.
The sight of him just annoyed Shinichi more. Part of him wanted to ask the EMT to just shut the ambulance's doors and floor it, but the medic was already packing up and moving away with a sympathetic smile.
Too soon, Hattori was in his personal space, poking and prodding and inspecting. "Ya alright?" Hattori asked, nudging Shinichi's head to the side to peer at the back of it. Shinichi pulled away from the touch, glaring.
Thankfully, Hattori backed off a little. "Doesn't look too bad." Encouraging. Hattori smiled shakily, slumping with relief. Shinichi didn't let Hattori's obvious concern ease the knot of frustration building in his gut.
"Why are you still here?" It didn't sound like the accusation he meant it to be. It sounded too calm.
"The bad guys are long gone. There's not even a scent to chase." Hattori shook his head. Then he grinned, teasingly. It felt forced. "Plus, I can't leave ya alone, now can I?" Ha. That was funny. As true as it was false.
"Yes, sure seems like you just can't." Leave me alone. Leave me alone. He couldn't imbue the words with nearly enough bitterness.
Hattori sobered. Suddenly, he looked exhausted. There was dust in his hair, and his lip was cracked. Shinichi didn't know what happened. He didn't want to even care. But Hattori forced his shoulders back up and set a hand on Shinichi's shoulder. "Come on, let's get out of here," he coaxed.
Hattori was trying to be strong. Hattori, who had been so scared he ran, was trying to be strong for Shinichi.
Shinichi didn't need anyone to be strong for him. Hattori could go play tough guy elsewhere. "No." Shinichi snapped, and this time, the tone was just right. "Get in there and properly investigate. Get a blood sample. You're a detective, aren't you?" There was no mistaking the accusation for anything else this time.
Hattori, though, just looked confused, like a dog that didn't know why it's owner was pushing it away. "Hey-hey now, that's-"
Hattori's stumbling voice was interrupted by a sharp cry. "Shinichi!" He knew that voice anywhere.
"Ran," he said, without meaning to. And there she was, breaking free from the crowd and hurrying towards them. Hattori backed away, hands in the air as Shinichi turned on him. "You called Ran?" Shinichi snapped.
Hattori looked abashed. "Ah, and Hakuba. And your old man." Oh, great. Just great. The last three people in the world Shinichi wanted breathing down his neck right now. Of course Hattori called them all.
At least Ran was a sight for sore eyes. She was flushed, and her hair was in disarray, but she was still beautiful. The nicest thing Shinichi had laid eyes on in hours.
The very second he was in reach, arms wrapped around his shoulders and held tight. Ran's familiar weight settled against him. "Shinichi! Thank goodness you're alright!"
He relaxed into the embrace almost immediately, burying his face in her hair despite himself.
"Yeah, I'm fine." He said, settling his arms around her waist as she pulled back to peer into his face. Her lavender eyes were a bit too wide.
And way too angry. Too soon, her relief was completely smothered beneath a tidal wave of anxious fury.
She pushed him back by the shoulders, and he recognized the wrinkle in her brow. He knew exactly what was coming next. "What were you thinking? Hanging around in a place like this! Don't you know how dangerous that is?"
There it was.
Shinichi tried not to grimace under her fierce glare. He hadn't meant to worry her; there was no way he could have known that they'd actually run into the kidnappers. Or that the warehouse would be a trap.
He tried to find the words to say all that, and to comfort her, but they didn't come fast enough.
Another familiar voice cut in. It almost made him flinch. "You should have asked one of us to come with you."
Shinichi took a breath through his nose. Perfect. "Hakuba?"
His father's protégé smiled thinly. Shinichi knew him well enough to see the strain in it. But that didn't matter, not compared to the sinking he felt in his own gut. He turned back to Ran, and she wilted a little, some of the anger bleeding out.
"We came together," she said.
Oh. Urgent business, huh.
Shinichi didn't want to think about that right now. Instead, he met Hakuba's scarlet gaze right on, challenging. "I had Hattori with me, didn't I?" Fat load of help he was, though. But that wasn't the point.
Hakuba spared Hattori a glance, like he was looking at a particularly unwelcome relative at a memorial service. "That's not comforting, Shin-Kudo-kun." He said, with a voice so smooth and sure that it was almost easy to miss the error. It was a voice that was designed to convince, to deliver the hard facts and make them a little more palatable. They'd learnt that voice from Shinichi's father, side by side. "You shouldn't even be sticking your nose into a detective's case, anyway. How many times have we talked about this?"
So many that even Shinichi had lost count. But that didn't make him want to swallow the unpleasant truth.
He caught Hattori's eye. Hattori shrugged. So, Hattori had kept some things to himself, for once. Not much, not enough. Shinichi couldn't even be bothered to appreciate it.
After all, Hattori wasn't exactly stepping up to his defense, either.
And Ran had placed herself solidly on Hakuba's side, still glaring, mouth set in a firm line. "He's right, Shinichi. You ditched soccer practice today to break into a bunch of warehouses! How could you act so irresponsible! Doing stuff like this is just too reckless. You're going to get hurt."
Whatever. Shinichi looked away from the three of them, at his hands instead. There were scrapes on his palms, and his skin was pink where Heliopause must have gripped his wrist. His face felt like it was burning. Still, his composure stayed intact.
He wanted them all to just go away. He wanted to be alone in his empty house. He wanted the comfort of those still, untouched rooms, bereft of any memories or emotions but his own.
His throat felt tight. He didn't say anything else.
What could he say? That this was important to him? That he wanted to help people, to feel useful? To connect with the world through the safe shield of a camera's lens? That he wanted to know the truth, about everything, and knew he couldn't, shouldn't know what he really wanted to know? That he tried to sate himself on any measly, impersonal truth the world had to offer him? That he was capable, he was skilled, and he was practical?
That he could do this, if they'd all just let him?
The others went quiet too, probably feeling like they said too much. Maybe pitying him. Ran was, definitely. He knew he'd see it in her eyes if he looked back up.
So he didn't.
Hakuba drove them back. Ran held his hand, slender fingers carefully intertwined with his own, grip just tight enough for him to know she didn't want to let go.
Her hand felt uncomfortable in his.
All three of them had made half aborted attempts at conversation, but while Hattori and Hakuba had eventually given up, Ran kept trying.
She always tried when he least wanted her to.
"Let's talk about the upcoming tournament, then," she said, voice lathered in faux cheer. "Think your team is ready?" His tongue felt heavy in his mouth. He didn't want to respond.
Shinichi was looking out the window, watching lights flash by, chin cupped in his free hand. "We'll be fine." The words sounded bored, apathetic, and dismissive. They didn't sound like he'd forced them out like pulling teeth.
Ran perked up, hopeful and abashed all at once. "That's good. Read anything interesting over break?"
"The new Detective Saimonji book is coming out." Hakuba chimed in.
Soccer. Reading. The violin. Boating and snowboarding and driving and trips and vacations and anything else his parents could think up to distract him. The safe topics, the encouraged behaviors.
His own girlfriend couldn't think of anything else to talk about. Shinichi's tongue felt like chalk in his mouth, dry and heavy.
In the silence, Hakuba relented. "Kudo-kun, are you going to report tonight's events?"
"No." He didn't have the whole story yet. More than that, though, if those guys were the kidnappers, and Shinichi would bet his entire blog and his Twitter they were, they had the missing kids. If Shinichi carelessly put an article out there and said too much, chances were, any surviving kids would be dead before dawn.
And Shinichi wouldn't be any closer to finding them.
Well, no, not necessarily. Tequila and his men may have gotten away, but he knew what he was looking for now.
And, there was the footage he'd taken in the warehouse. Tequila may have blown his camcorder to smithereens, but maybe the memory card could be salvaged. He'd ask for it back from evidence the next day.
And then, Shinichi would find those crows again. In the meantime, he'd get back to Daichi and tell him to have everyone on the lookout for men in bird masks. If he could find someway to narrow down the targets, he could catch the next kidnapping attempt while it was still undergoing. The crows had mentioned something about a quota. They'd needed to bring in a certain amount of kids for something. Shinichi just had no idea as to what.
But he'd find out.
Ran's hand tightened around his. It felt like a shackle.
Shinichi didn't hesitate to march right to his room the moment they parked in the driveway. Maybe his father would want to speak with him, maybe Hakuba would like to passive-aggressively not-yell at him some more. Maybe Ran would follow.
None of those things happened. Surprisingly, it was Hattori who was on his heels.
"Kudo, come on!" Shinichi kept walking, stubbornly ignoring the footsteps trailing after him. "Talk to me! We gotta talk about this case, man!" They made it up the stairs with still no sign of his father. Good. Shinichi couldn't deal with that man right now. Not when there was an upset knot of emotion in his stomach, not when he couldn't seem to breath evenly. Hattori's voice wasn't helping. "Ya can't just run away from me!"
Shinichi stopped, right in the middle of the hallway. The aggravation mounted, turning hot and wild and furious. If Hattori had just left, or apologized, or left things be, Shinichi could have forgiven him. Shinichi could have understood that Hattori had been looking out for his own safety.
But now? Now, Shinichi didn't want to understand. Not when Hattori was chasing him around his own house, still acting like they were friends.
Shinichi whirled around on his heel. Under his withering glare, Hattori stepped back. "Oh? What about how you ran away?"
Hattori winced. This time, he didn't even pretend to mistake the accusation for anything else. He just stared Shinichi right in the eye, looking so, so tired. "I didn't run away. I had to call for help. But I didn't abandon you." Hattori stepped forward. His gaze was steady, solemn. Shinichi wanted him to stumble, to falter, to show any sign of lying through his teeth. Instead, he steadily insisted, "I wouldn't do that!"
Shinichi narrowed his eyes. Fine, if they were having this conversation, he'd take full advantage of it. He didn't feel like reining himself in or going easy right now. If Hattori wanted to talk, they'd talk. Shinichi knew how to talk. "But you would lie to me, right? Keep secrets?" This time Hattori flinched, looking guilty. Shinichi didn't stop. Any sympathy, any desire to be understanding or considerate had drained away in the miserable silence of the car. All the old wounds, the frustrations he kept bubbling under his skin, all the little slights he ignored for years and years had been rubbed raw. "Don't try and deny it. I know my father, Hattori. I've put up with his schemes and his mind games my whole life, longer than even Hakuba, and especially longer than you." He knew who really deserved his anger here, knew it wasn't Hattori's fault, not entirely. But Hattori was an accomplice. And that he made perfectly clear. "So if you're here on his behalf, you can go tell him that I don't care whatever he is up to with you guys. If he stays out of my way, I'll stay out of his."
Hattori's shoulder's shot up defensively. "Your dad didn't send me here." He sounded sincere. Shinichi didn't care it he was or not.
"Then why are you here, Hattori?" Shinichi watched Hattori's face carefully. He looked exhausted, and frustrated, but most of all, disappointed. As Shinichi watched, Hattori masked all those feelings, and looked back with a locked jaw and determined eyes.
They both took a breath. Then, Hattori spoke. "You're gonna keep looking into this, aren't ya?"
"Of course." He hadn't ever abandoned an investigation part way through. When Kudo Shinichi caught the scent of a scoop, he followed it all the way back to the source, not matter what got in his way.
Hattori stared him right in the eye. "Despite the evil, superpowered thugs?"
Shinichi couldn't help but smile a little at that. "Despite the evil, superpowered thugs."
Hattori sighed, his shoulders sagging back down in defeat. The sight of it didn't feel like a victory. In fact, all the anger and everything was bleeding away, leaving just tiredness behind. It had been a stressful day. Hattori looked just as weary, but there was steel in his gaze as he said, "then let me help."
Shinichi blinked. "What?"
"I wanna look into this too." A quiet, honest request: a peace offering, another extended hand.
The last vestige of Shinichi's anger stirred. He nearly snarled. "Oh no, you are here for my father! You're here to keep an eye on me!"
"No!" Hattori denied, voice too loud in the hallway. "Please, I know this secret thing is hard. But it's not like there's your dad's side and your side! We aren't against ya, Kudo." It sure felt like it, sometimes. "All that I ask is that you trust us. Just…trust me?" The last bit was spoken quietly again, a whispered plea. Hattori looked earnest.
But Shinichi knew better. "Why should I?"
Hattori stepped closer again. "Because if ya do, then I promise I'll trust ya. Look, just from today, I can already tell that what you're investigatin' is way over your head. I should tell ya to stop and leave it alone. But I'm not. I'm gonna trust ya to make this decision on your own and to take care of yourself. So, we're doin' this together."
"Together?"
"Together." Hattori repeated, voice steady and sure.
"…No." For a moment, Shinichi had almost considered it. But he'd already taken a chance on Hattori. And while Hattori could look him in the eye and offer him a hand, Hattori just as easily looked away and stood back. Something like betrayal still burned in the back of Shinichi's throat. "I just can't. You…you can't have it both ways, Hattori. You can't ask for my trust and lie to my face in same breath. You can't just disappear and then promise you'll be there for me." The image of Ran, smiling apologetically as she lied again was crystal clear in his mind. When Hattori spoke, Shinichi could practically hear Hakuba's reiterating those same words, negotiating for that same trust. He felt his shoulder's slump, and he couldn't find the energy to pull them back up. Hattori's face fell just as easily, twisted with frustration and guilt.
But no regret. And that's what really cemented his decision. "Yeah, I had fun today." It felt important to confess that part. To admit that he'd actually enjoyed working alongside Hattori, until everything went wrong and he was reminded of all the reasons why he worked alone. "The investigating together part was cool. But the rest of it? Just goes to show that it's not gonna work." It never worked. Shinichi just couldn't trust anyone so easily. "See you around."
Walking away and shutting his door behind him was the easiest thing he'd done all day.
Saguru was not hot-tempered, nor was he easy to rile up. But he did get angry, and more often than not, Hattori Heiji was the object of his ire. His teammate wasn't just reckless and foolhardy, but also destructive, impulsive, and most of all, messy.
And today's incident? Was beyond messy.
The fact that Hattori had dragged Shinichi into it, or allowed Shinichi to pursue it did not help. Just the thought of it made Saguru's blood boil. When Hattori had called in, claiming Shinichi had been captured by bad guys with guns, Saguru had been tempted to tear his hair out in worry. Only Yuusaku's direct orders had him sitting tight, waiting for Ran to zip back from whatever she was doing in Nagano and give him a lift to the crime scene.
Now that it was over, anxiety was giving way to aggravation. He paced back in forth in the meeting room, while Yuusaku sat serenely in his chair.
"What the hell happened today?" The moment Hattori entered the base, Saguru sprung. The fact that Hattori looked a little wrecked around the edges didn't stop him in the least. "How the hell did you get Shinichi-kun into a firefight?"
Hattori ducked away, somehow finding the energy to bristle up. "I didn't get Shinichi into anythin'!"
So Shinichi had gone there on his own. Of course. If anything, knowing that just pissed Saguru off more. Saguru pushed right back into Hattori's face, too annoyed to be bothered with the boundaries he usually kept. "You know you shouldn't encourage him! Are you foolish?" Hattori's skin darkened with rage, going from brown to the molten black of his empowered form.
A commanding voice broke in and had them springing apart in an instant. "Stop, Saguru-kun. Hattori-kun, what happened today?"
Hattori slumped underneath Yuusaku's disappointed gaze, the strange darkness creeping away. He didn't look ashamed with himself, though, and that made Saguru purse his lips. For a moment, Hattori seemed to deliberate, and then looked right in Yuusaku's eyes with a fierce glare. "We were lookin' inta a couple arson cases together, and then some thugs in bird masks showed up and I had to leave Kudo there alone with them!" His voice started at a reasonable level, but by the end it had risen to a shout. He was scowling furiously. "Because you two insist on this secret identity nonsense!" Then, the anger just seemed to crumble away. Hattori looked down at his feet. "And now he hates me."
Oh.
Saguru let those words, disappointed and defeated, settle in. They were familiar. In them echoed years of bad encounters and stilted conversations, of dinners spent avoided Shinichi's chilly eyes. He was struck, suddenly, with the memory of throwing out his application to Teitan High the day he decided that he wouldn't take the entrance exam.
He didn't want to think about those things, so he focused on something else.
Like Hattori being a complete moron. "You disappeared, and then Heliopause just happened to show up?" That was an amateur mistake, especially for an experienced hero like Hattori. "Hattori, are you stu-"
Hattori looked furious again, cutting in. "What else could I do?"
Saguru felt his eye twitching. "You shouldn't have even brought Shinichi-kun with you in the first place!"
"He would have gone to that warehouse whether I was with him or not!"
"Then you should have stopped him, instead of doing something so reckless and stupid!"
"Stopped him? Do ya seriously think there's a thing in the world that can stop that guy?" Hattori waved a hand in emphasis. "He does whatever he wants!" Saguru opened his mouth to say something else, but he couldn't argue that point.
Hattori continued on, his thick brows furrowed. "Why we gotta keep him so far out of the loop anyway? And don't feed me the same 'it's for his own good bullshit' you feed Ran! It clearly ain't doin' him any favors!" This shout, though, was very clearly directed at Yuusaku.
Saguru clenched his fists in indignation. That sort of disrespect he couldn't allow.
With a strict voice, he reclaimed Hattori's attention. "Hattori, don't be mistaken. What makes you think you're in any position to question Kudo-san's decision?"
Hattori's face flushed. "I-"
"You know nothing." And Hattori didn't. Hattori knew nothing of what Yuusaku did for his son.
Hattori recoiled, still fuming. "Because the two of ya refuse to tell me anything!"
Saguru glared. If he had to lay it out for Hattori, fine, he would. "And you want to know why? Because you can't be trusted. You can't even keep Shinichi-kun out of a case. How could we possibly trust you with anything more than your own secret identity, when you have so much trouble keeping even that secret?"
"I-that's not…" That blow hit hard and left Hattori stuttering. Saguru wished it shut him up entirely.
"That's enough, you two." Once again, Yuusaku's interrupted them. It was frustrating, having to have a disciplinary talk right in front of his mentor with a unruly teammate. He was supposed to be the leader: these were arguments he was should handle on his own.
Yuusuaku, though, didn't seem to mind. He was smiling. "Hattori-kun, none of these matters is any of your concern. Please don't worry about them." Saguru didn't think saying that would do any good. Hattori, like all detectives, couldn't just mind his own business. Still, when Yuusaku said it, it sounded convincing. "You've had a long day, it's probably best you returned home for now."
For a moment, Hattori glared at them both some more. Then, still wearing a defiant scowl, he snapped out a curt "Yes sir."
Hattori marched out of the room. Saguru knew that that didn't mean the subject was dropped: it was just postponed. To his retreating back, Yuusaku called, "thank you for protecting my son."
At those words, Hattori paused. He turned back, looking less angry than before. "I wasn't going to let that liquor creep hurt him."
"Liquor?" Saguru repeated. He had no idea what Hattori was talking about.
"Some metahuman thug called Tequila. He was leading the bird guys."
Saguru glanced back at Yuusaku, who'd brought his steepled fingers up to his mouth contemplatively. "Did you fight him?" Yuusaku asked.
The Osakan didn't answer. There was something strange about how he held himself, like he was uncertain. No, reluctant. "Hattori, what happened?"
Hattori hesitated for a moment longer. Then, he spoke. "He was throwing me around like I was nothing. Then he threatened to take Shinichi, and I lost my cool. I...sort of punched half his face off."
Saguru took in a sharp breath. Dear god.
But Yuusaku didn't even blink. "It's alright, Hattori-kun. You can give us your full report tomorrow. You're dismissed."
Once Hattori left the room, probably starting his long flight home, he turned to his mentor. "That...could have killed his opponent." Saguru said carefully. "Hattori's usually reckless, but not even he would do something so dangerous."
Yuusaku nodded slowly. "Not usually, no."
"You don't think..." He didn't want to say it.
"Yes." Yuusaku's eyes slid shut. He didn't slump or slide down in his chair, but the heavy creases in his brow and the tightening of his fingers were telling enough. For once, Saguru's mentor didn't seem impressive or in control. He looked like a tired middle-aged man.
Saguru hesitated to speak. It felt like blasphemy. "Is there anything we can do about it?"
His mentor hummed noncommittally. It wasn't an answer. Yuusaku didn't know.
Heavy dread settled over Saguru.
The Night Baron was respected worldwide for his fierce intelligence and his peerless problem-solving skills. When the world was facing crisis, its citizens turned to the Overseers for salvation. And when the Overseers faced a catastrophe, they turned to the Night Baron to find the solution. Saguru's mentor had saved the planet many times before, not with brawn, but by tackling cataclysmic problems with ingenuity and efficiency.
But if not even the Night Baron had the answer to this, then who did?
No. Saguru couldn't think like that. Maybe his mentor hadn't found the key yet, but there was still time. They had managed to keep a solid lid on the disaster so far, and would continue to for as long as necessary.
And Saguru had been raised to do what Yuusaku could not. He could find the answer. He just had to look harder for it. There was no such thing as an unsolvable problem, or a question without a satisfactory answer. Mysteries existed to be solved, and issues existed to be addressed.
Separate from his deliberations, Yuusaku stood and pulled on his cloak. Saguru watched curiously as his mentor disappeared behind the heavy black mantle.
Yuusaku fitted the white mask over his face with practiced ease. "I have other matters to attend to, for now."
"Sir?"
"The sooner we handle the security breach, the better."
Anticipation burned suddenly in Saguru's chest, alongside relief. "You'll tell Aoko-kun?"
"No. Not yet, at least. I intend to confront the problem at its root." Saguru straightened, taken by surprise. The Baron almost never went after KID personally; in fact, the Overseers went out of their way to avoid facing the thief.
"Want me to come with?"
"That won't be necessary. I will handle the night patrol alone tonight. You may return home."
He had expected that, but still it made him frown. Being left behind always stung, when it came to confrontations with KID he found it particularly hard to swallow. "...yes sir."
It was a cold, clear night, so crisp that the stars were bright in the sky, even in the yellow glow of the Tokyo skyline. The brilliant fluorescent lights of the Tokyo nightlife reached far into the sky, illuminating a dark figure standing atop a skyscraper.
He was blacker than the night, entirely swathed in a dark cloak. Only one feature of his was distinguishable from the shadows of the unlit rooftop: his pure white mask, with its upturned eyes and eerie grin.
Behind him, the moon hung in the sky, waning away from being full by only a handful of days. A drop of white fell from it, splashing across the rooftop in a swirl of rippling cloth. It rose back up, fluttering aside to reveal a man dressed vibrantly in flawless white, face obscured by an ivory top hat and a gleaming monocle.
Kaitou KID grinned. There was nothing friendly about it.
"The Baron came all this way to see me." The thief purred into the darkness. His smile was sharp like a shark's jaw, rows and rows of vicious teeth designed to shred through the toughest of flesh. "What an honor."
The Night Baron turned to face him: only the mask seemed to move, twisting around the still blackness of the rest of his body. The Baron wasted no time with pleasantries. "Turn yourself in." It was a command, harsh and terrifying in the night that was suddenly too quiet.
KID didn't seem to care, leaning forward. His smile only spread wider, a mockery of the empty expression carved in the Baron's mask. "You first, I insist." He curled over in a perfect bow, hellfire bright eyes burning from under the brim of his hat. The fierce, defiant gaze never left the Baron's.
Another mockery: a grotesque charade of gentlemanly manner.
The Baron simply continued on, voice cold and stern. He knew best: for the thief, for the people, for the world. "Whatever you think you're doing, it's wrong. And it's endangering a lot of innocent people."
KID straightened, almost choking on a laugh so coated with derision that it wasn't a laugh at all. "Funny, according to reports, that's all I've ever done."
The Baron took a step forward. "You could have at least left her out of it." He spoke like a judge at his podium: residing over the court, the Baron stood over the accused and all of Tokyo. He loomed over the thief, but he hadn't always. There had been a time that they were the exact same height.
That era had passed, and the world had moved on, Tokyo careening forward in the wake of each new disaster. Humanity's ascension was a tide that never quite stopped rising.
KID's smile fell away, replaced with a mouth curled down with contempt. The facade of politeness had cracked under the strike of the gavel. "You didn't leave her out of it."
"She came to me and asked me to teach her. She chose to be a hero." The Baron did not offer the words as an explanation or a justification. They were simply the truth.
"Those are two very different things." The thief jeered, shoulders rising. It was impossible to tell whether the action was aggressive or defensive. "If she's made her choice, then that's fine. I'll take full advantage of it, since I've already made my own."
For a moment, silence settled between them, a dead end. The Baron was still, impossibly so. It seemed to frustrate the thief. Finally, the Baron spoke again, giving his final decree. "Tell her the truth."
KID didn't acknowledge the finality in the Baron's tone. His own voice was hard and cruel with scorn. "Like you did?" Those three words struck harder than anything else said that evening. The Baron shifted back, just a hair's breadth. The movement was so minute, few would have noticed. But KID had always been one of a kind. "Spare me your hypocrisy. What about my predecessor's murder? Where's the world's greatest detective when that mystery needed to be solved? Where's your truth and justice, when you're the one with blood on your hands? I don't see you coming clean and standing to trial."
"I didn't kill you father." The words resounded in the cold air. The wind picked up, catching in their individual cloaks. Black and white rippled alongside each other with the contrast of the sun peaking over the horizon.
KID snorted derisively. "It was an accident? Bullshit. You know what they call it when you accidently murder somebody? Manslaughter."
Impossibly, the Baron stood taller, a column of unmoving obsidian. He was a bastion that could not be moved. "There were circumstances outside your understanding, that day." The words were delivered like a speech given by the educated to the ignorant, only bereft of fact or explanation. No one cared if the ignorant understood or not, so long as they were quiet in their incomprehension.
KID bristled, the dignity of his regal stance lost in a fury that belied someone much younger than he should have been. "I can't believe this. You don't even sound guilty! You don't even care, do you?"
"No. And neither will she. Your father was the victim of his own crimes, and she will understand that. Tell her the truth, or I will."
KID struck like a viper springing from coil, drawing a silver gun from his coat in a flash of white and blue. The weapon settled against the Baron's chest, threateningly pressing into the dark cloth.
The Baron did not move, unthreatened. "You think you hold all the cards?" KID's voice regained its steady tempo, confident and bold. A showman's voice. He playfully circled the gun's barrel around, prodding. "You think you can drop ultimatums? Well, how's this one. You tell her anything, anything at all, and well..."
He drew back in an instantaneous, fluid movement, dancing back with the wind. The cocky grin returned full force. His finger tightened on the trigger. "I'm not the only one here who wears a mask."
The Baron ducked the razor-sharp card that sprung free from the gun's barrel. Still, it nicked the side his mask, leaving the slighted dent. He'd been distracted by the card's number and suit: the ace of spades. "You cannot-"
KID laughed. "Reveal your identity to the world? No, because you would just reveal mine. No, nothing so dramatic." KID snapped his gloved fingers. In a puff of smoke, the card was back in his hand. He traced his fingers over it fondly, turning it over and over. "You know, I've met your son. He's superb, isn't he? Clever, earnest, and absolutely ruthless." KID's digits graced over the card's sharp edges, tapping in time with his words. The Baron shifted, almost uneasily. "Oh, he's just fantastic. I read his blog too, you know. After all, he always unearths the best dirt." His voice was light, friendly, and almost genuine. The thread of the conversation had almost turned pleasant. KID held the card close to his face, inspecting it appreciatively. Not at all threatening.
But the Baron had gone very tense. KID went on. "You tell her anything, you even mention my name, and I'll tell him everything about you." These words? They were undeniably a threat, and they were delivered with a cold, vicious conviction.
The card was released, fluttering down to the floor. A final poisonous pleasantry was delivered. "Have a wonderful night, Baron." The thief waved jauntily as he wandered towards the building edge. There he paused, with one last thing to say. "Feel free to tell your son I say hi." The patronizing cheerfulness of his voice may as well have been nails on a chalkboard for how it seemed to grate on the Baron's ears.
KID gave one more charming grin before he slipped over the edge, disappearing into the night with nothing more than a flap of cloth in the wind.
The Baron remained a little longer, absently grinning at nothing.
.
(ღˇ◡ˇ)~ C&C?