Authors notes:
In response to the guest reviewer D0A: Thank you for your review! I'm glad you find it interesting, and yeah I noticed that too… I've alway's liked writing platonic story's… I mean if people want to read this story and imagine things as being more romantic than they can- but it's not intended to be that way… I just really like the brotherly relationship between Hattori and Kudo.
As for Kid… well… we'll see. *wink*
*clears throat*
As for everyone in the audience! It's a shorter chapter today…
sorry

Warnings: Foul language… blood and violence. Animal mutilation… and murder… you know how it goes.

The Lycanthropy of a Shrunken Detective

Chapter Four

Heiji took gulping breaths as he stood in the spot where he'd found Kudo. His jacket was in a grocery bag and he'd deal with it later. First, he had to look for clues at the scene before it was overly disturbed. Which is why he'd run back.

Turning his hat so the brim faced forward Heiji traced Kudo's print's back into the brush. Finding Kudo's footprints was easy and the evidence of blood was overwhelming. He followed the blood droplets and smears on leaves and bark as he lost sight of the ground. Then the print's were back, wobbling. Kudo had obviously been disoriented.

It wasn't but a few meters before he found the prints leading to a mess of blood, mud and guts as Heiji came across a mutilated deer. Its stomach was torn open and its intestines half pulled out.

In the blood around the body there were claw marks mixed in with what looked like hand and footprints. Long smears in the ground suggested something slipping and sliding around.

Well, that explained the blood. Carefully stepping around the scene Heiji was beginning to work out what was what. Kudo must have tripped into the carcass and, disoriented, scrambled and rolled as he tried to get up. To the side of the body he noted a good amount of spit and blood.

Cringing Hattori moved on. if he had to guess Kudo must have gotten some of the animal in his mouth when he fell. Strange though, the dear was clearly attacked by a large predator but had hardly been touched otherwise. Heiji wondered if Kudo had scared away the killing animal. He frowned.

That didn't make much sense. If Kudo had interrupted something like a bear eating… would it really have run off without fighting for its meal? Kudo had no signs of injury though. Even his arm was missing the small surgical stitches from his last visit to the hospital a week ago. Last he saw Kudo only had the scar's from the attack that happened about a month ago. He didn't see any signs of the medical thread in the dirt. He must have lost them earlier- maybe when he returned to his teenaged form.

With that thought, Heiji refocused and tried to find out where Kudo had come from before this point but his footprints didn't go back any farther. It was almost as if he'd fallen from the sky right onto the dead dear. Considering his luck Heiji didn't put it past the modern Holmes.

Another oddity though… the strange beast's paw print's also seemed to end here. Heiji stared at the evidence in front of him… his mind racing. Maybe whatever dropped Kudo here picked up the animal… The detective violently shook his head.

Where were his thoughts going? He took a moment to laugh at himself. Alien abduction was not where his brain needed to be right now. Still… he looked up to the treetops. How did Kudo end up here? It was possible he dropped out of a helicopter… or was jumping trees… none of that made sense. First of all, there would be little reason for Kudo to jump trees… though he'd done it before. Second, no one would just drop him here for no reason. Plus why take the animal?

Scratching his head in agitation Heiji nocked his hat askew. Frustrated he straightened it and let out a sigh, maybe he needed to come at it from the other direction. If he could figure out where Conan went then he could figure out how Kudo ended up here.

With little else to follow Heiji decided to backtrack the animal prints. He tried to figure out what it was, based on what little knowledge of prints he had, but sometimes they seemed like a large dog's paws and sometimes more like bear paws. He just wasn't well versed in animal tracks.

After tracking further into the woods to the point where tracking was impossible Heiji let out a sigh. He'd hoped he'd maybe find a den or something to help him cure his curiosity as to exactly what killed the deer but it was nearing lunch now and he'd wasted enough time. He frowned down at the bag in his hand and shrugged. Might as well get it checked. He doubted there'd be anything other than animal blood on it. Now that he knew where Kudo had stumbled from. Still, the mystery as to what exactly happened to the Detective of the East before his roll with the deer still remained.

Authors notes:
Thank you for reading.
Even though this is a short chapter it's one of my favorites so far… even if the first paragraph is a bit awkward… and I can't tell if my depiction of Heiji is okay or not… Still writing this has been really fun.
And… the next chapter will be longer… I'm sure.

(Words used 763. Original date posted 01/04/2018)