Hey all, SG-chan here with Chapter 2 of Schismatic! Hope you all enjoy this update, it took a while to get it typed up, since SG-chan's laptop does not have a working power cord at the moment DX She has to borrow her dad's power cord. But hopefully that will be fixed this weekend! ^^
Oh, anon review reply!
PurplePython: XD No, no cleavers. I'm surprised that so many people are reading this, especially since it's just an experiment of mine into the genre of horror and gore. It was the only way my muses came up with to goad people into reviewing ^^; You asked for more, so here is more! Hope you enjoy this chapter, there is more to come, but this story will only be twenty chapters long at the most. I'm glad you're interested in the story! \^o^/
And now, onto the story.
"Has he talked at all yet?" Suzuki Sonoko inquired. Though many saw her as just a ditzy rich girl, when it came to important things, like her best friend Mouri Ran, she was one you could count on in a pinch.
"No," Ran shook her head sadly, her grip on Conan's hand tightening. "He looks so small…," the brunette whispered as she looked at her younger brother figure lying so still on the hospital bed. Is this what everyone felt like when I lost my memory? She thought, shivering slightly as she recalled Kyousuke-sensei chasing her and Conan-kun through Tropical Land.
As Sonoko leaned over to give her a comforting hug, Ran decided that she would do all in her power to help Conan through whatever happened. After all, Shinichi would have wanted it, and even with his less than frequent calls troubling her, as his best friend, she owed it to him to look after the boy who looked up to him so much.
Meanwhile, another girl was thinking about the same person, but in different context.
Haibara Ai was quite worried about the situation her fellow height-challenged companion found himself him. You had better pull through this, Kudo, she thought as she tried to ignore the questions about Conan's whereabouts from the other children. Or else I'll find some way to revive the dead just so I can kill you myself.
"Whaddya mean he's in the hospital?" Hattori Heiji nearly shouted into the phone.
"Shhh! You'll wake him!" Ran scolded. "Conan-kun's trying to rest, and you are not helping him any by shouting! Put Kazuha-chan back on the phone!"
"Ahou!" Toyama Kazuha chided her friend as he thrust the cell phone back at her.
"Ahou yerself!" the Osakan boy retorted. Kazuha rolled her eyes, and then proceeded to ignore Heiji as she continued the conversation she and Ran had been having.
What the hell are ya doin' in the hospital, Kudo? Heiji thought frustrated. I mean, it's not like anybody at the heist got hurt!
Though he had to admit, even hearing secondhand about the events made his stomach slightly queasy. That's it, he decided. I'm goin' ta Beika ta check up on him. Damn Kudo, ya can't hardly go three days without runnin' inta trouble, can ya?
With a goodbye to Kazuha that was barely registered by the girl, the Detective of the West got on his motorcycle and went home to start packing for his excursion. Of course, he didn't predict a road block in the form of his mother.
"And just where do you think you're going?" Hattori Shizuka inquired. She was standing in the doorway of her son's bedroom as he rifled through his closet.
"Beika," Heiji replied absent-mindedly as he found his Doyle vs. Queen shirt. Nothing like a good debate on whose idol's better to snap Kudo outta a funk.
"How long are you going to be gone?"
"Day, maybe two. I gotta visit Ku-nan, make sure he's all right," Hattori replied, folding his clothing with surprising care before placing it in his duffel bag.
"Your father's birthday is tomorrow." The tone of his mother's voice was nearly ice cold.
"He'll be fine without me," Heiji dismissed. "Always has."
"You are going to stay home for your father's birthday," Shizuka insisted.
Heiji ignored her, instead concentrating pointedly on snagging his two favorite Ellery Queen novels, as well as his translated copy of Artemis Fowl. For some reason, Artemis reminded him heavily of Kudo. He glared as Shizuka deftly snatched the books away.
"You are not going anywhere," the woman sternly laid down the law.
"Okan, my best friend is in the hospital. I'm worried about him." The detective spoke slowly, as if he was communicating with a stupid person. More likely it was the rage bubbling inside of him as his mother glared right on back.
"Heiji, we've talked over this before; you can't just drive down to Tokyo at the drop of a hat! Your school attendance is bad enough-"
Heiji exploded. "An' I do well enough in school! I get in all the work that I've missed, I get perfects on nearly all m' tests - hell, I'm technically old enough ta live on m' own!"
Shizuka flinched a bit at this last statement, acting as though she'd been slapped.
Her son took this opportunity to take his books back and quickly stuff them in his duffel bag. "I'll call once I check on Conan," he said as he attempted to weave around his mother, who still stood in the doorway.
"I forbid you to go!" Shizuka grabbed his wrist with a strength that belied her slight stature.
"Okan, let go. I'm old enough t' make my own decisions, and I'm goin' ta go check up on Conan!" With that last retort, Heiji wrenched his wrist free and stomped down the stairs, leaving his mother behind with unshed tears brimming in her eyes.
"Heiji-kun! You didn't have to come." Ran was somewhat surprised to see the Osakan show up at the hospital not even five hours after their short conversation - if you could call it a conversation.
"Course I did! Gotta make sure Ku-nan is doin' okay, don't I? How is the gaki?"
"He's been pretending to be asleep, I don't think he wants to bother me." Ran quickly wiped away what may have been a leftover tear. "He always has to do things by himself, even though I- I tell him that- that-"
"S'okay, neechan," Heiji soothed the now openly crying girl. He felt slightly uncomfortable, since this was Kudo - his best bud's! - girl in his arms. Never mind they weren't technically dating or anything, the two had been dancing each other long enough that that was all he knew. "Here, you stop cryin' neechan. I'll go in an' watch the kid, okay?"
"Arigatou Heiji-kun." Ran smiled wanly at the young man before she left down the hospital corridor - maybe to the bathroom, Heiji thought, if he judged girls how he judged Kazuha's moods.
He opened the door quietly, just in case Kudo was actually sleeping, although he kind of doubted it. Unless the shrunken teen was feeling completely safe or extremely exhausted, he woke at the slightest sound, paranoia at its highest.
"Oi, Kudo." The Osakan sat down in the chair next to the bed - probably where Ran had been sitting previously.
"Hattori." Kudo was awake, though facing away from him.
"Kudo, what's goin' on?" All I heard was that you were hospitalized, but not why. Even neechan wouldn't say. What the hell happened at that heist?"
"I don't want to talk about it, Hattori," Kudo replied, curling in further on himself, as though he could see the way his fellow detective's stare was focused utterly on him.
"Oh no, yer not gettin' outta it that easy, Kudo. What's wrong with you? Neechan said you didn't want to 'bother' her - bother her with what?" Heiji knew he'd struck a nerve as he saw the sudden tense in the other boy's shoulders. "Kudo, I wanna help - hell, I basically brushed off m' okan threatening me ta get here ta see ya, and I ain't leaving till I got an answer!"
"I couldn't have said it better myself," a new and somewhat familiar voice said. "Well, I probably could, but that's getting into details."
Heiji and Shinichi turned in the direction of that disturbingly familiar-sounding person.
"What th' hell are ya doin' here KID?" Heiji growled at the white-clad thief who was standing in front of the window.
"It wasn't his fault, Hattori." Shinichi spoke as he propped himself up in the uncomfortable hospital bed - more like a cot, the shrunken teen grumbled.
"Huh? B-but it was a KID heist!" the Osakan protested. "Why wouldn't it be his fault?"
"Because, tantei-han, I was set up," the frustratingly unbothered thief replied. "You can ask Hakuba if you don't believe me, I've... convinced him of my innocence."
"Then wha-"
The door suddenly opened as Ran came back in. "Hattori-kun?" she asked. "Why are you standing there in the middle of the room like that?"
Heiji turned toward the window and stopped in surprise. The thief was gone, and the previously opened window was now closed. "Son of a..." he muttered, low enough that the girl couldn't hear him.
"Conan-kun!" Ran took her attention off of Heiji as she realized her charge was awake. "How are you doing?"
"I'm feeling a bit better Ran-neechan," the boy smiled faintly.
"If Hattori-kun is bothering you, I'll throw him out, okay?"
"Oi, I only got here a minute ago!" Heiji protested.
"It's all right Ran-neechan, Heiji-niisan isn't that troublesome." Shinichi chuckled, somewhat amused at his friend's over-protectiveness.
"Do you need me to get anything for you?" Ran asked worriedly, as though she were afraid that Conan might lapse into unconsciousness at any moment.
"Actually, I am feeling a bit hungry," he confessed. "But you don't have-"
"I'll ask the doctor what he thinks is proper for you to eat." Ran smiled warmly as she placed a kiss on his forehead.
"Getting some action, ne?" Heiji elbowed his friend teasingly once the girl was gone.
"Hattori, please shut up," Shinichi sighed exasperatedly. "Oi, you can come out from under there now," the shrunken teen added as he kicked at his bed.
"Do you know how stuffy it is under there?" KID complained as he stretched out any kinks he may have had as he stood, his hat still immaculately in place.
"I'm not even goin' ta ask," Hattori shook his head. "Though it explains how and why ya disappeared so fast."
"You believe me then?" The thief seemed surprised, and a little suspicious.
"Well, Kudo's the one who's got the most issues with ya, and if he doesn't blame ya, then I guess I can let some suspicion go." KID and Shinichi both blinked.
"That was almost... gracious of you, tantei-han," KID said with some amusement.
"Shut up," the Osakan retorted. "If yer gonna leave, then ya better do it before neechan comes back."
KID gave the detectives a thank-you smirk. "By the way, did you know Mouri-chan wears nylons?" he asked before disappearing out the window.
Chapter Translation: Bedside Manners
Okay, I believe some explanations are going to be needed here, so not everyone asks me the same question in a review (which you guys should do, btw. Review, I mean, not all ask the same question).
1. Heiji's home life
OK, so, concerning Heiji's home life, I am making a lot of stuff up and drawing from conjecture here. One of the things is, we almost never see Heiji's parents. From what we have seen, his mom is very protective of him, going so far as to go undercover to investigate Kogoro after Heiji gets shot during the Osaka special. I myself have only seen Heiji and his dad interact in one or two episodes, and this mainly stuck with me because his dad hit him. Yes, I know that was explained off later, but the point is that I see his dad as a very strict man, who may want the best for his son/family, but he may not go about it in the right way. Plus, about the only dysfunctional family situation we see among the DCMK main cast is Ran's (her parents' divorce) and even that isn't that bad.
2. Heiji's age
I don't know why, but I imagine Shinichi as being the youngest of them all (probably because he's shrunk x3), with Hakuba being a year older than everyone else, and Heiji having an early fall birthday that managed to disqualify him for being in the same school year as Hakuba, so Heiji's in the same grade as Kaito and Shinichi (my reckoning for Schismatic does not carry into ABR, though. Funny, huh?). As to why he calls Ran 'neechan', well, I've seen him do this in some other fics, and he doesn't really address her much in the series (and vice versa), plus I find it endearing ^^
So, explanations over, and I hope you all like this chapter! Remember to review now, and also check out my website! It's my listed as my homepage on my profile, for those of you who don't know =^_^=