Alright, I'm sorry to be putting these four guys through all this, but it's part of the story so live with it...
After much hard work, Saguru finally got Kaito to go home. That night, he and Nao had dinner together at home with their father.
"So uh, will you tell me the reason why you decided to come home so suddenly now?" Saguru asked as he set down his fork.
Nao sighed. "You know that man that I told you about, who proposed to me a few months ago? The truth is… I've decided that I want to accept…"
Saguru immediately banged the table with both fists. "What's that supposed to mean? Why didn't you tell me anything of this?" he said angrily.
"Saguru-chan, I…"
"You've never kept anything from me, especially something this important!"
"Saguru! Calm yourself and sit down!" their father ordered.
"No! You promised never to keep secret like these from me. But…" Saguru, unable to speak any further, rushed upstairs and slammed his door shut.
"Saguru-chan!" Nao called after him. She followed her brother up to his room. Putting her hand softly on the white painted door, she called in, "Saguru-chan. I'm sorry. But you know…"
"Why do you care about me anyway?" Saguru shouted at his sister on the other side. "You're not even my real Aneki. After all, you're only like all other people aren't you? Gaining their trust just so you don't become alone and in the en, betraying them for your own selfish reasons!"
"That's not true. I wanted to tell you, but I… I couldn't…"
"Absinthe…"
The young girl at the desk in the room swiveled her chair to face her eleven-year-old younger brother at the doorway. She had gotten special permission to allow her brother to assist her in her task, which would mean that he would officially become a member of the organization. Her brother, who had just been codenamed "Madeira," was not particularly gifted with a criminal mind like herself, but had photographic memory and was an expert at committing the crimes which she planned, or "running errands" as she called them. "More importantly, did you get the information on my first target?" she asked.
"Yes, Neechan. Here are the files for Heiji Hattori," the boy said, holding out the thick, heavy manila envelope to her. "But why do you need so much? If you're just going to kill him, then it wouldn't be that hard for you…"
She smirked. "Oh no. I'm not just going to kill him. I'm going to have a lot more fun than that." She pulled out the contents of the envelope, and fingered through the stack of papers. "…ah! Here it is. His schedule for today." She quickly looked through it, and got up. "Alright. Madeira, I have a little errand for you to run. Sorry to send you all the way down to Osaka, but be sure to follow those instructions exactly. I can't tell you out loud okay?" Absinthe said, handing him a slip of paper.
Madeira took the paper in his hand, looked at it for two seconds, and proceeded to rip the paper to pieces after memorizing it. "Alright. I'm pretty sure I can do that. There'll be lots of opportunities to get rid of the evidence too. But how should I ensure that it wont be fatal?" he asked.
"A pin, string, and scissors. You get it now?" Absinthe smiled at her brother.
Madeira thought for a moment. "Right!" he said, snapping his fingers. "Alright, I'm off."
"Here's your train ticket to Osaka, and 1 million yen (approx. 10 thousand U.S. dollars). That includes the information fee for Heiji Hattori, and your payment for this errand."
"Wait! Neechan! There's no reason to give me that much money!" he said, trying to push away the thick, white envelope in his sister's hand.
"Come on. I've got more money on my hands than I can handle. Anokata insists on getting me paid for everything. Go treat yourself to something out in Osaka while your there. But don't take too long. It's already afternoon."
He sighed. "Fine. Oh right, where's dad right now?"
"Oh, mom and dad are out in America," Absinthe said, facing her desk again. "They've got some work handling one of my targets. They'll be home next week."
"I see." Madeira left the room, closing the door behind him.
The Next Day…
"Hey, Hakuba! Are you there?" Kaito asked, knocking on Saguru's door. The teacher had asked him to deliver the day's homework and notes to him who had skipped school with no contact at all. Saguru's housekeeper had told Kaito that he was in his room, but probably wouldn't answer.
"He won't come out for a while," a voice said from behind him.
Kaito whipped around to see Saguru's older sister. "Oh, it's you. Is something wrong with Haku- I mean Saguru?"
"He always locks himself up in his room whenever he feels like he's been deceived. It can't be helped after what happened, and now because I broke my promise with him," Nao said sadly.
"Alright then," Kaito said, sitting down cross-legged on the floor in the middle of the hallway directly in front of Saguru's door.
"Wha-What are you doing?"
"I'm going to stay right here until he comes out, or at least explains to me what the hell is going on," Kaito told her. "You don't have any problems with that do you?" He smiled at her.
"Well, make sure he doesn't do anything weird. I'm going to go shopping for nearly the rest of the day. Baaya's not going to be here either, so be careful," Nao said, starting down the steps.
"Hakuba. How long do you plan to stay in there? I have things to do too you know!" Kaito called in. it was already an hour since he had started waiting for Saguru.
There was silence for a while. "Hey Kuroba. Do you know what humans really are like?" Saguru's voice suddenly sounded from the other side of the door.
Kaito was taken by surprise. "What are you saying so suddenly?"
Saguru sighed, sitting on the floor and leaning against the door. "You want to know the real reason why I quit elementary school in Japan and studied abroad until coming to high school here?" Saguru looked up at his white, smooth ceiling and sighed again. "Humans are cruel, deceiving, and know only to betray others. Those idiots in fourth grade, they always pretended to be my friend, and all that. Ever since I transferred to that school in first grade, I've always been the one everybody bullied. When I met those guys in third grade, they always defended me from all that. But of course, humans are humans. They turned out to be just what everyone else was."
"Hakuba, you…"
"They pushed me down the staircase. Turns out, they only wanted me by their side to gain the teachers' liking." Saguru's eyes filled with tears. "You know what they did after that? They left me there for the entire night, and the teachers found me the next morning, dehydrated and having a bad injury on my head. On top of that, they put the blame on an innocent second grader. I could've lived with them pretending it was an accident and that they didn't know anything about it, but that was just too much."
Kaito spoke. "But really, that's just a few people…"
"Did I mention the reason why I came back to Japan during high school then? I finally grow used to living in London, make some friends out there, and go hanging around with them. We go into an elevator, and I faint right on the spot with a bad fever. All three of them say that their going to go get some help. Then they leave me there freezing in that elevator, and never come back. The only people that I'm left with to trust are Nao, Baaya, and dad, and now Nao plans on accepting a proposal from some random man without even a word of consult!"
"If you don't like to trust people so much, why are you telling me this?"
Saguru paused for a moment. "I… I think it's because… the reason I'm trusting you right now is… probably because you're so similar to her…"
"Her?" Kaito asked.
Saguru put his hand on his side of the door. "It's probably why I want to catch you as Kaitou KID so much too… You remind me of her, always so playful and happy and mischievous and acting like you haven't a care in the world…" Saguru wiped away his tears. "Ca-can you just… just leave already?" he asked, as more tears continued to pour out. "I just wish you'd disappear from in front of me. Just like she did…"
Conan burst into the Detective Agency office after school, panting.
"Conan-kun? Are you okay? Is anything wrong?" Ran asked worriedly.
Gasping for air, Conan managed to say, "I… just got… phone call… Heiji-niichan… involved in a motorbike… accident…."
"What?! Hattori-kun got in a motorbike accident?"
Conan took a few moments before he fully regained his breath. "I heard it's not fatal, but Kazuha-neechan called me and told me that Heiji-niichan wanted us there right away. He can't move right now, and he's been seriously injured."
"We've got to go immediately then! Conan-kun, get ready. Go wake dad up. I'll get things ready for the train to Osaka."
"Alright, Ran-neechan."
A few hours later, Conan, Ran, and Kogoro arrived at Osaka City Hospital. The three of them quickly found Heiji's room. With bandages all over his forehead and arm, he welcomed them with sad eyes.
"Ran-chan! You came!" Kazuha exclaimed.
"Kazuha-chan. Is Hattori-kun alright?" Ran asked her friend.
"Actually, I'll tell you later," she replied in a quiet voice. "Heiji got quite a shock from what the doctors told him…"
"Hey Kazuha. Can you take the neechan outside for a few minutes? I want to talk to the kid alone for a little bit," Heiji said.
Kazuha said okay as she led Ran out the door. Conan and Heiji, left alone for he moment looked at each other for a second before Heiji quickly looked away.
"Hattori, what happened?" Conan said.
"The doctor told me that I… I won't be able to recover," he said, sadly looking out the window with a pitiful, shameful look on his face. He breathed deeply and continued, "He said… I won't be able to walk again… that the lower half of my body… is permanently paralyzed."
I feel so sorry for Heiji, but that's the way things are.
Please review if you want me to continue...