Hey, it's me again !
Time for a calmer chapter today, with a bit of KazuHei... And food poisoning? xD
But don't worry, the investigation is still going on, we'll get closer to our answers next chapter !
o.O.o
emmahoshi : Oh, that's an interesting question and we'll get the answer later in the story... ; ) Ah, well, it'll be a more cute moment... Quite the appropriate scene for what is in France today Mother's day in fact^^ Haha, yea, we'll see Kaito later in the story but I don't think we'll see Hakuba... He's quite far away from Heiji universe so... Hmm yea, some people in the DC universe seem to be convince that, the colder you are, the better detective you'll be. And then there's Heiji. If his method was that bad, I guess he wouldn't be the "great detective of the West", right ? But yea, you can feel that the "ideal" detective in DC is like Conan Doyle's. Cold and observant. Tsk, go ahead Heiji, show them all you can be both hot blooded and good detective ! xD
Chapter 5 : Night chat
"- Excuse me a sec'... I'll meet ya in the livin' room" I said to the group with a reassuring smile, not wanting them to think I'd use the opportunity to escape once again.
Turning my back at them, I headed towards the kitchen, where I knew I'd find my mother. She wasn't really good at cooking, we had the maid for that, but when she was stressed or sad or just in a bad mood, she... let's say "tried" to cook.
Disastrous, of course, since she never learnt how to prepare a meal, but well, it was also a way for Oyaji and me to amend for whatever we did wrong while forcing ourselves to eat something that was barely edible.
I smiled at the memory. It was perhaps one of the only moments of complicity I'd have with my father... This kind of memories was so rare I could count them on the fingers of one hand. Sadly. And it was too late to do anything about it.
I gulped to display a straight face as I slid the kitchen's door aside to enter. Okan didn't move but I knew she heard me, since she could recognize anyone's footsteps on the wooden floor.
"- Let me help ya." I said, more announcing something than waiting for her answer.
Grabbing a knife, I took one of the leeks near of her hand.
"- Ya'll hurt yerself..." She mocked with a low voice, her tone lacking her usual energy.
"- I don' want ta her that from ya..." I retorted with a sign of the chin to her middle finger that was already bandaged. Probably a remainder of the peeling of the pile of carrots behind me.
We silently worked until, as she foresaw it, the peer I had in my hand viciously slipped and my knife scratched my other hand.
With a small noise of surprise, I took my hurt finger to my mouth.
"- Told ya..." Okan sighed, though her face was slightly amused as she grabbed the first aid kid she just used for herself.
"- It's ok, it's nothin'... " I wanted to stop her, not wanting such a stupid wound to be underlined to the others' sight by a white bandage.
"- It's not... It's not, Heiji."
I knew at her tone we weren't talking about that wounded finger anymore.
"- Okan, I'm sorry... I didn' want ta worry ya, I just wanted ta...
- I know..." My mother sadly smiled, her eyes watering a bit as she tended my finger. "Just like yer father, ya're the kind ta throw yerself in a case an' not stoppin' until ya solved it...
- An' that one is... The idea o' knowin' this guy is runnin' around is just...
- I know. Ginshiro told me about that man. Heiji, he is dangerous, so promise me ya'll... I wouldn' stand it if anythin' happened ta ya too..."
I could see on her face she was facing a mix of emotion. I could see a thirst for justice, the very same that was on mine since last Thursday. But there was mostly worry. And I knew I was the cause.
"- I promise." I whispered as I took her in my arms and started to rub her back.
Kudô, Kazuha and my mother were some of the most important persons in my life right now and I'd be wounding them deeply if anything happened to me. I didn't know if I'd be able to tame that hot-blooded side of me but I'd try, with all my strength.
"- I promise I'll be careful but I need ta stop Saijô. As soon as possible. So justice can be done."
My voice was still low, I didn't want to speak too loud because I could feel at the lump stuck in my throat that my voice could break at any moment with the emotion, but my resolve was there. I wouldn't stop before sending that guy just where he belonged : a jail.
So my mission was to arrest him. And the side dish was to stay alive. And preferably safe and sound.
Easy, right ?
I looked at my mother when she let go, to see she was crying.
"- Ya ok ?" I gently asked, a bit embarrassed to see her like that, perhaps one of the first times of my life.
"- Excuse me, the leers..." She apologized as she rubbed the tears.
"- Yea, same fer me, I know..." I confirmed, hiding behind the same excuse than her to explain the water in my eyes. "Should' we call the girls ? I bet they'll do a better job than either o' us...
- That would be rude !" She refused, not wanting her guests to take part to the preparation of the meal.
"- That or they eat somethin' ya an' I prepared... "
We looked at each other before suddenly burst into laughter. That was stupid. This joke was so stupid. But it was a joke and we needed it and grabbed voluntarily the occasion that was given to us to let a bit of our stress out.
"- Ok, that would be bad manners also ta poison our guests... Delivery food ?" Okan proposed, a smile on her face.
"- Deal ! "
o.O.o
The idea of "delivery food" according to my mother was to have half of the best sushi shop in Osaka delivered at home so it was with full stomachs we headed to our rooms after dinner - well, Occhan stayed downstairs to share a few glasses with Yamato, but most of us left. I had told our tale to the group, getting another slap on the head from Kazuha and a scolding look from my mother when I mentioned -quite quickly -the accident with my bike but the mood had lighten after that.
Looked like taking on me was a good way to relieve any gloomy atmosphere, great heh ?
I was now back in my room and, after installing a futon for Kudô, I took my computer on my knees and sat on it.
"- Oy, isn't that supposed to be my bed ?" The fake boy pointed out with a glare.
"- I knew ya looked like a child, I didn' think ya'd need the same sleepin' hours..." I taunted him with a smirk. "I want ta look at what Otaki sent ta us about the cases.
- Sure you want to do that tonight ?"
I could feel some concern in my best friend's voice. Reviewing Oyaji's ... murder through the police files would be nasty, I knew it. But if there was any information as to who helped that bastard, I needed it. I nevertheless decided not to be that daring yet.
"- Let's start in chronological order..." I announced and that got my friend to sit near of me.
I knew he knew but he didn't make any comment and just bent on my computer screen.
"- Ok... First, video surveillance and pictures maybe ?
- Why not..."
Twenty minutes later, we looked at each other with startle. Otaki-han hadn't been lying. This was organised crime, not a bunch of amateurs. Their material, their efficiency, their speed... Not a single second had been left to improvisation.
"- Sucks..." I bluntly concluded, knowing it would start to get harder if we were facing some Yakuzas or a hidden criminal society, something clearly too big for us to swallow.
"- It just means we'll need the police's help. Else, it's just the same. We won't let them escape, Hattori, big fish or not.
- Yea, ya're right... It may take more time but we'll find them an' arrest them !
- That's the spirit !" My best friend smiled at me.
"- So... What do ya think about that third policeman, the once who's still alive ?" I asked after I mirrored his smile, though with a pinch of sadness that wasn't in the original one.
"- He clearly knew something was going to happen. He was already bending to the floor before the shots began !
- But they tried ta get rid o' him... ta get rid o' all the witnesses, eh ?
- I bet he'll be more than willing to cooperate after that, we have to see him..." Kudô concluded as he brought his hand to his chin, his favourite move when he was thinking.
"- But... We need ta find Saijô first...
- Leave Saijô aside... Kyoto's and Osaka's police are already hunting him...
- Yea, so efficiently..." I ironically pointed out with a grimace.
"- But they are looking for him. That policeman is the only link we have to the organisation that planned it all. An organisation who wanted Saijô out and I don't think it was just for him to have his revenge. They probably had some kind of deal... You against something...
- Ya think I was just some kind o' leverage ?" I wondered, a bit disturbed by the idea.
"- Yea, that's it. I don't know how but they heard of him. And knew he wanted to kill you so they used it as a bait. The good news is that if we stop those guys, Saijô will end without back up. No way he'll be able to hide a long time without their support.
- But bad news is that the policeman ya want ta interrogate is still unconscious...
- His wounds are serious but not life-threatening according to the report, he should wake up soon.
- Ok, ok, I'll ask Otaki-han to give us some update if the guy wakes up." I agreed before taking my phone out.
o.O.o
"- Not sleepin' ? "
The voice that came behind me from the house made me jump.
Kazuha's.
"- Nah, I couldn' "I admitted as I watched her sitting next to me on the small wooden terrace, her legs now dangling near of mine.
"- Same fer me..."
The pony-tailed girl squeezed next to me and a silence settled between us, as we both enjoyed the first signs of the arrival of the summer : a gentle breeze and the first cicadas of the season singing.
"- I'm sorry, Heiji..." She finally said as she put her head against my shoulder, uncomfortably close to me.
Well, not that uncomfortable but...
To hide my embarrassment, I decided to avoid the subject I knew she wanted to talk about.
"- About the slaps ? Was about time...
- Nah, ahou... " My childhood friend denied before having a little smile when she looked up at me. "Ya deserved those...
- I'm hurt...
- I know..."
Back to the serious faces and subjects... With a sigh, I looked at her, to see she was looking at me. I knew what she wanted, I could see it in her eyes. She wanted me to speak. But I couldn't yet. Not when there was that gaping wound in my heart.
So I looked elsewhere.
"- Heiji, I... If ya want ta speak, I'm...
- Listen Kazuha, I... I can' talk about it yet. It's too...
- I know. I know, Heiji." She said with a sad smile.
And that reminded me. That she lost one of her parents too. That that pain I felt right now, she had to face it six years ago, when her mother had been killed by that hit-and-run driver. The guy had been arrested the following day, Oyaji had been hunting him through the whole city, but the harm had been done.
And, startled, I finally noticed that the girl with her head on my shoulder was in fact the very one who'd knew the best what I was going through.
"- I just wanted ta say that I'm here. When ya're ready."
I nodded before looking once again at the garden.
I don't know how long we stayed like this, closer than we ever had been, but that soothed my wounded heart for a while.
o.O.o
A ringing noise was the thing that woke me up the following morning and it took me a while to recognize my phone. I knew it was kind of late, according to the light bathing my bed and the fact Kudô seemed ta already be up and grabbing my phone confirmed it.
"- Otaki-han ?" I asked, having read the identity of the one calling me on my screen.
"- Hi, Hei-chan. Hope I'm not wakin' ya ?
- It's forgotten if ya have any good news fer me.
- Great then, because I think ya'll agree ta say it's good news. It's Ogi. The policeman who lived Saijô's evasion.
- He's woken up ?
- Yup !
- Great news then. He was in Umekôji's Hospital, right ?
- Yea but... Ya know I'm not supposed ta inform ya... I'm not even supposed ta know that since it's Kyoto's district, not Osaka's...
- What yer point ? " I asked, wanting to cut short his rambling.
"- If ya do anythin', like tryin' ta go an' see him, do it discreetly. Because I don' think Kyoto will hesitate in arrestin' ya fer obstruction an' I won' be able ta help ya...
- Heh, I'm not goin' ta please Ayanokoji an' let him arrest me, don' worry...
- He's not the only one lackin' humour among Kyoto's police so just be careful, ok ?
- Yep !" I concluded as I hung up before getting up and stretching with a wide yawn.
This had been my best night for a while, I had to thank Kazuha for that.
And now that I was all rested, it was time to go and hunt some information.