Heya !
And here comes a bit more of our three boys coop : )
And perhaps some answers starting to come ? Or not... We'll see ! ~
o.O.o
emmahosi : Yea, I did watch football with my brother and father, but I kind of stopped... Some around me do but they're too much into it ^^;; Hey, nah, this story won't finish at chapter 14 and 15 neither xD I'll be going til chapter 19 + epilogue so some more to go : ) Hmm, Kaito was ready to move but he was waiting for the right moment... He can be pretty fast, right ? ^^ Haha, yea, the idea of a combi Kaito & Heiji against Shin or Saguru is just... They'd be terrific xD As to kicking bad guys' butts, they'd be great also I think... That's just 'if's though, I can't picture Gosho imagining that combi, not even the anime editors... We'll have to imagine it ! : )
Chapter 15 : Cooperation
I was expecting the attack to start from under the scene but the man not far away from my side grunted when he ended with a small spotlight in the face and fell, unconscious, on the floor. That flying object was clearly not coming from the Kid but I was sure it was a certain pint-sized detective I knew had something to do with it...
In the same second or almost, the man who was near of the scene, ready to "welcome" the Thief, stepped back, frowning his nose, before his legs crumbled under his weight.
Seeing the man was rolling on the floor, smelling something strange in the air, I knew the Kid had used one of his sleeping bombs so I held my breath as I could.
"- The hell ?! " The leader ranted, bringing his hand on his mouth, guessing, probably too late, that smell had everything to do with his man fainting.
Feeling it was time to act, I grabbed the man's hand, forcing it over our heads, not wanting his gun to stay anymore between us.
With the surprise – and probably the gas, the man reacted but once again too late, pushing the trigger but hitting nothing else than the ceiling, now that I was holding him. After a short fight, I managed to throw him on the floor and to punch him in the face, knocking him out.
But I probably breathed some gas since I didn't manage to get up and had to let myself fall on my bottom, my head spinning.
"- Hattori !" I heard Kudô yell, a bit short breathed as he arrived near me.
"- I'm good, I'm good… But ya shouldn' stay here, Kid threw some sleepin' gas…"
A hand on my shoulder made me notice the said Kid was just by my side, holding some kind of tube to me.
"- Here, breathe that, you'll feel better."
I gratefully grabbed the tube to put it under my noise and literally jerked away at the smell.
"- Oy, what's that ?!
- Something efficient. Breathe it at least ten second. And give it to Tantei-kun after that.
- Ya're goin' ta love it…" I smirked at my best friend when I gave him the tube after a few seconds.
The frown on his face told me he indeed liked it as much as I did but, well, the thing was quite efficient, seeing I wasn't feeling drowsy anymore.
Finally able to get up, I got on my feet, wincing a bit, and detailed the teen near me. He fooled me as if I was a total newbie and he knew it, seeing the satisfied smirk on his face.
"- Todoki Kai… I can' believe I missed somethin' that simple…
- It indeed took you quite a while to figure such an easy alias, Tantei-han…" He smiled, before turning around to look at Kudô. "Still have my gift with you, Tantei-kun ?
- Your "gift" belongs to someone and I intend to give it back to her…"
It was fun to see my best friend's dark glare directed at someone else than me but the Kid totally ignored it, as if used to it. Those two had a past, I tell you !
"- Haha, well, seeing how this heist is now messed up… I'll leave it in your hands. I'll still be able to steal it to that charming lady later !
- You wish...
- But how did ya end with that necklace …? An' how did ya find us ?" I interrupted them, now that I was totally awake and noticed there was a bunch of unexplained things in the scene playing in front of me.
"- Pure chance...
- I gave it to him when I saw he was sneaking under the scene not to get caught by those guys..." The Thief explained before getting a rope out of nowhere and tying the three criminals with it.
"- Ah, I should have known it… See, it's great bein' a first grader, ya can fit everywhere !" I said with a wink to my best friend.
Uhh, the dark glare was for me this time...
"- I found you thanks to your badge." Kudô finally explained after a long sigh. "I tried to go out to warn the police but all the entries were being watched so, when I saw on my glasses you were coming back here, I hid once again under the stage.
- Simple but efficient... What do we do o' them ? We roll them under the scene ?" I asked with a sign of the chin towards the three the Kid just finished to tie.
"- Why not."
Kudô emptied their pockets while we were hiding them under the black curtain hiding the scene's metallic structure.
"- I'll be taking a talkie... And a gun. What do you want ? They got some other guns and knives with them...
- Knife fer me then..." I answered. No way I was going to take a gun unless I was forced to. I really hated those.
"- As to me... I'll do better with this !" The Thief said after rumbling a little while under the scene, retrieving his white jacket from there. "What's our next step, detectives ?
- 'Our' ?" Kudô snorted with irony.
"- I'd like to play a prank or two to those men... They did spoil my magic show !
- So Thief against thieves ?
- Maa, what's better than a Thief to catch another thief ?" I intervened when I saw my best friend was in a taunting mood, as if he didn't want to use all the strengths we could against those guys when we hadn't much choice.
In my opinion, we clearly needed his help… It could have turned nasty for me if he didn't turn himself in earlier... And I had to admit I had fun with "Todoki Kai" earlier during the party.
"- An' seein' how many they are, this won' be a luxury...
- How many are they by the way ? I think I spotted something like thirteen of them ? Eleven here and two guarding the entrance.
- Counted twelve here.
- So let's say 14 overall ? Minus three so eleven?" The Kid proposed.
"- Still too many... We need to separate them and lure them by small packs... Still got sleeping gas, Kid ?
- Pretty much..." He smiled, taping his pockets with a malicious smile. "Time to call them ?"
o.O.o
With two voice changers - a natural one and gadget-assisted one, a magician armed with sleeping bomb, a kick-everything-at-speed-light chibi and my modest self, we quickly added three others of those thieves under the stage.
Eight left. The trickiest ones since they were guarding the hostages and we couldn't call some anymore, that would start to be suspicious...
"- Oy Kid, feel like disguisin' like one o' those guys ?" I said with a sign of the head towards the scene. "If ya pass as one o' the last team who came an' tell them we escaped, ya should be able ta lure most o' them out o' the hostage room...
- Hope this one doesn't stink too much..." The Thief wished, his eyes on the closest man to him.
He had been quick to change and trained a second his voice to match the one we barely heard a second in a surprised cry before we neutralized him. That guy was good...
"- Ready !
- Let's go then." Kudô proposed before stepping towards the direction the last guys came from.
We did our best to move silently and after a few meters reached a door, luckily not getting noticed by the two guards in front of it, since we hid quickly around the corner. But the presence of those men indicated we were at the right place.
"- Guys, according to the plans we looked at earlier, there's another way out of this room. One pretty close to a safety issue...
- We got our hostages' way out then...
- They probably won't all leave to look for "us" but I can sneak as a guard into the room if I pretend I'm hurt. So I'll be able to neutralize one or two...
- Should do... We'll knock at the door ta signify we're here an' ready on the other side."
We nodded at each other, agreeing with that plan, and scattered to put it into action. I had one last look at the Kid, his hood one the face, already in his role and holding his arm with pain, limping more than walking towards the two guards, as if he had been dragged in a fight he was far from having won.
Not bad… At all. But now wasn't the time to be impressed : we also had our mission.
With Kudô, we both sneaked further in the hallways, flattening against the wall at each corner not to be spotted. With the ones we knocked down and most of the others in the room with the hostages, we had very few chances to come across someone but that was a risk we couldn't take.
And, at last, we were just at the last corner before the safety issue we were looking for. Kudô held his arm in front of my legs, his finger on his lips : there was indeed someone to guard the door but, according to his gesture, the man was alone.
"- Wanna play the lost child ?" I whispered in his ear, a smirk on my face.
He rolled his eyes with annoy, before whispering back :"If I could, even for one hour, switch our roles, you'd be having the hardest time of your life…"
But that wasn't going to happen any soon, he knew it, so he nevertheless stepped towards the guard, an innocent but worried expression on the face, while I was discreetly looking at him from behind my corner.
"- Mister, could you help me …? I can't find my mommy…"
The guy jumped when he saw him but quickly got his composure back.
Why would that man worry ? He was just facing a child and bringing him back to his "mommy" would kill two birds with a stone. Well, that's what I imagined he'd think, hoping he'd take easily he bait.
"- Don't worry, boya, I'll call someone to bring you to your mother, ok ?" He said, trying to have a comforting voice, before taking his talkie out. "Hey guys, I got a child in the hallways, can anyone drop in and take him with the others ?
- Can't, our two… special guests have escaped, this is more important that a kid… Bring him back yourself, won't be long…
- Crap…"
I almost snorted at the face full of hope from my little friend and the man's sigh.
"- Ok, I'll take you then. Let's go, boya !"
I stepped back for them not to see me and, when Kudô passed in front of me with a wink, I jumped in front of the man to slam my fist hard in his stomach, finishing him with an atemi against the back of his neck.
"- Let's hide him…" The boy said, looking around suspiciously despite the fact we had been silent and quick.
I dragged him in an empty corridor, not one of the main ones, while my friend checked the safety issue.
"- it doesn't look locked, we should be able to get out from here. But we'll trigger the alarm.
- Don' have much choice… An' it'll be too late fer them.
- Let's hope, yea… Ok, let's go to the hostage room's back door."
A few minutes later, I was knocking at the door just as we planned it.
"- What's that ?" A muffled voice asked from the other side, a voice I recognized to be the one of the man the Kid was impersonating.
"- Probably Scar with the child… But I thought the door was open ?"
A noise of footsteps informed me the guy was walking towards us and I was ready to welcome him. I threw my hand in his pretty surprised face as he opened the door and finished him with a hit of the knee in his stomach.
Similar pained grunts at the other side of the room informed me the Kid had just done the same with another guard.
I looked around, ready to fight anyone who could be left among the hostages but they were only three, the Thief included, the other were probably looking for us.
The Kid silently locked the main door and nodded when he was done, giving us the signal.
"- Ok, everyone out ! An' help the wounded !
- This way !" Conan added, showing them the right corridor with the hand. "And someone tell the police they can enter through here !"
After a startled second, the guests got up, hope on their faces, and started to leave through the way we just opened for them.
The alarm soon echoed through the building, indicating the first escapees were out but also meaning we were going to start the longest minutes, the ones during which the criminals could come back while the hostages weren't all out.
I looked at the ones remaining in the room, spotting Sahashi-han and seeing with relief the man was alright, watching over Tanioka-kun, pushing him towards the exit while he was staying behind.
But that "alright" may not last long, I deplored it when I heard the first hits against the door. Barely two third of the guests were out and the guys were already back, having probably guessed they had been tricked.
I had hoped we'd have a bit more time, even with the alarm… I came closer to the author, ready to protect him. As to the Kid, he came closer to the door, with some of his little bombs in the hand.
"- Faster guys !" I asked them with a tense voice when I noticed the flow of guests was stopping.
Turning my head to that side since no one moved despite my demand, I finally understood what was blocking them.
A bunch of men of the special intervention forces were entering the room silently, we were going to fight them on par, at last !
But that was the exact moment the door behind us broke, to open on five pretty angry-looking men. And we were just in the middle.
"- On the floor ! " The Kid yelled, having also noticed this wasn't presaging anything good.
We ducked and, when the shootout calmed down, all rushed out, helped by the cops.
And just when I thought it was over, when we finally reached the outside, I had to grab Sahashi-han's vest to bring him back in, having spotted something shining under the streetlights, but, despite how quick I had been, that didn't stop a bullet to scratch his arm.
"- Crap… Stay inside !" I ordered, before rushing outside, looking for the shooter.
To see there wasn't anyone in sight.
Swearing for myself, I came back to the author with a disappointed face.
"- It appears you saved my life more than once tonight, young man…
- But I couldn' stop that guy, so I don' think this will end…
- You seem to have known something would happen tonight…
- I had a hunch…" I vaguely answered, not wanting to speak about that in the middle of the streets, with all these witnesses. " As ta ya, ya don' look pretty much surprised ta be targeted…"
Holding his wounded arm against him, the man was far from being stupid and nodded.
"- Maybe we could talk about it ? I'd gladly welcome you at home, mister …?
- Hattori Heiji."
The author squinted at me, he clearly knew the name.
"- Meet you there, tomorrow morning. Let's say at 10 ?
- Perfect." I accepted, grabbing the card he was holding to me.
"- See you tomorrow then."
Sahashi-han walked away, leaving me here with his card in the hand.
I had to be patient. I'd have my answers tomorrow.