Chapter 17: Unstable Confrontations
I was up on the roof of a neighboring building since the location we'd been at didn't have any easy way of reaching its roof without time and energy I didn't feel like wasting. The glider caught the wind the second I opened it and I couldn't stop the large smile from flashing across my face. Luck must have been back on my side since the winds were good and I'd only lose them if the car went over sixty.
The black vehicle was easy to follow in the beginning but I had to descend when we reached more domesticated areas. I'd almost lost them for a minute a few times in the traffic when I couldn't find a strong enough headwind to slow down.
They didn't go far though and it only took fifteen minutes for the car to pull into the driveway of a large three-story house. One of the men got out with Kei's mother and held the little girl tightly, not in the custodial way a parent would. The other one took the car and drove off.
Perfect.
I landed soundlessly on the tiled roof and repelled to a second story window that was easy enough to pry open. Once inside, I found my way to the stairs and hooked up a few wires. I could hear Kei's mother and the man down there as I was setting everything up. I grabbed a card out of my pocket and quickly wrote on it before slinking down the stairs.
The mother was in a large room with a big screen TV and sofa. She was holding Kane's body still and Kei was sitting on the man's lap nearby, looking upset and angry. I touched the floor in the doorway before retreating when a loud crack and a poof of smoke revealed a rose. Kei's mother jumped and held her son's body close to her.
"What is it?"
"I don't know," the man replied before coming over to investigate the flower. He had bleached hair and a small hairline scar across his forehead. "It looks like a rose."
"What?" She placed her son's body gently on the couch and bent over my flower before trying to step on it. A few tugs on some invisible catch line got it out of the way before it was smashed. A smaller pop issued from the blossom as my card flew up at her. I looked around the corner and could see Kei smiling and trying to find me. I smiled back from the shadows.
"What is it?" The man leaned over her shoulder to read the card. 'I've taken an interest in you joy and will commandeer it for safekeeping –KID' Of course I played on the meaning of Kei's name and I didn't see how she'd get my warning confused with anything else. The woman smashed the card up in her hand and then proceeded to try and rip it. She didn't succeed and I had to stifle a laugh as the tiny paper card won out over her.
"What the hell is this? What's going on?" She glared at the man who seemed to understand and I saw a glint of something dark in his eyes. Oh oh.
I thought of forgoing my plan when Kei's mother did exactly what I thought she would do and took the girl out of the room. It obviously was not safe there since I'd gotten my flower in so easily. I hung upside-down from the ceiling and met her with a smile when she rounded the corner. I could feel as the back of my cape brushed my hair and slide humorously over the brim of the top hat.
"What the hell?" She held Kei close and thrust a hand in my direction, startled to find me suddenly in her face. "Who the hell are you and what do you want? Get out of my house!"
"I'm afraid I can't do that without her." I purred, "I think she would be better off in my hands anyway."
"She's MY daughter!" The woman yelled, swatting at me as I ducked and dropped smoothly to the floor. "You can't have her!"
"I don't plan on harming her madam. If you are familiar with my work I have a high success rate of returning what I steal."
"I don't care!"
I tugged on a few guild wires and was able to swing behind her in the blink of an eye, grabbing Kei and swinging back.
"How dare you! Give me my daughter back!" She screamed when her arms were empty.
"I believe that the girl will be safer and better cared for in my company than in yours." Kei smiled and held onto my coat. "I don't think you've been a very good mother to her."
"Well I am her mother! Giver her back!" The woman ran after me and a pull on my last line repelled me up the stairs faster than she was able to give chase. I was across the room and out the window in seconds as I whispered to Kei to hold on.
The glider snapped open and my momentum kept us from hitting the ground from the two story drop. Kei giggled and shivered in my arms. I tried to wrap her up in my coat since I hadn't thought about grabbing hers. Kid's outfit was incredibly insulted from both hot and cold weather so it would keep us both warm.
"Yay!" She shouted as we rose over the buildings "I'm flying!"
I looked back but couldn't see well since we'd already gained plenty of distance. I'd been tempted to do more than just leave with Kei but the woman was distraught as it was and, though some revenge for Hattori's sake sounded good, I didn't want to upset her more then I already had.
"Are you sure you didn't want to stay with your mom?" I asked her one last time. I wasn't as sure as I had been earlier that the woman wouldn't go to the police.
"Yep, mommy isn't my mommy anyway."
"What?" I looked down and the girl but her expression of joy didn't fade.
"My mommy is someone else but daddy won't tell her who. He came home with me one day and so mommy's been my mommy since I was a baby."
Oh, that explained the difference in her reaction between Kei and Kane, they weren't really siblings. In the legal sense of the word any way and legal never mattered with me and Kei didn't care. In all ways that mattered they'd been brother and sister. No, they were brother and sister.
"I'll make sure I return you to your father when everything's over then."
"Yay, daddy!" She tried to squirm around so that her back was on my stomach. After a few hit and misses she succeeded. I'd almost lost my grip on her but she just laughed it off.
"I'm flying!" she spread her arms out at her sides and laughed into the biting wind. I smiled with her and tried to get my coat around her again.
"You're lucky you're not falling. Try not to move around so much."
Kei giggled and purposely squirmed around in my hands. I smiled and raised the glider higher up. She'd be a fine trouble maker when she got older, maybe I could teach her a few things.
"Fine then, if you want to move around so much…" I was hundreds of feet in the air now and I let her go. A quick turn of my shoulder and I did a summersault in the air before she fell back into my lap upside down and I righted myself.
I didn't hear anything from her once we were flying straight again. She was still in my arms and I was afraid I'd scared her. She only fell a few feet for a second or two but maybe it was too much. I was only trying to make the ride a little more exciting.
"Again! Again!" she giggled and turned to smile at me.
"Kami girl, you scared me."
"I know," she pointed her ear. "I'm sorry. I couldn't catch my breath."
I laughed. "Well, I'm not going to do that again, I could have dropped you and I wasn't thinking, but we've still got a half-an-hour before we reached the detectives." I held her tight and wrapped her up before leaning shapely forward and sending us into a fast dive. With the winds as strong as they were, the gilder picked up speed faster then it normally would and I had to put my coat over her mouth so she'd be able to breathe.
Whatever noises she made were lost in the high gusts and I felt compelled to keep going. I somersaulted again, this time with her, tipped the glider sharply up and down, being careful not to snap it, and rolled over sideways in a somewhat controlled manner all the way back.
When I landed next to the alley near Mouri-san's office I striped off my clothes and put on a puffy green coat and matching green clothes. I bent over Kei who was still giggling and had red checks from the cold.
"Listen to me Kei-chan, don't call me by Kid or anything. You can call me Kaito if you want. Don't tell anyone you're name either. Let's call you Seika." I smoothed her light brown hair and used the same black dye I'd had on earlier."
"We're going to lie?" She looked confused.
"No, we're just going to smudge the truth while we're around people who might get us caught or bring you back to your mom. It's not lying." Well…
Kei laughed at me and held up her arms for me to lift her up. "Ok I'm Seika."
"That's a good girl."
I picked her up and climbed the stairs to get to the open the door, ducking just in time as something hard smashed against the wall behind me.
"Heiji you're such a jerk!" A teenage girl screamed, my brain flipped through notes until I had a name to go with her face.
Kazuha huffed as I walked in and strode up to me with all the anger of a bull. "An' let me guess! You're the famous Kudo who keeps draggin' Heiji off whenever he calls."
"Nope," I pushed her to get her out of my face. "It's not me, I swear!"
"Yer all a bunch of liars! How can I believe any of you?" She shot a glance and me and Hattori before including Hakuba who was sitting rather rigidly on the sofa. Ran was in the room trying to calm the girl down and Kudo was off in the corner, attempting to ignore the confrontation.
"So then who's this?" She pointed a finger at me and Hattori didn't answer, unsure of what to call me. Kazuha took it as admittance that I was Kudo.
"So you think you can lie to me too do you? Well Heiji can't be bothered with your stupid cases anymore so quite callin' him! He's got more important things to do!"
Ran looked up at me and I saw a brief look of confusion and hurt in her eyes.
"I'm not Kudo-kun!" I pointed over at Hakuba, "Ask him, I've been his classmate for almost a year now. I think I should know who I am. My name's Kaito," I defended timidly. This girl wasn't like Aoko and seemed like she'd result to brute force over tossing an eraser at me. With Kei in my arms I wasn't sure if I could dodge her if she did.
"I don't think she believes ya Kuroba-kun" Hattori snuck in, firmly stating my name.
Ran looked me over again and saw the subtle differences that separated me from Kudo, though I was sure the silver still streaked through my hair confused them even more. Ran physically relaxed and Kazuha had to admit to herself that she was wrong.
"Then what's he doin' here?" She offered no apology to me but kept yelling at Hattori. "I thought ya were on some important case an' yet ya've got a buncha people runnin' around!"
"I am on a case ahou! He's…" Hattori thought for second before deciding what to say. "He's working on it with Hakuba-kun and me."
"Oh no, I've been lumped in with the detectives" I sighed. The Osakan girl turned on me in an instant and I regretted saying anything.
"So you ain't some detective? Then ya got no business hangin' out with Heiji, you'll only slow him down! Go back home and let him take care of it so he can come back home!"
"Ya can't just tell the guys I'm workin' with to leave! Yer the one that should go home!"
"Not without you, Heiji. If he can stay why can't I?" She crossed her arms defensively.
"'Cause he's…" Hattori trailed off and I faked writing something down on my hand, "he's got info we need so he's gotta come. You don't have anything. Cases can be dangerous an' I don't want ya involved!"
Kazuha sat down across from Hakuba, turning away from us. The detective stiffened and tried to shift his body away from her but a sharp glare made him freeze.
"Fine then, go off and play detective with your friends. I'll just stay her an' wait fer ya to be done. Then I expect ya to go back with me."
"Kazuha this isn't the kinda thing that can be fixed by tonight. Hakuba-kun an' I have both told ya that and Kuroba-kun will do the same." Hattori sighed and went to stand over her. "Go home. I'll be back when I can."
"Ran-chan," Kazuha completely ignored him and looked at the other girl. "I can stay over 'till Heiji's done, right?"
"Kazuha there's school tomorrow!"
"Damn it," I swore to myself and everyone turned to look at me. I scratched the back of my head. "Oh, it nothing."
Hakuba chuckled. "Aoko-kun's going to be mad at you for skipping again."
"Shut up! You're skipping school too!"
"Ah, but she doesn't know that."
Kazuha gave us both an evil look and which shut us up instantly.
"Heiji you have school tomorrow too. Come back with me."
"I can't Kazuha. This is important."
Kei broke the serious atmosphere by wriggling out of my arms. I put her down gently on the floor and she went over to Kudo, just staring at him.
"Um…Hi?" he waved to her nervously.
"Hi, I'm Seika." She hugged him and Kudo reflexively drew back before he focused on something that Kei whispered to him. I saw his eyes widen when she back off and smiled at him.
"Sure." He murmured.
"Thank you Oniisan!" Kei yelled, getting a few confused looks from most of the room. Kei ran over to Kazuha and smiled at her while Kudo turned to Ran.
"Um, Ran-neechan? Would it be alright if….Seika-chan stayed the night? I was going to stay over at Professor Agasa's and she doesn't want come with."
Ran looked at me since I was the one who brought Kei in and I smiled. "If it wouldn't be too much trouble. Cases aren't the best place for little kids."
"Conan-kun," she looked back down at Kudo. "If she wants to stay the night why don't you just stay here with her?"
"Raann-nnneecchhan…." He moaned theatrically, catching the smiles from me and Hattori. "I want to stay at the professor's with Heiji-niichan."
"Fine then, I guess she could stay. If dad has anything to say about it…" Ran clenched her fist to send the threat home. Everyone except Hakuba shivered, not knowing what the girl was capable of.
"Thanks Ran-neechan!" Kei shouted from next to Kazuha. The other girl had been trying to avoid her but Kei's cute faces and a few pulls on her clothes were hard to ignore. Kazuha picked her up and held her in her lap.
"I guess I'll go home a little later then." Kazuha sighed, turning violently towards Hattori. "But the minute yer done with this case yer gonna come back!"
"I said I was." Hattori shoved his hands in his pockets. "Can't ya settle down?"
"It's just…" Kazuha twirled her fingers around in front of Kei. "I had a bad feelin' an' thought I should come make sure ya were okay. I still don't believe ya about the scratches."
"I told ya it was just a cat." I looked back at the Osakan detective's face. The angry scratch marks were long and thick, though they had stopped bleeding and it seemed like he could keep his eye open, even if it was slightly bloodshot.
"Some big cat…" she mumbled.
"Heiji-niichan lets go!" Kudo groaned. I was tempted to laugh but I didn't it would help. Kudo spared a glance at Kei before looking back at Ran and showing off puppy eyes I didn't think him capable of. It didn't help me fight back the laugh.
Ran smiled and turned to me with what must have been a huge grin on my face. "Nice to meet you. I'm sorry about Kazuha-chan."
"Ah, it's fine. Thank you for watching Seika-chan for us. Her parents left her with me and I don't really know how to care for little girls." I meet Kei's glance and bent down to her level. "Why do you want to stay?"
"Because Kaito-niichan said he didn't want me there when we were in the car." She played with her feet and smiled. "And I want to stay. These are nice people too."
"I thought you were sleeping." I ruffled her hair. "Be good then and… I'll see if we can't pick you up tomorrow. I might just bring Hisa-chan here to stay with you."
"Fine, fine, fine, fine." Kei played around and ran off.
"I'll see ya later Kazuha," Hattori played with the tip of his baseball cap. "I'll be back soon."
The four of us left the office and I pushed Hattori around the car when he tried to get into the driver's seat.
"Hey, ya got to dive already! I got the keys."
"No you don't," I waved them in front of him. "You haven't had them since I put Kei-chan down."
"Sneaky jerk" he mumbled and stood on the other side of the car when he noticed that Kudo had taken the passenger seat. "There's no way I'm sittin' in the back with Hakuba-kun."
"Hattori just get in." Kudo mumbled. "I have a few things I want to ask him and I can't do it with this height from the back seat."
Hattori hit the top of the car and got in the back. Both detectives looked away from one another. I still couldn't understand what had come between them.
I rolled my eyes in their direction and started the car. The professor's house wasn't too far from Mouri's and we could have walked but I figured he would want his car back.
"So what's going on? You never answered my questions before and I've been in Osaka so Hattori hasn't been able to fill me in. I got home a half-an-hour before you woke up and no one would tell me what was happening."
"A lot has been happening." I sighed trying to think of where to start. "The short version is that Hakuba-kun was in charge of looking after three kids who someone is trying to kill. You met several of the children in the fire that day. I offered to help."
My hands unconsciously tightened on the wheel and I had to focus on not speeding. "While they were with a friend of mine one of the kids was killed. Whoever is after them clearly has connections and Hattori-kun thought he knew who it was but we haven't been able to talk about it."
"Who?" Kudo turned to the Osakan boy but Hattori kept looking out the window.
"I think it's them."
That was apparently enough of an explanation for Kudo but nowhere near what I needed.
"Who's 'them'?"
Neither of them answered me but Kudo turned back to him.
"How sure are you?"
Hattori fidgeted, "Based on the info they've givin' me an' my talk with the little girl… I'm about ninety percent sure it 'em."
"Why would they want children?" Kudo turned back and asked himself.
"Hey, who's 'them'?"
"We'll tell ya when were at the professor's in a minute. Don't want ya drivin' us into any walls 'cause we're distractin' ya." Hattori smiled but it lacked emotion. He turned back to Kudo, "They're weird kids but I don't see how they'd be involved with 'em. From what they've told me there was a bunch of other children too."
"They did have a different doctor then the others" Hakuba added in. "I don't know if it matters but there weren't very many kids subjected to the study, probably a little more than a dozen whose parents could afford it. Hisa-chan, Kei-chan, and Kane-kun were the only one's seen by one of the doctors."
"An' what happened to the doc?" Hattori asked him.
"Nothing as far as I know. He was fine when the parents started trying to investigate."
"Sometimes a dead body will draw more attention than not. If it was them and the doctor was left alive… I can't figure out why they'd go after the children" Kudo shook his head. "It just doesn't make sense."
Because Hakuba was behind me I shouldn't have seen it but the review mirror helped. His eyes glazed over as he thought of something and I saw him draw in towards himself.
"Maybe this particular doctor did something different than the others. If someone found out and was interested, that could send them after the children." Hakuba sighed, "But it wouldn't make any sense to kill them then."
"Not if they wanted information…" Kudo trailed off his thoughts, "but maybe if they wanted to hide information."
A chill when through the car.
"So he'd hafta be a part of 'em too, the doctor I mean. That makes sense."
"What does? You still haven't explained it to me" I grumbled, pulling the car into the driveway. "Now you'll get your chance to."
Kudo and Hattori both made no moves to get out of the car so I reclined my seat to talk with Hakuba. I didn't hide a smile when the seat hit the detective's knees.
"You don't think it's fair right? We've told them everything they wanted to know and more and now they're keeping secrets from us."
"The car is small enough without you squishing me," Hakuba complained before leveling his gaze at the other two. "And no, everything that's been happening to me recently hasn't been fair. I go to one person for help, regret it, and somehow wind up with three or more who have been all keeping secrets from me," He spared me a dark look. "And expect me to just sit here and take it for 'my own safety.'"
"I hate bein' feed that line." Hattori spoke up. "I hate even more bein' told I can't help when I could, even if it would be 'dangerous'."
"I've never seen so much considerable danger as I do around detectives." I justified.
"Says the thief dodging bullets of his own. People who live in glass houses should throw stones Kuroba-kun."
"Ya should know where I'm commin' from when I tell ya it's not my decision to make, whether to tell ya everythin' I know or just enough to keep ya 'safe'. As if." Hattori relaxed comfortably. "If it's 'em there is no 'safe'. Especially since they seem to want Hakuba-kun dead too."
"They want you dead?" Kudo turned to the detective. "Why?"
"Maybe they think he knows too much" Hattori answered when Hakuba didn't. "We've seen that before."
"Then the families that the children came from would be in danger as well." Kudo's eyes narrowed the blond, now brunette detective. "But they are not, which makes me wonder why they would go after you."
"Maybe they aren't after me. They didn't seem inclined to shoot again once they hit Kuroba-kun."
"That's because I stayed in front of you," I whispered. I hadn't intended to say anything unless he brought it up. "You know how hard it was to stand up after I was aware I was shot? I only let you get behind me when I knew the shooter had run off. So let's correct that statement to 'they weren't inclined to shoot at you again unless they killed me first'."
Hakuba balled up his fists and sent me a heated glare. "How were you able to think about things like that when you were hurt?"
"Endorphins or something. You're the smart one; I don't remember everything that my teachers have tried to drill into me over the years."
"That's not what I meant."
"Instinct I guess then," I leaned my hand behind my head and looked at him upside-down. "I've been in enough danger that I automatically assess the situation and try to protect whoever I'm with. You could have been anybody and I would have reacted the same way."
"But I wasn't anybody and the gun wasn't pointed at you. When did you make the distinction between reacting to a known danger aimed at your wellbeing and the danger present that was after my wellbeing?"
"It doesn't matter if the gun was aimed at you or me. I've protected people before besides you detective, It's nothing new to me." I felt as I was sliding more into my personality as Kid and didn't quite know how to stop it.
"It's new to me. I've never seen you risk your life for someone else."
"You've never seen it but it must have been evident to you. I don't think you would have gone to me if you hadn't noticed. I never think of it as risking my life for anyone either. I'm confident enough in myself that I can get anyone out of any kind of situation." I could feel a smile I used as Kid creep across my face. It was one that I only used in front of the police when they were trying to catch me and I was about to slip through their fingers.
"And what if you can't? What if one day acting like that gets you killed?"
"Well, I guess I'll die then. You can't say you would have been able to sit still while someone got hurt in front of you either."
"No but I wouldn't put myself in front of a bullet to stop it. There are other ways."
"Not most of the time. You know you've successfully derailed the conversation again detective and I'm interested in knowing who these people after you are so would you mind talking about this with me later?"
He just looked out the window, focusing on nothing. "I can't change the way you act even if I tried. I don't care. Get yourself killed."
"Don't be so mean about it. It's not like I'm going to die anytime soon and the little brushes we've had shouldn't make you doubt that. I'm a phantom thief after all." Everything about my demeanor seemed false but my words were true. "I'm not that easy to take down."
"So it would seem." Hakuba was trying to let go of his anger but it was difficult for him. After a time he calmed down enough that I counted on his help facing Kudo.
"So, who are these people? And don't give us some vague description like Hattori-kun gave us earlier either."
Kudo sat still next to me, his even breathing the only movement he was inclined to show. After several minutes of silence Hattori kicked the back of his seat hard enough that the small detective had to shoot his hands forward to keep from falling over.
"I don't see the problem with tellin' 'em. It's not like they aren't in enough danger as it is and knowin' what they're up against is better'en lettin' them walk 'round blind."
"Hattori, I do realize that. One the off chance that it's not-"
"It's them."
Kudo sat back against the seat and eyed it with distain. He turned to me and Hakuba, "Very well, I'll tell you what you need to know."