#shinichi's expression and kaito's grin as he holds his chin

[balancingdiet]

Comparison

Detective Conan & Magic Kaito Characters: Kaito/Shinichi & Heiji Words: 1700 ish Required Fic: Tabula Rasa Extra: (1) (2) (3) (4)

“So... is it safe for me to say I’m your best neighbour too?” 

“Yes, I will. Okay— I promise I’m gonna do it now.” Kaito closed the kitchen tap and clamped his phone in between his cheek and shoulder before heaving the filled watering-can out of the basin.

“Thank you, Kaito-botchama,” Jii said on the other line, but Kaito recognised more exasperation than satisfaction in Jii’s tone.

“I’mma hang up now, see you later.”

Cancelling the call, Kaito carried the watering-can in one hand and stumbled out to his backyard, and with his other hand, he went to his clock app and set three alarms.

Well, Kaito really couldn’t blame Jii for his worries and reminders these days, especially after Kaito recently got so distracted with his own things and nearly missed the hour of his heist; and Jii was almost desperate enough to act as Kaitou Kid then.

And this didn’t just happen once, but twice.

Standing in his backyard, Kaito glanced over to Shinichi’s house.

There were indeed loads of distractions lately.

Kaito ambled over his rose plantations and began watering them, as what he normally did.

“Wow, you have plants.”

Kaito blinked, glancing towards the fence that cut between his and Shinichi’s house.

Rather than the owner of the backyard, Kaito found the other dark-skinned detective — Hattori Heiji — the man that wasn’t easy to forget, given his reputation and the incident that nearly scarred Kaito for life.

Hattori was looking around Shinichi’s backyard in amazement, as if it was the first time he’d ever seen a patch of grass with two pots of plants... Or maybe it was the first time he’d seen Shinichi’s backyard, and knowing that Shinichi was plant-stupid in many sense, the two potted plants must be as impressive as running a country.

And speaking of first time, this was also the first time Kaito saw Shinichi ever had any visitor, well, save for Mouri Ran, the only unexpected and uninvited one.

All of the sudden, Hattori turned, spotting Kaito from where he was.

“Eh, your neighbour’s there too.” Hattori gave a wave. “Hello!”

Right there and then, Shinichi stepped out of his backyard door, his face looking all frozen and awkward.

This could be fun.

Kaito grinned and waved back; but of course this wouldn’t be enough to consider fun. Putting the watering-can down, he walked towards the fence, and with every step closer, Shinichi looked more and more disgruntled...

Eventually, Shinichi pinched the bridge of his nose, looking absolutely done with Kaito, or Hattori, or basically the entire situation.

“Nice to meet ya,” Hattori said as he put a hand over his chest. “I’m Kudo’s best friend and greatest rival.”

“And his name is also Hattori Heiji,” Shinichi mumbled before gesturing weakly over Kaito’s face. “And he’s my neighbour, Kuroba Kaito,” he said to Hattori.

Best friend and greatest rival... Kaito propped an arm over the fence. “Is it safe for me to say that I’m your best neighbour too?”

Shinichi couldn’t look any more resigned than this. He turned away, ignoring Kaito and attempted to tug Hattori out of his backyard. “Ok, anyway—”

“Wait a minute.” Hattori’s eyes narrowed at Kaito suspiciously, and Kaito felt a shiver ran down his spine. “Why does it look so familiar?” Hattori added.

Kaito blinked, barely holding back the urge to touch his face, and it took a much greater effort to stop himself from giving a nervous swallow too.

The fun sure lasted shorter than Kaito expected.

But it wasn't just Kaito that was stumped; Shinichi’s eyes looked like they were going to fall out any moment.

“What?” Shinichi spat.

Hattori scratched his chin, and he looked like a curious monkey when he did. “I’ve seen it before…”

Shinichi stepped a little closer to the fence, as if trying to block Hattori’s view of Kaito. “What are you talking about—”

“That shirt, ya.” Hattori pointed to Kaito’s chest. “I’ve seen you worn it before.”

Kaito looked down.

Crap. He certainly played himself this time; he hadn’t realized he was wearing Shinichi’s shirt today, the one Shinichi changed him out on the night he bled a mess out of his Kid’s clothes.

He nervously glanced up, coincidentally meeting Shinichi’s eyes before turning to Hattori, who still had the same squinty look on his face.

“Uh,” Shinichi began. “Yes, what a coincidence that my neighbour has the same shirt as me.”

This was the stupidest thing Kaito ever heard, but he doubt he could complain about the excuse when he didn’t have anything better to say. He tried to add a laugh, hoping it was enough to ease the situation.

But then again, Hattori wasn’t named the Detective of the West for nothing. “Right—”

“Anyway, there’s nothing in my backyard besides the two plants, so let’s head back in,” Shinichi said. Hattori was obviously not listening as he was still scrutinising Kaito and the shirt, but he didn’t have the opportunity to comment anything else as Shinichi successfully dragged him back into his house.

The backyard door closed.

A cooing sound made Kaito turned as he stared at his two doves—Touma and Curry—perched one the other end of the fence.

Kaito scorned. “You two... enjoying the show?”

Curry cooed.

Shaking his head, Kaito headed back to his watering-can.

—— 

After Kaito finished watering his plants, he walked out of his house, played with his own mailbox latch for a bit before heading to Shinichi’s one.

No bird poop stain.

No reason for Kaito to be here then.

But that wasn’t going to stop him from doing what he wanted. Kaito leaned against Shinichi’s mailbox, fingers drumming across the top. Shinichi’s car was still parked at the usual spot, but Kaito was sure he had heard Shinichi’s front door opened and closed beforehand. He stared down at the empty street, the only path Shinichi could take to go to the train station, or anywhere else; Kaito’s house was on the end of the block anyway—

And Kaito was right, as he spotted Shinichi’s returning with both of his hands tugged deep inside his pockets. Hattori was nowhere in sight.

Kaito placed his elbow on the mailbox and rested his chin against his palm. As Shinichi got much closer, and clearly already spotting him from the distance, Kaito spoke, “You haven’t answered my question.”

Shinichi looked confused, but he expressed that with a frown. “I don’t remember any question,” he replied, stopping his tracks before Kaito.

“So...” Kaito grinned. “Is it safe for me to say that I’m your best neighbour too?”

Shinichi rolled his eyes. “What do you think?”

“Yes?”

Kaito expected Shinichi to not reply, but he didn’t expect Shinichi to return to his house so soon when their conversation barely started. Kaito stared at Shinichi’s back and observed the slump on his shoulders, which Kaito didn’t notice earlier in the backyard when Shinichi was mostly tensed the entire time.

He wondered what Hattori was here for, and what they had talked about in the house. And if... it had anything to do with Mouri Ran.

Then, to Kaito’s surprise, Shinichi suddenly stopped and turned, looking at Kaito over his shoulder.

“What?” Shinichi muttered.

Does he have eyes on his back? “Nothing.” Kaito said.

Kaito knew what it was like to have his problems meddled with when he didn’t want it to be, and Kaito wasn’t going to be that hypocrite. Like what Shinichi said a long, long time ago, if he wanted the answers, he should wait when the time was right, or let the answer eventually come to him.

And if Shinichi didn’t want to talk, or do anything about it at the moment, there was no point for Kaito to force anything.

And maybe he didn’t have the rights to do it too.

Having nothing else to say, Kaito dusted his hands and returned to his own home.

“Wait.”

Kaito stopped.

“Uh.” Shinichi glanced at his mailbox.

“My doves didn’t shit on it this time,” Kaito said, which was true, yet deep down somewhere in his gut, he somehow wished they did.

“Yes, I can see that,” Shinichi answered back.

Kaito tilted his head. Shinichi sounded almost annoyed, but Kaito couldn’t pinpoint the main reason for it, just like the cause for the slump in his shoulder too. Kaito stayed silent and waited for Shinichi to continue.

“When are you planning to return my shirt?”

Huh. It’s for this? Kaito tugged onto the shirt, wondering. “Do you want me to take it off now?”

“Don’t.” Shinichi looked even more annoyed, but Kaito was much familiar and better with this annoyance; the one that seemed only Kaito was capable of making Shinichi feel.

Kaito grinned.

“Just give it back to me next time,” Shinichi added.

“Ok.” That is, if Kaito remembered and not wear it every time after he finished washing it. “Is there anything else?”

“No. I guess not.” Shinichi was about to turn again. “Bye.”

“Bye.”

“...Wait.”

Oh God, even Hakuba wasn’t this fickle-minded with his words, and that was one hell of a comparison that Shinichi was forcing Kaito to make. “What now?” he said as he swung his arms up in the air.

“Do you... I mean, are you free?”

“Certainly not”, Kaito was about to say, but he held back his tongue and tried to ignore Jii’s reminder and chiding words echoing in his head. Rather than a yes or no, he said, “Why?”

“By any chance are you cooking later, like fried rice?” Shinichi looked awkward, and Kaito almost saw some resemblance of that awkwardness he saw in Mouri Ran that day. “Can I pay for you to cook an extra plate for me?”

Pay? Kaito wanted to shake his head, to mock, and maybe to laugh, but he considered himself reaping more benefits from the act of cooking that meal, more than what Shinichi could ever pay with him in money.

“I can do it for free,” Kaito said, and he found his cheeks aching from the smile that spread across his cheeks. “But in exchange, you have to answer my question: Is it safe to say that I’m your best—“

“Yes,” Shinichi interrupted with a sigh, but his gaze looked a little amused at the same time. “Yes you are.”

[mintchocolateleaves]

Basically, the person responsible for this becoming a thing knows who they are, and it’s all their fault.

Summary: Shinichi has a magic trick, and for once, Kaito is the one who needs to figure out how it’s done. (Implied KaiShin).

"Hey Hakuba," Shinichi says one day when they sit down for lunch, "you want to see this magic trick I've been working on?"

Opposite the seat Shinichi is sat at, Kaito lets out a small snicker, leaning forward on the table to glance between the detectives.

"You can't do magic tricks," the magician claims, resting his chin on his hand, "you don't have the imagination. Detectives can't perform magic."

Shinichi gives him the look, grins and shakes his head, turning back to look at Saguru. The other detective nods, waits expectantly for Shinichi to begin, watching as Shinichi pulls a pack of playing cards from his pocket - Kaito's pretty sure that they're his cards, not Shinichi's own, but well, it doesn't exactly matter.

"Just watch," Shinichi says, "I'll blow your mind with this trick."

Kaito scoffs.

Pulling out the playing cards from the pack, and shuffling them, Shinichi takes the deck and spreads them out face down. He then prompts Saguru to pick out a card, asks him to memorise it before asking the Brit to place it back into the deck.

"Kaito... Can you shuffle the cards for me?" Shinichi asks then, and the magician, watching the trick carefully, does as the detective asks. After he's satisfied with the level of shuffling, Shinichi grins, taking back the playing cards.

He pauses. "Your birthday is the 29th of August, right Hakuba?"

Saguru nods, his brows drawn into a frown.

"Okay. That means twenty-nine. Adding the digits together, makes eleven, and then adding those together is two... Add that to August being the 8th month and we've got ten. That means ten cards."

He places nine cards onto the table, moving slower with each card, dragging the moment out until he lifts the tenth card, showing it to Saguru. He asks, "is this your card?"

Saguru takes the card and lets out a small laugh. It's a mixture of astonishment and surprise, his eyes widening slightly as he takes the card from Shinichi's hand. "How?"

Shinichi taps the side of his nose and smiles. He says, "a magician never tells, do they Kaito?"

He glances at the magician, revels in the expression he notices - Kaito's lips are pursed, his own face furrowed into a frown as he tries to discover the trick, staring at the card in Saguru's hands.

"That's right..." Kaito admits.

Later, as their apartment, as Kaito is preparing tea for their guest, Shinichi shows Heiji the same trick.

"Is this your card?" Shinichi asks, holding up the seven of clubs. Heiji grins and nods.

"How'd ya know?"

Shinichi smirks, shrugs his shoulders and places the cards down onto the table. Then, taking the tea Kaito has poured, he takes a sip, flashing Kaito a smug smile.

"Am I creative yet Kaito?" He asks, "do I have an imagination now?"

After a short pause, Kaito turns to Shinichi, a bitter expression marring his usually jovial expression. He looks visibly pained as he claims that Shinichi has always been an exception to the rule, is his favourite detective for a reason, and that means he's certainly got an imagination.

"Oi, Kudo - I think tha' I got it." Heiji says, and leans in to whisper his deduction to his best friend.

"I haven't figured it out yet," Kaito mutters, "there's no way a detective could get it before me."

Shinichi leans back, smiles and nods. He says, "that's how you do it Hattori!"

He's pretty sure that he notices Kaito's eye twitching.

(Later, when Shinichi is fading into sleep beside Kaito, the magician having fallen asleep hours before, when Shinichi had been overlooking details for a case, he hears Kaito spring up, opens sleepy eyes to notice that the magician is awake, wide-eyed and alert.

"The cards are marked, right Shinichi? That's how you did it?" Kaito trips on his way out of the room, falls flat on his face as he races to get to the cards.

Shinichi grins. He falls asleep with laughter on his lips.)

"Okay," Shinichi says three days later when they all sit down at lunch. "I've got another magic trick."

Kaito lets out a groan. He bangs his head against the table as he buries his forehead in the gap between his folded arms. "No. I still haven't figured out the last one yet."

Saguru raises an eyebrow. "Really? I figured it out two days ago."

Kaito mutters swears under his breath. "Even Hakuba beat me, what-"

"Yeah, yeah," Shinichi waves the comments away. "Hakuba, the trick, want to see it?"

Saguru nods, and waits as the detective pulls out a brand new pack of cards, undoing the plastic wrapping and passing the playing cards to Kaito to shuffle again. It's a new defense, the cards, to keep Kaito from claiming that they are marked somehow. Hell - Shinichi hasn't even been holding them for any more than five seconds.

"Thanks," he says when Kaito passes them back. Like with his previous trick, he spreads the cards face down on the table, asks Saguru to pick any card he wants.

Saguru does.

Opposite him, Shinichi rubs at his temples, hesitates before asking, "Jack of clubs?"

Hakuba pales, throws the card down and asks, "How are you doing this? Is the magic spreading from Kuroba to you...?"

Kaito shakes his head. "No. No that's not possible, no-"

Shinichi shrugs, collects the cards and shuffles them again. "It's a trick Kaito, of course it's possible."

"Do it again."

Shinichi shuffles the cards, mutters 'whatever will make you sleep at night', before redoing the trick. He tells Saguru to  pick another card, before Kaito stops the trick, picking his own card instead. Apparently, the magician suspects foul play, wants to do it himself to ensure that there's no 'funny business' going on.

For a moment, Shinichi hesitates.

Then, out of the corner of his eye, he watches Hakuba raise his hand to his chest, putting four fingers up.

Shinichi grins, "four of hearts?"

Kait swears, throws the card back on top of the deck, before storming out of the cafeteria. He cries, "unacceptable, they're detectives," as the door slams behind him.

Saguru glances at Shinichi, raises an eyebrow as his fellow detective collects the playing cards from the table, shimmying them back into the deck.

"How long until you tell Kuroba-kun that we've just been tricking him?" He asks.

Shinichi grins, "only until is stops being funny."

"So... never?"

A smile. "Yeah, pretty much."

All my other writing oneshots can be found here.

[balancingdiet]

Tabula Rasa

Detective Conan & Magic Kaito Characters: Shinichi/Kaito Words:  1600ish Chapter: (1) ... (11) (12) (13) 

Shinichi always finds his neighbour weird. But he didn’t expect to find his neighbour lying on a patch of grass and donned in Kaitou Kid’s costume, too.

Shinichi had been to the hospital enough times to know where the lifts were, remember some of the doctors’ names, and even noticed if the hospital change the paintings on the walls. But most of his trips here were always on the first few floors, where the wards of all the serious crimes’ victims resided in. Or worse, where he’d be waiting at the lobby and hoping the victims made it through their first surgery. 

Today was the first time he made it past those floors.

Shinichi stepped out of the lift and glanced around. Even though he was still in the same hospital, the difference between the floors were vast. Doctors weren’t running around, the air didn’t smell like heavy iron, and there weren’t any patients yowling in pain or nurses shouting about the need of a blood pack somewhere… 

He glanced at his watch, realising this wasn’t the time to think about anything else. He was about to ask a passing nurse where the waiting room was when he heard a burst of muffled laughter around the corner. He followed the giggles and chuckles until he found the place he wanted to go.

At the corner of the large space was a playroom for kids, and all of the children had gathered there. Not around toys, though.

It was around Kuroba.

Shinichi didn’t realise he was blatantly staring until the claps broke his blur train of thoughts. He blinked out of his trance and quietly joined the crowd. He wasn’t sure if Kuroba had noticed him before, or that he did and was pretending he didn’t. Either way, Kuroba’s attention now was all on the kids, as though his life mission was to never let their smile fade away.

There were a few adults and nurses watching the show too, and Shinichi camouflaged perfectly in there. He would occasionally follow and clap along with the crowd, but no matter what, he could never resist a smile when the children exclaimed out their enthusiasm for Kuroba’s tricks, regardless of how small or big. 

Being so used to hearing crying and terrors, it was nice for a little change.

Not long later, Kuroba concluded his show and finished it by levitating his shuffled cards in mid-air. He thanked the audiences and supplied them with parting souvenirs—all the children got different animal balloons of their favourite colour, and even the adults audiences got something too; he offered the first nurse a rose, and then another rose to a mother…

“And here’s one for you—"

Kuroba blinked, the stalk of rose frozen in between his fingertips as he stood face to face with Shinichi.

(Shinichi supposed Kuroba didn’t notice him earlier, then.)

Kuroba recovered fast as his parted lips turned into a huge grin. But he still didn’t turn away. He tilted the rose, signalling Shinichi to take it.

Narrowing his eyes, Shinichi relented and pluck the rose out of Kuroba’s hand. He knew if he didn’t take it, Kuroba would refuse to move on and pass his “souvenirs” to the other audiences behind him, so he did what he'd done for the sake of the time.

Yes. Nothing else.

Shinichi glanced at the red rose. Given his pathetic attempts at maintaining his two potted plants, he was definitely no expert, but something told him this rose belonged to the plantation in Kuroba’s backyard.

After Kuroba finished distributing and the crowd had long dispersed, he approached Shinichi with a grin plastered on his face.

“You came,” he said, his statement sounded more like a question. It wouldn’t be as absurd if it wasn’t Kuroba that invited him to come in the first place.

“You asked me to.” Shinichi muttered, clearly remembering the exact moment when Kuroba did: With a propped elbow over their fence, he'd disturbed Shinichi’s quiet morning and told him he was free to come to today's event.

Kuroba’s confused look faltered and he smiled instead. “Yeah, but I didn’t expect you to.”

Shinichi frowned. “Why not?”

He shrugged, saying nothing more.

Now Shinichi felt stupid to be here. Not to add that he even took a half day off from work and shifted his meeting with Shiho earlier because of this. Then again, it could be his fault for treating Kuroba’s words of any importance in the first place. 

“Are you disappointed?” he remembered Shiho asked.

He found this situation more relatable than any other ones he had been in.

Deleting Shiho's words from his mind, Shinichi pushed the rose into Kuroba’s chest. “I don’t want this.” 

“Aw, why?” Kuroba took the rose from Shinichi’s fingers. He looked hurt, or feigned it well to be.

“I’m not going to walk around carrying a rose.”

Kuroba stroked his chin and glanced at the ceiling. “To be honest, the image looked quite cute in my head.”

Shinichi rolled his eyes and walked out of the waiting room. He didn’t intend to slow down even though he heard Kuroba asking him to “Hold on!” while he scrambled to pack his remaining props. But that feeling quickly changed when he reached the lift, and he realised Kuroba was nowhere in sight behind him.

After two lifts had passed their floor, Shinichi decided he had enough of waiting and backtracked to the room to see what Kuroba was up to—

Round the corridor, Shinichi found Kuroba talking to a woman in a wheelchair. 

He stopped, hiding behind the wall.

“Thank you so much Kaito-kun,” the woman said, her eyes held more gratefulness than what her soft voice had already expressed. 

Kuroba shook his head. “This isn’t anything much.”

“But not for Kanna and I.” The woman turned, looking at a little girl sitting on a sofa and playing with a dog balloon that Kuroba gave earlier. “My illness has brought nothing but gloomy years for her, but you’ve gave her plenty of sunshine.”

"It's the least I can do." 

They fell into a mutual silence for a while, but it wasn't long before the woman spoke, "Just the other day, Kanna also said she missed Aoko-chan."

Shinichi straightened.

Aoko?

As though she'd just realized what slipped out of her mouth, the woman suddenly looked regretful and guilty. She bit her lower lip. "I'm sorry—"

Kuroba smiled, his eyes half-lidded with patience and something that almost seemed…

Sad. 

He turned to look at the little girl, his face now blocked from Shinichi’s view.

“It's okay," he said, "It's good to know I'm not the only one too.”

----

After feeling he’d intruded the conversation enough, Shinichi left for the lift, got out of the hospital, and walked into the streets. He had no idea how far he’d gone or where he was actually walking to, but it was definitely not anywhere near his parked car. 

Shinichi glanced at his watch with a sigh. His plans for the day had stopped right after finding Kuroba, and now he had no idea what to do for the rest of his evening—

A sound of a flap or two later, Shinichi found a white dove sitting on his right shoulder

He nearly shrieked.

Nearly.

Shinichi spun around, not-so-surprised to find Kuroba jogging towards him. 

“Good job Tamago!” Kuroba gave a thumbs up. “You have located Cinderella.”

If Shinichi hadn’t known better, he would have been fooled by Kuroba's facade and thought the entire conversation and that look he’d witnessed earlier on his face was all an illusion.

Just like Kaitou Kid.

“For your information, this is my favourite shirt.” Shinichi glowered and curled his fingers, threatening to flick Tamago away. “And if your dove shits on me…”

“Alright, alright. You have no chill.” Kuroba shook his head and waved Tamago over, but a long moment had passed and Tamago still refused to move, until Kuroba had to call and snap his fingers for the fifth time then it did. It slipped back into Kuroba’s sleeve.

Shinichi peered over his shoulder.

“It’s clean,” Kuroba said.

Shinichi returned Kuroba his signature side-eye look.

Kuroba chuckled. “Anyway, since you don’t want my rose, how about a treat? You came all the way for my performance after all.”

“Did you get paid for the performance?”

There was a brief distant look that flashed across Kuroba’s face, and Shinichi tried to investigate the shift, like reaching out for a balloon that slipped away. But it was too late, and it had already flew away.

Gone.

“No.” Kuroba cocked his head to his side. “It’s voluntary work.”

Shinichi had long figured that out, but since he felt it was appropriate to ask, he thought it’d be nice know his guess was right 

“Then you don’t need to,” Shinichi said and turned, prepared to head to… who-knows-where. He should probably get back to his car—

“You know…” Kuroba sighed as he rubbed a hand behind his neck. “You’re making it hard for me to ask you out for dinner.”

Shinichi blinked, his head turning back in a robotic fashion. “...What?”

“You heard me well.” Kuroba crossed his arms, “So do you want to have dinner or not?”

“Uh,” Shinichi paused, feeling the hot, tingling pricks rising from his back and to his neck.

“I know a good Ramen restaurant around here.” Kuroba wiggled his eyebrows and jabbed a thumb across the street. “They sell the best dumplings too.”

It could be because he hadn’t had ramen for a long time, or that he'd missed eating good dumplings, but Shinichi wasn’t sure if he could entirely factor Kuroba’s grin out as the reason why he decided to say “Ok” to the dinner plan in the end.

[mintchocolateleaves]

Cost of Freedom (24/52)

Summary: In which, with the help of Heiji, Kaito and Shinichi break into a police station to find Shinichi’s hidden case files. Prison!AU

If you want a song to listen to during this chapter, I’ve been listening to this while writing.

[Beginning]     [Previous Chapter]     [Next Chapter]

"I can't believe I'm doin' this," Heiji mutters under his breath, pocketing his phone. It's not even nine a.m. yet and he's already stood in the middle of a police station, preparing to abet two criminals and add more broken laws to his ever growing list of faults.

If his father ever finds about this... Heiji shudders, decides that it's best not to think about that, and looks in the bathroom's mirror. He wonders, not for the first time, if he'll be able to convincingly lie to those around him, asks himself whether his facial expressions will give him away.

It doesn't matter, he tells himself, because it needs to be done.

Kudo needs those files, and from the moment he'd first decided that Kudo was innocent, Heiji had promised himself he'd do what it takes to prove it. Sure, it might mean breaking some laws... but if he balanced it out, a few broken laws were worth it, especially if it meant they could bring down a ring of organised crime.

Heiji knows this, and yet-

He slaps his cheeks, forces a smile onto his face and readies himself to leave the bathroom. Outside, Kazuha leans against a wall, waiting for him to return. She glances up at him, offers him a smile in return to his own, and pushes herself forward.

"So where are we headin'?" She asks, grabbing onto his arm and pulling him back towards the main corridor. "Are we goin' to th' same place as yest'rday?"

Heiji shakes his head, letting her pull him back towards the reception. He says, "we're goin' up ta division one's headquart'rs. They used ta work with Kudo, so hopefully they'll give us some insight to wha' he was like."

Kazuha squints at him, "but you've met him?"

"Yeah," Heiji says, and suddenly he is the one pulling her forwards, their positions shifted as Kazuha follows him, "but I only met 'im after his case was solved, not before. I wanna ask them about wha' he was like then."

Kazuha nods behind him, and Heiji, nervous about what comes next, attempts to unscramble his thoughts. The CCTV room is just down from division one, and Heiji knows that he's only got a maximum of five minutes to figure out how to get inside. The idea is unsettling, and Heiji runs a hand through his hair trying to think.

It shouldn't be so difficult, he thinks, to get inside the room - if he asks to look at the old tapes, they'll let him sit inside and watch. Getting inside the room isn't exactly the difficult part. Getting inside without Kazuha joining him is.

"Tha' makes sense I guess..." Kazuha mutters, wrapping her arms around herself when Heiji lets go of her hand. "But, why'd ya never tell me you were talkin' to a criminal?"

She speeds up in her pace so that she's equal to him, walking beside him rather than behind. Then, after a short pause, she jabs Heiji in the side, glaring at his lack of response.

"I'm thinkin' how ta put it into words." Heiji scowls, looking down at her. "It's jus', when I learnt that Kudo was apparently th' one who committed those murders, I wanted ta ask 'im why. But askin' the old man only got me a no... So I went behind 'is back..."

Kazuha wrinkles her nose, the way she normally does when she pieces things together, her lips pursing. She continues for him, "and ya didn't say anythin' to me 'bout it, so there was less of a risk of yer dad findin' out?"

Heiji nods. It's not a lie, per se, but it isn't the full truth. Maybe at first he'd not told Kazuha about Kudo because it had meant getting in trouble with his father, but then he'd learned some of the truth, and it had transformed, leaving him stuck in something much bigger, and extremely dangerous.

Before he'd even had the chance to tell Kazuha about the situation, he'd learned that it would be stupid to talk about it with anyone he didn't want to endanger... The only person he'd talked to about the case had been Hakuba, a fellow detective, someone he'd thought would have helped prove Kudo's innocence.

"Sorry," Heiji says, "I just didn't wanna make him mad again."

Kazuha grimaces, shrugs. She says, "it's all water under th' bridge, don' worry 'bout it."

Offering her another smile, Heiji nods his head, turning left and stopping in front of the entrance to division one. A glance at the clock tells him that it's 8.53, and he pushes forwards, gaze flittering from detective to detective in a search for any of the detectives he had met the day before.

As soon as he spots Inspector Megure, he makes a beeline towards the man, glances at the frown lines on the man's face and decides that while it's going to be a long day for him, it's going to be an even longer one for the police.

"Inspector," Heiji says, grabbing the man's attention as soon as he sends another detective off for work. "Do ya have a minute?"

The inspector turns, raises an eyebrow and says, "I thought you kids were coming back at ten?"

Heiji offers a sheepish smile, rubs at his neck and says, "ah, I was told to be 'ere for nine... Did we say ten..?"

He's not lying... not really, and so he's certain he comes of as truthful - maybe Hakuba and the others had all agreed on meeting again at ten o'clock, but he'd also agreed to show up at nine to help Kudo and Kuroba. It's something Heiji hates, half truths, and yet, it seems to be all he's used these past two days.

"It'll take too long ta go away an' come back again..." Heiji continues after a second, "...say, I meant ta ask yest'rday, how did Kudo know those he killed were criminals?"

Megure frowns, his brows furrowed, stroking his chin. He says, "the victims hadn't set foot in division one... so the only place he'd have found files for them, would have been in the archives? Kudo-kun went down there a lot."

Heiji pauses, adjusts his cap and asks, "do you have any CCTV from back then? I want to see if we can spot when Kudo first... changed... and decided to become a criminal."

Megure falters, takes a moment to think, before nodding his head. When he speaks, there is forced hesitation, as if it almost... hurts... to talk about anything related to Kudo. It's hardly surprising, Heiji thinks, especially when the inspector was close to Kudo Yuusaku, having in response, been one of many police officers who'd watched Kudo grow up.

"Yes," he says, "I'll get Chiba-kun to take you to the CCTV room and set it up the video player."

Heiji nods. And just like that, he's on his way to the CCTV room.

"Takagi-kun?" Detective Satou calls, as Kaito ties a gag around Detective Takagi's mouth, binding his wrists together with cable ties. He does the same with the man's feet, binding them, before glancing over at the storage room towards the side of the stairwell.

He doesn't have enough time to throw him inside, and so he jerks his head towards the entryway, signalling at Shinichi to go out an answer the poor detective before she picks up anything odd. He knows that Shinichi isn't the best at mimicking voices, but a quick test on the way to the police station had shown that he could mimic shorter sentences if he needs to.

"Satou-san?" Shinichi asks, poking his head out of the stairwell.

As Kaito pulls the detective up by his arms, he drags him backward, nearing the storage closet. He leaves the real Takagi sprawled across the floor, keeps the door semi open and makes his way back to the entrance, holding his taser up.

There's more conversation, although Kaito doesn't think too much of it, prepares himself for the moment Detective Sato steps through the doorway and-

Electricity sparks, the air crackling.

Unlike Takagi however, Sato doesn't pass out quite as quickly. It's a risk they'd had to take, he'd be a fool to expect both detectives to go down without any trouble. Sato drops the box she's holding, the thump echoing through the stairwell, and jerks her elbow backwards into Kaito's stomach.

Kneeling over, Kaito lets out a breathless laugh, gasping for air, winded. Sato staggers forward, turns with a raised leg, kicking out in Kaito's direction. He grins, side steps and raises the taser up.

"KID," she gasps, swaying, hand going to her hip - she hesitates when she realises that she's not wearing her holster, and curses. She glances at Shinichi, notices the blank expression he's giving in response to her, and pales. "Kudo-kun."

"It's been awhile, detective." Shinichi says, and his fingers tremble against polystyrene coffee cups. "You look well."

Sato stills, and then frowns. Eyes narrowed, she glances between the two of them, bites at the side of her lip. She says, "I'm sure you're well as well, Kudo-kun, beneath that mask."

Shinichi tilts his head, and smiles. On Takagi's face, it looks deluded - Kaito's going to have to teach him later on about not making himself out to be a psychopath, because smile's like that aren't going to help him when he pleads his innocence to others.

"Sorry to cut things short," Kaito says as soon as he can see the tips of Sato's fingers twitch - she's going to make a run for it, he assumes, either that or she's going to attempt to fight back. He won't allow either option. "But we really are running short on time."

He lunges.

Despite already having been tased, Sato's reflexes are quick. She heaves herself backward on shaky legs, moving just out of reach, as Kaito pivots to follow after her. She's just fast enough that Kaito has to push his own reflexes to the limit.

He grins, lowers the taser in his hand and leaps again.

This time, he moves to far in front of Sato, and she uses the time to lift her leg into a kick. Kaito anticipates it, shields himself and doesn't try to dodge. It feels momentarily, like his ribcage is going to snap.

Kaito lets out a laugh - and yes, maybe it sounds a little manic, but he's enjoying himself - and moves forward, just enough to grab hold of Sato's wrist.

Pulling the detective back, Kaito smiles, pushing the taser into her stomach. More electricity - this time, he holds down just long enough for Sato to sag against him.

Once she goes limp, he pauses, before pressing down on the button again, not entirely sure whether the detective is really unconscious, or simply playing pretend. She jerks, but doesn't give off the impression of someone who's conscious.

They throw her into the storage cupboard as well, along with the box of her files, locking the door behind them. As they're making their way up the stairs, Shinichi having passed him Sato's coffee - disgustingly black coffee with little sugar. The things Kaito does for this guy - he hears the phone ring in Shinichi's pocket.

"Pass it to me," Kaito orders, as Shinichi pulls the mobile from his pocket, "we need to be moving while talking, and I'm the only one capable of fully mimicking voices."

Shinichi passes the phone over without a word, and Kaito answers the call, the two of them reaching the first floor.

"Detective Sato speaking," Kaito says when he brings the phone up to his ear, his voice a mimic. If it throws Hattori off, there's no mention of it, just a click of his tongue. "You're in place?"

"Yeah," Hattori answers, and there's shifting in the background, almost as if he's moving in his seat, "I can't see either of ya in th' cameras - yer still in the stairwell?"

"We got a little held up," Kaito says, "nothing we couldn't handle. We'll give you the details later. And you, did you manage to lose your friend?"

Hattori heaves a sigh, leans back in his seat. Kaito can almost hear the exasperation in his voice, the readiness for this break-in to be other with already. He says, "I asked her to get some drinks from th' coffee shop across th' street. Given tha' it's th' morning rush, we should have a wide enough window to get you guys in an' out before she gets back."

"Plus," Kaito chirps, "you get a drink for all of your hard work. Congrats."

Hattori lets out a long suffering sigh. Beside him, Shinichi snorts - the thing about being inside enemy headquarters, Kaito thinks, is that they haven't even been inside for longer than twenty minutes, and it's already driving them both insane.

Well, not exactly, but Kaito's going to pretend that's the reason.

"You worry me," Heiji claims, when they've reached the second floor and push out onto the corridors. "Oh - wait, I can see ya on th' cameras - I'll tell ya if I see anythin' worrying, just stay on th' line, alright?"

Kaito says, "yes," and creates a fake conversation for the phone, conjuring a fake murder case from thin air. He thinks it's a mix between one that Shinichi had told him about during their imprisonment, and fiction, but it comes of as a usual conversation for Sato.

They take a left down the first corridor, turning right into a second, before Heiji's voice cracks from speakers.

"I'm assumin' ya don't want the Inspector to talk to ya," he says, "so take a right an' wait for 'im to walk past."

They do as Heiji suggests, leaning against the wall as if having a conversation with one another. Shinichi doesn't speak, other than to ask what Heiji's saying - Kaito mouths the answer, 'Megure's walking past, we don't want to get roped into any work.'

"Okay," Heiji continues, "keep going."

Kaito hasn't had to come down into the archives before, hasn't actually needed to visit anywhere other than theft, but he does know the route. From the first time he'd entered the station as KID, he'd made sure to know every single exit without the building.

He short sigh, continues with his fake case, and keeps walking.

Every step feels more serious than the last.

"You're going to need to pick the lock," Shinichi says when they reach the archives, the corridor empty of people. Kaito nods, reaches into his pocket, to where he's brought actual lock picks.

"I'm going to need you to be our cover," Kaito says into the phone, before passing the phone over to Shinichi. He throws the coffee cup - still half full - into a nearby bin, before glancing at either end of the corridor. "Speak up if you see anyone coming, okay?"

Shinichi nods, and Kaito approaches the lock.

Heiji glances between three screens, trying to blank the others from his mind. Phone pressed to his ear, he doesn't really listen to anything he can hear - it's mostly nonsense words, nothing valuable that he needs to hear, so he focuses all of his attention on the camera feed instead.

For a moment his thinks that someone's coming, but they stop walking half way down one of the connecting corridors, talking to a colleague who's just left the bathroom. Heiji takes a deep breath, tells Kudo that they should both pick up the speed, his gaze flickering back to the two connecting corridors.

"Apparently the locks are stiff," Kudo says - in the absence of any people, he's dropped any pretence of a fake voice, which makes the situation a lot less creepy. "It won't take long, but we're going as fast as we can."

Heiji holds his breath. Glances at the corridor with the talking colleagues, watches them as they break apart and one starts walking in the direction of Kudo and Kuroba.

"Someone's comin' yer way," Heiji warns, his voice weirdly choked. "Either open the door or walk down the corridor and come back in a minute."

He glances at the other corridor - someone's walking down that one as well. If he's right, then it's someone from the KID taskforce.

"Give us a second," Kudo whispers.

"I can't give you anything." Heiji says, "ya need to either get tha' lock open, or keep walkin', there are people coming from both directions."

A pause, in the camera, Kudo surges forward, towards Kuroba, leans in to whisper something in his ear. The other shakes his head, curls in on himself around the door, before pushing it forward.

"Get inside," Heiji hisses, "It's not gonna be good if ya both get caught-"

The sound of footsteps echo in his ears, and then, there's a gasp. Heiji doesn't notice it at first, mainly because he's staring up at the figures of Kuroba and Kaito throwing themselves into the room, the door slamming behind him.

Then, it registers.

Cheeks paling, Heiji turns from the cameras, breath hitching in his throat. His legs feel weak, as he takes in the figure, the wide-eyed stare looking back at him.

"What th' hell is goin' on?"