Non-Challenge: Shifted Circumstances
Title: Shifted Circumstances
Author: Serphenia
Word Count: 917
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: I don’t own Magic Kaito or Detective Conan
Notes: It started off as an innocent line of thought in math class…I should have known that the plunnies would take it…Anyhow…What if Hattori hadn’t woken up in time for proof that Conan was really behind the ‘Sleeping Kogoro’ and therefore Shinichi?
“But I couldn’t forgive them because they gave such a negative version of the facts, laughing at the Holmes’s studies in Japan…”
Ugh…What was happening? His thoughts drifted randomly around his head, which felt stuffed full of cotton. Or maybe he was the one drifting, in this dark void that was disorientation.
“They couldn’t…They couldn’t…” A sob, a man’s voice…Someone was crying? The scene was easy enough to picture, even without being able to see. A criminal, cornered by logic, forced to admit his reasons…It was a familiar enough scene to him, being such a famous detective.
“Bah. You didn’t hesitate to kill your girlfriend, poor girl.” Another voice. A spectator, a detective? Were was he and who were these people? He felt more disoriented, even, than that time that he had gotten into his father’s alcohol and was found passed out on the side of the road a couple hours later with no memories of his activities. He had gotten into a lot of trouble for that one and plenty of lectures from his mother and Kazuha, as well as a disappointed silence from his dad. That had been the worst. (Though, thankfully, it turned out that he hadn’t done anything except for wonder around drunkenly for a couple blocks before passing out)
But slowly the disorientation was clearing. He could hear voices around him and could feel firm wood under him feet, grounding him to the Earth. He forced his eyes open (why did he feel so tired?).
The memories of before hit him suddenly…Walking out into the hallway after Conan, not seeing him, looking around, and then…Nothing. And now he no longer felt tired, he felt angry. He got to his feet.
“That was great, Hattori! You are the best detective of the west!” All of a sudden Ran was in his face, cheerfully congratulating him. He backed up a few steps (which didn’t get him anywhere because he had his back against a wall) at the sudden invasion of his private space, any vestiges of drowsiness vanishing.
“…” He didn’t know how to react. Play along? It would seem ridiculous to say that he wasn’t the one who solved the case, especially when they had all seen him do so. Or thought they’d seen.
A movement from behind him caught his attention. Edogawa Conan (or, as he suspected, Kudo Shinichi) was hiding in the shadows behind him, looking decidedly suspicious and guilty, not to mention panicked.
He narrowed his eyes. Fine, you win this one, Kudo.
“Of course! It was really easy! I didn’t have to think hard!” From the corner of his eye, he noticed that Conan, still hiding in the shadows behind him, looked distinctly relieved.
All around him people were clapping enthusiastically. He gritted his teeth. He wasn’t against the attention, usually, quite the opposite. But this wasn’t his work (even though he appeared to reach the same conclusion). Kudo was the one who had tricked him. Him! The great detective of the west!
And the worst part was that he didn’t have any evidence. Like every good little detective knew, you needed evidence to catch the bad guys. Half of him wanted to just ignore the fact and try and corner Kudo anyways (maybe bluff his way through it) but the other half, the part that make him a good detective, was telling him that Kudo was probably much smarter than him (okay, maybe he hadn’t quite admitted that part to himself yet), had surely had a lot of practice averting suspicions, and could probably worm his way out of a tough spot if he put Kudo in one.
He accepted the applause politely, still thinking hard. He could talk to Ran about it, she was Kudo’s childhood friend, right? But he had seen that light that Kudo had in his eyes before. On all of the smart-thinking criminals (or just anyone that knew that they could bluff or lie their way out of a tough spot) had it. He would, no doubt, lie to Ran, tell her that he had no idea what he was talking about and, if he had been a criminal, vow to find Hattori later and attack him when he was alone. Kudo not being a criminal, he really had no idea what the shrunken detective would actually do to him but he knew that it couldn’t be good.
And he had no proof.
Hattori Heiji vowed to keep a close eye on the child called Edogawa Conan until he had the proof to corner him…but it looked like, for now, he would have to let the case go. It left a bitter taste in his mouth, knowing that there was a case that he didn’t know the answer for, hadn’t found sufficient evidence to catch the culprit with.
Everything had been thrown out of whack since his first meeting with Kudo. An innocent man had confessed to guilt, his own theory had turned out to be wrong, and now there was a case that he could not solve. But he would solve this one, if not today than another day.
There must have been a reason for why Kudo was doing this, but he didn’t know it. The other detective hadn’t trusted him enough to tell him, apparently. But if you couldn’t turn to another detective, who could you turn to? Ran didn’t see to know but this wasn’t the sort of thing that you could handle by yourself. And he wanted in.
Not a great ending, I suppose, but I just kept typing until I stopped. I’m not really happy with this one but…
All my little stories so far are complete, including this one, so I’m not going to go further with this particular line of thought (though anyone else is welcome to). Except for I might write a couple more in the same line of thought as ‘Sometimes he just wanted to be asked’. Well, several more along the same line of thought, and perhaps one or two sequels. Just matters how the plunnies fall, I suppose.