A Matter of War, Chapter 7
Feb. 7th, 2020 07:50 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sinnatiousSummary: Magic Kaito/Detective Conan, multi-chapter, gen. “It’s such a waste,” Shinichi said. “With your skills, you could make a real difference.” Shinichi later regretted those words.
Warnings: Contains death and violence.
Author’s Note: The end of the fic! It could really use a lot more polish, I think I got a bit lost in the woods with this fic (not helped by a lengthy hiatus) but at least it's done. Will do better on the next fic or something. I write a lot of duds and sometimes I sleep walk into posting them. But hope someone enjoyed it regardless. I want to write more Unsynced before the remake comes out and buries Crisis Core forever...
Chapter 5
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Chapter 7
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For one long second, Elk didn’t respond. His heart skipped a beat at the sight of her face, but at last it broke into that terribly familiar Cheshire grin. “What gave me away, tantei-kun?”
“I didn’t hear keys, before you picked the lock,” Shinichi said. “And you don’t smell of cigarettes.” He’d been able to smell Elk from halfway across the room before.
KID shrugged. “As expected of the legendary detective.”
“What, that’s KID?” Hattori asked. “Dammit, why didn’t you just say so to start with?”
KID didn’t reply, simply moved to open the door to Hattori’s cell too.
“You wouldn’t have, would you? If I didn’t notice,” Shinichi said, clambering to his feet to follow the thief. “What, were you just going to role-play the whole time, and give us an opening to escape?”
“Ties to me are dangerous now, tantei-kun. I thought you understood that.” The lock on Hattori’s door fell away in moments, and the Osakan lost no time in joining them in the hallway.
“And yet you’re here,” Shinichi pointed out.
“Would you prefer I left you here to die?”
"KID, why are you here?" Shinichi asked quietly.
KID sighed. "I sewed a low power proximity tracker into your shoes, and set it up to alert me if it happened to cross into any known risky areas. I didn't trust you to stay out of it." He shot him a glance. “And good thing, too, it turns out.”
Under the circumstances, Shinichi didn’t have room to be mad. Still, he couldn’t stop himself from muttering, “I’ve been chasing after these guys just as long as you.”
KID just grinned at him. The expression on Elk’s face was disconcerting.
…And right, given the timeline of his return, KID had been tussling with the Org since before Shinichi knew they existed… but that was a matter of months. He refused to just step out of the fight because the thief had decided to one-handedly up the stakes.
“If you two are done, ain’t it about time we bust out of this joint?” Hattori smacked his fists together.
“Wait,” KID said, holding a hand to his ear. Then. “Shit.”
Hearing KID, the consummate gentleman thief, master of Poker Face, swear out loud, was one of the most dissonant moments of Shinichi’s life so far. So much so, he nearly didn’t comply when the thief started to herd them down the hallway. “This way.”
“But the exit is-” Hattori tried to protest, but KID had him by the arm and physically dragged him until they were running. Somewhere along the way, KID discarded Elk’s guise, back in his normal attire once more. He ferried them into another empty room, closing the door behind them. “Hey, why did you-”
“I'm afraid there’s been a complication, detectives,” KID replied, composed once more. It should have been reassuring, but some crawling part of Shinichi’s subconscious was thinking ‘he doesn’t use that face around me unless he needs it’. “One particularly troubling actor was supposed to leave the premises, but it appears tantei-kun isn’t the only one here capable of seeing through my ruses.”
Elk?
“So what’s the issue?” Hattori asked. “You saying the great Kaitou KID can’t escape? There’s not half the people here you normally evade at your heists.”
KID bit his lip, adjusting his gloves. "It’s difficult to take this person on directly with you two in the picture. She'll take hostages, and she'll kill one of you immediately to prove she means it." He folded his arms, fingers tapping a restless beat against his elbows.
"Oi, we ain't exactly helpless," Hattori protested.
"You might as well be," was KID’s unnervingly placid response. He put his hand to his ear again, as though listening to something. An earpiece? “We’re on B3. There’s only two exits on this floor – the elevator, and the emergency stairwell.”
Both of those would make them sitting ducks, especially if Elk already knew something was amiss. “Maybe the shaft?” Shinichi suggested. “Or ventilation? The air down here is too fresh. It looks like a repurposed building, so there would be ducts…”
“Appropriate size for you perhaps, but Tantei-han is a different matter. It’ll have to be the shaft.” KID tapped his chin thoughtfully, then paused, hand to his ear again. He seemed to come to a decision. “No choice, it seems. We have to go now. Stay behind me, detectives. And stay quiet.”
KID sidled up to the door. Shinichi’s pulse quickened as he heard voices approaching, followed by running footsteps and shouting.
They’d been discovered out of their cells. No woman’s voice – just goons. They were coming this way, at speed now.
“Hey-” Hattori whispered. KID held a hand to his lips, poised in front of the door. As the footsteps grew closer, he pulled his card gun out from the depths of his cape.
Wait, no.
That was a real gun.
The words caught in Shinichi’s throat, mere seconds before KID flung open the door. Two sharp bangs – so loud that his ears rung - and then KID was taking off down the hallway, heedless of the two bodies just outside their door.
Hattori froze, staring wide-eyed. “He-”
“Move, Hattori,” Shinichi said.
It turned into a breathless chase after that. KID’s gun went off once more. By the time they got to the elevator, the fire alarm had been tripped, the deductive part of Shinichi’s brain helplessly picking every action apart even as he focused on simply keeping up – the alarm to stop the elevator working, the siren to disguise the location of gunshots. KID shoved the elevator doors open by force to access the shaft, shot a grapple, pressed a button. An explosion went off in the stairwell, shaking the building. The grapple strained with the weight, but it pulled all three of them up to the second floor, where KID pried the doors open a finger’s width, and flicked a gas capsule through. He opened the door the rest of the way after ten seconds, and a handful more gunshots followed. Some of them weren’t from the thief, this time.
A grating scream cut above it all, piercing even through the wail of the alarm. “KIIIIIID! You bastard!”
Elk.
KID weaved through the disaster zone he’d created like a snake, crouched low to the ground. He rolled something into one of the rooms, then waved them along. 15 second laters, another series of bangs went off behind them. A decoy?
“I won’t fall for your tricks you worm! Not like the others!” Her shouts were coming closer. Abruptly, KID pulled both detectives to the ground, throwing a smoke bomb that covered the hallway mere moments before a hail of gunfire shattered the drywall overhead. KID urged them on, shifting away from them before returning fire, giving Shinichi and Hattori a clear path to the next corner. They crawled around it, taking meagre shelter. Another smoke bomb burst near them, KID laying cover and dashing away. Leading Elk elsewhere.
The fire alarm died off, finally. “Is that police sirens?” Hattori whispered in the sudden vacuum of sound.
Shinichi focused. Barely audible over the ringing in his ears, but undoubtedly coming closer. Too fast to be a response to the fire alarm – had KID tipped them off for backup? “We have to get out. The entrance is probably still guarded-” The reason KID had busted them out on the second floor instead of the first, most likely, to buy them a few more seconds of reaction time. “But I’ve still got soccer balls. If I knock them down, and you follow up…”
“Got it.” Hattori led the way at a crouch. “If we can even find the stairs through all this smoke.” He smothered a cough, pulling his shirt over his nose.
Shinichi paused for a minute, struggling to focus through the distant crack of gunshots elsewhere in the building as KID tore a mad winding path away from them. The air vents were quiet, so any shift in the air was… “This way.” He hurried through the smoke, going by feel. It started to thin as they reached the edges, and he squinted through it. There, just ahead – the stairs. He grabbed Hattori’s sleeve, tugging it to get his attention. It looked clear, but with visibility so low, he didn’t want to give his position away by speaking.
They headed down cautiously. If this layout had any sense to it at all, the internal stairs would be near the reception entrance. And there, just by the exit… two silhouettes.
The guards spotted them at the same instant. “Hattori!” Shinichi barked, inflating a soccer ball and charging his shoes in the one motion.
His foot slammed into the ball, and half a second later, crashed into the forward guard’s shoulder, sending him spinning to the ground. Hattori leapt forward, tackling the other guard and wrestling his gun away from him.
The first guard was already back on his feet. The soccer ball had bounced away. Was there time to set off another one?
It was no good. If only he had his watch-!
A sharp bang, and the guard fell away with a sickening thud. Another, and the guard Hattori was struggling with went limp.
“Good work, gentlemen,” KID said, appearing through the smoke like a wraith.
Hattori was staring at the guard he’d just been fighting. “KID, you-”
The thief hooked him by the arm, and pulled him to his feet, pushing him towards the entrance. “Get moving, tantei-han.” Hattori lurched to the door, throwing it open and stumbling outside. Shinichi jolted to follow. The sirens were close, now. All they needed to do was make it out onto the street and-!
“Oi oi oi, where do you little chits think you’re going?” It was Elk again. Her voice had become even raspier from her shouting. She was close. Shinichi froze, as suddenly she was there, at the top of the stairs, gun pointed towards them. Blood dripped from her arms, crimson splatters blooming at her feet. “I’m not dead yet, KID. But I’m going to make you wish I was.”
KID had gone silent next to him. Without thinking, Shinichi reached for his cape, fingers catching on the fabric.
“KID, no, the exit’s right-”
The thief gave him a small smile, and a gentle push out of the way.
Shinichi staggered back, as the air split with two bangs.
A shred of KID’s cape went flying. Elk gurgled, and staggered.
Shinichi could do nothing more than stare dumbly as Elk’s body crumpled, and tumbled halfway down the stairs.
The foyer had gone eerily silent, even as the wail of approaching sirens resolved into screeching tyres and the rumble of car engines. For a long moment, neither of them moved.
Until KID crouched down, carefully collecting the piece of his ruined cape from the ground.
Shinichi finally found his voice. “You really killed her.”
“I didn’t have any choice, tantei-kun.”
“The hell you didn’t!” he shouted, and he cursed his child-sized body as his voice cracked on the words. “You’ve got tranquilizers, I know you do! You’ve got tasers! The police were coming! You didn’t have to kill her! You didn’t have to kill any of them!”
KID’s expression didn’t shift at all.
He clenched his fists, and let out a long breath, struggling to stay calm.
“So that’s it after all then. This is how you’re taking revenge for Nakamori Aoko.”
KID twitched at the name. Shinichi seized on it.
“Do you think she’d be happy, knowing you were doing this?” he pressed. “Do you think this is what she’d want for you?”
He couldn’t read KID’s expression at all, anymore, and it chilled him to the core. “You’ve been poking around, tantei-kun. As expected, I suppose.”
“KID, you can’t-”
KID held up a hand, and then in a twist of his wrist, produced Conan’s glasses and wristwatch. He tossed them to him, and Shinichi fumbled to catch them. “That’s enough, tantei-kun. This is where I have to make my exit.”
Then the thief was gone, disappearing back into the smoke and shadows of the building, and Shinichi was left alone in a wrecked foyer surrounded by dead bodies.
“Kud- crap, I mean, Conan? Conan, get out here, the police have arrived. PSIA’s here too.” Hattori was still half out of the entrance, calling him over. Just past him, Shinichi could see officers pouring out of their cars, setting up a perimeter around the building. Definitely a call in, then. “Are you okay?”
His ears still felt stuffy – from the gunshots and the alarm. He knew the feeling would fade by morning, but for now it added a sense of softness and mild discomfort to everything, like being swaddled in a sleeping bag full of cheap cotton balls.
His gaze skittered to the spot where KID had so carefully collected the shred of his cape.
“Hattori. Don’t… don’t tell anyone it was KID here.”
“What?” Hattori stormed back to him, dropping to a knee so they were on the same level. “Kudo, are you crazy? You saw what he just did here, that’s-”
“I know, Hattori. But we have to.”
“He’s a murderer,” Hattori hissed.
The word sat heavy in his gut, like a block of food gone bad. “He saved our lives,” Shinichi said.
“You know that went above and beyond self-defence, Kudo,” he argued. “Shit, this is what you’ve been weird about lately, isn’t it? I get it now. How many people just died in here? Seven? Eight? That was…”
“I know!” he repeated. “Just… trust me on this one, Hattori. It’s… bigger than that, now.”
The police were there, and they were out of time. “Tch. You better explain this to me properly later, Kudo.”
“It’s Conan,” he replied, and dutifully held his hands up as the police stormed the scene.
………………….
Shinichi’s first and only order of business was calling Ran to let her know that he and Hattori were running late and not to worry. As soon as that was taken care of, Shinichi left Hattori to fill the various agencies in on an edited version of what had happened. When you were knee-high, and there was a lot going on, it was easy enough to slip away for a few minutes unnoticed.
He just needed a moment of quiet. To gather his thoughts and settle his nerves. They’d understand, and Hattori knew him well enough not to panic. He intended to be back in the thick of it before anyone even missed him.
The fire escape on the hotel a block away caught his attention. His feet carried him to it on auto-pilot, and he mounted the stairs without much thought as to why. The wind buffeted him gently as he reached the roof, and wandered towards the building’s edge. It was growing dark, but there was still enough ambient light to get the layout. Some air conditioning units, the hot water tank, a janitor’s shed with building maintenance supplies. A short chain link fence surrounded the building’s edge for safety. Shinichi gravitated to it.
From this vantage point, he could see the agencies working together to clear out the building. Jodie wasn’t present – any of the known FBI agents were probably staying clear to maintain cover – but it looked like both the CIA and PSIA were cooperating with the police on this one. Shinichi idly wondered if that was KID’s work or if there had been developments he’d missed on that front.
It should have felt like a victory, watching them sweep the building. The Org had taken another blow, and he and Hattori had dodged a very real bullet. But the only thing they seemed to be bringing out was body bags, and it was hard to feel happy about that.
There was a glimpse of white out of the corner of his eyes. He didn’t turn to confirm it – his subconscious had led him here for a reason, after all.
Shinichi broke the silence. “I’m sorry, about before. Losing it at you.”
A cool night breeze drifted across the rooftop. KID’s cape fluttered in it. Grit and dust stirred in its wake.
“You killed them because of me, didn’t you.”
KID stayed silent. Shinichi huffed, staring out over the scene.
“Because you came to rescue me and Hattori. Once they found out there was someone you were willing to rescue, that would make me another target, wouldn’t it? Just like Nakamori.”
“It’s not your fault, tantei-kun. And Grasshopper wasn’t your fault either.” KID’s voice was impossibly soft, and so terribly, heart-breakingly gentle.
Shinichi swallowed. “It doesn’t matter. She called Gin. He knows. He’ll figure it out.” And they all would have died for nothing. The truth was already out. No matter what lies Hattori spun to keep their cover.
“She didn’t. I intercepted and redirected the call. None of their communications got through within fifteen minutes of you going into the building.”
Shinichi blinked. “You…”
“I was on the outskirts of Yokohama when I got the notification. Or I would have been there sooner,” KID explained carelessly. “Luckily, it was one of the bases I’d already scoped out, so I had the hardware already in place.”
Just like that, the rest of the puzzle pieces started slotting into place. “You impersonated Gin. You bought us time. Told her to wait until tomorrow.” His thoughts skated through the rest of their escape. “…And called again, for an errand? To get her out?” KID had been rattled that she’d still been in the building.
“She noticed, the second time, that something was up with the call. Not sure what tipped her off. The plan was for nobody to know I was there – get the two of you out while casting suspicion on her for being a double agent. A rather hefty number of Org members have taken to blaming me for their every failing, true or not, so it would have been lost in the noise, especially if her own henchman had seen her do it.”
Shinichi swallowed. “But it didn’t work out that way.”
KID paused, then delicately admitted, “No. No it didn’t.”
He had no idea KID was even capable of that much. The tech involved in intercepting and hijacking phone calls was… not out of reach, certainly, but far from accessible. Even the police couldn’t use such things easily.
“KID… how did things end up like this?” he asked. He reached out, grabbing onto the fence, fingers tightening around the wire. “Is your revenge really worth this?”
For a long moment, he didn’t think the thief was going to respond. Was too nervous to even turn his head, in case he discovered KID had already vanished.
When he did finally answer, his words were low, almost a whisper. “…When I started this, I was naïve and overconfident. After putting the KID imposters in their place, the first couple of heists I pulled didn’t have any real point, you know? It was nothing more than a way for me resurrect some small part of my hero’s legacy, to be closer to him, even eight years after his death,” KID admitted.
“But then…”
“But then I discovered the truth. And my goals turned to justice, and not some small part, revenge.”
“The Black Org,” Shinichi breathed. It was much like Jodie’s tale.
KID gazed out over Meguro. The sun had set while they’d been underground, and as twilight began to deepen, the streetlights flickered on. “By the time I realised the true scope of what I faced, the true nature of my enemy…” He twirled a card in his fingers, like a nervous tic. “I was already in too deep.”
“And now there’s no backing out,” Shinichi murmured.
“So it goes.” KID slipped the card back into his sleeve. “Take a bit of advice from this fool, tantei-kun, and don’t let yourself get conscripted into fighting another generation’s war. I didn’t realise what was happening until it was too late. It may not yet be too late for you.”
The warning was chilling. Was Shinichi going to wind up down this same path? The next generation in the battle? Another weapon being moulded for the fight? Even Vermouth called him her ‘silver bullet’.
If his moral compass was just a little more skewed, the way KID’s was…
If it had been Mouri Ran, and not Nakamori Aoko…
Just because they were bad guys, did that make it excusable? Just because his victims were responsible for worse, did that make it okay?
In Shinichi’s book, it didn’t. He wasn’t naïve enough anymore to believe in the world of black and white, in a world where the law always meant justice, but he didn’t believe the ends entirely justified the means, either. Misdemeanours were one thing, but there were a few hard lines that couldn’t be crossed.
“I won’t stop fighting the Org. Not for anything. But I won’t… I don’t think I could ever do what you do. I can’t approve.”
“I see,” was all KID said in response. “I suppose that’s… reassuring, in its own way. Though please be a little more careful in the future.”
So that KID didn’t have to kill a building full of people again to keep him safe.
Shinichi took a deep breath, fighting down a fresh wave of nausea at the thought. The guilt gnawed at him, vast and terrible. He benefited from KID’s actions, and it seemed so unfair that he would keep his hands clean, while KID stained his an even deeper red in his defence.
And yet… there was that line that couldn’t be crossed.
“I have contacts with the FBI. They’d be willing to work with you, to bring you into the fold.” His voice came out steady, but Shinichi imagined the thief could hear the thread of desperation in it.
“Hmm, is that so?” KID replied, non-committal. Then, kindly, he offered, “I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to exchange some information.”
Shinichi closed his eyes. There was an answer there, between the lines. For Shinichi’s peace of mind, KID would talk to Jodie, but he wouldn’t let himself be brought into the fold.
It had been the last thing he had to offer. Shinichi stared out at the view. Meguro wasn’t particularly picturesque – there was no seas of stars in the evening twilight, just smattering of lights from 24-hour convenience stores, streetlamps, the odd set of offices that had left their fluorescents on.
“I’m scared, KID,” he admitted, swallowing around the lump in his throat. “Because I don’t see a way out of this for you.”
That was what it boiled down to, in the end. Shinichi could no longer see any ending for the thief that didn’t take him into the shadows forever.
The thief was quiet. There was a feather touch atop his head – the gentlest brush of a white gloved hand across his hair. “…That makes two of us, tantei-kun.”
A whisper of cloth, and the thief was gone, like he’d never been there at all.
It wasn’t satisfying. There was no thrill for solving the mystery, no satisfaction from learning the truth. No tidy justice, no restoration of the world to how it should be. Not even the comforting knowledge that they would cross paths again.
Just one vigilante disappearing into the darkness, and one detective quietly letting go.
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Thanks for reading.
