AN: And here we have the start of the Blood and Snow sequel, Bloodsport! It's definitely a different kind of story than the first one, and a different kind of case, especially since this one case will be the main focus of this fic, as opposed to having several different arcs with several different cases.

As I mentioned, this is in fact a sequel to a preexisting fanfic, so if you haven't read Blood and Snow yet, you should really read that first! I'm really excited to start this work, so I hope that everyone really enjoys reading it! I'm making good use of the fact that I started Blood and Snow way back when the Bourbon plot line was *just* getting started, to shift some details around timeline-wise accordingly.

Anyways, thanks for reading!

Bloodsport

Chapter One

Portrait of a Dying Monster

"And here I almost thought you weren't going to come see me."

"Shut up." Heiji grumbled, casting an intense glower at the woman across from him, a pane of thick glass separating the two of them. Honestly, he didn't want to be here himself- and if he didn't have an obligation to this woman to fulfill, he wouldn't be. But unluckily for the high school detective of the west, he had just that. "I only came ta discuss the case. Nothin' more."

"My, so cold, Hattori-chan." As her deep green eyes danced with a hint of amusement, Okubo Karen's lips twitched into a sly grin. She looked for all the world as if she were not a prisoner at a high security prison, at ease with herself in a way most of the residents of said prison were not. "And here it was I who helped you so greatly. I'm amazed you got that past security, though." Her gaze flickered to the long bag that Heiji had rested against the side of his chair, knowing full well that it contained an item one would normally not allow into a prison- a sword.

One designed for a certain purpose in mind.

"A precaution." Heiji said shortly, eyes narrowing as he watched the expression of the woman behind the glass window shift. He didn't trust her in the least- she had, after all, tried to kill him not even four months ago. Her pupil had very nearly succeeded in doing so- if it hadn't been for his father's timely interruption, he probably would have died.

For a second time, he noted grimly, a hand unthinkingly straying up to his neck.

The season was well into summer now, a far cry away from the howling blizzard conditions in which he'd stumbled upon something that had altered the course of his life in a way he couldn't have even imagined at the start of the year. What was normal for the high school detective known as Hattori Heiji had completely changed, and he had already fully come to understand and accept that he would never be able to return to how things had been before this.

Considering the alternative was being dead, he supposed it wasn't that bad of a deal.

And to think, he'd been so blissfully unaware of the existence of vampires at the beginning of the year. Well, it wasn't exactly something he could deny now- his own ability to continue to survive in spite possessing no vital signs and his own dependence on human blood were testament enough to their solid, unquestionable existence.

"Ah, I see." Karen said, something in the way she spoke making his skin crawl. "So I take it you're going to properly follow through on your end of the bargain."

"A deal's a deal, even if I'm not the one who made it." Heiji said after a moment. His father had been the one who had arranged the deal with this woman, and even though he wanted to be somewhat annoyed at him, the scent of the new case it had provided him with was enough for him to let it go. His mother had been right- the deal wasn't anything he would have protested to himself. "I've already read all of the information that you had the old man gathered, what I want to know is what's not on public record."

Karen's lips merely curled in a smile, a slight laugh escaping from them. "What if I told you there was nothing more to this case than what was already on public record?" She asked.

At her words, one of Heiji's eyebrows shot right up, almost unable to believe the woman's words. After all, if this was a case that Okubo Karen, a vampire hunter who had been sent to wipe out himself as well as the other vampires residing in Osaka, it was highly unlikely to be a normal case. At the very least, that was what he assumed when going over the case file. Given the rather grisly details of what he'd read, he'd almost automatically assumed that someone deeply involved in the paranormal world had to be involved in these murders.

Internally grumbling a little as he realized just how used he had gotten to dealing with what he would have referred to as 'supernatural nonsense' not all that long ago, Heiji realized that he'd overlooked the very real possibility that this case had nothing to do with the supernatural at all. A cold case, a chain of murders that stretched back at least twelve years, one that was important enough to this woman that she was willing to sell out someone important to her guild over it.

A case that took place not in Japan, but on distant shores- American shores, as it turned out. It would mark the first time the Osakan detective would ever go overseas to solve a case, and honestly, he was more than a little excited about it.

"So it's a human." Heiji said after a moment, scratching the back of his head. "Why didn't ya just say that in the first place?"

"I didn't assume you'd think it would be a monster." Karen said simply, shrugging her shoulders. "I'm more or less the one who lead Claire marching to her death, I thought the least I could do for her was resolve the case of her aunt's murder."

"The one you claimed was a vampire attack." Heiji pointed out, arching a brow. "That's how ya got her ta join ya in the first place, wasn't it?"

"It wasn't I who claimed such things. 'Twas my mother." Karen said, a slight sound of offense in her voice. "And really, what do you think would have been easier for a girl her age to accept? That her beloved aunt had been killed by a monster, or murdered in such a fashion by a human?"

"Monster." Heiji half-mumbled underneath his breath, not really wanting to admit that the woman had a point. "Well, like I promised, I'll investigate it properly. The culprit's escaped this long from justice, but I'll see to it that they're put firmly behind bars. But don't get me wrong, Okubo-han," he said, rising to his feet, picking up the long bag and slinging it over his shoulders. "I'm not doin' it fer ya."

"I wouldn't expect anything less from you, Hattori-chan." Karen observed. "I wish you luck though."

"I'm sure ya do." Narrowing his eyes, Heiji turned on his heel and exited the room. Even if there was no real supernatural creature involved in this case, there was still a monster, he thought.

The worst kind of monster- the one known as a serial murderer.

Toyama Kazuha felt as if she had been holding her breath ever since they entered the airport. As they finally passed through the airport security line without any problems, she felt her shoulders slump, tension washing out from them as she let out her long held breath. Her heart that had been pounding loudly in her chest finally began to return to it's regular rhythm.

"See? I told ya it would be alright." Heiji said, quirking a brow as he looked over towards her. He slightly shifted his grip on the long case he carried with him, one which Kazuha shot a look towards.

"Even if you tell me something like that, Heiji, I still can't believe you managed to get a sword through airport security. They didn't even take a second look at it!" Kazuha whispered, keeping her voice low enough so that only he could hear her. "I thought my heart was going to burst out of my chest!"

"Well, they didn't know what it was." Heiji said simply, shrugging his shoulders. "Thank Mitsuta-han fer that. She was the one who gave me the concealin' charms. It was either this, or we take the portal, an' I know how ya feel about the portal, Kazuha. Well," He admitted after a moment, casting his girlfriend a slight smile. "Honestly, I was a bit worried about it myself."

"I don't see why you need to bring it with you in the first place, if what we're going after actually isn't a supernatural creature this time." Kazuha noted. Since she had insisted on going with him, Heiji had given her a rundown of exactly what she was going to get herself into, the details of which still sent a shiver down her spine. It never made her second guess going with him, however.

"Ya can never be too careful." Heiji told her, shrugging his shoulders. "Fer all we know, I could run into somethin' nasty while we're there that's got nothin' ta do with the case. I've never been to America, I have no idea what's waitin' fer me there. Especially since we're goin' ta goddamn Nebraska first thing."

"I keep telling you Heiji, Nebraska's a real place." Raising a brow, her gaze slid over towards her boyfriend. She still remembered how adamant he'd been as a child back when they had learned about America in geography that the state of Nebraska apparently wasn't real- an idea that she had no idea where he'd gotten in the first place, and still had no clue as to why he'd ever thought such a thing. "I can't believe you're still being stubborn about that now."

"Doesn't feel like a real place." Heiji muttered underneath his breath, his eyes narrowing a little. "Well, it doesn't matter anyways. Are ya really sure about comin' with me, Kazuha? I don't know how long this case'll take, and I don't know what kind of risks we'll be runnin' into with it. Ya still got time ta turn back now."

"I'm sure." Kazuha's tone was sharp and decisive. She'd already long since made up her mind. Immortal vampire or not, she couldn't help but be worried about Heiji, especially when he was running off to some distant country that he had never been to before. "You can't get rid of me that easily, Heiji."

"M'not really tryin' ta get rid of ya." Heiji told her with a small frown. "I just wanna make sure ya understand what yer gettin' yerself into here. Aren't you supposed to be the one who's scared of this type of thing anyways?"

"I'm only scared of what I don't understand." Kazuha said simply, linking her arm with Heiji's. She had already gotten used to the chill of his corpse-like body temperature. It didn't really bother her anymore, something she had already long since come to accept. "If these murders were caused by a human like you said, I don't have anything to be afraid of. I can't take them down with my aikido, if need be."

Of course, she'd been shocked when she discovered that her childhood friend had become something other than human- but Heiji was Heiji, and even if he was a vampire, it wasn't like anything truly important about him had changed. He was very much still the same reckless, hotheaded detective idiot that she'd fallen in love with over time, and that was all that mattered to her really. She knew it weighed more heavily on him than he would like to admit, much as he had come to accept his situation, but she knew that with time, even this would ease.

"I suppose that's true!" Heiji grinned. "They'd have ta be a real idiot to attack someone like ya in the first place though, Kazuha!"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Kazuha asked, shooting him a look. "You're making it sound like I'm some kind of brute."

"Oh, yer not?" Heiji blinked, a teasing expression on his face. "That's news ta me!"

"Shut up, idiot." Kazuha glowered at him, elbowing him in the side, something which only caused him to laugh. Quickly flashing him a smile in return, Kazuha shook her head. She couldn't help but feel like their relationship had markedly improved since all of this had happened- if there was one plus to her childhood friend having been turned into a member of the bloodsucking undead, it was definitely the fact that the two of them had gotten closer because of it. There was, of course, also the small fact that they had started dating- although quite honestly, that hadn't been as big of a change between the two of them as she had at first expected.

"Ah, don't fall asleep on the plane though, Heiji." Kazuha reminded him. "It'll be trouble for me if you do."

"Don't worry, I won't." Heiji promised her. "Ah, this is our terminal. Ya want anythin' ta eat? I'll go fetch it fer ya right quick if ya do."

"Mm, then how about a coffee?" Kazuha asked. "And maybe one of those pastry things they got... something sweet."

"What's even the point of a pastry if it's not sweet?" Heiji asked with a small frown, before leaning down to kiss her quickly on the forehead. "I'll be right back with them, okay?" Waving a hand, he hurried off, leaving Kazuha to watch his retreating back.

When she looked at him like this, it was almost hard for her to imagine that he'd been changed in the way he had. There was no going back for him, it was a fact that the two of them had come to fully understand and accept together. Eventually their relationship would hit a hiccup in the future- she would keep growing older, while Heiji would forever remain the way he was now. But it was something that they had decided to worry about in the future, and for the moment, they had just decided to enjoy each other's company in the now.

Whatever happened, she would never abandon him, Kazuha thought, a small frown on her face. Not until she drew her dying breath, not until she was literally forced to by the limits of her all too mortal, all too human body. That wasn't something that she liked to think on either- about what would happen to Heiji when the day came that everyone he knew and loved would finally pass away, leaving him alone with a life span that could possibly stretch on into eternity.

Maybe they would adopt some kids when they older, she thought. And maybe she'd vigorously encourage said kids to have some grandchildren. That sounded like a very reasonable contingency plan, she thought to herself, nodding her head.

"What are ya thinkin' about with such a serious look on yer face?" Heiji asked, placing a cup of coffee in her hands, setting a donut down on her lap.

"Hey, Heiji, do you want grandchildren?" Kazuha asked, looking up at him.

The shocked expression that crossed his face, mixed with bright red of his cheeks was pretty cute, she thought. "W-what are you sayin'?! Besides from the sound of it, ya've already assumed we're goin' ta have children at some point!"

"What's wrong with that? It's not impossible, right?" Kazuha said simply, shrugging her shoulders as she took an innocent sip of her coffee. She wouldn't tell him it was because she was worried about him, of course. Well, he probably wouldn't figure that out on his own. Great detective he might be, he was still amazingly dense when it came to other people's feelings. "Well, at the very least not until I'm out of college and we're married, though. Ah, speaking of which, Heiji, have ya decided what yer gonna do about college?"

Geez, this girl. Bringing up something like that and then changing the topic on him just as quick. Grumbling a little, Heiji took a seat next to her, drinking some of his own coffee before he answered. "I was thinkin' of maybe a trade school or somethin'. I figure I'd stick out less at a two year school than I would a four year school. 'Sides, it might be interestin' ta learn how ta actually make motorcycles or somethin' like that, so I was thinkin' about lookin' towards somethin' in that regard. The old man seems okay with it as long as I at least go ta some kind of college."

"Well, it'll give ya something to fall back on if this whole detective thing of yours doesn't pan out." Lightly teasing her longtime friend, Kazuha laughed a little as Heiji shot her a dirty look. "I don't imagine our teachers will take it very well though. With your reputation, I think they were planning on you going to a proper college somewhere and entering properly into law enforcement. Maybe take after your father."

"Yeah well that's not gonna happen." Heiji snorted in spite of himself, shaking his head. "There's only so long ya can stretch bein' baby faced, people would realize somethin' weird was goin' on eventually."

His reputation though, huh... It had taken a hit ever since that nasty vampire hunter business- not to mention what had come several months after it. It was strange to think that they had only wrapped up that case only three weeks ago now- it already felt like it had been so long ago. With the vampire that had turned him in the first place now properly sealed away again, Heiji was starting to slowly feel more comfortable in his own skin again, knowing that the creature he had accidentally set free could no longer harm anyone else.

But they had done their damage well enough, and rumors were already flying around Osaka that the famous high school detective, Hattori Heiji, was something other than human. He imagined things would eventually settle down given time, but it was something that he found difficult to deal with. He was already bad with people talking about him behind his back in the first place, and now thanks to his increased hearing, it was almost impossible to escape from the rumors.

That said, it was the rumors about Kazuha that pissed him off the most. Like she would really be the type to be tricked! If he really had turned into some kind of monster, he was pretty sure that Kazuha wouldn't have gone along with him so easily, childhood friend or not.

But he wasn't a monster. He'd nearly come close to becoming one- but thankfully, he'd been saved from that fate. He could only hope that something like that would never happen again.

The sensation of Kazuha resting her head on his shoulder briefly drew Heiji's thoughts away from the files he had been going over. Glancing down towards her, he noticed with a small smile that she had drifted off to sleep. It wasn't any surprise that she was tired- they'd woken up early that morning to catch their flight, after all, and they had barely managed to make their connecting flight thanks to a mishap at the airport. It wouldn't have been as much of a problem were it not for the fact that the terminal for their connecting flight had been on the other end of the airport entirely. Once they reached their destination, he would probably let her get some proper rest first thing. This was her first time flying overseas, and there was no doubt that she'd soon be feeling the effects of jet lag.

Come to think of it, it was also his first time overseas as well. Did vampires get jet lag?

Well, for the moment he'd let her sleep, watching the steady rise and fall of her chest with no uncertain amount of fondness in his eyes. He couldn't help but treasure the quiet moments like these between them- not that it would ever be something he'd admit out loud, he thought to himself, a slight tint of pink rising to his cheeks as he averted his gaze from her, turning his full attention back towards the case files in front of him.

It really was a nasty case, he thought, eyes narrowing at the photographs that had been included with the files. The grisly nature of the crime scenes were bad enough by themselves, but that wasn't the thing about this case that caused Heiji's gut to twist.

That would be the paintings.

Even from the small photographs provided of the paintings in question, even he could tell that they appeared to be grand, sweeping, and rather massive fantasy-like scenes, carefully painted with a delicate hand and a fine eye for details. They wouldn't be out of place in any art gallery in the world, were it not for the fact that the scenes they depicted had very clearly been taken from the murder scenes that the culprit left behind.

The first painting had arrived at the local police department three months after the first murder. Comparing it to the crime scene photographs of Claire Grady's murdered aunt, it was hard to miss that the scene of the murder had clearly been set up with the deliberate intent to use as a grandiose and morbid reference for the painting that followed. They had found the first victim, a woman by the name of Marie Grady, in the dining room of her own home. She had clearly died from blood loss, blood having been drained freely from her neck, staining the entire left side of her body as it was left to flow freely outwards. Judging from the autopsy, it seemed like she had been conscious at first, and had been allowed to slowly die of blood loss, forced to watch it seep out onto her clothes.

Clothes that weren't her own, at least not according to the family, who had never seen the almost antique looking black lace dress that she had been wearing ever before. The entire crime scene had been carefully structured by the culprit, everything arranged in neat order most likely as the victim slowly died. Seated at her own dining room table, the table had been neatly set, several places made out, as if set up for tea, candles arranged and lit. Perhaps the most grim detail of all was the fact that the tea cups and tea kettle alike had been filled with blood- analysis of which had proven it to be the animal's blood.

The painting had been entitled 'The Vampire's Last Tea Party', fittingly enough. The scene depicted in the painting, though clearly referenced from the murder scene itself, had been twisted into a fantasy-like image of a vampire woman sitting dead at the head of her table, painted in dark tones and colors.

It was the beginning of a serial murder spree, and this had been the first of four corpses and four paintings. The murders had stretched out over four years, with a murder for every year, with the killer seeming to cross the country. After starting with the small town in Nebraska, they moved to an entirely different setting- the bustling city of New York, before heading towards the state of Florida, and finally arriving in Virginia, where the last murder had taken place.

At least, it had been the last murder, Heiji thought to himself, shuffling through the papers. There had been another one recently, one that the police weren't certain was the work of the same culprit until the painting arrived several months later. The location of the murder this time had been in America's capital itself. It wasn't the final body either- another corpse had turned up in Georgia a month after the painting had been sent, and although a painting had yet to arrive of the scene, there was no doubt it was the same culprit.

A copycat would have been impossible. Information about the case had been restricted from the public from the very beginning. The fact that there had been elaborate paintings made from the crime scenes was not something anyone knew outside of the police and the FBI- as well as an art analyst who had been called in to study the paintings, who had been able to confirm that most likely the person who had painted the first four paintings had also painted the fifth.

Six corpses, five paintings, with one likely on it's way. An eight year gap between the fourth murder and the fifth murder. A murderer who had no shortage of artistic talent, who had decided to put it to horrifying use.

The Vampire's Last Tea Party. The Final Full Moon. The Fae Queen's Unfortunate Mischief. The Last Dance of the Devil. The Death Cry of the Banshee. Even without looking at the paintings themselves, the names made it crystal clear what kind of theme the culprit was going for here. The final corpse, with it's head neatly placed in it's hands, eyes left wide open, had been set upon the corpse of a headless horse, arranged as if she had been riding across the countryside. A dullahan, more than likely.

It was easy to understand how one could think that it was the work of one who was a monster themselves. Drawing in a breath, Heiji shut the file, carefully tucking it back away into his bag. He'd already gone over them page for page, word for word any number of times- with a case that had shaped up to be something this big, it was important that he knew what he was getting himself into.

Pausing to glance back down towards Kazuha, he carefully reached out towards her, placing his hand on her own. The warmth of his hand was so different from that of his own, and it was entirely for that reason that he found it so comfortable a place for his own. Lightly resting his head on top of her own, he closed his own eyes, mimicking the motions of breathing himself, just in case anyone got the wrong idea from a casual glance towards him.

Kazuha's side was a nice place to be, he thought to himself. He didn't want to lose his place there.

As she pulled off her motorcycle helmet, Kazuha shook her head a little, trying to steady herself. She was still overcome what she was quickly realizing to be jet lag, still exhausted even though she had gotten a good bit of sleep on the flight over here. Perhaps clinging to Heiji's back and riding on a motorcycle behind him for a solid hour had not been among her better ideas. The vehicle in question was apparently on loan from one of Mitsuta's friends- apparently her network extended all the way out here.

It was convenient, at any rate, and saved them from having to pay to rent one. Letting out a loud yawn, she glanced back towards Heiji, watching as he dug their things out from the storage compartment, tossing Kazuha her bag. Catching it neatly, she tucked her helmet underneath one arm, giving him a small smile.

"Ya still tired?" Heiji asked, pulling his own bag over his shoulder. "Ya can rest all ya want when we get our room, Kazuha. Ya don't have ta force yerself ta come with me. I'll go on ahead an' check out the police station myself after we get settled in."

"I'll think I'll do that." Kazuha told him, following behind him into the small hotel, which appeared to more or less be the only one in the city. "Flying overseas takes a lot out of you. How are you holding up, Heiji?"

"Except fer the fact that I'm dead, I'm perfectly fine." Heiji told her, flashing her a wide grin that let her know that it was just a joke. "Probably fer the best at any rate. Let me go get our room right quick." Heading towards the front desk, he briefly chatted with the clerk, slipping into English that was nearly flawless.

Maybe he should consider trying to pick up some other languages, he thought to himself as he watched the clerk search for the room keys. It might come in handy when the time came for him to uproot himself from a normal life entirely- besides, who knew where his new line of work in being something of a detective for the supernatural world would lead him?

Nebraska, apparently, for the time being. After he wrapped up things here, he and Kazuha would be following another connection that Conan had arranged for him once he'd learned the details of the case for himself- but Heiji had wanted to check out his first crime scene for himself. The contact Conan had touched base with was supposed to meet him here tomorrow, but he was going to do some investigating of his own before then.

Taking the keys from the desk clerk, he passed one off to Kazuha. Finding their room wasn't hard- there weren't many in the hotel after all. At the very least he could enter his own hotel room without needing anyone to invite him inside, he noted, stepping through the door with no problems. Glancing around the room to make sure everything seemed to be in order, he gave a quick nod, setting down his bag. For the moment, he'd leave the sword here, he thought, resting it against the bed he doubted he was going to use very much.

"I'm just gonna pass out right here." Kazuha mumbled to herself, flopping down on her bed. "G'night, Heiji. Don't get yourself into trouble now."

"When have I ever gotten myself into trouble?" Heiji asked, a mock look of offense on his face.

"That one time you went off to search for a kidnapping victim and came back a vampire." Kazuha muttered, turning her head so that she could give him a smile. "Remember that to these cops, you're probably just some weird foreign kid sticking his nose into business that he has nothing to do with."

"I'll remember, don't ya fret." Heiji noted, pulling the few things he thought he would need from his bag and sticking them in his jacket pockets. "Sleep tight, Kazuha." Switching off the lights as he left the room, he paused for a moment, watching as Kazuha curled herself more up on the bed. Carefully closing the door behind him, he made his way downstairs, heading back to the borrowed motorcycle. As he switched the engine back on, he couldn't help but notice that his was not the only motorcycle in the parking lot, and idly wondering what other guest staying here was driving one.

The trip to the police station was a short one, and after securing his motorcycle, Heiji headed into the station, glancing around for someone who looked useful. Karen had promised him that she'd arranged for someone to meet him for at least this leg of his trip, but all he knew of the man he was supposed to meet was his name. One of the officers took notice of him, pausing to glance down at something on his desk, before he got up, quickly approaching the Osakan detective.

"Pardon me, but you wouldn't happen to be Heiji Hattori, would you?" The man who spoke to him addressed him in English, but given the way he seemed to recognize him, he was willing to bet this was the person that Karen had wanted him to meet. Judging from the look on his face, she probably hadn't included the 'he's a vampire I tried to kill once' bit in whatever she might have told this officer about him.

"That's me." Flashing him a quick grin, Heiji offered him a hand, which the man took, giving it a firm shake, a brief expression of confusion crossing his face at the teen's body temperature. "I take it ya must be Roger Fuller."

"That's correct." The man nodded his head. "I must say, your English is very good. But I suppose we should get to the main point- you've come to see the case file and the painting, haven't you?"

"That's right." Nodding his head, Heiji tucked his hands back into his pockets, glancing around the station. "I take it this place doesn't really see a crime like that all that often."

"Hardly." Roger said, shaking his head. "I had just joined the force back then. It was my first case." He noted, a slightly sour tone to his voice. "It leaves you with a bad taste in your mouth. This way." Leading him to his desk, he passed over what appeared to be a copy of the case file towards Heiji. "This is for you. As for the painting, it's downstairs."

"There's nowhere else to put it except for the basement, really. Honestly, we all half wish that the FBI would just take it off our hands finally." Roger noted, leading Heiji down towards the basement area, pausing to unlock the door and switch on the lights.
"I'm sure you've seen photographs of it, but let me assure you, it's probably much larger than you anticipated."

"Oh?" Heiji blinked, tucking the file underneath his arm, following him downstairs. He half wanted to ask what his connection to the vampire hunter was- half wanting to fish out information about that guild of Karen's while he was here. But if he started asking questions in that regard, he had a feeling that whatever silent truce the guild in question had established in regards to him for the moment, it would quickly be thrown out the window.

"Well," Roger said, standing in front of an large rectangular object, which was a good three heads taller than him, and had been covered with a cloth. He couldn't help but note that judging from the look of the dust, it had actually been removed- and very recently at that. Finding that curious, his brows knitted in thought, watching as Roger pulled the cloth off it once more, revealing the painting hidden within.

To be perfectly frank, Heiji really didn't understand all that much about art. But even he could tell a talented painter when he saw one- the attention to detail and the overall composition were nothing short of breathtaking. And considering the scale of the painting, it must have taken quite some time to paint, bit by bit- no wonder it had only shown up three months after the first murder. Realizing that he was a bit too close, actually, to take it in all at once, Heiji took a step back.

Although beautifully painted, it was still a macabre scene, even when one didn't know that it had been painted after an actual murder scene. Opening up the file in his hands, he brought up the photograph of the victim, comparing it to the face of the woman in the picture, whose eyes stared lifelessly off into the distance. There was no mistake- they were definitely the same woman.

"Horrible, right?" Roger asked, shaking his head. "Whatever happened to hiring models to pose for you, huh?"

"It's definitely pretty grisly." Heiji noted, suddenly almost glad that Kazuha had stayed behind at the hotel. She probably wouldn't have cared for seeing something like this in person. Pulling out his cellphone, he snapped a number of photos of it from various angles, just in case he needed to look at them later. Tucking it back away, he nodded towards Roger, indicating that he was done with it.

Grateful to hide it away from sight again, Roger quickly secured the cloth back over it, glancing over towards him. "You're going to check out the scene of the crime after this, right? The family hasn't touched that place in twelve years, not since it happened. The key's upstairs, if you'll follow me back up."

"Has anyone else asked to come look at the painting recently?" Heiji asked, glancing back down towards it. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the officer looking slightly surprised at the question.

"Yes, there was someone just this morning. Another Japanese teenager, actually." Roger noted with a small frown. "They wanted to see the case file too, but I refused to show it to them- but they didn't want to leave until they had at least been able to see the painting, so I let them take a look at it. They said something about being some kind of high school detective."

"A high school detective?" Heiji blinked, tilting his head. The first person who sprang to mind was Hakuba Saguru- but from the way the person in question had been described, he doubted it was him. Given the reach of his father, he'd have no issues with accessing whatever it was that he wanted.

It definitely wasn't Kudo.

Granted, there very well could be plenty of other high school detectives running around, especially in a country this big. It wasn't that strange that a case this big might have caught the attention of anyone who knew about it. Still, the timing was more than a little curious. Whatever the case, it caught his attention more than a little.

"Did ya get their name?" Heiji asked, watching as Roger opened up his desk and fished out a key. Taking it from him, Heiji tucked it into his jacket pocket, waiting for an answer.

"They said their name was Sera, I believe. I didn't catch their first name." The officer told him, shaking his head. "There's a chance that you might run into them when you're looking around for yourself, so you should probably keep your eyes open. I doubt they're up to anything bad, however, you can never be too careful. Normally we wouldn't be handing over something like that," he said, pointing towards the case file tucked underneath Heiji's arm. "...to just anyone, but since it was Miss Okubo who recommended you, I'm making an exception."

"Thanks fer that." Nodding his head, Heiji cast a look around the station, before turning back towards Roger. "Well, if there's nothin' else ya need from me, I'll be on my way then. I'll touch base with ya if I dig anythin' up, though."

Exchanging a brief goodbye with the man, Heiji exited the station. Securing the file folder within his motorcycle's storage compartment, he pulled out the key he had been given for a moment, before stuffing it back inside his pocket. For the moment, he'd head back towards the hotel to look over the case file, before checking out the scene of the crime for himself. It wasn't often that you ran into a twelve year old crime scene that had been left intact- he should probably be grateful that Claire's family had all but decided to wash their hands of that place.

Seeing the painting that had been the true start of it all had really sent the fact that he was about to step into something big straight home to Heiji. And even though he had to admit that the feeling was slightly intimidating, it was in no way enough to make him back down, deal or no deal. He could hardly call himself a detective if he backed down just because there was a chance that things might get a little dangerous.

When you were functionally immortal anyways, what was the worst thing that could possibly happen?