Chance Meeting

Hattori Heiji knew that it was going to be a terrible day the moment he woke up suffocating, his airways blocked and, and the world dark even to his wide eyes. This only lasted for a second though, because the force was immediately pulled away. Light flooded his retinas, and he found himself staring and gasping into the smiling face of Kazuha.

It took him three seconds to process this, another to register the role of the pillow in her hands, and another to realize that he really should be mad.

"The hell, Kazuha?!" he yelped.

"Your mom let me in," she stated, matter-of-factly, as if that was the answer to all of his questions. "Ya wouldn't wake up, and we're gonna be late for school."

So he pushed the girl out of his room and proceeded to get ready. He slammed his head against the bathroom door, trying to get in, and stubbed his toe while putting on his pants. He dashed down the staircase – missing a step once, falling down half a flight – and found Kazuha reading a book in their living room.

"Finally done?"

"Hey, it wasn't me who asked ya to check on me!"

She looked up. Then her gaze zeroed in on the wall clock past Heiji's shoulder.

7:20, it read. A heartbeat passed. Then she was scrambling to her feet, eyes wide, and pushing Heiji out of the door with her.

"We are so dead!"

"Stop pushing!"

"Start running!"

In their haste, they tripped once, ploughed into street signs twice, a wall once, and took the wrong bus twice. 8:00, they were sweaty, panting, and standing before their school gates, late. Heiji reached for his backpack, and then froze.

"My…bag…" he whispered, realizing that there was no weight on his back. Kazuha stood there, staring at him with a blank look on her face.

The tracker lost track of Kid's phone again, but it had done that after giving a general idea of the hostages' whereabouts. When the signal was corrupted, Conan and Aoko already knew around where they should look.

And together, they stared up at the leafy forest that bordered the city of Osaka. Even at eight-twenty in the morning, the place was dark – sunrays shadowed by the leaves and branches, blotting the ground in round, greenish dots. Lanky trees and shrubby undergrowth littered the grass, and at the back of Conan's mind, he concluded that the bad signals could've been from that. This was reinforced by Aoko waving her phone around behind him, looking exceptionally distressed.

As they made their way deeper into the forest – the trees becoming wispier, roots more apparent – it quickly became obvious that the forest was not the natural habitat for the leather boots on Aoko's feet. The treacherous ground, riddled with tree knots and rocks, caught at its heels. The gravel and dirt stained at its leather. And Aoko Nakamori – not very different from her loud-mouthed father – yelped her indignations to the heavens above. Conan decided the first time she ran into a tree branch that if Gin just so happened to be passing by, it would mean instant death for them.

And when she tripped over thin air, in the midst of his rapid thoughts, he managed to ironically think: The Kaitou Kid's girlfriend wasn't very much made to sneak around, was she?

They eventually found themselves stepping out of the bundle of woodland, staring down at a dusty, gravel path with tire marks. With tire marks.

A grin instantly lighted up Conan's face. They were close. Close to the Kid, close to Ran. He was about to set out and follow the marks when Aoko carried him up and hid behind a tree. That's when the sound of an engine caught his ears, and it was heading down the path.

It passed by them – a common, silver Corolla. The windows were tinted, so even when he squinted his eyes, he could only see the form of the person driving. Aoko, on the other hand, seemed to have gotten something.

"That car looks familiar," she murmured as she stared at its retreating form. She put the boy down, crossed her arms, and thought.

Conan, after the initial shame of being carried so easily like a child, was about to ask her about that when something vibrated in the pocket of his shorts. Quickly, he fished for his phone and raised his brows at the unfamiliar number. The safety protocol was not to answer, but the things he always got himself into were anything but safe. Besides, with the dangers he oh-so-willingly dove into, answering suspicious calls were trivial. And so he answered, in the off chance of it being something important.

He ended up being glad that he did.

"Detective,"

Conan's mind froze, the only thing that kept him from shrieking, really, was Aoko's warm presence nearby. He glanced up at her, seeing if she's noticed the call, but she was still staring after the car long gone. He decided to ask her about it later, but for now, she shouldn't see him. So he tiptoed away, into the crook of some tree roots where he could still keep an eye on her, and she couldn't..

"Kid! What the –"

"I'm going to assume that you found the tracker."

Conan took a deep breath, and gathered his wits. Kid was being urgent– a rare but serious thing – and he wasn't about to become a blabbering idiot. So, "Yes," he breathed – rubbing a fist through his temple – "Yes," he said, firmer this time, eyes sharpening like they do when a case gets tough and grim. "We're using it to track you down," he said into the phone's mic, but his voice was choppy against it.

Crap! The signal is dying!

There was a brief pause during which Conan understood that the thief was putting together the jerky sentence. Then, "Clever," he replied. That word was clear. The next sentence, however, was less comprehensible. "e – care – atch – for – ness – it's – them –" then the call died.

He was frustrated that their call had been cut short, but it was a few seconds into the silence when he managed to acknowledge the giddy relief nibbling at his chest, because if not for the urgency underlining his tone, the Kid was fine. And so was Ran, most definitely. After all, the only reason Kid could have so much firmness in his tone is if he didn't have to be soft with him – soft because Shinichi's lost something, soft because he needed sympathy. But maybe he was overthinking things. There were so many factors to consider, and he couldn't base Ran's condition all on a choppy call.

Half a second later, he shook his head because he was missing the point. Kid called because he needed to tell him something, not because he wanted Shinichi to go on an aimless deduction spree. He thought back to the choppy sentence, weaved the more comprehensible words together, and was promptly sent into a vague, hazy sort of panic.

The words – Be careful. It's them – resurfaced. What he said in between, he couldn't get. The sentence was incomplete, but he got what he needed to know exactly what he needed to do – what Kid wanted him to do.

Get Aoko out of there. Don't do anything reckless. Get help. They've got a lead.

But before he could actually plan the whole thing out, Aoko was gasping. Conan spun around, briskly, and found her standing face to face with a man. He had a surprised look on his own rounded face, back bent from avoiding a tree branch, and not at all looking like he was expecting to see anyone in the area. For a while, nobody moved, the two of them eyeing each other. Suddenly Conan let out a loud, horrified scream from behind the tree. "WAAAH!"

Aoko stared, confused. The man turned to him, and Conan saw the bulge of a well-concealed weapon as he did so. He quickly toddled his way to Aoko's side to wrap himself around her in a way that a scared child would. Aoko clearly still didn't get what was happening, so he went on.

"I told you that there are ghosts in this area, nee-chan!"

"Oh!" Aoko gasped, eyes lighting up. Quickly, she turned to the man and smiled. "Funny story, actually! My little brother is convinced that there are ghosts in the area."

Conan made a show of hiding behind the girl. Then the man twisted, looking around the place – looking for backup, most probably – Conan thought, grimly, as he took into account the man's black attire. Suddenly, senses on high alert because of desires to escape, a flash of something from his pocket –a flash of red that was vaguely similar to the Kid's phone – caught his and Aoko's absolute attention. She took a sharp, shaky breath and squeezed Conan's fingers with a clammy hand.

They needed a way out, but they couldn't run away. It wasn't even an option. Maybe he could put him to sleep with – he cut his thoughts off when he reached for his wrist and remembered how he no longer had the dart in his watch. He had used it on a stewardess some hours ago, when she found him sneaking into the plane to get the tracking device.

"How far did you two go?" he suddenly asked. Then, in a vain attempt to not seem suspicious, he added, "this…place is pretty deep."

"Not further than here," Aoko replied. She was smiling again, the shaking hand on Conan's fingers being the only indication of horror. She was a pretty good liar, he had to admit. Kid's ways must've rubbed off on her. But seeing her childhood friend'S phone on this man's pocket must've startled her. She could only take so much, so he needed to talk.

"M-my friends and I always talk about this scary place. Onee-chan was just trying to convince me that the place is safe. We were just about to go back," he stated, staring up at the man. He knew for a fact that it was the perfect opportunity for him to commit a murder. There were no witnesses, and there were probably several back-ups crawling around the place. However, he also knew that there was an elementary school and a neighborhood nearby. He was sure because Hattori studied in the high school close to it. If he painted the illusion that they lived and studied nearby, and that he spoke about the 'haunted' forest a lot, maybe the man would actually think before shooting at them.

It was working. The man stood there, pondering. He knew that it would be horribly stupid to let them be. The hostages were nearby, there was no way he'd let these two anywhere near it. But then it's not like they could be considered witnesses yet, right? After all, they haven't really seen anything. Otherwise, they'd be informed. There were men watching the trailer, after all. And what were the chances of these two knowing about this case? Besides, killing them there would send out an investigation. Leads. A lot of people would get involved, and leads were things that Guiness did not like. For now, he needed to keep an eye on them before further instructions are to be given. So he took out his phone…

And suddenly, they heard a rustle from the side. Out from the shrubs came Heiji.

Author's Note:

Hi, everyone! So I haven't written in a while. Haha. Things might be a little rusty here, but I reread most of this story to keep it on track. I did fine with my project, if you'd like to know. But it was HARD! Fanfiction is suddenly so FUN! WOOHOO!

Ooh, and I'll be posting another story soon! One about Kaito accidentally inhaling a new test gas Kid is planing to use for a heist, and Aoko thinking that he's on drugs. It'll be a one-chapter thing. Just a random plot that came to mind earlier. See you guys soon!