for Poirot Café's themed writing competition #16: survival.

(somewhat hastily written AU, please excuse any errors!)

No one can tell what goes on in between the person you were and the person you become. No one can chart that blue and lonely section of hell. There are no maps of the change. You just come out the other side.

Or you don't.

― Stephen King, The Stand

BREAKING NEWS: Explosion Leaves 5 Dead, 26 Injured – Investigators Suspect Foul Play

.

Haido Central Hospital was far from the busiest hospital in Tokyo, save during the flu season that always seemed to hit around mid-winter.

Today, however, appeared to be an exception.

Which was unsurprising, Shinichi thought as he walked into the foyer, given that it was the closest major hospital to the site of yesterday's explosion.

(The explosion was still one of the headlines on the TV in the corner, in fact, even though logic dictated that the investigation probably hadn't turned up anything conclusive yet. Well, he was about to find out for himself, at any rate.)

Shinichi walked up to the reception counter, waiting politely while the staff gave the couple in front of him directions to a ward on the second floor.

(Married, he noted automatically, though the wife was the one actually listening to the instructions while the husband held a small bouquet, probably from the hospital's gift shop – an acquaintance of hers, then, someone they were visiting more out of social obligation than any real desire to. One of her coworkers, perhaps?)

His deductions were left unverified as the couple moved off toward the elevators, which he took as a cue to step forward. Showtime, Shinichi thought wryly, then wondered if he'd been spending entirely too much time around his mother and certain other magician thieves.

He pushed those thoughts aside with a polite smile and a quick glance at the receptionist's nametag. "Good afternoon, Kajiura-san. This is something of an odd request, but…"

She looked encouragingly at him, so he leaned forward slightly before continuing in a softer tone.

"The people injured in that explosion were sent here, weren't they? No, I know you're not supposed to disclose patient information," he added when she began to protest. "But I was at the precinct earlier, and Megure-keibu said I could help Sato-keiji and Takagi-keiji with the investigation."

Which was, for all intents and purposes, true. Shinichi effectively had a standing invitation to help with all of Division One's open cases, and even if Megure hadn't mentioned this one specifically Shinichi was fairly certain the inspector would back him up if it came to that – a scenario that was looking more probable every second, since Kajiura still looked hesitant to say anything.

Her silence was admirable and perfectly understandable given the circumstances, but also incredibly frustrating, reminding Shinichi once again why he usually left the 'dealing with people' part to those better qualified to do it.

He stifled a sigh. Time to lay down his next card, then.

"The detectives are here, aren't they? I tried calling them directly, but they're probably interviewing the patients right now so I don't think their handphones are on." Shinichi added just the right amount of embarrassment to his voice, and from the shift in her expression it was beginning to get through. "Do you think you could page the ward and tell them that Kudo Shinichi is here?"

There, she'd reacted ever so slightly to his name – curiosity, good, he could work with that. "Are you a private investigator, Kudo-san?"

(And here Shinichi had been thinking he'd never see the day when he actually felt grateful for the news coverage of his more high-profile cases. He hated using his fame like this, even now, but when the circumstances called for it…)

Shinichi smiled with a small shake of his head. "No, just a high-school detective."

"Ah, yes, I recall reading about you in the news!" Recognition flashed in her eyes, and she reached for the intercom. "Hold on, I'll contact the burn ward."

Murmuring a low thank you, Shinichi stepped aside to allow the next person forward, doing a scan of the crowd and surroundings that had long since become habitual. His gaze alighted on Takagi, exiting from one of the elevators, and he sent the detective a small wave.

"Kudo-kun! What are you doing here?" Takagi asked in surprise as he drew nearer.

"You're working the explosion case with Sato-keiji, right?" Shinichi paused, waiting for the confirming nod. "I was wondering if I could help with the investigation."

Takagi's expression shifted to confusion, though he gestured for Shinichi to follow him back to the elevators. "Help with – of course we always welcome your help, Kudo-kun, but don't you usually work homicide cases?"

"Actually, it's nearly always the other way around," Shinichi answered, elaborating at Takagi's questioning look. "I don't go looking for homicides, they find me – I'm just doing whatever is necessary to solve them."

"Keep that up, Kudo-kun, and I'll be worrying whether you're after my job," Takagi said with a self-depreciating chuckle.

Shinichi gave him a small grin. "I don't think you need to worry about that, Takagi-keiji."

(It was the truth, after all, because Takagi nearly always underrated himself as a detective, and Shinichi was unlikely to ever consider joining the police force anyway, assuming he even survived long enough to get there.)

.

Sato was interviewing one of the injured when they arrived – the seventh one so far, according to his quick glance through Takagi's notes – so Shinichi moved unobtrusively to a corner, watching with interest out the corner of his eye as Takagi went on to the next patient.

He ran a mental catalogue of the patients (male, late thirties, answering Sato's questions with a wide-eyed confusion that was either very well-feigned or suggested he had nothing to do with the explosion – female, about twenty, blonde but with distinctly Japanese features, Shinichi could see mild-to-moderate burns on her neck where she'd turned to look at Takagi – male, early forties – ) until the detectives finished their interviews, and he walked over. "Sato-keiji, good afternoon… Takagi-keiji said you had photos of the explosion site?"

"Ah, yes." Sato tucked the dark blue notebook back into her chest pocket before opening her bag and taking out a manila folder.

"May I…?" Shinichi asked, reaching for it – which was when his keys fell out of his pocket, landing on the floor with a clatter, jarringly loud in the general silence of the ward.

Before Shinichi could do anything more, Sato bent over and picked the keys up, holding them out to him. "Really, you shouldn't be so careless with your things, Kudo-kun!" she admonished lightly.

"Ah, sorry… thank you, Sato-keiji!" he said sheepishly, putting them away in his bag.

"Don't worry about it. Though maybe we should talk outside?" she suggested, glancing out at the corridor.

And Shinichi nodded, following her and Takagi out, all too aware of the intent gaze on him as he left.

.

The muffled click of a door closing, then footsteps, quiet but sure –

"Thought I'd find you out here."

She turned at the voice, eyes searching the dark night. "Who's there?"

"I think you know who I am," he said, stepping out from where he'd been standing in the shadows. "The question is who you are. I'm assuming Hirota isn't your real name."

He caught a faint mutter of something uncomplimentary under her breath before she pinned him with a flat stare. "You don't need to know who I am. This isn't a matter for high school detectives, Kudo-kun."

"Why don't you let me decide that for myself?" Shinichi asked, with a glance at the nurse uniform she was still wearing. "After all, I did deduce your escape plan accurately enough to catch you here."

"Congratulations," she answered, and even he had to appreciate the level of sarcasm in her voice. "Don't trouble yourself with looking any further."

He continued, ignoring her words. "You have sufficient medical training to easily pass as a doctor or nurse in a hospital, but also enough technical skills to clone a keycard for access. Though it's possible that you just stole one."

Her lips quirked in amusement at the last comment. "Anything else, meitantei-san?"

"I also know that you set those bombs. And why." He paused. "Or, more specifically, who you were setting them for."

She'd frozen at his words, already half-turned away to leave, and he sighed.

"Don't bother denying it. The explosives were obviously made by someone who knew what they were doing, but the blast pattern didn't match any of the common types, and left marks similar to chemical fires on the debris. Therefore, probably someone in charge of a lab with the resources to order and use dangerous chemicals, as long as no one was watching too closely. And given that the site was near where we'd been seeing some suspicious activity recently…"

Disbelief flashed briefly across her expression. "You can't possibly know that."

"I have friends in — well, in high places, you might say," he answered, gaze flicking briefly up to the skies and back again. "People who've been watching the shadows for a while now."

"Say I believe you," she replied after a moment – though her tone made it quite clear she didn't, for all its polite curiosity. "If you don't mind me asking, how did you even know to investigate me?"

"I didn't, not at first, until Takagi-keiji interviewed you. You turned to your left to look at him, even though that must have been uncomfortable with the burns on your neck. And you didn't even react when I dropped these right beside you." He produced the bunch of keys from earlier with a loud jangle, earning a look of unimpressed irritation from her. "So you were quite severely deafened in your right ear and completely so in your left, at least temporarily, meaning that you were probably much closer to the source of the main explosion than you'd claimed to be."

"You do live up to your reputation after all, I suppose." She tilted her head and regarded him levelly. "Is that all, or is this the part where the police stride in and arrest me?"

"A question for you," he said instead. "The whole building was wired full of explosives. You had to have a remote to ensure that they all went off at the same time, so you could also have triggered it from somewhere further away."

A beat of silence.

"So why didn't you?"

"I — " she started, then looked away.

He waited, saying nothing.

"I never intended to survive the explosion," she admitted finally. "That's why I was so close by."

"You lost someone. I can't claim to understand that, Miyano-san, but…" he ignored her startled look, and quoted, "Sometimes even to live is an act of courage."

"Seneca? You continue to impress, Kudo-kun." Shiho turned back to face him fully, her expression back to its careful neutrality again. "So, are you going to ask me to join your merry band of freedom fighters?"

Shinichi smiled wryly, acknowledging the joke. "Our offer is simple. A new identity, resources, assistance when necessary."

"You would offer me help?" Shiho tilted her head and regarded the detective with a glance that had quailed most of her lab at least once, regardless of their seniority - but she received only calm in response. "In exchange for what?"

"Your knowledge. Some of us are looking for something important that mustn't fall into the wrong hands, and your expertise could help narrow the search greatly." Shinichi flicked his gaze upwards again, and Shiho got the brief impression that he was thinking about a conversation he'd had more than once. "Assuming that it exists, of course, perhaps you've heard of it – "

"Don't say it!" she hissed, face pale, and he took a step back in surprise.

Silence again, uncomfortable, until she broke it.

"The sheer scale of what you're trying to deal with here… it's been going on for longer than you can even imagine." She exhaled, a low and tired sound. "You don't know the half of it."

His voice had turned hard, matching her cynicism. "And you do, so that's why you're running away?"

"I'm not –!" she cut her own retort off with a sharp shake of her head. "Look, don't you understand, Kudo-kun? This was always about surviving, not fighting back."

"And that's where you're wrong," he countered, voice blunt and determined. "We'll survive. And we'll fight back."

They stared at each other, neither willing to look away for a long moment.

Then she closed her eyes, letting out a small exhale. "Don't you dare make me regret this."

"Don't worry, I won't," Kudo Shinichi answered, grin sudden and sharp as a shark's, and she couldn't help but believe him.

.

later:

They'd been walking for a while when Shinichi excused himself and ducked into a convenience store, re-emerging with three small cans – one went into his pocket, one tossed in a wide arc to Shiho (with a cheerful "Catch!"), and the last he opened for himself.

She just managed to grab the can, the metal warm against the tips of her fingers as she eyed the label dubiously. "Coffee? At this hour?"

"Consider it a welcome gift," he said half-sarcastically. "Besides, you're not my mother."

She thought she caught a muttered thank god after that, but that might've just been her imagination, and she chose not to inquire further. "Three cans… are we expecting company, or am I not the only person you're recruiting tonight?"

"Don't be jealous, ojou-san," said another voice from behind her, and Shiho would've stumbled in shock if not for Shinichi's steadying hand on her shoulder as another figure came into view.

Who, for obvious reasons, could not be the Kaitou Kid, because – because –

She thought she might be regretting this already.

The thief glanced at her, obviously enjoying her reaction. "Tantei-kun and I… we go back a long way, don't we?"

"Unfortunately for me, yes." Shinichi took out the other can and shook it in a vaguely threatening manner. "And take off that stupid hat before I kick this can at your face."

"Fine, fine," came the answering grumble, and two puffs of smoke later Kid was dressed in civilian clothes, and the can had somehow crossed the intervening space into his hands. "Ooh, hot chocolate, a detective after my own heart!"

Then he turned to her, and before Shiho could do more than blink in surprise at his appearance – and register a long-suffering sigh from her other side – he swept a bow to her with a bright grin. "Hello, I'm Kuroba Kaito! I hear we'll be working together from now on?"