AN: Here's the next chapter! I had hoped to more or less wrap this arc up in this chapter, but halfway through I realized that probably wouldn't be possible without it getting either pretty long or being rushed, so I decided to split it up into two chapters instead to make the pacing a bit more natural. As always, thanks for reading! This story is still nearing it's end, but there's a sequel on the horizon, so never fear!

Until next time!

(Don't) Believe What You Know

Chapter Twenty Four

Hattori Heiji's Very Bad No Good Evening

That damn Hattori- he couldn't have picked a bag that was a bit easier for him to carry?

Readjusting the strap, pulling up the bottom so that it didn't just dangle along the ground, Conan muttered underneath his breath about feeling like a pack mule. If he was going to have him lug something like this around, the least he could have done was give him one of those candies so that he could-

...oh god, he was seriously about to think that, wasn't he. Groaning to himself, he couldn't help but feel like Heiji would be just as hard to pry an antidote- if one could call it as such- from as Haibara was. He would have thought it would have been the other way around, but that was, apparently, something the two complete opposites had in common.

Even more so than he'd first thought. Science and magic, and both of them somehow being no more useful than the other to him. What a life he lead.

At least he could find where Hattori was, he thought to himself, double checking the dot on his glasses that indicated his location. That slippery bastard- he hadn't even noticed him taking one off of him, much less putting it on. If he was going to do something like this, he could have at least told him ahead of time.

Probably wasn't used to having allies, Conan dimly realized, not when it came to this. He'd have to give him some pointers once this was all over- and by pointers, he of course meant a lecture. Kazuha had every reason in the world to be worried out of her mind about this reckless idiot- who else would come up with a plan that involved himself getting captured on purpose? And what's more, while disguised as someone else?

...oh, right.

He would. And had. Heiji had even been there for that- groaning, Conan couldn't help but wonder if he'd drawn inspiration for this tactic from him, and suddenly found himself half wanting to sink into the floor.

Speaking of the floor, though...

Scrambling into a hiding place, Conan made out the sound of heels striking the floor- though the acoustics in this place were different from those of the hotel's lobby, he recognized the sound as not belonging to the heels Heiji had likely borrowed from Kazuha. If it wasn't him, then...

It could only be the culprit.

Holding his breath as they passed him by, Conan let it out only once he was sure they had gone. They hadn't seemed to notice him, but he'd sure noticed them- though in truth, he'd already figured out their identity by the sound of their footsteps.

Since Aoi Gorman had been removed from the suspect pool, there was only one other suspect left that wore heels. It made sense- Kazuha had only gotten the invitation in the mail after Heiji had shown up at the hotel. And since he was just leaving as the other three entered, the only one of Professor Clarke's pupils that would have actually been introduced to him at the time was the same one who had served them tea.

Sienna Radcliff.

The original culprit, of the murders four years ago, must have been her father then, as originally deduced. For some reason, four years after the fact, she had decided to pick up where her father had left off- but in a completely different country this time.

There must have been something that had spurred her into action, Conan thought. Was it the fairy's mirror? No, he didn't think that was just something that could fall into her hands, not from the way Heiji talked about it, and not from what he'd briefly overheard from his conversation with the fae queen. It had been stolen, he recalled.

Had Sienna Radcliff stole it herself? Or...

As he thought, there were things about this case that Heiji wasn't telling him. One, at least, he suspected he knew.

But he felt no need to ask Heiji as to whether or not Kazuha was a changeling. All of his actions indicated that was something he wanted to prevent from getting out in the open- and it wasn't hard to guess that the reason for that was because of the person herself, who likely had no idea.

The idea of babies being taken didn't sit right with him, but if it was a crime, then it was a crime that the Toyama Kazuha he knew had no say in. Truth was important, but it wasn't his call this time to expose it. If Heiji wanted to keep it under wraps for the rest of their lives, he'd let him have it.

Creeping down the hall, careful to check around the corners that she wasn't waiting for him, Conan slowly followed the dot on his tracking glasses. It hadn't moved at all since he'd arrived here, so he was going to guess that Heiji was currently confined somewhere. But why? If it was him, he could probably slip out of any bonds he'd been put in with ease.

Was it to let the culprit's guard down? Perhaps there was information that he still needed, that he thought he could get easier this way. Either way, he wasn't about to let his friend put himself in danger, so sitting tight and waiting for him wasn't an option he'd even considered.

Besides, he had to deliver him his change of clothes- which was all that was in this duffel. He probably didn't want to run around in a party dress and heels forever.

Still, whoever designed this place should have been fired, Conan thought to himself, cracking open the door to another staircase. Instead of one consistent staircase going up the length of the building, there was a new one connection each floor- on the opposite end of the hall. No small wonder this place was slated to be demolished.

Cracking open the door to the staircase, carefully checking to make sure he was alone, he glanced upwards. One more floor, from the look of it.

Carefully shutting the door behind him, he made his way up the flight of stairs, holding the bag up so that it didn't drag over them. Cracking open the door at the top, he peered through it, faintly making out a bit of light coming from one of the rooms at the end of the hall.

Heiji was there, he thought.

And he wasn't alone, from the sound of it.

"Wake up."

It was amazing how much the tone of her voice had changed, Heiji couldn't help but think to himself. Not to mention, was kicking him really necessary? Maybe it really was too much trouble to have tied himself back up, information or no information.

The cough that he let out was genuine- the startled befuddlement as he pretended to wake up, not so much. That was going to leave a bruise, he thought dimly.

At the very least, he didn't think she had seen through his magic yet. Good. The longer he could keep her from peering into the fairy's mirror, which he quickly took note of, hanging off her hip, the better. Of course, the moment things started looking dangerous, he'd stop pretending to be some kind of distressed damsel, and start his counterattack. He wasn't an idiot, after all.

"W-where?" Trying to pull himself up into a sitting position was actually pretty hard, with both his legs and arms bound, so the struggle to do so was pretty genuine. "You're!"

"We were introduced at the party, weren't we?" Far from the sweet tone that she had taken when she'd served him tea, Sienna Radcliff's voice was filled with distaste. "You imposter human."

As he thought, this woman really did have serious problems with changelings. He was starting to get the picture now- as he'd deduced with Kudo earlier, her father was probably the one behind the murders from four years ago. Most likely, it was after his real daughter had returned to him, likely after she'd killed her own changeling herself.

He had no evidence of that latter claim, of course, but anyone who was so quick to use acid to desecrate a corpse must have had more than a few screws lose. If that victim that had been pulled out of the river wasn't her first, it would explain that in part. As for the rest...

This time, he did let his gaze drift to the fairy's mirror, masking his inner thoughts. With something like that by her side, it was possible that her thoughts had gotten corrupted. There had been a sizeable gap between the first victim, and the mirror being stolen, and he got the feeling it wasn't simply because the broker was looking for just the right person to sell it to.

No, they'd probably known just who they needed to make a deal with. Without that thing, it was possible that Sienna Radcliff might have never resorted to murder- again, at least, if his theory was correct.

Even from here, he could sense it giving off magic. That worked in his favor- the more of it's residual magic that he absorbed, the more powerful he'd be. As long as he didn't take in too much, there would be no problems- though that didn't seem as if it would become a problem.

If anything, it was actually giving off a bit less residual magic than he would have thought. That kind of worried him a bit, but... well, he'd worry about it when it came to it.

"Imposter?" Heiji asked. "What do ya mean?"

"I see. So you don't know." Taking a step forward, Sienna set down the bag that she had brought with her- somehow, Heiji got the feeling he'd rather not become acquainted with any of it's contents, though he could make a good guess as to what was in there. He was human enough that getting stabbed in the heart would definitely kill him.

"Don't know what!?" Heiji demanded, narrowing his eyes. "Ya must be the one. The serial killer that Heiji is tryin' ta find!"

"That's right." That confession was frank- she must have thought she'd already gotten away with it, then. "I am. You don't have to worry though. Once I'm done with you, your boyfriend won't be far behind you."

"Boy-!" The squeak that escaped him was genuine, Kazuha's borrowed voice hitting a rather high note. Who even told her something like that? Was it the broker? Way to rub salt in a wound, reminding him of something that he hadn't managed to do just yet! "Heiji's not my boyfriend!"

"Regardless." Unzipping the bag, Sienna reached in, producing a knife. She'd cleaned it, but there was no doubt that it was the same knife used in the other three murders. "I can't have you lot wandering around, pretending to be human like the rest of us. If I get rid of you, the real human can come back."

"Are ya crazy?" Furrowing her brows, Heiji kept up the act of playing dumb. "What makes ya think I'm some kind of fake in the first place?!"

Had she said this kind of crap to her victims? That just pissed him off. There were some things that people were better off just not knowing. He couldn't have imagined what the fake Sienna Radcliff had been feeling, when the real one appeared before her, and ended her life.

As far as he was concerned, she was the real victim here.

"Do you know what a changeling is?" Sienna asked. "It's not as common a belief in Japan, but of course, they exist here as well. You're proof of that, Toyama Kazuha. Well, not that that's your true name, though."

"Changeling?" Heiji asked, even as he lightly touched the ropes that bound his hands behind his back, loosening them a bit with magic. Judging from the fact that she didn't react to that, she must have not been able to sense magic on her own. "Like I said before, are ya crazy? Somethin' like that obviously isn't real, ya idiot!"

"You have such a boyfriend, and you don't believe?" Arching a brow, Sienna took a step forward, pointing the knife towards what she assumed was her target this time. "I know. For so many years, I grew up in a world that wasn't my own, robbed of my family. I was fortunate, you know. When I made my way back, my father believed everything that I said."

"What, ya kill yer double or somethin'?" Heiji asked.

"I haven't killed anyone." Sienna said- and her tone was so frank, he knew that she believed it to be true. "Murder is only murder if it's done to a human. You, and the others before you, are just fake humans. Fairies and monsters wearing human skin. What's wrong with ridding the world of that which doesn't belong?"

"Then yer father murdered the first four victims?" Heiji asked. "Heiji told me, about the London cases."

"As I said, that which is not human cannot be murdered." Sienna noted, taking a step forward, drawing within Heiji's personal bubble. "I thought that he might have had something to do with them, but I don't know for sure until recently. That's when I got this," resting her free hand on the fairy's mirror, a content smile that gave him chills spread over her face, "...and the truth became clear to me."

But she was right where he wanted her now. Good, if he kept this up, and pressed a little bit more...

Well, there was also a chance that she might simply remove it from her hip and use it instead. It was a gamble, but either way, it wasn't a gamble that he could possibly lose.

"A mirror?" Heiji asked. "What can some of kind crummy mirror do?"

"Show me the truth." As he thought, she went for the mirror, removing it from the tie that dangled it off her belt. Narrowing his eyes, he let the ropes fall from his wrists, all while keeping one eye on the knife, still in her other hand.

The fairy's mirror. No bigger than the size of her palm, no more ornate than a simple hand mirror, but a dreadful item nonetheless. As she lifted it up to her eye, Heiji drew in a breath, reacting the moment she reacted, golden sparks crackling from his hand as the ropes around his ankles fell away too.

"You're not-!"

"Since ya know that, looks like the time fer pretend is over!" Lunging forward, Heiji couldn't help but let a fierce grin surface on his borrowed face. "I'll be havin' ya hand that back over ta me!"

Evading the wild slash that she made with her knife, Heiji knocked it out of her hand, faintly hearing it clatter to the ground a distance behind him. Gripping the mirror tight in her other hand, Sienna put some distance between the two, a clear expression on her face telling him that she hadn't expected this turn of events, and was trying to think of what to do from here.

"What's the matter?" Taking a step forward of his own, Heiji arched a brow. "Didn't ya send me one of yer blank papers too, red neechan? Thought ya'd leap at the chance ta try an' kill me. Or did ya just not expect me ta show up in this form?"

"You... you trickster!" Sienna spat, clutching the mirror tighter. "Where's the real one!?"

"Real one?" Heiji asked, a bemused expression on his face. "Weren't ya the one just ramblin' about Kazuha bein' a fake? Ya should really pick a story an' stick with it, red neechan."

If he could keep her away from both the knife and the bag, it would be his win. Even borrowing Kazuha's appearance, he was still stronger than this woman. He'd rather not find out what she would do with acid when backed into a corner though- if she did something as foolish as try and kill herself, then he'd definitely never get any answers from her.

And since he'd already decided to let Kudo have her, it wasn't like he could depend on the fae folk to ask her from where she had gotten their mirror either. It would be a pain to explain to the queen the reason why he couldn't present her the one who had been killing their kindred, but this was a contest against him he'd rather not win.

The fairy's mirror he'd be taking with him, though.

Shifting on his heel, grateful he'd kicked off Kazuha's heels before getting into this scrap, Heiji closed the distance between her. He didn't know about her father, but the reason as to why she had only targeted women thus far was becoming apparent to him- she wasn't much of a fighter. There was too much of a risk, having a victim who could potentially fight back against her, and judging from the brief expression of panic he saw on her face, it seemed like that was something she wanted to avoid.

Grabbing her wrist, Heiji pulled her towards him, reaching out to take the fairy's mirror from her. First things first, he'd get this thing away from her, and then after that, he'd leave the rest to Kudo, who had surely tracked him here, and was probably waiting-

...outside?

Eyes widening as his fingers brushed against the mirror, he felt the spark before he even saw it. As if some kind of trigger had been ignited, a crackle of magic shot out in the air, powerful enough to force him back, throwing him as far as the door. Hitting his head against the door frame hard enough to draw blood, Heiji groaned, only dimly making out what he was damn sure was the sound of Kudo's voice calling out his name.

Of course he hadn't waited outside, the little jerk. Didn't he say to leave this part to him?

He didn't have long to dwell on that- he felt it, all at once. As if he were in a vacuum, it was as if the air in the room had reversed- not the air, no, but rather, the flow of magic. It was being in- into the mirror.

Damn thing had been booby trapped.

And he'd set it off.

Swearing underneath his breath as he felt his own magic escaping from him, he recalled the stern warning that he had gotten from the fae queen. Since Sienna had already lived in the other world for quite some time, he had thought that it wouldn't be a problem, but if that damn bastard of a broker had planned for something like this then...

"Oi, Hattori, what's going on!?"

Scooping up Conan, he tucked him under one arm, not even needing the sound of Sienna's scream to drown out his protests.

"We're runnin', Kudo!"

"What the hell was that Hattori!?"

"Booby trap." Taking a moment to catch his breath, Heiji let Conan down. They probably had earned a few minutes, which was good- he'd need them. "Things have taken a bad turn."

"So you just left her there?" Conan asked, narrowing his eyes even as Heiji took the duffel bag off of him, unzipping it. "She was obviously in pain!"

"An' there was nothin' I could do about it at that exact second, unless ya wanted ta end up as a dried husk, Kudo." Heiji noted, dumping out the contents onto the floor. "Good thing ya came up here though. It would have been a pain ta fight like this."

"Fight?" Conan asked, his expression a mixture between incredulity and alarm. "What do you mean, Hattori? Explain."

"Ya know how I told ya that if ya happen ta find the fairy's mirror, ya shouldn't touch it?" Heiji asked, pausing for a moment to pick Conan up, turning him so that he faced the other way. "Fairy magic is infinite, an' the same goes fer their items- which have a nasty habit of leakin'. Probably ta punish outsiders who use 'em. There's only so much magic a human body can stand though."

"Makes sense." He actually wasn't really sure if it did or didn't, but since Heiji was the one who knew about this stuff, he wasn't about to refute him. Glancing back behind him, and then very quickly turning his head back around, Conan cleared his throat. "Still doesn't explain that."

Resisting the urge to role his eyes, reminding himself that Conan knew nothing of magic, Heiji gathered together the change of clothes that he had prepared. Fighting in Kazuha's party dress was not his idea of a good time- and he was pretty sure Kazuha would agree with him there, not when she'd spent so much money buying a new one only for him to end up wearing it instead.

Besides, with the spell as it was, it wasn't as if he could return to his real form while wearing it anyways. Fighting in Kazuha's party dress, in her form... he'd rather not.

Fighting buck ass naked, of course, was a total no.

"When fairy magic overloads in a human body, bad things can happen." Heiji continued, before pausing. "Ah, but don't worry, as long as we take the fairy's mirror away from her an' deal with the berserk magic, that red neechan should be able ta recover. It's just... that wasn't supposed ta happen."

"What do you mean?" Conan asked, trying not to pay attention to the sounds of fabric shifting.

"She lived in the fairy's world before, right? If any human should be able to resist that kind of thing, it's one who's been involved with changelings. Since it didn't seem like she kept it on her all the time on top of that, I wasn't that worried." Heiji told him. "But that mirror was rigged with a spell ahead of time."

"By the one who sold it to her?" Conan asked, not needing to look back to know that Heiji had frozen at his question.

"Yeah. Probably set off when I touched it." Heiji told him frankly. "It sparked a vacuum effect, more than she could handle, in short order. An' ta think, I'm the one whose usually drainin' magic from people." Letting out a faint snort, he reached over, turning Conan back around again, ignoring the grumpy expression on his face as he did so. "Usually in cases like these, the magic goes berserk an' takes on a form of it's own, since it doesn't have anywhere else ta go."

"An' that," Heiji noted, reaching underneath his shirt, carefully slipping Kazuha's charm from around his neck. No sooner than he had, her shape gave way to that of his own, the shapeshifting spell breaking. "...is what I need ta fight, an' why ya need ta get out of here, Kudo."

"I can help-!"

"Thanks but," stuffing the clothes that Kazuha had lent him, alongside her charm, within the duffel bag, Heiji dropped it back into Conan's arms. Kazuha was going to kill him if he didn't get those heels back, though. "...this isn't somethin' yer tranquilizer dart can handle, Kudo. Appreciate it though."

Narrowing his eyes for a long moment, Conan made out of the faint sound of something upstairs- something that he couldn't quite place. It sure as hell didn't sound human, at any rate.

"Hear that?" Heiji said, gaze drifting in that direction. "That means ya should run. I'll try an' keep it locked down in this building. Can't have somethin' like that runnin' the streets of Tokyo, or I'll be out of a job."

More like he'd have a hell of a lot more work to do, but damage control wasn't the same thing as protection.

That black market broker... there was no doubt that they had planned for this. It was only natural that it's theft would be reported to him, and that he would chase it's trail. As both a high school detective and a guardian, there was no way that he could turn a blind eye to the chain of serial murders going on. If he had been the one holding it at the time, then...

A shudder ran down his spine- that dry husk thing hadn't just been a figure of speech. A human could survive having all of their magic stolen from them, but he, on the other hand... there wouldn't be much left of him but his physical form after that. If that had been the broker's Plan A, what was happening now was without a doubt, Plan B.

If he couldn't eliminate the one responsible for keeping the boundary intact, then causing a commotion that would be hard to explain away was the next best option, huh?

"Are you alright, Hattori?" Conan asked- crap, it must have shown on his face.

"I'm fine." Holding up a hand, Heiji flashed a smile. "I just got a fair share of my own magic sucked out of me. I'll recover."

"I'm no expert in this, but that doesn't sound good." Conan noted, arching a brow.

"I'll manage." Heiji stressed, glancing down at him. "But I can't protect ya, fight that thing, an' keep it from breechin' the building all at the same time. So if ya don't mind, Kudo, haul yer ass outta here already."

There was a long pause then, as the two of them stared each other down- before Conan let out a long sigh. He didn't like the idea of being helpless in this situation, but Heiji had a point. He couldn't think of anything that he could do, and if he stayed behind, he might only just weigh him down.

"You can bring her back, can't you?" Conan asked. "Sienna-san?"

"I can." Heiji told him, giving him a firm nod of his head. "Trust me, Kudo."

"I do." With that said, Conan gave his friend one last long look, before he turned on his heel, tightly gripping the bag and running as fast as his damnably small legs could carry him. He'd need to get Hakuba away from the building somehow- he didn't want him to get mixed up in this.

To be honest, he'd only really understood half of what Heiji was saying- but he'd impressed enough upon him to let him know that the situation was less than ideal.

And to confirm beyond the shadow of a doubt that someone had it in for him.

Watching as Conan hurriedly made his way down the hall, Heiji let out a long sigh. Manage, he'd said- but the truth was, even in that brief instant, more of his magic had been taken from him that he would like to admit. He would have to be careful with what remained- especially since he had already used up a fair amount of it crafting the shapeshifting magic.

Still, there was no way that he could let that thing rampage out of control. It wasn't just that he didn't want it to get out in the open, but even if she was a murderer, he couldn't say that Sienna exactly deserved this.

She'd been used as a tool. He didn't know how the broker had found out about her father, nor that she would be in the country, but they were obviously more well connected than he'd first thought. The trap that they had set had confirmed one thing for him- it wasn't just a coincidence that thus far, all incidents had occurred in areas that he had involvement in. They were deliberately aiming for him.

To what end? To expose him? No, if they wanted to do that, wouldn't there be easier ways?

He'd think about it later. For now, he had a job to do.

Reaching into his hoodie's pocket, he pulled out four scraps of white paper, tossing them into the air in front of him. With a crackle, their forms twisted and changed, becoming black smoke, before taking solid shape, a quartet of shikigami appearing before him, answering his summons. He wouldn't need to provide magic to them, so they would be useful here.

"Watch the front." He instructed one, before turning to the next. "Watch over Kudo."

He didn't even grumble at their use of young master, as they vanished into the floor, off to perform their tasks. "The two of ya are with me. We're goin' ta finish this before it gets bothersome."

Placing his right hand against his left arm, a crackle of sparks trailed from it, taking the shape of an object- a sword, one that he held tight in his right hand. Hopefully, he wouldn't have to use it much, but it would probably be necessary to cut that red neechan out of it. This wasn't his first rodeo with this type of thing, but that didn't stop it from being a pain in the ass.

Whoever that damn broker was, he'd find them, and bring everything crashing down on them. He didn't know what their problem with him was, but if this was how they wanted to play, then he would be more than happy to reply in kind.

"Let's go, the two of ya." Glancing towards the two remaining shikigami, Heiji drew in a long breath, advancing back the way he had fled from. At the very least, with the trap spell having been activated, it wouldn't be able to be used again- he'd be able to claim the fairy's mirror with ease then, and bring an end to this grisly case.

He was damn glad he'd chased off Hakuba before. Pain in the ass would have probably called the police by now. The last thing he wanted to have to deal with was cops trying to breech the building during all of this. Not to mention, it would be a pain in the ass to try and explain why Kazuha wasn't where she was supposed to be- he supposed a glamour would be enough to fool the police if it came to it, but he'd rather it not.

Making his way up the stairs, back the way he came, he could hear the sounds of chaos up above. Though he was largely unconscious when it happened, from what he'd heard from others, it sounded like a more violent version of his own so-called poltergeist phenomena- fitting, he thought, for something that was so similar in nature, only much worse.

Peering into the hall, Heiji swore underneath his breath. Like he thought, the berserk magic had taken on a form of it's own, a writhing beast that almost seemed to cradle what had become it's host- though she could barely been seen within the slithery mass of magic. He doubted she was conscious anymore. It was hard to describe- it's form wasn't stable, not by a long shot, and even as he watched it, he seemed to change shape again.

Thankfully, the vacuum effect seemed to have stopped. There was no way he could take in that much excess magic by himself, but as long as he managed to get the fairy's mirror away from it, it should calm down and disappear on it's own.

"Yer on guard duty." Glancing to the shikigami on his right, Heiji then turned his attention to the one flanking his left. "An' yer with me, on offense. Make sure not ta hurt the human inside. She needs ta be in one piece ta confess ta the police about her crimes."

"Understood, young master." The shikigami acknowledged. "Be careful."

"I'm always careful!" Heiji told it, even though both he and it knew it wasn't true.

Breathing in, and then out, Heiji gripped his sword tighter, before throwing open the door, catching the mass' attention at once. It didn't have much of a mind of it's own, simply lashing out at everything it could, which was both helpful and troublesome, all at once.

"Now then," grinning from ear to ear, unable to help feel a little excited in spite of everything, Heiji stood his ground, "...why don't ya come at me, ya ugly slime!"

Fast! Were it not for the shikigami he'd placed on defense, he might not have had time to get out of the way of it's lunging attack in time. It was much faster than others of it's type that he had dealt with before. Even then, the shikigami's barrier didn't last much longer before it broke through, shoving it aside as if were still a mere piece of paper.

Fast and aggressive... if this thing had absorbed Sienna's hate, that would only make it more of a pain in the ass.

Still, he'd fought faster- in better condition, granted, but still.

Raising his sword to counter it's blow, it's form changing to look suspiciously like claws, Heiji gritted his teeth, feeling himself being forced back. Swearing under his breath, he kicked it's chest, shoving it back a distance from him, allowing him a moment to catch his breath- and to realize something.

Even when he'd directly touched it, he'd failed to absorb any of it's magic. That was normal- absorbing the magic around him was as natural as it was breathing. It was why he'd had so much trouble with poltergeist phenomena before he'd known- and while there were some supernatural creatures who could protect themselves, even then, touching them directly should work.

If he couldn't dispel it by absorbing it, then what the hell was he supposed to do? Seal it?

Even if he wanted to do that, he didn't have anything to seal it with. The only thing he could think of was the fairy's mirror itself, but without weakening the mass first, how the hell was he supposed to get it?

He wasn't given long to think about it, before the mass lurched at him again. Pivoting on his heel, he avoided it's blow, and launched a counterattack of his own- a testing strike on it's side, as it passed by him. It seemed to work, for only a moment- before the gash closed, leaving him to swear very audibly this time.

He was starting to get the feeling that this one wasn't like the others he'd fought before. Whoever this black market broker was, they must have been one hell of a magician. And what's more, given the way it completely ignored the second shikigami he'd left behind to turn back to focus on him, he was almost pretty damn sure this thing was aiming for him on purpose now.

Again, it lurched forward, just as fast before. Breaking it's strike with his sword, Heiji felt himself skid backwards, before shoving it off again, with another kick to the torso. At least it's attack patterns were simple, he thought, putting a bit more distance between the two. It might be his goal to keep it contained within the building, but the narrow hallways of this place weren't exactly doing him any favors.

If he could just...

Crap, it was coming again. Blocking it's strike again, Heiji readied himself to force it back once more, before it found it pushing against him instead, throwing him with no small degree of force into the wall. Letting out a cough, he shook his head, trying to get rid of the stars from his vision- only to find the mass barreling down on him once more.

This time, he took the wall with him.

With nothing but empty air meeting his back, Heiji swore. Snapping his fingers to summon the shikigami that he'd left behind, he'd probably at least be able to break his fall, but frankly, that was the least of his worries right now.

Because not only had the mass gotten out, he could just faintly make out the outline of police cars in the dark, parked around the building. Sword still held tight in one hand, Heiji grabbed the hood of his hoodie, yanking it up even as he fell, swearing vehemently as if he'd forgotten all other forms of communication other than foul mouthed language.

Why the hell were the police here?

"You called Inspector Megure!?"

"Is there some problem with that, Conan-kun?" He must have raised his voice louder than he had thought, if the portly inspector had overheard him. "Hakuba-kun informed me that Kazuha-chan is being held hostage in there."

"She's not, she's not!" Conan said quickly, shaking his head. "I went to check for myself, and she was nowhere in there!"

Of all the things... he had even told Hakuba to hold off on calling the police until after he had confirmed with him the situation. And how had they gotten here so quickly? Of all the luck... if they went inside the building now, he would have a tough time explaining things. Though it seemed that Heiji had some kind of ability to erase memories, given how sluggish he had been the morning after, it probably wasn't one that came easily.

He didn't understand that much about magic, but with his magic drained as it was, would that even be something he could do this time around?

"Are you sure?" Megure asked, a deep frown on his face. "Hakuba-kun seemed convinced that she was."

"I thought for sure when you came hurrying out of there, it was because you had found her." Hakuba observed, a matching frown on his face. If he didn't miss his guess, it almost sounded as if he was trying to keep the police away from the building- and himself as well. For a brief moment, it didn't make any sense, before he once more recalled Akako's taunting words from earlier.

Did this have something to do with the fact that Hattori Heiji wasn't working with the police? Had he already arrived here, before them? If that was the case, what on earth was going on in that building now?

"At any rate, you should let the police do a sweep of the area, Conan-kun." Hakuba told him. "I'm sure they'll be able to do a more thorough sweep of the area."

"That's..." Opening and closing his mouth, realizing that he didn't have a good excuse as to why they couldn't, he racked his brain for something. At the very least, he could delay them a little bit- and hopefully by that time, Hattori would have gotten everything underneath control.

He had no idea what it was that Hattori planned on doing, but whatever it was, he'd better do it fast. He seemed confident, at least, but he knew him well enough than to put all of his faith in that confidence.

"Is there something you need to tell us, Conan-kun?" Takagi piped up, picking up on the small boy's hesitant mood. He wasn't acting like himself, Conan realized.

"Ah, no." Conan said, shaking his head. "It's just that rather than waste time here, shouldn't we go back to the hotel, where Kazuha-neechan was taken in the first place? There might be more clues there. And it looks like the culprit hasn't come here, so..."

"We've already sent Shiratori-kun and Chiba-kun to the hotel." Megure noted. "You have nothing to worry about there. Hakuba-kun told me that you traced Kazuha-chan to this building though... are you quite sure you were mistaken?"

"Yeah." Nodding his head, Conan glanced over towards it. "I looked over the place from top to bottom, and I didn't see anything or anyone."

"Still, we should give another check, just to be sure." Hakuba noted. "It could be that Toyama-san has simply been hidden in a place that you didn't think to look."

He really couldn't argue with that, not without looking suspicious. Clutching the strap of the duffel bag, grateful that nobody had thought to check it's contents- he would have a tough time explaining why the clothes that the so-called Kazuha had worn at the party were now tucked inside.

"You're right." Conan said slowly. "But there's still a chance that Kazuha-neechan might have escaped, and the culprit is still planning on coming here without knowing that. In that case, shouldn't you move your patrol cars further away?"

"That's true." Megure admitted, turning his head. "Okay, move the patrol cars away, and dim the lights as well. If the culprit really comes here, it'll be a good chance to capture them."

Fighting the urge to let out a sigh of relief, Conan couldn't relax just yet. He'd bought some time, but he could only hope that it was enough for Hattori to fully get the situation under...

...control?

The sound of something crumbling.

"Oi, what's that!?"

Slowly turning his head, a trickle of cold sweat on the back of his neck, Conan's eyes went wide, freezing in place. Even though it was dark, he could make out the form of a human falling from where a piece of the outer wall had seemingly collapsed in on itself, hitting the ground with a sound that couldn't possibly fail to attract attention.

As his eyes fell on the writhing mass that seemed to be falling with him, Edogawa Conan couldn't help but think once more that perhaps in this world, there really were some things that weren't meant to be known.