A/N:

This is 90% my desire to see Hattori and Amuro interact again after the Riddle Solving at Café Poirot case, and 10% my snarky commentary on how Amuro really should know who Conan is already. Everyone gets selective stupidity when it comes to Conan's identity...

This was originally in the first draft of my other fic, Fractured Onyx, but I realized that it was starting to not have much to do with the plot or the setting of the fic so I scrapped it. But now it's back, bigger and better and completely stand-alone!

"Apprentice Detective"

It's a rainy day when Conan and that Osakan friend of his comes stepping into Café Poirot a little before noon, both looking a little wet.

Rei greets them with his typical smile and leads them to a booth. After taking their orders, he keeps his ears perked as he sets about making the drinks they ordered. Because this Hattori Heiji had said some very curious things about Conan the last time they had met, and more information about Edogawa Conan could never hurt.

"- then why are you here alone?" Conan is grumbling.

"Can't I just come ta see ya sometime?" Hattori says in return, unfalteringly cheery.

Glancing up from pouring juice into a glass, Rei can see Conan looking decidedly unimpressed with that response. Rei lets a small snort escape his lips at the sight.

"Okay, okay," Hattori says with a chuckle, his hands shooting up defensively. "Look, Kazuha's birthday is comin' up this week, and she was apparently ravin' about these red bean buns ya can only get in Tokyo."

"So you came all the way to Tokyo in secret just to buy her them," Conan says drily, a knowing smirk on his face. He leans his head against a hand.

"Shut up, Ku- ouch!" Hattori cuts himself off suddenly, a wince contorting his face. From the corner of Rei's eye, he can vaguely see Hattori glare at Conan.

Rei makes sure his gaze is completely fixed on the coffee machine and his hands busy with pressing buttons.

"My bad," Hattori apologizes finally, quiet enough that Rei has to strain a little to hear him. But he hadn't made it as a spy without being particularly talented at eavesdropping. "Don't think he's listenin' though – I mean, ya know, how observant can someone apprenticed to that old man be? And –" Here, Hattori starts to speak softly enough that even Rei has to admit his defeat.

Conan mutters something back, then in a normal volume asks, "But why did you come visit me first?"

"Heh." Hattori laughs awkwardly, "So there's one problem – I don't exactly know which shop she was talkin' about. I was hopin' ya might have an idea?"

"I don't know anything about sweets, Hattori," Conan says bluntly, "Why don't you ask Ran?"

"If I ask that miss, she'll be sure ta tell Kazuha," grumbles Hattori.

Sensing an opportunity, Rei places their drinks onto a tray and walks out from behind the counter.

"Just tell her it's a secret for Kazuha's birthday," Conan points out reasonably as Rei walks towards them. "Ran will love it, she'd never tell."

"As if I could admit something that embarrassing, dumbass," Hattori snaps, scowling. He crosses his arms and leans back in his seat, glancing away with a flushed face.

"I see…" says Conan. His tone of voice said everything about how he felt about Hattori's reaction.

Taking the last few steps to their table, Rei finally speaks up. "She was probably talking about Mame-Ichizu. The high school girls who come to the café are always talking about it."

Two pairs of eyes turn to stare at him – Hattori in surprise, Conan in trepidation. Rei smiles charmingly at them both and hands out their drinks – orange juice for Conan, coffee for Hattori – then straightens back up, gripping the tray. He continues. "My apologies. I couldn't help but overhear part of your conversation" – here, Conan's eyes begin boring a hole into Hattori's face and oh dear, Conan really needed to learn how to keep a good poker face – "and I'm rather familiar with cafés and food speciality stores myself, so I know a few places that are known for their red bean buns."

Hattori continues to stare at Rei for a little while longer, eyes widening slowly.

"Seriously, Amuro-san!?" he exclaims, moments after Rei begins to half-worry that his eyes were going to pop out of his face."Could ya tell me whatcha know if it's not too much trouble?"

"I can do better," says Rei smoothly, letting his charming smile widen. "If you're willing to wait a few minutes longer, I'll be off my shift and I can take you myself. It's the least I can do after the terrible experience you had at Poirot the last time."

(Though well, Rei suspects that Hattori had enjoyed solving that incident as much as he had. But that wouldn't be helpful to point out if he wanted to get what he wanted.)

"That wasn't your fault," Hattori says immediately, reaching out a hand to playfully rub Conan's head. "It's this guy's fault – I swear, he's cursed! Whenever I hang out with 'im, we run into a murder."

Conan swats at Hattori's hand irritably, then looks up at Rei with eyes shining with all the innocence of the child he wasn't. Rei is unmoved.

"Aren't you pretty busy, Amuro-san?" he says brightly.

Rei responds the same way he did with most things, with a genial smile.

"I'm just an apprentice detective after all, I don't get a lot of clients," Rei lies easily, "I suppose if you really don't want me to help your friend, Conan-kun, there is something I could do instead." He lets his smile fade for a moment, which was easy enough when thinking of him. "I was thinking of investigating someone over in Beika District 2 this afternoon…"

"- It's great that you're helping Heiji-niichan, Amuro-san!" Conan says rapidly, recovering quickly.

Rei lets his smile return to his face. Conan was so easy to read sometimes.

And that suspicious reaction makes Rei really want to rip down Okiya Subaru's stupid collar to se– not the time. Rei forces himself back to the here and now. 'Okiya Subaru' should still be at the Kudo mansion to investigate tomorrow. For now, there were other leads to follow.

"Well, it's up to you, Hattori-san," Rei says, turning his gaze back towards Hattori. Then to sweeten the pot a little bit, because Rei preferred not leaving things to chance, he continues, "Poirot's actually a relatively popular date spot, and the girlfriends always get so dejected when their boyfriend just gets them a random thing when they wanted this specific item…"

"She's not my girlfriend!" Hattori exclaimes, face a little red, and oh, Rei didn't doubt that was true, but he also didn't doubt that Hattori would like for her to be his girlfriend. He smiles and waits, and true to his expectations, Hattori finally says, a little quietly, "I uh, would 'ppreciate it if ya could help me out, Amuro-san."

"Of course," Rei says cheerfully, "Anything for a friend of Conan-kun's. I'll tell you two when I'm off my shift – should be done in about fifteen minutes."

Holding the tray with one hand, he gives the two of them a little wave with the other then turns around, intending to head to the kitchen area to wash some dishes until his shift was over. But halfway there, he's stopped by a tugging at his apron.

Glancing back, he sees Conan standing there with a troubled expression, looking as though he wants to say something. Humouring him, Rei leans down to match Conan's line of sight.

"What is it, Conan-kun?" he asks.

Quietly, so very quietly, Conan whispers, "Why are you doing this, Amuro-san? Ha- Heiji-niichan isn't anyone suspicious, you know?"

"Conan-kun," Rei begins, just as quietly as Conan, "You seem to be misunderstanding something again. It's not Hattori-san I'm interested in. I look forwards to today, Shin-" Rei purposefully stops himself and lets out a small laugh. "Ah, my bad, Conan-kun."

Conan seems to be trying to school his expression, but too little, too late. Rei hums a little as he straightens up and makes the rest of his way back to the sink.

He did so love cornering in on a culprit.

When his shift ends and Rei returns to the main café area from the staff-only area, the atmosphere is a little different. A little tenser. Hattori's smiles a little more awkward, Conan's coughs a little more common.

Rei expected as much.

He wonders what plan Conan had thought up to assuage his suspicions. And more importantly, he wonders what similarities it would have with the plan Conan had thought up to convince Rei that Okiya Subaru wasn't Akai Shuuichi.

(Rei is admittedly getting a little annoyed at getting shown up so often by a child at the very least ten years his junior. It was about time he tried picking Conan's brain a little.)

See, despite what he had hopefully gotten Conan to assume – that child was frighteningly sharp at times, so unfortunately Rei realizes that his manipulations might have failed – Rei had no need to really investigate whether Edogawa Conan was Kudo Shinichi because he already knew for a fact that they were. Conan frequented Café Poirot often enough that it was child's play (no pun intended) to obtain his fingerprints, and getting Kazami to run a check through the police database? Also a simple matter.

He had always been a little curious about the connection between Edogawa Conan and the Kudos, but he had initially assumed that Conan was Kudo Yusaku's illegitimate child and left it at that. Kudo Yusaku had been involved in a mild cheating scandal seven to eight years ago – the timeline fit. There were more important things to investigate.

Rei hadn't thought more of it until Hattori Heiji had let drop, "Hey, Wada Shinichi has the same name as you!"

Oh, Conan had made some panicked excuses to explain away the slip, but it was terribly obvious from both of their reactions that the original statement had been true. And at that moment, Rei recalled the rumours about the drug department's investigations into immortality pills, and recalled Vermouth, who seemed to never age no matter how many years passed.

And so he had investigated, and so his investigation had succeeded. But judging from Conan's nervous reaction, Conan had no idea that Rei had known – which meant that he should try to cover things up. And well, even if he knows that Conan must be Kudo Shinichi, he isn't sure about anything else - primarily, how it had happened. It isn't as if Rei can risk putting out feelers in the Organization to figure things out, because the last thing he wants is to put a target on Conan and the Mouris, so all he can do is target the enigma in question.

But Rei is nothing if not good at taking people off their guard. As they head to the train station, Rei does his best to make the atmosphere a little less tense, making inane small talk. By the time they arrive at the station, Rei feels comfortable enough to begin probing a little deeper.

"So," Rei says as he taps his card on the turnstile and steps through it. "Hattori-san, you're a high school detective like Sera-san, right? How impressive."

"Well, my pops is a police superintendent, so I always grew up 'round mysteries," Hattori explains easily as he passes through the turnstile next to him, "Before I knew it, I was solving 'em. Not that my pops was happy 'bout that, but whatever."

"Ah, so you got into crime-solving through your father," muses Rei. The three of them step down the staircase to the train platform. Once they arrive the platform and stop, Rei continues, "I suppose that's like that other high school detective then, what was his name…" Rei puts a finger against his lips, a faux pensive expression on his face. "Right, Kudo Shinichi. His father is a famous mystery writer, isn't he?" Rei looks to the side towards at the two younger detectives and flashes a bright smile. "I don't suppose you know him, do you, Hattori-san?"

"Oh, uh, we are – were best friends, but I haven't heard from 'im in a while," Hattori responds, eyes wandering to the side. "Maybe he died or something! Aha…"

"I doubt that," Rei says, "Ran-san often gets calls from him, after all. In fact, I even overheard her at Poirot talking with her friends about how he had confessed to her in London, of all places," Rei sees Conan twitch, looking a slight bit embarrassed. "I suppose he has been rather low-key in the public eye these past months, but if he was intending to pretend to be dead, he's rather failed spectacularly. Anyone could easily verify that he's still alive just by talking with the Mouris."

Here, Rei narrows his eyes at Conan pointedly, because he was being much too blasé if he really was in hiding from the Organization. If anyone in the Organization suddenly decided to investigate Kudo Shinichi, they could find he was still alive – though perhaps not that he was Edogawa Conan – in moments.

Conan was saved from having to respond by the train coming into the station, the rushing wind and the voice from the speakers announcing the train's arrival drowning out any other noises. After waiting for passengers to exit, the three of them enter the train. It's moderately busy, but thankfully it isn't rush hour – there aren't any free seats, but there's enough room to comfortably stand without being squished.

When they got themselves settled in, a firm grip on a hanging strap – Hattori and Rei – or on a pole – Conan, due to his height – Hattori quickly changes the subject.

"Forgot about Kudo," he says with an awkward laugh. "Amuro-san, why dijya become a detective?"

Rei is rather unimpressed with the obvious deflection, but restores his smile to his face and lies smoothly, "Oh, because it's fun."

"What, that's it?" Hattori comments, a note of surprise in his voice. "Well, I guess it ain't like I don't get that cases are fun, but ya didn't have anything that made ya really wanna do it?"

At Hattori's questioning look and sincere eyes, without thinking, Rei mutters, "To protect Japan or something…" and regrets it immediately. But it's too late to take it back – both Conan and Hattori look as though they heard him.

"Huh? Ta protect Japan?" Hattori repeats, letting out a chuckle. "You're funnier than I thought ya were, mister!"

Rei lets out a short, irritated sigh at himself and decides to double down. "My childhood wasn't too great, you see. So I have a lot of experience with terrible people, with prejudice, but" – Rei closes his eyes for a moment, letting the din of the crowd around them distract him from the memories he didn't want to think about – "I also have a lot of experience with how kind people can be too." He opens his eyes and smiles, a touch more sincerely than usual. "So I wanted to give back."

"Wouldn't it be better for ya to be a police officer than a private eye, then?" Hattori points out, and well, it was a reasonable question to ask Amuro Tooru, independent investigator.

"Probably," Rei says, then lied through his teeth. "But I didn't have the greatest impression of the police as a child. Social services, and all."

If Scotch were here, he would probably break down into uncontrollable laughter and tell stories of Rei excitedly chasing after patrol cars and begging officers for stories of cases. But Scotch isn't here, isn't anywhere, so Rei just smiles charmingly.

"Well, ya can't be too much older than us," Hattori says, "If ya really wanted to, couldn't ya join the Academy now?"

Rei can't help but let out a light laugh at that.

"Hey, Hattori," Conan says drily, "Amuro-san is twenty-nine."

"What!?" Hattori exclaims loudly, loud enough that the people around them stop their own conversations to stare disapprovingly at him. After quickly apologizing, he turns back to Rei and continues in quieter voice, "Ya really don't look that old!"

"I'll take that as a compliment," says Rei, and at that moment a scream rings out in the compartment.

It's a murder, probably. It's always a murder - not that Rei doesn't enjoy solving cases, but he does admit he prefers it when people stay alive.

"Ishi-kun!" cries a woman from close behind him, the voice sounding anguished.

Though in Rei's experience the pain in her voice meant nothing – he had heard just as much emotion coming out the mouths of unrepentant murderers. Coming out of his mouth, even.

(Not that there was much difference between the two.)

Rei whirls around and takes in the sight in front of him. A young woman – fashionable clothing, attractive (at least as far as Rei could tell) – is on her knees next to a young man convulsing on the ground. The man convulses once, twice, tries to choke something out, then closes his eyes and moves no more. The young woman begins to desperately shake the man's shoulders, tears falling from her eyes.

Convulsions before collapsing – strychnine, perhaps? It would have to be a fairly large dose in order to kill someone so quickly, though. Maybe something else then – or perhaps the murder hadn't been as successful as the murderer had hoped.

"Step back!" Hattori shouts immediately, mainly towards the lady but also towards the small crowd of people in the compartment. The lady stops shaking the man's shoulders at the sound, but doesn't let go.

Rei looks around for the emergency stop button in the compartment and places a hand on it. They would arrive at the next station in moments, by his reckoning – best to wait until they arrived than to stop the train in the middle of a tunnel. He hopes no one hits the button in another compartment.

Conan, meanwhile, gets out his cellphone, but judging from his frustrated expression there was no reception, as expected.

The speakers announce the name of the station they were approaching, but it's almost drowned out by the increasing volume of chatter in the compartment. People are beginning to notice the dead body and either panicking – their faces paling, their legs shaking – or snapping pictures with their smartphones, presumably to text to their friends later.

"I said step back, lady," says Hattori sharply, stepping to the body. He forces her back from the body – she looks too shell-shocked to react – and shoves a finger on the neck's pulse point. He whips his head around and snaps, "He's still alive, Kud- I mean, he's still alive!"

Only attempted murder after all then, or perhaps just an accident. Well, whatever it was, Rei was confident he could make the truth clear soon enough.

As the train comes into the next station, Rei slams a hand on the emergency stop button.

The victim – Higa Ishin, university student, twenty-five – is miraculously still alive when the paramedics come to take him away. On arrival at the station, the passengers in the relevant compartment were immediately herded away by subway security to a large room to wait for the actual police to arrive. The train itself had been sent to a nearby train lot for later inspection by the police.

When the police arrive – Conan must have specifically requested Inspector Megure and Officer Takagi, because otherwise Rei couldn't imagine how they could always be the ones sent – it's easy enough to get them to allow the three detectives to participate in the investigation after a cursory inspection of their belongings.

(And while that was all very convenient for Rei, he couldn't help but internally lament the state of the Japanese police force for so eagerly accepting the help of outsiders. It wasn't as bad when it was Japanese detectives they were relying on, but Rei had seen for himself how they had been willing to let Starling do as she pleased with barely a stern word in warning.)

(But Rei's influence was limited to his few direct subordinates. He was in no position to affect the Tokyo police department, and besides, it wasn't as if he weren't partly to blame as well for taking advantage of incompetence.)

Forensics had found the contents of the victim's backpack drenched with the poison, but the only other poison found had been on the soles of his friends standing near him, which could be explained by the victim's backpack leaking out poison when he collapsed. The container for the poison had been found in the backpack, but it had no fingerprints and was missing its twist-top cap.

The paramedics apparently hadn't determined where exactly the poison had entered the body yet, but possibilities included ingestion or through a number of small cuts on his left hand (the victim had been apparently learning how to sculpt with wood for these past few months, and still wasn't too skilled with a knife.) Based on security footage, the victim himself, his two friends, and his girlfriend had been the only ones to interact with the backpack during the train trip – and so they were the ones under suspicion.

"Could you describe what happened after you four got on the train? We would appreciate it if you could specifically describe how you interacted with Higa-san's backpack," Takagi is asking the young woman from earlier – Jou Kano, also a university student, eyes a little red-rimmed – from a seat in front of her. They're still in the train station – the woman and Takagi now in a smaller room being used as a makeshift questioning room. The rest of them were watching from a window in the door - as the woman had her back to the door, she couldn't see the extra audience.

(Hattori is holding up Conan so he could see. The serious expression on the child's face despite being ungracefully held a metre up in the air makes Rei have to hold back a smile.)

Takagi had already questioned the first two suspects – Hatsuno Tomo, perpetually nervous, always fiddling with her hands, and Nanba Tsuu, loud, deep voice, still rather boisterous despite the death. The two of them were both Higa Ishin's friends and fellow art major university students. Now, the only one left to question was Jou, the victim's girlfriend.

Based on the testimonies, Nanba was Jou's ex-boyfriend and might've resented Higa for dating her. A weak motive, but Rei had seen people kill for less. Nanba swore that he had been the one to break up with Jou, however.

Higa and Jou had gotten into a car accident a few months back while Higa was driving – Jou still hadn't regained full use of her right hand. An artist's hands were their life. It wasn't unreasonable for Jou to have begun to resent Higa enough to want to kill him.

Higa had apparently been apprenticed to Hatsuno's father for years until he stole a painting and passed it off as his to gain popularity in the artistic world. Hatsuno's father had apparently cared too much for Higa to reveal the deception, and no one else had noticed as Higa's work had been similar to his master's. But Hatsuno claimed that her father didn't believe in revenge and neither did she.

Rei turns his attention back towards the questioning.

"Right after we got on, Ishi-kun" – and here, the woman lets out a small sob – "asked Nanba-kun if he wanted a drink of water, and when he said yes, Nanba-kun grabbed the water bottle from the backpack. Nanba-kun had slept in and had needed to run to get to the station on time – we go to art class together every week at this time, see – so he looked pretty out-of-breath."

Jou takes a deep breath, dabs at her eyes with a handkerchief, then continues, "Once Nanba-kun was finished drinking, he gave the bottle back to Ishi-kun, and Ishi-kun drank from it before putting it back in the backpack himself. Then I noticed, I noticed that Ishi-kun's hair was looking a little messy because of the wind and rain, so I got out a comb from his backpack's side pocket and combed his hair a little. Once I was done I put the comb back into the backpack and started holding Ishi-kun's hand. After that, uh, since I was holding his hand, he asked Hatsuno-chan to put away his umbrella into its bag then into his backpack for him, and she did."

The woman frowns then says quickly, "Oh! But she did drop it at first and Ishi-kun had to pick it back up because it rolled to his feet." – and Rei's eyes narrow, because neither of the other two had mentioned that vital fact in their statements.

"Did you notice anything strange before or after Higa-san collapsed?" Takagi asks.

"There is one thing," Jou says, "There was this strange dark-skinned Osakan who jumped at me and pulled me back from Ishi-kun."

Rei has to glance to the side to see Hattori's reaction, and he doesn't disappoint. Hattori is looking terribly annoyed, but, Rei notices, Conan is nowhere to be seen. Hm, if he were Conan...

"Did Conan-kun go to check the other two for the cap?" Rei asks quietly.

"Oh, ya figured out too?" says Hattori, and Rei is a little offended despite himself at the surprise in his voice.

Rei gestures for him to step aside from the door, and the two of them step out a little further down the hallway, far enough that their voices wouldn't reach the room inside.

"I didn't figure it out exactly until Jou Kano mentioned that little act of clumsiness," Rei says, placing a hand on his chin thoughtfully. "But I knew that cap would be the key piece of evidence for this case from the start. I worried that the culprit might've disposed of it and we'd need to go hunting, but given her temperament, I doubt she did."

"If she did, we're gonna hafta get creative," Hattori says, "But hopefully Kudo" - and either Hattori had just given up, or Conan really didn't care if Rei knew who he was - "will figure it out. But there's still one mystery, isn't there?"

"Hm? What part?" asks Rei, genuinely curious.

"Well, how the culprit got the poison on the umbrella in the first place, right?" Hattori points out, but hadn't that issue been solved with Jou's testimony?

"Isn't that obvious?" says Rei, frowning. "The culprit spilled the poison onto the compartment's floor. It's a rainy day and the poison is odorless and colourless. It would blend in easily with the wet, dirty floor. And the poison was found on the soles of everyone's shoes."

"I thought 'bout that, but it would be pretty dangerous," Hattori says, contemplative. "Even if the poison only affects people when ingested or taken in the bloodstream, spilling it on the floor means people other than the target could die if they tripped and scraped their knee or somethin'."

Rei holds back his initial instinct to say, 'But other people dying is good for the murderer, it hides the true target,' because logically, Rei understands perfectly well that most murderers – or in this case, attempted murderer – were not so absolutely heartless. No, most murderers only killed someone they could justify killing.

She conned away all my money, someone might insist. He cheated on me and broke my heart, another would cry.

(They need to die to solidify my position in the Organization, Rei would cry. It's for the sake of Japan, Rei might insist.)

So instead he argues his reasoning properly.

"The culprit's motive is that the victim took credit for her father's work," Rei begins, "But I doubt she solely blames Higa Ishin. I wouldn't be surprised if she also blamed society as a whole for so easily believing that Higa's work was his own. Someone like that... I don't think they'd hesitate at risking collateral damage."

"I guess you're right," Hattori concedes, "Spillin' it on the floor does make the most sense. Either way, so long as she still has that cap, we should be fine."

"There is one thing we can verify to check our reasoning," Rei says, "If the poison was applied at that point..."

"...then there should be poison on the umbrella itself, not just the umbrella bag it was in," Hattori finishes, nodding. He grins, "We can ask forensics for that. Amuro-san, you're actually a decent detective!" Hattori trails off into a mutter, "Complete opposite of that useless old man..."

"Thank you," Rei says with a laugh, injecting sincerity in his voice even as internally, he wants to roll his eyes. He didn't need to be told that by anyone.

Rei gives Hattori a nod of acknowledgement, then they head to talk with forensics.

After that, it had been easy enough to corner in on the culprit.

Forensics had confirmed that the umbrella had poison on both the inside and outside of the umbrella bag. When they had met back up with Conan, he was certain that Hatsuno Tomo was keeping the cap in her boot - he hadn't gone into detail on how exactly he had figured that out, but Rei presumed it had involved much of his usual trickery.

The culprit was, of course, Hatsuno Tomo. She had spilled the poison onto the ground, so when she dropped the umbrella, it rolled through the poison. And so, it had poisoned the victim when he had picked it up with open wounds on his hand. Given that the group of friends went to art class every week and Jou apparently often claimed one of Higa's hands for herself, she would've just needed patience to wait for a rainy day where she was asked to put the umbrella away for him.

She had spilled the remainder of the poison in the backpack in order to obfuscate the murder 'weapon', but while she could avoid leaving fingerprints on the container by holding and hiding it in her coat sleeve, actually opening the container would require a turning motion - something difficult to do through a thick coat sleeve. Getting out a handkerchief or napkin would've raised the risk she was spotted - she had no choice but to quickly twist the cap off with her bare fingers, leaving behind fingerprints.

While she could've disposed of it earlier - and honestly, in her position, Rei would've gotten rid of the cap immediately - she had been too afraid to let go of the cap in a station full of cameras that could potentially be crawling with police officers. She had been planning to wipe away the fingerprints in the bathroom, but unfortunately for her, the three friends had almost immediately been singled out as major suspects and when she went to the bathroom, a female officer accompanied her.

When Hatsuno had been confronted, she confessed easily enough. The motive was, as expected, revenge for what she viewed as her father's humiliation. Apparently she wasn't as zen as her father was.

By the time the police finish taking their statements and let them go, it's past dinnertime. They stand near a wall in the train station, Rei and Conan watching as people walked by while Hattori checks his phone for the bullet train schedule.

"Seriously though, are ya cursed, Kudo?" Hattori groans, looking up from his phone to send a half-hearted glare at Conan. Conan just gives him a deadpan look in return. "Argh, I gotta head back to Osaka now and I still haven't got Kazuha a gift."

"From the way you talk of her, you seem close. I'm sure you'll find something," says Rei, giving him an encouraging smile.

"Thanks, mister," Hattori says with a sigh, slipping his phone back into his pocket. Then he perks up. "Oh, yeah, Amuro-san, I wanted ta ask ya something, if it's not too much trouble."

"What is it?" Rei asks, because he isn't in the business of agreeing to do something without knowing what it is.

"I'll give ya my phone number, so could ya text me when Kudo is up ta something stupid?" Hattori asks brightly, "This brat doesn't know when to ask for help, and well, you're police an' all so ya gotta be more used to relying on backup."

Rei freezes for an instant, then sighs and gave a look to Conan. Is this payback for his 'Kudo Shinichi' prodding?

"I didn't tell him," Conan responds, looking just as surprised as Rei feels.

"Heh, it was easy 'nough to tell," says Hattori, voice smug, and Rei swallows, because if it's that easy to tell, that doesn't bode well for him. Rei listens closely and hopes the reasoning is something unique to Hattori. "Since Kudo didn't panic when he said that ya knew who he was" – dammit, did he have no intimidation factor anymore? – "you had ta be someone he trusted, and I didn't think he'd trust some random detective."

"You're a random detective," mutters Conan.

"I'm your best friend," retorts Hattori, "Anyways, so I was lookin' real hard for somethin' that could make Kudo trust ya, then I noticed when he convinced Officer Takagi ta let us help out with that investigation, just for a moment, ya looked real like my old man."

"Sorry? Your father, the superintendent?" Rei asks, raising an eyebrow. As a long-time spy, he had never had too much power in the police department - honestly, he was surprised his higher-ups had even given him subordinates. Rei can't imagine what he'd have in common with a superintendent.

"Yeah, your expression went all dark, like ya were thinkin', 'What d'ya think you're doing, letting this outsider participate in the investigation, Otaki?'" Hattori explains, his voice going mockingly deep as he says the second part. He lets out a snort. "It was only for a flash though, wouldn't have even noticed if I wasn't real used ta that expression and if I wasn't looking closely."

"Just that?" asks Rei, because the logic is still a little too vague to be satisfying.

"Well, there was also that ya were way too good of a detective to be an apprentice of that useless detective," Hattori says. "I was a little too distracted to notice last time, but ya definitely were holding yer own during this investigation. Ya had ta have another motive to willingly apprentice yourself to that old man."

And alright, yes, Rei supposes that would be suspicious to anyone who knew the true nature of Sleeping Kogoro but didn't know his true mission as an Organization operative spying on the detective.

"But yeah, it was basically intuition," Hattori finishes, laughing, and Rei feels a flash of irritation at that because intuition, really? But Rei can't deny that Hattori's intuition had been spot-on, and it was a talented detective that could make good use of their intuition to figure out a mystery.

Finally, Rei lets out a sigh. At least Hattori had figured it out in a way that no Organization member should be able to duplicate. Rei would have to work harder at completely crushing his feelings though – the fact that anyone had been able to see through him grated at him.

(I suspected you from back when we were in the Organization, echoes in his mind and Rei holds back his desire to clench his teeth together.)

He presses a finger to his lips and smiles. "I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about."

Hattori blinks at him for a second, then shrugs. "Okay, I get it. But will ya send me those texts?"

Nope. It's bad enough that Conan has involved himself in Organization affairs. He isn't about to get another kid involved.

"I would love to, but I don't have a private phone," Rei lies smoothly, charming smile still on his face.

"Oh, really," says Hattori flatly, sounding like he doesn't believe a word coming out of Rei's mouth. Rei supposes that can't be helped. "Well, whatever, I figured ya wouldn't agree. I'll just have ta come visit more often!"

"Don't you have school?" Conan deadpans, raising an eyebrow.

"Geh," Hattori grumbles, "Don't remind me. Speaking of which though," Hattori glances at his watch, "I really gotta catch my train. See ya later, Amuro-san, Kudo!"

Rei watches as Hattori waves them a goodbye before looking down at Conan.

"You didn't panic, huh?" Rei comments mildly, leaning down a little to get closer to Conan.

"Why would I panic, Amuro-no-niisan?" says Conan in a bright, childish tone of voice that Rei knew he was using to get on his nerves, before continuing in a more normal voice. "After all, Amuro-san, you must've suspected for a while and didn't do anything, right? You would've only confronted me when you were sure." Conan smiles up at Rei, expression a touch smug. "If I had to guess, you probably ran my fingerprints."

Rei clicks his tongue in irritation at being read so easily, then smiles because that was what he always did. "I would've thought you would at least try to hide your identity. It's not like you don't have experience hiding people's identities, no?"

"Huh? I don't know what you're talking about, Amuro-no-niisan, I'm just a kid," Conan says in that childish tone again, and Rei's smile tightens. He straightens up.

"If that's how you want to play it, then fine," Rei says, voice and expression carefully controlled. "It doesn't matter. I'll find him out sooner or later." With a bit of difficulty, he restores his smile to his face and holds out a hand to Conan. "Now come on, Conan-kun, I'll take you back to the Mouri Detective Agency. It's dangerous for a child to be walking around alone at night, after all."

Conan looks up at him with a thoughtful expression for a beat too long, but in the end, takes his hand. Rei widens his smile at him - and finally, the kid's looking a little disconcerted - and then they're heading off.

A/N:

Yes, the names of the suspects and the victim are all unrepentant puns. I regret nothing, except maybe that I couldn't figure out a clever way to transform 'murderer' into a name.

For those of you wondering about my AkaAmu stuff, I got ten thousand words into my next fic then decided this really wasn't going well and started up a new idea. Aha... I'll probably post a new fic before the end of the year. Probably.