Fux's writing

"Fell into a pile of broken glass when I was wrestling with a perpetrator," he had mumbled as an explanation and looked away from her. A clear sign that this was not true, or at least not the whole story.

Kazuha immediately stopped rummaging through the first aid kit - which she had bought especially for Heiji; her parents would have noticed the many missing items sooner or later - and fixed him with her gaze. "I don't care how you got these wounds - not really - but the point is that this has to stop, Heiji!" Her eyes searched his, but they didn't find them. "Your body is just a collection of scars. Don't you realise that it's destroying you?" It still amazed her to this day how he had managed to keep the whole thing a secret from her for so long. He had never let on that he was in pain, but he had to be. The patches of unhealthy colour on his skin spoke volumes. It had been only by chance that she had discovered them when she held Heiji by the arm and he then winced slightly. She had then pushed up his sleeve and confronted him. Yet again, he denied his situation.

"I'm fine," he said, finally looking up, but his eyes were strangely dull.

"You might be, but your body isn't!"

"It's been through worse."

"'Perhaps, but how many times more' Heiji?" Her voice softened towards the end. "Everyone has their limits and you'll soon reach yours. Although they're usually only minor injuries, there are a lot of them ... Take better care of yourself, will you? ..." She looked down at her hands, which were slowly resuming their work. Heiji remained silent and she did not press him to answer. He had to think about it and conclude for himself that it wasn't good for him. She couldn't order him to do it, she had no right to, nor would it do any good.  "It will sting a bit ..." she finally said and pressed cotton wool soaked in alcohol onto one of the fresh cuts on his arm. He endured it without any emotion.

At school, Heiji behaved as usual, joked around and never, ever stopped smiling. At first, even the injuries he sustained lessened and Kazuha thought that everything would go well in the end. He certainly tried harder to avoid slipping into the most dangerous cases unprepared and to proceed more conscientiously. At least that's what she thought. Until she received a phone call one Sunday.

" Um ... Kazuha ... I need your help ..." his voice rang through the receiver and it didn't sound at all as if everything was all right. He was breathing heavily and every now and then he was shaken by a half-stifled cough.

"Heiji! What the hell happened?" Kazuha pressed the phone tighter to her ear as if it would get her a quicker answer.

"Later... please just come quickly."

"You're home?" she asked, her heart pounding. She was already at the front door and had her key in her hand.

"Yes ..." Even that short word ended in a croak. What had happened to him? He hadn't hurt himself - he wouldn't do that, would he?

"Heiji‼ I'll be right with you," she announced her arrival at the Hattoris' house. His parents didn't seem to be there, otherwise he would certainly have called them first. When Kazuha received no reply, she quickened her pace again and skipped several steps on the way up. What she saw when she pushed open the door to his room took her breath away.

Heiji was leaning against the wall at the back and covered in bruises. The skin on his arms had been scraped off in places, as if he had fought someone. And he was holding his leg.

"I think it's sprained," he said as she approached him and rubbed his ankle with his right hand.

Kazuha looked at him in disbelief. "Who was that Heiji?"

"I tripped ... I should probably clean up after all." He put on a smile as if he had just fallen down and would get up again in a moment. As if he wasn't lying in front of her, pressed against the wall in pain. She couldn't understand why he was doing this. At the moment, nothing else entered her brain except that he was injured and needed help. There was no room for further thought.

"We should call an ambulance," she heard herself say quietly.

Heiji laughed lightly in the background, but it seemed false.  "That's rubbish. I just need to rest a bit and then I'll be fine."

Kazuha slowly lifted her gaze from his leg to his head and paused at his eyes. "That's not funny, Heiji. Maybe you haven't noticed, but I'm worried about you! I bet your parents would be too if they saw you like that!" Heiji had opened his mouth slightly to say something back, but after her last words, it instantly closed and his gaze slid to the side.  Somehow he suddenly seemed ... colder.

Kazuha had a terrible hunch.

"Please just bring me the first-aid kit," he said in a tone that made it clear he didn't want to talk about it any further. She briefly considered whether she should persuade him to do so, but then she lowered her hands and nodded silently. First, they should deal with his wounds. Everything else would come later.

If she knew how she could help him better, she would. But even she could only apply the most necessary first aid measures and a doctor could certainly have done more.  But Heiji refused to call one. 

"The bruises will probably heal, but if your foot is really sprained, then it needs to be splinted! If you don't want to go to hospital, then you should at least see a doctor." The whole time she was trying to talk some sense into him, but he remained incredibly stubborn. "Please."

Heiji twisted his mouth to the side and then rubbed his left arm. "Maybe I was exaggerating. I just need to put my leg up a little and then it'll be fine tomorrow."

"Don't talk bollocks, Heiji. You can hardly move without making a face!" Kazuha gave him an angry glare. Didn't he understand that he wasn't doing himself any favours?

"What am I supposed to do?" Heiji returned her look. "They're hardly going to believe that I tripped."

"And I don't believe you either!" Her hands clenched into fists as she continued to speak. "Nobody looks like that just because they tripped. So tell me, ... was it your father? " It sounded like the only logical explanation to her; after all, nobody had broken into the house. And you couldn't inflict injuries like that on yourself. A part of her did not want to believe this, but the more she thought about it, the more clear it became. Heizo had already beaten his son once when they had all been there ... only to end up using him as bait for this gang of criminals. So was this idea really so far-fetched? Had all the previous scratches and marks also been caused by him and not by Heiji's 'excursions', as he had claimed?

She lowered her gaze as she waited for him to give her an answer. It took a little while, but then she heard the word that made regret and anger rise in her with equal measure.

"Yes."

How could he do this to him? "Why didn't you tell me?" she asked in a half-strangled voice.

"Because it's not important."

"'Not important'?" Kazuha stared at him, stunned. "How can it be unimportant?!!!"

Heiji looked to the side and then tried to pull himself up on his bed. "Oh never mind, forget it..." His attempt failed when he tried to put weight on his injured foot. Kazuha held him just in time before he fell to the floor again.

"I definitely won't," she made clear. "You can't let this happen to you!"

"And what would be the alternative?" Heiji had caught himself halfway stable on one leg and was now leaning against the radiator behind him. "You know how successful my father is. And no matter what else you can say about him... he catches the culprits." After these words, he looked at Kazuha expectantly, as if she needed to understand what this had to do with anything. But she didn't, so he took a deep breath and continued. "Without him, many murderers would still be at loose. And if I only have to endure a few bruises to keep it that way ... it doesn't matter."

 Kazuha had taken another step back from Heiji after supporting him. Now she looked at him, the many bruises and marks, the scratch on his cheek and finally his ankle, which was slowly starting to thicken. That's why he put up with all this?

"Heiji ... this is madness. There are other policemen who do their job well and besides, it doesn't have to mean-"

"That he's going to prison?" Heiji's voice sounded sarcastic. "Maybe not, but he'll definitely lose his position. If not his entire job. And I can't afford that ..."

"That's nonsense and you know it." Kazuha looked at him with pity. Surely what he had said migth be a reason to him - that is just the way he is - and it was also his father. Nevertheless .... She couldn’t believe Heiji  would ever put up with such an injustice.

"How is'- what-" Kazuha simply didn't know how to ask him such a question and so she restarted several times before she got it out. "Why is he doing this anyway?"  It wasn't a particularly clever question - why would anyone do something like that? - but there had to be a reason for it.

She could see from Heiji's face that he didn't want to talk about it any further and that it was difficult for him, but this time she wasn't going to give in. Not after she knew what was behind it. It had been bad enough when she had thought that the injuries were the only thing he was keeping secret from all of them. But now it looked like much more ... That had to destroy one's insides. His laughter, his good mood, had it all just been an act?

"We just have our differences sometimes..." Heiji said after what felt like an eternity. " And if that involves cases ..."

"That has to stop, Heiji." She placed her hand gently on his. It was supposed to be reassuring, because right now he just looked like he could use it. "Look at you for once. He can't do that to you."

"There's no other way," Heiji said dryly and removed his hand from hers. " I just mustn't provoke him like that and then-"

"Stop it! Just stop it, Heiji." Slowly, Kazuha realised what all this really meant. The shock had held back her emotions, but now tears were slowly forming in the corners of her eyes. Seeing him like this... The wounds she had constantly bandaged on him. His pain-wracked face when he once again stood at her door covered in bruises. It was all his father's fault and Heiji was still defending him. She didn't know how she would react if her father hit her - she couldn't imagine that either - but it was clear: "Nothing you say could ever justify this. Not even criminals who would otherwise be at large!"

Chapter One

Heiji pulled off the side of the patch a bit to peek underneath and look at the fresh wound on his stomach. It would surely scar over, reminding him forever of Sakata's betrayal and how he had exposed him far too late.

Sakata of all people. Heiji still couldn't believe it. He had used him, put him on the wrong track, and murdered all those people behind his back.

It just didn't fit the image he has always had of him. The quiet, helpful Sakata who had been doing him little favors with a smile on his lips for as long as he could remember. Just like Otaki, he had known him forever, never suspecting that Sakata was pursuing such a sinister plan from the beginning. Would Kudo have noticed? If he had known him as long as he had?

"What are ya doin'?" An all too familiar voice snapped him out of his thoughts. Kazuha was standing in the doorway, looking at him reproachfully. "Yere supposed ta leave the bandage alone. Ya just had a recent operation."

Heiji demonstratively rolled his eyes, but pressed the bandage back in place and pulled his hospital gown over it. Maybe it really hadn't been a good idea to pull it off, but he needed to see it: The memorial he would now carry with him forever. The memorial for the fact that he had trusted Sakata.

Behind Kazuha, Ran as well as Shinichi and Kogoro entered the room to check on their friend. They all looked so serious and gloomy that Heiji couldn't help but try to lighten the situation a bit. 

"Ya acting like it's a funeral, lighten up!", he joked. However, this attempt seemed to achieve the opposite.

"That's exactly what ya almost roped yerself into!" Kazuha admonished him with a scowl. "Ya just faced Sakata alone like that! And ya gave away yer lucky charm too!" There almost seemed to be more reproach in her voice for the latter.

"The lucky charm saved Conan's life, otherwise he would be the one lying here now," Heiji interjected. "And I'm fine, so what’s yer problem anyway?"

"What’s my problem?"

Oh dear, wrong question.

"What’s my problem?!" Kazuha became noticeably louder and furrowed her eyebrows in anger. "We're visitin' a guy who got a bullet plucked outta his guts and ya asking what's my problem?! Ya even worried us by actin like yer dyin' on the way here!" She probably would never let him live that down.

"I was just tryin' to sleep!" It wasn’t his fault that she went ahead and assumed something morbid. "Ya've already paid me back, so isn’t that enough?" he asked annoyed.

Kazuha's lips narrowed and she continued to give him a death glare, but other than that, she actually let the subject drop.  He wondered if she had noticed from his tone how serious he was, so she postponed this discussion. Or maybe she just understood how he was feeling right now, after all, she had known Sakata too. She had been friends with him as well. 

But before he could think about it further, Ran and Conan engaged him in a conversation, in which he reiterated that he was fine and that he would be out of here by tomorrow. Otaki also checked on him. Only his parents didn't show up, even by the end of visiting hours. It didn't really surprise him, yet it caused a slight twinge in his stomach area. But perhaps this also came from the wound.

When Heiji was alone in the room again, he let himself sink back into his pillow with a sigh and thought about what had happened. His fingers touched the talisman, which he now wore safely around his neck again. It was crazy that this little thing had saved Kudo. Then the knife had to be right- Heiji tapped his finger against his chest where he suspected the knife tip to have been and froze slightly. Just like in his dream. At this spot, the blood had oozed out from under Kudo's T-shirt, he was sure of it.

It was kind of creepy, as if this dream had warned him. In the end, however, it could only have been a coincidence. A happy coincidence.

Although, of course, Kudo would never have been in danger either if Heiji hadn't invited him to Osaka because of that dream. So if it had been a prophecy, it was a self-fulfilling one.

That he even thought of such a thing. Kazuha's talk of fate and supernatural powers must have rubbed off on him. Foreseeing the future, such a thing was humbug, which really only someone as gullible as Kazuha could believe.

Instead of continuing to rack his brains unnecessarily, he lowered his hand again and closed his eyes to finally get some sleep. The day had been exhausting enough and the nag had not let him sleep in the ambulance.

o0o

Heiji stood at a tram stop and waited. He didn't know what exactly he was waiting for. While the cars passed him by and he felt the vibration of the nearby subway under his feet, an older man approached him. He was about in his mid-forties and caught Heiji's eye because his gaze seemed to be fixed on him. Heiji sensed this, even though the man had his brown peaked cap pulled down low on his face. He seemed to be saying something, at least his lips were moving, but no sound came out of his mouth. Leaning further forward to better understand him, Heiji suddenly saw horror form on the man's face. A loud bang, and blood splashed towards Heiji. He frantically wiped it from his eyes, blinked several times, and stared at a hole emblazoned in the man's forehead. Before Heiji could react any further, he snapped out of his sleep.

Damn, what was that?! His pulse raced, even though his head had long since realized that this had only been a dream. It had just felt so damn real. Just like it had with Kudo.

He pressed a hand over his heart and took deep, long breaths to bring his body back under control. The fact that he had to dream about something like that, surely it was because of what had happened with Sakata yesterday. It had probably taken more out of him than he thought, or would ever admit.

A shot to the head, Sakata almost ended it that way.  Heiji ran his fingers through his hair and tried to divert his thoughts to something else. There was no point in brooding over the past, so instead he reached for his cell phone, which lay on the nightstand next to him and was already blinking diligently.

There was a message from his mother - so she had heard that he had been shot after all - one from Ran, who wished him a speedy recovery, and the last one was from Kazuha:

  >>When ya get discharged today, we'll celebrate it with a round of okonomiyaki<<

There ya go, if anything could take his mind off things, it was a good meal!

o0o

Heiji and Kazuha were on their way to their favorite restaurant. The traffic light at the intersection in front of them turned green. As the crowds began to move from both sides, Heiji noticed something brown flashing between their heads. A cap that reminded him of the old man from his dream. After crossing the street, he stopped on the other side and looked around for the wearer, but the brief glimpse he still caught of them was from their backside. He had not been able to make out the face, but the stature had seemed masculine.

"Are ya comin'?", Kazuha's voice snapped him out of his thoughts. He took another quick glance back, hoping to see the man again, then shook his head free of those thoughts and continued walking.

"Comin'." This was mere coincidence. It could only be one.

o0o

It felt good to sit and laugh with Kazuha. To take his mind off the dream and Sakata for a bit. He had even almost forgotten about the old man when they stepped out of the little store back onto the street and heard police sirens in the distance. Heiji's stomach tightened instantly. He had a hunch as to why the police were on the scene, and no matter how ridiculous it was and only based on his gut feeling, he couldn't shake that thought. He had to go and see.

Without another word at Kazuha, he ran off, turned around several corners and finally stopped breathlessly in front of a crowd that had formed around a train station. The horrified whispering of the people told him what had happened before he could see it himself. His stomach had been prepared to contract as Heiji fought his way forward through the crowd, but he didn't have to. The scene that presented itself to him was gruesome and anything but appetizing, but the victim was unknown to him and he had not been shot. It was not the man from his dream and now Heiji noticed how a burden fell from him at this realization. For a moment he really believed that he had foreseen the future.

The murder turned out to be a simple accident. The man had fallen drunk on the tracks and so there was nothing for Heiji to do. Probably he had never been so relieved about it.

Thus, Heiji returned to Kazuha and they took the train home together.

"Yere unusually happy fer a detective that didn't get a case to solve....” Kazuha remarked. Normally Heiji would be sulking about something like that but he just waved it off.

"Now why did'ja have to word it like that. It's not I like I enjoy seein' people murdered. Besides, I`m not in the mood fer a case." He grinned at Kazuha. "I'd much rather watch a movie with ya."

Kazuha looked at him in surprise. He loved it when he could rattle her like that. Regaining her composure quickly, she demanded, "But none of your horror flicks."

"Oh, why not?" Heiji laughed at the sour look she gave him. "It'll be fun, I'm tellin' ya! I got a knack for predicting the ending fer this stuff," he joked. However, the grin slipped from his face as the train stopped at the next station and a familiar face stared at him in horror through the glass. Heiji saw his lips move in slow motion, then a loud bang sounded and he fell to the ground. The man in the brown cap was dead.

It had taken him a moment to process this. A moment too long for anyone to not have noticed. It had been a long time since he’d felt such horror because of a corpse, now he stared at it as if he had seen a ghost. He had been able to dismiss the Kudo incident as a coincidence, but he had not known this man. Sure, he could have caught his face sometime in passing and his brain processed it in a dream, but that this very man then died at a train station by a bullet in the head. That he formed the same sounds with his lips. That he wore the same clothes and the same expression of horror before. No, here the coincidence ended. He had really foreseen the future. He had done something impossible.

"Did ya know him?", Otaki asked his young friend. Heiji hadn't heard him coming and was accordingly startled, but this finally allowed him to snap out of it. He almost said yes, but pulled himself together and shook his head.

"No." His teeth gritted with tension. What on earth did that mean?

o0o

There was no movie with Kazuha that evening after all. Heiji had to think, but it all seemed to make no sense. He had never known the victim or the perpetrator or been able to find any other connection to them. So why had he had this dream? - This vision, even though he still resisted calling it that. Was he supposed to save the man? But how? It gnawed at him as if a thousand little rats were biting in.

The talisman had protected Kudo, but he could hardly hand it to a stranger. Besides, he didn't believe that the lucky charm Kazuha had made really had any powers. Even if he himself apparently had something like that.

In the end, this is just a crazy long dream, Heiji thought. He was just dreaming about all this, that's how it had to be. A crazy long dream, but when would he wake up? To be on the safe side, he should probably still assume that this was reality. He sat down on his bed and typed the word "psychic" into the search engine on his phone. Even though every one of his detective instincts told him it was humbug, he couldn't ignore these two incidents. If there really was such a thing as clairvoyance, there had to be something about it on the Internet. His finger hovered over the enter key to confirm his search, then he deleted the term. Even if he found something that looked halfway serious, he wouldn’t be able to tell if it was real. It would get him nowhere. So the only thing left for him to do was to make his own observations, should he have another dream - and he hoped it wouldn't come to that.

Apparently the gods did not think much of his wish, because not even one day later, the next vision haunted him. This time it was a woman he saw dying. She sank to the bottom of a body of water with her arms and legs bound, and although she could hardly move, she did not give up without a fight. Heiji's stomach turned at the thought of the brackish water filling his lungs as well and gradually suffocating. A cruel death. He reached out for the woman, but could not touch her. It was in vain, as was trying to recognize anything of the surroundings. Heiji already knew that he could not save this woman. She could drown anywhere in Japan and he didn't even know when. Even if he could convince his father that he somehow knew about this impending murder, he lacked any clue to prevent it. But there had to be something he was missing. There had to be a way, otherwise why was he having these visions? There had to be.

When he finally woke up, his clothes and skin felt wet. He must have been sweating, but after that dream it felt like he had emerged from the water. As if he had also been drowning for a short time. If this continued, he was going to go crazy.

This time, he didn't hesitate before hitting the enter button on his phone. Somewhere there had to be trustworthy information about why he was having these dreams. If he really saw the future, then he couldn't be the only one in the world capable of doing so.

o0o

He was alone in this, or at least there was no one on the World Wide Web who was bragging about his abilities and seemed serious. After the visions became more frequent, Heiji had even made a post of his own in an anonymous forum, but so far only trolls and know-it-alls had responded. He did not even know what he really hoped for. Answers to the why and how. Then he could possibly control the visions and really help the people he saw dying. Except for Kudo, he had not been able to save anyone. He had tried, but there were no files on crimes that hadn't happened yet, and Otaki wasn't much help either, since he was only called in when there was already a dead body. It was enough to drive him up the wall, and with every night the fear grew that he would see a familiar face in his dreams again. Someone who was close to him and whom he could not save just like all the others. (Wasn't it then somehow his fault if they died?) Some nights he preferred not to sleep at all, but even this could not prevent his worst fear from coming true.

The cool evening air was permeated with the smell of iron. Heiji breathed it in, and though each puff slit his throat, his breathing was far too rapid. His eyes were locked on the scene before him, unable to break away from the sight. It was his parents lying there. His mother was lying on her back, her kimono soaked with blood. His father had fallen belly-down on her arm, facing her when it happened. A hole was emblazoned in both of their skulls. Heiji wanted to look away from this cruel picture, but he forced himself to study everything carefully and to memorize it. He had to stop this, at all costs. His father seemed to have another injury, judging by the pool of blood under his belly, but as he lay on top of it, Heiji couldn't see anything else. The surrounding area, he had to think of where it would happen.

He was apparently in a small shopping alley, but although he knew Osaka like the back of his hand, nothing looked familiar. There was a street sign further back, only the writing was too indistinct to read. He was probably standing too far away, but he couldn't move, his feet were stuck to the ground. A glance at his wristwatch at least told him what time it was: half past one and, judging by the lack of daylight, the middle of the night.

Rising from his sleep, he didn't hesitate long and grabbed a pen and sheet of paper. He wrote down everything he had seen and sketched the alley as best he could with his shaking hands. His parents wouldn't die, he wouldn't let that happen.

Over my dead body.

He wouldn't be able to sleep the rest of the night anyway, so he used the time to sneak into his father's office. The key was in his jacket pocket, with the toothed bit facing up. He had to put it back the same way afterwards, or his father would kill him for it. But their lives were at stake, after all, so Heiji took the risk. The cause of death was clean shots to the head, so it had to be a planned murder. Maybe his father was working on a particularly dangerous case, in which case he would find clues to it in his files. Except that was quite a pile. Heiji broke into a sweat just looking at the piles of paper on his father's desk. Better he worked fast.

o0o

The night passed and Heiji was not a bit smarter. Potentially any of these criminals could hold a grudge against his father, and on top of that, there were a bunch of people who had already been in prison and wanted revenge for it. He was kind of hoping for something bigger. An investigation against the yakuza or a drug ring. Anything that would have gotten him ahead so he could focus on those people.

Half past five, he gave up, knowing his parents would be up soon. Heiji sorted the papers and files back together and placed them in their original places as best he could. It was a little more difficult because his hands were still shaking. Then he pushed the office chair back to the table and locked the door. After the key was also back in the jacket pocket, he slipped upstairs as quietly as possible, skipped over the floorboards that creaked and disappeared into his room. There he waited until he heard the all-too-familiar clanging from the kitchen. His mother was making breakfast.

He waited a few more minutes, pretended he had just woken up and came down the stairs.

" Oh, yer awake already?" his mother asked him in surprise as he stepped into the kitchen. Usually, he didn't get up until after his father had already left for work.

"I couldn't sleep somehow," Heiji said casually. He squinted a little at his father, who was at the table with a newspaper, eyeing him as well. How on earth was he going to start this conversation? Heiji pushed back a chair and sat down, then kneaded his hands nervously. "Ya guys...aren't planning on goin' out late anytime soon, by any chance?" he finally just asked freely. Seemed weird, but whatever.

His parents looked at him strangely, as expected, but it was only Shizuka who answered, "No, what makes ya think that? Yer not plannin' anything improper, are ya?”

Heiji shook his head vigorously. "No, nonsense. I just thought ya guys hadn't done that in a while." Well, that's some bad luck. If they had said yes, he could have just stopped them from going. As it was, he still had nothing in hand and the clock was ticking while he didn't even know how fast. Between the dream of Kudo and the actual occurrence of the vision had been several days, between that of the man and his death only about half a day. What if the time was getting shorter and shorter?

o0o

A week had passed since Heiji had had this vision. What if this attack would happen only after several weeks or months? By then, he would surely have forgotten all his caution. It would happen suddenly, so that he could not prevent it.

This horror did not let him sleep at night. He couldn't concentrate at school either, and certainly not during kendo training. So the coach sent him home early and Heiji used this time to investigate further. He walked the alleys of Osaka, every single one, no matter how long it would take. He had to find this place sometime.

And what if it didn't happen in Osaka?, it crossed his mind. What if it happened out of town? He would never find the place. Frustrated, Heiji settled back against a wall and ran his fingers through his hair. Could he really do nothing? But then what were these visions good for? Were they just there to torment him? Had he angered some god? He just didn't know what to do anymore.

o0o

Heiji hadn't slept for days and it was showing. Dark circles ran below his eyes, his hair was all shaggy as he often ran his fingers through it. Even his fingers seemed to quiver occasionally when he held his pen. But no matter how many times Kazuha asked him about it, he only mumbled something about a nightmare and otherwise kept quiet about it. When the recess bell announced the end of school, she finally couldn't take it anymore.

"I can tell yer hiding somethin', ya moron! " she confronted Heiji on the way home. "Did somethin' happen? Is it because of a case?" When he still didn't respond, she continued, "Is anyone in danger?" At the last word, Heiji flinched almost imperceptibly. Still, he denied it.

"It's nothin'. Just leave me alone." Kazuha narrowed her eyes scrutinizingly and stepped into his way.

"Either ya tell me what's going on now, or I'm gonna ask your parents."

"Are ya crazy?!" Heiji reacted quite annoyed, but still didn't dare to just push her out of the way, and when he tried to avoid her, she just kept running with him. Finally, he stopped and scowled at her. "Kazuha, Let. Me. Through."

"I'm just worried about ya!" she exclaimed. Why did he have to be such a stubborn jerk and keep it all bottled up? What were they friends for if he didn't want to be helped?

"Well, ya don't have to."

"'Course I do need to. After all, I'm practically yer big sister." When Heiji sighed at those words, she followed up, "And we're friends. Best friends." More than that, basically, at least to her. "The kind that let each other know what's troubling yer head so badly that ya carryin' an entire Mariana Trench under those eyes."

At first Heiji seemed like he was going to push past her now, but then he grabbed his forehead and shook his head slightly. "Ya wouldn't believe me anyway."

"Why wouldn't I believe ya?" She raised an eyebrow questioningly, in that way that only she could, so that it looked like a question and a threat at the same time. At that, Heiji's gaze fell on the lucky charm dangling from the cell phone in her back pocket.

"... Maybe ya would actually believe me."

o0o

Heiji didn't explain it to her directly, here on the open road. Instead, he took her home and pulled her up the stairs to his room.

"What did’ja want to show me?" asked Kazuha, confused. Heiji didn't answer her, but went to his desk and pulled something out of his drawer. A map covered with red crosses and more sheets. He picked out one in particular and thrust it into her hand. It was a sketch of an alley and in the middle lay ... two corpses? Kazuha didn't understand.

"Why did ya draw that?" She looked questioningly at Heiji and then back at the sketch. If it was a case, he would rather have photos of the crime scene than sketches like that - even if he wasn't allowed to have the photos, Heiji always got to them somehow.

"This is what I dreamed of," Heiji explained. Kazuha looked up again and noticed how he fixed her with his gaze, as if expecting a certain reaction. When none came, he added, "And lately, my dreams are comin' true."

"True? What do ya mean?"

"'Exactly what I said. I've also been dreamin' about the man who was shot in front of our train and how Ku- how Conan took that knife."

Kazuha frowned, then put the papers aside to devote her full attention to Heiji. "Ya mean ya dreamed about it before it happened?"

"That's why I gave Conan my lucky charm."

That's why he had...?  She didn't know exactly what to make of it, but if Heiji was claiming something like that, then he had to be serious. He had never believed in the supernatural, unlike her. Unless... this was supposed to be a joke, but the rings under Heiji's eyes looked too real for that, and he didn't have the patience for such a long preparation, to pretend the whole time. "Who are the two in the sketch?" she finally asked as a dark foreboding crept up on her. The implied clothing and hairstyles did seem a little too familiar now, but she still hoped to the end that she was wrong.

"My parents."

o0o

"And yere sure ya saw the future?" inquired Kazuha again. "What if it was just a nightmare after all?"

"It wasn't a nightmare, neither were the other times!" retorted Heiji irritably. "It feels different, not like a dream, much more real," he tried to explain. He gestured additionally with his hands, but he couldn't seem to make this feeling tangible to Kazuha. That was probably a futile endeavor anyway, because how could one imagine something that shouldn't exist/ defied all reason? "Ya better take another look at that sketch and tell me if that alley looks familiar to ya in any way." He himself was already back at his desk hunched over his map, checking off the places he'd already ruled out. It had to be an alley where the houses were very close together and there was also a konbini. Unfortunately, this was true for far too many places. He was circling another one when Kazuha interrupted his train of thought.

"That's strange ..." Heiji looked up and glanced at Kazuha, who was sitting on his bed.

"What, did ya notice somethin'?!" Kazuha's eyebrows drew together thoughtfully, then pointed to the strokes that were supposed to represent Shizuka. "Yer mother's kimono, it's folded wrong."

"Folded wrong?" Heiji virtually snatched the sheet from her, causing her to let out an indignant sound. He ignored her, however, and let his gaze wander over the drawing as he plopped down on the bed beside her. Indeed, the right side of her kimono was draped over the left, but that was something one did only with corpses. Has someone tampered with her body after her death? But then there would have to be signs. The blood would be distributed differently, the binding messier.

"Maybe ya just remembered it wrong, or ya didn't draw it properly," suggested Kazuha, who had slid next to him and was now peering over his shoulder. Heiji shook his head.

"I drew it right after I had the vision. It was all still so clear, I-" He thought feverishly, wondering if he could have made a mistake after all, but that would be unusual. He had always trained himself to memorize details well for his detective work. On the other hand, he had been in shock.

"If yere so sure, maybe it was just a nightmare after all," Kazuha mused. "That would explain it, and it would be good too, wouldn't it?"

"But-" Of course Heiji wished that too, yet how could he be sure? "What if it wasn't? What if it is a vision and I don't stop it from happening?" There was so much pain in his voice that Kazuha got a clear picture of what he must have been going through the last few weeks. It made her shiver. 

"Maybe there are other inconsistencies that make it definite," it then occurred to her. "Yere not supposed to be able to read in dreams because the letters blur. Or the time on a clock jumps around too fast. Do ya remember anythin' that was weird?"

"I don't know." Heiji suddenly wasn't so sure what to believe. Had he imagined the visions after all? But Kudo and the man couldn't both be coincidences. Some of the victims from his other dreams had also appeared on television afterwards. No, the visions were real, but maybe he was wrong at least this time. It was to be wished.

"Try to remember," Kazuha urged him. She placed a hand on his back for support. "What exactly did ya see? Try ta recall from the start."

"Okay." Heiji took a deep breath and closed his eyes to concentrate better. Then he willingly recalled the images that had been tormenting him day and night.

"I was standing in this alley, my parents were walking down it, a-as," he faltered, and though his eyes were already closed, he squeezed them even tighter at the scene that followed. Only he couldn't escape the image behind his eyelids that way. "Someone shot them, the bullets came from somewhere behind me, but I couldn't turn around. Not even my head." If only he had tried harder. Heiji didn't realize he had clenched his hand into a fist until he felt Kazuha's on it. She gently pulled them apart again.

"And then?"

"I tried checkin’ my wristwatch for the time, at least, and-" He held his breath.

"It's okay, ya don't hafta force yerself."

"No!" She had misinterpreted his repeated halting. Heiji's eyes snapped open and he beamed at her. "Yere a genius!" Kazuha gave him a more than puzzled look in response. Not that she was averse to the compliment, but what had she done to deserve it? "The watch! My wristwatch! I was too busy flusterin' over the time that I didn't notice it, but the hands, they were all wrong."

"The hands were wrong?" repeated Kazuha, still baffled. Heiji nodded eagerly.

"The small hand and the big hand were on the same line. If it was really 12:30, then the hour hand shoulda been between the one and the two, but definitely not straight on it." He breathed a sigh of relief and flopped backwards on his bed. "In other words, it really was just a nightmare." Now that that was cleared up, he suddenly felt extremely tired. His limbs and eyes were heavy but still nothing was more relieving than this moment. He had been so scared. So many people had died that he hadn't found enough information to save, and each of those lives weighed on him. He couldn't have borne having his parents on his conscience as well. "Thank you."

Conan leaned slightly forward on the railing of the balcony and looked up at the still dark night sky. He enjoyed the silence a bit, the soothing chirping of the crickets and that he got away a little from the hustle and bustle that was going on in the house right now.

Ran, the uncle and he had been invited to a New Year's Eve party by Sonoko. Actually, he hadn't wanted to come, but sitting around at home all alone hadn't been an option either.

Although..., slowly he wondered if it would not have been the better choice. Now he was standing out here alone, hiding from the joy with which the others were celebrating the new year. No matter how hard he tried, he just couldn't fake a happy smile anymore. For him, 2019 was not a new beginning, not a new opportunity, not a reason to be happy. He was still stuck in this child's body and had been for a year now.

A sigh escaped him, but it was immediately drowned in the torrent of sudden loud music. Someone had opened the door to the balcony. He did not turn around, he would soon find out anyway who it was that so abruptly put an end to his rest.

"Now now, moping around lonely in the cold ain't gonna cut it Kudo."

Conan turned to the newcomer in surprise. He would have expected anyone, but not him. "Hattori?! ... What are you doing here?"

"Well, celebrating, I guess. I was invited too."

"Is that so?..." Shinichi was aware that his tone towards his friend was not appropriate, but he just didn't feel like talking.

Heiji noticed this immediately and simply stood silently beside him, leaning back against the railing. He, too, turned his attention to the starry sky and lingered that way for a few minutes. At some point, however, Conan let out a snort.

"What do you want?"

"Nothin', just keepin' ya company."

"I don't need company. And if you're here, I bet Kazuha's in there too. Why don't you go and see her?"

"Kazuha's in there havin' a good time with the other girls right now, she's fine. But I'm not so sure about ya."

"And how is that any of your business!!!", Conan unintentionally got loud and wheeled around to Heiji. A moment later, he looked guilty to the ground and muttered, "Sorry..., please just leave me alone. I don't feel like company right now."

Heiji seemed anything but impressed by Shinichi's outburst of anger. "You don't really think I'm just gonna leave my best friend lonely at a party like this! I know for a fact that it won't make yer mood any better."

Shinichi remained silent.

"Kudo, either ya gotta tell me what's goin' on now, or I'm gonna have to make ya do it some other way. Whereby... I think I already know." Shinichi just gave him an indifferent look. "It's because of your rejuvenation, isn't it? The girl still hasn't figured it out." When Shinichi finally showed the first emotion, but then immediately looked away again, he went up a notch. "And Ran's in there celebrating, probably wishing for nothin' more than for Shinichi to finally show up in the new year."

Now the little boy finally wheeled around to him, eyes twinkling. He had his attention. "What do you want, Heiji!!! If you already knew, then why are you still asking me!!!"

"So I'm right.", Heiji stated matter-of-factly. He turned around and dangled his arms over the railing. "Why? Because ya wouldn't be talkin' about it if I wasn't. But listen Kudo. I'm yer friend. Ya can talk to me. That's what friends are for!"

"I know that, but-"

"No buts!", Heiji interrupted him and looked at him with seriousness in his eyes. "Ya hold back a lotta things, all the time ya want to master everything by yourself, but ya don't realize that it'll only make ya unhappy. And not only you. Ran called me because she's worried about ya!"

"Ran what?", Shinichi blinked several times in surprise. "Wait... Kazuha isn't here at all, is she? And you weren't invited at all, either."

Heiji shook his head slightly. "She was terribly worried about what was wrong with ya. She said you'd been like this for a while. So she contacted me an hour ago asking for help, I hopped onto the next train, and here I am."

Shinichi just looked at his friend for a long time, then cleared his throat. "You do realize that there are enough people who would take advantage of your willingness to help?"

"Maybe, but then that's how it is. But that doesn't change the fact that I wanna help where I can."

"You really are amazing Hattori." Shinichi smiled slightly.

"No more incredible than you," he replied with a laugh.

"Ran did- She sent me a text message..." Heiji looked in astonishment at Shinichi, who started opening up out of the blue. "She wishes me well..., and that I finally get this case closed." His fingers visibly clawed into the wood of the balcony and his voice sounded bitter. "I just can't do this anymore. All of this. Running around as Conan, watching her suffer.... and lying to her. Do you understand?" Shinichi lifted his gaze, pain reflected in his eyes. Heiji had never seen his friend like this before. He had probably had an even better grip on his emotions so far than any of them had ever been able to guess. Still, at that moment, Heiji was grateful to him for dropping the facade.

"Maybe... ya don't have to." Shinichi looked at him lacking understanding. Heiji chose his words more carefully now. "If ya wanna tell her..., then do it. 'Cause even if ya put her in danger like that..., it's not just guns that can kill a person, Kudo." Heiji's gaze wandered inside through the window. "And is she really safe just 'cause she doesn't know about your transformation...? Ya gotta know if that little piece of security is really worth what ya're givin' up. There's no guarantee, on either side."

Shinichi averted his eyes from him. A silence fell between them for a while as they simply stood side by side, looking up at the stars as if they held an answer for them.

"Maybe... you're right."

At that moment, the bells of Tokyo's church tower began to chime and colorful rockets made their way into the sky with a loud roar.

"And no transformations, understood?" reminded Shizuka the children.

"Yeeeeess. Of course not", Kazuha and Heiji returned, both annoyed and in sync.

"We're serious," Ginshiro now added as well.

"And don't make any other trouble either," Heizo said. "Especially you Heiji." The latter rolled his eyes, which earned him an angry look from his father. Quickly, Kazuha intervened.

"I'll make sure Heiji doesn't do anything stupid."

"Hey, I never do anything stupid. Idiot!" complained Heiji immediately.

"Don't argue already. The first kids are already getting on, see?" Ginshiro pointed to the bus.  With a quick glance at it, Kazuha began to whine.

"Do we really have to go?"

"You'll have a lot of fun there, believe me."

 "But then why aren't you coming?"

"I have to work, we've been through this before, princess."

"But I don't want to go without you!"

"Now don't be such a crybaby," Heiji grumbled next to her as tears now welled up in her eyes as well. Kazuha immediately took this personally and jutted her chin up to stop the tears.

"I'm not a crybaby!" she huffed, wiping her cheeks dry. Then she hugged her dad as if to prove it and was all set to go. She really caught herself quickly when it came to her pride. "Bye dad."

"Bye princess and bye Heiji. Don't fight and don't forget, no transformation!"

The two didn't answer that anymore, but had already turned to the bus and got on.

"How many times were they going to tell us?", Heiji finally murmured to her in their seats.

"They're just worried," Kazuha argued.

 "We're not little kids anymore, though."

"You act like one most of the time, however."

"Not at all!" Heiji glared at her irritably and started to growl, however Kazuha immediately pressed her hands over his mouth.

"See? That's why I have to watch out for you." After all, their first class trip was supposed to be a fond memory and not to end in disaster. 

<<;<>>> 

"Kazuha has puppies hidden in her room!"

"What?! I want to see them too!"

Marie-chan, the stupid cow, had burst into the room just like that and had immediately announced her discovery to the entire hostel. Now the kids were pushing and shoving each other out of the doorway outside their room, as everyone wanted to catch a glimpse of the puppies sitting there on Kazuha's bed.

"They' re so cute, I want to pet them!"

"Me too! Me too!"

It wasn't long before the children were no longer just filling the doorway, but crowding into the room as well, reaching out to touch the little animals there.

The two puppies flattened their ears and slowly backed away to the wall that the bed was against, but the children came closer and closer and even the growling of the black animal didn't make them flinch. Then, when the first hands rushed forward and passed through their fur, the white puppy began to whimper bitterly. This only seemed to make the black one angrier, which is why he snapped furiously at the hands, his jaws always slamming together just before reaching them. He had even pushed himself in front of the other pup and was now shielding him with his body, ears and tail set high. However, this turned out to be a mistake because now the kids were grabbing the tail and pulling on it. That was enough.

He bit.

<&lt;<>>>

"Are you out of your mind?!!" Heizo could not believe it. There the boy was left alone once and then something like this happened. "Biting your classmate- you're not some wild animal!"

The class trip had been stopped immediately after the boy who had pulled Heiji's tail had to be taken to the hospital. Of course, the hostel had been thoroughly searched for the wolf pups afterwards, but they had not found them and all the guests had been evacuated for safety. As a result, their first school trip ended after just a single day. And now Heiji stood here and had to listen to his parents' telling him off.

"We specifically told you no transformations!"

"It was only for a short time. I can't help it that Marie-chan just burst in like that!", Heiji defended himself.

"You were both forbidden to transform. What would you have done if she had caught you in the act?!" Heiji had never seen his father so enraged, and that meant something. He was scaring him. "It's bad enough you were seen at all, but then you bite someone too?!"

"They were hurting me!" It wasn't like he hadn't warned them. As if he hadn't tried to protect her in other ways. But his father showed no understanding.

"And whose fault was that?!" He gave Heiji such a burning look that he slowly but surely ducked his head, but then Shizuka intervened.

"Even though I share your view that what Heiji did was foolish, they are still children. We could have guessed that something like that would happen. However, it also taught them their lesson and they certainly won't do something like that again, right Heiji?" She had placed a hand on her husband's shoulder reassuringly and indiscreetly urged her son to apologize.

"Y-yes, I'm sorry ..." In reality, though, he wasn't, he was just sorry they'd been caught. They had only had a little squabble after all, and they would never turn in front of anyone else to begin with. They weren't that stupid, even if their parents thought they were.

"Good, then go to your room now."

Heiji didn't need to be told twice and stomped up the stairs full of defiance, but he would only seem to obey that order as well. Immediately after closing the door behind him, he opened the window and slipped outside.

<<;<>>> 

They met at their usual place, a large badger burrow that they had found abandoned and expanded. It was located directly under the roots of an old tree, so the entrance was always in the shade and looked as inconspicuous as any other animal burrow. Inside, however, they had spread fairy lights and pillows, the floor was paved with blankets, and their secret lair did not lack for amenities in any other way.

When Heiji arrived, Kazuha was already sitting in front of the entrance in her wolf form, waiting.

"What took you so long?" she asked with a tilted head.

"You're still asking that?" he grumbled in response as he squeezed past her into their secret hiding place. "My parents scolded me, of course." Kazuha followed him, twitching her ear slightly in irritation.

"Mine scolded me too, but that was over an hour ago."

"Not everyone is lucky enough to have parents who let them off the hook so easily." It annoyed him when Kazuha acted as if this was normal. To her father, she was the little princess, and being a girl surely helped. Anyway, his father always blamed him, even when they had caused trouble together.

"Easy, my tail! They were pretty mad and grounded me," Kazuha protested. Heiji gave her a meaningful look.

"Wow. Grounded, you're not going to abide by it anyway."

"So what? They were still very angry." Offended, she slipped under one of the many blankets, transformed, and wiped a tear from her eye that was still left from her parents' telling her off. The idiot didn't know how much it affected her when her parents were disappointed in her. 

Heiji sat down across from her, leaned against a large pillow, and closed his eyes. He didn't feel like having another argument right now, and certainly not with her. It was enough that their parents were mad at them, they didn't have to fight each other on top of that.

"Someday we'll make our own trip, all by ourselves, and then we can transform as many times as we want," he explained, thus steering the conversation to a new topic. It seemed to work, as Kazuha cautiously peeked out from under her covers again.

"Just the two of us?" The idea seemed a little strange to her, but somehow she liked it too. "Then we'll make a trip to a Koventree sometime, yes?"

"A what?"

"A Koventree! I saw that on TV, when it blooms, all its leaves turn into fireflies!"

Heiji looked at her skeptically. "Are you sure that wasn't just a fantasy movie?" When Kazuha glared at him so angrily, he immediately regretted his words.

"I can still tell fantasy apart from a report!"

"It's okay, it's okay," Heiji tried to calm her down again. "Then we'll make our first trip to a Kofentree."

"Koventree!" she corrected him.

"Either way, but first we have to serve this house arrest."

"I bet it'll be beautiful." Kazuha's eyes were already glittering with the image of thousands of fireflies. Perhaps she had guessed then that one day she would actually get to see it.