Chapter Text
Shinichi couldn’t believe their luck.
Gunshots fired in the background of an open door, ajar after having been kicked open with too much force, bending the hinges at odd angles. The light in the room was swinging, sending the shadows into a spin.
The dancing light discovered the beakers and test tubes, beside the old computer with its screen caved in and papers—papers scattered to every corner until it was harder to step on the actual floor than it was a once possibly precious document.
Another explosion sent off a round of rumbling through the facility and more yelling. Still, all Shinichi could distinguish was the ringing in his ear and the blur in his vision as he frantically flipped through pages of text he couldn’t get his vision to focus on.
“Damnit, focus!” He whispered harshly, desperate not to gain attention, but too frustrated to keep to himself.
A pulse of pain coursed through him and he clutched his ribs. Shinichi shut his eyes for a moment.
‘We’re so lucky right now. So, so lucky. You can’t mess this up Shinichi, you just can’t. There’s never going to be another opportunity like this. Never .’
His hand flew from his ribs and continued its frantic search, ignoring the pain coming from… well, everywhere.
[Tape rewinding sounds]
This all started a few weeks ago, one warm afternoon in a park.
The sun shone high in the sky, briefly interrupted by a stray cloud or two, but never for long. The park itself was scarcely populated as it was a weekday and, at the present hour, kids were going back home to eat dinner.
The swing, slide, monkey bars, sandbox, and even weird exercise machines were all abandoned by the local children. Well, they were supposed to be anyway.
“Something's bothering you.”
Shinichi slowly approached Haibara, who had been standing away from the group.
In the background, the sounds of the Detective Boys arguing easily came through the cicadas’ constant chirping. A new commission had come in after school, requesting the search and retrieval of a pure white cat named Mochi.
(A picture had been passed around by the owner and Ayumi had squealed at its fluffy majesty.)
Unfortunately, though, all the clues handed by the owner as to the whereabouts of the cat were dead ends, which had sparked frustration between the kids. The blame game had begun a short age ago and was still going strong.
Shinichi sighed, already adding a quick trip to the grocery store for some salmon to his already crowded to-do list.
Not that it was all that large, no not at all. It’s just that with his track record, there was next to zero chance that he was going to be able to finish what was already on there without getting… sidetracked.
(Never mind a trip to the store, the real challenge was remembering that he was looking for a missing cat at all.)
For instance.
He narrowed his eyes at Haibara’s nervousness.
She wasn’t noticeably nervous, no. Haibara’s poker face was too good to let anything like that show to any noticeable degree.
Moreso, it was her lack of interaction and distance with the kids that tipped Shinichi off.
For any outsiders looking in, it might look normal. "The tired or slightly more mature friend stays back to watch the group's antics.” She even sold the bit perfectly, with her outwardly relaxed and fond body language.
But to them? After spending so much time with her every day? It was extremely weird. She hadn't been this distant in years.
(God. And wasn't that weird? Thinking in terms of years… This case has taken too damn long.)
“It’s… It’s nothing.” She turned her face away, crossing her arms.
Shinichi frowned. “Haibara, it can't be ‘nothing’ if you're this bothered by it.”
A long silence followed. Long enough that Shinichi had been about ready to sigh and give up for the day, perhaps try his luck in the morning and hope for the best.
But she beat him to it.
Haibara let out a long defeated sigh. One that showed how much stress the years had piled onto her ungraciously. One that aged her.
He turned to look at her with a raised brow. She bit her lip and mumbled something incomprehensible.
Shinichi gave her a dead stare, and she looked close to sighing again.
“We’re being watched.” She whispered, voice small.
“...What.”
A statement, not a question, because he’d heard what she’d said perfectly clearly. He just needed to know why in the world she’d found this information worthy of omittance.
Reading his mind, she looked away. “It’s not as strong as it normally is. I don’t think it’s Gin or any other members we know of.” She snorted. “They don’t seem like that much of a threat, honestly.”
“That doesn’t-” he groaned. That didn’t mean it wasn’t dangerous! Or something he shouldn’t know about as soon as possible! “Where?” He whispered.
Her eyes flickered to the right.
Shinichi casually scanned the grounds until his vision landed on their right. He could see them. Two hulking shadows were passably hidden at the mouth of an alley.
And by passably, he meant that they hid good enough so they wouldn’t be spotted by the average overworked, too-tired-to-care passerby of Beika, definitely not up to the organization’s normal standard.
They were speaking to one another with movements a little too animated for people who would normally be trying to blend into the background. Then, one shoved the other over something he said and he hit his head into a wall.
He let out a cry of pain and crouched down to clutch at it. The other tried to apologize, bent down to pat his shoulder and… hit the top of his head on the same wall, falling over the one that was crouched and they both started flailing.
…Alright, so maybe Haibara was right about these guys' threat level. Even some of the regular office worker-turned-murderers he’s chased in his day hid better than these guys.
But even so, they still had to be Organization members. Haibara wasn’t attuned to normal people like she was to the Org.
A sudden thought crossed Shinichi’s mind.
If this wasn’t a trap — which it didn’t feel like one, honestly — then this might be just what he needed to finally nail this case!
“I’m going to take a closer look.”
Haibara’s head swiveled to glare at him. “Are you crazy?! It could be a trap!”
Shinichi snorted out loud.
“Hai, look at them. They’re clearly not acting. As in, they actually think they’re hidden from us. That’s incompetence. They’re a weak point that the B.O. hasn’t taken care of yet, and I’m not generous enough to look past it.”
Haibara bit her lip in frustration. She knew he was right. The prospects were too incredible — she would cave.
“Look,” he started softly, “you don’t have to come with me. I’ll just see if I can overhear anything or get close enough to place a tracker. How about you grab the kids and take them to the store to buy some salmon.”
He pointed to the store right across the street. It was far enough to run away if they started to approach, but close enough that they could still see the kids, so they wouldn’t move. “Say it’s to bait the cat. I’ll catch up with you when I’m done.”
She looks at him for a long moment and then carefully nods.
‘ -And he scores! Shinichi, 1, overworked schedule, 0. And people say I can’t multitask. ’
He didn’t wait for her to change her mind, walking away like he was headed for a drink at the vending machine across the street.
In his periphery, he could see them, as they uncoordinatedly untangled themselves from each other, angrily discussing something. He took the present opportunity to change directions and headed for a smaller connected street. As soon as he was out of sight, he started sprinting.
It took a while, taking the long way and all, but it was worth it. By the end of his trek, he was at the other end of the alley, hidden at the lip.
They were too quiet for him to hear from where he was crouching, so Shinichi grabbed one of the professor’s small listening devices and discreetly threw it at the end where the two members stood whispering.
Finally, he could hear something.
“-all YOUR fault!” The member on the right, who’d unknowingly been dubbed as “Dumb”, whispered harshly. He was squirrelly — not short, but thin — and there was a large scar on his left cheek.
The other, “Dim”, looked offended by the accusation. “What is that supposed to mean?!” He was lean and muscled, but not buff; heavier on his top half rather than his bottom. The sleeve of his right wrist rode up just enough to reveal gnarly burns.
“You. Lost. The. Boy. The smartest-looking one! What if he finds it!? What are we supposed to say to Absinthe ?!” Dumb hissed.
‘ A named member. ’ Shinichi couldn’t tell if his heart palpitations were from excitement or sheer adrenaline.
He pressed himself further into the wall, hoping the rapidly warming rough material behind him could help ground him before he had a heart attack. ‘ This is too good to be true. ’
“He won’t! That mousy bastard said he hid it well and he’s too much of a coward to lie to us.” Dim affirmed.
“Idiot! Anything could happen! Those kids could find it at any moment! And you know what happens to us if we don’t get to the meeting location with the case at the appointed time?”
Dumb dug the back of his index into the side of his throat, sliding it across slowly for emphasis. All the while making what was, presumably, a mimicry of the sound of a throat slicing.
(One would think a couple of Black Organization members — who’ve obviously killed plenty of people before — would know what the sound of a throat being sliced open would be. One would apparently be wrong.)
“You don’t think Absinthe would actually-?”
“Of course, he would! We’re a couple of no-names, expendables. He can get lugs like us from anywhere.”
“But he said we can’t be seen. How are we supposed to get to the briefcase with that kid still around somewhere? You don’t mean we have to-...”
There was the faint sound of a nail tapping very intentionally against a piece of metal and Shinichi shivered at the implication.
“Of course not, dimwit. The clean-up for that would take longer than we have. And we might miss the brat, which will turn this whole thing into a completely different kind of fiasco.” Dumb’s shoes scratched the asphalt as he turned and started walking. The detective’s heart thudded loudly in his chest. “I’ve got an idea we can try if he doesn’t leave on his own.”
Shinichi bit his lip and waited. He could hear their footsteps approach the lip of the alley.
He figured he had to try something. These two were obviously grunts, but they were still Org . They still had to know something.
Just then, a stupid idea popped into his mind.
A very, very stupid idea.
He would have to apologize to Haibara later.
Shinichi took a few steps back, fingering the small, nail-sized transmitter in his pocket, and started artificially panting.
As soon as those black shoes crossed into his field of vision, he sprinted forward.
An obstacle fell into his path and he knocked into it, throwing him to the floor. That was quickly followed by a worryingly loud clatter.
“Ittai!” He rubbed at his thighs which had landed roughly on the ground. He opened his clenched eyes and dragged his wide-eyed innocent stare upwards until it landed on the two large men.
Shinichi shot up, moving clumsily. “Sorry, misters! I wasn’t looking!”
“Uh-”
Before Dumb could say anything though, Shinichi jumped, frantically patting his face, and yelled. “Ah! My glasses! I lost my glasses! Don’t move! Please!”
The glasses were, thankfully undamaged, sitting daintily on the ground beside Dim’s shoes.
He moved forward, kneeling there to inspect the glasses and put them on.
Just as quickly, he got up and moved away. “Thank you. And sorry again for bumping into you.”
Dumb finally seemed to have recovered and frowned. “Don’t go running around like that, boy.”
Shinichi nodded sagely.
“Where are you off to in such a hurry?”
“I’m looking for my friends! They all left while I went to get something to drink and now I can’t find them…” His eyes watered pathetically.
“Ah.”
The two men looked at each other and then back at him, not even trying to be subtle.
Dim smiled in what was probably an attempt at looking reassuring. “You mean the kids from the park just now? They all went to that store over there, last I’d seen them. If you hurry, you might just catch up.”
He was obviously trying to get rid of him quickly, but since it served his purposes, he didn’t comment on it.
“Really!? Thank you, mister!” He exclaimed excitedly before running in the general direction of the store.
As soon as they were out of sight, Shinichi grasped his glasses, pressing a button down on the side. A radar system appeared in the lenses.
A dot appeared, further away from him, moving towards the park.
The grin that spread across Shinichi’s face just then could have probably been described as manic.
He actually did return to the store afterward. In normal cases, he might’ve switched directions with the intent of tailing the pair, but grunts they may be, they were still members of a highly intelligent crime organization.
If they spotted him tailing them, he wasn’t getting out of it in one piece.
‘ Haibara will be proud of the progress I’ve made. ’
“This is the bare minimum kind of thinking you need to employ, Conan-kun.” Was her response when he caught up to them and reported what he found out. “You can’t expect praise for thinking in terms of basic self-preservation — something which is natural to everyone except you detectives it seems.”
Shinichi hummed, barely listening. He’d heard this lecture more times than he could keep track of.
Instead, his focus lay in cataloging the green dot’s path on the radar perched on his nose. It’d moved on from the park moments prior and since then, he couldn’t help tracking its movements with his eyes.
“Hey! Conan! Haibara!” Ayumi shouted excitedly, having just finished paying for a slab of defrosted salmon. Genta and Mitsuhiko stared from the corners of the aisle, equally as gleeful. “We’re going to try again at the bridge! The salmon should help us find Mochi. Hurry up!”
She held a couple of baggies of salmon the cashier had been nice enough to cut up into chunks for her. She handed one baggie to both him and Haibara.
Shinichi didn’t respond. He hadn’t even heard her, just absentmindedly put the baggie away. He couldn’t look away from his first lead in months and what was probably his most promising one in much longer.
Haibara sighed beside him. “Go on ahead without us. The professor wants us back home, so we’ll be headed back.”
“Awe…” The three pouted all simultaneously. Mitsuhiko whined, “Are you sure you don’t want to come to the bridge with us? We’re pretty sure we can find her this time.”
“Yard.” Shinichi mumbled.
Haibara raised a brow. “What?”
“The owners said they would sometimes let Mochi out into their yard to play and chase animals. Mochi will likely occasionally return to the area near that yard since it’s familiar.”
The three detective boys smiled, brimming with even more excitement.
“You heard him! To the owner’s yard!” Ayumi proclaimed, which was followed by a loud collective cheer that had the sleep-deprived cashier look at them in annoyance.
Then, suddenly, they were out the door.
“Well,” Haibara smiled, “at least they aren’t fighting anymore.”
Amused, Shinichi huffed.
“-and so I’ve been monitoring them since then.” Shinichi regaled the professor, who was sitting on the couch, munching on cookies. He turned back around, continuing his pacing. “They only stopped once so far. Presumably, to regroup with this “Absinthe” guy and get into a vehicle, considering the speed up afterward.”
“And you’re sure Absinthe is someone new, Shinichi?” The professor asked, dusting his mildly oily fingers on his lab coat.
Shinichi fiddled with the marker in his hand. “Absolutely. He’s either so high up, we didn’t know of his existence beforehand, or the opposite. Personally, I’d bet the latter after listening to those two talk.”
Akai, or “Subaru” as he was dressed as right now, leaned back against the center island’s countertop. “And did the tracker- (“Transmitter!”) -transmitter show you the location of a base?”
Shinichi grit his teeth and shook his head. “Org. is org. They found the tracker and destroyed it.” Then, he turned his gaze up, determined. “But they were far enough into the route that we have a general location for it.”
“What do you mean?” The professor reached for another cookie, but Haibara slapped his hand away with a glare.
“Their chosen drop location couldn’t be too far from the base. The more time they spend outside, the higher the chances of getting spotted.” Shinichi rambled. “If the contents of that briefcase are all as important as those two were making it out to be, then they wouldn’t take the chance of their enemies taking notice of the transportation and potentially trying to get their hands on it.
“Considering they’re going for a discreet look, they won’t use something too used to rough terrain. To add to that, they never stopped to switch cars during the journey. Meaning, to avoid getting any distinguishable scrapes on the car, they’ll make their base somewhat near a road.”
He turned around, pacing in a new direction. “Then, if you consider all the roads in the general direction they were headed in and that they likely wouldn’t travel for longer than, roughly, another half an hour…”
Shinichi stopped and returned to the coffee table near the couch where Agasa was sitting. On the table was a map with Tokyo centered on it, reaching from Chiba to the edges of Nagano.
“Here.” He circled a relatively large spot with his marker. The circle overlapped with a few towns and three-quarters of a mountain — all of which were reachable by a few highways.
Akai nodded from his spot, pulling his phone out of his pocket. He walked out of the room just as he called someone.
Shinichi walked over to the couch and collapsed into it.
Haibara stared at the spot on the map, her face still as a stone. Her eyes pierced the paper as though it would reveal all its secrets to her if she eyed it long enough.
The silence in the room was deafening as the implication of what just happened began to sink in.
They had a lead on a base.
A base .
Finally, it was Akai, upon reentering the room, who broke the stillness. “It’ll take time to find the location of the base with such a wide search area.” He looked up from his phone where his fingers were rapidly tapping along the screen. His penetrating eyes poured into Shinichi’s. “It’s best if we temporarily get you out of the country.”
“What?!” Shinichi shot up. “No. Absolutely not. You are not kicking me off this case!”
Akai sighed, hardening his gaze. “This isn’t about you working the case or not, Conan-kun. They found your tracker. There’s a very likely chance they’ll figure out that you put it there, meaning you are now at risk .”
He held back a snort at the thought of Dumb and Dim figuring out anything passed tying their shoelaces.
He knew the man was right. He did . But…
“No.”
“Conan-kun-”
“No!”
A tense silence fell between them as an unstoppable force met an immovable object. Nothing moved, no one spoke.
Two sharp pairs of eyes bore into each other, unwilling to back down.
Then, suddenly, a large hand fell over Shinichi’s shoulder.
“Akai-san…” Came the professor’s voice, low and serious in a way it usually wasn’t, laying a reassuring balm over the tightness in Shinichi’s chest. “I understand what you mean, but Kudo-kun can’t just upheave his life at a moment’s notice like that. Plus, running will only confirm their suspicions if they weren’t already sure.”
Akai pursed his lips in conflict.
Haibara hummed in agreement. “Kudo has too many people paying attention to him on a daily basis. Leaving without warning would be more suspicious than anything else he could do.”
“Haibara.” Shinichi whispered breathlessly. The knots in his stomach finally unwound.
“Hmm…” Akai took a moment to think, but ultimately sighed and shook his head.
“I can’t force you since your life isn’t in any immediate danger.” He huffed. “But try to keep to yourself. Having your face in the newspaper right now would be dangerous.”
Shinichi grinned.
“ -last night. The minister of health and public safety, Isaac Dean Bowers, dropped into cardiac arrest during the celebration and passed away before the ambulance could arrive. Authorities have discovered the cause of death to be completely natura- ”
A rough hand turned the knob on the dashboard, silencing the sound of the radio until all that was left was the murmur of the engine. He sat there for a long time, staring out at the endless stretch of black in front of him, disrupted only by the streetlamps and the headlights of his car.
A sigh fell from his lips as he gripped the steering wheel harder and it wasn’t until the material started biting into his skin that he let them go lax.
He reached a hand over to the comlink in his bag and put it to his ear. It clicked and he cleared his throat.
“Hey, Babs, have you heard the news yet?”
“Obviously, who do you think you’re talking to?” Barbara huffed on the other side of the line. “That makes 17 people who’ve died from heart failure this week with any sort of political pull. Not to mention the huge number of random people around the Bowery who’ve experienced the same.
“It’s like a heart attack epidemic! Still no leads though. It’s driving both Tim and Bruce insane.”
“Yeah, I thought as much. I’m on my way over right now.”
There was a pause, then: “You too? Man, Alfred is going to cry. It’s going to be like a family reunion up here.”
“What do you mean, “me too”?”
“Jason has also been talking more. He says there’ve been too many cases in the Alley and he just “wants this shit over with”.”
He snorted, but inside his heart melted a little at the edges at the thought of everyone getting together. “Heh. If there’s one thing that can bring this family together more than Alfred’s cookies, it’s crime.”
Barbara gave a little tired chuckle. A very quiet beep went off on her end.
“Oh, the main channel is open, looks like I have to go back to doing my job . Urgh.” You could hear the smile in her voice.
He smiled back. “See you guys soon.”
“Yeah, see you soon, Dick.”
Two days had passed.
Akai’s team was moving steadily — crossing off places on the map, slowly but surely. There was no news of any signs of a base, but he was confident they would find it. At the moment, the team was investigating the area surrounding the towns as well as the towns themselves.
Soon they would reach the mountain range and the drones would have a much easier time looking through the dense foliage on the incline.
Shinichi shouldn’t complain at all, since, well, for such a small team, they were working at incredible rates, but…
But .
He turned his gaze to the seat diagonal to him where he could see the face of a complete stranger, although he knew underneath was one Andre Camel. He was driving them to and from school like he had nothing better to do with his time.
When he’d first seen the car parked outside the Mouris’ building, he’d thrown a fit.
Apparently, Ran explained, during a “casual conversation over the phone with Okiya-san” (since when did the two of them do that sort of thing??), the topic of school came up and she aired some small frustration over having to walk Conan to school during such an exam-filled week. And of course, “Okiya-san”, being “a nice guy”, “casually mentioned” to her that a “friend of his” would be “willing” to drive him to school since it was “on the way”.
Overjoyed and exhausted from studying so hard, she didn’t even question it.
(He understood Akai’s protective stance over Haibara, but him? He really didn’t need another adult butting into his business and stopping him from actually being useful, thanks.)
Shinichi was frustrated.
Not because of the added protection — although it was a little annoying — he understood why it was necessary. He wasn’t completely unreasonable.
No, his anger wasn’t due to the protection, but rather his own uselessness which was caused by it.
He’d been the one to find the lead, he should be with the drone team at least . It was unfair to keep him back when he was just as involved in this case as any other police or special forces member.
Haibara, who seemed to be at her wits end with his “pouting”, glared at the side of his face.
“Stop acting like it’s the end of the world. This is already a huge amount of freedom, all things considered.”
Shinichi scowled.
The car came to a crawl and then stopped.
Camel turned his head to face them and sighed. “Listen, Conan-kun, you know we don’t want to take your freedom away, right? This is for your own good.”
Staring dead into the older man’s eyes, Shinichi unbuckled his seatbelt, opened the door, walked out, and slammed it closed. He marched his way over to the elementary school entrance, barely bothering to acknowledge the other door closing and the sound of small footsteps falling alongside his own.
“You know, this whole process would be a lot more pleasant if you stopped perpetually throwing a tantrum.” Haibara “casually” observed.
Shinichi bristled and walked faster.
“Tim, it’s time to take a break.” Dick frowned. “When’s the last time you slept?”
Tim didn’t answer, his dead-eyed stare remaining trained on the computer screen. Only flickering away to look at the conspiracy board covered in red string beside it.
“Tim?” He continued, worry creeping into his voice. “Tim, bud, answer me, would you?”
Suddenly, two large hands were cradling his face, forcing Tim to look away from the screen. He hissed like a feral animal in response, but his body went limp.
“Alright, yeah, definitely needs sleep. Alfred, is the bed ready?”
“Of course, Master Dick.”
“Alright, buddy, let’s get you comfy.” And the hands were moving away. They reappeared on his back and beneath his knees. Just then, it clicked what was about to happen and Tim tried to struggle away.
“ Tried ” was the emphasis here as he couldn’t muster the energy to do anything but put his hand against Dick’s chest and push meekly. Even his protests were just garbled messes of sounds that vaguely gave the air of complaint.
Suddenly, his head was touching something soft, so soft. And he was horizontal, so horizontal. And just as suddenly, he decided that there was nothing he could’ve done to stop this from happening.
Tim accepted his fate as a large, heavy, soft, warm comforter was pulled over him up to his neck, chaining him down to his new comfortable prison of warmth.
He could hear people talking around him, but the words were passing through him like stones being thrown into a lake.
“Alright. Tim has been defeated. Now for the boss room. Alfred?”
“Master Bruce is currently in the basement, sir.”
“Of course he is. Am I getting back up on this one?”
“Miss Stephanie, Miss Cassandra, and Master Duke have all declined your invitation to “put down the final boss”, sir, but I will gladly assist you in any manner I can.”
“Thanks, Alfie. You’re the only one I can count on in this household, I swear.”
Okay, for reference, Shinichi knew it would be a bad idea.
In his defense, though, driving him to and from school was already pushing his boundaries, but he drew a line when they posted people on rooftops to observe him during school and home hours.
(Who even does that?!)
Arguing did little, not when everyone unanimously agreed it was for the better. Everyone but him.
He couldn't take it anymore. Something needed to be done, something needed to happen .
Shinichi plastered his back to the cold wall of the hallway, turning his head back and forth in rapid succession. His eyes and ears strained to listen out for anyone. When no one appeared, he sprinted for the exit.
(Normally, he would’ve been more careful not to be seen, but Haibara had given him a suspicious side glance when he’d asked to go to the bathroom and he couldn’t be sure she wouldn’t try to follow him.
Or sic the detective boys on him.)
If he was being completely honest, despite the little-to-no-care attitude he put into school, he’d never actually run away from school during class hours before. His gut prickled with a bit of anxiety.
He quickly changed his shoes from his locker and then went out the front to grab his skateboard.
It was unfortunate he had to leave his backpack in the classroom since it had a lot of his gadgets and all, but nothing could be done. Grabbing it would’ve put too much attention on him.
Once he crossed the threshold of the entrance, he could feel eyes on him.
Shinichi scoffed, knowing the guys set to watch them probably spotted him. Once he got on his skateboard, they wouldn’t be able to catch up.
He marched down the sidewalk, feeling irritated with the heat on his back following him too closely. He felt uncomfortable by it. More than he ever did in the classroom. Were they glaring at him or something? Why did it feel differ-
Focused on the gaze as he was, he startled with a full-body flinch at the loud sound of a cat meowing from right beside him.
He flickered his gaze, to check if it wasn’t an auditory hallucination, but no, there, on the wall, right at eye level, was a large white adult cat.
Wait.
“Mochi?”
The cat meowed at him and jumped down from the wall.
Oh wow, talk about luck.
Mochi purred and brushed against him before circling back and doing the same thing again. The movement prompted Shinichi to kneel down and run a hand through the soft luxurious fur.
Thankfully, the cat hadn’t been gone long enough to taint the fur by that much. Shinichi could only imagine the cost to get it cleaned.
It turned back to him when he crouched and pawed at his thighs, meowing again.
“Hm? Oh!” He finally recalled the baggie. He pulled it out of his pocket and made a face. “You don’t want this little guy. It’s at least a day old.”
Mochi meowed again, determined.
“Uh, you’re the boss I guess?” He opened the bag and put a hand inside, frowning at the texture and smell. Dutifully, though, he pulled out a chunk and gave it to Mochi. Despite the age, the cat seemed to eat the chunk like it had never eaten anything better.
The poor thing was probably starving. In all likelihood, it was skinny as a bone under that thick fur.
When the chunk was gone and a scratchy tongue began licking him, he pulled out another. And then another. And then another.
Shinichi was actually enjoying the process to some degree. He took the time as the cat devoured the pieces of fish to think of how to get it back home. Especially without losing an eye to its claws or getting caught by an adult.
Suddenly, there was the sound of a car halting behind him, snapping him out of his thoughts, and a door quickly opening.
Had the agents really gotten into a car, to catch up to him?
It couldn’t be. It would’ve taken them a lot more time to get down from the roof and into a car.
He felt dread pool into his gut.
Shinichi turned to look behind him, but pain exploded, suddenly, in the back of his skull and everything went dark.