#hattoriheiji | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

detcodrivels · 1 year

Text

'Til Kingdom Come

CHAPTER 2: Fail to Plan, Plan to Fail

The alarm bell started ringing before Shinichi was even halfway through with whitish sludgy muck they called oatmeal. Guards rushed into the mess hall in a frenzied rush and the more senior knights scraped back their seats at the head table, dropping their extravagant breakfasts of spiraled ham and cheese wedges, plates clattering and utensils skidding to the floor. He heard one word over the collective din: Princess.

Orders were being shouted in Shinichi’s ears. Heiji gripped him around the forearm, dragging him upright. “Come on, Kudo!” he commanded, “Snap out of it! We’re supposed to go to the front gates. Palace is on lockdown. The princess is missing!”

Shinichi shook his head, mind swimming in a murky haze. Lockdown? Combat? The Princess… Missing…? But he had just seen her!

“ARE YA HEARING ME OR ARE YA GONNA STARE INTO SPACE FOR ETERNITY?!” With a whiplash inducing intensity, Heiji shook him violently. “I am not getting martialed because I hung back pushing your ass into action! Get! Go! MOVE!”

Shinichi stumbled forward, tripping over his own feet, letting Heiji drag him along as the mess hall emptied of soldiers. Once they were in the hall, his brain finally managed to kick into gear and he pulled himself free, hanging back from the rushing bodies around him. “Heiji! Wait!” he called out, “What do they mean she’s missing? We just saw her on the balcony not half an hour ago!”

Heiji dropped his head into his open palm. “Were you not listening AT ALL?”

“I was…distracted…”

Heiji peeked at his between his fingers. “Man…You’re not a soldier, Kudo.”

Shinichi responded with a withering glare. “That’s not news.”

“They suspect the assailant is still in the building since they know she was here at dawn, same time you saw her. We’re supposta block every exit from the sewers to the gates. Every second we stand around here, the longer they have to get out!”

Shinichi scowled, “They’re not going to go out the front gate.”

“Maybe that’s exactly what they expect us ta think.”

“She was drinking something…”

“And?” Heiji’s patience was running thin, his eyes searching the halls for approaching authority with a hasty necessity. The last thing he wanted was to be caught hanging back from the line of duty. “What difference does it make what the princess was drinking? She’s MISSING, Kudo! Doesn’t matter if she had Oolong or Sencha or freaking Baiju for her morning beverage before they dragged her away!”

Shinichi wasn’t paying him attention anymore. He had dropped his chin into his hand, rubbing at it with his thumb, a habit he’d picked up from his father. He replayed the morning scene over and over again in his head. The doors had opened, she’d stepped out, pink robe, white nightgown. He had to stop thinking about what she was wearing! He had assumed it was a servant who had handed her the cup from within the room, but why wouldn’t they bring it directly to her, why would they remain obscured by the curtains? Why did she take it from them, if it wasn’t someone she trusted? But why would they try to take her in broad daylight? What advantage did that pose to them? Wouldn’t it be better to sneak in overnight, when no one was there to see her? Why let her go out on the balcony at all and confirm that she was within the castle walls at dawn, cementing the time frame of the kidnapping, ensuring the palace would be crawling with knights and soldiers, locked down to prevent their escape…?

It simply didn’t make any sense.

Then, it hit him like a bolt of lightning, every hair on the back of his neck standing alert and alarmed. All he’d seen was a teenaged girl with long brown hair wearing the Princesses nightclothes. Up on that tower balcony, she was too far to make out any of the finer details. He couldn’t see her facial features, or her eye color. No one could. He saw what he expected to see and without cause to question it, he hadn’t.

“Kudo…” Heiji’s voice was uncharacteristically soft, “If you’re scared…I’ll cover for ya…”

Shinichi blinked rapidly, remembering that his bunk mate was still waiting on him, looking out for him, the way he had from the moment he’d arrived at the castle, helping him make it through the last six months. “I’m not scared,” He muttered, still mostly consumed with his own thoughts, “It’s a trick.”

“Kudo?”

“It’s a trick!” He exclaimed with the further exuberance. “This is a mistake! If we fill the halls with soldiers it’ll only make it easier for them to get away!”

“Come again?”

“Why would they take her now?” Shinichi posed, talking quickly as he pulled Heiji away from the flowing traffic and into a secluded alcove where they would be somewhat concealed, “It doesn’t make sense. I know you’ve spent your whole life being groomed to take orders without question, but I want you to think about it! Logically, deductively! If you were going to sneak into this fortress when would you do it?”

“Maybe that’s what they WANT us to think…” Heiji countered, but Shinichi continued over his objection.

“No! Everyone saw Princess Ran on the balcony this morning. Everyone knows she goes out there to watch the sunrise. It’s her pattern. Lots of people notice, not just me.” (He chose to ignore Heiji’s skeptical raised eyebrow) “If you were going to take her, would you let her be seen by a bunch of people and narrow the time frame of your escape? No! You wouldn’t!”

Heiji’s brows furrowed as he began to fit the pieces together. Despite his family’s best efforts to mold him into the order following knight he was meant to be, Shinichi could see the defiant independent thought springing life into his eyes. “What are you saying? It’s a ploy?”

“It might not have been Princess Ran who I saw at all,” Shinichi confirmed gravely, “Just someone dressed up to look like her, and if we crowd the palace halls with guards in uniform…”

“…They’ll be able to slip into the ranks and disappear…” Heiji dropped his head and folded his arms, sending a sideways glance to the overcrowded atmosphere of the palace. “Shit… Are you sure, Kudo?”

Shinichi shot him a glare. “I can’t be certain, but it certainly makes sense!” A glint lit up in his eyes, however. “We have to tell someone!”

“We’re not Secret Police, Kudo.”

“But it could be valuable information.”

Heiji’s glare blazed. “Do you want to explain to the officials why you were staring at the princess this morning? And if they were to take us seriously, which I doubt they will without evidence…”

“Then we get evidence!”

“How, Kudo!? We can’t just run in there and demand they let us poke around because your hunch challenges all of the military authority!”

“I just want to check… We could be wasting time and helping them get away with it! For all we know she’s already long gone!”

Heiji bit his lip, eyes furtive, but he eventually jutted his chin in an assertive nod. “Okay…but we cannot be caught or it’ll be Hell on Earth for the both of us.”

Shinichi caught Heiji’s gaze and faltered, his feverish exuberance ebbing a bit. “You don’t have to take that risk with me.”

“I’m not gonna let you go alone.”

“You’ll have it worse than me…”

Heiji managed a nonchalant shrug, “But if we’re right we’ll get a hellova lotta credit, ain’t that right?”

“Only if we find evidence of when and where they took her…”

“I hafta go with,” Heiji decided reasonably, “You wouldn’t know how to get even close to the tower.”

A half grin inched its way across Shinichi’s lips. “And you do?”

“My father is a General for the Palace Guard. I have an idea how to get around.”

Shinichi couldn’t be certain, but he got the impression the thought to doing something so blatantly rebellious was actually thrilling to the other boy, the direct defiance bolstering his stubborn streak and putting true pride back into his carriage as he squared his shoulders and led the way out of their alcove and into the weaving crowds.

“Put your helmet on,” He cautioned, “We’ll be harder to recognize; then join in on the tail end of the central command chain and follow them to the main stairs. From there we’ll have to sneak.”

There was a brilliant flash of white and then Heiji pulled the shield down on the front of his helmet. He fell into step with a string of knights, which normally stomped all throughout the castle grounds as a kind of sentry, none of them particularly skilled or decorated warriors, but worthy enough to combat any sudden attacks. They streaked through the bustling barrack halls with a self-serving importance, smacking the bottoms of their spear shafts on the stone floors to clear the path. It wasn’t difficult for Shinichi and Heiji to mold themselves into the ranks. Had anyone looked closely, they might have noticed that their tunics bore the ornamentation only for the most novice inductees to the army, but in the level of chaotic motion the ramparts were reduced to, no one was looking closely at anything.

Eventually the sentry marched out of the barrack building and onto the sloping green training lawns, weaving between the joists and abandoned equipment in their determined approach towards the actual palace. A stone wall wrapped around the barrack grounds and a locked gate and a literal flight of stone steps separated the palace lawns from the lower class soldiers who protected their wellbeing. Only the highest classes of knights were allowed within the palace grounds, Generals like Heiji’s father, and the Secret Police Operatives, not ground soldiers, and certainly not conscripted sons of national offenders, like Shinichi. Nonetheless, as the Lead Sentry opened the massive gate, he trailed inside.

Here, however, they suddenly halted. Shinichi hastened to fall into a semicircle formed by the others, a half-step behind Heiji, who was a half-step behind everyone else.

“You two!” The Lead Sentry barked loudly, zeroing in on Shinichi and Heiji, “You’re out of place!”

Beads of sweat accumulated on Shinichi’s forehead and his bangs began to stick to his skin in drenched strings. Heiji, however, spoke up, loud and clear. “Shiratori, Sir, we were instructed to add additional support to your troops!”

“Where is your notice of transfer?”

“We don’t have one, Sir. Command came this morning when we were assigned a response task. I suppose they wanted more inner palace guard.”

“Where did the order come from?”

“General Hattori, Sir.”

Shinichi was surprised at the audacity of his partner in crime. Breaking rank was one thing, but dragging his own father’s name into their digression was another entirely. Then again, he could see the genius of it, too…the mad genius. No one would question Heiji Hattori being given a directive from his father, and his father’s rank was high enough that a Sentry Lead like Shiratori wasn’t about challenge it openly, especially not whilst under perceivable siege. Still, if it ever got out…it spelled trouble. Heiji had guts, of that much Shinichi had never been more certain, but there was a fine line between courage and folly, and he wasn’t so sure Heiji knew where it was.

Shiratori sucked in a sharp, steadying breath and nodded his head curtly. “This is certainly unprecedented, but I have a special knack for lateral thinking. Keep in line. There’s no time to get you up to task, so you’ll have to learn as you go. Understood?”

“Understood, Sir!” Heiji called back promptly, nudging Shinichi to encourage him to echo the sentiment.

“Otaki, I want you to keep an eye on them.”

The sentry guard nearest them turned and nodded affirmatively. “Nothing to worry about,” He assured them, more good naturedly, while Shiratori relocked the gate and redirected their party toward the front doors to the palace. “I’ll look out for you. Never easy getting a transfer, much less during a situation like this.”

“We thank you for the welcome,” Heiji replied, but Shinichi only managed to nod his head. He had been distracted momentarily, a prickling sensation crawling up his spine. He couldn’t be sure, but he thought he saw a dark figure slip into the hedges at their rear, and now, he was almost certain they were being watched.

This was not what he had imagined when he thought of sneaking up to Princess Ran’s tower to investigate his suspicions, and making friends with the sentry wasn’t going to make it any easier to slip away once they made it inside. Granted, Heiji had gotten them this far. They were on the palace grounds, making their way to the now heavily guarded front doors. No one stopped them as they stomped up the front steps between the series of guards and entered the regal, gilded entrance hall. Shinichi had never stood in such an ostentatious room before in his life. Everything was lined with elegantly scrolling gold; the marble stairs gleamed under the combined brilliance of a million flickering candles, strung into the latticed scopes of a massive chandelier hanging from the center of the arching domed ceiling. Portraits lined the paneled walls and enormous ferns fanned out from fifty gallon limestone planters on either side of the stairs impressive banister.

He had taken no more than a couple of steps within before he heard the ravings of King Kogoro reverberating off of the shiny, echoing surfaces. The throne room was directly ahead of the entry and beyond a gold-leaf door, but it did little to obscure his ever mounting ravings, orders shouted with a rapidly declining coherence. “THIS MEANS WAR!” Shinichi heard him proclaim at the top of his lungs, “How dare they make such a bold attack, the nerve of….HOW DARE THEY! I will personally go! I will show them the POWER of my empire! The Wrath and Fury of A FATHER!” Something loud crashed and Shinichi resisted the urge to flinch, wincing for the poor souls who were within the throne room with him.

“Your highness, we are investigating every possible escape route. They will not get far, and your vast armies are already poised to make a counter attack. Please compose yourself…” It was a softer voice which dealt out this commentary, mild and somewhat soothing. Shinichi recognized it was one of the captains, Furuya was his name.

“This palace is meant to be impenetrable! How could they infiltrate within these walls!?” the voice of the Queen herself, now, certainly more collected, but no less insistent.

“It is a matter already under consideration,” Furuya assured her. “If you will excuse me, I really must join my task force.”

The next voice to speak stilled Shinichi’s heart and he felt Heiji stiffen at his side.

“We will report back as soon as we have information. Until then, it is best that you remain under heavy guard. We cannot allow haste to make us impulsive. It would only serve to aid the enemy.” Heizo Hattori.

Shinichi subtly gripped Heiji’s arm. They couldn’t remain standing there when Heizo and Furuya exited the throne room. They’d be outed in a second if Shiratori made mention of their “transfer.” They needed to move. Fast. But Heiji was now rooted in place. The doors were opening. There wasn’t any time left. The line of sentry guards stiffened to attention to salute the higher ranking officers. Shinichi’s blood turned to ice as the two exited together. And then, while everyone’s focus was drawn to the center of the hall, a fist wrapped tightly around his wrist and a whisper fell urgently on his ear. “Shhh.”

#dcmk #Detective Conan #HattoriHeiji #Shinichi Kudo #Ran Mouri #Rei Furuya #Fanfiction #Princess!Ran #Knight!Shinichi

2 notes · View notes