Archive of Our Own

“Hmm, you say this case has gotten ’too personal,’ now? Ha, General, you wound me! Truly, you do. What difference could it possibly make that this case has taken me to my hometown? If anything, I call that an advantage in familiarity! As if I didn’t already know all of Narukami Island like the back of my hand, that is.”

Heizou’s argument was rather solid, if he did say so himself, but unfortunately, General Kujou Sara, his superior, did not appear impressed in the slightest. Not that he would have expected her to be, of course. He only hoped to reassure her that he was fine just enough that she would permit him to continue his work. Because, truly, he was fine.

“I wasn’t talking about the former location of the suspects,” Sara clarified, her tone as firm as ever. “I am referring to your own behavior. You have been on this case for two weeks straight, and in that time, you have hardly slept at all. Am I incorrect? I know you need rest.”

“Hmm, really? You, telling me to go on vacation? And here I thought you thought I was the lazy one; I’m flattered.”

“Shikanoin!” Sara scolded. “Listen! Look, it is no secret to anyone here that you are especially passionate about cases involving con artists. However, I am concerned that you are pushing yourself too hard, and of course, you must call to mind your incident from yesterday.”

Ah, and here it comes again. Heizou knew exactly what she was talking about.

“You chased a suspect straight through Hanamazaka! You caused a scene that we at the station now have to answer for, one which led to the damage of property by the fleeing suspect in the process, and you involved civilian bystanders in the chase!”

“Alright, so first of all, I have personally compensated the affected for the damages, and secondly, I wouldn’t quite describe the Arataki Gang as ‘civilian bystanders,’ would you?”

“You’re right, no. They’re worse. Now that he has ‘helped’ on an official investigation, Itto is never going to let me hear the end of—! Ah, ahem,” she stopped herself to clear her throat. “I mean, it was merely troublesome. However, the greatest problem now is that after all of that trouble, we have no proof that the suspect was involved in this scheme at all. At the very least, she refuses to talk to us no matter how long we interrogate her, and without a shred of proof, we can’t justify taking harsher measures.”

“Which is exactly why I need to stay on this case,” Heizou countered without missing a beat. “I need to find that proof, and we need to catch these people before they find the opportunity to escape Narukami Island. Madame Sara, I will solve this. I just need more time.”

Sara eyed him with further suspicion. In a way, Heizou didn’t blame her. He really didn’t have this quite as under control as he would have liked, and he really was quite tired. Heizou didn’t make a habit of overworking himself in the day-to-day affairs of his job, but sometimes, with certain cases, he would inevitably end up doing just that. But it was fine. He would take care of himself plenty after this was over.

“Just remember, Shikanoin. You are not our only detective. I don’t want you to strain yourself, both out of consideration for your health, and for the simple fact that if you do so, you will make mistakes. Have I made myself clear?”

“I understand.” Heizou smiled in satisfaction and relief. “You can count on me, General.”

+++

Heizou had another visit to make tonight, and he couldn’t delay. As much as he would love to get answers out of Kasumi, the suspect they arrested yesterday, he knew it wasn’t likely. She was quite committed to playing dumb, and considering her role in this organization, it was hardly surprising.

Heizou was on the tail of a ring of con artists who appeared to call themselves the “Crane Wings.” They played a bit of a different game than most: instead of coming up with some gimmick that they tried to sell as many people on as they could before they took the money and ran, they would tailor their schemes specifically to the victim. They would spy on them, learn their secrets, and impersonate key people in order to get the money before they disappeared. They were masters of disguise, and they left virtually no paper trail. People in the underworld knew about them, however, and Heizou was even advised by two whole contacts to steer clear of “The Tiger,” the one who ran this operation, apparently. However, Heizou wasn’t going to stop, because he was close. In the wake of their two most recent schemes, Heizou found a trail, and his intuition told him that if he looked hard enough, he would find that the Crane Wings were behind some past unsolved embezzlement cases, too. Heizou got so close, he was able to track down “The Heron”—that is, Kasumi. He cornered her for a little chat, hopeful that he could carefully lower her guard before revealing all of her lies that he knew, breaking her into realizing that he knew everything, and that there was nowhere left to run.

Only problem was that, well, she did run. Quite well, in fact. As far as Heizou was concerned, she basically admitted her guilt in the process, but he did actually come scarily close to losing her, hence why he hastily decided to ask for Shinobu’s help after spotting her and the gang in the streets. They helped him close off points of escape, and Shinobu did end up being the one to sneak up on and stun Kasumi once the con artist thought she was alone, so yes, Heizou owed her one.

However, the victory of yesterday meant nothing without solid evidence, and it also meant nothing if Heizou could not also track down the stolen money, along with the rest of the organization. Without that money, a conviction would certainly mean little to the victims, for certain.

Some people got the idea, concerning Heizou’s strong feelings about con artists, that he must have suffered from a con himself, or otherwise had someone close to him suffer from one. This was not the case. Heizou just hated deception—it was as simple as that. Of course, he was on a mission to end all crime, so this category was only one of many for him to tackle, but he had to admit that he didn’t get nearly as passionate about the thief in the night as he did the con by day, even if the end result was functionally the same. He believed the difference with him mostly lay in the fact that conmen were manipulators of emotion who targeted people at their weakest, leaving the victims not only deprived of their money, but full of shame and pained from the broken trust. Yes, that was probably it—broken trust. Heizou never could stand it when someone manipulates another’s trust in them like that.

Today, however, Heizou must admit that he might no longer be able to say that he was never affiliated personally with anyone affected by a con artist scheme, because today, he found himself traveling back to his home village, to meet with people who, as fate would have it, were his former neighbors.

Minato and Misaki were an elderly couple who lived just a short walk away from his father’s dojo. Heizou never exactly knew them well as a kid, but it was enough that they treated him as if he were a distant relative whenever he showed up again.

“Oh, Heizou!” Misaki spotted him walking up the old dirt path towards their house while she was outside gardening.

“Misaki-san, I hope you are well?” Heizou greeted back with a tired smile. “Besides the fact that you must be absolutely sick of seeing me, of course.”

“Oh, no, not at all! Please, come inside, we were just about to have supper.”

Heizou was quickly ushered inside, where Minato was there to greet him as well, joining them at the tea table with slow, trembling steps. Heizou rehearsed his words in his mind, hoping to make this brief enough. He didn’t want to take advantage of their hospitality, as nice as dinner may sound.

“Heizou, your father asked about you, the other day,” Misaki told him, her tone nothing but pure-hearted earnest, and maybe concern. “He says he hasn’t seen you once in all of this; perhaps you should pay him a visit, while you’re in the area? I’m sure he would appreciate it.”

“Ah! Thank you for letting me know, but unfortunately, as wonderful as a night at the old house sounds, I am on a case. Time is of the essence, so I simply do not have the time.” Nor would he have time the next time he was in the area, or the time after that. Hopefully, he wouldn’t have to come back here again at all, no offense to Minato and Misaki. Seeing them had been rather pleasant, actually, as terrible as the circumstances were. However, Heizou simply could not stay here. His brain knew it was illogical, but if he was being honest, just being in this town stressed him, far more than it should. It brought back memories he would prefer to keep buried, to the point that he felt like a kid again, and not in a good way. In Inazuma City, he was Shikanoin Heizou, ace detective, but step foot in here and voila! He was Juro’s son, unwilling protégé. It wasn’t like he hated his dad, of course. His childhood could’ve been worse, really. He could also admit, however begrudgingly, that his training was quite effective. However, that didn’t mean he had any desire to see the old man again.

“Really?” Misaki questioned with just a dash more of concern. “Surely, it wouldn’t be that long? Well, perhaps you could just come back once you do have time, after your case is over. I just worry that he is rather lonely, nowadays.”

“Does he have any students?” Heizou asked, as he could not help but be curious.

“Oh, yes! He does have one, now! Just the one, a young man from a town up north by the coast who came looking for training.”

Well, at least the bills would get paid, Heizou supposed. However “famous” their family name might have once been, the Shikanoin dojo had always been a small and struggling one as long as Heizou could remember, with only a handful of students at any given time, if that. He remembers how not long after his mom left, his dad’s last two students at that time left too. His father just put all of his time and effort into training Heizou, after that, whether he wanted to or not.

Anyways, they were quickly off topic. “That is good to hear, but that aside, I need to talk to you again,” Heizou redirected them, not spending too much time on the buildup. “Today, I want to speak with you about the past.”

“Mm, the past, you say?” Minato echoed with curiosity.

“Yes. I want you to tell me more about the ‘merchant’ Osamu,” he repeated the Tiger’s fake name that he used on them before. Heizou had yet to find out what his real one was. “You said that you had seen him before, years ago, in this very village. What do you remember about him from then? What did he do? What did he sell? Anything at all that you can think of would be helpful; I do not care how small the detail is.”

“Oh! Well, he didn’t do anything, then,” Misaki mused. “Just…normal things.”

“Yes, like what?” he probed.

“Textiles,” she responded. “He was selling cloth, I know. And we…we even got something from him, didn’t we?”

“Yes…” Minato nodded slowly. “I can’t say I recall what it was, but we did purchase something, yes.”

“Alright, and how did the exchange go?” Heizou prodded further, hoping their collective memories would turn up something. Was he reaching? Maybe. However, he was in desperate need of a trail for this man’s activities, and he would follow it all the way to his birth if he had to, in order to find The Tiger’s real name and, ultimately, track him and his network down. For this, Heizou had no time to lose.

When the Crane Wings scammed Minato and Misaki, the Tiger posed as a merchant acting as a courier, using his past presence in this village as a way to establish legitimacy so he may deftly corroborate their story, although he wasn’t the main player. The key actor in the twisted play was Kasumi, who came to Minato and Misaki posed as their dead son’s widow, along with her supposed eleven-year-old son, “Shion” (whose real identity Heizou also had yet to ascertain). The elderly couple had a son who died in the war, and that son did indeed have a wife, but they had seen neither of them in a very long time, as the son seldom visited them, and their efforts to reach out to the daughter-in-law after they heard the news of their son’s death were in vain, as she, apparently, did not wish to speak to them.

To their knowledge, Minato and Misaki had no grandchildren, but given the lack of communication, it was deemed plausible. Kasumi showed up at their doorstep disguised as the daughter-in-law and in tears; she claimed to have tried to write letters to them so many times only to hear nothing. Of course, the couple received no such letters, but they decided that the mail must have been lost due as a consequence of the war. They were heartbroken and desperate to make amends with their one remaining family member, and those amends came with a demand: their ‘grandchild’ was terribly sick, and he needed expensive medical procedures that this poor widow simply could not afford.

Minato and Misaki paid the money in full, and then some. The scam was by no means a quick one. Kasumi spent weeks with them, convincing them that she was indeed their daughter-in-law, all the way down to the visit by the traveling merchant who claimed to have known her, but in the end, she left without a trace. The couple attempted to send more letters, and these reached their real daughter-in-law, who knew nothing about what they were talking about.

Heizou paid this daughter-in-law a visit in person, to confirm that she did indeed have nothing to do with this. She was living alone in Ritou, perfectly childless and quite offended by the very existence of the scam. She knew nothing about the Crane Wings, even though the Crane Wings knew quite a number about her.

Now, the “Heron” at least has been arrested and secured, but there were still five other members of this ring that Heizou had to catch, not including this “eleven-year-old son” that Heizou knew next to nothing about aside from this particular scam. The implications of the ring using a child for their ends was quite concerning, although it was very possible that this kid could have been in actuality a good two or three years older than they said, maybe even four. Regardless, Heizou would certainly have to find him, too.

“Our exchange…” Misaki mused, pausing a moment while she tried to remember. “He was tall, with dark hair, and he had simple traveling clothes, I think. I didn’t get the impression that he was a rich merchant. I do remember him talking a lot, in a very friendly manner, although I can’t tell you what we talked about. He had…a cart, filled with cloth and maybe a bit of jewelry, too? But mostly cloth. He stayed in town for a good two weeks, I think, before moving on. We talked a few times, and…oh! Yes! And he got a message delivered to him once, and they talked for a little while. Yes, I remember that time clearly, the message was delivered by that young lad who used to hang around here—your old friend, Heizou!”

With just a few short words, Heizou felt like he got punched in the gut. He fought to keep his expression perfectly neutral. “Oh? My ‘old friend,’ you say?”

“Yes, him! Ah, what was his name, again?”

“It was Isamu.”

“Ah, yes! Yes, I do remember now—I remember thinking it was so nice he would come all this way. It was a shame that you didn’t have any kids your own age here, so I was happy that you finally found a friend. Do you still talk to him, Heizou?”

“Oh, we…” Heizou swallowed thickly. “We haven’t kept in touch.” 

“I see. That’s a shame, but then, naturally, some people are in our lives for but a season. You have certainly grown so much since then, as I’m sure Isamu has…”

“Ah! Ahem.” Heizou cleared his throat loudly, averting his eyes for just a moment. “Pardon me, but, the case at hand, if you don’t mind?”

“Oh, yes!” Misaki nodded. “Well, I can’t I remember anything else other than that. Do you, Minato?”

“Mm,” Minato grunted, shaking his head slowly. “Your memory is far better than mine, I’m afraid. I recall the fiend’s existence only barely. As you said, it was many years ago, as you can tell from your own recollection about the boy. That was back when Heizou too was still with us. Hmph, I don’t suppose you would remember then, would you, boy?”

“Not at all.” Heizou shook his head, eyes glazed in thought. “But, thank you for your time.”

+++

Heizou had to keep reminding himself to not be surprised, or rather, to not let it rattle him like an earthquake threatening to fell a vase of glass. It was not that big of a deal. So what if Isamu and “The Tiger” made contact before? The man probably just paid him to deliver and receive some message, and that was it. There could have even been something underhanded in the nature of this letter, and it would still be nothing of note. Wasn’t that what so many underworld criminal masters like him did? Hired an expendable street urchin to run an errand or two for them, knowing they would take the money and ask no questions? Wasn’t that all this was?

Heizou left his hometown as soon as he could. It was getting late in the midst of his traveling, and he wondered if he should stop on the trail for the night, but he didn’t want to waste time. He came to yet another village where he wished to do some research, and he made his camp just outside of it sometime past midnight. He would get what he wanted first thing in the morning, and then he would get back to Inazuma City before Sara realized he was gone.

Heizou was exhausted but couldn’t sleep. His thoughts inevitably dragged him back to Isamu and just…thinking about memories, but Heizou quickly pushed that to the side. Maybe, maybe, Sara was right about this getting “personal” for him just by the mere fact that his very own hometown was a place of interest, but still, it didn’t matter. Really, it didn’t. Heizou’s job was to solve this case, to catch the Crane Wings once and for all before they made off with the money, and before the Tenryou Commission got tired of keeping vigilant watch for the suspects in the city and along the coastline alike and just gave up on the matter like they did years before.

However, this time was different. This time, Heizou was on the case, and he would not rest until this was finished.

+++

Heizou’s office was a maze of string. He had papers containing evidence pinned up on the walls; he had old case reports in boxes littering his floor, and he had ledger books upon in hand, the discrepancies in them getting the honor of being logged in hasty penmanship off to the side.

His office was a rather small space, tucked away in the corner of the police station’s basement, as was the case for any Doushin, but he made a habit of using that space to its fullest capacity and then some. For want of furnishings, he had books stacked along the wall, the space provided by his single desk reserved for papers, an oil lamp, and one cup of coffee. It was much like the look of his apartment, except smaller, and with, sadly, much less food. His stomach was starting to betray him by making noises. Was it time for him to get breakfast, yet?

The night before, Heizou tried yet again to speak to Kasumi. Usually, he’s rather good at making suspects squirm and reveal information when they realize how much he knows about them already, but sadly, that has not been the case today. Heizou, perhaps fueled by his own exhaustion, cut a little deeper than he would usually into the more, well, “emotional” argument.

“They trusted you,” he told her, a hard edge to his voice. “Are you proud of yourself, I wonder? Did it make you proud to steal every ounce of savings from a poor elderly couple, grieving over the loss of their only son?”

Kasumi laughed at him, said that he must be crazy, because surely, she had no clue what she was talking about. When Heizou finally pulled out his trump card, a photographic picture of her in disguise, she laughed again and said that this woman looked nothing like her. She just loved to flatter herself, didn’t she?

She then had the audacity to turn it back around on him. “Are you…projecting, perhaps? This…couple that you are talking about, it does sound like quite the tragic story, but of course, we both know where the true guilt lies. None of this would have happened if their son hadn’t died fighting the Tenyrou Commission’s war. What would common people have to care about the rebels and their snake god? So, the way I see it, the fault for the tragedy is with people like you, Doushin. Are you satisfied?” she grinned at him with a wicked gleam in her eyes. “To have rose up from nothing, come all this way, gain so much fame as a detective, only to make others suffer by enforcing the will of the Tenyrou? And to think, you lost so much along the way. Your home, your partnership with Sango, your friend…”

Heizou wasn’t supposed to be the one getting rattled by an interrogation. But that little bit she said—he wondered. What did she mean? What did she know? He questioned her about it as hard as he could without revealing the way his heart stopped at the slightest suggestion that she knew his backstory, that thing that he told no one. But then, didn’t it make sense? The Crane Wings worked in information; they scammed people by knowing everything about them. Of course they did their research.

Unless she said that because she’s known for a long time. Because, maybe, she did know who Isamu was, because they worked together for some reason, and…

No! No. Heizou needed to focus. He couldn’t let his thoughts get out of hand. He needed to work on his evidence. And…maybe rest, only a little? Heizou did go to sleep last night, but his dream woke him up. It was a shame, actually. Heizou found dreams actually quite useful to him—in his eyes, they revealed flashes of intuition, little segments of his subconscious that his waking mind may not be able to find. He could use it to make sense of his own head, in a way. However, this dream was only memories. He was a kid again, reading a book late at night in his father’s attic, as he would indeed do back then. He had a bandage wrapped around his right forearm, and he kept fiddling with it, because the wound was bothering him. It kept getting worse and worse, until he moved it a little too much, and the wound opened up and started bleeding again. It soaked through his bandages in seconds, and soon blood was pooling on the floor, and then it smeared all over his book, and then it covered his shirt, his feet, his hands, and he started to try to shake it off like an idiot, but it kept bleeding, and he couldn’t make it stop. And then he woke up.

So, it was terribly inconvenient. It was an unhelpful dream, and it left him feeling stressed and wired, even though it wasn’t like he felt any real pain during it, only the illusion of pain. It was just a memory, although a blatant exaggeration. It wasn’t like he ever got hurt that bad during his dad’s training. The only time he ever had the sensation of his hands being soaked in blood like that was when…was when…

It wasn’t important. Heizou didn’t want to waste time going back to sleep, so he got up and made his way back to the station instead. He might as well just sleep in his office anyways, the way this investigation was going.

He would admit, though, that the process of tracking down the Crane Wings’ movements was a thrilling experience, one which he was bound to get more of for months to come. Of course, he was acting with haste concerning the recent cases, but a few of the members—the Bear, the Viper, and the Fish—had been quiet for a while, so it would take longer to track them down to make them pay for past crimes.

Heizou sifted through more notes, feeling himself steadily get a picture of everything that has happened thus far. The grand Textile embezzlement scheme of ten years earlier, the period of silence, the return to the island and reunion with past contacts…

Heizou froze, eyes transfixed on the page he had been planning on looking over only briefly before heading up to find breakfast. It was his file concerning the Sato clan, a minor clan in the Kanjou Commission. “The Tiger” had, if his deduction was correct, called in a favor with the clan’s patriarch recently. This patriarch who had a thirteen-year-old son who went off to “visit a friend” not long before…

Heizou rushed to skim through his files, looking for a picture. He found one and immediately compared it to that singular picture Misaki took of her “daughter-in-law” and “grandson” weeks before.

It was a match. A disguise was used, but clearly, it was a match. This young teen, Sato Daisuke, had a striking similarity in appearance to “Shion.” Heizou felt his heart speed up with excitement. This could be it. This was his lead.

He scrambled through the files and followed the pins he had up on the wall. Where was Daisuke now? He could be with the Crane Wings still, but his intuition told him that wasn’t the case. They would have no reason to keep him around after that scam, unless it was to keep a watch on him. But he wasn’t with his immediate family; they still claimed he was away. Which means he could indeed still be close to the Crane Wings, but if he was to be doing something else besides taking part in a scam, what would he do? Perhaps, then, his uncle’s shipyard…

Ritou. Heizou hurriedly packed his things and headed out the door. He was going to pay a visit to Ritou.

+++

Heizou had him cornered. His mind raced with stress and excitement—his hunch paid off. He found Sato Daisuke in the shipyard and now had in physical corner amidst the crates and lumber as well as, more importantly, a mental one.

“I-I don’t know anything!” Daisuke insisted feebly, panic plain to see in his eyes after Heizou told him in great detail everything that he did. “I just did what they asked! I was supposed to help them—that was it!”

“Oh, I am sure,” Heizou mused, a half-smile on his face and a sharpness in his tired eyes. “But I think you might just know a lot more than you think you do.”

“P-Please, Detective Doushin. I-I mean, Doushin Heizou. Detective Heizou? Agh! I know who you are! And I knew you were coming! I heard about the Heron, so…so I…”

“Hmm? You heard, I see? Has the rest of the crew heard the news?”

“I haven’t talked to them.” Daisuke was in despair. “You have to believe me. I’m just…staying around here, for a while. I’m not with them, please—my dad owed money and—I mean! I’m sorry! I shouldn’t have said…”

“Daisuke.” Heizou leveled his gaze with a heavy sigh. “I’m not going to hurt you, alright? I’m looking for information. Some innocent people lost a lot of money to this scheme, you realize that, right? Help us, and we’ll help you. I’m sure I can make my fellow Doushin understand,” Heizou promised, keeping a menacing enough edge to his words to prod him along, although he did have a feeling, from the apparent sincerity in the kid’s words thus far, that his involvement was hardly a voluntary one.

“Okay.” Daisuke nodded rapidly. “I’ll tell you everything! I’ll…what do I do, now?”

“Come with me to Inazuma City,” Heizou told him. “It would be a much safer place to—”

Heizou stopped. As if on cue, he felt another presence in the empty shipyard. He alerted at the sound of footsteps, and then—

Something whizzed through the air. Heizou heard the sharp whistle of a flying shuriken before he saw it and dodged to the side, his fists ready and glowing with Anemo energy less than a second later. Then he realized that the attack wasn’t meant for him.

“Daisuke!”

Daisuke dropped to his knees, expression blank, hands mechanically moving to pull at the blade lodged just centimeters below his throat. Blood flowed down his chest and leaked out the corner of his mouth. He pulled the shuriken out, and the blood was released with wild vigor.

“Well, well, well,” the Tiger stepped forward slowly while Heizou desperate dashed to Daisuke’s side, intention to fight suddenly forgotten. He caught him before he fell forward to the ground and forgot everything else. His heart was beating inside of his brain. He couldn’t breathe. He turned Daisuke over and stared at the wound. He had to stop the bleeding. He had to stop the bleeding.

Everywhere, it coated his hands and he tried, he tried to put pressure but it kept coming—it wouldn’t stop. Why wouldn’t it…?

“Detective Heizou, I must say, I’m almost impressed.” The man walked steadily forward, a sneer in his tone as he slowly clapped in congratulations. “You really did do your research, didn’t you?”

Shut up, shut up! Why did he keep trying to talk? Why was he smiling? Why was he apologizing now? Like this? Like he knew he was dying but he wasn’t going to he was a liar why did Heizou listen why did he

“You know! They actually told me not to come back to Narukami Island because of you. Can you imagine that? They said that Detective Heizou could solve any case. Ha! You may have an impressive track record, but everyone has to lose someday. Now I only wonder—”

“Shut up!” Heizou yelled, his eyes wild. He was backed up against a wall of crates. He held Daisuke with one arm and put pressure on the wound with his other bare hand, doing neither effectively. His hands wouldn’t stop shaking. Why wouldn’t they stop? He fought as hard as he could to put steady pressure on the wound as the blood covered his hand seeped into his fingernails stuck to his palm and he couldn’t wash it off, no matter how hard he tried

“What did you do!?”

“Well, isn’t it obvious?” The Tiger smirked. “He was about to talk. So, shall you be next?”

Heizou couldn’t move. He couldn’t even say anything else. His mouth was cotton and his mind was blank. He just stared, waiting…was he waiting for…?

“STOP! Under order of the Tenyrou Commission!”

Sara’s voice. That’s right. She was supposed to be here.

She was followed by more soldiers, their backup. Heizou knew they would be here. It was part of the plan. He wasn’t going to repeat the mistake he just made with Kasumi. He was going to get backup, in case the suspect decided to run, or if things otherwise went south.

Heizou should move. They were in a fight. He should do something. Shouldn’t he?

“Come here to see me…did you, Heizou?”

There was a dagger plunged in his heart. Still his friend smiled up at him, eyes glazed as the blood flowed out freely in spite of Heizou’s trying to stop it. He had to stop it. This couldn’t be happening. This wasn’t the end. Not like this. Not like this.

Daisuke said nothing. His eyes were a blank nothing. His blood was on Heizou’s hands. This wasn’t supposed to happen—he was supposed to have control, this wasn’t what he anticipated, but wasn’t it? Wasn’t it? He knew they were nearby. They were watching him. They were waiting. Heizou should have known. He killed him.

Isamu reached into his pouch with trembling hands, his Mora pouch without a single mora inside. He pulled out a single green pebble…

Heizou’s hands were trembling. He couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t stop the blood. He couldn’t breathe

“—zou! Detective Heizou! What are you doing!?”

“He…he isn’t doing anything—wait, he could be poisoned! Heizou!”

“Men, step aside!” Sara barked. “You’re crowding him! Let him breathe!”

I’m sorry. I’m sorry, I’m sorry. Heizou repeated it in his mind, but it was useless, because he never said it out loud. He cursed the world for its lies but regretted knowing the truth, regretted being unable to believe that Isamu was who he first said he was. He wanted those last few months back.

He wanted to save him.

He just wanted to save him.

I’m sorry.

+++

“The doctors say that he’s stable,” Sara told him, alone with him at the police station that night, sitting down with small bowls of warm noodles in front of them. “Chances are, he’ll live, but his vocal chords were cut deep. He may never have his voice back.”

Heizou nodded, mind far off. “I see.”

“Heizou,” Sara addressed him, firm but still much gentler than usual. “You’ve been quiet. How are you holding up?”

Heizou took a while to answer. All day, his mind had been a wreck, as if, literally, three carts had collided together on the road, and all their wares were spilled out onto the ground with little sense of what originally went where, and the drivers were too lazy to clean it up, so they just stared at the mess instead. Heizou, to state the obvious, hated that feeling.

“Oh, fine.” His tone was artificially light in a way that was bound to fool no one. “We caught the ‘Tiger’ himself today. Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Shikanoin. You know what I am referring to.”

“Hmph.” Heizou allowed himself a rueful smile. “Ah, you mean how I froze up back there? Stared at nothing like a dead fish? Oh, perhaps, do you wish to tell me ‘I told you so’ right about now?”

“Shikanoin, you know that would be wholly unnecessary, although, naturally, I am concerned over how hard you’ve pushed yourself. I was told you were in your office early this morning. Did you sleep at all last night?”

“I did sleep,” Heizou countered, “and I assure you, it was not my intention to cut back on said sleep. I simply was up early due to a nightmare, so I decided to get some work done instead.”

“Hmm.” Sara nodded. “Understood, but still, you need rest to function.”

“Ah, so that’s the reason we’re citing for my ‘moment of weakness,’ as it seems.” Heizou still cringed at the memory, for more reasons than one. He hardly remembered what happened back there. One moment, he was in the shipyard with Daisuke in his arms, and the next, he was in the local hospital, with someone he didn’t know washing the blood off his hands for him. For far too long, his mind was a cloudy haze, his body limited to mechanical movements.

Sara paused for a moment, looking away. “That’s not what I’m calling it,” she said. “Heizou…until recently, I was a general in an active war. I know what shock looks like.”

In the pause that followed, Heizou didn’t know what to say. He only nodded.

“And I would admit, my opinions on such a scene would have been…different, a few years ago. My father taught us—ah, never mind. What I mean is that I’ve accepted that this is something that, as protectors of Inazuma, we are faced with. We see many gruesome displays in our work, and we become accustomed to it, but that doesn’t make us prepared for everything. And you are still very young, Shikanoin. Remember that. It will…what I’m saying is, some things will take experience and time to become accustomed to.”

Heizou nodded, slowly turning her words over in his mind, wondering if something like what just happened was anything he wanted to just become ‘accustomed’ to. “It wasn’t just…about the shock of today, though,” he admitted. “My confession is, this case has brought back some old memories. There was…a certain incident in my past, from well before I became a Doushin, that came up today. That is, while this was happening, that past event was all I could think about. It just ran through my head uselessly, and I couldn’t just forget.”

“Something in your past?” Sara echoed, her expression some mixture of concern and suspicion.

“I don’t want to talk about it, sorry,” Heizou declined. “Maybe someday. I promise, it isn’t anything important—well, it’s nothing that’s going to come back and haunt me, that is. Trust me, I was never involved in any illegal activities or gangs or anything like that.” He was only friends with a kid who happened to be a thief. Someone who, in the end…really was ‘just a kid,’ and nothing more.

“Alright,” Sara said with a nod. “I can accept that.”

“Then, that aside,” Heizou pushed the matter just a little further to the back of his mind with a heavy exhale. “What now, General?” There was much that still needed to be done…

“Rest,” she spoke without hesitation. “I’m requiring you to take one day off, and I will not be argued out of it, do I make myself clear?” Sara stared into his eyes to make certain he got the picture before breathing out a sigh. “Soon, it will be time for their trials, Shikanoin. At that time, we will need you and every scrap of evidence you can piece together.”