Archive of Our Own

Kazuha facepalmed. Kudo, that idiot!

Yesterday, Ran had won the national MMA Championship. Kudo, despite all his promises, hadn’t been there. And instead of saying sorry, he said that?!?

Ran had stopped competing in Karate Tournaments in her last year of high school after being disqualified for a non-Karate move. It could have badly broken her opponent's elbow if Ran hadn't pulled it. She'd been so ashamed.

Bullshit, to Kazuha’s mind. That move had saved Ran more than once in real life. So what if it was second nature if someone had a hold on her? She‘d pulled it.

Still, it had taken Kazuha herself, Sonoko and Heiji more than a year to persuade Ran to take up MMA. The Detective Boys, who all three insisted that she should keep on teaching them Karate and self-defense, had helped a lot. Kudo had been oddly silent on the topic.

Kazuha took a deep breath. Ran was spiraling again. After she’d been so happy yesterday. And then that … that … Kudo … had to say THAT. Why was she the only sane person in a bunch of idiots?

==b==

Ran had been pacing the three meters between the coffee table and the door for more than half an hour by now. She looked like a caged tiger, even though her clothing had no suggestions of either stripes, fangs and claws, or orange: Simple white socks, green short skirt over darker green tights, matching dark green top. It was the energy. Her movements were overly controlled, her shoulders stiff like she was holding in the desire to move, move fast, run, run as far away as possible. Maybe also the hair, the main spike somewhat bedraggled, other strands were standing off in all directions as if breaking out of their orderly cut.

The floorboards didn't show any wear yet, still Kazuha wished Ran would calm down some more.

She tried to keep her own anger in check so Ran could calm down, but...

That tone-deaf ahou! Why did he think it would make Ran feel better if he told her his absence made her win?

Because it made her angry.

Because her opponents where scared of her.

Had he never realized how Ran did a lot to seem harmless and peaceful? She hated it when people were afraid of her. Whenever someone jumped because Ran moved too fast or too silently near them, when she kicked a stone that flew far too far…. Ran shrank in on herself, stopped breathing for a moment and started talking about knitting or cooking. Smiled a false smile that said ‘Look, I‘m harmless, don‘t be afraid.’ Small kids relaxed. Adults, … well, it was a toss-up. She’d been like that since Shinichi ‘came back from his big case’. Kazuha hadn’t seen much of Ran at that time, so didn’t know what had happened.

“I'm just too scary to be around,” Ran said, holding back the kick at the door she started without thinking.

And sometimes, like now, her thoughts spiraled down.

“Ran, come here!” Kazuha used her training room voice. It never failed to bring the cadets to heel and it didn't fail her now. Ran turned to her, made the two steps to the couch and sank to her knees—as she always did to not tower over someone sitting down.

Kazuha looked her in the eye:

“I.

Am.

Not.

Afraid.

Of.

You.”

Her voice was even, a little lower than usual. Then she slowly reached out, put her hand  behind Ran's ear and rubbed her thumb over the stiff muscle that sat at the base of Ran's skull.

Ran shuddered at the touch and blinked away a few tears. Kazuha repeated the scratch and the tears won.

“Come‘ere“, Kazuha murmured, pulling Ran up into her arms.

==b==

A phone rang. Kazuha suppressed her scowl and kept her breathing even.

It stopped after the 8th ring.

She relaxed and kept soothingly carding her hand through Ran's hair. She enjoyed having her girlfriend as a boneless puddle of relaxation on top of her.

Especially after Ran‘s uncharacteristic bout of tears. She always wondered if something had happened three years ago that made Ran so afraid of her own strength. But she never asked.

The phone started to ring again.

She didn't want Ran to wake up.

“That your phone 'Zuha?” Ran said, eyes still closed and voice a bit slurred from sleep.

Darn.

“No, I thought it's yours?”

Ran shook her head and pointed to the coffee table, where their two phones sat side by side, matching phone strap still bringing a smile to Kazuha's face.

“That other Ahou must have left his phone,” Kazuha grumbled.

The ringing stopped and Kazuha scratched Ran's neck some more, glad Ran was wearing a simple top, not one of the collared blouses she preferred for classes. They always got in the way. Just when Rans breathing slowed and she made the small mew that indicated her falling asleep, the phone started ringing again.

“Sounds like its important,” Ran murmured.

Grumbling under her breath, Kazuha extracted herself from the couch, carefully moving Ran to the side and followed the sound of the ringtone. Behind her, Ran yawned, sat up and blinked several times.

Kazuha found Heiji's phone in the genkan, next to an untidy pile of slippers Heiji must have left when he stormed out to some case or other a few hours ago. Its screen flashed the caller-id ‘Kudo!’ and for a moment, she was tempted to just let it ring. But Ran had followed her, still looking rumpled and sleepy.

So she took the call and put it directly on speaker.

“Hattori,” Kudo burst out without any greeting, “come to this location and bring a flex, will you?”

He sounded slightly short of breath, his voice echoing back from some large empty space. “Some guy kidnapped me and I think this building is up for demolition tomorrow.”

“Again?” Ran asked in disbelief before she could stop herself. She blushed, looked away. To mask her chagrin, she started to stretch. She needed to be awake for this.

“Ahou,” Kazuha said at the same time.

Two breaths of total silence, then Kudo asked: “What are you doing with Hattori's phone?”

“That Ahou forgot it here.”

“Did Haibara get to implant that tracker she was talking about after the last time?” Ran asked resignedly. Coming out of her stretch, she made sure her skirt and top sat right. She ran a hand through her hair and pressed her fingers into her earlobes to wake herself up some more.

“Flex is in the toolbox under the sink,” Kazuha told Ran.

As soon as she was out of earshot, she asked „Were you already kidnapped when you called her earlier?"

“What? … No“ Kudo replied, sounding confused.

An edge of Conan’s pout crept into his voice: “I was trying to cheer her up but she got angry.”

“I actually believe you,” Kazuha answered with a growl. “Makes it worse.“

She located the tracking app.

“Let’s get you out of there so I can make you regret every word.“

Kudo sputtered.

“Password for the tracking app?”

“Birthday be with you exclamation mark,” he answered slowly.

“Nerds,” Kazuha commented while she typed ‘May the 4th be with you!’ into the password prompt.

The map showed a blip somewhere near the docks, an area full of warehouses where Kazuha had never been before. It had gained a bad reputation for gangs, the homeless and the low end of prostitution in recent years.

A check on Geegle street view revealed only images from 5 years ago, with a thriving street and warehouses showing the logo of a now extinct shoe company.

Carrying a backpack, Ran reappeared in the genkan, her own phone out and in a call. She held it up so Kazuha could see the caller ID: Inspector Sato.

“Is your kidnapper waiting around to catch me or Heiji?” she asked, voice tense.

“No,” Shinichi said, too fast, “I don't think...” he trailed off. “Hattori, you know Ran is much too angry with me right now.”

Ran and Kazuha nodded at the same time, and a second later they heard a crash and the call with Shinichi dropped.

“Looks like he could be expecting either Heiji or you, Ran,” Kazuha said.

“Yes“.

Sato said something to Ran Kazuha couldn‘t hear.

“I sometimes wonder if Shinichi needs acting lessons,” Ran said in response.

“Inspector Sato,” Kazuha raised her voice and recited the coordinates on the map. “There‘s a blip from another tracker at the other end of that warehouse area, I'm not sure if that's Heiji or Shinichi's Detective Boys Badge.”

“Hattori-kun is at the station making a statement about a murder,” Sato replied. “He sprained his ancle catching the murderer.” She paused, thinking. “We’ll have to cover both locations to be on the safe side.”

“We’ll meet you in 20,” Ran closed the call before Sato could voice more that the first word of her protest.

==b==

Because it was Kudo—his kidnappings tended to be personal and nasty—Sato called in both the bomb squad and the SWAT team. The bomb squad did a first retcon with their mini-drones.

The farther site turned out to be an empty warehouse with a Detective Boys badge inside its vault. An oxygen meter next to the door showed declining values to induce a hapless friend to ignore caution and trigger one of the booby-traps. No heat signatures in the building

Sato wondered briefly if the rumor about an implanted tracker on Kudo was actually true while she waited for the results of the other location.

Trouble, she reflected once the report was in. Two heat signatures in the middle of the large warehouse still full of ceiling-height metal shelving. One was moving a few meters left to right as if pacing, the other was stationary. There was definitely another bomb in there, as well as some electronics besides the tracker on Kudo. So probably a remote control for the bomb.

Then her tablet showed a visual and a voice cut in:

“… it was a perfect plan …,” coughing interrupted, “… until you and your friends showed up!”

The man looked to be in his late 20s, wearing all black clothing: Sneakers, leggings, t-shirt. His right hand held a gun, his left just put down something to pick up a box of cigarettes.

“I would have expected your boyfriend by now,” he sneered and lit the cigarette. “Since your girlfriend is angry with you.”

A muffled sound. Kudo was gagged and couldn’t really answer the tirade.

“Ahou, you can hardly walk,” Toyama’s voice brought Sato’s attention back to their observation van. Toyama and Mouri had grabbed Hattori-kun, who was still trying to open the side door, fumbling with his crutch.

==b==

Ten minutes later, Kevlar hidden under a too-large red hoodie, Ran silently made her way to the door farthest from the perp. She had his voice feed in her left ear. Most of the time, the entitled wine made clear she didn’t need to listen to his words. But he needled Shinichi more often now, obviously getting impatient.

“Get him three steps away from the remote,” Sato said in her other ear. Ran centered herself with a deep breath. “Be appropriately dangerous,” Kazuha had told her with the hug on the way out. Okay. She switched off the perp’s voice in her left ear.

Taking two running steps to get the impulse, she pushed open the metal door to the room with enough force to crash it into the wall while angrily shouting:

“Shinichi, you idiot, where are you?”

Her impulse carried her far enough into the room that she could see both Shinichi, chained to a barrel that probably held the bomb, and the perp directly in front of Shinichi, threateningly moving his cigarette in front of Shinichi’s face.

“Hey, I prefer to teach him manners myself,” she said, grin feral, stopping short. Half a meter outside the estimated imminent blast radius. The bag with the flex was swinging slowly in her left hand.

The perp turned, face lighting up into an insane grin.

One of those.

The remote lay on a table just two steps to the right of the perp. She wouldn’t reach him before he could get there.

“Oh, would you really?” the perp asked, coughing.

Not enough to make him a good attack target.

His smile was all teeth and bulging eyes. Ran suppressed a shudder.

“I could fight you for precedence,” she suggested, smiling with extra wide eyes.

The perp laughed.

Then he took a step in her direction, slowly lifted the gun, laughing more at Shinichi’s muffled shouts from behind him. The moment he pulled the trigger, things moved fast:

Ran threw the bag with the flex at him and did a two-step-and-flip to her right, keeping his attention firmly on herself.

A medium-sized drone dove down at the remote.

His second shot ripped open the hoodie and was deflected by her Kevlar vest.

For a moment, the perp stared at the Kevlar.

Ran flip-flopped again.

Before the perp could take aim for her new position, a sniper bullet shattered his gun hand.

==b==

Kazuha’s small apartment felt a bit crowded with all of them there.

“Explain again why you just called Hattori instead of us?” Sato—standing near the door and only exit—asked Shinichi in that freezing tone she usually reserved for recalcitrant witnesses.

“Uh,” he rubbed his wrists.

Ran poked him in the ribs and scowled.

He looked at her face, grimaced, and said in a low voice: “You all make so much fuss when I’m  kidnapped. I thought this was just incidental.”

Four faces stared at him in utter disbelief.

Takagi recovered first and wrote something on his notepad. Sato took a deep breath.

Heiji, from the floor with his sprained ancle elevated on Shinichi’s knees, murmured “You are so right, bro.”

Kazuha and Ran exchanged a glance.

Sato delivered a scathing lecture to the boys and took her leave, dragging a slightly blushing Takagi with her.

“I think he likes it when she is angry,” the irrepressible Heiji remarked once the door was closed.

Ran grabbed her phone: “Haibara, I think we need another idiot tracker…”