Fated Friendship

Detectives of East and West

The first time they had met – almost met – it was a mere premonition. A feeling that that person would one day become his greatest rival or most cherished friend.

Of course, then he had not really known what that premonition was, just that it was an odd feeling he should pay attention to. Kazuha must be rubbing off him if he has now started to believe in fate and destiny or some shit like that.

But at that moment, he did not know what else to call it. The case had just gotten over; he had presented his deduction to the officers, finally attaining that last piece of clue from his father – much to his ire – to complete his theory. The police had been impressed, as they should be, with his deduction and he had felt euphoria like never before. And then his elation was brought down to Earth with a sudden jerk –

"Inspector, what do I do about this middle-school student on the end of the phone? He made the same deduction as that kid...and almost simultaneously!"

'What!'

Heiji couldn't believe it! The other detective had come to the same conclusion as him? And without anyone's help either, he bet. He was slightly furious and envious, but accepted the defeat for what it was.

"Hey, Heiji!" Kazuha complained as he hoisted her onto his back in a piggy-back hold, "Put me down! This is so embarrassing!"

"Quiet down, will you?" Heiji snapped back without any real heat, "You're the one who practised crazily to join this ski trip that you twisted your ankle! Besides, it was due to this ankle of yours that I realised that the victim was actually inside the bag..."

A gust of wind, a faint murmur of voices and a single glance back – 'That had to be the other middle school student,' Heiji thought, 'it is difficult to clearly see each other in this snow storm, but we're detectives, so we will meet somewhere, when the stage filled with mystery coincides once more...'

At that moment, neither knew just how much their thoughts coincided.

...

It had been a year since that fateful day at the snow covered mountain top and at fourteen, Heiji was much more formidable as a fledgling detective than he had been before. But despite that, his father would not hear of him helping out in any cases.

"Too young to be poking about a crime scene! Cadavers should not be holding your interests at this age!"

His mother would agree. He knew his parents were slightly worried about his choice in becoming a detective. They approved certainly, and were quite proud of his intellect too, but they did not understand why he felt the need to begin his so called 'career' at such a young age.

He was in it for the thrill – for delivering justice, yes that too – but everyday things were so mundane and boring that they did not captivate him for long.

People – they fascinated him. People were unpredictable, their actions, their thoughts – they varied and changed and no matter how much he tried to predict them, they defied his expectations in some way. Cases, be it homicide or otherwise, meant interacting with different people. A new challenge, something that would excite him out of the general ordinary things of life...

His parents, unfortunately, never understood this. His father's face had pinched closed when he mentioned that he was in it for the 'thrill', and told him to rethink his thoughts.

Okay, what? Here he was getting bored out of his mind at school, the small cases his classmates asked him to solve were no challenge at all, and he longed for that heady rush of adrenaline that he had felt at that mountain-top solving a murder. What did his father exactly want from him?