Chapter Text
Matsuda Jinpei had, what he considered, to be a relatively high adrenaline lifestyle. Even after shrapnel from a bomb messed up his left hand, Jinpei remained in the police force (albeit, no longer on the bomb squad). The First Division handled enough high stakes cases that Jinpei didn’t feel bad about not longer being a part of the bomb squad (although he did feel bad for leaving Hagiwara behind).
That being said, Jinpei wasn't dissatisfied that this was where life had lead him. Probably the best part of the job was the unpredictability of it. Jinpei never knew if he would be negotiating with hostile parties or preventing a suicide and that’s what made it fun. This was probably why Jinpei was prepared for anything when he was on the job.
Or, well, just about anything.
Today turned out to be an exception.
Jinpei was driving back to the station after overseeing the raid of a smuggler's warehouse. The operation had gone smoothly and, seeing that there had been no casualties, Jinpei decided to take the long route back to the office (after all, that would delay the paperwork he would inevitably need to fill out upon his arrival back at the office).
The drive was nice. It gave Jinpei a chance to come off the adrenaline of the raid and enjoy the oncoming evening. There weren't many drivers out, what with it being the end of a long weekend, so Jinpei had the road mostly to himself.
He was passing by a more seldom used area of the shipping district when he noted something odd. Further down the road, a car had been flipped over. Jinpei pulled up and jumped out of his own vehicle. He knelt down by the damaged car, peering in through the broken passenger side window. The car was empty. There wasn’t anyone, alive or dead, to be found.
Frowning, Jinpei made his way to the other side of the car. The vehicle was badly damaged. It looked like it had been rammed several times at some point. The skid marks on the pavement told Jinpei that the driver had attempted to swerve around something which had led to the car upendeding. A hand to the hood of the car suggested that this crash had happened not too long ago.
Jinpei examined the driver side of the car. Here, he found his first sign of life. Blood. There was a concerning amount of blood on both the driver’s seat as well as the broken glass of the window on that side. Jinpei couldn’t help but notice that the blood formed a trail away from the car.
Curious and more than a little concerned, Jinpei followed the trail. It didn’t go far. It led to a narrow alley less than a block away from the wreck car. There was someone behind the dumpster. Jinpei couldn’t see the person completely, but he could see the person’s legs (most likely a man, judging by the footwear). The grey pants had blood on them.
Jinpei inched forward, trying to see what he was up against.
He noted two things at almost the time.
The first was that the man (it was indeed a man) was badly injured. His whole chest was soaked in blood and there was blood streaked down the side of his face. One leg was twisted at a strange angle and his eyes were screwed shut.
The second was that he knew that face, no matter how pale and pinched with pain it might be.
Furuya Rei.
“Zero?” Jinpei spluttered.
He couldn’t believe his eyes. Honestly, the last time he had interacted with Furuya was more than seven years ago at their academy graduation. He knew that Furuya and Morofushi had gotten scouted by some sort of special operation something or other. After that had happened, both men had practically dropped off the face of the earth.
Jinpei hadn’t heard from either Furuya or Morofushi since. As far as he knew neither had Hagiwara or Date.
“Zero?” Jinpei repeated a little louder, as he crouched in front of the injured man.
The eyes cracked open slightly. They were unfocused, but Jinpei could indeed confirm that it was Furuya sitting against the alley wall in front of him.
“M…Mats’da?” Furuya’s voice was soft and slurred.
“Yup. That’s me,” Jinpei nodded.
He reached forward to check on Furuya’s chest (the location that most of the blood seemed to be coming from). He was stopped by the sound of a gun cocking. Furuya’s right arm hung limp, but his left hand held a sidearm. The small gun was currently pointed at Jinpei’s chest.
“Woah, woah,” Jinpei barely held himself from lurching backwards, “I know we weren’t the best friends back at the academy, but you-”
“L-leave,” Furuya coughed.
“Excuse me?” Jinpei scoffed, not sure he had heard right.
“Leave. P-please? You sh-shouldn’t be h-here,” Furuya panted.
“Like hell I’m leaving. You’re injured.” Jinpei frowned. It didn’t seem like his words had gotten through to the other man because the gun did not lower.
“What would you do if I leave?” Jinpei challenged.
Furuya pinched his brow, clearly confused by the question. Jinpei decided that the other man was likely concussed as well as in shock.
“Furuya - Zero - let me help you.”
Furuya didn’t lower the gun. Jinpei could tell that this former classmate’s strength was going. The gun shook as tremors ran through Furuya’s body. Jinpei decided that he didn’t have time for this. He darted forward, pushing the gun’s aim away from his body. Furuya started and his finger pulled the trigger. Jinpei felt the bullet wiz passed him.
He wasted no further time in disarming Furuya, taking the gun from the other man’s weakening grip. This seemed to make Furuya panic. The other man’s eyes went wild and his already shallow breathing grew even more shallow in hyperventilation.
“Calm down,” Jinpei grunted, “I’m just here to help.”
His advice to calm down was unheeded until Furuya abruptly went limp. Jinpei glanced at the other man’s face. It seemed that Furuya had passed out. Probably for the best, Jinpei decided.
After calling for an ambulance, Jinpei started out by checking over Furuya’s chest. He was startled to find that, aside from the cuts probably sustained in the wreck, there was a bullet hole in Furuya’s chest. Guns weren’t exactly a common item in Japan. A bullet wound no doubt meant that Furuya had gotten mixed in with the wrong crowd. That or else he had been taken out by friendly fire from the police. Assuming he still worked for the police.
“What the hell have you gotten yourself into, Zero?” Jinpei muttered.
He checked over Furuya’s head. He found a head wound like he expected and thankfully nothing more. While he waited for back up to arrive, he checked over the rest of Furuya’s body. He was concerned to find abrasions around Furuya’s wrists, almost like he had been bound. No long ago, too, judging by how raw the skin was.
Jinpei moved on. It was clear that Furuya’s leg had probably sustained the worst damage from the crash. His leg bent the wrong direction at his knee and his ankle didn’t look much better. All in all, Jinpei was surprised that Furuya had been able to drag himself so far from the crash being this injured.
He was thankful when the ambulance arrived fifteen minutes later and he could step back to let the paramedics do their work.
After the clean up of the scene was well under way, Jinpei decided to head straight to the hospital, rather than to the office. He wanted to check and see how Furuya was doing. He also hoped to get an explanation the bizarre scene Furuya had left behind.
After calling into the office and explaining the situation (that an old friend he knew had been badly injured and was in hospital), Jinpei decided to take the rest of his shift off. The hospital staff were friendly and accommodating (though that might have just been because Jinpei pulled his badge out). They regretfully informed him that Furuya was in the operating theater at the moment. Jinepi would have to wait until the surgery was done.
Jinpei found himself ushered to a waiting area. He didn’t remain seated for long. He was a restless person by nature. Even his wife told him that he moved around too much in his sleep.
After pacing the halls for what felt like a small eternity, Jinpei decided to make a call. He scrolled through his phone and hit the call button next to a frequently contacted number. The line connected swiftly.
“Yo! Jinpei-chan! I didn’t think you got off shift for another hour or so.” Though he was clearly confused, Hagiwara was as cheerful as ever.
“I’m at the hospital, so yeah, I’m taking off early," Jinpei grunted.
He realized a beat later that was probably the wrong wording.
“At the hospital? Are you ok?” Hagiwara sounded vaguely panicked.
“I’m fine. I … I just…” Jinpei ran a hand through his hair, “Can you come down here?”
He knew he wasn’t the best with words, so he figured the best way to tell Hagiwara and Date about Furuya’s accident was to have them come here and see him in person. They would want to see him too, Jinpei surmised.
“Sure. I can be there in twenty minutes,” Hagiwara agreed.
“Thanks. Could you see if Date is available too?” Jinpei requested.
Hagiwara agreed with a quiet ‘yes’ and then Jinpei hung up. Now all he had to do was wait for his friends to arrive. Thankfully it took them relatively little time to appear. Both Hagiwara and Date looked thoroughly ruffled and worried as they came charging up to Jinpei.
“What happened? Are you alright?” Date’s gruff question probably came from a place of concern, but his tone irked Jinpei a little right now.
“I’m fine. There was an accident and I wanted you to see the victim,” Jinpei shrugged.
Both Hagiwara and Date sat back on their heels.
“You want us to do what?” Hagiwara looked confused.
“Jinpei, are you-” Date started.
“I’m fine,” Jinpei cut Date off. He took a deep breath. He knew he was tired and that was making his fuse shorter than usual, “Have either one of you heard from Furuya or Morofushi since we graduated?”
“I haven’t,” Date shook his head.
“Nor have I,” Hagiwara sighed, “I am curious to know what our old classmates have to do with this situation now.”
Jinpei opened his mouth to reply. He was interrupted by a nurse approaching the trio of men.
“Sir,” she addressed Jinpei, “Your friend is in a recovery room now. He’s still under anesthesia, but you can see him briefly if you want.”
Jinpei nodded his thanks.
“Friend?” Date cocked his head.
“You’ll see,” Jinpei muttered before turning to the nurse, “How is he?”
“They were able to close the bullet hole as well as relieve pressure in his chest cavity from internal bleeding. He’ll have to go back to surgery later to repair his leg.”
Better than he was, but not great. Jinpei grimaced at the implied response.
Jinpei dragged Date and Hagiwara along with him as he followed the nurse through the halls to a private recovery room. Furuya looked worryingly vulnerable just laying there. He was hooked up to half a dozen different monitors that had far more life at the moment than he did. In an effort to compartmentalize, Jinpei decided Furuya looked better wearing a hospital robe than he did wearing his own blood.
“Furuya-chan?” Hagiwara gasped.
“Yeah. It’s him,” Jinpei nodded.
“What happened?” Date frowned, his eyes scanning the machines.
“I have no fucking idea,” Jinpei grimaced, rubbing at his forehead, “I came across an over turned car that had been abandonded. I followed the blood trail from the car to an alley. He was there all covered in blood. He told me to leave and then he tried to shoot me.”
“Shoot you?” Hagiwara’s eyebrows raised almost to his hairline.
“Yeah,” Jinpei griped, “I took the gun away from him and he passed out before I could really get him to give me any answers. I don’t know what happened or how he got there.”
“I seem to remember something about surgery for a bullet wound?” Date leveled Jinpei was a concerned stare.
“It wasn’t me, if that’s what you're asking,” Jinpei shot back, “He was shot at some point before I found him.”
“What have you been getting yourself into, Furuya-chan?” Hagiwara brushed back some of Furuya’s hair.
“That’s what I want to know too.” Jinpei paused, “There’s something else you should know.”
Hagiwara and Date both turned to him.
“His wrists had abrasions on them most likely meaning that he was bound at some point recently,” Jinpei relayed.
Understanding and worry crept into both men’s faces.
“He was held hostage?” Date guessed.
“That or else he was held captive,” Jinpei huffed.
Neither was great and Jinpei was willing to bet that with either outcome, Furuya would be dealing with some amount of mental trauma.
“Well, we’ll just have to stick around and find out,” Hagiwara drew up a chair.
Jinpei couldn’t agree more.
Furuya took his sweet time waking up. Thanks to their police badges, they were allowed to stay long past visiting hours had ended. It was almost four in the morning before Furuya started to stir.
Nursing a cup of very cold coffee, Jinpei watched as Furuya’s brow wrinkled slightly before the other man’s eyes fluttered open.
“Hey there, Furuya-chan!” Hagiwara leaned forward in his own chair, placing himself in Furuya’s field of vision.
Furuya stared at the three of them for a long minute as his brain seemed to finally catch up with what he was seeing. He jerked in bed. Jinpei suspected that if Furuya wasn’t drugged to the gills, he might have tried to run.
“Long time no see,” Date smiled.
“W-why are you here?” Furuya’s voice was scratchy under the oxygen mask.
“Where else would we be?” Jinpei snorted.
And Furuya was supposed to be the smart one? Jinpei had clearly misremembered his former classmate’s intelligence.
Furuya, for his part, just glanced sluggishly around the room. He seemed to be looking for something, but Jinpei didn’t know what. The three of them got very little else out of Furuya that night before the drugs pulled Furuya back to the land of blessed unconsciousness. Jinpei could nothing other than lean back in his chair in annoyance. One though kept pressing in over the others.
What was Furuya trying to hide?