Ouch.

Shinichi came to, lying on his side. His brain took his status.

His body hurt all over and screamed for blood. Going by how his wings felt to him, he knew they were intangible again. And he felt something moving in his pockets.

He opened his eyes to find the drug dealer that he'd led here to feed on before Kuroba showed up. They were still in the alley.

Shinichi's reaction to the attempted robbery was somewhere between insulted, disgruntled and amused. When man noticed he was awake, he grabbed Shinichi by the hair and sent his head into the concrete in an attempt to knock him out again.

It wouldn't have hurt much were it not for his other head injuries. All it did was make Shinichi fully awake. He deadpanned at the man and his pathetic excuse of an attack compared to Kuroba's. "Get off me."

He punched the man in the stomach lightly (for him), but it was enough to cause the man to fall over next to him, clutching his solar plexus and grimacing.

Shinichi stood up and fulfilled his original intentions of the night. He knocked the man unconscious again, then turned his victim's head to side to bare the neck. Then he sunk his fangs in just above the collarbone and the more animalistic part of his brain sang.

The tension and pounding in his head quickly subsided as his thirst was sated. The pain he felt from his injuries gradually decreased as he took more blood, thought it never faded entirely. His body wasn't healed, but it would be by morning. Even his wing would be whole again, though there would be scarring. But what was one more scar?

As expected, the blood itself tasted bitter, reflecting the man's immoral nature.

Despite needing more blood than usual, Shinichi managed to stop himself before taking enough to permanently injure his victim. He licked the wound clean. Vampire saliva on a human's wound healed it as fast as if the wound belonged a vampire.

Deciding to wait for tomorrow to contemplate the other events of the night, he then proceeded to rob his victim of his cash, the only object worth stealing that couldn't be traced back to him.

He always did this; he had to pay living expenses somehow and didn't want to be a burden on the friend whose roof he was currently living under. And besides, his victims were dirty criminals who went straight to prison, anyway.

Then he produced an amount of twine he'd brought with him and tied the man's hands behind his back and around a drain pipe running down the wall. After tying the man's feet, he took out the man's cell phone and dialed the police, leaving a description of their location. Finished, Shinichi returned the phone and walked home, simultaneously enjoying the soothing feel of the light drizzle of rain that had just begun and lamenting the fact that his clothes were possible ruined by his blood. Normally he'd wait until he heard the high-pitched police sirens approach (to ensure his victim did not escape) and then fly away, but there was no way he was flying tonight, or even running, and he wanted a head start if he was walking.

Turning in his victims for their crimes was a habit he'd picked up a while back. He knew that it wouldn't have that much effect on the city's crime rate. For each criminal he apprehended, there were scores more, even in this district alone. Each one was just a drop in a bucket. He knew that no matter how many he caught, it would neither erase nor atone for his past sins towards humanity.

But it was a start at least. A first step.

Kuroba said nothing to Shinichi the next day about their tussle. In fact, he did an astounding job of acting as if nothing had happened at all. His behavior mirrored that of yesterday, down to the playful banter. This did not surprise Shinichi, considering how the magician had revealed nothing at school yesterday, either.

As promised, the magician played all sorts of tricks and pranks during school. There was hair-dying, confetti, mop chases (which Shinichi found secretly amusing), roses and screaming girls (which Shinichi found painful on his poor, sensitive ears). The vampire himself had been left out of it, which was fine with him. Shinichi didn't have much trouble being in the same room as Kuroba, but if Kuroba was physically close to him too much, say in the desk next to his all day, the aroma of magic would eventually start getting to him.

As much as he tried to listen in classes, he couldn't get his mind off his classmate.

He'd actually lost a fight to a human.

Granted, Shinichi had been at the disadvantage of taking most of the damage before he actually let himself fight back, and when he did his brain was muddled with hunger. And his opponent was stronger than almost any human Shinichi had met before.

But still. He'd lost to a human. It rankled his pride, but he was glad that neither of them had ended up dead.

And he'd seen how much Kuroba wanted to do him in, too. The intense revolting in his eyes and voice.

Obviously Kuroba had killed before. Many times. Thus his lack of discomfort at the crime scene yesterday, even if that person was a human.

He was a vampire hunter of sorts, going by all the now-hidden puncture scars he had last night, but... how was that possible? Shinichi hadn't seen or heard from another vampire in so painfully long. If there were enough of his kind in this country that a hunter was here, that humans still felt the need to hunt vampires… why didn't Shinichi know about them?

And there was more: how in the world did Kuroba know where he was last night? And who was this group of enemies that he had? Vampires, again?

Kudou Shinichi, ex-detective, had a mystery on his hands. A mystery that he was going to solve, no matter how long it took.

And it would probably take a while. But that was okay. It wasn't like Shinichi had anywhere more important to be.

The bell signaling the end of school for the day finally resounded. Shinichi looked up from packing his book bag to meet the countenance of Nakamouri Aoko. Depending on her mood, Shinichi had learned, she was either very sweet or very dangerous (at least to Kuroba).

"Hello, Kudou-kun," she greeted cheerfully, "How familiar are you with Ekoda?"

"Not very much, I'm afraid."

"Great!" she smiled, "Then we'll show you around. Right, Kaito?"

The magician looked up from where he was packing his bag, giving the quickest of glances toward Shinichi. "But Aoko…" he whined.

"Oh, come on! Aoko knows you don't have any other plans."

Shinichi had to admit that he found it endearing when she referred to herself in the third person like a small child.

Kuroba whimpered in response but relented. Shinichi figured this was to prevent another mop attack from his friend.

The girl turned to the two detectives, one of which had blue hair, courtesy of Kuroba. "Do you want to come too? Saguru? Heiji-kun?"

"I'd love to, Aoko," Hakuba answered, "but we need to finish the report from a case yesterday-"

"I'll do it, Hakuba," A green-haired Hattori declared, "You go with them."

"But-"

"We don't both need to do it. Besides, I wanna get this hair dye out. And you don't get out enough, anyway."

"And what are you insinuating by saying that?"

Kuroba rolled his eyes.

"Boys!" Aoko's yell preemptively ceased their fight.

Shinichi took the moment of pause to speak. "The police don't really care who does the report, right?"

"Correct," Hakuba sighed, "It's not worth arguing about." He massaged his forehead in what looked like an attempt to prevent a headache.

"Awesome! Thanks, Heiji-kun!" Aoko waved as she slung an arm through Kuroba's and Hakuba's each and pulled them along happily before either could protest. Shinichi followed, smiling at their antics. Spending time with young, carefree people like Nakamouri made him feel younger, too.

The three took Shinichi around to see the sights of Ekoda, what few there were: the shops, the police station where Nakamouri-keibu and his Kaitou Kid Taskforce plotted revenge on the thief for his tricks, and the Ekoda clock tower where, according to his guides, Kuroba and Nakamouri Aoko had first met. The girl asked Hakuba if it was alright if they passed by his grandfather's laboratory, but dropped it when Hakuba made known his reluctance. It didn't dampen her happiness.

"You three are close, aren't you?" Shinichi asked casually not long afterward. Their arms weren't linked anymore; Nakamouri had let go shortly after leaving school.

"Saguru and I have known each other since we were pretty little," the girl mused, putting her finger to her chin, "And Kaito and I only met a few years ago, but he doesn't care for formalities."

That explained the first-name basis.

Suddenly, Kuroba's stomach growled loudly.

"Let's get food!" their female companion announced, "I'm pretty hungry, too. There's a burger joint not far from here."

Slight problem: Shinichi wasn't overly fond of human food. Sure, he could eat it, and it did sometimes help delay his hunger for blood slightly, but the artificial ingredients humans put into processed foods these days just tasted bad. Any meat he ate these days would have to be fresh. He liked fruits, vegetables and rice well enough, so packing lunches for school wasn't an issue.

But he felt that he should get something to eat with them now to keep up appearances.

Pondering the dilemma must have shown on his face, because suddenly Nakamouri asked, "What's wrong, Kudou-kun? Don't like hamburgers?"

"No, not really," he answered, grateful for an out, "But we can still go there. I'm not that hungry, anyway."

"Well they have other things there, too," she replied helpfully, "like chicken and fish sandwiches. And ice cream."

"I'll just get some ice cream, then. Thank you." Ice cream was far more preferable than processed meat, even if it was too sweet.

"You're welcome. So you have a sweet-tooth like Kaito?"

It was then that Shinichi noticed that someone's heartrate had spiked. He looked at his guides and noticed that Kuroba was working to control his breathing, even if his face still carried his usual carefree smile.

"Are you alright?" he asked, genuinely concerned.

"Oh don't worry about him," Nakamouri waved toward Kuroba, "He freezes like that whenever someone mentions-" Kuroba's hand over her mouth prevented her from continuing.

"If you know that, then don't say it again!" Kuroba spat.

She tore his hand away. "Don't cover my mouth like that!"

"You were going to say that word again!"

As the bickering continued, Hakuba switched places so that he was walking next to Shinichi.

"He has ichthyophobia, the fear of fish," he said quietly.

Shinichi blinked.

This guy, who had fought vampires and won, and wasn't fazed by corpses…was afraid of the average fish?

Well, each to his own. It's not like people can easily control what they're afraid of.

It didn't take them much longer to reach the restaurant. Shinichi quickly ordered a vanilla ice cream (his taste in human food was rather simple) and made it back out and away from the strong smells inside. He chose to lean on the glass wall-window of the restaurant while he waited for the others.

In the past, he had much more trouble spending time with humans like this because of his wings. He used to invoke simple illusion magic to render his wings, fangs and the points of his ears invisible, but that wouldn't keep humans from being able to touch them. He had needed to be constantly on the lookout to keep people in front of him so they didn't get close enough.

Then he found an amulet on a vampire he had killed out of self-defense. His reason in keeping it had been to pawn it off for some money. He'd put it around his neck while flying so he wouldn't drop it. And then he'd started falling through the sky. He flapped his wings and felt no air resistance. In a panic, he'd removed it and suddenly his wings worked again. Not only did the pendant make them invisible, but immaterial as well. Same for his fangs and ear-tips. And since his wings now weighed nothing, wearing the amulet forced him to adjust his sense of balance. Right now, his back leaned against the large wall-window, and his wings phased right through it, into the restaurant on the other side. It was an odd sensation, to be sure, but well worth the peace of mind.

He was brought back to the present when Kuroba joined him against the wall, not too close, holding a wrapped up sandwich in one hand and an ice cream with a hard chocolate shell in the other. He began on the ice cream, ignoring the sandwich. Taking a bite of the chocolate shell revealed that the sweet, cold stuff inside was chocolate flavored with chocolate chips. Shinichi found it rather droll. "So you like chocolate?"

"Yeah," Kuroba answered with a hint of hesitance, head tilted toward the ground, bangs covering his eyes.

Shinichi licked his ice cream thoughtfully. He'd been so caught up in the normalcy of the group interaction that afternoon that he'd temporarily forgotten how he and the magician had left things the last time they were alone, and now that they were again, Kuroba's now-stoic body language set a tense atmosphere, despite the sounds of joviality from people around them.

If there was anything he wanted to say to the magician about their encounter last night, now was the time.

"…Thank you."

With his senses currently trained on Kuroba, he easily heard the magician's heartrate pick up just so. There was no other indication that he'd even heard Shinichi's comment until after finishing a bite of his dessert. "For what?" he asked, wary and a little gruff, a one-eighty from his behavior in front of the others not ten minutes ago.

"For…" he trailed off. He wanted to say 'for not killing me', but there were passersby within hearing range and he was feeling characteristically paranoid.

He sidled closer to Kuroba, keeping his face tilted away slightly for fresh air. Being upwind helped. "I know that our races don't normally get along, but I've been trying to be an exception," he whispered, "I'm no threat to you or any other humans…"

Idiot. He should already know that from last night.

"…And I don't know of any others around that are."

Shinichi was nervous now. His instincts told him to use his power to calm Kuroba's mood, but he didn't dare for fear that this powerful magician would feel it and think Shinichi was manipulating him for unfriendly reasons. And if Shinichi was going to get the answers he wanted, he would have to get Kuroba to trust him a little. He chose to open up a little.

"I'm a loner," he continued, "The only reason I'm living here now is because of Hakuba-san and Hattori-san. They're good detectives, and I used to be a detective too, so I couldn't resist trying to get to know them."

He took a preparatory breath. "And there's something I'd like to ask you."

His classmate blinked at the sudden change in topic, still avoiding Shinichi's gaze. "And what would that be?"

Part of Shinichi was afraid of what he might find out, but he couldn't take back his words.

"I noticed that you've…encountered many of my kind before," he said carefully, "Did many…survive?"

"…A few." Kuroba's voice took on a strange, lilting tone. It was rather creepy, coming from the high school student. He had finished his ice cream and was now taking bites from what was left of the cone.

Only a few? Shinichi closed his eyes tightly in grief. He tried to ignore Kuroba's tone, "Were any of these encounters within the past year?"

"…Perhaps." Crunch.

"Would you cross me if I decided to look for them?"

"Depends." Crunch.

"On what?"

"Why do you want to find them?" For the first time since stepping outside the restaurant, Kuroba looked at him, head turning slowly.

The look in his eyes was suited better on the face of a vampire rather than that of a human.

It was downright predatory. It screamed 'danger' to even Shinichi. He'd only ever known of one or two other humans, long dead now, who felt as dangerous as this one. The vampire felt like he was being toyed with, like a mouse trapped between the claws of a hungry cat that was waiting for the whim to eat him. Was this how Shinichi's victims had felt back when he was a ruthless killer?

Then he turned angry at the situation. He felt like he was losing a battle of words. He had just wanted answers. Why had the magician turned so pernicious on him?

He stood up fully from the window and turned to face the human head-on, determined.

"Now you listen to me," he growled quietly, barring an invisible fang, "I spent the last few centuries thinking I might be the last of my kind. If I hear there are others still alive in this god-forsaken world, then I'm going to find them!"

The predatory face was satisfactorily wiped from Kuroba's face, replaced with surprise. It was a little disorienting how fast the magician's expression changed. "So…" he began cautiously, "you really do just want to reconnect?"

"Yes, idiot." Shinichi didn't care how safe or unsafe it may be to call this particular person 'idiot'.

"Hm," Kuroba mused thoughtfully, "I'm curious: what did you do with that man last night when you left?"

"I tied him up, called the police, and left him. Alive."

At that moment, whatever had put Shinichi so on edge originally was gone, like it was just sucked out of his head in a single moment. He was still pissed, but not in the same way. He didn't feel like he was in a life-or-death situation anymore. The way he'd so disrespectfully addressed Kuroba somehow helped lighten the mood, too.

Wait a second…

"Was that…you?"

"Was what 'me'?" He asked with a slightly affronted expression.

"Were you messing with my head just now?"

The teen hesitated, then sighed. "Sorry… I… I hadn't even realized I was doing it." He seemed genuinely remorseful. "Old habits die hard."

It was rare for a human to affect the mind of a vampire like that. But it was also rare for a human to be as powerful as Kuroba.

On impulse, Shinichi punched him in the shoulder, harder than he normally would a human, but not hard enough to send his classmate flying and cause a scene.

"Oww, what was that for?"

"Don't do that to me, okay? I'm not your enemy."

The boy looked to the ground again, still holding his arm. "Yeah…I know that now. But I wasn't sure before, so that's probably why…" he trailed off.

"Last night didn't make it obvious?" Shinichi leaned on the window again. He'd never get used to the feeling of people phasing through his wings on the other side of the glass.

"I thought it was at the time," Kuroba answered, "but I woke up this morning doubting it. I didn't think there were friendly vampires anymore."

That sobered the mood a bit.

"Look," Kuroba sighed, "you aren't going to want to seek out these vampires unless you care for no one's life but you're own. Why am I after them? Because every one of them is rotten to the core."

That wasn't what Shinichi wanted to hear. "How can you be sure about that?"

"I've had enough exposure to them to know. No one can be in their group and be secretly good. Anything good rots."

The hopeful vampire didn't want to accept this. He didn't want to hear that the first sign in centuries of other vampires would only lead to evil ones. He was so tired of being alone. Most vampires had the same social needs as humans.

When he'd decided to ask Kuroba about this, he'd forgotten how much he had changed since he was in regular contact with his kind. Thinking about returning to that way of life made him a little sick. He'd been unconsciously looking for a happy reunion with vampires that were friendly to humans, something that no longer existed, and realizing that made him more than a little depressed.

There were other things he wanted to ask, like how Kuroba had found him last night, but he decided this was enough for one day.

As if on cue, the door to the restaurant swung open, revealing Hakuba and Nakamouri.

"Geez, what took you guys so long?" Kuroba huffed, instantly returning to his normal-teenager persona.

"Sorry!" Nakamouri held up her food, "Our orders got mixed up with someone else's, and then we saw you guys having what looked like an important conversation and we didn't want to interrupt."

"Yeah, right! You were probably trying to get more alone time with your boyfriend!"

Kuroba was just asking for it, wasn't he?

"Saguru is NOT my boyfriend, BAKAITO!"

The Brit just stepped back, eyes tightening, and pinched the bridge of his nose.

Shinichi joined him. "Out of curiosity, how did you know we were having an 'important conversation'? Did you hear anything we said?"

To the vampire's relief, Hakuba shook his head. "No, though you did look fairly angry at one point. Your punching Kuroba made us laugh. Your face looked much like Aoko's," he chortled.

"Ah…I see."

Shinichi was glad to have the fun distractions around him that were his classmates in stark contrast to the heavy discussion earlier. He was now looking forward to the event this weekend, as well.

He'd decided to go and observe the Kaitou Kid heist in person in a few days. But he wouldn't tell Kuroba, just in case. He intended to find out more about the enigma of a thief.

"Oi, Kudou-kun, what happened to your ice cream? Isn't that it on the ground?"

"Huh?"