A/N: a lot of mental stuff happening here. A little bit of a mind fuck at the start in my opinion, and here we got some GRUESOME depictions of murder, so there's my warning
Chapter 3
He found himself looking in the mirror once again.
Once again being maybe the fourth time that day, the fifth, tenth? Or maybe that was just the amount of hours, he wasn't really sure... after all it's not like he was staring at a clock. What reason would he have to stare at a clock anyway?
It's not like time mattered anymore, right?
Sure, you tell yourself that.
Ok, he'd tell himself that. However, when his eyes did this funny thing where they'd catch his own gaze, he'd always flinch. He always hated it when that happened, because he thought he was alone.
Sure, you tell yourself that.
Ok, he'd tell himself that. Yet, it was that moment (maybe a couple of minutes or hours into staring, it seemed to get longer each time) that he realized that he was, in fact, alone, and the voice he'd been hearing wasn't, in fact, his own, and he'd start getting nauseous because he wasn't sure what he'd been hearing and what he was looking at, because he couldn't recognize his own reflection.
Then his eyes would get all cloudy and his cheeks would get wet, and he didn't know why, but all he really understood was that as soon as the strange feeling had begun he'd started hearing a loud noise and then the mirror would break again and Kaito would come rushing in and he'd hold him and cradle him and remind him that he was a precious gem...
It wasn't until later that Kaito would tell him he'd been screaming but he'd only blink absentmindedly and forget it ever happened.
Sure, you tell yourself that.
And that's exactly what he did. He told himself to forget. Because what better way to dismiss pain than to forget about it?
Kaito helped him a lot with that nowadays.
It'd become routine, like clockwork (though he didn't really know what day it was), that he and Kaito would live together, exist together, do everything together. Because that's what they had - each other. And whether it was the way Kaito grinned at him, kissed him, ravished him... all of it helped. And that was enough to make him forget.
Kaito was probably used to him looking in the mirror though. Sometimes he'd join him and make it all the better (feathered kissed across his back, down his thigh...), but that normally didn't stop the voice from interrupting. It kept saying weird things like he shouldn't be there, or to go home, but it just didn't understand. He was home. Home was where Kaito was. Where Kaito wanted him, and needed him. He was really glad when the voice finally stopped telling him to leave, maybe it was finally starting to understand.
Anyways, another thing Shinichi finds strange about their living spaces is the reflective objects. It seems both he and Kaito don't like them, Kaito especially, and that's why he normally chooses rooms and places without.
Too many memories, he supposed.
That's probably why they only had one mirror this time, but that didn't stop it from being cracked in multiple different places from multiple different strikes throughout the course of the couple of days.
They always moved from place to place every couple of days anyways. Shinichi didn't really remember the reason, but he supposed a good example would be the couple of dead bodies he spotted outside their door one evening. He remembered blue uniforms, black maybe...? Honestly, they both looked the same to him nowadays, and he never really remembered if it was him or Kaito who'd done it.
Once again, he tended to forget.
Sure, you tell yourself that. (Shut up).
...Although, in the end, he didn't really mind it, since it was like a vacation for him and Kaito after all. Travelling all across the country, doing whatever needed to be done to keep themselves active in the eyes of the black org. and the many other organizations they'd come across.
Reminding him, that was another thing Kaito seemed to hate. The police.
For some reason, Shinichi couldn't quite wrap his tongue around why he did (he couldn't really picture it either), but Kaito tended to act on his hatred and apparently it wasn't limited to black dress. Sometimes he'd even see familiar faces. Though, they tended to be a bit obscured by the time Kaito was done with them.
It's not like he minded though, really, whatever made Kaito happy made him happy after all. Whether that meant him doing it or Kaito doing it, he'd do anything to put a smile on the magicians face.
Sure, keep telling yourself that. (Shut the fuck up).
The magician was so kind and loving, and after all they'd been through together he couldn't help but smile-
Where is your smile, Shinichi? (I said shut up).
-whenever he'd look back on everything they'd done-
I thought you couldn't remember? (SHUT UP).
-he was happy-
Sure, you tell yourself that. (SHUT UP).
-with everything they'd been able to accomplish. Everything they'd been able to do together.
You're not happy. (I am).
You can remember. (Stop talking).
Remember. (You're not real).
Remember. (You aren't real... stop talking).
Remember. (I SAID STOP).
Remember. (You're...)
Me.
He looked up, staring at the cracks in between each crevice that used to be a mirror. He looked around - he was in a bathroom. On the vanity sat a gun and a few knives, both laced with red, while looking towards the tub, Shinichi could barely hold in the gag as the sight and even worse scent hit him. Running out from the door, he was met with Kaito, sitting on the bed.
His first instinct was to run (from what happened last time Kaito realized he was different, Shinichi could only think of getting as many kilometers between them as possible), but he seemed to be looking intently at his own hands. They were laced with the same red, which was dripping down on the floor beneath him.
That wasn't all though.
Tears rushed down his cheeks, landing on his hands and the carpet, and Shinichi wasn't sure if he should run or hug him. But he knew. Because he remembered, and Kaito remembered, and they knew what they'd done, and they knew they'd only have a few hours, maybe minutes to say the least.
It rarely ever happened to them both at the same time.
So he ran towards Kaito, making way in front of him and placing his hands firmly on the others shoulder. "Kaito, it's ok, it's alright, it happened again, but it's ok. I'm here, we'll get through this, we're together remember?"
Kaito looked up and met his eyes, absolute horror surrounding his now darkened and cloudy indigo, and Shinichi visibly flinched at the difference. "... I saw it Shinichi, I saw it in my reflection... I had a policy, I had a policy and now I've done..." his chest started heaving as he looked back down at his hands.
Shinichi could feel his grip tighten around his shoulders. "Shinichi it happened again, I can't..."
He began taking deep breaths and Shinichi continued to try to calm his panic attack. Thankfully he'd had experience. Kaito held his hands up a little higher, as if to showcase them to Shinichi.
"W-What have we done?" his eyes met Shinichi's again and he felt every inch of the pain that had been accumulating, all the memories... the past, the present, the blood in both directions. No matter where they looked it was them. It was all them.
"It's ok Kaito, we'll get through this..."
Kaito broke his shoulders away from Shinichi's iron grip. "We'll never get through this Shinichi, not after... we're not even us anymore!" tears continuing their endless stream.
"I know, but right now we are, aren't we?" and with that, they both paused. Both of them momentarily forgetting the blood striking both of their appearances and embraced one another in a body crushing hug down onto the bed below. "We're us right now, we're us right now..."
And they were. They were themselves, and they would be until the moment they both woke up. Until the next breath they took in during the new day, where they'd change into the monsters they knew they'd become. The monsters that would set back to their normal routines as if it had never happened.
As if they'd never remembered.
Sometimes Shinichi wondered why they were still alive in the first place.
"You said something about a lead?"
Kaito was patiently waiting for the loud sigh that was bubbling in the little detectives throat. Sure enough, it sounded. "You're really going to go there again? It's been like what, not even half a day since I told you the first time, not to mention the countless times..."
The detective started ranting, and Kaito felt a smile tug at his lips. He knew the detective was tired of hearing it, but Kaito would never get tired of hearing the detective talk. The way his eyes glistened with irritation, yet still retained their own little shimmer...
For a second he forgot the conversation he'd prompted.
"Aito... Kaito, are you even listening?" Indigo met azure, and he flashed the detective his second best KID grin (reserved solely for him). "Why do you always go distracting me when you're bored! Go do something like normal people do, I don't know, take up ice skating, or... fishing, or something!"
The quick flash of horror that made its way on the thief's face said otherwise. "F-Firstly, never m-mention those activities ever again," he took a deep breath, and Shinichi gave him a proud yet somewhat confused smirk (he still hadn't told him about his fear). "Second, I still don't think 'leaving it to Akai' is going to accomplish much. I say we put our overly smart brainpower to good use and come up with an infiltration plan. You know I love those."
"I don't have time to do that, once again let's just-"
"Time? You're an elementary school student! Of course you have time!" Shinichi just rolled his eyes. Seriously his detective could be so strange sometimes.
"It's not, it's just..." he struggled to pick the right words. "Ugh!" Instead he went resorting to further immerse himself into his novel.
"Fine, if you're busy, I'll just come up with one on my own then," he huffed, scoffing at the ground and moving to sit on it.
"No, it's not that it's just..."
"Just?" Kaito looked up curious from his position, cross legged on the ground.
"Haibara has a..."
The thief flashed him an irritated glance. "Has a what tantei? Just spit it out."
"Haibara has created a pill that may or may not turn me back into a seventeen year old," he said as fast as humanly possible.
A few emotions dawned on KID's face at that moment, and he suddenly got up from the ground and rushed towards him. "Wait a second! You mean she's done it, she's finally made the perminent solution!?" he clutched his hands on the detectives shoulders, looking back into his eyes. For a second, Shinichi was reduced to melting under his touch.
"No she, uh," the thief was now a little close for, uh, comfort. "She said there's still different chances, but I think... I think I'm going to do it."
The thief paused. "What are we talking, 50/50?"
"Well, no, but that's what she's working on: Percentage increase," he hesitated, he didn't really want to actually reveal what his odds were (low), because he knew the thief would talk him out of it. But he needed this. He needed to get his body back, and he needed to be himself when he finally took them down.
The thief hesitated, and for a moment there Shinichi thought he was about to question it. But shaking his head, the thief revealed a lazy grin, with wide, wide eyes, that shined even brighter than any star ever could.
"Alright."
And somehow that one word leaving him, managed to leave so much more for Shinichi than he'd ever be able to imagine.
(The 'but only because I love you' went unspoken).
Takagi shuffled past the massive crowd gathered outside the conference room.
The moment he entered, stack of files in hand, he placed them on the table with a large thump for everyone to notice (but it wasn't like he didn't already have everyone's eyes on him).
"Sir," he began, looking up into the face of a concerned Megure. "They did it again, uh- He did it again."
Both the many officers and few special agents littered across the room's faces dropped, as Takagi handed a familiar note package to a man dressed in black in the corner. His face remained unchanged, yet you could tell he was loosing sleep.
Akai Shuichi glanced down, and immediatly his eyes changed. Not surprise, not terror... but devastation as he looked at the images in front of him. He took a second before he handed the papers to an eager Megure who was equally, if not more horrified.
"Let's send some men up there to help with clean up," Akai said, without the need to specify what he meant.
Some officers rushed from the room, ready to go to the nearest bathrooms, and Takagi could almost see the tears beginning to well in Sato's eyes.
"Shinichi..." Megure began, but Akai stopped him with a firm hand on his shoulder.
He looked to the crowd of officers before him. "Let me get this clear. That man is not the detective we all respected and believed in - I should know, Kudo Shinichi saved my life too many times to count... What everyone needs to understand, however, is that that man, in those pictures, is a monster. Hell, even the white clad guy's worse than him, and nobody ever thought he'd pick up a gun. They've changed, and we can't keep seeing them as friends or coworkers, we need to see them for what they're doing."
He hesitated for a minute before he began again. "...There's a reason we switched his name to an alias. He's not Kudo Shinichi anymore, he'll never be Kudo Shinichi again. This man in these photos," he threw the many pictures on the table for reference and a few officers gagged and stepped back. "He's the Night Baron, and be damn sure to remember that."
The words left his tongue with acid, and with that the FBI agent left out the door, in an effort to sooner notify the other agencies that needed information on the new development - if they hadn't already heard (or seen).
Once inside the confines of their hotel room, Shinichi and Kaito both ripped off the latex disguise masks from their faces. Shinichi had begun picking off the dried glue on his face, while Kaito immediatly rushed to the window.
"Look Shin-chan, it's a perfect view!" pulling open the blinds and moving to step out onto the balcony, Kaito couldn't help but appreciate what he saw before him. It had been such a hassle too, especially making the screen canvas that big, but he'd managed.
Helicopters continued to circle around it, which made Kaito grin even wider. "I bet their talking about it as we speak!" Kaito headed back into the room to quickly turn on the TV, while Shinichi zeroed in on the tall skyscraper that now held Kaito's 'piece of art'. He personally thought it was a little too showy, but was left blushing all the more.
It wasn't everyday somebody painted him after all.
Suddenly the TV cut in, and Kaito grinned as he skipped through the many channels playing the story. "...Once again, we warn you that the scenes featured are disturbing and are involving acts of terrorism. This particular act has been confirmed as the workings of once great phantom thief Kaitou KID-"
"Once?"
"-and, the similarly infamous Night Baron - known to some as ex-detective Kudo Shinichi - who, as we see, has been confirmed as the subject of KID's latest efforts at revealing his intentions to the police. Some are speculating the meaning behind this specific message, however police are still withholding all information on the matter from the public. The bodies have yet to be confirmed, but it's suspected that at least 4 of the fifteen bodies shown are officers of the law. We'll now turn to the police station with more information."
It switched to another camera shown right outside the Beika police station where a crowd of reporters was gathered, just in time to see a flustered Akai Shuichi storm out the doors. Kaito sqealed in delight, while Shinichi rolled his eyes. (Kaito always made sure to send Akai a pristine copy of first glance photos of all his best art works, he was like another Nakamori after all).
"What do you think KID meant when he wrote, and I quote, 'This is what happens when you try to take Pandora, Pandora is MINE'...?"
"No comment." Another reporter shoved a mic at him as he continued to walk.
"What can you say about the bodies, do we have any idea how KID managed to rope them up that high without anyone seeing?"
"No comment."
"What can you say about the large portrait and writing acompanying it?"
"No comment."
"Is it true that it's entirely made with blood...?"
It wasn't until he got into the black SUV that they managed to stop the questions and turn back to the news station. "As shown, FBI agent Akai Shuichi is still hesitant in revealing knowledge on this specific case especially - most likely due to the gruesomeness and execution of such an unreal and impossible crime."
"Hear that Shinichi they called it unreal!"
"However, this marks the 4th terrorist attack this month from the crime duo alone, where they're managing to extremely increase the body count, and in the last year since active, have managed to break records in doing so as they continue to remain at large."
Kaito and Shinichi both stepped out to the balcony as they continued to listen. In front of them, however, they had the perfect view of a tall rectangular skyscraper, that wouldn't have stood out much aside from its height under normal circumstances...
Yet, now, littered with helicopters flying around it, managing to sway the large screen canvas that was now displayed, it was the centre of attention for any watchers eye.
The canvas, taking up a large majority of the building, displayed what could only be a portrait painting of one Kudo Shinichi, smirking with all the effort of the gallons of blood Kaito had used to paint it. Of course, it was a picture perfect image (with all Kaito's artistic ability), but it'd taken a lot of time to gather the blood from the people who's corpses now lay dangling just above the screen (sure to not obscure Shinichi's beautiful face, of course).
Above Shinichi's head, however, and where the corpses lay hanging, were the very words the reporters had said earlier. And yes, that was Kaito's message to everyone. Not just the police, but the organization too. After all, those were their agents up there as well.
This is what happens when you try to take Pandora.
And they had, last KID heist. Nearly hurt him at that, and Kaito needed them to understand that they shouldn't just go fucking around with his business, and that was whether they would listen to him or not. Which is why he put extra effort to make sure they at least understood just what he was capable of this time.
Because Pandora was his. Shinichi is his.
And they'd never take him away.
(He wouldn't let them, to say the least).
TBC
A/N: I don't know what it is but I was like "ok so mental trauma check, now let's throw in a fluffy flashback, and then go back to gruesome horror" Yah cuz I like to make myself cry and others so, in sense I'm a terrible person?
Remember to let me know your comments :D
