A.N: Wow, it's been a whole year since this story started! ^_^ Okay, so I broke one of my own crossover rules and actually borrowed a main plot point, but I have my reasons. Anyhow, this might be a pointless warning, but this chapter is rather long. I have decided that if ever a chapter hits 20k I am going to cut it in half. Well, enjoy! Oh, and I decided to use the English terminology to minimize the need for explanations for people unfamiliar with the series.

Disclaimer: I don't own DCMK or YYH

YYH Timeline: Post Dark Tournament, pre Chapter Black.


8: Detectives of a Different Kind

(World 8: Yu Yu Hakusho)

"That's odd… You're not dead."

Kaito twitched. He didn't recognize that voice, but he had the feeling it was directed at him and that wasn't the kind of statement you could just lie around and ignore. So he pried open his eyes despite the fact that his eyelids felt like they had lead weights attached to them—to find himself looking up into a pair of pink eyes framed by long, sky blue hair. He blinked. His trained eyes couldn't pick out any sign of contacts or dye (and he knew a lot of brands of dye).

The stranger blinked when her eyes met his. "Oh, so you're awake. How're you feeling?"

"Fairly well, thank you," Kaito replied, sitting up. He felt a little lightheaded but otherwise fine. Though it was the first time in a while that he hadn't completed the jump conscious. "I can assure you at least that I am very much alive."

She tilted her head to one side in confusion. "I guess… I just wasn't sure you know, since your ghost is up here. Normally souls only leave their bodies when a person dies."

Kaito stared at her for a moment then looked down. That was when he realized that he was indeed sitting on empty air some few hundred feet above some busy city streets. He watched the cars drive by below for a few seconds before looking back up at the girl with the blue hair to see that she too was floating, though in her case she appeared to be seated on a wooden oar.

"But I can't find you in my guidebook," the girl was saying, holding up a small handbook. "Which is really kind of odd. You're not from around here, are you?"

"Another world actually," the magician replied absently. "So when you say that I'm a ghost, do you mean that I am simply on another plane of existence?"

"Well, that's true, but it mostly means you've lost the ties that kept you in your body, which usually happens when you die. But from what I saw I don't think you're actually dead. Which is frankly shocking considering the circumstances."

"Wait, wait, you mean I've been separated from my body?"

"That's the gist of it!" she replied with a cheerful smile. "But don't worry. Koenma should be able to help you fix that if you come with me to the spirit world since I don't think you were supposed to die here."

"What I want to know is how this happened," the magician muttered, scratching the back of his head as he thought. He was feeling distinctly out of the loop here.

"I'm not really sure myself," the girl admitted, drifting a bit higher in the air. "I only just got here in time to watch them take your body away."

"They what?"

"Don't worry, they took it to the hospital," she reassured him as though that was the problem. "They took it to the hospital. Like I said, your body didn't actually die. I guess you just got knocked out of it in the accident."

This was so taking the cake for weirdest landing ever. Closing his eyes, he thought back, searching through his memories for any hint of what had happened.

It was a city. He could hear the roar of traffic the moment the world began to pull itself back together into a solid form. The first thing he saw was the car and the driver's shocked face through the windshield. The second thing he saw was that Shinichi was standing with his back to said vehicle still disoriented from the translocation and therefore unaware of its presence.

He reacted without thinking. He lunged for the detective who let out a startled cry as Kaito used his momentum to spin them around and pushed. The sound of tires screeching on rain wet road filled his ears and everything went white an instant after he caught the horrified expression on Shinichi's face.

He did not like seeing that expression on Shinichi's face.

Opening his eyes, he turned quickly to the blue-haired girl. "Where is he?"

She blinked back at him in obvious confusion. "Where's who?"

"The boy I was with. Looks a lot like me," he added, pointing at himself. "Blue eyes, Hair kind of has this tuft that sticks up in the back."

"Now that you mention it, I think I did see someone who looked like that," the girl mused, one kimono-covered hand rising to her chin. "I believe he went with the ambulance that took your body to the hospital."

There were all kinds of things wrong with that statement, Kaito mused, but there would be time to remedy that later. "Can you show me the way?"

X

As a detective—especially one who specialized in homicide cases—Shinichi had seen a lot of deaths through the years. He'd seen both the dead and the dying in situations ranging from the straight forward to the bizarre. Indeed death had been a closer companion over the years than any of his human acquaintances. There were people who thought that meant he didn't react as much to death as others did because he'd gotten used to it. They were wrong. Death wasn't something a person just got used to. But it was something a person could learn to live with, because the living were more important than the dead. Things could be done for those who were still alive.

For that he hated seeing people die, even when they weren't the best of people, because the living could change. Become better, if given the direction and the chance.

Still, it was true that seeing death had lost most of its shock factor for him. It was upsetting, but not shocking. It was just another part of his life that, while unpleasant, had its place and the way it was to be dealt with.

But though he met death almost every day and he had both seen his friends come close to it and come close to it himself on many occasions, he had never actually seen someone close to him die (it probably helped that he wasn't really close to all that many people. He'd seen too many heroes turned to villains and heard too many twisted tales to trust easily). Luck had been at least somewhat kind to him on that front.

It was, however, something he had always been afraid would happen. He had seen so many people die that it was hard not to think about the possibility. It haunted him. It was why he preferred to do things on his own—why asking for help was still hard even though he'd learned that sometimes it was better to. No matter how skilled a person was or how cut and dry a situation looked, there was always the chance for an accident. Just as it was human nature to err, it was the nature of fate to be unpredictable. It was the kind of thing he had nightmares about—those moments that could have turned out so much worse than they had.

And now… He felt as though he had forgotten how to breathe. He could hear his heart pounding in his ears but the rest of the world seemed to have fallen silent.

Kaito…Kaito had just— they had landed in the middle of a busy street and Kaito had just been—

He couldn't finish the thought.

It was the sound of a siren that finally cut through the fog in his mind and he leapt to his feet. A crowd had gathered but their horrified murmur was nothing but a whisper in the back of his awareness. Instead all his attention was focused on the person being lifted onto a stretcher and taken into the ambulance.

Picking up his pace, he reached the ambulance before they could close the door. The paramedics probably assumed he and Kaito were brothers as they didn't comment when he climbed into the vehicle. He didn't bother to inform them otherwise. The ride felt like it went on forever and yet when it stopped and he got off he found he couldn't remember any of it. That, however, was a lapse of memory that he wasn't going to complain about.

He followed the stretcher as it was carefully maneuvered into the hospital, through the entrance hall, around several corners, and into an emergency room. There they shut the door and he was reminded that he couldn't go in with them. Left with a horribly tight feeling in his stomach and nerves that felt like bowstrings, he slid into one of the chairs in the waiting room. It was only then that he noticed that a nurse had been trying to talk to him.

She asked him for Kaito's name before going on to ask for a list of things Shinichi couldn't tell her. Where he lived. How to contact his parents. In the end, she patted him kindly on the shoulder and told him to sit down.

The man who'd been driving the car was a wreck. He'd followed the ambulance to the hospital and offered to pay the bills. Then he'd waited with Shinichi for the doctors' news, apologizing every few minutes. Apparently he had lost a son to a car accident not all that long ago himself and the idea that he might have been responsible for such an incident himself was clearly tearing him apart from the inside out.

Shinichi would have liked to be able to tell him it was all right, but he couldn't. Because it wasn't. But he could tell the man that it wasn't his fault. After all, it wasn't the man's fault that he and Kaito had materialized on the road right in front of his car (although he couldn't explain it in quite that way, he did try to at least convey the sheer unpredictability of the event). But he could see that his words weren't reaching the man.

In the end he gave up and turned instead to the clock on the wall. Watching the hands crawl around that pale, unconcerned face however just made his stomach twist itself slowly into knots.

Why hadn't it crossed his mind that something like this might happen? The gem had, after all, dropped them off miles above an open sea once with no land anywhere in sight. If Kaito hadn't had his glider that time, they would probably both have drowned if they hadn't been dashed to death against the water first. He should have expected that it might land them in another difficult situation. He should have been more careful. With Kaito's reflexes, he should have had no problem getting out of the way if he'd been alone. Heck, Shinichi was a fast runner with decent reflexes of his own. If he'd only thought to look behind him the moment they landed…

He wished he could stop thinking.

It was dark out by the time the doctor came to inform them that what could be done had been done and all they could do now was wait.

No one objected when Shinichi said that he wanted to stay. Glad he wouldn't have to argue with anyone about it, he pulled up a chair beside the magician's hospital bed and sat down. He found he couldn't look at Kaito for long though. It was just too strange seeing him so still. It was wrong. The Kaito he'd come to know was never still or quiet, not in this way anyway. When he was still, it was always with the sense of anticipation, and when he was quiet it usually meant he was plotting. This was… It just wasn't right.

He caught a glimpse of something white moving at the window and he remembered that he had seen the doves fleeing the scene of the accident earlier. Getting up, he moved to open the window. Sure enough, six white birds flew inside and lined themselves up on the footboard of the hospital bed. At least he wouldn't have to tell Kaito they'd lost any of his birds. He shut the window again and returned to his seat.

Blue eyes flickered back to the doves, examining each carefully for any signs of injury. They seemed to be all right, though some of them were peering at their master as though wondering why he hadn't greeted them.

He would have to remember to feed them in the morning. There should be something for them in the wizards' box. The nurses had stacked Kaito's clothes on another of the room's chairs when they'd changed him into hospital pajamas. It looked as though one of them had accidentally set something off because he could see bits of confetti and specks of glitter all over both the clothes and the floor. It might have been amusing if situations had been different.

Shinichi's head jerked up and around abruptly as his eyes scanned his surroundings. For a moment he'd thought he'd seen out of the corner of his eye—but no, he couldn't have. Because if he'd seen that it would mean… Blue eyes shifted to the machine monitoring the magician's heartbeat. It was steady. Relief flooded through him and he closed his eyes.

Maybe he should be trying to get some sleep if his mind was beginning to play tricks on him.

X

"It seems he might be able to sense our presence," the blue-haired girl—or rather grim reaper, he reminded himself, she had said her name was Botan and that she was a grim reaper—mused.

"He's very sensitive to being watched," Kaito replied. Sitting in midair beside the detective, the magician studied his tired face.

Over these past few months he had seen a lot of sides to the detective that he'd never seen before, and with them a myriad of expressions from excited to worried to embarrassed. Of course he'd seen him upset before too. But it had never been like this. The expression in his eyes now… Seeing it made Kaito's chest clench with something he couldn't quite put a name to.

He thought again that he did not like that expression at all.

But what he really hated was that he was right there and couldn't do a damned thing about it.

"You know," Botan continued, either oblivious to the heavy atmosphere or attempting to make it brighter. "His spirit awareness must be pretty good. I think he might even be able to see us if he tried hard enough."

"I think you might be right," Kaito mused. "He has seen ghosts before. But I don't think he wants to." Drifting closer to the bed, he reached out, watching as his hand passed right through his own shoulder. In a different situation, he might have found it rather interesting, but as it was it was actually kind of irritating.

Drawing his hand back, he cast one last glance at Shinichi (who hadn't moved a muscle), and turned to Botan. "So you said there was someone who can help me, ah, reunite myself?"

Botan blinked in momentary confusion before her face lit with a smile. "Oh yes. Are you ready to go then?"

Kaito nodded. It wasn't like he could do anything else here. And the sooner he got back the better.

X

One moment they were flying over the city beneath a night sky, the next they were soaring over a sea of fluffy, golden clouds bordered on the horizons with jagged mountains. They landed before a pair of massive, double doors which opened into an equally massive hallway. The ceiling was so far above their heads that it was lost in shadows and their footsteps echoed from the blue-tinted walls. There was a certain type of spooky grandeur to the place, but the feeling was rather ruined when they stepped into what looked and sounded like a busy workplace. There were large, colorful, ogre creatures running every which way laden down with teetering towers of paper and books. Almost every last one of them had a panicked, pressed-for-time expression stamped across its face. It was actually pretty funny, though Kaito refrained from laughing out loud. No need to be rude.

Botan led him through the busy chaos to another pair of doors which slid smoothly open to either side at their approach.

"Koenma sir, I've brought him," Botan announced as she stepped into the office beyond and bowed.

"Thank you Botan," a voice replied from the massive desk.

It took Kaito a moment to locate the toddler with the blue pacifier seated behind that desk in a padded chair that dwarfed its occupant. The toddler had his hands folded on the desk in a very business-like manner as he studied the two new arrivals.

Kaito blinked. "I take it you're Koenma?"

"Indeed I am," the toddler replied.

"You must be very wise to hold such a position at such a tender age," he noted, taking his own bow. "My name is Kuroba Kaito. Thank you for your hospitality."

The toddler paused for a moment at that in surprise. "Thank you. It's refreshing to see a human come through who actually has some manners. But let's get down to business shall we?" Standing up in his chair, he pulled a book off of the stack on his desk and flipped it open. "According to our records, you're not even from this universe, and we certainly don't have a place for you here. As it is, you can't die here. Well, actually you can in the technical sense, but you're not supposed to."

"That's good to know."

"But it is abnormal that your heart is still beating even though you left it."

"Well, I can't claim I've ever been normal."

"Usually we need to authorize that, but I guess this saves us the trouble. It seems as though someone else is helping you."

"You can authorize things like that?" Kaito asked, intrigued. "Does that mean you just have to authorize it for me to get back to normal?"

"It's a little more complicated than that. Normally when someone comes back from the dead, the first step is to make sure the body is alive, in the sense that we give it a pulse. As I was saying, you don't need that. But in order for you to actually return to your body a certain amount of life energy is required. There are two ways this is usually done."

Kaito nodded, listening intently as the toddler held up two fingers. He had just heard the word 'normally' used in conjunction with the phrase 'comes back from the dead'. It was…interesting, to say the least, but he should probably just be thankful that this whole fiasco had happened in a world where these things were, apparently, fairly routine. Boy was he going to have a lot to tell Shinichi when he got back!

"One method relies upon you storing your own spirit energy inside a spirit egg like this." Koenma held up an egg with a slightly gold tinted shell. "When there is enough, the egg will hatch, and the beast inside will guide you back to your body—if you're a good person. If you're not, it will eat you, and your soul will cease to exist. The beast reflects your inner self. That is why this method is considered an ordeal."

"…Okay. And the other way is?"

"The other way relies on getting a donation of life energy from someone else—someone who's alive and cares about you. The key to this method is timing. You just have to convince—"

"Convince? As in there's a way for ghosts to communicate with the living?"

Koenma frowned at the interruption. "Humans are closer to the spirit world when they are asleep, now do you want to hear this or not?"

"Yes, yes I do," the magician said quickly, offering the toddler an apologetic smile. "So I would need an energy transfer, right?"

"Correct. Which, as I was saying, means convincing one of your family members or friends to kiss you when the energy in your body and spirit align properly."

"Wait, run that by me again. Did you just say kiss?"

"The contact allows the necessary energy to pass from them to you."

"Right… I guess that makes sense."

"Normally spirits would be required to take the ordeal of the spirit egg to determine their worthiness to return to the living world, but since you're a guest here, we will let you decide which method you wish to try."

"I'll—take the egg," Kaito replied, lips quirking up in amusement. He would like to think that any creature reflecting his inner self would be unlikely to hatch a man-eater. The other option on the other hand would require convincing Shinichi (the only person in this world who knew enough about him to care if he was alive or dead) to do something he would no doubt find vastly embarrassing based solely upon what the detective would no doubt think was just a weird dream. The chances of that working out didn't look all that high to his practiced eye, even if he did find the idea…interesting.

"You must keep the egg with you at all times," Koenma instructed as he handed the egg to the magician.

"Do I have to do anything else?" he asked, turning it over in his hands. "Keep it warm or something?"

"That isn't necessary. Just remember, it will be feeding off of your thoughts and feelings."

X

"Would you like me to drop you off at the hospital?" Botan asked as she flew them back towards the living world. "I would stay and show you around, but I have to deliver a message to Yusuke about a new apparition who's been on the loose. I'll come by when I can, but in the meantime you could always look around yourself if you'd like."

"Just take me back to the hospital," Kaito replied, looking down at the sprawl of city lights that had just materialized below them. Normally he'd love to do some exploring, especially now that he could quite literally get in anywhere he liked, but he still had that look stuck in his head. He didn't want to leave Shinichi alone while he was looking like that. Even if he couldn't really do anything. Maybe once he'd made sure his detective was all right, he'd take a look around.

X

He was starting to really despise the silence. It was just…too quiet. There was the sound of the hospital machinery, but that didn't make the room feel any less quiet. It was better when the doves were in the room, but he doubted the hospital would approve of their presence so he usually let them out in the morning. They always came back when the sky began to darken. Kaito had certainly trained them well.

The doctor came once every day. According to him, the magician's injuries were healing fairly well, but he was showing no signs of waking up. Two nurses took turns checking in and changing the bandages periodically every day. They had mentioned the limitations of visiting hours, but none of them had pushed very hard for him to leave. For that, he was grateful.

It was lunchtime on the third day when one of the nurses finally decided that it was time to do something about the boy who'd planted himself by the hospital bed. She had finished making sure everything was all right with the patient when she turned to him and cleared her throat. He looked up at her questioningly.

"You should really go get something to eat," she said kindly. "And get some fresh air. You're looking a little pale."

Shinichi frowned, eyes flickering to her nametag. "But Shirayuki-san—"

"Just Kari, and I'll watch him until you get back."

"But I—"

"Go," she said firmly, folding her arms and leveling him with a look that broached no argument. "You're not actually supposed to be living here, you know. If you want us to continue letting you do that, you need to make us believe we're not making a mistake."

"Oh." The last thing he wanted was for them to kick him out. He opened his mouth to ask her to call him if anything changed only to stop when he remembered his phone wouldn't work here. "I guess I could go for a walk…" he said instead, trying not to sound as reluctant as he felt.

The nurse's expression softened and she sat down in one of the room's empty chairs. "Don't worry; I won't leave until you get back."

He nodded, thanked her, and trudged reluctantly out of the room. He wasn't hungry, not that he had any money to go out for food anyway. Besides, he'd already eaten a little of the food they'd had stowed away in the wizards' box that morning. Not that he could say anything about that. Well, he'd just take a quick walk around town and come back.

X

"It's about time! You've been spending way too much time in here," Kaito exclaimed as he drifted after the departing detective. He knew the other couldn't hear him, but by now he didn't particularly care if he got a response or not. Being a ghost, he'd discovered, was a real drag. The flying was nice, and the ability to walk through walls was awesome, but other than that there wasn't much going for it.

He'd spent most of his time watching the detective. Every time he thought he'd go and explore the city a bit, he'd take a look at the boy sitting alone in that quiet little room and he couldn't bring himself to leave.

It wasn't very logical, but it did get him thinking (which was really all he could do with his time). There was a feeling growing somewhere in his chest that he hadn't really paid any attention to until now. He couldn't really say for sure what it was or what it was becoming, but he had his suspicions. The question was what to do if he was right.

Letting his breath out in a quiet huff, he turned his attention back to the detective below him.

"There you are!" a familiar voice exclaimed brightly. "I swung by the hospital but you weren't there."

"Botan," he greeted the blue-haired grim reaper with a genuine grin. Finally! Someone who could hear him. He hadn't seen her since the day she'd dropped him off at the hospital. "Did you come to check on me Ojou-san?"

"Bingo!" she chirped, beaming. "So how have you been?"

The magician's grin turned a touch wry. "Let's just say I am really looking forward to the day this egg hatches."

She laughed before looking down to where Shinichi was making his way along the sidewalk. "Have you been watching your brother this whole time then?"

"We're not related," Kaito replied automatically. "But yes. He does happen to be the only person around that I know."

"That's true." The girl paused, eyeing him with obvious curiosity.

Kaito raised an eyebrow, hiding his own amusement. "Yes? Did you have a question or is there something on my face?"

Botan smiled a bit sheepishly. "I was just wondering how you two ended up here. Not that you have to tell me or anything, but it's not every day we get visitors from other universes and all."

"It's a long story," Kaito replied, beginning to recount the tale. She was a very good listener, gasping and asking questions at all the right places. He was just explaining the concept of alchemy when she stiffened suddenly and looked down. Puzzled, he followed suit.

Below them, Shinichi had stopped at a crossroad. He seemed to be considering something.

"I think I sense something down that left hand road," Botan remarked, frowning. The words had no sooner left her mouth and Shinichi was turning left. "That's strange. Is it my imagination? Most people with high spirit awareness are good at sensing danger and avoiding it."

"You don't know Shinichi," Kaito chuckled, though he was feeling slightly uneasy. "He's programmed the other way around."

Botan glanced in the direction in which the detective was heading and her frown deepened. "I wonder if he's sensing the gang or the Raimonji…"

"Raimonji?" Kaito repeated. "What's that?"

Botan blinked as though just realizing she'd been speaking aloud. "Oh, well, it's a type of apparition. Spirit World Intelligence has determined that one of them is currently hiding in this area. We've been looking for it—that's where I've been mostly—but so far we haven't had much luck. It's kind of odd really," she added in a lower voice as though talking to herself. "We seem to be getting a lot of parasites lately, even if most of them are more common species."

"I take it that they're dangerous?"

Botan nodded grimly. "Yes. You see, they're a parasitic species of demon that are extremely skilled at hiding within other living creatures, taking them over from the inside and feeding off their host's life energy until they're nothing more than empty shells, at which point they move on to a new host. But that isn't what makes them difficult to deal with," she continued. "They can take pieces of themselves and put them in multiple hosts, which allows them to feed off lots of people at once—we call those the Feelers. Only the main host body is actually controlled though, which I suppose is a bit of a relief. The rest just fall ill, but unless the main body is destroyed they'll eventually die once they've been sucked dry, which takes about three weeks for an average human being. The most annoying part is if you destroy the main body and don't purge the Feelers, they can eventually develop into whole new Raimonji. We have a cure that can be used to purge an infected human of the Feelers but it's hard to make and I'm still waiting for the delivery." She heaved a sigh, shaking her head. "On top of that, we've had news that an apparition gang made it across the border from Demon World yesterday. It's all one big mess!"

She stopped talking abruptly, pink eyes going wide. "There is a demon over there! I'll go get Yusuke," she said quickly, making a tight swerve on her oar and shooting off in another direction.

Kaito stared after her then picked up his own pace to catch up to Shinichi. He had no idea what had set the girl off or how she seemed to know what she did, but it didn't sound good. Again he cursed his current state, knowing that, whatever was happening, all he would be able to do would be to watch.

X

He had been out walking for nearly an hour according to the clocks he'd seen through various shop windows. Most of that time had been spent simply walking along the city streets. He had spent a few minutes browsing through a newspaper he'd found abandoned on the side of the street and noting how he didn't recognize the names of any of the police in the crime section before throwing it into a recycling bin. Deciding he'd been out long enough to satisfy any argument for the necessity of fresh air, he turned his steps back towards the hospital.

He had decided to take a different route back than the one he had taken on his way out since he was confident enough in his sense of direction to be sure he wouldn't get lost. Besides, since he was already here, he might as well get a feel for the area. It was a habit more than anything else but it gave his mind something to do.

It was strange how it could feel so quiet on a busy city street. Apparently some silences could be full of noise.

He had just turned into what appeared to be a neighborhood street when he saw a little boy come running around the corner. The boy's eyes were wide with terror and he was breathing heavily. There were scrapes on his knees and a bloody scratch on his face.

"Help!" he cried out the moment his eyes landed on Shinichi, but the word had no sooner left his mouth then a long, hairy blue arm tipped in wickedly curved talons lashed around the corner behind him and grasped at the back of his sweater.

A couple months ago that might have given Shinichi a moment's shocked pause. As it was, he lunged without hesitation and pulled the child away from the clawed arm as he kicked it hard in the wrist. The arm yanked back as an inhuman screech of anger tore the air and the arm's owner came barreling into sight. It was about the size of a large, grown man but its arms were twice the length of its body.

So this wasn't a normal world after all.

And that was probably not the right thing to be thinking about right now.

The monster—whatever it was—crouched and sprang forward, unbelievably long arms shooting out to seize the humans before it as its maw gaped hungrily open.

"Spirit gun!" a voice rang out and a blast of bright blue light blew past them, catching the monster full on. It let out a pained shriek and actually disintegrated. Moments later a teenage boy with gelled back hair came running up the street from behind them, eyes darting from side to side to check the surroundings as though he thought the creature might still be hiding somewhere.

"Huh, that was easy," he muttered to himself before raising his voice, apparently talking to thin air. "You think that was the Rai-what's-it?"

A short boy with black hair that stuck straight up like a flame and a black cloak appeared standing on the wall to the side of the street, glanced over the space where the monster had been, and snorted derisively. "Did that look like a parasite to you? It was just some third rate weakling out for a meal. This was a complete waste of my time." That said, he turned and vanished as abruptly as he had appeared.

The boy with the gelled hair snorted before turning his attention to Shinichi and the child. "Hey, you two okay?"

"I'm fine," Shinichi replied before kneeling down to check the boy. "Are you hurt?"

The boy shook his head, eyes still wide as he stared at the spot where the monster had been. He was still trembling but aside from some minor cuts and scrapes he appeared to be unharmed.

"That's good," their rescuer said before his head swiveled around as though he'd heard something. He frowned and broke into a sprint. "You two should go home!" he called back over his shoulder before he disappeared around a corner.

Shinichi and the child stared after him for a moment before trading similarly befuddled looks.

"Come on," Shinichi said finally, standing up. "Your parents must be worried about you. I'll walk you home."

X

So that was an apparition. Sitting upside down in midair, Kaito allowed himself a scowl. He had not enjoyed going right through the thing when he'd instinctively tried to intercept it. And then watching someone else fix the problem with what looked like no effort at all… Well, it was just another item to add to the growing list of reasons why being a ghost was irritating. He'd always been a man of action, so being forced to do nothing was making him feel restless.

Botan had caught up to him as he was following Shinichi back to the hospital after the detective had walked the child home. She had stayed only long enough to confirm they were both okay however before excusing herself to go back to work. Now they were back in the hospital.

Shinichi had fallen asleep on top of the covers of the empty second bed in Kaito's hospital room. The nurse on night shift had brought in an extra blanket to cover him with instead of trying to move him under the covers for fear of disturbing him.

Kaito had noticed that Shinichi had a tendency to frown in his sleep. It bothered him.

Pulling a face at his lack of reflection in the window, Kaito propped his chin in his palm.

"You know Tantei-kun, I guess I have to apologize," he said, watching the detective's sleeping face. "I never meant to make you so sad. But you know…I think I might be a little glad too, to know that you would miss me. I'm sorry about that too. It's probably not very nice of me, huh? It's just that…" He paused, running a distracted hand through his wild, brown hair. "You know, despite everything, I've had a lot of fun these last months. I guess you might not agree with me, but I think you've had fun too in your own way. I…don't get to do this very often, just being me. No secrets or anything. I'm sure you understand. I suppose I'm only saying this now because I know you can't hear me. But thank you."

"I promise you, when I get back, I'll make sure you never have that look on your face again. But until then, you're going to have to wait for me."

X

It had been one week.

It felt more like a year. A year of frozen time where nothing changed. Every moment was just as still and silent as the last, marked only by the changing color of the sky.

If it hadn't been for the nurse, Shirayuki Kari, he would probably have spent all that time in the hospital room, hoping—praying to whatever powers were out there—that Kaito would wake up (because he couldn't imagine the future without the magician in it, and frankly he didn't want to). Since that first time, she had made a point of sending the detective out at least once a day. Sometimes she asked him to run errands and he'd found himself doing a few odd jobs around the hospital. She had been kind enough to lend him her cell phone during those lunch hours when she sent him 'out for some fresh air', saying she could use the hospital phone and he could just give it back when he returned.

"I don't use it much myself," she'd told him. "So it's unlikely anyone will be trying to call me while you have it. But if someone does, just tell them to call back later."

At other times, during short breaks and before and after shifts, she would come simply to talk to him. Sometimes she asked questions, but mostly she would talk and he would listen.

She told him about her son who was off at university now, studying zoology, and about her husband, who was on a business trip to Taiwan. At other times she told him about the other people who worked at the hospital. Just little stories and anecdotes that he suspected were meant to try and cheer him up.

"Mina's favorite flower is the lily—oh, she's one of the new nurses here," she would tell him. "Well, she used to like to bring lilies for patients who were feeling down. But of course lilies are used as a funeral flower in some places. So a lot of patients just got more depressed when she brought them and she had no idea why until Chiba-sensei explained it to her. Now she carries around a little booklet about how different flowers are used in different cultures. She's made a hobby of trying to find the most appropriate flower for each person."

"There's a virus going around," she'd told him another time, sounding tired and more than a little relieved to be sitting down. "Everyone's feeling stressed and on edge. Okubo-sensei—he's the one with the rectangular glasses—actually threw a fit the other day because one of the nurses put lemon in his water. And I've lost count of the number of arguments I've had to break up! I tell you, people need sleep, they really do. It's amazing how many perfectly nice people can turn into total grouches without it."

Once she asked him about 'their parents', her eyes full of a mother's concern and questions he knew she both wanted and didn't want to ask.

"They're…not here," he answered after a long moment of consideration. It was true, but he felt a bit guilty for he knew—could tell from her expression—that she would take the words and assume the worst.

Life at the hospital was becoming routine. He didn't like that very much, but he couldn't complain. Whenever he was out, he kept an eye open for any more odd monsters, but he hadn't seen any since that bizarre first walk. Nor had he seen the boy who had vaporized it.

There were times though when he thought he saw—something out of the corners of his eyes. Flashes of motion and shadows of things that weren't there. Sometimes in his sleep he would swear he heard voices, but his dreams were jumbled and he could never quite make out what they were saying.

He was out on another walk when his borrowed cell phone rang for the first time ever while it was in his care.

"Moshi—"

"He woke up!" Kari-san's voice exclaimed before he could finish the greeting. The words rang in his ears and echoed through his head, repeating themselves over and over again, and he was running before he had consciously registered what they meant.

He had wandered a little farther from the hospital than he usually did on these excursions and it took him nearly forty five minutes to get back. Racing past the front desk, he bypassed the elevator in favor of the stairs. Taking the steps two at a time, he nearly tripped over the last one before skidding out into a white hallway and sprinting along the familiar path to Kaito's room.

The door flew open a split second before he could reach it and something came catapulting out of it. All the air left his lungs in a yelp of surprise and stars flashed across his vision as he hit the ground. It took a moment for him to recollect his wits through the ringing in his ears. When it had he discovered that he was flat on his back (so it was the floor responsible for that growing headache), staring up into Kaito's grinning—alive—face. He opened his mouth to say something but the words stuck in his throat and he noticed with growing horror that the edges of his vision were blurring. Was he crying? That was just embarrassing, but he couldn't seem to do anything about it. At the same time he kind of wanted to strangle the stupid magician for actually coming so close to dying (he also wanted to lodge a complaint about the possible concussion the thief's current idea of 'hello' might have given him).

"I'm back~!" the magician declared, grinning fit to split his face in two. "So did you miss me?" He waited a moment, still grinning, but the grin faded when he noticed that Shinichi wasn't reacting. "Shinichi? Hey, are you all right?"

Scrambling to his feet, he pulled the detective up and checked him over for any injuries. Shinichi blushed and tried to bat the magician's hands away. The magician was far too close for comfort, but he was alive and awake and Shinichi was far too grateful for that to care at the moment.

"Stop that. You're the one with the broken bones!"

"Not anymore," Kaito replied cheerfully.

"What do you mean not anymore? It's only been a week! Bones don't heal that fast!"

"Just call it a miracle~!"

"And what are you doing out of bed?" the detective continued, leveling an accusing finger at his chest.

"I'm fine, see?" He waved his arms around for emphasis, showing how all his bandages had been removed. Then he performed a perfect handspring. "You see? Could a person with broken bones do that?"

Shinichi stared. "But…how?"

Kaito just smirked. "I'll tell you about it later. It's a bit of a long story. The important thing is the doctor said I'm good to go. Although I think he might still be in shock."

"No wonder," Shinichi muttered, more than a touch dazed himself. His shoulders sagged a little as he looked around the hospital corridor, feeling suddenly at a loss. Was this really happening? "I suppose we should go thank everyone before we go then."

"Hold on a moment. There's something I have to do first."

Taken aback by the sudden turn into serious that the magician's demeanor had taken, Shinichi nodded—then yelped when Kaito yanked him into a tight embrace. He froze, not at all sure how he was supposed to react. But then Kaito had pulled away and was looking at him with an expression he couldn't put a name to.

"What—what was that for?"

"I'm sorry I worried you," the magician said seriously.

Shinichi stared for a moment before he had to look away. "You don't have to apologize. It wasn't your fault. If—if anything, I should be thanking you. If you hadn't…"

Warm fingers came to rest on his chin and turned him gently so that he had to look the magician in the eyes.

"You don't have to thank me. You would have done the same if you had been in my position. So let's just be glad that's over and stop dwelling on it all right?"

Shinichi stared into those earnest, indigo eyes for a long moment before nodding, not trusting himself to speak.

"Good. Now come on, let's go bid our farewells and find something to eat. I'm starving and you look like you've lost weight—which, considering I'm the one who's been getting my nutrition in liquid form, doesn't speak well for your eating habits these last few days."

X

A corner of Shinichi's mind wondered at the way the magician seemed to know exactly where he was going, but the rest of him was still too busy wondering if this was a dream to care. But the hand pulling him along felt too solid to be a dream. And if this wasn't a dream, then that meant…

Eyes lighting up as he spotted what he was looking for, Kaito dragged his companion through the front doors of what smelled like a ramen house. Releasing Shinichi, he made a beeline to the man behind the counter, bright, friendly smile already in place.

"Hello Sir! You wouldn't happen to be the owner of this establishment, would you?"

"Yes I am," the man replied, eyeing the two boys curiously. "Can I help you?"

"Could we trade you a magic show for a meal? I promise you won't regret it."

The man blinked then laughed heartily. "I like your spirit. All right. Deal."

To both their surprise, the man told them to take seats at one of the empty tables and brought them two large bowls of ramen.

He must have guessed their thoughts for he laughed. "Can't work on an empty stomach, right? Besides, it's still early. There'll be more people if you wait a little. I'm sure that would be more fun for you."

"I knew I liked the look of this place," the magician said with a triumphant grin as the man left with their orders. Turning back to his companion, he found the detective staring at him like he still couldn't believe his eyes. He held the other's gaze until Shinichi glanced away. Sighing mentally, he picked up the teapot that had been set on their table and poured them each a cup of tea.

"Hey, Kaito," Shinichi said hesitantly, now looking at a point somewhere above and behind the magician's left shoulder with an increasingly puzzled expression. "What's that?"

Kaito followed the line of his gaze to see a ball of light hovering beside his head. He studied it for a moment then smiled. He recognized that feeling.

"This little guy was the one who helped me."

"So you can see it?" Shinichi asked, relieved.

"Yeah, of course."

"And…you said it helped you?"

"That's right. You see, after the accident, I met this girl who introduced me to her boss," he explained, launching into a detailed description of what he'd seen and been told while in Spirit World. "And when this little guy hatched, there was this really bright light and I woke up in the hospital."

Shinichi stared at the light for a moment longer before turning back to Kaito. "That's an animal?"

The magician glanced again at the light hovering by his shoulder and shrugged. "Well, it has eyes."

The light bobbed as though in agreement. Now that Shinichi was looking, he saw that it did indeed have eyes. Sharp, amber ones.

"So…does it have a name?"

The light and Kaito looked at each other again. "Not that I know of."

"I guess it should share your name then, it being representative of you and all."

"Oh no, no way am I sharing my name," Kaito declared, drawing himself up in (mock?) indignation. "There's only one Kuroba Kaito in the universes and that's me. Besides, I'm sure he wouldn't want to share a name with me either, isn't that right?"

The light bobbed vigorously.

"You see? Let's call him Kishiro, that was the name of my first dove." His smile turned sad for a moment but the look was gone almost before Shinichi had registered it. "He was one of my best too. But enough of that. I'm surprised, Shinichi. That's what you want to ask me about after hearing my story?"

"Well, there isn't really much to ask questions about," the detective replied, lips quirking up in amusement. "I mean, after everything we've seen, there's no reason not to believe everything you just said could be true."

The magician laughed. "I can't argue with that. So did you find the gem yet?" he asked despite knowing the answer already. He'd considered telling the detective that he'd been watching him this whole time while waiting for the egg to hatch, but decided against it.

"The ge—oh, uh…" To be entirely honest, he'd forgotten all about the gem since the first screech of those tires. "I…kind of didn't look." Suddenly he stiffened, eyes widening. "Your doves! They won't know we've left the hospital."

"Hmm, that is a bit of a problem. Do you know if Aome's with them?"

"She might be. They always came back together anyway."

"All right then. I'm sure she'll show them where to go. If not, they're trained to come looking for me. We just have to be sure to be visible wherever we are this evening."

"Well, there's a pretty good park not too far from here that we might be able to camp out in for tonight." He paused, looking to where the ramen house owner was shifting tables. "I think they're making your stage."

"That's thoughtful of them. I guess I should go see what I have to work with." He stood up and hesitated, looking back at Shinichi with an odd expression in his eyes that the detective couldn't identify, and Shinichi thought he was about to say something. But instead he turned and proceeded to leap over several startled heads. It was like he was trying to make up for having been still for so long by being extra energetic.

It wasn't until the moment he saw Kaito bound onto the makeshift stage to the scattered applause of the ramen shop's patrons that it really struck him that this was real. Relief flooded through him and he sagged in his seat with the weight of it.

He wasn't dreaming.

X

It was both a relief and an exhilaration to finally be able to perform again. To see the wonder in the faces of his audience and hear their gasps of awe. He loved being visible again—to have mass and weight and be heard by the people he was talking to. Performing impossible feats wasn't any fun when there was no one to see you.

This was how things were supposed to be.

When he got back to his seat, he found that Shinichi had fallen asleep with his head on the table. Considering the way the detective had been struggling to keep his eyes open earlier, he wasn't particularly surprised. He was a little disappointed that Shinichi hadn't watched the whole show through, but he definitely needed the rest.

"You've got a good future ahead of you kid," the owner said with a smile as he came to collect their bowls. "You're welcome to come again any time. I'm sure my daughter and her friends would love to watch you perform."

"Thank you, I might take you up on that offer some time." Kaito watched the man bustle off before turning back to his sleeping companion. A good future huh? What would the man have said if he knew where his guests had come from and where they were going? Would he have said the same? Maybe he would have, Kaito mused, after all, there was no reason for it not to be so. It would be different, certainly—nothing at all like what the ramen shop owner probably had in mind—but it could be good too.

A light drifted up beside his face and he smiled faintly. "I suppose it's time we got going. Let's see if I remember the way to that park then."

X

He dreamed that he was floating somewhere high in the sky. The ground was so far below him that it was nothing more than a green and brown blur where it could be seen at all through the gauzy veils of white cloud swirling gently beneath him. It was truly an incredible sight.

A corner of his mind wondered when he would start falling. Gravity was taking an unusually long time about its business, but surely it would realize its lapse in time. And yet the thought didn't make him feel nervous. It was far too peaceful up here for anxiety. Up here, nothing could touch him…

He woke to the sound of flapping wings. Blue eyes blinked open slowly to stare up into the underside of a leafy canopy through which bits of blue sky peeked. The tip of a white wing brushed past his field of vision and he turned his head automatically to follow the motion.

He was lying on the grass at the base of a large tree. He recognized the place as the park he'd found on one of his walks. The wing he'd seen belonged to the last of the six doves who were now crowding around Kaito, cooing happily at the sight of their master awake.

Pushing himself into a sitting position, Shinichi watched the magician greet each bird individually. He smiled a little to himself at the sight. The magician was obviously just as happy to see his birds as they were to see him.

The ball of light was floating a little distance from the reunion, apparently watching the scene with interest. It flew closer as Kaito finished his greetings and several pairs of beady eyes turned, attracted by the glow. The spirit beast peered back at the doves with equal curiosity, then its outline shifted. Beams of light twisted and wove together, solidifying, and suddenly there were seven doves instead of six. Only one of them felt…different to Shinichi. Kaito had told him the names of all his doves a while ago, but for the most part they all looked the same to Shinichi. This one however he knew he wasn't going to be able to mistake for any of the others. How that was, he couldn't say for the life of him, but nevertheless he knew it was true.

"Wow, I didn't know he could do that," Kaito noted, leaning over to peer more closely at the now-bird.

Shinichi snorted. "That figures. Anything representing you has to have multiple faces."

The magician laughed, reaching out to stroke the now-dove. "Indeed. So did you sleep well?"

Shinichi nodded, taking another look around. "How long was I asleep? And how did we get here?"

"A few hours, and I carried you here," Kaito replied cheerfully, coming to sit beside him. The birds waddled around, examining their new flock-mate with interest. "And before you ask, I didn't wake you up because you look like you could really use the sleep."

"Oh…" That was embarrassing. Although he'd be hard pressed to decide which was worse: falling asleep in the restaurant or being carried through the streets like a child. "Thanks, I guess."

A little distance away, Aome seemed to be having a staring contest with Kishiro as the rest of the doves looked on.

"You're welcome."

"You don't think they're going to fight, do you?"

Kaito blinked in confusion before following the detective's gaze to the two dove lookalikes. "Nah. I think they're just trying to figure out what each other are. I'm sure they can both tell that neither of them are really doves."

"Maybe once they've figured each other out they can tell us about it," the detective muttered, flopping back onto the grass and throwing an arm over his eyes. His breath left him in a drawn out sigh. He was still tired, but not in the same limbs-of-lead way that he'd been earlier.

"Are you all right?"

Letting his arm slide down a bit Shinichi cracked open his eyes to see Kaito looking down at him with visible concern. He swallowed, that lingering hint of remembered dread creeping up in him again like an echo through time.

"I'm fine," he said finally. "Just thinking."

He got a skeptical look in return before the magician's eyes softened. Once again he had the feeling that the magician was about to say something. Then Kaito was looking away from him, and he wondered if he'd just been imagining it.

Suddenly the magician bounded to his feet and began to wave. Startled, Shinichi sat up and looked around to see a blue-haired girl in a sweater and jeans jogging towards them.

"Hey, fancy meeting you here," she greeted Kaito like they were old friends.

"Indeed," the magician agreed. "I didn't realize I'd still be able to see you."

"Some things can be a bit hard to do when no one can see you," the girl replied with a dismissive wave.

"I can certainly vouch for that," the magician agreed. "Shinichi, this is Botan, the girl I told you about."

"It's nice to meet you," Shinichi said, getting quickly to his feet and bowing to the girl. "And thank you for your help."

"Oh, it was nothing," Botan replied, beaming at him. "I was glad to be of service! And really, it's all part of my job anyway. I'm just glad it seems like everything turned out okay for you two. But what are you two doing here?"

Kaito shrugged. "We were thinking we'd spend the night unless someone kicks us out first."

The girl's expression grew concerned. "That doesn't sound very comfortable. You know," she continued, tapping her chin. "I'm pretty sure Master Genkai wouldn't mind if you two stayed over at her place for a few days. I could ask her for you if you'd like."

Shinichi and Kaito traded looks. "We would appreciate it, if it's not too much trouble."

"No trouble at all," Botan assured him. "Just give me a moment… You see, I was tracking the energy signature from one of the apparitions we've been looking for," she explained, holding up what looked like a compass. "We've all split up to look since there are so many of them this time. I don't understand though. I've been tracking this one for hours and now the demon compass says it's right here but I don't see…" the girl murmured, frowning as she took another look around the park. "Unless…"

All three humans looked up at the same time—just as something green and toothy dropped straight down towards them from the branches overhead.

Kaito couldn't say afterward exactly what happened then. For an instant it was absolute chaos. Rough, green-scaled limbs blurred together with gleaming teeth and yellow eyes. Feathers flew as birds scattered in every direction. There were yells and a ferocious growling filled his ears. And all Kaito could think was that now was so not the time for another damned accident. No way. He was NOT going to let that happen! Then there was a strange sensation—a rush of something like heat or electricity—and his entire vision filled with a blinding, white light and his ears filled with a deafening, electric crackling.

There was a high pitched squeal of pain so loud he thought he might actually go deaf.

An instant later the creature fled, leaving behind it a scene like a wax tableau designed to depict shock.

Kaito stared after it until it was gone before looking down at his own hands. They looked…perfectly normal, but he could still remember that ghostly sensation—a tingling warmth and a feeling like adrenaline racing through his veins. The air now smelled of ozone.

"What did you do?" Shinichi's voice cracked the silence as he slowly picked himself up off the grass where he had fallen.

"I…wish I knew."

"Well, that clinches it," Botan remarked, sounding only mildly surprised. "You definitely have to go see Master Genkai now."

X

According to Botan, this 'Master Genkai' was a highly skilled psychic—possibly the most skilled of all living human psychics in fact.

"Does that mean she can read minds?" Kaito had asked, to which the grim reaper had laughed.

"She's a psychic, not a telepath," she'd said as though that explained everything. Which it didn't, not exactly, but they had come to expect that kind of thing from other-worldly explanations. Even when they all spoke the same language, it was inevitable that some terminology or thought processes worked differently.

Botan proceeded to recount stories of the renowned psychic and it soon became apparent that, whatever else she might be, the woman they were about to see was a master martial artist. She might have started sounding rather intimidating too if the two of them hadn't been through too much to be intimidated easily. Still, Shinichi listened carefully to the stories as the three of them made their way up what was starting to feel like an endless staircase. The incident at the park was still fresh in his memory and he couldn't help but notice how many times the term 'spirit energy' came up in Botan's stories. From what he had gathered, it seemed to be something everyone had to varying degrees, but it sounded like psychics were those people who could make use of it. Every now and then he would glance over at Kaito, wondering what the magician was thinking, but as usual it was impossible to say for sure.

Their destination was a sprawling temple complex seated at the top of the stairs. Forests cloaked the surrounding mountainsides in bristling, dark green leaves. The complex itself appeared to be deserted. It wasn't until Botan had led them into one of the complex's inner courtyards that they finally saw someone.

The old woman with wavy gray hair looked up from the cup of tea she had been drinking on the veranda when she heard them approach. Her eyes were sharp and impassive.

"I didn't know I was expecting guests," she remarked dryly.

"Sorry to drop in on you like this Master Genkai," Botan apologized. "But these two needed a place to stay—they're the visitors I mentioned before—and so I thought that maybe they could stay here for a while."

The old woman looked them over again before taking another sip of her tea. "Sure, why not."

X

The first gray fingers of dawn were just beginning to creep across the sky when Kaito woke the following morning. Unsurprisingly, Shinichi was still sleeping, and Kaito wasn't about to disturb him. Not when he knew how little real rest the detective had gotten over the past week. He on the other hand had had way too much of being still. So he spent a moment observing the detective's sleeping face before making his way outside to feed his doves.

He had just sat down to the task when he noticed a small girl in a blue kimono watching him from across the courtyard. Her hair was just as blue as her kimono. Was blue hair common in this world then? Her large, dark red eyes were trained on the birds shuffling around him, waiting for their breakfast.

"Would you like to help me feed them?" he asked, raising his voice just enough for it to carry across the courtyard.

The girl's eyes lit up at the question and she took a shy step closer. "Can I really?"

"Of course."

Beaming, she crossed the yard to sit with him. Kaito gave her a handful of the food he'd prepared for the birds. He could feel someone watching them as he introduced her to his flock. As he talked, he cast a surreptitious glance around at their surroundings. He thought he might have caught a glimpse of something hidden behind the leafy boughs of the trees surrounding the temple, but he couldn't be entirely sure. A few minutes later the feeling was gone.

And that was why, when Shinichi woke, he found the magician in the midst of telling the petit girl about what sounded like the heist he'd pulled back in that world with the other phantom thief. He was describing his 'exhibits' and the stranger was laughing (though she sounded a little like she might feel guilty for finding the plight of the men in question amusing).

"Ah, good morning Shinichi," Kaito said when he saw the detective approach. "This is Yukina. She's living here at the temple while she looks for her brother. Miss Yukina, this is my friend Kudo Shinichi. He's a detective."

"Oh!" Her eyes lit up with understanding. "Do you also work for Koenma then?"

The travelers both blinked in surprised confusion before Shinichi cleared his throat. "Actually I usually work with the police…"

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make assumptions. I guess I just thought maybe you were one of Yusuke and Kazuma's friends."

"Botan mentioned someone called Yusuke to me the other day," Kaito recalled. "She didn't mention he was a detective." He'd been under the impression this Yusuke person was something more like a demon hunter.

"He's the Earth's spirit detective," the girl explained.

Shinichi turned this over in his mind, wondering if he'd heard that right. "So…does that mean he solves cases for spirits?"

It was Yukina's turn to blink before she started giggling, leaving Shinichi wondering what he'd said that was so funny. Either way it probably meant he was wrong.

"You three certainly seem to be having fun," a dry voice remarked. It was a voice they all recognized.

"Good morning," the three of them chorused as the old woman came to a stop in front of them.

"Good morning." She turned her gaze to Kaito. "Botan tells me you've recently started harnessing your spirit energy."

He blinked back at her. "I have?"

"Hn, so that's how it is." She eyed the magician up and down with piercing eyes that seemed to be looking right through him. He smiled pleasantly back at her, Poker Face firmly in place.

"Come with me." The little, old lady turned abruptly on her heels and marched off. Kaito cast Shinichi a look with raised eyebrows before getting up to go after her.

Yukina and Shinichi watched them go, the latter wondering if he should go with them. But Yukina spoke up before he could.

"You're new here right? Would you like me to show you around?" she offered. "The temple is kind of large. It can be a little hard getting to know where everything is."

Casting one last look after the magician's departing back, he nodded. "I would appreciate it. Thank you."

X

Kaito didn't reappear until nearly lunchtime. By then Shinichi was beginning to feel distinctly antsy. He had actually gone looking for the magician but all he'd found were empty rooms (including one that looked an awful lot like an arcade). In the end he'd had to content himself with Kishiro's company (Aome having been sent out) until the spirit beast decided that it wanted to try out being a squirrel and ran off.

"I am starving!" the magician declared upon his reappearance. "So where do you think we should get lunch?"

"Yukina-san said she was making it," Shinichi replied, standing up and gesturing for Kaito to follow him. The magician did so with a cheer and a cartwheel, earning himself a quizzical look from his companion. "What are you doing?"

"Making use of gravity," Kaito replied, taking his next few steps on his hands before flipping upright again. "And the fact that I have mass."

"Oookay… So what exactly were you doing all morning?" Shinichi asked curiously as he led the way towards the dining room.

"Well, Genkai-san explained a bit more about this energy thing they keep talking about. That took maybe ten minutes. And then she made me meditate the whole time after that." Kaito grimaced. "Do you have any idea how boring meditating is?"

Shinichi hid a grin. "No, I don't, but I think I can guess judging from your tone of voice." He hesitated a moment, glancing up at the magician's face out of the corner of his eye. "Is it difficult?"

"What, meditating? I guess that would depend on opinion. Does it being hard not to fall asleep count as difficult?"

"No, not that. What I meant was…" He trailed off as they came up to the dining room door as he tried to find the words for what he wanted to ask. He was distracted however by the sound of unfamiliar voices speaking from inside the room they were about to enter. They were slightly muffled by the intervening walls but the words were still fairly easy to make out.

"Why can't the shrimp just use his Jagan thing to find this guy?" a voice neither of them recognized was asking.

"We've gone over this before," Botan's voice replied. "The parasite's not very powerful offensively, so it's mastered the art of concealing its own energy with that of its host so that it appears completely human."

"Oh."

"Hn. Fool."

"Hey! It was a reasonable question!"

"And don't we still have that apparition gang thing to deal with too? I mean, we got seven of them, so that leaves two we still have to find," a new voice that struck Shinichi as vaguely familiar spoke up. "Man, what did they do, let a whole invasion force across the border or something?"

"One moment," a fifth, much calmer voice cut into the conversation moments before the door slid abruptly open. The travelers found themselves suddenly at the center of attention of five pairs of eyes. Four of them tensed.

"What the—who're you?" a tall boy with short, orange hair and rather rough features exclaimed in surprise.

"Hey, haven't I seen you before?" the boy with the gelled black hair asked at almost the same time, looking Shinichi over.

"What? You know who they are Urameshi?" the first speaker demanded, turning to his companion who rolled his eyes.

"No, I just saw him on the street the other day."

"Actually, these two are the guests I told you guys about a week ago," Botan interjected. "Master Genkai's letting them stay here for a while."

"Oh, well, in that case, welcome to Earth I guess," the one called Urameshi stated, offering the two a lazy wave of greeting.

"Um, we're not from another planet," Shinichi found himself saying even though he knew it was irrelevant information. A desire for accuracy, however, was a bit of a habit. "Just a parallel universe."

There was a beat of silence during which everyone stared at him. Then everyone except the short, black-haired boy burst into laughter.

Introductions were made by Botan once everyone had settled down. Shinichi had to admit he was surprised to discover that the detective Yukina had mentioned and the boy with the gelled hair he'd seen that day he'd met the first monster in this world were one and the same. His name was Urameshi Yusuke and it turned out he was also Genkai's student and successor. The one with the orange hair who had asked Yusuke if he knew them was Kuwabara Kazuma. Then there was the calm, redheaded boy who had exposed his and Kaito's presence outside the door. He said his name was Minamino Shuichi but for whatever reason he told them to call him Kurama. That left the short one who didn't seem to like to talk. He didn't bother giving his name, but Kurama said it was Hiei. Shinichi couldn't help but notice that the boy was carrying a real sword, but no one else seemed to care.

Then Yukina came in to announce that lunch was ready. Kuwabara immediately leaped to his feet and offered to help her bring everything in. Behind his back Yusuke snickered and Kurama hid a smile behind his teacup. They all had lunch together after that, joined by Genkai. It was a rather noisy event. Listening to the jibes being thrown around the room and the laughter that bubbled up amidst it all, Shinichi thought it felt oddly like a large family reunion (the nice kind anyway, not the kind he usually saw where everyone was secretly glaring out of the corners of their eyes at everyone else before somebody inevitably dropped dead). But all the noise also made it so that he couldn't help but notice how quiet Kaito was being. He was still talking and cracking jokes, answering the questions their curious new acquaintances were asking, but he had yet to pull any magic tricks and it felt to Shinichi like the magician's mind was elsewhere. And whatever was on Kaito's mind seemed to have something to do with him because every now and then Shinichi would glance over to find the magician watching him.

Yukina had brought out a plate of oranges to serve for desert when Botan snapped her fingers. "I just remembered! Raimonji hate citrus fruits."

"Well that's useful information," Yusuke said sarcastically, rolling his eyes.

Botan shot him a disgruntled look. "I just thought I should mention it."

"Um, what are they talking about?" Shinichi wondered aloud, turning to the person to his immediate right.

"Oh, it's the parasite demon we've been looking for," Kuwabara replied with a shrug.

"Oh." Apparently that was all the explanation the guy thought necessary. He glanced towards Kaito again and this time caught the magician's gaze. This time he could almost point out the exact moment that Kaito's expression morphed into that perpetual grin that didn't mean anything.

"Botan told me about it before. I'll explain later," he said as though that was what he had been thinking about, though Shinichi was pretty sure it wasn't. Now, however, wasn't the time to call him out on it.

X

"So what do you think of them?"

"They seem pretty cool," Kuwabara replied. "Why? Is there something wrong Kurama?"

The redhead shook his head, green eyes thoughtful. "No." It was simply rare that he met anyone he couldn't read.

"That's good. I thought for a moment there you were gonna say they were really demons in disguise or something. The bad kind I mean," he added hastily, scratching at the back of his head as he remembered who (or rather what) he was talking to.

"They're all right," Yusuke declared, folding his arms behind his head.

"Hey, you guys wanna swing by the arcade or something?"

Yusuke waved him away. "Nah. I think I'll head home. Maybe watch some TV." Stuffing his hands into his pockets, he turned his steps towards his house.

Kuwabara watched him go with a frown. "Man, Urameshi's been acting weird lately."

Kurama made a thoughtful noise in the back of his throat then turned in the other direction. "I will be taking my leave as well. Good night."

"Night."

X

It was well into the night by the time they made it to their guest room. Shinichi sat down on his futon with a sigh of relief as Kaito set off on a check of the room's perimeters. "Can you open the window?"

The magician paused in his examination of the far wall. "Are you hot?"

"No, I just thought you'd want to let Kishiro in."

Kaito glanced out the window but as far as he could tell there wasn't anything there. Shrugging, he moved to open the window anyway. A moment later a tiny sparrow emerged from the leaves of the bush outside and hopped inside. Once it was on the sill, it shook itself and turned into a dove. Kaito gave it a bemused look before shutting the window again.

"How did you know he was there?"

Shinichi hesitated, glanced at the dove now preening itself on the windowsill, then shook his head, looking slightly uneasy. "I don't know. I just…did."

Kaito studied the detective's face then changed the subject. "You know how I picked up some extra stuff with the money we had left over last time?"

"You mean the candy and toys?"

"Yep. Well, I had this idea when I saw them that I think might be worth trying…"

X

Raising the tiny, wooden rocking horse to the sunlight, Shinichi looked it over carefully from muzzle to tail. Locating the production label carved into the curve of the rocker, he began to sand the words off. He might have felt bad about it if it hadn't been for a good cause. They didn't want to leave evidence scattered across the universes of companies that didn't exist after all.

The sound of footsteps and shifting cloth announced that someone had joined him on the veranda. Setting aside the sandpaper, he brushed the remaining sawdust off of the toy and glanced over at his company.

Genkai met his gaze over a cup of tea. "I have a question for you."

Shinichi nodded. "What is it?"

"Have either of you been to Mushiyori City?"

Shinichi shook his head. "We haven't been here that long, and we've spent all that time in this area."

The old woman nodded.

"Would you mind if I asked you why you want to know?"

"I don't like to make assumptions."

"Ah." He could understand that. He glanced across the courtyard to where Kaito was sitting under a large tree. "How's Kaito doing?"

"His energy is extremely versatile. It seems he can actually convert it into other forms."

Shinichi nodded slowly, gaze dropping back to the now unmarked rocking horse. Setting it aside, he picked up the cat and bell keychain next to it.

"What about you?" she asked suddenly.

"What about me?"

Sharp eyes studied his face for several moments before the old woman answered. "With your level of spirit awareness, you should be able to harness your own energy without too much trouble. But you're afraid of it, aren't you?"

It didn't sound like a question so much as it did a statement. He shifted uncomfortably in his seat.

"Power is most dangerous when you do not understand it."

Surprised, he looked up to see Genkai already walking away.

X

Shinichi raised a hand to shield his eyes from the morning sun as he scanned the street. Picking out a restaurant he recognized, he turned the corner and continued walking, already searching for the next landmark. Kaito had once again been hauled off by Genkai that morning for training and Shinichi had decided to head back to the hospital to check up on a theory that had been circling around in his mind since he'd heard about this demon parasite creature. A few blocks later the hospital came into view. He was in luck as he immediately spotted someone he recognized.

"Kari-san!" he called, waving to her.

The nurse in question glanced up from where she'd been eating a bento outside the hospital building and smiled. "Shinichi-kun, it's good to see you. How have you been?"

"I'm okay," he replied, a genuine smile surfacing in response to hers. "How about you?"

"I can't complain," the woman replied. "That virus is still going around it seems, but at least there hasn't been anything new."

"That reminds me, you know the doctor you said who got upset over having lemon juice added to his water?"

"You mean Okubo-sensei?"

Shinichi nodded. "Yeah. Has he always disliked having his water that way?"

The nurse's expression grew thoughtful if a little confused. "Now that you mention it, I'm pretty sure he told me he liked the taste of lemons when I first started working here. It was only about two and a half weeks ago that he stopped adding lemon slices to his water. I think maybe it's just the stress getting to him. Stress can do strange things to people, and he's the one who's been dealing most with the virus victims. Considering we still haven't found an effective cure, it's not really all that surprising that he'd be upset."

"I see."

Kari sighed, shaking her head. "But all we can do is do our best and hope things work out."

Blue eyes grew a little distant at the comment. "That's true."

"So tell me what you've been up to," the nurse said, changing the subject. "How's Kaito-kun doing? Everyone's still talking about how miraculous his recovery was."

Shinichi had to laugh at that. "I'm sure he'd be thrilled to hear it."

X

When Shinichi returned to the temple it was to the sight of Kaito bounding over the temple rooftops with the petit form of Genkai hot on his heels. She was throwing what looked like balls of energy after him. Shinichi watched the bizarre seen from the top of the steps, wondering if maybe he should leave and come back later when it didn't look like a war zone.

"Your friend's agility is impressive," a voice remarked from beside him.

Shinichi glanced towards it to meet Kurama's calm, green gaze. The redhead's lips were quirked up at the corners in amusement.

"He gets a lot of practice," he replied. "But what are they doing?"

"I believe the idea was supposed to be in blocking spirit energy with spirit energy. An exercise in analysis and control."

As if to illustrate his point, they both heard Genkai's harsh demand of, "Are you going to run all day or are you going to stand and fight?"

"But Ojou-san, with you attacking me like that it's only natural that I get out of the way," Kaito's voice called back. "It's kind of a reflex, you know? More efficient too!"

"He shouldn't have said that," Yusuke's voice reached the two spectators' ears as he came up the steps behind them. "Next time Grandma'll have him practicing with his back to a corner."

"There's something I wanted to talk to you about," Shinichi began, turning his attention to the two teenagers, but he was cut off before he could get any further.

"Incoming," Kurama warned and all three of them ducked as a crackling ball of power whizzed past over their heads. Once it was gone the redhead stood and gestured towards the temple proper. "Perhaps we should relocate indoors."

X

"So there was something you wished to speak to us about?" Kurama inquired once they had safely entered the building.

Shinichi nodded. "Remember how Botan-san mentioned that the parasite has a strong aversion to citrus fruits?"

Yusuke nodded. "Yeah, what of it?"

"There's a doctor at the hospital we were staying at who recently developed a hatred for all things lemon despite having liked them for years," Shinichi explained. "He's also been spending a lot of time with the patients who you guys said are probably the ones the parasite infected."

"So you're suggesting that the doc's the main host."

"That would make sense," Kurama mused, looking thoughtful. "Being a doctor would give it easy access to a large number of relatively defenseless humans. It would also give it an excuse to be near them without arousing suspicion." Green eyes turned to Yusuke. "I believe this is worth looking into. Although it should wait for Botan to get her delivery. If you don't get rid of the Feelers quickly, they will grow into full parasites after the main body is destroyed."

"I already know that," Yusuke grumbled. "I think she told me they were coming in two days. Guess we'll meet at the hospital then." He cast a glance towards the window. "You coming?"

There was a snort and Shinichi realized that Hiei had appeared by the window at some point in the conversation without his noticing. "It sounds boring."

"But we will need your eye to pick out the Feelers," Kurama countered.

The black-haired boy looked away. "Hn."

X

"So who knows what this guy looks like?" Yusuke asked the group at large as they stood on the street outside the hospital. He was answered by several beats of silence.

"Well that's just perfect," Kuwabara complained. "What are we supposed to do? Make an appointment or something?"

"I have a better idea." Kurama raised his right hand. There was a seed lying in the middle of his palm. As they watched, the seed sprouted, curling soft, green tendrils over the edges of his hand and twining with his fingers. Then a single bud rose and bloomed into a purple and yellow flower with oddly perforated petals. "This is a Makai Dream Eater. The pollen of this particular breed is a highly effective sleeping agent. However it probably will not affect our target as it will be embedded within another living body, but the rest of the staff and patients should be a different story."

"So we can just put everyone to sleep and go after whoever's left standing?" Kuwabara asked.

"That is the idea," Kurama agreed.

"Hold on," Shinichi interjected. "Is there some way to make sure there aren't any operations in progress before you use that?"

"Oh, of course. I'll ask Koenma." Botan stepped quickly away from the group and pulled a compact mirror out of her pocket. A few moments later she returned. "Koenma says everyone should be in a good place in about five more minutes."

Kurama nodded and headed towards the hospital at a leisurely walk with both hands in his pockets as the rest of the group settled down to wait.

Shinichi seated himself on one of the steps leading up to the building behind them. A moment later Kaito joined him. He was idly juggling a handful of colorful balls of light. Shinichi couldn't help but watch them spinning around and around, each just bright enough to be visible despite the daylight.

"What do you think?" Kaito asked suddenly.

"About what?"

The magician flicked his fingers to send two of the glowing lights zipping towards Shinichi where they spun and chased each other around him like playful fireflies. "I can do fire and lightning too. Just imagine the special effects I could get with this! Cool, no?"

"I guess so." Reaching up on an impulse, he swatted at one of the lights. His hand passed through it but his skin tingled with a faint heat where it had come in contact with the glow. "What does it feel like?"

Kaito cocked his head to one side. "What do you mean?"

"This." Shinichi waved a hand at the lights. "The powers."

Kaito studied his companion's face for a long moment. "It's pretty interesting, but I get the impression that that's not what you're asking me. What's bothering you?" Indigo eyes grew serious as the lights disappeared. "You've been worrying about something for a while now."

"It's just… Do you feel any different?"

The magician's expression grew thoughtful. "Not really. Why? Did you feel different when you started to see things?"

Shinichi shook his head.

"It's not like we're catching diseases or anything, you know."

The detective snorted. "I know that. Maybe I just don't like the idea of how we might be being affected by these places."

Ah, that explained a lot. He supposed he could understand that. "Well, just so long as we reach home human and in one piece, I'm not going to complain."

Shinichi shot him a glare. "That is not funny."

"I know, I know, but really," he continued, grin fading. "We're already not the people we were. Things change, that's just life. It's not a bad thing. If anything perhaps we should be glad."

The detective raised an eyebrow at that. "Really? And how did you reach that conclusion?"

"Because every tool we get will make it easier for us to stay alive."

"…That was kind of morbid."

"Forgive me." Kaito bowed as best he could while sitting down. "Do accept this token of my apology." With a flourish, he produced a white rose which he offered to the detective.

Shinichi gave him a funny look before eyeing the flower like he expected it to squirt water in his eyes. They were interrupted by Kurama returning.

"It's ready," he announced.

"About time. So now we just go in and bag us a doctor," Yusuke concluded. "Sounds simple enough."

"Remember Yusuke, the doctor's still human," Botan cautioned. "Even if he is being controlled. So you can't shoot him with your spirit gun. You also have to be careful that the parasite doesn't infect you. That means avoiding physical contact."

"What, so I can't shoot or punch him?" Yusuke spluttered. "What am I supposed to do? Ask him nicely to vacate the doc so I can get a clean shot?"

"I'm sure you'll think of something."

"Great," he scoffed. "Thanks for the vote of confidence."

"Does that mean we're going to have to search the whole hospital?" Kuwabara wondered, looking up at the rather tall building. "Hope that pollen's really effective."

"Kari-san told me which wards he mainly works in. I can show you where they are," Shinichi offered. He knew the hospital rather well by now. "I've also seen the man a few times while I was here."

"Right. Hey, Botan, how many of those spray things do you have?"

"Uh, let me see…" Slinging the bag off her shoulder, she rummaged through it. "I have ten."

"Okay, so me 'nd Kudo here will go look for our dear doctor, and the rest of you can go administer the pesticide."

Kaito made the rose disappear and watched the detectives run off in the direction of the elevators before accepting a spray can from Botan. For something that had been produced in the spirit world, it didn't look very remarkable. "Excuse me, but it occurs to me that it would be a great deal quicker and possibly more thorough if we simply piped this through the hospital ventilation system."

"It would," Botan agreed, smiling a bit sheepishly. "But we don't have enough of it for that. And it doesn't work unless the victim gets a full dose."

"Ah, I see."

X

Doctors, nurses, and visitors sat and lay about the halls and wards, every last one of them snoring softly (or not so softly in some cases). Shinichi stopped for a moment when they passed the janitor who had apparently been caught by the sleep-inducing pollen while he was getting his mop. Diving into the open closet, he scanned the shelves and grabbed a large bottle off the lowest shelf. He reemerged into the hallway to see Yusuke poking his head into various rooms along the hall.

"We're not there yet," he told the spirit detective.

Yusuke shut the door to the room he'd just looked into with a click. "Well then why'd you stop?"

"I wanted to get something," Shinichi replied, holding up the bottle for emphasis. Yusuke eyed it for a moment then laughed.

They found what they were looking for in the last ward on the floor. The man was the first they'd seen awake since entering the hospital and he was leaning over a hospital bed where a young girl lay sleeping. One of his hands was reaching for the girl's face, the fingers wreathed in an odd, grayish glow.

"Stop right there!" Yusuke hollered.

The doctor jumped and spun around to stare at him. "Who the hell are you?"

Now that the man was no longer reaching for the girl, Yusuke relaxed a little, a smirk crawling onto his face. "The name's Urameshi Yusuke, Spirit Detective."

The man's eyes widened. Without a word, he spun on his heels and headed for the door on the opposite end of the ward. Yusuke was faster. He darted forward, leaping clear over several hospital beds and coming up in front of the fleeing doctor.

"Aw, don't leave yet. We've only just said hello."

"Damn you!" the man spat in response, turning back to the first door.

Shinichi raised the large bottle of extremely strongly lemon scented cleaning fluid he had scrounged from the janitor's closet with the nozzle pointed towards the man. He grinned. "It says on the bottle it's very refreshing."

The man snarled, eyes narrowing into near slits behind his glasses. Then his gaze flickered to the beds nearest him and his expression morphed into a malicious grin. In a flash he was beside the girl they had seen him approaching earlier, one hand hovering just over her neck.

"Don't you dare!" Yusuke bounded forward, a brilliant point of light beginning to gather at the tip of his right pointer finger.

The doctor spotted it and his eyes went wide but he didn't move from his spot. "Come any closer and I'll break her neck."

Yusuke stopped moving, but he didn't lower his hand or relinquish the power growing there. "You do realize I can shoot you faster than you could move."

"You can't do that," the doctor retorted. "You wouldn't want to kill an innocent doctor, now would you?"

"Yeah, you're right," Yusuke agreed amiably. "But you know, it just occurred to me that all I have to do is turn down the power enough so that it doesn't kill 'im." With that, he released a blast of bright blue energy like the one Shinichi had seen vaporize the demon that other time. This blast caught Okubo-sensei square in the chest, lifting him right off of his feet and throwing him back into the wall with a loud thud. The man's skull cracked against said wall and he slumped to the floor, unconscious.

Yusuke dropped his hand and walked over to drag the doctor's limp body up by the color. "So how're we supposed to get the thing out of him?"

Shinichi frowned. He could have sworn that he'd seen something slip out of the doctor's left ear moments before he'd been hit. Blue eyes skimmed the polished floors as Yusuke gave the man a light shake before letting him drop back to the floor and stepping back.

"Guess we should ask Bo—" Partway through his sentence, the spirit detective paused, frowning. "What the—what did I just step on?"

Lifting his foot, he stared at the grayish, greenish smudge on the floor. There wasn't anything else there, though the smudge looked pretty gross.

Shinichi however had zeroed in on the other detective's upraised foot. "I think what you're looking for might be stuck to the sole of your shoe."

Yusuke craned his neck to take a look. Indeed, plastered to the bottom of his shoe was what looked like a green and gray centipede with a disturbingly humanoid face.

"That's it?" he asked incredulously. "Man, it makes us run all over the city looking for it for two weeks and then it doesn't even have the decency to put up a good fight!"

Shinichi looked at him a bit oddly, but he supposed it was a martial artist thing. "Here." Hefting the bottle of cleaning fluid, he moved to spray the bottom of the shoe Yusuke was still holding up. As they watched the entire creature dissolved away like a snow sculpture in the heavy rain.

Yusuke whistled. "That's some good stuff."

X

Sticking spray canisters into people's ears was not how Kaito had imagined he'd be spending the day when he'd decided to tag along. Regardless, there he was, doing just that along with the rest of the team on the direction of an extremely bored looking Hiei who had refused to take a spray himself.

When they finally caught up to the detectives, they found them just finishing administering the spray to everyone in the ward where a man in a doctor's coat lay splayed out on the floor, his glasses lying shattered beside him.

"Ugh, what did you do to him Yusuke?" Botan demanded, running over to the man and dropping to her knees. A yellow light began to crackle around her hands. "He's got three broken ribs!"

"Hey at least he's still breathing and doesn't have a centipede roosting in his ear anymore," the boy in question retorted.

The girl sighed. "It's going to take me a few minutes to finish healing his injuries."

"So where's the parasite?" Kurama inquired, scanning the room and finding nothing.

"Oh, that." Yusuke shrugged. "I stepped on it. It was pretty pathetic."

"Wow, that is pretty pathetic," Kuwabara muttered. "Well if that's all I think I'm gonna go home. Sis's been nagging at me all week about studying for that big test coming up."

Ten minutes later everyone dispersed outside the hospital.

"You two think you can find your way okay?" Yusuke had asked. At their affirmative, he'd shrugged and left with his hands in his pockets. "See you around."

Botan too departed to report back to Koenma, leaving the two travelers to make their own way back to Genkai's temple.

"I guess that means we're just about set to go doesn't it?" Kaito remarked as he folded his arms behind his head. "We just need to wait for Aome to finish her search."

"Actually she already did." Reaching into his pocket, Shinichi showed him a green statuette of a robotic, cat-like creature.

The magician glanced at it then nodded slowly. Shinichi took a moment to study the miniature before tucking it away again. Neither of them was quite ready to leave just yet. Maybe in another day or two. Right now though…right now what they really needed was a moment to breathe.

"Hey, let's stop by that ramen place again. The owner did say we'd be welcome."

"All right."

TBC


Notes:

Powers: I debated with myself a long time before deciding to give them powers. I wasn't going to at first, but there are some worlds like Bleach that they'll be getting to in the future where a person without powers just can't really be part of what's actually happening.

Next: When the Earth Trembles [Zoids: New Century Zero]

A.N: The next two chapters will be focused more on just the KaiShin part of the story so where they are won't matter quite as much. So I'm picking worlds for them that don't need as much setting up/explaining. Well, that and I just feel like Zoids would be fun. Anyhow, stay tuned!