Disclaimer: I don't own DCMK.


The Show Goes On

9: The Ghost and the Butterfly

As soon as Akiyama screamed, Kaito was up and standing at the ready between the phantom and the bed where Shinichi too had shot bolt upright. Hattori rolled off the side of the bed he and Hakuba were using and came up in a defensive crouch—facing the wrong way. Realizing his mistake, he spun around. His light saber hummed to brilliant life.

Hakuba just sat up. He still didn't believe in ghosts. And if something like a ghost appeared here, he doubted that any of them would be able to do anything about it. All considered, a ghost would have no physical body. That left the only reasonable way to deal with a ghost to be talking.

Besides, this ghost seemed just as surprised to see all of them as they were to see her.

She drifted down to float just above the floor in front of the television. Tucking what appeared to be a large, ghostly glass orb under her left arm, she smiled.

"I didn't realize it'd be you guys in here," she said, clearly delighted. "This is great!"

Hattori was the first of the boys to react. "K—Kazuha?" He took a step forward. "Is that you?"

"Well who else would it be," the female phantom shot back, placing her free hand on her hip. "I don't look that different, do I?"

Hattori gulped. "Well…" He could indeed see Kazuha shrouded in all that wispy blue white light. But her once dark hair was now a pure white. As was her face. And her eyes. And her skin. And basically every other part of her there was. It was like Kazuha had had all the color wiped off of her, leaving only a pure white model of what she ought to look like. Frankly, it was kind of creepy.

"Well anyway," she continued. "We were worried about you guys! I've been searching for days. Or, well, I think it's been days. It's kind of hard to tell around here…"

Shinichi's ears pricked forward. "We?"

Kazuha paused, gaze fixed on Shinichi's furry ears. She couldn't help it. She squealed. "That's so cute!" she laughed,. Floating across the room, she reached out a hand to rub his right ear. Her fingers passed right through him, but he could feel a strong chill in his ear. The ear in question twitched and flattened, trying to conserve warmth.

Kazuha giggled. "They're so real."

"Well they are real," Hattori grunted, suddenly feeling slightly irritated. "You said we. Who else is with ya?"

"Well, Ran is. We woke up in the same room. We were confused because there was nothing outside the window, so we came out. We've met several other people who were at the party. But…"

"What is it?" Kaito asked.

The girl's expression grew grim. "The truth is, they're kind of… They were all captured. Ran too. I got away because, well." She gestured at her translucent body. "Don't worry though," she added hastily. "They're not hurt or anything at the moment. I visit them when I can."

"Do you know who's holding them prisoner?" asked Hakuba, shoulders tense.

"They call him the Warlock. He's the right hand man of someone they only ever call the King. We haven't seen either of them in person yet ourselves, but…" She sighed. "That's probably a good thing. You guys might not want to stay here though," she added. "It isn't safe. This cabin of yours can walk, right? I mean, it has feet."

"Yes, it can walk," Hattori agreed. "Cool, right?"

"Yeah. It's really convenient to have beds and a bathroom and everything," the ghost girl agreed. "Anyhow, the Watchers in this area are really active right now. Another group should be coming by soon, so you should really change locations."

"Are the Watchers those bat things? We already dealt with them. Or, well, Kuroba dealt with them," the scarecrow detective amended, casting a sidelong look at the vampire magician. "I don't think they'll be too much of a problem even if they come after us again."

"Wait. You mean they've already seen you?" Kazuha demanded, alarmed.

"Er, yeah… But like I said, we got rid of 'em."

"Where? When?!"

"Eight and a half hours ago," Hakuba replied. "Approximately three kilometers back up this passage towards the main tunnel."

Kazuha did not look reassured. "They'll be back to look for you then. I'm surprised they haven't already shown up. But I guess if you guys destroyed some of them then they'll want to bring some Keepers with them."

The boys looked at her blankly.

She let out a frustrated breath. "Oh, there's just so much to explain! But we really should move to a different location first. There should be another tunnel right now if we head that way." She pointed. "It shifts in another three and a half hours. If we duck in there, it should buy us enough time to talk."

"Wait a moment, you said the tunnels shift?" Shinichi asked. "As in they move around?"

"Yes," the girl snapped, impatient. "Now let's go. We can talk later! Or do you all want to be caught?"

X

As Kazuha had said, they found another branch tunnel not all that far from where they'd been. They parked the cabin just around the corner to wait for the shift the ghost girl had told them about.

"In the meantime, can you tell us more about where the others are being held?" Shinichi asked.

"Well," Kazuha replied. "I think it'll be easier for me to show you with my crystal ball." She drifted over to the table and hovered just above a chair.

"Your crystal ball?" Kaito's eyebrows rose. "You mean that thing under your arm?"

Kazuha nodded. "I can use it to look at things from a distance. It's a bit like…sending a pair of eyes out, I guess. So the eyes travel around as directed by me, and we see what they see in my orb."

"I've been meaning to ask you," Shinichi said, watching the crystal ball being directed to float over the center of the table. "I know you're a ghost, but why do you have a crystal ball?"

"Well, I'm not just a ghost. I'm a ghost fortune teller…?" Kazuha blushed faintly. "We just thought it would be fun to mix costumes."

"So the ghostly fortune teller and the Jedi scarecrow…" Shinichi shook his head. "I'm not sure if I should say you were being creative or just weird."

"Hey, at least neither of us has a tail that wags whenever a certain magician pats him on the head."

"I don't do that," Shinichi protested a little weakly because he'd caught himself doing just that on multiple occasions already.

"You said you were going to show us where the others are," Hakuba reminded the ghost girl.

"Oh. Right."

The six of them gathered around the table. Kazuha set her crystal ball down in the middle of it. The transparent orb hovered an inch above the table's polished surface.

"Give me a moment," Kazuha muttered, holding her hands out over the ball. "I'm still not very good at this."

"Don't worry about it," Hattori said. "Take your time."

They waited.

For a long moment, nothing happened. Then, slowly, the phantom orb began to brighten. Soon it no longer looked like a glass orb. Rather, it had become a miniature moon filled to the brim with a misty white radiance.

Having expected the fog to then clear to reveal images, the boys gave a collective start as the light in the orb suddenly rose. It slid out of the crystal ball like a plant sprouting from a seed. White light twisted and undulated, spread then contracted until it had taken on the shape of a large butterfly. It rested on top of the crystal ball with its moon colored wings still.

And, rather abruptly, the orb was no longer full of fog. Instead, it showed Hattori's face.

The Osakan detective drew in a sharp breath and took an involuntary step back from the table. The Hattori inside the orb grew more distant.

"What the," he started to say then stopped. "Oh, I get it. It's like a camera. So this…uh, moth thing is looking at me. Right?"

"Yep," Kazuha said. "The ball will show us what my familiar here sees. And she's a butterfly, not a moth," the girl added as an afterthought.

She waved a hand gently at the butterfly, fingertips just barely brushing its wings. The creature's thin, fine antennae drifted like wisps of smoke. Then it flapped its wings once and lifted into the air. It circled once around the room then flew right out through the wall behind the TV the same way Kazuha had come in.

Everyone leaned in close to the crystal ball.

Now, the image inside the orb was that of the cavernous hallway outside. The edges of the images were soft and rather fuzzy, so it was difficult to make out specific features, but they could at least tell that the passageway was going to get bigger soon if they kept going in the same direction. Then the image swerved, taking a right turn followed by a left.

"Here's the entrance to the lab," Kazuha said, her voice so quiet it was almost a whisper. The boys gathered in closer and leaned in to peer into the depths of the large crystal ball.

The first thing all of them noted was that this part of the cave system was a great deal brighter. There were glowing stones embedded not only in the ceiling but the walls as well, and the interval between the lights was a great deal shorter. The second thing that caught their attention was the sudden appearance of strange, iridescent columns. They were thicker at the top and bottom so that they bore a certain resemblance to hourglasses. They too glowed from within, but their light wavered in eerie, shifting patterns.

There were shadows moving amongst the columns. They were indistinct but clearly alive.

"Damn, why is the image so fuzzy?" Hattori complained, frustrated. "Can't ya fix the frequency or something?"

"I can't do anything about it, and we're not some kind of radio broadcast," Kazuha shot back. There was a slight strain in her voice. Her forehead was wrinkled in concentration. "The farther my familiar gets, the blurrier the image. That's just how it works."

"But we can't get any useful information like this," the scarecrow grumbled. He shifted restlessly. "What if we move the cabin closer?"

The ghost girl shot him a glare. "Can't you see all those people?"

"All I see are shadows."

"Well they're people," she snapped. "Or creatures, anyway. And they're not friendly. If we move this cabin much closer, they'll notice."

"You've been there though, yes?" Kaito asked before Hattori could formulate another retort.

Kazuha nodded, white hair drifting about her face as though she were submerged in liquid.

"Can you describe what you remember as your familiar does her work?"

Kazuha blinked then nodded slowly. "I'll try. You see those columns? Most of them are actually computer terminals. I couldn't make heads or tails out of them, but they're definitely some kind of interface. The larger columns are holding tubes."

Akiyama's teeth began to chatter.

Shinichi tensed. "Is that where the others are?"

"No, no. These are like… I guess they're like those test tubes you see in science fiction movies where the clones are made. Except they're not filled with liquid, and there aren't any clones. Not that I know of anyway."

"Do you know what they are for?" asked Hakuba.

Kazuha shook her head. "I avoid the place when I can though, so I haven't observed them much. There are just too many people there. I didn't want to risk being seen."

"The butterfly just entered the next cavern," Akiyama reported. He was crouched down as though he could hide from whatever they were about to see if he stayed under the table. But curiosity kept his eye sockets above the level of the tabletop.

"Oh, right. Let's see. Those glowing walls and stuff you see? They're actually massive walls of computers and screens and other machinery. Then, if you look to the right, you'll find the main prison. That's where they are. We call it the Lodge."

Shinichi didn't like where this was going. Then again, he hadn't liked where this was going a long time ago.

The image in the crystal ball turned, though it seemed the butterfly was keeping well over the heads of the laboratory staff. "It's a cave that can seal itself off completely from all outside interference at any moment. Hold on. The entrance is pretty small, and it's always guarded, so I'm going to send my familiar through the wall above it."

The crystal ball went dark as the butterfly phased through the wall.

"This is the prison."

Everyone except Akiyama blinked. Kazuha hadn't been kidding when she'd said it was a lodge. There was, quite literally, a large, wooden lodge building sitting inside this cavern. It even had a front porch complete with rocking chairs. Firelight glowed from beyond the lodge windows.

"Rather cozy for a prison," Hattori remarked.

Kazuha didn't smile. "A lot of the prisoners think it's not too bad compared to the dangers out there. But eventually, each person gets taken away. And they never come back."

Her declaration was met by dead silence.

Kazuha stared pensively into her crystal ball. The image inside it spun slowly as the butterfly circled the lodge. Then, with a jarring abruptness, the image vanished. Kazuha swayed and drifted back in a tired wisp.

"Sorry, I couldn't hold it any longer."

"It's all right," Hattori assured her, trying and failing to place a comforting hand on her shoulder. The gesture made her smile despite its ineffectiveness.

"Um, so…" Akiyama began, hesitated, then continued. "What do we do now?"

Hattori gave him a funny look. "Ya have to ask? We go and rescue everyone, duh. You heard what Kazuha said. For all we know, they get killed when they're taken out."

"It's not that I want to leave them there," the skeleton mumbled. "But you saw how many people there were in that lab. And if that whole lodge is full of prisoners, it's going to be a big group. How are we going to get them all out?"

"Weren't you supposed ta be a magician?" the Osakan asked, tone just this side of incredulous. "I thought magicians were supposed ta be great at escaping places."

"I specialize in tricks involving animals…"

"Eh? What, ya mean you're an animal trainer?"

"Well, I guess you could say that…"

Kaito cleared his throat loudly. "Pardon me, but if it's escape plans you're looking for, I'm sure I could be of assistance." He smirked when they all looked at him. It was a KID grin—complete with brand new vampire fangs.

Hattori shuddered. "Dude, stop grinning. Ya look like the freaking Devil."

"So the outside finally matches the inside," Hakuba muttered under his breath.

Hattori turned to stare at him. "My hearin' must be going. I swear Hakuba here just cracked a joke."

"I wasn't joking," the blonde said in a monotone.

Shinichi rolled his eyes at the lot of them. Still, it was good to see that they could still be silly in the face of such unwelcome circumstances.

"I'm sorry. I know you're tired," he said, turning back to Kazuha. "But can you tell us what the Keepers are? They sound important."

The ghost covered a yawn but nodded. "There's not much to say. They're machines like the Watchers, but they're designed for combat. There are a lot fewer of them, but they also seem a lot more intelligent. They come in a lot more shapes and sizes, and some of them even look half organic."

"So like cyborgs?" Kaito asked, indigo eyes narrowed in thought.

"Sort of. Maybe. I don't really know," the girl admitted. "That's just how they look." She yawned again, blinking rapidly.

"You should take a nap," Hattori said, breaking off from his bantering with Hakuba. "We got a few hours at least, right?"

"We will wake you if anything happens," the blonde added.

Kazuha cast another glance towards the window but nodded.

X

Kazuha woke with a yawn. Sitting up—or rather drifting up into an upright position, she looked around. For a moment, she had no idea where she was, and she felt a spike of panic in her chest. But then she noticed the blank television screen and the two hotel beds.

Her fear was washed away by a tide of relief. So all that freakiness had been a dream. She was back in the hotel now, and boy was she going to have a story to tell Ran when the other girl woke up.

But no, wait. Ran wasn't here. In fact, no one was here. The room was empty except for a skeleton lying on one of the beds (honestly, she knew it was Halloween, but there was such a thing as too much decoration). There was a light coming out from under the closed bathroom door though, so there must be someone in there. And were those footsteps coming from above the ceiling? Surely the ceilings weren't that thin.

A rope ladder suddenly came flopping down from above. Kazuha jerked back in surprise. A moment later, Shinichi came climbing down, tail swishing as he did so.

The girl stared at the tail then at the two, furry ears on his head before, once again, realization dawned. No, it hadn't been a dream.

At least the part where she'd found the boys was real.

She couldn't begin to express how terrified she had been when she and Ran had first opened their eyes to this twisted world. She'd been afraid for herself, sure, but she had been even more afraid of the idea that she might never see Heiji or her parents again. For a moment, she had felt like her life—their lives—had ended.

In that hopelessness and dread for the unknown and terrible future, she had almost given up. If it hadn't been for Ran's encouragement and Haruka-san's wit, she felt she might really have lost her mind.

"Kazuha-san, we made a few plans while you were sleeping. Are you ready to go over them?"

The ghost girl nodded. Floating over to the table, she watched with interest as Shinichi lay his notebook down on the table. On it was a partially drawn map.

"I've been trying to keep track of the places we've been. I'm hoping we can create a more comprehensive map that way. Since you can go anywhere, and you seem to know this area pretty well, I was hoping you could help me with filling this out."

The girl nodded. She leaned forward over the notebook. A few wisps of white hair fell forward, almost tickling the pages.

"I can fill out some of the tunnels already," she murmured, tracing a pale finger across the page. "But they change every twelve hours. From what I've seen, there are at least eight configurations."

"We'll just have to make eight maps then," Shinichi reasoned.

Kazuha laughed. "I guess that is the logical thing to do." She reached over to borrow Shinichi's pen, but her fingers passed right through the plastic barrel. Her face fell.

"Can you draw it in your crystal ball?" the detective suggested. "Then I can copy it down."

Kazuha considered this for a moment then waved her ball over. It flew to rest right in front of her. "I haven't tried this before, but I think I might be able to."

As the two worked on the map, the bathroom door opened and out walked a grinning Kaito, a disgruntled Heiji, and a scowling Hakuba.

Both Shinichi and Kazuha turned at the same time to look at them and froze. Shinichi bit his tongue because he knew that, if he didn't, he was going to burst out laughing. Kazuha covered her mouth with her hands, but they could all hear her giggling.

"What—what are you wearing?" she managed to say between chortles.

Hakuba directed his scowl at her. "Kuroba," he said, pronouncing the magician's name like a curse, "imagines that this will help us pretend to be Keepers."

"I used spare parts from those Watchers I dismembered outside," Kaito said, looking rather proud of himself. "Almost didn't get back in time. That whole tunnel just up and vanished! Anyway, what do you think, Miss Kazuha? Does he pass muster?"

Kazuha looked the British detective up and down again. His left arm, torso, and both legs had been wrapped in bulky pieces of purple armor. Strange, metal fixtures that might once have been parts of bat wings stood out to either side of his head like horns or fins or possibly even ungainly, oversized ears. More bits of armor had been stuck together and arranged on his head to make it look like he had a helmet on. And over the whole thing (probably to hide the bits of his own, more normal attire still visible) was a tattered purple cape that had once been the membrane of a metal bat wing.

Kazuha couldn't help it. She laughed. "It might work," she said between gasps for breath. "The Keepers can look pretty much like anything so long as it's largely mechanical. But you can't scowl. They don't show any facial expressions. Ever. I don't think they can feel."

"Maybe you should add a mask," Heiji said, turning to Kaito. "Ya know, the kind that covers the lower half of your face."

Hakuba shot him a venomous glare. "It is difficult enough to move in this ridiculous attire," he bit out. "I do not need something obstructing my breathing as well."

"Fine, fine. Sheesh. Lighten up. You've got the better end of the plan anyway."

"What plan?" Kazuha demanded.

"Well, we can't really call it a plan yet," Kaito told her. "It's more of an idea."


TBC