Chapter IX

Days 5-6: Nine and Eight Days Ago

Naru's tea was still warm at the time that narcissist got back to base. Apparently, Kaito's entire testimony could fit in the space of a sticky note, a sticky note which he didn't show me.

The narcissist asked me a few questions I couldn't answer about Kaito, then sent me to go ask him about his father, magic, what treasure is, and to discreetly ask about immortality and eternal youth as well. I could only assume that these things related to the thief's testimony.

When I reached the thief's cell, Kaito already seemed to know why I was there. "Your boss told you to come talk to me, didn't he?"

I admitted it. "Well yes, but I didn't need much prompting to come talk to you anyway. I mean, you haven't seen the ones you care most about in over a decade, have you? And Inspector Nakamori doesn't usually have the most sympathetic ear."

Kaito sighed and stared at the ceiling. "Of course I miss them, but there are things that matter more than moving on. If I tell you guys what's up, people are going to get killed."

"Why?"

"Because some people," the ghost said with disgust, "will sacrifice anything to get what they think they want."

"Money?" I asked. Kaito just sent a smile my way.

But then I remembered, "No, Lin said that gemstone was magic."

Kaito sat up. "What gemstone?" he asked.

"You were looking for a certain gemstone, weren't you?" I asked. "Even though you told Inspector Nakamori that human relationships meant more than any other treasure."

The ghost grew uncharacteristically serious. "What gemstone, Mai?"

I gulped. Kaito was scary when he wanted to be. "I – I had another vision last night."

After that, Kaito made us move to the roof for a more private conversation. "You said you had another vision, Mai? What trouble did it get you in now? You already had something to keep silent about."

I held my arms around myself in a vain attempt to get the goosebumps that covered them to go away. "That gemstone I mentioned, Mirin-san said they beat you to it."

"WHAT? Did they really beat me to it?"

I nodded and the ghost cursed. "Humans were not meant to be that way."

"It really looks like it. Lin did say there was a price for immortality and eternal youth. I mean, just look at Detective Kudou."

The ghost was silent for a moment. Then he asked in a tone that was purely confused. "Why would Kudou become immortal?"

"Um, he didn't mean to," I answered. "It looks like Mirin-san slipped some of Pandora's tears into some of the batches of Apotoxin. Kudou must have gotten a pill from one of those batches. You, on the other hand, Mirin-san must have made sure to give you a pill from a batch that would actually kill you."

"So that's how Kudou ended up like that, huh? Poor guy."

"You probably still know more about his situation than we do though. I mean, you did cover up for him yesterday, so he probably told you that he doesn't want anyone to know he's immortal."

"Not exactly," Kaito said. "Although he's definitely noticed he's not aging, I don't think he knows he's immortal – I covered up for him because he convinced me that he is still alive, and he thinks that Mirin-san's organization will come kill him if anyone finds out he survived. If he knew he's immortal, I don't think he'd be so scared of being killed."

"In other words, you were trying to save his life, even though he's your enemy. Or are you truly enemies? I mean, you act a lot different about him than about Mirin-san's group."

Kaito chuckled. "The two of us? Enemies? Still? I'm glad that's not true. We're not anything less than allies now, which gives me reason to worry about him."

"Speaking of which..." The ghost was serious again. "If Mirin-san was willing to risk giving Pandora's tears to the enemy just to get Sherry-san in trouble, what do you think the chances are that she knows another way to silence the Apotoxin victims? Kudou could still be in trouble if you guys blabbed."

My breath caught. "Yesterday, Lin said that Detective Kudou can still be killed by anyone else who's taken Pandora's tears."

The ghost's eyes widened slightly. "Do you guys think Mirin might have drunk some of the tears herself or something like that?"

"It didn't come up."

Kaito cursed loudly. "Did Lin-san say anything about reversing Pandora's curse? I think I can successfully break the news to Kudou that he and possibly some of his enemies are immortal, but I would love some good news to go along with it."

I shook my head. "Hey, Kaito, if you consider immortality a curse, why were you looking for Pandora?"

"You need to know my motive as Kid, huh?" Kaito speculated. "Well, since you've already gotten me to tell you the dangerous part after all, I should tell you so you can report back to your boss, right? I learned that my father had been killed because he was the original Kid, and the men who had killed him had done it because he was a threat to their getting Pandora. I decided that I was going to become Kid to lure those guys into the open and to get to Pandora before them and destroy it so that no one else could be torn away from their loved ones over that stupid hunk of rock."

A gasp escaped from my lips before I knew it. "Oh, Kaito!"

Kaito reached over and wiped tears from my eyes. "If anyone should be crying over this, it's me, not you. I'm the only one who failed here, and because of that I've gotten the ones close to me killed, the detective I respected even back then cursed, and a few ghost hunters stuck with a terrible knowledge to keep quiet about for the sake of their lives."

"But there must be something that can still be done!"

"There is," Kaito agreed. "I failed, but I'm not finished. Kudou, Hattori, and I are doing what we can to take that organization down."

"I'll help too!"

"You can help by not becoming a casualty." The magician spoke firmly.

"But that doesn't help anyone!"

"Then keep Kudou's secret and keep passing any information you get on to only the few of us who can be trusted. That is helping, and it's all you can really do, isn't it? Promise me that's all that you'll try to do."

I broke off contact with Kaito's intense gaze. "I promise."

"Good. I should let you report back to your boss."

"Okay, but Kaito?"

The ghost paused. "Yes?"

"Kaito, if you need a listening ear, you are welcome any time. I don't want this to be just about the case. I mean, we're friends, right?"

"Yeah, that's right," he admitted. "See you later, Mai."

Hattori and Kudou returned the next morning, Kudou still acting like a hyper little kid. "Good morning!" he called as he tried to run past us. "I'm going to go play with Kaito-nii-san!"

But Naru picked him up by the back of his shirt as though he really were just a hyper little kid. "Not so fast," he told the small detective. "There's something you should know about."

With the look that flashed across Kudou's face, I could almost imagine Naru having grabbed a full-sized man by the back of his shirt and chewing him out that way. My eyebrow twitched. I was about to tell him off when Lin beat me to it.

"Naru!" he scolded. "What did I tell you yesterday?"

Kudou blinked and looked at Lin. "I thought Lin-san didn't like kids?"

No one replied to Kudou's observation, unless Hattori's laughter counted as a response. I sighed. "Naru, don't you think Kaito has more chance of getting through to him about it than we do?"

"I was hoping to tell him at the same time we tell his friend here who's been helping him."

Hattori took that as his cue to walk over to us. "What's dis all about anyway?"

"Mai had another vision last night."

"In dat case, no offense, but dis guy would believe a certain dead dief he used ta chase over a bunch of ghost hunters. I, on da oder hand, would be interested in what yas' have ta say."

Kudou glared at Hattori from his position dangling by his shirt. "Oi, you still believe these guys?"

Hattori shrugged. "I'll hear 'em out. Ya should go talk ta Kid 'bout dat proposal." He looked Naru dead in the eyes. "Shibuya-kun, ya should put 'im down now."

Kudou ran off the second Naru finally put him down. "Proposal?" Naru echoed.

"Kid told Kudou yesterday dat he wants ta work together ta catch da guys dat poisoned da both of 'em. Anyway, ya was sayin' somethin' 'bout another vision?"

Despite what he'd said to Kudou, Hattori was open about believing my vision this time.

Only a few minutes after I finished telling Detective Hattori my vision, Kudou burst in with a madly determined look on his face. He spoke immediately to Lin. "You're Lin-san, right? Tell me how to reverse the curse on me!"

"If reversing it's possible, it won't be easy."

"If it's possible?"

"There is no record of anyone reversing Pandora's curse on anyone. The most likely method of reversing your curse is to obtain the usually well-guarded Pandora gemstone and then using a high amount of psychic energy to destroy it, but for some curses, even destroying the source of the curse won't reverse it. However, there is a known way to get out of Pandora's curse."

"I thought you said it might be irreversible?"

Lin nodded. "If you used the known method, you'd be dead rather than mortal again. The only known way of getting out of Pandora's curse is to die at the hands of one of its victims."

Hattori jumped up. "If ya think it might be reversible, we're willing to try, right Kudou?"

"Yeah." Kudou was smirking in a way that made him look more than a bit touched. He turned toward the doorway, where we saw Kuroba standing. "Can you do it?" he asked.

"I'll need your help to leave this prison even short-term, but find where Pandora is and I can follow you to the place. I don't think I can destroy it though."

"Then that would mean our best bet of finding a source of psychic energy large enough to destroy it is..." Kudou's grin grew a bit bigger as he regarded us as a whole. "What would it take to hire you guys to make sure that stone's destroyed?"

I quickly looked at Naru, suddenly getting the feeling this wasn't going to end well.

Naru replied easily to Kudou, "If Kuroba-san here can't move on until Pandora's destroyed, we've already been hired."

"Brilliant!"

Lin stood up to stare our boss down. "Naru! We don't have the resources to destroy something like that!"

"I do," Naru replied simply.

"Naru, don't do it!" I cried.

But the narcissist simply shot me a look. "If Pandora fell into yakuza hands ten years ago, Mai, that stone is long overdue to be destroyed. I'll do it. I am of legal age, after all. Besides, I'll be fine."

Kudou, Kuroba, and Hattori all smirked. "Welcome ta da team fer dis operation," Hattori said. "I guess dis only leaves da matter of findin' Pandora's last known location and tracin' it from dere."

"Wait, Hattori!" Kudou hissed. "Have they been sworn into secrecy about my secret? If the Black Organization finds out about this, we'll all be killed!"

Lin and I still attempted to change Naru's mind after we swore not to breath a word about Kudou's situation, but he was being too stubborn to back down. In the end, it was Lin and I who gave up. Lin retreated to his laptop while Naru and the detectives dragged me off to question me about the lab's basic size and layout and such, with Kaito tagging along and asking a few questions about security here and there.

I was grudgingly impressed when the detectives figured out which era the lab would have had to be constructed in through something they called building codes. Then, finally Hattori's eyes flashed alight with one very helpful insight.

"Hey, Kudou, did dat lid'l nee-san ever tell ya dat she couldn't use public transportation after she took her own pill? Seein' as how she wouldn't've been able ta use her own vehicles either, she must've walked from her lab to ya's house. Since ya's da one who was familiar with Tokyo ten years ago, do ya know of any places like dat?"

Kudou's expression mirrored the one his friend had had moments before and a smirk eased itself onto his face. "So it's that place, huh? It's still around, and it's probably still being used by them too."

Not that I wanted to go with them to a place that was probably a yakuza base, but I was annoyed by the way the detectives left me and Naru out of the loop. I stood up shaking to stop them from running off to somewhere like that with only Kaito to keep them out of trouble, but Naru stopped me. "No, Mai, they need to do this, and we can't help them with it. Besides, Hara would find it odd if we stopped Officer Yagi's exorcism over this."

"But..."

"They're among the few people who actually have a shot at succeeding. Anyone else would be a liability."

I wasn't happy, but I couldn't do anything about it but worry.