Disclaimer: I do not own Detective Conan/Case Closed or D.N Angel.
Summary: Meeting with witches and getting kidnapped by artwork definitely hadn't been part of the plan. D.N Angel crossover
Pairings: Kaito x Shinichi (DC) and Daisuke x Riku (DNA)
An Eternal Art
By V. Shalyr
X
A Mortal Life
Preparation for community events was always hectic, and for one as large as the art festival apparently was in this city, it was nothing short of chaos. It seemed as though every shop and school and other organization had turned out to contribute. Even the people working at the police stations had turned out to take part, and it wasn't just for the sake of security.
Shinichi had been shocked when he arrived at work that morning to find the place covered in brightly colored streamers and bedecked with paper flowers. For a moment, he thought Kaito had taken the place over and he scrambled to try and remember if the date belonged to anything special he might have forgotten about. But then he'd caught sight of all his coworkers moving boxes of glittering masks and generally helping with the décor. And even with Kaito's persuasive prowess, he didn't think the magician could get every single person in the office to pitch in like this—or if he had, he didn't think everyone would be looking so excited or cheerful. Normally, when Kaito was done persuading people, they tended to look a bit dazed or perhaps a bit frightened if the magician had been having a bad day.
That was when Ishikawa had told him about the upcoming art festival.
"It's practically the biggest festival of the year," the older detective had explained from beneath a hat that looked like it was drowning under plastic fruits and ribbons.
Noting Shinichi's stare, he laughed sheepishly. "My daughter made this for me. Her school decided to focus on headwear this year."
"So then what exactly are we supposed to be doing?"
"Whatever you want really. You're not on the security staff for this year. So I guess you can think about it like a vacation. If there's some group working on something you're particularly interested in, you can go lend them a hand."
Shinichi took another look around the police station and decided that whatever he did, he was not going to stick around and get dragged into turning the place into a circus.
Of course with Kaito swiftly making himself aware of this world's customs, that simply meant helping with the circus elsewhere instead.
"I thought the performance wasn't going to be until tomorrow."
"It's not," Kaito agreed, "but we still have to make sure the stage is set and all the equipment is working properly. And then I think the rest of the school wants to set up some booths—games and snacks, and that sort of thing. I volunteered to help with that too."
"Why? It looks to me like you've got more than enough on your plate already." Shinichi eyed the stage in front of them. When it came to performances, Kaito always went all out. But Shinichi thought it was going a bit far to build an actual, makeshift lake in the middle of the schoolyard. It looked like it had probably once been a temporary swimming pool only now it had sheets of glass or plastic placed at strategic places so as not to be too conspicuous while providing the actors and actresses places to stand. Shinichi just hoped Kaito had made his students practice enough so that nobody would fall in—and that if anyone did fall in, that the kids all knew how to swim.
"I wanted the whole area around here to match the theme," Kaito explained as though it was the most obvious thing in the world. "And I can't do that easily if I don't have a say in everything."
"And that's why I'm here." Because no matter how good Kaito was, even he couldn't be in two places at once.
"Exactly. I need someone to help that I can rely on to pay attention to the details. You even get to pick where you want to lend a hand."
"Thanks," Shinichi said dryly. Though all the same, "It looks like it should be quite a spectacular performance."
"Not as spectacular as I wanted it to be," Kaito sighed wistfully.
"Yeah?"
"Watch this." Kaito vaulted onto the stage and made a running leap towards the pool. Instead of landing on one of the glass paths as Shinichi had expected, his feet landed with a splash upon the water—and stayed there. Spinning around, Kaito grinned and held his arms out. "See? This would have been so awesome, but I guess it's a lot harder than I thought."
"Do you have invisible wire strung beneath the surface or something?" Shinichi asked, peering at the water that lapped at Kaito's shoes with curiosity.
"Maybe and maybe not. Join me out here and I'll tell you."
"Ah, on second thought, don't we have a lot of work to do?"
Kaito's enthusiasm plus the eagerness of the students proved to be infectious. And really, there was something incredibly satisfying about being part of such a big project. Solving murder cases helped bring people closure. Putting together a beautiful work of art and creating a festival worth remembering made people happy. And he'd learned long ago how important that actually was.
Still, that wasn't to say it wasn't exhausting work.
Early noon found magician and detective standing in line before a food stand that had been set up just outside the school gates. Whatever it was selling, it smelled wonderful.
"I'm a little surprised that you didn't arrange to have your own part in the play. It's unlike you to give up that kind of opportunity." Shinichi mused, stretching and stifling a yawn. He really needed a nap.
Kaito shrugged. "Hey, it's the students' play. I've arranged for my own show afterward."
"That would explain it. A magic show, I presume."
"Naturally."
"Which I am not going to take part in."
"Aww, Shin-chan! You should feel honored! You're the only person in the world that I'd willingly share the spotlight with."
Shinichi snorted. He still had nightmares about last time he had "shared the spotlight" with his evil, conniving partner. But before he could reply, a sharp tug around his neck made him jerk around in surprise.
"Hey!" His hand flew up to his neck only to find the chain that had been there missing. "Kaito! Someone just stole the cross pendant!"
"Already found him," Kaito said grimly. "Wait here."
And he took off, darting into the crowd after the fleeing figure of a small boy. He didn't bother with shouting after the thief. As a not-so-former thief himself, he knew better than anyone how pointless that was. Most thieves would probably just run faster. Instead, not taking his eyes from his target, Kaito chose a faster route—over the tops of people's heads. Ignoring the startled cries he left in his wake, he finally landed in front of the boy, cutting off his escape and grabbing his wrist.
"Hey, I believe you have something that belongs to me." Well, it belonged to Shinichi, but that pretty much amounted to the same thing.
"I don't know what you're talking about!"
"No?" Kaito raised one eyebrow and used his hold on the boy's wrist to turn his hand over and force open his fist. A silver, cross-shaped pendant on a broken chain glittered as it dropped towards the ground only to be snatched from the air by the magician's other hand. "So then what's this? Fancy that, it looks just like the pendant my Shin-chan just lost. I was under the impression it was one of a kind. Mind telling me where you got it?"
The boy opened his mouth to lie, but stopped when he finally met Kaito's eyes. The magician might have been smiling, but his indigo gaze gleamed dangerously in a way any of the officers who had ever chased after KID would have known well. The boy gulped and looked down.
"You can take it. It wasn't my idea to steal it anyway."
"I wasn't asking your permission," Kaito said dryly. "So tell me, whose idea was it?"
"I don't know. She didn't tell me her name. She just gave me some money to get that pendant and throw it in the sea."
She? It didn't necessarily mean anything. There were plenty of "she"s in the city. But Kaito had been around detectives too long to believe in such coincidences.
Damn.
Letting the boy go, Kaito had just begun to turn back towards the spot where he'd left Shinichi when that lightheaded, detached feeling hit. When it finally cleared, everything around him had changed.
He could no longer hear the laughter, shouts, and conversation that had filled the air before. The street, previously overrun with enthusiastic townsfolk, was now completely empty. Well, okay, empty wasn't exactly the right word. Upon closer inspection, Kaito could pick out various birds amongst the discarded decorations. He stared, his mind working to comprehend exactly what it was he was seeing.
Where the street had once been full of people, now it was full of swans.
.
Daisuke had been working alone in one of the classrooms which were being turned into part of a funhouse when the dizziness struck. All the desks had been moved into one of the unused rooms and he had just secured the last mirror to the wall. That was why, when he was finally able to right himself and despite the lack of other people in the room, he noticed exactly what had happened to him right away.
He gaped at the bird in the mirror whose beak hung open in response. He didn't look exactly like a normal swan—there was still some red on the top of his head—but that wasn't the point here.
"Ah! This is terrible! What happened?"
"Don't know, but I have a good guess."
The sound of that voice in his ears and not in his head had the new swan swiveling its head around, startled. "D—Dark? But how?"
The elder thief stood examining his own hands with some interest. Somehow, he and Daisuke had been separated and it appeared the body he now had was very real. It had to be related to the magic that he could feel sweeping over the city, the same, almost unfamiliar twist that had been in the fairytale paintings ever since the arrival of the phantom thief in white.
"I'm guessing you're not the only one who was turned into a swan. It feels like she's making a move on the city itself."
The question was—how were they going to change everyone back.
"Come on, Daisuke, I think we'd better find Kuroba."
.
It was a testament to just how many seemingly impossible things had happened to them over the course of their stay that Shinichi's only real reaction upon discovering that he was suddenly several feet shorter and covered in feathers was a brief thirty seconds of shock. His first impulse was to find Kaito and try to figure out what the hell was going on. And he had hopped and skittered over several meters before he remembered that he had wings now. And really, these short, webbed feet were seriously not designed for running.
Of course, just because he suddenly had wings didn't mean he automatically knew how to use them.
Kaito grunted and staggered back as something white tumbled into his chest. Wrapping his arms around it to prevent whatever it was from colliding with the ground, he straightened and looked down to find himself holding a small sized swan. It didn't seem to mind that he was holding on to it, relaxing against him with an oddly familiar sounding sigh of weariness followed by an annoyed grumble about how flying really shouldn't be this tiring. The wheels turned in Kaito's head and he began to examine the bird more closely.
"Uh, Shin…chan?"
"Who else would it be?" the swan grumbled, ruffling its feathers. "What in the world is she thinking? I thought she wanted to be human?"
"Well, she wasn't having a lot of success getting someone to switch places with, was she? I guess she decided to go for a more straightforward approach."
"What, like hold the entire city for ransom?"
Kaito didn't answer. When Shinichi turned his head to peer questioningly up at him, he suddenly found the magician petting the top of his head, a strange grin plastered across his face. "What?"
"Aww, it's just so cute how you still have some feathers sticking up on the back of your head. Makes you look just like you."
"Kaito…"
"Yeah, yeah, I know. We have more important things to be talking about right now." Sighing in mock resignation, Kaito turned and picked up the cross pendant from the ground where it had landed. "Do you think this can change you back?"
"I don't think so, but it wouldn't hurt to try it."
Reluctantly, Kaito set Shinichi on the ground and took a step back. The chain of the necklace was broken, but he could temporarily fix it with a bit of spare wire. That done, he carefully draped it around the swan's long neck. For a minute, neither of them moved. And then without warning, the bird shuddered and began to keel over.
"Shinichi!" Snatching the necklace off him hurriedly, Kaito sat down and gathered the swan into his lap. Shinichi was shivering violently and his head rested limply in the crook of Kaito's arm. He didn't bother asking if he was all right. Obviously, he wasn't.
"Ugh, and I thought I was tired before," Shinichi groaned, shutting his eyes. "I feel ill."
Not sure what else to do, Kaito tucked the pendant in his pocket and gently stroked the curve of the swan's neck and back. It was a pity the detective hadn't turned into a dove instead. He knew how to work with and take care of doves.
That was how Dark and Daisuke finally found them. Touching down on a clear patch of street, Dark called out, "Hey, you two okay?"
"That depends on your definition of okay," Kaito sighed. Getting to his feet, he cradled Shinichi protectively against him. "We've got some major problems."
"And they're about to get worse," Dark said, inclining his head towards the seaside end of the street. Only there were mountains in that direction now, and as Kaito turned for a better look, his foot splashed in more than an inch of water. Water gushed from the various fountains about the city, overflowing and rushing through the streets. As the water levels rose steadily and swiftly, Dark took to the air again and Kaito made for the nearest roof.
Perched atop a multilevel department store, the magician surveyed the city laid out around them and swore. It reminded him of the city of Venice, or more like a city after a violent and recent flood. Almost all the streets had been submerged beneath several feet of clear, rippling water. The area around the city had changed as well, evidenced by the new mountains where the sea should have been. In the distance, Kaito thought he could see a castle glittering in the sunlight in place of the Modera Museum.
"Welcome to Swan Lake," he muttered. Raising his voice when Dark landed beside him, he continued, "Any idea how the story is working this time?"
Dark started to reply but stopped when the swan with the red crest swooped down about their heads, piping, "It's like one huge lake! And there's this huge swan in the water before the castle—what used to be the museum plaza. I think it might be her."
Dark nodded grimly. "It'll be her all right. And judging from the fact that us thieves are the only people left, either she can't affect us in the same way, wants us the way we are for some reason, or both."
Kaito chuckled darkly. "I say we owe Swan-san a little visit then."
For his part, Shinichi remained quiet as the two phantom thieves made their way towards the castle along their chosen routes above the city. Aside from the fact that he still felt weak—the pendant had pulled quite a lot of energy out of him—he needed time to just think. Below them, he could hear the frantic cries and beating wings of the city's other inhabitants, mixed with occasional honks and loud splashes. He hoped Daisuke's family was taking the change better as they would probably need people with level heads on their shoulders. The redhead had decided to head home for now and check on them.
They had been calling the overarching collective presence of the fairytale paintings "Swan" for awhile now. And Daisuke had just confirmed that in this enchanted city, she wore a form that matched her namesake. It had never occurred to him before now what the implications of that were, what part that meant she now played. No, he didn't like where this line of thought was headed at all.
The massive, silver swan didn't look up as they landed on the front steps of the castle, though she spoke before any of them could open their mouths. "I've been waiting for you. Don't you find my new city beautiful?"
"It could be worse," Kaito said, his posture casual despite the tension Shinichi could sense beneath that façade. "But it could also be better."
"We settle for what we can," she replied, sounding deceptively amiable. "There will no longer be any separation between this world and mine. I should have done this before, but it wasn't exactly what I wanted. Still, I shall make do. And you can't break this spell like you did my other enchantments."
"And why's that?"
Shinichi stirred, lifting his head to regard the silver swan. "Because she's the key character in the fairytale this time."
Which meant that to break the spell on all the swans, someone would have to fall in love with her. Something that was highly unlikely considering the only two people remaining capable of filling that role.
"I wanted to give you a choice, since it will make life easier for me if I don't constantly have to fight you." The silver swan inclined its head towards Kaito at last. "If you promise to leave me and my new world alone from now on, I'll make the necessary arrangements in the story for you to turn your beloved permanently human again. If not," she shrugged her wings and ducked her head down to pull out a few stray, loose feathers, "then I suppose life will have to be difficult for both of us."
"Have you forgotten about me?" Dark interrupted, folding his arms across his chest.
"Of course I haven't, but I assumed the choices available to you were obvious."
She didn't elaborate but she was right and Dark did know what she meant. Though unlike her, he also knew that it would turn out to be no real choice at all. Because he wasn't like her, even though they had come from and were part of the same world, and that made all the difference in the end.
"I'll give you some time to make up your minds."
They left the castle much more slowly than they had arrived, each immersed in their own thoughts. They really needed to just sit down somewhere and try to figure things out. And by silent agreement, it would probably be best to do so at the Niwa residence where they could see if anyone else had ideas to offer.
"What did she mean," Shinichi asked suddenly, peering up at Dark, "by your choices?"
"Oh, that?" The thief folded his wings and dropped down to walk on the roof beside Kaito. "I guess you could say that we're a lot alike, at least in so far as we both originate from powerful works of art. This means that we have some unusual abilities, but it also means that we're bound by certain limitations."
"The whole family bloodline curse thing."
"Exactly. Usually, I'm not able to move around freely on my own like this."
To have their own lives, be able to really make their own choices, go where they wished… Well, it was a wonderful dream if you didn't care about the sacrifices and consequences it had for the people around you. But Dark wasn't one of those people and had no intention to start now.
"Though she was wrong to call it a choice, not when I already made my decision before the choice was even an option."
"I see."
Because a life that you had to exchange others for would never really be your own.
.
Finding the Niwa house had proved slightly more difficult than they originally anticipated as almost all the buildings had been changed by the magic of Swan Lake. Upon reflection, this was probably a good thing. At least if—when—they managed to return everything to normal, the inhabitants wouldn't have to worry about water damage. In the end, they recognized their destination by the collection of swans gathered upon the balcony, which was now twice its previous size and attached to an entire complex of buildings that had probably once been their neighborhood.
Dropping onto the railing then down onto the new balcony floor, Kaito counted a grand total of seven swans not including the one in his arms. Well, it wasn't like there was any point at the moment in trying to keep secrets. And with the exception of Saehara—he was pretty sure the swan with the camera still hanging from around its neck was him—everyone present had already been involved in one way or another.
It seemed that some explanations were in order.
"I can't be stuck as a swan for the rest of my life!" The swan with the camera flapped its wings in agitation, hopping from foot to foot. Kaito was inclined to laugh at the sight, except that it didn't seem quite appropriate to the moment. "How am I supposed to be a great reporter if I'm a bird? Nobody's going to listen to a bird."
"Well, it means you can probably get into places you wouldn't otherwise have been able to, and move faster too once you've mastered how to fly."
"How can you say that, Daisuke? You can't honestly be okay with this."
"Well, no, of course not. I just wanted to look on the bright side."
"So then," Riku cut in thoughtfully, "does that mean we'll all turn human once night falls?"
"Guess we'll have to wait and see."
"A bit of focus here please," Kaito said, raising his voice slightly. It felt strange to be the direct one, but then that was the problem with working in large groups. "In case you haven't noticed, Swan-san has oh-so-graciously left us with very few options here."
"What about the cross pendant?" Shinichi suggested. "If we can find an opportunity to put it on her, it might weaken her enough for the Swan Lake painting to be sealed."
"Maybe," Dark said, but he sounded doubtful. "I'm not sure if that will work though. Last time we tried, her magic mixed with Kuroba's repelled mine as long as a story was still in progress."
"Meaning," Shinichi sighed, "that we really don't have any viable options at all."
"For now," Kaito reminded them, feeling the need to express some optimism in the face of such depressing conclusions. "We have a few days to make up our minds. If we keep our eyes and ears open, I'm sure we'll come up with some solution that we can all live with."
"Looks like that's all we can do for the moment."
TBC…
.