Chapter 10: Magic

There were only ten minutes or so of the extra hour left. The girl, Akako, demanded they wait them out before there was any further conversation. Amuro had grown angry, either being restrained or ignored, and tore hard at his bindings, black blood dropping onto the floor where they cut into him.

Conan waited while Akako focused on keeping him still, all of them having to put up with his shouting as he tired himself out, animal noises emanating from his throat now and then.

Then the hour was gone, as if it had never been there. Color returned, even to Amuro, and the man simply fell to the floor, making Conan wince as the sound of his head hitting the bathroom tile.

He was hurt and tired but he found himself going over to him, checking his pulse and the blond's injuries. There were some pretty nasty wounds on his wrists that Conan hurried up and bandaged. Besides some deep bruising and faint piecing, his stomach didn't look nearly as bad as Conan feared it would.

The wounds themselves didn't worry him much after he tended to him. What worried him was that Amuro wasn't waking up.

Conan stood and turned to Kid and his friend. He had to guess this was the person that Kid hadn't wanted him meeting. Considering all that happened, he was grateful, but he was more than a little curious. "What's wrong with him?"

Akako laughed, her long dark hair moving more fluidly in this time, as if there were a breeze. "He was just possessed by a Darkling and you're asking me what's wrong with him? How simple are you?"

"Hey," Kid spoke up. "I have no idea what all of that was either."

Akako sighed. "Has the world of magic completely left the minds of everyone on earth? It revolves so strongly around several of you here and yet you can't see it. I'd call you blind fools if you understood how blind you actually are."

"I need ta sit down." Hattori wavered, Kid still holding him up with an arm over his shoulder. "Kin we talk in the other room?"

Kid nodded and helped the Osakan to one of the beds. Conan spared another glance at Amuro before leaving him where he was. He was too heavy for him to carry.

Once Hattori was sitting, Kid seemed to take it upon himself to make sure none of them were bleeding too badly. Conan had seen the thief act similarly around wounds before, but this seemed a habit. He wondered how often such a pacifist was faced with blood. Once both of them were in beds and checked over, Hattori laid out on his and in more than a little pain. Besides some cleaning up and a wet cloth with cold water on some of their more serious injuries, there was nothing they could do to care for themselves here.

"Where to start…" Akako mumbled to herself, sitting up on the dresser. "I suppose the Darklings are a good place. How much do any of you know about them?"

Conan shrugged. "They wanted Amuro-san because he was a 'see-er'. Before this week I didn't know anything like this could exist."

"Because they usually don't interact with our world. They are not from a different one, not like you're thinking, but they are of a different reality than our own. These realities, for the most part, do not interact. Sometimes you get a few anomalies, what with ours and theirs being so close to one another." She held her hands up and put them together as if praying. "Think of it as we are both sharing the same world, but the planes of existence themselves do not touch. Every now and then something big happens in one of our realities and will 'tear', for lack of a better word, a bit of the other. We are close enough that we can affect one another in this way."

"This sounds like something out of a sci-fi novel," Conan commented dryly.

It seemed to irk Akako, who shut up and gave him a glare that had Conan wanting to take back his words. After a few seconds of tense staring she eased up. "Again, most of the time our worlds do not interact. Besides anomalies, there are two other ways that one of us can affect the other. The first, since you apparently need the primary school version of this, is through Magi, witches, shamans - whatever you want to call any person, such as myself - who can call on powers beyond their own. While we're unsure how we can do what we can while other humans cannot, it's a common belief that our ancestors used to be from that other plane, giving us our own types of abilities that have mutated over the years."

Hattori raised his hand. "What 'bout me? I never had powers or whatever ya call these visions I get sometimes 'till I was bit. It wasn't like it was in that time so…"

"You were tainted, that was all. Anyone with a taint from that other reality will be compelled to return to it. Since we can't do that, as humans, what just happened results instead. It's a time when we are in their world, temporarily. It is not ours. I had to taint myself briefly just to get transported to it. Midnight, the changing of the day, is something that humans devolved as a dividing point. Thus, it became the weakest point between our planes. It is the start and the end of the day. Why we're only connected for a limited time, no one knows. Likely because we wouldn't survive any longer."

Conan liked having all this new information but it was hard to get his mind around and he was hurt and tired. The professor would be here shortly and he didn't know what to do about that. For now he could wait and hopefully leave things to him. "How did we get tainted if we were never part of that plane to begin with?" Conan found that part the most confusing, and it would answer Hattori's question that she had glossed over as well.

"Sometimes people or animals slip in. Once tainted, you can spread it. The only way to do that though is through blood. It's hard and it's rare, but it happens." Akako shrugged. "I don't now what happened with all of you suddenly being tainted aside from the fact that someone is being a vague about it as possible."

Akako and Kid shared a look, one glaring and the other one looking like they were completely innocent of any wrongdoing. He had to wonder if the thief always used that look on people when there was clearly mischief in his eyes.

"I feel like throwin' up. Any way we can hold off on this a bit an' get the guy who doesn't need the bathroom out 'a there so I kin have it?"

"Sure, if you help me." Kid shifted and went over to the bathroom, looking pretty pale himself. Conan felt just fine. He watched the two of them drag out the blond man and lay him as comfortably as possible on the floor outside the bathroom while the door shut and Kid returned. Conan kept his eyes on Amuro.

"So, what's going to happen to him? He was attacked but shouldn't he be fine now?"

Akako smiled, the kind you would give a ten year old who just asked how babies are made. There was some humor there and more than a little superiority. "He wasn't just attacked, he was changed. Remember what I told you about the taint?"

She had just told him a few seconds ago and it wasn't as if he could forget. She wasn't looking for an answer either, as she continued, only trying to show off how obvious her explanation should be.

"When Darklings take hold of us, the way they did with him, they change us. There are some humans out there, walking around like mindless puppets. Most of the time they wind up in mental hospitals." She let out a breath. "Let's go back further so you can understand this. Darklings are old creatures, older than the world itself, which simply found an existence they could sustain when our planet was first created. I'm sure if you look into this yourself you can come across esoteric beliefs and others that have come into contact with them before. They've changed, as we have, and though they existed before any known record, they do age and they do die, just like we do. We're not sure how old some of them are but most fade away within a decade or so and never become very powerful."

"Their existence, was it always separate from our own?"

Akako nodded. "It had to be. They don't live the way we do. If you've noticed, most of their reality is comprised of ours, even if we cannot touch them. It is symbiotic relationship besides our own. There is no other way I can explain it any better than I already have."

"Right." Conan wasn't looking for that far in the past anyway. He wanted to understand the danger he was facing right now. If they had changed over time, comparing them to how the other 'plane' used to be would share as many similarities as he could compare himself to a dinosaur. "And Amuro-san?"

"They don't eat. They don't have to. What they do is absorb. Our energies are placed in things we've touched, places we've been. It reflects into their world and they survive off of it. They can take it directly from us though if we invade their plane. What that Darkling did was similar. It didn't only take though, it warped. It tainted as it stole. It made your friend one of them, any humanity in him fighting against it. We clash, like vinegar and water. One can't simply exist beside the other. When it tainted him and took over, it had to force him out first. Your friend fought back or he wouldn't still be in our plane." She looked over at the blond, some pity in her now purple eyes. "They are much stronger beings than us though. It had been right when it said that he wouldn't last another night or two."

"So he's… not human anymore?" Conan was confused, and more than a bit afraid that he had lost him and he hadn't even known it.

Akako tipped her head back and forth slightly. "He's in-between right now, part human and part Darkling – at least, for the next twenty-four hours or so."

"And what can we do to help him?"

Akako laughed. "Help him? He's tainted, fully. You looked pretty close to it yourself. At little more and you'll become a Darkling too. There is no 'stopping' it, not unless you can remove the taint, and I can't do that. I'm a Magi, not a healer." She looked thoughtful though. "I can't see a way your friend can overpower the being that he's becoming. There might be a way but I never liked to touch that other plane, not this close. It's dangerous. Summoning them to our world, where they can't exist without our power, is safer."

"Hey, Akako-san," Kid waved his hand at her, still leaning on the wall near the bathroom. "If there's a way to stop all of us from being 'tainted'," Kid actually air-quoted the word. "Then wouldn't that be able to help him get his sanity back? Not that I care that much." Kid looked from the blond to Conan and he had to put his hand to his face, remembering the last time the two of them were near each other. They both hadn't known who the other was and Kid had almost wound up dead.

"That was my fault. Don't blame him. A lot happened since then."

"In a few days?" Kid rolled his eyes, folding his arms and leaning back. "I shouldn't be that surprised, considering it is you."

Conan had nothing to defend against that with. A lot of stuff did happen around him, even when he didn't want it to. "Speaking of which, why are you here? I thought you had plans."

Kid shrugged and looked at Akako. "Someone can see the future and apparently it was better I be here than not."

That sounded like what Hattori could do. He looked over at Akako, seeing if he'd get an explanation, but the girl said nothing, finding it more worth her time to pick under her fingernail and keep all her secrets to herself.

"Okay then," Conan said, letting out a breath. "Back to Kid's question then. If we can get healed, won't Amuro's human side be able to take over again?"

"Maybe, maybe not. I'm not well versed on healing but I do know you're looking at this the wrong way. You're thinking of it as a disease, which isn't too far from the truth, but it can't be healed the same way." She thought for a second before speaking again. "You at least know of ghost stories, and possessions. It's more like that. Comparatively though, it's a cat taking on a horse. We're not nearly as old or strong so, while we can run around the hooves, sooner or later the horse will kill the cat and there's nothing the cat can do besides claw and bite and do very little damage."

Conan had to think of what he could do. He didn't have anything to fight against supernatural beings like this that, last week, he didn't even know were out there. It looked like doing anything about the portal wouldn't help but she hadn't brought it up and neither had he. He was more worried about what was in front of him right now. "What do you suggest we do then?"

"You, personally, should find a healer and fast. You're not all here yourself. I was worried that, like him, you'd be half trapped in that other plane. Any more taint and you'll lose your sanity as well." Akako strummed her fingers on her leg and looked at Kid. "You're blacker than I'd like too and you weren't in a fight, so I want to know what happened. The one being sick right now should get himself healed with the both of you. The man is already trapped. There's nothing you can do for him."

Kid didn't seem to like that idea anymore than Conan did and their expressions were likely what made Akako pause and let out a heavy breath. "I'm serious. He's too far gone. Come tomorrow he'll never exist on this plane. He wasn't eaten, and if he was that would be just as hopeless a fight."

"Let's start over then." Kid smirked and walked over to her. "A healer. You're not one but I'm pretty sure you know of one."

"Just one, yes. I found them recently, though I doubt they could help you."

"It's worth a try. Who?"

Akako pointed to Kid. "You."

The thief's eyes widened. "Come again?"

"Healers aren't like Magi, they don't possess the ability to cast spells the way we do. In fact, they do more the opposite. They remove spells and other things that are harmful. For the longest time I was so confused as to why my magic wasn't working on you. It occurred to me some time after last month to check into it. It's why I haven't been trying anything. Even I'm not willing to play a losing game."

Kid looked at his hands and frowned. "But I'm tainted too. If I was a healer, wouldn't that have gone away as well?"

Akako shrugged. "Maybe you didn't want it to. Healers have an innate sense of choosing the right path, even when they don't know they've wandered into a maze. I'm sure even you've noticed you've had more than any human's share of good luck."

Kid looked thoughtfully at his hand, as if he could see something that wasn't there. Conan had to think back on the squirrels the other day. He'd touched them too and hadn't been more tainted. Kid wasn't the reason for that though… was he? That didn't seem possible. Contact in the past hadn't always tainted them in any case. It seemed more like blood was a catalyst.

"How can I heal us then?"

"You have to want to first, and I don't think you do. You and 'new shiny things' seem to be attracted to one another. Once the taint is gone, you'll no longer be able to go into their plane. Second, I have no idea how healers use their magic aside from it streaming from their desires. You'd have to ask a healer about that and you're the only one I've met in a very long time."

"Can I do it in our time?"

"Sure, why not? It's not like it's not still there. We just can't see it. The taint becomes a part of someone once it's attached, holding them to the other plane and becoming invisible here. I can take care of that though, if you want a visual. You'll have to give me ten minutes or so to get ready."

Kid nodded. Conan wasn't sure he wanted to disconnect himself from that plane, not before he understood why they were connected to begin with, but staying a part of it and in danger didn't seem like it would help much either. Conan looked up, seeing Kid was staring at him while Akako had turned to fiddle with the drawers, looking for something. "What?"

"Your friend from the professor's. I want to try this out but I don't want to heal someone completely, like you, and be screwed if I need your help come midnight. Do you think she'd mind being a test subject? I have no idea what I'm doing."

Conan would like it if Haibara were out of that time. The professor he wanted to keep with him, just in case they needed his power, but Haibara had already been a part of way too much that could put her in danger. "She should be. I can call her. I know she's not asleep."

Kid nodded and sat down at the foot of his bed while Conan took out his phone, looking at the blond. Conan waited for Haibara to pick up, calling the professor after and asking him to pick her up from Ayumi-chan's, before looking back at the thief who was clearly waiting for him to finish. It only took a second for Conan to notice, at this proximity, how close the shade of blue their eyes were to one another. "Your friend over there. If intent matters, I think you're going to have to tell me the whole story behind him. I don't mind wanting to save his life, but I have a feeling I'm going to need a little more than that."

Conan had just found out about Amuro a few days ago. He didn't want Kid knowing more than he already did. If it weren't for the disguise, he was sure the thief would already have been on their hit list and dead. He let out a breath and closed his eyes. "Fine. You have a point. Just don't repeat this to anyone else."

…

Hattori was sitting on the floor with him, still pale and sickly but no longer needing to stick to the toilet. Conan was watching Kid, trying not to get in his way, as the thief stood beside the bed with Haibara, facing one another while Akako drew a circle around them.

"Keep in mind, you can't really do any harm. As a healer, all you'll be able to do is remove anything harmful."

Conan hadn't thought about that at all before Akako said it and his eyes widened, making her stop drawing the circle. "Ah, wait a minute. Even physical things?"

"Yes." The witch tipped he head to the side with a smirk. "Something wrong with that?"

"It's intent too. I'm not an idiot." Kid smiled to him. "Don't worry about it."

Conan wasn't worried, not really. He was intrigued. For Haibara, it wasn't a possibility. For himself though… that opened so many doors if Kid could actually do it. He backed off, thinking on those thoughts. If Kid could affect their own world just the same, he didn't need Haibara then. He could be himself, after a while of course. He wouldn't just jump to have his own body back when there were killers out there looking for them, but this was a sure fire way at a cure.

"Stop thinking thoughts that will get us killed or I'll break this circle right now and make sure you're not thinking them again."

Conan met Haibara's glare with an innocent one of his own. He wasn't about to do it right now and she knew that. Besides, Kid had no idea what he was doing. He was sure it would take the thief some time to get used to this.

Haibara gave up trying to reason with him with her eyes and turned back to Kid. "And you had better not get me killed either." She didn't question how he likely knew about her predicament as well, what with Conan's reaction. He was sure the thief did some looking into them a while ago and missing records was a good indication that they were in the same boat, so to speak.

"Like I said, all Akako-san knows is that it relies on intent. I wouldn't do that to you, especially not with you saying straight to my face that you don't want me to. I know how to treat girls." He bent down on a knee, taking her hand in his and kissing the back of it. "I'll respect your wishes."

Haibara pulled her hand back but Conan thought he saw her blush. He was distracted from it by Akako standing up and dusting off her hands. "There. Now if you'll just give me one more moment." She reached down and touched the circle. Conan watched as it glowed red all of a sudden, the white powder that was likely flour suddenly alight like a neon light. In the red glow Conan could suddenly see even his own black marks. He looked his hands over, realizing how much of his skin had turned black.

Kid's and Haibara's were harder to see. Kid was wearing a lot of clothes and he was sure it was hiding his own marks. Haibara's he'd never seen, though he couldn't be sure Kid hadn't as he turned her around gently and lifted the back of her sleeve, near her shoulder.

"Can you at least give me a hint of what I have to do?"

"You're a medicine man and your tools are your fingers. I'd take the gloves off first. The rest, like I said, I have no idea. If you can do it without touch, I haven't seen it done that way."

Kid nodded, taking off one of his gloves. Pale skin touched the black markings that dotted her skin and the thief almost examined the markings that way for a few seconds.

Then something weird happened. The thief's hand seemed to glow where it came in contract with the skin and Kid's eyes unfocused. After running his fingers over her shoulder a few more times he let her go and the light at his fingertips faded. He stared at her a while, then at Akako. "Did I do it?"

"I think so. You got ride of the mark and it didn't feel like you hid it. I'd say it's gone. We'll know for sure tonight." She nodded towards Conan who raised an eyebrow. "I'd do him as well. He's so close to losing it that I doubt he can even tell."

"The circle?" Kid asked, afraid to cross it.

"Just don't' step on it and break it. I can keep up the light but it will only be that. You're going to lose all the focus I was helping you with."

"That's fine." Kid stepped out of the light and Conan saw him almost stumble and break it until he was beside him and bending down as well. Conan twitched when the thief's too warm fingers were on his arm and tracking over the dull blackness there.

"Don't worry, I won't get rid of all of it… unless you want me to."

Conan shook his head. "She might not know how to help but I'm sure someone out there can help. I just haven't found them yet. You are a good start."

Kid smirked, his eyes falling out of focus again as Conan watched the white light take away the marks. "I am. This worked well enough for the girl and it seems to be working for you. I can try it on him, if you want me to."

Conan hadn't thought he'd need to ask. Kid didn't seem like he wanted an answer either, just some sort of confirmation that that was the best course of action. Conan saw no other option, so that made it the only one. "If you can't do it, I won't blame you." Kid seemed just as new to all of this as he was, though his friend wasn't.

"You first." Kid frowned, his eyes still looking like they were seeing something else. "Do you feel that?"

Conan raised an eyebrow. "Feel what? Your fingers?"

"No." Kid tapped him and Conan felt like someone had just stolen his breath from him for a seconds. "That."

"I didn't before you did that." He shifted, putting a hand to his chest and making sure he wasn't breathing abnormally. "What was that?"

"I told you, you were close to getting changed too." Akako was behind Kid, a dark crimson figure, seeming demonic compared to the white clad thief. "Cleansing you might hurt, and I don't mean just one of you."

Kid let out a breath. "Will I do any serious harm to him?"

"I'm not sure. Considering he wasn't changed, I doubt it. You'll both be sore and out of it for the next hour or two. When's the last time you ate?"

Kid smirked and turned away from him for a moment. "You're worried about my eating habits?"

"No, your energy. Just answer my question."

Kid shrugged. "Eight or so last night. I snack when I'm pulling an all-niter though. I had something around ten or eleven, before you stopped me from going out."

"Your fine. Just make sure if you pass out you finish what you start first. This is going to be new, to both of you, since I haven't been able to influence you." She smirked. "Have fun."

Kid rolled his eyes and turned back to him. "I'm going to pull this off. It's going to be hard not to take all of it. This feels like… like it's connected to everything that's kind of messing with your body. It's hard to explain. Like I said though, I'll try. If it hurts, I'm not going to stop."

"That's fine." If Akako had a way to even taint herself for a short period of time, he was sure he could get the method from her even if he lost his ability to go to that other plane again.

Kid flinched as he touched him again and Conan had to wonder if this was going to be like ripping off a band-aid. He didn't have much time to think on it, only feel something stab him in the chest when Kid pulled, a lot harder this time, and he must have blacked out.

…

"Hey! Hey!"

Conan was being shook. He opened his eyes to Hattori, apparently holding him since he couldn't feel the carpet below him. The Osakan let out a breath, relaxing. "Good, yer okay."

"Yeah." He had a headache that could have easily knocked him back out again but he felt fine otherwise as he put his hand up to his head. "What happened?"

"Dunno. Ya just kinda blacked out and Kid started sounding like somethin' was hurtin' 'im or something." Hattori helped him sit up and Conan could see the thief, now that he wasn't facing the ceiling, clear on the other side of the room and half curled up on himself and shaking. "Weren't more than a few minutes or so. Dunno what's wrong with him."

Akako sighed. "That's because you're an idiot. He's an untrained healer that just had to pull a bunch of taint to himself and not worsen his own condition. That meant destroying it complete, which isn't hard. He just tried doing too much as once. I'm sure it hurt like hell." She sounded like she couldn't care less but Conan's hard eyes, when he turned them on her, saw some regret there. He got up, feeling a little unsteady on his legs, and went over to him.

"Hey." Conan was afraid to touch the thief, not sure if he was hurt in some physical way or if he'd scare him. "Are you okay?"

Kid had his fingers digging into his own arms, his eyes closed tight and turned from him as much as he could be. The words seemed to ease some of the tension but the thief otherwise didn't move. Conan wasn't sure if it was the shaking or if the thief was nodding to him.

"Give him a few minute. Taint, in our time, translates different. In theirs, it's a manifestation of their being. As I said, they are creatures that steal our energy, our emotions, anything we leave behind that we don't need that we expand anyway. When that taint is touched in our reality it becomes something hungry, like a maggot on an old piece of meat. It hurts because we have to tear it away so forcefully."

Conan nodded, though he didn't really understand. It took Kid a full fifteen minutes to get himself back together enough that he was able to sit up and smile at them again, some tremors still there.

Conan shook his head and let out a breath through his nose, looking at Amuro. If it had hurt Kid so much just to get rid of his own taint – or most of it, if the thief had been able to leave any behind – helping Amuro might very well destroy the thief. He wasn't ready to risk one life for another, not when the chances were this bad.

"I'm sorry." Kid closed his eyes and continued to rest. "I'll try again later but not right now."

"That's alright." He wasn't going to say that the thief was probably the man's only chance but it was very much looking like that was and he was sure that Kid knew it.