Chapter Nine:

Hunt for the Blue Mushroom

"GAH!" Kaito exploded in irritation, his chest heaving as he leaned back against a moss coated tree; his forehead bathed in sweat, glistening beneath the ever-present sun. "Why do we have to hike five hours on a freaking mountain for a stupid little mushroom?!"

Hakuba sighed, leaning against another nearby tree; his breathing was just as hard as the thief's, but he seemed oddly at peace about the entire situation, replying to the complaint in a calm and somewhat patronizing tone.

"I do believe if we wish to become normal again, our part in finding a temporary cure was to locate and retrieve this particular blue mushroom, only found somewhere on this godforsaken mountain."

The thief ignored the tone and instead turned his irritation on the woman responsible for their current task, since he had no one else to huff at and she deserved it, no doubt. He couldn't help but think she had sent them out partly to get the mushroom and partly, just to make them suffer. Himself specifically.

"That stupid…evil…cunning…irritating…thief abusing…"

Hakuba just rolled his eyes as the thief continued to ramble under his breath for a while before finishing quite passionately with the term he took to be "Witch."

Shaking his head, Hakuba slipped his jacket off and put it on the forest floor, creating a clean and dirt-free place to sit. Even he could not deny the sun was beginning to get to him. They had been walking a good part of the morning already and they still had yet to reach their destination. Kuroba had started off rather pleasant about the entire 'adventure', as he had called it, until he was reminded of the insects.

"I HATE BUGS!" Kaito screeched, jumping away from the tree he had been sitting on to stare in horror at the hundred-leg centipede that had decided to take up residence in his former resting spot.

Hakuba unfortunately, had to agree with Kaito about that particular statement, as he too double checked his area to make sure there were no unwanted visitors.

"So what exactly does this blue mushroom look like anyways?" Kaito asked when they had finished their break and started on their way again.

"Well, it's a mushroom… and it's blue."

Kaito glared at the back of the blondes head. "I mean, does it have any particular markings?"

Hakuba smirked, but decided to be serious and answer the thief. It actually was a good question, though he would never admit it.

"I researched it a bit before we left. It is a large blue mushroom, but it also has white and black speckled dots scattered across the surface. It's quite rare and only grows on this particular mountain."

"It's not poisonous is it?" the thief asked.

"No, but it could be if too much is consumed," replied the blonde.

"Right, remind me not to eat a handful when we find it", Kaito smirked sarcastically, before another thought popped into his head.

"Or … I could always try to force feed the witch", he muttered under his breath as a wicked grin stretched across his features.

Hakuba unfortunately had heard his last statement. "Yeah and find yourself living as a fish for the rest of your life because you angered her."

Kaito shivered at the mention of the f-finny things he hated so much and Hakuba smirked in pleasure at eliciting such a reaction.

Bloody * Rose

The two had been walking for what Kaito deemed to be, literally forever! He was ready to sit down and relax on his couch at home with a plate of food and a side dish of chocolate; not continue gallivanting across a mountain in hopes of a finding a rare smurf-colored mushroom!

"Oh, I think this is the place."

The detective's voice woke Kaito from his daydreaming and he was about to complain as much, when he took in the sight before them.

Kaito stared.

Hakuba stared.

"A cave" the thief finally replied, monotone.

Hakuba could only nod. He wasn't exactly enthused about the mushrooms location either, but it was why they were here after all.

"Guess we can check it out", Hakuba stated, about to step forward when a hand shot out and yanked him back, nearly sending him to the ground.

"Unless something tries to eat your face upon entering!" Kaito exclaimed, still staring at the cave.

Hakuba looked at the cave and then Kaito.

"Oh, is the great phantom thief scared of a little, dark cave?"

Kaito stared at the detective as though he had lost his mind.

"IT'S A CAVE FILLED WITH DARKNESS AND POSSIBLY TEEMING WITH WILD ANIMALS READY TO EAT US!"

Hakuba just rolled his eyes.

"Fine, you can stay. I will go check it out myself…and if it starts eating me, then you can run away and go find help."

Hakuba started towards the entrance, but the corner of his eye was on the thief who was obviously inching closer with each step the blonde took. Hakuba couldn't help but smile just a bit. He knew Kuroba pretty well and he definitely knew if he went into this cave, the thief would follow.

The cave was nearly pitch black inside. Luckily before they had left, Conan had been kind enough to provide each of them with a specialized watch that had built in flashlights and compasses. Why Conan had something like this on hand, Hakuba was a bit suspicious, but he figured it was best to be prepared for anything.

As the two trudged forward across the rocky terrain, Hakuba decided it would be in his best interest, not to comment on how the floors and walls seemed to be moving right alongside them. Well, not literally moving per-say, more like… crawling. He could see the massive amount of worms beneath his feet and the beetles on the walls, but kept his eyes trained in front of him, refusing to dwell on the matter. If he did… he certainly wouldn't be able to keep moving.

Shivering in disgust, he was a bit surprised Kuroba hadn't mentioned anything about it. Stopping, suddenly curious, he turned his light to glance at the teen in question. Kuroba was taking each step firmly, his eyes closed as he mumbled something beneath his breath that the detective couldn't quite pick up on. Snorting, the detective continued onward, deciding to let it go. He couldn't say he blamed the thief.

Bloody * Rose

Hakuba stopped when he rounded a corner and suddenly heard voices ahead. Whoever was here, it didn't sound like they were particularly happy. Motioning to the thief behind him, Hakuba slowly crept around the corner, his eyes locked on the shadows dancing on the wall, revealing their positions.

Hakuba was about to step out and get a closer look, when the voices suddenly went quiet. Hakuba froze and then two screams split the tension and he felt himself moving all the faster. Stepping out into the light, he looked upon the scene with disgust and anger. A woman and a young boy were bound together, their faces beaten and bloody, as they were forced before the five men standing around them.

"Hey, what do you think you're doing!" he shouted, but he froze when he noticed not one of them had turned to even acknowledge his presence, much less his voice.

'Oh right, the invisibility thing,' he sighed.

"Kuro…" started Hakuba. He was going to suggest that they leave the cavern and call the police, but to his surprise, the thief was already gone.

"Hello boys," a deep voice replied, stepping past the startled blonde.

Hakuba could only stare at the sharp dressed teen in complete bemusement.

All five men whipped their guns up, taking aim at the thief.

"Now, now," tutted the teen who was obviously Kaito; his tone and walk completely relaxed as he stared them down. "I don't think the boss would be too happy if you shot me and I definitely don't want to see the boss angry, do you?"

All five men continued to glare at him, before slowly lowering their weapons.

"I thought the boss was coming himself?"

Kaito hummed. "He was, but you know how it goes… change of plans."

The man sighed. "I guess. Well did he at least tell you where he wanted us to bury the victims? Since your here, I am guessing the ransom didn't work, Am I right?"

"That's right. He sent me because he doesn't want you being caught by the police. The boss received word that in this very forest, a homicide detective is searching the area with a specialized task force. Unfortunately," Kaito stated, his eyes scanning the two victims for signs of life, "he doesn't believe there is time to bury them. He wants you to tie them up, gag them, and leave them somewhere only you will find them until the area is safe again. He will send word to you when it is and then you can finish the job without any cops tagging along."

"Sounds like the boss is on top of things", muttered one of the guys, "alright, you heard him. Let's dump them and split. We will come back and finish the job tonight."

"Hey," asked another, "When do we get our money?"

"When the job is done, of course", said Kaito, his expression showing that of a grim smile as he watched them, his poker face completely controlled.

"Tch", one of the men huffed, but none of them argued as they tied the victims up, gagged them and started out of the cave with them. Kaito followed, but not before flashing Hakuba his usual Kaitou Kid smirk.

Hakuba had to admit, that had been impressive.

Hakuba followed them out of the cave and into dense jungle. The five men seemed to know exactly where they were going, while Kaito seemed to be marking the area the best he could with his eyes, taking in the different landmarks.

Just past a tree clearing near the river, the men roughly shoved the two victims down into a deep manmade crater. Hakuba mentally marked the area with his mind, but his attention was completely on whatever would happen next.

"Tell the boss we will finish the job tonight, but we expect payment. No delay."

"And you will have it", said Kaito, his tone like ice. "All you have to do is finish the job and not get arrested. Do that and we should have no real issue, correct?"

"Yeah", the speaker of the five grunted, "let's go."

Kaito watched the five turn and leave, his hands shaking. If he could, he would string them up by their underwear and dye-bomb them a hundred different colors!

"Kuroba, that was amazing!" Hakuba praised, "Now we just need to call the police and…"

"Well, well, well. Who do we have here?"

Kaito and Hakuba turned toward the cave entrance, staring into the face of an ugly, bald, fat guy with a real need for a nose-hair trimmer. He wore a pressed black suit, much like the one Kaito was currently wearing, and he had a gold earring in his left ear. His beady little eyes stared down at Kaito before snapping to the victims lying motionless in the crater, then back to the thief.

"Where are the men I hired for this?"

Kaito grinned, deciding to try and play this out. No doubt, this was the boss they had mentioned was coming to meet them.

"Unfortunately the guys were unable to make it. I offered to finish the job for them."

The boss stared at him, his eyes narrowed.

"I just spoke to Jiro earlier today and he assured me, the job would be completed by him and his men. I can't see Jiro backing out, so I will ask again," he replied, raising a small handheld gun from his pocket, "who are you?"

Hakuba froze. The thief was too far away to do anything about the gun and Hakuba obviously couldn't move. Grinding his teeth in frustration, he had no choice, but to watch how this played out; for better or worse.

Kaito just smiled. On the inside he was extremely nervous. On the outside, he was the embodiment of suave. "Then obviously you didn't get his second message. He had attempted to contact you to inform you of a change in plan and that I would finish the last part of the job for him. He still expects full payment, seeing as how he did the dirty work and all."

The man suddenly laughed.

"Jiro was always a bit money hungry. I like you kid, what is your name?"

Kaito froze, quickly thinking up a name. "Kato."

"Well Kato, I want you to take a message to Jiro for me."

"Oh?" Kaito replied, "What message?"

The man merely smiled. "Screw you."

Kaito's smile vanished as the man raised his gun and fired. The thief was fast, but even he couldn't move fast enough to dodge the oncoming, unexpected bullet. While he had practiced dodging snipers, he had never done so with a gun a mere five feet away.

The bullet sank into his abdomen and he collapsed to the forest floor, gasping in pain.

Hakuba was already moving, pressing down on the wound, but his eyes were trained on the man walking towards them.

"I told you I like you, Kato. Consider this my generosity. If you live, so be it. If you die, so be it. Jiro knows better than to work through a middle man. Take that message back to him one way or another. If he has any brains at all, he will consider this a warning."

The man walked away and Hakuba knew he couldn't do anything to stop him.

Turning his attention to the panting thief, he pressed down, but was horrified by the puddle of blood beneath his hands. By the looks of it, the bullet was still in the thief.

"Hang on Kaito," he whispered again and again, "Hang on Kaito, hang on."

The thief laughed, coughing a bit at the pressure that seemed to be building within his lungs.

"Didn't know … you cared."

The detective glared at him, still pressing down as hard as he can, not knowing what else to do for the thief, but relieved he was joking. Maybe the wound isn't as bad as it looks…

"H-Hakuba, your cell phone. D-Dial C-Conan-kun."

"B-But I can't talk to him!"

Kaito ignored him. "D-Dial him and… h-hand him over to me. H-Hurry."

Hakuba nodded, keeping one hand on the thief's injury as he used the other to flip open his phone and dial the chibi's number. It continued to ring and the blonde suddenly feared no one would answer, when suddenly it clicked and a tired voice replied on the other end. "Hello?"

Hakuba, truly relieved, pressed the phone into Kaito's shaking, bloody hands. The thief focused the best he could as he pressed the device to his ear.

"M-Meitantei," he gasped.

"…Kuroba? What's wrong?"

"S-Shot. M-Mountains."

"What?! How did you get shot? I thought you went up there for a mushroom! You… hang on. Haibara! We need to get to Kuroba and Hakuba! … Listen, Kuroba, do you know where you are?"

"I…I…Cave? I don't…"

"Okay, it's okay. Is Hakuba there?"

"Yes."

"Alright. Tell him, if he can't hear already me, help is coming. We will track your phone. Just hang on guys!"

"T-Thanks… T-Tantei-kun."

"Thief, can you hear me?" Haibara asked, snatching the phone from Shinichi.

"Ah…eh," gasped Kaito.

Hakuba sent the thief an apologetic look.

"Okay, put me on speaker phone if you don't have it on already."

Kaito fumbled with the phone, doing as she asked.

"Okay," he replied.

"Alright. Hakuba, I know you can't respond, so just listen to what I say. If this bullet is a through and through, he should be alright. Just keep the area as bound as you can and as clean as you can. If it's not, this is when it gets complicated. You need to get the bullet out as soon as possible. It will take us a couple hours to get to you. You must disinfect the area the best you can, get the bullet out anyway you can, and then clean and bind the area. We will hurry, but you have to do this or… being completely honest, he may not make it. If that gasping was anything to go by, I can hear its already effecting his lungs, which means the bullet hit someplace fatal, so speed is of the essence. Do you understand?"

Kaito peered up at Hakuba who stared back down at him, nodding. Kaito choked on another laugh, taking in the detective's horrified expression, but he trusted the blonde and relayed the answer to the girl waiting impatiently on the other end.

"Good luck."

"G-Got it. K-Kaito out."

Hakuba stared at the injury, his mind going over her instructions. The bullet was still in there, so what was he going to use to clean and pluck out the bullet?

"H-Hakuba."

The blonde snapped his eyes to the thief.

"I…c-can do it. I've…done it b-before."

The detective stared at him. "What, but how are you…"

"The w-water in your bag," he said indicating the backpack still on Hakuba's shoulders, "get it o-out and clean the a-area the best y-you can. S-Save half for afterwards."

The blonde nodded and quickly fumbled with the straps, dumping the bag beside them. He quickly located his bottle of water and opened it up, dumping half the bottle on the wound as he rinsed away the excess blood. Kaito gasped and tried hard not to move beneath it, but the thief couldn't help but buck just a bit at the pain.

"S-Sorry, sorry, sorry…" the blonde repeated, until finally the rinse was complete. "Now what?"

"G-Get out y-your…" Kaito paused to get a breath, "…hunting knife… I know you carry. A-Also, in my…my bag, back in the c-cave, there is a small m-mirror and some…some tweezers. G-Get them for me."

Hakuba nodded, grabbing the thief's hands and pressing them on the wound.

"Don't let up on the pressure, okay?" he stated before dashing towards the cave.

The thief just nodded, gasping as his own hands dug into the painful area. Unfortunately, he knew this was necessary if he didn't want to die anytime soon.

"I got them," Hakuba shouted, diving onto the ground with the thief's backpack, quickly searching for and finding the two requested items.

"G-Good. U-Use the rest of the w-water to re-clean the a-area, I…I won't be able to s-see with this much b-blood."

Hakuba nodded and quickly dumped the rest of his water on the blood soaked wound. Kaito gasped, but nodded. "G-Good job."

"N-Now what?"

"N-Now, comes the hard part. G-Get my mirror and hold it slanted down, but far enough up, I can s-see the wound."

Hakuba nodded, swallowing compulsively in an attempt not to puke. Kaito took the tweezers as Hakuba measured up the area with the mirror, getting it just right.

"O-Okay, d-don't move."

Hakuba nodded, staring in slight awe and in complete disgust, as the thief literally pressed down on his own wound and then dug into it with the tweezers. Hakuba was shaking, his hands doing all they could to keep hold of the mirror in his possession.

"I-I don't think it went very d-deep. A-Almost there," Kaito whispered, his voice barely above a whisper as tears streamed down his pale face, soaking into the collar of his dress shirt; his dress jacket bunched up beneath his head as a makeshift pillow.

"I…I think I-I found it," he gasped, his hands shaking as he clenched the tweezers and hooked onto the foreign object within his abdomen. Slowly, carefully, he pulled the bronze bullet out, staring at it and making sure the shirt it had taken in with it, was completely intact. If a piece of shirt was still within the wound, he would have no choice but to go in again and wouldn't that be fun.

Chuckling in relief, he set the tweezers and bullet aside on the grass.

"O-Okay, H-Hakuba, get my water b-bottle and c-clean the area again. I-If I pass out, b-bind the area the best you can."

Hakuba nodded quickly, doing as Kaito asked, his palms sweating. He couldn't believe the thief had just pulled a bullet out of himself. It was… beyond impressive, but at the moment, he couldn't find his voice to even say so.

Slowly, he poured the water over the wound and Kaito shifted at the pain it caused, before slowly, his gasps quickening, the thief suddenly stopped moving. Startled, the blonde set the water down and checked the thief's pulse and breathing. He was okay… just out cold.

Sighing in relief, he quickly looked around before deciding his own shirt would work well enough. Taking it off, he tore it into one long strip before wrapping it around the thief's waist and tying it off overtop the gaping wound in an attempt to keep pressure applied the best he could. The threat was no longer the bullet within, now it was loss of blood. If help didn't arrive soon, Hakuba wasn't sure how long the thief could make it.

Bloody * Rose

Kaito wasn't sure how long he was in that jungle for, bleeding out, but when he awoke, he found himself staring into the concerned eyes of five familiar individuals.

"Kuroba, can you hear us?" Conan asked.

"His pupil reaction is slow. We need to get him off this mountain right now," Haibara stated.

"Should we take him to the hospital?" Agasa asked.

"Not with his current predicament," Akako refuted, "we can't have anyone taking in an interest in him scientifically. He would become an experiment."

"Kaito…" Hakuba's voice cut into his muddled brain, "Hang on okay? You're going to be alright."

The second time Kaito woke up, he was being obviously carried in some sort of makeshift net, down the side of the mountain. A coat was draped over him, which he only belatedly realized was actually his, before his attention switched to the five around him.

Agasa was carrying the front part of the net and to his surprise, Hakuba was carrying the back part. Conan was waking beside him with Haibara and Akako was leading the way.

"You're awake," Conan replied, smiling. "How do you feel?"

Kaito just stared at the teen turned child. "Like I was shot," came the breathy reply.

Conan just smirked as Hakuba spoke up.

"You should tell him about the cave and the two victims. I forgot about them until we started down the mountain and well… I couldn't really say anything anyways."

Kaito nodded, drawing the two chibi's attention.

"B-Back where we were found, there are t-two more people. I…I think they are alive still, but they were d-dumped in a hole by the river. T-The men who did it are coming back t-tonight to finish the job. I would s-suggest calling the p-police. They can lead you to the b-big boss. B-Big boss was the one who…shot me."

Conan narrowed his eyes, nodding. "Alright, I, err," he glanced back at where Hakuba was walking, "Shinichi-san will contact Megure when I explain it to him, I'm sure."

Kaito smirked, though it was far from his usual. This one was weak and filled with pain.

"T-Thanks, Meitantei."

Conan just smiled.

"No problem."

"Oh!" Kaito suddenly exclaimed, startling those around him, "what about the mushroom thing?"

"About that…" Hakuba started.

"Turns out, you were laying on one when you feel. We picked you up and low and behold, it was beneath you," Conan laughed.

"Nice job locating it, phantom thief-san," Haibara replied, amused.

Kaito just hummed. Seems lady fate has quite the sense of humor, he thought to himself, also a bit amused by how this little adventure ended. He couldn't help but wonder, what would come next?