Chapter 12

Kaito awoke to the sound of snickering and a camera click.

He turned his head and glared at Akako, who was smirking and holding a Polaroid camera. "How adorable," she said condescendingly. "You two are finally getting along."

Kaito extracted an arm from around Lucifer and flipped her off. "What do you want?" he snapped, his voice rough with sleep. His eyes stung. They were no doubt red from crying.

She raised one thin eyebrow. "You look like shit."

"And you're a bitch. What do you want?"

Akako sighed dramatically, placing a hand to her chest in a half-hearted swoon. Kaito rolled his eyes. "Oh, why are you so mean to me, KID?" she asked in a false-falsetto. "My heart can barely take it! Oh well, I suppose you don't need these talismans I brought you…" She held out a paper bag tauntingly.

Kaito rolled off the bed and ripped the bag from her outstretched hand. He reached into it. The first talisman he pulled out was a troll cross, engraved in an iron disk about the size of his fist with a little loop at the top. "Well, at least you got this," he said. "In all honesty, I thought you'd be unable to buy it."

"Why, because we're considered to be the most dangerous Demons in creation?"

"No, because you're literally the second most evil person I know." Kaito ignored her amused snort in favor of extracting his next talisman. "Are these…earrings?" The orange cat's eyes shined brightly in the lamplight.

"Yes. We'll have to pierce your ears, but cat's eye is supposed to be very good at promoting success."

"My ears are already—" He felt his earlobe. No hole. "Shit! How'd I miss that?"

Akako chuckled at his misfortune. "They healed. And even worse, we'll have to pierce them with a silver needle for it to stay."

"You see, it's things like this that makes everyone think you're evil," Kaito complained as he found the final talisman. He stared in confusion. "…Well, this is horrifying."

It was a crystal skull the size of a Ping-Pong ball. It stared creepily up at Kaito with its bloodstone eyes. "Oh, that," Akako said disdainfully. "I got it off a Necromancer."

"…That sounds illegal."

She rolled her eyes. "I don't care. At all."

"Please tell me that you at least paid for these."

"You can pretend I did if it makes you feel better," she said, patting his shoulder mockingly. "Anyway, Necromancy isn't technically illegal. Raising zombies: that's illegal. The exact meaning of Necromancy is "conferring with the dead to tell the future." All that skull allows you to do is to see ghosts."

Kaito placed it on the dresser and cautiously pushed it away from him. "Okay…" It looked like it was glaring at him, so he turned it around.

"So…" Akako perched on his bed and narrowly missed sitting on Lucifer. "Shinichi told me that you've developed your Type. Ventus, right?"

Eyeing her carefully, he nodded. "Yes. Did Shinichi tell you anything else?"

She cocked her head. "No. Did something happen?"

"Nothing important," he lied quickly, barely hiding his relief. Thank God. At least she wouldn't kill him for hurting Shinichi. Yet. She'd find out.

She always finds out.

Akako stared at him with undisguised suspicion, then shrugged. "To be honest, I thought you'd be an Ignis, or even Attectus considering how much control you have over your emotions."

He huffed out a bitter laugh. "Not really. I'm an open book compared to my father. He tried to teach me his infamous poker face, but I…I could never get it right."

"You shouldn't sell yourself short," she said, surprisingly kind.

"Who are you and what have you done with Akako?"

A small, cryptic smile flickered on her lips and disappeared in an instant. "Anyway, have you figured out how to control it? I've heard that wind is supposedly the hardest element to master."

"I haven't tried yet," Kaito confessed. He looked at his hand and tried to remember how it felt to weld his power. He reached into his consciousness, trying to feel the air around him like he could feel the shadows, but nothing was there.

Maybe it was in the hand movements? Kaito flung out his hand like he had when he was angry at Shinichi, but still nothing happed. His shoulders sagged. "Damn it…"

"You're treating the air like it's a part of you," Akako said, waking up Lucifer with a quick shake. "Our shape shifting and Umbrakinesis are a part of you because those are what make us Humanoids. But the air, your Ventus, isn't. You need to force it to your will instead of expecting it to react."

"You're being surprisingly helpful today. Did someone spike your morning blood pack?"

She gave him a withering look. "I do actually want this heist to go according to plan, KID. If that means helping you figure out the obvious, then so be it." She hopped off the bed, Lucifer following closely behind her. "Shinichi's summoning me, so if there's anything else…?"

Akako was at the door when Kaito asked a question that had been bothering him for a while. "Akako…what's going to happen to us when we've defeated the Black Organization?"

"Before he saved you…I was convinced he would kill me, then turn himself in to the police." Kaito couldn't breathe. What? "But…he wouldn't do it now. I doubt he could bear to hurt you like that."

"Really?"

"You have no idea, do you?" she said quietly. "You have no idea how guiltily he feels about turning us, despite the fact it saved both our lives. He cares about us. Goodbye KID." She turned and left, leaving Kaito with more questions and no answers.

He groaned and threw his body back onto the bed. He rubbed his face. Well, at least Shinichi won't kill him. He sighed. No use thinking now.

Getting up, Kaito grabbed his bag and began emptying it. Finally, he pulled out the white KID suit. His fingers rubbed it in contemplation.

It would look better in black.