Chapter 21

Pandora woke up.

It allowed its consciousness to float upwards, and conjured a body so it could yawn and stretch. It liked stretching.

Pandora looked down at its sleeping guardian, then down the hallway longingly.

Shinichi, it hissed. Shinichi. Wake up.

Shinichi stirred in her sleep.

Shinichi! Hey, Shinichi, I'm hungry.

Shinichi opened one eye and squinted at it. "No."

Yes.

"No. You don't get hungry", she mumbled, her eye sliding closed.

But you do. Humans need to eat, right?, Pandora said triumphantly.

"I'm not hungry yet."

Think of the eggs... bacon... waffles...

"We don't have any of that stuff!" Shinichi pulled the covers over her head. "Leave me alone. I'm tired and I have a stomach ache."

They might be hunger pangs.

"No."

The curtains swung open, allowing buttery yellow light to flood the room. Shinichi yanked the covers over her head. "I hate you."

Pandora snorted as it yanked the duvet to the floor. Oh, that's very nice- It froze, staring fixedly at Shinichi, then gave a high-pitched scream that sent Shinichi tumbling to the floor.

"Ow! Pandora-"

B-blood! Blood! Shinichi, you're bleeding!

"What on earth are you-" Shinichi frowned, feeling an odd dampness on her legs, and looked down. "Oh", she said in surprise. "So I am."

Pandora fainted.

"I can't believe you fainted!", Shinichi laughed ten minutes later. She was buttering a piece of toast.

How was I meant to know you were due on?

"It's written on the calendar."

But there was so much blood!

"My periods are always quite heavy. But I still can't believe you fainted!"

Shut up and eat that piece of toast!, Pandora snarled, crossing slightly transparent arms defensively. I'm hungry.

"You're not, you know", Shinichi said, beginning to eat. "You can't get hungry."

Oh, not this again!, Pandora groaned dramatically.

Shinichi paused in her chewing for a moment to give a small snort.

What?, said Pandora, looking at her curiously. Shinichi didn't often laugh, that morning being the exception.

"You fainted!", Shinichi squealed, flinging down the piece of toast to double up with laughter.

Pandora sighed. Shinichi obviously wasn't going to forget that in a hurry.

Kaito walked out of the school in subdued silence, ignoring the daggers Hakuba had been sending at him since the last heist.

"Kaito?", said Aoko, watching her childhood friend carefully. He had been quiet all day, and was starting to worry her.

He turned and forced a smile. "Yeah?"

She studied his face. "Are you okay? You don't look so good."

Kaito blinked at her. "Really?" Well, he had been up worrying most of the night.

"You do know that if anything's worrying you, you can come to us? You know that, right? Right, Hakuba?", she added, turning to the blond detective.

"Yeah", Hakuba muttered ungraciously.

"...Thanks, Aoko", Kaito said, a little surprised. "I know that, and I'm okay. Honestly."

Aoko gave him a piercing look, but relented. "Just so long as you know that", she said, walking ahead. Hakuba threw him another dirty look before following her.

"Speaking of confiding worries", Akako murmured from behind him. "There's something I need to tell you."

Kaito turned and raised an eyebrow. "What? Another gold nugget of information from your friend Lucifer?"

"Yes, actually", she snapped. "It's about this mystery detective of KID's everybody's talking about."

"Shinichi Kudo", Kaito said, nodding.

Akako blinked, uncharacteristically surprised. "Really? I thought she'd disappeared?"

"I think that's what she wants people to think."

"Oh, alright. Anyway, I thought I'd better say this, since Kaitou KID seems to like her so much."

"And what payment would you like to extract before you tell him?", said Kaito.

"This time, it's free", Akako said, so seriously that Kaito dropped the sarcastic tone.

"What is it?", he said sharply.

"Lucifer granted me a vision", Akako said, lowering her voice as they caught up to Aoko and Hakuba. "It showed your detective, standing on a rooftop. She was wearing a grey sweater with the hood pulled up."

"How did you know it was her?"

"The newspapers caught several pictures of her at the last heist. I recognized her stance. Anyway, Lucifer showed her standing in front of this tall guy with a horseshoe mustache. It looked like they were talking to each other, but then he just raises his arm and shoots her." She looked at Kaito's pale face. "It ended right after that. I didn't get to see what happened next. There was a lot of blood, Kuroba-kun. I think she's due to die."

"No", Kaito muttered. "I won't let that happen."

"C'mon you guys!", Aoko called from ahead of them. Kaito realized that they had been headed to their usual place after school- the café he often saw Shinichi in.

Maybe he could use this chance to warn her?

With this thought in mind, he entered the café after Aoko and Hakuba.

"Not again", Aoko sighed.

Akako stiffened. Kaito peered around her to see Shinichi again sitting at their usual booth. But she wasn't alone this time. Sitting with her was a girl with long brown hair and a sweet face- the Mouri girl, Ran-, another girl with a slightly less feminine face and jaw-length brown hair, who looked vaguely familiar, and a boy who Kaito recognized from the taskforce, Takamoto.

Akako cast the group an odd glance as they picked the booth beside them.

"You still getting that odd feeling?", Kaito muttered.

"Yes. I'm sure it's that girl with the blonde hair."

"That's Shinichi."

Akako gave him a startled glance. "Your detective?"

"Yup." Kaito suddenly had an idea. "You know that day you felt that odd feeling here and... became agitated? What exactly did you see?"

"This sounds ridiculous, but I saw another version of her. Its eyes were red, and it seemed otherworldly."

"I'm asking because Shinichi seems to have a sort of split-personality. Maybe that was what you saw?"

Akako frowned in thought. "Could be. I've never heard of anybody actually being able to see them..." Still deep in thought, she stood and made her way to the till to order.

Kaito bit his nail and wondered how exactly he should go about warning Shinichi that she might soon die.

"Kaito", Aoko hissed, interrupting his thoughts.

"Uh?"

"Stop staring."

"What?"

"Stop turning around and staring. You keep looking at that blonde girl."

"Blonde girl?" Hakuba leaned around Kaito to take a look. "Oh!", he said, with pleasant surprise. "I didn't expect to see her here."

Aoko looked at Hakuba in surprise. "You know her?"

Hakuba nodded. "Yeah, she's a friend. Kuroba-kun knows her too, don't you, Kaito Kuroba?"

"Yup!", Kaito chirped, visibly surprising Hakuba. "I met her a few days ago- we're friends!"

"She's not another Kaito KID fan, is she?", Aoko asked.

Hakuba laughed. "Actually, she's just the opposite- she's a detective like me. She'd helping us catch him."

"KYAAAAAAH!"

"Oh my God!"

"He's dead!"

Hakuba stood and pushed through the crowd that had suddenly formed around a table at the back of the café. Kaito, realizing that Shinichi's seat had also been vacated, stood and followed him.

The majority of the café was crowded around a table. A man was sitting at it, face-down in a pool of his own blood.

"Don't touch the body", a calm and firm voice ordered- Shinichi's voice.

She was standing over the corpse, keeping the crowd at bay. She radiated authority, despite being younger than most of them. She placed a finger over the man's pulse and shook her head sadly.

"What does it look like?", Hakuba asked her, stepping into the crime scene.

"There's a scent of almonds", Shinichi answered, not showing any surprise at him being there. "It looks like cyanide poisoning."

"No!", a woman in a waitresses uniform wailed. She rushed forwards out of the crowd.

"Please stay back", Hakuba said, holding out an arm to stop her. "You mustn't touch the body before the police get here."

"Who... who are you two?", the woman asked, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand and smearing mascara across her face.

"Saguru Hakuba..."

"Shinichi Kudo..."

"...Detective!", they finished.

Thanks to the Guest who commented on Chapter 12 on the 2/18/13. I definitely wouldn't have realized my little Yusako/Yusaku spelling mistake by myself :)

Sorry these chapters always take so long, you would not BELIEVE the amount of school work I am getting! But I'll try to up the number of updates from now on ^.^'

Thanks for reading Chapter 21 of Moonlight Magician guys! Anything you guys think I need to improve on, just say :)