I'm evil.
Chapter 24: Unexpected
The first thing Kaito did was rush to pick up the phone and dial the number of the Kudo household.
Kaito was not going to let the Dark Ring do as they please. They'd played with the boys' lives long enough, and if they were going to step up and try to ruin their lives any more, they would fight back. Kaito wasn't necessarily unhappy when he'd been with the Dark Ring...but he'd already decided that he'd not be going back.
The phone rang a couple times before somebody picked up on the other end.
"Hello~?"
"Yukiko-chan? It's me, Kaito. Listen, I-"
"Kaito?"
Kaito jumped and spun around to see a woman in a bathrobe slowly come down the stairs.
He blinked. "...Kaa-chan? You're here? You weren't taken by the Dark Ring?"
It was Chikage's turn to blink. She smiled. "Of course not, silly! Evil Organization or not, there's not way they figure out who you are in such a short time." She started coughing, and gave Kaito a sheepish grin. "I'm a little sick though, so you should probably avoid hanging around me for now..."
"Don't say that!" Kaito replied. Hearing someone calling for him on the other side of the phone he was holding, he went back to the previous conversation.
"Kaito, what's wrong?" came Shinichi's concerned question.
"I-I'm sorry, I thought something happened and wanted to tell you, but it's all right- wasn't Yukiko-chan on the phone first?"
"Yeah, but since it was you she figured you wanted to talk to me," Shinichi sighed. "But if everything's fine, then I guess that's good."
"Yeah, sorry I bothered you..." Kaito smiled. "I'll see you at school tomorrow. Say hi to Yukiko-chan and Yuusaku-san for me, okay?"
"No problem. See you."
"Later," Kaito finished as he hung up. He then turned to his mother with a worried look on his face. "Kaa-chan, are you sure you're okay? Why didn't you answer when I said I was home?"
"I'm more worried about contaminating you with whatever germs I have," Chikage grinned. "Don't worry, I'll be fine," she added with another coughing fit. Kaito rushed over to support her (even though she didn't really need it).
"You should really lie down," Kaito advised. "The less you move, the quicker you recover- or so they say."
"Kaito, you honestly shouldn't worry that much," she giggled, letting herself be led back up the stairs and to her bedroom anyway. "You're acting like I'm in some sort of horrible pain."
"Maybe you are and you're just hiding it from me," Kaito replied. It was only a half-joke, because some people were ready to lie about their condition to avoid worrying others.
"Of course I'm not! And to answer your previous question, I was using the bathroom. I didn't hear you."
Both of them walked into the bedroom and Kaito watched Chikage slowly sit on the sheets of her bed, coughing again.
"You just lie down and leave everything to me, okay?" Kaito smiled gently, having to basically refrain from wanting to help any further (because, really, he was almost dying to keep her from doing anything and ready to make sure she was snuggled up properly).
"But what about your homework?" she asked.
"I can take care of that later. First, you."
Chikage shook her head with an exasperated sigh, but smiled at him anyway. Kaito left the room and headed back down the stairs towards the kitchen and started thinking.
What should he make? Something that would help her recover a little faster, of course, but Kaito was used to simply following Chikage's instructions rather than actually coming up wish a dish himself. He stood there pondering about it for a while before finally deciding on opening the fridge, hoping that some kind of good idea would come to mind.
He quickly covered his mouth with his hands to muffle a shriek and immediately backed away to the other end of the room at the sight of the- that thing. Breathing like he'd just run a marathon, Kaito removed his hands from his mouth, placing one instead over his panicked heart, and slowly closed his eyes to try and calm himself a little.
He opened his eyes again, looking back to the fridge. The fish was still there.
"Well, it's not like it'll vanish just because you wish for it, stupid..." Kaito muttered to himself. Refusing to take his eyes off of the dangerous food, he slowly sidestepped over to he drawers by sliding along the walls and patted around the counter to find one of the drawers and open them to pull out a pair of metal tongs.
The next part was harder.
Kaito inched over to the still-open fridge where the enemy was laying and the rest of the food was going bad. The closer he got, he more hesitant he was to actually get any closer. When he finally took the last step needed- and was still a good four feet away- he slowly stretched his shaking arm towards the scaly animal and snapped the tongs around it. He pulled it out just as slowly and back up, dragging the round-eyed thing along with him, and turning so he could put it somewhere where it wouldn't-
Kaito didn't hold the tongs tight enough, and the deadly monster dropped to the floor at his feet. The magician screamed in surprise and horror and crashed into the pans behind him.
...At this rate, dinner would be getting nowhere.
The teen scrambled out of the kitchen and started searching through the house for useful tools. Being creative, he didn't need too much time to find what he needed. A doctor's coat from his mother's work outfits, a coughing mask, a pair of swim goggles and a roll of duct tape. He left the duct tape on the kitchen table while he went to change into his choice of clothing. He was pretty proud of himself when he looked in the mirror once he finished and saw that he wasn't too far off from looking like an actual (even if insane) doctor, but looks wasn't the most important issue in this situation.
Heading back to the kitchen in his new outfit, he pulled open another drawer all while carefully evading the dangerous object on the floor and grabbed a large butcher's knife. with that, he had just about everything he needed. Now he was just missing one more thing: where could he find something that could act as a stick...?
Kaito stiffened when he heard clicking sounds coming from the front door, like someone fiddling the lock. And whoever it was managed to open the lock very quickly. Clenching his fists, the young magician slid into the hall with caution.
With a some quick acting, he decided to surprise the enemy by wrenching the door open instead of waiting. On the other side, the girl shrieked, dropping whatever she was holding to the floor.
Except the mop, and whacked him on the head with it. Hard.
Kaito recoiled, a hand resting on his throbbing head, and having to use the phone table as a support so his legs didn't give away from the sudden and unexpected hit.
"Who are you?" the girl screamed at him, on guard. "Why are you here, and why the hell were you holding that over-sized knife?"
"I'm the one who should be asking quest-" he started angrily, before blinking at her. "...Nakamori-chan?"
She blinked in turn. "You know my name?"
He pulled down the mask to his throat and put the goggles up to his (still hurting) forehead with a grin. "It's me, Kaito!"
"K-Kuroba-kun?" she gasped. "What- Why- Oh Kami, are you hurt?"
"I'll probably go back to school with a huge lump on head tomorrow, but otherwise I'm fine," he smiled. "If I wasn't me, you'd have knocked me out!"
"Oh crap, I'm so sorry- I wish I had some first-aid kit or something-"
"I said I'm fine," he chuckled, "there's no need for that stuff. What are you doing here, shouldn't you be at home?"
"This used to be my grandma's house up until six months ago," Aoko replied. "I've been cleaning it every month and came back to do the same thing today- I didn't know that Tou-san finally sold it! And I wouldn't have expected you to be the one living here."
"Your grandma?" he repeated.
"Yeah, she passed away...She was really kind and I loved her a lot, so I would come here often to visit her," she smiled sadly. "I was kind of scared of what would happen when Tou-san found someone to live here, but I think I feel better knowing someone like you and your Kaa-san are taking care of the place."
"You're welcome here any time," Kaito grinned. "I'm sure Kaa-chan won't mind. Well, when she's not sick, that is."
"She's sick?"
"I told her to stay in bed, so I'm fighting with dinner right now."
"Can I help?"
Kaito blinked. "What? Nakamori-chan, I wouldn't want to bother you with that!"
"I'm the one offering, so it doesn't bother me at all. And Tou-san isn't expecting me for a while anyway, so I might as well make myself useful!"
While Kaito was still hesitating, Aoko simply walked into the house before closing the door and then went straight to the kitchen. Her first comment was the mess of scattered pans on the floor. It took Kaito a few seconds to register what was going on, but those few seconds were enough for Aoko to come right back out with a stern look on her face.
And the fish in her hands.
Kaito yelped and dropped the large knife that he'd been holding the entire time, immediately backing up and bumping into the door behind him.
"S-Stay away!" he squeaked, but seeing how close Aoko already was, it wasn't enough time for her to react properly. By the time she stopped, the fish a foot away from him.
Terror overwhelmed him as he slowly sunk to the ground, staring at the round-eyed animal, his entire body shaking. The evil creature was staring right back at him.
He wanted to scream and run away and never turn back, but his legs were paralyzed and his voice stuck in his throat. The world was starting to blur.
"Kaito!"
Kaito finally managed to wrench his eyes away and look up into Chikage's, who was crouched beside him with a very worried expression on her face. Kaito noticed that his own breathing was shallow, and his fingers still twitching uncontrollably. He looked back to where Aoko was standing, but the fish was gone. He turned back to Chikage and swallowed hard.
"K-Kaa-chan..." he whimpered quietly. "I'm s-s-sorry..."
She ran her hand through his hair, making him shudder at the contact, shushing him. "It's okay. It's alright."
"Y-You should be in bed," he muttered. Chikage giggled.
"Still thinking about that? It's just a cough, you know," as if on cue, she coughed. "Your friend and I were more worried about you."
Kaito looked back at Aoko, who was standing at the other end of the room, trying hard to hold back tears despite her face being already rather wet.
"I'm s-so sorry, Kuroba-kun!" she cried. "I d-didn't know you were so afraid of f-fish, I..."
"Why are you making such a big deal out of it?" Kaito grinned, even if his voice wasn't as strong as usual. "There's no point crying over something like that!" he added, slowly getting up with Chikage's help. As soon as he was on his legs though, Aoko flung herself onto him, his entire body tensing along with a violent shudder.
"It was s-scary...you weren't m-moving...K-Kuroba-san called your name several t-times..."
"Nakamori-chan, p-please..." he squirmed, fighting back a blush. "There's nothing you could do about it, there's no way you could've known...you can't expect to know that kind of stuff after only two weeks!"
Aoko let go of him, and Kaito smiled at her. "So, how about we start cooking and you stay over for dinner? You can always use our phone to let your Tou-san know."
Aoko smiled back and nodded.
xXx
Aside from when Kaito left the kitchen so Aoko could prepare the fish with a few of Chikage's suggestions (she'd put on the mask Kaito stole earlier, after long arguments about how she didn't have to be strapped to her bed and her adorably sweet and caring boy finally giving in), cooking had been fun. And the results were great. The food itself was excellent, and the dinner table had been very lively, with Kaito grinning, Aoko scolding him, and Chikage giggling at their antics. Kaito didn't show any of it, but he felt a little sad when she left, thinking how much of a shame it was that she couldn't stay longer. But he knew he would've probably started feeling a little uneasy after a while, because, as much as he appreciated her, he wasn't ready. Feeling close to someone he hardly knew...he just couldn't handle it yet.
Chikage was a different story, though. First off, he'd known her a little longer. He hadn't seen much of her during his stay in the Kudo household the first month, but enough that he didn't feel uncomfortable just being around her. And then, of course, she was supposed to play the role of his mother- what kind of weird child would feel uneasy around his mother? Especially since Chikage was a good person. People would be asking questions if such a great mother could make their son feel awkward around her.
Kaito had to force himself at first, but now being around her was simply natural. She was a very good listener too, he could tell. Even if he hadn't ever really said much about his life in the Dark Ring. He tended to keep that kind of stuff to himself, or at least until to could talk about his worries with Shinichi. Or even Heiji or Saguru, but Shinichi was the one that usually came to his mind first.
"Now I just make the cloth a ball of some sort in my hands..." Kaito smiled, smashing the white piece of square cloth between his palms, making sure Chikage didn't see anything. "...and then, when I want to see if it's balled up enough, voilà!" he grinned, opening his hands a releasing a dove. The cloth was gone, and dove gently went to rest on Chikage's shoulder. She giggled and clapped at Kaito's performance as the teen bowed elegantly.
"Your magic is amazing for someone who's been only doing it for two months," she complimented. Kaito smiled, and she smiled back. "No wonder you're Toichi-kun's son..."
"Eh? You...You knew Tou-san?" Kaito asked quietly, a little shocked.
"I don't talk about it a lot, but...yes, I did know him." The dove cooed in her ear, and she started stroking the bird's feathers. "You're a lot like him when he was your age, you know. His hair was just as messy as yours, and he was as much of a troublemaker as you are now."
"Tou-san was a troublemaker?" Kaito repeated as he sat beside her on the bed, unable to keep himself from grinning.
"One of the worst, and paired with Yuusaku-kun they were pretty much unstoppable."
"Yuusaku-san was also like that? But he looks like such a calm person!"
"He is now, but that's only after Haruko-chan, finally went and smacked them in the face," Chikage laughed. "We all had a bit of a weird personality back then, you'd never expect us to have been like that unless you knew us, or we told you."
"No wonder, you've all changed so much in the meantime..."
"Oh, but the two boys got even worse when Akio-kun showed up," she grinned. She coughed a little before continuing. "The poor janitor...he already had his hands full with regular students, but those three were making him go insane! But he had nerves of steel for staying there- the other janitor never stayed more than a month with them around."
"Oh, so Yuusaku-san and Tou-san were the two friends he once told us about!" Kaito said as it dawned on him. "He came over to visit once and told us the story about how they unleashed a bunch of chickens on the school grounds and watched the janitors chase them for over twenty minutes."
"I remember that," Chikage laughed again. "But that was nowhere near their biggest stunt. They also did things like school-wide pillow fights, put itching-powder in every guys' shirts so they would eventually strip, paint the entire school over and give it a new color...but their greatest achievement was probably Toichi-kun's first big 'magic trick', the Christmas Tree."
"What did they do?" Kaito asked, his eyes almost sparkling with mixed emotions as he continued to smile.
"On the last day of school before Christmas, they set up a huge tree made of glass on the school roof without anybody noticing it," she replied, her eyes shining as well just at the memory of it. "It was made from all sorts of colorful glass shards, all glued together, and inside the glass tree Toichi-kun had set up a large ball with spotlights all around it- and so when it got dark out and everybody was getting ready to leave the school, they turned the lights on and...the sight of that glass tree was the most beautiful thing we'd ever seen on a Christmas Eve," she smiled. Kaito was at the edge of his seat on the bed. "Red, yellow, green, blue, white, the colors were just dancing around and bouncing off the farthest buildings they could reach. Anyone that was nearby stopped to stare at it in awe, and even the people on Touto Tower could see it from where they were. It was simply amazing. So much that the teachers didn't have the heart to scold them for bringing such a huge thing to the school without permission."
"I wish I could've seen it," Kaito beamed. "Tou-san must've done a lot of incredible things even without necessarily creating havoc."
"He did. He did a lot of things..." Chikage smiled, this time her expression a little sadder. "It's a shame he left us..because the entire world would have looked up to him if he were still here."
"I'm sure of it too..." the teen whispered. They sat together in silence for a moment until Chikage kissed him on the forehead.
"Alright boy, you should probably go and do your homework now," she said, ruffling his hair a bit and making it messier than it already was. "You don't want to be late for school tomorrow, do you?"
"Aww, but Kaa-chaaan!~"
"Nuh-uh, no arguing: if you really want we can talk some more when you get back home, ne?"
Kaito nodded, even though he didn't really agree with having to stop their conversation about his father like that, and wished her goodnight before leaving to go to his own room.
He really enjoyed hearing stories about Toichi. Kaito had loved his father, but it felt like he had so few memories of him that he kind of regretted not having more of them. And getting to listen to the others talk about how Toichi was when he was still alive made Kaito feel warm inside, the nostalgia that emanated from those who told the stories, and the pride of knowing what a great man his father was. If anything, Kaito hoped someday he would be able to become just like him.
Closing the door behind him, Kaito aimed for his school bag and pulled out whatever books he needed to do the assignments the teachers had given them. He spread them on the desk in his room and opened one of them, making a pencil appear out of thin air so he could start.
It was just that since he was a little distracted, it took him a bit longer than expected to finish everything for the next day before he could finally go to bed...
So, just as a quick notice, updates will become more irregular due to school starting next month. School starting next month means me living in an apartment with no internet and lots of school work and generally less time for anything else. I'll try to write whenever I can, but don't expect much.
For some reason I found that writing from Kaito's point of view when facing fish was both fun and interesting. A lot of authors think it's a funny phobia and like to use it for cracky scenes (I'm no exception, really), but no matter how weird the phobia is, it's still phobia and can be a real problem for the one that has it, and I realise it everytime I see Haru shaking in terror whenever a bee or wasp flies past his face. So I liked that part even if it was short...but what really had me all giddy and sitting a the edge of my seat while I was writing it was Chikage telling Kaito about the glass tree. I just plain love it XD
Marie Ravenclaw: That happens.
Cataract Falcon: Soon is…difficult. But don't worry, this fic is going to be long as hell so you'll have plenty to read for the next two years at least XD
Mangaluva: …ha! XD
A Smiling Cat: Yeah, Shinichi will know two or three things. Won't that be fun? XD
Random Reader: I'm still practicing, cliffie-wise. Cliffies make you angry and want to read what happens next, so guess what my aim is XD Oh, and I love the pen-name you thought up for the random review x3
Nequam-tenshi: I'm not sure what you're getting at by saying that, but…yes, she is…I think XD
MidnightSushiNinja: I like reviews no matter when they arrive XD Um, I sort of planned the time-line for the next few chapters, and hoping that whatever thing comes up next doesn't split into two chapters, it should be more or less soon (chapter-wise). Heck, I didn't even plan on the kidnapping case to be this long, but it was XD Sorry about that.
Alynawatlovers: Welcome to the fic, glad you like it XD For a long time I couldn't decide myself whether Maple was an OC or an actual character...but in the end I decided she would be an OC.