Disclaimer: I don't own DCMK.
The Show Goes On
25: Stranger with His Face
"What are you saying?"
Kaito regarded the imposter with hard eyes. The imposter had stood up and was now standing across from him. The stricken expression on Shinichi's face looked genuine enough, but it didn't feel like Shinichi.
"Shinichi would never speak of the possible deaths of our friends so lightly. Nor would he just accept that they were gone. He would be making plans to go search for Miss Kazuha, at the least, and hoping like hell that everyone else made it too. He's not the kind of person who'd celebrate the fact that we got away while no one else did either. And he definitely wouldn't suggest that we hide away in safety and abandon all those people depending on us to find a way home."
There was a long moment of tense silence. Kaito wasn't entirely sure what he was expecting. If the imposter had wanted to harm him, it could have done so already while he was unconscious. But why make up stories and pretend to be his Shin-chan? What did it hope to gain?
What was it anyway? That face, that voice, the body—it was all Shinichi. There was no hint at all of a disguise. Was it some kind of shape shifter? Or was it an illusion? What was the point?
Whatever he'd been expecting, he hadn't expected the sigh. The not-Shinichi pulled the elegant, ebony chair away from the desk and sat down on it. He perched on the very edge of the seat with his ankles crossed and his hands clasped loosely on his knees.
"I was hoping you would just believe me," the imposter said, still in Shinichi's voice. In fact, the imposter was showing no signs at all of revealing his or her real identity at all. "It would have been so much easier for you."
"Easier?" Kaito repeated, tone skeptical. "For you or for me?"
"For you, of course," the Shinichi imposter said, voice soft. "Kuroba Kaito, you are the only one who survived."
Kaito stilled for a moment. "What?"
"The inferno in the lab. It incinerated everything. You were lucky because you fell into the river at the bottom of the antechamber. But the others weren't able to make it. You are, whether you like it or not, the only survivor."
"I don't believe you."
"You don't have to if it's true."
Kaito remained silent.
The Shinichi imposter stood and approached him again, steps light and cautious. When it reached Kaito's side, it sat down beside the magician. A slender hand moved to rest on Kaito's arm, but, at a hard look from the magician, it withdrew.
"I truly am sorry for your loss," the imposter murmured, blue eyes shifting to the pool in the middle of the room. "But nothing can change what has already come to pass. It would be best for you to move on."
Kaito stood up abruptly. "I thank you for looking after me, but I'll be going now."
"But where will you go?"
"I'm going to find Shinichi."
The imposter frowned. "It won't do any good."
"How do I get back to the river?"
A pair of hands caught his, and blue eyes looked up imploringly into his face. "Please, don't go. You don't know what else is out there. You won't accomplish anything by leaving."
"I won't accomplish anything by staying here either," he retorted. He pulled his hand out of the imposter's grasp and strode for the nearest archway.
The imposter watched him go with thoughtful eyes and a tiny, almost imperceptible smile.
X
"What were you thinking?!" Ran shouted at Shinichi. The two of them were alone inside the cabin. Outside, the others were getting acquainted with the Path Finder and plotting their course for the next few days.
Shinichi sat on the edge of one of the hotel beds, trying not to cower under Ran's furious gaze.
"We needed his help," he started to explain.
"But you could have died!" The shout rang out so loudly that, for several seconds after it had faded, neither could hear anything at all. It was an uncomfortable silence: thick and suffocating.
Shinichi bowed his head. "I'm sorry that I worried you, Ran. But—"
"Worried me? That's all you're apologizing for?" the brunette demanded. "You—you stupid detective! What if you had chosen the wrong cup? What would we have told Kaito-kun when he comes back? How do you think he'd feel if he found out that someone had turned you into a statue?"
Shinichi felt his throat close up at the mention of Kaito's name, but he didn't back down. "Ran, please, I did it because I knew I would be right."
"And if you hadn't been?!"
"Ran, are you going to listen to what I have to say or not?"
Finally, the girl calmed down. But only a little. She remained standing over him with her arms folded in that big sister way and a glower on her face that made Shinichi feel seven again.
"Think about it," he said now that the girl wasn't so intent on berating him. "He brewed tea."
"So what?"
"You remember what happened when I put that leaf in the eternity pool. It turned to stone."
"So what? That's precisely why we didn't want you to drink it!"
"So then how did he brew tea with it?"
Silence.
"What?" Ran said finally as her brain caught up to the moment and the implications of Shinichi's words. "So you mean…all of those cups of tea were drinkable?"
"Yes. Because he couldn't have brewed tea with water that turned tea leaves to stone the moment they were submerged."
"Then why didn't you just say so?"
"You heard him. What he wants is entertainment. And I thought it might have been a test," he added. "Like a test of courage or logical reasoning."
Ran fell silent, mulling this over. She could see how someone who enjoyed playing pranks like that might appreciate Shinichi's bold gesture. The possibility of a test of character also made a sort of sense, even if she didn't think that the old man had any reason to need to test their character.
But…
She really had been terrified back there. For a moment, she had seriously wondered, if only briefly, if maybe her friend was really that far gone. If his depression over his loss might have pushed him so deep into despair that he would go and casually gamble with his own life. The thought had terrified her in a way that even monsters couldn't.
And here he was, telling her that it had all been a kind of—of show. She was glad, but, at the same time, she wasn't. Because that look in his eyes… It was dull behind the sharp intelligence. Gray and purple with an agony he wouldn't share with them. Didn't he realize that they were all here to help?
"Don't worry so much," Shinichi said, assured by Ran's lack of reaction that she was no longer ready to break his arm. "I'll make sure you all get out of here—and I mean all the way out and back home. I promised everyone at the sanctuary. I'm going to see this through. No matter what."
Ran nodded mutely and watched as Shinichi made his way out of the cabin to rejoin the conference going on around the campfire. Inside, however, she had gone cold.
He'd said "you", not 'we'. He wasn't including himself. Had it been a slip of the tongue? Or perhaps…perhaps it meant that he didn't intend or expect to go with them. Whatever it was, she didn't like it.
X
Kaito had no idea how long he had been wandering through this strange, iridescent palace with its towering trees and mist-enshrouded halls. The place was an endless maze of pathways roofed by canopies of leaves like starlight spun into solid form. He had been trying to map the place out in his head as he walked. His memory had always been superb, and his sense of direction was usually just as good. However, though he was certain he had not turned around, he kept finding himself back in that chamber with the mirrored pool and the imposter who looked too much like his Shin-chan.
Said imposter never said anything. Each time Kaito reappeared in the room, he only watched from where he had settled down on the bed.
Kaito spent a few minutes wondering if perhaps this was some kind of really strange dream. There was certainly a dream-like quality to the air in this palace. It was the way it seemed to be giving off light and the soft, pastel tint it gave the world. Perhaps he was still in the river. If this was a dream then it would make perfect sense that there didn't seem to be a way out. In a dream, it was only natural to turn a corner and end up walking back the way you'd come.
It might also explain the complete lack of any other life around here. Since waking, he hadn't lain eyes on a single animal or person or anything in between aside from the imposter. Nor were there any robots, shadow beasts, or other animated creation.
A dream would also explain why he wasn't hungry anymore.
There were many reasons why this could be a dream, but… He had the feeling that it wasn't.
And if it wasn't then something was keeping him here. After all, if there was a way in, there had to be a way out. If someone was hiding that way out on purpose, the natural suspect would be the person who had brought him here in the first place. The sole inhabitant of this endless, circular dream palace.
"Who are you?"
The Shinichi imposter looked up from where he had been sipping at a tall, silver goblet full of white wine. It was a strange sight for Kaito, his Shin-chan drinking wine voluntarily. His detective had developed an aversion to alcohol of any kind over his second childhood., partly because said beverages dredged up unpleasant memories of black-clad nightmares and partly because he didn't have much tolerance for the stuff. And anything that dulled the mind was something to be avoided. It was just another reminder that this was not his detective.
"What do you mean?" the imposter asked, big blue eyes managing to project a sense of confusion. "I'm Shinichi."
Kaito scoffed. "Don't be ridiculous."
His answer was a coy smile. "But that is who you would like me to be, isn't it?"
The magician's eyes narrowed. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"Exactly that," the imposter murmured, peering up at him through its lashes in a seductive manner that his Shinichi would never do (his Tantei-kun would be far too embarrassed). "Have you decided to stay?"
"No."
"But you're still here."
"You're the one keeping me here."
The imposter tilted his head to one side in the picture of innocent curiosity that Kaito would have found cute if it hadn't been an illusion. "Am I?"
"All the hallways lead me back here. I know I'm not lost. The halls are actually moving. That, or space is bent. Whatever it is, it's keeping me here. And you're the only person around."
"Perhaps it's your subconscious telling you that what you really wish for is to stay," the imposter offered.
Kaito was rapidly losing his patience. He hadn't had much patience left to begin with after spending what felt like an eternity walking down the same hallways over and over again only to wind up back in the same room twenty times with a creature that insisted on telling him that his friends were all dead. The fact that the creature had the nerve to take on the appearance of his beloved and then go and claim to actually be Shinichi didn't help in the least. What kind of fool did this imposter think he was?
"If you're not the person who's preventing me from leaving then show me how to leave," he said. "Show me the way back to where you found me."
"I can give you a tour," the imposter offered, neatly sidestepping his challenge. Not-Shinichi rose and set his goblet back on the tray upon the table.
Deciding for now to just go along with it, Kaito trailed after the imposter as he once again headed out through a graceful archway. It was the same one that Kaito had walked through earlier. However, now that he was walking with the imposter, the pathways were different.
No more were the endless circles of halls and crystal trees. No more was the feeling of déjà vu every time he turned a corner to find himself right back where he'd begun. Now, he could see a dining room. It housed an enormous banquet table that stretched on and on to almost forever. Above it, clouds of chandeliers fought to make the place as bright as the top of a glacier at high noon.
Then there was the bathroom. It was more like a swimming pool than a bathroom, though it did indeed have shower heads and an assortment of soaps and other necessities. Shinichi would have called it excessive.
"I love the theater chamber best," the imposter said, leading him into yet another vast, haloed space. Here, rows upon rows of silver, stone seats sat before a raised dais of flawless, black stone. Upon it sat a piano. Next to the piano was a small shelf upon which a variety of instruments ranging from violins to flutes sat waiting for a musician to bring them to life.
"Music is truly a beautiful thing, is it not?" the imposter murmured, running a finger over the curve of the piano's lid then moving to pick up a violin. "Would you like to hear me play?"
Kaito wasn't really in the mood, but he had resigned himself to getting to know this imposter before he could find a way out. In some ways, he was almost beginning to feel sorry for it. For whatever reason, it appeared to be trying to please him. But why?
Either way, he was growing more and more certain that this creature was the key to this entire palace. And, well, maybe a little music would be nice. His nerves had been on tender hooks ever since it had said that Shinichi was… But no, Shinichi had to be alive. If there was one thing his Shin-chan was actually lucky with, it was staying alive.
Violin in hand, the imposter stood in the middle of the stage. He lifted his instrument to his shoulder and closed his eyes.
For an instant, he stood there, poised like a dancer about to perform. Then the bow met the strings and the two began to dance. The player became nothing but a presence in the background, second place to the music that flowed away and over the audience chamber.
It was…beautiful. Kaito had to admit that much. The song was not familiar to him. It was soft and deep and captivating. Sad and bright yet delicate to the point of shattering at a touch.
And as the imposter played, the music chamber changed. Curls of mist rose from the floor and billowed up the walls. Light wrapped in gossamer veils about the violinist, blurring his figure.
Kaito squinted. In those shifting, disorienting ripples of light and music, he thought he saw a young woman. She was slender, with long, pale hair that drifted about her like a shroud.
But then he blinked, and it was Shinichi holding the violin again. Well, the imposter Shinichi anyway.
Had it been a simple trick of the light? Another illusion cast by this strange creature? Or had he just glimpsed the imposter's real face?
TBC