Chapter Thirty-Six
Enma
Shinichi looked around in confusion. One second, he was struggling with the leader over Pandora; the next he was standing in some kind of courtroom. Looking behind him, the rows on both sides were filled with endless shadows, some pitch-black, some shining white, but most varying shades of grey. There seemed to be no jury; all there was was a judge's podium, behind which was a man dressed in flowing robes of red and white.
"Enma?" the leader growled, causing the golden figure to sigh.
"Spirit controllers. No respect these days," he sighed in a deep, rumbling voice. It was a voice that rumbled through every cell of the body, though Shinichi suspected that if he was in the presence of the Enma, he wasn't in a body any more.
"Are we… in the spirit world?" he said guardedly, glancing around the room. "It's a courtroom?"
"It's a place most people can recognize. It's easier to deal with spirits if you reduce the fear and confusion factors- being dead tends to be bad enough," Enma said, waving his hand at the spirits behind Shinichi and the leader, who drifted off through various doors. "Anyway, this is just the Japan division. Feel grateful, Osiris refuses to upgrade. Says it's to punish the mortals for barely believing in them any more… it doesn't matter, they damn well believe once they're in here."
"Why are we here?" the leader growled. Enma grinned, which visibly unnerved the leader.
"You are here, Iida Akio," he said in an amused tone, "because you're dead. Both of you tried to pull your souls out of each other's bodies at the same time, and when you passed out you fell down a staircase. Snapped your neck. About damn time, I say. You and your little organization belong in Hell. I've had ghosts calling for it for years, even- what am I saying- especially your own. Take him away. Izanami has plans for him, I believe."
"No!" Iida yelled, but it was a fading cry as his spirit vanished. Several more of the black and darker grey shadows vanished with him.
"… What about me?" Shinichi asked tentatively, looking away from the spot where Iida had vanished and up to Enma, who was flicking through a notebook. Shinichi wasn't really at an angle to see the pages properly, but text seemed to be writing itself across the pages. "Am I dead too…?"
"What, the rubber body of Kuroba Kaito killed by a little fall?" Enma snorted. "Not likely. Besides, you had a soft landing. It is failing, though, lying empty as it is, and if- no, it's okay, the pair of you landed in the Teimuzu. Your body and Kuroba Kaito's. I think your ghosts might have had a hand in that…" he mumbled over the notebook, and at that moment Shinichi realized that he was still holding the Pandora. He looked at the jewel, and then raised it up into Enma's sight.
"Hey… this is from here, isn't it?" he asked, looking at the now pure-red jewel. Enma's eyes widened, and he leaned over his podium, the white in his robes reflecting brightly around the room.
"Well, now," he breathed, red eyes alight. Like the red in his robes, they were the colour of blood. "Izanami will be very happy to see that again. Her crown jewel, deterrent to minions of Izanami- it was intended to be an anti-theft device, but it also made it very hard to find once it was stolen. And you found it!"
"I'm not interested in it," Shinichi said tossing it into the air. It abruptly vanished. "I just want to know… can you tell me? What am I? Why can I…?"
"Why can you see ghosts?" Enma said, rolling his eyes. "I get that a lot from your sort, not that you're down here much. Those who have been to the spirit world and back can see ghosts. Spirit world energy. It's hardy stuff."
"So… I'm reincarnated or something?" Shinichi asked quizzically.
"Don't ask me, not my department," Enma said, snapping his fingers at somebody. "I just make sure souls go in the right direction, Izanami knows about after that. For now, the direction you're going is the realm of the living. Good job, kid."
"Hey…" Shinichi started to ask, but everything was fading again. But this time, it was couple with an odd sensation, like a thousand fingers running through his hair, comforting, apologetic, sorrowful, grateful…
Enma smiled as the kid vanished, dozens of spirits appearing in the room. Those who could control spirits weren't astonishingly rare, but one with a little bit of kindness or respect left was. And it reflected on the ghosts they handled. Not a single was black, and grey could always fade into white. For that, Izanami probably wouldn't mind the route he sent the kid back by…
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"Oh my god!"
Sonoko clasped her hands tightly over her mouth in the wake of her horrified shriek, staring at the police-covered building they were watching from the other side of the Teimuzu. It was the closest they could get, but they were too curious to just go home, long past midnight though it was. Now they just all stared, horrified.
Windows had been shattering for a while in the building, smoke pouring out of them, but now something different was happening; explosions had begun to rock the building, and police were visibly fleeing the lower floors, sometimes escorting or dragging black-clad captives. And from the explosions from the upper floors…
"Somebody's falling!" Nakamichi yelled. Tashiro screamed and grabbed his arm as she noticed the figures falling, silhouetted against the flaming upper floors. Ran covered her mouth with a gasp, fear striking her. Oh god, those people were going to fall to their deaths!
"Wait… I think they're falling into the river!" Eisuke said, putting a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "Look…"
They were. As if an invisible wind was pushing them, the two were falling towards the water, where they landed in a huge splash a moment later.
"That's not much better, now they'll just drown," Nakamichi pointed out. Eisuke sighed and started running down the bank towards the river, toeing off his shoes and pulling off his jacket on the way.
"Oh, no way am I getting out-heroed by Hondo!" Nakamichi yelled, following suit. Ran looked at Tashiro and Sonoko, who suddenly giggled.
"Ready to see your boyfriends in wet shirts, girls?" she said, raising her cameraphone. Tashiro screamed but laughed, running down to the river.
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"Kudo-kun? Kudo-kun!"
"Holy shit, it is him…"
"Two of him?"
"Shinichi?"
Shinichi blinked into consciousness. The first sight was several concerned faces that he recognized as normally being atop Teitan uniforms staring down at him, Ran and Hondo among them. He slowly sat up, noting that at least three were soaking.
"We saw you two fall into the Teimuzu and pulled you out," Hondo explained, wringing water out of his shirt.
"Hondo's an amazing swimmer," Nakamichi said, shaking his own head like a dog to the shrieks of a couple of girls, including a now angry Sonoko. Ran glared at him, cracking her fist.
"I used to fall into rivers and ponds a lot," Hondo admitted sheepishly. Then he glanced over. "Who's your twin?"
Shinichi stared at the other body next to him. From the clothes, it was Kaito's; Enma seemed to have returned him to his own body, which, burned and battered though it was, did not seem to have sustained serious damage beyond the bullet strike to the left arm and the burn on the right. It was good to be home. And Kaito…
Kaito would be…
A powerful wave of grief hit him when he stared at the doppelganger body. He should known this would happen for a long time; he knew from the start that, since Kaito's soul had already separated from his body and he was no spirit master, he could never return. He had only really been possessing Shinichi's body, and when his death was avenged, his soul should have gone on to Reikai; it was probably among the mass of souls that had appeared before Enma as he left, their murderers arrested or killed. He had known at the start that this would happen, but he'd managed to tell himself that maybe it wouldn't have to. So why did it hurt so much to think that he would never see his ally and friend again?
Kami, was he crying? Something must be distorting his vision. It almost looked as if Kaito was moving.
Then Kaito opened his eyes and sat up, clutching his stomach.
"What's up?" he said as Shinichi suddenly shot away in shock "Ow… shit, that Gin dude really had an iron fist… this is really gonna hurt in the morning..."
"Kaito?" he gasped in surprise, reaching over to support his friend one-handedly as he tried to stand up. Tashiro and Sonoko were squealing slightly at the sight of four dripping wet young men, but Ran and Hondo just looked a bit embarrassed and Hondo was scrutinizing Kaito thoughtfully. Did he recognize his name? "You're alive? I thought you'd…"
Kaito stared down at his body, and then tapped the grass and the shoulder of a very confused Hondo, confirming that he was physical. "Me too," he said, nonplussed. Then he grinned. "Who cares? I'm alive!" laughing, he glomped Shinichi around the neck, both laughing happily despite the confused stares of the other students. Shinichi suddenly became very, very aware of the strong, wet body wrapped around his. He'd been inhabiting it until recently, and was very well acquainted with it; suddenly, the new occupant lent an extra dimension to that intimacy. He could feel himself blushing. From the way Kaito stiffened almost imperceptibly, he was probably blushing too- or at least was having the same thoughts that Shinichi was.
"Shinichi…?" Ran said in confusion. Shinichi made to push Kaito off of him, and as he did their gazes met. Kaito glanced at the students, then back at Shinichi, and suddenly his eyes filled with a playful sparkle that Shinichi interpreted quickly and still too late.
"Ah, what the hell," Kaito complained, before pulling Shinichi back to him and kissing him.
Shinichi kinda lost track of the fact that anyone else was there at that point, though he later vaguely remembered hearing Sonoko scream "Look what you've done now, Ran! You've scared him off of girls entirely!"
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Izanami thumped her rotting skull repeatedly off of a desk made of other people's. She slowly raised a wasted, decayed arm and pointed a bony finger at Tsukiyomi, who was almost prostrate with laughter.
"This is your fault," she growled in a voice like creaking tombstones. "Somehow, this is your fault. He is yours. That makes this your fault. And where the hell is Enma?"
Amaterasu supported her brother, politely hiding her own musical laughter behind a fine golden sleeve.
"Be calm, Izanami," she said pleasantly. "You will get him someday. For now, you have much work to do…" she gestured towards the fresh souls that had appeared, sent on by Enma. Many were marked as Ravens, wreathed in black shadows. She gestured to those who glowed white with a delicate white hand. "But you… will come with me. For your sufferings, you belong with me in Takamagahara." She gave Tsukiyomi an odd interdimensional shove which made him vanish, probably to laugh in peace in Mare Serenitatis. Then she beckoned again to the white souls, walking in another direction that cannot be adequately described in three-dimensional adjectives. They followed, and though some of the black souls tried to sneak away too, Izanami held them back, grinning maliciously as her youkai began to chatter.
Akai Shuichi, Miyano Akemi and her parents, Kuroba Toichi, Hondo Ethan and hundreds of other followed Amaterasu into the light, ready to rest in peace.
At least, it would be peaceful until they got settled in…
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A very happy thing happened today. I got a job! *Starts partying* As of today, I work in the Aladdin's cave that is Argos XD Which also means no more endless job hunting, and more free time to write! And so, in celebration, back to APT! :)
By the way, to explain the various deities mentioned in this chapter:
King Enma, or King Yama in Sanskrit, is an east-asian lord of death. However, he is generally perceived as guarding the boundaries between this world and the next rather than actually ruling the afterlife.
Izanami is the Japanese goddess of death and hell.
Amaterasu is the Japanese goddess of the sun. Her palace at Takamagahara is considered to be the ultimate Heaven for good souls.
Tsukiyomi is Amaterasu's brother, the god of the moon, sometimes perceived as mischievous due to the moon's connection with Tanuki.
Osiris is the Egyptian lord of the dead. He judges the dead, along with his sister-wife Isis, and watches over those souls which make it to the afterlife.
Mare Serenitatis is Latin for "Sea of Serenity" and is a prominent geological feature of earth's largest moon.
It's all good, Marie Ravenclaw! They're all OK! Well, sorta…
Yes, the stone did "just poof", OnlyIntuition… to another realm… Don't worry, the other spirit master isn't going anywhere…
Here's the update (finally), Teldra!
He's okay, SoftcoreOtaku! Find any good new Abridged series?
So little KaiShin fic, Kayla Edogawa… it's a tragedy DX
Please don't come after me, Kaito! I made it all OK! I'm sure FallenAngelYamiHikari will agree! Right?
Vermouth's made a break for it, Ivan's Kitsune…
Forgive me for keeping you dancing on the comfy chair of death for so long, Dragon's Hitokiri XDXD
He's made it to the afterlife and back, digifreak51794… (Can I just call you digifreak? XD)
I don't think this is "soon", SecondtoNon, but here's the update anyway!
Glad you enjoyed the chapter, Renkin-chan, and it's okay, no major cliffie this time! XD
It's all busy, AmaryMei, but good luck with getting a second job and that laptop! And I noticed that OneManga was dead DX There's still Mangafox, I suppose…
I think I did leave it like that, Cat XDXD Here's the update! Finally! XD
Thanks for the info on snake, Dayanaria! I changed it to "Snakebite" because it was an alcohol that I knew of, but Snake sounds very, very interesting… anyway, it's always good to meet a fellow KaiShin fangirl ;) Hope you like the fic!
Hope you've caught up on your fics, Madame of All Manga ;) Thanks to Enma, Shinichi's all OK… XD
And the cliffie is solved, Tohda! XD
Short, Hollyivy7?
I do not own or claim to own Meitantei Conan/Case Closed. If I did, I would be luxuriating in my royalties, not writing fanfic in the back of old maths jotters instead of doing homework. -_-