A/N: So. Hard. To. Write... Sentences

(2014-10-05. Finally I've gone through the entire story, so now I have some inspiration)

Warnings:
Strange English, OOCness

Shinichi's age: 17
Uploaded: 2014-09-26
Revised: 2014-10-05
Chapter rating: K+
Words: 4,300

Chap. 37
Further into Darkness

"I'm Anokata."

Shinichi just stared at him for a moment, whirling in the realisation that he was standing in front of the man that was running the entire organisation. Then his paleness came from the fact that he was mostly inside his office; planning for everything. Shinichi observed his face, documenting every single crack in his skin, sharpness of his eyes, yet dark from what looked like a case of sleeplessness. The few birthmarks he had, the lobes of his ears, every wisp of hair. Shinichi realised that he'd been staring at the man for a few moments too long when he saw that the man raised his eyebrow.

"It's an honour to finally meet you," the young thief bowed deeply, knowing that he was in serious danger; the boss would never agree to meet him unless he was sure that nothing could go wrong.
"Only a handful of people ever get to meet me, Gin is one of them; I have full trust in his abilities, but you, you're more of a wild card."
"How insulting," Shinichi muttered and decided to keep his persona very similar to the one he was with the silver haired murderer. As he straightened his back he threw a glance to Gin, checking to see what he was doing, but he only leaned on the wall beside the door, watching over his superior.

"Know the heart and mind, and know everything about anyone," Anokata stated and took a sip of the wine, "and predict the actions of your enemy before they've even decided it themselves." Shinichi's eyes narrowed as he wondered what the man was trying to tell him. "That's why I have so much respect for what you do. Just like I have respect for what Vermouth does. I believe you two have met."
"Indeed we have," Shinichi confessed with a smile, "she's a very charming woman."

"Gin, leave us," the pale man requested and made the murderer move like a dark shadow. Gin didn't seem to like it, and Shinichi could understand; leaving someone alone with the boss was a risky move, and not really in line with what he'd heard about Anokata from Vermouth, but that probably meant that Shinichi had a sniper rifle pointed at him from outside. The man before him stayed silent until the door closed behind him, leaving the two alone in the room.

"You are a very intriguing person, Chivas," Anokata immediately begun and twirled the glass in his hands, making the red liquid swirl around, "I feel as if I almost understand you, but not yet. You're not driven by want like so many are, you're driven by fear. You want to control your world, but you can't, no one can, and that angers you. You're younger than you look. You want to leave us, but you fear us and what we could do. You're a child in rebellion, paying careful attention to the words of your parent. You detest murder and blood… and gruesomeness. You carry within you a gentle soul that you protect fiercely, afraid to let it even touch darkness, afraid that it will become tainted, that it will break. You are trying to be something you are not. You do not belong in this organisation. Not until you've chosen who you are. Either we break you and turn you into one of us, or you will betray us."
The thief felt his cheeks heat as he grew worried; should he run now? Or respond. Shinichi decided to only raise an eyebrow at the implication that he was a traitor, and tried to calm down his throbbing heart, knowing that the man probably saw every beat in this neck. Attacking the man was a very appealing action; he didn't look unbeatable, but it was definitely a bad idea.

"Yes, I do want to leave," Shinichi whispered downbeat with a nod of defeat, deciding to give the boss right, "and yet I don't want to leave… Why am I still alive? If I'm going to betray you, why haven't you disposed of me long ago?" Shinichi sent glances around the room, as if he was expecting someone jump out of the shadows to shoot him right then and there, but there was nothing in the room.

"I think," the young thief began in a pensive voice when Anokata stayed silent, "and let me be honest. I think that you know me better than that, and that's why you made your description slightly off target. It's true," the thief nodded a bit to himself, "I'm not very fond of murder, but it's not because I fear it. It's because life is special to me. When I was little, I vowed to myself that I would never kill anyone, but life changes. And if I could gain life by stealing someone else's, I would. However, that's not how the world works."

Shinichi's mind raced as he spoke in a calm voice and his heart pumped his blood in panic, recognising that the man was using silence just like Night Baron did; people didn't like silence, and now even Shinichi was talking to keep it away. "To me, jewels are rocks, gold is scrap, silver is metal, but life, life is something valuable; that's why I don't want to kill. I'm never going to pass up your offer of life, but a question I have is; how close are you? You can't be going around promising people life without having something tangible to show."

Anokata's eyes travelled from Shinichi's mouth till his eyes, and back again. As he stayed silent and analysed the tone of Shinichi's voice, answer, poise and he couldn't reach any other conclusion than that the thief was speaking the truth.
"We do," the man stated with assurance, "and we will show you. Vermouth will get in contact with you within a week. She will give you a tour, so to speak, of our facilities. She can answer the questions you have." The man smirked and jumped to a new topic. "But what about the fact that I know that you're a traitor? Aren't you going to run?" the man asked, amused.
"If you really are as good as you say you are, which you have to be in order to have accomplished what you've accomplished, you know that I'm not a traitor, which means that it's merely a test to see how I would react. So how did I pass, Boss?"
"With flying colours," the man stated with a nod.

"I would love to know what you want me to do, but I also want to listen more to this eternal-life business," Shinichi grinned and let his tongue lick his upper lip, as if he'd done it unconsciously, "if killing will be part of my job I'd love to kill Gin."
"Ah, of course, I've heard of your rivalry. Both of you dislikes the other just as much, but sadly, you and Gin just have to make up and be happy with each other. I'm planning an assignment for the two of you, because with a mind like yours we'd be able to stay better hidden, while Gin is very good at what he does. See it as a mission to trade skills and knowledge. I've already informed Gin on what you two are going to do, so try trusting him and his judgement," Anokata smiled and knocked on the table, unaware that Shinichi saw how his smallest finger made an involuntary tremble. As Gin opened the door and entered the room Shinichi wondered where he'd seen that exact movement before.

"I promise to value Gin's experience during our training. And, it's been an outmost pleasure to meet you, boss," Shinichi stated with a smile and bowed, feeling how he was growing worried for his white foe, "but I do have one more question for you. When, or if, it comes to it; since Spider didn't succeed the last time, may I be the one to get rid of Kaitou KID? Even though he's a lot of fun, I'd be honoured if I could be the one to kill him in the end." The young thief smiled hopefully at the man, begging him in his mind to say yes; if he could be the one to "kill" KID he could protect him from them. As Anokata stared at him without any emotion Shinichi felt himself sweat nervously. The boss of the organisation took a small breath before he answered.
"Sure, I don't see any problems with that, but know that the decision isn't set in stone. You may now leave." With a small nod, Shinichi passed by the man and left as Gin opened the door for him.

"Fun," the murderer muttered as the limousine's door closed behind the currently blonde thief and sent a glance to Vodka as he got in by the driver seat.
"Yes, I don't expect you to know what that is, but that magician is entertaining," Shinichi answered back and studied the man beside him, knowing that Gin probably had waited with his comment until they were away from eavesdropping ears.
"We'll meet tomorrow, and I will see what you can do. Firstly, I want to see how good you really are with a gun, and then we'll go through hand-to-hand combat. I will only tell you what your next assignment is when you've passed. Sounds like fun?"
"Sounds interesting," Shinichi smiled and wondered how good the man was at fighting. The conversation died off and silence took its place. Shinichi decided to not ask where they were going to show confidence, but he soon enough saw that the men were bringing him back to the place where they picked him up.

"Meet us here, tomorrow at ten," Gin stated as Shinichi got out of the car inside the parking garage, "bring whatever weapon you have."
"Sure, see you then," the young thief answered and watched as the limousine was driven deeper into the garage to be exchanged for Gin's favourite car. When the taillights of the car vanished down to the floor below Shinichi immediately tore off his jacket and turned it inside out. He quickly pulled up a fake phone and searched himself for bugs, only finding his own inactive ones. As he checked his pants and shoes a silvery motorbike came driving through the garage. Without a word, Shinichi caught the helmet that the driver threw to him and then got on.
"Are we safe?" the young thief wondered as they drove outside, knowing what his father would respond as long as something hadn't gone wrong.
"Yes, Avaron saw them leave through another exit."
"Good."

The moment they got home and had put away the bike and balloon Shinichi sat down by the table at home to tell his parents everything that had happened, and he knew that they wouldn't like it.

"So basically, you're going to trust them?" Avaron asked with a worried frown after he'd finished his story, seeing that her son was already determined.
"If I can get evidence against the boss I can take them down, and I now know what he looks like. I already have evidence against most of the people I've met, and Vermouth is going to give me a tour of their 'facilities'. I can't give up now; they are trusting me."

"I can't even put into words how much I hate what you're doing," Satoru stated sadly and Shinichi could see worry in his eyes, "what if they put someone in front of you tomorrow and ask you to kill them? Would you?" The thought made the young thief look down to think, imagining what actions he could take if such a situation were to occur.

Shinichi saw himself standing in front of a kneeling man. Gin handed him a gun in his visualisation and told him to kill. Shinichi saw himself hesitate and Gin became suspicious. The man on the floor looked up with terror in his eyes, begging Shinichi not to kill him. Gin becomes impatient and shoots him himself before turning the gun on Shinichi; death was the thought's end. The young man quickly began the scenario from where Gin handed him the gun, but as he grabbed the gun he immediately pointed it at Gin and pulled the trigger. Two shots blazed off; Gin would never hand a gun to anyone without being prepared with his own. Shinichi was killed again, Gin was severely injured. The young thief ran the scenarios again, and again, but the only action he could take without getting injured or killed was to shoot the man without hesitation.

"I don't know," Shinichi whispered a few seconds after his father had asked the question and shook his head, "I really don't know."
"We can leave Japan, vanish without a trace. Your mother and I can try to be honest," Satoru smiled hopefully, "we can open up a small café. Just choose a country."
"You'd do that?" the teenager asked surprised, but realised that it was a ridiculous thought; of course his parents would do that.
"Of course we would," Avaron smiled and reached a hand across the table hold Shinichi's, "we've talked about it a lot, and we've been saving up."

Shinichi sighed deeply; he understood his parents worry, and he wanted nothing else but to follow their advice, but the organisation would stop at nothing to get to a traitor. They would even go so far as to blow up buildings; they didn't care about people as long as they couldn't be connected to it.
"They would never stop looking…" Shinichi whispered sadly, "and I'd lose Kaito. Japan is his home. We can't just burst into their house and whisk them away. He wouldn't understand until I told him everything. And if both KID and Night Baron vanished soon after each other the organisation would know. I don't know what to do."
"We want to leave," Satoru whispered with an understanding look, knowing that he was making the decision harder for his son, "we want to throw in the towel and run. They are just too dangerous, but we know that if you choose to stay you'd leave us and hide. No cage nor cell could lock you in. And whatever decision you make; we will stay together."

For a while Shinichi just sat by the table looking at his parents' begging gazes.
"I'm sorry," he sighed, "I can't."

The air was heavy as Shinichi got up and without looking at his parents he walked into his room. He didn't know if he would kill for the organisation, and right now he didn't want to think about it. Right now he just wanted to surrender to unconsciousness with the help of some sleeping gas. Gassing himself to get some sleep was becoming a bad habit.

Shinichi had been picked up by the two murderers just before the said time and had been surprised when they stopped at what appeared to be a normal restaurant.
"We're not open yet," a man called out as they entered through the door, "come back in an hour and we're lunch-open." Gin crossed between the empty tables until he reached the counter and pushed the small buzzer.
"We're not here for the food," the silver haired assassin stated in a bored voice.
"Bah! I'm running a business here!" the owner of the restaurant walked out of the backroom, drying his hands on a towel, "I can't have your kind of people at my restaurant. What's wrong with the backdoor?" The dark haired man waited for a second before sighing and stepped aside. "Go, get out of sight." Shinichi watched as a carpet was pulled away and revealed an entrance to a cellar. The restaurant owner slammed the cover over them and quickly hid it with the carpet again.

The cellar had a cooler air and was filled to the brim with food. Gin quickly pushed a piece of the wall open and entered a new larger room, followed by Vodka and the thief. The hidden storage room was full of old furniture and cardboard boxes. Without a word, Gin pulled in a cable that hung from a ceiling light. As the murderer's hand bobbed up and down Shinichi realised that he was pulling a code, and soon after the wall sunk away, revealing a narrow corridor.

The corridor became dark as the wall sealed itself behind them. Neither Gin nor Vodka seemed to mind the darkness and just kept walking, Shinichi however pulled out Kaitou KID's old monocle and activated the night vision. The small corridor became a large room and Vodka pushed a light switch revealing that the room was a shooting range and it had weapons covering the walls. Everything from assault weapons and grenade launchers to sniper rifles and pocket guns hung for anyone to see. Shinichi heard a content huff from his side and realised that Gin was looking at him with a snarky smile. The thief quickly closed his mouth that had fallen open in shock and removed the monocle.

"Yes, it's a nice place," Shinichi stated with an approving nod, pretending to not be as impressed as he was, knowing that Gin would see through his act. They watched as Vodka hung up a target sheet in an open window and sent it back.
"Did you bring any weapons?" Gin asked as he pulled out a cigarette and rolled it between his fingers.
"Yes, a revolver and a common Beretta M9," the thief confessed and pulled out the guns, showing them off to the murderer. Gin looked almost bored by his choices in weapons, as if he'd expected more from the thief; Shinichi was after all the one who had brought him a sniper rifle before it had even been made.
"I barely, if ever, use them," Shinichi confessed, almost proud of the fact, but still not impressing Gin.
"Too bad, I hope your aim hasn't suffered because of that," Gin piqued and pointed to the window that Vodka had placed in order, "shoot."

Shinichi gave Gin an annoyed glance and inserted some earplugs, but still did what he was told and shot. Even though no word was spoken, Shinichi knew that Gin was watching every single move, studying him and judging him. The thief emptied the magazine of the revolver and then pushed the button to pull the target closer and turned around to watch Gin smoke his cigarette while Vodka picked a sniper rifle off the wall and began to disassemble it. The teenager reloaded the weapon and placed it in his inner pocket as Gin walked up to him, watching the large paper sheet close in.

"Good enough," the man muttered and turned to Vodka, seeing his partner close the bag with the sniper rifle in it. They stayed there for about an hour, shooting different guns and stayed mostly silent. When they left they went out the back way by following another narrow corridor, which ended in what appeared to be an old bomb shelter in the basement of an apartment complex. Shinichi kept an even pace with the men as they walked back to Gin's car.

"Regal, get us some lunch," the murderer demanded as he leaned on door and sent a glance to the restaurant they had been in before, "tell him, three to go, extra pepper on one." Shinichi nodded and crossed the road to the now busy restaurant, deciding that an argument about it would just waste time.
"Three to go, extra pepper on one," Shinichi smiled a polite smile to the owner, and saw how he beamed at him.
"Well, see who's back," the man greeted him as if they were old comrades and packaged the food without adding any seasoning to any order, "long time no see."
"Yea, how have you been?" the teenager in disguise asked and pulled out yen to pay.
"I've been great, other than the fact that some kids shot a ball inside and managed to tip a lot of spices over and I haven't gotten my shipment of fresh spices. But other than that, I'm perfect. Have a nice day." The man handed over the plastic bag with the boxes inside and Shinichi bid him farewell.

"What did he say?" the silver haired man asked once Shinichi returned and made the thief realise that the conversation most likely had been some kind of code.
"He's running low on spices. Some kids tipped them over," Shinichi smiled and handed out the food hearing how Gin hummed lowly, sounding almost tired.
"Suntory is not doing his job… We'll eat now, then practice with the rifle and then go through the hand-to-hand combat," Gin muttered, almost so quiet that Shinichi didn't hear him.
"Yes, Aniki."
"Sure, Gin."

Kaito was anxiously waiting for when Night Baron was going to call him and tell him that everything was alright and that he had just been overly cautious. He knew that it could be days before he got the call, but that didn't stop him from checking every few minutes. Aoko stared at his jittery behaviour as they walked to school, but every time she asked what was wrong he would just laugh a bit awkwardly and say that he was waiting for a message from the postal service telling him that his magic supplies had arrived. She knew he was lying straight to her face, but she couldn't be angry with him when he looked like he was begging his phone to ring. It, however, worried her that he wouldn't talk to her.

Their first lesson passed and everyone was anxious about the trickster's behaviour, but as the bell rang out for a short break Aoko walked up to her childhood friend while most students left the room. She slammed her fist into his table, making him twitch and look up at her.
"Aoko?" he tried to smile and look innocent, but he saw that she was determined; he would have to talk.
"You're acting weird," she stated and sat down, "what's wrong?"
"Nothing," Kaito chuckled a bit uncomfortably and looked around the room, seeing that Hakuba and two others were still in there, all three probably eavesdropping.
"Don't lie to me!" Aoko commanded and made her friend shudder; he didn't like it when she had good reasons for being mad at him.
"Gaah, Aoko, quiet down, please," Kaito winced and looked around the room, seeing that Hakuba wasn't even trying to hide the fact that that he was listening in, "I'm just worried, alright?" The magician carefully stroke the small Night Baron-ornament that hung from his phone.
"I'm expecting a call from someone," he whispered so low that Aoko barely could hear him, "they promised to call."
"Who?" she asked curiously but the magician only shook his head and blushed, making her suspicious.
"A girl?" she asked with a grin, not bothering to speak quiet, "do you have a girlfriend? Do I know her?"
"You don't have to worry," Kaito muttered with an even fiercer blush, feeling how his ears burned, and sent a glance to two students that were playing with their phones; Aoko had been loud, so he could only assume that the class would know about 'his girlfriend' before the next class had even begun.
"Come on," the younger teenager whispered eagerly, "what's her name?"
"It's… Um… Promise to not tell anyone," Kaito pleaded and hesitated as he stared at his friend; he couldn't go around telling people Night Baron's name, especially when a nosy blonde detective's had walked in on them kissing. "No, I'm sorry, I can't tell you. We haven't been together for long." The thief blushed and looked to his phone, hoping that it would ring, but his wishing was interrupted by giggling.

"Aw, Kaito's love-struck," Aoko whispered and stopped giggling while he glared at her. As she got up he saw in the corner of his eyes how the blonde foreigner also got up, and came towards him. A thought of fleeing passed Kaito's mind, but his legs didn't move, and then the Brit sat down. The detective's mouth opened, but he just sighed and looked thoughtful before taking eye-contact.
"He's dangerous," Hakuba whispered and looked to the thief.
"Who? What?" Kaito stared at him, looking like he didn't understand anything, but the detective only frowned, trying to choose his words with caution.
"Let's say that… Would you tell…" the blonde began, making Kaito raise his eyebrow, "okay, follow me in this thought-experiment: You know someone that is carrying a bomb in their satchel. You don't know if it's armed or what the timer is set on. You don't like the person. Would you tell the person about the bomb?"

Kaito stared at the foreigner, knowing that he was comparing Night Baron to a bomb, but since he isn't KID he couldn't answer.
"Umm… Yes… You tell them about the bomb…" the thief answered quizzically, looking as if he was thinking that the Brit was crazy.
"What if the person with the bomb pokes and prods at the bomb and decides that it's not dangerous, what then?" Hakuba asked, giving him a wondering look.
"Who pokes a bomb?" Kaito asked with a huff and rolled his eyes, "are you dealing with an idiot?"
"Yes, he's an idiot. An unwise fool. A rash, stupid, reckless idiot."
"Well, take the bomb from him, or call the police," the magician gave him a dead-panned expression, making the detective sigh as he knew that the thief knew what he was talking about.
"You are still my classmate… So… He's dangerous. He has questionable ties to some people. Whatever you do, don't drop your guard, don't turn your back, and don't trust him" Hakuba got up from the chair, looking irritated as the thief had chosen to not listen to the warning and just mock his intelligence; anyone could see that the thief was hopelessly in love if they knew which signs to look for.