Disclaimer: I don't own DCMK.

A.N: There seems to be some kind of glitch going on because this chapter only occasionally shows up when I'm not logged in and it's already been several days. So I'm reloading it to see if that helps.


The Show Goes On

39: Up the River

The river ran fast and dark between rocky banks. Though the water appeared clean beneath the glimmers of false sky that danced upon its surface, none of them could see the riverbed. It was as though, despite its relatively narrow width, the river was every bit as deep as a mountain chasm. The chill rising from it carried with it the scent of winter snow. The cold and the scent together should have been bracing, but Shinichi found himself fighting to keep his eyes open as it washed over him like a heavy fog. He stumbled and would have sunk to his knees if Kaito hadn't pulled him back.

The magician backpedaled with Shinichi in tow until they could no longer feel the river's icy aura. Then he took a deep breath. "That was close. Last thing we need is for all of us to end up lost in dreamland."

"Even I felt that," Kazuha said, shivering.

"No kidding." Heiji gave himself a vigorous shake that sent a few pieces of straw flying to pepper the rocks. "Too bad we can't bottle this stuff up. A few whiffs would fix anyone having trouble sleeping."

"At least we know we have the right river." Kaito turned to begin walking along the bank, heading upstream. "Now we just have to find its source. That should be where our oh so generous hosts reside."

"Do you really think it'll be that simple?" asked Shinichi.

Kaito gave his hand a reassuring squeeze. "I wouldn't presume that anything around here is or isn't going to be simple," he said. "But I do think this place likes to operate in certain ways, and those ways tend to revolve around stories and superstitions and the occasional pop culture trend from our world. With that in mind, I'm going to be more surprised if we don't find at least a God of Sleep wannabe at the head of this river."

Shinichi nodded slowly. "But we'll have to be careful. Everything in this world always seems to be a bit…"

"Twisted?" Kaito suggested.

"Unexpected was the word I was thinking, but I guess you're right."

"I was just wondering, have you two thought about what we're going to ask these people if we find them?" Hattori asked, jogging to catch up to the vampire and his detective.

"I thought we'd be asking them how to get home," Kazuha put in. "They have all this power to create all these places. They must know how we can leave."

"More about what this world really is would be helpful to know as well," Shinichi said. "And how we got here."

"It seems to me," Kaito said, voice dropping into something dark that was almost a growl. "The real question is are they going to let everyone they've ensnared go."

"Ya know, I get how this place is full of creepy people and stuff," the scarecrow said. "But you're startin' to sound real paranoid. There's gotta be some good people even in this world, right?"

"I concede only that you are entitled to your opinion as I am entitled to mine," Kaito replied dryly before turning to Shinichi. "Are you hungry?"

Surprised by the rather random question, Shinichi had to think a moment before he discovered to his surprise that yes, his stomach very much wanted to be fed. "A little something would be nice. I didn't eat much at the feast. But did any of you bring food?"

"Sir Scarecrow, hand over that hamper."

Heiji hesitated then lifted the chicken hamper up to eye level and scrutinized the two birds inside. They glared back at him, clucking angrily. Feeling that the hen on the right looked somewhat more familiar, he pointed to the hen on the left.

"You can have that one. I promised the chicken we raced with that I wouldn't let it become someone's lunch. After all, it saved our butts in that race."

"I suppose biting a lightning beast or two in half does deserve a reward." Lifting the hamper's lid, Kaito grabbed the other chicken with both hands, pinning its wings to its sides, and lifting it out. Heiji shut the hamper the moment the hen was clear to make sure the second bird wouldn't attempt an escape.

Shinichi eyed the squawking chicken in Kaito's grasp with a certain level of trepidation. "I know how to cook chicken, but I've never prepared one that was, you know, alive…"

"You just worry about getting a fire started. I'll be right back." Kaito tossed him a pack of matches. Then, with the protesting chicken tucked firmly under one arm, he marched off into the garden, quickly disappearing from sight but not from earshot. The chicken's frantic clucking continued to assail their ears until, with an abruptness that made all the rest of them wince, it stopped.

Shinichi knew that, as someone who had bred and raised hundreds of doves, Kaito had, on occasion, had to put a bird out of its misery because of ill health. But the thought of what else Kaito might be doing with that chicken made him feel more than a little unsettled.

He busied himself breaking off twigs from the nearby greenery and starting a fire. It was slow going with the fuel too fresh to really burn well, but he managed. It was some time before Kaito returned with the chicken cleaned and spitted on a sharpened branch ready to be roasted over the fire. He had even managed to find a handful of oranges.

"I doubt it would be wise to drink from the river," he said, tossing Shinichi an orange. "So these will have to do. I'm going to see if I can dip a handkerchief into the water really fast so we can test out if it's safe to at least clean our hands with."

Soon, the aroma of roast chicken permeated the area.

When Kaito returned, he leaned down to give Shinichi a peck on the lips before flopping onto the grass next to him.

"Works like a charm," he announced, much to everyone's confusion. Seeing the looks on their faces, he laughed and explained. "To get rid of the drowsiness from getting too close to the river."

"O—oh." Caught by surprise, the detective turned pink and pretended he couldn't hear Kazuha giggling. His embarrassment at the magician's public display of affection, however, didn't stop him from leaning into Kaito's side when the magician wrapped an arm around him. After these agonizing days of not knowing whether Kaito was alive or not, he found himself craving the contact and the reassurance it provided that this was not another dream.

Once everyone had eaten and rested, they carefully cleaned up their camp then continued following the river upstream.

Since they continued to see only sky over the tops of the surrounding vegetation, none of them were expecting it when they finally found the river's source. At that point, all of them had to stop and spend a moment just gaping. The river was cascading out of a crevice in the sky. To either side of the waterfall, the gray blue of the garden's false sky faded smoothly into moss-covered stone.

Hattori whistled. "Now that's not something you see every day."

"It's like there's a cave behind the sky that it's flowing out of," Kazuha, who was floating some fifteen feet above their heads, reported in a tone of pure wonder. "There's actually a walkway in there next to the river. And a door!" she added, silver white eyes widening. "One of ours, I mean. The hotel kind with the keycard lock."

"Question is, can we get up there without falling asleep?" Hattori wondered.

"I could be wrong," Shinichi began, taking a careful sniff of the air. "But the river smells more…normal here."

"We trust your nose," Kaito assured him, rubbing Shinichi behind the ears and grinning when the detective automatically leaned into his touch. "But let's not all try it at once."

"Well it ain't gonna be me trying it," Hattori said, taking a large step back. "One of you two should go. Since you got someone here ta wake you up and all."

"I'll go." Not waiting for any of his companions to respond, Shinichi trotted up to the waterfall. He felt a brief wave of wooziness as he neared it, but the sensation passed quickly. Pausing where the spray hissed over the waterfall's small, rocky basin, he held his hand out under the current. It ran fast and cold over his fingers. He remained where he was for several seconds before withdrawing and turning to wave the others forward.

"It's safe to touch at least. If anyone needs to wash their hands or anything else, you should go ahead and do so."

Getting up and through the crack in the sky was a little more complicated. There was no way to climb up and the opening was quite a lot narrower than Kaito's wingspan. The vampire magician ended up flying Heiji and Shinichi up one at a time then tossing them through the opening before diving in after them himself. He folded his wings just before he reached the crevice, hit the ground in a roll, and came back up to his feet in perfect form.

"Show off," Hattori grunted, rubbing his shoulder. "Did ya have to throw me that hard? You were way gentler with Kudo."

"Of course. You're made of straw. You'll bounce. Shin-chan won't."

Hattori turned to Shinichi. "Yer boyfriend's really biased, ya know that?"

Shinichi blushed and scratched his cheek. "He just meant you weren't going to break any bones since the straw keeps you well padded. He wouldn't have actually let you get injured."

The scarecrow rolled his eyes. "Whatever. Let's see about that door."

"It's over here," Kazuha called from further down the passage. In her pearly glow, they could all see the door in question.

Shinichi halted abruptly several paces away as his face twisted in a mix of horror, disgust and concern. "There's something dead in there."

"How do you—" Hattori started to ask then cut himself off. "Ah, right, the smell."

"In that case, we have a choice to make. We can look, or we can keep going." Kaito turned his gaze on Shinichi. "I assume you want to look."

"We have to," the detective replied. "If it's someone from the party, we'll have to notify their friends and family when we get home."

"I guess I can just go in and see what I can see," Kazuha offered hesitantly. She did not really want to go look at a dead body, but she agreed that they had a duty to try and find out who it was.

Hattori frowned. "You sure?"

She nodded resolutely. "It's not like I can get hurt, right?" That said, she turned and floated through the door before she could lose her nerve.

The boys waited in silence, listening to the roar of the waterfall behind them and the echoes of running water as they rebounded up and down the tunnel walls. None of them were prepared when they heard Kazuha scream.

Hattori immediately threw himself at the door only to be forcefully reminded that it was locked. He cursed.

"Stand aside, Straw Stuffing," Kaito ordered. Charging past the Osakan detective, he rammed his shoulder into the door. The entire thing was ripped off its hinges and hurled across the room beyond to smash into the opposite wall. The three young men piled into the room right behind it, ready to fight. Hattori already had his light saber glowing in his hands.

"Oh my god!" an unfamiliar female voice shrieked. "Who are you people?! What do you want from me? I don't have anything valuable, so if you're here to rob me, you're wasting your time!"

Three pairs of eyes stared.

There, sitting on the hotel's one bed with her arms folded defiantly across her chest, was a young woman in a tattered wedding dress. Her skin was hued blue, and there was a row of stitches beneath her left eye. Her lips were a dark purple. All in all, she looked—and smelled—like a corpse. Except, of course, that she was sitting up and glaring at them.

"Well?" she snapped. "If you don't believe me, you can go ahead and search the room. There's nothing worth taking. Go on. Look."

"Ya got it all wrong," Hattori stammered. "We heard screaming…"

"I'm sorry," Kazuha said quickly, bowing to the room at large as her cheeks turned silver. "When I saw you, I thought, well, I mean, your eyes were closed, and you weren't breathing, and you're all blue and stuff and Kudo-kun said there was something dead in here. So I thought you were, you know, and then you opened your eyes. I just sort of panicked."

The zombie gave Kazuha a strange look. "You're a ghost."

"Um, yes?"

"And you panicked because you saw me."

Kazuha flushed. "Er, well…"

"We didn't mean to bother you," Shinichi cut in, hoping to salvage the situation. "We were just wondering if you attended the magicians convention."

"I was there. I went to the costume ball too," the zombie sniffed. "For what good it did me. Not a single man worth remembering, and now I'm stuck here in the middle of nowhere. Let me tell you, sometimes life just isn't worth the time it takes to live it."

"We're sorry to hear you've been having such a dreadful time of it," Kaito said. "I believe, however, that we might be able to help you on at least one of your problems. You see, we are currently working on finding a way out of this world and back to our own. You are more than welcome to join us." Stepping forward, he bowed and produced a yellow rose with a flourish.

The zombie bride glowered at the flower then at Kaito. "I've known men like you. You're all pretty words and no substance. All of you are just lying, two-timing jerks behind the show. Well I'm not falling for that anymore."

Kaito's face went blank. He had never had anyone respond to him in such a way, and he honestly wasn't sure if he should be shocked by the novelty or offended by her assessment of his character (which, he would like to say, was totally wrong. Just ask Shinichi. Kaito might be a flirt—he would admit that much, but he had never been unfaithful to his beloved detective, thank you very much). And if Tantei-han didn't stop laughing, he was going to shake out all his own straw stuffing. What did the woman think he was trying to get her to fall for anyway?

Shinichi had to suppress an amused smile of his own as he coughed lightly to get the woman's attention. "Excuse me, but could we get your name? I'm Kudo Shinichi." He quickly introduced the others before continuing. "We were all at the convention, and we really are searching for a way home right now."

The woman sniffed. "I suppose that would be what a detective would do, wouldn't it? Well, you can call me Kimi. And I would like to go home, if you know how. This place is even worse than my ex's apartment after he has one of his damned parties."

"We're still figuring that out," said Shinichi. "But we can tell you what we know."

"What's the catch?" asked Kimi.

Shinichi blinked, confused. "Catch?"

"You guys want something, don't you? I mean, you did break in here." She looked pointedly at the door lying beneath a heap of plaster dust at the foot of the wall.

"Seriously, what's your problem?" Hattori burst out, pulling a face that seemed to be trying to convey exasperation, irritation, and puzzlement all at the same time. In the end, he looked constipated. "We only came in because Kudo smelled somethin' dead, and we thought someone might need help."

Kimi snorted loudly. "Why would a dead person need help? They'd be dead."

Hattori opened his mouth then shut it again. Then he threw up his hands and stormed out of the room.

"I give up. I'll be outside."

Kazuha cast an uncertain look around the room then floated after her boyfriend, leaving Kaito and Shinichi to deal with the cynical zombie.

"I suppose the catch would be that we do not yet have any idea how we are going to get home and cannot guarantee that we will figure anything out anytime soon," Kaito said. He had recovered quickly from being so rudely rebuffed. After all, he was a professional performer as well as a master thief. Both jobs required adaptability. He vanished the rose he had presented to Kimi earlier and pulled out the hotel's desk chair. He offered it to Shinichi first, but the detective declined. The guilty flicker of his eyes to the zombie reminded Kaito that, to Shinichi, the woman must smell truly dreadful. Shinichi was doing his best not to react to the odor, but the way he had been hanging back by the door was pretty telling.

Kaito sat down and gave Kimi another smile, though he carefully toned down the charm. "How about this? We'll go over what we've learned so far, then you can tell us your side of the story."

The woman still looked wary, but she shrugged. "Might as well. There's nothing better to do anyway."

TBC


A.N: Happy Halloween!