Disclaimer: I do not own Detective Conan/Case Closed.

Pairing: KaitoxShinichi

Chapter Rating: T

Warning: None

Collection Summary: No matter where or what they are, their lives are always entwined. KaiShin stories in fantasy settings.

Chapter Summary: Shinichi is the new detective at the magical crimes division of the police, and Kaito is the demon he's made a contract with to help him on his cases. Their successes are drawing a lot of attention—perhaps too much. Matters are not exactly improved by the arrival of the division's two new recruits or the discovery that someone is stealing souls.

A Demon's Jealousy

[Demon Verse]

Part 8

The building that the cult Takaharu had been working for had made into their headquarters was situated in an old and rather rundown part of town that consisted mostly of storage facilities and the kinds of hotels and taverns whose only selling point was that they were incredibly cheap. You got what you paid for though. The rooms were dirty, the roofs leaked, and the food range from stale to moldy. The happiest residents of the area were the rats and the drunks, the latter of whom didn't care what their drinks tasted like as long as it contained alcohol. Most of the rest of the people who deigned to live in or visit the area were crooks of one kind or another.

The only good thing that could be said about the area was that, contrary to what one might expect, it was generally peaceful. This was because the area was considered to be a center for the trading of information and a neutral ground for making deals. As such, the city's criminal population preferred that the area not attract too much police attention, which led to a general agreement to behave. The authorities, in turn, liked knowing where they could plant a few watchful eyes and ears to scent out upcoming problems and shifts in the pulse of under city life.

The place being what it was, Kaito teleported himself and Shinichi home briefly first so that they could change into nondescript clothes. Kaito dropped a hat down over Shinichi's head as a last touch. That cowlick was just too distinctive.

They arrived at the meeting place just as the last rays of sunlight faded from the sky. The small tavern was already filled to its rickety seams with a crowd of rowdy, disreputable-looking guests of all sizes and varying levels of unpleasantness. An enormous rat scuttled past Shinichi just as he stepped over the tavern's threshold, and the detective nearly fell as he was forced to perform an awkward little hop skip to avoid stepping on the creature. He made a mental note not to eat or drink anything in this place. Although the note was probably unnecessary. The smell of the place alone was enough to put anyone sober off the idea of food for the rest of the night.

Shinichi was immensely glad when Amuro appeared out of the raucous crowd almost immediately after their arrival and beckoned them to follow him.

He led them down several twisting, dark alleys that neither detective nor demon liked, but they eventually ended up on the top of a low building looking across at a large, nondescript warehouse.

"That's the place," Amuro explained in a whisper. "It's got two main entrances and five hidden ones. According to our scouts, there are about two dozen people in there. Normally, I'd prefer to wait a little longer before moving in, but I remember you said those victims who had their souls stolen couldn't wait."

He glanced at Shinichi for a confirmation and received a nod. "Right then. We have people at all five who are waiting for my signal to go in. Before that though, I want you to use that soul scanning spell of yours to tell us if any of the lost souls are being kept in this building. If they are, we need to know where. That way, we can make sure we don't damage any of them if things get ugly."

"Are you expecting things to get ugly?" Shinichi asked. "Are these people violent?"

Amuro gave him a mildly patronizing look. "You have to ask? They're stealing souls and studying immortality magic. How do you think people doing that kind of research tests their theories? I tell you this, I'm not looking forward to seeing what it is they've got in there. But it's got to be done."

"So," he continued. "How long does that scan take? Can you do it now?"

"I can," Shinichi said, squaring his shoulders. "It should only take me about ten minutes if Kaito helps me."

In response, Kaito placed both his hands on Shinichi's shoulders. Leaning down, he dropped a quick kiss on the top of his detective's head then straightened, indigo eyes bright and wary.

Having become more than familiar with the soul finding spell by now, Shinichi laid it out in his mind.

"Ready," he murmured, eyes still tightly closed as he kept the vast and complex spell held in perfect alignment in his mind. Then he let his energy flow out into it. A moment later, he felt Kaito do the same.

With Kaito's raw power flowing into him, he once again pushed his scanning spell to the farthest reaches of his limits (well beyond what he had been doing earlier in the day), letting the information found by the spell pour into him, spinning through his mind in flashes and impressions that Kaito helped him piece together. The entire search took only ten minutes, but by the end of it, Shinichi was exhausted. The moment the spell was released, he swayed and half collapsed backwards into Kaito's waiting arms.

"What did he find?" Amuro asked, earning himself a harsh glare from Kaito, whose arms tightened protectively around his detective's slim body.

Shinichi, however, took a deep breath and straightened, flashing Kaito a reassuring smile before turning to Amuro. "The souls aren't here."

Amuro nodded. "I'll contact you tomorrow about what we find." Apparently certain that their part in this night's venture was over, the blond man turned away, bringing a small, two-way radio to his lips. As was typical with such devices, an enchantment kept them from hearing what he said to his men.

Kaito made a face. "Not much for manners, is he?"

"He has a lot of work to do," Shinichi replied. He looked to the warehouse again, still dark and silent as ever, then turned back to see Amuro disappearing off the roof.

He returned his attention to Kaito. "Can I convince you to let us stay here until they finish?"

"Nope," the demon said—far too cheerfully considering the seriousness of the unfolding events. But that was his way, Shinichi knew. "You need to eat something and get some rest. It's not like Blondie or his lot are going to let us do anything else tonight anyway."

Knowing that there was no point arguing and that Kaito was probably right about the other officers, Shinichi let Kaito pull him close and teleport them back to their apartment.

-0-

Though he was tired, and he knew he should sleep, Shinichi found himself lying in bed and just staring blankly at the ceiling of his bedroom that night as the seconds ticked by.

He could sense Kaito's presence, strong and reassuring, standing by the window, watching the sky outside. The demon had once told him that he found the stars comforting because they changed just as little and slowly as he did. But thinking of such things only made Shinichi's stomach twist with worry once again for problems with no solutions and things that could not be changed.

Lost in unwelcome thoughts, he didn't realize that Kaito had moved until the mattress dipped. He opened his eyes then to find the demon peering down at him, indigo eyes eerily luminous in the dark. Their gazes met and held, and Shinichi thought he could catch an echo of his own thoughts reflected in those eyes.

"I love you," he said on impulse, the words soft but clear in the stillness that lay thick all around them.

The demon's lips quirked into a small, soft smile. "I know," he said, running long fingers through Shinichi's silky hair before leaning down to steal a brief kiss. "I love you too. Now sleep or you won't be able to think tomorrow, and that won't do anyone any good."

Shinichi was asleep before the last of Kaito's words could reach his ears. The following morning, he would realize that the demon had used his magic to put him to sleep, but, though he would be slightly miffed, he would be grateful too. He really did need the sleep.

Thanks to Kaito's intervention, Shinichi woke the following morning feeling considerably refreshed and ready to get back to work. They might have found the base of operations of the people who had commissioned those soul stealing necklaces, but they had yet to find any of the souls. So, until and unless that Amuro fellow contacted them about having found said missing souls, Shinichi intended to resume their previously interrupted scan of the city.

They managed about three blocks of searching before Shinichi got a call to get back to the office. Half hoping for good news and half dreading bad, he made his way back to the police station to find Amuro waiting in one of the smaller meeting rooms along with Hattori, Sera, and Hakuba. The older blonde's face gave no hint as to the nature of his news. That fact, however, only made Shinichi more nervous. In his experience, people were usually eager to share good news. This was especially true of those who had seen enough of the troubles out in the world to understand just how precious even a little bit of good news was. Bad news, on the other hand, most people preferred to put off having to share for as long as possible.

Shinichi would have liked very much to be proven wrong, but, unfortunately, he was not.

"They set fire to their base," Amuro told them. "Judging from the way the fire spread, we can assume they were ensuring that no one would be able to recover any of their research."

"That's good, isn't it?" Sera asked. "I mean, we don't really want people doing that sort of research."

"In a sense, that is true," the blond man replied. "But unfortunately that also means they burned any clues we might have been able to unearth from their papers about the possible location of your captured souls."

"Can't we just ask them?" asked Hattori. "Ya did catch 'em, right? Or are ya saying they all got away from ya?"

"We caught them," Amuro said tersely. "But all of them claim that they never knew where the souls were being kept."

Hakuba looked skeptical. "And you believe them?"

"We have ways of testing for the truth. So yes, we do believe them. It appears that their contract with Takaharu was for a certain number of necklaces—hence a certain number of souls. It was their job to see that the necklaces were distributed but his to track and hold onto the souls until what they call the great experiment. That was to have taken place at the next full moon, and that was when Takaharu was supposed to bring the collected souls."

"In other words, those people aren't going to give us any leads," Shinichi said grimly. "But at least we know that Takaharu was expecting the souls to be available at the next full moon. That means he didn't expect any of the victims who've had their souls taken to die before that since, if they did, their souls would lost their connection to this plane of existence and move on."

There was a tense silence eventually broken by Hattori.

"So, what, back to scanning the city bit by bit? If we could recruit some more people who can use the search spell, we might be able to canvas the whole city."

He didn't sound like he believed his own words.

Shinichi didn't blame him. The city was enormous, and the population was immense. They were just one small police department. Then there was the fact that magic users who could cast the spells they needed didn't grow on trees, and the spells themselves took time and energy to perform—even more so if you wanted to make sure you didn't accidentally miss anything. With the next full moon less than a week away… Well, to say that the task was unlikely to succeed was a drastic understatement.

On the other hand, though the cult researchers had been a dead end, it was not true that they had exhausted all their leads.

Shinichi took a deep breath and snuck a look at Kaito. The demon was lounging against the wall of the meeting room, looking about as unconcerned as it was possible to look. Shinichi suspected he was doing that on purpose to irk certain officers. Honestly, Kaito could be juvenile sometimes for all that he was thousands of years old. The thought came and went with a flash of fondness that was soon replaced by trepidation.

Kaito wasn't going to be happy with him. But… Well, Shinichi simply didn't see any other choice. He would make it up to the demon though. That was a promise.

Bracing himself for what he knew had to be done, Shinichi said all in a rush, "If we use one of the necklaces we confiscated from Takaharu, we'll be able to find the missing souls. Kaito always knows where I am. So, if I put on one of the necklaces, my soul will be transferred to where the others are, and then Kaito would be able to lead you there."

Kaito straightened from his lounging so fast that Shinichi was surprised they didn't hear the air snap. "No. It's too risky," he said sharply. "You don't know how he's set up the containment area or if there is anything there that might damage the souls that are sent there."

"It's our best chance to save everyone who was taken," Shinichi insisted, staring Kaito straight in the eyes and willing him to understand. He wasn't offering to do this because he was sure there were no risks. He was going to do this because it was the only option they had left if they were going to save lives. "Besides, Takaharu's earliest victims couldn't have survived this long if there souls were damaged upon being stolen. So I'd say the chances that none of the souls were damaged is pretty high."

"But not guaranteed."

"Well, no, but—"

"There is no other way," Sera finished, earning herself a nasty look from the demon that had her unconsciously taking a step back and raising her hands in a placating manner. "I'm sorry. I don't like it either. But the plan makes sense. And, from everything you guys have told us, we don't really have the time to waste arguing about it."

Kaito's eyes flashed, and the air seemed to crackle. For a moment, Shinichi worried that the demon might lash out. But instead, Kaito pivoted sharply and vanished.

-To Be Continued-