And in an almost unprecedented move for me, I have the next chapter out already! Mostly that's because I had Chapter One basically ready to post last week but wasn't able to, being, as I've said, away from computer access.
I do hope things aren't too out of character in this chapter, I have a couple of major changes which are happening for the characters, emotionally, and their reactions may not be quite what would be expected, unless you keep that in mind. Any hints and/or pointers for slipups if you notice them would be appreciated ^_~
The Story (and the Tenshi no Namida) are mine, the characters are most emphatically not!
Moonlight Shadow
Chapter 2:
But She Couldn't Find how to Push Through
The emerald was returned in a box of patisseries delivered to Inspector Nakamori's office the next day, a couple of weeks and another 1412 heist went by, and the month of May slid into June with little fanfare. Aoko's dreams continued in their strange bent the whole time, with a focus on falling, and the particular dream where Kaitou Kid was shot. It wore on her, though, and it was becoming more and more obvious. Keiko had asked her more than once whether she wasn't coming down with something.
Her dreams were wearing on Kaito too. He found himself sneaking over to her house at least two or three nights a week, to watch her sleep and calm her out of the worst of the nightmares. It meant a lot less sleep for him, however, and that was worrying him. He needed his sleep. He had a really good prospect for a heist next week, but it would be a difficult one to pull off, right under the nose (or, rather, out of the warehouse) of a man he suspected to be a member of the syndicate who had killed his father. He couldn't just leave Aoko to suffer, though, his heart wouldn't let him. He felt torn, especially on those mornings after a night when he'd had to stay home and she looked more worn down than ever. There was no real solution he could come up with, though. This week he would just have to harden his heart to the dark circles under her eyes and get as much sleep as he could in preparation for such a big, important heist.
On the sixteenth of June, a riddle was waiting for Nakamori Ginzo on his breakfast table. Aoko was the one who actually found it, being habitually an earlier riser than her father. She realized almost immediately what it was, of course, having seen many of its ilk before, so she left it just where it was, placed precisely in the center of the table, and got the coffee pot brewing. Her father would want a good strong cup of coffee when he saw the note.
Thinking of Kaitou Kid put her in mind of her dreams again. There seemed to be two main themes running through them: Kaito explaining his reasons for... something... (she never seemed to come in during the part of the conversation which detailed just exactly what it was he'd been doing that needed explanation), and her watching the Kaitou Kid, who was also Kaito for some reason, being shot from the sky. And the kissing, of course, though she preferred not to think about that too much when she was awake, as it made her blush horribly, and that raised questions she was most unwilling to delve into the answers to just yet. She wished she had someone to discuss her strange dreams with, though, someone who would listen without judging her or calling her crazy.
Nakamori Ginzo was not pleased. He was, in point of fact, very much less than pleased. He sat at his desk, chewing furiously at his nicotine gum, drinking blacker-than-black coffee, and frowning thunderously at the riddle which had been delivered to him this morning.
Feathers rain down, the heavens' tears, and the angel spreads her wings at last under the moon in her glory
It could only be referring to one gem, and the thought of that left him with a cold, sick feeling in his gut that all the hot coffee in the world couldn't warm up. He wondered if there was some way to contact Kid before the twenty-first, the full moon and apparently the night of the heist, and tell him... He wasn't even sure what he would tell him if he could, but if that gem was around...
Two nights before the planned heist date, Kaito was sitting at his computer doing a bit of additional internet research on the Kid's latest target, a two-inch-long moonstone called the Angel's Tear, when he came across a very small, obscure, and well-hidden page. It seemed at first to have little to do with his stone, being more a family history of a line of guardian and healing miko, but as he read, he found he slipped into his poker face, although it grew harder and harder to maintain, and he couldn't stop his fists from clenching so tightly that his palms bled.
He read the story of the Tenshi Miko and their power passed down from mother to daughter for centuries, of how their most precious treasure, the Tenshi no Namida, was stolen from them during the civil wars which established the Meiji jidai over a hundred years before, and of how the most recent miko had been killed by a sickeningly horrible method, thallium poisoning, in an effort by an evil syndicate to gain the healing powers the gem was purported to have. They had apparently suspected her of knowing the location of the gem, and thought by using a slow-acting but medically incurable poison on her they would persuade her to produce the stone to save her own life. She never did, though, whether or not she had even known where it was, and sank slowly into the madness thallium brings, leaving behind a two-year-old daughter to carry on her line, and also her heartbroken husband, a young, up-and-coming police officer now going by the name of...
"Nakamori." Kaito read out loud to himself. "Oh Aoko. There's nobody they haven't hurt, is there. I always knew your mother died of a wasting illness when you were young, but I had no idea..."
He forced himself to unclench his fists and continue reading.
Having no other choice than to wait for the new Tenshi Miko to blossom into her power, the family had moved her and her father around a number of times, under a number of different names, until they finally settled in the burgeoning metropolis of Tokyo.
It was what was written on the bottom of the page, however, which most disturbed him. It was a letter, almost a missive, and it was addressed to him.
"Kuroba Kaito, Kaitou Kid, greetings.
If you are reading this, it means that the Tenshi no Namida has once again come to light. I write this knowing I will disappoint you to some extent. You seek the Pandora, and will have to continue that quest, I have no knowledge of its location, but I beg a favor of you. Please return the Tenshi no Namida to its rightful keeper, Nakamori Aoko, and help keep both it and her out of the hands of the evil ones who killed her mother. I'm sure you wonder how I know of you. Don't be concerned that your secret is out, I am a miko with the uncommon skill of clairvoyance and prescience, and I have long ago seen your connection to our Aoko, and hers to you. I know you are an honorable man, and will do what you can for Aoko.
Do not attempt to bookmark or save this website, although you may print it once, as it will be erased once you leave it, having served the purpose for which it was created."
The letter wasn't signed.
Kaito did as it suggested, printing out the ten or so pages of the story of the Tenshi Miko. It was all he could do to keep himself from running straight to Aoko's home and camping out on her roof. Just the mere thought of her lying in a hospital bed wasting away like her mother, with her hair falling out from thallium poisoning, gave him the chills. He would give her the Angel's tear, and he would protect her the best that he could until her powers blossomed... and after too. He decided he had also better have a little conversation with her father before the heist. Kaito was sure he would be more than eager to confront his wife's killers.
Inspector Nakamori was still at his office late into the night of the nineteenth, trying to decide how to get in touch with the Kaitou Kid. It rubbed him very much the wrong way to even consider such a thing, but he didn't see that he had much choice. He wasn't making much headway, though. After all, nobody ever saw Kid except when he chose, and he was so adept at disguise that he might be anyone. Nakamori himself had seen the Kid turn up as a mailroom attendant, an old gaijin tourist lady, and even a young police officer.
"Working late, aren't you?" he heard a voice say behind him. He spun around in his chair to see Kaitou Kid hanging casually outside his small window.
"You... What are you doing here?" Nakamori blustered, momentarily forgetting that this was exactly the person he had wanted to talk to.
"I'm here because I think we need to have a little chat about the object of my next heist." Kid said. "I have been given some information about this 'Angel's Tear' moonstone, and I can see now that there are some connections between us which need to be made clear. The syndicate which killed your wife are also my true enemies. Nine years ago they took someone very important away from me as well, and my heists to this point have been an effort to attract their attention and draw them to you."
"So that was why you were inactive for so long." Nakamori nodded. Kid made no reply to that, so he continued. "If you know about my wife and the syndicate, then you also know that the Tenshi no Namida rightly belongs to my daughter Aoko, who will be the next Tenshi Miko. I have a duplicate, made for just such a situation, which I can give you to return in its place, so the present holders of it don't know they no longer have the actual Angel's Tear."
"Indeed, I intended to return the Tenshi no Namida to its true owner, just as I always do. The duplicate would be most appreciated. It should make a good diversion. I was also asked to watch over Aoko and help protect her, and I intended to do just that." Kid said, an unusual hint of firmness entering his smooth, half-whispering voice.
"If you were asked by the person I suspect, I will have to trust her judgment in that, she told me long ago that Aoko would have a protector. She referred to him as 'Aoko's white knight'." Nakamori sighed with an obvious note of frustration.
"Aoko... Have you told her the truth yet?" Kid asked.
"Not yet. I was sworn to secrecy until such time as her power blossoms." he explained with a shake of his head. "That shouldn't be long now, though, I've been expecting it ever since her birthday."
"Hmm... Would constant recurring nightmares or dreams be a sign of that blossoming?"
"That, and she would glow with power. Those are the precursor to her true arrival into her power. How did you know?"
"You need to pay more attention to your daughter." Kid said, and this time there was a definite note of displeasure in his rigidly controlled voice.
Inspector Nakamori opened his mouth to protest, but Kaitou Kid was gone as suddenly as he had appeared. He turned back to his desk to gather a few papers in preparation for leaving. "And whose fault is it that I'm here all the time anyway?" he muttered.
A couple of blocks away, Kaito was silently fuming as he changed back into his street clothes. He couldn't believe the high and mighty police inspector ordering him around about a heist! And keeping the truth of Aoko's nature from her for so long... If there was anything Kaito understood only too well it was the sense of betrayal felt by a child kept in the dark about the truth regarding their parents. He was feeling very uncharitable toward the inspector, so he chose to ignore the fact that Nakamori had said he'd been sworn to secrecy and thus hadn't had an option of explaining things to his daughter. Even though he was already up later than he had planned to be, he headed toward the Nakamori home. There was no way he would be able to sleep anyway until he had proved to himself that Aoko was alright. With all that had happened today, and all that he had learned, he felt a little like his life was in the process of being turned on its head again, the same way it had been the day he found his dad's secret lair behind the portrait. Aoko had always been Nakamori Aoko, the girl he played with, and later teased, and the only way he had ever wanted things to change between them was for them to get a little - closer - someday. Now all of a sudden, everything he'd thought he knew about Aoko was different. Kami-sama, her name wasn't even really Nakamori... Kaito ran his hand through his hair, making it even more wild than usual. He was glad of the night's darkness tonight, it let him shuck his masks to some degree and let out the frustration and fear... and anger he was feeling. Increasing his stride, he rolled a coin over and around his knuckles, into his palm and across the back of his hand in an intricate pattern of prestidigitation which seemed almost random. The streetlights caught the coin at different angles as he walked along, causing it to flicker as it passed over his hand, and with his wild hair shadowing his face, only the bright blue of his eyes was momentarily visible, turning a fairly mundane young man on the brink of adulthood into a being of magic.
It rankled, having to depend on a sworn enemy for anything, Nakamori Ginzo decided as he started up his car and pulled out of the police parking lot. To have to enter into even such a "gentlemen's agreement" as this one with Kaitou Kid, even for a good cause, made his metaphorical hackles stand on end. And yet, he had learned some things tonight which were already forcing him to reevaluate his image of the Kid. It seemed, whether or not he had always done so, the Kid was trying to fight the syndicate. What Nakamori still couldn't figure out, though, was why the Kid had waited so long to start up his heists again after the syndicate had killed his loved one. Of course, the Kid had only said his "loved one had been taken from him", not killed, but then, as Nakamori knew from painful experience, the syndicate didn't kidnap, or if they did, it wasn't long before captive became victim unless they had a very good use for them. Had the Kid's identity perhaps been compromised, as his wife Mariko's had been, and he had been forced underground? Nakamori swore under his breath. Traffic in Tokyo, even at night, was nothing to sneeze at, and he seemed to be hitting every red light on the way home. Running over his conversation with the Kid again in his mind as he idled at the light, Nakamori continued to fume. It was so tempting to use this brief period of concurrence of his and Kid's interests as a trap to catch the dear old 1412, but since Minami-san seemed to have singled him out as Aoko's protector, he couldn't even do that! There was something strange about that choice. Nakamori let his mind wander back to the meeting he'd had ten years ago with his wife's cousin, the miko Minami. What had she told him then about Aoko's "white knight"? Hadn't she said he would soon enter Aoko's life, and they would grow closer with the years? Nakamori had thought for sure she had been referring to the Kuroba boy. He shrugged. There were no easy answers, and police inspectors who took the easy way out did not remain police inspectors for long.
Tucked safe in her bed, Aoko was standing on the now-familiar roof once again, with the crowd and the spotlights below. This time she felt something different in herself, some thread of power, and a deep desire to change this dream's outcome.
"Pardon me, ojousan." said a smooth, quiet voice behind her. She spun around and saw the very Phantom Thief himself. Not just Kaitou Kid, she reminded herself, but Kaito as well. He took her hand and bowed low over it, sweeping off his top hat to reveal a very familiar shock of dark brown hair.
"Kaito, I know it's you." she said sternly.
He looked up at her in surprise, and she saw both shock and fear in his eyes. "Aoko?"
"You think I haven't had this dream enough times to have figured it out by now?" she chided him. He hadn't let go of her hand yet, so she squeezed his fingers gently and smiled in an attempt to reassure him.
He straightened up and replaced the top hat, then smiled back. "I have something here which I believe belongs to you," he said, and she felt him slip something smooth and cool into her palm.
She looked down and saw just what she had expected to, the same gleaming moonstone he had given her in all the previous iterations of this dream. "What do you mean this belongs to me?" she asked, confused, "Don't you mean I should be the one to return it to its proper owner?"
"No." he said firmly, closing her hand around the gem with both of his, "It belongs to your family. The one who had it has no rights to it."
"If you say so," she conceded. She felt the stone warm to her hand and knew he was telling the truth.
All of a sudden, Kaito (she couldn't think of him as Kaitou Kid, even if he was, somehow) looked around. "We have to get going, we've been up here too long already," he said, motioning her toward the fire escape.
It was only then that she heard what he must have caught before her, the sound of someone running up the interior stairs. They were still a couple of meters from the edge of the roof when the first shot rang out.
*****************
When Kaito reached Aoko's house, he followed his usual route up to her room. He could tell right away she was dreaming again, so he quickly slipped in her window. Her arms were flailing as she tossed and turned, and he only narrowly avoided getting hit as he caught her wrists and held her arms down on the bed.
"Kaito..." she whispered brokenly.
"Shh... I'm here, it's alright." he reassured her.
She was panting as though she'd been running, and was obviously still upset, letting out small whimpering sobs which hurt his heart.
"It's okay Ao-chan, I swear. I made a promise to protect you, and I intend to keep it," he said as he reached over to stroke her sweat-dampened hair.
*****************
Aoko screamed when she heard the shot. She knew it wasn't the police, the 1412 taskforce didn't use guns, there was no need, and even if they did, why would they be shooting when there was such a high chance of hitting her? Kaito grabbed her hand and started running with her toward the cover provided by one of the nearby air conditioner housings. Two more shots rang out as they ran, and Kaito pushed her in front of him with one hand as he took out his card gun with the other to return fire. She heard him let out a brief hiss of pain as he pulled her down to crouch in the shadow of the giant fan. She turned to look at him and realized he was bleeding from a wound in his upper thigh.
"Kaito! You're hurt!" she exclaimed.
"Shh... I'm okay, it's alright." he reassured her.
"But you're not!" she insisted, "and it's my fault."
"It's okay Ao-chan, I swear. I made a promise to protect you, and I intend to keep it," he said as he reached over to stroke her hair. Another shot rang out over their heads, and Kaito swore as the bullet passed right through his hat. He popped his head up just long enough to return fire, then turned to her. "You'd better put that gem somewhere safe, we're going to have to run again." he told her.
Not wanting to trust her somewhat shallow pockets, she slipped the moonstone down into her cleavage, then looked up at him again. "Okay, I'm ready." she said. If the situation hadn't been so serious she would have laughed at the hint of a blush high on his cheeks.
He held up one gloved hand between their faces, gestured briefly at a small utility shed with his chin, then silently counted down from three with his fingers. When his fist was closed, he pulled her to her feet, then pushed her in front of him once again as they ran, laying down a stream of covering fire with his card gun.
*****************
Nakamori Ginzo pulled gratefully into his garage about half an hour after leaving his office. All the upstairs lights were off, so he was pretty sure Aoko must be asleep. He wanted to look in on her, to make sure she was alright. Kaitou Kid's mention of her dreams had put him in mind of his own youth, and Mariko's horrible nightmares in the first year of their marriage. He didn't bother to bring any of his work in from the car, he'd worry about that once he was sure Aoko was alright.
Kaito heard the car pull in and mentally swore. After their conversation earlier, there was no way Nakamori would just go to bed without checking in on Aoko, and he hadn't gotten her calmed down yet. He stroked her hair one last time, and gently patted her shoulder.
"I have to go for now, Ao-chan, but I'll be back, I promise." he whispered to her, then slipped out the window and back onto the roof.
*****************
Two more shots rang out as Aoko and the Kaitou Kid ran for cover. As they reached the shed, Kaito pushed her in before him, then he ducked inside as well and closed the door behind him. With the door closed, it was pitch black inside the small building, but, paradoxically, being unable to see him only made Aoko more aware of Kaito's closeness. He reached out one hand and stroked her hair.
"You should be safe here." he reassured her.
"Don't you mean we?" she asked, confused.
"I have to go for now, Ao-chan, but I'll be back, I promise." he whispered to her, patting her shoulder.
"Kaito, no!" she exclaimed.
"I won't hear any protest," he told her sternly, placing one gloved finger over her lips to close them. Then, before she could gather her wits about her he had slipped back out the door and closed it behind him.
*****************
"Iie..." Nakamori heard his daughter moan as he opened the door to her room.
The sight which met his eyes immediately recalled to his mind those nights her mother had her nightmares. Aoko was shifting in greater and greater distress, and was glowing with a faint silvery light.
"Iie... Kaito..." she almost whimpered.
Nakamori quickly kneeled at her bedside.
"It's alright Aoko, Kaito-kun isn't here right now, but I am." he told her. He knew from long ago experience that it was a bad idea to try to wake a miko having such a dream... or vision, more like.
"Tousan... Kaito... doko..."
Damn that boy, never around when you needed him...
*****************
In the locked shed, Aoko was quickly loosing her patience.
"Kaito! Get back in here!" she yelled, banging on the door. "It's not safe out there!"
She heard another shot, followed by another... It was almost worse being in here, unable to see what was going on.
"No! Kaito, get back in here!" she yelled again.
"It's alright Aoko, Kaito-kun isn't here right now, but I am." She heard her father's voice. It seemed to be coming from somewhere behind the shed.
"Tousan! Kaito's out there, he's the Kid, and somebody's shooting at him! Can you see where he is?" she called to him.
Anther shot rang out, and Aoko heard something hit the shed, followed by a groan.
"Kaito?" she asked. There was no response, and no answering shot rang out. She had a very bad feeling about this. "Kaito! ... Kaito!" she called, louder this time. She heard nothing but another groan. This was definitely bad. "Kaito!"
*****************
On the roof, Kaito could hear her cries, and he had to bite his lip and hold himself very still to keep from revealing his presence to her father in the room below. 'Dammit old man, get out of there! Can't you hear it's me she needs?' he thought, and wasn't completely able to suppress his moan of frustration. She sounded quite frantic, and it was making him frantic as well.
Aoko was clearly becoming more and more upset, and her father was at something of a loss as to how to calm her. He had always held Mariko until she was sleeping quietly again, but Mariko had always called for him.
"Kaito! Kaito!" Aoko screamed, thrashing around so she almost fell off the bed.
Nakamori was so focused on catching his daughter and returning her to bed that he almost missed hearing the faint scratching sounds and muffled groan which seemed to be coming from the roof. He didn't get to be a detective without a quick mind though, whatever the Kid might intimate, and it didn't take much for him to put two and two together.
"Kuroba, I know you're up there." Nakamori said sternly, "You may as well get back in here."
In a flash Kaito was through the window again, and he hurried over to the bed. "I'm here Aoko, it's alright. I promised I'd be back, didn't I?"
She reached for his hand, and gripped it tightly. "Kaito!" she mumbled happily.
"Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere," he promised, and glanced up at her father with a mixture of trepidation, hope and pain.
"You should stay the night here, and it might be best if you were on the bed." Nakamori sighed.
"On the...bed?" Kaito tried to suppress a blush.
"On the bed," Nakamori glared, "not in the bed!"
Feeling supremely uncomfortable, Kaito climbed onto the bed under the watchful eye of her father.
*****************
Aoko tried desperately to ignore the urge to start crying. She had no proof that Kaito was hurt any worse than the one wound she had seen before, no reason to think he was... She whimpered, refusing to even think...
All of a sudden the wall she was half-leaning against slid to one side. She almost screamed, but a gloved hand was placed over her mouth.
"I'm here Aoko, it's alright. I promised I'd be back, didn't I?" Kaito whispered in her ear as he closed the previously hidden door.
"Kaito!" she said happily once he let go of her mouth, "I thought... I thought..."
"Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere," he reassured her, "at least, not without you. It's safe for the moment, I think. I shot the gun away off the roof, and I don't think he has another. Besides, there are lots of police around, they must be good for something, right?"
"Grr..." she snarled at him, but restrained the urge to grab a convenient item and go after him. This was neither the time nor the place.
"C'mon, we're getting out of here." he told her firmly. He walked quickly with her over to the edge of the roof. "Good thing you're not afraid of heights." he laughed as he picked her up. "Hold on tight now!"
She let out only a small "eep" as he jumped off the roof, deploying his glider, and they sailed off into the night.
*****************
"I'll call your mother to let her know you're staying the night." Nakamori said curtly as he turned to leave the room. "Try to get some sleep, and I'll explain what I can to you in the morning."
Once he was gone, Kaito tentatively put one arm around Aoko and closed his eyes in an attempt to sleep.
And there you have it folks! As I said, some major emotional changes ahead, for all three of them, and poor Kaito's gonna have trouble keeping his "night job" secret…at least from some. Next chapter includes the heist, and a lot of deep thinking on the part of both Nakamoris…and I['m sure more random other scenes which haven't presented themselves to me yet.
I hadn't intended Kaito to stay the night, he was just supposed to pop in on her briefly, hear her father coming home, and bolt once Nakamori had her calm, but Aoko was rather insistant. *sighs* When will my characters listen to me? *pouts* This chapter just kept going on and on, but ah well, looking at some of the greats of this fandom, I guess 4500 words or so isn't too bad, right?
