Disclaimer: I don't own DCMK

Sky Colored Eyes

5: The Magician and the Witch

"So have you found your words, Koizumi-san?"

The crimson-haired beauty of Ekoda High regarded the magician with eyes like rubies. They were standing in the hallway of the karaoke establishment. Through the closed door, they could hear the muffled noises of their friends and classmates as they celebrated the end of the school week. Out here, however, the air was still and the lights dim, creating an almost eerie atmosphere of disconnected calm.

"It pleases you to jest," she murmured, brushing her hair over her shoulder. "But you must understand, there are some things that the words of men cannot hope to describe."

"Wouldn't that somewhat defeat the point of you telling me anything?"

"That would be up to you," the witch said a touch stiffly. "We are standing on the edge of many great changes, Kuroba-kun."

The magician raised an eyebrow but didn't comment. Instead, he folded his arms over his chest and leaned against the wall, waiting.

His silence seemed to unsettle the self-proclaimed witch. She hid it well, but even Akako couldn't deceive the master thief's trained eye. She closed her eyes then opened them again to give him a long, hard look.

"There is another with powers like mine here in Ekoda."

That got Kaito's attention. The casual smile didn't leave his face but his gaze sharpened. "You mean at school?"

"I do not know."

"What do they want?"

"I do not know that either."

Tilting his head slightly, Kaito studied the redhead's face, noting the barely detectable lines of frustration and unease that had crept onto her face. He had never seen Akako like this before. To be honest, it was making him uncomfortable. Was Akako of all people actually scared? Impossible! But then what was that shadow in her face? If it was indeed fear then he had the feeling that whatever she thought was coming or here already must be truly terrible.

Or maybe the girl had finally cracked and this was all a delusion of hers.

"So basically all you wanted to tell me was that there might be another—witch in Ekoda," he said just to be sure.

"That is only the beginning."

"All right. So what else did you have on your mind?"

"I do not know what they want, but I do know that they are dangerous. They will bring—darkness. Living darkness."

"…Say what?"

Akako shook her head, her face twisting in frustration for a fraction of a second before smoothing back into inscrutability. "I can't see it yet. But I do know that you will be in the middle of it when the storm comes. You and several others." Her crimson gaze flickered to the door separating them from their classmates then back to his face. "If you are not careful, you may lose something important."

"And why are you telling me all this?"

"It is a warning."

"You mentioned others. Will you warn them too?"

A small, sardonic smile graced the witch's lips. "You are the only one who might heed my warnings."

The magician let out a bark of laughter. "You need to meet more people if I'm your only choice for a champion. Where do you feature in this anyway?"

A slender hand waved, long fingers flicking the question away as though it were a speck of dust. "I've told you all I can for now."

"Oh. In that case, I'm going back inside. You coming?" Not waiting for an answer, he turned back to the door.

"Is it really so hard for you to believe?" The words were uttered in such a quiet voice that Kaito almost didn't catch them. "That I only want for you to be careful. That I might wish for your wellbeing."

Startled despite himself, Kaito hesitated with his hand on the doorknob. He didn't know if Akako had meant for him to hear those words, but he had. Glancing over his shoulder, he found her staring straight at him. Her face was entirely devoid of expression. There she stood, straight and regal as a queen.

A queen in a time without courts, he thought. Out of place but too proud to admit it. And for the first time in his life, Kaito found himself feeling sorry for Koizumi Akako.

"No," he said into the silence, holding her gaze. "It isn't. Thank you, Ojou-san."

That said, he opened the door and stepped back into the noise and commotion of the party.

Akako remained standing alone in the hallway even after the door had shut behind him.

X

The bird was back again. Okay, she didn't know for sure if it was the same one, but it was definitely the same species. It liked to sit on the window sill outside the kitchen or the living room, preening its feathers or just pecking around, doing whatever it was birds did. At other times Ai would see it perched in the trees outside or on the edge of the roof.

Did it have a nest nearby? The thought was…kind of nice. She'd heard people say that birds liked to nest around good homes—places of safety and warmth.

A wry smile tugged at the young scientist's lips. She sure was getting sentimental these days. Who'd have thought?

"We should build a birdbath."

The professor blinked across the dinner table at the small girl seated on the other side. "A birdbath?"

She shrugged. "Might improve the scenery. The yard's been a bit bare since you set the bushes on fire with your last experiment."

The professor winced. "Not one of my best, I admit." He thought for a moment. "I know. How about a self-warming birdbath with additional sprinkler functions and the ability to monitor for infectious diseases?"

"…In the plants or the birds?"

"I'm not sure. Both if I can manage it. What do you think?"

Ai looked into the old man's happy and expectant face. "It would be…interesting." And mildly ridiculous. But the professor wouldn't be the professor if he wasn't working on something absurd. And hey, maybe this would be one of the ones that worked.

X

"And I win again!"

Groans rang around the circle as the players threw down their cards.

"Whose bright idea was it to play poker while we ate with Kuroba-kun around?" Keiko demanded.

"I believe it was yours," Hakuba said dryly. "I was against it."

"Well then you should have been against it more strongly," she huffed.

Aoko reached over to sweep all the cards back into a neat deck. "Oh come on, it's just a game. It's not like we're playing for money or anything."

"None of us are that stupid," the other girl replied. "But I still think he's cheating."

"What?" Kaito drew himself up in indignation. "I did not cheat! The fact that I am good at this game and you're not doesn't automatically mean I'm cheating."

"Yeah, whatever. I think I want another smoothie. Anyone else want one?"

Keiko jotted down the orders then hurried off, her pigtails bouncing with every energetic step.

"I think I'm going to be heading home," Shinichi said, pushing his seat back and standing up. "I still have some reading to do."

"On a Friday night?" asked Aoko. "Can't it wait?"

"No, really. I should go. But thank you for inviting me to go out with you guys today."

School bag in hand, he bowed to his classmates and turned to go only to find himself standing almost nose to nose with Kaito. He flushed and took a hurried step back.

"Before you go, you have to answer one question," the magician informed him, grinning like a shark with a birthday hat. "Did you have fun?"

"I…yes, I guess I did." The detective ducked his head to hide the smile that he could feel pulling at the corners of his lips. "I really did. Thank you guys."

"Good!" Kaito nodded, apparently satisfied. "So where do you live? I'll walk you home."

Shinichi frowned. "I'm not a little kid. I can go home by myself."

"Of course you can. But what kind of gentleman would I be if I let the new student in town go home by himself so late at night? You could get lost or run over by a bus!"

"…"

"Besides, I want to know where you live."

"Just let Kaito take you home," Aoko advised, coming up behind him and giving him a reassuring pat on the arm. "Some of the streets around here can be confusing at night. Even the locals get lost sometimes. Kaito'll make sure you get home safely. Isn't that right, Bakaito?"

"Yes ma'am, Ahoko!" Kaito threw the girl a mock salute. "The parcel will be delivered unharmed to its rightful destination!"

Shinichi looked from one to the other then back. "Don't I get a say in this?"

"Nope." Spinning around, Kaito looped an arm over Shinichi's shoulders and began to propel him out of the restaurant they had nipped into after leaving the karaoke place. "So, what's your address?"

The walk to Shinichi's apartment was surprisingly pleasant. The detective had been dreading the awkward silences and stilted conversations that usually came up when two people who didn't really know each other and had nothing in common were forced to spend time together with no job or project on which to work. In his experience, it usually resulted in two people who felt obliged to talk despite having no idea what to say and thus fragmented bits of dialogue that couldn't rightly be called conversations and a great desire for the whole situation to end. And three failed attempts to wiggle out from under Kaito's arm were not a promising start.

Contrary to his expectations, however, the awkwardness didn't last beyond the start of their journey. Kaito, it seemed, was quite the storyteller. He had a tale to tell for every shop and building they passed: some funny, some strange, and some that Shinichi felt he must have made up but which he insisted were one hundred percent true. In the blink of an eye, they had reached their destination

"I always thought your family lived in some huge mansion or something," Kaito remarked because he wasn't supposed to know where the Kudo Manor was and what it looked like and exactly how many doors and windows it had.

"Well, I'm sorry to disappoint you, but the family house is in Beika. This is my apartment." The key rattled then the door swung open. Shinichi hesitated a moment before turning back to his tagalong. Manners were manners after all. "Did you want to come in?"

His question was met by silence because the hall was empty. He blinked. He was just starting to wonder if Kaito had satisfied his curiosity about the location of Shinichi's abode and left, but that was when he heard the crash from inside the apartment kitchen. Groaning, he shut the door and ran to see if anything was broken.

He found Kaito in his kitchen with the refrigerator door open. A couple empty boxes lay scattered across the counters. As Shinichi came in, another box was dragged from the fridge and dropped beside the cold stovetop.

"Man, you seriously need to go grocery shopping. My mom would have a conniption if she ever saw your fridge. I mean, you have one apple and half a loaf of bread. Unless you're about to tell me you dine on plastic and Tupperware. You don't, do you? No wonder you're so skinny!"

"I'm still organizing," Shinichi protested, wondering why he felt like he had to defend himself against this lunatic who obviously had no respect for privacy. "I'll get the groceries when everything else is sorted out."

"And yet you have five bags of coffee beans. That makes perfect sense, I'm sure. It's all about priorities, right?"

Blushing, Shinichi shut the doors to the cupboard that Kaito had just opened and leveled the magician with an annoyed glare. "Shouldn't you be going home?"

"Mom's used to me keeping late hours, but I guess I do have a few things to tend to. Shame. I guess you'll have to show me around next time." Reaching over, he ruffled Shinichi's hair before heading back for the door with his hands in his pockets. "See you at school!"

And he was gone.

Shinichi was left staring at the empty space where the magician had been. It wasn't until he heard the door close that he snapped out of his confused daze. Shaking his head, he moved to brew himself some coffee. Talk about weird people.

X

"Heart failure?" Shinichi repeated, brows furrowing. Seated in his living room with a mug in one hand and his phone in the other, he looked out through the window at the morning sky. It was too early, but it was always too early. "Are you sure?"

"That's what the lab told us," Takagi-keiji's voice replied from the other end of the line. His words were accompanied by the sound of shuffling papers. "It's a little strange considering her medical records all indicate that she was perfectly healthy, but her father's side of the family does have a history of heart problems. The forensics team still ran every test they could think of though and the results kept coming up the same. Takamura Sakuno died of heart failure."

"And the brands?"

"They're only skin deep. They couldn't have been fun to get but they had nothing to do with her death."

"But where did they come from?"

"No one seems to know. All we've been able to find out is that she must have gotten them some time during the last month before she died. Otherwise someone on the swim team should have noticed. They haven't been practicing together recently because the school pool is being renovated."

"What about her family?"

"They're not sure. They told us that Sakuno always preferred clothes with long sleeves, and the brand on her forehead was pretty well hidden by her bangs."

Shinichi nodded then remembered that Takagi couldn't see him. "Is there anything else?"

"Well, no, not about this case. It's probably going to be classified as an accident as soon as we finish speaking to all her acquaintances."

"So there's another case?"

"Well—yes," the policeman admitted. "Do you have time to come to the station today?"

"I can come now," Shinichi offered, draining the last of his coffee in one gulp. Tucking his phone into his pocket, he headed to the kitchen to rinse his mug. Around him the apartment was silent. In the distance, he could hear the hum of traffic that the city never lacked. Just another start to another day.

A heavy sigh slipped from his lips. Why did he feel so…resigned? This was how life was supposed to be. Well, his life anyway. He was doing the things he'd always told himself he would—solving cases and doing his part to make the world a safer place as he slowly rebuilt his credibility as a detective. The hitch with school too had been straightened out with his transfer to Ekoda. He would finish school, get a degree, and either join the police or become a private investigator.

It was all there. So why did he still feel like he didn't know what he was doing?

Pulling on a jacket, he grabbed his keys and headed out the door. Stay busy. That was the answer. Stay busy and everything else would just fade into the background. Maybe eventually they would disappear altogether.

He wasn't running away. Of course he wasn't. After all, he had nothing to run away from. Right? He was just being practical. No point dwelling on shapeless fears he couldn't even put into words.

X

"Do you remember that armed robbery case from three months ago where the jewelry store owner's son was killed?"

Shinichi nodded. "I remember they were extremely organized. They were in and out in less than ten minutes and left almost no traces that could indicate who they were."

"That's them," Megure-keibu agreed. His expression was grim as he slid a manila folder across the desk to Shinichi. "Well, they struck again a month ago. No fatalities this time, but there was a warning shot fired. The bullets match those from the first robbery."

Shinichi frowned as he took the folder. "I didn't hear about another incident."

"We kept it quiet. Didn't want to give 'em a heads up."

Blue eyes sharpened. "You have a clue then."

"Just one." Reaching over to flip to a particular page in the folder, Megure tapped on a blurred photo. "A kid in the shop down the street took this picture on his phone. From the timeline and circumstances, we believe this man is very likely their lookout. We put some feelers out through the other local jewelry stores. Yesterday, one of the owners sent us this."

The inspector flipped to a different photo. It was of the same man seated at an outdoor café.

"Apparently he's been going to this place every day for two weeks. He could be scouting for their next target. The problem is we're not sure if or when they'll strike."

"But if we compare the exact situations from their previous robberies," Shinichi said, beginning to spread the files out across the desk, "we might be able to create the right conditions to bait them into moving in at a time of our choosing." Soon the entire surface of the desk was covered in neat stacks of paper. The empty manila folder lay discarded on Shinichi's chair. The teen himself was walking around and around the desk, brows drawn together and muttering to himself.

Megure smiled a little to himself at the sight. Honestly, he'd been a little worried about the boy he'd watched grow up. Ever since he had gotten back, Shinichi had been…different. He wasn't the same reckless, over-confident brat Megure remembered from two years ago.

He had grown more mature. He had become more focused and less interested in showing off. That air of a smart kid playing detective had gone to be replaced by a calmer kind of assurance. Megure would have said it was a good change except that it had come with… He wasn't entirely sure how to put it. A sense of distance and loss, perhaps, with a dash of weariness that no one his age should have.

The boy was getting to be too withdrawn, the inspector decided. He really should be spending more time with other people his own age. But he could understand how difficult it must be to just go back to normal life after a big case, especially when you added a new school and living arrangements into the mix. Maybe he should arrange for Shinichi to work with some of the younger officers more often.

But first they had a trap to plan.

TBC

A.N: This'll be the first story of mine where Akako has a more involved role. Now that I think about it, I completely forgot about her in Midnight White, hehe ^.^U. Not sure if anyone noticed. I'm not sure how she's coming across so far, but she's pretty interesting to write. ^_^ For some reason I've always felt that there was something a bit sad about her character. Although I guess that could just be me. Anyhow, thanks for reading, and I'll see you next time. To those for whom it matters, have a happy July 4th!