Disclaimer: I don't own DCMK

Sky Colored Eyes

30: The Beast

So he now had two cell phones again. Shinichi gazed at the two phones on his desk as he buttoned up his school uniform. And this new phone had voice changing functions built in. It would have been convenient to have that little addition to his Shinichi phone back when he'd still been Conan. Sighing, he shook his head, smiling wryly. At least that meant he had plenty of experience needing to keep two different phones in mind. He'd checked to make sure that the ringtone for the new phone was different from his own last night. He should probably turn the new phone off while he was in school though. Built in voice changer or no, it would be a strange conversation for his fellow students to overhear if their target really called.

He had just picked up the peach phone to switch it off when it buzzed in his hands and began to sing. Caught off guard, he froze for a split second. Then he fumbled to answer it as his mind raced, scrambling to pull up all the background information he and Kaito had put together yesterday.

"Hello?" he greeted, forcing himself to speak calmly despite his speeding thoughts.

"Good morning, Miko-chan~!"

"…" Shinichi's face fell into a deadpan expression, and he hung up.

The phone immediately began to ring again. He ignored it in favor of double checking that all his school materials were in his backpack. When it was still ringing as he headed for the kitchen to make his morning coffee, he gave in and answered it.

"What?" he snapped, glaring at the coffeemaker and imagining that it had Kaito's face.

"You don't sound very happy," the obnoxiously cheerful voice observed from the other end of the line. "Is something wrong?"

"…No."

"Not a very convincing performance there, Tantei-kun."

Shinichi snorted, wishing the coffeemaker would hurry up. His usual early morning craving for caffeine was increasing exponentially by the second. "Why are you calling me?"

"Aren't couples supposed to call each other now and then?"

"We are not a couple."

There was an overdramatic gasp. "Miko-chan! How can you say that?"

Shinichi groaned. "Did you have chocolate for breakfast or something? If you have nothing important to say, I'm hanging up."

"Everything I have to say is important!"

"Good bye."

"Wait! Okay, fine, I'm sorry. I just wanted to let you know that I'm almost at your apartment."

"…Is that all?"

"Er, well… I brought doughnuts?" The magician held out the statement like a peace offering.

Shinichi hung on to his annoyance for a moment longer before deflating. It was hard to stay mad in the face of Kaito's relentless cheer. And, well, he had been thoughtful enough to bring doughnuts. Considering Shinichi had forgotten to go to the grocery store, it meant that the detective would not be skipping breakfast after all. "Fine. But call my real phone next time. You almost gave me a heart attack. I thought the guy was already calling us back."

Kaito had the nerve to laugh. "Sorry about that. I just thought it'd be good to have it on record that we really do call each other with these phones."

"I really don't think it's necessary to go to such lengths with this charade."

"Maybe not. But it doesn't hurt. And besides, isn't it fun?"

"…I'm hanging up now. Just let yourself in when you get here."

X

The school day passed in a blur. It seemed they had only just started class then they were packing up to leave. Kaito, Shinichi, Hakuba, and Aoko met up at the school gates. They weren't scheduled to meet Sai for another hour and a half, so they decided to stop at a café on the way to the hospital and share what they'd learned: maybe do a bit of homework too in the spare time.

"We're still waiting on a response from the web guy," Kaito said, plucking the cherry from the top of his slice of chocolate cake and popping it into his mouth. "We spoke with Mister Antiques. He's got the kind of voice it would be fairly easy to fabricate. It was too gravelly to get a good read on pitch and the drawl and speech pattern would be more memorable to most than what he did or didn't sound like."

Three pairs of eyes stared at him.

It was Aoko who broke the silence. "So…what does that mean?"

The magician shrugged. "I didn't say it meant anything. I was just making a note that even though we talked to him, his voice may not be a good way to identify him because it could easily have been put on."

"So you still think they're all the same guy?"

"Yep. And I shall continue to do so until we see evidence otherwise," he declared in a low, rough drawl that made Shinichi choke on his coffee. At the end of his statement, Kaito had sounded exactly like Banji-san had over the phone. "But what about you two? Got anything interesting for us?"

"We know that Kogane spends most of his time at work or in a low class apartment—which, I would say, strongly suggests that he is real—but somehow has his name attached to an expensive property that runs up expensive bills every week."

"I think that maybe someone else could have bought the place in his name," Aoko added. "Saguru thinks it wouldn't help either of them if that were the case, but I still feel like it's possible. We also dug more into the property history itself. The records were a bit scanty, but we did manage to find some information that suggests several of the owners agreed to pool their assets at one point and build a joint complex—like an apartment complex that they could both live in and rent out to everyone's benefit. But from what Kudo-kun saw, it seems they built the mansion instead. And for some reason the records just never got updated."

"So they could also be using it as an apartment complex," Shinichi speculated. "Just because it doesn't resemble your average apartment complex doesn't mean it can't be used that way."

Hakuba sipped at his tea, brown eyes focused on some internal landscape. "So then the question becomes, which one of them is the cult leader? Or is it someone else entirely?"

Shinichi nodded. "What about personal connections? Do any of the land owners know each other? Other than the brothers."

"That's something we're going to have to look into once we get them talking to us," Kaito supplied. "There are some things that paper can't tell you."

"What I still do not understand is why the man would go to such lengths to stay hidden. Such secrecy appears to me to be a great deal of trouble with no real benefit for anyone—unless he feels that he is in the wrong, which seems unlikely to be the case." Fixing his gaze on his fellow detective, Hakuba quirked an inquiring eyebrow. "I was wondering if you had any theories on the matter."

"I wondered about that too," Shinichi admitted. "If I had to guess, it could be that he has been or is part of something that requires him to lay low. Considering the kind of organization this is, it could also be a way to enhance his image. There's power in mystery. I don't really want to make any assumptions though."

"I don't think it matters why," Aoko said softly, eyes dark. "It doesn't change what's been done or the fact that we have to find him."

A contemplative silence fell over their table. On the other side of the café, a group of teenagers in the uniforms of a different high school burst into peels of raucous laughter. Kaito spun his fork around his finger in a silver whirl before flicking it up to balance on the tip of his finger.

"We should go now or we might be late," he said, letting the fork fall with a clatter by his empty plate. "Being late with Koizumi could be the worst mistake of your life if she's in a bad mood."

"Um, do you think she'll mind if I'm there? Her and Sai, I mean. I know that Sai didn't ask me for help, so I guess I'm just inviting myself, huh? I don't want to make him uncomfortable. Maybe I should just wait for you guys outside in the waiting room."

"Don't be ridiculous. Just come with. Sai's serious about wanting to clear this up and help the people who were adversely effected by this. And that includes the Hasagawas. I think having you around to share Ren's side of the story would be good."

"Well, if you're sure."

"Let's go then," said Hakuba, brushing nonexistent wrinkles from his clothes and pushing his chair under the table. "Tardiness is not a good way to begin a serious project."

"Wow, Hakuba, you actually said something that makes sense. Amazing!"

"Kuroba," the blond ground out, annoyance warring with resignation. "Just get the bill. You foisted it all off on Aoko and me last time. So it is only right that you pay this time."

"I'll get it," Shinichi offered. "It was my fault we ran out that time."

Kaito stopped him, snapping his fingers and causing the bill to fly to his waiting hand. "You barely ate anything both these times. It doesn't make sense for you to pay. You guys go ahead. I'll meet you there."

X

Sai's room hadn't changed much from the last time they had visited. The lucky charms and religious signs were still all over the walls. If anything, their numbers had increased. There was barely any wall left visible anywhere now. Sai himself was still pale, though he seemed to have lost some bandaging. Already seated with his back against a mound of pillows, he greeted them with a nod and a lopsided smile.

There was already someone seated by the bed. Shinichi examined the redhead with some curiosity. He had seen her in class, but he had never spoken to her before. She carried herself with the poise of someone who knew that the world was watching her. Though pretty, there was something just this side of creepy about her smile. Even so, it was hard to wrap his mind around the idea of her being a witch. He could believe that a persuasive man could convince people to believe in ghosts and monsters, especially when those people already wanted to believe, but witchcraft? He really didn't know.

Salutations were exchanged, though they were somewhat muted by the tension in the air.

"Um, if you don't mind me asking," Aoko said as she sat down, "why do you have all these charms?"

Sai flashed that lopsided smile again. "I don't mind if you ask. As for the charms, well, let's just say that I don't want a particular uninvited visitor showing up."

She blinked at him. "Uninvited visitor…?"

"Perhaps we should begin there," said Akako, drawing the attention of everyone in the room. "I spoke with Chishima-kun before you arrived."

"So…is it real?" Kaito prompted.

The redhead's lips quirked up in a half smile. "Chishima-kun, can you please describe for us your encounters with this beast?"

"Well, I heard a lot of rumors about it from the others ever since the beginning," Sai began, closing his eyes as he thought. "Some of the stories were… I guess they stuck in my head not so much because they were strange as because the people who shared them with me always had this haunted look in their eyes when they spoke of it. The stories themselves weren't all that explicit, just people who saw something or heard something they couldn't explain, but they did get a little creepy after a while. It wasn't until that time I tried to tell my mom that I—that I saw it for myself. I didn't see it again for a while after that, but I… I started having this feeling. Every time I was alone or walking in a dark place, I knew there was something behind me." Opening his eyes, he turned to stare at the window, though what he was seeing was anyone's guess. "It was like something was watching me. I felt it that day when I spoke to Kudo-kun at school. I kept expecting to see it when I turned around, like it was breathing down my neck. That was about when I started seeing it again."

"I saw its face when the crowds on the streets parted. When I boarded the underground, I saw it looking through the platform window. It was everywhere—in mirrors, looking around corners, out of the corners of my eyes. Then that weekend, after the meet, I was the last to leave the locker room because I had accidentally dropped my phone somewhere, and it took me a while to find it. So there I was locking up when I turned around and it was there."

Sai shivered, drawing in a deep breath and letting it out in a slow, inaudible sigh. "It was the closest I'd ever seen it. I hadn't heard it coming or anything. It was just standing there, huge and hideous, and I knew it was there for me. So I ran. I ran all the way off of campus and into the streets. It was right behind me. I could feel it getting closer—it was like the feeling you have when someone a lot bigger than you is standing right behind you—not close enough to touch, but you know that they're there anyway. But it was cold too, like something carved from ice. All I could think about was running faster because I knew that the moment I stopped moving it was going to catch up. And then, well," he shrugged, "I ended up here. I don't remember the accident."

"What of these other stories you mentioned? What kinds of stories were they?"

"Uh, well. It's a little hard to say. No one really liked talking about it, but it's also not the kind of thing anyone wants to keep to themselves. So all you really hear are bits and pieces. There was a woman who said she saw its face when her husband turned towards her. She'd been thinking about whether or not to tell him about the group. As you can imagine, she didn't. That was probably one of the more frightening ones. I had a nightmare like it, only it was my mom. But I guess that's not important. A lot of us dream about it, I think, especially after sharing stories. It's a little hard to differentiate between the real and the dreams sometimes."

"It sounds to me like a combination of an overactive imagination and the fear that the thing may exist," Hakuba murmured. His gaze turned to Akako. "And you say this is real? This beast?"

"That would depend on how you define reality," the woman replied, voice smooth and unruffled as ever. "This particular beast is one of the mind. It, for lack of a more accurate word, lives in their minds. It is not a thing of flesh and blood, but many of the most powerful forces in the world are not."

The blond frowned. "So it is imaginary."

"I would not say so."

"But something that has no substance is not real."

"You can call it whatever you like. The fact of the matter is that they believe, and belief has power. It is just that simple. Or perhaps just that infinitely complex," she added as an afterthought, smiling faintly. "Many of the most powerful forces in the world are just like this beast. They exist because we believe, and because we believe and act upon them, they are as real as any tangible object. Take love, for instance. We believe that love exists and that it is a powerful force though it too is a thing without tangible substance. We say it can conquer obstacles and heal wounds, and so it has. We believe it gives us strength, so it does. But if you really stop to think about it, it too is merely a concept—a figment of the imagination, if you will. It is a story to help us shape this world into one we hope for, or at least one that we can understand."

"That…makes us all sound kind of sad," Aoko blurted before she could stop herself. She turned red.

Akako turned to her, smile shifting into something a little more sincere and a little more amused. "I don't think so. Is it not a comfort to know that there is more to the world than that which can be touched?"

"Oh. Well, I guess if you put it that way…"

"However, that still doesn't actually prove anything," Hakuba persisted, unimpressed. "You cannot compare an emotional force to a conjured up monster. If it were that simple, we should be overrun with them."

"I am not saying that this particular case is entirely mundane. I merely wished to raise an example of things that are real but without substance. The strength of such things is born entirely from the human heart. As I see it, it is only natural that, if one could harness this power, then it would not take a great deal more to use it to shape monsters and ghosts for those who are willing to embrace them."

"So was it intentional?" Shinichi asked, speaking up for the first time since they had arrived.

Ruby red eyes turned to fix him with an intent look that made him want to step back. "What do you mean?"

"Do you think that the leader created this monster on purpose?"

"You wish to know if he has committed murder."

Shinichi flinched, slightly taken aback by her careless tone (like it didn't really matter one way or the other. And maybe, to her, it didn't). "I…yes. I want to know if you think that he actually intended to cause harm with this—creation."

The witch shrugged, the gesture elegant as everything else about her. "That, I cannot say. Such powers are alive, in a sense. It will have a will of its own. The will that those like Chishima-kun give it when they conjure it in their thoughts. What have they come to believe the beast's creed is? For Chishima-kun, it was a punisher. And for him, it is still lying in wait outside this room for its chance to finish what it started and punish him for daring to speak so much to us outsiders of its master's works. Whether this was what the man intended, who's to say? Although, as this creature was primarily fed with fear, I suppose that his intentions were not entirely pure."

"And the spirits?" Aoko asked. "Like Hasagawa-san's son. Are you saying they're also self-made?"

Akako cast a look at Sai, who was still staring out the window, then nodded. "I believe so. From what Chishima-kun has told me of the circumstances under which the deceased were summoned, I believe that the man uses a hallucinogen during the ceremonies to, shall we say, put everyone in the right state of mind. Then he simply gives them a push and their own desires will do the rest."

"So this is a matter of psychology," Hakuba surmised, nodding as though he had confirmed something. "There is nothing mystical about that."

"Think what you like," Akako replied, brushing her deep, crimson hair back over her shoulder. "However, you will never understand the true extent of this matter if you wish to hold onto that little security blanket."

There was a beat of complete silence. Then Kaito doubled over in his seat, laughing.

The tension snapped, and Shinichi wasn't sure if he should groan or laugh himself. The dumbfounded expression on the blond detective's face was certainly one he wouldn't be forgetting in a hurry. And was that a badly suppressed smile twitching there on what was visible of Sai's face? Only Aoko was managing a completely straight face. Though her expression was so unnaturally still that Shinichi suspected it was taking her quite an effort.

X

"Well that was a complete waste of time," Hakuba muttered, casting a glance up at the towering face of the hospital. "We didn't learn anything we didn't already know."

"Actually," Shinichi said slowly. "I think we learned a lot."

The blond looked at him askance. "You cannot be serious."

"We learned the kind of man this Master is."

Hakuba blinked then inclined his head in ascent. "I suppose that is true."

"We also learned that Koizumi has a sense of humor," Kaito cut in, snickering.

Hakuba flushed.

Aoko smacked the magician on the arm with her book bag. "Oh drop it already, Bakaito."

"Never~." The magician bounded away as Aoko made to smack him again and slung his arm over Shinichi's shoulders. "Come on, Shinichi. Let's leave the wittle baby with his keeper and get ourselves some dinner."

X

"Is that all you're going to tell them, Koizumi-san?"

"It is all that they can understand. Besides, knowing more would not help them in any way."

"Oh. You're probably right."

TBC

A.N: On an unrelated note, the second half of the Slayers chapter of Travelers Chronicles is up. ^_^ Anyhow, I hope you all have a happy New Year. I have a terrible headache today, so I'll be going now.