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Sky Colored Eyes

43: Blink

There was something a little surreal about waking to the sound of birds chirping outside. It wasn't something that happened much in the city, where the more common sounds of early morning was the dull hum of traffic.

Shinichi rolled over in his futon so that the meager dribble of sunlight that was able to sneak in between the blinds couldn't reach his face. The birds, however, were so loud that he found he couldn't get back to sleep. He'd never realized just how noisy birds could be. He struggled in vain for another few minutes before giving up and opening his eyes.

He blinked once, twice, then jerked bolt upright in his futon. If he had been sleeping in a bed, he would have fallen off the side of it. As it was, his futon actually slid a few inches to the side because of his sudden and violent movement. Not, Shinichi would like to point out, that it was any fault of his.

There was a stranger sleeping in the futon next to his.

It was a young man with…with purple and green hair? He also had a thin, curlicue mustache and thick, bushy eyebrows. Shinichi leaned in slightly when he realized the man was still asleep to peer more closely at the stranger's face. It was definitely not a face he recognized. And yet… If you discounted the bushy eyebrows and the mustache and the hair color—and texture and length, then, well, with some imagination, you might be able to see one Hakuba Saguru behind all of it.

Relieved and bemused, Shinichi turned to look towards the futon situated to the other side of his own. This one had belonged to Kaito. The magician himself was, in fact, still there. He was sitting on the edge, and lined up on the floor before him were a dozen feathery, white bodies of varying sizes. They would shuffle a little this way and that and peck and bump up against each other, but mostly they were a very well organized line-up of doves.

They were not, he noted absently, contributing to the avian orchestra playing outside their windows. But the doves did add a certain warbling undertone to it that seemed a little foreign in this setting.

"Kaito?" Shinichi asked finally because his brain was still trying to reboot. "Tell me that's really Hakuba-san and not some crazy person who wandered in here."

The magician glanced back at the stranger with the purple and green hair and smirked. "Yep. It's Hakubaba, the imp of the shrine. You know, the one they said we could hike up to if we wanted a good place for taking photographs. He got lost and came here by accident on his way back from cursing some disrespectful soul."

"Right… Um, what are your birds doing?"

"I'm giving them their breakfast. Isn't it obvious?"

"Didn't you promise your mom that no one would notice that they're here? You know, seeing as pets aren't allowed."

"I remember." Kaito snapped his fingers. The doves pecked up the last crumbs of their breakfast then straightened out their line. Little heads tilted back to look up at the magician with expectant, beady little eyes. Another snap of Kaito's fingers and the windows popped open.

"Now, you lot, just stick to the plan. Look around, have fun, and, if you see it, come tell me right away."

He was answered by a chorus of coos and head bobs that Shinichi would swear looked like salutes before the whole flock spread their wings and darted out of the open window.

The detective shook his head. Those were some creepily intelligent birds.

"What did you ask them to look for?" Shinichi asked, gaze on the view outside. There was a dark wood patio: a stark contrast to the pale stone that had been used to build the baths. All around them, trees towered high as they strove to become ancients. "And you realize Aoko-san's going to be mad when she sees what you've done to Hakuba."

Kaito laughed heartily. "My dear detective, that is half the fun. True art must elicit a reaction from its audience."

"Under normal circumstances, I might agree with you," Shinichi said dryly. "But giving people high blood pressure is not a form of art."

Kaito only chuckled. "Ah well, a little excitement never hurt anyone. Anyhow, hurry up and get changed. I have a place I want to show you."

"A place you want to show me?" Shinichi repeated, puzzled. "I thought you'd never been here before."

"Not to this particular hot spring hotel," Kaito agreed with a grin. "I never said I'd never been to this area at all."

"…Oh." He really should have known. The magician and his twisty answers. You could never take anything he said at face value. "And that thing you asked your birds to find?"

"That'll be for later."

"Can't you ever give a straight answer?"

"Where would be the fun in that? The sense of wonder is born from mystery. Wouldn't you agree?"

"Sometimes," Shinichi conceded. "But wonder can also be brought about by other things. A scenic view, for example, breeds wonder with beauty."

"Ah, but that would be wonder born from the mystery of nature. We look on it and wonder at just how something so amazingly immense and complex could exist."

"I guess if you put it that way…" Shinichi covered a yawn. It was way too early to be having philosophical debates. He had half a mind to burrow back under the covers for a few more minutes, but the birds outside hadn't gotten any quieter. That, and—

"If you aren't going to get changed on your own, I can help you. Although I feel that it would only be fair for me to warn you that that would mean you won't have any say in your wardrobe."

Shinichi paled, casting a surreptitious look at the still slumbering Hakuba. Come to think of it, why was the blonde—er, no-longer-blonde?—still asleep? Had he been drugged? He wouldn't put it past Kaito.

Yeah, he should probably get moving. He was not spending the rest of the day as the forest sprite or whatever other embarrassing character Kaito had concocted for the magician's own entertainment.

X

Although Kaito had professed to having something to show him, he didn't appear to be in as much of a hurry as he had first led Shinichi to believe. They stopped first at the dining rooms. There, they had a leisurely breakfast of steamed egg and rice (one of three options being offered for breakfast that morning). The coffee wasn't exactly what Shinichi would call amazing, but it was at least better than nothing.

"You say that, and yet you've already downed two cups," Kaito said teasingly.

Shinichi huffed and buried his nose in his cup (the third one). It wasn't his fault that these little porcelain cups were so small. They were very pretty and all, just the kind of cups you'd want to use for a quiet tea party, but they didn't offer much in the way of quantity. And he needed to fortify himself as much as he could while he still had the chance. Who knew what the crazy magician had planned for them?

Shinichi had already decided that it would be futile to try and predict Kaito's plans. It was a waste of mental energy that could all too easily lead to frightening figments of the imagination. There was just something about Kaito that made Shinichi expect the crazy and the weird. But beneath his apprehension, he could feel a stirring of anticipation. He might even go so far as to call it excitement.

This was Kaito after all.

"Well then, now that we've filled our stomachs, it's time to head out!" Kaito dropped a handful of bills and coins on the table—enough to cover both his and Shinichi's orders—then grabbed the detective's hand and pulled him out of the restaurant before he could protest.

"You could always buy me another chocolate cake sometime," he said when Shinichi still looked uncomfortable. "And this time I can have the whole thing to myself."

"You'll make yourself sick," the detective said dryly, but he found the corners of his lips twitching upward despite his attempts to stop them.

"We'll share then," Kaito said generously. "I don't mind sharing if it's with you."

For some reason, Shinichi felt his face beginning to turn pink. He shook himself, swallowed, and cleared his throat. "Thanks, I guess. So where did you say you wanted us to go?"

"Ah, ah, ah," the magician said, wagging a finger in front of Shinichi's nose as though the detective were a naughty child. "You've already asked me once, and I told you it wouldn't be any fun if I gave you the answer. Patience, my dear detective, is a virtue."

Shinichi rolled his eyes. "Can you at least tell me if I should bring a thicker jacket? We are in the mountains."

Kaito seemed to really think about this question before answering. "Bring the lighter one. The one you were wearing on the bus. It won't be too cold where we're going."

Now a little confused but curious too, Shinichi fetched the aforementioned garment and let Kaito hustle him outside.

This hotel being in such a remote location, there wasn't much in the way of other buildings or people around. It was all just nature through and through. It was nice, in a way, even though it also felt a bit strange. Like this place wasn't real. Or maybe it was the cities that weren't real and only this place, green and alive and ancient as the earth, that could truly be considered real.

The lands immediately around the hotel were mostly flat and easy to navigate, but once you got past the parking area and the hot springs, the forest loomed up, and the wild things stirred. Here, visitors could only follow a handful of well-worn trails that could lead them up to the old shrine or to other scenic destinations within the bosom of the mountain.

When Kaito pulled him towards the main trail, Shinichi wondered if they were going up to the shrine after all. Perhaps to see the place before the others joined them. Some way along the winding dirt road, however, Kaito turned off the wide, well-trodden path and onto what could only be considered a deer trail.

Shinichi hesitated. "Are you sure that's even a trail?"

"Of course I am," came the mock offended reply. "Now hurry up or I'll have to come back there and carry you."

"That won't be necessary," Shinichi said hastily. Hopping down from the main trail onto this narrow, winding strip of parted brush that may or may not be a trail, Shinichi sent a prayer to whatever deity might still live in the old shrine to keep them from getting lost. That would be just what they needed. Then he was picking his way through the underbrush after Kaito.

He couldn't resist asking several times more if the magician was sure he knew where he was going. Hadn't the guy only been here himself a few times before in the past? Things might have changed since then. But every time he raised his concerns, Kaito would wave them away and scoff at his anxiety.

Shinichi knew he should be worried. Here they were, doing exactly what any sane hiker should know to avoid. And yet that grin, the mischief in those indigo eyes, and the strong hand holding his to make sure they wouldn't get separated—they were speaking to him, and he found that his misgivings (and possibly his common sense) were driven clean away. So he let himself be dragged into the unknown, heart pounding from something that he might have to admit was anticipation if he thought about it at all.

When they finally emerged from the trees to meet the open sky again, Shinichi's breath caught in his throat. They were standing on the edge of a grassy meadow trimmed along most of its edges by trees. On one side, however, there were no trees, and you could see that the meadow sloped down a little only to go falling away into a deep, green valley. In the distance, they could see the shadow of more mountains brushing against the sky.

"Come on." Kaito's steps didn't slow. Since he still had a hold of Shinichi's hand, this meant that Shinichi's steps didn't slow either. The two of them half jogged all the way across the clearing. The ground began to slant beneath their feet, and Shinichi found himself clinging more tightly to the magician's hand. With the drop-off mere steps away and the earth tilting forward already, it felt as though they were both about to go tumbling over the edge of a cliff.

Instead, Kaito halted right at the top of the steep, grassy slope of a wannabe cliff and plopped down onto the grass. He pulled Shinichi down to sit beside him. The detective's fingers curled reflexively into the grass as though hanging onto an anchor. Kaito, on the other hand, remained perfectly relaxed.

"Watch this," he said to Shinichi with a grin. He flung his right arm out to gesture at the dark valley beneath their feet. "It's about to start."

Shinichi wondered what he meant. If they'd climbed up here to watch the sunrise then they'd arrived too late. The sun had already risen, and it was its strong, clear light that was making their jackets feel just shy of too thick.

But then blue eyes caught the gleam of silver, and he turned. Yes, the sun had risen, and therefore the radiant dance of cream oranges and soft pinks that made the sky so beautiful in the mornings had long since faded to a flawless blue that was every bit as beautiful but not half as dramatic. The change happening before them now was a different kind of sunrise. A different face of the time honored beauty of the dawning day.

The valley below had, when they had first arrived, been nothing more than a vast sea of dark green shadows. But, as the sun climbed higher, a thread of silver traced itself through that darkness, splitting it open to reveal a lustrous forest and long stretches of gently bubbling streams.

"The sunlight reaches different parts of this valley more quickly than others," Kaito explained. "It's like watching the curtain rise on a new painting."

"It's beautiful," Shinichi agreed.

"Dad, Mom and I came here a long time ago," Kaito said, smiling. It wasn't his usual manic grin, Shinichi noticed. Nor was it the cheery or scheming smiles he'd become famous for. This smile was genuine. "We picnicked here sometimes. But what we really came for was this." Hopping back onto his feet, Kaito produced two canvas bundles. One, he set aside. The other, he spread out and began to assemble.

"It's a glider," Shinichi exclaimed, not exactly surprised but still caught off guard.

"The lay of the land around here—the rivers, the trees, the rock formations—mean this valley is full of thermals. It's a good place to practice reading the wind when you fly."

Shinichi looked askance at the second glider yet to be assembled. "You don't mean…"

"Dad first showed me how to fly here," the magician said cheerfully,. Completely ignoring Shinichi's less than enthusiastic reception. "This place is easy to practice in. You don't ever get too high, and everything you can land on is of the fall-breaking variety."

Shinichi looked at the second glider as it too began unfurling. "So you brought us up here to…?"

Kaito ran a last check over the two now fully assembled gliders then sat back with a satisfied grin. "Fly, of course. Come on. It'll be fun."

Shinichi looked dubious. "I'm not sure this is a good idea."

Kaito quirked an eyebrow at him. "Why? You scared?"

"No," Shinichi huffed, mildly offended. "But I'm not crazy enough to think that flying out into the middle of a mountain forest is a good idea. You said yourself you've only been here a few times when you were little. A lot can change in a few years. Ten to one says we're going to get lost."

"Is that all?" Amusement tugged at the corners of the magician's lips. "Trails might change, but mountains don't move much in a measly few years in my experience. I promise you, I won't let us get lost. Please?" he added when Shinichi didn't immediately capitulate. "Just one flight: nice and easy, no fancy tricks. I did haul all this equipment up so we could use it. You wouldn't want all my effort to go to waste, would you? I can get a bit testy when that happens."

Shinichi wondered vaguely if that was some kind of threat. But he put it out of his mind. Instead, he focused on the gliders again. They looked solidly built. Well, duh. They had the Kaitou KID's stamp of approval. If anyone knew anything about hang gliders, it was Kaitou KID. So they were probably safe.

And, well, it was flying. Who hadn't dreamed about flying at least once in their lives? Shinichi himself had often wondered about it, especially after heists when he'd watched the thief soar away on his white wings. What did the world look like from up there? When you were flying on the wind rather than inside the protective shell of a plane?

He'd gotten glimpses of it, the most memorable probably being his fall from that blimp. But in a situation like that, a person's mind had a tendency to be preoccupied with other things and not all that interested in appreciating the sensation of flight.

"You're sure you know how to get back?" he asked again because he still felt it needed to be confirmed. They were not equipped for camping.

"One hundred percent positive."

Shinichi wavered then gave in. "Just one flight then," he said, sitting down next to one of the gliders and beginning to examine it. It was a simple contraption, light in build, and it was fairly easy for him to deduce how it should be used.

"The best way to learn is to do it," Kaito declared from where he'd been standing behind Shinichi, watching the boy at his examinations. "So, you up for it?"

Shinichi drew in a deep breath then laughed. The sound gave Kaito pause. It was a bright, 'just let it all out' kind of laugh that he'd never heard from Shinichi before.

"Let's do it then," the detective declared. "So, Teacher, care to demonstrate how it's done?"

"Gladly." Kaito picked up the other glider. "Just watch and learn. And try to make sure you land near me. It might not look like much from up here, but this valley is extremely large. It would be a bother having to hunt you down. But, if we do get separated, stay put. I know the area, so I'll come find you."

Shinichi nodded. Standing back, he watched as Kaito took a running leap over the lip of the drop off with the careless ease of long practice. The glider immediately caught an updraft, and Kaito was soaring out across the valley like a very large, dark bird.

"Come on!" he called out. His voice reached Shinichi's ears like a whisper from a distant land.

Bracing himself, Shinichi followed the thief's example. For the first few seconds of his fall, he felt fear spike in his chest. But then the glider's wings caught the air currents. His entire world jerked, then he began to rise. Soon, he was flying out over towering, green treetops and pointed pines. He could feel the wind shifting beneath his wings, and he instinctively shifted his own body weight to compensate for the changes and steer the glider after Kaito's.

Together, they glided from one end of the valley to the other and back in ever lowering circles until, finally, Kaito brought his glider to earth in a small clearing near the heart of the valley. Here, a thin stream ran cold and fast between banks of mossy rock.

Shinichi's landing was rather a lot less graceful than Kaito's. The detective stumbled, overbalanced the glider, and ended up sprawled on the ground under the glider. He was breathing a little hard. It had been tougher to hold himself in the proper position than he had anticipated it would be.

Deft hands lifted the glider off of him and began disassembling it. Shinichi rolled over to lie on his back, listening to the magician work. The grass beneath him was soft and springy, and the sky visible past the fringe of leaves overhead was a flawless, robin's egg blue.

Kaito sat down beside him.

"So?" the magician prompted. "That wasn't so bad, was it?"

"No," Shinichi agreed, a faint smile lingering on his face.

Kaito leaned over to grin down at the detective, observing the relaxed lines of Shinichi's face. "So how did it feel to fly?"

"I can see why you do it so much," Shinichi murmured, closing his eyes and envisioning the world as it spread out and away below him, all the way to the ends of the earth. And he imagined the sensation of weightlessness that came when the wind shifted and the glider soared: free and fast and unfettered even by gravity.

Kaito's grin softened into a smile, and he reached over to ruffle Shinichi's hair. For once, the detective didn't protest at all. He only inhaled deeply then sighed.

"We need to go back and meet up with the others," the detective murmured. He made no move to get up.

"Yeah," Kaito agreed, though he didn't move either. The two simply sat and lay there, gazes on the sky in a shared sense of understanding that had only just been born. It was like they had inadvertently flown into another world.

But Shinichi knew that it was their responsibility to get back soon and not cause a panic by just up and disappearing unnecessarily. So he sat up and covered a yawn. It was as he lowered his hand to look around the clearing that his ears caught a flicker of voices drifting past on the breeze.

He froze then turned to Kaito. He poked the magician's arm.

Indigo eyes met his from an impassive face. Kaito had heard it too.

Both teens remained perfectly still, listening. The voices sounded agitated. They weren't growing any louder or quieter though, so the speakers probably weren't moving.

Kaito got to his feet then offered Shinichi a hand up. Their eyes met in silent debate. Kaito knew that there weren't any trails in the area, and they both recognized that those voices were upset. Decision made, they turned and crept their way towards the voices.

The underbrush in this area was dense and the trees quite close together. It was slow going, maneuvering their way through the vegetation while trying to remain silent. Fortunately, they didn't have to go far before they could begin picking words out of the agitated murmur.

"You fool! Do you have any idea what you've done?! You killed them!"

"I—I'm sorry. I didn't mean to! I swear."

A long pause. "Well there's nothing we can do about it now. Just leave them. We'll just have to find another one to lead us. And you better be more careful when we do." The warning was snapped out like a gunshot.

"I—I will. Promise!"

"Hmph. Let's go then."

"Shouldn't we…uh, you know, burry them first?"

There was a long silence.

"You want to burry them."

"Well, yeah… Isn't that the right thing to do?"

There was a grunt and a sigh. "Fine. Burry them. But be quick about it before the others get away."

"Right."

The two eavesdroppers drew up short. Ahead of them, the trees parted a little, but they couldn't see anything because the gap was entirely filled by a wall of rough rock. Indigo eyes met blue.

This, Kaito reflected with a certain level of annoyance, was not how he'd planned for the morning to go. Not at all.

TBC