Disclaimer: I don't own DCMK

Sky Colored Eyes

45: Aoko's Investigation

Aoko was not happy. There were multiple reasons for this.

She had woken up that morning in a good mood. She'd slept well, and she was looking forward to a day of rest and relaxation with her friends. The weather was good, their surroundings were beautiful, and, well, what more did you need?

Kaito's mother had gone on ahead to breakfast, leaving Aoko to finish her morning ablutions. So she had been alone when she stepped out of their room and nearly walked right into the last person she'd wanted to see.

Setsu, if that was really his name, had given her a polite smile that didn't quite reach his eyes and bid her a good morning.

"Will you be headed to breakfast then?" he had asked.

"Oh, uh, yes," she'd said, still not entirely sure how to behave around the man. How were you supposed to behave towards someone who'd been skulking around behind your back for who knew how long? He was basically a stalker, and they still had no inklings as to what his intentions were. But Aoko was inclined to feel that anyone even remotely likely to be associated with those cultists was not to be trusted.

Being the straight forward person that she was, what she really wanted to do was demand that he explain himself. The problem was that, well, she was fairly certain that A, she wouldn't get any answers, and B, she had no evidence to call him out on. The others wanted to use the man to fish for information. It would be hard to do that if they roused the man's suspicions. So, technically speaking, what she wanted to do was the one thing she shouldn't do.

That realization left Aoko at a loss as to what to say. So she'd given a short affirmative and resigned herself to an awkwardly silent trip to the dining rooms with their not-so-shadowy shadow for company. By the time they got to the dining rooms, most of her good mood from that morning had seeped away.

Her mood was not improved when Saguru was the only one to join her for breakfast. Not that she minded having breakfast alone with him. It was…kind of nice—or would have been, if their shadow wasn't sitting at the table too. No, the problem was that Saguru had clearly had a lousy morning of his own. The only sign of it left was his bright green and purple hair, but she could see it in the stiff way he was moving and the glower hovering about his features. He greeted her with a short good morning and said little else as they waited for their food.

With his sour mood compounding her own, breakfast was a silent and uncomfortable affair.

She'd found herself watching the doorway, hoping to see Kaito or Shinichi—preferably both. Kaito was a master at breaking up awkward silences (probably because his complete lack of understanding for the concept of shame rendered him immune to them). And while Shinichi wasn't talkative, Aoko was a hundred percent sure that the blue-eyed detective would have had questions to ask Setsu. He could alleviate the awkwardness too because his focus when there was a case rendered him oblivious to anything else. Together, the two would surely have been able to salvage what was left of breakfast and given this lagging day a kick start. But they never came.

"Everyone, attention please!" The voice of their tour guide rang out over the soft clinking of cutlery. "I'll be giving a short tour of the mountain shrine. Everyone who's interested, meet outside in ten minutes."

"I guess we'll be going with them," Hakuba non-asked, glancing at Aoko.

The girl glanced at the dining room doorway again then shrugged. Still no Kaito or Shinichi.

"You two don't seem very excited," Setsu remarked, draining the last of his tea from his cup. "I take it mornings don't agree with you? Or did you not sleep well?"

Hakuba scowled into his own cup. "I believe I was drugged."

Aoko's hand shot across the table to cover his mouth. "I told you not to take any sleeping pills," she invented loudly before turning a sheepish smile on Setsu. "Sorry. I just expected our other friends would be here by now. But it's starting to look like they're going to miss the tour."

There. Sitting back, she drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly, gathering her wits. Kaito and Shinichi weren't here, and Saguru's eyes still looked unfocused beneath his frowning brows (had he really been drugged? That Bakaito! Didn't he have any scruples?). And that meant it was her, Nakamori Aoko, who was going to have to try and get information out of this man on this trip.

They were all going to owe her big time when this was over.

She stood up, bracing herself mentally as she did so, then smiled her best, cheery smile at Saguru and Setsu. "So are you guys done then? If you are, we should go outside. I'd hate to be left behind because we aren't at the meeting place when they go."

Hakuba nodded and rose. He had a backpack with him that Aoko was certain contained his case notebooks and possibly some real books as well. He settled the straps over his shoulders and offered her his arm.

Aoko looked at the arm then up at his face. The blonde was looking ahead, not at her, but there was a faint blush on his cheeks that she didn't miss. The sight made her own lips twitch. Suddenly, she wasn't in such a bad mood anymore. She wrapped her arm through his, and, together, they headed outside to where the adventurous ones in their tour group were preparing to hike up to the shrine.

"Do you want to go call your friends?" Setsu asked as the three of them waited on a wooden bench at what was apparently the foot of the trail. "Perhaps they overslept."

"They were both gone when I woke up," Hakuba said shortly. "Frankly, I'm not sure Kuroba ever sleeps."

"But they did say they wished to go on this trip, didn't they?"

"Maybe they went ahead and are waiting for us at the shrine," Aoko suggested. "It would be just like Kaito to be lying in wait up there with some kind of evil shrine spirit disguise on to jump out at me or something," she muttered, more to herself than to any of the others. Her mutterings, however, drew Setsu's attention, and he leaned forward slightly on the bench so he could peer around at her face.

"This Kaito. Does he enjoy doing such things?

"You mean creating disguises to scare people?" Aoko asked, confused. "No, not really… I mean, he likes to scare people, but that's just because he thinks its fun to get the rest of us all riled up. He told me once that it's about reaction. I guess he just likes pushing people's buttons."

"And the disguises?"

"He's a good actor. Always has been. He says it's an essential part of being a good magician."

"Ah. So he is a magician."

Aoko snorted. "Or at least that's what he likes to call himself."

"I see. Incidentally, I have been meaning to ask you about his brother."

Both Hakuba and Aoko stared at the man.

"Who?" the girl asked finally.

Setsu gave them a long, puzzled look that could have been fabricated or real as mud. "The boy who resembles him. The one with the blue eyes."

"You mean Shinichi? They're not brothers." Hakuba found the mere suggestion rather horrifying. Although not quite as horrifying as the idea of a great detective and a master thief being involved.

"Ah, my mistake." Setsu smiled again his odd, placid smile. "But is that boy Kudo Shinichi? The detective who disappeared a few years ago?"

Aoko traded glances with Hakuba. The blonde's gaze had grown abruptly sharp. The girl turned back to Setsu and nodded.

"He is. He transferred to our school recently. Why?"

"Oh, no reason. I was just curious. I don't meet famous people every day after all." The man chuckled. "So you're his classmates."

"Well, Saguru here is also a detective," Aoko felt obliged to point out. "So I guess you can call them colleagues."

"I see, I see. So I suppose you know then, where Kudo-kun was those years he went missing. You see, I'd heard that he was dead."

"He wasn't," Hakuba said, though, in retrospect, he realized that that was an unnecessarily obvious statement.

"I suppose he decided to stop playing the detective then."

The blonde blinked. "Pardon?"

"He has not been solving cases."

Hakuba snorted. "He would not be the first person to wish to be kept out of the newspapers."

"So you mean he was working from some hiding place, solving some big cases," Setsu summarized. That placid smile was starting to get on Aoko's nerves. "He sure sounds like a dedicated one. Is he on a case now?"

"He's always working on some case or other," Aoko cut in, fairly certain that that was a safe answer to give.

"Have you worked with him on any cases?" the man persisted, turning his attention to Hakuba. "As a fellow detective, of course."

Hakuba gave a curt nod. "We work together on occasion."

"Do you like mysteries, Setsu-san?" asked Aoko.

The man laughed lightly. "Well, I do feel that our lives would be rather less than they are without a bit of mystery. Although crime is not of any particular interest to me."

"Really?" The girl feigned surprise. "Since you were interested in talking about Kudo-kun, I guess I just sort of assumed you were interested in his cases."

"Well, I do read the papers," he said. "I don't have any special interest in reading about crime, but I do like to know what's going on. You never know when you might be affected by something that's going on. Even if it seems distant."

"Oh." Aoko drew back a little in surprise. "I guess that's true. So did you see anything in the papers recently that you thought might be relevant to you?" she asked. This was an opportunity. She wasn't about to let it slip away unnoticed.

"Everyone!"

All heads turned towards their tour guide, and Aoko almost did a Nakamori-keibu impression of her own. Talk about bad timing!

Oblivious to the things she had interrupted and the many minds filled with uncharitable thoughts most unsuited for a vacation arrayed before her, the tour guide smiled and gestured for everyone to get into a loose line.

"The trail is easy to follow, but it's not very wide, and there will be a lot of steps. Please watch your step and don't move too quickly. We don't want anyone falling."

There was a smattering of agreements. Then the group was trouping out onto the trail and beginning their slow journey up to the old shrine.

It was an unremarkable walk for the most part. There was the beauty of the trees and the old paths and steps that might as well have been part of the mountains themselves for how well they fit into the scenery. Nature and man's creations blended into one. Aoko just wished she was in the mood to enjoy it.

The trail meandered up the mountainside past a scattering of little rest areas. There was a small clearing set with picnic tables and multiple meadows dotted with wildflowers. There was even a small but ornate gazebo at one point.

Then the trail took another turn and they were standing at the foot of a very, very long flight of steps. Several people stopped to gape. Aoko could feel her own jaw dropping. Her legs were tired already just from looking at the thing.

"We're almost there!" the tour guide called out encouragingly as she started up the steps. "The shrine's right at the top of these stairs."

There was some hesitation and grumbling, but soon the rest of the hiking group was trudging up after her. Aoko groaned but followed suit.

"I'm starting to regret coming," she muttered to Hakuba.

The blonde's lips quirked, suggesting he knew exactly how she felt.

On Aoko's other side, Setsu chuckled. "It is certainly a daunting climb, but the best rewards are given to those who persevere."

"I guess," the girl said dubiously. "But isn't that supposed to be more about not giving up on something? Honestly, I think I can live without seeing one old shrine." She eyed him closely as she said this.

The man's face remained placid as ever. He shrugged, tilting his head back to gaze up and up to where their tour group was starting to draw ahead of them. "Well, you never know. Maybe something great is waiting for you in the shrine."

"If there's something waiting, it's going to be Kaito in a shrine demon costume," the girl said flatly.

"Perhaps. Or maybe it will be a true spirit with a blessing."

"Do you believe in such things?" Hakuba asked.

Setsu shrugged again. "My parents used to take me to a shrine near our town in a place very much like this one. They said that the god of the shrine had seen too much sadness in the world. So, when he came to live on that mountain, he gave the people there a gift. As long as the people treated him and his with respect, he would be the bridge between them and the heavens. And he found that, of all the gifts and promises offered, the one that his people celebrated most was the chance to see and speak to someone they had loved then lost. Of course, such frequent contact between the living world and the realm of the dead was not allowed, but the god of the shrine decided that, for one day each month, those who came to his shrine would be given the chance to walk through the gates to the other side and speak to one person. Then they would come back. And so, for the privilege of that one day's passage, the people around his shrine paid the god great homage and were faithful to his every word."

"That sounds like the beginnings of a tyranny," Hakuba said shortly.

The comment earned him a startled eyebrow raise from their shadow. "Tyranny? That's a rather cynical way of looking at things. When I heard the story, I felt that it was more of a picture of the perfection that could be if men could live in true balance with the forces of the supernatural. And so I decided that I would not wonder if such things were true or not. I would simply pay my respects and see where life leads me."

"But what the god was doing was bribing people, wasn't it?" Aoko asked. "I'm pretty sure that's what it is when you offer people things they want in exchange for their doing what you tell them to."

"No, no. This is fair trade at the least. Besides, don't you think giving people their hope back is something that should be applauded? What wrong is there in handing people back the pieces of their happiness?"

"But what you want isn't always what's going to make you happy," Aoko said, voice full of conviction. "Sometimes, letting go is the best thing you can do for yourself."

"But then you would be disrespecting the ones who have gone before."

"No I wouldn't," she snapped. She straightened her shoulders and back, standing tall and defiant. "I'd be honoring their memory. I'd be living the life that they wanted me to live. One that moves forward into a bright future instead of falling back into the darkness of old and impossible dreams."

Setsu's lips quirked up at the corners. "Very wisely said, little girl. However, your words hinge on those dreams being impossible."

"Well, aren't they?" she challenged. Aoko stopped walking. She fixed her gaze on Setsu, staring so hard at him for any signs of what his true thoughts might be that her eyes began to hurt.

"Perhaps, perhaps not. Can any man with mankind's limited knowledge and abilities ever truly know for certain?" Setsu walked a few steps further up before he noticed that his conversation partners were no longer with him. He stopped and turned. "I would say not."

There the man stood upon the steps, looking down at them with that impassive smile and eyes that were like holes into a serene and pitch black darkness.

And behind him, just over his shoulder, another face loomed. A pale, translucent face with protruding ridges where eyebrows should be and massive, deformed jaws dripping with ivory yellow teeth. The creature's eyes were holes that seemed to go straight through its head—all the way out into a distant world of fire and smoke and shadows.

Aoko's mouth went dry, and she stumbled back. She could have sworn her heart literally stopped for a second. Her heel came down on empty air.

Her eyes went wide.

She teetered.

Her vision filled with blue sky—

A pair of long arms wrapped around her, pulling her against a warm body that was lurching the other way.

She and her rescuer hit the steps together.

Aoko's eyes flew open. When had she closed them? She found herself looking into Hakuba's face. He looked as shaken as she felt.

"Are—are you okay?" he managed to ask. When she nodded, he carefully released her and sat up.

Aoko followed suit. The two of them found themselves sitting in the midst of a rapidly growing crowd of concerned tour group members.

Then their tour guide was there, her face the color of old milk. "Oh my god, are you two hurt? Do you need help? Oh god, that was terrifying!"

X

Hakuba was at a loss. After Aoko's near accident, he had excused them both from the rest of the trip and escorted her back down the trail. Seeing just how shaken she was, however, he had suggested that they take a break when they reached the little gazebo nestled in the slopes above the resort.

That was when Aoko had, haltingly, told him of what she had seen.

And now here they were.

She was looking at him. There was a question in her eyes.

And he had no idea what to say.

Part of him wanted to ask her if she hadn't just been spooked by her imagination and a trick of the light. After all, with all that had been going on, it wouldn't be too farfetched to think that the girl's mind would be looking for phantoms in the mist. But, much as he believed that that was the most plausible explanation, he had a strong impression that saying so would be unwise. The look on Aoko's face was not that of a person prepared to accept 'you were seeing things' as an explanation. She believed what she'd seen. What she wanted to know, he suspected, was what the vision had meant.

But he didn't have an answer for her—well, other than the one involving overactive imaginations.

Aoko's face fell, and he knew he'd been silent too long. "You think I'm going crazy, don't you."

"What? No, of course not," he said hastily.

"But you don't believe me."

"I believe you," he said honestly, looking her straight in the eyes. "What I do not believe is it."

Aoko considered this for a long moment then nodded. Her hands twisted in the fabric of her skirt. She turned her head slightly, gaze drifting over the thin strip of sun-drenched grass between the gazebo steps and the forest fringe. The corners of her lips tugged downward.

"It's still troubling you," the blonde said gently.

Aoko sighed. Her shoulders hunched a little before relaxing. She inhaled deeply, and it seemed she was about to speak, but she never got the chance.

The bushes on the far side of the little clearing around the gazebo started shaking violently. The loud snap of breaking twigs filled the air as birds took off from the neighboring trees in a screeching flock of displeasure.

Hakuba shot to his feet. Leaping down the gazebo steps, he positioned himself between Aoko and the approaching ruckus. Behind him, Aoko rose to her feet, every muscle still tense from her earlier fright.

Then there was a crash and a cry as two young men came tumbling out of the brush. They landed on the grass in an undignified heap, groaning and coughing.

"Worst idea ever," one of them was saying as he lay face down on the grass. His words were muffled, but they could still hear the irritation in his tone. "Simple, he says. Yeah right. Like a simple catapult. Were you trying to get us both killed?"

The other figure sat up, and Aoko recognized him instantly as one Kuroba Kaito. His hair was even more of a bird's nest than usual, complete with bits of twigs and leaves. He was laughing though. That never bode well, Aoko new, and what was that about a catapult?

A single dove spiraled down out of the sky and landed on Kaito's head.

"It got us up here, didn't it?" the magician was saying, still oblivious to the fact that they now had an audience.

"I said we could just walk back to the hotel like normal people," Shinichi grumbled, still face down in the grass. It kind of looked like he was hugging the ground. "It would have been easy, and we wouldn't be here now."

"Yeah, but this way was so much faster, and a whole lot more fun, right?"

The blue-eyed teen rolled over and sat up, wincing. He blinked blearily around at the gazebo as he tried to get his bearings That was when he spotted Aoko and Hakuba standing upon the gazebo steps. He stared at them for a long moment as though he thought he was hallucinating. When they didn't disappear, he blinked. They were still there.

"Oh hey there Aoko, Hakuba," Kaito greeted. He hopped to his feet and brushed the grass and leaves off his clothes. "What're you two doing here?"

TBC

A.N: I wish you all a happy New Year!