Ladies and gentlemen! I humbly welcome you to the fourth chapter of this story!
Please enjoy and review!
So all of this was… real..?
Kaito took a deep breath and slowly released it, his gaze fixed on the hair in his hand. He rolled them in between his fingers. They didn't feel artificial, though he couldn't tell just by looking whether the color was authentic or not. It did look like it was… He tore his gaze away to look at the scratch marks on the ground.
He thought dryly that he could now definitely rule out "just" sprouting wings… Though to be fair, for now at least, he didn't have any proof that he himself made those marks. For all he knew, something or someone could have brought him home, though that thought was somehow more unnerving than the possibility that he somehow shifted. It meant someone knew his secret and could threaten him with it.
With that in mind, he pocketed the hair and decided to explore that possibility first.
The marks indicated that, whatever left them didn't leave the same way, as there were no returning marks. There were only two entryways to the hidden room - one through the garage doors and the other, through his room. But given how wide apart the marks were to the sides, it must have been large and would have trouble fitting into the tight staircase.
There was the possibility of someone screwing with him, of course, but Kaito dismissed it pretty much immediately. For that to be possible not only Saguru would have to be on it but also Kaito would have to be given some type of hallucinogen that made him have a very specific dream… And yeah, somehow that sounded less likely than him turning into… something?
Anyway, if this was some third party's trick, he would find out probably sooner rather than later, so he could dismiss it for now.
That left Kaito with the disturbing possibility that he made the marks and the strange hair were his. That he was somehow able to change into some unknown creature… He snorted with dry amusement, thinking that if this was true then on the bright side he turned back, which meant that at the very least, the change wasn't permanent.
The most concerning and annoying thing was that he didn't remember anything and had only a vague idea what was happening with him during the time. So, if he indeed turned, he had no clue of what he changed into. Given the remaining marks, he could tell that at the very least the thing had big claws, so could be dangerous to humans. And the last thing he wanted was somebody getting hurt, especially by him.
It was a sickening thought, but he couldn't help but recall a horror movie he saw once with Aoko about a werewolf where the protagonist didn't have any control over himself after turning and went on a killing spree each time. But if that was the case here, he couldn't do anything about it until he figured out how and why he changed, and also what he turned into.
And annoyingly Saguru knew the answer to at least one of those questions… But he couldn't just ask him directly. At least until he knew exactly what Saguru wanted with him, Kaito couldn't have him even suspecting that he was onto something. So for now, he would probably just play the part of a concerned fan, asking more vague questions and see where that would take him.
He sighed heavily, ruffling his hair, recalling the conversation they already had. From what he could guess, it would seem that the guy thought that turning was something natural for Kaito, as he referred to him as someone from another kind. As in - not human. He swallowed thickly, not liking this possibility one bit. If that were the case, then it wouldn't just be him. At least one of his parents would be inhuman too, if not both. And they never told him. He probably should be worried by how unsurprised he would be if that were the case. There was probably even no point in talking to his mother about it, even if he ever confirmed this was true. At most, she only confirmed what he already knew, not adding anything more unless it was to her own benefit. She didn't even warn him about the possibility of armed gunmen coming to his heist after he became KID and confronted her about his dad being the kaitou before.
On top of that there was the possibility that, if he talked to her about this, she would use it somehow against him and try again to force him to leave his current life, Japan, KID and… Aoko… That was something he couldn't have.
Kaito clicked his tongue. There was no point thinking about it. Besides, he probably shouldn't worry about it too much. There was a good chance that it was the first time he changed and flew. His sore back was the evidence of that. His muscles only hurt like that after he was bedridden for a longer period of time and started intense training right after. Or if he used them in a new way. Suddenly being able to fly did fit the profile. And also, shifting into a new form could be traumatic enough for his mind to trigger a mind fog. That sounded at least possible, all things concerning… At least that gave him hope that if he changed again, he might be in control this time.
Then again, it was likely that Saguru was wrong and he wasn't actually inhuman. There was one more thing that was suspicious. The creature that left the marks must have been larger than a human. And his clothes were left intact. He knew for a fact that the suit was normal, he bought that very shirt last week at the mall after all! So how could he turn into something big enough to rip through his very normal clothes and not damage them at all? Only one thing came to mind - magic. Real magic.
He didn't like thinking about it too much but Akako proved to him, without a shadow of doubt, that she was a real witch. After all, she nearly killed him with the use of magic when she tried to make him her slave or something. If he took that into account then it wasn't out of the realm of possibility that his change could have been an effect of some kind of curse or something. He doubted it was her doing, as she was not only friendly towards him recently, she was the type who would simply tell him either before casting the spell, or boasting about her success later on. But it could have been the work of some other spellcaster or maybe he got his hands on some cursed object? He was looking for a gem that was supposed to grant immortality, so it wasn't that farfetched. And some of his targets did have shady stories connected to them, although he didn't remember any of his recent ones to be connected in any way to something supernatural. He would have to double check just to be sure.
He thought about Akako again… Whether his current predicament was because of a spell or not, she should have a lot of knowledge about the supernatural, so she could be a great help at figuring all of this out. Only that he didn't want to get her attention again. She was acting friendly now but who knew how she would react, if she found out there was something more to him now? The last thing he wanted was for her to get fixated on making him her slave again…
It seemed that there was no one he could trust with this secret either, huh? He probably shouldn't even tell Jii about this one. The guy worried about Kaito so much that he seemed sometimes close to getting a heart attack. And besides, what would he tell him?
"Oh hey, Jii-chan!" he said happily in a sing-sang tone, "You know, during your absence I held a heist, right? Yeah, I was attacked by a dragon right after it and it would seem that I changed into something myself. Don't you know if my dad was able to do that?"
He snorted and shook his head. Either the guy would start worrying that Kaito finally lost it, or would start crying all together. He couldn't do that to him… He sighed and weighed the options he had left.
For now, he should just try and do some research. He had to take a double look into histories of gems he had stolen recently, look into Japanese myths and legends in search of large, flying creatures with claws and oddly colored hair. Which were interesting to dragons… What were dragons interested in, in the first place? He should probably start with that.
He felt his stomach grumble and figured that first he needed to fix himself some dinner. And take care of his birds. And probably do his homework for tomorrow, or he would have to face Aoko's nagging again, he thought with a smile, as he casually walked towards the staircase.
He started going up the stairs, when he suddenly stopped and turned back, fishing out the strange hair from his pocket. There was no way he was taking anything suspicious to his house. He left it on top of his white jacket and went to get his chores done and hopefully dig into some legend research before bed.
Yeah... I didn't excatly like this chapter but I promise that there shouldn't be anymore boring like this ;)
Hope to see you next chapter *bows*
