Ladies and gentlemen! I humbly welcome you to the ninth chapter of this story!
I'm posting a day early since I'll be too busy tomorrow to do it - hope you guys don't mind~
And with that out of the way - please enjoy and review!
After a while of flying blindly in the clouds, Kaito grew increasingly tired. His whole body was hurting from the frantic movement he made to keep himself flying while escaping the golden dragon and all the collisions with buildings and various debris.
Since he couldn't hear his pursuer anymore, he decided to stop his flight for a moment and risked poking his head below to try and determine where he was. As he did, he took notice of his long, white snout and fleshy whiskers on the sides. What in the world was he..? Looking out he noticed that the sky was slowly lighting up, adding color to the ground below.
Looking around, he saw a few scarcely placed residential houses, with a lazy, glistering river surrounded by overgrown vegetation and a single bridge thrown over it. He noticed a more dense urban illumination looming further away in the direction he came from. So it seemed that he had already left Tokio, or at the very least was on its outskirts. He looked around the sky but couldn't notice any signs of the golden dragon, so he decided to try and land before he crashed due to exhaustion.
It was idly quiet, as he neared the bank of the river and its dense vegetation. It felt tranquil and nearly magical, or maybe it was only his exhaustion that made it seem that way. Still, the only sounds he could hear were of the lazily flowing river, wind whispering in the grass, waterfowl and bugs chirping happily, busy with their business.
The closer he got to the ground, the more faint he felt, adrenaline most likely already having left his system, making him realize just how exhausted he was. He tried landing on his feet but that made him lose his balance and instead he collapsed on the grass with a painful thud. He didn't want to get up anymore but knew that it wouldn't do him any good if he just stayed like this. He decided to give himself a few moments to regain his breathing but found it impossible to relax.
He snorted with annoyance, trying to blow away the grass and leaves that were touching his whiskers, as they were wiggling around and away from the plants. He moved his hand over his mouth to shield them from harassment but paused and instead moved it away from his face to examine his palm more closely.
Slowly flexing his fingers, he turned it around, staring at the scales glistering in the muffled light of the early morning. Just like he saw in the clouds, they were pristine white but his short claws had a silvery hue to them. His palm seemed to be somewhat longer than normal, with his thumb being further away from the rest of his fingers and his wrist being decisively wider. The scales on the inside of his hand were wider too and seemed to be harder than on the outer side.
Kaito sneezed as the offending grass tickled his whisker again and he swatted it to the ground in annoyance. He heard a nearby bird, hidden in the vegetation, make a startled chirp and run away at the sound.
Startled a little, he glanced in its direction and felt dizzy. That made him notice how heavy his eyelids felt, so he rubbed his face to try and keep himself awake a little longer. He paused in the notion, feeling that his head had changed dramatically. Aside from the strange whiskers by the nose (or maybe they were feelers with how sensitive they were?), he had a long snout. He avoided touching his feelers, unwilling to cause himself further discomfort and examined the rest of his head instead. He felt that his face was completely different (no surprise there), seemed to have sideburns around his cheeks and hairline that started a little higher than in his human form, as well as… There were two straight horns prodding from his skull.
Curiously, he turned around with a pained grunt to look at the rest of his scaly body. Seeing it, he wasn't surprised anymore why it was hard for him to stand upright when he tried to land. His body didn't just feel long as he flew, his proportions had shifted making this form have a more slender look. His chest was not as pronounced as usual either, not unlike that of a snake or a lizard. He didn't have anything to compare himself to, so he wasn't sure if he was actually bigger but he thought that he might be.
And on top of it, he apparently had a long tail now.
His whole body was covered with white scales, which similarly to the ones on his hands were small on his flanks and wider on his stomach. Curiously enough there was a thin line of indigo hair growing along his spine, ending with a bushy tuft at the tip of his tail.
He was more surprised though that he didn't notice any wounds from the multiple collisions he had while he escaped from Saguru.
He stared at his tail for a moment and frowned as it moved to the side. He concentrated a little and despite it feeling strange to have more limbs than usual, he managed to recreate the movement. While it was somewhat dizzying, he found amusement in looking at his hairy tuft shaking from side to side.
With a tired smile on his lips (he imagined that it probably looked scary on his long face) he curiously decided to try and focus on his feelers next to see if he could make them move according to his will as well. However, when he turned his attention onto them, he noticed a bee flying around one of his whiskers and seemingly trying to land on it. Without thinking much, he tried to swat it away but with how tired he was, he ended up slapping his feeler. Hard.
To say that it hurt would be an understatement.
Crying out in pain, he curled up in the grass, carefully nursing his pained feeler in his hands. He figured that this definitely was not his day.
When the pain subsided a little, he uncurled and tried to get up on all fours but felt too dizzy and weak for it, and ended up falling back to the ground. He sighed heavily and closed his eyes for a moment to stop the world from spinning. He wanted to get to the river to look at his reflection but he didn't have enough strength to do it.
As if mocking him, he heard a few ducks splashing in the water and quacking loudly, while the wind gently caressed his hair and the leaves started tickling his body again. With a heavy grunt and a lot of effort, he moved his hand to cover his feelers to shield them from overstimulation.
As he laid there, trying to regain at least a little of his strength, he recalled what he read about different supernatural creatures of Japan before. He had a vague idea what he might be, but he wanted to confirm it with his own eyes first.
The long and slim body, almost serpentine like, combined with horns, whiskers, a mane, and an ability to fly made him think of only one creature - a dragon. But not a winged, western dragon. An asian one, one with no wings and thus having no business being able to fly.
With effort, he opened his eyes again and blinked a few times, trying to get rid of the blur that was obstructing his vision. Satisfying his curiosity aside, he needed to move. He might have landed in a pretty deserted area but he didn't want to stay there, as there were no guarantees that nobody would notice his long, white body. He needed to find some cover…
In the distance, he noticed a large shadow, getting more visible as the sky turned brighter with each passing moment. He recalled seeing a bridge when he was landing and figured that this was probably the best he would be able to find. If only he could get there…
Kaito braced himself and pushed himself up on his hands but collapsed back, feeling too exhausted to move anymore. All he wanted at this point was to sleep. With a heavy sigh he made his last effort and curled up again and started relaxing.
As he felt unconsciousness slowly claiming him he noticed the strange warmth-like feeling spreading around his body again. His skin crawled again and his muscles compressed, while his position seemed to shift slowly. The process wasn't as painful this time, just somewhat uncomfortable and weird, but somehow relaxing at the same time. His last thoughts before falling asleep, with the sounds of nature slowly awakening around him, were that he could get used to it.
Kaito woke up with a twitch, as something tickled his ear. He tried opening his eyes but had to cover them with a hand, as the sun was blinding him. He turned to the side with a groan, slapping away a bug that had been climbing his earlobe and noticed he could barely move with how stiff his muscles were feeling. Finally he managed to crack his eyes open and noticed he was laying in some shrubs that were crashed around him. That made him recall the events from last night and he groaned again, collapsing back into the grass. By all means, he should probably be freaking out over his discovery but right now he was just too tired for it and generally just felt annoyed about it all.
As if his life wasn't complicated enough…
Oblivious to his distress, grasshoppers hidden in the shrubs around him continued their serenade. Kaito closed his eyes and started listening to his surroundings. He was still hurting after his stunts from last night and sleeping on a damp and uneven mess of branches. So first things first, he had to get up and drag himself back to civilization. But before that he had to wake up enough to regain his coordination.
As he slowly became more awake and aware of what actually hurt him the most, the more he realized just how hungry he was. He opened his eyes and stared in annoyance at the clouds chasing each other lazily on the blue sky above him while his stomach grumbled angrily at him. He sometimes couldn't help but wonder if maybe Lady Luck didn't actually like him all that much. He sighed heavily and curled up in a fetal position on his side to ease his discomfort, even if just a little.
He probably couldn't be further from the truth with his complaint. In the end, he once again managed to get away without any real injury and with his freedom intact. He may have been suffering now but with the stunt he pulled it could have been so much worse. If he had waited a moment longer, or miscalculated just how fast the other dragon was or where exactly the plane was, then he could have ended up captured, mauled, or hit by the machine. He grimaced trying not to imagine whether he would be able to survive any of it at all. The worse was, that it was all thanks to dumb luck and not some carefully thought of plan that he somehow managed to pull through.
So yeah, instead of moping around and complaining he'd just have to deal with the minor inconvenience he was in and count his blessings. Because he really had a lot to be grateful for.
Amidst the tranquil sounds around him, he heard a car driving in the distance. He smiled softly and opened his eyes again, figuring that at least he wouldn't have to walk far to find a means of transportation. Maybe he really was lucky after all?
He wondered what time it was and without thinking, reached into his pocket which, surprisingly enough, was where he expected it to be. He glanced down at himself and noticed that he was dressed in his full KID attire. As he looked up, he even noticed his top hat laying in the grass, with a ladybug crawling over it. Finding it cute, his lip twitched in an amused smirk but it dropped into a grimace as he sat up and he took in the state his suit was in. It was not only completely soaked but also covered in mud and plant juices, which would be a nightmare to clean, if it was possible at all.
He finally found his watch and noticed that it was 5 in the morning. As Kaito's mind started slowly working properly, he was actually surprised that the device seemed to be working properly at all. Or at the very least the hand counting down the seconds seemed to be moving as intended.
So where did all of his stuff go when he transformed?
He frowned and took off his vest which swayed lightly in the wind when he held it up. Just like last time, it didn't seem like there were any tears. It was just dirty and wet like the rest of his attire. He stretched a little while thinking about it and felt additional pains on his body, instantly recalling his frantic escape and multiple collisions.
He clicked his tongue and dropped his vest beside him to look under his shirt. The scales might have protected him from open wounds but he still expected to find nasty bruises covering him, which would be a pain to cover with foundation. As it turned out, he was only half right.
With mild surprise, he completely took off his shirt and discovered that while there was some bruising on his skin, it wasn't nearly as deep or dark as he expected it to be. He wouldn't even need to cover it all, since even if anyone noticed it they would probably think that he just had a minor accident bumping into something while practicing his tricks.
Or that Aoko finally got him with her mop.
Kaito snickered with amusement and put his shirt back on, holding back a shiver when the wet cloth touched his skin. He sighed again heavily. He really didn't want to move, as he barely had any enough rest and wanted to simply get something to eat and continue sleeping but for that he first needed to get home…
Wait. No.
The tranquility of the place filled with pleasant natural sounds was interrupted by Kaito's loud groan when he realized that he had to go to school. He held a heist on a Tuesday night so it was only Wednesday today. What's more, he had less than two hours to get back home and get himself in order before Aoko came over to wake him up. So he couldn't even afford to take his time and had hurry to get himself out of here instead.
With a curse on his lips, he took out his small satchel with basic makeup, so he could change his features enough not to be too recognizable. He took out a tiny hand mirror and grimaced a little. His body might have been spared from any nasty bruises or wounds but his bitten lip didn't look good. He would have to cover it up with a silicone prosthetic when he got home or better yet - a full face mask of his own face.
For now, however, it would work in his favor. He quickly got to work deepening the dark circles under his eyes to highlight his exhausted look and make it seem like he was older and adding some wrinkles on his forehead and around his lips. Working with what he had, he made his face seem a little bit rounder and added a little of an unhealthy pale color to his skin, completing an image of a tired businessman who seemed to have gotten himself in a drunken brawl or something like that. At least that way people would be even less likely to try and strike a conversation with him.
With that done, he grabbed a bag and stuffed his vest, cape, hat and monocle inside. He figured that with how dirty his pants were it was very unlikely that anyone would recognize them as KID's. To finish off his look he made sure to stuff one hem of his shirt in the pants, while having the other hanging pathetically on the side, completing his misbehaved look.
With all that done, he forced himself to get up, grabbed his bag and started slowly making his way through the dense vegetation growing around him towards the bridge he saw before, hoping to find a bus or a train that would take him home in time.
Now I can't help but wonder.. how many of you guys predicted what Kaito was? :D
Hope to see you next chapter *bows*
