A/N: An update so fast? Yup, an update so fast. I was surprised, too – believe me. You see, I had only been going to start this chapter, but it kinda got out of hand and ended up longer than the other chapters and stuff…Haha. I have no self control when it comes to that. XDDD But, I'm super pleased with this chapter and my fast update, so it doesn't matter~! Cheers~! Hope you enjoy this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it! 8D Also, sorry if you get confused with some of the explanations in this chapter – it made sense to me, but I'm the one who wrote it. XDD
Disclaimer: I do not own Detective Conan or Magic Kaito in any way or form.
Chapter Eight
"Here we are." Kaito stopped, pulling me to a stop also because he was holding my hand still. I blinked, looking around for a minute before spotting the small, very small, trail leading into the large forest next to us. It looked like a hiker's trail, but less travelled on because shrubs were beginning to grow over it – partially covering it from view. I was surprised that Kaito even noticed it, given that the front was hidden by some bushes. Then again, he is Kaitou KID. I don't know why I'm surprised.
I chuckled, finally slipping my hand out of Kaito's to get going. "She sure lives in a strange part of town…," I trailed nervously. The place gave off an eerie feeling. It was away from the rest of Ekoda and was in a virtually unpopulated place. The trees had become more and more on the way here until finally it seemed to transform into the forest in front of us. To say it was creepy was an understatement. Was it even legal for her to live here? I briefly wondered before deciding that, no, she probably wasn't supposed to live here.
"Yeah, she does." Kaito laughed, the sound comforting; though, I bet he was hiding his own nerves. I flashed him a smile before walking closer to the trail, feeling something in my mind, pushing in the thought of not really wanting to go there; persuading me to change my mind. I tried to push the feeling down, trying to convince myself it was my imagination – though, it probably wasn't – and placed a foot down on the dirt trail. As soon as I was fully on the trail, the sensation disappeared like it was whisper in the wind. A shiver went down my spine before I mustered up an enthusiastic wave and turned to Kaito to bid farewell.
"Bye, Kaito-niichan!" I said, watching as he waved back and called out his goodbye, telling me to immediately come back if anything happened, before beginning to leave. I wanted nothing more than to call him a traitor and force him to come with me, but I let go of the urge and turned to continue walking in. It was quiet. Too quiet for a forest. Usually there would be birds singing and calling to one another, chipmunks scurrying across the ground, and squirrels chatting animatedly from their trees, looking for nuts on the ground before hurrying back to their hiding place. But, there was nothing. And that was scary.
There were noises, but it was merely the occasional breeze through the trees, the branches and leaves brushing against me in a way that felt like they were testing me; seeing what kind of person I was. Of course, that was a ridiculous thought – but, hey. If there was a witch in the Detective Conan world, and all those creatures that Akako uses pieces for, then there could definitely be trees that live. I held my chin high, putting aside my fears and walking, and walking, and walking.
Just when I was about to give up because of the distance – I'd been walking for long while now; the sun was already down at the horizon, the sky a fiery orange color – the house came into view. If house was the right word. It was more like a giant, creepy, mansion. The silence seemed to break as I exited the trail into the grassy, small clearing. Immediately, the sound of crow's calling attacked my ears and I flinched, startled. The mansion loomed across the field, black crows perched on the maroon roof and porch cover, and flying over head, some of their feathers falling to the ground gracefully. A smirk adorned my lips – all she was missing was the vultures waiting in the distance.
Well, no turning back now, I thought and started across the field, following the small stone road up to the porch steps. The three steps creaked as I stepped up on them, and as I was about to knock on the door, staring warily at the disturbing-looking knocking tool, which was the head of a lion that looked like it was watching me, the door opened. I backed up quickly – internally denying that I had been frightened – and looked up to see Akako's creepy butler looking down at me with a grin that was too sharp to be human.
The crows had, apparently, been just as surprised as I had been because the ones on the porch flew away quickly in a flurry of wings and feathers, seemingly frightened of the short, stubby man in front of me. He reminded me uncannily of how one would describe a demon. Wouldn't be too far-fetched, considering that most people assume that witches were able to have demon helpers, or something. Least I think so, my mind was too occupied at the moment to really remember.
"Akako-sama has been expecting you." Well, that's not worrying. At all.
I nodded meekly, and he gestured a hand, as if telling me to enter before him. In his dreams; like I was going to trust a demon. "No thanks, you go first." My eyes narrowed at him as he laughed a bit, his grin growing ever sharper. "As you wish." He turned, leading me into the long hall. The door shut behind us with a final creak.
The house was dimly lit, the only light coming from outside, bathing the house in a soft orange light. The carpet was a bloody red color, looking kinda velvety as if it was one of those carpets that you see in luxury hotels, and the walls were a plain shade of beige – I think, it was hard to tell with the color from outside. I absently noted that I had seen no electrical lights at all so far, and that I had been allowed to keep my shoes on. There were the occasional movie-esque candle holders on the walls, and a few strange painting and portraits, but overall, it was a normal-ish house. The smell of incense was becoming overpowering, though, the farther I went in, making my mind fuzzy.
The normal house feel that I had gotten in the beginning faded away as I was lead into a living room – it seemed to be a living room, anyways – with light brown wallpaper with a strange pattern coming in place for the beige walls, and a big, stone fireplace. There was two large, differently shaped, swords hanging above the fireplace, and an axe hanging upside down on another wall, along with a few portraits of what I would bet millions were other witches. The large couch was kinda normal, if it weren't for the strange arm-rest things – snakes weren't exactly comforting, even if they were metal. A large rug was underneath the couch, and a small, dark mahogany side table next to it – I spotted some burning incense in a jar on the table. I paused to stare wide-eyed for a split second at a human skull resting on the hearth of the fireplace, before swallowing thickly and continuing to follow the butler. I really hope that wasn't real…
The butler-demon opened up a door at the other side of the living room, and I followed him into another slightly normal hallway, walking all the way to the end which seemed to be a dead end. Jeez, it's like a maze in here… My internal grumbling was cut off as the butler grabbed a candle holder from the wall, turning to the left, and beginning to walk down stone steps I swear weren't there before. I shrugged off the feeling of the hair on the back of my neck rising and had to pause to gather myself again as the incense scent hit me full force, completely blacking out my mind for a moment.
I hesitated before going down the steps myself. The light disappeared as something closed behind me – …strange, there hadn't been a door there…ha..ha….. - and my only guide was the small candles lit on the candle holder that the butler was holding. The stairs seemed to spiral downward instead of going straight and I mentally grinned. This place would be wonderful to shoot a movie in, despite the sinister presence that seemed to hang over everything.
We finally reached the bottom and I tried to ignore the chains that hung on the walls, looking suspiciously like dungeon chains, before we rounded a corner, the light becoming brighter as many other candles were lit around the stone room. There were several incense burning – so this was where the astoundingly strong smell had come from – and there were shelves attached to the wall, holding many bottles full of things I probably didn't wanna know about. The room looked different than the one she had used to ask Lucifer questions, so I assumed it was a different room. She probably had a few rooms like this around, after all.
I caught sight of Akako in a black cloak in the middle of the room, next to the large cauldron. She turned to me with a smirk and I found myself staring. She really was beautiful. Long, maroon-ish red tresses cascading down her shoulders, stopping above her chest, and lightly tanned skin that was flawless with eyes that were a deep, dark red made her up; she didn't seem offended at my staring, seeming to know I was only admiring her beauty. She gave a vain laugh, snapping me out of my trance-like state and I cursed to myself. Seems like the spell she has all the boys under was also effective to females, just at a smaller scale.
"Hello, dear," She made the endearment sound condescending. "Lucifer told me that you would be coming. You caused a lot of magical misbalance, you know." Her voice turned irritated at the end of her sentence.
"Magical…misbalance?" I questioned softly, confused at what it meant exactly. She frowned a bit. "Yes, magical misbalance. The balance between dimensions is very whimsical; one small little change can throw everything into chaos. By you transporting here, you fused your world and our world incompletely." …That didn't sound good…
"But, I didn't even mean to come here; I don't even know how I got here." I defended myself. "I was just there, walking around mid-day, and then I'm suddenly in museum at night." I explained, coming closer to her and leaving the butler at the entrance. Akako seemed unimpressed with my defense and I grimaced.
"I know that you transported here accidently. But, that doesn't mean you aren't at fault." My eyes narrowed into a glare; Surreee, blame me, why don't you? "After all, how did the gem have enough time to bond with you?"
I blinked. Gem? Bonded? "...What are you talking about?" I asked wearily.
She gave her unique laugh again and I rolled my eyes, waiting impatiently for her answer. "You got here because of a magical gem, child. The gem was too powerful for our world, causing an imbalance, so a long time ago, a witch much like myself had to riskily send a small part of the gem into another dimension – it apparently ended up in yours – to fix the balance."
"Then, you somehow came in contact with the gem; long enough for its magical substance to bond with yours and to come back here to connect back to its other half. What I want to know is how you were able to get a hold of it long enough for it to bond with you." She gave me a pointed stare. I felt my face flush.
"…How big was the part of the gem?" I hesitatingly questioned, my fingers clenching into the pants Kaito had probably used when he was around six or seven. She raised a brow at my suspiciously nervous fiddling and answered, raising her hand to use her pointer finger and thumb to show me the small-ish size, "About this big." I hunched over slightly, my cheeks covered with a shamed blush.
"Well, you see, I went to this museum a while ago, right…?" She made a sound that said, 'yes, please go on'. "It was a mining museum and it had a display that you could touch and look at…," I trailed off.
"Go on." She prodded me, out loud this time, obviously growing annoyed with my avoid-ish nature. "While we were walking around, I saw a rock that was most likely from that display on the counter of a model of the kitchen. And it was really pretty, and I felt compelled; so…I…Kinda took it." I admitted sheepishly.
Akako deadpanned at me as I shuffled my feet. "You stole it." She stated, sounding partially disbelieving. I immediately was offended by the way she put it. "Don't put it like that. It sounds bad! Plus, there were no security cameras, so it's not my fault. They should have better security. Plus, my mom said I could take it…,"
She rolled her eyes, sniffing in slight disdain. Jeez, it's not like I would know that taking a random rock – gem, I corrected – would cause an imbalance and then somehow throw me over here. Wait, didn't she say…
"What do you mean that its magical substance bonded with my magical substance?!" She couldn't actually mean that. "Last I checked, I don't have any magic powers!"
She smirked at my disheveled temperament finally showing. "Your world may not allow people to have magical powers, but that doesn't mean that some people don't have it dwelling inside them. You merely can't use it by yourself. You need an outlet of some kind. You see, if you were born here, you would be a witch. One very much like myself; after all, if you had been born here, you would have been my younger sister."
I sucked in a sharp breath. "What…?"
"You heard me. People that are born with magical substance are like weights on a scale; before they are created, the magical balance weighs them out, deciding if they would go to a non-magical dimension or a magical dimension. If you are placed in a non-magical dimension, your powers will be suppressed, bottled up inside you with nowhere to go. Some people may be able to unlock their power, but it takes a certain outlet first. If you're born in a magical dimension, you will simply be a magical human in that certain dimension – it differs if you would be a witch, or something else, by what type of magic substance you have."
She continued on, as if I wasn't having a shock attack. "I can tell that you would be related to me by simply reading your magic substance. It's red, witch, magic. I said little sister because it's too much like mine, too powerful, for you simply to be a cousin or someone that is not a direct descendant of my bloodline. That's, also, the only reason that the gem was able to bond with you and be able to transport back here with you. Because of your magic."
I swallowed heavily, trying to process everything she was saying. It made sense, but was still kinda hard to wrap my head around. Apparently, I had magic that I hadn't known about and the gem bonded with me. And wasn't that just a little hair-raising. I mean, the gem bonded with me. That means we're connected somehow, even if it's miles away. Also, it happens to be that my excuse to Kaito and Chikage wasn't a complete lie; we are, technically, related but since we were sent to different dimensions before we were created, we're only distantly related. But, now my truth to Kaito that, no, I was not a witch, was now a lie… Ugh. My head hurts.
"Okay, so that's how I got here." I nodded, mostly to myself. "But, bonded. I mean, how exactly are we…bonded together?" A frown was on my face and I wrapped my arms around myself – the thought of being bonded with something that I hadn't given permission to made me feel violated somehow.
"Your magic and the gem's magic are intertwined into one whole magic; it also seems to have bonded with your soul." Her brows furrowed together, as if confused by the soul-bonding. However, I felt sick. My soul was bonded with it. I could tell my face had drained of color. "Which is slightly strange; soul-bindings should only be able to happen during marriage….Unless…," Her sharp red snapped to my face, startling me a bit. I grew worried as her face seemed to become incredulous. "…What? Unless what?" I finally asked after a couple minutes of watching her work something out in her head.
She took a deep breath, deciding that, yes, whatever she had been speculating was correct. "Unless the gem's soul and your soul are corresponding." She huffed indignantly. "Lucifer told me in his riddle that you were a strange individual, but this is a bit much – too much of a coincidence that it probably isn't a coincidence. Someone set this up." She seemed angry at this revelation, and I felt my stomach drop; why the hell would someone set this up? What could they possibly earn out of bringing me here and the other half of the gem? Unless they needed the whole gem for something and only used me to get it here…
Though, it was beyond me who could set this up. After all, it was my idea to go to the mining museum and it was my idea to keep the gem, so unless someone was manipulating my mind and my choices, then it couldn't have been a set up. Could it? It seemed that the Detective Conan world just got more complicated – for me, at least.
I rubbed my forehead with my small hand, suddenly remembering that problem, too. Blah. Lady Luck seriously does hate me; at first I was joking, but now it seemed like the truth. A question suddenly popped into my head and I immediately asked it, hoping for a negative answer. "By the way, when I first got here, it snowed when I fell asleep. It's not that it's strange that it snowed, but it looked kinda strange and I didn't see any traces of snow in the morning when I woke up. Is that a concern?" It seemed like a stupid question, but, hey, I just learned some weird things. No harm in being cautious.
"No, that's not a concern. You fell asleep, so the gem was just letting out excess magic that it hadn't used to get here." She stated. I sighed in relief, stuffing my hands in my pants pockets. "That's good, then. Thanks, Koizumi-san. I didn't actually expect to get any answers out of you, without giving something of mine." I gave her a warm smile and I swore I saw some color on her cheeks, but she turned away.
"Well, you are my – distantly related – little sister, despite the dimension difference." She said sharply, as if saying, 'of course I would help you'. "And you can call me by my first name, okay?" I chuckled at her display of embarrassment and took a couple more steps nearer to her.
"By the way, will I be able to use magic here?" I was curious. She shook her head and I pouted. Too bad, that would have been cool. "You can't use magic; your body is still a non-magical dimension body, so to use magic here, as I said before, you would need an outlet. Even if you don't know it, you probably have run into some magical occurrences that accidently happened in your dimension; strange things that happened or unexplained accidents. Sometimes the crack in dimensions lets something through time to time. Since you're a witch, the crack in the dimensions is probably bigger when you're near it."
"Oh, I see." Well, that explains the 'ghost car'. My sister and I had merely been walking across the street, after checking to see if there were any cars coming – and no, there had not been – and then suddenly a white car had come out of nowhere, almost running the both of us over. We luckily had stopped walking fast enough, and it had stopped, too. Though the driver did seem surprised, he or she didn't seem to be completely freakin' out about suddenly being in a different location. Though, if I was right, then they probably lived in the same place on the world, only in a different dimension, so it didn't look very different. The car probably slipped back into the crack and back to its dimension without even realizing it. And wasn't that a scary thought. People not even knowing that they were briefly transported to a different dimension because it looked the same.
I had, after all, only knew because I had been transported to a different dimension, in Japan. I had only been transported to Japan because, most likely, the gem's other half was here. If it hadn't been, then I wouldn't have noticed that I was in the Detective Conan world, probably. Creepy…
"Oh, and, Akako-neechan," She seemed surprised by my choice of name, but brushed it off, waiting for what I was going to say. "Could you possibly help me with my little problem? I'm actually thirteen, but I ran into a problem and got shrunk by a poison." Boy, it felt good to get that off my chest. I hadn't told anyone yet and it felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders.
"A poison shrunk you?" She seemed contemplative, her hand going to her chin in a classic 'thinking-pose'. "I can't fix that permanently, because magic and science are enemies, but I can give you something that will allow you to transform back at will. Though, it will have a time limit of three days and will have the same effect on your body as it would if you were taking a scientific antidote. The pain, if it is painful, will be suppressed by your magic, though, if I create it correctly."
"I thought you said I wouldn't be able to use magic." I deadpanned.
"No, I said that you would need an outlet, dear." She gave another condescending laugh. "The magic will work on its own to protect your body, if I make the outlet on it correctly. So, you won't be able to use it, but it'll use itself."
"Oh, okay…," Everything seems to have loopholes now…
"Now, give me something of yours that you'd like to have the magic implanted in. Something that you can wear all the time and that will fit all the time." She commanded, and I blinked. I looked down at my body, trying to look for something I was wearing that fit the bill. I had left my bag back at the Kuroba household, after all. I had been planning to leave today and just stay with Akako – if she would let me stay – but Chikage had insisted that I stay longer, 'for as long as I needed to', was how she put it.
My brown eyes were drawn to my bracelet and a smirk adorned my lips. It was perfect. It was a simple, homemade thing, that was made out of black string and a bell attached to it. The string was big enough to fit my 'adult' form without slipping off and was big enough to wrap around twice on my child form to keep it from slipping off. Perfect. I twisted the bracelet off, the bell jingling quietly as I placed it in the palm of the red-haired teen's hand.
ooOOoo
Akako had finished making my bracelet some kind of magical transformer and I had it back on my wrist, looking down at it with raised brows, like I was expecting something to feel something. Akako was watching me bemusedly from her place near the cauldron.
"You're not going to feel anything." She stated and I looked up at her. "Why not?"
"Because it's supposed to be disguised as a normal bracelet. If you felt something, you would be staring at it strangely all day and people will begin to wonder if something's wrong." Well, I suppose that made sense. In fact, that's probably the most logical thing I heard since I stepped foot in to this mansion. I shrugged, bringing my hand down to my side and then looking around the room. "Oh, and just for a warning, never take the bracelet off when you are in your adult form." I blinked at her curiously, before deciding to just listen to her advice; since the bracelet was the one that made me turn big, I guess I would automatically shrink once it was off.. We stood in silence for moment before an idea hit me full force and I turned to Akako with a grin.
"Hey, do you think that I could, possibly, contact my mom or sister?" I asked excitedly. If I could get into contact with one of them, then they wouldn't have to worry so much. I could only hope that they didn't contact the police yet… Four days was more than enough time to file a missing persons report, after all.
Akako blinked at the sudden question, but nodded. "Yes, I could probably let you contact each other. It wouldn't do any damage between the dimensions because it's already so unbalanced." To say I was surprised was an understatement when I jumped giddily at Akako's leg, hugging it tightly. "Thanks! So, can we do it now?" My smile was so big that it was starting to hurt my cheeks. Red dusting her nose, she began to do something with her magic and began pouring some things into the cauldron next to us. She plucked a piece of my hair and I winced before letting her leg go bashfully and standing on my tiptoes to get a good look into the cauldron. As soon as my hair was put into the liquid, it turned a bloody red before the color faded only to leave in place the face of one of my relatives.
I happily leaned closer to the liquid, getting a good long look at someone I hadn't seen in a while.
"Dannie!" I cried gleefully.
My sister's shocked face stared back at me with wide eyes.
Review Replies:
To: Kudo Shinichi Tanteisan – Haha, yeah, I was kinda surprised with myself when I suddenly said she was my distant relative. XDD My mind works by itself. (Laughs) I was super surprised when I wrote this chapter. It kinda just…went. (Face Palm) XDD I had a vague idea, but never that I was actually, you know, related. (Shrugs) Oh well. Turned out fine, I guess. Lol! And I see, well, good luck, then~! (If you have more homework this time) XD (Grins as snowflakes fall and eats cyber cookie) Thank you ~!
-Edit: Okay, maybe not a lot, but I did fix some continuity errors. XD