A/N: This chapter was fun to write. XD Animal idea adapted from MagicMilkbone's suggestion! ^^ Hope you like this chapter, even though it's kinda just a character introduce before some shit hits the fan in the next chapter. XDD Also, I have officially decided to not edit the chapters for the Secret of the Star, Moon, and Sun case (as they're the ones not edited yet, besides the newest-newest). It hasn't been that long since I've written it and re-reading it makes me feel sick to the stomach and mind because those chapters gave me hell. I'll edit them further on into the story – and I will get back to them, since I plan to re-read the whole of my Revolver story over again when it's completely finished to edit things I might have missed when first editing. So, yeah. Those chapters will just go unedited for now. I hope no one minds. Though, if there was a huge, big, blunder (like time sense, place sense, "WTF does that sentence even mean?" sense, ect.,ect.), please inform me and I will fix it so that the story makes sense. XD
Disclaimer: I do not own Detective Conan or Magic Kaito in any way or form. (or shape!)
Chapter Twenty Seven
"You know," Erise began. Yet another week had passed and we were walking around Ekoda's shopping district on a bright, sunny, Saturday. Despite Akako saying that the weird potion would help me heal faster, I still had to wear bandages around my neck; unfortunately, even though they were healing a lot faster, they had now faded into horrid, yellow, handprints. Not indiscrete at all. I turned curious to Erise, "Hm?"
"That cat has been following you since you first met up with me in the café." She commented, gesturing to a black cat not too far off.
I blinked, stopping to get a good look at it. "A black cat, huh…?" I droned, deadpanning. I had enough bad luck already, thank you very much. My gaze turned to Erise. "You don't have any catnip on you, do you?" I teased and she flushed, shaking her head quickly. "N-No! Besides, it's following you, not me! Maybe you look like its owner?" She peered at the cat as well.
My eyebrows furrowed, "I don't know. Have you seen anyone that looks like me?" I questioned and she turned to regard me with a critical.
She started at my scuffed sneakers – the ones I'd been wearing when I first arrived in this world – and scanned me up to the tips of my unruly hair, eyes lingering briefly on my baggy shirt and neck (I absently remembered I had decided not to hide the bandages this time, for fear of getting heat stroke). "…Nope. I don't think I've seen anyone quite like you before…," She trailed and I flushed indignantly. "W-What's that supposed to mean?!" Erise gave a friendly laugh, raising her hands in surrender. "It's not anything bad, but you tend to give off the vibe of someone on a whole different level than the rest of us." She explained, still giggling at my expression.
I looked down at myself, but I couldn't find anything any different in the way I wore my clothes, except the fact that I dressed a lot more guy-ish than girl's my age. It wasn't like that was uncommon, though; there were still quite a few tomboys, so I didn't see the problem. Raising a brow, my expression was incredulous when I upturned my head to her. She gave another laugh, "Don't worry about it, like I said, it's nothing bad. You just seem faraway, in a sense."
I still didn't understand, but I put it to the back of my mind, looking back to the cat. A sigh escaped me. "If we ignore it, it'll go away. Where do you want to go next, Erise-chan?" She looked ready to protest – and truthfully, I was having a hard time turning my back on the cat, too – but held it back as I began walking again, her running to catch up with my longer strides.
"Um, do you want to get some ice cream?"
My eyes flitted to her hopeful face and I concealed a smile with the collar of my shirt, pulling my hat lower, "Sure. Ice cream sounds great right now."
ooOOoo
"Here we are." Erise stated, making me glance at the nameplate. The sun had already gone down and since it was so dark, I had walked her home. Two is better than one, after all; though, even if we did get attacked, I'm sure Erise would be able to take care of herself. Earlier that day, we'd had a small, friendly competition and she'd beaten the crap out of me by combining both her kendo and taekwondo. I had sulked about it for a while after, nursing my bruised tailbone.
Still, Erise was a bit afraid of walking home alone in the dark, so I had offered to accompany her.
"It's a nice house." I commented, taking in the big size of it. There was a small garden in the front yard, withering in the darkness. That must be the garden she'd spoken about before, I noted with an amused smirk. It certainly wasn't the best garden ever, like she'd said, but it did have a certain charm to it. There was a white picket fence around it, reminding one of the ideal houses back in America. She unlocked the front gate surrounding the house and stepped in, smiling back at me, "Thanks for walking me home, Midori-chan! You'll be able to make it next weekend, right?"
"Yeah! I'll be able to go." I grinned, flashing her a brief thumbs up before waving. "I'll see you next weekend, Erise-chan!" I waited until she was back inside the safe confines of her house before turning to leave, rounding around the corner. The night was silent as I headed back to a public bathroom.
Changing quickly, I hurried back out and started running towards the Kuroba household. In this form, being out this late was dangerous. Especially since this was the Detective Conan world. I did not feel like getting kidnapped, thank you, but if I did, I would just turn back to my original form when they weren't looking. Let's see how they'd take that. I snickered as I imagined their expressions.
Kaito's house came into view and I was quick to enter inside the yard, walking up to the door and knocking on it. I still hadn't acquired a key to the house, but Kaito had mentioned it the other day, so I'm assuming that I would be getting one soon. Waiting for the resident thief to answer the door, I turned my gaze back to the gate, realizing a pair of gold eyes were still watching me in the distance. I scowled at the cat, it's body not visible in the darkness. "Shoo." I hissed – but there was no real heat behind the words – and I waved my hands in a 'go away' gesture. It merely continued to stare at me before it blinked and disappeared behind the wall of the gate.
An accomplish smile graced my lips as I swiveled back to the door as it opened. Good. At least more bad luck wouldn't be following me around. Though, I did feel kinda bad to just abandon it like that…
"Welcome back, Alice-chan." Kaito greeted, herding me inside the warm confines of the house. I grinned as he closed the door behind us and lead me to living room. "Did you have fun with your friend?" He asked cheerfully. I nodded brightly, but didn't offer any details. He accepted that, as he now knew I was a very private little girl, placing me on the couch and taking out the first aid kit that I hadn't noticed before. "That's good! We just have to change your bandages and then you can go to sleep; you must be tired. You have an earlier day tomorrow, too, right? You told me you'd be going to a friend's house…?"
He started unwrapping the bandages from my neck gently as he fished – haha… – for information.
"Edogawa Conan's house. He lives in a detective agency. I'll be going there with the rest of the Detective Boys." I answered shortly, feeling him stiffen at the words 'detective' before he continued on. If I hadn't been so aware of his pokerface, I wouldn't have noticed.
"I see. You'll have to introduce me to your friend's sometime, 'kay?" He grinned, prodding around my neck carefully. "Hm…It seems to be healing nicely. Faster than usual, though." He added curiously. A bead of sweat ran down my cheek nervously as I gave a laugh, "Y-Yeah. Akako-neesan gave me something to heal faster." He already knew Akako was a witch, so why lie, right?
Kaito gave an ironic laugh, "Haha, I should have figured."
Done with his inspection, he began to rewrap my neck, careful not to catch the ends of my hair. "There you go." He announced, sitting back to admire his handy work. I had to admit, it was a lot more comfortable with how he wrapped it than the paramedic. Less like it was trying to strangle me and more like the way one would put on a scarf in the cold.
"Thank you, Kaito-niichan." I hummed to him, giving him a brief hug, before shuffling up the stairs to my room to go to sleep. I was exhausted. Tomorrow, I was to meet Ran and Kogoro, too. Hopefully, I wouldn't screw that up too badly.
ooOOoo
The next morning, I headed out fairly early – well, it was only eleven, but, for us nocturnal creatures, that's pretty darn early – while bidding my farewell to Kaito, who was going to head over to Aoko's house for the day. With an internal grin, I had labeled it as a date, but wisely kept the observation to myself. My good mood, however, spiraled downward into a deadpanned feeling as I rounded the corner of the gate, only to see a pair of familiar gold eyes staring back at me.
"…Seriously?"
As if on cue, the black cat walked forward to wind around my legs, rubbing itself against my calves. The soft fur tickled against my skin – as I was wearing shorts today – and I resisted the urge to laugh and give it a friendly scratch behind its ears. I refrained. But only just refrained. Animals would be the end of me…
The cat stared back up at me with pleading, intelligent, eyes and my eyebrow twitched at the sheer adorable-ness. My hands twitched once before I shoved them into my pockets to keep from doing anything I'd regret. Must not befriend it, must not befriend it, mustnotbefriendit! "Erm, I can't move." I awkwardly stating before nearly face palming. Why would the cat care about that? Let alone, it probably wouldn't even understand me. Talk about foot-in-the-mouth syndrome. Or was this something different? I rubbed my chin against my shoulder indecisively, still staring down at the cat that was still winded around my legs.
Miraculously, though, I watched as the cat paused before slowly walking slightly away from my legs. It was still near, but it wasn't obscuring my walking path anymore. Good. Now I could walk without worrying about stepping on the small animal. "Uh, thanks." I found myself replying dumbly before I decidedly started to ignore it and walk to my destination.
Again, I purposely ignored the sound of paws trailing after me. Darn persistent cat.
My destination – the Mouri Detective Agency – was quick to find and easy to get to (though, I had kind of cheated by taking the bus that I always took to get closer to school). The building was intimidating up close, but maybe that was because I knew the people that would be inside. The bottom café was bustling with people and I spotted a recognizable waitress taking orders – Enomoto Azusa. A smile curled on my lips before, hesitatingly, I started up the steps leading to the Detective Agency.
Stopping before the door, I flashed a stern glare to the cat still at my heels. "You won't be able to come inside. So, like, wait outside and find someone else to play with, or something." I ordered clumsily, pointing down the steps, indicating that it should leave. Without waiting for the cat's response, I knocked on the door politely.
"That must be Koizumi-san." Conan, ever the deduction-er. "Coming!" A different, sweeter – feminine – voice called. It was the familiar tones of Mouri Ran. My stomach flipped uneasily at the thought of meeting yet another character; it had been a while since I'd met a new one and I was excited yet feeling the same inexplicable worry about it as the last times. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that it was an – no joke intended– 'out of my world' experience.
The door soon opened to reveal the girl in question. She looked much taller from this angle and she was much, much, prettier in real life. Her face was curved onto her slim neck, her dark tresses falling gracefully around her features, clashing with her lighter skin. I could spot barely-there freckles dotting her cheeks infrequently if I looked close enough and her eyes were a pretty shade of stormy blue that brightened the farther it was from the iris, making it appear almost lavender-ish from afar; her smile was warm, genuine affection in it.
To say she was beautiful was an understatement. True to Vermouth's words, she really did look like and remind one of an angel.
"Ah, you must be Koizumi Alice, right?" She asked nicely, ushering me into the building. "A-Ah, yeah…That's me. You're Mouri Ran-san, right?" Polite but distant; even though Ran was a lovely girl, she did have a revengeful side to her as well. It would be best to stay on her good side. "Just call me 'Ran'." She smiled as we walked further in. The smell of cigarettes assaulted my senses and I inhaled deeply, having missed the smell from my father for a long time. Despite it being bad for my health and, technically, second-hand smoking, the smell was calming to me. Don't ask why; I didn't know either.
"O-Okay…Ran-neesan." My grin was lopsided and awkward, I could tell. Luckily, Ran disregarded it easily enough as shyness. "It's nice to meet you." I added after a moment, getting another angelic smile. "It's nice to meet you, too, Alice-chan." It felt oddly strange to be called Alice-chan by someone other than Kaito, but it was a good kind of strange.
With that, Ran left to go do something in the kitchen and I was faced with the Detective Boys, "Hey, Koizumi, what took you so long?" Genta questioned, grumping a bit. I rolled my eyes fondly; ever impatient, aren't we? "There was a cat that wouldn't leave me alone." Conan blinked in interest. "A cat?" Ayumi and Mitsuhiko seemed just as curious. "Are you carrying catnip?" Ayumi innocently questioned and I grinned roguishly at the familiar question. Déjà vu much?
"Nope, I'm not carrying catnip. Why would I need catnip?" I raised a brow.
"Who's talking about catnip?" Kogoro's deep, gruff, voice cut off the rest of the conversation as he peered over his table and stared down at me with his black eyes. "Oh, it's just another brat." He muttered to himself, taking another drink from the beer can next to him. He wasn't smoking at the moment, so I assumed that the smell of tobacco was a constant. That would be kinda nice…
I tilted my head towards the side in greeting, making sure none of the others could see my expression as I sent him a wicked smirk, peeking at him through my bangs . "Nice to meet you, drunken mister. I'm 'just another brat'." Not so great as a first impression, but his face was worth it. It was surprised before it morphed back into its grumpy state as he took another long gulp of his beer. "It's not drunken mister, brat. It's Mouri Kogoro, the world's greatest detective!" He boasted, puffing his chest out proudly.
"I know, I've heard of you." I began, "Just because you're a good detective doesn't mean you aren't drunk." Conan hid a laugh behind a cough behind me and I flashed Kogoro another smile before turning back to my friends.
"So, what are we here for again?"
ooOOoo
The day had been long and fun; we'd gone to the park to play soccer and had also played a multitude of other children's games. The kids, however, didn't get why I hadn't wanted to play 'Kagome, Kagome' with them, though. God forbid I actually play that game with Shinichi, of all people…
Currently, I was standing in front of the Kuroba household, having a stare off with a peculiar feline. "…Why are you still following me? It's not like I gave you food or anything." I commented and gave a deep sigh before plopping down on the ground to talk to it at a closer perspective. Maybe it'd get the idea and finally vamoose. The cat continued to stare with its golden eyes, cleaning off its paw absently with its tongue. "Do I look like your owner or something, like Erise-chan said? Are you lost? Do you need to go to a vet?" My eye twitched in irritation as it just continued to sit there; I could have sworn its tail was flicking in amusement.
"Do I smell bad or something? Maybe smell good? Are you related to my world, somehow?" At the last question, it seemed to perk up in interest and I resisted the urge to slam my forehead into the nearest surface. Brick wasn't exactly a gentle substance, after all. Of all the questions to react to–! Now I was curious, too, darn it!
Cautiously, I raised a hand out and scratched under its chin, watching it purr contently. My sharp eyes caught that there was no collar, meaning it was probably a stray. Immediately, my will crumbled.
"Okay, okay. You can stay with me for the time being. I'm sure Kaito-niichan won't mind as long as you don't make a mess of things and I take care of you properly." I wrote off the smug look twinkling in the cat's eyes as paranoia. No cat can look smug, no cat can look smug, no cat can look smug, nocatcanlooksmug…
It licked my finger as a sort of agreement and I gave another sigh, glancing down at it. "Either way, what am I going to call you? I can't just call you 'cat' all the time…," I trailed, trying to think of a good name. I paused. "Wait, are you a girl or a boy?"
"…You know what, disregard that question, I'm not checking. I'll just have to choose a name that can be used for both genders." I muttered, feeling my face flush.
The black cat and I sat there for a while, just gazing at each other, when an idea struck me and I brightened happily. "How about Kin?" It tilted its head. "It can be used for both boys and girls and it's just like your eyes(1)!" Personally, I thought it was a brilliant name, having just come up with it. The newly named Kin seemed to think so, too, as she/he snuggled into my leg as I stood up.
"Okay! It's settled then. Let's go, Kin-chan! We have to ask Kaito-niichan for permission." With that, I scooped up the cat of misfortune – and it figures I would happen to acquire such an animal (not that I really cared that much for the superstitious things like that; black cats were actually a personal favorite of mine, too, so it helped me over look that fact a bit) – and bounded into the house joyfully.
Review Replies:
To: Iriss-sama – Yeah, a chapter that fast. XD I was surprised myself, too. (Laughs) Thank you for your continued support! 8D It makes me really happy to hear that you enjoy my story so much. ^^ Here's the next chapter~! Thank you for all the luck~! 8DDD (Changes them into lucky tokens) XD And I will, thank you! ^^
To: Guest – Yay! More mythology nerds! 8D I, also, love Egyptian mythology – learning more about the culture of things while learning about the surreal is fun. XDD (or is that my inner geek talking? XD) Thank you for telling me. ^^ In the manga, he has blue eyes, and in the anime, his eyes are a lovely brown (which most fans than associate with the color gold to make it sound prettier), but in this case, I'll be using all three eye colors. So, while his eyes may have been blue in that chapter, in the future, his eyes will probably be a different color, due to my toying with his character. (Laughs) Ah, and okay. I won't thank you (though I really want to). XD Here's the update~!
To: Kudo Shinichi Tanteisan – Haha, yeah, it was. XDDD I was surprised, too! And really? That's awesome! I could use some motivation and stuff for history and it sounds like an interesting show, so I'll definitely try it out when I have the time. ^^ And it's okay. XDD Promoting other fandoms in another fandom is kind of like spreading the love. (Laughs) You're welcome. ^^ Haha, thank you! I had fun selecting which god/goddess would be best for the characters. XD (Grins as snowflakes fall and eats cyber cookie) Thank you~! 8D P.S: Thank you~! I'm very proud of both my heritages, so I was grinning when I put that little tidbit in. XD
-(1) KIN meaning "gold" (金) - Japanese unisex name.