Revolver

by zXFallenAngelsXz

Transporting into a familiar world filled with murderous psychopaths wasn't what I had in mind for my family's trip to Kansas. In fact, it was the last thing on my mind at the time. Of course, because of that little pest called "bad luck", that's exactly what goes down. I'd fallen down the rabbit hole into shrink-ville, crime cases, thieving, and my "favorite" - black magic.

46. (LN) Chapter 46

A/N: Whoo! I finally conquered this! I had serious writer's block for this chapter, but I prevailed in the end. (Blows smoke from barrel of gun used to kill writer's block bug) XDD Hopefully, this isn't too confusing with the many, many characters introduced to this.;;; But, it's okay if you got confused! Not a lot of magic in this one, contrary to what I wanted, but…whatever. (Shrugs) (I'm so done with this chapter. XD) Erm, yup! I hope you enjoy the chapter and stuff! 8DDDD

Disclaimer: I do not own Detective Conan or Magic Kaito in any way or form. Koizumi Ayala is owned by MagicMilkbone (hopefully I did her okay, she's a tough character. XD).

Chapter Forty Six; Lucid Nightmare arc

At the question, that was more of a statement, from Akako's father, everyone in the gathering headed towards the table in the middle of the seal. I tensed as I neared, automatically becoming crowded as everyone headed to the same place and I think Kin sensed my discomfort, but he didn't offer any comfort, gold eyes flitting to and fro curiously. Soon, we were all gathered around the circled table, easily fitting around it since it was the perfect size for a family of this size. I couldn't be petulant with Kin, though, as my own eyes started running down the long line of faces.

I stood between Akako and Yoshiaki, who was standing next to tall man with his face turned away, but what I could see was that he obviously liked the color black; his suit was the dark color along with his strange, leather jacket with the collar folded up to hide his jawline. He was strangely intimidating, even though I couldn't see what he looked like. Beside Akako stood Ryuu, who was the center of attention, his sister – Akako's aunt? It was hard to believe, since she didn't look much older than the teenage witch (then again, Akako's father didn't look a day pas twenty-two, either…) – standing beside him, nursing her wine.

"Alright." Ryuu clapped his hands together once more, despite it being unnecessary as he already had everyone's undivided attention. He smiled warmly at the family members gathered, "I'm very glad we had more turn ups than last year. We all know this year has been busy, but tonight is a night of relaxation. There is no need for work tonight. Of course, there are still some members of our clan on duty and they won't be able to attend, but let's all enjoy ourselves for another year of survival." He finished, spreading his arms out gently. I absently thought his wording was strange, but nobody else seemed to, so…

I shrugged off the thought as Ryuu nodded to Fumiko, who clapped once. "Alright~! As per tradition, we'll do introductions first! We'll go by bloodline groups, starting from my left. State your name and anything else you feel the need to add. Anyone who came alone will go last with the others who came by themselves." She chuckled with a grin before sweeping her arm to her left to begin the introductions.

Ryo, Minoru, Suzu, and the guy I remember Suzu running to earlier, stepped closer to the table. "Yo! As many of you probably already know~" Ryo crowed happily, earning some annoyed mutters as he shot several certain people winks, "My name is Koizumi Ryo – I'm the maker of the charms every year, so if you don't know me then you're probably new here. Either that or you're incredibly rude and forgot such an adorable face~!" He huffed, patting his cheek in indication that he was talking about his own 'adorable' face. I forced a grin and laugh down my throat; this guy seemed like fun, that was for sure. He reminded me a lot of Kaito, actually.

Ryo then swung his arm around the other unfamiliar man (teen?), whose only resistance was a sigh, his eyes still firmly locked on the book he'd been reading earlier. "This is Nobu~! He's my twin, as you can tell since he has my adorable face~!" Ryo introduced the man (teen?) and, now that I looked at it, they did look somewhat similar. The main difference was the hair color – Ryo's bright orange-red while Nobu's was a dark pink – and the eyes, Nobu's a sharp blue instead of emerald green.

Finally, the stoic man (teen?) decided to cut in, closing the ancient book with a sharp thud one-handedly; it was obvious he was used to wielding the book. He sent Ryo a side glance that seemed blank. "If anyone inherited an adorable face, you inherited it from me. I was born first, you forget." Nobu stated blandly before opening his book again to go back to reading. What was so interesting about that book? It seemed a bit boring, if I was completely honest. Ryo pouted, but looked to Minoru for him to continue.

Minoru easily picked up Suzu as she clamped her hand on his sleeve and began bouncing impatiently for attention, her creepy bear standing not far behind, but content to let Minoru take hold of her. "My name is Minoru…," He said gently, almost too quiet for anyone to hear. Suzu grinned brightly, head laid against his shoulder. "I'm Suzu! Suzu likes sleeping!" She announced proudly, one hand pointing out to her waiting bear, "That's Snuggles!"

"We're the only ones here from our direct family." Nobu finished, letting everyone know that their introductions were finished as he brushed off his twin's arm absently. I blinked in interest. Guess that means the four of them are actually siblings… it seemed like a strange mix, but it was oddly not that surprising, either.

Two others stepped up as the four siblings finished, both with jet black hair falling softly over their crimson eyes. One was a girl, long pigtails cascading down her shoulders, and the other was a boy, hair a stylish mess, but they were undeniably twins with how similar they looked. It was a bit surprising that there were two pairs of twins in one family. "I'm Akira," The male started in a smooth voice, "And this is Akiko." He pointed a slim finger to his similarly darkly clothed sister.

There was a brief silence as we waited to see if they were going to say more before we moved on. The next pair was yet another female-male sibling duo, both having similar hair – a small portion of bangs dyed an orange-ish red in the middle of their forehead (well, the girl's was more spread to the whole front of her face) while the rest was black. To tell the truth, the guy seemed to have a sister complex or something, since he was wearing a suit that was matching to her kimono and kept looking at her the whole time, even going as far as to paint his fingernails the same pink color his sister had – it matched his eyes, so it didn't look bad, but it was still strange. The two introduced themselves as Hikaru (the male) and Hisoka (the female).

The next group was of three with a teen that was obviously the older brother of the other two that had stepped up with him – a boy who had this know-it-all face and a girl who was scowling quite insistently, a contrast to their young ages. They looked twelve, at the most. Both boys had silvery white hair – the younger's was more grey than silver, though – and they both had drawing eyes; the younger's were a bright honey-gold while the older had crisp, ice-blue, eyes that almost looked like they were about to grab you and pull them into their cold depths. It was unnerving gaze that reminded me slightly of Conan's eyes.

The girl was pale as pale could be with long, graceful, white hair, eyes a dark pink that bordered on red, but not quite. I half-expected the oldest to introduce everyone, but instead the boy spoke up, tone a bit irritating, as it sounded lilting and pompous. "My name is Koizumi Kohaku. This is Natsuko," He patted the girl on the head, which earned him a fierce glare, before he gestured to the much taller teen. "This is Kazuhiko." A small nod from the elder and they were finished. I tried to keep from my brow furring, but couldn't.

Next was another male-female sibling duo, the girl with brown hair in similar color to mine with orange eyes and the guy with crimson hair and crimson eyes. The girl seemed more shy than anything, while the guy looked like he wished he could be anywhere but here, bored-ness practically oozing from his expression as he chewed on, what I'm assuming was, gum. They easily introduced themselves as Kazuko and Akihiro, respectively.

Then were two guys – probably siblings, too – in their early teens, who looked plainly like trouble personified. Everything about them just screamed 'I'm bad news!'. I don't know why, there was just something about them…

Both had differing shades of brown hair – one lighter while the other was almost bordering on a grey-ish brown – and had fierce eyes, one smirking while the slightly shorter had an ever present frown, it seemed. The taller stood in front of the shorter, as if unconsciously trying to protect him – it was probably a pull-over from whenever the shorter had gotten that vicious scar over his left eye, straight down from the forehead all the way down the cheek. Despite it obviously being an old healed scar, there was still the glaringly obvious emotional scar still unhealed.

"Koizumi Ryota." The taller introduced, running a hand through his messy hair, placing a hand on his brother's shoulder. "This is Takeshi."

And the introductions went on and on; another female-male sibling duo, the girl in her teens whose hair was light brown, but the tips were colored a dark red and the boy looking not much older than Conan and the Detective Boys (they introduced themselves as Aika and Seiichi). Seiichi seemed shy, clinging to his sister's kimono and peeking from behind her at the large crowd. Then was another set of twins – like, holy crap, how many twins can you have in one family? – and both seemed sweet, smiling softly, long magenta locks falling gracefully. The two females looked extremely alike, but there was a slight difference in their hairs (one messier and the slightly neater) so you could tell the difference. They introduced themselves as Momoko and Ayako.

Then was two female siblings, one small and doll-like while the other was taller, but still as beautiful; they introduced themselves as Miki (the older, smaller one) and Chikako (the taller, younger one). Then another sibling duo, containing a woman with long black hair and emotionless red eyes and a younger girl who had the same hair and eye color, but looked fiercer and definitely more animate than her sister; the older was Tsubaki and the younger was Kaede.

Then there was a pair of three, who gave me the creeps just by looking at them. And everyone at the reunion obviously knew them – quite unkindly – by the wary looks being cast their way as they introduced themselves. All three teens (?) had eyes of the same crimson color, but all had differing hair color; one had soft black hair and looked the calmest, another with a cold mask on had brown hair similar to mine and looked bored, and the last one with an insane grin painted permanently on his face had silvery-grey hair. The one with black hair – he seemed to be the ring-leader – introduced them all; Yuuto (brown-haired), Takashi (insane grinner), and he, himself, was Osamu.

Then were several people who came on their own. A woman with red hair that bordered on pink and grey eyes named Akane, another woman with red hair but emerald eyes named Aki, a man with messy white hair to his shoulder and blood red eyes named Isamu (a curious thing to note was that one of his hands was made of metal, shaped like a skeleton's bones), a teenage girl with pink hair and lime green eyes named Asuka, a woman with curling red hair and golden eyes who seemed to garner lots of respect named Miho, the man with red hair covered in bandages named Arata, and so on and so forth.

After getting through several other people – Hotaru, Kouki, Kaori (a girl about my age), Hachiro (he seemed oddly conniving, yet kind), Ren, Hayato, Noboru (who kept fiddling with playing cards), Daichi (who had a lizard on his shoulder), Kouta (the man standing beside Yoshiaki who gave me danger warnings in his black clothing), then a man named Tatsuya who also garnered a lot of respect despite him giving me the heeby-jeebies – I finally introduced myself along with Akako. And I just knew – knew – that I wouldn't remember half the names I'd just been told. As it was, the only ones I was certain about were Ryuu, Yoshiaki, Fumiko, and Akako.

It just wasn't possible to remember so many names all at once.

If I tried, I knew I would fry my brain.

As soon as introductions were over, everyone dispersed to go eat and talk amongst themselves. With Kin as my guide – as he was pawing at my arm and staring quite pointedly at what he wanted – I headed to a nearby table covered with food, trying not to look too nervous by leaving Akako's side.

ooOOoo

"You know, Kin-chan, this is actually pretty fun." I laughed quietly – slightly awkward – as I talked with Kin, who was happily stuffing himself with cake – I couldn't remember if that was bad for his health or not at the moment. I really hoped it wasn't, though, otherwise I would be eternally guilty when bringing Kin to the vet later.

"Ach, í̱tan lígo dedoménou óti écho̱ dei apó énan apó esás. Drosistikó, schedón." I jumped at the foreign language, turning swiftly. A man with light blond hair and red eyes walked closer, looking thoroughly amused at my flinch. He held a rose in a glove hand close to his chest, an irritating smirk on his lips. My mind scrambled for a name to the face, but only came up blank. Shoot…

It must have shown on my face, since he chuckled. "Names are but of conduct, but I say they are not needed–" The rose in his hand darkened in color, making me take an involuntary step back as it shifted. A white raven flapped its wings, white plumage falling gracefully to the seal on the ground as it perched itself on the man's shoulder. "–what do you think, ypi̱réti̱s? Do you think we should use names?"

He lifted a hand to stoke the breast feathers of the bird as it straightened on cue. "Nevermore." It croaked perfectly. I blinked, feeling incredibly amused – a raven had just said nevermore! – and confused.

"Um…,"

He smirked at me for a long moment before– "Haha, your face! I'm just kidding. Names are important. Mine, as you've forgotten, is Hayato." Somehow, his personality seemed to switch in an instant and there was something that nagged at the back of my mind that his actual opinion was the first one, but he'd changed it instantaneously. My brows furrowed as I mustered up a wary smile, "Um, yes. Sorry about that. It's hard to remember names…," I trailed uncertainly, not knowing what reaction to expect next.

He placed a hand on my shoulder comfortingly, still smiling a smile that felt fake. "It's alright – we all have had that problem once before. I remember accidentally calling Osamu-kun Hachiro." He chuckled somewhat sheepishly, suddenly relaxing, his smile evening out to an actual one. Sensing this, I relaxed as well. "That must have been interesting to watch." I laughed, grinning at the thought. Kin finished his cake, licking bits of frosting off his whiskers and paws calmly. I blinked as a sudden thought came to me.

"Ah, um! Right – I was wondering, is it okay for cats to eat cake? I couldn't remember." I laughed and he gave a small chuckle. "Cats generally shouldn't eat cake, but I'm sure this allásso̱n should be just fine." Hayato reached out and scratched under Kin's chin briefly before another voice called out. "Oi, Hayato! Can you come over here for a minute?" We both turned to see Akihiro – at least I think it was Akihiro – waving Hayato over with a bored expression, though there was the slightest hint of a smile on his face.

Hayato looked back to me with an apologetic expression, but I just smiled and gave him a hard pat on his back. "Don't worry about it – I may look lonely, but I enjoy spending quality time with Kin-chan~!" I grinned and he stumbled from the force of my rough handling, but straightened out with a laugh. "I see – I didn't know I was interrupting." He turned to look at Kin with a smirk, whose tail swayed happily, "Sorry for the disturbance." He walked off to Akihiro with a backwards wave as I blinked. That was…weird.

I sighed, turning back to Kin, who was beginning to eat chi chi dango mochi. I gave a light laugh, wiping some potato starch off of his nose as he bit into another one gluttonously. "You know, people keep saying weird things around you Kin-chan." I commented, thinking back to what fortune-teller had said while glancing at Kin. Gold eyes stared up at me – looking a bit startled – and I raised a brow as Kin offered me his most innocent face ever, eyes wide. I stared a moment before chuckling, not able to withstand the adorable look – especially when he still had starch on his face.

He went back to eating, knowing he'd won this battle thus far, and I flinched when a new voice spoke up right behind me. "He's cute. Does he have a name?"

I spun on my heel before looking down slightly. A girl who looked around my age stood in front of me, her hair a dark black, the tips dyed a scarlet red to match the color of her eyes. She didn't look familiar, so I could only assume that she hadn't been there for the introductions, even though Ryo had said that Arata – it was Arata, right? – was the last one. Did that mean that she'd been here before, but didn't introduce herself for some reason, even though they'd said it was tradition?

She stared at me for a long moment and I felt myself flush in embarrassment as I realized I'd been blankly staring, too. "Erm, Kin!" I rushed, bringing a hand up to muss my hair nervously before remembering Akako would kill me if I messed up my hair after all the hard work she'd put into it. My hand twitched as I resigned to scratching my neck instead. "That's…that's his name…Kin." I nodded, slipping a smile onto my lips easily after a moment.

She grinned in a slightly mischievous fashion, a cute orange tabby popping up behind her head as it stalked from her shoulder, down her arm, and then onto the table where her hand rested. It immediately joined Kin's voyage of eating everything available on the spread. "Cute, but not as cute as Ra." She snickered, petting the tabby's head for a mere second before turning towards me and offering out a hand with that same grin. "Koizumi Ayala. It's nice to meet you, Midori-chan."

I grasped her hand and gave it a firm shake, eyes narrowing the slightest – she hadn't introduced herself; why hadn't she? Her grin grew a fraction sharper as we brought our hands back to our sides, apparently sensing my tense attitude towards her. "You're probably wondering why I wasn't there while introductions happened, right?" With a slightly arrogant tone, she smirked, only to frown a second later, "This damn place is hard to get into. Introductions are shit, since everyone already knows us." She gave a scoff lightly.

"…o-oh." I blinked before giving an amused grin before instinctively shooting out my hand to ruffle her hair before stopping dead short again once I realized she'd done her hair up, too. Again, my fingers twitched before I retreated. She glanced at my hand briefly before moving on.

"Aren't you going to play with the others?" She questioned, flicking her bangs out of her face with a superior look. I'm guessing she didn't feel like playing with the others…

"What games are they playing?" My gaze flicked to the nearby tables, spotting Hayato paying close attention to something on the table he, Akihiro, and Kazuko (?) were at. They were all laughing in soft tones, amused for some reason. Ayala smirked at me, crossing her arms over the top of her kimono. "Despite what people think, we do play normal games. I think they're all regular games – well, other than what Osamu-kun and the other two are playing. Takashi-kun must have roped them into playing it." She rolled her eyes, but there was a glimmer in her eyes that gave away to some amusement.

"Ohh, what game are those three playing?" I crowed, a sharp grin spreading across my face. This girl was interesting – something about her screamed arrogant, but then there was a nagging feeling in the back of my mind. Admittedly, I couldn't resist an interesting person – all someone needed to do to get close to me was make me interested and then, well, it's all downhill from there, really. Bad habit, since some people weren't good company. I grimaced internally at the thought before pushing it away as Ayala answered.

"They're playing Kokkuri-san." She offered with a one-shoulder shrug, pulling out a chair to sit at the table. As soon as she sat, she took to a plate of chocolate cake, stabbing her fork in it. From extensive research back when I was in my own dimension, the name was easily identified. "Kokkuri-san, huh? I heard that it was disapproved as a scientific phenomenon by scientists, though." I commented absently, leaning my hip against the table to distribute my weight on that instead of my legs.

She scoffed, "Ugh. If there's anything worse than detectives–" she spat the word out like it was toxic, "–then it'd definitely be scientists; always trying to disprove anything remotely mysterious with science and denying anything that doesn't suit to their whims. If anything, they're childish to want the answers to everything. One day, they'll hit a road block and we witches will be laughing behind their backs as they realize it can't be 'scientifically proven'."

She cracked a sardonic grin as I burst into laughter. Her thoughts almost echoed mine from a while back – I remember thinking scientists killed the magic in everything; even the beauty of life was a mere scientific equation explained on a paper in school. However, despite that, science was one of my favorite subjects and I was pretty good at it, too. I refrained from enlightening her on that, though. And the fact that I currently knew four detectives personally. A nagging feeling told me that would end up in a long, unfriendly, debate between us two.

"T-That's the truth~!" I howled with laughter, hand banging against the table repeatedly.

She popped another piece of cake in her mouth elegantly as she waited for me to catch my breath. After I calmed down enough to talk properly, she sent a pointed glance to where the three males were sitting around a small table, people giving them a wide berth. From the earlier reactions and now, it seemed they weren't very welcomed. Well, other than Ayala – she seemed completely fine with them. "So, are you going to play with them or do something else?" She didn't seem interested in my answer, taking another bite of her cake, not even bothering to glance at me.

I surveyed my options, but I knew I wouldn't play with them – my mother had told me to never play games such as that one; I wasn't going to just disobey her, even if she wasn't here to see. I shifted, trying to get a better look at the game from afar. "Hm…probably not – not my type of thing, truthfully. But, I'm curious, why are they playing that game specifically?" Of course I had expected witchy things here, but since everyone else was playing normal games, it didn't make much sense why those three were playing something like Kokkuri.

"Oh…I don't believe there's an exact reason, really. I think Takashi-kun just likes to tease dead people." She stated blandly in her superior tone, finishing off her cake with another bite. She immediately went to grab another sweet confection, setting to eating it. I chuckled a bit nervously – how morbid it was to tease dead people…

"Yeah, I think I'll pass…," I trailed, rewarded with a snicker from my company. "Maybe I'll just go…," My eyes scanned the area before pausing on a certain spot. Several people were tumbling over each other, trying to stay up, over a Twister mat. "–I'll go play Twister, I guess. Wanna come?" I offered, giving Ayala a smile as I straightened from my slanted lean.

She finally looked back up at me with her red eyes, looking a bit surprised before she covered it up with a pompous scoff. "No thanks. I don't play Twister." She retorted, "I'll just stay here with Ra and Kin-kun." She turned back away from me with an over-exaggerated huff that I raised a bemused brow. She went back to eating and I gave her a rough, friendly, clap on the back – making her jolt in surprise – before ruffling Kin's head and turning towards the Twister mat.

"Okay, then. Have fun eating~! Kin, don't be a brat to Ayala-chan~!" I called, getting a disgruntled look from the black cat on the table, before swiveling on my heel and heading determinedly toward the Twister mat. I don't know why I had been so unnerved before by this family – just because they were a coven of witches didn't mean they weren't human and, sure, some were a bit…strange, but that didn't change anything.

And, truthfully, I could see myself getting along really well with these people if I loosened up.

ooOOoo

"No! No! Asuka! I said right hand blue! Not right foot!" Akane barked out fiercely, expression curled up angrily. A spike of accomplishment filled my chest as I thought of how I now knew everyone who was playing Twister by name.

I chuckled, readjusting myself as I felt my tabi-clad foot slipping waywardly. Ryo's grip slipped for a moment and he almost ended up in the splits before his leg hit a roadblock – Aika's leg. Next to Aika was her little brother, Seiichi, who was easily staying up, being smaller compared to the rest of us playing the game. He had the advantage of weaving underneath us all. And since he wasn't a girl, he wasn't wearing a restricting kimono, either. Like, really – kimonos obviously weren't designed to play Twister.

"Well, sorry!" Asuka yelled back, hand pushing away Hikaru's face from hers vindictively. "I have this idiot here and I can feel my kimono riding up my legs from this awkward position, so I moved my right foot instead!" She growled when Hikaru made a kissy face at her before he was quite unkindly shoved, resulting in him losing his balance, onto the mat by the enraged pink-head.

Hisoka giggled at her brother's misfortune, making him pull her down playfully in revenge – she yelped and Ryo's arm got caught in hers as she tried to stay up, making him fall, causing Aika to fall as their legs entangled. They collapsed in a pitiful pile, each muttering a few choice words under their breath. Hikaru gave a proud laugh before his air was pushed out of his lungs as he was tackled by Hisoka, the two siblings beginning to have a fake brawl. My face flushed red when Hisoka shrieked, "Hey! That's my chest!"

I shook my head with a small chuckle – I didn't even want to know. I froze when I saw Ryo looking at me with a creepy grin right before he tackled me, apparently thinking I had been laughing at his tumble. I yelped, falling onto my side roughly – Seiichi hurrying out of my way as I threatened to squish him, resulting with Asuka finally falling as he bumped into her – before I was assaulted with a tickle attack. I squirmed, laughing hysterically as I tried to get him to stop, curling into myself to try defending my most ticklish areas.

Ryo laughed along, enjoying 'torturing' me for supposedly laughing at him. "Hahahaha–g-get him–haha–off!" I managed between bouts of intense laughter, feeling my face go red from lack of oxygen. Ryo's hands disappeared a second later and I looked up thankfully at my savior, Aika.

"Oi, what would happen if she passed out from lack of oxygen, moron?" Aika joked, ruffling Ryo's hair until it was an unkempt mess. He pouted childishly but surrendered. There was a moment of silence as we all calmed down from the quick happens.

Akane coughed into her hand from the side of the mat, "You do realize you all just lost, right?" At our blank faces, she tacked on, "Idiots."

Hisoka and Hikaru, who had finally finished wrestling with each other, laughed at the insult and I marveled at how similar they were despite not being twins; with how they were, they may as well have been. Though, I think Hikaru would be even more devastated if his sister was his twin, what with his complex. I quirked a grin at my inner thoughts, sitting up from my prone position and fixing my hair slightly – I didn't want Akako to get mad at me, after all.

Asuka huffed something under her breath about being the last to fall, but we all ignored her quite tactfully. After the first few moments with Asuka, I learned she had Princess Syndrome. Seiichi crawled over to my side, looking up to me with his innocent doe eyes. "Ne, ne, will you be requesting something of the Raven Man today?" He questioned curiously. I blinked curiously, "The…Raven Man?"

Aika released Ryo from the headlock she had him in, coming over to take a seat next to me on the mat. "Ah, that's right; you're new, aren't you?" She questioned rhetorically before going on, "The Raven Man is an old magical being. He's a neutral entity, neither good nor evil, and he grants witches requests, if it's in reason, due to our kind helping him before. But, for whatever reason, humans think they can summon him nowadays with a bogus ritual." She laughed, rolling her eyes.

"I'm sure he'll take your request, if you ask him of something." She added, picking up Seiichi and placing him in her lap. "It's something of a tradition for the newcomer of our coven to request something of him, anyways."

A new voice spoke up from behind me, a startled chill running up my spine. "I think that's a lovely idea." My head was turned by a hand grasping my chin and I came face-to-face with Tatsuya. I remembered him easily, since he was treated with lots of respect and unnerved me greatly – just staring into his eyes, I could feel myself break into a cold sweat. Cold grey eyes stared me down from his higher height as the tips of his nails dug into my cheek. "Midori-chan probably has a lot of requests, some more important than others."

I swallowed thickly as he peered closer, white-grey bangs brushing against mine. "I think she'll make a fascinating decision, at least." With that, he released my face, stepping out of my personal space. I choked my breath back, heart restarting in a panicked pace. This man…

With a snap of his slender fingers, the mat disappeared from under me in a spark of black and replaced with five candles and a knife. I yelped as I fell the short distance back to the floor and the others who had been playing Twister with me retreated to the sides, creating a semi-circle around me. "There. Now you can start." Tatsuya hummed, a smirk playing vaguely at the corners of his mouth as he flicked his hand in my general direction. At the gesture, the five candles lit up within seconds.

"Now, all you have to do is take the knife and offer up your blood." He instructed.

"Erm…why?" I was just being pulled into this involuntarily and I really had no idea what I was doing. From my first meeting with Akako, I had promised myself to not do anything against my ethics, also – which included anything with the power from, well, evil spirits or something. Lucifer, for one, would never be someone I would consult with. Ever.

"You're making a temporary blood pact with the Raven Man. Don't worry, he's not evil." Tatsuya raised a brow at me, wanting me to continue. Hesitantly, I did what he said, gripping the knife and making a small, careful, cut, across the pad of my pointer finger. I winced, not used to inflicting pain on myself, and watched in grim interest as blood pooled at the top of the cut. "…Now what?" My voice shook slightly in anxious nervousness.

"Now you drop you blood on each candle wick." He stated, crossing his arms as he watched, "Repeat after me…," Words began falling out of his mouth in a foreign language – Latin, maybe? – and I repeated hesitantly, getting pulled into the lilting cadence of words and seemingly random sequences. I felt my body grow heavy as I dropped blood onto each wick carefully. It felt like I was being drained of energy – but not the physical kind, but the mental kind. As if each word was being dragged from my soul.

As soon as I decided this was probably a bad idea, the foreign words stopped and I had finished putting my blood on each wick, and there was a moment of short, unsteady, silence. Then, an overwhelmingly loud, high-pitched, screech filled the air, startling me into breaking out of my daze. The wound on my hand closed up quickly and the ground underneath me shook for a brief moment as red, glowing lines spread from my spot on the ground to create an easily spotted magical seal. It looked very intricate, many symbols and foreign letters engraved in the mystical red.

Suddenly, the screech disappeared – thank goodness, my ears! – and the seal dimmed down to a light blue, making it look a lot less sinister than it had before in bloody red. I relaxed slightly, feeling strangely at home in the circle – it felt…familiar.

My eyes whipped up as a voice entered through my mind, wispy as if it would disappear any moment. What is your request? The voice was dark and deep, but there was an underlying tone of loneliness that made me cringe at the intenseness of it. However, it was kind and warm and caring. I cleared my throat nervously before answering in my mind as well. Are you the Raven Man?

That's what I'm called, yes. My real name cannot be pronounced on human tongues, so you may call me Yuudai.

A small smile formed on my lips as I slipped my eyes shut to concentrate on what I was doing. This isn't my real name, but you can call me Midori. A hum sounded through my mind as he thought this over and I could make out a vague image of a lonely man sitting on a rock off in the distance, arms replaced with majestic black wings, legs pulled up to his bare chest and white eyes – blind eyes – staring into a nearby river unseeingly. Absently, I wondered if he could see me through his mind, too.

You are like me, are you not? You are not of this world. He finally stated, shifting on his rock miles from here. His pale lips pulled into a friendly smile.

You're right. I laughed internally, how did you know?

When creating a blood pact, I receive the person's memories and experiences to judge if they are a good person or not. He informed, Also, I saw your worries. There's no need to be afraid – I am but a neutral existence that is tied to logical reasoning – if someone were to ask me to kill someone, that would be changing the course of their fate, so it is not possible. Saving someone from being killed, however, is completely different. Their fate is being altered by an outside force, therefore I am allowed to intervene. The blood pact between us will also disappear once I fulfill your request. His voice softened a bit.

Umm, okay. Thanks. I sighed to myself, not knowing what to request. A sudden idea came to me and I smiled.

Hey, I know this is going to happen eventually, so would you be willing to…

ooOOoo

I stretched tiredly in the kimono, Kin back in between it and the juban. Ayala had disappeared off somewhere with Ra when I had come back to the table after finishing my request with Yuudai. I was just wandering aimlessly, watching the people play different games like Monopoly to Chutes and Ladders to Mouse Trap. Some of the more mature were just sitting at tables chatting amongst themselves, too. Overall, I was completely comfortable here by now, but it was getting late. It was nearing three o'clock in the morning and I was exhausted.

I blinked, turning at a clapping sound to my left. Standing in the middle of everyone's attention once again was Akako's father, "Alright, everyone. Our gathering is coming to a close. All that's left is our chants." He smiled handsomely and everyone began making a large circle around a bonfire, which had magically replaced the large table that had been in the middle of the seal when I hadn't been looking. It was already burning brightly, fire dancing in the light night breeze.

I jolted as a hand clasped my arm and Akako appeared by my side, dragging me gently to the circle that was being created. "Come on, it's finally over." She muttered, brushing a strand of red hair out of her face, "Then we can go home and sleep." She sounded relieved and I bit back an amuse snort, deciding to let her off the hook for today.

We entered the human circle and I did as instructed, clasping hands with Akako, who was on my right, and then with Fumiko, who was on my left. She gave me a grin before we all snapped to attention as someone began chanting nonsensical words. I grimaced in confusion but tried in vain to repeat it while everyone else did the same thing and eventually it shifted to English that I could understand and chant along.

We are a circle within a circle…

Everyone's voices blended together to create a hushed voice that sounded like one, and we began moving in a slow rotation motion that I couldn't remember even starting. The fire crackled beautifully – powerfully – from inside the circle we were creating, lighting everything in a mesmerizing orange haze and the world outside blurred.

…with no beginning…

The smell of incense filled the air and everything seemed calm and still despite the chant echoing in my head and us still moving at a slow rate. The hands in my grip were warm and protective and I felt safe at the moment – very, very, safe. All my earlier paranoia washed away for the moment and I could tell by everyone else's expression that they all felt the same way – safe and warm and protected. At the moment, we were all one. Not humans, not witches, not students – just a circle. The thought was relaxing.

I'm not sure how long we chanted, but when we finally ended, everyone was quiet and calm as we went on our own ways. Before leaving, however, Ryo had given me a silver charm on a thick string, telling me that I'd probably need it in the future. Confused, but grateful, I took it with a thank you.

…and never ending…

ooOOoo

Akako and I were walking back together, her father and brother having disappeared off somewhere – apparently, they didn't live together often. Akako's butler was trailing behind us, the cart being pushed with minimal noise. Leaves crunched silently underfoot as we headed along the path.

"Hey, Akako-neesan," I began, voice hushed in the night, "Would it be alright if I ask you some questions?" Since I had spent the night with her family, I had gotten to know them, but some questions were still nagging at the back of my mind.

Akako's fiery eyes, looking peaceful, glanced over to me and she gave a small nod of consent. I hummed, wondering which question I should start with. I decided with an easy one. "Koizumi Ayala, I met her. I was just wondering why she never introduced herself with everyone else." My eyes drifted upward into the sky, seeking out the crescent half of the moon high in the air. Once I found it, I smiled to myself, shifting Kin more comfortably in my arms. During the chant, he had fallen asleep.

"Ah, Ayala-chan. She's a special case. Most of the family is afraid of her." She started, "When she was younger, she created a pact with a demon to gather more magic. Her mother had fallen ill and no scientific breakthrough was coming through with it – it was a magically induced illness; the doctors had no idea what to do. But, since she made the pact with the demon, they now share a body – two souls in one. Sometimes, the demon is able to overpower her and take control of the body. Due to this, she has a split personality." She answered.

I blinked in surprise before it faded away and I frowned. That's why she looked surprised when I invited her to play Twister with me… "I see." I answered shortly before I decided to move onto safer territory, clearing my throat uncomfortably. "Um, so, why is Arata-san covered in bandages? Is he into that kind of thing or…?" I joked and I was rewarded with a laugh from the witch, the tense atmosphere dissolving.

"No, no. Arata-kun excels in summoning. However, since he's not a tamer, he often gets attacked by the things he summons. I'm honestly surprised he isn't dead yet." She snickered, thoroughly amused. I gave a small laugh, "Why doesn't he just practice being a 'tamer', then?" I questioned, not very familiar with the terms, but getting a hang of it easily enough.

"Tamers can't just be made, Midori." She scolded half-heartedly, no heat behind it. "Only special people can become tamers. That's why Ayala made a body pact with the demon, because without it, she wouldn't be able to tame the demon and use its magic for her own biddings. You remember Daichi, right?" I nodded, "The one with the lizard on his shoulder, right?"

"Correct. That's not actually a lizard, but a low-level demon in standard form. Daichi is a tamer and therefore doesn't have make a blood pact or a body pact with it for it to acknowledge him as its master." She explained. Oh, well, that made sense. To think the lizard was actually a demon… a chuckle slipped out of my lips unbidden. A demon disguised as a lizard. It just sounded incredibly funny at the moment – I think I was finally getting a bit loopy from lack of sleep. And the heist was tomorrow, too. Guh, I probably wouldn't be getting much sleep tomorrow (today?) night, either.

"So, who else is a tamer?" I asked curiously.

She looked up to the right in thought, "Let's see, there's Tsubaki-chan, Hayato-kun…," She trailed off to remember more while I remembered the strange albino crow from before. She continued, "Aika-chan, Kohaku-kun, and Asuka-chan, though hers are only low-level demons. She's still working on it." I gave a hum in interest, filing the information through my mind – I was learning a lot about Akako's family and it somehow made me happy.

"What about Akira-san and Akiko-san? Those two seem like the type that would do something similar." I mused, thinking back to the two shady twins dressed in all black with similar hair and depressed red eyes. Akako gracefully stepped over the branch I had trouble avoiding earlier with ease before answering, "Well, those two do something similar to taming, yes. They both excel in manipulation. Unlike taming or making pacts, they are able to manipulate a demon into doing their will for however long they want, without needing to make a pact or tame it. Taming requires you to take the demon in – if you tame it, you automatically become its master forever. But, manipulation allows them to breeze through the pact or taming part and just use the demon when needed and release it when it's no longer needed."

"I see." That was a fascinating concept. I'm guessing it takes a special type of person to have manipulation, then, otherwise people wouldn't bother making pacts or taming them. A sudden thought came to mind, "Hey, what about that teddy bear that followed Suzu-chan around?" The creepy bear had been there the whole night, even joining in our chant circle despite its lack of mouth.

"Oh, that? The bear is enchanted. Inside of it contains a protective guardian spirit that will take care and nurture Suzu-chan until she reaches the age of ten. I used to have one, too." She commented before giving a delicate yawn. Apparently, I wasn't the only tired one.

"Oh? But wasn't Seiichi-kun nine years old? Why didn't he have one?" I asked, confusion apparent in my voice. If it was common, then why didn't he have one? Was it just a female thing, or…? I didn't have to ponder long as Akako replied, "Seiichi-kun lives with his parents. Suzu-chan has one since she's rarely with her parents. It takes the place of the parental role, so only children who weren't with their parents at a young age have one."

I bit my tongue pensively. Didn't that mean that Akako hadn't been living with her parents when she was younger and she was still living alone…? I refrained from asking it, though, choosing to change the subject once again. "Ah, right. I was wondering. I noticed everyone in your family has unusual looks – they either have red eyes or red hair or are albino. But, I noticed there were a few who had somewhat normal looks, like Seiichi-kun or Ryota-kun and Takeshi-kun." Not that they looked completely normal, either, giving off the sense of being on a completely different level, but whatever.

She gave a shrill cackle that echoed through the nearby trees and bounced back creepily. I shivered, hugging Kin closer to my chest. "It comes with the magic blood line. You either look on a completely different level than others, or you exude being on a completely different level. That's why people tend to avoid our kind – they're intimidated or admire us too much to become close." She smirked, probably thinking back to her own set of admirers from school. I rolled my eyes at the display, an amused grin playing on my lips.

"I see. That must be kind of annoying for some, though, I imagine." I chuckled.

"That's true." She nodded, "I know Akihiro-kun once thought of giving up his powers because he was jealous of the other kids in his school having friends while he was isolated." She intoned, tone mellowing dramatically. I frowned, thinking back to the teen who had seemed so nonchalant about everything – I never would have guess that he disliked what he was because he was isolated…

I coughed awkwardly, rushing to change the topic, "By the way, I noticed that your mother wasn't there. Was she busy?" I questioned quickly and regretted it a second later as the atmosphere dropped. I scrambled to fix my unknown mistake, "Um! You don't have to tell me if you don't–" I began, hurrying to apologize as she walked ahead of me a bit so that I couldn't see her face. I was cut off before I could finish, though, by words that froze my heart. The tone was emotionless, but still hurt just as much.

"My mother is dead. She was killed."

I paused in my stride before starting to walk at a slower pace, letting Akako have her space. I bit my lip, deciding not to say anything, less I make it worse. The tense atmosphere I'd been working to avoid had now come and swallowed us both. The rest of the walk to Akako's house was silent and when we got home, we went our separate ways immediately to go to sleep. Not one word was uttered.

I couldn't help but think of myself an idiot for even asking and as I lay on the guest bed, thinking of how Akako was doing, I knew I wasn't going to be getting sleep anytime soon.

Review Replies:

To: Meow-chan-15 (chapter 43 review) – (Laughs) This made me laugh really hard! XDDD Made my day! YES! Conan, beware of the insane pedo! XDDDD And thank you! I'm glad you like my story! 8DDD

To: Meow-chan-15 (chapter 44 review) – Thank you~! o^^o And you'll just have to see~ (Grins in a troll-ish way) XDD –shot–

To: Iriss-sama – (Laughs) It is, isn't it? XD I thought I would never make it this far or for it to get this popular, but I'm pleasantly surprised. ^^ Mwahaha! Become a Heiji fan! Heiji fan~! 8DDD XDDD Kaito is still epically awesome~! I can't wait to incorporate him more into the story. X3 Here's the next chapter~! Not as much magic as I planned, but, you know. (Shrugs Helplessly) I didn't know what to do. XD I got stuck halfway, lol. And no, you're not~! I like magic, too~! (High-fives) And he is like Kaito! (Nods, nods) He's very carefree and cool like Kaito. XDD Thank you – I really like Minoru's character. He seems to be in the background, but I like writing him. XD And I hope you liked all the Koizumi's~! XDDD And thank you, I had a good vacation! 8DD We ended up not going to Kansas and my birthday was something of a disaster, but it was fun all the same! XDD (it would've been awesome to get trapped in another dimension. XD) (Gathers all the luck) Thank you, Ri-chan~! 8DDD (Returns Lucky Hug) 8D

To: Kudo Shinichi Tanteisan – XDDD This made me laugh a lot. The pause between 'seems' and 'interesting' is exactly the way I feel about them. XDD Despite having made them, I can't help but feel they're a bit weird or too normal or something. (Shrugs) XD And yup! Research, research, and more research~! (I'm an info junkie, so it was kinda fun, though –laughs– ) Me too! I always love chatting to her. ^^ And I won't~! (Grins Wickedly) Don't worry. I just went to the grocery store… (Laughs Evilly) XDDD (Grins as Snowflakes fall and eats cyber cookie) Thank you, E-chan! 8DDD

To: Meow-chan-15 – Yup! I love doing research. ^^ Thank you! Here's the next chapter. Thank you for all your reviews~! *hearts*

To: Victini-Kumi – Yeah, she has, hasn't she? She'll just be getting into more trouble later, too. (Winces) Yay, late night reader buddies~! (I swear, sometimes I don't go to bed until its already seven in the morning…;;;) Thank you! Here's the next chapter! 8D

-Well, this was hard. I was thinking of giving up halfway – that's how hard this was. But, I beat it! (Proud) (Steps on dead writer's block bug) XDDD I hope you enjoyed it! ^^ (and hopefully you didn't get confused on who was who. XD I know I did a couple times and they're my characters… – fail, lol – ) I'd also like to thank MagicMilkbone for giving me an interesting OC to work with! Thank you, MagicMilkbone! 8DDD And the heist is next~! Wish me luck on that! XDDD;;;

Note(s):

1 – The language Hayato speaks will not be revealed until later, since the sentences he says here are very revealing to future events. XD It's not written in its handwriting, either, but rather the way it sounds, so you probably won't be able to translate it. (Laughs Evilly) I love withholding information~! XD Also, I used Google Translate, so if you do somehow know the language, sorry if you spot major mistakes. XD

2 – Kokkuri or Kokkuri-san is like the Japanese version of the Ouija board. The word Kokkuri refers to the game, the actual physical apparatus, and the spirit(s) believed to possess the apparatus in order to communicate with humans. The physical mechanism is composed of three bamboo rods arranged to make a tripod, upon which is placed a small pot, which is covered by a cloth. Three or more people will place their hands upon the Kokkuri and ask the spirits a question, which that spirit will in theory answer by moving the pot or remaining still. Japanese folklorist, Inoue Enryō, wrote about the kokkuri phenomenon, denouncing it as mere superstition, yet his efforts did not succeed in depopularizing the game. Some scientific figures of the age attempted to explain the phenomena with the more scientific sounding yet ultimately equally mysterious trope "human electricity". (from Wiki~)

Er, yup. I think that's it. Not sure if I missed anything. Oh, I found the Raven Man thing on the internet, but I tweeked it a lot, so I don't feel the need to put down the information, so… (Awkward) XD Yeah. (Coughs) See you next chapter? XDDD

"Next Revolver Hint: Memory Anomaly!"