Rated: K+
Word Count: 1,962
Chapter 10
- Love is the magician that pulls men out of his own hat -
Sitting down on the red couch in the public library of Ekoda, Kaito cursed all couches and libraries in Tokyo. Akako's vision meant that Shinichi would be on a couch in a library-like room. Why the hell were there so many libraries? It wasn't like that many people read books these days. Lately people read on their iPod or iPad or whatever it was they had. No one wanted to read from a book anymore…
Baka... he thought. Of course people were still reading from books. He was just frustrated. Akako's urgency was really bothering him. Shinichi had been hurt and here he was, wasting his time searching through every library in Ekoda, including all the school libraries. None of those had what he was searching for. Either they didn't have a couch at all or they were the wrong color.
If he continued like this, it would be weeks before he finally found the right one, and Shinichi probably didn't have that much time.
Letting his head fall backwards on the back of the couch, he looked at the white ceiling, automatically memorizing every little crack and stain. How was he going to do this? There had to be a way to find out the exact location. What would you do if you were hurt and scared, Kaito? Think!
Go home, of course. That was always the safest place to go after a particularly dangerous heist. Usually Jii-chan would be able to help him clean the wound or he would do so himself. So, Shinichi would be at his own house too. The problem: where was that? Kaito absentmindedly stared juggling three balls, not caring about the weird looks he got.
First of all, he needed to find out who Shinichi really was. Now, if he'd chosen his real name, Kaito would say that his invisible man was the high school detective Kudo Shinichi, but that didn't make any sense since Kudo Shinichi had died a year ago. It was his only clue though. Why had Shinichi chosen that name? Had it been a coincidence or was there something else going on?
With a puff of smoke, the balls disappeared as he leaned forward with his elbows on his knees and looked at the ground in front of him. Maybe Kudo Shinichi wasn't dead at all. What had that report said? He had disappeared off the face of the earth two years ago, then after a year had passed by, the police had presumedthat he was dead. A body had never been found, so it wasn't certain…
He should pay the Kudo mansion a visit. If he looked around in the Kudo household and found a library then maybe, just maybe, Shinichi would be there. And then….
Then what? What if Shinichi wasn't there? He would have reached a dead end; he'd have no other clues to go on. He couldn't waste hours tailing a useless clue. Still, he wouldn't know if it really was that useless if he didn't go to take a look. For all he knew, Shinichi could really be the long-lost high school detective and by now bleeding to death in his old house, on a beige couch in the library.
Shaking his head, Kaito broke into a run. The more time he doubted whether or not he should go to the Kudo household, the less time he had left to find Shinichi. Sprinting towards the train station, he bought a ticket and quickly went to Beika-chou.
He took a seat and looked around, trying to find anything that would distract his restless mind. It was quiet in the train, as if everyone there was holding their breath, waiting to see if he would be too late. There were about three people other than Kaito inside the train, none of them looking at him.
A middle-aged man with dirty clothes and a newspaper in his sat on the opposite side. His beard was as dirty as his clothes and looked like it could use a brush. Big, dark eyebrows cast a shadow over his eyes, coloring them even darker than they probably were.
Two seats behind him sat a teenage girl, playing on her phone. The small beeps were one of the few sounds in the train and it seemed to echo in Kaito's head, like a cardiogram of Shinichi's heartbeat. She wore a skirt that didn't even reach halfway down her thighs, with striped hosiery and black boots. Her top was obviously too small for her since the fabric clung tightly around her breasts and Kaito could see a little strip of her belly. Long black hair sat in two ponytails on top of her head with a few neon colored strands braided into it.
On the other side of the train sat another middle-aged man, this one the polar opposite of the other. He wore a dark blue suit and held a little black suitcase in his lap. He was impatiently tapping the leather-like surface with one finger as he looked out of the window. He wore glasses that made him look intelligent and successful. His hair was a bit on the messy side—the fashionable kind of messy though.
It wasn't enough. The train was too quiet and nothing could distract him, though he knew he would've gone crazy if it had been packed with people.
When the train finally arrived at his destination, he sprinted out of it, ignoring the startled looks he got from the three other passengers. It didn't matter. All he wanted was to find Shinichi, to know if he was okay.
He ran down the street, shooting through the crowd with amazing agility. As he reached the more quiet parts of Beika-chou, his pace fastened even more. Now that he was not hindered by other people, he took short-cuts, going through parks, climbing over walls and jumping down the stairs until he finally reached a huge mansion.
Coming to a stop, Kaito leaned on the wall and panted. He may have good stamina—otherwise he would have never escaped Nakamori-keibu so many times—but he'd given his all with the run. As he slowly caught his breath, he took a closer look at the house. There was no light coming from the house and no cars stood in the driveway. It seemed like the Kudos weren't home. Taking a quick look at the lock in the gate, he wrinkled his nose and jumped. He could barely grab the top of the wall, but as he did, he pulled himself up and over it, dropping almost silently in the garden.
So far, so good. No alarm had gone off yet and he'd made sure no one had seen him. He ran towards the front door. Taking one more look back, he swiftly picked the lock and opened the door, only to quickly slip inside. Within seconds, he was inside the house. Kaito looked in all the rooms on the first floor: the kitchen, the living room, a few guest rooms and the garage, but no library. Going to the second floor, he didn't waste any time and opened all doors. There was bedroom, a staircase leading towards the attic and a bathroom.
Kaito was about to scream in frustration when he opened a door to the sight of bookshelves lining every wall. Freezing, he looked around the room. Huge bookshelves covered the walls almost completely, leaving room for a few windows here and there. As his eyes looked up, he saw that wasn't the end of it. Where the ceiling usually would've been was a balcony, circling the room with more even more bookshelves.
Lowering his gaze again, Kaito looked at the furniture in the room. A wooden desk stood a bit to the side with papers and a laptop on it. In the middle of the room stood a wooden coffee table with beige-brownish armchairs surrounding it. There in front of a two story tall window stood a couch, bathing in the light of the setting sun.
That was it….that was the—damned—couch he'd been looking for. A distortion in the air caught his gaze and Kaito could just barely make out the silhouette of a person lying on the couch. As he stared at the silhouette, he noticed the dark crimson stain on the piece of furniture where the person should have been sitting.
"Shinichi!" he screamed unconsciously as he darted forward. The distortion of air seemed to move slightly. It was weird, not really seeing Shinichi lying there, but knowing nonetheless that he was there. His hand unconsciously moved to touch the head, of which he could faintly see the outlines. The feeling of silky hair sent weird feelings down his spine.
How could this be possible? It couldn't! He had to get away from it! It was weird, it was different. It might be dangerous!
But it was Shinichi. He'd found Shinichi. His Shinichi, who was save and sound.
"K-…Kaito?" Dropping to his knees, the magician let one hand trail down the head until he held the other's face with two hands. He couldn't see anything between them. It was such a strange sight.
"Shinichi, you idiot. Stupid, stupid Shinichi! Don't scare me like that!" Hhe said, feeling tears gather in his eyes. "Don't ever do something like that ever again!" As one tear fell down his cheek, others soon followed.
"Kaito." It was a soft whisper. In the back of his mind, Kaito registered that Shinichi was saying his real name, but it didn't matter at the moment. For a second, it seemed as though he could see the azure eyes looking dully into his, before they widened. Hands weakly tried to push him away. "No, don't look at me!" The invisible teen said in between pants. His attempts to get away got weaker by the second and as Kaito looked down, he saw the crimson stain on the couch grow as more blood seeped out of the wound.
"Idiot, don't move so much!" he said, grabbing both hands. "Shinichi," he said firmly, but the other wouldn't listen. "Shinichi, listen to me!" he shouted angrily. The hands seemed to stop and although the magician couldn't see it, he knew the detective was looking away from him. "Listen, I don't know what's going on, but I have searched all day long for you and if we don't take care of that wound, you'll die!" The invisible limbs in his hands started shaking, but he didn't let go.
"Alright," was the quiet whisper and slowly, Kaito let the hands go, ready to grab them again should the detective try to run. The magician looked down at the wound. He couldn't entirely see it, only the blood seeping out, so it was going to be tricky to treat it.
"How deep is it? Can you see it?" He felt the detective move, probably either shaking or nodding, forgetting that Kaito wasn't able to see it.
As Kaito looked at where he hoped was the face, the detective gave a quiet whisper. "I can't, but the bullet only grazed my side." Kaito gave a quick nod before turning back to the wound. The best thing he could come up for treating the wound was how he would've done it if it had been he himself injured and hoped that that would suffice.
It wasn't normal. It was weird. It was scary, but…
It was Shinichi.
Hey, everyone. So I'm having finals right now and I'm really nervous because if I don't get good grades for them, I will have to do this year again -.- And I really want to graduate with my friends, so sorry about the late upload (I'd wanted to upload it before my finals, but well...you know how that goes..). I'll leave it at that and quickly go back to studying TT,TT Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! Two more chapters to go and Shooting Star will come to an end :( I'm going to miss this story...
Big thanks to Moku-chan!
And of course all those who have reviewed, namely; treasure family, killuanatsume, Sirastar, twilightserius, ILoveFanfiction-AnimeAdik, mochiusagi, Nythierian (Your name sounds pretty :o), shatteredswan, Jelp, Vacant Balcony, Bunnyz-chan, Mokuren no Ken and Athina Dark-Angel of Death!
Answers to Guests:
Guest (on chapter 8): ='.'= fan? Really? Of me? :D Well...uhm...better late than never ^^; hope you enjoyed this chapter!
Nythierian: Yes, I very much liked the idea ^^ Especially the first chapter was really fun to write, since I love ranting and lots of details ^^; Well, luckily it's just a scratch and it doesn't need stiches, but yes it still should be rather difficult to treat :s Thank you so much, it makes me really happy to hear that :D Don't worry, I hate sad endings :( So in the end everything will be alright ^^ Yes, I guess I could've put Ran in the story somewhere. I kind of forgot her though, since the storyline is mostly about Shinichi being invisible, his relationship with Kaito and how that relationship develops ^^; Thanks, here's the next chapter ^^ I hope to get the other one up a lot sooner!
shatteredswan: well...uh...go by where the blood is coming from...and a lot of luck...^^ there, there *hands tissue* it'll be okay, don't you worry ^^ Well, I already have all the chapters written out and I told myself to write chapters between the 1,5k and 2k since I had planned to make chapters that had no scene changes. So sorry, I can't do that :/
Jelp: It's kind of obvious, isn't it? :) Here you go ^^
Vacant Balcony: Well, he just wants to help ^^...really bad... Thanks :D
Don't forget to fav/alert/review! Especially the latter since we almost reached the 100 reviews :D
