Disclaimer: I do not own Detective Conan/Case Closed or D.N Angel.

Summary: Meeting with witches and getting kidnapped by artwork definitely hadn't been part of the plan. D.N Angel crossover

Pairings: Kaito x Shinichi (DC) and Daisuke x Riku (DNA)

AN: Someone asked me how old Kaito and Shinichi are in this story. Let's see. I was using the background from my other story "Countdown to Forever" as a springboard, so they should be around their early twenties.

An Eternal Art

By V. Shalyr

III

A Meeting of Thieves and Detectives

The full moon…

Shinichi pulled the curtains closed over his window and took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. This just felt weird, actually taking the advice of a witch. Still, if it worked…well, if it worked, he'd owe magic an apology.

Pushing his doubts to the back of his mind, Shinichi slid the feather pendant over his head, snagged a book from the bookshelf in the corner and got into bed. Reading, it didn't take too long before he fell asleep…

Everything was dark, the kind of darkness you got in great distances like when you looked at the night sky and tried to reach for the spaces between the stars. Glancing down, Shinichi thought he could just make out what appeared to be the lights of Tokyo city, only dim and wavering as though seen through very deep water.

I must be dreaming, he thought, wondering a little at the odd clarity that seemed to cling to his senses despite that fact. If this was a dream, which he was ninety-nine percent sure it was, it was unlike any dream he'd ever had.

The touch of something cold against his wrist made him look down at his hands. Drifting about his fingers was a thin, silver chain he recognized as the one that had held the feather pendant Akako had given him. The pendant itself hung from a loop of chain around his wrist, the crystal ablaze with silver-white light. What had the witch said? If your desire to find your way is great enough, it will take you there. She'd also said something about Kaito helping to make sure of that, but that part didn't make any sense.

There—he didn't know where "there" was, only that it was wherever Kaito happened to be. So, pulling up a recent memory of the magician grinning at him that morning at the breakfast table, Shinichi closed his eyes and concentrated. He felt a little ridiculous, but when he opened his eyes, there it was—a long, silver chain stretching away from the pendant out into the void like a guiding line of shining, silver thread.

Hesitating for only a moment, Shinichi followed. Kaito was going to have a field day when Shinichi told him about this. But for that to happen, he had to find him first.

…Sapphire eyes snapped open, blinked, and stared in a mixture of confusion, shock, and amazement. Turning in a slow circle, Shinichi pinched himself to make sure that he wasn't still dreaming.

He was standing in what appeared to be a park with lush, green grass and well-kept trees above which he could make out a clock tower in the distance. He couldn't see the clock hands from where he was, but judging from the color of the sky, he guessed it was late evening.

The architecture definitely looked foreign and he could believe he really was in a different world, but was it the right world? If there could be one, reason dictated that there could be others too. Only one way to find out. Squaring his shoulders, Shinichi turned his feet towards the street, intent on finding some form of police station. Whatever world he was on, it was the place he knew his way around the best and also his best bet at gaining access to the resources necessary to track someone like Kaito down.

Shinichi had barely gone ten steps, however, before he heard someone scream in terror. Cursing his almost perpetual bad luck, he spun and raced towards the cry, hoping desperately that no one had yet been killed. It would be just like his skewed fortunes for someone to get murdered the moment he set foot in this place.

The first thing Shinichi saw when he broke through the trees was the woman sprawled upon the ground. The second thing he saw was the giant serpent, its semitransparent coils almost filling the entire clearing. The third thing he saw was the young man hovering above the serpent's weaving head on a pair of jet black wings.

Shinichi stared even as his body carried him over to the unconscious woman and dropped him onto his knees to check for a pulse. It was weak but there and he breathed a sigh of relief before focusing all of his attention on the bizarre scene before him.

The snake hissed and snapped violently at the winged figure, who slid easily away from its impressive teeth and threw something that looked like a black feather towards its head. The feather flashed upon contact and the beast reared back, but it seemed more enraged than hurt.

Assured that the woman wasn't seriously hurt, Shinichi cast around for some way to help in the fight. He wasn't sure if a soccer ball would do much against a serpent the size of a house, but he had to try.

.

Daisuke had been halfway through his homework when he felt the chill race down his spine. His pencil stopped and he jerked his head around to stare out the balcony door.

/Daisuke, we've got to go. Now,/ Dark said urgently.

Daisuke nodded, already out of his chair and through the balcony doors. Someone was in trouble. He could feel the magic in the air, tingling and alien and menacing. Dark took over as he jumped onto the railing and they were gliding high over the city, searching.

It didn't take long to find what they were looking for.

"Hey," Dark called, dropping down into the park clearing and raising his hand in preparation for an attack, "whatever you are, let her go."

The man—or what appeared to be a man—turned towards them and Daisuke gasped. Long, needle-like fangs gleamed in the man's mouth and the eyes that fixed upon them had never belonged to a human being. A forked tongue flicked out to taste the air and he let go of his victim to face them. The woman's glazed eyes cleared and she screamed, only to be cut short as the creature's clawed hand struck quick as lightning at her throat. There was no blood, but a strand of what looked like glowing mist came away with his fingers and the woman's eyes rolled back in her head as she collapsed. Still with its eyes fixed on the newcomer, the man brought the mist to its mouth and it vanished with another flicker of his inhuman tongue.

/What did he do to her?/ Daisuke demanded, panicking. /We've got to help her!/

"Calm down, Daisuke. She's not dead, just exhausted." Dark lifted the black feather in his hand a bit higher, his gaze never leaving the man's slitted pupils. "I guess it'd be pretty pointless to ask who sent you. You don't even really understand what I'm saying, do you?"

Hungry eyes continued to stare at him, unblinking, as a forked tongue flicked from between elongated fangs. And then suddenly, it wasn't even remotely humanoid anymore. Instead, a massive, semitransparent serpent loomed over him, its coils shifting with deceptive laziness about the clearing for just a moment before it lunged.

Dark threw himself back into the air as the huge jaws slammed shut with enough force to splinter the tree that had been behind him.

Righting himself, the thief threw the feather only to curse and backpedal hurriedly when the monster twisted smoothly out of the way and snapped its head back around to have another go.

"Damn," Dark muttered as his next attack fizzled out upon the translucent green scales of the serpent's snout, "this thing might not be very smart but it sure is powerful. Hold on, Daisuke."

However, before Dark could move in for another attack, something round and colored in patches of black and white went whizzing past his head and struck the snake squarely between the eyes.

"What the—"

/Was that a soccer ball?/

More surprised than hurt, the serpent swiveled its head around to fix its unblinking, yellow stare upon the source of this new assault. It took it about a millisecond to register the black-haired young man readying yet another projectile beneath his foot and another millisecond for it to decide that it was quite angry about this. Then it had whipped its sinuous body away from Dark and struck at its ground-bound attacker.

Shinichi barely had time to throw himself backwards out of the way, and even so, one of its fangs tore through his jacket sleeve. Strangely enough, it didn't hurt. Confused, the detective blinked and stared down at the gash in his arm, which was glowing an unnatural bright green. Then everything faded out of focus and went black.

Dark dove forward to place himself between the serpent and the two humans now both out cold, but instead of attacking, the serpent froze mid hiss and then slowly drew back. It went completely still as though listening to something only it could hear, then it withdrew even further and faded like a ghost until nothing remained but the reminder of a last, soft hiss.

Dark lowered his arm, frowning. The creature was just gone—no trail, no lingering magical signature—nothing.

Giving his head a firm shake—he had more pressing matters to worry about at the moment—he landed beside the two unconscious figures, crouching to check on them.

/Are they going to be all right?/ Daisuke asked anxiously.

"She'll be fine after she gets some sleep," Dark answered, leaning over the young man to examine his arm. "But I think we should get this one back to your house. It looks like that snake might have been venomous."

/Where did it come from?/ And even more importantly, where had it gone?

"My guess is one of those paintings in the fairytale exhibit. It feels a lot like that other disturbance, but also a little different—less concentrated."

/You mean all those paintings are dangerous?/ Daisuke asked, horrified.

"I don't know, but something's definitely up and it's unlike anything we've ever faced before."

.

Shinichi groaned, rolling onto his side and trying to sit up.

"Oh, you're awake!"

Someone put a hand on his shoulder to help steady him and Shinichi forced his eyes open to find himself staring at a woman with short, pale brown hair. She smiled when she noticed him watching her and offered him a cup of water.

"How are you feeling? You've been out for a long time. We were starting to worry."

And yet he still felt so tired.

Shaking his head, he took a sip of the water and cleared his throat. "What happened? That snake—"

"No need for you to worry about it, dear. Everything's going to be just fine."

Shinichi stared at her in disbelief. She made it sound as though giant, phantom snakes attacked people everyday. Granted, he was supposed to be in a different world. Maybe here it did happen every day—in which case, he had better hurry up, find Kaito, and get out of there. Unlike that winged man, they weren't equipped to deal with such things.

Catching his incredulity, the woman laughed. "I wouldn't say it happens often, but whenever strange things do happen, Dark always appears to take care of it."

"Dark?"

"You've never heard of Dark?" she asked, astonished and seemingly almost horrified. "He's an amazing and handsome phantom thief who steals precious artworks and protects people from their enchantments. You must not be from around here if you've never heard of him."

Shinichi choked on the water and set the glass down, coughing to clear his airway. Now why did some of that story sound so familiar? So this world had its own phantom thief too. Well, that was certainly…interesting.

"Are you okay?" his host asked, concerned.

"Er, yeah, I'm fine. So how did I get here?"

"My son found you in the park, and since our house was closer than the hospital and you didn't seem to be hurt too badly," she shrugged, moving to open the window and let in some fresh air. The sun hung high in the sky outside. It was probably shortly before noon. "Now that you're awake, I suppose you'll want to get home."

Shinichi frowned at this unintentional reminder of his current position. "I actually only just got into town so I don't have a place to stay yet."

"Really? Well, in that case, you're welcome to stay here for as long as you like."

She sounded almost relieved and Shinichi wondered why. Perhaps the serpent attack had left more of an impression than he'd thought? He couldn't help but feel a bit suspicious at her generosity, but everything about her warmth seemed genuine and he really wasn't in any position to look a gift horse in the mouth.

"Um, if it's not too troublesome, that would be great. Thank you—for everything."

"It's no trouble at all. We have the room and it's always nice to have company. Oh, how silly of me, I forgot to introduce myself. My name's Emiko, Niwa Emiko."

Shinichi accepted the hand she held out and shook it firmly. "Kudou Shinichi. And thank you again for your hospitality, Niwa-san. I'll just stay for as long as it takes me to find a place of my own."

"Emiko is fine, dear, and I already told you that it's no problem at all!"

By the time Daisuke returned home, the Niwas' newest houseguest was nowhere to be found.

Popping his head into the kitchen where his mother was humming over a pot of something sizzling and steaming, Daisuke asked curiously, "He left?"

"He said he was going to look for a job. His name is Kudou Shinichi and he's new around here. He woke up this morning."

"Is he all right?"

The entire family had been wondering about this since they'd gotten the young man home. His grandfather had checked over the wound left by the snake's fang but it seemed only to be a substance meant to drain a person's energy, nothing a good rest shouldn't have been able to cure. Still, two days of continued unconsciousness had had them questioning the diagnosis, so it was definitely a relief to have the stranger up and about at last.

"I offered to let him stay with us," Emiko continued, stirring the pot and scooping up just a bit in her ladle to test it. "He seems like a very nice young man."

"I'm glad he's all right, but is that really a good idea?" Daisuke wondered aloud, thinking about their family's somewhat less than legal nighttime trade.

"I'm sure everything will be fine. You've just got to be a bit more careful." His mother turned to give him a beaming smile. "It'll be good training."

.

Inspector Saehara glowered across his desk at the young man seated on its other side. He looked barely out of his teens and yet his track record was more impressive than any other detective he'd ever met. And as far as he could tell, all his papers were legitimate.

"So tell me again, why are you suddenly so interested in transferring to our department? It seems like you were doing damned well where you were."

"I'm looking for a friend of mine," Shinichi repeated for what felt like the tenth time during the interview, already tired of trying to explain himself to this man. "He disappeared from home several days ago and the clues brought me here. I was hoping to continue my detective work here while I continue my search."

The inspector scowled, but there really was nothing he could say to that. It was reasonable, undeniably so. And with the most recent development on the thieving front, he would be the unreasonable one to turn him down just because something about the brat seemed fishy—and he reminded him a bit too much of a certain other, blue-haired brat that was also too young to be in this line of work.

"Fine, you're hired, but you'll be on a trial period until we can be sure of your skills."

"Fair enough," Shinichi agreed, glad to just be out of there. An entire hour in that stuffy office with its ill-tempered occupant was enough to try even his patience. It was times like these that he really missed Kaito's ability to derive entertainment value from even the most uncooperative of situations.

The inspector grunted. "Report to Detective Ishikawa Kenji. You'll start work immediately."

Nodding politely, Shinichi stood and excused himself. If he remembered correctly, Ishikawa Kenji was the man who had showed him to the inspector's office.

The other detective looked up when Shinichi knocked on his doorframe to let him know he had company. "Ah, so he accepted your application. I hope he didn't give you a hard time. It's the business with this new phantom thief. It's got him all strung up and he's already been complaining about being forced to increase the size of his taskforce by the chief."

Shinichi started in surprise. Could it be? "Another phantom thief, you said. You mean other than Dark?"

"Yeah, you haven't seen the papers from this morning? It's a new guy calling himself 1412."

"What did you say?"

"1412? Weird name, I know. Kind of like his heist notice."

Relief swept through Shinichi like a tidal wave. He hadn't even realized how anxious he really was until the anxiety had gone. That had to be Kaito; it was too much of a coincidence. He had no idea why Kaito was stealing again, but it was sure going to make him a lot easier to find. It looked like the police station had been the right choice after all.

"Pretty strange name," Shinichi agreed casually, grinning despite himself. "So, do you think I could get a look at the heist notice? Maybe I can help."

.

"Another phantom thief?" Hiwatari Satoshi frowned down at the reports on his desk. One phantom thief had been bad enough, but two? And where had the second one come from all of a sudden? It didn't seem like the usual copycat. For one thing, the name was different. And then there was the heist notice that had arrived early that morning which seemed more like some weird riddle.

It just figured that he'd be gone for a few days and everything went haywire.

What was this new thief playing at?

The ringing of the phone interrupted his thoughts and he snatched it up. "What is it?"

"Ah, Commander Hiwatari, we think we know what the new thief's going to be after. And, er…"

"Yes?" Satoshi said impatiently.

"And the heist is going to be tomorrow night."

.

"I can't believe someone is going around calling themselves a phantom thief," Emiko fumed, slamming the newspaper down on the table, already crinkled and torn from an entire day of brutal treatment. "Daisuke! You've got to go out there and see what's going on."

Daisuke winced, rubbing at his ear and hoping he wouldn't go deaf. He wondered nervously if he should tell his mother than he and Dark had already met the new thief.

/Now might not be the best time,/ Dark advised. /Just agree. I wanted to check out his heist anyway./

"All right, we'll go," Daisuke sighed, resigning himself to spending the next few hours cramming as he wouldn't have time for homework or studying tomorrow. "So when and where is it?"

"I don't know."

"Huh?"

"The notice doesn't make any sense."

The newspaper was shoved in front of him and Daisuke blinked a little dubiously at it. By now, the article was so crumpled he could barely even make out the words. He was saved from having to point this out when a knock came at the door. He opened it to find their new houseguest looking well and rather pleased about something.

"Oh, hi," Shinichi greeted him. "You must be Daisuke. I have to thank you for helping me."

"You're welcome. I'm glad you're feeling better."

"So am I." Glancing into the kitchen where Emiko was still grumbling irately to herself, Shinichi turned back to Daisuke. "Is something wrong?"

"Oh, Mom's just a bit upset about there being someone else using the title phantom thief," Daisuke explained a little sheepishly. "So did you find a job?"

"As a matter of fact, I did. But then, I already knew what I was looking for and my record is pretty good."

"That's good. So where are you working?"

"At the police station. I'm a detective."

.

None of the citizens of the not-always-so-quiet city from its everyday high school students to its resident thief knew quite what to expect as the time for Phantom Thief 1412's first local heist finally arrived. But to say they were completely blown away nonetheless would have been more or less an adequate description of the result.

It started with the fireworks, brilliant streamers of rainbow colors that spelled out a message of welcome in brilliant, lingering letters across the velvet black sky. The magician thief himself appeared in smoke and fire upon a window ledge on the second floor of the building right above the heads of the police, whereupon he swept them an elaborate bow, called out a mocking greeting, and vanished once more in a swirl of moon white cape.

For several moments, none of the police knew how to react. Whoever heard of a thief who dressed in white and went to so much trouble to purposely call attention to himself? Was the man insane?

There was one person among them, however, who seemed completely unsurprised. Satoshi frowned at the new detective—Kudou, wasn't it?. Even as everyone shouted and hurried to get up to the room with the painting declared as that night's heist target, the newcomer waited until the rush had passed before moving quickly in a different direction—towards the narrow staircase that led directly up to the roof of the museum's highest tower. From the direction the others had gone, Satoshi heard a sudden eruption of startled and dismayed cries. Raising his eyebrows, Satoshi wondered briefly what had happened before making his decision and following Kudou.

When Kaito had set his plans into motion that evening, he'd expected to enjoy himself. It had been months since he'd last been on a heist, having officially retired as KID in his own world after finding Pandora and securing Snake a permanent home behind prison bars. He'd missed it. He couldn't help it. And now that he was "back", he had fully intended to capitalize on the fact.

But… Well, it just wasn't the same. Sure, he had fun. But it also emphasized the fact that he was no longer at home in ways that nothing else could have. The entire operation was almost too easy, and he'd find himself wondering what Shinichi would have done or Hakuba or even Nakamouri-keibu.

No point getting all depressed, he reminded himself sternly, his KID grin never wavering as he stepped out onto the roof into the refreshing, night air. The whole point of this heist was to start him on the search for a way home. Since it was the painting of that dreadful woman that had brought him here, maybe a painting that bore a cityscape remarkably similar to Tokyo would bring him back.

"The roof, huh? Do you have a pair of wings stashed away somewhere too?"

Unsurprised that the owner of that voice should choose to visit on this particular occasion, Kaito tilted his hat in the other thief's direction. "You could say that—among other things. Are you here to enjoy the show?"

"Maybe," Dark shrugged, glancing pointedly towards the tower door. "I have a few questions for you too, but now's probably not the time."

Kaito shrugged, swinging himself over the railing to balance upon the ledge on its other side, preparing to make his usual dramatic exit. But when the door opened, the person who came through it had him stopping dead in his tracks.

"KID, leaving so soon?"

Kaito froze and turned slowly to stare at the new speaker. That voice, the name which no one in this world should know yet—it couldn't be! And yet, "T—Tantei-kun?"

Shinichi hid his grin, choosing instead to raise an eyebrow. "It's been months since you last called me that. You feeling all right?"

"Shin-chan!" Abandoning all pretenses at composure, Kaito vaulted back over the roof railing and proceeded to squeeze all the air from Shinichi's lungs with a bone-crushing hug. "I missed you!" I was afraid I would never see you again.

He was so happy he could have cried, but he didn't because master thieves didn't cry while clutching onto detectives like they never wanted to let go.

Shinichi allowed himself to melt into the embrace for a moment before tugging urgently at his partner's shoulder. "Kai—air—breathe."

Kaito loosened his grip with some reluctance but kept his arms around him like he was afraid Shinichi would disappear the moment he looked away.

"You two know each other?" Dark asked, surprised and incredulous. Hadn't Kudou told Daisuke that he was a detective? Daisuke had been freaking out about their houseguest's career aspirations ever since he'd told them about it—and had still been freaking out about it in the back of their shared mind until a few minutes ago when he too had been shocked into silence. Because there he was, detective or not, standing without protest in the arms of a declared thief. Violet eyes surveyed them once more, not quite able to comprehend what he was seeing. The two were obviously very familiar with one another.

"Ah, I almost forgot—Shin-chan, meet Dark. It turns out this world has a phantom thief too, and that's him. Dark-san, meet my detective."

"Your detective?"

"Yup, best detective in the world," Kaito assured him happily and with—at least to Dark—a decidedly odd amount of pride, "and the person who came closest to ever catching me. Never actually managed it though, of course."

Shinichi snorted, but he had more important things to discuss at the moment. "I assume you have a good reason for un-retiring? You know I don't approve, even if you are mostly harmless." With an emphasis on the mostly.

"Of course I do. I'll tell you all about it when we have more time." Leaning in close, Kaito added in a murmur only Shinichi could hear, "We have company. See you later, okay?"

The detective gave a very slight nod and Kaito let go of him and spun, running the few steps back to the railing and using it to launch himself into the air.

Suddenly remembering Kaito's purpose for being at the museum in the first place, Shinichi ran to the railing and cupped his hands around his mouth. "Oi, KID, I expect that painting to be back here by next week!"

"No worries," the thief called back, veering skyward. "It'll most likely be back by tomorrow night!"

Or at most the day after.

That probably meant he was going to be checking the painting for something. Shinichi wondered what it was—a way home?—obviously something that took more time than checking gemstones in moonlight for Pandora.

Still standing in the shadows of the wall behind them, Dark shook his head. "I'd really like to know what the hell is going on here."

"For once, we agree on something then."

Satoshi stepped from the shadows of the doorway, a look of indifference masking his confusion.

Shinichi coughed, mind racing. What would Kaito do in this situation? Kaito was good at awkward situations. Damn, what was he thinking flying off and leaving him here anyway? If he'd just taken Shinichi with him, he wouldn't be in this mess. Then again, if he'd taken Shinichi with him, Shinichi would have other problems when he tried to go back to work tomorrow morning.

He finally settled on just telling them the truth. He'd long since learned that the truth wasn't always all it was cracked up to be, but he still believed it was inherently the best policy. "What would you say if I told you that we're not from your world?"

Silence greeted this question as the two other people on the roof gave it serious consideration. It just went to show that magic in this world wasn't such an unusual thing.

"It would explain a lot," Dark said finally.

Satoshi pushed his glasses further up his nose and sighed. "Would this have something to do with the recent disturbances around the city?"

"I don't know," Shinichi admitted, "though my partner might."

"You mean the new phantom thief." Satoshi raised an eyebrow. "What did you call him again?"

"KID," Shinichi explained. "It's a play on the number 1412 and the English alphabet."

"Interesting," Dark mused. He'd thought so before but the new thief really was something else. "So I guess we should resume this conversation when he's available."

He and Shinichi looked at the blue-haired detective. Satoshi frowned.

"He'll return the painting?"

Shinichi nodded without hesitation. "He always returns what he steals. You could say it's one of his trademarks."

"Fine. Then I won't try to arrest him. I want to know what's going on." And he had a feeling that whatever it was, it was serious.

Shinichi breathed a sigh of relief. "All right then."

Dark stepped onto the railing and summoned his wings. "So, where to?"

"Anywhere really. He'll find us." It would be easy with the tracking device Kaito had slipped into his pocket.

The thief shrugged. He and Daisuke had been carrying on a hasty discussion and come to an agreement. "We'll reconvene at Daisuke's house then."

Shinichi blinked. "Niwa's?"

Dark just grinned and stepped off the roof.

Shinichi frowned after him in puzzlement, but quickly returned his attention to the matter at hand. "I guess we'd better go help the others first. Knowing KID, we'll probably have to spend some time ungluing them from the floor or something."

"…" What?

TBC…

AN: I personally think Kaito would be better than Dark too, as phantom thieves go, though I think I ended up going for a different kind of surprise.

Someone suggested bringing Shinichi over as Conan in the DNA world. I think it might have been interesting, but it was a lot easier for the plot I had in mind for him to stay as he was :)