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 Eternal Art

By V. Shalyr

IV

Mirror, Mirror

Daisuke met Shinichi and Satoshi at the door with a nervous sort of smile. He'd already explained as much as he could to his parents and grandfather, so at least he could be sure they wouldn't be interrupted.

And ten minutes later, Shinichi knew why he wanted the space for his explanations.

"Let me get this straight," he said, still trying to wrap his mind around the idea even after having witnessed real magic firsthand several times upon arriving in this world. "You and Dark are different people, but you share the same body because your family carries something in your DNA that allows male members to transform into Dark when they think about the girl they like? And this all started with a curse laid upon both of your families"—he gestured towards Satoshi—"when a family of very talented artists tried to create some kind of living masterpiece?"

Daisuke nodded while the blue-haired teen scowled and looked away. He didn't seem to like talking about his family—either of them, adopted or blood.

"Right," Shinichi muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose. "I suppose all that doesn't really matter at the moment. Kai, I know you're here, so please stop hiding and get out here so we can sort out this situation."

There was a puff of smoke and KID stood in the middle of the Niwa living room, grinning like a madman. "This house is amazing. There are secret compartments and traps everywhere! Kind of reminds me of home. Though I suppose considering what you've all just been discussing, it should come as no surprise."

Sweeping the three other occupants of the room a deep bow, the thief straightened and flourished his cloak. As the white fabric swirled dramatically through the air, it seemed to shift and vanish, leaving Kaito standing in ordinary, civilian clothes.

Daisuke gasped. "Kuroba-sensei?"

"Sensei," Shinichi repeated, frowning.

"I'm currently teaching theatre at their school," Kaito explained, settling himself on the couch next to Shinichi and draping an arm across his shoulders. "So where should we start?"

"The beginning is good," Satoshi said.

Kaito nodded slowly, his expression going blank. "The beginning, hmm? Well, I suppose it started when I was asked to help move a painting from the house of its late owner to a safer destination where it could be studied. You might have seen the painting in the museum the other day as part of the fairytale exhibit—I believe it was called Swan Lake. Next thing I knew, I was here." He gestured vaguely to indicate the house around them and the city beyond in general. "She—the painting?—told me that she needed me here for some reason."

"So that night Dark and I felt the disturbance, it must have been you arriving," Daisuke thought aloud. "But why would a painting want you here?"

Kaito shrugged. "I don't know. She wouldn't say."

Shinichi's brow furrowed. "Whatever her goal is, she must want it really badly. You see, we originally had to move the painting in our world because people were getting killed for it, or at least that's what we thought. But it turns out that it wasn't some greedy criminal who had been killing people in an attempt to obtain the painting. It was the painting that had been killing people. It must have wanted our attention so we would do what we did."

Everyone in the room tensed.

"It killed people?" Daisuke squeaked, horrified.

"The fairytale exhibit," Satoshi muttered, his hands clenching and unclenching on his knees. "I thought there was something off about them."

"In any case," Kaito continued, "I decided to get a job, seeing as I'd be stuck here until I found a way to get back. And that was where un-retiring came in. See, in our world, I retired from being a thief awhile ago. But I figured that if an artwork brought me here, maybe the right artwork would send me home."

"And?"

Kaito's face darkened. "It won't work. I think it should, but She's blocking it somehow. She told me it wasn't powerful enough. Or more precisely, She's too powerful."

Satoshi narrowed his eyes. "She? You mean you talk?"

"She appears now and then—though other than the night she brought me here, mostly just in reflections and not very clear. Come to think of it, though, she's been getting clearer. Sometimes, it feels like she's only in the mirror because she chooses to be."

/She's getting stronger,/ Dark murmured, pondering. /I wonder if that snake was her doing./

"Hey, were there any snakes in the fairytale paintings?" Daisuke asked for the both of them.

Kaito considered this. He'd made sure to get a thorough look at every painting in that exhibit. "A snake? Yes, I think there was. It was this picture called Mirror, Mirror and the woman in it was sitting on a golden green throne carved like a serpent—though it had clawed feet. I was a bit confused by that."

"I wonder if it's the same snake that attacked Kudou-san."

"What?" Kaito jerked his head around to examine Shinichi with concern. "You were attacked?"

"Yeah, but I wasn't really hurt," Shinichi assured him. "It happened the night I got here."

"It was taking people's energy," Daisuke explained at Kaito's doubtful look. "It makes you really tired for awhile, but nothing more serious."

"Energy, huh?" Kaito scowled. "I wonder what for. Come to think of it, Shin-chan, how did you get here?"

"Akako gave me a pendant," Shinichi told him, pulling the feather out from under his shirt—only upon closer inspection, it didn't look quite the same as it had before. "That's odd. The crystal used to be clear."

But now, in the light of the Niwa living room, it was an opaque, steely black.

"It looks like you exhausted its power," Satoshi observed. "Which probably means even restored, it won't be able to take both of you back."

There was a long silence as they each digested all the new information and tried to figure out where they stood in all of it. Then Kaito stood up and stretched.

"Well then, it seems there isn't much else we can do right now. We can't leave until She lets us go or we get rid of her. In the mean time, it's getting late. I suggest we continue this tomorrow after we've done some more research into these fairytale paintings of hers." Turning to Shinichi, he held out his hand. "You are going to come stay with me, right?"

Accepting his hand, the detective let him pull him to his feet. "You have to ask? Of course I'm staying with you."

Kaito smiled brightly, not letting go of his hand while he glanced at Satoshi. "Come on, we'll walk you home."

The boy scowled. "I don't need anyone to walk me home."

"That may be, but it would be irresponsible of us to let kids your age go wandering around alone at night."

"This coming from a thief," Shinichi teased.

"But of course! You should know that I always look after the people I work with. And anyways, it's useless to argue with me. You should know that too."

And everyone else was doubtless going to learn.

The apartment Kaito had managed to find for himself was small but neatly furnished with a single bedroom, a living room-kitchen combo, and a narrow balcony—too narrow to really enjoy the outdoors from but perfect if you intended it as a sort of makeshift second door. Aside from the couch and a small table, the living room was bare of any real furniture, like one might expect of an apartment someone hoped not to be staying long in.

The moment the door was shut behind them, Kaito wrapped his arms around Shinichi from behind and leaned down to press a kiss to the side of his neck.

"Not that I'm complaining or anything," Shinichi said, closing his eyes and tilting his head back a bit, "but are you okay?"

Kaito had been unusually clingy all night even for him.

"Missed you."

"It's only been four days."

"Maybe for you. It's been four weeks over here."

An entire month wondering whether he'd ever see home again. No wonder he didn't want to let go of him.

"Four weeks, huh? I guess you must have a lot of stories to tell me then."

Kaito chuckled. "You have no idea. This city is one crazy place and I've been doing a lot of exploring." Mostly to keep his mind off of other things. "But stories can wait for tomorrow…"

.

Daisuke lay on his bed staring up at the ceiling, frowning as he went over everything that had happened that night. His life just seemed to get crazier every day.

"Can you believe it, Dark? Kuroba-sensei being a phantom thief too."

And what an eccentric sort of thief too. A magician he had called himself, and no wonder.

/It was a bit of a surprise. He seems…very different from how he acts during your classes./

"He's quite a character all right. He and Kudou-san seem really close, don't they?"

Dark laughed. /That's one way of putting it./

"Huh?"

/Come on, you can't tell me you didn't notice./

"Notice what?"

The thief laughed again, though this time it was Daisuke he was laughing at. /Never mind, just get some sleep. Tomorrow's going to be a long day./

The redhead frowned. But it really was late and he was too tired to deal with Dark's cryptic remarks. Stowing all the questions and worries from earlier in the back of his mind, he pulled the blanket up about himself and turned onto his side. He wondered if Riku was still awake and what she'd thought of the heist. He'd have to call and ask her tomorrow.

And out in the waters of the bay, a dark shadow stirred beneath the waves.

It was almost eerie how easily they slid back into normal life, or what passed for normal for them at any rate. Perhaps it was a side effect of having gone through so much in their lives already, both as a famous detective solving murderers and hounded by a giant crime syndicate and a thief fighting that same syndicate while running from detectives in particular and law enforcement in general at the same time. If you could get used to that, really, you could get used to pretty much anything given enough time to sit back and think about it.

Theoretically anyway.

Shinichi moved about the kitchen the next morning familiarizing himself with where Kaito had put everything and making breakfast with a Sherlock Holmes novel propped up against the water pitcher. It appeared this world did share a lot of literature and history with their own and Kaito had picked up a copy of the book when he'd seen it in a bookstore on the way to school. He didn't particularly like the books himself, but they reminded him of Shinichi and so he'd read them anyway.

Smiling faintly, Shinichi scraped the scrambled eggs onto two plates and moved to the sink, only to pause when he caught sight of the reflection in the window above it. He could still hear the shower going and he was absolutely certain he and Kaito were the only people in the apartment, and yet the face staring back at him out of the glass wasn't one he recognized.

"Swan Lake, I assume," he said, carefully dropping the pan in the sink without taking his eyes off their uninvited guest.

Silver-white eyes glared at him, studying the lines of his face. "Who are you?"

"Kudou Shinichi. I'm a detective."

"I know that," she hissed, her glare intensifying. "But what are you doing here? You shouldn't have been able to come here. I made sure of it."

Her face darkened. "He did this, didn't he? But no matter, he might have messed with my plans but he still won't be able to stop me. As long as he's here, no one will be able to get rid of me."

Shinichi raised his eyebrows. "Are you talking about Kaito?"

Instead of answering, the woman in the glass turned away, shooting one last, venomous look over her shoulder. "You two won't be going home."

When Kaito arrived in the kitchen, it was to find Shinichi frowning absently at the window. "Good morning, love, you okay?"

Blinking, Shinichi shook his head and offered him a plate. "Fine, but I definitely see why you don't like that woman."

The magician glanced at the reflections upon the glass. "She was here?"

"Yeah, and she wasn't happy to see me."

Kaito just grinned, leaning forward to brush a kiss across his lips. "Well, whatever she doesn't like is definitely a good thing. I was thinking I'd walk with you to work today since my class doesn't start until after noon."

"For a thief, you always did spend an uncanny amount of voluntary time around police stations."

"Hey, knowing your enemy is half the battle, right? And anyway, you law enforcement folks are just too amusing for me to stay away."

"Hey, don't forget that you're one of us too now, even if it is only part time."

"Yes, well, I'm pretty amusing too if I do say so myself."

"More like outrageous."

"It all depends on your perspective."

"Kaito," Shinichi said more seriously as the magician grabbed his keys and they headed out the door, "she said something about you helping me get here. I don't suppose you know why she said that?"

Kaito paused with his hand on the doorknob, frowning. "Unfortunately, no, I don't. Unless wishing real hard that you were here with me counted?"

Shinichi blushed and looked away. "I was worried about you too, even if it was only four days. I couldn't imagine what could have happened to make you just up and disappear like that."

Actually, he'd tried very hard not to imagine. Imagination could really be a curse when you were a homicide detective and people you cared about went missing.

Still, what had she meant by that? Did it have something to do with why the painting had kidnapped Kaito in the first place? Could he perhaps have some kind of power that they didn't know about?

When they finally made it to the police station, Kaito pulled Shinichi aside so he could give him a proper kiss before letting him go. "I'll come by after work and I can show you around the city a bit, okay?"

"And do some investigating," Shinichi agreed.

Kaito rolled his eyes but smiled fondly nonetheless. "Of course, Tantei-kun, I wouldn't expect anything less."

The office was abuzz with nervous and frustrated energy when Shinichi finally made it across the threshold. For a moment, Shinichi wondered what had happened. Then he remembered that Kaito had pulled a heist the night before and all the pieces fell into place. He couldn't believe it had slipped his mind, but then he was so used to the magician thief that that heist had hardly registered. With what KID normally got up to, the night before had been rather tame. Chances were, Kaito had wanted to take it easy on them until they got used to him. Not that you could ever really get used to him. The fact that he could still catch Shinichi off guard was proof enough of that. Or was it? Maybe the fact that Shinichi had gotten so comfortable with him made it easier, despite being probably the only person in the world who could claim to understand Kaitou KID.

"Who does he think he is?" Inspector Saehara was raging as Shinichi made his way towards his desk, hoping the man wouldn't notice him. If he was anything like Nakamouri—and they did seem to share some basic characteristics—he had no desire to spend the day going deaf from his tirade. What he needed was some distance.

"He made us look like fools!"

Kaito, Shinichi reflected, was good at that.

And he resigned himself to a day of listening to the absolute confusion of his new coworkers. No, Kaito was nothing like Dark. His tricks and traps were definitely going to leave marks, and in more ways than one.

Shinichi had been right about the glue and several officers were still picking the stuff from the bottoms of their shoes. One pair of shoes, if Shinichi recalled correctly, were still stuck somewhere on the museum floor—someone was supposed to go back for it today. But the most lasting reminder of KID's debut had to be Inspector Saehara's new head of violently green hair. Shinichi knew from experience that Kaito's dyes were hell to wash out; he'd heard Hakuba complain about it countless times. And rumor had it that on the night of the heist, Kaito had pinned flowers in it too. Knowing his partner, he might even have pictures to show for it—a memento from his un-retirement.

Oh well, they would learn. They didn't have a choice. You had to if you didn't want KID to drive you insane, and even then… Well, at least you could say you tried.

.

Riku stifled a yawn and picked up the old shirt she'd been drawing a design onto so she could get a better look at her work.

"Did you not sleep well last night?" Daisuke asked, rubbing at his own eyes as he looked up from the giant cardboard pieces he was painting on.

"Yeah. You too by the looks of it."

The redhead laughed sheepishly. "I had a lot on my mind."

Riku nodded, glancing around the room at all the other students, all busily engaged in making props for their upcoming performance. The only "slight" problem being that they hadn't exactly agreed upon what they were going to perform.

"Hey, Daisuke," Riku said suddenly, "what do you think about fairytales?"

"Huh?"

"Well, I was looking over all the stories people have been suggesting for the play and almost all of them are fairytales." Riku shrugged, adding a flourish of sparkling gold paint to the shirt's hem. "Risa's all crazy about them and Kuroba-sensei said that if we couldn't all agree on a story, we could just combine them all and create a new one. So I was just wondering what you thought."

"To be honest, I'm not sure. But I guess it would be kind of cool if fairytales could come true, wouldn't it?" He looked down, embarrassed. "Maybe it's a bit silly, but I mean, it would be nice if everyone could have a happily ever after, you know?"

Riku paused, considering. "I never thought about it that way. I suppose that would be nice, though it does seem a bit improbable. People are too good at finding ways to upset themselves. Still, I guess when you look at it like that, it's easier to understand why so many people like fairytales."

"What about you, Miss Riku?"

"I don't know. The stories are all right, but they make people act pretty weird sometimes."

"That's true."

Before either of them could speak another word, Risa came hurtling across the room with a dress in her hands and a frustrated scowl on her face. "Riku! Riku, it's been decided!"

"What's been decided?"

"The play, silly!" Dropping down onto the floor beside her twin, Risa held up the dress for Riku to see. "We took a vote and it looks like it's going to be Swan Princess, but I just can't get my dress right! I get to do the design for the swans!"

"What? Why didn't Daisuke and I get asked?"

Risa blinked, honestly confused. "What? But we thought you guys wouldn't care what we chose."

Riku rolled her eyes. "Of course we don't care, but it's considered polite. Oh never mind," she sighed. "What did you need help with?"

"I want these feathers along the shoulder," Risa explained, happy now that she was going to get help.

"Here, give it to me. You're holding the needle all wr—ow!" Riku jerked her hand away and put her finger in her mouth.

"Ah! Riku, I'm so sorry!"

"Miss Riku! Are you okay?"

"I'm okay," Riku assured them, examining the tiny wound. "It's just a pin prick."

"I'll get a bandage," Daisuke said, scrambling to his feet. "Be back right away."

"Okay, thanks." Resting the dress across her lap, Riku frowned at her sister. "Why Swan Princess? Do we even have the right people to play the parts? I thought that one had a lot of characters."

"Yes, but it's such a beautiful idea, don't you think? A princess who gets captured and cursed by an evil wizard and turned into a swan—and then needing her beloved prince to declare his true love for her in order to make her human again."

"Yeah, yeah," but Riku wasn't really listening anymore. She just had the strangest feeling—a tingling in the back of her mind that made everything seem really far away all of a sudden. Giving her head a firm shake, she forced herself back to the present and held out her hand for the first aid kit as Daisuke dropped down beside her. She really needed to get more sleep.

.

"So this is where the artist's brother lives, is it?"

Shinichi nodded, glancing back down at his notebook to confirm the address. "Rulane Jiyo, brother of recently deceased Rulane Reahna. I was trying to figure out more about those paintings, but the museum really didn't know very much. They don't even know for sure that it was her brother who delivered them, and all they have for each painting is a name. There aren't any dates either, though rumors say that the fairytale series was her life's work, the work she really poured her heart and soul into."

"Which, of course, is what makes them magical," Kaito mused. "So the magic of artwork feeds on people's emotions, maybe people's dreams. Seems like another scenario for how too much of a good thing can be bad for you."

Shinichi made a sound of agreement and stepped up to ring the doorbell.

The man who answered the door looked…well, very ordinary. He had the kind of face and build Kaito might have chosen if he were scouting out the location for his next heist and didn't want to be noticed or remembered.

"Can I help you?"

Shinichi reached for his police ID, but Kaito grabbed his hand before he could finish the motion and gave the man a pleasant smile. "You're Rulane Jiyo, right? We're doing some research on recent artistic interpretations of old stories and saw your sister's fairytale series at the Modera Museum. We were really quite fascinated and were hoping you might have more information about them—what inspired her and that sort of thing."

Jiyo frowned uncertainly. "I'm afraid we weren't really close. I'm not sure how much I can really tell you."

"Well," Kaito put on a show of being hesitant and eager at the same time, "what about any of her other work? Do you have any sketches or old pictures that might highlight her thought process?"

Jiyo studied them for a moment longer then seemed to make his mind up. "When she died, I was going to clean out her apartment but I still haven't had the time. You're free to look around in it if you like. I don't really have any use for any of her things."

"Oh, would that really be all right? That would be wonderful."

Half an hour later, the two were sorting through the cluttered apartment.

"Strange, he seemed so relieved to be handing all this stuff over to us," Shinichi mused, flipping through one of several old sketchbooks piled upon the desk. None of this stuff had been moved since their owner's untimely death. The official story was that she'd committed suicide. But Shinichi was starting to wonder if that was really the case.

"She was delusional," Kaito observed, perched on a stool she'd used while she painted. "Look, I think this is her diary. It seems to be all about her romantic fantasies—knights and princes, dragons and witches, that sort of thing."

"What does it say at the end?"

"Let's see." Kaito flipped to the last few written pages, his amusement fading as he scanned their contents. "It sounds like she wanted her fairytales to come true so badly they drove her mad. But then again, maybe it's not so crazy considering the world we're in."

"What did she say?" Shinichi repeated, standing so he could peer over Kaito's shoulder. His brow furrowed. "Is that even possible?"

"I've decided to abandon this world," Kaito read aloud, "for one where dreams can actually come true, for a world of my own creation… Do you think she could have painted herself into her paintings?"

"Her life, her soul, and her desire to make reality into her own wonderland."

They exchanged worried looks, similar thoughts running through both their minds. It looked like they might have just found the reason for the paintings' actions. The problem was, what in the world could they do about it? And what part was Kaito playing in all this? But before either of them could say more, someone outside screamed.

Shinichi sighed and turned towards the door. "Why does this always happen to me?"

He'd made it halfway out into the hallway before he realized that Kaito wasn't following him. "Kaito?"

The magician was standing in the middle of the room, blinking a little dazedly. "It's nothing, just feel a little…strange all of a sudden."

Shaking his head, Kaito seemed to snap back into himself and hurried to join his detective outside and lock the door behind them. "Let's go."

.

Daisuke, Saehara, Riku, Risa, and Satoshi had been sitting outside a new yogurt shop downtown when they heard the commotion. Something smashed and suddenly, people were screaming and shouting in confusion and terror. And then—not shouting? Satoshi was out of his chair and would have raced down the street towards the source except that the source had just arrived in the form of a massive, semi-translucent serpent which lunged around the corner, hissing.

Risa shrieked, scrambling out of her chair. "Ah! Riku, what is that?"

Before Riku could respond, Daisuke had grabbed both of them and was yanking them out of the way just as a tail smashed the table where they'd been sitting. "Run!"

Pushing them ahead of him, Daisuke turned and ran back to Saehara who was staring open-mouthed with his camera half upraised. "What are you doing still standing here? This is so not the time to be taking pictures!"

"But it's—it's the size of a house!"

"Which is more than big enough to swallow you without chewing," Satoshi cut in, rejoining them as he pulled something from his pocket and held it up. A pendant shaped like a tiny, silver cross gleamed then flashed brightly as the serpent's head snapped towards them. Saehara stumbled backwards and Daisuke cringed, but before the massive jaws could reach them, it seemed to collide with something invisible but solid. Hissing, it reeled back, its yellow eyes unblinking and furious.

Beyond it, Daisuke could make out the other people who had been on the street all lying unconscious upon the sidewalks like so many discarded dolls.

Ignoring the shock that lanced up his arm when the serpent collided with the barrier, Satoshi took a step forward. He'd been expecting something like this to happen ever since their conversation about the fairytale paintings and had created something he thought might work to contain the power of the works. He'd begun experimenting tentatively with making artworks that might be able to counteract the power of other artworks, but so far, he wasn't entirely sure if he was succeeding.

/It won't work you know,/ the unwelcome, mocking voice of his family curse responded in his head. /The power of art is in your blood. You're a Hikari. You can never escape that. It's your fate./

"Shut up," he muttered, his hand clenching on the chain of the pendant while he struggled to shove that voice back into the dark recesses of his head.

The snake recovered quickly, but instead of trying to attack again as he'd expected, it sank back onto its coils, yellow eyes fixed upon them. And then without warning, it opened its mouth and screeched, a high-pitched, ear-piercing, bloodcurdling scream that reverberated through the very ground beneath their feet. The sound seemed to explode outward from it, sending them all stumbling back under a sudden wave of numbness.

"What the—"

But that was all any of them had time for before their minds were swallowed up by the darkness of unnatural, extreme exhaustion.

The moment Daisuke lost consciousness Dark took control of the body and rolled onto his feet. "Damn, this thing's even stronger now than it was last time! It almost feels—"

"Like being inside an artwork?"

"Krad!" Taking a few steps back so he could keep an eye on both the serpent and his arch-nemesis at the same time, Dark narrowed his eyes. "What an unpleasant surprise."

The blond demon in angel's guise laughed. "This is perfect. You don't feel it? This," he gestured at the serpent and the Modera in the distance, "is making us stronger."

Dark frowned. He had been feeling different lately, though he hadn't been able to pinpoint why.

"Harnessing energy from everyday humans," Krad mused, eyeing the serpent even as it eyed him in return. "I didn't know it could be done like this."

Great, Dark thought as Krad took a step towards the serpent. He didn't know what the other was planning, but it was never anything good. Being insane and evil did that to a person. Before he could intercede, however, the snake interrupted for him by lunging forward. Both alter egos threw themselves out of the way, Dark maneuvering himself towards a more open part of the street while the other took to the air.

/Dark?/ Daisuke's groggy voice piped up in the back of his mind. /The others—we've got to get them away./

"I'm trying, but I'm a bit busy here," he muttered, dodging another lash of the serpent's tail, which left cracks upon the flagstones.

A flash of light out of the corner of his eye warned him that Krad was invoking some kind of spell. Perhaps sensing it as well, the giant serpent spun its head and darted for him, sunlight glittering on its needle-like fangs which seemed to have become more solid as it crashed its way through the city. The alter ego started to move out of the way but jerked to a stop, cursing.

"You can't really be thinking—!"

His snarl of incredulity was abruptly cut off as fangs sliced into his side. They weren't ordinary teeth. They didn't even break the skin, but that didn't mean they didn't hurt like hell.

Krad let out a sound somewhere between a cry of pain and a scream of rage. Light pulsed down the sinuous length of the massive serpent as yellow hair bled back to pale blue. Gritting his teeth and fighting to keep his eyes open, Satoshi raised the hand that was still holding the cross pendant and threw it.

As it spun through the air, the thin chain upon which it hung seemed to grow longer, stretching outward and almost seeming to drift like a shining web of gossamer thread as it fell down upon the serpent. There was no way it could loop around the giant coils—no way that it was long enough, and yet somehow it was.

And then the serpent wasn't there anymore.

Dark caught the blue-haired teen before he could hit the ground, lowering him carefully to the flagstones before walking over to examine the cross pendant on its thin, silver chain now lying in a heap where it had fallen.

"Well that was…interesting."

Kaito crouched down beside the pendant to examine it. Behind him, Shinichi was busy making sure nobody was dead. Dark hadn't even noticed them arrive.

"I'm not sure anyone should touch that," the violet-haired thief warned, but Kaito just smirked.

"I wasn't going to." Not directly anyway. Making a plastic bag appear in his hand with a flourish, he carefully retrieved the pendant, folded the bag securely shut, and stowed it safely away. You picked up habits like that when you spent as much time as he did around detectives. Shinichi would throw a fit if he messed with anything that could be evidence.

"How is everyone?" he asked as Shinichi came to stand beside them.

"Out cold, but I think they'll be all right. I called the station and they'll take care of getting everyone inside off the streets, preferably to a hospital where they can get a proper checkup. I'm not so sure about Hiwatari though. He's barely breathing."

"I'm curious to know exactly what he did," Dark mused, turning his gaze back towards the unconscious boy in question. "Seems he's been busier than I thought."

TBC…