Hi again, thanks for the views, fav, follows and review, especially last chapter's reviewer:
Spade-san (guest) :
I know right, reiei-san herself agree that was Kaito-bullying, haha. But I can't help to like it even more *forgive me Kaito* XD
So, without further ado, here's next chapter~
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Words count: 3,075
Rate: T, possible to change as the story develops.
Warning: typo(s), grammar error(s), possibly OOC; alternate timeline; chara(s) death; possible BL/shonen-ai
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Disclaimer :
Detective Conan and Magic Kaito fully belong to Aoyama Gosho
This story belong to reiei
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Now, let the story begins…
o.O.O.o.o.O.O.o
Chapter 5
- 5th Bottle -
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Kaito keeps walking away, each steps makes his pace turn faster. He is running, and keeps running, even though he doesn't know where he's walking anymore. It feels like there's something stuffing down his throat that makes it hard to breathe.
When red is painted in the sky and those street lamps flickering on, Kaito found himself sitting in a riverbank, staring lost at the clear stream he somehow find enticing. He doesn't remember how he ended up near a river, or why he's slumped there. It feels like he was there on auto-pilot while his consciousness was drifting asleep somewhere in the corner of his mind. And now that his mind is back on the right place, he found himself wondering about that certain problem.
It's already dark outside when he found the will to get up. The first thing he does is not finding a way home nor thinking where the heck he strayed, it's to find a vending machine. He's thirsty, and he doesn't want to go home, yet, so… you know. Diving to his pocket in search of any coins, he feels something there. A paper – or a name card to be exact.
Flipping it back, he expects Hakuba's name and contact, but apparently he's wrong. He frowns seeing some artistic letters written in silver ink.
'Fantasma'
He ignores the address and the contact number added bellow, more interested in finding what card name was that. He's sure it's not Shinichi's card. Even if it was the detective's, that means it should have been washed along with that freshly-borrowed-from-Shinichi's-wardrobe jacket. And he's also sure he didn't receive any kind of card along the way here. So its means, there's only 1 option left, it's Hakuba's. That blonde must slipped it inside his jacket before he left.
His frown deepens. He'll understand it if Hakuba thrown in his own name card, but this card… Corner of his eyes caught something in the top left of said card, and something clicked inside his head. The glittery wine glass logo that really stands out from black which was the base color of the card makes it all clear for him.
"A bar, huh…," he mumble, more to himself.
Honestly, he has never been to a bar before. He has drunk alcoholic beverages, yes, but not a bar. He was underage, and he didn't want to spend his free time there anyway.
"Oi, Kuroba, don't you want to know what was happened?!" Hakuba's words crossed his mind, "Meet me here when you've changed your min."
He weighs up his options. Yeah, he's clearly bothered by what was happened to Aoko. He has some hypothesis about it, but he'll never be satisfied until he knows for sure what happened back there. But in other side, he's afraid. He's afraid to know what have happened to Aoko, he's afraid that Aoko won't remember him anymore, and he's afraid… to know what else will be taken from him.
But in the end, his curiosity wins. It's better to know the truth, no matter how bitter it'll be, it's better that living in an uncertainty, or at least that's what he convince himself. After all he'd been thinking that Aoko was gone, it'll be no different if she doesn't remember him anymore, right? And then his legs continue its stride.
He didn't think that finding a single bar would take that long. Well, what can he say, Ginza is crowded enough, not to mention those overlapping shop signs that spread practically everywhere, make a good forest maze. After nearly half an hour pacing here and there, he finally found sought bar. Located in a corner of Ginza, the bar decorated simple enough, simple wooden door and shop name carved above it, to make anybody just passed it by.
Without wasting any more minutes, he pushes the door open and get inside. He eyes quickly catch a familiar blonde – no matter what that blond is eye catching enough in a normal crowd.
That young man sits in front of a counter with a ruby-like red cocktail. Kaito easily slip through bunch of people that were too busy enjoying their drink at that not too large bar and seated himself beside Hakuba in silence. The blonde turns to his side and seems surprised enough to see him. But that quickly turned to a small smile, relieved it seems.
"Do you have any recommendation? This is my first time in a bar," Kaito said to a bartender in front of him, trying to buy time.
"Of course, Sir. It's my pleasure to serve your first drink," he replied with a smile. "I hope you don't mind a cocktail, Sir?"
Kaito nod, "Aa. It's fine."
The bartender nod in understanding and tell him to wait for a few minutes to prepare his cocktail. Kaito observe each motion with great interest. The 50-60 years old bartender movement was soft and elegant while measuring, mixing and shaking his drink-to-be. It's Hakuba's voice that brings his gaze away from the bartender.
"I'm glad you come, Kuroba."
Kaito throws him a glance, don't want to waste too much time staring face-to-face with the blonde. "I don't have time for your chit chat, just tell me what you want me to hear."
Hakuba set out a heavy sigh, "Okay, if that's what you want. I will tell you everything… And I just hope you will be alright after I finish my story."
Kaito just throw another sharp glare as a sign for him to continue. Hakuba takes a long breather before continuing with what had happened to Aoko.
"Maybe you've known this before, but when your house exploded, Aoko was exposed to said explosion. Fortunately her injuries weren't serious because it seems that your mother have shielded her from the blast by pushing her to the main floor," Hakuba paused for a moment to observe Kaito's expression. Seeing nothing wrong, he added, "Aoko was saved from the big explosion and quite fortunate to just end up with broken bones. But…unfortunately it seems like her head suffer from quite hard impact with a wooden beam as the explosion happened, not to mention the shock received because of the explosion. She has amnesia when she woke up 3 days later. All of her past memories gone."
Hakuba sips at his cocktail, trying to press the bitterness that always comes as he remembers what had happened to her. Mean while, it seems like the bartender has finished making Kaito's drinks.
"Margarita on the rocks for you, Sir."
Kaito seems impressed by his drink, looking at it for a while before sipping it, tasting for the first time how tequila and cointreau mix, amplified by added lime and salt on the rim of the glass… For him, that quite sour cocktail is refreshing, even though he didn't comment anything.
Then Hakuba continue on his story, "When Aoko wake up, she was very unstable, and to prevent it from turning for the worse, her family – everybody close to her – decided to hide anything related to you, Kuroba."
Kaito smile bitterly. Honestly, it wasn't out of his prediction, but still hearing it out loud make it lots worse.
Aoko doesn't remember him. Everybody didn't want Aoko to remember him. Remembering him will only make her sad. It's better for her not to remember him – don't know him. That's what he was saying to himself over and over again, planting that one truth inside him.
"So? What's your relationship with her now?" Kaito feels like a masochist, digging deeper even though he knows he'll only find more bitterness. But his instinct, his heart, doesn't plan to stop before grasping the whole, not fragments, truth.
"We're…," Hakuba seems hesitating, but his choice of words shown their closeness enough, not 'Aoko and I' but 'we'. Kaito feels a laugh will force its way out of him some time now, but he suppress it.
"We're married, 6 months ago."
Oh. He was right again. It's not wrong that he has 400 IQ, isn't he? He has caught sight of that before, a ring of white gold in his ring finger.
"We're getting close after that incident. In the beginning I just want to protect her, help her rehabilitation, and before I know it we loved each other…"
Kaito just listen in silence, as if in ignorance. But a peek closer and it'll shown how hard he's trying to suppress his swirling emotion from how tightly he clench the margarita glass in front of him.
"It's a year ago when I confess to her, and she accepted it. Six months ago we married, and now she's pregnant with our first child."
Then Kaito's eyes widen. In shock, obviously. Not only forgetting him, Aoko's married now, with his ex-classmate no less, with the detective that used to try to capture him, with the man beside him. And know what, Aoko will become a mother. Okay, he regrets asking for more. His broken heart, as he met Aoko who has forgotten him, now without giving more time to heal was kicked and shattered until its fragment become dust.
"Who know we will meet you in our first anniversary, how ironic," Hakuba stopped abruptly and stare at Kaito in all seriousness. "We've finally succeeded in erasing you from Aoko's life and make her life happier, so don't even try to go back and shattered all of our hard work, Kuroba. Don't make her suffer anymore," he said in strict, commanding tone.
But right then Kaito felt like something inside him snaps. He stands up from his stool and gives Hakuba a hard punch right in the face. The blonde – who obviously didn't see it coming – just froze there for a moment, ignoring growing murmurs surrounding them. And when he finally snaps out of it, Kaito cut in.
"Don't think stupid of me," he growl. "Of course I know what should and what I shouldn't do. There's no way I'll make Aoko suffer again, aren't I?! Aa, I will no longer bother you guys, don't worry. But…," Kaito glare hard at him, "don't ever show you face in front of me again."
Hakuba didn't say anything, but the next moment he stand up, place the bill at the counter – enough to cover his and Kaito's drinks – then he step out of there. And even if Hakuba didn't give a glance at him, he didn't miss Kaito's murmur.
"Protect her well."
"Aa."
And the next few hours, Kaito drown himself in alcohol. Beer. Wine. Vodka. He doesn't even remember how many bottles he had drank or when he had lost his consciousness.
Mean while, Shinichi who have to work over time because of a series of kidnapping cases doesn't realize that Kaito didn't come home that night.
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When morning comes – or afternoon, to be exact – he sees the sun already up high in the sky through the opened window panel, with heavy and throbbing headache, thanks to last night bizarre consumption of alcohol. He groans as he cocooned himself, curling to press growing nausea because of the spinning room. Glancing at the bedside table, he sees a glass of water and a bottle of aspirin. Oh thanks God and whoever left the medicine there as he swallows some pills. Then he lay back, waiting for the medicine to kick in.
When his head feels less throbbing and can think more clearly, he realizes he's in an unfamiliar place. Clearly not his home, or his prison cell, or Shinichi's home. He frowns, trying to remember what was happening last night after Hakuba gone, but he fails.
Then he decided to get off the bed and see for himself. Then he regrets it as he's attacked by other nausea, bigger, right after he stand up. He sprints for the bathroom, that fortunately was easy to found, and throw up all his stomach's insides. This is the worst hangover he ever had and he doesn't think that he'll be drinking any alcoholic drinks soon.
Feeling better, he washes up his face and continues looking around to found out just where he ended up last night. Going downstairs, he sees rows of tables and chairs neatly organized and cupboard filled by bottles of many kind of unknown drinks.
"Ah, yesterday's bar?"
"Oya? You're awake I see…" said someone from under the staircase.
Kaito turn to said voice to find yesterday's old and friendly bartender's smiling face.
"Yes, and I'm really sorry to bothering you," Kaito said while bowing apologetically.
The bartender just chuckles, "No problem, young man, this is not the first time happened."
"You can just kick me out last night, no need to lend me a place to sleep here. What if I was a bad guy that wants to steal or wreck up your bar?" Kaito ask with a frown, it's not that he's ungrateful, he's just plain curious.
That graying haired old man just laughs again. "But in the end you didn't do anything to my bar, right? Seeing you last night made me can't just throw you out. I've take a look in your pockets – I'm sorry for that – but I don't see any contact information nor cell phone, so I just let you rest here."
The bartender still gives a warm smile, while Kaito just feels touched by that man kindness even though they were a stranger.
"Thank you very much," Kaito said finally, a small smile tucked in his lips.
The old bartender just nod in response of his gratitude. "You haven't eaten yet, aren't you? Do you want to have breakfast? Well, even though it's noon already, hahaha."
Kaito was about to politely reject, doesn't want to trouble the kind man any longer, when his stomach answer the question for him. Embarrassed, he feels his cheek blushing while the bartender just laughs away. Finally the two of them have breakfast while chatting and sometimes laughing. Kaito's grateful for the distractions even for a while.
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Mean while in Beika, Shinichi was chasing after kidnappers that slyly using the crowd to distract the police officers. They can still use the tracker, until the kidnappers moves the money to another bag, render the tracker lying uselessly in the old bag. Quite smart.
It's nearly 3 hours running until they decided to change their strategy. Shinichi rack his brain, trying to think of the kidnappers' possible move and its percentage. Unfortunately, his sleep lacking brain – he only sleeps for about 15 minutes last night – and stamina depletion was getting into him making him hard to concentrate. It's only after 1 hour later that they found said kidnappers escape route and continue their chase.
Finally they succeed arresting the kidnappers and secure the victims. Well, reality can't always goes as smooth as they want, right? His arm was stabbed when one of the kidnappers tried to flee, but fortunately not as deep as it should be because he was able to evade it in the last moment. But still it hurts. He then asks his senior for permission to go home first to change his clothes before going back to HQ to finish his report. Sometimes being a police can be tiring.
When he arrives at home, he was surprised not to find Kaito there. Last breakfast's sandwiches have gone untouched. Does it means Kaito didn't come home last night? Or did he eat out? Doesn't want to continue his bad thoughts, Shinichi decided to let it go and eat the leftover sandwich, washes his face, changes his clothes and go back to the Beika Police Headquarters.
And when he's finally home, the sun is long gone, the front door left unlocked, that means Kaito's home. Oh thanks God, he thought. But then he frowns, the living room – where Kaito usually spend his evening while reading his book collection or just watching TV – is dark, there's only light from the turned on TV and smell of alcohol that quite thick in the air.
"Kuro –"
His words cut off when he feels somebody pushing him, making his back hits the wall hard. He feels hands on his arms, holding him in place, and making him involuntary groan as his fresh injuries being pressed by those grabbing hands. He tries to focus his eyes through the darkness of the room to scan the figure in front of him. He's not surprised to find Kaito there, his blue orbs seems darker with unknown emotion. And he can clearly smell the alcohol from him.
"Let me go, Kuroba," Shinichi hisses away.
"Nee, Shin, are you gonna leave me alone too?"
"…ha?" was only respond he can think of. He really doesn't understand what Kaito had just saying or what had made him said that sudden – and absurd, no matter what he thinks – question. And he gets more and more confused as Kaito suddenly decided to join their lips.
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To Be Continued
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When I first read this, the first thing flashed in my mind was, 'Finally! Kaishin spotted!' There's warning for the BL already, so I hope nobody offended by this development, hahaha.
And I wanna ask something, is twice update a week too fast for you guys? I mean nobody complains when a story updated fast, but there are about 14 chapters in the original and the author said we're near to the ending. So I was wondering whether most of you want to savor the story slower as in once a week or as usual as in twice a week, and I'll be grateful for the rest in between *slap* Well, I'm hoping for some responds and if there's nobody urgently needed a twice update a week, I'll update on Saturday starting next week. :D
So, I'll see you guys next week *be it Wednesday or Saturday* LOL