Disclaimer: Basic universes aren't mine, most of the fanon and plotbunnies are…

Chapter dedication: To Ellen Brand, for being the sounding board I so desperately needed to get back into this story.

Warnings: As of this point, we're heading into deep AU territory, so fasten your seatbelts and keep arms and legs inside the vehicle. Major Kingdom Hearts spoilers follow.

Chapter 7: Dragon-kin

Traveling through the corridors, Kaito realized, had become both easier and harder simultaneously. Easier, because he was no longer in immediate danger of another collapse. Harder, because recognizing the darkness for what it was and pulling on the shadows to protect himself fully from the corridor's atmosphere was lot more exhausting than he had anticipated. The necessary focus took the majority of his concentration, and even then he felt himself slip once or twice. As a result, he was close to useless when it came to defense against more tangible enemies, but his luck seemed to make a temporary reappearance. This particular trip remained uneventful up through exiting the corridor.

The first thing Kaito noticed when he stepped into the world was the darkness of night lit only by the moon and stars. Exhausted and unable to see clearly, he stumbled forward, and the second thing he noticed was dirt beneath his hands, instinct transforming a fall into a handspring.

An unexpected flash of silver in the movement distracted him, however, and said handspring's momentum sent him sprawling on the hard-packed earth.

"Ow..."

So much for luck.

A faint prickle of sympathetic amusement danced in the far corners of his mind. Startled by the alien impression, he failed to catch it before it disappeared into a broader sense of awareness that hadn't previously been in his head.

"Are you alright?" Ansem asked.

Eyes closed, Kaito pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to diminish the dull throb of his forehead. His right side ached, but probably wouldn't bruise badly.

"Ugh. Give me a minute." When he felt a bit more normal he stood and turned to look at Ansem, and immediately threw an arm over his eyes. "Augh!"

After a pause Ansem ventured, "The nearest light source is a torch over fifteen feet down the road. I didn't know shades of black were blinding."

Kaito tentatively lowered his arm part way, blinking as his eyes adjusted to a piece of day-in-night.

"Oh, black is fine. You, however, happen to possess a bright steely-gray outline."

Overlaid by what looks like a black camouflage net, but that's beside the point. I doubt you'd tell me about it if I brought it up, anyway.

Ansem lowered his hood and raised his arms to inspect them, then let them drop.

"And without my permission, too. Any ideas as to why you're suddenly seeing auras that I'm not?"

Kaito considered for a moment, thoughtfully observing his hand as he turned it this way and that. Pale light exposed its position clearly, but left no afterimage on his retinas and revealed nothing visually beyond the appendage itself.

"You don't illuminate anything else, and you don't see anything around either of us. The only thing that comes to mind is that auras, or ki, or whatever this place calls it, play a major part of this world's magic system." He sighed. "I seem to be a bit silvery as well, which means anyone in this world with magic is going to be able to sense us."

"Don't you mean see us?"

"No, I mean sense," Kaito confirmed with a bitter smile of bad news. "In line of sight we're as good as carrying neon signs, but beyond that anyone with the right talent or training is going to know about us the second we get too close."

Ansem raised his eyebrows. A faint mood of inquiry, but without disbelief, suffused the vague awareness in the back of his mind that Kaito was slowly recognizing as Ansem-ally-searching-hiding.

"Trust me, it's hard to describe," he said with a roll of his eyes. "I've got a conglomeration in my head of who you are, where you are, and what you're feeling."

"Intriguing, but also worrying. Something feels off about this world, and I don't like the idea of being vulnerable."

"Neither do I," Kaito agreed grimly.

Phantom thieves do not glow in the dark, and they certainly don't give advanced warning of their movement. Um, besides riddle-notices, which are much more general, and—urgh.

If Kudou were here he'd have a field day catching him. No, that was wrong. Kudou would carry his own magic with him, and the odd power-glow-sense that he was just going to call ki unless informed otherwise didn't seem to exist back home. On the other hand, if there were glowy ki outlines to be found, Kudou would probably see them out of sheer spite.

But Kudou wasn't here, which made the whole thing moot. Kaito pushed a pang of homesickness out of his mind. He probably needed to tie up some loose ends at home in the near future, but there were more pressing concerns at the moment.

"You already shield yourself from the darkness, right?" Kaito asked, mind racing against the problem.

"My own darkness is wholly at the forefront when traveling the corridors, if that's what you mean."

"Close enough. Can you try it now?"

Ansem furrowed his brow in concentration. Almost immediately, his pale glow dimmed and vanished, along with the faint awareness of him in the back of Kaito's mind.

"Looks like we have success." Kaito grinned, then grimaced. "And I'm still horrible at doing that."

"I'd suggest you improve quickly, then," Ansem replied matter-of-factly.

"Oh, yes, potential life-and-death situations do wonders for my learning curve." Despite the sarcasm, Kaito followed Ansem's example. Besides, it was mostly true. He'd proven that during his first heist, when he ventured into a dangerous, completely foreign world and lived to tell the tale.

He then trailed behind Ansem through the dark streets, keeping an eye out for auras, whether from himself, Ansem, or a potential enemy. By tacit mutual agreement, they refrained from speaking as they walked through the empty streets. The silence of the city discouraged any kind of noisemaking.

The streets felt old. Hard-packed dirt scuffed beneath his feet—he didn't want to dwell on anything else he might be walking through—and the only light came from torches scattered near the occasional entrance. All the nearby buildings were private residences, the houses barred tightly against the outside. No one traversed the roads.

Ansem stopped so abruptly that Kaito almost ran into him.

"What—oh."

Oh.

Shapes darker than the surrounding night rose from the ground, solid amber eyes focusing with instinctive malevolence on the two travelers. Ansem didn't even pause long enough to give Kaito a warning; he launched forward, drawing his sword in a single fluid movement, and cut a deadly swathe through the ranks of heartless.

Hoping he was up to multi-tasking, Kaito drew his cardgun, currently loaded with solitaire cards. Duel cards were currently out of the question. He aimed for the heartless on the edges of the fight, where Ansem wasn't likely to move into his sights.

With Kaito mostly occupied with shielding himself, Ansem's skill and experience in dispatching the dark creatures became truly evident. Despite wielding a sword rather than a keyblade proper, insofar as Kaito could tell, the man could not only destroy the elusive enemies—a rarity on any world, from what Kaito had pieced together—but also do so without requiring an ally's support.

Which brings us back to the question of why he let me tag along in the first place. Maybe it's for my charming personality.

The last heartless disintegrated. Kaito quickly gathered the shining crystals scattered across the ground while Ansem stood still, gloved hands clenched.

"If heartless have been brought here, someone has plans," Ansem practically spat the word, "for this world, or at least one of the people in it. Come on."

He hurried onward, long legs eating up the ground in such haste Kaito had to nearly jog to keep up. They traveled with purpose, now that Ansem seemed to have gotten his bearings. Kaito divided his concentration between following Ansem's lead and bolstering his control over his own shadow-ki. They reached bigger and better-lit roads with business places, and even passed an inn or two from which the partially muted sounds of eating, talking, and laughter drifted.

Occasionally, Ansem paused and pulled Kaito aside into the shadows, to allow what looked like a squad of historically dressed samurai to pass them by. Watching one group come almost too close for comfort, Kaito realized every man carried with them a dimmed or wholly absent aura.

"Masking ourselves was a good idea," he whispered to Ansem after the soldiers disappeared. "The swordsmen do something similar."

Said samurai also look like they've come alive out of a history book. Only the Shinsengumi of the Tokugawa Shogunate ever wore blue robes with white mountains edging the sleeves. In fact, this entire world resembles Japan as it was a hundred years ago, like it was during…

…the Bakumatsu.

There are no swear words strong enough for this.

"Ansem-san," he quickly said aloud, voice tight. The other man gave him a surprised look at his sudden change in tone. "This is a very, very bad place to be. We're standing in a world straight from Japanese history near the end of the 19th century, smack in the middle of a civil war. We're in a war zone."

Understanding lit Ansem's eyes as Kaito outlined a few details. "Dangerous men indeed," he murmured as they hurried onward, much more alert than before. "I simply hope no one has had the bright idea of trying to turn some of the stronger hearts of this revolution into heartless."

Kaito swallowed hard. "That would be rather bad. What are we trying to do, then? Where are we going?"

"To find the source of this idiocy," Ansem growled. "The sooner we can fix this, the better for all involved."

And you're worried, aren't you? When we first met, you said you were traveling just in case this kind of thing happened, but I'm starting to doubt you've actually had to do it before. At the very most, no more than once or twice.

For the second time that night Ansem came to an abrupt halt, head raised as if testing the air, then turned his focus to a rooftop a few buildings up the road. Kaito followed his gaze, and froze.

A dim outline slunk across the roof tiles, blended almost invisibly into the night. Only the faint movement of silhouette-against-stars revealed the figure's position; no hint of aura existed. But rather than a marked absence, as Kaito had recognized in the patrols, this seemed more to be a natural blending into the landscape. Had Ansem's attention not alerted him to the man's presence, Kaito would never have seen him. A handful of men kept pace in the shadows of the street, ducking between small alleyways and generally avoiding notice.

This guy understands camouflage very, very well. If only I could ask him for tips without fearing for my life.

Further commentary was squashed by the nearly silent appearance of another patrol, almost twice the size of previous ones. Other groups made at least a smattering of noise, but even in the relatively well-lit street these men glided wraith-like in search of enemies.

The rooftop traveler and his companions may or may not have been able to escape detection, but as the samurai approached, a band of heartless escaped the shadows in search of more prey: the small, gold-eyed creatures, and another kind that hadn't appeared previously. These were larger, far more plentiful, and — Kaito could feel the irony oozing from the situation — wielding katana against their foes.

So, as heartless get stronger, they start taking characteristics from the world they've been loosed in. They had better not be very good with those katana, or we might be in trouble…

Caught off guard by the inhuman foes, the hiding men vanished into the darkness, with only the last having time for a surprised shout before he was gone.

The patrolling samurai attacked the heartless, but only the two pony-tailed men who led their fellows appeared to have any effect on the creatures. Even then, the fight was oddly quiet, as men fought in trained silence against monsters who lacked speech. Heartless quickly vanished only to be replaced, and a gang of katana-bearers overwhelmed one of the ineffective samurai, who disappeared with a cut-off wail.

Ansem ran into the mêlée, clearing a path towards the two swordsmen with a black-and-purple fireball. Still frozen in the shadows, Kaito couldn't hear what Ansem said, but the taller of the two men gave a curt nod and all three began working in deadly, systematic tandem. He breathed a sigh of relief. Ansem was unmistakably non-Japanese in a period when Japan hated the "foreign barbarians" encroaching on its insular culture, but clearly his sword skill outweighed any other considerations in the heat of battle. At least Ansem somehow spoke this archaic dialect of Japanese.

Ok, I guess the enemy of their enemy is their friend, at least for now.

Speaking of which…

The Shogunate's enemy during the Bakumatsu had been the Ishin Shishi. Kaito glanced sharply up at the rooftops again. The hidden figure that had escaped the initial attack remained motionless for a few moments more, then launched off the roof into visibility, all dark clothes and a shadowy flash of flame-bright hair.

"Ryuutsuisen!"

Kaito's jaw dropped. Ki energy exploded into being around the newcomer, the need for masks at an end. He plummeted straight into the roiling mass of heartless, the force of his overhead strike scattering them before his blade.

Not daring to join the battle for fear of getting in the way, Kaito watched the four swordsmen dispatch the dark mob until the last stragglers were destroyed. Only then did he dare approach, and in the time it took him to jog three house-lengths, the group reached a tense standoff.

The redhead—so small! He looks younger than me—stood with his sword sheathed, but his hand ready to draw. A fringe of bangs shadowed his eyes, and his stance radiated wariness. Kaito was willing to bet anything that he had planned to leave before his enemies could corner him. Since he had not, and Kaito remembered how exhausting fighting even a few heartless or nobodies was, Kaito wondered if he had more than the strength to stand, let alone escape his hunters.

The tall, dark-haired captain held his sword in his left hand, pulled back at shoulder height in preparation to thrust forward. The younger Shinsengumi bore a faint smile, but also held his sword ready to attack. The surviving samurai arrayed themselves behind their two captains, while Ansem stood resolutely between the two sides, sword in one hand and a half-formed fireball in the other, glancing back and forth.

Treading carefully, treading carefully… Why do I feel like I'm in the presence of several ticking time bombs?

Kaito bowed deeply to both parties in respect, aware of his out-of-place black turtleneck and jeans and hopelessly wishing that they wouldn't notice. "Good evening. My name is Kaito Kuroba and this is my fellow traveler, Ansem," he said politely, then paused.

I don't even know his last name. Does he have a last name?

The three people of significance gave him nods of acknowledgement, two terse and one accompanied by the same faint smile.

"Okita Souji, and Saitou Hajime. Forgive us for not greeting you properly," the more amiable Shinsengumi captain offered, "but the man behind your friend is our quarry. Even when fighting a new and strange common enemy, we cannot forget our first and true goal."

I'm not going to ask, I'm not going to ask, I'm not — oh, hell.

"Which is?" he inquired curiously, hoping his tone held more deference than demand.

Saitou chuckled maliciously. "Justice. Aku. Soku. Zan."

…Slay evil instantly.

Eep?

A heartbeat later, the flame-haired boy countered quietly, "To protect, bringing a new era of peace and equality."

Before the tall man could reply, Okita spoke again. "Yet we cannot agree on what either entails, and so stand ready to slay for our differing ideals. Were you not present, our battle would have continued already. Why are you here?"

The younger Shinsengumi's tone stayed calm and personable during the whole of his small speech, but Kaito heard the naked steel beneath his words. If they found it necessary, they would dispose of any existing threat to their cause without animosity or empathy. The polite words did little to soothe the stark reality of death that followed in the wake of these men.

Nobody gets hurt, whispered through his heart. Kaito felt his skin crawl.

"We have come in pursuit of the dark's children, nothing else," Ansem interposed, adapting his speech patterns to more closely resemble Okita's. "We swore their destruction, no matter where on this world they lead us. If you are capable, your continued assistance would not go amiss." He glanced at the nameless Ishin Shishi fighter, who still had not moved, a wordless extension of the same offer.

"These creatures, they do more than kill?" The boy's tone was unreadable.

"…Yes. It is worse to be taken by the darkness than to die." Ansem's voice roughened slightly, and dropped almost to a whisper. "To be rescued out of that darkness requires a miracle."

The Shinsengumi captains exchanged no more than a fleeting look, but seemed to reach a decision.

"We are needed among our own men," Okita said, shaking his head. "We will fight the shadows as we find them, however, and warn our allies of your presence. You need not fear the Shinsengumi unless you attack one of our own, or aid our enemies. Do not let yourselves be distracted from your original goal."

"Now," Saitou continued coolly, his sword aimed directly through Ansem's position, "move."

Ansem darted out of way just as the samurai lunged forward with a killing stroke.

Metal clanged on metal. Without even looking up, the boy had drawn his sword faster than Kaito thought physically possible, stopping the blade before it could pierce his heart.

Saitou sneered. "Not good enough, Battousai!"

Battousai raised his head. Kaito caught a glimpse of hard amber eyes above a cross-shaped scar, before the swordfight began in earnest.

Behind Ansem a corridor flared, and Kaito followed him through without hesitation. Anywhere was preferable to a battleground containing the assassin Battousai, especially if he knew that they knew his identity. Kaito's terrified memory dredged up Aoko's voice, reciting from a schoolbook how the legendary Battousai had been called demon. He left no witnesses to his assassinations, a whispered rumor of the shadows, until he simply vanished from history after the battle of Toba Fushimi.

A step in and out a corridor, and Kaito and Ansem exited into another part of the city.

"If we die here," Kaito told Ansem, "I will never, ever forgive you."

"Are we likely to if we meet any of those men again?"

"Ugh, I hope not, but I wouldn't put it past any of them." Kaito relayed what little he remembered about the three men they had met. "Do you think we will?"

"I sense no hearts stronger than theirs here in this city. Power calls. Unless we resolve this quickly, we may be drawn together more than once."

"If Koizumi ever says again that she wishes she had been born earlier in history, I'm going to tell her to try and visit this year, in Kyoto," Kaito muttered to himself as they walked on. "She could use a better appreciation of the present."

The pair spent several more hours fruitlessly searching both for the intended plan for the world, and the mastermind behind the groups of heartless that occasionally ambushed them. Ansem quickly became visibly frustrated at his inability to sense another wielder of darkness. From what Kaito could interpret among intermittent growls and cut-off curses, there were too many pockets of highly concentrated darkness — filled with the overpowering scents of blood, hatred, and vice — for Ansem to locate anyone specific.

Unused to fighting so often, Kaito eventually convinced Ansem to sleep for the rest of the night and continue in the morning. He was still pretty sure that Ansem would have ignored the idea of he hadn't been forced to pick up Kaito's slack in the battles — it took at least half a dozen fights before Kaito figured out the katana-wielding heartless' weakest points and could take one down with the card gun. Even then, Kaito couldn't fight in close quarters, leaving Ansem to take the brunt of the enemy's attacks.

They found a decent Inn, and paid the old woman named Okami with one of their flawed crystal shards. Some of the men lounging around gave them interested looks, but the darkly forbidding scowl on Ansem's face discouraged any conversation as they passed by.

Once in the room, Ansem immediately stretched out and fell asleep. Kaito took advantage of the solitude to toy with his Duel cards a bit, recognizing the inherent benefit of extending his arsenal. Finally able to study the details, his nearly eidetic memory stayed true, and soon he knew both deck and extra cards by heart.

Glancing sidelong at Ansem's sleeping form, Kaito pulled out what looked to be a low-power card and put the rest away. He hadn't fully understood everything about the Heart of the Cards and all, and it was probably way to soon to try anything like this, but…

Here goes nothing.

Cyber Commander!

:Master.:

The energy drain felt worse than a punch in the gut. Gasping, Kaito held onto consciousness by sheer bloody-minded determination as a shadowy form flickered into existence at his side. A soldier dressed in combat gear and bearing both a grenade launcher and a bazooka watched him critically for a moment, then bowed and vanished.

Okay, bad idea…

Kaito collapsed backwards onto his bed mat and passed out.

"Kaito-kun."

Kaito groaned, burying his face in his arms. "Five more minutes."

"Kaito-kun." The harmonics of Ansem's tone resonated through Kaito's subconscious, carrying him into a sitting position as his brain snapped into full alertness.

"What is it? What's going on?"

"Someone's knocking."

"At our door?"

"Quite. I thought you'd appreciate the warning. And I think this is yours," Ansem added, flicking Cyber Commander at Kaito with an experienced cardhand's graceful accuracy. Kaito put the card away with a sheepish smile, half-grateful that their unexpected visitor had saved him from a more reproving expression from Ansem. He had been supposed to be sleeping last night, after all.

"Do you want to get it, or shall I?" he asked.

Ansem didn't answer, simply moved to the front of their small room and pulled the sliding paper door open, standing partly aside as if to be out a direct line of fire. Kaito spared a brief, cynical smirk for Ansem's paranoia, until he caught a glimpse of their visitor.

Kaito stared.

The boy Saitou had called Battousai stood waiting calmly in the hall, the tense wariness of the night before replaced by a calm almost-smile.

"Good morning." He bowed politely, so smooth and confident that Kaito's eyes focused on his movement, and almost slid over his sword as if it wasn't there. Kaito was vaguely disturbed by how natural the sword looked at his side. He probably wouldn't have thought twice about it had he not already seen what it could do.

"Is it?" Ansem replied.

"So I have been told. I am afraid I no longer consider myself a worthy judge of them." He paused, watching them as Kaito rolled up his bedding. "You needn't trouble yourself. Okami-dono takes pride in her meticulous housekeeping."

"You know her?"

"Yes."

When no further information appeared forthcoming, Kaito volunteered, "So, what can we do for you?"

"May I enter?"

Ansem stepped fully out of the way, granting him access, and closed the door behind him. Battousai folded gracefully onto the floor, while Ansem stood beside Kaito, waiting.

"The creatures you pursue; I believe they are a greater threat to the people of Japan than the war is. I became a master of the sword to protect. Would my assistance benefit you?"

Kaito exchanged a glance with Ansem, who nodded. If Battousai had voluntarily approached them he was probably counting on their foreign appearance to mean they didn't know who Battousai was, and there was no reason to advertise Kaito's semi-oracular knowledge of the time period.

"We meant what we said last night," Kaito said, when Ansem remained silent. Ansem had gotten into the habit of letting Kaito do all the talking, it seemed. "What's your name?"

"Himura... just Himura. Have you considered where to begin your search?"

Another exchange of glances. Kaito shrugged. "Any suggestions for us? We're not too familiar with the layout of the city, or anything that might count as suspicious and worth investigating."

Himura took them at their word, and over a breakfast provided by Okami (who seemed to have a soft spot for the guy), he related the recent arrival of the heartless to the city of Kyoto. Kaito was blown away by his sense of tactics and eye for details within a whirlwind battle. By the time Kaito had polished off the last rice ball, they knew the movement patterns of the heartless throughout the city.

With Ansem's knowledge of heartless behavior, he and Himura soon determined several places most likely to host their master. They walked to investigate those areas, since Ansem didn't want to advertise his own mastery of darkness in Himura's presence—he was enough of an oddity already between his physical appearance and his fashion sense. (Though Kaito doubted Himura would be one for pointing fingers, what with having coloring equally as atypical in a country of dark eyes and hair. Himura was more dangerous in that he would probably sense the manifest darkness' similarity to the heartless, and instinctively neutralize a perceived threat before realizing its source. Kaito didn't care to trust the younger man's control further than he could throw him, and although Himura was short, that still wasn't very far.)

The first two destinations turned up nothing promising, poor return for an entire morning's effort. The trio ate a light lunch in moody, frustrated silence—that is, Ansem brooded, Himura's carefully controlled expression remained neutral, and Kaito tried to ignore them both in favor of his miso soup and small serving of sake. He got the whole bottle to himself after Himura's first sip—there was a story behind the boy's despondently resigned sigh after he tasted it, but Kaito didn't dare pry.

When Ansem declared his intention to try one of the suspicious places outside the city, Himura's eyebrow raised above an otherwise impassive expression. The boy made no comment other than to insist on bringing the bare necessities for a night spent outside, just in case.

Early afternoon brought them into the wooded mountains just outside Kyoto, where they discovered an ambush of heartless. The swarm quickly engulfed Ansem and Himura, leaving Kaito to desperately dodge and shoot while trying to shield his heart from the heartless' perception. Whenever he slipped, which was often, the heartless zeroed in on him.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Himura use the creature's nature to his advantage. A blur of movement, Himura would alternate between clearing an area and briefly unmasking his ki to bring another wave into range. As an added bonus, his actions often drew the heartless away from overwhelming Kaito.

Himura apparently kept an eye on his further surroundings, because after the battle he approached Kaito with a faint frown.

"You are vulnerable in these battles."

Kaito sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. Ansem had already gone ahead looking for the source of the heartless swarm, so there was no hope of getting out of the conversation.

"The heartless' ability to sense people is stronger here, and I'm not used to masking myself. They're harder for me to destroy, too, if you must know."

And I'm drained from my idiotic attempt at summoning last night, but I'm not about to tell either of you that. Ansem-san would never let me live it down.

…Why am I sure his personality will guarantee that? He looks at least twice my age, but I keep placing him in the same age bracket as the detective trio, and, well, me.

Himura interrupted Kaito's train of thought. "Stay here and practice while we search. If you are not competent fighting here, you will be worse off when we find their captain. I will not allow you to fight, if you will only get yourself killed."

Himura vanished in pursuit of Ansem, leaving Kaito completely floored by his protectiveness.

If he's an assassin with that kind of attitude, I think I understand why he vanished at the end of the war.

Regardless of Himura's unexpected behavior, Kaito recognized good advice when he heard it. He spent the next hour or two dissecting the sensations of the shadows, an opportunity that hadn't existed since their arrival. With the ability to build up slowly from the basics—scrutinizing all the different angles and approaches—rather than diving in headfirst, he soon identified his difficulties and set about remedying them. He even managed to devise a strategy or two for reducing his mental stress levels and the drain on his energy reserves.

When Himura and Ansem returned from their reconnaissance efforts, they were just in time to watch Kaito begin another run through one of the acrobatic routines he used to stay limber (and one step ahead of Aoko's mop). His ki remained masked, and at the end, for good measure, he shot a zigzag line of cards at his audience's feet, then bowed theatrically.

Himura graced him with a vaguely pleased smile. Kaito realized belatedly that Himura would have little experience with projectile weapons, let alone one that spat game components, but the boy seemed to have taken it in stride. Ansem smirked.

"A high learning curve, indeed."

"Only when it's life or death," Kaito shot back with slightly forced cheer. "Otherwise it tends to be rather hit-and-miss."

Aoko would say I have no learning curve at all, given that we do the same tease-and-chase tradition all the time at school. Did. Will do, if I have anything to say about it.

Keeping his grin in place, he asked Himura, "So do I pass?"

"We shall have to see upon your performance in a true skirmish," came the non-committal reply.

"You'll get a chance to find out soon enough," Ansem added. "Judging by the heartless' pattern of appearance around this place, we're heading in the right direction."

Kaito caught a Significant Look sent his way. Ansem had probably also sensed their quarry, now that he knew where to look. He rubbed his hands together in anticipation, slightly nervous but with the familiar wave of adrenaline washing over him that was half focusing, half manic glee. Not knowing what would happen next, his subconscious was responding as if to a heist night.

Time to go to work.

Following Himura and Ansem, Kaito didn't have to wait long to employ his new strategies. Now that Ansem knew where he was going, they spent the next several hours alternating between destroying increasingly denser bands of heartless and tramping deeper into the forest. Himura made no further comments upon Kaito's fighting style, but occasionally destroyed a heartless that got too close for comfort.

Eventually Ansem paused and sniffed the air, gaining a puzzled expression.

"Smoke?"

He changed direction, veering slightly to the left from his original path. Before Ansem hadn't cared how much noise they made, but now he walked carefully, avoiding the more obvious noisemakers of the forest floor. Himura followed as a soundless shadow, Kaito trying his best to follow their lead.

I'm only a phantom thief in the city, dammit. Concrete muffles sound a lot better than autumn leaves on loam.

After a few minutes they approached a clearing in the woods, faintly illuminated by paper lanterns hanging from the eaves of a small domicile. A wood fire burned somewhere unseen, since between trees and Ansem standing in front of him, Kaito didn't have much of a view of anything.

A faint breeze carried two voices into range—one gruffly irritated, the other smooth as oil.

"You are a particularly tiresome individual. Leave."

Himura paled.

"Shishou?" he breathed, eyes wide.

Kaito eyed him askance, but was distracted by Ansem raising his hood—an oddity in itself, given how it limited peripheral vision while they were in enemy territory—and walking to the edge of the clearing. Following out of habit, Kaito paused to glance behind, only to find that Himura had vanished into the growing evening gloom. When he turned back around, he discovered that the two strangers had interrupted their previous conversation in favor of watching him. Ansem seemed to have disappeared into the shadows also, out of sight but doubtless nearby. He hoped.

The first man would have stood out in any crowd, between his imposing height and a white cloak with a collar so large and pointed as to be almost ridiculous. He stood at the doorway to his small house. However, the second man, standing near the well in the middle of the clearing, arrested Kaito's attention. Brown hair streaked gray, oddly pointed ears, a wicked scar on his left cheek and an eye patch all paled before the fact that he wore a twin to Ansem's cloak.

Cloak like Ansem-san's equals creepy organization member equals person behind the minions. Bad. Very, very bad. Even if his depth perception should be shot with an eye patch, anyone with the power to control all the heartless we just destroyed is extremely bad news. And Himura-san has just gone absent without leave, despite recognizing the guy in the white cloak.

Wait a minute…

He called White Cloak, 'Master.' As in, what old school sword-art students call their teachers.

A grin stole onto Kaito's face.

Maybe we'll make it out of this alive after all.

"Sorry, got a little turned around," he began, hands raised peacefully. "Keep going, don't mind me, I'll just be going now…"

A non-committal grunt came from Himura's master, as if Kaito was someone beneath his notice. Judging by his narrow-eyed glare, his uninvited guest didn't rank much higher.

"You came here, to my private home, uninvited. You annoy me more than most people manage, which is saying something. I disowned my idiot student when he left to become a tool of other men's disagreements, and your pitiful attempts to infuriate me through news of his… stupidity, will go unrewarded. I care not why you have come here, trying to anger me, but you will fail."

Twin blurs of movement—a monstrous sword arcing in the space the heartless' master had been standing, at the same time the black cloak vanished into thin air.

"Well, aren't you difficult."

Kaito whirled in the direction of his voice. The man had reappeared far enough away as to be out of immediate reach, almost into the line of trees.

"If you're going to be this much of a stubborn idiot, you're more trouble than you're worth."

A cough, and he leaned over, favoring his left side. Kaito goggled. The swordmaster's strike had been so fast that while reflexive teleportation had prevented the stranger from being halved, he hadn't entirely avoided the blade.

"I'll just have to go and find myself a different dragon to turn, then, won't I? A pity you aren't more amenable, we could have done so much with you in our ranks…"

Did he just call White Cloak a dragon?

Unable to resist, Kaito let his mind relax and abandon his previous assumptions. If he concentrated then a pale, glowing silhouette appeared around the Japanese man, as if half-masked ki possessed its own form: scales and claws borne by sinuous coils, striking quick as thought through the way of the sword.

Himura's master shifted his weight meaningfully and the draconic ki-image lowered its head, mirroring intent to kill. The enemy took the hint and retreated through a dark corridor. Almost instantly, an oppressive shadow weighing on the edges of Kaito's awareness lifted.

He must have taken the heartless with him when he left, when he didn't get what he wanted.

"My patience for visitors is at an end." The man's full attention bored into Kaito, echoed by a dragon's snarl. "Leave."

Kaito didn't wait to be told twice. Ducking back into the cover of the trees, he stiffened when a black cloak appeared out of the darker shadows, only relaxing when Ansem pulled down the hood.

"Don't do that! I like my heart beating, thank you very much," he growled quietly, lightly punching Ansem on the arm in annoyance.

At Ansem's startled expression, Kaito realized that apart from occasionally letting Ansem drag him around, he'd never initiated any sort of physical contact with the guy. Nor could he remember ever seeing Ansem do more than put a hand on anyone's shoulder, except for when he'd carried Kaito's unconscious body.

Surprised, but not offended, which means people used to do stuff like that with and around him. Add voluntarily touch starved to the list of Strange Qualities, then.

Rather than draw much attention to it, Kaito asked where Ansem had disappeared to, instead.

"The swordsman looked unlikely to welcome anyone, but I guessed from his attitude that everyone in cloaks would be run off with extra force. I also assumed that the man who taught Himura swordplay would be able to handle himself."

"You caught that too?"

"Yes. Himura-san's gone, by the way, back to the city. He probably has another group to guard tonight, and didn't want to stick around near his old master any longer than necessary."

"Fair enough, given that guy's attitude. Wish I could have thanked him, though."

And now I'll always wonder whether Himura-san has a dragon of his own, too.

Kaito stretched his arms above his head, feeling sore muscles stretch and joints pop back into place. "Now what?"

"Our problem has been rather unorthodoxly solved. With nothing else worth pursuing here, Xigbar will have taken the heartless with him. The people here created the remaining darkness, and it's their task to defeat their own evils."

"So, barring some unexplained deaths and a few events so unbelievable most people will forget on purpose, this place is back to normal?"

"Quite."

Ansem paused momentarily to open another corridor and begin heading to their next destination, Kaito following behind.

"Xigbar's comments were rather odd, though. I want to make sure he's not going to make trouble anywhere that Sora can't reach, again. Speaking of which…" Ansem seemed to be talking more to himself than to Kaito, now. "I should make sure Sora and his gang don't need any more clues to keep them on the right track."

Kaito considered the statement and its implications, and was severely unimpressed. Which probably explained why he didn't take time to think about his response.

"Hold on—You know what's generally going on, you know Sora better than you care to admit, he's the best one to try fixing everything, and you only give him clues? When he would be infinitely better prepared from even a brief face-to-face conversation? What's wrong with you?"

The instant he said it, Kaito knew it was a mistake. Surprise, guilt and anger flashed across Ansem's face in an instant, and then it completely shut down. There was, quite literally, nothing to read as Ansem turned away and kept walking.

That's not a poker face. That's a stone wall. Nicely complemented by the subtly clenched fist that looks like it wants to strangle something.

"I'm sorry, that was stupid of me—"

"Yes. It was."

"But hear me out, all right?"

Ansem stopped and crossed his arms, still not looking at Kaito."You don't know me. Don't you—" His voice broke into the slightly higher, more boyish tone and back again. "Don't you dare judge me."

Kaito sighed. "You're right. Even though we're allies I don't know you, at least not very well. I don't have much right to give you advice. But I want to know you better, and I want to help you."

"No, you don't."

"Let me decide that!" Kaito glared, aware that he wasn't helping the situation much. "Let me know why you are the way you are!"

"So I'm a puzzle you can't let rest until you know the solution?"

"Ye—No!" Kaito threw up his hands, rolling his eyes. "No. You're not a puzzle. You're a puzzling human. I want to figure you out, I admit—I can't resist a challenge, and you're a champion of contradictory behavior. But you're a person, and ally, and I think if you were to ever take off those masks you insist on wearing around everyone, you could even be a friend."

"You wouldn't understand."

Ansem finally met Kaito's eyes again, defiant and with a hint of anger. Kaito took any reappearance of emotion as a good sign, especially if he felt the need to be defensive. It meant he was listening, unable to ignore Kaito's words.

"Try me. I know a fair bit about doing things you don't want other people to discover. I'll even swap stories, if you want."

Ansem watched him for several moments, then trembled involuntarily. He snapped his head to the side, eyes tightly closed.

Your masks are cracking, Kaito realized with a hint of wonder. You're so torn between wanting a friend and thinking you don't deserve it, you're going to break soon if something doesn't change. I can't believe I didn't realize it before now.

Kaito deliberately softened his voice, keeping his body language open and vulnerable. "Whatever it is that makes you think you have to"—hide—"isolate yourself, I won't judge you. I already trust you to watch my back. Knowing more about you won't change that."

I doubt it would change Sora's opinion of you either, but let's take one hurdle at a time, ne?

Ansem took several slow, deep breaths, eyes still closed but face relaxing. Abruptly he stiffened, eyes flying open to meet Kaito's gaze. He closed and opened them a few more times with slow deliberation, then stopped and stared.

Okay, that's weird.

Ansem gave a soft, shuddering laugh, tone warring between panic and relief. "My choice seems to have been made for me."

"Don't say that. It's your choice." Kaito raised an eyebrow challengingly. "I find it hard to believe anyone can force you into something, let alone me. I want you to talk to me, but only if you'll do it voluntarily."

"You don't get it." He paused, unsure, then whispered hoarsely, "I can see you even with my eyes closed."

"What?"

Shoulders shaking, another helpless chuckle escaped at Kaito's near-yelp. Ansem visibly tried to pull himself back together. He succeeded, for the most part, by looking at a point above and beyond Kaito's head.

"Even though I kept you at a distance in my head, my heart thinks of you as a friend. I'm—Sora and I both, really, and maybe Mickey-san too—we're sensitive to other hearts, especially those of our friends. If I looked for you with my heart rather than my eyes, you could be in a perfect disguise and I'd still recognize you."

A jolt of near-panic thrilled down Kaito's spine. His life depended on his skills of disguise, even among his friends. Especially among his friends, what with Hakuba and Aoko both trying to catch his alter ego. To have someone able to break that…

No. Stop that. He's not about to use it against you. You said you trusted him to watch your back, so mean it.

"Well, so long as you don't join the police force back home, I don't think it's a problem," Kaito said lightly. He smiled. "Friends, then?"

Ansem flinched. "Not yet."

Kaito barely refrained from smacking Ansem for not believing that he would look beyond the man's mistakes. As it was, he couldn't rest glaring again in annoyance.

The tension in Ansem's body—so constant Kaito hadn't fully realized until their current conversation that the man was like an over-wound clock, narrowly holding himself together with nerves, stubbornness, and adrenaline—vanished all at once. Ansem sagged a little in resignation and bone-deep weariness, crossed arms shifting into a makeshift self-hug.

"But... I'll tell you."

Kaito was put in mind of a wounded bird, shocked and skittish, reluctantly accepting the help of a soft-spoken human. Anything besides a soothing voice and gentle hands would provoke a panicked escape, with more damage than before.

"Thank you," he said simply. "If I can, I'll return the favor."

"Probably best to get it over with, anyway. I'm… tired." A half-hearted smile emerged, looking out of place against the harsh angles of his face. "Everything was simpler before you came along."

"Simpler, maybe. Better? I doubt it." He looked Ansem up and down. "So start with simple. What's your real name?"

A sharp intake of breath, as the consequences of his acquiescence really hit home. "Riku." His voice changed again into his slightly higher tone—his natural voice, Kaito surmised. "My name's Riku." A pleasant baritone, it lacked the harshness of the rough bass Kaito had become accustomed to hearing.

Had Kaito been a cat, at the moment there would be an empty bowl of cream sitting nearby, bright yellow feathers scattered everywhere, and a conspicuous lack of bird.

"Riku-kun. Nice to meet you, I'm Kaito." Smiling, he stuck out his hand Western-style, which Riku hesitantly took. "This may sound odd, but it's been bugging me for a while—just how old are you?"

Riku's lips quirked into an almost-smug smile. "Sixteen."

"You're kidding! I've been running around following your lead, and you're younger than me?"

Some of Riku's humor reappeared at the sight of Kaito's incredulous expression. "Since you're positively ancient yourself, of course."

"I'm nearly eighteen, I'll have you know. Youngling," he added with a wicked grin, earning a faint chuckle.

A shiver of darkness brushed Kaito's awareness, and he became aware that they'd been simply standing together for much longer than he cared to, given their surroundings.

"Um, do you think we can do this somewhere else? Unless delaying will change your mind, I don't really feel like hanging around in a corridor for any longer than I have to."

"I said I'd tell you. This isn't the best place for long conversations, anyway." Another pause, and Riku's golden eyes met Kaito's in an agonizingly bereft expression. "I don't have anywhere to go."

You don't have a base, you said before. No home, friends or family, at least none that you're willing recognize as such. How have you survived for so long, with just you and maybe Mickey-san and DiZ-san?

On impulse, Kaito blurted out, "Come home with me." He'd been thinking of them more and more over the last few days, now was the perfect chance…

"What?" Riku looked so startled, Kaito was torn between laughter and pity. He bit down on both reactions, knowing either would be badly received.

Gentle, gentle… Give him a logical, undeniable argument that he can't object to without sounding like a stubborn idiot.

"We can go to my house. My world is safe, so there's nothing to worry about. Worlds aren't connected linearly, right? We can talk, and then figure out where to go next from there."

Please say yes. I really want to know what I've missed, and make sure everyone's okay.

If we're lucky, I can convince you to take a break, find some equilibrium again, and get re-accustomed to normal, consistent social interaction. Our alliance certainly doesn't count, and you seem to have been stuck with only yourself for company before I showed up. That would give me a few days to convince you to find Sora again, because if your history is what I suspect it is, you'll both be better off that way. You've been traveling ungrounded for way too long.

I wonder how long I've been away? Hey, I still have the amethyst hidden in my suit. Inspector Nakamori has probably gone crazy by now.

"I… All right." Barely audible, but it was enough.

Home!

Terms:
Battousai: Master of lethal sword drawing
Ryuutsuisen: Dragon Hammer Strike

Kenshin didn't realize they were near Hiko Seijirou's home because he had other things like heartless ambushes on his mind rather than actively seeking to recognize nearby human ki. He knew there was something familiar, but couldn't give it much thought.

Time frames: Rurouni Kenshin occurs almost at the end of the Bakumatsu, probably only a short time before the battle of Toba Fushimi. As noted, Kenshin already has his cross-scar. Kingdom Hearts 2, Sora is coming to the end of his first tour through the worlds. As for Magic Kaitou, the plotbunnies have convincingly argued that The Scroll of the Dark Night hasn't happened yet, but all other MK canon applies.

Thus the next world is decided, and Kaito is finally going to get some answers. Ansem is also about to get some sense knocked into him. Of course, Kaito and Ansem still have a ways to go before Organization XIII is defeated. ::grin::

Review, please!

3/07