Previous disclaimers apply.
Promenade 24: Phantasm
In the half-second it took to step through the Shadowrift and allow it to fall closed behind him, Kaito came to the sudden and unwelcome realization that he was pushing himself too hard. The energy drain that he had been holding at bay over the course of the morning and afternoon, even as it increased with each use of the Shadows, seemed to have decided to cash in its debts all at once, and he promptly staggered backwards into the nearby wall.
Oh, this is going to be so much fun...
:And I thought you were smarter than most,: Méraud murmured unobtrusively into his thoughts. :Driving yourself into the ground with exhaustion is hardly that. Solomon-kun's tea blocks dreams more thoroughly than mere fatigue.:
"It wasn't intentional," he muttered under his breath. Except maybe subconsciously.
Food. I need food.
He surveyed his new surroundings: a school assembly hall of Western architectural design, packed full of adults and teenagers, with a large banner near the ceiling welcoming all comers to Casper High's Parent Night. Tables and chairs were set up across a significant portion of the room, and —
Kaito's stomach growled audibly. On the far side of the room, a large buffet had been set up.
I love these people.
Kaito pushed himself off the wall and made a beeline across the room, counting on his age to simply make him one more face in the crowd. While the signs and conversations being held were in English, and the majority population was Caucasian, there were enough ethnic Asian students milling about that his own appearance wouldn't be cause for comment. It still didn't stop Kaito from formulating a cover story in case someone recognized him as not-a-student, while he snacked and filled a plate nearly to overflowing.
Halfway down the line, Kaito's progress was halted by a mountain of a man planted by the ham-on-croissant sandwiches, blocking his way. The man was at least six feet tall and nearly as wide, with gray-streaked black hair and an affable expression framed by a jaw you could crack nuts with. He didn't seem to notice Kaito, however, attention divided between munching a croissant and listening to a redhead teenage girl whose attitude and facial features unmistakably labeled her as 'daughter'.
Arms akimbo, the girl gave the man an exasperated look. "Leave at least half of the buffet for other people to eat, all right?"
Kaito snickered involuntarily at the man's crestfallen look, which caught the girl's attention. An automatic expression of polite inquiry turned to him, to be quickly replaced by a flicker of surprise and then assessment as she took in his unfamiliar face. Before she could comment or ask a question, Kaito grinned at her with a hint of Kid's charm.
"There's so much food here in the first place," he offered, stepping around the pair, "I think the rest of us can manage so long as there's variety." He snagged a ham sandwich and waggled it for emphasis. "Why forbid a man some of the best entertainment here?"
He flashed another grin, then continued down the buffet before either could stop him, humming under his breath.
Primary task accomplished, Kaito went in search of Riku again. With some luck, the early dinner would give him enough energy to make one last rip back to Domino, where he could collapse on the couch for a few hours. He still didn't like the idea of risking a Darkness corridor opening anywhere near Yugi or Solomon, and a long walk from wherever else a corridor might land them was equally unappealing. They could afford to draw out their visit to this world for the time it would take Kaito's metabolism to do its job.
After circling most of the room, Kaito slowed in his easy ramble as his eyes lighted on what could only be described as a 'civilized' battle between two predatory alpha males. At one of the smaller tables a chessboard had been set up, and the two men playing a game were faced off with an almost feral intensity. The one controlling black had his back to the wall and Kaito could only see his profile, but the man's quiet smile and general demeanor as he moved one of his knights left no question that this was a man even Kid would be careful about baiting. Not to mention his black business suit looked more expensive than Kaito's computer had been when it was new, which meant he wasn't one of the teachers... but he hardly looked like parent material either.
Interesting.
The second man was unremarkable, both in clothes and appearance, barring the predatory lilt to his lips as he surveyed the chessboard for his next move. From the way he fit into the surroundings, Kaito pegged him as 'teacher' and 'more dangerous than he looks'.
Looking beyond the game, Kaito finally noticed Riku leaning unobtrusively against the wall behind the business shark, somehow less noticeable than he should have been with his height, appearance and outfit. The reason, Kaito decided after a moment's further observation, was because the shadows in Riku's localized area were subtly deeper than should have been possible from the lighting setup in this part of the room. A few feet away from Riku, a dark-haired boy a few years younger than them both also leaned against the wall and seemed to be sharing Riku's inconspicuous status. However, though both Riku and the boy were watching the chess game...
The last time I saw a glare that lethal, Kudou had just found a dead body.
Other than crossed arms the boy's posture was deceptively casual, but if looks could kill the businessman would be so much vapor.
Mindful that they were all three within earshot of the chess game, and the players weren't speaking, Kaito ghosted behind the game to approach the pair by the wall. The dark-haired boy seemed to notice the movement out of the corner of his eye because his gaze flicked over to Kaito for a split second, blue eyes raking over Kaito's frame once before refocusing on the chess players. Kaito almost paused mid-step as what the boy had just done sank in, but continued on towards Riku anyway.
...That was a threat assessment. What the hell?
That was not normal. This kid was younger than Riku, and even Kaito hadn't made threat assessments a habit until he'd become the Kid. For a barely-teenager to be that wary... Kaito could feel his curiosity building like a tide.
:Down, boy,: Méraud murmured, amused.
Yeah, yeah...
Even if he wanted to start poking, he wouldn't be able to try it without questions being thrown back at him that he wouldn't want to answer any more than this kid would.
With an internal sigh, Kaito stomped on his curiosity and joined Riku by the wall, giving the younger boy a smile, nod and slight salute with the now-half-full plate of food. Riku responded by shrugging, plucking a roll off the plate, and nodding in the direction of the game.
Kaito smiled. If the chess game had caught Riku's attention as well, who was he to argue?
He'd just taken a bite of the ham croissant when the teacher spoke, hand gliding over the pieces. "It's hard to be fourteen and not have any clue as to who you can trust. Even harder when somebody takes advantage of that and cuts you off from the people who should listen to you. When everybody believes your enemy over you." Casually, the man slid his queen forward. "Check."
Kaito stared at the man, deliberately refraining from looking over at the boy beside them. There was so much subtext packed in those three lines that you could practically drown in it. Something was going on between the teenager and the gray-haired businessman, with the teacher slipping into the middle with an edge of protectiveness, for a verbal and mental fencing match.
Kaito didn't have any time to follow the train of thought further, because the businessman countered by moving his king. "Enemy?" The cultured innocence in the man's voice set Kato's teeth on edge. He ignored it by finishing the croissant.
"Sure. Popularity contests in school these days pretty much are a war, you know. Check."
A black bishop glided forward to take the queen. "So they tell me. It's not surprising that Daniel would be... somewhat resentful, is it?"
Daniel. Kaito didn't know how useful having a name to go with the dark-haired boy's face would be, but any information was better than none.
"Nope," the teacher replied, leaning forwards a fraction of an inch. "But lucky for him... Some of us are smart enough to look beyond outward appearances and actually listen."
...If you can play this game this well on all fronts, you're not just a teacher. School psychiatrist is more like it. And wonder of wonders, you actually seem to care about the students as people rather than just one more playing field.
Feral grin in full force, the man moved his rook to capture the black bishop. "And you should really pay less attention to the queen and more to the 'lesser pieces,' Mr. Masters... I believe that's checkmate."
Reaching out, the not-teacher toppled the older man's king, then rose and headed back to the rest of the open house. He glanced briefly at the three teenagers as he went to show that he'd been aware of their presence, but didn't pause, leaving his opponent behind to stare at the board in silence.
You are definitely dangerous, mister... I think I like you.
Now, however, was the time to follow the winner's lead and get out of the vicinity before the other man realized that they'd had an audience.
Kaito caught Riku's attention with a head gesture, and they headed towards a pair of doors in another relatively quiet corner outside of the chess game.
"We can't head back yet," Kaito began once he judged they were out of earshot. "I hit a wall getting here, but the food will hopefully be enough to manage the trip to Domino."
"Wanting to avoid a long walk?" Riku gave Kaito a look of faint concern.
"I'll be fine, I'm just gonna crash for a while after we get back." Again. "Did I miss anything interesting?" he added, eyeing the piece of fried chicken on his plate dubiously. He'd grabbed one of just about everything on the buffet, but he was having second thoughts about some of their food choices here.
Riku shook his head. "Just a lot of silence. I'd been on my way to an exit when I saw them playing... they were out of the way enough I thought I'd be okay waiting for you there." Riku smiled faintly. "I hadn't seen a good game of chess in a long time."
"You play?" Kaito asked, surprised.
"I used to. Kairi's dad taught us to play when we were kids. Sora and Kairi never really had the patience for it, but I was okay."
Kaito smiled. "You should challenge Hakuba-kun to a game after we get back. Even if he creams you, he'll give you advice for how to improve your game."
"You've played him before?"
Kaito's smile sharpened into a dangerous grin. "Not on a game board."
Riku chuckled in understanding. "Playing with the white knight?"
"He asks for it," Kaito countered as he pushed open one of the double doors and slipped through, into... a hallway. Where the school psychologist stood just inside, leaning against the wall, attention snapping in an instant from solitary decompression to focusing on the two of them as they appeared.
Kaito smiled cheerfully, hoping to head the man off. "Hi! We're just visiting, can you give us directions to the closest bathroom?"
The man's gaze slowly moved between them. "Visiting?"
"My mom might be taking a job here, so while we're in town I wanted to see the high school I might be transferring to."
"Pull the other one, it plays Dixie," the man replied with a wry smile.
"What?" Kaito blinked, all innocence.
"The odds of any mother pulling her son out of a Japanese high school with... what, a year or less to go? To put him in the American public school system are slightly less than the odds of lead spontaneously turning into gold."
He really needed to work on his accent. And he should have known better than to feed that story to this guy in particular.
Kaito laughed. "Okay, you got me." He glanced at Riku, buying a few precious seconds to solidify his other cover story. "We're just on a road trip, passing through and short on cash, and I hoped a semi-public event would include free food."
He gave the man a calculated grin of embarrassment. "Don't turn us in, will you?"
"Nah." Their new acquaintance either believed this one, or wasn't going to try pushing for the truth after two spun tales. "I've done similar in my broke youth. What brings you to the states?"
"I graduated last year. Riku and I are apprentices in a magician's troupe, and we bet a friend that we could get from Tokyo to LA to New York and back during our two weeks off."
"And how's that coming?"
"Well, we're about on schedule." Kaito didn't even want to try estimating what day of the week it might be here. "But we're lower on cash reserves that I'd like, hence the visit." He smiled. "It was worth it. You play a mean game of chess."
The man took a step away from the wall, drifting down the corridor at a snail's pace as he answered, Kaito and Riku keeping pace. "Saw that, did you? I like to think I'm decent at strategy."
"Well, I only caught the last few minutes, but your opponent wasn't a pushover and you still won." Kaito paused a moment, debating whether to poke. "Both matches."
"...Magician, huh?" The man responded, eyebrows rising. "Guess that'd make you familiar with mind games."
Kaito grinned. "A little. I have a passing interest in psychology. Must be a hell of a thing going on between those two."
"Those two?"
"The boy... Daniel? Watching the game. If looks could kill, Mr. Masters would be a smear on the wall. And you know there's something going on, or you wouldn't have been throwing around subtext around like a sledgehammer earlier."
He itched to ask about the threat assessment, too, but he didn't want to admit that he'd recognized it as one.
"Danny. Only Masters calls him Daniel, and it's a good way to get your head bitten off," the shrink corrected. "That's complicated. I'm impressed you noticed... You're used to watching your back, aren't you?"
"Ok, Danny," Kaito conceded, then smiled. "It's not so much watching my back as incurably nosy. I watch people." And as much as he might want to ask about his tells, he was hardly going to admit to it by asking why the man thought so.
"Yeah. And you haven't let your back move away from a wall since I first saw you, despite walking several feet down the hall to where you're standing now."
Kaito blinked innocently again, for what little good it might do. "It's a hall. Walls everywhere."
"You rolled your back towards the jamb coming through the doorway. You stand on the balls of your feet only, never flat-footed. Your hands are constantly moving when you walk, but always in a position to balance you... doesn't look like any martial art I know, but it's definitely combat reflexes."
...You're very good. And I still like you.
"Sleight of hand reflexes," Kaito admitted, "combined with gymnastics and a year of tai chi... and the inability to sit still," he added with a little grin. "I've never been in a real fight."
At least, not against humans...
The man snorted. "Yeah, right. Which is why you look like you're just waiting for something horrible to happen."
...He really shouldn't have given into the desire to poke rather than leaving, after having already noted how observant this guy was.
Kaito smiled, more wryly than he really intended to, but he wasn't being Kid and he'd never see this man again after they left. "Only in my nightmares."
The man cocked his head slightly, stopping beside a closed door. "Wanna talk about it? Confidential, and I work cheap."
Before Kaito could refuse with an easy laugh, Méraud's voice murmured in the back of his mind. :You should consider it. You seem disinclined to take anyone else into your confidence, and you've had two minor breakdowns already.:
...Weaknesses are too easily used against you by others.
:He's not going to be in a position to try.:
Hn.
"Why offer?" Kaito said aloud, giving Cade a slightly skeptical look. "I can't pay you, and you'll never see us again."
"You're not the only one who's incurably nosy. Besides, something about you says you're probably into what my friends and I call the "Wide World of Weird," and there aren't too many people who'd believe you and not lock you in a nuthouse. Since my specialties are adolescent psych and abnormal or paranormal events, I'm probably your best bet, and I hate walking away from somebody I could help."
"The Wide World of Weird? Catchy title."
Kaito ran a hand through his hair, tiredly. It wasn't pushy, just... an offer. So long as he didn't reveal anything about other worlds, it was a no-risk proposition. And while he hated to admit it, he was still stressed.
"Hell. If you're sure... Okay." He let his posture change subtly, no longer bothering to spend the energy necessary to completely hide just how exhausted he really felt.
"Tell you what, let's step into my office and you guys can sit while we discuss this. Less chance of being overheard, too." The man pulled out a key and opened the door he'd stopped beside.
Kaito followed behind, glancing around the room at potential exits before sinking into a chair in a position that still left him able to dodge in case something came at him unexpectedly. Cade had been right about combat reflexes.
The room was small, but comfortably decorated, with plenty of bookshelves. Kaito smiled slightly. "At least you're not the principal."
"Don't get me started on the principal." Cade sat in the chair behind his desk and leaned back with casual confidence.
"Hey..." Riku had just closed the door behind them, and was looking at something on the wood panel. "Why do you have an ofuda on your door?"
"This town's Ghost Central. Guessing you haven't watched the news or picked up a paper while you've been here."
"No... Just passing through. Define ghost central?" Though if the man had a talisman designed to keep spirits without an invitation from coming inside the room, Kaito could make a guess.
"There's a... dimensional rift, I guess it the best way to put it. Into an ectoplasmic dimension, populated by ghosts. Some of 'em like to come through and make trouble. Lucky for us, the town's got a ghost who likes things the way they are, and usually takes care of 'em before things get bad. But we've also got a hell of a lot of ghost hunters."
...Here, ghosts are real.
Kaito firmly smothered the faint, inarticulate wish before it could fully form.
"Sounds... interesting. Lots of fights around here, then?"
"Yeah, construction and insurance are both booming businesses."
"Could be worse. I know a guy who could justifiably be called a death magnet."
"Ouch. That'd have to suck. Luckily Phantom only deals with the ones who've been dead a long time. Or were never alive." It took Kaito half a moment to process that 'Phantom' didn't refer to Kid, but to the protective ghost that the man had mentioned earlier. "But we're getting off the subject... What's your story? For that matter, what's your name? He's Riku, but you didn't mention yours."
"I'm Kaito. I didn't catch yours, either..." He trailed off with an inquiring glance.
"Cade Maboroshi. You can call me Cade, or the kids here all call me Dr. M."
Kaito grinned. "Cade, then. I'm hopelessly informal."
Cade grinned back. "Yeah, same here. So... What's your story?"
Kaito took a moment to put his thoughts in order and edit out any problematic details. "When Riku and I travel, we keep... running into creatures on the nasty side of the 'Wide World of Weird.' Normally I can handle that fine, but for the past few days, I've had the same damn nightmare every time I go to sleep, and I can remember everything about it perfectly when I wake up. Once I could chalk up to a particularly bad day, but this... I don't know what to do with it."
And he hated it.
...Hakuba wasn't the only one who put a lot of stock in self-control.
"Tell me about it?"
Kaito sighed, gaze wandering absently over the book titles and various decorations as he pushed the memory to enough of an emotional arm's length to be able to think and talk about it. He'd had a lot of practice with that, over the past year... ever since he'd stumbled into Kid's hidden room and begun working with Jii to put his father's ghost to rest. You couldn't do that without facing the memories of what had been. Or imaginings of what could be, but he'd managed to cope with those alone up until now. Of course, while he hadn't had anyone to tell before, either, at least then he'd been able to let the details blur a bit over time. And despite the wealth of unpleasant thoughts he'd had to choose from, it'd never been him pulling the trigger.
"I'm over twenty. A thief... kidnapped and raised in a crime syndicate after they killed my dad for getting in their way. Uncatchable. I'm on a heist when it starts, taking a ruby. Guards are dead, but the alarm goes off... I'm almost to the roof when a... friend of mine in reality back home, a detective... tries to stop me." Kaito dropped his lids, half-shuttering his eyes. "He's engaged to a girl I knew before I was kidnapped. Recognizes me. Wants to help me. ... I shoot him. Leave. Wake up."
In his peripheral vision he could see Riku quietly watching him, but he didn't want to turn his head enough to make out the younger boys' exact expression after having heard even the basic details for the first time.
"Same dream every time..." Cade murmured. "And no fuzzing?"
"Three nights, three dreams... and I could recite the dialogue word for word." Not to mention recall his stream of conscious thought with perfect clarity.
"...How much else do you know about the background there?"
"Some major events, conceptually, like really hazy memories. Nothing like this level of detail. ...Still more than I'd ever want to." Like what had happened to Kudou, in this world-that-wasn't.
Cade hmm'd thoughtfully. "Something that strong... Anything at all like it happen recently? Something it could twist?"
...And here's where things got tricky.
"I... My dad used to write stories about a Kaitou, a gentleman thief who was the exact opposite of my dream. When I found them, I picked up where he left off. They just come to me, almost like they're writing themselves more than I am, and I just put the words on paper. The last one... there's two thefts, one with a ruby and a confrontation similar to that one, and one where a bastard of a thief dies after blackmailing the protagonist. I finished it last week."
"Would this blackmailing bastard of a thief who dies in the story have any resemblance to your best friend who dies in this recurring dream? Purely coincidental, of course."
Nightmare... and Hakuba?
...Oh.
Oh.
Seeing a corpse was a big enough shock for most people that it wasn't impossible for a physical resemblance between the living and the dead to twist the details of identity in their nightmares.
And okay, so this guy didn't believe that Nightmare wasn't a real person... but he wasn't going to push it, either.
"Just a friend." Kaito'd seen best friends, growing up. He and Hakuba weren't it. "He gives me a lot of flack over my thief protagonist. But both he and the dead one are blond and blue."
"Mmm. Had any reason to fear for this friend's safety recently?"
"...He ran into the same kinds of things we are, a few days ago. It nearly killed him."
"Before or after you first had the dream?"
Kaito thought for a moment, timelineing. "After. But before, he'd been investigating some pretty dangerous leads on a case without weirdness involved."
:Because you, of course, don't count,: Méraud commented amusedly.
Quiet, you.
Cade drummed his fingers on his desk in contemplation. "There's an underlying cause here, but it'd take more time than either of us have to dig it out..."
Kaito sighed. "And I need to stay functional until I can figure out what's going on."
"If you can get out of the mess causing your stress, that'd help. Or if you can talk to a professional at home. But in the meantime, you can minimize the damage by telling someone when you have these nightmares. And I mean everything. Get it out, or it festers and the pressure builds up."
"Damn," Kaito smirked, but was only half-joking.
"I'm sure, being an... author who specializes in thief stories..." Cade's expression confirmed Kaito guess about just how little the psychologist believed the lie, "You're used to keeping walls up and cards close to your chest. You can't do that here. It's not safe."
The man sighed, eyes drifting across a particular shelf on the far side of the room, and added, sottovoice, "The Weird kills in more ways than one... and the indirect, slow and twisting, usually has collateral damage attached. The breakdown doesn't care where the stress came from, or how much of a mess it makes on the way down."
Kaito tensed slightly in his chair, fighting the sudden urge to edge out of a line of fire. The words weren't a threat, weren't even directed at him, but...
They rang too close to home, in ways that he hadn't even considered putting into words yet, a sentiment he had yet to acknowledge was there.
They echoed too deep.
Too dark.
If he'd been more stable during the heists, he wouldn't have broken down on Hakuba, and the blond wouldn't have follo—
He stopped.
Not going there any more, or Hakuba will kill me.
Kaito shoved the entire reaction and thought process away for further consideration later as Cade shook himself out of his reverie and gave them both a rueful smile. "Sorry. You need at least one person you trust, and can talk to, especially in the Weird. Or winding up snapping under stress is the BEST ending you get."
...One person.
Dammit.
Riku was going to leave, eventually. Despite the younger boy's fears, Kaito had no doubts that he'd be able to return to his islands with Sora and Kairi once this was all over. And Hakuba... they weren't in a state of cold war any longer — or at least for the moment, given the number of tripwires they both had and how good they were at setting each other off — but Kaito was still used to needing to keep his masks up more thoroughly around the blond detective than anyone else.
He settled for replying, "I already know about some of the worse endings."
"One other thing." Cade leaned forward slightly in his chair. "Just because you have the capability to be something doesn't mean you're going to be that. It doesn't even mean you're at risk. It takes a hell of a lot more than stress and strain to make you the worst thing you can be, once you've started out trying to be the best."
"Yeah... I know. It's just too damn real." He sighed again. "Thanks, Cade. I'll talk to... someone."
"I'll make sure of it," Riku interjected, dryly.
Cade smirked. "I'd offer my office, but... somehow I don't think you're coming back this way."
Kaito shook his head. "Better to not. We should get going, anyway... we've kept you long enough."
"Hey, every minute away from that hive of scum and villainy is golden."
Kaito laughed. "You know the classics."
"Of course! I'm a man of education." Cade grinned.
And apparently, some things were truly universal.
Kaito stood and held out a hand. "Thanks again. I'll remember you." He hadn't gotten any real answers, but he did feel slightly better for the conversation. And he still liked the guy's style.
"You watch yourself." Cade stood as well, shaking Kaito's hand.
"Will do. ...Look after Danny," Kaito added as an afterthought. "He needs an adult as sharp as you on his side."
"I intend to."
"Good." Kaito smiled. "So long."
Leaving the office behind, Kaito headed down the corridor until he and Riku turned a corner, safely away from any prying eyes.
Riku glanced sidelong at Kaito. "I meant what I said in the office, you know."
"...I'll keep that in mind." Kaito looked up at the ceiling, thinking about the best destination to aim for. His internal clock wasn't accurate-to-the-second like Hakuba's, but it felt like they'd been gone for quite a few hours, between shopping and traveling, and he could already tell he was going to crash hard as soon as they made it back. But he'd agreed to meet Yugi when school got out to be introduced to Bakura for Deck advice, and he didn't want to miss that...
He reached out and pulled, ignoring the specifics of -where- other than the Moutou home in order to focus on the -when-.
:Kaito-kun!: Méraud's objection came too late. Kaito had already opened the way through.
He swayed, slightly dizzy, and Riku put a hand behind his elbow to steady him.
"Am I going to need to carry you again?" The younger boy kept his voice light, but there was still an undertone of worry.
"I can make it to the couch." Kaito waved vaguely at the Motou's living room on the other side, where the couch stood prominently in view.
"Let's go, then."
Kaito obligingly stepped through, shuffling to the couch and half-sitting, half-falling onto the cushions. He barely remembered to toe off his shoes before swinging his legs up to sprawl along the full length of the makeshift bed.
"...Kaito-kun?" The question had an odd note to it. Kaito glanced over at Riku, who was eyeing the clock warily.
"What?"
"The clock says it's not even twelve-thirty yet. We were still shopping, then."
Kaito yawned. "We looped ourselves. I need to sleep before I meet with Yugi and Bakura-kun," unfortunately, "and school gets out between two and three, depending on whether they're in a club. We didn't go home, so we won't meet ourselves. Don't worry about it."
:Kaito-kun: Méraud blocked out any reply Riku might have made, her voice deadly serious. :You're obviously very tired, or you would have thought of this already, but... you're letting yourself slip through time on purpose. You've already lived through more than half a day that Saguru-kun hasn't. It's not noticeable now, but if you don't watch yourself carefully, and keep yourself anchored... you're going to begin aging out of sync with the people you care about.:
Kaito felt his blood run cold.
Méraud continued, :The difficulty that the old Shadow-walkers faced, if I recall correctly, was not always becoming lost in time, but rather being lost to time. They could find their way back... but could not return to the life they left behind.:
Several of Nakamori's choice phrases for when Kid got away ran through Kaito's mind.
...I can't deal with this right now.
Despite the brief shock of adrenaline, his eyelids were still slamming shut.
I'll remember, next time. Won't... do it again...
Sleep claimed him.
Kaito lounged along a branch in one of Beika park's many trees, waiting patiently in the warmth of the afternoon sun. This path through the park was Kudou Shinichi's favorite shortcut, and with the teenager's latest case as resolved as it was going to get, the 'creepy detective' of Beika should pass by soon on his way home. After having surreptitiously watched Kudou's investigation, Kaito was looking forward to this meeting, particularly after the change in Kudou's posture when the detective had reached his final deduction of the case... the one he couldn't share with the police.
A predatory smile crept into Kaito's expression. Speak of the devil...
Kudou had finally appeared on the path, trademark walking stick in hand and darkened sun glasses covering his eyes. He looked tense and tired beneath the cut of his high school uniform, but still alert. Kaito waited until Kudou was almost directly below him, then leaned forward.
"Good afternoon, detective," he purred.
Kudou instantly came to a dead stop, gripping the top of his cane so tightly his knuckles turned white.
Kaito's smile widened at the reaction."Ah, so you do remember me."
"What do you want?" The detective's voice was low and rough, smothered anger bubbling just under the surface.
"Have you ever played chess? The queen is the more effective fighter, but without the king," Kaito gestured slightly with a hand, even knowing Kudou wouldn't see it, "the game ends."
"...I've played on occasion. It's not my favorite game, but I know how."
Kaito chuckled in satisfaction. "Welcome to my chess game, Kudouu-kun. The rules are simple..."
Author's Note: Yes, that was Danny Phantom, specifically the universe of Ellen Brand's OutsideLookingIn, because Kaito needs to talk to someone and there aren't many people who could listen and whom Kaito would be willing to talk to. Credit to Ellen Brand for the character and dialogue of Cade Maboroshi.
Next time: Things Happen.
11/08