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Chapter 1
Kaito had never been more terrified in his life than when he realized Jii did not see or hear him when he landed at their appointed meeting place. It wouldn't have been that big a deal (he'd snuck up on Jii more than once, after all), but he'd landed in front of the man and when he reached out a hand, he'd realized he could see through it.
A tentative poke at the older man's shoulder (what if his hand went through?) had left Jii confused and jumpy, but garnered no recognition. An hour later, Jii called Kaito's phone—which had been left as a smoking ruin in a dumpster kilometers away—and started to get more than just worried.
Kaito didn't know what to do. He felt normal—well, normal-ish, except his attempts at talking had ended without sound and Jii hadn't even noticed. Watching Jii pace before his car in growing anxiety was turning into a kind of torture.
Kaito shivered. His latest rooftop encounter with Akako had involved some line about not being meant to be seen or heard, a flare of red light, and a brief blaze of agony.
Kaito wondered if he'd died.
Wait, he told himself, forcing back fear, Think.
Akako's spell had incorporated at least three languages that he didn't know, but the majority of it had been understandable enough, if fractured through another half-dozen possible origins with the base grammar cobbled directly from Japanese. The exact specifics were beyond him, but her parting comment as his consciousness had wavered back towards proper awareness had implied that he wasn't dead.
If not dead, though, what was he?
Not that it mattered. Even Akako hadn't been able to see him after whatever she'd done. Jii hadn't seen, but he'd felt it when Kaito had touched him. But… if he tried to find a way to explain or started leaving notes or writing on foggy windows around the older man, he'd end up driving his surrogate uncle into an early grave out of horror and guilt, no matter what he said. Anything he did would come off as haunting—might be haunting, even.
Hakuba? No, Hakuba would probably panic himself into moving back to London, and Aoko would freak. So would the elder Nakamori, at that, and Akako had put him into this position to begin with.
That left Tantei-kun (also known as Conan or Shinichi, depending on other company).
The Agency was probably a bad idea. That only left the Kudo mansion, which—was actually probably a great place to hide out, as neighborhood gossip had already started to label it a haunted house. Although he'd have to figure out something for the doves, wouldn't he? And… well, he'd made a lock for the mechanism that allowed entry into the Kid workshop.
Cleanup first. He slipped into his own home as though entering a heist building, ghosting through and removing anything that could be used as evidence (even circumstantial) towards him being International Criminal 1412 and sequestering it safely in the workshop before locking the painting in place and setting up the 'week vacation' style food and water dispensers (making sure to have just enough space at the tops to make it look like he hadn't come back and crumbling some seed-husks below the feeder) and carefully securing all the cage doors open so his doves would be free to roam the aviary and get out through the custom-made dove chute if they wanted to.
He left his room in its usual mild disarray, a bit of fan-style Kid paraphernalia (which, yes, he actually did like—more for the amusing irony and mockable inaccuracies than narcissism, thank you) scattered about with his (finished) homework tucked with his books into his schoolbag on the desk.
In the kitchen, he wrote himself a shopping list, pressing the pen down just hard enough to indicate the heavy-handed carelessness he used at school. He tore off the list, leaving the faint impressions on the page beneath for whoever ended up searching the house to find.
Everything else he left as it was, all of it pointing to him having left on an errand (which he had) and simply never having come back.
It was only when he made his way to the train station that things really started to hit. No one could see him.
He choked on what should have been a hysterical sob but for its silence, and not even the woman moving tiredly across the platform (not even two meters away) glanced in his direction.
Unseen and unheard.
Please, let Shinichi be able to understand. Please.
xxxx
Hours passed as Kaito paced empty halls, frustrated and edgy. Hungry, too, but the thought of going out to get something (even from his own home) was terrifying. To be unseen while alone was one thing, but unseen while in the crowds he could usually command so easily was terrifying. Even without that, being invisible but solid was dangerous.
Footsteps, not his own. Of course not his own, he couldn't hear his own footsteps no matter how loud he tried to be. Not his footsteps, not the swish of his cloak, not his own voice when he panicked and tried to yell, to scream.
There. Tantei-kun, Conan—and something shifted, something invisible fell away. Tantei-kun's shoulders slumped and he let out a heavy sigh, rubbing a hand over his face and casting a tired glance around him. His eyes didn't pause at Kid-white.
Not even Tantei-kun could see him.
Kaito tried not to drown in his own despair and found something to focus on in Tantei-kun's—no. Shinichi's visible exhaustion, Shinichi's worry, and he trailed after the too-small teen as he made his way past the library and down the hall.
Shinichi paused.
Kaito didn't believe it when Shinichi called his name in a low, worried tone, didn't respond. Couldn't respond, was the bitter knowledge—nothing he did made any sound at all.
After a moment, Shinichi started walking again and Kaito moved closer, hoping that somehow the miniature meitantei would realize he was there.
When Shinichi startled and spun towards a mirror on the opposite wall—prompting Kaito to turn in the same direction, attention focused on the other boy—before turning a full circle and ending with his eyes fixed on the mirror again, Kaito's heart stuttered. Could—could Shinichi see him in that?
Kaito raised his own eyes to the reflective glass and realized that he could see himself in it, and not in that barely-there ghostlike manner that he could see his body. He looked as solid and real as he ever had.
His eyes met Shinichi's reflected gaze and he took a hesitant step forward.
Shinichi's gaze followed the movement and Kaito felt faint with the force of his relief, setting a hand carefully on top of Shinichi's head, able to see smooshed-down hair through the translucence of his own palm.
The boy tensed, turned, and scanned at where Kaito stood without seeing.
Only the mirror, then… Would anyone be able to see him so reflected, or was Shinichi somehow special?
A small hand fisted in the cloth of his pant-leg and Shinichi's breath hitched. "Kaito?"
Kaito swallowed at the tremor in the usually confident voice and tapped a finger on the detective's head, nudging him back towards the mirror with his free hand. He wanted to be seen again.
"Kaito… what happened?"
He pulled off the hat and monocle, not wanting to be Kid at such a moment, and opened his mouth to tell Shinichi everything, to explain what Akako had done and use his ever-perfect memory to find the rest of the spell and devise a way to break it—and the only words he could get his lips to form were short and cryptic.
Damn you, Akako, he thought viciously. He couldn't even explain properly! It wasn't too hard to see where Tantei-kun's mind was going (death dogged his footsteps like a tracking hound), but he couldn't even say he wasn't dead.
At least, he didn't think he was. He was hungry, and ghosts didn't get hungry, right? Not that he knew anyone who'd actually know. And food was often used as offerings to the dead… he didn't want to be dead.
There had to be some way to figure this out, whatever 'this' was, exactly.
Another look at Shinichi convinced him that it was best for 'this' to wait, though, and it was late enough that he was willing to hazard a supply-trip if he could just get the visibly exhausted Shinichi to rest. Unable to explain, he simply reached down and scooped the smaller male up into an easy baby-carry (because 'bridal' didn't count when they were that small).
Tantei-kun in tow, he made his way up the stairs to the room he'd already figured out was Shinichi's, using a careful flick of wrist and magician's wire, he swept the dust-cover to the floor and yanked the covers down far enough to drop the detective into bed.
Shinichi started to sit, opening his mouth to protest, and Kaito silenced him with a finger to his lips, pressing him back to the mattress with gentle hands and tugging the blanket up to cover him and tapped Morse Code on his forehead, hoping Shinichi knew it. He knew the little Tantei spoke English.
s-l-e-e-p
Shinichi stilled and let out a sigh. "All right. I'm looking into this in the morning, though."
Kaito huffed, ruffling his fingers through perpetually neat hair in an attempt to convey thanks.
Shinichi sighed again, closing his eyes.
Kaito watched carefully until he was sure that the detective wasn't faking (which took over half an hour), and slipped out of the house. He had errands to run.
xxxx
Gliding in the city was awesome… and a lot less likely to get him hit by some random car on the busier streets than walking.
Another shift and he slid sideways in the air, breathing freedom. Sneaky as he was, he'd rung up his own purchases at a convenience store (hey, he didn't steal anything with malicious intent!) while the only person working the store in the early morning hours had been taking the trash out back.
He'd only realized how long he and Tantei-kun had bumbled through too-cryptic conversation after he'd dumped his too-small friend/rival into bed. And 'too-cryptic' was true, when Tantei-kun's eyes had been on him in that mirror he'd found himself talking like a heist note. Very frustrating when he wanted to get his point across quickly.
Another shift as Beika Park passed beneath him and he looped once above trees and grass. So quiet, this night… it was unusual for him to be out in the sky in his Kid uniform without having police sirens screaming at him at least once.
But no, they couldn't see him, could they? No one would acknowledge him at all like this.
He tried to shove that thought back, bury it—but there was truth there. Only… maybe not quite no one.
He growled—silent, always silent, now—and arched off towards the Kudo mansion, landing carefully on the roof (just because he didn't make impact sound didn't mean he couldn't shatter the carton of eggs he had in the bag with a bad landing) and flipped himself lightly down to Shinichi's windowsill with one hand on an eave.
He slipped into the room, mildly surprised that he heard the smooth slide of the window against the frame as he lifted it. So. It was only him directly effected, if the window still made sound. He hadn't heard his own footsteps since the night before, but… he tapped on glass.
The tapping itself was silent, but the low thrum of glass vibrating against the window-frame was audible.
Oh, thank whatever kami was looking out for him. He could still get indirect sound. And… well, it wasn't like he needed to be visible for all his tricks. He could probably work out some way to communicate with Tantei-kun. And he could keep looking for Pandora, could still find and destroy the damn thing.
His musings were abruptly cut off when he saw the glint of Conan's eyes against the gloom, a frown crossing the child-sized face.
Oops. Now, how to make it clear what had happened to wake him without giving him a heart attack?
A little condensation on the window, and okay, he felt like a horror movie reject as he used the tip of one gloved finger to trace a 'sorry' character on the glass.
A blink. "Kaito?"
'Tantei-kun' he returned, pausing momentarily and adding 'didn't mean to wake you'. Huh. Lacking forced riddling in writing so far.
Tantei-kun sat up, scrubbing a hand over his eyes. "You need something?"
'No', Kaito informed him, then decided that some sort of explanation was probably warranted anyway, considering he was pretty sure Shinichi thought Kaito was haunting him. Well, he kind of was, except for the whole 'maybe not dead' thing. 'Didn't want to be alone'.
Tantei-kun's eyes closed and a pained expression crossed his face. "Then stay," he said after a long moment of silence.
Kaito's own breath stuttered at that. Here was Kudo Shinichi, who had long denied the existence of anything science could not prove, inviting a ghost to haunt him. (It didn't matter that Kaito didn't quite believe he was a ghost, because Tantei-kun obviously did.) He turned back to the window, breathing out to fog higher glass, and traced a single character in the resulting whitish haze. 'Sleep'.
A slow breath, "Okay. What about you? Do you need rest?"
Hm. Yeah, he'd been awake for way too long, and aside from the sandwich he'd snagged from the convenience store, he hadn't had anything to eat, either. He'd had water, of course, the Kudo mansion's power and water were kept in working order with occasional cleaning and maintenance done by Agasa-hakase or Mouri Ran (and Conan).
But he still had groceries that needed refrigeration. So… 'Wait here. Checking house'.
He glanced back to see Tantei-kun eying the door as it (to Shinichi's eyes anyway) opened itself, but the detective didn't move to get up.
A quick trip to the kitchen, groceries neatly stored away, and Kaito circuited the house. Better safe than sorry, and Shinichi was in hiding. Maybe Kaito didn't know who or what from, but Conan was obviously a disguise and probably not a planned one.
He re-entered Shinichi's room, Conan's eyes flicking towards the opening door before he shook his head slightly, frowning. Kaito moved over to trace 'clear' on the cold windowpane and made his way to the bed. He didn't see a whole bunch of options, and seven-year-olds didn't take up a lot of space even when they were normal sized. Conan really was closer to five-year-old size, but if he had trouble pulling off a believable 'genius seven-year-old', he'd never have managed to pass himself off as younger.
Kaito sat on the end of the bed, debating how to manage this, and (to his surprise) Tantei-kun shifted to make more space. He took the silent offer and arraigned himself along the side of the bed, using his own cape in lieu of a blanket. He really did need the sleep.
Maybe things would be better in the morning.
xxxx