Disclaimer: I don't own DCMK

A Curse Marked Fate

26: Between the Dots

Though he had met the man once already back at Bell Tree Springs, Shinichi found himself feeling unaccountably nervous when Kaito all but dragged him into Kuroba Toichi's office. Most of the institute's guests were either still mingling in the lounge or had gone off back to their own homes and lives, and Shinichi had expected to be doing the same. Except Kaito had insisted that they visit his father first. So here they were.

Last time Shinichi had seen the Archmage, he had been with the Mouris under the pretense that he was his own cousin, Conan. He wasn't at all sure how to broach the subject of his true identity or even whether he should. Sure, it would be easier to ask about the potential applications of Toichi's research in his own case if the man knew who he was—and Shinichi would be lying ten thousand ways if he said he didn't want to know if there was a chance Toichi's theories might actually be able to neutralize his curse, but it was never easy to come out and tell someone that you had been deceiving them. Besides, he was fairly sure that his parents had been talking to this man about him, and, not knowing what exactly they might have discussed, he couldn't help but feel all the more awkward.

Kaito, however, didn't give him any time to puzzle over his own introduction. Rather, he took the entire matter out of Shinichi's hands by pushing Shinichi forward from where the younger boy had been unconsciously trying to hide behind his taller friend's legs and announcing, "Hey Dad, I brought Shin-chan up to see you."

Kaito hadn't known for sure one way or another whether his father knew about Shinichi's current shrinking situation, but he had been half hoping that the answer was a no, and that he would be able to catch his father by surprise for a change. He got his wish as the older Kuroba looked up from his desk at Kaito then down at the small boy peering worriedly up at him through big blue eyes.

Toichi's jaw didn't actually drop. Like his son, he had a Poker Face any gambler would envy. But his eyebrows did shoot up, and it took him nearly two whole seconds to actually speak—a record, as far as Kaito could remember. And he filed the moment away for later contemplation as he rubbed his mental hands together in glee.

"Shin-chan," the man murmured slowly, eyes never leaving the increasingly uncomfortable Shinichi. "Kudo Shinichi, I presume?"

Left with no other choice, Shinichi nodded. "Um, I'm sorry I didn't say anything before. It's just I'm trying not to draw too much attention to…" He waved a hand vaguely at himself. "That's why I'm going by Conan."

The elder Kuroba's lips quirked into a wry smile. "Understandable. And a wise decision on your part. Rest assured, your secret is safe with me. But I must say, I'm surprised Yukiko didn't mention anything about this…change to me."

"Well, Mom doesn't actually know," Shinichi admitted, and it was Kaito's turn to raise his eyebrows in the Kuroba equivalent of a dropped jaw.

"You mean you didn't tell your parents that you've shed ten years and gone back to elementary school?" he demanded.

"It's not like they could do anything about it," Shinichi explained a little defensively. "They're in America right now anyway. And I've got everything under control here. They don't really need to know."

Besides, he added to himself, he strongly suspected that his mother would only squeal about how adorable she thought he was. Then she'd probably fly back to Japan just to take a million pictures so they'd have something to remember the whole peculiar incident by. He shuddered just thinking about it. He had never really been able to talk to his parents about anything serious. It wasn't that he thought they didn't care because he knew they did, but sometimes he felt like they lived in an entirely different world from the one he occupied.

The two Kurobas traded looks over Shinichi's defiant cowlick.

"Well," Toichi said. "Since you're here, how about joining us for dinner? Provided you two haven't spoiled your appetites with the snacks downstairs," he added dryly, eyeing his son in a manner that suggested he could somehow see the cheesecake, three cookies, and two brownies Kaito had eaten before they'd come upstairs.

Kaito only grinned back at his father. "I know better than that. Mom said she'd be making something special today. She'd have my head if I couldn't eat it."

Toichi laughed. "Indeed. Well, Shinichi?"

Shinichi hesitated for only a moment before agreeing.

X

"Hey Dad," Kaito said, slipping into his father's study and shutting the door quietly behind himself. His face, the older Sky Mage noted, was devoid of its usual good cheer. It displayed an unreadable calm, but his eyes were sharp like those of a hunter.

"What is it?" Toichi asked, though he suspected he already knew why his son was here wearing that face.

"Earlier, why didn't you ask if Shinichi would test that prototype for you?" Kaito demanded, deciding that the direct approach would be best here. "You did have it with you."

"I did," Toichi agreed then sighed. "And, as a matter of fact, I did consider it, but I'm afraid things are more complicated than that."

"How complicated could it be?"

His father gave him a reproving look. "Now, now. You should know better than that. Would you really want Shinichi to take that risk? If it doesn't work, or if it is too weak, people could get hurt. I do not believe he would want to take that chance."

Kaito suppressed a grimace. Of course. He should have realized that from the start. Testing the efficacy of his father's latest creation on Shinichi would inevitably mean putting not only Shinichi himself but everyone around him at risk of random bouts of bad luck. And while that didn't necessarily mean that anyone would get hurt (bad luck came in many forms), it did open up the possibility. Shinichi might be afforded some protection by his Blessing, even if how much was anyone's guess, but he would never condone an experiment that could result in casualties.

"But we have to test it somehow," he muttered, throwing himself into the extremely plush armchair his father had installed in the corner of the study for use when he had a lot of papers to read or needed to catch a brief nap. "I don't suppose throwing spells at the prototype while it's active would be a realistic enough test."

"No, it wouldn't," his father agreed, lips quirking into a wry smile. "I might have worked if this amulet was designed to actually nullify magic, but it can't."

That got Kaito's attention. He shot bolt upright—not easy to do in a super plush armchair built for sinking into, and leveled his father with a piercing stare. "What do you mean? I thought that was the whole point?"

"Most people are more interested in nullification, so that's what they want to talk about. The possibility exists, but, as I said at the presentation, there is a lot more to consider than just flipping a switch. Such magic, while potentially useful, would also lead to a sudden destabilization of all that our world has been built upon, as those black suits so kindly pointed out. So what I have here is a prototype meant not to nullify but merely to weaken."

Toichi flicked his wrist, and suddenly there was a small, jade green charm shaped like a four-leaf clover dangling from his fingers on a fine gold chain. It spun slowly, seeming to throw off sparks of green and gold light that had nothing to do with refracted beams.

Kaito found he couldn't tear his eyes away from the amulet. There was something about it… He could feel the power in it—small and not exactly right somehow even though it didn't feel dangerous.

"We are perhaps tampering with things that mankind was never meant to touch," his father said quietly, possibly picking up on Kaito's confusion at his own abrupt discomfort. "Our magic is a part of us just as much as it is a part of our world and the things we make with it. It is only natural to feel an aversion to something that could jeopardize all that."

Kaito reached a hand towards the pendant then hesitated. "May I?"

"Go ahead."

The little green clover made Kaito's fingers tingle when he touched it. Up close, he could almost swear that he saw the faintest of distortions in the air around it, but, whenever he tried to focus on that distortion, it would vanish as though it had never been.

"You said this weakens magic?"

"Over time," said his father. "In other words, it calls for long term exposure. So, for instance, if you placed this on your Sky Cycle right now, nothing would happen. You could drive it all you want. But if you leave it on the vehicle for a few weeks, you may start to notice it beginning to glitch. I suppose it's a little like speeding up the natural degradation of a spell. The area it affects is pretty limited, but, considering the end goal, that's actually a plus."

Kaito nodded slowly, fingering the pendant. He noted the tiny, delicate inscriptions on both the front and back of the clover. Some of it, he recognized as conduits that would allow a mage to channel power into the amulet for storage. There was one conduit each for Sky and Earth magic.

"How often does it have to be charged?" he asked.

"This one needs a boost roughly once every three weeks. I've also found that it's best if both types of magic are channeled into the amulet at the same time at the same rate. Failing that, both types of magic should be brought up to a roughly similar level within thirty minutes. Otherwise, the structure of the spell comes apart."

Kaito wrinkled his nose. "That's really inconvenient."

"I agree completely," Toichi assured him. "I'm working on it. But, for now, that's just how it has to be."

"And the testing?" Kaito pressed. "You must have some ideas about how to test its efficacy."

Smiling, Toichi rose and crossed the room to his office window. Several odd, glittering contraptions were arranged along the wide sill there. At the far end of the row was a round, clay pot in which a delicate, miniature maple tree with leaves like spun gold. Picking up this pot, Toichi carried it, tree and all, to his desk, where he set it down and gestured for Kaito to step closer.

"Your mother grew this for me," he explained. "Japanese red maple in miniature. But I've added a few spells of my own."

"Which is why it looks like it's made of pure gold."

"Exactly. So I just have to place our lucky amulet here." Taking the clover amulet from Kaito, the older mage set the charm at the base of the little tree and wove its glittering, gold chain through the branches. When he had finished, it looked as though the amulet had been meant to be so presented all along, adorning this living piece of art.

"Now we just keep the amulet powered up and wait. If the maple starts to fade from gold to red then we'll know the coloring spell is gradually breaking down. If we observe closely, we may even get a better sense of how this will happen and when. We'll also study if the amulet disrupts any of the underlying magic directing the growth of the tree and so on and so forth. It should give us quite a lot of data."

"Well, maybe, but that's not exactly helpful data," Kaito pointed out. "It won't tell us if it'll help with a curse because curses don't always deal with the same forces our magic does."

"True. Which is why we will eventually have to find someone with a Curse Mark who would be willing to test out a prototype. Someone who wouldn't be risking too much by doing so," he added when Kaito began to open his mouth. "There are a few other Curse Bearers I will be talking to soon. I'll keep you updated on how it goes, if you want."

"I do," Kaito said without hesitation.

Toichi nodded, unsurprised. "Now I have a question for you." He leveled his son with a stern, searching look. "What happened to Shinichi-kun?"

Kaito's breath escaped him in a sigh as he returned to the armchair. He took a moment to collect his thoughts before replying. He had known this moment was coming. He'd discussed it with Shinichi, and the two of them had agreed that they should share what they knew with Toichi, but where to start?

"Have you ever heard of the Choice Foundation?"

TBC