Disclaimer: I don't own DCMK
A Curse Marked Fate
36: Hamster Wheels
Shinichi felt as though there were a dozen frantic hamsters racing around and around in his head, and all he could hear was the patter of their furry little feet.
Kaito had been right when he'd said that Shinichi hadn't thought much about romantic relationships before insofar as they applied to himself (he thought about them plenty during cases where such things served all too often as motives for murder). Part of this lack of thought was the simple fact that, unlike Sonoko, Shinichi didn't believe that romance was essential for a happy life (if anything, he'd seen plenty of proof that no relationship was worlds better than a bad relationship). But part of it had also been that he'd felt he literally had no time for such things. He could suffer some terrible accident at any moment. And when that was your fate, starting a relationship would just be irresponsible if not downright cruel.
Considering these fundamental believes, he had simply never given any thought to dating or even what kind of a person he might like even when Sonoko tried to grill him on the subject because she couldn't believe anyone could live into their teens and not have spent hours picturing their perfect partner (Shinichi took a certain amount of pleasure in proving her wrong on this count). Instead, he had thrown all his energies into studies, his detective work, and soccer. He had found things he felt a passion for, and that was a blessing all its own that had helped, each in their own ways, to define him and the life he thought he wanted and could have.
But, unless his estimates were wildly off target, he should have five or six free passes left—provided he didn't get himself killed before his blessing finished restoring him to his proper age. And that meant that there was indeed a possibility that he should be thinking about his future beyond college graduation.
That thought alone had been overwhelming enough without tossing in this new development.
He wasn't sure what to think. He wasn't even sure where to start, but he also couldn't stop thinking about it.
In contrast, the Sky Mage seemed to have literally put their earlier conversation out of his mind and gone straight back to his normal, cheery and mischievous self like nothing had changed. He had brought a variety of magical outdoor games, some of which he said he had helped create, so that he and Shinichi could test them out.
"They're all in the beta testing stage," he informed Shinichi as he pulled a variety of objects out of a bag that really should have been too small to fit them all. "So they might not all work right. But none of them require the players to use any magic themselves."
"Okay," Shinichi said a bit dubiously as he picked up what appeared to be an ordinary soccer ball with silver runes inscribed in the black patches and gold runes inscribed in the white. "So what's this one do?"
"Ah, that's Kitamura-san's pet project. It's for playing soccer when you're alone—or when you have too few people like we have now and want to play an actual game."
"How does it work?" Shinichi asked, turning the ball over in his hands. It felt ordinary, but the runic inscriptions made it look less like a soccer ball and more like an oversized Christmas bauble.
"You see these two circles here?" Kaito pointed to a pair of spell circles drawn on opposite sides of the ball. "You hold the ball between your hands with those circles under your palms. Once you feel it vibrate twice, you start walking around the perimeter of the area you intend to use as your field."
As he talked, the Sky Mage started walking. A ribbon of white light appeared behind him, soon marking out a rectangular field with their tree at one corner. A section of the ribbon halfway down each of the rectangle's short sides changed color once the field was complete: one became bright blue, the other soda orange.
Curious, Shinichi waved a hand through the ribbon, half expecting to find a wall or feel a tingle, but his hand felt nothing but air.
"The boundary is for the ball," Kaito explained. "Since we were inside the perimeter when it was drawn, the magic recognizes us as players for the blue team. We can walk in and out of course, but the ball will stay within the boundary. The game ends when all us real players step out."
"Oh. Okay." Shinichi withdrew his hand and turned to survey the open stretch of grass. "So, um…what now?"
Kaito grinned. "Now we play. Here. Give it a try."
Feeling a little odd facing an empty field, Shinichi gave the ball an experimental kick towards the orange goal. The ball sailed over the grass then, quite abruptly and without any apparent reason, it bounced upward and came spinning back towards him. Galvanized into action by the sudden movement, Shinichi ran to intercept the ball only to have it shoot sideways before he'd even reached it. At that point, the ball began to hop back and forth like a pair of feet dancing on hot coals before it leapt straight at Kaito.
Just as surprised as Shinichi had been, the Sky Mage nearly tripped over the ball—something that Shinichi had to admit was kind of funny considering Kaito was so rarely caught off guard. But Kaito, being the athletic person that he was, pulled himself together with admirable speed and sent the ball soaring back towards the opposing goal. Only it was stopped once again by nothing at all.
That nothing proceeded to dribble the ball around several invisible obstacles until another pair of invisible feet stole it and began herding it back the other way again.
Not sure what else to do, Shinichi ran after it. Both it and he were nearing the goal when, again without warning, the ball spun towards him. It was only instinct and years of practice that had him catching it on his foot and kicking it into the goal.
Or he would have kicked it into the goal if some invisible force hadn't blocked it and sent it bouncing the other way again.
A frantic and very confusing hour later, Kaito and Shinichi wound up sitting on the sidelines of the makeshift field and watching the enchanted soccer ball dance and jiggle and jounce from one end of the field to the other completely unaided. Judging from the activity of the ball, the game was still in full swing and going strong even without their input. If anything, it seemed to be going more smoothly without them.
"It looks like we're losing," Kaito observed.
"Well what do you expect?" Shinichi asked between gasps for breath. "Our team is playing two short."
"Though they're scoring better now than when we were in there." The Sky Mage heaved a melodramatic sigh. "There is clearly need for improvement."
"Since the team that's all invisible and untiring has all the advantages," Shinichi agreed with a wry smile. "It's kind of interesting to watch though."
"True."
They watched as the ball performed a spectacular series of midair bounces and turns without ever once brushing a single blade of grass. It proceeded to rocket to the other end of the field and score a goal.
Shinichi blinked. "Wow."
"Impressive," Kaito agreed. The two shared a look then laughed.
The Sky Mage hopped to his feet and brushed bits of grass off his pants before offering Shinichi a hand up. "How about we try a different game?"
"I think I'd prefer something a little less strenuous," Shinichi said. An hour of trying (with very limited success) to play ball against eleven invisible, tireless opponents with Kaito and nine equally invisible and tireless teammates had frankly been exhausting in more ways than one.
Kaito heartily agreed.
It wasn't until they were packing up for the evening that Kaito dropped yet another surprise on Shinichi by informing him that the Sky Mage had already made arrangements for Shinichi to spend the night at his house.
"But I can't," he protested. "The curse, remember?"
"Ah, but that's the point," Kaito replied. "Since we parted ways with Mouri Kogoro at about eleven this morning, you have until five tomorrow morning before the affect of his curse really wears off. In the meantime, we can study how Dad's anti-magic amulet prototypes interact with you. He says it's too risky to just let you try them out, but, if you're at our place and it's only for a little while, we can at least start to get a feel for how well they might work for you. From the data we've already gathered, we're pretty sure the amulets should at least give us the leeway we'd need to get you home tomorrow morning safe and sound."
Shinichi opened his mouth then shut it again. Half of him still wanted to argue, but the other half realized that the urge was largely borne of habit. Wasn't this what he wanted? It was, but he did not want it quite so much that he would risk Kaito and his household. On the other hand, he couldn't logically disagree with Kaito's assessment of the situation. The risks did seem pretty minimal.
Minimal but not nonexistent.
Shinichi was still stuck in his internal debate when Kaito's phone rang.
"It's Mom," Kaito noted before bringing the little device to his ear. "Hello? Yeah, I know, we're about to start heading back right now."
A pause.
"No problem. We'll see you later then. Bye."
"What is it?" asked Shinichi.
"Nothing really. Mom just wants us to stop by the Institute on our way back. Dad hasn't been answering his phone, which usually means he's in the middle of something. She wants us to remind him that she's expecting him home for dinner tonight."
A sudden chill of foreboding made Shinichi frown. "Does that happen often?"
"What?"
"Your Dad not answering his phone."
"Oh that." Kaito turned and began leading the way back out of the park. "Well, I wouldn't say it happens a lot, but sometimes he gets caught up in a project and just doesn't notice someone's calling. Or he might be in the middle of something time-sensitive that he can't just step away from. He'll generally call back once he's finished with whatever it is, but sometimes it can take a while."
Shinichi nodded. If Kaito said this was normal then this was normal. Still, Shinichi couldn't seem to shake the nagging feeling that something had gone or was about to go horribly wrong.
It was his paranoia talking, he told himself as he sat on the back of Kaito's Sky Cycle with the wind whipping past his face. Everything had just been going so well, with each piece of the puzzle falling into place one after the next just the way they had hoped, that he couldn't help but feel that it was about time they hit a snag. But that wasn't a logical way to think at all.
He reminded himself of this again as they crossed into the Ekoda district and again as they neared Clover Institute. But then they were rounding the corner, and the Institute itself was looming before them. The building was a hulking shadow in the late evening gloom. The only indication that the place was not deserted was a flickering light in a handful of the upper windows.
Shinichi stared fixedly at that light as Kaito maneuvered them into a parking space. That color and the way it wavered and danced…
He gripped Kaito's jacket as his heart skipped a beat. "Kai, that's firelight!"
"We do work with fire for certain projects," Kaito replied, following the younger boy's gaze upward. He stiffened, indigo eyes narrowing. "That window," he started to say, but Shinichi never heard the rest of the comment because the very windows in question chose that moment to flash a blinding blue. Then they exploded outward in a roar of blue white flames.
TBC