Disclaimer: I don't own DCMK

A Curse Marked Fate

40: Gearing Up

Ran burst into the agency early the following morning to the shrieking of the smoke detector and a father who was cursing vehemently as he rushed to turn off the stove. Startled, she stood frozen in the doorway and stared as her father grabbed the fire extinguisher and blasted whatever had been in the pan on the stove to foamy death. An acrid stench filled the air.

The door to Shinichi's room burst open, and out charged none other than Kuroba Kaito with sparks of magic dancing about his hands and the expression of someone ready for a fight.

"Where—" he started to say then cut himself off as he took in the sight of Kogoro at the stove. The last flames hissed and surrendered right at that moment, and Kogoro sagged back.

Kaito's hands dropped to his sides, and whatever spell he'd been preparing dissipated. "Oh. I thought maybe we'd been followed. Glad I was wrong."

A bleary-eyed and extremely grumpy looking Shinichi appeared in the doorway that the Sky Mage had just vacated and leveled them all with the flat, supremely unimpressed stare he reserved for idiots who dragged him out of bed at unholy hours for stupid reasons.

The little detective was the first to notice the young woman still frozen in the doorway.

"Oh, hey Ran," he said, managing a passable if sheepish smile. "Welcome back. Did you have fun at Sonoko's?"

Ran stared at him then at the smoking pan with its charred contents that her father was now trying to dislodge into the trashcan via the expedient method of banging said pan against the trashcan's rim. Three solid thumps later, the mass of black…stuff parted ways with the pan and flopped into the trashcan, where it landed at the bottom with a sound like a slab of rock smacking plastic.

"I'm guessing Uncle fell asleep while the eggs were on the stove," Shinichi offered, glancing at the couch and the "I heart Yoko" bandana on it. They'd been up late, but Kogoro's devotion to Yoko had had him climbing out of bed early regardless to watch her Sunday morning show and cheer her on. But he had underestimated his own fatigue and probably fallen asleep on the couch only to eventually be woken by the cry of the smoke detector and possibly the scent of burning eggs.

Ran sighed. She would have liked to be surprised, but she wasn't. Slipping out of her shoes, she hurried into the kitchen to do what she could to salvage the situation.

Now too awake to go back to sleep, Kaito and Shinichi took turns completing their morning ablutions in the bathroom while Kogoro set about opening the windows and propping open the front door so that they could rid the apartment of the smell of smoke.

"So how is your dad doing?" Ran asked Kaito as she set a pot of rice porridge on a coaster in the middle of the dining table before going back for a handful of simple side dishes. Shinichi brought a stack of bowls and a bundle of chopsticks and spoons to the table and set everyone's seats.

"The doctor's say he should be fine in a few days," the Sky Mage replied. "He had a concussion, but it was a mild one, and he seems to be getting over it already. They want to run a few more tests to be sure though before they discharge him since head injuries are always tricky."

"I hope everything turns out well."

Kaito's eyes darkened. "Yeah. Me too."

"You can stay here with us as long as you need to," the girl offered. "I agree with your parents. You probably shouldn't stay home alone just in case someone decides to check if your Dad kept research at home."

The Sky Mage smiled. "Yeah, and I thank you for your concern, but I don't want to crowd you guys either."

"It would just be until your parents both go home," the brunette reasoned. "You said the hospital said it would only be a few days."

Kaito hesitated only a moment longer before giving in. After all, if he was being perfectly honest with himself, he really did want to stay. Not only would he get to spend more time with Shinichi, but this would also give him the chance to take a more in-depth look into his dear detective's everyday life. He'd have to get up extra early on the morrow to make it to his school on time, but that was a minor inconvenience for someone who had never needed much sleep. Besides, everyone in Ekoda would have heard of the fire by Monday, so he doubted he'd get in trouble even if he missed school altogether (not that he was planning to. He wanted to find out what people were saying, and one of the best places to do that was at school).

Speaking of people in Ekoda though, he had better call Aoko. If he waited for her to learn the news and call him, she'd bite his head off.

"He seems to be taking everything really well," Ran noted when Kaito stepped back into Shinichi's room to call Aoko.

Shinichi, who knew that Kaito wasn't nearly as calm about everything that had transpired as he appeared, made a noncommittal noise in the back of his throat and hopped off his chair to take his empty bowl to the sink. He blinked in surprise when Ran moved to pour a mug of coffee for him. Although she also poured a generous amount of milk into the coffee, turning it a creamy brown.

"You can have two cups if you have it with milk," she told him, handing him the mug. "At least then it's more nutritious."

Deciding he could live with those conditions, Shinichi returned to his seat, ready to spend a few quality minutes with his homemade latte.

Kogoro had finished his breakfast and gravitated back to the television by the time that Kaito reemerged from Shinichi's room, rubbing at his ear and wincing.

"Man, that girl's got her old man's lungs all right. Sheesh. It's like she's trying to blow out my eardrums."

"I take it Aoko-san was upset about what happened?" asked Shinichi.

"Oh yeah. Definitely." Kaito dropped into the chair beside him. "But she was more upset that I didn't call her about it last night right after it happened. She and her dad will be going to the hospital later today to see Tou-san."

"Will you be going too?" Ran asked as she set another mug of milky coffee down in front of Kaito.

He thanked her and took a long swig of the warm beverage. "They don't need me there right now. And I know they'll contact me if anything important comes up. I'll just call them later to see if they need anything. In the meantime, I'm going to start doing some research."

"Research?" Ran repeated, confused. She looked from Kaito's determined face to Shinichi's worried one, and her frown deepened. "What kind of research?"

"Finding the bombers," the Sky Mage said so matter-of-factly that Ran didn't react until he had finished his coffee and gone back into Shinichi's room to retrieve his backpack and the laptop inside it.

"Wait!" Ran exclaimed. "You're not going back to the Institute, are you? It's a crime scene. The police won't let you in."

"They won't even know I was there."

"I'll go with him," Shinichi said hastily, downing the last of his coffee and running into his room for a jacket.

X

"Do you actually have a plan?" Shinichi asked. Since the two of them had gone from the Institute to the hospital the previous night in the ambulance and then from the hospital to the agency in Kogoro's rental car, they now had to take the train back to Ekoda. This was fine by Shinichi, who was still trying to gage his friend's state of mind.

Kaito flashed him a quick, razor-edged grin that did not reassure him at all. "Of course I do."

"Are you going to tell me what it is?" the detective prompted when the older boy didn't elaborate.

"Nope."

Shinichi's brows furrowed in a half annoyed, half worried frown, but he knew Kaito wouldn't say a word more until and unless he wanted to. So he let the matter drop for now as a lost cause and turned his attention instead to doing a little research of his own on his phone starting with the Clover Institute's regular personnel. After all, whoever had attacked Toichi and Aya had gotten in without triggering any of the Institute's alarms. To Shinichi, that suggested inside knowledge if not necessarily inside help—though naturally that too was a possibility.

"Our train's here." Kaito rose, taking one of Shinichi's hands to make sure they wouldn't be separated in the rush of passengers getting on and off the train.

The ride to Ekoda was uneventful. Seeing that his little detective was reading bios on the Clover Institute website, Kaito started filling in details and observations of his own. He had literally grown up around most of these people, and sharing anecdotes helped him ease off the tension that he had only just realized was still humming in his veins. It was like a cold electricity crackling along his nerves. When he finally acknowledge its presence, he recognized it. This icy flame was fury.

Every time he closed his eyes, he saw that room of spellbound flames again. He saw his father with blood on his face, and he saw Aya being rushed into the emergency room, face deathly pale where it wasn't bruised purple and blue. Aya, who had come to the Institute first as a research intern then stayed on because she too shared the fascination that drove everyone at Clover Institute—that boundless enthusiasm for delving deeper into the limitless possibilities that magic had to offer, and who was still in the ICU. The doctors were sure that she would live. But they didn't yet know whether she would make a full recovery.

Realizing abruptly that Kaito had gone quiet a few minutes ago, Shinichi looked up to find the Sky Mage staring out the window. His expression was a perfect blank, but there was ice and steel in his eyes.

The police had roped off the entirety of the Institute as they investigated how the bombers might have gotten in. But Kaito's argument that the parking lot outside shouldn't have anything to do with their investigation and that he just wanted to retrieve his Sky Cycle got them past the outer barricade.

"You'll need to wait a few minutes," the officer escorting them said apologetically. "I know this is a difficult time for you. But we have to confirm that this is your Sky Cycle and that the beta testing license you have is legitimate. We also need to check when it arrived at the scene last night."

"Am I a suspect?" Kaito asked curiously.

"What? No, no, of course not." The officer looked horrified at the suggestion. "But we do need to check."

"I understand. Can we wait in the lobby? There are chairs there."

The officer hesitated then shook her head. "Sorry. No one who's not part of the investigation team is being allowed in. You'll have to wait here. Don't worry. This shouldn't take long."

Kaito handed his tester's license, driver's license and mage ID over to the officer without a fuss (since he was testing a potentially dangerous magical invention, he knew the checking process would be more complicated, but that worked to his advantage). The moment the woman had moved away to make the necessary calls, he leaned down to whisper into Shinichi's ear.

"I'll be right back. I'll leave my illusion here, but you'll have to cover for me if she finishes early. Oh, and don't worry. I won't disturb the crime scene."

Not waiting for a response, Kaito straightened, muttered something under his breath, then stepped sideways and apparently out of himself, leaving behind a perfect duplicate. Shinichi stared. The real Kaito—the one now slipping into the Institute right through the open front doors past a officer carefully examining the locks and sensors for signs of tampering—was a barely visible flicker of motion and color that the eye simply did not want to focus on. If Shinichi hadn't seen the point from which he'd started moving, he'd never have been able to track the Sky Mage's movements, and he lost sight of Kaito the moment he passed into the shadows beyond the lobby doors.

It was incredible—and ever so slightly disturbing. He seriously hoped that Kaito never developed any criminal aspirations.

Left to his own devices, Shinichi found his eyes drawn up to the broken windows and soot-smeared walls of the building's damaged wing. They looked like wounds in the Institute's otherwise bright and majestic face. And he thought of the people he had met that first time Kaito had brought him to this place—thought of their enthusiasm and their dreams of brighter things, and he had to admit that he didn't really believe the culprits had been among them. Those who worked at the Institute were those who strove to explore, innovate and create. He couldn't see any of them condoning the wanton destruction of years of research like this. It would go against everything they stood for.

So who would benefit from the crime?

Caught up in his thoughts, Shinichi nearly jumped out of his skin when the 'illusion' next to him suddenly spoke.

"Well that was easy," it said.

"What was?" asked the officer, returning with Kaito's various identifications.

The Sky Mage flashed the woman a disarming smile. "I was just expecting there'd be more fuss over my wanting to take my Sky Cycle back, this being a crime scene now and all."

The woman raised an eyebrow at that, perhaps wondering why Kaito was so sure that she hadn't just come back to tell him that no, he couldn't take his Sky Cycle after all, but apparently she decided it wasn't important. So she simply wished them well and gave them directions on what path to take back out through the barricades.

Shinichi waited until they were well away from the Institute and its swarm of police officers before demanding, "What did you do?"

"Just made a few copies of certain records," Kaito said airily before his eyes hardened, taking on the gleam of steel. "We need somewhere with reliable computers where we won't be disturbed. Any suggestions?"

Shinichi let out a half groan, half sigh that was three fourths exasperation and one fourth resignation. "We can go to Professor Agasa's."

TBC