Disclaimer: I do not own Detective Conan/Case Closed.
Pairing: KaitoxShinichi
Chapter Rating: T
Collection Summary: In an infinite number of universes, they still always manage to find each other. A KaiShin sci-fi collection. (This is the science fiction counterpart to the Different Suns collection)
Chapter Summary: Even in a world where superpowers are slowly becoming commonplace, the discovery of such powers can still be shocking. Kaito and Shinichi share their own experiences with the awakening of their powers.
Heroes and Villains: Power
[Superpower Verse]
The airport was a familiar place to both Kaito and Shinichi. As Milky Way agents, they often had to travel both within the country and abroad. Kaito in particular had been all over the world even before the agency had recruited him as both a professional magician and as a phantom thief. As it was, they knew just how to time their trip to the airport to avoid heavy traffic and spend the least amount of time waiting in line. As it was, they had plenty of time before they were to board their flight to eat an early lunch and peruse the duty-free shops for anything interesting. Shinichi ended up buying two new books while Kaito purchased a bag of chocolate-covered almonds and another of chocolate pretzels. With only fifteen minutes left before boarding time, they made their way to the seating area by their gate to wait.
Shinichi sat down at the end of the row of plastic chairs then immediately got up and moved to the next seat over.
Kaito raised an eyebrow. "Something wrong?"
Shinichi scratched his cheek, looking sheepish. "Not really. The last person to sit there had a really bad stomach ache though. He just left to go to the bathroom."
"Ah." Nodding sagely, Kaito dropped into said seat. "You know, I never really thought about it before, but that ability of yours can be kind of a pain sometimes, huh?"
"It does have a few inconveniences," Shinichi admitted with a shrug. "But there's not much to be done about it. Besides, object memories grow dimmer the more that time passes unless there's a strong emotional influence involved."
"So how long would you have to wait before you felt okay sitting in this seat?" Kaito asked, looking interested.
"Not long, since the guy with the stomach ache didn't sit there very long. I'd say maybe an hour or two. And I would've been all right if I hadn't touched the armrest." He grimaced. "I should've been more careful. My abilities don't generally react without skin contact with the object."
"But when I brought you those shell casings from my, ah, night job, you knew where they were bought, kept, and fired from."
"When I focus, I can usually read up to a week's worth of memories from an object. If there's a strong, emotional influence on that object, I can get memories from even longer ago. And really traumatic impressions never fully go away," he added more quietly, gaze growing distant.
Kaito reached over to grasp his right hand, giving it a comforting squeeze. "It must've taken a while to figure all that out, huh?"
"Actually, it only took a month or two," Shinichi admitted. "I did a lot of experimenting early on to check the boundaries because it was driving me nuts. I was really afraid that I wouldn't be able to function normally ever again?"
Kaito leaned forward. This was new to him. "What do you mean?"
"Well, I'd just turned twelve when my powers developed. It caught everyone by surprise since most people who develop powers do so earlier than that. At the beginning, I actually just thought I was sick because of the circumstances. Mom was home at the time, and she wanted to go shopping at this boutique she'd heard about from a friend. It was an hour's drive away, and I felt really awful the whole way there. But I thought I was carsick. You know how my mom drives."
Kaito let out a snort of laughter. "I'll say."
"Well, the feeling went away really fast after I got off the car, so I didn't think much about it. But it came right back again when I got back in. I told Mom I was feeling ill, so she drove me home. On the way, she told me that I should be careful because there was a bad flu going around. Someone she knew had caught such a bad case of it that Mom had had to drive her to the hospital.
"So you were picking up on that person's trip in that car."
"I believe so. Though again, I didn't realize that until much later. It was just that after that day, I started having more and more of these…moments when I'd be swamped by weird memories or feelings that I knew weren't mine. I'd pick up a library book and suddenly feel like the ending was terrible and the book wasn't worth reading even though I hadn't even looked at a single page. At the same time, I would think I was in a house that I would think was home except that I'd never seen it before even though I also knew I was standing in the library. Another time, I borrowed a pencil and just knew that the kid who lent it to me had been using it to pick his nose just last period."
Kaito guffawed. "That must've been pleasant."
Shinichi had to laugh too. "I never borrowed anything from that classmate again. Anyway, Things just got crazier and crazier. Until one day Ran and Sonoko dragged me to the theater and I burst into tears the moment we sat down. I think the girl who sat there before me was recently dumped by her boyfriend. Even Sonoko was freaked out. They took me home and called my parents."
Shinichi sat back in his seat and closed his eyes, thinking back. "As you know, neither of my parents have powers, so they really didn't have any idea what to do with me. They asked me a lot of questions and brought in a doctor friend of theirs. Eventually, they figured out that I was picking up memories from the objects that I touched. I started wearing clothes that would keep me covered up and minimize how much contact I had with things, but we found that the clothes themselves had to be new, and other people couldn't borrow them. But I knew that I had to find a way to control or at least understand my abilities if I didn't want to end up living like a…a prisoner, I guess. I mean, every time I went anywhere, it was an ordeal. Restaurants and public bathrooms, for instance. It's impossible not to touch something directly somewhere in those places—utensils, cups, sinks, whatever. It was a nightmare."
"I can imagine," Kaito murmured sympathetically. "I take it you can't choose to turn it off for a while?"
"No. But I did learn how to maintain my self awareness when I encounter outside memories and how to better read those memories. When you know what the memories belong to and what they're actually about, it's easier to keep grounded in your own existence. I guess it's a little hard to explain, but that's how it feels to me. I only get overwhelmed these days if I encounter something with a really powerful, emotional memory attached."
Kaito nodded. "Glad to hear it. Seriously though, I had no idea it was so bad for you."
Shinichi shrugged. "You get used to it. And it's helped me solve a lot of murders that might otherwise have stayed unsolved, so I'm grateful. But what about you?" he asked, turning a curious gaze on his partner. "How did you discover your powers?"
Kaito's lips twitched as he held back a grin. "Well, you know Aoko, right?"
"Your childhood friend?"
"Yeah. We discovered we both had powers on the same day. We were eight. She was mad at me for saying something bad about a singer she was gaga over, so she pulled this stuffed scaly horror out of her bag and tried to hit me with it. Next thing we knew, the monstrosity was gone—but so was everything else Aoko had with her. That included her bag, her books, and her clothes."
Shinichi gaped, horrified.
Kaito laughed. "That's right. It's a good thing we were both just kids. If we'd been older, I don't think she would ever have forgiven me. But she got even because she set my hair on fire. And so we both realized we had superpowers. Since my mom did too, she started training us on how to control our powers so the same things didn't happen again. But of course there were a lot of accidents before we really got it all figured out." He snickered at the memories.
"Did it take you long to learn?"
"Depends on what you mean. Taking things apart is easy. I mastered that in like a day. But putting things together is an entirely different story. I might even have to say I'm still learning on that front. If it's just about putting the same material back together in a different shape—like turning your tie into handcuffs," he smirked as Shinichi flushed, "then it's just about imagination and focus. I got that down pretty quickly. But actually turning one substance into another is a constant learning process. It means having to do a lot of studying about molecular structures and whatnot."
"I guess someone without your memorization skills would have a hard time using your powers," Shinichi observed.
Kaito smirked. "Indeed."
Overhead, the airport speakers crackled to life.
"Flight 572 for Blue Moon Island now boarding at Gate 4B."
"That's us." Rising from his seat, Kaito offered Shinichi his hand. "Shall we go then, my dear?"
Shinichi rolled his eyes, but he let Kaito pull him to his feet. Together, they moved to join the passengers lining up before the gate.
-End of Chapter-