Disclaimer: I do not own Detective Conan/Case Closed.

Pairing: KaitoxShinichi

Heroes and Villains: Blue Moon Island

[Superpower Verse]

Part 21

The chowder house was small, warm and brightly lit. Best of all, however, it was dry.

After the wet and dreary hike up the mountain then the equally wet and dreary hike back down it, the cozy little restaurant was heaven on Earth.

The mouthwatering aromas that filled it didn't hurt.

After all that exercise, both boys were pretty hungry. They decided to take the suggestion of their waiter and order a sourdough chowder bowl each and then share a large order of fish and chips.

"It was it, wasn't it?" Shinichi asked the moment that their waiter had left with their orders. "Her ring contains the Pandora shard."

Kaito sighed, indigo eyes deadly serious. "It is. But I don't think telling her that is going to convince her to give it to us. She really loves it."

"You mean she really loves the real one," Shinichi countered, frowning. "The one she actually lost."

"Yes, but she's not going to believe that one of the treasures actively escaped from the locked trunk in the mayhem, and it made itself look exactly like her engagement ring in order to conspire to switch places with it."

"…It sounds extra farfetched when you say it out loud," Shinichi agreed with a sigh of his own. "If the whole incident hadn't happened so long ago, her real ring might still be somewhere around those docks—provided someone else hasn't taken it home. If it had been recent, we might have been able to find it."

"But by now it could be anywhere," Kaito concluded then grimaced. "Finding the real ring would be the easiest way to solve this problem though. All we'd have to do is switch them out. We wouldn't even really need to go through the whole song and dance about Pandora and its history either. Maybe we should go see the jeweler and see if we can get a replacement."

Shinichi shook his head. "We could, but that wouldn't feel right. I'd really prefer to be able to give the real ring back. It's the one that matters because it's the one she and her fiancé chose together."

"It's been weeks since the incident though," Kaito pointed out. "We can go search the pier, but even I'd call those long odds."

They fell silent as Shinichi waved the waiter over to ask for more coffee and Kaito ripped another piece out of his sourdough bowl and popped it into his mouth. The magician had finished eating his bready bowl when Shinichi suddenly straightened in his seat.

"That's it!" he exclaimed.

Mouth still full, Kaito quirked an eyebrow at him. "Whrmf imf?"

"The fortune cookies," Shinichi explained.

Kaito's eyebrows only climbed higher.

"You know, we found our way to Tomoko because of your fortune about the fine print," Shinichi elaborated. "Okay, yeah, it was sort of a fluke. Don't give me that look. But that Crackling Beast certainly wasn't. And, well, mine told me to make use of all my resources."

"Isn't that what we're doing already?" Kaito asked once he'd swallowed his food and washed it down with a cup of water. "You know, with all the talking to people, going to the newspaper, checking out Alvita, hunting up and following clues, yada yada."

"Yeah, but we have another type of resource we haven't been using."

"Like what?"

"Our powers," Shinichi explained.

Kaito looked nonplussed. "I doubt Pandora would show you where it dumped its double before stealing its place though. And the only way I think mine would be of use here is if I got hold of the materials to make a replica ring for her. But you said you wanted to give her the original."

"I wasn't talking about our powers specifically. Don't you remember that vendor with all the charms and things? She said that the marble I bought was supposed to be able to find things."

Kaito's frown only deepened. "She also said that, if you couldn't find it within three days, you'd lose something of comparable value."

"This island's not that big though," Shinichi reasoned. "Three days should be plenty of time to find that ring if we have an idea of where to look."

"You're assuming it's still on the island," Kaito said dryly. "For all you know, a tourist found it and decided it'd be the perfect souvenir."

"It's still worth a try," Shinichi insisted.

"I'm not saying we can't try it," the magician replied. "But we should consider the potential consequences."

Shinichi had to concede that that was sensible. "Well then, you're the jewel expert. How much would you say that ring is worth?"

"If you mean in a purely monetary sense, maybe a thousand USD, give or take," Kaito replied.

"So we might lose all our luggage or something," Shinichi postulated. "It would be annoying, but I'd still say the risk is worth it."

Kaito did not look amused. "Think myths and legends, Tantei-kun. These things are never that straight forward. I'll bet anything that when that old lady said 'value', she wasn't talking just about money. In a folktale, a thing's value would more than likely include all its sentimental worth and the things it promises. To Miss Tomoko, the value of her engagement ring is definitely way more than a thousand bucks."

There was a long silence as Shinichi mulled this over.

"I'm not saying you're wrong," he said eventually. "But that kind of value system only has meaning if it's applied to the person using the magical treasure. And to us, Miss Tomoko's ring doesn't have any sentimental value. I would consider it slightly more valuable than a duplicate because I appreciate its meaning for her, but I'd say that should only stretch so far."

"Maybe," Kaito conceded. "But, for us, that ring would represent the promise of getting a hold of a Pandora shard, which would make it infinitely more valuable again."

"Except," Shinichi cut in, "that we still have the option of acquiring or creating a duplicate. As you said, with your powers, the latter would be pretty easy. We'd just need to find the right raw materials. I'd regret not being able to give her the original back, but it would be better than leaving Miss Tomoko with a Pandora-crafted fake that could easily end up ruining this island she loves one day."

It was Kaito's turn to sit back and consider. Eventually, he nodded. "I see your point. I can believe that that train of thinking would knock the value back down to something reasonable. Hang onto that thought then, and you can give it a try."

"Not you?" Shinichi asked. "You're the magician."

"True. But I'm hoping that your pragmatic view of this missing ring will keep its so-called value at a reasonable level in case we find ourselves being forced to pay for it."

Shinichi snorted but couldn't argue. He suspected that Kaito was right, and if he couldn't keep his thoughts on the ring's worth straight in his head, it could lead to complications they really didn't need.

-0-

"Satou-san!" Shinichi waved until he saw the dark-haired woman in question turn in his direction. Their eyes met, and she grinned and waved back.

A few minutes later, she was on her way to meet them with a slight, extremely tan woman right behind her. Both were carrying small suitcases since neither knew where they would be staying and so couldn't have taken the captain's offer to have their luggage sent to their residence even if they'd wanted to.

"You two look well," Satou said as she reached them. "The island treating you well?"

"Like royalty," Kaito replied with a grin of his own, slinging an arm around Shinichi's waist and pulling the detective flush against his side. "We might never leave."

"I think I have mixed feelings about that," Satou mused, eyes twinkling with mirth. "I'm glad you two are enjoying yourselves, but we'll be needing you back at home eventually."

"We'd go back if it's for you and the others," Kaito assured her. "And you know my Shin-chan. He'll get depressed if he doesn't go back to work soon."

"I'm not that bad," Shinichi grumbled, though he couldn't suppress a smile. Kaito was probably right. But hey, wasn't it everyone's dream to have a job they actually enjoyed? He was really very lucky, all considered.

Shinichi paused at that and ran the thought through his head again, at which point he nearly laughed out loud. He'd always been a magnet for unfortunate events. He'd seen more murder scenes by the time he graduated high school than some police officers did in their entire careers—only about a third of which he had been called to. The others had simply cropped up around him as he went about his daily life. And don't even get him started on the number of people who had tried to kill him. He'd been shot on more than one occasion while still in school and had enough close calls for several lifetimes. It got to the point where he wasn't particularly offended when people hesitated to invite him to events. He wasn't superstitious, but he had excellent pattern recognition skills.

Yet somehow, here he was. He had a job he enjoyed which also allowed him to both travel and help people. He had colleagues who were also good friends. And he had a partner he loved more than he would have believed possible before it had happened.

He might not be terribly lucky in a lot of ways, but, in all the ways that truly mattered, he'd say he'd won the lottery.

Kaito was a little surprised when Shinichi discretely took his hand and twined their fingers together, but he gave his detective's hand a squeeze as he explained the housing deal he'd gotten for them to Satou and her guest, whom she introduced as Dr. K. T. Francis from the Milky Way Institute in North America.

To Shinichi's relief (and bemusement), the two women seemed amused by the deal and willing to play along.

"Just lead the way," said Satou.

"Hold on. There's a little business that Shin-chan and I need to take care of while we're here. Then we can take you to your new abode."

"What sort of business?" asked Dr. Francis, clearly interested. "I've read up on a lot of your work," she told Shinichi as she moved up beside him and peered with interest at the large glass marble he had just fished out of his pocket. "Some of those cases you've worked were really interesting. I'd love to be able to get your insight into a project of mine when you have more time. Is that marble another psy witness?"

"Not exactly," Shinichi said, holding the marble tight as he closed his eyes and visualized Tomoko's ring. "Sorry. I'll explain later."

The woman nodded and backed off a sep.

Kaito popped up on Shinichi's other side with a map of the island already in hand.

"This is where we are," the magician mused, drawing a star on their current location on the pier.

Shinichi drew in a deep breath then let it out slowly. As he exhaled, he unfurled his fingers. The green glass marble now had a thin, radiant aquamarine flame burning in its heart. They all stared at it.

"It's like a candle flame caught in a wind," Shinichi said, staring hard at it. "Pointing. Let me grab the compass." He did so and Kaito inked the directions next to the star on the map.

"We'll need to find another spot and do it again so we can triangulate."

"That's the plan," Shinichi agreed.

"I sense a story here," Dr. Francis declared, arms on her hips. "And I want to hear it. So why don't you two go get those directions marked while Satou and I move our stuff to our new digs. Then we can tell us all about it over dinner."

"Sounds like a plan." Kaito produced a second island map with a flick of his wrist and offered it to the two women. "We made dinner reservations at our inn. It's called the Blue Moon Rose. We'll see you there."

-To Be Continued-