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A Curse Marked Fate

61: Catching Up

Left to his own devices, Kaito went back to working his way through his heap of homework. After all, Shinichi had a point. The more he got out of the way now, the more leeway he'd have later. And he strongly suspected that they were only going to get busier from here.

He'd finished all his math and magic class homework and had started in on the first of two short essays for his history class when a soft knock came at the door. A moment later, Ai let herself in.

She immediately made a beeline for the bed and began checking Shinichi's vitals. Kaito turned to watch her and was relieved when her expression remained calm and clinical throughout the short exam.

"He appears to be progressing well," she said when she caught him looking. "Though not as quickly as I expected."

Kaito frowned. "Is that bad?"

"No. The opposite," she replied. "I believe his blessing is taking the physical strain into consideration while it proceeds with the restoration. I didn't expect that, but, now that we're here, I suspect I should have. It is a blessing meant to protect and preserve after all. And, as part of him, it will naturally be attuned to his current state as a whole."

Kaito's lips quirked at that. "I'll just be glad then."

The little girl's lips curled into a small, amused smile. "That would be best. Well, the professor called to say he'd be back for dinner after all. I have asked him to pick up some takeout on his way. In the meantime, I was planning to start making a few extra dishes as well. We will be expecting a few additional guests for dinner."

"Do you need help?" he asked. "I can skin things and chop them up."

"It's sounds sinister when you say it," Ai observed, face deadpan but eyes glittering with mirth. "But the help would be appreciated. You can start by helping me get those large pots down from the top shelf over the counters there by the fridge. I can't reach them."

When Shinichi woke some time later, it was to a hand lightly shaking his shoulder and the mouthwatering aromas of beef and potato stew.

"Wha…?" he mumbled, blinking blearily at the blond figure leaning over him.

"You should get up and change," Ai told him, voice brisk but hands gentle as she helped him sit up. "We'll be having guests over for dinner, and I doubt you want to see them in your pajamas."

"Oh, uh, right." He stifled a yawn.

The little girl eyed him critically. "Will you need any help? I can ask Kuroba-kun to come in if you do."

Shinichi blushed, suddenly much more awake. "No, really, that won't be necessary. I'm fine."

"If you say so." Ai turned for the door then turned back. "Mouri Kogoro will be among our guests. I'm not sure how that will affect your blessing's ability to regulate your recovery though. So if you start feeling ill or otherwise strange, let me know right away."

"I will."

Satisfied, Ai left the room, shutting the door behind herself.

Shinichi emerged a few minutes later and picked his way to the table. He still felt groggy, and his limbs felt off, so he was grateful when he finally reached a chair.

Kaito looked up from where he was setting the table and smiled. "You're up. How're you feeling?"

"Better," Shinichi said after some thought. "So I heard something about dinner guests?"

"The Mouris will be here. I have also invited Archmage Toichi and his wife," Ai said, causing Kaito to choke on his tea.

"What?"

"They wished to come check on you, and, as the archmage will no doubt play a key role in our plans moving forward, it only seemed right that he be here for this."

"You could've warned me," the Sky Mage grumbled.

"I just did."

Shinichi chuckled. "She has you there."

X

The three (technically) teens were in the midst of brainstorming other luck-centered games that Shinichi might be able to play instead of cards when they heard the rumble of engines outside. A few minutes later, the front door opened to admit Professor Agasa accompanied by both Kuroba Toichi and Chikage.

The latter immediately made a beeline to Kaito and pulled him into a tight hug. Then she pushed him back to arm's length and glared at him.

"You have a lot of explaining to do, young man," she said sternly. "Do you have any idea how worried we were? And so soon after what happened to Toichi too!" The woman's eyes grew suspiciously bright as she hugged her son again even tighter than she had before. "I don't want to lose either of you."

Kaito winced, looking caught somewhere between chagrined, dismayed and just straight up uncomfortable. He hugged his mother back though as he tried to find his words.

"I'm sorry," he said quickly, and he meant it. "It was never my intention to worry either of you."

"Then don't go putting yourself in danger without telling us what you're up to first," his father replied, giving him a mildly exasperated look of his own. "Trust me when I say that I understand the need to act when we see people we care for in trouble. That desire to help is natural and laudable. But haphazard plans don't do anyone any good. You two got incredibly lucky on multiple counts."

Kaito drew himself up in indignation. "Our plans were not haphazard," he declared. "I'll admit we ran into some setbacks, but you know as well as I do that no plan's a hundred percent foolproof. What matters is being able to adapt. And we did an excellent job at that, if I do say so myself."

His father sighed but smiled. "Well enough, I grant you. But please, Kaito, try to bring these schemes of yours to us sooner in the future. Hearing about it while you children were already camping out in enemy territory must have taken years off both our lives."

Kaito returned the smile, looking rueful. "Yeah, well… I guess we could have been better prepared. We did learn a lot of useful stuff though."

"I'm sure you did," his mother said, giving him one last hug before releasing him. "But we should eat before we go over that."

"Shouldn't we wait for the Mouris?" asked Shinichi.

"Oh right, I forgot to mention," said Agasa. "Kogoro-san called me a few minutes ago to say they're running late, and we should start without them but make sure to save their share."

Shinichi rolled his eyes, but he was smiling too.

As Chikage had requested, no one talked about business during the meal. Instead, they discussed some of Agasa's new inventions and the renovations that Toichi had decided to do at Clover Institute since they had to repair the place anyway. Kaito rolled his eyes when his mother inquired as to whether he was keeping up with his schoolwork, but he would privately admit that the touch of normalcy was a nice change even for someone who loved excitement as much as he did.

Chikage asked Shinichi about how his schooling was going as well. Aware of his true identity, she expressed her concern for this interruption of his high school life.

"Have you been keeping up with the work?"

"Not really," Shinichi admitted, chagrinned. "I didn't know when I'd get back to normal—or even if I would. And with the cover story for my absence being that I went to America, well… It made more sense just to take the time off from Teitan High."

"But you're growing again," the woman pointed out, looking thoughtful. "I assume you still wish to graduate with the rest of your year?"

Shinichi looked away. "Well, I…yeah. If I could. But I don't mind if it doesn't work out that way either."

Chikage hummed thoughtfully. "Well. Once you're ready to actually go back to high school, call me, and we'll go sort out the details for you together."

Shinichi blinked, taken aback by the offer. "I… Well, okay. Thank you. I'd appreciate that."

The Mouris arrive halfway through dinner with an unexpected tagalong in the form of Suzuki Sonoko.

"Hey, I've been part of this since the beginning," she said loudly when Kogoro grumbled about how she'd insisted on coming. "I deserve to know what's going on too. Besides, you lot need me."

Kogoro looked unconvinced. "How so?"

"How else do you expect to get the scoop on what's going on backstage at the world Expo? Remember, the Suzuki Foundation's helping to organize it this year."

Kogoro had nothing to say to that, and Sonoko took a seat at the table, looking smug.

Some time later, the table had been cleared of everything except numerous cups of hot chocolate. Toichi produced a bag of marshmallows for anyone who wanted them then settled back, jovial expression shifting to one more somber.

"Now, Kaito, I remember the conversation we had about the Choice foundation, and Miss Haibara here has apprised us of your discovery concerning their potential connection to the attack on Clover Institute—"

"It's not potential," Kaito cut in. "It's fact. We heard the guy who instigated the attack admit it. He wanted to make sure the progress you'd made on magic nullification wouldn't interfere with their plans now that they're close to making a big move. He had a bit of an argument with his colleagues about it."

"So it wasn't a decision made by the organization as a whole," his father concluded. "That's interesting."

Kaito scowled. "I wouldn't read too much into it. The reason his colleagues didn't entirely agree with the move was because they felt it drew unnecessary attention to research that most people would think isn't going to get very far."

His father shrugged. "It is still something to note. It demonstrates at least some of the mindsets we are dealing with. But our first order of business should be to make sure everyone now involved in this matter is properly up to date.

"In that case, shouldn't Nakamori-keibu be here too?" Kaito asked. "Aoko said her dad's in on this now."

"Indeed. He has also expressed the opinion that there are some things he is better off not knowing. And I have to say, he has a point."

Kaito mentally flipped through a list of the things that he and Shinichi had done in the recent past that hadn't been strictly legal and acknowledged that Nakamori-keibu had made a wise decision.

Catching everyone up didn't actually take very long. Everyone present had acquired bits and pieces of the story already, and it was more about making sure that all the pieces lined up.

"In essence, the Foundation's leaders want to live forever," Toichi summarized. "And they want to have influence over if not to outright rule the world because forever wouldn't be comfortable if you aren't in charge. To achieve these goals, they've decided to focus on harnessing Curse Mark magic—an endeavor in which they have succeeded to some degree."

He looked to Ai, who nodded.

"They have developed a way to use blood samples from Marked individuals to create amulets," she explained. "These amulets draw upon the Curse Mark in order to mimic one of its aspects, be it the curse, the blessing or the Marked one's additional talent. This mimicry is, however, imperfect, and they've had more success with some abilities than others. The amulets also become useless if the bearer of the Mark being used passes away. At present, we know that they have already used these amulets to assassinate at least one government official, to acquire large 'donations' from wealthy figures in exchange for curing their otherwise fatal ailments, and to gain influence over powerful people via brainwashing."

"Which reminds me, I haven't forgiven you," Sonoko interjected, leveling Shinichi with a ferocious glower. "You knew this whole time that they had love amulets and didn't tell me! I mean seriously, how could you?!"

Shinichi cringed at the petit girl's outrage. "They're not though—love amulets, I mean. They've got nothing to do with love at all," he hastened to clarify. "We talked to Suki—she's the girl who actually has the Mark they're probably using. It's called the Mark of Entwined Fates—"

Sonoko squealed. "That's, like, the definition of roman—"

"And it's not like you're thinking," Shinichi cut in before she could get much further. "Suki sand she and her partner can share thoughts and feelings, even memories and physical sensations. They can project all these things to one another as well. So what we think is actually happening with the amulet versions is that it's establishing a connection through which the caster of the spell can implant thoughts and feelings into the mind of the ensorcelled. There's no actual emotional tie. They're just putting thoughts into their victims' heads so they agree with the Foundation and do what it wants them to do."

"That's horrible," Ran said with feeling. "It's got to be illegal. I'll tell Mom about it."

"That won't do any good without evidence," her father pointed out, though he too looked unusually grim.

"But what would evidence even look like?" asked Sonoko. "I mean, we're talking about the stuff going on in people's heads. And I assume we can't just point out the Matsuharas and expect a judge to take us seriously."

"Perhaps not, but testimonials may still be helpful," Chikage said thoughtfully. "Your own experience is a good example of that, wouldn't you agree? You know the Matsuharas personally—have known them for quite some time. And you saw how they changed and just how abrupt and unnatural that change was. And having seen that, you are now able to accept the idea that a mind-altering amulet may exist."

"So we should gather witness statements?" asked Ran.

"I can see them being helpful," Agasa agreed. "Since one of the problems is that these people are using magic that most people would believe doesn't exist."

"Which is a large part of the problem," Shinichi said with a sigh. "Both the mind control thing and the attack on Clover Institute are things we're sure about but which we can't really prove at this time. So, since we have actual data to work with now, I think our best option is to focus on their illegal transactions. If we can map those out and establish that there is an actual pattern of suspicious events, we can report them."

"What about the expo though?" Kaito asked. "That's not going to wait."

"That's the second thing we need to do," Shinichi agreed. "We need to figure out how to stop whatever they're planning for the expo."

"Not asking for much, are you?" Ai asked dryly, a glint of humor in her eyes. "In any case, I did find some information in the data you retrieved that may allow us to speculate with something more than our imaginations. But I have better information regarding those transactions."

Shinichi perked up instantly. "What sort of information?"

Ai waved a hand. "Some names, dates, expenses, financial and other types of donation records, and some correspondence. We can go over the details later, but I do believe I saw the name Eiko in there—as well as several others that have come up."

"Who's this Eiko?" Kogoro asked, interest snagged by the unfamiliar female name.

"She's someone we overheard talking about a deal with the True Seeing guy," Kaito told him. "It sounded like she works in the synthetic jewelry industry. She was providing them with several counts of synthesized jewels in return for payment of both the monetary and non-monetary nature. Though what kind of non-monetary payment she was expecting was a bit unclear. It sounded an awful lot like she might have been looking for one of those healing at the cost of a life deals."

"Well that's something we need to look into as soon as possible then," Toichi said grimly. "About the jewels though. Did they say what they wanted them for?"

"Yeah." Kaito frowned. "They had a bit of an argument because Takagawa said they were going to be used in amulets and the specifications had to be exact. But some of the jewels Miss Eiko got them were too good or something. The Foundation wouldn't take those."

"And you're sure he said they were for amulet creation?"

"Positive."

Toichi fell silent for a moment, indigo eyes narrowed in thought. Sensing that he might have just unraveled another path, they waited for him to continue. When he did, it was with solemnity and eyes that warned them all to be cautious.

"Amulets are generally single pieces—one material creation to contain one spell. It is whole and complete in itself. It may be used in conjunction with other amulets to perform more complex tasks, but each amulet is itself complete."

"Well yeah. That's common knowledge," Kaito agreed. "So?"

His father set his drink down and laced his fingers together, gazing over the top of them at the rest of the table with solemn, thoughtful eyes. "There is a relatively new branch of research that has been delving into the development of linked amulets. These would be a set of multiple amulets created together as the delivery system for a single spell across a wide area or to a wide number of targets."

"I read about that," said Agasa. "I thought a lot of it was still just theoretical."

"A lot of it is, yes. But there have been some successful experiments. One thing they've proven is that the amulets in question have to be all but identical in order for the process to have a chance of working. Furthermore, its easy for the creation process to be disrupted by the proximity of other active spells."

There was a long silence which Shinichi broke. "I just had a really horrible thought."

Kaito let out a snort of laughter that had absolutely no mirth in it. "I think we all did."

TBC

A.N: I'm almost done with another KaiShin one-shot, so I'll be posting that next. Have a great week!