Disclaimer: We don't own DCMK

Moon on the Snow

6: Ups and Downs

There was definitely something odd about the ski lift, all three detectives thought later that morning when they laid eyes on said contraption. Exactly what was odd, however, was more difficult to pinpoint—perhaps because it was already strange that it existed at all, and large swaths of it were hidden by trees when viewed from their direction of approach.

"Is this, like, a private lift yer family got built or something?" Hattori asked Kaito when the shed that anchored the bottom of the lift came into view around a lightly wooded hill. They had walked partway around the lake before veering away from the water and into the woods. Some part of the Osakan had been expecting a small ski resort or something, but clearly this place, wherever it was, was very literally out in the middle of nowhere. Of course that realization raised a whole host of other questions, but he recalled Kazuha's pointed warning about leaving well enough alone so that they could enjoy their vacation and decided to stick only to those questions that seemed the most immediately pertinent.

"Pretty much," Kaito agreed cheerfully. What he did not mention was that the lift had been built less than a few hours ago specifically for their visit (though the 'construction crew' had practiced a few times prior to that). "Everyone in my family enjoys skiing."

Walking on Kaito's other side, Shinichi cast his boyfriend a surprised and curious look. "Really? I didn't know that."

"Yep. We spent a winter in the States a few years back and tried out several of their ski resorts. It was fun, but it was also really crowded. So we thought hey, the area around here has some pretty good slopes. We might as well have our own lift. Then there's no waiting around in long lines and no crashing into newbies."

"I might sort of be a newbie though," Kazuha admitted. "I like to ice skate, but I've never skied. Heiji promised to teach me."

"Well I don't know how to ski either," Keiko piped up, appearing beside Kazuha so suddenly that it made the human girl jump. "Do you think Heiji-san would teach me how to ski to?"

"Oh. Uh…probably. You should ask him."

"I'll do that." Bubbling over with excitement, the pigtailed girl bounded over to Heiji and asked him if he would teach her how to ski.

With a careful eye to detail and an ear to odd sounds, Hakuba had walked all the way around the shed at the bottom of the lift and found it acceptable. It moved smoothly, the benches went up then returned smoothly, and the operations were easy. Too easy. And too quiet. That was it. The thing that had been nagging at the corners of his thoughts. This contraption might look like a ski lift, but it was utterly silent when it moved as though it was the ghost of a ski lift—a mere mirage without substance. Except, of course, that it was very obviously solid and present. A knock on the shed wall proved that.

Standing beside the place marked out for those planning to board the rising lifts, Shinichi had a good view up the length of said lift, and so he was the one who noticed the other very odd thing about the Kuroba family lift.

It was anchored at only two spots. There was the shed at the bottom of the lift and the one at the very top of the highest slope. There was not a single other support beam holding up the cables anywhere along that very long route. And if that wasn't peculiar enough, there was the way some stretches of cabling swerved here and there to avoid pesky tree branches. This gave the overall impression that the lift wasn't comprised of cables so much as very long strips of some hard, inflexible material that still seemed like it should bed or snap if someone tried hanging from its middle.

Shinichi had no doubt that it would function perfectly regardless.

It was, however, going to take an excessively and possibly actively unobservant person not to notice the unnatural arrangement.

He sighed and shook his head, not sure whether to be amused or exasperated. Beginning to feel the cold more acutely now that he wasn't moving, he blew into his gloved hands then rubbed them together.

Something trilled a questioning note from seemingly right beside him, and he nearly jumped before he realized it was the fur capa currently ensconced on his head.

"My ears are getting a bit cold," he admitted.

In answer, the fur capa carefully tucked its soft, furry edges down over the tips of Shinichi's ears. Then it chirped again, and he smiled.

"Thanks."

The crunching of footsteps on the snow alerted Shinichi to Hakuba's approach and imminent discovery of the lift's unnatural nature. He debated with himself for a moment on whether he should just go ahead and point out the idiosyncrasies. But he found that he really wasn't feeling up to introducing Hakuba to the existence of magic. He had too much on his mind already. And while he thought it rather unfair to leave his friend in the dark when even Heiji had already been told at least that much, Shinichi just didn't want to deal with the inevitable debate that the revelation would start.

So to hopefully save his own peace and quiet for just a little longer, he turned to intercept Hakuba with as cheerful a smile as he could muster.

"It's going to be interesting, having an entire lift and all these hills to ourselves," he said.

"It is," the blonde agreed. "I must admit, I am very surprised."

"By what?" Shinichi asked, wondering if maybe Hakuba had already noticed the weirdness going on overhead. If he had though, the reaction was surprisingly nonchalant.

"All this," the blonde replied, gesturing at the landscape at large. "I knew Kuroba's family was well to do, but this… To put it bluntly, it goes well beyond what I expected."

"Oh." Shinichi blinked, not sure what to say to that. He was saved from having to come up with something, however, by the arrival of the rest of their friends.

"If everyone's ready, we should start heading up," Kaito declared. "We'll need to take the lift in twos."

"Oi Hakuba, I'll race ya," Hattori said immediately.

"Hey!" Kazuha protested. "You said you were going to teach Keiko and me."

Hattori flinched then laughed sheepishly, rubbing at the back of his neck. "Er, I could do that right after?"

Kazuha's eye twitched.

Sensing the impending argument and the distraction it would provide, Shinichi tugged on Kaito's arm. The demon immediately left off his observation of the brewing storm in favor of smiling at his blue-eyed love.

"Yes?"

Shinichi made sure that everyone else was too engrossed in Kazuha and Heiji's bickering to overhear them then directed Kaito's attention to the odd jinks in the lift cables. He explained in a hasty whisper that some adjustments would have to be made if Kaito wanted the lift to pass as believable. Kaito listened then frowned, and suddenly there were new support structures spaced out along the length of the lift—just enough of them to compensate for both its length and the places where it changed directions.

Shinichi did a double take. "That was…fast."

"They're only illusions," Kaito admitted. "Purely cosmetic. But they should suffice."

Shinichi supposed they would. It wasn't like anyone was going to go see whether they could swing their arm through one of those supports after all.

He glanced back towards the argument to find it still ongoing. With their friends distracted and the lift cosmetically improved, he and Kaito were abruptly left with a moment alone and between activities, and suddenly their conversation from the morning resurfaced in Shinichi's mind. His mouth opened of its own accord, but then it stopped because, though he felt as though there was something they needed to talk about, he wasn't sure what it was. Or rather he had some ideas, but those ideas were too jumbled in confusing, and he had the horrible feeling that if he didn't sort them out inside his own head first then anything that came out of his mouth would end up being something that he would regret later.

And he didn't want that.

So what he ended up saying instead was, "Should we go ahead? The others might take a while."

Kaito, who, unbeknownst to Shinichi, had been working through a similar trail of thoughts, grinned a grin that was only slightly less genuine that it usually would be and agreed.

It wasn't until they were seated side by side on the lift and being ferried up towards the waiting hills that they both realized that they now had not only time but privacy. What had started out as a comfortable silence grew rapidly less so, and Shinichi found himself fighting back the urge to fidget.

"I'm not upset," he blurted out, breaking the silence. "I…just wanted you to know that."

Kaito blinked then smiled a little ruefully. He reached over with his right hand to take Shinichi's left, twining their fingers together. The gesture was hampered slightly by the fact that they were both wearing gloves, but Shinichi found it reassuring nonetheless. He'd been a little worried about what Kaito might be feeling too. He'd seen the flash of guilt in the demon's eyes, and he thought he could kind of guess at the reasons behind it. In his opinion though, Kaito had no reason to feel guilty, and he needed the magician to know that.

What had happened—was happening—was an accident. It was frightening because there were so many unanswered and potentially unanswerable questions, but there was no point panicking before they had even begun to truly look for answers.

"It does bother you though," Kaito said some long, contemplative seconds later, though he never once released Shinichi's hand. "You're not really okay with it."

Shinichi's initial instinct was to deny the observation, but he held back and gave it some more thorough consideration. Eventually, he sighed and bowed his head.

"I'm…afraid," he admitted, gaze trained on the snowy slopes flowing past beneath their dangling feet. "I…don't know what to expect. I don't know what might change. What if...what if I do change, and it's so much that I can't go back to my world anymore? Or what if I just change enough so that I'm not me anymore? Will these changes be purely biological? Am I going to start turning into someone else? I've been telling myself all morning that it's unlikely. I mean, I still feel perfectly normal. And I don't think I've changed mentally either. But…"

His breath left him in a frustrated huff, and he shook his head. "I don't know. I wish there was someone who could explain how this whole process works, but there really isn't, is there?"

It was Kaito's turn to sigh. He scooted closer to the smaller boy and wrapped his arm around his waist.

"I'm sorry I don't know more about this," he said softly. "I can make some educated guesses about some things, but I don't know if that would help."

"It might," Shinichi said after some thought. He leaned unconsciously into Kaito's embrace, letting his head rest on the demon's shoulder. "At this point, any information at all would be appreciated."

Kaito nodded slowly. "I can see that. Well, first off, you don't have to worry about turning into another person. Personalities are part of a person's soul—the essence of who they are, and magic doesn't change that."

Shinichi nodded, relieved. "Go on."

"Secondly, I'd say it's unlikely for you to see too many physical changes. Looking at what records we have, early demons rarely deviated much from the standard human shape. It was several generations before any really major deviations appeared."

"What would you consider a small deviation?" Shinichi asked.

"Well, variations in hair and eye colors were common from the beginning, if the old artwork we still have is to be believed. As were changes in eye and ear types. Things like wings, horns and tails started appearing pretty early on as well, but they didn't become common until later. Mid-level variations would include beings like those that human myths refer to as merfolk, centaurs and that sort. The first of those were probably around tenth generation or later."

"What about for individuals?" the detective asked.

"It depends. Variations between individuals of the same species tend to be biggest in plant-based life forms. Then insects and reptiles. For mammals, the bigger differences tend to come through generations, though there are always individuals who are more prone to changing than others. There are also certain more major changes that can be triggered by certain types of magical exposure. Sorry, I'm not sure I'm putting this very clearly."

"An example might help," Shinichi suggested.

Kaito took a deep breath. He seemed to be bracing himself. When he spoke, Shinichi realized why.

"The bonding is one type of magical exposure that often results in changes," the demon said. He felt Shinichi tense, but he forged on regardless. "My mother was born into the House of the Phantom Wind. They're a Middle House under the Phantom Moon—one of the first to ally with us actually. Their true forms are generally very human-like but with a lot of silver and white in the coloration as well as a tendency towards in-corporeality. They're often skilled with wind magic, music and illusions. Every now and then, one of them is born with what we refer to as ghost wings. They're basically incorporeal wings that can be used to manipulate wind magic but not to actually fly with. The Phantom Moon, on the other hand, has always had wings. Black feathered wings, mostly, hence the kanji we chose for our family name when we go over to your world. But when my parents bonded, Mom's ghost wings became real wings like ours. Though they stayed silver."

"So…you're saying that this type of magic exposure tends to result in changes that are influenced by the more powerful demon."

Kaito nodded. "And the effects extend beyond the cosmetic. Powers and specialties can also be influenced. Sometimes, entirely new branches of magic are even discovered this way. Mostly though, it bolsters a demon's existing talents and encourages them to evolve along paths determined by their innate affinities and the magical domains of the demon who established the bond."

"I'm not sure I understood all of that. Almost none of it actually."

"That's all right. It was really just a longwinded way to say that everything depends on the individuals involved."

"Are there, I don't know, case studies on this spell?"

"Er, no…? It's an old spell, but it only gets used a handful of times every century."

Shinichi shot the demon a sidelong look. "I thought it was something your people did when they got together."

Kaito coughed lightly. "It's something only couples do, but not all couples do it."

"Why? Is there something wrong with it?"

Kaito let out a snort of laughter. "According to some, everything. Think about it, it's a spell for sharing power. Demons never share power lightly. It is simply not in our nature. Frankly, we tend to the opposite."

"Then why do it at all?"

Kaito was quiet for a long moment before he eventually sighed. "Well, do you remember when we had that discussion about how my people age?"

Shinichi nodded slowly. "You said the outward signs of aging varied a lot from House to House. So some demons look really old when they're technically still young even by human standards while others look like college students even when they're hundreds of years old. And there are even some demons like you who can decide when they age."

Kaito nodded. "Well, this spell is sort of about that and sort of not."

The demon took a deep breath to brace himself before launching into what turned out to be a history lesson on the development of union magic and the bonding spell that it gave birth to.

Quite a lot of it went over Shinichi's head, but he understood the parts that mattered, and, once again, he found himself at a loss as to what to think, let alone say.

Kaito seemed to sense that though, so he kept talking, sharing some of the more famous stories of what Shinichi suspected were epic demon romances of the past. He took care to describe all the characters involved though and how their respective bonds had evolved both heir forms and their magic.

Demons might not have official case studies on the spell, Shinichi mused as he listened, but these tales were just as useful for someone like him who wished to learn.

It was only when Kaito started on his third tale when Shinichi realized that they were still sitting on the lift, and it was still rising smoothly uphill—except that he could no longer see either the hills or the mountains or even the lake. In fact, when he looked around, all he saw was fluffy white clouds. The cables to which their lift seat was attached stretched away into a milky whiteness both ahead and behind, and it was as though they were the only two beings in their own private universe.

"Um, I have to ask," he said, turning to try and see if he could catch a glimpse of whichever friends should have been on the lift behind theirs. All he saw was fog. "Where are we?"

Kaito coughed lightly. "Well, I figured we needed this talk. There's still a lot to go over and… Well, I didn't think you'd want to do it with the others around. So I just let our lift, uh, keep going into this pseudo space. Space magic is one of my specialties after all. I'm good at bending it and making it. It's why I can portal anywhere at any time. But anyway, this way, we can talk in private. And the others can continue enjoying the hills. When we're finished, I'll unfold the space, and we'll land at the top of the lift like we were supposed to."

"…Oh, uh, okay then. I guess that's convenient."

Outside of Kaito's dimensional shift, Hakuba, who was seated with Hattori—to both their chagrin, frowned. "Weren't Shinichi and Kuroba-kun on the lift in front of ours?"

"Yeah," Heiji agreed. "Why?"

"I don't see them anymore."

"What?" Confused, Hattori squinted ahead into the hazy morning light and realized that no, there did not appear to be a lift in front of theirs.

"Huh. Maybe they already got off."

"I…yeah. That must be it," Hakuba agreed.

But when they disembarked at the top of the lift, they found themselves the only two people there.

TBC