Case Closed Fan Fiction ❯ When Pandora's Box Is Opened ❯ Magic ( Chapter 68 )

Chapter Sixty-Eight

Magic

“Nakamori-san, if you want to get the hospital, you're going the wrong way.”

Aoko tripped in surprise as the voice jerked her back to reality. Hakuba caught her as she fell.

“H-Hakuba-kun?” she mumbled in surprise as he pulled her back to her feet. “The hospital...?”

“Your look like you could use a little treatment for that leg,” he explained, “your father's there too, getting a couple of his injuries treated... I've got nothing serious, but twelve officers are dead... all of the men are in custody except for the one that... fell... are you okay?”

“M-me?” Aoko said distractedly, mind still spinning as she tried to process it all: her best friend, her worst enemy, Kaito, the Kaitou Kid, all one and the same... “I-I'm all right, I guess... better than ending up on the pavement, I suppose...”

“True,” Hakuba said, leading her to sit down on the porch in front of the shop that he'd evidently just come out of. “But then, I can't really see that baka Kuroba letting you get hurt.”

“Y-you knew?” Aoko asked, trying to focus on the blond tantei. “You knew th-that.... he's...?”

“The Kaitou Kid? Yes,” Hakuba said. “And I take it that you do too, now.”

Aoko could only nod. She didn't know what to say. She didn't know what to think, anymore. Hakuba watched her unreadably for a moment, before suddenly snorting, and unusual sound for him. “I did warn you that it was dangerous to associate with him.” Aoko glanced up at him in shock. “I was right, wasn't I? I told you that you were safer off not being friends with him. He betrayed your trust, he's clearly hurt you, and he could easily have gotten you killed. After all, these people already killed his father and are gunning for him. Did he realize that his stupidity could have gotten you killed along with him?”

“N-no,” Aoko said, “He didn't mean to... you mean Toichi-ojisan was murdered?”

“Yes, and in all likelihood, Kuroba will be as well,” Hakuba sighed. “Really, he shouldn't have taken the law into his own hands... you're better off without him.”

“What if he had to take the law into his own hands?” Aoko demanded, feeling suddenly driven to defend Kaito. “I mean, the police clearly never caught these people. Maybe he had to do something. You can't let people get away with murder.”

“You can't lie and use people either,” Hakuba said. “Face it- Kuroba's a self-centred, prideful fool. If he cared at all about you, he wouldn't have lied to you and dragged you into all of this.”

“And if he didn't care about me, he wouldn't have taken a dozen bullets to the gut!” Aoko yelled, furious now, with herself or with Hakuba she couldn't tell. She jumped to her feet and turned to run, but Hakuba stood, grabbing her arm and holding her back. “Let go of me,” she said, quietly, dangerously.

“You'd go back to him, after he's hurt you?” he asked, a strange intensity in his eyes.

“Yes,” Aoko said. “Because he's been hurting too. The whole time, he's been hurting too, and I... I've only hurt him more. Because he's my best friend... because... because...” She was on the verge of tears again, she knew, the sobs that had been pushed aside by anger returning full force.

“Because?” Hakuba persisted.

“Because he's more important to me than anyone else,” she screamed, “and I love him!”

“You're a fool,” Hakuba said. Aoko snapped. She swung and slapped him, hard enough to knock him to the ground, harder than she'd even hit the Kid- hit Kaito. He let go of her arm. She turned and ran back the way she had come-back to Kaito.

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Saguru sat up and watched Aoko run back the way she'd come, raising a hand to cup his stinging cheek.

“You should tell him, not me,” he said quietly. “You should have told him a long time ago. Fool.”

Then he smiled.

“Bocchama! A-are you all right?”

Saguru glanced over his shoulder as his housekeeper came out, looking shocked.

“Look at you, lying there on the ground,” she complained, hauling up and dusting him off. “You call and say you're going straight from the heist to the hospital because poor Nakamori-keibu's been injured and you don't even have any flowers... you have to bring flowers when visiting the hospital, you know! And then when I meet up with you to help you pick something, you disappear and I find you having a fight with a girl...”

“Gomen, baaya,” Saguru said, chuckling. She looked at him in surprise.

“Really, Bocchama, you've been acting so strangely lately,” she said. “I understand that the master's death would affect you, of course, but… So much secretive investigating, so many odd plans for Kid heists... is everything all right?”

“Well...” Saguru glanced back to the spot where he'd last seen Aoko. “I think... it will be.”

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Aoko ran, gasping for air through the tears, to the place where she'd last seen Kaito, ignoring the stinging pain in her leg with every step. She knew he probably wouldn't still be there, but she couldn't think of anywhere else to go. She just had to run, as if it would stop her head from spinning with a thousand memories.

A red rose for a lonely little girl. Sitting on a table at the back of a restaurant, giggling in the childish excitement of being somewhere that you probably shouldn't. A whirl of feathers controlled by a whistler. Swinging a mop at a quickly-dodging mess of brown hair, not to hit him but to hide her laughter. A million little tricks and smiles and moments that were magical, even- especially- without any tricks... And one constant to it all...

A cloud of smoke, a sudden snap, a spray of red and a scream that had never ended, not really...

Yes. Why hadn't she realized? He always smiled, no matter what. After what had happened to Toichi, there was surely no way he'd never get even a little sad every once in a while- especially after he'd found out the truth, and become a marked man. But she'd forgotten, hadn't she, what she'd once heard Toichi-ojisan say?

“A magician's Poker Face has to be as good as a clown's makeup, so strong that tears can be flowing down your cheeks and everyone thinks you're on top of the world...”

He'd hurt. There was no way he didn't. And it had hurt so much that there was no way that he wouldn't do anything about it, even if it meant making himself into something she despised. Even if it meant he lived every day in fear. Even if it only hurt him more.

“I'm so sorry, Kaito,” she thought, swallowing a sob again as, as she thought, the multistorey parking lot where he'd left her was empty. “I'm the worst friend in the world... How could I have run and left you all alone again? You've been a better friend to me than I've ever been to you, so please, know me... know that I could never hate you... know that I don't want you to be alone... know that it's okay to take off the mask and cry. Please... I'm so, so sorry...”

“Strange. I was expecting you to be back in a police car.”

Aoko gasped as she whirled around, peering at the shadows of one of the supporting pillars. Then he stepped out into the moonlight, his face wearing the mocking, insincere smile of the Kid.

That's not who he is.

“S-stop it,” she said quietly. He regarded her quietly, his expression changing to carefully calculated confusion. “Stop smiling like that. It's not real. It's not you.”

“Isn't it now.” It wasn't really a question, or a statement of fact; it was just filling time, making conversation, pushing her to continue. It broke her heart that he didn't care what she said to him anymore. It meant that she couldn't hurt him more. She'd already done the worst when she'd run. She looked him in the eye as she finally let tears fall from hers.

“I'm so sorry, Kaito,” she whispered. “I'm the worst, aren't I? You were the best friend in the world to me... you knew me so well that you always knew what I was thinking, when I was sad and lonely...” she choked out a harsh laugh, a cynical sound so unlike herself. “I could've at least returned the favour, huh? I should've realized that all this time, even- especially- when you were laughing, behind the mask you were crying...” She stepped forwards, slowly, tentatively, as if he was a skittish deer that would bolt at any second. Maybe he was. He could be as fragile as glass behind his Poker Face, easily shattered with a single wrong word. Or maybe he was already broken, and this was her one chance to fix him. She didn't know. But she longed to.

“But maybe you don't know me so well, huh?” she suggested. “You forgot that I'm the dimmest girl in Tokyo. You forgot that I told you that it's okay to cry. It's okay to let yourself be sad. I'll still be here when you cry. I'll always be here when you cry... if you'll let me.”

“You hate me,” he said quietly.

“I hate Otou-san spending more time at work than with me,” she corrected him. “I hate criminals with no remorse for people's suffering. I hate justice not being upheld. But I don't hate you, Kaito. Even if you were Lupin himself... I could never hate you, Anata.” The tears started to overflow, and she let them. She wasn't afraid to let him see her cry. She didn't want him to be scared to let her see him cry. “I was scared and confused, but I know that... this is what you had to do. You couldn't let the people who murdered your Otou-san get away. I wouldn't expect anything else of you. Even though... it probably just hurt you all the more.”

“Who told you?” he asked, as she took another careful step towards him. He remained where he was, leaning against the pillar with his arms crossed over his stomach, his hat and monocle gone but the most important disguise still in place.

“Hakuba-kun,” she replied. “He's been reinvestigating... a few things.” Then it hit her; the cold things that Hakuba had said, the things that had forced the truth out of her. He hadn't meant any of it. He had known how she would react. He had deliberately made her face her own feelings and go back to Kaito, because his investigations had told him that Kaito needed help, and it wasn't help that he could give him. “Kaito... you're not alone, you know? You don't have to be alone. Don't ever tell yourself that you are.” She stepped forwards again, less than an arm's length away from him now, and slowly reached out, her hand somehow steady and calm. She thought he would flinch when she touched his cheek, and in a way he did; something behind his eyes flickered for a moment before his mocking smile faded, his Poker Face growing even more emotionless as he strengthened it against this new onslaught.

“What are you doing?” he asked, his voice also calm and steady though Aoko now knew that the calmer he was getting, the greater turmoil he was hiding.

“I'm trying to take the mask off,” she replied, her voice just as even, even as hot tears streamed down her cheeks. “Dimmest girl in Tokyo, remember? You have to take that Poker Face off. You have to let me see you cry. I want to see you cry. Geez, that sounds cruel, doesn't it?” she added, forcing a trembling smile. “But if I see you cry, it means you've forgiven me. It means you haven't rejected me. It means... things can still be fixed.”

“­Me.... reject you?” he said, unable to stop the incredulity. “Me... forgive you? When did things get so backwards? Aoko... I'm the one who needs to be forgiven. I hurt you.”

“And I hurt you, don't pretend that I didn't,” Aoko said, pressing her hand to his cheek, feeling the mask crack, willing it to shatter. “So we're square. So let's forgive each other, let's cry together, and let's... start over. Together. No secrets, no fear, no hurt. Just you and me.”

He raised his hand, but his was shaking, a decade of concealed emotion about to be released with the force of a dam bursting. His trembling hand covered hers, as his other hand reached out to catch her tears as they fell from her chin.

“You... don't hate me,” he said, a quiet question, one that he feared the answer to. That gave her hope. If he feared more pain, then he wasn't broken. Things weren't beyond repair. And she would fix them, starting now, no matter what.

“Anata...” she said, catching his other hand, “I never could.”

And then the dam burst, tears finally flowing strong and fast from his eyes, washing away ten years of secrets and lies and fears and regrets. He pulled her close, holding her as if she was the only thing left in the world and he was determined not to let her run again.

“No matter what, Kaito,” she whispered, feeling his tears soaking into her hair, “when everything else in the world had left you, I'll still be here. I won't run from you ever again.”

“All this time, I was so scared,” he whispered back, his voice breaking. “I was scared that you'd hate me when you found out.”

“Then there's no need to be afraid ever again,” she said, turning her head to look up again. Their eyes met, half an inch away, and then closed as they pressed their lips together.

A million moments faded, their magic nothing against this, this pure kiss, this perfect moment, nothing in the world but her and Kaito; the hands from which roses had appeared wrapped around her back or buried in her hair as he held her close, the lips that had whistled to summon doves pressed warm and soft against hers, her tears and his mingling as they fell...

They stood like that for the longest time, as if time had frozen, praying that it would. Then they wouldn't have to deal with dead officers or any shadowy organizations or...

It was Kaito who pulled away, coughing into his hand. In the dim light, Aoko saw the white fabric stained with something dark- blood. Real blood.

“Kaito...?” She gasped.

“Kevlar's good for stopping you turning into a human colander,” he said, “but it doesn't distribute the force of the bullets very well. I've probably got a few cracked ribs.”

“We have to get you to a hospital-!” she said, but he shook his head.

“It'll be too easy for Them to find me,” he said, “and anyway I don't have a change of clothes on me, for once...”

“What about Jii-san?” Aoko asked. He shook his head.

“They don't know about him...” Kaito said. He reached up, unclipping his cape.

Aoko put her arm under his shoulders, supporting him. “Kaito...?”

“We'll have to walk, but it shouldn't be too far,” he said, tucking the cape away and pulling his shirt tails out. “If I take off the most obvious markers of being Kid- can you give me a hand with the tie?- I'll probably just look like a well-dressed guy who drank a little too much...”

They were thus limping down to the bottom floor of the lot when Kaito paused. Someone was walking up the ramp towards them.

“Who...?” Aoko whispered, staring at the figure who rounded the ramp. Then Kaito smiled.

“Hey,” Kaito said. “I'm ready to talk.”

Yuusaku smiled as he walked over, supporting Kaito on the other side as they he helped him down to his car. “It's funny,” he said, “but Toichi-kun said almost exactly the same thing.”

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In case I haven't asked already, since I've finished writing this, I need to decide which of my plunnies to start writing on next. I've put up the prologues for a few ideas on The Back Burner: http://www.fanfiction.net/secure/story/story_preview.p hp?storyid=5298367&chapter=1

I'd love to see your votes on which you want to see next! ^_^

Don't be a pessimist, A Midsummer Night's Dream- it all worked out all right! ^_-

I really did think Okiya was Akai, Mel72000… now, given the kind of suprises Aoyama's sprung on us in the past, he'll probably turn out to be Takagi or something bizarre like that… XDXD Yes, I did wonder about the connection between that manor and the Org… There may well be something in it… This heist has had some of my favourite chapters to write, so I'm glad it was cool to read! ^_-

XD “where the hell did a kid like you learn to shoot like that?!” “ummm… can't remember yet” XD I know, HikariPachi, that had to be one of the worst awakenings for her… but it was all for the good… and who will take over the search for the Pandora?

Well, she has hated Kid pretty much all her life, FHP2208… Not fun, but it's worked out for all but the dead… Note how all of those girls are either martial arts masters or deadly with the cleaning implements XD just the kind of girls you DON'T want to keep a secret from… XD

It's a dangerous situation, FaithlessGirl, so it's lucky they're dangerous enough themselves to get out of it…

Here's your next chapter of this, KageNoNeko… if only Aoyama-sensei updated so often… T_T XD

The scarcity of your reviews is made up for by how wonderful (and linguistically versatile XD) your reviews are, Kairi922! :D But of course he faked it. Would I really kill off Kid-sama? (In this fic? XD)

The line is originally from The Princess Bride, Pretztailfan95, as I mentioned at the end of the last chapter… the original line is “Allo. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father, prepare to die.” But since Kid doesn't kill, I paraphrased it XD I'm not surprised you've seen it reference elsewhere, it's one of those great lines in cinema, like “No, Luke… I am your father” or “Here's looking at you, kid” XD I can't decide if my other favourite line from the movie is “Have fun storming the castle!” (read in a heavy stereotypically Jewish accent for the full effect- “He-ave fun schtormin' the keyassle!” XDXD) or “You've made one of the classic blunders! The first, of course, is never get involved in a land war in Asia, but only slightly less well known is that you never go up against a Sicilian when DEATH is on the line! Ha-haha! Ha-haha! Ha-ha-” *falls down dead* XD I could go on. If you haven't seen the movie, please, PLEASE do. IT'S TOO COOL TO PASS UP! *ahem* anyway, back to your review… XD Shinichi was shooting at the Org members only… who did you think he was shooting at? O_o YES HE HAS… But she has forgiven him! ^_^ (alien-killers?) Snake didn't quite get away… XDXD I don't think I've put a mop attack in this yet, come to that… O_o You can get licences for just about anything when you're sixteen in Hawaii. I bet that was a fun holiday XD RETURN OF THE EPIC RESPONSES! XDXD

Gotta love Inigo Montoya, eh, Sharishima? XD Conan still wears his glasses when he goes out, but he's been abandoning them when he's around people In The Know… Well, he left Conan lying under Hakuba and Nakamori's defence. Of course he went out of a window after Aoko! (and escaped that rescue-fall a lot more realistically than Batman did in The Dark Knight… no matter how good that armour is, falling fifty stories WILL crush you like a bug…) It wasn't her dad that changed Aoko's mind here…

After all they went through for it, Kolidescope, it had better be… Yes, poor Kaito has more on his mind than scraping Snake off the pavement…

Close, JapaneseAnimeFreak16. It's keibu (kay-boo). CALL `EM OFF! SHE WENT BACK! THEY MIGHT GET KAITO BY MISTAKE! XD She doesn't know the whole story yet, but at least she's ready to hear it now… EVIL CLIFFHANGER! Followed by wonderfully romantic reunion. ^_^ We all want a chibi… T_T

XD Aoko freaked, TwilTye- given time to calm down and think- or at least with her rage redirected- she knows that she can't hate Kaito. That was Yuusaku that called him. Whoops, I thought I'd had Shinichi call him Tou-san… guess I didn't. But he and Ran are the only ones who address him solely as Shinichi, I think, and only Yuusaku was snooping around the scene…

Princess Bride FTW, Flippant Wisdom! (wow, I don't think I've seen you in AGES XDXD) I always wanted to make Kaito say that, it just seemed so perfect… XD

It always reminds me of cars, Desperatembrace XD words and stuff… XD I think it's gone sort of okay now… but the Alcoholic Assholes Anonymous will be back…

I think they're probably both feeling a little better now, Marie Ravenclaw ^_^… and congrats on moving into college! ^_- (one more year… one more year… one more year… XD)

XD sounds like you have a very angsty fanfic plan right there, PlayingThePiano… XDXD Well, at least she's come back to him here ^_^ ahh, I go back Tuesday… T_T (one more year…) Shinichi is a boy of many, many, many, many talents. Rather like Kaito XD but I think only one could ever be a singer… XD

Nope, she didn't, DiGi ^_- Doughnuts make everything better ^_^ (complicated British spelling T_T) XD Once a day can probably do you, eh? ^_-

Lack of internet aside, I hope you enjoyed Florida, Kayla Edogawa! ^_- I would go into withdrawal without my fanfic fix, though… T_T XD love that movie, love that line XD Aoko came back alone, thankfully… and Shinichi's getting closer… We all want our chibis to huggle XD I totally did not think of semaphore… but I'm more worried about the Okiya/Akai/who the hell is everybody thing… it'll probably turn out like the monster party arc, where everyone is someone else in disguise… Kogoro will turn out to be Akai, Akai will be Vermouth and Okiya will be, I don't know, Akako… XDXD

I do not claim to own any of the characters in Meitantei Conan. They are the intellectual property of Aoyama Gosho. All characters, couples and locations, if Canon, will be faithful to the manga, so if you're into fics with weird pairings like Shinichi and Heiji, the back button is at the top there. The fic may not make sense if you have not read up to chapter 698, which you can do at a site called (read between the lines) O/n/e/ma/n/g/a, but I advise you to buy the official Tankoban novels (up to volume 30 are out in English at the time of writing) so that Aoyama-sensei can afford to continue gracing us with his imagination. Now, I hope you enjoy the fic! (If you don't, please see my previous comments re the back button).