Secrets, Secrets...
Seventh year. (Part II)
Three weeks later, his mood still hadn't improved. Mostly and once again, that was Kaito Kuroba's fault.
This time, he was even in detention with the no-good guy and Shinichi was fuming silently.
Of all people, this morning in class, Kaito had decided he wanted to partner up with him, to work on the Amortentia potion Vineyard had assigned them to brew.
Even though it was a forbidden one, but Shinichi had bit his lip and refrained from reminding her about the fact once again.
He should have known better, but instead he reluctantly had said yes. He couldn‘t remember why exactly now.
It hadn‘t taken long and before the brewing even began, Kaito had hexed their cauldron legs...
It was without question, one of the most amusing potion classes, they had in a long time. Especially, as the empty cauldron jumped around while the sensei tried to stop it and someone opened the door, so it could run away. It took her at least twenty minutes to stop the damn thing.
Vineyard-sensei was furious and gave them, in a very shrill voice, detention for at least 'the next few months'... After she had taken away 25 points from each of them both.
That aspect of course, wasn't amusing at all. He sighed miserable and looked at the huge heap of rice in front of them.
It almost filled the entire room... Normally it was an old storage room in the basement Vineyard-sensei liked to use for detention purposes.
This time, it was almost completely filled with rice to torture them.
There were two colours of rice corns, darker and lighter ones. The task they had been given by her before she had left to inspect a suspicious explosion in a corridor above them, was to separate them by colour.
With chopsticks. By hand. Without using magic in any way...
If she would detect magic used, they had to do it all over again. The task was meant to 'sharpen the senses and remind one, to better concentrate on the task in front of them', she had said.
Shinichi sighed again. His back and knees hurt already and once again, he wondered if this dreadful woman would have made a better prison guard than a teacher.
It would take them at least all night to separate all of them, if not longer... The worst thing was, as soon as Vineyard-sensei had left the room, Kaito had wandered over to the wall in the back and wasn't even paying attention to their task anymore.
He was standing in front of the stonewall, absentmindedly playing with his silver coin in one hand, letting it roll effortlessly over his fingers, making it vanish and appear again, without even looking at his hand.
Shinichi eyed him suspiciously and got angrier by the minute, until Kaito looked around and caught him staring. The coin wandered in his pocket again and Shinichi followed the movement with his eyes.
The guy even had the nerve to smirk at him. Shinichi quickly looked away again, fuming.
"Do you have any intention of helping at all? It‘s your fault we are here after all. The least you could do is help", Shinichi grumbled.
Kaito smirked even more mocking.
"Oh come on. You thought it was funny too. I saw you laughing and grinning the whole time."
Shinichi threw him a dark look. Kaito snorted and sighed in defeat, rolling his eyes dramatically.
"Fine..."
Before Shinichi could say anything more, Kaito kneeled down, touched the floor with one of his hands and said: "Wakeru."
The heap gave off a loud rushing sound as all of the rice swiftly divided itself in two heaps, one dark and the other light. It looked like the red sea was parting in front of him.
Shinichi huffed as he sat back on his heels with an unimpressed look on his face, raising his eyebrow.
He could have done the same, if he wanted.
"You know, she will find out, you did this with magic. This was useless. You just earned us another night of detention... thanks, genius", his voice was dripping with dry sarcasm.
Kaito chuckled amused.
"I just did it, so you would stop it with your nagging and the looks. Don't worry. I promise you, she won't care. She will be quite occupied with other things... For at least... let's say~ A few hours", he added mysterious.
Shinichi narrowed his eyes suspiciously. So that explosion above in the corridor was his doing. But why?
Kaito winked at him, hands now nonchalantly in his pockets and grinned even more.
"Tch, don't look so gloomy, or did Mōri-chan break up with you again? How many times is it now? The third time or the fourth time? Sorry, after a while you kind of lose track...", Kuroba drawled sarcastically in a bored way and Shinichi scoffed.
"Don't call her that."
He stood up, dusted himself off, adjusted his shirt and necktie and threw the chopsticks away.
"And uh- no. We aren't together anymore. Not since the winter ball, actually. We really are just friends now", he added, a bit flustered.
"Interesting...", Kaito muttered amused and Shinichi looked up.
"...what?", he asked a bit irritated. Kaito wasn't looking at him, but at the wall.
What the hell is he doing over there anyway? Why is that stonewall so interesting?
"Oh nothing, nothing~ I just thought, I had found something. But it's just a hole in the wall...", Kaito answered nonchalantly, but Shinichi didn't believe him at all.
Something else occurred to him then. Now that he had Kaito here alone and he had mentioned this kind of topic first... There was something he had wanted to know for days now.
"Are you- um...", he coughed nervously. "Are you still together with Hakuba-san?" Why did I even ask that? Stupid, stupid, stupid...
But if he was being honest with himself, he knew exactly why... Lately he had realized a few things about himself, or better, about his own sexuality.
Not that he would ever tell Kaito even one word about that. Still. Having seen the two of them kiss this one night, rather got him to wonder about it in the first place.
So he kind of had to thank Kaito for that enlightenment in that department... He also noticed a few days ago, that Hakuba had started to hang out with Aoko, Kaito's best friend, a lot more than usual.
It made him wonder... Kaito turned around, looking like Shinichi had grown too heads.
"Together?", he asked slowly. "...with Saguru?"
Shinichi shrugged, not looking at him and tried to act casual.
"Yeah. Weren't you two- you know..." He had to clear his throat.
Kaito raised his eyebrows, he looked more amused by the second as he watched Shinichi fumble through his embarrassment. He grinned smugly at him.
"Use your words, Kudō. You can do it, we both know you're smart", he mocked.
Shinichi threw him an irritated glance. He could feel himself blush, despite his best effort not to.
"You know exactly what I mean, idiot. You just enjoy making other people uncomfortable. You know I saw you two. In that classroom..."
Kaito snickered.
"You're right, I do enjoy that. Especially with you. It's just too much fun... You always look so cute when you're flustered."
He let his eyes wander over Shinichi shamelessly appreciating and the look made him feel entirely too warm in his uniform. What is up with him today? What was that look?
"But to answer your question - no. We never were together. And are you seriously still hung up about that? It was just one kiss. One! And for the record, he kissed me. It was just an intense argument, that ended... interesting. Although he wasn't a bad kisser... I have to admit that-"
A look crossed over his face, which turned Shinichi's stomach for a second. He tried to ignore the irritating jealous feeling that came with it. And did he just say I look cute? What the hell? He's awfully... direct today. Something is up...
"Anyway. I think he was just trying things out, you know? Hakubastard is actually going out with Aoko now. That git. Don't tell her though... I'm not sure how she would react, if she ever found out, he actually kissed me first."
Hearing him talk so casually about Aoko relieved Shinichi a bit. He had kept a close eye on all three of them, whenever he could, since the talk with the headmaster.
Aoko had been in daily treatment over the weeks, since the accident. The next day after the talk with headmaster Agasa, he ordered her treatment had to be moved to a magical hospital in Tokyo, like he had promised.
Ever since that day, Vineyard-sensei had been suspiciously quiet and composed since the incident.
Sometimes she had a contemplative look in her eyes in classes, but that was the most of it.
Aoko instead was different ever since the accident. She still wore bandages on her hands and sometimes underarms and mostly talked to Hakuba or her other friends.
While Kaito still interacted with them normally or at least, tried to, Aoko still kind of avoided Kaito for some reason.
Shinichi blinked as the meaning of Kaito‘s words sank in.
"I'm not hung up about it. Don't imagine things that aren't there...", he huffed.
Kaito gave him a flat glare and lifted his eyebrow in disbelieve. He even crossed his arms.
"Oh really... you wouldn't look at me afterwards for straight two weeks. Don't think I didn't notice. It was really cute though, how you always blushed whenever I tried to talk to you anyway. Just like right now, actually..." He smirked wider and Shinichi could feel his face grow even hotter.
There, he said it again. What is up with that? Is he seriously openly flirting with me?
"Shut up, idiot. It was embarrassing, that's all."
Kaito laughed even more.
"Sure, Kudō..."
For a few seconds they were silent. Shinichi watched Kaito continue search the room suspiciously. Why would he- Then it dawned on him and all the pieces fell together in his head. He crossed his arms and snorted. Of course...
"You did all of this today intentionally, didn't you? You staged the explosion up there in the corridor before, so she had to leave the room. And the stunt you pulled today? You wanted to get detention from her... You knew she likes to put students in this room for detention tasks. You did all this, so you could be down here... You are up to something again."
He sighed and felt irritation rising up in him.
"I should have known. Why do you always do this? Did you forget she has it out for you ever since, when she almost got you expelled? And this time, you are pulling me into your mess, too. I intervened last time, so you wouldn't get expelled and now this..? Why can't you act normal for once? You really are immature." Kaito seemed to ignore him, he didn't even turn around. It made him even angrier. He balled his fist.
"Idiot, I'm talking to you."
"Yeah, I know. You like to do that. Hear yourself talk...", Kaito muttered absentmindedly, still studying the wall.
It weren't harsh words, but it still stung a bit. Shinichi snorted.
"I don't."
Kaito barked out a laugh, throwing a sarcastic look over his shoulder.
"Right. Keep telling yourself that... and your ego. Are you done now? Your usual fanclub and entourage Hattori and Haibara aren‘t here fawning over your every word, so you can stop with the usual deduction", he added, almost bored.
Shinichi frowned and scoffed.
"What are you even talking about?"
Suddenly Kaito changed his voice, it sounded like one of his female classmates... He always wondered how he did that.
"Oh, Kudō. Please tell us again how you solved this complicated arithmantic formula. You are so smart. Kudō, please show us how you did master this spell. Kudō-sama, please keep boring us with endless explanations, so we can keep drooling all over you", he imitated and then stopped and turned around to smirk at him.
Shinichi could feel his cheeks warm up again, despite his irritation. It wasn't his fault that he was intelligent. And it wasn't his fault either, that people liked to hear his explanations... Also, didn't he sound a bit jealous too?
"I don't have a fanclub nor an entourage. And you are one to talk... didn't Sonoko actually start a fanclub just for you in second year? The whole school is practically your stage. You are always seeking attention, always the centre and life of every class, always looking for trouble, pranking people with your extra ordinary tricks. You take seemingly nothing serious... But there are people here, who actually want to study and make a career in life."
"So you think my pranks are extra ordinary, huh?", Kaito grinned entirely too smug. Shinichi rolled his eyes. He tried really hard not to smile himself.
"Of course, that is what you extract from this conversation. Talking about other people's ego..." Kaito snickered.
"I never said, I didn't have one. Takes one, to know one, hm?", he countered smirking.
Shinichi snorted amused. There was a beat of silence, before Kaito spoke again in a more serious tone. There it is again, this expression, Shinichi thought. Even though he seems most of the time like a cheerful, mindless child, sometimes there is this other side of him too. This expression he wears right now... It's unexpectedly mature and serious. Like there is a whole other personality inside of him.
Kaito smirked and looked at him, with his head tilted to the side.
"If I'm immature, you're conceited. But we both know that‘s not true... at least, not completely, is it? We both have reason‘s for what we do. Don‘t think for a second I did forget your part in me being able to stay here. And something tells me, you had something to do with Aoko‘s treatment transfer too... I never thanked you properly for that... So... thank you Shinichi. That meant a lot to me. I will never forget what you did for her. I mean it."
It did sound sincere. Shinichi sighed in defeat, his anger was deflating.
"It's fine. I wanted to help. I just don't understand though, why you would risk the last chance headmaster Agasa gave you, by acting so... careless again. Or should I say, seemingly careless. Because, as you just admitted, I deduced right, there must be a reason you did all of this. And I think, it has something to do with why the sensei acted like she did. There is still something going on between you two, I know it."
Kaito was silent again. Shinichi could tell by his tensed up shoulders, his deduction was spot on, but this wasn't anything he wanted to talk about.
"I can't tell you...", Kaito admitted quietly, his hands in his pockets again and turned away from him, like he wanted to hide the truth.
"Why?"
Shinichi really tried to not sound so desperately curious and frustrated at the same time, but Kaito gave him a kind of sad smile over his shoulder.
"I just can't. I'm sorry. But there is a reason, I can admit to you at least that... Knowing you, maybe, after tonight you‘ll figure it out on your own anyway."
He continued to look for something on the walls and Shinichi kept silent for a few minutes. Then curiosity finally won.
"Fine. I'll bite. What are you searching for?", Shinichi asked exasperated.
Kaito hummed in thought, clearly pleased, but tried not to show it too much. Shinichi saw right through it anyway.
"A door."
Shinichi frowned and stepped carefully through the large rice heaps, hands in his pockets.
"A door to what?"
"A secret room. Or a secret passageway... I'm not sure. But it must be here somewhere. I studied the plans for this part of the building for months now. It's the oldest part of the whole school and this room was much bigger once, before he changed it. At least, that‘s what the old ground plans showed..."
"Who changed what?", Shinichi asked confused.
"Do you know who Samizu Kichiemon was?"
Shinichi put his hand on his chin, his mind throwing information at his inner eye.
"Wasn‘t he a maker of cursed dolls and liked to hex puzzles, created sinister labyrinths and dangerous objects? I think we learned about him in history once. Why?"
Kaito's twinkling eyes and smirk told him, he was even more pleased, he knew the name. He tried not to take a little pride in that...
"He was hired to work on this exact room in the Baku Matsu era. I have documents that proof this."
"That‘s... strange. But if you're not sure what he built in here, why are you looking for it in the first place? Also, how did you get the old ground plans of the school? Wouldn't they be in headmaster Agasa's office?"
Kaito grinned his typical shark grin.
"Maybe I borrowed them?"
Shinichi rolled his eyes.
"Stole them, you mean..."
Kaito clicked his tongue and shrugged.
"Details, details. Also, I have my reasons... Hm. There are symbols... But what do they mean...", he mumbled. Shinichi squinted and stepped even nearer.
"What symbols?"
Damnit. There really were symbols all over the wall if you looked closely. Now his curiosity was really piqued. They both studied the symbols side by side.
He couldn't help the feeling that Kaito had planned this too... That he probably had picked him deliberately in class before, so they would get detention together.
A little voice in his mind whispered treacherously, that maybe he had even wanted him here especially, for his help and his mind.
He could have picked anyone else for his plan. He could have chosen Hakuba. But he hadn‘t.
The thought pleased him, even though he tried to subdue the butterflies in his stomach.
"It's a riddle", Shinichi murmured delighted, his mind already playing around with the symbols.
"It's good we have you here then, huh Meitantei?", Kaito grinned beside him and winked at him in a flirty manner.
Shinichi blushed at the nickname, the butterflies became irritating, he needed to concentrate.
"Idiot...", he mumbled half-heartedly and kept studying the symbols.
They were filigree and small, not bigger than a fine thumb print. It almost looked like the wall once was wax and someone had pushed signets into the stone.
The order was strange tough, there were at least nine of them all over the wall in different places, each a different one.
On some symbols, there were carvings over it, as if someone had tried to forcefully cross them out. Shinichi stretched out his hand and touched one of it in front of him, one that had the most scratches over it.
The moment his fingers touched the symbol, it began to burn instantly and glowed and in the next second Kaito pulled him back against his chest, before the curse that shot out of it, would have pierced right through his whole palm with a big, sharp, needle-like dagger!
Shinichi's heart thumped loudly in his chest, his eyes wide in surprise. Kaito huffed and his warm breath tickled his ear, while a soft wave of jasmine hit Shinichi's nose.
"As expected... A truly sinister riddle by the master Kichiemon himself."
The proximity affected Shinichi and the reason for his too fast beating heart wasn't fear anymore. He could feel Kaito's body heat through his shirt on his back and his arms still held him safely against his chest. He slowly wiggled out of the embrace and cleared his throat in embarrassment.
"Thanks..."
"No problem", Kaito smiled warmly at him.
Shinichi had to look away to calm himself down. It had felt too good to be so near him...
"At least we know now, what the scratches over some symbols probably mean. It seems, someone else already tried to determine the meaning of them and scratched marks over the dangerous one's, to rule them out."
Kaito nodded.
"That's very likely", he replied.
Shinichi threw him a suspicious look.
"It wasn't you, was it?"
Kaito snorted.
"No, of course not. I would have warned you, before you touched one of these, if I would have known. But I guessed something like this would happen. There is a reason Kichiemon is called a master of dark riddles... We should be very careful before we touch one of them again."
He gave him a dry, meaningful look and an arched eyebrow. Shinichi's corner of his mouth twitched.
"Yeah, yeah... understood. Some of them are very familiar though, while others seem completely strange. This one over there for example, is the black turtle, that one is definitely a dragon... And over there in the back is a tiger? And this...", Shinichi mumbled in thought, his hand on his chin again.
"Yeah. The red bird. It's about the founder animals of raven's nest...", Kaito agreed approvingly.
Something clicked in Shinichi's mind.
"Yes... But- of course, the elements! If all of the four symbols are touched by their elements in the correct order of their directions-"
"-it could reveal the door. Okay. So, north, east, south, west. Turtle, dragon, bird, tiger. You take earth and water and I take fire and air?", Kaito finished, also excited now.
Shinichi nodded.
They produced the elements one by one in the correct order with their wands and watched the symbols come alive. After every symbol was touched by their element, a mechanism activated inside the stonewall, heard by a clicking and swishing sound.
They both grinned at each other and watched a magical golden glowing line form, which wandered from symbol to symbol until the line formed a door of a kind, looking like a giant keyhole, before them.
"It worked", Kaito laughed triumphant, almost giddy. Then golden, shining words, like written with a feather started to appear in front of them in the stonewall.
"'When is a door not a door?'", the riddle asked in front of them and Kaito had read it aloud. They both morosely contemplated this, until Shinichi's face lit up.
"When it's ajar", Kaito answered for him, right before he wanted to, but nothing happened.
Shinichi frowned.
"Yes, but it's trickier than that... Ajar defines as 'partly open'... But the etymology is more complex. The word 'ajar' derives from 'on char.' 'Char' is related to the old english word 'cierran', meaning 'to turn'..."
He turned to Kaito, who, to his complete surprise, blinked at him and had a look of utter admiration on his face, he either couldn't hide fast enough behind one of his poker faces or didn't even want to.
Shinichi blushed deeply and averted his eyes.
"You really are a genius, huh?", Kaito smirked with a gleam in his eyes and Shinichi blushed even more.
"Sometimes I-", Kaito never ended that sentence, but his eyes flickered over his lips and after a few seconds, shook his head and cleared his throat.
Shinichi could feel the butterflies turning to wild bats in his stomach as he thought about, what the other had wanted to say right now. Kaito rubbed his hands together in anticipation.
"Well, let's do this then. This means, I have to turn around? And then what? I have to go backwards through it?"
Shinichi shrugged.
"Could be."
"Okay. Let's try it out..."
He turned his back to the stonewall, coming face to face with Shinichi.
They looked each other in the eyes, then Kaito smirked again and said: "Ajar."
Behind him, a sound made them both look down at the middle of the stone doorway.
A small keyhole had now formed and the door, practically a plate of stone, went inside with a rumbling sound, but didn't open up completely yet. Both of their faces fell.
"A key?", Shinichi asked. "Do you know something about a key to enter it?"
A shadow fell over Kaito's face. It looked mostly like disappointment.
"No..."
"This means without it, we can't enter it", Shinichi concluded and sighed, almost disappointed now.
"Unless...", Kaito mumbled, frowning and seemed to think of something.
He grabbed Shinichi's shoulders and switched their places. They were standing suddenly nose-to-nose and Shinichi's breath hitched.
"W-what are you doing?", he asked and could swear Kaito's eyes wandered over his lips again for a second.
He was standing with his back to the stone door and Kaito was reaching beside him.
"I'm trying something out", Kaito answered simply and Shinichi followed his eyes.
"No, don't put you finger in there, are you crazy? If it‘s really a spell designed by Kichiemon it could be cursed with something horrible or worse-!"
He grabbed his shoulders.
"Too late!", Kaito smirked smug and put his finger in the keyhole fast, before Shinichi could hinder him.
He flinched and hissed in pain and Shinichi grabbed his shoulders even harder, as Kaito bit his lip in clear visible pain.
"Kaito-"
Something behind them clicked again and the wall made a rumbling sound, like stone rubbing on stone.
The door was finally moving.
Kaito took his finger out of the keyhole, before the moving stone would have crushed it right off.
He put it between his lips and sucked on his bleeding finger.
"What happened?", Shinichi asked irritated, but actually, he was worried.
"Something slit my finger, like a sharp edge of glass. I think my drop of blood really was the key then", he mumbled, with his finger between his lips.
Shinichi blew out an irritated breath.
"That's clearly dark magic, Kaito... What the hell- Do you feel something? You could be cursed with something now. And stop licking it, that's unsanitary- idiot." He hastily grabbed Kaito's finger and held his wand over it.
"Episkey", he said and watched the small cut close.
"Thanks... I could have done that myself though", Kaito murmured, his voice betraying him, as he sounded touched by the gesture.
Shinichi looked up.
"I feel my heart racing, a flutter in my stomach and a little bit warm... But to be honest, I think the enticing reason for these reactions is standing right before me", he admitted huskily, his voice low and his hand still in Shinichi's hands.
A smile tugged at Shinichi's lips and he had to admit, he felt utterly the same. But if the idiot could actually flirt with him, he was fine.
They looked at each other a bit too long, before Shinichi remembered what he was doing and dropped his hand slowly. Kaito's face lit up then, as he looked behind Shinichi's back, like a child with a Christmas present before him.
Shinichi didn't share this feeling at all... he grimaced.
Before them, a dark, winding tunnel was visible now and a gust of moist, mouldy smelling wind was coming out of it. He shuddered.
"It's open", he stated the obvious darkly. Kaito stepped beside him, clearly intrigued and wanting to enter it.
"Well... are you coming?" He threw an almost impatient look behind him and Shinichi hesitated. Kaito raised his eyebrow, a little disappointment showing, and then he shrugged.
"Suit yourself, Meitantei."
Shinichi bit his lip.
"Wait..." He followed him and held up his wand. "... someone has to make sure you don't get yourself killed, right?"
In the dark beside him, Kaito snorted amused. Somehow Shinichi got the feeling, he was doing exactly as Kaito had planned...
The door closed behind them.