Moonlight Magician

Chapter 28

Chapter 28

Shinichi opened her eyes. She squinted at the clock on the bed side table.

6:45am

Pandora had retreated back into its jewel. Shinichi could hear it mumbling to itself in its sleep. It stirred for a moment, and then settled back down.

Shinichi stared glumly at the ceiling.

Maybe, she thought reluctantly, I overestimated KID. Maybe it was stupid of me to think he would easily be able to solve the mystery of Christie with so little information.
I've let the game go on for too long. I've actually won now, so what's the point of it?
I know why I did it. It's because I wanted someone I could trust with my secret. I wanted someone with the power to find it out themselves, in order to prove themselves worthy of knowing it. If he could find it out himself, he would be a suitable person to share it with. And if he couldn't, then there would be no point in him knowing it.
But there really isn't any point in him knowing it now. He might not even want to know it, once he learns of the danger that lies within it. There really is no point to it anymore.

I'm an idiot.

Shinichi felt tears pool in her eyes, and she reached up to wipe at them as they spilled down her cheeks. The movement dislodged something on top of her head and it slipped over one eye. She picked it up and looked at it in the faint light of dawn.

A crown. A crown made of white roses, their stems threaded together to form a soft, fragrant circlet. Sometime during the night, KID had made a crown of pure white flowers and placed it on her head.

Shinichi gave it a watery smile.

===

Takamoto watched Nakamori lose his temper for the fifth time that day. He slammed his fists down onto his table repeatedly while roaring at the taskforce to GET THEIR HEADS IN THE GAME AND CATCH THAT DAMN THIEF!

The reason? Another heist note had just been found on his desk, with no one having any clue about how it had found its way there. It contained a riddle, and a mocking message specifically to Nakamori.

Takamoto absently ducked under an ugly vase that Nakamori's energetically flailing arms had sent his way and frowned over the message. KID had wound Nakamori up to the point of no return, and now Nakamori had decided to include Shinichi in the heist. Apparently, she was healing at a much faster rate than expected, and Nakamori took that as a clear sign that she was ready to help them again.

Takamoto was concerned about Shinichi. They had become really close friends, and she hadn't seemed to mind that he and Ran had started going out, despite their previous 'romance' as Sonoko had so charmingly put it. Getting shot had to be traumatic, yet she didn't display any signs of trauma. But she refused to leave the house once getting discharged from the hospital. Granted, the reporters that would undoubtedly dog her every move lest she leave the house would put a bit of a damper on things, but surely it wasn't healthy to stay cooped up for so long?

He and Ran had visited her a few days prior. Shinichi had welcomed them warmly, but spent some time anxiously scanning the street during their visit, in intervals where she felt they would not be looking. On their second visit, Shinichi had left the room for a brief phone conversation from someone she called 'Jodie-sensei', and came back smiling. After that, she no longer watched the streets from her window.

Takamoto found the noise level in the office was getting too high, and left before anyone could launch anymore makeshift missiles at him. What was KID planning? Following advice Shinichi had given him some time before, he tried to think like KID, but to no avail. He wasn't KID, and found it near-impossible to approach his state of mind.