Moonlight Magician

Chapter 44

Chapter 44

The final bell of the day rang. Aoko glanced at Kaito's empty seat yet again, a faint frown marring her face. Kaito was rarely ever off sick, and prankster though he was, he always called to inform the school if he was going to be absent. But the teacher hadn't known where he was, and her phone was devoid of whiny messages on the subject of how boring being ill was.

She felt worried about him.

All around her, students were packing up and leaving, drifting away together, discussing weekend plans. A shadow fell across her table and Aoko looked up to see Hakuba standing beside her, raising a eyebrow quizzically.

"You ready to leave?", he asked, taking in the sight of her still-empty schoolbag. Usually, Aoko was pretty speedy to leave the classroom on a Friday.

"Uh, yeah", Aoko said, breaking out of her thoughts. "But I was thinking I might stop by Kaito's house today."

The blond detective gave a snort of derision. "Because he's ill? He's seventeen, he can take care of himself."

"Yeah, but his mother's in a different country right now, so he's all alone. Besides, Kaito rarely gets sick."

"So?"

"So", she said patiently, "when Kaito gets sick, he gets sick hard."

"You're going to Kaito's house?", came a voice from behind Hakuba. The detective visibly jumped, then turned and blushed when he saw Akako behind him.

"Yeah", said Aoko, packing up her bag. She stood and looked at the witch. "Why? You want to come with us?"

Akako shot her a rare smile and smirked inwardly as she heard Hakuba's breath hitch. "If you'll have me."

"Lets get going then."

As they walked, Akako thought back to the last heist, when she had taken it upon herself to warn Shinichi off. She had felt confident and smug, more powerful than the detective and her spooky spirit friend, although Shinichi's lack of an outburst had dampened that satisfaction a little.

And then, not even half an hour later, KID had kissed Shinichi in full view of everyone.

Akako felt a surge of embarrassment, and she turned her face away lest her companions see her cheeks flush. How embarrassing, that she had been proven wrong almost immediately, This wasn't supposed to happen. Shinichi was meant to have left the scene of the heist , giving up on catching KID's heart in the face of Akako's far superior beauty, but instead she had gone on ahead and collected her prize. Akako had almost had a heart attack when seeing the scene on her TV that night.

Was that why Shinichi had been so calm? Because she knew that she already had KID's heart? But then why hadn't she just come out and said it? Or was the kiss a form of branding, to show Akako and every other fan-girl out there that KID belonged with her? But, somehow, Akako couldn't see the detective planning something like that. It just didn't fit in with her character.

Either way, Akako wanted answers, and questioning Kaito seemed to be the least humiliating path to take.

===

Many miles away in a different country entirely, Yukiko Kudo was laughing.

Yusaku poked his head into the room, taking in the sight of his wife bent double over a newspaper, shaking uncontrollably. He raised an eyebrow slowly, but made no comment. She had done stranger things.

Yukiko, whose laughter was nearing the quiet wheezing stage, beckoned her husband to approach her, holding out the newspaper for him to take. Yusaku looked at the front page, and froze.