Moonlight Magician

Chapter 9

Chapter 9

"Yusaku! Yusaku-kun!"

A nine year old Shinichi looked up at the distant yell. She was seated with with her mother and father in the library, working through some homework.

Her father, Yusaku, frowned and stood up "That voice", he murmured. "It can't be..."

Shinichi gaped as Kaitou KID himself staggered through the door. His normally pristine white suit was tattered and torn. His right arm was stained with red. Yukiko stared at it for a moment, then got up and hurried out of the room.

"KID?!", Yusaku exclaimed. He strode forwards and pushed KID into his vacated chair. "What happened to your arm? And what is that you're holding?"

Kaitou KID held up a brilliant red jewel. "Pandora", he said weakly. "The jewel of immortality. I'm begging you, please hide it."

Shinichi stared at the jewel. Pandora, the jewel of immortality. She vaguely remembered her father telling her stories about it when she was little. It was hard to believe that this was the real thing.

Yukiko returned to the room, holding a first aid kit. "Who shot you?", she asked, cutting open the sleeve of his suit to get to the wound. It was unmistakably a gun shot wound.

"Snake. I needed to get the jewel away from them before they could hurt it."

Shinichi walked up to the thief, who smiled at her weakly. "Hey there, kid."

Shinichi raised an eyebrow. "Hey there, KID."

KID shook his head. "Still a smart-ass, I see."

"Still a reckless fool." She watched as Yukiko prodded his arm, feeling out the damage.

"Is that any way to talk to your elder?"

"Last time I looked, elders worthy of respect didn't call children smart-asses."

Yusaku cleared his throat, breaking up the exchange. "What do you mean, before Snake could hurt it?"

KID held up the stone. "This jewel has consciousness. It has thoughts and feelings, and memories of things so far back, there is no human alive to speak of them. It talked to me... asked me if I could help it. It said they were going to hurt it, so I stole it before that could happen."

Yusaku looked worried for the thief's sanity. "It talked to you?"

"Yea- ow!" The jewel dropped from KID's fingers as Yukiko gave his arm a particularly rough squeeze. The stone rolled along the floor, coming to rest against Shinichi's foot. She picked it up and stared at it. It was small, small enough to hide in her fist. It was more or less spherical in shape, though not smooth like a marble- it had been cut many times, so that it consisted of many polished surfaces forming a sphere. It was a brilliant, mesmerizing red and bathed her hand in a ruby glow as the moonlight streaming through the window caught it. It was heavier than she'd expected it to be.

There was a stirring inside Shinichi's head.

Who're you?

Shinichi shrieked and dropped the jewel. It landed heavily onto the carpet and rolled a few centimeters before stopping. Yusaku and Yukiko stared at her, surprised. KID waved his hand to attract her attention.

"Did you hear it? Did it speak to you?", he asked.

"Y-yes, it did. Didn't you hear-?

KID shook his head. "I think you can only hear it when you're touching it."

"What?", said Yukiko, looking from KID to Shinichi. "Hear what?"

"Touch it, and you'll see."

Both Yukiko and Yusaku held the stone, and gave more or less the same reactions as Shinichi.