Detective Conan and Magic Kaito characters, settings, and ideas do not belong to me but to Aoyama Gōshō.

Veils Between Worlds

By Taliya

The full moon hung silently behind a patchy veneer of gauzy cloud cover, upon which the light from the Tokyo metropolis reflected back from and further polluted the darkness of the night sky. A cool breeze stirred the leaves of the trees that lined the street, upon which children dressed in costumes collected candy from the neighborhood's residents. His particular apartment was dim with no lights on from inside—a clear sign to the children that no one was home. Instead, the apartment's sole resident sat upon the building's roof, listening to the muffled sounds of laughter and chatter.

He often wondered during those scant moments when he could relax his shields and simply be, who he might have been had he chosen differently. If he had never known Miyano Elena, would he have ever fallen in love with her daughter, Akemi? If he had never met Date Wataru, would he have joined the police academy? If he had never encountered Yamagata Ken, would he have even known about the existence of the Black Organization?

It was difficult, he reflected, to pretend to be multiple people at the same time. Was he Furuya Rei, the boy who grew up with the desire to become the best policeman the world had ever seen? Was he Amuro Touru, the amiable, mild-mannered barista who worked part-time at Poirot Café to make ends meet? Or was he Bourbon, the deductive genius who sniffed out spies within the Black Organization? To be fair, Amuro Touru was the latest of the three personas, and the least developed. It was a mask he donned comparatively easily, as opposed to Bourbon. Even so, he felt that on this night of masquerades and false appearances, it was rather appropriate that he lose his, allowing himself to simply be himself for once.

"Come up here to think much?" questioned a voice, and he instinctively tensed before twisting his head to seek the speaker. His eyes caught sight of a slim figure in white reclined lazily along the edge of the stairwell's roof. The top hat had been tipped forwards to rest on the bridge of his nose and his cape fluttered along the wall, a waterfall of pristine silk. The man turned his head ever so slightly in his direction, a crafty grin on his lips. "Bourbon?"

"Pardon?" he inquired airily despite the fact that he was suddenly hyper-aware of the possibility of bugs. He forcefully relaxed his posture, choosing instead to recline lazily on his hands after he had spun to face the Magician Under the Moonlight. "I do believe you're mistaken." Images of the Sherry-who-was-not flashed across his mind as he pondered the phantom thief's presence. Vermouth had given him a brief summary of what happened on the Mystery Train as she understood it with regards to Sherry, revealing the magician's involvement in the whole affair.

"Au contraire," KID replied, grin evident in his voice. "I do believe we've been introduced once already, though I'm almost positive it was I in disguise, not you." KID rolled along the edge of the stairwell, somehow managing not to fall off as he twisted so that he now lay languidly on his stomach like a large jungle cat. He propped his chin in one gloved hand, face shadowed by hat and monocle as he regarded his companion. "So what do I call you, if not Bourbon?" asked KID curiously. "Just so you know I swept the rooftop for bugs already." His secretive grin widened. "And please speak freely, for who am I going to tell?"

Something within him unwound at the knowledge that the thief had already done a sweep, for he knew that Kaitou KID was nothing if not meticulous. The gentleman thief had to be, to have evaded capture for so long, with contingency plan upon contingency plan piled one atop another. His escape from the exploded train car without anyone the wiser was proof enough. "Rei," he answered before he realized he had spoken aloud, "Furuya Rei."

"Furuya Rei-san," Kaitou KID all but purred, "Pleased to meet you."

Rei smirked, somehow astonishingly at ease in the presence of the thief. "Don't I get a name in return?"

"Tut tut, Furuya-san," KID chided teasingly. "Names hold power, and should I give you mine, I stand to lose quite a bit."

"Well that's rather unfair, since I gave you mine," he retorted as reality reasserted itself and a pervasive sense of horror doused him as effectively as a bucket of ice water. He had given Kaitou KID his name—his real name. What have I done?

"Fear not, Furuya-san. I won't tell—" the monocle flashed ominously as KID smirked, "—if you won't."

"What is there to tell?" he inquired, his tone hinting of bitterness and self-remonstration. "That Kaitou KID had a conversation with me on the rooftop?"

KID's grin now revealed teeth, and for a fleeting moment Rei thought he saw an image of a white-furred fox superimposed over that of the thief's supine form, but he blinked and the vision was gone—a trick of the moonlight, perhaps? "No, not that," the magician corrected with the tone of an overindulgent mother, "I meant the fact that your masks are all gone."

Rei felt the blood drain from his face. KID can't possibly mean—! In an instant he had a gun in his hand, thumb cocking the trigger as he aimed above the stairwell—

—only for the weapon to smash onto the tile flooring of the building's roof, pinned down by fingers far stronger than he had initially estimated. Rei himself lay flat on his back, left wrist pinned by the phantom thief's other hand and lower body held down by the magician's strategically placed legs. No amount of struggling or squirming could get KID to budge. KID hummed in disappointment as he wiggled the snub-nosed revolver free of Rei's grip without ever letting go of his hand, the gun vanishing in a small puff of white smoke.

Kaitou KID loomed over his prone body, and Rei had the distinct impression of a curious tiger that had caught prey it had never encountered before. Though he tried, Rei found himself unable to twist his face away, as though some invisible force kept him from staring at anything other than KID. The thief merely stared down at him, studying him in a way that made him uncomfortable for reasons other than their physical positions. It felt as though the magician was seeing past the face, past the day-to-day thoughts, and down to somewhere private and personal.

His hopes.

His dreams.

His motivations.

His shames.

His hatreds.

His loves.

The nakedness he felt under Kaitou KID's penetrating gaze left him dizzy and humiliated. "Please…" he breathed, unaware of the tears that rolled down his cheeks. It distantly registered that behind the thief faintly waved nine fluffy white tails, which oddly enough made sense to his scrambled mind. "Please don't…"

KID bent closer, close enough to feel the warmth of his skin on his cheek though they never touched, close enough to feel the warmth of his breath on his ear as he murmured, "Why do you hide?"

Rei closed his eyes, powerless under KID's thrall as he whispered, "Because I've no other choice."

The magician jerked back at Rei's answer, blinking. "Furuya-san, there is always another choice." The thief sprang up from the ground, landing lightly on the top of the stairwell where he had first appeared.

With a groan Rei levered himself up, shaking his head to clear the fuzziness KID had somehow managed to induce in his mind. What had KID done?

"Furuya-san," the magician called, and Rei peered up to find Kaitou KID standing like a pillar of white against the dimly illuminated clouds, cape flapping in the wind. The moon broke through the cloud cover for a moment, and the faint outline of nine large foxtails bobbed gently in a fan behind him, his shadow depicting not his physical human form but that of what was undeniably a fox.

Kitsune, his brain burbled in shock. Kaitou KID is a kitsune. Kyuubi no kitsune, at that!

"Tonight is the Americans' All Hallows' Eve holiday, the night when the veil between worlds is thinnest—and veils are like masks, easily put on and easily taken off." KID studied Rei with a kind eye. "You've worn your masks for so long you don't even know who you are anymore." He flicked a card towards Rei, the small rectangle sliding to a halt by his feet. Rei picked the card up gingerly, finding a single phone number written on it. "Encrypted line, so you won't be able to find me, but if you need to talk, I'll listen. Thin the masks tonight, Furuya-san, in celebration of this one night of make believe and fantasy." He swirled his cape about him elegantly and bowed. "Later, Furuya-san." And Kaitou KID did not merely depart; he faded away until it was as if he had never been there to begin with, the reflection of the monocle the last trace of KID to disappear.

Rei rubbed his face with a hand, suddenly realizing just how rapidly his heart was pounding. Had that all been a dream? His eyes scanned the rooftop, only to find it as empty as it always had been. A gust of wind blew by him, and something flapped between his fingers. Startled, Rei glanced down to find the single white card that the phantom thief had left him.

"It was real," he mumbled, bringing the card up to stare at it in wonder, "It was all real." He clutched the card tightly as though afraid it too would disappear as KID had, and he carefully tucked the rectangle into his pocket.

Thin the masks, the king of tricksters had said, in celebration of this one night of make believe and fantasy.

Maybe it's okay, he thought as he retreated down the stairs to his apartment. Maybe it's okay to be me for a night. He grabbed his keys and wallet and exited his domicile, headed for a place he had not frequented in years: a video arcade. His work had taken up so much of his life that he had forgotten what it was like to relax and have fun.

Stepping out of his parked car, he ambled towards the arcade, catching the shadowy outline of a nine-tailed fox gracefully bounding across the sky in joyous celebration of a single night of freedom. And for the first time in years, he smiled. Truly smiled.

Author's Note: So… I'm not sure this even made any sense at all. My apologies if you got a little lost trying to figure out the purpose of this piece. It wasn't so much a, "here's what I'm trying to portray", as a, "here's an idea that sort of ran away from me". At any rate, I just wanted to try my hand at something further outside the realm of canon than I normally go, and figured that since it is Halloween, I might as well go for broke and try a supernatural piece. And Kaito simply makes a wonderful kitsune. Yamagata Ken is my made up name for the man who was a member of the Japanese Public Security Bureau and who had also been known to Black Organization members as Scotch. Happy Halloween, everyone! I hope you enjoyed it.

Completed: 30.10.2015