Chapter 5: Mystical Boarding
Chapter 5
*Two days after shopping for school supplies…*
"Let me get this straight," Ran said, holding the phone between her ear and shoulder as she carried the laundry basket to her father's room. "You, Kaito-kun, Hakuba-kun, and Hattori-kun are going to a magic school?"
Upon hearing Shinichi's affirmative reply, the karateka fell silent a moment before asking, "Shinichi, is that really you? Are you sure you haven't been kidnapped by some criminal organization with no fashion sense and are being held prisoner by them?"
On the other side of the world, Shinichi sweat dropped. "Heh heh, of course not, Ran!" If she ever found out the whole truth about the Black Organization and Conan… He shivered, something which had nothing to do with the temperature of the Hakuba residence. "You read too many manga!" he scolded half-heartedly.
"Hmm, I guess so," Ran agreed, frowning as she set the laundry basket down and held the phone in her hand. "So you won't be back for awhile?"
"Yeah, and do you think you could pass the message onto Toyama-chan and Nakamori-chan? Hattori and Kaito are too much of wimps to call them themselves." There was the sound of something falling, followed by a yelp. "Watch it, Hattori! I almost fell down the stairs!"
"That's gonna be the least of yer problems in a minute!" an irate Kansai-accented voice yelled in the background.
"Uh, could you do that for me, Ran? Gotta go now, Hattori's trying to murder me. Bye!"
Ran stared at her cell phone in disbelief a moment, then shook her head, giving a long-suffering sigh. Poor Kazuha-chan and Aoko-chan, having to deal with such idiots… the karateka thought. She dialed a familiar number. "Kazuha-chan? Shinichi just called, and he asked me to tell you…"
*One week later…*
"No."
"Kaito, come on!"Shinichi tugged at the magician's arm.
"No!" Kaito refused, his lower lip slipping into a pout. "I am not getting on that abomination of a transportation vehicle!"
Shinichi sighed suffering, trying to ignore the stares of the crowded platform as he dragged Kaito along towards the train. Reluctantly, he muttered, "Look, if you cooperate and try not to freak out, we'll say I owe you one."
Kaito perked up. Shinichi 'owing' him something usually led to very, shall we say, pleasurable experiences.
"Kuroba, keep your ecchi thoughts to yourself, please," Saguru told him disdainfully as he and Heiji caught up to the other two.
"W-what makes you think I'm thinking ecchi thoughts??" Kaito demanded, partially annoyed he'd been caught.
"'Sides the fact that's prob'ly all ya think 'bout when yer around Kudo? Ya got a nosebleed," Hattori smirked. Kaito turned up his nose at the Osakan before drawing a handkerchief out of seemingly nowhere to press to his nose.
"Hey, Hakuba, where'd your cousin go?"Shinichi inquired, looking around for Malfoy Jr.
"Draco said he had to sit with the other prefects on the train," replied the British detective. "Besides, don't you remember that we're not supposed to act like we've met him before?"
"Somehow I don't think Kudo an' Kuroba makin' such a ruckus the other day helped 'im much," Hattori snickered.
"Let's just get on the stupid train while Kaito's relatively calm; that way I don't have to knock him out with his own sleeping gas," Shinichi sighed, giving the group in general a semi-death glare that was copied by Ikatsui, who had followed quietly this whole time at his master's heels.
"Ya know, that dog still creeps me out," Heiji admitted reluctantly.
The group boarded the train with relatively little trouble, considering Kaito turned a group of girls' hair green, then tripped a rather portly witch wearing a pink cardigan. Luckily, the detectives were able to usher the magician away quickly before the seething woman could seek revenge on Kaito.
"Honestly, Kuroba, could you at least try to behave?" Hakuba demanded as he stowed his luggage away overhead. "Or Kudo-kun, could you perhaps threaten to cut him off or something?" Kaito glared at the Brit while Heiji snickered and Shinichi sighed.
The four were soon interrupted by the door of the compartment opening. "Is there room in here?" a girl with vibrant red hair inquired.
"Is there room, Shinichi?" Kaito asked playfully.
"It seems like there is," the Meitantei of the East replied. "What do you think, Hattori?"
"Mmm, nah, I think Hakuba's takin' up too much room," the Osakan deadpanned, nodding seriously in the blonde's direction.
Said blonde rolled his eyes as the other boys shared a laugh at his expense. "Funny, Hattori, very funny."
"Uh, is that a yes or a no?" the redheaded girl asked, confused.
Kaito smoothly made a flower appear, handing it to the girl. "Forgive me, miss, but I sometimes forget my manners. Kaito Kuroba, magician extraordinaire."
The girl blushed as she took the flower. "Ginny Weasley. Nice to meet you, Kaito."
"Kudo, ya got a real scary face there," Heiji said nervously, edging away slightly from the Detective of the East, who looked rather put off as Kaito and Ginny conversed. It was pretty much second nature for Kaito to flirt, a side effect of his night job, and while Shinichi was generally a logical person, sometimes he had the strangest urges to put his detective skills to use and commit an unsolvable crime.
Luckily for the girl, her and Kaito's conversation was interrupted by the arrival of more people. "You found a compartment, Ginny?" inquired a redheaded boy.
"There's plenty of room in here," Shinichi told the teen in smooth English, though his tone was rather cold. Then he frowned. He looks familiar… have I seen him before somewhere?
"Oi, weren't you at the train station?" asked the boy, also frowning.
"Yes; Kaito mistook your friend for me and attacked him," Shinichi remembered.
"It's called glomping," Kaito sulked, his lower lip protruding in a pout.
"I'm Hermione Granger," a bushy-haired girl who had been right behind the other boy said.
"Ron Weasley," the redheaded boy introduced himself.
"Ah, the chuddswyddogion a chwiwgi(1)have graced us with their honorable presence. You seem to have a nepsnargle clinging to your shoulder though." Luna, the girl who they'd run into at Selina's shop, walked up to Shinichi, held her arm out, waited a moment, then drew back, acting as if something invisible was perched on her arm.
Exchanging raised eyebrows, the detectives were about to introduce themselves when the door to the compartment suddenly slammed open, and a dark-haired teen came barreling in, knocking Ron and Hermione over in the process. Luna, despite also being in the mysterious assailant's path, had managed to move out of the way surprisingly quickly.
"Harry, mate, what the hell was that??" Ron blurted as he extended a hand to Hermione to help her up.
"Hide me!" the dark-haired teen, Harry, insisted, quickly jumping up and hiding behind Ginny. Shinichi felt a rather dark sense of relief as this turn of events caused the redheaded bi- er, Ginny, to step away from Kaito.
The car door opened with a violent start, and a red-faced Draco Malfoy, dressed in prefect robes, stood there looking fit to kill. "Where. Is. Potter?" the Slytherin growled.
"What do you want, Malfoy?" Ron retorted.
"I would like to know where Potter is so I can slowly skin him alive!" the blonde practically roared.
"Wasn't there a case where that one guy we found was skinned?" Heiji turned to Shinichi, sotto voce.
"Mmm, no, I think he was burned alive," Shinichi corrected. The two then noticed the strange looks coming from the others. "What?"
Draco covered his eyes with his hand, muttering something to himself. At one point they heard something that sounded like, "Should never have eaten that clover," before glaring at the world in general and leaving the car in a huff.
"Ah, free!" Harry grinned, leaving his hiding spot from behind his friends.
"Harry, what did you do to him?" Ron demanded, wondering what his best friend had done that made the Slytherin so angry.
"Oh, it's more like what I didn't do," Harry chuckled, making the others sweat drop at the diabolical smirk on his face.
"If you don't mind, I think I shall ignore everyone for the rest of this trip," Saguru announced, grabbing his copy of The Hound of the Baskervilles that he'd brought with him.
"Hey guys, we're almost there, you better change into your robes," Hermione reminded Ron and Harry as she came back from changing.
"All right, all right, 'Mione, just give us a minute," Ron grumbled.
Soon enough, the train came to a stop, and the students disembarked, chattering happily about the upcoming school year, though there was an undercurrent of worry and fear.
As the carriages came down to carry the students that weren't first-years to Hogwarts, Heiji and Saguru noticed the thestrals pulling them. Thus started the first logic debate of many, as the half-British detective noticed that these were the same creatures that had brought knowledge of the Wizarding world to him.
"It should be impossible for them to fly like that. The wings are far too small to keep it up, not to mention the carriage," Hakuba said.
"Th' fact that it's half-decayin' is also a concern," Heiji nodded. "It shouldn't even be standin' in that state!" The Osakan's expression turned thoughtful. "Though if ya take into account it might have hollow bones like a bird, then it might be able ta work, even with th' decayin' tissue. And the wings are big enough to carry it."
"What are you talking about?" the British detective asked in bewilderment. "The wings are just about the length of the body, not nearly enough to lift it off the ground, even if you didn't factor in the holes in the wings!"
"Are you blind or what??" Hattori retorted. "Th' wingspan of those things is more than three times its own body, with feathers, not scales. Plus, there ain't any holes at all, and can'tcha see the muscles?"
"Hattori, seriously, stop joking around," Saguru deadpanned. "I don't need your bad attempts at humor right now."
"What??" the Osakan exploded. "I ain't jokin'! And my jokes ain't bad! You're just missin'-"
"Hey, what are you two arguing about?" Shinichi and Kaito came up to them. Apparently the magician thought it would be funny to prank the portly witch he'd accidentally tripped earlier, so he'd given her hair to match her pink cardigan. The Meitantei of the East had barely gotten Kaito out of that predicament in time.
"Oh my gosh, they have Pegasuses pulling their carriages?" Kaito exclaimed in awe. "I love this school!"
Cue looks of disbelief and partial amusement from the detectives and the small crowd that Heiji and Saguru had gathered during their debate.
"Kuroba, that ain't a Pegasus, it's a walking corpse of a horse!" Heiji blurted.
Kaito scoffed. "Like hell! Just look, it's got a big white mane, and shiny white wings, and even its hooves are white!" He gave an appreciative smile. "Man, it'd be fun to ride one!"
Hattori and Hakuba turned to Shinichi with skeptical expressions. The brunette shrugged.
"It even has sparkling ribbons tied to it that are whipping through the wind," he informed them.
"What? Where?" Kaito asked eagerly, practically bouncing up and down. "Where? I don't see it."
"It's right there," Shinichi pointed. "Right over your-" As if on cue, the magician sneezed.
Heiji sweatdropped, then turned to Hakuba. "Oi, ya don't really think…"
"I think this might have something to do with the amount of murders each of us have been present to," Saguru mused, brow creased in concentration. "Only those who have seen death can see them. Of the four of us, I've run into the least murders."
Hattori nodded, catching on. "And I've been on more, especially when I visit Kudo, Kuroba…" The two exchanged glances.
"He follows Kudo-kun around like a lost puppy," Saguru input.
Heiji smirked, nodding. "An' then Kudo 'imself is pretty much self-explanatory."
Saguru nodded with the Osakan, agreeing. "True, true."
Off to the side of everyone, Ikatsui, who surprisingly had not made anyone scream or faint yet, snapped at a ribbon that floated off one of the thestrals, the piece of fabric taunting him just out of reach.
Meanwhile, Draco was wondering: How am I going to survive this year?
(1): Welsh, means 'Detectives and thief' This will probably come up later, where Luna is speaking Welsh. It's such a beautiful language, and Wales is quite the magical place, too ^^
Yes, I am allllllllllllllllllllllllliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiivvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvveeeeeee! 8DDDDDD I'm soooo sorry I took so long to update! ^^; Please don't skewer me! Also, cookies go to Teah no Kitsune, who is the one who came up with the idea/conversation of the boys getting all analytical over thestrals. 3 you, Teah-chan! ^-^
Anywho, here's a pretty important announcement:
Inspired by Chapter 14 of Mangaluva's 'A Phantom Thief' (which you should all read, it's a reeeaaaallly good KaiShin fic!!), SPLSHIMS has now gained a Yaoi Fangirl Ghost Army! 8D So, if you want to join, either post your random character's name, description, fav anime yaoi pairing outside of DCMK, and cause of death in a review, or PM SG-chan with it.
This is in no way making SPLSHIMS a self-insert fic, since SG-chan is not part of the YFGA and everyone else is being written by her. That said, if you wish to remain completely anonymous, rest assured, you will. SG-chan is not planning on saying who each character is based on, and unless you specifically say that you don't mind, SG-chan will not say which character is based after whoever.
Hope you all enjoyed this chappie, and make sure to review! Reviews make SG-chan feel loved =^_^=