A.N: I've had this stuck in my head for a while so I thought I might as well start writing it.

Disclaimer: I don't own DCMK

Pairing: KaiShin [KaitoxShinichi]

Warnings: It's an AU and all the warnings that come with that. And it will be kind of dark at points.

Illusions of the Sun

Prologue

"Shinichi! Shinichi!"

Blue eyes blinked in surprise as a small, dark haired boy looked up from his book to see another boy racing across the playground towards him. It was this person who was shouting his name, sounding ecstatic to the point of exploding. The effect was enhanced by the even more unkempt state of the boy's already wild hair and the grin that looked like it was about to split his face in two.

"Guess what?" he exclaimed the moment he'd skidded to a stop in front of Shinichi. "Watch this!" he continued without waiting for an answer. Instruction delivered, he straightened, stepped to the side—and vanished.

Shinichi blinked once, twice, then three times before he relented and rubbed his eyes, but the other boy was literally gone. There were his footprints in the soft ground right where he had been standing, but they just ended where he'd stopped. There were no signs that he had run off in a different direction and the prints weren't any deeper which might have indicated extra effort put into a jump, but he was nowhere to be seen.

"Kaito?" he called out a bit hesitantly, shutting his book and standing up. "Kaito? Where—" He was cut off as someone tapped on his shoulder. He jumped and spun around so fast he nearly fell. "Kaito!"

The other boy was grinning, if possible, even wider than he had been before. "Yep! So what do you think? Isn't it awesome?"

"What did you do?" Shinichi demanded a bit nonplused.

His friend only laughed. "Dad called it teleporting. I can't go very far yet, but Dad said if I keep practicing I'll be able to cross whole streets and stuff easy! Oh, I figured out how to change the colors of the lights too. Here, I'll show you!"

Caught up in his excitement, Kaito raised his hand to do just that, but the smaller boy reached out hurriedly and slapped his hand down.

"Don't!" he hissed, casting a quick glance around the playground. Finding it empty, he let out a sigh of relief. "You're not supposed to do that sort of thing where people can see. Remember?"

Kaito rolled his eyes but nodded anyway. "Let's go to your house then. Come on!" Grabbing his friend by the hand he proceeded to drag him bodily out of the playground and down the street. Shinichi hurried to keep up and avoid tripping, his neglected book flapping from his other hand.

A few minutes later they were running up the driveway to his house. Kaito paused for a moment at the sight of a familiar car before setting off again with twice the vigor, eliciting a yelp of protest from his panting companion.

"S—slow down!"

"But my mom and dad are here already," Kaito said enthusiastically, not slowing down at all. "Mom promised they'd bring ice cream!"

"They won't let you eat it until after dinner anyway," Shinichi pointed out to no avail.

"Doesn't mean I can't ask," the other countered, barging right through the front door like it hadn't been locked and earning himself another hissed warning from his friend about displaying his powers. He pointed out that for all anyone knew the door had always been unlocked, to which Shinichi heaved a longsuffering sigh and yanked his hand free of Kaito's grasp so that he could examine his book for any damage their rushed journey might have caused. Kaito himself disappeared in the direction of the kitchen only to return five minutes later with a disgruntled expression.

"Not until after dinner, right?"

"It's not fair! I mean, what difference does it make if I eat the ice cream before or after dinner? It's all the same once it goes down, right?"

"I…guess you could put it that way," his friend consented. "But it's still not good to eat dessert first. You might eat so much dessert that you can't eat the meal and that would be bad for you."

"Oh well, did you want to see the lights? Come on, I'll show you!" Enthusiasm resurging as he remembered the original reason he'd wanted to get indoors so quickly, Kaito grabbed his friend's hand again and raced through the house towards Shinichi's room. Skidding through the door, he pushed Shinichi onto one of the two beanbags in the room then stepped back and snapped his fingers. Instantly a shower of what looked like sparks flew from his hand in a shower of sparkling lights. They started out white, then turned yellow then red then green then blue, changing each time he snapped his fingers. The lights hung in the air once summoned and by the end of the display there was a veritable cloud of multicolored lights in the room. It was like standing amidst a haze of tiny stars.

"Wow, that's really cool," Shinichi breathed, staring wide-eyed at all the dancing lights. Kaito beamed, sweeping into a deep bow like he'd seen his father do on stage before throwing himself onto the second beanbag. The lights remained hanging in the air—their own, private galaxy.

"What about you?" he asked eagerly. "Have you seen anything lately?"

The wonder on Shinichi's face immediately morphed into a deep frown. "Not exactly…but…I've had this really awful feeling all day…"

Kaito frowned, watching his friend's face scrunch up with worry. He wanted to say something to comfort the other but he wasn't sure what to say. Shinichi's bad feelings were usually fairly accurate. It was probably just part of being an oracle, but it certainly made it hard to figure out what to say. After all, it probably wasn't nothing.

"Did you talk to your mom about it?" he asked instead.

The smaller boy made a disgruntled face. "Yeah, but she just told me not to worry about it until I have more to work with."

"I'd say that's a pretty good suggestion. You can't solve a problem before it exists."

"It's called prevention."

Kaito snorted then bounded up off the beanbag. "Then there's only one thing to do! Let's play a game."

Shinichi blinked up at him in mild confusion. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"Simple. You need to get your mind off of something you can't do anything about. Come on, it'll be fun."

He shook his head at his friend's illogical logic but he didn't protest as he was pulled up out of the comfortable clutches of his beanbag. A distraction probably wouldn't hurt. Kaito excelled at distracting people.

Time always flew by when they were having fun. Night had fallen by the time the two children found themselves in the Kudo library where they were 'treasure hunting'. Kaito had just scaled a bookshelf-mountain and was describing the 'valley' below when they heard a crash from downstairs. Both boys paused where they were, their heads turning towards the library door.

"Did you hear that?" Kaito asked, jumping down from his perch to land in a crouch on Shinichi's father's writing desk. Usually the other boy would have frowned on this desecration of his father's sacred work place, but instead he stood frozen, a sudden, involuntary shiver racing down his spine. "Shinichi?"

"There's something wrong," he said, his voice strained. "I can't—"

He was cut off as another crash sounded accompanied by what had to be muffled shouts. The interruption seemed to cut through whatever tension had been holding them still and both boys bolted for the library door. Dashing down the hall outside, they were almost to the top of the stairs when Kaito's mother appeared from below. Her eyes were wide in a pale face as she zeroed in on them. A moment later she had crossed the hall and had grabbed each boy by a hand and was running back the way the boys had come.

"What—" Kaito started to ask but his mother shot him a terrified look that shoved the words back down his throat. What was going on here?

Kuroba Chikage threw open the door to Shinichi's parents' room. Dragging the boys towards the balcony doors, she finally let go of their hands and scrambled to open them. Cold wind blasted in the moment the doors were open, carrying with it the scent of something burning. Somewhere below and far too close there were several sharp explosions that rent the air into tiny pieces.

Shinichi stumbled, letting out a half strangled sound as he tried to run back into the house, blue eyes wide with something only he could see, but Chikage caught the boy before he could take more than a step or two and hauled him back onto the balcony.

"Go!" she insisted, carrying him to the railing and all but tossing him into the branches of the tree that stood just beyond the balcony.

"Mom! Were those gunshots?" Kaito demanded, his own eyes wide. Was he dreaming? But the night air was biting with cold and those sounds—they had sounded so real. "Where—"

"Not now, Kaito," his mother cut him off, scooping him up and throwing him into the tree after Shinichi before she climbed over the railing herself.

Confused but sensing the urgency in the air, the wild-haired boy scrambled quickly down the tree to the spot where Shinichi was just getting up, having half climbed half fallen out of the branches earlier.

"Are you all right?" he asked, giving his friend a steadying hand and checking him over quickly for any signs of injury. The smaller child had a few cuts and scrapes from the rough bark and twigs of the tree but otherwise didn't seem hurt. But he was shivering violently and the look in his eyes—Kaito had never seen a look like that on his friend's face before. It seemed to be a mixture of terror, horror, anguish, and loss.

Kaito opened his mouth to ask his friend what he was seeing, or at least try to snap him out of whatever trance he had fallen into, but before he could utter so much as a word his mother was there again, demanding that they run. Together the three of them crashed through the Kudo Manor's back gate.

That was when someone grabbed Kuroba Chikage from behind, pinning her arms to her sides and covering her mouth as yet more shadowy figures poured out of the night to gather around the escaping trio.

"Mom!" Kaito shouted, making a lunge for the man who had caught her. "Let her go!"

His mother's eyes widened in horror and she struggled to free her mouth. "Kaito! Both of you—run!"

"But—"

There was a sharp cry and he spun around, his blood running cold. Shinichi was lying sprawled on the ground, a trickle of blood seeping from beneath his bangs and another of the masked men standing over him.

Kaito didn't know what to do. And in that split second of indecision it was already too late.

TBC

A.N: I also have chapter one, just give me a few moments to load it.