Disclaimer: I do not own Detective Conan/Case Closed.

Pairing: KaitoxShinichi

Chapter Rating: T

Collection Summary: No matter where or what they are, their lives are always entwined. KaiShin stories in fantasy settings.

Chapter Summary: Shinichi is the new detective at the magical crimes division, and Kaito is the demon he's made a contract with to help him on his cases. Their successes are drawing a lot of attention—perhaps too much.

A Demon's Jealousy

[Demon Verse]

Part 4

"Excuse me, but have you seen Kudo Shinichi?"

Hattori turned around from where he had been piling his plate with food from the banquet table to see a, blond man likely a few years older than he was standing in front of him. The stranger's expression was too serious for the party.

"He was here a moment ago," the dark-skinned detective replied with a shrug as he scanned the faces of those nearby. "Doesn't seem to be here now though. Why're you looking for him? Who are you?"

"My name is Amuro," the blond replied, flashing a badge. "I'm with the organized crimes division."

"Organized crimes?" Heiji repeated, confused. "Didn't realize you guys were invited too."

"Your department head added me to the guest list as a favor."

"Oh, okay." The detective grinned. "So, what can we do for ya?"

The man's expression didn't lighten. "Kudo Shinichi. Do you know where he went?"

"I think I saw him leaving with that Takaharu fellow," Sera volunteered, coming up beside them. "They were talking about looking into some sort of magical research."

Amuro's eyes narrowed. "Were they? This is bad."

"Bad?" Hattori shook off the slight buzz he'd been getting from the alcohol in his system and narrowed his eyes at the man. "What's bad? What's going to happen to Shinichi?"

"Nothing, hopefully," the blond replied curtly. "But something, possibly. If there's trouble, we're all in it."

"That…was a seriously unhelpful answer."

"We need to find them. Now."

"I may know where to look," Hakuba offered, having gravitated towards the conversation at the sign of trouble. "I passed them leaving when I came back from the restrooms."

"Good. Lead the way. You, Hattori, was it? You go outside and tell Kudo's demon partner that we may need his help. He is here, right?"

"I'm not actually sure," Hattori admitted, beginning to feel a growing sense of panic inspired by the expression on this Amuro fellow's face.

The blond cursed. He produced a small walkie talkie. "You're going to have to look for him."

Whoever was on the other end said something, and the blond nodded. "I'm heading in."

"What the hell is going on?" Hattori demanded, losing his patience.

"Let's go. I'll explain on the way."

-0-

Something was wrong.

Kaito could feel it like a person in a desert at noon could feel the heat of the sun.

"Well you're looking unusually pathetic."

Kaito scowled. He recognized that voice. "Sharon. How nice of you to drop in," he said sarcastically. The blond demon had always been insufferable. She enjoyed mind games and teasing people (okay, so did he, but he had better taste in games, thank you very much), and she had no regard for territory. Though capable of showing compassion every once in a while, she was known for being a cruel demon who delighted in tormenting then killing humans, whom she considered a type of fun, disposable pet.

"I go by Chris now," she said offhandedly.

"Whatever. Did you need something or were you just saying hello?"

She shrugged. "I don't want anything. I'm just here for a job. What about you? I see your pet doesn't seem to be with you."

"Shinichi is at the party," he replied, inclining his head towards the mansion across the street from the park where he'd been lounging. "What job are you working on?"

She smiled. "An interesting little project." She brushed her hair back over her shoulders and looked up at the mansion, lips still quirked into that secretive smile she was infamous for. "Humans really are such funny creatures, don't you think?"

Already in a sour mood, Kaito only shrugged. He had neither the patience nor the interest to indulge Sharon or Chris or whatever she was calling herself these days in her little games.

Unperturbed by the lack of a proper response, the blonde continued. "Do you know what the most amusing thing about them is? It's how they believe they're the center of the universe. They build their cities and make their little electronic and magical crutches and think that they're geniuses and pioneers. But really, deep down, they're just afraid. They know that they are weak and finite, but they strive desperately to fool themselves into believing that that isn't all that they are."

"Get to the point," Kaito snapped finally, tired of the other demon's ramblings. "I assume you have one."

"I was getting there," Sharon assured him, laughing. "You really should be careful, Kuroba. You're starting to behave more like a human every time I see you. Bad habits are hard to break, you know. Better not to form them at all."

"If you're not going to get to the point then I'm leaving. I'm going to find Shinichi."

"You'd have to break down this barrier if you want to do that."

"I know. So I'd appreciate it if you'd shut up so I can concentrate."

"Wow, someone's in a bad mood. Well, you may wish to know then that the man who put up this barrier is also the man who is currently holding your pet hostage. If you break it carelessly, he'll know you're coming."

Kaito felt his blood run cold for an instant before it began to burn. Whirling around, he grabbed Sharon by the front of her fancy coat and nearly lifted her right off her feet. "What?!"

"Oh, you didn't know?" she asked innocently, smile widening.

Frustrated, Kaito released the infuriating blonde and turned to the barrier. That feeling of wrongness from before gnawed at him with newly sharpened teeth, and he cursed himself for not acting on it sooner. But he couldn't distract himself with pointless regrets. If he was going to get into the building without ripping down the magical barrier, he would have to analyze it and find a backdoor—or make a backdoor if he couldn't find one.

"You realize you're wasting your time."

"Isn't there someone else you can be gracing with your presence?"

"Of course. But I'm not here just to say hello to an old friend."

"You don't say. And what then are you here for? To delay me as long as possible?"

"On the contrary. The wizard I'm contracted with asked me to give you this map through the shields."

Kaito whirled back around. "What map?"

"Here." The woman held up a spinning orb of blue threads.

Kaito resisted the urge to shake the other demon and took the magical orb. A quick examination told him that it was indeed a spell designed to open a "door" in the barrier without breaking it.

"Thanks," he said tersely.

The other demon shrugged. "Just part of the job. So then, shall we go in?"

Kaito didn't bother with a verbal answer.

-0-

Shinichi scowled at the incomplete summoning circle. He knew he couldn't help this man. The problem was that his life wasn't the only one at stake.

He looked up at the ceiling again—more specifically at the magical diagram drawn there. One that would kill all the guests upstairs at a word from Takaharu.

"Stop wasting time," the man in question said sharply, tapping his foot in an exaggerated show of impatience. "Or do you not care what happens to your colleagues?"

"It takes time to figure out how to position the summoning circle to integrate it with the rest of your spell," Shinichi shot back. He needed to buy as much time as possible while he thought this through. "I would have thought anyone who knew anything about magical diagrams should know that even a tiny mistake could be disastrous."

Apparently, this warning had hit home because Takaharu only grunted and tapped his foot some more. Knowing that he had bought a reprieve, but he had to spend that time wisely. He would do that by understanding both the magic circle under his feet and the one painted upon the ceiling.

-0-

"So are you going to explain what this is about yet?" Hattori demanded of the blond man now leading him, Sera and Hakuba down the hall.

"I've been investigating Takaharu for a while," Amuro explained, pace never slowing. "He has been trading his knowledge of magic with some dangerous organizations to acquire huge sums of money. His main loyalty, however, seems to be to a particularly unsavory group that we believe are behind several murders, though we have yet to secure the necessary proof."

"But what would he want with Shinichi?" Heiji demanded.

"We're not sure," the blond admitted. "But he has been asking around about for wizards recently."

"So he wants something that only a wizard can give him," Hakuba concluded, frowning. "But surely there are many wizards in this city. Why risk approaching one who works for the police?"

"There are quite a few wizards, true, but whatever Takaharu wants, it must require a high level of skill. There are only university certified wizards in the city. The two most famous have long waiting lists for anyone who wants to even speak to them. The third is touring the world right now, and the fourth refused to meet with Takaharu because they have some shared history and both bear grudges. That left only Kudo. Then this party came along. We were sure he would act."

"But what does he want?" asked Hattori.

"We don't know. But I'm sure we will soon."

Arriving at a branching set of halls, the four stopped.

"This is as far as I saw them go," Hakuba explained.

Hattori cursed, but almost as though on cue, two more people caught up to them. One was Kaito. The other was a very pretty blond woman that neither Hattori nor Hakuba recognized.

"Kudo's missing," Hattori started to explain only to have Kaito stride right past him.

"He's this way," the demon called back as he picked up his pace, focusing on the bond that his contract with Shinichi provided that always told him exactly where his beloved was.

That pull drew him down several more hallways and staircases until they reached a locked door covered in runic writing. The hall here was filled with a strange, red light that burned at the skin.

"There's a barrier too," Sharon observed, leaning against the wall like she had no cares in the world—which she probably didn't. "But they're definitely in there."

"This power," Amuro whispered, eyes narrowing. "It feels…wrong. We have to stop it."

Kaito ignored all of them. He could sense the wrongness now even more strongly than before, but he could sense Shinichi too, and that was all that mattered. He could sense that Shinichi was unhurt, but the detective was stressed even though he was keeping a level head (Shinichi had always been good at that).

This close, Kaito no longer worried about secrecy. It was time to make his entrance the best way he knew how. With a bang.

-0-

Everything happened all at once. Shinichi had been bent over the summoning circle, chalking in lines that were just accurate enough to fool someone who wasn't looking for deceptions when the door to the workroom blew in. The shockwave knocked him flat to the floor hard enough to force the air from his lungs.

Takaharu leapt forward, his entire body glowing a brilliant green as though he was armored in acidic fire. That magical armor deflected the debris from the explosion but not the projectile that flew from Kaito's outstretched hand. It cut straight through Takaharu's green flames and into his abdomen.

He cried out in pain and doubled over, blood seeping from between his fingers.

Deeming the man incapacitated, Kaito was by Shinichi's side, pulling him up and checking him all over for injuries.

"I'm fine," Shinichi tried to assure him only to cut himself off as he saw Takaharu topple over onto one of the three large rings in the diagram on the floor and shout out a stream of words that no one in the room could make out as a high wind kicked up out of nowhere in a deafening shriek.

The world exploded in red light. It smashed everyone in the chamber up against the workroom's walls, but, more importantly, it brought the magic circle on the ground to sizzling, white hot life. Worse still, chains of that same bright crimson light leapt up from the floor to latch onto several points of the circle painted on the ceiling. In an instant, that diagram too was blazing to full and glorious life.

In the distance, people began to scream. If any of those down in the workroom had been able to look back into the party halls, they would have seen massive, spectral figures of red fire rising from the ground to latch onto the guests. They closed their flaming arms around terrified men and women, and in their embrace, the people began to burn as though there were fires lit inside them that were so bright they could be seen right through their skin.

"What's he doing?" someone was shouting—probably Hattori.

Shinichi wasn't listening. He had spent enough time studying these two diagrams to know that Takaharu had decided to go ahead and activate his grand spell now that he was on the brink of failure. By linking the two circles, he was offering all the guests above as the blood sacrifice in this spell, for what purpose, Shinichi still didn't know. But he wasn't going to wait to find out.

Neither were any of his companions. Hattori, Sera and Hakuba had all charged towards Takaharu, intending to drag him from the circle, but they ran into a crackling barrier that hurled them back like they were nothing. The blond man they had come with whom Shinichi had never seen before took a different route. He started casting a dampening spell. Normally, such spells could halt the casting of other magic or at least slowing and weakening it, but the spell did not seem to be having the desired effect. The whirl of energy did slow, but only slightly. Sweat beaded on the man's forehead.

In the distance, the screaming grew louder.

Takaharu's armor of green flames flickered to a ruby red, and the man began to laugh. The unhinged sound made the hairs on the back of Shinichi's neck stand on end, but he forced all thoughts of the crazy man out of his mind as he grabbed a box of chalk from the desk and shook out a stick.

Then he began drawing a new magical circle around the one already glowing on the floor.

"What are you doing?" Kaito asked.

Shinichi didn't bother looking up. "Reversing the flow. Help me."

Understanding, Kaito took another piece of chalk and went to work on the other edge of the circle.

Back out in the hallway leading to the workroom, a blond woman leaned against the wall and smiled. Humans and their ambitions and squabbles were always entertaining to her. She cared nothing for who won this tussle, and her contract was one for information, so she felt no need to lend either side a hand. She was happy to just watch the conflict unfold.

"Just a little longer," Shinichi called to the blond man whose dampening spell was rapidly losing what little ground it held. The man was on his knees now, eyes squeezed shut in concentration. If he heard Shinichi, he made no move to show it. The detective only scrambled to finish his drawing.

Then it was done, and Shinichi met Kaito's gaze across the room. The demon nodded and stepped back.

Shinichi knelt and placed his hands on the edge of the spell circle. He took in a deep breath, braced himself, then chanted the activation command.

The outter circle lit a brilliant, icy blue. For a long moment, that was all that happened. Then the crimson chains of light connecting the top circle to the bottom one shivered and began to turn blue.

Takaharu's laughter turned to a shriek of outrage, but Shinichi barely heard him, completely focused on forcing the madman's spell to reverse itself.

In the halls above, screams of terror and pain turned to screams of confusion as the fiery red monsters burning their insides suddenly turned blue. The pain and weakness brought on by their embrace suddenly took a one eighty, and the men and women who had been writhing weakly in agony suddenly found themselves feeling stronger. Before they could begin to process this change of fortune, the fiery creatures melted away as quickly as they had appeared.

Below, the red light that had filled the halls was now entirely blue. And it was fading fast.

-To Be Continued-