More Than A Gemstone (Kaishin)

Urban Legends

A/N: Hello guys! I sincerely hope you're enjoying the storyline so far! I've got it all planned out, from A to Z with storyline, characters and everything, so I may as well churn out some chapters while the motivation and ideas are still up and running.

Special thanks to aeyun_ for being such a loyal reader and commentator, your comments make my day and fuel the motivation like nothing else! Stay awesome, you absolute muffinhead.

Without further do, onto the story.

***

Shinichi was startled out of his armchair by the sound of his phone ringing. A little annoyed at being disturbed during his studies, he took off his headphones which had thankfully supplied him with a voicecover of his physics textbook, and picked up the call.
"Moshi-moshi?"
"Kudo-kun, the report just came in. According to the document, even after a thorough examination of the attacker, nothing amiss has been found."

Shinichi couldn't quite believe that. Honestly nothing? Absolutely nothing?
"...Megure-keibu, you know as well as I do that this is no simple case."
"Yes. But what else are we supposed to do now? There is nothing, absolutely nothing that could explain this behavior. Our psychologists didn't find anything either, during the exam he had proven to be a perfectly healthy man."
Megure-keibu sighed, interrupting himself. Shinichi could see the man pinching the bridge of his nose on the other end of the line.
"I suppose there is nothing else to do than keep him locked up until his trial."
"Very well. Is there anything else you would like to discuss?"
"As of now, no. Hang in there, Kudo-kun, I'm sure your eyes will heal very soon."

Shinichi gave a mere silent nod before hanging up, breathing out a soft sigh. Slowly but surely, he wasn't so sure about that anymore. After all, it had been weeks since the infection- if it would have been a normal one, it would have healed by now. How come there is not a single improvement since weeks?
The sleuth debated on just stopping the pill intake. It wasn't healthy for him to consume so much. While his thoughts keep swirling inside his mind, Shinichi found himself dozing off, lulled into the comfort of his favorite armchair.

A few minutes wouldn't hurt...

***

"Hello Nakamori-san! Good to see you!"
The older Nakamori bellowed out a laugh and slapped Kaito's back, nearly causing him to fall over.
"Good to see you too, boy! How's the knee?"
After regaining his balance and hiding that flash of pain that had gone through his body, Kaito put up a grin.
"Not much better but the pain killers help a lot. Thanks for the cane, tho."
"Keep it, keep it! You need it more than me right now."
Another loud and warm laugh.
"Sit down, take a rest, I think Aoko is almost done with dinner."

Kaito followed into the kitchen and smiled at his childhood friend, taking a seat at the table.
"Mah, Aoko, you sure make a good housewife. Sure you wanna become a keibu~?"
He avoided that fling of food that came his way, laughing merrily. Aoko's face was red in both embarassment and anger.
"Of course, Bakaito! Also, someone HAS to cook when Tou-san is at work, and since you can barely feed yourself that's my job."
"As I said. Housewife."
"Ugh!"
She threw another bit of food at him which Kaito caught in his mouth with a snicker.

He missed being like this sometimes and he was glad to spend time with his family. For once, nothing was on his mind, not Pandora, not Shinichi Kudo, not his father and not the next heist. Only the soft waves of pain coming from his knee kept tugging him back into a painful reality but for now, this was not the time to be sorrowful.
And he reminded himself of that once more the moment Aoko put down a huge damping meal for them, radiating a smell that could make someone drool two houses further. Kaito snatched a pair of chopsticks, grinning excitedly.

"Itadakimasu!"

A few minutes later, Kaito was lazing around at Nakamori's, fooling around with Aoko on a gaming console. Of course he was kicking ass, but so was Aoko- especially once his phone ringing had him distraced for a second, only for his challenger to finish with a single blow.
"AHA! Beat you, Kaito-kun! You need to step up your game to defeat ME!"
"Oh shut it Ahoko!"
Kaito picked up his phone with a grumble, only to hear a familiar voice that sent a cold shiver down his spine. Since when did Akako have his phone number?

"Greetings, Kuroba-kun~ I may have found out something you would be interested in."
The magician sighed. That much about a calm evening. He excused himself from Aoko and left into the bathroom, quietly continuing the conversation.
"Something I would be interested in?"
"Oh absolutely."
Soft rustling was audible, indicating the witch had taken quite a few notes. That proved to become interesting.
"Since we know who your little friend is, I've researched a bit on this in my mother's archive and through urban legends... mythology."

Akako paused for a second as she gathered herself, then continued.
"According to the mythology of Ancient Greece, Pandora was a woman made of clay, created by the god Hephaistos by Zeus' order, sent to seduce the brother of the traitor god Prometheus. Epimetheus didn't listen to his brother's warnings about this obvious trap, and married Pandora.
The woman brought a box with her, which contained a single gift by each of the gods towards humanity... only those gifts brought nothing but terror and misfortune over humanity. Pandora opened this box just after her marriage, sending doom upon humanity, and yet the last thing that remained before the box had been closed was the trait of hope."
Kaito listened intently and yet he was left confused. Why exactly did she tell him this now?

"Akako, you must've gotten confused just a little bit. We're talking about a woman in this fairytale. Our Pandora is a boy. This legend has nothing to do with him."
"Oh and you bet it has. Kuroba-kun, don't you understand? In ancient Greece, same sex couples wasn't out of the ordinary. The translation of this legend is far less old than the urban legend itself. It was altered to fit into former ideals and beliefs."
Kaito paused, narrowing his eyebrows.
"So..."
"So I believe Pandora is exactly who this legend is about. And the last thing that remained sealed within his box, is hope. Later translations suggest it did escape after it had been opened a second time... that's how humanity came to know hope... But I'm sure, so absolutely sure, that we need a magical item related to hope."

With that the witch ended her speech and Kaito was left to ponder over it. It didn't quite make sense to him at all.
"...I know this legend, Akako. How can you explain Pandora and Epimetheus having a daughter afterwards? And this daughter and her husband being the only ones to survive a flood sent by the gods? I'm sorry but I've never seen a man being able to birth a child."
Akako began to sound annoyed. She hated being questioned on things she was certainly smarter at than other areas.
"Kuroba-kun, you forget, Pandora is not human. Pandora is a being made of clay. It can be molded, it can be formed, and it possesses a great amount of magic within itself."

Kaito pinched the bridge of his nose, thoroughly done by now.
"Look if you gonna waste your time on nonsense like this, please call me once you did find out something useful. It's not that I'm not grateful, but this just sounds too weird to be true. See you at school."
He hung up, cutting off the witch's outraged gasp. That just sounded too stupid to be true.

An item of hope... I wouldn't even know where to search for that.