More Than A Gemstone (Kaishin)

The Scent of Betrayal

Credo in te

Aoko stood, frozen, swallowing her tears as best as she could and yet, she could feel her cheeks getting wet. Hands trembling, she tried her best to focus, but god she could not formulate a coherent thought.

Betrayed.

Betrayed.

KID.

KID is here.

Kaito fought, struggled against Shinichi who was keeping him pinned. It was strange to be unable to escape, and it was eery how much Shinichi had figured him out by now. His sleeves were his weakness, keeping them pushed down refused Kaito any access to his repertoire.
He could see the barrel of the gun flashing as it shifted towards him.

"Aoko please...! I'm sorry, I-I tried to tell you! Aoko don't!! Fight it!! Fight it, I beg you-!"
Kaito could feel his pokerface shattering into bits and pieces. The safety of the gun was unlocked.
She stared at her childhood friend, silent.

Credo in te

Somehow she knew what she was doing was somehow wrong. There was something tugging at her, tugging at her brain, trying to remind her who that was that she was aiming for.

End KID.

I am going to end KID.

One way or another.

This was her chance. This boy in front of her was pinned, and he was KID. She believed in herself, she knew she could take him down, and look, she even had help! There was someone holding him down, just for her, just to celebrate her victory with her, serving KID on a silver platter to her.
Her mind felt so foggy but this one thing, this one desire was so clear to her, all she had to do-

Pandora exhaled, shaking. He had to choose, and he knew it. Hope had been with him for so long and was the only one he had known for eternity. Everyone around him would perish, sooner or later, but Hope would always be with him. But he had been alone for so long, and now he had Kaito. And Shinichi. Aoko wasn't half bad either. He couldn't let Hope take them away, and even if he barely understood half of what Hope had been saying to them in Japanese, he knew he was about to lose them.
This was a choice he had to make.

"Ouch!!"
Pandora bit down on the hand covering his mouth, struggling to get free. He was not going to let this happen again. Not again.
"You little piece of shit!! You're nothing without me, nothing! You dare to defy me?!"
Pandora bit down again, hard into Hope's hand, drawing blood, and finally getting his mouth free enough to speak.

Morbus!

Hope jolted, feeling the heat well up inside his arm, immediately shot back at him.
"Your curse doesn't work on me, remember?! Whatever you try, I will be able to cure it, whatever disease you try and set onto me, it means nothing!"
The swelling immediately reduced and neatly disappeared with Hope's voice ringing throughout the room, and Pandora grew desperate. Was there no way to stop him?

His eyes fell back onto Aoko, still fighting with herself, trying to wrestle some sort of control back over her mind. She had that thing. That thing Shinichi used to make Hope stop. Pandora knew Shinichi managed to stop Hope with a thing like that. His looked a little different, but same result, right??
He had to try, there was no other way.
Pandora served a swift kick to the groin for Hope, shoving him off of him, only to lunge at Aoko, trying to wrestle her gun away.
This was the last time someone had to step in for him.

Kaito clenched his teeth, desperately trying to push Shinichi off without hurting him.
"Shinichi please, get a hold of yourself! I don't want to hurt you...!"
No amount of squirming got Shinichi off of him. He was sitting on his stomach, both hands pinning Kaito down. He couldn't even kick Shinichi for fucks sake! Kaito could see the clouded eyes, the victory shining within them over having caught his prey. There was no reasoning, no getting through.

"If you want to try, fine then, go ahead, enjoy your playtime!"
Hope picked himself back up, glaring at Pandora, then shot a grin at Shinichi.
"Kudo Shinichi... credo in te... keep him pinned, our dear Nakamori might just struggle hard enough to end this miserable life of his."
Kaito was starting to feel whoozy himself. He could feel Hope's voice vibrating within his mind.

This is not how this is supposed to end...!

BANG

A shot echoed through the scuffle, and all parties froze. Shinichi relaxed a little, the fog in his eyes clearing up, only for Kaito to immediately use that moment to free his hands and shove the sleuth off of him, scrambling to get onto his feet.
He wasn't dead. He wasn't dead.

Pandora had won.

Mid scramble, on top of Aoko, gun in both hands. Kaito's eyes grew wide. No, it wasn't Aoko. She was shaking her head, finally stopping her fight against Pandora, settling down.
All eyes slowly drifted over to Hope. Pandora gently lowered the gun, frowning. Something was wrong. There was... blood. So much blood. This wasn't what happened when Shinichi had shot Hope.

Blood

So much blood

Pooling and collecting and mixing with the carpet

Kaito's expression twisted into a cold frown as he slowly moved over to Pandora, wrapping an arm around the lad's waist.
"You... you shot him."
Pandora flashed a glance at Kaito, questioning. Shot him? What did that mean?
Shinichi looked around the room, a little dazed still. That looked like... Division 1? Why was he here? God, the smell... Was that blood?

Kaito moved his arm off of Pandora and crouched next to Hope, pressing two fingers onto his wrist, then neck.
"...nothing. A... a clean shot."

"You're... you're KID."
Kaito looked up, eyes meeting Aoko's. She had moved herself into a sitting position after regaining somewhat of herself after the fight with Pandora, staring at her childhood friend.
Kaito could tell she was trying her best to ignore the corpse on the ground in front of her.
"I was."
"...you're... KID."
"I was."
Slowly, tears began to pour out of her eyes.
"You're KID."
"I was."
Kaito got up once again, slowly moving over to her. So much was happening, all at once.
Pandora had shot Hope and killed him. Shinichi was in a daze, barely himself. Aoko was not trying to murder him anymore, and Kaito was free.

He kneeled in front of Aoko, who scrambled backwards against the wall behind her.
"Y-you're KID."
"And Kaito. I'm still Kaito."
Kaito knew this moment would come. At this point, with so much happening, and having almost died, it was a struggle to keep up his pokerface. He was still a teenager for fucks sake.
"W-why" she choked out, hands clutching her shirt.
"I tried to tell you- I-I really wanted to, today, when I promised you no more secrets. I-I didn't want you to find out like that."

For the first time, Kaito didn't quite know what to say. Neither did Aoko.
Pandora looked down at the gun within his hands, a disgusted expression on his face. What had he just done? He couldn't quite... sense Hope anymore. He wasn't... was he?
Pandora slowly stepped past Aoko and Kaito, past Shinichi, looming over Hope.
The only one who had been with him decades upon decades was gone.
Pandora knew and yet, he didn't want to believe it. He just couldn't.
He had chosen and there was no way he could ever take that back.