Chapter Text
Wei Ying stretched, his back popping with the sudden release of pressure. He had no idea what time it was, but it was still light out, and his stomach didn’t feel like it was trying to digest itself, so yay! He probably hadn’t spent ten hours bent over a stack of books and paper this time. Plus, he’d finally made a bit of progress!
He relaxed back into his chair with a happy sigh. Making headway on a project always felt so good, especially when he’d been blocked for a while. Speaking of projects and blocked…
Wei Ying leaned back on the legs of his chair, peering in the direction of Kuroba’s study table. It was quiet in that direction, which could mean anything from focused reading, frustrated defeat, or Kuroba taking a nap in the stacks. If Kuroba was reading, Wei Ying wouldn’t mind helping him with the older texts. For someone who hadn’t known much Mandarin—let alone other dialects—before coming to China, Kuroba had soaked up understanding the language with a frightening speed. That said, no amount of rapid learning was enough to handle some of the texts here. There were documents that even Lan Zhan had to look up the characters for.
Hopping to his feet with another full-bodied stretch, Wei Ying headed Kuroba’s direction.
Rather than bent over a text—or death-glaring at scribbled out notes and translation attempts—Kuroba was out of his seat and peeking around the end of an aisle as Wei Ying approached. Kuroba, hearing him coming, put a finger to his lips.
Wei Ying tilted his head in question.
Kuroba nodded toward whatever he was watching.
Wei Ying bit his lip to not make any obnoxious cooing noises when he looked to see Lan Zhan and Edogawa seated on meditation cushions, eyes closed and breathing evenly. Lan Zhan looked like a fanciful jade carving, all perfect features and even wearing hanfu. Edogawa almost looked his age, except he was too still for the average six-year-old or seven or whatever age Edogawa was. Even little baby Lan clan children would fidget or make faces from time to time, still learning how to properly meditate. How long had they been there just breathing?
Kuroba took a stealthy picture with his cellphone camera before opening a text ap to write “blackmail” while looking very smug.
Wei Ying didn’t really see what made it blackmail worthy; if anything, it was kind of cute. Maybe that was part of it though. Edogawa was the sort of child that hated being treated like a child except when being treated like a child would benefit him.
“I can feel you watching,” Lan Zhan said, opening his eyes. “Wei Ying. Kuroba Kaito.”
Kuroba pouted, but Wei Ying couldn’t care less about spoiling his fun. He skipped around the corner to throw himself shamelessly into Lan Zhan’s lap. “Lan Zhan!” he said, overly dramatic. “It’s been too long!”
“It has been four and a half hours,” Lan Zhan said with his subtle brand of humor, arms going up to support Wei Ying’s body from falling off him.
“Exactly! Ages!”
Lan Zhan puffed a soft breath of laughter before leaning down to kiss Wei Ying on the forehead.
Wei Ying flushed. “Ah, so bold! And with a child right there.” He gestured to the side only to find Edogawa already glowering at them.
“Really?” Edogawa said. “Right when I was making progress?”
“It’s good practice,” Wei Ying said shamelessly. “If you can get deep enough in meditation to ignore distractions, you’ll never make much progress.”
“And to reach that point, I need to make more progress,” Edogawa said like Wei Ying was the one barely out of diapers, not the other way around.
“Lan Zhan,” Wei Ying said, choosing to ignore the brat’s snark, “did he make progress?”
“Mm. He is a long way from a golden core, but can sense his own energy now.”
“Oh, neat. If you can feel it, you can start controlling it.” Wei Ying sent Edogawa a grin.
“And how old were you when you reached that point?” Edogawa asked, less than thrilled at the progress.
“Eh, we both grew up with this stuff,” Wei Ying said.
“Four,” Lan Zhan said indicating himself. “Earlier for Wei Ying.”
“I don’t actually remember back that far,” Wei Ying protested.
“Could use it when the Jiang took you in.”
Not said was the years where Wei Ying had been on the streets or in foster care, where no one could have taught him. He scratched the back of his head. “For someone who just got introduced to the idea less than a week ago, you’re doing fine.”
“You’re further along than I am,” Kuroba said. “I can feel outside energy, but not my own.”
“You know,” Wei Ying said, “you might be more successful with resentful energy than—”
“No,” Lan Zhan said firmly.
“Oh, c’mon, he’s not crazy like some of the people who’ve tried it? And not power hungry. You never know when having a trick up your sleeve can help.”
“Isn’t resentful energy what ghosts have?” Edogawa asked suspiciously.
“Well, yes, but—”
“That’s a terrible idea,” Edogawa said. “Don’t give this guy more abilities to cause chaos.”
“It also can corrupt,” Lan Zhan said, “and as Kuroba Kaito does not have a golden core to purge the effects, it is a poor choice for him. He will have to learn the traditional way, or not at all.”
“Mm, can’t say I want to be a necromancer,” Kuroba piped up, “but there are a few people I wouldn’t mind cursing bad luck on.”
“Ah, I don’t do curses,” Wei Ying said.
“Then I suppose it’s all a moot point.”
“Who would you even curse?” Edogawa asked.
Kuroba leveled him an unimpressed frown. “You know I don’t throw myself into the kind of situations I do for shits and giggles, right? You have reasons for being a detective, and I have reasons for my own moonlight career.”
“If you have reasons, no one knows them,” Edogawa complained.
“You’re the detective,” Kuroba said with a sharp smile. “Figure it out.”
Edogawa muttered something in Japanese that was probably less than complimentary. Kuroba didn’t look bothered by it in the least, but Wei Ying knew he was very good at hiding things when he felt like it. Kuroba could have been feeling anything from irritation to laughing on the inside and Wei Ying wouldn’t see a hint of it on his face. He was more unreadable than Lan Zhan had been when Wei Ying first met him, which was annoying. He liked the relaxed, comfortable Kuroba he did research with compared to the person he acted around Edogawa.
It was a pity they’d both be leaving soon. As much trouble as Edogawa had been, he had to return to Japan. And Kuroba would leave only a few days after, whether or not he found what he was looking for. Wei Ying was going to miss Kuroba. He had a lot of interesting ways at looking at things.
Now Wei Ying was feeling sad. Blah. This was why he wasn’t supposed to make friends with the guests. They stayed such a short time, and always had to leave. Being friendly was fine, but actually befriending people…
“Wei Ying?” Lan Zhan asked softly.
“It’s nothing, just being dumb about nothing.”
Lan Zhan frowned.
Wei Ying swept forward and put a hand on Edogawa and Kuroba’s shoulders. “C’mon, Edogawa has about four hours left, and Kuroba, you have three days. Time to take a break before your brains break and do something fun.”
“Pet bunnies kind of fun or…?” Edogawa looked up at him suspiciously.
Honestly, a child should be happy to get buried in bunnies. Edogawa had looked uncomfortable with the whole thing like he wasn’t used to a lot of small animals. Or maybe he was still remembering the rabbit being possessed.
“The fun kind of fun!” Wei Ying said grinning.
“I don’t trust your idea of fun,” Edogawa groused.
Kuroba, playing along with Wei Ying like the awesome person he was, gave Edogawa a matching grin. “I for one think he has a wonderful idea of fun.”
“Your idea of fun borders on criminal.”
“No crimes here,” Wei Ying assured them. “But there might be some breaking of rules.”
“…Ran is going to be looking for me,” Edogawa said, trying to squirm away.
Kuroba caught him under his arms and lifted him like that movie with the lions. Edogawa flailed and yelped. “We’ll bring her with us. You need to learn how to relax.”
“I can relax just fine! Put me down!”
“Lan Zhan!” Wei Ying whirled toward his boyfriend. “Get my laptop, food, and a picnic blanket! We’re going to have fun!”
Lan Zhan hummed. “You will get Mouri Ran?”
“Yep! And we’re going to the one spot by the stream with the fish…”
“Which you will be eating,” Lan Zhan said, unimpressed.
“It’s only a little rule breaking. Besides, what tastes better than fresh caught fish?”
Lan Zhan hummed again, this time indulgent, and gave Wei Ying another kiss on the forehead. Wei Ying looked after him as he left, a sappy smile on his face. Ah, he had such a good boyfriend. The best boyfriend.
Kuroba hissed and Edogawa dropped to the ground. Kuroba rubbed at his ribs like he’d been kicked hard. Edogawa had an expression between irritation and satisfaction, keeping carefully out of arm reach from everyone.
Wei Ying laughed. “Okay! You two, we’re getting Mouri Ran and then sneaking out to some of the mountains.”
“Wait, how far in the mountains are we—”
“It’s a surprise!” Wei Ying gave Edogawa a wild grin before giving a little skip in the direction Mouri Ran should be. He was pretty sure she was taking a moving meditation class that would be ending about now.
Edogawa sputtered and followed after him, trailed by a snickering Kuroba. If these two didn’t send him a letter after they left, or a text even, Wei Ying was going to be disappointed.
*O*O*
Conan watched Wei Ying gut a fish, whistling cheerfully all the while. A bit unnerving since his hands were covered in scales and viscera. Nearby, Ran threaded cleaned fish onto whittled branches to grill over a low-burning fire. Kid, as he had been since Wei Ying started dragging fish from the creek, sat on the far end of the site, cutting branches for them to use and carefully not looking their direction except to hand off another branch to Ran or Lan Zhan.
Conan didn’t know where to start on trying to dissect that weird behavior.
The spot Wei Ying took them to looked like an illegal campsite, a few logs and a rock crowded around a rough-made fire ring with the grass scuffed out around it so sparks wouldn’t catch. A net hammock was strung between two nearby trees and the creek they’d gotten the fish from ran clear and sparkling in the sunlight only a few meters away, full of mountain spring water. When they’d gotten a trip to China, Conan supposed that this was closer to his expectations than a near-monastic mental health escape. Camping in the wilderness was more of a vacation feeling than listening to qin playing or trying to learn how to meditate. It was refreshing and peaceful here, almost an hour’s walk from the main compound.
Set on a rock nearby, Wei Ying’s laptop played some sort of pop music, though nothing that Conan was familiar with.
“When you said doing something fun, this isn’t what I expected,” Conan said.
Wei Ying laughed. “No? I guess it’s more of a country kid’s kind of fun, but I like it.”
“Are you from the country?”
A few meters away, Lan Zhan carefully tended the fire in between preparing skewers of vegetables. It was all around a lot more effort than Conan expected for a quick outing.
“Eh, a bit of here, a bit of there,” Wei Ying said. Fish entrails joined the mess already in the pail Wei Ying had in front of him. The knife flashed with careful precision, removing the head. “I spent my younger childhood in the city, but most of my childhood memories are from a river town. There were a lot of lotus farms and fishing there, and my siblings and I would swim and catch fish and frogs all summer.” Wei Ying smiled like he was remembering good memories. It was edged with a bit of sadness though, and Conan wondered how he’d gone from a river town to living in the mountains. “Then I ended up back in the city late in my teen years, so I guess I can’t be called a country boy completely, but I like to think I am at heart. Unlike Lan Zhan.”
“I spent most of my summers here,” Lan Zhan said quietly.
“Yeah, but you spent most of your summers in the library or in classrooms. Not exactly the same as running wild.”
Lan Zhan hummed with a skeptical tone.
“It’s not!” Wei Ying waved the knife mock-threatening in his boyfriend’s direction. “I bet you’ve never even slept on the bare ground! Or run barefoot in mud!”
“I have been camping,” Lan Zhan said with a hint of the humor Conan was just starting to catch on to reading after spending so many hours being taught to meditate and sense qi by him. “Wei Ying shouldn’t have to sleep on the ground in the first place.”
“It was fine, it was fine,” Wei Ying said, waving away whatever deeper meaning those words held. Conan still didn’t really understand them. They were definitely in love, but he’d never seen a clearer case of opposites attract. “Ah, Edogawa, pass me the last fish?”
Conan traded out the gutted fish for the last one waiting to be cleaned.
“Ah this really is the best way to spend a few hours,” Wei Ying said, cutting into the last fish. “Kuroba, are you going to have any fish? Forgot to ask. If you are, I’ll need hmm…one more? Two?”
“I’ll stick with vegetables,” Kid said, voice tense with…something.
“Gotcha,” Wei Ying said.
Conan passed the filleted fish to Ran and gave Kid a look. “You don’t eat fish?”
“Never liked them,” Kid said airily. Still not looking in their direction.
Conan narrowed his eyes. “You’re Japanese. How can you not eat fish?”
“Am I Japanese though?” Kid asked.
Conan snorted. He switched to speaking Japanese. “You’re obviously Japanese. You’re more than fluent in the language, and your English is accented as heck. Your facial features are also Japanese.”
“I just don’t like fish,” Kid said, finally looking up just enough to meet Conan’s eyes. “Everyone has personal tastes.”
“It’s a little unusual,” Ran chimed in, “but not unheard of. Kuroba-kun is allowed to not like fish, Conan-kun.”
Conan wrinkled his nose. He knew there was more to it than that and yet… Fine. Whatever. Kid didn’t eat fish. He wasn’t sure if he could ever use that against him, but maybe offering dried fish snacks would be a way to catch Kid in a disguise or something. Assuming he wouldn’t just eat it and hide how he disliked it. Hmm.
Ran, finished for the moment, looked between Wei Ying and Lan Zhan thoughtfully. “How did the two of you meet?” she asked.
“Ah,” Wei Ying said, snagging a skewer for the last fish, “It’s kind of a long st-“
“Wei Ying broke into the Cloud Recesses,” Lan Zhan said bluntly, cutting Wei Ying off. Wei Ying pouted.
Kuroba looked up and inched closer. “To steal something or…?”
“Ugh, no.” Wei Ying huffed. “I was supposed to be visiting here. I just arrived late and the gates were closed.”
“You were smuggling in alcohol,” Lan Zhan corrected.
“Fine, yes, I was smuggling alcohol. But you were the one that attacked me on sight.”
“You climbed over a wall carrying unknown objects.”
“That you then broke, wasting good liquor.”
“You were underage,” Lan Zhan said and, if he were any other person, Conan thought he would be rolling his eyes.
Wei Ying stuck his tongue out at him. “Who’s the one who lets me smuggle in booze now?”
“Wei Ying is no longer a minor,” Lan Zhan said. He swept up his skewers and moved to the fire, adding them to the slowly roasting fish. When Wei Ying went to touch one of the fish skewers, his hand was batted away.
Wei Ying pouted harder before turning to Ran. “Anyway, I’m pretty sure he hated me on sight.”
“Didn’t.”
“Pretty sure,” Wei Ying said over Lan Zhan. “And I spent most of the time I was visiting getting in trouble and he’d have to supervise my punishments, and I kind of got him drunk once and we both got in trouble. I don’t think we really managed to be friends until later, and I didn’t even know dating was an option for what, four years?”
“More.”
“Right, closer to five. But,” Wei Ying said, drawing the word out, “we figured things out eventually. And I’m sure he doesn’t hate me anymore.”
“I never hated you,” Lan Zhan said with a sigh.
“Oh,” Ran said. “I don’t suppose…” She blushed, looking down at her fingers. “You don’t have any advice on how to get together with someone you like, do you?”
Wei Ying and Lan Zhan exchanged a look. Conan felt his face grow pink because the look on Ran’s face was the look she got thinking about Shinichi.
“How dense is your crush?” Wei Ying asked.
“Ah, he’s smart, but… Not always about people closest to him,” Ran said.
Kid’s eyebrows crept up. Conan wanted to bury his face in his hands. Instead, he stared hard at the shifting embers of the fire.
“Right, be blunt then,” Wei Ying said. “If we’d sat down and actually talked at any point, we’d have been dating years before we got our shit together.”
Lan Zhan hummed in agreement. “We are bad at words.”
“You’re bad at words,” Wei Ying said. “I’m bad at emotions. But if we can figure it out, you should be able to. I mean you can’t get much worse miscommunication than thinking the guy who likes you hates your guts.”
“Oh.”
“And you have time. You’re what, sixteen?”
“Seventeen,” Ran said.
“Plenty of time. Heck, maybe wait for college or something first because that’s such a big change it can wreck relationships. Or don’t. It’s your life.” Wei Ying shrugged. “Who’s your boo? Bo? What’s the English word here?”
“Beau,” Kid cut in. “That’s actually French though. But I guess ‘boo’ is slang…?”
Ran buried her face in her hands. “Actually, let’s just pretend I didn’t ask.”
“No, no, now I’m feeling invested,” Wei Ying teased. “You’re friends? He’s cute?”
Conan wanted to dive into the creek and hide under the water. He didn’t need to be hearing Ran’s feelings indirectly while not being able to say anything back.
“Wei Ying,” Lan Zhan said softly, full of an odd sort of emphasis.
Wei Ying twitched and looked between the group, Ran’s blushing face still buried in her hands, Kid leaning forward in interest, and Conan trying to disappear in the background. He laughed awkwardly. “Ah, sorry… I like gossip and don’t get much chance to talk about romantic things.”
“It’s just embarrassing,” Ran mumbled.
“Liking someone?” Wei Ying raised an eyebrow. “How is that embarrassing? You should want everyone to know when you’re in love.”
“Not everyone is into public displays of affection,” Conan snapped.
“And,” Kid said, a wry tilt to his lips, “there’s always a chance that they don’t feel the same way. I think it can be worse when you’re already close. There’s a real risk that you might break a friendship if you confess.”
“Okay, but if you lose them as a friend, they clearly weren’t actually that close of a friend or they’d try to keep things normal if they didn’t share those feelings.” Wei Ying crossed his arms. “So it’s still better to be open.”
“Spoken like someone who had things work out,” Conan muttered. Not quietly enough though because Wei Ying turned a frown on him.
“You’re all of, what, six? Seven? Maybe wait until puberty before you have any authority on romance. Anyway,” Wei Ying reached toward the fire to turn the fish, only to have his hand batted away. “Ow. Anyway, communication. Super important. If you’re bad at it, get better.”
“The least helpful advice ever. Kind of like your ‘meditation’ advice.”
“You’re just mad you’re not catching on fast enough,” Wei Ying said, sticking his tongue out at Conan.
“Which of us is the child?” Conan said.
Wei Ying ignored him and turned to Lan Zhan. “Lan Zhan, can I at least season one of the fish how I like it?”
Lan Zhan nodded slowly, reaching for a small pot. “Only the fish Wei Ying is eating,” he said.
“Yes!”
Conan watched as Wei Ying committed crimes against taste buds, adding so much spice—it was definitely some kind of ground hot pepper—that he probably wouldn’t even be able to taste the fish past the burning sensation in his mouth.
“Are you sure…?” Ran started, trailing off as Wei Ying turned the fish over and added even more spice.
“Wei Ying likes spicy food,” Lan Zhan said, which was a ridiculous understatement.
“…I see that,” Ran said faintly.
“Anyone else want any?” Wei Ying asked holding out a significantly lighter pot.
“No thanks, we actually like to taste our food,” Conan said.
“Brat,” Wei Ying said. “I have excellent taste!”
“We’re fine,” Ran said before they could start squabbling.
Lan Zhan began pulling the first of the fish from the coals and then the meal sidetracked any conversation on romance.
Surprisingly, the fish was very good. Maybe he shouldn’t be surprised since it was fresh, but considering the quality of food here, he hadn’t been expecting much. Conan nibbled on fish and vegetables as Wei Ying rambled about some story of his siblings in his hometown and the fishing they did there. Kid still kept to the edge of the group, only eating the vegetable skewers, though he seemed to be listening to Wei Ying’s story if the occasional commentary was any indication.
On the whole, it was nice. This was what camping with Agasa and the Detective Boys could be, but usually got interrupted by a case. There hadn’t been a murder or theft or… any crime at all really, since the murders the first day. That alone made this a proper vacation. Life-changing revelations aside, it might be one of the most restful weeks he’d had in a while.
And yet he had to leave and go back to Japan now. Conan didn’t want to stay in China, but going back to daily life as an elementary student wasn’t something he looked forward to. Conan zoned out as the others talked around him. Back to being Edogawa Conan and his double life calling Ran every so often and trying not to die. Having little kid tag-alongs and a de-aged scientist to deal with. Back to watching Ran try too hard and Mouri fail at parenting.
Conan paused, a skewer poised against his lips. “Ne, Ran-neechan? Where is Mouri-jisan?” Conan had been too exhausted last night to think about it, but Mouri hadn’t been there when he fell asleep despite it being past curfew. He’d chalked it up to sneaking around to break rules, but he hadn’t been at breakfast either.
“Ah,” Ran winced. “He’s fine, but he bothered a woman a bit too much so I think he was sent to get some solitary meditation time and reflect?”
Right. Mouri. Reflect on something. That was never going to happen. How had they even gotten him to agree to something like that? Unless… Conan shot Lan Zhan a questioning look. He got the tiniest quirk of an eyebrow in return. Well, he had figured out by this point that the place they were at was politically powerful. A lot of the guests were rich or people with government connections. Add that to the fact that this place was centuries old and still standing in full control of its facilities… They could probably get away with a lot here if they wanted to. Murder case aside, it didn’t sound like any government body was hovering over them.
If Mouri had been bothering someone, they could probably force him to someplace isolated as a punishment. …Hopefully, Conan thought, isolation was the only punishment. He might not like Mouri a lot, but the idea of something bad happening to him sat uncomfortable in his stomach.
“He is fine,” Lan Zhan said, likely seeing the conflict in Conan’s expression. “Corporeal punishment was deemed more harmful than helpful a generation ago.”
Honestly, that was less reassuring than Lan Zhan probably meant it to be.
“I’ve had to do a lot of ‘solitary meditation,’” Wei Ying said with air quotes. “The whole being alone in a cave part kind of sucks, and it’s definitely boring, but they used to just smack you with a stick or make you kneel on rocks for hours, so honestly? Not too bad. If I got in trouble at home they’d make me do double duty on chores.”
Conan was glad that no one had decided he needed punishment for poking his nose places it didn’t belong.
“So, what are you up to once you head back to Japan?” Wei Ying asked.
“School,” Conan said with a sigh.
“School,” Ran echoed with a slight smile. “It isn’t so bad, Conan-kun.”
“It’s boring.” He’d been too advanced for his age even when he had actually been a child. It was pure torture some days to have to sit through elementary classes again.
“But you have all your friends there,” Ran pointed out. “We’re lucky that the school lets us go on trips so often. Even if it does make it a bit hard to keep up with classwork.”
Conan shrugged. He could do his work in his sleep and he could probably manage what Ran was learning based on the times he snuck looks at her textbooks.
“Ah, I am so glad I’m not in high school anymore,” Wei Ying said with a groan. “High school was awful. Everyone expecting you to be there certain hours, turn in things at specific times, only learning what they want you to learn…”
“So now you just spend all of your days researching in a dark library,” Conan said with a snort.
“Exactly.” Wei Ying grinned. “I keep my own hours, study what I want to learn, and no one has a deadline to loom over me. It’s the perfect scenario.” He took another skewer of fish when Lan Zhan held one up. And of course added more spice to it. “Don’t get me wrong, I love learning things, it’s just that schools aren’t really structured for learning so much as they are for memorizing and spewing random info back up at a later day.”
“Fair enough,” Conan said. He looked at Kid who’d been suspiciously quiet. “How about you?”
Kid gave them an enigmatic smile. “Oh, you know. Things to learn, places to be, people to avoid.”
“Are you in school, Kuroba-san?” Ran asked.
“Yeah, you could say that.” Kid didn’t say what level of schooling. Conan would place him as a university undergraduate at most.
“And they’re okay with you travelling?”
“I got permission for a leave of absence. I’m not even the only person in my class that comes and goes,” Kid said. His lips twitched like there was a private joke there, but Conan couldn’t see how. “I’m still keeping up with my work though; a friend emails it to me and I go into town once a week to get the message and reply.”
“It’s good that you have such a nice friend,” Ran said.
“The best,” Kid said, and his expression softened into something that Conan guessed was an actual, true smile instead of one of his masks. Huh. It seemed Kid actually liked whoever this friend was a lot. Maybe even more than liked. It was weird to see a sincere expression on Kid’s face though.
“I wonder if I should do that for Shinichi,” Ran murmured. She rolled an empty skewer between her fingers. “He’s missed so much school he might not be able to graduate at this point.”
Conan tried not to look suspicious in the brief silence that followed. Should he encourage Ran? But what if someone caught him doing the work if she did send it? In that case he should say something about how Shinichi was fine, and definitely would graduate on time, which felt more and more like a lie every day that passed.
Even Kid didn’t look like he knew what to say to that, though Conan could feel his eyes flick to Conan’s hunched form like he could see Shinichi through him. Kid didn’t know, or did he know? Conan stuffed a piece of squash in his mouth just to give himself an excuse for not babbling reassurances that would be more suspicious than not.
Wei Ying cleared his throat. “Ah, that would be a nice thing to do for a friend,” he said. “…Is this the same friend that you have feelings for?”
Ran’s blush was answer enough.
“Then you might as well if it isn’t too much trouble,” Wei Ying said with a shrug. “The more interactions, the better your chance at finding a good moment to confess.”
“Okay,” Conan cut in as Ran’s blush grew darker, “but confessing over email about classwork?”
“You could be dramatic like me and wait for a life-or-death situation,” Wei Ying said with a lopsided smile, “but it’s probably healthier to just talk.”
“It worked out for us,” Lan Zhan murmured.
“Yeah, but we’re not exactly normal.” Wei Ying leaned against his boyfriend happily.
Conan wished they were a bit less into public displays of affection.
“You’ll all have to keep in touch,” Wei Ying said. “We’re all friends now so that means regular emails or letters or something. Phone calls.”
“Expensive,” Kid said.
“Just emails then,” Wei Ying said. “I need to know if Mouri Ran gets her boy, and if Kuroba’s research pays off, and if Edogawa Conan here ever learns to not be a murder magnet. I’m invested.”
Kid smiled, another real one, and said, “I’ll be in touch.”
“I will be too,” Ran said. “And I’ll make sure Conan writes you as well.”
Conan sighed. He would probably have to keep in touch just to track his progress.
“Perfect,” Wei Ying said with a satisfied smile. He stretched before flopping into Lan Zhan’s lap. “And there’s just enough time before you leave for a quick post-lunch nap.”
*O*O*
“I can’t believe they locked me in a cave,” Mouri Kogoro grumbled as they made their way back to their rental car. He had a cigarette between his teeth and was clearly itching to get back to his daily vices. “What kind of hell-resort was this place?”
“Then maybe you should have been more respectful,” Ran said without sympathy. Of all of them, Ran looked the most refreshed by their trip.
At the moment, Conan personally felt worse than when he got there, but he was pretty sure that was because the meditation techniques he’d been given took a lot more concentration and energy than they had any right to.
“It’s respectful to appreciate a beautiful woman,” Mouri said. “It was a compliment.”
“It was harassment,” Conan said under his breath. “You’re lucky they stopped hitting people with sticks for that kind of offense.”
“What was that, brat?” Mouri said, eyes narrowing in Conan’s direction.
“Nothing, nothing!” Conan skipped out of arm’s reach just in case Mouri decided to bop him on the head for being too snarky or whatever excuse it was this time. “I kind of liked it here though. It was peaceful.” Well. After the whole ghost murder it was. That said, Conan was ready to be back in Japan.
“Peaceful is just another word for boring,” Mouri said. Their car loomed in the distance, and Mouri wasted no time in jogging the rest of the way to its sad-looking shape. There were leaves dusting the hood and it was the only car there. There was a piece of paper stuck under the wiper. “Oh good. Someone fixed it.” He yanked open the trunk and tossed his luggage in before getting in the driver’s seat. “Hurry and pack up. We’re getting back to civilization and hopping on our plane home before this mountain tries to eat us. I swear that cave felt like it was hungry for blood.”
“Why would a cave be hungry for blood?” Ran asked. She put her luggage away and helped Conan tip his into the trunk.
“Why lock people in a cave?” Mouri shot back. “I’m pretty sure we’ve just escaped a cult. If there’s a website for them, I’m giving them negative stars.”
Conan rolled his eyes as Mouri continued his rant. It truly hadn’t been that bad. A bit quieter than usual, the days slower, but he’d learned a lot in a week. And Conan would keep learning.
As Mouri drove them to the airport, Conan felt for the energy inside him and tried to feel it flow. Life energy that could last past death. He would get a handle on it eventually. Conan was good at learning new skills.
*O*O*O*
Kaito stood high on the roof of an office building, ignoring the stinging push of the wind as he scrolled through his emails. This was a bit of downtime, just waiting until the building would close for the day completely before he took the chance to change some of the wiring and plant smoke bombs in the air ducts. Most of the emails were nothing important, just ads from places he’d bought magic supplies from in the past, subscriptions to various museum websites, and a few reminders from school. One halfway down his new messages was different though, sent from a Chinese email address. Kaito squished a bit more securely into his wind-break corner and opened the message.
Possible lead? It said in English. Ran into a book describing golden cores caught in crystal being used by weaker cultivators to extend their longevity. Still looking into accuracy of this, but most likely is a semi-precious stone surrounding an unknown core. Have seen this with demon cores before, but those aren’t very compatible with human energy. Will let you know more later. Photos and text translations to follow. ~ Wei Ying.
Kaito smiled a bit of adrenaline filling him at the thought of actual progress. He’d spent his whole time in China researching, and had found a decent amount of texts on immortality—on dubious science with toxic substances, or paths of meditation and energy condensation, on legends and gods-given gifts. Few of them had involved stones and even fewer had associated elixirs. None had been linked to moonlight or a comet.
It had left him at yet another dead end though he’d used some of what he’d learned to narrow down a few jade items as possible targets. This email was more than he’d hoped to find.
Energy, still sluggish with its newness, coursed through him as he circulated it, keeping him warm. This same energy had drawn him to this building and an art piece in one of the offices below. Kaito’s range was still narrower than he’d like, but his ability to sense objects with magic was growing by the day. Even if he was still terrible at cultivation the way the Lan taught it, Kaito’s natural affinity to this sort of thing had grown in leaps and bounds, and was probably the largest asset he’d gained from the trip to China.
That and his friendship with Wei Ying and Lan Zhan. Kaito couldn’t downplay the value of connections and those two had opened a whole new scope of connections into the supernatural that he hadn’t had before. Something to be reluctantly grateful to Akako for.
He took a moment to reply to the email, thanking Wei Ying and enquiring how Wei Ying’s own research was going. Kaito added a picture of his doves because Wei Ying enjoyed them and sometimes replied with rabbit photos before returning to his email.
At the top was a new one from a recently acquired email address.
Kid, avoid the upcoming magic convention in Beika. Getting strange feelings whenever I pass the convention center. ~Edogawa
Short and to the point, Kaito thought with a snort. The communication was new between them, but as the only people in Japan learning about cultivation that they knew of, it had made sense to keep in contact even if Edogawa still tried to get him arrested at heists.
The warning, while appreciated, would have to be ignored. There was a gem that was going to be displayed there during the convention weekend. A blatant bait for Kid, but one that he couldn’t help answering. If Edogawa was getting weird feelings, that probably meant there was going to be a murder or two. Edogawa was getting better at telling when something would happen before it did. Still needed some work on holding in whatever it was about him that made murders happen in his proximity, but there had been fewer deaths since his trip to China, so Kaito had the feeling that Edogawa was getting the hang of it, little by little.
Edogawa wasn’t a friend exactly. He was a little shit and he still loved to make Kaito’s life a pain. But he wasn’t entirely an enemy either, so Kaito couldn’t help settling on resigned amusement when it came to Edogawa. Like a little brother he never wanted.
Somewhere below Kaito heard a door being closed and locked. The janitorial staff leaving for the night. Kaito sent Edogawa a reply that was sure to piss him off and tucked his phone away. Time to prep for another heist.