Moonlight Magician

Chapter 37

Chapter 37

Pandora turned a page of the comic it was reading, scanning the flimsy paper with interest. Shinichi had bought the comic for it earlier that day, when they had stopped off at the store to buy some groceries. The jewel hadn't really been expecting Shinichi to actually buy the comic for it when it had asked, and had been subsequently delighted.

Pandora wasn't much of a reader. Its transparent lips moved as it followed its finger along the page, occasionally pausing to figure out a word. Sometimes it giggled at the terrible puns the story featured, making sure to keep the noise down so as not to disturb Shinichi, who had fallen asleep in the chair beside it.

It clapped a hand over its mouth and sniggered as another joke caught its attention.

"What are you finding so funny?"

Pandora gasped and jumped to its feet in surprise. The chair it had been sitting on rocked backwards, and was saved from falling by KID grabbing a leg. Shinichi shifted in her sleep.

KID sighed in relief and set the chair down again. He caught Pandora's eye and theatrically wiped sweat from his brow, causing the jewel to smile.

How can you see me?

KID held up the necklace he had taken from Shinichi a minute before. "Skin contact, right? I wanted to have that talk I was promised."

Pandora's face lit up. Okay! But... what do you want to talk about?

KID shrugged. "You, I guess. I mean, you're not exactly a boring subject. I guess I want to know what you are, who you are... I'd like to know how Shinichi came across you, too."

Pandora studied KID silently for a few moments. And Toichi too, right?

KID nodded, a shadow crossing his face.

Pandora sighed, as though speaking to KID was a perilous task it, nevertheless, had to do. Come on then, it said heavily, beckoning to KID as it walked into the kitchen.

It wasn't about to let him see it too eager.

===

Hattori jerked awake as the boot of the car opened. He'd lost track of how long he'd been in there, the cold freezing his body and the petrol fumes making him nauseous. Although he suspected that he had only been in there for a day or two.

He tried to glare up at the face of the person who had imprisoned him, but the light shining from behind the figure rendered it to no more than a silhouette. He could see the taser though.
Hattori was dragged upwards and forced out of the boot of the car, into a garage of some kind. He stumbled and a hand twisted into his hair and yanked him upright again. Cold metal was pressed into his back, and he was guided through a pair of doors and up a set of stairs. He was shoved into a room, the ropes on his arms cut so his hands were no longer tied. A packet of biscuits and a bottle of water was lobbed into the room, and the light vanished as the door was closed and locked.

Hattori growled as he tore away his gag and freed his feet. He gulped half of the water down, remembering just in time to save some- who knew how long it would be before he was given any more?
He thought back to the boot. During his time in the small enclosed space, he had been made aware of the existence of a toolbox of some sort by it repeatedly sliding into his head. As he shook some life back into his limbs and stretched his aching back, Hattori thought back to the dried blood he had seen on the handle and sides of case as light had flooded into the boot.

===

... And that was how Shinichi became Christie, Pandora finished. It was all the fault of the Black Organisation. Of course, this was after Shinichi got me from Toichi. Toichi stole me from Snake.