When Pandora bleeds... (Shinkai)

Breaking Points

I'm immortal.

Conan saw Haibara's mouth moving in front of him but he could no longer hear her words. Immortal? Conan couldn't believe this, didn't want to believe this and yet, he knew it was the explanation to his symptoms, even if an absurd one. But Kudo Shinichi had experienced a poison which had thrown him ten years back into the body of a child who wouldn't have been taken serious by anyone. He could hear Haibara's words ringing in his ears, over and over again, demanding him to give up what felt like a part of his own soul since the first moment he had touched it.

Hand over the gem!!

Everything inside Conan's body screamed at him to run but he couldn't budge a muscle. Frozen in shock, Conan just stared there, watched Haibara trying to shake him back into reality. Slowly, his eyes narrowed onto his crimson red hands and the boy swallowed automatically. Haibara's left hand was way too close, too close to Pandora.

"Shinichi!! Hand it over! I might be able to find a cure to this, hell, maybe its powers could even hold the answers to Apoptoxin 4869! Shinichi!"
Haibara began to claw at the hand holding Pandora away from her; desperation screaming from her every action. Conan felt something snap in his brain and before he could recognize what was going on, he was running, his voice of reason screaming at him to turn back and comfort Haibara, to give her this stupid rock and find the end to the tunnel Conan had been wandering since so many years.
But there was something else, something else which didn't want him to let Pandora out of his eyes. Conan couldn't explain this urge, this desire to have this gem so close to his body. Was it the gem's doing?

Is Pandora... controlling me...?

Wind howled around his head, bringing tears to his eyes, glasses discarded somewhere in his pocket. Conan didn't feel the cold around him, didn't think about Haibara's desperate attempts to hold him back as he had stormed off into the night, leaving the door wide open for everyone to enter and do as they pleased. Conan didn't care, couldn't care less. Pandora was important. Pandora had to be with him. Pandora clutched tight in his grip, Conan flashed a glance into the nearly empty streets down below. He wanted to do it, throw the gem away and end all his miserable suffering.
Conan's eyes landed on the gem in his fist, clenched, held tight to protect it from any influence. His breath was fast, alarmingly fast by now, Conan was fighting against himself.

Throw it away! Give it to Haibara! Just get rid of it! This stupid rock is the reason you lost the last bit of social contact you had!

Conan gripped his hair, a soft whimper of distress passing his lips while he slowly sank onto his knees. This pull, this urge; he wanted to toss the gem away and yet he kept staring at this stupid thing, body frozen, muscles unmoving.

I won't give Pandora to anyone. KID gave it to me. I won't hand it over. It's mine. KID wanted me to keep it. I need to keep it. I will keep it.

His thoughts went wild, spiraling about this only conclusion. The only right conclusion.
Conan crawled a few inches further, head poking over the edge, carefully observing the crowd. This drove him insane. He had to know. Conan took a deep breath and squeezed his eyes shut, body tilting slowly forward.

What was left that he could actually loose?

***

Kaito shot up, panting, catching sight of his clock first. Long past midnight. A little confused, the young magician raised his hand to touch his face, unfocused eyes lasting upon his latest experiments. What had happened? Did he... fall asleep...? But that was impossible, Kaito hadn't slept since more than two weeks.

Rubbing his eyes, the male raised himself slowly out of his chair, musing over the latest event. No, it wasn't a dream, this felt way too real. Another gaze onto the clock, Kaito began to recover his braincells.

Impossible... Only seven minutes passed. I couldn't have been asleep.

But what was that he had seen?

A teenager sitting on all fours on a roof, skin as red as blood itself. He had been smiling as he tilted forward and fell into his death.

Kaito shook his head and sighed, the urge to go to Japan stronger than before. It was just stupid, overall stupid. There was nothing he could have wanted in his home country.
And yet, with the image fresh and bloody in his mind, Kaito couldn't have been more confused than right now.
"What games are you playing with me?" he grumbled, giving Pandora a gentle squeze. In the same moment, he snorted and shook his head. Kaito was talking to a stone.

A feeling of nervousity overcame him the longer he thought about the picture he had seen in front of his inner eye. Why would he even think about this?
It went far enough for Kaito to take on his shoes, grab a shawl and take on a coat- he would have loved to see Hakuba's face if he had known Kaito had become quite enarmored with trenchcoats. Those things hid any disguise underneath, provided lots of room for his hidden tricks and he wasn't sticking out like a sore thumb in public.
Kaito headed out of the hotel with fast steps, first relaxing when he could breathe fresh air and felt Pandora in his warm hands. The stone was almost comforting him like this, and Kaito couldn't help but wonder. For a good deal, he could excuse his attachment to an object like this one, but this excuse wasn't going to work forever. Kaito had used to hide the gem far away from himself and close at the same time, at places nobody would suspect it to be-
And now here he was, carrying that hellish magic tool with him.

Kaito sighed, and decided to take a regular walk instead of staying in front of the hotel like a moron. He needed to clear his head and the night was pretty good for this occasion.

I can't believe I'd ever get this far... But I wish Akako would be here and get some light into my situation.