Sunday, January 10, 2010

The Warlock & The Choir Kids-Chp3

CHAPTER 3: ADVICE & HOPE

The next morning Akasa found his daughter fast asleep on the doorstep. She was stiff and cold in her nightie and he could not wake her. As he carried Kazuha into the house, the carpenter saw the tiny bruise on the girl’s wrist and he knew that his daughter suffered from the same dreadful sickness as Ran Mouri. Heiji woke up almost too late from his deep sleep in the bracken and when he got there and saw the deathly, cold aura about the house, he knew what was coming for him.

“What use is an assistant if he can’t keep an intruder from our house?!” Akasa's wife cried as soon as she caught sight of Heiji, throwing angrily at Heiji with anything she could get her hands on. “You useless boy! I should've known we trusted you too much! Get out of our house, now!!”

Heiji guiltily accepted the blows inflicted on him, not moving from where he stood.

“There’s more than intruders at work here,” the carpenter said as he tried to calm his wife down. “Why should our daughter leave her bed on a frosty night? Sorcery, that’s what it is!”

Heiji slunk away with his bruised body, ashamed and sad. He couldn’t believe that he would be sleeping on the job. He was supposed to protect his little miss, but he failed. Now he understood what his best friend was musing about all this while. On his way to the resting hut, he met Shinichi in the street, and the two boys strolled together, sharing their terrible news.

“I heard about Kazuha,” Shinichi said.

“Yeah, well, I guess I understand now how you feel,” Heiji said. “But why didn’t you tell me? You could’ve warned me if this was going to happen. I might have been able to protect Kazuha.”

“Gomen…” Shinichi looked away, looking guilty. Heiji regretted ever saying that.

“Su…Sunimase. You still haven’t gotten over the shock yet, of course you couldn’t warn me.”

Shinichi gave him a wry smile, but he was still trying to fight the guilty feeling for not able to save Ran.

“Do your wounds still hurt? You look like you’ve been into some samurai war,” Heiji said as he touched one of the cuts on Shinichi’s cheek, which Shinichi winced from.

“Itai…”

“Come on, Conan. Let me treat you of your wounds.”

“Ie…” Shinichi shook his head. “I’m fine. Leave me like this.”

“Conan, I am not going to tolerate this childishness!” Heiji exclaimed with his hands on his hips. “We are going to the resting hut right now and you are going to be treated whether you like it or not! That means all your wounds will be disinfected and plastered, you understand me?!”

“Ha…Hait…” Shinichi shrank. Heiji can be very scary and fierce if he has to. “I’ll do it already. You don’t have to yell. You need some medication yourself, anyways.”

“Good,” Heiji said as he tugged Shinichi’s sleeve, careful not to touch the wound. “Let’s get going.”

As they passed the weaver’s cottage on their way to the resting hut, they felt a hush behind them, like an indrawn breath that swallowed even the birds’ song.

The two boys ducked into the shadow of a sakura tree close by Megure, the weaver’s door. This time, they saw a woman with short brown hair dressed in dark outfit just like her brothers and smelling of chemicals and alcohol, shorter than her brothers and even fiercer. She rapped on the door and when Megure opened it, she said in a cruel voice, “Weaver, I want a hundred yards of black cloth and I want it tonight!”

“Nani?! A hundred yards?” the chubby Megure exclaimed. “I have no black cloth, and I cannot weave it all in one day. Such a task is impossible.”

“Then it’ll be the worse for you!” the woman said, and as she whirled away, her deep blue eyes darted past Megure to the baby girl who slept in his wife’s arms. Shinichi almost went cold when he recognized that glare.

The dark figure swooped up the hill in her gloomy crow colours and the two boys gazed helplessly at each other.

“That glare,” Shinichi said. “I’ve seen that glare before. Her first brother gave that glare to Ran the day Kogoro-sama refused his request.”

“We must do something, Conan,” Heiji said. “Or like Ran and Kazuha, that poor baby will sleep forever.”

“Let us go to Shounen Kid,” Shinichi suggested. “His herbs may be useless against the sleeping sickness, but he is still the wisest in the village. He will surely give us some advice.”

When they got to his house after quite a while of walking and running, they were quite surprised to see, for the first time, the home of Kaisen Mura’s wisest man. It was like a palace compared to the rest of the houses in Kaisen Mura and it sure stood out from the rest, with its structure made of the finest wood and the doors and windows made out of the finest materials anyone could find. Not only was he the wisest, but probably the richest as well.

Shounen Kid was out on the hill, so the boys sneaked through his window. They gazed at the herbs and the berries and heather; so many bright bottles, so many fragrant bowls. Not to mention the medicinal gadgets displayed there that they have never exactly seen before. They crept close to his fire to wait. Shounen Kid soon came back with his basket in his arm. He saw them and smiled.

“Well, it’s Shinichi and Heiji, isn’t it?” Shounen Kid said, twilight following him into the room in his sleek white suit and white hat. “Come for advice, have you?”

“Hait, Shounen Kid,” Shinichi said. “We need help from you and we kinda need it fast.”

“Honto?” Shounen Kid asked.

“Honto ni,” Heiji chimed in. “We want to know if there is a cure for our little misses.”

“There is a way to cure Kazuha and Ran,” the young man said. “If you can bring two freshly killed Choir Kids to the blacksmith and the carpenter, their children will be saved. But you must stay awake through the bewitching song, or you are lost!”

“Na…Nani…?” Shinichi stammered. “We actually have to kill those kids?”

“That’s the way it has to be,” Shounen Kid replied.

“Don’t you think it’s a little bit too…extreme?” Heiji asked hesitantly. “I mean we have to kill two kids in order to save our little misses. We have to become like, well, like murderers. I would not drag my best friend into this. Never.”

“Well, do you want to save your little misses or not? Or do you guys want to just sit in a corner together hugging each other in self-pity as you watch your little misses sleep their lives away along with the other victims…until it reaches the both of you?”

Shinichi and Heiji didn’t know what to say.

“Glad that we’ve understood each other. Watch those warlocks now and follow them,” Shounen Kid said. He tapped each boy's forehead with his brass cane and for a moment they glimmered like fairy creatures. “A little magic to give you strength,” he said. “Be off with you now, for soon those warlocks will be on the move.”

“Umm…Before that,” Heiji said as he pointed at Shinichi’s wounds all over his body, “can you do something about these wounds on Conan here?”

“Hey, you too, you know!” Shinichi pointed accusingly at Heiji’s bruises.

“Hait,” Shounen Kid grinned and used the cane to magic his clothes off, revealing his bare body. With his special ointments, he lathered it all over Shinichi’s wounds. Heiji watched him do it and couldn’t help blushing. He didn’t know why though. Maybe it’s because it is the first time he had ever seen Shinichi naked. Shounen Kid stole a look at Heiji and grinned knowingly as he waited for the wounds to close up before he magic the clothes back on him. He repeated the same process on Heiji and he saw the same reaction Heiji had towards Shinichi on Shinichi himself. He grinned even more.

“Off you go now, boys,” Shounen Kid said after he magic Heiji’s clothes back on him. “And remember, be careful.”

Shinichi and Heiji nodded and walked out into the starlight, with their heads high and their golden eyes beaming eagerly into the night.

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