314Disclaimer: I don't own DCMK.
The Show Goes On
57: Positioning
Ran's visor, it turned out, did not come equipped with infrared vision. What it did have was a targeting system and the ability to zoom in. It also had a motion detection feature which briefly highlighted movement within Ran's field of vision that were not caused by her own actions.
"Can you find what's watching us with it?" Hakuba asked.
"I'll try." Ran took a deep breath to brace herself then stepped up to the window and peered out into the frozen night. She saw immediately that the cabin had rotated again, and the window now looked out upon the carnival tent. Its garishly bright colors stood out even through her red-tinted visor. The mess of vivid, contrasting shades made it nearly impossible for her to see the visor's own projected images.
"I can't see anything right now," she told the blonde and wondered if it was wrong of her to be relieved by that. "I'll look again when the cabin turns towards the canyon walls or at least away from the tent."
Hakuba nodded slowly, frowning. "Perhaps we should at least start moving. Our current location is too exposed. We should head over to the houses. They'll provide better camouflage."
"Should we move now?" Ran asked. "While there's nothing out there?"
"That we can see, you mean," Hakuba replied, lips quirked in a wry smile. "But yes. I feel I've had enough of doing nothing. Finding a more strategic position is, after all, one thing we two are more than capable of accomplishing."
"I hope you're right."
By mutual agreement, they turned off all the lights inside the cabin. Then they stepped out onto the front porch together, leaving the door open behind them in case they needed to beat a hasty retreat.
From the elevated porch, they had a much wider field of vision, and they made use of it to direct their walking cabin past dilapidated buildings to a stretch of wall just beyond the empty settlement—if settlement it had been—where the rock was particularly sheer and rose for a good thirty feet straight up.
If that wasn't a good, strong structure to have at your back, Hakuba didn't know what was.
Now that they were in a more defensible position, however, they were left with nothing to do but wait and watch.
They chose to do this from inside the cabin where they wouldn't be so exposed to anything that could see better than they could. It unfortunately limited their field of vision, but, as Hakuba had said, you couldn't have everything. All they could do was their best.
Hopefully, their best would be enough.
He wasn't at all confident that it would be. But he refused to let his anxiety show in front of Ran.
X
It was a tantalizing whiff of something scrumptious and an angry growl from his stomach that drew Shinichi from the depths of slumber. Between the two sensations, he felt like someone being driven forward by both the proverbial carrot and stick simultaneously. This didn't mean he wanted to move. He was too comfortable where he was, safely tucked against Kaito's chest and surrounded by his comfortingly familiar scent.
"We should go get you something to eat," Kaito commented, proving both that he was awake and that he'd heard the stomach rumble. "It sounds like the others are getting up too."
Shinichi's breath escaped him in a resigned sigh, but he agreed. He could hear the murmur of waking voices as well.
Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, he sat up and blinked in surprise at the sight of Kaito, now sans wings, tossing his cape aside then stripping off his shirt. The detective immediately blushed pink.
"What are you doing?" he squeaked, gaze jumping to the door—which had no locks.
The question earned him a smirk and a wink from his partner. "Well~, I know a few things I'd like to do, but alas, we don't know how much time we're getting for this break, and I refuse to let you skip meals. We'll need all the energy we can get. So I'm changing. Maybe it's this form, but I'm more comfortable in my suit."
"That's not the form. You just like snazzy suits," Shinichi said dryly. "And all the little tricks you work into the ones you appropriate."
"True on both counts," Kaito declared. "But there's more." He held out his hand to Shinichi, who gave it a puzzled look before taking it. Kaito immediately used that hand to pull him in close. His free hand rose to Shinichi's chin and tilted his head up to meet Kaito's grin. "I know you like how I look in a suit." That said, he captured Shinichi's lips in a deep, lingering kiss.
Though caught by surprise, Shinichi melted instantly into the taller man's embrace. It was a precious reminder that, as long as they were together, home would always be within arm's reach.
It was with reluctance that they separated. Both still remembered all too clearly how they had almost lost this not all that long ago. It was an experience that would likely haunt them both for some time to come. Still, they could and would overcome it. Of that, they were sure.
"It was kind of thoughtful of the clowns to make sure you had your own clothes at hand," Shinichi mused as they left the compartment. "And that our compartments were so close to one another's. Do you think that was intentional?"
Kaito shrugged. "If it was, it wasn't for our sake. All they care about is making sure we keep playing games. That means making sure we don't burn out too fast. Hence, we get fed and watered and encouraged to rest. I'll bet they figured a few additional creature comforts could only improve our motivation."
Shinichi grimaced. "I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not. On the one hand, they're taking care of us. But on the other…"
"They're doing it to ensure that we can dance for them as long as possible," Kaito finished.
"Yes, that."
"It's a bit of both, I'd say. Although really," the vampire magician added with a toothy grin as he held the door to the dining car open for Shinichi, "it's all to our benefit. They can do what they do because they're sure they're safe from us. But it means we have all the time we need to plan. And when we do make our move, they won't see it coming."
Shinichi had to smile at that. "I hope you're right."
The dining car (or rather cars, as there were three of them) turned out to have been set up like one enormous buffet. A long counter laden with food ran along the left wall of each dining car. To the right stood a collection of black tables accompanied by neon orange and yellow chairs. The first dining car served hot foods, the second served cold foods, and the last served desserts and beverages.
By the time Kaito and Shinichi arrived, most of their fellow carnival goers were already wandering up and down along the buffet counters, adding little bowls of this and that to their trays. There was a quiet murmuring of conversations just barely audible over the constant rumble of the train. Most faces still wore signs of fatigue, but Shinichi noted that many a formerly tense shoulder had relaxed and pinched brows had smoothed.
People were beginning to recover from the shocks and despair of the day (days?) before. It wasn't much, but it was still a good sign.
"Oi, Kudo!" Hattori called from a table near the passage between dining cars one and two. With him sat Gozu, Akiyama, Rosa, Takamiya and Ken. "We got room for a few more. Care ta join us?"
The canine detective and his thief wandered over to see that yes, there were two open chairs at the scarecrow's table. Unfortunately, said seats were situated between Katsuya Ken and Takamiya.
Deciding that there was only one thing he could do if he didn't want breakfast turning into a disaster zone, Shinichi took the seat by Ken. This placed him across from Hattori. Beside him, Kaito was face to face with Gozu.
"Sorry if this is rude," Kaito said to the gargoyle, "but are those rocks on your tray there?"
"Yes," Gozu replied with a lopsided grin that told Kaito he knew just how strange his choice of breakfast must look. "Three different types of rock, actually. I got a piece of sandstone, some granite, and I think a slice of volcanic glass."
"They serve that at the buffet?" the magician asked, incredulous. He hadn't seen any rocks during his cursory look over the offerings, but he may have subconsciously classed them as table ornamentations.
"I suspect it was offered specifically for me," Gozu replied. As though to illustrate his point, he picked up the sandstone and bit into it with a crunch. It didn't appear to take much effort.
"In this form, this tastes quite good," he informed the table at large as everyone there was now staring at him. "I can eat normal food too, but this actually tastes better."
"What does it taste like?" Hattori asked.
"It's difficult to describe," Gozu admitted.
"This is stupid. Who cares what rocks taste like?" Ken remarked to anyone who might be listening. "I'm going to go get some more waffles."
And he was gone.
Shinichi shook his head and rose as well. "I'm going to go get my food too."
"Do you want me to accompany you?" Kaito asked. "If not, I might go look around the dessert car. See what options we've got there. I'll get you a cup of coffee while I'm at it."
"I'd appreciate that," Shinichi agreed and tried not to worry about the fact that Kaito wasn't even bothering to check out the rest of the menu.
Halfway through his perusal of the various food options, Shinichi froze and stared.
There, sitting in a small bowl complete with label, was a pile of doggy biscuits. They were shaped like bones and everything.
Shinichi realized with sudden horror that his mouth was beginning to water.
Absolutely not, he told himself in no uncertain terms. Yanking his gaze from those tantalizing treats (why weren't they in the dessert car? They were clearly put here to taunt him. He was human, damnit! He did not want tasty, crunchy little doggy treats. He did not!)
Shinichi returned to their table some five minutes later carrying a laden tray.
Hattori stared at the unobtrusive little dish wedged between the small salad and the plate of bacon and eggs. "Aren't those…?"
He trailed off when he was leveled with an icy stare that rather lost its effectiveness when paired with the source's obvious blush.
"They're cookies," Shinichi insisted even though Heiji hadn't said anything.
The scarecrow's expression was distinctly amused. "Right."
Kaito returned a few minutes later bearing gifts of coffee and chocolate cake.
"The dessert selection is pretty standard," he said as he passed out plates to everyone who wanted one. "But there's plenty of it. Lots of chocolate."
"You should eat this first," Shinichi told him, picking up a covered bowl from his own tray and setting it down in front of Kaito. "I saw it on the counter, and, well, I think it was for you."
The statement earned him an odd look, but Kaito lifted the cover off the bowl anyway and peered inside.
Shinichi half expected Kaito to ask him what it was, but he didn't. Nor did Kaito laugh it off and push the bowl away. Instead, he looked at the bowl's contents then at Shinichi then at the bowl again, expression unreadable.
A whole minute passed in silence.
Then Kaito let out a small, resigned breath, picked up a fork and dug in.
"Er, what is that stuff Kuroba's eating?" Hattori asked, leaning across the table to attempt to be quiet about the asking. "It looks kind of ick."
"Black pudding," Shinichi said shortly.
Heiji blinked. "Ah. That's, uh…good, I guess. Kind of thoughtful of them actually."
"It just means they want us alive," Ken sneered, having returned just in time to overhear the exchange. "Which isn't much to celebrate."
"I don't know," Akiyama said a bit uncertainly. "I mean, at least it's better than them wanting us dead."
"That's the spirit," Hattori said, clapping the skeleton on the shoulder blade. "Gotta say though, I didn't expect ta see the day when you'd be the glass half full one."
"Well, after everything we've already been through, I've realized something," Akiyama told him. "This place is awful, but we're not alone, and we're not powerless."
"Very true," Rosa said, nodding sagely. "We need more of that positivity. It's better to try and fail than never try at all."
"Whatever," Ken scoffed. But he shut up after that, choosing instead to focus on his breakfast.
Shinichi had to admit that he was relieved. Their situation was unpleasant enough without someone constantly ragging on their attempts to find a solution.
"Gozu-san, you've been here before, right?" Takamiya asked from his end of the table.
The gargoyle nodded. "I have."
"So then how long do you think we'll get to stay here?"
"It varies," Gozu said, thinking. "I assume you all noticed the way we were all made to sleep when we first got here?"
"Yeah," said Kaito, pushing aside his empty dishes and giving the gargoyle his full attention. Everyone else at the table was doing the same. Even Ken had slowed his chewing and tilted his head in the gargoyle's direction, clearly listening. They all wanted to hear this.
"Well, this train is distinct cycles that begin and end with the time of sleep. If we consider each cycle to be a day then we're usually allowed to rest here for anywhere from three to seven days."
"That long?" Rosa asked, surprised.
Gozu shrugged. "It may be an exaggeration to think of the cycles as being full days, but that's what they feel like. But either way, it's a decent break."
"It makes sense actually," Takamiya said slowly. "Presuming the clowns want us to keep playing their games for as long as possible, they need to make sure we stay physically and mentally healthy enough to do so. That includes giving us time off to recuperate and recapture our motivation."
"Kaito and I had a similar thought," Shinichi admitted.
Heiji nodded, frowning. "You're right. It'd explain the custom food items too. But how do they decide when we're ready for the next round of gaming?"
Gozu looked grim. "I can't answer that. I do know you can ask to start playing. They never turn you down when you ask for a game. That's how I've left the other times I was here."
"Wait a moment," Akiyama said, puzzled. "Does that mean we could stay here indefinitely?"
"He said there was a limit of seven days," Rosa pointed out. "So no."
"Sorry. I should have worded that better. What I meant was that the longest I've been here is seven days," Gozu corrected. "By that point, everyone on the train with me was growing restless and bored. No one wanted to stay any longer."
"What about the three day minimum?" Shinichi asked. "Where'd that number come from?"
"That one's easy. The clowns don't begin responding to our calls until at least three days have passed."
"Are they actually on the train?" Akiyama asked, suddenly nervous. He swiveled his skull from side to side as though he thought one of the guests at the neighboring tables might be an evil clown in disguise.
Gozu's lips curled into a mirthless smile. "They are, but don't worry. They don't come into our parts of the train. They stay at the front in the engine room. If we want to talk to them, we have to knock on their door and see if they choose to open it."
"That's convenient," Kaito mused. And he meant it. "So we don't have to worry about them eavesdropping on our plans."
Gozu shifted in his seat, looking uncomfortable. "Theoretically. But I wouldn't put it past those things to have some way to spy on us."
"I'll bet they're watching us right now," Ken said loudly. "And listening to every word we say."
Hattori glared across the table at him. "Oi, if you've got nothing constructive to say, just zip it. We adults have important things ta do."
"I'm not a kid!" Ken exploded, slamming both fists down on the table in a manner that rather belied his claim. "I told you. I'm twenty two! How many times am I going to have to tell you before you get it through your straw-stuffed head?!"
"As many times as it takes for you ta start behaving the age you say you are," Heiji shot back, clearly just as irritated.
Feeling stuck between them at his corner of the table, Akiyama looked as though he very much wanted to slide down under the table.
Sighing, Shinichi put their squabbling out of his mind for the time being and focused on Gozu, who was now explaining the defining features of a cycle in the train.
Each day, the gargoyle told them, would begin with breakfast in the dining cars. There were more dining cars now than there had been before because of the greatly expanded size of their group. Once the breakfast hour was over, the counters would clear of all remaining food, leaving only pitchers of hot water and a selection of instant teas and coffees. There was also always one type of fruit soda, though the flavor varied from day to day. Dishes and utensils too would vanish off to places unknown.
A different spread of dishes would make their appearance on the counters when it came time for lunch, and the cycle would repeat once more with dinner. After dinner, they would have a few last hours before the lights would dim, announcing the approach of bedtime.
"Oh, and the bath cars appear during the hours after dinner and before bedtime," the gargoyle added. "They're an additional series of train cars that offer sinks and shower stalls. They appear with toothbrushes, toothpaste and towels as well. There's always one set of equipment for every person on the train. Like the dishes and things, the bath car items will disappear once you're done using them."
"I'm glad to hear they're at least taking care of our hygiene," Takamiya mused. "I wasn't looking forward to finding out just how bad we were going to smell in a few more days with only the bathroom sinks to wash in."
"Neither was I," Shinichi admitted. He'd been downright dreading it actually, but he'd been trying not to think about it. After all, plenty of the bodies around here probably didn't operate the way human bodies did even when they exerted themselves. Gozu, for instance, hadn't sweated one drop throughout the battle with the piranha moles and still smelled basically just like stone. Heiji emitted a similarly tolerable sun-dried straw aroma that made Shinichi think of open farmland and cornfields shimmering gold beneath the summer sun. "And it'll be nice to be able to brush our teeth after all these sweets."
"Oh, those doggy biscuits are sweet?" Kaito asked in tones of pure innocence.
Shinichi paused in the middle of popping another doggy treat into his mouth as he finally noticed what his hands and mouth had been doing without his consent for the last few minutes. Blushing, he dropped the last biscuit back into its bowl (trying not to whimper inside at the loss) and pushed said bowl aside where he wouldn't be tempted to retrieve it.
Coughing lightly, he tried to get everyone back on the point. "So besides mealtimes and bedtimes and, I guess, bathing times, what are we expected to do here on the train?"
"As far as I can tell?" asked Gozu. "That's it. We're here to relax. Eat, regain our strength and our motivation, so on. That's it."
"And what do people do between eating and sleeping then?" Heiji asked, frowning. "Is there a recreation car or something somewhere?"
"Nope."
"What about reading materials? Or a deck of cards?"
"None of those either."
Hattori grimaced. "Man, you mean they're literally giving us nothing to do? It's just eat, sit around, and sleep over and over and over again until they let us out?"
"Essentially," Gozu agreed.
"It's no wonder you never stayed past the week!"
"Yes, well, there may be advantages."
"Like what?"
"It gives us time to get to know each other better," Rosa pointed out. "And to get to know what we can each do better as well. We all saw how awesome you three were working together during that whack-a-mole game. That's what we need. Strategic thinking."
"Shin-chan and I had the same thought," Kaito volunteered. "We have quite a large pool of abilities to draw from now. It's just a matter of deciding on application."
"I understand where you're coming from, and I agree it's a sensible idea," said Takamiya. "But I'm afraid that most of the others here won't wish to become any more actively involved."
"Well that sucks for them because we need everyone," Rosa said, eyes hardening to those of a determined captain. "For better or worse, we won't get anywhere waiting around to be rescued. If we wanna get out of here, we have to use everything we've got. That's the only way we're going to survive because I'm sure those clowns won't hesitate to drop us back in that shark tank if they start thinking our only entertainment value is as fish food."
"But where do we even start?" Akiyama asked.
"Doesn't matter, does it?" Ken asked. "A waste of time's a waste of time."
"Oh shut up already, will ya?" Hattori snarled. "Or move to another table."
Ken gave him a dirty look but fell silent. He didn't leave.
"I had an idea about that," Shinichi said. "We know the clowns want us to play games. They never say no when we ask to play, and they always follow the rules. So what if we propose playing a game of our own?"
TBC