The two parties stared at each other for a few seconds before Akako opened her mouth again, voice lowered to a hushed whisper.
"Kuroba-kun, please... You know begging like this is below me. Please tell me what you found."
Kaito stared at her, pokerface in place. He didn't say a word while his eyes wandered from Akako to the exact corner a certain blond nuisance was hiding around. While Akako seemed confused at first, her eyes brightened with clarity as she turned around as well.

Someone is eavesdropping.

Akako paused for a second, then breathed out a sigh. It was a stupid idea to try again, with someone else around Kuroba would never spill his secrets. She could at least try to warn him of what he had caused.
"Kuroba, listen to this at least... if you don't want to get out with the truth. What you found is incredibly dangerous, it's something supernatural science can't fathom to grasp. It can end life, YOUR life if you don't pay attention."
Kaito opened his mouth to interrupt her but Akako wasn't bothered, she just kept on talking.
"This... condition. What the Task Force and Kudo Shinichi are going through. It's... not normal. It's a curse, Kuroba. A curse casted by whatever thing you dug out. It won't be able to be cured by normal means. You will have to find a counterpart to this power, else this detective and those policemen will never recover from this infection."

Kaito's pokerface was getting the best out of him again but on the inside, he was terrified. That much he knew, Akako was an expert in her field. It wouldn't be able to be cured? Kudo's eyes were going to stay infected, blind, in agony? And of course, he was going to be blamed for this. Kaito's face turned a shade paler. He was never going to forgive himself if he couldn't cure this condition.
"How would you even know?" Kaito finally spoke, and the witch in front of him raised an unamused eyebrow.
"I can feel it, Kuroba. Since a while. Since the broken statue on the news, since KID's heist. Something powerful is in this city, something dangerous. But..."

Akako's expression turned somewhat sorrowful as she eyed the magician in front of her.
"I... cannot help you there. I can't lift this curse. I hate to say it but... this is beyond my power. I practise red magic... not... this."
She took a deep breath, quietly brushing a stray hair back behind her ear.
"For now... Please keep it locked up, whatever you found. And search... search for a cure. A counterpart. Or go ahead and try lifting it yourself, maybe you can use its powers to lift it as well. Whatever you do..."
Her voice lowered to a grim tone.
"...don't mess too much with things beyond our control. Got that?"

Kaito just stared at her, then brushed past her back towards his class. Well that was unsettling. So it was a curse...? He had some experience with that, Akako had tried to curse him a few times. Wonderful times.
He frowned to himself, feeling sarcasm dripping from his thoughts. Kaito knew what he had to do.

If it was truly a curse, this boy must have casted it to protect them... to protect him. Of course, it was only natural. He was in a strange world he didn't quite belong to, and only Kaito had been his guide all along.
To see a bunch of very aggressive looking people try to hunt his guardian down must have taken a huge toll on the boy. So... Maybe he could try to get him to lift the curse again? It was far easier than finding an actual cure to a curse, and far easier with him being an actual human he could communicate somewhat with.

Kaito nodded to himself as he sat back down, with his thoughts everywhere but the lesson.

I have to make him lift this curse. Somehow I'll get my point across.

***

The moment Kaito returned home, he was already searching determinedly for his guest, only to find him in his own bedroom, lazily sitting on the bed. Jesus christ.
He visibly brightened up upon seeing Kaito, and got up to smile happily at him. Kaito didn't smile back, he was already trying to plan out his move.

Finally, he took his hand. If he could speak the Latin word for disease, he must understand SOME Latin after all.
"Come," Kaito tried it in a heavy accent and the boy perked up. He... seemed to understand? Kaito was a bit surprised but quietly walked him downstairs. That boy was a damn riddle. Did he understand Latin or not??

Maybe he really was just mute? But why could he speak this one word?

Just at the door, an idea came over Kaito. That he hadn't tried this earlier! He changed directions, much to the confusion of his company, to walk into the living room. There he sat down with paper and pen, before he began to draw lines on the paper.
His guest's eyes grew wide upon watching Kaito before he plopped down next to him, eagerly watching him create something. Kaito looked up, again, confidently holding out the pen to his friend.
"Write," he spoke, nodding onto the paper, before he tried it again. Latin.

"What is your name?"

The boy pursed his lips, looking back and forth between Kaito and the paper, before he slowly put the pen's tip down onto the paper. Kaito's breath hitched, did it work?
In the most awful handwriting he had ever seen, worth of a doctor, the boy slowly scribbled a word onto the paper. He was struggling a lot and it was obvious to the magician, but at this point he couldn't care less. He knew some basic writing, that was all that mattered to him at the moment.

Indigo's grew wide, a cold shiver went down his back. Kaito could only stare, mouth slowly popping open, eyes flashing back and forth between the paper and the hesitance visible in forest green ones.

"Pandora"