Who is This Girl?
A Conan Edogawa Mystery
By Jamie Skidmore
Flames, screams, confusion, heat, why is it so hot? It hurts so much. I don't like this. Mama, Papa, make it go away. I'm scared. Where are you? Why won't you answer me? I don't want to be here, take me away from this place…Mama, Why are you and Papa lying under the rubble in the corner over there? Why aren't you moving? The fire is all around you, why are you letting it burn you?
The girl wakes up with a start. Sweating and panting, with silent tears running down her cheeks, she gets up to shake off the nightmare so she can get ready for school. She heads to the kitchen of her new home to make herself something to eat.
(Why?) The girl thinks as she turns on the stove.(Why do I keep remembering that night? It's already painful enough to be going through every foster home available without having these dreams every night.)The stove finishes warming up and she begins cracking eggs and cooking them into crisp over easy perfection. She slides them to a plate and makes herself a few pieces of bacon and sits at the table to eat.
Meanwhile, at the Moore Detective Agency, high school detective Shinichi Kudo, or better known as Conan Edogawa, gets ready for elementary school under the carefully watchful eye of Ran Moore.
" Come on, Conan! You're going to be late!" Ran yells to the small boy hurrying to pack the last of his supplies into his backpack.
" Ok, ok, I'm Going, I'm going!" He yells, finally finishing and dashing out the door. He runs to catch up the other three children waiting outside his apartment.
" Man, Conan, You're really late this time." Says the biggest of the group.
" Sorry, Genta, I overslept a bit." He says as Genta, A brownish, chubby boy with a buzz cut and two bald circles on either side of his head, frowns at him and huffs. The four set off for school at a quick pace to make up lost time. They reach the grounds with plenty time to spare because they ran most of the way until Genta and Mitsuhiko got tired and they were forced to slow down.
" Geez, Mitsuhiko, you're really out of shape." The smallest of the group, and the only girl, says to the skinny freckled boy beside her. The boy blushes hopelessly in embarassment.
" Sorry, Ayumi, I guess I should workout more." He says to the short, thin, dark brown haired girl looking at him.
" We still made it in time though." Says Conan as they walk into the building. They make their way to the classroom. As Conan walks through the door he bumps into someone and falls to the floor.
" Ah, sorry." The girl he collided with says softly. Her voice sounds a little strange. She picks herself off the floor and holds out her hand to help Conan up. He takes it and smiles at her.
" Thanks." He says. She ignores him and goes to her seat. He realizes that he never noticed her before. This girl managed to slip through his observation completely. He scolds himself inwardly. He's supposed to be a great detective but he never noticed one of his own classmates. He studies her thoroughly so that he won't overlook her again.
The first thing he notices is her hair which is such a pale blonde color so as to appear white. The thin strands flow down to her shoulders in ever so slight waves. The pale color frames her face and brings out her eyes, Which are a strange, dark blue-purple color. Her skin is pale and looks delicate though, judging by her clothes, she did a lot of house work for her family. There are soap and other stains on her shirt and shorts. She's wearing a denim over jacket with only one of the buttons fastened. It seems a very strange form of dress to him.
Everyone rushes to their seats as class starts and Conan skillfully tunes out the teacher while still looking like he's paying attention. He thinks about that girl for the entire class and asks Ayumi about her after school.
" Hey, do you know that girl who sits at the back of class?" Ayumi smiles.
" I bet you didn't notice her at all before you bumped into her today." She says.
" Do you have any idea why that is?" He asks. Her face takes on a thoughtful look.
" I don't know. She just seems to fade into the background. She's very inconspicuous" Ayumi remarks.
" Nobody knows practically anything about that girl. All I know is that her name is Sai Takino. She's the most mysterious person in this class." Says Mitsuhiko, who happened to hear the conversation.
" Yeah, she doesn't even seem to have any friends." Intrudes Genta, who just now realized who they were talking about.
" Hey! Why don't we make her our friend so we can find out what makes her so mysterious." Ayumi suddenly proposes.
" Hey, guys, you can't just fo-" Conan starts to say but is interrupted by the other three's shout of assent. After school, they all rush off to meet Sai and become her friend with Conan slinking behind them. They find her just outside the school gate and they try to strike up a conversation. She just keeps walking no matter what they say. After a little while Genta gets angry (as expected) and asks her what the heck her problem is. She stays silent even while being yelled at.
" Hey, are you even listening? You know, it's very rude to ignore people for no reason." Yells Genta. This time she stops and looks at him blandly. Genta gets even angrier.
"Just because you're looking at me doesn't mean that you're paying attention." He yells. At this she sighs and turns to him. She moves her hands around in a dance like pattern. Genta gets a confused look on his face.
" What are you doing? Trying to confuse me?" He asks. Conan watches with interest because he knows what is going on.
" Stuuuupid, She's using sign language. She's probably deaf and doesn't speak." But that was strange, she said sorry to him when they bumped into each other. At that Sai turns to him with an emotionless face.
" I am not deaf," She says suddenly. He notices the slightly nasally tone in her voice as one of a person who can't quite hear themselves," I am simply hard of hearing. I can speak if I want but I prefer to stay silent as it tends to help people leave me alone." Her voice sounds either very bored or devoid of emotion. Conan looks at her in confusion, a child shouldn't sound like that at all.
"Why would you want to be alone? Isn't it sad?" Ayumi asks. Sai turns to her with a questioning look.
"Why would I be sad? I've always been alone." She says. They all look at her in surprise.
"Well I have to get home or I'll be yelled at by my dad so bye!" Sai says and runs off.
Sai hopes she won't be late or her step-father will hit her again. She makes it home just in time by running at her fastest speed. She is out of breath by the that time and stops to catch her breath before going into the house.
"I'm home!" She calls as she closes the door.
"Why were you in such a hurry?" A man's voice growls. Sai flinches.
"I'm sorry step-father, some of my classmates stopped me. It took a little bit to leave them behind." Sai tries to explain.
"Why did you let them stop you in the first place?" A female voice screeches from the kitchen. Sai looks to see a thin, cruel looking woman. She has lines around her mouth from frowning and sneering all the time. More wrinkles adorn her forehead from her permanently furrowed brow. She has the look of someone who thinks they deserve to be treated as royalty. Sai cringes from her step-mother as she stomps up to rain yet another blow on the girl's tiny body. This time she slaps her on the face, leaving a red mark that would later develop into a bruise.
"I'm sorry I'm sorry I won't let it happen again!" Sai cries at she crouches to try to protect her body from any more blows that might fall if her step-parents feel like it.
" Machiko, stop it, your hand is red. It might bruise if you hit her again." Cain, Sai's step-father, says.
" Your right," Machiko says," I wouldn't want my flawless skin to become tainted with injury." She walks flirtingly towards Cain and kisses him on the lips.
"We would never want that." He says. He looks at Sai as if he were looking at a particularly nasty bug in the floor. "If you have time to just lie there then go do your chores." He says with contempt. Sai, eager to get out of their way and avoid another beating, rushes off to do her chores. Which was everything from sweeping the floor to cleaning the toilet. She wondered how she was going to explain the bruise on her face tomorrow. Maybe she could say she ran into a door. She hoped that they would accept that excuse. By the time she had finished her chores it was dark out and she had very little time for doing her homework. (I guess I'll just have to do it during class again. That's one good thing about being invisible, nobody notices if your doing work during class.) She thinks to herself. She sits down on her bed to get as much done before she falls asleep.