Wind howled outside as the small detective Naoto Shirogane attempted to stay warm inside the cozy winter lodge. She was there along with the rest of the investigation team on their ski trip. As much as the hat-clad girl was happy to be there with her newly found friends, she didn't like the cold very much. The cold wasn't the only thing wearing her out. She was also very exhausted after spending the whole day attempting to learn how to ski without much success. Looking over at her friend and temporary teacher Kanji Tatsumi, she could tell that the act of teaching her was just as tiring. She wished for nothing more than a chance to lie down and rest her aching bones. Sadly, the same could not be said for a majority of the group.
"So, do you guys want to go night skiing? I've always admired people who could do that," Rise exclaimed cheerfully to the rest of the group.
"Sure, I'm up for it if everyone else is," Yu responded, much to the dismay of the young detective. She, of course, was far too weak at this point to walk very far let alone ski. She also had no desire to force Kanji to teach her more when he looked just as beat as she did.
"Well, I my partner wants to do it I'll go too," Yosuke added. The others all responded with a simple nod. This applied to all of them except Kanji and Naoto for obvious reasons. It seems that this action did not go unnoticed.
"Is something wrong?" Yu asked them both.
"Oh, I apologize, senpai, but I am far too tired to be doing such activities at this time. Please forgive me," Naoto added in an obvious sympathetic tone.
"Oh, that's okay. I think you fell plenty of times for today," Yukiko said with a hint of both understanding and tease in her voice.
"Sorry, I'm out too. Gotta take a break after being tripped on all day," Kanji said. An apologetic look instantly appeared on Naoto's face. It didn't take long for kanji to notice. "Oh, no. You're good. I ain't mad or nothin'." He reassured her. This helped the girl relax a bit. She already felt guilty for forcing him to waste his entire day on her.
"Okay, well then if you two aren't going then we might as well be off." Yosuke said.
"No," Teddie butted in. "We can't go without Nao-chan. Then I won't have as manly pretty girls to score with." Somehow, Naoto knew he would say something like that.
"Shut up you stupid bear. Leave the girl alone," Chie cut him off. Just like that the rest of the investigation team walked off with their own separate good byes. This left Kanji and Naoto, the two most awkward members of the team, alone with each other. Needless to say, the situation got awkward fast.
"I'm just gonna go to the boys' room. 'Night Naoto," Kanji said while turning his back towards her.
"Wait, Kanji-kun!" She quickly responded, stopping him in this tracks. He turned around to face the once again. "I wanted to thank you once again for today and also apologize for forcing you to assist me in my failed attempts to ski."
"What? Oh, no problem. And I offered to help you, remember?"
"Right, of course." I really need to get out of the habit of saying sorry so much. Naoto thought to herself. 'In any case, I should be going off to bed as well. Goodnight."
"'Night," Kanji repeated for the second time. After that they both walked off to their respective rooms. While on her way, Naoto glanced at a calendar. This reminded her of the date, making her shiver. Calm down, Naoto. I just need to get through tomorrow without any outbursts. I should be fine. Just remember, I'm doing this for senpai. I can't freak out.
She continued in silence as she walked the rest of the way to her room.
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" That is the sound Kanji awoke to. He instantly shot up and ran to find the source of the horrified scream. After about thirty seconds of searching, he located it in the room the girls were meant to be sleeping in. Kanji threw the door open to find a small figure violently shaking around in one of the beds screaming bloody murder.
"NAOTO!" Kanji ran over to the poor girl in and attempted to calm her before realizing that she was still sleeping. He began to shake her awake while repeating to call her name. Seconds later her eyes opened and she wrapped her arms around her friend's neck sobbing into his shoulder. Kanji remained in shock for a long time. After all, she is probably the last person he would ever imagine breaking down like this. Once he snapped out of it, he put his hands around her back and began to whisper into her ear telling her that it's okay and that it's over now.
They remand in that position for who knows how long until Naoto finally calmed down and let go. After that she instantly looked down out of embarrassment.
"You okay?" Kanji asked with mountains of concern in his voice.
"Yeah," she responded very quietly. "I'm okay." She was still crying, but it wasn't nearly a hysterical as it was originally. She was also still shaking.
"What happened?" kanji asked. He immediately regretted that decision. 'Wait, no. never mind, don't answer that." He wasn't about to force her to talk about.
"I'm sorry," she said still not making eye contact.
"No, don't be. It ain't your fault." The last thing Naoto needed to do right now was to start blaming herself. Sadly, behind solving crimes, it was what she seemed to be best at.
"I knew I shouldn't have come," she mumbled o herself. Despite that, Kanji still heard her comment.
"What do you mean you shouldn't of come? There ain't no way you could of know you were gonna have a nightmare." Somehow, Kanji's reply made Naoto feel worse. She turned her head even farther away from the boy in and attempt to block her face completely. "You ok?" He said in a very concerned manner.
"Yes, I- I'm fine. You can leave now." Her voice cracked as she struggled to shoo her friend away.
"What, no. I ain't leavin' you here. Look at you, Yer still shaking." Kanji moved from his place on the floor to sitting next to her on her futon.
"Kanji-kun, I'm fine. Please, just leave." He wasn't buying it. Naoto knew that he wouldn't, but she still had to try. She hates it when people see her like this. So broken, so weak. This isn't the way a detective should act. This isn't the way anyone but a child should act.
"Like I said, I ain't leavin'." He paused. "So, do ya wanna talk about tit or somethin'?" No. Naoto thought to herself. There's no way her dignity, or what's left of it, would survive.
"Please, just leave. I- I'm okay. Just, leave. Please." She was getting desperate. It was then that she realized how lucky she was that the others hadn't come back yet. If everyone saw her like this, she would never recover.
"Naoto, you can't be tryin' to do everything yerself. It ain't healthy. Now come on. I ain't judgin' ya." Yes, of course he'd say something like that. She thought.
"Fine." She had given up. "I'll tell you." She spoke in a defeated tone.
"No, ya don't have to if you don't wanna. I was just offerin'."
"It's fine, I don't want you assuming the worst." She took a deep breath, ready to relive her nightmare with her friend at her side.
As the car moved down the highway at 75 mph, five year old Naoto Shirogane sat in the back seat. Her parents sat up front. The adults in the were on their way to take a case in Tokyo. They were forced to take their daughter with them due to the lack of a person to take care of her.
On their way, it began to snow. This made it slightly harder to driven, that and the fact that it was 9 o'clock at night.
"I'm going to pull over. It's too dangerous to be driving it this weather," said Naoto's father, Sousuke Shirogane. He had short brown hear and eyes to match. The was relatively tall, 5'9 to be exact, and wore round glasses. He also wore a nice, black suit with a maroon necktie.
"No, we should be fine. I don't think the snow will be too much of a bother, if we can even call it that," responded the mother, Naomi. She had long, straight, blue hair. She held the front strands of her hair back with a black hair pin. She too wore glasses that covered her gray-blue eyes. She wore a black, women's suit with a blue necktie and a skirt that just covered her knees.
"Fine" said the father as he turned off his turn signal, staying in his current lane.
"Mommy," said Naoto in a slightly high-pitch voice. "Are we going to be there soon? I'm tired." She inherited her mother's beautiful blue hair that she has pulled into a ponytail. She wore bright blue winter coat over her white jeans.
"Haha." Her mother laughed. "I knew that would come eventually. Um." She looked at her phone. "I would say about 30 minutes"
"Hey, sweetie," her father said. "Why don't you just take a nap for now? We'll wake you up when we get there"
"No," the little girl replied. "I don't like cars. They're too bumpy." That got another laugh out of both of the parents.
"Yeah, I completely understand. Don't worry, just hang in there," he father said. Sadly, they would never make it to their destination. Right at that moment Naoto heard the terrible sound to smashing metal that she would never forget. After hearing a terrified scream from both of her parents, everything went dark.
A while later, Naoto woke up to the smell of smoke and a horrific pain. She struggled to open her eyes as she gave a muffled cry for help. As soon as she finally succeeded at opening her eyes, she regretted it. The first thing she saw was the body of her father covered in blood. She screamed in horror and despair. She looked to try and see her mother with the strong hope that she was alright. Her seat was empty.
"Mommy!" She screamed desperate for a response. She wanted this to be a dream, a dream that she could just wake up from and go back to her normal life with her loving family. Sadly, that was not the case. This was a nightmare she would never wake up from.
After she sat there crying for what felt like forever, she heard the car door open. Outside she heard a siren going off. A pair of strong arms reached into the car and pulled the little girl out. "Mommy?" said the poor, broken girl. Then she fell back into a cold, dark sleep.
"Wow." That was the only thing Kanji could manage to say after listening to her story. Naoto had stopped shaking but tears were still coming out. "I-I had no idea."
"Of course you didn't," Naoto responded. "I never told any of you. I was hoping I would ever have to."
"Man, I'm sorry," he said sympathetically.
"Why?" She sounded confused. "You had nothing to do with it. There isn't anything you could have possibly done."
"I know, but still. Man, that sucks."
"My, um." She was struggling to speak. "My dad was already dead when I woke up. So was my mom, but they had pulled her out already. This was eleven years ago today. That's why I had a dream about it."
"Oh." That was all he could say.
"I, of course, have had that nightmare many times. It took me months after the accident before I could sleep peacefully again. Still, I always have it about this time of year. That's why I said that I shouldn't have come before. I knew something like this would happen."
"I had no idea you were in the car with them." Kanji still seemed to be in shock.
"Yeah, apparently it was a miracle I survived. It didn't feel like it was then." She whispered the last part. "I had a concussion and a few bruised ribs. Luckily nothing was broken."
"You were okay though?" He asked.
"Yes, I made a full physical recovery within a month. Mentally I took longer."
"I bet." Kanji interrupted himself with a yawn.
"Oh, you must be tired." Naoto began to look guilty again. Kanji noticed and quickly reassured her.
"Oh, no. It's fine. I'm sure yer tired too." She nodded in reply. "Allrighty then. We should both get some sleep then." Naoto moaned in response to his suggestion. "Oh, right." He realized that that might not be a good idea for her.
"No, it's fine. You can go to your room. I'll just wait for the others to come back. I should be alright then."
"Ya kiddin' me, they won't let you sleep. They'll be talkin' the whole time."
'"True, but I don't see any other option. I can't fall back to by myself and you saying here isn't an option."
"Yeah, I guess you're right. But still, this sucks."
"I know, but I'll be fine, really. You need some sleep." Kanji looked down in response, defeated.
"Fine, night then." Kanji stood up.
"Goodnight, Kanji-kun." Kanji began to walk out the room. "Wait!" Naoto said stopping him. He turned around.
"What is it?"
"Thank you." Naoto smiled. Kanji Smiled back at her.
Author's Note
Hey guys. This is my first fanfiction so I'm sorry if it sucks. I'm also sorry if I didn't characterize the characters very well. I really just wrote them the way that I've always seem them. Anyway, I'm sure that I will be writing more in the future and I hope that I will start to do better. Please, if you have anything to say please say it. It really means a lot. I am very open to criticism. Anyway, thanks for reading my story. I am open to suggestions if any of you have any ideas. For now I will be writing one-shots only but will most likely move on to longer stories in the future.