Prologue

She stared out the window. Another night full of stars, but no star could seem to cheer her up. With a sigh, she went to close light and crawled into bed. She could feel tears coming into her eyes, rolling down hr face and fall into her pillow. Her vision blurred—she just closed her eyes and welcomed the darkness. It was pure foolishness to cry because of this, but she can't help anything. She just missed him; missed him dearly. She couldn't describe her feeling, mixed with worry and loneliness.

She knew. She knew something's going to happen. Her heart told her so.

She knew. She knew who Conan truly was. There was no way he couldn't be. It wasn't because of the fact that his brain cannot be that of a seven year olds. It wasn't even how he looked. It was the way he walked, the way he spoke, the way he smiled—everything, in ten years, in a hundred years, she could not forget.

Perhaps that was why she was this open with him. The first day she met him, when she took him home with her, what she told him on the way home. These weren't things she would tell a six year old boy. Something made her tell him. Something, a feeling, that made her tell him something she could not tell Shinichi. She knew from the beginning—she had always known.

And something about Ai—she had always known that as well. She had always been afraid of Ai. Ai could never be a child. Something in her eyes told her, her icy blue eyes that seemed to know of a sorrow that she herself could never comprehend. Ai—she wasn't a regular girl.

And now, there was something wrong. Everything's wrong. They disappeared. Conan and Ai--they were gone, and she did not know why.

That one day, the day when she came home, smiling as she thought of the hungry face of Conan, groaning for food. But he wasn't there. When she tried to contact Dr. Agasa, he was gone as well. They've disappeared off the face of the earth.

Usually, she would have called the police—immediately. This time, she didn't. Something told her not to. She knew that if she got the police into this thing, it would hurt Shinichi more. Yes, Shinichi, not Conan. She remembered the last thing he told her on the phone.

"Ran, I left you without saying goodbye, and you do not hate me. If I leave again without saying goodbye, do not hate me."

And there was that click on the phone. Her heart pricked. It hurt her so much. This time, he really left. And he wasn't going to come back again. She knew. Her heart told her so.

She hates him.