"Good. You're very punctual, Kudo." Ai Hiabara was sitting on one of the park's wooden benches while she watched Conan arrive on his solar powered skateboard. "Not wanting to exert yourself any more than necessary, hmm?" She asked, eyeing his skateboard.

Conan hesitantly stopped in front of her looking confused. "You mean…it wasn't all an act?" He blinked. "So you didn't have something important to tell me after all? Something for instance like, oh, I don't know. Nothing secretive?" Ai raised an eyebrow at him. "Let me get this straight," He continued. "You brought me out here not because of wanting to tell me something no one else could overhear, but to have me actually run, swim, and watch Detective Baka's soap operas?"

Ai stood up and resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Must he always assume an ulterior motive in everyone? "I'm extremely relieved you reached these conclusions by yourself, Kudo. I thought it might have been too hard for you to comprehend. You might be able to give Mouri-san a run for his money with that intellect of yours." She rolled out a bicycle hidden from behind the bench.

Conan huffed, not believing he came out here for nothing. He thought Ai had completed the antidote or something. "Sheesh…don't mislead a guy like that." He turned to jet off on his skateboard. There was no way he was going to stick around to have her torture him like she promised.

"One moment, Kudo." She motioned him over to the bike. "I suppose you weren't really serious about your apology. No matter, stand here before you go. I want to conduct a little experiment regarding the antidote." She went back behind the bench to retrieve something.

The little detective's mood immediately brightened. "Well, why didn't you say so in the first place?" The boy practically bounced to the spot. "Haibara, not to complain or anything, but shouldn't all your experiments be made inside that stuffy room of yours?"

She came back with a jump rope in her hands, ignoring his question. "Hold one end, will you?" Conan readily complied and took it in both hands. She looped it around his arms and hands tightly with a knot then turned to the bike.

Conan wasn't so sure for his personal safety now. He had been involved with plenty of homicides that had either the victim or murder with rope. For some reason he couldn't discern, his self-preservation senses were tingling like mad as if someone had just attempted to shove him over the side of a building. Strange wasn't it? Yes, he decided. It was indeed strange how Ai had tied his hands together like this. And now she's…tying the other end to the bike? His curiosity could only be quenched for so long. Conan had to find out why, but he also had to word it in a way that would not grate on Ai's nerves.

"Say, Haibara? How's adding me as your bike's new accessory going to help you with your experiment?" Yeah, being honest and tactful –read blunt and tactless- was definitely the way to go. He completely ignored the fact that Ai could have possibly still been angry at him and was just hiding it. He silently congratulated himself on a job well done.

Ai kept silent until she climbed onto the bike. "I hope you run just as fast as I can pedal. It'd be a tragedy for the park's reputation to have your face smeared onto its ground." With those final words, she took off.

To all those reading this, pity poor little Conan. For a scientist that would seem to have been cooped up in a laboratory all her life, Ai handles a bike pretty well. Never mind where she learned how to ride one. Besides, I have never seen a boy of Conan's age run at such astonishing speeds. I don't think the people they passed by had either.

"One truth will prevail." A saying Shinichi and Conan would both proudly proclaim. The one truth? All women are body-breaking slave drivers when angry. And right now, both would agree that Ai has a streak of deviousness locked away inside her that was for some unknown reason, released today in the form of energy. Well, not quite so unknown, but at least he knew how Ai stayed so thin all the time. Either that or she's got a fast metabolism.

Ai skidded to a halt after the ten promised laps and heard Conan faceplant into the ground. She looked at him thoughtfully for a bit. "Hmm…at this rate, the accelerated growth process the bio chemicals in the antidote cause would pop his heart faster than a tack would a balloon. I'll have to reconsider that." She mumbled to herself. Sighing, she untied the dying Conan who was suffering from lack of oxygen circulating through his respiratory system because he was taking in deep gasps of dirt. Ai plopped down beside Conan on the ground and helped him sit upright.

She wiped the sweat off her forehead with the back of her hand and took in a deep breath of fresh air. "How long was it since I actually lived?" Another sigh. "Oh, right. When Akemi was here. They say the longer you hold onto memories of the dead, the longer it takes for them to move onto the afterlife. But how can I be sure the afterlife is an enjoyable place? What if I was sending my sister into the depths of Hell? No. I can't think like that. Akemi was a good person. Yeah…was. Of course, good deeds alone aren't enough to get you to Heaven either. Then again…how can I believe in an afterlife when everything I trust requires proof?" Ai closed her eyes. She wouldn't cry over the mere memory of her sister in front of Conan. Once was enough.

"Right, back to figuring out Kudo's little dilemma. Now, I could alter the variables in my equation to make it work…cut down from quality into quantity. He could take it one after the other day by day for a week instead of just all at once. But that would be much too time consuming to rearrange the formula, not to mention highly expensive. On the other hand, I could set up an exercising routine that would have Kudo back into shape and beyond, so his body could take the stress."

She glanced over at the gasping Conan who had fallen over in the grass, looking like he was about to pass out. Ai looked away with a small sweatdrop rolling down her head.

"I believe the latter just might take a while longer than expected."

A hand suddenly lashed out and gripped her wrist. Ai's mind immediately leaped to full alert, the contact was like electricity rushing through her veins, shocking every siren into action in its path to her brain. But as usual, Ai could mask anything with that poker face of hers. She didn't even jump a centimeter. Calmly, she reached down and pried Conan's shaky hand off her wrist and asked coolly, "Yes, Kudo?"

"I…need…water!" He rasped out like one of those rotting zombies she once saw in Genta and Mitsuhiko's video games. He pointed to his pocket, indicating where his wallet was.

Ai gave him a dead panned expression. "I'd be more then willing to get you something to drink, but I draw the line at sticking my hand into your pocket to do so."

Conan's face might have already been tinted red from exertion, but now it went scarlet from embarrassment. "D-don't put words into m-my mo-mouth like that." He said in between breaths. He pulled the wallet out by himself and handed it to her. "Anything's fine."

Ai went off in search of a vending machine but not before taking the bike with her. "If he was putting on an act so he could find a chance to escape, I'll catch him and make the baka suffer." Anyway, back to searching for a vending machine. "I know we passed one or two on that last turn back there…"

Ai returned with his drink not a minute later, wanting to see if he had actually run away. She was genuinely surprised to find him sitting in the same spot where she had left him and was keeping himself occupied by pulling apart bits of grass then tossing the bundle into the wind.

She almost smiled.

"Careful." Ai started in a light tone, observing his actions. "A beautician might do the same to your hair one day." She paused. "Then again, my warning might have been a tad too late." She sat down beside him.

Conan made a face at her and gave a sarcastic laugh. "Har, har. Real funny, Haibara. I've laughed myself into stitches." He took the drink from her then gulped down its contents greedily. In one gulp he drained half the can. "Though…I do believe that's the first time you've ever cracked a joke before." He grinned.

"Oh, shame on me." Ai drawled out in her usual sarcastic tone. "Have I brought the Apocalypse a century too early?" She watched him take another swig of his orange juice.

"Don't drink too much." She warned him. "You might get cramps when swimming."

His eyes widened from shock and he spit out the liquid from his mouth to keep from choking. "You mean there's more? More of this torture?" Conan exclaimed with disbelief. "How could you be so utterly black hearted?"

Ai's nose wrinkled in disgust as a few drops hit her as well as from his choice of words. "I'm sure the plant life here really appreciated your generous donation of orange juice. The grass in particular." She added.

"Never mind the grass! What's this got to do with your antidote?" He asked indignantly. "Was there a scientific breakthrough? Were you inspired in some way by watching me run? Because if it's not enough, I'll gladly swim nine laps around the public swimming pool for you too!" He finished sardonically.

"I wasn't considering staying out in public for so long but since you offered…We'll join Professor Agasa who swims everyday around this time. Don't tell Ran-san where you're going." She stood and brushed herself off in a brisk manner. "You have eight minutes this time. I expect you to be at Professor Agasa's changed and ready to go before I get there."

Conan didn't even bother to argue. He had a deadline to make and being late sure wasn't going to make Ai smile. Not that she did anyways. He scampered off to find his skateboard.

Ai watched him scramble around like a chicken with its head cut off. Just this once, she'd be merciful and give him, oh, say…one extra minute. She sat down in the grass again, being careful not to touch Conan's patch of orange juice sprinkled grass. Ai brought her legs up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. "I really shouldn't be out here by myself." The thought popped into her mind. "There's always a chance I could be spotted, though I doubt any self-respecting member would be caught dead in the middle of a park." She didn't seem very worried outwardly though. Of course, that was our expressionless Ai. Being able to mask her emotions with a blank face would seem like a good trait, but it's a strange thing to be seen on kids. But I believe we all know masks don't just appear over night. They slowly develop over a period of time.

Masks come in all different shape and sizes. Some are happy, some are sad. Masks are often used for one basic purpose: to hide what's underneath it. You may ask why. I may ask why. Heck, you might even ask me why. Well, the reasons vary from one person to the next.

As for Ai, it's because she's lost all reason to smile. She didn't wish to lose any more reasons to show her other emotions, so she hid them. She hid them somewhere deep in her heart until her face forgot how to form those emotions. She wouldn't give anyone a chance to take away her other emotions. The little scientist knows that once something is proven illogical, it's time to dump it and move on towards the next thing. Gin forced her to smile one too many times, and now her smile is meaningless. Ever since she's met Gin, Ai has just accepted the habit of smiling whenever the cold, ruthless, slightly insane, but extremely possessive Gin was around. Now that he was gone, what more reasons were there for her to smile?

That was reason number one for a reason not to smile.

Akemi was gone. Her parents were gone. Gin was gone. She was forever indebted to Conan. An entire underground syndicate was out searching for her. Fear and paranoia were the two main things that ruled her mind. She wasn't even sure if the Black Organization cared if their agents brought her back dead or alive anymore. Ai couldn't even walk around a corner without thinking that it would be the very last step she ever took. Heck, even the thought of voluntarily stepping outside of her-no, Professor Agasa's house was frightening.

That was reason number two for a reason not to smile.

She was all alone, and only Conan's promise of protecting her kept Ai sane, kept her from trying to take her own life away again. The boy detective wouldn't know it, but those very words he said to Ai when he tried to reassure her would keep Ai from suicide. When she would stand in Professor Agasa's kitchen holding a knife, his words would keep that blade from slitting her.

She'd never admit it, but when night overtook the day as she lay in bed, those words would give her the strength and determination to keep searching for the cure, to keep failing but never giving up, to wake up and face a new day Ai knew she didn't deserve to live.

But even his words…weren't enough for a smile.

Promises were meant to be broken.

Especially those made in haste.

One day when it came down to the choice of saving either Ai or Ran in a life or death situation, she would know how much Conan valued that promise of his. Ai was sure of it. After all, which would he rather choose: his happy old life, or the one who took that happy life of his and flipped it upside down, tearing his chance of ever having a normal life?

That was reason number three for a reason not to smile.

Regardless, Ai wanted to keep her mind in the present. She wanted to keep that forbidden security she didn't deserve. It was selfish. Ai knew that. But she wanted it. She wanted it more than anything in the entire universe. To know that someone would always be there for her, to know that person would never let her fall, to know that someone would offer her comforting embraces even when she'd deny it, to know that someone would accept her despite her ugly and scarred faults, Ai, Shiho, and even Sherry wanted these things more than anything. Ai with her new life wanted it. She needed it. But she would never have it. False hope was all she could cling to.

That was reason number four for a reason not to smile.