A New Beginning?
Chapter 3
Hakuba lead Kaito down a short, dark corridor that led down from the toilet to a small office. He switched the light on and Kaito could see that on one wall there was a flatscreen television, the complete Sherlock Holmes collection on a bookshelf. At the other end of the room there was a circular table with two uncomfortable looking chairs. Hakuba walked in and opened a cupboard beneath the table. Kaito stretched out his cramped arms and took a seat at the table. His excitement at finding out about Aoko's past had eradicated his fatigue completely.
After some mysterious rummaging around Hakuba produced a thick file and slammed it down on the table. He opened it to take out a disk that had been sealed in a clear plastic wallet.
"Before you read it I think you should watch this video first," Hakuba said as he crossed over to the television and slotted the disk in and turned it on.
The video started with Aoko's face leaning in to the camera lens. The timestamp on the video read December 2010. Kaito only just recognised that the girl was Aoko as her face was browner, her eyes were alive and she was smiling brightly as if she didn't have a care in the world. He couldn't help but think that she was actually quite pretty when she smiled properly and that he wouldn't have minded knowing her then 2 years ago.
Hakuba paused the video.
"What happened to her?" Kaito whispered.
The detective unclipped a photo from the file and passed it to him. The photo was of a male teenager with a sullen face and short silvery blonde hair with a fringe that covered most of his face. In the photo the man was smoking a cigarette and scowling and was wearing a school uniform
"She met a boy… and they started going out. Eventually after they left school they moved in together," Hakuba explained regretfully. "Then things turned nasty."
He pressed play.
The Aoko on screen cleared her throat self consciously and beamed at the camera. Kaito felt a pang and saddened at the contrast to the Aoko he had met today.
"Hello." She turned around and smiled at someone out of shot before turning back to the camera. "We've just moved into our new apartment and I thought we should make a video to commemorate it."
She went briefly out of shot before returning with a man who Kaito immediately recognised. Now that the fringe was out of the way slightly and the silvery blonde hair was longer he knew who it was.
"Gin," he spat.
Hakuba stopped the video and took the disk out. "Yes, that is the Organisation member known as "Gin". Quite soon after this video was short he was recruited by the Organisation."
"Did she know?"
"She knew something had changed about him, but she did not know until late one night he came back with a shot wound and she found a gun in his pocket. She nursed him and she accidently read a text message intended for him from the Organisation. That is when she found out," Hakuba said. "After that that he would not let her leave the house to see her friends or go anywhere and with a cocktail of drugs he broke her down mentally."
"Poor girl," Kaito sympathised.
Now he didn't really mind Aoko's attitude- he couldn't blame her. To be betrayed like that by someone that you loved and kept a prisoner in your own home without any human contact aside from your criminal boyfriend was despicable. It was no wonder that she seemed reluctant to make a connection with anyone.
"How did you come across her?"
"One day, after a particularly bad argument with her boyfriend who hit her, she tried to commit suicide by throwing herself off the balcony when he left the apartment. She was stopped just in time by a neighbour and was taken to the hospital as her head was bleeding from where she had been hit earlier," Hakuba explained. "The doctor that examined her deduced that she had been a victim of domestic violence and reported it to the Police."
"What happened then?"
"The Police went to the apartment to arrest Gin; instead they found the apartment completely empty of anything. The case was given to my branch and that is why she is here with us now."
"For protection?" Kaito guessed.
"We have surmised from that fact that she is still alive despite knowing about the Organisation that Gin was keeping her knowledge a secret or that they were relying on the drugs to affect her memory. The Organisation does not like to have any witnesses capable of making testimonies against them."
Recalling the unknown fate of Ran Mori and his own experience with the Organisation, Kaito shuddered, suddenly cold despite the heating in the room. Aoko was lucky to be still alive, but as a consequence of her past and experience she was no longer all there mentally.
"Is there any chance that she will be able to return to her normal self?" he asked hesitantly, almost afraid of the answer.
Hakuba shrugged. "She has undergone therapy with some success; she was able to tell us what happened to her quite well. But it was eventually decided that the past should not be dredged up anymore once she had explained her circumstances and that her future is what matters now. There is a chance that she will be able to recover in different and peaceful surroundings and you..." he nodded pointedly at Kaito was mystified.
"Me?" He hadn't thought that he had or would be able to make a connection with her since she had closed herself off from any human contact."
"Yes, she is slightly different to how she was when I first met her last month," he smirked at Kaito's sceptical face. "When you were sleeping earlier she looked over at you and flushed slightly."
As if in return Kaito flushed red too. It seemed like Aoko didn't mind him as much as he thought she did. He had made some progress with her already without even realising it.
"What is Gin doing now? Do you know?"
"Quite well. Apparently he is after a young female scientist who works in the Organisation," Hakuba informed Kaito, well aware that he was giving out highly sensitive information.
"So he is over Nakamori-san?"
There was a sound of running feet outside the door which made Kaito jump in his seat. Aoko must have not been really asleep and had been listening outside the door the entire time and had heard everything.
Hakuba nodded to himself. "I knew it."
"She was outside the door all along?" Kaito gasped. "And you didn't give me any sort of hint. I wouldn't have said some of the things that I said if I had known she was there."
Hakuba shrugged uncaringly. "I wanted to hear her reaction. Judging from it I think she should be able to make some sort of recovery now that she knows that Gin has no interest in her anymore. Besides she was smart enough to know you were up to something and follow you. Yes, there is hope. Now the question is, are you capable of making a recovery?"
He stood up, locked the file back in the cupboard and turned out the light, leaving Kaito alone in the dark to think about his own past which was what gave him horrific nightmares and restless sleep. His father's death, his discovery of his father's criminal alter ego, the night he became Kaito Kid to lure Them out, the ensuing shootout and his mother being burnt alive when his house was set alight her screams defeated by the roaring flames whilst he was forced to watch, unable to help her.
His experience, like Aoko's had left him with some physical, but mostly mental scars that he never thought he would be able to recover from.
He told himself that if Aoko- the human equivalent of a brick wall, was capable of making a recovery, then he definitely was. He would explain his story to her after they had landed, then they could both get on with it, trying to lead a normal life. The only trouble was that they still had the Organisation on their tails.
For the first time in 6 months Kaito slept 7 hours of unbroken sleep with his head resting on the hard table. He only had one dream, a happy dream of a memory that he had of meeting a little girl when he was younger under a clock tower. He had felt sorry for her and had conjured up a rose to put a smile on her face. The girl reminded him a little of Aoko who had shown some emotion when he had given her a rose. Maybe he could entertain her sometime with some of his old magic tricks.
Kaito was awoken sharply by someone shaking him. Cracking open a heavy eyelid he found Aoko standing over him holding a steaming china teacup.
"Would you like some tea, Kuroba-san?"
Kaito blinked in surprise, sat up realising that as a result of his awkward sleeping position he had a crick in his neck. He accepted the offered teacup and looked around him. The office like room was now light, he guessed that they were quite close to their destination as the sun was now shining. He sipped the tea thoughtfully, noting that the natural light emphasised the brown highlights in Aoko's dark hair.
"You don't need to be so formal with me, you can call me Kaito," he suggested on the spur of the moment. "After all I'm your husband, but when we're in public you will have to call me Shinichi. Or to simplify matters you could just call me "dear"."
A strange look appeared on Aoko's face. It looked as if she wanted to laugh, but couldn't remember how to. She settled for a small smile.
"If I must, Kaito."
"I do insist, Aoko."
