Thank you, sakurak504, for beta-read this chapter.

Chapter 7

Kazuha, Heiji, Ran and Conan took a long rest after the tiring day. After breakfast, they did some "quick" shopping; at least, Kazuha and Ran called it that.

"How do you call three hours of shopping short?" Heiji complained.

When they returned to Heiji's house, Kogoro and Amuro talked to Ginshiro and Heizo about the case solved by Kogoro in the restaurant where his Banba Ranta's, a friend, fiancée had turned out to be Banba's twin.

"This is where I met Amuro-kun." Kogoro pointed at his apprentice, who gave a little smile towards Ginshiro and Heizo.

They noticed Kazuha and the others had returned. After a short conversation on how their shopping had gone, Kazuha, Heiji, Conan, and Ran sat at the table with the adults and listened to their conversation.

"So, tell me, Kogoro-san, how did you figure out that Banba-san wasn't the culprit and how did you guess that he and his fiancée were twins?" Heizo asked.

Kogoro stammered, his eyes looked down on the table, and he pressed his lips together. If Kazuha had to guess, it seemed that Kogoro had difficulty with remembering the case. It was weird because much time hadn't passed since it happened. Ran had told her about that case, along with that other case where a woman had shot a man in Kogoro's detective agency and then kidnapped Conan.

"Weird. You don't remember how you solved the case, but you remember everything before that." Amuro wore an innocent face, but his voice held a little bit of mockery. At least, that was what Kazuha noticed. She saw Conan and Heiji exchange quick glances.

"Yeah! It happens to me often. I'm guessing that there's a second me sleeping inside." Kogoro laughed, Ginshiro and Heizo along with him. Heizo explained Kogoro's memory issues as him simply being modest. However, Amuro didn't look too convinced.

He told how the case had been solved. Banba couldn't be a culprit because he still had cream from a chocolate cake on his shoes, which meant that he hadn't left the restaurant and killed his fiancée. The rain would've wash the cream away. And next, Amuro explained the rare case of opposite gender identical twins and how the DNA test result of blood on the fiancée's fake nail had showed that the DNA matched Banba's DNA, except for the gender part.

A smirk twisted onto Amuro's lips as he commented, "It's amazing what DNA tests these days can prove to us. In Banba's case, it proved that the blood didn't belong to him. In other cases where the police have to identify a person, they need to compare two objects to see if there's a match. So, if someone isn't who they say they are, then the DNA test will show the truth."

At the last sentence, Amuro's eyes wandered to Kazuha. They stayed on her just for few seconds, but it was long enough for Kazuha's body to go stiff. Since yesterday, when they all had gone to Heiji's house, Amuro had been sending her curious looks, sometimes even small smiles. It was like he was trying to assure her that everything would be okay.

The longer Kazuha was in Amuro's presence, the more she was convinced that she had met him before. She just couldn't remember where. Sometimes, when she really thought about it, she saw a blurry picture of a boy who could be Amuro. However, she couldn't see him as a child. She hadn't even been born then. It didn't make any sense, just like her flashbacks. They were all short, and Kazuha could hardly see or hear anything in them. There were exceptions, though.

Yesterday, Kazuha had had a problem sleeping. As her thoughts aimlessly wandered in her head, a vision of her watching the girl who died, the one she had seen in her head after she had been stabbed, appeared in her mind.

Kazuha could see herself begging the girl not to die while some man, a scientist most likely, confirmed that the girl had died. Kazuha hadn't been reminded of herself in that vision. She had looked different from how she looked now. However, the girl, even the scientist, looked familiar to Kazuha. She even remembered calling that girl by her name, Riko. And yesterday, before she had fallen asleep, Kazuha had been repeating that name over and over again in her head before she finally remembered the full name, Nakama Riko. Unfortunately, she only remembered the name, and what she had seen in her visions which were beyond weird.

Kazuha couldn't meet Riko. In that vision, she had been similar, if not the same age as she was today, and Kazuha remembered her as the girl who died in a science lab. When she thought of Riko, she felt warmth in her heart. It was a similar feeling to when she thought of Ran. That there was someone who you could talk to and was nice to you. Someone that listened to you and would even help you. Riko had seemed to be that kind of person to Kazuha, a very good friend.

Kazuha wasn't sure if her visions were even true. Unless she had been abducted by aliens and they had erased her memories, it was impossible that those visions happened for real.


Lunch time was coming, and Ran and Kazuha had decided to help Heiji's mom in preparing it. Amuro had joined them as well, as he said that he had some experience from working in the Poirot cafe.

Kazuha and Amuro had the chance to be alone in the kitchen, as Shizuka had to go quickly to the grocery store to buy the chicken to make ramen, and Ran had gone to the restroom.

Kazuha took out the bowls from the cabinet and put them on the counter. She put the fry pan on the stove and a bottle of oil next to it. In the meantime, Amuro filled the pot with water, but didn't boil it.

He looked curiously at Kazuha and said, "When I first saw you I thought I've met you before."

Kazuha looked back at him with curiosity in her eyes as well. Did he also get the weird flashbacks related to her?

"Have you?" she uttered. She leaned against the counter. She was afraid that her legs might fail her.

"I realized why I thought that," Amuro paused and Kazuha grunted inwardly, tightening her hands around the counter. "You remind me of my old friend, Sanda Moriko."

Kazuha's hands fell and her eyes showed even more curiosity than before. That name sounded so familiar to her, yet so strange. It was like she had heard this name somewhere, but she couldn't remember it.

Amuro's lips slightly curled up into a smile as he continued, "We were friends when we were kids. She was a few years older than me. She was timid and shy at first, but she learned to have a good time with me. Unfortunately, one day she disappeared and no one could find her."

Kazuha opened her mouth to say something, but Ran returned from the restroom. She asked what they had been talking about, and Amuro answered that he had been telling Kazuha about his childhood friend. However, he didn't say more, as he stated that they should continue with their preparation to make ramen. Soon, Shizuka returned from the grocery store and joined them as well.

Kazuha stayed quiet the whole time. Ran sometimes had to nudge her to bring her out of her own thoughts. However, it was too hard to focus on ramen while the name Sanda Moriko nagged her.


After lunch, Heizo took Ran, Kogoro, Amuro and Conan to the train station. Kazuha, Heiji, and Shizuka said their goodbyes before they left. While Amuro shook Kazuha's hand, he secretly put a piece of paper into it. He gave her a mysterious smile before he left. Kazuha, gazing at the door, held the paper tightly in her hand.

"What are you holding?" Heiji asked.

"Umm, I'll tell you later." Kazuha wanted to see what was written before she said anything to Heiji. She didn't wish to keep any secrets from him, but first, she had to think over the conversation she had had with Amuro about his friend Moriko.

Later that day, Kazuha was sitting on her bed staring at the piece of paper Amuro had given her. On it, he had written, "If you want to hear more about Sanda Moriko, call me and I gladly answer any questions of yours." She was confused and excited by it. Why would Amuro think that she had any questions regarding his friend? It was true that she had shown interest about his friend during their conversation, so he might have thought that Kazuha would like to hear about the girl.

Part of her wanted to call him because she wished to know about Moriko. Somehow, she felt that the knowledge of that girl would bring her the answers that she was searching for, even though it sounded ridiculous.

She heard knocking on her door and she immediately stuffed the paper into her pocket. It was her dad. She invited him in and he sat on the bed next to his daughter.

"It was the craziest weekend you ever had." Ginshiro guessed.

"Being around Heiji, every day is crazy."

Ginshiro chuckled, which brought a smile onto Kazuha's face.

"I was thinking about your fast-healing abilities. About where you got them from. About how we learned that, and..." He looked down in his lap, his nails pressing hard against them as he bit his lips. "A doctor or a scientist would know the answer, but," he looked into Kazuha's eye, "I can't put you into the risk where people could find out about your abilities and use you and them."

Kazuha hugged her dad and whispered into his ear, "Thank you." However, she had to admit that the mention of a scientist made her stomach turn. It must be because of her flashbacks, where she had seen the labs that gave her anxiety of anything science related. Speaking of which...

"Uhm, dad, I would like to ask you for a favor. It may have connection to what's happening to me."

"Yes, of course. What is it?"

"You know how I mentioned to you that I'm having flashbacks? I had another one yesterday. I saw a girl die in some science lab. Her name was Nakama Riko, and I would like you to check if that girl really existed."

Ginshiro gave her a puzzled look. She couldn't blame her dad. She didn't understand her.

"I mean I don't remember that girl at all, but she actually appeared in my head more than once. Maybe she's more than just my imagination. Maybe she had criminal records and you could check it. If not here, then maybe somewhere else. I'm sure you can do something to gather any information on her."

Ginshiro nodded. "I'll do it. So, how old the girl was in your vision?"

"Between sixteen and eighteen I guess. I'm not sure when she died, or if she existed at all." Kazuha sighed, her eyes filled with sadness. "I don't know why I'm having these flashbacks. What do they even mean? Did they happen for real? Or is it just my imagination kidding around?"

Ginshiro took his daughter's hands into his and said, "You'll figure it out. I'll help you, and I'm sure you can count on Heiji and his dad as well."

The corner of her lips went up. "Thank you. I know I can."

"I will search for the information about Nakama Riko, and I won't stop until I either find something or if she exists."

Kazuha hoped it to be the former. Her dad would find information about Riko, and if she had existed at all, it would prove her flashbacks weren't just her imagination.