A/N: It took me two weeks to get done with this chapter after I made sure that it's ready to be posted. Sorry for the ridiculous delay. And as a make up, here I present you the longest chapter ever. Enjoy!
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Detective Conan
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CHAPTER 10 – The Last Ferry
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Two men were rumbled back and forth in the darkness of the forest. Fists and kicks flew away and warded off immediately before another, showing their almost equal strength and technique. The red-haired man focused heavily on fast and immediate counterattack. The younger one, however, seemed to be calmer and focused on strong defenses. It was until one of them stumbled and crashed against the white van on his knees when they both stopped.
"What happened to you? You've gone soft," the man in black sleeveless shirt touched his bruised right cheek and stood up in front of the downed man. At that point, he's pretty sure that the winner was obvious.
"Shut up!" Ouzo snarled; his temple was cut and bleeding. "You can't beat me, Toshiro! Not like this!"
The older man reached for something on the ground in a blink of an eye and pointed the previously discarded pistol to the unprepared agent. Tora's eyes went wide for a split second while his mind trying to register the situation, but the quick finger of his older brother made him almost impossible to decide an action.
Before he knew it, the explosion had broken through the peaceful night and echoed amongst the trees.
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Vodka was breathing slowly to listen behind the sound of dancing crickets and winds. The path he's been traversing was still as silent as ever, but his instinct told him that he was after her, the traitor of the organization, and her friend, as Gin told him earlier through the earphone. He had tracked them from where they left and he was sure that he's heading to the right course. Excitement flew through his body because he was sensing that they were close. Very close.
As he wandered around in cautious alert, he finally fixed his gaze to the half-broken glass window that belonged to the dull white house at the edge of the forest. There!
The man in black immediately located the door and broke inside. It was a dumped house and he was at the kitchen. On the corner of the room, there he found…
…nothing but dusty floor with fresh track on it.
Despite of his disappointment, he pressed the call button of his phone.
"Aniki— I found new track on one of the houses near the forest— Yes, it's affirmative. They've been here— Wait, what? Are you sure?— Okay then, I'll be heading there right away."
Sighing, he stepped out the empty house and kicked the door open. Then he started to walk into the forest and gone.
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An echoed bang could be heard in between the trees. Two figures stopped at once; their connected hands tensed in a second.
"Did you hear that?" the detective spoke.
"Yes, it's coming from there, apparently," she pointed to the deeper part of the forest, "do you think it's them?"
"Possibly. The van is supposed to be there too…" he trailed off, "Damn, they've gotten way ahead of us…"
The girl backed away slightly and paralyzed. The van was their only possible destination after the bar was burned and it was only few minutes after they had moved away from the abandoned house to go to the forest, as Jodie-sensei instructed, and now they've been outdistanced? Not to mention that every time they headed to some place, there always be somebody who's chasing them. Was there no more hope left?
"What should we do now, Kudo-kun? Should we go back to the festival instead of being here?"
"I was thinking the same thing too, but we don't know the exact number of them and their locations. If they managed to figure out the van, then they should have anticipated the possibility and shut down our access to go back," he analyzed thoughtfully, his free hand massaged his chin, "there has to be some way else…"
"True. There is another way…" came a ghostly voice out of nowhere, making Shinichi and Shiho tensed and jolted in a second. It was scary considering that they're alone in the forest… scary enough to send shiver down their spines. There was somebody else with them! Who is it?
A dark silhouette came into view when both teenagers turned and located the voice from their backs. It was a tall man with black jacket, hands clutching in the pockets, standing casually against some tree. His aura was unidentifiable under the gloomy darkness, but the atmosphere seemed to get heavier than it already was. Maybe it's just too hard to distinguish him with the dark, or maybe because certain scientist and detective were turned pale significantly before his presence. Well, especially the detective.
Because there, few meters in front of them, was standing a man with black knitted hat.
Shinichi gulped down in an instant. His eyes clumsily traced certain strawberry blonde girl and peeked for any sign of—
"You… Moroboshi Dai…" she recalled the man's name and held up the sudden urge to burst out everything she felt. Conan had told her his story; about Akai, about Rye. And by combination of that story and some part of her crystallized memory, she knew it at once when she caught a glimpse of his figure: she recognized him.
Shinichi let go of Shiho's hand and checked her more intently, wanting to tell her jokes or anything regarding this unexpected encounter. He was taken aback, however, after finding that she was practically glaring at their guest.
And Akai was staring back at her.
Shinichi felt as if he's in the middle of upcoming gunfight or something. He felt the need to break in.
"Haibara…" he called her name in hope that he would catch her attention and drop her killing aura.
But the girl didn't move her sight from Akai. Shinichi gulped down and unable to say anything at all. He faced the FBI agent in pleaded eyes, demanding him to stop whatever he was doing and help him sort things out.
"So I see…" there came a hoarse, almost whisper-like voice, "I guess you've figured it out…"
Akai shot Shinichi a stern glance and exhaled under his cloak. The high school boy shivered as a cold wind blew in between them which made their flesh creep. If there was a chance to say apology and explanation, he would make it right away for sure. But he'll shut his mouth this time. It wasn't his place to interfere this private matter between Shiho and the FBI agent anymore. But then again, even though he would gladly step aside and let them had the conversation, they're all in a tight schedule right now! The men in black were there and chasing them!
"I'm here after the boy from detective agency met me and asked about this place, which I instantly sensed that something would happen. And I was right," Akai said. "I never imagined that it would be this terrible, though. I never expect that they still have their scout in this island all this time…"
Neither Shinichi nor Shiho retorted to this. So that's why Akai was there, which Shinichi couldn't decide if it's a bad time or a blessing in disguise from God.
"Listen, Shiho. I understand that you must be really mad at me about everything, about your sister..." Akai couldn't meet her gaze anymore and said in firm but low voice. The fact that he just called her by her first name so casually and the mention of 'her sister' made Shiho tensed a little bit. "…And I really, really want to spend much more time with you to talk things up…"
Shinichi carefully looked at Shiho to see her respond. But there wasn't any.
"…But our time is limited. They could find you two in any seconds if you don't get away from this Island this instance, when you still have the chance. Right now, your safety is your top priority," Akai returned back to her eyes which were less intense than before.
"He's right, Haibara. We need to move," the detective found his voice back and tried his luck. Shiho glared at him in an instant, but the sound of a faint bang echoed in between the trees once again. It was coming from the same direction from the previous explosion, where the van was most likely located. However, the sound was clearer and louder than before. Maybe it was because they're standing in silence for once and really listened. Or maybe the fight had dragged a little closer to them, which was definitely not a good news.
"They're getting close," Akai said firmly. "I suggest you take turn from here and head to the harbor instead. If you move quickly, you'll manage to board the last ferry which will take leave in few minutes."
"Yes, I figured," the detective agreed, glancing his wristwatch to check the time and turned to face the still silent Shiho. She wasn't really glaring at the man now, though. Instead, she looked like she was…tensing? From what?
"I… I sensed them coming…" the strawberry blonde stepped away and clutching behind Shinichi's arm. The teenager boy examined her paled expression and observed the direction from which she was hiding. There, in the dark, he could see the shadow of a big guy with trilby hat.
It was Vodka.
Akai's guard was immediately up and quickly turned to face the approaching figure. His hand pulled up some black material behind his jacket to cover half of his face to hide his identity.
"Go now." Akai's voice was muffled behind his mask. It was an order.
"Okay. Come on, Haibara!" Shinichi grabbed her wrist and pulled her to attempt their escape once again. The girl obeyed and started to run away with him, taking a turn as Akai suggested. The trees rumbled slightly by the wind as they vanished from the sight of certain organization member, which was now distracted by the presence of another man in front of him. Vodka was displeased upon this encounter, especially when he was so close with his target now. His armed hand pointed forward to get rid of this unwanted obstacle for good.
But the FBI agent was too fast and rushed forward before the man was even able to pull the trigger.
"What the—"
The big guy fell hard with a loud thud and a growl; his pistol was slipped from his hand and lied somewhere on the ground. Akai jumped back up and took a step away to give them safe distance. His eyes carefully fixed to Vodka until the downed figure jerked up and swung a good punch to payback. This rush attack was easily dodged by the taller man, so Vodka was disoriented for a split second. Akai used this chance to score an uppercut that nicely hit his opponent's jaw.
"Aargh, goddammit!" Vodka cried out in pain, finding himself on his knees once again. His hand touched his painful chin to check for any sign of broken bone while his eyes fixing to the standing figure in front of him. Akai was breathing hard in his silent defense position, still examining the big guy and searched for any possible counter-attack moves. When Vodka was finally calmed down, he took the time to observe this stranger's face, but failed when he realized that he was wearing a mask. Vodka then took a notice of his pose, a black knitted hat he was wearing, and his appearance.
Vodka held his breath in disbelief, this stranger was too familiar.
Slowly, the shorter guy lifted himself up and grabbed something from the ground and hid a handful of dry soil behind his back. He then suddenly charged forward with his available fist, forcing the FBI agent to block the punch aside and lifted his knee to defend, but Vodka was cunning. He threw a good amount of dirt to Akai's face before he got the chance to score another hit. The taller guy shut his eyes close just in time though, so the soil wasn't be able to injure his vision. This short second was an advantage to Vodka, giving him time to flow a strong jab to Akai's abdomen. The man couldn't get away in time and got hit pretty badly in his stomach. When he bent over in reflex to endure the pain, Vodka hit him down with his elbow, making the FBI agent fell on the ground in an instant.
Vodka smirked in his success before Akai grabbed his ankle out of nowhere and forcefully pulled the big guy until he's also fell on his back, leaving a pretty hurt skull and cracked shoulder. Damn, this guy was tough. This fight couldn't go on forever, Vodka decided, or they will lose their target which had already gone a while ago. He had to contact Gin.
He intended to get his cellphone while he still could, but Akai was already up and flew his leg toward him. The kick successfully hit Vodka's arm, preventing his reach to his pocket and making him cursed audibly in his frantic breath. The raging Vodka then swiftly slid his legs to Akai's ground, effectively hitting him and forced him to fell on his back due to lack of balance support. Vodka quickly pressed his body against the downed man and locked his arm with his elbow and another arm under his chest. Akai was unable to move and could only glare at his enemy.
The guy on the top finally reached his cellphone and pressed few buttons. He shot Akai a playful smirk when a voice from his earphone responded.
"Aniki, I'm sorry for the late report. But there is a cockroach blocking my way—" he felt Akai was moving slightly but his arm moved faster to lock him again, "—but I could tell that they intend to reach the harbor, which I believe it's the way you've been heading? I saw them rushing to that direction—"
Gin hung up and Vodka exhaled. He stared at his opponent's pierce eyes behind his ever-present sunglasses and smiled in victory.
"—And now, I shall finish you first," he chuckled and Akai struggled once again, only to be failed. "But before that, I'd like to take off that damn thing so I can see your face properly as I kill you…"
Chuckling, Vodka carefully reached for Akai's mask and his smile grew even wilder.
Akai waited under his breath for a perfect time to strike.
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"H-have we—lost them already?" the strawberry blonde tried to catch her breath, hand still holding with his in their run.
"Yeah, just—a little bit more," he encouraged her and noticed a gleaming light from the distance, "Look! There it is!"
Shiho looked at the harbor too, which was still so far in her view. There, they could see the last ferry preparing to leave. But other than that, there's not much people in the harbor and the neighborhood, because it's very unlikely people would want to miss Shizuma's signature show, so the harbor wasn't as crowded as they first arrived.
"Do you think— we could make it—?"
"Don't know yet," Shinichi breathed and glanced at his watch, which was hard to see because he was running, "let's just— let's just keep going, okay?"
"Y-yeah," she obeyed and tried to keep up with him. She couldn't give up now, could she? They're so close to their destination after all. They had already got off the forest and then they hit a solid ground that led to the harbor. They only had to pass through this last block of houses and they'd make it. Shinichi glanced at the barren street, amazed at how empty the neighborhood was. But it wasn't the perfect time to stroll, he had to stay focused. He tightened his hold to Shiho's hand and fixed his gaze to the road. It's getting closer. They're getting closer to the—
"Shit…"
Shinichi stopped his run abruptly, followed by a shocked Shiho beside him. She was panting so heavily that she almost couldn't voice up her protest.
Oh, God. What now? She groaned inwardly in frustration. What stopped us this time?
She looked up her head to see the direction where Shinichi's been staring. In terror, she noted, from his hardened expression and wide opened eyes. But as much as she wondered why, the darkness couldn't really help her see clearly in this deserted neighborhood. The lightning wasn't that good anyway, and she was pretty sure that there was nothing—or nobody—was blocking their way. So why did Shinichi stop?
As she was about to ask for the countless times that night about what's going on, she noticed a dark figure from slightly afar, stepped from one of the houses at ease. The shadow was slowly emerging from the dark and begun to form in front of them. And at once, Shiho sensed that stinging fear stabbed somewhere in her heart. It was like an instant radar or something which she always felt when one of them was around. It usually went like a cold and sharp wind smeared into your chest, leaving an anxious string of sensation for a brief moment. But this time, the radar was different. It didn't last as much as the previous one did. Rather, it was dropped in your heart out of nowhere in one breath and exploded; threatening to cut off your heart out if you're unprepared and unfamiliar with this thing.
It happened all the time when she sensed Gin.
Shiho was petrified, but Shinichi knew better that they had to move now.
"Run!" he shouted to her, as if intending to wake her from her numbness. The strawberry blonde snapped back and for a second, she couldn't register as to what she should do. The figure was approaching. He was coming to them now. And he was smiling wide with his evil eyes at her, whispering coldly.
Long time no see… He had said in between his vicious grin. Sherry…
"Shit!" the detective spat out and held her hand on his own once again, then turned around to begin again the dash to save their life. She obliged, still dazed in reality of meeting her greatest fear just when they're only few steps away from their last hope, which was now already gone. The ferry was starting to cruise back to the main land at that very second they turned away from the harbor, and she was hundred percent sure this time they had no escape.
But that optimism in that detective's face hadn't gone yet. Though he's also tired as much as she was, there was always a spark of assurance that lied behind those firm eyes. The spark which always gave power to believe that there was still a way to get through this, and that they could still make it. Together, they'll make it! And if he still trusted her in this, she would trust him too in return.
"What now, Tantei-kun? The last ferry's gone," she calmed her voice and cleared her mind. She had to help him in this if she really wanted to survive.
Shinichi didn't answer right away and glanced to the harbor once again. True, the last ferry's cruising smoothly on the dark green water and there's no way that they'd reach it now. So he had to think of the other options they had before the killer psychopath behind them catching up.
And damn right, he was catching up.
"Where are you going, Sherry?" they heard Gin shouted in his hoarse voice behind their backs, who apparently was on the run too to go after them.
Shiho's face darkened and slightly jolted. She wanted to look back to see how close Gin was, but Shinichi's firm grasp of her hand prevented her by pulling her a little to get her attention.
"Don't look back!" he commanded, "just keep going!"
"Okay," she managed and stay focused with the little strength she had. Shinichi kicked a bunch of bushes in his way when, once again, they entered the dark forest near the sea. So now, there's not much options remained and they broke down in two ways. They could either going back to where they came from (which was definitely a suicide) or going deeper to traverse the unknown part of the forest ahead and tried their luck. Well, that's the normal options, at least. The crazy option was, and thank God there was still one crazy option left, was running through one of the twin peninsula cliff near the sea where would end up in a dead end cliff, so they could jump off the land and…
Wait. That's it!
"Kudo-kun, are we on the right track?" Shiho snapped him back from his imagination which still lingered in his smirking face, the one you'll find when the detective was dawned upon a realization of solving some cases or just wanted to look cool. "We're heading to the sea—"
"I know, I have some plan," he announced, leaving Shiho's face in wonder. "Hear me out."
Gin was speeding up furiously now; he was only twenty meters away or so from the two teenagers. Slowly, a demon-like grin was forming to his face, knowing that his prey was cornered at last. This time, there was no way she could escape. Even if there's a possibility that she'll jump off to the sea with her friend, he'd still going to enjoy shooting them from the top while they're struggling to swim. And he was so tempted to the idea that he pulled out his gun from his pocket and stated to aim to the running figure in front of him. It's the perfect time to start the fun, wasn't it?
"What? Are you out of your mind?" Shiho snapped. Shinichi had told her the plan, and they were only few seconds away from attempting it.
"Don't worry. I've seen the cliff– when we got here– And I'm sure, it's– within our range," he explained in short breath and there's no hint of doubt in his eyes.
There was a sudden muffled explosion hitting the tree just beside the detective; the bullet successfully crush the branch and it fell in rustling voice, making the two almost jump in shock.
"Damn!" Shinichi gritted his teeth. "He starts shooting!"
"There's no way you could get away from me this time, Sherry!" Gin's voice added the horror from behind. For a moment Shiho felt the stinging pain again in her heart and she winced.
"Haibara, don't listen to him. We can do this," Shinichi said, applying a little pressure to her hand and squeezed it. "Trust me?"
Shiho blinked at those blue confident orbs before nodded.
"Yeah, I trust you."
"Good. Then I'll start," he said and dug something in his pocket. It's the tiny speaker which he usually planted behind the sleeping Kogorou's collar, so his voice would transmit from his bow tie to assist the fake detective. Then, he tossed the little thing somewhere in the area while keep on running.
"What was that?"
"We need something to distract him a little."
"But we're so close, it would be useless to distract him now," Shiho pointed out. The detective only smirked while putting off his new glasses with his free hand.
"Exactly," he grinned.
With one quick swing, he threw the glasses behind him after clicking some button in the frame. Shiho's heartbeat grew faster; her eyes clenched shut in anticipation. Gin saw this movement. For a brief second, the grin in his face was gone and replaced with uncertainty. He slowed down his steps by instinct just before the glasses started to glow.
And it exploded.
The sudden loud sound and the wave were enough to throw anyone nearby away, but Shinichi did his best to hold them in balance and keep on moving. In few seconds, they were at the end of the cliff and finally had to make the final attempt.
"Now!" he commanded, and they both kicked their toes to jump from the cliff—
—to land on the roof of the last ferry when it's passing by the peninsula before completely leaving the island, just as Shinichi had planned.
The maneuver was smooth during, but painful at the end. They both crashed hard on their backs with cracking bones and limb. Shinichi hit the deck first, then Shiho was landed on his right. Once he's awareness was back, he extended an arm to check on the girl, his palms touching her face and inspected for any injuries. Fortunately, there was none.
And then, for the first time in their long run, they're sure that they had finally made it.
Together.
Gin's knocked down hard and his body surrendered after tossed twenty feet off the ground. He fell on his back when the fire started burning the trees and bushes in front of him, but it didn't took long for him to gain consciousness. His legs stood up almost abruptly, his eyes flashed furious glare, and his armed hand was sweating under his tight hold of the gun. Though he physically seemed to recover pretty fast from the shock, his mind was completely blown by the fact that he had just lost his particular prey right under his nose. Once again.
But he smirked. He never expected all of this, true. But he wouldn't expect himself to give up so easily, right? They must've been still nearby, and he still could try to pursue them, 'till death, if necessary. The silver-haired man then gained his composure and was about to rush through the fire when he heard faint yelling from behind his back.
"Gather around, people! I saw the bad guy running there! He just fired up a bomb or something! Call the main land police right away!"
Oh, bummer. That must be the villagers, Gin thought. It looked like he had to deal with them first. But how? Killing the approaching mob one by one in the spot? He'd be more than happy to do it for sure, if the place and situation were proper and suitable to do so. But he was on stranger's land right now, with no back up and no reinforcement whatsoever from his fellow organization members. This trip was never been planned anyway. It came up from a random call from his scout, who suddenly reported that his long lost enemy was found again. So he did what he should do: to rush immediately to this island without notify one single person from the org, because the chain of command wouldn't allow him to get there just like that (except if he were Vermouth, who would always be forgiven even if she dishonored the rules).
Gin lowered his body and hid it behind a tree, eyes cautiously inspecting the darkness where the voice came from. He had to handle it with cool head and regain the control, before things get worse and he ended up get caught if he's careless. He wouldn't want that to happen, would he?
Silently and patiently, with the background sound of cracking fire behind him, he waited for the villager to come.
"There! I see the fire! Come here, people, quick!"
He pulled the hammer of his pistol and narrowed his eyes for better outlook. But he hadn't caught anybody—or anything— in view.
"Don't you run away! We'll hand you to the police!"
He sensed something in that voice. Something strange.
"We'll find you!"
His wide pupils soon normalized when he realized something; something that tickled the center of his brain and almost stopped his frantic heartbeat.
It was a decoy.
If he would say it loud, Gin was cursing his frustration out of his breath. With one swift move, he turned around to rush to the fire without further hesitation, and desperately looked for the end of the cliff. The fake voice still could be heard somewhere, but he didn't care. He needed to find her. He had to find her. But when he arrived at the end of the path, Gin found nothing but disappearing ferry cruised through the dark water, clearly out of his reach.
"Shit."
He had lost her again.
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"Let's go, people! We're close!" Shinichi played his voice over Conan's voice-changing bow tie with Shiho on his side. They were still on their previous position: he's on his back on the deck and she was just lying there beside him. "Be careful! He got a gun— Crack— Oh, crap."
"Wait, what was that?" she tensed up for a second.
"I think he'd found the speaker," he tried his best to suppress a laughter, "and crushed it hard."
"That must've pissed him off," Shiho commented on a light giggle, suddenly found the situation very amusing. "And I honestly never expect that Hakase's new glasses could actually explode."
"Tell me about it. I thought he was making up the Mission Impossible part," he exhaled and relaxed his over-tensed shoulders and limbs. His chest fell up and down in regular breathing after for some time, and Shiho's eyes unintentionally followed them. The detective caught her gaze and bent to search her eyes which, in return, looked up and saw his. This sight of matching blue pair of orbs brought sparkles inside his heart, then it smeared through his veins and through his pores, reminding him of the warmth of the sunshine. He instantly smiled at that feeling and made no effort to hide his slight blush that begun to form at the corner of his cheeks, because there was no harm to let certain girl know that he was happy about themselves.
"We've made it," he grinned, eyes never broke with hers.
"Yeah," she let out a smile and didn't move either, "we've made it."
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Ouzo was lying on the forest ground with uneven breathing, his jacket was tossed somewhere and there were numerous bruises in his body. A cold sweat dropped from his temple due to the unbearable pain on his legs which smearing from his bones, making him unable to use them. He stared flat at the sky beyond the trees as if in search for something to distract the pain, but it didn't seem to work, so he closed his eyes shut. There, instead of finding some little piece, the flash of memory took over.
"What happened to you? You've gone soft."
He recalled a younger man, once he knew as a little brother, had knocked him down.
"Shut up! You can't beat me, Toshiro! Not like this!"
He remembered had snapped back at him and grabbed a nearby pistol, which he had spotted at some time during their fight. And he remembered shooting the man in front of him, only to be dodged at the last second so that it could only cut his cheek. Then Tora had moved fast to kick him hard in the arm, but Ouzo had gained his strength back and moved his leg to slide his opponent from behind until he crashed on him. He remembered swinging his arm to take the chance to blow a score, but the other man already wrestled him to fight the control over the weapon. He had responded quickly by defending his possession before something from his legs cracked audibly and he had let out painful groan.
He remembered couldn't move lower part of his body when the younger man stood up once again, pointing the weapon to his head.
"This ends now," his panting voice was still fresh in his mind, and he had been almost sure that he was about to shoot when he pulled the trigger. Ouzo had shut his eyes at that moment, but the pain of bullet shot he had anticipated never came because the explosion seemed to head somewhere else. Hesitantly, his eyes had opened to see that Tora was pointing the gun to his back and the bullet had been shot through some space, or bushes, behind him.
"Why didn't you finish me? It's what you always wanted, isn't it?"
The man who had spared his life looked quiet for a moment before lifting his head to meet his gaze again.
"I'm still unable forget about mother and father, about my little sister, and about everything you had done to them. I even can still hear their screaming for help in my dream when you brutally slew them in front of my eyes…" his voice had trembled slightly and he regained his composure, "but I'm not you. And I will never become one of your kind. I'm not a murderer."
The downed man had not broken his gaze to his brother and still challenged him, challenged his luck.
"So now you're going to leave me here to die?"
"Close enough." He had seen him smirked in the dark. "I'll let somebody else do it for me."
He then had kept his gun aside, and checked something on the van for a brief moment before leaving it just like that in the forest with the red-haired man and his misery. Ouzo's nape shivered upon hearing his brother's last words about somebody else killing him, which he knew very well who, why and when. And suddenly he lost the interest to everything else in the world and something strange occurred in his head, because his mind couldn't work properly when he's been sentenced to death in the count of minutes.
The time seemed to flow heavier and faster at the same time. He was so overwhelmed by a struggle in his mind that he didn't hear somebody was coming. When his eyes flickered open, he was in that position again where someone aimed to his head with a lot of fury on his eyes. Gin's eyes.
"You had failed," Gin's hoarse voice was mixed with anger and pretty much everything else. Ouzo could only return the glare with nonchalant look while maintaining his calm.
"I see you had, too," he said, noticing that his superior had come back empty-handed. The silver-haired man growled at this respond but didn't take the bait.
"Look, I can finish you off smoothly, or painfully. It's your choice and it seemed that it's been decided," he bent and supported himself with his toes to inch closer; gun's still pointing at his man. "But I need you to be useful for the last time."
The red-haired man only inspected Gin, which was throwing his attention to the empty white van near them before turning back to him again.
"Who's behind this?" Gin demanded with threatening voice. Ouzo knew well what he meant, but he shook his head.
"I don't know. Didn't recognize any or their faces," he lied.
"Any useful information you can offer me then?"
"I'm afraid not."
"Hmm," Gin stood up immediately and decided that it's going to be a waste of time questioning his useless subordinate. "You're so eager to die already. Fine."
Ouzo tensed at his movement; he saw his death more clearly now. He gulped down and exhaled to prepare himself, but he was surprised when Gin kept his gun under his cloak and took out something else from there. His eyes narrowed and he could see a red-white capsule on his hand. He had never seen it before, although he had heard that the org had some weird style of killing people lately by using some pills. But what was it, exactly? Was it a poison? Or was it something worse?
When Gin lowered his body to feed him the pill, he snapped. "What is that?"
"It's your ticket to hell," Gin responded nonchalantly, "just shut up and drink."
"What if I don't want to?" he was sweating now, hard. He'd rather die by a bullet than with some strange pill of God knows what. He struggled when Gin locked his both hands by a pressure from his legs and one arm, while the other was holding the capsule and was only two inches away from his mouth.
"I'll make you."
And with that, he pushed the pill inside and locked Ouzo's jaw as tight as he could, making sure he had no chance to spit it out, and watching him suffer before he had gone completely.
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The ferry moved gently, almost soundlessly, and they're still there: gazing at the unusually bright stars above them. They just lied side-by-side at the previous spot and enjoyed the view as the ferry seemed to take its time and moved so slowly that they forgot they're cruising sometimes. None of them said a word to ruin this little peacefulness after long shenanigans they've been through. They hear nothing but the sound of water beneath the ship and their even breathing. Shinichi could swear that he'd willing to live forever there, just like that, where they could be themselves and feel save at the same time.
Shinichi was the first to break the silence when he decided that it's the most perfect time to start.
"Hey," he had said without turning his gaze to her, then he just stopped there as if checking if she's still awake or something.
"Mm," she murmured in respond without looking up to him also.
"You okay?"
"Yeah, pretty much."
"'Pretty much?' You don't sound so sure," he commented and turned his head to examine her at last, only he could manage to look at delicate strands of strawberry blonde.
"After all that happened tonight, I don't know…" she kept her gaze up above, "I mean, I'm glad that we both survived the Island. I do. None of us were harmed. You were not harmed. And I'm truly grateful for that."
Shinichi kept silent and waited without complain, encouraging her to continue.
"But somebody had died tonight. Andrew-san, I mean. And I keep on wondering…" she trailed off, "maybe if I never stepped on his bar, he would've still alive."
The detective was dead silent at that moment, he hated every time she came to that conclusion. He knew by experience that she had always felt like that whenever people died or hurt because of them, especially when it's involving her being the traitor of the org. But he couldn't just judge her right away, so he had to think of something else to fix that.
"Or maybe…" the detective said after a brief pause and smiled, "If I never step on this island, none of this would've happened."
"What do you mean?" she lifted her head and looked at him.
"You know of my curse, right?" he started to look away again, but she just stared still at him in confusion. "Whenever I go to some place, there seemed to be random people dying…"
She seriously almost burst out of laughter upon this innocent confession of detective which apparently had no problem of the idea that he attracted death of other 'random people', like he said.
"Oh, just admit that you're enjoying it," she chuckled under her breath and relaxed a bit, "somewhere in that brain of yours, you actually expect that something would happen. Not to mention that you'll always solve them at the end anyway."
"Well, I couldn't help it: people die anytime. But the least that I could do was to do my best to find the culprit by bringing everything I've got. That's the best I could do at the present time to fight for the future, because however I wanted it too, nobody could alter the past."
This time, it was Shiho who kept silent and looked away back to the stars, but her mind wasn't focusing on those bright dots in the sky anymore. The detective only smiled at the figure beside him and hoped that it would do her some good, or at least, be a good start.
So he returned to gaze to the other silent company up there which could only blink at him playfully which suddenly turned to be brighter than usual from one side of the horizon, followed with a faint cracking sound from the direction of the island behind the ship. He blinked at the sight before realizing that the main show was on. The girl beside him was already half the way from getting up and she clung at the metal bars on the deck to get better view of the fireworks. He quickly stood up also and found one fantastic scenery of red, blue, and pretty much every color in chains above the island, making the sky glow in illuminating hue which was perfect in the dark black midnight.
The fireworks was beautiful.
He slowly followed Shiho clinging to the metal bars and simply enjoyed the wonderful attraction. His eyes unknowingly threw a glance at the strawberry blonde that seemed to be mesmerized at the moment. Well, at least she did enjoy something from their journey, right?
"I'm sorry," he said to her when silvery wheels of flames started to glow in the sky. The girl looked genuinely taken aback before turning her head at him, searching his eyes.
"For what?"
"I'm sorry that you couldn't get your present."
The girl blinked for a moment before exhaling and curved her lips.
"It's okay, I guess. We didn't expect that the present was already long gone before we know it," she decided when a series of orange trail of fire danced in between the still silver sky, "anyway, I think I already found my present."
"What is it?" he leaned on his elbow to turn the attention fully at her.
"For me being here, where Okaa-san and Onee-chan had been, to feel like I've traversed back in time to stand in their shoes and experience their journey… For me being here and witnessing the most beautiful sky ever. And most of all, for you being here and helping me get through all this, and everything else. For me, that's enough for a present," she hid her blush in her cheeks before mustering up her courage to look him at the eye. "So thank you, Kudo-kun, for being here with me."
The detective felt a stir on his stomach at the sight of colorful mix of every light on her face, or at how delicate her lips slipped the words, or maybe it's at how sweet her voice was, he didn't know. All he knew that there was some urge to hold that smooth hair in his hand and held her closer so that she knew how thankful he was too for knowing that they could still together despite all of the things. So he let his fingers run through the tip of her hair, waited a bit longer to see if she's okay with it, before cupping her burning cheek and brought himself closer.
"No, I thank you," he breathed to her mouth before shut himself to claim her expectant lips. He heard a small gasp escaped her before he felt she was leaning on his touch that gently rested at her neck. The stirring feeling had turned to be a nice kind of turmoil inside in his guts when a fog suddenly blocked his senses for a moment. The feeling of smooth skin under his palm, the soft bites of her teeth, and a foreign taste of her mouth: It was overwhelming. He decided that he needed more of her so badly, but his lungs betrayed him. It was not long before they both parted for air and came back to reality.
When they clearly saw each other again, he couldn't make up any words to explain about what had just happened. But she eventually smirked—the pleasant kind of smirk— before turning her head away and broke the eye contact.
"Kudo-kun, I think someone's yelling at us."
"Huh?"
"Down there. Don't you hear anything?"
Shinichi followed her line of sight to somewhere way below the deck and behind the ferry. There, he noticed a motorboat was floating beside the giant ferry with a person, or a woman, driving it. Wait, since when he heard any sign of motorboat before?
"Hey, you hear me now, Cool Kid?" she yelled from the driver seat while waving her hand to get their attention, "I don't mean to interrupt, but I think it's time to go. Grab that rope and get down here, will you?"
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TO BE CONTINUED
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A/N: Aaah, I think some kind of big burden had been lifted from my shoulders by finishing this chapter and the next one should be easier, so make sure you don't miss it, guys! There's gonna be a lot to explain O_O
And don't forget to poke that Review link and say something. You know you want to ^^