"Shiho... my sister. Keep her happy."
—Miyano Akemi
Conan sat in his chair, sipping his coffee. Somehow, he had made it through half the day without losing his focus. But then, there was that darkness. The spirit of the past, the terror, the looming threats that overhung his head threatening to kill him and his loved ones at a moment's notice. But as long as he focused, he soon realized, he could at least ward it off. But now there was nothing. There was nothing written on the blackboard. There were no teachers to talk about subjects that he had known literally from memory (damn you first-grade math literally teaching 2 x 2=4).
He sighed. Sipping his black coffee, he looked about.
"Haiiiiiiizzzzzzzzzz", he said exhausted.
Shaking his head, he turned to the book he'd been reading.
Typical American. he mused.
"Excuse me, do you have a minute?"
Conan immediately placed his hand next to his Smith & Wesson. It took literally all of his self-control not to draw the weapon and fire, as he scanned the person behind him. He recognized her as his classmate, Yoshida Ayumi.
"Sure. What?" he asked coldly.
"You wanna go out with us, Conan-kun?"
Conan shook his head.
"No point. Snipers and such."
"Snipers?"
"Pun intended," he said, knowing all too well that Ayumi would pepper him with requests until he accepted.
But if anyone goes as far as to threaten her, I'll draw.
He knew he was taking no chances, and therefore, he kept his hand close to his revolver the whole time.
As he went out, he continuously scanned the area for familiar faces. He saw none. But he knew that probably those assassins were under camouflage.
Vermouth could actually freaking cloak, after all.
Keeping his hand close to his sidearm, he kept himself in a (seemingly) group formation, as it was more like an escort formation.
...
Ever since she started school at Teitan Elementary Ayumi had never met someone as queer as Conan-kun, the type of person who was unwilling to go anywhere and yet seemed quite content to sit back to himself and immerse himself into books, novels, and well...
But he was indeed strange.
Kind off...
When she had asked him out, he had whirled around with such speed and practiced ease that she felt like he had... well.
But then there was his hand, which he kept close to his side the whole time.
Was it a personal object he treasured? she thought.
Or...
As they walked the streets of Tokyo (it was evening), Ayumi noticed that Conan didn't seem to enjoy the walk, but rather, focused on scanning people's faces for a split second, hand tense, like he expected something, or rather, someone, to come out and kill them all at a moment's notice.
Kind of strange.
But every time she asked, she just got an off-worded response, as if it was something he didn't want to talk about.
As if it was a painful event in his life...
But what caught her attention the most was his behavior towards strangers.
He always scanned their faces, hand close to his pocket as his eyes showed obvious suspicion.
And he said "snipers" when I asked him out.
Or...
She froze.
So was it that someone was stalking him?
As they walked towards home, Conan nodded.
"My home's in the other direction. Let's part for now."
Ayumi didn't protest. She felt tired. Dead tired. She needed time to process all this.
"Yeah. It's about dinnertime."
The walk left Ayumi with more questions then answers.
Who was he?
Why did he have that altitude towards strangers?
And most importantly, who was stalking him?
And was it a dangerous enough matter that he always went about armed?
And if so, then who were they?
Those thoughts wandered throughout her head as she opened the door on her home.
—
The silence of the night was broken by sniffing.
That's right.
Sniffing.
Ai sat on her bed, staring down at a photograph of her and her sister. Tears dropped down freely from her eyes as she held the piece of laminated paper in her hands, which showed her with her sister in that cafe so long ago.
So long ago...
...
Three years prior...
"So, when will you go on a date with him?"
"Excuse me?"
"Just see your face, redder then a car's taillight. He is your boyfriend, correct?"
Akemi blushed deeper.
"C'mon, he is! Right?" Shiho continued to tease.
Akemi blushed deeper.
"Just come on! Right?"
Akemi then decided that moment to go on the counteroffensive.
"You have a crush."
Shiho panicked immediately.
"How did you know?"
"Forgot my bag at the station. He found it, and we struck up a conversation. Told me all about you. Like, how good she is, pretty, brown hair and all... you get the idea."
...
Present day
Tears continued to drip from Ai's eyes to the laminated photo she held in her hand.
Sister... where are you?
She sat there crying softly for the next few minutes.
Sister...
A/N:
So Ai is having some like emotional issues, and Conan is going about armed. So, who actually are they?
Well...
There are a couple of things which I'll like to say.
I've been writing this in synch with my other story "Das Sonne, Die Nacht", and I've chosen to alternate them once each week i.e. DSDN this week, ATOTC the next.
So, yeah.
This story was in part inspired by Rhinoswirl's "Dein Weg ist Mein Weg". Rhino, if you're reading this, thanks for creating such a masterpiece that inspired me to do these two ones (not that they cannot compare remotely to DWIMW)."One can compare it to Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" or Aldreas Waldercroft's "Creation and Beyond". A true masterpiece.
So yeah, anyways.
See ya all soon!