KudoEdogawa presents...

""Always""

Chapter 5::

The night wind blew gently on the trio's faces. They walked slowly, in depression, through the streets of London. The street lights, as if influenced by them, seemed more dimmed than ever. As the three wandered into the park, Heiji took out Shinichi's passport, and wondered where his friend might be. A sudden gust of wind snatched the passport out of his hands, and, under the command of Fate, the wind carried the passport to the other side of the park and landed it in front of the memory-lost man.

"What's this?" Shiho said, walking up from behind Shinichi. She went up to the fallen object and picked it up. "My gosh," she whispered after realizing what she was holding. "Kudo! This is your passport!"

"That means..." he said slowly.

"WE CAN GO TO JAPAN!!" The two finished together.

"Man, this is great!!" He said, not noticing a car that was silently following them.

Then it happened, Shinichi and Shiho walked right past Heiji, Kazuha, and Akira. Shock came into their eyes, right when Heiji was about to grab Shinichi, the car revved the engine and charged at Shinichi. "Watch out, Kudo!!" Heiji had shouted as the five of them each dodged the charging car. The car had stopped, and the driver lowered the window of the car door and aimed a gun right at Shinichi.

"Run!!" Shiho shouted and pushed Shinichi just as the bullets barely missed the two of them. The driver drove away after his failure, and Shinichi's friends had lost the first opportunity to get him back.

"What was that?" Kazuha panted as Heiji helped her get up from the ground.

"The enemy...he has started his plans to kill Kudo." Heiji said. "C'mon, let's go back, we need to tell Ran about this."

The three of them arrived at Akira's house and Ran was standing there, in the living room. A sigh of relief escaped her at the sight of her friends.

"Oh, I'm so glad you guys are alright!" She said and hugged Kazuha. "I heard gun shots coming from the park, and I was worried that you guys might be involved!" The solemn look on Heiji's face told her otherwise. "What's wrong...? What happened? You weren't involved, were you?"

"No," said he. "We weren't."

"Then's what's-"

"But Kudo was." Ran's eyes widened in fear.

"Oh, Heiji!! Tell me that he is well!!"

"He is. We saw him at the park, and someone tried to ran him over, and shoot him. But he, with another girl, ran away."

Although Ran has questions about this 'other girl,' however, she needed to know why her beloved detective was in danger.

"I will tell you everything I know now." Heiji said, and they sat down in the living room. "Two years ago, shortly after the downfall of the Black Organization, a man by the name of Kageoni Hoyami and his band of fellow accomplices had broken into the national security bank and stolen a large amount of gold from it.

"Their plan was to meet up after 15 years, when this case had died down, to find the hidden goods and split it among their party of 11. Each of the 11 member of the crime held a code. a code to the key of the vault. You see, their vault was protected by a computer security system that requires 10 codes and 1 final key to unlock the vault.

"However, Kageoni was facing serious financial problems at that time, and he allowed his greed to take over. He plotted the death of nine other members of the crime. One by one, his friends would die under his blood-stained hands, and he successfully found the nine codes kept by the accomplices. He allowed the tenth to live, for the tenth was working for the government, and could help him in case something should happen, as the tenth was also a part of Kageoni's conspiracy.

"And it was a wise decision to let the tenth live. For as soon as he had killed the ninth, Kudo had already solved the case and surround the residence of the ninth victim. Kageoni tried to escape the police forces, but was in the end arrested for mass murder.

"Kageoni had lost everything that night, he was so close to getting all the gold for himself and get away with it, and Kudo pops up out of nowhere and ruins his life. And for two years he had stayed in jail. Last week, about a day after Kudo left for England, Kageoni was released."

"What?!" Ran, Kazuha, and Akira exclaimed. Heiji silenced them with a hand.

"The tenth accomplice, who he did not kill, became a judge these past two years. And on a jail visit, he killed the patrolling officer. He disguised Kageoni with the officer's clothes, and left with the man. Kageoni persuaded the man to give him the last code and they'll split the gold. But as soon as he had gotten the tenth password, he killed him."

"But..., why must he seek revenge on Shinichi? Why can't he just grab his gold and leave?" Ran questioned.

"Because he couldn't. That night, when Kageoni was arrested, Kudo searched his house and found the key. Kudo took the key, so if Kageoni really wants his gold, he needs to find that key first, and to find the key, he'd need to find..."

"...Shinichi." Ran finished.

"They found a note next to the tenth accomplice's dead body. Written in blood were the words 'Kudo Shinichi is next.' Not only that, this is the perfect time if he wants to kill Kudo; Kudo is completely defenseless and know not about himself and what to do in times of danger."

Each of them slept fruitlessly that night, especially Ran. She had an awful nightmare that involves herself finding Shinichi's dead body, clutching onto a note written in blood which says "Always." She had dreamt that Shinichi walking away from her and held hands with another girl. She had heard multiple gunshots and wheels squealing and Shinichi screaming. She could hear herself screaming, screaming.

She awoke in the middle of night, sweating, grateful that it was only a dream.

~*~

Ran had left Akira's house early in the morning that day. She left a note: 'Please do not worry about me, I'm only going for a walk, to calm myself, I might not be back for breakfast, so don't wait for me. With love, Ran.'

Ran was walking slowly on the unfamiliar London streets. the cold, morning air brushing her long, brown hair. The street lights have turned themselves off as the sun arrives from the horizon. Just as Shinichi had witnessed, the whole city became lively in an instant. 'London is beautiful,' she thought. 'Why couldn't life be like this?' She ate her breakfast alone in a small parlor, and resumed her stroll.

She came to the airport, and wandered aimlessly into the airport. Or, maybe it wasn't so aimless, maybe Fate had planned it. For as soon as she entered the airport, she saw Shinichi and Shiho. She let out a gasp. They were packed and in disguised. She walked slowly towards them, and the small voices of the distant conversation told her that they were headed for Japan. She saw Shinichi nod a thank to the woman at the counter, and they left.

"Why are they going back to Japan?" She wondered aloud, and gasped again. Following close behind them was a man dressed in black, Ran had seen this man before in the hospital, as well as in her dream! He must be Kageoni! She thought. Then she realized the danger of this matter--Kageoni is following him back to Japan!

Making sure that she attracts no attention from the murderer, Ran dashed out of the airport, desperately needing to find Heiji.

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Yay!! The fifth chapter (not counting the prologue) is done!! Then again, so is the seventh chapter...I seriously have too much time on my hands...considering I have like five or six projects for school due tomorrow. Well, I am a big procrastinator...*shrugs*