KudoEdogawa presents...

""Always""

Chapter 6::

Kudo Shinichi was walking next to Shiho, they were going to Japan, they were going to help Shinichi rediscover his lost self. However, they did not realized that they were being followed by a mass murderer who was trying to kill the great detective. Nor did they notice a brown-haired girl running out of the airport, needing to warn her friends about this.

Mouri Ran, who wasn't especially good at remembering her way, had surprisingly reached Akira's house without getting lost even once. She reached the front door, rang the doorbell, and leaned against the door. Heiji opened the door, causing her to fall backwards into him.

"Ow...watch it, lady!" Heiji said, he was knocked on to the ground by the force of the falling Ran. "See who finally decided to show up for breakfast."

"Oh, shut up!" Ran said crossly. "This isn't the time to be eating breakfast! I just saw Shinichi!"

"Really?!" Heiji jumped to his feet.

"And Kageoni was following him." Ran finished her sentence.

"What?!"

"I was at the airport, and I saw Shinichi with that other girl, I think they were going back to Tokyo. And there was this man dressed in black, who was following them back to Japan."

"What's with the commotion?" Kazuha said, walking to the front door to see what's up. A moment later, Akira had came as well. Ran sat them down and explained to them what she had saw, and why she was sure that the man was Kageoni.

Heiji jumped to his feet once again after Ran had finished, and in a commanding tone, he said: "Ran and Kazuha, pack up and start up the car, I'll contact Officer Megure right now." He rushed into his room for his cell phone. "Oh, Akira," he added later, "thanks for letting us stay."

"No," said Akira. "I'm going with you as well. Kudo is my friend also, and if it weren't for my stupidity, you guys would've found him already. I have to make it up to you guys."

Heiji hesistated. "Alright then, pack up and meet us at the airport." And he left with Ran and Kazuha on the car that they had rented.

Akira walked slowly to his room and packed some clothes. He reached deep into his closet and pulled out a gun. Carefully, he dissembled the gun and placed the different parts in different places of his luggage. He put on a black leather jacket, "At last, Kageoni," he said while zipping the zipper of his jacket. He took out what seems to be a family portrait, packed it into his backpack, and headed for the airport.

~*~

Oh, Heaven, please shield Shinichi from harm. Oh please. Ran sat in her seat with Kazuha next to her. Her eyes were closed, her head bowed, her hands clutching onto her knees, and trying very hard not to start crying. Ugh! This is all my fault! If only I had stopped him, if only! Ugh Ran! Pull yourself together, what's done has been done, and what hasn't won't be. All you can do now is go with the flow and hope for the best.

She sat there listening to Kazuha shouting at a cursing Heiji. Their flight was seven hours behind Shinichi's, however, there was a flight that was two hours earlier than their current one. Heiji had offered large amount of money to get themselves on to that packed flight. He's tried flirting with the young lady at the counter, but only to get smacked in the face by Kazuha. In the end, he took out his father's police badge and commanded the lady, but the airport security ignored the fact that he was the second-best detective in Japan and threatened to arrest him if he don't shut up. Cursing the airport in Japanese, he agreed to take this flight.

On the flight that was seven hours ahead of them...

~*~

Shiho stretched as she got out of her seat. "Finally," she said. "I get to see Japan again."

Shinichi looked out of the slowly stopping aircraft. "So this is Japan." He awed.

Behold it while you can, you loser. Thought the man sitting a few seats behind them.

Shinichi and Shiho had claimed their baggage and wandered into the lobby of the Japanese airport..."OH!! KUDO-KUN!!" The voice was familiar. Shinichi searched for the owner of the voice and found a chubby officer in brown running towards him.

"No, get away from me!" Shinichi cried and ran from Megure.

"Ugh," Megure grunted. "Men! Restrain Kudo-kun, he needs help!" At the command of the officer, at least two dozen policemen-in-disguised ran towards the memory-lost detective.

One of the officers tackled Shinichi and restrained him on the ground. "I'm sorry, Kudo." It was yet another familiar voice, which belonged to Takagi. "But this is for your own good." He took out Conan's old stun-gun watch and aimed it at the struggling detective.

However, at that moment, Kageoni had walked into the lobby. "Damn, cops!" he had shouted aloud. Megure, being an experienced and wise officer, turned and recognized Kageoni right away.

"Kageoni?!" He exclaimed, attracting the attention of the other officers. "We'll get you this time!" Megure and his men ran after the escaping Kageoni. Shinichi, taking the chance, punched the distracted Takagi and ran away with Shiho.

Outside the airport, Kageoni had hijacked a taxi and drove away, despite the fact that bullets are penetrating through the windows. "Damn," Megure cursed. And he headed back to the airport, hoping to see that Takagi had stunned Shinichi..., but it was not so. As he turned and started to head back, he saw the detective and Shiho hop on another taxi and the driver drove away.

Megure waited somberly in the airport for the next two aircrafts to arrive so he can inform Shinichi's friends of this news.

~*~

Ran stood in front of the door of the agency, what hope does she have of getting Shinichi back if even the police couldn't do it? She opened the door, and with a forced smile, she managed to say: "I'm home!"

Eri came out of the kitchen and hugged her daughter tight. "Oh, Ran-chan, everything will be alright, you'll find him." Ran hugged her mother back and allowed herself to cry a little.

"'Finland, Finland.' Some 'Finland' it was that she went to! Making me fly all the way over there to tell her Shinichi disappeared, only to learn that she's already in 'England,'" Kogoro complained loudly. Eri whipped out a frying pan as if out of nowhere and chucked it at Kogoro, who, sitting near the office window, was knocked backwards, and fell out of the open window. Giggling at this scene, Ran could hear her father cursing.

"Mom, I'm alright, just a little tired." And she went back to her room. Heiji and Kazuha are going back to Osaka, and as of Akira, they haven't really seen him ever since they got off the plane. Ran unpacked her things and sat at her table, staring blankly at the picture sitting on her desk. That picture had always been there, it was a picture of her and Shinichi, taken at Tropical Island a few years ago, this picture had always brought her great troubles. Because all she can ever do is stare at the picture, imagining that Shinichi's back at her side. When Shinichi came back, she had thought that those days are over for good..., but now she knows that she's wrong.

Ran opened her window to let in the lonely night air, and she stared out into the night sky, where the planet Venus was shining in sympathy to Ran.

Do you know that I'm waiting?
Waiting for you,
From the bottom of the ocean,
To the highest of the Heavens,
No matter where you are,
I'll always be waiting for you.

Ran sighed and went to sleep, and somewhere in Tokyo, Shinichi and Shiho are somewhere at a ramen house, eating delicious ramen and joking around with each other. Ran shut her eyes.

Whether it be shattered in the wind,
Or frozen in the cold,
Wherever your heart lies,
I'll always love you.
I'll always wait for you.
Do you know that I'm waiting?
Waiting, waiting, waiting,
Waiting for you to return to me.

~*~

Shinichi and Shiho have spent the whole day touring the city, re-exploring this unfamiliar home, they went to the greatest shopping malls, watched the best movies, and ate at the most expensive restaurants. It was a perfect day, except the strange fact that everyone in Tokyo seems to know him, not only that, girls towered over him asking for autographs at the mall. And when they passed by the police department building, officers outside the building saluted Shinichi.

"Hey, who the heck are you? It seems like everyone simply loves you." Shiho said after the day's adventure, they were heading back to what Shiho calls her "Japan House."

"Man, who the heck are you? You're all rich and has tons of houses and everything." Shinichi countered. Shiho, not wanting to answer, continued to walk with Shinichi through the park that they were in.

Heiji and Kazuha, who had just dropped off Ran at the detective agency, was heading back to Osaka. Heiji was driving while cursing the Tokyo police force, when Kazuha's exploding voice shouted: "KUDO!!" Heiji stopped so suddenly that the car behind them almost crashed into them. The car behind them honked, cursed, and drove away.

Heiji got out of his car, and in his loudest voice, his most superior tone, shouted out to his best friend and rival.

"KUDO SHINICHI!!!"

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