KudoEdogawa presents...
""Everlasting""
***
Chapter 4::
Shinichi sat by the window. The sun was rising slowly, warming the hospital wing, but no trace of warmness could be found in Shinichi's heart. His hands were clasped together, his head bowed, his face expressionless, and his eyes staring at the emptiness in front. None can tell what he's thinking, but whatever it is, it brought tears back into his eyes, his blue, saddened eyes.
Heiji and Shiho watched from the small opening of the door, and as they saw the tears slid down his cheek, their faces saddened as well. Heiji quietly shut the door and sat on the benches in the hallway. It was quiet, except for the occasional footsteps of nurses and doctors passing by.
"Poor guy," said Heiji after a half-hour silence. Shiho looked at him. "First he gets turned into a kid for five years, and two years later, he loses his memory, and five years later, which is now, he loses his son." Heiji sighed. "I wished that some of that bad luck would come to me... the dude's suffered way too much since high school."
"If only we could help him..." Shiho began when a loud rumbling came from the end of the corridor, a moment later Ayumi, Genta, Mitsuhiko, and Ai appeared.
"Why aren't you guys at school?" Heiji said when they reached the door.
"We saw our teacher's newspaper..." Mitsuhiko panted.
"And saw the news on the front page..." Genta continued.
"Our school knows that we know you... so they let us out," Ayumi finished and they collapsed to the ground. "Isn't that right, Ai-chan?"
But Ai wasn't listening. She was staring at Shiho with an expression of shock and fear.
"Who..." she began.
But Heiji cut her off, "I'll explain later," he whispered.
"So," said Mitsuhiko when he regained his breath, "How's Ran-neechan and Shinichi-niichan?"
"Not good..." Heiji replied. "Ran's wasn't burned, but she inhaled a lot of smoke and is still unconscious, plus the loss of her son makes the condition worse. The doctor says death is a possibility."
"Death?" Genta exclaimed. "And... loss of her son...?"
Heiji nodded, "Before Neechan fainted she told us that Hiro-kun was taken by a group of men."
"The Organization?" Mitsuhiko gasped.
"Most likely," Heiji sighed.
There was silence again, but pretty soon, noises arose all around as noon approached slow. All of a sudden, Ayumi opened the door and strode over to Shinichi, who was holding Ran's hand now and caressing it with soft touches.
"Shinichi-niichan..."
"Ohayou, Ayumi-chan," he said, it was barely a hoarse whisper.
"Shinichi-niichan..."
And they stayed like that for a while, the others watching at the door.
Ayumi took a deep breath and shouted: "GET UP SHINICHI-NIICHAN!!"
"Shh..." Shinichi whispered, still holding Ran's hand. "You'll disturb her... let her rest..."
"GET UP!!" Ayumi cried, tears forming around her eyes. "GET UP AND LET'S GO FIND HIRO-KUN!! GET UP!!" She blinked the tears out of her eyes.
"They would've contacted me by now if they really wished to challenge me..." Shinichi said. "They haven't..." The suddenly he looked at Ayumi, his expression fierce and angry. "They took Hiro and burnt the building to kill Ran! That was their plan! To kill my family... it's is only a fate to be met sooner or later..." He sat back down and took Ran's hand again.
Heiji was watching with anger, he could take it no more. He went into the room and grabbed Shinichi's arm and pulled him up. "GET UP, YOU LOSER!! GET UP!" He let go of Shinichi's arm and Shinichi dropped down again, missing the chair and falling to the floor.
"I said be quiet..." Shinichi whispered, "She's resting."
"I can't believe you!" Heiji cried. "So you're just going to sit here and forget about your son? What then? Even if Ran does wake up, she'll be in extreme sorrow to see that you have failed her!"
"I said be quiet..." Shinichi said again.
Heiji bared his teeth and picked Shinichi roughly up from the ground, and without waiting for him to fall, he punched Shinichi in the face. Shinichi, unexpected of the punch, was knock backwards and broke the window behind him. Nurses and doctors nearby heard the shatter and came in to stop Heiji from kicking Shinichi, who sat back down, his face bruised and his lips bleeding.
But he was also crying.
"I'm useless..." Shinichi said through tears. "I don't even have the courage to find him.... If I get him back, then they're just going to try again, and again, and again... and it'll never end!!"
Heiji calmed down at his words, his eyes full of sorry. "Hey buddy..." he said hoarsely, "Sorry I punched you..."
"No..." Shinichi said, standing up. "I deserved it." He stood facing the wall, palms against it, and began knocking his head into the wall.
"Kudo!!" Heiji yelled and drips of blood fell to the ground.
The nurses and doctors who were holding Heiji had to stop Shinichi this time, who, unlike Heiji, resisted.
"Calm down, Kudo!" Heiji shouted. But Shinichi will not listen.
"STOP IT SHINICHI-NIICHAN!!" Ayumi cried, sobbing.
Mitshuiko and Genta came into the room as well, "STOP IT!!" They cried, their eyes watery. It was not until Shiho and more nurses came that Shinichi stopped.
"Why...?" Ayumi said through tears, "Why did it become like this? Didn't we agreed to go to the zoo tomorrow?"
"The zoo?" Heiji repeated.
"Yeah..." Mitsuhiko said, explaining for Ayumi, who was sobbing to much to continue to speak. "Last night, before the fire, we went over to the agency to babysit Hiro-kun. Ran-neechan said that she's going to take us all to the zoo tomorrow, 'cause Hiro-kun's never been to the zoo before. And Hiro-kun got so excited that he began to pack his backpack right away."
"Backpack...?" Shiho said.
Ai came into the room to comfort Ayumi, "Yeah, he was so enthusiastic," she said, "He said because Kudo-kun couldn't go, he'll go in his Touchan's place by bring things."
"Then he went into his room and packed the picture and Conan's old badge and began marching in the house with those things. It was so adorable... to bad Haibara-kun wasn't there," Genta finished.
An expression of shock and hope came upon the faces of Heiji and Ai. They looked at each other and nodded.
"Do you know where it is?" Heiji asked her.
She nodded, "Hakase has it."
"Go and get it... it's our only hope," Heiji said.
Ai nodded again and left the hospital. Heiji then went up to Shinichi, who was still bleeding and crying.
"Did you hear that, Kudo?" said Heiji. "There's a way to find Hiroichi!"
Shinichi remained silent.
"Shinichi?" Heiji said again. Shinichi did not reply.
A knock on the door made everyone turn, Shuichi and Jodie were standing outside. "Can we speak to you, Hattori-kun," Jodie said. It wasn't a question.
Heiji nodded and left the room, closing the door behind him. "What's wrong?"
"We paid a visit to the officer Megure. He told us that Ran-chan went to him a few months ago while Shinichi-kun's on a business trip to Kyoto... apparently someone had broke into their residence when she went out for grocery shopping."
"Broken into?!" Heiji exclaimed.
Jodie nodded and continued, "After a few days' investigations, they found out that certain documents have been stolen... documents concerning the Organization."
"What?!" Heiji said in a loud whisper. "And how come Kudo didn't know of this?"
"Apparently Ran asked Officer Megure not to tell Shinichi-kun; she didn't want him to get worried."
"But... if the documents of the Organization were stolen... then..." Heiji said.
"...there is a possibility that the Organization were not involved with the fire and kidnapped," Jodie finished for him. "Instead, whoever did it was hoping that we'd assume it's the Organization, by setting up that clue back in London."
"Then who did it?" Heiji wondered out loud.
"I don't know," Jodie said while taking an envelope out of her jacket. "But she might." She handed the envelope to Heiji and continued, "It's from Vermouth, addressed to Shinichi-kun, found this morning in the mailbox of the Kudo residence. That's all we want to say, we still have investigations to do, we'll talk to you guys later."
Jodie waved and Shuichi nodded slightly and they left.
Heiji reentered the room. Shinichi back on his chair, his face still without much expression, but he was slowly bandaging his head. He forced a small smile when he saw Heiji and stood up.
"You're right, Hattori," he said, "I've been a fool. Let's go."
He began to walk towards the door, but Heiji grabbed his arm and stopped him. "Before that...," he took out Vermouth's letter and gave it to him. "It's from Vermouth."
An expression of extreme fury took over Shinichi's face and he snatched the letter out of Heiji's hand and ripped open the envelope. There was one small message written:
Kudo Shinichi:
I'll be waiting for you at three o'clock by the statue in Beika Central Park.
And the letter was signed with a graceful, artistic, and cursive "V".
Shinichi's hands balled into fists, crumpling the letter, he took one look at his watch: two-thirty, and strode out of the room with Heiji chasing behind him.
~*~
The park was empty at this time of day; kids are still at school, businessmen (and women) have returned to work after lunch, and housewives are probably enjoying a nice, long nap. Only a few lingered: an old couple just walking around casually, and a man with a camera, apparently a photographer. Several birds were perched on the statue, and Vermouth stood leaning against it, wearing a wig and sunglasses. As soon as Shinichi saw her, his pace increased and his fists ready to punch. Vermouth had not reacted early enough to dodge the hit, but Heiji stopped Shinichi just before the contact was about to be made.
"Calm down, Kudo!" Heiji struggled to control Shinichi.
"Yes, control yourself, Kudo Shinichi," said Vermouth.
"Why should I, Miss Vinyard?" Shinichi snarled.
"Because I did not burn your house, nor did I kidnap your son," Vermouth said calmly.
"Give me a good reason to believe you," Shinichi growled.
"The Organization was destroyed seven years ago," Vermouth said, "The remaining members have went into hiding, either that or resumed a normal life, no one could've given the command except me, and I had been running all over the world for my movie premiere, so I wouldn't have the time... or even the knowledge that you even have son. All I knew was that you married Angel; it was on the newspaper five years ago.
"I only learned of what happened when I returned to Japan and saw the news... I was quite happy, actually. After all, you did meddle with our business seven years ago. And then I thought of something: whoever did this was trying to frame me, believe it or not, I was there at the church about ten minutes after you left, and I saw the message. I couldn't think of anyone that could've done such a thing back then, but now I remembered-- it's our rival."
"Rival?" Shinichi repeated.
"Yes, rival. There was another underground crime ring a few years back that was always competing with us and interfering with our plans. We fought, naturally, and killed their leader, but I did not think that as the end of that organization, for they were sure to seek revenge. But you've done the job for them," she paused and continued. "However, they must've learned that I survived through the media... they knew I had power in our own organization, and that the other surviving members would regroup at my command, so they planned to frame me."
"Then why was I involved?" Shinichi asked.
"Although you did bring a downfall to the organization, but they still desire to murder us with their own hands... and that was a satisfactory you could not have given them, and they hate you for that. How they would love to see their two enemies kill each other in an affair in which both are innocent."
"Wouldn't have happened if Gin and Vodka hadn't drugged me in the first place," Shinichi said unpleasantly.
"Tell us more about this organization," Heiji said, to prevent Shinichi from continuing on. Heiji was still holding Shinichi, fearing that he might make a move once he lets go.
"I don't know much... but they bit off of us; their members are named after types of coffee and they each have a tattoo of an eagle on the back of their necks," Vermouth looked at her watch. "I have to go; the Japan premiere is soon... wanna come? I could give you guys V.I.P. seats. It's at Beika Grand Hotel."
"I think not... I'm not too fond of movies with old actresses pretending to be young," Shinichi said with small grin that showed no sign of pleasantness.
"Still haven't figured out how I did it, huh?" Vermouth mused. "Well, it's time for me to go... good luck."
They watched her leave and stayed by the statue.
"Well," Heiji said, at last letting go of Shinichi, "What now?"
"Let's go back to the hospital, Haibara's probably got the glasses already," Shinichi said, grinning.
"That's the Kudo Shinichi I knew," Heiji smiled and balled his fist. "Let's do it!"
~T o B e C o n t i n u e d~
Whew! That was probably my fastest update in quite a while. Review!