Naoko
Hey! I see I have some things to explain about last chapter...
Okay first, Naoko's blood was fated to destroy JAPAN on that night, and the cult was going to use the blood to destroy the rest of the world, but they ended up just destroying the house.
Second, Akako was TOTALLY out of character in that chapter, i know. but i needed a villian, and she was right there so - yeah.
On with the story!
Chapter Eleven: The Search
Ran screamed as the walls caved in and the roof fell. Everyone had gotten out safely with minor injuries. Except Shinichi and Naoko. They were in the ruined house.
"SHINICHI!" she screeched, running toward the house again. Kogoro grabbed her around the waist, pulling her back.
"No Ran," he said sadly. "It's too late."
"IT'S NOT TOO LATE!" she screamed. "LET GO!"
"Send in a search crew!" Megure ordered over the screaming crowd. "There's a possibility he might still be alive."
The police and firefighters that had been called started inching through the rubble, pulling up mounds of brick and concrete, searching for the lost detective. Ran was hysterically throwing rubble over her shoulders, crying and breaking down. She fell to her knees and screamed when she couldn't find him. Heiji consoled her, pulling her close and rubbing her back as she cried into his chest. His head throbbed and the dried blood on the back of his neck flaked off. His world was spinning slowly. Kid put a hand on his back and looked into his eyes concerned.
"You should see a doctor, Hattori. You're head's pretty bad," he said gently. Heiji nodded and slid quietly into unconsciousness, falling backwards and laying in the dust and debris limply. Ran's shoulders shook with sobs. Kid bent down and lifted up Heiji, bringing him over to the nearest ambulance. When he returned, Ran was digging through the wreckage again.
"Ran," he said soothingly, "Come on. Let the police handle this."
"Look!" she said, a crazy smile on her face, holding up Conan's watch. "It's Shinichi's. That means he's here!"
"Ran, he dropped it in the lower basement, remember? We were on the third floor when he was shot. He's probably dead, you have to accept that," he said gently.
"No! No, no, no! He can't die! See, it's his watch," she said grinning madly.
"Ran!" Kid said harshly. Her smile faltered and her face crumpled up. Kid instantly felt bad. He removed his eyepiece and rubbed his soot-covered face.
"He loved me! He said he did," she cried. "And he kissed me. But now we can never grow old together! We can't go to the same college and get married and have a little boy named Conan and –" she stopped abruptly and shrieked out a sob. "CONAN!" Kid sighed, wiping tears out of his own eyes.
"It'll be okay," he said. "It will. We'll find him, and you can have your marriage and your son named Conan too."
"You think so?" she asked sniffling.
"Sure I do. If he loves you, he'll hang in there," he said hoping it was true. She gave a watery smile.
"Thanks Kaitou," she whispered. He nodded and led her to an ambulance.
"You're stressed. You should get some sleep; I'll keep looking for him for you. We'll find him," he promised, settling her down in one of the cars. He turned and went back to the search.
---
Shinichi's eyes snapped open suddenly. He was being crushed. His gunshot wound was throbbing and he couldn't move. He was barely aware of the gun still clutched in his hand. There was a thick layer of dried blood on the front of his neck from the knife and it was hard to breathe.
"Ran," he whispered. It made barely any sound. His eyes fluttered closed and he fell unconscious.
---
Three days later, they had pulled up the corpses of most of the strange cult. Some of them were too mangled to tell apart from appearance, but dental records matched. Ran had been sitting in her hospital bed, staring out the window since the incident. Kaitou and Heiji had visited her, but she didn't seem to hear them speaking. She felt completely and utterly depressed.
Kogoro was sitting at a bar in Tokyo, drinking away his feelings. Ran was depressed, so he was depressed. He dropped his cup, sending it hurtling towards the ground. It shattered. He let his head fall heavily onto the bar top. His shoulders slumped and he looked entirely defeated.
"Come on, Mouri, buck up," Megure said, nudging him.
"Can't," he grumbled. He looked up, face slightly green.
"We can still find Kudou, you dolt! Don't beat yourself up," he said.
"Ran won't talk to me. The doctor said she might not recover from depression," Kogoro sulked.
"I know it's hard, but you can't give up. If you give up, she's going to give up as well," Megure said firmly. Kogoro nodded.
"When's the next search?" he asked.
"Well it's about noon and you've pretty much cleared out the place. So let's go now," Megure said standing up. Kogoro followed suit, stumbling after him, heading for the site. It was still roped off. They ducked under the ropes and waited. Megure nodded and started off to the right and Kogoro went to the left.
A few hours later, Kogoro wiped off beads of sweat from his forehead. He groaned and sat up, rubbing the small of his back. He'd had no luck.
"Come on, Mouri. Lets go, you need rest," Megure said. Kogoro shook his head.
"Can't. Promised Ran," he grunted. He got back to moving around the concrete pieces. Suddenly, he touched something cold and sticky. He brought his hand back, staring at his bloody fingers.
"What's that?" Megure asked, kneeling down. He moved a large piece of wood away and saw what Kogoro had touched. It was a girl, Conan's age, dead with a gunshot wound to the heart. Megure recognized her as the girl who lived in the alleyway across from where Conan was kidnapped. Kid appeared out of nowhere and leaned over to look.
"Hey! It's that girl Shinichi was with before the house blew," he said.
"I wish you wouldn't do that," Kogoro glared. Kaitou shrugged.
"Seriously, though! This is the girl!" he insisted.
"So if Kudou was with her before the house fell," Megure said slowly.
"That means Kudou should be around here!" Kogoro said, realization hitting him like a smack in the face. He jumped up, frantically getting off to the side.
"Heiji!" Kid called. Heiji looked up from a few feet away. "I think we found him!" Heiji darted over quickly.
"Go to the hospital," he ordered to Kogoro and Megure. "We'll dig him up and bring him. Reassure Ran, will you?"
"Right," they agreed. "Get an ambulance over here!" Kogoro shouted. Medics came running. Some moved Naoko's body and others waited, getting an ambulance car ready. Kid and Hattori started pulling up the pieces of rubble, tossing them aside as if they didn't weigh a thing. Finally, Heiji cried out in triumph.
"Kid!" he said loudly, tugging at a large piece of heavy cement. "I got him!" Kaitou stood up too and helped pull off the cement. With combined effort, they finally pulled it away. They winced at the site of their friend lying on the ground.
---
Shinichi's eyes blinked open as something shifted next to him. His raspy breath was muffled by dust blown in his face. He coughed weakly. There was silence for a moment, then there was rapid movement and Naoko was pulled away.
'What's going on?' he wondered dazedly.
Something was being lifted off of his legs. Wonderful relief spread through his lower body, followed by searing pain. He groaned silently and fell limp, eyes drifting half closed. Something was moved off of his head and he barely noticed. After a few moments, a gentle hand touched the side of his face.
"Is he dead?" a voice echoed above him. He was being turned over.
"He's breathing!"
"Get him on the gurney!"
"Come on, come on!"
Voices were shouting all around him, making him dizzy. He was lifted and set down on something hard and strapped to it. Then he was moving. After a while the shouting died down and there was a slam of a car door. An air mask was placed over his mouth and he groaned in relief, taking in deep breaths. Heiji's and Kaitou's faces drifted in and out of his vision. Everything was blurry.
"–'re going to be fine –"
"– to the hospital –"
He drifted into swirling blackness.
---
Heiji and Kid sat in the back of the ambulance with Shinichi as the ambulance sped off towards the hospital. They were trying to keep him awake, but inevitably, his eyes rolled up in the back of his head and he fell unconscious. Kaitou looked over at Heiji.
"You think he'll be okay?" he asked.
"I don't know. He was shot, cut, and crushed by a house. He might make it, but I don't know. He looks pretty bad," he said. "Then again, I'm no doctor."
"Right," Kaitou said. They spent the rest of the ride in silence, listening to the cars speeding out of the way of the speeding emergency vehicle. Listening to the steady beat of Shinichi's heart on the monitor. Listening to the steady drip of rain just starting outside. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, they arrived.
The medics took Shinichi out of the car. They rushed him into the hospital and straight into the ER and into surgery. Grubby and stinking, they were shoved into the restroom with two pairs of scrubs to get clean. After they changed and got cleaned up, they headed towards Ran's room. When they arrived, Kogoro was in there and Ran's eyes were bright.
"Did you really find him?" she asked as they entered.
"They took him into surgery. We won't know anything until tomorrow probably," Heiji said. "Just go to sleep."
The next day, Ran waited anxiously for the news on Shinichi's health. She nervously waited as a doctor came in to tell her the news.
"Well?" she asked expectantly.
"It – It doesn't look good," she started hesitantly.
"What do you mean?" Ran asked.
"He had three broken ribs, an infected gunshot wound to the stomach, and a broken left femur," the doctor said slowly. Ran blinked.
"And?"
"And," the doctor licked her lips nervously. "He's gone into a coma."
---
Wing Omega and Firestorm2004 - Read top of page