Well, this story too is coming to an end. In just one more chapter, this will be done. DONE! Hahaha, one less story to complete. Makes me glad and sad in a strange way. When I finished Ai Edogawa I felt weird and yet happy at the same time, and had to fight the urge to read it. Maybe I should some day. Tell you something else. Whenever I feel stressed out or angry or hurt, I just switch on the computer and read my reviews, and slowly all the anger and pain fades away.
Thank you, all of you, for the wonderful review.
Okay. Now onto the second last chapter.
CHAPTER 5
" I almost thought you would never come back." Kogoro muttered.
The woman laughed as Ran smiled slightly, handing two cups of hot tea to the two of them sitting at the table. She handed the rest of the money over to Kogoro, who licked his lips excitedly at the sight. Then he frowned at her. " Since everything's over and done with, I would like to clear some things out with you."
She didn't say anything, so he continued.
" Could you please tell me what was in the disk? And what was the organization you were after? And why you took so long?"
She raised her eyebrows at him before shrugging her shoulders.
" Okay then." She said. " I might as well tell you. I'm a police officer, and in this disk are top secret documents regarding the different kind of antidotes and drugs they made and manufactured. I had to leave them with somebody and you were the best person I thought I could find."
Kogoro's chest puffed up with pride at that.
" They couldn't trace you, and they went after me. But to cut a long story short, I got them where I wanted, and we rounded them up. Several of them got away, but I have a feeling that we'll get them sooner or later. But it would be hard. Those crooks are as hard as doorknobs and slick as grease."
" What do they call themselves?" Ran asked, fascinated.
" I'm not really sure." The woman said, rubbing her chin. " Thesomething organization."
" Great help." Kogoro muttered. " What did they do?"
" Nothing really serious until two weeks ago." She said. " Where they surrounded almost ninety per-cent of the Black Market. They were the pillar of it, and it collapsed as soon as we got them. Very tricky, all of them. I was searching for them for years and never even got close to them."
" Years?" Ran asked incredulously.
" Years." The woman said, nodding. Then she looked at the clock and got up. " Well, thanks for your help, Mister Mouri." She said. " If you would just give me back the diskette, I would be on my way."
" Right," Kogoro muttered, and gasped.
" It's gone!" he yelped. " The disk's gone! Oh MY BLINKING!"
" It's at the professor's house," Ran said hurriedly. " I'll get it."
" If that's the case, then never mind." The woman said, almost laughing at the gasping Kogoro. " It's no use to us anyway, so you just have to tell him to demolish it tomorrow. It's no big deal."
" No." Ran said, blushing slightly. " I wanted to go there anyway."
Kogoro blinked.
" Why?" he asked.
A flash of Conan and Haibara filled her mind.
She smiled.
" It's a secret." She said, before running out the door.
" You have a very lively daughter." The woman laughed.
" Tell me about it." Kogoro said, sighing.
Ran was humming a tune happily as she hopped towards the professor's house. Just the other day she had talked with Haibara. This time she would be speaking to Conan directly. He had stayed over for a large number of times these few days, and she was hopeful that that meant something. But she decided to take care of it personally; no matter how annoying that would seem to others.
She giggled at the mere thought. The two of them were just so cute together, she felt like thumping her head against the wall for not thinking of it sooner. She had soon reached the front door and knocked on it quietly. There was no reply. She raised her eyebrows and knocked once again.
She looked at her watch.
It was just two in the afternoon.
Did they go out for lunch?
She pulled out her spare key and unlocked the door, and went inside. Sounding stupid that she didn't open the door sooner, but she preferred for people to open the door for her, as it seemed rude to just barge in like that. Plus, they didn't know she had a key with her anyway. She dropped her shoes, and gave a small smile as she heard a cry of happiness from the television.
No wonder.
Soccer.
" Oh yes! They rock! THEY ROCK!"
" Conan?"
" Ran?" Conan gasped, stopping in a mid-air jump, crashing to the ground. She giggled as she helped him up. " Why didn't you let me in?" she asked. " You heard me didn't you? I knocked twice."
" No I didn't." Conan said, switching off the television. " I was too busy watching the soccer channel. Did you see the match?"
No." Ran said amusingly.
Conan looked offended, but regained his composure.
" So, what brings you here, Ran-neechan?"
She was about to speak when she noticed the emptiness of the house.
" Where's Ai and the professor?" she asked.
" They went out." He said. " They said I was too loud, and they needed some peace and quiet."
" Any idea where to?"
Conan rubbed his chin.
" She said something about buying a dressI don't know."
Ran smiled.
" Oh did she?" she asked slyly, and Conan raised his eyebrows.
" What?" Conan asked.
: Nothing." She said. " But speaking of whichhow are you and Haibara doing?"
Conan felt an unknown blush appear on his cheeks.
" Not too good, actually." He said uncomfortably. " It's just that. . .I never knew that she liked me until she told me. She was the kind of girl that kept things bottled up inside until someone found out, or when she couldn't stand keeping it a secret anymore."
Ran smiled.
" You really know a lot about her." She said.
Conan's eyes widened before shaking his head slowly. " No I don't." he said, almost to himself now. " You would have to take a lifetime to know everything about her. She's so secretive and silent that it's almost. . ."
" Loveable?" Ran asked hopefully.
" Irritating." He finished.
Ran didn't say anything after that.
Conan swallowed.
" She never treated me as a friend," he said. " Just someone she could stay around, making sarcastic comments as I talked to her, almost never answering me correctly or truthfully. If I asked her what she was going later, she would just tell me that she was planning to go to Cambodia, but due to lack of money, she decided not to. She always sidestepped away from a real question."
Ran remained silent.
" But she was the closest friend I had." He continued, almost forgetting Ran's presence. " Whenever I was feeling the most pain or grief she was always there. Heiji-onnichan was there from time to time, but he was from another country. Haibara was just right here beside me."
Ran blinked, after Conan stayed quiet after that.
" So do you love her?" she asked.
Silence.
Did he love her?
Even he himself didn't know the answer to the question.
Just a dull shell with nothing inside it.
" She made me chicken soup once." He said, laughing away the embarrassment in his voice. " I was sick once, and I saw her making something in the kitchen. She immediately noticed me and said it was for herself, and had planned to eat it in front of me while I lay in bed and suffered. I just got angry and stomped back into bed, ready to fall asleep when you came back home, a pot of chicken soup in your hands. I was telling you about her when I remembered you telling me that you saw remains of chicken bones in the dustbin."
Ran nodded, remembering.
" She made it for me." He said. " But was too proud to admit it."
Ran could almost feel guilt and self-hate in his words. She got up from the chair, but Conan barely heard her. " I'm going now." Ran said, walking for the door. And Conan didn't stop her. " Come back as soon as you can."
She stopped as she unlocked the first lock.
" Whether you loved her or not. . .," Ran said slowly.
" I guess you just found out the answer for yourself didn't you?"
And she shut the door behind her.
He sat there.
" Dumbass." He muttered, wiping his eyes. His vision soon focused to a nearby picture on a stand. It was the professor and the detective boys, all of them grinning as they stood before an ice-cream store. Conan noticed his arms around Haibara, an ice-cream in his hand, laughing along with the rest. Haibara was looking away, facing away from the camera.
Was she blushing?
An unknown tear rolled down from his eye.
" I love her." He whispered.
" I love her."
00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
It was late.
Not just bedtime late, but over-the-top, under-the-hill, blow-my-brains-out late. Haibara let out a huge yawn before continuing her typing. Conan had left without a trace, and she had half-excepted he had left out of anger that his favourite soccer team had just lost the deciding match. She smirked softly as she clicked onto a password combination, opening it once more.
She yawned once more, typing on the keyboard once more.
Click.
She stopped.
The room remained silent, nothing answering her but the dull whirr of the fan.
" I got in." she whispered.
But that was the good news.
As everybody knew, good news always came with bad news. And that bad news would soon, eventually, sprout into good news. But as Haibara's eyes widened with every word written, it was hard to see how.
END OF CHAPTER 5
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