Ch11

'thoughts'

"speeches"

Unexpected Disaster

The bell rang that signaled another end of a long day for the children at the elementary school. Five figures walked in a bundle down the field of the school yard with their hands holding the lash on their backpacks, two in silence, the other threeglancing curiously over that their serious faces. Around them, the joyful chatting and the play fighting amongst the children filled the scene.

"Conan-kun, is something wrong?" Ayumi asked twitching her head to the side.

"Yeah, you haven't been to school lately. Have you fallen ill in the past few days?" Mitsuhiko added.

"You were gone for the entire last week and some of this week," Genta said putting his hands behind his head.

"Yea, I got the case of the flu last week. With Ran-neechan gone with her friends, old man Mouri didn't know what medicine to give me so it was just frequent trips to the hospital," he lied with expertise of his long year of experience.

"But you're back to health now so you'll be coming back to school from now on right?" Ayumi confirmed with a smile.

"Ri…" the tiny detective was about to say yes but he was cut off in surprise by the small brunette that, till now, walked in silence beside him.

"No, his got an appointment tomorrow," she said abruptly, "The doctors say they wish to do a few more tests." Ayumi gave a slight squint of her eyes, wondering how Haibara knew about what her little boy friend as doing tomorrow before she did but dismissed the thought after a short while with a shrug of her shoulders.

"But man…you're so lucky that you get to miss school," Genta huffed and looked down with his eyes at the little boy before him.

"What are you talking about, being sick and not coming to school isn't lucky at all!" Mitsuhiko lectured, raising his voice slightly.

Genta stuttered and took a few smaller steps to lag behind, " Geeze, I was only kidding," he hissed. 'people lately, can't even take a joke.'

A few minutes past and the group split into two. Ayumi, Mitsuhiko, and Genta in one, and the two shrunken teens in the other. They waved a final goodbye across the street where the recent green light was now flashing red and stepped out to their own way.

Conan shifted his glance after watching the three turn to walk the other way and gave her a sigh. "What is it" Ai asked, shooting him with her side glance.

"So tell me the reason already," he said.

"What reason?" Ai played dumb.

"Common, I mean the reason you wanted me to stay off school tomorrow?"

"Oh that…"

"Well?"

"The 72 hour pill is done, I want you to take it tomorrow."

"tomorrow?"

"Yes tomorrow. I want to prepare you for it tomorrow morning and by late afternoon I want you to take it."

"Why so early? There will still be like 36 hours left before the actual time of the deal."

"This pill still has not yet been tested on a real person remember. I suspect that your body will be in a pretty weak condition once you wake up from your little nap. I want you to have around 24hours of recovery handicap before you face them. Don't worry, you'll still have another 48 hours after you face them."

"I don't know, I can't shake this feeling about a certain uncertainty I've been feeling lately."

"Don't worry, I've already written your requiem," Ai chuckled.

"Heh heh…," he gave her a crescent glance and smiled weakly with occasional twitching of his lips.

Agasa Household

Ai was once again, working her brain to an overload down in the basement, searching for a definite cure. The sound of the rapid typing keyboard echoed up the spiral staircase, which led up into the living room where Conan and Agasa sat, facing each other with a typical smile that exchanged between two old friends. The late afternoon sky was growing dark with each passing minute. Crows cawed in the distance against the orange sun that lit the early rise of the moon with a blood red shade. The awkward site gave the two something to look at to pass the time that seemed to be crawling by. The young man gave a deep sigh as he admired the scenery and thought how different it was to feel the time crawl instead of dashing by. Throughout the entire week, things have been just a hurricane. It felt relieving to be able to just stand still and absorb the orange ray of the light. He was no longer worried about the upcoming day; there was just simply no point in worrying. The only thing he gets from worries is his lack of sleep and the unproductive, tiring day that would surely follow. The professor watched the boy with a nostalgic smile upon his face and softened his eyes.

A sudden topic aroused from his head as he turned to face the old genius. "By the way, did you set the things up like I told you to?" he asked with a monotone.

"Yea, have you gotten use to that new watch?" the professor replied as he asked.

"Some what, the reloading the cartridge still takes some getting use to but that's nothing much to worry about," answered Conan, turning back to watching the setting sun.

"But what if that factor does come in? With a man like Gin, it's very possible that he will do something like that," the professor asked.

"Like I said before, this is a gamble. I can't be 100 on this one like the cases I solved before. Right now, I'm going with this because it is the only thing I got." He answered with a weak chuckle under his breath. With that sudden notion, he began to scream inside, 'Damn it, not 100? This is people's lives I'm talking about!' he looked down to the floor. The light seeped through the cracks between his hair, reflecting in a few narrow lines of the crystal lenses.

The professor swallowed uneasily and resisted asking another "What if" question for he knew the answer wouldn't change. He shifted his glance to the staircase, breathed out a heavy sigh, and turned back to the evening sun. "Don't worry, I have every confidence in you Shinichi," the professor comforted giving him a bright smile.

'I have every Confidence in you Shinichi, I believe in you!' the words of Ran sounded painfully in his mind. Tears began to build in his pensive eyes, which he rubbed away quickly than smiled back to the professor whispering, "Thanks".

The scene of the two figures standing there watching the red sun dropping below the hills in the distance seemed irnoi

FBI Headquarters

"Shuichi, are you set now?" a young woman called from behind her office screen door.

"Yea," a deep sure voice came in answer.

"I didn't mean about your weaponry," Jodie called back with worry in her voice.

"You let me handle my personal matters to myself," he blunted out.

"But…"

'I've avoided her till now, but it looks like we're finally going to meet face to face after all these years.'

"The next time we meet, it will be me putting you behind bars"

Those words came flaring back in his memories. He gave a small, silent snicker as he held the picture of Shiho with a red X written across her face in his hand. He called back again with a sure voice, "I'm set!"

Turning his head back he lowered his brows at the picture he gave a final whisper, "Fate has 3 days to decide what is to happen with us," then put the picture down on the table and slid it gently to the corner. He stepped out side and turned out the light. The beam from the hall ways sneaked through the tiny crack of the door, lighting up the emotionless smile upon the rectangle before the door slammed shut and the darkness hid the smile away.

Next Day Afternoon

(Count Down Reaches 2)

"It's time Kudou-kun," a tiny girl popped her head from the stairway that led down to the basement. She looked at him from head to toe, scanning the details of his uncertainty toward what he was about to do and smiled in amusement, though she herself had a sense of uncertainty to a degree.

The little detective grasped the air with his fists, swallowed deeply, and walked up nodding his head. "Alright, if I die, I'll just come back and haunt you to your demise," he joked to relief the stress from his mind.

"That might be an improvement to you," she chuckled then took his sleeve and dragged him down.

The professor stood in the middle of the lab, putting his hands behind his back with a brilliant smile upon his face. The smile gave a sensation of relief that seemed to lift the weight off the boy's shoulders telling him things will be alright. "Alright Shinichi," the professor began, "these are the two pills you will be taking." He said holding one on each hand between his thumb and index finger. The orange one in my right is the 72 hour pill, and the one on the left is the GABA pill. Now listen carefully,"

Conan gave a gulp and awaited his instructions. The old man began with a deep breath, "First, take the GABA. Do not use water, use your saliva to gulp it down. This will coat the pill to delay a few seconds before it react with the hydro-chloric acid in your stomach. Remember, each individual is different in the pH of their stomach acid so the rate of dissociation is also different. At first, you will feel a rumble in your stomach, the moment you hear this fill your mouth with water and put the other pill in. Hold it there until 3 seconds after your abdominal region starts to feel numbness. Remember, if you do this too early, you will be in excruciating pain, and if you do this too late, you won't be able to swallow because your body will enter a paralysis stage. Once done so, just lie down on that bed over there and we'll take care of the rest." He finished taking a gasping breath because he didn't pause during the entire time.

Conan took the two pills in his hands and looked intensely at them. With a small prayer in his mind, he took the first pill in and with some difficulty, swallowed it. Immediately he took a large sip of water and put the other pill in his mouth and held it there. Just like the professor had told him, he felt a rumble in his stomach and a bit later a cold sensation filled his abdominal region. He counted in his mind, '1…2…3…' and swallowed. He could feel the coolness climbing up from his stomach, up to his shoulders, down his legs, through his arms. Then his eyes opened suddenly and flung his hand to his throat and fell to his knees.

The professor and Ai took surprise of this unexpected event and dashed to his aid. Conan continued to cough but his grip upon his neck was losing strength at a rapid rate. He gasped for air but nothing came and his vision began to blur. He had swallowed a few 10th of a second too late and the pill was caught in his throat, blocking his airway. The professor and Ai called to him as they patted him on his back. Through his hazy vision, he could see their lips move up and down but no sound entered his ear. Before long, he could no longer feel anything. He collapsed onto the floor as his hands fell from his chocking neck with a light plop. Darkness took him; he saw nothing through his dilating eyes, felt no touch through his twitching fingers, not even the smell of the strong chemicals that filled the lab was entering his nose. There was a sense of nothingness that engulfed the boy. The only sound he could register was the dissipating thumps of his heart.

End…

This definitely was not the better chapter of this story lol. Please review but because this story was removed twice, the vote has been stopped. Who will live and who will die will be a treat for you all at the end of the story. Please keep reading. Both the prof and Haibara are in shock at the sudden turn of events. All those tests and experiments and something bad still happened, looks like an uh oh for the hero side.

Only 2 reviews for chap 10? All reviews are greatly appreciated. I know some of the scientific facts seem unrealistic, but hey, that's why it's a fiction. :-p