Title: SOMEONE LIKE YOU
Chapter 1: Only Truth
#Tokyo, 1996
#22 Beika street
Agasa Hakase house
"I can't believe it, there comes a day like…THIS"
"I'm glad for you, Ai-chan" Hakase wiped the happy tears away
"Hakase, why crying? It's the happiest day of my life" the 20 year old girl ran toward the old Professor that she respect as her father, hugging him.
"I won't go anywhere, I still live with you and I'm still your Ai-chan as always…" Her humorous mind set in, interrupt the overwhelmed emotion "Hakase, I told you to call me Shiho"
She backed away from Professor "Look at me! I'm not a 7 year-old girl anymore" her voice teasingly pouted, tried to cheer up the mood.
"Alright, Shiho-kun, you're growing up now but I haven't got used to your new alas"
"You're slow, Professor. Everyone gets used to it now. Even Kudo-kun calls me Miyano during the time we carried out the crusade"
"Yeah, Shinichi, where's he? He took the antidote before you, but he hasn't come out yet."
Shiho glanced at her watch "Hai, probably he took too much temporary antidote before so the new one need more time to work out. There might be serious side effect as he kept taking momentary one in the past. That why I warned him, but he didn't listen because of that girl from the Detective Agency" She left out a long sigh after her long speech.
"Ai.. ah Shiho, everything all right now. He would come out soon" Professor sweat-dropped, calmed down the girl before she went on and on complaining as usual.
The laboratory's door opened, revealing the high-school detective in his adult form: Shinichi walked out the room, flashing a greeting smile to Professor and the young girl. Gaiety clogged his heart at the thought of being himself for good.
"How you feel?" Professor concerned, waiting to hear the positive respond
"Great!" he simply replied
"Great?" Shiho questioned, saw his head lightly shaking in his hand
"Hai, except a little headache, how about you, Miyano?"
"Oh well, now you call my real name so naturally"
"What wrong? Aren't you Shiho Miyano, are you?"
"See Professor, he pretends not to know me as Haibara Ai" she played along with him
Professor chuckled
"Haibara Ai? Who's she?"
"Kudo-kun, stop this silly conversation before I…"
"But sincerely, I don't know who she is. Should I know her?
His expression left no doubt that he is honest and serious.
Hospital
"Retrograde" the doctor slowly said after flipping through the patient files.
Three people presenting at the doctor's office exchanged uneasy glances, stared at the doctor waiting for further explanation
"His symptoms are like dissociative amnesia. A dramatic event happened, invaded all his mind and attention intensively, plus strong chemical stimuli damaged his memory storage. He couldn't remember everything before the event except the event itself and people related to it."
"That's what I guess" Shiho agreed, "He's too engrossed in the plan and isolated himself from anything irrelevant. Amnesia is side-effect of the antidote on the body that built immunity from the temporary one"
"Is it permanent, doctor?" worrying mother enquired
"This type of amnesia is temporary, but I am not sure when it's cured. Maybe 3 months, 1 year or more"
Shock. Desperate. Broken. All written on Yukiko's face as hearing her son would suffer amnesia for indefinite time.
"Don't force him, he will remember when the time comes" said the experienced doctor.
#21 Beika street
Kudo mansion
"So, we leaving tomorrow?" Shinichi with his head bow down, somberly tried to solve the mystery of his past.
"Yes, come back to your parent's house. You should thank and bid goodbye to the one that handle the scheme at Osaka, I have talked to him. He has helped us so much"
"Hattori Heiji? Detective of the West."
"You remember him?"
"Hai, he and me are good friends. We together drew the strategy. How can I forget him?"
"So…" Shiho hesitated "Do you remember anyone from your high school?"
Shinichi just shook his head in dismay. His brain has lost his key access to the past.
Even her. "Don't worry, everything will be fine. It's not permanent anyway"
Although said that, Shiho wished the effect could extend to infinity. Fate didn't want her to seek for love elsewhere. He's always by her side, isn't he?
000
Ran was informed by Yukiko about his situation, about their decision and the sudden flight to US.
Finally, Ran learnt the truth about Conan.
Anger. Frustration. Hurt. All the mixture of emotion, tremendous lie and painful loss strained her little heart, to the extent that she thought, she couldn't tolerant it.
Decision was not her to make. She understood. Agreed without complaints.
She loved him enough to let him go.
After all, her golden heart is generous enough to accept the truth.
Shinichi started a new life without Ran.
She accepted to walk out of his life for…ever
She is strong, isn't she?
Never mind I'll find
Someone like you.
The last time she met him, he was still a seven-year-old Conan-kun. He gave her a goodbye to move back to America with his family.
She hadn't actually met him since he turned back seventeen for good. She just saw him off, secretly far away at the airport before he got boarding on the airplane. Taking a healthy glimpse of him made her smile.
I wish nothing but the best for you
Too.
Ran didn't regret the years waiting for him. Even if he didn't ask, she did it willingly. No one force her. That's her decision to wait for him.
She didn't ask him to return anything. Seeing him in the pink of health is enough for her. Just as same as the last time, she didn't regret 2 hours waiting, to figure out that he let their appointment forgotten by a soccer game.
Last time he forgot their date. This time he forgot her.
Does it sound reasonable? Is it so predictable?
Last time he did show up but this time...
Don't forget me
I beg.
Don't beg. It just deepened her wound.
Don't beg him. It's useless. He had forgotten, everything, their childhood, their memories and…her.
Instead, just beg herself to forget him. Is it more useful?
000
The plane took off, brought him to the US. He left Japan, left his past behind
'Why don't you leave this dangerous country and come back overseas with us?'
'Eh?'
'That's right, Shin-chan'
'Don't worry, I'll ask friend in Interpol to investigate the Organisation. We'll end this detective game here'
'NO. Don't get involved. This is my case and I am going to solve it… and… beside I have another reason to stay in Japan'
'Shin-chan…'
He had forgotten the only reason kept him staying here.
He kept her out of his life as if she had never walked in.
I remember you said
Sometimes it lasts in love
But sometimes it hurts instead
Sometimes it lasts in love
But sometimes it hurts instead
Yeah
It hurts.
True.
Nothing can heal the broken heart
Nothing can fill the empty soul
000
Time bury the pain inside
Lock it in her heart
It does not hurt anymore causes it is always there.
5 years had passed but it felt like yesterday
As the pain retrieved again
I heard
That you're settled down
That you found a girl
And you're married now.
If it wasn't her, he has someone else.
He couldn't stay like this forever as her.
She knew it would happen but,… it still caught her off guarded. Unprepared.
Her fragile heart was on challenge. It just proved that the broken heart could be scattered again.
The scar had not healed but a new wound had formed.
I heard
That your dreams came true
Guess she gave you things
I didn't give to you
He was Holmes and she was Irene.
She was Miss Intelligence, a mind-thinker. She was his deduction partner and also his love interest.
Please do not compare!
How can she compare with her? To him, she was just a troublesome tough case, hinder his deduction with all the crying and distracted emotion.
Old friend
Why are you so shy
It ain't like you to hold back
Or hide from the light
She's not his friend anymore. Does she remember that?
To him, she just a stranger who he has never met, never …ever
000
I hate to turn up out of the blue
Uninvited
But I couldn't stay away
I couldn't fight it
I'd hoped you'd see my face
And that you'd be reminded
That for me
It isn't over
No, she didn't do that. It's out of her characteristic.
She just reminded him of nothing.
Even if he could remember her, magically, what would happen?
Would he leave his bride for her? Or he still abandons her like this?
Either way, there would be someone get hurt.
She just got herself into another gloomy tragedy.
It'd better to let it stay this way. It'd better she out of his life
It's better for him! For her?
It'd better to let it go, let it stay there silently in her heart.
Only herself suffer was enough.
Never mind I'll find
Someone like you
I wish nothing but the best for you
Too.
He has his life, and she has her own.
Why bother to waste hers?
000
"Repressing memory can retrieve if fragment of the past was presented consistently and intensively. There is a rare case that even a hint or thin trail could succeed if the trail is vitally important to the patient. But in both cases, the probability is a small fraction, nearly zero."
"Mouri-san, you have questions?"
"Hai, Professor. I wonder if the probability is exclusively low, why don't we just suppose it would never happen? …I mean so I don't have to cover it in my report..."
"Please continue, Mouri-san" smiled the thoughtful teacher, encouraged her
"Hmm, I know what we are studying isn't about the assignment. But if in case of future reality, if I have to tell the patient and his family that there's a chance that he could recover but … You know, I feel like I disappoint them for making them hope for nothing"
"Actually, Mouri-san. It's not that bad to give hope for other." He paused, considered carefully before continued "…as well as for yourself. We will discuss fraction of hope in treatment in later lecture. And you have to include all possibility outcomes of amnesia in your paper."
As for an experienced psychologist, the old teacher knew exactly what his student worried only by her formed sentences and choices of word.
"Ran, something wrong?"
"No, Fumiko. Just recall what we learnt about amnesia probability when come across this article"
"Ah, see. New medical record: a patient in Stockholm regains his memory after 17 years of post-traumatic- amnesia"
"I wonder if it can happen with dissociative type"
"I think it's unlikely, Ran. Normally the span of time is about 2-3 years recovery. 17 years is unusual."
It's only 5 years. Ran smiled
"Moreover, ..." Fumiko backed up her argument "post-traumatic caused by physical injury which easily to regain than psychological suffering which mainly cause dissociative."
Right.
She has told herself countless times that there was no change he could gain back memory, not when he lived in America, thousands of miles from Japan.
It's not bad to give hope for others… as well as for yourself.
But what if, from the very beginning, you are pretty sure that your hope will certainly turn into vain? She should know it, aware of it better than others.
It could succeed if the trail is vital important…
Is she vitally important to him? Has she ever asked herself that question?
No
She clearly acknowledged that the answer just crushed her heart into thousands tiny pieces
There was no such chance for her.
Tomorrow is his wedding…
"Ran!?" Fumiko snapped her out of the train of thought
"Why don't you get prepare? We've finished."
"Oh yeah, I'm too engrossed into this case report. Give me a few minutes."
"All right, don't be late. I'm waiting downstairs."
"Hai"
Ran hurried into the elevator, heading ground floor. She was moving fast so her colleague not to wait.
She moved on now. Let it be forgotten, as he does.
000
The soft music covered the tavern. The dim light shadowed everyone.
The scene just ceases the attempt she built up to defend herself
Shield her heart from further broken.
Once in a while, Ran found herself distracted from her group of friends.
Liquor could ease the painful brain but not the bleeding heart.
That why the effect is momentary. She knew it but she has no choice.
Maybe it's what she wanted right now, a profound slumber until next afternoon
Keep her from something silly, …like… show up uninvited.
"Cheer, Ran-chan"
"CHEER!"
She emptied her glass of red wine
"Ran…, wine isn't your favourite, right?"
"Never mind, I…"
"You should know better, sudden increase in alcohol consumption certainly caused breakout in cerebral cortex?"
"Fumiko, just…"
"You just finished your 6th glass. It's not gonna work. Try respond proactively to your burden."
Ran sank in her friend's word. Fumiko right, she can't hide in drunkenness.
"Ran, try this" Fumiko titled her head toward the stage. The current song nearly got to an end and the singer about to bow.
"Alright… Thank Fumimko" Ran stood up, headed for the central stage, registered a song.
She didn't know whether it could smooth her wound or not because the only song in her mind was:
…Don't forget me
I beg
I remember you said
000
"Do you like it?"
"Perfect, Shinichi, thank you!" the woman placed a sweet kiss on Shinichi's cheek, smiling.
"I'm glad you like it" Shinichi with both hands shove inside his pocket, walking happily beside the woman he cared.
His fiancé leant against him. Her head softly nest on his shoulder. Her arms loop around his in a secure grip. Her eyes dreamingly look up the sky. It's her wedding tomorrow after all. Their wedding.
At this point, Kudo Shinichi had everything, everything that everyone has wished for: privileged prestige, a blessed family, and a full love. But sometimes, the feeling of missing something still bothered him. Life is not perfect, is it?
The couple leisurely passed through the hustle street in Tokyo at night. The night was crystal clear, shinning at a space full of stars. The moon tugged at the cloudy shade to bath its moonlight on Earth. A breeze gentle passed by, made the leaves quivering, hubbub, as if they whispered something. The wind sent him a message.
"Do you hear anything, Shiho?"
The woman reluctantly pulled apart from him, turned her head aside, tried to hear something
"Nothing, Shinichi. What's that?"
"A song, I hear a voice singing"
"Shinichi" she kissed him again, "Don't tell me you hear Ave Maria bell in your mind". Shiho smiled, come back to the comfort spot on his shoulder. She has never known that her man could be so sweet like this.
Shinichi chuckled, kept the thought for himself. He didn't want to ruin the happiness of his wife-to-be. She didn't know that the song caught his mind wasn't "Ave Maria". The melody wasn't happy, wasn't cheery for a full love but, instead, it was sad, pitiful of a broken heart.
Sometimes it lasts in love
But sometimes it hurts instead
Yeah
The voice was soft, subtle, and serene as the murmuring water moving through the ledge stones. The pure spring water wiped out obstacles blocking his memory path, revealed the trace to his mystery past.
You'd know
How the time flies
Only yesterday
Was the time of our lives.
Shinichi turned around, looked for the source of the singing and got lost. Nothing matched his searching. Odd. Strange. Weird. He began to felt startle…upon realizing that the voice coming from inside his mind.
The missing memory boiling his head during the past five years was now fiercer than ever. It was overwhelmed and took control over him. The voice was charming, enchanting, and tempting. It took him out of reality, excluded everything. Shinichi lost his sense in the surrounding as if he were living in the world with himself and only his yesterday.
His mind came to the room built with glass wall. He can look from outside, but he didn't know what inside.
A source of light flashed through his head, he heard the singing voice calling his name 'Shinichi', and the same voice bust out into laughter 'haha'. It sounded serene, pure euphonic and pleasant to hear. The way it pronounced 'Shi-nichi' was unique, his brain had not recorded to hear it before. He tried hard to outline the figure, but the dazzling light was too strong to let him see through.
While his mind struggled with the mental vision, his heart humbled along the rhythms
We were born and raised
In a summer haze
Bound by the surprise
Of our glory days
The dazzling light now formed into the blazing sun. He could point out the brightly orange circle around the light spot. Is it the sunset in the summer haze? He saw this sunset before. How many times did he see this sunset? He did not remember. He hardly watched sunset in the U.S where brilliance, glitter and sparking- all masterpiece of human- were dominant . And… it seemed that in his memory he did not watch sunset alone, there was someone beside him. A wind. The wind brought a long brown strand touch his shoulder. 'Who's it?'
Nothing compares
No worries, or cares
Regrets and mistakes
They're memories made.
Childhood memories. They were fond and precious to him. That was time when he had the most innocent mind and purest heart to enjoy the world. Carefree. Cheerful. Blissed. But life was so cruel that it ripped those halcyon moments off him and put him in the state that always seeking for it.
Who would have known?
How bittersweet
This would taste
'Please wait for me, …!' He heard his own voice talking, his voice sound so weak like a pleading. Who did he ask to wait for him?
'…, I will protect you' Goodwill weighted in his voice. Who was that someone he wanted to protect?
000
"Shinichi, why we end up here?" she asked.
Shibuya shopping center presented itself in front of our young couple.
"Don't know, I just follow the moon, follow the way I can see it clearly, avoid blocking from the cloud and building"
"Shinichi, I can't believe it. When did you know to be romance?"
"Really? I'm just telling the truth" he blushed
The only one truth. The moon in his eyes, the wind by his ears, those had led him here.
The place was crowded with people, scattered everywhere, distributed intensively in front of the entrance. He walked toward the gathering without thinking twice. His feet functioned on his own before his mind ordered. But his brain didn't oppose at all because it knew the imaginary voice led him here, maybe what he has been looking for inside.
Now getting closer, he got a better look at the screen, people surrounding two cars with red light on top. Police cars?
After all, he devotes his life to follow cases. His great idol is Sherlock Holmes and his passion to be a detective but …
A case? Is it what he looking for?
000
"Konichi wa, Takegi-kun"
"Oh, Konichi wa, Kudo-kun. It's surprise to meet you here. Konichi wa, Miyano-san" Takegi smile happily at her, "Tomorrow I should call you Kudo-san"
His comment made Shiho blushed. Her cold arrogance had disappeared since he lived with Kudo family.
Shinichi smiled as well, and asked the question he concerned the most "How was the case? Have you found the culprit?"
"No, Shinichi, it's just an accident, no murder."
No murder? He doubted
"Have the victim been sent to hospital?
"Not yet, we are waiting for the ambulance"
"May I check?"
"Sure"
000
As usual, Shinichi showed great absorption in examining the victim; luckily, it's not a corpse this time. The body was still warm, first aid had been treated but it couldn't conceal the source of the accident through Shinichi's eyes. The victim suffered a stroke from high blood pressure derived from combination of MAOI and caffeine.
"Takegi, do you know how he was poisoned?"
"Ja, the witnesses said…"
"The witness?" Shinichi cut him off
"They're over there. They happen to stay at the table nearest to the stage"
Shinichi was always the same, nothing could stay between him and the cases. And I have no choice to follow him as a partner for his deduction show.
"Excuse me, may I ask you a few questions?" Shinichi cleared his throat, ready to switch on detective mode.
"Actually, this police officer has just inquired us" one of the girls gestured to Takegi.
"Sorry to mind you, madam. I just need your help to verify some extra information"
Taken back by his courtesy and astute manner, the group agreed to corporate with him.
"Do you witness the entire incident?"
"Hai, we were so close to the stage. The drummer grabbed the cup of coffee himself, consumed and collapsed later on," explained a male witness in a clear rich voice.
"We think it was an accident. The victim was so thirsty from the performance that he drank the instant coffee without remember that he under treatment of MAOI for his depression", the woman added.
"The performance? Who's was on the stage at that time?"
"The band and my friend."
"Your friend singing?"
"Yes"
I see. It's the event that the audience can come on stage and perform. If so, the culprit easily approached the victim. Why he could forget that he was using MAOI? Ah, he's in depression so there might be something stir up his emotion and distract his behavior. The poison occurred after the performance. What's the performance? Did it have effect on him?
"Excuse me, one more question, why you guy chose to stay near the stage"
"Pardon? Are you suspecting us?" she tried to keep the even tone but it still gave out a hint of discontent.
"Easy, Fumiko you should expect it as a dominant trait of a detective" come a composed male voice
"Alright, tantei-san, is there a specific reason needed to choose a table in a restaurant. I believe it's not a type of cognitive decision" Fumiko accentuated her argument.
000
Her friends were waiting. Ran made a dash to come back the stage.
Why are there many people? Has the case been over? Why Takegi-kun is still there? And the one next to him. Hm…
Ran just saw the back of the figure standing next to Takegi. Oddly familiar. A flow of emotion fluttered in her chest. No, it's impossible. He…The US. No, don't think about him. Her mental voice screaming inside, it cost her too much effort to make his face vanish in her mind. She had drunk licorice root tea with passion flower flavor to lessen the burden inside her.
The eyes played trick on her again. They kept showing the illustration of her dream when she was awake. Ran stopped at mid-way, hid herself in the shadow, far away from the crowd. Her hands covered her face. Her head kept moving from left to right, tried to shake off the image inside.
When she was sure her mind was safe with the blank space, Ran looked up, ahead. A pair of ocean orbs staring at her attentively.
Their eyes locked. Ran stood there, dumbfounded. Sudden awe blocked her muscle, hampered her from moving.
Shinichi could not take his eyes off her nor did he think of turn his gaze away. He has seen those eyes before. Wide open eyes, colored by the azure sky, striking with purity but linger a light sorrow. How many times has he bored into those eyes? It craved in his mind so deeply. Its imprinted had just visible by the clearing of the serene voice.
He just imaged there are electricity wire between their gazes. It shot through his skin, along his spine and spread over his body. He was under influence of the power as strong as the singing voice created. It cast a spell on Shinichi and dismiss everything surround him.
"Kudo-san, are you listening to me?"
The voice brought him back to Earth. Takegi had to square his shoulder to get his attention back to the investigation. Did he aware that he was questioning the witnesses? Shinichi had rarely distracted from the case.
"Tantei-san, it's out of rationale to suspect my friend. I am certain that she has never met him. If she were a good actress, pretending not to know him, at least she would have her eyes wide-open and frozen when catching unexpected acquaintance. She so closely to face him, we sat at the table nearest the stage." Fumiko went on, protected her best friend
Good point. She pointed out a good point
"Plus," the male witness continue, stood up his colleagues "If she planned it from the start, she should have her glance on him here and there but all I saw was her solemn look down the cup in her hand the entire time"
"Yeah, it's strange, you noticed it too, Denki?"
"Ja, it's so obvious. She focused on the cup as if it was the interesting object existing on Earth"
"I don't think her mind focus as well. It looks like her gaze direct to the cup, but I doubt she stare…"
"True, it's what I think through, she stared at the blank space surround it."
"Normally, she doesn't drink that much. But today it seemed repetitive, she just took glass after glass without fully aware of what she was doing."
The two colleagues soon divert their attention from the case to concern for their friend's strange behavior.
Their discussion didn't pass Shinichi's investigation.
"How on Earth did a person with traumatic mood like that capable of poisoning someone else?" Denki withdrew his thought with Fumiko.
"You right, but we didn't have anything to back up", her eyebrows frowned, Fumiko was thinking hard to resolve the situation. Her face brightened up as a simple thought hit her "Oh, why don't we call Ran here to make herself clear."
ran…Ran… RAn…RAN…. RAAN… .
The voice echoed in his mind. His brain claimed to be familiar with the name. It seemed to be the key fit into the lock, open the door to his lost memory. But where the dazzling light gone? It's completely black inside.
000
Ran fidgeted the phone in her hand. A plan to escape, just tell Fumiko that I'm waiting outside.
She could not face him now. She did not trust her own body. Who knows if it would go weak on the knees and…? Do not think about the consequence. It is not gonna happen. Experience taught her that when the mind was not ready, run away is the best choice.
Her phone rang out of sudden. Alright Fumiko, best time. Ran smiled. As soon as was she about to speak, Ran realized that she was left speechless. Instead, she heard Fumiko's urgent voice.
"Ran! Get back to the stage. We need you clarify something."
Ran could not reply. His gaze had so much impact on her.
No way to escape. Nowhere to hide.
"Ran, hello! Are you listening?"
All the people focus on the little device on Fumiko's hand.
"She hangs up" said Fumiko bewilderedly.
All head turned everywhere to search for Ran.
"Saw her!" Denki exclaimed
"Come here, Ran"
All eyes looked at the girl ascending from the dark.
His gaze remained steadily, ahead. Shinichi did not bother to turn around. One swift moment was enough. He did not want to be pulled in her gravity again. Uneasy feeling crawled inside him. Shinichi did not get used to the influence by others.
What were with those eyes? How they took control over him completely. He hated the question why. He hates questions that his mind cannot provide the answers.
Who is she? Maybe she related to the case. There might be the signal his mind trying to send him.
Is she a culprit? No, he did not have any evident. Shinichi never hasten and make careless mistake like this.
Why? Question why again
What now?
His mind knew for sure she was not the culprit.
But his reluctant brain still stuck to this lame excuse for his odd feeling.
Isn't he the one saying, "There is always one truth"?
Why there is conflict in his head?
For the first time in life, Shinichi denied the only one truth: He could not resist her alluring power.
To be continued