Chapitre 14
A full day had passed but still Conan couldn't get the picture out of his head, he didn't get much sleep either since then. The few minutes he had spent with her were all over in his thoughts, yet he escaped as soon as he possibly could.
When she had recognized him, he had taken a step back. When she had taken that step towards him, he had stayed immobile. When Ran had reached for his face to see how grown up he had become, he had closed his eyes and waited. But when she had hugged him tenderly, his arms had moved on their own to make it an even closer embrace.
Emiko had stayed where she originally stood, she just watched them silently. When Ran had broken the hug in order to talk to him, Conan remembered that they were not alone. He had very impolitely played it like a really busy famous sportsman, he just took her hotel address and promised he would send her tickets to accompany Emiko and her friend.
Since then he obviously held on his promise and sent her the ticket. She would be there in the stadium watching him, the Tokyo Spirits playmaker. She would be there, the girl who had watched Shinichi Kudo playing so many times. He was panicked.
Even if the game was scheduled on the evening, morning was actually very important for his preparation. His game day started always the same way, it was a so called proper pre-game routine. Starting with a long shower, he usually would have continued by shaving. Conan took the razor, he placed it on his beard. The man hesitated for a while, shaving or not shaving and by doing so he had already broken his routine.
He made it to the kitchen 10 minutes late and he had actually shaved but kept a moustache. Ai burst in a laugh as soon as she saw his face. "What is that? What are you trying to do?"
Conan didn't really answer, it sounded like he just groaned something before grabbing his plate. He took a bite "It's cold..."
"Well it's your fault for coming downstairs this late. Blame it on the moustache!"
Conan dropped his chopsticks "How funny of you!"
Ai walked around the table, she stopped a step away from him and corrected his tie "I know that's right... Isn't that why you married me?"
The man nearly choked "I don't really feel like kidding about that."
"You know she might ask you that question when you'll have revealed yourself. You're going to do it, aren't you?"
"Of course I will! But... I just need to find the moment."
"Make sure you don't run away like the last time you saw her."
Ai tied her hair in a short pony tail, she then zipped her tracksuit "Why does the medical staff have to wear this when the team wear suits and ties? We're not the ones who are supposed to be sweating." If it was an attempt to cheer Conan up it worked. The two went together in the car and split up once at the training camp. Living on the life.
Conan knew this was going to be a total different game, the kind he had never played in his career because Ran and their daughter would be watching. It felt like it was the very first time that the pressure was on. He had broken his routine, he didn't listen too much of the briefing and spent the preparation day dreaming.
Emiko felt a lot lighter on that day, part of her quest was done, part of the secrets were gone. Yet it was only her mother's version of the truth, it wasn't enough but it was as well so much more than what she ever had. She smiled brightly taking a second to look outside, it was cloudy but she didn't bother at all she was over it. Almost nothing could break the joy wall of hers, she just had the weird sensation that a dark aura followed her all day. A step or two behind her actually, she didn't need to look for the source of darkness, Kioshi was in a very bad mood. This had a definite impact on her but it wasn't yet a crack in the wall, surely the football game would fire the boy up.
The photograph flashes merely woke him up, no autographs, no selfies the man walked straight to the changing rooms. He decided to take the day as a run of various steps, one after the other the time would eventually come. Changed, supposedly briefed by the assistant's coaches and warmed up. Conan sat and tried his best to force his own mind to go blank, to just stop the stream of running thoughts.
At the end of their high school duty the teenagers almost instantly jumped in a taxi where Ran had been waiting. Kioshi was more silent than a dead body, colder than an ice berg he barely seem to groan something whenever Emiko would talk to him. Still he made an effort in responding to Ran. Emiko just observed quietly the fact, her mother filled most of the conversation till they were dropped in a parking nearby the stadium. They came early, actually most people seemed to have the same reflex causing massive queues everywhere, somehow Ran managed to get herself a club scarf in order to show some proper support to Conan. It took them a good 30 minutes to get in the stadium, slowly Kioshi's face started to light up as the young man just couldn't resist against his own anticipation, he was still trying though. Again Emiko patiently observed the changes.
It was Ran who lead the way, finding their VIP seats was much harder than what she expected. The stadium was huge but also surprisingly beautiful, Emiko face palmed for having forgotten to take a proper camera.
The woman sat first her daughter sat beside her and the Japanese boy had no other choice than to sit next to his friend. He did his best not to look at her while she couldn't stop looking at him. She had talked enough with her mother, they reached the point where there was no fresh topic and with Kioshi upset the silence felt heavy. Very fortunately the place where they were, was full of distractions, lights and screens. The music suddenly started to play, a second later the speaker started screaming and the screens played a video showing in motion the home line-up. As far as the girl knew it was exactly the same as the British prem maybe just a tiny bit cheaper.
When Conan appeared on the screen Emiko instantly pulled on her mother's shoulder "Look!" On the clip Conan humiliated a few tired legged defenders before sending the man in between the wrong way. The playmaker gave a small celebration and his teammates jumped on his back and it all finished with a signature move shot in a studio.
"He looks so different... He is..." Ran looked fascinated for a while, even when the screen changed player she continued to think. She suddenly excused herself and left. Emiko watched her mother go, the game was about to start and this was probably her last chance to cool off her relationship with Kioshi. The British girl turned to her friend hoping that he would look at her at some point but he didn't.
"Nevermind..." She complained sighing loudly which successfully made Kioshi look at her. "Ah finally you look at me! Are you planning on telling me what the matter is?"
He looked straight in front of him, his head resting on his hand "Find out yourself!"
"How am I supposed to fix this if you don't talk to me?" The statement didn't seem to work at all which pissed her off. You didn't give me much choice. Without any sort of hesitation she punched his arm, not violently enough to destroy him but fairly what she thought he deserved.
"Hey! What the hell was that?" He held himself in pain.
"Find out yourself!"
"Gosh it's not a game, we are not playing. I'm not your toy, you can't just use me and place me back where you freaking took me."
Emiko backed off, frowned and looked at him straight in the eyes "Baka".
The boy froze he didn't know how to react to that, he was thankful to see Ran come back arms full of snacks. Still he continued to think, the table had turned and he clearly had missed something in the process.
The ball rolled slowly towards him, he followed it with the eyes and stopped it with his left foot. When he looked up Nathan was standing in front of him, arms crossed over his chest. "You look totally out of it today... Want to talk about it?"
"It's nothing but the pressure, don't worry" Conan smiled faintly as he grabbed the ball.
"You don't look affected by it usually. Is there a scout out there watching you? I heard that you haven't signed your contract yet."
"Oh that's right I haven't signed it yet but that's not a scout who will be watching me tonight."
"I see... Better shine on the pitch anyway, c'mon let's go, the game is about to start!"
Conan followed his team mates in the tunnel, from there he could hear the crowd loud clamor. Shining on the pitch was easier said than done, there were 21 men on the very same pitch also trying to shine. The Tokyo spirits entered it as if they were one man, they stood in line in front of their public saluting them. The playmaker foolishly tried to spot his own little public but without his glasses it was an impossible mission.
"This is just a football game there's no reason to stress this much" he thought running to his start position. He gave a look towards the seats he knew were Ran and Emiko's seat despite knowing he wouldn't see anything. The VIP seats he had bought them were surely far, but they had one main advantage which was a small TV screen. Camera had captured that moment, Ran and Emiko's eyes did so too.
A shiver went through both women bodies, a rather deep feeling of déjà-vu plunged them into a trance. However Emiko regained consciousness way faster than her mother who seemed to day dream for a moment. The daughter contemplated the mother's broad smile, there was something comforting in seeing her like that. As far as she knew, the expression Emiko was observing was a new one, she had never seen her mother with such a look before. Nevertheless it all wore off as she noticed her daughter insistent look on her.
Nathan directed a wink to Conan before kicking off and off the game started. Everybody rushed forward as one man, they also rushed immediately back when the ball was finally lost. The game wasn't poor in action and thrill, the first twenty minutes were full of fouls and opportunities. Nathan had his try which went wide, Mirqui's shot was saved and a ball bouncing towards Conan died on the post. It was bad luck but it was still domination.
"That was so close!" Emiko passed a hand through her long hair.
"I thought that was in... I thought that was in..."
"I missed you so much Mr. Fan girl" she teased, he was about to answer but the two were interrupted.
"Get up Conan-kun! I know you can do it!" Ran had jumped on her feet raising a fist in the air.
The teenagers looked at her incredulous for a little before she seemed to calm down. Conan who had kneeled down for a moment after his missed chance magically got up, perfectly synchronized with Ran's quite energetic cheering.
It felt a true switch for him, he had managed to stop over thinking and got some focus back. He ran back up the pitch and passed the halfway line in a blink, slowing down he took a second to observe the opponent. Suddenly the Tokyo Spirits number 10 sprinted in what seemed to be an odd direction, a few seconds later he intercepted the ball or rather simply collected it. He took a heavy touch in order to run away and the team ran forward like one man. Conan drove the ball slightly to the left with the fullback breathing on his neck, Nathan knew exactly where this was going and took the opposite side. Following the Australian striker's expectation Conan sent him a through ball but so expected the goal keeper who dived into his feet. Nathan just about had time to take a step aside, he fell down in the surface, the goal keeper didn't touch the ball and the referee blew his whistle. It clearly was a penalty.
Nathan stayed down a little while, he looked more exhausted than in pain or anything else. Conan quickly checked up on him and once he was sure everything was fine he pointed at the goal "Time to take your revenge Nate".
Nathan finally got up taking support on his team mate "Actually, I think it's your time to shine." The Australian gave him a little pad on the shoulder "Impress her..."
Conan stood still for a second while his friend walked away, he passed a hand in his bangs before getting on the move. The man grabbed the ball, he had missed an important penalty in front of Ran once and he wasn't going to let this happen again. He placed the ball, carefully took a few steps back, closed his eyes and breathed. He had decided, he took his first step. It would be the bottom left, he accelerated. The goal keeper was jumping, looked like he had made his mind too. Finally he made contact with the ball, the man in between the sticks fell on his right knee, he was fooled, the ball scratched the left post before finishing in the back of the net.
Goal! Conan ran towards the corner flag to celebrate while the two teenagers and their chaperone were also having a party. The man abruptly stopped as he took notice on the camera on him, with screens all over the place the last thing he wanted was a zoom on his disguise-less face.
After the break the game remained quite even, attack against attack, eventually the Tokyo Spirits killed the game from a splendid header on yet another dead ball try. Kioshi lost his bad mood in the surrounding euphoria much to his friend's pleasure. Ran had already moved on and was complaining about how complicated it was going to be to catch a taxi when a member of the staff came to her. Emiko and Kioshi couldn't hear a word of what he said as he whispered to Ran's ear, after a short moment Ran came back to them smiling. "It looks like we're going to stay a bit longer."
All 3 followed the man through multiple corridors in the stadium till they reached the parking. They waited in relative dark and silence, from time to time members of both teams staff would pass by. From afar Ran noticed another staff member from the Tokyo Spirits, she couldn't see much beside that it was a woman with a pony tail. However what truly caught her attention was the man she was talking to, a young good looking man wearing a suit, again she couldn't see much but it could only be one person.
Conan took the car keys off Ai and waved her good bye as she headed off running. Conan proceeded to look for his passengers and his car. When he noticed them Ran was still staring at him, after he took a few steps closer she ran to him to hug him. The hug lasted quite a moment, it felt so nice, he indeed was now taller than her and it was like hugging a man.
Emiko contemplated the man's reddened cheeks as her mother finally released him, she continued to stare at them, perplex and totally ignored Kioshi who was intending to chat with her. Something was wrong but she couldn't quite put her finger on it yet.
"May I drive you all back home?" Conan offered kindly.
"Sure! I mean... Aren't you supposed to go back in the bus with the rest of the team or something?" Ran wondered.
"Well, that's actually true but I got a special permission" He sent a wink to her before screaming an enthusiastic "Let's go!"
Everybody followed the so called order and got in the German sedan. As soon as he got in, Conan put on his glasses, the man stopped for a second and thought "Is this really necessary?" His disguise back on, he quickly went through their pleased reviews of the game but quickly ran out of conversation topic.
Checking the mirror Conan noticed that his daughter was staring at him, her eyebrows were frowned and she looked dead serious. She was analyzing his every moves, of course she doubted his intentions from the beginning, Conan had always been aware of that. Actually he thought it was better this way, still the way she was looking at him was very disturbing. He didn't need to look far to find the reason why she was acting like that, as he looked on his left the man realized that Ran was looking at him too. Nothing frowned on her face, she didn't seem to be doubting him at all. This was probably the real problem as she was looking at him fondly.
Conan turned pale when he would have probably blushed years ago. Nothing to be concerned about, or was it? Things needed to be cleared as soon as possible for everybody's sake.
When the sedan arrived in front of the agency Ran quickly turned to the driver to ask him if he minded to also drive her back to the hotel, instead of blurting something Conan simply gave her a nod.
Kioshi got out first as he was the closest from the sidewalk. "Good night Kioshi" Ran wished, the boy slightly bent down.
Ran then turned to Emiko "Sleep well sweetie" she smiled.
"Don't call me that!" She followed Kioshi out and her back turned to the car she saluted them "Bye, sleep well!"
Both went up the stairs as the sedan drove away.
"So... Hmmm... We didn't talk much last time" Conan said nervously, someone had to start the conversation...
"It was your fault, you practically ran away. Tell me... Did I scare you?"
"No no no, I was just surprised. I didn't expect to see you there after all these years which is kind of obvious." Conan let go the steering wheel for a second to scratch the back of his head.
"Well I was also surprised, I wasn't really expecting to see you with my daughter."
Conan had a hard time swallowing his own saliva, he was praying for her to not continue and ask what he was exactly intending to do with Emiko. In the end she didn't, Ran seemed to be day dreaming again. The two stayed silent as Conan drove through Tokyo. After a good 5 minutes Ran broke out of her thoughts.
"From what I can see it seems that things went well for you. I am really glad for you Conan-kun."
"I did just fine, I won't complain." The tone was serious, not a single string of joy lit it up.
Ran started to wonder how happy actually was the little boy she used to know "Could something be wrong?" Ran turned her top half towards the driver, arms crossed over her chest, a playful grin on the face.
Conan mentally banged his head against the steering wheel "I've recently divorced..."
She cut through his explanations "I'm so sorry..."
"I'm fine really, you don't have to worry about that. I just have other concerns..." Conan parked the car and turned to his passenger. He took a few seconds to contemplate her shiny blue eyes, his thoughts, his words, it was all gone.
"Why... Why did you stop?"
Conan pointed his thumb towards the window behind him "Well we're right in front of your hotel. Didn't you notice?"
She looked over his shoulder and giggled "Yes that's right, seems like I just made an idiot out of myself." Ran thought a second, she put a hand on the door, the opening click was heard when she was about to open her mouth.
"Ran wait!" He grabbed her wrist and let it go instantly. "Actually I just wanted to invite you for a dinner... There are a few things I want to talk to you about."
Kioshi followed Emiko up the agency stairs, it was already really late and he had a special authorisation to sleep over. Of course he had promised 10 times to Kogoro to behave himself and wouldn't break his promise for a million of iPhones. The teenagers headed to the bathroom to brush their teeth, the boy spat the remaining paste and looked at his classmate.
"Why are you always playing it so cool?" Emiko frowned as she didn't get it, Kioshi then made an okayish impression of the girl's "I'm off"
The girl cleared her mouth before speaking "I don't know, it comes naturally, it's just a quick answer. But it's also like an act you know."
"I see..." The boy placed his brush back and left for the living. He grabbed his stuff in his bags and quickly changed to his night clothes before installing himself on the sofa, his bed for the night. The boy laid down, he rested his head on the cushion, his eyes were wide open as he looked at the immaculate ceiling. He didn't even notice the grey sweater girl approaching, Emiko pushed his feet and sat on the couch and the boy couldn't do anything but sit.
Emiko was thankful that the room was barely lit by the street lights as she felt her cheeks burning red. "I just hope that you know that I am not always acting. Listen I know you're upset, I also know why but that's not what it seems. Yes that was convenient, I can give you that... But I don't just hug anyone. What I mean is that I wouldn't force myself." She got up and turned back to him "Now you know" she smiled shyly and went to bed.
When she opened the door of her room her heart raced as she could feel his breath on her neck. Her hands were shaking as she reached for her key card, she knew exactly what was going to happen as soon as she would open the door. The pressure was already on when they had taken the lift and now it was even higher.
She went in first but unfortunately failed to switch on the lights which could have helped her to keep the control. Instead of that she found herself pressed against a wall. He had surely grown, she knew that already but it became all more real when she tried to slightly move away and realized that it was impossible.
What really seemed strange to her were all the things happening inside her. Ran thought that everything about that situation was wrong but also could not get herself to push him away. She didn't want to, her own body wouldn't allow her to. Something just felt right, the woman felt herself melting when he pressed his lips against hers.
He moved his hands to her waist and started to kiss her neck. Her hands free of his, she could have used her strength to push him off her. However all of the sudden she turned weak, the only thing Ran could do was moaning "Co-Conan". Sweat was dropping along her back, slowly, tickling her, out of reflex she moved her head and banged it against the wall.
The room was quiet, the sound of the night traffic could be heard from outside as what Ran assumed to be an ambulance passed in the hotel's street. It was completely dark, this time she managed to catch the switch on her right. Once the lights were on she looked through the room, everything was exactly where it was supposed to be. Ran was covered in sweat, she brushed her hair back off her face "A dream..."