A/N:I have not abandoned this story! I repeat...I have not abandoned it! Now it's time for the next update.

Chapter 10 Takano

A blond woman chuckled as she looked over her usual client, Satoko Hojo. The young girl and her friend Furude Rika often came in to get check-ups. Satoko had L5 of the Hinamizawa Syndrome, after all-and she often had to get regular shots so she wouldn't go crazy and have to be locked up like her older brother Satoshi, who was regularly looked after by the clinic.

Takano marveled at how mature the Furude head was for her age. 'So she really is the reincarnation of Oyashiro-sama.' However, she was surprised when Rika approached with that freaky friend of hers; a girl with purple hair and eyes. She noticed the horns sticking out of her head, and her lips quirked up in a cold sneer.

"Why, hello there, Rika-chan. Why hello there, Satoko-chan! This is Hanyuu-chan, isn't it?" She said coldly before smirking at her.

Hanyuu flinched and refused to meet Takano's gaze but Rika consoled her shy friend while shooting a cold stare in Takano's direction. "Hello there, Takano. We're here for Satoko's shot, mii. She needs her medicine, that she does, sir."

A/N:When they have her talk like that, doesn't she sound like Kenshin from Rurouni Kenshin?

The nurse straightened slightly before smiling. "Well, then...shall we get started?"

Satoko smiled a little upon seeing the nurse's face; seeing Takano always made her happy, though she couldn't help but feel a little on edge when she saw her face. It sort of reminded her of a blank void, like there was no one there...she shivered and shook those dark thoughts away as she was led into another room where Irie Kyousuke, the doctor was waiting.

Rika turned to Hanyuu as they waited. Her thoughts were on a certain boy-Kudo Shinichi. No matter how much he smiled, there always seemed to be much more to him than met the eye. She wondered how much pain and sadness he was hiding under that mask of his. He certainly seemed to be quite enigmatic.

"Rika, do you really think we can trust Kudo-san? I mean, he's an outsider, and we've never had him in any of the other timelines before." Hanyuu said, unsure.

Rika frowned as she mulled over that. "Don't worry, Hanyuu. Just because we've never had him before doesn't mean that we can't rely on his strength and intelligence to defeat fate. This is the final opportunity to break the cycle and bring the endless June 1983 to a close."

She smiled then; a determined one that was honest and pure. Hanyuu frowned upon seeing her optimistic nature. "Rika, so many times before this, you've been crushed by your optimism. It always seems that when you're this cheerful, something goes wrong."

Rika turned to stare at her. "Are you telling me to just give up and lie down and die? I've done that for hundreds of years. I'm getting a little tired of doing that, Hanyuu. Don't you want to live the rest of your life past this little farce of a life?"

Hanyuu frowned. She mostly enjoyed this because Rika was the only one who could see her...normally. However, she could be seen by everyone in this world. She supposed that since it was the last world, that meant that she had to be a participant in making a better future come about as well.

"Rika...I didn't mean that, honestly." Hanyuu moaned, whimpering a little as tears were slipping down her pretty face.

Rika sighed; she was used to Hanyuu's petulant outbursts, but that didn't mean that they didn't drive her up the wall. She gritted her teeth. 'If only I had some sake right now...'

The door opened, and Takano came back out, followed by Satoko.

"Keep taking that shot, Satoko-chan. Oh, and Rika-chan, I'd love to meet the new students at your school."

Rika looked at her in disbelief. How had she known about that? "How-"

"Word has been spreading around the school like wildfire. Satoko-chan here was telling me about them. She told me she doesn't know too much about them, but she says they're both nice people and they are outsiders. Is this true?"

Rika nodded, slowly. "Yes," She said softly, "What do you want to see them for?"

"Rika-chan, I love to see all of your friends."

'And make them crazy,' Rika thought as her fists tightened. How she wished she was older so she could put Takano in her place, but since she was stuck in this weak joke-in this pathetic excuse for a body-she had absolutely no muscle. She was helpless against TOKYO and Takano each and every time.

She was glad there were more allies in her fight against fate-really, she needed all the help she could get. Kudo Shinichi was strong mentally and emotionally and his intelligence would either prove to be an advantage or a disadvantage. For Takano was every bit as cunning as Shinichi was, but he had bravery. He reminded her of Keiichi-a strong, intelligent person who also had doubts in themselves and their own power.

She knew there was a dark secret hiding in his heart, one that he'd gone to great lengths to hide, but she couldn't even hazard a guess as to what it could be. Whatever it was, he wouldn't let anyone see it unless he really wanted them to, which was doubtful enough in and of itself.

'I'll be there for him. But how can I be there for someone I don't even know?'

Shinichi sneezed as he got out of bed that morning. There had been something strange about Hinamizawa-he was having strange feelings about that place-it was almost like it was stuck in an endless time loop-it reminded him of a lost island or something along the lines of Atlantis-a lost people or continent, doomed to forever be lost due to their excess conceit.

What the hell was he thinking? Things like that didn't exist-they were fiction, mere fairy tales that people made up in order to fill up their empty, boring lives. Life was interesting as long as you made it that way, Shinichi thought. If he had been disinterested in life, then life had become disinterested in him as well.

It was so good to look in the mirror every day and see his real self staring back, not the face of Edogawa Conan, a face he'd long since discarded for that of the real him-Kudo Shinichi. He wanted nothing more than to use his real identity for so long, but he had been frozen in time-frozen in his age, even-forced to live a false life behind a false name.

Frozen in time...? Was that how he could put it? 'Wait, could that be...what Hinamizawa has?' Quickly, he got out his laptop and typed Hinamizawa in it. The results that came up shocked him. It was an article dating back about twenty or so years ago-no, it was thirty years old.

'Japanese village decimated by mysterious gas, no survivors predicted.'

Overnight, the town of Hinamizawa was stricken by a sudden volcanic gas emitting from the swamp. No one is presumed to have survived the disaster. Victims were taken to the school to try and treat them, but none of them made it. The Sonozaki head, Oryou, was one of the first fatalities. Her granddaughter, Sonozaki Mion, has also perished. Hinamizawa has a small population of 2,000 residents, and only one survivor is reported. That survivor is 15-year old Ryuugu Rena, whose whereabouts are unknown but she is assumed to be alive.

"This is such a tragedy," The Mayor of Okininomiya said at a press conference today about the event, "Hinamizawa was a lovely town full of lovely people and to think this happened right after the Watanagashi festival...this has caused some relatives of the Hinamizawans to think that this was Oyashiro-sama's curse."

Hinamizawa has had bad things happen on the day of the Watanagashi before.

Shinichi stopped reading then and there, unable to breathe suddenly. What the hell was going on here? This article was thirty years old, dated to 1983, yet it was the year 2013 and the village was still alive and well. The residents had no computers, no cell phones, not even any Ipods or Iphones.

His cell phone wasn't able to work in Hinamizawa. He had tried several different times, but nothing had happened. It was as if it didn't work in the city. No children were playing video games, no one had even recognized him as a high-school detective and he was famous throughout all of Japan. So what was the answer behind all of this?

Doyle's words resounded in his mind: "Whenever you have eliminated the improbable, whatever remains, however absurd, is the truth.'

"This makes no sense," He muttered to himself.

He heard a footfall behind him then and turned to see Kaito standing there, watching him in interest.

"So, whatcha lookin' at, meitantei-san?" He asked jokingly. Shinichi was in no mood for his jokes.

"What are you saying? I'm not in the mood for jokes, Kaito. There's something seriously wrong here. Take a look at this article and tell me what you think."

Kaito sat down and read it with his face staying exactly the same. "Maybe you have the wrong edition?"

"No, I'm sure of it, that's accurate, all right. Hinamizawa is supposed to be gone. It's not on any recent maps, either. Kuroba, I think we've stepped into a town that doesn't even exist anymore. In other words, we're in the Twilight Zone."

Kaito laughed it off. "Meitantei-san, what are the odds of that?"

"Knock it off, Kuroba. You felt the odd vibes in there as much as I did, didn't you? Yet you are denying that you felt any at all when that's not the case, is it?"

"Yes, you're right." Kaito admitted grimly. "So, what do we do?"

"I know what we can do. We can get some answers out of the Furude head." He said.

The next Monday, Rika sat bored in class, knowing the Watanagashi was only a few days away. She had managed to speak to Oishi and Irie about her murder, but as usual they hadn't believed her. The door opened and Shinichi and Kaito came in, but both were oddly silent today.

Shinichi sat right beside Rika. The look on his face was one of intense concentration. "Rika-chan, I need some answers now. What is going on here?"

Rika blinked. "What are you saying, sirs?"

"Drop the kiddy act, Rika-chan. Look at this...this is a printout of a newspaper article from thirty years ago...your village was destroyed by a volcanic emission of gas. That means you are supposed to be dead, along with everyone else here. This was printed off the Internet."

"Printed? Internet? What the heck is that?" Rika asked, looking at him in genuine shock. "You mean you just typed up information and it came right up?"

Shinichi looked at her and smirked. "I think my theory about you was right. You honestly don't know what the Internet is. You don't know who I am. A regular town would have recognized me. The thing is, you aren't supposed to be here, right here, right now. Please, tell me-what the hell is going on here?"

Rika smirked coldly and got up. "All right, boy. I suppose I'll answer your questions, if you answer mine-honestly and truthfully. You are a detective, after all. Impressive thinking."

The two of them went in the hallway. "I am not a mere child-I am hundreds of years old. You are right-this village isn't supposed to exist, boy. This whole world is frozen in time. You two are immune to this. I don't understand how or why you two have entered a frozen dead world like this, but you have. Listen, I don't expect you to believe me-"

"I've been through some pretty unbelievable stuff myself."

"So I am not really a child. I have been repeating my death over and over. I have never been able to save this village or my friends from their fate. Hanyuu and I are the only ones aware of time repeating, though occasionally our friends remember little things here and there. Every year, I am murdered and then the whole village is massacred."

Shinichi gasped. "M-Murdered?"

"Keep your voice down. This is the truth. I have seen it many times. My friends lose their minds to insanity and hatred and then they kill each other. I have seen their deaths many times." She said, still in that deep voice Shinichi barely recognized.

"Rika-chan..." He said.

"What about you? What's your story?" Rika challenged.

Shinichi looked away. "I don't wish to talk about it."

"Boy, I said I would answer your questions if you answered mine." Rika reminded.