Chapter 3: "Painful Heartbeat"

Gin was still smiling at him. Conan's eyes were glued on the black clothed man. He didn't even realize that he was still kneeling on the ground. Gin knew the truth. He knew that he was Shinichi Kûdo, the high school detective. Lying was pointless now. The small boy opened his mouth to say something, but no sound came across his lips. "Are you afraid, Kûdo-kun? Where is your infamous bravery?" The blond man started to smirk, and lit a new cigarette with a silver lighter. The dark smoke banged against the boys face. Conan coughed with squinted eyes. He couldn't breathe anymore, his eyes were burning from the smoke, and his whole body was shaking badly. Gin was right. He didn't want to hear it, but he really was afraid. Not because his life was in danger, not because of the loneliness and helplessness. He was afraid because of his friends. And just now, he realized that he had put them into danger. His fingers nearly bore into the cold and dirty asphalt below him. Another cold breeze touched his skin, and for a few seconds, he was certain he would feel the cold steel of a gun on his forehead.

"Ran…" he thought. Yes, she should be his last thought. Click. "It's over!" Conan bit his lower lip as he awaited the pain that should come.

But there was no pain. There was no blackness and death. Slowly, Conan opened his eyes and scanned the area. Then he gasped. Gin wasn't in front of him anymore. In a silent panic, the boy turned around. Nothing. Nervously he stood up. He had disappeared. Conan felt cold sweat on his cheeks. His body was still trembling. Heavily, he leaned against a wall and observed the sunrise in front of him. The bright orange light of the sun painted the skyscrapers and reflected a warm ray of light on his pale face. The young boy signed and laid his head on the cool stones of the wall. He smiled weakly. "Have I gone crazy?…Was this really just an illusion?" His mind began to spin. Suddenly he felt something bad, something really bad. It was just a feeling, but it forced him to lift his head a little bit. In that same moment, his heart froze. He saw flames. A huge fire, and it came from Professor Agasas' house. It couldn't be! As fast as he could, he crossed the road. To his luck, there weren't many cars on the streets at this early morning time. He felt his legs hurting with every step, but he didn't slow down. He knew that his friend was in danger, and he had to save him, no matter what.

The sound of his steps died away, then the small flame of a cigarette vanished in a puddle of some rainwater.

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The moon was replaced with the early sunrise, but it was still dark outside. It was 5:30am, but in one room of the house, the light burnt throughout the whole night.
Ai Haibara, the small 19 year old girl, and ex-black organization member, was sitting on Agasas' expensive armchair and looking over all the data she had collected. She was working on an antidote that reversed the effects of the Apoptoxin 4869, shortened to APTX-4869, but there was still some information missing. "Damn it…" she cursed silently. "Why am I doing this? Working day and night for a pseudo Sherlock Holmes who is so arrogant that he wouldn't even thank me for all this stress…" The young girl rested her head on the desk. In front of her was a picture in a wooden frame. Three of the Detective Boys, Mitsuhiko, Ayumi and Genta were looking very proud and happy in it. The professor was bright, and stupidly smiling while resting his arm on his beloved beetle.

She blinked. She was in this picture too. Next to the professor, she was standing up very straight. On the other side of her stood him, the little boy with the big glasses on his nose, who was grinning playfully. She was the only one who wasn't smiling at all. It was that way because she was never smiling too much anyway. She'd had a bad life, so why should she dare to smile? She lost her sister and her family, and now she was fleeing from the organization, which was hunting after her life and soul.

Suddenly, a strange sound attracted her attention. At first she was irritated, but then she realized that it was just Agasas snoring. It sounded more like a whole sawmill. Ai grinned. Her gaze turned again to the photo on the desk. "Maybe I should smile on the next one?" she thought, softly touching the glass from the frame. "My life isn't that bad now. Is it, Kûdo-kun?" She stretched her body a little bit, and began typing the next line into the computer. She had to repay a debt to Kûdo. Somehow.

Suddenly, she heard another sound. But this one had nothing in common with the snoring from the professor. It was an alarming sound. It was inconspicuous and nearly noiseless, but she recognized it well. It was the sound of growing flames, deathly flames which burnt everything down, whether it was a wooden table, or a human life. The scent of ash was in the air. The brown haired girl stood up and ran to the door from her room, which was in the cellar of the building. She let out a scream when a wall of fire built up in front of her. "What happened?" she thought. "How can a fire spread so fast?"

And than she smelled it. It was the first time in a long time that she had smelled the terrible aroma, the aroma of burning alcohol. She was sure what kind of alcohol it was, and when she looked near her feet, she saw it. A split bottle was on the wooden floor. The shards were scattered everywhere, and it looked like a diamond carpet. A small puddle of a colorless liquid seeped into the wooden floorboard. "Gin…" That was the only thing what Ai could say before she fell to her knees, surrounded by the hot flames.

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Wow! Thank you so much for the comments XD I feel so proud

I hope you enjoyed this chapter too R&R

I like the last sentence from part 1 muhaha sorry ;

Just some information for readers without the Japanese Background:

Persons:

Shinichi Kûdo - Jimmy Kûdo

Ran Mouri - Rachel Moore

Kogoro Mouri - Richard Moore

Hiroshi Agasa - Herschel Agasa

Heiji Hattori - Harley Hartwell

Sonko Suzuki - Serena Sebastian

Ai calls Conan sometimes "Kudo-kun" (his real name, ne?)

Next chapter: Agasas house is burning and Conan tries to save him. Will he succeed or….?