Because I'm not sure how coherent this is going to come out after I'm done, I'll say it here. This is the very distant (or not so distant) future. And Shinichi's a ghost.

His feet crunched in the gravel of his old high school and he sighed wistfully as he looked up at the desecrated structure before going inside. Down the hallway, to the left, up a flight of stairs and he was there. He entered the classroom and looked on in remorse.

The room wasn't really a room anymore and he could see the orange sky through the top. The desks weren't really standing either, most of them had been reduced to splinters a decade or so ago. The chalkboard was cracked and the floor was squishy. All in all, any sane person wouldn't enter. He did so anyways, his faintly glowing sneakers sinking into the molding linoleum as he moved to where his desks had once been and stared across the isle to where hers had been. He retrieved a splinter of wood from what he assumed was once her desk and slipped it into his pocket.

He sighed and exited the building as he had come.

He walked to her old home yet, the crumbling remains not passable even for him. He did not attempt it, there was nothing of her left her after so long but still he persisted. One glowing hand, fingers long and graceful, though covered in dirt and long dried blood, reached out and picked up a piece of the rubble, tucking it into his pocket as well and he moved on.

He drifted along to his own house next, prying a rusted spoke on the top of the gate off and sticking it into his pocket and then took a piece of the foundation from Agasa's house before continuing on once again. As he walked this time, he whistled tunelessly in the direction of the houses and did not look at them. Old habits died hard, but he could successfully say he died harder.

A quick stop by Tropical Land left him with a shard of glass from the Mystery Coaster and a fragment of a ceiling tile from the Arcade.

This world was no place for the living, he mused as he gathered rubble from Ayumi, Genta, and Mitsuhiko's houses, but the dead don't fair so well here either.

Is this all that's left? This burned out shell of times when we were happy. Or could there ever be anything more? It doesn't matter now. We lost the war and paid with what was left. Our flesh and blood, our hopes and dreams. Our future. And now only the past can exist in such a world as this.

He wandered by Sonoko's mansion, taking a charred and rotting piece of siding as he drifted by.

He moved on to Osaka, taking pieces from both Heiji and Kazuha's houses. As an after thought, he took a piece of the apartment complex they'd lived in together for the scant few months they'd been married. He'd been happy for them, before the bombs dropped.

Then it was back to Tokyo and from there, to Ekoda. Phantom Thieves can't hide from phantoms and he took an old gismo from the once secret place in the kaitou's home. A stop by Nakamori's house produced a relatively intact engagement ring after some searching. He smiled, pleased at the find as he pushed both things into pockets that were never full.

He took a burnt piece of what he assumed was the refrigerator from the flat Sato and Takagi had shared after there marriage. He took a shard of glass from Megure's house. He took a blood stained piece of cardboard from Eri's old home.

Only concrete could be saved from Eisuke's old home and searching through Jodie's shell of an apartment produced a melted tube of lipstick. Grudgingly, he took a piece of what might've once been the gutter's from Araide's house.

Finally, with all his pieces gathered, he went to the crumbling remains of the cemetery. He walked to her grave and knelt, using his fingers to scrub her name clean for the thousandth time. Mouri Ran. Carefully, he laid his spoils out in front of the marker.

"Everyone I could think of. I probably missed someone." He said to the tombstone, his voice crackling like the dried leaves he stepped on as a child. "It's been a long time, Ran. You're coming back soon, aren't you? You won't let them leave me here much longer? I'm ready to leave, Ran, there's no one left. Just me and what's left of what we once were."

Truly, only the past could exist here.

So, I continue to make absolutely no sense! Not surprising. Hey, any of you guys want to talk about Transformers with me? I've become obsessed with the movie. ^^