The very last chapter... wow... Okay, I'm just gonna shut up, write the disclaimers, hand a basket of cookies to everyone that's reading, and get to work.

Disclaimer: I don't own DC

Chapter 17

Miyano Shiho tried to stay as unnoticeable as possible, but attention is all she got. Mostly this is because she is incredibly beautiful, and she had the intelligence to match it. Notes and flowers from secret admirers found their way to her desk, much to her annoyance. All her teachers loved her, saying that they had never taught someone so talented, and even the news wanted an interview from her when she attended Harvard Chemistry and Chemical Biology at the age of only sixteen.

She hated all the attention, and prefers to stay in the lab, working on her researches. She didn't mind the solitude, as she is pretty much used to being by herself, and she could concentrate better when she's alone anyways.

So that's where she is now, just a month before her graduation, waiting for the results of the experiment she's working on. Beside her research files, sat a cup of black coffee that had already been refilled several times. The words on the paper she's reading blurred, becoming completely indistinguishable from one another. She felt her eyelids droop, and...

"Ai-chan?"

And all of a sudden she's here again. The amusement park. Tropical Land.

"Ai-chan!" The voice called out again clearly, as if the person calling is right next to her.

Somehow she knew the voice was calling her, even if she didn't recognize the name. Ai... Somehow she knew it's important. To find out who this person is.

Shiho spun around and around, trying to locate the source of the voice, but all around her, people only continued with their conversations, acting as if they couldn't hear a thing.

"Where are you?" She called, frustrated, as the voice turned fainter. "Don't go!"

"Shiho?"

Shiho mumbled something incoherent.

"Wake up."

She became vaguely aware of someone shaking her gently. Where was she again? Right, the lab, the experiment...

The experiment! She opened her eyes, and found her college professor, Professor Williams, looking at her with concern.

"Damn! I fell asleep, did the results...?"

Professor Williams, a man in his sixties with graying hair and a twinkle in his eyes, put a hand on her shoulder. "Calm down. I took care of it. Didn't I tell you to stop working late?" he said, raising his eyebrows at the empty cup of coffee. "Fifth or sixth refill?"

"Fifth." Shiho admitted with reluctance.

Professor Williams started telling her off about how the caffeine is bad for her, especially since she hadn't even ate dinner. But she wasn't really listening, as she is still distracted by her dream.

Tropical Land. She had never been there in her life, but ever since she was ten, it had been appearing in her dreams, along with the boy's voice, and that name... Ai... It seems so strange and familiar all at once, like the name of a long ago classmate whom you've only spoken to a few times.

She just has to know what the dreams meant, and the voice, it's somewhere deep down in her mind, she's sure of it, but she just couldn't remember where she had heard it before.

Akemi visits her often, after the syndicates fell. And when Shiho told her about the dreams, it seems like Akemi knew something she didn't as well. She looked surprised when the name 'Ai' is mentioned, and confusion passed her eyes before she sat up with a mysterious smile. "Tropical Land... it's in Tokyo. Maybe you'll find the answer in Japan, Shiho-chan."

"Shiho, are you listening?" Professor Williams waved a hand in front of her face.

"So, have you decided?"

"What?"

"My offer, I told you last week. You're graduating in a month. I was wondering if my best student would like to stay and be my assistant? Before you find another job of course, though that probably wouldn't take very long."

"Oh that." Shiho smiled apologetically. "I've decided to go back to Japan."

The professor nodded.

"I might come back, though."

"Well then, I look forward to working with you again someday." Professor Williams said, smiling warmly.

"We have landed in Tokyo, Japan. We hope your flight was enjoyable. Thank you for putting your trust in Japan Airlines."

Shiho sighed, feeling exhausted from the twenty hour flight. She could never sleep on a plane, which means she had just watched five boring movies in a row.

She stood by the luggage carousel, waiting for her suitcases.

"Excuse me?" a voice beside her said. She didn't respond, figuring whoever it is probably isn't calling her.

"Excuse me?"

Okay, guess she was wrong. Shiho turned, and found herself staring into a pair of warm blue eyes. Her eyes widened.

Before her, Shinichi grinned.

"Remember me, Ai-chan?"

-End-

A/N: They met, they met!! Aw, but I left you all hanging there. Unfortunately, though, that is the end. You people aren't after my blood now, are you? XD