Act 2 Scene 5 伏しろ！[Fukushiro!] 'Submit!'

In the cold evening, the doorbell to Dr. Agasa's house rang. It was in the midst of dinner, and he went to answer the door, muttering about how inconsiderate it is to call on others during mealtimes. His tune changed when he opened the door, however. At the door was a strikingly beautiful foreign woman, with long, pale blonde hair and a generous bosom. He recognized her as the actress, Chris Vinyard, who was a semi-ally of theirs. After the Bell-Tree Express, she'd given up on killing Sherry, and occasionally acted as a double agent in their favor. She smiled brightly at him and said, "Is Miss Haibara home?"

"Yes," Dr. Agasa said with a cautious smile. "May I ask why you want to see her?"

"Tell her Vermouth-"

Haibara peeked around Dr. Agasa's legs. "I know what she wants. Conan told me."

She raised her eyebrows. "He told you our deal?"

"He told me not to take it. But, this isn't his decision, is it?" Haibara beckoned Vermouth into the house. "Dr. Agasa," she snapped, as though she'd caught him breaking his diet, "You are to go out and eat whatever you want tonight. Do not get take-out." She grabbed her bright red coat and her boots and put them on. "Let's get this over with."

After Agasa left, she led a slightly confused Vermouth into the basement. Haibara's computer and antidote manufacturing tools had been moved out, leaving it bare.

Vermouth looked down at the little girl before her, studying her choice of clothes.

"You're not going to kill me," Haibara said, glaring straight back.

"Why these?" Vermouth asked, stroking the little red coat Haibara wore.

She flinched away from Vermouth's hand. "I'll tell the doctors I was run over by a car."

"Oh?" Vermouth laughed bitterly. "Cool Guy is sure I intend to kill you, and you are sure you'll be able to walk away from this. Whatever gave you that idea?" Without warning, she struck Ai's face, letting her long, press-on nails rake the fragile, childish skin. Ai lost her balance, falling a step back. Four deep scratches appeared, bloodless at first, but soon they were swollen and bleeding like the marks left by a pissed off housecat, if it were the size of a lion.

"Do you know what you and your parents did to me?" she hissed. Ai cried out involuntarily as she was picked up and hurled against the wall. Her head struck, leaving her dazed. By her calculations, she'd have a concussion for sure.

She walked slowly to the small form, letting her recover a moment, before the next attack. "I was dying of leukemia when they swooped in, promising me a cure – no family, no money, desperate and vulnerable." Ai lifted her arms to protect her face, but Vermouth grabbed her wrist, and twisted until it snapped. In the concrete room, Ai's scream was earsplitting.

Vermouth dropped Ai's arm to cover her ears, until the echoes passed, then sat back to watch Ai whimper, holding her wrist close.

"Did you know that they cut off some of my toes, to see if I could grow back limbs like Alex could?"

That statement seemed to hurt Ai more than her wrist breaking. Her whimpers turned into sobs.

Eyes flashing, Vermouth continued. "Maybe I should do that to you too. After all, time just slowed down for me, it didn't run backwards, like it did for you. Maybe if I cut off one of your toes, then gave you another dose, your toe would grow back. Shall we give it a shot?"

Ai smiled as best she could, the side of her face was starting to swell, making it only a half-doable task. "Do you think that would absolve me?"

Vermouth howled, thirty years of pain releasing itself all at once on Ai's small form. When Vermouth came to her senses, she had Ai pinned beneath her, and her fragile little neck bruised beneath her fingers, her body limp and unmoving on the concrete floor. Vermouth dropped her and crawled away. She was breathing heavily. She'd never killed someone like this before. In all of her years of service, she'd always killed quickly, painlessly, quietly. She had always remembered every second of it, unlike Gin, who preferred to forget it all. Was this what it was like for him? An insane rush of adrenaline, leaving one exhausted, memory-less, and teetering on the edge of self-loathing… She lost herself in these thoughts for a while, perhaps minutes, perhaps hours. Time slipped through her fingers like Sherry's life had.

A voice, like from a dream, spoke to her, interrupting her pathos. A small, hoarse voice etched out words from swollen vocal chords, like a beginner-violinist fumbling with their bow. "I knew you couldn't do it."

She turned to look at the little corpse she'd left on the other side of the room. The moon had come out lighting up the wall behind her. Round windows. That geezer was a little off in the head, though she wasn't one to judge.

"Because Sherry committed suicide two years ago in her cell," the little voice said. "That's why you couldn't kill me."

Dr. Agasa didn't know what Shinichi and Haibara had been discussing the day before, or what this woman wanted with his friend. The way she had looked at Haibara, it felt dangerous to him, though he couldn't put his finger on the reason why. He disobeyed Haibara and ate a big salad, topped with blue cheese and parmasean. He hurried home, but while the lights were still on, the house was silent. Perhaps they'd gone somewhere? Haibara had grabbed her coat, afterall. He sat down in the main room and fiddled with his phone, checked facebook posts, checked e-mail, then checked facebook again. A full hour crawled by, and there was no sign of them returning. He walked to the front door and peaked out the window, trying to decide whether he should go out and find them.

As he entered the family room, he was greeted by a weary and weeping Vermouth, carrying a bloody and barely conscious Haibara Ai.

"Get her to the doctor," she said, her voice hoarse.

She pulled a USB-drive out of her pocket, and put it on the table. They left together, without any more words.

Author's Note

This chapter is a new one. It didn't exist in my first draft of the story. I'd glossed over it, because writing about these emotions and this violence is really difficult to put myself through. But, a few months back, I realized I had to write this out fully. Vermouth's story arc is incomplete without it. In this story is a sneaky character-study on Vermouth, so I figured she was going to be the subject of today's author note.

Vermouth likely has a tragic backstory, from when she tells Yukiko Kudou that "no angel has smiled on me, not once." She's also the favorite of the boss, even though she loves weird, dramatic schemes starring her, and she seems to have very little in the way of actual loyalty to the organization. I think that's bound up with her lack of aging, that because of that, they assume that she'll be automatically loyal, making her beyond reproach. She also really, really relishes every chance she can get to murder Sherry, now that Sherry doesn't have the protection of the organization. That leads into this chapter.

There's something I noticed about the two attempts on Haibara's life by Vermouth. The first looked like it was going to be quick and efficient. The second was a good deal more sadistic, involving cornering Haibara psychologically and terrorizing her into self-sacrifice. But, afterwords, she didn't "accidentally" push Haibara off the platform into an on-coming train or a myriad of other ways she could have quickly and easily killed her, even though her grudge was still there. I think that Shinichi and Ran's idealism is reaching her and affecting more and more of her decisions, and she's slowly losing her nerve to kill Haibara. That's the tipping point that I wanted to reach in the chapter.

In real life... it took me months to write this. I didn't manage it until I met with a traumatic trigger, and I touched the grief and helplessness that Vermouth feels. A few days ago, my best friend's mother was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. So many painful memories have come up for me, especially of my grandfather's death of the same malady. Somehow, that made it easier to dive into tragedy, grief and pain that wasn't real.

また来週！(See you next week!)

dreamingfifi