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Theditor: Hahaha XD I use cliffhangers a bit too much don't I? Thanks for reading!

Purpalz Miner (11): Nice, so the Kayo thing makes sense! But the reasoning not so much haha. Ok so in the note the keywords were 'scientist', 'reside' and 'serial murders'. Since I'm Taiwanese Kanji makes more sense to me since they look like Chinese words, so I put scientist (kagaku-sha) and serial murders (renzoku-satsujin-jiken) into Kanji and it turned out to be scientist: 科学家，and serial murders: 连续杀人事件。The reside part put the scientist's three words between the words for serial murders, so it was 连科，续学，杀家，人事件，hence the two word phrases Hattori mentioned. The first meant continued science, the second continued knowledge or continued learning, the third as killing house, the last ones as 'case', and then Hattori was reminded of a case from long ago. The case about the scholar was that he killed a butcher in his own shop (butcher shop=killing house), the words that the scholar said contained 'continued science and continued knowledge'. The case just refers to exactly that, the murder case…of which I made up XD SO hopefully that cleared It up^^

Chic White (11): Hahaha yes Hattori save him! XD I'm glad it made sense to you^^ If you want clarification you can see the review above—I fully explained it^^

Misaki. Kuroba (3): Glad you like it^^ Thanks for reading!

Hshh (11): Ahh wait for ittttttt XD

Purpalz Miner (12): Eh-heh predictions predictions ^^ anyways thanks for reading!

Chic White (12): Glad I made you think! Haha I can tell you're in your "crazy state" XDD please keep reading~

Hshh (12): Hmm I wonder 0.0 XDD

Loyal DC Fan (12): Ahaha I'm not real good at being a regular updater but XDD

Annimo2009 (12) : I know sorry! I'm really really bad at being constant so 00 but I'm updating now so I'm not that bad right? Just one month late….?

To all readers of this fanfic, I'm sincerely sorry for the late update *bows* As stated in profile I'm a horrible updater, constant sometimes and then erratic sometimes…. Soooo please bear with me, even though you might want to punch me…over the internet of course….but be sure not to break the screen of your computer….or phone…

Anyways here's a new chapter~ (I bet you're all groaning "FINALLYYYYY" right?)

Oh and if anyone is confused with Hattori's reasoning please see the reply I wrote to Purpalz Miner^^

Xxx

"Dammit!" Hattori shouted, eyes ablaze with panic. "KUDO! Where are you?!" Hattori called, cupping his hands around his mouth. The two of them tore through the streets, eyes desperately trying to see him standing there, grinning. But alas that was not to happen, dawning upon them as they searched and searched, to find no trace of him healthy and in one piece.

And, Ran, despite her stubborn resistance, was pulled back into her flaming memories, with the painting of death in front of her and Hattori screaming for Conan. Again, her father was holding her back, again the house folded in.

Again, Conan died in her memories.

Please.

She saw Conan curling into a ball, folding in like the house around him, cheeks stained with smoke.

Let go.

Flames danced around him, slowly circling in, creeping in on him like jeering coyote's, ready to pounce.

Save him.

The reds and oranges and yellows leaped onto him, his cries drowned out by the roar of the monsters, as he slowly burned down….down….into flames….

Into ashes.

SAVE HIM.

"NO!" she screamed, covering her ears, sinking down, crying. She hated this, this crying and sobbing and ugliness. She despised this weakness, this outbreak of grief. If she was strong, she wouldn't need to go through this. She would stand up and focus on the task before her. Not this. Not this stupid, stupid emotion.

But yet her tears fell as Hattori rushed over to her, squatting down beside her in bewilderment, asking what was wrong, peering anxiously at her face as shining stars fell from her eyes.

"N-Nee-chan, what's wrong?" Hattori asked, hands fumbling to find something to do, like patting her back or her head, or something else. But it didn't seem right, when he didn't even know the cause for this reaction.

"Hattori-kun…" she hiccupped, wiping tears away as more came forth, "I thought….that it was ok to cry…after someone had died…" Hattori answered with a rushed "Y-Yeah it's okay I mean someone just died who wouldn't be sad like when my friend's dog died I was sad even though it wasn't my dog...".

"B…but…" she looked into Hattori's eyes, confused and concerned, "Conan-kun isn't even dead…you said so…and even now I'm still so emotional…I'm not strong at all…."her hands balled into fists, trembling with repulsion, "These tears….I hate them…I can't save anyone if I'm like this…".

Hattori was silent for a moment, squatted on the ground, mind blank.

"Well…" Hattori started, looking like he was still searching for words, "Tears also make you strong…." he trailed off, sweat dropping a little. " I mean if you're crying it means you know you're sad right? I guess…in some way it's confronting what's happened….and…. responding to it. If you always stay strong and push it aside, you won't really know how…impactful that event was, and so when you resolve that problem it wouldn't feel so…nice and...relieving." Ran blinked a few times, staring down at the ground as dots appeared, darkening the ground, shading it.

"So…" Hattori said, "Its…proper…and besides...tears are amazing. Ya know...like constellations. They all have a meaning behind them." there was silence for a moment, and shakily, Ran lifted herself, her right hand still blocking her right eye.

"Thanks, Hattori-kun." she whispered, smiling at Hattori. "I bet you think I'm a crybaby, since I keep crying… I bet Shinichi will scold me when I find him." Hattori smiled wryly and also stood up, looking determinedly into Ran's eyes.

"So, ya up for it now?" his smile curved up at the end, turning into an imitation of the infamous knowing smile Shinichi always gave.

Smiling back, Ran nodded.

"Yeah."

XXX

Time passed.

As the two teenagers searched, their determination began to wither, becoming a little dubious that they would find him.

But, as if Time had noticed, it agreed to help them out.

"AH!" Ran called out, pointing to a low, squat building with red, rusty doors. It was old and shabby, and had an ominous air floating about it. Tinted yellow from age, the walls were cracked, and lines were etched into the stone like wrinkles on an old man.

"That's it!" Hattori exclaimed, rushing over, face lit up with relief and joy. They stood in front of it, searching for an entrance beside the locked doors.

"How do we get in?" Ran panted, obviously tired. "The doors are locked, and there doesn't seem to be any other way in…"

"Look around! He has to be here!" Hattori insisted, wiped sweat from his forehead, and he jogged around the left side of the building. Ran went the other way, eyes roaming over the walls desperately, as if hoping that a big red button would be there, and by pressing it a door made from the wall would open. 'Shinichi!' her mind cried. It was a continuous howl, lighting up candles of anxiety in Ran's heart. It was certain that if they couldn't find him in the end, she would break and crumble. And then all that would be left would be a human shell void of emotion. A cry of relief sounded out from the other side, and Ran recognized the voice as Hattori's. She ran to the other side, finding Hattori kneeling on the ground, wiping away dirt and branches.

"Hattori-kun, did you find an entrance?" Ran asked, breathing heavily.

"Yeah, look!" Hattori scooped up a handful of dirt and tossed it aside, revealing a wood board. "There was sort of a ledge where the board was, so I tripped on it, and I looked into it. Turns out that it's the entrance. My guess is that they entered through here and then someone came out and piled it up with dirt, to conceal the fact that there was an entrance. They would still be able to get out, since it's just some dirt." He added. He scooted his hands under the board and pulled up, grunting with effort. The wood board flipped up, and some dirt spilled into the square-ish hole underneath. The hole stretched down for quite a distance, and a metal ladder led the way down.

"Shinichi….lives here…" Ran whispered, tense. The way the darkness crept up from underneath made her feel uneasy, like she was entering the home of a serial killer, or a monster. But the ironic thing was that the someone who lived here was the exact opposite.

A detective.

And one she loved at that.

"Well, we should head in soon." Hattori said, grinning, "We'll surprise him, and then we'll take him down as a punishment for hiding." Ran nodded, smiling.

"I'll give him a good round house kick." a little fire lit in her eyes, of which Hattori chuckled at.

"Well, I'll go down first." he said decisively, swinging himself around so he would be descending down the right way, and placed his foot carefully onto the first metal bar.

"Be careful, ok." Ran said, looking down into the shadows as Hattori disappeared, the darkness engulfing him. A few moments later, Hattori's voice called up to Ran that she can begin to come down, as there were no bad rungs. She nodded, though he couldn't see her, and started down, her hands gripped onto the cold metal nervously. Before she completely went underground, she decided to pull the wooden board halfway back onto the hole, in case anyone came by. They might mistake the board for overturned dirt, if seen from such an angle.

Shinichi…

The same name echoed in the darkness of her mind, occupying every space, as she too was enveloped by the dark shadows of underneath.

The dark shadows in which her beloved resides.

XXX

Eh, an ok ending… well I hope that was at least semi-satisfactory, since I ranted on and on about her tears so you might want to punch me but I made them find the place. The place where Shinichi is ^^ SO next time will be actually meeting the detective hopefully, and something else to spice up the meeting….

I mean, if everything works out the way I want it to be that is….

But anyways thanks for reading the fanfic of an erratic author~