Kiss of Death
Part 30
Chapter 29
Rei was dumbfounded.
Of all the years of being an agent, he was absolutely helpless.
Before his eyes was the young bespectacled boy who was crouching, with chin to his knees and he was rocking back and forth. His lifeless eyes were staring intently at the ground, as if he wanted to memorise the patterns of the floor.
Rei was unsure how to comfort him. First was Cedric's death, then Megure's and Genta's, and now the news of the massacre at the headquarters. The platinum blond clenched his fist tightly, with eyes burning in pure resentment.
"Those bastards... Insulting us like that," he spat venom, while examining the pictures of the outcome of the massacre, "they made them into children and induced them to get into a killing spree... it was as if they were taunting-"
"-that in their eyes, we are just children playing, self-destructing ourselves by fighting against the Black Organisation," Conan finished his sentence.
"They took Hidemi Hondou as well, Eisuke called me up for back-up," he said. Rei was more than frantic now.
No, no! Not Hidemi. Anyone, but Hidemi. There's no one left that I care about -Rei thought.
"Then go," Conan replied, "because of the unforeseen massacre that they pulled, our initial plan and formation is ruined. I'll try to hold off the investigation of Genta for now. I should be able to do that myself."
"Are you... sure..?" Rei questioned, hesitant to leave Conan by himself.
Conan did not even bother to look at him.
"Just get out of here-"
Rei swore he saw a teardrop, but the reflection made by Conan's glasses hindered it. Rei glanced at him one last time, before rushing off to the scene.
What a broken detective.
"Huh? What do you mean you can't come here right now?" Jodie said, scratching her head in frustration through the phone.
"I was supposed to, but because of that massacre and Hidemi being withheld hostage now, I cannot be there. I know I promised to protect Shiho Miyano, but I can't. Jodie, I'm entrusting the job to you, okay?" Akai said via the phone.
"Alright..." Jodie sighed in defeat. There was doubt in her ability to do so, but this was Akai... He hardly asks anyone a favour, but there he was, placing all his trust on her.
"And Jodie-?"
"Yes Shu-?"
"Let's talk after everything's done," he said before hanging up. She sighed loudly again.
"Everything okay, Jodie?" Agasa asked, concerned.
"Just fine," she replied, "except that Akai would be a little late. It'll be bad if someone would attack us now. Everything's going haywire, we have very few agents left, so be on guard."
All of a sudden, there was a loud clashing of windows, made by an unknown item. The item turned out to be a speaker.
"Now, let's play a little game of hide and seek, Sherry-"
Ai was at the corner of the room, immediately terrified.
"Over my dead body, you sick crook," Jodie said in spite, as the three of them ran for safety.
Vermouth and Vinsanto were heading to Eisuke's place, in the same violet car. Vinsanto was the first to break the silence, "so Eisuke Hondou requested to have the exchange on a rooftop? I wonder what for?"
"I'm not sure, but they might pull something up, so be careful," Vermouth said, "but I guess 'careful' isn't in your dictionary, you reckless girl."
Vinsanto let out an eerie giggle.
"The one who should be careful, is you -"
This caused Vermouth to spike up. "What's that supposed to mean?" she said.
"Oh, I just find it peculiar how you shift the car to the other side when I was about to shoot. It was also odd how you tied agent Akai Shuichi in a manner that a trained FBI agent can escape with. You don't happen to be like..." Vinsanto proceeded to knock on the window pane, "like this, aren't you?"
Vermouth glared at her. "You're wrong about that. If I was, I would have revealed myself," she growled.
"Then I guess it's the other option then," the girl giggled, "you don't happen to be some sort of wicked fairy turned soft because of some princess aren't you, Mal? Just so you know, only princesses get their happy endings, you're way too old to be a princess," Vermouth squinted her eyes at the sudden new nickname the girl gave out of mockery.
"Given the identity of Doctor Araide's spouse, I wouldn't be so surprised," she went on.
Knowing that Ran and Doctor Araide were married, Vermouth really did not wish to kidnap him.
It seemed like the boss was giving her all the tasks that she would hate to do.
"Oh look-! We're here," Vinsanto squealed in enthusiasm, arriving at their rendezvous. She eagerly ran up the staircase, reaching the rooftop of the high-rise building before Vermouth and Hidemi. There, Eisuke, Doctor Araide and Tyler waited.
Eisuke demanded, "alright, give my sister back."
"I'll let her go, when the two of them start walking...slowly," Vermouth commanded, still armed. Tyler and Tomoaki Araide started walking towards them. They released Hidemi Hondou, who also walked at the same pace as the other two. Tomoaki squinted his eyes at Hidemi, subtly hinting for her to glance sideways. Hidemi was quick on it, seeing Rei on the edge of the building.
"Now!" Tomoaki screamed.
Tomoaki and Hidemi ran sideways, jumping off the building. The two females were stunned, having a slow reaction with firing their bullets. Vinsanto hurriedly fired a shot or two at the fleeing Hidemi, but she was quickly disarmed when a bullet grazed her hand. She was only able to shoot Hidemi at the leg, but it was not enough to bring her down. Blood oozed out from her hand, but she seemed unfazed by it. She looked at the direction of the shot, only to see a glinting light from a distance. She can only glare at it.
"A hand for a hand, little brat," Akai smirked behind the sniping gun.
Visanto was surprised, when another merely went pass under her ear. She quickly fought hard to avoid the incoming shots, anticipating where it had come from. She let out a half-hearted laugh, which seemed to be coated with nervousness - there was a thrill in dancing with death alright.
Meanwhile, Vermouth was still armed. She had the luxury of time to shoot Tomoaki Araide, but she could not.
Or rather, she would not.
Perhaps, that was why Akai had left her alone. Akai had yet attempted to snipe her.
"Vermouth... I wonder what you're up to," Akai remarked, spying her through the scope.
Instead, Vermouth watched Tomoaki jump off the building, before rising again from a distance on a white hang-glider, with none other than Kaito Kid.
"Tyler! What are you waiting for? Run towards me!" Eisuke screamed, in the midst of all the chaos. But Tyler was rooted on his feet. This caught Vermouth's attention and she fired a bullet towards Eisuke, but purposely missing it and the bullet landed on the ground just infront of Eisuke. Yet, this caused Eisuke to be overwhelmed by the jolting sound, thus losing his balance at the edge of the building. He let out an awful cry, as his heart seemed to have moved to his throat while falling. He quickly fumbled with his belt, releasing a hang-glider. He looked back guiltily, because he had failed his mission - the plan for Tyler to run towards him, so that both of them could escape from the two females via jumping and sailing through the wind with the hang-glider. He witnessed the boy walking towards them.
At this, Akai stopped firing.
They were all perplexed - this was not part of the plan. What was Tyler thinking?
"So your plan was to use this high-rise building, then mid-way through the exchange, jump off the building and escape using Kaito Kid's hang-glider gadgets? In the meanwhile, using a sniper to disarm and distract us. How impressive," Vinsanto complimented, clapping her hands, "but why didn't you go?"
"I want to know the truth-" he said, the dark eyebags were obvious now under the pale moonlight. Clearly, the boy was stricken.
"The Boss wants to meet you, because no one could live for eternity. He wants you to inherit whatever he had worked hard for. It's true that you don't resemble Boss-sama at all. No one would have thought that he's your grandfather, he's too good-looking to be even related to you," she pouted, twirling her hair.
"Like I would want anything from him that is stained with blood," he hissed.
"Sorry to break your bubble, brat. You're currently living off of it," Vermouth added. The boy could not deny this. Whatever he ate or wear, those money were probably blood-stained.
"Then who is he? I had always talked to him through a device, but never see his face," Tyler said grimly.
"How sure are you about that?" Vinsanto questioned, feigning naivety.
"Of course I am! My mother single-handedly raised me in Mexico City. Then, she passed away from an illness, I had no other relative that took me in, so I ended up roaming like a street rat. Then one fine day, one of you just came up to me and tell me the news that I actually have a grandfather who owned Moriarty Academy. You guys took me in, made me go to his school and I only communicated with him via e-mails. I had never seen his face," he explained.
"You did. You just don't know-"
"Then who is he? The one who had the power to overthrow a syndicate leader. The one who mercilessly tortures children and nurturing them into empty killing machines. The one who ordered to kill Cedric and Genta, and all those people like the Cisson family. The one who lured agents into the Moriarty Academy campus, before bombing the place up. The one who ordered to drug all the agents at the headquarters and turned them into little kids, inducing them to participate in a bloodbath, because he knew that the bombings at the Moriarty Academy would cause the agents to meet up at the headquarters. Who, was so chaotically heartless that could possibly be my grandfather?! How am I related to that monster!" Tyler rambled on, his crying face portrayed a person whose mind and heart were crumbling.
"Okay, I'll tell you-"
Vinsanto leaned onto his ear, whispering...
As much as Akai wanted to, Tyler was too close to them for him to get an open shot.
"Boss-sama is..."
The world came to a stop.
Vinsanto pulled away, a smile on her face. Tyler's face paled, as white as Kaito Kid's suit. He was shaking, but then he stoned.
No one would have known what was going through his turbulent mind.
With a solemn face, he swiftly snatched Vermouth's gun and backed away a few steps. All of them looked alarmed. "Hey, what are you doing!" Vermouth yelled.
"Step forward and I'll shoot," he warned.
Another tear escaped from him.
He let out a lethal smile, like a devil about to do his mischief - one that would send shivers to someone. He placed the weapon on his temple.
"Tell him, I'll see him in hell-"
The boy laughed, followed by the sound of the gun.