Kiss of Death
Chapter 38, Part 39
"No Jade"
"So I reckon Conan's still having a conversation with the Boss. His room is in this isolated circular building - like you know, one of those towers you see in fables. It's the one on the side of a waterfall. The woman held captive is inside the main building-"
"You sure? If you're lying, I will-"
The boy with silver hair glared. Williamine's purple orbs showed lethal danger, he retorted, "I'm not. Why would I lie?"
"And what about their well-being? Is the detective boy and the female agent alright?"
"Conan's been battered up by Gin, but I supposed the Boss wanted him to get cleaned up. From the looks of it, I doubt the Boss will want to kill Conan. Either not yet or not ever, I think. As for the woman... They-"
"Spill it. Is she okay? Is she alive?" Akai pressed on.
"She is, but not- not in the way you wanted her to be. Gin- he... He did something bad to her! There was blood- she was not moving, even if she was breathing. Not because she couldn't but she just- just froze! Staring into nothingness... And her clothes- they were ripped over! Oh God... It was- I shouldn't have walked in that room!" he let out a cry and whimpered, resembling an injured puppy.
Akai's world remained still. He couldn't have heard the boy right.
"Get me out of here... Get them out of there... That place - it's hell-"
"Of course," Akai said, plastering a calm outward appearance, patting the boy on the left shoulder, "you're 15 and in the eyes of the law, you're a minor. Even if you had killed someone, it seems that you were trained to. I don't really know how guilty you are, the fact that they left you with no choice. We'll likely put you in rehabilitation programme and strict probation, I'm uncertain about the other things. Perhaps if you behave, we'll get you for an adoption. Surely there might be some officers who had always wanted kids, I can't really promise but we can try to arrange that-"
"Adoption-?"
"Yeah, until you're old enough to be independent-"
"Like...a family-?"
Akai nodded. Purple orbs lit up with hope.
"So just stay here. One of my men will get you to a location far away from here. Things are gonna get brutal, so don't play hero," Akai warned and turned to leave, with a sniper in hand.
"Uhm..."
"Out with it-"
The boy shuffled about, kicking a small pebble nearby, "there's this girl about my age. She's completely brainwashed. I doubt she even knows what is right or wrong. I don't really like her, but she's unaware of what she is doing - and that itself is pitiful and pathetic. I think she needs help. Just- just don't hurt her okay?"
Akai gave a wave of acknowledgement as he walked out. On the exterior, he was the ever-confident agent. Yet... on the inside... he knew what a blunder he was: he was too late for Jodie.
"Your friends have come to fetch you-"
No- they weren't done talking!
Funny. Conan wanted to escape, but now that help did come... He needed to prolong the conversation.
He had a point to prove.
Shaking his head, "We are the same coin... We both were enchanted by Holmes' adventures, wanted to be like him, saw the downsides of being one. But no... we're not the same. We're on different sides of it."
An explosion blasted.
The Boss turned away, his back facing and he was cupping his chin. After deep in thought, he concluded, "perhaps the chance of my whole experiment's success is equivalent to flipping a coin..."
More gunshots were heard.
"If I became your reflection... then I wouldn't know how to face someone... I wanted to make the same choice as her... So I guess that the probability is more than just 50/50," Conan reasoned with a bittersweet smile.
The infrastructure of the building shook.
The Boss returned the smile... Not a heartwarming one though. "Then that is what makes it on a different side, isn't it? I could have killed them all if I wanted to be really right. Strange, perhaps I did not have the motivation to be right as I thought."
The boss settled a pistol on the table and sighed. An open invitation for him to temptation for Conan to take it was high. But wait- was that left on purpose?
The Boss ruffled his bangs and let out a chuckle, "man, having a girl to care for you to be whipped like that... I'm envious... Takes a more meaning to being green-eyed."
More crumbling of rubble was heard. Urgent footsteps became louder by the second. It said, "I don't even like you but you need to survive if I will have to live-"
Conan stood rooted the ground at the sight of the man. "You. Get away from the Boss," Gin threatened, reaching for his gun.
His instincts acted on their own: in a flash, Conan lurched to where the table was and grabbed the pistol. He immediately had the Boss in a headlock with the weapon on his hostage's temple.
Eh... What am I doing?
Gin was ready to aim. Conan fought back and restrained the Boss further in his arm, "do anything and I'll- I'll-"
Is this right?
"Go ahead detective," his hostage taunted with a smirk, "once my heart stops, Gin will be blown to smithereens. You're just a pull of a trigger away."
He's right. If I kill him right now... both of them will be dead and I will win. If I don't...then I might be the one who will be dead.
"You shut up, brat! I'm trying to save your skin over here! Don't go suicidal now!" Gin hollered. A sweat formed on his brow. It was the first time Conan had witnessed the man to be frightened.
Conan backed away until his back met the balcony. He looked back to see a blue water body way below. The waterfall nearby was splashing harshly and its point of contact with the remaining water body created a mist above. Gin advanced.
Crap, he was cornered. Literally and figuratively.
Darn it! If I don't kill either of them, that might be the end of me. Gin will end me, for sure. But if I do, then that means-
"Come on, do it," the devil whispered once more, "didn't Gin do something cruel to the girl you happen to like so much? He ruined her, didn't he? Stop playing saint, we know it's unforgivable. And surely you don't pity the old me, do you? I killed your friends. I don't have regard for life, not even my own..."
Jade eyes went wider, showing its insanity that it had been repressing. He cracked a wide grin. Gin's clamouring ebbed away as Conan got hypnotised by the olive spell.
"Hurry, hurry. The building's about to be in shambles. I told Vermouth to destruct it once she's out and that they had arrived-"
Was this really okay?
"Or is your pride too much in the way to prove that I'm correct? Is your life truly worth it to say that there's really no jadedness in that cobalt blue eyeballs of yours?!-"
"Damn it!"
Gin attempted to rush after them, but the mist surrounding him made it unclear for him.
Conan cracked under pressure. His thoughts went blank. His heart raced as he realised what he had just done.
Left with no resolve, he made himself and his hostage fall backwards from the balcony and into the depths. He had been in tight situations... he was confident that the water body below could save them from the fall. His hands were empty. The gravitational pull made him lose his grip on both the Boss and the pistol.
"How stubborn. I guess I carved the wrong path in my life-"
He listened to the other boy murmur before both of them splashed into the pool.
A/N: Okay! Hold your breath guys! Next chapter will have the reunion of Conan and Ai!
Just a few notes:
1. In a poem by Philip Larkin (forgot which one), it says "no green in your eyes" indicates being innocent. Because green means envy and everything ugly in between.
2. Also a play on the phrase "green-eyed", indicating envy.
3. Jade is another synonym for the colour green. Being "jaded" (of life) usually refers to someone being too wary because they had seen too many horrid things in their life. Therefore, I used it as play on the phrase "no jadedness (no green and also, not being jaded) in his blue eyes (because Conan's eyes are blue)".