Kiss of Death
Chapter 39, Part 40
"Departure and Reunion"
A/N: Here comes CoAi!
Conan's ears were flooded with water, his eyeballs stung from the pressure. He could feel his clothes were soaked as he sunk. Rubble had also splashed into the water body.
So the building is rupturing.
From the corner of his eye, the blond boy was being swept away by the undercurrent. The case containing the pair of oceanic blue optic organs tailed behind him, as if there was a magic thread bounded to one another. A stolen ornament, an unknown curse, an unwritten history, that was chained to the boy with golden hair.
Conan could not find the strength to move to do anything but stare at the surface that was far within his reach. He was drowning.
Odd, it seemed that he was drowning before he even hit the water. Drowning in lies, misery and perplexion.
A body appeared before him. One that he knew well than any other would: Kudo Shinichi. Kudo Shinichi was unconscious and unmoving. The body sunk to the depths, disappearing. Conan knew that was the last of the hallucinations he would receive from his previous life.
Goodbye, Kudo Shinichi.
Ai emerged from the bunk she was hiding. They told her to stay put. But really now, who were they kidding?
She hid well among a thick bush. Alright, perhaps she will not endanger herself unnecessarily. She was afraid. What if- if Conan is? Her heart thumped across her chest heavily.
Just then, that's when she saw: two bodies falling from a building. It was pretty far from her, but she was certain that one of them was Conan. She gasped when Conan hit the waters with a loud splash.
She glanced around. If she were to run now, it will be an open invitation for an enemy to fire at her. She waited a minute or two.
Still, no sign of Conan rising above the surface.
She grew anxious. Is he still alive? Is he okay? She could not sit - it was dangerous, but did she care about her well-being more than losing him? Despite being an intellectual girl, Ai held no rationality when it comes to him.
Without thinking, she rushed to where he had fallen in. She ran as fast as her legs could carry, almost tripping when a sharp sting pierced her lower back. She turned to see the perpetrator, only to see Rei shooting the hidden enemy and approaching its hiding spot. She continued to speed to the scene and dived into the waters.
Please, please be okay! - she chanted.
Red powder oozed out from the waters. It came from her abdomen. But she told herself: none of it mattered. The girl was fixated on rescuing Conan.
She swam and swam, ignoring the pain. It was relatively less excruciating from how she felt if she ever failed to rescue him. The boy had rescued her so many times, she couldn't make a blunder with his life on the stake now.
Please... Where are you? Oh God... There!
She spotted his body, his eyelids closed.
Please... Stay with me... I'm coming to get you.
She swam even faster. Gotcha! Her left arm snaked around his waist while she used her dominant arm to swim up. She was losing air.
The surface seemed so far... But no! I need you to survive.
Ai was not always physically strong, having spent her days in the laboratory than the outdoors. Her arms were getting weak, the adrenaline that had been pumping through her veins was slowly subsiding and the pain in her abdomen settled in. She winced. She saw the moonlight from the surface.
Almost there!
She broke through the surface like a water ballerina and surveyed around. The officers were piling in, with a few members handcuffed. From the looks of it, the dawn of the organisation was near. She paddled to the nearest land area and settled the boy.
"Please stay..." she sobbed as she pumped into his chest. He coughed out some water. She caressed his bangs away from his forehead.
Conan slowly woke from his unconsciousness, meeting a tear-eyed Ai. "Hai...Haibara..?" The girl embraced him.
"Hey...It's okay...Don't cry..."
He responded by doing the same. He could feel it...that warmth. But his smile faded. Wait- something sticky was on his palm. He gazed at it...Was that blood? Then, her sobbing ceased and the girl remained dangerously silent. Alarmed, he looked at Ai's face. She was getting light-headed. Redness was staining her blouse.
Furiously, he yelled, "you idiot! You're hurt!"
Ai's vision blackened.
A/N: Short chapter but I had to break apart the next one. You'll see why. Anyways, I really wanted a "girl save guy" situation.