I Would Have Epilogue
This wasn't originally my plan but it kind of took me by storm and I just had to write it down.
WisteriaReads
"You're lucky, Ran." Shinichi said, pushing Ran as she sat in a wheelchair. "That the doctors deemed you well enough to see the Hanami." Ran shrugged, dusting her yukata of the petals that had accumulated on her lap. She wore a lilac yukata that was scattered with pale cream flowers and a vermillion obi sash across her waist, a matching red flower perched in her hair.
"I'll say… At least you don't have to wear these clog like shoes! They're killing my feet! Tell me again why we couldn't wear our trainers?" Heiji cried, pointing at the sandals that were on his feet.
"They're called Geta, ahou. They're traditional footwear so if all the samurais could do it, you should be able to do it too." Kazuha retorted with a blank face, suddenly popping out from behind him. She was wearing a pale yellow yukata with dark blue flowers adorning the fabric as an amber obi complimented her lemon ribbon in her hair. He shot her an irritated glare and proceeded to take his shoe off, as if to chuck it in her direction.
"Mou! Please stop arguing! We're here to enjoy the sakura so don't ruin this moment with your bickering." Ran said, moving her hands in an appeasing manner. She was glad that Kazuha had decided to come down from Osaka to Tokyo to see her. It provided a good time to catch up with her and also the perfect time to see the flower front.
"You know, Hattori. If you throw that geta, you'll get charged with assault." Shinichi countered with an equally blank look. Ran whipped around in her chair and looked at him with a betrayed face.
"Not making it any better…" she cried.
"How can this geta be considered a 'deadly weapon'?" Heiji asked sceptically, an eyebrow raised.
"Who knows? Kazuha might have psychological trauma after you've attacked her with that thing." Shinichi replied, shrugging nonchalantly.
"How can anyone have trauma over the geta?" Heiji scoffed disbelievingly.
"She might have nightmares about flying sandals…." Ran commented dryly, rolling her eyes to the sky. Shinichi shot her a grin and she returned with an endearing smile when she suddenly burst into a heavy chesty cough. Shinichi immediately paled and scrambled for the water bottle in the rear of the wheelchair as well as her medication. He briskly handed it to her and she nodded gratefully before she downed the two pills and the water.
"Sheesh… Don't scare me like that! When the doctors' said that your immune system was going to be down for a bit, I didn't think it was going to be like this." Shinichi said, raking a hand through his hair.
"You can pray for good health at the temple since we're here." Kazuha stated, tilting her head in the direction of the temple. Before entering the temple, they washed their hands in the water troughs with the ladles.
"You're going to have to get up, Ran." Shinichi said, gently tugging her up by the crook of her arm and Ran couldn't help but reminisce that this was how he helped her up back in the hospital. She gladly allowed him to draw her up, her knees shaking slightly.
And as they waited to ring the bell, Ran found herself drifting between her thoughts, where everything else turned to white noise, and listening to her friends' conversation. She found that this was happening quite often since she woke up from her coma, and sometimes it was like she was underwater, other times it seemed like she had super hearing. Suddenly she was dragged back to conversation when she suddenly heard a couple of girls in yukatas mutter in front of her. Ran, curious, decided to listen in.
"How loud do you think we should ring the bell?" A tall girl with a red yukata asked, dubiously eyeing the bell. One girl with a pale yellow yukata shrugged, her face contorting into that of confusion.
"How the hell would I know?! Do it yourself!" The girl with the yellow yukata muttered back. Another girl leaned in, her yukata a dark blue one with a white flower pattern.
"How heavy do you think that stick is?" she asked, her face alight with curiosity.
"It's not heavy." The shortest of the girls airily replied, waving her navy blue sleeve flippantly. "See, I'll show you." She replied, striding to the cushion, where she promptly picked up the wooden rod with her rather big hands. She rang the bell and grinned back at the other girls as she walked off. The girl in the red yukata looked at the blue and white clothed one slightly dubiously as she kneeled over.
"What on earth is she talking about?! This is pretty heavy for a stick!" the red clothed girl exclaimed under her breath. She softly rang the bell, looking around once she did.
"Not loud enough…" She muttered. She then proceeded to drive the stick heavily across and before Ran could stop her, the deafening ring of the bell echoed around the shrine. She looked around her sheepishly and caught sight of various people glaring at her, Hattori and Shinichi included.
She smiled sheepishly before walking out in a similar fashion to a dog whose tail was drooped in between its legs. Ran and Kazuha then kneeled together and rung the bell, moving to the side to allow the others to get to the bell.
"… That girl was stupid, wasn't she?" Heiji remarked quietly.
"Obviously not from here." Shinichi muttered in return. Suddenly Heiji broke into a conniving grin, rubbing his hands like those stereotypical villains.
"I know that look… It's the "I have a brilliant plan" look…" Shinichi said in a deadpan way.
"Come on. My ideas are brilliant. Remember that time when I suggested that that murder was done using the fishing line that was strung through the diplomat's key chain and out through the door to create an impossible locked room?" he asked, without taking a breath.
"That was a deduction, barou. And you were wrong in the end…" Shinichi replied blankly. Heiji visibly sweat-dropped, scratching the back of his neck ruefully.
"I had to be pretty imaginative to think of such a plan. Anyway… My 'plan' was to have a wager with you." He said. Shinichi raised an incredulous eyebrow, his eyes shining with slight intrigue. As if picking up on this, Heiji continued.
"I bet that I can ring that bell loud enough without attracting any flashy attention to myself." He replied, pointing to the aforementioned item.
"That's stupid. I'll pass." Shinichi responded, his eyes losing their fascinated gleam, turning away to face the front.
"Don't be such a chicken. You just don't want your good name as the great detective of the east to be tarnished. Because I'm the better detective, I am willing to try new things out." With this, Shinichi turned around, clearly unimpressed.
"Okay… Fine. As long as it gets you off my back…" Shinichi muttered back, Heiji grinning like a child during Christmas. The two of them strode over to the bell and swiftly kneeled. As the boys were locked in prayer, Ran and Kazuha shot each other a wary look, already fearing the worst.
"Well….That went well…" Hattori said tightly, laughing slightly nervously. Shinichi shot him a bland glare, his eyebrow raised.
"Well? You got us kicked out!" he exclaimed, raking a frustrated hand through his hair. Heiji grinned remorsefully, looking at the sky as if to evade Shinichi's death glare. Kazuha rolled her eyes in exasperation as Ran giggled at the two boys' interaction. It had started out alright enough, when Shinichi rung the bell, only slightly louder than a normal person. Heiji had scoffed at his friend's restrained ringing.
When it had come to his turn, he hefted the stick but as he put too much momentum behind his swing, the stick slipped out backwards from his grasp and hit a middle aged man in the stomach, who promptly doubled up in pain before he lost balance and toppled over.
"Just how loud did you want that ringing to be, ahou?!" Kazuha declared, storming over to Heiji with an intense glare, one that paralleled Medusa's glare itself. Heiji stepped back slightly in surprise before he snapped back at her.
"Ahou! Loud enough to beat this guy!" He snapped back, jabbing his thumb behind him in Shinichi's direction, who rolled his eyes skyward.
"But really, Heiji. Don't you hold sticks in kendo? Why is it that your hand eye co-ordination is so bad?" Kazuha reprimanded in a defeated manner, crossing her arms in front of her.
"Ahou! I can hardly be blamed for that! That thing was slippery like a… a… slug!" he declared, stumbling to find the right description of the aforementioned rod.
"Right…."she replied cynically before walking back to Ran. She promptly face-palmed once she had reached Ran's side.
"I'm in love with a freaking idiot…." She mumbled and Ran chuckled slightly. Kazuha continued to push Ran's chair as the two boys were still deep in conversation, one of teasing and jeering and some mentions of blackmail about a video… Shinichi immediately turned a deep shade of crimson at the mention of blackmail. I wonder what they're talking about…. Ran pondered thoughtfully before striking a conversation with Kazuha.
"You still haven't told him of your feelings, have you?" Ran inquired. Kazuha turned away, a vain attempt to shield her blush, causing Ran to giggle at her friend's reaction.
"No… He is adamant on the idea that he never said what he said on Ebisu Bridge. But I know it! It's not just my imagination being desperate!" she said determinedly, eyes flashing conviction before her smile turned sly.
"So have you said anything? You know in reply to… I don't know? Another confession? One that took place in London?" Kazuha teased light-heartedly. Now it was Ran's turn to look away to shield her growing blush, her eyes bright as she remembered that time in the hospital. "London? I never replied to you, did I?... What did you say? A heart of a girl whom one likes….And do you know what I think about it?"
Ran smiled timidly at Kazuha. "Well… of a sort." She replied hastily. The other girl's eyes widened but before she could start demanding some questions, most likely a stream of them, a loud shout rung through the air.
"How could you, Ahoko?! Did you have to wear THAT today?!" someone yelled. Someone distinctly male and someone clearly terrified beyond belief. Ran swivelled around in her chair, curious to know what the commotion was about. She was surprised to see a young couple arguing, or exchanging banter, Ran did not know.
The young boy was about seventeen, in a loose fitting yukata for men, not unlike Hattori's and Shinichi's. Whereas Shinichi's was a dark blue (and Ran had to admit that it quite charming on him, though she would never say it out loud) and Hattori's a dark grey with thin white stripes, this boy's was a light grey, covered in fine black lines to resemble tatami mats. But that wasn't what shocked her.
The boy was near identical to Shinichi and beside his extreme case of bed hair and a slightly darker shade of cobalt, he could have easily fooled her of being Shinichi. Or Kaito Kid… she thought, her eyes narrowing with suspicion as she recalled the time in an airship, a time of a contagious disease, a battle over a jewelled ring and a near kiss experience…
Next to him was a girl who looked strikingly similar to Ran herself, except with dishevelled hair, who wore a light turquoise yukata with the silhouettes of open fans printed on and a dark blue obi. In her hand, she held a mop. Where she kept that mop was a mystery in itself to Ran.
"Well, you promised you wouldn't flip my skirt today, Bakaito. But Aoko didn't trust you." She replied, pouting slightly.
"It should be a sin, doing things like that! I'm adding it to the seven deadly sins!" he proclaimed loudly, causing the girl next to him to frown.
"For what?"
"For dealing with fish in general! Catching fish, making sashimi, making fish printed underwear, manufacturing those beastly merchandise about fish! All of it!" he yelled, counting them off with his fingers. "So it would be lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, pride, and association with fish. The fish is the Devil." He replied blankly, provoking a look from the girl that said "Are you serious?" and "Are you an idiot?" at the same time.
Around about this time, Ran also caught the familiar voices of the girls from the temple, chattering blithely.
"Do you know what I really want at the moment?" the blue and white one said, almost to herself.
"Heck if I know… Actually, scrap that. You want a spearmint lemonade and a triple cheese lasagne from Starbucks, don't you?" the red clothed one joked, a playful twinkle in her eyes and a mischievous smirk.
"No… Just a cheese and mushroom pocket… from Starbucks…" she mumbled dejectedly.
"You know what I really want? Freaking air con! I mean, it's boiling in this thing." The pale yellow clothed one moaned while she was vehemently fanning her face, so vigorously that Ran was worried her wrist may snap. The girl quickly glanced around, as if looking out for something.
"Sorry, world… I'm going to be unlady-like…" she cried, suddenly pulling aside the yukata to show a good portion of her legs as she began to waddle in a similar fashion to a crab. Ran suppressed the sudden urge to laugh at the girl, whose face was that of absolute bliss. The red clothed one looked slightly mortified by this and briskly hit her on the head with her fan.
"You idiot! If you want to cool your legs, wait for the wind to blow the yukata apart. That way you have an excuse."
"I can't wait for the wind!" the shortest one wailed. She suddenly burst into a dance which involved a wide variety of arm movements, comparable to a windmill. The red clothed girl stared in dismay at the other girl.
"What are you doing?" she asked resignedly, her shoulders slumped down in defeat.
"Making my own wind." The short girl replied but it got her no response from the red clothed girl. The short girl clicked her tongue impatiently.
"I'm. Airing. My. Armpits. Out." She replied, pronouncing each word as if the taller girl were an idiot. The taller girl sweat-dropped and promptly face-palmed, burying her face in the voluminous sleeves.
"I'm living in a world of goldfish…" she uttered, muffled by her sleeves. Ran couldn't help it; she burst out into an uncontrollable laughter, earning her curious looks from her friends. Luckily, the girls didn't seem to notice.
"Don't be like that. Think of nice things, like how nice this ice cream is!" one in a pale pink yukata exclaimed, holding out an ice cream cone that had two flavours, as if it were the latest scientific discovery.
"You get ice cream at home…" the yellow clothed one muttered.
"Yes, but not of this kind! I can't believe how cheap it was!" she exclaimed. Suddenly she made a face that made her look like either a seriously hyper squirrel or a turtle that went wrong in the head.
"I love food!" she announced, marching off to some adults.
"Do you girls want some food?" One of the ladies in front asked, turning to face the other girls. The girls' faces lit up and they dashed towards the woman.
"Now you can open your yukata!" the girl in red shouted back to the girl in yellow as she tore towards a possible place to sit down.
Suddenly a scream ripped through the opening, piercing Ran's ears. Shoot… that can only mean one thing… She thought despairingly. As if on cue, Shinichi's and Heiji's eyes widened and sudden filled with a burning clarity, as they always did when a case occurred.
"Finally! A reason to take off these blasted shoes!" Heiji yelled, tearing the shoes away and lobbing them behind him as he dashed off to follow Shinichi to the origin of the scream, like hounds on the scent of prey. Ran and Kazuha stared at them, too shocked to say or do anything. Ran's lips thinned into a tart grimace as she saw the two boys tear through the crowd.
"Kazuha chan? You know what I'm thinking right?" she asked, still looking at the boys.
"I believe I do." She answered in a very bored tone.
"We need to flood those boys in holy water and get some alcohol wipes."
"Umm… I was going along the lines getting more omamori, but holy water is good too. Chottematte! Why alcohol wipes?" Kazuha inquired, a look of surprise flittering across her face.
"So as to remove 99.9% of the murder-attracting bacteria…." Ran responded in a weary and jaded tone. Kazuha's face changed to one of understanding and she laughed.
"Kudo kun's humour has rubbed off on you…" she said, giggling. Ran couldn't help but smile at her friend and join in her laughter. And even though she was starving as they hadn't had lunch, or the fact she was stuck in a wheelchair until her leg recovered or even that she was waiting for Shinichi, yet again over a case, she knew she wouldn't want to have her life any other way; a life filled with uncertainty, danger, mystery, love and waiting. And a lot of waiting.
Okay. I promise this is the utmost end! This was written with my own experience when I went to Japan and I thought it would be rather funny if I merged experience with imagination together. Also, regarding Kaito's personality, I can imagine it's quite a bit like Will from Infernal Devices with the irrational fear of seemingly harmless animals.