And yes, mainly because it's easier to translate than innovate. Sorry. X.x And feel free to (try and) shoot me at the end if you feel the urge...
---
One shot three:
Note: The following is what you get when
Samiha, although already spoilt by the previous one-shot, asked for a
story where Ran is the narrator...
It just so happened that I had
an idea regarding Ran, that only needed some contrary idea added to
it to become the original version of what you see
below.
Genre: Tragedy(?)
Characters: Ran, Conan and Haibara.
Rating: T
Collision
Everything happened so fast, I don't know what to make out of it.
I open my
eyes.
The fear that caused them to close is no more.
I feel as
calm as a rock.
I see, without comprehending, what I have before
me.
It is I, Ran Mouri. A young girl, barely turned
seventeen...
Am I facing a mirror?
In that case, I don't look
that well...
My skin is pale, my cheeks are scratched, and there,
at the corner of my mouth, a thin streak of blood flows.
Something
is not right...
Somethi...
And suddenly I realize.
My
eyes are closed.
I hold back a scream. And then stop. I no longer have a voice to scream with.
In a fit of panic, I
glance around.
People, lots of people, a crossroad, cars...
Only
then do I notice him, beside my strewn body.
There kneels a small
bespectacled boy on the brink of collapse.
I cannot even hear the
words he seems to mumble, I hear absolutely no sound at all.
The
silence is choking me!
However, as if I could hear despite my
deafness, some notions come to my mind.
A car, a collision.
I remember.
The Detective boys...
Ayumi, Mitsuhiko, Genta, Ai
and Conan...
I was accompanying them to an Exhibition on Masked
Yaiba, not far from the Tokyo Dome.
To go there, we had to cross
at the crossroad...
This Crossroad.
There wasn't much
traffic, the green man was most certainly lit.
There shouldn't
have been any trouble.
Ayumi, Mitsuhiko and Genta were walking
in front of me, Conan and Ai trailing slightly, behind me.
The
wind blew, an agreeable breeze, playing to the joyous voices of the
children as it tossed around my skirt and hair.
And then there was the screeching of tires.
Intrigued by this unusual noise,
the children and I turned our heads.
A black car. Accelerating at
full speed. Straight at Ai.
The poor child was frozen on the
middle of the road.
Conan let out a panicked swear, Ayumi cried
out, and the two other boys yelled.
There was no way to
prevent the car from hitting Ai.
At least, there shouldn't have
been any.
But there was a way. And I used it.
I died as a result then?
Ai...
Did I succeed? Is she...?
I turn
my eyes towards where I had pushed her, putting myself in the car's
path in her stead.
I am reassured to see the young auburn-haired
girl alive.
Sure, she is slightly scratched, and traumatized, but
she is alive, and that's all that matters.
And the voice from no where speaks to me once more.
Professor Jodie, that woman with the gun, the previous time that I saved her life.
She's
being targeted.
It could happen again.
That's just what
occurred...!
But why? Why would someone want her dead?
I
glance around me, looking for the black car that hit me.
Of
course, it is no longer here.
And as a slight depression starts to
take a hold of me, I feel myself descending, like a breeze, from the
place where I was floating, to sit by my corpse, next to
Conan.
Conan...
How could I have been so blind.
You are
not simply 'Conan'.
Shinichi...
Non-existent tears make
themselves known.
How did I let myself be duped day after day, by
each of your masks?
It is you, I no longer have any doubt what so
ever.
I do not need an explanation.
You have done, and always
will do, what you believe to be right...
I recall asking you
once what you would do if the culprit was someone you cherished.
You
told me that you would denounce them, after exhausting yourself
looking for some evidence of their innocence.
I should have asked you what you would do if that someone was the victim.
I
watch, saddened, the answer you give me without knowing.
You cry,
holding a limp hand.
You cry as you curse yourself, while calling
my name.
And your thoughts reach me, like a breath of wind.
"I
love you, Ran. I love you. Don't go. Ran."
You don't even
have the strength to rise upon the arrival of the ambulance, the
policemen.
You resist as they try to make you let go, as they put
the body that was mine into this morbid bag.
You let Ayumi, Genta
and Mitsuhiko take care of answering the police's questions.
You
cry.
And I cry too.
But you aren't my Shinichi unless you
manage to overcome your pain.
You continue to blame yourself, to
think it's your fault, and only your fault.
Ai, she thinks the
same.
Even if it's only at this very moment I realize that she's
like you, trapped in a body that is not her own...
That young
woman half girl is frozen with terror, at the thought that it is
because of her that I died.
That had it not been for her...
But
without her, it's you who would have died.
Shinichi, wake up! I
beg you!
Shinichi...
Three weeks have gone by,
already?
And you have yet to lift your gaze from the floor.
The
police have found my murderer, the driver of that black car.
He
had been paid and threatened so as to run Ai over.
They had him
eliminated, his death masqueraded as an accident.
You know.
You
know who is behind all this.
You know why Ai has not left her room
at professor Agasa's.
Why she stands so frightened, behind him, at
my funeral.
Why aren't you doing anything?
Don't you
realize the she, she can't take it no longer?
That this terror and
feeling of endless guilt will bring her to her demise?
That your
inaction will bring you to yours?
The evening after my
funeral, Ai has fled.
She left no message, no clue.
And
without you to protect her, who shall stop them from killing
her?
Without her, how do you hope to rise again?
Was my death
for nought?
Shinichi, I love you, and to see you suffer so makes me suffer as much.
"Shinichi..."
I know
that you hear me.
You lift your head, whisper my name.
You have
just awakened once more from your slumber and that horrible
nightmare.
"Shinichi, you must protect her... For
me..."
Protect. The word slips through your lips, half
regret, and half question.
Your eyes open wide.
You murmur the
name Haibara.
But she has left, and you do not know it!
You
pass by my parents, asleep on the sofa.
You ignore the empty
bottles on the table before them.
You pick up the receiver, dial
Agasa's phone number.
He tried to warn you so many times that she wasn't well.
You learn from his voice that she is no
longer there.
You hang up and rush to join him, to search for
her.
But I, I know where she is.
The voice that talks to me
without my hearing a single word told me.
I remember the place. This other person that I sense, watching over you.
I see you looking in all the places that come to your mind, without any success.
Panicked, you return with the professor, to search
through her things.
She couldn't have been kidnapped, you are sure
of that.
She left of her own will.
You hardly even glance
at that news cut.
"Shinichi... The docks... Shinichi,
remember..."
All of a sudden, I feel a gust of wind. That
other person is by my side.
With a single blow, the newsprint
falls under your nose.
You look at it.
I see you start to brush
the idea aside.
"Shinichi! It's there! She is over
there!"
For an instant, I despair at the thought that you
cannot hear me.
Yet, after a long silence, you lift your
chin.
That wary air. You heard me.
You are going to follow this
unlikely path.
You ask the professor to start his car.
At
last.
Hope has returned.
Here you are at the docks, I
follow.
You can hardly believe your eyes.
But yes, she really
is there.
After finding your way past numerous identical
containers, leaving the professor in the car "just in case",
you discover her at that fateful place.
The place where, shortly
after you became Conan, we found her sister.
You wonder how
the devil she managed to get here by her own means, but truly, it
does not matter.
You see her, crouching, trembling; her coat too
thin to protect her from the cold of the night. She leans against a
container, facing, without knowing, the very spot where Masami
died...
At your arrival, she turns away her face.
But
you no longer wish to ignore what is happening before your very
eyes.
You know that unless you do something, she will destroy
herself.
And that it would destroy you as well.
You defy
her, she replies.
You exchange bitter phrases, painful words.
You
strip your respectful misunderstandings to the bone, you express your
pains, your sorrows, these truths that hurt.
She mentions her fears and you shout at her.
You never could deal with such
things gently.
It is both a fault and a quality of yours.
At
last, your voices hoarse, you stop.
The sound of the sea, of a
ship leaving the docks suddenly fills your world.
You ask her if she too, she expects to leave you alone, abandoned behind.
Shinichi...
She tries to answer, but, hesitant, she falls back on her default sarcasm and pessimism.
You
correct her.
No. The antidote is not what interests you, hardly
ever was, and certainly is no more.
You do not wish to lose
another to their evil hands.
They are the ones who took me
away from your life, it certainly is not her fault.
You do not
wish to give them another chance.
You promised you would protect
her, and, at your words, I feel the breeze of that other person
stir.
I can see her, she stands beside Ai.
Masami. No,
Akemi... The young woman looks at me, and smiles with the most
melancholy that could be.
Akemi rests an evanescent hand on the
tired shoulder of her young sister.
"Ai... Ai, help
Shinichi. Please."
Don't let my Shinichi destroy himself.
She
doesn't seem to hear me.
You lower your eyes, letting her reflect on your words without the weight of your sad gaze.
She
mumbles that she is an idiot, just like you are to her eyes.
She
stands up, you raise your head.
She speaks with a cold and level
tone.
At last. Her fear is starting to dissolve.
Sharply, she
asks for forgiveness, more or less, and reassures you.
Okay. She
shall not flee.
I died because of them, but all is not lost.
I know you would like to say it is, but you know that you would be wrong.
She continues, with a shrug.
If one is to risk all
that is left, she wants to repair her mistakes.
She swears to you
that she will make the antidote.
Not for you, nor for her, but
for me.
She will not have me dead for nothing.
At this,
her voice softens.
I glimpse the tears in the corners of her
eyes.
You have tears in your own.
I embrace you with my
ghost-like arms, hoping to comfort you.
You will live, you will
overcome this challenge that is my sudden departure.
I know that
now.
I smile as I cry in relief, with my phantom tears.
I notice, as I rise, that Akemi is similarly reassured for Ai.
You take each other by the hand, to return to the professor in his car.
Akemi takes my hand, and smiles.
And the wind
blows, revealing to us your future.
Your path will be long,
scattered with trials, but I see you together, till the very
end.
You, protecting her with all your heart, and she coming to
your aid when you least expect, revealing bit by bit her love and
devotion for you.
You never were selfish or ungrateful, and
you won't be.
I am glad to know that you will not waste the love
you were saving for me.
Two white wings carry me up towards the night sky. Akemi follows with her own blood red wings.
Just as the moon has been doing tonight, the two angels we have become shall watch over you both, for all the remainder of your lives...
END
And when I first finished this I was surprised yet again, for it was my first successful ConanxAi fiction. xX Yeay.
