Disclaimer: "Detective Conan" belongs to Gosho Aoyama, and "Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon" belongs to Naoko Takeuchi.
This is an alternative story to my other fanfic "Encounter in Venice" and one of the possibilities of what could have happened if Ai had taken the antidote before Shinichi brought down the Organization.
Thanks a lot to my friends and betas Rae (Astarael00) and SN1987a and the Aicoholics on LiveJournal, without whom I would never have started this fic.
FS
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Ghost at Twilight
(edited version)
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Who would have thought...
Who would have thought that I would run—run as if Vermouth was hard on my heels!—just to answer a call from a man I had dumped a few hours ago with the words "Don't write, don't call, and don't stalk me" because "I don't want this to turn into a case of fatal attraction"? But no sooner had I heard the barely audible ringing through the closed door of my apartment than I dashed upstairs, rammed the key into the keyhole, turned it until it gave an ominous sound signaling that something was going to break if I continued the mistreatment, and hastened to my bedroom to grab the receiver.
"Let's meet up for a chat and a cup of tea," said Tenoh-san's seductively husky voice. Kaioh-san was toiling away at twenty giant seascape oil paintings for her next show. And since it had become impossible for a non-artist to breathe in such an environment, Tenoh-san had returned to Tokyo to "catch up with old friends like you"...
Overcome with disappointment, I remembered that the person whose voice I had expected to hear doesn't have my number, that I'm not listed in the phone directory, and that—after such shabby treatment—no self-respecting man would even consider phoning me.
You could at least feign enthusiasm, Tenoh-san pouted. Although you pulled a fast one on me and deleted all my files, you could at least pretend to be touched by my gesture to renew acquaintance with you out of common courtesy.
Contrary to her words, she didn't sound offended. The magnificent Tenoh-sama, self-proclaimed ruler of heaven and earth, doesn't give a damn about fake politeness or common courtesy. She only teased me as she always did whenever she was in a good mood. And I wondered for the first time whether she disliked Seiya because of Kaioh-san as I had thought or whether they only clashed because they were too alike to abide each other.
"I'm so moved I can barely speak," I complied, whereupon she gave a small chuckle. Curiously enough, I realized I had missed the sound, the laugh of an acquaintance who, despite knowing what I'm capable of, still likes me enough to give me a call.
Hence I'm now perching on the edge of my bed, listening to Tenoh-san's "concise" summary of the last three years while a plan is forming in my mind, kindling a spark of hope which Tenoh-san, as I know her, is likely to snuff out soon.
"How's life?" she finally asks me after listing the hundred-forty-odd works Kaioh-san has finished during the past years (a proof that Tenoh-san feels neglected by her life partner and is proud of her at the same time). "Has your detective come to his senses and asked you out already?"
"No." I jump from the bed and proceed to the balcony to appease Kudo, who has just thrown a few pebbles at my window in revenge for abandoning him and locking him out of my apartment. "But other men have."
Five minutes! I sign to Kudo to wait for me in front of the gate. Five, or maybe ten. I wave a hand in a gesture of uncertainty when he ruffles his hair in exasperation.
"I'm sure they have," Tenoh-san gallantly says, misapprehending my statement. "Babies stopped crying whenever you smiled. If only that had happened more often!"
"I've met someone." Since the roundabout way doesn't work, I have no choice but to spell it out for her.
"Great!" Tenoh-san sounds genuinely delighted. "Your detective will be so horrified he'll propose to you by the end of this month. Sometimes we can only appreciate what we had after it's gone."
"Ah, no." I frown at the receiver. It's not a fling, I inform her. "I'm... in love, so to speak. I have all these ups and downs." I distractedly poke at my pillow a few times before I give in and bury myself up to my chin under my blanket. "And the worst thing is, I feel like expressing them."
"Is it that bad?" Tenoh-san laughs. "Well, it must be if you feel like confiding in me."
"It has something to do with you, actually." I try to shake off the outrageous feeling that I'm recounting my story to a girlfriend like schoolgirls suffering from a hopeless crush usually do whereas, in reality, my talkativeness with her serves a specific purpose.
"Ah, koneko-chan, you know I'm already taken."
Knowing Tenoh-san's narcissism, I suspect this was only half a joke.
No, seriously, it's just like back then in Paris with the difference that I didn't even take the antidote this time. Kudo says I'm out of my mind... I thought you could help me out a bit...
Although my dramatic tone comes across as self-mocking as intended, my voice betrays my anxiety with a quiver, which Tenoh-san, alert as always, immediately detects.
"How can I help you?" she asks, stupefied, before it comes upon her in a flash of intuition: "Who is it?"
"He says he was always broke because you talked him into supporting your hare-brained schemes."
A moment of stunned silence passes until she lets out a frustrated sigh.
"There are only three men in Tokyo who are for you—under all circumstances!—off limits, and you managed to fall in love with one of them. At least this is unrequited love, I suppose. In this case, it's a blessing."
Unfortunately, it is requited, I admit, which makes it much harder for me to resist temptation.
"So that's what you meant when you said other men have proposed to you. Don't tell me you've seduced the clueless kid." Tenoh-san sounds incredulous.
I wince.
"Please, don't put it that way."
"I'll take that as a yes. That's extremely bad news... I gather he has told you everything?"
"He has, but it was already too late by then."
"It's never too late to break it off," she asserts. "Just invent a plausible reason and flee as fast as you can! People have been murdered for much smaller offences."
I have already fled, I tell her, one hand supporting my head and the other hand clutching the receiver. But now that it's over, I wonder whether I've done the right thing...
"You have," she reassures me. "Don't hold on to something which will never work out! This would have ended in tears, for all I know."
"How many people know about it?" I inquire, trying not to sound too eager although I'm about to snap.
"Not many," Tenoh-san coolly replies, having guessed my transparent intentions. "But even if I were the only one, I'd still prevent you from deceiving him."
Ironically, Tenoh-san seems to care about Seiya (whom she is supposed to "hate") much more than about me. Or is it only her frank nature which objects to lies and deceit in a romantic relationship?
"You're knee-deep in this yourself," I remind her. "You can't tell him anything."
Hope, no matter how frail, is hard to extinguish once it has been fanned. From Tenoh-san's answer, I surmise that only her closest allies (only Kaioh-san and Meioh-san?) know. Kaioh-san is an incurable romantic while Meioh-san generally keeps to herself and doesn't interfere with other people's private lives. Would Seiya gladly invite me in if I just turned up on the doorstep? Certainly he'd believe me to be the most fickle woman he has ever met. But the memories of last night and this morning would still be so fresh that he would give me a second chance instead of turning me away.
She can tell him the truth and she will, Tenoh-san assures me. Nothing can happen to her except that he would hate her—what he already does, anyway. "He is a decent guy even though he is perpetually stuck in adolescence. I won't let you wreck his life in such a spectacular fashion!"
"It's ironic that you're so protective of him," I observe with bitterness. "You almost behave as if you're only a good friend who doesn't have anything to do with it."
What she did, Tenoh-san claims, is not to be taken personally. Apart from that, Seiya and she are only acquaintances and colleagues. But what I'm about to do is totally wrong because one devotes a lot of time and energy to a committed couple relationship, and it would be really low of me to deceive him as I obviously plan to do.
"I'm not asking you for your permission." I reluctantly kick off the blanket, arduously push myself into a sitting position, and slip into my sandals. "And I think I can make do without your approval."
"But you want me to look away and keep my mouth shut," she returns, "which is exactly what I'm not going to do."
As I feared, Tenoh-san is unstoppable whenever she is in her self-righteous mood. One of her few great faults is her missionary zeal for her conviction about what is "right" even if she had to step on her best friends' corpses on her way. Michiru and she had made an agreement, she once told me eight years ago when she pestered me about the key to Pandora's Box. If either of them fell behind for some reason, the other one should focus on the greater cause and move on.
"Why can't you let it rest?" I snap, hurling the pebbles on the balcony back at Kudo, who has begun to harass me with them again. "It's over now and he doesn't need to know anything about it. I'm sure we'd be deliriously happy if it weren't for this... coincidence." This twist of fate, I would have said, if I didn't deny the concept of fate in general.
Because you can't ever be happy with each other considering the circumstances, Tenoh-san gently explains. Because it doesn't matter what it could have been if it's not meant to be. We all have to live with the consequences of our actions. I'm going to put an end to it for you if you can't do it yourself. But it's better for all of us if you don't force me to burst his bubble.
Just let go of it, she advises me with the chilling cruelty of a despot who is firmly convinced that she is in the right. He will keep fond memories of you if you stay out of his life from now on. You, too, will eventually get over it. It will only hurt for a short while.
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