Case Closed Fan Fiction ❯ The First Woman In The World ❯ 6 ( Chapter 6 )

One and a half thousand years ago

“Amazing, isn't it?” Eta mused, sipping some wine. “How a mighty empire falls...”

“And we can remember when it was all tiny villages,” Ushi chuckled.

“I've always liked coming here,” Eta mused. “It's one of the few places that I've really enjoyed returning to over the centuries...” They had been all over the globe in the past six and a half thousand years, from frozen wastelands with bizarre birds to deserts, from hot jungles to cool forests, but the rapid expansion of multiple cultures on this landmass meant that she and Ushi spent much of their time travelling around in the one large landmass, not needing to cross seas, which meant that they knew the land very well- and the people. They knew where to find inns and taverns which didn't ask questions. They'd even run into some people, mostly traders and pickpockets, more than once, though they had often been rather frightened to realize that the beautiful people that they remembered from fifty years or so ago had not aged.

“I must say, though, I've liked the place a lot better ever since they stopped the animal fights in that damn Colloseum a few years back,” Ushi grumbled. “These days, it takes days to return from being devoured...”

“Try being burned,” Eta said with a shudder. “Not fun. Then again, we're not doing this for fun, are we?”

“Hardly,” Ushi snorted. “I can't help but fear... what will become of us if we do not find it? Can't you feel it? All the time, growing weaker... closer to mortality...”

“Well, that's why we've been accumulating friends, isn't it?” Eta mused. “Why you took over that little crime ring and made it big...”

“When we find the jewel, either we'll need to buy it or steal it- and in both cases, these people will be useful.”

“So I see,” Eta mused. “So that slave revolt you ran about a century back, when they opened the Salarian Gate during the siege... that was...?”

“I decided that if the jewel was hidden anywhere in Rome, looting Visigoths would have the easiest time finding it,” Ushi said with a smirk and a shrug. “Evidently it wasn't there at the time, as we had been assured... perhaps we should look to the east again.”

“I suppose so,” Eta thought, sipping her wine again, but inside she knew; they had lost the trail. Too many wild-goose chases, too many lies and misdirections, too many distractions; they were far off course and she knew it. She almost wanted to sit down and wait instead; wherever they settled, the jewel travelled so much that surely, in time, it would come to them again. But Ushi was a man of the hunter-gatherer age, an age that they had slowly watched being replaced by merchants and farmers; a hunter who loved the chase.

She knew the real reason that he had sparked off the slave revolt, as well. They'd already known that the jewel was not in Rome; he had simply loved to watch the invaders swarm the great city, to loot and pillage it, to see a great city fall and know that it was down to him; he had caused such destruction. To see empires rise and fall when he gave the command; he loved that, loved the power of it. He saw it as proof of what he had been saying ever since they had drunk the crystal liquid, so long ago; that they were more than other people, better than other people, almost gods. He loved that feeling, Eta could see.

But to feel above other people... made her feel so alone.

Yes. In those dreams, she always ended up alone, after every other shadow had flitted away into the darkness. And it was only once she was alone that the light from the red sun, once so comforting, began to burn.

She drank the last of her wine, saying nothing as Ushi leaned over to talk to a scruffy-looking man; some form of pickpocket, she recalled. What could she say? Ushi was a man. He would not understand.

Once, she had taken that for granted. But even as the world changed, so did she. And often, she felt, there was something more. There had to be.

Even though those around her lived every day knowing that they were drawing ever nearer to the end, they smiled. They were not afraid. They were not the ants that Ushi said they were.

They were happy.

“Wait for us, momma. We'll come. Then you'll be happy, right?”

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This was released alongside chapter 63:The Grim Shadow.

The next chapter will be released alongside chapter 68:Magic.

You're welcome, Mel72000! ^_-

Yes, Akako has seen Eta's dream, KageNoNeko... what could that mean, I wonder...?

Pretty much, Pretztailfan95 XD

I do not claim to own any of the characters in Meitantei Conan. They are the intellectual property of Aoyama Gosho. All characters, couples and locations, if Canon, will be faithful to the manga, so if you're into fics with weird pairings like Shinichi and Heiji, the back button is at the top there. The fic may not make sense if you have not read up to chapter 698, which you can do at a site called (read between the lines) O/n/e/ma/n/g/a, but I advise you to buy the official Tankoban novels (up to volume 30 are out in English at the time of writing) so that Aoyama-sensei can afford to continue gracing us with his imagination. Now, I hope you enjoy the fic! (If you don't, please see my previous comments re the back button).