Case Closed Fan Fiction ❯ The First Woman In The World ❯ 16 ( Chapter 16 )

Three Years Ago

“Attention. Silver car speeding on the bridge. Heading towards- holy hell, what the hellare they doing?!”

“Sounds like Yuki-chan,” Eta thought, quirking a little smile as she turned off her police scanner. Well, she could hardly let her old friend get arrested, could she?

After a moment's thought, knowing that the way Kudo Yukiko drove she'd get here any minute, she stepped into the nearest clothes shop and bought a man's coat. Then, after slipping in and out of the shop's bathroom to apply makeup, she addressed the crowds outside the theatre.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, can I ask you to step back, please? Now, does anybody here have an objection to being filmed?”

A few minutes later, the silver Jaguar E-type screeched to a halt in front of the theatre. An officer instantly approached. Eta, winking at the crowd, strolled over to the officer. Yukiko thanked her profusely as she shooed the officer away.

“Why don't you...” Eta said, reaching up behind her mask and changing her voice as she spoke, “Just thank me?” She tore the mask away with a flourish, unable to resist being a little overdramatic, enjoying the look of shock on Yukiko's face and...

Shinichi. Kudo Shinichi was in the car with her. She hadn't seen the boy in years, and oh how he'd grown, into the brave young man she saw on the coin...

“Me, Sharon Vineyard,” she concluded, putting her glasses back on. She didn't need them; they were just glass. But she had put a lot of work into appearing to age, and the oversized, face-concealing glasses went a long way for her.

She explained what she'd done to Yukiko, using the speech as a distraction to herself as she tried to avoid staring at Shinichi. She hadn't really expected to see him here, in LA. She was hijacking some crazy serial killer's killing spree to get rid of a few inconvenient witnesses, too. She prayed he wouldn't take his father's interest in crime...

“Hey, Kaa-san...” he asked shakily. Eta felt a slight pang as she reminded herself that he was talking to Yukiko.

“Momma!”

“This woman... what is she?”

“Eh?! Shinichi, you don't remember America's most famous actress?”

Eta felt another crack behind her Poker Face, though she kept it still, as a girl stuck her head out of the back seat and started bickering with Shinichi.

An Angel. Her face is the Angel.

“Shinichi has an Angel too?!” she thought, keeping her face expressionless as Yukiko explained about how they'd learned disguise to the teenagers, even though the mere allusion to Kuroba Toichi brought on another pang of regret. “They're here... Does this mean... it's them?”

“I'll have to thank God!” the Angel said happily.

Eta wondered how she could smile so happily by entrusting her faith and thanks to something so filthy. She couldn't stop her expression from darkening. As if to match her mood, the rain began to fall.

“I wonder if there really is a God…” she mused aloud, opening her umbrella. Angel looked confused.

“If such an entity really existed…” she continued, “wouldn't all honest, hard-working people be happy?”

People who aren't like me. People who are better than me. People who suffer regardless of how good or bad they are.

Being good or bad doesn't make a difference. If anything, the good only suffer more.

So often because of me.

She wanted to scream this to the Angel, to help her understand…

But she couldn't. Nobody could understand her. She didn't want them to. She didn't want anyone to have to understand her torment.

“Right… No Angel has ever smiled upon me,” she said aloud. “Not even once.”

Yukiko, Shinichi and the Angel all stared at her, confused, silent, the only sounds the passing traffic and the rain. Eventually, it was the Angel who innocently broke the silence, allowing her to pass off her sadness as the result of the loss of her “parents”, her “husband”, her “estranged daughter”…

Even if they were the Angel and the Silver Bullet… they couldn't understand. And she didn't want them to.

She never wanted them to feel that pain.

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“This is bad... That damn Akai's on my tail!”

Eta panted in pain, clutching at her false stomach. The bullet had been powerful enough to reach through the padding and really hit her. It wasn't deep, but it had bled enough to stain right through the padding, which made the wound look authentic, at least.

She climbed up into the disused building. She'd knocked out the real serial killer and locked him up here somewhere. He'd killed young girls, so he deserved what he was going to get. Besides, wasn't it just foolish to hide in such an old building, where the ground could give way at any moment and drop him to his death?

She glanced up as something white fluttered through the window. “A handkerchief?”

She stepped backwards into the shadows as she heard footsteps down below. Someone was coming in looking for the handkerchief. Well, she could just stay hidden and...

It was Shinichi.

“What... why?” she thought in shock, watching him glance around suspiciously as he bent to pick up the handkerchief. “Why is he here? Did the Fates send him here... because... because he's...”

As she stepped backwards again, praying that he'd leave without finding the killer, her foot touched the door behind her, which squealed as it moved. Shinichi whipped around and spotted her. They looked each other in the eye for a long moment, before Eta turned and fled.

“Dammit,” she gasped, feeling her wound burn as she ran. She shouldn't be running with an injury like this. But she had to get away...

She tore down the stairs, rounding the turn, her footsteps ringing out on the steel steps, when she saw Ran standing on the landing below, staring up at her.

“No... her too...?”

“Run, Ran!” Shinichi screamed from the landing above. “That's the serial killer!”

“Dammit,” she thought wildly. “I have to get her out of the way... scare her! Make her run!” “Now you know who I am, girl...” she said in the serial killer's voice, leaning against the guardrail for support as she reached for her silencer. “I was able to hide in here, that is, until this boy found me. Well, if you must blame someone, blame the God that set this up for you.” She started to screw the silencer on. “Run! Run away! Please!” But the girl remained frozen. “What... do I do...?”

Eta gasped as the guardrail gave way behind her. “Crap... this is going to hurt... and by the time I heal, the cops will have found me... no...”

She reached out, desperately, as if to grab the guardrail, the silencer slipping from her grasp, then felt something jerk her sleeve. She looked up.

Ran was leaning over the edge, holding her sleeve, holding her up- saving her.

“My Angel...”

“What're you doing? Hurry, grab my arm!” she screamed. “Hurry, the rain is...”

Just as she started to slip, another hand reached out to grab Eta's arm. Shinichi had joined Ran's side. Eta could only stare at them for a moment, staring at their familiar faces. “They thought I was going to kill them... but they still... they're still...”

Then she collected herself. Dangling like this, she could pull them over the edge with her at any moment- and they wouldn't heal. She reached up to grab the rail, pulling herself up and leaping swiftly over their heads, faintly registering their shock as she landed lightly but unsteadily on the landing.

“Why?” she asked. “Why did you save me? Tell me why!”

To her surprise, Shinichi gave a little laugh, and said, “Is a reason necessary? I don't know why you would kill someone, but in helping somebody...”

Eta could only stare at the boy, barely more than a child, speaking with the wisdom of ten thousand years.

“... There is no need for a logical mind, right?”

“My children... my strong, brave boy... my good, kind daughter... they really are... they're...”

Behind Shinichi, Ran closed her eyes as she collapsed. Shinichi turned, calling her name desperately. It was all Eta could do not to scream with him. Instead, almost mechanically, she raised the gun, though she knew she could never shoot.

“Don't bother.”

Eta blinked in surprise as Shinichi, back to her, bent to pick up Ran.

“You're injured, which means the police are nearby,” he explained. “If you fire a gun without a silencer, they'll find you. Just the same... I can't do anything to capture you.” He turned to face her, his blue eyes fearless. “I'll let you go for now. But I won't show any mercy next time.”

“What?!” Eta thought. “What kind of child speaks so fearlessly to a serial killer?!”

“I'll prove all of your crimes without any evidence necessary,” he said calmly, walking away. “I'll make sure you're put away.”

Eta silently watched him go, then smiled. “A child... who is so much more than a child... the Silver Bullet...”

She turned and climbed back up the stairs, looking for the real serial killer.

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Toichi-sama died, Mel72000! T_T here's the awaited Golden Apple chapter…

Which might it be, FHP2208….?

Possible, StargateNerd… XD I wonder. XD

XDXD it will not go away, DiGi, no matter how much you and Kaito may wish! DX XD Writers don't kill characters, bastard characters like Gin kill characters… XDXD

I think anyone with eyes would have noticed, KageNoNeko XDXD

Golden Apple is next, Pretztailfan95! There's four more chapters in this plus an epiloguey-kinda thing that'll come out at the same time as the next chapter of WPBIO ^_^

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).