Case Closed Fan Fiction ❯ The First Woman In The World ❯ 20 ( Chapter 20 )

Several months ago

Eta grinned triumphantly. She didn't enjoy gunning down children, but it helped her to remind herself that this was not a child on the end of her gun; it was a woman who had betrayed the Syndicate, and more importantly, had so nearly completed the research that would further hers and Ushi's immortality; the woman who had shrunk the boy sleeping next to the injured FBI, and so nearly killed the Silver Bullet in the process...

She whipped her head around as something clunked at the back of Jodie's car. She was just in time to see a dark blur of movement as someone leapt from the boot and over the top of the car, sliding down the windscreen, Calvados' bullets striking the metal behind her...

“Stop, Calvados!” she shrieked, as she realized just who had leapt. He ignored her, continuing to fire on Mori Ran.

“Angel... no...”

“Stop, Calvados!” she screamed again. “Stop!”

He continued to fire as Angel ran across the asphalt towards Sherry. Bullets cracked into the ground an instant after her foot left the ground.

“Didn't I tell you to stop?!” she screamed, losing her temper for the first time in years- millennia- and firing at Calvados, hitting the guardrail that he was leaning over perhaps unintentionally.

Angel, not noticing the stop in the bullets, leapt forwards, grabbing Sherry close to her, and they fell to the ground, Angel's body curved protectively over Sherry. Frowning, Eta pointed her gun at the prone pair.

“Now, let go of the brown-haired girl,” she demanded. “Hurry unless you want to die!”

Sherry was struggling against the larger girl's hold, but Angel forced her down, screaming “No, don't move!”

“Alright, hurry and move!” Eta screamed, starting to panic. She had to kill Sherry. She had to. But... Angel... she couldn't shoot her... she...

She fired, hitting the ground near Angel's head.

“Stop!” Angel screamed fearfully. It hurt Eta to hear such fear, to know that it was her fault, but if she was scared, perhaps she would run...

She didn't run in New York...

She fired again and again, just missing Angel, trying to scare her off. But she wouldn't move.

“I called the police!” Eta heard her cry. “Just hold on a little longer, please!” She was trembling violently, and her voice sounded on the verge of tears. But she wouldn't run. She wouldn't stop protecting a girl she barely knew, for reasons she did not understand...

She wouldn't run from a serial killer when her friend was in danger. She'd saved a man who'd tried to kill her...

“Is a reason necessary? I don't know why you would kill someone, but in helping somebody, there is no need for a logical mind, right?”

“They're...”

She pulled the trigger again, but the gun just clicked. But what else could she do? She had to make her run...

With shaking hands, she ejected the empty magazine and slammed in another.

“Let her go!” she demanded. Neither Angel nor Sherry moved.

“I have to kill Sherry... If Calvados sees and tells Ushi... but Angel... Sherry... Angel... Ushi... my Angel...”

“What are you doing? Grab my arm!”

“MOVE IT, ANGEL!” She screamed desperately, reverting to English in her fear and fury. Then a shot burned past her arm.

Things just went downhill from there. She barely got away from Jodie and Akai Shuuichi, and she only managed it by taking Shinichi hostage. She'd been so afraid for a moment when she'd done that; what if Akai, cocky bastard that he was, risked a shot and missed? But she made it, albeit with some nasty injuries, and as a mixed blessing Calvados was dead; he couldn't tell Ushi about her refusal to shoot Angel. Of course, it was a tragedy to lose him- he was a prodigious shot like his sister who would only improve. Still, cost-to-value…

Still, Ushi must have been able to tell that something was up. Not long after parking in the woods, as Eta collapsed, breathing heavily through her broken ribs, her phone beeped with a text.

Looks like I've given you too much freedom. Come back to my side, Vermouth.

“Okay... boss,” she whispered as she keyed the words in and sent the text.

“Now...” she mused with a little smile, looking down at the sleeping face of the tiny Kudo Shinichi, “What to do with this boy who thinks he can do everything...?”

As she placed a gentle hand on his shoulder, though, she felt something odd. She pulled out a knife, tearing his shirt open to find...

“An electro-cardiogram?!” she realized. “Connected to... a telemeter and a recorder... don't tell me... the sound of the phone...”

Automatically, she reached out to disconnect the device, but he stopped her when he spoke.

“If you disconnect that, it'll look like my heart has stopped,” he said. Eta wondered when he'd woken up. “The text address of your boss' phone will be transmitted to the police. Phone companies have to protect their customer's information, but in a police investigation they have to release the information... if it's not a mobile, we can even get your boss' address! In other words, even if I'm killed, your boss' name and address will be known! Well, originally I'd figured that if you captured “Sherry”, you'd bring her to your boss... Jodie-sensei's intervention meant that I had to improvise, but it's worked out.” He put a thumb under the electrode wires, tugging them gently. “If you don't want me to transmit, take me to your boss! Let's decide this once and for all, Vermouth! No more hide and seek!”

“That's right,” she thought, suddenly smiling. “No more games... not with yours and the Angel's lives...”

“All right, I lose,” she said, pulling out her mobile again. “I'll give up on Sherry...” “I can't risk the investigation finding you, after all...” she fired out the sleeping gas, grabbing his hands to keep him from transmitting. “Just sleeping gas, don't worry...”

“B-baro,” he coughed. “If you do that... you too...”

“Yes... it's a gamble...” she said, injecting sleepiness into her voice. “If you wake up first, you'll restrain me, call the police, and force me to lead you to my boss... and if I wake up first... well, you can guess, right?” He struggled, but in moments, the fire died in his eyes as his eyelids drooped and he slept.

Eta sighed. Gas didn't affect her. She knew she had to move- his friends nearby would have heard. She shot out the cardiogram, destroying its information, then draped Ariade's coat over him before pulling herself out of the car and running, panting in pain.

As she lay in the phone booth, waiting for the familiar black Porsche, her mind was spinning. Those two... she was sure of it, it must be them. The bravery to take on the Syndicate...

But...

“Do you know a brat named Kudo Shinichi?”

“Gin's onto him,” she realized. “He could find him... and his Angel. If they're in danger... and he's just a child now. A brave, brilliant child... but a child. He may not be able to handle this... should I not entrust the Silver Bullet to one who can handle the Syndicate? One whom they cannot find, cannot kill? If I have to choose... I would choose...”

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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).