Part I

65 4 0
                                    

He shall go to the generation of his fathers; they shall never see light.

** Shinichi's POV **

The strawberry blonde girl is walking farther and farther away. Alarmed, he calls out to her, but before he can utter her name, his mind draws blank...

-x-

I woke up with my left shoulder aching. The room was full of the pungent smells of disinfectants. My memory was like a movie being replayed: the Organization, the gunfight, the wound. My head started hurting unbearably, but I continued to try to remember because there seemed to be something missing. Some events, some people. Missing. But who? Who?

"Shinichi! You're finally awake!"

I pushed the thoughts out of my head. When I saw Ran's bright and gentle smile, I found myself suddenly recalling a different expression, a cooler and more composed expression. I felt numb. Ran came up to my hospital bed, helped me sit up, and rearranged the pillows. Then she busied herself with changing the water for the flowers and washing some fruits for me. Watching her, I was pleased but, at the same time, felt that something was missing. I don't know why. Again, I tried hard to remember, but my mind was blank.

"Shinichi..."

"Yes?" I looked at Ran, who was sitting beside my bed.

"Shinichi, I'm so happy that you're back. You're really back!"

I saw her tears, glistening under the sunlight, trickle down her cheeks. Sniffling, she leaned lightly against my shoulder. I believed that I should be happy at this moment. However, I saw another picture: a strawberry blonde girl clutching onto a boy's shirt, crying; the boy's face showed sorrow and sympathy.

What happened? I tried to recall, but I only found incoherent memory pieces. Together, they were a disjoint film. There was no way to trace it.

In the following days, a lot of people came to visit me. But I always felt that the one I was waiting for never appeared.

Hakase came today. He even brought three kids, who called me "Shinichi-niisan" in adorable voices. I smiled in response. But all of the sudden, I was asking myself a puzzling question. Why were there only three of them? The Organization had taken them as hostages, and I'd saved them. Children are always brave and strong. Now they were talking with excitement about the battle that day.

"It's a pity..." the girl said. I think she's Yoshida Ayumi-chan?

"Yeah! Yeah!" the boy with freckles and the chubby one nodded in agreement. They should be Tsuburaya Mitsuhiko-kun and Kojima Genta-kun respectively.

"If Ai-chan and Conan-kun were around, we would've solved the case even faster!" Ayumi-chan sounded disappointed.

Ai? I felt warmth when I heard the name, but before I could grasp hold of the image of a familiar someone, I lost her.

"Shinichi-kun!" I heard Hakase's anxious voice. "Is everything alright?"

"Yes, yes!" I said hurriedly, my thoughts interrupted. "It's just... Did I forget some things, and some people? I dream of them often, but I can't remember them!"

"Must be hallucinations caused by the medication," Hakase said after a long pause. I saw that his eyes shone, but he couldn't seem to bring himself to say whatever it was he wanted to say. "I guess I should take the kids home now. Take care."

I watched as a distressed Hakase left the room. Maybe he knew something...

***

「ShinAi | Longfic」Forget-Me-NotWhere stories live. Discover now