T.A series volume 3: The King of Rubies

Chapter 34 - Faultless Pass

It has been almost 2 hours since their escape, by now it is around 11 pm plus Ranran has been flying the plane alongside Emiko. There was obvious turbulence, no doubt about it for the artist who had no experience, but eventually, under Ranran's guidance, Emiko was getting the hang of it roughly. By this time Ran was so tired from everything that had happened, and so was Mr Werner, they both fell asleep at the back.

I hope those two are able to secure us a runway, though...I would probably need to land somewhere if they said no.

Ranran thought about this as she navigates the plane with full attention to the skies, as well as the radar and all. Emiko was still wide awake, though she isn't used to staying up this late at night. It was a fortunate thing that today is a Friday and that this upcoming Saturday there are no classes to attend in school, cause she could use some well-needed sleep. She is a little surprised though, that Ranran is able to keep herself awake, cause most of the kids her age would be exhausted by now.

After 2 hours of silence, Emiko felt a bit bored despite feeling nervous that she is currently monitoring everything that is going on. Truthfully, she later learn that she didn't need to do most of the controlling besides Ranran since this aircraft is designed to even for one pilot alone.

Now with the free time she currently has at the moment, she was thinking about Ranran's odd behaviour earlier. That she instructed Ran to close the facetiming, and interact with the group chat through emojis.

Ranran is someone who does something not without a reason.

Emiko could only assume the one major reason she is doing this was simple: She doesn't trust Ran.

Mouri Ran had proven herself to pose a huge endangerment within the association when she sabotaged Shinichi's smartphone, resulting in their rescue attempts being delayed and it led to their kidnapping as a result. Maybe she wanted to test Ran, how and why? Emiko isn't certain, but perhaps the emoji messages delivered to Shinichi are one of them.

Hoping to receive answers, she whispered to Ranran, "What was with the emojis earlier? You could've just facetime them and talked to them."

"Just a tiny changed in plans," The founder responded in her own style: Short and simple.

And Emiko knew whenever she answers it this way, there is no way she is getting anything more out of her. It always must be her way and never anyone else's way.

In a way, it begins to make Emiko wonder whether Ranran is a dictator in a past life. But then she never forbids anyone within the association from not voicing out their opinions that don't favour her, although she does put a stop to it through ridiculous means. "Emiko, can I ask you something?"

She was not expecting this, "Sure, what?"

"Since you have an intel business back in our school, do you know of anything that took place during Shinichi's first birthday party?"

"Eh?" Suddenly, it dawned on Emiko during the first feud between Ranran and Shinichi back in the school's association, when Ranran brought up Shinichi's inferiority from his first birthday party, she had no idea what truly happen. Otherwise, she wouldn't be asking Emiko right now. To confirm her suspicions, she asks, "Why? I thought when you were arguing with Shinichi, you knew how things turned out."

Of course, Ranran knew how things turned out. Even before Shinichi brought this up, Ranran knew about the birthday party incident thanks to 'The Boy'. However, she felt like there was more to it. "I do know, but not the complete picture. If he was not in the wrong in whatever decision he had made back then, I had to apologize to him, no?"

The silence that fell on Emiko was long and heavy, and Ranran was unsure of how much time passed where neither of them moved nor made a sound. There were so much complicated emotions pent up in Shinichi's eyes. What life had Shinichi dealt with to have such a look? Ranran couldn't help but wonder.