The Reader's Request Book [REQUESTS CLOSED]

A Trip Down Memory Lane - Part 2 of 2

"Stop the car," Rantaro murmured, his eyes darting about the inside of the vehicle as his fingers slowly clenched around the edge of his seat. He hadn't spoken loud enough to catch anyone's attention. "Stop the car," he repeated, at a much higher volume this time. The driver visibly flinched in surprise at the sudden break in silence. "Shuichi, stop the car!"

"We're in the middle of an expressway, Rantaro, we can't stop right now," the Ultimate Detective replied apologetically. "There's nowhere to stop right now, but soon, there should be a..."

"Stop the car!" the young adventurer raised his voice, eyes continuing to flick wildly around the cruiser, his knuckles turning white as he gripped harder and harder onto the chair. "Just pull over! You said you'd pull over if I needed it!"

"Rantaro, I can't stop right now, we're going nearly one-hundred kilometres per hour, I can't just..."

"Just stop!" the Ultimate Adventurer shouted, letting go of the chair. He didn't seem to know what to do with his shaking hands, as he proceeded to switch between grabbing at various handholds within the vehicle and grabbing at his own torso and arms as if wanting to hug himself. Alarmed, Kaede turned around in her seat, pulling out her earphones, while Shuichi glanced into the rear-view mirror.

"Rantaro, what's...?" Kaede didn't finish her question, as Rantaro began to remove his seatbelt and reach towards the left-hand passenger door. With her pink eyes bolting wide open, the Ultimate Pianist yelled at Rantaro to stop, grabbing onto one of the young adventurer's shoulders as he tried to exit the moving vehicle that was currently driving at ninety-five kilometres per hour. Quickly, Shuichi pressed a button to the side of the steering wheel, which caused a series of quiet clicks to sound out around the car as the doors were manually locked. Rantaro pulled at the car door handle, an audible cry of distress escaping his mouth as it refused to budge, resulting in the Ultimate Adventurer slamming his side into the door to try and force it open.

"Let me out!" he screamed. The awfully loud volume of the young adventurer's voice was so incredibly uncharacteristic for such a usually laid-back young man. Banging his fists against the window, causing his metal rings to clatter against the glass, tears began to trickle down Rantaro's increasingly flustered face. "Let me out! Let me out!"

"R-Rantaro, I can't stop here!" Shuichi stammered. He would have offered to open the window to allow Rantaro to have some fresh air, but something told the young detective that if he did that, then the Ultimate Adventurer would most likely try to crawl out through it. "Please, put your seatbelt back on!"

"Look! There's a service station coming up in three kilometres, alright?" Kaede pointed urgently to a sign on the side of the expressway. "Just hold on until then, okay? Try and take some deep breaths and tell us what's happening!"

"Where are you taking us!? What do you want!?" Rantaro shrieked, burying his head in his hands, and tightly gripping onto his green hair, seemingly accepting that the car door was not going to budge. "Please, just stop the van! Let us go!"

"The van!?" Kaede repeated with a confused voice, giving the Ultimate Detective next to her a very worried glance. "Rantaro, we're in Shuichi's car, going to the beach, remember? A-And we're going to stop soon, we promise! Just put your seatbelt back on, and please, try and take some deep breaths, okay?"

"We didn't do anything wrong!" Rantaro exclaimed, his words muffled as he covered his face. "J-Just let us go! I-I-I... no, Kagome, it's g-going to be okay, I-I'll get us out of this, okay?"

"K-Kagome?" the young detective repeated shakily, glancing into the rear-view mirror once more. "Why are you talking about... isn't that your eldest sister?" Shuichi recalled the name from some previous conversations about Rantaro's missing siblings.