My Dearest, Saihara-Chan

Chapter Seven: An Old Friend

It happened too quickly to process what had happened, the sound of the gun being drowned out by the thundering beating of a heart. The world seemed to go silent as the Phantom Thief kicked at the glass window behind them. Kaede began to fall backwards. Time slowed down as Shuichi rushed forward to catch Kaede, the sound of shattering glass echoed through the deathly silence as the Phantom Thief leaped out of the window and vanished out of sight. That doesn't matter right now. A dark stain was beginning to spread from Kaede's midriff, and Shuichi knew that if left untreated, the wound could kill her.

 "Akamatsu-chan?" Shuichi whispered. "Hey- don't worry... I... I'll get help." Shuichi pulled out his phone and dialed 911. Kaede wasn't responding to Shuichi's words. Has she already lost consciousness? Every second seemed to last as long as a minute, the world slowing down around this moment, the only thing sounding was the sound of a heart beating.

~~~

"P-pardon me? Are you S-saihara-kun?" Shuichi looked up from fiddling with his sleeves anxiously. A very timid looking nurse was standing in front of him, clutching a clipboard tightly. Her name tag read, Mikan Tsumiki. Shuichi stood up.

 "Y...yes. Yes I am." Shuichi replied. "How is Akamatsu-chan? Will she be ok?" He asked, almost frantically. The nurse, Mikan, looked down at her clipboard.

 "A-akamatsu-chan w-will be o-ok." Mikan reassured him. "Y-you can g-go and see her." Shuichi swallowed and nodded. 

 "Thank you." He said with a relieved smile before letting himself into the hospital room next to where he was sitting. Kaede was in the hospital bed, hooked up to a heart monitor and an IV. Her eyes were closed and the sound of the heart monitor beeping with every beat of her heart was the only thing Shuichi could hear in the silence. Shuichi shuddered in the ghostly quiet as he slowly made his way to her bedside, sitting down in a chair that was there. The window was open, the sunlight shining into the room. Shuichi sat there for a few minutes in the quiet, listening to Kaede's ragged breathing and the heart monitor beeping before the door opened. 

"Saihara-kun." Shuichi looked up. Kyoko was standing there, with Makoto behind her, her expression as flat and cold as ever, but there was concern in her eyes. Shuichi stood up at once, feeling his pulse beginning to speed up. 

 "K-kirigiri-san!" He stammered. Kyoko glanced around the room before walking in calmly, Makoto trailing after her. 

 "What happened." Kyoko asked, crossing her arms. Shuichi felt a chill go down his spine in response to Kyoko's icy cold tone.

 "W-we... we ran into someone." Shuichi said, looking down and letting the brim of his hat cover the top half of his vision. 

 "Who was it?" Kyoko continued, her tone more serious than before. 

 "We... we couldn't see them c-clearly." Shuichi lied. Why was he lying? The words just came naturally, like as if he had done this before. "I-it's all a blur." Kyoko stood there, staring at Shuichi with a gaze of ice, before sighing.

"Fine then." She said, defeated. Kyoko sighed. "Anything that anyone does related to the Phantom Thief case truly gets quite the bad stroke of luck, huh." 

 "So... what are we going to do now?" Makoto asked, peeking from behind Kyoko. Kyoko stared off into the distance before responding.

 "We close the case." She announced, as monotone as before. Shuichi's eyes widened as he looked up, shocked. 

 "C-close the case?" Makoto stammered. Kyoko turned to face both Makoto and Shuichi.

 "I cannot allow more losses." Kyoko insisted. Shuichi glanced at Kaede. Even though she was asleep, her expression was one of pain, and it was heartbreaking to look at her as she laid there, her breathing ragged and uneven.