Windfall
By Ysabet
YSABET’S
NOTES: It has occurred to me that I have
done a dreadful omission for this entire fic (and
others)—I haven’t issued a disclaimer!
Ahem: “Detective Conan and its
characters belong to the massively talented Gosho Aoyamo, before whom I bow down and chant ‘I am not
worthy! I am not worthy!’ on a daily
basis. Practically.” There!
Chapter
3: Learning Experiences
Keep it quiet (go slow); Circulate-- Need To Know… Stamp the date upon your file --- Masquerade, but well worth while. Wrapped in the warmth of you --- wrapped up in your smile… Wrapped in the folds of your attention…
(Jethro Tull, “Under Wraps”)
The
week had been rather difficult for Ayumi, all told. It’s hard to keep a secret inside when you’re
only eight, and it’s even more difficult when the secret concerns the people
you see every day.
She needed to talk to Hei-san…..
Time
crept by, day following day at a snail’s pace; she waited and wondered and went
to school, played with her friends….. and watched
Conan and Rin like a small, fledgling hawk.
Ayumi was a worrier by nature—she had seen things that few children of
her age had seen (oddly enough, the criminals were more frightening to her than
the occasional corpse) and tended to think about matters in a fashion that was
a little more in-depth than most of her contemporaries were capable of. She had learned by trial and error over the
past year to deal with what she had seen and experienced and had become
remarkably good at coping.
But…
she was still only eight, and it was hard.
So
as the days slipped by from Monday towards Friday, she gathered her questions
and her courage, keeping both locked inside; it was enough to give an adult an ulcer, much less a child. And if occasionally her eyes held a wistfulness when she watched her friends, no-one seemed to
pay much attention. Conan-kun had been
watching her a little oddly lately—she had
seen that; his eyes seemed a little sharper, a little more like they got when
he was being a detective….. But no-one
else seemed to notice.
(Except, perhaps, Haibara Ai. The diminutive blonde had been eying her
schoolmate speculatively during occasional moments; something was going on
behind those blue-grey eyes that made Ayumi just a little nervous. But she acted the same, if a little gentler
and more patient than usual. Now and
then, though, that thoughtful gaze would switch from Ayumi to Conan and Rin…
and she would become even more silent than before).
But
at last the week was over; she slipped away from school with a promise to meet
her friends in the usual place (they were planning to stop by the arcade on the
way there, so they’d be a little late) and hotfooted
it as quickly as possible towards the park.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
“’Yumi-chan? Are you sure
you can do this?” The brown-haired young
man tilted his head to one side, eyes dancing as he regarded the little girl
sitting on the other branch a foot or so away.
She
nodded her head firmly, swinging her feet.
“Mmhmm…..
I’ve been practicing LOTS. Here, pick one.” She held out a small, slightly grimy handful
of five-yen pieces. Silently the
teenager selected one from the pile and held it up. With extreme solemness the girl marked the
coin with a rather bedraggled drawing of a smiley-face, using a black marker
she had pulled from her pocket.
“Okay? Now I need it back…..”
Grinning
internally, Hei-san dropped the coin into his
apprentice’s left hand on top of the pile of change; she displayed it proudly
for a moment, then picked it from her palm with her right hand’s fingers,
shoving the small heap of five-yens back into her left pocket; she carefully
placed her closed right fist on top
of the pocket and looked up to make sure her friend was watching. “Now I’m gonna make it go and join its
friends…” she told her teacher seriously; “See?
It wants back inside…..” Giggling
a little, she danced her fist back and forth on across the cloth of her denim
shorts-pocket, then tapped it a few times. “Now it’s mysteriously vanishing….. see? Taaaa-daaaaaaaaaah!!!” Ayumi held her empty hands up, palm out; the
coin had indeed disappeared.
She
beamed at Hei-san, dark eyes gleeful. “Well?
Where is it??”
He
scratched at his head, feigning puzzlement.
“Huhhhh….. I dunno---
did you drop it?” Craning his head, he
peered past the child towards the grass ten feet below. “No, I didn’t see it fall—I know, you’ve got it between your fingers!” His eyes widened theatrically as his student
splayed her hands out, showing a distinct lack of coinage. “Not there—well……… you did say you were sending it to join its friends, but it beats me
how you could do that….. It can’t be in your pocket, can it?”
Giggling,
Ayumi pulled the five-yen pieces back out; the
smiley-face-marked coin lay grinning lopsidedly on top of the pile. Hei-san applauded
loudly, whistling. “Magic! Very cool, ‘Yumi-chan.”
He grinned at her. “Take a bow
now, like I showed you; a good magician always
acknowledges his audience.”
Nodding
seriously, the child carefully rose to her feet; she balanced on her respective
branch and bowed with great gravity at her friend, then sat back down. “Did I do good?”
The
teenager nodded appreciatively. “Very good; just
right.” He cocked his head to
one side. “Did you ever get that
‘floating chopstick’ trick to work for you?”
Ayumi pulled a face. “Allllllllmost…… I still can’t do it as good as you can,
though; your fingers are bigger.” A leaf
fell past her nose, drifting downwards towards the ground; she leaned over a
little to watch it land, fidgeting a little.
“I’ll keep practicing….. can you show me a new
trick today, Hei-san?” She raised large, hopeful brown eyes to his
face and he chuckled.
“Well……”
“Pleeeeeeeeeeease?? Pretty please???”
Hei-san ran one hand through his hair, making it stand on end
even more than usual. As if he needed to
be asked twice to do magic…..
“Hold your hand out, palms down— Now, close your eyes and think really
hard about… peacocks.” He placed his
hands palm-up a few inches below hers.
The
child’s eyes nearly popped out. “PEACOCKS?!? You’re
gonna make a PEACOCK appear???”
Her
teacher nodded calmly, poker-face well in place; only the gleam of humor in his
dark blue eyes gave him away. “Think
really *hard* about them,
now…..” His apprentice blinked at him
dubiously, then closed her eyes and concentrated. Once she had shut her eyes he grinned in
approval and shifted slightly on his branch; now, where was it--? *Oh,
right….. Back of the
jacket. Damn feathers always
tickle when I let ‘em hide
in the front….. wake up, bird, it’s showtime! C’mon,
down the sleeve you go…..*
A
second or two later Ayumi’s eyes flew back open at
the feeling of wings fluttering against her palms. “IT’S A…… awwwww---
it’s NOT a peacock!” The white
dove perched on Hei-san’s fingers and cooed
soothingly at the child; it tilted its head to one side much like its master
had a moment before.
The
magician shrugged; “You weren’t concentrating hard enough….. all
I could manage was a dove. Oh well;
peacocks are too noisy, anyway. Doves
are quieter and a lot brighter too, y’know.” At his gentle prompting the bird pigeon-toed
its way up Ayumi’s arm to perch among her brown hair
on top of her head; she wriggled as it pecked at her hairband.
Hei-san watched in satisfaction as his young student reached
up a finger for the dove to hop onto; the kid didn’t seem to be the least bit
afraid of birds, which was good. A
magician who was afraid of doves might as well be afraid of pulling rabbits
from hats— hmm; sooner or later he’d have to see about giving her one or two
doves of her own, if her mom would allow it.
The teenager reached across one finger to stroke the bird’s neck; it
cooed, tugging at the frayed cuff of his somewhat scruffy shirt with its beak.
He’d
come to the conclusion lately that it really *was* fun, having a little sister; he’d been missing out.
As
she stroked the bird’s soft breast-feathers Hei-san
glanced at her sideways while seeming to look out over the park. It hadn’t escaped his notice that she seemed
more than a little downcast when they met that day—the whole “show me what
you’ve learned this week” bit had been specifically to cheer her up. To a certain extent it had worked; Ayumi-chan
had displayed her new trick (one of a half-dozen or so he had managed to teach
her over the past few months) with alacrity….. but he
could still see shadows under her brown eyes and a faint pallor to her
cheeks. Something was bugging the kid—
“Ayumi?” he asked; she was still petting the dove, who had
nestled itself comfortably down into her lap.
“Is something wrong? You’re
awfully quiet today…..”
The
little girl hesitated; all the smiles that her new accomplishment and the
appearance of the “peacock” had produced seeped away, leaving her looking a
little lost. “I….. sort
of.” Her chin dropped, and she stared
back down at the dove again; it cooed blissfully as she scratched one small
finger in the good place behind its head.
“There’s something I want to ask you about--- but….” Her words crawled to a halt and she bit her
lip.
Hei-san blinked out at the park, still watching her from the
corner of his eye. “But
what? C’mon, ‘Yumi-chan---
ask away. What’s the problem?”
“Ummmmm…..”
He
waited; hurrying this kid was a BAD
idea, he had found. She was stubborn as
a mule—as no doubt The Shrimp and her other friends could tell anyone. Speaking
of which….. he suddenly had a feeling….. “Ahhh,
‘Yumi-chan?
Does this have anything to do with Conan?”
The
girl’s jaw dropped; “H-how---?? Hei-san, how did you know?!?”
The
magician laughed wryly, cracking his knuckles as he stretched. “Conan-kun… is, well, a rather unusual kid; if anything strange
or problematic is going on, it probably has to do with him. Just a guess—but I’m right, aren’t I?”
She
nodded gloomily, considering what he had just said. “Prob-lem-atic….. that’s a good word.
It means full of problems, right?”
Ayumi stared down at the ground below her feet; one tennishoe
drooped a little, half off her foot. She
kicked experimentally and the shoe fell off, dropping to land with the softest
of thuds on the grass.
Hei-san could recognize evasion when he saw it; he was pretty
damned good at it himself, after all. Contemplating
the child’s action, he shrugged and kicked one of his own shoes off—it made a
rather larger thud as it landed next to hers.
“Suppose you start by telling me what’s bothering you, hm? Don’t worry if
it doesn’t seem to make sense….. There’s
a lot of things about The Shri—I mean, about Conan-kun that *don’t* seem to make
sense when you really look at them close-up.”
*….. and
MAN is that putting it mildly…..*
The
girl still stared at the ground, face troubled.
Her
teacher sighed, trying to think back to how his father had gotten him to talk about things that bothered
him. Oddly enough, though, it was the
image of his mother kneeling before the gradeschooler he had once been and
talking soothingly that came to mind. He
cleared his throat gently, remembering. “’Yumi? I promise I won’t laugh at you, no matter
what you say; I won’t just pretend it’s not real because you’re a kid—hey, I listen
to you, don’t I? If I didn’t, you
wouldn’t be trying to tell me this, right?”
Still
there was only silence. Hei-san sighed internally; having a little sister was fun,
but it took a helluva lot more patience than he had
expected as well….. maybe this was too hard for the kid.
“If you don’t want to talk about it, then… we won’t. But if you want to, I’m here, y’know?”
Mumble,
mumble….. “What?” Her words had been, apparently, in Ayumi-Speak
or something like that—he hadn’t understood a bit of it.
“…..
Idon’twanttogetthemintrouble…..”
*--Oh.*
“Ayumi-chan, I can honestly swear to you that I’m the
last person to go playing tattletail.” He
snorted internally at the idea. *Glass houses, throwing stones and all that
tripe….. Once you decide to be a
‘villain’ (even if you’re not an Official Bad Guy), you sort of lose the right
to rat on anybody else—unless it’s something REALLY wrong, like that Ojiwa bastard a while back.
Union Rules or something like that, probably.*
“But…..”
Hei-san decided to let the subject drop; if his little
apprentice felt that uncomfortable
about it, then-- “Never
mind. If you feel like talking, I’m
right here, though. Wanna
climb down and work on some two-person juggling? I told you we’d start on it today if you
wanted to—”
Her
words came in a rush, half tripping one over the other in their hurry. “No!
No, I *want* to talk about it, I just don’t want to—I mean, I’m not sure
if—See, it’s not really Conan-kun I
need to ask you about, except for sort of, mostly it’s Rin-kun and I’m not really absolutely positively SURE about her, butshegotcalledRANinsteadofRIN… andIthinkthatjustmaybe… she’s….. exceptthat’sSILLY andIknowIshouldaskher ButIdon’twanttoaskheraboutitand—“
“Whoa, whoa!! Slow
down, kid…..” Hei-san
stared down at the girl, his eyebrows climbing towards his hairline. *Uh oh..... crap. Now, the question is, do I pull Kudo and his
girlfriend’s fat out of the fire for them or let Ayumi-chan ask questions they
don’t want to hear?* “Go a little
slower, okay? Tell me what’s bothering
you—“
And
it all came pouring out then: Her newest
friend Rin, the strangeness in her eyes, Mouri Ran’s
disappearance, the likeness between the two, the suspicions and the questions
and the mistakes people had made-- “…and
I *know* people don’t—they aren’t
really *supposed* to be able to
change from adults to little kids, but….. but Hei-san? Conan-kun
said there’s only one truth, and I—I think I know what
it is. I don’t know HOW it could be true….. but I think it
is. I really, really do. Hei-san? What would *you* do??”
She
was staring up at him with wide, pleading eyes; dammit, she trusted him, she wasn’t an idiot (people
tended to forget that young did *not*
mean stupid), she was just a little kid…..
…..
unlike a certain pair who really (all things
considered) should be capable of looking out for their own Vertically-Challenged selves…..
The
magician sighed, wondering how the hell he had ended up in this position. “’Yumi-chan? WHY
don’t you want to ask Rin-kun about it?
Are you afraid she’ll laugh at you, or maybe stop being friends with
you? Is that it?”
Nod,
nod; the tearful brown eyes never left his… and not once, not even for a second
did she seem to have the faintest doubt that he believed her. That
kind of faith was a little staggering.
“Hmmmmm…….” Hei-san edged out a little further along his branch;
without really thinking about it he lay back in his favorite position, hands
behind his head, stretched out like an upside-down, sunning iguana. “Y’know,
Ayumi-chan, I remember my dad telling me something when I was nearly your age—I
didn’t really understand it at the time, but it makes sense to me now. ‘Trust
your friends—but deal the cards yourself.’”
He blinked up at the sunlight filtering through the leaves. “D’you know what that means?”
Solemnly
the child shook her head; “Noooooo…..?” She frowned a little at his position, then gingerly leaned back on her own (fortunately broader) branch. After wriggling for a minute or two she
decided that she was comfortable and relaxed; the magician watched her from the
corner of his eye, marveling at the flexibility of kids.
“It
means that it’s a good thing to trust the people you care for and believe in
them—be good to them, and they’ll probably be good to you, all that sort of
stuff—but it also means that there’s
nothing wrong with making sure things go *your*
way as well. I mean, it’s like this—“ and he pulled one hand from behind his head. Suddenly there was a deck of cards in the
hand; Hei-san fanned them out and held them towards
his apprentice. “Pick a card….. Queen of Hearts, right? Right. Now, THAT
was a magic trick—since it was a trick, it’s *okay* for me to make the cards
come out like I want them to. If I was
playing poker with my friends, that’d be cheating, because they’d be betting
money or whatever, and winning just for myself wouldn’t be fair. But in a trick, the magician wins and the
audience wins too when the trick goes right.
You understand?”
“Welll……” Ayumi blinked a little, eyes crinkled in thought as she
stared at the card in her hand. “You mean…..
if I’m doing stuff *just* for me, it’s not fair to
cheat—but if I’m doing it for more than just me, it’s okay? I thought cheating was bad---“ She shifted a
little, regaining the balance that her reach for the card had slightly thrown
off.
The
magician squirmed a little internally; the word ‘cheating’ was a sore spot with
him. “Umm, I wouldn’t exactly call it cheating, not so long as nobody
gets hurt….. it’s more like arranging the
circumstances to suit yourself.
Like……” He thought hard; the deck
of cards disappeared into somewhere or other as he absently scratched at his
head. “Well….. what
if I were going to have to do something really, really difficult, like…. I dunno, what’s your hardest subject at
school, ‘Yumi-chan?”
The
child made a face. “Math. I *hate*
math! Yuck!!” She handed the card back.
“Okay,
what if I was gonna have to take a really hard math-test? I could just go in there without studying, or
not listen in class when the teacher tries to tell us about what we need to
know, or do my homework….. or I could study and listen
and do my homework and get ready for the test, so that I’d get a better grade. The *test*
wouldn’t be any different—but how I reacted to it would. That’s not the same as cheating—it’s just
good preparation. You understand now?”
Ayumi’s face cleared; she turned a little,
unconsciously propping herself on one elbow as she turned to her friend. “Uh huh; that makes sense. But how will that make it easier for me to…
to talk to Rin-kun?”
Still
lying stretched out, Hei-san shrugged; a piece of
bark crumbled beneath his movement and dropped into the grass below. “You can wait until somebody goofs and calls
her Ran again, or you can stay worried and afraid to talk about it with her and
Conan-kun….. or you can set things up yourself, get
ready, and ask her point-blank if she’s really Ran or not. Isn’t that better than stewing over it and
getting upset all over the place?”
He
sighed. “When I was a kid, one of the
things I liked best about learning magic tricks was that you’re sort of in
control over something—every trick belongs to *you*; you make the right card
appear, or the rabbit pop out of the hat, or the chopstick float in the
air. Kids don’t have much chance for control…..
they don’t need to, usually. But ‘Yumi-chan, if
this is really bothering you, I’d go for it and ask Rin-kun. After all, she’s your friend, right?”
The
child’s eyes dropped to the shadows of the trees, ten feet or so below. “… ‘Trust
your friends…..’” she quoted softly, biting her lip.
“’… but deal the cards
yourself.’ Right. There’s nothing wrong with helping yourself,
especially if it helps somebody else.
Maybe Rin would feel
better about talking to you? Maybe she’s
worried about you figuring things out too?
You never can tell. And—as for
Conan…..” Mentally he gritted his teeth;
*Dammit, Kudo--* “You’re
just going to have to ask him too, right? If you’re worried about something, the best
thing you can do is change it from a worry into something you understand.”
He
chuckled to himself silently and perhaps a little unkindly, propping one ankle across
the other. *I’ll bet The Runt is worrying, too… there’s no way he’d miss something
like this. Ayumi-chan, you’re coming
along really well, but you still can’t hide a thing you’re thinking—your face
gives it all away. If
it wasn’t bothering you so much (and when the hell did I get so damned
protective?) I’d suggest you let ‘em worry—but
I don’t like you feeling bad about this any more than I would Aoko. Oh yeah,
speaking of which….*
He
half-frowned a little, a slight heat beginning to make itself
felt around his ears and cheekbones. “Hey, Ayumi? Ummmm… you’ve heard me talk about Aoko
a couple of times, right?”
His
student blinked. “Uh huh—she’s that girl
in your class, the one that hits you with a mop sometimes.”
“Chases me with a mop, chases me with a mop---“ said Hei-san hurriedly (and a tad
huffily); Ayumi giggled in response. “Yeah, that one.
She—well, she’s got a birthday coming up… next week, in fact. Whatcha think… would
she like this as a present?” He held one hand out; from apparent
nothingness something appeared on his palm to lie gleaming in the afternoon
sunlight: a thin silver chain with a
tiny, delicate floral pendant hanging from it.
The gleaming leaves and stems formed a wreath, perfect and exquisite; Ayumi’s exclamation of delight (and near departure from her
branch, save for a steadying hand) was all the answer he needed.
Of
course, if you looked at the design *carefully*,
you’d notice that the wreath was made up of infinitely miniscule
four-leaf-clovers….. He smiled to
himself as he made it disappear again, tucking the present securely away. *THAT
ought to bring about an interesting reaction….. I wonder what she’ll do? I’ve never given Aoko anything even remotely like this before.*
Truth
to tell, he couldn’t quite bring himself to define the reason that had made him
pick such an item, besides the inherent joke in the four-leaf clovers (though
somehow he just *loved* the idea of her wearing the Kid’s own personal
trademark; it made something deep inside him do absolute backflips). Maybe… maybe it was because he had never given her a gift of this sort; maybe it
was just… time.
Maybe
he was overanalyzing it; yeah. Sometimes
you just had to play your cards by instinct and do what felt right. *And
isn’t that essentially what you just told ‘Yumi-chan? Practice what you preach, Thief Boy--*
He
glanced across at his apprentice; she had leaned back again on her branch,
mirroring her teacher in pose, hands clasped behind her head. It was really very funny— he had caught her mimicking him more
and more often as the last few months had progressed. Just
one more thing he had to get used to—the Kid was accustomed to a certain
acclaim (well, notoriety might be a
better word); but Kuroba Kaito,
currently Hei-san, wasn’t.
Movement
off across the park caught his eye:
small figures, five of them. *Looks like they’ve got that little blonde
with ‘em today; something about that kid gives me the
creeps just a bit. Wonder why? Oh well….. back to
the main topic before I leave.* “Uh,
Ayumi? Here comes your
friends…. I gotta go.” He took a deep breath as the girl’s face fell
a little—their talk was over for the day.
“Well, ‘Yumi-chan? D’you think you can do it?
Ask Rin-kun about the truth, I mean?
The
girl bit her lip unhappily, a determined look settling on her young face; she
carefully sat up and swung her legs around to dangle in front of her, attention
apparently fixed on her toes. After a
long minute she spoke: “I—think so, Hei-san. It won’t be easy, but….. I guess you’re right. You and Conan-kun, you both say good
stuff—I’m gonna listen to both of you.”
He
blinked, also sitting up. Of all the odd things to hear….. “BOTH of us?”
She
nodded firmly, her small jaw set. “Uh huh. You said
‘Trust your friends’ and he said ‘There’s only one truth.’ So… I’m going to ask
Rin-kun, and I’m going to trust her to tell me the truth.”
That
simple statement set him aback a little, and he stared in amazement at the
little girl. *Ayumi-chan, you’re pretty damned smart, you know that? Pretty damned smart….. and
now I’m beginning to wonder: What will
*I* say to you someday if you ask ME questions and trust ME to tell you the
truth?*
But….. she was doing what
he had suggested—going on instinct, doing the right thing. He sighed, allowing a smile to cross his
face. “You know what, Ayumi? I think you’ve made a good choice. Now…..
Now you’ve got to figure out how you’re gonna play your magic act—time
to pick the stage and figure out the *how* and *when* for the whole thing.” He scratched at his head, eyeing the
determined child in front of him with a small grin. “Wish I could be there for the show, Ayumi-chan…
I’ll bet you’ll do it just right.”
He
rose to his feet, stretching a little as he began the quick climb down. *Good
luck on pulling this rabbit out of its hat, imoutochan;
I think you’ll need it. And so will I,
when Conan-kun figures out that somebody else knows about him…..*
* * * * * * * * * * * *
It was only two days later when the *how* and the *when* came together to present the proper opportunity; Ayumi had
kept watching, just as Hei-san had said—watching for
the right opportunity, the right stage.
‘Trust
your friends… but deal the cards yourself.’
They
were all upstairs at Mouri-tantei’s place, sprawled
across his couch and his floor, reading.
Genta and Mitsuhiko
still had a surprisingly large stockpile of manga
left over from the library book sale that hadn’t yet been read by the others
(although Ai-kun didn’t seem too interested; she was busy going through a huge
stack of some American magazines called (she had told them) Popular Science). So the lazy Sunday after Ayumi’s
talk had them all in one place, faces stuck in books.
Rin and Conan had commandeered the couch; the
girl sat cross-legged at one end with a manga volume
in her lap while the boy lay stretched lengthwise,
chin propped on his elbows beside her.
He had grumbled slightly at her choice (“Fruits Basket is a shoujo manga....”) but seemed disinclined to put up much of a fuss
or pick out one of his own. Genta and Mitsuhiko were plowing
steadily through old tankoubon of Inu Yasha, and Ayumi had settled down with
her own pile of Ushio to Tora.
She turned a page, concentrating; Ushio had
just fought some sort of huge youkai with one horn
and a body made out of snakes—she shivered, glad things like that didn’t happen
in the real world. Things were
going bad for the bakemono-slayer, but she knew it
would turn out all right; Tora would show up and
help!!! Ayumi really liked Tora, as big and scary as he was…..
(Her mind winced, remembering Ojiwa-sensei from months past; there were scarier things
than monsters in the world.)
Footsteps and the clink-clink of ice in a glass made everybody look up; Eri-san was
standing in the doorway, purse over her shoulder and a tray full of glasses in
her hands. “We’re about to go out, so I
thought I’d bring you all a little something to drink before we go—reading is
thirsty work.” The woman’s eyes flashed
in amusement as Conan hastily sat upright and scooted a few inches away from
her niece. “Rin-chan, will you do the
honors?”
Ayumi’s sempai slid off of the
couch, accepting the heavy tray and steadying it against the table. “Thanks, Obaasan…
will you and Ojisan be back soon?”
Her aunt shrugged, straightening her
glasses. “Who knows? He—“ and she
indicated Mouri-tantei behind her, hunting for his
shoes— “wants to go to some sort of brand new car preview; I think that Suzuki
girl’s family is holding it—“
Rin rolled her eyes. “They are, and it’s being held down by that
new shopping center they built last month.
*I* heard from Sonoko-kun that
all the new cars were being showcased by girls in bikinis…..” The sound of Mouri’s
foot impacting a chair-leg as he hastily straightened acted as odd punctuation
to the girl’s sentence. Sputtering
sounds of pained denial followed, but Eri-san simply rolled *her* eyes and sighed, looking very much
like her niece in that moment.
Very much like her indeed….. Ayumi watched,
feeling unsettled as the woman gently ruffled Rin’s
hair with one hand. “We’ll be back sometime this evening.
Be good.” That was interesting; she had directed her last words at Conan, not Rin-kun.
As the door closed at the bottom of the
stairs, there was a flurry of hands reaching for glasses; then everyone went
back to their reading without a word.
Conan-kun yawned, set his soda on the floor and returned to his original
position; Ayumi watched them both over the top of her manga,
a small frown-line furrowing between her eyes.
Time passed; pages turned, the day waned into
late afternoon, and young eyes that had been lulled into laziness closed and
drowsed, books or magazines falling into laps.
Time passed, punctuated by the ticking of the clock on the wall behind
the couch. Time passed.
…tick,
tick, tick, tick…..
Ayumi slowly came back to
herself, blinking sleepily from under the volume of Ushio to Tora that had fallen forward to
land against the bridge of her nose. The
room was quite silent, save for Genta’s rather
thunderous snores and a soft, surprising whistle that seemed to be coming from
Ai, who lay curled in a chair in the corner.
The blonde had her arms around a sheaf of her American magazines in the
same fashion that another might have clutched a teddy-bear; Ayumi almost
giggled aloud at the sight—would have
giggled except—
-- for the soft sound
of a turning page, coming from Rin-kun.
The brown-haired girl had not yet noticed that her friend was awake,
apparently; she was deeply engrossed in her book. It was something she had bought at the sale,
Ayumi remembered—a novel, not manga; at the time she
had commented nonchalantly that it was a gift for her cousin Ran-neechan.
And maybe it had been, in a way.
Ayumi kept quite still,
peeking from under her book; everyone was asleep, even Conan-kun—she could hear
his soft exhalations of breath, see the relaxed face that was now bare of
glasses; Rin must have slid them off, as they lay folded shut on the cushion
beside him. It was very quiet….. no-one was listening…..
…tick,
tick, tick, tick…..
She slid the book very slowly, very
soundlessly away from her face; Rin-kun paid no attention. Hesitating, the girl swallowed hard. She had thought about what to ask, but not really
HOW to ask it—
*NOW??*
*Yes, now,
just like Hei-san said; be brave, just like Ushio was
in the manga.
‘Deal the cards yourself….. and trust your
friends.’*
That hadn’t been *quite* how he had put it, but it would work. It sounded better, somehow.
“Ran-kun?” she said very, very softly, her
voice barely audible in the still room.
The other little girl turned a page, still
concentrating. “Hmm,
Ayumi-chan? What is it?” She looked up absently…..
….. and then froze,
the book sliding from her nerveless fingers onto the couch. Rin’s jaw dropped
in shock, and Ayumi could see
the dismay and the struggle to recover that passed across her face like a wave,
brushing all traces of absentmindedness utterly away. “Uhhhh…. I, I’m
not—I mean— W-why
did you… why did you call me— that
name? W-why—“
Ayumi stared unblinking at
her friend, heart pounding painfully; she bit her lip. “Because… because you are Ran, aren’t you? Aren’t you??”
“A-Ayumi-kun….. Don’t—”
“Aren’t you??” She couldn’t keep the trepidation out of her
voice.
Silence in the room, only broken by the
ticking of the clock and Rin’s rapid breathing; even Genta’s snores seemed muted. Rin picked up her novel, clutching it tightly
enough to make her nails bite into the paper cover. “I…..
Ayumi-kun, I can’t……” Her eyes were huge.
The moment stretched out, seeming to gather
silence in the way that snow gathers on a windowsill, piling deeper and deeper
by the second. “If—if you don’t want to
tell me… how you got to be a kid again…..”
Ayumi fidgeted with the manga volume in her
hands, running one nail along the pages at the top over and over; it made a
faint zzipp! sound, loud
in the stillness. “…if you can’t tell me— but, but I can keep secrets too, Rin-kun… R-Ran-neechan… and I won’t ever, ever, EVER tell anybody—“
“—but I just need to know—“
…tick,
tick, tick, tick…..
Silence, deep as the
gulf of time between childhood and adulthood.
…tick,
tick, tick, tick…..
“Tell her.” Conan’s low voice broke the quiet into
pieces, shattered it like a mirror.
Both girls stared at him—he hadn’t moved, he
was still lying stretched out and relaxed across the couch; only his eyes had
changed. The shadows there were bleak
and full of some sort of pain unfamiliar to Ayumi, but very steady. “Tell
her, Rin….. Ran. If she managed to figure it out, she deserves
to know.”
His eyes flickered to Genta,
Mitsuhiko, who continued to sleep the sleep of the
innocent. “Tell her….. but not here.” Genta’s snores continued steadily, although the blonde
girl’s soft breath-whistles had rather suddenly stopped; she shifted slightly,
pillowing her head on her arm.
Ayumi stared,
open-mouthed. Conan-kun? He sounded so….. All the while she had tried to think mostly
about Rin, not Conan, even though she realized that *both* of them were—
-- were--
-- were different. Weren’t really kids, maybe. *Conan-kun…..*
Ayumi felt her heart turn over in her chest; it
hurt. She was his Best Friend, he had said, but if he was really a grownup then was
that the truth? What *was* the
truth? She bit her lip again, trying
hard to keep tears back; they kept trying to leak out.
She hadn’t wanted
to think about Conan being different.
Rin-kun was staring at the boy’s face now,
looking all upset and scared… what did she have to be scared of? Ayumi? The girl’s
young mind refused to accept that possibility; she gulped. Maybe Hei-san was
wrong—maybe she had been better off never saying anything, maybe she should
just tell them ‘never mind’ and ‘forget about it’, maybe she should just—
(‘Trust
your friends… but deal the cards yourself’…..’)
(‘There’s
only one truth.’)
Deal the
cards yourself… and trust your friends.
Trust
your friends.
*Hei-san, I really really wish you
were here!* Ayumi felt something warm
and wet run down one cheek; she sniffled a little, wiping her face with the
back of one hand. Very quietly she slid
down from her chair, the volume of manga dropping to
lie unnoticed on the floor as she crossed the room to stand timidly before her
friends. “R-Rin-kun? Can
you tell me?” She wiped at her face
again, whispering. “I’m sorry….. I didn’t mean to get you upset….. I just want to know.”
Another tear ran down the angle of her jaw,
splashing onto the cushion not six inches from Conan-kun’s
shoulder. His eyes flickered to the spot
of dampness, then back up to the little girl’s face again; at Rin’s agitated intake of breath he shook his head. “Tell her, Ran. It’s okay.
Just…
I’m sorry, Ayumi-kun. I really
am.”
He looked so sad. Why was he
sorry? She was the one who had gotten them all upset and everything…..
Ran sighed, then silently slid down from the
couch and tiptoed past the sleeping boys towards the stairs, motioning for
Ayumi to come with her. Looking back at
Conan-kun apprehensively, the child gulped once and followed, wondering.
And as the two slipped out the front door,
toeing on their shoes as they went, Ayumi could swear she heard Ai-kun speaking
behind her in the quietest voice possible:
“Well. I hope you know what you’re doing, Kudo-kun…..”
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Many,
many years later, when Yoshida Ayumi was a grown woman with children of her
own, she would sometimes tell her little ones a particular fairy tale when she
put them to bed. The story became a
family favorite, long since polished by time and repetition; decades later it
would be passed down from generation to generation as the Tale of Prince Ichi…..
“Once upon a time in a land far, far away, there lived a
powerful and noble Prince. He was tall
and handsome and intelligent, and he spent much of his time helping his
subjects by solving difficult riddles and fighting the evil robbers and
murderers that plague even the fairest of lands. Prince Ichi was
well-known by kings and emperors far and wide, and his wisdom was sought after
in many countries.”
“One day Prince Ichi was out
visiting a friend’s castle far from his home in the company of Princess Orchid,
who loved him and would someday become his bride. Princess Orchid was tall and beautiful with
kind eyes and a was a powerful sorceress and warrior
in her own right; she was loved by the people of her country, and everyone
looked forward to the day when the Prince and Princess would marry. Everyone, that is,
except for the Black Knights.”
“The Black Knights were evil—they sought to rule all
countries, and that which they could not conquer they destroyed. They fought the powers of goodness by killing
its champions, by capturing its warriors, by attacking its citadels. And this day the Black Knights had decided
that Prince Ichi was a danger to their schemes and
cunning, and they would stop at nothing to end his life.”
“So as Prince Ichi strolled
across the grounds of his friend’s castle, an attack was being plotted. A noise caught the noble Prince’s attention,
and the sight of two fearful monsters in the
“But he did not return.
The day grew long—the sun set—and still Prince Ichi
did not return. At last, worried and
grieving, Princess Orchid called upon her ministers and assistants to search
for her beloved Prince: the Wise Scientist Agasan;
the Captain of the Guards, Takasan; and the Royal
Fool (who had always been like a father to the Princess), Tanteisan. They each searched in their own way for a
fortnight, until at last they all returned to the Princess, weary and heartsore; Prince Ichi had well
and truly vanished into thin air, and there was no finding him.”
“Princess Orchid vowed that she would not rest until she
had found her beloved Prince; from day to day she searched, wandering through
the land accompanied by her three most loyal knights, Yumisan,
Gensan and Hikosan. They protected her while she searched, kept her safe while she slept, and had many, many
terrible and wonderful adventures in doing so.
But neither she nor they could find any trace of Prince Ichi.”
“At last they returned to the Princess’ castle in her own country;
and there they found a visitor—a young boy from a far and distant land (or so
he claimed), with wise eyes and a strangely piercing gaze. He had arrived with nothing more than the
ill-fitting clothing upon his back, but he had speedily risen in the interest
of the Court by his quiet observations and obvious intelligence. He had come, he said, because the Princess
would need him; and he met her at the gate when she rode in from her fruitless searchings.”
“When he held her horse for her to dismount, she was
curious; when he brought her cool wine to drink and fruit to soothe her hunger,
she was puzzled; and when he quietly went about the business of acting as her
page, she became determined to know more of the boy.”
““Who are you?” she asked, wondering.”
“He shook his head.
“No-one—I have no father and no mother, no home, no country; all I have
is the place I stand in and the sights and sounds my senses give me. I have no past, and I don’t know what future
may lie before me.” The boy smiled at
her then, a smile as sad as it was sweet; “If you want to call me anything,
then just call me your Page.””
“Princess Orchid was puzzled, but chose to accept his
answer; in truth, she was so lonely by now from missing her Prince that the
child’s company was very welcome. “Very
well then, Page—come, sit and talk with me for a while.” And they sat together for a number of hours,
talking together about everything and nothing.
She found that his words were mostly those of a young boy, but that also
they carried a strange wisdom and insight that was most unchildlike.”
“And she thought of how like her Page was to Prince Ichi, and she wondered…..”
“So the Princess returned to her rulership
of her home, accompanied by her Page; time passed, and she began to become
accustomed to the loss of her Prince, although she never gave up hope that he
would return to her. As the days became
weeks and the weeks became months, the boy Page became her close friend and
confident, although his lack of years sometimes made her sad—he seemed to know
too much and to have seen too much sorrow for such a young child. Her Page stayed beside her throughout the
day, serving; often he seemed to know her wishes before she spoke them
aloud. He listened to court matters,
gave advice when asked, and made her laugh with his jokes and occasional (and
often clumsy) attempts to cheer her up. His
observations were useful to her, as were the questions that he asked when a
matter of import came up before her; and it became apparent to all there that
the Princess had found a friend in her Page.”
“As the months passed and Prince Ichi
did not return, the Princess was often observed looking out her window towards
the
““Because there is one who went away, who I
miss very much. I don’t know where he is, or even if he’s
still alive—he promised to return to me, but…..” and she fell silent, troubled.”
“The boy looked up at her, and his eyes were kind. “If you miss him, don’t you think he misses
you too, wherever he is? And if he
promised to come back to you, don’t you think he’ll keep his promise, no matter
how difficult it is?” He sighed, turning
to stare out towards the distant trees.
“Sometimes we have to make the best of a difficult thing; problems can
be like pieces of glass broken from a window.
They can turn in the hand if clutched too tightly, cutting the
skin. But… you can use a piece of glass
for other things, too—to look through for a different view of things, to focus
a ray from the sun…..””
“The Princess took comfort from his words, and believed.”
“And she thought again of how like her Page was to Prince Ichi, and again she wondered…..”
“One day a wonderful thing happened: A message arrived from Prince Ichi, carried in the talons of a trained hawk who landed on Princess Orchid’s windowsill. The message told that he was far, far away,
in a land that was very strange to him—he had visited it once before in the
company of his parents, but that had been many years past. He promised that he would always be with the
Princess in spirit, and that he would return to her when it was possible; but
he was needed where he was, and his return would endanger her, for he was
always pursued by enemies whenever his face was seen. He asked her to wait, as she had been
waiting, to trust him and believe; and the writing on the parchment was blurred
as if by tears at this point.”
“She folded the message and smiled at her Page, who sat by
the window and stared out at the forest.
“He has promised, and he always tells the truth; I will trust him.” Her Page said nothing, but seemed comforted
by her happiness.”
“Time passed; the Page served Princess Orchid well,
accompanying her and her loyal Guardsmen about her duties across the land. He became close friends with the three
Guards—indeed, Yumisan became his closest friend save
for the Princess herself. Many hours
were passed laughing and traveling with the Guards, and many fine adventures
were had.”
“Dangers abounded in these days for the Princess and her
people; the evil Black Knights were everywhere, it seemed, and many times their
terrors and plots were thwarted by the actions of the Guards and Orchid-Himitsu’s Page. He
seemed to know them well—the Princess could not help but wonder what he had
seen in his short life to make him regard them with such fear and resolute
defiance.”
“Many long hours were spent seeking out the evil seeds
planted by the Black Knights; they excelled in subverting the good to evil
purposes, and they had a positive talent for finding those who were weak enough
to be swayed into their service by payment in gold. For every traitor which was discovered, the
Guards feared that two more existed; for every plot uncovered, her advisors
kept watch thricefold against the ones which they
knew still went unseen. These were
fearful times indeed.”
“Always, always her Page kept on guard against the Black
Knights, being wounded more than once as he intervened between their danger and
the safety of the innocent. Several
times the Princess’ life was saved by the actions of the Royal Guards and the
cunning advice and stratagems of her Page; but never did they ask for a reward,
not even once.”
“At last the Princess took the Guardsmen aside to speak
with them; they had served her well, she said.
Was there *nothing* that they might wish for a reward? And what of her Page—did they know of
anything he might want?”
“Yumisan spoke up first: Being the Princess’ guard, she said, was a
reward in itself. But it was true that
she loved flowers, and of all things she would love to be given a rose-garden
the most of all. And so it was done, and
the loyal Guardsman worked in her garden when she was not on duty, raising the finest
white roses ever seen.”
“Hikosan spoke next: the Princess’ guard, he said, was a delight
in itself. But he did indeed have a
fondness for artisanship and the wonders of science, and he wished to learn as
much in that arcane field as he might.
And so it was done, and the loyal Guardsman was put into the care of the
Princess’ Wise Scientist Agasan, to be taught and
trained as his successor.”
“Gensan spoke up last: the Princess’ guard, he said, was an
adventure in itself. But he admitted
that of all things he loved good food the best, and wished that he might not
only eat the things he loved whenever he chose… but would like to know how to
*make* them as well. And so it was done,
and the loyal Guardsman was placed under the tutelage of the finest cooks in
the land, to keep them safe and to learn their secrets.”
“At last she asked them again—what of her Page? Was there *nothing* he desired? The three Guardsmen conferred together and
came up with an answer.”
“He desired a home, and a family. Sometimes he had seemed sad when he had seen
the three Guardsmen visiting their mothers and fathers and siblings, for he had
none and it seemed that he regretted their loss. And the Princess recalled his words: ‘I have no father and no mother, no home, no
country; all I have is the place I stand in and the sights and sounds my senses
give me. I have no past, and I don’t
know what future may lie before me.’”
“Once more the Princess thought of how like her Page was to
Prince Ichi, and once more she wondered…..”
“And so, on the day which marked the one-year anniversary
of her meeting with her Page, Princess Orchid brought him before the Court and
declared that he was now and forevermore her adopted brother, to be one of the
Royal Family from that moment forward.
He was no longer her Page, but would now become a Prince in his own
right. And she turned to him and asked
him to give her a name, for ‘Page’ would not do for a Prince.”
“In astonishment he stared at her, opening his mouth to
answer—and catastrophe happened. Into
the Court burst a contingent of the Black Knights, swords upraised and
terrible! The traitors in the Princess’
country had told them how to find the secret passageways through the castle,
and they had traveled thus unseen to the very heart of the Throneroom. Many of the lesser Guards fell, and the
Princess cried out for Gensan and Hikosan
to protect her advisors and ministers as she was taken away by her Page and the
guard Yumisan to safety. Together the three fled towards the forest as
fast as they could go, although the Princess would have stayed behind to help
her people if she had been allowed.”
“At last they stopped in their flight, deep within the
shadows of the trees; the Page seemed to know which paths to take, and Princess
Orchid and her guard followed him trustingly.
“We must find help for our people and land,” she cried out; “Else these
Black Knights will enslave us all, leaving ruin behind them when they are
finished.””
“Her Page nodded.
“I know—and there may be help to be found here, in the
“For many hours they traveled, deeper and deeper into the
wood, until they came to the entrance of a certain cave; by now it was darker
than the darkest of shadows there below the endless trees, and the cave was
noticeable only because a brilliant light shone from its opening, all red and
golden. Warmth, too, emitted from the
cleft in the rocks, and as the three drew nearer they saw that within the cave
was a bird, burning; and the bird was a
“The Princess and her Guard approached with fear and
trepidation, but the Page stepped up to the
“The
“The Princess stared at the boy, her Page who had served
her so faithfully; and she wondered, as she had so many times before—and this
time she asked what she had only asked but once. “Who are you?””
“He bowed his head, unanswering;
but in his place the
“The Page was silent, but when he looked up into Princess
Orchid’s face she saw Prince Ichi behind the sorrow
in his eyes. And she wept, knowing that
her Prince had been with her all along.
“But what can be done now? Can
you aid us again—destroy the Black Knights, help my people, or bring my Prince
back to himself?””
“The
“The Princess brushed the tears from her eyes and stood
strong and determined before the
“Hours passed within the forest, moving from
“….. as the sun rose, a strange
thing happened to the
“Every tree, every pine and ash and maple there: each one was transformed into an armored
warrior, tall and terrible and bearing the emblem of Princess Orchid upon their
breasts. They thundered towards the
castle, slaying every Black Knight that tried to face them down, destroying the
evil that had so taken over the land as they moved forward in an unstoppable
tide. Some of them paused to help the populace,
putting out the fires that ravaged the land and bandaging the wounds of those
who had fallen before the Black Knight’s swords. Not a word was spoken by these warriors, but
the anger in their eyes was a fearful thing indeed.”
“At last the tide of warriors reached the castle, which
had been taken entirely by the Black Knights; a fierce battle was fought
between the tree-warriors and the evil invaders, and by sunset every Black
Knight save for two lay dead at their hands.
But when the sun began to set the warriors vanished, and the
“The two remaining Black Knights took refuge in the Throne
Room, holding off the guardsmen who had survived their attack with steel and sorcerous bolts of lightning; many more valiant subjects of
Princess Orchid died against them, falling in battle. And as darkest night came down across the
land, three small figures were seen entering the broken walls of the
palace. One was a boy, well-known among
the populace (who rejoiced to see their new Prince, he who had been called the
Page); the other was a girl as young as he, brown of hair and with the most
beautiful eyes anyone had ever seen. The
third figure was another girl, golden-haired and calm of demeanor; the fourth
figure, who walked behind them with wary eyes and a
silent tongue was that of the Royal Guardsman, Yumisan.”
“Together they entered the ruined courtyard, three
children together and one adult, moving with great caution and determination
among the broken walls. When at last
they came to the Throne Room a great throng of the people had gathered behind
them, and they began to call out to the Black Knights to come out and face them
rather than hide like the cowards they were.
After a little of this, the two Black Knights launched great and
terrible blasts of fire from where they were bastioned, separating the four who
stood foremost from the rest of the crowd and driving the others away; and the
evil beings laughed to see that their opponents were nothing more than three
small children and one weary Guard.”
“”Do not laugh,” warned the boy, staring grimly at his
enemies. “You live now only because I
could not reach you before—because of you I have lost *everything* that I ever
loved, my home, my family, my very self—“ But in that moment the small brown-haired
girl beside him took his hand, and he smiled for a moment; “Well,” he said, “That’s
wrong; not *everything.*””
“He turned back to the Black Knights then and his face
grew stern and most unchildlike once again.
“And there is another reason why you still live: because the two here beside me have a greater
claim upon your lives than I.” He
stepped aside then, giving place to the two young girls.”
“The brown-haired girl spoke then, and her voice was
strong and fierce. “For my people’s sake
I have given up my place among them—now I am no-one, as homeless and nameless
as the Page was when he came among us.
And as he has now become a Prince of this land, I gave up this price for
*him* as well. Will you yield to us? I will only ask you once.””
“And through it all, Yumisan
the Royal Guardsman stood silent and unspeaking, watching, her hand on her swordhilt.”
“The evil Black Knights howled with laughter, cold and
dark as thunder and winter rain. Whyever would they yield to children? “Where are the weapons you would threaten us
with?” they asked mockingly. “What will
you do if we refuse? To be sure, you’ve
killed our armies, but your warriors are gone—you have nothing left to strike
us down with!””
“At this, the last of the three children stepped forward,
and her eyes were as cold as a frozen lake and as hot as the heart of the
sun. Within her hand she held a feather,
glowing brilliant red in the gloom of the ruined castle. “I am their weapon,” she told them softly in
her small girl’s voice. “I am the sword
at your throats, the noose around your necks, the
spear at your hearts. I am the fire that
burns back the darkness!” And suddenly
there was no longer a girl-child there but a
“The Black Knights screamed in torment as her firey talons grasped them; the more they screamed and
struggled, the more they were engulfed by flames, until at last the screaming
stopped and they were no more.”
“Then, with a terrible blast of light and fury, the
Phoenix dwindled to become the small golden-haired girl; she slumped to the
ground, exhausted with this last great magic of hers which had gained her
revenge for countless years of slavery in the Black Knight’s servitude. For it was as she had told the three within
her cave: Long, long ago she had been
taken prison by the evil ones, the daughter of a family of wise magicians and
scientists. Bewitched into the shape of
a
“But even the greatest pain ends. When the Princess Orchid had offered up her
woman’s body and princess’ name in exchange for an army of secrets to help her
people, the Phoenix-child at last found the courage to slip free of her chains;
even the Phoenix had to pay the Phoenix’ price, and she too gave up her form
for that of innocence and helplessness, which proved not to be so helpless
after all. The chains could no longer
bind her—they were too large, and she was too small—and so she was free. With the last of her magic (bound in the
single remaining Phoenix-feather) she had taken her revenge for every grief
that she and so many others had suffered at the hands of the Black Knights.”
“And through this all, Yumisan
had watched and kept silent—for that silence was *her* price, the price which
would purchase the end of the Black Knights and their evil influence. Even as the last of them burned into ashes,
terrible screams rang out among the remaining populace—and traitors who had
hidden themselves safely among the innocent, those who had sold the country’s
secret weaknesses and passages among the castle for gold—they each and every
one of them turned into solid black pillars of stone.”
“In the end, when all was quiet and still and the people
who had been driven away came back at sunrise, they found the three children
resting in a sound sleep, guarded by Yumisan. The Royal Guardsman informed them that their
Princess had been sent away to a far distant land to be with her Prince Ichi, for he had great need of her there; and so she would
remain, for her new young adopted brother (he who had been her Page) had won
the right of rulership by his deeds… and her heart
cried out for her Prince.”
“This grieved them greatly, for they loved their Princess
Orchid; but her word was law, and the new young Prince (though only a boy) had
indeed been recognized as part of the ruling line before them all the day
before—and if she gave up her crown to him, what were they to say about it?”
“”But who is this?” they wondered, seeing the brown-haired
young girl who had just awakened from where she lay curled at the new Prince’s
side. He turned to her, smiling sadly,
and said “This is a maiden from my country far away who my father has sent to
keep me company.” And all there wondered
at the strange happiness in his face.”
“”And this? Who is this?” they
said, pointing to the golden-haired child who still slept. “She also came from my country, a cunning and
well-taught artificer who will work well beside Agasan
and Hikosan to guard our borders with her inventions
and spells.” At this the girl awoke,
blinking at the rays of the rising sun; for the Phoenix had been bound too
deeply inside the cave to see any light save for her own, and she had not
viewed the sun for many, many years.”
“”Prince? How will you call
yourself, by what name shall you reign over us?
You never said,” asked Agasan respectfully; as
he was a wise man he had viewed the Page’s likeness to Prince Ichi with a curious eye, but he had kept silent regarding
his speculations. But now he waited for
the new Prince’s answer, as did all the rest of those watching.
“At that question he who had once been the Page smiled a
little, considering; at last he turned to the brown-haired girl and shook his
head. “I have been only a Page for so
long; let another name me.””
“The girl though a while, then looked up with laughter in
her eyes which many found strangely familiar.
“As our Princess has gone to join her Prince Ichi,
whose name means ‘one’, then I name you Prince Ni, whose name means ‘two’.” He blinked at her and looked doubtful (who
had ever heard of a land ruled by someone named ‘Ni’?), but accepted the
name. In return she asked him for a name
for herself, for she had chosen (she said) to leave her old name behind. What did he wish to call her?”
“The young Prince Ni thought to himself for a moment, then
smiled down at his friend. “I think,” he said softly, “that you must be named San, for as two follows
one, three must certainly follow two.”
“She laughed at him; “And I have followed *you*, have I
not?””
“At this, the golden-haired girl frowned at the two beside
her, crossing her arms severely. “I
refuse to be called either ‘Shi’ or ‘Yon’”, she announced.”
“The other two children laughed. “No, your name should be of your own
choosing… but I admit that I cannot see you deciding upon any other name than
Phoenix,” said the young Prince, at which she conceded that he was right; after
all, she had been a captive for so very many years that she had long since
forgotten the name that had once been hers.”
“And so the land returned to peace, ruled over by the hand
of Prince Ni, whose unusual intelligence and good sense kept it safe throughout
his lifetime and many generations to follow.
When he came at last to adulthood, he married the beautiful Lady San
(which surprised no-one at all), and—well advised by their Advisors and well
guarded by their Guards—the royal couple lived long, fruitful lives, enriched
by the joys of their children (whom they seemed to understand surprisingly
well) and by the happiness of their people.”
“And as for the Guardsman Yumisan? What she saw that
night in the
* * * * * * * * * * * *
“Rin-kun?..... um, R-Ran-neechan?” ventured
Ayumi, eyes very wide.
They were outside on the tiny scrap of grass
that was hid behind the Mouri’s building; the
branches of one of the somewhat bedraggled ash trees edging the so-called lawn
arched overhead, and a single leaf drifted down slowly to land near the two
girls where they sat cross-legged on the ground.
Rin sighed.
“You can still call me Rin, you know…. I’m getting pretty used to it by
now.” She raised one hand to rub at her
aching temples; telling the truth about herself and
Conan in terms that an eight-year-old could handle had been—difficult.
*If I
talk much more about this, I think I’m going to fall over. Can eight-year-olds have nervous breakdowns?*
It wasn’t that Ayumi-chan was stupid—God, no;
that was the problem, when you got right down to it. She was bright, too bright for comfort; there had been moments in the last few
months when Rin had seen her watching them and thinking about….. Well; now they knew what she had been thinking about, didn’t they?
Had they really been *that* clumsy?
Somehow she didn’t think so….. Part of the problem, really, was that
Ayumi-chan had learned to see things
a little differently; children could be perceptive enough, but for a year now
she (and the others, of course) had been under the tutelage of someone with
very exceptional insight and detective abilities—and that sort of thing tended
to rub off. In fact, Shinichi had been actively teaching the kids how to
*see*….. and now, in an ironic sort of way, those
lessons were paying off.
“R-Rin-kun?” the small voice ventured again,
making her look up.
“Rin? A-are
you mad at me for finding out?” Ayumi’s eyes were
huge; she fidgeted a little, huddled there on the grass with her hands in her
lap.
*Ohhhh….. so that’s the
problem.* “No—no, Ayumi-chan. No, listen
to me now, okay?—“ Rin
reached out and caught her friend by the shoulder as the child tried to draw in
on herself a little. “No, I’m not mad at
all… surprised, yes, but not
mad.”
She gave the other girl a small shake. “You’re really smart, you know,” she said,
allowing a little playfulness and approval to slip into her voice; “Nobody else figured it out—well, almost nobody;
there’s Heiji-kun… you saw him at the park. But he’s the only one so far—Conan had to
tell me, even. Every time I thought he was really Shinichi
he managed to change my mind one way or the other. So you did pretty good,
didn’t you, Ayumi-chan?” Rin smiled into
her young friend’s face, who wiped at her eyes with
the back of her hand and returned a somewhat watery grin.
The child drew her knees up, clasping them
with her arms and resting her chin on her hands. “You… still call him Conan-kun? Even though you know he’s really—“
Rin nodded firmly. “But he’s Conan-kun now, Ayumi. No matter who he
was before, that’s who he is now—just like I’m now Himitsu Rin. And even though you know the truth now… you’re going to have to think of us as
Rin and Conan, not—not Ran and Shinichi.”
She sighed a little, a distant look in her
eyes as she reached for the maple leaf that had fallen moments before. Twirling it in her fingers she traced the
edge gently; Fall was well underway—the leaves were turning; things changed all
the time, everywhere—when you got so caught up noticing the changes in
yourself, sometimes your forgot that.
“What we were… well, that doesn’t matter that much anymore; who we are now is what’s important. Everybody grows and changes, Ayumi-chan—I
guess we just did it a little more than most people.” Rin chuckled softly to herself.
*Who
knows? Maybe we needed this
second childhood—or maybe the world needed us to have it. Shinichi, anyway—how many of these
Conan-cases could he have solved if he hadn’t been kid-sized? How many of them would he have missed?* She glanced at the little girl sitting a few
feet away; the child’s face was still a little troubled, and no wonder—a lot
had happened to Ayumi in the last hour or so. *Poor
kid; from what she said, she’s been worrying about this at least a little for
months now, even if it really only came to a head over the past week or
so. I wonder who this ‘friend’ of hers
is that gave her such good advice?..... and…. How did he…..*
*-----AAAACK-----*
Her own eyes grew huge suddenly and her breath
choked in her throat as she realized: Ayumi’s friend *KNEW* about them.
*Oh no…..
Shinichi’s going to have fits.
I think I’ll have a few as well, just to keep him company.*
“Rin-kun? What’s wrong?” She must have made some sort of sound at the
moment of realization; it took her a moment or two before she could make her
frozen vocal chords work again. *Too many shocks in one day,* Rin
thought hazily, rubbing at her temples again; she needed a child-sized dose of
aspirin and a nap. *Much more of this and my head’s going to explode. How on earth did Shinichi STAND worrying like
this about my finding out for a whole year??*
Ayumi’s concerned face peered
at hers; a child-small hand was placed on her forehead. “Are you getting sick? You’re awfully pale….. Do, ummmm, grownup
kids get sick like regular kids do?”
The former teenager shook her head a little,
hard. “N-no….. no,
I’m alright. Errrrr…
Ayumi-chan….. that friend of yours, the one who suggested
you talk to us….. Who is he?” *Please,
please, please be somebody trustworthy, please, please, PLEASE be somebody trustworthy-----*
The child’s worried countenance cleared. “Oh, that’s H—“ and
she stopped mid-word, an arrested look on her face. “Ummmmm… IsortofpromisedhimIwouldn’ttell.”
*AAAAAARGH!! Don’t panic—if you panic, SHE’LL panic…
little kids can smell fear, I swear.* “Ayumi-chan….. I really,
REALLY need to know,” she said, trying to keep her voice calm. “He knows about us—and from what you said, it
sounds as if he knew about us even *before* you said anything. We need
to talk to him. If
he tells the wrong person….. Ayumi? Remember what I said about—about the, umm,
bad guys?”
The child scowled at her a little, tightening
her clasp again on her knees. “You don’t
need to act like I’m a baby, you know—you mean the ones who turned Shinichi
into… Conan-kun.
You said they were sort of like—like gangsters in those American movies,
or maybe yakuza in scary cop-shows on TV, right? And they have mad scientists, like on the
late movies too….. You said they wear
black clothes most of the time, and they hurt people they don’t like—they shoot
people and poison people and blow up buildings and set them on fire and—“ Ayumi
ticked off the salient points of their earlier conversation on her fingers, far
calmer regarding the whole matter than the former adult who sat staring at her,
mouth open.
“Rin-kun? Will they come after me because I know? I mean, if they find out I know? And if they find out I know, will they come
after Mitsuhiko-kun and Genta-kun
and—oh! And Haibara-san too, because you said that she’s the one who made the-- the
medicine, right? And if they find out I
know, will they—“
“Ayumi-chan—“
“—will they chase us and will we have to hide
and—“
“Ayumi-chan! No, no, no, calm down now—“ (although really it seemed that Ran was the one getting upset here…..) “Ayumi, this isn’t
a TV show—if they find out, they will
do all those terrible things. But… if
you’re very, very careful and
you don’t tell anybody, they won’t
find out, will they?”
This was the crux of the whole matter; Rin
felt her palms sweating. *Shinichi, I wish you were down here and not
up there with the boys--*
“Ayumi-chan? CAN
you keep this a secret? Not just for
now, or even for a year—forever and ever?
Our lives depend on it, and—and now, so does yours. Can
you??”
*You
trusted me for the truth, Ayumi-chan….. can we trust you to keep our secret? You’re only eight years old….. no eight-year-old should have to keep silent about something
like this, but it’s way too late for recriminations. Can you keep our secret, Ayumi?*
The little girl was silent, sitting still in
the grass. Her small face was solemn and
a little troubled as the gravity of Rin’s words sank
in. In that moment, staring at her from
so close by, the young woman inside Himitsu Rin’s
diminutive form saw something she had not expected and could only barely
recognize: the woman that her young
friend would one day become, not yet there, not yet real….. but
a possibility, a probability. And when the child raised her eyes to those
of her friend’s, the voice she used as she slowly answered seemed older than
her years.
“I… can keep it. I can—mostly because you and Conan need me to.” She took a deep breath then, letting it out
in a sigh. “I… don’t really understand
everything you told me, but I don’t want anybody to get hurt—so that’s what
I’ll think about when I want to talk about it, okay? Not letting anybody know—that’s what’ll keep
people from getting hurt, right, Ran-neechan? Rin-kun?”
And Rin believed her. What’s more… so did Ran, for reasons that she
couldn’t really put into words. “That’s…
that’s right, Ayumi-kun. Thank you…” and as she suddenly found herself
being hugged, she also found herself (somewhat to her surprise) leaking tears.
*Sometimes
I guess you just have to go with faith.* She hugged her friend
back, hard.
*…..and
now….. if I can get her to tell me about her friend
and how in the world he knows about us…..*
Behind them both, from a window one story up
the face of a young, bespectacled boy drew back from where he had been
listening; as he pulled the curtains gently closed behind him, he breathed a
heartfelt sigh of relief. *Alright, Ayumi-kun;
alright. You’ve trusted us… now we’ll just
have to trust you.*
************************************************************************************
To Be
Continued………
YSABET’S
NOTES: Heh heh; bet you
thought I was going to derail her suspicions, hmmmm? Nope.
I’ve always liked Ayumi—she’s a bright if
somewhat bratty kid, and I rather think she
hero-worshiped Ran a good bit. Sato too,
for that matter… Please pardon the Major
WAFF in this one, it just seemed necessary.
And do you know, I’ve learned something interesting: Writing fairytales is *hard* work! I hope this one worked out—let me know,
okay? Drama, drama, drama… you have to
ooze drama all over the place! Now, as
for next chapter… (Evil Grin)… Lots and
LOTS of Kaito Kid next time; poor ‘Yumi-chan’s going to end up between a rock and a hard
place. Also, birthday parties, magic
tricks (I’m actually having to *learn* how to do some of them for this story—DC
fics make me do the strangest research! Good thing I can already juggle somewhat,
even if badly), and maybe a peacock or two.
Please review—I’m not at all sure if this fic
has plumbed the depths of Waffiness-depravity or if I’m
still floating on top or not; is it too sappy?
Oh, and mucho thankees to Hauntress,
Icka, Tina, Becky, Magik, Loqui and Morgan for being beta-readers for this!! ESPECIALLY the fairytale part!