And so, the possible final chapter to THE BOOK OF KNOWLEDGE
I WOULD LIKE TO THANK THE READERS PROFUSELY
AND THE REVIEWERS EVEN MORE!
Disclaimer: I don't own CC/DC/MC, depending on what you call it
I AM SUPER SUPER SUPER SORRY ABOUT THE REALLY REALLY REALLY LATE UPDATE!
Since school started, I've been trying to do it at least once a week! I even postponed my other fic just so I could finish this one! But last Saturday I was kinda... banned... from the computer for getting too caught up that I forgot some stuff that I needed for refereeing a soccer match...
Oops!
And now, the last chapter of the Book of Knowledge...
"NO!" Rachel shouted, tears streaking down her cheeks. "JIMMY!" she searched the sight for a sign of her childhood friend.
"...no," she dropped to her knees dejectedly, ths metal case falling out of her hands and dropping face up to show rows of pills.
Red and White ones.
Chapter 12
Fires poppud up in the trees and bushes that lined the warehouse entrance. From a safe distance away, she heard shouts.
"Rachel!" Her father. "Get back here!"
"Rachel, please!" Serena...
"Neechan!" Harley...
"Rach? You there?" Kazuha...
"Rachel Moore! You get back here this instant!" Her mother...
"Y'know, you should probably listen to them," Jimmy...
JIMMY!
"It really isn't safe here," he continued, almost as if nothing happened. "The fire could spread, and we can't have you getting burned, can we?"
Rachel stood slowly and sluggishly. She made her way over to Kudo, tears apparent on her face and cheeks red.
SLAP
"Jimmy Kudo! Don't you ever do that to me again!"
"Aw, c'mon, Rachel! You know I didn't mean to!" Jimmy said, holding his arms out defensively.
"I should punish you! Worrying me like that,"
She puled him in and kissed him squarely on the mouth.
"Well at least you got those pills. I can be like this forever, now! They almost were caught in the crossfire," he began to sway dangerously.
"Jimmy? Jimmy!" Rachel caught the boy as he fell toward the ground. He let out a groan, and a hand came up to clutch his stomach.
"AH!" he shouted.
"RACHEL!" those at the van shouted through the smoke and fire.
"Rachel-" he panted, "Get out- of here,"
"Not without you," she said, leaning him on her shoulder and beginning her trek to the van. "I almost lost you... how many times is this now?"
Jimmy grunted, a sort of half-laugh through his pain. And then he doubled over again, his heart banged against his chest. "Rach-" he gasped. "I'm reverting-"
"What! Now!" Rachel shouted.
"That means Ai is reverting too," he deduced.
And, sure enough, a scream of pain came from ahead of them. One from the scientist Sherry.
His heart banged again, sending ripples of pain throughout his chest and his bones. His skin felt as though it were burning in the flames of the building fire. If they didn't get out of there now, it was likely they were never going to.
"Rach, just go. Bring Haibara the pills and leave me here," he grunted.
"No way," Rachel said, a look of pure determination on her face. Her will to get out of here alive and with Jimmy greatly overpowered any sense of fear or doubt she had in her.
She shifted Jimmy to lean on her and continued her journey to the van. She could see it now, through the flames, the heat distorting its shape.
Jimmy's skin started to smoke, sending another wave of pain through his body. He became hot to the touch and Rachel had to grit her teeth just to keep a hold on him.
They came to the wall of fire just as the people on the other side caught sight of their bulging shadow. They started shouting again. To Jimmy, through his pain, the shouts were indistinguishable. They were just high-pitched voices. They faded in and out, along with his vision. Rachel knew something was happening when he felt like a deadweight in her arms.
"Rach," he gasped, eyes bloodshot, "You can get through- easier- by yourself- drop me here- please,"
"How many times are you going to say that, Jimmy?" she asked, her voice soothing and soft. Tears welled in her eyes again.
"As long as- I need to-" he panted, voice raspy. "As long as- you're not safe,"
Fire danced before her eyes as the smoke began to clog her lungs. She coughed madly, finally dropping to the ground, Jimmy rolling off her shoulder and falling unconscious to the earth beneath him.
The heat made her dizzy and her sense of direction suddenly left her. Everything was orangey and firey. And hot too... very hot... At least she was getting a little more oxygen down here...
Another pained gasp from Jimmy brought her somewhat back down to earth. She fumbled over to him, reaching to touch his sweat-slicked forehead that was hotter than the fire itself, burning her hand on contact.
So this is what he felt like...
"Rachel!" Kazuha shouted through the flame. It thoroughly blocked any visual she may have seen.
"Kazuha! Get away from there!" Harley shouted, grabbing her shoulders and making her take a step back.
"She's alive, Harley! I know she is!"
"I know that too, Kazuha! But you're not going to help her any if you go off and get yourself burned!"
A mangled shout from behind them made them look once again on the pained face of the scientist. They never knew reverting back to a child might be this painful.
Sherry was lying on her back in the van. Luckily, Inspector Meguire was able to block the camera crew from the horrific scene.
Her skin actually started to smoke, sending the EMTs that had arrived on scene into a flurry of panic.
"There's nothing you can do-" Sherry choked out to them, "It's unrivaled technology- It is fitting that I should go through it- myself being the one who created it-... Kudo's turning back too,"
At the mention of Jimmy's name, almost everyone turned away. No one knew whether to believe he was alive or dead.
But it did resolve Kazuha's doubt about Rachel.
"Rachel!" she called again. "Rach- huh?" the appearance of a shadow through the fire caught her attention.
"What is that?" Serena, who had just come over, asked.
Harley turned to see where she was looking.
The shadow didn't look human. It was hunched over, some strange appendage growing from its side. This couldn't be Rachel. Not even fire could distort something this weird-looking form a human figure.
"Is it Rachel?" her mother frantically asked, coming over to see what they saw.
"...No..." Kazuha said.
"...What is it?..." Harley questioned.
Inside the van, Sherry desperately sat up. Seeing the shadow for herself, she smiled. "I'ts Rachel... and Kudo,"
"WHAT!" everyone shouted.
"Rachel!"
"Jimmy!"
"Someone get a fire hose!"
"We gotta get them out of there!"
Kazuha remained where she was to watch the figure while everyone else ran around trying to find something they could do to help. "C'mon Rachel," she silently prodded.
Her eyes bulged as she saw the shape drop to the ground. She let out a cry.
"Kazuha! What happened?" Harley shouted from her left.
"Harley! They disappeared! They were there one second, and the next second, they were on the ground! I can't see them anymore!"
"They're gone!"
"WHERE'S THAT DANG FIRE HOSE!"
"Rachel!" Kazuha coughed. "Jimmy!"
"Did someone need a fire hose?"
"YES!"
Another minute, and firefighters were spraying water onto the scene. Through the fire, they saw a figure. They stopped spraying. It stood upright, walking toward them nonchalantly, with what seemed like a bundle of clothes in its arms.
"AAH!" someone screamed behind them. It was a little girl's voice.
Most turned to look, but Harley, Kazuha and Serena all knew that Ai had just turned back into a little girl. Their eyes were glued onto the approaching figure. It stepped out of the fire.
"Rachel!" all three shouted, running toward her.
The girl was crying. Jimmy's oversized jacket only covered partial amounts of her body, while her skin was covered with patches of soot. In her arms, she held a small bundle that, when you looked closer, seemed to have large clothes.
Rachel fell to her knees with exhaustion, smiling that they had made it out, through all of her tears. She turned her attention once again to the little boy sleeping in her arms. She looked up when she felt three presences next to her.
"Rachel!" Serena said, getting to her knees and hugging the girl around her shoulders.
"You had us worried there," Kazuha said, hugging her too.
"But it's no biggie," Harley said, sweeping his hands under her arms and helping her to stand.
She smiled at all of them.
"Rachel!" her mother sounded relieved.
"Well, dear, I hope we won't have to go through that again," Vivian Kudo said, coming up to her and giving her a quick kiss on the forehead, taking the boy from her arms at the same time. "Now you, Jimmy Kudo, have been a very naughty boy,"
"I'm sorry mommy," he mumbled. This led to an astounding "AWWW!" from the crowd.
She cradled her son in her arms like she used to do when he was actually the age his body showed.
"Did you get it?" came a small voice.
Rachel looked down to see the little girl Ai Haibara looking up at her, clothes swimming around her. Rachel smiled and reached into her pocket.
She drew her hand away at first, the metal having been warmed beyond belief when they were inside the flames. But then, she bravely took the case from her pocket and showed it to Ai.
And Ai smiled.
Jimmy heard voices all around him. They sounded excited, their high-pitched tones driving him farthur from the place of peace and quiet inside his mind.
'Ugggg... what's going on?' he asked himself, his eyes adjusting to get a visual of the scene. "Ah! Mom!" he shouted, pushing away from Vivian Kudo. This startled her and everyone around so much that he was able to worm out of her embrace and fall flat to the ground.
"Jimmy!" everyone shouted.
Ai began work on her antidote the next day, with police supervision. It was almost humorous to watch a little girl work on a computer full of equations and numerical problems. And what's more- actually understanding it.
Eva stayed with Richard to watch over her daughter's recovery. Although Rachel had only minor injuries, Rachel hoped that this might mend the rift between her father and her mother.
Richard himself seemed to act more maturely with Eva in the building. He didn't drink nearly as often, and actually solved a few cases by himself, having still not been told that Jimmy had actually been the one solving all on his cases in the first place.
Rachel felt her family had come back to normal, her mother and father still got into petty fights, but it felt better to have them both under one roof. She went over to the Kudo mansion every day following the incident (the visits growing longer every day) to check up on Conan and talk with Kazuha and Harley.
These two teens had been invited by the Kudos to spend a few weeks with them in Tokyo to wait out the rest of the investigation. Officer Hartwell didn't seem too happy about this at first, wanting Harley to take Kazuha home as soon as possible, but eventually let them, with prodding from Inspector Meguire.
Meguire and his boy's got full accounts of the information from both Conan and Ai. They utilised this to update an account on the Black Organization, although both Conan and haibara doubted that they'd catch them now.
Serena returned home to her father, her mother waying heavily on her mind. There was no indication of whether she'd ever see her mother again-- and she wasn't sure she'd want to. Especially since that would mean they'd have to come in contact with the Black Organization again, and she wasn't too keen to do that anytime soon.
There were no signs of the Black Organization after that. Conan suspected that they'd take a while to cool down after their exposure to the whole of Japan. His suspicions were that they had left the country completely, but they'd never fully be gone.
Conan relaxed and took it easy while Ai worked on the antidote. His recovery was slow and painful since, in addition to the pain he'd gone through by reverting, he also was suffering from semi-severe burns. Both of these having happened at the same time, they put a lot of stress on his body, which therefore led to Conan being bed-ridden.
On the fated day, Conan and Ai said goodbye to the Jr. Detective League. Needless to say, the three had seen the news on the day of the incident, and knew their secret. The goodbye was a sad one, although Ai and Conan both promised to come say hi to them sometime, in their actual bodies.
Booker Kudo still wrote his books, and they were still read like wildfire throughout the country and others. No longer really regarded as "fiction" the book gained a new audience, including people in Japan.
Even though they knew the actual Secret life of Conan Egogawa...
"Hey, Jimmy! Feeling better?" Rachel greeted, opening the door to his bedroom. In her arms, she carried a boxed lunch that she'd made for the little guy. She came over to the bed, pulling down the covers to see the boy's face. She was surprised when the bed was full of nothing except pillows.
"Looking for me?" someone asked from behind her.
Rachel whirled around to see the actual Jimmy Kudo standing behind the door, a place where he was sure she wouldn't spot him when entering the room.
"Jimmy? Is that really you?"
"Well let's see," Jimmy teased. He looked up at the cieling as though thinking. He put up a finger as he counted the list, "One, there is no Conan in the bed. Two, I am standing right here. And three, Ai finished the antidote yesterday. So, yeah. I must be Jimmy Kudo,"
"Kudo you smarty-pants!" Rachel scolded, flying toward him and hugging him. "You're back,"
"I'm back," Jimmy repeated.
Rachel let him go, wrapping her arms around his neck instead as his wrapped around her waist.
"I' love you, Jimmy Kudo," she said.
"I love you, Rachel Moore," he replied.
And he kissed her.
END!
MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I actually finished it! I honest-to-goodness actually finished it! I'm so proud of myself.
See? Now wasn't that worth the wait?
Ha! Now that it's over:...
DO YOU WANT A SEQUEL!
Huh, huh? Do ya? Do ya? TELL ME!
Well, since you're suce good reviewers, I'll give you a sneak peek of my next creation! Those who've been waiting for another one like Dance with Destiny, your wait is over! Only this time, I wasn't so obvious about who the killer was...
SNEAK PEEK!
Midnight Masquerade Murder
"JIMMY!"
"Heya, Rach, long time, no see!"
"He'll never let me go,"
"Watch and learn. Good sir! I come bearing gifts!"
"Harley and Kazuha are going too?"
"Well sure! Both Harley and I were invited as guests of honor. And we were told to bring dates. So... wanna go?"
"DO I!"
"Hello, my name's Robert Bucksworth-"
"-Arianna Bucksworth-"
"-Brian McGregon-"
"-Henry Callaway-"
"-Genevive French-"
"-Catlin O'Flaherty-"
"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!"
"What's the matter?"
"HE'S DEAD! ROBERT BUCKSWORTH IS DEAD!"
"So that means, the killer must be... YOU!"
Hahaha! So, how do you like it? Pretty cool, huh? These are just snippets, so you can expect more detail in the actual thing. Don't wanna give away too much now, do I?
animebookworm44