"Well then Ran, I'll talk to you later okay? I've gotta get back to the case."
"Un. Alright, talk to you soon Shinichi." With a simple click, the voice that belonged to Kudou Shinichi disappeared once more. Ran clutched her cell phone against her chest for a moment, a smile on her face as always when she had finished talking to her childhood friend. Standing inside her father's office, she let her gaze wander out the windows and watched the sun set behind the tall buildings of Tokyo. It was painful talking to Shinichi like this, pretending that she was alright when he was off somewhere and putting his life in danger; then again, he had always been like that. That was part of why Ran thought of him as such a special person.
Exhaling softly, the high school girl pushed aside the feelings of worry. After all, he always managed to come back to her once in a while to let her know he was alright. Ran started humming happily while she opened the door out into the hall of their house and made her way to the kitchen, musing over what kind of food she should prepare for tonight's dinner.
From his room, Conan watched her quietly with his arms crossed over his chest; his cell phone with the soccer strap hanging off the back, in his hand. His face went deadpan after she disappeared into the kitchen, an audible groan emitting from his lips. "Taku… calling so suddenly. Doesn't she know I'm supposed to be really busy?" Closing the door after him as he went into his room, he kicked off his slippers and slumped onto the futon on the floor. He put his cell phone on the desk and folded his arms beneath his head.
A smile crept onto his face quietly without him realizing it. He was happy he could relieve some of Ran's worries with a simple phone call, but… his hand slowly rose in front of his eyes where he studied the back and front for a while. 'It would be a lot better if I could talk to her using my real voice. Talking to her, face to face as the real me.' The shrunken Shinichi closed his eyes while he curled his hand into a fist, wanting to strike something as hard as he could. How long did he have to endure this state? How long was he supposed to look at his younger self in the mirror?
Flashes of the night where he had left Ran alone in Miracle Land to follow the men in black rushed through his mind; the deal between the Vodka and the guy with the suitcase; the sound of Gin coming up behind him and finally the feeling of a pipe crushing down on the back of his head. After that, everything was more or less blank. A sharp pain shot through his head suddenly and he bolted up, clutching his right eye tightly. His breathing had become heavy and short and his vision was blurring. [iW-what… is this… pain…?[/i The pain started becoming overwhelming and it didn't take long before Conan passed out from it, thick drops of sweat running down the side of his face as he laid there unconscious.
----------
"Mnm…" A soft groan broke the room's silence. It was dark and hard to move… Conan slowly, tried heaving his eyelids, but it was as if it was impossible. After a minute of summoning willpower, his eyelids opened slightly, revealing a blinding light which made him close his eyes immediately. A few tries of blinking later, he was able to open his left eye fully while his right remained closed, or so it seemed at least. The feeling of bandages around his head was probably why it still looked dark to him. His left eye glanced around the room, trying to focus on whatever was in there. As the room came more into focus, he could see a chair beside him; sheets covered his body and it felt like he was lying on something like a bed. Glancing to the side, he saw the large windows which emitted the bright light.
Conan gathered his strength in his arms and pulled himself up to sit up straight in the bed. What had happened? Where was he? Quietly resting his hand over his right eye which had been covered in bandages, he could only come to one conclusion. 'The hospital?!' The fact that he was wearing hospital clothes as well only proved this fact. An IV had been stuck to his arm and he painfully removed it, wincing from the pain in the process. It… didn't make any sense. Why was he in the hospi—wait a minute! His eyes widened slightly as he remembered the pain in his right eye. That must have been the source of all this, but, what exactly…
"Conan-kun! Sensei! Conan-kun is awake!"
"Huh…?" Conan gazed to his left, seeing a worried Ran standing in the doorway with tears in her eyes. She had apparently gone to get something to drink as she was holding a can of soda in her hands. Ran put the soda on the table and hurried to Conan's side, taking his hand immediately and checking his forehead. "Conan-kun, are you okay? I've been so worried!"
Nodding, Conan still had no idea what was going on and took Ran's hand off his forehead. "Ah, I'm fine Ran-neechan. But… why am I in the hospital?" He inquired quietly, his rough voice making him cough after he had asked his question. Ran patted him on the back slightly and explained. "I found you unconscious on the floor in your room and you wouldn't wake up no matter what I did."
"Eh?" He stared at her with wide eyes. Ran kept rubbing his back while she sat down in the chair and held his hand quietly. Quiet tears flowed down her cheeks while a smile was on her face. "I'm so glad you've woken up." Frowning, Conan asked quietly, "How long have I been asleep?" A worried expression once again crossed the girl's face and she clutched his hand a little bit tighter, her voice coming out low. "A month."
After a few days of rest in the hospital, Conan had gradually found out what had happened after he had passed out in his room. Ran had called him down for dinner that night, several times; but when he never responded, she got annoyed and finally went up to check on him. Finding him passed out on the floor with no sign of response, she called her father (who was out playing Mahjong and drinking, by the way), and they brought him to the hospital where they stayed for the next month.
What do you mean there's nothing wrong!? The kid won't wake up!" An angry Mouri Kogorou nearly screamed at the doctor's face. His hand was tightly gripped around the doctor's collar and he had backed him up against one of the hall walls. "Dad! Stop it!" Ran tried to pry her detective father of the doctor, heaving on his arm as best as she could, but to no avail. His grip only tightened. "You mean to tell me that he's only sleeping?!? So that's why there was blood coming from his right eye as well, I suppose?! You bastard…", "Now, now, Mouri-san. I didn't say that."
The doctor somehow succeeded in getting Kogorou's grip off his collar while Ran held her father back. "I am only saying that there is no sign of a normal coma, even though, admittedly, he is in that sort of state. We cannot find anything wrong on his scans and his everything seems to be normal. It is a mystery that not even the Great Detective Mouri can solve. I'm afraid all we can do, is wait."
"Cut the crap! I won't accept a reason like that!" Kogorou hissed at the doctor. Ran watched from behind her father, his reaction actually surprising her. It wasn't often he was this upset. "Dad… just… stop okay? Conan-kun is strong." Her azure orbs gazed through the door to Conan's room at the sleeping boy; her gaze softening a bit when she laid her eyes on him. "He'll wake up soon. I know it."
In the following weeks, Ran had been allowed to stay with him and had gotten a spare bed moved into the hospital room so she could be by his side constantly. Sonoko had dropped by a few times to deliver homework and to check up on the little deduction freak. But Conan stayed asleep, day after day went by as slowly as they did. Ayumi, the professor and the other kids came to visit sometimes as well, bringing pretty flowers that could decorate the lonely room.
Despite the bed standing on the other side of the room, Ran never did sleep much on it. After everyone had gone home, she sat in the chair beside Conan's bed and held his hand quietly, simply listening to the sounds of the machines that kept the IV running and the heartbeat measuring instruments. The high school girl let her thumb run gently over the back of his hand while she brushed her other hand through the boy's bangs. His dark brown hair was messy as if he had just been out playing soccer.
A soft smile curled onto Ran's lips, "You look so much like him But you're not him, are you?" She closed her eyes and lightly placed a kiss on the sleeping boy's bandaged forehead. "I'll be back soon, Conan-kun. I just have to go home and get some clothes." She wasn't pleased with having to leave him to his own for a while, but hoped it would be alright. Ran quickly went through the hospital and outside, where she took a taxi home.
"I'll be back in just a second!" Leaving the taxi driver sit in the car, Ran locked herself in at the Detective Agency and ran up the stairs to her room where she exchanged her bag with a different bag she had prepared. Closing the door behind her, she went out into the hall and stopped. Gazing up the stairs to Conan's room, Ran bit her lip and quietly went up the stairs in the dark. She opened the door to his room, the dark still hiding her from visibility. The only light source in the room was the moon which shone inside with its eerie glow.
Finally turning on the lights, Ran looked around the room before she noticed the cell phone on the desk. "Ah, we never got a chance to take this with us." She stepped over to the desk and grabbed the phone off the table and put it in her bag. The girl gathered a few other things from the room before finally leaving to go back to the hospital.
Putting her bag on the bed opposite Conan's, she picked out his phone and put it beside the bag as well as her own. She pulled off the turtleneck sweater she had been wearing; not feeling energetic enough that night to actually change into something else, she decided to just wear the white tank top with her jeans. Ran exhaled softly as she slumped back into the chair beside Conan's bed, putting the two cell phones on the table beside her. 'I probably won't get any sleep tonight either...'
Looking to her phone, she let her fingers run over the display before she grabbed it fully. "I should probably let Shinichi know where I am." The sound of beeping broke the silence in the room as she formed a message for her childhood friend.
[ Hey Shinichi.
If you've tried to get a hold
of me back home, then I'm
sorry for not picking up.
Conan-kun had some kind
of accident, so I'm at the
hospital.
I'll let you know how
he is when he wakes up.
Ran.
She pressed the send button and watched the little animation of a letter being folded and sent until it was done. As she shut her phone down, Conan's phone started buzzing immediately. The sound shook the girl and her eyes widened slightly, her stare becoming blank as she turned her head, watching the phone light up as it had received a whole new message.
Ran didn't mention this to Conan however. That night, she had been too afraid to actually look at his phone and find out if the message he had received was from her or not. She tried convincing herself countless times that a coincidence like that happens all the time. It was probably from that girl he liked, it was stupid to think that Conan received the message that she had sent to Shinichi… right?
"…an…"
"…Ran…?"
"Ran!"
"Oh!" Blinking, Ran returned to the real world. Sonoko was giving her an odd look, as if she was from an alien planet, "Is something wrong? You were totally spacing out, y'know." Hearing a 'clank!' noise from the vending machine, the dark haired girl bent down to pick up the soda while dismissing Sonoko's sentiments. "I'm fine Sonoko, just a little tired, that's all." The two girls continued their journey down the hospital's hallways, back to Conan's room. It had been a couple of days since Conan had woken up, and the Professor and the children were there to visit.
"Haaai! Drinks for everyone!" Sonoko announced as soon as she and Ran entered the room. They each gave out the different drinks while the Detective Boys were questioning Conan.
"So, you really don't remember anything, huh?" Mitsuhiko asked, opening his can soda in the process. Conan shook his head a bit while he held his drink in his hands. "Not really. I just remember pain in my right eye, and that's it.", "But, something must've caused it though, since the doctors can't find anything." Ayumi chimed in, sitting in what used to be Ran's place beside the bed. "Cheh! He's probably just faking it to get out of school." Genta said with a big, mocking grin on his face. Immediately, Ayumi and Mitsuhiko started scolding him for saying such awful things! Conan though just had a deadpanned expression on his face while he thought to himself, 'I could just cut class if I wanted to, being admitted to a hospital is going overboard just for that.'
"Hm?" Glancing to his side, Conan noticed that Ran was the only one who was standing silently to herself without engaging in conversation with the others. 'That's weird… usually she'd be caught up in conversation with Sonoko.' Ran suddenly looked up and the two of them shared eye contact for a moment, but she turned her head away almost immediately. That was some pretty strange behavior, even for Ran, but Conan didn't get anymore time to contemplate about what was bothering her as the children started questioning him once again.
Ran glanced back at Conan while he was talking with Ayumi and the others; she then glanced down at her left side where her hand was tightly gripping his phone within her pants pocket. The courage to give Conan's phone back to him was fading with every moment. She shouldn't have taken it, he was going to be angry with her when he found out… but… if she didn't… she wouldn't be able to find out if that message was actually hers or not.
Shaking her head, Ran put on her smiling face and left the phone in her pocket for now. "Hey Sonoko, what kind of homework do we have for tomorrow?"
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As the day passed into night time, Conan had sent everyone home for the day. He especially wanted Ran to rest as he knew that she hadn't gotten a lot of sleep in the month he had been in the hospital. The shrunken Shinichi laid in his hospital bed and stared at the ceiling, just as he'd done that night where all this started. Thoughts rushed through his mind constantly. He had a ton of questions, but no answers. One of the better things though, was that Haibara had managed to get a sample of his blood and she would try to analyze it when she returned to the lab with the Professor.
Conan was only waiting for her call now. Instinctively, he reached for his back pocket, only to find that there was nothing there except for the hospital garment. He deadpanned as he remembered he had left it back in his room. "I'm such an idiot sometimes. I should have Ran bring it tomorrow."
"Edogawa-sama?" A voice popped up from the door, and Conan sat up, "Yes?" The nurse rolled in a small table with a phone set on top. "There is a call for you from a Haibara-sama." Conan grinned to himself, 'Of course she'd call the hospital.'
"Ahh, thank you, just leave it there." The nurse nodded and exited the room once again. Conan's small hand picked up the phone and put it up to his ear, "Hello? Haibara? Have you found something?"
"Yeah, sort of." Haibara's voice chimed through the phone line. "I took some tests on your blood, and not surprisingly, there were some specific chemicals mixed in as a result of you taking the APTX 4869. One of those interfered with your nervous system." Shinichi frowned at the other end of the line, and gingerly touched the bandaged part of face. "So, what does that mean exactly?" His heart was racing a little faster than usual.
Haibara paused a bit, but finally spoke up again, "To be frank, it's not life threatening," Shinichi sighed with relief, "However," Haibara continued, "If this happens again, you most certainly could go blind."