Disclaimer: I am NOT the owner of Detective Conan. Goshou Aoyama owns it, not me. I wish I own Detective Conan when I grow up, when Goshou Aoyama retires, I'll go to Japan and take his place and continue the story!!! Well, at least I wish that I could! I love Detective Conan!!!!

Ai's Christmas card

Genre: Poetry

Rating: K

Status: complete

WARNING TO NON-CHRISTIANS/NON-CATHOLICS: This story has contents concerning Christianity. Well, I'm Roman Catholic, and proud of it… I know that most Japanese are not Christians, but still, this is my personal fanfic, who can blame me? Besides, there are still FEW Japanese Christians around, I'm sure of it!

Oh yeah, NO flames allowed in reviews… Flames, as in "bad and cursing comments"

Have a blessed Merry Christmas everyone!

-Miyano Ran

By the way, this is my 3rd poem so far. My first one was "The Scent of the Sour Butt Fart" the second was "You Are My Only Light" and this is the third.

This is a Christmas special.

Enjoy!

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In Teitan Elementary School…………………………

The teacher of Class 1-B enters the classroom.

"Ohayou children!" She greeted. "Say your greetings now."

"Ohayou Kodachu-sensei! Ohayou minna-san!" They greeted childishly.

"Please sit down, class." The teacher requested.

"Arigatou Kodachu-sensei!!" The class dragged the words long and slow, childishly.

Conan and Ai both sank down their respective seats. They were seatmates.

"Class, for our class activity, I want all of you to write a poem about Christmas and write it down on a Christmas card since it's almost Christmas day. Winter break starts next week! Let me remind you that this is graded. This is part of your class participation and your grade in English."

"Hai!!" The class chorused once again.

Conan and Ai simply grinned at each other in response to how innocent and cute those kids were. Every one of them started to get Yuletide cards from their school bags. Conan tapped Ai's shoulder, calling her attention.

"Psstt… ne…Haibara…"

Ai looked at him with an annoyed look while finding her card in her back pack. "Nani, Kudo?"

"Um… can I have a card?" He said with shades of red on his cheeks, embarrassed. "I…um…er…forgot it at home…" He stammered.

Ai grinned. "Oh man, you are even more irresponsible than these kids…"

Conan pleaded with eyes as cute as Ai's pet Papillion years ago back in the organization.

Note: Papillion is a breed of dogs. That is said to be Ai's favorite pet in the manga.

Eyes of Ai just stared at him indifferently. "Fine…fine… just don't show your puppy dog eyes to me… It reminds me of Amy…"

"Amy?" Conan raised a brow while getting the card that Ai was handing out to him.

"Amy is my pet Papillion dog when I was a little kid back in the syndicate. Akemi-neechan bought her for me. I miss her so much… I loved that dog…"

Ai said with sadness in her eyes. If her character wasn't strong enough to hold emotions, she could have gotten teary, Conan could see that.

While Conan was getting a blue pen from his pencil case, he asked curiously.

"What happened to Amy?"

Ai's head was downcast as she frowned; her eyes never have been so vulnerable before.

"She died… Gin killed her…"

Conan felt a jolt of pain within him. He pitied Ai, having her favorite pet dog killed like that. He knew he shouldn't ask more. Gin was really some kind of huge Satan-like unattractive fur ball, he killed her elder sister Akemi AND her dog which was also given to her by her sister. Conan really hated Gin, the member of the evil syndicate, much more now. He was just a freaky killer with a scary face.

"…on Christmas day…" Ai added sadly, her eyes reflecting upset feelings. "That dog was just so cute…"

Yet another blast of sorrow entered Conan.

"That's terrible…" Conan whispered just as sadly, pitying her.

Ai just nodded, still looking sad.

"But as long as Lord Jesus Christ is up there… He will take care of Amy, I'm sure of it…I'll pray for your dog…" He said, trying to comfort her.

Ai just smiled back at him. Then, she looked at her beautiful shiny silver bracelet with a crucifix dangling from it as she raised her wrist upward towards the sunlight outside the window to see the cross of Christ glimmer under the sun's rays. She saw the carved inscriptions of the words "God loves you" on her bracelet.

"By the way, you wear that same bracelet everyday, where did you get it?" Conan asked her when he noticed it again. It was a beautiful accessory.

Ai gave a sad smile. "Akemi-neechan gave it to me. It's the most important thing I own."

Conan swallowed hard. It seemed as if he always made her feel sad whenever he reminded her of her sister who passed away recently no matter what he says, even if it is just an accident. He didn't mean to remind her of Akemi and he didn't want her to be sad once more. He decided to just shut his mouth for good before the girl beside him breaks into tears.

"Oh…" Was what Conan responded.

"You may start writing your poems now, class." Their female teacher told them happily.

"Hai!!" Was what everyone said.

Conan and Ai started writing their poems, too.

Ai whispered to Conan. "You owe me 5 yen."

"Huh?" Conan looked up at her from his writing position.

"That card costs 5 yen." She explained.

"Taku…" Conan muttered.

A/N: Taku- oh man

Ai snickered. "I'm just kidding! It's Christmas, that card's yours."

"Thanks!" Conan said to her in return.

And then the two continued on writing their poem.

30 minutes later…

"Pass your cards forward!" Sensei said to the children.

"Hai!" All the children said obediently once more while finishing up their cards.

"Can I read yours?" Conan asked Ai, trying to grab hold of her card.

"Nah-uh…" Ai shook her head while smirking. "…too late…"

She passed her card forward and the front monitors of each row, upon collecting all the cards, submitted them to the teacher.

Conan frowned. "Aw…gee…I wanted to read it!" He whimpered.

"You're like a child." Ai told him.

"I AM a child." Conan reminded her.

"Your body is, your mind isn't supposed to be. But apparently, it is…" Ai snickered once more.

Conan's facial expression softened into a gentle smile.

Haibara is laughing… finally…

"I'll pick one card for me to read aloud in class, okay?" The teacher proposed.

"Okay!" The children yelled cheerfully.

Conan grinned when he noticed sensei grabbing hold of a card with a familiar design. Ai gulped and bit her lip.

Conan told her. "That card's either mine or yours."

Ai sighed. She didn't know why, but she felt that it was her card for some reason.

"Okay, class! I got Haibara-san's card!" She said excitedly.

"Oh…brother…" Ai groaned, burying her face on her open palms while shaking her head.

"Oh…YES!" Conan screamed victoriously.

"Okay, I'm going to read it now…" Sensei said.

A Christmas tree,

Is but a mere symbol of Christmas.

Christmas Day, my friends,

Yet has its true meaning to show.

Gifts, presents, all are unimportant.

For at this Day,

All the Earth shall commemorate no one but Christ.

And so I think,

Without Christ, Christmas has lost all its meaning.

Love, Peace and Hope alone on This Day,

Can make our Christmas whole today.

This Day depicts Christ's birth as shown.

We must not celebrate this Day alone.

We must share our blessings to the needy,

So that on Christmas Day our hearts may not be greedy.

This tree, a mere facade,

Shows lots on This Day.

Gasps and murmurs could be heard afterwards.

The teacher looked at Ai with a soft smile.

"This is deep and it is very touching and meaningful. Even if we Japanese aren't Christians, I understood this…" Sensei put down the card on her desk and told Ai. "This is going to get an A+ grade in English."

Ai just smiled and nodded while mouthing a "thank you" to Kodachu-sensei.

"That was wonderful…" Conan gasped.

"Thanks."

Ai said, still remaining humble even if the whole class, including the trio, Ayumi, Genta and Mitsuhiko were all hovering around her, praising her work.

"I didn't even exert effort in writing that. It was not my best. It's really not that good."

"The message was good, though…" Conan told her with a glint of merriment in his eyes.

"Thanks." Ai said to him again.

The truth is, it wasn't really that well written, but, the message got through everyone, even those who were not Christians. Ai wasn't a full Christian, nor was Conan, however, they new that the word "Christmas" indeed came from the name "Christ" and somehow, they didn't know, but they just believed. They knew that Christmas was the Lord's birthday.

Conan turned to Ai and with a grin, he greeted her. "Merry Christmas, Haibara."

Remembering the inscription written on her bracelet, Ai smiled at him and gave a different reply.

"God loves you."

That was the only thing she said to him that day, and, the message sank into him.

Conan blinked, not expecting such a startling reply from her. He just smiled.

Ai looked up the sky outside the window, with the sun in her eyes, and while caressing the carvings of her bracelet that she wore on her small wrist she muttered with a tender beam.

"God loves me."

She held the cross dangling from her bracelet tight.

END

Time Started: Friday, November 30, 2007 3:42:48 PM

Time ended: Thursday December 18, 2008 5:00 PM (the day I both started to continue from a year ago and ended at the same time LOL)

Yes, it took me a YEAR to write this one…

What can I say…? I'm lazy…: D

Well, anyhow, please read and drop a comment there in the little button called "Review Button" Please make my day happy!

Uh… and, by the way, I wrote that poem in class last year for an English activity.

--- Miyano Ran-senpai (for those younger than me) and Miyano Ran-chan (for those older than me) Hi Grace-neechan! I started this even before we met …haha!