Fic: Communications: 17/?
Dec. 2nd, 2005 10:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
soc_puppetFandom: Detective Conan/Magic Kaito
Summary: Shiho searches for redemption.
Installment seventeen: Absolution
It had been nearly a week since the papers announced the recovery of two billion yen from a robbery, and Shiho still hadn’t heard from her sister. Her superiors weren’t talking, either. She suspected it was either because they didn’t know what had happened to her sister, or, more likely, they were still thinking of a way to tell her that didn’t put the organization in a bad light. She only continued to work for the organization in the rapidly diminishing hope that her sister had escaped.
“So, what happened to the Miyano bitch?”
Shiho’s breath caught in her throat; the break room wasn’t normally monitored, so the organization’s members tended to speak more openly there. With no one to interfere, Shiho might finally hear news of her sister. Heart beating wildly, she pressed herself against the wall next to the door to listen.
“Her?” The second speaker snorted in distain. “She was a waste of time.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah. Wouldn’t open up about where the money was. Determined to ‘save her sister’, or some shit like that.” Shiho’s heart clenched. Akemi, you idiot, she thought fiercely. I told you not to worry about me! “I gave her a couple of chances,” the man continued, “but she wouldn’t budge. Had to do her in.”
The first man snorted. “Like you really hated it.”
His companion laughed darkly at this, and Shiho slipped away from the door, not wanting to hear any more.
How could they, she thought, her heart choked with grief and anger. How could they! They promised me she would be safe! They said they wouldn’t hurt her! Shiho threw open the door to her lab. She was all I had left in the world, and they took her from me! She leaned against a table, one hand gripping the edge for balance, knuckles whitening. The other hand covered her mouth, sealing in sobs. Worse than the grief she felt over her sister’s death was the thought that she had almost expected this to happen: that it was, in a way, her fault. She had known the Black Organization played dirty, and she’d chosen to believe them anyway when they told her they would keep her sister safe.
Desperate for something to distract herself with, she looked around the lab. Her gaze hardened at what she saw. All these drugs, these poisons and elixirs that she had made, all going to help the organization that had killed her sister; the organization Akemi had died trying to save her from.
Shiho was suddenly overwhelmed by disgust and anger: over what she had done, and who she had become. She turned on the table she had been leaning against and flipped it over, scattering papers and spilling chemicals. The Black Organization would be sure to punish her harshly for this, but she was beyond caring. She attacked the room in a fit of rage, overturning more tables and opening specimen cages. Run, she urged the animals silently. Get out of here! Then she turned to her own creations and began tearing through them with a will.
She paused in the midst of her destruction, hand hovering over what was called Apotoxin 4869, the supposedly deadly poison whose data she had changed. Shiho knew for a fact that it wasn’t lethal, at least not in the doses the organization used. She had confirmed it herself only a few days earlier, when she had visited the house Akemi had been assigned to watch over in hopes of finding her sister. Instead she had found a set of children’s clothing missing that had been there when the two of them had first seen the house. Shiho would have dismissed it as a coincidence if it weren’t for the fact that the organization’s databanks listed the house’s resident as the first, and so far only, human test subject of the apotoxin.
Suddenly, Shiho found that she wanted to live. She wanted to find the boy that the organization wanted dead, that she had inadvertently saved, that her sister had been sent to watch over. She wanted to help him and anyone else that she had indirectly wronged.
Turning to the sink, Shiho turned on the tap and filled a glass. Blithely she slipped a capsule into her mouth and washed it down with water. Then, she turned to the door and walked out, leaving her old life behind. She was wracked with pain by the time she was halfway out the building, and she struggled to appear unaffected by it. Once outside, she managed to put a few streets between herself and the building before ducking into an alleyway to hide. It was too late to save her sister, she knew, but there were other people she could save now.
She might even be able to save herself.
-----
Akemi’s hair was shorter now, and red. The color came from a gel that made her hair stiff and would wash out shortly, but she didn’t need it to last long—only until she got out of the country. She sat perfectly still as Kaito finished applying her disguise. When he at last sat back, she slipped the glasses she had kept from her stint as Hirota Masami back on her nose, careful not to smudge the cover-up. Kaito leaned back and appeared to study his handiwork, though Akemi had a feeling that the crease in his brows was more from nerves than from self-criticism. Her suspicions were confirmed when he asked her, “Are you sure you want to do this?”
Akemi thought about it. She had just woken up the previous day from her long sleep and so didn’t know Kaito and his friends very well. Still, when they had told her what they were doing and the reason they were doing it, she found she couldn’t turn away if she wanted to. So, she had volunteered to look for the Pandora Gem overseas. “Positive,” she told him. When he still looked skeptical, she added, “I have to get out of the country anyway; I may as well do something useful with my time.”
Sighing, Kaito finally dropped his gaze and nodded. “You’re right. Anyway, your flight leaves soon; we should get you to the airport.”
Akemi smiled warmly at him. “Don’t worry, I’ll be fine.” Now that Shiho didn’t have to worry about her, Akemi thought, she might finally leave the organization. Perhaps when she returned her little sister would be safe.
-----
Shiho clutched the now oversized lab coat around her for protection. Underneath, her once fitting shirt threatened to slip off of her small shoulders. So, she thought, it worked. This didn’t particularly surprise her, but it was reassuring to know that she had not misjudged the drug’s effects.
It occurred to her that she could no longer be Miyano Shiho now. The Black Organization still thought she was alive, and if she used her own name she would not only be putting herself in danger but the apotoxin’s first victim. So, what should she call herself?
Shiho found herself almost drowning in sorrow. She had done deeds through the Black Organization that she was truly ashamed of, and didn’t even have her sister’s life to show for it. She had caused more than her share of sadness. Sorrow it is, I suppose, she thought rather cynically. She had a chance to make up for it now, but she could never erase what she had done. Even though she was leaving the Black Organization that still didn’t make her white. I guess that would make me gray, then. She smiled bitterly at the notion. Probably dark gray.
Haibara Ai, she thought. Perhaps not the best name, but it will do. Satisfied, the newly christened Ai hiked up her socks took her first steps out of the alley and into her new life.
—Fin—
Did my best to keep Ai's name the same while changing the origins thereof. According to the manga, ‘Hai’ in ‘Haibara’ (meaning gray) was taken from Cordelia Gray. ‘Ai’ was taken from the ‘I’ in V.I. Warshawsky. Ai chose to have her first name written as ‘sorrow’ rather than the more common ‘love’.
Very sorry about the wait for this chapter. I had a few issues remembering details, and on top of that, I wasn't entirely sure exactly what I wanted to do with Akemi for a very long time. I knew I had to get her out of the house, and possibly the country, but I wasn't sure about a lot of details, especially the why and how of it. Thankfully, Pandora provided a good excuse.
Thanks very much to Summercloud, both for the beta and for kicking me back into productivity with this fic ^^;
Winter Holiday request thing is here for anyone who missed it. It's open to everyone and I'll be taking requests right up until December 31.
x-posted to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
manycases1truth
Summary: Shiho searches for redemption.
Installment seventeen: Absolution
It had been nearly a week since the papers announced the recovery of two billion yen from a robbery, and Shiho still hadn’t heard from her sister. Her superiors weren’t talking, either. She suspected it was either because they didn’t know what had happened to her sister, or, more likely, they were still thinking of a way to tell her that didn’t put the organization in a bad light. She only continued to work for the organization in the rapidly diminishing hope that her sister had escaped.
“So, what happened to the Miyano bitch?”
Shiho’s breath caught in her throat; the break room wasn’t normally monitored, so the organization’s members tended to speak more openly there. With no one to interfere, Shiho might finally hear news of her sister. Heart beating wildly, she pressed herself against the wall next to the door to listen.
“Her?” The second speaker snorted in distain. “She was a waste of time.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah. Wouldn’t open up about where the money was. Determined to ‘save her sister’, or some shit like that.” Shiho’s heart clenched. Akemi, you idiot, she thought fiercely. I told you not to worry about me! “I gave her a couple of chances,” the man continued, “but she wouldn’t budge. Had to do her in.”
The first man snorted. “Like you really hated it.”
His companion laughed darkly at this, and Shiho slipped away from the door, not wanting to hear any more.
How could they, she thought, her heart choked with grief and anger. How could they! They promised me she would be safe! They said they wouldn’t hurt her! Shiho threw open the door to her lab. She was all I had left in the world, and they took her from me! She leaned against a table, one hand gripping the edge for balance, knuckles whitening. The other hand covered her mouth, sealing in sobs. Worse than the grief she felt over her sister’s death was the thought that she had almost expected this to happen: that it was, in a way, her fault. She had known the Black Organization played dirty, and she’d chosen to believe them anyway when they told her they would keep her sister safe.
Desperate for something to distract herself with, she looked around the lab. Her gaze hardened at what she saw. All these drugs, these poisons and elixirs that she had made, all going to help the organization that had killed her sister; the organization Akemi had died trying to save her from.
Shiho was suddenly overwhelmed by disgust and anger: over what she had done, and who she had become. She turned on the table she had been leaning against and flipped it over, scattering papers and spilling chemicals. The Black Organization would be sure to punish her harshly for this, but she was beyond caring. She attacked the room in a fit of rage, overturning more tables and opening specimen cages. Run, she urged the animals silently. Get out of here! Then she turned to her own creations and began tearing through them with a will.
She paused in the midst of her destruction, hand hovering over what was called Apotoxin 4869, the supposedly deadly poison whose data she had changed. Shiho knew for a fact that it wasn’t lethal, at least not in the doses the organization used. She had confirmed it herself only a few days earlier, when she had visited the house Akemi had been assigned to watch over in hopes of finding her sister. Instead she had found a set of children’s clothing missing that had been there when the two of them had first seen the house. Shiho would have dismissed it as a coincidence if it weren’t for the fact that the organization’s databanks listed the house’s resident as the first, and so far only, human test subject of the apotoxin.
Suddenly, Shiho found that she wanted to live. She wanted to find the boy that the organization wanted dead, that she had inadvertently saved, that her sister had been sent to watch over. She wanted to help him and anyone else that she had indirectly wronged.
Turning to the sink, Shiho turned on the tap and filled a glass. Blithely she slipped a capsule into her mouth and washed it down with water. Then, she turned to the door and walked out, leaving her old life behind. She was wracked with pain by the time she was halfway out the building, and she struggled to appear unaffected by it. Once outside, she managed to put a few streets between herself and the building before ducking into an alleyway to hide. It was too late to save her sister, she knew, but there were other people she could save now.
She might even be able to save herself.
-----
Akemi’s hair was shorter now, and red. The color came from a gel that made her hair stiff and would wash out shortly, but she didn’t need it to last long—only until she got out of the country. She sat perfectly still as Kaito finished applying her disguise. When he at last sat back, she slipped the glasses she had kept from her stint as Hirota Masami back on her nose, careful not to smudge the cover-up. Kaito leaned back and appeared to study his handiwork, though Akemi had a feeling that the crease in his brows was more from nerves than from self-criticism. Her suspicions were confirmed when he asked her, “Are you sure you want to do this?”
Akemi thought about it. She had just woken up the previous day from her long sleep and so didn’t know Kaito and his friends very well. Still, when they had told her what they were doing and the reason they were doing it, she found she couldn’t turn away if she wanted to. So, she had volunteered to look for the Pandora Gem overseas. “Positive,” she told him. When he still looked skeptical, she added, “I have to get out of the country anyway; I may as well do something useful with my time.”
Sighing, Kaito finally dropped his gaze and nodded. “You’re right. Anyway, your flight leaves soon; we should get you to the airport.”
Akemi smiled warmly at him. “Don’t worry, I’ll be fine.” Now that Shiho didn’t have to worry about her, Akemi thought, she might finally leave the organization. Perhaps when she returned her little sister would be safe.
-----
Shiho clutched the now oversized lab coat around her for protection. Underneath, her once fitting shirt threatened to slip off of her small shoulders. So, she thought, it worked. This didn’t particularly surprise her, but it was reassuring to know that she had not misjudged the drug’s effects.
It occurred to her that she could no longer be Miyano Shiho now. The Black Organization still thought she was alive, and if she used her own name she would not only be putting herself in danger but the apotoxin’s first victim. So, what should she call herself?
Shiho found herself almost drowning in sorrow. She had done deeds through the Black Organization that she was truly ashamed of, and didn’t even have her sister’s life to show for it. She had caused more than her share of sadness. Sorrow it is, I suppose, she thought rather cynically. She had a chance to make up for it now, but she could never erase what she had done. Even though she was leaving the Black Organization that still didn’t make her white. I guess that would make me gray, then. She smiled bitterly at the notion. Probably dark gray.
Haibara Ai, she thought. Perhaps not the best name, but it will do. Satisfied, the newly christened Ai hiked up her socks took her first steps out of the alley and into her new life.
—Fin—
Did my best to keep Ai's name the same while changing the origins thereof. According to the manga, ‘Hai’ in ‘Haibara’ (meaning gray) was taken from Cordelia Gray. ‘Ai’ was taken from the ‘I’ in V.I. Warshawsky. Ai chose to have her first name written as ‘sorrow’ rather than the more common ‘love’.
Very sorry about the wait for this chapter. I had a few issues remembering details, and on top of that, I wasn't entirely sure exactly what I wanted to do with Akemi for a very long time. I knew I had to get her out of the house, and possibly the country, but I wasn't sure about a lot of details, especially the why and how of it. Thankfully, Pandora provided a good excuse.
Thanks very much to Summercloud, both for the beta and for kicking me back into productivity with this fic ^^;
Winter Holiday request thing is here for anyone who missed it. It's open to everyone and I'll be taking requests right up until December 31.
x-posted to
manycases1truth
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-12-03 12:12 am (UTC)('cos the Birthday Girl doesn't have to give coherent reviews if she doesn't wanna. n.~)
no subject
Date: 2005-12-03 04:25 am (UTC)(So true ♥)
no subject
Date: 2005-12-03 08:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-12-03 11:48 am (UTC)Although I do sort of wish that your icon weren't so.. risque. My housemates are convinced that when I read fanfiction what I'm actually doing is watching anime p0rn. Because even though I do read things they'd be astonished at, they really don't need any more chance to make me blush.
Oh, and by the way: Happy Birthday.
no subject
Date: 2005-12-03 03:29 pm (UTC)...Well, if only for the sake of your dignity... *goes and buys a paid account with her birthday money and promptly uploads lots of shiney new icons*
How's this one? ^^
(Thank you; it was a lovely day.)
no subject
Date: 2005-12-03 11:05 pm (UTC)There are ways to do things like musical notes, too, but I don't know them yet.
no subject
Date: 2005-12-04 02:22 am (UTC)*looks around for an excuse to use her new skill*
Date: 2005-12-04 02:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-12-04 04:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-12-03 11:55 am (UTC)A holiday request, huh? Let's say this:
Anime: CCS, SM, or MK
Theme: One character stumbles across another and is surprised to find that said person is not of the dominant religion.
In return, I offer to you: one present fic, of any length, from any (or some) of the following fandoms:
Sailor Moon
Magic Kaito/Detective Conan
Rurouni Kenshin
Card Captor Sakura
Kodocha
Escaflowne
Hikaru no Go
Gundam Wing
Fake
W Juliet
Harry Potter
Stargate SG-1
Sentinel
So, what's your pleasure?
no subject
Date: 2005-12-03 11:10 pm (UTC)Sounds good ^_^ I'll see what I can whip up.
*eyes list* Oooo, tempting. *thinks about it* Detective Conan, Sonoko fic please ^_^ Something with mistletoe, maybe?