Sniper's Shot Hits The Target

"Surprised to see me alive, Themis?" Shouko taunted with a smirk, a katana in her hand.

That was what made Themis infuriated. She was constrained to the ground by one of the Miyuzaki clan members, with a gun pointed at her head.

"I should've killed you instantly with that bullet!" Themis shouted angrily. Though she tried to break free from being constrained, she couldn't.

But Shouko ignored her. Instead, the woman approached Conan and smiled. "Thank you for saving Rin-chan, Conan-kun."

The boy smiled at her. "It's alright, Shouko-san. Besides, you're not the only one who wanted to save her." Then he looked at the two doctors, and eventually at the freshman who was looking at the Seigaku regulars worriedly.

But when he looked at his cousin, he saw the distraught and scared expression of the girl who was looking in a certain direction. So he tried following the path that she was looking at, only to see a building approximately 300 yards away from the school.

'Did Rin see something on that building? And what was that scared look on her face, as if she had seen a ghost or something? Did she?' Conan had a lot of questions about what he saw on his cousin but he would ask later.

All he has to worry about right now was the enemy. But he, too, felt that something was wrong with the whole situation. It all seemed too easy.

Even though it was pretty obvious that the captured enemies were furious, they couldn't even make a move to break free. And when they did, there seemed to be no effort at all.

It was as if they weren't trying to get out and fight them back. And it also seemed that they've predicted the arrival of the Miyuzaki clan to rescue Kourin, except for Shouko's appearance on Themis' part.

Did they?

'But if they had predicted it, then that means... This is not over yet!' And coming up with that conclusion, Conan had to go to the building that Kourin was looking at earlier. If he had guessed right, then someone from that building could kill either Ryoma or Kourin.

He had to stop that before it was too late. He could only hope he could make it in time.

Meanwhile, Ryoma was still standing beside Shouko, Doctor Miyuzaki, and Doctor Yanai. He was looking at the Seigaku regulars who were happy to see him. The Detective Boys were also happy to see him, as well.

But he couldn't understand the scared and distraught look that he saw on Kourin's face earlier. That look wasn't meant for him, though.

He was about to approach his friends to greet them when suddenly, he saw Kourin running towards him.

"Watch out!" She pushed him as hard as she could which made Ryoma fall to the ground. After a few seconds, all of them heard something shatter and crack, along with a faint gunshot.

-x-x-

'Damn it! I'm already late!' Conan frustratingly concluded in his thoughts as he heard the gunshot from the rooftop. He was already on the 7th floor of the building just across Seishun Gakuen that Kourin was looking at earlier.

But even though he was already late, he had to stop the person who shot someone on the campus. Even if it was just a feeling, that person might kill both Ryoma and Kourin.

And that was one thing he would never allow to happen.

After learning every possible danger that his cousin had involved herself in, he wanted to do all the things that he could to help her finish what she... no, what her family had started. After all, that was why his Uncle Ryuuki and Aunt Rina had sacrificed their lives to save Kourin.

Not just them. Even his other cousin Hitoshi and Kourin's other relatives who remained faithful in serving the Shinomiya family have sacrificed their lives for the sake of the future of Kourin's family. They've entrusted the future of the clan to her hands.

The only thing he could do to help her fulfill her family's last will was to defeat the very threat that ended the lives of so many people who wanted his cousin to survive.

'Don't worry, Rin. This is one of the many things I could do to help you rebuild your life and your future. I'm not going to let them destroy that!' He promised to himself as he traversed the stairs as fast as he could to reach the rooftop of the building.

When he reached it, he saw a woman holding a long gun usually used by snipers. What was worse, the gun was pointing at Seishun Gakuen!

"What did you do?" he asked sternly, but his eyes narrowed. "Who were you trying to kill out there?"

The woman smirked menacingly. All of a sudden, she aimed the gun at him. "You are already late, kid."

"What do you mean by that?"

"I was supposed to kill that tennis brat, Echizen Ryoma. But unfortunately, I've hit the wrong target," the woman said smugly.

Conan's eyes widened. "Damn you! And who are you, anyway? Why do you want to destroy Echizen-kun that badly?"

"I'm codenamed 'Artemis' of the Dark Rose Agency," the woman calmly introduced herself, still pointing the gun at him. "And unfortunately, it's none of your damn business why we wanted to destroy that tennis brat."

The boy could only clench his fist at his side after that.

Right now, he couldn't think of how fast his enemy in front of him was. But he has to hit her somehow with his soccer ball to render her unconscious and let the Miyuzakis continue the battle to stop the Dark Rose Agency for good.

Artemis started to pull the trigger but to her surprise, the boy in front of her had kicked a soccer ball faster than she thought. Unfortunately, it was too late for her to avoid that ball coming toward her at a fast speed.

Before she knew it, she was struck by the ball right to her face. She then lost her grip on her gun and at the same time, lost the balance that caused her to drop it to the ground. Her head bumped into the wall that she was positioned on earlier, causing her to lose consciousness, like what Conan had planned.

Conan didn't know why but he was catching his breath just by doing that. He realized that he might have overdone it. He somehow figured that he might have used up all of his strength combined with the power of his super-kicking shoes to make that powerful strike.

He sighed. Man, that was completely unexpected for him to release that amount of power to defeat the enemy.

But to make sure that she won't wake up for quite some time, he used his tranquilizer darts and struck her with them. He kicked the gun away from Artemis.

'But I wonder... Who did she hit with the bullet if she didn't manage to hit Echizen-kun?' That was the question that has entered his mind just about now. But before he could take a step away from that place, his detective badge beeped.

He turned it on. "Hello?"

"Edogawa-kun, where are you?" That was Haibara's voice.

"I'm at the rooftop of the building approximately 300 yards across the campus. I was checking something up here because Rin spotted something here from the school grounds. It turns out to be a sniper—"

"A sniper who was about to kill Echizen-kun, wasn't it?" Haibara finished Conan's sentence. He was surprised to hear that from her.

"How did you know that?" he inquired out of curiosity and worry. But then he remembered something that Artemis had said a while back.

~"I was supposed to kill that tennis brat, Echizen Ryoma. But unfortunately, I've hit the wrong target..."~

With that realization, his eyes widened. "Haibara, tell me who was the one hit by Artemis' bullet. She said a while ago that she had hit the wrong target instead of Echizen-kun. I need you to tell me who."

That time, he heard Haibara's heavy sigh. It took her a while to finally speak again. This time, she did so in a sad tone.

"Do you want to know that?" she asked silently.

Conan was getting impatient already. She was making him infuriated in each second that she wasn't telling him the truth that he needed to know. He heaved a sigh.

"I need to know who was shot by Artemis instead of Echizen-kun. So hurry up and tell me now, Haibara."

But because of his impatience, he didn't quite hear what Haibara had said in reply. That was why he had to ask her again, only to feel stunned at what he learned.

"The one that Artemis had shot happened to be... Rin-san..." Haibara said, almost whispering.

"That can't be..." Conan could only say in shock.

-x-x-

Back at Seishun Gakuen school grounds...

Ryoma tried to get up from the ground after Kourin pushed him hard, making him lose his balance and fall to the ground. Even though the way he fell had hurt him, he has to get up to know why the girl pushed him. But before he could come up with any conclusion, he was quite sure that he had heard a faint gunshot from afar followed by several people calling out Kourin's name.

That memory made him realize something.

He got up and looked around. But then one particular scene shocked him. He didn't like what he saw one bit.

Kourin's body was lying limp on the ground, with blood pools around her, as if she was already dead. But then he saw that she tried to move her hand, so he figured out that she wasn't. At that instant, it came to him that the reason why Kourin pushed him was that she somehow knew that he was going to be shot.

He immediately approached Kourin and tried to wake her up out of fear that once she wouldn't open her eyes anymore, she would die eventually. He didn't want that to happen. Not now, not ever!

But then he suddenly asked himself. 'Why in the world am I being protective of this girl?'

It took him a while to finally come up with an answer to his question. Before he had that, he cradled the injured girl in his arms, not minding the wet and warm blood that had stained his hand and his pants when he kneeled and cradled her.

As for the others, all they could do was stare at the two with shock and disbelief were written all over their faces. More particularly, the Miyuzaki sisters, Doctor Yanai, the Detective Boys, Momoshiro, and Fuji.

"Echizen..." Momoshiro could only mutter but for some reason, he couldn't approach his kouhai looking and cradling the injured Kourin.

While the Dark Rose members laughed insanely and grinned evilly as they witnessed how Artemis had taken down the surviving member of the Shinomiya family with their infamous bullet. But they were still pinned down to the ground by their enemies—the other members of the Miyuzaki clan who was stunned about what they had just witnessed. But even so, they had to focus on preventing the enemy from doing anything more... obviously sinister.

"Rin..." Ryoma called out the girl's name as he tried to wake her up. "Oi, Rin! Wake up! You can't close your eyes right now!" And then suddenly, tears streaked down his face as he continued to try to convince her to open her eyes. "You can't close your eyes yet, Rin... Not yet... You can't die yet and leave us here! It's not yet over..."

"Hmm..." Kourin made a sound. Slowly, she opened her eyes. But she could only do it barely as the pain from being shot was beginning to overwhelm her.

Even though she was weary, she tried to show Ryoma a smile to at least stop him from crying. Honestly, she was surprised to see him crying like that. All she knew was that the people close to her and has a tight connection with her and her family would react to that as if she was dying and would eventually die.

In a particular case, only the Kudou family and the Miyuzaki clan would cry for her.

It was unexpected for her to see Ryoma cry like that because she was hurt. And then she could not help but ask herself. 'Has Ryoma-niichan become attached to me that he would unexpectedly cry like that because I was shot? Even though I only met him because of an incident a week ago, he would cry seeing I was hurt...'

It was hard for her to believe that. Looking at Ryoma like that, she could not help but remember her older brother Hitoshi who happened to have a resemblance to Ryoma—making the color of the hair and eyes the only difference between the two.

"I'm glad... you're safe... Ryoma-niichan..." Kourin managed to say with a smile even though the pain she was enduring because of the wound was evident on her face.

Ryoma clenched his fist, still crying as he listened to the young girl's words. He couldn't believe that she would prefer his safety rather than her own life.

And then he asked the girl a question. "Why are you protecting me like this?"

But Kourin only smiled at him, as if she wasn't hurt at all. Looking at this made him cry even more.

"I'm sorry... that I put you... through this. I never thought... you would be involved... in this..." And then she tried to touch her wound slowly. "But I guess... this incident... had a better outcome... at the very least."

Ryoma frowned at this. "What do you mean?"

"I would never... meet you... if this incident... never happened... at all... I was desperately... trying to protect you... because I see you as someone... who was important to me. I don't want you... to suffer the same pain he had... just before he died for my sake..."

He never thought the young girl would protect him up to this extent, just for him not to suffer.

"Rin..."

"I'm sorry... Ryoma-niichan... I'm really... really... sorry... that I let you... face this... kind of danger..." And after that, Kourin closed her eyes.

Completely.

Ryoma stared at her with wide eyes, completely stunned.