Rescuing The Angel

"Kourin-chan, what do you mean we only got 30 minutes to save An-chan?" Fuji asked while riding the bike that he borrowed from Kawamura.

Momoshiro was riding his bike along with Ryoma. Kourin was using her turbo rollerskates to travel.

Kourin faced Fuji who was just riding beside her. "It's the time in the code. 'At 17:17 tomorrow, I will spill the blood of the light year's princess from Fudomine over the field of orange lilies.' That's what the code said, right? But Shin-nii mentioned that there's still something wrong with the code—a loophole, he said. I figured it out as well when Shouko-san sent me the code yesterday. I said to myself, 'The killer wouldn't just state the time in his code just like that.' While I was fixing my wristwatch a while ago, I remembered a trick that a classmate of mine made me solve. That's when I realized that the same trick could be applied to the code to reveal the time's answer. The killer is going to strike at Fudomine to kill An-san at noon!"

"So that's why you asked for the time," Ryoma commented.

"Do you think we could be able to reach Fudomine before noon?"

Momoshiro tightened his grip on the bike. "We need to reach it in time." And with that, he sped up his pedaling on his bike much to Kourin and Fuji's surprise. All Ryoma could do was hold tight to Momoshiro's shoulders.

Kourin turned on his rollerskates' turbo mode and adjusted its speed. "Try to catch up with us, Fuji-san." And then her rollerskates charged up allowing Kourin to speed up.

It only took them 15 minutes to reach their destination. Surprisingly, Fuji managed to keep up with Kourin and Momoshiro. As soon as they reached Fudomine, they heard a scream that was most likely familiar to Momoshiro.

"An!" he exclaimed before they all followed the direction where they heard the scream.

The direction, however, was leading them to the tennis courts. They were all surprised to see a katana pointed at An's neck—just like what they saw with Yuuta at St. Rudolph the other day. The masked man was grinning evilly at the girl who was now trembling because of fear. Tachibana, Kamio, and Ibu couldn't move too much because of the weakness and injuries they received from confronting the culprit and they could only watch for they knew that one wrong move could lead to An's death.

Kourin was about to take out her tennis racket when she saw a soccer ball coming fast from out of nowhere and knocked out the katana from the culprit's hand. Of course, the masked man yelped in pain as he held his hand that the soccer ball had struck. An took it as an opportunity to get out of there as soon as possible and go to her injured brother.

'That was... Shin-nii's soccerball...' she thought as she looked around to find where the soccerball come from. But as she did that, more thoughts were rushing into her mind. 'This is just the repeat of what happened at St. Rudolph yesterday. And his voice... Why do I have a feeling that I've heard it from somewhere? Furthermore, was he aiming to kill An-san in the daytime?'

Before she could think of anything else, she saw Shouko entered the tennis court and and started confronting the culprit in combat. The three Seigaku regulars took Tachibana, Kamio, An, and Ibu out of there before something else could happen. Conan led them inside the school building while Kourin could only stand there and watch the duel between Shouko and the culprit in the four corners of the tennis court. At that moment, realization struck her especially when she saw the culprit's fighting style and finally recognized his voice.

"Oi, Rin! What are you still doing there? Come on!" Conan shouted but she didn't seem to hear anything at all.

The other Seigaku regulars arrived just at the same time the culprit managed to escape from Shouko, but not after he went near Kourin and whispered something that only intensified the young girl's desire to put an end to this once and for all.

"So that's how it's going to be, huh?" she mumbled with her fist tightening out of her anger. "Then so be it!"

Ryoma couldn't help but approach the little girl and console her, even though he sucked at that field. He was surprised to see Kourin's face that looked deep in frustration and anger—which was the first time he saw something like that to her.

"Rin, are you okay? What's wrong?"

The girl was startled inwardly before sighing heavily. With that, she left the court and headed towards the school building near that place. But that alone made Ryoma know that Kourin must have finally realized the real situation. When she finally entered the building, she saw the worried faces of the Seigaku regulars and Conan all looking at her.

"We'll end all of this today... even if it means I have to deal with them again..." she said in a low voice that made Conan's eyes narrow.

"What do you mean?" the bespectacled boy asked.

Kourin faced Conan with a grim look on her face. "He'll go to the place where it all began—the place he dubbed as the 'field of orange lilies'."

"And that place is...?" Momoshiro asked.

"Hyotei Gakuen—the school that has the orange lily as its original flower emblem," she answered in a grave tone. "That school was his first ad will be his last target..."

Her statement undoubtedly brought a surprise to those who had heard her. But she ignored those surprised looks on their faces as she approached An who was sitting on the bench with her brother. Kourin smiled and bowed in front of An which caught the older girl off-guard.

"Sorry we came a little late," Kourin started in an apologetic tone. "If only I just realized the real answer to the code earlier then maybe—"

"You don't have to apologize," An said with a smile and gently tapped the younger girl's head. For some strange reason, An's earlier fear vanished as soon as she did that. But while doing that, she noticed a discoloration on Kourin's jacket—particularly on her left arm. "You're bleeding. Are you hurt? Did that man hurt you?"

As soon as they heard that, Ryoma immediately rushed to Kourin's side and checked on the girl. He saw a part of her jacket that was cut with a knife. The surrounding part of the cut was soaked in blood. How could she have not felt this?

"I'm fine, Ryoma-niichan. It's not that painful," Kourin reasoned but Conan was already glowering at her which made her heave a sigh. "He's just giving me a message."

"By injuring you like this? It may not be that deep but you're still injured, okay? You don't have to bear this all by yourself. If you're hurt, tell us so we won't have to worry," Ryoma said sternly that the others weren't used to hearing from the freshman.

Kourin lowered her head, feeling guilty. "I'm sorry. It's just that... I'm used to bearing the pain I've felt all by myself. I felt that I couldn't just trouble you or the others about what I felt. As long as I could bear it, then I wouldn't tell. I'll keep it to myself if that's—"

"But that's not the case now, Rin," Conan interrupted stopping her from talking and making her look at the others. That was when she realized that they were all looking at her with concern.

"Edogawa-kun's right, Kourin-chan," Momoshiro said. "You don't have to bear it all alone because you already have a lot of friends who care about your welfare now. It's natural for friends to worry about each other, right?"

"We know you finally understood the real situation but that doesn't mean you have to keep everything to yourself," Fuji added with a smile. "A lot of people who will be worried about you if you keep on doing that."

When Kourin faced the others once again, she saw on their faces that they cared for her welfare. She tried to hold back her tears because of joy and somehow she succeeded. She still didn't want anyone to know how happy she was because of her newfound friends. What she didn't know was that a certain bespectacled seven-year-old boy already knew that.

After that, she saw Kaidoh approaching her. If no one would look carefully, they would think that he was about to hurt her. But Kourin knew better; behind that scary look lies a caring and gentle heart. Ryoma stood up and let Kaidoh crouch down a little in front of Kourin. Without a word, Kaidoh removed the bandana on his head and faced her.

"Can you take off your jacket?" he asked. Kourin complied with that.

Upon doing that, the others saw Kourin's left arm bleeding—but not too much. Though she could still move it, she then felt that every movement she did with it would leave a strong sting of pain. She didn't show it to anybody. Kaidoh raised her arm a little to cover up the bleeding wound with his bandana.

"At the very least, we need to stop it from bleeding or you won't be able to move your arm at all," Kaidoh said, almost in a whisper. She was touched by the man's concern, making her smile a little.

She then looked at the bandana that covered her wound. It was large enough to cover the wound entirely so she had nothing to worry about if ever it bled out again. After that, she wore her jacket back and faced Kaidoh. "Thank you, Kaidoh-san."

Kaidoh only responded with a grunt and stood up without a word.

"Wow! I never thought Mamushi have this kind of trait," Momoshiro teased, probably intending to lighten up the atmosphere.

"Shut up!" Kaidoh snarled that he left the girl there.

Kourin laughed at the arguing between Momoshiro and Kaidoh. Soon after, Ryoma handed her his Fila cap. She eyed the cap confusingly before looking at Ryoma with questioning eyes.

"Use it to hide your hair. Something tells me the killer isn't the only one who was about to get you and know that you're still alive," he said in a serious tone.

She realized that he had a point about it. Her hair—which was jet black and long and already reached her waist, not to mention completely straight—was one of her defining features as a Shinomiya princess. The Dark Rose Agency wasn't the only one who was after her life. She already brought the Seigaku regulars to danger before; she couldn't afford to let it happen again.

But with all this commotion and murders going on, she couldn't help but doubt if she could still prevent the dangers from approaching them.

The fourth-grader sighed and took the white Fila cap from Ryoma. She then fixed her hair and put it up to a bun before wearing the cap to hold it down and hide it at the same time. After that, she faced Ryoma. "Thank you. You have a way to at least ease my fears. You probably didn't realize it yet, though. But how can you tell that the killer isn't the only one who's after me?"

Ryoma shrugged and put his hands behind his head. "Just a feeling."

And she then faced Conan. "Have you found anything else?"

"Other than the information I gave you yesterday, we haven't found anything yet," Conan replied simply.

"Why did you have to keep it from me?" she muttered, making Conan face her as he heard it.

"Eh?"

"Why did you have to hide the fact that Zeus is after me? That he was the one committing the tennis court serial murders just to lure me out and finally kill me because of his agenda?"

Conan didn't say a word as he looked at Kourin intently. While the others have a mixture of confusion, shock, and worries on their faces as they looked at the two kids. Then the boy sighed.

He faced Kourin, determination was written on his face. "You know full well the reason why I kept the truth from you. I'd do the same thing to Ran and Haibara if something similar happened to them. Besides, you don't have to face this danger alone, Rin. You're my cousin and I'm going to protect you till the end—the same way Otou-san and Okaa-san protected you that night. The same way your family defended you till their last breaths," Conan answered, breaking the silence between them.

"But that doesn't mean I want you to protect me only to end up dead like them. I've already dealt with so many deaths in one lifetime. I couldn't afford to deal with another because of this," she gravely but sadly said as her head lowered before she walked towards the building's entrance. She halted to a stop when she reached the entrance's shed. "What are you waiting for? We still need to head to Hyotei Gakuen. We have to end this... no matter what it takes..." And then she continued walking.

'But can we end this as easy as that? This case still has something to do with the Dark Rose's ancient agenda. And probably one more reason... But what is it?' Conan thought as he looked at Kourin walking away. He could only see her back but all of it illustrated everything she was feeling at that moment.

"She's determined to end this, huh?" Oishi commented.

Ryoma sighed before deciding the follow Kourin. "It was the only way for her to have her freedom—to live without fear as normal kids do... even though we already know Rin isn't a normal kid, to begin with."

"Ending this case is probably the only way then, huh?" Momoshiro said, more of a statement.

The rest agreed to that despite the fear they'd felt with just the thought of the danger connected to the case that they needed to put an end once and for all.