Saving A Dying Girl's Life

At Beika Central Hospital, 1:26 pm...

The ambulance arrived at the hospital faster to rush the injured girl (specifically dying) nine-year-old girl named Shinomiya Kourin into the emergency room. Doctor Miyuzaki and Doctor Yanai had themselves taken charge of saving the girl's life. Their statements with regards to the incident would be taken later, as they had requested to Inspector Megure.

The Seigaku regulars, the Detective Boys, and Shouko followed them but they stayed in the waiting area until one of the doctors that examined Kourin came out. And after a while, Doctor Miyuzaki came out.

"Onee-chan, how is she?" Shouko worriedly asked. From the looks of it, everyone was worried about Kourin, as well.

The female doctor sighed first before she answered her sister's question. "We've just infused her with plasma a while ago. But she could die from severe blood loss if we couldn't find someone who would donate type B negative blood in less than 24 hours. And I don't think that the plasma would give us a long time to find the person that would donate the right blood type to save her."

All of them could stare at the doctor in disbelief because of what she said.

"But do you think that she would still want to fight for her life even if we did find the right blood type to be transfused to her?" Haibara asked placidly, looking directly at the doctor.

Doctor Miyuzaki only smiled faintly, though. "You might not want to believe what I'm about to tell you. That bullet that was supposed to kill Echizen-kun is enough already for a girl like Rin-chan to be killed in an instant. If it wasn't for her rollerblade slowing down the bullet's impact, she would've been dead already. Though she was hit in the chest and that bullet almost pierced her heart, do you think it's possible for her to bear that tormenting pain for more than three hours if she's not fighting for her own life? Somehow, there's something that drives her to continue fighting, not just for herself but also for those she now considers important to her." Then she gave a glance at a certain freshman who was looking at her anxiously at that moment.

"Is the blood bank out of the blood type needed for Rin?" Conan asked.

Doctor Akira nodded sadly. "Unfortunately, that's the case right now. That's why I'm going to ask you if you could have someone provide the blood type that Rin-chan needed if you happened to know someone with that kind of blood type."

The regulars only glanced at each other, hoping that one of them might be Kourin's savior. Conan could only grit his teeth and clench his fist because of his inability to do anything for his cousin. He happened to have the same blood type as Ran and Kourin but his current situation right now (being a seven-year-old kid instead of his normal 17-year-old self) made him unable to provide some help for the girl he was supposed to protect and take care of. But before Conan could say anything about it, someone suddenly spoke that surprised them.

"Then use my blood to save her instead," a voice suddenly said. And when they turned to look at the person who said that, Shouko, Conan, and particularly, Ryoma were surprised to see who it was. "Take as much blood needed to save Kourin-chan's life that saved my cousin."

"N-Nanako-san... how—"

"Megure-keibu told us all that had happened at the school. Oba-sama and I rushed here to know that girl's condition since Kourin-chan was hurt when she saved Ryoma-san. After all, she was the one who took the bullet meant to kill my cousin, right? I don't want her to die like that, especially when Shouko-san told me that she was determined to protect that child with her life since she is an important member of the Shinomiya clan—and an important family princess, at that. Ryoma-san was determined to do so, as well. This is the least I can do for her and also, as a way of thanking that child for saving my cousin's life twice," Nanako said as tears began to blur her vision. Rinko accompanied her.

Shouko approached her research partner. "Nanako-chan, are you sure about this?"

She nodded. "Yes, I'm sure about this, Shouko-san. I don't want you to do this alone for that child. You wouldn't do this kind of risky job if she's not that important to you at all. She wasn't just a princess that you have to serve with pride and honor. She's also your friend. And now I can see all that. Now I understand you better than ever because of this incident. I overheard that she needs type B negative blood. It so happens that I have the same blood type as her. Please, just use it to save Kourin-chan."

They couldn't see any hesitation in Nanako's eyes. Doctor Miyuzaki sighed and smiled faintly. "Then I guess we should hurry."

Although most of them were surprised, they've just agreed to it. Nanako and Doctor Miyuzaki already went ahead inside a certain room and Rinko then approached Shouko. But then Rinko noticed Ryoma's clothes.

"Ryoma, whose clothes were that you're wearing?"

The others noticed it, as well, as soon as the freshman's mother asked that question. But Ryoma didn't have to answer because Shouko answered the question for him.

"Those clothes belonged to Rin-chan's older brother, Hitoshi-sama. Echizen-kun and Hitoshi-sama happened to have the same physique even though the latter was just a few years older than you, Echizen-kun. Hitoshi-sama was actually about the same age as your buchou."

Unfortunately, the freshman rookie didn't seem to hear what Shouko said. It appeared that he was still in a mild shock. She understood that, somehow. That was the time when she glanced at Conan and smiled at him knowingly. The bespectacled boy seemed to have immediately understood what she wanted, so Conan approached Ryoma and asked something.

"Are you all right, Ryoma-niichan?" he asked in a child-like tone. "Are you still in shock about what happened a while ago?"

"Conan-kun, I think that's the dumbest question you could have asked to him," Mitsuhiko suddenly stated. Genta agreed and Conan could've given those two boys a deadly glare but chose not to. "I mean, who wouldn't be shocked with that kind of scenario that happened in front of our eyes?"

But the bespectacled boy didn't mind as he was patiently waiting for Ryoma to answer his question. Conan and Shouko knew in a way that the freshman was thinking deeply about something. Soon after, Ryoma shook his head and then faced the little detective.

"I was just thinking about what Rin had said to me before she lost consciousness in my arms because of the gunshot."

"What about it? And what did she say?" Conan immediately asked. 'I think it's time that you should know everything about Rin, Echizen-kun. You deserve to know them after all that had happened, anyway.'

Ryoma sighed. "She said that she was desperately trying to protect me because she saw me as someone who was important to her and she doesn't want me to suffer just like that person. I was thinking who might be that person she was talking about."

Conan smiled at him which had made the others wonder why the boy was smiling. The little detective took something from his pocket and gave it to Ryoma. The latter, in turn, accepted it and had a look at it.

They were pictures. Three pictures, to be exact. But what Ryoma saw had given him one hell of a shock that made Shouko giggle and the others became skeptical as to what had made Ryoma have that kind of reaction. When they all looked at the pictures that Ryoma was holding on to, that was when they finally realized the answer since they were shocked as well. Shell-shocked should have been the perfect word to describe that, though. Even the normally stoic tennis captain Tezuka was shocked and he didn't even bother hiding it.

"Is this for real?" Momoshiro could only ask in shock.

"Nya! Ochibi has a doppelganger."

"Are you sure you're the only child, Echizen?"

"It's the spitting image..."

"Maybe you have a twin you didn't know of."

"It's not... me, isn't it?" Ryoma asked the boy before looking at Shouko.

The two shook their heads in response.

"No, it's not. And besides, that person in the picture that looked a lot like you is already 14 years old when he was killed. That person, in reality, was Rin's older brother, Shinomiya Hitoshi. He was killed along with Ryuuki-ojisan and Rina-obasan that night a year ago while protecting Rin," Conan stated and then put his hands in his pockets. "I was surprised, as well, when I found out that you and Hitoshi almost looked alike. Only the color of the hair and the eyes were the only differences that you two have. He was also a tennis player like you, already close to becoming a professional tennis player if he wasn't killed that night," he added.

Then Ryoma carefully scanned each of the photos. The first photo was a family picture, comprising Ryuuki, Rina, Hitoshi, and Kourin sitting under the sakura tree. That picture was concluded to have been taken in Japan, somewhere in Kanagawa, when he saw the background. It was the building of Rikkaidai's University Hospital. Ryoma could only smile sadly as he pinned his focus on the smiling Kourin in the photo.

The smile he saw in that photo was completely different from the smile that he first saw from Kourin when he first met her. 'I wonder if I could be able to see her smile like that personally... even just for once,' he thought. He sighed.

The second photo was a solo picture of Shinomiya Hitoshi. They looked alike, and Ryoma could never doubt that fact now. Not anymore. The photo appeared to have been taken after a tennis match. Then he asked a question to Conan.

"When was this taken?" Ryoma then showed the photo to Conan.

"Ah... that was taken after the preliminaries at the US Open. Ryuuki-ojisan probably took that photo since he was there, as well."

Ryoma slightly nodded after the boy answered. After that, he scanned the third photo. It was a picture of Kourin and Hitoshi—both were smiling happily. He wanted to look at the photos in which Kourin was smiling happily with no care about the dangers at all—like a normal kid. And he couldn't believe that only a single night took away that smile completely.

That girl... That girl who saved his life twice really considered him as someone important, or to be specific, as a part of her family. Now, he had never thought that he would be attached to Kourin for only a short time. She became special to him. And at the moment he thought of that, he cried.

"Echizen..." Momoshiro could only say to his crying kouhai and he tried to calm him down.

But Ryoma didn't stop. He didn't care if he looked like an idiot in front of his senpai-tachi for doing that. He continuously cried because he couldn't stop his tears from falling.

Fuji approached Ryoma and also tried to calm him down. When the freshman looked at Fuji, he saw that reassuring smile he was giving him, just like the smiles that his teammates were giving him.

"Don't worry, Echizen. Kourin-chan is a strong girl. I know she can survive this. We'll just have to pray that the operation will be successful," Fuji said encouragingly.

The others agreed to that and their reassuring smiles never left their faces—or at least, it was for Ryoma to see.

That's right.

All they have to do was to pray that everything would be alright.

All they have to do was to pray...

...hope...

...and wait...

'Please... help Rin to survive through this...'

-x-x-

Inside the emergency room...

The doctors all seemed to be frantic as they tried to save Kourin. The girl's heartbeat was starting to slow down drastically but all of them were doing their best they could to make sure that the surgery would be successful.

Even if they were doing it desperately, Doctor Miyuzaki and Doctor Yanai were trying to make the girl's heartbeat normal so that they could stitch the wound. They've already removed the bullet in her chest that was half an inch close to piercing her heart. The blood that Nanako donated provided them with a lot of help.

All of them were in a frantic move to make her live.

'Rin-chan, you can do it. Fight so you can still live. Don't let us down. Your family would be angry for sure if you go...'

-x-x-

Kourin's POV

I began to open my eyes. When I woke up, I saw myself in a dark place. I tried to look around but all I could see was vast darkness—endless darkness, to be exact. I tried to call names but it would appear that I was the only person there.

The place was scary, to be honest. And I don't want to wander around in that kind of darkness. So I just sat there and think. I tried to remember what happened to me to find myself waking up in this place.

I tried long and hard to remember exactly everything. Then I opened my eyes subconsciously. I was surprised to find myself in a vast ocean of shimmering stars. And also, I could see my own body.

At that part, everything came rushing into my mind, even the reason why I ended up here. I guess I was dead, huh? It was because I remembered that I took the bullet meant to kill Ryoma-niichan during the assault at Seishun Gakuen. I only thought of one thing during that time...

I said that I wasn't going to let Ryoma-niichan suffer and die just like Onii-sama.

So I guess this was the consequence of being so reckless because of protecting him just for him not to end up like my brother.

After musing for a moment, I saw myself being drawn into a beautiful garden in the middle of the vast space. But then I stopped when I heard voices calling me coming from the bright light just to the opposite side of that garden.

And all of a sudden, I heard someone call me, by my name.

I turned around, and what I saw gave me one hell of a shock.

End of Kourin's POV

"Rin..."

"Okaa-sama?" Kourin asked quietly when she saw the image of her mother—or maybe it was her mother calling her. She saw the woman smile. That alone was enough to convince her that the person in front of her was her mother even though she knew that it was just Shinomiya Rina's image.

Kourin wanted to approach her, but for some reason, she couldn't move her feet. She tried so hard to move them but to no avail. She glanced at her mother desperately and looked and looked at her pleadingly and confusingly. She only saw her mother sadly smiling at her.

"But why?" she couldn't help asking Rina.

"It's better this way, my child. Please just bear with it," a voice said calmly.

When the young girl looked around, she saw a glowing figure just beside her mother. A few moments later, she saw her father and the previous head of the Shinomiya family, Shinomiya Ryuuki, standing beside Rina, also smiling sadly after the glow faded.

"Otou-sama..."

Another glowing figure appeared, and this time, it was beside her. She turned around just before the glow faded. She wasn't surprised when she saw a teenage boy just a little older and somewhat resembled Ryoma, her brother and supposed heir to the position of being the head of not only the Shinomiya family but also of the four families, Shinomiya Hitoshi.

"Onii-sama..." she muttered. "Why did you all appear before me all of a sudden?"

Hitoshi smiled. "That's because we're the only people who could convince you to go back. After all, you shouldn't even be here in the first place."

"Go back...? You mean—"

Ryuuki nodded. "That's right. You're still alive back there. You're still fighting for your life and Shouda-chan is currently desperate to make you live."

Kourin fell silent. Then she looked at her family standing in front of her. "But Otou-sama—"

"Please don't say that you don't want to go back. Many people want you to live. And that includes us, as well," Rina said. "I know that we're the ones who couldn't fulfill our promise to you that we'll always be together and we're sorry for that."

She saw Rina's sad face. No doubt it was her mother. Her mother knew exactly what she was thinking which made her hesitate to go back.

"Rin, we're sorry that we couldn't protect you now," Ryuuki said. "But try to understand that we risked our lives to protect you that night because we believe in you. We know that we made you sad because of that. But that's the only way we know to save you."

"Your father's right, Rin," Rina agreed.

But she didn't say anything. She just looked at them and it surprised the others to see the girl's tears fall.

"Rin..."

It startled the girl and then she began wiping her tears. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't be crying like this."

Then her parents looked at her with worries.

"I tried so hard... I tried..." With that, she burst into crying. "But I couldn't. I couldn't overcome the sadness that had stayed here in my heart ever since you all left me."

Hitoshi sighed and approached her.

"I felt so useless when I couldn't protect my family that night—much more when I couldn't protect my friends during that attack at Seigaku..." Then she sniffled.

"But you've done that to your best, Rin," Hitoshi said encouragingly. "We're so proud of you when you protected your friends even though it was a reckless and dangerous thing to do because your enemy was the Dark Rose. Echizen-kun finally understood the reason why you protected him when you took the bullet meant to kill him so that you can save him."

She was surprised to hear that and it made her face her brother. "Ryoma-niichan did?"

Rina nodded.

"He still blames himself, though. That's why you have to go back so that you can tell him that he has nothing to feel guilty about. You just wanted to save him from suffering the same fate as us."

Kourin then thought about it intently before she finally came up with a decision. With that, she stared at them. "But if I go back, will I be able to see you again?"

The three people looked at each other and afterward, smiled at her.

"You'll always see us, though you might not be able to talk to us like what you're doing now. You still have your memories of us. Just look inside your heart and you'll know that you can," Rina answered her daughter's question with sincerity.

"We'll always be watching over you, Rin. We'll see each other again someday," Ryuuki then added and smiled.

"But before that time comes, you have to live your life to the fullest—with all the people you care about and now consider as a family." After saying that, Hitoshi hugged her.

Kourin, though she thought it was weird, felt her brother's warmth. It was just like before when he was still alive. And she smiled at that memory. After that, she looked at them again. This time, she was smiling. It was a smile that she always showed when her family was still alive.

"Then... see you... Okaa-sama, Otou-sama, Onii-sama... I'll be going back—"

Her parents and her brother just stared and smiled at her with happiness evident in their eyes.

"—to my new family." Then she waved goodbye to them and turned.

With that, she started running towards the bright light just the opposite that beautiful garden she saw earlier.

She wanted to go back... to the place where she belonged...

...to the people she loved...

'This is my choice... And I know I will never regret it. Thank you so much... Okaa-sama... Otou-sama... Onii-sama...' She smiled at that thought. 'Everyone, I'm going back. So... wait for me, okay?'

And then she entered the light.

-x-x-

Four hours later...

All of them stood up when they saw Doctor Miyuzaki approaching them. She had a serious look on her face, though, despite the obvious tiredness on it. That was why they couldn't help but feel nervous. Conan and Haibara only showed a nonchalant look, the other kids were pretty much worried and so were the regulars.

Ryoma and Shouko, on the other hand, could only stare at the approaching doctor.

All of them were holding their breaths as they anticipated for the doctor to announce the result of the operation. They were all hoping, of course, that it would be a good one.

"Onee-chan, how did it go? Will she be okay?" Shouko asked her sister.

The doctor only sighed and it took a few more moments before she answered, looking at Shouko.

"It's a success, that's why you don't have to worry anymore. She made it through," Doctor Miyuzaki announced with a smile.

Having that said made all of them sigh in relief. Most of them were cheering.

The doctor approached Nanako and gave a bow of gratitude to the young woman. "Thank you... from the bottom of my heart. The blood you gave to her helped a lot. As her guardian, I thank you. I thought it would be hopeless until you came."

Nanako smiled at her. "You don't have to. That kid deserves to live. And besides, this is my way of thanking all of you—you and the other Miyuzaki family members—for protecting our family like this. I wanted this to be a way of thanking Kourin-chan for saving Ryoma-san's life twice. What I did is not enough for me to do that. I wanted to thank her personally, and I know, so do Oba-sama and Oji-sama. We owe that little girl a lot." And then she peered at the now smiling Ryoma. "I wouldn't see my cousin smiling like this if it wasn't for her."

Doctor Miyuzaki smiled at the sight, as well, especially when she saw that all of the kids and the Seigaku Regulars were happy about the good news. "I agree."

'You never wanted to fail, do you, Rin-chan?' The doctor thought amusingly.

'I guess now I could consider this case as closed—finally. Now you don't have to worry about anything anymore. Right, Rin?' A certain bespectacled seven-year-old boy happily thought as he was looking at the others, all feeling relieved and happy.

At last, the storm was over. The darkest night had finally ended, and fear has vanished. Now all they have to do was to wait...

...for Kourin to return.