The Ultimate Battle

"Rin-san..." Ayumi, Genta, and Mitsuhiko murmured in disbelief as they watched Ryoma holding Kourin. All of them were in a state of shock.

The Seigaku Regulars watched those two in disbelief, with only one thought in mind. Was a girl like Kourin deserved this kind of fate just because she was trying her hardest to protect Ryoma?

Out of everything that had happened, Doctor Miyuzaki made a decision. She then let Doctor Yanai check on Kourin's vitals, hoping that after all this, they could still save the injured (not to mention dying) young girl.

The female doctor approached a member of the Miyuzaki clan who was restraining Themis' movements.

"Lia, let her go." Those words made the others surprised, while Shouko could only stare at her sister who suddenly blurted out a decision like that.

But then she noticed her sister's eyes. And she knew that those eyes kept on saying that her decision was final and irreversible.

Lia knew that the doctor (and apparently, the substitute leader of the Shinomiya family due to the decision made by the only surviving elder of the Shinomiya family and the elders of the Miyuzaki clan) was serious about what she had said. Somehow, she was not surprised about her decision at all. The only thing that made her hesitate to follow the doctor's order was the reason for Doctor Miyuzaki to make that decision. That was why she stared at her with a questioning look.

The doctor sighed. "This is where we will finish all of this. We will finish this battle that should have never started."

All of them were stunned when they heard that. So it appeared that she was provoked when a Dark Rose sniper injured Kourin.

But before the others could reply, Doctor Yanai spoke. "If you're going to fight here, you should be careful to avoid casualties. And you have to finish it the soonest time possible."

Haibara approached the doctor. "What do you mean, Yanai-sensei?"

He looked at the girl, as well as the other kids who followed Haibara. "She's still alive because she's fighting. But because of the blood loss, if we won't be able to let her go to the hospital within 24 hours, she'll die for sure. She's still breathing, but her pulse is drastically fainting."

"That can't be..."

When Lia obeyed Doctor Miyuzaki's order to let go of Themis, the latter took that opportunity to attack the doctor with a katana on her back. But it was blocked by the katana that Shouko held. Both of the women were staring hard at each other full of anger and hate.

"I'm your target, right? So it's me you should attack and don't include my sister on this. This is OUR battle!" Shouko firmly said, still blocking the enemy's sword.

Themis smirked. "Why don't you admit that you were afraid when I was about to attack your dear sister?"

"What did you say?"

"Because you're afraid that your sister will end up like the little princess."

With that, Shouko gritted her teeth and put all of her strength into her sword to catch Themis off-guard. With enough force (or maybe even more than enough), she was able to strike Themis' sword hard and throw it away from them with one strike. Then she aimed the blade of her sword at the enemy's neck, threatening to kill her if she move even more.

With eyes full of determination, Shouko looked at Themis. "It's enough that you've done that to destroy Rin-chan's family once and for all. But this time, I'm not going to let you do the same thing to the princess and my sister—even if it would cost me my life."

"Shouko, remember what Ryuuki-sama had once told you about using a sword," Doctor Miyuzaki reminded.

"Ryuuki-sama? Wasn't that the name of Kourin-chan's father, the head of the Shinomiya family?"

"His name was Shinomiya Ryuuki, also known before to the tennis world as the Iron Eagle of the East and considered to be Echizen Nanjiroh's rival. I guess tennis connected Kourin-chan and Echizen in some ways." Tezuka explained nonchalantly as he observed the situation.

Of course, what he did surprise his teammates. Tezuka rarely spoke something about that. And to think he also called Kourin by her first name with honorifics, as well... But even though the stoic captain wanted so badly to help the dying girl and his kouhai, he couldn't do anything or it might endanger them in every way. He couldn't afford to let his guard down, not at this point. Especially at this point...

"Tennis isn't the only connection that they had. The past really caught up to them and now it's about to destroy them both if we don't do anything to help Echizen and Kourin-chan get out of this trouble," Fuji said in a serious tone that he had been showing for a while now.

"How did you know that? We don't even know what happened in the past that made them face this kind of danger."

"It's not them. It's their parents, particularly their fathers," Inui stated. "Tezuka said so himself. Their fathers were rivals in tennis. But it is also highly possible that those two had been the best of friends before and after they retired suddenly from tennis. The probability of the Echizen family and the Shinomiya family protecting each other's secrets all this time—is 120 %. There was no doubt on that."

After that, Shouko did remember what her sister was trying to say.

~"Never put your negative emotions onto your weapon, more particularly to your sword. Because when you do, your weapon will betray you that will let you lose in a battle. Negative emotions have a powerful force that would drive you to your defeat and even to your death. Let your determination to protect someone with your very own weapon guide your heart so you can successfully do it..."~

When she remembered that, she couldn't help but smile. "I know that, Onee-chan. And I'm not going to fail Ryuuki-sama."

But then the situation turned to something worse. The rest of the Dark Rose managed to break free from the Miyuzaki clan members who were restricting them earlier. They began to attack the students that the Seigaku regulars all ushered cautiously to enter the school building but the clan wouldn't let them do so. Besides, it was the Miyuzakis that they should attack, to begin with, not the innocent students.

When Doctor Yanai took his weapon, which was a revolver since he trained himself in using guns just for his and his fiancée's safety, and helped the others in the battle, the Detective Boys were assigned to take care and protect Kourin even in this state of hers. Even Ryoma helped the kids because somehow, that was the only thing he could do for now.

As for the police, among them were Inspector Megure and the others, they could only stand by and watch the Miyuzaki clan fight. From their positions, they could tell that it would be a fearsome battle that would decide everything about this whole ordeal. Yet somehow, there was something that didn't feel right about all of this.

They were the police and yet, all they could do was watch it going on. It just didn't feel right...

"Megure-keibu, aren't we suppose to help them?" Detective Satou asked worriedly.

But the portly inspector didn't say anything. The others waited for him to answer Detective Satou's question. Then they heard him sigh.

"Megure-keibu..."

"We'll back them up once it cools down. Right now, only the Miyuzaki clan should finish this battle. We shouldn't get in their way," Inspector Megure calmly said. 'That's right. Only those people could finish this battle. This battle made them suffer for a long time. They're the only people who can defeat them,' he added in his thoughts. 'I hope what you've all fought for until now won't end in vain... Yanai-sensei... Miyuzaki-sensei...'

Meanwhile, Ryoma and the Detective Boys (with the exclusion of Conan) guarded the injured Kourin while the others were still fighting. All of them could see that it was surely a tough fight. Both sides were determined to defeat each other. And watching all of that had made Ryoma do something reckless.

"I have to save my friends!" he suddenly exclaimed which made the kids surprised. He didn't wait for the kids' reply as he already stood up after he carefully put Kourin on the ground. He hurriedly ran in his friend's direction when all of a sudden, Iapetus charged at him with a katana in his hands.

"Ryoma-niichan, watch out!" the kids screamed.

But before Iapetus could lay his sword's blade on the freshman, Ryoma saw a tennis ball quickly and powerfully knock down the katana out of the enemy's hand. Again, the eye-patched man kneeled in pain as it appeared that his wrist was probably crushed already.

Ryoma knew who could do that since he knew only one person who was powerful enough to do that shot. But even still, he couldn't believe the fact that the shot was executed with so much force—more like out of range or something like that.

"Kawamura-senpai's... Hadoukkyu?" he muttered silently and then looked at the person he mentioned who did that shot.

"I don't know what's going on or why you want to kill Shinomiya-san and Echizen. But I'll make sure I'm not going to let you lay a finger on my kouhai," Kawamura said gravely even though he was holding his racket that changed his personality like what it always did to him.

The others were amazed at that. And that deed made Haibara remember something. She then began to inspect Kourin's bag and took something from it.

It was a tennis racket.

"Tennis racket? Why would Rin-san bring such a thing here, I wonder?" Mitsuhiko contemplated as he looked at the tennis racket.

Haibara sighed. And then she stood up. "I could only tell you one thing—" she paused and then looked at the tennis racket she was holding. "—this is not an ordinary tennis racket."

Though the three kids were baffled by Haibara's words, they never managed to ask her another question when they saw her running towards Ryoma while holding the racket.

"I wonder what she means by that..." Ayumi confusingly said to herself.

"Ryoma-san," Haibara called out. The freshman turned when he heard that. When she finally reached the freshman's position, she handed the racket to him. Of course, even though reluctant, he accepted it.

Though puzzled as to why the girl would hand him a tennis racket, she just looked at him sternly. "I'll answer your question later. All I can say to you is that—" she paused. "—what you're holding right now is not an ordinary tennis racket. You can use it to somehow bring down your friends' attackers." Then she pushed a button on the bottom of the handle. Nothing happened, though. "Just use that. Just think that you're playing tennis but this time, to hurt the ones who had hurt your teammates. I know it's against your moral code to do such a thing but right now, this could be a way for you to save yourself. At the very least, do it for Rin-san's sake."

He didn't exactly know what to do or what to think. Haibara had a point, though. Right now, what mattered to him was to save himself and he needed to do it for Kourin's sake. After all, she was the one who saved his life.

With that, he tried to deliver service using that racket that would hurt his opponent, as Haibara stated it. She gave her a tennis ball and with that, he did his iconic Twist Serve. Even though the landing of the ball wasn't exactly calculated, he thought that there was nothing special about the tennis racket.

But then after the ball twisted and hopped, he noticed that the power used to strike was powerful enough to hurt one of the Dark Rose members who was about to attack the Seigaku regulars even though they were just away from Ryoma and standing at the entrance of the building.

And what was even more surprising, the services rendered the enemy unconscious when the ball hit the bone of the nape, specifically the upper part of the spinal cord even though Ryoma only put the normal amount of power in that server.

Ryoma looked at the sandy brown-haired scientist confusingly. She just gave a faint smile, though. "I guess now you know the reason why it isn't an ordinary tennis racket."

"But what exactly does this tennis racket have that you would range it as out of the ordinary? And where did you get this, anyway?" Ryoma asked as he looked at the tennis racket in his hand.

He knew the answer to his question somewhat since he felt something when he used that racket. It was as if the racket had given him additional power to his shots even though he only put a normal amount of power on the tennis ball.

But before Haibara could answer his question, she saw the man with a big X-shaped scar on his face—codenamed Crius—was about to shoot Ryoma with a pistol. With that, she immediately took something from her pocket. When the shot was fired, Haibara held out a cylindrical item in front of her, and in a flash, a light blue umbrella-like shield had spread out in front of the girl. It was just in time to stop several bullets fired from hitting Ryoma before one-on-one combat ensued between Doctor Yanai and Crius.

The freshman, however, could only look at Haibara in surprise. While the others, even the Miyuzaki clan members fighting and the other Dark Rose was surprised at what they had witnessed, as well.

"What was that?" Ayumi asked, most likely to herself.

"Bubble Shield (a)... Though the name is said as a bubble, I've only launched a half-bubble just to block the bullet. But I'm surprised..." Haibara said with a faint smile and pushed a button on the cylindrical item. With that, the shield was gone. "Even though Hakase and Rin-san said that it's still on its experimental stage, it worked well."

"Shinomiya? You mean Rin, right?" Haibara nodded. "Then that means this tennis racket..."

"...also belongs to her. It's called Power-Enhancing Tennis Racket (b). That racket, when used, stimulates your arm muscles that allow you to hit objects with tremendous power. It could release an output power up to 10 times stronger than the technique used by your senpai earlier. That output power is already enough to break or put a hole to a 2-3 feet thick wall combined with your internal power."

"Eh?! Ten times?"

She nodded and looked at him. "But the power you used just now was only 3 times stronger. And let me remind you, you have to be careful with that. That device is still in its experimental stage. The data recorded by that tennis racket is quite essential to create another one that is much functional."

She turned around to go to the three kids who were still beside Kourin's injured body, only to be surprised when she saw Crius charging directly at them.

"Yoshida-san!" Haibara called out. But before she could move any further, she saw a soccer ball come flying from out of nowhere and towards the man, therefore knocking him out when the ball struck his face. They knew where that ball came from.

The kids screamed Conan's name in delight and relief. But the bespectacled little detective didn't mind it as he rushed to the other kids' place and there, he saw his injured and dying cousin. He gritted his teeth at the heart-wrenching sight.

The battle continued. They noticed that only the Dark Rose members were severely injured, while the Miyuzaki clan members only had scratches and graze. The latter seemed to have figured out the enemies' moves, that was why they managed to avoid fatal attacks.

The kids couldn't watch it longer because of fear. Haibara used the Bubble Shield again to protect themselves while guarding Kourin whose pulse was fainting even more. This time, Haibara launched a full bubble.

The police were standing by because of fear that they might die in an instant once they recklessly decided to help the Miyuzaki clan in that fearsome battle. In addition to that, it was also Inspector Megure's strict order to them. Satou and Takagi were in charge of getting Artemis on the building as Conan had asked them.

Ryoma, on the other hand, was caught off-guard when the man he had struck down a while ago with tennis all using Kourin's tennis racket was about to attack him. He accidentally (most likely out of fear) pushed a certain button on the handle of that racket. All of a sudden, the tennis racket launched the net and pinned the man down to the ground. The net then reconstructed itself after that. Now he was completely convinced that the racket he was holding wasn't ordinary.

It was a long and hard battle. When it was finally over, the Miyuzaki clan members emerged victorious as they had already caused severe injuries to the Dark Rose members, making them unable to fight any longer. The police then captured the culprits and though the other students were scared, they were relieved that the nightmare was over.

But to those people who had most likely become friends with Kourin, it wasn't over yet. Especially when they knew that a certain 9-year-old girl risked her life to save them and more particularly, the freshman she had saved a week ago.

Kourin was already breathing dangerously faint and her pulse could barely be felt. It was evident that she was struggling hard to survive as she stood on the line between life and death.

The ambulance entered the school grounds soon after and treated those who were injured. As for the police, they began taking the witnesses' statements, particularly the Seigaku regulars as a procedure for the investigation. For them, the case was already over.

But the case wasn't yet closed to a certain young detective who was looking at his cousin's injured body being carried and placed on a stretcher to be rushed to the hospital. He couldn't help but to clench his fists at his side because of the sight.

'Don't die on us, Rin. You have to live.'