Chapter Twenty-Eight: Faded Memories (Mother)

Shinichi's POV

"Let go! I said let go of me!" Ran shouted as the nurses tied her hands and feet with bonds.

I heard Sonoko sighed heavily as she looked at her friend. "Her condition is getting worst. It's about a week now and there's still no response to her memories," she said with disappointment.

I nodded in agreement. "Yeah. When we tried to talk to her, she just yelled at us. She even called me a traitor and a kidnapper."

"What will happen to her now? Weeks had passed until her consciousness came, but this is the cause she returned to us."

"Hayley forced Haibara to make an antidote called 'The Pandora' which erases all memories from the past and present, meaning she could get stable control to the person who drank it."

"Hey, Shinichi," Sonoko called. I looked at her. "I know that forensics arrived. How does the experiment?"

"They confirmed that 'The Pandora' was also been used to Haibara but failed the test to Agasa Hakase. Since he remembered us, glad that he is the only survivor to the antidote."

"What time will the antidote affect a person's mind?"

"Milliseconds," I answered. "For instance, Ran completely lost her memories after she was been drugged. The antidote was incredibly fast, as Agasa Hakase told me."

"Ne, how do we cure Ran now?" Sonoko asked. Her eyes are shaking. Her hands are closed tightly.

I sighed and smiled reassuringly. "Hey, don't lose hope, Sonoko. We keep on trying to talk to her until we put communication and break down the wall puts up by Hayley, okay?"

Sonoko nodded and forced a smile. She wiped out her tears and looked at Ran, who's looking at our direction with pure hatred.

Sonoko's body is shaking with fear. I know it. She never thought her best friend would be such a monster after she lost her own memories.

"Ran, I'll go now. Okay?" Sonoko said calmly as she walks towards Ran's hospital bed. She stared at her best friend's blue orbs. "I'll make sure to bring you back to what you are."

"Don't put that damn cute face to me! I want to punch you right now!" Ran shouted.

Sonoko's eyes widened but she closed her eyes and smiled at her friend. "I know, I know. I'll let you beat me until I bleed once I make sure you're fine." She looked at me and nodded.

I nodded back and assists her outside.

"Take care of Ran for me, Shinichi," she said before waving goodbye at me.

I waved back and go back inside the room. There she is, facing another direction as the sun glows through the window.

I sighed heavily and walk towards her bed. "Ran..."

"Why do you keep calling me that?" she asked and turned her head to me. Her eyebrows furrowed in pure confusion. "I told you many times... My name's not Ran, it's Angel."

"And I told you many times that you're not what you are right now," I argued and sighed again. "Geez. Why are you so stubborn anyway?"

"Because I want to," she answered. "Why did you kidnapped me in the first place?"

"And I told you that what we did was not kidnapping, it was saving you from danger," I argued once more and looked at her sadly. "Poor you, Ran. You even don't remember your own name and family, even your friends... Even me."

She stared at me for several minutes before looking down. "You're mocking things like that because you only wanted me for your desires."

"No, I'm not!"

"Yes, you are!" She yelled back. My eyes widened as I saw her eyes filled with tears. "Mankind is wicked. They only used a woman for their pleasures, nothing more. Once we're done, we are left with nothing, even dignity was gone so how could you deny it, bastard?!"

"My name's Kudo Shinichi, not bastard!" I yelled back. "And I told you once more that don't tell your own personal opinions if you really don't know what my reasons are when that happened!"

I received no reply after that. Asking her questions is futile. I need to make sure I'll bring back her memories as soon as possible.

Ran's POV

In the past few weeks, I've been unconscious, weird dreams always appeared on my sight, and then, I'll be sucked into the darkness again.

It was a weird feeling actually. I saw myself to those sceneries every time with a very happy aura around some people I don't know of.

Sherry is also there and that boy... No, that man walked out of the room earlier... I wonder who could he be to my life.

When he is talking to me, I felt some weird response to my chest. My stomach feels butterflies and I can't seem to look straight at his eyes without acting brave.

But I know for sure that there's something wrong with me. Something I couldn't even decipher on my own.

'You even don't remember your own name and family, even your friends... Even me.'

My eyes widened and I gripped my hands formed into a fist, the bonds grasped tigthly to my wrist.

His words struck me so much. It hurts... It hurts... It hurts...

"But why does it hurts so much?" I blurted out. "Why does his disappointment made me feel this way?"

I could feel waters falling down my cheeks. My voice croaked as I cried without me knowing what I am feeling.

I'm just feeling... sad... And I don't know why I should feel that way.

Shinichi's POV

"We observed her body once again and there's still no improvement. The drug was still intact to the brain. We have no cure for it more than..."

"More than... What?" I asked the doctor.

"Kudo-kun, Mouri Ran-san's condition was like others with amnesia. You could treat her by conversing with her, go to places that have remembrance, and tell her stories about her previous life," he explained.

"How about she refused?"

The doctor shook his head. "I have no possible recommendations for that, Kudo-kun. The only way we could get Mouri-san to normal is by talking to her. If you must use force, then do it. She won't completely heal mentally not until all of the people who love her do anything. Kudo-kun... That's the only way how to cure her," he said. His eyes were pleading.

I sighed heavily. Even the doctor was stressed in Ran's condition.

Ran was too stubborn to get out of the hospital. She said she hated being in a hospital because it stinks on medicines.

She was like a completely different person when you talk to her, like a beast trying to get out. But when she's silent, she looks normal.

I need to find out how to bring her back to normal.

I bowed to the doctor and send my regards. As I was waving my hand goodbye to the doctor, I felt the vibration of my phone through my pocket. I hurriedly picked it up and looked to see what it is.

My eyes widened as I saw the familiar number. It was Ran's mother, Kisaki Eri.

How did I know her? Well, my memories came back completely as I was super much worried about Ran. Ever since I've been capable of rescuing her from the Black Organization with Hattori and others, I was so stressed and the memories suddenly came bursting in.

I sighed and swipe the call and put it on my ear. "Moshi moshi, Auntie. Why did you call this moment?" I asked as I answered the phone call.

"Oh, may I remind you that I'll go there for my daughter? Please don't tell her I would come," she answered. "Anyways, how is she?"

"There's still no improvements, Auntie. We really need to force her in a communication," I answered. "I'll tell you the details once you arrived."

I heard her sighed to the other line. "Well, then. Let's meet there. Bye-bye."

~~~

"Hmm... I see, but she is completely recovered now, yes?"

I nodded. "Ran was completely healed physically but her mind won't cooperate with us. She keeps on bickering things for us to let her go. She did some things which hurt us so we tried to restrain her from that beast of hers."

"Care to enlighten me? How could you restrain her?" Auntie asked.

She arrived twenty minutes later after she told me about the case of her client. It was a complicated case towards mother and father who wants their child to be with them. Common case, that is.

I sighed and bring her to Ran's room. I could not hide the truth towards her mother, it was just a matter of time that Kisaki-san will know this.

I opened the door and Kisaki Eri-san walked in, seeing her beloved daughter restrained with thick belts in both of her wrists and her feet.

I looked up at Auntie to see her reaction but all I saw was blank. She just stared at her daughter, who's looking at another direction where the buildings have been seen.

"Shinichi-san..." Auntie called.

I was startled at the moment, recollecting myself from my reverie. "H-Hai?"

"Can you... leave us alone for a moment?"

I sighed heavily. "I apologize, Auntie, but I couldn't let you--"

"Take off the bonds on her," she orders that made my eyes widened.

"Auntie, you'll be hurt if we did that. I suggested that you could talk to her in--"

"Just do as I say, Shinichi-san," she insisted. Her eyes were still locked to her daughter. "I know she's hurt right now and if you keep her bonded with those thick belts, it'll be much worse than you expected so... Untie them. Now."

"H-Hai," I stuttered and immediately did as I was told.

Kisaki Eri-san's aura was too far different more than Uncle Kogouro and Ran. She was intimidating and I feared her-- not to mention she also used to have the technique with her from Uncle Kogouro and she was a good puncher too so yeah, I'm definitely scared to death.

Once I untie the bonds, I moved away as quickly as I can from Ran. Just taking myself to a better safe place rather than I'll be beaten up to the plump by the woman I love.

"Please, go out and tell the people who would visit her to wait outside," Auntie Eri ordered once more and I have no choice but to oblige.

I bowed down as a sign of respect and closed the door. I will not invade their privacy. I'll just wait until Auntie tells me everything.

Third Person's View

"Please, sit down properly and we'll have a normal conversation here," Kisaki Eri said as she walked towards the empty chair and sat down there; hands were on her lap as she stared to her daughter with a slight smile.

Ran sighed and sat up quickly. She didn't know why she oblige such old woman but she felt that she must do it.

She clasped her hands and put it on her lap. She didn't look at Eri as she asked, "What are you doing here?"

That brought a great shock to Kisaki Eri. She never thought Ran would asked her such thing. "Ara, ara, it seems you remembered me after all, Ran."

"No. You're wrong," Ran refused and looked straight at her. "I did not remember you nor I would remember you. I didn't even know you in the first place but why such a person with a different aura seems familiar to me? I don't know you but why do I feel that I've met you somewhere?"

"Seems like you really didn't know anything about the world you're truly in, Ran," Kisaki Eri said as she composed her smile on her lips. Light flashed to her glasses, blinding her eyes. "You may not know me but I know you. The people around you... I know all of them."

"You know them? So, tell me, are you the one who caused all of this? The kidnapping? For me to be hospitalized here and be restrained so I won't do anything but to listen to all their bickering? Is it all you do? Tell me!"

"No," Kisaki Eri answered and looked up to her daughter. "Mouri Ran, daughter of Mouri Kogouro, the lover of Kudo Shinichi-san and... the most beloved daughter of Kisaki Eri-- Yes, me..." Kisaki Eri tilted her head and with a wide smile, she said, "I'm your mother, Mouri Ran or should I call you by your preferred name that was been made by the Black Organization, Codename: Angel."