To Protect You

Protect her

A/N
This series has been written for CoAi week 2021. I didn't follow the official order of the prompts because it didn't fit with the events I had planned, so the prompts won't always match with their related day.
I found the inspiration to write this thanks to an artwork by the supreme wolfram-kun, to which I'm dedicating this fic. You can find the blessed post on Tumblr, the fanart is the one I used as this fic's cover image.

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Said that, enjoy the reading of the first chapter, based on the prompt "Promise".

"It's a large, mysterious crime syndicate. I don't know much else, but the organization's color is black."

"Black?"

"Yes, everyone intimate with the organization wears clothing as black as crows."

A shiver runs through Shinichi's body— those two suspicious-looking men he saw back then at the Tropical Land also wore clothing as black as crows. He can still remember the cold and murderous green eyes one of them had, and how they seemed not to care even a bit about the bloody homicide that had just happened. If only he had followed them, maybe the bullet that had pierced the woman in his arms wouldn't have been fired.

Now, his attention shifts to the bleeding brunette that desperately grips his arm.

"Please listen to my final words..." she pleads as she hands him a key "Here, this is the real one, the one they took is fake– the coin locker at Beika station–"

Shinichi's heart grows heavier as he watches the woman coughing and struggling to speak, and the least he can do is to catch every phrase— no, every word she says.

"I'm not going to make it– but please, promise me just one thing–"

He has no choice but nod at the supplication, feeling pressure on the corners of his eyes at the sight of this weak and fragile woman who is putting all her remaining strength to utter her last words.

"Promise– that you'll save her."

Her?

"Who?"

She opens her mouth to clarify but cough stops her, and they both understand that there's no time left for an explanation, but she can't die without being sure that she won't undergo her same fate, "You have to promise me– that you'll protect her."

Shinichi is hesitant, with severe doubts on what to do since he has no clue about who this her might be, and he'd rather not promise to do something he's not sure he's capable of. He's about to ask her a few more details when she begs again— her voice trembling and bitter.

"Promise me."

His stare catches the tears flowing down her face which trigger his own to escape. And at that very moment, two words escape from his heart and leave his mouth without passing through his brain, and the emotions overcome the logic as he assures the woman he'll do what she wishes to be promised.

"I will."

Miyano Akemi faintly smiles at him before expiring in his arms "I'll leave her to you, great detective..."

Her eyes slowly drop, until she's finally at peace, leaving a broken and tearful Shinichi with nothing but a key, a blood-stained shirt, and a promise to keep.

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A week passes as Shinichi drowns himself in the investigation meant to find the mysterious her. Since the tragedy happened, he skips classes day after day, telling Ran he's too busy with cases, which isn't completely wrong anyway, but this research has to be kept from everyone— if there's really some large secret criminal organization behind it, not involving other people would be safer.