Disclaimer: (see previous chapters)

And here, folks, is the last chapter of Galatea. Enjoy. For detailed AN, see bio.

Chapter 19—God's Will (Part 3: ONE)

"Ai," Shinichi called out gently and touched Ai's forehead. Her eyes fluttered open and looked at him, although the gaze was unfocused due to morning sleepiness. He smiled. "How about you stay home today? I'll call the school. I'll stay, too."

"—time is it?" Ai sat up and glanced at the clock, still disoriented.

"You won't be late if you want to go to school. But are you sure? Do you feel well enough?"

Ai looked at Shinichi, as if she was having a hard time thinking straight. "You up for a while?" she asked, noticing his damp hair.

He nodded. "I even made breakfast, but I don't think it's a good idea for you to go to school. You're tired. And, well..."

"I'm fine," Ai said in a barely audible voice and climbed out of her bed, eyes fixed elsewhere.

Maybe, just maybe, it would be a better idea for her to be distracted for the day, Shinichi thought as he walked Ai to school. But there was only so much that Ai could handle right now. He looked at the strawberry blonde girl walking beside him, the girl who refused to let him carry her backpack for her or to be taken care of and who remained silent throughout breakfast, caught in her own thoughts. He wished she'd say something. Anything.

"Bye," she said softly and hurried her footsteps to join the Detective Boys at the school gate. She was smiling, but it was a pathetic attempt. Even before she reached the trio, Ayumi was wondering if Ai was ill again.

Shinichi stood afar, finally keeping in mind that he wasn't supposed to know the Detective Boys well, and watched with sadness as Ai's touch in masking herself slowly returned. It almost didn't surprised him that she managed to convince the three that she was perfectly fine. Morning sleepiness, she told them. Maybe she should go wash her face with cold water before class began.

They shouted a "Good morning" to "Shinichi-niisan" and headed toward the classroom building. The last thing Shinichi saw that morning of Ai was her genuine smile directed to him before she turned to walk up the stairs and disappeared into the building with the Detective Boys. He wanted to go in with them, to know how Ai was doing. But that was Edogawa Conan's position.

His classmates at Teitan High swarmed around him again, not believing he was attending class for two days in a row, whereas Ran sat quietly at her desk, reading and distancing herself from the rest of the class. From Shinichi. Her gaze, however, kept wandering off the page and toward the crowd by the door. When her eyes met Shinichi's, she looked away and pretended to concentrate on her reading. Sonoko took the scene in with raised eyebrows.

After his classmates left him alone, Shinichi pulled out his textbooks and notebooks from his bag, stopping the middle when his hand came in contact with Choi's laptop and a stack of paper stuffed into his bag earlier that morning. APTX-4869, he thought as he pulled out the stack of paper to study briefly before returning them into his backpack. I can do it. I am Kudo Shinichi.

—

They were having eel for lunch, much to Genta's delight. Mitsuhiko grumbled while Ayumi giggled at Genta's gleeful exclamation. Then Ayumi's smile dropped.

"Did Conan-kun call?" she asked. Ai didn't respond. Ayumi peered into Ai's face. "Ai-chan?"

"What?" Ai looked up, just realizing that Ayumi was talking to her.

"Did Conan-kun call?" Ayumi repeated.

Ai stared blankly at Ayumi's serious but miserable expression before fixing her gaze on her rice. "No," she said after some contemplation.

"Really?" Ayumi was skeptical, but her questioning tone wasn't harsh. Somehow, Ai-chan looked terrible today, and it didn't seem to be because of "morning sleepiness" anymore. Maybe Conan-kun really didn't call...

"He'll never call." Ai's voice was breaking. "Because he's a jerk!" she looked up abruptly and added with a bright smile.

The Detective Boys blinked and then decided it was typical Ai-behavior.

"Um," Mitsuhiko started and blushed when Ai's attention was on him. "Are you truly in love with Conan-kun?" he asked timidly, afraid of hearing the answer and afraid of not knowing the answer.

There was a pause as Ai was chewing. She shrugged. "I don't know."

"You don't know?" Genta cried out in surprise and, with this outburst, some of his food were spit out unintentionally.

"Yuck, Genta-kun," the girl sitting at the next table commented and received a glare from Genta.

"Then does Conan-kun love you?" Ayumi asked.

"Maybe."

"But he said you were his girlfriend!" Mitsuhiko said.

"He did."

"So does he?"

"And do you?"

"What?"

"Love each other!" Ayumi and Mitsuhiko said in unison.

"Why are you making such a big deal out of this anyway?" Genta asked.

Resting her head on one hand, Ai took another bite of her lunch, lost in her thoughts once again. "I don't know. Yes." Her voice dropped to a whisper. "But he's not calling."

Ayumi and Mitsuhiko exchanged a look. Ayumi frowned, scratched her head, and then smiled. "Ai-chan," she said, causing Ai to look up. "If he's not calling, then you can call him."

They didn't know what she was talking about. Ai sighed inwardly. Of course they wouldn't. But at least they didn't seem to be hating her. "Okay," she said at last, unsure of what to think. "I'll call him." Even if it was impossible. But it wasn't so bad after all, she decided when she returned a smile to the three of them. They were good people.

—

"Your new laptop?" Sonoko asked with her arms folded and loomed over Shinichi, who was sitting under a tree outside the building and looking frustrated.

"No, it's for the case I'm working on."

"Oh really," Sonoko bent down to examine the screen but frowned with annoyance when Shinichi brought the cover down and shut the laptop with a click. She squared her shoulders and snorted. "Fine. I could care less about the case anyway. But what happened between you and Ran?"

"Nothing."

"Nothing." Sonoko huffed. "That's what Ran told me, too, when I asked her. Would you care to elaborate, Sherlock?"

Shinichi didn't respond but continued to stare at the several people playing soccer in the field. 4869—Sherlock.

"What's this?" Sonoko pointed at the stack of paper lying on the ground and was about to pick them up to take a look when Shinichi snatched them away.

"Please, Suzuki Sonoko-san, I have work to do."

"Sonoko?" a voice came from behind and Sonoko looked up—Ran.

"Ran!" Sonoko shouted and rushed up to her best friend. "Go talk to him! Tell him all the sorrows in your heart!" She turned to Shinichi. "Hey you, jerk!"

"Do you happen to know what AI stands for, Ran?" Shinichi asked quietly, his brows creased. Ran and Sonoko were both taken aback by his question out of nowhere.

"AI?" Sonoko raised an eyebrow. "Ah! Wouldn't that spell out to be the romanji of 'love'?"

Shinichi shook his head slightly. "Try English. Or French. Or Cantonese."

"Well," Ran said with a small smile while Sonoko stared at Shinichi as if he'd just lost it. "Artificial Intelligence, maybe?"

Shinichi looked up for the first time since Sonoko's arrival and stared at Ran in astonishment before resuming his work on the laptop. "Artificial Intelligence," he mumbled to himself. That makes sense! AI. Something given up for humanity. AI. He stared at the word document, which was password protected and titled 'AI.' Shuichi never said anything about a password protected document in Choi's laptop, and at first, he was frustrated that he couldn't access the document, but now... "AI... Ai..." How was Ai doing at school?

"What, are you interested in science fiction now? That's new..." Sonoko blabbed on about Shinichi's stupidity for not knowing AI, declared Shinichi's failure, denounced his insensitivity on Ran's feelings...

"Was I of any help, Shinichi?" Ran asked. "Shinichi?"

"Yes! Thank you very much!" Shinichi shut the laptop, grabbed the stack of paper that he'd stolen—borrowed from Ai, and jumped up. "Thank you!" He gave a quick pat on Ran's shoulder and rushed into the building.

Ran was happy to know that she had helped him. She didn't want to be a burden, Shinichi thought as he raced up the stairs. She believed that Ai was a detective. She still believed, she was still full of hope... What would happen if he told her the second half of the truth? After entering the classroom, Shinichi sank into his seat and reflected on everything that'd happened since he returned, imagined what would happen from then on.

AI, AI. He didn't give a damn about AI, about Choi, about the Organization... Maybe he should cook chicken soup for Ai tonight.

—

Shinichi found Ai sitting on the steps outside of the house when he returned. He'd gone to Teitan Elementary to fetch her, but her classmates told him that she'd already left. He wasn't surprised that she was sitting outside. Her face was buried in her hands. He took a seat beside her on the steps.

"How was your day?" He wondered afterwards why he'd wanted to pick up a conversation at all.

"I heard hakase on the way back," Ai said, words muffled. Shinichi's eyes widened. "But he wasn't there. I'm hallucinating already..."

So that was it, huh. Shinichi sighed. "You're not alone, Ai."

There was a long moment of silence. "Of course I'm not alone. There're some 15 billion people on Earth. I'm not alone."

"That's not what I meant!" Shinichi said, a little angry.

Ai lifted her head and leaned against Shinichi with her eyes shut, as if she wanted to take a nap. "Do you have water?"

"We could go inside to get some," Shinichi suggested.

Ai opened her eyes and paused. "Okay."

—

"Here you go," Shinichi said with a smile as he handed a glass of water to Ai when they were in the kitchen.

Ai popped something into her mouth and swallowed it with the water.

"Hey, wait a minute!" Shinichi yelled and snatched the almost-empty glass of water away from Ai. "What did you just swallow?" he demanded.

"Antidote," Ai said, sounding the same as how Shinichi dismissively told Sonoko "nothing." "Did you think I'd let you carry out your plan to turn back into Conan? Stop messing around!"

Shinichi was stunned. "You knew." Ai made no response. "But when was the antidote made?"

Ai shook her head and was overwhelmed by the pain surging through her body.

Time moves forward, and will only move forward. But we don't.

—

The union that night was probably partly out of guilt. Shiho never said anything. He was still used to calling her Ai, but she didn't seem to mind. Things had been done, words had been spoken. Once was enough. He told her not to shy away from her fate. He shouldn't either. As he lied there at night, he thought, Life goes on. In the world around you. The bridge was crossed and destroyed, with two on one side. And nothing else mattered—God, Devil, them, us, him, her...

His Ai, his only ai.

(END)