Post by SharaRaizel on Sept 14, 2014 20:33:36 GMT
So here is my submission to the Summer Adventure fan fic challenge. I've never really written anything like this before, so I hope you guys like it. Enjoy!
A Break At Kintai-kyo
Dr. Tarawa’s mystery letters had been sent from a rival at the school the good Doctor taught at, meant to distract him so that a younger and more ambitious doctor could have an edge in getting a rare position that had opened up on the American Military base in Iwakuni that would allow them to see and help with the maintenance of the US Military-Air Force’s jets. Dr. Tarawa decided not to press charges and kept the matter private since the letters hadn’t been threatening and he’d enjoyed the confusing puzzles and challenges they’d presented. For once there was no real crime for the Detective Boys to investigate and that left them feeling a little dissatisfied, so Dr. Tarawa had given Dr. Agasa directions to the local tourist attraction: The Kintai Bridge and Iwakuni Castle.
Dr. Agasa was careful as he drove the car he’d borrowed from Dr. Tarawa down from the raised portion of the city down to the riverbed where the tourist parking was for the bridge. Ayumi, Mitsuhiko and Genta were staring around in excitement as the car drove slowly over the beach of river stones. After parking, the group got out and stared in awe at the arching bridge that spanned across the river.
“Ah, the famous Kintai-kyo of Iwakuni,” Dr. Agasa smiled. “It looks like it’s had some maintenance and restoration work done since I was last here.”
“Come on! Lets get closer!” Ayumi squealed as she rushed forward. The boys were only steps behind her.
“Ah! Be careful, children! The beach is all loose river rock!” Dr. Agasa gasped, hobbling after them.
Ai and Conan exchanged amused glances before following at a more sedate pace, looking further up the banks at the stands that lined the beach by the raised stone wall and the pathway back up to the city and bridge. Some had more of the touristy curio stuffs and were entertaining a fair share of Iwakuni’s American Military residents and tourists. Some were food vendors and one was apparently selling eel because Genta was salivating near the stand.
After getting Genta some unagi, the group made their way up to the bridge to cross. Conan couldn’t help but admire the architecture. The bridge was composed of five arching sections supported by four stone piers. And what was more – according to the brochure – during its initial construction the entire bridge had been made only of wood and metal nails until floods created the necessity for the stone piers. Even today though, during it’s renovated reconstruction from 2001 to 2004, there were no metal supports augmented into the bridge, maintaining it’s original wood and stone construction with metal nails. The repetitive need to go up and down each arc was a little annoying, but at least the Detective Boys were having fun running about, jumping up and down the sections, making their own game out of crossing the bridge. Ai seemed more interested in people watching as American families took pictures and commented on how lovely everything was.
Once they made it to the other side of Kintai-kyo, they moved on into the tourist trap on the other side, Kikko Park. Ayumi dragged them off into the shops, looking at cute Hello Kitty trinkets, Maneki-nekos of various sizes and makes, and all sorts of touristy things. Genta demanded that they try an ice-cream vendor when he saw the variety of flavors they had for soft-serve. Ayumi got plumb, Mitsuhiko got sour apple, Dr. Agasa preferred simple vanilla cream, Conan got a vanilla-chocolate swirl, Genta got chocolate, and Ai decided to try the Green Tea flavored soft serve. She must have liked it because she actually finished the whole thing and it’s cone while they admired the fountain and various flowers in the park area found in the middle of the square of touristy shops.
After window shopping and trying out other foods Genta insisted upon, Mitsuhiko discovered the Imazu White Snakes Museum and asked if they could check that place out next. Conan found it amusing that the white snakes were more of a pale yellow color than white, but according to a Mitsuhiko – who was reading off some brochure information – this particular kind of snake was an albino variety of the Japanese rat snake, found only in Iwakuni, and was considered good luck, being a symbol of Benten, Japanese goddess of wealth. Regardless, the snakes held the others’ interest for a while, until the Detective Boys got bored again and rushed off, wanting to see the castle.
Apparently there were three ways to get to Iwakuni Castle. There was the ropeway car, a bus, and a hiking path. The group decided on the ropeway car so that they could see the view on the way up. Conan thought that the Professor was just happy they hadn’t picked the hiking trail.
“Those snakes were pretty cool!” Genta said as they waited for the car to start ascending.
“Did you guys see the nest of eggs that one snake was lying next to?” Ayumi asked. “I wonder when they’ll hatch.”
“I wonder what they do with the babies once they grow up,” Mitsuhiko mused. “It didn’t look like they could keep a large number of snakes, so what do they do after all the eggs have hatched?”
“They probably release them somewhere up here in the mountains,” Ai spoke up, glancing out the ropeway car as it finally started to go up.
“Probably,” Conan agreed, looking out as they rose higher and higher.
“Ahh!” the other three gasped.
“The bridge looks so pretty from up here!” Ayumi exclaimed.
“I bet it looked even prettier during cherry blossom season,” Mitsuhiko piped up.
“It does,” Dr. Agasa agreed. “And not just the bridge, children. When all of the cherry blossoms are in full bloom during the spring, the whole mountain and Iwakuni Castle look as if they are floating in the clouds. Dr. Tarawa and I spent a whole week here back in our college days enjoying the cherry blossom festivals.”
“Man, why couldn’t we have come here then!” Genta pouted. “I bet they serve delicious unagi during those festivals.”
Mitsuhiko and Ayumi snickered over Genta’s fixation on unagi and Ai and Conan exchanged more amused looks.
Looking out of their cable car, Conan glanced away from the direction of Kintai-kyo to the mountainsides. He could see the local bus driving in the distance, winding it’s way up the mountain side, and traces of the hiking trail weaving in and out of the foliage parallel to the bus route.
When the cable car arrived at the top, everybody climbed out and tried to find the trail that would take them the rest of the way to the castle. They passed by a children’s park and a clock tower. Many children were running around while tired looking parents sat down and took pictures, or bought a drink from one of the many vending machines at the clock tower’s base. Conan was tempted to buy himself a coffee, but knew that he’d be caught by one of the Detective Boys and scolded for drinking the adult beverage. Even in Japan, coffee wasn’t something a little kid should drink. They’d probably say it’d stunt his growth, which was the last thing he needed right now. It was bad enough that he was the shortest boy in their group, and that Ayumi and Ai were only a centimeter or two shorter than he was.
Finally they made it to the castle, which was actually only a rebuilt tower from the original castle that had once stood there. It was like walking into a museum on the inside. Each floor had a plethora of ancient memorabilia from samurai swords and armor to old writing utensils and scrollwork. The top was an observation platform with a panoramic view of the area and another spectacular view of Kintai-kyo. Above and along the ceiling, was pictures of the same views, but taken during the different seasons. Dr. Agasa had been right. The pictures of springtime during cherry blossom season looked beautiful, especially around the bridge and riverbanks. He hadn’t realized that all of the trees along the castle side of the river were cherry trees.
Conan looked around the floor after using one of the telescopes with Ai. After half an hour admiring the view and trying out all the different telescopes, he figured everyone was about ready to leave and head back downstairs, but noticed that Ayumi wasn’t with the other two.
“Hey, guys,” Conan called over to Mitsuhiko and Genta. “Where’s Ayumi?”
“Huh?” both boys blinked, pulling away from their telescope before looking around frantically for their missing friend.
Ai frowned. Dr. Agasa appeared to be missing as well.
“Maybe they went back downstairs,” Mitsuhiko suggested.
Together the four of them went back downstairs, carefully searching each level before going down to the next one. Finally they found Ayumi and Dr. Agasa standing just inside the entrance to the castle at a station of some kind.
“What are you guys doing?” Conan asked, leveling an irritated glare at the Professor who had the decency to look sheepish.
“Ah, sorry children,” Dr. Agasa laughed nervously. “We were looking for the stamp station. When we couldn’t find it I asked one of the guides here at the castle if they had one and they showed us back down here. I didn’t think we’d be gone as long as we were.”
“Stamp station?” Genta asked. “Why do you have to find a station for stamps? Can’t you just buy them at the post office?”
“She’s not talking about postage stamps, Genta-kun,” Ai said. “She’s talking about ink travel stamps. Right, Ayumi-chan?”
“Right!” Ayumi grinned. “See, some travel brochures have square spaces open on the back of their pamphlets for the stamp, but some travelers, like my daddy, carry a stamp book for all of their stamps.”
Ayumi held up a small pink book with a cherry blossom washi-paper hardcover that opened up like an accordion folded brochure and showed them all of the ink stamps she had in it.
“Daddy got me one for my birthday last year in time for our trip to Hiroshima. I don’t have as many stamps in here like my daddy does in his, but I’ve got stamps from Peace Park, a few from the Hiroshima Museum, and a few other places like Beika Aquarium, and the National History Museum. Today I got one from the Kintai Bridge, the White Snake Museum, and now I have one from Iwakuni Castle! I can’t wait to show Daddy!”
Conan stepped up beside Ayumi and saw the green stamp she’d just inked into her travel book. It was next to the black one she’d got for Kintai-kyo (probably at one of the tourist stations on the city side of the bridge), and above the large red stamp for the snake museum that took up the bottom half of the page. The stamp book was roughly the size of a regular pocket notebook.
“That’s so cool!” Mitsuhiko smiled as he came to stand behind Conan and peered over his shoulder. “I wish I had one!”
“You can still stamp the travel brochure,” Ai suggested pointing out the empty square on her own brochure for Kintai-kyo and Iwakuni Castle.
Mitsuhiko and Genta both got their brochures stamped and they all started making their way back, choosing to take the hiking path down this time. The forested woods provided welcome shade from the hot sun and being up in the mountains made the air cooler and less humid, much to Dr. Agasa’s relief.
While Ayumi, Genta and Mitsuhiko walked at the head of the group giggling and talking about everything from the white snakes again, the view from the top of Iwakuni Castle, and the upcoming episode of Kamen Yaiba, Ai and Conan walked a little bit behind them simply enjoying the serenity of their trip. It was kind of nice to actually go somewhere without stumbling over a case. Conan didn’t get many trips like this and while he wished that he could enjoy such a moment with Ran, he was content to spend it with Ai and the Detective Boys.
Despite being annoying at times, the three grade school kids weren’t that bad. It was moments like these that he didn’t mind being with them. Their happy chatter reminded him that the whole world wasn’t filled with murder and thievery and deceit. It was nice to see Ai relax as well. They were so far from Tokyo right now; there wasn’t really a fear of running into possible members of the Black Organization our here. Sometimes things back home felt toxic, like he was suffocating in a bog composed of homicide cases and fear of the Black Organization. Even visiting Hattori in Osaka didn’t feel much better because they always stumbled upon a case or two one way or another. Things were even worse sometimes with the two of them. He was starting to believe that he was cursed as a death magnet.
Coming out here to Iwakuni was a nice change of pace.
“Kyaa!” Ayumi screamed.
Conan was jolted out of his peaceful revere and hurried forward where Ayumi and Mitsuhiko had stumbled back behind Genta who was shaking.
“What is it?” Conan asked.
“Something moved in that bush!” Ayumi wailed.
Conan glanced over to the brush just off the hiking path, picking up a stick before walking over.
“Be careful Conan!” Ayumi called after him.
Conan crouched down and slowly and carefully pushed aside some of the bush’s branches aside to see what had startled his young friends. After a moment of searching he smiled, kneeling down to gather up the perpetrator and headed back to his friends.
“What was it?” Mitsuhiko and Genta asked.
Instead of telling them, Conan simply open up his arms and revealed a white snake like the ones in the museum they’d visited earlier. This one was a lot smaller and whiter than the ones they’d seen in the museum, probably only a few months old, but it appeared Ai was right about the older baby snakes being released up in the mountains.
“Oh wow!” the three kids gasped, watching in awe as the snake wrapped itself around one of Conan’s arms and peered over his shoulder back towards the brush.
“Cute little guy, isn’t he?” Conan couldn’t help but grin, blinking in surprise when a flash went off. He looked up and spotted Dr. Agasa grinning with a camera in his hands.
“If you show that to Ran-Oneesan, Professor, she’s going to freak out,” Ai said.
Conan huffed in irritation at Agasa, but shook his head with a smile at the thought of Ran. She loved cute fuzzy animals, but snakes and spiders and bugs… weren’t her thing. She’d nearly karate chopped his head off once when they were in middle school and he’d played a joke on her with a toy snake.
…Speaking of snakes, his new friend was slithering around his shoulders and neck. Conan carefully pried the snake off and held him out to the others.
“Do you guys want to try holding him?” he asked.
Genta shook his head, taking a step back and while Ayumi liked the snake, she looked apprehensive about actually holding one. Mitsuhiko had no such qualms and as he took the snake from Conan, began to say a lot of facts about the white snake (probably all learned from the brochure from the museum) and other snakes in general. Leave it to Mitsuhiko to be the fountain of knowledge about anything science-y. The kid was smart. Conan could easily see Mitsuhiko being a great forensics and biological expert if he continued with the groups’ current detective interests. Ayumi was very intuitive and had a great gut instinct. It was a little harder to say anything in regards to Genta as a detective, but his heart was in the right place and he had a stubborn determination to figure things out. The three of them could go far together one of these days.
Conan smiled watching Genta and Ayumi crowd around Mitsuhiko as he held the snake and spouted his facts. He really was fond of these three. They’d grown on him during his time as Conan and he would miss them when (not if) he became Kudo Shinichi again.
Finally, after Ai managed to convince the kids to let the snake go again and not smuggle it home in Genta’s backpack, the gang made their way down the rest of the mountain and back across the bridge. The sun was setting and cast a magnificent glow on Iwakuni Castle and silhouetted Kintai-kyo in yellows and oranges when they were getting back into the barrowed car and drove back to Dr. Tarawa’s house.
As Conan watched the city of Iwakuni swallow the shapes of the bridge and mountains, he couldn’t help but smile, settling down in the back seat with his friends, content and happy that he’d managed to have this time with the kids.
~*~*~*~*~*~
And that's my Summer Adventure fic submission! I've never written the Detective Boys or Conan before so I hope I did a good job.
FUN FACTS: My dad is a recently retired marine so as a child I actually had the opportunity and lived in Iwakuni on the US military base from 1996-1999 and again later from 2004-2007. The trip the Detective Boys took in this fic is based off of a number of my own visits to Kintai Bridge and Iwakuni Castle as a child and young teen. Ayumi's stamp book is actually based off the one I got as a child during my first tour living in Japan and that I used again during my second visit. I'm not sure what other locations have travel stamps (I found any in Tokyo) but I know that a lot of historical places and museums have stamp stations for travelers and tourists like in Hiroshima's Peace Park and Museum, Kintai Bridge, Iwakuni Castle, and a national history museum I went to in Fukuoka my 9th grade year for a field trip. I found my travel stamp book while cleaning out my room and trying to come up with an idea for this challenge and after seeing the ink stamps from both of my times in Iwakuni (a lot of them duplicates from the two different tours living in Japan because we revisited a lot of the same places like Kintai and Hiroshima) I knew I wanted to do this. I hope you all enjoyed the fic, the pictures (not mine, got them off google) and some inside traveler's knowledge of Iwakuni Japan! Thanks for reading!