A/N: And now for something completely different. Sticking this outside my oneshot collection for being a bit longer and not gen.
1.
The man in the cap and sunglasses runs toward the ocean, disappearing into the water in a swirl of blue and white.
Without hesitating, Shinichi approaches the water's edge, his eyes sharp and thoughtful. He doesn't dive in, but he waits for the Onii-san to resurface.
"W-Wait, Shinichi," Ran says, her eyes wide.
Why is he always like this? she thinks. Always rushing into things.
He had almost gotten beaten up by those scary guys earlier because he made them mad, and now-Ran wishes her dad and mom were here. They would know what to do.
Or at least her mom would yell at Shinichi, Ran thinks. Sometimes she doesn't like how mean her mom can be when she scolds Shinichi for bringing Ran home late, dirty from the latest adventure, but sometimes it is his fault.
It looks like someone had gotten really hurt. They'd fallen off the cliff in a car. Ran sniffs and scrubs her eyes with the back of her hand.
"It's okay," says the girl next to her, flashing Ran a snaggletoothed smile. "My brother's strong and smart. You saw him earlier, right?"
Ran nods, tells herself not to cry in front of a stranger. "Jeet Kune Do," she says, remembering. "It's like my dad. He knows judo."
"That's cool!" she exclaims. "Do you do judo, too?"
"No," Ran says, shaking her head. "But I'd like to learn, maybe when I get bigger. So I can be strong. My mom knows how to do my dad's judo throw."
"My mama's really strong, too," the girl says, flexing her arm like a muscle. "Kichi-nii said for her old job, she had to be a tough. A 'licensed troubleshooter.'"
The girl says the words in English, and Ran blinks in confusion.
"I don't know what he means, but it's definitely important," the girl says with a sage nod. "Anyway, don't worry! My big brother has been studying overseas and Kichi-nii says that he's smarter than him, even if Kichi-nii has the best memory in the world. He knows what to do-and it looks like your friend does, too."
"Shinichi just plays Sherlock Holmes a lot."
"But it was like magic, how he knew my brother played the accordion," the girl says. "It made my brother smile."
She starts walking closer to the ocean and Ran follows, both of them standing next to Shinichi.
The girl's brother wades through the water. A man is draped across his back.
The girl says to Ran in a hushed voice, "I want to make magic too, one day."
2.
"You're my type," the boy in a hat says with a smile, after an exchange of blows, and Ran feels herself blushing.
He works on the case, a detective like Shinichi. He tells Ran that he'll see her again soon.
He isn't a boy.
Sera Masumi runs toward them after school, accompanying Ran and Sonoko on their walk home, and this is the first time that Ran hears it: the sound of crashing waves.
3.
After the hostage incident at the Mouri Detective Agency, Sera says to Ran after class, "You know, I never got to really say sorry to you. About putting you in a position like that."
It's just the two of them. Sonoko had been driven by one of her chauffeurs for a family dinner, leaving Ran and Sera standing in front of Teitan High. Sera's leaning against her motorcycle, her eyes fixed on Ran.
"It scared you, right? Me luring that man near the window."
For a second, Ran is at a loss for words. Then she says, looking down, "No, I think I know why. When he was a police officer, my dad raised me to have faith in the police to do their jobs, and you were trying to help them do that. So all of us wouldn't get hurt. But..."
Ran remembers the rain during that night in New York. Gripping Shinichi's shoulders: Is a reason necessary?
Sera reaches out to touch Ran's shoulders. "Hey. Don't make that kind of face. It was brave of you. You did what you thought was right, and you trusted that boyfriend of yours."
Sera says, "I guess, for me, it was what I grew up learning. The little things my mama taught me."
"Your mother told you how to handle hostage situations-?"
Sera laughs. "Something like that." She leans over, digs around in her bag, and tosses a helmet to Ran. "I'll make it up to you, Ran-chan. Let's go get ice cream. My treat."
Ran says, stammering, "You don't have to-"
"Please?" Sera says, her eyes pleading and hopeful. "I actually wanted to show this kind of ice cream off anyway. It's my apology to you. Come on, please?"
Ran relents. She puts on the helmet, prompting Sera to grin triumphantly, a little snaggletooth poking out.
"I promise this'll be good!"
Climbing onto the motorcycle, Ran wraps her arms around Sera. The other girl is warm against her-and like that first time, Ran thinks she can feel a flush rise at her cheeks.
Am I coming down with something? Ran wonders worriedly.
Even over the sound of the motorcycle engine, Ran hears it again
The sea.
Sera treats her to a funny type of ice cream called a cornetto.
"It's not the soft serve in a cone that's commonly served here in Japan," Sera proclaims. "Cornettos were originally made by an Italian company, and afterward, they became pretty much became a staple in Britain."
Ran takes a tentative bite. The taste of the cone surprises her - it's crispy and coated in chocolate.
"It's good, right?" Sera says, her mouth full. "I was happy to find this ice cream parlor when I was driving around Beika the other day. It's always wonderful to discover familiar foods."
Ran takes another bite, swallows. "It's amazing, Sera-san."
There was something, though...Ran thinks. "So they have this ice cream in America, too, where you lived?"
A flicker of surprise darts across Sera's face, but it's as gone as fast as it appeared. "America has a similar type of ice cream," Sera says. "They're called drumsticks-"
(Sera describes it. It's not until much later that Ran realizes that Sera had dodged her question.)
4.
Two days after Conan is kidnapped and then rescued, Sera is acting...strange.
She's half-distracted during class, missing a question that their teacher asks.
In between classes, Ran says, "Are you okay, Sera-san?"
Sera snaps to attention, turning toward Ran. There are circles underneath her eyes.
And Ran thinks-she knows what this is about. She remembers the desperate way Sera had bolted yesterday, sprinting on the pavement.
I thought I saw someone I knew, she had said.
"Hey, Ran-chan," Sera says, "do you believe in ghosts?"
Ran starts. "Ehhh?!"
It's stupid, how she's never been able to overcome her uneasiness with the supernatural. But it just seems like common sense. You can't just kick an evil spirit.
"W-well," Ran says, chastising herself, "when we were kids and I was scared by ghost stories, Shinichi always used to tell me about that one Holmes story.
"I can't remember it, but there was a part where someone tells Holmes that mysterious events were caused by the devil. Holmes says to him-all natural explanations should be explored before you declare that something supernatural happened."
And Sera recites: "'I fear that if the matter is beyond humanity it is certainly beyond me. Yet we must exhaust all natural explanations before we fall back upon such a theory as this.'"
"That's the line," Ran says. She can almost hear Shinichi reciting it along with Sera.
"I've always believed the same," Sera continues, smiling slightly. "Yesterday, I-well, maybe it could have been all in my head. But, about Sherlock Holmes, you reminded me of something, Ran-chan. Thank you.
'"The person at the window who wears a mask..."
Sera is being very...cryptic, and Ran is very much reminded of Shinichi.
Detectives, she thinks.
Her exasperation must show, because Sera chuckles and musses up Ran's hair, making her scowl and bat Sera's hand away.
5.
"He reminds me of someone..."
Sera says it quietly, after they've watched the movie that Shinichi's dad had written the screenplay for.
The Scarlet Agent.
They're sitting in the theater during the credits, Sera and Ran and Sonoko.
"What do you mean, Sera-san?" Ran says. She stretches her arms, yawns. She doesn't usually watch Hollywood action movies like these-but it's Shinichi's dad's movie, so of course she resolved to go.
"Oh?" Sonoko says, her eyebrows raised. "Did you have a mysterious, cool boyfriend in your past?"
"It's nothing like that," Sera says, rolling her eyes.
"A tragic romance?" Sonoko prods. "I feel sorry for that FBI agent's girlfriend in the movie. He infiltrated the secret society that her father lead, dating her just to gather information. But they did end up falling in love for real-I liked that scene where he promised to protect her."
Sonoko lets out a wistful sigh. "Maybe with his karate abilities, Makoto-san can become a secret agent. Wearing a suit like James Bond..."
"I know karate and I don't think I want to be a secret agent," Ran says pointedly.
It seems like she's encountered enough trouble already as the daughter and friend of detectives.
She adds, "And it seems like a dangerous job."
"Yeah," Sera says. In the darkness of the theater, Ran sees the green of her eyes, intense in the dim light. "I don't think life as a secret agent is as glamorous as the movies. You've already met FBI agents, haven't you? Your former English teacher."
"True," Sonoko says. "Jodie-sensei is beautiful and smart, but she doesn't seem like a badass superspy from movies."
"Oh," Ran interrupts, remembering. "Who was it that the main character reminds you of, Sera-san?"
Sera stands up, brushing popcorn off her lap. "It's all right. Maybe I was mistaken."
Ran reaches out, her hands lightly brushing Sera's in the dark before falling away. She doesn't know why, but-she thinks that Sera needed reassurance of some sort.
Sera's answering smile makes Ran's heart flutter.
6.
It's Sonoko's fault.
She challenges Sera and Ran to spar - "What's better? Jeet Kune Do or karate?" - and it doesn't help them both of them are competitive regarding their respective martial arts, despite their initial protests.
"Technically, we've already fought," Sera says, a hand on her hat.
Ran says, "And you've seen Sera-san fight Kyogoku-san at the bowling alley-"
"That barely lasted a five seconds," Sonoko says with a dismissive wave. "Although it seems like you have the unlucky pattern of fighting people once you meet them."
"That's only twice, Sonoko-chan," Sera says.
But Sonoko says, "Don't tell me you're scared," and both of them flare up in indignant responses.
Which leads into now. They've borrowed training equipment from the karate club, and they spar in one of the practice rooms.
It's like dancing, dodging. Ran whirls with her kicks and punches, and Sera jabs back fists and sweeps her legs with rapid ease.
Shifting, smiling, eyes blazing, breathing.
Sera wins one match, Ran wins the next. When they're done, they bow.
Sera takes off her helmet and grins. Ran is staring at Sera's flushed face and lively green eyes, and she thinks: She...
7.
In Nichuri TV studio, Sonoko says, "Are you telling me you've fallen for her?"
Ran says, "That's-that's not what I mean."