It had been a few years after Shinichi brought The Black Organization down and got his body back as did everyone else the Organization deaged. It felt great being his actual age again... although he could've done without Ran slugging him for keeping her in the dark about the whole Conan facade after what he calls "The Birthday Incident" when it finally happened. But at least he got a kiss out of it.

Ran told him she knew the truth about him and Conan from the start during this incident when she and everyone else close to Shinichi and his other alias were kidnapped and held hostage except for Kogoro. The Organization felt he wasn't a real threat. This belief was a massive underestimation on their end.

Kogoro went all throughout Japan looking for his daughter and he would've turned the whole country inside out just to find her. There was nothing that could've stopped him from taking down the people who kidnapped Ran. Not even the demons of hell would want any part of him because in this world, there are many things you don't want to mess with. One of them is a parent. Especially when it's on the day he became one. The Organization learned that the hard way.

After the nightmare ended, Shinichi and Ran resumed dating all the way into college. Shinichi was going to set up his detective agency and Ran was looking to open up her own karate school. He had finally told her the words she wanted to hear from him back in London, now he was going to take the next step. Shinichi was going to ask Ran to be his wife. The one thing on his mind was how to go about it. He and Ran had known each other since childhood, so he wanted to make sure it was a proposal she wouldn't forget

"Okay, Shinichi. This is something the both of you have dreamed about since you were kids. How are you going to do it?" He thought to himself. He continued thinking to himself until an idea came to mind. "I've got it!" He thought to himself.

The next day after college went out, Ran came by Shinichi's house. At school, she noticed that he was deep in thought about something, but she didn't know what. She chose to drop by to see how he was doing. There was no answer when she rang the bell. The gate was open and so was the front door. This was very suspicious. She went into his study. "Shinichi, I came here to give you..." She noticed there were signs of a struggle. She went over to a note that read as follows.

"I have Shinichi Kudo. If you want to see him again, you will follow my instructions exactly as I've laid them out. Under no circumstance are you to talk to the police about this. One word to them, and the next time you'll see Shinichi is in chopped up pieces."

There was no name beneath it. Obviously to make sure the perpetrator wouldn't be identified. Ran had to do as the instructions said. She didn't know it, but she was in for a big surprise.

"Okay, let's see what I need to do first." Ran thought to herself. She read the first instruction.

"In this place, you have honed your skills. Considered without equal, you rose to the top. And in here, you will find the first."

She thought about the riddle. She had to really think about it until it came to her. "My old karate school! But why would whoever put this together know about that?" She thought.

She returned to the school. It was a nostalgic feeling that came over her. She had practiced vigorously since she was a little girl. She entered the place and saw that her old sensei was still there teaching karate.

"Ah, Ran! It's been a while!" He said as he hugged his former student.

"Hello, Sensei!" She said with a smile and a bow.

"So what brings you here? Did you come to show these kids how my teaching is the best?" He said boastfully.

"No. I'm here in regards to this." Ran said showing him the first instruction.

He knew what it was about, but Shinichi told him not to tell her what she needed to look for. "Sorry, but I couldn't help you out if I tried." He told her.

"Mind if I look around a bit?" She asked.

She looked around his dojo for whatever it was that was needed to figure this mystery out. She then looked in the storage place for the belts that would be handed out. She noticed that the white and black ones were right next to each other. She knew very well how the ranking system worked. White was the beginner's belt and black was the one for the highest ranked students. She unraveled them both and saw notes on them. It looked like they would make more sense by lining them up. It read as follows.

"Symbolic, isn't it?"

What did that mean? What was symbolic about it? She then moved onto the next instruction that said this.

"A place of fun and excitement that once was turned into a place of death. Find it so Shinichi won't meet a similar fate."

Ran instantly knew what that referred to. The amusement park where Shinichi got turned into "Conan." It was starting to make sense. She went to the park and went straight for the roller coaster.

The one manning the ride knew Ran would arrive. He was also told not to say anything about it. He had her sit in at an assigned seat before starting the ride. When it got into the tunnel, something fell into her lap. Considering what happened the last time, she feared it was a severed head. Once the coaster was out of the tunnel, she saw that it was actually a flower bouquet. On the wrapping it said this.

"Are you ready for a new beginning?"

It was starting to become clear that Shinichi wasn't really kidnapped. After the ride, she looked to the next instruction.

"Go back to the beginning for the new one to start. Unless you want it to be the end."

This one was a little hard. What could this mean? What did it mean by "the beginning?" And then it came to her. She and Shinichi met when they were in preschool. She went to the school they went to. Shinichi stood in front of it as if he was waiting for her. "I knew it! I knew you weren't really kidnapped!" Ran exclaimed with a grin.

Shinichi chuckled. "Yeah, I guess I did make it a little too obvious. It's not over yet. There's still one more thing left to do." He said.

"You mean that fourth thing? All it was was a jumbled bunch of letters that don't mean anything." She said.

"That was the point. It's a cryptogram. The idea of it is to decipher it using a key word. Think of it like a multiplication table where you start with the letters in the code as number 1, then the next letter is number 2 and so on." He explained.

"Whatever you say. You are the mystery nerd. So what's the keyword for this?" Ran asked.

"Ran, what fun is a mystery if you give away the answer?" Shinichi said.

Ran face grew red with frustration. Shinichi, being the way he was, wanted Ran to figure it out on her own. She came up with many different ideas for key words, but none of them made sense. The message was written as EIYC ABC MNARK TE.

As Ran got closer to figuring it out, he secretly pulls out the ring.

"Okay, I've got it. With my name it comes out to..." She paused realizing what it says. "Will you..." She stopped mid sent when she put the instructions down and saw Shinichi holding out a ring to her. She didn't need to finish the sentence. It was clear what Shinichi was getting at. She started to cry tears of joy. "YES! YES, SHINICHI!" She shouted as she hugged him.

As soon as they heard her answer, everybody Shinichi and Ran knew came out to congratulate them. Both of their respected parents, their friends, even the Detective Kids. Shiho also congratulated him on his engagement. She was in love with Shinichi back when they were both trying to get their bodies back, but she decided not to dwell on it. It was clear he and Ran were meant to be. Besides, he helped get her body back. That was much more important.

"Well, Ran, I can definitely say I approve of this... Especially since I'm back on top! Ha! Even as that Conan brat, you couldn't kill my business! I solved all those cases when you couldn't do a thing! Oh yeah, The Great Detective Kogoro Mouri is back, baby!" Kogoro boasted. He found out the truth once Shinichi got his body back. He also had a good laugh when he saw him wearing Conan's clothes.

Shinichi was tempted to mention that it was really that "Conan brat" who solved them, but he was going to let him have his moment. Right now, that no longer mattered. All he cared about was that he and Ran were getting married. Once they were childhood friends, now they will become husband and wife.

End of chapter.

(Author's Note: Okay, some things to address. "The Birthday Incident" was called that because of the fact that Ran's seventeenth birthday is going to be a very significant moment and I believe it will involve getting captured by The Black Organization to use as leverage against Conan.

As for the Scavenger Hunt part, I admit that I could've done it better. I went mainly went with it because I didn't like the idea of Shinichi proposing to Ran the normal way. I thought that would be too boring and went with what I think would be more like him considering his status as a major mystery nerd, but I'm sure if Aoyama does do something like what I did with Shinichi's proposal, he'd probably do it a lot better.

Also, yes, I'm using their Japanese names. Since the dub is no longer being made as the series goes on, I'm going with their original names.