Summary : Ran, while writing about Conan in her diary, is seized by a melancholy feeling and decides to go to Shinichi's house to reminisce. While there, she discovers documents that contain some heart-stopping revelations… and insight into Shinichi's mind. Takes place after 5th movie, hypothesizing that Gin decided to investigate the survivors of the explosion from the bombs in the reception area. Events then precipitate and story diverges from canon.

Disclaimer : I do not own Detective Conan or its characters.

Review response :

To inksilverblue : Thank you very much for your long constructive review! I am glad you liked the descriptions, I wrote them while trying to make it easy for readers to visualize. As for Ran's thoughts about Conan being Shinichi, I am planning to elaborate on that in this chapter as in the previous one, it was late at night and she was sort of in shock about the whole thing. As the story progresses she'll realize and recall some things (including the bathing together stuff... hehe) so more depth will be added.

You are absolutely right about Conan being gone somewhere with no explanation. I so did not think about that. Plot hole! I'll try to put in a plausible explanation in this chapter.

Thanks again for reviewing and please keep up the constructive comments, they are greatly appreciated!

Author's note : I am having trouble with the time frame of this story. Since the series of 600+ episodes seems to take place in under a year (haven't seen anything about Conan or his friends having a birthday), it's hard to tell how much time passes between episodes, and even harder with movies since they're not technically part of the storyline. If anyone has suggestions they are welcome to PM me.

Also, suggestions about which episodes would be important to fully include as 'files' are also welcome. I will skip over most fillers except if they contain elements for Shinichi's character development or for the ShinRan relationship.

Blabla : writing

'Blabla' : thoughts

"Blabla" : someone speaking through a phone

Chapter 3

The morning brightened up the mansion considerably.

Ran woke to the sight of a warm beam of sunlight streaming in between the drapes and, hearing birdsong outside, felt a little more confident in her ability to handle the revelations that waited for her in a filing cabinet upstairs. Surely, now that the ice had been broken, the process would be smoother. Perhaps not completely, but a little better, at least.

After a hearty breakfast—she needed all the strength she could get—she, again, ascended to the attic to put the first file back and to take out the second, remembering to step in her previous footsteps, all the while thinking about Conan's 'secret identity'.

'I can't believe he was right next to me all this time,' Ran thought. 'It's been months! And all those phone calls, and those times when I suspected he really was Shinichi and... wait, didn't I see him as Shinichi once after Conan-kun appeared? No, more than once! Did he find a way to turn back then?'

She tried to recall the times when she had seen Shinichi as himself rather than Conan, and came to an abrupt halt right as she was about to reach the attic stairs, new file in hand.

'Wait... I didn't just see Shinichi before, I saw him with Conan-kun! ...Also more than once! That's why I never managed to convince myself that they were one and the same! How did that happen?'

Ran stood there for another minute, trying to puzzle it out, before shaking her head exasperatedly. She probably wouldn't know how he had done it without reading the files. Because, of course, each time she had seen Shinichi, there had been a case and detective work to do, so somewhere in that drawer there would be corresponding files.

'Maybe I should check those out right away... But no, I'd probably miss some important information that way. Oooh, darn him for infecting me with detective thought patterns! Now my curiosity is going to eat me up alive until I get to them!'

She proceeded to assemble all the things that she thought she would need—such as the phone, a bottle of water, a box of tissues just in case, and a light snack—in the library, which was not only the perfect place to read but was also right next to a bathroom.

'Where are you now, Shinichi?' she wondered as she caught sight of one of his favorite books, The Sign of Four by-of course-Arthur Conan Doyle, lying desolately on a side table and starting to gather dust. 'Are you hiding somewhere from those men in black? Or did you stumble across yet another case and are doing what you do best?'

Which reminded her-the morning before, Conan had told the Mouris that he was going to Agasa's place to test out a new detective game the professor had designed. Given what she had read in Shinichi's letter, it was clear that if Conan had gone to the scientist's house, it was probably not for any length of time, and certainly not to play games.

'Wherever you are, I hope you're okay,' Ran prayed disconsolately.

She sighed as she made herself comfortable on one of the green velvet couches with an adjoining cherry-wood table—on which she had put her supplies—and picked up the phone. Dialing Sonoko's number, she mentally rehearsed her excuse for not coming to school and not being home.

"Moshi-moshi, Suzuki residence," came a voice at the other end.

"Ah—hello, this is Mouri Ran, may I speak to Sonoko, please?"

"Please wait a moment."

She did, and was rewarded with the enthusiastic voice of her bubbly friend.

"RAN! To what do I owe this honor?"

Despite the circumstances, Ran giggled. "Ah, Sonoko? I just wanted to tell you I won't be at school for a few days. See, I'm doing something for my mom, which my dad doesn't know about, and I need to be away from home for a while. I told Dad that I would be spending the week at your place, so if he calls, which he probably won't, could you please make up an excuse for me not being able to talk to him?"

Sonoko could only keep two kinds of secrets. Painful secrets, because she had a good heart and didn't want to see people she cared about hurt, and secrets from Ran's father, because she just liked to annoy that man.

So, predictably, she agreed.

"Of course, of course, he won't get anything from me, promise!"

"Thanks. I knew I could count on you," said Ran with a faint smile.

"Hey, what are friends for?"

She gave a strained laugh, guilt churning in her belly. "Listen, I have to go. I don't know when I'll be able to call you next… sorry."

Unbeknownst to her friend, she was apologizing for more than just that.

"'Kay, whenever you get the chance! See ya!"

"Ja, mata ne."

She put the phone down with a sigh.

Lying to Sonoko hadn't been easy, but it hadn't exactly been hard, either. The lie had come out quite smoothly, her tone even. Did that make her a bad friend?

She shook her head. Now was not the time for such reflections. Picking up the folder she had brought, she plunged into the account of Edogawa Conan's first case.

The Company President's Daughter's Kidnapping Case

The first file left off when your father fell down the agency stairs, yelling about his first case in six months. I probably would have been interested, even if your dad hadn't mentioned that the culprit had apparently been a man in black. It was a kidnapping, after all, and you know I didn't think much of your father's detective skills.

I still don't, but he's a little bit better than I thought. He has his moments, and all.

Anyway, we tagged along with your dad to the crime scene (okay, so I ran off and you had no choice but to follow). For the first time, I had to put my acting skills to the test.

I'll probably say this a lot, but acting like a child when you're really a teenager is HUMILIATING. Not to mention difficult. I'm getting better—is that a good thing or a bad thing?—but I still seem like a strange kid, because I forget to fidget, or I slip up and start talking like my old self, or… you get the picture.

My reaction once we arrived was a prime example of my slipping up. "Could you describe the kidnappers?" I asked when I got my hands on the picture of the missing girl.

I still can't believe how quickly I forgot about my, uh, condition. Or how badly I slipped up.

Your dad asked the butler to describe the kidnapping, which he did. Apparently the girl had been abducted in the very backyard in which we were standing.

It came to my attention that the kidnapper had to have been pretty confident to risk coming to the girl's house to kidnap her instead of doing it when she got out of school. Plus, he'd been seen by someone.

On top of that, the butler said that the kidnapper had escaped with the kid by climbing a pine tree next to which a guard dog was tethered. A guard dog that would bark at any stranger who approached it.

That's when I realized that the butler had to be the culprit, and that he'd made up the whole story about the kidnapper.

I had to ask-loudly-if the dog would bark at any stranger before Occhan connected the dots and confronted Aso-san about it.

Aso-san admitted to having kidnapped his master's daughter… Was the case closed?

Turned out it wasn't, remember? The thought had barely crossed my mind when the victim's father received a phone call… from a real kidnapper (because Aso-san had only "kidnapped" the kid at her own request, to get her dad's attention).

Akiko-chan, when the criminal put her on the phone, managed to tell us that she was in a school's storage room and that she could see a big chimney out the window.

According to a map one of the servants had brought out, there were five schools nearby that matched the kid's information, because only factories and bathhouses had that kind of big chimney.

I took off on Jumbo's—the guard dog's—back and went to each of the schools… only to end up empty-handed.

I was sure of my reasoning, but Akiko-chan was not in any of the five schools I had checked.

That's when I spotted it.

It was a tall building, rather wide, too, from where I was, but it didn't have much depth…

By going around to its side, I discovered that it could be mistaken for a chimney, and the only school from which this building could be seen from the side was Futatsubashi school.

I found the kid alright. The dog attacked the kidnapper, but was driven off before I could untie her and escape. I then proceeded to get beaten up pathetically, seeing as I had nowhere near the strength of my teenage body-the kidnapper basically laughed at the soccer ball I kicked at him, which he blocked one-handed.

Thank God you came, Ran. Again. Otherwise things might have ended very badly for Akiko-chan and I.

Back at the Tani house, Akiko-chan spilled everything. Her father agreed to take a vacation with her. And they lived happily ever after.

Meanwhile, I still had to deal with the changes I had been made aware of.

For the first time, I had introduced myself (to Akiko-chan, when I found her) as Edogawa Conan, detective. And for the first time I had to give all the credit of solving the case to your dad. After all, who would believe that a seven year-old boy had solved a kidnapping case?

I… really didn't like that thought. And my pride stung like you wouldn't believe.

But then Akiko-chan thanked me for rescuing her (though when you asked about that, I told you that she was probably talking about your father), and I felt a little better about it.

I really hope that I won't have to do this for long, Ran, but I'm getting a rather bad feeling about this. This case had absolutely nothing to do with the men in black or their organization.

Better luck next time, do you think?

The company president's daughter's kidnapping: case closed.

Ran could remember that particular case quite well herself. Mostly because she was shocked at Conan's disregard for danger, and at the fact that he'd figured out where Tani Akiko was being held before all of the adults did.

Such a peculiar little boy, she had thought.

Now she knew better.

She felt sorry for Shinichi, whom she knew loved to boast about his exploits and skills. Giving the credit to Mouri Kogoro, whom he considered the height of incompetence, had to have dealt a big blow to his ego.

In spite of feeling this way, and wanting to read all of the files to see whether they would be more or less like this one, she couldn't help but feel a little desperation pushing at the edges of her mind.

In the ten months that Edogawa Conan had lived with the Mouris, he still hadn't managed to return to his true self. What chance did a seven-year-old child-even if only in appearance-have against a criminal organization?

Maybe she should tell her father and Inspector Megure about the files in the first drawer right away, instead of waiting a whole week.

She bit her lip, unsure. Then again, Shinichi had spent ten months gathering information about the organization, and he was the best detective she knew-though she'd never tell him that. Surely he would know what they were dealing with better than she did, and so was in a better position to decide upon a course of action.

No, disregarding Shinichi's instructions would be too big of a risk to take, she decided. She could accidentally end up making the situation worse if she didn't first bother to look at the whole picture.

So she went back to the attic, intent on bringing back three new folders. However, when she had, once more, made herself comfortable on the couch she'd selected, a shrill ringing sound made her pause.

She half-turned to see phone's screen blinking on and off in synch with the ringing.

'Should I answer it? What if it's Dad, or Shinichi's parents, or… Wait, didn't Shinichi's phone have caller ID?'

She picked up the device and glanced at the screen.

Edogawa C.

The shock of seeing that name made her gasp and fumble to answer.

"M-moshi-moshi?"

"…Ah… Ran…?" came Conan's uncertain voice.

"Conan-ku—I mean, um, S-Shinichi?"

"Ah, so you've starting reading already. I thought so, but I wasn't sure, so…"

'That's definitely him,' thought Ran. 'Though the voice is higher and younger sounding… The tone and inflections are the same.'

For a moment, everything she wanted to say, to ask, to scream even, gathered in what felt like a huge lump blocking her throat. She didn't know where to begin, didn't know how to make him understand what the revelations of the last day had done to her.

She didn't know how to tell him that she was afraid, so afraid, for him, for herself, even though she'd only known for less than a full day, when he had been bearing it for so long without breaking.

The moment passed. She gathered herself together, taking a deep, calming breath, and spoke. "Never mind that right now," she said sharply. "Where are you now? Are you safe?"

"If I wasn't, I wouldn't have called," he replied curtly.

It was so strange to hear Conan's voice so much deeper and mature.

"And never mind where I am. Did you see anyone suspicious outside the mansion?"

"Uh, no, I don't think so."

"You have to make sure next time you go in or out. Are you still there?"

"Yes."

"Don't use the electricity or the water. They might check the meters to see if anyone came by."

"Ano… Shinichi…"

"What is it?"

"Are they really that dangerous?"

There was a long silence.

"…Yes."

Somehow, that simple response scared her more than if he had started lecturing her about exactly how dangerous they were.

Japanese words :

Occhan : a familiar way of saying 'uncle'

Edit : someone noticed some of the dialogue lacked the quotation marks and pointed out how confusing it was. The thing is, I had put some symbols, eh, don't know what they're called in English, sort of like parenthesis but pointy in the middle instead of rounded. Anyway, the site doesn't seem to be able to process those, because I went back and edited but nothing changed. So instead I put quotation marks and italics to signify it's someone speaking through a phone. Sorry for the confusion. I blame the site.

So, what did you guys think? Again, constructive reviews, including criticism, are welcome. Thank you for reading!