And here comes the aftermath, in which both Conan and Ran are complete wrecks and everybody else has to prop them up. And the first OC character I talked about makes his debut!
Chapter Eleven
Sera ended up going to school the next day by herself. They'd had to change hotels again due to their room being under police investigation, but unfortunately the kidnapping had made a certain someone extremely paranoid.
When Sera got to school, the students were talking feverishly about something other than Sera for once. Unfortunately, that something was Shinichi and Ran.
"Did you hear? They broke up last night!" the rumors said. They were just rumors, but considering what she knew was going on, Sera was curious whether they were true or exaggerated.
Ran wasn't at school, but Sonoko was. "How'd they find out?" Sonoko remarked irritably. "Ran barely got up the nerve to tell me!"
Sera suddenly felt the rather selfish emotion of happiness before she shut it down immediately. 'No! Don't think like that!' she reprimanded herself. "Maybe someone saw Kudo-kun and her arguing," Sera suggested to Sonoko.
"You know what? It doesn't matter!" said Sonoko firmly. "What we need to do is help Ran get over this!"
"Yeah, sure," said Sera, feeling determined. If the rumors were true about Ran chasing Shinichi out, something extraordinarily bad must have happened. But what could it have been? Ran was usually so tolerant of Shinichi doing whatever he wanted as long as she knew he was safe. But then again, she had been acting oddly ever since the kidnapping case. She didn't understand what was going on, but she was determined to help her friend in whatever way she could. "If we're going to help, we need to stage a two-front assault," said Sera, taking a piece of paper and outlining her plan. "You're the closest to Ran-chan, so try to get her to open up, or at least try to console her. I'll go find Shinichi-kun and tell him off for being so mean to her."
Sera figured that was the best way to settle the situation. Ran needed emotional support, and she figured Conan would too. It was probably just a big misunderstanding.
"You called him 'Shinichi-kun' just now, didn't you?" Sonoko said suddenly, which made Sera flinch. She looked at Sera suspiciously.
"Sorry," she apologized. "I guess I'm just worried."
Sonoko dropped the subject, which was a bit surprising, but Sera just chalked it up as her being worried about Ran.
XXX
That afternoon, Sera made a beeline for Professor Agasa's house. She figured Conan would be there because he wouldn't want to go back to the Detective Agency for the time being. Sure enough, when she knocked on the door, he was the one who answered it. "You want something?" he asked, sounding depressed.
"I thought I'd check up on you," said Sera. "Do you want to go for a walk? The fresh air might make you feel better."
Conan shrugged, but he put on his shoes and came out. At least that was something. They walked down the street in silence for a few minutes before Sera broached the topic. "So, how badly did you screw up?"
"Considering she and the old man chased me out of the apartment, you take a guess," said Conan irritably. "I was trying to console her, but it had the opposite effect. Now I've effectively screwed myself out of ever getting in her good graces again."
Sera felt sorry for him, but she didn't really know what to say. Emotions weren't exactly her strong suit. "Ran-chan will calm down eventually, Kudo-kun. You can try again then. Or you could just tell her the truth and hope for forgiveness."
"Not right now I can't," said Conan darkly. "She thinks I've been lying to her about some other things, so telling her now would just cause more problems."
"So you think Ran-chan will forgive you?" Sera asked.
"Hopefully. But she's never gotten this upset before, so there's really no way to tell."
"And what if she doesn't? What then?" Sera phrased the question innocently enough, but she was actually kind of curious what he would say, moreso than one would expect. 'Stupid, what are you thinking?' she thought, mentally chastising herself.
"Well, I guess I'll have to let her go on with her life," said Conan sadly.
"It's too bad you're stuck like that, though," said Sera, unconsciously becoming cheeky again. "You won't be able to get another girlfriend for a long while."
That got Conan's attention. "What do you mean 'another'? We weren't even…well…"
"Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to bring that up," said Sera, facepalming. "It's too soon to worry about that, isn't it?"
Conan said nothing. They walked in silence for a minute before he suddenly asked, "Why are you helping me so much?"
'Geh,' Sera thought, panicking slightly. "It's because Ran-chan is my friend and I'm trying to keep things from going from bad to worse. Besides, I know you well enough to know you didn't do anything to her on purpose, so I figured you'd need a pick-me-up. You've just been lounging around all day, right?" Conan was quiet again, which Sera took as confirmation. They had been walking for about ten minutes and had just turned onto the street where the Detective Agency was. "Now, I know you're feeling down right now, but Ran-chan is feeling bad too, so you should go see her and cheer her up. She's not mad at you as you look right now, so it ought to be safe."
Conan looked up at the stairs, as if feeling hesitant. Sera still felt really bad for him, but she didn't really want to get too involved with all the drama. She was afraid she'd follow his lead and say something stupid to make him hate her. Conan steeled himself before heading upstairs. Sera didn't follow him, opting instead to head to Café Poirot for a coffee to calm her nerves.
"Welcome, Sera-san!" Azusa said when Sera entered. It was the first time Sera had been in there, but she figured Ran had told Azusa about her. Or maybe Kogoro. They both visited a lot.
Sera took a seat at one of the booths and ordered the drink. "By the way," she asked Azusa, "is Amuro-san working today?"
"No, he took a leave of absence," Azusa replied. "I can let him know you were looking for him when he comes back if you'd like."
"I appreciate it, but you don't have to do that," said Sera, smiling. Azusa smiled back and went to get the coffee. 'So he's not here the one day I actually come in here?' Sera thought. 'I wonder why.'
XXX
Conan knew Sera was right about Ran holding a grudge against Shinichi, not Conan, but he still felt nervous when he walked in. Ran sat at the table on the third floor in her pajamas, talking quietly with Sonoko. However, the conversation stopped instantly the moment the two girls saw him. Conan stood near the door, ready to flee at the first sign of trouble.
Then Ran jumped up and ran to hug him, bawling her eyes out. Conan just stood there silently letting her cry it all out. After a few minutes of this, Conan got up the courage to ask, "Ran-neechan, what exactly did he do to you?"
Ran started, then rubbed tears out of her eyes. "It's nothing for you to worry about, Conan-kun. Shinichi and I just had a little…disagreement." Behind Ran, Sonoko was looking at them with an unknown expression on her face. Saying this to Conan seemed to make Ran feel better, because then she said, "How about I go get dressed so we can all go out somewhere?" Then she walked right past a stunned Sonoko and went into her room.
With Ran gone, Sonoko turned on Conan. "Hey, brat!" she said, stopping in front of him. "I've been trying to get Ran to open up for over half an hour, and she just spills everything to you the minute you walk in the door. What's your secret?"
'It's probably because of who I remind her of,' Conan thought, not daring to speak his thoughts aloud. Instead he just shrugged. They sat in silence for another ten minutes until Ran emerged. But then she went in the bathroom to fix her hair and makeup.
Eventually, Ran was ready to go. "So, any ideas?" Ran asked Sonoko, grabbing her purse.
Sonoko was, of course, more than happy to oblige. "What about a movie?" she suggested. "There's a showing of The Return of Mothman starting soon."
"Oh, is that a superhero thing?" Ran asked.
"Just you wait and see!" said Sonoko, grinning. Conan, listening in, had a bad feeling that Sonoko was up to something.
He was soon proven right. When they arrived at the theater, he saw that it was a monster movie, which Ran hated because she was so scared of supernatural stuff. "You want me to go in there?" Ran asked in horror, looking at the movie poster.
"It's not that bad," Sonoko reassured her. "Think of this way: it's not vampires or zombies."
"I…I guess you're right," said Ran. While still hesitant, she approached the counter and bought a ticket. Unfortunately, the cashier wouldn't give Conan a ticket because that particular theater had a policy of not allowing little kids to see violent movies. Ran saw this as an excuse to take Conan home and avoid the movie, but Sonoko had a 'talk' with the manager, which involved a lot of shouting and reminding him that her family owned the theater, and soon enough the manager made an exception and let Conan go in.
They had arrived a little early for the movie, so Ran and Sonoko chatted among themselves. But then they were interrupted by someone saying, "Oh, what are you doing here?"
"Sera-chan!" said Ran, spinning her head around to look at her.
'What's she doing here?' Conan thought. Then he made eye contact with a certain middle school aged-looking girl that seemed to be bored.
"I just thought Ran would like getting out of her room," Sonoko explained. "But what are you doing here?"
"Same reason as you, I guess," said Sera. "By the way, about that thing earlier…" She leaned down and whispered something in Sonoko's ear. A mixture of relief and anger passed over Sonoko's face.
"Oh, so that's how it was! Thank you, Sera-chan!"
"What was that about?" Ran asked as Sera returned to her seat.
"Nothing much. I just asked her to look into something about one of the staff at home. Someone's been stealing silverware. Sera-chan was just telling me that it was someone else."
'Really, silverware?' Conan thought. 'What an obvious lie. With the money her family has, they could afford to replace any stolen silverware. Or they could just beef up security.'
They didn't have time to talk anymore after that, because that was when the movie started.
XXX
Once the movie was over, Sera joined her friends outside. "That was a fun movie, wasn't it?" she remarked happily. "I especially liked the scene where they were driving across the bridge and the mothman just dropped on their car from out of nowhere."
"Really?" Sonoko asked. "I thought the part at the school where he was swooping through the hallways was creepier. You never knew where he was going to come from!" She grabbed Ran by the arm suddenly, making her scream in terror.
"Come on, Sonoko!" Ran complained, shaking her loose. "You know how I feel about things like this!"
"Do you see what Sonoko-chan did now?" Sera whispered to Conan. Conan didn't, so he shook his head. "She deliberately took Ran-chan to see a movie she knew would scare her in order to take her mind off of you. She might have nightmares about it, but once she gets over the movie, she'll hopefully have forgotten how mad she is at you, and will probably be willing to reconcile. Smart, huh?"
"Well, I guess we'll see if your plan actually works out in the end, then," said Conan.
"Oh, it's not my plan," said Sera, shaking her head. "My only plan was for her to talk to Ran-chan and for me to talk to you to find out just what had happened. The whole movie theater plan was Sonoko-chan's." 'Besides, I'm no good at this mushy stuff,' Sera added silently. She felt a suspicious glare coming from her other side and flinched; that girl knew her very well and could generally tell what she was thinking. However, she wasn't an open book. She'd even pretended to be incredibly shy in order to avoid talking to Ran and Sonoko.
Suddenly a man rushed past from behind them and stole Ran's purse, cutting the strap with a knife. "Stop him!" Sonoko shouted as the man raced off. They all started pursuing, but just as quickly, a young guy that had been approaching them suddenly punched the loser in the face, making him drop the purse. The hero snatched the purse before it hit the ground and it was all the snatcher could do to gather himself and race off. But the young man prevented this by tripping the snatcher, making him hit his head on a pole and fall unconscious.
"Is this yours?" the guy asked, offering the purse to Ran. He was in his late teens, with short wavy hair and a muscular build. He was pretty tall, too, not to mention handsome.
"Oh, yes," said Ran, taking it back. "Thanks for the help, Mr…"
"Tsukumo. Tsukumo Masato." The guy, Masato, looked Ran right in the eyes as he introduced himself, smiling gently.
Sonoko was looking at the guy with her typical 'OMG it's a hot guy!' face while even Sera felt some sort of twinge in her heart. The guy was handsome, she admitted, but there was something in his demeanor that betrayed an air of both cockiness and kindness at the same time. She glanced at Conan, who was looking back and forth between Ran and Masato with a perplexed expression.
"Well, thank you again," said Ran, breaking eye contact. There was a twinge of red in her cheeks that did not go unnoticed by Conan. He looked ready to blow his stack.
"It's no problem," said Masato. "If you'd like, I know someone who will replace the strap for you. It's in Beika at the corner of…" He pulled out a notebook and wrote the address down before tearing the page out and giving it to Ran. "Just tell them I sent you and they won't charge you for it."
"Thank you very much!" said Ran, looking surprised but happy. With that, Masato bowed once and left.
"Whoa!" Sonoko exclaimed, watching him leave. "I wonder who he is? He's so helpful, but modest! He's kind of like Makoto-san!" When she mentioned Makoto, her face took on a dreamy expression.
"He seems trustworthy enough," said Ran. "Maybe I should take him up on his offer." At this, Conan's face had taken on a horrified expression.
Jealous Conan is always funny to see. XD You may recognize the name 'Masato-kun' from my story Conan's Valentine where Ran gets another boyfriend. I don't know if this is same character or not, but I reused the name anyway. Hopefully he doesn't seem like a male Mary Sue, but if he or another OC does please let me know immediately so I can fix the issues.
Actual Conan characters that haven't appeared yet will show up next chapter, so look forward to it! And thanks for reading! ;)