Chapter 9: Adventure

The sun shone as mercilessly as ever down on seven people, who had the misfortune to choose today for their hiking tour. One would normally think that you would prefer the gentle rays of sunlight to the heavy drops of rain, however this didn't apply to this hot summer months m in which any drop of rain was welcomed not just by plants but human and animals too.

"Hakase! We are going to die!" Genta complained for what felt like the sixth time in the last hour and as usual, Mitsuhiko and Ayumi didn't fail to support his statement.

"Now, now," the feisty professor, who had clearly the worst time of the group, said with a forced smile" we will arrive at our lodge very soon.

"That is, if you have read the map right" Conan couldn't help but interject, immediately regretting running his mouth when he saw the faces of the other three kids.

"EHHH, we are lost?" Ayumi asked, clearly not pleased with the new information, "Now we are going to die for sure!"

"Oh, I wouldn't be to sure about that Ayumi-chan, look there", Ran pointed at a point in the distance, "I think, I can see a house there."

"Where, where" the real grade-schoolers immediately asked, jumping up in hope of spotting the desired cottage.

"There, just where the forest ends and the sea begins.", Ran described, still pointing at the edge of the forest, where you could spot tilted roof made of wood.

"Your right, I can see it too", Conan now agreed to Ran's statement.

Finally seeing their desired destination too, an invisible switch flipped, and the exhausted kids kick-started and ran down the path while leaving behind a trail of dust and cheerful laughter.

"Are you okay, Hakase?" Ai asked the old scientist, worry warming her normally cold voice and Ran couldn't help but think of them as grandfather and niece.

"Ai is really a life saver for Hakase, he always seemed so lonely, when Shinichi and I suddenly didn't have that much time left to visit him.", she noted in her head, a melancholic smile on her face.

The picture reminded her of the good old times, when she was young, Hakases hair still dark and Shinichi still there, oh, how much she missed him, especially when seeing the kids flocking around the old man. But now was not the time for such thoughts, after all she accompanied them not to dwell on the past, but to spend some time away from home by helping the professor taking care of the kids. She knew there where a lively bundle, always searching for mysteries and secrets, and as much as she trusted the inventor, she also knew that he was getting old and if something would happen, especially in this rather isolated location, she wouldn't want the trusty old man to be alone.

"Even if he is an adult, he is still clumsy old Hakase." She thought, again recalling the past and all the query things he came up with.

"Oh, look her, what is this thing, is that some sort laser canon?" Ran could hear the happy chatter of the kids, before she even entered the lodge, holding the door open for Hakase and Ai, who came after her.

"That is a smoothie mixer, Genta" was the answer of Mitsuhiko to Genta's previous question, "you use them for making smoothies"

"What is a shmouhie?" Genta asked, completely butchering the pronunciation, what made Ran chuckle faintly.

Mitsuhiko opened his mouth to give n answer but Conan beat him to it, "It is a drink made of fruits and other sweet things. You put them in the container and press the button to activate the machine, then it mixes everything, and you are with a drink, tasting like what you put into the container."

"Seriously?!" Genta roared, "Does this work with ell rice too?"

"I doubt it does, but you would have to try it", Conan answered obviously very sceptical and Ran couldn't blame him. She has tried smoothies a number of times, mostly together with Sonoko, a smoothie lover and owner of the cottage they stayed in, what made it fairly obvious why the mixer was here, and even thought she liked the light ones with chocolate and strawberries, she couldn't imagine, how a smoothie consisting of meat or fish could be anything close to tasty. As it seemed she wasn't the only one who thought so, when Ai said, "I would start with something ordinary and then proceed with trying out the fancy stuff, if you don't like the normal ones, I doubt you would like the special ones."

"If you want, we can try to make one. Sonoko said she arranged for the fridge to be filled to the brim." Ran offered, knowing fully well that the kids would immediately jump on the offer and everybody would love a cold drink after the 2 hours walk in the sun. At first, they wanted to come by car, but Ai managed to persuade Ayumi to walk her and when Ayumi wanted something, no one of the boys would dare to defy her.

"I wonder what Shinichi would mix his in his smoothie?" Ran asked herself, after she went to get the ingrediences for a couple of normal drinks she learned from Sonoko, "Probably something with coffee beans, that mystery nerd surely does love their taste."


As always all right go to Gosho Aoyama, the original creator of the Detective Conan Universe.

Questions and review are highly requested and if you want to know how the story continues leave a follow.

I hope you liked it so far and are thrilled for more.

Farewell