Authors Notes:

I've taken some creative liberties with the DCMK legend of Pandora that I think are reasonable, but I'd still like to explain.

First, I never understood why Pandora has to be some mega-gem. They said it has to be big enough to contain a smaller gem, but that doesn't mean anything because gems can be very very tiny. Most of them are, in fact. Even a jewel as small as a fingernail could hypothetically fit dozens of smaller ones inside it. So I made it smaller than the jewels that Kid targets.

On that note, I also don't see any reason for Pandora to be beautifully polished and set in an eye-catching ornament of some sort. In fact, if I had a secret magic rock that I wanted to hide, the very last thing I would want to do with it is refine it and put it in the middle of a $5 million crown. Honestly, why would anyone do that?

There also seems to be some confusion in canon about what exactly Pandora is. I don't recall them ever saying it must be a precious jewel, and Kid has also gone after pearls and amber, which are of course not gems at all. So I don't think it's too much of a stretch to make it a boring semi-precious rock thing (I know very little about rocks).

Finally, I decided that the legend is probably exaggerated, like most legends are. So instead of a single usage being good for permanent immortality, I decided that a dosage would just extend one's life. Besides (this might just be the American in me), I think the smartest thing to do with Pandora would be to commercialize its power, export it worldwide, turn it into a trillion-dollar corporation, and become the wealthiest person to ever exist. So there has to be some reason to not do that. ?

And yes, I am shamelessly making use of Ran's ability to magically win any lottery she enters, but, in my defense, it is canon, so ¯\(ツ)_/¯

And now, without further ado, the Pandora chapter!

It was, unfortunately, not unusual for Conan to be this tired this early in the day. He blamed his overprotective big sister who enforced a strict — and entirely unwarranted — "no coffee" policy on him. But the real culprit was probably his chronic sleep deprivation. The extra work from the investigation he'd undertaken, combined with his already full schedule of school, homework, and solving murders, left him with almost no time to himself. Which meant that all the time that he used to spend thinking about Kid now took place even later at night. And, of course, that thinking time had recently expanded to include a great deal of worrying about how to convince the reckless idiot to accept his help. Which didn't leave him much time to actually sleep, so he was usually tired.

Today, the spectators had finally noticed that he'd been yawning throughout his deduction show, and they were now surrounding Mouri, who'd only just woken up himself, to pat him on the back and crack jokes about how "the sleeping detective is tired even when asleep". Conan yawned again and settled down in one of the cheap plastic chairs lining the wall. He wished they would at least come up with some better jokes about it, but he was honestly too tired to care. He just wanted Ran to hurry back so they could leave.

Come to think of it, where exactly was Ran? He hadn't seen her since they started examining the crime scene. The three of them had driven up to this remote rural town in the mountains very early that day, after Mouri had received a call requesting his help on a case. Ran had been invited on a tour of the village while the others spent the morning investigating (or, rather, Conan had investigated while Mouri occupied himself with making baseless accusations against practically every innocent bystander). Conan had solved the case, and he'd just finished the deduction show with a few minutes to go until lunch. He supposed now they would stop by one of the village's restaurants, if they even had restaurants here, then return home. Assuming they could find Ran, of course.

He wondered if he should be concerned about her. What trouble could she even get into in a place like this anyway, he thought groggily, then jerked himself upright when he nearly fell asleep in the chair.

"Moouu, Conan-kun, you should be getting more sleep!" a familiar comforting voice sounded from above him.

"Ran-nee-chan, you're ok," he mumbled, his voice blurred with drowsiness.

"Of course I'm ok," she laughed softly, picking him up. "Come on, let's go to the inn and you can take a nap, ok?"

"Huh? What inn?" her father objected. "I thought we were going back right after we get some lunch! Don't tell me we're having car troubles again?"

"No, the car is fine this time! But I already booked us a room for the night," she replied happily. "It's a nice place and not too expensive, and they'll serve us lunch and dinner there so you don't have to worry."

"Why'd you go and do something like that? I wanted to watch the new Okino Yoko drama tonight!" Mouri whined.

"I'm sure they'll have a TV there. Come on, they said lunch will be ready at noon."

Her father grumbled profusely, but Conan was blissfully unaware of it, as he had already fallen asleep with his head against Ran's shoulder.

—

Conan woke up sometime later that day to find himself on a futon in a very plain room. The room was empty, so he snatched up his shoes and made his way outside. He found Ran sitting in the garden, so he joined her at the little wooden bench where she was watching the birds.

"Hello sleepy-head. Did you have a good nap?" she greeted him.

"Yeah. Thanks for carrying me to bed."

"Mm, I don't mind. But you shouldn't be staying up so late, you know. If there's something bothering you, you should talk to me about it instead of letting it keep you up at night."

Yeah, not likely. The 'somethings' on his mind included things like his real identity, the professional killers hunting him down, and his friendly interactions with a certain wanted criminal. Not exactly topics he could discuss with Ran. When he noticed that the silence had become uncomfortably long, he uttered a quick "Thanks," just to break the tension. She sighed and turned back to watch the garden, a wistful expression on her face.

"So why did you want to spend the night here, Ran-nee-chan?" he tried for a change of topic.

"Oh, that. Well, don't tell my dad, but it's actually because of something I'm doing for Shinichi."

"Huh? For Shinichi-niichan? He asked you to spend the night here?"

"Well, no, not specifically, but he did ask me to look around for gems that have a special connection to the moonlight, and I might've found one, but I want to actually see it before I bother him with it."

"Really? What did you find? Where? What is it? Tell me everything!" He was leaning across the bench, holding her arm for balance, and staring up at her with all the unbridled enthusiasm of a real child. She laughed at him and shook her head fondly.

"Well, there really isn't much to tell. After the tour of the village, I saw a little antique shop at the end of the road. So I went in and looked around a bit and the owner was there, and she was such a sweet lady. She made me tea and told me lots of strange stories. I didn't like the ones about ghosts, but she kept trying to sell me trinkets related to each story, so it was probably just fancy sales pitches anyway. But there was one legend about an old woman who used to live here in this village for many generations who supposedly had a pendant that she always wore. The storekeeper showed me the pendant and told me that it's a charm for girls to keep their young looks forever. She said that if the moon is out, it glows in the dark. So I told her that I'd come back at night and if it's true then I would buy it."

"Ran-nee-chan, you're the best!"

"Ah, I really haven't done anything. And besides, we should go see if it really glows before we bother Shinichi about it, right?"

"Yeah!" he agreed enthusiastically. She smiled back softly.

—

Ran smiled softly at Conan to hide the complex mix of emotions that she didn't want him to see. Internally, she couldn't help but marvel at the irony of her own words, and how she could feel so reluctant to contact Shinichi while so comfortable talking to Conan, despite knowing fully well that they were one and the same person.

She occasionally wondered if she should tell him that she knew, but always talked herself out of it. Sometimes she told herself that Shinichi must have a good reason for hiding his identity, and it would be easier for both of them to maintain his cover if they never talked about it. She also liked the idea of surprising him someday with the knowledge that she was, in fact, able to keep a secret. Sometimes she feared that he might find a way to trick her again. Ran really didn't want to deal with several more months of constantly doubting herself and second-guessing everything. Sometimes she worried about how he would react to the news that she'd asked Satou-keiji to test his fingerprints when she finally couldn't bear the uncertainty any longer. Indeed, she regretted that decision herself and still didn't know if it had been too much of a breach of privacy.

But, even though she didn't enjoy thinking about it, she was aware of the real reason that she dreaded talking to him about it so much. She simply liked Conan better than Shinichi. As troublesome as he could be sometimes, she genuinely enjoyed having a little brother. They got along well, shared the chores, and were comfortable living together. She enjoyed the presence of someone else in the house, even when they weren't directly interacting.

Shinichi, however, was her boyfriend. Sort of. Technically. In theory, anyway. Supposedly, they'd been dating since the school trip. She'd already begun to forget why she'd been so excited about this in the first place. He'd called a handful of times since then, always for awkward stilted conversations where neither of them ever knew what to say. But he hadn't come back as himself since the trip, so they had yet to go on a proper date. She remained optimistic that an in-person date might still be fun, though she was unsure of what they could even do together. Was there even anything that they both enjoyed, besides watching TV or going to amusement parks? Watching TV wasn't much of a date, and somehow she doubted that he would want to go back to Tropical Land.

Actually, no, she knew exactly what they would do on a date. They would go see a movie that only one of them would want to see, then be interrupted by a murder that he would solve while she waited by the sidelines for a few hours with nothing to do, and then eventually they would eat a cold dinner before going home dead-tired. So maybe it wasn't that surprising after all that she felt no need to reach out to Shinichi unless it was absolutely necessary.

—

After dinner, Conan let Ran take him by the hand and lead him down the peaceful village road. The few stores there had long since closed for the day, but the faint glow of lights from the building around the corner indicated that the antique seller had indeed waited up for Ran. That wasn't surprising, he thought fondly. Ran was so agreeable that people often went out of their way for her.

The store owner greeted them warmly and served them tea and cookies. She fawned over Conan and how 'cute' he apparently was, then chatted for a while with Ran.

"Well," she said eventually, "let me show you the charm!" She picked up a plain velvet bag and tipped it over to pour it into her hand. She offered it to them, and Ran handed it to Conan.

Kid would never steal anything like this, he immediately thought. This was basically just a lumpy semi-transparent rock slightly larger than a hundred yen coin and attached to a simple keychain. Not only was it too small and too unrefined for one of his targets, but the stone was only a semi-precious jewel, and not even processed correctly, its edges rough and misshapen. The entire thing was lopsided and honestly kind of ugly.

He wanted to dismiss it and throw it aside but… he squinted at it carefully. The surface of the rock was scratched and cloudy, making it difficult to see, but he thought he could make out an entirely different jewel hidden inside of it. That warranted closer inspection.

"Obaasan, can I see what it looks like in the moonlight? Pleeease?" he chirped in his best little kid voice.

"Of course, dear. Here, I'll turn off the lights for you."

He ran over to the window and held the rock up to the moon, just as Kid always did. He let out a small gasp when it started to glow red. It was faint, and the light was diffused by the unpolished surface, but still unmistakable. He might not have any way to verify (read: disprove) the immortality claim, but otherwise it perfectly fit the description he'd heard of Pandora!

"How much?" he rounded on the owner, clutching the rock to his chest in a death grip.

She perked up, the gleam in her eye that of a merciless barterer seeing an opportunity to wring some extra money out of a hapless buyer. "Ten thousand yen!" she announced.

Ran sucked in a breath. "Ten thousand yen…?" she echoed in an incredulous whisper. Conan knew that was a significant amount of money to the Mouri's, and it was a downright obscene sum for what the woman clearly thought was just an ugly keychain. Part of him had to admire her guts for being so utterly shameless.

Conan, however, was not at all in the mood to try bargaining over a magic immortality-granting legendary jewel. "Done!" he exclaimed simply, before she could change her mind. He popped the case off his phone and removed the credit card he'd stashed there.

"Conan-kun, you have a credit card?" Ran asked him while the lady gleefully rang up the purchase.

"Ahaha, don't worry about that, it's Shinchi-niichan's credit card. He told me to use it if we found the rock he wanted!"

"Oh, of course."

The owner returned the credit card and asked if she could show them around the shop and interest them in anything else. Again, Conan had to give her credit for such baseless optimism, but his mind was full of plans and nothing else could reach him now. So he let Ran politely decline the offer and say their goodbyes, then direct them back toward the inn.

This was it, the last piece he'd barely even dared to hope for, and now there was nothing stopping him from approaching Kuroba and taking down the organization together. Kuroba. Conan couldn't believe it, he finally had a fail-proof way to convince that idiot to stop putting himself in needless danger and instead team up with him!

Conan wouldn't say it out loud, but the occasions when he'd been able to work with the magician had been some of his favorite times. They just worked together so well, both of them being fantastically competent but in different ways that complemented the other so perfectly, and they always understood and respected each other. And now he had an opportunity to do it again! He couldn't wait.

—

"What does Shinichi need the gem for?" Ran asked Conan after they left the antique shop. She wasn't really expecting an answer, but she'd thought he would at least try to deflect her question as he usually did. Instead, he seemed completely fascinated by the gem still secured in his fist. If she hadn't been holding his other hand to guide him along, she would've worried about him walking right into a lamppost or off a cliff.

"Conan-kun, are you going to give that jewel to Kaitou Kid?" she tried next. But even the mention of his celebrity crush didn't spark any reaction. It was actually pretty impressive, she thought, how entirely absorbed he could get into his own little world. Ran was basically invisible to him right now. So she sighed softly and smiled up at the sky.

When he'd called a few weeks ago to ask her for help with this project, she'd been elated. Ran loved helping people and always jumped at any chance to do something for a friend. Shinichi asking for help was even more significant, given its rarity. She'd also hoped that it might be an opportunity to try to get involved in some of his cases. Not that she actually wanted to, since she'd never been remotely interested in detective work, but she figured she should at least try to be a good girlfriend by feigning an interest in the things Shinichi enjoyed.

But as soon as he'd held the gem up to the moon, she knew. She'd seen that gesture before. Although she didn't know the exact nature of his relationship with the thief, there was no question that it was more than just rivalry. Singapore had made that much obvious at least, when 'Shinichi' and 'Arthur' were practically joined at the hip for the entire trip. It didn't bother her; she assumed most people had celebrity crushes. Even Sonoko continued to obsess over the thief despite being in a relationship. In fact, Ran considered it a good thing that the two got along so well. Shinichi had always had so much trouble socially that it was wonderful to see him making friends, even if those friends were convicted criminals. But Kid seemed like a good guy overall. For a criminal, anyway.

And now Conan had just bought a gift for the charming moonlight magician. Interesting. She watched the expression on his face, wondering what he had in mind and feeling certain that she'd be reading about it in the news soon enough.

—

The next day, she got an email from Shinichi with an electronic payment reimbursing her for their stay at the inn and a thank-you message. It was more than she was expecting, so she smiled and decided not to say anything else about it just yet.

Author's Notes:

In case it's not clear, I want it on record that I adore both Shinichi and Ran but hate the ShinRan ship. They have no chemistry, clashing personalities, and there's also the minor detail of him literally gaslighting her in canon. He can either keep doing it forever or she'll just readily forgive him, and neither option is fair to Ran. I don't like the way Shinichi treats her in canon, or the fact that she has no boundaries and serious self-worth issues so she just lets him get away with anything. I will address this more later, and make sure that Ran gets some personal growth and ends up happy!

There will be absolutely no ShinRan here, only KaiShin, the superior ship.

Next Up: Back to Kaito's perspective for some angst, then Pandora will come into play and set a multitude of plans into motion.