Tokyo, Beika Town.
Shinichi Kudo (as Conan Edogawa) and Heiji Hattori were currently rack their brains over a troublesome case file. The clues were disorganized, as if deliberately erased by an invisible hand. With their reasoning abilities, they actually found it difficult to make sense of it for a while, falling into a deadlock.
"Damn it, why is this case so bizarre!" Heiji Hattori scratched his hair irritably, his dark face filled with frustration.
Conan pushed his glasses, his gaze behind the lenses sharp yet equally confused. "It is indeed unusual. Many key points are blurred, as if... there's human interference."
Amidst his irritation, Heiji Hattori seemed to remember something and complained casually, "Speaking of which, that girl Kazuha went to Osaka to play and hasn't even sent a message. Didn't Ran go with Sonoko? They're lucky, living it up."
His words were unintentional, but they hit Conan like a bolt of lightning!
Conan suddenly looked up, his face changing instantly, his voice rising several notches. "What did you say?! Ran and Sonoko went to Osaka?! Where did you hear that?"
Heiji Hattori was startled by his reaction and answered blankly, "Just... just heard it from Kazuha. She mentioned it to me a few days ago, saying Ran and Sonoko were coming to Osaka to play and she was going to play the host..." As he spoke, he also suddenly realized something, his eyes widening, "Wait! I thought the other person they were with was you, Kudo! Aren't you always inseparable from Ran?!"
"Idot!" Conan couldn't help but growl, his heart sinking to the bottom instantly as a cold chill Ran up his spine. "I've been in Tokyo investigating the case these past few days! The person who went to Osaka with them wasn't me at all!"
The two looked at each other, both seeing horror in the other's eyes.
A name surfaced in their minds at the same time—
"Kanjuro!!!" Heiji Hattori almost roared it out, his face turning ashen. "That guy of unknown origin! Isn't he also very close to Ran and the others?! Kazuha is with him?! Doesn't that mean Kazuha is in danger?!"
At the thought that Kazuha might be with that Kanjuro who instinctively made him feel uneasy, Heiji Hattori immediately lost his composure, throwing the case to the back of his mind. He scrambled to pull out his phone, his fingers trembling as he prepared to dial Kazuha's number.
Conan also immediately pulled out his Detective Badge and his phone, preparing to contact Ran. His face was equally grim, his heart filled with an ominous premonition. Kanjuro was too mysterious, with a hint of unsettling indifference always hidden deep in his eyes. He would never believe that guy had any simple purpose in approaching Ran and the others!
Meanwhile, inside the car returning to Tokyo.
Sonoko was driving the vehicle smoothly along the highway. Ran was in the passenger seat, while Kanjuro sat in the back.
The atmosphere in the car was somewhat subtly silent. Kanjuro had his eyes closed, his head tilted slightly to one side, seemingly fallen into a light sleep due to exhaustion. His forehead even leaned lightly against the shoulder of Ran, who was sitting beside him (in the middle of the back seat).
Ran's body stiffened slightly, but she didn't pull away. She looked down at Kanjuro's quiet sleeping face; his long eyelashes cast faint shadows under his eyes, making him look less deep and unfathomable than when he was awake, and more harmlessly soft. This made her involuntarily remember that chaotic night at Kiyomizu Temple, her cheeks heating up slightly and her heart in a mess. A strong sense of guilt surged in her heart—Shinichi... does me being like this count as betraying Shinichi?
"Ran," Sonoko, who was driving, suddenly spoke, her voice calm yet sounding as if she had seen through Ran's heart. "Don't think like that. You aren't actually together with Kudo, so what... is your relationship now?"
Sonoko's words were like a needle, precisely piercing the moral shackles Ran had constructed for herself. Indeed, Shinichi had been gone for so long without even leaving a clear promise; what exactly was between them? By contrast, although Kanjuro... that night was an accident, and he had appeared so pained and self-reproachful afterward, even proactively suggesting he wouldn't disturb them...
Ran's gaze became more dazed and complex. Her resistance toward Kanjuro seemed to weaken further under Sonoko's words and her own wavering emotions. She didn't push Kanjuro away; instead, she adjusted her posture to let him lean more comfortably.
Just then—
"Ring, ring—!"
A piercing phone ring suddenly rang out, breaking the silence inside the car.
It was Ran's phone.
Almost at the same time, the phone in Kanjuro's pocket vibrated, the name "Heiji Hattori" flashing on the screen.
The sleeping Kanjuro seemed disturbed by the ringing. His brow furrowed slightly as he slowly opened his eyes. In that instant, what flashed deep in his eyes wasn't the grogginess of just waking up, but a hint of displeasure and cold clarity at being interrupted. However, he quickly masked it, lifting his head as if he had just woken up, looking at Ran with a touch of apology: "Sorry, I accidentally fell asleep."
Ran looked at the incessantly ringing phone, the screen displaying "Shinichi" (called by Conan using a voice changer), then at the newly awakened Kanjuro, feeling momentarily at a loss.
Sonoko caught this scene through the rearview mirror, a barely perceptible curve forming at the corners of her mouth.
The phone continued to ring persistently, as if foretelling that the inquiries and storms from Tokyo were about to descend inevitably. The shrill ringing echoed stubbornly in the cabin like a saw, cutting through the already delicate and fragile peace. Looking at the name "Shinichi" on the screen, Ran's heart suddenly skipped a beat, and her fingertips turned slightly cold. She took a deep breath and, under Kanjuro's calm (even slightly encouraging?) gaze and Sonoko's unreadable stare through the rearview mirror, she pressed the answer button.
"Moshi moshi? Shinichi?" Her voice carried a hint of imperceptible trembling.
From the other end of the line came Shinichi Kudo's (via voice changer) urgent and even panicked voice. It was so loud that even Kanjuro beside her and Sonoko driving could faintly hear it: "Ran! Are you okay?! Where are you right now? Are you with Kanjuro?! Listen, regardless of whether he's next to you or not, get away from him immediately! That guy is dangerous!"
Shinichi's rapid-fire questions and warnings were like a fuse, instantly igniting the long-accumulated grievances, anxieties, and the strong sense of self-loathing Ran felt after her encounter with Kanjuro the previous night. What right did he have? What right did he have to always be absent when she needed him most, only to jump out now and act like a protector, pointing fingers and doubting her?
A nameless surge of anger crashed through her rationality, mixed with a sense of reckless despair—Yes, I'm already tainted, I'm no longer worthy of Shinichi Kudo, so why bother lingering?
Her voice suddenly rose, filled with unprecedented anger and sharpness: "Shinichi Kudo! You disappear whenever you feel like it without even an explanation! What right do you have to doubt me now?! Brother Kanjuro is by my side, so what? There's nothing going on between us!"
The moment the words left her mouth, Ran's cheeks flushed crimson. "Nothing going on"? Those words were like a loud slap across her own face. The chaotic and heated images from the Kiyomizu Temple Inn the previous night flooded her mind uncontrollably; her body's memory seemed to still be burning. This lie pierced her heart like a knife, yet it also made her even more determined to sever her ties with the past.
On the other end of the line, Shinichi Kudo seemed choked by this sudden outburst and the obvious lack of confidence behind that "nothing going on." He fell silent for a moment. When he spoke again, his voice trembled with disbelief and a hint of hurt: "Ran... you... do you know what you're saying?"
Ran gripped her phone tightly, her knuckles turning white from the force. She closed her eyes, and when she opened them again, only a nearly cruel determination remained. In a deliberately distant, even slightly cold tone, she said word by word:
"I'm sorry, Shinichi. I'm with Brother Kanjuro now."
She paused, as if searching for the most powerful and hurtful reason, and continued:
"Actually, all this time, I might have only thought of you as my best friend. Just like with Sonoko."
These words were like an ice pick, ruthlessly piercing Shinichi Kudo's heart on the other end of the line. His face instantly turned deathly pale, and his body swayed uncontrollably, nearly losing his grip on the phone. He could hear the sound of his own heart shattering.
"Best friend...?" His voice was dry and raspy, filled with a despair on the brink of collapse. "Ran... you... what do you mean?!"
Ran felt the pain coming from the other end of the line, and her own heart was bleeding as well. But she could no longer turn back. She felt like a piece of white paper stained with a blotch, no longer worthy of that radiant Savior of the Japanese Police. Rather than letting him find out the truth and despise her in the future, it was better to sever everything herself now, pushing him back to the side of light, while she... sank into this unsettling yet irresistible darkness brought by Kanjuro.
She took a deep breath and, using all her strength, delivered the final verdict:
"I mean, I'm already together with Brother Kanjuro."
"Shinichi, although I might have liked you before, we never officially became boyfriend and girlfriend, did we?"
"So, in the future... please don't disturb me again."
"And please, stop slandering Brother Kanjuro."
After saying the last sentence, without waiting for any response, Ran seemed to have exhausted all her strength and abruptly pressed the end-call button. She leaned back against the seat dejectedly, gasping for air, as tears finally burst forth uncontrollably, sliding silently down her cheeks. She quickly turned her face away, looking at the scenery passing by outside the window, not wanting anyone to see her fragility and breakdown.
A dead silence fell over the cabin.
Sonoko drove in silence, her gaze complex, but in the end, she said nothing.
Kanjuro quietly watched Ran's violently trembling yet struggling shoulders. His face held no expression—neither the triumph of a victor nor a shred of pity. It was as if the cruel drama that had just torn apart a childhood friendship was, to him, nothing more than an expected, inconsequential move on a chessboard.
He reached out and gently covered Ran's tightly clenched, trembling hand. His hand was dry and warm, carrying an unquestionable, cold power of comfort.
Ran's body shivered, but she didn't pull away.
At this moment, she felt like a small boat that had lost its lighthouse's guidance, being carried by a dark and powerful current toward an unknown, bottomless sea. And she seemed to have given up all resistance.
On the other end of the line, somewhere in Tokyo.
Listening to the busy tone from the phone, Shinichi Kudo (Conan) froze in place as if his soul had been sucked out. The phone slipped from his limp hand and hit the ground with a "clack." His face was pale, his pupils dilated, and a massive, unprecedented pain submerged him like a tsunami.
Ran... is together... with Kanjuro?
And she said he's just... a best friend?
He couldn't believe his ears, couldn't accept this sudden, total betrayal and denial.
Meanwhile, on Heiji Hattori's end, the call he placed to Kazuha remained unanswered, further adding to the panic and sense of foreboding in his heart.
The busy tone after the call was disconnected seemed to still vibrate in the air, and Ran's suppressed sobs were exceptionally clear in the cabin. She turned her head away, her shoulders shaking slightly as tears fell silently, splashing onto her tightly interlaced hands.
Kanjuro slowly opened his eyes. There was no sleepiness in those deep pupils, only a clarity that saw through everything. He quietly watched Ran's trembling back for a moment, then reached out and extremely gently placed his hand on her shoulder, turning her body slightly toward him.
"Ran," his voice was low and gentle, with a magnetic quality that put one at ease, "is it because of what happened that night that you feel... you're no longer worthy of being with Shinichi?"
These words were like a key, precisely opening the floodgates of Ran's pain. Her forced strength instantly crumbled, and she suddenly threw herself into Kanjuro's arms, burying her face in his chest as her long-suppressed crying finally erupted.
"Yes! It is!! I've let Shinichi down... sob... I'm no longer worthy of him..." Her crying was filled with despair and self-loathing, her hot tears soaking Kanjuro's clothes.
Kanjuro gently patted her back, his movements having a deliberate, soothing rhythm, as if taming a startled little beast. His voice was full of "self-blame" and "helplessness":
"It's all my fault... If I hadn't suggested staying over, if I hadn't... failed to resist the influence of that drug... this wouldn't have happened, and you wouldn't be in such pain."
He perfectly attributed the responsibility to the "drug" and the "accident," placing himself in the position of both a "victim" and "the one at fault." Then, he shifted his tone, as if having made a certain decision:
"Ran, if there's no other way... I'll go to Shinichi and explain everything to him. I'll tell him it was all my fault, that I forced you, or... I'll take all the blame upon myself, so he only has to hate me."
He retreated to advance, acting so "responsible," even willing to endure Shinichi Kudo's wrath to preserve her reputation.
"No! Don't!" Ran suddenly lifted her head, shaking it vigorously with tear-filled eyes. Her fingers subconsciously gripped Kanjuro's sleeve, as if fearing he would really go to Shinichi. "You can't tell him! You absolutely can't!"
She gazed blankly at Kanjuro's face so close to hers. Those eyes, which always held a gentle smile, were now filled with "pain" and "pity." She remembered his patient guidance when catching goldfish at Kiyomizu Temple, his "restraint" and "self-blame" when faced with accusations, and his "determination" to bear everything alone for her now... A mix of gratitude, dependence, and twisted affection sprouted and spread in her heart.
"Actually... Brother Kanjuro, you're a very good person," she choked out, trying to defend him, as if also trying to convince herself. "You're so gentle to me, so kind... Everyone has misunderstood you. Even if... even if you did something very wrong to me, it wasn't what you wanted. It was the drug's fault... So, please, don't blame yourself anymore..."
Her kindness became Kanjuro's best weapon at this moment. She forgave him easily, even turning around to comfort him.
Kanjuro sneered inwardly. Ran's almost saintly tolerance and kindness were ridiculously foolish in his eyes, yet conveniently pleasing. However, he timely displayed a deeper "pain" and "struggle" on his face. He sighed, his voice hoarse:
"But Ran... we have already committed an irreversible mistake after all. And... considering our age and relationship, I am, after all, your... older brother." He deliberately emphasized the word "older brother," as if reminding her of the non-existent but exploitable ethical barrier between them, thereby further stimulating Ran's rebellious psychology and possessiveness.
Sure enough, upon hearing this, tears surged from Ran's eyes again, carrying a fear of abandonment. She tightly grasped Kanjuro's hand and urgently pressed him:
"That's right... so what we have is a mistake? So... Kanjuro, are you going to abandon me because this is a 'mistake'?"
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