Conan: When Shinjiu and Maolilan swap bodies

The flowers in the vase were drooping and the edges of the petals were tinged with a pale yellow. She pulled out the stems, carefully trimmed off the withered parts, changed the water, and rearranged them.

The flowers looked a bit more vibrant after the water was changed. Although they weren't fully recovered, they at least showed some signs of life.

She stood there for a while, then turned around to wipe the table, tidy the coffee table, and neatly gather the scattered magazines. Qingze murmured inside her:

"No need to clean, I can do it myself later, or we can hire a cleaning lady..."

“It’s okay,” she said, wiping the water stains off the coffee table without looking up. “I’m happy to see it clean.”

"...Okay, okay."

She carried on with an unconscious gentleness, her movements unhurried and meticulous, taking care of every corner perfectly. Qingze fell silent, quietly remaining deep within his consciousness, as if watching her from behind something.

Ran Mouri rewatered the vase, then suddenly remembered something: "Ze, have you dealt with all those weapons in your room?"

He has a whole room full of guns and ammunition.

"Everything that shouldn't have been there has been cleared away," Qingze replied casually. "The rest have been issued collection certificates."

"That's good."

She turned on the tap, draped a rag over the table, looked around the clean and tidy room, and finally nodded in satisfaction.

The sunlight streamed in through the window, falling on the flowers whose water had just been changed, creating a quiet and gentle play of light and shadow. The room no longer felt as deserted as it had when I first entered.

She sat down on the sofa, leaned back against the cushions, and stared blankly at the ceiling.

"Are you tired?" Qingze asked.

"A little." She closed her eyes briefly, a slight smile playing on her lips. "But I'm quite happy."

That kind of happiness doesn't come from doing something great, it's just about tidying up someone's room so that when they come back, they can open the door and find everything in perfect condition.

Qingze was silent for a moment, then his voice suddenly softened: "Lan."

"Um?"

Thanks.

Ran Mouri smiled, but didn't answer. She simply shifted to a more comfortable position on the sofa and lazily nestled inside.

Even though there is only one person inside, he is always with me.

She took out Pandora, which she always carried with her, and looked at the crystal-clear glass ball.

"Aze, how long will it take you to recover?"

"I don't know. What, you don't want me to stay inside you?"

"I'm just wondering when I can truly hug you and snuggle up on the sofa with you."

After a moment of silence in my mind, "Soon..."

It won't be long.

It was already dark when she returned from Qingze's residence. Ran Mouri bought some groceries on the way, intending to cook dinner.

She tied her apron in the kitchen and laid out the ingredients one by one. Qingze yawned in her mind and lazily asked, "What are we making tonight?"

"Chinese food," Ran Mouri said, her voice tinged with anticipation.

"Oh?" Qingze perked up. "What dish are you making?"

"I'll try those two dishes you taught me last time myself."

"Okay, then I won't say anything, you do it yourself."

Ran Mouri nodded and began to work. She chopped vegetables, marinated meat, and prepared sauces, her movements much more skillful than before.

Qingze remained quietly in her mind, occasionally mentioning "it's almost done" or "add less salt" when she hesitated, without saying much more.

More than half an hour later, two dishes were served—Kung Pao Chicken and Mapo Tofu. They didn't look as good as Qingze's, but they were steaming hot and looked quite presentable.

Kogoro Mori had already been drawn to the table by the aroma. He picked up a piece with his chopsticks, tasted it, and nodded in satisfaction: "Not bad, not bad. Ran's cooking skills are getting better and better."

Ran Mouri tried a bite herself. It was alright; while not as authentic as Aozawa's, it was much better than the first time she made it. She silently asked herself, "How is it?"

"Great progress."

Ran Mouri smiled slightly and sat down to eat.

Halfway through the meal, Kogoro Mouri suddenly spoke up: "By the way, where's Aozawa? I haven't seen him lately."

Ran Mouri paused with her chopsticks, then said calmly, "He's away on a business trip. He'll be back in a while."

"I see." Kogoro Mouri took a bite of rice. "That kid's pretty busy."

"Yes, he's been quite busy lately."

Kogoro Mouri was silent for a moment, then suddenly slowed down his chewing: "I heard that Koniak committed suicide by burning himself at the dock. Aozawa... is he alright?"

Ran Mouri's fingertips tightened slightly.

“He was a little upset,” she whispered, “but he’s alright.”

Kogoro Mouri glanced at his daughter's expression, and seeing that she was calm, he nodded and didn't ask any further questions.

“He died by self-immolation…” A complex sense of respect rose in his voice. “That Koniak had quite a strong personality.”

He heard it from Inspector Megure. To single-handedly destroy that criminal organization and then commit suicide by self-immolation—regardless of one's stance, such a person always evokes a sense of pity.

"Yes..." Ran Mouri looked down at the rice in her bowl, her voice soft.

The flames of that night seemed to reappear before her eyes, the scorching heat passing through her memory, making her chest feel tight.

"Don't think about it." Qingze's voice suddenly rang in my mind, a few decibels lower than usual. "I just didn't want you to see that kind of scene, which is why I haven't told you."

The scene of a lover dying in front of you, even if you know they will be resurrected, will become a lingering sadness and nightmare.

Ran Mouri didn't say anything, but silently picked up a piece of food with her chopsticks and put it in her mouth. She chewed it a couple of times, but couldn't taste anything.

Kogoro Mouri noticed that his daughter was a little down, so he changed the subject:

"You know Amuro, right? He's actually a member of the Public Security Bureau, his real name is Rei Furuya. He commanded the operation to destroy that organization, and he did a great job..."

At this point, he suddenly sighed, his tone tinged with regret: "But, alas..."

Ran Mouri looked up in confusion: "But what?"

"That kid, apparently he stayed up too many nights, his mind was too exhausted, and when he relaxed all of a sudden, he died..."

"what?"

Ran Mouri almost dropped her chopsticks.

"Tsk..." Qingze clicked his tongue inwardly, feigning ignorance. "Even the 'King of Hired Managers' can die suddenly? I thought he could work six jobs a day..."

"Life is so fragile..."

Ran Mouri lost her appetite, poking at the rice in her bowl with her chopsticks, and suddenly felt that the world could be quite unreasonable at times.

"Let's not talk about this anymore." Kogoro Mouri waved his hand, clearly realizing that the topics he had discussed tonight had been too heavy. "You'll be starting school soon, right?"

"Yes, school starts the day after tomorrow."

Have you finished your winter break homework?

"I'm done writing."

"That's alright." Kogoro Mouri nodded in satisfaction, picked up his beer glass and took a sip. "Study hard in the new semester, and don't let dating interfere with your studies."

"I understand, Dad..." Ran Mouri drawled, a helpless smile appearing on her face.

“I saw your report card from last semester,” Kogoro Mouri glanced at her, his tone becoming serious. “You need to work harder on math, physics, and chemistry.”

"Okay—"

Seeing her perfunctory attitude, Kogoro Mouri snorted but didn't say anything more and continued eating with his head down.

After dinner, Ran Mouri cleaned up the dishes, watched TV with her father for a while, then went back to her bedroom to get her pajamas and headed to the bathroom.

Standing in the bathroom, she closed the door behind her, took off her coat and held it in front of her. After hesitating for a few seconds, she whispered to herself, "Aze, you... go to sleep."

"Again?" Qingze's tone was tinged with helplessness, and he lazily dragged out the last syllable.

Go to sleep!

"I've already seen what I should and shouldn't have seen, so what's there to be ashamed of..."

"Qingze!" Ran Mouri called out in embarrassment and annoyance, her ears already turning pink.

Qingze chuckled softly, as if his scheme had succeeded: "Alright, alright, time for bed~"

The consciousness in my mind began to recede, like the tide slowly receding.

But Ran Mouri knows him too well—this kind of thing relies entirely on self-discipline, and Aozawa's self-discipline is practically zero at times.

She pursed her lips and tentatively asked, "Are your eyes closed?"

"It's closed, it's closed."

"Hmph, weren't you asleep? How can you answer my question?"

A brief silence.

"...Aren't you asking me? Oh, you're entrapping me."

"How would we know if you were really asleep without entrapment?" Ran Mouri retorted confidently.

"Being both a policeman and a judge, I have nowhere to voice my grievances." Qingze sighed, but the smile in his voice was hard to hide.

Ran Mouri snorted, draped her coat over the rack, and put her fingers on her collar: "I'm going to take my clothes off, don't look!"

“What your eyes can see, I can see,” Qingze said slowly, adopting a reasonable tone. “There are no mirrors here, and I can’t see your body…”

“But I will bow my head!” Ran Mouri blurted out.

There was a moment of silence on Qingze's side.

"...You care so much when you're taking a shower, but why don't you care when you're using the toilet?" His voice was clearly mocking.

"Aaaaaah! Qingze, you bastard!"

Ran Mouri let out a scream in her mind, her whole face instantly burning up, even her neck turning pink.

"My ears are going to go deaf!" Qingze exclaimed dramatically in his mind.

"go to bed!"

"We dare not disobey the young lady's orders."

The sound finally subsided, completely silent, as if someone had pressed the pause button.

Ran Mouri snorted, turned on the tap, scooped up some cold water and splashed it on her face. Only after the heat subsided a bit did she start to take off her clothes and shower.

Hot water poured down, and white steam quickly filled the bathroom.

Her muscles, tense all day, gradually relaxed. She squeezed out some shower gel, lathered it into a rich foam, and was washing her chest when she suddenly heard a very soft, low murmur in her mind—

"Thank goodness this is a consciousness..."

The voice was very soft, like unconscious soliloquy, indistinct, as if the person talking in their sleep didn't even realize what they were saying. But in the quiet bathroom, in their shared minds, it was crystal clear.

Ran Mouri froze.

"A-Ze-!"

She shouted in her heart, almost shaking the mental space they shared to its core.

"Cough... I didn't see anything, you can continue."

Weren't you asleep?

"I was already asleep, you woke me up, you must be hallucinating..."

Ran Mouri's face flushed with anger. She bit her lip, her voice rising eight octaves in her mind:

"You, you get to sleep right now! Now! Right now!"

"Okay, okay, I'm going to sleep now, this time I'm really going to sleep."

The consciousness in his mind instantly vanished completely, as if he had truly fallen into a deep sleep—at least this time he acted more convincingly than before.

Ran Mouri stood there, her face flushed, her heart pounding in her chest. She waited for a while, straining her ears and racking her brains to make sure there was no further sound before picking up the shower gel again.

The pace of the shower was twice as fast as before.

When she came out of the bathroom drying her hair, she passed by the mirror and saw that the blush on her face had not completely faded, and there was still a hint of shyness and annoyance in the corners of her eyes.