Ran's Revelation
“Eep!” Conan cried and pulled his sheets up over his face. It was a quarter past nine, he was frightened, and there was nobody there to make it better. Kogoro, who was in the next room, wouldn't wake up if twenty people were screaming bloody murder. His precious Ran-neechan was away, attending one of Sonoko's slumber parties.
BOOM!
Another bolt of lightning streaked across the sky after the atrociously loud clap of thunder. Conan burrowed further into his blankets. Where was Ran-neechan when you needed her most?
With each yellow-white streak that crossed the pitch black sky, Conan's room was bathed in light. The room was scaring Conan almost as much as the storm itself. In the daytime, the room was a nice-looking room, although it was a bit too small. In this sharp, yellow light, it was a completely different story. The furniture cast giant shadows on the walls and although Conan knew nothing was really there, his imagination, fueled by hundreds of murder scenes, told him otherwise.
Conan's phobia of thunderstorms was a complete secret from Ran and Kogoro, just like his true identity. Kogoro just didn't care that much about Conan, and he was usually too drunk to notice anything short of a beautiful woman(or on that one occasion, a man with really long hair). Conan had never been in a thunderstorm around Ran, so it was impossible for her to know anything about it.
So Conan laid with his blue sheets pulled over his head, whimpering into the darkness every few seconds.
000
“I'm home!” Ran called out fifteen minutes later. It was half past nine at night now. Ran hadn't even made it to her best friend's house. She'd paid a taxi driver to take her to the Suzuki mansion, but there was a lake near Sonoko's house, and it had overflowed in the heavy downpour. So Ran had had to pay the taxi driver to take her back to the Mouri Detective Agency.
It seemed strange that nobody was awake. Conan wasn't running up to greet her at the door or sitting on the couch watching television(which was weird since Conan was always blaming his extensive base of knowledge on TV). Her father wasn't asking about dinner. Ran really hadn't even been expecting him to because she'd ordered him to eat out at a restaurant with Conan before she left. That didn't stop Ran from thinking that the silence was beyond weird.
Just then, one of those annoying booms of thunder startled Ran. After she got over the initial shock, she noticed a sound. It sounded very similar to squeaking. Ran realized it was coming from Conan's room.
Are there mice in Conan's room? Ran wondered. Why Dad can't spray this place with all the money he's making right now, I'll never know.
She started to head toward Conan's room, ready to scream if she saw any small, furry rodents. She opened the door and looked all over the floor. Then, she realized the whimpering was coming from the bed on the far side of the room.
“Ah!” Conan screeched when another explosion echoed through the night.
“Conan-kun?” Ran inquired. “Are you all right?”
“Ran-neechan!” Conan exclaimed happily. “You're back! Hey, wait. Why are you back so early? Are you fighting with Sonoko-neechan?”
“No, no. It's nothing like that, Conan-kun!” Ran explained. “There was a flood near Sonoko's house, so I had to come back! Conan, why are you so scared?”
“Um...” Conan delayed, trying to decide whether or not to tell Ran about his fear. “I'm afraid of thunderstorms...”
“Oh, it's okay, Conan-kun! You don't have to be afraid! It's only a sound! Anyway, everyone is afraid of something!” Ran continued to reassure Conan for a few more minutes. After that, Conan told Ran that she could leave if she wanted to.
Ran sat down on the couch in the living room after she was sure Conan would be fine. Now that she was alone, she did seem to recall someone else who had the weirdest fear when it came to thunder and lightning. She couldn't believe how long it took her to realize that this person was Shin'ichi.
That's weird, she thought. Every time I think about it, it seems like Conan and Shin'ichi are way too similar... And almost every time Shin'ichi shows up now, Conan-kun goes missing. Then, when Shin'ichi leaves, there's Conan-kun again,trying to help Dad solve his next case. Oh, he's so cute when he does that! Wait, get back on track, Ran! Could it be!? Are Conan-kun and Shin'ichi one and the same!?
Ran almost marched right back into the tiny bedroom to confront Conan before her common sense returned to her. No way! This storm is making me crazy! I must have a fever or something. Really, there's absolutely no way for a seventeen-year-old to shrink back into his seven-year-old body while retaining his near-adult mind! What is making me think this way!?
Ran finally went to her room and fell asleep. Fr the rest of the night, Conan and Ran slept peacefully By the next morning, everything was back to normal.
“Ah, help! My husband just dropped dead!” a woman screamed. Well, it was normal for the seven-year-old boarding with the Mouri's.
