In true Holmes and Watson fashion, Ran moves into House 21 on the second block of Beika Town facing three simple warnings: Kudo Shinichi plays the violin at odd hours of the day, uses the cupboards to store science experiments, and occasionally teaches deductive skills to three lonely middle schoolers.
It does not take long for her to learn that playing equates to screeching, the science experiments are jars of preserved body parts, and teaching translates to recreating infamous crime scenes for eleven-year-olds.
Just before the turn of the century, as she deposits her hat at the top of their coat rack, Ran snaps a wispy red string tied to the golden hook. It flies away like a ribbon in the wind and lands on the chalked outline of a body.
Three children armed with magnifying glasses squat around it.
“Judging by the point of entry, the killer stood a few feet away when he shot the first bullet,” says Genta.
“The bullet fragment embedded in the floor would support this hypothesis,” Mitsuhiko adds.
Ayumi nods sagely at the bright red paint blots surrounding the ottomans and the desks. “Blood splatter indicates the same.”
Sprawled on a sofa adjacent to the living room is her roommate and partner. His coat is draped on the floor and the rest of his three-piece suit is wrinkled. His unkempt hair seems frozen, like he had been struck by lightning. More likely, he’d taken one of his experiments too far and electrocuted himself. Once, he wanted to demonstrate the differences between two electrical circuits. His finger charred and his eye twitched continuously for two weeks. He did not wilt, but thrived under her scolding and care.
A man out of time, her Shinichi.
She nudges his legs over, squeezing onto the newly freed-up territory near his bent knees. Her dress crumples under her with the sound of flimsy newspapers. “Any news, Detective?”
“They’ve only just started their investigation.” He sets down an old copy of The Strand. “In three hours, they’ve narrowed down their suspect pool from four adults to the only two just under two meters. They’ve also begged me to adopt the victim’s dogs.”
“You had to make your characters so life-like.”
“Ayumi is convinced they’re the same dogs who wander around our neighborhood past nine.”
“Are they?”
“Does it matter? They don’t exist,” he says, sotto voce. It’s endearing enough for her to smooth his hair down so he doesn’t look like a mad scientist. He turns his head just in time to press his lips to her palm and she remembers her dream last night, the one of her against the wall and his hands on her hips, the frilly lace around her chest undone.
Ideally, this would occur in a house without children.
Ran kisses his cheek, cold after being pressed against the leather sofa. Ayumi giggles, while Genta groans. Mitsuhiko lets out a not-well-whispered eww.
She pulls away and gives him as stern a look as possible, but she finds it difficult to maintain with his hair still wild and his cheeks red. “I’m sure the crime scene cleaners will get to work soon, once our three detectives are finished gathering their clues?”
“No, they need to solve the case, first.”
He shudders and bites down a yelp as she pinches his cheeks. Shinichi says, “Hurry up, kids. Inspector Mouri wants you all to clear the scene.”
-
Well. I thought I'd have written more than this but I'm a crazy person and I'm taking the MCAT and applying to medical school and at work I'm covering for people but AAAHH it's gonna be okay soon. Hopefully I can actually finish/write more of the Meiji-era stuff I have planned... thank you for reading! happy shinran week <3
🌸 ShinRan Week 2023 - Day 5 “I wish I could tell you that I love you.” 🌸
Both Shinichi and Ran being cute about debating whether to text and freaking out about it. After their confessions, it’s hard to text “I love you” or even just some sweet nothings. “I miss you” and “I’ll wait for you” are totally “I love you” in this series, but even those aren’t sent without some blushing.
It’s still weird to me that they have been dating for such a long time (chapter-wise), and this fact seems to be barely touched on. There has to be a reason and it’s cause both of them are too shy still to say anything cute about it!
Sonoko is definitely pulling her hair out, though. Sonoko: “Wait Ran, you HAVEN’T Texted him?!?!”
(I know there was one chapter where she was too shy to text him but that was weak! GOSHO GIVE US SOME FLUFF PLEASE) 😂
(Also also - I can’t wait until their relationship gets back from angst land to the point where she can send him memes dunking on him being a detective freak again)
Text for mobile:
Ran: “I want to text you so bad that I miss you... I want talk to you again”
Ran: “ugh I could also tell him I think he’s cute too, but it’s so embarrassing!”
Shinichi Reading Ran Text: “Miss you Babe <3 There’s so much I want to tell you!” (Ran taking two weeks of debating sending this and one final push from Sonoko)
Shinichi: “There’s so much I want to tell you, too!” [ You’re so beautiful. You’re cute and strong. You make me a better me. I want to actually properly kiss you. I want to hold you. I want everyone to know that you’re my girlfriend. I miss you, too]
🌸ShinRan Week 2023 - Day 4: Historical AU - 1920s🌸
Looked up too many pics of cute couples in the 20s kissing hands and with the moon as a backdrop. They would be so perfect for an Agatha Christie novel. There could be a murder at a party and Shinichi just gets so excited to work with Poirot to solve it. Hopefully there wouldn’t be a murder of course cause, ya know, I would want them to actually have a good time together. 😂
Close up cause I loved giving her short hair:
Black and white version cause I had to:
I accidentally saved over my working file so brb just hitting my head against a wall at least I have a clean output IM FINE there’s no way to recover this one fellas. I’m a fool that considered backing this up yesterday and just DIDNT 😭 [insert sobbing 1st grader gif]
Me: “oh boy time to start doodling things for shinran week how about I choose like a lemon pie thing cause that was a cute ran thing that ran would make and it’s all about telling the reader that ran was his first love. AND HERE I’ll make it so he’s helping her bake and them goofing in the kitchen it’ll be SO CUTE”
Me rereading the chapter and this NOT being a Ran thing, she just did it once: “oh no i efFfeeddd up” XD
So anyway enjoy my mistake I may keep the pie baking but remove the lemon in the end LOL
Everyone was so nice about my lemon pie goof that I decided to keep it! 💖
Ran is teaching him how to bake a lemon pie, and has to clean off some flour that got on him (or maybe she threw it on him in the first place 😉)!
🌸 ShinRan Week 2023 - Day 7 - Post Canon / Artist Choice 🌸
I had many ideas for post canon, but limited time so those will need to come later. I was thinking about another detective show Hyouka recently and wondered how these two might react watching it together.. It’s funny cause the lead can get blown away in the same way Shinichi can with Ran. This is a mini comic of Shinichi being a bit of a sap trying to make his girlfriend blush on a date night so a little while into dating when he can be slightly more smooth hahaha.
This is my other reminder that I also need to finish this show I’m still only 5 episodes in to Hyouka. If this ain’t a face that Shinichi has made.
Also it’s perfect as he was one of the featured keyhole detective illustrations
🌸ShinRan Week 2023 - Day 4: Flowers: Sakura Crown 🌸
A little embarrassed, but he likes matching his girlfriend and making her happy! ❤ Of course they are made of Sakura blossoms cause that’s their thing!
There are so many cute webtoons where the dude proudly matches his girlfriend/love interest with Amusement Park headbands (looking at you Romance 101 and Operation: True Love), and I’d like to think that even though he’d be a little embarrassed, he’d be happy about it and more focused on how cute his gf looks. Related, I didn’t miss the numerous Detective Conan references in Romance 101 😂
Also - it’s a webcomic you might enjoy if you enjoy cute things like this (amusement part date wearing silly headbands image under read more tab in case this made be too spoilery for this comic? Idk) 😆!
Also the Operation true love image cause it’s such a good panel XD
