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The rental car spun quickly around the sharp curve of the road, narrowly avoiding the barricade on the side that would've caused it to plummet several meters down the mountain.
Mouri Kogoro, formerly known as the Sleeping Kogoro, who went out of relevancy but fortunately not landing himself in a massive scandal (in courtesy of his ‘bag of wisdom’), gripped onto the steering wheel with all his might to turn the car around to safety.
“Otou-san! Be careful on the road!” Mouri Ran shouts from the back of the car, unwilling to let go of the grab handle near the ceiling of the car, the seatbelts barely limiting her body from swaying side to side violently. Most importantly of it all, she did not want to squash her body weight onto the passenger sitting right next to her.
“I'm trying to!” Kogoro shouts, trying to bring the car to a balance. “It's just that this damned road had decided to be so hard to drive through!”
He continued to turn the car around, as the zigzagged-structure of the road eventually turned into a straight line, emanating a loud sigh of relief amongst the denizens in the car.
“Phew… Looks like my driving skills have kept us alive,” Kogoro exclaimed, as he started to stabilize the car on the road.
“Driving skills? Otou-san, if you hadn't drived in such high speeds, we wouldn't have experienced that just now!” Ran chided, brain throbbing in near dizziness from it being tossed around her brain left and right from the rocky road.
“Shuddap, besides, this had only happened once in this entire trip—” Kogoro retorted, but was cut through by that stinging voice.
“Three.”
Kogoro glances at the front mirror with annoyance, paying slight attention to the boy sitting next to his precious daughter holding his thumb, index and ring finger to show the number ‘three’.
“Three times, Otchan. You had nearly hit the barricades twice in this trip before, but since this time it is continuous, I shall count it as only one too.” The boy coolly comments, receiving an annoyed grumble from the driver in front.
“Hmph! Sure.” Kogoro snorted. This kid sure needs to stop being so arrogant and not use his good-for-nothing brain for once.
He sarcastically remarks, “Either way, what am I? Taxi for you, brat? I apologise for not giving you some 5-star-service, boy!”
“Hey, are you still calling me that now?” Edogawa Conan, no, Kudou Shinichi whines pitifully, “Aren't I your precious Great, Merciful God Conan-Sama?”
“H-hey! Where did you hear that from?!”
“Good question, Oji-san~”
“O-oi! Don't call me that!”
“Why not? Don't you miss the little Conan-kun?”
“Why you—”
Mouri Ran whams her fist onto the empty car seat right in front of her, her bare hands impaling it whole, as tiny springs and cotton fluff fall onto the seat.
“Stop fighting and focus on the road!” She threatens menacingly, as the two men stop.
“Y-yes ma'am…” They cried out, and they started to mind their own business.
The car’s repair expenses are cheaper than facing Mouri Ran’s wrath, after all.
The car continues moving forward, as a faraway mansion starts to become larger and larger in each second.
————————————————————
“Listen up, boy!” Kogoro points an threatening finger at Shinichi’s direction.
“I'm only allowing you to share this room with me and my daughter, but if I ever see you trying to do something sketchy with Ran at night, I will make sure that you won't be able to see the light of day, ever, you hear me?!”
“Otou-san!” Ran cried out in exasperation, face blushing and panicking like ants falling into a pot of boiling water. “We’re not gonna do it here! Not gonna!”
Shinichi snickers, earning a scoff from Kogoro, “Ah, does it appear that way?” He comments, as Kogoro slowly starts to fume like a pressure cooker.
“No worries, there's something I need to investigate that requires me to be awake well and fresh tomorrow,” He continues, sending a dazzling, bright wink at the Mouri father-and-daughter duo, causing the father’s skin to steam up in anger and the daughter to unpack her luggage in the speed of a malfunctioning cable car falling downhill at a steep angle without a safety mechanism to hold it in place, whole body red like an overripe tomato.
“You…” Kogoro seething through the gaps of his teeth, “...Just don't do anything funny, ok?”
“Will do!” Shinichi replied with the gusto that he had as Edogawa Conan, before softening up a little.
“Otchan, would you like to accompany me to meet the client today?”
Kogoro nodded silently at his suggestion.
————————————————————
“Huh, I thought that you are going to get riled up with cheap booze by now, Otchan.”
Kogoro turned his neck around, to see the boy had returned from whatever he was doing, closing the door.
“Tch, I need to stay up and awake tomorrow too,” he grumbles, staring back at the moon up in the skies beyond the railing of the wide balcony. “Can't get a hangover early in the morning.”
He really wants to enjoy some cold, hard beer at this time of the day.
“Did you go investigating without me again?” Kogoro reminsces of the days with Edogawa Conan, only just realising a few months back that the boy was snooping behind his back for evidence.
“No, no!” Shinichi stammered, “I was just taking a stroll!”
“Ah? Then where's Ran then?” Kogoro asks, noticing that a third occupant of the room is still yet to return.
“Well, she had gone down to the lake nearby to take some pictures,” He says, “Heard that the scenery there is gorgeous at night.”
“Hmph, is this a job or a vacation to you two?” Kogoro huffs.
“Well, it's both,” Shinichi comments. “Let's just enjoy it while it lasts.”
“It’s just the two of us now, otchan.”
The room now remained silent, as Kogoro gestured at Shinichi to take a seat next to him at the balcony, wanting him to take a look at the view outside the mansion.
A little pond, a cacophony of trees nearby… Overall, a pretty peaceful environment outside.
They sat there, staring at the world down below them, as Kogoro cuts the silence, “So, why did you bring us along then?”
“Hm?”
“Ran and I.”
“Well, they said that I can bring along anyone I want as long as it doesn't go beyond 3 people, so I'd figure that I'll just bring you two along!” Shinichi beamed with that silly smile on his face.
“Why not that Osakan brat then?”
“Do you really think that Hattori wouldn't go anywhere without comparing it with Osaka?” Shinichi sighed, as Kogoro gave him a slight grimace out of sympathy.
However, one question remains unanswered. “Why us then?”
“Why not? It's not like we've never travelled together before.” Shinichi remarked without much thought. “Why are you asking that out of the sudden?”
“Nothing.” Kogoro continues staring at the world beyond the balcony, another question forming inside his head, brain still taking a while to adjust to the idea that the glasses brat was the detective brat.
“2 years worth of freeloading, huh.” He mumbled under his breath.
“Eh?” Shinichi caught on.
“Brat, you had been leeching off my house for 2 years now.” Kogoro says, right arm relaxing on the handrail.
“And even when you had permanently turned back into a proper adult, you had been asking to stay over in my house again.”
“H-hey! Didn't my parents pay you to let me stay over again?” Shinichi sweatdropped, not wanting to deal with the freeloader conversation again.
“You have a whole entire mansion for yourself, boy. Why force yourself to squeeze into this tiny house?” Kogoro questions, this time in genuine curiosity, leaving Shinichi perplexed, pondering on how to answer such a question.
Eventually, he replies, short and curtly, “I had just gotten used to it, I suppose.”
“Get used to it? How on Earth do you even get used to the horse racing, sleeping on the futon in my room and the drinking?” Kogoro lamented, laughing at his vices, his pride surprisingly toned down today, as something emptied off was felt within Shinichi’s brain.
And Shinichi wondered.
And wondered.
And wondered.
And wondered
He had the keys of all the questions asked, but he couldn't find the locks for them.
.
.
.
Then, he simply answers, aware of the concerned look right in front of him, “It just happens, otchan. It just does.”
Noticing that the boy had taken such a long time to give such a simple answer, Kogoro could only give him a sympathetic gaze.
“...Hmph.”
Not wanting the conversation to become far too awkward, Shinichi readies to get up from his seat.
“A-anyways, it's getting late soon, so I'll go to sleep early—”
—And he feels a palm touching onto his head, fingers running through his hair.
Otchan’s hand.
He could only stare at him with the widely opened, nearly circular, youthful eyes of his, staring back into the eyes of an aged, tired middle aged man.
A man who had done so much wrong in life, yet still bold from the hardships in life.
And in an instant, the gentle hand on his head had turned rough, as Kogoro ruffled his head cheekily, causing his hair to become messy.
“O-oi!” Shinichi shouts, as Kogoro gives him a loud slap in the back.
“Boy, this is payback for all the times with the tranquilizers!” He laughs out loud, as Shinichi huffs in annoyance, standing up from his seat to leave the balcony.
“I'm going to bed now!” Shinichi announced, plummeting straight into his bed, tucking himself straight, just like… Just like how Conan would.
Kogoro wheezes at the boy’s peculiar actions, as he continues to relax on the chair.
When a sudden thought came to his head.
He had never once seen Kudou Shinichi acting that way toward him before, right?