When time stands still ...

“Thanks again for the roses.” She opened the door. The hallway was lighted. It was now 10:30 p.m. They were on time as always. He kissed her goodbye. She smiled at him. And no matter how often he saw it - he never got enough of it. Behind Ran he saw little uncle. The latter nodded to him - he nodded back to him.

Kogoro sent Ran into the room, "It's already late Ran - sleep well, mouse-leg." She hugged her dad from behind, wished him and Shinichi a "good night" and went up to her room. Now the "sleeping master detective" and the "debt detective of the East" faced each other.

"Well ... then ... thank you ... and ... night." With a lot of imagination - which Shinichi didn't have - you might see a minimalist smile on Kogoro's face. "Yes ... Good night ..." With that, Kogoro closed the door and Shinichi stood there for a moment, looked briefly to the left and right and made his way home.

It was 7:00 a.m. when his alarm rang. He got ready quickly and was about to put on his jacket while he was still nibbling on his toast in his mouth - drooling probably hit it sooner than he heard the annoying ringing of his entrance gate.

Completely unmotivated and tired - he had hardly slept for about 5 months - he strolled to the gate. His sandpit friend was waiting for him there and greeted him again with a smile. "Good morning, sleepyhead. Come on, hurry up - I have to go to Teitan elementary school in the first lesson."

"Hey? What's that for?" "Well, last week the children asked me if I would teach their class to play the piano! Do you never listen to me ?!" Sadly and for Ran, he apologized quietly. Together they made their way to school until they parted ways between the two schools ...

The school hours dragged on like chewing gum and when the bell finally rang most of the people went outside to let the sun shine on their faces. When Sonoko made her way to Ran, she accidentally dropped the pen - right in front of her desk. Shinichi looked automatically to his right when he heard the noise and watched as Ran bent down to pick up the pen and Sonoko thanked her.

However, she kept her face lowered ...

They had English for the last lesson. Miss Saintemillion actually had no business in Japan, but Sonoko and especially Ran have grown very fond of her. When Shinichi asked Jodie to teach at Teitan again - in Conan's voice of course - she was at first quite astonished.

But at the end of his remarks she had agreed to teach again - after all, the only people at the school who knew about their true job were the two girls. And they had promised her back then not to tell anyone about her true identity as Jodie Starling ...School finale at last! Shinichi quickly packed his things and followed Ran and Sonoko outside. Some passers-by and students looked strangely in their direction, but none of the three paid any attention. As they passed the elementary school, they met Genta, Mitsuhiko, Ayumi and Ai.

They greeted each other happily and Shinichi nodded to Ai. This in turn fixed her eyes on the two girls - Ayumi and Ran - who were talking about today's piano lesson. "That was great Ran! Someday I want to be able to play beautifully!" "Thanks Ayumi! How about you just visit us on the weekend. The café downstairs has a piano that we can play on. The owner certainly doesn't mind! "" Oh yes! You are sure to come with us, right? "Both Genta and Mitsuhiko answered enthusiastically ...

After Sonoko had said goodbye to them two streets earlier, Shinichi asked as they got closer to his house "Ran? Could we meet for dinner tonight?" He looked into her face and waited ...

It was now shortly before 8 when he saw Ran go into the bar. He was sitting further back and had just looked at the newspaper he had brought with him to pass the waiting time in case it was late. But of course she was on time. As always...

The meal went smoothly - from his side. "You know ... I forgot to tell you this morning. The tournament will start next week. I still have to train for that. Mom said if I could get first place then we would - with Dad and you Celebrate of course. Please take your time for Friday evening, yes? "" Mhm ... "

“Thanks again for the roses.” She opened the door. The hallway was lighted. It was now 10:30 p.m. They were on time as always. He kissed her goodbye. She smiled at him. And no matter how often he saw it - he never got enough of it. Behind Ran he saw little uncle. The latter nodded to him - he nodded back to him.

Kogoro sent Ran into the room "It's already late Ran - sleep well, mousebody." She hugged her dad from behind, wished him and Shinichi good night and went up to her room. Now the "sleeping master detective" and the "debt detective of the East" faced each other ...

It was already past midnight and he couldn't sleep again. How did it come about? Wasn't it enough that he was shrunk and had to lie to Ran? Did fate have to play this trick on him? It just wasn't fair. He just didn't know what to do next!

And when he was almost at the end of his tether - how did Kogoro and Eri have to be?

In the meantime 5 months had passed and there was no improvement in sight! If only he had taken better care of her!

_Flashback_

It was early January. Thanks to the antidote that Ai had successfully developed, Shinichi had now taken on his true identity again.The BO was caught and put behind bars with the help of his friends and "enemies". It was probably the hardest and longest case he had to solve in his years as a senior debt detective and as Conan.

Friends and acquaintances turned out to be traitors, an arrogant master thief saved (once again) the life and the identity of the boss of the organization was revealed. In the end, everything turned out fine ...

Unfortunately, despite all the positive events that suddenly occurred to him, he couldn't bring himself to ease his conscience. He still couldn't bring himself to tell Ran the truth about Conan. With some help (Yukiko and Kid), this and all other uninitiated people were led to believe that Conan would now have to fly back to the States and that the reunion would have to take more time than little love because of some complicated paperwork.

Ran then naturally burst into tears (but not as much as Ai). The little one had lost her first big love ...

A short time later, Shinichi Kudo came back. Of course, the media first made a huge fuss about it when it was discovered that this will probably solve one case after the next from now on. And successfully. Kogoro is on his own again, but not for long. Because after Shinichi had invited Ran on a date, he finally told her the famous three words - well actually there were six if you said "I'm sorry!" counted ...

From then on, it was practically like in a picture book for the two of them - if you ignored all the murders, attacks, thefts, etc. ... Shortly after everything dissolved, Heiji invited the Mouris and Shinichi to Osaka. The two boys had had more fun together than ever.

It made a difference when you weren't a toddler anymore! Of course, Heiji didn't tell him that he was missing to embarrass little Conan somewhere ...

The weekend was over and they were back in Tokyo. On Monday evening, Sonoko Shinichi advised Ran to take him on a date the next evening. Shinichi didn't understand why he couldn't postpone it until Friday evening until she said that Ran could occupy the hall for the tournament and will therefore only have time until the event tomorrow evening. So Shinichi took her advice and invited Ran over. Of course, she was quite enthusiastic!

The next day:

It was 7:00 a.m. when his alarm rang. He got ready quickly and was about to put on his winter jacket while he was still nibbling his toast in his mouth - drooling probably hit it sooner than he heard the annoying ringing of his entrance gate. He quickly went to the gate, knowing that there was only one person who made such a storm bell for him in the early morning.His sandpit friend in her winter coat was already waiting for him there and greeted him again with a smile. "Good morning, sleepyhead. Come on, hurry up - I have to go to Teitan elementary school in the first lesson." "Hey? What for?" "Well, last week the children asked me if I would teach their class to play the piano Do you never actually listen to me ?! "

Annoyed rolling his eyes he apologized and they went to school ...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He had just said goodbye to Kogoro after accompanying Ran home. What he didn't know at the time was what happened shortly afterwards in the Mori house ...

While Kogoro was drinking beer after beer, Ran was briefly in the bathroom to freshen up and then went to her room. Suddenly she heard noises like scratching and grinding. Curiously she opened the window and saw a hooded figure dragging a writhing garbage bag into the alley directly behind her building.

She knew that she had just witnessed a crime and went quickly to the office to wake her father. However, this could not be found. As it turned out later, he was in fact gripped by his "Chinese wisdom" of his zodiac sign which that evening predicted "3 things can no longer be changed: the word said, the arrow shot and the missed opportunity!"

Presumably he wanted - as blue as it was to the "nonsense" as he called it just to prove that at least one of these things can be changed - and so he made his way to Eri ...

Since her father was not there, she rang Shinichi and ran down the street where she suspected the suspicious person ... Shinichi, however, was in the shower at this time and therefore did not notice anything. So Ran probably thought she was on her own and followed the person.

His goal was an apartment that looked pretty deserted from the outside. But if you went inside you could hear muffled sounds