A girl he liked?
Oh, there were plenty—take the ultra-invincible, super-adorable Kiana, or the world's cutest…
But Ran clearly didn't mean that kind of crush. In this world, Sora hadn't had one.
What a failure.
Deciding to dodge the question, Sora turned it around.
"Big sister Ran, you like Shinichi-nii, don't you~?"
"…Huh? W-Who'd like—oh…" Ran drew out the word, catching on. "I get it. Conan told you, didn't he?"
"Mm."
"Ugh, I told Conan to keep it a secret! But it's fine if it's you, Sora. Oh, by the way, did you know you look almost exactly like Shinichi when he was little?"
"Mm, I know. Shinichi-nii said so too."
"Really? But you're way cuter than Shinichi was. That guy was such a rascal, always acting like a know-it-all, obsessed with solving mysteries," Ran said, adding silently, but I liked that about him. "Honestly, I even wondered if you were Shinichi, shrunk by some weird drug from Dr. Agasa…"
Talking about Shinichi Kudo, Ran forgot all about probing Sora's love life. Her words spilled out, recounting childhood stories with Shinichi, sounding just like Shinichi gushing about Sherlock Holmes.
If Conan were walking beside Ran right now, he'd be blushing, wrestling with whether to confess he was Shinichi.
But…
I'm not Shinichi Kudo.
Sora emphasized to himself.
Ran's hand, warm with her gentle touch, made him feel grounded in this moment… as if the world was acknowledging his presence.
---
"So, Uncle Mouri solved that case?"
After the break, Sora faced his second day of elementary school.
He and Conan Edogawa walked side by side toward school.
Since Sora had helped sort the photos, Conan filled him in on the case hidden behind them.
"Yeah, but I had to nudge him about the photos," Conan said. Unlike Sora's casual outfit, he wore his childhood formal attire, looking like a tiny adult. "By the way, you didn't even get involved, but you act like you know everything."
"It's not hard to guess the motive for the disguise," Sora said. "Either they wanted to dodge Uncle's bill, or they wanted people to think the target was still in Beika. Add in the burned body you mentioned, and it's easy to figure they were messing with the police's estimated time of death."
"A simple trick, straight out of every mystery novel," Sora added.
Since they'd spotted the photos' inconsistency early, the case was solved quickly, without Conan needing to step in. Uninterested, he used it to test the "other him's" deduction skills before dropping it.
Grumbling about the recent spike in crime rates, they soon reached the school.
"Oh! It's the Edogawa brothers!"
"Hm? Oh… I think her name's…" Conan racked his brain.
"Yoshida-san."
Ayumi Yoshida, a cute elementary school girl with dark brown hair and a hairclip.
Sora remembered her as one of the few who didn't laugh at their names during their transfer introduction.
"Just call me Ayumi!" she said, bouncing over. "Edogawa brothers… good morning!"
"Morning, Ayumi."
"Uh, morning…"
Ayumi glanced at Sora, then Conan, her eyes sparkling. "Edogawa brothers… ugh, calling you both Edogawa is so confusing! Can I just call you Conan and Doyle?"
"Sure…" Conan said.
"Call me Kaedehara," Sora said.
"…Huh? Kaedehara?"
"My other name. People close to me use it, right, Conan?"
Hey, come on… you hate 'Doyle' that much? Conan thought, but he played along.
Ayumi's eyes lit up even more. It sounded like a surname, but it was what close people called him!
Thrilled at her success, Ayumi led the trio to the school gate, where two boys waiting for her joined them: the burly Genta Kojima and the freckled Mitsuhiko Tsuburaya.
It was obvious both boys had a bit of a crush on Ayumi.
The trio became a quintet.
With some distance to the classroom, Conan deliberately slowed, pulling Sora back.
"You jerk, tricking Ran before, and now elementary school girls? That's low."
"Tricking?" Sora countered. "Only people close to me call me Kaedehara, don't they?"
"So you admit you tricked Ran."
"…I just didn't want to use Doyle."
"Kaedehara Sora's no better," Conan teased. "Sounds kinda girly."
"…Then give me 'Conan.'"
"Not a chance."
Conan, who'd never thought much of his alias, suddenly loved it—thanks to the competition. They traded a few more pointless jabs until Ayumi turned back.
"Oh, right! Conan, Kaedehara, come with us!"
"We're going ghost hunting!"
(End of Chapter)