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"You're amazing. You really know everything."
"Not only are you knowledgeable, you're great with your hands too. You're handsome and a karate expert on top of that. Being around you feels so safe. Any girl who marries you in the future will definitely be very happy."
"Have you figured out what's wrong?"
Ran standing in the rain had a hazy, dreamlike beauty.
Her pure eyes were as bright as sapphires beneath the sea.
"I found it. The fuel pressure valve is damaged. It's a bit troublesome to fix, so it'll take some time."
Steven straightened up, casually tossing out an excuse.
Looking at Ran, who seemed like a lotus emerging from water, he had to admit she was truly captivating.
For a brief moment, Steven felt that whether or not he got revenge on Conan didn't matter anymore. Having a gentle, kind, drop-dead gorgeous girlfriend by his side didn't sound bad at all.
"Why are you staring at me? Is there something dirty on my face?"
Ran lowered her head shyly and took out a handkerchief to wipe her face.
"Sorry. You're just too beautiful. Any guy would have a hard time not looking twice."
Steven pulled his gaze back and pretended to focus on fixing the car.
Food and desire are human nature.
At most, he was just letting a bit of ordinary attraction surface. It wasn't some unforgivable sin.
Little Brother Two: Nice excuse. Every time you get impulsive, you're about to commit a crime.
"No, it's not like that…" Ran's heart fluttered from the teasing, her cheeks flushing red.
Whoosh—
A sudden gust of wind blew her umbrella out of her hands. Ran hurried after it.
"My umbrella, my umbrella…"
Just as she was about to return, her phone rang.
"Hello, Conan? What's wrong?"
"There was a bit of an accident. We'll probably be late getting back to the hotel."
"Inspector Hyoue Kuroda said the bomber and the Silver-Haired Demon appeared in Okinawa? That can't be such a coincidence that we'd run into them, right? By the way, how's the case going?"
Listening as Conan slowly explained the truth of the case, Ran felt her entire worldview shatter. She stood there, dazed and hollow.
The murderer turned out to be the actress she had saved.
Even more devastating, the killer had asked Conan to pass along a message to Ran.
"Thank you, lovely angel. It was because of you that I was able to fulfill my wish."
Just one simple sentence was enough to destroy someone's faith.
Ran spread her hands, sinking into deep self-doubt.
"Did I do the wrong thing? If I hadn't saved that actress, there wouldn't have been a murder."
"Maybe Steven was right. There really is no god in this world."
"It's all my fault. What should I do? Are my hands now stained with the victim's blood?"
Tap, tap, tap!
Footsteps grew closer. Ran snapped out of her guilt and looked up.
Standing before her was a slim island-nation man dressed in black, wearing a black hat. His long hair fell past his shoulders, and the wine-red shirt beneath his coat stood out sharply.
"The Silver-Haired Demon? The bomber?"
Fear flashed across Ran's face as two vague images surfaced in her mind.
"A gun. Oh no!"
"What do I do? I can't move!"
The man in black pulled out a handgun, an oppressive aura radiating from him.
Especially his sharp eyes, as if they could pierce straight through a person's soul.
"Are you an island national?"
"I asked if you're an island national!"
Click, click!
He flicked off the safety, staring at Ran impatiently.
The chilling killing intent made her shiver.
"Yes!" Ran snapped back to herself, tightening her grip on the umbrella.
"Have you seen a suspicious man?"
"Someone who dyed his hair silver and has a beard. An island national."
The man didn't fire. His icy face revealed no emotion.
"No. I haven't seen anyone like that."
The Silver-Haired Demon.
Ran guessed who he was talking about, but she truly hadn't seen him.
Screech—
At that moment, a black sedan sped up and stopped beside them.
"Did you find him?" A man in a suit stepped out and asked the man in black.
"No. I only found a tourist. He probably didn't come down this street."
"That beast I fought before would never let prey like her slip away."
The man in black tilted his head slightly and spoke to his partner in English.
A silver-haired demon. One who deliberately targeted young women traveling alone.
"This area's too dangerous. Take the next corner on the right and you'll reach the main road. You can catch a taxi there."
He grabbed Ran Mouri by the arm, pointing out the way as if out of genuine concern.
The appearance of the Silver-Haired Demon in Okinawa had already caused widespread panic.
To protect civilians, the hunt had to continue.
What's more, both the island nation's police and the FBI had picked up new leads. There was a strong chance that the bomber who had blown up the Metropolitan Police Department had also arrived in Okinawa.
If two criminals on the highest-priority wanted lists joined forces, they could easily throw an entire region into chaos.
"But my friends are over there," Ran said.
"They came from Tokyo too, for the film and opera festival. We got into a car accident on the way back to the hotel, and they're fixing the car right now."
Unsure of who these two men really were, Ran wrenched her arm free.
"Then let me warn you and your friends one last time," the man in black said gravely."Leave this area. Now."
"Are we really just leaving her here?" the man in the suit asked in English.
"Relax," the man in black replied in the same language."We've already sealed off both entrances to this alley."
As she watched the two men walk away, Ran murmured to herself, unease tightening her chest.
The Silver-Haired Demon really is nearby… I need to get Steven out of here, fast.
She turned back the way she came.
When she passed an abandoned building, something caught her eye: dark red droplets splashed across the ground.
"What's that…?"
"It's blood!"
"Did the Silver-Haired Demon kill someone here?"
Boom!
A bolt of lightning tore through the sky, followed by deafening thunder.
In the flash, Ran saw a horrifying silhouette.
Long silver hair. Blood smeared across the body. A handgun clenched in one hand.
The Silver-Haired Demon.
"Steven—save me!"
Every hair on her body stood on end. She screamed and bolted in blind panic, sprinting up the external staircase.
A dead end.
Before long, her vision started to blur.
Soaked by rain and shaken by fear after fear, she was burning up with a fever.
Elsewhere.
Steven fixed the car in no time. But no matter how long he waited, Ran didn't come back.
Unbidden, scenes from the original Detective Conan storyline surfaced in his mind.
This was supposed to happen in New York.
Vermouth, disguised as the Road Demon, would be injured. Ran Mouri would be put in mortal danger.
But the time and place were different now. Maybe the same plot wouldn't play out…
Silver-Haired Demon!
Suddenly, Steven remembered something Officer Kuroda had complained about before.
This is bad.
"Yukiko, I'm going to look for Ran."
A bad feeling clawed at him. Without hesitation, Steven took off toward the abandoned building.
With Kudo Shinichi reduced to Conan, he was the only one left who could save her.
"....."