4/30: "What if Shiho was Shinichi's childhood friend?" (from Mizhera)

As Shinichi fawns over his face on the newspaper's front page, someone pulls on his cowlick, and he knows it's finally time to go home.

It's Miyano Shiho, his neighbor and childhood friend, also their classroom representative despite her abrasive personality (only for you, she says, since you're an idiot). She's a once-in-a-century prodigy, excelling in science and engineering, but Shinichi will never tell her that to her face, since, damn, that woman can be so thick-skinned at times. They once had a little bet going on to see who gets more newspaper features between the two of them, but the professor made them stop once he discovered that Shiho had been pulling consecutive all-nighters to put out more and more inventions. They did stop the bet… but not that Shinichi ever stopped tracking—he's behind by just one more newspaper article now.

Shinichi grimaces. Even as he pats down his hair though, he only says, "Took you long enough." He had been waiting for her to finish her rep duties by the school gates so they can go walk home together, like they've always done. She wordlessly falls into step beside him, like she's always done, and they start walking.

Before they can get outside the school premises though, a soccer ball goes towards them, and Shinichi reflexively kicks it back to the team playing in the field. Shiho chides him, "Showoff."

"I have to have great reflexes! Sherlock Holmes—"

"—I know," Shiho cuts him off before he can start his Holmes spiel.

Shinichi just laughs, fully expecting her to stop him. He says, "Yeah, I know you know. Anyway, Hakase told me you stopped by the bookstore yesterday. What did you get? Were there any new mysteries?

"Oh, I don't know, will you even have time to read a novel when you have all those letters?" Shiho points to the letters in his hands. His grin widens.

"Hah, right? I think I keep on getting more each week!"

Shiho rolls her eyes and just walks faster. Not cute! Shinichi smiles even more, like a dumbass, Shiho would say. Right before he can continue teasing Shiho, she cuts him off—

"I get more letters than you."

What..? "What?!" Hakase never told me about this!

She looks at him and sticks her tongue out, then looks forward and continues walking, as if she had not said anything at all.

Shinichi runs a short while and catches up to her, calling out, "Hey, woman, tell me about it already! Since when? How many? Who? You know I'll figure it all out anyway! Hey, let's have a bet, if I figure it out—"

Suddenly, Shiho stops walking, so Shinichi, too, stops and stares at her. She asks him, "You forgot, didn't you?"

"—Eh..?" Shinichi is genuinely confused, and Shiho sees that on his face. She narrows her eyes, then sighs. Right before she continues walking, just a bit faster than her usual pace, Shinichi catches the slight pout of her lips. "Nothing," is what she says.

"H-hey?" Shinichi scrambles his mind for a second, or two, then gets the answer. He almost shouts it out, "Miyano! I remember: Tropical Land, tomorrow, right?!"

Shiho stops walking. She says, her back turned to him, "And you're paying."

At that Shinichi nervously chuckles. Shiho's not really a small spender, and he tries to remember his balance on his bank account…

He grumbles, "...I'm not the one with patents and gigs to a hundred research labs..."

Shiho whips her head to look at him and narrows her eyes again, and Shinichi takes a step back, quickly backtracking, "Y-yeah! I'm paying; I promised you, after all!"

Shiho smiles.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

For Shinichi, the majority of the day passed by like any other day with Miyano—a little bit annoying, a little bit amusing, and definitely not boring.

Somehow, though, Miyano starts shaking while on the line to the rollercoaster. Shinichi hands her his hoodie, and she accepts, with a quiet thanks and an even quieter, "There's something that feels wrong here..."

Shinichi teases how she, devil personified, is scared of heights, even though he knows she's not, just to test for a reaction, but Shiho doesn't even look at him. Shinichi frowns.

Shinichi tries to take her attention off whatever's distressing her by talking about Holmes and rattling off his observations of the people around him. Softly, she says, "Sorry, I'm always like this." Without looking at him, she whispers, "Let's just go home..?"

He just holds her hand and smiles at her, as he pulls her to ride the rollercoaster.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

After running into an unexpected case—that Shiho argues is certainly expected given that Shinichi is around—Shinichi is glad that they got to solve it quickly. He's even gladder that, even though Shiho is still not in tip-top shape—her retorts are still lacking their usual barb—she has at least stopped shaking, and had, as usual, helped him with securing the scene, alerting the authorities and delivering his deduction.

Before he can tell Shiho that he had called Hakase over to fetch them, Shiho chuckles and says, "You find those two suspicious, don't you?"

Shinichi blinks once, twice and thrice, before he grins sheepishly. As usual, Miyano doesn't let anything get past her.

"Then, I'll—"

"We'll go," Shiho affirms, and Shinichi is relieved to know that Shiho is more and more back to her usual self.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Following the two suspicious men in black, Shiho and Shinichi hide in the cover of the building as they watch the two extort money from the CEO of what they heard is a company engaging in gun smuggling.

When Shinichi turns back to discuss with Shiho if they should get the authorities involved as soon as now, he looks at one of the men in black manhandling Shiho and covering her mouth.

"Let her g—!"

A heavy blow to his neck and he's down. He can't move his body and his vision is fading.

"Please, I'll come with you, please, please, just let him go, please—" is all he hears. His last thought: Don't cry, Miyano.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

When he wakes up, he's face down on the grass, Hakase and a group of guards from the amusement park hovering over him.

"Shinichi? Where's Shiho-kun?"

To that, Shinichi has no answer. For now. Only for now.

He promises.