Conan and Gin are both my brothers, what's wrong with meeting them once?

The Kudo residence, second floor.

light is on.

Ran Mouri lingered in front of the Kudo residence for nearly two hours.

Seeing the warm light coming from the second floor, Xiaolan, standing in the wind and snow, was slightly taken aback.

She was simply moved by Kazuma's way of speaking, which sounded so much like Shinichi's, so she unconsciously came to Shinichi's house after Sonoko left.

She knew Shinichi wasn't home, so she never asked for anything.

So... Shinichi really is back?

Ran used her arm to push open the living room door, her hand numb from the cold, and tentatively asked, "Shinichi? Are you home?"

Shinichi Kudo's voice came from the second floor: "I'm here, Ran."

Xiaolan walked a few steps to the stairs, but as she was about to step up, everything went black – the lights on the second floor were off, and the only source of light in the room was gone.

"Is there a power outage?"

Footsteps came from above, stopping Xiaolan from trying to sneak upstairs in the dark.

When the footsteps stopped, she felt a warm touch on her hand that was resting on the stair railing.

"Shin...Shinichi?"

Tears welled up in her eyes involuntarily, and Xiaolan's voice became slightly nasal.

In the darkness where Ran couldn't see, Conan tightly gripped the voice changer with his other hand, and through the voice changer, his original voice was indescribably gentle.

"Silly girl, why are you crying?"

He hesitated for a moment: "You... do you really want to see me?"

Xiaolan sniffed, her tone stubborn: "Who is it? Who wants to see you, you bastard? I was just passing by and saw lights on upstairs..."

Before she could finish speaking, Conan interrupted her with a slightly wistful voice: "But, I really want to see you."

Perhaps touched by his younger brother's words, Conan made no attempt to hide his true feelings: "To be honest, I'm so glad to see you... I'm so glad to finally see you looking so silly..."

When Ran heard Shinichi Kudo's rare direct question, even though she couldn't see anything clearly, she could feel her cheeks burning red.

What do you mean by that?

"It's nothing... cough, I have to go. I still haven't sorted out a case. I only came back to give you a Christmas present..."

See you next time, Xiaolan.

The warmth on the back of her hand vanished, and Ran tried to reach out and grab it: "Wait a minute! Shinichi!"

A moment later, the lights in the room came on.

Just as Xiaolan was about to catch up, she noticed something at her feet. Looking down, she saw a wrapped gift bag.

Here's a Christmas gift for you, I hope you like it — Shinichi.

She opened it and found a pair of warm-to-the-touch red gloves inside.

In addition, there was a note that looked like it had been added at the last minute.

The note contained Shinichi Kudo's phone number.

Conan, watching Ran holding the gloves with a satisfied expression, breathed a sigh of relief and whispered, "Now she won't overthink things, right?"

Kazuma Kudo shrugged speechlessly.

Who are you going to get rid of with just a pair of gloves?

Only Xiaolan could be so satisfied.

She is truly an angel.

Back at Professor Agasa's house, Kazuma Kudo pinned Conan down and started nagging him.

"A pair of gloves is not enough. Why don't you just send a scarf next time?"

"next time?"

"Of course! You two are practically in a long-distance relationship. Xiaolan can't find you anywhere, so you're the only one who can deliver things to her, right?"

"Send small gifts every now and then, and call more often to express your feelings. At least give them a sense of security, okay?"

As he got more and more excited, Kudo Kazuma couldn't help but point fingers at his older brother.

"You stayed for her sake, didn't you ever think that someone like you who's rarely seen could easily get into trouble in her eyes?"

"If you ask me, with your emotional intelligence, you shouldn't bother. Just confront her directly; that's much better than anything else."

Conan looked troubled: "But I don't want her to get involved in danger..."

Kazuma Kudo scoffed, "Come on, once you moved into the Mouri Detective Agency, they couldn't possibly stay out of it."

"It's only because the people in that organization didn't know you were still alive, otherwise do you think Ran and Uncle Mori could have escaped?"

With him around, Gin certainly couldn't be allowed to do anything to his unfortunate brother, but the organization wasn't just about Gin. Even among the hardworking members, besides Gin, there was also Rum...

Perhaps his words were too direct, because Conan's face turned pale, and he lowered his head and remained silent.

After making his point, Kudo Kazuma didn't bother to say anything more. At Conan's insistence, he drove him and Ran back to the Mouri Detective Agency, and then went home.

It snowed twice more in the following days, and there was a lot of snow on the roads outside.

Taking advantage of a ski resort's special offer, Kogoro Mouri took his daughter and Conan skiing and made a special phone call to invite Kazuma Kudo to join them.

Kudo Kazuma had just collected several souls with Gin the day before, and was not afraid of the backlash from the power of the Grim Reaper, so he was happy to go.

After all, according to them, if you ski for two days, you can stay in a villa at the resort for free for one night.

We might just encounter the classic "locked room mystery" scenario common in the world of Detective Conan.

The skiing activity went very well—especially for Kazuma Kudo, Conan, and Ran.

Kogoro Mouri was clearly a little timid, standing under a tree on a relatively flat spot and pretending to admire the scenery.

After skating one lap, Kudo Kazuma teased with a half-smile, "Uncle, why aren't you skating? Is the space here too small to show off your skills?"

Kogoro Mouri coughed twice loudly, then said nonchalantly, "Yes, yes... it's fine for you kids to play with..."

As the two were talking, Ran and Conan had already quietly appeared behind Kogoro Mouri, and simultaneously pushed him hard with both hands...

"Wow ah ah ah ah -"

Kogoro Mouri slid down uncontrollably, and after managing to strike a fairly cool pose, he crashed into a large tree with a loud bang...

Kudo Kazuma gasped and gave his older brother and Ran a thumbs up.

My own daughter and future son-in-law are really awesome!

After that collision, Kogoro Mouri refused to slip again.

After Kudo Kazuma and his two companions had their fill of skating, it was getting late when they finally went to the villa at the mountain resort.

But when Kogoro Mouri tried to open the door, he fumbled for his keys and found nothing...

"Oh, Dad, did you lose the villa keys?"

"You have the nerve to say that?" Kogoro Mouri said irritably. "It's all your fault!"

"There's no other way, let's call the villa manager. They must have a spare key." Kudo Kazuma waved his phone. "Does anyone have the manager's phone number written down?"

He shrugged as he spoke: "Let me make this clear first, I didn't remember anything. I thought it was just for a couple of days, so there was no need to contact the administrator."

As it turned out, the other three had the same idea as him, and none of them wrote down the administrator's phone number.

"The villas here aren't finished yet and can't be rented. The ski shuttle has already stopped running at this time, and Yizhen's car is parked outside the resort; it'll take a long walk to get there..."

Xiaolan gazed in the direction they had come from: "If all else fails, we'll have to go outside..."

Conan pointed to a private villa not far away: "There's a private villa over there, should we go ask about it?"

Hey!

Kazuma Kudo followed Conan's hand and looked at the private villa where someone was about to die.

Death has called the roll, so where is the next lucky victim?