A/N: Well, gents, 'tis the end at last. After last chapter's fluffy conclusion, I thought it'd be nice to come back to some last deduction of this case, ne? One thing I liked writing in this story was that Ran was the detective from the beginning, not Shinichi, and I figured it was only fair to let her close the case.

Disclaimer–I'm not Japanese. Therefore, I cannot be a mangaka. Therefore, I'm not Gosho Aoyama-sensei. Therefore, I don't own DC. Therefore, I don't make any money with this fic. QED. xD

-

Clear As Day

-

'You can't propose till after you've solved the mystery. That's a law, in detective novels.'

Connie Willis

-

The morning after came as mornings after go–sunlit and saccharine-sweet until more essential desires forced themselves upon them. Briggs, it seemed, was omniscient; for when Shinichi opened the bedroom door to go fetch some breakfast he found a two-plate tray waiting just outside the threshold.

"He must have calculated to the second the moment when we'd start being hungry," he commented, carrying the tray back to the bed where Ran was busily arranging the covers. "The coffee is hot, and the milk's cool."

Ran smiled and patted the empty pillow beside hers. "He does that."

He settled down, handing her the tray to avoid breaking anything. "So he does. This is reassuring." He shook his head, laughing. "Even after a day of revelations, and despite all the romanticism of last night, the heroes are still feeling humanely ravenous in the morning."

"Romanticism," Ran repeated disbelievingly. "All I can recall is you breaking all my barricades and pushing me against my last fortresses with your infectious love declarations. And making me panic in the middle of the night."

"It was necessary."

"It was grossly unfair."

"Well, it led us to here and now, didn't it?"

She looked over at him–relaxed and naked from the waist up, head resting against the pillow and tilted just so, with a smile twitching his lips and a bowl of coffee between his hands, a marmalade-coated toast resting on the tray on his lap–and away. "… yeah."

"Aww, Ran. Look at me." His voice was laughing, and when she reluctantly turned back he swiftly moved to kiss her–and he tasted like oranges and coffee and something burning and peaceful, and she should be pushing him away and the tray was falling over, but.

In the end they did manage to catch the tray back before it toppled off the bed and onto the carpet, and though Shinichi was laughing like some madman and tried to spoon-feed her toast and cereal, it was a good breakfast. The sunlight was slanted against the curtains, and the room seemed to bathe in some swaying gold sea, and it should have told her much about the time and the day and good lord we should get up, but it didn't.

"You know what's strange," she said later, completely out of the blue, while he was happily gone into kissing at her collarbone.

"Hmm'?"

"This." She took his head between her hands and lifted it to hers, blue eyes meeting blue and locking there and to the stray smile, the slow upturn of his lips. "Us. If there hadn't been a study in Sonoko's house, Hiragami-san would never have thought of attacking me here. If he hadn't started this whole business, Sonoko would never have called for me, nor I for you. If Hiragami-san hadn't attempted to kill me, we wouldn't be here."

He blinked, and settled more comfortably, elbows on each side of her. "True," he said, frowning. "So what's your point? This is all a big coincidence?"

She knew the words were wrong as soon as they'd escaped his mouth. "No. I'm just saying it's–strange."

He laughed softly, and lifted a hand. "I swear, Ran, you're becoming more mystery-obsessed than I am. I guess you're really taking after both your parents after all–Eri-baasan in the lawyer side and Occhan in the–"

"Hey, be careful what you say here," she swatted at him. "There is no becoming more mystery-obsessed than you are, you nerd. Proof is, you didn't even decline when it was I who called you here." She cocked her head at him, smile softening into something else. "Why did you really?"

He was silent for a moment. "… Good question. I think at the time I thought a case was a case and I couldn't very well be called professional if I couldn't handle it with personal feelings getting involved–and I guess there must have been truth in that. But God, Ran, how I wanted to see you."

She frowned at him, fingers grazing against his cheekbone. She had felt it too–the professional side of the matter, the urge to see more and more and more of him every day, as every day passed–but hearing him say it gave her the­... feeling. What. That something was wrong. That it couldn't have been–that there was no way it could all have been–coincidence that they should have met again, here, now, after so many years, so many words.

'… is it worth calling for the police–because that's precisely what I want to avoid. Or some paid detective?'

Who had said that again?

"Ran?" Shinichi said, covering her hand with his own on his cheek. "Is everything alright?" and she hummed in response, trying to catch at the feel–the sensation of that knowledge just escaping. It was that first day in the mansion, and–

'Do understand, Ran–this cannot go on.'

Sonoko. Sonoko that first day when she had showed her the cards and the thin folder, trying to convince her there was need for some private detective, there was absolute interdiction in calling the police, it was better if she looked into it herself.

'Why, it's Mouri Ran-chan! Have you come to visit Sonoko-chan, or do you intend to investigate out local mystery?' Araide, the same day, and– 'that lady here demands to know what exactly we are here for. Do you have an idea, by any chance?' 'Not in the least.' Akira-san and Kenjin–no Hiragami-san, in the evening. Sakagushi-san. 'I think you ought to be very careful, Mouri-san.'

'It's your decision if you had rather endanger your lives in lieu of your study. What is it all about anyway?'

Herself, after the wreckage of Makoto-kun's office–and there had been no answer.

'They all seem to have gathered here under circumstances entirely coincidental – they never talk of anything concerning a work of any kind – their study is making no sense at all. If there is a study, that is'

'Have you ever witnessed something that makes you think there isn't one?'

'All the time. Everyday.'

'Then there probably is one.'

Shinichi and her, that first day he'd arrived, and things were lightful and bright, like a black fabric suddenly lifting to reveal–to reveal–

Asama-san, the day after Sakagushi-san was shot. 'I suggest we call for Kudo Shinichi.'

They wouldn't have dared.

"Ran?" Shinichi sounded genuinely concerned by now, and even more so when she scrambled away and out of bed, groping wildly for clothes. "Ran–what the hell–?"

"I–I've got to ask Sonoko something," she gasped, pulling on a pair of his jeans–she couldn't very well go out in her nightgown, not when the sun told her it was already so late, and oh god if she was right Sonoko was going to pay for this.

She grabbed an overlarge shirt and slipped into it, then bending quickly to kiss him. "Stay here. I'll be right back. Love you," and nearly ran out of the room, trying to order on her dishevelled locks. She was barefoot, but her room was on the far other side of the floor, and she needed to see Sonoko as soon as possible.

"Aah–Briggs, please," she called out to him, meeting him by the staircase. "I'm looking for Sonoko. Do you know–have you seen her?"

"Suzuki-sama is in the library," he responded, and then gave her bare feet a critical glance. "Do you wish for me to bring you a pair of shoes while you meet her there, Mouri-san?"

"Yes, please," she called over her shoulder, already fast on her way. The library door was ajar, and she burst through it noisily, startling Hikaru-san half to death and Sonoko into gasping her heart out.

"Sonoko," she panted. "You didn't–you haven't dared–"

"Ran–"

"Ran-kun, what is the–" Megure-keibu cut off, and she suddenly felt strongly Shinichi's clothes upon her skin, far too large and way recognisable for someone who had known them all their lives. Never mind. She went on heedlessly.

"Sonoko, please tell me the study wasn't all a prank."

Sonoko looked sheepish.

"Oh, my god," Ran breathed. "It was? All this? the aggressions? Hiragami-san?" She still felt the cold, cold fingers around her throat if she thought about it–there was no way, no way this could all have been a, a, a matchmaker's joke…

"No," Araide said suddenly, rejecting the mere idea. "It wasn't."

"Yes, it was," Sonoko said, still sheepish-looking. Ran glared at her. "But Hiragami-san–well, Kenjin-san he was at the time, I would never have thought–if I had known, I never would have–it was all for your sake, Ran," she finished lamely. "Kudo-kun–"

"–was none of your business," Ran hissed, blistering. "It had been ten years–"

"I just wanted you two to have another chance at this!"

"You could have arranged a blind date or something," Ran snapped, and just as abruptly felt much, much too tired to go on arguing. "I… you didn't have to go to such lengths. Hiragami-san endangered other people than I–Hikaru-san, Sakagushi-san–"

"Well, actually he didn't aggress me really," Sakagushi-san interjected. Her tone was casual, but when Ran looked over her eyes weren't. They were serious and calculating, sizing her up, weighing up the opportunities, estimating possibilities.

"So you did shoot yourself," she said wearily. "The mirror–"

"–was a risky try," Sakagushi-san admitted. "But it was worth it. It worked completely. Even Kudo-kun was fooled."

"You are not meaning that you shot yourself because you wanted to assist Sonoko's matchmaking scheme," Ran said sullenly.

"I didn't really. I've had my eye on you for a long time, Ran-san. Your mother is an old friend of mine, and after she retired she asked me to help you up. I owed her one," she added, as amusedly as her deadpan voice allowed her to. "It was a good opportunity to check on your capacity and see if you deserved your mother's trust."

"So you shot yourself simply to see if I could solve this case," Ran said, as disbelievingly as though Sakagushi-san had just tranquilly announced she was looking forward to marrying Takagi-keiji. "… you're crazy."

"Nobody ever said lawyers weren't," Sakagushi-san replied peacefully.

Ran swirled back on Hikaru-san. "But your aggression wasn't faked."

She shook her head decisively. "No. But–"

"Our guess is this," Megure-keibu interpolated. "When Sonoko-chan called me back this morning, it was to tell me what their scheme stood as. The case of the anonymous letters was faked at the start–each guest was to make their own and present them as though they had found them, but each was also supposed to create an incident that would hint at a dangerous maniac on the loose. The main point was that no guest was in the confidence of the others, so none ever knew who had done what. That was, if I understand well, to avoid any slip-ups when you came to interrogate them."

He glanced at Sonoko, who inclined her head. "The short-term objective was to create such an incident that would entice you into calling for Kudo-kun. The long-term was to create such a case that would draw you closer together and provide for some, err… moments."

Ran glared at her some more. "… right." She pondered on it. "So the faked aggression on Sakagushi-san was supposed to be that trigger to calling Shinichi–it was, actually," she said. "But the letters–and the wreckage of Makoto-kun's office occurred before Sakagushi-san shot her own shoulder."

"Well, you see, we thought it was one of the other guests' idea of a remarkable incident," Asama-san said from his seated position by the door. She had had her back turned to him, and he'd been so quiet she hadn't even noticed him. "Of course it struck us as… violent and perhaps unnecessary, but nowhere near dangerous. The number of letters, however–letters we didn't make ourselves, letters we really found–increased over the following week, and when Hikaru-san was aggressed, we understood something was off-tune. No one in their right mind would think of endangering a pregnant woman for the mere purpose of matchmaking."

Ran looked at his grim expression, and recalled how all the guests had been flustered and panicked by the tale the day after the aggression, and nodded bleakly.

"But you had noticed something was not right," she said, to Sakagushi-san. "That night I arrived­–you showed me all the letters you had received. Some of them you must have made yourself, but others were the ones Hiragami-san had sent you, right?" (She could still remember her surprise at the number of letters, Sakagushi-san's grim face in the glow of the fireplace.)

The older lawyer frowned. "… indeed. I thought something was suspicious at the time. I would, however, never have suspected what happened next."

"… so what you are trying to tell me is," Ran said, "that you all–all the guests, without exception–were called upon by Sonoko for this? for matching me and Shinichi together?" The scheme sounded far-fetched and alien to her ears, but then again, this was Sonoko.

She glanced at Araide and his wife, and Sakagushi-san, standing next to them. "The three of you I can understand, and Asama-san also, I suppose, as I suppose you know my mother too. But Akira-san? Kenjin-san? Ebihara-san?"

"Kenjin-san I asked myself," Sonoko said, still sheepishly. "Well–Hiragami-san he is really. Ebihara-san–well, as he is an industrialist, I thought it'd help the serious-looking side of the study. I figured I might as well ask him–I thought he'd say no, but he accepted immediately."

"Because this was the perfect setting for that blackmail scheme of his," Ran said thoughtfully. "And he called Akira-san here, I suppose."

"Yes–he acted very helpfully at the time, saying we might as well invite Akira-san, he was a young man whom the matchmaking, mystery-making scheme was likely to amuse much. Now I see his purpose in doing that, of course," she added, chagrined, "–had I not had this idea in the first place, we would have avoided both the blackmail and the murder attempts. Ran, I–"

"It's all right," Ran cut in, now sorry she had been so harsh. "If you hadn't, Ebihara-san would have blackmailed Akira-san anyway and might never have been called, and Hiragami-san would have tried to kill me nonetheless, and might have succeeded. It was actually your original idea of calling in a detective and solving a case that uncovered both crimes." She thought of something. "What about Ikenami-san? I refuse to believe she poisoned herself–with a weak heart, too–simply to help–"

"Ikenami-san is a better actress than you think," Asama-san said, now rather amused. "You would be surprised to meet her real self–Sonoko's matchmaking idea enthralled her in the first place."

That couldn't be right. "It can't be right," Ran voiced. "Shinichi told me–"

"That was a, ah… protecting measure," Shinichi said, from the doorway. "At the time I didn't know exactly what place you occupied in this, Ran. I hadn't understood all of this–" he addressed a self-deprecating nod in Sakagushi-san's direction, "but I had guessed some of it. I suspected, rather, that there was more than simply met the eye in Hiragami-san's case. In fact he simply used Sonoko's idea to murder you, Ran." His lip was set as marble. "Clever of him, wasn't it."

You know that if I find you've lied about anything else, Ran's eyes glared at him, I will never repeat last night again.

He gave her a crooked smile.

"So the case on Ikenami-san was more complex than it looked, too," he went on. "What else was faked? The screams? The poison? I know for sure Hiragami-san put more poison in the medicine, for there was far too much than anyone, especially a surgeon, would ever put in."

"I have been to see Ikenami-san," Sonoko said, "while Ran was still out cold. She said she hadn't put any poison in the medicine in the first–she had just taken her medicine when she screamed. At the time she wanted to pretend someone had broken in her room. Then, apparently, she felt the effects of the poison, and screamed again–rather to alert people and get some help than because of pain, really."

Shinichi gave her a Look. "Why didn't you tell me that yesterday? You, too," he told Sakagushi-san, "you never told me you had shot yourself, after we'd solved this case."

"I thought you, ah… were busy enough at the time," Sakagushi-san said delicately just as Sonoko opened her mouth to respond, and Ran flushed just like a schoolgirl, and Akira-san stumbled upon them all with a backpack on coasters and a travelling coat thrown over his arm.

"Well, gents," he said, seeing them assembled in the library and looking back at him in silent query, "I'm off. My train's at one. Asama-san, you said you'd drive me over–"

"I will," Asama-san said, and stood up. "Just let me get my things."

"Megure-keibu," Akira-san said, looking in the inspector's face more squarely than he had dared the day before, "if you need me for this blackmail affair–"

"I'll reach you," Megure-keibu said, completely poker-faced. "I have taken your coordinates from that butler person. And don't worry overmuch, boy," he added, not unkindly. "A good lawyer'll find you a loop to get out of this, and there are three excellent right here with us."

Akira-san smiled feebly and followed Asama-san out.

"You're leaving, too?" Ran asked Sakagushi-san, who was edging towards the door.

She smiled at them. "My job here is complete. Our job here is complete," she said, with a toss of her head in Sonoko's direction. "What about you–the two of you. Are you staying some more?" She hadn't thought about that. Last night, she had to admit, she hadn't had time to think.–She glanced over, uncertainly, at Sonoko.

"I'd be glad to keep you here a few more days," her friend said immediately. "To make up. Unless you'd rather not–I guess this place mustn't hold very happy memories for either of you," she said, ruefully.

"It wasn't all bad," Ran said.

"No," Shinichi agreed. "Some… parts… of it were excellent."

Ran glared at him half-heartedly. Sakagushi-san laughed. "Well, then," she said. "Goodbye. We'll see each other again soon." The 'at Hiragami-san's trial' remained unsaid, and Ran was grateful for that. She didn't know if she was ready to deal with that yet. Maybe Sonoko was right, and some kind of vacation was in order.

Sonoko followed Sakagushi-san out, with a mouthed–"Take your time"–and Akira-san coming prattling down the stairs again, he stuck his head in the door.

"Goodbye, everyone­–oh, it's just the two of you. Well–" he scratched his head in a gesture widely reminiscent of Takagi-keiji, "I was glad to meet you, despite–everything. Be sure to invite me at the wedding," he added, winked exaggeratedly, and skipped out again.

Ran was definitely feeling like a schoolgirl all over again, if the heat of her cheeks was any indication.

"Busted," Shinichi said beside her, and his voice had the laughing, flippant quality of the high school detective he once was–almost there, but not quite. "It's clear as day." His arms sneaked carelessly around Ran's waist.

"Do we have to be so stupidly embarrassed and cheesy as when we were seventeen?" she mumbled, not too loud, for his breath was coming out just right above the shell of her ear, and that was completely distracting–if anything.

"Hmm," Shinichi said. His forehead bumped against the back of her head. "We have ten years of life without one another to catch up on after all."

"Maybe what's worth caring for isn't what we've lost but what we've managed to save," Ran murmured, but she wasn't quite sure what exactly she meant. Shinichi's mouth was pressing against her hair and whispering insanities, and the sunlight, as Briggs pulled open the front double door, broke free and streamed on the hall's tiles and flooded in the library.

-

And. The End. Dun dun dun.

(Well, not exactly the end. An omake ami-chan asked for is on its way in my bunch of Christmas drabbles–that should be coming up tonight. –is being gagged by muse before she gives plot away-)

Time for thanks, minna–it sounds terribly cliché to say I wouldn't have finished this without your reviews and feedback, but it's true. You've been beyond awesome, and trying to write up to your expectations was what made working on this story so enjoyable. I have others on the way, which I hope you'll like as much. :D

Cookies for you? cookies from me. X3