As she watched the children line up to enter, Mouri Ran spotted a figure and suddenly froze.
She muttered in confusion, "Conan? Wasn't he uninterested in games?" ...Why had he run in to play too? He even looked like he was in a hurry.
Seeing her worried expression, Suzuki Sonoko smiled.
She removed the egg-shaped badge from her chest and generously placed it in Mouri Ran's hand:
"Go on! Guardians should naturally fulfill their duty of 'taking care of bratty kids'—I don't have the patience for that, so I'll leave this glorious mission to you."
Mouri Ran froze. She was no longer a child, so of course she knew how precious this badge was, and instinctively wanted to decline.
—Although Sonoko said she "didn't like playing," something that had just happened told Mouri Ran that there were surely quite a few people who claimed they "didn't like playing," only to charge straight in the moment the game experience opened... like Conan just now.
Perhaps... Sonoko standing before her was one of them too?
"I'm not like that little brat who says one thing and means another!" Suzuki Sonoko saw her hesitation and slapped her shoulder. "I'm really completely uninterested in games—alright, hurry up. It's about to start."
Only after hearing the certainty in her voice did Mouri Ran accept the badge.
She waved goodbye to Suzuki Sonoko and entered the stage where the Cocoons were arranged.
Suzuki Sonoko watched her enter, then yawned. With all the little lightbulbs gone, she planned to head to the banquet hall to chat with Jiang Xia and relax—games were nowhere near as pleasing to the eye as handsome guys. Besides, Jiang Xia seemed to have been getting busier lately. They had far fewer chances to travel together...
Thinking this, she turned to head