Jiang Xia got out of Gin's car and returned to the detective agency. As far as he was concerned, now that the shikigami and murderous aura were secured, the bombing was over and done with.
He casually counted his gains at his desk and, feeling quite satisfied, returned to his daily routine.
Meanwhile, elsewhere, someone was having a much harder time getting back to normal life.
——Conan had been knocked out mid-chase by a needle from an unknown kid. After a chaotic nightmare, he jolted awake and found himself back home.
Ran brought him a glass of water and, as usual, scolded him for running around early in the morning.
But Conan didn't hear a word. His mind was spinning. What happened today was far from ordinary.
The connection between the "Men in Black" organization and this shady business of drugging kids made Conan suspect that the "child" who stunned him wasn't really a kid at all. Maybe they'd been poisoned like him—shrunk down by the same drug and used as part of some miniature spy operation.
He could even imagine the organization secretly training these fake children to pull off shady deeds. Using kids for crimes… yeah, that tracked perfectly with how dark the organization was in his mind.
But then again, maybe not. Setting aside the absurdly high fatality rate of that poison, if the organization had noticed him, they wouldn't need some kid to drug him—they'd just send that towering guy in black to strangle him on the spot. Efficient and on-brand.
So the kid and the tall guy probably weren't working together. Maybe... the kid was a victim too? And didn't want Conan tailing the man in black, so he stopped him with tranquilizer?
A stretch, but… barely plausible. Because honestly, why else would a random elementary schooler just go around tranquilizing another kid?
Whatever the case, Conan was starting to think the fake child didn't mean him any harm—otherwise he wouldn't be lying safely in his bed right now.
He turned to Ran beside him. "Ran-neechan, where did you find me?"
"Second floor," she said, knocking him lightly on the head with mock anger. "You keep running off! Luckily the police helped search for you."
"The police?" Conan sat up straight. "Why were the police involved?"
Ran hesitated for a second. She decided it was better not to tell Conan about the charred corpse from the bombing—definitely not kid-appropriate. So she gave a not-so-convincing answer: "Because... you disappeared, obviously."
Conan wasn't buying it. He guessed there must've been a murder at the press conference. After all, if Jiang Xia was there, that was practically a guarantee. Still, he wasn't sure if the case had anything to do with the organization.
He didn't press Ran further. Instead, he found an excuse to sneak out and head toward the site of the press conference. He silently hoped the man in black hadn't gotten too far.
On the way, he called Jiang Xia.
Sure, Ran might keep things from him because he looked like a kid, but Jiang Xia? In his eyes, Conan was a peer. He'd tell the truth.
But as soon as the call started ringing, it was cut off.
Conan frowned. He tried to call again, but just then the tram had arrived.
Looking out the window, he saw a crowd gathering on the street. A corner of the press conference building had been blown wide open. The inside was a mess of bombed-out debris. Even the parked cars had taken damage—several had flipped over. Thankfully, no one had been inside. As a crime scene, the area hadn't been cleaned up yet.
Conan stared at the small-scale wreckage in stunned silence. He'd assumed it was a standard murder case—he hadn't expected this level of destruction.
...No wonder Jiang Xia didn't pick up. He was probably busy helping the police catch the bomber.
…
Conan managed to sneak into the scene unnoticed, spotting a few familiar faces. But of all people—Jiang Xia was missing.
He grabbed someone nearby and asked, frowning at the answer. "He's already gone? The case isn't solved yet?"
"Yeah," Officer Sato replied, glancing down at the kid who always seemed to tag along with Jiang Xia.
Sensing Conan's doubt, she added, "There weren't any solid suspects today. We couldn't even pinpoint when the bomb was planted. The bag that carried it could've been dropped without anyone noticing, and we couldn't determine its exact location. Even Jiang Xia can't help much without clues—and he had something else to do at the time."
"Something else?" Conan immediately thought of the tall man in black. His heart clenched. Did Jiang Xia spot someone from the organization too?
But apparently not.
Sato flicked Conan on the forehead, looking slightly exasperated. "He was looking for you. We thought you'd been trampled in the chaos. We were all searching for you—why do you keep sneaking off? Where are your parents? What's their number?"
Conan: "…"
Not wanting to be dragged home by Sato, Conan quickly changed the subject to something she might be more interested in—and something he was curious about too. "So, what happened after that? Where did Jiang Xia go?"
Sato paused to think. "When I got back, I saw him leaving with two girls. He told them to head back and said he had something else to do—then he rushed off."
Conan froze.
That scene… it felt oddly familiar.
After two seconds, it hit him: Not long ago, in an amusement park, Kudo Shinichi had said something eerily similar to Ran—then ran off looking serious.
And that night, boom. Kudo Shinichi had turned into Edogawa Conan.
To Conan, the guy in black from the press conference seemed even more suspicious than Gin and Vodka. And Jiang Xia? That guy had observation skills sharper than a blade. If something had happened to him too…
Conan's face went pale. He bolted out the door while Sato gave him a confused look.
He remembered that dropped call from earlier. Now his imagination ran wild—he pictured a younger version of Jiang Xia, clutching the back of his bleeding head, dressed in oversized adult clothes, coldly ringing Dr. Agasa's doorbell…
But then again, Jiang Xia was way more capable than "Kudo Shinichi".
...Which might've actually made it worse. The organization had guns. If they realized they couldn't overpower Jiang Xia, they wouldn't hesitate to shoot.
Suddenly, it didn't seem so bad to just be poisoned and turned into a kid.
*Goal #1: Top 200 fanfics published within the last 30 days by POWER STONES.
Progress: 30/50(approx) for 10 BONUS CHAPTERS
Goal #2: One BONUS CHAPTER per review for the first 10 REVIEWS.
Progress:1/10*