Chapter 43 (Chapter 42) Glacial Ruins: The souvenir has been delivered...
I have ten virtues
Tenth, optimism: So what? I'm not dead yet anyway.
In the blurred vision, the smoke and dust kicked up by the towering flames behind me swept in front of my eyes, and a green and red dot flickered, firmly anchored in the center of my downward field of vision.
Zhuge Tongzhi closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, he focused his eyes for a while before he could see that it was a special identification mark made by O, and someone was hiding in the shadows below.
"Please be aware of pedestrians: Bourbon/Toru Amuro (Rei Furuya)"
A prompt appeared, revealing the identity of the person lurking in the shadows.
Rei Furuya? What's he doing here?
Countless questions suddenly popped into her head, but they were quickly melted into disjointed words by the high temperature. The pain from her rapidly pounding and contracting heart had rendered her unable to think.
In a field of vision composed of smoke, firelight, darkness, and patches of lamplight, only O's navigation page remained clear as ever, guiding her next move:
"Current path: Restart countdown and dazzling magic show (99% complete)"
"Waypoint: The Curtain Falls on the Rooftop (Incomplete)"
"A vehicle ahead has braked suddenly. Please drive carefully."
Zhuge Tongzhi looked down and saw that Ireland, the first and heaviest of the birds to be thrown down, had landed on the ground, its white parachute withering away like a blooming firework.
The girl twitched her lips speechlessly, staring at the progress bar that was just a hair's breadth away from completion, and exhaled a hot breath: The curtain call isn't over yet...?
That's right, it's a magic show.
Anticipating his descent, Zhuge Tongzhi raised his hand high above Kidd's head. In the brief moment before Kidd flew over, he reached into the inside pocket of his clothes, rummaged around for a while, and pulled out an emerald that still shone brightly amidst the dust and smoke.
"Zhuge, when did you take it?!" Conan's eyes widened. He went through their route to the rooftop in his mind, and after recalling where the girl had stopped, his face darkened. "You actually had time to pick the lock?"
"Cough, it's just borrowing a trick left by the predecessors." Zhuge Tongzhi covered his mouth and coughed, handing the 'Glacier Ruins' to Phantom Thief Kid, and pointed down, saying, "There are Public Security officers down there. You take Conan and Hattori and go first."
"I'll be fine." She raised her hand to stop Conan's question, pointed to the path of moonlight shining through the smoke and dust, and smiled, "Third time's the charm. Go find a place with bright moonlight, KID."
“Inspector Nakamori should be at a nearby hospital.” She flashed the detective badge on her palm at Conan, its red light indicating it was operational flashing in the night. “I’ll contact you later, Conan.”
"If you find that the location is no longer moving, you'd better come and get me." After saying this, Zhuge Tongzhi put two fingers together on his forehead in a rather cool manner, then pressed the lock of the parachute and jumped down.
"Hey!" Conan shouted urgently, and saw the girl land precisely on Ireland, roll on the ground, and stop steadily, waving at them.
"Let's go, I'll take you back to Ran's place first." Kaito Kid grabbed Hattori Heiji by the collar, quickly unfolded the now useless parachute, and, using the fluttering white fabric as cover, circled along the outer edge of the exhibition hall towards the main entrance.
A girl dressed in all black, almost blending into the night, stood still and quickly disappeared from sight. Conan took out a matching detective badge from his body and began to check her real-time location on his glasses.
Seeing the red dot on his glasses begin to flash steadily, he crossed his arms and looked at Kidd, who had a poker face, with dissatisfaction, saying in a sarcastic tone, "Kidd, you're not allowed to call Ran 'Ran'."
"And, shouldn't you return my identity to me?"
Kaito Kuroba, having broken free of the smoke and dust, looked down at the large crowd being evacuated by the police. He found a quiet corner and put Conan and Heiji Hattori down. He smiled slightly at the boy who was looking at him with his hands in his pockets: "Lend me yours one last time, I'll return it to you right away."
"See you at the next performance, Great Detective." The snow-white magician elegantly gathered his cloak and disappeared into a cloud of white smoke, eliciting belated screams from the surrounding crowd.
But before the news could spread, the obvious uproar in the center of the square drew everyone's attention to the giant goddess sculpture standing in the middle of the crowd. A tall, slender figure stood on the stone scales that the goddess was raising to the crowd.
"It's Kidd!"
The crowd erupted in commotion, and the police officers maintaining order pushed their way to the statue of the goddess. But with all their preparations disrupted by Ireland, they could only look up and watch as the magician pulled out a jade-green gem under the moonlight and examined it closely in the moonlight.
"It's a pity that this is not the gem I'm looking for."
Bathed in the clear moonlight after the smoke and dust had dissipated, Phantom Thief Kid put away the dazzling gem in his hand. His cloak billowed high to one side in the wind, and his figure, so small against the backdrop of the giant statue, resembled a white dove about to take flight.
"Kaito Kid, since this isn't your target, return the jewels!" The policeman under the sculpture shouted amidst the screams of Kid's fans.
“Ah, I will naturally return the treasure.” Kaito Kuroba turned the brim of his magician’s hat, revealing a mysterious smile beneath the lowered brim, and said in a low voice, “However, I really can’t trust you all, since you can’t even recognize the imposter commander.”
"Rest assured, I will entrust the 'Glacier Ruins' to someone trustworthy." Under the moonlight, the magician bowed slightly to the crowd, and the moment he leaped from the fingertips of the goddess statue, his cloak transformed into a triangular glider and flew out of the square.
"The magic show is over."
As the last note faded, a flock of white doves suddenly appeared where he had just stood and flew down to the crowd below. The already boiling screams and cheers reached their peak at this moment, changing the panic and unease that had previously enveloped the people.
Kaito Kid makes a grand exit.
"That bastard..." After hearing the other party's last two sentences, Conan understood what he was going to do with his identity. Only then did the boy, whose face was covered in dust, have time to lift his sleeve and wipe his face.
"Ah, so the detective competition ended in a tie." A voice sounded from behind.
"This hardly counts as a competition," Conan replied casually. Only after saying that did he belatedly turn around and look at the person walking behind him. Heiji Hattori was rubbing the back of his neck, looking up at the departing figure of Kaito Kid.
"He was the one impersonating you, wasn't he? Damn it, I didn't even realize it." Hattori Heiji clenched his fist tightly. As soon as he got excited, he felt dizzy and his head was throbbing. He had to support his forehead with one hand to steady himself.
"Ah, hahaha, what are you saying, big brother?" Conan raised his head to look at the grinning Hattori Heiji and said in a sweet voice, "Kaito Kid is impersonating Shinichi."
"Stop pretending, I was just dizzy for a while."
Heiji Hattori released his grip, bent down to get closer to Conan, who was grinning sheepishly, and said speechlessly, "How could I possibly sleep through all that explosions?"
"Oh dear, this is really strange. You must be hallucinating."
Haha, I should have given you anesthesia back then.
Heiji Hattori and Conan stared at each other for a while, then the dark-skinned high school student straightened up and said nonchalantly, "Fine, then I'll go tell Ran that you're Shinichi."
As he spoke, he looked down at his phone and flipped through his contacts, pretending to make a call. He walked into the crowd, turned his head slightly to look at Conan, and said, "Anyway, you're not Shinichi Kudo, so it's just a joke."
That Osaka-accented bastard.
Conan gritted his teeth, stepped forward and grabbed the other person's black and gray coat, his voice, no longer feigning childishness, regained its composure, and said helplessly, "Okay, I admit it, is that alright?"
"That's more like it. Don't worry, Kudo." Heiji Hattori put down his phone, which he had been swiping around on, squatted down, gave Conan a thumbs up, and grinned, "I, Heiji Hattori, will definitely keep your secret."
"Thank you so much." Conan revealed his crescent-shaped eyes.
"Shall we go find Kazuha and the others now?" Hattori Heiji, rubbing his head which seemed to be concussed from the shock, slowly stood up from the ground and looked at the bustling crowd. "There are too many people here."
“They’re not here.” Conan looked down and scrolled through his phone, then showed the text message page to Heiji Hattori. There was a message from Ran Mouri: “Ran and the others went to the nearest hospital.”
"The people in the exhibition hall's medical room, as well as the injured audience members, all went there." Conan closed his phone and put it in his pocket, then looked up at Hattori Heiji, who had also confirmed this through his own text message, and said, "You can go there and meet up with them."
"Aren't you going? Are you going to find that girl?" Hattori Heiji replied to Toyama Kazuha's text message on his phone, saying that he was safe and sound but his phone was out of battery, and then turned off his phone.
"Hmm." Conan glanced at the police blocking the road behind him, pulled up Zhuge Tongzhi's location on his glasses, which showed that he hadn't moved an inch so far, and said, "Ran is going to find Zhuge. I need to take her there to explain."
"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go, Kudo." Heiji Hattori waved to Conan, who was frowning and planning the route, and ran towards the parking shed not far away, shouting, "I rode my motorcycle over."
Conan, who originally wanted to keep more uninformed people out of the matter, shut his mouth, caught the white helmet that Heiji Hattori threw to him, and nimbly climbed onto the back of the motorcycle.
“Turn right ahead, we need to go to the back of this building.”
"Okay, hold on tight!"
The dark green motorcycle roared past the road closure sign and sped off into the gradually extinguishing flames and thick smoke.
…
Under the firelight, thick smoke swept across the land.
In front of two withered white parachutes on the ground, Zhuge Tongzhi struggled to his feet, swaying as he stood up and looked at the blond figure emerging from the shadows.
In her blurred vision, the other person's figure, distorted by the mist in their eyes, gradually magnified, and black, white, and gold blocks were grafted together, suddenly sketching a picture before her eyes.
The air was thick with the smell of smoke and fire. From a strange perspective, she looked out from the flames and saw Rei Furuya, whose figure was distorted by the intense heat, rush into her field of vision.
The man's face beneath his blond hair was tense. Seeing the raging flames before him, he stopped in his tracks, made sure he was in the right direction, and rushed toward her without hesitation.
Zhuge Tongzhi blinked, and the serious expression on Furuya Rei's face overlapped with the expression of the other person gritting their teeth in the picture. One was backed by the night, and the other was facing the bright fire.
Ah… A hand rose in her field of vision, holding a gun that gleamed in the firelight, the muzzle lowered and aimed at the feet of the newcomer.
The fingers wearing black tactical gloves tightened on the trigger without hesitation, and Zhuge Tongzhi's hand subconsciously made the same movement.
A series of intense bullet explosions filled the field of vision. In the scene, Furuya Rei barely managed to stop and took a step back, but in reality, Furuya Rei grabbed her outstretched arm.
Ah, without realizing it, he reached out his hand following the image. Zhuge Tongzhi was brought back to his senses by this advance and retreat that was so different from reality and illusion. He clenched his five fingers, which were in a gun-like position, into a palm and slashed at Furuya Rei's outstretched arm.
However, the standard posture could not make up for the lack of strength. Zhuge Tongzhi's legs swayed due to the violent contraction of his heart, and the next moment, his vision began to spin. When he focused again, he was in close contact with the parachute cloth covering Ireland.
The moment he tried to move his head, the person behind him pressed him down firmly. Zhuge Tongzhi simply released all the strength he had, which was now completely incapable of fighting against Furuya Rei, and focused his mind on adjusting his disordered breathing.
It's so hot, so burning, and my heart hurts so much.
"El, what have you remembered?" Furuya Rei's cold voice sounded from behind, pressing her head to turn her face to the side, revealing the girl's flushed cheeks.
"Answer me, who are you now?" But Bourbon didn't loosen his grip. Instead, he pulled out a bottle of water and poured it into the girl's panting mouth while calmly asking, "What's your name?"
"Pfft, cough cough cough, cough cough..." Zhuge Tongzhi's brain, which was about to be set on fire, felt a little better because of the cold water that entered her mouth. Broken sentences entered her brain's processing system in an unorganized manner. She didn't quite understand what the other party wanted to ask.
"Ireland, a souvenir for Xiaoguang." She moved her lips, which had been briefly moistened but were now chapped again. Her pupils were slightly unfocused, and her mind was organizing fragmented words as she whispered, "Don't be angry, Zhuge, it wasn't intentional."
Having caught the key words, Furuya Rei exhaled and relaxed the force that had been restraining her movements. The girl under his grasp immediately curled up to protect her heart.
The blond man used one hand to support the girl whose skin was burning hot and seemed to be steaming, letting her lean her weight on him, and with the other hand he picked up the unconscious Ireland on the ground, leading the two of them deeper into the alley.
"Yeah, Hiro, I've picked them up. I..."
The tearing sound of tires screeching against the ground during a drift rang out simultaneously with the painful screams of the girl in his hand. Furuya Rei, who was in contact with Morofushi Kagemitsu, paused, catching a glimpse of two bright motorcycle searchlights flying closer from afar.
"Okay, then I'll bring Ireland with me."
Furuya Rei grabbed the Irish gun and flung it into the depths of the alley. He then helped Zhuge Tongzhi, whose body was trembling violently, sit down against the wall and left a tracker on him before the searchlight shone into the alley.
Having done everything, the blond figure flashed past, dodging the searchlights that shone directly into the alley, and quickly disappeared around the corner, carrying Ireland in his hand.
The bright spotlight illuminated the little girl leaning against the wall at the alley entrance. The girl, wearing sportswear that was obviously too big for her, barely managed to lift one eye to look at the source of the glaring light.
"Zhuge!"
Conan jumped off the motorcycle, stepped over the parachute fabric where Ireland had disappeared, and ran towards Zhuge Tongzhi, who had transformed back into an elementary school student.
After recognizing who it was, the girl with short hair soaked in sweat closed her eyes and leaned back against the wall. Her tightly clenched fist finally loosened, and the detective badge with Sherlock Holmes' silhouette rolled out of her palm.
"Hang in there, I'll take you to the hospital!"
Heiji Hattori took off his oversized coat, packed up the girl Conan had helped up, and put her in the back seat. As soon as Conan got into the back seat, he turned on the accelerator.
The motorcycle sped towards the nearest hospital like an arrow released from a bow.
…
At this moment, in the hospital.
Ran Mouri once again received the same answer from the nurse.
There were no children transferred from the infirmary, and no six-year-old elementary school students with high fevers.
How could this be? That's exactly what that person told me. Ran Mouri's fingers gripped the edge of the information desk tightly, her lowered eyes filled with regret and self-reproach.
It's my fault for not protecting my two children. It's all my fault...
"Hey, Shinichi? Where did you just run off to?" Sonoko Suzuki's loud voice rang out from behind. Ran Mouri turned around abruptly and saw her childhood friend, who had disappeared all night, suddenly appear in the corridor behind her, standing in front of a hospital room.
Ran Mouri was stopped in her tracks by Sonoko Suzuki. The woman turned her head and looked at her. Her face was exactly the same as Shinichi Kudo's. But Ran Mouri, who was about to go over to ask for help, suddenly stopped in her tracks. She had never realized it so clearly before.
This person is not Shinichi.
The strange feeling between the two, the sudden disappearance at night, the appearance of Kid, and the sudden appearance at this moment... these doubts that only Ran Mouri could connect have now been connected into a straight line, pointing to the truth beneath the mask of 'Shinichi Kudo'.
"Sonoko! Get out of the way!" Ran Mouri yelled at the oblivious Sonoko Suzuki, charging towards the imposter with a leap, raising her fist high against the imposter's unchanging poker face. "He's Kaito Kid!"
"What?" Sonoko Suzuki subconsciously took a step back as her childhood friend had told her, and then watched as Ran Mouri's fierce punch struck a snow-white cloak that was fluttering up.
Where Shinichi Kudo used to stand, now stands a magician who has turned aside to avoid Ran Mouri. A slight smile plays on his lips behind his monocle, and he holds a coin in his hand.
Ran Mouri slammed her fist into the door frame of the ward, and the entire piece of wood embedded in the wall immediately broke apart inch by inch. The originally closed door lost its support, wobbled twice, and then crashed into the hospital corridor.
Kaito Kuroba, whose expression remained unchanged, felt his heart clench violently with the sound of the door closing, and he silently swallowed hard.
In the hospital room where the door had suddenly disappeared, Nakamori Ginzo, with his head wrapped in gauze, turned around in a daze and met the gaze of Kaito Kid, who was looking up at him.
Seeing that the other party had regained consciousness and was able to move freely, Kaito Kuroba breathed a sigh of relief and smiled as he said to Ran Mouri, who was slowly turning her fist back to him, "Oh dear, lovely lady, please don't be so angry."
Ran Mouri didn't engage in his words. She put her hands into the starting stance of karate and unleashed a series of punches and flying kicks. The intense exchange forced Kaito Kid, who couldn't use the playing card gun in crowded places, to dodge to the side.
However, his original intention in coming here was not to cause trouble. Kuroba Kaito, who was secretly groaning, raised his hand to block the girl's terrifying side kick, and then did a backflip to move towards the ward where Nakamori was.
The seemingly suave phantom thief finally seized the opportunity when the passage was cleared, and shot a playing card into the ground in front of Ran Mouri's feet, causing the battle-hardened girl to temporarily stop in her tracks.
He breathed a sigh of relief, looked at Nakamori Ginzo behind him who was still confused about the situation, and conjured a red rose out of thin air, dropping it into the water glass in Nakamori Ginzo's hand.
"It's so nice to meet the real you, Officer Nakamori."
As he spoke, he dodged Ran Mouri's attack and swept past Ginzo Nakamori. The moment the white magic cloak disappeared from his sight, the snow-white figure had already perched on the windowsill like a white dove.
Ran Mouri was about to chase after him into the ward, but then she heard hurried footsteps behind her, and Conan's urgent shouts reached her ears: "Please help us, she has a high fever!"
She turned her foot and saw Conan leaning against the counter talking to a nurse, and Hattori Heiji holding Zhuge Tongzhi in his arms.
"Conan! Zhuge!" Ran Mouri abandoned Kaito Kid and ran towards the boy who had turned around by the counter. "Where did you guys go?"
Meanwhile, in the hospital room, Nakamori Ginzo, who had been knocked unconscious with a stick shortly after arriving in Osaka late at night, was still caught up in the events. He took the red rose from his water glass and asked in bewilderment, "Kid? What's going on?"
"Time waits for no one, Inspector Nakamori." Phantom Thief Kid lightly touched his lips with his finger, revealing a carefree smile as he leaned out the window. Nakamori Ginzo quickly rushed over and clung to the windowsill.
In the night breeze on the fifth floor, a white streak of light flashed past his eyes, leaving behind a greeting before disappearing into the night.
Get well soon, and see you again.
Confused, Nakamori Ginzo reached into his pocket to take out his phone, but his fingertips touched a hard, cold object. He opened his palm in front of his subordinates who rushed into the ward, and a shimmering emerald appeared in his hand.
"Sir, you've retrieved the 'Glacier Ruins' from Phantom Thief Kid!" the subordinate announced excitedly. "You've done a great job!"
Ginzo Nakamori: What? What happened?
A cheer erupted from the ward that had lost its door, mixed with Officer Nakamori's unanswered questions, while at the other end of the corridor, Zhuge Tongzhi was placed on a hospital bed.
A cool, fever-reducing patch was gently applied to her flushed forehead. The girl, startled, regained some consciousness. When she opened her eyes and saw the bright lights on the hospital ceiling, she seemed to vaguely see snowflakes falling into her eyes.
A woman's lighthearted laughter rang in her ears: "Tong, come look at the snowman I built."
Who is it?
The other person's voice changed instantly, and they snapped, "Tong, get out! Now!"
The burning sensation was fleeting.
Zhuge Tongzhi's burning hands gripped the edge of his clothes. The fragmented images gradually disappeared from his eyes as the pain in his heart subsided. The mixed sounds and singing were gradually turned down in volume.
As her consciousness gradually reached the threshold of hazy awareness, she saw an extremely magnificent and dazzling rose window in the pitch black, its bright colors like a beautiful gap that had been torn open in the sky.
Sunlight streamed through the glass, turning into colorful rays that splashed into her dark eyes, the jewel-like hues colliding, intertwining, and overlapping.
As the light and shadows drifted and swayed, her thoughts and consciousness lost their connection.
…
The doctor gave the child, who needed to cool down quickly, an IV drip.
Conan and Ran Mouri stayed by their side, while Kogoro Mouri frowned and began composing a text message. Heiji Hattori was pulled aside by Kazuha Toyama, who couldn't get through on the phone, to ask about the situation. Soon, the two started arguing.
Doctors and nurses rushed back and forth in the corridor, taking care of each patient who had been injured in the exhibition accident that night.
Wearing a hood that covered his face, Morofushi Kagemitsu's cell phone vibrated in his pocket after Kogoro Mori pressed send, but he only glanced inside the ward before turning and leaving the hospital, which was still bustling with activity late at night.
"Zero, still can't find the surrounding surveillance footage?"
"...Okay, I'll go there now."
Morofushi Kagemitsu stepped into the thick of the night and headed toward the two's safe house—he wanted to take a good look at that 'souvenir'.
…
"Current path: Restart countdown and dazzling magic show (completed)"
"Waypoint: The Curtain Falls on the Rooftop (Completed)"
"Final route plan generated: 35.17%"
-----------------------
Author's Note: Hattori: Concussion confirmed, truth confirmed, Kudo confirmed.
This is the only undefeated winner in this major event.
Conan: I saved a bottle of wine, but it was immediately given away.
Another day of working myself to the bone without getting any intelligence.
Zhuge: Hiss! It's so hot! So hot! So hot!
Since I'm still alive, an optimistic person should enjoy the world first (thumbs up).
Kidd: That's terrifying fighting power! I don't have time to explain, Uncle Nakamori, I'm off!
Another day of replacing Shinichi Kudo's peace dove
Nakamori: What? I did something right? (Huh?)
…
A loud announcement! Morning Star! Tonight after dinner!
I won a hidden item from the Detective Conan manga themed series badges!!! (Splashing confetti)
Is this the buff effect of writing a crossover between Kid and Conan? (wiping away tears)
I'd also like to share this good fortune with everyone.
I've collected 4,000 items today! So happy!
Mwah
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