Chapter 56 (Previously Chapter 55): A Trial of Black and Red: The Stopped Motorcycle...
She turned and left, as if she had made some kind of decision.
But Conan caught up with Vermouth, grabbed her hand, looked up, and asked through gritted teeth, "Vermouth, who is that person in the Ferris wheel?"
The boy with black hair and blue eyes had bright eyes that cut through all the riddles like silver bullets. He said with certainty, "You emphasized that Curaçao is Rum's man, so the person who dealt with the traitor is also a member of Rum's team, right?"
Moreover, if it were truly dangerous, Vermouth wouldn't leave him behind. Conan looked up at Vermouth, a flash of silver light across his glasses—more of a suggestive reminder than a warning.
After all… he couldn’t help but twitch his lips as he thought about his experience of trying to get close to the organization’s boss through a woman. In those truly dangerous situations, he was taken down by the other party.
Hearing this, the blonde woman, whose steps had been easily halted by the boy, smiled slightly and said, "Oh dear, what a troublesome detective."
However, coincidentally, she was also planning to reveal some information about Bourbon to Conan.
On one hand, she knew that the children who boarded the Ferris wheel were Conan's trusted friends, and the kind-hearted boy would never sit idly by in the face of an imminent crisis.
On the other hand, Bo himself had already worked so hard that he was practically working himself to the bone for this kid.
Knowing how conspicuous a primary school detective investigating the Black Organization's trail would be in the eyes of an undercover agent, she sighed inwardly.
Fortunately, Bourbon needed to obtain information from her that he couldn't access on his own, and she also had something on him. In this unspoken mutually beneficial relationship, Bourbon agreed not to interfere with Conan and Ran Mouri.
She was confident that she would protect her treasure.
"His codename is Bourbon. He's a key member of Rum's team, in the intelligence group but with exceptional fighting skills." The woman, who championed mysticism, revealed her colleague's identity to the child without reservation, bluntly and decisively revealing the most important details.
“However, I do hope you don’t get close to him.” Vermouth moved her wrist to pull her hand away from Conan’s, saying, “Because I’m not exaggerating, cool guy.”
“That man is the kind of person who would kill innocent children and passersby for information.” After saying that, the blonde woman made a shushing gesture to Conan, who was still asking questions, indicating that the exchange should end. “That’s all I can say.”
"As for the rest, you can find out for yourself." Vermouth said, taking two steps forward and naturally taking the hand of the pale-faced Ai Haibara. She turned to Conan and said, "Don't worry, I won't lay a hand on her."
“But Bourbon has been searching for Sherry.” Vermouth pulled Ai Haibara to her side, her beautifully sculpted arms encircling the child, and led her towards the exit like an intimate mother and daughter. She looked down at the tense brown-haired girl and said, “If you don’t want to become someone’s capital for success, come with me.”
As she approached Curaçao and Vermouth, who were talking, Ai Haibara felt a bit suffocated by the aura of the organization's members. However, when she saw the Detective Boys appear in the Ferris wheel, she still mustered all her strength to shout at Zhuge Tongzhi in the stands.
Despite this action leaving her nowhere to hide in Vermouth's eyes, Ai Haibara, half-embraced by the woman, turned her head slightly and gasped when she saw the Ferris wheel billowing black smoke.
The children are still up there.
With her nostrils flaring, she took a deep breath, grabbed Vermouth's sleeve, shook her head at Conan who was about to walk over, and revealed the gleaming detective badge in her drooping hand, which she then clenched tightly into her fist.
Conan stopped in his tracks. Vermouth protectively shielded Ai Haibara as they walked to the tail end of the evacuating crowd, turning her head to say goodbye:
"See you, cool boy."
The serious-looking detective gripped the badge tightly in his hand, turned around, and ran quickly toward the Ferris wheel that was now stuck in motion.
Bourbon—he'd heard the name of this liquor from Agent Judith Taylor, the CIA undercover agent who described him as an expert with "unparalleled expertise in intelligence, insight, and combat skills."
He's an extremely dangerous person. Unaware that Bourbon was a member of the Japanese Public Security Bureau, Conan gritted his teeth, jumped over the railing, ran past the stunned deputy of the Explosives Unit, and headed straight for the passageway leading into the Ferris wheel.
However, the main structure of the Ferris wheel shows no signs of collapse, so there is definitely still a chance for things to turn around!
…
Keep spinning! Why aren't you spinning it anymore?
When the Ferris wheel stopped, Zhuge Tongzhi, who was squatting on the roof of carriage 37, was waiting for a suitable angle to go to carriage 36.
Please forgive the short stature of a six-year-old student like Ke Xue; with her short arms and legs, it would be difficult for her to maintain her footing amidst the rotating steel bars at such a moment. O De's best suggestion was to wait two minutes before taking action.
But after that brief, uneven movement of light and sound, the Ferris wheel slowly came to a stop at a fixed angle, completely ruining Zhuge Tongzhi's plan to wait for the perfect angle.
A massive plume of smoke, accompanied by a deafening roar, billowed from inside the Ferris wheel's main shaft behind her. But in reality, the Ferris wheel didn't even shake. She could clearly sense that the sudden stop was less of a complete jam and more of an emergency brake.
The black-haired girl, bewildered by what had happened, squatted on the car roof, staring speechlessly at the deadly angle before her. Then, she saw the O-D navigation system in the void above her replan a route.
Continue moving 5.6 meters in the current direction.
"Next waypoint: The final three seconds (incomplete)"
A blue and white arrow extended from her feet, tracing an extremely long arc that no human could possibly cross, pointing to a steel pillar above and to the side of carriage 36, where the destination icon was flashing.
Zhuge Tongzhi: ?
What, O, do you want me to fly there?
As if it had heard her inner complaints, the navigation bar quickly updated its prompts.
Please make good use of the tools at hand.
Zhuge Tongzhi raised his eyebrows as he looked at the prompt and pulled out a black grappling hook gun from the satchel he was carrying tightly on his back.
A simplified version of Kidd Poker Gun produced by Dr. Agasa.
These were the tools she had prepared in advance based on Kenji Hagiwara's "kick-the-bento" operation. In addition, the bag she carried all day also contained parachutes for two people and a signal jammer that had been tested.
All of this was due to prior preparation for high-altitude work experience that I didn't want.
“But I haven’t tested the range yet.” Zhuge Tongzhi twirled the gun in his palm with one hand, then gripped it tightly as the handle came to his hand. He aimed at the target marked by O’De with both hands. “Give it a try.”
"Shouting slogans in shonen manga usually leads to unexpected success, right?" The girl, standing alone high in the sky, muttered to herself, stretching her slightly tense shoulders and neck, her eyes fixed on the flashing logo.
The instant the trigger was pulled, the excited voices of children, along with the steel cable fired from the gun, echoed through the windswept space. Zhuge Tongzhi, with his slightly tangled scalp, shouted, "Go—for me—!"
Perhaps the slogan did indeed have a buff effect; the grappling hook accurately wrapped around the target point several times, firmly locking itself to the steel pillar.
Zhuge Tongzhi pushed off the roof of the car with the force of the hook cable retracting, and was pulled by the steel cable to the side and above carriage number 36, following the arc marked by the blue and white arrow.
As Zhuge Tongzhi reached out and grabbed the steel frame entangled in the hook, he pulled himself up with all his might. Suddenly, a noisy electronic voice rang in his ears, speaking amidst a crackling background sound.
"Tong, we've located the bomber."
"Noah's Ark is back!" Zhuge Tongzhi, who was perched on the steel frame like a cat, lit up. While observing the route given by O to board carriage 36, she asked, "How is it?"
The Noah's Ark inside the miniature earpiece replied: 'That person died last night in a car gas tank explosion; their identity has just been confirmed.'
Dead? He fired his grappling hook again, pulling himself toward carriage number 36. Zhuge Tongzhi was stunned when he heard this.
Noah's Ark briefly recounted its actions through the miniature earpiece.
After receiving the scheduled email, it tracked the cell phone signal all the way to the point where the signal was lost. Using the speed cameras along the way, it saw the Japanese version of Fast and Furious chasing Curaçao last night and determined that the location where the bomber lost signal was probably near the place where the explosion occurred.
Noah's Ark quickly identified several suspects based on the personnel list compiled by the Japanese Public Security Bureau.
The AI, which has no physical form, thought that verifying the identity would be very time-consuming, but fortunately the other party was unlucky enough to choose to start from the smallest death list and soon found an object that perfectly matched the criteria.
"...Curaçao shot his fuel tank and used the opportunity to escape into the sea." Noah's Ark finished its summary, quickly setting aside these no longer significant details, and pointed out the key point to Zhuge Tongzhi: "So, no one is watching the explosion site now."
"Ah...no wonder the two bombs on the Ferris wheel base didn't detonate." Zhuge Tongzhi suddenly realized. As the slowly retracting steel cable pulled her directly above carriage number 36, she looked down to check the angle.
“But we still don’t know the exact location of the second bomb. The address is hidden in the three-second countdown before the bomb explodes.” Pressing her finger on the button to release the grappling hook, she frowned and said to Noah’s Ark in her earpiece, “The bomb is set to a timer. It seems there’s no way to do anything but wait.”
Zhuge Tongzhi pre-planned her landing point, pressed the button, and plummeted from mid-air towards the roof of carriage 36. As the wind whipped her hair upwards, she heard Noah's Ark say amidst the increasingly dense noise: 'The second bomb is at Mika Central Hospital.'
"Following the car's trail, I checked the surveillance footage along the way and found its exact route." The calm, electronic voice objectively announced: "Ten minutes ago, I shared the address with the First Investigation Division; the location of the bomb was found 16 seconds ago."
'You can defuse the bomb now.'
"Eh?? Eh!" Zhuge Tongzhi, who had just landed, involuntarily opened her mouth wide upon hearing this. Her shock caused her to stumble as she was supposed to bend her knees to cushion the fall, and she rolled twice on the metal sheet before barely managing to grab onto the edge of the carriage.
"They're trying to contact Kenji Hagiwara and Jinpei Matsuda, but they can't get through on the phone." Noah's Ark's voice was almost drowned out by the thick static.
The poor signal connection redirected to the phone, where it continued typing with data points in the chat bubble: 'Signal jammer is on here.'
Zhuge Tongzhi: Ah.
That might be because earlier, just in case, she had given Matsuda Jinpei an enhanced signal jammer, thinking she had nothing to lose.
Unexpectedly, it had the opposite effect. The girl flicked the tuft of hair on her forehead, but thankfully she had arrived.
So now all she needs to do is tell the people below the latest news. She doesn't need to skydive or make any life-or-death decisions about the trolley problem to kick Matsuda Jinpei's lunchbox away.
There's no need to worry about the bomb-dropping parachutes injuring Ayumi and the others who are just ahead. Zhuge Tongzhi reviewed the situation with some surprise and found that the bomber's actions had caused too many problems.
She likes this development.
Shouting slogans can indeed bring incredible success.
Zhuge Tongzhi dusted off his hands and continued on his way. The girl used a grappling hook to hook onto the steel frame directly above her, and with both hands holding the hook, she lowered herself down the carriage wall step by step, like a rock rappelling.
For aesthetic reasons, most of the carriages were made of transparent glass. After leaving the metal sheet, she missed a step and landed on the glass door that Matsuda Jinpei had kicked and shattered.
Once you find the right angle, you can get in. Zhuge Tongzhi held the grappling hook and swayed it in front of the door.
"Everyone! Good news! The police have found the location of the second bomb!" The black-haired girl swung herself in through a door with a large hole in it, her cheerful voice echoing in the quiet carriage.
Kenji Hagiwara and Jinpei Matsuda turned around at the sound. Just as Zhuge Tongzhi was about to remind them to turn off the signal jammer, the sound suddenly stopped after he took a closer look at the scene in front of him.
There were two figures inside the carriage, one sitting and the other kneeling.
The half-length-haired man, who had been hanging his head, turned around, revealing a handsome face with a bruised eye and a cut on the corner of his mouth. He blinked his watery purple eyes at her and knelt in a very obedient and standard posture.
"Hi, Kiri-chan." Kenji Hagiwara raised his hand to half-cover his cracked lip and greeted the girl who had just joined carriage 36 in a low voice.
Hiss... But Zhuge Tongzhi involuntarily took a few steps back, stepping on the edge of the carriage door, knocking off a few shards of glass. She held onto the carriage door and looked shakily at Matsuda Jinpei, who was sitting in front of the bomb.
The other party was holding a long, powered display screen. The black panel emitted a faint white light, and the bomb below the screen had been dismantled into pieces. Zhuge Tongzhi glanced at it and saw that O had marked "92% dismantled" next to it.
Is this the only remaining power supply unit? The bomb has been basically defused? Zhuge Tongzhi looked at the obvious rapid progress of the bomb defusal and found that this was completely different from the tense scene he had expected, where he dared not make any rash moves. He blinked in bewilderment.
Then, she saw Matsuda Jinpei, who was sitting cross-legged facing the bomb, put down the display screen in his hand, pinch the bridge of his nose, sigh, and turn to look at her. His lips, which usually had a slight upward curve, were now stretched straight.
Didn't I tell you to stay where you are?
The curly-haired officer's voice still carried his unique magnetism, his tone calm yet booming like thunder in Zhuge Tongzhi's ears, the wrench he had modified gleaming under the lights on the carriage ceiling.
There was murderous intent! The black-haired girl immediately broke out in a cold sweat. She swallowed hard, but before she could even defend herself, a blue and white navigation box popped up in the air in front of her:
"Current location has changed; waypoints have been altered."
Next stop: Safe disembarkation (Incomplete)
"You have deviated from your route and are replanning your route."
"Please turn around at the appropriate location."
They could turn around on the spot, but turning around would mean facing Zhuge Tongzhi high in the sky: ...
Hey! You're the one who redirected me here, right?
Don't just change your waypoints on your own and then say I've deviated from the route!
"How am I supposed to get out of the car safely?" Zhuge Tongzhi gritted his teeth and said, looking at the navigation system that was rapidly changing direction. "Wait, let me say a word."
"Could you please turn off the signal jammer, Mazda-sama?"
Soon, another figure appeared kneeling in the carriage.
…
Inside the Ferris wheel.
As Conan ran up the stairs, he adjusted the knob on his glasses to magnify the source of the black smoke, and soon he could see two figures vaguely intertwined in the smoke.
It's Bourbon! He quickened his pace and ran uphill, his mind racing.
So, who is the other person? And how should he face Bourbon? Since the other party is after Curaçao, perhaps…
Bourbon, Bourbon, Bourbon, Conan kept repeating the name in his mind. Finally, he stepped onto the floor where the two people were. As he ran at full speed and rushed out of a corner, a bullet that landed next to his shoe greeted him with a spark.
Conan instinctively took a few steps back and braced himself against the railing. Looking up from where the bullet had landed, the first thing he saw was a dark, smoking gun barrel, with a long, strong hand firmly holding it down.
With his veins bulging, he pressed the muzzle of the gun firmly down, using absolute force to deflect the bullet fired by the opponent.
Conan looked down at the gun and his mouth involuntarily opened.
The hand holding the gun also looked over, his dark green wolf eyes calm and serene as he greeted Conan casually, "Boya."
Mr. Akai? Conan shifted his gaze from Shuichi Akai, who was secretly exerting all his strength, to the blond man who was gritting his teeth and struggling with him, and muttered, "Mr. Amuro."
Bourbon is Mr. Amuro Tooru, who works as a waiter at Poirot Café?
A magnitude 10 pupil earthquake erupted in Conan's deep blue eyes.
-----------------------
Author's Note: I've found that updating after midnight isn't as rushed as usual.
…
On the balcony, one person holds a stick, one person stands, and one person kneels.
On the balcony, one person holds a stick, and two people kneel.
Zhuge: Cleverly using honorifics
…
Conan: What? Bourbon is downstairs from me?
(Pupil earthquake)
…
Mwah
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