Shūichi Akai didn't spend too much time guessing the other person's motive for staring at him. He figured that even if he was exposed, his FBI identity wasn't something everyone knew. Besides, the other person didn't recognize him... So, he just regarded Fujino as a detective with excessive curiosity, the type who would stare at anyone suspicious for a while. After all, he had done the same for a period back then, and just thinking about it was embarrassing.
Conan: "..." Are you insulting me again?!
...
After a brief stare, Fujino didn't pay too much attention to Shūichi Akai's appearance. Aside from the spoilers in his memory, even if he had to guess, he could probably figure out the reason for his appearance. Vermouth was right here. The motive couldn't be more obvious.
Shifting his gaze back, he looked at Ai Haibara. At this moment, Ai Haibara was completely frozen under the suppression of the double evil auras. Her small hand clutched his larger one, her head lowered, trembling like a small animal.
"What's wrong?" Fujino gently patted Ai Haibara's head with his other hand.
"N-Nothing..." Feeling the warmth on her head, Ai Haibara forced herself to focus, her voice a little hesitant as she stammered, "I just... feel a bit cold."
"The weather is really strange today..." Fujino squinted, looking at the bustling street outside the car window. Pulling his gaze back, he took off his suit jacket and draped it over her. "It's getting cold. Don't catch a cold like Professor Agasa."
"Okay..." Ai Haibara tugged at the lapels of the jacket, nodding.
"Hey! Look!" Genta's voice suddenly called out.
Fujino turned around and saw him pointing at two men who had already changed into ski wear and were carrying ski board bags, looking at them as if they were rare animals. "They changed into ski wear so early, how weird."
Fujino looked closely at Genta and sighed. Shouting so loudly... Couldn't he be more discreet when calling others weird? When it came to doing reckless things that courted disaster, this kid honestly had some talent.
Just then, as if they had heard Genta's words, the two men suddenly turned around, a cold glint flashing in their ski goggles. Suddenly, they pulled out two handguns from their ski board bags, pointed the dark muzzles at the people inside the bus, and shouted sternly, "Everyone stay in your seats and don't move!"
"New Detective Career Mission detected! Please check!"
Along with the men's shouts, a system prompt suddenly echoed.
[Detective Career Mission: Bus Hijacking Case
Mission Objective: Subdue the two armed robbers hijacking the bus
Mission Reward: 2 million Japanese Yen, 200 Detective Reputation points]
Fujino closed his eyes, checked the Detective Career Mission, then opened them and looked at the two unfortunate individuals in front. "These two idiots actually came..."
"?!"
The people inside the bus were clearly startled. As a city of crime, the crime rate in Beika had always been high. They were already used to it. But hijacking a bus... that was truly rare.
Sitting next to Jodie, Vermouth also looked up, observing the two robbers with interest. They actually came to rob a bus... If they were robbing a bank, she could understand, but what the heck was robbing a bus? The risk and reward were completely disproportionate, weren't they? Had the entry barrier for criminals become so low nowadays? Her expression couldn't help but show a hint of helplessness, revealing a touch of the haughty queen's disdain for little shut-ins.
Conan looked at the two robbers, also deep in thought. Like Vermouth, who concluded that these were two idiots, he also believed they were foolish criminals whose brains were underdeveloped and whose cerebellums were completely undeveloped.
Ai Haibara, who had just calmed down, was startled by the two as well. Her small hand clutching her collar tightened slightly, her eyes unfocused, her face pale, looking somewhat at a loss.
As for the two FBI agents, they made no move, just silently observing the actions of the other party. Although their eyes revealed the pleasant surprise of "work is here," the sudden appearance of the robbers in this situation clearly interrupted their plan.
Seeing that the crowd didn't react, one of the tall, thin robbers suddenly felt he had lost face. After all, he was a robber, an armed robber. Was this lack of reaction for real? Thinking of this, he tightened his grip on the handgun, fired a shot "bang" at the ceiling above his head, and then shouted loudly, "I said, all of you sit honestly in your seats and don't talk!"
"Ah—"
A gunshot pulled everyone back to reality. A woman in the front with long coffee-colored hair recovered her senses and let out a scream.
"Are you looking for death?!" The robber was also annoyed by the scream, turning his gun towards the woman. "Did you just ignore what I said?"
The woman saw the gun pointed at her and quickly covered her mouth, not daring to make another sound, fearing that a bullet might not miss its mark the next moment. Screaming was wrong, not screaming was also wrong. Was this robber's mental state also a bit abnormal? Fujino looked at the robber, silently complaining in his mind.
Meanwhile, Conan had already taken out his tranquilizer wristwatch. He flipped open the cover of the watch, aiming the crosshairs at one of the robbers. But after thinking and thinking, the tranquilizer dart was still not shot. Finally, he sighed and could only close the watch.
Leaving aside whether his tranquilizer dart could directly hit a robber wearing a ski suit from such a distance, just knocking out one person wasn't a solution. There were two robbers, and he only had one tranquilizer dart. If he knocked out one, the other would inevitably notice. He didn't dare to gamble whether the other person would start shooting randomly at the crowd after seeing his accomplice fall.
The moment Conan put the tranquilizer dart away, the robber who was pointing the gun at the crowd suddenly felt a chill on his neck, and an unpleasant premonition of being lower on the food chain arose in his heart. And this premonition wasn't just one. It was just that the previous one was very obvious...
He raised his head and scanned the interior of the bus, but he didn't spot anyone strange. In the front row, there were a few young men and women, as well as some office workers. In the back row, there were some children and two old men. The only ones who could pose a threat to him were a man completely covered up who looked sickly, a胖 old lady, a foreigner, a beautiful woman who didn't seem to have any fighting ability, and a young man in a white shirt who looked somewhat familiar...
Wait, a young man in a white shirt? Several news reports and several familiar faces suddenly flashed through the robber's mind. Wasn't this the high school detective?!
The robber suddenly understood something, then pointed his gun at the young man and said in a deep voice, "You, stand up for me."
"Me?" Fujino, who was watching the drama unfold, was called out and was clearly stunned for a moment.
"Yes, you!" The robber frowned. "You must be that high school detective, right?"
Everyone's attention was also drawn by the robber's words, and they all looked at Fujino.
Fujino was somewhat surprised that the robber recognized him. But he also felt it was reasonable. In this world, detectives were almost the bane of robbers, becoming targets of special attention, so it didn't seem like a big deal.
However, Kogoro-ojisama was usually not recognized by criminals, and those criminals rarely recognized famous detectives. Why didn't it work that way for him? This wasn't *Konan* logic...
Fujino thought for a moment and stood up, looking calmly at the robber.
"Don't move! Just stand there and put your hands up!" The robber was startled, pointing his gun at Fujino in a panic. Although the detective kid's performance was not abnormal, in his eyes, he was like a fierce tiger, as if he would eat him in the next moment. To a group of robbers who used bombs to rob jewelry and had their own standards, detectives were monsters!
"I've done what you said, is that okay?" Fujino was a bit speechless at the other party's overreaction, raising his hands helplessly.
"What happened?" At this moment, the other somewhat fat robber also noticed the situation behind him and asked the tall, thin robber who was pointing the gun at Fujino.
"Come and see for yourself..."
"Fujino Dōji? That great detective and police consultant for the Tokyo MPD?" The fat robber clearly knew more about detectives than the thin one, and immediately called out Fujino's name. "How is he on this bus too?"
"Don't worry about that for now. If we have this kid, we'll have more bargaining chips." The thin robber gestured to the left with his gun. "You, come with me."
Fujino understood his meaning and slowly walked towards the front of the bus.
"Fujino-oniichan..." The Detective Boys looked at Fujino, all showing worried expressions.
Ai Haibara also raised her eyes, her pupils somewhat unfocused. Although she hadn't recovered from her fear, compared to that, she was more worried about Fujino's safety.
Conan also frowned, his gaze towards the two robbers starting to become unfriendly. Fujino was pretty annoying, but he couldn't just watch him get into trouble. In a way, the other person had saved him many times. If the other person didn't know his identity as Shinichi Kudō yet, he would definitely drag Fujino into dealing with the Black Organization together.
But why did Fujino's reputation somehow feel even more well-known than his used to be? The robbers actually recognized him...
The two robbers followed behind, walking to a position near the driver's seat. Then the fat robber pointed his gun at the driver. "You, drive quickly, hang up the 'Returning to Depot' sign, and stop at the next traffic light. I want to call the bus company."
"Y-Yes... Yes!" The driver was clearly extremely scared and stepped on the accelerator, starting the bus.
Once the bus started moving, the thin robber glanced at Fujino and then said in a deep voice, "In this situation, you should know what to do, right?"
Fujino: "..." What the heck are you talking about if you don't say it... Can the riddle-sayers just die already!
Fujino sighed helplessly. According to his memory, now should be the part where they collect phones. If he were to act now, he was confident that he could take down both of them immediately and throw them out the window. But that would be too conspicuous... Especially with everyone inside the bus being extraordinary. Although he wasn't afraid of bullets or anything, others were. Taking down the other party was easy, but the troublesome part was stray bullets. If a stray bullet randomly hit the head of a lucky audience member, he would probably be labeled with some strange title immediately.
Helpless, he could only take out a spare phone from his portable space and hand it to the other party. "Here, the only phone I have on me."
"..."
The thin robber snatched the phone, stared at Fujino, and then ordered the fat robber, "You go search him."
Fujino: "..." Why is this robber so cautious?
The fat robber patted Fujino down, confirmed that he had no other phones, and nodded.
"Consider yourself lucky you were honest, otherwise you would have been eating lead." The thin robber snorted coldly, but his voice was clearly lacking in confidence. Perhaps because of fear, the thin robber's attitude towards Fujino was exceptionally arrogant. It was like a tiger being bullied in the plains by a dog. It was only natural for a usually high and mighty great detective to fall into his hands and not try to assert his presence.
Turning his head, he shouted at the people inside the bus again, "You all saw that, right? Honestly hand over your phones. If anyone tries to pull a trick, don't even think about making a call for the rest of your lives!"
When it came to cooperating with criminals, the law-abiding citizens of Beika were quite自觉. The bus continued to drive at its usual speed and soon stopped at the next traffic light. The two divided their tasks clearly: one went to collect the phones, while the other used the bus driver's communication device to threaten the bus company dispatcher: "You damn idiots listen up, we have hijacked your bus. We have only one demand: release Kunio Yajima, who is currently in prison. Tell the police that if they don't release Kunio Yajima, we will kill one passenger on the bus every hour. The first one will be their police consultant from the Tokyo MPD, Fujino Dōji!"
That's right, what they really wanted to do was to threaten the police to release their boss, who had robbed a jewelry store with bombs a month ago, was accidentally arrested afterwards, and was now still in prison. After all, they weren't idiots; they naturally wouldn't do something like hijacking a bus just for money... Of course, as criminals, they wouldn't talk about loyalty or anything like that. The reason they risked rescuing their boss was entirely because only their boss knew the location where they had hidden the stolen treasure. Without the location of the treasure, their robbery operation would have been in vain. After thinking about a countermeasure, they prepared this plan to threaten the police.
Conan, who often paid attention to cases, naturally understood this point instantly. And Fujino, who was watching the two, suddenly felt speechless. So, he had become a bargaining chip. However, using him to negotiate with the police to increase their chances of success was indeed possible. After all, no matter how you looked at it, he had some connections within the police headquarters and was even a police consultant, so he could be considered half one of their own. When considering the situation, the police would definitely have some scruples.
The professionalism of these robbers made Fujino feel a bit outrageous. Not only did they know to catch the detective first, but they also knew to use the detective to negotiate with the police, and they even prepared handguns, explosives, and a whole bunch of other things... They planned to blow up the entire bus and eliminate any witnesses once their boss was released. These people were no different from terrorists, were they?
(End of this chapter)