As people came and went, Hattori Heiji stood at the entrance of the opera house's lobby, momentarily stunned. He quickly regained his senses, but by that time, the excited and cheerful children had swarmed onto the bus.
With a mix of surprise and uncertainty, Heiji watched the clown, who was preparing to board the bus. After a brief moment of hesitation, Heiji immediately rushed towards the bus.
"Wait, hold on!"
Heiji shouted as he saw the bus doors about to close, and he hurriedly reached out and held the closing doors in place.
Seeing Heiji holding the doors, the clown immediately reached for a gun, intending to aim it at Heiji.
"You sneaky guy, hiding something dangerous! Get lost!"
At first, Heiji suspected that the clown had a gun because of the sensation he felt when they collided. Even though it was just a suspicion, Heiji became extremely cautious.
So when he saw the clown's subconscious action that seemed like reaching for a gun, Heiji, who was already prepared, grabbed the gun's barrel the moment the clown tried to pull it out and twisted it away.
At the same time, he grabbed the clown's arm and wrestled with him, boarding the bus together and trying to take the gun away.
Due to his training in kendo, Heiji had great strength, so with just one touch, the clown was at a disadvantage.
In the struggle, Heiji grabbed the clown's shirt, exerted too much force and even tore off a red button from it.
As the button was torn off, it bounced and fell to the ground from the steps.
"Help!"
On the back seat of the bus, a young man sitting next to Conan witnessed this situation and immediately stood up, shouting loudly while struggling to resist.
"Don't move! Behave!"
However, Ryōsuke was just an ordinary person. In the next moment, the short-haired thug on the bus pinned Ryōsuke to his seat, pressing the cold gun against his temple.
At that moment, Ryōsuke was filled with regret and fear.
He never expected to get on the wrong bus and be inexplicably involved in a kidnapping case, where his life could be in danger at any moment.
He deeply wished that time could turn back, allowing him to stay in the hospital by his wife's side instead of being convinced by her to take the night shift. If that were the case, he wouldn't have been caught up in this unlucky situation! Perhaps even his wife never expected such a thing to happen.
Clearly, she encouraged him to work and earn money, but even at the verge of giving birth, she didn't ask her husband to stay by her side.
But now he found himself in danger, and with the progression of the case, there was a high possibility of losing his life. Thinking about his pregnant wife and the child who is about to be born, Ryōsuke's will to survive became incredibly strong. So when Heiji, who seemed to have discovered something, appeared and wrestled with the clown, Ryōsuke immediately stood up to call for help and resist. At the same time, when Conan saw Ryōsuke standing up, he thought he might have a chance to resist.
However, just as Conan was about to take action, he witnessed Ryōsuke being instantly subdued by the thug. Helplessly, Conan had to stop and temporarily hold back.
There were three criminals on the bus, including the clown.
Now the clown was struggling with Heiji, and if Ryōsuke could distract one of them, Conan was confident that he could take advantage of the situation and surprise the remaining one with a tranquilizer needle.
Then, with the coordination of football skills, he could deal with the clown or the other person. With two against one, they had a good chance of winning and turning the tables.
However, the opponent was just an ordinary person, and it seemed like he was weak. He was instantly subdued by the thugs. With a hostage in their hands, Conan couldn't act rashly.
Under the circumstances of one person being paralyzed and one person being restrained, there was a possibility of being killed at any moment. Perhaps to deter resistors, the criminals might choose to shoot the hostage.
Even if they randomly fired inside the bus, there was a high chance of casualties with so many children present.
Thus, that slim chance of victory slipped away from Conan like fireworks.
The thug wearing a black leather jacket and black gloves immediately stood up from the seat behind, coordinated with the clown, and pulled Heiji onto the bus. Then, holding the gun, he pressed Heiji down in the corner seat next to Conan.
With the cold gun pointed at him, Heiji stopped resisting and sat obediently in the back seat of the bus.
At this moment, the situation on the bus was as follows:
Starting from the front row, there were only children of Ayumi and Genta's age, along with one middle-aged woman, Yūko.
In the back row of the bus, Conan sat in the middle of the bench, while two young men were held at gunpoint by the thugs on either side of him.
"Drive."
Seeing that his companion had suppressed the situation, the clown standing by the bus door raised the gun in his hand and coldly ordered the driver, whose face was covered in blood.
"O-Okay..."
The elderly driver, who had been beaten before getting on the bus, was already terrified. Upon hearing the clown's command, he immediately started the bus in a panicked manner.
After the situation was under control, the clown standing by the door finally removed his mask, revealing a gloomy face with long hair.
"I'm sorry, but it looks like you'll have to come with us."
The man in the black leather jacket gestured to his accomplice to move towards the aisle in the middle of the bus, while he stepped back a bit, holding the gun and politely apologizing to Hattori Heiji.
"Hey, hand over your phones!"
Seeing Ryōsuke obediently sitting down, the thug with the yellow hair walked to the middle of the aisle, took out a bag from his pocket, and instructed the children and female teacher around, "Turn off your phones and put them in the bag."
"Excuse me."
On the other side, the man in the black leather jacket pulled Heiji up and proceeded to frisk him. He found Heiji's student ID in his wallet and took his phone as well.
"Well, Heiji-kun, why did you get on this bus?"
"Uh... Actually, I'm with the little girl over there and the children next to her."
Heiji pointed to Ayumi and the others, pretending to be a bit scared. "I promised to accompany them to watch the ice show. I had a stomachache earlier and almost missed the bus."
"Bad luck indeed. It would have been better if you missed this bus."
The man in the black leather jacket looked at Heiji with a hint of regret, returning his wallet to him. "But now I can't let you go."
In no time, after the thug with yellow hair finished collecting the phones, he returned and took out two pairs of handcuffs, restraining Heiji and Ryōsuke, the two young men, behind their backs.
Under the command of the clown, the bus continued to drive towards an unknown destination.
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