With such favorable clues in hand, Officer Sato and Officer Takagi were excited and naturally wanted to start the investigation immediately.
Conan and Heiji's friends, Ran and Kazuha, were also there to help.
At this moment, the two girls had already learned about Conan and Hattori's suspected kidnapping and were filled with shock. Following that, an endless worry engulfed them.
Fortunately, both of them had been through many challenging situations before, and at their core, they were strong girls. Moreover, this wasn't the first time Conan/Kudo and Hattori were involved in a case. They quickly regained their spirits.
When they learned that the ticket stubs could help identify the culprit's fingerprints, the two girls volunteered to help.
This kind of simple and extensive investigation didn't require any technical expertise. Moreover, at this moment, it was time for a manpower-intensive search. By saving manpower here, the search scope could be expanded. So, Satou readily agreed to their request.
"Detective Senichi, we're counting on you for Conan and Hattori!" Ran said to Senichi before they left.
"Please, rescue Hattori and the children!" Kazuha looked at Senichi with hope in her eyes. "We're counting on you!"
"Oh, don't worry. Leave everything to me," Senichi said with a faint smile, his calm demeanor seemingly comforting the two young girls in their anxiety.
Without wasting any more words, the two girls quickly got to work on sorting the ticket stubs. Senichi asked Ayako to accompany and take care of them, while he headed towards the location where the blue bus had parked.
After meticulously searching every inch of the area, Senichi indeed found traces that suggested a struggle between Hattori and the clown.
And there, quietly lying on the ground, was a red button.
Senichi recalled the clown's previous outfit and was almost certain that this button belonged to the jacket with a star pattern that the clown had worn.
Carefully collecting the button and placing it in an evidence bag, Senichi immediately asked Toshiro-san to extract the fingerprints from the button.
The clown's disguise was undoubtedly changed inside the theater; there was no doubt about that. Otherwise, such an obvious appearance would have been stopped by security.
And if the change of clothes occurred in a place like the restroom, there was a good chance that the person left behind fingerprints while getting dressed.
As a detective, it was essential to share comprehensive information with colleagues. When the situation suddenly arose, Hattori was unsure of the circumstances and approached the bus to confirm the situation. But after confirming the situation, he didn't expect the clown's reaction to be so intense, and the two instantly began struggling, leaving no chance to gather information.
Perhaps considering the worst-case scenario of being subdued by the culprits, Hattori, in the midst of the struggle, tactfully pulled off a button from the clown's outfit.
He believed that Senichi's deductive reasoning and insight would discover this button and understand the information he had worked hard to leave behind.
And Senichi didn't disappoint. He found the crucial clue left behind by Hattori's quick thinking!
This was the unspoken understanding between detectives!!
....
The silver bus came to a stop once again.
After the door opened, the children obediently formed a queue under the watch of the criminals and entered an old, rundown building.
"Get in!"
Accompanied by Yellow Hair's rough command, Hattori Heiji and Ryōsuke, two young men, were forcefully pushed into the building after the children entered a dilapidated room.
The long-haired man held his gun to Hattori's head, while the man in the black leather jacket looked at the kidnapped group and said, "Rabbit, give them their food."
Upon hearing the man in the black leather jacket's words, a chubby man whom Conan and the others hadn't seen before, approached with a large box of meals and placed it next to Conan.
Afterward, the man called Rabbit untied the handcuffs that restrained Hattori and Ryōsuke, without showing any concern that they might resist.
Conan and Hattori naturally understood the other party's confidence. After all, with four armed individuals, overpowering them would be simple.
Once everything was arranged, the man in the black leather jacket was about to leave the room with the man nicknamed "Rabbit," but Ryōsuke suddenly called out to him, stopping him in his tracks.
"Um... I think I was brought here by mistake... Does that mean I can't go back?"
Perhaps it was because the man in the black leather jacket had been relatively calm throughout the journey and wasn't as agitated, Ryōsuke suddenly spoke up and made a request, "My wife is about to give birth! Her due date is tomorrow! Please..."
"Congratulations, but I'm sorry, we can't let you go back yet. Please rest here tonight," the man in the black leather jacket replied to Hattori's question and then turned to everyone else. "If you don't make any reckless moves, we won't harm you."
As the rusty iron door closed, leaving only the hostages inside, the children, who had managed to hold back their tears due to fear and intimidation, could no longer contain themselves and began crying loudly.
Even the experienced young detectives, Ayumi, Genta, and Mitsuhiko, were affected by the crying environment. Tears involuntarily welled up in their eyes amidst the loud cries of the other children.
"They're still just children after all..." Conan sighed and then walked towards the three of them to encourage them. "Don't cry, you three. We're the Detective Boys! Let's pull ourselves together. We still have to save everyone and get out of here!"
"But..." Ayumi said disheartenedly, "The criminals have guns, and we're trapped here."
Mitsuhiko's body trembled as he said, "We saw the faces of the culprits. Will they kill us?"
"No, I haven't eaten enough eel rice yet. I don't want to die..." Genta, with a look of despair on his face, held his stomach.
"Hey, it's not the time to be thinking about eating," Conan's expression dropped upon hearing Mitsuhiko's words.
"Don't worry, Conan and I will definitely save you all," Hattori Heiji said, looking at the three kids and pointing to himself with a smile. "I'm the 'Great Detective of the West.' I'm very capable, you know. I will definitely rescue all of you!"
"Really?" the three kids looked at Hattori Heiji in a daze and asked.
"Ah, of course," Hattori Heiji reassured them, patting his chest. "The reason I caught up with you was because when I collided with the clown, something felt off, so I stopped the bus. And I also left information for Detective Senichi. I believe Detective Senichi will rescue us soon."
Upon hearing that Hattori Heiji was able to sense the presence of a gun from just one collision and that he had left information for Detective Senichi, the three kids quickly became energized.
"Then, let's start by comforting the other children with Yūko-sensei." Conan, seeing the three regain their spirits, smiled and led them into action.
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