Scarred Akai
But Jodie quickly pulled herself together, setting aside her ill-timed emotions.
"I came with my ward, Qiqi..." Baizhu murmured, resting a hand on the girl's head — which earned him a puzzled upward glance from Qiqi. "She and her friends came to the bank to make a deposit."
Jodie nodded, then briefed him on the situation outside. "There are still four robbers out there, all of them armed..."
Before she could finish, Baizhu suddenly clapped a hand over her mouth. Jodie's eyes went wide, and she stared up at him in utter bewilderment.
Baizhu's expression was taut as he signaled her to stay silent, then lowered his voice to a whisper. "Shh... someone's coming!"
At that very moment, Qiqi lifted her head, looked at Jodie, and gave a soft, expressionless warning. "Someone. Coming. Two."
At Qiqi's words, Jodie's gaze sharpened instantly into wariness. Her eyes snapped to the door, her whole body tensing, ready to react to whatever danger might come through it.
The children, sensing something in the air, each clapped their own hands over their mouths with admirable discipline, doing their best not to make a single sound.
Conan's face grew grave. He fixed his eyes on the door, mind racing. He had no way of knowing whether these two were carrying guns — and if they were armed, the situation would become exceptionally messy.
Seeing that Jodie had grasped the situation, Baizhu released her and communicated with a look: they would each take one side of the door, and together subdue the robbers the moment they came close.
Conan had been planning to stay out in the open where he could help with a tranquilizer dart if needed, but unfortunately, Qiqi dragged him bodily into a stall, paying absolutely no heed to his struggles — prompting Haibara to silently mock the fact that he couldn't break free of a little girl.
The footsteps drew nearer. The first robber to enter the restroom wasn't holding a gun, but he was alert, and immediately sensed that something was off by the door.
Realizing she'd been made, Jodie acted decisively, engaging him at once.
The robber behind him, meanwhile, recognized the woman lying in wait as that meddlesome busybody from the bank lobby, and hurried into the restroom, leveling his gun at Jodie.
There was no time to lose. Baizhu dispatched a thread of YouSi ZhiLing to strike the armed robber's pressure point, making his fingers spasm open so that the gun slipped from his grasp, then hit the back of his neck with the same technique.
Across the room, the two locked in combat caught the movement and glanced over. Joy flickered in Jodie's eyes — one down, and only the robber in front of her left.
That robber's eyes were frantic, his movements turning rushed and desperate, and from the looks of it he was preparing to kick up a huge ruckus and summon the rest of his crew.
Jodie read his intent at once. With the other robber no longer a threat, she no longer had any reason to hold back for fear of making noise — and she promptly knocked him cold.
Three robbers down. Only the two remaining in the bank lobby now.
With the situation improving, Jodie conferred with Baizhu about going over to scout things out — to see whether they might find a chance to take down those last two as well, before too much time passed and someone else got hurt.
Baizhu agreed without much hesitation.
When they heard that Ms. Jodie and Dr. Baizhu were going after the robbers, the Junior Detective League, freshly emerged from the stalls, could contain themselves no longer and insisted on helping too.
Baizhu thought it over — and agreed.
After all, these children were far too proactive for their own good. Left to their own devices, there was no telling what they might get up to. Better to keep them under his nose.
Still, he made a point of telling them not to wander off, and assigned Qiqi specifically to keep an eye on Conan — the single most unpredictable variable among them.
The others couldn't help sneaking a few snickers at that.
A dark line crawled down Conan's temple.
Hey, was that really necessary? I have plenty of self-control, thank you very much.
The operation began. The group crept toward the lobby and huddled against the wall, observing the situation.
"Ah! It's the Professor!" Genta whispered, pointing to a spot in the middle of the crowd.
"Thank goodness, the Professor's okay," Ayumi said, her face blooming into a smile.
The tension in Haibara's expression eased as well. She had been quietly worried all this time that the Professor, left sitting out in the lobby, might have been hurt — seeing him unharmed put her mind at rest.
Jodie's eyes swept to the back of the crowd, and there he was: the man with the burn-scarred face, the one she'd brushed past earlier, so strikingly similar to Shuichi, still sitting on the floor unharmed. So it hadn't been a hallucination after all — and she breathed a quiet sigh of relief.
But was he really Shuichi?
Baizhu sensed the turmoil beside him and turned to Jodie with a questioning look.
Jodie remembered that Baizhu had met Shuichi a few times — that he knew him somewhat, and could probably judge more objectively — so she couldn't help pointing toward the man and asking for Baizhu's opinion.
Baizhu followed her gaze and, sure enough, spotted "Scarred Akai" bound with adhesive tape, seated among the hostages at the rear of the crowd.
Baizhu knew exactly who this was — Amuro Tooru, disguised as Akai Shuichi to test the FBI — but needless to say, he couldn't say so.
"He certainly does look a great deal like Mr. Akai," Baizhu said, after pretending to study the man carefully. "But I'm inclined to believe he isn't Mr. Akai."