The Detective Agency Hostage Incident
In the end, Sera Masumi went along with Ran and Xia Yu to the Mouri Detective Agency, while Sonoko, having other business to attend to, sat this one out.
Sera felt a twinge of disappointment. It looked like she wouldn't get a chance to get close to Conan today — still, learning more about how Conan behaved whenever Mouri Kogoro cracked a case would count as something gained, she reasoned.
Just as Mouri Kogoro, unable to recall the details of an old case, was breaking into a cold sweat under Sera's probing gaze and wondering what on earth he was supposed to say, three women suddenly walked in through the agency's front door, cutting his stammering short and letting him breathe a huge sigh of relief.
Unfortunately, that sigh caught in his throat — because the moment they opened their mouths, it turned out they too had come all this way for one purpose: to hear Mouri Kogoro tell his detective stories.
As everyone looked on in bewilderment, one of the women — Mitsui Tamami — introduced herself. "We're all amateur mystery writers."
"And friends who got to know each other through SNS on the internet," Yuji Shinobu added.
"Sawakuri said we could hear the great detective Mouri Kogoro tell his stories in person, so we all came together," Nihei Junnaka said, puzzled by Kogoro's reaction. "What — didn't she tell you?"
Hearing this, Ran hesitated before asking carefully, "Um... this Sawakuri you mentioned — you don't mean the mystery novelist who passed away last month, Ms. Sawakuri Miku... do you?"
Xia Yu couldn't help glancing sideways at Ran, her eyes filled with quiet admiration.
In a way, Xia Yu genuinely admired Ran's talent for gathering information. She herself had never even heard the name Sawakuri before, yet Ran, armed with nothing but a single surname, had instantly pulled up everything she knew about the person involved. That really was impressive.
But that Ms. Sawakuri was dead...
A bad feeling settled in Xia Yu's chest at once. Three friends of the deceased Sawakuri Miku had suddenly shown up at the Mouri Detective Agency, the very scene of whatever was about to happen — and it was a pick-one-of-three setup.
Going by the usual pattern, the odds were ten to one that one of these three was the person who had killed Sawakuri Miku.
Xia Yu sighed inwardly. Seriously? Conan isn't even at the agency today, and a case still finds its way here?
"Yes," Mitsui Tamami confirmed with a nod, validating Ran's information. "She was originally a friend of ours from SNS, too."
"Though the one who invited us here today was actually Sawakuri Miku's older brother..." Nihei Junnaka began.
Before she could finish, footsteps sounded at the door, and a man's voice picked up her sentence with a laugh. "That's right! Me."
Taking in the man's unmistakably ill-intentioned grin, Xia Yu felt her premonition confirmed.
Just as Mitsui and the others were asking this Mr. Sawakuri, in confusion, why the great detective seemed so out of the loop, Xia Yu instinctively swept her eyes over him from head to toe, and in seconds caught several details.
Not good!
Her heart sank.
At first glance, the man had a gun in his hand — that by itself meant nothing. If she caught him off guard, even Ran could kick the weapon clean out of his grip.
But far more dangerous was this: he wasn't wearing much in the way of clothing, yet his waist was bulky and swollen, and in his hand he clutched a small black button. There was no mistaking it — he had a bomb strapped to his midsection, and that button in his hand was almost certainly the detonator.
BANG!
Before Xia Yu could think any further, Sawakuri Kaoru fired his gun into the ceiling, and under the terrified stares of everyone in the room, he ordered them all to hand over their phones and line up against the side of the room.
First, Mitsui Tamami and the other two writers fished out their phones and set them on a nearby table.
Then Xia Yu, together with Sera and Ran, took out her phone and walked over to join them.
"I'll take the legs, you take the gun," Xia Yu heard Sera murmur to Ran beside her the moment they set their phones down, laying out the plan to subdue the man. "Then we pin him down, OK?"
Before Ran could answer, Xia Yu quickly grabbed Sera's hand to stop her. "Don't do anything rash — he's wearing a bomb!"
Sera and Ran both turned to stare at her in astonishment.
"What are you dilly-dallying for?! Put them down, now!" Sawakuri Kaoru barked at the two girls who had suddenly frozen mid-motion.
"Alright."
Having heard Xia Yu's warning, Sera and Ran held back from acting, obediently setting their phones down at gunpoint and taking their places along the wall as ordered.
Sera had also spotted the remote in Sawakuri Kaoru's hand, confirming that the bomb on his body was real.
She couldn't help casting a glance at Xia Yu — a fellow detective — filled with admiration. To pick all of that out in such a short window of time? Her observation and analysis were seriously sharp. No wonder she sometimes cracked cases before Mouri the detective could.
Still, even though Xia Yu had stopped the two of them from acting, Sawakuri Kaoru — determined to make Mouri Kogoro take his deduction seriously — yanked down the zipper of his jacket, exposing the bomb strapped to his chest. "Come on! Let me hear some first-class reasoning from the famous detective! Hurry up and find the person who murdered my sister!"