One Kick Sends Him Flying
Next, Xia Xi watched as Ms. Judy, seizing the moment she tripped one of the hijackers, quietly flipped the safety back on his gun.
Xia Xi grew even more speechless. The more she watched, the more convinced she became that these hijackers were hopelessly unprofessional — how could they not even keep track of whether the safety on their own weapon was engaged?
Just then, the hijacker stationed by the driver's seat at the front of the bus laid out his demands to the police contact at the terminal: the release of Kunio Yajima, the ringleader of the jewelry heist arrested a few days earlier — or he would shoot one passenger every hour. Then he said he would make his next contact in twenty minutes.
Though Xia Xi had planned to play things by ear, she hadn't intended to wait that long. But what options did she actually have for neutralizing all three hijackers at once? Or how was she supposed to tell Conan who the inside man at the back of the bus was, so he could take them down with a tranquilizer dart? She didn't know Morse code, and that was turning into a real headache.
Huh?
Xia Xi saw one of the hijackers, who had been positioned at the front of the bus, suddenly stride straight toward the back. He passed right by her and stopped beside Conan's seat behind her.
It turned out Conan had been caught using his earring phone to call Inspector Megure and report on the situation inside the bus.
The hijacker seized Conan by the collar and hauled him up, bellowing, and was just about to slam him down to the floor when Xia Xi, quick as a flash, caught him before he could hit the ground.
Then, while the hijacker's attention was elsewhere, she leaned in close as she held Conan and murmured into his ear, "The woman chewing gum at the end is the inside man. There's a bomb in her ski bag."
Conan could be reckless, but Xia Xi trusted that with his brains, once he understood the situation he'd know exactly what to do.
Conan had already braced himself to be slammed down when he was hauled up, but when Xia Xi caught him, he let out a breath of relief — and then, hearing her whisper, his eyes went wide with shock.
Over the time they'd spent together, he'd gotten a fair measure of her abilities: Xia Xi genuinely had a knack for cracking cases, and sometimes she'd even spot the culprit a step ahead of him — though her methods were always rather strange.
Conan had no idea how she knew these things, but he did know she would never speak carelessly about matters like this. If she'd said it out loud, then she was already sure of it.
Meanwhile, Vermouth, still disguised as Dr. Shinzou, had also noticed the small exchange between Xia Xi and Conan.
She had obtained Conan's medical records during the health checkup at Teitan Elementary and had already more or less confirmed that Conan was the missing Shinichi Kudo. When Conan was about to be slammed down, she had felt a flicker of worry — but with no real danger to his life, she had restrained herself, unwilling to let Judy, sitting right beside her, notice anything special about her concern for the boy.
Now, watching Xia Xi's obvious protectiveness toward Conan, she began to wonder: this girl, so closely tied to Gin — did she too know that Conan was Shinichi Kudo? And more than that — Gin himself, who had been keeping such a close eye on Xia Xi... could he know as well?
It seemed she would need to find an opportunity to probe a little.
"What do you think you're doing? He's just a child!"
Once she saw that Conan had understood her meaning, Xia Xi set him down, turned on the hijacker who would lay hands on a kid, and shouted at him at the top of her lungs.
The hijacker was momentarily stunned by the force of her presence and took an involuntary step back. Then he recovered, grew even angrier, raised his pistol, and trained it on her. "Do you even understand the situation you're in?! Settle down right now, or I'll shoot!"
"Then go ahead and shoot!" Xia Xi took a few steps forward, pressing herself right up against the muzzle.
Please. This hijacker couldn't possibly have failed to notice that the safety on his own gun was switched off... right?
"Xia Xi / Miss Xia Xi..."
The children and Dr. Agasa, none of them understanding what was really going on, anxiously murmured her name in low voices, begging her not to be so rash.
At that moment, the other hijacker noticed the commotion and, too uneasy to stay put, came over as well.
Xia Xi registered his approach, and with her right hand still in her pocket, she condensed a small pebble out of Geo energy — then whipped it out and flung it at the newcomer, the one whose gun still worked.
"Thwack—" The hijacker crumpled to the floor on the spot.
The other hijacker snapped back to his senses and immediately leveled his pistol at Xia Xi to finish her off — only to find the trigger wouldn't budge. He froze for a split second, and in that instant Xia Xi's foot slammed into his stomach.
The passengers watched, dumbfounded, as the hijacker was kicked all the way from the rear of the bus to beside the driver's seat, where he collapsed and lay motionless. For a long moment, nobody could react at all.
Whoops, Xia Xi thought. Seeing him about to pull the trigger made me a little hasty — I couldn't quite rein in my strength in time. Still, I avoided anything vital. He'll be fine... probably?
Meanwhile, the inside man at the very back — her attention pinned entirely on Xia Xi and the hijacker — had her whole situation resolved when Conan, seizing the opening, quietly took her down with the tranquilizer dart from his wristwatch.
Conan had barely finished dealing with her when he turned around and witnessed Xia Xi booting a hijacker halfway across the bus, and his mouth twitched.
Miss Xia Xi's combat prowess was as impressive as ever. Honestly, he was starting to feel a little sorry for these hijackers.
With that, Xia Xi saw that Conan had subdued the inside man as well. The incident was resolved, clean and complete.
She had to admit, she and Conan made a pretty good team. Well — naturally. They had been through so many cases together, after all.
Xia Xi retrieved her phone from the bag that had dropped beside one of the hijackers and called Inspector Megure, filling him in on the situation and telling him there was a bomb aboard the bus, so he should bring bomb-disposal specialists along when they arrived.
The driver, finally registering that the hijackers had been dealt with, found his moment and brought the bus slowly to a stop, and the passengers — still trembling with shock — streamed off the bomb-rigged vehicle one after another.
Just to guard against any surprises, Xia Xi walked to the very last row and pried the watch off the inside man's wrist — the device controlling the bomb.
On her way back, she noticed that Haibara hadn't left with the other children. She was still sitting in her seat, trembling.
Xia Xi sighed, slipped the watch into her pocket, walked over, and scooped Haibara up into her arms, pressing the girl's head against her shoulder to shield her face.
She knew she was in no position to comfort her right now, so she said nothing at all. Some words were better left for Conan to say.
Haibara went rigid for a moment when she was suddenly lifted, and before she could gather herself, her head was pressed down. But once she realized this hid her face from view, she didn't resist.
Still, her fingers quietly tightened on the fabric of Xia Xi's clothes. Somehow, it felt warm — and the fear didn't seem nearly as crushing as it had a moment ago.
Outside the bus, Mitsuhiko and the others realized Haibara hadn't come off and were just climbing aboard to look for her when they saw Miss Xia Xi carrying her down the steps. They crowded around at once, anxiously asking how she was doing. Haibara looked down at the worry in the children's eyes, and something stirred in her chest.
No matter what, she could never let herself drag them into danger.
Carrying Haibara, Xia Xi led the children over to Officer Sato, who had been trailing the bus in her car the whole time, and asked her to arrange for officers to take the kids home — Xia Xi could handle the witness statements herself.
Sato, ever understanding, agreed. In the meantime, Conan tried to linger and get the full picture of the situation, but Xia Xi quashed that immediately and stuffed him into the car with the rest.
Honestly. What was a little kid so curious about? Getting Haibara's spirits back up was the real priority here.