BONUS CHAPTER #3
Haibara Ai gritted her teeth, swallowing back what she wanted to say, and snapped, "...You almost blew my bag."
Conan glanced over at the bag hanging by the far porch—still not a scratch on it. He just stared.
Then he looked back toward the test bench and saw Haibara Ai had already walked over.
She looked up at Dr. Agasa like she was checking him for injuries, but kept sneaking glances at Jiangxia—as if she wanted to look at him, but held herself back.
Conan sighed and thought he finally understood: Haibara Ai looks like a kid, but mentally she's definitely not. About 80% of people are like her, they have this inexplicable urge to take care of Jiangxia, but it's too awkward to show it.
People's physiques really do differ...
At the same time, Conan's mind habitually started turning over the situation. Another explosion so close, yet Jiangxia's mental state seemed totally unaffected.
Looks like during that Sherlock Holmes trip, it wasn't the explosion itself that rattled Jiang Xia—but the vehicle that got blown up... Okay, good intel. Note taken.
And now that Conan thought about it, he suddenly remembered the last bombing case—full of chaos—when Jiangxia hurried off without catching the culprit.
Looking back carefully, maybe Jiangxia avoided solving that case not just because of work, but because that time the building wall was blown out and several vehicles outside were overturned and crushed by the blast wave.
...Luckily, the doctor's car was parked on the other side of the yard. The explosion only blew through the wall but didn't touch the car.
Jiang Xia didn't notice the two kids watching him secretly.
He stared at the blasted test bench and grew curious about the strange bomb samples from just now.
The fancy colors, the dazzling light show during the explosion... it stirred something faint in Jiangxia's memory.
—That's the breath of death.
Just then, Dr. Agasa's glasses lay broken on the floor, so Jiangxia went back inside to look for a spare pair.
He turned to Haibara Ai: "Does that explosion have a name?"
Haibara nodded, looking sad as she stole a glance at Jiangxia. Now that Jiangxia was talking to her, it was natural for her to glance back...
She secretly checked Jiangxia to see if he'd been caught in the blast, then said, "It's called 'Tropical Rainbow.'"
Haibara hates this kind of bomb. First, it's unstable and easy to blow people up. Also, it only looks pretty—but the power is no different from a regular bomb... She didn't get why the doctor stays up late every night working on it, even going bald.
Jiangxia recognized the name immediately—he was lucky to have stepped right into the middle of this incident.
Recently, Haido-cho planned to demolish an art museum. The gallery had stood for forty years and meant a lot to the locals. So the doctor's friend asked him to invent a special demolition method.
And the genius doctor came up with this colorful bomb. His idea was that when the building blew up, the scene would look gorgeous...
Jiangxia also remembered from spoilers that Officer Sato once got trapped in a building. Unfortunately, that building happened to be the Haido Museum scheduled for demolition by the doctor.
Jiangxia's mood—which had just dipped slightly from the innocent bombing—shot back up.
If he could get involved in this case, at least he could pick up a shikigami. Plus, he could save Sergeant Sato and the juvenile detective team who might get caught in the building.
Sure, there weren't as many murder cases as Conan, Ran, and the others got, but Jiangxia wasn't picky—no matter the number of cases, as long as they came to him, they were good friends.
He pulled out his phone, checked the museum demolition date, and wrote it down carefully.
Feeling like he'd gained something, he put his phone away and started helping the doctor clean the lab bench.
Suddenly, the phone at the doctor's house rang.
Dr. Agasa answered it, and a sharp voice came through: "I'm looking for Kudo Shinichi."
Dr. Agasa forwarded all calls meant for Kudo's new family to himself. So it wasn't unusual for a call for Kudo Shinichi to come his way.
But the caller sounded sketchy.
Dr. Agasa answered cautiously, walking over to Conan with the mic: "They said they're looking for 'Kudou.' Used a voice changer too... Listen..." Definitely not a good person.
Conan frowned. No one had called looking for "Kudou Shinichi" in ages. When he was younger, the media would sometimes call, trying to solve the mystery of Kudo Shinichi's disappearance.
But now with Jiangxia around, who'd have thought someone would still call asking for "Kudo Shinichi" at a time like this?
Conan adjusted the voice changer and answered in Kudo Shinichi's voice, curious: "Hello?"
A few meters away, Jiangxia's eyes flicked, and he casually poked the Tengu.
Tengu was startled, looked up at him, and obediently waited for instructions.
Xiaobai caught on right away. He floated over to Conan's side, secretly hugged the receiver, pressed his head close, and went into eavesdropping mode.
Miyano Akemi, meanwhile, just collapsed on Haibara Ai's head, breathing in her sister's scent. When she noticed Jiangxia was busy, she sat up and wriggled free—but by then, Xiaobai had already drifted over to Conan's ear.
Akemi hesitated, looked at Jiangxia, then tentatively returned to her sister's head.
Seeing Jiangxia didn't scold her for slacking off, Akemi relaxed and became happy again.
Unlike Akemi Miyano, whose mood value was rising by one, Conan's face grew more serious as he listened.
Not long ago, he'd seen the news about the Gunpowder theft on TV.
And now, just minutes later, someone was calling him.
On the other end, the voice changed by the voice modulator was sharp and harsh. The man said gloomily, "I just stole a bunch of explosives from the Tokyo Gunpowder Depot. If you don't believe me, go to Greenland Park now. I'll show you something interesting."
The timing was perfect, but it sounded like a prank after seeing the news about the "gunpowder depot robbery." Still, Conan couldn't dismiss it—if it was real and he ignored it, it could end in disaster.
The caller sneered, "You better hurry, or innocent children will die."
Then he hung up.
*Goal #1: Top 200 fanfics published within the last 31 - 90 days by POWER STONES.
Progress: 3/60(approx) for 10 BONUS CHAPTERS
Goal #2: One BONUS CHAPTER per review for the first 10 REVIEWS.
Progress:2/10*