The bus continued on its way, arriving at the next stop.
The doors opened, and a few ordinary passengers got on and off, everything seemed normal.
However, the last two passengers who boarded looked very suspicious.
They were two tall men, both wearing thick ski suits, goggles, and scarves wrapped tightly around their necks, completely bundled up.
Each of them also had a long, heavy-looking ski bag slung over their shoulder.
Conan narrowed his eyes, sensing something was wrong.
The ski resort was still several stops away, wasn't this attire a bit too early?
Moreover, there were still empty seats on the bus.
These two men, with their heavy ski bags, not only didn't look for seats but stood separately at the front and rear of the bus compartment.
Their hands remained tucked into the open zippers of their ski bags, which was highly unusual.
Just as Conan was thinking.
Suddenly!
The man in the ski suit standing at the front of the bus, Robber No. 1, pulled a black pistol from his bag and pressed it against the bus driver's head.
He roared in a harsh voice, "Nobody move! This bus has been hijacked by us!"
His companion, Robber No. 2, also in a ski suit, cooperated by pulling out his pistol from his bag and pointing it at the passengers inside the bus.
"If you want to live, be cooperative! Otherwise, don't blame us for being ruthless!"
Bang!!!
To intimidate everyone, he unhesitatingly raised his gun and fired a shot at the ceiling.
The deafening gunshot echoed in the enclosed compartment, blowing a hole in the ceiling.
"Ahhh—!" The passengers immediately burst into terrified screams, and the compartment instantly descended into chaos.
"Shut up! Whoever screams again will be shot next!"
Robber No. 2 threatened viciously.
Under his intimidation, the screams were forcibly suppressed.
Only Ellen licking her lollipop and a woman in the last row chewing bubblegum remained.
Robber No. 1, the leader, quickly dialed the police on his phone, making demands in a fierce tone.
"Listen! Immediately release Kunio Yajima, who was arrested a month ago for the jewelry store robbery!
Otherwise, we will shoot one hostage every hour! Don't try any tricks…"
"Kunio Yajima?"
Conan's heart skipped a beat when he heard that name.
He recalled the sensational jewelry robbery he had read about in the newspaper a month ago.
Kunio Yajima was the mastermind of that jewelry robbery.
The newspaper said that the police had only caught him, and the other three accomplices were still at large… So that's it, these two came to rescue their boss!
What about the remaining accomplice? Did they not come together?
To prevent anyone on the bus from informing the police, Robber No. 2 began roughly collecting passengers' mobile phones.
"You! Hand over your phone!"
"And you! Hurry up!"
"Don't dawdle!"
When he reached Akai Shuichi, Robber No. 2 pointed his gun at him. "Hey! You! Give me your phone!"
Akai Shuichi lifted his eyelids, gave him a cold glance, and replied, "I don't have a phone."
The robber paused for a moment, then cursed dismissively, "Tch! Can't even afford a phone. And such an arrogant attitude, be careful or I'll rip off your ski mask."
After saying that, he ignored him and moved on to the next person.
When Robber No. 2 approached Rin, she obediently handed over her smartphone.
Robber No. 2 took the phone, examined it repeatedly, and a look of confusion and annoyance appeared on his face.
"Hey! Are you messing with me? I told you to hand over your phone! Why are you giving me an MP4? How come this thing doesn't even have any buttons? How do you dial?!"
Rin: "Isn't this a phone???"
Only then did she notice with surprise that the phones other passengers had handed over were all flip phones or slide phones with physical buttons and small screens.
Compared to her phone, they looked like products from two different eras.
Rin couldn't maintain her composure.
No way, just a while ago it was all about AI and the metaverse, with advanced technology everywhere.
And now everyone is using antique flip phones again?
As expected of the Conan world, temporal displacement is the norm… Robber No. 2 simply assumed Rin also didn't have a phone and continued to collect from others.
Because Conan and Haibara Ai were children, the robbers assumed they didn't have phones and skipped over them directly.
After Robber No. 2 finished collecting the phones, he turned and walked towards the front of the bus, relaxing his vigilance, and Conan smirked.
An opportunity!
He immediately and stealthily pulled out the earring-type miniature phone invented by Dr. Agasa from the side pocket of his backpack, preparing to discreetly contact the police.
However, just as he got the earring phone in his hand, before he even had a chance to operate it—
"You brat! What are you trying to do?!"
Robber No. 2, who had already walked to the front of the compartment, suddenly spun around, as if he had eyes in the back of his head, rushed back in a single stride, roughly grabbed Conan by his collar, lifted him entirely from his seat, and then slammed him onto the floor.
"Ah!" Conan cried out in pain, rubbing his backside, and the earring phone in his hand was snatched away by the robber.
"Hmph! Still trying to tip off the police? You little brat, you're tired of living!" The robber viciously kicked Conan and stuffed the earring phone into his pocket.
Conan endured the pain, but his heart was extremely shocked.
How could this be?
My movements were clearly very covert, and they had their backs to me, it was absolutely impossible for them to see!
Unless… unless they had an accomplice on the bus! Someone who had been secretly monitoring every move of all the passengers! And somehow quietly informed these two robbers!
Conan sat back in his seat, his gaze sweeping over all the passengers in the compartment.
Aside from the people he knew, there were only three strangers who could have seen his subtle movement.
These were a young woman sitting in the back, constantly chewing gum and looking nonchalant.
An old gentleman sitting next to this woman, wearing reading glasses and a hearing aid, seemingly dozing off.
And the man in the knitted hat and mask, suspected to be from the Black Organization, who had been standing near the back door, facing the rear of the compartment.
"Damn it! Who could it be?"
Conan decided to test it again.
After these two robbers pulled out their guns, they placed their ski bags, which they had been carrying, at the front and rear center of the bus compartment, respectively.
It was extremely deliberate.
Combined with the fact that after the robbers put down these two ski bags, they dropped their disguise and no longer concealed their original appearance.
Conan suspected that these two ski bags contained bombs, and the robbers never intended for them to leave alive.
So he stealthily crawled on the floor, quietly approaching the ski bag at the rear of the bus, wanting to open the zipper to confirm what was inside.
At the same time, his peripheral vision was still subtly watching the three people he suspected.
He wanted to figure out who among them was the robber's accomplice.