Chapter 94: Klee's Dolls
Rewinding the clock just a few minutes earlier, Koji Miyake and Haruka Mizuno had finally settled on a number. Huddled together in the dusty, abandoned room, they eagerly whispered about just how much ransom money they could squeeze out of the little girl's family.
It was then that Haruka Mizuno's gaze drifted back to their tiny captive lying unconscious on the floor. The girl was still wearing her little brown backpack. Dangling from the leather strap was a striking, translucent red gem, encased in a golden frame. It caught the dim light beautifully.
Assuming it was some sort of high-end ruby or valuable gemstone, Haruka greedily reached out and unclipped it from the bag.
Watching his girlfriend admire the shiny trinket, Koji Miyake's eyes gleamed with avarice. "Open her backpack and take a look. If she's carrying something like that on the outside, there might be other valuable things stuffed inside."
Haruka's eyes lit up. That made perfect sense. She quickly unzipped the small leather flap and leaned in, expecting to find wads of cash, expensive jewelry, or high-end electronics. Instead, her face fell in sheer disappointment. The bag was stuffed to the brim with nothing but round, fuzzy, red plush dolls.
Unwilling to give up so easily, she shoved her hand inside, aggressively rummaging past the soft fabric in search of a hidden compartment. Nothing.
Losing what little patience she had, Haruka grabbed the bottom of the backpack and violently shook it upside down. A cascade of plush red toys tumbled out, bouncing softly against the concrete floor until they covered the space around her feet. There was absolutely nothing else.
"Mister, Miss... why did you dump out all of Klee's Jumpy Dumpties?"
A bright, energetic child's voice suddenly echoed right behind Haruka.
The woman jumped, her heart leaping into her throat. The voice was so sudden she hadn't even processed the actual words. She spun around abruptly, her eyes widening in shock.
The little girl they had just kidnapped—the one who had inhaled a heavy dose of ether—was already wide awake. She sat comfortably on the dirty floor, blinking her large, curious red eyes at them. There was not a single trace of fear on her round face.
"When did you wake up?!" Koji Miyake blurted out, stumbling back a step as he finally noticed their captive sitting upright.
Klee scratched her cheek, looking a little embarrassed. "Klee actually woke up in the car! But the car was super bumpy and swaying back and forth, so Klee got sleepy and took another nap. Klee just woke up right now."
Koji Miyake and Haruka Mizuno stared at her in dead silence.
Both of their mouths twitched in unison. A toddler who had a rag soaked in ether pressed over her face... woke up just a few minutes later because she had a nice nap?
They had left the little girl completely untied on the floor specifically because they knew the chemical dosage would keep an adult out cold for hours, let alone a child. But Koji quickly shook off his shock. So what if she was awake? They were two grown adults. Were they really going to be intimidated by a toddler who barely reached their knees? They just needed to grab her quickly and keep her quiet before she made too much noise.
Forcing a stiff, sugary smile onto her face, Haruka crouched down, trying to coax the child with the gentlest voice she could muster. "Little sister, the ground is very cold. Why don't you come over here to big sister?"
As she spoke, she took a deliberate step toward Klee, preparing to lunge and cover the girl's mouth before she could react.
Watching the strange woman approach, Klee tilted her head and kindly offered a warning. "Big sister, you'd better watch your step. Don't touch Klee's Jumpy Dumpties! They aren't very stable. If they explode, Klee will be totally fine, but you and the mister over there might not be~"
This time, Haruka heard the words loud and clear. But a bomb? An explosion? Coming from a plush toy? It was obviously just some wild imagination from a kid playing pretend. She didn't pay the warning a single ounce of attention. She kept walking forward, her eyes locked on Klee, completely uncaring as her shoe collided heavily with one of the red dolls on the floor.
Klee watched helplessly as the big sister ignored her warning.
The kicked Jumpy Dumpty rolled across the concrete, bumping directly into another one. A sharp, metallic click echoed in the quiet room. Under the sudden chain reaction, almost all the Jumpy Dumpties scattered across the floor began to vibrate.
Then, right before the disbelieving eyes of Koji Miyake and Haruka Mizuno, the first Jumpy Dumpty detonated.
BOOM!
A violent wave of heat and fire swept through the room. Fortunately, the initial blast was just far enough away that it didn't instantly tear them apart, but the shockwave threw them off their feet. Before they could even scream, the rest of the red dolls began to spark furiously, their fuses burning down in a terrifying chorus of hisses.
Pure survival instinct finally kicked in. The two kidnappers scrambled off the floor, screaming in terror as they sprinted madly toward the door, a series of deafening explosions chasing right at their heels.
By the time Conan Edogawa and the rest of the group heard the thunderous blasts and rushed up the stairs to the scene, the smoke was still billowing out of the doorway.
What they found inside was a picture of absolute contrast. Two adults lay crumpled near the exit, completely covered in thick black soot, their clothes singed, groaning in agonizing pain from the blast. And sitting right in the middle of the scorched room was Klee—perfectly clean, her clothes pristine, looking as though she hadn't just been through a kidnapping and a point-blank explosion.
The Detective Boys immediately swarmed past the groaning criminals, surrounding Klee with panicked, concerned voices, checking her arms and legs for injuries.
"No, Klee is fine!" Klee shook her head, offering them a bright smile before looking worriedly toward the door. "But the brother and sister over there seem to be in a lot of trouble."
Ai Haibara crossed her arms, her icy blue eyes dropping to the two charred figures twitching on the floor. "Don't waste your worry on them," she said, her voice dripping with cold disdain. "Kidnapping children and playing around with homemade explosives... when the police arrive, they will receive a very thorough education."
She paused, tilting her head to inspect their soot-covered faces. "Besides, since they have the energy to groan this loudly, it means they aren't hurt nearly badly enough."
Conan Edogawa's eye twitched. A massive bead of sweat formed on the back of his head.
'Hey, hey...'Conan thought, his lips pulling into a flat line.'Is it really okay to say something that dark in front of a bunch of first graders? These two kidnappers already look like they crawled out of a chimney, stop adding fuel to the fire.'
"Klee!"
"Kaeya!"
Hearing that familiar, smooth voice from the hallway, Klee's face lit up like a sunbeam. She scrambled to her feet and waved enthusiastically as Kaeya stepped through the smoke, his visible eye scanning the room sharply before softening at the sight of her.
After receiving the urgent message from Mona, Kaeya had slammed on the gas, driving straight to the destination. He had been just a step too late, hearing the thunderous roar of the explosion while pulling onto the street. He had sprinted up the stairs, his heart pounding, only to find the situation already resolved.
When they first arrived outside the building, Bourbon had fully intended to throw the car door open and rush in with Kaeya. Hearing an explosion go off in the building where a child was being held was enough to make his blood run cold. He genuinely wanted to ensure Klee was safe.
But Cointreau had reached out, a firm hand stopping him in his tracks. The logic was obvious: an explosion meant massive public attention. The police would be swarming the area in minutes. It would be a fatal mistake for two active members of the Black Organization to be caught on camera or questioned by detectives at a chaotic crime scene.
Forced to swallow his anxiety, Bourbon had remained in the driver's seat, gripping the steering wheel while waiting for news.
Cointreau's prediction was flawless. Not long after the blast, the wail of police sirens filled the streets, and a fleet of patrol cars barricaded the building.
From the safety of the tinted windows, Toru Amuro watched the officers secure the perimeter. Suddenly, his breath hitched. Walking right past the police tape, adjusting his sunglasses with a familiar, arrogant swagger, was Jinpei Matsuda.
Amuro's grip on the steering wheel tightened, a drop of cold sweat sliding down his temple. He felt a sudden, heavy wave of relief that Cointreau had stopped him. If he had rushed out there and Matsuda had seen him—if either of them had accidentally reacted to seeing a ghost from the police academy—his deep-cover identity as Bourbon would have been shattered instantly.
Upstairs, Inspector Megure and his team had taken control of the scene. After getting a quick rundown of the chaotic events and confirming that Klee was the primary victim, Megure's stern face softened. Seeing how young she was, he immediately turned to Kaeya, instructing him to take the child home.
"Take good care of her," Inspector Megure said, patting Kaeya's shoulder sympathetically. "A little girl experiencing a kidnapping and a bombing in the same afternoon... she must be terrified. Make sure she feels safe."
Meanwhile, the two soot-covered criminals were being dragged away in handcuffs, screaming at the top of their lungs.
"We didn't do it! The bombs aren't ours!" Koji Miyake wailed, spitting out ash. "It was the brat! Her dolls! Her dolls are the bombs!"
The surrounding police officers glared at them with absolute disgust, completely ignoring their frantic claims. It was clearly just a pathetic, desperate excuse to dodge terrorism charges.
The officers muttered indignantly among themselves. How utterly shameless could these scumbags be? Not only did they kidnap an adorable little girl, but they actually had the audacity to blame their own explosives on a toddler's plush toys. Did they really think the Tokyo Metropolitan Police were a bunch of gullible fools?
Only Jinpei Matsuda stood quietly in the center of the scorched room, a deep frown carving lines into his forehead. After the fire department had extinguished the lingering flames, he had crouched down to survey the blast radius.
His sharp eyes scanned the blackened concrete. Nothing. There were no metal fragments. No wires. No chemical residue typical of homemade pipe bombs or C4. If those two idiots had built a bomb, where was the shrapnel? Could the blast really have incinerated every single trace of the casing?
Downstairs, the chaotic evening was finally winding down. Kaeya and Klee walked out of the building, accompanied by Mona and the Detective Boys.
They paused by the police tape to say their goodbyes. Mona had other matters to attend to, and since Klee was safe and sound, she saw no reason to stick around. Besides, she knew Kaeya's current company wasn't exactly the type she wanted to mingle with. Waving to the children, she disappeared down the street.
Kaeya gently took Klee's small hand, leading her away from the flashing red and blue lights and back toward his parked car.
Standing on the sidewalk, Conan Edogawa watched them leave. As Kaeya opened the rear door for Klee, the streetlights briefly illuminated the interior of the vehicle.
Conan's glasses caught the light, hiding his sharp gaze. Through the open door, he could clearly make out the silhouettes of two other people sitting quietly inside the car.
His brow furrowed in deep suspicion.
'Strange...'Conan thought, his eyes narrowing as the car door clicked shut.'If they came all this way to rescue her... why didn't they step out of the car with him?'
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