Mouri Ran was originally struggling with whether to ditch Sonoko's invitation today and accompany Conan to give his statement.
Now that Jiang Xia was here, the problem was immediately solved.
Soon, Mouri Ran came downstairs with Conan. She confidently handed the children over to Jiang Xia, then walked towards the bus stop without a care in the world, preparing to meet Suzuki Sonoko.
Jiang Xia led the four case magnets to the police station alone.
As a glorious spoiler, Jiang Xia was mentally prepared for the Detective Boys' mischief.
However, things on this journey were beyond his expectations.
The children didn't cling to his leg shouting, "Buy me eel rice!" or chatter around him asking questions, nor did they run around everywhere.
Instead, they were very well-behaved, stopping at red lights and going at green lights, yielding to pedestrians, almost lining up and shouting "1-2-1" as they marched forward in unison.
Along the way, Jiang Xia turned his head several times with a hint of surprise, looking at them, almost suspecting that these were fake children who had been shrunk by APTX4869.
Then he noticed that the more he looked, the quieter it became around him.
In the end, even the occasional whispers disappeared.
Jiang Xia: "...?"
Although he didn't know what was happening, it was unexpectedly hassle-free.
It had been drizzling all day.
When they were almost at the intersection, Jiang Xia noticed that Xiaobai, who had been listlessly draped over his shoulder, suddenly perked up. It raised its short little paws to wipe its mouth, even attempting to tug at Jiang Xia's collar to clean its mouth.
Jiang Xia was silent for a moment, then flicked it away with a finger.
Xiaobai floated back after landing, undeterred, and climbed back onto Jiang Xia.
Soon, Jiang Xia received the message it wanted to convey — mushroom soup base.
Jiang Xia was startled and understood.
He looked around and found a Black-clothed man in a black raincoat walking towards them from a few dozen meters ahead.
It was Dr. Kazato, with the hot pot-flavored killing intent.
Besides the raincoat, Dr. Kazato was also wearing a hat and a mask today. The brim of his hat was pulled very low, and his mask was pulled very high, covering most of his face, revealing only his two eyes.
Although this attire was a bit strange, it was not easily noticed in the rain when obscured by an umbrella.
Kyosuke Kazato, tightly covered when he left home today, was certainly not targeting Jiang Xia.
He pressed down the brim of his hat and quickly walked to a phone booth.
There was someone in the phone booth.
As Kyosuke Kazato approached, the man inside the booth had just finished his call and pushed the door open.
The moment the door swung open, Kyosuke Kazato suddenly pulled out a gun and fired several shots at the man.
The person in the phone booth clutched his chest, falling down with a pained expression.
A series of screams, "Ah—!!" erupted behind Jiang Xia, clearly, the children had also witnessed this scene.
Almost simultaneously, the Black-clothed man with the gun rushed towards Jiang Xia and the children.
At this point, Kyosuke Kazato could only run in this direction because in other directions, several burly men were chasing him.
Among the fierce men chasing him, one was the Decadent Uncle who had just been buying cigarettes at the store, and two were bored Salarymen passing by... However, at this moment, these people chased the murderer without hesitation, with astonishing momentum, looking not at all like Good Samaritans, but rather like plainclothes officers who had planned this for a long time.
Kyosuke Kazato suddenly had a bad premonition.
He realized that something seemed to have gone wrong, but he had no idea what the problem was.
Fortunately, before, those plainclothes officers had only been following him normally and had not formed a encirclement.
The frantically running Kyosuke Kazato: "..." Which meant he still had a chance to escape!
Kyosuke Kazato looked at Jiang Xia ahead, focusing on the children next to Jiang Xia, intending to grab a hostage as he passed by to buy himself some time to escape.
Jiang Xia glanced at the masked man rushing over and said to the four children, "Get behind me, stand further in."
The three children were originally debating whether to rush over and stop the murderer.
At this moment, Jiang Xia suddenly spoke, and before their minds could react, their bodies had already moved in unison, stepping aside to the roadside.
Conan, however, had no intention of getting out of the way.
He was about to grab a potted plant from the roadside to kick it over and subdue the criminal. However, before he could even touch the flowerpot, his arm suddenly tightened — Genta and Mitsuhiko each held one of his arms, pulling him swiftly back to the roadside.
Conan couldn't break free and could only be pulled away by the two — a few days ago, if Conan had shouted "Let go!", the mischievous children might have listened.
But now, with Jiang Xia's words preceding, nothing Conan said mattered.
Instead, after shouting "Let go," Genta covered his mouth. Genta nervously whispered, "Behave, if you don't listen, you'll turn into a pig's head."
Conan: "...&*%￥#!"
A distance of several tens of meters, an adult running at full speed wouldn't take long.
Kyosuke Kazato raised his gun and changed his voice to shout at Jiang Xia, "Get out of the way!"
Jiang Xia took a step to the side.
Kyosuke Kazato secretly breathed a sigh of relief. Good, it seemed Jiang Xia was just an ordinary person afraid of guns.
As he passed Jiang Xia, the Doctor extended his hand with a premeditated move, intending to randomly grab an unfortunate child as a hostage.
However, before his fingertips could touch anyone, his neck suddenly tightened, and he flew backward, the world turning upside down.
— Jiang Xia grabbed Kyosuke Kazato by the collar from behind, using his momentum to swing him in a half-circle and slam him heavily onto the ground.
Kyosuke Kazato landed with a thud, flat on the ground, and the bricks on the sidewalk trembled twice from the impact.
He saw stars, his mind buzzed, and nosebleed trickled down. Several seconds passed before the blurriness in his vision gradually faded.
Kyosuke Kazato was both in pain and bewildered, struggling to get up.
But at that moment, a shadow suddenly loomed over him — Jiang Xia walked to his side, looked down at him, and suddenly kicked his wrist.
The gun flew in an arc, kicked away, landing seven or eight meters away.
On the ground, Kyosuke Kazato let out an angry roar of pain. He abruptly tried to stand up. However, before he could find his balance, he took another hit to his waist, and he stumbled, falling back down.
Other than the first swing, Jiang Xia didn't hit him hard; the force was only slightly heavier than a massage, very much like a cautious Good Samaritan.
But Kyosuke Kazato kept struggling and couldn't get up at all.
He lay on the ground, watching the plainclothes officers getting closer, his eyes red with urgency. After another failed attempt to get up, he let out a roar of impotent rage: "Jiang Xia!!!"
Beside them, Genta and Mitsuhiko flinched in surprise.
"..." The murderer who had just shot someone on the street actually knew Brother Jiang Xia, and was even messed up like a roly-poly toy — no, a non-rising toy — as soon as they met.
Choosing to listen to Brother Jiang Xia just now was indeed a very wise decision.
The two little boys exchanged glances, silently gripping Conan tighter in their hands, feeling like they were doing a good deed and saving their classmate.
Jiang Xia felt the large mass of high-grade killing intent at his feet, and his mood was quite pleasant. And the more he tapped, the more killing intent Kyosuke Kazato produced — now, this Doctor not only wanted to kill the police but also wanted to kill Jiang Xia, the "passerby" who was obstructing him.
Jiang Xia had originally wanted to keep tapping for a long time.
However, unfortunately, after Kyosuke Kazato shouted his name, he couldn't pretend not to know him anymore...
Thinking of this, Jiang Xia paused slightly, hesitatingly backed away a bit, and cautiously observed the person on the ground.
When Kyosuke Kazato tried to get up again, he just watched silently from the side, without obstructing him.