In the pitch-black room, a man and a woman were standing close together.
"Is... is it here?"
The man spoke with an Osaka accent and stuttered a bit. Hattori Heiji has never felt so nervous before.
Drops of sweat unconsciously slide down from his forehead, but Hattori Heiji, who is focused on the task at hand, doesn't feel a thing.
"N-no, not there..." Kazuha swallowed, and whispered with a nervous look on her face: "A bit higher..."
"Here... is it here?" Hattori Heiji panted heavily, as if a fish lacking oxygen.
Soon, Hattori Heiji realized that they can't continue like this. He made up his mind and started taking action directly.
"Ah! It hurts!" Kazuha cried out in pain, then looked at Hattori Heiji accusingly, "Pay attention, where are you poking! Didn't I say a bit higher!?"
"Idiot!! Don't speak so loudly here!!" Hattori Heiji nervously said in a hushed voice, "If someone hears us, we're in big trouble, it could be deadly!"
Hearing Hattori's words, Kazuha dared not shout again and just carefully surveyed the surrounding environment.
At this point, those with impure thoughts, please voluntarily come forward, admit your mistakes, and reflect.
Because this is nothing more than a perfectly normal act of self-rescue!
At this moment, Hattori Heiji and Kazuha were back to back, handcuffed together. The previous conversation was just Hattori's unintentional mistake while trying to unlock the handcuffs.
See? It's a very serious and earnest act of self-rescue, isn't it?
Unfortunately, this failure has caused Hattori Heiji to have a lot more sweat on his hands, and a paperclip accidentally slipped off.
"Oh no! The paperclip accidentally fell into the gap in the floor!"
"What are you doing!" Kazuha, hearing this bad news, looked anxious, "Without the paperclip, we can't unlock the handcuffs, and our only hope of escape is gone!"
"Do you have something else similar?" Hattori Heiji turned his head to look at Kazuha behind him and ask, "Like hairpins, iron wires, or something."
"As for that one..." Kazuha sighed, then turned to look at the papers lying on the ground, "By the way, Heiji, can you decipher the code?
That woman said as long as we can decipher the code, she'll let us go."
"The young girl is right."
Before Hattori Heiji could dampen Kazuha's spirits, a sinister-looking man with long hair came up from downstairs, heard Kazuha's words, and sneered, "If you two want to live until tomorrow, you better quickly decipher this code for me!"
"Otherwise..."
A short and chubby man with a headscarf beside him looked at the two with malicious intent, smiled, and then threw a man in front of them.
"This is the fate that awaits you two. You don't want this beauty next to you to end up in such a miserable state, right?"
"Hehehe..."
The two men laughed wickedly, then dragged the man on the ground down the stairs.
After seeing the two criminals leave, Kazuha felt a bit scared. "Heiji..."
"Relax, those guys don't know about their existence yet..."
Although Hattori Heiji's face was serious, a confident smile crossed his lips. "That's right, with them around, I believe we'll be found soon..."
...
Rainy day.
The continuous rain kept falling, making it the perfect day for staying at home and sleeping.
"Ha~"
Conan yawned, and tears unconsciously flowed from the corners of his eyes.
As everyone knows, yawns are contagious. After Conan yawned, Senichi, who was next to him, felt drowsy and unconsciously yawned as well.
Later, Kogoro Mouri and Ran also couldn't escape it, each yawning in turn.
"That boy Hattori, he's a bit too slow..." Senichi wiped away the tears from the corners of his eyes and raised his hand to check his wrist, "It's almost two o'clock now, wasn't it agreed that he would come over at one?"
A few days ago, due to the engagement invitation, Senichi called Hattori and learned about the two taking a short break in Tokyo.
Then, thanks to this, Senichi knew important information in advance that there might be a case. After all, when detectives from Kanto and Kansai high schools gather together, is it possible for a case not to happen?
At that time, Senichi can intervene in the case using the excuse of giving invitations.
This morning, he received a call from the two, learned that they would arrive at the Mouri Detective Agency in the afternoon, and shortly after lunch, he drove over.
However, the agreed-upon time had passed, and there was still no sign of the two.
Now Senichi had a bad feeling. Could it be that these two hadn't met Conan, the "grim reaper" had already been involved in a case?
Thinking about this, he directly took out his phone and called Hattori. The recorded shutdown sound seemed to confirm Senichi's speculation.
"The same goes for Kazuha's phone." Ran, who was nearby, also shook her head. "Her phone is also turned off."
"Could it be that they forgot about this, slept in, and haven't gotten up yet?" Kogoro Mouri said lazily while holding a cigarette and supporting his chin.
"I'll call Ms. Shizuka."
After Senichi dialed Shizuka Hattori's number, the call was connected in no time. After a brief conversation, Senichi hung up and looked at everyone. "Ms. Shizuka just said that Hattori and Kazuha took a plane to Tokyo at 8 o'clock this morning..."
"8 o'clock in the morning?" Kogoro Mouri took a drag from his cigarette suspiciously. "But when Hattori called us before, didn't he make an appointment with us for the afternoon? They came so early?"
"Right, Kazuha told me that Hattori-kun seemed to want to visit someone first, so they made an appointment with us for the afternoon!"
Ran seemed to recall something. "Listening to what Kazuha told me, the person they wanted to visit is a former subordinate of the Chief Inspector Toyama, named Kusakawa.
After leaving the criminal investigation department, he's working at a detective agency in Tokyo. Hattori and Kazuha went to see him..."
"That name sounds familiar..." Kogoro Mouri rubbed his chin. "Could the person they're looking for be Kusakawa from the Haido Detective Agency?"
"Huh? Dad, do you know the person Hattori and Kazuha are looking for?" Ran was surprised to hear Kogoro Mouri's words.
"Yeah... horse racing, pachinko, racing, bicycle racing ... this guy is involved in everything. In short, he's someone addicted to gambling..."
Kogoro Mouri slowly exhaled smoke. "I heard that this guy was fired by the Metropolitan Police Department because he was too addicted to gambling...
But I didn't expect him to be a former subordinate of Chief Inspector Toyama..."
"Ran-san, I don't know if Kazuha told you, but do you know why they want to visit him?" Senichi asked.
Although the two grim reapers usually specialize in causing the deaths of others, sometimes they also get into danger because of cases.
From Senichi's experience as a detective, this case was probably a situation where Hattori got into trouble and was waiting for his side to rescue him, right?
Sure enough, after hearing what Ran said about the reasons for the two visiting Kusakawa, Senichi basically concluded that the two were probably already in deep trouble.