Chapter 24: Rena Mizunashi's Peril
Warehouse District. Night.
The pale moonlight cast long, cold shadows over the steel containers. Rena Mizunashi sprinted through the labyrinth of alleys, a searing pain shooting up her left arm from a fresh wound.
The mission was a failure. Worse, the emergency extraction signal she had tried to send... Gin had intercepted it. Somehow. In a way she couldn't comprehend.
A sinister presence was tailing her, a feeling like a predator stalking its prey. She risked a glance over her shoulder. Nothing. But the feeling of being watched, of being locked onto, was growing stronger.
Suddenly, several threads of pure, inky blackness materialized from thin air, snaking along the ground, following the faint trail of her scent. They moved with unnatural speed.
What is that?! she thought in horror. Magic?! Gin... he...
Her mind reeled. Pushing past the pain, she forced her exhausted body into a more complex, twisting path through the alleys.
Beika Town, near the shopping district.
Ran was taking a shortcut home, her shopping bags rustling. She was tired after a long karate practice. As she passed a deserted alleyway, she stopped.
The air... it felt wrong. A familiar, unsettling ripple of energy. Someone was using magic. And it felt like... a hunt.
She immediately went on alert, her footsteps silent as she moved toward the source of the disturbance. A second later, a figure stumbled out from around a corner.
Wait... isn't that... the TV announcer? Rena Mizunashi!
She was pale, her left arm was bleeding profusely, and she was clearly seriously injured. She froze when she saw Ran. "Get out of here! It's danger—"
Before she could finish, the black threads shot out from the alley, lashing toward her.
"Look out!"
There was no time to think. Ran reacted on pure instinct. A brilliant pink light flared to life.
Transform!
A gentle but powerful energy surged through her. Her street clothes were replaced by her sleek, pink combat uniform, her Soul Gem glowing on her chest. In a single bound, she was in front of Rena, her right fist clenched, pulsing with pink magic.
BAM!
She threw a punch, the force of it creating a shockwave that completely dispersed the incoming black threads.
From the shadows where the threads had vanished, a figure slowly emerged. Long silver hair, a black coat... no, not a coat. That bizarre, black, gothic dress.
Gin.
His eyes widened slightly in surprise when he saw the transformed Ran. Another contractor? And a powerful one, at that. Just how many secrets is this city hiding?
Rena Mizunashi stared, her mind completely blown. What is happening? Is this even the real world anymore?! Gin is a cross-dressing wizard?! And this random high school girl is a magical girl?!
Her worldview shattered, her body finally gave out, and she collapsed.
"Are you okay?!" Ran caught her, quickly assessing the wound. It was bad. She needed medical attention, fast.
"Hand over the rat," Gin's voice was as cold as a grave. He raised his black magic pistol, its muzzle glowing with a dangerous dark energy.
"Never!" Ran shielded Rena with her body, her own pink magic flaring to life.
"Oh? Interesting," Gin sneered. "Then I'll just have to eliminate you both."
The killing intent was instantaneous. He fired.
Fzzt—!
A condensed beam of black magic shot toward Ran's head, faster than a bullet. It was a perfect, deadly shot.
So fast! Ran's eyes widened. On pure, trained instinct, she threw herself into a desperate sideways roll. The searing energy beam grazed her cheek, hitting the wall behind her and leaving a molten, cauterized hole.
Just a test shot, and it had that much power. Ran knew she couldn't afford a single mistake. Passively dodging a ranged attacker like this was a losing battle. She had to close the distance.
"Hah!" With a sharp cry, she kicked off the ground, the pavement cracking under the force of her launch. A pink blur, she charged directly at Gin.
But Gin seemed to have anticipated her move. He didn't even flinch, simply sidestepping as if he were moving on an invisible current of air, his movements precise and efficient. He kept firing, a relentless volley of black energy beams that created a deadly web, cutting off every possible angle of approach and forcing her to constantly dodge and weave, disrupting her momentum.
Her pink magic enhanced her speed and reflexes, but she couldn't get close. He was controlling the fight completely.
She tried to ricochet off a wall to attack from an unexpected angle, but the moment she launched herself, Gin's eyes flickered. Tendrils of black magic shot out from the shadows on the ground, snaking toward her ankles. She twisted in mid-air, a desperate backflip allowing her to avoid the snare, but it left her momentarily exposed and off-balance.
Now!
Gin's eyes flashed with murderous intent. He had his opening. He leveled his pistol, aiming directly at the pink Soul Gem on Ran's chest, a devastating amount of dark energy gathering at the muzzle. It was an unavoidable, fatal shot.
"RAN!"
A familiar voice roared from above. A figure descended like a hawk, his face masked, but the flowing red-and-black skirt and familiar aura... Dad!
It was Kogoro Mouri. Conan had detected Ran's massive magical energy spike on a special tracker and had immediately alerted him. He had transformed in mid-air.
Seeing his daughter about to be struck down, Kogoro's eyes blazed with fury. "You won't touch her!"
While still in the air, he thrust his wand toward Ran. "Barrier!"
A swirling shield of red-and-black energy materialized in front of Ran an instant before Gin's attack hit.
BOOOOM!
The explosion was deafening. The barrier held for less than a second before the black beam tore through it, but that split-second was enough. The interference from Kogoro's sudden appearance and the shield's resistance threw off Gin's aim just enough. The residual energy blast grazed Ran's shoulder, sending her crashing into a wall, but her Soul Gem was intact.
Kogoro landed heavily. "Eye of Truth!" His gaze sharpened, instantly analyzing Gin's magical defenses.
"Ran!" he transmitted telepathically. "His defenses are too strong for a frontal assault! But his joints are weaker! I'll create an opening—you strike his elbows and knees to break his balance!"
Ran understood. She changed her attack pattern, her movements becoming faster, more fluid, a whirlwind of feints and targeted strikes aimed at disrupting Gin's stance. At the same time, Kogoro began to weave his wand, sending out small but precise bursts of disruptive magic that interfered with Gin's energy flow, creating tiny stumbles and hesitations.
For the first time, Gin actually frowned. Another one? And this one's fighting style was bizarre. This was becoming... troublesome.
"Insects," he sneered, unleashing a wave of black magic that knocked them both back. He floated into the air, his gothic dress billowing around him. "This ends now." He aimed his pistol at the now-unconscious Rena Mizunashi.
"NO!" Ran and Kogoro yelled.
In a flash of blue light, Mitsuhiko appeared, scooped up Rena, and teleported away. "I'll get her to a hospital!"
From the shadows of a nearby building, a silver light flickered. Haibara was there, poised to provide backup, but when she saw the silver-haired man in the black dress, she froze.
Gin.
A soul-crushing cold enveloped her. The shadows of her life in the Organization flooded her mind, and she began to tremble uncontrollably, the silver magic she was trying to summon sputtering and dying. She had to help, but the sheer terror of his presence was paralyzing.
Gin paused. The blue teleportation... the silver energy... Two more? What was going on tonight? Were all the city's contractors forming a team?
He looked at the father-daughter duo, then at the trembling silver magical girl hiding in the shadows. His target was gone. Lingering here was pointless.
"Hmph." He holstered his weapon and gave Ran and Kogoro one last, long look. "You're good," he said, his voice dripping with venom. "The next time we meet will be your last."
With that, he dissolved into a black mist and vanished.
The crisis was over. As Ran and Kogoro changed back, a trembling voice came over their communicators. "Is... is he gone?" It was Haibara.
On a rooftop far away.
Shuichi Akai lowered his binoculars. He had seen everything. The pink martial artist... the middle-aged man in a skirt... the teleporting boy... the silver-haired girl who looked so much like Akemi Miyano's sister... And Gin, a cross-dressing warlock with a magic gun.
The amount of new information was staggering, a complete assault on his understanding of the world.
He pulled out his phone and dialed a secure number. "It's me. There's a supernatural power emerging in Tokyo. The Organization is involved. Including Gin. We need to investigate this immediately."
There was a long silence on the other end of the line. Then, a skeptical voice replied.
"Come again?"