Chapter 27: The Nuclear Soccer Ball Kicked at Gin!
Morning. The Bell Tree Express.
The sleek, streamlined train cut through the tranquil morning landscape, carrying its passengers—and a hidden, explosive crisis—toward its final destination of Nagoya.
The Junior Detective League ran excitedly through the luxurious cars, invited along with Dr. Agasa, Ran, and Kogoro by Sonoko Suzuki to experience the maiden voyage of the classic steam locomotive.
"This is my first time seeing a real steam train!"
"It's so cool!"
"It's just the exterior that's an SL model," Haibara commented dryly. "The inside is powered by a state-of-the-art diesel engine."
Sonoko, in her element, was giving a grand tour. "You little brats better be grateful to the Suzuki Conglomerate! And because you're magical girls protecting the world, I pulled some strings to get us this first-class car!" She struck a dramatic pose. "Kaito Kid will definitely show up for the jewel exhibition on the return trip, so I'm going to hide love letters for him all over the train! What do you think?"
"I think," Haibara said, "Kid is probably too busy to read your fan mail."
Hidden amongst the passengers, other eyes were watching. Kaito Kid himself was aboard, scouting the location for the upcoming heist. And Shuichi Akai, disguised as Subaru Okiya, was also on the train for reasons of his own.
As the train pulled out of the station, Haibara's face suddenly went pale, and she began to tremble. That bone-deep, soul-crushing fear... it was the aura of the Organization. "They're here..." she whispered, grabbing onto Conan and Mitsuhiko's sleeves.
Conan's heart skipped a beat, his eyes darting around the car, but he saw no one suspicious. Not yet.
Just then, a commotion erupted from the car ahead. "What was that?" "Was that... a murder?"
Kogoro Mouri grumbled, "What a pain," before taking a quick look at the crime scene and then promptly disappearing with a curt, "I'm going to the restroom." He returned a few moments later, looking slightly tired but with a confident glint in his eye. Using his "Eye of Truth," he had instantly solved the seemingly impossible locked-room mystery. The whole thing was over so fast that Conan barely had time to interject with a few leading questions.
The incident left the Junior Detective League in a somber mood. "Hey, Conan-kun," Mitsuhiko said, staring out at the passing lights. "Why do people have to hurt each other?"
Kyubey suddenly appeared in a nearby empty seat. "Indeed," its telepathic voice filled their minds. "From our species' perspective, what you humans call 'emotion' functions much like a mental disorder. It is highly inefficient, irrational, and the root cause of most conflict and wasted energy."
The kids stared, unnerved. "If you could discard such a 'troublesome thing'," Kyubey continued, its gaze sweeping over them, "the world might become far more... orderly. Perhaps you wouldn't still be confined to this single planet, hmm?"
"What do you mean?" Conan demanded. "Confined to this planet? Are you... an alien?"
[Non-Human Beings Chat Group]
SpongeBob SquarePants: Kyubey, are you really an alien?! What's your planet like?! Is it cool like Bikini Bottom?!
Tom Cat: [Cat_Scratching_Head_in_Existential_Crisis.jpeg]
Kyubey simply turned and vanished into the shadows.
In a private luxury suite, Gin scrolled through the passenger list on a tablet. Vermouth sat opposite him, swirling a glass of wine. "Sherry... and the FBI's rat... do you really think they're on this train?"
"Whether they are or not," Gin said, his voice cold as ice, "this train will be their tomb."
Vodka was already in Nagoya, preparing a magical bomb to obliterate the train, the station, and everyone in it. Amuro had managed to leak a fragment of this plan to his superiors, begging them to intervene. But his intel was intercepted by an FBI mole, who, remembering Akai's warnings about the Organization's "anomalies," decided to let the Japanese police walk into the trap first while the FBI observed from a safe distance.
Meanwhile, Vermouth was in the dining car when a familiar figure caught her eye. It was Ran. Her Angel. Which meant... her Silver Bullet couldn't be far. Her eyes scanned the room and immediately found Conan with the Junior Detective League. They're both here... on this doomed train. A strange, irritating feeling stirred within her.
Conan slipped away from the group, heading toward a less-used restroom at the rear of the train. He had just closed the door when it was pushed open again. A tall figure stepped inside and locked it.
It was Gin.
Conan's heart hammered against his ribs. He dove into the shadows under the sink. Gin seemed not to notice him as he made a call.
"...the future of humanity... purification... the great culling..."
The fragmented words sent a chill down Conan's spine. The future of humanity? Culling? What are they planning?
Gin hung up, and his cold eyes swept the small room, finally landing on the shadows under the sink. "Come out, little rat."
Conan slowly stood up. He was caught. Gin pulled a silenced pistol. "Disappear."
As the slide clicked, Conan fired his tranquilizer watch. Gin sidestepped the dart with contemptuous ease. But Conan's soccer ball belt had already inflated. He put every ounce of his strength into the kick, powering up his shoes to their maximum output. The ball became a miniature cannonball, wreathed in crackling energy, breaking the sound barrier as it crossed the tiny room in an instant.
Gin, not expecting such an attack from a child, had no time to react.
BOOM!
The impact was cataclysmic. Gin's chest imploded. His entire upper torso—bones, organs, muscle, and fabric—was vaporized into a fine red mist that splattered against the far wall of the train car. His head, severed from his body, bounced off the wall and rolled to the floor, an expression of utter shock frozen on his face.
On a purely physical level, he had been annihilated. A nearby Kyubey silently observed and recorded the "Conan-logic" phenomenon, harvesting the ambient energy released.
But then, the deep blue Soul Gem, which had been sent flying, flared to life. In a flash of dark light, the iconic black gothic dress appeared, and Gin's body began to regenerate at an impossible speed. The cost was immense; the corruption in his Soul Gem deepened dramatically.
"Interesting..." The fully reformed Gin said, cracking his neck. He looked at Conan with a new light in his eyes—no longer a pest, but a genuine anomaly. "Are you a magical girl too, little rat?"
He raised his hand, black magic beginning to coalesce. Just then, a flurry of playing cards shot through the air. A figure in white dropped down from the ceiling hatch, landing between them.
It was Kaito Kid.
"My, my, sir," the thief said with a theatrical bow. "Getting rough with a child is hardly gentlemanly, now is it?"