Chapter 7

"Oi, Kudo, what are we going to do?" Hattori asked as Kazuha stood near the fence in front of the tiger exhibit with Hana-chan.

"I don't know. Should one of us go and tail Hana-chan's mother and those men and call the other if something does happen or do we wait out the thirty minutes for Hana-chan's mother to come back?" Shinichi suggested. He was torn. He didn't want to do it in case something awful happened and they couldn't reach one another, but at the same, what if the other was able to prevent whatever happens from happening?

"How about we wait out the thirty minutes and if she doesn't come, then we can go track her and those guys down." Hattori said after much thinking. Shinichi wasn't happy with waiting but there wasn't much else he could do about it. If he tried to sneak off now, Kazuha would probably freak out and Hattori would do a bad job of covering it up and yell at Shinichi for it later. Shinichi sighed and watched Hana-chan and Kazuha fawned over the baby tigers. About ten minutes later, Shinichi was starting to grow restless. So as soon as Kazuha distracted Hattori, Shinichi took off back towards the reptile house. The two men and Kimi-san weren't there. Where are they? Shinichi looked around and spotted Kimi-san's head going towards the gift shop. He raced after her. He didn't know where those two guys went, but he was sure that something bad was about to happen.

"Nee-chan!" He called after her as she went past the gift shop and towards the entrance. "Nee-chan!" She appeared not to have heard him and went outside the entrance. He got stuck behind some people and the next thing he knew, there was an explosion. He broke through the people and stared at a vehicle that was in flames. Please let that Nee-chan be okay!

"Nii-san!" Shinichi turned to see that Minami guy knelt down on the ground. Kimi-san was about a yard away staring at the car in shock. Shinichi had a feeling that car was for either her or her husband she mentioned.

"Kudo, what was that explosion just now!?" Hattori yelled running up to him. Kazuha and Hana-chan weren't far behind.

"That uncle's car just exploded and I'm assuming his brother was in the car." Shinichi explained, still feeling a bit shocked.

"You mean the one who was demanding the money?" Hattori asked frowning.

"Yeah," Shinichi said shaking his head.

"Mommy!" Hana-chan cried before going to her mother.

"Ah, Hana-chan wait!" Kazuha cried out.

"Kazuha, call the police and an ambulance!" Hattori told her as some employees finally came out with some fire extinguishers and started to put the fire out. It didn't take long for Hattori's dad to show up.

"I see you've found yourself in a troublesome situation again, Hei-chan." His father said sighing.

"It's not me, it's Conan-kun." Hattori said narrowing his eyes at Shinichi. Shinichi rolled his eyes. That was preposterous.

"I'm glad to see that you're feeling better, Edogawa-kun." He said looking down at Shinichi.

"Thank you." Shinichi said smiling up at him.

"So do you mind telling me from the top what happened here?" Hattori Senior said looking at the two of them.

"Well, we came to the zoo because Kazuha wanted to bring Conan-kun here." Hattori started.

"Yeah and we went to the elephant exhibit and I heard that uncle over there and his brother talking. He said his car was acting up, so that's why he was late. That uncle's brother had a weird look in his eyes." Shinichi continued.

"Did he now?" Hattori Senior said thoughtfully.

"Then Conan-kun asked to go look at the giraffes and after that we went to the gift shop." Kazuha said smiling.

"And then we heard that uncle and his brother talking about going to meet that Nee-chan over there in the reptile house while Kazuha was paying for the stuff she got. And then she wanted to go to the reptile house." Hattori said frowning.

"When we got there, that uncle, his brother, that Nee-chan, and her daughter Hana-chan were just visiting and then that uncle distracted Hana-chan so his brother could demand that Nee-chan for money." Shinichi continued.

"And then, that Nee-chan said that uncle's brother better not hurt her husband and then Hana-chan said she wanted to go see the tigers after Kazuha asked Conan-kun what he wanted to see next." Hattori said looking over at Kimi-san.

"And Hana-chan is the daughter right?" Hattori Senior asked looking at his son.

"Yes," Hattori answered.

"I told them they could come with us if they wanted to but the Nee-chan said she had some business she needed to attend to and asked us to watch Hana-chan for thirty minutes." Kazuha said looking worried again.

"And did you?" Hattori Senior questioned.

"Yes, we took Hana-chan to the tiger exhibit, but we were only there for twenty minutes before Conan-kun took off, looking for that Nee-chan I'm assuming." Hattori said looking down at Shinichi.

"I went back to the reptile house to see if that uncle, his brother, and that nee-chan were still there, but they weren't. Then I spotted that nee-chan walking towards the gift shop, so I followed her and tried to get her attention, but she kept walking until she got outside. I got caught up behind a crowd of people and then the next thing I hear is an explosion. When I finally got outside, that car was on fire and that uncle was on the ground calling out for his brother and that nee-chan was over there. Then Heiji nii-chan and Kazuha nee-chan showed up with Hana-chan and Hana-chan ran over to that nee-chan." Shinichi said finishing it up.

"I see, well that uncle and I have a lot of discussing to do." Hattori Senior said narrowing his eyes at the man still kneeling on the ground. "You kids should get going."

"But,"

"No buts Hei-chan. If I have questions, I'll call you." Hattori Senior said sternly. Hattori sighed.

"Alright, let's get out of here." Hattori said looking at Kazuha and Shinichi. Shinichi didn't want to go, but everything looked pretty straight forward.

"Do you still want to go see a few more exhibits before we go?" Kazuha asked, clutching their bag of souvenirs.

"Do you still want to Kazuha?" Hattori asked her.

"Yeah, I kind of wanted to go see the penguin exhibit. I heard they'll let us feed them!" Kazuha said excitedly.

"Okay," Hattori said shrugging.

"Hey, will you take that little girl with you?" Hattori Senior asked.

"Sure," Kazuha said smiling. Hattori nudged Shinichi on the shoulder smirking at him. Shinichi sighed and plastered a smile on his face before going over to Hana-chan and her mother. An officer was standing there asking her questions.

"Hey, Hana-chan, do you want to come with us to see the penguins? Kazuha nee-chan said we get to feed them!" Shinichi offered. Hana-chan hesitated.

"Go ahead, Sweetheart. Mommy will be here when you get back." Kimi-sand said smiling down at her daughter. Hana-chan smiled.

"Okay! Let's go, Conan-kun!" The next then Shinichi knew, the little girl was dragging him back over to Kazuha and Hattori. Really, he thought, he should be used to this by now. Ayumi-chan and the others did that to him all the time. He ignored Hattori's snickering as the two followed Kazuha and Hana-chan to the penguin exhibit.