A/N: WELCOME TO CHAPTER 12! SORRY FOR THE SUPER LONG WAIT!

:::::

(I was so reliant on you being my superman,

Who would've thought that I would be my own saving grace?)

Trembling, Aoko began to breathe at an abnormally, rapid pace.

She was seventeen years old

Seventeen fucking years old.

She wasn't even legal yet!

In her distress, the brunette didn't notice her smartphone slipping out of her fingertips as she sat, crouched with her head in-between her knees.

"O-Oi, Aoko!"

This wasn't fair. This wasn't fair. This wasn't fair!

She needed to calm down, she was on the verge of having a panic attack

She couldn't die—she wanted to graduate, to go to college, have a boyfriend, get her own place, and get married. The regular cliché but rewarding stuff that normal people were supposed to do!

There was so much

"AOKO!"

Her breath hitched "S-Shinichi…I can't, I need to-"

"You've gotta breathe, Nakamori!"

Nodding her head, she groaned. Clutching it between her hands in despair "This is so fucked up—what do I do? I've gotta tell my dad and the police-"

"NO"

She jumped, surprised with the sudden harshness in Shinichi's tone "W-What do you mean no!? If I tell my dad, he can alert the task force and-"

"-And the train hijackers who are currently posing as said task force" Shinichi said, rather bluntly

Aoko paused, biting her lower lip as she struggled not to cry out in frustration "Okay, okay. I'm sorry, I'm not thinking clearly, I just—"

She then released a large intake of air through her nose and began to steady her breathing before glancing towards the phone

"…Why can't I see you?" she asked, quietly. Aching for some sort of control with the situation presented

A distraction. She needed a distraction.

"O-Oh, you can't see me?" he asked, confused and Aoko nodded her head

"Not really, your screen's all black"

"Weird"

Aoko nodded, mutely.

"…Shinichi, be honest. Am I going to die today?"

"Hell no—your train is headed to Osaka, right?"

She sniffed loudly, "Yeah"

Suddenly, she's met with a third window being opened on her smart phone and Aoko's eyebrows run up towards her hairline as she hears ringing.

"W-What are you—"

"Oi" a new voice suddenly blared out, causing her to jump

"…Heiji?"

"What the hell are you all doing up at this hour" he groans out "It's fucking Saturday, man. Don't you people have lives—"

"Hattori!" Shinichi snaps and Aoko finds herself drawing in another sharp intake of air at the harshness of his tone.

"What's wrong?" She's amazed at how quickly Heiji's grasping onto the situation just from the sheer tone of Shinichi's voice alone.

"…Aoko's train's been hijacked, there's bombs planted—possibly on every carriage."

"W-Wait, you guys. Are you sure it's safe to be talking about all this here? I mean, what if this cabin's bugged or something."

There was a moment of silence

"No," Shinichi finally spoke "The cabin you're in has the least possible chance of being bugged, seeing as those men were here"

"…Are you sure?"

"Yeah" Heiji spoke up "This cabin's probably your best bet"

"They're mainly going to be focusing on the police and Jirokichi Suzuki" Shinichi continued

"…My dad's the inspector you guys" Aoko whispered, covering her eyes with her palms in distress "What the hell do I do"

"Oi, Oi. Lift your head up, come on" Heiji replied snarky, causing Aoko to raise her head

"What?"

Heiji grunted, and Aoko stared at her phone in disbelief as she watched Heiji throw on a coat.

"…What are you doing-?"

"As if we're going to let you die, Nakamori" Heiji snorted, disappearing for a moment before returning wearing a pair of jeans.

Aoko's lips trembled as she heard more rustling.

"Damn right" Shinichi muttered

Aoko felt herself being on the edge of wailing hysterically "B-But—"

"Shut up, will you" Heiji ground out, and Aoko sniffed loudly, watching him pull his shoes on.

"I'm not even at Osaka yet, you idiots" she laughed, streams of tears, falling down the sides of her face.

"Doesn't matter" Conan pipped in

"Eh? Conan-kun's here too?!"

Heiji seemed to abruptly release a squawk in surprise, falling face flat onto the wooden floor of his house, taking his phone down with him

"O-Oi Heiji!" Aoko gasped, wiping her eyes to gain better vision

"I'm okay" He ground out.

"Uh- anyway. We'll be there soon Aoko, don't worry" Shinichi returned, diverting Aoko's attention.

"Yeah, but how? I'm pretty sure that this train isn't going to make any stops along the way…and you guys can't just stop the train right? It'll be too suspicious. You're gonna need to be stealthy" Aoko muttered, thoughtfully.

Aoko watched Heiji frown, visualising how Shinichi was probably doing the same

"We're gonna have to ambush a train" Shinichi groaned "Oi, Heiji. Are you going to do something reckless like driving your motorcycle?"

Heiji tutted "I was, but I doubt it'll survive the trip. Hey, Aoko. How long have you been on the train for?"

"Eh? I'd say about two hours and a half by now" she said, nervously playing with the ends of her hair in thought

"So you'd have to be somewhere close to…-"

"Nagoya!" Heiji and Shinichi spoke, simultaneously

Aoko blinked, surprised "I guess?"

"It takes about an hour and fifty minutes to get to Nagoya from Osaka" Heiji spoke, the sound of his front door shutting

"Yeah, but that's by train right?" Shinichi spoke up "By car it's two hours and eighteen minutes"

"You're so googling this" Heiji muttered and Aoko watched as his motorcycle came into view before his camera shut off and it was just a normal phone call.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Just what exactly are the two of you planning to do?!" Aoko gasped out

"I'm going to contact the Osakan police, but don't worry, I'll be damned if I let them contact anyone in your train on the task force"

Aoko found herself clutching the ends of her hair in thought "But…The people who've planted these bombs on the train, wont they have people in Osaka waiting or something? I don't know…Maybe I'm just paranoid from all the people who could possibly be listening in on this conversation."

"I'd assume they'd want the train to explode before reaching Osaka" Shinichi muttered "Aoko's right, but I doubt they would've taken drastic actions as to infiltrate the Osakan police for this"

Heiji groaned "Man this is a pain…Alright, I'll see what I can do."

"…Wait, what are you going to do?" Aoko squinted in suspicion, wiping at her face with her sleeves.

"Don't sweat the details" she could literally hear the grin in his voice as he spoke

"…Aoko, I'm going to have to ask you to do something and I swear to you, if there was any other way to avoid this method, I'd take it in a heartbeat"

Aoko felt her breath get caught in her throat. Her grip on her cell phone tightened as she hastily asked "…What?"

There was a pause "I'm going to have to ask you to disable the bombs"

It wasn't until that very moment did Aoko truly understand the meaning behind 'carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders'

"O-Oi Kudo!" Heiji's protests fell short as he too quickly realised that they really didn't have any other options.

"…Me?" she wasn't even sure her voice had been heard.

"B-But I'm only a high school student! I'm not like you guys, I can't perform all these magnificent stunts with skateboards and motorcycles! I-I'm not nearly as smart or logical to be able to even know the first thing about disabling a bomb!"

"I know. Listen, I know. It's completely unfair of me to ask you to do this but I'll be your guide and I'll be damned if I let you get injured during this"

She wasn't stupid

This was risky. Hell- she was a complete klutz and one simple mistake could cost the lives on everyone aboard the train.

Her dad, Kaito, the police task force, the civilians—

Everyone

She couldn't be selfish—it was the only current way and time was running out

"Alright" she said, softly

The speakers on her phone rang out with the sighs of relief that could be heard from both Heiji and Shinichi

"Kudo, you better not mess this up" Heiji said, glaring into his phone "If even a single hair is harmed on Aoko's head there will be consequences"

"As if I'd do something to endanger her, moron" Shinichi replied bluntly

Aoko found herself laughing, despite the insanity of the situation

"We've got this" Heiji spoke, and she could practically hear the grin he had on

"Yeah."

"Right Hattori, we're counting on you" Shinichi spoke up again

"Roger that! Don't worry Aoko, when you arrive I'll show you around all the hottest spots of Osaka, so stay well, okay?"

She smiled, wiping her face with her sleeves "Hell yeah!"

"Alright, here's where I take my leave morons, See you soon!" and with that, he ended the line from his end.

See you soon

There. That wasn't a goodbye, they would meet again.

After all, a lot of people were counting on her- how the hell could she possibly let them down?

There's no way she would let that happen. To hell with being not as smart, as cool and as vigilant as her friends! Right now, she had a job to do.

And she'd be damned if she failed

Launching herself onto her feet, Aoko stared into her front camera determined

"Alright Mr horrible babysitter. What do I do first?" she grinned

It was go time

:::::

A/N: Okay. I am a terrible person for being gone for so long but I had such a bad writers block. I think I've properly figured out where I want this to go and I've been drafting and re-drafting since I wasn't happy with the way I wrote this chapter. I still feel icky about it but also feel like I've caused you all to wait far too long.

Moving on, Sorry to end it right when things were getting interesting! I'll try to update with the next chapter much faster since I know where I want this 'arc' to go!

Thank you all for being so patient and understanding! R and R!