CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Marie was tense. She was scared. She was terrified but still kept her eyes shut, pretending to try and sleep. They were talking right in her ear. Those two voices she was so scared of. Gin and Vodka. Agasa's gadgets were something, she had to give that. Who else builds glasses with listening devices that put the sound right in your ears without having an earpiece? It had gone for about a minute and Conan had stiffened when the bomb was mentioned.
"...smithereens", Gin's voice sent a shudder through Marie and she instinctively clamped a hand on Conan's knee.
Fortunately that kept him from jumping up on his seat and almost giving them away. A hand landed on hers and she could feel Conan's thoughts racing. Almost. She herself had memorized some important details about the conversation. Like the time the bomb would go off. Or wouldn't if she had anything to say about it. Of course, it was easier to memorize something you had already read about a dozen times, so she could almost, almost, recall the conversation to the littlest detail.
The train slowly lurched to a stop. The two men in black rose from their seats in Marie's imagination and hearing. Conan was stiff as a board now. Marie held his knee tighter. They stayed put. It didn't take too long for the train to start again. It was a race against time now.
The faux sleeper opened her eyes and rubbed them for a second. It was the annoying thing about keeping your eyes closed for too long. They blurred. She swallowed down the terror and lifted herself up, meeting Conan's eyes. The message she sent was clear.
Follow my lead.
"Ran-neechan", Marie lifted her eyes to the older girl, "Can we explore the train?"
Their guardian blinked and adopted a thoughtful expression, "Well… if you promise to be good then go ahead"
She gave her the best sunny smile she could at the moment. It wasn't easy when you were terrified half to death.
"Promise!", and they were off.
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"Marie, wait! Where are you going?", Conan's voice came from behind her.
She halted in front of a map of the train.
"No guard on this train is ever going to believe us and we don't want to start a panic. We have to figure this by ourselves", her voice came out so only her brother could hear.
"But- !", Conan thought about it again, "Okay, point. It was a black case about this size"
Marie glanced at him and nodded, deadly serious, "Too many prefer black cases. We have to narrow it down… Was there any clues in the conversation?", she hoped, really hoped, Conan would get it soon.
She didn't want to see the firework that bomb was going to be. Conan put a hand on his chin in his signature thinking pose and stared at nothing. It took about ten seconds for him to look at the map, get the right non-smoking car and grab Marie with him. Imagine her relief when he got it so fast. She ran after him and glanced at a clock.
Thirty seven minutes left.
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Conan walked through the aisle glancing and memorizing details and people. At the end he frowned in concentration and lifted his eyes to Marie. His hands flicked through a sign in almost the same ease as speaking. It said 'four'. Marie nodded and came up to him, letting the detective point out the suspects he'd found. She still found this amazing. He could get so much info in that one glance it was almost impossible! Right now she couldn't dwell in amazement though. They had a bomb to stop.
Marie's eyes zeroed in on the woman that the Black tried to blow up. Along with the train. Her heart twisted with fear that she crushed almost immediately. They could do this! No one was going to die! ...Well maybe she would. From embarrassment (images of Conan holding up embarrassing underwear of a muscular man). It would happen if she didn't get Conan to realize who had the bomb sooner.
"Ask those two if they've been to the dining car", her brother told and ran to an old man who Marie knew was almost deaf.
Marie stood still for a second, staring. Okay. She was going to die from embarrassment, then. The cloth explosion was bound to happen now. She gulped and walked to the businessman who had told Conan off in the manga. She wanted to be more subtle. First, a good excuse (she was getting too good at them nowadays).
When she got one ready, she was already almost by the man. Now, how to act like a little girl that has lost something? Pondering and reminding herself of the tips and lessons Conan had told her Marie composed herself and started looking around the adults, a fearful and worried expression on her face. Her gaze stopped by the man who was typing on the computer and looking important. Slowly she approached him and stopped right beside him, hesitating if asking was a good idea.
"Um… Excuse me?", she said in a timid voice.
The man pushed some keys and wrote one line to the end before turning an annoyed expression on her making her flinch for real. She hurried.
"I-it's just that… Have you been to the dining car?", she made her tone hopeful and urgent.
Hopefully she got it right. The man sighed in annoyance and shook his head, "No, I haven't. Go away, kid, I'm busy"
"Aww… Sorry to bother you", she muttered depressedly before walking ahead.
"What's wrong, girl? Are you lost?", the woman asked her.
Marie wanted to grin widely, but refrained. She had an act to complete. Instead she lifted her head and looked sad.
"No. My toy wand is", she let her eyes trail to the window, "Wow! It's a beautiful scenery!"
"Yes. You could even see Mt. Fuji clearly"
Victory!
"Really?", she snapped her gaze to the woman, "Hmm… Have I seen you before? I think I saw you in the dining car with two men…"
The woman was a really good actor. Didn't even flinch or sound nervous when she replied.
"You must have gotten the wrong person. I didn't go there"
"Hmm… Yeah. That must be it", there was a loud crash behind her.
She whipped around and saw Conan near an open black case full of clothes, which were lying on the ground. Not even bothering to say goodbye to the woman she rushed to his side and looked up at the tall man whose the clothes were.
"I'm very sorry for my brother!", she bowed a little to the man and sent a playful annoyed glare at her older brother, "I told you not to do anything harming, you know. Sorry again!", she sent the last part to the man and ran off, grabbing Conan by arm.
She felt her ears get a little flushed with embarrassment but it wasn't too bad. Probably not even noticeable. The girl would have helped get the clothes back together, but they had a bomb problem so no time. It didn't take long for them to run in another car where Marie stopped.
"Not the tall man, huh?", she tried to joke but it came off really lame.
Conan rolled his eyes before looking at her, "The old man was deaf. What did you get?"
"The businessman hasn't been to the dining car. He was reeeally busy, so no time. The woman said she hasn't been there and has watched the scenery from her seat. Apparently she got a good view of Mt. Fuji"
Conan started to nod but stopped in the middle, "Wait! Mt. Fuji? Wasn't her seat at the side of the sea? She couldn't have seen the mountain! …Unless…"
The detective seemed to give it a lot of thought before glancing at his watch, "We've got twenty one minutes. It's in her case. Did you see anything that could make it go off?"
"Umm… Not really? She had a mobile phone in her bag, though…", Marie knew for a fact that the genius would get it from that.
Conan blinked before giving her a deadpan look, "Marie, a mobile phone can easily set it off. She just has to call into it's 'number'", he said it like it should be obvious.
Her thoughts were something like 'I knew that already' but her mouth said, "Hey! I can't know everything! That's your job!"
He wasn't even listening. The boy was very deep in thought. Then something neither of them could have foreseen happened. Ran slammed open the door of the car they had just come from. She looked angry. And then Marie realized it hadn't happened yet, but would happen very soon.
Okay, this future seeing thing is getting distracting.
"Hey, Conan- !", she couldn't say anything else when Ran opened the door.
"You two! I thought I said not to bother other passengers!", and they were grabbed by hand and their 'big-sis' started walking back to their seats.
Marie felt like crying anime tears.
Why can't plans ever go smoothly?
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Marie was watching the floor as they were dragged away. She had to get out of this. At least Conan should get out of this. The problem was she had no idea how. Conan was quiet too. Probably thinking of what to do.
"Honestly… Why can't you listen?", Ran sounded very annoyed even though she was most likely talking to herself and not really caring if they heard.
Marie winced. It was so frustrating she couldn't tell her… Or could she? Maybe if Ran believed them the bomb wouldn't have to go off. Determined the girl lifted her eyes to Conan and waited for him to notice. After all, he had a sixth sense for being watched. And yes, Conan eventually did lock his eyes with her's. Swallowing Marie lifted her hand and gave three signs. Well, half signs. You needed both hands for them to be whole, but these were understandable. At least to her detective genius brother.
'Tell her?'
The boy stiffened and glanced at his clock. Marie got a glimpse and noticed there was only 14 minutes left. It made her heart skip a beat as the terror she had pushed down almost came back.
Two more signs, 'Please?'
The detective was clearly running through possibilities. After what felt like an eternity he finally lifted his eyes and glanced at the surroundings before nodding to Marie. She felt herself relax a little and tugged the had Ran was holding. The teen turned her head but didn't pause her walking. Marie gave the older girl her serious expression. Actually, she just didn't bother to hide it anymore. That made Ran pause.
"What is it?", her expression shifted from angry to worried.
Marie glanced at her brother and got Ran to let go of their hands and turn towards them fully.
"Ran-neechan…", the older child said looking straight at her, "We need help"
This got their caretaker even more worried. Marie continued for her brother.
"I'm sorry we didn't listen but we heard something u- scary", she almost said 'unsettling' but then remembered children didn't usually have that kind of vocabulary, "They said there was a bomb on the train"
This got Ran swallowing, "Are you sure you heard right?"
Twin nods from the pseudo-siblings.
"T- They might have been joking, you know", the older girl tried to convince more herself than them.
Conan lowered his gaze, "They said it will be set off at ten past three"
Ran automatically glanced at the clock, "T- Twelve minutes!", she breathed, panic starting to show, "Do you have any idea where it could be?"
Their caretaker looked like she might slap herself for asking such a stupid question from gradeschoolers but when they replied by nodding seriously she forgot that.
"It's in the short haired woman's black case. They said it would go off with a shove", Marie said and looked at Conan with a little relief showing in her eyes.
'A little' because the bomb was still here and could explode soon.
"We have to tell dad- ?", Ran was about to run off when Conan and Marie grabbed her hand.
"No!", Marie said and Conan continued, "It takes too much time! The bomb won't go off if it's not shoved or activated by the woman!"
Ran debated for a second before glancing at the clock again (eleven minutes) and nodding, "I'll go get the security!"
She ran off in the direction they had come from. Marie looked at her brother and started running after her a different objective in mind.
"Marie, what?", Conan was right behind her.
"I'm going to buy some time and hopefully get her from blowing up", she said and then asked, "Can you help Ran?"
Conan was quiet for a while but then ran past her, briefly putting a hand on her shoulder, "Good luck"
Marie looked at the back of his head with surprise before stopping where the phone call would take place, "You too"
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Marie was standing by the door, hiding herself perfectly from the woman's sight as she came from the opposite side. She held the phone in her hand and glanced around before putting the case, bomb, down. Marie took that moment to come out.
"Please don't make that call!", she pleaded.
The woman stiffened at her childish but serious voice and turned to her. Marie could almost see her raging thoughts as she processed what the small girl had just said.
"What?", was her response to Marie's plea.
"Please don't call that number!", the little girl repeated, a seriousness in her voice that she herself didn't know she could make.
"H- How did you know I was going to do that?", the woman was now a little startled and pailing under makeup.
Marie shook her head and hoped Ran and Conan would come soon, "It doesn't matter. If you make the call you will die", she said matter of factly, a sad and worried expression on her face.
She thanked her instincts for making her come here. Ran wouldn't have made it in time and the train really would have blown up. The woman was very out of her element right then, a fearful expression on her face. Marie couldn't blame her. She was being told that she would die if she made a phone call. By a little child no less. It was a good sign though. If she was scared she would be less likely to do it.
"Marie-chan!", Ran's voice was a relief to her ears.
She gave the woman the last serious and worried expression and turned her head a little to see her guardian, Conan and a security guard running through the train. And of course the woman would recover during that time and push the mobile's buttons. The little girl's stomach dropped.
"No!", Marie screamed, dread starting to pulse through her veins.
Conan got the message and stopped to give his shoe a boost before running towards the case. Marie counted seconds in her head after hearing a soft click from the case.
Nine…
Her brother was closing in fast. Only about fifteen meters away.
…five…
He'd run past her and was now lifting his foot to kick the case out of the window.
…three…
The case flew through the window and Marie watched in horror as it reached it's peak.
…one…zero…
The explosion shook the train and made her go blind and lose her balance. She fell to her back and painfully hit her head to the doorframe. Luckily she didn't lose consciousness from the shock.
" -kun! Marie-chan!", Ran's voice cut through the ringing in her ears.
Annoying fact: Explosions were very bright and loud and this one was big. She could hardly hear anything that wasn't a shout. Also, after a second she noticed that her sight wasn't returning. Before the panic could really hit she pushed it down and away to focus on her hearing. She was very worried about this turn of events. Ran had seen Conan kick the case. They were going to have a lot of explaining to do...
"Con… re… …okay?", the ringing was slowly subsiding and Marie felt a small relief wash over her.
At least her hearing wasn't gone. Her head hurt and she was still sitting by the door, eyes probably half lidded, wondering when the dizziness would go away. Small hands Marie could instantly tell were her brother's took her shoulders and a faraway voice was talking to her.
" -rie! A… …you …right!?"
She swallowed and tried to find her voice, "May… be?", it came out weak and choppy.
She blinked rapidly and tried to get anything resembling a sight back. Now some bigger hands were joining Conan's and touched the back of her head. It made her wince a little. The panic was threatening to come back.
"Hey! Can y… see me?"
Oh. Hearing's back. Almost.
To answer the question she slowly shook her head, "T'was bright"
There was some frantic muttering she couldn't make heads or tails about but she was slowly coming back after the dizziness went away. Then she started to see some white dots dancing in her eyes.
"I think I'll be fine soon", she blinked and got a little more light as a reward, "My sight's comin' back"
The bigger hands picked her up (probably man's) and she heard Ran say something like 'did she get a concussion' and a 'I don't know' from the one holding her. Then she was being carried somewhere.
Wow. Life in Detective Conan is dangerous. At least they probably forgot about the kick for a while.
She blinked again and got a blurry image of Conan looking at her worriedly and walking behind the man that carried her as her chin was resting against the guard's shoulder (he had to be the guard). Blinking again she gave him a smile to tell him she was probably fine. He smiled back, worry going away. Marie guessed he'd read enough medical books to tell him she was mostly okay. With her knowledge she had a concussion at most. Then they both fell into their own thoughts. Marie let out a sigh of relief through her nose.
This whole thing could have been so much worse.
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When Marie (she didn't get a concussion) and Conan finally got home they went straight to Kogoro's room (because Ran went to her's) to be alone. They had gotten some questions about the kick (mostly Conan) but somehow got away with it being 'I got stronger when my loved ones were in danger' when Ran (surprisingly) mentioned something about that happening to other people. Marie still didn't get how everyone believed it. Anyway, they had to talk about the Black now that they had had an encounter with them.
"Gin and Vodka", Conan muttered, "Those are their codenames"
Marie nodded. She'd known already, but it was different to hear it coming from their own mouths.
"And they're from the Black Organisation", she said almost immediately after thinking that, "I fear it's a big one"
The detective nodded. They were quiet for a moment, lost in their own thoughts.
"Marie", the girl lifted her head to meet her brother's eyes, "We're taking them down"
She couldn't stop the smirk from slowly coming on her face. 'We'. Conan never said it aloud but as time went by it had become a team effort. Not his solo mission. She really was changing things and even though it scared her, these changes might make it better. She wanted it better.
"Yes", she said, confirming her brother's not-quite-question, "We're taking them down!"
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Thank you for reading and I hope you liked it! Sorry if the end seems a bit rushed. I've been writing it for over a week and wanted to get it ready today. I'm sorry to say this but the next chapter might not come in a while: I'm going to be busy. Let's see where this goes and see you sometime!