Conan didn't recognize any of this.

The bomb defusal squad had lowered down a duffel bag full of equipment he might need, and he didn't recognize a single one of them - except for the pliers he was going to use to cut the wires, but he could confidently say the rest of the devices were pretty much foreign to him.

"Alright," one of the bomb guys said over Takagi's phone (after he had finally put it on speaker), "first we'll start by removing the photosensitive trigger." Great, didn't sound difficult at all (it also didn't help that he didn't know what the photosensitive trigger looked like, or even was). "In one minute we'll turn off the lights in the elevator, so equip the infrared night vision scope." Conan had no idea why they would have to turn off the lights, but he figured the trained bomb professionals knew what they were talking about. He also didn't know which of the many devices in the bag the infrared night vision scope even was either, so that was great. "Once it's dark, remove the cover to the right of the mercury lever - and make sure not to touch the lever!"

"So, we begin by removing the cover, right?" Takagi reiterated.

"Yes." They confirmed.

"Did you get that Conan?"

"Y-yeah..." He hesitantly said. He didn't.. really.

They were probably going to turn off the lights soon, so Conan began searching through the equipment to try and find the night vision thingy. Thankfully, there was only one device that looked like it was supposed to go on your head. He pulled it out and tried it on. It was way too big, but it would have to do. There was a button on the side, so he clicked it, wincing and closing his eyes, as everything lit up. He let out a relieved breath.

So he got one thing right, at least...

Just a few seconds later, the lights flicked off, plunging them into darkness.

So, he just had to remove that cover, right..? Should be easy...

Conan bent down and peeked into the bomb. As they said, next to the mercury lever, there was this larger white thing that was the only thing that could possibly be a cover. He took a deep breath, and reached his hand in. He kept his hand as steady as possible, only moving at a snail's pace, so as not to accidentally touch anything (especially the lever). His hand reached the cover; he lightly gripped around it, then slightly pulled. It didn't budge. Conan steeled himself and pulled harder - as hard as he would dare. It came off with a pop. He held his breath, then began slowly pulling his hand back.

He let out a relieved breath, when the cover was safely out of the bomb, glad the he didn't somehow do something wrong and kill them both. He set it down next to him, announcing, "It's off."

"Alright." Takagi said. "There should be a small tube with a little black circle on it. That's the phototube. Uh, then cut the wire coming from it."

Okay, easy. He just has to cut a wire. Just one wire...

He reached down to grab the pliers next to him, and-

His hands were shaking.

It wasn't just a light shaking either. It was pretty noticeable. It was bad.

He took a deep breath, then another, and another. They didn't really do much to calm him down, but at least it quelmed the shaking a little. It was still probably too much to safely defuse the bomb, but he didn't exactly have much time to spare. As a last ditch attempt, he tried to forcefully stop it by tightly clenching his hands shut, which kind of worked, for a second.. but he'd have to manage.

He'll be fine, he'll be fine.

He really didn't want to, but he grabbed the pliers, with a slight tremble, then bent down to look inside the bomb again.

There was actually.. quite a few small tubes. But there was only one with any sort of black circle on it, at least he thought... He didn't ponder that any further and just reached his hand in, keeping it as far away from the mercury lever as possible. When he reached what he assumed the phototube was, he placed the wire coming out of it in the middle of the pliers' ends. He tightened his grip on the pliers, but hesitated.

What if he was wrong? What if this wasn't the phototube and he was missing something? Hell, today was the first time he's ever heard of a thing called a phototube, so he could very easily be wrong. He'd kill them all before even getting past the first wire-!

"Conan-kun..?" Conan startled, nearly jumping out of his skin (almost - not actually, because that would probably get them killed) when Takagi spoke. "Did you..?" Takagi trailed off.

Conan noticed his breathing had started to quicken. He forcibly slowed it down. "Y-yeah," he forced out, "I, just.. one second."

He focused back at the bomb, making sure the pliers were still positioned correct and steeled himself.

This was most likely the phototube. It had to be. He shouldn't be worrying this much.

He tightened his hand around the pliers, practically hearing his heartbeat thundering in his ears. He sucked in a sharp breath and shut his eyes closed as he finally clenched the handles together. The feeling of the pliers cutting through the wire was perhaps the worst in the world at that moment. He just froze in place, waiting for the bomb to explode and kill them.. but thankfully it never came.

He slowly opened his eyes and just stared at the successfully cut wire and his hands tightly clenched around the pliers. He released his grip on the handles, then slowly brought it out, nearly collapsing in relief.

His breath had quickened, even faster than before, and his hands were shaking again, almost violently, but he couldn't bring himself to care.

He did it. He cut that wire and somehow didn't die.

He wasn't going to think about all the wires left, not right now.

He reached his hands up to the night vision thing on his head and pulled it off, wiping the sweat that had formed on his forehead.

"I.. I cut it." He breathed.


The rest went as good as he would expect it to, that is, horrible.

Every single wire was its own issue, filled with second guesses and utter fear. Each cut brought an intense spike of adrenaline, and short lived relief immediately after. At this point, he had multiple nail marks on his palm from how many times he's clenched them to stop the shaking, and probably more adrenaline in his veins than was healthy. He often found himself hyperventilating, then having to try and calm himself down and slow his breathing with minimal success.

To make matters worse, Takagi's and the bomb squad's directions weren't exactly the best. Sometimes they were far too specific or vague with their descriptions of which wire to cut, but, with his better than average bomb knowledge (and Google when he was really stuck), he managed.

So basically, it was just a terrible experience overall.

By the time he got to the last two wires, he was starting to feel a bit light-headed. Those wires should be pretty easy; the first was the one leading to the LCD panel - it didn't necessarily have any clear indication that it was in fact the LCD panel's wire, but, the last wire was the one to the godforsaken mercury lever, and it was pretty clear which wire lead to that, considering it was sticking straight out of the thing. And so, by process of elimination, the one other uncut wire had to be the LCD panel's.

Thankfully, time hadn't been as much of an issue as he thought. He still had a bit longer than ten minutes left just to cut those two wires, so things should be fine. He honestly just wanted to get this whole thing over with so he could finally relax.

"So, the next one should be the wire leading to the LCD panel." Takagi said. "You got that?" He asked.

Conan nodded, then realized that Takagi wouldn't be able to see that and said, "Y-yeah..."

He slowly reached the pliers towards the wire. He felt his breath and heartbeat start to quicken, but it'll be fine.

As he reached closer and closer, he suddenly saw something out of the corner of his eye. He quickly pulled back, then looked at the LCD panel. Underneath the timer, words started to appear on the screen.

He quickly began reading them off before they could disappear: "'To the brave policeman: This is a prize for your courage.'" Takagi let out a startled and confused 'huh?' but Conan ignored him so he could continue. "'A hint about the location of the much bigger, game ending, firework will be displayed three seconds before the explosion. Good luck.' ...Uh, that's what the screen just said." He said.

There was a long pause from Takagi as the words sunk in. "Oh..."

The realization also sunk in for Conan, and it took him nearly no time to decide, "We're gonna have to stay.. aren't we." He glumly said, mentally apologizing to Haibara for breaking her promise.

Takagi stammered for a bit, clearly not wanting to agree and say that they should just die, but soon realized they kind of did have to. "Yeah..." He reluctantly agreed.

"Hey." The bomb guy on the other end of Takagi's phone suddenly said. "Have you cut the wire yet?"

"O-oh-, um..." Takagi nervously began. "We- we can't.. actually."

"Huh!?" The guy yelled.

Takagi started to explain the situation, and, apparently, Sato had stolen the phone from the guy (considering the voice on the other end now sounded distinctly female - and also like Sato), but Conan tuned them out, just staring blankly up through the elevator shaft.

It was, strange...

Every time in a movie or show when a character was acting really calm before their inevitable death, he's always thought that was, well, complete bullshit. People generally tended to be quite panicked when facing death - it just didn't make sense.

But, he had to say, he felt quite calm right now. At least a whole lot calmer than he was just seconds ago when he was defusing the bomb.

Maybe it was because he knew getting blown up would be pretty quick, and hopefully therefore painless, or that it wouldn't be his fault this instance. Or maybe it was just because all the adrenaline that was constantly coursing through his veins was now starting to clear out, leaving him incredibly tired.

He let out a small yawn, realizing that was probably it. He just felt too tired to care at this point.

He glanced over at the bomb, noting the 8 minutes left. He had considered for a moment, cutting the remaining wires and saving himself (and Takagi) but he quickly decided against it. Maybe, if he were the same person he was 6 months ago - before he pretended to be Shinichi and do all this - he would've considered it more, but now, he just couldn't let that happen. He remembered from Yumi's dramatic retelling, that, last time, the bomber put the second bomb at a place with a lot of people, a hospital, so it was very likely they would place the bomb somewhere similar again this time, like a mall or a school...

Conan suddenly paused, his eyes narrowing in concentration.

...Now why was the word school pinging his intuition?

It felt like, when he was at a murder scene and some item or person would immediately draw his focus and he just knew it important to the case, except for the code.

Actually, this had happened earlier, when the bomb guys had told him to use a stopper. Somehow, he immediately knew that the word stopper was the key (or at least one of them) to solving the code. He didn't think about that any further at the time, considering his attention was focused on, you know, not dying, and instead promptly tucked that away in his mind to think about later, after he defused the bomb - or when he was in a moment of rest like now.

However, stopper made sense, considering it was actually in the code, but school wasn't - it wasn't even related.

Well, he had some time to kill so he might as well try to figure it out. It was better than thinking about how he was going to die in less than ten minutes, at least.

So, maybe he should start with stopper, if he had no idea where to go with school...

The code specifically said a good stopper, which, in baseball terms, would be a good pitcher. And a good pitcher would have a good ERA. But, what did that have to do with anything, and what would it have to do with a school?

Hmm...

Conan reached into his other pocket and pulled out the crumpled code sheet he had forgotten in there (it seemed Sato had also forgotten about it), and reread parts of the code:

'I'm a fast-pitching, hard-hitting major leaguer. Now, the extra innings have begun... Even if you prepare a good stopper, it won't help you. I'll turn it around in the end.'

The use of the term major leaguer was peculiar; it wasn't really used much in Japan, being a more American term. So, maybe he should think in terms of English? The English letters E, R, and A didn't exactly seem too important on their own- maybe there was something else from the code?

E, R, and A showed up multiple times in the words, but he was pretty sure the extra from extra innings was the only word that didn't have any repeats...

'Even if you prepare a good stopper, it won't help you.'

If it wouldn't help, then it wasn't needed, so.. remove it? Extra without ERA would be XT.

'I'll turn it around in the end.'

Turn it around.. would be TX? But, what did that mean? Maybe it wasn't horizontally but vertically? X on top of T, then turned upside-down would look like.. the kanji 文.. the kanji that was used for schools on maps!

The second bomb was at school!

"Takagi!" He frantically said, leaning back over the edge of the roof hatch.

Takagi startled, looking up from his phone (that was now on a normal home screen instead of the call screen, so he had probably hung up at some point). "C-Conan-kun!?" He asked surprised. "What is it?"

"I sol-!" He suddenly stopped himself, slapping a hand over his mouth as he realized that he was speaking quite loudly and that the bomber would most likely be able to hear him. He then leaned in closer, cupped a hand around his mouth, and whisper-yelled, "I solved the code..!"


"But, there are over 400 places like that in Tokyo..." Takagi said, keeping his voice low.

"Yeah..." Conan solemnly nodded. "We can't just search all the schools or evacuate everyone from them without the bomber noticing either, so..." He trailed off, giving a quick glance to the bomb over his shoulder.

"We'll still have to stay for the hint.." Takagi finished, "like detective Matsuda."

Conan nodded. "And..." He quietly began, thinking about Ran and the exams she must be taking right now at school. "I don't- I don't want her to.." he lightly shook his head, "sorry." He looked sadly down at Takagi.

Takagi shook his head. "No, it's fine." He paused for a second, looking hesitant. "Just, c-can you answer me one thing..?"

Conan slowly and curiously nodded.

"Who.. who are you, really?"

Conan paused, his eyes slightly widening at the sheer perfectness of the situation. It was almost funny. Actually, no - scratch that - it was funny. It was fucking hilarious.

A small chuckle escaped from his mouth, which then turned into a laugh, which then became hysterical. The bomber must be thinking he's gone insane - which, maybe he had.

After a moment, he realized Takagi must also think he's gone insane, so he forced himself to tamper his laugh down. He smirked down at Takagi. "Do you really want to know?" He asked. He hoped his glasses were doing that cool thing where the light reflected off them, obscuring his eyes from view.

It seemed all Takagi had in him in response was a small nod. Conan glanced behind him at the bomb. Only about four minutes left. Four minutes until his untimely death (or, actually, it would be quite timely considering the literal timer counting down to it - but, not important). He began mentally counting, putting up a finger for each one - Agasa, Haibara, Hattori, Yukiko, Yusaku, KID, Ran.. darn, only seven. He wouldn't be able to get to double digits, nor would anyone even know except him, but, it would be nice if he could get one more before his death.

"I might as well..." He voiced, looking back down at Takagi. "If you really want to know, I'll tell you." He said. Takagi widened his eyes, eagerly awaiting. Conan grabbed the side of his glasses and pulled them off with a shake of his head, hoping he looked dramatic as hell.

"Kudo Shinichi, detective." Conan said with a smirk. "Nice to meet you." His eyebrows furrowed a bit as he realized Shinichi used to work with the police and probably would've met Takagi already. "Or, nice to uh, see you again." He corrected. Damn it, he just had to mess it up.

Although, it seemed that didn't matter to Takagi considering he was staring up at him with comically wide eyes. "K-Kudo Shinichi!?" He exclaimed. Conan quickly brought his finger to his mouth in a shushing motion, jerking his head back at the bomb. Takagi startled, then sheepishly brought a hand up to his mouth. "The Kudo Shinichi?" He asked again, quieter this time.

"Yep." Conan nodded, stopping himself from laughing. "The one and only." He smiled, perhaps a bit too widely, reveling in the irony.

"I- b-but, you- you're-" Takagi uselessly stammered for a bit, before admitting defeat and just wordlessly gesturing at Conan. "How?" He eventually settled on.

Conan chuckled. "I know! Crazy, right!" (Well, perhaps 'crazy' was a bit of an understatement.) Takagi continued to stare incredulously at him. "Long story short, I got poisoned." He added, for Takagi's sake.

Takagi, while still looking very surprised, seemed more sympathetic now. "Poisoned..?" He repeated.

"Yeah." He nodded. "Basically, I saw these two guys and witnessed something I wasn't supposed to." He began, the lie effortlessly escaping his mouth. "The guy's partner snuck up behind me and bashed me on the head. They fed me this experimental poison from their organization, and it uh.. did this." He looked down at his body.

"A-ah..." Was all Takagi said in response. Understandable, really. Or, that was until he said, "That makes sense."

Conan blinked. "It does?" He exclaimed in surprise. It really shouldn't, especially considering it wasn't even true.. or supposed to be medically possible.

"I- w-well.." Takagi stammered, "I can't say I ever expected the, uh.. shrinking.. but, I always knew something was, up, with you..." Conan tilted his head in confusion. "I- I mean, you were always too smart to be a child." He explained. "And you always tried to hide it too - which was weird."

"Ah..." Conan replied, a bit bashful. He almost thought it was odd Takagi thought he was too smart to be a child, considering he was one, but.. he was a bit more well versed in the world of detective work and forensics than any child ever should be, so...

"And..." Takagi continued quietly, almost quiet enough that he couldn't hear it. He had a hand on his chin, looking blankly up at the ceiling in deep thought. A second later, his eyes widened and he let out a small gasp. He looked back at Conan. "That thing with Sonoko! That's-!" He stopped for a second, his eyes widening a second time. "And Mouri-san too! That's you! It's been you this whole time!" He shouted.

Conan shushed him again - Takagi embarrassedly covered his mouth - then let out a light laugh, unable to keep a slight nervous twinge out of it. "Yeah," he confirmed, "that was.. quick." To say the least...

"I- I mean," Takagi nervously began, a sheepish smile on his face, "I've always thought the, uh.. Sleeping Kogoro thing, was suspicious. A-and sometimes I've seen you aiming with your watch or, speaking into your bowtie, but I never thought- I never thought you were-" he lightly shook his head, "I mean, I never really considered it. Or- not much until at the arcade with Sonoko..." He added.

"O-oh..." Conan said, a slight flush covering his cheeks. He looked to the side embarrassedly. "Yeah, I wasn't exactly.. in my right mind, then..." He awkwardly laughed.

Takagi also let out a small laugh, before he suddenly stopped and just stared up at Conan, looking faintly surprised..? or confused?

"Wh-what?" He asked, a bit perturbed.

"Wait a second..." Takagi mumbled. "But- at the school play.. you were both.. there..?" He said, looking incredibly confused.

"Oh, that." Conan laughed, trying not to sound nervous. He was almost worried Takagi had just figured him out immediately (even though it wouldn't really matter..) but soon remembered his perfect explanation for that. "That was actually Haibara."

"Eh?" Takagi lifted an eyebrow. "That little girl..?"

"Yeah, my mom disguised her." He said cheerfully. Takagi still looked confused, so he continued. "It's kinda a long story, but she's like me. She used to be a member of those guys' organization, and she actually made the drug and an antidote for me to use, and it's this whole thing." He waved his hand.

"Oh." Takagi said, looking a bit taken aback, but thankfully a bit less confused.

"But don't tell her I told you that, she'd kill me." He chuckled, before he suddenly froze, realizing exactly what situation he was in. "Or.. I guess she wouldn't have a.. chance.. to..."

"Oh, yeah..." Takagi said somberly.

"Sorry." Conan instinctively said after ruining the mood so drastically.

It seemed all Takagi could do was shake his head.

Now that Conan had brought the topic back onto the bomb (and how they were going to die in like a few minutes) he realized he should probably check how much time was left. He looked behind him, then gasped seeing just over a minute left.

"Takagi!" He yelled. "There's only a minute left!"

"Ah!" Takagi startled. "Um, okay!" He shakily nodded. "I'll, uh, I'll put the solution to the code in the message, and uh wait for the hint, then."

"Alright." Conan nodded.

As Takagi began typing, Conan turned around and scooted back towards the bomb.

He looked at the timer, watching as the numbers ticked down - 56, 55, 54 - before his throat suddenly constricted and he had to look away. He shut his eyes closed and held his breath, letting the flash of panic fade away.

It was now really starting to sink in, that he didn't want to die, quite a lot actually.

It seemed that panic that he should've felt earlier was starting to come in now.. which wasn't good - he couldn't afford to be panicked right now.

Conan opened his eyes again, not quite looking back at the bomb - he didn't feel up to it yet - but, he spotted something out of the corner of his eye: the pliers.

What if he..?

Before he knew it, his hand was reaching towards them, but he immediately brought them back, furiously shaking his head.

No, he was not going to do that. He's already decided that earlier. He can't let that happen. He has to be brave.

Although.. he glanced back at the pliers - it gave him an idea.

Just in case, just in case, he somehow managed to solve the hint before time was up, he might be able to cut the wires if he had the pliers ready.

He knew that most likely wouldn't happen, but, just the possibility he might not die...

He hesitantly reached towards the pliers again and gripped them in his hand.

Determined, he quickly searched through the duffel bag and found a second pair of pliers, grabbing them in his other hand - there were two wires left after all.

He took a took deep breath, before turning back towards the bomb - 25, 24 - decidedly not thinking about the time. He bent down and reached his hand inside, his right towards the LCD panel's wire and his left towards the mercury lever's (as far away from the actual thing as possible). Now, all he had to do was wait - for that dreaded number 3.

He looked back at the timer, practically feeling the spike in his blood pressure - 11, 10...

"Takagi, 10 seconds left!" He yelled.

"Okay!" Takagi yelled back. "I'm ready!"

Conan gulped, watching as the timer slowly yet quickly ticked down, not thinking about what each one of those ticks meant.

5...

4...

3...

An English letter suddenly appeared on screen. "E!" He shouted. "V, I!"

2...

"T, C, E!"

1...

Conan shut his eyes closed as soon as that 1 appeared on screen. He sucked in a sharp inhale, holding that breath, as practically his whole body tensed up as hard as a rock. He didn't want to watch the screen anymore. He didn't know if there was more hint left, but he just.. couldn't.

He didn't want to die, he didn't want to die-

He knew it couldn't have been more than a second, but it felt like forever, just sitting there, waiting for the explosion, waiting to die.

Okay... It's been a bit too long.. hasn't it..?

Something was off...

Conan slowly opened his eyes. There was.. nothing on the screen? Why was there nothing..?

He blinked a couple times, to make sure he wasn't hallucinating or something, but there was still nothing.

It had stopped.

Why did- why did it stop?

He slowly started to feel himself panic, because that probably wasn't the full hint and he couldn't get the full hint if it stopped! Innocent people were going to die because it just suddenly just stopped! Was the bomber playing some trick on them? Giving them false hope before ultimately killing them-!?

Conan violently shook his head, trying to rid himself of those thoughts - they were not helping!

After taking a deep breath, he assessed the situation.

Clearly, the top of the bomb and the now non-existent timer didn't have any information, so he lowered his head to look inside-

He froze.

The pliers his hands were gripped around, were closed. Both of the wires were cut.

"C-Conan-kun..?" Conan startled, hearing Takagi ask. "Or, uh, Kudo-kun?" Takagi added after a moment.

Conan unleashed his grip on the pliers, watching the wires' cut ends fall limp. He pushed himself up and set the pliers down on the ground.

"I- I cut them." He said. "I cut the wires."

He heard a quiet gasp from Takagi, before he said, "Oh."

"I-I didn't mean to..." He choked out. It was the only conclusion he could come to, that he reflexively clenched his hands, cutting the wires. "A-and..." He tried saying, but his throat started to close up. He swallowed to forcefully stop it. He glanced back at the screen. "I don't think we can solve it with just- with just those letters..."

If the whole hint was supposed to be revealed in just three seconds and three letters had been revealed each second, he could assume there were still three letters left that they didn't have. And, since Conan was apparently smarter than all of the police force (somehow..) and if he didn't have a clue what those letters were supposed to mean, then they had no chance to solve it. Hundreds of innocent people (possibly including Ran) were going to die because of a stupid reflex-!

"Uh, you shouldn't worry about it."

"Huh?" Conan replied quietly, glancing over at the hatch into the elevator. He felt a slight burning feeling in his eyes, but he quickly blinked it away.

"It's not your fault..."

It was.

After a few seconds without a reply, Takagi sheepishly continued, "W-well, I'll tell them the situation and we'll wait for the rescue squad, okay? Uh, why don't I get you down?"

"Okay..." Conan said, scooting away himself over to the hatch.

Takagi reached his arms up and grabbed Conan, setting him back down on the elevator floor.

Again, all he could do was wait.


His walk down the tower with Takagi was probably supposed to be joyous and relieving, but it was really just depressing.

This wasn't supposed to happen. He was supposed to be dead right now, and they were supposed to have the full hint, not that weird inexplicable mishmash of letters. But they didn't. And it was all his fault. So, really, he couldn't exactly blame himself for feeling this guilty.

Takagi kept glancing at him, looking all concerned - his sulking was probably obvious at this point. It was made even more awkward based on the fact that there was no one else there. Just the two of them and this awkward silence hanging over them. (Aside from the few bomb disposal guys who came to rescue them, but they had stayed behind to assess the bomb or something.)

Takagi cleared his throat. He looked like he desperately wanted to say something, but didn't know how. Eventually, he hesitantly began, "Y-you, know..."

Conan looked sharply up at Takagi. He shrunk back a bit, then looked back at the stairs they were heading down (because clearly neither of them wanted to ride in an elevator right now - out of the few that worked).

"I.. I really meant it" Takagi nervously continued, "when I said you shouldn't worry about it." Takagi quickly glanced at him. Conan just lifted an eyebrow. He could almost see the sweat forming on the man's forehead. He kind of felt bad. "I-I mean.. we still have a couple hours left until the second bomb goes off. I'm sure we can solve the hint with what we have..." Takagi sheepishly smiled down at him. Conan just gave him an unimpressed look, modeled off of Haibara's because that's the exact emotion he was trying to convey. "O-or, uh..." Takagi said, seeming to get his point. "At least, you can.. Kudo-kun..."

Conan appreciated the sentiment, but it really just made him feel worse. He didn't know if he could solve it yet. And he wasn't even Kudo, or even close to being as smart as him.

He just felt even guiltier now, remembering he told Takagi he was Shinichi. The only reason he did, was because it wouldn't matter and they were both going to die. But they didn't, and now he's put Takagi in danger for no good reason.

God, he didn't feel worthy right now to be called a detective, especially one as good.. as.. Shinichi...

Wait a second. Why was..?

Detective...

E, V, I, T, C, E...

Conan gasped, ignoring the look Takagi sent him.

The letters! They were spelling detective, just backwards!

Detective backwards... Detective was tantei. Tantei.. tan-tei.. tei-tan?

"Teitan!" He shouted.

Takagi startled, letting out a confused, "Huh!?"

"Teitan!" He shouted again, looking determinedly at Takagi. "The bomb's at Teitan high!"

Takagi blinked. "It is..!?"

Conan nodded. "Detective, backwards. The letters." He tried to explain, doing a pretty terrible job.

Takagi paused, looking up in thought for a second, before he let out an, "Ah!" In realization, thankfully seeming to understand (Conan did not feel like trying to properly explain right now). "It is! That's great Kudo-kun!"

Conan sheepishly smiled at him, feeling a bit better now that hundreds of innocent people (which would've included Ran) weren't going to die because of him (.. probably.. if he was right).

They had finally reached the bottom floor, and were able to hear some commotion from outside, probably from the police after hearing the news from the bomb squad.

"I'll go tell Sato." Takagi happily said, opening the entrance door. There was a crowd of people, along with many police cars, coming closer and closer to the tower.

"Yeah." Conan nodded, letting out a large yawn as Takagi quickly started heading towards the other police and the bomb squad (they must be insane, choosing that as a profession).

Man, he realized he really was tired. Well, he figured pulling an almost all-nighter and coming down from the adrenaline high of the century, must do that. Honestly, all he wanted to do was find Agasa, or at least the detective boys or something, go home, and then sleep.

Conan yawned again, lethargically setting out towards the crowd of people to do just that. He didn't really know where he was going, too tired to anything other than wander aimlessly, hoping the others would find him first.

At some point, the noises started to get louder, and he felt someone tap him on the shoulder. He excitedly turned around, but instead was met with a face full of microphones.

"You're the boy who diffused the bomb, right?" A reporter intensely asked him, practically shoving a microphone in his face.

"Uh..." Was all Conan could respond with.

"Was it scary?" Another one asked.

"Yes..?" He said. Really what else were they expecting.

"What was it like?"

"How did you do it?"

Conan instinctively backed up from the crowd surrounding him, overwhelmed, only able to stutter out fractions of words. He really didn't have the mental capacity or energy for this, and would love for them to just leave him alone-

"Conan-kun!" A relievingly familiar voice shouted over the others. Conan immediately looked over towards Takagi off to the side, some reporters doing the same. "The police need you for a second!"

Without waiting a second, Conan rushed over towards Takagi. The reporters soon realized it was now pointless and moved on to pestering the nearest police officer.

"Thanks." Conan sighed.

"It's nothing." Takagi shook his head. "Plus, the kids are all waiting for you." He pointed over at a police car, the detective boys all gathered around it. He could already see their worked expressions from there (well except for Haibara who rarely showed visible emotion). "Anyways, I gotta go." Takagi quickly said, nervously glancing over at the conglomeration of officers a bit away.

"Okay." He noncommittally replied as Takagi ran off, then proceeded to head over to the detective boys.

It didn't take long for a body to crash into his.

"Conan-kun!" Ayumi cried, crushing him with a hug. "You're okay!"

"Yeah..." Conan just awkwardly patted her on the back a couple times, returning the hug.

"I knew you could pull it off!" Mitsuhiko said.

Ayumi released her hold on Conan and stepped back towards the others, wiping her eyes.

"As expected of my follower!" Genta boasted.

"Well, you made the right choice." Haibara coldly spoke up next to him, though, now that he was closer, he could clearly see the tension in her posture, trying to hide her concern. "It's stupid to die for people you don't know."

There were.. many things, about that statement, but one of them caused Conan to suddenly freeze, a realization hitting him.

"B-but I didn't..."

He didn't make the right choice. (At least intentionally.)

He wasn't even trying to stay alive-

He almost died.

And it was close. Really close.

He was only alive because of a slew of coincidences, because he just so happened to reflexively clench his hands in the exact right order.

The odds of that must've been impossibly low.

It was practically a miracle he was alive right now.

Conan brought his hands up to his head, and threaded his fingers through his hair, pulling. "I-I wasn't even.. I d-didn't..." He tried to explain, but the words just didn't come.

He felt a wetness on his cheeks, and confusedly wiped it with his hand.

Oh, tears. He was crying. That made sense.

He dug his palms into his eyes and just groaned.

"C-Conan-kun..?" He heard Ayumi's very worried voice say. "Y-you can cry. It's okay."

He appreciated it - he really did - but he was just too tired to deal with those emotions right now. He pushed down even further, holding his breath and forcing the burning feeling to go away, postponing that breakdown for later. He pulled his hands away, blinking his vision back. He sniffed, wiping away the remaining tears.

"Are you.." Haibara said, "alright..?"

Conan just turned his head to stare at her. "Probably not..."

She awkwardly looked to the side, looking incredibly out of her element, and far more noticeably concerned than before. "Uh.. do you..?"

Conan hung his head, looking at the ground. He breathed out a long sigh. "I just wanna go home..."


Conan awoke to a light shaking of his shoulders.

He slowly blinked his eyes open, looking over to see Agasa next to him with a hand on his shoulder. He took a quick note of his surroundings, realizing he was in a car, Agasa's Beetle to be exact. Haibara was the only one left, sitting in the front seat.

Conan rubbed his eyes. "Hnn?" He slurred confusedly.

"Ah, you fell asleep." Agasa said. "I had to move you to the car, but I figured I should wake you up when we get here." He glanced over his shoulder, moving a bit to he side to let Conan see the detective agency's building.

"Oh..." He groggily said. "Thanks."

Agasa stood up and stepped to the side as Conan slowly pushed himself out of the car. "Bye, Conan-kun." He said.

"Bye." He waved, although it probably looked more like a pathetic flop than a wave.

He heard the car door shut and the car drive off as he began his trek up the stairs. Each step felt like it took monumental effort, but the sweet thought of sleep and rest kept him going.

He somehow managed to get up to the first landing without passing out or something. Before heading up the second, he paused, looking contemplatively at the office's door. He thought for a second, before quickly deciding that, yeah, he should probably let them know he was home before just going to sleep.

He reached for the doorknob (almost having to stand on his tippy toes to do it - curse his short height) and turned it, thankful the door was unlocked, letting himself inside.

"I'm home..." He called, although it came out much quieter than he intended, so he wasn't sure if anyone actually heard.

That was quickly disproven when Ran poked her head out from behind the kitchen hallway. "Welcome back, Conan-kun!" She cheerfully said. "How was your day?"

Conan just stared at her in confusion for a second, before realizing that Ran had been at school for most of the day, and probably didn't know what happened.

He then realized Ran had asked him a question, and would probably like an answer, blinking himself out of his stupor.

What was it..? Oh, right. How was his day? His day...

A series of flashbacks passed over him. He shut his eyes for a second, and opened them again. "...Eventful." He settled on.

"Huh?" Ran tilted her head in confusion.

Not wanting to give an explanation, Conan looked over at Kogoro. He was giving him a weird look. The TV was on, on the news channel, so it was pretty obvious why.

Conan brought a hand up to his mouth as he let out a large yawn.

Right. Sleep.

"I'm going to bed." He said without any thought.

Kogoro raised an eyebrow. "It's like, 3:30."

"Don't care."

Kogoro gave him another weird look, before looking back at his newspaper or something.

"I'll wake you up for dinner then." Ran smiled at him, although there was still a twinge of confusion there.

"Ok..." He nodded.

Well, if she could get him up, that is...