Chapter 65: Bus Hijack
The pneumatic hiss of the bus doors opening briefly drowned out the ambient chatter of the city streets. Natsume glanced up from her seat, her eyes landing on a familiar figure stepping aboard.
"Dr. Araide, what a coincidence," Natsume called out with a polite, easy smile. "We meet again so soon."
As the man moved further down the aisle, the shifting light revealed he wasn't alone. A striking foreign woman with sharp blonde hair and framed glasses trailed closely behind him.
Natsume's brow arched in mild amusement. "Oh? The good doctor isn't flying solo today. Are you out on a date with your girlfriend?"
Seeing the mild-mannered 'Dr. Araide'—who was, in reality, the Black Organization executive Vermouth in disguise—boarding alongside the blonde woman, a sudden wave of déjà vu washed over Natsume. The pieces rapidly clicked together in her mind. A bus ride. Vermouth. Jodie Starling.
This was it. This was the exact bus where Shuichi Akai would make his grand, official debut.
Since 'Dr. Araide' had just conducted the internal medical exams at Teitan Elementary School a few days prior, the Detective Boys immediately recognized him.
"Whoa, it is Dr. Araide!" Genta leaned over his seat.
"Are you really on a date?" Ayumi asked, her eyes sparkling with innocent curiosity as she, Mitsuhiko, and Genta began pestering the poor man with questions.
Dr. Araide quickly waved his hands, a flustered smile breaking across his face. "No, no, you've all misunderstood! Ms. Jodie Starling and I only ran into each other by chance." He gestured to the blonde woman beside him. "She is the new English teacher at Teitan High School. We're strictly colleagues."
Conan, sitting nearby, chimed in to corroborate the story. "Yeah, she's the new English teacher for Ran's class."
"Ah~ so it's not a date," Mitsuhiko, Genta, and Ayumi sighed in unison, slumping back into their seats, thoroughly disappointed by the lack of romantic gossip.
Watching the children's deflated reactions, Dr. Araide offered a helpless, awkward chuckle, clearly not knowing whether to laugh or cry.
After a few more brief pleasantries, the two adults moved down the aisle, taking the empty seats directly in front of Natsume.
Natsume herself was seated just ahead of Conan and Haibara. Staring at the back of Dr. Araide's head, the reality of Vermouth's presence settled over her. A sudden, sharp realization hit her—Haibara's 'Black Organization Radar' was notoriously sensitive, especially during these early stages. And now that she thought about it, the usually quiet girl hadn't made a single sound since the doctor boarded.
Frowning slightly, Natsume turned around to check on her.
What she saw confirmed her suspicions. Haibara had pulled her jacket hood up over her head. She was curled in on herself, her chin tucked firmly against her chest, her small shoulders trembling violently. The sheer, suffocating terror radiating from the girl was obvious. She was reacting entirely to Vermouth's proximity.
Needing to draw attention away from the girl's unnatural panic, Natsume leaned over. "Haibara, are you okay? Did you catch the Doctor's cold?" she asked, her voice laced with deliberate, loud concern.
While she provided the cover story, an ill-timed, highly unscientific train of thought derailed Natsume's focus: Just how exactly does Haibara's radar work? Is it a literal sixth sense? Does it only trigger for codenamed executives, or do low-level grunts set her off too? What about people who just interact with the Organization frequently?
Her mind immediately drifted to her own Teyvat crew. Take Kaeya, for example. If he stood next to her, would she sense him? I really wonder how she'd react to that guy...
Across the aisle, Dr. Agasa heard the word 'cold' and immediately panicked. "Eh? Did Ai catch it from me? Achoo!" He rubbed his red nose, leaning over anxiously. "Ai, are you alright? Is anything hurting? Achoo!"
Conan, instantly catching onto Natsume's subtle assist, realized that an illness was the perfect alibi for Haibara's erratic behavior. He quickly waved his hands at the adults. "Ah, Haibara is just feeling a bit chilly right now! She might have a slight cold coming on, but she should be fine as long as she stays warm."
Hearing this, Dr. Araide kindly turned around, offering to give the girl a quick check-up. Conan hastily threw together a flimsy excuse to block the offer, effectively keeping the disguised Vermouth away from the terrified ex-scientist.
By now, the bus was nearly full. Through the steady stream of passengers, Natsume's eyes locked onto a tall man wearing a surgical mask and a knit beanie. His sharp, cold eyes briefly scanned the interior before he walked past her, taking a seat in the very last row.
Shuichi Akai.
Seeing him confirmed the timeline. The bus Shuichi Akai first appeared on was destined to be hijacked. Right on cue, two strange men bundled in thick ski suits boarded the bus directly after him.
Natsume narrowed her eyes. The hijackers.
But wait. She dug into her memories of the plot. Aside from the two armed men in ski suits, there was a hidden accomplice already sitting among the passengers. She couldn't quite remember the specific face, but she knew it was a woman.
Tactically speaking, a hidden accomplice would need a vantage point to monitor the entire bus and keep an eye on the hostages. That meant she had to be sitting in the very back.
Natsume casually tilted her head, glancing toward the rear of the bus. Perfect. There was only one woman seated in the last row. Target acquired. She mentally pinned a tracker on the woman, resolving to keep a close eye on her.
Suddenly, the heavy zip of canvas bags broke the low hum of the bus engine.
The two men in ski suits abruptly pulled handguns from their bags. The atmosphere shattered.
One man immediately stormed the front, shoving his gun into the driver's face. "Change the sign to 'Out of Service' and keep driving in circles! Do it now!"
Bang!
The second man fired a warning shot straight into the ceiling. The deafening crack echoed through the confined space, instantly drawing a chorus of terrified screams from the passengers.
"Shut up! Everyone hand over your mobile phones! Now!" the gunman roared, waving his weapon menacingly.
To be completely honest, despite being trapped in a metal tube with armed hijackers, Natsume didn't feel a single ounce of fear.
She actually had to suppress a dry laugh. Just look at the passenger manifest of this specific bus: a ruthless Black Organization executive, two elite FBI agents, a 'child' detective whose kicks carried the kinetic force of a ballistic missile, and herself—an otherworldly Traveler who had physically beaten down ancient dragons.
Against these few amateur hijackers? Hah. They had basically walked into a boss rush.
Still, pragmatism won out. The men had explosives stashed in those ski bags, and the bus was packed with innocent civilians. This wasn't the time to unleash Anemo or Geo powers and risk blowing the roof off. Natsume decided to play the role of a docile hostage and wait for an opening.
As the gunman stomped down the aisle, shoving an open bag toward the passengers, Natsume didn't plan to resist. She calmly reached into her pocket, pulling out her phone to toss it in.
Just as her fingers cleared her pocket—before she could drop the device—a cheerful, upbeat ringtone suddenly blared from the speaker.
In the dead silence of the terrified bus, the sound was deafening.
Every single pair of eyes, including the gunman's furious glare, instantly snapped toward Natsume.
She froze, feeling a sharp prickle of awkwardness. She had fully intended to keep a low profile, yet here she was, the absolute center of attention. Maintaining a blank expression, Natsume quickly glanced at the caller ID.
Kaeya.
She didn't panic. If it were a true life-or-death emergency, Kaeya would have bypassed the phone entirely and messaged her directly through the System interface in her mind. A phone call meant it was just standard business. She could call him back after she finished taking out the trash here.
Without missing a beat, Natsume hit the reject button, powered the device down completely, and casually dropped it into the hijacker's bag.
Seeing that the gunman didn't scream or lash out at Natsume for the interruption, Dr. Agasa and the children let out a collective, shaky breath of relief.
The hijacker merely grunted, moving past Natsume to terrorize the next row.
As the immediate threat passed, Natsume caught a subtle movement from the corner of her eye. While the rest of the bus was paralyzed with fear, tracking the gunman's every step, 'Dr. Araide' was doing no such thing. He was inconspicuously, yet intensely, observing her.
Natsume kept her gaze forward, pretending she hadn't noticed Vermouth's scrutinizing stare. She filed the interaction away for later.
Bang!
A second gunshot violently interrupted her thoughts.
Natsume whipped her head around, assuming the hijacker's fragile temper had finally snapped and he had shot a passenger.
Instead, she stared in absolute bafflement. The gunman's target hadn't been an innocent civilian—he had fired directly at his own hidden accomplice in the back row. He hadn't hit her, of course; the bullet had intentionally buried itself into the back of the seat right next to her head. The woman let out a convincing shriek of terror.
Natsume blinked, utterly speechless at the sheer stupidity of the tactic.
It was completely unnecessary. If the goal was intimidation, the first shot into the ceiling had already done the job. The civilians were already terrified, and anyone actually planning to fight back wouldn't be deterred by a second shot.
If the goal was to clear the accomplice of any suspicion and distance her from the hijackers... it was even worse. It was a massive overcorrection. Before, she was just a random face in the back row. But after pulling a stunt like that? Every single person on this bus was going to vividly remember the woman who supposedly 'talked back' to the armed terrorists.
Amateurs, Natsume thought, shaking her head slightly. Absolute amateurs.
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