Jiang Xia and Mouri Ran were waiting for someone at the station.
Conan was listlessly playing games with the children.
Just then, his phone suddenly rang.
Conan froze, glanced at the caller ID, and answered. "Hattori?"
As a fellow High School Detective, Hattori Heiji was just as observant. He immediately noticed that something was off about the background noise on Conan's end. "Hm? You're not at the station? Still out playing?"
"Our school suddenly had an event, so I couldn't get away. I asked Jiang Xia to go in my place, and Ran will be there too." Conan lowered his voice so the children beside him would not hear. "At this hour, there shouldn't be many people at the station. They should be easy to find, right?"
Hattori Heiji fell silent for a moment.
When he spoke again, his tone had become somewhat complicated. "You had Jiang Xia pick us up? You really know how to pick someone... I'd rather run over there myself."
Though after several encounters, Hattori Heiji no longer held his initial prejudice against Jiang Xia, that did not stop certain unpleasant memories from remaining deeply lodged in his mind.
—Especially that nightmare he had once had: after Kudo died a miserable death, Jiang Xia transferred to Osaka and diligently solved cases beside the innocent Hattori Heiji. Whenever Hattori Heiji saw Jiang Xia, his whole body felt wrong, and he wanted nothing more than to flee abroad.
But Toyama Kazuha clearly had a different opinion.
Hearing Hattori Heiji's words, she laughed. "Jiang Xia's picking us up instead? I told you Jiang Xia would be the most reliable choice, but you insisted on only hanging around that 'Kudo.'"
The last time they had gone to Shizuoka Prefecture, she had been knocked out and locked backstage. Jiang Xia