Tang Ze: I'm So Dead

"Ah—finally, exams are over—!" Sonoko Suzuki cheered, throwing both hands into the air. "Freedom!"

She let out a breath and stood up, turning to drag her best friend, who had already packed away her stationery, to her feet—only to see Ran Mouri staring at her phone with a grave expression.

"What's wrong?" Sonoko Suzuki leaned closer and glanced at her screen. "Did something..."

Onscreen, Wataru Takagi, his face full of awkwardness, was being interviewed by reporters. He stammered as he dealt with a journalist heaping exaggerated praise on him, clearly unaccustomed to such situations.

"No, no, I wasn't the one who defused the bomb. Because of the special switch, we could only have the child who climbed up there assist... Yes, the suspect has been arrested, and we've begun investigating the case..."

"Isn't that the police officer from the First Investigation Division?" Having encountered the First Investigation Division plenty of times through Ran Mouri and Mori Kogoro, Sonoko Suzuki quickly recognized the uneasy face onscreen. "Bomb defusal? Did something happen?"

Ran Mouri pressed her lips together, her eyes fixed tightly on the scrolling ticker below.

"'Tokyo Tower Bombing Crisis'? 'First-year elementary student bravely assists police in defusing large explosive device'?" As she quietly read the captions, thinking of Conan and Tang Ze, who had failed to return all night, a vein slowly throbbed at Ran Mouri's temple.

Even though the police had kept the child who assisted with the bomb disposal off-camera for privacy reasons, she immediately identified the culprit.

What had that guy said on the phone yesterday? Huh?

"Oh my god, something that huge happened today? Damn it, I completely missed it because of the exams." Sonoko Suzuki cupped her face and gasped. "Exams really are... Hm?"

Just as she was about to launch into another outrageous rant,