Chapter 59: How to Steal Dirty Loot with Style

"What should we do..." Ayumi sniffed pitifully, then looked at Genta Kojima, who still had dried nosebleed smeared across his face. "Are you alright, Genta?"

"I'm fine," Genta Kojima grunted, his nose twitching. "It doesn't hurt that much, humph..."

Conan struggled slightly. The ropes binding him were tied very tightly, and there was no convenient way nearby to call for help...

"Who are these people, Conan?" Mitsuhiko Tsuburaya, who hadn't taken many hits, was still able to stand straight. He leaned close to Conan's ear and whispered, "They seem to have guns..."

"An Italian bandit gang," Conan said with certainty. "I saw the news at noon. Their leader, 'Cabane,' was arrested in Japan, but he stubbornly refuses to reveal where the stolen goods are hidden..."

"That's right, little brat." The shifty-eyed man pulled out a pistol, aimed it at Conan, and began the classic monologue typical of any logical criminal: "That bastard betrayed us and ran off with the gold coins all by himself. We only recently discovered that he was hiding here in Japan, but no matter what we do, he won't tell us where the gold coins are. We had no choice but to look for them ourselves—and you kids really saved us a lot of trouble."

He lowered his head and pressed the barrel of the gun against Conan's forehead. "Talk! You must know where the gold coins are! If you don't tell me, prepare to die!"

"Conan..." Ayumi's voice, laced with tears, trembled behind him.

Conan calmly stared at the man in front of him.

They hadn't found the gold coins yet, which meant there was still a chance. He...

"Pointing a gun at a child is the most tasteless thing a bandit can possibly do..." A male voice suddenly echoed from above.

The gunman froze, nervously raising his weapon to point upward.

Conan, kneeling on the ground, also looked up. A very familiar figure was sitting on an abandoned steel roof truss with his knees hugged to his chest. One of his legs dangled naturally, swinging leisurely, completely ignoring the gun pointed right at him.

"Joker!" Conan cried out with pleasant surprise.

"We meet again, little detective," Joker replied casually. Then, with a flick of his fingers, he pinched a glittering, round golden object and dangled it playfully in front of the thugs. "Looking for this?"

The long-haired thug shrieked, "You! The gold coins are with you!"

With a twist of Joker's hand, the gold coin vanished from his grip. He shrugged. "What are you talking about? I don't understand."

Cursing fiercely in Italian, several of the thugs drew their own firearms.

Conan watched the still-carefree Joker, sensing that something was off.

Where was that bright red scarf of his...?

"Ha!" Before the thugs could fire a shot, a sharp whistling sound cut through the air. A strip of red fabric, like a long whip, lashed heavily across the back of the long-haired man.

The object twitched with the eerie flexibility of a living creature, struck twice more, and flew upward into Joker's hand.

With a flick of the red cord, Joker actually managed to crack it like a whip in the air. He tossed one end so that it looped securely around the overhead beam, grabbed the other end, and swung down with the agility of a gymnast, kicking the man standing directly in front of Conan square in the chest.

"Bang!" The last standing thug shakily fired a shot, but Joker merely twisted his body fluidly in mid-air, used the rope to swing himself higher, and grabbed another steel bar, plummeting directly from above. The thug emitted only a miserable, muffled groan before being slammed hard onto the floor. Conan fancied he could hear the sickening crunch of the man's spine.

After stylishly knocking out all three men, Joker stood straight. The grappling hook automatically detached from the steel beam, fell back into his hand, transformed back into a soft scarf, and was re-wrapped around his neck.

Conan: ......What kind of high-tech gadget was that? He wanted one too! He wanted one right now!

***

"It's alright now, kids," Joker walked closer to them, though he didn't untie the ropes binding them. He simply squatted down and wiped the blood from Genta's face. "Be more careful on your next adventures. Dealing with bad guys when it's just the few of you is very dangerous."

The three elementary school students nodded blankly, worship gradually lighting up their eyes.

Such a suave, cool, and mysterious figure who neutralized enemies with a single move and possessed the aura of a modern-day Robin Hood had a fatal attraction for children. Each of them was trembling with excitement.

"So cool, big brother! Just like Kamen Rider!" Ayumi cheered, teardrops still clinging to her cheeks.

"So amazing!"

"The gold coins!" Conan, the only one who hadn't turned into a fanboy or fangirl, asked the ultimate question: "Did you take those gold coins?!"

"Ah—guess?" Joker smoothed his white hair. "Even if you guess right, there's no prize, little detective."

He stood straight up. "The police will be here soon, so Kamen Rider has to make his exit. Don't tell them I was here, kids."

With that, he grabbed his scarf and tossed it. The fabric straightened back into a grappling hook, wrapped securely around the window frame, and with a backward step, he grabbed the rope and leaped right out the window.

"Ah!" Ayumi shrieked. Seeing him vanish from the window, she couldn't help but run over and stretch her neck out to look.

Outside the window, there was only the neon-lit nightscape of Tokyo Bay. Joker was gone.

Conan glanced at the window, but his gaze involuntarily drifted toward the stairs leading to the rooftop nearby.

Joker looked like he was jumping outward, but in reality, it was very likely that—

Thinking of this, he struggled to his feet and bolted toward the rooftop stairs.

"Conan, where are you going—" The cries of his friends were left behind as Conan rapidly sprinted up the dust-covered steps and burst onto the rooftop.

Just as he expected, Joker was standing right at the edge of the roof, stepping on an abandoned billboard, gazing out at the dazzling night view of Tokyo.

"You really are persistent, Detective-kun." Joker didn't seem surprised by his appearance, standing there without even turning his head. "Is there something you need from me?"

Conan, who was used to chasing criminals and mostly getting left in the dust, found himself unaccustomed to actually encountering one who stood around waiting for him.

He steadied himself and said in a deep voice, "Why did you disguise yourself like that last time?"

Worried that Joker was just bluffing, Conan held back slightly and didn't back him into a total corner.

"You want to ask how I figured out you were Kudo Shinichi?" Joker finally deigned to turn around—though with his mask covering even his eyes, it didn't seem to make much difference. "I naturally have my own ways. Rest assured, I have nothing to do with those people. In fact, you can try treating me as a comrade on the same front."

"Destroying them—that is also my ultimate goal." Joker looked back down at the night view below and spoke in riddles. "I am a crow, but I'm not a scavenging monster like them. Put your mind at ease."

"You know who they are... Do you really have some special means of gathering intelligence?" Conan pressed his lips together, probing with his own guess: "This time, don't tell me you were the one who tried to go after Cabane and discovered where he hid the gold coins?"

After all, Joker didn't look like he had rushed over to save the day at the last minute; it seemed much more like he was already here and jumped out to stop them only after discovering the thugs were about to hurt someone.

Tarusawa ("Joker"): [...] Your imagination is truly incredible. I haven't even figured out how to spin this yet, and you've already filled in all the blanks for me.

Right, everything you said is correct, exactly like that!

Joker chuckled softly, refusing to refute his guess. Instead, he took a step forward, spread his arms, and tipped backward into the bustling city below.

"Don't—!" Conan cried out in shock and rushed forward. He peered over the edge, but the half-empty space outside the building showed only a few blinking neon lights. There was no trace of Joker left.

"Kid! It's dangerous, step back!" Behind him, the police officers who had just run up to the rooftop cried out in alarm and rushed over to pull him back.

...So it was because the police had arrived, after all.

Conan felt a twinge of regret for not being able to extract more information. When the police helped untie his bonds, he instinctively thrust his hand into his pocket, only to brush against a hard piece of paper.

Conan: ......He understood the logic of it all, but why couldn't he just talk like a normal person instead of constantly handing out flyers? Did he print too many heist notice cards and have nowhere to use them?

He silently pulled his hand out and glanced at the line of characters left on the warning letter. It was an email address.

***

[Joker appeared again? Near the Toto Tower?]

[Yes, a high school detective named Goro Akeki called the police, reporting that he saw several people holding a group of children hostage and dragging them to an abandoned building. When the police arrived, all three kidnappers had been subdued and were confirmed to be members of the fugitive Italian bandit gang. They claimed they were knocked out by a man in black with white hair.]

[So, he went to save people?]

[Uncertain, because the kid named Conan said they went looking for stolen goods hidden by the gang, but we only found a few empty sacks at the scene. He said Joker took the gold coins.]

Conan... Amuro Tooru instinctively frowned. Why was it this kid again?

The last time Joker appeared on the ship, wasn't it also this kid...

Amuro Tooru sighed, tucked his phone away, and looked up just in time to see Tarusawa, who had supposedly been doing homework outside the door, rubbing his eyes as he walked down from upstairs, gathering his stationery and heading back into the store.

"Why did you run upstairs?" Amuro Tooru looked curiously in the direction he had come from.

"I finished my homework and went up to find Conan to borrow a mystery novel, but Mouri-san said Conan still hasn't come home." Tarusawa looked deeply worried. "Did something happen to him again?"

Amuro Tooru thought of Conan, who was currently being escorted back by the police, and then looked at Tarusawa, who had spent the whole afternoon quietly doing his homework outside. He felt a strange sense of relief.

Good thing he kept Tarusawa pinned down this time, otherwise if these kids made the newspapers again, Kazami wouldn't be able to sleep tonight.

"Don't worry, he'll probably be back soon." Knowing the situation, Amuro Tooru perfunctorily patted Tarusawa's shoulder.

"Is that so..." Tarusawa, who knew the situation far better than he did, looked out the French doors at the street. All skill, zero emotion.

When Amuro Tooru eventually figured out that Conan was nominally Kudo Shinichi's relative, would he become even more convinced that Kudo Shinichi was Joker?

Heh heh, good luck to Kudo Shinichi.