The trend of being sandwiched between fires from above and below was getting more and more severe.
Even Ayumi and the others present gradually discovered the problem.
Their path, which they had been running upwards, was cut off; the upper floors were all on fire.
"Conan… Conan… what should we do?"
Ayumi looked at Conan for help, hoping this quick-witted classmate could think of a solution.
But Conan was also at his wit's end now.
He, Conan, was just an ordinary student, at most learning a few things in Hawaii that anyone could learn.
Perhaps add a title of a great detective and being a football enthusiast who is relatively good at football, that's all.
With dozens of floors, what could he do?
Conan leaned against the window, looking down at the scenery that appeared as small as ants.
The floors below were dyed crimson by the red flames.
"Damn it."
If the Professor had made an inflatable cushion that could expand and contract, similar to a soccer ball, it might be useful now.
Why hadn't he thought of it before?
He had a pair of pretty good sneakers on his feet,
But what good were they now?
Could he kick a soccer ball to extinguish the flames along the way or something?
"Conan, say something! What should we do now?" Ayumi's face was on the verge of tears.
Even Mitsuhiko and Genta were looking at Conan.
"Are we going to die here? I still have so much eel rice I haven't eaten."
"Um, Conan, is there really no way for us to escape?" Mitsuhiko couldn't help but ask.
"I…" Conan moved his gaze from the window and turned around.
The fire had already spread up the stairs.
Not only from downstairs but also upstairs, a faint red glow could be seen.
Conan, who had clenched his fists, slowly loosened them, the struggle on his face gradually disappeared, and he squeezed out a word:
"Sorry."
"Why give up, Edogawa?"
Before everyone could react to Conan's word,
A familiar voice sounded from behind the three children,
"We still have some time." Haibara Ai smiled slightly at the people in front of her.
"Giving up, that's not like you, great detective."
"Haibara, we…"
"Don't you want to see her anymore?"
"I…"
"Then don't give up." She looked at Edogawa Conan, then turned her gaze to the three children.
"Ayumi, Mitsuhiko, Genta, look into my eyes."
However, a few seconds after the three children looked into Haibara's eyes, they fainted.
"Hey, Haibara, what's going on?"
Seeing Ayumi and the others lying in a row as if asleep, Conan's face showed an incredulous expression.
Is it hypnosis?
When did Haibara gain such an ability?
To make three tense people fall asleep in a few seconds, even if they were just children, it shouldn't be possible!
"Don't look, if you fall asleep, no one will be there to handle what comes next."
Haibara first turned her head away, the slightly brilliant ice-blue in her pupils slowly receding.
A few seconds later, Haibara's gaze met Conan's again.
"Haibara…" Conan looked at Haibara's familiar face, yet he had never felt her so strange.
"Edogawa… no, Kudo, I asked you before, do you believe in the existence of magic in this world?"
"Magic?"
Conan didn't react for a moment.
Haibara Ai also didn't explain to Conan.
She extended the index finger of her right hand and gently sliced across her left wrist.
The moment the artery was cut.
Crimson blood gushed from the wound, splattering on the ground.
A few drops even splattered onto Haibara Ai's brown hair and cheeks.
"Hey, stop, Haibara, you're acting strange now."
Conan's expression changed; he completely failed to understand what Haibara was planning.
The speed at which blood was flowing from the wound on Haibara's wrist was 100% indicative of a ruptured artery.
Haibara Ai smiled slightly.
The bloodstains remaining on her brown hair and cheeks made her look more like a yandere character from some anime.
Haibara Ai said, "Satan once said something."
"Everyone is like this; the left hand belongs to the devil, and the right hand belongs to the angel."
As she spoke, the blood dripping onto the ground began to flow purposefully outwards.
Meanwhile, the flames were burning on the upper and lower floors.
Spreading up from the stairs, the temperature of the floor they were on was noticeably rising.
The blood flowing on the ground gradually closed into a circle, enclosing everyone within it.
Haibara Ai, losing too much blood, her face gradually turned pale.
However, she forced a smile and said, "Survival is a creature's instinct. I made a deal with Satan. I'm really sorry, Kudo, it seems my body still flows with cold, black blood."
Astonished by Haibara's words, Conan felt a stiffness coming over his body.
"Can't… can't move."
Conan only then realized that besides his mouth barely being able to move, his limbs felt as if they were bound.
Magic, could there really be magic in this world?
His worldview was completely shattered, but he had no time to worry about that now.
Because a very terrifying voice came.
"Kudo, isn't it interesting to use your blood and the blood of these little brats to complete the last piece of the teleportation array?"
"You mean to…" As a novelist's son, under long-term influence, he naturally knew some taboo, or rather, legends.
"Blood sacrifice."
"Isn't that a simple and clear explanation for what's happening now? It means you all are sacrifices for the devil." Haibara Ai gently stroked her brown hair with her hand.
The flames on the floor had already spread from the upper and lower levels; intense flames carrying thick black smoke began to roll through the floor.
However, everything was completely purified within the red circle beneath their feet.
Not a single trace could pass through the circle and spread inside.
At this moment, from Conan's perspective.
The burning flames, like rolling waves, engulfed the entire floor, but only one place was completely ignored.
Rather than ignored, it was as if these flames, upon touching the circle formed by Haibara's blood, were completely nullified by an unknown energy.
Conan didn't understand the reason for this.
The floor inside the circle had no heat at all; compared to the scorching red ground outside the circle, it was completely two different worlds.
It was as if this place was completely in a different space from the rest of the floor.
"How about it, isn't magic more miraculous than your science?"
Haibara Ai, with slightly cracked lips, still spoke to Conan with interest.
"You…" Conan wanted to say something, but no sound came out when he opened his mouth.
"Well then, goodbye, great detective."
Amidst the rolling flames, a few blue lights suddenly dotted the scene.
These light points, like shooting stars, slowly floated throughout the entire floor.
Suddenly, Conan only felt his surroundings abruptly darken.
When he came to his senses.
"This… where is this?"
Conan looked bewildered.
On the ground beside him lay Ayumi, Mitsuhiko, Genta, and the murderer he had put to sleep with a tranquilizer needle earlier, an old man named Kisaragi.
Conan noticed the crimson hexagram beneath his feet, enveloped by the light circle and etched into the ground, becoming dim and then quickly disappearing.
"The rest is up to you, great detective. Oh, and I was just joking earlier."
After Haibara Ai finished speaking, she fainted and fell to the ground.
"Wait, Haibara."
Even now, Conan still didn't understand what had happened.
He looked up at the sky; in the distance, the Twin Towers were still engulfed in flames.
Conan then realized, his voice filled with uncertainty.
"We… instantly arrived at the ground?"
Conan turned his gaze to Haibara and quickly went to check her left wrist.
"The wound… healed?" Conan's eyes showed an incredible expression.
The severed radial artery had completely healed in such a short time; apart from a shallow scar, there was no trace of a cut.
"Haibara… I owe you another favor."
Conan sighed.
Although he didn't know what method Haibara used, she looked as if she had lost too much blood, her face completely pale.
Regardless of magic or anything else, Conan quickly called for help nearby, needing to get Haibara to the hospital as soon as possible.
The location wasn't remote, but Haibara and the others appeared so suddenly that no one noticed.
After Conan's shout, people quickly came over.
The event of the movie Countdown to Heaven also concluded here.
When Conan explained to Mouri Kogoro and the others how they got down from the burning building,
Conan thought for a moment and pulled out a scapegoat—Kaitou Kid saved them.
Elsewhere,
"Achoo." Kuroba Kaito sneezed violently several times.
"What's going on? It's such warm weather; did I catch a cold?"
...
In a large villa somewhere.
Koizumi Akako watched the news playing on TV, the content being the Twin Towers fire.
"Kaitou Kid, abandoning evil for good, saved several people in the precarious high-rise fire."
Koizumi Akako felt that things were probably not that simple.
She extended her fingers and slowly drew three cards from the tarot deck.
Her originally languid eyes, upon seeing the information from the three card combination, showed a scrutinizing look.
Koizumi Akako's expression also became much more solemn.
A moment later, she flipped the tarot cards face down and returned them to the deck.
"Opportunity, also a crisis… The location is a certain hospital room in Beika Hospital."
"A supernatural event?"
"Or rather, magic…"