Standing obediently in line, Ritsu wasn't having the best luck.
That little detective wannabe, Shinichi, was right behind him endlessly rambling about mystery novels.
Even someone with relatively low emotional intelligence and a somewhat blunt personality like Ritsu could tell from the expressions on the two girls' faces that they were thinking, 'Sorry, but we have absolutely zero interest in this topic.'
He honestly wanted to kindly remind this guy, who turned even more socially oblivious than himself whenever detective fiction came up, but he couldn't risk exposing his identity. So he could only stay silent and keep his eyes locked on Leo ahead of him.
Judging from Leo's previous methods, he would definitely make his move before entering the exhibition hall.
The question was, how? Last time he had crawled through ventilation ducts.
"I'm telling you, there's also a gemstone case in The Hound of the Baskervilles. The Vatican Jewel Case was especially amazing, Holmes was simply—"
"And The Speckled Band is also an absolute classic! The older sister dies right outside her room just before the wedding, and the only clue left behind was—"
Once Shinichi started talking about Sherlock Holmes, there was no stopping him.
Ran and Sonoko looked utterly tormented.
Sonoko, with her short temper, practically wanted to find a needle and thread to sew shut the mouth that kept chanting nonstop.
"How long are you planning to keep talking about Sherlock Holmes?" Ran cracked her knuckles loudly. Though her face still wore a sweet smile, for some reason it looked terrifyingly sinister in Shinichi's eyes, as though she might knock him flat the next second.
"Hahaha!" Shinichi laughed awkwardly before pointing at Ran's cracking fingers and offering a friendly reminder.
"Ran, doing that all the time is bad for your joints. You could get arthritis."
"Huh? Really?"
"That won't cause arthritis."
"??"
Shinichi froze for a moment and looked toward the tall man lowering the brim of his cap to hide his face. However, thanks to the height difference, Shinichi could still glimpse the misty blue hair color concealed beneath it.
Ritsu had also grown somewhat irritated from listening to the endless "chanting," so he finally spoke up to explain,
"That's just a normal physiological joint popping sound. Human joints all contain spaces called joint cavities. Those cavities are filled with fluid that lubricates the joints and allows us to perform physical movements."
"When you crack your joints, a gap forms within the cavity. The surrounding gases spread into that gap, and when they interact with the fluid inside, they create the cracking sound. The entire process is called physiological joint popping."
Ritsu raised his long-fingered, elegant hand and mimicked Ran's motion by cracking one of his fingers himself.
"So cracking your knuckles won't give you arthritis. He was lying to you."
He actually ran into someone knowledgeable about this stuff? Shinichi narrowed his eyes into annoyed crescents.
Talk about bad luck.
"Shinichi! You lied to me?!"
"Huh? W-Wait a second! Cracking your fingers definitely counts as—ow!"
Joy flickered across Ritsu's brows. He pressed his lips tightly together, though a very brief laugh still escaped him.
Moments later, his expression returned to its usual calm poker face as he resumed tailing his target.
While the youngsters continued fooling around behind him, Ritsu noticed Leo's stance suddenly change.
Leo abruptly slipped his right hand into his pocket. The outline against the fabric revealed the shape of something in his grip.
'This guy, was he planning to use the same method as last time and knock everyone unconscious?'
Hissssss—
Smoke suddenly began pouring from the ventilation ducts.
The customers lined up outside the exhibition hall looked at one another in confusion, unsure what was happening. But then terrified screams erupted, instantly throwing the crowd into panic as they rushed toward the exits.
"Oh no, it's a fire!!"
'I see. So it wasn't sleeping gas this time.'
He was creating smoke to make everyone think there was a fire, then using the chaos to steal the gemstone.
"Shinichi, what's going on?!" Ran cried out.
Shinichi cautiously scanned the surroundings. Everyone was fleeing outside, yet the smoke lacked the smell of carbon, and its color clearly differed from the thick black smoke of an actual fire.
This wasn't a fire.
Someone was deliberately misleading the crowd. The goal was probably to steal the sapphire.
"Ran, you and Sonoko get outside first! I'm going to check on the gemstone!"
"Huh? Why—hey! Shinichi!"
Realizing this might be a theft case, Shinichi excitedly licked his lips and sprinted in the opposite direction. Unfortunately, the crowd flow made it difficult to get close to the exhibition hall.
'Hm? That guy isn't—'
A black baseball cap was knocked off in the chaos, making the misty blue hair underneath stand out sharply among the crowd.
Shinichi's lips curled upward slightly.
Looks like that guy knowledgeable about medical facts. His real specialty was theft.
After struggling through the crowd, Ritsu finally entered the exhibition hall only to find it completely empty.
Even Jirokichi and his bodyguards, who had been inside moments earlier, had vanished.
Did Leo have accomplices? Or had the Suzuki advisor fled to avoid the supposed fire?
Ritsu reached out and shut the door behind him before looking toward Leo, who was standing in front of the display case attempting to smash the bulletproof glass.
"We meet again, Mr. Leo."
Leo slowly turned around to face the mysterious blue-haired young man wearing a white mask.
After the failure of the previous mission, Leo had fled in humiliation, unable to swallow his frustration. Ever since making that threat, he had spent considerable effort preparing for their next encounter, even going so far as to obtain a double dosage of the drug. All for the sake of redeeming himself.
"I didn't expect you'd dare show your face in front of me again, Arsène Lupin."
Hearing Leo speak Japanese with a Fukushima accent genuinely surprised Ritsu. So he understood Japanese after all.
"I've never been a coward. Besides, I'm very interested in the Pandora gemstone your organization is searching for."
Tilting his head slightly, Ritsu placed a hand behind his back. His golden eyes carried a smile as he slowly continued:
"And I have a few questions I'd like to ask you. About the genius magician Toichi Kuroba."
"..."
Leo instantly drew the handgun hidden at his waist. Both men aimed at each other without firing. Clearly, Leo had underestimated how much information the other side possessed.
Was this man here to search for Toichi Kuroba? Or was his true target Pandora as well?
Keeping his gun aimed at Leo's throat, Ritsu asked, "Not planning to use that strange injection this time?"
"Last time I was careless. Even without it—"
Creak.
The door behind them slowly opened.
Having finally escaped the crowd, Shinichi pushed open the door, intending to stop the theft. Before doing so, he had already called the police, knowing that as merely a middle school student, his own strength was limited.
But the moment he recklessly pushed the door open, he discovered there wasn't just one person inside.
Both men were armed.
'W-What is this situation?!'
"Heh. So you even brought backup with you?"
Leo raised a brow while sizing up the black-haired teenager frozen in the doorway, his voice dripping with mockery.
"He's just a brat."
Without even needing to guess who had arrived, Ritsu coldly said, "This isn't a place for playing pretend games. Leave immediately."
Shinichi swallowed hard. As he quickly backed away, he shut the door again and even dragged over tables and chairs to barricade it, afraid the two terrorists inside might escape.
In his mind, the situation was simple. The two men inside had probably turned on each other over how to split the loot.
The police would arrive soon. Once the police got here, everything would be fine.
'Wait. Why was it so quiet outside?'
A bad feeling struck Shinichi immediately. He hurried out and discovered people collapsed all across the outer hall, including Ran and Sonoko.
"Ran!"
He rushed over and crouched beside her, finally letting out a sigh of relief after realizing she was only asleep.
Frowning, Shinichi surveyed the unconscious visitors surrounding him.
Smoke had been used in the exhibition hall to drive people toward the main lobby, and then some sort of sleep-inducing device had been activated there.
A setup this elaborate felt more like the work of an organized group.
Turning back toward the tightly shut doors, Shinichi stared silently. Just who were those two armed men inside?
His detective instincts told him one thing for certain, neither of them was ordinary.