The safe house was actually fairly spacious, and the facilities inside were quite impressive too.
Descending the staircase brought you directly into a living room of roughly thirty square meters. A carpet had even been laid over the tiled floor, and it clearly wasn't cheap. Well, considering it was arranged by that person, extravagance was only expected.
Besides the living room, there was also a bedroom, a shower room, and an interrogation room.
Work and rest combined into one place, that person really had thought everything through.
Ritsu suddenly found himself wondering whether the water and electricity bills for this safe house were being paid by the company responsible for managing Odaiba Marine Park.
Who would've thought that one day he'd get to experience stealing water and electricity?
Looking at Leo writhing on the floor like a maggot while trying to stand up, he walked over and crouched down beside him. Tilting his head slightly, he said slowly:
"Don't waste your energy. Or are you planning to confess without needing interrogation first?"
Ritsu grabbed the tape sealing Leo's mouth shut and ripped it off in one swift motion. After being stuck there for so long, the force tore skin clean off his lower lip, leaving his mouth covered in blood.
"Now talk. What's the name of your organization? And who created the drug you used earlier?"
Kneeling on the floor with his hands bound behind his back, Leo slowly lifted his head from the tiles.
Ritsu caught the fanaticism burning within those dark gray eyes. Even though he reacted instantly and reached for the handgun at his waist, Leo moved even faster, lunging forward and sinking his teeth into his neck.
"Ugh!"
When did he inject the drug?!
He had checked him before getting out of the car, there definitely hadn't been a syringe on him!
With beastlike strength, Leo snapped apart the manganese steel chain between the handcuffs. His left hand clamped down hard on Ritsu's bleeding neck while his right hand slapped away the handgun Ritsu had just grabbed.
Then both hands tightened together, trying to crush his throat outright.
His neck locked in a death grip, Ritsu's pale skin visibly reddened. Damage to his throat lining caused blood to slowly trickle from the corner of his mouth. Both his hands desperately clawed at the iron grip crushing his neck as he drove his right leg violently into Leo's abdomen.
Several consecutive kicks finally forced Leo back.
Ritsu quickly rolled beside the sofa and used it to pull himself upright, but the lingering suffocation from having his throat constricted for so long made his body sway unsteadily.
Leo seized the opportunity and drove a punch directly into his stomach.
Blood sprayed from Ritsu's mouth. It felt as though his internal organs had just been hit by an earthquake.
The strength granted by that drug was seriously monstrous.
Staggering backward until he hit the wall, he watched another punch come flying toward him and hurriedly twisted aside to dodge.
If he took another hit like that, he might actually die here.
"Go to hell! Lupin!"
Watching Leo recklessly rely on brute force and expose countless openings, Ritsu shifted slightly to the side and unleashed the power of his elbow straight into Leo's left cheek.
An elbow strike was already devastating on its own and this one carried the full rotational force of his body behind it.
"Gah!"
Normally, a blow like that to the cheek would leave someone dizzy. Unfortunately, it had little effect on a drug-enhanced Leo.
In the blink of an eye, Leo charged forward again and seized both of Ritsu's arms. He struggled fiercely, only to see Leo opening his mouth, attempting to bite him.
'Damn it!'
As Ritsu realized the situation was becoming dangerous, Leo suddenly froze mid-motion.
Realizing the drug's effects were likely ending and his body functions were slowing down, he immediately seized the chance to counterattack.
Ritsu gave him no opportunity to react. He drew a dagger and viciously plunged it into Leo's right chest cavity. Grinding his teeth, he twisted the blade hard, directly shredding his lung.
Internal organs were fragile.
A severely ruptured lung wouldn't just cause massive bleeding, it would also make breathing nearly impossible, since the lungs supplied oxygen to the body.
But destroying only one lung wasn't enough to kill him instantly.
"You…"
The fanaticism in Leo's eyes gradually faded. His body tilted backward as he collapsed against the coffee table. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't comprehend dying here.
Nor could he believe that even after injecting the drug, he still failed to defeat the man called Arsène Lupin.
He hadn't even managed to see his true face.
"Tch." Ritsu frowned and spat out a mouthful of bloody saliva.
With a dark expression, he walked over to Leo and placed his hand on the dagger buried completely in his right chest.
"When did you inject the drug? And what exactly is that substance?"
Leo bared his teeth, wanting to laugh. But he couldn't. Once the drug wore off, the overwhelming pain throughout his body made simply staying conscious his absolute limit.
"...You… really want to know… cough… then I'll tell you."
Maybe it was only when death approached that one's mind finally became clear.
Leo's eyes reddened. He had never imagined dying in a foreign country, nor had he imagined that the organization he had served for fifteen years would deceive him once again.
They had promised the improved drug would last ten minutes. In reality, it lasted only three.
Worse still, once the effects ended, his body became completely unresponsive. He could do nothing but watch helplessly as he was killed.
Treating him like a disposable lab rat. Then don't blame him for exposing your secrets.
Leaning weakly against the coffee table, Leo tilted his head back and said, "The new… drug… is hidden inside fake teeth… just like… spies hiding poison… cough cough…"
Ritsu raised an eyebrow slightly. No wonder he hadn't found it.
So they'd changed methods.
"And then? What exactly is the drug that altered your physical abilities?"
"Violent… Berserk… I don't really know the details. I only know… it makes you stronger for a short time."
So Hiro really had guessed correctly. The drug was actually called Violent—Berserk.
Sensing that Leo's vital signs were rapidly weakening, Ritsu quickly asked, "What's the name of your organization? Was Toichi Kuroba killed by your people?"
'So his real goal had been finding Kuroba all along?'
A faint smile appeared on Leo's lips as he used the last of his strength to weakly clutch Ritsu's collar.
"My organization is called Zoo… everyone's codename is related to animals… as for Toichi Kuroba… cough… I'm sorry…"
"I have one request."
"Destroy Zoo… I hate them…"
The hand gripping his clothes slowly fell away. And with it, the body that would never speak again.
Those dark gray eyes lost all light, staring blankly ahead, as though the abyss itself were gazing back.
Ritsu reached out and closed Leo's eyes.
He roughly understood now why Leo's dying wish had been "Destroy the mysterious organization Zoo," and why he had chosen to reveal everything.
Most likely, the cold-blooded organization never cared whether he lived or died. They had merely used him to obtain human experiment data for the Berserk drug, treating him as nothing more than a lab rat.
Wasn't that utterly pathetic?
He had devoted himself wholeheartedly to helping Zoo search for the Pandora Gem, only to end up as a disposable pawn that could be thrown away at any moment.
Why should an organization like that deserve his loyalty?
It didn't deserve it at all.
"Even if you hadn't asked me to destroy them, I still would've chosen to wipe out an organization researching a drug like this."
Zoo's development of the Berserk drug had to be stopped. If a drug like this ever flooded the market or worse, got deployed on the battlefield, the consequences would be unimaginable.