Car Chase
With a helping hand from the breeze, and a head start that put them far closer to Conan than anyone else, they managed to reach the area a step ahead of Amuro Tooru and Okiya Subaru.
Diluc had just pulled to a stop beneath the apartment building where the last of the robbers—Miss Tegawa—was holed up, and at that very moment Conan, having extracted a promise from Miss Kenzuka Kei that she wouldn't do anything rash, was finishing up his explanation of the deduction that Tegawa was the final culprit.
Which meant that Diluc and Venti watched, helpless, through the car window as the woman hiding beside the vehicle suddenly twisted her face into something vicious, wrenched the door open, seized the little boy in the passenger seat, and climbed in after him. She fired a single warning shot and snarled at Kenzuka Kei to drive off immediately.
In the blink of an eye, the car roared past Diluc and Venti in a shriek of wind.
In that fleeting instant, Venti—sitting inside the car—caught Conan's gaze through the window. For a heartbeat, their eyes met: the boy's head with the muzzle of a pitch-black pistol pressed against it, and the grinning green eyes of the bard. Then it was gone.
"Go! After them! Let's rescue our reckless little hero!"
Venti wasn't drunk, exactly, but he had certainly drunk a great deal, and the wine had him in a mildly exhilarated mood.
In the car ahead, Conan spotted the pursuing vehicle through the rearview mirror as it closed in behind them.
Professor Agasa's group, arriving in the neighborhood just then, heard the gunshot and happened to witness that very scene.
Haibara checked the readout on the tracker and hurriedly told Agasa and Okiya Subaru that Conan was in the car that had just sped past them. It was puzzling why a car besides their own was tailing Conan's captors, but that question would have to wait—the only thing that mattered now was keeping up with him.
Meanwhile, Mouri Kogoro received a call from Professor Agasa and learned the color, model, and license plate number of the car that had kidnapped Conan.
No sooner had Amuro Tooru absorbed the details than he spotted the target in the opposite lane.
He slammed the wheel into a hard drift, swung the car around, and surged into the oncoming lane, accelerating hard after the fleeing vehicle.
Sera Masumi followed right on his heels.
On the narrow street, five different cars chased one another in a snaking line.
Conan was tense, of course—danger had a way of doing that—but even so, he couldn't help replaying in his mind those smiling, emerald-green eyes that had met his only moments ago.
Who was that? He'd looked at me like he knew me...
And unless his eyes had deceived him, the one behind the wheel had been Diluc, hadn't it?
To run into members of the Teyvat Syndicate at a time like this! Did that mean the boy was one of them too?
While Conan's thoughts scattered in a dozen directions, with no warning whatsoever, their car took a savage ramming from the vehicle behind them. The sudden impact hurled the car lurching forward.
It happened so fast that the pistol Tegawa had been holding rock-steady against Conan's head slipped—just slightly, just for an instant—before she could catch herself.
But before Conan could seize that fleeting, golden opportunity and bring his tranquilizer watch to bear, she had already recovered.
Tegawa clamped her left arm around Conan's slender neck and squeezed, locking him so tightly he couldn't move a muscle. Then she raised the pistol again, aiming its black muzzle dead at Kenzuka Kei, her face contorted with menace as she snarled, "Drive, and drive properly! Try any tricks, and don't come crying when my bullet doesn't know friend from foe!"
Worrying about Conan, Kenzuka Kei explained herself. "That was the car behind me—it rammed me out of nowhere. And I'm not going to pull any tricks. You could loosen your grip a little. The little boy can barely breathe."
As Kenzuka Kei drove on, only half her attention on the road and the rest fretting over Conan beside her, the very car that had slammed into her rear picked up speed and pulled level with her window.
A youth with a long braid draped over his shoulder leaned out of the window and called to her cheerfully, "Hello there, missy! Looks like you're in a spot of trouble—need a hand?"
"No, you can't—" Kenzuka Kei had no intention of dragging innocent bystanders into this. "It's dangerous. Little boy, stay back, please—"
"Shut it! Mind your own business!" Tegawa cut her off, snapping a warning at Venti before barking at Kenzuka Kei to drive faster and shake off the meddlesome pest.
With his neck locked in Tegawa's grip, Conan couldn't turn his head; all he could do was roll his eyes toward the window as far as they would go. By the time Tegawa finished shouting, Venti had drawn back inside his car, seemingly frightened off by how dangerous things had become.
But Conan had a feeling it wouldn't be that simple. Anyone who kept company with members of the Teyvat Syndicate wasn't likely to spook that easily.
Sure enough, the car in the neighboring lane—which had been running neck and neck with them—suddenly surged forward with breathtaking speed. A sharp jerk of the wheel, a clean, decisive lane change, and in the blink of an eye it was barreling directly into the road ahead of them.
"Change lanes! Now!" Tegawa shrieked, frantic.
"O-okay...!" Kenzuka Kei squeaked out an answer, but it had all happened far too fast; her brain was still catching up, and her hands didn't respond. And in the heartbeat of that hesitation, the car in front of them slammed on its brakes without a shred of warning.