A Coincidental Encounter
With a deafening crash, the two vehicles collided violently before Kei Katatsuka had any chance to brake. The enormous impact shook the entire car body, leaving him dizzy and reeling — and in that instant, his left hand slackened its grip on the hostage.
By the time he finally collected himself and reached for Conan, the door beside him was flung open with such force that the air seemed to split. A tall, red-haired man appeared at the window and clamped down on the gun-wielding right hand like a vice.
After forcing the car to a halt, Diluc showed hardly a trace of the impact's effect on him. He stepped out immediately and strode toward the rear vehicle.
Once he had seized the culprit's gun hand, a single powerful squeeze forced Katatsuka to release his grip on the pistol. The moment the weapon slipped free, Diluc's other hand snapped out and caught it in midair. Without a beat of hesitation, he raised it and drove the butt of the gun hard into the man's temple.
There was a dull, heavy thud. Katatsuka's vision went black, and he slumped unconscious across the seat.
From opening the door to subduing the culprit, the entire sequence had taken less than three seconds — clean, precise, and utterly seamless.
Conan hadn't even recovered from the collision before the crisis was already over.
"You okay there, little guy?" Venti, who had climbed out of the car trailing after Diluc, crouched beside Conan — whom Diluc had scooped out of the vehicle and set safely to one side — and asked with a warm, sunny smile.
"Ah... yeah, I'm fine," Conan said with an awkward laugh, scratching his head. His gaze drifted to the ornament hanging at Venti's waist. "Are you a friend of Mr. Diluc's?"
"Mm-hm!" Venti nodded eagerly, introduced himself by name, and added, "Master Diluc here practically keeps me fed and clothed these days, you know~"
Just then, a faint whiff of alcohol reached Conan's nose. He eyed Venti hesitantly. "Venti-niichan... have you been drinking?"
At that moment, Subaru Okiya, Toru Amuro, and the others — with Sera Masumi following slightly behind — arrived one after another at the crash site, cutting the conversation short.
"Thank goodness you're okay!" Masumi killed her motorcycle and rushed to Conan's side, sweeping him into a relieved hug.
"Conan!" Ran came running up as well, anxiously checking him over for injuries.
"Mr. Diluc. What a coincidence, running into you here."
As Kaeya's adoptive brother, Diluc was someone Akai Shuichi had crossed paths with several times during his days posing as Subaru Okiya.
The Detective Boys got along wonderfully with Klee and were forever dragging her off to play, and as one of the brothers who looked after her, he'd naturally had occasion to meet the man — they'd even exchanged a few words. From those encounters, Akai had pieced together an impression: Diluc came across as stern and cold on the surface, but beneath it he was warmer than he let on, and by all appearances far more upright than Kaeya. A fitting heir for a noble house, truly.
Moreover, as far as Akai knew, ever since Kaeya had left Japan for parts unknown, communication between the Teyvat Syndicate and the Black Organization had been handled primarily by the Jade Chamber side. Only when pharmaceuticals were involved did it shift to Albedo. Diluc himself, it seemed, had never once stepped forward.
And from the argument he'd overheard back at the hotel — when Kaeya and Tartaglia had suddenly shown up to warn him off — it was clear that the Syndicate's various divisions did not get along harmoniously.
Kaeya and Ningguang obviously belonged to different divisions. So which was it: had Kaeya and Diluc's relationship soured so badly that Kaeya would rather hand his responsibilities to another division than to his own adoptive brother? Or did Diluc simply refuse to take the job on?
"Mm, it is a coincidence," Diluc said, offering a brief explanation of why he was here. "We happened to come across the scene of Conan's kidnapping and gave chase."
Having finally extricated himself from the attentions of Masumi and Ran, Conan scurried back over to Venti and pressed the question again. "Venti-niichan, were you and Diluc-niichan out drinking just now? From what I hear, there's a bar around here — you two must have just come from there, right?"
After stepping out of his car, Amuro surveyed the colorful assortment of people who had materialized at the scene, and his attention settled on Venti — the companion traveling with Diluc who was, in all likelihood, a member of the Teyvat Syndicate himself.
The smell of liquor clung to him strongly, and judging from the route they'd taken and the other traces at the scene, it was easy enough for Amuro to deduce exactly which bar Venti and Diluc had come from.
He just couldn't be sure whether it was coincidence. That was a bar Organization members occasionally visited to unwind — Gin himself drank there from time to time.
And besides...
"Correct me if I'm wrong, but that establishment doesn't sell alcohol to minors. Did Mr. Diluc buy it for you?" Amuro asked with a frown.
Even if Venti was a member of the underground organization, for Diluc to so brazenly buy drinks for a minor spoke of a man with precious little respect for the rules.
"Ehe~" Venti tilted his head and flashed Conan and Amuro an innocent smile, waving a hand in Master Diluc's defense. "It wasn't Master Diluc who bought the drinks — he was only there to pick me up! Some kind stranger treated me just now, out of the goodness of their heart. Besides, hard as it may be to believe, I'm well over twenty-one, you know."