Disclaimer: Detective Conan is not mine. This fanfic is a translation.
Enjoy Reading!
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Five minutes, neither long nor short.
Ritsu didn't have much time to think. The fastest way downstairs would be the elevator, but that would also be the worst choice. A confined space like that would make it far too easy to get trapped.
And the security team had most likely already called the police. With law enforcement on the way… Ritsu grabbed a pair of scissors from the desk and cut off a piece of cloth, forcibly covering his face. Looks like he'd better start wearing a mask in the future, just to be safe.
"Hey, Macallan, they're coming," Chianti's voice rang out.
"Keep it down, Chianti…"
He was irritated. His entire plan had been ruined by this crazy woman, and now he could only rely on an alternative escape strategy.
Ritsu quickly pushed the sofa into the hallway, forcing anyone trying to enter the president's office to lose a few extra seconds. Then he returned inside, drew the handgun hidden at his left waist, and pressed himself against the wall, listening to the movement outside.
Bang!
The sound of glass shattering from a bullet rang out, followed by Chianti's excited shout through the earpiece. Keeping a calm face, Ritsu moved toward the office interior and used the reflective surfaces to observe the hallway.
The patrol team that had rushed over was now lying in wait in the corridor. But after Chianti's shot punched through the chest of the unlucky man at the front, the remaining nine hesitated to charge in.
"Whoever's inside, you're surrounded! Surrender now!"
Hearing those words, Ritsu couldn't help but smile faintly. Back during field training at the police academy, he'd shouted the exact same thing at the opposing team.
Never thought he'd be the one on the receiving end now.
"Chianti, how many?"
Chianti spat out her flavorless gum, narrowed her eyes, and peered through the scope. "Nine on the 25th floor right now. Four of them are armed. How are you planning to handle it?"
"You take the ones with guns. I'll deal with the rest." There was no turning back now. Ritsu could only voice a plan he had never wanted to use.
Break through by force.
Even if he wasn't the one pulling the trigger, the result was the same.
"Heh, I've been waiting to hear that…"
With a grin of satisfaction, Chianti jogged to a position on the left where she could see the lobby clearly. She set up her rifle, narrowed her right eye, aimed at the armed guard at the back and pulled the trigger.
Whoosh—
The bullet tore through the air and struck its target with perfect precision, piercing the man's head and leaving a bloody hole.
"What?! There's more than one sniper?! Damn it, everyone spread out!"
Chaos erupted outside. To her credit, Chianti knew to change positions, making it seem like there were multiple snipers.
Inside the office, Ritsu quietly moved back to the computer. The firewall had already been breached, now all that remained was the data transfer.
With time still ticking, he stepped into the hallway, raised his gun, and fired at the smoke detector on the ceiling.
Water sprayed down, drenching the security personnel who were still hiding in the lobby to avoid Chianti's shots. A burly man who seemed to be the leader shouted, "All of you, move in!"
Ritsu wasn't about to let them break through. He pulled a smoke grenade from his pocket and tossed it over.
Instinctively, they all dodged. The more timid ones even dropped to the ground, thinking it was a grenade, an almost comical sight.
"Watch out! It might be a grenade!"
"Hahaha, these guys are idiots, scared enough to think a smoke grenade is a bomb… But Macallan, how am I supposed to help you now? I haven't had enough fun yet."
Chianti frowned at the smoke-filled lobby. Zero visibility. How was she supposed to keep shooting like this?
'Maniac.'
Cursing inwardly, Ritsu said coldly, "Chianti, the police will be here soon. You should withdraw."
"Tch, what a bore. I've only taken out four people."
Taking advantage of the smoke before it fully cleared, Ritsu returned to the office, unplugged the USB drive that had finished copying, and carefully tucked it into his jacket pocket, zipping it up.
Now, it was time to escape.
With only one armed guard remaining, Ritsu wasn't worried. Using one hand to support himself on the sofa, he vaulted over the obstacle he had set. The moment he landed, a punch came flying straight at him.
He reacted instantly, leaning back to dodge while drawing his gun and firing. He didn't aim for a fatal shot, instead hitting the back of the man's hand.
"Ugh—!"
The burly man groaned, trying to endure the pain as he attempted to wrestle the gun away. He hadn't expected the intruder stealing company secrets to be this skilled.
The reason he could still track Ritsu in the smoke was because his glasses had thermal imaging capabilities, allowing him to detect heat signatures.
Ritsu gave him no further chance, he sent him flying with a side kick and sprinted toward the emergency stairwell.
"Don't run! Damn it, stop him! Notify everyone, converge on the stairwell!"
"Yes!"
Hearing hurried footsteps from below, Ritsu realized the security team wasn't stupid. They knew he couldn't easily escape from the 25th floor and had already positioned personnel at stairwells and elevator entrances on multiple levels.
They were trying to box him in.
But they'd need more than that to succeed.
The number of firearms the guards had was limited, so the pressure on Ritsu wasn't overwhelming. To save time, he began descending at speed, practically leaping down the stairs.
Skipping steps, using the force of gravity, he braced one hand against the wall while pushing off with his left foot to shift his body in the opposite direction. With this technique, he could drop a full floor in under ten seconds, so fast that the guards lying in wait on the 24th and 23rd floors couldn't intercept him at all.
"The target is on the 22nd floor stairwell, we need—ahhh!!"
Before the report could finish, Ritsu struck.
Even in the narrow stairwell, his movements were fluid. He stepped slightly forward with his left foot, lowering his body to dodge a machete swing aimed at his head. As he dropped, he seized the opponent's shoulder, drove his elbow, and slammed his right fist into the man's abdomen.
The blow nearly made the guard vomit everything he had eaten. He collapsed backward, tumbling down the stairs, only for Ritsu to step onto his body without hesitation, using him like a human sled to slide further down.
"Don't let him escape! Damn it, stop him!"
"Everyone on the 21st floor, move! Block him at all costs!"
Having already stowed her sniper rifle in the trunk downstairs, Chianti listened to the chaos over the earpiece, unable to resist imagining the scene. The frustration in their voices made it all the more entertaining.
"Macallan, want me to pick you up somewhere?"
"Wait for me at TB."
"OK~"
With people nearby, Ritsu naturally couldn't say the exact location out loud. The operations division used simple codes, "TB" stood for Telephone Booth, telling Chianti to wait for him at a nearby public phone booth.