Chapter 196: A Multi-Person Melee
The suspect's hesitation was fleeting. Having seen no sign of the supernatural phenomena he feared, his courage flooded back, steeling his resolve. He gave a sharp, decisive nod, and the men behind him swarmed forward, launching their attack.
Tucked safely in Noelle's arms, Conan held his breath, his eyes fixed on Albedo and Kaeya. The tension was a physical weight in the air.
He watched as a thug lunged at Kaeya with a knife. The blade sliced through empty air as Kaeya sidestepped with impossible ease. A single, clean kick followed, striking the man's chest and sending him sprawling to the ground, where he lay gasping, unable to rise. Before his foot even touched the earth again, Kaeya pivoted into a powerful side-kick, catching two more assailants and flinging them away like discarded dolls.
Albedo's situation was even more precarious. The only two men armed with handguns had him squarely in their sights. Yet, in a movement too quick to follow, he blurred past one of them, his hand clamping down on the man's wrist. A sickening crack echoed as he twisted, breaking the bone. Albedo snatched the pistol from the man's spasming fingers and, without a moment's pause, aimed and fired at the second gunman.
The bullet struck the other man's hand, forcing him to drop his weapon with a cry of pain. As the pistol tumbled through the air, Albedo caught it smoothly and, with a flick of his wrist, tossed it over his shoulder to Kaeya.
As if he had eyes in the back of his head, Kaeya's hand shot out, plucking the handgun from the air. He fired a rapid succession of shots, each one precisely aimed to strike a leg or a shoulder, disabling his targets without killing them. When the slide locked back on an empty chamber, he didn't discard the weapon. Instead, he hurled it with tremendous force, striking another charging thug squarely in the head and knocking him unconscious.
In just a few short minutes, Albedo and Kaeya had systematically dismantled the majority of their opposition.
A few of the thugs, seeing only a woman and a child on the sidelines, had tried to exploit what they perceived as a weakness. They charged at Noelle, hoping to seize a hostage. But their hands met only air. She moved with a liquid grace, dodging every clumsy grab and lunge. They couldn't so much as touch the hem of her dress.
By the end, Conan found he was no longer nervous. He was simply awestruck. Cradled securely against Noelle's chest, he even had the presence of mind to study Albedo and Kaeya's movements. He saw it then—the obvious cooperation between them. It wasn't just their seamless cooperation; their very techniques, the way they dodged and struck, shared a common, elegant lethality.
The lead suspect watched, his face paling as his men were taken down one by one. He swallowed hard, a knot of terror tightening in his throat. In a split-second decision, he spun on his heel and bolted.
Conan saw the movement and opened his mouth to warn Noelle.
But before a sound could escape his lips, he saw a small stone arc through the air, thrown by Albedo. It struck the fleeing man on the back of the head with a dull thud. His body went limp, and he collapsed in a heap, out cold.
The scene felt strangely familiar to Conan. That's right… Sister Natsume is also an expert at this. He filed the thought away. She must be very close with Albedo, too.
With their leader incapacitated, the remaining subordinates' will to fight crumbled. A few moments later, Albedo and Kaeya stood amidst a field of groaning, defeated men.
When the police finally arrived, sirens wailing in the distance, they were greeted by a bizarre tableau: a pile of bodies strewn across the clearing, with Albedo and Kaeya standing calmly in the center. Their clothes were only slightly disheveled, and neither had so much as broken a sweat. As the officers approached, the two men casually straightened their jackets, erasing the last traces of the brawl.
The officer leading the team, summoned by Ran's earlier call, was an acquaintance of Conan's: Inspector Misao Yamamura. It was Yamamura's distinctive button-pressing melody—the one he used to call his grandmother in Tottori Prefecture—that had matched the tune Vermouth used to contact the Black Organization's boss, leading Conan to suspect their headquarters was located there.
Upon seeing the scene, Yamamura marched straight toward Kaeya, his handcuffs already in hand. "You're under arrest!"
It took the combined efforts of Conan and a newly arrived Ran to explain the situation. Only then did the inspector half-believingly accept that Kaeya was a victim, not a perpetrator.
Kaeya shot a withering glare at Lisa, who was leaning against a tree, openly snickering at his near-arrest instead of offering any help. He then rolled his eyes at the bumbling inspector. He couldn't fathom how a man this clueless could be a police officer, let alone one who seemed to hold a position of some authority.
With Conan's testimony, Albedo's eyewitness account, and a crucial piece of evidence—a recording Albedo had discreetly made on his phone of the panicked suspect confessing to multiple murders—the case was quickly clarified.
The sheer number of criminals was too much for Yamamura's small team to handle, forcing him to call for backup.
Sonoko and the others waited as more police cars arrived, and the officers finally began hauling away the unconscious thugs and collecting evidence. Before departing, Yamamura reminded them to come to the station later to give their official statements. He shot one last, lingering, suspicious glance at Kaeya before finally leaving, still visibly uneasy.
The incident was over, and the uninvolved bystanders had long since departed. By now, the sun had completely set. The world was cloaked in darkness, the faint moonlight barely enough to trace the silhouettes of the people around them.
The reason they remained on the mountain so late was simple: Sonoko hadn't given up. She was determined to see her unfinished goal through to the end. Ran and Conan, of course, stayed to keep her company. The others from Teyvat simply stated they were worried about two girls and a child being alone on a mountain after dark, so they remained as well.
Soon, Sonoko was back to work. She filled a spray bottle with the potion Lisa had given her and carefully aimed it at a white handkerchief tied to a tree branch.
Under Sonoko's delighted gaze and Conan's look of utter disbelief, she squeezed the trigger. A fine mist coated the cloth. For a moment, nothing happened. Then, the handkerchief began to dissolve, turning into a wispy vapor that vanished into the night air, leaving the branch it was tied to completely unharmed.
How could a handkerchief just… disappear? Conan's mind reeled. What happened to the Law of Conservation of Mass?
He looked at Lisa with a complicated expression. The more he learned, the more mysterious these people with Visions became. Lisa, a seemingly ordinary librarian, could brew miraculous potions that defied physics. Noelle, a girl who appeared so gentle and unassuming, could effortlessly evade a group of attackers while carrying him. None of them were simple.
On the other side, Sonoko, buoyed by her success, was filled with renewed vigor. She immediately set about clearing all the handkerchiefs tied in the area.
Her enthusiasm, however, soon outpaced her stamina. Although the potion meant she didn't have to climb the trees, the repetitive motion of spraying each handkerchief began to take its toll. After clearing only two trees, her hand began to ache.
Lisa noticed Sonoko's strained expression and frowned slightly, preparing to step forward and offer her help.
But suddenly, she froze. Her head snapped toward the deep shadows of the trees just beyond Sonoko.
At the exact same moment, Albedo and Kaeya also turned, their gazes fixed on the same spot.
Their abrupt, synchronized movement sent a prickle of unease down Sonoko's spine. She shuffled nervously, moving closer to Lisa. "Lisa, what is it? Is something over there?"
"Someone's coming," Lisa replied, her voice low. Though she couldn't make out their appearance, she could tell from their gait that they likely posed no threat. Her posture relaxed slightly, but her guard remained up.
The sound of footsteps grew louder, crunching on fallen leaves as the person drew nearer. Finally, a figure stepped out from the shadows, their face illuminated by the pale moonlight.
Sonoko, who had been peering nervously into the darkness, gasped. She stared at a face she thought was thousands of miles away, a face that was supposed to be abroad.
"Makoto! What are you doing here?!"
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