Traveling back thirty years to Conan, intercepting Princess Eri

"Definitely is!"

The young officer immediately echoed, pulling his uniform jacket tighter around himself, and urged,
"Let's go, let's go back inside! It's cold enough out here in the mountains!"

"Hiss... These rich people are really something, they have to build their villas on such a remote mountainside. It's the middle of the night, it's like being in the middle of nowhere!"

The two officers muttered a few more complaints under their breath before turning around, hunching their shoulders, and quickly walking back into the dimly lit villa.

The heavy wooden door slammed shut with a dull thud, and silence returned to the entrance.

After waiting for a while and confirming that there was no more sound below, Lin Xiuyi and Tomizawa Chikage cautiously peeked out from behind the chimney again.

Chikage Tomizawa's eyes immediately fell on the ventilation window, where the rope still hung down, swaying slightly.

She clicked her tongue: "This guy... he's really fast! Like an eel, he slips away so easily."

Then, the girl's eyes darted around, and a mischievous smile suddenly appeared on her face.

She nudged Lin Xiuyi with her elbow, lowered her voice, and asked in a tone that seemed to thrive on chaos:

“Shuichi, what do you think… if we go over there now and quietly pull the rope away, or… make a light cut on it…”

She made a cutting gesture, her smile sly.

"Do you think that flashy magician in white will be able to get out of there? Won't he be jumping up and down in a panic?"

"Or... get caught like a turtle in a jar by the police who come to relieve the shift tomorrow?"

The more she thought about it, the more amusing it became, and she couldn't help but chuckle.

Just as Lin Xiuyi was about to say "Stop fooling around," he looked at Tomizawa Chikage's obviously joking expression, yet with a mischievous glint in her eyes, and couldn't help but find it amusing. So he went along with her and said...

"How would I know? Maybe the magician has another plan and doesn't need the rope at all?"

He meant it casually to ease the tension.

Unexpectedly, upon hearing this, Tomizawa Chikage raised an eyebrow, clearly intrigued, and actually walked towards the ventilation window, muttering to herself.

"Oh? Now that you mention it, I'm actually interested in giving it a try..."

Lin Xiuyi was taken aback, thinking she was really going to do it, and quickly reached out to stop her.
"Don't do anything reckless! If he's really trapped inside, and the police catch him red-handed tomorrow... what if he can't handle the pressure, or tries to get himself out of trouble and implicates us too?"

Tomizawa Chikage snorted in dissatisfaction and glared at Lin Xiuyi.
"Do you think I'm the kind of person who can't tell what's important? I just wanted to scare this guy a little and vent my anger!"

"Do you know how panicked I was down there? I shook the rope for ages, but there was no response at all. I thought something had happened to you!"

"After finally climbing up, I saw a stranger there dressed like you in matching outfits. How could I not be anxious?"

She rarely showed any genuine worry, though it was fleeting and quickly masked by her usual stubbornness.

Lin Xiu felt a warmth in her heart upon hearing the concern in her words. Just as she was about to say something, she saw Fu Zeqian take two more steps toward the ventilation window, this time seemingly genuinely wanting to do something.

For example, he could pull the rope to make some noise, or shout something inside to scare Kuroba Touichi.

However, just as she reached out, her fingertips about to touch the dangling rope,

Whoosh!
A dark shadow, like a spring launched from a deep well, shot out of the ventilation window at an astonishing speed!
The movements were light and agile, and the landing was silent. It was Kuroba Touichi who had just gone down!

Under the moonlight, he was still dressed in a spotless white suit, his top hat neatly trimmed, and his monocle gleaming softly. Unlike when he went downstairs, there seemed to be something tucked under the crook of his left arm.

The object was carefully wrapped in his white cloak, obscuring its exact shape and size.

But judging from the slightly elongated outline created by the cloak and the way his arms were supporting it, it appeared to be a flat object of a certain length.

“Miss Phantom Thief,” Kuroba Toichi said in a light, even slightly mocking tone, “it seems your little scheme is going to fail.”

"whispering sound!"

Tomizawa Chikage was somewhat embarrassed by his sudden appearance and slightly teasing tone.
"So what if you're fast? Who knows if you just grabbed something in there and ran out?"

Even so, a hint of surprise still flashed deep in her eyes.

How long has it been since the Black Feather Thief went down and came up?

It probably won't even take five minutes!

In such a cluttered, dimly lit, and unfamiliar collection room, finding a specific item is incredibly efficient.

She couldn't help but gently nudge Lin Xiuyi next to her with her toe.

"Look at them! That's what professionalism looks like! You should learn from them!"

Lin Xiu rolled her eyes upon hearing this: "I'm not a professional!"

Kuroba Toichi watched the subtle movements and hushed conversations between the two, his smile widening, seemingly finding the "black and white phantom thief" duo quite amusing.

He said no more, his left hand steadily holding the item wrapped in the cloak, his right hand raised, index and middle fingers together, and he made a simple farewell gesture with a flourish near his temple.

"The moon is beautiful tonight, and it's quite a coincidence that we met. However, this is no place to linger, so I'll take my leave now!"

Before he finished speaking, a fist-sized, pure white spherical object appeared in his free right hand.

He lightly pressed his thumb on a certain spot on the ball, then flicked his wrist, forcefully throwing the white ball towards the rooftop open space not far in front of Lin Xiuyi and Fuzawa Chikage!
"boom!"

A not-so-loud, somewhat muffled cracking sound rang out.

The white sphere exploded the moment it touched the tile!

However, it did not produce a destructive impact, but rather released a large amount of dense smoke with a slightly pungent odor in an instant!
The smoke spread rapidly, completely engulfing the rooftop area where Lin Xiuyi and Tomizawa Chikage were located in the blink of an eye!

"Cough cough! What the hell is that?!"

Caught off guard, Tomizawa Chikage coughed twice from the smoke, and her vision went completely white for a moment.

She instinctively waved her arms, trying to disperse the smoke, while simultaneously adopting a defensive stance, worried that Kuroba Toichi might take the opportunity to launch a sneak attack.

Lin Xiuyi's heart tightened, and he immediately held his breath, took two steps back, leaned against the chimney, held his cane horizontally in front of him, and focused intently on sensing the movement around him.

In this dense smoke, vision is completely impaired, and any attack could come from any direction.

However, the anticipated attack did not occur; only the night wind howled through the roof... (End of Chapter)