Pursuit

Clang—clang—

Shiraishi barreled through the woods, smashing into trees all the way—

One tree after another either died on contact or was injured by it. If a trunk brushed Shiraishi's shoulder, it was knocked into a dent. If a branch struck his head, it snapped clean off.

However—

Shiraishi's speed was still affected.

On one hand, running like this was incredibly inconvenient. On the other hand—Shiraishi cared about the environment.

However, in that brief moment, Conan and Heiji had recovered and caught up. Their steps were even light enough for them to overtake Shiraishi and continue chasing the "assassin"!

After all, Heiji was lean, and Conan could weave through anywhere—

"Hey, wait—honestly, you two, be careful!" Shiraishi had been too late to stop them. Clearly, they were not the sort to halt just because Shiraishi told them to watch out.

Shiraishi returned to the mountain path, but by then, the three of them had already vanished. Moreover—

That "assassin" was obviously very familiar with the mountain roads. Running and jumping along the rough trails shortened the distance considerably compared to using the proper paths.

Though Shiraishi ran fast, by the time he reached the foot of the mountain, he only saw Heiji already speeding away on a motorcycle—

Though he could not see it, another engine could faintly be heard farther ahead. Shiraishi guessed that the "assassin" was also fleeing on a motorcycle!

"Hey—" Seeing Heiji disappear into the distance, Shiraishi could only shake his head helplessly.

The sky had already darkened. Just as Shiraishi hesitated over whether to keep pursuing them—

Beep beep beep—

Shiraishi's phone rang.

"Shiraishi, where did you run off to? Why haven't you come back after so long? Did you find Conan and the others?" Ayako asked in confusion.

"I found them, but those two