"Now!" Mirai Sarutobi called in a low voice.
Ran Mouri caught on at once. The instant the sailors fell under the genjutsu, she shot forward like the wind!
Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam!
A dizzying flurry of leg sweeps and precise knife-hand strikes dropped the remaining sailors—those who had resisted the genjutsu or stood too far away—before they could react. Their Scientific Ninja Tools clattered across the floor.
Seeing the tide turn, the First Officer fought through the pain and scrambled away, hoping to escape in the confusion.
"Trying to run?!" Conan had been lining up his shot. He raised his wrist and aimed his Stun Dart Watch at the exposed back of the First Officer's neck.
Whoosh!
A faint hiss cut through the air. The First Officer froze mid-stride, his eyelids drooped shut, and he crumpled to the floor, completely unconscious.
Conan hurried over. Ignoring the smell, he yanked off the First Officer's shoe and sock, exposing the sinister black skull tattoo on his ankle to the sailors as they emerged from the genjutsu.
"Look! This proves he's a Blackbeard Pirates spy!"
The sailors saw the tattoo and thought of their captain's death, the destroyed communications equipment, and the First Officer's strange insistence. It all clicked. Furious and ashamed, they cursed the unconscious man and regretted how close they had come to helping him.
"There's no time to assign blame!" Conan jumped onto a crate and shouted, his young voice carrying unmistakable urgency.
"Ran, Mirai, we need to fix the communications equipment and contact Kirigakure's Maritime Military Police Force right now!"
"The Blackbeard Pirates could arrive any minute. Without reinforcements, this ship is finished!"
Ran Mouri eyed the intricate communications equipment helplessly. "But how do we fix it? I don't know anything about machinery. Mirai, do you...?"
Mirai Sarutobi shook