"All right," Odin said. "Let's go."
"Of course! Please get in," Yamada said, overjoyed.
Sitting in the back seat, Odin casually asked, "Where are we chasing them?"
"The outskirts!" Yamada said as he drove. "They stole the goods and escaped in a hot-air balloon! My boss told me to bring people and follow them, but how am I supposed to keep up?"
Cars filled the streets.
Some headed toward Auction Street, while others fled out of town, creating a tangled traffic jam.
Yamada leaned on the horn and squeezed through the gaps, nearly crashing several times.
The car sped out of the city and onto the road leading to the outskirts.
The road was deserted, with no cars or lights, only wasteland on either side.
A moving speck of light was visible in the distant sky. It was the hot-air balloon.
"That's it!" Yamada pointed at the speck of light. "They're right there!"
Odin watched the speck of light.
It was at least ten kilometers away, drifting toward the mountains.
Yamada floored the accelerator, pushing the car even faster.
After about thirty minutes, numerous tire tracks leading into the outskirts appeared beside the road ahead.
The hot-air balloon was descending in the distance over that area.
Yamada hurried after it. Several dozen minutes later, he parked behind a rock formation and switched off the lights.
"We're here," he whispered. "They're just ahead."
Odin and Ponzu got out and stood beside the rocks, looking ahead.
Before them was a bowl-shaped rocky valley, where a crowd of mafia members surrounded the Phantom Troupe members who had deliberately waited for them.
Yamada cowered behind the car, peeking around it with half his head exposed.
"Sir, what should we do?" he whispered. "I think we should just go in and arrest them."
"You want