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"No, no, no, NOO!! H—how dare you make a fool of me, Kaitou Kid. I'll kill you."
"There must be a... you cheated.. Yes! You gave a riddle with two answers! That's it! I'LL KILL YOU!!!"
The Riddler trembled with rage, his knuckles white around the communicator. His voice cracked on the last word, raw and unhinged.
At last, he understood. From the very beginning, Kaitou Kid had built the announcement with two possible times layered inside it.
Whether one calculated by Greek time or Gotham's, both interpretations were correct. The thief could switch between them at will, depending on how his opponent chose to read the riddle.
When the Riddler had assumed Kaitou Kid would appear at Gotham's midnight and prepared his defenses accordingly, the phantom thief instead struck at Greece's midnight. And the moment the Riddler realized he should have used Greek time due to Nyx being a Greek Goddess, Kaitou Kid would simply pivot back to Gotham's clock.
"Giving a riddle two correct answers is cheating."
"Kaitou Kid, enjoy strutting while you can. Next time, I'll show you what real terror is."
The Riddler snarled into the communicator, spit flecking his lips.
Kaitou Kid's reply was simple and merciless.
Beep. Beep.
The line went dead.
All that reached the Riddler's ears was harsh electronic static, mocking and final.
Bang.
Blinded by fury, he slammed his fist down on the metal console. Instantly, searing pain shot through his hand and up his arm.
"Aargh, damn it. My hand."
He cradled the throbbing knuckles, cursing under his breath while helpless frustration boiled inside him.
...
Meanwhile, the truck Kaitou Kid was driving barreled toward the entrance of Miller Port.
The vehicle showed no sign of slowing. If anything, it kept gaining speed, the engine roaring like an angry beast.
Sure enough, the Riddler had modified the truck thoroughly.
No amount of stomping on the brake pedal made the slightest difference. The speedometer needle trembled near the redline; the truck would only stop when the massive fuel tank finally ran dry.
Kaitou Kid glanced at the still-full gauge and grimaced beneath his hat.
"At this rate, it'll take hours to burn through all that."
He made up his mind in an instant.
No choice. It's risky, but I'll have to pull that stunt. I was hoping to save some effort, but that's not happening now.
"Good thing the steering still works. Let's take that route."
He fixed his sharp gaze on the farthest straight pier in the harbor — a long, narrow concrete tongue jutting out over the black water — and aimed the truck directly for it.
Not that "far" meant much at this velocity. At the truck's current speed, it would shoot off the pier and plunge into the sea in less than ten seconds.
He had exactly those ten seconds to free the hostage, leave the cab, get into the cargo box, and get her out before the truck sank. Once it hit the water, the pressure and the angle would make opening the doors nearly impossible.
"Tight window. I'd better start as far from the edge as I can."
He had considered driving somewhere safer, but the Riddler had sealed every other exit from the port the moment the truck started moving.
Staged accidents — overturned cars, scattered debris, fake construction barriers — now blocked every alternative route.
Any other direction meant plowing straight into one of those crashes. At a speed the gauge could barely register, who knew how many innocent people he would kill?
To be honest, even forcing the speeding truck through a controlled turn already demanded every bit of his focus. The wheel fought him like a living thing; the tires screamed against the asphalt.
Only his extraordinary dynamic vision and reflexes, along with finger precision far beyond normal, allowed him to manage it. An ordinary driver would have died the instant he touched the wheel.
"Hahaha~ With skills like this, I could probably win a racing championship."
He chuckled to himself — a short, breathless sound lost in the roar of the engine.
Then he yanked the wheel into an insane high-speed U-turn, tires smoking, chassis groaning in protest as the truck whipped around and raced straight from the opposite end of the pier.
"Now."
His eyes flashed with focus.
He flung open the cab door mid-turn, vaulted onto the roof in a white blur, sprinted toward the back with perfect balance despite the violent motion, hooked his legs over the rear edge, and went to work on the cargo lock with both hands.
"Damn you, Riddler. What era are we in? Still using mechanical locks? Couldn't you install an electronic one with a button in the cab so I could just press it open? Then I wouldn't have to pick this thing while hanging off a speeding truck."
...
Inside the cargo box, Janice was still tied to the chair. Darkness and the increasingly violent jolts filled her with terror.
The truck was going faster and faster. The floor vibrated under her feet; metal groaned with every bump.
Where is the Riddler taking me? He said he'd kill me in twenty minutes. How long has it been? Five? Ten? Or… almost twenty?
Just now we skidded around a huge bend. If I weren't tied down, I would have been thrown off. Does Gotham even have curves that wide?
Trapped in pitch blackness, Janice had no idea she was only moments away from plunging into the sea.
As her thoughts spun in chaos, a metallic clatter suddenly rang out from outside — sharp and deliberate.
W—what was that?
She jerked her head in panic. The echoes bounced through the hollow cargo box, and she couldn't tell where the sound had come from.
Clang.
The doors flew open.
Light poured in.
It was night outside, but after two days in total darkness, it felt like daylight. The sudden brightness seared her eyes, leaving her momentarily blinded.
That was only natural. Eyes accustomed to endless black needed time to adjust.
In that brief moment of blindness, someone untied her restraints with swift, practiced movements. Before she could even react, strong arms lifted her up.
It felt like a single second, yet also like an eternity.
A loud splash echoed below as the truck hit the water, and her vision finally cleared.
She was in the air.
Beneath her, the entire layout of Miller Port spread out like a map — cranes, containers, the dark expanse of the sea swallowing the sinking truck.
She did not understand what had happened, but she knew one thing. She was alive.
She saw the truck disappearing beneath the waves, without a doubt the very place where she had been trapped moments earlier.
"Careful, Miss Janice. If you flail around up here, you'll fall."
A refined, pleasant voice spoke beside her ear — calm, almost amused.
She looked up. A monocle glinted over his right eye, a tall white silk hat sat at a perfect angle, and although she could not make out every feature in the rushing wind, the face was undeniably handsome.
"K—Kaitou Kid."
Janice gasped, voice trembling.
"What are you doing here? Am I dreaming?"
"Of course this isn't a dream, Miss Janice. As always, I'm here to steal a gem."
Kaitou Kid smiled faintly, the expression soft but unmistakable.
"A gem?"
At those words, Janice lowered her gaze in conflicted silence, her eyes falling on the necklace still around her neck — the very reason she had been taken.
"You mean this necklace? I'm sorry. My father got it from who knows where and swore it wasn't the one you took from the Vanafor family. He lied after all."
"Aha~ Sorry, but you're mistaken."
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