What reflected in pupils through the binoculars was a man riding a bicycle.
Although he wore a woolen cap, covered his face with a mask, revealing only his eyes, Senichi could still immediately recognize that he wasn't just anyone but the young man named Sugi Matsuki.
And today, as expected, he did come, and he came quite early.
Some people were wearing clown masks and participating, but more were those who came to watch the excitement after seeing the information online.
He blended in with the crowd watching while riding his bicycle, just like the surrounding spectators.
However, the camera placed on the basket of his bike betrayed that he wasn't a mere onlooker like the people around him but a participant!
Yet, this participant's way of involvement was somewhat different from the others around him.
However, when the clowns further squeezed the protective space of the detectives, almost reaching the point of overcrowding, Sugi Matsuki made his move.
He lowered the kickstand of his bicycle, then, as if acting heroically, he squeezed into the crowd, and when the detectives weren't paying attention, he grabbed Ran's wrist and pulled her out.
"Snipers, be alert! The target has taken Ran out of the detectives' protection circle."
The solemn words of Inspector Megure came through the earpiece, "If there's danger, shoot directly!"
Not that they were so ruthless, but purely because at this distance, the snipers could essentially incapacitate the target while preserving their life.
After all, the crimes of this group weren't severe, just random acts of harm, but uploading the videos to the internet caused a significant impact.
Coupled with the presence of Inspector Megure, who had a "bait aftermath," the police department sent snipers to ensure the original intent of assisting Ran.
Perhaps even the clowns didn't expect that the police department would go to such lengths to protect Ran. Otherwise, whether they dared to come today would be a different story.
At the moment Sugi Matsuki grabbed Ran's arm, she realized it, but then, she seemed to think of something, relaxing her body, allowing him to pull her with the force towards the outside.
For those unaware, it seemed like a boy-hero saving the beauty.
And these clowns with masks clearly thought so.
Watching the two turn around, they immediately intended to continue surrounding them.
However, the prepared Sugi Matsuki would not be stopped. At the moment the two ran out of the encirclement, he accelerated his pace, pulling Ran with him towards a nearby alley.
"The target went into the alley, lost in the line of sight!"
The sniper's report came through the earpiece, but Senichi showed no signs of panic. Meanwhile, Makoto Kyogoku, who had been standing beside him earlier, had disappeared without a trace.
"It seems they indeed chose this plan." Senichi put down the binoculars, took a step, leaped from one roof to another, and chased after Sugi Matsuki, who was escaping into the alley.
In the dim alley, Ran felt her wrist suddenly jerked by the man in front of her, and her body involuntarily surged forward. When Ran stabilized herself, she saw the clown with the familiar mask standing in front of her.
The real clown!
Looking at the familiar clown mask and the red wig above, Ran immediately recognized him as the clown who injured Sonoko in the park. While the others wore different clown masks before, Ran couldn't forget that this guy was the one who hurted Sonoko.
At this moment, the clown seemed unaware of the kind of person he was facing. He playfully turned his head, adopting a circus clown performance posture.
In his understanding, making such moves in such a terrifying environment wouldn't be funny but rather horrifying.
He thought somewhat self-satisfied that the next moment should be the girl's piercing scream.
But reality always differed from imagination, didn't it?
"Swoosh, swoosh!"
In the air, there seemed to be the sound of a whistling breeze entering the clown's ears. Before he could react to how this sound was produced, a delicate pink fist kept enlarging in his field of vision.
"Bang! Crunch!"
The mask on the clown's face instantly collapsed and twisted into a mess under the tremendous force. Drops of blood dripped from under the mask, and that terrifying power instantly crushed his nose.
Only at this moment did he realize that the girl in front of him was not a powerless and fragile high school girl.
But challenging him to a duel was probably genuine.
After taking a punch directly from Ran just now he was momentarily dazed, even with his years of practicing karate and resistance to blows.
Despite this, he didn't lose his combat ability but reflexively created distance.
Then,
Bang!!
A fiercely violent side kick swept through the air. Even without any reaction, he ruthlessly crashed into the adjacent wall.
Surprisingly, it was Makoto Kyogoku, who had been following from the roof all along!
Seeing Ran deliver a punch and swiftly retreat to prepare for a new stance, Makoto Kyogoku, who finally saw the main culprit, angrily struck and he landed a leg sweep on him mid-air.
This was also a condition Senichi had deliberately stated for him to participate in the action, with the condition being to quickly subdue the enemy, regardless of whether it was a sneak attack.
After all, Senichi somewhat understood Makoto Kyogoku's personality, fearing that, as a martial artist, he might disdain sneak attacks and lead to mistakes.
After all, the clown was skilled, and this wasn't a case from Detective Conan Series. Senichi was afraid Ran, the "female war god," might face trouble.
After all, even if the opponent's strength was insufficient, a sinister move might go awry.
Stability was always Senichi's top priority in handling cases.
This seemingly audacious plan was actually Senichi deducing various possible scenarios of the plan in the time it took to smoke half a cigarette during the "buff time."
It can be said that he had already calculated the clown's various reactions and actions, including the "clown gathering" that the clown had created to mock the detectives.
Considering Ran's proposal of a duel as a "weak girl," as long as he didn't back down completely, he would definitely take action. And wanting to take action naturally involved considering the presence of the detectives and finding a way to resolve this issue.
Senichi had predicted his prediction.