On the other side of the stairs, Hiyori was running up the stairs at lightning speed, with the pursuers closely behind her.

"Stop here."

"Okay."

Seeing that the timing was right, Ryuto gave the order for Hiyori to stand on a certain floor of the stairs.

"Stop, criminal ahead!"

As soon as she stopped, the large group of pursuers caught up from behind. After all, the elevators in the police station had been sabotaged by Ryuto, so the only option to chase was to take the stairs.

Now, the next step...

"Hiyori, take action."

"Okay."

After speaking, Hiyori closed her eyes and held a long knife horizontally in front of her with her right hand, while gently touching the blade with her left hand.

In this brief moment, the pursuers were getting closer.

"Surrender!"

The group shouted and charged forward, about to catch her.

In the next instant,

A white light flashed by and cracks appeared in the stairs made of bricks. Following the cracks, the entire staircase collapsed in one breath. The disoriented pursuers fell onto the stairs below, causing chaos in the chasing unit. Well, it was just an ancillary effect.

"With this, this path is also blocked."

"Ryuto, sir, there shouldn't be anyone left now, right?"

Although optimism is a good thing, we cannot ignore the fact, so Ryuto reminded without mercy.

"No, there are more staircases besides this one. Even without the elevators, they can still catch up from other staircases. Doing this is just to buy some time. We have no time left, hurry to the eighth floor."

"Yes."

After saying that, Hiyori left the defeated pursuers behind and continued running upstairs.

For some reason, the lights at the entrance of the stairs on the upper floors were either broken or not working, but it didn't matter. So Hiyori went straight to the floor marked "8F." Luckily, the lights on this floor were on, and everything was clearly visible.

"There should be someone hiding on the right side up ahead."

After hearing the instructions, Hiyori took action again. It seemed that the other side knew they had been discovered, as they jumped out proactively, but Hiyori quickly dealt with them. After a miserable scream, they fell to the ground.

Even though their destination was within sight now, they couldn't let their guard down. Ryuto reminded,

"The vault is at the end of this path. Hurry up."

"Okay."

So Hiyori didn't stop at all and quickly took action.

***************************************************

The scene switched to the surveillance room on the other side.

"Miss Katsuragi, this..."

The male police officer was amazed by the scene on the screen. However, his surprise wasn't about the enemy breaking through the defense line but for another reason.

The girl just stared at the screen calmly.

"It seems they've taken the bait."

"But isn't the vault on the eighth floor? Why did they reach the seventh floor, and why does the sign there say '8F'? What's going on?"

In response to the male police officer's question, the girl replied calmly,

"It's nothing. After I found out that their destination was the eighth floor, I had the person on the seventh floor change the sign at the staircase entrance from '7F' to '8F', although it has probably been resolved by now."

"You mean, they mistook the seventh floor for the eighth floor. But even so, it doesn't guarantee that they will take the bait, as the sixth floor would become the eighth floor once they ascend from the previous floor. It's clearly a flaw."

"That's why I had someone turn off the lights at the signs on the fourth, fifth, and sixth floors, and turned on the lights on the seventh floor. When they're in a hurry, the criminals don't have much time to carefully read the signs on each floor. Especially if the area is dark or the higher floors, if they suddenly see the floor they were planning to go, they won't suspect a thing. It's hard for them to notice if they missed a floor, and besides, every floor's layout is similar."

The male police officer seemed to have realized something upon hearing this.

"Miss Katsuragi, there must be a reason for leading the criminals to this floor. Although it can mislead them and save the vault, there should be a deeper reason, right?"Facing the male police officer's question, the girl remained silent for a moment before slowly speaking up.

"Well, it's because on this floor there is that..."

"..."

Just recently learning about the other party's destination, the fact that she was able to come up with such a plan in such a short amount of time truly impressed the male police officer.

"Alright, we're almost done."

The girl stared at the screen, where the masked and black-clothed criminal declared so.

The criminal on the screen was running quickly ahead, completely unaware that he had taken the wrong floor and had no idea that danger awaited him.

The girl remained silent, her eyes fixed on the screen. The entire room fell into silence as well, but at a certain moment, the girl's voice broke the silence.

"Now is the time."

Following the girl's instructions, the male police officer pressed a button.

In response, two steel walls appeared on the corridor where the criminal was located on the screen, blocking his path from both front and back. In an instant, the criminal was trapped.

In the midst of the criminal's panic, hypnotic gas sprayed out from vents in the walls. Although he struggled desperately against the suffocating gas, the criminal quickly collapsed to the ground under its effects.

The girl stared at the screen, her tone slightly disappointed as she declared,

"Is it over?"