"Not really? But didn't we just see those two people holding guns and preparing to silence witnesses?"

"Well, I reckon they were just planning to take out that old man who was with the woman."

"That old man?"

"Yeah, just eliminate the old man, while keeping the woman alive."

"If that's the case, isn't it quite strange? They used such dangerous means to stop the car. If something goes wrong, the woman is likely to get hurt or even die. After all, nobody could have foreseen such a thing."

Arashikaze Manami shifted her gaze to Katsuragi Reimi, hoping for some answers.

"No, actually, these two things are not contradictory. Rather, it's the best evidence that they intended to abduct that young girl."

"Huh?"

The group exclaimed in surprise.

"By carefully thinking about it, you'll see that if they wanted to kill the young girl, there would have been no need for such tactics, right? Shooting out the tires to stop the car actually takes quite a bit of effort. I can't think of any reason why they would choose to do it."

"Maybe it's because they only had guns."

Arashikaze Manami offered this possibility.

"Well, although that possibility cannot be ruled out, but... if they were able to get their hands on guns, wouldn't they also be able to get grenades or rocket launchers? And even if they were afraid of causing a commotion and refrained from using other explosive weapons, the fact that their guns didn't even have silencers, or they forgot to put them on, is just too far-fetched."

"... "

Perhaps unable to counter, Arashikaze Manami fell silent.

"Yes, if they wanted to, they could easily solve it with a grenade or a rocket launcher. In this situation, the role of the guns is actually not very significant, they should be well aware of that themselves."

"So, even though they knew it was troublesome, they must have had a reason to do it this way, right?"

Asuka tried to draw a conclusion.

"Ah, that's right."

"So, could their aim be kidnapping? Since they wanted to keep her alive."

"Yes, that's probably it."

"So, they only took out the old man because their initial target was to kidnap the woman...?"

Asuka murmured thoughtfully.

However, she soon noticed something suspicious.

"It still doesn't make sense. If the goal was to abduct the woman, using guns to shoot out the tires is still too risky."

In response, Katsuragi Reimi fell into slight contemplation for a while, then said, "This indeed seems inexplicable, but if we look at it from a different perspective, we might get a different answer."

Upon this response, Asuka widened her eyes in surprise.

"Not even considering listed in the range of consideration? Could it be...?"

"Ah, it doesn't matter if the objective is injured, as long as they survive. In that kind of situation, although getting injured is unavoidable, there should not be a great risk to their lives. That's probably what they have in mind."