"That's horrible!" Ran gasped, her face pale as she watched the robber casually shoot the hostage without hesitation.
Gustave found her reaction puzzling. Given Ran's incredible combat abilities, why was she so shaken by something like this? But then again, he reflected, despite her martial arts prowess, she was still fundamentally a gentle person who abhorred violence.
The robber's brutality had effectively silenced Officer Takagi. These weren't ordinary criminals who could be reasoned with or negotiated with - they were professionals who responded to any attempt at communication with immediate violence.
"Officer Sato, what do we do now?" Takagi whispered urgently, his confidence completely shattered. In all his years on the force, he'd never encountered robbers this ruthless. His attempt at standard police procedure had directly resulted in an innocent person being shot, and the guilt was eating at him.
The wounded hostage continued groaning in pain, blood pooling beneath his injured leg. Without immediate medical attention, he could easily bleed out. The thought of losing a civilian on his watch made Takagi's stomach churn.
"Give me a minute - I'm thinking!" Sato replied tersely, though her own options seemed equally limited. She'd initially considered offering herself as an exchange for the hostages, but after witnessing the robber's casual violence, she knew such negotiations were pointless.
"Inspector Megure, where's our backup?" Takagi muttered under his breath, desperately missing his superior's steady presence and tactical experience.
Meanwhile, Conan was pacing frantically in their hiding spot, his detective mind spinning uselessly.
"Think, think!" he muttered to himself. "There has to be a solution!"
If he could get the robbers to expose themselves even slightly, his power-enhanced shoes and precision soccer ball could take them down instantly. But these weren't amateur criminals - they maintained perfect cover behind their human shields, clearly professionals who understood tactical positioning.
Gustave watched the deteriorating situation and considered intervening directly. If the hostage died on his watch, it would mean he'd failed to suppress Conan's notorious "death god" aura - an unacceptable outcome.
But just as he prepared to act, he noticed Tezuka and Fuji moving with quiet purpose.
"Fuji, can you execute a precision snake ball from this angle?" Tezuka asked calmly, adjusting his glasses as he studied the tactical situation.
"No problem, Tezuka," Fuji replied immediately, understanding his captain's strategy without further explanation.
Given the robbers' positioning, conventional tactics were useless. But tennis offered possibilities that firearms couldn't match. The snake ball - Kaidoh's signature technique that used extreme spin to create curved ball trajectories - was perfect for bypassing obstacles.
While neither Fuji nor Tezuka specialized in the snake ball, both were masters of spin control. They didn't use Kaidoh's technique simply because they'd developed far more powerful alternatives. But in this situation, precision mattered more than raw power.
"What are you two talking about?" Conan stared at them in bewilderment. "This isn't the time for tennis strategy!"
"Conan, use your brain," Gustave said pointedly, tapping his temple.
"What do you mean?" Conan remained completely confused.
"Little detective, you're being incredibly dense right now," Eiji said with obvious satisfaction at finally having the intellectual high ground. "Go find tennis rackets and balls for Tezuka and Fuji. Now."
"What?" Conan still didn't understand, but even Ran and Sonoko had caught on and were already moving to help.
Within minutes, they'd located a sporting goods store on the upper level. The owner had clearly fled during the initial panic, leaving the door unlocked in his haste to escape.
"Is it really okay to just take these?" Sengoku asked nervously, eyeing the expensive equipment they were appropriating.
"Are you serious right now?" Eiji stared at him in disbelief. "It's bad enough that Conan's brain stopped working, but you too?"
"Don't worry about it," Sonoko declared confidently, selecting two of the most expensive rackets available. "This mall belongs to one of my father's companies anyway. I'll have someone handle the paperwork later."
Sometimes being ridiculously wealthy had its advantages.
With equipment secured, Tezuka and Fuji tested the rackets' weight and grip, bouncing tennis balls to check their consistency. Satisfied with the equipment, they made their way back to the basement level.
Finally, the pieces clicked together in Conan's mind.
"Of course! They're going to use snake balls to curve around the hostages!" he slapped his forehead in frustration. "Why didn't I think of that sooner?"
But by the time his detective brain caught up, Tezuka and Fuji were already positioning themselves at the optimal angle, rackets in hand. The robbers, still hidden behind their human shields, had no idea what was about to happen.
Officers Takagi and Sato could see the tennis players but didn't dare call attention to them. The memory of that casual, brutal gunshot was still fresh, and they couldn't risk provoking another violent response.
The scene that unfolded was almost surreal: two tennis players standing openly in view of armed criminals, carefully calculating angles while professional law enforcement officers watched helplessly from cover.
After a few seconds of precise positioning, Tezuka and Fuji exchanged a brief nod.
They moved in perfect synchronization - tossing their tennis balls high and unleashing simultaneous serves with devastating accuracy.
The balls curved through the air with impossible precision, following paths that seemed to defy physics as they arced around the hostages at angles that would have been inconceivable to ordinary players.
The robbers heard the sound just a split second before impact - far too late to react.
Both tennis balls struck their targets with surgical precision, delivering impacts that would have impressed even professional tennis players. While neither Tezuka nor Fuji could yet execute the devastating power shots of their peak abilities, the force was more than sufficient to drop both criminals instantly.
The robbers crumpled to the ground, unconscious before they hit the floor.
Eiji and Sengoku erupted from their concealment with sprinter-level speed, reaching the fallen criminals in seconds. Each boy planted a foot firmly on a robber's gun hand while kicking the weapons well out of reach.
"Conan! Move!" Eiji shouted as they efficiently flipped the unconscious robbers face-down, restraining them with practiced holds.
"Right!" Conan snapped out of his amazement and rushed forward with the rope they'd grabbed from the store's climbing equipment section.
Within moments, both robbers were securely bound and completely neutralized, their brief reign of terror ended by the precise application of middle school tennis skills.