The traitor was actually obvious.
Even without any deduction, Natsuyu could tell.
All the guards were tied together—yet the elevator attendant was bound separately, off to one side.
Wasn't that already a dead giveaway that she was different?
And although her face wasn't very clear, the guards all looked fairly ordinary, while this elevator attendant stood out immediately—her presence felt completely out of place.
After all, authors rarely put detailed effort into characters who don't matter.
Which meant this woman was anything but simple.
"Um… are you here to save—mm…?"
The elevator attendant seemed to sense something and tried to speak.
Natsuyu didn't wait for her to finish.
Clean and decisive, she knocked her unconscious as well.
She had no interest in listening to a criminal's lies—whatever she said would only be an attempt to deceive her.
Naturally, Natsuyu still didn't untie the guards.
Although she was basically certain who the insider was, just to be safe, she decided to wait until the police arrived before releasing anyone.
Using the phone in the security room, she reported the situation at the department store.
After the call, she turned her attention to the surveillance monitors the robber had been watching earlier.
She needed to find where the remaining robbers—and Conan's group—were.
"Hey, hey—what happened over there? What was that noise just now?!"
The walkie-talkie on the desk suddenly crackled to life.
Natsuyu didn't respond.
She looked up at the monitor.
Sure enough, one of the robbers appeared, holding a walkie-talkie with a tense expression—it was the one wearing the Kamen Rider costume.
He seemed to realize something was wrong. After saying a few words to his companion, the two split up and disappeared from the camera.
Natsuyu checked the other feeds.
There was no sign of Conan or Genta.
That meant they were deliberately avoiding the cameras—so the robbers in the security room wouldn't be able to locate them.
Thinking back to where the robber had appeared on the monitor, Natsuyu judged he had been on the third floor—clothing section.
They had just split into two groups. One of them was likely heading back to the security room to check.
To get down, he could only use the stairs or the elevator.
The elevator had cameras. With the situation unclear, they would definitely avoid surveillance.
And elevators were too easy to ambush—you could tell someone was inside the moment it moved.
So he would choose the stairs.
Natsuyu went to the stairwell and hid to the side, her back against the wall.
She closed her eyes and listened carefully.
Before long, soft, cautious footsteps echoed down the stairs—deliberately light, clearly trying not to be heard.
She listened closely.
There was no overlap.
Only one person.
She didn't move right away.
When the robber reached the bottom of the stairs and was about to see her—
Natsuyu lunged forward and kicked him full force.
The Kamen Rider-clad robber was sent flying into the wall and collapsed, unconscious.
Well—possibly unconscious.
To ensure he was knocked out, Natsuyu had added a bit of extra strength. A few ribs might have broken—he may have passed out from the pain.
But that wasn't important.
So far, three had been dealt with.
Based on the earlier surveillance, there should be two left—still playing their cat-and-mouse game with Conan and the others.
On the other side…
Conan and the children were trying to use mannequins from the clothing section to trick the robbers—
but Genta's growling stomach gave them away.
They could only run.
As they fled, Conan glanced back.
Strange… there were three just now. Why are only two chasing us?
Is the third trying to cut us off from another route?
No.
From earlier, the robbers hadn't been able to track them properly.
Although Conan tried to avoid the cameras, the situation was urgent—and Genta and the others were just kids.
Sometimes they were still caught on surveillance.
But starting from a while ago, even when they briefly appeared on camera, the robbers hadn't reacted immediately.
That meant something had gone wrong in the security room.
The missing robber must have gone back to check.
Did someone see our SOS message on the window and come inside?
Conan decided to deal with the two remaining robbers first—then go see what had happened in the security room.
They ran into the liquor section.
Just as they were about to shake open bottles and spray the alcohol at the robbers—
Thud!
The sound of a body hitting the floor echoed behind them.
"Sister Natsuyu!"
Genta, Mitsuhiko, and Ayumi shouted together.
They turned.
It was Natsuyu.
She smiled at them reassuringly.
Then she casually hurled the baseball she had been tossing in her hand—
Bang!
It struck the head of the last conscious robber, and he collapsed instantly.
Inside her mind, Paimon couldn't help but praise:
「Traveler, nice throw!」
Conan turned to look at the robber who had fallen earlier.
Sure enough—there was also a baseball beside him.
Conan was stunned.
Knocking someone out by throwing a baseball with bare hands… how strong is she?!
But Ayumi and the others didn't care about that at all.
Seeing that all the robbers were finally defeated, they rushed up to Natsuyu excitedly, chattering nonstop.
They asked how she suddenly appeared.
When they learned she had come after seeing the SOS message they left on the window, they grew even more excited—proudly recounting how they discovered the robbers and bravely outwitted them.
With the crisis resolved, Natsuyu brought the children back to the security room to wait for the police.
"Sister Natsuyu, the guards and the elevator lady are still tied up. I'll help untie them!"
When they arrived, Ayumi saw the elevator attendant and guards still bound in the corner and stepped forward.
Natsuyu quickly stopped her.
"No," she explained gently.
"That lady is the robber's insider—their accomplice."
A flash of understanding struck Conan.
So that was it.
He had always wondered how the robbers knew exactly how many members were in the Detective Boys.
Now it made sense.
She must have infiltrated the department store earlier, working as an elevator attendant to scout and guide the operation.
She had already seen them during the day—so of course she knew their numbers.
Now, that accomplice was clearly unconscious.
And judging by the timing—
She was probably knocked out by Sister Natsuyu too…
Conan felt a twitch at the corner of his eye.
Sister Natsuyu really does have a habit of knocking criminals out, doesn't she…