The moment the heat surged forward, instinct took over.
Kaito Kid reacted before his mind fully caught up.
As the wall of fire rushed toward him, he yanked the white cape from his shoulders and hurled it straight ahead. The fabric billowed outward in midair, spreading like a curtain just as the flames slammed into it.
At the same time, Kaito Kid twisted on his heel and leapt backward, retreating down the corridor without hesitation.
Whoosh!
The cape ignited instantly.
Flames devoured the white fabric in a heartbeat, reducing it to blackened scraps that crumbled into ash midair. Even so, those precious fractions of a second were enough. The fire lost momentum, and Kaito Kid escaped the worst of it.
The cape had been made from ultra-light bullet-resistant material—durable enough to block blades and fragments, flexible enough to serve as a temporary shield in emergencies.
But fire was fire.
No material truly resisted it forever.
"Not bad," a deep voice echoed from behind the flames.
"Fast reactions. That means this won't be boring."
A man stepped forward through the heat distortion.
He wore a full-coverage hood and an armored suit designed in an unsettling, almost insect-like style. The eye lenses were large and oval, glowing faintly like a bug's compound eyes. A respirator covered his mouth, filtering the smoke with a low mechanical hiss.
Strapped to his back was a heavy fuel tank.
In his hands—a flamethrower.
And mounted on the back of his suit, near his shoulder blades, were two massive black wings, rigid and angular, making him resemble some grotesque mechanical insect.
Kaito Kid narrowed his eyes.
"With that outfit and that weapon…" he said calmly, though his breathing had grown shallow,
"You must be Firefly. The one who broke out of Blackgate Penitentiary recently."
His gaze flicked briefly to the man's weapon, then to the scorched floor.
"Did Penguin send you?"
Firefly didn't answer.
Kaito Kid subtly flexed his right hand.
The glove was scorched black along the wrist, the heat having seeped through. Even the skin beneath stung sharply—already blistering.
If I had been even half a second slower…
he thought grimly,
my whole arm would've gone up in flames.
He forced the pain aside and lifted his chin, glancing toward the ceiling behind Firefly.
"If I remember correctly," Kaito Kid continued, voice steady,
"this museum's fire suppression system runs on an independent power supply."
His eyes locked onto a sprinkler head directly above Firefly.
"I cut the main power earlier, but I never touched the emergency fire system. Flames that intense should've triggered it instantly."
Firefly remained silent.
"That means Penguin sabotaged it in advance," Kaito Kid concluded.
"Left it wide open so you could burn the place however you liked."
The lack of denial was answer enough.
Firefly finally spoke, his tone almost dreamy.
"I didn't care about you at first, Kaito Kid. Buildings are my true passion."
He tilted his head slightly, as if savoring a memory.
"But the screams of people trapped in flames… that's music."
His gloved finger tightened on the trigger.
"You offended someone you shouldn't have. That makes you my newest artwork."
Kaito Kid exhaled slowly.
Then Firefly laughed softly.
"Before you try anything clever—smoke bombs, sleeping gas, mirror tricks—don't bother."
He lifted the flamethrower slightly, letting its nozzle follow Kaito Kid's movement.
"My range is fifty meters. This corridor is long, narrow, and perfect."
He gestured behind Kaito Kid.
"Your only escape is that fork in the passage. Twenty meters back. No doors. No vents."
Kaito Kid glanced over his shoulder.
Firefly was right.
The corridor was just over four meters wide—barely enough space to dodge sideways. The walls were smooth stone, uninterrupted. No hiding spots. No shortcuts.
And Firefly stood directly between him and the exhibition hall.
I was forced deeper inside, Kaito Kid realized.
This wasn't random.
His expression remained calm, but his mind raced.
This is an ambush.
He studied me… or Penguin planned this perfectly.
And worse—
Where are Robin and Batgirl?
This isn't my job. I steal jewels, not fight maniacs with flamethrowers!
Still, panic wouldn't help.
Kaito Kid straightened and offered a relaxed smile, as if the situation were nothing more than a casual negotiation.
"Hey," he said lightly,
"What did Penguin promise you? Money? Equipment? Maybe we can talk."
Firefly cut him off instantly.
"Shut up."
His voice hardened.
"You've already wasted enough of my time."
Then—
Click.
Fire erupted from the nozzle in a roaring torrent.
Firefly attacked without hesitation.
Kaito Kid moved the instant the trigger was pulled, throwing himself sideways as the stream of fire tore through the space he'd occupied a moment earlier.
The heat scorched the air. Flames brushed past him at a distance of mere centimeters, licking the wall and ceiling.
"Tsk," Kaito Kid muttered as he rolled to his feet.
"Won't even let me finish a sentence. Typical villain."
He didn't stop moving.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
His wrist flicked, and his card gun snapped into position. Several poker cards shot forward in rapid succession, spinning toward Firefly.
The reaction was immediate.
The cards ignited midair.
Paper curled, blackened, and disintegrated under the intense heat, reduced to glowing embers within seconds.
Firefly burst into laughter.
"Hahahaha!"
"Are you terrified already, Kaito Kid? Throwing paper at fire?"
To Firefly, it looked ridiculous.
Pathetic, even.
He assumed the man before him was desperate—out of tricks and out of options.
What he failed to notice was the angle.
The burning poker cards didn't fall.
Instead, they rose.
Straight upward.
Firefly's laughter faltered.
His eyes tracked the movement—and only then did he see it.
Thin steel wires.
Nearly invisible in the flickering light, each card was tethered by a fine filament, the other ends wrapped tightly around Kaito Kid's fingers.
The cards weren't weapons.
They were tools.
The wires pulled taut, guiding the burning cards toward the ceiling—
Toward the sprinkler head.
Firefly frowned.
"Meaningless," he scoffed.
"The fire system's been disabled—"
Bang!
The sprinkler sensor shattered.
For a fraction of a second, nothing happened.
Then—
BOOM!
The water pipe above burst violently.
A massive torrent of water crashed down like a waterfall, drenching the corridor in an instant.
Firefly was caught dead center.
The flames from his weapon vanished with a violent hiss, steam exploding outward as water soaked his suit, his fuel tank, and the flamethrower's nozzle.
The corridor filled with white vapor.
Firefly's greatest weapon was neutralized in a single moment.
Kaito Kid stepped back, shielding his face from the steam.
When the mist cleared, Firefly stood there, soaked and motionless, his weapon sputtering uselessly.
A faint smile curved Kaito Kid's lips.
"Fire suppression systems don't need electricity," he said calmly.
"They just need pressure."
He flicked his wrist.
The steel wires snapped free, and the remnants of the poker cards fell uselessly to the floor.
Kaito Kid didn't wait to see Firefly recover.
This was his opening.
And thieves survived by knowing exactly when to disappear.
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