Inadvertent kidnapping wasn't part of the plan. Lupin had hoped to get a closer look at the blueprints, figure out the best entryway, maybe have some fun while stealing the diamonds.

He lowered the safety bar and started to sift through his bag. He pulled out a black knit hat and mittens, fastening them onto Nonnika. He also took out a stylish, cashmere scarf that he had gotten as a rare gift from Fujiko and placed it around Nonnika's shoulders.

Nonnika took one end of the scarf and started wiping the snot and tears off her face.

"Wait…" Lupin started, then let his voice fade helplessly. He didn't want her to start crying again. He added "take scarf to dry cleaners" among the items on his mental list when he returned to Japan.

While keeping an eye on Nonnika, he stared ahead as Diamond Hill grew closer. He also kept his ears peeled for the guards' voices. It wasn't long before a few of the guards had hopped to the lift seat directly behind theirs.

"Hold on," Lupin told Nonnika, as he aimed his grappling watch several seats in front of them.

Lupin made eye contact with the guards, winked, blew a kiss, and watched the guards' faces go pale as he and Nonnika leapt off the seat, swinging down then up to a ski lift seat several seats ahead. Nonnika was laughing, arms waving in the air as though she were still flying. Lupin smiled.

Even through the dark Lupin recognized the outline of the top of Diamond Hill.

"OK, we're going to jump one more time. Are you ready?"

He saw Nonnika nod. Grabbing her and the bag, Lupin leapt off the lift, thankful that the boots he wore kept him from slipping as he landed.

The temperature had dropped steeply as the night went on. An ever-thickening top layer of ice was gathering on the hilltop's surface. Lupin put Nonnika down as he sifted through the bag for the headband light. Switching it on, he turned his head to find that Nonnika was no longer beside him.

"Nonnika!" Lupin shouted. Had the guards already got to her? He hadn't heard them, though the snow and the woods could have muffled their footsteps.

As he whipped his head around, Lupin finally caught sight of Nonnika. She was taking careful footsteps downhill toward the woods. Lupin followed her. "Where are you going?" he asked.

It didn't look like she was just walking around. Rather, she was walking toward something. She reached a tree and took off her mitten. Lupin watched as she placed her hand onto the tree. The bark glowed blue, and Lupin heard a mechanical whir as the snow just to the left of them gave way to a sleek, silver entryway.

Lupin let Nonnika walk in first. They crossed through a narrow, sleek hallway, walking through another entryway. When they entered, Lupin realized they were in the heart of the diamond production mine.

Metal railings, crisscrossing downward and up, stretched as far as Lupin could see. The walls still contained the sleekness Lupin had seen in the entryway and hallway, but a lot of the polished interior was pushed aside for utility. Producing diamonds wasn't clean work. In more than one sense of the word.

Lupin's senses were at full alert, keeping an eye and ear out for any approaching footsteps. He kept a close eye on Nonnika too, in case she tried to run into one of the production lines. He thought Nonnika may have been in here before because she took careful steps and seemed to know where to avoid going.

Lupin barely heard it over the roar of the machinery in the room, but Nonnika lifted her head and squealed with delight. It was a voice.

"Nonnika!" The man leaned over a railing. The giant room contained suspended walkways along the edges of the room. He grabbed a hardhat from a hook in the wall and ran down metal stairs. When he reached Nonnika he knelt down and pulled her in a tight embrace. He placed the hardhat on top of her head and stared in front of him, pulling out a firearm.

"Stay where you are! Don't move!" Adrian Bellman said, his voice carrying over the machinery. But he realized he was commanding air. The figure he barely glimpsed as he ran down the stairs had vanished from sight.

Lupin, having hastily ran to the other side of the room, grabbed metal railing and hoisted himself up off the floor, sighed in relief. He spotted a uniform and hardhat and threw them on, getting into character as a production worker. In spite of a flair for the dramatic, Lupin knew how and when to disappear.

A voice came over the intercom, one that Lupin recognized as Bellman's.

"Attention! An unauthorized man is on the premises, and I have reason to believe he is planning to commit theft and had previously taken my granddaughter hostage. I will go to each production line and investigate. Interpol has already been contacted. This is a code red matter. There is only a limited amount of time before the evacuation."

Lupin didn't know what Bellman meant by evacuation, but he did know that he only had very little time to carry out this heist. Based on what he remembered from the blueprints, Lupin was able to find the silo where the finished diamonds were stored. Pulling out a sack just for the occasion, Lupin was able to grab an amount that weighed the equivalent of a medium-size dog. He stopped when he heard an angry voice and the sound of a body against metal.

Lupin peered his head out of the silo and spotted Bellman. Red faced, Bellman had grabbed a production worker by the shoulders and had thrown him against the wall. A few other workers stood by.

"Sir!" Lupin instantly recognized her voice. Sarina approached Bellman, allowing Nonnika to hide behind her.

"I understand that this is an emergency situation, but this is no way to treat a human being."

Bellman flipped around, facing Sarina but not seeing Nonnika behind her.

"I will do what I must to get results," Bellman said, his voice dripping with condescension. "This is what it means to be in the business."

"Well, that's unfortunate." A voice rang through the intercom. Bellman reared his head up, furious. "Who are you?" he demanded. "Show yourself!"

"You would do anything? Look around you. You are one of the wealthiest men in the world. You can take credit for running some of the most popular resorts. You wouldn't need to lift a finger the rest of your life, and you would still make millions."

The voice continued to ring out through the intercom, but all of the eyes in the room turned as Lupin stepped among them, hoisting a bag full of diamonds nearly as large as him.

"Yet you're here finding new and less legal ways to make money. Why bother?" Lupin felt the bag dig into his back as he held a microphone that he had connected to the intercom. He valiantly struggled to keep his back and legs straight. "You have three wonderful daughters, who are businesspeople just like you. They can even count on you to help take care of their children when life happens."

Lupin took a few steps closer. "Whatever drives you, whatever fears you have of stagnation or failure, you don't need to worry about it anymore. You've already accomplished a hell of a lot. You don't also need to run the largest underground diamond distributor in the world. Share the wealth, you know?" He winked.

Everyone stood, blank-faced and blinking, as though they were looking and listening to a Peter Pan who had leapt from Neverland. The sound of echoing footsteps pulled the crowd back to the present moment.

"This is Inspector Zenigata from the ICPO!" A voice rang out. "If the intruder, Lupin III, is within your sight, don't let him get away!"

That was Lupin's cue. He ran up to Sarina and Nonnika.

"Get to the evacuation room as soon as possible." Nonnika, who initially looked frightened, gave Lupin a small smile when she saw him.

Sarina and Lupin made eye contact. He gave a wry smile.

"I was Clara Rothwell when we last met," he started. Realizing he wouldn't have the time – Zenigata's footsteps were getting closer – he prepared to run. "Talk more later!"

He ran as fast as his legs would carry him. Using his grappling watch, he hoisted himself in the air and took aim. Using a laser he had attached to one of his fingers, he was able to burn a hole in the ceiling large enough for him to pull through.

Lupin knew he only had moments. Between the time he had disguised himself and when he intercepted the intercom system, he saw a notice on one of the computer monitors that an avalanche was imminent. Though not among the more severe avalanches the area has had, it meant that everyone in the resort and surrounding areas were taken off the slopes. By breaking out of the diamond factory, he would be coming face to face with the avalanche. It'd also mean that Zenigata wouldn't pursue him. He'd try, of course. He'd fight Bellman tooth and nail on it. But Bellman couldn't risk the liability of a member of Interpol getting hurt on his property.

Clenching the heavy bag of diamonds in one hand and sliding his other hand into his jacket pocket, he pulled out several wads of gum. It was anticlimactic in the moment, but he didn't care if the end result would save his life.

He reached the mountain's icy surface, started to run like crazy, and furiously chewed gum. The sound behind him could only be described as a cross between a peal of thunder and a fighter jet right against Lupin's ears. Grabbing onto a nearby tree, Lupin started to blow the gum, allowing the protective material to enclose him. The last thing Lupin remembered was a force like an ocean's undertow. The ground was no longer solid and threatened to pull him under. Lupin had never held on more tightly.

Moments before the avalanche, Sarina had little time to react to the lanky figure in front of her who called himself one of her employees. As he ran away, she began to run as well, clasping Nonnika's hand and following Bellman and the factory employees through a doorway. It was only when Sarina looked down that she realized that she was holding a notecard in her free hand. The card had a badly drawn face, several words in Japanese, and "Lupin III" written in English. The card led to more questions than answers.

Sarina turned to her right, seeing the resort's CEO grab Nonnika's other hand. She was grateful to see him treating his granddaughter gently. What the intruder, Lupin, had said may have changed his perspective on things. She hoped so. Perhaps her perspective would change as well. But, if anything, today had only solidified her goal to be good to those around her, including to herself. Life was too precious, and too interesting, for ambition that demanded cruelty.

Nonnika turned around for just a moment. A smile broke across her face as she saw Lupin, the one who taught her to love flying, fly away himself.