Chapter 64: Ongoing and Backup Plans

All the facilities outside the hospital ward were cut off by invisible [straight lines].

The supernatural attack launched by the opponent did not hurt anyone, but it also stopped everyone from rushing to the ward!

Everyone was blocked outside the ward, and only Edogawa Ranpo stayed by Fukuzawa Yukichi's side.

Kunikida Doppo, who had just received the news that Dazai was receiving emergency treatment in another hospital, was on the verge of losing his sanity.

Both the president and Dazai fell into the trap, and the port mafia's Hayato Kotori set up a cage here. Mr. Ranpo, the only think tank left at the moment, was also trapped in the ward!

Although it is known that Hayana Kotori is Mr. Ranpo's sister, the two are now in completely opposite positions. There is a high probability that Mr. Ranpo can be knocked unconscious without hurting his life.

Then the Armed Detective Agency will really be hopeless!

"Doctor Yosano," Kunikida Doppo stood up and loosened his tie as the others stared at him, his sharp, serious face brimming with seriousness. "The door handle must be covered in invisible wires. I'll open the door, and then I'll ask you to quickly shoot me and cause me to near death."

Only in this way can Dr. Yosano's special ability be activated.

"Mr. Kunikida, let me do it!" Tanizaki Junichiro stepped forward. "My special ability can be activated even without both hands. Besides, my fighting power is not enough. If I can assist from the side, only losing one hand can definitely save time!"

In such an urgent moment, even 0.01 seconds is a decisive time and cannot be wasted.

"My body can automatically recover after being injured..."

“That’s enough!”

Nakajima Atsushi's words were sternly interrupted by Kunikida Doppo. Amidst the shocked expression of the young man in front of him, he continued with his previous plan and said in a voice deep in his throat, "I'll do it."

No one in the Armed Detective Agency had any experience fighting against Hayana Takanashi's special ability. If he startled her at the moment when he opened the door at the risk of having his hand cut off, he would most likely be pierced or cut by countless threads.

You will die.

It was a death that even Dr. Yosano's special powers couldn't save.

Looking at the young, immature, yet stubborn and resolute faces of the younger generation in front of him, Kunikida Doppo would not risk the life of any of them.

If someone had to die to open this door, that person would be him.

This is responsibility.

After the president fell into a coma and Dazai was shot, Mr. Ranpo was trapped alone in the dilemma of protecting the president, and he should take on the responsibility.

Miyazawa Kenji's hand reached for the door handle.

Amidst Kunikida Doppo's shocked voice of stopping him, his hand touched the door handle intact, twisted it, and opened the door easily.

"I'm not hurt." Looking at his hands, Miyazawa Kenji waved at the stunned people across from him and said happily, "Mr. Kunikida! There are no traps here."

“…”

Some people have small eyes.

Then he looked inside the ward vigilantly.

Two people were standing in front of the bed where Fukuzawa Yukichi was lying, Hayana Takanashi and an unknown man with a proud face.

As for Mr. Ranpo, he was tied tightly to a chair with a daifuku stuffed in his mouth. At this moment, he could only puff out his cheeks and chew quickly and helplessly, trying to speak as soon as possible.

"Yo~" the black-haired woman greeted them standing outside the door.

Seeing that they all looked as if they were facing a formidable enemy, she jokingly said, "I didn't expect you to be able to overcome your fear of death. I thought that just now would scare you for a while."

The reaction and decision made in less than 30 seconds shows the Armed Detective Agency's unity and fearlessness of bloodshed, as well as the importance of Fukuzawa Yukichi in their hearts.

If Fukuzawa Yukichi was really killed, the leader's life would probably be filled with unrest forever.

"But don't go any further now."

Seeing them about to rush in, her voice suddenly turned cold, her expression darkening as she warned, "The walls surrounding the ward are all covered in fine lines, including the wall in front of you and the door. If you come in, not even a complete body will be left."

"Little... um!"

After stretching his neck, he finally swallowed the daifuku in his mouth. With his mouth full of glutinous rice flour, Edogawa Ranpo had just made a sound when another huge one was stuffed into his mouth by Kotori Hayato.

He was so angry that the corners of his eyes turned red.

"How long will it take?" she asked Zenin Naoya.

With his arms folded across his chest, he watched the cursed spirit sniffing the man's chest on the hospital bed, and Zenin Naoya replied leisurely, "Less than three minutes."

There was nothing to see, and this situation made Hayana Kotori very annoyed. She was next to Ranpo Edogawa and wanted to go forward and observe to see if the person who was "devoured by the cursed spirit" would have any other reaction under the action of the cursed spirit.

As she took a step forward, Edogawa Ranpo, who was sitting on a chair with his hands tied behind his back, suddenly opened his eyes wide, with tears in his eyes, as if he was about to cry.

Immediately deciding, Kunikida Doppo shouted, "Dazai has been shot! He's in another hospital now!"

Stopping in her tracks, Hayato Yasana looked at the person standing at the door in astonishment: "What did you say?"

She frowned, thinking she had heard a joke.

That was Dazai, whose vitality was so strong that he couldn't die no matter how he tried to commit suicide. Dazai was standing in the center of the bullet shooting but was only attacked from the edge!

Seeing the absolutely serious expressions of Kunikida Doppo and the person standing next to him, Hayana Takanashi realized that what he said was true. Dazai was really shot and was being rescued.

There is only one possibility, Dazai did it on purpose.

Perhaps the Armed Detective Agency is really important to him.

Hayana Kotori, who originally thought it was just a "kill the boss" competition, suddenly felt fortunate that she remembered what Zenin Naoya once said.

Just when Kunikida Doppo thought she would calm down in the next second, she unexpectedly walked forward again to the president's bedside. If she just stretched out her hand slightly, she could strangle the president's neck.

She looked down quietly and did not make any other movements.

The silver-haired man, sunken in the soft white blanket, had his eyelashes trembling, and his slightly opened eyes met her gaze.

Being in such an extremely weak state, it was incredible that he could wake up from a coma. Fukuzawa Yukichi said calmly and gently: "Just now... Ranpo was scared. Were you scared too?"

Looking at Edogawa Ranpo, who was still stretching his neck to swallow the daifuku, with the corners of his eyes red like a tearful squirrel, Takanashi Hayato lowered his voice: "A thermos was thrown at you right after you showed your head. Anyone would be angry."

Knowing that the enemy had launched an attack, he did not expect that the opponent would be Hayana Takanashi. Putting the safety of the president first, Edogawa Ranpo picked up the thermos, walked to the window and smashed it down with all his strength.

When he saw the familiar face, he could no longer hold back his strength.

If it weren't for Hayana Kotori's quick reaction, she would have had to get countless stitches on her head.

The thermos fell to the ground with a sound of the inner lining shattering into pieces. Edogawa Ranpo stared blankly at Hayana Kotori who was clinging to the windowsill with one hand.

He and Dazai were both at the Armed Detective Agency, so Nai should have been staying at the Port Mafia headquarters, but he didn't expect her to show up here?!

He thought of many solutions, but in the end, they all ended with him being tied up and watching the situation unfold.

The next moment, a hand pressed down on his face, and he fell backwards with the force, and was tied tightly to the chair with ropes torn from the curtains.

Afraid that he would speak, Hayana Kotori opened the box of snacks that Zenin Naoya had hidden in his wide sleeves, took out a fist-sized daifuku and stuffed it into Edogawa Ranpo's mouth.

"..." She was able to find something hidden so secretly, and Zenin Naoya suspected that she had a very sensitive nose.

He was also uncomfortable if the snacks he had prepared were discovered and was ready to refute at any time.

But the other party didn't ask him at all.

Seeing Hayana Takanashi and the president getting along calmly in front of the bed, without any bloody scenes of swords being drawn against each other, the tense members of the Armed Detective Agency standing outside the ward relaxed a little.

Fukuzawa Yukichi asked weakly, "Do you have any plans?"

"Yeah." Hayana Kotori replied softly, "Initially, I wanted to assassinate him. Although you helped Ranpo a lot, from my perspective on this matter, I didn't do anything wrong."

Her mission as an undercover agent in the Port Mafia is to absolutely protect Mori Ogai's life if he decides on a strategy that is beneficial to Yokohama.

In the current situation, everything Mori Ogai did was to protect Yokohama, and the Special Ability Agent Department did not contact her, proving that the higher-ups had no intention of intervening, so her undercover mission had to continue.

"Luckily, I remembered a crucial sentence when I came here," said Hayana Kotori. "This was the core of my change of strategy."

Hearing this, Zenin Naoya secretly straightened his chest.

Seeing the curse spirit raise its head, he reminded: "Okay."

"Let's go." Hayana Takanashi walked to the window, stepped on the windowsill and jumped down.

Zenin Naoya followed closely behind.

The next second after she left, the cloth made of the curtains tied to Edogawa Ranpo's body was neatly cut off.

He was choked to the point of choking. He ran to the bed, picked up the cup of water on the bedside table and took a few gulps. After Edogawa Ranpo caught his breath, his opened emerald eyes looked moist as if they had been washed with water.

"Mr. Ranpo, I didn't expect you to actually attack your own sister." Miyazawa Kenji sighed.

Edogawa Ranpo puffed out his cheeks, showing a rare expression of frustration, and said nothing.

"What does she mean?" Tanizaki Junichiro wondered.

Seeing everyone looking at him, he voiced his doubts: "She clearly did something to the president just now, but she didn't kill him. Could it be that she was able to find someone with the ability to perform 'Co-Eating'?"

He couldn't think of any other way to resolve the incident.

Edogawa Ranpo looked at the president lying on the bed. He seemed to have fallen asleep again and was extremely weak.

"Xiao Nai," Edogawa Ranpo said with certainty, clearing the sweet, creamy throat, "She's giving us a warning."

"There's a way to find the person with the ability to 'shared devouring', but instead of going to the more convenient Mori Ogai, they went to the president. They're telling us—don't make a move."

Everyone's face darkened.

Kunikida Doppo: "If we don't take action, the other party will destroy us."

It seemed as if his prophecy had come true.

Hearing the report from the headphones that Hayana Kotori arrived at the ward but did not attack Fukuzawa Yukichi, but instead left, his fingers slid from the headphones to his cheek, and Nakahara Chuuya looked towards the hospital with sharp eyes.

"It's our turn to take action next!"