71 Live to be 100 years old

◎ Gun muzzle and blood◎

Hanano Chiheko blushed slightly as she recalled the promise she had made under the cherry blossom tree. "No, I'm with everyone else."

"Then why are you feeling guilty and blushing?"

Shibata Masakazu looked puzzled. "I thought it was just you and Rei Furuya going."

To ask why the number of participants expanded from two people to a group, we need to start from the beginning.

A week ago, Tomoaki Shinide left school early for something. On the day Hanano Chiheko left, everyone came to see her off.

"Hey, the Metropolitan Police Department's Security Division's Mobile Unit's □□ Processing Team?"

Hanano Chihoko felt strangely uneasy and said to Hagiwara Kenji and Matsuda Jinpei, "It's dangerous, isn't it? After all, your job involves dealing with bombs all day long."

Feeling Hanano Chiheko's obvious concern, Matsuda Jinpei felt a little awkward and said, "If you're really that worried, just be nicer to us. After all, no one knows what will happen in the future... Hmm..."

Kenji Hagiwara, holding Matsuda Jinpei's hand, smiled and said to Hanano Chihoko, "That's just how he is, Kazuko. But having said that, it's true that work will get busy, and the time we can spend together will shrink."

Hanano Chihoko listened, feeling a little sad for a moment. She turned to Furuya Rei and Morofushi Kagemitsu and said, "I don't know which classified unit you're going to, but it seems like you'll be busier than Hagiwara and Matsuda, right?"

Zhu Fushigi's gaze swept across the silent Furuya Rei, and finally landed on Hanano Chiheko. He spoke carefully:

"Don't worry, if there's a chance in the future, maybe we can get together again."

As soon as the words came out, everyone including Jinpei Matsuda and Kenji Hagiwara fell silent.

After all, everyone can feel the uncertainty in Zhu Fu Jingguang's words.

Furiya Rei looked around and said, "Don't be so pessimistic. At least before you report, we can still make plans to hang out together from time to time."

Furiya Rei's words reminded Hanano Chihoko.

Chihoko Hanano thought of something but didn't know how to start the conversation, so she could only turn her head and look eagerly at Rei Furuya, looking as expectant as she could be.

Fūya Ling couldn't bear it any longer and smiled helplessly: "Why don't we go to the fireworks display together in a couple of days!"

"So," Hanano Chiheko said to Shibata Shoichi across from her, "We agreed to go together."

Shibata Masakazu roughly understood and said, "Don't be too anxious. Even if you can't see it tomorrow, you can still do something else together in a couple of days. It's not like you have to report to the unit right after tomorrow."

"But... fireworks," Hanano Chiheko said with reluctance, "No one wants to miss such a wonderful experience with their friends."

Shibata Masakazu agreed with this point, "It's indeed quite romantic."

"Yeah, right!"

Although the thing that Hanano Chihoko was worried about was not resolved, she felt much better after talking to Shibata Masakazu.

When the two returned, it was already dark.

Shibata Masakazu saw that Hanano Chiheko always looked worried, so he bought some strawberry ice cream. "Here, one for each of us. When we're sad, just eat something sweet, and all that's left is happiness!"

Hanano Chiheko took the ice cream and sighed, "Putting aside other things, I think with your attitude towards life, you can definitely live to 90."

"Huh?" Shibata Masakazu complained, "Why not a hundred? My great-grandmother is over a hundred."

Hanano Chihoko marveled, "Then your chances of living to 100 are very high. After all, you have the longevity gene."

"Hehe, it's okay." Shibata Masakazu touched his head with a silly smile.

The "bang!" sound from the silencer, although not harsh, was enough to sound like thunder in Hanano Chihoko's mind.

"Boom boom..." Her heartbeat quickened, and Chihoko Hanano's pupils suddenly shrank. She watched the smile on Shibata Shoichi's face freeze.

"Zhengyi!"

The moment Hanano Chihoko shouted, Shibata Shoichi fell on top of her.

Shibata Shoichi, who had been speaking cheerfully, suddenly became hoarse and swallowed the blood that came up hard. "Run!"

The familiar smell of blood once again filled Hanano Chihoko's nose, and the wetness under her hands made Hanano Chihoko's brain buzz.

A strange breath was getting closer and closer, and Hanano Chiheko's heart skipped a beat. While steadying the falling Shibata Shoichi, she suddenly elbowed the pistol away.

“Snap!”

"Idiot!" Accompanied by a whispered curse, nearly ten black gun muzzles were aimed at the heads of Chihoko Hanano and Shoichi Shibata almost instantly.

Hanano Chiheko no longer struggled to hold on, but followed Shibata Masakazu's downward inertia, hugged Shibata Masakazu and knelt on the ground, looking at the black-clad man with sunglasses in the lead with red eyes, "I can go with you, but... let him go."

"Are you negotiating terms with us?"

The man in black was amused by Chihoko Hanano's words.

Hanano Chihoko pulled out a gun from somewhere and aimed it at her own solar plexus. "Otherwise, you'll be leaving with two corpses."

The man in black then realized that Chihoko Hanano was just delaying time to pick up the gun, and frowned.

Although Hanano Chiheko couldn't see his eyes, she could clearly feel his hesitation.

Chihoko Hanano calmed down.

The short man whose gun was knocked away by Hanano Chiheko was furious, "Boss, why don't you kill her? After all, there is less..."

"Shut up!"

As soon as the words came out, Hanano Chihoko could even feel the man in sunglasses deliberately lowering his voice.

He was afraid, even terrified of something...

"It's not good for anyone if things get out of hand." Hanano Chihoko advised gently, as if she was just giving advice to an ordinary patient.

"As long as you let him go, I will cooperate with you obediently, and I will never seek death again, so that you can complete your mission successfully."

Every minute and every second of the confrontation was unbearable.

Finally, the man in sunglasses said, "Okay."

When Hanano Chiheko heard this, a huge rock in her heart fell to the ground.

Just before being blindfolded, Chihoko Hanano took a deep look at Shoichi Shibata who was kneeling on the ground and unconscious.

The strawberry jam on the ice cream on the ground had melted a little and mixed with the blood next to Shibata Masakazu, forming a glaring bright red.

In the dark room, Chihoko Hanano's hands were tied to a chair behind her and a towel was stuffed in her mouth.

Time passed minute by minute, Chihoko Hanano's body was almost still, but the scene of Shibata Shoichi being shot kept replaying in her mind.

You won’t die. You won’t die.

I will definitely not die. I agreed... to live to be 100 years old.

Chihoko Hanano is like an old man with Alzheimer's disease. In order to prevent herself from forgetting, she repeats things that are very important to her over and over again.

Just as Hanano Chiheko was thinking, a headlight suddenly lit up in front of her. Even though her vision was blocked by a black cloth, Hanano Chiheko could still feel the extremely dazzling light, and... the scorching gaze that followed it.

【Author’s words】

The person is still there!

There will be another chapter tomorrow, Pen Core [Orange Heart]