Chapter 23, Chapter 22: The Countdown to Restart: The Star Brand...

Star brand:

The calm and hope after life's storm

Destruction before construction

Matsuda Jinpei felt the busy signal in his ears suddenly stop abruptly, followed by a flood of jumbled information that rushed into his senses, but he seemed unable to comprehend what was happening around him.

What's that in the sky? Why are the crowd screaming? Why did the phone suddenly lose signal?

Where's Hagi? Oh right, Hagi's in the tower.

The black-haired police officer subconsciously took a step toward the entrance of Qingchuan Tower, but someone grabbed his shoulder, which he forcefully swung his arm away, only to be met with an even stronger, iron-like grip.

"...Matsuda?...Matsuda! Calm down!"

Who is speaking?

The voice sounded somewhat familiar, but it didn't matter anymore. Matsuda Jinpei brushed aside this irrelevant information, his mind blank as he desperately wanted to eliminate everything that might prevent him from entering the tower.

The usually lazy police officer was now as agile as a cheetah. With a sidestep, he grabbed the arm that was holding his shoulder with both hands, smoothly lunged forward, and with a burst of strength, threw the burly man onto the ground in front of him with a back throw.

The surrounding noise grew louder. He heard people calling his name and his superiors, but more people were frantically shouting "Hagiwara," "explosion," and "countdown." Further away, a loudspeaker was broadcasting instructions for the evacuation of the crowd.

Yes, he's going to find Hagi.

A powerful back throw by an adult male is enough to knock someone down for a while. Matsuda Jinpei stepped over the man on the ground and followed the fully armed rescue police officers who rushed into the Harukawa Tower. He took off his sunglasses and was about to enter the tower.

But the man on the ground wasn't easily disarmed by the attack. Instead, he quickly got up, grabbed Matsuda Jinpei from behind, and yelled in his ear, "Wake up, Matsuda Jinpei! You're useless without equipment!"

"That's the 25th floor!"

Ida Hang tightly restrained Tong, who was about to rush into Qingchuan Tower as if he had lost his soul. He felt a sharp pain in his back as he was thrown onto the concrete ground, but he did not dare to relax his grip on his subordinates in the slightest. He simply increased the force to stop his actions.

"The elevator is out of service. You can't do anything if you go up now." The squad leader, who was the strongest in the group of five, gritted his teeth, and the words he forced out were filled with bitterness, but he had no choice but to say them.

Because there was really no time, they sent Matsuda Jinpei up without bringing anything, and at most they could replace him with a fellow patient who was hospitalized due to excessive inhalation of toxic fumes.

"The rescue team will bring them all down safely!"

The edge of the mushroom cloud from the bomb exploded fell from the sky like a streak of fire. Ida Kou told a lie that no one present thought was impossible, and felt the body under his arm gradually relax.

Matsuda Jinpei calmed down.

Date Kou let out a sigh of relief and put the person down.

The police officer, who had always inspired his friends to strive forward during his time at the police academy, walked up to his classmate and reached out to firmly grasp the shoulders of Matsuda Jinpei, whose head was hanging low. He couldn't say anything more from his mouth, which had been busy talking.

Matsuda Jinpei gripped his phone tightly; the call screen was now off, but his connection to the world had just been fully reactivated.

The sky was filled with fireworks from a bomb explosion, and inside the black smoke was a five-person bomb disposal team, whose fate was unknown, including Kenji Hagiwara, who was in charge of defusing the bomb.

The crowd evacuated to the plaza outside the tower witnessed the bomb explosion, and so did he, except he didn't scream...

As for the missing phone number, it's no longer important.

"Give me a gas mask..." Matsuda Jinpei brushed away Date Wataru's hand from his shoulder and ordered in a hoarse voice to the bomb disposal team officers who were surrounding him with tense expressions, "Hurry up!"

Date Wataru shook his head at the crowd who were trying to stop him—since Matsuda Jinpei already knew what he was doing, he trusted that his fellow soldiers would bring him down safely.

With his mind completely calm, Matsuda Jinpei took the gas mask handed to him by someone and roughly put it on before rushing into the tower.

Suddenly, a loud voice rang out from the crowd, shouting, "Look! Someone has fallen from the tower!"

Date Wataru and Matsuda Jinpei both looked at the black mushroom cloud that was gradually descending.

Two figures emerged from the black smoke.

Matsuda Jinpei's pupils dilated for a moment as he pulled off his gas mask to try and see who it was, but the dazzling sunlight shining on the glass caused a glaring reflection that burned his retina with a bluish-black hue.

He could only vaguely tell from their shapes that there were two people, one big and one small, both falling silently without any struggle.

Where did this child come from?

It is Zhuge Tongzhi!

Conan adjusted the knob on the right frame of his camera, zooming in to focus on the child falling backward. The girl's short hair only covered half of her face, and her short-sleeved shirt and shorts were billowing in the wind.

Her right hand was slowly and naturally sliding out of her pocket, while her left hand was being pulled upwards by a rope that gleamed with metallic reflection. The other end of the rope was tied to another half-length-haired police officer who was falling down. The two unconscious people were being pulled closer together in mid-air.

What to do, what to do, what to do?

Should he use the inflatable soccer ball? Conan pressed the button on his belt, and the soccer ball that popped out landed. He deftly stepped on it and positioned it correctly, but after quickly scanning the chaotic surroundings, his throat tightened.

Below the towering Qingchuan Tower lies a flat plaza. A few large sculptures stand a little further away, perhaps capable of stopping the football, but the two falling players are unconscious and unable to control their landing point!

The height of a 7-story building is about 20 meters, while each floor of the Qingchuan Tower is slightly taller. However, the height of the 25th floor from the ground is less than 100 meters, and under the influence of gravity, these times can be considered to pass in the blink of an eye.

Conan's palms grew cold. Just then, Ai Haibara, who had been staring at the sky, suddenly patted him and said coldly, "Kudo, kick the soccer ball over there!"

"Kaito Kid has deployed his parachute, but there's not enough time or distance!" A white streak, emerging from the mushroom cloud and chasing after Zhuge Tongzhi, was reflected in Ai Haibara's icy blue eyes.

"They need a buffer."

…

Kaito Kuroba covered his mouth and nose, maneuvering the hang glider on his back into the billowing black smoke, skillfully avoiding the burning building debris in mid-air. The moment he broke through the mushroom cloud, he saw the two falling figures.

Zhuge Tongzhi kept her eyes closed, her right hand holding a small, plain white package. Unaware of her surroundings, her loose fingers quickly released the package.

As he expected, the young lady picked up the equipment he had left behind. Kaito Kuroba breathed a slight sigh of relief, but his nerves remained taut. He controlled his hang glider to retrieve the compressed parachute package.

With a few presses, as the white fabric burst open, he placed the parachute on Kenji Hagiwara, who had already been pulled to Zhuge Tongzhi's side, and moved aside to make way for the parachute, which was suddenly filled with air in the gale.

As Hagiwara Kenji plummeted rapidly, the parachute billowing in the wind suddenly slowed him down. The attached grappling hook caught on the other end of Zhuge Tongzhi, tightly wedging itself into the left arm wrapped in rope. An ominous click came from where the arm and shoulder were connected.

The girl's eyebrows twitched, but she did not wake up.

But this was unavoidable. If Kaito Kuroba had attached the parachute to the girl, he couldn't be sure if a primary school student's arm could have held onto an adult falling at high speed.

The two were so closely connected that he didn't have time to separate them in the short time it took.

Moreover, that's not the point. Kaito Kid's hang glider was designed with his own weight as a reference, for the purpose of being lightweight and agile. Adding Conan's weight to his own weight would reach the limit.

"We're still falling too fast," Kaito Kuroba said, grabbing onto Kirito and working with the slowing parachute to try and change their direction.

"Kid! Come this way!"

A loud child's voice came from the ground that was getting closer and closer. The Junior Detective League waved their arms on the ground and shouted loudly, almost screaming, while Kaito Kid pointed to the group of sculptures below and to the side.

A huge, ever-expanding balloon is stuck between several sculptures, its black and white fabric reaching towards the sky. Conan stands beside a soccer ball, waving vigorously at it.

"here---!"

"Ha, what a perfect teamwork between a phantom thief and a detective!" Kaito Kuroba grinned and laughed heartily, pulling the two of them towards the surface of the giant spherical balloon that wasn't far away.

With two muffled thuds, Kaito Kid's white glider skimmed past the surface of the soccer ball. Conan, standing in the triangular shadow, looked up and met the gaze of the magician boy wearing a monocle, a smile playing on his lips.

Well, the magic show is over, but there's no time for a proper farewell!

Kaito Kuroba flew away before the police could surround him, his white figure quickly disappearing between the buildings.

However, no one chased after him; everyone's attention was focused on the white parachute slowly drooping on the football.

Conan pressed the deflation switch. After nearly injuring his own people during the road chase, he and Dr. Agasa optimized the function to stop the inflation. However, he never expected that the first use after the research and development would be on Kenji Hagiwara.

With a series of popping sounds, a figure darted past Conan, startling the boy who had been waiting quietly.

Looking up, Matsuda Jinpei, wearing a blue uniform, stepped onto the sculpture platform, and in the instant he jumped, he stretched out his long arms, grabbed the edge of the sculpture with his five fingers, and in a few seconds, he sent himself to the top of the slowly deflated soccer ball.

"Hagi!"

Ah, Officer Matsuda and Officer Hagiwara are childhood friends who grew up together.

But that explosive power is truly terrifying. Conan looked at the sculpture in front of him, which had practically no foothold, with half-moon eyes, but then looked at the soccer ball slowly approaching the ground with worry.

Two figures, oblivious to everything, lay on the black and white checkered fabric. Matsuda Jinpei knelt beside him, one hand trembling as he reached out and pressed it against the side of his childhood friend's neck, while the other hand tightly gripped Hagiwara Kenji's hand.

Conan took a step forward, and Ran Mouri and the Detective Boys rushed past him and surrounded Zhuge Tongzhi. Professor Agasa broke through the police's blockade a step later and jogged over, wiping his sweat.

Ran Mouri also reached out and pressed on the carotid artery on Zhuge Tongzhi's neck. After feeling the strong pulse of the child under her hand, she and Jinpei Matsuda both let out a long breath.

They are all alive.

…

A row of stretchers was carried out from the main gate of Qingchuan Tower. The rescue team that had bravely rushed up to the 25th floor returned. Everyone who had searched the entire 25th floor had a face covered in soot, which made their big white teeth stand out even more.

With slightly comical attire, they declared with high spirits, "We're all alive!"

Although the team members on the stretcher looked disheveled, they were all still conscious. The gunpowder and black smoke that inevitably rushed into their throats made them cough after saying a few words, but everyone tried their best to gesture the same meaning.

"Alright! Stop talking and get in the ambulance!" Officer Takahashi, who had just arrived from the sculpture group, waved his hand as he rushed to the scene.

The middle-aged man, whose emotions were fluctuating wildly, coughed at the increasingly anxious team members and said, "Hagiwara is in the hospital. Aren't you looking for him?"

The group coughed excitedly as they were shoved into the ambulance. The police officers from the First Investigation Division who remained at the scene watched the ambulance drive away with its siren blaring, cutting through the crowd. Ida Wataru turned his gaze back to the microphone in front of him.

"Yes, we will definitely arrest the bomber and bring him to justice. Please trust us, citizens!" the man said firmly into the microphone of the television reporter. He then bowed deeply and turned to step into the Qingchuan Tower with his colleagues.

They're going to retrieve today's surveillance footage and search high and low to find the culprit.

"As of 5:49 PM Tokyo time, the investigation into the Harukawa Tower bombing has begun." The television reporter turned around, holding a microphone in his hand, and reported to the camera.

"This was a very heinous case of police retaliation, but fortunately, with the help of Phantom Thief Kid and the cooperation of the people at the scene, no one was killed."

"Currently, all the injured have been taken to the hospital. The next step of the investigation will be..."

Inside the Poirot Café, Amuro Tooru slowly stopped wiping the glass.

"Miss Zi, I have something urgent to attend to..."

Having just returned to the safe house, Morofushi Kagemitsu put down the bass case on his back, and the cell phone in his pocket, symbolizing Midorikawa Hikaru's identity, rang.

"Yes, that's me. What?... Okay, I'll be right there."

…

Beika Town Central Hospital

Officer Takahashi and Ran Mouri stood by the hospital bed, listening to the doctor speak.

Matsuda Jinpei sat sideways beside Hagiwara Kenji's hospital bed, his hand trembling as he held his childhood friend's. Hagiwara Kenji's parents and older sister were also around the bed. Hagiwara Chisato, with her long light brown hair and dashing demeanor, was gently comforting her tearful mother.

Conan withdrew his gaze and looked at Zhuge Tongzhi, who was lying alone on the bed. The girl's chest rose and fell steadily, and her eyes, which were usually lively and spirited, were now quiet and peaceful after falling asleep.

It could even be said to carry an air of aloofness and coldness.

Various thoughts raced through Conan's mind, and finally his gaze settled on a white dove perched outside the window. A hand reached out from under the third-floor window and waved at him.

The black-haired, blue-eyed boy twitched his lips. Seeing Ran Mouri approaching, he jumped off the chair and walked towards the balcony on this floor.

He also happened to have many questions to ask.

…

On the hospital bed, a blue and white navigation prompt box floated in the void in front of Zhuge Tongzhi.

"Current path: Restart countdown and dazzling magic show (50%)"

"Please note that the second half of the route will be delayed due to road construction ahead."

The sky outside the window was cloudless, and the blazing sun shone exceptionally brightly.

With no response, O continued to update a notification on its own.

"Completed my life wish list: Save someone I care about."

Final destination: 'Returning alive to my parents' side.'

"Route planning has been generated: 16.52%"

Having weathered life's storms and the mudslide of life and death, the two sleeping peacefully are completely unaware of their surroundings.

Someone patted her head, and Zhuge Tongzhi's eyes rolled. In the end, she just unconsciously buried herself deeper into the blanket.

In the gentle breeze, a delicate fragrance of white roses reached my nose.

-----------------------

Author's note: Because I saved Hagiwara, I bought myself a Hagi figure as a reward.

Is this what it means to not have made any money but have already started spending in advance?

(sad

But I think Hagi is really kawaii.

…

As for the extra chapter... (feeling guilty and looking away).

It's not that they can't do it (hands emoji).

I just wanted to save it up and write it all at once after it became a paid subscription to share with everyone (naive and innocent).

But! Thank you so much for the tossing, watering, and comments!

Hart is soft OuO

…

In short, Hagi's bento-kicking operation was a huge success!!!

(Sprinkle flowers!)