Chapter 47: Ten Playthroughs of Saving (18)
[Okabe Rintaro: Everyone! I've discovered a conspiracy by a dark organization that's secretly manipulating the entire world!!!]
[Okabe Rintaro: No, no, no, I'm not joking this time, I'm not acting like a chuunibyou, I'm serious!]
[Rintaro Okabe: Does your world have an organization called SERN? SERN is short for the European Organization for Nuclear Research, the world's largest particle physics laboratory and the birthplace of the global information network.]*
[Okabe Rintaro: What? CERN? The abbreviation is different, but it's definitely the same organization. I didn't expect such an organization to exist in your world. You'd better watch out!]
[Okabe Rintaro: Let me start from the beginning. There's a guy online who claims to be a time traveler from the future, calling himself John Tito. He says SERN has created miniature black holes and will soon invent a time machine to rule the world. He claims he traveled from the future to stop SERN's plot, and he's exposing it online to find allies to fight SERN, because his strength alone is too small, and nobody believes him.]
[Rintaro Okabe: Before I changed the world line with that email, John Tito was a time traveler who appeared ten years in the past. His theories about the future caused a great sensation, and I collected and organized all of them. But all of those theories disappeared in the present after the world line was changed, and then John Tito himself appeared in my current timeline network, although now almost no one believes him.]
[Okabe Rintaro: Of course, I didn't completely trust him either, so I sent our research institute's top hacker to infiltrate SERN and see their current research data and files.]
[Rintaro Okabe: Now for the important part: John Titor was right, SERN really has created miniature black holes and is developing a time machine.]
[Rintaro Okabe: They have conducted 14 human experiments in recent years, all of which failed, and all the subjects died.]
[Okabe Rintaro: Those documents were called the "Jelly Man Project." Although they all successfully traveled through time and were sent to the past, only their corpses arrived—corpses that looked like sticky, melted green jelly.]
[Rintaro Okabe: After confirming that what John Titto said was true, I contacted him online.]
[Okabe Rintaro: He said he had never been to ten years ago, and the one I saw must be him from another timeline. He said I might be able to develop a real time machine before SERN, and that he had never seen anyone like me who could remember things that happened before the timeline changed; it was incredible.]
[Okabe Rintaro: He said that only I can stop SERN's plot now.]
[Okabe Rintaro: He said, "I will be the only savior."]
*
November 7th.
7:05 a.m.
"Tsk, is it the beginning of winter today?" Matsuda Jinpei couldn't help but tighten the collar of his uniform as soon as he stepped outside. "It's a bit cold."
"Yes, today is the Beginning of Winter, it'll probably snow soon~" Kenji Hagiwara hummed a song, his eyes still fixed on his phone screen.
Matsuda Jinpei turned to look at him, his deadpan expression betraying his disbelief: "Chatting with that guy again? He messaged you so early today? Is it about bomb disposal again? What's he up to?"
"Haha, maybe it's because I said something like 'keep in touch or I'll be very sad' before I left." Kenji Hagiwara laughed instantly. "Plus, our work is indeed very dangerous, so it's not surprising that someone with his overly serious personality would worry about us like this."
"But we've encountered far too many bombs lately. Dangerous bombs appear almost every day. Has our country now equipped everyone with a bomb disposal kit? It feels like there are bombs everywhere, and all sorts of them. It's like we were promoted to captains in just one month... Ah, come to think of it, this is a bit outrageous. No wonder everyone is so worried." After reporting that he was safe, Kenji Hagiwara put away his phone and walked towards the Metropolitan Police Department with Jinpei Matsuda to prepare for work.
"Don't worry about it. We can easily defuse any kind of bomb." Matsuda Jinpei snorted and put on the sunglasses hanging on his chest. "As for them, we have absolutely no news of them, and we don't know what dangerous things they are doing."
"Is Jinpei in a bad mood today?" Kenji Hagiwara tilted his head.
"I don't know, I'm just inexplicably irritable." Matsuda Jinpei rubbed his hair to make it messy, but he couldn't calm his inner unease no matter what he did. He was so agitated that he wanted to find someone to fight.
Unfortunately, the blond bastard who could fight him disappeared without a trace after graduation. Although he always inquired about their situation, he refused to reveal anything about himself.
And Master Jing, those two guys are definitely doing something extremely dangerous... Ah, thinking about this makes me even angrier.
"By the way, Jinpei's birthday is coming up soon, isn't it?" Kenji Hagiwara said with a smile, leaning on his shoulder. "What does Jinpei want for his birthday this year?"
"Whatever," Matsuda Jinpei replied casually.
He'd already celebrated his birthday with Kenji Hagiwara for so many years, he really couldn't think of anything new to offer, so whatever she gave him was the same to him anyway.
"How can we just do this casually? Alright, alright, then Jinpei, just wait for the surprise from Hagi-chan on November 22nd!" Kenji Hagiwara said loudly with a smile, "Then let's take the class president out for a good meal after work to celebrate. It would be great if we could invite those two guys too."
"It's only been a month since I graduated, but it feels like so long. I really want to get together with everyone." Kenji Hagiwara suddenly sighed. "I miss the days we spent together at the police academy."
“There will be opportunities,” Matsuda Jinpei said, a smile playing on his lips as he recalled his time at the police academy.
*
10:08 AM.
Explosives Disposal Unit, First Security Division, Security Department, Metropolitan Police Department.
Matsuda Jinpei was focused on disassembling the bomb model on the table when a phone call shattered the office's silence.
"A bomb has been found in Kamiya Town!"
"Everyone will be divided into two teams, led by Matsuda and Hagiwara respectively, and will immediately proceed to the two incident locations!"
"Matsuda went to the front line, Suwa Highlands."
"Hagiwara is going to the second site, the Asai villa."
Asai Villa?
Matsuda Jinpei's heart skipped a beat. The sudden palpitation made him respond only after his senior patted him on the shoulder, and he quickly set off with the team.
Why does this name give him a very uncomfortable sense of familiarity?
However, he was certain that he had no relevant memories.
And why did he immediately look at Hagi?
Matsuda Jinpei didn't have much time left; he could only punch the guy on the shoulder before Hagiwara Kenji got on the bus.
"Hey! Hagiwara, if you dare not wear a blast suit, I'll knock all your teeth out!" he said viciously.
*
10:30 a.m.
Matsuda Jinpei cut the last thread and finally let out a long sigh of relief.
Immediately, teammates offered to help him remove the heavy and complicated bomb suit, but Matsuda Jinpei refused.
He was really worried about Hagi, so he planned to get in the car first and head to the second scene, taking off his bomb suit slowly on the way.
The liaison officer was constantly reporting on their situation, and Matsuda Jinpei listened intently into his earpiece with a serious expression.
"Explosives at the initial scene have been neutralized! We are currently escorting Captain Matsuda to the second scene!"
"At 10:35 AM, traffic control at Suwa Highlands, the first scene of the outbreak, has been lifted!"
"Furthermore, traffic control remains in place at the second crime scene, the Asai Villa District plaza. As for areas outside the traffic control zone, suspicious individuals and vehicles have been questioned. This report is complete!"
*
10:36 AM.
"How is it?" Date Kou asked seriously.
"No, the bomb at the first scene was relatively simple and has already been defused, but the bomb at the second scene is too complex to be defused in a short time."
The police officers around were very nervous. It was rare to encounter such a serious bombing incident that threatened two large residential buildings in the city center at once. Moreover, the perpetrator was demanding a ransom of 1 billion from the police, making the situation even more difficult.
"Moreover, the prisoner has discovered that we have defused one of the bombs and angrily said to give us three more minutes. If we don't give him one billion in three minutes, he will detonate the bomb at the second scene. If anyone leaves the apartment building, he will also detonate the bomb immediately."
Date clenched his fist.
The second scene, I think, is the place that Hagiwara was in charge of.
“Inspector!” Date Wataru turned to look at his superior seriously. “Agree to the criminal’s request. Keep them calm and prevent them from detonating the bomb. Once everyone is safe, we’ll figure out a way to pursue them.”
"I will definitely catch the criminal!" he said firmly in a deep voice.
*
10:40 AM.
"Report to Captain Hagiwara! The culprit has received the 1 billion yen and agreed to stop the bomb countdown. We are now evacuating the building's residents, which should take about 20 minutes!"
Good news came through the earpiece, and Kenji Hagiwara, who was squatting in front of the bomb, breathed a sigh of relief: "It seems that the squad leader has dealt with the criminal. Then we can rest for a while and start dismantling it after all the residents in the building have evacuated. This bomb has so many traps. We need to study it carefully for a while. It might explode if we're not careful, hahaha."
He felt like he was going to die after being suffocated in the bomb suit for half an hour. He was sweating profusely, and his slightly long hair was soaked and stuck to his neck. He felt so uncomfortable that he was about to explode before the bomb itself.
There's still so much time left, why don't you take off the bomb suit? If you stay suffocated for another half hour, you'll really die.
Kenji Hagiwara turned to look at his teammates behind him, but the words he was about to say suddenly caught in his throat.
He suddenly remembered Kofuya, who had repeated to him countless times in the past month that he needed to wear a bomb suit, and Kojinpei, who had just punched him with that look in his eyes and told him to wear a protective suit.
The young man, wearing a huge and bulky 40-kilogram sealed bomb suit, sat on the floor, leaned against the wall, and sighed helplessly.
Sigh, whatever, I'll just have to bear with it.
*
11:01 AM.
Matsuda Jinpei finally arrived at the second scene, only to find that the area around the Asai villa was cordoned off, and even the police could not get close to the building.
Even the Metropolitan Police Department helicopters circling the building were slowly moving away.
Matsuda Jinpei: "?"
*
11:03 AM.
After all the residents had been evacuated, Kenji Hagiwara, who had resumed bomb disposal, had his headset wires hogged by Jinpei Matsuda's loud voice.
"I'm wearing it! I'm wearing it!" Kenji Hagiwara shouted back, drenched in sweat. "I'm wearing the bomb suit properly! Okay, okay, I know you can take down this bomb in three minutes, but I need a little more time! This bomb is indeed a bit troublesome. It seems this is the prisoner's main target..."
*
11:04 AM.
After carefully observing the phone booth on the street from the corner, Ida Hang quietly used the radio to notify his other police colleagues to prepare.
Then, he pretended to be a passerby and walked past on the side of the street.
As they passed the phone booth, the tall, buzz-cut man suddenly grabbed the criminal who was about to panic and run into the road, dragged him back, and immediately pinned him to the ground, rendering him completely immobile.
*
11:06 AM.
Ida Wataru noticed something was wrong from the prisoner's reaction and gaze. After a few seconds of hesitation, he suddenly looked up at the street corner across the street.
He saw a car parked on the opposite side of the road suddenly shake violently, and then a man tumbled out of it in a disheveled state, with ropes tied around his body and a huge note on his head that read "This is a bomber."
Following closely behind was a black-haired man wearing a blue hoodie. As he jumped down, the wind slightly lifted the brim of his hood, revealing his signature blue, upturned cat-eye eyes.
He glanced at the front of the court, then pulled down his hat brim and quickly disappeared.
Date Wataru: "??"
*
11:07 AM.
The bomb display screen in front of Kenji Hagiwara, which had been off, suddenly lit up.
【00:06】
Kenji Hagiwara suddenly turned around and shouted, "Oh no! The timer has restarted! Everyone, run!!!"
【00:05】
While everyone else was running desperately to get away, Kenji Hagiwara picked up the bomb and started running in the opposite direction.
But! He couldn't run at all while wearing a bomb suit!
【00:04】
No, it's too late, no matter which method you use.
Kenji Hagiwara gritted his teeth, then threw himself to the ground, carefully clutching the bomb to his chest, trying to use himself and his bomb suit as a barrier to reduce the impact on others.
【00:03】
Suddenly, he was abruptly thrown up, and the bomb in his arms was snatched away.
Kenji Hagiwara froze—wait! He's wearing a 40-kilogram heavy protective suit! And there's a bomb! Who is it?!
【00:02】
Kenji Hagiwara saw a familiar, dazzling golden hair flash before his eyes.
Then, he saw the blond youth who had disappeared for a month, dressed in black and wearing a black hat, with bulging veins on his arms, suddenly throw the bomb in his hand.
【00:01】
The enormous bomb flew through the air, its immense force carrying it smoothly and precisely through the window, soaring into the distant sky.
【00:00】
"boom--"
The bomb exploded in the air outside the building, the huge shockwave shattering the glass instantly, and a hurricane swept up debris, making everyone unable to open their eyes.
Aside from Kenji Hagiwara, who was wearing a bomb suit.
He saw the blond youth glare at him fiercely with purple eyes beneath his hat brim, before disappearing quickly in the chaos.
Hagiwara Kenji: "???"
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