Chapter 49: Rum, a 60-year-old man, struggles to protect his rights.
After listening to the entire thing through his headset, Shuichi Akai didn't hesitate and immediately got to work.
Even if he is an innocent passerby, it doesn't stop him from "doing evil" while wearing Ray's skin.
Thinking this, the long-haired man put his hands in his pockets and didn't bother to cover his footsteps.
He maneuvered around several tall wooden crates and, with the help of his sniper's excellent eyesight, finally found the old man Cameron had mentioned in an inconspicuous corner.
He was unremarkable, hunchbacked, and had a somewhat fierce look on his face.
Like any elderly person who has reached retirement age but still has to work to make a living.
Hearing footsteps, the old man raised his head, his fish-like eyes squinting as if he had just woken up. He saw the person approaching but did not make a sound.
As if waiting for Akai Shuichi to speak first.
Shuichi Akai pondered for a moment, then decided that he should still show his good manners as an English gentleman when facing older people.
He then removed his hat and bowed.
"You..." The old man looked at the perfect amount of doubt, just about to say something.
Before he could finish speaking, Hideki Akai swiftly crumpled the knitted hat in his hand into a ball and stuffed it into the old man's slightly open mouth.
"!!!"
The 60-year-old man's eyes widened.
You wouldn't know unless you got closer. The old man was mostly shrouded in shadow, looking thin and frail from a distance. But once he was fully exposed, you'd find that he was actually quite muscular and robust.
Because of the excessive white in his eyes and the small size of his pupils, when he stares upwards at Shuichi Akai, it looks like he is rolling his eyes.
She looked so angry she was about to collapse.
For safety reasons, Shuichi Akai took out his knitted hat temporarily.
Gaining a moment to catch his breath, the old man gasped, his eyes wide with fury: "Ray!"
"..."
Just one sentence was enough to quiet the air.
I never expected things to turn out this way.
Shuichi Akai paused for a moment, then slowly spoke, his tone tentative: "...Rum?"
"snort!"
To everyone's surprise, the old man actually responded, exhaling the breath he had just inhaled through his nose, and said angrily, "You—"
The conversation was interrupted for the second time.
The ace investigator remained calm and composed under pressure, swiftly stuffing his already soaking wet hat back into place.
He even twisted the other person's arms behind his back.
Oh wow...
I accidentally drew an SSR character.
Shuichi Akai was surprised but didn't show it on his face. He quickly made a gesture behind him.
Cameron, who had almost gotten into trouble, received the signal and, without hesitation, was the first to raise his gun and rush out.
The FBI and police followed closely behind.
If you look closely at this scene—
The old man was being strangled by a burly adult male, uttering futile whimpers. His cell phone, which had fallen out of his pocket, was kicked away by the man. He looked like a pitiful old man about to be killed because his family couldn't afford the ransom.
The group of people around looked like a special police force preparing to negotiate and rescue the hostages.
Shuichi Akai is that wicked and cruel kidnapper.
Cameron didn't even know whether he should put down the gun in his hand.
"..."
Things were going so fast that even after Rum was tied up and loaded into the car, they were still in a daze.
The old man in my hand is still puffing out his beard and glaring.
Even Kitagawa Ryusei repeatedly confirmed, unable to suppress his doubt: "...Are you sure this is the organization's second-in-command?"
This idiot looks like he's not a stand-in or something.
"..." Shuichi Akai didn't know either.
The investigator, who always appeared confident and in control regardless of his identity, wore an innocent expression for the first time.
The old man admitted it himself.
Clearly, Rum himself hadn't realized what was happening.
But that didn't stop him from quickly grasping the situation: "Waaaaah!"
Ray, you traitor!
Originally, since Gin wasn't coming, he hadn't planned to meet with this newcomer of the organization; he only wanted to probe from afar and gather some intelligence.
But I don't know what kind of weird path this guy took, he didn't play by the rules at all!
Despite Rum's venomous gaze, Shuichi Akai accepted it well.
"Then take him back for questioning."
Now that they had the person in their grasp, the rest could be investigated at their leisure. Kitagawa Ryusei was worried that things might go wrong if they took too long, so the only thing to do now was to take the person back to the police station immediately.
After saying that, he turned to ask, "Mr. Akai, are you also starting to prepare for your 'escape'?"
That's true, and he also knew that Kitagawa Ryusei wasn't gloating.
However, Shuichi Akai still clicked his tongue and pressed it against his cheek: "Don't forget what you promised me."
Kitagawa Ryusei smiled and said, "Of course."
...
Interrogation is a very demanding and energy-consuming process.
Especially if the criminal is clever enough, the police officers interrogating him will need to spend a lot of time and effort.
Interrogations can be conducted in shifts without rest; the progress of the interrogation must be monitored in real time.
This was also Kitagawa Ryusei's first major setback since changing jobs, and he personally experienced the constraints of being a police officer.
"Seriously, can't we just pour boiling water on him, dip a wire brush in salt, and try to brush back the memories he's lost because of Alzheimer's?!"
Kazami Yuya had just finished reporting to his boss and arrived with the phone in his hand when he heard this sentence.
The young policeman paused, leaned back, and slammed on the brakes, his leather shoes screeching on the tiled floor outside the interrogation room.
Kazami Yuya, who is always upright and old-fashioned: "..."
On the other end of the phone, Rei Furuya, who had been recalled by the BOSS after Rum went missing and was expected to be in the interrogation room soon: "..."
Did the police recruit a devil himself this year?
Shaking off the cold sweat, Kazami Yuya looked closely at the source of the voice and discovered that it was Kitagawa Ryusei who had spoken.
...He came from the Criminal Investigation Bureau, where torture and forced confessions were strictly prohibited.
Perhaps his gaze was too horrified and too penetrating, for Kitagawa Ryusei immediately noticed it.
The young man's sharp gaze told him what he was thinking, directly interrupting the policeman's mental incantation.
"What are you thinking? In the criminal cases we've encountered, the murderers are more eager to kneel down and confess than anyone else, so there's no need for interrogation methods at all."
It's not hard to see that Kitagawa Ryusei was furious with the old man in his sixties inside.
The surrounding teammates offered words of comfort, fanned him, and glared at Kazemi Yuuya...
It wasn't until Kazami Yuya read the interrogation records that he learned what had happened.
—When ordinary criminals enter the interrogation room, they either remain silent or spew out a string of lies.
Rum is the most unconventional of the latter.
He answers any question, pouring out his knowledge like beans, and everything he says is logical and well-founded.
In just half an hour, everyone he had been taken in and interrogated was now a "member of the organization." When facing Kitagawa Ryusei, they immediately addressed him as "Young Master."
In a few hours, he'll probably be sworn brothers with the Superintendent General of Police.
Faced with his colleague's gaze, which was not malicious but instantly filled with barely concealed surprise, the brown-haired youth's brow twitched, and he could only suppress his temper and interrogate him.
He then witnessed firsthand the organization's second-in-command's fairly effective counter-interrogation techniques as the head of the intelligence group, and how "good people" were unable to act when faced with principles.
Rum's eyes were sharp and mocking, every inch of his gaze conveying, "I know you have a lot of tricks up your sleeve, but so what?" and "You'd better not give me a chance to get out..."
Kitagawa Ryusei gritted his teeth, gave a cold laugh, and left.
And that's how the scene that Kazami Yuya just witnessed came about.
Kazami Yuya hadn't hung up the phone yet when Furuya Rei, with one hand on the steering wheel, listened to the report with a calm expression, showing no sign of the anxiety that he was about to face suspicion from the organization.
He said to his subordinate, "Kazemi, give the phone to Ryusei."
Almost simultaneously, Kitagawa Ryusei reached out to Kazami Yuya, his tone as if he had just finished a marathon after fooling around until 3 a.m. and was about to get some rest when he was dragged to swim in Tokyo Bay: "Give it to me, Kazami-kun."
The two people on both ends of the phone were in perfect sync, which made Kazami Yuya look down at his phone in confusion, thinking that he had carelessly forgotten to turn off the speakerphone again.
He handed the phone to Kitagawa Ryusei and pushed open the door to the interrogation room.
The special search team members nearby exchanged glances but remained silent.
Although they had some personal grudges with Group Zero, they had to admit that the police, who could openly and legitimately "use their methods," were incredibly useful at this time.
The group, who coveted the privileges but didn't want to switch jobs, winked at Kitagawa Ryusei: ...How about we urge our boss to oust Zero Group?
*
At almost the same time, at the small restaurant at the Nagano Prefectural Police Headquarters.
The police officers, who had just solved a case, finally had some free time and sat down together to eat at a restaurant.
Taking advantage of the fact that they had a day off tomorrow, a group of people started drinking contests, and soon the table was piled high with empty beer bottles.
"Where are the various... various vassals?"
The policeman who spoke had a mole on the corner of his mouth. He was a little tipsy and had unbuttoned the collar of his suit jacket. After looking around and not finding the person he was looking for, he put his arm around his colleague next to him and said in a thick lisp, "He's the hero who solved this case!"
"Going out for some fresh air, huh..." The policeman he was carrying had a much higher alcohol tolerance. Seeing his colleague's outburst, he asked in confusion, "Beer isn't that strong, how come you got drunk so quickly today?"
"Hey! I'm so happy! My sister called the other day; she's doing really well at university in Tokyo!"
The police officer with the mole nearly hit his colleague in the face with a swipe of his hand: "You don't have a sister, do you? Hahaha... Hiccup! Wait, I don't think Inspector Morofushi has any younger brothers or sisters either..."
His colleague, both amused and exasperated, nimbly dodged the slap that was about to land in front of him, walked around a pile of bottles and jars, found a peanut on the table to eat with his drinks, and popped it into his mouth: "You've guessed wrong. Brother Gao Ming has a younger brother, and he used to talk about him to us a few years ago."
"Morofushi...Kagemitsu, right!"
An unassuming young policeman spoke up: "He and I were classmates in police academy back in the day."
The policeman with the mole on his face froze, but the young policeman had just casually mentioned it, laughing it off and continuing to eat and drink with the people around him.
By the end of the drinking session, everyone's seats had changed several times.
The young policeman's peers sitting next to him went to play rock-paper-scissors, leaving him sandwiched between his seniors, who then forced him to drink several cups of alcohol.
The policewoman with the mole sat down next to him at some point: "Back in the day, Inspector Morofushi was the top officer in the Department of Political Science and Law at Tokyo University. His younger brother must have been amazing too, probably the top officer in his class... Where is he a policeman now?"
The young policeman was completely disoriented, as if something had made him subconsciously shut up. But he couldn't refuse to answer his senior's questions, so he tried hard to recall the things that had left a deep impression on him during his time at the police academy.
He mumbled incoherently, "No, not number one, number one is his friends...that group of people, they clean the toilets every day! Hey, they're gleaming!"
The matchmaker with the mole policeman: "..."
He suppressed the urge to roll his eyes and spoke more clearly: "Um... there's someone even more powerful than him? Are they on good terms? I've never heard Inspector Zhu Fu mention him."
Yes, yes.
Following his senior's words, the young policeman recalled an absolutely dazzling figure from his police academy days, and suddenly felt that the professional air he had just acquired had faded.
Who didn't have an idol during their passionate youth?
However, he couldn't quite get the words out: "...Zero, that guy's name is—"
The sound of the door to the private room opening interrupted the conversation.
A tall man with a mustache walked in.
He was wearing a blue suit, his hairstyle was formal, and his expression was cold and serious, which was out of place with the overall atmosphere of the noisy private room, but it was enough to attract attention.
It's Morofushi Takaaki, the detective who just led everyone to solve the case; he's a mentally sharp detective.
As the man passed the policeman with the mole on his face, he paused, his upturned blue eyes looking over: "Fukushima-kun, what's on your fingernails?"
Upon hearing this, Fukushima was taken aback. Because he was drunk, he subconsciously squinted and looked down, and saw the color remaining between his fingers.
He shook his head, trying to sober up, and wiped his hands on his pants, muttering, "Oh, that's some dirt I got there..."
As he was talking, his phone vibrated in his pocket. He took it out, glanced at it, and then put it back in.
Fukushima wiped his face: "I'm going out to wash up."
After saying that, he staggered to his feet, supported by the young policeman next to him, and brushed past Morofushi Komei.
The blue-eyed, mustachioed policeman didn't stop him. He watched him leave, closed the door to the private room, and said calmly:
“He is outwardly fierce but inwardly cowardly; he is nothing more than a burglar who breaks into houses.”①
As Morofushi Takamine's partner, Yamato Kansuke was already used to him occasionally spouting classical Chinese, and asked, puzzled, "What's wrong?"
Suddenly staring at a colleague's hands?
“It’s nothing,” Morofushi Takaaki said without explanation, picking up his coat from the hanger. “Let’s go find Fukushima together.”
"Don't let him oversleep in any of the storerooms."
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