Chapter 59 The Secret: You Ask, I Answer.
Upon seeing Kitagawa Ryusei walking towards them, Furuya Rei's first reaction was to crouch down, covering his head, and avoid the window.
The police officer was quick and agile; in the blink of an eye, he had squatted down like a mushroom on the ground.
"Mr. Fangtani?"
The team member in the headset was writing down half of the command when he suddenly stopped hearing it, which puzzled him.
Fortunately, those few shouts brought reason back to his mind, and Furuya Rei finally remembered that the command vehicle was equipped with one-way glass.
He buried his face in his hands, took a deep breath, stood up, and sat back down.
The windows and the car body are very well soundproofed, making the outside scene appear like a silent play.
He saw Kitagawa Ryusei hand a child over to a policeman, then look around as if searching for something.
"I'm fine."
Even though he knew the other person couldn't see him, Furuya Rei still subconsciously avoided their searching gaze and turned his attention back to the scene at hand: "Go check the hotel parking lot entry and exit records, and pay attention to Pisco's location when you're looking for him."
"Okay, okay..." The police officer paused for a moment, seemingly talking to someone else, before saying, "Um, Mr. Furuya, Inspector Kitagawa from the Criminal Investigation Bureau would like to borrow my headset."
"..."
Rei Furuya remained expressionless: "...Give it to him then."
Upon receiving the reply, the young policeman readily provided his communication device, and then some rustling sounds came through the channel.
These voices were quickly silenced by a calm and steady young man's voice.
When Furuya Rei heard his voice, he pictured the expression on the man's face as he spoke.
"There are eyewitnesses who say they saw someone resembling Pisco in the hotel's wine cellar, which is the place where the fire started."
"The other party may have been silenced by members of the Black Organization. Be careful to keep an eye out for their whereabouts when you are looking for them."
The young man's voice was calm and unhurried, possessing a convincing charm as he methodically analyzed the situation: "Vermouth went to the banquet in her agent's car, and she currently has no transportation, making it difficult for her to travel with an adult male for an extended period of time."
"She didn't have much contact with Kazami-kun, and she doesn't need a hostage, so the probability of her kidnapping a police officer at this time is low. We can try to check the nearby rooms along the corridor where Kazami-kun went missing, including the food cart and the cabinets."
After saying this, the young man did not wait for a response and casually handed the combat headset back to the policeman in front of him.
His last words were:
“Commander, I think you need to calm down right now.”
Whether it was at the hot pot restaurant a few days ago or now directing the site, Furuya Rei's behavior is completely different from usual, and the abnormality is too obvious.
It was as if he had suddenly been stimulated by something.
Kitagawa Ryusei thought that so many days had passed, and no matter what had happened, he should be able to regain some of his rationality.
The Zero team members, who had been stopped by Kitagawa Ryusei, looked terrified. They hurriedly took the headset and watched the young man walk away with expressions of admiration for a dragon slayer.
He then closed his eyes tightly, his hands trembling as he put the headphones back on his ears, ready to face Mr. Furuya's storm on the channel.
However, it didn't happen.
The headphones were completely silent.
Since most of the participants in the operation were members of Team Zero, they all stopped what they were doing and waited for their team leader to speak.
But that didn't stop them from internally cheering for the neighboring police inspector they had dealt with a few times.
This is the first time someone has dared to challenge the authority of the Zero Group leader!
It was still under Mr. Furuya's command!
Will a fight break out? Will it?
Unfortunately, the much-anticipated showdown between the two inspectors did not take place.
Rei Furuya remained silent for a moment, then quickly issued another order, his voice devoid of any anger:
"Do as he says."
But then there was silence.
Inside the command vehicle.
The cell phone on the table was buzzing, with messages sent to Amuro Tooru and text messages from the organization, but he didn't want to care about any of them right now.
New messages kept coming in.
"We've found Kazami-kun! Medical staff, bring the stretcher quickly!"
"Mr. Furuya, the fire in the wine cellar has been brought under control."
"Report: Pisk's body has been found."
"...The special search team has already made contact with the collaborators."
The situation suddenly changed, and a clear path was cleaved open like a hot knife through butter.
Aside from finding Gin and Vermouth, everything else is going in a positive direction.
Rei Furuya rested his elbows on the table, his fingers digging deep into his hair, the messages on the channel intertwining in his mind.
Kitagawa Ryusei is right; he really needs to calm down right now.
The purified water with ice was drunk in one gulp, and the water droplets hanging on the outside of the porcelain cup fell onto the table due to the vibration, while the remaining ice cubes in the cup made a tinkling sound.
Just then, a knocking sound came from the command vehicle's window.
"Knock knock knock".
The three notes were evenly spaced, with no difference in intensity.
They shouldn't be able to tell the difference.
Kitagawa Ryusei's knocking habits are exactly the same as those of other specially trained undercover investigators, with virtually no personal characteristics.
But the tapping sound of knuckles coming through the glass window, both in terms of force and frequency, carried a familiar feeling that could easily stir one's heart.
Rei Furuya instinctively tried to find the source of the sound and looked up out the window.
Outside the one-way glass, a tall, slender young man stood silently, his shadow stretching long behind him.
Because he couldn't see, his gaze was unfocused when he made eye contact with the person inside the car.
But instinctively, he didn't look away.
It was as if even through a dark window, he could tell that Rei Furuya was watching him from behind.
There was no response to the knocking on the window. Kitagawa Ryusei's expression remained unchanged as he raised his knuckles and knocked again.
"Knock knock knock".
This time, the glass vibrated along with the force of the impact.
"..."
Rei Furuya, who had originally intended to open the window, shamefully hesitated.
Through the window, Kitagawa Ryusei's lips moved slightly, as if he were saying something.
Rei Furuya, whose soul had already flown to the heavens, didn't have time to read lips.
Immediately afterwards, the channel, which had quieted down because everyone was busy with their own things, started playing again.
"Uh... Team Zero leader."
Judging from this title, the person must be a member of the Special Investigations Team.
Fortunately, it wasn't Kitagawa Ryusei who spoke up, and Furuya Rei breathed a barely perceptible sigh of relief.
He immediately realized he had breathed a sigh of relief too soon.
Then the person who spoke continued, half-doubting and half-hesitating, "'If you don't open the door, I'll smash the window'—that's what my captain said."
Almost at the same time the words were spoken, the glass window was knocked on for the third time.
Jianggu Ling: "..."
Even though he knew the thickened bulletproof glass couldn't be broken, the blond youth still took a small step back.
Feeling guilty, the emotions that had been suppressed earlier seized the opportunity to surge up again.
The culprit who stirred up this emotion was standing outside the window at that moment.
After calming down for many days, it wasn't until he saw the young man again that Furuya Rei clearly realized that running away wouldn't solve the problem.
Concealing the truth will only make things more chaotic.
"I see."
Rei Furuya pressed his palm against the glass, covering the young man's face.
His palms clenched into fists little by little.
Even though they were only a few steps apart, and could see each other simply by opening the window, Rei Furuya took a deep breath and chose to say it over the channel:
Give me five minutes.
Before long, Kitagawa Ryusei spoke again from outside the window.
This time, Rei Furuya understood his lip reading:
I'm waiting.
...
After Furuya Rei turned off his combat headset, he placed it on a nearby table. The mission was nearing its end, and no one would disturb him for the time being.
In those five minutes, Furuya Rei was not mentally prepared; he simply made a phone call.
He originally intended to call Morofushi Kagemitsu.
In her confused state, her finger slipped and dialed Kenji Hagiwara's number.
By the time Rei Furuya reacted, the call had already been connected.
Just as he was falling into a deep sleep, Kenji Hagiwara was woken up. His first thought was that there was an urgent mission. As he answered the phone, he reached for the clothes next to his pillow with his eyes still closed, intending to put them on.
His voice was still muffled: "Moshi moshi, this is Hagiwara, have you confirmed the location of the explosives?"
On the other end of the phone, Furuya Rei sat back in his chair, his gaze passing through the car window to the young man who was sitting with his elbows folded, seemingly observing something.
He said, "It's me, a second-year graduate student."
Realizing it wasn't a case, the phone rang with the sound of springs collapsing; the person who had hurriedly gotten up had fallen back onto the bed.
Kenji Hagiwara yawned widely: "Ah... is it Furuya?"
"What do you want so late at night?"
"..."
Time passed second by second, and Furuya Rei hesitated for a moment until Hagiwara Kenji was about to fall asleep again before he finally spoke as if he had made up his mind.
"If, I mean if."
"If you discover that Jinping might be an undercover agent for a gang, what would you do?"
"..."
Kenji Hagiwara: ? ? What the heck?!
Late at night, Kenji Hagiwara was awakened by a horror story.
He practically jumped up and pinched himself hard.
The pain wasn't from a dream.
Kenji Hagiwara sensed the speaker's emotions and immediately realized who Rei Furuya was really trying to talk to.
Kitagawa Ryusei.
The black-haired youth was no longer sleepy. He turned over and sat up, leaning against the headboard. After a long silence, he slowly spoke:
"...Where's the evidence? Furuya, saying things like that is going to hurt people's feelings."
Any suspicion will hurt feelings.
Rei Furuya is very clear about this, which is why he has been avoiding it until now.
He raised his right hand, brushed aside the bangs that were obstructing his view, and his gaze fell on the documents on the table.
The information he obtained from within the police force, as well as the results of his investigations through special channels as an intelligence broker, were pieced together in a fragmented manner.
The young man's still somewhat green police academy entrance photo was placed at the top.
Every piece of intelligence seemed normal, yet anyone familiar with Kitagawa Ryusei could sense something amiss.
Because Kitagawa Ryusei never intended to hide these unusual occurrences from them.
Rei Furuya didn't ask Rukawa Kitagawa or alert anyone else; he just wanted to find out the truth on his own before things got worse.
But the person he was investigating was his closest confidant, and bearing these secrets was more painful than he had imagined.
Kenji Hagiwara recalled the reason for their recent argument.
Having been friends for so long, he was familiar with Kitagawa Ryusei, and also with Furuya Rei.
He let the young man remain silent for several seconds before asking, as if timing it perfectly, "Did you ask him about this? How can you be sure he won't just tell you the answer directly?"
When did the top student at the police academy become so insecure?
...
With only a busy signal remaining on the phone in his hand, Rei Furuya stood up from his chair and looked up.
Only three minutes had passed.
Perhaps they got impatient waiting, or perhaps they were called away by someone else.
Kitagawa Ryusei had already left the spot and was nowhere to be seen.
The doorknob in his hand warmed with his body heat, and Furuya Rei pressed it as if he had made up his mind, pushing the door open.
The door opened quietly, without disturbing anyone nearby.
Only the young man who had been leaning against the side and waiting turned around and looked at him.
Rei Furuya stopped in his tracks, standing still.
The headlights and police lights intertwined around that one person, but due to the angle, they only covered half of him.
The light covered half of the young man's body, making the boundary of the shadow particularly clear.
The moment Kitagawa saw Rei Furuya, he straightened up, and the half of his face hidden in the darkness came into the light of the bright red police lights as he moved.
At that moment, all of Rei Furuya's words were stuck in his throat, unable to come out, and he felt a lump in his throat.
Kiel investigated you before.
I followed them out of concern and discovered some things...that I couldn't understand.
Ryusei, will you tell me the answer?
Unable to discern the expression on the blond youth's face, Kitagawa Ryusei didn't say much, only cracking his knuckles: "Let's have a fight. If there's anything you still don't understand afterward..."
"You ask, I answer."
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