Chapter 18, Chapter 17: Hagi's Bento-Kicking Operation begins...
We urge people to treat the elderly in their twenties with kindness.
Beneath a residential area lined with several old-fashioned apartment buildings, Zhuge Tongzhi was holding a steaming bowl of takoyaki.
A girl with messy short hair squatted down next to the mailbox across the street from the entrance of the residential area, chewing on a meatball with a blank expression, looking at the gate of the residential area that she couldn't enter.
The security guard at the entrance of the residential compound also stared at her expressionlessly.
Zhuge Tongzhi confronted the very dutiful hunchbacked old man for a while, ate the last takoyaki in the box, wiped his mouth, and put the box and plastic bag back into his backpack.
There are very few trash cans on the streets of Japan, and garbage sorting is taken very seriously. Zhuge Tongzhi is still studying this profound subject, along with matters related to housing in Japan, and is amazed by the various taxes on buying a house in Japan.
But as it turns out, there might be several trash cans on a street corner that are rarely seen, and a stubborn old man might appear in a neighborhood that rarely has 24-hour security.
They're so stubborn that even if you say you're here to visit a friend, they won't let you in unless you give them your room number and how many people are in your family.
But old man, don't underestimate the Japanese elementary school students who save the world every day.
I have plenty of strength and resources.
Zhuge Tongzhi turned her head one last time to look at the security guard who had stopped her from entering, snorted, and turned to leave.
The O-D navigation search box in the void automatically displayed the location in the daily route. As she selected the 'Start Navigation' option in her mind, it quickly refreshed the original progress record page and popped up a street view route map.
"Walking navigation begins. Head northwest from your current location and turn right after 60 meters."
"O-Drug Navigation, continuously serving you."
A blue and white prompt box floated next to the route, indicating a path that bypassed the main entrance and led directly to the apartment building designated as a bomb reserve.
Since I couldn't get into the residential area by taking the main road, I had no choice but to follow the navigation.
Zhuge Tongzhi took out a rubber band and pulled the upper layer of hair at the back of his head, along with his bangs, into a small bun, revealing the child's smooth forehead. The vision that had been partially obscured by stray hairs suddenly became bright.
The girl, whose hairstyle was slightly odd but could also be interpreted as sporty, tightened the straps of her backpack and followed the navigation to a brick wall outside an old-style residential area.
Outside the brick wall without barbed wire to keep out thieves, an old and vigorous tree grows against the wall. Perhaps because the community is built facing the sun, the tree's canopy leans towards the inside of the community, and a thick branch extends into the wall.
"Go straight ahead for 24 meters, then turn left and climb the steps to reach the tree."
Zhuge Tongzhi glanced at the height difference between the pile of old furniture and the tree branches against the wall, and slowly took out a small bottle of anti-slip powder from her schoolbag—she had just bought it from a sports store on her way there. She had originally wanted to buy a headband, but after buying takoyaki, she was basically out of change.
Luckily, she habitually kept a hair tie in her schoolbag, which now seems to be just right.
The girl poured some of this anti-slip powder, often used in pull-up tests, into the palms of both hands, rubbed it evenly, then took a few steps back and rushed towards the abandoned furniture. Stepping onto the chosen foothold, she quickly jumped onto the top of the wooden wardrobe.
The old wardrobe, covered in dust, creaked under its heavy load, and its wobbling body began to push against the other furniture supporting it. It was not a good place to stay.
Zhuge Tongzhi didn't linger for long. Following the blue and white arrows, he leaped high into the air, grabbed a protruding tree trunk, and with a powerful push, flung himself onto the target tree trunk in one go.
After twisting his slightly sore left arm, Zhuge Tongzhi realized that he had stayed up all night and had forgotten to wear his shoulder brace when he rushed out the door this morning.
I wonder if wearing it to bed tonight will make up for the time I was spending during the day.
Zhuge Tongzhi, who had always had extremely poor medical compliance, silently pushed the matter to himself that evening. He changed his current posture and sat on the tree trunk, maintaining his balance as he moved along the trunk towards the interior of the community.
Thanks to Teitan Elementary School's free dress code, after wearing the full school uniform skirt on her first day of school, she changed into durable athletic pants that were perfect for parkour on the second day, and now she moves around without any constraint.
Well, the current height is still quite impressive.
As Zhuge Tongzhi clung to the tree to move, she raised her hand to her eyes to look at the surrounding street scene. The view from above the wall allowed her to see beyond many low bungalows and into some taller buildings in the distance.
If that scumbag were to choose a nearby location to settle down, where would he go?
Is it the rooftop over there? Or in the stairwell a bit further away?
Or will he hide at the furthest point within signal range and decide his actions based on real-time police reports and listening devices?
Like a rat that can't stand the light.
The girl, distracted, looked left and right, and slowly moved to halfway up the branch when she was suddenly startled by a hoarse, sharp shout.
"Hey! What are you doing!"
A hunchbacked figure appeared at the corner she had just turned, rushing towards her at a brisk pace, and shouting at her in a loud voice.
Oh no, it's that old security guard!
Zhuge Tongzhi didn't want to be caught and have to call her guardian. Was she going to confess to Zhu Fujingguang that she wasn't trespassing, but that her police academy classmates were going to be arrested?
They would be treated as mentally ill.
The girl with a little ponytail decisively and nimbly stood up by bracing herself against the tree trunk. Her figure swayed a few times, making people's hearts ache, but after regaining her footing, she immediately took off running directly from the tree branch towards the inside of the wall.
"Hey! Are you out of your mind, kid!" The old man's voice was urgent, and he quickened his pace as he ran towards the wall. "Get down here right now! Hey! Where are your parents!"
"My parents are no longer in this world!" Zhuge Tongzhi said truthfully as she ran. Running was naturally much faster than sitting and shuffling, and she soon reached the end of the tree branches.
The short-haired girl crouched down and hugged the thick tree trunk. She tilted to the side and used the momentum to swing herself onto the top of the wall. At the same time, she tightened her core, found a foothold, and slightly adjusted her body to land steadily on the wall.
Zhuge Tongzhi let out a breath, stood up, waved to the security guards who were almost at the foot of the wall, and shouted, "I really came here to find my friend. If I don't come, he might die!"
As soon as she finished speaking, she pushed herself up and jumped down from the inside of the wall. The little tuft of hair on her head swayed and disappeared along with the stray hairs flying up at the edge of the wall.
"Hey kid! What are you talking about, dying? What you're doing is dangerous!" The old security guard's shout came from the other side of the wall. Zhuge Tongzhi, who had landed on the ground with his knees bent to absorb the shock, stood up with a grimacing expression and slapped his numb thigh.
"What the hell!" Zhuge Tongzhi ignored the old security guard's kind but urgent rebuke and instead ran non-stop towards the apartment building in the corner of the community, following the navigation.
I'm telling the truth, but I didn't go into too much detail. After all, saying something like being killed by a suddenly activated bomb would sound more like a lie.
But life is sometimes just damn absurd.
Standing obediently in front of the building, Zhuge Tongzhi apologetically told a middle-aged woman who was buying groceries that she had made plans to visit a friend at her home, but she had forgotten her phone and couldn't contact her. The kind woman was very understanding and opened the door for her.
This was originally her plan to enter the community.
Without making a sound, Zhuge Tongzhi brushed the sawdust and dust off his bottom, memorized the door code, thanked the aunt repeatedly, accompanied her to her floor, said goodbye, and then walked up two more floors before stopping.
This is the seventh floor. O-D navigation updated the prompts according to her stopping footsteps.
"Waypoint: The apartment building that exploded five days later (Completed)"
Daily route completion rate: 75%
"Unfinished route point: Any dinner location"
Takoyaki wasn't counted as dinner, as Zhuge Tongzhi thought, not too surprised that the daily route was only 75% complete. He simply looked out the window at the more spacious ground below.
It was empty; there was nothing there.
Across from it stands a towering skyscraper, its high-rise design, estimated to be over twenty stories, and its glass facade makes it stand out from the surrounding low-rise buildings.
A striking banner hangs on the outside of the building.
"Office building... business promotion, publicity event, and the 'Glacier Relics' exhibition will be held..." Zhuge Tongzhi squinted slightly, trying to make out the words in the distance.
"It will be held in... five days."
Huh? Suddenly, Zhuge Tongzhi realized that his thinking seemed to have gone astray, and he had a preconceived notion that the criminals would plant a bomb at the location O had indicated.
If this was an act of revenge against the police, would that scumbag really have chosen such an ordinary location in a residential area that is mostly covered by walls?
Zhuge Tongzhi frowned, leaned against the railing on the seventh floor, and slowly typed in a search term for the "Glacier Relics" exhibit on the building's sign.
The webpage scrolled across the narrow screen a few times before finally displaying a highlighted advertisement page—the so-called glacial relic refers to a gemstone left over from the Ice Age, and this is a jewelry exhibition centered around that Ice Age gemstone.
Are they all five days later?
Zhuge Tongzhi turned off the screen, faced the wind, and looked at the skyscraper, searching his mind for any remaining impressions of the animation.
She seemed to remember that in the episode where Kenji Hagiwara passed away, there was a scene where... a flat, dark gray mushroom cloud exploded in the sky.
wrong.
The mushroom cloud from the explosion covered the upper floors of the building. The bomb was planted on the high-rise building. At that time, Matsuda Jinpei had just dealt with another bomb left by the perpetrators and quickly arrived at the foot of the building.
Judging from the distance, this supposedly about-to-explode apartment building is probably a location where the bomber would choose to plant a bomb to distract the police.
Zhuge Tongzhi tossed his phone aside, gazed at the skyscraper, and made a summary.
That building was where the accident actually happened.
However, on the other hand, with that old man at the entrance of the residential area keeping a close watch, how did the bomber manage to sneak into this place to plant the bomb without anyone noticing? And how did he manage to hide so well despite Matsuda Jinpei's four years of relentless pursuit?
Zhuge Tongzhi pondered for a moment, then slowly walked down the narrow staircase, stopping to politely make way for the residents going up before leaving the apartment building, which was full of life.
On her way to the gate, she followed a family of three at a distance, intending to slip away while the security guard wasn't looking. However, when she finally saw the gate of the residential complex in the distance, she realized that the shift had changed.
The family of three then casually started chatting about this topic.
"Mr. Murata has always been the security guard in this community. Thanks to him, no pervert has ever sneaked into our community." The woman's voice was full of praise and affirmation.
“That’s true, but he’s definitely getting senile.” The male host chimed in. Zhuge Tongzhi, who was following behind them, recalled the old man’s brisk and agile figure and shook his head silently.
However, the male homeowner continued, "Last time he kept saying he wanted to call the kids from the Yamashita family to retrieve the racket they left there, but that family moved away a long time ago. I think he's too old to remember where the residents have moved."
"But Dad, you even got my class wrong!" The little girl walking in the middle suddenly spoke up sharply. "At the last parent-teacher conference, you sat in the second-grade parents' section, but I'm already in fifth grade!"
The husband chuckled as his wife and daughter teased him, and the family walked out the door in a lively atmosphere. The newly arrived security guard didn't even look up as people passed by.
Zhuge Tongzhi stopped in her tracks, even taking a few steps back before suddenly turning around and rushing back to the apartment building that the navigation system had directed her to.
The girl picked up her phone, pointed it at the row of mailboxes with the owners' surnames written on them in the first-floor hallway, and snapped a few photos with a click. She then looked down at the photos to check their clarity.
She hasn't yet figured out how the bomber hid for four years, but she seems to have a clue how to get in and out of this neighborhood.
Zhuge Tongzhi added the photos to his favorites album, then skipped briskly out of the neighborhood.
Next, she needs to have a proper dinner before completing her daily route.
Then, starting tomorrow, I need to stick close to Conan and see if I can get involved in a few cases so I can legitimately go to the First Investigation Division.
After all, she now needs to understand the background case that triggered the idea of 'revenge against the police,' including the names and addresses of the parties involved—more private information. It would be best if she could ask a great detective for help.
After all, he has the excellent buff of being able to answer any question 100%.
Thanks to the busy schedule of Morofushi Kagemitsu, she is free to move around for the next five days.
Thinking of that high-EQ, high-IQ, understanding, and high-quality human police officer who would never let the scene become awkward, Zhuge Tongzhi clenched his fist.
Hagi's Bento-Kicking Operation begins now!
A note from the author:
----------------------
A chapter of an adventurous daily life of outsmarting a security guard.
Think about it, Zhuge Liang's sources of information were actually quite limited.
Although it has the omniscient perspective of a comic book, the information is fragmented.
The O-D navigation system suggests that the solution may require a second derivation process before it can be used.
Zhuge Jingguang seemed to know a lot, but Zhuge, who was in charge, dared not ask.
Tragic, Zhuge Liang, tragic
…
In the previous chapter, a little cutie asked if it was time travel.
Nope
Zhuge's current timeline can be understood as being somewhat disorganized and delayed.
Many events that occurred before the year 1 of Conan's story were delayed until after the year 1.
The specific reasons, ahem, will be explained later (shyly).
Everything is always in the present tense.
…
I love reading everyone's comments; it gives me so much motivation to write again!
Ganbatte!
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