Chapter 30 Reunion of Close Friends
Kenji Hagiwara caught the rope with lightning speed. Knowing that she was right next to him, he quickly started leading her to the spot where the No. 71 tour box would fall down, saying to her, "I've already found out what happened."
Just as previously speculated, it was the work of the bomber from four years ago. He sent a riddle fax to the Metropolitan Police Department. According to Matsuda and his team's deduction, the riddle was that the bomber would detonate a bomb at exactly 12 o'clock.
The second bomb will detonate at 2 PM sharp. Matsuda is currently dealing with the speculation that it's the first bomb mentioned in the riddle. Judging from the text message and the countdown timer in the copy, their reasoning should be correct. The problem is that the second bomb, which is supposed to explode at 2 PM sharp, hasn't been found yet.
{Huh? Why are you suddenly calling your friend Matsuda instead of Kojinpei?} Did you hear something bad while gathering information that caused your friendship to sour? Upon hearing Hagiwara's words, Kazesei-no-Kami noticed this for some reason.
This unanimous reaction from him—that when he confided in him, he only noticed his own life-or-death friendship and felt envious—made Hagiwara, who was in a serious and tense state, feel somewhat helpless, but it also eased his emotions considerably.
I replied to her somewhat speechlessly: "It's okay to call him Kojinpei normally, but when it comes to serious matters, you should call him by his name directly so that the person who hears it will realize the importance and urgency of the matter. Kojinpei and I usually call each other Kojinpei and Hagi."
However, when it comes to matters that require serious and careful attention, we address each other by our surnames. He calls me Hagiwara, and I call him Matsuda. That way, even without explanation, we immediately understand the situation.
"I see." Indeed, in this way, when they encounter things that cannot be said explicitly or for which there is no time to explain, a simple form of address can make the other person realize what is going on. This is how tacit understanding is cultivated between friends!
Feng Xingshou thought enviously, his hand still writing: {Besides what I just mentioned, were there any other discoveries? About the bomb mentioned above?}
"That's the problem. According to what Matsuda told the emergency response team over the phone, he seemed very relaxed and didn't think he couldn't defuse the bomb. So I don't know what happened to him afterward that led to his death!" If he could figure it out, he wouldn't be so uneasy and nervous.
Upon hearing this, Fengxingshou, recalling the crisis Hagiwara had faced, asked suspiciously: "Could it be that the bomber remotely detonated the bomb just before it was to be dismantled?"
"It's unlikely. Just now, when Matsuda was contacting the police on his phone, he said that it would be completely demolished in a few minutes. I just asked them about the time, and they said there were 11 minutes left until 12 o'clock."
Matsuda isn't one to boast. If he says a few minutes, he means he can dismantle it within those minutes. So, based on the current situation, he can definitely dismantle the bomb before midnight, rendering any remote detonation of the bomb ineffective.
"So something must have happened to him while he was defusing the bomb, which is why it wasn't defused before midnight." Kenji Hagiwara became anxious again as he said this.
Seeing this, Feng Xingshou didn't know what to say. She wasn't smart to begin with, only good at manual labor, and her grades were so bad that she didn't get into university. Subconsciously, she felt that this was a difficult task.
If Hagiwara couldn't figure out the key to the problem, she naturally couldn't either, so she couldn't offer him any useful advice. This made her feel inferior, thinking that if she were a little smarter, she might be able to help Hagiwara.
.
Just then, the No. 71 tour box stopped in front of the two of them. Kenji Hagiwara immediately said to her, "Fuu-chan, you go up first. I need to make some preparations in advance."
If you need help, just say so.
"Just do as I say." After writing this note and handing it to him, Feng Xingshou immediately boarded the 71st tour carriage as instructed.
At the same time, Kenji Hagiwara tied the safety rope in his hand to the sturdiest support near carriage 71, ensuring that he could move over safely and quickly if he wanted to.
He turned and jumped onto the No. 72 tour car, which was starting to leave the ground again. When Matsuda Jinpei, who was focused on defusing the bomb, heard the footsteps, he greeted him familiarly: "Hi! Jinpei, long time no see."
"Hagi?" The familiar voice, the familiar figure—even with his oversized sunglasses, Matsuda Jinpei recognized his childhood friend, whom he thought had died in the line of duty, at a glance, and couldn't help but exclaim in utter surprise.
Kenji Hagiwara took off his sunglasses, his purple eyes reflecting the figure before him. He looked at his best friend with longing. Four years had passed, and almost all of Jinpei's awkwardness had disappeared. He had grown taller and was even more imposing than when he was 22.
He now exuded the aura of a mature man, and his handsome face seemed even more striking than before. o(￣ヘ￣o＃) He knew this wasn't the time for catching up, so after briefly checking on his best friend's condition and confirming that he was safe and sound, he...
Then his expression changed, and he said seriously, "I know you must have a lot of questions right now, but my story is a long one, and there's no time to explain it now. Let's focus on the present matter and share the situation with me!"
"I know!" Matsuda Jinpei indeed had many questions he wanted to ask him, many things he wanted to say to him, to find out what happened back then? Where had he been for the past four years? Since he was still alive, why hadn't he contacted him...?
But there was no time to ask those questions now. He could only immediately turn back to defusing the bomb and explain the current situation to him: "Since that explosion four years ago..."
According to Matsuda's account, Kenji Hagiwara learned that the situation was similar to what he had inquired about earlier. Unlike the previous bomber who was extorting a large sum of yen, this time it was probably for revenge.
Because Nichiri TV rebroadcast their bomb disposal news, which led to the death of the bomb disposal perpetrator's accomplice in a car accident, the bomb disposal perpetrator immediately detonated the bomb he was dismantling, causing him to almost die in the line of duty.
Furthermore, Matsuda deduced from the other party's riddle that the bomb detonated at 2 PM should be in a hospital in Japan, believing that the current situation is the same as four years ago, and that the bomber used a combination of deception and reality.
The bomb he defused was a small, insignificant bomb, but the one Hagi defused was a powerful bomb capable of leveling two or three floors. Judging from the appearance of this bomb, it was a small bomb placed near the Ferris wheel.
He believed that the enemy's main target was the hospital, as it was a densely populated area and the number of victims would be unknown if it exploded.
By bombing numerous hospitals and causing a large number of victims, Matsuda aimed to demonstrate the incompetence of the Japanese police and retaliate against them. Unfortunately, although Matsuda deduced from the riddle that the location was a hospital, he couldn't guess which hospital it was.
After saying that, he repeated the riddle to Kenji Hagiwara. Kenji Hagiwara had already overheard the riddle while he was downstairs, but he was so nervous and worried about Jinpei Matsuda's safety that he couldn't concentrate on solving the riddle.
This caused him to miss even the obvious hint that the cross on the knight's helmet was the same as the hospital cross, let alone deduce the location of the bomb in the second lesson from the riddle.
So after hearing Matsuda's words, he couldn't immediately figure out which hospital the riddles were referring to, and couldn't help but smile wryly: "At this time, if it were Furuya..."
"They can quickly guess the answer to the riddle; they are better at reasoning."
.
“Hey! My reasoning skills aren’t bad either!” Upon hearing this, Matsuda Jinpei immediately gave him a half-moon-shaped eye, saying defiantly.
Even though Kenji Hagiwara couldn't see his expression, he could tell what he was like just by listening to his tone. Just as he was about to speak, he heard an explosion from below.
"Bang!"
Then, the Ferris wheel's ascent, which had been steadily increasing, stopped. What happened next? Did the bomber do something else? Was the goal to stop the Ferris wheel? Why?
Just as he was about to walk to the window to check the situation below, Matsuda Jinpei's serious voice rang out: "Hagiwara, don't move! That explosion just now triggered a tricky thing—a mercury column!"
"Tsk! What a troublesome guy." Upon hearing this, Kenji Hagiwara immediately stopped what he was doing. As an elite member of the explosives handling team, he naturally knew the effect of mercury on explosive bombs—a mechanism that could be detonated immediately by the slightest vibration.
However, if he is careful, with Xiao Zhenping's skills, he can dismantle it even if he only has 3 minutes. Moreover, according to his heartbeat, there are about 5 minutes left before the dungeon countdown ends. Xiao Zhenping will not be stumped by this trick.
However, Matsuda Jinpei's voice immediately followed, making him turn pale: "Brave police officer..."
"This is a threat from that bomber!" Hearing his childhood friend read out the words on the bomber's electronic screen, Kenji Hagiwara finally understood why Jinpei had sent him that last text message that day.
It wasn't that he lacked the ability to defuse the bomb and survive; rather, the bomber threatened Kojinpei with the lives of innocent civilians, forcing him to step on the gas and choose the option that would result in the least sacrifice.
If Kojinpei had chosen to live, countless people in a certain hospital would have died at 2 PM sharp. Therefore, he had no choice but to give up defusing the bomb and wait for his own life to end. Judging from the outcome of the 2014 instance, Kojinpei obviously chose to sacrifice himself.
The moment he realized this, Kenji Hagiwara felt as if his heart was being torn apart. Jinpei had died such a pathetic death at the hands of that bastard's despicable methods. How hateful! That guy was so hateful…
Now is not the time to hate the bomber or feel sorry for Kojinpei. The important thing is what to do? How can I save Kojinpei? Given Kojinpei's personality, he certainly wouldn't choose to sacrifice innocent civilians to save himself.
What if I took his place and helped him reach Fengjiang via the safety rope? No, once the mercury column is activated, in the suspended environment of the tour bus, even the slightest movement of the body, let alone a step, will cause vibrations and trigger an explosion.
Think quickly, maybe there's another way? No, if it were before the mercury column was activated, maybe there would be a way, but once the mercury column is activated, all methods become useless. Besides, Xiao Zhenping will definitely choose to stay in the browsing box and wait for the answer, and then tell the police the answer...
Sure enough, while he was thinking about these things, Matsuda Jinpei made a phone call, briefly telling the other person about the current situation inside the carriage, and then telling her that he would send her the name of the hospital at the end.
Without giving the other party a chance to reply, she hung up the phone, then turned to look at the safety rope tied around Hagiwara's waist: "Hagi! How did you get here? Is there any way to leave?"
He didn't explain his thoughts to Hagiwara. As close friends, they understood each other perfectly. He knew that if Hagiwara were in his shoes, he would make the same choice. Similarly, Hagiwara knew that he would make the same choice. Therefore, there was no need to explain; they both understood.
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