·37｜Exclusive from Jinjiang·37
The smile doesn't disappear, it just moves on.
The former police academy five-man group, except for Date Wataru who is now at the local police station, arranged to meet on Tuesday in room 2013 of Morofushi Kagemitsu's house.
But before that, the SWAT team received an uninvited guest—Yuya Kazami. He approached Kenji Hagiwara with two cell phones and explained his purpose.
"Mr. Furuya instructed me to return Ms. Raikawa's cell phone to you, and this new cell phone is a gift to Ms. Raikawa as an apology."
Kenji Hagiwara: "Someone from the Ministry of Public Security?"
“Yes,” Kazami Yuya bowed to Hagiwara, “I would appreciate it if Officer Hagiwara could help me get Mr. Furuya’s phone back. Thank you.”
"Huh? Soft Bread actually stole Furuya's phone!?"
"Yes."
The theft of a police officer's cell phone is a very serious matter. If it were the captain of the explosives division, he would definitely realize the gravity of the situation.
Kenji Hagiwara did look surprised for a moment, but then he grinned and said, "Soft bread is really something. No wonder it made Furuya so angry."
His tone carried an inexplicable pride.
Kazami Yuya choked, hesitated, and finally chose to remain silent.
Kenji Hagiwara did get Rei Furuya's phone back, but Yomi Rikawa had already bypassed the password system with the help of the administrator and thoroughly searched through its contents.
On the appointed day, Furuya Rei arrived at Morofushi Kagemitsu's safe house early. They waited for about ten minutes before Matsuda Jinpei knocked on the door and arrived second.
Matsuda Jinpei, dressed casually, had a half-smoked cigarette dangling from his lips, his face full of displeasure. Even reuniting with his former best friend after a long separation, he couldn't feel any joy.
"Matsuda," Morofushi Kagemitsu said, having brewed several cups of tea and placed them on the table, "What happened? Where's Hagiwara?"
Matsuda flicked the half-smoked cigarette into the trash can: "It's in the back, you'll find out soon enough."
No sooner had the words left his mouth than there was another knock on the door. The two who arrived late, one tall and one short, were wearing the same scarf. The long scarf, which he had specially bought online, almost covered half of Raikawa Yomi's face. Hagiwara Kenji held Raikawa Yomi's hand, their fingers intertwined, and he smiled brightly.
Kenji Hagiwara: "Hi~!"
His smile was so bright it was almost blinding; he was practically glowing, giving the illusion that he had his own built-in spotlight.
The first thing Kenji Hagiwara did upon entering the house was to pull Yomi Raikawa, who was trying to hide herself, to his side. He held her shoulders and said with a big smile, "Although we've all met before, let me formally introduce you. Yomi Raikawa, the little witch from another world, is now my girlfriend."
Kenji Hagiwara puffed out his chest, speaking with arrogance, looking exactly like a fool in love.
In front of him, Lai Chuan Huang Quan silently pulled up his scarf to cover his face, which was beginning to turn red, and lowered his head without saying a word.
Kenji Hagiwara's dazzling display of energy, which allowed him to wag his tail like a propeller, stunned Rei Furuya and Kagemitsu Morofushi.
Among the five of them, Kenji Hagiwara, who seems to be the most like a playboy, is actually so lovey-dovey when he's in a relationship! Suddenly I can understand why Jinpei Matsuda looked so unhappy today.
Matsuda Jinpei rolled his eyes, already used to it.
Five people sat in a circle around the coffee table. The living room, which was slightly spacious for a single person, suddenly felt cramped with five people. The sofa couldn't accommodate so many people, so Kenji Hagiwara tried to coax Yomi Raikawa onto his lap, but Yomi Raikawa, annoyed and embarrassed, grabbed his face and pulled him forcefully to both sides. Jinpei Matsuda also punched him on the head: "Hagi, you better stop this!" The entire mobile unit had been choking on dog food these past few days.
"hiss--"
The sound of gasps echoed in the room, but it wasn't Kenji Hagiwara who made the noise.
Before Kenji Hagiwara could even cry out in pain, Rei Furuya and Hiromitsu Morofushi, sitting on the far right of the sofa, simultaneously covered their faces and gasped – Yomi Rikawa's action of pinching Hagiwara's face had triggered their unpleasant memories.
Morofushi Kagemitsu's face was grabbed while he was unconscious. If it weren't for the surveillance footage, he wouldn't even have known that his face was so elastic. It was stretched so long that it bounced back the moment Yomi Yorikawa let go, leaving two pudding-like ripples on his cheek.
Rei Furuya fared much worse. He was fully conscious when his face was grabbed, and the pain brought him to his first tear since adulthood. Even when he fought with Jinpei Matsuda and got bruised and battered, it didn't evoke such strong emotions in his tear ducts.
At that moment, as they covered their faces with their hands and stared at Lai Chuan Huang Quan with bright eyes, they had only one thought: Go easy on him! Hit him harder! Did he not eat?!
A true friend is someone whose umbrella I've shared the rain with, so I'll tear it apart.
Raikawa Yomi grabbed Hagiwara Kenji's face and tore at it forcefully. The longer she stretched Hagiwara's face, the brighter the eyes of the two people on the other side of the sofa became. They clenched their fists and began to secretly cheer for Raikawa Yomi.
But after tugging for a while, Yomi Laichuan let go. The moment Kenji Hagiwara's extremely elastic face bounced back, Rei Furuya and the others sighed and showed a disappointed expression—they could have stretched Hagiwara's face a little longer.
Lai Chuan Huang Quan: ?
She kept her hand still loose, her almond-shaped eyes turning to the two people in the far corner of the sofa. That regretful sigh just now was definitely not her imagination, but she didn't understand what had happened that warranted such a sigh.
The four of us from the same cohort met today for two reasons.
First, two Japanese public security officers explained the organization's affairs to Matsuda Jinpei and his group. Although it was against regulations, getting help from these two ace colleagues would definitely give them a significant advantage.
Secondly, the aces explained to Rei Furuya and the others about Yomi Yorikawa. This included Yomi Yorikawa coming from the Time-Space Administration Bureau, the two rule-altering abilities she possessed, and the purpose of her trip.
Zhu Fujingguang's face darkened: "You mean... I'll shoot myself four years from now because my identity has been exposed?"
Lai Chuan Huang Quan nodded.
Rei Furuya's expression was grim: "Do you know how we were exposed?"
Lai Chuan Huang Quan forcefully slapped away Hagiwara Kenji's hand that was reaching out to rub the two little tufts on her head: "It's precisely because I didn't know that I approached Morofushi Kagemitsu, wanting to find out."
Rei Furuya felt heavy-hearted. He knew that the path of a policeman was not easy, and that the road ahead was destined to be full of thorns and abysses, but he never imagined that four of the five cherry blossoms would wither so quickly.
He didn't even have the chance to drink a sip of their wedding wine, nor could they pat each other on the shoulder and reminisce about the past.
They didn't even have time to properly savor their prime years.
Life has barely begun before it's abruptly halted, wasted in an unnoticed corner, buried by fallen leaves and dust, becoming an insignificant relic in the rolling torrent.
Things have changed, but people are no longer the same.
Rei Furuya interlaced his fingers, lowered his head, and rested his forehead on the back of his fingers. His blond hair fell across his aching eyes, and even breathing felt like a sharp, piercing pain in his lungs.
Lai Chuan Huang Quan didn't look at the dejected man on the sofa; she couldn't bear to see such a desolate scene, like autumn leaves swept away by the wind. She took out the new phone that Furuya Rei had given her as an apology and started sending messages to the administrator.
"Administrator, four people already know my identity, and if you include Date Wataru, that makes five. Is it really okay?"
Half a minute later, the administrator replied from the alternate dimension:
"No problem, as long as the number of people is kept within five."
"But you agreed so easily. I thought you would at least scold me first, like telling me not to always rely on others."
"If you rely solely on others, I will definitely reprimand you. But salvation is not something that can be accomplished by one person alone. If those being saved do not save themselves, no one can help. In your countless past missions, whether it was taking down scum, changing lives, or even the near-disastrous apocalypse, it wasn't just you working hard; the target and you worked together. There's no reason why you should bear the burden of this world alone."
The three past failures made the administrators realize that they never needed anyone to make a one-sided, silent sacrifice.
They protect, give, and sacrifice under the guise of doing what's best for you, without ever asking if this is what they want.
Moreover, unlike the forced sacrifices of Matsuda Jinpei and his comrades, this self-indulgent sacrifice was avoidable—they had the ability to save themselves, the opportunity to choose, so why choose to keep it from them? Was this done to move themselves, or to move them?
To let them live physically while their hearts are torn apart is another form of destruction.
Moreover...
Salvation should be a joint effort between the rescuer and the rescued.
The long silence made the atmosphere oppressive and awkward. Hagiwara and Matsuda already knew about the death; one stared at the ceiling, the other at the azure sky outside the window, both unusually calm. Seconds ticked by, and Raikawa Yomi huddled in the sofa, lost in thought, her stomach rumbling.
Kenji Hagiwara sat cross-legged on the floor, glanced at Yomi Raikawa, then suddenly straightened his back and clenched his fist: "I almost forgot!"
He picked up his bulging backpack, beaming, "I brought some good stuff!"
The next second, in front of everyone, Kenji Hagiwara poured out various flavors of bear-shaped cookies from his backpack. There were so many that they filled his backpack high, and the bear-shaped cookies clattered as they fell onto the table.
...?
The cookie waterfall was so stunning that the two well-traveled Japanese police officers stood frozen in place, looking as if they had just witnessed something amazing. Their wide pupils reflected the endless stream of cookie wrappers falling down, and they remained speechless for a long time.
Matsuda Jinpei snorted coldly, his face showing an expression of "I knew it".
Rei Furuya gave a sour look and silently turned his gaze away along with Hiromitsu Morofushi.
The thought that after the conversation ended, he and Morofushi Kagemitsu could take their leave first, while Matsuda Jinpei would still be tormented by Hagiwara Kenji's constant displays of affection... Furuya Rei pursed his lips, forcefully suppressing the corners of his mouth that kept turning up, and secretly began to gloat.
The five people in the living room chatted for a while longer, exchanged contact information, and then Furuya Rei got up to say goodbye.
Matsuda Jinpei glanced at Furuya Rei, who had already stood up, and pulled a boxing glove from his bag, tossing it to Yomi Yorikawa.
"Hey Huang Quan, do you remember how to wear boxing gloves? I just taught you yesterday."
Lai Chuan Huang Quan dropped the biscuit in his hand: "I remember~!"
She excitedly picked up the boxing gloves and looked at Matsuda Jin's eyes, which were sparkling.
Rei Furuya fell silent for a moment, an ominous premonition taking root in his heart.
Matsuda Jinpei stood up, walked around to Furuya Rei's side, patted him on the shoulder, and then grabbed Furuya Rei from behind.
Jianggu Ling:...?
Furuya Rei turned his head to look at Matsuda Jinpei, who was holding him firmly behind him, and then at Yorikawa Yomi in front of him. Although he didn't know what was going on, he subconsciously swallowed hard.
Matsuda Jinpei grinned maliciously: "I said I'd take you to beat this guy up, and I really will. Come on, I've got him all set up, let's beat him up once and for all!"
Yomi Lai had already put on her boxing gloves. She looked Rei Furuya up and down, then hesitated again: "Can I really do this?"
Matsuda Jinpei said matter-of-factly, "This guy did such a terrible thing to you, we're just beating him up to vent our anger, why can't we? Back when Furuya Rei and I didn't like each other, I beat him to a pulp."
Jiangu Ling:? ?
With a twitch at the corner of his mouth, Rei Furuya's expression shifted from surprise to anger. He gritted his teeth and said, "Who did you just say you beat up and made them crawl on the ground?! It was clearly me who beat you so badly you couldn't get up!"
Matsuda Jinpei ignored Furuya Rei and looked encouragingly at Raikawa Yomi: "Don't worry, this guy is tough. He'll be fine even if I beat him up. Besides, the Bureau gave him the 'gorilla' label, so what are you afraid of?"
Jiangu Ling:? ? ?
What gorilla?
Who is the gorilla?
This wasn't mentioned in our conversation just now!
Yomi Lai was initially worried about hurting Rei Furuya, but recalling the image of Rei Furuya punching through a wooden board, she suddenly felt that Jinpei Matsuda made a lot of sense: "Then I'll go for it?"
Matsuda Jinpei raised the corners of his mouth, eager to try: "Let's go."
Jiangu Ling:? ? ?
The smile completely vanished from Rei Furuya's face.
"Matsuda Jinpei, you bastard! I'll fight you to the death—hiss—"
At that moment, a bright smile bloomed on Matsuda Jinpei's face.
[Author's Note]
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
