Chapter 73 Please Walk by My Side

The fire and sound of the explosion were so huge that the sound waves were felt not only by people within a two-kilometer radius.

Even Jinpei Matsuda, who was in Shibuya and was extremely sensitive to explosions, could vaguely hear it.

But right before his eyes, there was something more shocking than the unknown explosion.

"Hagi...?"

The long-haired young man whose name was being called knelt in front of the fireplace. Next to him was a bomb that had been completely dismantled and scattered on the ground.

Matsuda Jinpei's body was stiff, his right hand still slightly closed, as if he was holding something -

In fact, he was holding tools used to dismantle the bomb casing and joints.

But now, that tool is in the hands of Kenji Hagiwara, and it has played a role far beyond what it should have.

"call……"

As if he had no idea that he had done something shocking, Kenji Hagiwara breathed a sigh of relief to show his success, just like he did every time he successfully defused a bomb.

But this time he didn't joke with Jinpei Matsuda as quickly as he did before.

Instead, he turned his back to his shocked friend and remained silent for a while - a very short while. Before Jinpei Matsuda could react to his brief abnormality, Kenji Hagiwara turned around with a smile that was very familiar to both of them.

"I'm better at this, right?"

Jinpei Matsuda was still a little dazed and didn't pay much attention to his friend's fleeting silence. He looked at the dismantled bomb, then at Kenji Hagiwara, his eyes shifting back and forth.

“Ah…ah?”

What did he just see?

If this wasn't a dream, or a hallucination before death, Hagi, who shouldn't have been here, not only showed up, but also dismantled this complex bomb in just one minute after the countdown to the explosion started?!

"What are you daydreaming about?" Hagiwara Kenji stood up, put away his tools neatly, and put the defuse bomb into a special container.

During this period, he always kept his side facing away from Matsuda Jinpei.

At any other time, Hagiwara Kenji's strange behavior would have been discovered by Matsuda Jinpei long ago.

But now Matsuda Jinpei himself came to his senses and accepted the fact that everything that had just happened before his eyes was real, and naturally he did not notice any subtle actions of Hagiwara Kenji.

"Hagi... why are you here?" Although Matsuda Jinpei accepted the unexpected development of the matter, he still couldn't help asking curiously.

Hagiwara Kenji was carrying a toolbox on one shoulder and looked at him with a smile on his face.

"I just said that, because I'm better at this kind of thing, and I'm luckier than you - the other one only had one set of fuses, so it was done quickly."

Jinpei Matsuda thought about it and realized that when he was in charge of dismantling the other side, he had indeed resolved the problem quickly.

However,

"That's not a reason for you guys to just rush up here." Matsuda Jinpei said with a headache.

If the bomb disposal operation fails, Hagi...then won't all their previous preparations be meaningless?

Then he recalled what Kenji Hagihara did when he defused the bomb, paused, and asked, "Hagi, how did you do that?"

As a childhood friend who grew up together, Jinpei Matsuda knew very well that Kenji Hagiwara had a very high talent for bomb disposal.

But no matter how you look at it, successfully dismantling a live-fire weapon within a one-minute countdown for the first time is no longer something that can be explained by "talent" or "genius", right?

The two of them had already reached the door of the emergency passage. To Matsuda Jinpei's surprise, when Hagiwara Kenji heard his question, his tone was even more confused than his.

"How did you do it? ... To be honest, I was a little scared." Hagiwara Kenji looked confused and thoughtful, "I was just trying to remember how I did it, but I couldn't remember what I did."

Standing at the entrance of the stairs with his chin clenched, Hagiwara Kenji said, "Could it be... a superpower? For example, time extension, time suspension, etc.? But the side effect is that I will lose my memory of that period of time?"

After saying this, the young man with his hair hanging on his shoulders shrugged and took the lead in walking down.

Matsuda Jinpei: “…”

The young man with fluffy black hair opened his mouth, feeling a little empathetic to the feelings of his colleagues who had been made a joke by him not long ago.

"…If you don't want to talk about it, forget it, you bastard."

After walking down a few steps, Matsuda Jinpei tried to hold back, but still couldn't help but turned around and looked behind him.

...Is this true? Is everything in front of me real? Is this not a dream?

"Hmm? Did you leave anything behind? Little Ping?"

Kenji Hagihara, who was walking in front, noticed his pause and quickly turned his head to look at him in confusion.

"No, nothing."

After looking at his friend for a moment, Jinpei Matsuda shook his head.

"Let's go."

Although compared to the plan and preparations made in advance, the way things ended was surprisingly simple and... unexpected.

But at least, the result is good.

"After dealing with these two troublesome guys, there is an even more troublesome one waiting."

As Matsuda Jinpei was speaking, he suddenly remembered the time when Hagiwara Kenji successfully dismantled the bomb, and he seemed to faintly hear an explosion coming from a certain direction.

At that time, because my attention was completely focused on my friend's smooth movements, I thought it was an illusion and didn't think much about it.

But now it seems that it is very likely not an illusion, but an explosion really occurred not too far away from them.

"Hagi, did you hear any new news before you came here?" asked Jinpei Matsuda.

"What?"

"When you were defusing the bomb just now, I seemed to hear an explosion. At the time, I thought it was an illusion caused by being too nervous, but now thinking back, it doesn't seem to be the case..."

After Jinpei Matsuda finished speaking, his expression became somewhat thoughtful.

I remember that before my colleagues left, there was a mysterious bullet screen that warned them that the bomb would explode. It was also because of that bullet screen that Jinpei Matsuda sped up the process of sending his colleagues away.

But what if the bomb that the barrage referred to as "exploding" was not the one in the apartment, but another bomb that they didn't know about yet?

Although this possibility is mostly based on his subjective conjecture, Jinpei Matsuda somehow feels that this guess is very close to the truth.

If we want to give a reasonable explanation for this confidence, it is probably that after experiencing the restart of time and dealing with various troubles caused by Shen Youkui, even Matsuda Jin Hirano, who had no interest in solving cases, has mastered the "intuition for solving cases" that an excellent investigation police officer should have.

However, speaking of Kamiya Aoi, Matsuda Jinpei suddenly realized——

"Wait! Kamiya Aoi!"

There was also a subtle change in the expression on Kenji Hagiwara's face.

To put it more exaggeratedly, once anything involves the missing teenager, any seemingly outrageous speculation may come true.

The two looked at each other, then rushed out of the apartment building in tacit understanding and asked their colleagues who were waiting outside the apartment for news.

#

"Mr. Fūya! You can't go in! It's too dangerous in there now!"

Flames and thick smoke shot up into the sky. Above the sky, the propellers of police helicopters spun rapidly. The huge buzzing sound even covered the sound of sirens on the ground.

Outside the cordon, workers in work clothes, looking agitated, gathered in a circle and shouted something at the warehouse that was on fire due to the explosion.

Yuya Kazami used all his strength, but he still felt that his blond-haired boss could break free from his obstruction and throw him out at any time.

"Mr. Fūya, please calm down!"

Originally, Kazami Yu shouldn't be here, but who made him have a boss with a special status and who is willful?

He was asked to apply for a police helicopter to develop an evacuation plan for the Metropolitan Police Department officers who were handling the bomb, while he himself disappeared without a trace.

Yuya Kazami didn't want to recall how much effort he had put in to find Furuya Rei, and then he was faced with a sudden explosion just after finding him.

Before I could recover from the shock of the explosion, I saw my boss walking towards the explosion site.

At that moment, Kazami Yu really felt his heart stop in a physical sense.

"Mr. Fūya, the cause of the explosion is still unclear. The situation in the warehouse is very dangerous. Please stay calm! You really can't go in! Are you looking for something?"

Yuya Kazami's two arms, which were tightly wrapped around Rei's waist, were aching, but Rei's forward force seemed to be unimpeded. He was so anxious that his glasses almost fell off.

Fortunately, it seemed that what he said had worked, and the boss's crazy attempt to rush into the warehouse slowed down.

However, Yuya Kazami did not dare to relax!

Until he heard his boss' voice above him, "Kazami, was the bomb at Shibuya Apartment Building defused successfully?"

Yuya Kazami was sweating profusely. "...Yes! It was a success. Because of the sudden explosion here, the bomb that was removed was handed over to other bomb disposal police. Officers Matsuda and Hagiwara, who were in charge of bomb disposal, are on their way."

Fūya Rei: “…”

Yuya Kazami felt as if he had been pardoned when he realized that his boss had released his strength. His tense muscles also relaxed, and he had obviously given up the idea of ​​rushing into the fire.

After straightening his crooked glasses, Kazami Yuya asked tentatively, "Mr. Fūya, why are you here?"

Could it be that he got some clues in advance and knew that an unexpected explosion would happen here?

As if he had seen something from his subordinate's unspeakable look, Furuya Rei: "..."

"Tracing the two missing police academy trainees."

Of course, Furuya Rei is not as powerful as Yuya Kazami imagined.

The reason why he appeared here was because of the two criminals who sent blackmail faxes to the Metropolitan Police Department.

After learning that a police officer named "Aoki" in the Metropolitan Police Department voluntarily applied to participate in the case of Kazukami Yuuki, and then mysteriously lost contact.

Relying on the intelligence advantage of his time restart, Furuya Rei deduced that the incident was the work of the Black Organization.

It can be tricky when there are only tangled clues and no clear enough arrow to connect everything.

However, once you find the arrow and follow its direction, you can quickly sort out all the seemingly unrelated fragments.

The action taken by the Black Organization against Kamiya Aoi was that clear enough arrow.

So the logic of connecting the other clues and fragments is simply this:

[Using the missing case to make Shen Youkui lose her current legal identity → diverting police forces to the bomb extortion case → successfully taking Shen Youkui away → dealing with the missing person and erasing all traces of her actions]

On the other hand, if you want to catch the tail of the Black Organization's action and trace the whereabouts of Kamiya Aoi, the quickest way is to follow the missing case.

The Metropolitan Police Department is at a loss as to what to do and the progress is stagnant because they do not know the hidden truth behind the missing case. However, Furuya Rei can rely on the information gap to directly sweep through the Black Organization's locations in Tokyo.

But I can't explain this to Yuya Kazami.

"So that's how it is..." As expected of Mr. Fūya, the progress of the Investigation Section 1 in two days could not catch up with his few hours of investigation. Kazami Yuya paused, "So, the missing two people are in the warehouse that just exploded?"

Furuya Rei: “Yes.”

Not only are the two missing police academy trainees there... Rei Furuya even suspects that Aoi Kamyou is among them as well.

Otherwise, how to explain the sound of the silver-haired boy who seemed to be negotiating with someone when he just came over?

"This..." Feng Jianyu was stunned. Seeing his boss's sullen gaze, he finally understood why he wanted to rush into the sea of ​​fire like he had lost his mind just now.

"Mr. Fūya, I'm sorry that I didn't understand the meaning of your instructions right away. I have already contacted the experts in bomb disposal from the Fire Department and the Metropolitan Police Department, and I won't miss any more clues!"

You'll never miss a single clue again...?

Furiya Rei, who was familiar with the Black Organization's style of operation, thought for a moment, "What about the two criminals who blackmailed the Metropolitan Police Department? Have they been caught?"

Kazami Yuya immediately called to confirm.

However, the result obtained...

The author has something to say:

A few days ago, during my period, it was so painful.