The navy-blue Bugatti Divo raced through the night like a messenger of the wind. Its pale blue underglow traced a beautiful arc across the pavement as it drifted around a corner.
The explosion had already occurred.
The time left for Ritsu was running out. If he didn't get there quickly and disarm the second bomb, every customer and employee in the movie theater would die inside.
A nightmare from seven years ago surfaced in his mind.
He clenched his fists tightly. Unlike the panicked customers fleeing for their lives, he chose without hesitation to run toward the danger. That was the duty of a police officer.
Arriving at the scene as well were Jinpei and Kenji, who lived nearby. Both carried bomb disposal equipment. It was obvious they had received a call from Hayasaka and rushed over immediately.
"Hm? That figure..."
Kenji frowned slightly. That head of white hair looked strangely familiar. Turning toward the Bugatti casually parked by the roadside, he became certain that the person who had just run into Beika City Hall was Onizawa.
"Kenji, are you feeling okay? You shouldn't go in. I can handle it myself."
"Don't be ridiculous. There's no way I'm letting you hog all the glory."
"Tch. Then keep up!"
But just as they were about to rush into the first floor, a tremendous explosion sealed off the entrance.
At the same time, fierce flames rapidly spread through the area, making it clear that entering through the first floor was now impossible.
Kenji's pupils contracted sharply.
The blaze before him reminded him of the bombing incident seven years ago. A dull ache spread from his right eye, and his legs suddenly felt weak.
'This is bad.'
His body was instinctively recoiling in fear.
So he still couldn't face explosions head-on after all. The trauma left by that incident had run far deeper than he had realized.
"Looks like... neither of us is getting in."
Jinpei turned to look at his childhood friend. No matter how well Kenji concealed it, he still caught the fear lingering in his eyes.
He reached out and gently patted Kenji's shoulder twice.
"Kenji, let's sit over there for a bit. All we can do now is wait for the firefighters to figure something out."
"...Yeah. That's all we can do."
Kenji didn't insist. Without fireproof gear, they had no way of entering the blaze. The last thing they wanted was to fail to save anyone and only create more work for the firefighters.
Meanwhile, on the first floor of Beika City Hall, the massive explosion threw Ritsu to the ground with its shockwave.
He scrambled back to his feet, brushed the dust from his clothes, and immediately charged into the emergency stairwell without stopping.
Taking the elevator at a time like this would obviously be foolish.
Fortunately, the theater wasn't located on a particularly high floor. With his physical conditioning, running upstairs was easy.
"Kudo! Can you hear me?! Kudo!!"
"Sensei?!"
The despairing Shinichi shot to his feet the moment he heard Ritsu's voice. "Sensei, I'm over here! But the entrance is blocked by debris. I don't think you can get in!"
"Are you standing right behind the debris?"
"No. Why?"
"Then stay back."
Ritsu already knew the debris had jammed the door shut, making it impossible to open normally.
If he couldn't open it, then brute force would have to do.
Calmly drawing his service pistol from its holster, he aimed at the steel door and fired several rounds.
He then quickly stepped back, using the momentum to rotate his body, twisting his waist and hips before unleashing a full-powered kick.
BANG!!
The tremendous impact shook the debris piled against the door.
Inside, Shinichi shrank into a corner in shock. He subconsciously swallowed.
'Sensei's martial arts are that good? He feels way stronger than Ran!'
BANG! BANG!!
After several consecutive spinning kicks, the debris finally came loose. The moment Ritsu opened the door, Shinichi charged toward him.
Ritsu immediately planted a hand against the boy's forehead to stop him.
"Hey. Was all that really necessary?"
"The signal got blocked when the explosion happened. I seriously thought I was going to die in there."
Realizing his attempt to throw himself at his teacher was a little embarrassing, Shinichi awkwardly cleared his throat and turned serious.
"Sensei, Ran is still inside!"
"I know. And there should be another bomb in there that needs to be disarmed."
Ritsu frowned deeply and tried shoving the damaged steel door a few times.
No luck.
There was simply no way through. At this point, there was only one option left if they wanted to survive.
Ran would have to handle the bomb.
"Mouri-san, can you hear me?"
While comforting a crying little girl, Ran immediately replied when she heard her name.
"I can! Is that you, Onizawa-san?!"
After checking the surroundings and confirming there was no way out, Wataru had returned to the safer area to rest and conserve his strength.
Upon hearing the surname "Onizawa," he froze.
"Mouri-san, are you talking about Onizawa from First Division, Third Investigation Team of the Metropolitan Police Department?"
Ran halted in surprise.
"Date-san, you know Onizawa-san?"
Natalie smiled and explained, "Actually, Kou is a detective too."
"Date-san is a detective as well?" Ran looked genuinely surprised.
"That's right. You and Natalie will be safer staying here, so let me go."
Wataru walked toward the rubble and leaned over it as much as possible.
"Onizawa? It's Wataru Date from First Division, Second Investigation Team."
'Class Leader?!'
Ritsu froze upon hearing Wataru's voice.
What a coincidence. The Class Leader was here too. And he probably wasn't here alone. Which meant... he was on a date with his girlfriend.
"Date, listen carefully. There should still be another bomb somewhere inside the theater. It should be hidden in a relatively safe and concealed location."
"So there really is another bomb."
Wataru frowned. "Got it. I'll start looking right away."
The bomb would have to be far from any fire source. And it would probably be somewhere people normally paid little attention to.
Wataru's eyes landed on the snack stand area within the designated safe zone. Running over, he searched carefully until he found an elegantly wrapped box behind a trash can.
Crouching down, he carefully lifted the lid.
As expected, there was a bomb inside.
What shocked him even more was, there wasn't just one bomb. There were two plastic explosives connected together.
The sight immediately reminded him of the linked bombs Sotomori Kazumi had hidden inside a washing machine seven years ago.
Wataru frowned. Although he had bomb disposal training from the police academy, he wasn't familiar with a design like this.
He glanced toward Natalie, who was watching him with concern. Then he picked up the box and resolutely headed back toward the rubble.
At this point, he could only gamble.
A gamble that Onizawa knew something about bomb disposal and Wataru trusted his luck today.
After all, today was his girlfriend's birthday. Everyone was going to walk out of here safely.
"I brought the bomb."
"Can you see my hand from where you are?"
Wataru looked down and saw a hand reaching through a gap in the rubble. "Yeah. You want me to take photos of the bomb's internal structure, right?"
"Right. Relax. The bomber probably didn't make it too complicated."
"Hah. You could tell I was nervous just from my voice?"
Wataru chuckled. "But hearing you say that puts me at ease."
Though separated by only a wall, there was no signal inside the theater. After receiving Wataru's phone, Ritsu carefully examined the photos of the bomb.
However, the moment he saw its structure, his brow furrowed.
'Looks like I spoke too soon.'
The bomb... would probably be genuinely difficult for Class Leader to disarm. He glanced at the people beside him.
Teiji's ultimate objective was likely for Shinichi and Ran to disarm the bomb together.
"Tch."
He had seriously underestimated the man.
----
bonus chap every 20 PS
read ahead on my pa reon.com/Siamus404