The moment those words were spoken, the group split up to act, quickly executing their respective tasks.
Gojo Satoru took the repair tools that Matsuda carried with him, opened the lid of one of the washing machines, and glanced at the wiring, immediately simulating the best dismantling plan in his mind. Tofori Hajime was not an experienced bomber, and the thing he built was not particularly sophisticated. Or rather, it lacked sophistication but had plenty of cunning. Those traps deliberately placed to confuse the vision were like ink on white paper in his eyes, with nowhere to hide.
While Gojo was working, Furuya Rei, crouched on the side, stared tightly at the complex wiring. The tip of his pliers hovered uncertainty between several wires of similar colors, and the sweat seeping from his forehead slowly slid down his cheek. After all, this was not a child's toy, but a real, dangerous object.
"Should I cut this blue wire on the left...?" He leaned closer to a blue wire, and the pliers in his hand slowly moved toward it, but he was stopped by Matsuda Jinpei just in time.
"No!" Matsuda used his bandage-wrapped fingers to push aside the blue wire. "This is just a redundant wire disguised as the main control wire... If you cut it, it will highly likely explode immediately."
Furuya nodded, his Adam's apple moving with difficulty.
Seeing his somewhat overly tense state, Matsuda patted his shoulder, a hint of a smile appearing in his eyes. "Alright, don't be so anxious. How does that old saying go? Being impatient—"
"—is a major taboo."
Just as Matsuda started speaking, Gojo's light voice came from the other side, and the voices of the two overlapped perfectly at this moment. The black-haired, red-eyed youth didn't even look up as he continued dismantling the wiring he was responsible for, but his mouth didn't stay idle. "Why is Jinpei copying my words?"
Matsuda snapped, "You are clearly the one stealing my lines!"
Watching the two bicker, Furuya's tense nerves actually relaxed a bit. He took a deep breath and refocused his attention. "So, the one to cut is this red wire?"
"Still wrong." Matsuda stared at the wiring and snorted. "The one that really should be cut is that green wire wrapped in red tape. Seriously, that guy Tofori deliberately made the colors a complete mess."
Furuya successfully cut the green wire, and seeing that indeed nothing happened, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.
"Be careful~ If Zero's hand shakes, tomorrow's police academy headline might be 'Six police students collectively ascend to heaven due to bomb disposal mistake.'"
"Say something auspicious, will you?" Matsuda rolled his eyes at Gojo. "How is your progress? Don't tell me you haven't even started yet?"
"Well, it's already almost over."
"For real?!"
Kuno: Just this? I'm done defusing. Matsuda: ??
Hahahahaha collectively ascend to heaven is way too funny.
Zero looks so obedient when he's studying seriously.
I feel like no matter how you combine these three, their chemistry is so good wwww.
Watching this makes me so nervous, absolutely do not let your hand slip!!
Rest assured~ If his hand really slipped, how would Tooru appear in the main story?
On the other side, when Date Wataru and Morofushi Hiromitsu rushed up to the second floor, Tofori Hajime was sitting by the window holding a comatose little girl.
Seeing this scene, Morofushi couldn't help but blurt out, "Tofori, you—"
"Shh, keep it down, this child finally fell asleep." Even though he knew his crime was exposed, this ordinary-looking uncle only showed a smile that was even brighter than when he usually interacted with the neighbors. His fingers ran through the girl's hair, and his voice was gentle enough to make one's hair stand on end. "...We are going to go on a picnic to the other world together with Dad, right? Yuri."
Morofushi widened his eyes. He finally realized where the inconsistency that had existed from beginning to end was. Besides the Guanyin statue tattoo that was mistaken for a goblet, there was also the full name of his childhood playmate.
Tofori Yuri... Her name was Tofori Yuri, and she was Uncle Tofori's daughter!
In an instant, the fog left in his mind by the amnesia of many years completely vanished, pointing out the truth for him. Back then, Hiromitsu's father was the teacher in Yuri's class. During a picnic, Yuri suddenly fell ill, and although his father immediately took her to the hospital for treatment, it was too late to save her. In this way, the grief-stricken Tofori Hajime highly likely believed that his father had caused Yuri's death, and proceeded to carry out a so-called revenge against Morofushi Hiromitsu's family.
Then, the reason why this girl who looked similar to Yuri was kidnapped by Tofori was probably because she was treated as a replacement for his daughter, plus those bombs downstairs... Afraid that Tofori wanted to die together with this child.
Thinking up to this point, Morofushi bit his teeth and shouted, "Tofori, wake up! This child is not Yuri at all!"
"No, that's wrong." Tofori shook his head. He looked very rational, but the words he spoke were quite crazy. "You were the one who let me meet this child, she is Yuri."
"What..."
"Actually, on that night fifteen years ago, I saw you hiding in the closet long ago. Do you know why I didn't kill you?" Tofori said with a smile, "Because you were Yuri's good friend. As long as I followed you, I would be able to find the daughter hidden away by your parents!"
"Last time when you guys were wandering around the commercial street, I was nearby... As expected, you let me meet this child, she is my Yuri!"
Hearing this, Date couldn't help but feel stunned, while Morofushi understood perfectly. This man had already become half a madman due to the pain of losing his daughter, and his thinking was completely different from a normal person.
Tofori didn't think the two students wearing police academy uniforms in front of him posed any threat, just holding the child in his arms and constantly talking to himself, "Today is Yuri's birthday, I want to happily embark on a journey with her at a specific moment..."
Saying that, he raised the detonator in his hand, as if he would press it at any time.
Morofushi took a deep breath and spoke, "Wait a minute! I remember on the day of the picnic when we were young, Yuri she..."
"Hmm?" Tofori raised his head, looking toward the clean-looking cat-eyed youth. For a criminal like this who didn't care about anything except his daughter, the only thing that could trigger his emotions was his daughter's name.
"Yuri she... once told me." Morofushi deliberately spoke quite slowly, wanting to buy some time for his companions defusing the bomb downstairs. "On the day of the picnic, she told me that she had a fight with her dad, and she said she never wanted to go home again..."
"What did you say?" Hearing such words, Tofori's mind was shaken, and the finger pressing on the detonator shook.
Date and Morofushi sharply caught his moment of hesitation, immediately rushing forward with the speed of lightning. One leaped forward to restrain him, while the other tried to snatch the detonator and the little girl.
Tofori snapped out of it, engaging in a fierce struggle with Morofushi. "Don't even think about ruining my plan—!"
A criminal who is not even afraid of death can often unleash potential he wouldn't normally have. Even for Morofushi, who had pretty good scores in fighting and grappling classes, dealing with this guy was a bit difficult. In the messy struggle, his ankle accidentally kicked against the hard wall, and a faint popping sound came out.
Morofushi didn't have time to feel the pain brought by this sprain, using all his strength to subdue Tofori. Date also seized the right moment, picking up the little girl who was still in a coma, moving her away from the criminal's danger zone.
At the exact moment they relaxed slightly, Tofori grabbed the detonator that had fallen on the floor and pressed it down.
Morofushi and Date opened their mouths wide, their expressions filled with horror. "Hahaha, let's meet together in that world!!"
However, after Tofori let out the classic laugh of a villain facing death, nothing happened. "...Why didn't it explode?!"
The few of them looked at the detonator that had already been pressed down, completely speechless.
Downstairs, Furuya and Matsuda wiped the fine sweat from their faces, high-fiving the smiling Gojo who approached them. "Good job!"
Hahaha, at this moment, the room is filled with cheerful air.
www I give full marks to this wave of cooperation!
Hiss, I always feel it's not that simple, is it just my imagination?
Date breathed a sigh of relief. "Luckily they moved fast, otherwise it would have been over."
After the false alarm, Morofushi took some cloth strips from the room to tie up Tofori, intending to go downstairs together with Date, who was holding the little girl. Tofori lowered his head and didn't resist, looking completely hopeless.
"Actually..." Morofushi said softly, "On that day, Yuri didn't just tell me those things."
The man in front of him looked ten years older at this moment. Hearing his daughter's name, he raised his head trembling.
"She said that although she was very angry about fighting with her dad, after returning from the picnic, she still wanted to apologize to you, because... you are her most important family member."
"Yuri..." Tears flashed in Tofori's eyes, and it seemed to take a lot of effort to keep them from falling. He remained silent like this, obediently following the two down the steps.
Hagiwara, who had already returned from outside, was joking with Matsuda and the others, "I worked super hard to get the residents to finish evacuating, but did I end up working for nothing?"
"Working for nothing is a good thing, do you really want to see an explosion?" Seeing Date slowly walking down holding the child, Furuya smiled, "You guys seem to have gone very smoothly."
Gojo stretched his back, "Hmm~ No way, I want to go back and have a big meal, otherwise I'd be letting down those dead brain cells."
Matsuda complained, "Is there a single day when you don't eat a big meal?"
To their surprise, halfway down, Tofori stopped in his tracks, asking a strange question. "Can you tell me what time it is now?"
Morofushi glanced at his watch and told him honestly, "It's about two minutes away from four-thirty."
"Is that so." The current Tofori no longer had his previous crazy tone, turning very peaceful instead, which made people feel a bit uneasy. "I am sorry, child. I will go to the other world to apologize to your parents."
Morofushi froze. Could the specific moment he mentioned be...
The moment the man finished speaking, the sound of an explosion rang out like muffled thunder.
"Boom—!!!"
A hot wave of fire swept down from the second floor, and the wooden staircase was destroyed instantly. Lime dust mixed with black smoke spread everywhere, making it hard to open one's eyes from the choking air. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Tofori immediately turned around and rushed toward the fire scene, like a moth flying straight into a flame.
Turns out, there were bombs on the second floor too!
Everyone quickly realized that Tofori had prepared a double insurance to ensure his own death. In a flash, Morofushi didn't hesitate at all, similarly turning around to run toward the second floor.
"Wait! Don't go, Morofushi!" Matsuda shouted, "It's already too late!"
Witnessing his childhood friend's action, Furuya's pupils shrank, "Hiromitsu! Come back quickly!"
The remaining few also shouted, trying to make Morofushi stop his steps. After all, with the smoke billowing like that on the second floor, anyone who stayed inside for a bit longer wouldn't be able to handle it, let alone those continuous tongues of fire that left almost no chance of survival.
Morofushi didn't turn back, only shouting a single sentence, "Cherry blossoms!"
Hearing this, everyone immediately looked at the cherry blossom class flag wrapped around Matsuda's body, reaching a sudden understanding. Right, the second floor has windows! As long as they found a good position to unfold the class flag, they could accurately catch the person jumping from the window, and there would be no danger to life.
"Alright! Got it!" Matsuda untied the class flag from his body, rushing out directly together with Furuya and the others.
Morofushi believed they had already understood his meaning, and there was no need to worry about his escape route. Therefore, he tried to rush up the stairs at the fastest speed to rescue Tofori Hajime.
But who would have thought, just as he was about to step onto a higher step, a sudden abnormality came from his ankle, and a severe stinging pain shot straight up through his nerves.
"Damn it..." Morofushi only now remembered that he had accidentally sprained his ankle during his struggle with Tofori earlier.
When coming downstairs before, his speed was very slow, and he didn't take it seriously, but rushing upstairs was an entirely different concept. The pain in his right foot was awakened unexpectedly, and his original swift steps followed with a sudden loss of balance.
I'm clearly just a few steps away from going upstairs, but it just had to be at a time like this...
Such a useless thought crossed his mind, and Morofushi watched himself fall backward, his vision turning upside down. The ceiling licked by the tongues of fire dropped burning pieces of wood debris, and the heat wave after the explosion also blew right against his face, looking completely like doomsday.
"What are you doing, Hiromitsu?"
It wasn't until his back crashed into a warm embrace, and a scent of citrus body wash mixed with the scorched smell of the fire scene entered his nose, that Morofushi realized who had caught him.
"Thank you..." Seeing those red eyes that were slightly similar to the color of the flames, Morofushi first thanked him out of reflex, but then shook his head. "Tofori is still up there! I have to go save him!"
Compared to the other four who had rushed out in a desperate hurry, Gojo's movements were much slower. After all, four people were enough to unfold the four corners of the class flag, so there was nothing for him to do, and he might as well just pass the time. But just at the moment he was about to leave the scene, he saw Morofushi falling from the stairs.
This was a bit different from the original plot. In the original manga, Morofushi rescued Tofori very smoothly.
Could it be that because I participated in the bomb disposal this time, this kind of butterfly effect occurred? Gojo pondered, noticing Morofushi's foot injury. To endure that kind of pain to smoothly rush upstairs and support Tofori was truly asking too much of someone. Since that's the case, might as well...
Hearing another sound of collapsing from upstairs, Morofushi instinctively wanted to rush forward, but he was held firmly by Gojo, making it hard to move.
Morofushi raised his eyes, only to see those red eyes that always contained a smile were completely devoid of emotion at this moment, unfamiliar to the point of being scary. He had never seen Kuno Nozomu look like this—no playful tone, no cynical smile, only a calmness close to coldness.
Gojo tilted his head. "Isn't it good for a guy like that to die?"
"He is the one who killed your parents, Hiromitsu."
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100 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter
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