At the same time, manga readers in the parallel world instantly blew up upon seeing this scene, and the bullet screen was crazily refreshing at a speed of a hundred lines per second.
[Wait, did I see that wrong, what did Hagiwara say? Little Kuno is gone?!]
[Holy crap holy crap holy crap! Is it real or fake!! I don't believe it! Author, get out here, prepare for the blades!]
[This is way too sudden, right? My heart just stopped]
[Hiromitsu's expression boohoo... someone save him, he's about to shatter!]
[Are you sure this is a Halloween special?? Isn't it April Fool's Day??]
Asano Mei sat on the train, her eyes also widened in disbelief, and her phone almost fell to the ground.
As a loyal reader of the Police Academy Arc, she never missed any of its updates. In the plot updated last week, the group of six successfully graduated from the police academy, and the final double-page spread was their big group photo under the ginkgo tree. No matter from which angle you looked at it, this short piece had already drawn a perfect period—moreover, the author had already announced the news of completion.
Therefore, when she saw the app notification that the police academy manga special chapter was updated, she was particularly pleasantly surprised. She opened the content of the new chapter without any hesitation, her heart full of expectation. Was it a warm daily routine supplement of the group of six? Or a postscript like many other manga specials?
"Hmm? This title is... Halloween's Deadly Game?"
Those words didn't look connected to warmth no matter how you looked at them. And the title page of this issue was also different from the usual group images... actually featuring little Kuno alone?
The handsome youth stood alone in the thick darkness, loosening his black long hair that was usually tied in a low ponytail, and the red ribbon turned into fine sand, flowing down through his fingers.
Though it's beautiful enough to be a wallpaper, something feels strange...
Mei forcibly suppressed the unease in her heart, flipped past the title page, and went straight to the point.
The manga explained the post assignments of the group of six after graduation at the beginning, and after that was the description of Morofushi Hiromitsu's working process in the police box. Interspersed in the middle was also the memory of their gathering inside the hot pot restaurant, such as the close-up of Hiromitsu closing his eyes to make a wish, and the psychological activities that made people smile knowingly.
Hope these days... can continue forever and ever...
Finishing a day of hard work, Hiromitsu stretched and came out of the police box, and after seeing people in strange costumes on the street, he realized the fact that November was coming soon. Associating this with the scene where everyone would likely sit around listening to Hiromitsu play the bass when little Kuno had his birthday, the corners of Mei's mouth couldn't help but turn up slightly.
However, at the moment Hiromitsu received Hagiwara's phone call, the terrifying omen seemed to spread out—
"Little Kuno, he..."
"He died in the line of duty."
Even for Mei, who had already made psychological preparations, she couldn't predict that Hagiwara would speak such cruel words.
No, impossible... little Kuno is so powerful, how could he die suddenly? Clearly all kinds of previous events couldn't stump him, it must be a mistake somewhere...
The girl bit her lip, finding it hard to believe this statement no matter what. Setting her mind, her attention returned to the manga in front of her again. At least... she had to figure out what exactly happened. Holding this thought, she continued to read on.
...
Two hours ago, Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department.
"Seriously, today is way too lively, right?" A police officer rubbed his aching eyes in front of the computer, complaining, "Just dealing with those prank alarm calls is enough—saying a bunch of messy garbage, and at the end saying 'wrong number' trying to gloss over it, what exactly do these guys take the police for?"
Compared to previous years, the number of young people participating in the Halloween parade reached a new high this year, and at the same time brought quite a bit of trouble to the police in maintaining order.
"Endure it, it will be over in a few more hours." His colleague sighed, "After all, there's always a bunch of brats messing around using the festival as an excuse."
The officer nodded, just wanting to say something more when he caught sight of an email reminder popping up on the screen. "It wouldn't be some inexplicable threatening letter again... Hmm? A video? This is quite rare."
The officer watched it while drinking coffee. But before finishing even half of the content, his face changed drastically.
"Quick... quick contact the Criminal Investigation Department, something big happened!"
...
As night fell, the unique atmosphere belonging to Halloween became more intense, but the Metropolitan Police Department was shrouded under a layer of gravity that was incompatible with the festival.
"What did you say? A bomb notice?!" The heavily-built Chief of the Criminal Investigation Department, Matsumoto Kiyonaga, stood up, his gaze sharp, "Are you sure the content is true?"
"The situation is temporarily unclear, but it doesn't look like a prank." The assisting officer's forehead dropped a bead of sweat, "All officers of the Communications Command Headquarters received this email, and the IP source cannot be found. The opponent should have planned it long ago and made full preparations for it..."
"In short, please take a look first." He placed the tablet computer gripped in his hand on the conference table and turned on the projector.
First appearing in front of everyone was a pure white background. Next, a man wearing a crow mask and a black suit appeared in the center of the camera—since that mask covered the whole face, plus only the upper body appeared on screen, it made it difficult for people to judge his specific build and age, and even gender was hard to tell.
"Happy Halloween, dear police misters."
The electronic sound processed by a voice changer should have been cold, but it became creepily hair-raising because of that playful tone. The mysterious person sat on a high-backed chair, the face under the mask seemingly smiling.
"Don't you think this Halloween night is a bit too unoriginal? Witches, vampires, skeleton crosses everywhere... it's simply boring to death." He spread his palms and said, "To add a bit of interest, I want to play a game with you."
"The rules are very simple~" He raised a finger and shook it left and right, "I prepared two 'small gifts' that will explode, one hidden in the Sunshine Building of Ikebukuro, and the other hidden in Kabukicho of Shinjuku."
"If you find them and dismantle them within one hour, you can win this game. Conversely, if you can't do it, it's my victory."
Seeing this, Inspector Ishida next to Matsumoto Kiyonaga thought, "One hour... should be enough to evacuate the crowds in these two areas, right?" As long as the evacuation was completed, even if they failed to dismantle the bombs, the negative impact caused would be relatively limited.
As if predicting his thought long ago, the bomb culprit on the screen added, "Of course, you can also choose not to dismantle them."
"However, as for whether there will be a third 'small gift' hidden in some ward, blowing the citizens into pieces with a boom, then I don't know."
Facing such an explicit threat, everyone including the Chief of the Criminal Investigation Department furrowed their brows tightly.
"Oh, right, to show my sincerity..." The mysterious person snapped his fingers, and the screen in the video switched into an abandoned factory turning into a sea of fire amidst roars, pausing for a few seconds before cutting back.
"The novice guide ends here. In short, if you don't have the determination to seriously win this game, can't find, or can't dismantle the bombs... Boom!" He opened his arms with exaggeration, imitating the movement of an explosion, "Everyone will be able to see the most brilliant fireworks tonight."
"By the way, from the moment you received the email, the countdown has already started—"
"Wish you good luck."
The video stopped abruptly here.
Matsumoto Kiyonaga's face was iron-blue, staring deadly at the frozen screen, as if trying to drag that arrogant guy out through the screen. In recent years, the police had encountered not few bomb culprits, but they hadn't seen a culprit who sent a challenge letter so openly, even calling it a game beautifully.
Inspector Sasaki on one side guessed, "Could it be that the previous explosion scene was just technical synthesis? The opponent is just bluffing?"
At this time, the assisting officer happened to receive a phone call from the Technical Countermeasures Section.
"Report! The Yamazaki abandoned chemical factory in the western suburbs was confirmed to have a violent explosion not long ago! After identification, it basically matches the factory in the video!"
In this way, the possibility of a prank was completely shattered. The only thing worth rejoicing about was probably that the factory explosion didn't affect the masses or cause casualties.
"But, Ikebukuro Sunshine Building and Shinjuku Kabukicho are both densely populated areas, if those two bombs really exist..." Matsumoto Kiyonaga immediately ordered, "Contact the Traffic Section, evacuate the crowds of the two places, and block the roads around the explosion points! At the same time, investigate recent suspicious reports related to explosives!"
"Mobility Unit standby! Block the news using the excuse of a safety drill first to avoid causing panic among the masses."
"Also, notify the Explosive Ordinance Disposal squad! Everyone move for me! Fast!!"
If that guy in the video didn't lie, the so-called time limit should be before eight thirty-five. Counting the time wasted in passing the news, they had fifty minutes left at most. To evacuate crowds and find the bomb positions with this bit of time, they must race against time. Taking ten thousand steps back, even if the so-called third bomb might just be a cover, no one dared to gamble on this possibility.
Except for temporarily believing the criminal... they had no other choice.
After receiving the emergency notice from the superior, the members of the EOD squad assembled quickly.
Matsuda Jinpei stubbed out the cigarette that was only half-smoked, and while putting on the protective suit, he said with displeasure, "What exactly is this explosion culprit thinking? Messing around late at night, just to provoke the police?" He had solved several small explosion events during the day, thinking the night could be passed peacefully, not expecting this kind of lunatic to pop up.
"Well, look on the bright side, at least he gave hints ahead of time, allowing us to have time to evacuate the crowds rather than directly detonating the bombs." Hagiwara Kenji checked the equipment, his tone serious, "However, no one knows where the third explosion location is, if it's Shibuya with the largest crowd flow, it will be terrible... So, we must go all out and handle the bombs as quickly as possible."
"Yeah... where's little Kuno? He hasn't arrived yet?"
"Coming." A familiar voice came from behind.
The black-haired, red-eyed boy held a chocolate bar in his mouth, not serious at all like the others in the EOD squad.
"You guy..." Matsuda showed half-moon eyes, "What time is it and you're still so leisurely?"
Kuno Nozomu shrugged, "Tension is useless, bombs won't disappear by themselves—anyway, they will be dismantled by me at the end, so no difference."
Matsuda gave a tsk, "Only knows how to talk big."
"Little Matsuda is the one."
Watching the two bickering, Hagiwara's heavy mood relaxed a lot instantly.
When the commander cleared the headcount, all members completed the equipment check in the shortest time, including protective suits, bomb-dismantling tools, communication equipment, and so on. In front of them were two heavy transport vehicles painted with the words "Metropolitan Police Department Explosive Ordinance Disposal Squad," driving in the directions of Ikebukuro and Shinjuku respectively.
Since the bomb positions were not clear yet and they needed to act separately, the commander divided them into several action groups, with at least two to three people in each group. Among them, Hagiwara was one of the group leaders of the Shinjuku group, in a team with Matsuda and another member they had a good relationship with.
Meanwhile, Kuno Nozomu was one of the team members of the Ikebukuro group, and his current nominal superior was surnamed Watanabe. In the commander's words, this kid had too many autonomous behaviors in team cooperation and was temporarily not suitable to serve as a group leader.
"Originally I thought the three of us would be divided into one team." Matsuda said with surprise, "After all, we often act together."
Hagiwara, however, knew the reason inside very well. As the saying goes, don't put eggs in one basket. Though Matsuda Jinpei and Kuno Nozomu hadn't taken office for long, they displayed bomb-dismantling skills far exceeding others. Placing the two in different teams would achieve maximum efficiency instead.
Before boarding the police car, Hagiwara took a look at the increasingly pressing time on his phone, and the worry in his heart surfaced again.
"Little Hagiwara, what's wrong?" Kuno Nozomu waved a hand in front of his eyes, "Frowning all the time will make you old very fast."
Hagiwara returned to his senses, catching sight of that handsome face still carrying a boyish look just like when they first met, and felt quite some emotion for a moment. Clearly almost a year has passed, but little Kuno still looks very young. If a few more years passed and he grew to the age of twenty-four or twenty-five, the change could probably be seen... Speaking of which, he really couldn't imagine what this guy would look like when he became a mature male. Presumably, it would also be a look very popular with girls.
Hagiwara shook his head, "Nothing, just that the situation is special this time, I'm a bit worried."
"Hagi, don't think too much." Matsuda patted his shoulder, "Actually it's no different from usual, just the time is a bit tight, nothing will happen, after all..."
"—We are professionals, right?" Kuno Nozomu hooked his arms around the necks of the two with a smile, almost making them stumble.
"Hey hey! Put away a bit of strength, monster-strength Kuno!"
Not far away came the voice of the commander urging them to board the vehicle, and only then did the three release each other.
Kuno Nozomu turned around and walked toward the transport vehicle, his back profile lazy and flashy as always. One second before leaving, Hagiwara shouted behind his back, "Don't forget, must be careful!"
"I know, don't worry."
At the moment the vehicle door closed, Kuno Nozomu waved his hand with his back facing the two, without turning back.