On the other side, Matsuda and Ito were dividing the work and cooperating, determined to dismantle the bomb within five minutes.
However, an unexpected thing happened. The numbers on the timer froze at 00:04:23, and the piercing red light also stopped flashing. Just like when the countdown started, its end left people caught off guard.
"Stopped... it stopped...?" A police officer guessed, "Is it a bad contact? Or did the jammer work?"
Matsuda stared at the crisscrossing wires in front of him, his brows tightly furrowed, "No... it looks more like someone remotely intervened in the system."
"Never mind that for now, let's continue quickly." Even if the countdown stopped, the time limit left by the bomb culprit to the police was not extended, and they must complete the task at the fastest speed. Fortunately... the structure of the bomb is not as troublesome as imagined. The process of dismantling the bomb was fairly smooth, which made Matsuda secretly let out a sigh of relief.
However, right when he was about to cut the last red line, Ito suddenly gave a low shout and tightly clamped Matsuda's wrist.
"Wait! Don't move that line!"
Matsuda turned his head in surprise, "What's wrong?"
"Look here!" Ito used the tip of the tweezers to point at the circuit board. There was a micro-device that almost merged into one with the metal shell. If it weren't for his outstanding eyesight and years of bomb-dismantling experience, he might have plunged into the trap.
"Could it be..." After Matsuda saw that small sensor clearly, a chill ran down his back, "A serial bomb?"
Ito nodded, "Right, it is very likely remotely connected to the detonation switch of another bomb." His face was grave, "If we dismantle this bomb now, it might cause an explosion at another location."
"You mean... the side of Ikebukuro?"
"Not necessarily, it could also be a third location."
Just when the two were in a dilemma, the voice of the commander came from the walkie-talkie.
"Shinjuku group, report the bomb-dismantling progress."
Ito replied immediately, "Discovered a sensor, suspected serial bomb, please..."
Before he could ask the commander for instructions, the other side said concisely, "Order from superiors, suspend dismantling, wait for the unmanned transport drone to transfer the bomb to the explosion-proof tank, and head to a safe area for handling."
"But, just in case a third bomb is detonated..."
"Just now, the bomb culprit sent a second video to the police." The commander explained, "He claimed in the video that the 'game' is over, and no more bombs will be detonated."
"That is a bomb culprit!" Matsuda could not agree with this statement, "How can we believe him?!"
"The countdown on your side has stopped, right?"
"...You mean, he proactively stopped the war?" Not only Matsuda, but Ito also felt it was unbelievable.
The commander was silent for a while before speaking, "His behavior is indeed hard to estimate... but the enemy is in the dark and we are in the light, currently there is no better way. The transport drone will go over very soon, except for the experts responsible for remote control, other people can evacuate first." His voice carried a trace of fatigue, "...The EOD squad has already lost a genius, I don't want you guys to be involved again."
"..."
Lost? Who?
Matsuda's pupils constricted slightly, but the commander didn't explain, just changing the frequency in a hurry. His gaze subconsciously turned toward Hagiwara Kenji—
Next, his heart sank violently. The youth who usually had a bright smile was now in a daze, his lips trembling, looking like he wanted to say something but couldn't even squeeze out a single syllable. His fingers tightly gripped the walkie-talkie, as if that was the only thing that could support him to stand.
...Not right.
A scene suddenly flashed through Matsuda's mind. When he was fully concentrated on dismantling the bomb, someone in the distance seemed to be shouting something crazily. ...Whose name was it?
"Hey!! Hagi, pull yourself together!"
Not until his shoulder was pressed by Matsuda did Hagiwara seem to recover a trace of sanity, "...Jinpei?"
"Do you know something? About what just happened..." Countless questions tumbled in Matsuda's mind, and a terrifying guess gradually took shape, but was subconsciously denied by him. But, a person who could be called a genius by the commander... how many were there in the EOD squad? "What exactly happened? Hagi?"
Hagiwara's pupils finally focused, and only after quite a while did he speak a complete sentence.
"Over at the Sunshine Building... it exploded."
"I just contacted Watanabe of the Ikebukuro group. He told me the explosion location was at the observation deck on the 60th floor. When the bomb was found back then, it was also a five-minute countdown. Little Kuno proactively stayed behind to dismantle the bomb, thinking he would reserve enough time to evacuate, but until the last moment of the countdown, he failed to leave..."
"Failed to leave...?" Matsuda took a step back, muttering, "Impossible, with his level, how could he not solve this bomb?"
"Little Kuno said, he can't dismantle it." Hagiwara's eyes were red, "He must have discovered something, must have discovered that damn sensor..."
The sensor... that serial bomb?
Matsuda's brain exploded with a buzz. If Kuno Nozomu found the bomb earlier than them, the countdown of Ikebukuro would also start ahead of time. Then, by the time he discovered the sensor, how many seconds could be left...? That sensor which was very likely connected to the Shinjuku bomb—
"Only now do I know, when he asked me 'Did the Shinjuku group find the bomb' in the walkie-talkie... he was confirming that if we were too close to the bomb, he wouldn't dismantle it..."
Why did he say he can't dismantle it, rather than he doesn't know how to dismantle it?
All of a sudden, Matsuda understood everything.
"At the last second, he said to me 'Goodbye, little Hagiwara.'" Hagiwara showed a smile that looked uglier than crying, "I originally also thought, could it be a joke? But the result was a final goodbye..."
Everyone present fell silent. As police officers, they already had the preparation to die in the line of duty at any time. But no matter who it was, they couldn't believe immediately that Kuno Nozomu would be the earliest one to leave among them. Even, leaving to protect them.
Ito was the same. Clearly the unprecedented genius of the police academy, becoming an Assistant Inspector at a young age, a child excellent enough to have boundless prospects, how could... He couldn't help opening his mouth to say, "What if the commander and the others made a mistake? Kuno-kun should have worn a protective suit, right? If he found a shelter, maybe there is still a possibility of survival."
"Mr. Ito..." Hearing his words, Matsuda woke up like from a dream, "Right... I said that guy couldn't die so easily!"
"Hagi, let's go quickly to the Ikebukuro building to ask!" His voice was urgent, also carrying some unrealistic hope, "Maybe it's a mistake somewhere, right?"
"You're right..." Hagiwara took a deep breath, as if finally finding back a bit of strength, "Little Kuno... he can always make people unexpected things..."
A police officer who had a good relationship with them volunteered, "I'll drive you guys over!"
Ito nodded, "Go, leave this place to us first."
"Okay..."
Looking at the appearance of the two young men seemingly pulling themselves together again, Ito suddenly realized what cruel words he had spoken. Clearly he knew better than anyone that a person in the center of an explosion of at least 2000°C couldn't possibly have a chance to survive. Why did he still comfort them like that? Clearly... giving false hope to desperate people was sometimes crueler than desperation itself.
The police car sped on the night roads of Tokyo, the piercing siren sound cutting through the night sky. The flashing red and blue lights cast flickering shadows through the car window on Hagiwara's pale face. Hagiwara sat in the back seat, his fingers rubbing the walkie-talkie unconsciously, the voice of Kuno Nozomu's parting words seemingly still echoing by his ears, and the last few seconds before the explosion flashed back in his mind constantly.
00:05, 00:04, 00:03... every second was like a dull knife, cutting into his nerves one by one, making him in pain.
Matsuda, who hadn't spoken for a long time on one side, suddenly said, "Hagi... do you still remember when we first met Kuno, what you and I said?"
Hagiwara froze, "What?"
"Kuno's name is the 'Kuno of hope,' the meaning is quite good, right?" Matsuda pulled the corners of his mouth, "That guy's luck, hasn't it always been absurdly good too? So, I have reason to believe that even at the most dangerous moment, he can get through it."
The Kuno of hope... is it? Right. If it's him, maybe he can create hope. For some reason, that guy just could give people such an impression.
"Time to get off the car." The voice of the front-row officer pulled Hagiwara back to reality.
As soon as the car stopped steadily, he and Matsuda rushed out together.
The night wind carrying a pungent burnt smell blew on their faces, the helicopter roared past overhead, the top floor of the skyscraper was emitting thick smoke, and the high-pressure water column of the fire truck pierced through the smoke screen. The forensic section personnel wore white gloves, carefully collecting explosion residues, trying to restore the bomb structure and detonation method.
The scene was filled everywhere with police cars and officers busy with handling the aftermath, and the explosion scene had also been surrounded by the cordon line. Fortunately they evacuated the unrelated crowd at the beginning, otherwise, the chaos at this time could be imagined.
"Excuse me—" Matsuda grabbed the arm of a police officer, "Where are the people from the Explosive Ordinance Disposal squad?"
After getting the directions, the two immediately rushed to the central square area near the first floor.
Although the bomb culprit seemingly reached a consensus with the police on the surface and didn't cause any serious civilian casualties, the members of the Ikebukuro group looked to be in quite a bad spirit. Someone leaned against the wall lowering his head to smoke, someone was bandaging himself, and someone was reporting the situation in a low voice to the walkie-talkie. However, looking around, everyone was fine, basically only suffering some light injuries.
Seeing Matsuda and Hagiwara arrive, many people cast complex looks.
"You guys... came over from Shinjuku." A colleague from the EOD squad said in a low voice.
"Where is Kuno?" Matsuda Jinpei blurted out, "How is he now?"
The air seemed to freeze at this moment.
"We are not sure either, the medical team and forensic section people haven't come out yet." After a few seconds of silence, a female opened her mouth to reply, "Everyone basically stayed in the middle and low floors of the building, no one has seen Officer Kuno, except for..."
Hagiwara scanned quickly through the crowd, finally locking onto a familiar figure. Watanabe. He was Kuno Nozomu's partner in the bomb-dismantling action, and also the only one who witnessed the countdown of the bomb start with his own eyes.
The tall and thin man sat blankly on the seat, his uniform covered in dust. When Hagiwara's gaze fell on him, he thrust his fingers deeply into his messy hair, tugging it as if throwing a fit, "I already told you once before... why do you still come to ask me? After Kuno and I found the bomb on the 60th floor, it suddenly started counting down... because there was less than five minutes of time left and I couldn't help with anything, he let me and the others evacuate to the safe area, saying it was enough for him to dismantle it alone."
Speaking to this point, Watanabe suddenly showed an expression of being about to cry, "Because he has always been very powerful, I chose to believe him... is this wrong? But I didn't expect... the bomb actually still exploded..."
"If you can't do it you should say it honestly!" Watanabe raised his head abruptly, his bloodshot eyes staring straight at Hagiwara, "Is showing weakness very hard? Is running away very shameful?! That idiot... clearly could..."
"—He didn't fail to do it!" Matsuda couldn't control himself and rushed over, grabbing Watanabe's collar with one hand, his eyes red, "Do you know he did it on purpose? Do you know he didn't dismantle the bomb to save us?!"
"Wh... what?" Probably because the news of Shinjuku hadn't had time to be passed out, everyone showed a blank face, not understanding his meaning.
Matsuda just wanted to say something more when his arm was pulled by Hagiwara.
"Hagi...?" The force Hagiwara used to pull him was obviously large to an abnormal degree, making him look subconsciously in the direction the opponent was watching.
He saw several doctors wearing protective suits, masks, and helmets pushing a stretcher car, covered with a large dark blue waterproof cloth, walking quickly toward the exit.
"Wait—" Without passing through any thinking, Matsuda pulled Hagiwara with his back hand and ran over, blocking the doctor at the head.
The doctor raised his head, his tone flat, "Please let us pass, the remains need to be sent for inspection immediately."
"Remains...? What remains?" Matsuda was almost incoherent, "May I ask if this person... if this person's identity is..."
"Officer Kuno, position Assistant Inspector... full name is Kuno Nozomu, correct?" The doctor sighed, as if guessing beforehand what he wanted to ask, and added directly, "Currently the identity cannot be fully confirmed yet, needing DNA data identification, but... there are no other possibilities already. After all, only members of the Explosive Ordinance Disposal squad entered this building before, and except for this unique officer, all members have been confirmed safe. That is... this Officer Kuno who stayed on the top floor to dismantle the bomb."
The doctor's words made Matsuda's breathing halt for an instant. He wanted to refute, yet couldn't find any facts that could be refuted, his gaze only falling blankly on the waterproof cloth.
Hagiwara's expression was instead much calmer than Matsuda's, even able to open his mouth to the doctor, "Can you... let us confirm with our own eyes?"
The doctor let out a sigh, his tone carrying a bit of helplessness, "Young man, I understand your feelings, but this is not something that can be viewed casually. The so-called 'remains' is just a nice way to say it. Actually, under that kind of close-range explosion, there isn't any complete thing left at all... inside here, there are only some human tissues left."
"...Is that so." Hagiwara's reply was so low it could hardly be heard.
The doctor didn't say much more, just signaling his assistants to continue pushing the car to leave.
Just at the split second the stretcher car passed by their side, a small metal piece suddenly dropped out from under the waterproof cloth, landing on the ground and making a crisp "clack."
Everyone froze.
That was a police badge. A police badge already burnt black and incomplete. Now it had been scorched and deformed by high temperature, with only a faint outline left, barely able to discern the original cherry blossom pattern.
"Ah, right..." Hagiwara remembered. This was the commemorative police badge they received with their own hands at the graduation ceremony of the police academy. He never thought Kuno Nozomu would carry it with him.
Matsuda bent his waist, picking up that piece of black metal. He lowered his head to look at that broken police badge, his throat looking like it was blocked by something, unable to make a sound.
"Little Kuno..." Hagiwara slowly extended his hand, his fingertips touching the cold metal. He put the police badge in his hand, as if its owner was still by their side.
—"Patter."
A teardrop smashed onto the police badge, sliding down along the burnt cherry blossom texture.
"Sorry... we came late..." At this moment, his tears finally burst out of his eyes. "Sorry... sorry... little Kuno..."
"I really wanted to celebrate your birthday with you."