Chapter 63
This operation of an organization member suddenly running off to call the police before the mission was even finished—Vodka had truly never seen anything like it. Today really opened his eyes, and his blood pressure, which had stabilized considerably, shot up again.
"What are you calling the police for? What does it have to do with you?!"
"How does it have nothing to do with me? We ordinary people call the police when we see this kind of situation."
Can you stop thinking about that damn persona at a time like this!!!
Vodka knew scolding was useless. He rolled his eyes in exasperation and gritted his teeth as he instructed: "Just don't expose yourself."
"What's there for me to expose? I'm just an ordinary person who happened to pass by and discovered a bomb!" Usuha Izuki said. "By the way, I called the police about the bomb before I found that CIA agent. Calculating the time, the police should be arriving soon..."
As he was speaking, Vodka heard the sound of sirens.
Vodka felt suffocated: "......???"
So you called the police before the mission even progressed?!
The organization member maintaining contact with Vodka heard this conversation. Because it was so far beyond his common sense, he didn't quite understand but felt very nervous: "Mr. Vodka, does the organization have an undercover agent?"
Why did the police suddenly come?! And it was their own people who called them... Was intelligence leaked?!
Vodka responded wearily: "It's that psychopath Botanist. Don't worry about him for now... Since we've already caught the person, stop wandering around and evacuate quickly. The police will be here soon."
Good thing they'd already caught their target, otherwise if organization members were still lurking suspiciously at various exits when police arrived, they'd arrest a few suspicious people first to boost their performance.
Organization member: "............"
—Who the hell is this Botanist? Why can he call the police during missions to increase our difficulty, and we still don't need to worry about him?!
Carrying a head full of questions and suspicions, this codename-less supervisor hurriedly went to notify his subordinates to evacuate quickly.
After confirming his intentions had been conveyed, Vodka, whose workload had inexplicably increased, cut communications and complained loudly.
"I thought he called the police after the mission ended, but it turns out he called the police before doing the mission! What if the police actually arrest some of our people? This Botanist guy must be a mole sent by the police!!!"
That's what he said, but Vodka wasn't really suspicious inside. He mainly just felt unlucky, otherwise he wouldn't have told his subordinates not to worry about Usuha Izuki.
Morofushi Hiromitsu, who had been busy alongside everyone for half the day, remembered he was Usuha Izuki's partner and should speak up for him: "He probably thought finding people was simple and wouldn't take much time."
"You think too highly of him."
Vodka wanted to argue back, but found the facts were indeed as such—Usuha Izuki had said he found the person shortly after arriving at the mall... This guy's eye for people was truly exceptional and couldn't be learned.
So he could only stubbornly refuse to back down: "This time he was just lucky. Next time won't be so certain."
Morofushi Hiromitsu was silent for a moment: "Uh... there probably won't be a next time. Boss said Botanist doesn't have to work overtime anymore and can take missions based on his mood. Boss even praised him, saying his theory made sense. Looking at it this way, Botanist really is the most trustworthy person..."
Vodka only knew Usuha Izuki had found Boss to backstab him, but didn't expect Boss to actually go against his conscience and agree with this guy's theory. He instantly broke down: "Why?! Boss!!!"
Gin spoke with restraint: "Shut up. Do we need to explain what that person thinks? We're also preparing to withdraw."
Morofushi Hiromitsu asked: "What about Botanist..."
"Don't worry about him." Gin's face was cold. "He won't die."
Usuha Izuki called the police himself—could he really send himself into the police station?
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After receiving the emergency call, the dispatch center quickly notified the Mobile Investigation Unit near the reported location to see if anyone was close enough to go handle the evacuation work first.
Matsuda Jinpei's Explosive Ordnance Disposal unit naturally also received notification. Matsuda Jinpei, who was on duty, proceeded to the scene.
When Matsuda Jinpei arrived, the Mobile Investigation Unit was already cooperating with local police to evacuate crowds. He got out of his car and identified himself: "I'm Matsuda Jinpei from Explosive Ordnance Disposal. Where is the bomb—"
A small officer from the local police station manning the perimeter answered: "Oh, that thing was apparently already defused."
Matsuda Jinpei was stunned: "Defused? Who defused it?"
"Don't know. I heard it was some Police Academy student. The Mobile Investigation people almost got into a fight with him..."
Matsuda Jinpei stumbled: "Police Academy student? You actually let a Police Academy student defuse bombs?!"
What kind of joke was this?! Police Academy curriculum didn't teach this! He and Hagi were special cases back then—talent recruitment. Otherwise, ordinary Police Academy students assigned to Explosive Ordnance Disposal would need to practice on bomb models for half a year before handling real ones.
And somehow, upon hearing the very broad term "Police Academy student," a familiar figure unconsciously floated into Matsuda Jinpei's mind.
The local police officer looked embarrassed: "I'm not clear on what happened either. Why don't you go check if it was defused correctly... though I think if it was done wrong, it probably would have exploded by now."
Without him saying so, Matsuda Jinpei couldn't just turn around and leave with peace of mind. He quickly strode toward the mall interior.
As soon as he entered the mall lobby, he saw a certain person coming down from the elevator with two people following behind.
Matsuda Jinpei's gaze instantly locked onto that familiar figure. Gritting his teeth, he charged forward with large strides: "Samukawa Shinryu—you bastard—!!!"
Usuha Izuki was also stunned when he saw Matsuda Jinpei. He hadn't expected that with so many people in Explosive Ordnance Disposal, every bomb case he encountered involved acquaintances.
This time he had originally felt that the organization's suspicion values were getting harder to farm, and after thinking it over, realized that acquaintances had developed immunity. So he planned to take advantage of this mission with many organization members to farm some suspicion values from unfamiliar organization people.
Though unimportant bottom-tier characters didn't have scoring weight bonuses, something was better than nothing.
He happened to discover a bomb in the mall, so Usuha Izuki thought to use this bomb to call the police and disrupt the organization's mission.
The plan went quite smoothly. Those organization members who had never seen him and didn't recognize him contributed a pile of suspicion values—a rare large income from the organization side.
Gin also contributed some suspicion values, looking like he hadn't completely lost his mind. But Vodka was really just going through the motions and seemed beyond saving. To farm Vodka's suspicion values would require heavy artillery.
What was rather strange was Morofushi Hiromitsu. He didn't know what this guy had discussed with Gin and Vodka after he left, but even before he called the police, Morofushi Hiromitsu had intermittently contributed a small wave of suspicion values...
After farming this wave of suspicion values from the organization, Usuha Izuki figured he shouldn't waste this bomb. He might as well switch to Samukawa Shinryu's identity and farm another wave of suspicion values from the red side.
This mall had many areas without surveillance, which was why the CIA agent had agreed to meet contacts here. After Usuha Izuki found a place to switch identities, he bought a toolbox and headed straight to that restroom to start defusing the bomb. Then when the Mobile Investigation Unit arrived, he successfully farmed suspicion values as hoped...
But this was no longer the point. The point was that Matsuda Jinpei now looked very angry.
Matsuda Jinpei charged up aggressively: "You bastard, did you defuse that bomb?!"
One of the people originally standing behind Usuha Izuki saw something was wrong and quickly reached out to intervene: "Don't do this, Officer. Calm down. It'll be trouble if reporters photograph this."
"We've cordoned off the area—there are no reporters here." Matsuda Jinpei frowned at the speaker. "You are... Mobile Investigation?"
"Shima Kazumi." He shook hands with Matsuda Jinpei. "Mobile Investigation Unit code 404. This is my partner, Ibuki Ai... You know each other?"
Matsuda Jinpei took a deep breath: "We're acquainted. Sorry, but what exactly is your relationship with him...?"
Officer Shima looked somewhat helpless: "My partner and I arrived at the scene first. Due to some misunderstanding, my partner thought he was installing the bomb... anyway, we cleared up the misunderstanding. Now we're thinking of having him write a statement or something."
Matsuda Jinpei's mouth twitched: "Ah, about what I expected. Leave this guy to me. After I finish checking, I'll take him to Metropolitan Police on the way."
Compared to the very professional and serious-looking Officer Shima, his partner called Ibuki Ai seemed a bit too lively. Though he'd almost gotten into a fight with Usuha Izuki just moments ago, he was now already chatting familiarly with him.
"Don't be so reckless next time. When I opened the door and found you busy in there, it really startled me. I thought criminals were so brazen now they'd assemble bombs on-site." Ibuki Ai complained. "But since when does Police Academy teach bomb defusal? Are the courses that difficult now?"
Matsuda Jinpei said coldly: "Police Academy doesn't teach it. This guy just has problems himself—excuse me, the scene is on the second floor, right?"
After handing Usuha Izuki over to Matsuda Jinpei, the two Mobile Investigation officers took their leave. Ibuki Ai, perhaps wanting to compensate for misunderstanding Usuha Izuki, acted like an enthusiastic golden retriever, constantly turning back to wave at them until Officer Shima forcibly held him down and dragged him away.
Matsuda Jinpei was somewhat surprised watching this.
Just from how quickly Ibuki Ai could become friendly with Samukawa Shinryu without any reservations, he was definitely talented... Maybe Samukawa Shinryu going to Mobile Investigation after graduation would be a good choice.
But now wasn't the time to discuss what Mobile Investigation was like or whether it suited Samukawa Shinryu's work.
Walking toward the scene, Matsuda Jinpei questioned: "Last time you waited properly for me to come, didn't you? What happened this time?"
Usuha Izuki answered without hesitation: "Kenji taught me bomb defusal. I happened to encounter one, so I tried it."
Matsuda Jinpei: "............"
Hagi!!! You're just an Assistant Instructor—don't teach everything randomly! Don't you know that once you teach Samukawa Shinryu this guy, he'll actually put it into practice?!
"...Very good. Call Hagi and have him come to Metropolitan Police too."
Matsuda Jinpei said expressionlessly: "Let him also know what good deeds you've accomplished! You really haven't let down his dedicated teaching at all!"