Chapter 122
Since this was an international flight, besides Japanese people, there were quite a few foreigners.
Fortunately, Kudo Yusaku had moved to America in recent years. As a mystery novelist, he was also very famous and had even helped solve many cases, with quite a few FBI friends. Therefore, everyone on the plane who knew him trusted him greatly and hoped he would solve the case. Those who didn't know him, after being informed, were also full of expectations.
And Kudo Yusaku lived up to expectations. With Hagiwara Kenji's assistance, he gathered clues, deduced the truth, found the real culprit, temporarily confined him, and would hand him over to local police after landing.
Matsuda Jinpei also successfully defused the bomb. The entire plane immediately erupted in applause—both for their efforts and for their own narrow escape from death.
Due to Usuha Izuki's actions appearing quite suspicious to others—what good person tours the entire plane before sitting down?—he naturally slacked off, sitting there watching police and mystery novelists bustle about while conveniently harvesting quite a few suspicion values.
Usuha Izuki, gorging himself on this windfall, was triumphant: [See, I told you I'd definitely be able to vacation this time. Who solves cases when abroad? My police credentials are quite weak to begin with!]
System: [Don't celebrate too early...]
The current situation was that the criminal was a crew member, and both the pilot and co-pilot were dead.
Although there was an autopilot system, this era's autopilot was clearly not intelligent enough—otherwise, there wouldn't need to be two pilots in the cockpit. More accurately, it should be semi-autopilot. So the question arose—who would fly the plane?
In the crew rest area, Kudo Yusaku coughed: "Although I've learned to fly small aircraft and can barely manage, handling it alone is still quite challenging..."
Matsuda Jinpei continued: "But if we broadcast asking if anyone can fly a plane, it might cause panic since everyone would know the pilots are dead..."
Though he loved machinery and subscribed to many related magazines and newspapers, none of them taught you how to fly planes!
The flight attendants were all anxious because with so many buttons on the control panel, no one knew what might happen if they pressed the wrong one. Flying straight was fine for now, but what about when they needed to change direction or land?
The control tower said they could provide on-site instruction, but looking at the dense array of buttons, just finding which one they were referring to would be quite difficult. They still needed someone with experience or photographic memory who could remember at a glance where each button was and what was written on it, so they could keep up with instructions.
"Uh..." Hagiwara Kenji hesitantly spoke: "Should I ask Shinryu?"
In this serious setting, he changed from his usual casual way of addressing him, making himself appear more reliable and also making Samukawa Shinryu seem more reliable.
Matsuda Jinpei looked at him in confusion: "Huh? Samukawa can fly planes too?"
Wasn't he an orphan? Having finally made it from a remote area to university in Hakata, then to Tokyo, where would he get the opportunity and resources to learn flying?!
Hagiwara Kenji certainly didn't think that just because Samukawa Shinryu joined an illegal organization, they would train him to fly planes. He just felt: "Shinryu has photographic memory and learns very quickly..."
Speaking of learning quickly, Matsuda Jinpei immediately thought of that bomb design diagram.
He had always assumed it was Hagiwara Kenji who taught Samukawa Shinryu this, so calculating the time, learning for just that period and then drawing such a design diagram showed remarkable talent indeed.
Moreover, from the design diagram, one could see Samukawa Shinryu's deep understanding of mechanical structures. He probably had studied quite a lot of related materials privately. Combined with photographic memory...
Kudo Yusaku had already deduced that Samukawa Shinryu was together with the two police officers. Though he didn't know the name yet, hearing them talk like this, he immediately made the connection and became thoughtful.
If it was that person...
For some reason, he actually really felt that the other might know how to fly planes.
Kudo Yusaku had boarded earlier than Samukawa Shinryu, so when he was seated, he could clearly see Samukawa Shinryu's strange behavior of patrolling the cabin.
That dangerous aura made this mystery novelist, who often appeared at crime scenes and had seen many criminals, instinctively tense up.
In that instant, countless plots flashed through his mind, all of which could be inserted into mystery novels. He even felt that his month-long writer's block suddenly had inspiration, making him want to become an octopus and write five or six novels simultaneously!
Provided he could still get off the plane alive.
When the other's gaze fell on him, his eyes flickered slightly, and Kudo Yusaku's heart almost stopped.
Fortunately, the other kept both hands in his pockets throughout, seeming to just casually tour around before sitting back down.
Only then did the usually observant Kudo Yusaku notice the two people sitting next to him and guess they were actually police officers.
Wait, speaking of police...
Kudo Yusaku suddenly remembered that during his recent return to Japan to handle publishing matters, he had heard police friends discussing a strange topic.
It started with complaints about how difficult Police Academy was nowadays—even those who failed written exams could hold grudges against the academy and seek revenge. They really didn't know when to be satisfied, while some with top grades made the academy hesitate whether to accept them!
Kudo Yusaku curiously asked: "If their grades are fine, why hesitate?"
His friend sighed deeply and asked him a question in return: "Do you believe there are people who, despite doing nothing wrong, give you the feeling they're like the Napoleon of crime just by looking at them?"
"..." Kudo Yusaku actually pondered seriously. "If it's a murderer, you can indeed often tell—there's a kind of murderous aura, but those good at disguising might make you think they're good neighbors or friends... But if you're talking about the Napoleon of crime—that's used to describe Moriarty. I understand you're trying to say that person seems like a behind-the-scenes manipulator—not acting directly but commanding from behind. Such people are usually intelligent and arrogant, with strong charisma, good at disguising. To say you can tell just by looking... that seems quite difficult."
His friend glanced at him and said nothing at the time, and the topic passed.
But after seeing Samukawa Shinryu, Kudo Yusaku suddenly had a belated realization—ah, indeed.
That dark-haired, red-eyed youth had a kind of arrogant superiority, treating others as nothing, and a cold disregard for life.
He gave people a sense of freedom unconstrained by morality, so in modern society, where people found security through morality and law, most would instinctively feel crisis, causing them to unconsciously realize that person had no restraints and might do anything, thus judging him as dangerous.
But that unrestrained feeling would also make certain people tired of following rules feel longing and admiration.
...I see. If it's him, no wonder the Police Academy would hesitate.
Because Kudo Yusaku had seriously observed Samukawa Shinryu, he inexplicably felt the other was very intelligent and might really know many things. Therefore, after Hagiwara Kenji's suggestion, while Matsuda Jinpei was still hesitating, he directly said: "Why don't we go ask? If he really has photographic memory, with my guidance and the control tower's instructions, it should be sufficient."
So Usuha Izuki had barely been lying flat for a while when Hagiwara Kenji brought him to the cockpit and informed him of the reason for calling him.
"...Fly a plane?" Usuha Izuki was even more confused than Matsuda Jinpei earlier. "What made you think that I, an orphan, might have learned this?"
The system reminded him: [You actually can!! Have you forgotten about the driving mastery you exchanged?]
[But according to my character setting, I shouldn't know how!]
[Aren't you farming suspicion values anymore?!]
[I hate explaining, and I'm currently on vacation.]
When farming suspicion values, Usuha Izuki always followed one principle: anything that would require spending large amounts of time and eloquence to explain afterward, might not even be explainable, or was suspicious enough to land him directly in prison—he refused them all.
He only wanted to farm the kind of suspicion values where if he didn't explain, those who should know would know anyway.
When Kudo Yusaku heard Samukawa Shinryu say he was an orphan, he was momentarily stunned because he really couldn't deduce from that aura that this was actually an orphan. But he quickly covered it up and smiled: "It's fine if you don't know. I heard you have photographic memory?"
With things said to this extent, Usuha Izuki naturally understood that on this plane, besides Kudo Yusaku, probably no one else could fly...
The system gloated: [If you slack off, you won't be able to reach Hawaii on time. Choose for yourself.]
"...I understand." Usuha Izuki surveyed the cockpit. "I'll give it a try."
Although he had just said he couldn't fly planes, somehow, even though he only said he'd "give it a try," the flight attendants who had previously suspected him all instinctively breathed sighs of relief, inexplicably feeling secure.
Very mysteriously, this youth full of dangerous aura actually made everyone so trusting at this moment—they felt this kind of big shot couldn't possibly die in such a place! So wouldn't everyone be safe?!
Hagiwara Kenji asked: "Do you need help?"
"You should return to your seats. There might be some turbulence. I'll call if needed." Kudo Yusaku knew that fewer people around would be better for mental state at times like this.
So Hagiwara Kenji and Matsuda Jinpei gave Usuha Izuki a serious look telling him to take care, then followed the flight attendants out of the cockpit.
Kudo Yusaku sat with Usuha Izuki in the two pilot seats, had Usuha Izuki first memorize the positions of these buttons, then began communicating with the control tower.
What they feared most was encountering more accidents, but fortunately the journey was relatively smooth. The originally six-hour trip—one hour of stability, one hour of case-solving, then four more hours—finally reached Hawaiian airspace.
Usuha Izuki had gotten bored enough to flip through the "Aircraft Emergency Procedures Manual" once and finally chose to close his eyes and rest in his seat.
Kudo Yusaku could sense that Usuha Izuki didn't want to talk, so he tactfully refrained from chatting. Nothing unexpected happened during this period until they had to switch from autopilot to manual landing due to immature technology. Only then did he call out to have him follow the control tower's instructions together, searching for the needed button among the pile.
Since it was raining in Hawaii, when Usuha Izuki opened his eyes and realized they were already decelerating for landing, he immediately turned on the windshield wipers.
Kudo Yusaku: "...?"
The control tower was even half a beat slower: "Now turn on the windshield wipers, the controller is at..."
Kudo Yusaku: "...Already turned on."
"Good." The control tower continued remote instruction without realizing anything: "Control panel... flight control system... there's a button with writing that says..."
Everything went smoothly. During these four hours, Kudo Yusaku had also been seriously memorizing the surrounding pile of buttons, so finding them was relatively quick.
But Usuha Izuki was even faster. Sometimes before he found it, Usuha Izuki had already finished.
Because it was so dazzling, it wasn't until the control tower's commands finally paused that Kudo Yusaku realized something was wrong.
"The control tower just said to adjust..."
"Already adjusted." Usuha Izuki said naturally.
Kudo Yusaku: "...The last instruction too?"
"Mm."
Kudo Yusaku: "............"
No, if he wasn't mistaken, for that last instruction, the control tower had just started speaking and hadn't even announced the data when Samukawa Shinryu had already finished adjusting! It made him think they were still working on the previous instruction, since even he, having learned to fly planes, didn't dare trust his own judgment and had to wait for the control tower's complete instructions before acting...
—So why is this guy so skilled?! Wasn't he an orphan who couldn't fly planes?!!