Chapter 127
There were actually people standing guard nearby. Seeing that the bomb expert was entering his own territory and was knowledgeable enough not to act rashly, they'd let him into his office. But after being inside for just a short while, this excited shout came out, immediately startling everyone else.
However, the Hawaiian police hesitated, unsure whether they should go in to check the situation or flee—please, they were making bombs in there! When sudden screaming came at a time like this, it seemed safer for them to run away quickly.
But after waiting a second or two without hearing explosions or feeling tremors, they figured the bomb expert might just be angry that someone had touched his things.
Hagiwara Kenji was different. His first reaction was to open the door and rush in, where he saw a slightly frowning Usuha Izuki and an inexplicably furious bomb expert.
"What's wrong?" Hagiwara Kenji asked.
Usuha Izuki replied: "Don't know. I was doing fine."
Actually, Usuha Izuki was being a bit passive-aggressive this time, not particularly enthusiastic about grinding suspicion values, still thinking he was here on vacation and wanting to slack off in every way.
For instance, he was too lazy to use measuring instruments for this plastic explosive, wanting to rely on the bomb-related skills he'd exchanged from the system and work by feel—after all, system products were guaranteed quality, no need to worry about not achieving the desired effect.
It's just that this process would be really hard for Hagiwara Kenji to explain after seeing it, so Usuha Izuki continued slacking, simply saying he needed to make the bomb alone and having Hagiwara Kenji wait outside, or else he couldn't concentrate.
Hagiwara Kenji was somewhat worried but not overly so, since he felt Little Shinryu never seemed to do things he wasn't confident about. Knowing it was probably because he didn't want him to witness it firsthand, he obligingly went out.
But now, due to this accident, he'd come back in and heard the bomb expert's angry response.
"He actually didn't use measuring instruments! How dare he?!"
Hearing this, Hagiwara Kenji was also shocked: "Little Shinryu?!"
Yes! How did he dare?!
Usuha Izuki hadn't intended to grind this suspicion value, but now could only reluctantly collect the money: "I trust my feel."
The bomb expert felt even more infuriated hearing this: "Didn't your chemistry teacher tell you—"
His attention finally shifted from those raw materials and instruments, and he got a clear look at the face of this guy who dared to carelessly make bombs in his office without proper measuring.
Then he froze.
...??? Where on earth did his colleagues find this person to help? Prison?!
Even if he'd returned a bit late, it shouldn't be like this! The uncertainty was way too high!
Would this guy really cooperate with bomb disposal instead of taking the opportunity to tamper with the bomb, transfer control to himself, then threaten them to get a helicopter to take him away?!
"You, you put down what you're holding," the bomb expert tensed up completely. "Yes, put it down... Ah!!! Don't move those things!!!"
Usuha Izuki paid him no mind and directly poured the binder solution into the beaker.
The bomb expert was suffocating.
Hagiwara Kenji was also suffocating, but seeing the bomb expert looking like he was about to rush forward, he quickly stopped him, half-dragging and half-pulling, calling on the Hawaiian police standing at the door peering in, finally managing to get the man out.
"Let go of me! Let go! You're letting him mess around like that! Our police station might accidentally fly sky-high together!"
The bomb expert had extremely strong professional ethics—or maybe he was just afraid of death. Anyway, as long as he could get that guy who didn't use measuring instruments out of his office, he could ignore the other's dangerous and terrifying aura, as well as possible future retaliation!
Hagiwara Kenji was at his wit's end: "He knows what he's doing..."
"Knows what he's doing, my ass! Dear God, this isn't sprinkling pepper on steak—how can you not use measuring instruments?!"
Hearing this, the Hawaiian police officer who'd been helping Hagiwara Kenji get the bomb expert out was also alarmed: "Huh?! He's not using measuring instruments?! Then how is he doing it?!"
The bomb expert said indignantly: "He just pours by hand! At most he catches it with paper first, but I couldn't tell if it was too much or too little—whatever he pours out, he uses directly... Where did you find this lunatic? Is he really not trying to take revenge on society?!"
Hawaiian police: "...This wasn't our find..."
They looked toward Hagiwara Kenji.
Hagiwara Kenji smiled awkwardly and stiffly: "He's the designer of that bomb. We called him to see if he had any solutions..."
This time it was the bomb expert's turn to freeze: "Huh? He designed it? That ransom note mentioned those mechanisms..."
"Yes, they're all real."
The bomb expert was greatly shocked—wow, it seemed this person was indeed very professional...
No wait, even the most skilled person who didn't use measuring instruments still couldn't be called professional!
His mentor from school had died in a lab accident! Making him change mentors! Where did this guy get his confidence?! He couldn't even figure out how this guy had survived until now!!!
But since he was the person who designed that kind of bomb, maybe while he couldn't think of a solution, the other might have one... Did he leave a backdoor or something?
Hagiwara Kenji explained Usuha Izuki's thinking: "He wants to use a fast-reacting plastic explosive to blow up the control box."
The bomb expert frowned: "I thought of this on my way back too, but the failure rate is too high. It's very difficult to guarantee blowing up just the control box without triggering the mechanisms below—it would be equivalent to direct detonation."
Experts were indeed experts—everyone's thinking was similar. Hagiwara Kenji and Matsuda Jinpei hadn't suggested this because they felt the success rate was so low it could be ignored, but when Samukawa Shinryu proposed it, he felt it was worth trying... even though he suspected how many times Samukawa Shinryu had actually made bombs.
The hotel owner had the same thought, inexplicably feeling that Samukawa Shinryu's suggestion would somehow succeed.
But the bomb expert was very serious about matters related to his profession. After witnessing the process of making explosives without measuring instruments, he was now full of doubt about Usuha Izuki, feeling this guy might go meet God like his mentor at any moment, and therefore didn't believe this method could work either.
Just as the bomb expert was struggling to break free from these people to rush back into the room, the door opened once again.
Usuha Izuki walked out, and the other three also instinctively released the bomb expert.
The bomb expert immediately asked nervously: "You just came out like that?"
Shouldn't he be constantly observing from the side for this kind of thing?!
"I saw you seemed quite worried."
That wasn't quite worried—that was extremely worried! But feeling the "Black Screen Aura" up close, the bomb expert didn't dare say this directly, only managing diplomatically: "I'm concerned you might not be used to my equipment."
Usuha Izuki stepped aside: "In that case, you handle the rest. Next, heat to 176°F for 40-50 minutes, then cool to 95°F for discharge..."
The bomb expert naturally understood the plastic explosive manufacturing process, but he didn't think this bottle of stuff made haphazardly without measuring instruments could be used.
But Usuha Izuki said: "If you can't handle it, then I'll..."
How could a man say he couldn't handle it? The bomb expert instinctively said: "I can do it."
Usuha Izuki was satisfied: Very good, the remaining troublesome tasks were also outsourced! Saved at least a day's time!
The simplest part was the earlier steps—just mixing things like cooking. The rest was all time-consuming nonsense: filtration, washing, kneading, drying... It would take until tomorrow to finish all that.
However, the ransom note also knew the demanded money was too much to prepare quickly. Plus, being overly confident in the bomb and believing no one could defuse it, the deadline was set for three days later—plenty of time.
Usuha Izuki felt bad about making Hagiwara Kenji do this work, and didn't dare let laypeople handle it. Now that this bomb expert suddenly appeared, it was like getting a pillow when sleepy. Usuha Izuki was very happy, directly becoming a hands-off boss and leaving with Hagiwara Kenji.
The Hawaiian police continued driving them back to the hotel.
With outsiders present, many topics couldn't be discussed. Hagiwara Kenji held back until returning to the hotel, where he encountered Matsuda Jinpei again, making it even harder to talk.
Matsuda Jinpei looked like he was ready to interrogate someone, signaling Hagiwara Kenji to follow him into his room, then asked: "What's really going on with that Samukawa guy? You even taught him how to make plastic explosives?"
Hagiwara Kenji's heart was bitter.
He'd previously helped Little Shinryu take the blame, being blamed for teaching bomb disposal, and had already been scolded once by Little Jinpei. If he admitted it this time, he'd probably be scolded even worse—not because he thought he was teaching irresponsibly again, but because Little Jinpei would definitely know he was lying and think he was ignoring risks to cover for Samukawa.
Because teaching bomb disposal still had some justification, but teaching explosive formulation... that really wasn't something he could do. Even if he wanted to take the blame, he couldn't carry it!
Hagiwara Kenji could only say: "He learned it himself."
Matsuda Jinpei could tell this was the truth, and his expression softened slightly, but remained serious: "What did he learn this for?"
Hagiwara Kenji thought: "...Probably curiosity."
Matsuda Jinpei scoffed: "He'd be curious about this?"
"...Then maybe because he was bored, had nothing to do, and learned it for fun."
Another perfunctory reason, but this one Matsuda Jinpei somewhat believed.
Yeah, Samukawa did seem like that type. That guy had been bored enough to ask what killing felt like before, so being bored enough to learn explosive-making seemed pretty normal too.
The thinking was a bit dangerous, but judging actions rather than thoughts—as long as he didn't actually use it for bad things, Matsuda Jinpei wouldn't make a big deal of it.
"Besides, learning it really was useful. Look, Japan and America both have so many bombing cases. Learning more skills came in handy, didn't it?" Hagiwara Kenji continued finding excuses, just needing to prevent Matsuda Jinpei from guessing about the illegal organization.
Matsuda Jinpei reluctantly accepted: "But where did he get raw materials to practice before? Did he destroy all the practice items?"
Hagiwara Kenji was silent for a moment, then said: "I asked, and he said this was his first time making one."
Matsuda Jinpei was skeptical: "First time and he's that confident? I think we should still use someone else's ready-made one..."
"He's always been confident."
The next day, the exhausted substitute bomb expert pushed open the conference room door.
"Success. I tested it—density, detonation velocity, heat of explosion, stability all exceed C4, with at least 10 times the power..."
C4's specifications weren't exactly top-tier. Both octogen and CL-20 that Usuha Izuki used as raw materials were more powerful than C4, but C4 made good reference data because it was common.
"But I can't understand—you didn't even use measuring instruments, yet you clearly added so many types of high explosives. How on earth..."
FBI: "...???"
Matsuda Jinpei: "...???"
—Hagi! Is this what you call a first-time bomb maker's operation?!