Conan: Science Cartoonist Kudo Yuji

"You... and you, stand up."

After patting several men squatting on the ground and holding their heads, the leading gangster put a submachine gun on one of them's back and stabbed him hard.

"When we go out later, we have to go to the shrine to ask for a fortune. Do you know that good people live longer?"

The gangsters guarding the hostages burst into laughter, and soon after, the entire building was slowly filled with laughter like a lunatic.

"Boss, that Matsuda Jinpei came in with Furukawa!"

A young man wearing a half-mask ran up from downstairs. Although his eyes could not be seen, his grin kept telling everyone that he was extremely excited at this moment.

"Okay, that guy actually defused the bomb four years ago, and I haven't settled the score with him yet."

The man kicked away the frightened woman in front of him, raised his submachine gun with one hand, and waited at the stairs. After a while, he saw Matsuda Jinpei helping Furukawa up.

"That's too slow, officer, we're all hungry."

The boss glanced at Matsuda Jinpei and landed on the bulletproof vest Furukawa was wearing. He suppressed a smile and said: "Why, Zhen, you are afraid of taking police bullets, so you should stay away from the policeman next to you."

"I...I have been in prison for four years. I don't want to come back to you! Why do you want me to come here!"

Furukawa gritted his teeth, his body trembling with fear. Matsuda Jinpei did not speak, but just listened, hoping to get more information about the mastermind behind the scenes from their conversation.

"Hey, hey, hey, what are you doing! You were the one who came to my house to find me and asked me to help you." The man leaned against the railing and lit a cigarette for himself, but he just held it in his hand without smoking.

"That's the man who asked me to do it!"

Matsuda Jinpei paused suddenly and frowned at the man. Furukawa had never said this before, but if the mastermind really left a message to him asking him to find the man in front of him to take revenge on himself, it would be strange no matter how he looked at it.

Would a fierce man who could develop his own bomb really pay attention to these two ordinary people in front of him?

"After you were arrested, we cut off contact with that person. It took a lot of effort for me to get people's support, but now you say you want to withdraw..."

Although the man's tone was angry, judging from his expression, there was no emotional change at all because of Furukawa's words.

"Azhen, don't you want to find your wife and son?"

Furukawa Zhen fell silent. This was his only weakness, but there was no news about his family until now, and he no longer had any hopes or illusions about it.

He just wanted to go back to that safe cell, accept his life sentence, eat fixed food every day, and live a regular life.

"In that case, go back."

Surprised by the words of the person in front of him, Furukawa really opened his mouth.

"But the original promise of letting him go is no longer possible." The corner of the man's mouth raised slightly, as if he was enjoying this scene that was like a movie drama: "If you don't come back to us voluntarily, you won't be worthy of half of the hostages."

Furukawa was really heartbroken. He lowered his head and rubbed his lips twice: "It's impossible. The police, the media, and the public will not allow me to go back like this."

At the blockade, he saw the expressions of the police and the media. Everyone stared at him with indifference and disgust. If he couldn't exchange half of the hostages today, let alone return to prison, the tall management officer in front of the blockade might just shoot himself to death.

Because when the national media reported it live, if the police failed to rescue the hostages even with the required exchange conditions, the Japanese police would have their face completely trampled to the ground. It would be better to beat him to death and say that the prisoner had breached the contract. "It's very simple. Let's just make a call." Reaching back, the man took the function phone handed over by the boy and made the previous call.

"You...what did you say?"

"Gee, I just told them, if you don't get out alive, half of the hostages are going to have to stay with you."

The man hugged his chest and turned around, leaving only one sentence: "You can think about it yourself and tell me the answer later."

At the top of the stairs, after scanning the details on this floor, Officer Curly breathed a sigh of relief when he noticed that no hostages seemed to have been killed.

"It doesn't look like what you said. These people are hopeless scum." Matsuda Jinpei held on to the railing and took off his bulletproof vest: "At least listen to what he said. It's okay for you."

Although he talked, he did not take action against any of the hostages. However, even so, Matsuda Jinpei was still wary of those gun-wielding gangsters, and did not forget that the men around him killed his best friend with them.

"You don't understand." Furukawa Zhen sat down and sat on the ground again: "They, they didn't do anything, they must have some more cruel plan."

"Then you want to go back?" Matsuda Jinpei blinked.

"I...I want to ask them if they have found my wife and son in the past few years..."

In the end, he chose to go back there for the same reason. Furukawa looked at Matsuda Jinpei with hopeful eyes, as if to assure him: "No matter what, I will not make bombs for them again."

"It seems you have made up your mind, A-Zhen."

The man raised his head with satisfaction and looked at Matsuda Jinpei randomly: "And this police officer, your lives are really tough. If that Datehang hadn't fled to Gunma County, he would have been killed by us before. Someone was killed by a car."

"you……"

"Don't be anxious, don't be anxious, but your girlfriend is quite beautiful. How about I make a call and invite her to come over?" The man looked back and said, "It's true, there is no room left to entertain guests."

He waved his hand, and suddenly a man dressed as a manager was dragged out and dragged into the bathroom. With a gunshot, the gangster with blood on his face shouted: "Boss, there's a seat!"

"Okay, this is the way to treat guests."

Matsuda now knew why Furukawa really thought this man was crazy. Before the feeling of being targeted really appeared on him, he thought this man was not much different from the previous murderer.

"It's just a stranger you don't know. What on earth did he give to you? He can abandon everything and do such a thing."

"Of course it's exciting." The man looked at Matsuda in disbelief: "How can I live in such a backwater country without having fun? Thanks to Furukawa, before he told me about this, I could only I felt a little excitement from the junior high school girls who stood in Shibuya at night and the occasional elementary school girls who showed up.”

With his eyes tightened, Matsuda Jinpei suppressed his anger: "Since he is willing to come back to you now, you can let the hostages go as agreed."

"Of course, you don't need to say such things. I am a person who keeps my promises."

The man touched his beard and scolded: "It's a pity that the remaining two can't find any information. They must be dead too. It's really boring." (End of Chapter)