As a Police Officer, I'm Always Worrying About Something - Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Seventh Year Before Ke Yuan Era (3)

As the police car pulled up in front of the Metropolitan Police Department, Chinna stepped out just as Kenji Hagiwara returned her car key, having already parked her NSX neatly. His mood seemed especially bright, probably thanks to getting behind the wheel.

Chinna blinked, hesitating for a second, then grabbed Hagiwara’s sleeve just as he was about to say goodbye.

“What is it, Miss Fujimine?” Hagiwara asked.

“Umm… you can call me Chinna,” she said, a bit sheepishly. After all, she had been complaining about him earlier. But for the sake of her own interest, Chinna closed her eyes and blurted it out in one breath.

“I heard you’re an amazing driver, Hagiwara-senpai. Please let me experience it firsthand sometime!”

Then she quickly let go of his sleeve, waited for his reaction.

“Eh?” Hagiwara was caught off guard, it wasn’t what he expected at all.

“She was just complaining about us a moment ago,” Jinpei Matsuda muttered as he got out of the police car and walked over to Hagiwara.

“I’m really sorry!” Chinna bowed slightly, sincerely. “I only took it out on you guys because I have to write so many words for that reflection… I really didn’t mean it.”

Matsuda, who hadn’t expected to be overheard, looked a bit awkward and even more unsure of how to respond after hearing her apology.

“So Little Chinna wants to learn how to race cars with me?” Hagiwara smoothly dropped the formality and steered the conversation in a new direction.

“Yes! Is that okay, Hagiwara-senpai?” Chinna lifted her face slightly, her expression full of anticipation. “Inspector Megure said you could drive a sedan like a sports car and a sports car like a jet. If possible, please teach me!”

Sure, she was exaggerating—but racing enthusiasts tended to like a bit of flair… right?

“No need to be so formal, Chinna. Just call me Kenji,” Hagiwara said with a smile. He didn’t mind the over-the-top praise either. “But… do you even have time? Maybe after you graduate would be better?”

“I can’t wait that long!” Chinna’s eyes practically lit up. “I’ll look for you next time we get a break. Could I get your number? I’ll text first, of course!”

“Sure.” Hagiwara rattled off the digits without fuss and didn’t seem too hung up on how she addressed him. “I’ll be looking forward to your text.”

“Thanks, Kenji-senpai! See you soon!” Chinna waved happily and dashed into the police headquarters.

“She totally ignored me…” Matsuda grumbled as he watched her run off.

“Aww, are you actually upset about that?” Hagiwara leaned on his shoulder teasingly.

“I’m just a little annoyed,” Matsuda said, arms crossed, his sunglasses hiding his expression. “She was just glaring at me like she wanted to punch me, and now she’s acting like I don’t exist.”

With her sharp hearing, Chinna naturally caught Matsuda’s complaint. She turned around, waved, and called out in a mischievously drawn-out tone, “Byeee, little Jinpei~”

“Use proper honorifics, you brat!” Matsuda exploded. Even from far away, his irritation was obvious.

Chinna stuck out her tongue, made a silly face, and dashed into the building.

“Well, you don’t exactly act like a senior,” Hagiwara shrugged, clearly amused.

Matsuda decided to drop the subject. “Hagi, did you notice how good her hearing is?”

“Definitely,” Hagiwara said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. “She caught both of your comments, and even I didn’t hear what you said the first time.”

“Well, let’s ask her about it next time,” pulling Matsuda toward the dorms. “For now, let’s get some sleep. We can deal with the reports tomorrow. Poor Inspector Megure still has to catch the suspect.”

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Inside headquarters, Chinna worked on catching up with her overdue statements while simultaneously scribbling her reflection paper.

Inspector Megure had already explained the situation to Instructor Onizuka. Even though he put in a lot of good words, the reflection was only reduced from 30,000 words to 20,000.

With no idea what to write, Chinna could only repeat the phrase “I was wrong, I really was wrong” over and over, praying that Instructor Onizuka wouldn’t read it too carefully.

Though the place had been quiet earlier that night, once Chinna’s report came in, more officers had arrived.

Everyone was busy reviewing the surveillance footage outside her apartment, but no one managed to spot a suspect.

The building had too much foot traffic being a luxury apartment complex, visitors came and went constantly. That day had even seen a lot of workers around, supposedly because one of the units was being renovated.

“Getting fireworks on your first day after moving in, not a bad kind of luck, huh?” Chinna even joked about the residents.

It wasn’t until 7:30 in the morning that there was a breakthrough. The police received a call from the bomber, demanding one billion yen in ransom.

“…If you don’t want the residents of the apartment to die, prepare the money,” the voice on the line threatened.

Originally, they thought catching the bomber would be the end of it, but now they learned there was at least one more device. Inspector Megure immediately contacted the bomb squad for backup.

The call was on speakerphone, and thanks to her sharp hearing, Chinna picked up on a subtle difference in the background noise: amid the chaotic honking of cars, there was a faint static.

Unlike the noise from a wiretap, this static sounded more like interference from a remotely controlled electronic device nearby.

It could have been caused by an old phone booth, but just to be safe, Chinna spoke up while Megure was on the call. “The suspect might be using a remote control device—don’t forget to bring a signal jammer.”

“Got it. I’ll pass the message along,” the officer on the other end replied, assuming this was a deduction from an expert Megure had brought in. They didn’t question it.

After hanging up, Megure turned to Chinna, a little skeptical. “How’d you know there might be a remote control trigger?”

She pointed to her ear. “I heard it. You do know I’ve got pretty sharp hearing, right?”

Meanwhile, Hagiwara just finished with his morning routine got a call from his boss again. The moment he heard there was another bomb, he rushed out, Matsuda in tow.

Before heading upstairs, Hagiwara was handed a signal jammer. When he heard that the deduction had come from Criminal Investigation Division One, he took extra care to guard the device.  

Jinpei Matsuda was primarily responsible for defusing the bomb, with Kenji Hagiwara assisting. Since the more experienced bomb squad experts were sent away for further training, only Hagiwara and Matsuda both relatively new but skilled—were available.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Police quickly gathered the 1 billion yen ransom and placed it at the location specified by the suspect. After taking the money, the criminal “generously” permitted the bomb squad team to head upstairs and cleared the public from the area.

Meanwhile, back at police headquarters, since she wasn’t permitted to go along, Chinna passed the time playing with the phone recording out of boredom.

“Bzzz… I’m in the apartment… I just woke up… Good morning…” With the recording turned to maximum volume, Chinna noticed some different sounds in the background.

“Is that a children’s song?” she murmured, resting her chin on her hand as she mentally mapped the area around the apartment.

“The public phone booths nearby… hmm, these ones are too obvious—probably not. These others are too far… These few seem just right.”

She thought aloud, “Right… a few days ago, Aunt Yukiko said a new toy shop opened around here. The sound wasn’t loud, so it probably wasn’t too close. That narrows it to these two.”

She called Inspector Megure and shared her reasoning, then sat around the police station swinging her legs in boredom.

Truthfully, Chinna stayed bored right up until Instructor Onizuka showed up.

She blinked, unsure whether she was really seeing Instructor Onizuka, since it was still during school hours.

What she got in return was a scolding and her car keys taken away. After sending a message to Inspector Megure, Chinna was driven back to school by Onizuka.

During that time, it was discovered her written reflection was only 20,000 words. As a result, Chinna was penalized again, and the assignment was reset to 30,000 words.

Looking utterly defeated, Chinatsu perked up only after finding out Yumi and Miwako were willing to help brainstorm her essay.

Thanks to their help, Chinna happily finished the reflection, only to be informed she’d have to clean the records room next at which point, her motivation vanished completely.

Meanwhile, Hagiwara and Matsuda were deeply relieved they brought a signal jammer, since it turned out the captured suspect had angrily pressed the detonator in the end but thanks to the jammer, they still managed to defuse the bomb successfully.

Afterward, the two planned to treat the entire First Investigation Division to coffee. But after sending out the invites to everyone in the office, they learned that the real lifesaver that day was actually Chinna.

Hagiwara said, “Ah… I’ll treat little Chinatsu to a meal when I teach her how to drive in a few days.”

Matsuda lowered his sunglasses and nodded in agreement.

Back in the chaos of the archive room, completely unaware of her feast-in-the-making, Chinna was exhausted. The mess seemed to mock her efforts, though thankfully, Miwako and Yumi came to help.

Tired after hours of cleaning, Chinna plopped onto the floor and happened to notice a crumpled old newspaper in the corner. Her curiosity got the better of her, and she opened it up.

It was a report on a bombing near the police academy’s laundry shop and the capture of a fugitive murderer.

Chinna’s gaze drifted to the corner of the photo in the article. There were five people—at the center, a cat-eyed boy was sitting on a stretcher inside an ambulance, surrounded by the other four.

She recognized Jinpei Matsuda, Kenji Hagiwara, and Wataru Date, but didn’t have any memory of the cat-eyed boy on the stretcher or the other boy standing very close to him.

Rumors in the academy told of a previous incident involving five troubled cadets. It wouldn’t take much to guess the identities of the other two.

Upon closer inspection, something about the boy did seem familiar. And after digging through memories from a year ago, she finally recalled.

‘So this is what the fourth one who ran over there looked like, huh… And the last one, with that eye-catching hair color…is that really suited for this job?’ Chinna wondered. ‘Well, maybe it’s just going against expectations. Not that it has anything to do with me.’

Wanting to keep things discreet, Chinna balled up the newspaper and tucked it inside her clothes. While cleaning, she also carefully checked nearby piles of newspapers and found a few more old ones stuck in corners.

Although they all covered the same incident, only Kenji Hagiwara, Jinpei Matsuda, and Wataru Date appeared in the photo corners. The other two had been completely erased from view.

After the three of them finished cleaning the records room and Instructor Onizuka had completed his inspection, Chinna quietly handed the newspaper to him and pointed at the five-man group in the corner of the photo. Then, she grabbed Miwako and Yumi and headed out.

As a thank-you for helping her clean, Chinna planned to treat them to a fancy cafeteria meal that day.

Instructor Onizuka looked at the group of five in the photo and smiled wistfully. Then he brought out a lighter and burned the newspaper in the restroom.

‘It’s only been a month, and I’ve already discovered one clever headache…’ he thought, remembering how sneakily Chinatsu had handed him the paper and subtly hinted at the five-person group. ‘To think she figured all this out just from seeing Matsuda and Hagiwara…’ he smiled.