The Gods Are Fighting Over Me - Chapter 33

Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, Mobile Unit Office.

The noon sun streamed through the gaps in the blinds, casting uneven splotches of light on the wooden desk.

Kenji Hagiwara lifted his head from a mountain of reports and irritably ran his fingers through his soft black hair. He slumped backward in defeat, his body sinking into the soft swivel chair with a thud.

The vacation promised by the police department was abruptly interrupted by a hostage situation, and Kenji Hagiwara was urgently called back.

After the hostage situation was resolved, a kidnapping case and a bomb threat followed. They were supposed to be the Mobile Unit, but they were forced to endure the back-to-back suffering that was comparable to the Criminal Investigation Department. The work piled up, and they simply couldn’t finish it.

At least the Criminal Investigation Department could slack off because of Conan.

But he couldn’t. He had to rely on himself. After all, he couldn’t have Conan running around in more than ten pounds of riot gear and leading the charge with a riot shield.

Conan probably didn’t even weigh as much as that gear.

Today was destined to be another night of overtime.

But that wouldn’t do. He had promised Lin Jianyue that he would take her to Chinatown tonight for some authentic Chinese food.

Kenji Hagiwara casually sprawled in his seat, his hand propped against his cheek. His eyes slowly scanned the desk, finally landing on a photo frame in the corner.

It was a picture of him and Jinpei Matsuda. In the photo, Matsuda, for a rare change, wasn’t wearing his sunglasses. A hint of an impatient smile lingered on his lips, but he still cooperated and made a peace sign.

Kenji Hagiwara stared at Jinpei Matsuda’s smiling face in the photo and instantly had an idea.

How about… I dump the work on Jinpei Matsuda?

If it were Jinpei, he would definitely grumble while taking the documents and starting to handle them. Although he felt a little sorry for Jinpei Matsuda, this was the only way. At most, he would take over Jinpei Matsuda’s work in a few days.

They often helped each other with work documents and covered for each other.

Just two seconds after he sent the plea for help, Jinpei Matsuda gave a swift and simple reply:

‘Get lost.’

Kenji Hagiwara had already expected this.

He wasn’t flustered at all. He even had the time to send a crying emoji and typed away, pleading. ‘Please, Jinpei. I finally made some progress with Jianyue-chan. You don’t want me to disappoint her and have my girlfriend hate me, right? QwQ’

The “typing…” at the top of the chat box flashed for a full half-minute. Kenji Hagiwara could even imagine Jinpei Matsuda frowning and revising his message. He probably cursed him a thousand times in his mind, but couldn’t help but soften his heart.

Finally, a new message popped up, with a clear sense of helplessness. ‘Fine, but all the work tomorrow is yours.’

Kenji Hagiwara was so happy he almost jumped out of his chair. He hummed a tune and closed the chat box. He swiped twice on the screen and, with practiced ease, opened the ico comic platform.

Lin Jianyue’s A Tale of the Mobile Unit Police had already been updated to the sixth chapter. Its data was far ahead of all the other new works.

“She updated five chapters at once…” Kenji Hagiwara couldn’t help but exclaim.

Before he was called back to the police department, they were still huddled on the sofa in the apartment, sharing melon cake. Lin Jianyue was leaning on him like a pillow while binge-watching a show on her tablet, not even bothering to touch her drawing pen.

Why was it that as soon as he returned to the unit, Lin Jianyue seemed to have hit the fast-forward button, updating five chapters in three days?

Didn’t other manga artists update once a week? And they were always going out for inspiration. Where did Lin Jianyue get all this endless inspiration and motivation from?

His eyes scanned the content of the latest chapter.

In this chapter, a new female character, who was a regular person, appeared. After being helped by the male lead, she thanked him with a bright smile.

In the last few panels, sunlight streamed through the leaves, casting splotches of light on the woman, making the smile on her face look radiant and beautiful. The male lead’s face was half-covered by the shadow of his police hat; only his slightly lowered eyelashes were visible. He stared thoughtfully at the woman’s retreating.

Although it was just a normal scene, it showed infinite vitality under Lin Jianyue’s pen, like a cup of mineral water with honey added. It was restrained and had a hint of sweetness, seeping into people’s hearts through the screen.

Kenji Hagiwara scrolled through the comments. The praises like “So good” and “Please be together forever” scrolled by quickly.

He couldn’t help but smile and typed out a long string of compliments. He was worried that it was too obvious, so he kept deleting and changing it. In the end, he only left one sentence: “I’m obsessed with this,” pretending to be a regular reader and quietly mixing in with the other comments.

He pressed the send button, and the clock’s hands had just pointed to twelve. Kenji Hagiwara glanced at the time, put his computer on standby, got up, and went out for lunch.

In the police cafeteria, Kenji Hagiwara was hunched over his curry rice when he suddenly felt a gaze on him. He looked up and met the scrutinizing eyes of the head of the Security Division.

The middle-aged man, who was over fifty, had his hair neatly combed. He stood by the table with his hands behind his back, staring straight at him.

The head of the department scanned him from head to toe, then turned to the deputy head behind him and said, “His eyes are really similar.”

The deputy head, who had personally promoted Kenji Hagiwara to the position of captain, was all smiles. “Not just his eyes, his personality is also very similar.”

The two exchanged a few cryptic words, then walked toward Kenji Hagiwara, who was finally starting to understand. The head of the department patted his shoulder. “Hagiwara, do you have a girlfriend?”

Kenji Hagiwara was stunned by the question. He quickly swallowed the rice in his mouth and gave a polite smile. “Sir, why are you suddenly concerned about that?”

“Do you know about the recently serialized manga, A Tale of the Mobile Unit Police?”

“Yes,” Kenji Hagiwara obediently stopped eating and asked, “Are you and the others also reading that manga, sir?”

The head of the department nodded, a hint of doting in his smile. “My daughter is crazy about it. She insisted that I see if there were any police officers like that in real life and that I should pick a handsome, single guy from the unit to introduce to her.”

Kenji Hagiwara’s heart skipped a beat, and he almost blurted out, “The main character is based on me.” He gave two awkward laughs, picked up his soup bowl, and took a sip, pretending not to hear the teasing in his words.

The head of the department twirled his handlebar mustache. “I was thinking of picking one of you two, you or Matsuda, to introduce to her. The deputy head wants me to introduce Matsuda, but I’m leaning toward you. You have a good personality and you’re good with people.”

The cafeteria was crowded, and it was inevitable that other members of the Mobile Unit would pass by. They intentionally slowed down and looked at Kenji Hagiwara with envy. It wasn’t until they were far away that they started excitedly discussing it.

This drama, which was like “Sorry, the head of the orphanage introduced his daughter to me, so I have to break up with you,” made them green with envy.

The head of the department saw that Kenji Hagiwara wasn’t very excited and joked, “What, you don’t think my daughter is good enough for you?”

“How could he dare?” the deputy head smoothed things over. “Sir, you haven’t interacted with him much, but I often deal with this kid.”

“I bet you anything that this kid is the prototype for the manga. He’s probably already secretly in a relationship behind our backs. If you ask me, introducing Matsuda is a more reliable choice.”

After saying this, he turned to Kenji Hagiwara. “You know the author, right?”

“Yes.”

“Is she your girlfriend?”

Kenji was about to nod when a lazy voice floated from behind him. “The author of that manga is my girlfriend.”

Jinpei Matsuda, with an unlit cigarette in his mouth, leisurely walked past him, dropped the bomb, and walked away, his back looking incredibly smug.

The air suddenly froze. The head and deputy head of the department stared at Kenji Hagiwara, their smiles frozen on their faces.

‘So you’re trying to seduce your good friend’s girlfriend?’

This thought kept spinning in their minds, but no one said it out loud.

The head of the department was silent for a moment, then he put on a kind smile again, without any ill feelings, and patted Kenji Hagiwara’s shoulder. “Keep up the good work.”

Then he and the deputy head quickly left, not mentioning the matter of introducing his daughter again.

Kenjiwara smiled helplessly at their retreating backs. He quickly shoveled the last few bites of his food into his mouth and turned to catch up with Jinpei Matsuda.

He put his arm around Jinpei Matsuda’s shoulder and raised an eyebrow. “I’m telling you…”

Jinpei Matsuda gave him a lazy side glance and didn’t say anything.

“You’re just afraid the head of the department will drag you to a mixer with his daughter, right?” Hagiwara lowered his voice, his tone full of understanding.

“Just thinking about it is troublesome,” Jinpei Matsuda took out a lighter and lit his cigarette. He took a puff before continuing. “I’m past the age where I’m interested in mixers.”

“Right, right, right,” Hagiwara gave a perfunctory nod, ruthlessly exposing him. “In the past, you only saw mixers as an opportunity to order more food, feast, and then make everyone else split the bill, right?”

Jinpei Matsuda’s footsteps stopped, and his eyes shifted.

“So you don’t like mixers now because you finally realized their true purpose?”

The two of them walked away laughing with their arms around each other’s shoulders. In the distance, a pair of eyes watched them with malicious intent.

Tanaka lowered his head and put an energy bar in his mouth, a different kind of thought brewing in his mind.

Tanaka had just been transferred to the Mobile Unit’s third squad last week, and he had a grudge.

Everyone knew that Hagiwara and Matsuda were the aces of the Security Division. The higher-ups always called them out by name when something happened, and their promotions were as fast as a rocket.

Being with them was tiring, but their bonuses and merits also increased.

In contrast, the third squad was like a retirement department, a dusty screw in the shadow of the two.

But now, Tanaka was in the Mobile Unit’s third squad.

His so-called retirement squad.

He was just saying, what if…

What if the higher-ups in the Security Division cared about their reputation and decided to punish them because of the Lin Jianyue incident?

Doing this wouldn’t benefit him at all, but at least… if he saw them get reprimanded, he would be a little happy.

But then Tanaka became conflicted again.

They all belonged to the Mobile Unit. When one succeeds, they all succeed. When one fails, they all fail. And he was afraid that if he made a big deal out of it, he would be found out. He did not doubt that those two could do so.

But if he just let it go, he would be truly resentful.

His request wasn’t high. He just wanted the police department to put a little pressure on the captains so that their relationship wouldn’t be so comfortable.

After deliberating for a long time, he made up his mind: He would try to stir up some trouble from within first.

In the afternoon training field, Tanaka deliberately sighed, his eyebrows furrowed like a mountain range squeezed by a tectonic plate.

“What’s wrong?” a teammate finally couldn’t help but ask.

Tanaka let out a light sigh and hesitated to speak. When his teammate was about to lose his patience, he feigned distress. “I’m just worried about the reputation of our Mobile Unit.”

“Reputation?” the other person wondered. “What’s there to worry about with our Mobile Unit’s reputation?”

Someone else chimed in. “Yeah. Ever since Captain Hagiwara and Captain Matsuda joined the Security Division, our Mobile Unit has been singled out and praised by the superintendent general of the police department every year.”

“Even though we’re the third squad, we’ve gotten a lot of benefits because of them.”

Tanaka slapped his thigh with a look of agony. “That’s exactly the problem.”

He looked at the people in front of him with a heavy gaze. “The two captains are the face of our Mobile Unit. They almost represent us.”

“But they…” Tanaka paused, deliberately dragging out his words and keeping them in suspense.

“What about them?! Just spit it out!” his teammates immediately gathered around him.

Tanaka pursed his lips. It wasn’t until his teammates urged him repeatedly that he slowly started to speak. “But their private lives are a mess. They’re both involved with the same woman.”

Tanaka lowered his voice, but his eyes were filled with anticipation. “If this gets out, where would our Mobile Unit’s reputation go? It would definitely be the headline in Beika and become a joke in Tokyo.”

The team members who were surrounding him were stunned for a moment, then they looked at each other and slowly said with anticipation in Tanaka’s eyes, “We already knew about this.”

“Huh?” This time, it was Tanaka’s turn to be stunned.

“Yumi Miyamoto already…” The man paused, then suddenly understood. “I remember you and Yumi fought? You said you didn’t want to hear anything related to her. No wonder you didn’t know.”

Another person added. “They’re in a love triangle. We’ve known all along.”

Tanaka instantly got a little flustered. “But if this gets out, it’s going to affect the Mobile Unit’s reputation! What are the other departments going to think of us?!”

The members of the third squad looked at each other again and softly retorted, “But the other departments, especially the Criminal Investigation Department, are even more ridiculous. They even formed a ‘Protect Sato Operation’ to ruin Sato and Takagi’s date and used police equipment to tail them. That’s what you call mixing private and public life.”

“Our captains are great at their jobs, and the love triangle is a mutual agreement. It’s not bothering anyone,” someone said with a shrug. “How can they have the face to laugh at us?”

Tanaka: 

That’s true, but don’t you guys think something is wrong here?!

I’ve only seen people compare themselves to those who are better. This is the first time I’ve seen people compare themselves to those who are worse!

Tanaka opened his mouth, but he couldn’t say anything for a long time. In the end, he could only awkwardly shut his mouth.

It looks like I’ll have to write an anonymous tip to the head of the department and make the situation sound more serious.

The head of the department definitely won’t just ignore it. He cares about the Security Division’s reputation more than anyone. The reason he hasn’t done anything yet must be because he thinks the impact is small and not many people know about it.

Yes, that must be it!

Two hours later, the head of the Security Division stared at the anonymous email in his inbox, his eyebrows furrowed so tightly that he could squeeze a fly to death. The email was eight hundred words long, but the core message was one sentence: The captains’ love triangle will ruin the Mobile Unit’s reputation.

Although this letter seemed to be defending the Security Division everywhere, anyone who could climb to the position of department head was a cunning old fox who had survived the battles of wits and lies.

‘If outsiders find out, where would our Security Division’s reputation go?’

The head of the department stared at this sentence in the email, but he had his own interpretation.

Sir, you wouldn’t want outsiders to know about your subordinates, would you?

The head of the department scoffed and called the deputy head. He turned to look out the window. Half of his face was bathed in the sunlight from outside, and the other half was hidden in the shadows. “Help me find someone and make him shut up.”

“What’s going on with Hagiwara and Matsuda must not get out to anyone outside the police department. It must be completely suppressed.”

Since the Mobile Unit was established, they had only had this pair of aces after seventy years. A mere love triangle, he knew what was more important.

So half an hour later, Tanaka was kindly invited to the office by his deputy head. The conversation could be summarized as follows:

Tanaka, you probably don’t want to be sent to a remote police station, do you?

If you don’t, then you’d better shut your mouth.

If you try any more tricks, you can go to the countryside to retire.