The director knew the camera layout like the back of his hand. As soon as Conan described the suspect's location, he immediately identified Hiruta—the guy operating camera 13—as the mole.
He quickly had the TV station send over Hiruta's photo to help the police identify him, and then pulled up footage from the other cameras to see what might've happened near camera 13 and how Hiruta managed to disappear without a trace.
Multiple camera feeds began fast-forwarding simultaneously, each assigned to two police officers.
Naturally, the first person to find anything useful was Conan—who basically had satellite-level observation skills.
"This camera caught him, in the corner!"
Inspector Megure lit up. He ordered the image Conan had pointed out to be enlarged and rewound slightly.
The camera was worth every yen. Even zoomed in to an absurd level, the footage stayed surprisingly clear.
The video showed Hiruta fifteen minutes ago, still at camera 13, holding his headphones. His expression was grim as he stared at the screen, like he was planning to randomly pick an unlucky audience member to shoot at the end of the match.
Some officers speculated that Hiruta had already chosen his target and was sneaking over to get a clean shot. Seemed logical.
But as the timestamp in the bottom right corner ticked on, that theory began to collapse. Hiruta didn't move. He just stayed planted there, sneering at the crowd with an annoyingly smug face. No sneaking. No aiming. No gunplay.
Instead, someone else walked up to him.
The moment the person stepped into frame—clearly not coming from the audience seating—a small commotion broke out in the control room.
"Jiang Xia??"
Some officers relaxed visibly. Others... got complicated expressions, like they had heartburn and déjà vu at the same time.
Sonoko Suzuki, on the other hand, let out a cheer that sounded suspiciously like she'd just bet on the right horse.
"Wait, why is Jiang Xia going up to the suspect? Does he know he's a bad guy? Did he talk to the police already? Oh! Was he here watching the match too!? Ugh, if only I'd known…"
If only she'd known, she would've watched with Jiang Xia instead of babysitting elementary schoolers bouncing off railings. She turned to glare at Conan, full of tragic regret.
Then she remembered the whole armed criminal thing and begrudgingly turned back to the screen.
In the footage, Jiang Xia steadily approached Hiruta.
According to earlier analysis, Hiruta was probably planning to pick someone random—so the closer you were, the higher your chance of becoming a statistic.
And Jiang Xia… okay, he was surprisingly competent for a guy who looked like he wandered in from a slice-of-life anime. But he hadn't contacted the police. Maybe he sensed something was off and came to check—but if he didn't know the guy had a gun...
The entire room was holding its breath like they were watching a live police thriller.
The only silver lining was what Conan had just reported: there was no blood near camera 13. So Jiang Xia hadn't been shot on the spot. Maybe Hiruta had yanked him into a blind spot or something. Still time left. Probably.
...
Meanwhile, inside the video, Jiang Xia calmly strolled up to the guy everyone was convinced was packing heat. He stopped two meters away and said something.
There was no audio, but the camera faithfully recorded their body language.
Hiruta's brow tightened like a rusting bolt. Then he reached into his jacket with a scowl that screamed I'm going to pull out a gun like a mid-tier villain.
A small gasp rippled through the control room.
Jiang Xia, in the footage, clearly noticed, surprised. Half a second later, he suddenly closed the distance—so fast the camera barely caught it—and smashed his fist straight into Hiruta's gut.
Still no sound, but everyone in the room felt the impact. Several officers winced and rubbed their own stomachs instinctively.
Hiruta folded like cheap origami. The hand that was reaching for the gun dropped, and he doubled over, retching. Before he could hit the floor, Jiang Xia grabbed him.
He held the wobbling man there for a moment, eyes thoughtful.
Then he glanced around, saw no one was looking, and casually dragged the guy offscreen like he was disposing of a mildly inconvenient carpet stain.
"..."
Silence lingered in the control room.
Some officers who had only heard about Jiang Xia before but never seen him in action were the first to break the stillness.
"How thoughtful," one murmured, genuinely impressed.
"Right? If the crowd saw an armed criminal, they'd panic. Stampedes, injuries, total chaos..."
"No wonder everyone says this guy's considerate. He neutralizes the threat, drags him somewhere discreet, then calls the cops. Smooth and efficient."
At this point, a few people suddenly blinked.
"…Wait, why hasn't he called us yet?"
"Did dispatch forget to pass it on?"
"Or… maybe that criminal wasn't really knocked out? Maybe he pretended to go limp and pulled something?!"
Inspector Megure pressed down on his hat and pretended not to hear the growing panic.
He quietly asked the director, "You know this building. If they exited the frame in that direction, where would they most likely be?"
...
In a deserted, echoey side hall—
Jiang Xia, currently working overtime as a one-man SWAT team, gave the criminal a few more firm thwacks to knock off the last of the "killing intent." The baton in his hand moved with casual rhythm—thud, thud, thud.
He paused when he heard a stampede of footsteps coming down the corridor.
Without missing a beat, he collected the wisps of killing intent like they were receipts, folded up his baton, and tucked everything neatly away.
On the floor, the cameraman still had a flicker of consciousness.
Jiang Xia crouched down and gave him a clean chop to the neck. Thunk. That settled that.
Then, like a man casually finishing a to-do list, he reached into Hiruta's jacket, pulled out the gun, and… stuffed it back into Hiruta's hand.
Exactly one second later, the side door slammed open and a crowd poured in.
Under everyone's stunned gaze, Jiang Xia picked up the gun again, like, "Oh look what I just found!" He handed it to Officer Sato, who had rushed in first.
"This guy actually had a gun on him," he said calmly. "Fortunately, his mental state was weak, so he didn't fire."
Sato: "..."
She accepted the gun, glanced at the 'fainted' Hiruta, and opened her mouth to say something like, "Excuse me, next time?!"
But then she noticed the wave of people behind her—police, camera crew, and possibly three interns who wandered in by accident.
Sato gave Jiang Xia a long, suspicious look… then closed her mouth and said nothing.
*Goal #1: Top 200 fanfics published within the last 31 - 90 days by POWER STONES.
Progress: 65/60(approx) for 10 BONUS CHAPTERS
Goal #2: One BONUS CHAPTER per review for the first 10 REVIEWS.
Progress:2/10*