Chapter 847

Got it!

Uesugi Muneyuki and the others carefully watched the surveillance footage, and he noticed a situation.

Yaegaki had paused for a while at the reception desk in the first-floor lobby of the headquarters, apparently registering.

"If outsiders want to enter the key areas inside the headquarters? I recall they need to register, and likely with the assistance of an insider?" Uesugi Muneyuki asked Sugishita Ukyo.

"Yes, registration requires an active insider to accompany them." Sugishita Ukyo remained calm and nodded.

"Very well — Minami, come with me." Uesugi Muneyuki said to Nango Yui, then turned to Minami Ojou-sama and Sugishita Ukyo: "Until I figure things out, do not launch an attack rashly! Since we have grasped the other party's identity, let us try negotiation!"

"Alright!" Minami Ojou-sama was indeed somewhat panicked; she could only force herself to stay composed and unconditionally trust Uesugi Muneyuki's judgment.

"Understood, then we will stand by for now. Little Turtle, you immediately summon SIT and the Special Mobile Unit. Kobe-kun, you immediately mobilize SAT. Also, Kousaka and Shimano, you summon the Explosive Disposal Unit to stand by. Listen to Uesugi-kun: before he clarifies everything, do not act rashly, but be prepared."

"Yes!!!" Everyone shouted in response, taking their positions.

Only Kai Toru stepped forward and asked: "Section Chief, where is the negotiation expert?"

"Heh heh." Sugishita Ukyo shook his head, while beside him, Kameyama Kaoru said disdainfully: "The negotiation expert is right in front of you."

"Sugishita Ukyo, Section Chief of the Public Safety Bureau, has served twenty years there; he himself is the strongest negotiation expert!"

Soon, Sugishita Ukyo pondered for a moment and picked up the telephone.

He dialed the conference room's telephone again.

This time, the call connected.

"May I ask if you are Mr. Yaegaki Tetsuya, the former Police Sergeant of the Regional Division's General Affairs Section, Metropolitan Police Department, who resigned eight years ago?"

"Holy shit, box!" came the middle-aged man's voice from the phone.

"Mr. Yaegaki, I am Sugishita Ukyo of the Investigation Division 1, Metropolitan Police Department." Sugishita Ukyo spoke slowly: "Your current position is likely in the middle section of the conference table, near the window side, correct?"

"————————" No response came from the other end.

"I understand how you feel standing there. If it were me, I might also have questions I want to ask, answers I want to find. You resigned seven or eight years ago, right? Back then you were still a Police Sergeant in the Regional Division. If I recall correctly, you should still have some relatives and friends, and some colleagues you had good relations with during your service, who still mention your name to this day."

"Please calm down. If you today do anything irreversible, your life will undergo great changes, and those around you, including those who once helped you and still remember you, will be greatly affected. This is not a threat; it is a fact. Can we first calm down, put down the gun, and talk? What are your demands? What do you want? Speak up, and we will see if we can help you resolve it. You are not a criminal; you are our colleague, at least formerly."

The microphone end remained silent for a long time. Sugishita Ukyo could hear the man's breathing — heavy, disordered, like someone struggling in deep water. Then the voice came, hoarse and calm. Hoarse and contradictory, like sandpaper scraping over steel.

"I have no demands."

Sugishita Ukyo's finger twitched slightly, but his voice showed no change: "What does 'no demands' mean? You gathered everyone together — there must be a purpose, a state you wish to achieve. Speak it out, and we will talk."

"I have no demands." Yaegaki Tetsuya's voice dropped even lower than before, low as if fearing others in the conference room might hear: "I did not come today to make demands; I came to seek an answer. What I need now is simply time. When the time comes, I will naturally know what to do. Until then, do not mention 'negotiation' to me, do not say 'calm down' to me, and do not let me put down the gun — I will not put it down!"

The phone was hung up.

Beep, beep, beep.

Sugishita Ukyo held the receiver, listening to three busy tones, then gently placed it back on the desk phone. He lifted his head to look at Minami; his expression showed no change, but his eyes held something rarely seen on his face — a confirmation: "I have encountered someone who cannot be resolved by any conventional means."

A person with no demands is harder to deal than one with any demands, for any demand can be negotiated, compromised, or resolved through some form of exchange.

No demands mean no room for exchange, meaning he has no intention of walking out of that conference room alive.

"What does 'no demands' mean?" Minami Ojou-sama said blankly: "Could he have a grudge against one of them? But — "

What Minami Ojou-sama did not say was: if there is a grudge, then grudge calls for grudge, resentment for resentment — so why kidnapping and hostage-taking?

"I don't know." Sugishita Ukyo's expression also grew stern: "Now, we have truly encountered the most difficult situation."

The well-informed Section Chief already sensed a hint of something off.

Former police officer, resigned for unknown reasons.

Came to take hostages but made no demands.

Possibly holds a grudge against higher-ups but does not shoot, only takes hostages.

Yaegaki, what exactly do you want to do?

—

Yaegaki Tetsuya yanked the receiver from the wall; the phone cord whipped through the air like a severed snake. He threw the receiver to the floor, turned around, and realigned the gun barrel toward the row of people seated against the wall.

Watanabe Eiji sat in the first seat, his hands bound behind his back with plastic zip ties, his shoulder boards askew, his collar open, his hair somewhat disheveled, but his spine remained straight.

Yaegaki Tetsuya paced back and forth before them, his steps small, from left to right, then right to left. His gun barrel moved slowly with his footsteps, like a pendulum scanning those seated on the floor, their shoulder boards embroidered with cherry blossoms, who at this moment looked no different from ordinary men.

His gaze shifted from one face to another, then away from another.

On his face was a cruel, vengeful joy — these once lofty, invincible high officials were now merely a bunch of middle-aged and elderly people anxiously uneasy in weakness and fear, having lost the protection of authority and power, making them weaker than ordinary people.

Watanabe Eiji spoke: "It's about time to stop, isn't it!"

His voice was not loud, but in the room so quiet only breathing remained, each word sounded like a stone dropped into water.

"Tell me, what did that management official you're seeking do? Perhaps I can help you."

Yaegaki Tetsuya's footsteps stopped.

He stood before Watanabe Eiji, looking down at him — the Superintendent General bound with hands behind his back, seated on the floor, while the former Police Sergeant stood before him, gun pointed at his head. If this scene were photographed, it would become the most unbearable-to-watch image in Japanese police history.

"You are from the criminal investigations division." Yaegaki Tetsuya shifted his gun barrel from Watanabe Eiji's face to point at those behind him — the Police Affairs Department Head, General Affairs Department Head, Organized Crime Countermeasures Bureau Chief, Security Department Chief.

"I do not question the criminal investigations division; I question public security. That management official is the First Management Officer of the Security Planning Division under the Police Agency Security Bureau. Among those present, each one who held this position, raise your hand — you know in your heart. I only ask what those who have held this position know. So you may sit here in peace, no need to rush to speak, for it does not concern you."

"But!" Yaegaki continued pressing the gun forward: "If you do not speak, I will first kill the Superintendent General!"

"Hurry up!!!"

The people on site shuddered in their pupils, they began to stare at each other.

Shadow Administrator?

Among those present, has anyone served as Shadow Administrator?

Uesugi Muneyuki and Nango Yui left the command center, the two began to jog down the corridor. The chaos in the corridor was worse than a few minutes ago.

————————————

More people were running, more people were shouting, more people were making phone calls, more people were asking "What should we do?"

As Uesugi Muneyuki passed through the crowd, they slightly turned aside to make a path for him. His stride was neither hurried nor slow — not because he did not know the seriousness, but because if he walked too fast, those who saw him would panic even more.

"SAT has been deployed." Nango Yui said.

"Hmm." Uesugi Muneyuki nodded.

At the corner of the stairwell, he had already seen Godai Yusuke.

Godai Yusuke wore a black jacket, with an SAT armband on his arm, holding a semi-automatic rifle in his hand, the muzzle pointing downward, his index finger extended and resting on the outside of the guard ring. His face was mostly covered by the helmet, revealing only a pair of eyes and the line of his jaw.

He stood in the middle of the SAT formation, with the people ahead moving upward, his position exactly at the corner, just allowing Uesugi Muneyuki to see his eyes.

The two people's gazes met at that moment.

Godai Yusuke slightly shook his head.

The meaning was simple: he would not transform.

Uesugi Muneyuki read this message from his gaze, said not a single word, and walked past him.

The two quickly arrived at the front desk, where everyone there was in chaos, everyone unconsciously looking upstairs, wanting to know what had happened, and Uesugi Muneyuki and Nango Yui came to the front desk, quickly confirming the identity of the registered personnel from the female officer there.

Equipment Management Section, Section Chief, Asahina Kyōko.

Equipment Management Section? Uesugi Muneyuki narrowed his eyes.

The Equipment Management Section is on the fifth floor.

When Uesugi Muneyuki pushed open that door, the scene inside looked like a market bombed by an explosion. Telephones rang one after another, fax machines continuously spat out paper, and several people simultaneously shouted into the phone: "No," "Cannot approve," "Without the Director General's signature, no one can move firearms."

Asahina Kyōko sat at the innermost workstation, with a thick stack of firearm use application forms piled before her. She signed each one, her handwriting so messy it was almost illegible: "Immediately send all firearm use permits to the fourth basement level."

However, no one at the scene moved.

"What are you all standing around for? Now is — " Asahina Kyōko, approximately thirty-seven or thirty-eight years old, with a head of thick, shoulder-length black hair, small eyes, a small nose, and always carrying a touch of charming melancholy on her face — not a top-tier beauty but could be considered a competent female officer of the General Affairs Section with decent disposition — raised her head: "Uesugi Chief? Inspector Nango?"

"No time, I'll ask you directly: Was Yaegaki brought in by you? What is your relationship with him?" Uesugi Muneyuki asked.

Asahina Kyōko's fingers stopped on the desk surface, paused for about half a second, then withdrew, overlapping on her knees.

She did not deny it, and nodded.

"He is my police academy classmate. Today at noon, he suddenly called me, saying he was handling business nearby and wanted to come over to catch up, have a meal. I hadn't seen him in a long time, didn't know he had already resigned — I thought he was still at the Metropolitan Police Department. I brought him in. He sat in my office for about ten or so minutes, chatting about past events. Then he said he still had another appointment and needed to leave first, so I saw him off. After that, I don't know anything. I know nothing. Mr. Uesugi, everything I said is the truth."

Asahina Kyōko spoke softly.

This version sounds like the truth.

Every detail holds up under scrutiny — police academy classmates, years apart, catching up, having a meal, with a beginning and an end.

But Uesugi Muneyuki's spirit vision noticed a detail, one she might not have even realized while saying it: the time Yaegaki Tetsuya arrived.

Noon, phone call, dinner appointment.

Did Yaegaki Tetsuya know about the afternoon's high-level meeting at noon? Did he know the Metropolitan Police Department's high-level meeting was tonight? A former Investigation Division chief who resigned seven or eight years ago — where did he get this information?

But he said nothing, and instead, he and Nango Yui came out from inside.

"I think she's lying." Nango Yui said softly: "What she says should all be true, but she's obviously hiding something."

"Yes, the second most dangerous lie is nine truths out of ten, with the last half being half-true and half-false, yet able to mislead the other party into drawing a false conclusion." Uesugi Muneyuki nodded.

"And the most dangerous lie is — the liar believes it themselves." Nango Yui laughed, then turned serious again: "So what do we do next?"

Uesugi Muneyuki did not answer, he found this situation very strange.

Motive unknown, cause unknown, demand unknown, yet the other party actually seized all the high-ranking officials of the entire Metropolitan Police Department!

Behind this, perhaps lies an earth-shattering secret!

Namely, the reason for Yaegaki's resignation!

What exactly does he want to do?

Damn it, why am I sitting here doing nothing at the Metropolitan Police Department while the case comes knocking on the door?!?

I really fucked Mai-sama!

"Uesugi-san?" Nango Yui saw Uesugi Muneyuki thinking, so she had to ask again.

"Go find a person." Uesugi Muneyuki's facial muscles twitched once: "We must quickly obtain the personnel files — not just the personnel files, since the files likely contain nothing, we need to find someone who has investigated, knows, and is familiar with this Miss Asahina's situation."

"Who?" Nango Yui blinked in confusion.

"It is — "