This…
Everyone stared at Heiji, completely stunned.
A five-second video clip—and the person in it wasn't even standing still, just flashing through the frame—yet Heiji had still caught it.
"That's impossible." Officer Shiratori suddenly shook his head.
His words hit everyone in Search Division 3 like a stone thrown into a still lake, sending ripples through the room.
"Officer Shiratori, what's impossible?" Inspector Megure asked.
Officer Shiratori walked over with a serious expression, dragged the progress bar back to the very beginning, clicked the mouse, and played the clip again.
The five seconds passed in an instant.
"Officer Shiratori, what are you getting at?" Inspector Megure asked, frowning.
The others looked just as lost.
"A five-second clip is already extremely short. The frames flash by even faster, yet Mr. Hattori was able to see the tiniest details of the people inside so clearly…"
"Officer Shiratori, what are you trying to say?" Sato Miwako's brows knitted.
"The human eye has limits. The retina captures images, then the signal has to be transmitted to the brain's visual center—there's processing time, and reaction time. Mr. Hattori, don't you think your reaction speed is too fast?"
Officer Shiratori looked at Heiji with suspicion.
Inspector Megure and the others quietly agreed: Shiratori wasn't wrong.
Sato Miwako's hand on Heiji's shoulder tightened slightly.
"Officer Shiratori means I watched the video beforehand?" Heiji asked with a faint smile.
"That's exactly what I mean." Officer Shiratori stared at him. "Mr. Hattori, how do you explain this?"
Heiji glanced around. Then his eyes lit up, and he casually patted Sato Miwako's hand.
"Miwako, bring me that stack of color cards."
Sato Miwako followed his gaze. On a female officer's desk sat a stack of color cards. She nodded at once and strode over on long legs.
Heiji's pat on her hand was so natural it didn't draw much attention—though someone still noticed.
Officer Shiratori's eyes narrowed. They're already at the stage of holding hands?
[Are Officer Sato and Mr. Heiji already together?] Takagi felt a little deflated.
Sato Miwako moved quickly.
"Heiji, here are the color cards."
Heiji took them. "Mm."
That curt response made Officer Shiratori's heart jolt. How close are they, exactly? Why is it so casual?
Heiji held the stack in one hand and flipped through them rapidly with the other, moving fast, eyes steady and unblinking.
Everyone else was baffled by what he was doing.
"Hattori—"
"Officer Shiratori, don't interrupt Hattori," Inspector Megure said.
Megure had seen that look before. When Heiji was solving a case—deducing—this was exactly how he looked.
Sato Miwako stood quietly at his side, her beautiful eyes fixed on him.
A moment later, Heiji held out the stack toward Shiratori.
"Officer Shiratori. These are for you."
Officer Shiratori stared at the cards, then frowned.
"Mr. Hattori, what is this supposed to mean?"
"Pick any twenty cards you want," Heiji said. "Then toss them into the air."
Officer Shiratori's words made everyone freeze.
"Mr. Hattori, you're saying you can accurately see the twenty cards I pick in that short amount of time?"
The faces around them changed.
Are you kidding? Even if you threw twenty cards into the air, they wouldn't stay up long—at most five seconds before they fell.
"Didn't you want an explanation?" Heiji said. "I don't like empty talk. Let's prove it."
He turned his chair around and looked at Officer Shiratori coolly.
"Start."
Officer Shiratori's eyes were full of doubt. He looked down at the cards, then flipped through them.
Soon, he selected twenty.
The moment Sato Miwako saw what he'd chosen, her expression changed, her gaze turning cold.
"Officer Shiratori, it's daytime, and your back is to the window—sunlight is coming in. And you picked light beige tones…"
"Miwako, it's fine," Heiji said, taking her hand.
"Is there a connection between beige cards and standing with your back to the sunlight?" Officer Chiba asked, curious.
"When beige is scattered in the air under direct sunlight, the glare makes subtle differences harder to distinguish," Heiji said, looking at Shiratori with a faint smile. "I'm guessing this is a 'challenge' you prepared for me."
The other officers in Search Division 3 exchanged uneasy looks. Does Officer Shiratori have a grudge against Hattori? He's making things difficult at every turn.
"Officer Shiratori, this kind of behavior already violates police conduct," Sato Miwako said coldly, frowning.
Officer Shiratori glanced at her helplessly. Officer Sato, haven't you violated it too?
Of course, he didn't say that out loud.
"Since Mr. Hattori says he can't do it, I'll switch to other cards."
"Officer Shiratori," Heiji said, "start."
Heiji sat calmly, confidence hanging around him like an aura.
Officer Shiratori glanced at Sato Miwako, then smiled faintly.
"Let's hope Mr. Hattori isn't just talking big."
He set the other cards aside and pinched the twenty beige cards between his fingers.
He glanced at Heiji—then threw them upward hard.
Instantly, more than twenty cards fluttered and danced in the air, catching the sunlight.
Everyone stared up at the cards.
Heiji narrowed his gaze, tracking them sharply.
Six seconds.
All the cards hit the ground.
Search Division 3 fell completely silent. Every pair of eyes turned to Heiji.
Heiji closed his eyes slightly.
"PMS100, PMS101, PMS102, PMS106, PMS108…"
Inspector Megure and the others looked at each other, stunned.
"What is Mr. Heiji saying?" Officer Chiba asked.
Officer Shiratori snatched up the cards from the floor and compared them to what Heiji was calling out. His expression changed instantly.
"PMS115, PMS120, PMS123… and the last one should be PMS126. Officer Shiratori, I'm not wrong, am I?"
"Hattori—you remembered all of them?"
Inspector Megure glanced at the cards in Shiratori's hand, eyes widening as he shouted in shock.
"Mr. Heiji got every single one?"
"He distinguished all those colors in six seconds?"
Takagi and the others were speechless. The differences between each shade were tiny—how could he tell them apart?
Officer Shiratori was completely stunned now, staring at Heiji.
"Not a single mistake. Mr. Hattori… how did you do it?"
Without realizing it, his tone had shifted.
Sato Miwako was just as surprised—and an intense sense of pride rose in her chest.
Heiji gave a faint smile.
"Does that satisfy you, Officer Shiratori?"
Officer Shiratori froze, then nodded.
"Mr. Hattori, I still suspect you, but I can't refute what I just saw. Still… those shades barely differ, and there was glare from the sunlight. How could you be that accurate?"
Even telling apart obvious colors like red, blue, and green was hard enough—let alone near-identical beige.
Heiji picked up one of the cards.
"I can't say I'm amazing at distinguishing tiny color differences in that short amount of time," he said. "But reading the names printed on the cards? That's doable."
Everyone went rigid.
On the card, the letters PMS suddenly looked painfully obvious.
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