Disclaimer: Detective Conan is not mine. This fanfic is a translation.
Enjoy Reading!
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After the rescue incident, the six students from Onizuka's class who participated instantly became popular throughout the police academy.
Among them, Ritsu stood out the most. He had already entered the academy with the top score, and now the news that he had passed Japan's National Civil Service Class I Examination and joined the career track had spread across the school.
What was the career track?
It meant starting from a completely different position than everyone else. Because Ritsu had passed the Class I exam, he would automatically receive the rank of Assistant Police Inspector upon graduation. If he continued maintaining such outstanding results, he might even be promoted directly to Police Inspector or Superintendent right after graduating.
Meanwhile, the man currently at the center of all the talk, Ritsu, was crouching in front of the iron door leading to the rooftop.
Using two paper clips, he easily picked the lock.
Standing nearby with his hands on his hips, Rei sighed helplessly.
"Ritsu… when did you learn how to do that?"
"…When I was reading a criminology book before. I suddenly wanted to try it, and it worked."
Rei shook his head with a wry smile.
Luckily Ritsu was the Sherlock Holmes type. If he had turned into a Moriarty, that would have been a real problem.
Up on the rooftop, Jinpei, who had been taking a nap, heard footsteps approaching.
He propped himself up and looked toward the door.
He had deliberately locked the door earlier, just to see whether Ritsu could pick it.
Turns out, he could.
Rei walked toward Jinpei step by step and said seriously,
"Matsuda, although you committed a serious violation in firearm usage, Instructor Onizuka spoke up for you. So the academy probably won't pursue it further."
Jinpei half-closed his eyes and replied matter-of-factly,
"Well, obviously. I'm the one who pulled him back from the gates of hell!"
Ritsu was thinking about how to carefully bring up Jinpei's father, but before he could say anything,
Rei bluntly asked.
"Your father was wrongly arrested before, right?"
"That was Kenji, wasn't it… tch, big mouth."
"Being falsely arrested is definitely unfortunate. But if he had stopped the fight back then, the murder might never have happened."
Jinpei straightened his cap. Hearing that, he didn't argue.
"Yeah, I know that. But the police who destroyed my old man's dream by mistake…"
"I'll never forgive them."
Ritsu asked quietly,
"Matsuda, if you hate the police so much… why did you become one?"
Jinpei lowered the brim of his cap, striking what he thought was a cool pose.
"Isn't it obvious? I'm going to beat someone up and vent my anger!"
"That someone… is the boss of the Metropolitan Police Department!"
"The National Police Commissioner!"
"Pfft."
"Hahahahahahahaha—!"
Rei had tried to hold it in, but Jinpei's dead-serious expression made it impossible.
This was the funniest thing he had heard all year.
"What's so funny?!" Jinpei shouted, his face turning red.
He pointed at Ritsu.
"Look at him! Sasajima didn't laugh. See? He's a good kid!"
But he quickly realized that assumption was wrong.
Although Ritsu's face remained expressionless, his hands were gripping the sides of his pants tightly. His body was stiff from holding back laughter.
Jinpei sighed.
"If you want to laugh, just laugh. Holding it in isn't good for you."
"Pfft…"
Ritsu lowered his head and let out a short laugh. The corners of his mouth lifted clearly.
But when he straightened up again, his expression returned to calm neutrality.
After laughing enough, Rei asked curiously,
"You're really serious about that? That's extremely difficult. If you don't rise through the ranks, you'll never even get near the commissioner."
"Tch. I should be asking you the same thing! Why did you become a cop?"
Rei had already accepted Jinpei as a friend, so he didn't hide his reason.
He looked up at the sky.
Because only like this could he feel closer to that warm presence in his memories.
There was a saying,
No matter how far apart people are, when they look up at the sky, they're still seeing the same one.
"I became a police officer to find someone."
In his mind appeared the image of a woman wearing a white lab coat, with beautiful platinum-blonde hair. No matter how much time passed, he could still remember her clearly.
"A woman who suddenly disappeared without a trace… someone very important to me."
"Huh? What? A woman?" Jinpei immediately ruined the atmosphere.
"Didn't expect you to have some moves like that."
"Heh. Pretty impressive, right?"
"And you?" Jinpei asked, turning to Ritsu.
Ritsu tilted his head slightly.
But deep inside, he felt a sense of confusion.
The reason he became a police officer was simple.
He just wanted to be together with Rei and Morofushi.
Now, maybe he also wanted to get along well with everyone in Onizuka's class.
Wouldn't that sound strange if he said it out loud?
"…Actually, there's someone I want to beat up too."
Rei looked surprised. He hadn't expected Ritsu to bring that up.
"So who is it?"
"A politician from Saitama Prefecture. Councilor Muragaki. I think he's the mayor of Kawagoe now."
"Did something happen between you and that guy?"
Ritsu nodded and calmly explained his past.
Jinpei listened in surprise. If something like that had happened to him when he was young…
He probably wouldn't have been able to accept becoming a public servant at all.
"You went through a lot at such a young age…" Jinpei said with a teasing grin as he dug around in his pocket and pulled out a half-melted lollipop.
"Want your big brother to give you some candy?"
Ritsu ignored him completely and walked toward the door.
"No thanks. I'm going back to the dorm to change and start cleaning."
"Oh right, almost forgot."
Jinpei quickly followed the two of them.
Seriously, can't even take a joke?
Ritsu was such a boring brat.
"Hey! Wait up! I need to put my shoes on!"
Police academy life often involved strange punishments.
For example, because of what happened earlier today, they were now assigned to clean the school building.
Wearing the dark-blue training uniform, Ritsu swept the ground seriously with a broom.
But of course, someone had to cause trouble.
Like Jinpei, the eternal troublemaker.
"Rei, catch!"
"Get lost! I just swept those leaves!"
Date sighed and grabbed Jinpei by the collar, lifting him up effortlessly.
"Jinpei, if you keep doing this, everyone's going to eat dinner late."
"Alright, alright, I get it. Put me down, class rep."
To boost everyone's morale, Date shouted loudly,
"Listen up, Onizuka class! Don't stop moving, finish cleaning so we can go eat!"
"YES, SIR!!"
But before even two minutes passed, a group of female police trainees walked by and excitedly waved at someone.
"Hagiwara-kun! Don't forget about the mixer with our class this weekend!"
"Got it~ Leave it to me~"
Meanwhile, whispers spread among the girls:
"Wow, there are so many handsome guys here."
"Look at that cool, reserved one. Totally the quiet type."
"You don't know him? That's Sasajima-kun. He's actually younger too… maybe a little wolf."
"A younger guy like that is amazing… his body looks great. I really want to feel his abs."
"Hey hey! Control yourself! Your drool is showing!"
"Ahem… but the blond foreign-looking one is nice too."
"And the curly-haired guy next to him looks good too, though he seems kinda hot-tempered."
Ritsu heard every single word.
He immediately turned his back so they couldn't see his face.
'Is this what the adult world is like?'
'Little wolf? Touch abs?'
'What exactly did I just hear…?'
Morofushi walked over and gently rubbed Ritsu's head.
"Relax. They won't eat you."
But Hagiwara raised an eyebrow and said meaningfully,
"Oh, some people might eat you completely~"
"Guys need to protect themselves when they're out in the world too."
Before he could finish—
THUD!
Jinpei kicked him in the butt.
"Don't scare people like that!"
"Ow! My butt! You're going to split it in half!"
"Don't lie to me! I might not read much, but when has a butt not been in two halves?"
"Hahahahahahaha—!"
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