Needless to say, the group knew exactly what had to be done.
If they waited until someone scaled the roof structure to sever the cable, Instructor Onizuka likely wouldn't survive the delay. Therefore, the optimal solution was to shoot the cable down from a distance as quickly as possible.
Matsuda was tasked with reassembling the scattered firearm components; Hagiwara needed to track down the missing round in record time; Furuya Rei, with his elite marksmanship, would handle the shot; Wataru Date would serve as the human base, while Hiromitsu Morofushi would act as the secondary support atop the base.
"Alright... brothers, move out!"
Wataru Date bolted directly beneath Instructor Onizuka. Bending his knees slightly, he locked his hands together to form a rigid platform and bellowed, "Morofushi!"
"On it!"
Without a shred of hesitation, Hiromitsu Morofushi sprinted forward. His left foot planted squarely into Date's locked palms, utilizing the upward leverage to vault himself steadily onto Date's shoulders. He quickly extended his arms to brace the unconscious maintenance worker, lifting his head to look at Instructor Onizuka, whose face had turned a flushed purple under the constriction of the safety cable.
The upward hoist effectively counteracted a fraction of the downward gravitational pull, affording Onizuka a brief pocket of relief.
"Instructor, hang in there! We're getting you down right now!"
With the double weight bearing down on his shoulders, Date's muscles locked tight, and beads of sweat broke across his forehead. Yet he still managed a gritty grin, shouting, "Until then... you better hold on tight! Don't you dare kick the bucket on us!"
On the other end of the range, Furuya Rei turned toward Jinpei Matsuda, who was systematically working through the revolver reassembly, his brow drawing into a tight knit. "How much longer?"
"One round."
"One round... three minutes? It takes that long?" Furuya Rei's tone was laced with intense urgency.
"Yeah," Matsuda replied without lifting his eyes, his screwdriver pivoting fluidly through his fingers. "If it were a standard reassembly, it wouldn't even take thirty seconds. But this is a defective piece, and it needs to achieve the level of precision where a bullet can be discharged accurately without a single test fire..."
"After all, if our Blonde Master over here is going to sever that cable with a single shot, the adjustments have to be seamless."
Blonde Master?
Confronted with his brand-new moniker, Furuya Rei uncharacteristically chose not to fire back. The stakes were astronomical; a single mechanical deviation could cost Instructor Onizuka his life.
Furuya couldn't help but recall Hisano's effortless display earlier on the range, piercing the dead center of the target with absolute ease. Had that guy taken the shot... there wouldn't be a sliver of uncertainty.
However, searching the vicinity, he couldn't spot the youth's silhouette anywhere. He's likely still occupied at the neighboring training camp, or perhaps he simply slipped away early.
"What's the matter?" Matsuda provoked smoothly as he methodically realigned the internal gears. "Don't tell me you lack the confidence to pull it off?"
"Don't make me laugh..." Furuya Rei locked his gaze onto the cable constricting Instructor Onizuka's neck, continuously monitoring his vitals. "I don't miss when it matters!"
Simultaneously, Kenji Hagiwara had seamlessly integrated himself into the crowd of spectating cadets. Crouching down, he let out a deliberately theatrical exclamation, "Oh-ho? How about that? The bullet actually rolled all the way over here!"
"What? Where, where?!"
The surrounding crowd instantly erupted into a restless stir. Hagiwara's sharp gaze swept over the shifting expressions of the cadets, rapidly locking onto a visibly panicked individual who was covertly sliding a hand toward his pocket.
With a faint smirk, Hagiwara closed the distance with rapid strides, cutting straight to the point. "You're the one who pocketed the live round, aren't you?"
"I-I'm sorry... I just wanted to keep it as a souvenir for our very first live-fire training session..." Caught red-handed, the cadet hung his head in sheer embarrassment, meekly surrendering the live round.
Accepting the ammunition, Hagiwara pivoted and hurled it straight toward Furuya Rei. "Little Furuya, catch—!"
The handsome, tan-skinned youth intercepted the projectile with flawless coordination.
Almost in tandem, Matsuda finalized the structural alignment of the defective firearm. "This perfect piece of machinery is all yours!" He shoved the revolver into Furuya Rei's palm, his gaze flashing with lethal intensity. "If you manage to throw this shot wide, I will personally kill you, Rei!"
This marked the first instance of Matsuda addressing Furuya by his given name.
"You don't need to tell me twice... I know!" Receiving the absolute trust and endorsement of his rival, Furuya Rei stabilized his grip on the weapon, channeling his entire focus onto the target downrange.
Bang!!
The discharged projectile tore through the stagnant air. Furuya Rei's marksmanship was impeccable; the bullet clipped the cable exactly ten centimeters away from Instructor Onizuka's head, causing the structural line to snap instantly.
However, precisely at the microsecond of the firearm's discharge, a brilliant silver arc flashed out from an entirely different vector, slicing through the upper section of the cable simultaneously.
"Eh? What was that?"
Furuya Rei narrowed his eyes to inspect the trajectory, realizing that the mysterious silver arc was actually a gleaming, stainless-steel dinner knife. The utensil had embedded itself deeply into the pine wall panels of the firing range, leaving behind a fracture radiating wood fragments.
The vast majority of the crowd had their eyes glued to the roaring bullet, completely missing the lightning-fast arc that had sliced through the air.
With the cable severed, Instructor Onizuka plunged downward. Hiromitsu Morofushi and Wataru Date reacted with lightning reflexes; one caught the instructor's falling frame, while the other securely grabbed the utility worker along with his safety harness buckle.
Instructor Onizuka clutched his throat, letting out a succession of rough coughs, clearly cleared of any mortal peril.
"The instructor is safe! Fantastic—!"
Within the firing range, every cadet who had witnessed the rescue erupted into a thunderous wave of cheers and applause.
Furuya Rei's gaze cut through the rowdy assembly. Very quickly, he spotted the black-haired, crimson-eyed youth standing near the rear exit of the facility. The boy's fingertips still lingered in a subtle throwing posture. Catching Furuya's gaze, Satoru Gojo narrowed his eyes, a wild, uninhibited grin stretching across his lips.
[Ding! Impression points from plot character Furuya Rei have increased by 500!]
Hagiwara slung an arm across Matsuda's shoulder, letting out a cheerful chuckle. "Little Jinpei, and Little Furuya—you guys pulled off an exceptional performance out there."
"It's all thanks to you locating that round in time, Hagiwara." Overlooking the casual nickname for once, Furuya Rei let out a genuine sigh of relief, knowing their instructor was out of harm's way.
Following this, he directed his attention toward Gojo, who was casually strolling over with his hands tucked into his pockets as if nothing out of the ordinary had occurred. Arching an eyebrow, a trace of respect colored Furuya's tone. "Hisano, you bastard... that was a ridiculously precise throw just now."
"Your bullet wasn't half bad either."
Wiping away the thin layer of sweat lining his cheek, Furuya Rei offered a helpless sigh. "You clearly could have intervened much earlier, couldn't you?" Had Hisano simply severed the line with that dinner knife from the start, they wouldn't have had to burn through critical time meticulously overhauling a defective firearm.
Gojo shrugged carelessly. "Regrettably, I literally just made it back from the neighboring facility."
In reality, his early departure had been entirely calculated. Even if Instructor Onizuka hadn't dispatched him to guide the alternate cohorts, he would have manufactured an excuse to slip away on his own. Because he possessed absolute foresight regarding today's unfolding crisis, he harbored no desire to consciously hijack the definitive defining moment that belonged to the core five. This marked their very first seamless, collaborative operation—a pivotal narrative sequence in the manga designed to flesh out their structural dynamics.
Had he remained anchored to the scene from the very beginning, Furuya Rei might never have taken that shot. However, to completely sit out the sequence would be a massive waste of potential points. To truly cement his status as the definitive "Sixth Man of the Police Academy," capitalizing on an impression point harvest during a major incident was entirely fair game, wasn't it?
After all, with the other five members naturally dividing the operating roles among themselves, having him stand around the perimeter doing absolutely nothing... well, that would just look entirely out of place.
Consequently, Gojo had timed his arrival down to the final second, stepping into the fray at the ultimate juncture to deliver an exquisite finishing touch. Even without "Hisano Nozomi" intervening, Furuya and the others would have executed the rescue flawlessly anyway, wouldn't they?
Matsuda and Hagiwara had also noted the silver gleam that had shot out alongside the bullet, instantly identifying it as Hisano's handiwork.
Hagiwara clicked his tongue in disbelief. "Was that some sort of hidden projectile shuriken? Is Little Hisano secretly a ninja or something?"
Then again, if that knife had accidentally grazed Instructor Onizuka's head... An image of Onizuka sporting a perfectly bald horseshoe haircut unprompted flashed through his mind. "Pfft—"
"Hey, Hagi, what are you snickering about?"
Gojo approached the timber wall, wrapping his palm around the exposed handle of the knife. With a sharp, resonant crack, the dinner knife embedded deep within the wood paneling was extracted effortlessly. The stainless-steel blade was as thin as paper, reflecting a cold, metallic sheen; it didn't look particularly sharp by any metric, leaving one to wonder how it could unleash such devastating force in his hands.
Recalling the boy's borderline terrifying physical power, Furuya Rei decided to let the physics slide. "By the way, where did you even get a knife like that?" He poked Gojo's shoulder. "You aren't supposed to carry contraband like this during training hours!"
"Like I care~" The black-haired youth hummed airily. "I need this to slice my mango mille-crêpe cake later."
With that, much like a robotic cartoon cat, he proceeded to pull an entire assortment of forks and spoons out of his uniform pocket.
"..." How does that pocket even accommodate all that?!
Then again, considering Hisano was an absolute sweet-tooth fanatic, carrying an entire arsenal of personal cutlery everywhere wasn't entirely outside the realm of comprehension.
Instructor Onizuka required a fair bit of time to stabilize his breathing and was subsequently assisted toward the infirmary by the assistant instructors. Prior to his departure, his gaze drifted over to the six youths standing a short distance away, surrounded by their cheering peers as they engaged in their usual bickering. A rare trace of profound satisfaction softened his typically rigid, unyielding features.
It was the seamless, unified operation of these specific cadets that had salvaged his life from the brink of disaster.
Perhaps these problem children...
Will grow to become the greatest police officers this force has ever seen.
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100 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter
10 Reviews = 1 Bonus chapter