Disclaimer: Detective Conan is not mine. This fanfic is a translation.
Enjoy Reading!
----
"You must never sympathize with vicious criminals."
"If you're not stronger than everyone else, you can't uphold justice!"
Lying on his bed in pajamas, Ritsu recalled the words Date had said earlier. Those two lines were the ones he truly agreed with.
This world had always been one where the strong prey on the weak. Only the strong had the right to uphold so-called justice.
Thinking back to what happened in Saitama Prefecture, if his own influence had been greater than that of Councilor Muragaki, he wouldn't have been suspended for an entire year nor forced to bear false accusations.
But when he thought about it carefully…
If that incident had never happened, would he ever have met Morofushi and the others?
Would he still want to become a police officer who upholds justice?
Knock, knock.
A knock came from the door.
Ritsu glanced at the alarm clock on his desk. There were still two hours until lights-out. Tonight's nighttime training had been canceled, leaving them with quite a bit of unexpected free time.
"Coming."
Barefoot, Ritsu walked over and opened the door.
Outside stood Morofushi and the others but Rei and Date were nowhere to be seen.
"Hm? Ritsu, were you already asleep?" Morofushi asked, noticing the pajamas he was wearing.
"No, just lying down to rest. Are you guys heading out?"
"Yeah. Matsuda and the others are going to the supermarket. Want to come with us?"
"Give me a moment. I'll change."
Ritsu casually took off his pajamas and folded them onto the desk. He opened his wardrobe to grab some clothes for going out, but noticed Jinpei squinting at him.
"Whoa~ I never noticed before. Sasajima, you've got a pretty good build. Damn, look at those muscle lines…"
"Get out."
Soon he was dressed in a dark gray long-sleeve hoodie, black athletic pants with white stripes down the sides, and a pair of classic low-top skate shoes.
It was a youthful, casual outfit.
After stuffing his wallet into his pocket, Ritsu followed them to the large supermarket near the police academy, which had far more variety than the campus convenience store. Most academy students preferred shopping there.
"By the way, where's Zero?"
"When we went to find him and the class rep, they weren't around. Probably went out together to buy something."
"Oh."
The four of them strolled along the night streets.
Looking up at the faint stars in the sky, Hagiwara suddenly remembered something from their afternoon training.
"Oh right, I just remembered something about Class Rep Date."
"What is it?"
"It's about his dad." Hagiwara turned to Ritsu. "Only today did I realize… when I was a kid, I witnessed something similar. A man with eyebrows just like the class rep's was being beaten by what looked like gang members in a convenience store. That guy was probably his father."
Ritsu froze for a moment.
"Hagiwara, could you tell me the details?"
Back then, the truth of the incident was that Date's father had already noticed that the thug had several accomplices hiding in a nearby car.
He knew that arresting one person would only attract the others.
If a fight broke out inside the store and the doors were shut, the other customers would be endangered. Besides Hagiwara, there had been a pregnant woman, elderly people, and several female students inside the store.
The police arrived quickly afterward.
Most likely, Date's father had called them beforehand and deliberately knelt down to beg the criminals, stalling for time until help arrived.
"So that's what happened…" Jinpei muttered with his hands in his pockets. "No wonder the class rep thought his dad was a coward."
"Yeah. After all, a police officer kneeling and begging criminals…"
Thinking about his own childhood, Jinpei's expression turned cold.
"I kind of understand how the class rep felt. When my dad was arrested on suspicion of murder, people everywhere called me 'the son of a killer.' I almost started hating my own father."
Ritsu's footsteps paused for a moment before he continued walking.
It reminded him of his own past in Saitama, memories that refused to fade.
"But back then," Jinpei said with a smile, "the guys at the gym encouraged me. They told me to trust my dad and wait for him to come back. That's why I didn't fall into despair."
If it weren't for them, he had no idea what kind of person he might have become.
Hearing that, Ritsu recalled the moment he first met Morofushi.
Despite not being good at starting conversations with strangers, Morofushi had mustered the courage to stop him from doing something foolish, thinking Ritsu might try to take his own life.
Yes…
Sometimes all it takes is someone pulling you back at your lowest point to set you on the right path.
"Ritsu… look over there!"
His thoughts were interrupted.
Noticing the alarmed expression on Morofushi's face, Ritsu quickly looked in the direction he pointed.
Across the street, the convenience store sign was flickering repeatedly.
And it had a pattern.
"Doesn't that look like Morse code?"
Blinking and going dark… rhythmic and deliberate.
It didn't just look like Morse code.
It was Morse code.
And it was signaling... a distress call.
"Looks like someone's robbing the convenience store," Ritsu said. "Hiro, go back to the academy and gather any cadets who are still awake. I'll scout the area around the store first."
"Got it. Be careful, Ritsu!"
They immediately split up.
Pretending to be a customer heading to the store, Ritsu approached the entrance. But he noticed a sign posted on the door that read "Under Renovation."
These criminals had clearly planned ahead.
Ritsu carefully crouched and moved behind the nearby glass window frame. Peering inside, he spotted two men wearing knit caps and holding shotguns.
They had firearms.
That complicated things.
One of the criminals in a black knit cap was talking on the phone, which meant there were accomplices outside the store as well.
Realizing his position could be dangerous, Ritsu sat down on the ground and leaned against the wall, pretending to be a drunken man sleeping it off.
Soon, there was movement near the store entrance.
Ritsu staggered to his feet and walked past casually, noticing that the criminal had torn down the "Under Renovation" sign from the door.
What did that mean?
Then he saw it,
A security company van marked "Comprehensive Security" driving toward the convenience store.
Now he understood.
So this was their real target.
Ritsu pulled out his phone and sent a message to Morofushi, warning him that the criminals had guns and that there were at least five of them. When entering the store for the rescue, they would need to get close and strike while the criminals were caught off guard.
After reading the message, Morofushi looked at the two people beside him.
"The suspects have guns. Should we come up with a plan?"
Hagiwara's brain immediately kicked into high gear.
After informing the police academy students participating in the operation about the timing, he returned to his room and pulled out three outfits that clearly didn't belong to "ordinary people."
Jinpei looked at them suspiciously.
"…Why do these look like host club outfits?"
"Hahaha~ Really?" Hagiwara laughed. "I just thought these floral shirts looked nice when I bought them. Alright, hurry up and change! If we act well enough, maybe a passing director will recruit us for a movie!"
"Kenji, you're delusional ba—"
"Life's better with optimism! Hurry up and change. Oh, and sunglasses too. For realism, let's crack open a beer and splash some on ourselves."
Once they changed, the three men, now looking suspiciously like host club workers, stood ready while the girls behind them snickered.
As expected of people Hagiwara had gathered.
They were all girls.
"The Convenience Store Rescue Plan… begins now!"
"Yes!"