Disclaimer: Detective Conan is not mine. This fanfic is a translation.
Enjoy Reading!
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After New Year's Eve passed, life at the police academy had already reached its halfway point.
When the afternoon training ended, Instructor Onizuka announced that there were no more tasks for the day, and everyone was free to do as they pleased.
Ritsu packed up his belongings and was about to hand his English notes to Hiro when he noticed that the man seemed distracted. After hurriedly packing his things, he headed straight for the classroom door.
Lately, Hiro had been acting a little strange.
Feeling worried, Ritsu quickly finished packing and followed after him. But to his surprise, Hiro returned to the dormitory, put down his things, changed out of his police uniform, and put on casual clothes as if he were about to leave the academy.
'Where was he going alone?'
Hiro didn't notice that someone was following him. Absentmindedly, he walked toward Honmachi 1-chome. According to what Jinpei had said earlier, they had once seen a man with a goblet tattoo at a motorcycle shop around here.
He stopped outside the shop but hesitated to go in.
Memories from his childhood resurfaced. The nightmare that had haunted him for years came from a man with a goblet tattoo on his arm.
His expression gradually worsened.
After all, the reason he wanted to become a police officer had two purposes: first, to solve the case in Nagano Prefecture and avenge his parents; second, to "save" the version of himself still trapped in that tragedy.
If only his younger self had been stronger and hadn't suffered from mild amnesia… then perhaps those memories wouldn't always return in broken fragments, leaving him with only that one physical feature of the murderer, the tattoo.
Suddenly, he felt a weight settle on his left shoulder.
Startled while still debating whether to enter, Hiro turned around and saw Ritsu standing there with a concerned expression.
"Ritsu…"
"Do you want to go in? I'll go with you."
He didn't say it outright, but Ritsu knew that Hiro had secretly been investigating the brutal murder of his parents. The fact that he had come here alone probably meant he had found some kind of lead.
Hiro smiled faintly. After nodding, he gathered his courage and walked into the motorcycle shop with Ritsu.
He headed straight for the counter and politely asked the young man behind it, who was wearing his baseball cap backward,
"Hello, may I ask if there's a customer here with a goblet tattoo on his arm?"
The young man shook his head.
"Who are you? We can't reveal customers' personal information."
For once, Hiro leaned forward with both hands on the counter, his emotions rising as he shouted,
"I just need to meet him, the man with the goblet tattoo!!"
'A tattoo… was that information related to the case?' Ritsu had never heard Hiro mention it before.
Just as the clerk looked helpless, an older man passing by walked out from inside the shop and squinted slightly.
"Are you talking about Irie?"
"Huh?"
Ritsu glanced at the squinting older man. His clothes carried a faint smell of disinfectant, not the kind used in hospitals. Judging by his attire, he was probably an employee of a cleaning company.
"Sotomori-san! You shouldn't say that!" the young clerk said anxiously.
"It's fine. These two are going to be police officers someday. They even saved me at a convenience store before," the man said with a friendly smile.
"What kind of person is this Irie?" Hiro asked.
"He's a quiet guy. His family runs a hardware store. We met during a hot spring trip organized by the community."
"Do you have a photo?" Ritsu asked.
"Irie doesn't like taking pictures… but… oh right, there's a group photo somewhere. Let me check!"
After searching on his phone for a moment, the man finally found the only group photo and handed the phone to Hiro.
"The one wearing the black tank top is Irie. But why are you looking for someone with a tattoo? These days, quite a lot of people have tattoos."
"For example, the shop clerk here has a scorpion tattoo on the back of his neck, and as for me, well, I have a Kannon tattoo on my upper arm."
Ritsu only glanced briefly at the photo on the phone. After noting the position and shape of the tattoo, his gaze shifted to the Kannon tattoo visible beneath Sotomori's rolled-up sleeve.
He hadn't expected such a friendly-looking man to have tattoos too.
"Is it the same?" Ritsu asked.
Hiro shook his head.
The tattoo wasn't in the same place. The goblet tattoo he had seen years ago had been near the shoulder, which didn't match Irie's in the photo.
CLANG!!!
A loud crash suddenly came from outside.
Both Ritsu and Hiro turned around at the same time.
A small passenger car was being dragged along the road by a container truck.
At times like this, the priority was obvious, solve the problem first.
The two immediately rushed toward the vehicles, instinctively splitting up.
While running, Hiro shouted, "Sir, ma'am! What happened?!"
"I mixed up the brake and the accelerator and crashed into the truck! The bumper got stuck!" the elderly driver said in panic.
The truck driver hadn't noticed and kept driving?
All they had to do was alert the driver!
Hiro looked up at Ritsu, who had already reached the driver's side of the truck.
"Hey! Can you hear me?! There's a car stuck behind you, hit the brakes right now!"
Ritsu heard coughing from inside.
The worst part was that the truck driver had gone pale and was slumped over the steering wheel, completely unconscious.
It was very likely a sudden heart attack.
"Hiro, call an ambulance. I'll get up there and try to stop it."
"Hey! Ritsu—!"
Ritsu sped up and leaped onto the container truck. With no foothold available, he used his abdominal strength and pulled himself up with both hands, climbing onto the top of the truck.
He planned to enter from the other side and gain control of the vehicle.
But just then, the truck suddenly accelerated. He lost his footing for a moment and nearly fell off.
Seeing this, Hiro's heart jumped in shock.
While dialing for an ambulance, he also contacted the fire department. If the truck overturned later, firefighters would be needed for rescue.
As he ran, Hiro called Rei and quickly explained the situation.
Panting, he said,
"Ritsu is on top of the truck right now, but I don't think he managed to get inside. The door might be locked!"
"Locked? Then I'll have the instructor drive over. This is something we probably can't handle on our own!"
Standing nearby, Kenji suddenly remembered the white RX-7 FD3S that the instructor had asked Jinpei to repair and wash.
He tapped Rei's shoulder, signaling him to follow.
They ran to the police academy parking lot. They found the car but Jinpei was nowhere in sight.
"That's strange. Didn't he say he was fixing and washing the car? Where'd he go?" Kenji wondered.
Rei circled the car and noticed the trunk was open. When he lifted it fully, he discovered Jinpei lying inside, just waking up from a nap.
The guy really knew how to pick a place to sleep.
"Hey, Jin. Can the car run right now?"
"Hm?" Jinpei yawned sleepily and asked,
"What do you need it for?"
"To save someone."
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