Sato Kicks Down the Door

"Really?"

As he eyed Asai Makoto's conspicuously stuffed chest, a teasing smile appeared on Fujino's lips.

"Ugh! Stop it!"

Asai Makoto suddenly let out a scream.

Fujino: "?"

A moment later, the scream turned teasing. He suddenly chuckled and said in a man's voice, "Just kidding."

"So I was exposed after all?" He sighed and remarked, "As expected of Detective Fujino. You uncovered the truth after only one day on the island and even saw through me... That really was beyond my expectations."

After his sigh, he turned to Fujino with a trace of curiosity. "How exactly did you see through the fact that I'm a man?"

Asai Narumi was deeply puzzled that his identity as a man had been exposed.

After all, he had been the island's village doctor for two years.

No one had discovered he was a man in those two years. There had even been people with improper intentions who had wanted to...

"A detective's intuition..."

Fujino answered blandly.

Asai Narumi's face darkened. Clearly, he did not believe Fujino's answer.

"I was joking too."

Fujino chuckled and explained, "Actually, it had to do with the envelope you gave me."

"It's the only envelope sold on the island, and it has a pink heart pattern. It was far too conspicuous."

"I was careless."

Asai Narumi nodded at that, but he still felt that something was off. "But you couldn't have confirmed my identity based on the envelope alone, could you? I wasn't the only person on the island who bought those envelopes."

"As you said, the envelope alone really wasn't enough for me to determine your identity."

Fujino leaned lazily against the wall and adjusted his posture. "After arriving on the island, I went to the local police to ask about the fire from twelve years ago."

"From him, I found Aso Keiji's only remaining possession—a stack of sheet music."

"That stack of sheet music was very strange, so I tried deciphering it. And I really did manage to decode something. It was a suicide note left by Aso Keiji twelve years ago, detailing the drug ring's criminal activities... At the end of the note was a line: 'To my son, Aso Narumi.'"

As he spoke, Fujino took out his phone and showed the sheet music on its screen to Asai Narumi. "Asai Narumi, Aso Narumi. Asai should be the surname of the family that adopted you. So if I'm not mistaken, you're Aso Keiji's son—the one who escaped the fire twelve years ago because he was receiving treatment in Tokyo."

"I see."

As he spoke, Asai Narumi stared at the sheet music on the phone and could not help but space out.

"Thank you, Detective Fujino."

A moment later, he wiped the tears from his eyes. "If it weren't for you, I might never have known that my father left behind such a suicide note..."

"A client's business is my business."

Fujino waved a hand. "After all, you're the client who paid me a commission fee of five hundred thousand."

"Actually..."

Before he could finish, his phone rang.

He raised it and saw that the caller ID read Juzo Megure.

"Fujino! Where are you right now?"

The moment he answered, Juzo Megure's urgent voice came from the other end.

"I'm at the village clinic on Moonlight Island..."

Hearing the hoarse voice from the other end of the line, Juzo Megure froze.

He remembered that Fujino's voice did not sound like this...

Had he been tortured by the drug ring?

This was bad!

Fujino was in danger!

With that thought, Juzo Megure hurriedly called into his radio, "Everyone, move out immediately! The hostage is at the village clinic!"

"Who's nearby? Is that Sato?"

"Huh?! You want to launch an assault first?"

"Be careful!"

"Fujino, we're coming to rescue you! Hang in there!"

"Huh?"

Fujino was left stunned by the noisy commotion on the other end of the call.

Then, he understood what they meant by launching an assault and rescuing him.

The clinic door was suddenly kicked open by a female police officer in a business suit, holding a revolver.

She then aimed the gun at Asai Narumi, a sharp glint flashing in her eyes as she shouted, "You there, woman! Hands up! Don't move!"

Having never seen anything like this before, Asai Narumi obediently stood up and raised his hands.

"Sato Miwako?"

Fujino looked at the female officer who had kicked down the door and spoke in surprise.

"Are you Fujino Doji?"

Sato Miwako noticed Fujino lying on the hospital bed.

A skinny frame, black dead-fish eyes, and that lazy demeanor.

He was definitely the Fujino Inspector Megure had mentioned!

This time, the police had deployed at least three departments and nearly a hundred officers, including riot police armed with live ammunition.

From Sato Miwako, Fujino learned that the police had made such a huge mobilization because Juzo Megure believed Fujino had been captured and thoroughly tortured by the drug ring.

Realizing that he seemed to have caused an unnecessary misunderstanding, Fujino felt rather speechless.

This had gotten a little out of hand...

"Fujino, weren't you captured by the drug ring?"

Juzo Megure looked at Fujino in surprise as he lay in bed with an IV drip, asking in confusion.

The fierce-looking detectives around him stood in stark contrast to Sato Miwako.

Fujino glanced around and could not help feeling a chill down his spine.

He quickly explained, "No... After uncovering the criminal group on this island last night, I lay in wait at the transaction site and recorded all the evidence of the drugs. I also caught a drug dealer red-handed. That guy is already knocked out and tied up at the village community center."

"You caught the drug dealer already?!"

Juzo Megure stared at Fujino with utter disbelief.

Impossible. Absolutely impossible!

He might believe that Kudo could catch two drug lords barehanded.

But Fujino, skinny and still hooked up to an IV... umm...

"I didn't take them head-on."

After thinking for a moment, Fujino continued, "I snuck up on them from behind and knocked them out while they weren't paying attention."

"That's still amazing!"

At that moment, Sato Miwako, the only female detective present, praised him from the side.

Honestly, seeing Fujino's frail build made her heart tighten.

She believed Fujino when he said it had been a sneak attack.

He had successfully knocked them out, but if things had gone wrong, Fujino would have faced a fate worse than death.

Taking on two drug dealers barehanded.

How much courage did that take?