Twelve Million Hostages

"Is that so?"

Fujino rested the back of his head on his hands and looked at the road faintly illuminated by the streetlights. "So Officer Sato was acting that way at the hospital because she saw the shadow of someone she used to like in me?"

"Maybe..."

Sato Miwako lowered her gaze. "Sometimes you act like a little hoodlum, completely unserious. But other times, you're far too serious. You charge around recklessly without fearing death at all. You're practically an idiot."

"I'm not a hoodlum."

Fujino was speechless for a moment before indignantly saying, "I'm an upstanding High School Detective with excellent grades. Believe it or not, I'll apply for Teitan High School's Star Student award tomorrow and show you."

"..."

Sato Miwako could not help rolling her eyes.

Then who was it that beat up suspects at crime scenes?

Did he even believe himself when he said he was not a hoodlum?

With those methods of baiting people and beating them up, even she, who had been called a fierce woman, felt inferior!

"But I think we're not alike at all."

Fujino raised his head slightly. "I don't think he was unafraid of death. Rather, there was something more important to him than death... Sherlock Holmes once said: 'For the public good, I am willing to welcome death.'"

After pausing, he continued, "Perhaps, to him, the public good mattered more than his own life. He would not hesitate to trade his life for the lives of the majority... I don't know what he was thinking, but I do think someone like him would be respected anywhere. As a police officer, he was a truly qualified one."

"Yeah... a truly qualified police officer."

Sato Miwako nodded in agreement, then glanced at Fujino. "So? You sound like you understand him deeply.