Outsmarted by His Own Cleverness

September 24. Shiraishi had been in office for a week.

After four morning meetings and daytime inspections of every department, Shiraishi had more or less met all the officers in the station...

He had gained a general grasp of the officers' basic circumstances and had a good idea of who had potential and which departments suited them.

However, transfers needed a reason—this was real work, not a game. Reassigning people casually could make officers dissatisfied and might even dampen their enthusiasm.

Therefore, Shiraishi had not acted rashly yet. Besides, most officers could still put their current positions to use and gain experience there...

As a police chief directly responsible for managing several hundred people, Shiraishi had gained a new understanding of the role.

It was completely different from when he had served as a frontline section chief!

As police chief, what Shiraishi needed most of the time was not personal ability...

If the police dogs were no good, the chief could not just step in and sniff things himself; if the Metropolitan Police Department Martial Arts Competition training fell behind, the chief could not just step in and fight himself... That would not do!

It might solve the immediate problem, but it would not help the station function at all.

Early that morning, Kawai stood guard nervously outside the 5-chome Koban in Beika.

Seeing her like this, Fujisato Seiko asked in confusion, "Hm? Kawai, why are you being so formal today?"

"Section Chief Fuji! You should get ready too... If I've got the timing right, the chief should be running past again soon!" Kawai said nervously.

That was right. Every day, the chief ran past this place...

On Wednesday, Kawai had nearly been scared out of her wits—just after six in the morning, a "huge black shadow" had flashed past the koban entrance. It clearly did not seem normal. Having just finished the night shift, she had thought she had encountered something supernatural...

Later, she heard her colleagues mention it during the morning meeting. Lots of koban had seen it!

And...

They quickly figured out what "that thing" was...

When the footage was played back in slow motion, it showed the chief sprinting past at incredible speed!

At first, everyone had been puzzled. But after the koban Patrol Officers compared notes, they realized it was not "the chief raced past the koban where I was on duty," but rather... "the chief went for an early-morning run through all of Beika Town"!

As for why they called it "racing"?

Later, they pieced together the chief's route and discovered that, in roughly one hour and ten minutes, he had run a winding route through Beika Town that passed all seventeen koban—a distance of around... thirty kilometers!

In other words, excluding the time he spent jogging in place with high knees at red lights, the chief had been doing his morning run at roughly 30 km/h...

Put another way, for the chief, this was not "racing." He was simply maintaining a steady pace during his morning run. It was only "a little fast," though to everyone else, it looked like he was racing!

(In the real world, the marathon world record for forty-two kilometers is two hours and one minute. Considering that people in this world were somewhat physically stronger, Shiraishi Kuro running thirty kilometers in an hour was perfectly scientific.)

After realizing this, the koban throughout Beika Town grew nervous—did this mean the new chief came to "inspect" each of their duty stations every day?

Well, Shiraishi Kuro had not put that much thought into it...

He mainly did it for exercise!

After all, his Lv10 [Physique] was roughly equivalent to the human limit for someone weighing 159 kilograms. Not only would [Physique] temporarily decline when he was injured, but if he neglected his body's daily upkeep, he would also be unable to maintain the "human limit."

He still needed to exercise regularly to maintain his condition!

If he stuffed himself with food and indulged in pleasure every day, his body would gradually deteriorate. The Point Allocation System was very scientific; it would not unscientifically lock his body into a fixed state.

Especially since Shiraishi Kuro had spent a month in the hospital before this, he now had some excess fat to burn...

Shiraishi had simply not expected his "little morning workout" to send the koban Patrol Officers across the entire station into a frenzy!

Of course, it was not a big deal...

The reason Shiraishi had planned his route this way was indeed because he wanted to inspect Beika Town.

Patrols were the best way to improve public safety within a jurisdiction!

The Patrol Officers at the koban might seem like the lowest rank, but they were extremely important. They were the foundation of public safety.

Shiraishi was essentially inspecting the people who conducted patrols every day...

And precisely because the "30 km/h chief" passed by every morning, the koban had become more proactive. The Patrol Officers could not even complain about having to attend morning meetings at the station every day—after all, the "30 km/h chief" ran past every koban during his daily workout before heading to the station to preside over the morning meeting!

But Fujisato Seiko said to Kawai at that moment, "It's Saturday. The chief probably won't come today..."

"Huh? Doesn't the chief go running in the morning? He doesn't run on his days off?" Kawai froze at that.

At the same time, she felt a little resentful—senior officers really had it good... They even got days off!

"No. I heard that Gen said he and Yamada were going to help the chief move today... And they were going early in the morning," Fujisato Seiko recalled.

That was right. Shiraishi was indeed moving today...

Previously, Shiraishi had lived in the Metropolitan Police Department dormitory. Although he had been a police inspector and section chief, he had never started a family, so there had been no need for him to move out. Living in the dormitory also made commuting convenient.

But now that his workplace had moved to Beika Police Station, no one would drive him out if he continued living in the Metropolitan Police Department dormitory, but transportation would be rather inconvenient—Minato Ward and Chiyoda Ward, where the Metropolitan Police Department was located, were adjacent, but they were not that close. Besides, he still had to exercise every morning, didn't he?

"Huh? Section Chief Gen and Senior Yamada... are they that eager to get ahead?" Kawai revealed a strange expression.

Genjiro and Fujisato Seiko were both Patrol Sergeants, while Yamada was a Patrol Officer at Kawai's rank. However, he had joined several years earlier, so the newcomer Kawai still called Genjiro and Fujisato "Section Chief," while calling Yamada "Senior."

Thinking about it now, Section Chief Gen and Senior Yamada were always short on rest. They often complained that they had spent days tailing suspects without getting to sleep in a bed. Yet now, on their day off... they had voluntarily gone to help their superior move?

If that was not trying to "get ahead," what was?

"Get ahead? You think too highly of those two idiots." Fujisato Seiko rolled her eyes.

"Huh?" Kawai froze.

"You forgot what day it is today? Remember to take some time to rest later. You still need to return to the station's martial arts hall afterward," Fujisato Seiko reminded her.

"The martial arts hall... Ah! Today is... Aaaah..." Kawai completely deflated.

After getting off the night shift, she still had to attend the weekly Arrest Technique Training!

"Among all public service systems, the police must be the least humane!" Kawai complained about the police world's exploitation.

Then Kawai suddenly realized something. "Ah! I get it... Section Chief Gen and Senior Yamada want to use helping the chief move as an excuse to dodge training! Damn it... That's way too cunning!"

Well, with such a reason, Vice Chief Murasaki could hardly say anything.

However...

Two hours later, at Kagemaiha Apartments.

Genjiro and Yamada had already finished helping the chief move his luggage. They were now drinking beverages in Shiraishi's new residence...

Shiraishi had previously considered moving directly into the Beika Police Station dormitory.

After all, he lived alone. Dorm life would have been fine!

But after thinking it over carefully, he was already a Chief Superintendent and served as the police chief. Even if he did not care about "appearances," living in the station dormitory would make the younger officers staying there uncomfortable...

After finally getting some rest, having the chief living "upstairs/downstairs/next door" would be pure hell.

Besides, with the police rank of Chief Superintendent and the position of police chief, Shiraishi's income was already quite considerable. He simply found a luxury apartment—he had not been too picky, since he could not remember the specific plot of Conan at all. Besides... in a place like Beika Town, what large apartment building would not have someone die in it someday? It made no difference where he lived!

Shiraishi chose Kagemaiha Apartments, which had a good living environment and was not far from the police station...

Naturally, he was renting... Buying was out of the question. Tokyo housing prices were absurdly high, and although a senior police officer like him could easily get a loan, Beika Town would be full of stigmatized properties in the future. Buying a home now could easily leave him underwater.

"Whew! All right, let's go!" Shiraishi said after moving the last of his luggage.

"Hm? Chief, is there more luggage?" Genjiro asked blankly.

"No, the move is finished. Thanks a lot... The timing is perfect. We can go to Arrest Technique Training now!" Shiraishi said as though it were only natural.

Genjiro and Yamada: ???

"C-Chief... you're going to... Arrest Technique Training too?" Genjiro completely froze.

"Of course. I'll give you two some proper guidance today! Hahaha..."

Genjiro and Yamada: ...

Although they had just helped the chief move, the chief himself was going to Arrest Technique Training... What could they possibly say?

Later, on the way to the station, Shiraishi once again experienced the misery of the standard Fengtian police car—for Genjiro and Yamada using an official vehicle to help him move, Shiraishi had already reprimanded them.

Since they were heading to the station together, Shiraishi struggled to "fold" himself into the back seat...

Unfortunately, local police stations did not have other models of police cars. Shiraishi was considering finding time to take a look and buy himself a larger vehicle. Otherwise, constantly being curled up inside a Fengtian was not going to work!