Aftermath

September 9th, Sunday.

The last day Shiraishi could get a refund for his "haunted house."

He had been busy at the costume party all night—

After letting Curacao go, Shiraishi had also accepted Director Fukuura's invitation and appeared before everyone as a "special guest" to reassure them.

Fukuura had even said he would add a character based on Shiraishi to his new work—

The Phantom of the Sea that Shiraishi had taken that morning docked, but he still could not move house or even get any rest!

Shiraishi was summoned directly to the Metropolitan Police Department for an investigation by the Public Security Department—the fact that Shiraishi had let a "terrorist" go had clearly reached them.

Seeing their own chief summoned away by the Public Security officers, the Beika Police Station officers could not help breaking out in a cold sweat.

Public Security was nominally part of the police system, but—everyone knew it was only "nominally."

Of course, the Public Security Department was still fairly polite to Shiraishi.

After all, Shiraishi had been the one to uncover this terrorist. Otherwise, they would not even have known about it—and Shiraishi had always been well-known, so the Public Security Department did not want to fall out with him.

It was true that Public Security held considerable sway over ordinary police officers, but—

After the former Public Security Minister went to the Cabinet Investigation Office, Shiraishi was the one who had sent him there!

That former minister had not been very popular within Public Security, so no one wanted "revenge" over it. Still, they had become more wary of Shiraishi. After arriving at the Public Security Department, he was not left waiting. Instead, he soon met Minister Takahashi of the Public Security Department and—Chief of the Director-General's Secretariat Onoda from the National Police