This was not a development Hattori Heiji had ever anticipated.
Before he had time to process it, his wrist suddenly grew heavy—Toyama Kazuha grabbed his forearm, twisted with the momentum of his charge, and Hattori Heiji instantly lost his balance. He rolled away and slammed into the ground with a bang.
The sudden attack—especially its source—left Hattori Heiji stunned for several seconds.
What puzzled him even more was that the other "mastermind" did not take the chance to attack him. Instead, as he was being thrown headfirst to the ground, Jiang Xia somehow found a battered old cushion and swiftly shoved it beneath his head, protecting it.
Dust flew everywhere. Hattori Heiji coughed uncontrollably from the cloud of dust that surged off the cushion.
He wiped his face and sat up warily.
Before he could make sense of the situation, the stage lights clicked on—the play was over.
A second later, as the light brightened, two familiar figures appeared in Hattori Heiji's gradually clearing vision.
Hattori Heiji: "..."
Hattori Heiji: "..."
Hattori Heiji exploded in fury. "What the hell are you two doing?!"
—He had thought the "murderers" behind the scenes were some kind of group targeting celebrity circles.
He never expected these two to be the ones pulling strings!
Toyama Kazuha, whom he was glaring at: "!"
She had initially felt a little guilty, seeing as she had just dealt a heavy blow to her teammate.
But then she remembered that Hattori Heiji had struck first, and that he had just said she only got in the way when solving cases and would be better off going shopping...
"Hmph." Toyama Kazuha coolly turned her head away. Beneath her pride was a touch of smugness—they had successfully prevented three crimes just now. Three!
Jiang Xia, meanwhile, remained calm.
He