Decision. 
“Please, tell me. We’re past the point of keeping secrets.”
They’d come this far together. Surely it was too late to get all tight-lipped now.
“I’m sorry. I wish I could tell you more.” Stanley dropped his eyes.
Kano had a vague idea of what Stanley was up to. He probably felt he needed to keep things hidden even from his own allies, in order to help keep Alphard in the dark. Or at least, that was Kano’s guess.
“All right-I understand,” Kano said with resignation. “Do what you have to, and come back soon.”
With an apologetic look on his face, Stanley turned and hurried from the workroom.
- Pressing Stanley for information is actually the wrong choice – if we do, then Stanley doesn't make Kano promise to go for a drink when everything is over – the resulting promise tip has a Jump point which we'll need later on to proceed.
Pride.
“Yes. Yes, you’re right.” Kano did his best to quash his emotions.
“Then we’re good.” Tateno gave a slight nod, then headed out the door.
Kano gave him a silent salute. It was a breach of protocol to salute while in plainclothes and without his cap. Still, it was the best way he had to let Tateno know how he felt.
“I’ll leave the rest to you.” Tateno took one last look over his shoulder before finally leaving the workroom.
Even after Tateno disappeared from view, Kano remained for a long time at attention, his fingertips pressed to his temple. He squeezed his eyes shut, but still the tears he’d been holding back poured down his cheeks.
- Suppressing Kano's outward emotions when talking to Tateno opens up a new Jump point.
No music.
Kyozo Tateno gingerly flexed his right elbow. It was still a little sore, but it shouldn’t interfere with his ability to drive.
“Does that hurt?” asked the girl called Canaan.
“No. I’m all right.”
“Good thing I didn’t kill you,” she said, her tone matter-of-fact. “You ought to thank that younger detective. If he hadn’t stopped me, you wouldn’t be here right now.”
“Is that right?”
Tateno looked over at Kano. He was talking to Achi and the others about something. The last time Tateno had seen Achi had been back at Kotone’s wake. He felt a strong surge of emotion, seeing how the boy had grown into a fine young man.
“Are you sure you don’t mind driving?” Canaan’s voice snapped Tateno back into the moment.
“Yes, it won’t be a problem.”
Back when she’d attacked him on that rooftop, she’d moved too quickly for him even to get a glimpse of her face. Now that he was able to get a good look at her, he was shocked by how young she looked. And yet there was a cold gleam in her eyes-a glitter of awareness with no trace of emotion behind it whatsoever.
In his long career as a detective, Tateno had seen eyes like that before. It was a look he knew well. The look of someone who had killed, and had done so many times.
“I’m so sorry about all this. Please, look after my sister,” Hitomi said. She bowed deeply.
“No. I’m the one who should apologize.” Tateno would have liked to go on-to say that helping now was the least he could do to atone for what he’d done earlier-but he stopped himself there. Nothing he could say to Hitomi Osawa could possibly earn her forgiveness.
Silently, Tateno lowered his head. His subsequent actions would have to make up for his crimes. He had to hope that this was possible.
“Canaan, you look after my sister, too.” Hitomi bowed once more.
“You two know each other?” Tateno looked at the two girls in surprise.
“Canaan is my sister’s friend,” Hitomi said. “I just met her for the first time today.”
What strange series of events could have transpired for Maria and Canaan to wind up as friends? Tateno felt a prickle of curiosity, but now was not the time for that conversation.
Daisuke reappeared; he had gone to fetch his car keys. “You know where it’s parked, yeah?” he asked.
“Same as back in the day?”
“That’s right. Over where we always hung out with Kotone back in grade school.”
All at once, Tateno was hit with a surge of childhood memories.
Chance Meeting.
The sky was a piercing blue. The droning of cicadas echoed in his ears. A refreshing breeze brought intermittent respite from the heat. During summer vacation, they spent their days here, in the parking lot behind Daisuke’s house.
As Tateno and Daisuke played near the stairs at the side of the lot, the blazing sun beating down on them, Kotone would always come along with some iced barley tea for them. The two boys would race to see who could drink theirs up the fastest. The cold and fragrant tea flowed down their welcoming throats. Most of the time, it was Tateno who would finish first. Daisuke often wound up choking and spitting his out. Kotone would flash him a motherly and sympathetic smile. Then Daisuke would grin back at her sheepishly and fuss with his hair.
That had all been nearly forty years ago, but Tateno could envision their smiles as vividly now as ever. They were his only fond memories of his childhood.
Tateno took the keys from Daisuke, clutching them firmly in his fist.
“All right,” he said. “We’ll be back.” He lifted up Maria and, with Canaan supporting her on the other side, began to head for the door.
Then Kano called out to him.
“Detective Tateno, I...” There was a look of sadness on the younger man’s face.
Don’t let yourself become a detective like me. Tateno had the words right on the tip of his tongue, but he swallowed them back down. It suddenly seemed petty to trivialize the aspirations Kano had held for so long. “Once Maria is a safe, I’ll turn myself in.” After he made sure that Maria got to the laboratory, he would cease to be a detective, and instead would simply be a criminal. But despite the failures that had brought him to this position, nothing he had said up until now had been a lie. Of that much he could be proud.
General Tip – Criminal wrote:In Japan, a charge of plotting to commit the crime of murder carries a prison term with labor of not more than two years.
“Never lose sight of what you’re supposed to protect. Ever.” He could at least try to be the detective Kano had so admired until the very end.
As Tateno left the room, Kano saluted him crisply. Ordinarily, a detective wouldn’t salute in plainclothes or without his cap. The little breach of etiquette just showed all the more clearly how Kano felt. If Tateno hadn’t been holding Maria up, he would have returned the gesture.
Shibuya Scramble.
Leaving Endo Electronics, Tateno and Canaan carried Maria up a hectic Dogenzaka. The parking lot was less than a minute away by foot. Before long, however, they found their way blocked by a veritable wall of people.
It was a riot squad, with Kuze at the head.
“Director Kuze?”
“Tateno, what are you planning on doing with that girl?”
“What are you planning on doing with her?”
“I already informed Kano that she’s to be put under quarantine. If she’s allowed to remain free, all of Shibuya will be in danger.”
General Tip – Riot squad wrote:A police squad that carries out security and control activities in order to maintain or restore public order in the event of an emergency. The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department has nine Riot Police Units, along with a Support Vehicle Unit, for a total of ten such squads. These also comprise teams that carry out certain specific functions, such as the Explosive Ordnance Division and Chemical Defense Unit.
Canaan took a step forward.
Tateno could sense that she was about to move in for the kill. “Easy now,” he said softly. “Wait.”
As skilled as Canaan was, she was no match for an entire armed police squad.
“I’m not going to take all of them on,” she murmured. “I’m just going to take the man in charge hostage.”
Tateno swallowed. Capture Kuze and then run off? It could work. Considering the time limit they were facing, he knew that they had to find some way to force their way through here. Still, given how far they still had to go to reach the laboratory, he wanted to avoid direct conflict as much as possible. “Give me one minute-no, just thirty seconds.” Tateno turned and stared at Kuze.
The two had known each other since their rookie days.
“Director Kuze, tell me-what is it that you believe in?”
“What do I believe in?”
“Yes. Weren’t you always the one who said that you needed to put faith in your subordinates no matter what?”
“Well-yes. Yes, that’s right.” Kuze’s eyes wavered every so slightly.
“In that case, put your faith in me. No-put your faith in Kano.
“In Kano?”
“He believes that saving Maria Osawa will let us save Shibuya. He’s doing everything he can to make that happen.”
Kuze’s lips curled into a wry grin. “That sounds like Kano, all right. Always thinking in such simple terms.”
“Usually, the simple answer is the right one, sir. People like you and me overthink things; we make them more complicated than they need to be. Just consider for a moment. Will putting Maria Osawa under quarantine clear up this case? No. It won’t. So long as we don’t know how she was infected with the virus, we can’t rule out the possibility that other people have been infected as well.” Tateno kept his eyes locked on Kuze’s. “Director Kuze, right now, what we need to do more than anything is get our hands on that antiviral drug. We need to be helping Kano. Please, sir.”
Kuze furrowed his brow in thought for a few moments, then shook his head. “Tateno, buddy, c’mon. I can’t do that. You gotta understand the position I’m in.”
The director’s voice squeaked into his childish register.
Canaan narrowed her eyes. “What’s this guy’s deal?” she whispered.
“It’s...well...It’s hard to explain. But when his voice gets like that, it means...”
