Notes
Hey Reader, this is Worseman here, and here's the side story/Interlude chapter of this story.
It has been a very long since I last posted. I did plan to continue this story but I have a hard time writing the next chapter so this might take a long time along with continuing my other story which is a crossover story between Fate Grand Order and Kamen Rider, Rider Grand Order. If you're interested to read that, go ahead.
The reason why I posted the side story/interlude is to simply expand the story and my OC character development. Like I said before, this story is an Alternate Universe (AU) story so this might not apply to the series although the storyline remained the same but changed a little.
I also rewrote the previous two chapters to try to make them more interesting.
Anyway, this chapter is simply focusing on a small part of Masato's past as a police officer before joining the Agency. However, this might get rewritten soon, later, or not because I honestly had difficulty writing this.
Disclaimer
I did not own any characters from Mahoka Kouko no Rettousei series except my OC.
It was moderately busy noon in the streets of Shibuya. Nothing was unusual, ugly, or attractive happening in the street, and the people minded their own business in their normal routine. Some crowd gathered at the store for its discount price while others were relaxing in the resting area.
"So… Any new cases that we received?"
"No, Toshikazu. We received nothing from the higher-ups."
Toshikazu and Inagaki were sitting on the plastic stool outside of the truck, having a conversation while eating a bowl of ramen in front of the owner, who was flipping the page of a newspaper. They were a little slackened due to less office work in the police headquarters and less crime in Shibuya Street. They, fortunately, took that time as their lunch to eat their ramen at their favorite stall truck and no one would ever disturb them except on a few occasions.
"That's too bad…" Toshikazu sighed in disappointment and took a bite of the pork slice. He chewed it slowly to get its taste before swallowing. "I was hoping we would get any serious cases, Inagaki."
"For once, I agree, but we still have a job to do as a police detective," Inagaki said sternly, reminding Toshikazu about his job.
"Yeah, yeah. You're right," Toshikazu replied in a tiring tone before slurping the noodle into his mouth and biting it off to chew. He never wanted to listen to Inagaki's stern reminder as if he was still a child. As he swallowed it, he began to say while turning around, "So, Masato. What you… ah."
Toshikazu paused as he faced no one beside him on the right side. He completely forgot that Masato quit the police force several years ago due to a certain circumstance and unexpectedly attended a new career as a Private Detective of the Gruidae Agency. He previously wondered Masato's reason for joining the Agency whether he had nowhere to go or he was truly insane but he abandoned it a long ago. He truly missed him as a senior colleague even though they hung out a couple of times.
"You're forgotten that Masato was not here with us?" asked Inagaki.
"Yeah," Toshikazu replied in embarrassment as he scratched the back of his hair.
"I kinda missed that guy."
Both Toshikazu and Inagaki turned around to see the owner who was looking at them. The Owner continued with a smile, "That guy is the most diligent, kind, and hard-working officer that I ever met." He sighed. "It's a shame that Masato rarely comes to my stall to eat."
"Heh, you're right," Toshikazu chuckled, agreeing with the owner. "He was a good cop, but…"
"I know what you are going to say…" Inagaki sighed along the owner rolled his eyes in amusement.
"...the most reckless cop ever."
Several years ago
Night
Unknown Building, Tokyo
Toshikazu and Inagaki moved out of their car and closed the door upon stepping on the ground outside. They looked up to see the modern-looking building and the blue neon sign on the top of the entrance saying, 'Hotel Furuhāto'.
"Quite the nice place where our suspect is staying, huh?" Toshikazu commented about the suspect's taste of choosing the hotel as his temporary hideout.
The duo looked down to the eye level to see a few police officers and detectives who were waiting for them to arrive. They walked to join them for the raid on the hotel to look for a wanted criminal within the building.
"What the hell have you been, Inspector Chiba? Flirting with a lady officer?" The detective questioned with jest.
"Not exactly, we have been slowed by some vehicle blocking our way," Inagaki replied in a tiring tone.
"Yeah and they're an asshole," Toshikazu added with little irritation.
"Heh, I can't blame you for those people who are assholes when it comes to driving or not," The detective chuckled at their little misfortune before turning serious as he looked at the building. "So, this is the place where our guy is at?"
Inagaki nodded, "Yes. Our suspect, Fukuhara Shig, is here, but we need to act fast to arrest him before he escapes."
"Noted," The detective acknowledged before asking, "Are we allowed to use force in this situation."
"Yes, because Fukuhara is a magician so we need to be careful of his spell," Inagaki answered the detective.
While Toshikazu scanned around the street, his eyes caught a familiar officer, who was looking nervous, and asked to lighten the mood, "Feeling nervous, Tsuyoshi-Kun?"
Masato turned to face Toshikazu. "Yes, I'm still feeling nervous in the second week, but I have to be professional as a police officer." He then looked at the building. "This is going to be the worst for me."
"How so?" Toshikazu asked, raising his eyebrow.
"I'm still the rookie and the criminal is a magician," answered Masato
"Fair point, Tsuyoshi-Kun, but It doesn't matter whether your experience is good or bad as you will gain enough to become a better officer, or better, detective," Toshikazu said with a smile.
"But still…"
"Have you finished your conversation because we need to go now!?"
Both Toshikazu and Masato turned their heads around to the direction where the detective's voice came from and saw him staring at them with his stern look. The detective was a little impatient for them to finish their conversation and joined in arresting their suspect before something terrible was going to happen. Yoshikazu rolled his eyes in annoyance at the detective's attitude and thought that he was almost too uptight in his job like Inagaki. He and Masato walked towards the group to join them to capture Shig in the building. The group began to enter the entrance hall of the hotel and walked to the receptionist, who appeared to be a female, and noticed their arrival.
"May I help?" asked the receptionist.
"We're looking for Fukuhara Shig, Miss. Do you know where his room is?" Inagaki asked the receptionist politely.
"Give me a moment, Officer," The receptionist said as she bent down to look at the reception computer and began to type down. She scrolled down the guest list and stopped as she found Shig's name and his room. She stood up to face Inagaki and the group. "He's at level three and room 305."
"Thank, Miss," Inagaki appreciated the receptionist for her cooperation.
The group began to move and walked up the stairs to level three to Shig's location. However, on their way, Masato accidentally bumped into the bystander by the shoulder. He turned to see the bystander who was male and wore a black fleece jacket, black trouser pants, and white sneaker shoes. He could not see his face due to his cap covering the half top of his face.
"Sorry," Masato apologized while doing a quick bow before joining the group.
As the group arrived outside of the Shig's hotel room, they went into their position to breach into his room to apprehend him. The officer knocked on the door twice and waited for it to open but it did not. The detective looked at the officer and they both exchanged a nod. The officer took out his CAD-shaped pistol and prepared to kick the door. However, Toshikazu's instinct kicked in and he looked over to the officer who was about to kick and shouted, "Wait…!"
However, it was unfortunately too late as the officer's leg made contact with the door and it exploded, catching the group off guard. Both smoke and dust manifested and covered the whole hallway. The detective coughed and swept it away with his hand. He saw a few officers who were being injured heavily from being close to the explosion. He jogged to the destroyed door to see the destroyed room covered in wreckage furniture and ceiling. He clicked his tongue in irritation to see Shig was absent in the room. "Damn it!"
"Wow, I didn't expect that he got us good," Toshikazu commented in an annoyed tone after recovering.
"We need to call in more reinforcement to set up the blockage for his escape," Inagaki suggested to everyone.
Masato shook his head and rubbed his left ear to be more clear. He looked around the hallway but suddenly widened his eyes in the realization that he made a mistake because he bumped into Shig before reaching the third level. He began to rush to the stairs to go down, being noticed by both Toshikazu and Inagaki.
"Wait, where the hell is you going, Masato?!" Toshikazu shouted at Masato but he was ignored.
[~~~~~]
As Masato reached out of the building, he saw Shig drive one of the police vehicles off, leaving two unconscious officers on the ground. He ran towards the police cars and opened the door to go inside to start the engine. Toshikazu and Inagaki arrived outside and saw Masato starting the car's engine. They became understood as they got a glimpse of what was happening and ran towards Masato's car to tag along. Inagaki sat on the front seat while Toshikazu sat in the back seat.
"I can vouch for three of us for this case to our superior if two of you are wondering," Toshikazu said before turning to Masato. "Are you going to do it?"
"Yep."
Night
Highway Road, Tokyo
"HAHAHAHA! I cannot believe I escaped from the cops," Shig laughed loudly while driving the stolen police cars. He slowly stopped laughing and focused on the road. "I need to go into hiding and wait for all of this to blow over. The cops will never find me at all."
Shig's eyes noticed a similar vehicle at the further distance behind him by the rear-view mirror and squeaked his eyes to see closely. "What the…"
As the familiar vehicle became visible, Shig widened his eyes in shock to see that the vehicle was Masato's police car. Feeling anxious and fearful, he stepped on the acceleration pedal to drive fast but Masato was slowly catching up to him.
[~~~~~]
"CAN YOU DRIVE PROPERLY! Are you going to get us killed!?" Toshikazu shouted at top of his lungs in fear but fell deaf to Masato who was focusing on his driving and Inagaki who was holding the handle at top of the inside of the cars tightly while trying to focus.
Masato turned the wheel to both rights and left to avoid being hit and blocked from the civilization's vehicles in a second in all directions, scaring both Toshikazu and Inagaki by bits. He noticed Shig's stolen police car in front of him and slowly increased the pressure of his foot on the acceleration paddle to reach him. As his car was near Shig's car, he tried to move to the side but was blocked by Shig's Car who was also following his movement. Both moved in sync as Masato tried to overtake but Shig was still blocking him in his direction. Toshikazu's whole body shook left and right with the seatbelt on him.
'Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap…!' Toshikazu thought in fear while gripping the strap tightly.
When Masato was about to move his car to the left, Shig began to follow his direction to block. However, Masato unexpectedly turned the driving wheel to the right to move his car in a mere second and overtook Shig. As he moved past Shig's car, he began to spin the wheel while stepping the brake paddle to twirl his car in front of him. This shocked Shig while terrifying Toshikazu to death.
'What the hell!?' Shig thought, seeing Masato's car spinning.
'Is this my karma for forgetting Erika's birthday?!' Toshikazu thought, questioning in fear while being pushed aside.
Masato's car stopped in front of Shig's car, facing him while moving backward. Masato took his revolver pistol out of his holster and swung his gun towards the window to smash with the butt of its grip. The window shattered into pieces, shocking both Inagaki and Toshikazu by his action. He moved his whole upper body out of the window with his pistol while holding his hand on the wheel. He aimed at Shig, frightening him to death but he however moved his pistol down to Shig's tire and fired thrice. Shig's car began to go out of control when his tire burst out with three bullets in it. Shig tried to steer his car while stepping on the brake paddle to stop but his car flipped over and rolled across the street, damaging itself. As it slowly rolled, it came to the stop and landed. Masato turned his car around and stepped on the brake paddle, stopping at his track. He sighed in relief that he caught Shig before he fully escaped and turned to Inagaki.
"You're okay, Inagaki-San?" Masato asked Inagaki.
"I'm alright, Tsuyoshi-Kun," Inagaki replied before turning his head to Toshikazu. He honestly could not believe that Masato's driving skill was that skillful as he thought of him as a car racer at grand Prix competitions after seeing him driving. He however knew that he was reckless and almost crashed into any vehicle when almost contacting it. Fortunately, they were alive and he almost forgot to check on Toshikazu. He began to ask while turning his head around, "Inspector… Eh?"
Inagaki was a little shocked to see Toshikazu who was in a daze while looking up to the car's ceiling as if he was seeing the stars floating around his head in a clockwise direction. He became worried if Toshikazu was conscious of Masato's driving skill. Masato turned his head in concern to Toshikazu when he noticed Inagaki's worried face and found him to be knocked out. This made him feel both anxiety and responsibility and he could think of one word. "... Crap."
Present
"AHAHAHAH! Masato never ceased to amaze me!" The owner laughed heartily after hearing the story from Toshikazu. Even though he barely never knew Masato's police officer's life, he found it intriguing that he made the story more amazing.
"Ugh, this is one of the few misadventures that Masato was involved with," Toshikazu grumbled in little annoyance.
"Don't be too angry at Masato. He's just doing his job," The owner pleaded with Toshikazu for Masato's sake.
"I'm not angry, but I'm wishing for Masato to reflect on his action," Toshikazu replied, making the owner relieved.
"Ironically, you wanted him to reflect his action rather than you doing yourself," Inagaki commented.
"...I'm not sure if you're resenting me or making me feel better," Toshikazu questioned in annoyance before sighing and smiling. "Nonetheless, he was a good cop."
The owner shook his head in amusement with a smile. Toshikazu took a bite of the noodle and chewed while Inagaki continued to eat his ramen. Their ramen was fortunately still warm to eat after Toshikazu was telling their police story involving Masato. The owner noticed a familiar figure walking towards his stall and widened in little surprise as it became visible to his eyes and revealed to be Masato. He shouted delightedly, "Hey, Masato. I thought that you never came to my stall!"
Toshikazu and Inagaki stopped eating and turned their heads to the side to see Masato who was walking towards them with his hand waving. As Masato reached the stall, he took his seat on the stool next to Toshikazu.
"What kind of ramen that you want to eat, Masato?" The owner asked with his smile.
"Same as this two eating," Masato replied.
"Right away."
While the owner was preparing a bowl of ramen for Masato, Masato turned to both Toshikazu and Inagaki.
"So rough day?"
"Not exactly but it should be," Toshikazu replied with an unsure tone.
"How is your work at the agency? Stressed out" asked Inagaki.
"No, but it was too calm and quiet, to be honest, except the same as usual," Masato answered with a smile.
"Huh, it got me thinking that today was too peaceful for us because maybe god gave us some free time to have a conversation," Toshikazu said out of his thought but he shook his head in denial as he found it too impossible. "Nah, this is stupid to think about it."
"If it is, I don't see it as a problem," Inagaki said with a smirk.
"Since when you're agreeing with me?" Toshikazu asked with his eyebrow raised before stopping and continuing to eat his ramen. "Anyway, let's enjoy our ramen."
"Agree," both Masato and Inagaki replied in unison.
The owner placed a bowl of ramen with the spoon in it in front of Masato. "There you go."
"Thanks," Masato thanked the owner. He looked at his served bowl of ramen before taking the wooden chopsticks and clapping both hands with it.
"Itadakimasu."