Tokyo: Rabbit Officer and Her Evil Partner
Chapter 37: Losing a Gun is a Disgrace for the Police

Chapter 37: Chapter 37: Losing a Gun is a Disgrace for the Police

The daylight of late autumn is shorter than in summer, and as the fifty-two trainees wandered around the mountains, the round sun had unknowingly crossed over the mountain top.

After bustling for four or five hours, their only achievement was rescuing a teammate trapped in a rock crevice.

At noon, the trainees gathered again at a mountain depression. This time, everyone was present, all thirteen teams accounted for. After asking around, they realized no one had seen Fushimi Roku—though Yoshimura Yu had encountered him, but he was too embarrassed to admit it.

"We’ve searched everywhere, right? Nobody saw him at all..."

"Could he have escaped to another mountain peak?"

"Maybe Fushimi was never in this mountain to begin with? After all, having a single trainee play the role of a criminal seems too weird, doesn’t it? Maybe the instructors are testing our judgment skills..."

Everyone sat cross-legged, resting in place. A few ’wise guys’ openly shared their opinions, acting as if they had everything figured out.

The accompanying instructors were so tense they clenched their fists; they had seen with their own eyes as these trainees walked right past Fushimi Roku. If even one of them had glanced down or paid a bit more attention, they could have caught him. Talking about ’never being in the mountain from the start’... Why don’t you just outright accuse the instructor of giving a wrong question?

As they chatted, someone’s stomach growled involuntarily.

The group lowered their heads in dejection; they hadn’t eaten a grain since morning, and searching the mountain had drained their energy.

Seeing this, the accompanying instructor took out some compressed biscuits and said it was their only meal.

By an hour before sunset, which was five-thirty in the afternoon, the test would be over. Whether or not they caught the ’criminal suspect’, everyone had to proceed to the assembly point in San’in.

The trainees suddenly felt the urgency. At this rate, they might all fail!

No wonder Instructor Shirota called it the harshest test ever; it’s too difficult!

While the trainees discussed, Minamoto Tamako also received a pack of compressed biscuits. Her energy was depleted; her little ahoge drooped, and she lay like a salted fish, lacking even the strength to stand up and thank anyone. All she could do was lie on the ground and let out a strained "arigato."

After tearing the package open, Minamoto Tamako bit into the biscuits, gulping down some water, slowly refilling her energy gauge.

Once she recovered, she sat up excitedly and said, "Since no one saw anything, it means the flare was fired by Fushimi!"

The other trainees were confused, not understanding why she suddenly mentioned this. Only Yoshimura Yu looked panicked, wishing he could cover her mouth.

"I suspect one of us here is his accomplice, otherwise how did he get a flare gun?"

Minamoto Tamako’s gaze was serious. She took another bite of the biscuit, cheeks puffed like a hamster, and said indistinctly, "Someone must’ve tipped him off, allowing him to repeatedly escape the encirclement!"

Yoshimura Yu quickly retorted, "How could that be? Helping him escape does no good for any of us. Besides, now is not the time to find a mole, right? If we suspect each other, how can we continue the search?"

"On the contrary, only by finding the mole can we restart the search; otherwise, we’re just repeating futile efforts."

Minamoto Tamako paused, swallowed the biscuit, licked her lips, and continued: "And finding Fushimi’s accomplice isn’t hard; all we need to do is count everyone’s flares."

The group suddenly saw reason, and their impression of Minamoto Tamako began to change.

Usually, she hung around Fushimi Roku chatting away and rarely spoke with others. Though her written tests were good, her physical tests were consistently poor. In the police school class where ’the strong are respected’, Minamoto Tamako wasn’t really valued, seen more as a cute mascot.

But now, they seemed to need a ’smart person’ to lead them.

Yoshimura Yu tried to change the topic, but others had already started leading, checking each other’s personal belongings.

Hideo noticed something amiss and approached, asking, "Hey, class president, where’s your flare gun?"

With others’ eyes focusing on him, Yoshimura Yu’s face flushed red as he defended himself, "It’s not what you think, I haven’t tipped anyone off! It’s that guy, that guy actually—"

"Enough!" Shirata Masahiro roared.

Everyone’s hearts skipped a beat, and Minamoto Tamako was so startled that half a biscuit fell to the ground.

When the trainees turned around, Shirata Masahiro’s face was terrifyingly dark. Hideo inched away to the back of the crowd, feeling like the instructor was about to unleash a storm, visibly furious.

"Losing your gun as a police officer is a disgrace!" Shirata Masahiro stood up, walked ominously to Yoshimura Yu, and looked down at him: "You’re not fit to be a police officer, you incompetent fool!"

He reached out and grabbed Yoshimura Yu’s police ID from his chest pocket, tore it to shreds in front of everyone.

The trainees were all silent, not daring to make a sound, afraid to provoke his anger.

Shirata Masahiro threw the paper scraps at Yoshimura Yu’s face and ordered, "Return to the assembly point on your own, withdraw from the test! When you return, I want to see your resignation letter."

Yoshimura Yu’s mind went blank. He kneeled on the ground, intending to kowtow and plead for another chance. But unexpectedly, Shirata Masahiro sentenced him directly to ’death’.

"I, this... is just a flare gun... just a drill..." he mumbled softly.

Shirata Masahiro bent down, his strict face filled with anger. He stared directly into Yoshimura Yu’s eyes, poking him in the chest: "Such naive thoughts will ultimately kill you and endanger those around you."

He turned, disregarding Yoshimura Yu’s response, and instructed the other trainees to continue the test.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, casting sympathetic glances at the disheartened Yoshimura Yu.

Minamoto Tamako also felt sorry for the class president, but then again, losing the gun was indeed serious, so being marked as a failure seemed logical.

But why was Instructor Shirota so furious...

No, this isn’t the time to pity others! If they don’t catch Fushimi, she might end up like the class president!

Minamoto Tamako waved her little hand, signaling everyone to focus on her. Holding up half a biscuit like a baton, she said earnestly, "Listen to me, fifty-one people can search a medium-sized mountain in three hours by properly setting observation points and communicators!"

Seeing no objections, she went on to say:

"Based on simple geometry, assuming the eye height from the ground is h in meters, the visible distance d in kilometers can be estimated from the formula d = √13h. For example, with an eye height of about 1.7 meters, the maximum visible distance is approximately 4.7 kilometers..."

"Alright!"

Hideo interrupted, "Just tell us what to do, don’t need to explain the math."