"Put down your weapons, step out of the vehicle, and surrender with your hands up!!"
Detective Megure held a red megaphone and stood among the crowd, urging the occupants of the white van to surrender.
Unfortunately, all the attempts to persuade them were in vain, and the van remained stationary without any response.
However, the criminals were trapped with no possibility of escape, so the police didn't immediately launch an assault. Instead, they maintained the standoff at the scene.
After all, the criminals were still armed, and there could be casualties if they were to attack. If possible, they hoped to achieve a peaceful surrender through persuasion.
Of course, the police couldn't place all their hope on the criminals. During the standoff, snipers had already identified nearby positions to take down the criminals if they chose to attack, ensuring a swift end.
In any case, from the moment the police surrounded them, they had the upper hand, and the criminals' standoff only widened their advantage.
Inside the white van, the previous arrogance had disappeared, replaced by the ugliness of human nature.
"The mastermind is Seiji, right?"
In the silent vehicle, Rabbit looked around at the surrounding police and then glanced at the silent Heiwa Seiji before suddenly speaking.
"Yeah, that's right."
Upon hearing Rabbit's attempt to shift blame, Komo readily agreed, "The one who planned the attack on the cash transport vehicle and decided to set the bomb at the cabin was Seiji."
"Yeah," Rabbit continued, "even the person who killed Ueno was Seiji. He served the coffee, and we weren't even there."
"That's right."
Komo's voice hastened, "Seiji made all the decisions and killed the people. We had nothing to do with it. We agreed beforehand to split the money, 5 each for us, and he would get 10 billion for the plan. So, Seiji is the mastermind, and we are just coerced accomplices!!"
As if grabbing the last straw while drowning, Komo immediately tried to shift all the blame onto Heiwa Seiji, hoping to get the lightest sentence possible.
"Don't worry; I had no intention of dragging you down. I am the mastermind."
Pointing the gun at him, Heiwa Seiji showed no anger but gazed outside the window, speaking calmly, "Go ahead; you want to surrender, right?"
"Is that possible?" Komo was taken aback, then asked incredulously.
"Of course, go now."
Promoted by Heiwa Seiji, Komo and Rabbit dropped their weapons through the driver's and passenger's doors, then slowly stepped out of the van with their hands raised, walking towards the police.
Soon, detectives with riot shields swarmed forward, forming a human wall facing the white van. The officers behind them immediately subdued the two criminals and brought them to a secure area behind the police cars.
Seeing this scene, Heiwa Seiji smiled and put on the clown mask, holding his gun under the vigilant gazes of the detectives, he slowly opened the car door.
As the clown with colorful curls and a jester's smile stepped out of the car with a gun, the detectives raised their guns in unison but also instinctively took a step back.
At first, clowns were synonymous with comedy and laughter.
But at some point, it changed from a comedic symbol to a terrifying one.
Under that jester's smile, what kind of insanity and madness lurked, no one knew.
And precisely because no one knew, it evoked fear.
At the moment when the criminal with the grinning clown mask aimed the gun at them, everyone felt the madness exuding from him.
"Stop, Heiwa Seiji!" Detective Megure shouted through the megaphone, but Heiwa Seiji showed no intention of stopping.
Just as his index finger was about to pull the trigger, a voice with a strong Osaka accent came from inside the van.
"Moshi Moshi, can you hear me? I'm Hattori~"
"I'm Conan~"
The slightly exaggerated and relaxed tone came through the intercom, causing Heiwa Seiji to pause his action and turn his head to look inside the vehicle.
"Hattori-kun, you seem energetic," Heiwa Seiji replied with a calm voice, holding the intercom.
"You were the one who removed the detonator from the bomb, right?"
Hattori Heiji smiled and said, "We found out after we were rescued, which means you never intended to kill the hostages from the beginning."
"Heiwa Seiji, I'm Karazawa Senichi."
"Ah... the famous police detective, right?"
With the clown mask on, Heiwa Seiji asked dispassionately, "What do you want?"
"Actually, I've been investigating you, and I found the only photo in your room. Did you write something on the back of that photo?"
Senichi stood in the innermost circle of the encirclement, looking at Heiwa Seiji straight ahead, and his words were conveyed through the intercom to the other side. "Since I saw that sentence, I've been thinking about the meaning behind it."
'"False blue sky and white clouds" - does this sentence refer to the sky reflected on the glass of the Hanzo Security agency Building, which is full of reflections?'
For the past seven years, you have been working in a place where you've been watching that false sky reflected on the mirrors.
And in the area where the homeless live, where your father died, you can clearly see the tall building and the blue sky and white clouds on the opposite side."
As Senichi listened to the hurried breathing from Heiwa Seiji through the intercom, he continued, "The rich have vast lands to roam, while the poor have no place to even put a stand. In this park's vicinity, these two starkly contrasting existences are present.
That tall building with the false sky reflected is guarding enormous wealth that the poor can never reach.
In your eyes, that towering building represents this kind of existence."
Then, by chance, he encountered Ueno Hirayama, and they had some interactions.
Then, by another chance, when he was applying for a job and filling out his resume, he saw the name of the previous person's guardian - Hanzo Ito, the owner of that tall building.
These two coincidences of fate came together, leading him to conceive a plan involuntarily, even making him feel like it was destiny.
So, he decided to execute this plan, to rob 10 billion yen from that tall building with the false sky reflected.
And then, with the stolen money, he would buy something.
And that something is...
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