Ichijō Mirai turns on the radio, "Ding, ding, ding, it's dawn, open your eyes,"
"I opened my eyes."
He waved his cell phone absently, looking at the motionless crowd on the screen, and sighed, "Good boy."
Just a little too timid, but play once or twice, take the opportunity to fish to solve a few police officers, the rest of the crowd will be obediently crouched to death immobile.
Whether they realized those who had been shot weren't dead or not.
His cell phone beeped, and Ichijō Mirai looked over at it, finally perking up a bit, "Urgent news, there's been a bank robbery at the Beika Bank, about eighty-nine people are missing, many of them elderly, pregnant women, and children," he read into the microphone.
He was reading into the microphone, so that this news broadcast could be heard by all, "Based on interviews with the residents in the neighborhood, we have learned important information, from the beginning of the unrest until now, the Beika Bank is suspected to have exploded once, and more than a dozen gunshots have been fired,"
"If the situation is serious, more than ten people may have been killed so far."
"The police have moved quickly to surround the bank and are about to begin negotiations with the robbers."
As the announcement went out, the crowd on the monitor screen shifted slightly, like the surface of a sea with waves in the wind, and the hostages looked at each other.
Ichijō Mirai, guessing that there must have been a buzzing of flies in the first floor lobby, said, "There are too many people alive by the news' calculations, aren't there? There are still more than seventy people, it's really hard to do,"
"There's too many people. What should we do?"
That's a dangerous thing to say.
The surface of the sea returned to calm, and the hostages were once again silent, watching their noses and ears.
Even if they realized that this was not a real bank robbery, and that they would not necessarily die if they were shot, in the moment of danger, they triggered their instinctive sense of smell to be in overdrive, and smelled the scent of some crisis, and felt the sense of danger that they might die at any time in front of the real criminals.
"The police surrounded the bank, so we couldn't get out," Ichijō Mirai said, stating the facts, "and had to hold on to the bank."
"There are too many hostages for us to manage."
"If the police had been a little bit more understanding and we'd only had to hold out for two or three hours, that would have been fine, but if the police had been a little bit more uninteresting and we'd have had to hold out for ten or more hours..."
He pondered, "How will you be managed?"
The hostages' feeding and defecating were basic issues, but illness, psychological breakdown, suffering for too long, counterattacks brewing because the robber's fake gun wasn't enough of a deterrent, work emergencies, family emergencies, were all advanced issues that needed to be weighed and considered.
It's a difficult problem, one that a robber needs to think about seriously.
It's like getting a cat, you have to think about what brand of cat food is healthier, what type of water dispenser is better for the cat, how much water you need to drink every day so you don't urinate, the ratio of cat food to raw meat, how often you need to bathe, when you need to get vaccinated and de-sexed, and so on and so forth.
But Ichijō Mirai wasn't going to get a cat. He looked at the screen for a few seconds, watched the crowd above him, and snapped his fingers as if organizing a solution to a problem, "Ah, there's a solution," he said in a relaxed tone.
His tone was relaxed, "Since there are too many people, there is a problem, then reduce the number of people can not be?"
"As for how to reduce..."
Ichijō Mirai was sweet, "Leave it to the police to decide, right?"
*
The police are in a state of anxiety.
Before the bank robbery even hit the news, specialists began to control public opinion.
But it didn't work.
The media and the police have a dialectical relationship, sometimes facilitating and cooperating with each other, with the media suppressing bad news or rumors for the police, and the police making special arrangements for the media to leak information at certain times.
At other times, it's a hostile relationship, pulling each other's strings, with one side wanting to get the truth, even if it's not favorable to the police, to get the news out, while the other side is on the defensive, determined to prevent the media from getting the truth and enough evidence to prove it, and to stop the news from getting out.
In this case, the two are enemies.
"...They're so insensitive."
The news was on TV, and almost everyone in Tokyo was watching the bank robbery, with the residents of the bank's neighborhood even more concerned.
A police officer scanned over the TV in the convenience store, and the old man who was watching it, and his face sank, "I was warned not to report it freely, but it was still reported."
After a pause, he inquired, "Is that Matsumoto guy still excusing himself?"
The elderly officer, who appeared to be in his early fifties, was sitting in the back seat of a car.
It was a private car, not a police car with flashing lights, so the people at the convenience store didn't pay much attention to it, focusing on the TV and the passing police cars.
On the side of the road, a police car with flashing lights rushed to the bank not far away, only occasionally a few police cars in the very fast driving past the private car, recognized the license plate, so in advance to slow down the speed of the car, like in the rain courtesy of slowing down the pressure on the splash of the water, carefully passing, and then again speed up.
The elderly officer didn't take his eyes off the TV.
In the driver's seat, a young plainclothes officer observed the officer's face in the rearview mirror, "Officer Matsumoto said that his injuries have not yet healed, his condition is not too good, and he has not had much contact and in-depth communication with the robbers, so he does not understand the robber's personality and behavior, and is not quite able to take on the role of advisor..."
In the rearview mirror, the elderly police officer's face sank again.
Because there are only two people in the car, he did not hide his emotions, rather irritated whispered scolded.
"I've just sent someone to contact the TV station again, and I've already tried to clarify that it was a drill," The young officer added, "but they said..."
"The robbers contacted them and asked for a live broadcast of the conversation,"
"You see?"
Live broadcast?
Wouldn't that show the police's helplessness to the people of Tokyo?
Even if it's just a drill, a fake bank robbery... No, it's the fact that it's a drill, a drill that the police and the bank already knew about and prepared in advance, that makes the police all the more humiliated.
All those who watched the news broadcast will think: since it is a premeditated drill, why the police and the bank is still so vulnerable, so that the robbers in just ten minutes will directly take down the entire bank?
In the face of premeditation, the police already knew and prepared for the attack, they are so lame, so in the case of unknowingly, unprepared to face the real bank robbery robbers, is not even more unbearable?!
I can't do it.
The elderly officer flatly refused, "No."
His brow was furrowed, and his eyelids were slackened to a crease, "Contact the guy inside the bank, directly."
Suddenly, he stopped abruptly and looked at the TV in the convenience store, his face turning blue.
There were cries of alarm from the convenience store.
The young officer hurriedly withdrew his eyes from scrutinizing the officer's face and gauging his emotions, and looked towards the convenience store.
He saw several elderly people and small children gathered in a circle, saw the TV in progress, and saw the image on the TV, which was the bank...
A young male?
On the TV screen, there is a young male, sitting in a chair with his back to the camera, most of his body almost blocked by the chair, only his black hoodie and black hair showing.
He looks like he wants to turn the chair, but because of the camera, he can't turn the chair 360 degrees, so he just swings a little to the left and a little to the right, with a very small range of swaying.
In front of him, there is a huge screen, is the monitoring screen, the screen is divided up by several squares, nearly one-half is the lobby of the monitoring, the remaining one-half is filled by six small squares, is the bank's various parts of the monitoring.
The young officer had been to the Beika Bank, but not to the Beika Bank's surveillance room, had seen the photo of the famous police cadet, had not seen the back of the cadet.
But at this moment, he recognized the man on TV as 'Messiah' from the bank!
Messiah' was on the news, without the police's consent!
The young officer rushed to see the old officer, "What, what, what, what?!"
"...The 'leader'," The older officer said slowly, "is in control of the rhythm."
There is a rhythm to this bank robbery.
By definition, the rhythm of the early stages belongs to the criminals, who attacked without the police expecting it, creating a temporary emergency, and after the beginning, it's the police who really control the rhythm.
The situation will change as the police move in.
Ichijō Mirai is in control of the situation from the moment the bank is taken by surprise.
The point at which the police learn the news, surround the bank, and are about to make a response is a crucial point for the police to take over the tempo, so that if they can make a good response, they can enter the situation and make the situation evolve into that of a normal bank robbery.
In such a situation, bank robberies almost only have one outcome: the police successfully resolve the bank robbery, and the police are able to take over.
But now, Ichijō Mirai is on the news. What's he up to?
...Demands.
He doesn't want the police to decide what to do, he doesn't want the situation to move with the police's response, he wants the police to be moved by him, to be exhausted by his own manipulation.
The elderly officer was almost certain that this outstanding cadet leader would make some difficult, unacceptably difficult demands on the police, but on the air, in front of the eyes of countless Tokyo citizens, the police had to accept them.
Without realizing it, his ugly face had returned to normal, calming down, even with a little smile, "No wonder that Matsumoto guy was reluctant to get his hands on it, so it's a hot potato."
"I heard that this police cadet cares about him a lot, not only in the first time he was injured, his almost fatal wound salvage treatment completed, but also for him to avenge the fish, clean up the net."
As if talking to himself, the aged officer said thoughtfully, "This police cadet has been lost in the police's sight for many years, but perhaps not really lost and still in contact with the police, that's why he went back to the academy so openly."
The contact, of course, is Administrator Matsumoto.
Knowing Matsumoto Kiyonaga's personality, the aged officer surmised that their relationship would be that of father and friend, and after another moment of contemplation, he ordered, "Go back to the police station."
"There might be quite a few hostages coming out later, the neighborhood will be chaotic, there might be accidents, let's go back to the police station first."
He said, "Let's see how the police department responds."
Let's see how the police department responds.
The young officer subconsciously looked in the rearview mirror, a little surprised, almost blurted out: ah? You want to decentralize to the police? But you came to the front line, not to take over the command while the original chief has not yet arrived at the front line, and you are the highest-ranking police officer present, is not it?
The moment they looked at each other, they realized almost immediately that the idea was too strong, so they withdrew.
He nodded respectfully, "Hi!"
The private car started up and turned down the street in the direction of the police station.
Along the way, the young officer drives without looking, while the old one looks at his cell phone.
He was fiddling with his cell phone in a rusty manner, studying the situation intently, "The 'robbers' made a request for the police to take over the hostages, but gave a list of names for the police to check their own identities and decide which hostages to name,"
This is really...
The conflict between the robbers and the hostages turned into a conflict between the hostages and the police.
The elderly officer smiled, "Those hostages who don't come out may not resent the robbers, but they will resent the police."
And there is a reason for this resentment: the police have nothing to do with bank robbery drills? They're forcing the public to cooperate, they've got nothing better to do!
If the police win, it's all right, but if they don't do it right, there'll be a lot of flak after the drill is over.
It's a hot potato.
The elderly officer who had nothing to do with the hot potato said cheerfully, "That Inoue guy must be happy to have gotten his hands on this hot potato, huh? He's got it all wrong."
He continued to laboriously search for the latest news, "There are a few hostages with sudden illnesses, small children and pregnant women, the robbers asked the police to speed up, as soon as possible to pick up these hostages who may have accidents and send them to the hospital for examination."
Reading on, the elderly officer changed his words, "No need to wait for the list of hostages to appear, right now, there will be a lot of people criticizing the police for being cold-blooded and unthinking, taking the lives of the public as a child's play."
"The robbers demanded that at the same time they sent the hostages out according to the list, the police would bring the corresponding cash to the bank's entrance,"
"One hostage, one million yen."
The aging officer mused, his eyes narrowing a bit, not voicing his judgment: this police cadet leader, he had a preconceived notion about the police.
Why else would he be pouring pot after pot of scalding hot water over the police like a chicken, as if he would not stop until the skin was torn off?
In this quiet blank, the young police officer carefully said: "robbers in the live account must be more right? You want to watch live,"
The older officer shook his head and interrupted, "No."
"Think of him as your peer, think of him as an old guy like me, and you'll understand why I don't watch the live feed, only the news."
Whether the live broadcast is the latest news, or whether it's said by the hijacker himself, is very much a source worth checking over and over again.
However, if the live broadcast is a guy like himself, the elderly police officer is reluctant to watch the live broadcast, he does not need to think carefully, can determine that the live broadcast must have a lot of confusing factors, there will be traps and stirring up emotions of the pit.
Instead of watching the live broadcast, facing a cunning fox and racking his brains, it was better to look at the claw marks left by the fox.