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“Oi! Where are you going!?” Satou asked Matsuda who was already heading for the door. He’d barely even let Shiratori finish reading the riddle.
“You can’t tell? The knight of the round table says he’s left the 72nd seat empty and is waiting for us” Something round with 72 seats… It can only be the big Ferris wheel at the Haido shopping mall, you see?” Matsuda replied.
”Ferris Wheel?!” She hurried after the man, thoughts racing. If the bomb would be in Ferris Wheel, that’d mean most likely in one of the gondolas… meaning great heights and moving target… or great heights and someone – Matsuda – being trapped up there. “Megure-keibu, we’re going to need safety net at Haido Ferris Wheel.” She said to her superior who nodded urgently and began making calls.
When they arrived to the Ferris wheel, the control panel had already been blown up and there was no stopping the wheel anymore.
“Where is gondola number 72?” Megure asked the Ferris wheel operator.
“An, it’s just come down…” The poor man pointed at the gondola making its round at the bottom.
Matsuda strode ahead of them all and opened the door
“Oops, The Knight of the round table didn’t wait for us, but… on his place there’s something odd below the seat.” He observed and boarded the gondola.
“O-Oi! Matsuda-kun!?” Satou caught up with him.
“It’s okay.” Matsuda reassured her, removing his glasses for the first time since meeting her. “Let a pro handle this.”
“A pro!?”
“He belonged to the Explosive Ordnance Disposal Unit of the Security Bureau’s Riot Police until last year.” Megure told the woman as they watched the gondola rise again, helpless to do anything else yet. Satou did see the fire department arriving and starting the spread the inflatable safety mats on Shiratori’s instruction. Yumi and her colleagues had arrived as well to keep the onlookers far enough.
“T-Then… His friend who died in the past, was he?”
“Yes… It was probably on the November the 7th, 4 years ago… Hagiwara-kun of the same unit died in the line of duty while dismantling a bomb.” And their superior explained Satou the circumstances of Hagiwara’s death and the reasons for Matsuda’s transfer.
And then the control panel exploded again. The Ferris Wheel stopped with the gondola 72 at the top. Satou bit her lip… The highest point… the furthest distance from the mats. She looked around. the mats were almost full.
“It stopped!?”
“Bring a fire extinguisher, quick!”
Satou called Matsuda.
“Moshi, moshi? Matsuda-kun? Matsuda-kun!? Are you alright?
“B-But there’s less than 5 minutes until the explosion!” Satou looked at her watch. “O-Oi, what are you saying!?
“Then… That explosion… The bomber’s nearby? …Huh? … T-The map symbol for a hospital!? …C-Contact me? The hint will appear three seconds before the explosion, no?”
Another bomb. A clue to it shown mere seconds before explosion. Satou took a deep breath.
“Matsuda-kun… I trust you to get as much of the clue as possible… In turn, I ask you to trust me and get out of the gondola before it was too late.
“Please…”
Her voice was the last he heard with his own ears. He looked out of the gondola window and saw the mats spread out in the hopes of catching him. Matsuda smiled. He had stepped into this gondola with full belief of dying while trying to prevent the next bomb from blowing up. That he’d never have a chance to properly avenge Hagiwara.
But this woman…
“I put my life in your hands, Satou-san.” He mused, pocketing his phone and sunglasses and settling to wait for the clue to be shown. The gondola door he opened in advance.
The clue came, the timer ticked down. Matsuda risked one last glance and then rushed out of the door. The bomb went off behind him, burning, pushing, scratching…
The fall took way too long, but he got down. His ears were ringing, he was in pain… But he had the clue.
Satou was there then, touching his hand. He couldn’t hear what she said but…
“Beika… Central…” Matsuda croaked out before succumbing to blackness.
Matsuda woke in the hospital with the news of the other bomb being found and disposed safely. The perpetrator was still missing though.
He couldn’t hear… People visited in the midst of him being pushed from one test to another. Condolences were offered… through speech he couldn’t hear and writing that he tossed away.
Satou was there. She and Megure were most supportive. Satou especially was there with him as they learnt sign language together. Matsuda had received hearing aids but he didn’t like using them. They worked but… calibrating them was annoying. The damage to his ears had been uneven. They… reminded him too much of what he’d lost. What he happened to hear through them… It wasn’t the same. Maybe the difference was just in his mind but…
He preferred sign language and lip reading. That was enough in most cases. Matsuda knew though that once he returned to the force, he’d need to start using the aids consistently lest he be a liability on field.
He knew he had to adjust. It didn’t mean he had to like it.
Matsuda sighed as Satou held up yet another horrid Christmas themed tie against his clothes. He hadn’t counted which number it was, they were all equally awful. Some ridiculous American thing… Furuya would be disgusted as well.
“What about these, Satou-san?” Takagi came over with three more ties. Matsuda levelled a glare at him but the younger man had learnt to ignore it. Especially if Matsuda was wearing his – by now battered – sunglasses. Especially if it meant going along with whatever schemes Satou and her friend Miyamoto had cooked up. Like this situation.
“Oh, those are great as well!” Satou took those ties: green with holly pattern, white with peppermint sticks and reindeer, blue with snowflakes. Not as bad as the previous ones. Satou had not been spoiled with taste. Or then she had been picking the worst ones on purpose.
“It’s just division Christmas party… Do I really need to buy a tie that I’ll wear for three hours at maximum before tossing it away?”
“Well, you didn’t want to dress up properly with Takagi-kun and I.” Satou replied.
“By dressing up you mean putting on reindeer costume.”
“It’s cute!”
“It’s unnecessary!”
“Why don’t you take the snowflake tie and be done with it?” Takagi butted in.
The snowflake one was least offensive out of all of them. Matsuda snatched it from Satou.
“And this is why you are my favourite, Takagi-kun.” He declared, promptly turning on his heels towards the cash register. And pointedly turning off his aids, much to Satou’s disgruntlement.
Indeed, he liked Takagi. The younger man had repeatedly shown his guts – none the least when they got to the conclusion of the November bombings last month – and his puppy crush on Satou was amusing. He had learnt sign language as well to the best of his ability once they got to know each other. Well, enough to get embarrassed by teasing given through it.
They made a good team. Matsuda liked it. And maybe adjusting wasn’t too bad either. Some of it had been thrust upon him without any choice but the rest... Satou and Takagi and many others had their own choices of how to accommodate him and his disadvantage. But Matsuda had been blessed with such good friends who never thought any less of him. Who never complained about the effort they had to put forward in order to communicate with him properly. And frankly... aside from finally catching Hagiwara's killer, that was all Matsuda could ask for.
Chapter 2
Notes:
Drew Matsuda with his tie for this fic. I hope you like it.
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