“Eh…!?”
Yuugo’s eyes were wide open with surprise because of what Jinba struggled to say.
Jinba clenched his fist and hit his forehead, and continued.
“I told you, right? When Thomas and Regen fired, there were hostages… I was one of them.”
“But how…?”
“…In the battlefield where we cornered him, there was a kid who didn’t get away. Regen tried to get the kid in the birdcage, I tried to protect the kid, and we were both caught.”
Jinba shook his head a little, clenching his teeth as he remembered.
Yuugo was at a loss for words as Jinba tormented himself over a mistake he could never undo, and continued.
“I knew Regen used kids as hostages. It should’ve been obvious the moment he brought the birdcage. Because of what I did, because I got caught in front of Thomas… He lost his usual cool. He wouldn’t be ready to shoot and be shot if that wasn’t the case.
He remembered that day. Seeing his partner when he was released from the birdcage along with the children.
He suffered a mortal wound and collapsed. Jinba ran towards him as fast as he could and kept calling out to him, yelling for him to stay with him… but Thomas silently drew his last breath.
“It was my fault. He was right, if I kept my cool… Thomas wouldn’t have died. My irreplaceable partner died because of me.”
“Jinba…”
Yuugo could not imagine the regret Jinba felt for letting his partner die, and letting the culprit get away after he was cornered.
If he refrained from acting rashly, like he was constantly told… Thomas might not have died.
And as Jinba lived with this regret, the opportunity to avenge his partner finally came.
Jinba had a look on his face like he absolutely could not lose this battle of revenge, for the sake of protecting the people of that city as well, as he continued.
“After that, Regen escaped and I was transferred because I was being reckless with my investigation…. But since he’s here, destiny is telling me to settle this. This time I’ll catch him, absolutely.”
“…Please don’t be reckless. I worry about you, you know?”
“Hahaha! Thanks. But to me, this is something I have to finish even if I have to risk my life. Let me have a little recklessness.”
“I see… So this is about getting revenge for his partner…”
“I understand why he’d be heated, but you’re right to be worried.”
Not long after Yuugo left Jinba, he told his friends what he knew, since the commotion led them to rush over there, and they all thought.
Yuugo nodded as he heard Melt and Setsuna, and Marcos spoke.
“I know this is an important case to an investigator like Jinba, but we have to think about the harm being done to the city too. If Regen gets his way, this place will be crawling with monster armor beasts.”
“The guards know that too, and that’s why they’re doing all they can to catch that group. They already deployed guards to places that are likely to be attacked.”
“But they also took kids. If they use them as hostages, there’s only so much we can do.”
“Cowards, using young children as hostages! Unworthy of being called warriors!”
“And even if we try to save them, they use the subspace in the birdcage. We can’t do anything from here.”
“How do we anticipate their moves… It’s tricky.”
As they sorted out the situation, the biggest hurdle was the children.
They held all the cards as long as they had the children.
“But they’ll come out safely if the magic item is destroyed, right? Jinba said so.”
“But how do we destroy it? They work as an organization. If we fight, it will become a mess with many people.
“Even if we try to destroy it from up close, our opponent is a bat monster armor beast, so he can fly.”
“Melt and I could try to snipe him, but will we be able to take aim in a battle like that…”
They thought and thought, and all groaned as they were hit with the reality that was the difficulty of destroying the birdcage.
Yuugo thought they were not going to come up with a good idea there, so he slapped his leg and turned to the others.
“Let’s not talk here. We should be ready to respond when they make a move.”
“Yes, getting ahead of them will be decisive, so we need to prepare for that. I will stay in the guard station today. That way, I can move out at any time.”
“Then I will talk to Ryuuga in the hospital. He might be able to help…”
There was not much they could do, so they thought they ought to be ready.
But resting was also important, so they called it there, and Marcos went to the guard’s station to spend the night there with Yuugo.”
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