Ayanokouji’s Guide to Using Tools at Butei High - Chapter 10.2

It was 10:30 PM when I finally returned to the Hyatt Hotel.

Only the wall lamps were lit in the room, but the light was sufficient, so I could clearly see Tanizaki waiting for me in a chair near the entrance.

“You’re finally back.”

As he spoke, Tanizaki stood up and moved toward me. I had returned later than he expected, roughly two hours after he had called me. Consequently, Tanizaki had called me four or five times to repeatedly confirm my situation. Now that he saw me return safely, he finally patted his chest and felt at ease.

“Did something happen? It’s so late.”

I caught a glimpse of Edogawa Ranpo sleeping soundly on the bed out of the corner of my eye before answering: “It’s nothing, I just went to the Fuyuki Church for a bit.” Since I was certain that magic existed. At this hour, for the Fuyuki Church to still be recruiting, I couldn’t help but think of malicious, grotesque plotlines like “church sacrifices.”

I am, after all, an ordinary person; I must nip things in the bud.

I had to make some preparations in advance myself.

Furthermore, I also heard that the so-called ‘Servants’ were gathering near the mouth of the Mion River. For me, the church was currently a very suitable place to frequent. It’s hard to say if or when a similar opportunity would arise if I missed it.

I spoke nonchalantly so as not to draw too much attention from Tanizaki.

Personally, I am not the eloquent type. I am not good at lying. Moreover, my habit is to minimize speaking about my own affairs.

The behavior of avoiding discussions about personal matters is usually regarded in psychology as being too guarded, having an excessive sense of privacy, or an overactive self-protection mechanism; some might even call it pathological.

Two years ago, when I was spending time with Sasaki Nobuko, she told me exactly that. She was already a lecturer in criminal psychology at the time. Her professional expertise gave her full confidence that what she said was correct.

However, I feel that as long as an individual’s behavior does not cause public social issues or increase the burden on others, there is no need to specifically correct that behavior.

It is much like how a heavy smoker knows smoking is bad, but if he likes to smoke and is careful not to do so in non-smoking areas, whether or not he wants to quit is a matter of personal will.

Therefore, on that basis, for the other party to continue offering unsolicited opinions is somewhat nonsensical.

I’ve strayed from the point.

In short, because of the matter with Sasaki Nobuko, I engaged in a lot of self-reflection. I know the importance of learning many ways to divert the focus of a conversation to avoid involving my own issues.

Before Tanizaki could speak, I asked: “Is there any news tonight?”

“Ah, well… I haven’t watched it,” Tanizaki replied, his reaction a beat slow after being questioned. “Um, do you want to watch? I’ll find the remote for you.”

As soon as Tanizaki turned on the TV, a late-night program began broadcasting a news bulletin—”An explosion of unknown cause occurred in the warehouse district of the coastal area of Fuyuki City.”

It had been over three hours, nearly four, since I knew they went to the mouth of the Mion River. This already explained many things—

“Tanizaki-kun, when Edogawa went to the internet cafe, did he say that you guys would be staying overnight there?”

The moment the words fell, Tanizaki’s eyes widened slightly, and he said in surprise: “How did you know? Right before eating the cake, Ranpo-san said he wanted to stay at the internet cafe all night.”

So after Edogawa fell asleep, Tanizaki, who thought that staying all night was a joke, thought about bringing him back.

I probably understood what his sentence ‘Don’t come back to the inn tonight, find a place to stay yourself’ actually meant.

He wasn’t throwing a tantrum at me; rather, Edogawa had left because he knew, through means unknown to us, that something specific might happen at this Hyatt Hotel.

Realizing this, I instantly became aware of the urgency of the situation.

“Tanizaki, call the police station right now. Tell them a large quantity of explosives has been hidden in the hotel and ask them to arrange for bomb disposal experts to come.”

As I spoke, I threw Tanizaki’s coat to him and told him to start taking the luggage out.

“What exactly is going on?”

“No time to explain, do as I say.” I spoke decisively. Even if Tanizaki didn’t know the exact situation, his expression turned serious.

The first thing I had him do was call the police and get bomb disposal experts to investigate. I believed that one of the targets of that pair from Room 703 was this Hyatt Hotel, but the only thing unclear was where they had placed the explosives.

The second thing—after calling the police, press the fire alarm to alert all guests to evacuate in time.

The third thing was to communicate with the hotel management as quickly as possible to arrange the evacuation of guests. Tanizaki would assist the management throughout to ensure no one among the guests was harmed.

The fourth thing was for Tanizaki to secretly keep an eye on the list of people in the hotel who were slow to leave.

This sounded simple, but doing it would be very difficult and time-consuming, especially since gaining the trust of the management would be a challenge.

After I finished speaking, I repeated: “Any other questions?”

“What about you?” Tanizaki asked hesitantly. “You don’t seem to have anything to do?”

I quite naturally hoisted the fast-asleep Edogawa Ranpo onto my shoulders and said: “I’ll take him to seek refuge, and then wait for you to return.”

“Don’t you have anything else you want to say to me?”

“Stay safe.”

I didn’t know why Tanizaki was fixating on something at this time is of the essence stage, seemingly hoping for some kind of answer from me. But when I said “Stay safe,” his face bore the frustration of ‘I’ve been abandoned’ and a lack of trust in me.

I found it very strange.

“Don’t you need to say thank you to me?”

“…Thank you.”

Later—that is, after a period of time had passed and I was close enough to Tanizaki to eat together often—Tanizaki said that because of the incident at the Hyatt Hotel, he developed a sense of mistrust toward me, especially when I forced him to say “thank you,” which made his mood collapse.

To be honest, I completely fail to understand that.