The Case of the Shibuya Revelation Serial Murders Pt. 5

The Case of the Shibuya Revelation Serial Murders Pt. 5 (渋谷黙示録連続殺人事件④, Shibuya Mokushiroku Renzoku Satsujin Jiken ④) is the 26th chapter of the Ron Kamonohashi: Deranged Detective manga.
==Summary==
Ron and Toto watch in shock at the explosion in a building across from the Shibuya Sky tower. Ron demands to know if the explosion was related to the murder announcement. Winter says everything is proceeding according to what the code indicated. Toto realizes that the explosion was meant to get the real hacker right on schedule. Winter says he was a troublesome man, and cried and begged for his life as they wrapped the bombs around him. 
Ron grits his teeth as Toto raises his phone to contact Amamiya, but he could not get through. Ron offers his own phone but it too is broken. Winter says the phone handed them would not work either, that they are completely cut off from the outside. Ron realizes that something happened at the entrance gate, likely the phones were ruined by something like a powerful magnet. Winter adds that no matter what they try, they will not be able to contact Amamiya, because she is with the hacker. Ron and Toto look at them in shock, as Winter just continues that Amamiya never stopped struggling even as they wrapped the bombs around her, saying she was a fine woman. Ron is furious, but Toto more so, and he charges in to attack, saying they killed his sempai. But Winter takes Toto down with a sound kick to the abdomen. 
Winter asks Ron how it feels, the knowledge that he could not save a friend. Ron angrily says he is sick of hearing about the legendary M family. They are just a bunch of indiscriminate killers without a shred of intelligence, setting up unsolved crimes like riddles. Winter defends saying they don't want to hear that from crazy Sherlock's descendant. Ron says, you want to bring their ancestors into this? Then he supposes this cowardly method they are using is thanks to the tainted blood of the first Moriarty. Winter twitches and glares, saying Ron is irritating, that he has no idea how much they would enjoy killing him now if they could. Ron does notice something. Winter continues, they the descendants of Moriarty with their lofty intellect, must engage him in a battle of wits. They will give him a detective's true despair. 
Toto gets up painful, and says he will never forgive them. But Ron stops him, saying Amamiya and the hacker are still alive. If Winter won't kill him because they want to give him a detective's despair, then a detective's despair means being unable to solve a problem one thought one could, or being unable to save a life. That means the problem can be solved. The plate's code still holds a mystery for them. 
Toto asks about the explosion. Ron says that was a dummy explosion. Winter said that they wrapped the hacker and Amamiya in explosives, but Winter never said they died from it. Ron holds his head, desperately think about what happened next. If the problem is fair, then there must be a hint in what has happened already. But Toto could not think of any hints, and it already happened at 12 o'clock. Then Ron realizes that he was totally fooled: it is not 12 o'clock yet. The phone they checked the time on was the one handed to them by Winter as the hacker. And the phone's time was set ahead of the actual time. On top of that Winter concealed the actual time from their view. That meant breaking their smartphones and the enormous screen showing the time on the building that exploded. 
Toto understands that is what the explosion was for, so what is the real time now? Winter says it is 11:55 and 42 seconds. As they said, this is a battle of wits. If Ron is able to solve a mystery, they will not attempt to conceal it any longer. But even if he figured out the actual time, he still does not know where the hacker and the policewoman are. He is about to witness their deaths for real this time. 
Toto in a panic says Amamiya's life is on the line, and they only have four minutes. Ron in a similar panic says he knows and is searching now. Toto asks searching what, and Ron says there was always some kind of 96 connected to all of the previous murder spots. He is positive that a 96 is the key to the current situation as well, and that is what he is looking for. Ron tells Toto there must be a number they could see from here, a pattern, coordinates, astronomical object, anything, telling him to help search. It doesn't matter what it is, just find a 96. 
But as Ron emphatically talks, Toto's eyes land on Ron's neck and the intersected 96 scar. Ron pulls at his sweater and also stares at the 96 scar. Toto apologizes and says it could not be that, right? But Ron says that is what he would expect from his partner. The only thing related to 96 in the area is him, and that means the two of them are in the building. Winter concedes, saying the two are in the first floor storage room. If he flips the switch off, the bomb countdown will stop, but they have less than two minutes left. 
Toto is ready to run down to the storage room, but Winter says it is pointless. Even on the elevator it will take more than one minute to travel all 51 floors from the roof deck. Also on reaching the elevators Toto finds that they are stopped on the first floor. Winter tells Ron that he did not finish in time. The lives he could have saved if he had only solved it sooner are about to be blown away. It is time to savor his worthlessness as a detective, trapped on the roof unable to do a thing. How does it feel? 
Ron pauses for a moment, then says not bad. Winter asks if that is a bluff. Ron says even if he could not stop it, somebody nearby can take care of it. Toto asks what he means, their phones are broken so they could not contact anyone. Winter says it seems Ron has finally lost his mind, that it is nearly time. 
Winter raises the phone, which changes from 11:59:59 to 12:00:00. But no explosion happens. The timer keeps ticking up to 12:00:03 with still no explosion. Toto is surprised, Winter spins around and demands to know what is going on. Ron calmly says a smartphone is not the only way of contacting the outside. Spitz had heard the entire conversation and is at the first floor storage room with Amamiya and the hacker, still bound up but safe. Spitz had used the bug placed on Toto from earlier. If this was a battle against him, then the M family member has lost. 
==Characters in Order of Appearance==
* Totomaru Isshiki
* Ron Kamonohashi
* Winter Moriarty
* Spitz Fire
* Amamiya
* Kizo Takanashi
==Navigation==
Category:Chapters
Category:Shibuya Revelation Serial Murders Case