Toshiro Odagiri's hand, holding the receiver, began to tremble, and his face turned ashen.
His lips moved, but no sound came out.
After hanging up the phone, he swayed, then slumped back into his chair, his eyes filled with regret.
The last shred of hope was shattered.
Conan also started to feel guilty. "It really was all rock sugar... I... I got it wrong..."
Mouri Kogoro's eyes darted around, feeling that this was not a place to linger.
Glancing at Conan, he immediately thought of a way to slip away.
He then feigned a fit of rage, slapped his thigh, and pointed at Conan, roaring.
"It's all because of you, you brat!! All you do is cause trouble! Watch me teach you a good lesson for your parents!!"
Before he finished speaking, Mouri Kogoro had already rolled up his sleeves, making as if to hit Conan.
Conan was still in a daze, reacting a beat too late, and Mouri Kogoro's punch landed on his head.
The next second, a large bump appeared on Conan's head.
"Don't think this is over! I'm going to teach you a lesson for Chief Odagiri too!" Mouri Kogoro raised his fist again.
"Wah! Uncle, don't hit me!"
Conan yelped, clutching his head, and scurried out of the open office door.
"You stinky brat! Stop right there!"
Mouri Kogoro roared, chasing after him menacingly, causing a commotion in the hallway.
Mouri Kogoro successfully used the opportunity to extricate himself from the messy situation.
Only the heartbroken Toshiro Odagiri remained in the office.
He sat there in a daze for a few minutes, then finally let out a long sigh of resignation, calling Inspector Megure on his communicator. "Megure-kun... go to the detention room... release them."
However, a few minutes later, Inspector Megure returned with a strange expression.
"Chief... the people... weren't released successfully..." Inspector Megure's expression was complicated.
"What?!"
Toshiro Odagiri suddenly looked up, a little annoyed,
"Didn't we prove that it was all a misunderstanding?! Who's still stopping them from leaving?!"
"It's not that someone's stopping them." Inspector Megure wiped the sweat from his forehead, "It's... it's that they themself don't want to leave!"
"Huh???" Toshiro Odagiri suspected his ears were playing tricks on him.
"Yes," Inspector Megure repeated, "Nicole-san said... she said the police station's food is much better than what they usually eat, there are free canned mackerel, and air conditioning, and the beds are clean... They want to live here permanently until we compensate them for all their losses. Especially... uh... that Rolls-Royce that Section Chief Hoshimi smashed..."
"Rolls-Royce?!"
Toshiro Odagiri was so angry he almost spat out a mouthful of blood,
"Their broken Toyota HiAce that should have been scrapped ages ago?! There are 9 registered transaction records alone!!"
He felt like he was going crazy because of this group of oddballs.
A surge of anger shot to his head, and Toshiro Odagiri suddenly stood up, storming towards the detention room.
He had to personally send these troublemakers away! The sooner, the better!
In the detention room, the Cunning Hares quartet were enjoying a leisurely vacation.
Nicole had her legs crossed, Anby was holding a watermelon and resting with her eyes closed, Billy was counting the squares on the ceiling, and Nekomata was licking the milk pudding provided by the police station.
Don't ask why their treatment was so good, the answer is that Phaethon's influence was at work.
"Bang!" The door was pushed open forcefully, and Toshiro Odagiri stood at the doorway, his face ashen.
"Cunning Hares! You will leave the police station immediately! Right now!" Toshiro Odagiri growled, suppressing his anger.
Nicole slowly put down her leg and picked at her ear.
"Oh, isn't this Chief Odagiri? What? Kicking us out? Fine! Let's settle the compensation first.
Car damage fee, confiscated goods loss fee, reputation damage fee, emotional distress fee... Oh, right, and our lost wages for 'assisting with the investigation' these past few days!
Especially my Rolls-Royce! That's a limited edition Fantasy Series! It must be compensated at full value! If it's even one cent less,
we'll sue the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department in court for illegal detention, destruction of private property, and infringement of reputation! When the media reports it, tsk tsk tsk..."
"You're going too far!"
Toshiro Odagiri was trembling with rage, pointing at Nicole's nose,
"A broken Toyota HiAce! And you dare to impersonate a Rolls-Royce?! Do you really think we police are fools?! And!"
His eyes sharpened, and he decided to play his trump card,
"Don't think I don't know about the other good deeds you've done! To save on electricity bills, you secretly connected your apartment's wires to the police station's lines!
Stealing public electricity! This is irrefutable evidence! I can arrest you again for theft at any time!"
"Ah?!"
Nicole's smug expression instantly froze, she widened her eyes, looking incredulously at Billy.
She had told Billy to get an electrical wire from a neighbor, so out of all the neighbors, you chose the police station across the hall, huh?
Apparently not expecting this trivial matter to be discovered, Anby also opened her eyes, Billy stopped counting squares, and Nekomata's pudding spoon fell to the ground.
"This... this..."
Nicole's gaze flickered, and her momentum weakened,
"Just connecting electricity... what's the big deal... you didn't use much of yours... didn't it save on electricity bills?"
She tried to argue, but her confidence was clearly lacking.
Toshiro Odagiri looked at their guilty expressions and let out a cold laugh.
He took a deep breath and waved to Inspector Megure and the other officers. "Inspector Megure, you all go out first. Close the door. No one is allowed in without my command."
Although Inspector Megure was puzzled, he still led his men out as instructed, closing the detention room door.
Only Toshiro Odagiri and the Cunning Hares quartet remained in the room, and the atmosphere became somewhat tense.
Nicole watched Toshiro Odagiri warily, her body slightly tensed.
"Hey, what do you want to do? Want to get rough? I warn you, there are more of us! Anby is very good at fighting!"
Anby cooperatively clenched her fists.
However, what happened next completely exceeded the expectations of the Cunning Hares quartet.
Chief Toshiro Odagiri, this high-ranking and powerful figure in the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, looked around, and after confirming that no surveillance cameras were pointed at this corner —
Thud!
"Hontouni sumimasen!"
He immediately knelt on both knees, his upper body bowing deeply.
A standard dogeza!
"J-just now there were people... I apologize..."
Toshiro Odagiri's voice was overly humble, and he pleaded.
"Nicole-san, and everyone... This incident was due to police intelligence errors and reckless actions, causing you all great inconvenience and unnecessary losses... I, Toshiro Odagiri, on behalf of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, offer you our sincerest apologies!"
The Cunning Hares quartet were collectively petrified, Nicole's almost dropped to the floor.
Toshiro Odagiri maintained his dogeza posture and continued.
"Regarding compensation... we can discuss it further. The police department's budget is limited, so we definitely can't afford a Rolls-Royce... But!"
He looked up, quickly pulled a car key from his suit's inner pocket, and carefully pushed it to Nicole's feet.
"This is my personal car, a Mercedes I bought last year. Although it can't compare to a Rolls-Royce, it's still a good car!
The key is here, you can take it and drive it first! Consider it temporarily loaned to you by the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department for transportation!
Other compensation... we can discuss it slowly later! We just ask for your leniency; please leave the police station immediately now! I beg you!"
Toshiro Odagiri finished speaking, stood up, and bowed to everyone again.
T/N: The raw version used the Wuling Hongguang van. Since I'm not very knowledgeable about cars and it's a Chinese model uncommon in Japan, I replaced it with a more suitable alternative. I originally wanted to fully rewrite the Fatal Sugar Chef case, but I didn't have the time. I even missed yesterday's update—sorry!