April 1st, Sunday.
For police officers, being scheduled meant there was no such thing as a day off. But for students, things were different, especially kindergarteners. They often gathered together to play around the neighborhood and particularly curious children would even carry out what they called "adventure plans."
Just before noon, beside the Ueno riverbank in 3-Chome, Ueno Town.
Several children who looked to be around six years old were playing near the shore with their pant legs rolled up. Standing at the riverbank was a cute little girl wearing a pale yellow headband. Pointing excitedly toward the shallow water, she shouted.
"Genta! Hurry, hurry! The fish is over there!"
Hearing the girl's voice, the chubby little boy hurried toward the barracuda swimming nearby. Unfortunately, even though he was being extremely careful, he still failed to catch the slippery fish with his bare hands.
"I almost had it!"
The freckled boy holding a fishing net laughed and said, "Genta, if you don't roll your pants up higher, they're going to get wet."
"Ahh! That was close! I almost soaked my pants!"
After playing along the riverbank for a while, several palm-sized barracudas had already accumulated inside the blue bucket nearby. The chubby boy stretched lazily and patted his round stomach.
"What time is it now? I'm starving."
The freckled boy checked his wristwatch and said, "It's exactly one o'clock. Want to go eat lunch?"
Before the girl could answer, the two boys noticed her staring elsewhere in confusion. She pushed aside a patch of reeds and pointed toward something moving across the river.
"Look! What's that?"
A toy speedboat was moving along the water. Strangely enough, a small red balloon was tied to the back of it.
Tilting his head curiously, the freckled boy asked, "Is this some kind of new game? It looks radio-controlled. My dad bought me one before too. Want to play together next time?"
"Yeah, yeah!"
As all three children became absorbed in watching the toy boat, a sudden gunshot rang out.
Bang!
The red balloon tied behind the boat burst instantly, startling the children badly.
"T-That was a gunshot, right? It sounded exactly like the guns on TV."
"I think so… and look, the balloon exploded!"
The freckled boy raised the binoculars in his hands and looked across the river. As his gaze shifted upward, he just happened to spot four adult men standing on the rooftop of a distant building.
The most terrifying part was that one of them was holding a rifle, while the other three appeared to be carrying handguns.
"T-This is bad!" he stammered. "They're real guns! The four men on that building all have guns!"
"Really? Mitsuhiko, let me see!"
The chubby boy snatched the binoculars and looked toward the rooftop again, only to discover that nobody was there anymore.
"There's no one there now…"
Lowering the binoculars suspiciously, he muttered, "Mitsuhiko, are you messing with us? Someone firing a rifle sounds like something that only happens in TV dramas."
"I'm not lying!" the freckled boy insisted anxiously. "I really saw someone firing a rifle! If you don't believe me, let's go to the rooftop and check. Maybe there'll even be bullets left behind!"
The girl with the headband hesitated for a moment. She was actually quite interested in adventures like this, but for safety reasons she suggested.
"How about we ask an adult to go with us?"
"Okay! Then let's go check out the building first!"
...
1:06 PM, a small alley in 3-Chome, Ueno Town.
Dressed in a white long-sleeved T-shirt under a faded denim jacket, Ritsu was enjoying a rare day off after not receiving any work assignments.
Ever since that person had inserted him into the Metropolitan Police Department, he was starting to feel less like a member of the Organization. Every day he dealt with police officers and the missions assigned to him had become fewer and fewer.
Then again, his status within the Organization was quite high now. Gin believed that ordinary missions weren't important enough to require Ritsu's involvement, so he usually dumped those assignments onto the other members of the operations team instead.
Officially, he called it "training them," but in reality he was just reducing his own workload and occasionally enjoying homemade beef stew from Vodka instead of convenience store food.
Back then, Ritsu's favorite thing had been sleeping, since he was constantly overworked and deprived of rest.
Now, his favorite pastime was searching for hidden restaurants tucked away in alleyways.
After all, thanks to a certain someone, he had a hard time sleeping anyway.
"It should be somewhere around here… Did I take a wrong turn?"
"Hey! There's an uncle over there!"
Holding his phone in one hand after confirming he hadn't gone the wrong way, Ritsu was about to cross the street when he noticed three little bean sprouts approaching him head-on. Judging by their height, not even a meter tall, they were probably kindergarteners.
"Hello, mister! We have something we'd like to ask your help with. Is that okay?" the freckled boy asked politely. His manners clearly showed he had been raised well.
Given their age, being called "mister" wasn't exactly strange. Ritsu was about to answer when the girl with the headband immediately objected.
"You can't call him mister! You should call him big brother!"
"?"
Not only was Ritsu confused, but even the girl's two friends looked baffled.
'Weren't you the one who called him mister first, Ayumi? Why are you changing it now?'
The girl puffed up her cheeks seriously and pointed at Ritsu.
"My mommy said that handsome uncles shouldn't be called uncles, they should be called big brother! This mister is handsome, so we have to call him big brother!"
"…"
What kind of strange life lessons was this girl's mother teaching her?
Ritsu laughed awkwardly and asked, "Did you get lost and need my help?"
The girl shook her head and pointed toward the tall building behind him.
"No! We saw someone firing a rifle from really far away earlier, so we wanted to go up there and look around. Also… handsome big brother, my name is Yoshida Ayumi. What's your name?"
'A rifle shooting?'
Ritsu cautiously adjusted his glasses. Today just happened to be April 1st. While Japan didn't really celebrate April Fools' Day much, who knew whether these little brats were trying to prank him.
"My name is Onizawa Takashi. Are you telling the truth about someone firing a rifle?" He pulled out his police badge and opened it. "I'm a police officer, you know. If you lie to me, I'll arrest you."
"We're not lying!" the freckled boy exclaimed excitedly. "I really saw someone firing a rifle, and there were three other men holding handguns too!"
"Wow, he's really a police officer! Then this is perfect! If something happens, we won't even need to call the police!"
"Officer Big Brother, my name is Tsuburaya Mitsuhiko. I'm really not lying. Please come upstairs with us and take a look."
"My name is Kojima Genta! I'm part of the Sakura Class at Beika Nursery School! Come check it out with us! If it's real, you might even get rewarded for it!"
'So they really were just little kids who hadn't even entered elementary school yet.'
Watching them introduce themselves so earnestly honestly made it feel like they were filing an event, giving a real-name report.
Judging from their microexpressions, none of them showed signs of lying either.
'So there really had been illegal gunfire?' Ritsu's expression turned serious.
"I believe you. But you all have to stay behind big brother, okay? If the criminals are still there, don't worry about me, just run."
"Okay! We understand!"