Tokyo: Rabbit Officer and Her Evil Partner-Chapter 329 - 250: Life and Death Pairing

Minamoto Tamako placed her hands in front of her chest, her breathing growing more rapid.

The lingering anesthetic, the bloody scent at her nose, the continually shaking hood, the catwoman dominating her view, the decision between life and death...

Everything was incessantly stimulating her nerves.

Seeing that Minamoto Tamako hadn’t responded, as if she were stunned, the catwoman finally couldn’t hold back, reaching out to snatch the card from Tamako’s hand.

Unexpectedly, although she seemed dazed, her mind was racing at high speed, and she instinctively pulled back her hand, avoiding the catwoman.

"What are you doing—?"

Minamoto Tamako’s questioning roused the catwoman’s anger, who then pinned her down on a chair, trying to forcibly take the card, cursing with offensive words, perhaps something like ’green tea bitch’...

Minamoto Tamako didn’t want to hurt anyone initially, but in a moment of panic, she instinctively shoved, causing the catwoman to stumble and fall to the ground.

"Damn it... give me the card!!"

The catwoman, humiliated and angry, got up and rushed at her; Tamako was frightened, turning to run, shouting back for the catwoman to calm down.

The two chased and fled, circling around the wooden table like a cat and mouse game. Seeing she couldn’t catch up, the catwoman jumped onto the table, lunging at Tamako, but she clearly underestimated Tamako’s sprinting speed and missed, falling to the ground again.

Minamoto Tamako’s chest rose and fell slightly, she had energy to spare. She had learned her lesson and committed to training her physical fitness, regularly doing long and short distance running.

If she couldn’t catch her, at least she could escape...

With this determination, she persisted day after day, and now it finally paid off.

"There has to be a hidden door in this room!" Minamoto Tamako shouted loudly, "Otherwise, how did we get in here?"

"I already told you..."

The catwoman, hands on her knees, gasped, "Saying it now is meaningless..."

"It is meaningful!"

Minamoto Tamako stuffed the card into her pocket, suppressing nausea as she bent over, rummaging through the corpse, speaking rapidly, "If this is a sealed room, then the total amount of oxygen is limited, intense running will accelerate oxygen consumption, and those with weaker bodies will experience altitude sickness..."

"What if the oxygen hasn’t run out yet?" the dog-headed man suddenly said.

"Theoretically, it’s already exhausted," Minamoto Tamako continued searching without stopping, "My foot is size 35, and using it to measure the tiles, one tile is exactly one meter, the room’s area is small, a regular person’s oxygen consumption is approximately 0.007 cubic meters per minute..."

Before she finished speaking, Mr. Fu Jian suddenly took out a lighter from his pocket and handed it over, "Looking for this, right?"

Minamoto Tamako was stunned, delighted yet puzzled, "Aren’t you a non-smoker..."

The catwoman didn’t care what she was saying, only if she’d put the card in for matching; the countdown ticked rhythmically, the fear of death creeping closer:

"Why can’t you just obediently match the cards?!"

"I will never yield to violence!" Minamoto Tamako loudly retorted.

She lit the card in her hand, carefully shielding the flame with one hand, inching along the wall.

The catwoman let out a scream, collapsing onto her knees, desperately questioning what she was trying to do.

"Using the flame and smoke to find a ventilation gap, that way I’ll definitely find the hidden door!" Minamoto Tamako tossed the lighter over, "Cat lady, you can help search too! If all three of us search together, there’s hope to find it within three minutes..."

"And so what if you find it? Do you even know how to open the hidden door? What if the hidden door is controlled from backstage? What if it can only be opened from outside? How can you be so sure you can open it? Come on, answer me!"

The catwoman shouted in despair.

Minamoto Tamako stayed silent, continuing to search along the wall.

She couldn’t be sure, nor did she have assurance of escaping, all she could do was gamble.

Gamble that this hidden door has an emergency switch, in case the staff setting up the scene get trapped inside.

—Betting on this fleeting hope.

Even though this action seems utterly ridiculous, Minamoto Tamako believed it was better than sitting idly by, following the kidnappers’ orders to kill!

She had to resist, not for survival, but to oppose the perpetrators of this slaughter!

Seeing Minamoto Tamako in silence, the catwoman’s tightly wound nerves finally reached their breaking point: "You’re really hypocritical! You know that? If you’re not afraid of dying, then pair with me! After pairing, we’ll search together, isn’t that fine?"

"Pairing with anyone would lead to an innocent death!" Minamoto Tamako shouted.

Upon hearing this, the catwoman gave up persuading. She remained silent for a moment, then suddenly stood up, inserting the "Rabbit" into the card slot, and without saying a word, sat back in her original spot.

There were no choices left.

She too can only gamble, gamble that Miss Rabbit, scared of dying, would choose to pair with her at the last moment.

The broadcast countdown ticked rhythmically, time passing bit by bit.

In a mere three minutes, time dragged on exceptionally long.

The catwoman anxiously shook her leg, looking over at the dog-headed man, as if he wasn’t nervous at all.

How much time had passed?

Thirty seconds?

A minute?

Or is it about to end?

She had lost all sense of time.

Minamoto Tamako kept counting in her mind, each tick of the broadcast was a second gone.

The card she burned was from the corpse, her own card was still in her pajama pocket, leaving her not a retreat but a choice between two deaths.

滴...

滴...

滴...

In her restless anxiety, Minamoto Tamako seemed to be hallucinating; the flame in her hand suddenly flickered violently.

For a second, she was frozen, then quickly moved closer to the wall, stroking back and forth with her hand—even with the hidden door almost gapless, seamlessly matching the wall, her sensitive fingertips detected a crack.

She had found it.

This was the hidden door.

Minamoto Tamako took a step back, dumbfounded, only thirty seconds on the countdown.

It was too late.

Minamoto Tamako turned, standing at the end of the long table, seeing the catwoman and dog-headed man seated at the sides, staring intently at her.

A decision had to be made.

Rationally, she should choose the catwoman; she and Mr. Fu Jian were criminal police, and should have the resolve to sacrifice for protecting the innocent;

Emotionally, she was unwilling to lose Mr. Fu Jian.

Minamoto Tamako bowed her head, looking at the two cards in her hand, racking her brain to think if there’s any other way to prevent the tragedy...

Why did everyone have to wear a hood?

Why is the pairing method inserting cards?

Why are the cards returned after pairing?

Think quickly...

There’s got to be a way, a way for everyone to survive...

...

Time waits for no one, passing steadily.

In the last ten seconds, Minamoto Tamako had a sudden insight: "Mr. Fu Jian! You have the bull-headed man’s card in your hand, right?! Quickly, use his card to pair with Miss Cat!"

After speaking, she took out the "Dog" card and inserted it into the card slot.

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