Tokyo: Rabbit Police and Her Evil Partner

Chapter 427 The Star Thief Hira Sakurako

As the saying goes, "It's easier to change mountains and rivers than to change one's nature," Uesugi Shion usurped Fushimi Shika's place, taking over her room and transforming it into a 'fortress' with her bare hands.

The intruder, Minamoto Tamako, stepped into a trap. Her bedside table was transformed into siege weapon wood, which sent her flying. If it weren't for a pillow at the end, Minamoto Tamako would have been seriously injured.

She fell to the ground, her chest tightening, gasping for breath. With a slight effort, she looked up and saw Uesugi Shion hammering nails into a chair leg, seemingly forging some new weapon.

"Quick, call the police!" Minamoto no Tamako patted her chest and held out her hand to Fushimi Shika: "Call the investigation department to arrest her! Trespassing is a serious crime!"

"So many bridges and sacks!"

Fushimi Shika waved his hand, striking the standard "dissident" pose, and declared that Uesugi Shion was mentally ill, that trespassing on private property was not illegal, and that the intrusion of the investigation department might worsen her condition!
"What should we do? Are we just going to let her do whatever she wants?" Yuan Yuzi recovered.

"Of course not. We can interrogate her first to extract information about Nuecha, and then transfer her to the investigation department."

Fushimi Shika had a beautiful plan. He was well aware of the trick of spreading guilt. As long as he wasn't the only one who had interrogated Uesugi Shion, he would have room to make excuses. Uesugi Shion's injuries wouldn't heal for at least ten days to two weeks, and the investigation department and the Uesugi family would eventually find out that she had been tortured.

By dragging Minamoto no Tamako into this mess, it's tantamount to making Kujo Yui her protector.

However, Yuan Yuzi was not fooled. She felt that a private interrogation was against regulations and that it would be better to take her to the investigation department for a formal interrogation in the interrogation room.

"What if Uesugi Shion gets a shock during the capture and becomes like Sakurako did, never speaking again?"

Fushimi Shika tried to reason with him, then used his ultimate move: "I'm about to die! Didn't you just say you'd do anything to save me?"

As he spoke, he squeezed out a few crocodile tears: "So it was all just talk... A woman's promises can be so flimsy..."

The evil chant was successfully upgraded to version 5.0, making it far stronger than the current version of Tamamon, and easily broke through her defenses.

Gentama quickly got up and rubbed Fushimi's arm with her fluffy slippers, trying to cheer him up; but she didn't want to violate her principles by privately torturing him (interrogating someone without completing the necessary procedures or filing a record is suspected of torturing him), so she had a flash of inspiration and came up with a compromise.

"Should we take her to the hospital?"

Gen Tamako grabbed Fushimi Shika's arm and suggested, "In an emergency, the police can send the suspect to the hospital for treatment. Now that she has shown aggressive tendencies, I feel that as a detective in Sugamo, I have an obligation to take her to receive professional treatment... Then we can ask the doctor a few questions, and maybe we can get some information!"

Fushimi Shika, fearing exposure of his kidnapping, illegal detention, and torture, repeatedly shook his head in refusal.

Genji was puzzled and asked him to give a reason; Fushimi Shika pondered for a moment and casually replied, "What if something goes wrong during the journey to the hospital?"

“We can call the hospital and ask them to send a caregiver to catch the patient, just like last time…”

Then, Minamoto no Tamako slapped her forehead: "Oh right! We can ask Dr. Arima to treat us!"

She hadn't forgotten her plan to kill two birds with one stone.

“No, no,” Fushimi Shika shook his head vigorously. “Have you ever met Dr. Arima? Can you be sure he’s reliable? What if he’s a private clinic and doesn’t have any caregivers?”

"Then we'll go to a national hospital then!"

Minamoto no Tamako had made up her mind, and nothing Fushimi Shika said could change her mind. She turned around, picked up the landline, and dialed Kazama-senpai to ask for Arima's contact information.

Kazama Takusai thought that Minamoto no Tamako was going to take Fushimi Shika to see a doctor. After reciting a series of phone numbers, he added a few words, praising Dr. Arima for his upright character, superb medical skills, and reliable personality. He said that if you have any psychological problems, you can definitely find the right person to talk to!
These words reassured Minamoto no Tamako. She had been a little worried that Fushimi-kun might be a jinx. What if Dr. Arima was really unreliable? Wouldn't she be harming someone else?
Now that Kazama-senpai is vouching for her, she has nothing to worry about!

Fushimi Shika saw that things were going badly. What if Uesugi Shion really recovered? Wouldn't he be finished? With both old and new grudges combined, the young lady of the Uesugi family would definitely fight him to the death!

He had previously thought that Uesugi Shion was faking madness, until he learned that sun exposure could cure Nue poison, and suddenly he felt that Uesugi Shion was truly insane... This is a case of one's perspective being determined by one's position.

After all, she was in the water for several minutes. It's already a miracle she didn't become a vegetable. How could she possibly be completely unharmed?

"I'll go to her room and keep an eye on her, so she doesn't run away."

Fushimi Shika patted his chest, giving him a "leave everything to me" look. Minamoto Tamako was on the phone and didn't have time to answer, so she gave him a thumbs-up to show her "good luck."

Fushimi Shika turned and went back to his room, closing the door behind him. While Minamoto no Tamako was on the phone, he lowered his voice and said:
"Run!"

Uesugi Shion is making a new trap, and like a husky, she's tearing the bedroom furniture to pieces.

Fushimi Shika discovered that his secret stash of money had been ransacked, with 10,000 yen bills scattered on the floor. He quickly knelt down to gather the money, fearing that Minamoto no Tamako would discover his enormous unexplained wealth when she entered the room.

"Run! Someone's coming to arrest you!"

As he picked up the money, he urged, "Remember those bad guys in the hospital, those perverts who tied you up?"

Uesugi Shion blinked, looked up at him for a moment, then looked down and continued waving the chair leg.

"Can you understand me?" Fushimi Shika waved her hand in front of her.

Uesugi Shion reacted, but not much; she only called out "Dad."

Fushimi Shika had previously thought she was enduring humiliation, but now she felt that this person was mentally unstable and unable to communicate normally.

When the soft approach didn't work, he had to resort to the hard one.

Fushimi Shika snatched the chair leg from her hand, making a gesture as if to hit her, trying to scare her away.

Uesugi Shion was indeed frightened, but instead of running away, she hid in the bathroom, huddled in the corner of the bathtub, trembling.

"..."

Fushimi Shika gave up.

He heard that Yuan Yuzi had finished her phone call and was approaching the room. There was no point in continuing to argue, so he could only hurry up and hide the money in the still unbroken vase.

If he remembered correctly, organic brain damage is basically incurable, and the chances of Uesugi Shion regaining consciousness were very, very small... If all else fails, he'll take the risk.

“I’ve already made an appointment with Dr. Arima. He said he’ll send his assistant to pick me up soon.”

Yuan Yuzi curiously peeked out and asked in a low voice, "Why did she hide in the bathroom?"

"I don't know," Fushimi Shika said, feigning ignorance.

"That's good!" Yuan Yuzi snorted, with a smug look on her face, as if she had gotten her revenge. "Lock her in there so she won't cause trouble everywhere!"

Fushimi Shika didn't say anything; he leaned against the vase and nodded in agreement.

……

While the two were waiting for Dr. Arima's assistant to arrive, Hira Sakurako left a note and went out, but did not play with her friends.

At this moment, she is sitting across from the National Museum of Nature and Science, holding binoculars in both hands, observing the museum's entrance across the street.

Mai, the nine-point girl, squatted behind her with a worried expression and whispered, "Um, Sakura-chan, is it really okay to do this...?" "Shh."

Hira Sakurako didn't explain, but simply silenced Mai.

Actually, they could see what was happening across the street even without binoculars. It was just that Hira Sakura wanted to observe the details, so she brought binoculars.

Mai sighed deeply. She looked up and saw Mayu swaggering out of the museum, and the security alarm at the entrance suddenly went off.

Beep-beep-beep

"Stop that girl!" the security guard shouted.

The two guards surrounded her and grabbed Mayu's arms. Her legs were off the ground, twisting and struggling, and she was shouting something.

The security guards caught up and began searching Mayu without saying a word, but found nothing.

Hira Sakura nodded towards Mai, indicating it was her turn. Mai sighed, reluctantly getting up and crossing the street, feigning surprise as she loudly asked, "Mayu-chan, what's wrong?"

"These guys are accusing me of stealing! I didn't steal anything!"

Mayu was so angry that she screamed and threatened to tell her parents.

Mai chimed in, "You're all doomed! Mayu's father is a member of parliament! You'll definitely lose your jobs and be fired!"

After saying this, Mai felt a little uneasy and anxious. These words were taught to her by Hira Sakurako, and they were said to be very powerful; the adults would definitely not do anything to them if they heard them.

The security guard and the doorman exchanged glances, and one of them whispered, "The alarm did go off..."

"I didn't steal it! I didn't steal it! I didn't steal it!!"

Mayu rolled on the ground crying; she couldn't bear this injustice.

The security guard suggested it might have been accidentally triggered and asked Mayu to take out her belongings and extend them one by one onto the gate alarm.

In 1991, Japan already had alarm technology for use at the entrances of shopping malls. Although the technology at that time may not have been as advanced as it is now, it already had basic functions.

Electronic tag systems for anti-theft of goods are becoming increasingly common. Shopping malls can install radio frequency tags on goods, and when a tagged item passes through the radio frequency sensing device at the mall entrance without being demagnetized, an alarm will be triggered.

At the time, the false alarm rate of burglar alarms was relatively high, especially for alarms that were reused. If the previous identification code had not been cleared, the alarms at the National Museum of Nature and Science were second-hand, purchased from a bankrupt department store. The purchasing staff lined their own pockets, which was a traditional practice of Japanese companies.

Zhenyou has no intention of cooperating with such baseless slander.

Mai whispered to him, "If you don't prove your innocence, won't you really become a thief?"
Mayu thought it made sense, so she did as instructed.

She was wearing a pink dress, and although the pockets looked small, they were filled with a large, scattered pile of things:

There was a pebble, an ice pop skewer, three glass beads, two rolls of rubber bands, a pager, a wad of tissues used to blow one's nose, and a half-eaten cookie box.

Mayu extended the cookie box out of the door alarm, and when she lifted it, the alarm went off again.

Just in case, they opened her cookie box from outside the door to make sure it only contained cookies. They breathed a sigh of relief, but at the same time, they were also filled with a headache.

"I told you I didn't steal it! You bad guys, I'm going to tell my parents..."

Mayu started yelling again, intending to cause a huge scene.

Mai had memorized the lines taught by Hira Sakurako beforehand and prepared for any unexpected situations. She quickly interjected, "As long as you apologize, Mayu-chan won't pursue the matter any further!"

"That's right, an apology is necessary!"

Mayu crossed her arms over her chest and pouted her little mouth.

The security guards and gatekeepers curled their lip. They were just doing their jobs and hadn't done anything wrong. It was just a misunderstanding, so they naturally didn't want to apologize to a little kid.

But it's better to avoid trouble. After all, it was the museum's alarm that was malfunctioning. As security personnel, they were also responsible for calming the guests down, so they could only force a smile and apologize to Mayu.

Mayu accepted their apology and, like a victorious rooster, walked down the museum steps with her head held high.

Mai followed beside her with small, quick steps, leading her across the street.

As they walked and talked, Mayu kept complaining, claiming that her magical pebble became unruly after being touched by others, and that she had to choose a wild pebble that was exclusively hers to wear for a month without letting anyone else touch it in order to completely tame the wild pebble.

As she spoke, Mayu suddenly remembered something, put her hands behind her head, and asked as she walked:
"Where did Sakura-chan go? She told me to meet her at the museum, but I haven't seen her anywhere..."

Hira Sakurako made her timely appearance. She put her binoculars into her backpack, dusted herself off, and stood up to greet Mayu: "Sorry I'm late."

Mayu didn't mind her best friend being late, because she was often late herself. Now that the trio was all there, Mayu suggested going to Hiraoko's house to play video games.

Ping Yingzi vetoed the idea, reminding him, "Don't forget, we agreed to meet at the museum to visit it."

"Going to a museum again? Why do we go to museums every day? It's so boring! I don't want to!"

Mayu was unhappy. She found it novel to visit a museum for the first time, but after visiting for three days, the novelty wore off and all that was left was boredom. Walking around in the museum was not fun at all.

"This is the last time," Hira Sakura tempted, "I'll let you play video games for an extra half hour when we get back."

"Great!"

Mayu cheered and pushed Hirako back to the museum. As they passed the gatekeeper, she deliberately made a face at him, but he pretended not to see it.

The three wandered around the museum, while Hira Sakura kept an eye on the security cameras.

These days, surveillance cameras in Japan are extremely expensive. Even high-end venues might only have one or two cameras to make a show of it.

When there is a large space and not enough cameras, the only way to increase the monitored area is to rotate the cameras back and forth. This results in gaps and blind spots left by the rotation of the cameras.

Ping Yingzi has been scouting the location for two days, and now it's time to close the deal.

She took Mayu's cookie box, popsicle sticks, and pebbles, and had Mai distract Mayu. Then, taking advantage of a gap in the camera's rotation and making sure no one was around, she took out the popsicle sticks and quickly pried open the special specimen box, taking out the rust-colored meteorite on display inside.

To prevent the security guards from noticing anything amiss, Hirayuko had made preparations in advance.

She tapped it gently, and the debris clinging to the pebble fell off, revealing a stone inside that bore a striking resemblance to a meteorite fragment on display. Before the camera could turn back, she placed the 'pebble' back into its specially designed specimen box and closed it.

Finally, Hira Sakurako stuffed the meteorite fragments into Mayu's cookie box, allowing Mayu to swagger out of the museum with the cookie box.

The alarm went off, but the security guard didn't stop anyone.

(End of this chapter)