Tokyo Detective

Chapter 98 Taking office as Director

Monday is the day that Naoki Hanyu is scheduled to take up his new post. Early in the morning, he drove an off-road vehicle with Mai Fujiwara, who was also transferred, and drove towards Hachioji City via the highway.

Because the speed limit on the highway is 100 kilometers, it took nearly 40 minutes to travel the 30-kilometer distance to reach Hachioji City, and then drove more than 20 kilometers along the Ome Line to reach Ome City, which is also the city that governs the Toyotani area.

It takes only 40 minutes to reach Ome City without any obstruction. Even if you take the Ome Chuo East Line, it only takes about an hour.

Ome City is a small mountain tourist city west of Tokyo. The city gets smaller as you go up the mountain, and the population is only 14. The city is famous for its hot springs, shrines, rafting, and forest parks. It is considered a beautiful natural city.

The next section of the road is different from the flat plains and requires taking a mountain road.

We followed the Tamba River all the way to the deep mountain area. There were many villages and towns along the way, such as Kori, Shiramaru, and finally we arrived at Okutama Town. This mountain road took 1 hour.

The straight-line distance between the two sides is only 30 kilometers, but it is really far.

Many of Okutama's buildings are made of wood. Including the immigrant population, there are about 8000 people there. At its peak, the population was close to 2.

This small town is quite famous among tourist attractions. Like some places in Hokkaido, the government used to give out houses for free.

As long as you can live there for 15 years, you will have permanent ownership of the house and land, but if you don’t live there for the full years, the house will be taken back.

The free houses here are not limited to any nationality, and foreigners are welcome.

In addition, Lake Tama in the distance is also one of the sources of the Tama River, which means that if you jump into the river and swim downstream, you can swim back to Ota City.

Mai Fujiwara saw the outline of Lake Okutama in the distance through the car window and couldn't help feeling like she was on a trip.

"Senior, it feels good here."

"Of course. Okutama's tourism industry is pretty good. Not only is it the terminus of the Ome Railway, but there are also rail cars going up the mountain. Just thinking about it makes me, the director, envious."

Okutama is the closest town to Toyotani Town. There is an Okutama Police Station in the town, which is also the police station that Hanyu Naoki regards as a competitor.

Because over the years, a lot of the work of the Toyotani Police Station has been handed over to the Okutama Police Station for management, such as the right to investigate criminal cases, which makes Naoki Hanyu concerned.

You can't achieve any merit if you have nothing to do. We are all employees of a small police station. Why should you be in charge of me?

Even though your Okutama Police Station was once a standard police station, it now has nearly 80 people, and the chief is a superintendent of police.

In contrast, Fenggu Police Station has only 23 people, and the chief is a deputy inspector.

In short, if it’s not possible, then it’s not possible.

"Mai, you have to remember that you are from Fengya Police Station, and you are in competition with Okutama Police Station."

"Yes, the entire police station is my enemy."

Fujiwara Mai was influenced by someone and also attached great importance to meritorious service. Meritorious service and leaving the mountainous area were the things that mattered most to her now.

Otherwise, if one day her seniors are transferred away and she is left alone in the mountains, she will go crazy.

The off-road vehicle continued to drive westward. The deeper we went, the higher the altitude became. If the average altitude of the Tama area is 100 to 150 meters, then the altitude of Okutama town is 150 meters, and the average altitude of Toyotani Town is over 200 meters.

It is the town with the highest altitude among Tokyo, Saitama Prefecture, and Yamanashi Prefecture. The nearby Kumotori Mountain has an altitude of over 1000 meters, making it one of the top three mountains in the entire Kanto region.

The SUV kept playing music as it drove along the two-lane country road for 40 minutes before entering the territory of Fengya Town.

Although the scenery along the way is nice, with mountain streams, small rivers, lush, tranquil and remote woods, it becomes boring after seeing it too much, and you feel isolated from the world.

When the vehicle climbed over a hill again, the scene that came into view made Fujiwara Mai exclaim.

"so beautiful."

Naoki Hanyu slowed down the car and agreed calmly.

“It’s really beautiful.”

The so-called Fenggu Town is a village built around a meteorite lake. The meteorite lake is called Fenggu Lake, which is nearly 1.5 kilometers long and wide, which means that Fenggu Lake is more than 225 million square meters.

Looking down at the entire lake from above, the lake surface is as quiet as a mirror, clear and blue, reflecting the green mountains and leisurely white clouds, like a flowing painting.

Loose houses are built around the lake. Many of them are old wooden buildings with a sense of age, and a small number were built in the past 30 years. A small wooden port is located by the lake.

Compared to other mountainous areas, the entire Fengya Town is like a plain. At least none of the buildings in the town are on the ground and the other is in the sky.

【Refer to the town in your name】

Naoki Hanyu muttered to himself.

"Not bad."

Fengya Town used to be a village, but 50 years ago, its population exploded and reached 8000, so it was upgraded to a town.

Unfortunately, the good times didn’t last long, as the 8000-person era was already the peak. Over the next 40 years, as young people were attracted by Tokyo, they didn’t want to stay in the mountains anymore, and Toyogami’s population dropped from 8000 to 3000.

Even if all the villages in the Fenggu area were added together, there would still be a population of less than 5000 people.

Naoki Hanyu followed the navigation to the police station and soon found a three-story police station covering an area of 500 square meters.

It was built more than 30 years ago and is considered an old building. It has been repaired and maintained to this day.

But it still looks quite grand and full of history. It is a building that looks very much like a classical palace.

Fenggu Police Station, according to the file, has 21 people, including the two of them, it is 23. Among them, 8 are stationed police officers in the village station, one stationed police officer is assigned to each village, and they will not return to the police station unless necessary, because it is too far away.

Therefore, there should be 13 police officers and staff in the entire police station at this time.

The two got out of the car and walked into the police station. They saw that there was only one old policeman in the duty room of the not-so-small police station, and judging from his sleepy look, he seemed to be quite idle.

Naoki Hanyu walked up and knocked on the glass window.

"Wake up."

The policeman, who looked to be in his 50s, rubbed his eyes and asked in a relaxed tone when he saw that they were two young people, a man and a woman in plain clothes.

"Sir, are you two reporting a crime?"

"Are you the only one on duty in the entire police station?"

Upon hearing this, the old policeman tilted his head and looked inside. Seeing that there was no one in the hall or the patrol office, he began to answer.

"Other colleagues are out on patrol. You know, there are 3000 people in Toyotani Town, and it's actually not enough for us to have only 10 police officers patrolling." Hanyu Naoki nodded. The number of 300 to 1 was indeed a bit high.

一般警署和居民大概是100到200比例，东京23区1000万人，警视厅在23区的警力是5万左右，200比一都忙成狗，更别说300比一。

Yes, 300 to one.

Naoki Hanyu couldn't help but raise the corners of his mouth. This was a good opportunity to increase his subordinates. As the director, he didn't want to have only a dozen old, weak, sick and disabled people under him.

The old police officer asked again.

"Sir, is there anything you can ask the police for help with?"

Naoki Hanyu took out his police notebook (police ID) to identify himself.

"I'm the new director, Hanyu Naoki, and the one behind me is Fujiwara Mai, also a transferred police officer."

"what?"

The old police officer was stunned. This young man turned out to be the new director, and his rank was only police lieutenant. It was too weird.

No matter how confused he was, the veteran police officer still saluted.

"Hello, Chief. I am Chief Inspector Hasegawa."

"What about the rest?"

"Please wait a moment. Let me ask."

Seeing that the director asked again, Hasegawa could only speak through the intercom.

"Hey, where are you?"

"Beep, beep, we're rescuing people. Qianxia's grandson is in danger at Yulong Waterfall, and several of us are trying to rescue him."

"Ah, then hurry up. The director just arrived today and wants to call you back."

"Director?"

After hearing this, Naoki Hanyu took the intercom and said.

"I won't officially take office until tomorrow, so don't delay saving people."

"Yes, Director."

Naoki Hanyu put down the intercom and asked.

"Captain Hase, can you take me to the place where the disaster happened?"

"Ah, of course you can, but our police station's only police car is out of here, and Chief, you can just call me Hasegawa or Hasegawa."

Hanyu Naoki nodded. He knew the style of these old-timers. There was only one police car in the entire police station, which was too little.

"Let me call you Hase. I'll drive you there."

When Hasegawa saw that the chief's car was obviously very expensive, he was even more puzzled as to why such a young and promising policeman would want to be the chief in a mountainous area like theirs. He couldn't understand.

In the car, Hasegawa looked at Fujiwara Mai and couldn't help but ask.

"Ms. Fujiwara, what is your relationship with the Director?"

"I am a junior who is led by my seniors."

Junior?

What distant words! Hasegawa couldn't help but fall into deep thought. How many years had it been since he last taught juniors who had just graduated from the police academy? 20 years, or 30 years?
The police in Fenggu area haven't had a new recruit for a long time. The police in the police station are either locals or transferred here because of mistakes. All of them are not taken seriously. It can even be said that they have been forgotten by the Metropolitan Police Department.

Naoki Hanyu added from the driver's seat.

"Mai is my apprentice."

"So you are the director's favorite disciple. Miss Fujiwara, please take good care of me in the future."

Hasegawa's expression instantly became respectful. His disciple was definitely a direct descendant. In the police station, this girl could even be described as second only to the first person and above 21 people. After all, there were only two patrol chiefs in the police station, and the others were either patrol officers or patrol chiefs. There was not even a deputy inspector.

No, now a new inspector has come, but unfortunately, the commissioner is only an inspector.

Naoki Hanyu added again.

"Don't treat Mai as a big shot, just treat her as an ordinary rookie police officer. She still needs to learn from you seniors."

"Yes, let's learn from each other and make progress."

Hasegawa didn't believe what the director said, otherwise why would the other party mention the word "apprentice"? If he offended him, he would be in trouble.

The vehicle headed towards Mount Yunqu, turned a corner in front of a stream leading to Fenggu Lake and headed upstream.

The stream called Yulong Creek was about ten meters wide and half to one meter deep, which was not enough to drown people.

After the vehicle continued to drive forward for 3 minutes, Naoki Hanyu realized why they were in danger, because the water upstream became turbid, the current was faster and deeper, more than 1 meter, and was accompanied by debris such as branches and leaves.

“This is a flash flood.”

Hasegawa explained.

"It's probably because of the heavy rain in the area behind Mount Kumotori that we didn't know about the flash floods. Every one or two years, people in the Fenggu area are swept away and killed by flash floods. This kind of natural disaster is really hard to prevent."

Naoki Hanyu is aware of the difficulty of dealing with this kind of disaster. There are no signs when it occurs. When people who play in the water see the flash flood, it is often the time when the flash flood arrives.

　It's Monday again, please vote for me to top the recommendation list.

　　I forgot that there must be a 6-hour interval between two chapters for it to be displayed in the book update. Several collections are also important for this book.

　　A new policewoman appears.

(End of this chapter)