Tokyoites don't have martial virtue

"This is a token of my appreciation, please don't make things difficult for me, store manager." Kyushu Makoto wasn't annoyed, he just smiled awkwardly.

Having said all that needed to be said, Kyushu Makoto had no intention of lingering any longer and turned to leave.

People always say that nine out of ten male escorts in Shinjuku are con artists, and the other one is a murderer.

Whether it was the unlucky kid "Jiuzhou Cheng" in his previous life or "Chen Jiuzhou" after time travel, both relied on the kindness of this "former male escort" shop manager.

That's why, no matter how far he goes in the future, he hopes to continue being friends with Manager Saito.

Perhaps a few years later, Kyushu Makoto will meet him again in this bar, have a drink with him, and be lectured by him in a pretentious manner.

Just as Kyushu Makoto was about to leave the staff break room, the store manager suddenly spoke from behind him:

"Hey, you little rascal! You'll get into college eventually, won't you?"

Kyushu Makoto paused, then replied, "I will!"

This statement may be a lie, but in this situation, he believes it is the best response.

"If you don't get into university, I'll kill you, you brat!" Manager Saito roared in a low voice, then fell silent.

"Don't worry, manager." Kyushu Makoto closed the door for him. "Take care."

"."

After Makoto Kyushu left, a male escort walked into the staff break room and exclaimed in surprise, "Koharu resigned?"

"Let him be." Manager Saito resumed his usual poker face, pointing to the fruit basket on the table:

"Take these fruits and distribute them to everyone."

"Oh! Thank you, shopkeeper!" The cowherd nodded his thanks, picked up the fruit basket, and left.

After speaking, Manager Saito rubbed his forehead and sighed again.

His thoughts inexplicably drifted back to a year ago, when a member of the Golden Ghost Gang came to the shop for drinks and talked incessantly about his experiences collecting debts.

"The couple absconded after accumulating huge gambling debts, leaving their high school son at home to die."

The gangster deliberately spoke in a comical tone, while slamming his fist on the table and laughing wildly.

"Hahaha, and guess what? That kid was hilarious! He suddenly knelt down, grabbed my leg, and said, 'Please, don't sell me to a fishing boat! I want to go to university! I'd rather die than become like my parents!' Hahaha! Ahahaha! That's so funny! Ahahaha! You laugh too, Saito!"

"..." Manager Saito wiped the wine glasses without saying a word, then spoke with an air of seriousness:

"I happen to be short a waiter here, let's call him over and give him a try."

"Hey, are you crazy? That kid's a minor, you'll get into trouble!" The gangster immediately stopped laughing and looked at him strangely: "You mean you want to help him? No way?"

"Don't make wild guesses, we just happen to be short of a waiter." Manager Saito frowned and said irritably, "Besides, using 'younger male waiters' as a selling point doesn't seem like a bad idea."

"Haha, stop making excuses~ Mr. Saito, you've actually started playing the pushover?" The yakuza man patted him on the shoulder and teased him jokingly.

"You used to be Shinjuku's top male escort who swindled a whole bunch of women out of their money!"

"..." Shopkeeper Saito frowned helplessly, and after a moment of contemplation, he spoke irritably:

"Long-winded."

124. The significance of exorcism lies in helping the wronged who cannot speak out.

Kyushu Makoto returned to the car, and Kiyomiya Eliza put down her phone, asking casually, "Is it resolved?"

"It's all settled. The store manager is very happy to hear that I have a good job." Kyushu Makoto leaned back in his chair and smiled.

"I didn't expect you actually worked at a PR bar." Eliza lightly pressed the accelerator and turned the steering wheel. "You still say you didn't have any bad intentions about teaming up with me?"

"Just a waiter." Kyushu Makoto sighed softly. "My parents ran away with gambling debts. What can I do?"

After a moment of contemplation, Eliza asked casually, "Life isn't easy, is it?"

"Are you trying to comfort me?" Kyushu Makoto asked rhetorically.

Eliza hesitated for a moment, then remained silent.

The two first returned to the Yin-Yang Bureau. Kyushu Makoto boarded a large truck, and then he and Elizabeth headed to the crime scene in Edogawa Ward.

The earthbound spirit appeared at a crossroads. The two parked their cars in front of the intersection and then got out to get busy.

Eliza Kiyomiya started posting talismans along the roadside, while Makoto Kyushu placed "road closure" signs on nearby roads—the Public Security Demon Hunting Division had given them the authority to close roads for three hours during the evening off-peak hours, provided they could deal with the earthbound spirit.

After working for half an hour, Eliza finally finished setting up the array. She wiped the sweat from her forehead with her sleeve and took out a thick stack of talismans from her pocket.

"Red Center, here you go." She generously shoved all the talismans in front of the boy as if she were handing out flower tickets to a cowherd.

"Are you giving all of these to me?" Kyushu Makoto took the talismans, somewhat taken aback.

“You’re my teammate. If you need more, just ask me. Don’t say I’m mistreating you,” Eliza said calmly.

"Thank you." Kyushu Makoto was naturally happy to save some money.

He carefully put the talismans into his pocket and turned back to stick five on the truck.

Once everything was ready, Kyushu Makoto returned to the driver's seat of the truck and began eating the bento he had bought along the way. Meanwhile, Kiyomiya Elizabeth hid in a nearby phone booth, intently monitoring the situation with binoculars.

The phone clock struck eleven. The crossroads, shrouded in darkness, was utterly silent. Only the chirping of insects in the trees along the street, a sound that seemed to herald the approaching summer, made the atmosphere even more oppressive and suffocating.

Under the pale white light of the streetlights, translucent black energy gradually gathered from the ground, forming a humanoid shape that resembled a ghost.

This humanoid monster only showed its upper body, while its lower body seemed to have sunk into the ground of the cypress tree as if it were submerged in water.

Due to the distance, Kyushu Makoto couldn't make out its exact appearance. However, it kept waving its black arms, looking quite threatening.

If an ordinary person saw such a strange creature in the middle of the night, they would most likely be scared half to death.

While Kyushu Makoto was still pondering, Kiyomiya Elizabeth had already rushed out of the phone booth.

In an instant, talismans emitting blue light flew everywhere, while the girl rushed in front of the earthbound spirit and engaged it in close combat, using powerful Bajiquan moves.

A minute later, the earthbound spirit was beaten until it trembled all over, and its hands were also bound by chains formed from talismans.

"Red Center, hurry up!" The girl's voice came through the wireless earpiece.

Kyushu Makoto gripped the steering wheel tightly, his feet moving nimbly between the clutch and accelerator like a pianist.

"Bang—! Sizzle!"

With a terrifying sound, the earthbound spirit was smashed into a slime and lay on the ground, barely alive.

Kyushu Makoto stepped down and, together with Eliza, examined the monster.

"Were you using Bajiquan just now?" Kyushu Makoto asked casually.

"It's just basic skill; everyone in the Qing court knows how to use it," she replied.

"It is said that my grandfather was defeated by Master Li Shuwen in Yanhuang back then, even when he was secretly using magic... My grandfather spent the rest of his life practicing Bajiquan, and he even set up family rules to instruct his descendants to learn it as well."

Her words were not false; Bajiquan indeed held a very high status in Wano Country.

During the Republic of China era, many Bajiquan masters sparred with martial artists from Wano Country, and as a result, they beat those so-called "sword saints" and "karate masters" so badly that they cried for their parents. Some even died on the spot with blood flowing from all seven orifices, which made the martial arts world of Wano Country tremble with fear.

Later on, no one in Wano Country dared to open a martial arts school in Yanhuang, for fear that Bajiquan martial artists would come knocking on their door and kick them and their signboard to pieces.

It is precisely because of this history that the people of Wajiki Province developed the idea that "Bajiquan is the strongest martial art" and began to vigorously promote and learn it.

"Enough with the small talk, let's get down to business." Eliza took out a talisman and affixed it to the bound spirit, then formed a hand seal and chanted incantations:

"Come on, let me see your true colors!"

"What are you doing?" Kyushu asked.

“The ‘spirit talisman’ I mentioned before,” Eliza explained.

“These ‘vengeful spirits’ are formed from the resentment of the deceased. Most of them have an obsession with the human world, so it is necessary to examine their memories of their previous life. It might lead to some major case.”

"I see, so you want to help them get justice!" Kyushu Cheng exclaimed admiringly, "You're a really nice person."

"Providing intelligence for major cases only earns points." She seemed uninterested in being praised, and gave a curt instruction:

“Hongzhong, take my hand.”

"why?"

“For the talisman to work on both people simultaneously, we need to make physical contact,” Eliza urged reluctantly. “Don’t waste time, hurry up.”

Kyushu Makoto took the initiative to grab the girl's wrist.

Sure enough, a scene flashed before his eyes like a revolving lantern:

At 11 p.m., a black sedan swayed as it passed the intersection; the driver appeared to have been drinking heavily.

Unfortunately, a family was crossing the road at the time. After running them over, the car saw the blood and the unconscious body and realized the seriousness of the situation, so it sped away.

Because there are no surveillance cameras on this section of the road, the car owner has not yet been apprehended, and the police gave up after several investigations.

"We hate him so much we can't let him go. We won't rest in peace until he's caught."

At the end of the flashback, Kyushu Makoto heard a venomous message composed of several voices—a man, a woman, and a child.

The memory ended there. Kyushu Makoto suddenly came to his senses, staring blankly at the empty street in front of him and a blob of earthbound spirit that had faded to the point of almost disappearing.

Eliza Kiyomiya also recovered from her psychic state and withdrew her hand from Makoto Kyushu's palm.

"Did you see that?" she asked.

“I saw it all.” Kyushu Makoto nodded.