Tokyoites don't have martial virtue

Before leaving, Hachijo Ritsu raised his chin arrogantly and said, "Eliza, let's have a match. I'll take down the Flying Man Gang before you do!"

After saying that, he swaggered away with his attendants.

"Is he provoking you?" Kyushu Makoto asked.

“Yes, he’s always talking to himself like that, like a child, I’m so fed up with him.” Eliza crossed her arms and said sarcastically.

"But we need to hurry, we can't let him steal the points."

143. Kyushu-kun, who's good at catching people.

Eliza's hotel was located in the city center. Although she said she had just randomly picked a regular hotel, Kyushu Makoto was almost blinded by the opulent decor and gleaming marble floors as soon as he entered the lobby.

The single room is quite impressive, more spacious and comfortable than the rental rooms in Makoto Kyushu, and offers a panoramic view of Yokohama's nightscape from the window.

"Staying here for two or three nights would be equivalent to a month's rent for me, wouldn't it?"

After taking a bath, Kyushu Makoto lay on the soft Queen's bed and sighed:

The "ordinary hotel" that this rich girl talks about is anything but ordinary; this is the difference between classes, isn't it?

The next day, after having breakfast at the hotel, Makoto Kyushu and Elizabeth set off for the detention center.

Based on the thief's confession from yesterday, the police arrested Inoue, the senior who brought him into the business, and found two demon-transforming potions in his home.

In the interrogation room, the two began questioning Inoue.

Compared to Miura yesterday, Inoue's mental fortitude was clearly better; he wasn't easily intimidated into confessing everything after just a few words.

However, after being relentlessly questioned by the two and revealing his identity as a "public security officer," Inoue realized that continuing to conceal the truth would not do him any good, so he had no choice but to tell them all the information.

According to him, the Thieves Gang, like two other delinquent groups, was based in Sumincho, Yokohama.

Sumincho is Yokohama's largest slum and the city's dumping ground. The crime rate is so low that even the police don't bother with it; unfinished buildings and abandoned houses are everywhere, like weeds. Homeless people and drunkards roam freely, along with cheap supermarkets and capsule hotels catering to the poor.

The three criminal gangs would use that place as their base, like hiding a tree in the forest, greatly increasing the difficulty of the police search.

However, unlike the other two bad groups, the Flying Man Gang has a very loose organizational structure. They rarely get together and only form temporary teams when carrying out thefts. Moreover, the members all wear masks and do not know each other's identities.

Although Inoue claimed to be very familiar with a core member of the Flying Man gang, he had no idea of ​​the other person's identity, and the two only addressed each other by code names.

As for the demon-transforming potion they possessed, it was sold to them by a black market dealer. This potion was very effective, granting them superhuman strength each time they were pursued by the police, allowing them to escape danger. Therefore, the Flying Heroes Gang simply began purchasing it regularly.

It was precisely through this drug that the Flying Man Gang was able to grow bigger and bigger, becoming one of Yokohama's "Three Villains" with the fewest members.

However, black market dealers usually only meet with the leader of the Flying Man gang to make transactions, so Inoue didn't know how to find him.

"It seems that to find the source of the demonization potion, we must first capture the leader," Kyushu Makoto nodded.

"Do you know any other information about the members of the Flying Man Gang? If you can provide more useful information, the police will consider reducing your punishment."

Inoue thought for a moment and said, "Although I don't know much about the identities of the other members, I've heard that many members of the Thieves are high school students, including the leader, 'Trkstar'."

“A high school student, huh?” Kyushu Makoto seemed to be deep in thought.

Leaving the interrogation room, Kyushu Makoto had already made some progress and couldn't help but relax.

"Have you come up with an idea?" Eliza asked.

He confidently ordered, "I need to know all the thefts in Yokohama related to the Thieves gang in the past few months, as well as the situation at all high schools in Yokohama."

"Oh, wait a moment." Eliza immediately contacted the police and quickly obtained the information he needed.

Capturing members of the Flying Man Gang is neither particularly difficult nor easy.

In many suspenseful stories, police officers or detectives often have a flash of inspiration and discover clues, then use brilliant reasoning to find the real culprit. However, in reality, solving cases relies more on large-scale investigations.

After reviewing the case files of the Flying Heroes gang from the past few months, Kyushu Makoto analyzed:

"In the past three months, the Flying Heroes gang has committed at least five major thefts: a loan company theft three months ago, a jewelry store theft two months ago, and a luxury hotel theft a month and a half ago."

"Ha, that's incredibly audacious!" Eliza frowned slightly, as if she was starting to worry that the Flying Man Gang might be targeting her hotel.

"These cases all occurred after 4 PM. According to the police report, the thieves are quite skilled, possessing some parkour and rock climbing techniques." Kyushu Makoto snapped his fingers and continued:

"Inoue previously mentioned that many members of the Flying Man Gang are high school students, so we can start our investigation with local high schools. Once we find students who might fit the characteristics of Flying Man Gang members, we'll try to search their homes."

“Are we going to check each student one by one?” Eliza rubbed her forehead and sighed.

“Of course not.” Kyushu Makoto shook his head. “First, the members of the Flying Man Gang all have good athletic abilities, so we need to focus our investigation on students in schools who are good at sports. Second, they won’t join highly competitive clubs, such as sports clubs and music clubs, because they simply don’t have the time.”

Kyushu Makoto paused, then asked, "Finally, what do you think their reasons were for participating in the theft?"

"It's probably for the money, isn't it?" Eliza replied.

“That’s right~” Kyushu Makoto snapped his fingers again: “So we’ll start by investigating students from poorer families.”

"Hey, Kyushu guy, another urgent request!"

An hour later, Ken Yugami came out of Yokohama Station and met the two of them.

To speed up the investigation, Makoto Kyushu specifically called in Kenji Yuugami, a professional detective, to help.

The only drawback is that Yokohama is located in Kanagawa Prefecture, which is not in the same district as Tokyo. Therefore, Officer Takagi cannot be involved, otherwise it would be considered cross-district law enforcement.

Makoto Kyushu didn't tell him about the "demon-transforming potion," only that he was assisting the local Metropolitan Police Department in arresting members of the Flying Man Gang and hoped that Kyushu could also lend him a hand.

Of course, Eliza paid the commission fee, and she was incredibly generous, giving Yuujin Key a huge boost of confidence.

While excited, Yuujin Ken was full of doubts about Kyushu Makoto, wondering why he was always investigating social crime cases lately, and also why he had hooked up with a wealthy young lady who was very generous.

However, detectives cannot pry into the privacy of their clients at will, so Yuugami Ken didn't dare to ask directly.

As a professional detective, after reviewing the information, Yuugami Ken suggested that their first target be the industrial high school with the worst academic atmosphere in the area.

It is said that this school has the largest number of delinquents in all of Yokohama, and many of them have joined "New Heaven Creation" and "Eastern Domination," making the school a key target for police surveillance.

Eliza, acting on behalf of the police, obtained student information from the school, and the three of them then began their investigation.

An hour later, they narrowed their suspicions down to sixteen students.

These students all met the criteria for becoming members of the Flying Man Gang, and one of them was said to be a well-known parkour expert at the school, yet he refused to join any sports clubs.

Next, they began calling the students' parents in the name of school teachers. The questions were simple: whether the students had acted strangely recently, and whether they had alibis for the time when the students committed the major thefts with the Flying Heroes gang.

Soon, the number of suspects was reduced from sixteen to three.

Kyushu Makoto and Eliza borrowed two sets of school uniforms from the school, disguised themselves as students, and had Yuugami Ken pretend to be a teacher, so they conducted surprise home visits to the three students one by one.

During home visits, Makoto Kyushu would leave midway through the visit under the pretext of "going to the toilet," and then secretly find the student's room and break in.

This investigation process would be illegal for ordinary criminals. However, the Flying Heroes gang is now classified as a "supernatural criminal group," which means they have lost their basic human rights. Therefore, the authorities turn a blind eye to them, as long as they don't cause any major trouble.

As expected, when they arrived at the third student's house, Makoto Kyushu found a hoodie and a clown mask in the room, but not the demon-transforming potion.

After coming out of the room, Kyushu Makoto instructed the student's parent, "Could you please call your child back?"

The student returned quickly. Upon seeing Kyushu Makoto smilingly take out his mask and hoodie, the student's first reaction was to turn and run away.

"Don't rush off, little brother~" Kyushu Makoto showed no intention of getting up to chase after him, but instead said with a light laugh:

“We already know your address and identity. Unless you can escape Wano Country, you will be caught by the police sooner or later, and then you will be charged with fugitive status.”

Upon hearing this, the student's face turned deathly pale, and he swayed so unsteadily that he could barely stand.

"Contact the police and take him to the detention center," Kyushu Makoto said, grabbing the student's shoulder.

144. Master Chen, try cutting his family member's [item/cook].

After taking the student to the detention center, Makoto Kyushu and Elizabeth began interrogating him.

Of course, the interrogation was conducted by Makoto Kyushu. Eliza realized that he was better at this than she was, so she stood aside as the atmosphere-maker.

After the interrogation, it was determined that the student was also a low-level member, meaning he knew nothing about the demonizing potion or the leader "Trkstar".

However, under Kyushu Makoto's repeated intimidation, the student, in a desperate attempt to atone for his crime, revealed the names of everyone in his school and also reported several other students from other delinquent groups.

This made Kyushu Makoto grin from ear to ear. They immediately ordered the police to find the students' addresses and arrest them one by one.

Yokohama police had been tormented for months and were naturally furious with them, so they immediately organized a large force to raid their homes.

While the police were making their arrest, Kyushu Makoto and his group dug up information on all the schools in Yokohama and began investigating the second school.

Yuugami Ken was somewhat perplexed about this commission. Although Kyushu Makoto told him it was a mission to apprehend a theft gang, he concealed the existence of the demon-transforming drug from him. Therefore, in some investigative situations, Kyushu Makoto and Eliza deliberately asked Yuugami Ken to leave the scene, essentially telling him openly that there was more to this case than met the eye.

However, he was just a detective. All he needed to know was: first, this investigation was approved and encouraged by the police, and was not an illegal investigation that violated public order and morality; second, the young girl surnamed Qinggong gave him a sum of money that he could not refuse.

Of course, it doesn't matter even if Yuugami Ken discovers the truth about the demon-transforming potion.

Anyway, all we need to do is get him to sign a confidentiality agreement; someone as pragmatic as Yuugami Ken shouldn't refuse.

If given the opportunity, Kyushu Makoto would also consider introducing him to the Onmyōryō (Bureau of Yin and Yang) as a favor to him.

Although the Yin-Yang Bureau is perpetually short-staffed, it is, after all, a secretive organization and cannot openly recruit. Joining requires a personal recommendation from a member, and even then, a rigorous screening process, similar to a member referral system.

Exorcists are actually not much different from detectives; they both travel around taking on cases. Anyway, Yuugami Ken is quite capable as a detective, so he should adapt to the Onmyoji Bureau quickly. Besides, exorcists have high salaries and benefits; everyone can make money together.

Over the next few days, the three investigated several more high schools. However, perhaps their good luck had run out, as they didn't find any more members of the Flying Thieves gang.

However, since Eliza was providing food and lodging, which was considered high-class treatment for the two ordinary people, everyone mustered up their energy and continued the investigation.

“Next is Pengwen Industrial High School. There are also a few suspicious students in this school.” Xishen Jian was the first to finish reading all the student information and quickly noticed the problem.

Guided by Yugami Ken, everyone's attention was drawn to a photo of a tall, thin male student.