Tokyo: The Player Behind the Scenes

Kurosaki Chimi arrived in Kofu City the next morning.

The out-of-control riot has long been quelled under strong suppression.

A large number of subdued citizens, injected with potent sedatives, were bound hand and foot and dragged one by one to a warehouse in the suburbs, which was a temporary quarantine zone. The authorities were afraid that these people would cause a biological crisis if they stayed in the city.

"Ah!"

The air still seemed to carry the smell of tear gas, making Kurosaki, who had a bit of rhinitis, feel very uncomfortable.

"This is my identification. I am a member of the Seventh Investigation Team. Our team leader has applied to Minister Yuan for a cross-information investigation."

At the edge of the cordon, he showed his identification to the officer in charge of the cordon.

The officer checked the documents wearily, nodded, and waved for them to pass.

He was led into the tent and put on a hazmat suit before being allowed to enter.

Kurosaki had originally planned to come yesterday, but Heisei Ryu stopped him.

“Cross-investigation is normal, but it’s not normal if you act too eager,” said Heisei Ryu.

"Then I'll sneak into the city?" Kurosaki had some experience with his disguise skills.

"No, Kofu City is under martial law. There's a high chance of being discovered if we sneak in, and that would be difficult to explain."

So Ping Shenglong submitted an application according to procedure, and only after the other party approved it was he asked to come over today.

Furthermore, to avoid attracting attention, Pyeongseo Ryu himself did not come.

Kurosaki Chimei's goal was clear. He avoided the cleanup team and followed the path where the wild boars had ravaged the area the day before. He weaved through the ruins and overturned vehicles, his eyes scanning every street corner, alleyway, and the base of a collapsed courtyard wall.

He was looking for something specific—a small stone temple dedicated to Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva.

"Isn't it here?"

Sweating profusely, Kurosaki left the cordoned-off area and continued searching in other damaged areas of the city.

After half a day, he finally located his target at the entrance of an old street on the edge of the city center, which had been ravaged by wild boars.

The half-broken stone statue was almost buried in the pile of rubble, but it could be seen that the small pieces of rubble had been cleared away. Only the large stones nearby were beyond repair, subtly wedged above the stone statue.

The upper body, along with the baby's head, has long since broken off and disappeared, leaving only the waist-length torso and a slightly protruding base from which the outline of a baby being held can be vaguely discerned.

This is the Mother and Child Ksitigarbha.

Kurosaki immediately squatted down and stretched out his fingers to carefully caress the broken surface.

The stone texture reminded him of that of a resort hotel, perhaps it was just a preconceived notion.

He touched the broken area on the front and indeed found faint traces of writing, just like the Jizo statue at the resort hotel—invisible yet tangible.

With his eyes closed, he pressed down with his fingertips very slowly and attentively, feeling the direction of the remaining engravings.

After a while, he opened his eyes, his brows furrowed, took out a notebook from his pocket, and drew a square on it.

"It looks like the character '口', but isn't its position a bit off?"

He muttered to himself that if the remaining half of the Ksitigarbha statue could not be found either, he would have ample reason to suspect that the attacks on these two locations were not random, but rather aimed at covering up the destruction of the two stone Ksitigarbha statues.

It may sound far-fetched, but in metaphysics, Ksitigarbha often represents a kind of protective barrier.

Those who want to break the barrier are either beings trapped inside it or those with a vested interest in it.

Kurosaki stood up and looked around, quickly spotting several elderly people tidying up the shop or the entrance.

Taking advantage of his status, he inquired about the origins of this Ksitigarbha statue.

"Oh, this."

An elderly woman with a full head of white hair looked on with a nostalgic expression: "This Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva statue has probably stood here for decades. Anyway, it has been here since I can remember. My mother also said that when she was a child, she would pray for peace every day when she passed by."

Another old man sweeping the floor nodded in agreement: "When the ward office was doing some kind of city beautification project, they wanted to demolish and move it, but we all stopped them! They couldn't be demolished! The older generation says that it's because of this Bodhisattva's protection that the children in our area are safe and sound, and difficult childbirths rarely happen. It's really true!"

"It's a pity I couldn't escape this calamity," the old woman sighed.

The old man was quite philosophical about it, and comforted us, saying, "Perhaps it was Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva who protected us and sacrificed himself to shield us from disaster. He has worked so hard for so long, it's time for him to rest."

Kurosaki Chimei neither agreed nor disagreed with the two men's words, but silently recorded the location, description, and residents' statements in his notebook.

They also confirmed that they had not seen the other half of the stone.

Then, he took out the map of Yamanashi Prefecture that he carried with him, found the location, carefully marked a point, and drew the incomplete "口" character next to it.

Having completed the initial investigation, Kurosaki Chimei seemed somewhat tired, or perhaps deep in thought.

His gaze swept across the street, and he walked straight toward a nearby coffee shop that had managed to stay open despite the chaos.

Most of the shop's glass door was shattered, and the glass had been removed. A handwritten note was pasted on the shop's door.

[Business as usual]

It's clear that the store manager is facing a tight cash flow situation.

He pushed open the door and went inside, finding a corner seat against the wall, facing the entrance and away from the store's security cameras.

"A cup of black coffee, please." His voice was weary.

The coffee was served quickly.

Kurosaki Chimei did not drink it immediately, but instead spread out the map of Yamanashi Prefecture again on the coffee table.

He took out his pen, bit the cap, and focused his gaze. The pen tip moved slowly across the map, sometimes pausing, sometimes quickly sketching several unintelligible lines.

He drew very slowly, his brows furrowed, as he silently deduced what was happening in his mind.

It incorporates the incomplete "口" character, the section of the "" character from the resort hotel, as well as the locations of the two places, the direction of the river, and the undulations of the mountains.

Time passed by, and half an hour quietly slipped away.

The few customers in the shop changed twice, and the manager started wiping other tables with a cloth, his gaze occasionally drifting to this strange customer who had only taken a sip of coffee.

There are still too few clues. Even leaving just one character would give him some clues to deduce. But leaving a character like this, which is either a third or a half of the original, leaves too many possibilities.

"Wait, if it's in Chinese characters..."

Kurosaki's eyes gradually brightened.

If someone is a calligrapher, can they deduce the most likely Chinese character from the remaining strokes?

He could feel the brushstrokes when he touched it.

What a pity, if only the old Taoist priest were still here.

He patted his forehead, glancing sideways at the other customers in the coffee shop.

The next second, he practically sprang up from the chair, the chair legs scraping against the ground with a screeching sound.

Without even glancing at the coffee cup on the table, he grabbed his small cloth bag, stuffed the map and notebook inside, and rushed out of the coffee shop without looking back, his figure disappearing at lightning speed.

"Hey! Sir! Yours..." The store manager finally realized what was happening. Damn, things had already been bad enough these past two days, and now someone had skipped out on their bill!

Is there no humanity left?!

He hurriedly shouted, wanting to chase after her, but was stopped by a young woman with frameless glasses and a capable demeanor sitting on the street.

"I'll pay his bill." Mingli put down his phone, placed a few bills on the table, and did so decisively.

The store manager was a bit stumped, but since someone had placed the order, he didn't really need to care too much whether it was the person in question.

"Uh, thank you."

Mingli stood up and walked quickly toward the door while pressing the miniature communicator tucked under her collar, lowering her voice.

"The target is moving suspiciously, its direction is unclear, and it is moving very fast. Team C, follow, keep your distance, and stay concealed."

Two plainclothes officers at the street corner followed the figure in the Taoist robe who was quickly moving through the street.

When Genji received Taira no Ryu's seemingly routine request for Kurosaki to conduct a cross-investigation, she sensed something unusual.

She knows Ping Shenglong quite well.

He's someone who likes to do things personally. If he comes here personally for this matter, it means that he's as decisive and efficient as ever, and the matter isn't necessarily important.

If he not only came in person but also skipped the application process and chose to greet her directly, it means he was eager to have clues that needed to be verified.

But he didn't come; instead, it was this unknown Kurosaki Chimei who arrived.

The sense of wanting to cover it up is even stronger, so the incident that Kurosaki is investigating must be very important.

Therefore, Genji approved the application without making a sound, and then immediately ordered Akari to secretly keep an eye on Kurosaki.

She needed to know what this fake Taoist priest was looking for in Kofu City.

Kurosaki Chimei's figure moved quickly through the empty but chaotic streets, sometimes darting into alleys and sometimes traversing side roads filled with parked vehicles.

A smile appeared on his lips.

He knew perfectly well that there was a tail behind him.

So he drove around the area around Kofu City for ten minutes, and finally sat on a park bench for ten minutes, staring blankly at the empty flower bed. His face showed his frustration, frustration and confusion, perfectly portraying the image of a dejected and fruitless investigator.

At least he felt his acting skills were passable.

He wasn't afraid that the clues about Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva that had been revealed earlier would be known to Minamoto no Himeko. In terms of metaphysics, he didn't believe that these people were better than him.

As dusk approached, Mingli sat in the command vehicle, listening to the repetitive reports from the team members at the front, his brows furrowing deeper and deeper.

"The target is behaving abnormally, seems disoriented, and is depressed."

He sat on a park bench and did not take any further action.

"The target got up, seemingly preparing to return. A car has arrived to pick him up. Is the target planning to go back? Should we follow?"

Mingli clenched his fist.

Even if she were stupid, she would have realized it by now.

They were fooled!

Thank you to "Pi=3.14" for the 500 coins donation.

Chapter 224: As shown in the picture

One of the villas in the resort hotel.

In the room that was temporarily serving as an office, Ping Shenglong sat on the sofa and typed out his latest report.

He was well aware of Leon's recruitment efforts. As far as he was concerned, the country was unlikely to escape America's control, so he had no major reservations about working for America.

Only by leveraging existing trends can one gain momentum.

As for the future, accidents can happen at any time, and no one can see that far into the future.

He had just stopped to organize his thoughts when his phone screen lit up, displaying the name [Himeko].

He paused for two seconds before pressing the answer button, his voice calm and even: "Minister Yuan."

"Team Leader Ping." On the other end of the phone, Yuan Jizi's voice was urgent, getting straight to the point, "Regarding today's cross-investigation, did you make any key discoveries?"

Heisei Ryu's expression remained unchanged: "Minister Gen, Kurosaki's investigation is a routine cross-information verification process, aimed at completing the full picture of the incident and supplementing any details that may have been overlooked. The information that has been compiled so far has been shared to the internal system according to procedure. If there are any breakthroughs, I will not hide them and will share them with all relevant departments immediately."

A very soft gasp came from Gen Himeko's side, followed by a tone of barely suppressed urgency and disappointment.

“Ping Shenglong, you haven’t changed at all. You can’t trust anyone. Are you only interested in achievements? Wild boars, giant bears, and those out-of-control citizens. This is no longer an ordinary supernatural event. It could very well escalate into a national crisis! If we share information and cooperate, we might be able to find the source faster and stop the disaster from spreading! I can promise you that as long as you tell me the information, I will fully cooperate with you and let you take the lead.”

Himeko's voice softened, taking on a pleading tone.

"Shenglong, let's not let the disaster continue to spread and harm innocent people. We have a responsibility to the people, okay?"

Ping Shenglong's fingers tightened slightly as he gripped his phone.

He neither refuted nor explained.

He remained silent for a long while before slowly speaking, his voice clear.

"I only need to be accountable to those in power."

There was complete silence on the other end of the phone.

A few seconds later, a busy tone came through.

Genji stared at the phone in her hand, her chest heaving and her clothes taut.

She took a deep breath, suppressed her turbulent emotions, and slammed her phone down on the table.

Beside the phone, the report that Akari had just submitted was spread out, detailing Kurosaki's movements and observation locations in Kofu City, as well as the half-destroyed Jizo Bodhisattva statue that Kurosaki had been focusing on, and the content of resident interviews.