☆ 12. Established

established

This passage is very dark.

If at the beginning of the journey there was still light from the dormitory and one could barely see the road ahead with that light, the darkness became deeper and purer as one went on, like a night sky without stars or moonlight, where one could not see one's hand in front of one's face.

After walking a short while, there was a steep and rapid descent, and Shi Ting Shu almost slipped. When he managed to keep his balance, Hua Shan Li Na had already caught up.

Things around him gradually became clearer, and Shi Ting Shu knew that it was because his eyes had gradually adapted to the darkness.

"What are you doing?" Huashan Li lowered her voice, trying not to have her words and movements picked up by the eavesdropping device outside.

"...I saw it." Shi Ting Shu pursed his lips, "This place can lead to the outside, I saw it."

Huashan Li suddenly turned around and looked at him: "...What did you say?"

"I saw what she was thinking." Shi Ting Shu couldn't help but put his hand on the girl's shoulder, "Let's go from here, we can escape!"

The nine-year-old girl was truly stunned.

Her body began to tremble, quite in disbelief, and her strange eyes slowly widened.

She believed that Shi Ting Shuu would not harm her.

"A Zhen and Zhao Ze should be behind us." She took a deep breath, "Let's go first and leave some marks. If there is any danger, we can remind them to go back."

The long-haired girl managed to calm down and returned to her normal self. She groped for the lime-stained wall and scratched a mark on it with her fingernails.

"That's the mark my brother and I discussed for fun. We use it to play house games in the orphanage." Huashan Li said as she stood up.

Tokiwa Hiiragi took a closer look and saw that it was a smiling doll, but its face was very flat and its ears were replaced by a pair of wings.

"What is this?" Shi Ting Shu asked in surprise, "A doll with wings and ears and a flat face?"

Huashan Li Na smiled and said, "I don't know either. I just scribbled it when I was a kid. Let's go forward."

Tokiwa Hiiragi tilted his head to look at the girl. With his enhanced abilities, he could clearly feel that the other person's heart was filled with nostalgia for the happiness of the past.

He nodded. There was still no light ahead, and he didn't know how much longer he had to walk.

But he only knew that by following this path, he might be able to reach the end of the organization and completely escape the bondage of the Black Crow.

Tokiwa Hiiragi and Huashan Rina held each other's hands and walked forward quickly.

"What's that sound?" Huashan Li suddenly exclaimed. The two children instantly fell silent, sweat on their foreheads, their bodies cold, and they dared not move.

The footsteps behind him sounded particularly obvious and eerie in the quiet passage. In the darkness, Huashan Rina and Shi Ting Shu looked at each other, with the same helplessness and fear in their eyes.

Who is it? Who could it be?

Is he from the organization? Tokiwa Hiiragi was confused. Did Vermouth realize that he turned and ran away because he heard her voice?

Damn it, he should have been more patient!

Their hearts were pounding, deafening, but it couldn't block out the approaching footsteps. Their breathing became increasingly stagnant, and the air seemed to become thinner. The two of them quickened their pace, from walking to running.

Don't be caught up by the organization!

The footsteps behind were faster, but Shi Tingshu felt that the girl next to him had strangely stopped.

What happened; was it her... exhaustion and inability to run anymore?

He anxiously tugged at her dress, but saw her panting and smiling.

Tokiwa Hiiragi could easily feel what Huashan Rina was thinking: That's not a member of the organization, that's Jin.

Shi Ting Shuu was suddenly stunned, and he listened carefully, and it was indeed the familiar sound of footsteps.

He breathed a sigh of relief and stood there waiting for his roommate to catch up.

The blond boy's usually calm face showed a rare anxious expression, and his green eyes showed that kind of frightening look again.

Tokiwa Hiiragi subconsciously avoided the eyes that were so similar to those of the future organization's first killer, and tried to read Kurosawa Jin's thoughts.

...Wait, what's going on?

The previous feeling that one could naturally understand a person's thoughts by just staring at him no longer existed with Kurosawa Jin.

All Shi Ting Shu could feel was still the joy of seeing his friend and some remaining panic from before.

His mind went blank for a moment and he suspected that there was something wrong with his ability.

The chestnut-haired boy turned his head to the girl with heterochromatic pupils as if asking for help. The special eyes, one white and one blue, looked particularly bright in the darkness.

He himself couldn't explain it clearly. Was he hoping that his ability had really lost its effect, the effect of the drug had worn off, and he could only read people's thoughts from their blood; or was he hoping that his ability had not lost its effect, but Kurosawa Jin had found a way to control his thoughts.

But it is obvious that the current situation will not change because of his will.

When he met the eyes that looked exactly like the future Curacao, he could still feel the girl's inner emotions: What were Jin and Ting Shu thinking? Were they communicating?

...What's going on?

Kurosawa Jin's voice suddenly sounded, and the green-eyed boy's face was so cold that Tokiwa Hiiragi couldn't help but feel nervous.

"You are not the only one in our organization who has successfully developed special abilities." He gritted his teeth, "You are naturally not the only one who has abilities related to 'mind reading'."

"Vermouth once inadvertently mentioned a method to block the ability to read minds, but I inadvertently overlooked it." The blond boy's voice became colder and colder, his green eyes were so cold that they seemed to freeze everything around him.

At this time, Kurosawa Jin, who was still a fourteen-year-old boy, could not subdue Vermouth, a woman who had lived for who knows how long.

——Vermouth, you have such a dirty heart!

Tokiwa Hiiragi was shocked and immediately thought of the strange thoughts in Vermouth's thoughts that he had heard today.

——It was too detailed. It didn’t seem like a flash of thought at all. Rather, it was a manuscript that had been prepared in my mind long ago and I would recite it silently when the time came.

He took a half step back in frustration and pursed his lips. It was because he was too arbitrary that he led to the current passive situation.

The feeling of superiority brought by time travel is always unavoidable. Ever since he was linked to this APP, he has had a sense of detachment from this world.

Besides, he was a time traveler. Although he had not watched the anime "Detective Conan" much, he had always heard of the name of the Elementary School Student of Death.

He believed in Vermouth so much that it was hard to say that he was not influenced by his classmates in his previous life who always said things like "Everything in the distillery is water except gin" and "Vermouth is a counter-water wine."

——In the future, Vermouth might really be a betrayer, but not yet! He doesn’t have Conan’s courage to make her betray!

…So as expected, despite his best efforts to avoid it, that sense of pride still affected him.

If I have to describe it, it feels like playing a game. You can create an alias and do whatever you want. If you die by accident, then so be it. It's not a big deal.

Because of this, he seized many opportunities without thinking, and instead led himself and his partners into traps.

But now is not the time to dwell on past mistakes.

Tokiwa Hiiragi took a deep breath and bit her lip.

Because of him, everyone rushed into this passage so impulsively, so even if he didn't want this vest, he had to get everyone out safely.

Although thinking this way somewhat reflects the bad nature of a time traveler, Shi Ting Shu has no intention of giving up this idea: it doesn't matter if the alias dies, but the important characters in the original work absolutely, absolutely cannot die.

When necessary, it is understandable to sacrifice the vest.

With a firm look in his indigo eyes, he tilted his head to ask the boy and girl beside him for their opinions: "Keep moving forward, okay?"

Huashan Li Na hesitated for a moment and chose to wait for Kurosawa Jin's opinion. The blond boy looked at him deeply and said, "Okay."

"Vermouth will bring people after us sooner or later. There is no way out."

Huashan Li nodded and suddenly asked: "...Where is my brother?"

Kurosawa Jin paused for a moment, and suddenly there were chaotic footsteps from behind. This time it was not their friends, but actual members of the organization.

The three of them looked at each other, and Kurosawa Jin gritted his teeth and said briefly in a deep voice: "I'll go find him."

Huashan Li stopped him and shook her head: "I heard his footsteps. He came with the blonde girl and just stepped into the passage. There is another group of people ahead of them."

The three of them looked at each other. Although they couldn't understand why Huashan Zhaoze and Vermouth were together, at least the other party was safe.

Given Vermouth's personality, she wouldn't be the type to kill them, the experimental subjects, directly.

As for the group of people in front of them, they were most likely malicious towards them. Of course, this does not mean that Belmode had no malicious intentions towards them.

These two groups of people may be working together to capture them, or they may be organized into two different forces.

All in all, staying where they were was the worst option. The three children turned and ran.

Their bodies were not very strong after the experiment, but fortunately none of them had the habit of enjoying unlimited food provided in the rest area, so their bodies were still relatively light.

But their seemingly smooth escape was interrupted by a gunshot.

The group of people behind them seemed to have already torn their faces apart and had no intention of sparing their lives.

The lime wall of the passage was scratched by bullets, leaving deep marks and cracks around it. Tang Lichu, who lived a peaceful life of growing flowers in his previous life, had never seen such a scene. If it weren't for the few days in Gray Street that broadened his horizons, I'm afraid that at this moment, Shi Ting Shu, who was being controlled by him, would have collapsed to the ground with weak legs.

On the other hand, Kurosawa Jin on the side is worthy of being the future Gin. Even though it was the first time he saw this scene, he was still calm as if nothing had happened.

The scene and the people are just different.

Tokiwa Hiiragi gritted his teeth and leaped forward, narrowly avoiding a bullet.

This is where we have to praise the APP on Tang Lichu's mobile phone. He just found out that the APP is specially equipped with a danger warning system in order to ensure the host's survival in this abnormal and high-risk world where everyone is a murderer and a suspect.

Otherwise he wouldn't be able to dodge the bullet.

The footsteps of Vermouth and Huashan Zhaoze were getting closer and closer, and the latter seemed to be jogging with some eagerness.

"Rum, are you going to touch my people?" The blonde woman's voice came from afar, leisurely, without any trace of worry, as if they were just tools she used to pick on Rum.

Tokiwa Hiiragi glanced at Vermouth - he had not dared to look at anyone when he was dodging bullets before, for fear that the other person's thoughts would affect his dodging movements - the blonde woman blinked at him: I'm sorry, but please believe that I will definitely let you... see the light of day.

Here it is again.

Now Shi Tingshu can judge that Jian Tianguang definitely does not mean to let them leave the organization and gain freedom.

What does that mean?

He was suddenly stunned, and the scattered clues were strung together like beads.

Why didn't Gin, Curacao and Weimar escape successfully or be killed by the organization, but instead became code members of the organization?

...It was Vermouth who was causing trouble.

He gritted his teeth. Although he was very dissatisfied with Vermouth's deception, he knew that this was the established route.

The future has already been determined, and this is just the "branch" part representing the past.

At this moment, a bullet flew out of the gun barrel, and the gun with the □□ made a muffled sound. Tokiwa Hiiragi's danger radar accurately determined that the bullet was aimed at Kurosawa Jin.

...I said I would protect them.

This was the only sentence in Tokiwa Hiiragi's mind.

He had no time to think about it and took three or two steps forward to push the Hei Ze formation.

The blond boy's green eyes widened slightly, as if he wanted to say something, but the bullet had already shot into the chestnut-haired boy's abdomen.

[The host has been detected to be in a dangerous state and is entering random transmission. 】

When such a voice sounded in his mind, Tokiwa Hiiragi was stunned for a moment.

【Three minutes left.】

[180, 179, 177...]

Shi Ting Shu breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed that this vest could not be discarded for the time being.

"I'm sorry for putting you in danger..."

Although he really wanted to complain about this Mary Sue tragedy-like line, Tokiwa Hiiragi did feel that this line seemed to be the least inconsistent at the moment.

Hey, why can't he control his body?

After a moment's silence, Tang Lichu realized that he had entered the game's CG mode again. He could only watch the movie but could not control his body.

...Then just watch.

"Remember the mint candies we used to eat in the orphanage? I liked them very much... A-Zhen, please bring me some." "Tokiwa Hiiragi" in the CG mode said this and then went offline.

Tang Lichu: ...

It was quite deliberate of the APP to say this in order to connect it to the mint candy mentioned earlier.

[The soul has been extracted, and a new body "Tokiwa Hiiragi" is being created]

【Location: Kanagawa】

The blond boy soon discovered that the boy's indigo eyes would never open again. He gritted his teeth, not knowing what he was thinking.

Vermouth arrived in time, and even Rum didn't dare to go against this female star who had been in the industry for who knows how long.

Before leaving, he made a harsh statement: "If you want to train them to become code members of the organization, then I can at least get one of them."

Vermouth took away the two surviving children.

"He hasn't lost enough blood to die." Kurosawa Jin's long golden hair fell down, his brows furrowed, "Not even close."

The blonde looked at it thoughtfully for a moment, then simply shrugged.

"Let's go." She acted nonchalant and said briskly, "Let's go see Tian Guang whom you haven't seen for a long time. Have you ever had gin, kid?"

"And you." She narrowed her eyes at the girl with heterochromia beside her, "What kind of wine do you like? Go and try it."

*

Kanagawa.

As night fell, Matsuda packed up his things and went home from the boxing ring. He was about to participate in the championship match, so he had to prepare well during this period.

When he walked to the door of the boxing ring, he found a child lying there, who looked about the same age as his son Jinpei Matsuda.

If it was just a fight between two people, he could ignore it, but if it was a fight between two young children, someone would die.

He hesitated for a moment, looked at the child's complete clothes, slightly messy chestnut hair, and cute face that looked slightly pale and weak. He couldn't help but mutter in his heart: This child looks so well-born and has no disabilities. There is no reason why he would be abandoned.

Never mind, let’s wait until the child wakes up before asking him.

Jotaro Matsuda held the child in his arms, but felt that it was not appropriate to take the child on the small path - it would be bad if the child was hurt by some ignorant thugs.

He took a detour and returned home late. His son had already been working on the model with his good friend Kenji Hagiwara for quite some time.

"Dad, why are you back so late... Hey, who is this? You picked up a kid?" The curly-haired elementary school student stood on tiptoe to take a look. "He looks so skinny. I can knock him down with one fist."

"I found him on the road." Matsuda Jotaro explained helplessly, "I'll take him to the police station tomorrow when he wakes up."

The next day, a piece of news that no one cared about was published in the newspaper, and neither Matsuda father and son paid attention to it.

——On the path that Jotaro Matsuda always took when leaving the boxing ring, two people fought to death.

However, since Jotaro Matsuda did not take the back road that day, he was quickly cleared of suspicion.

The trajectory of fate quietly turned.

[Side quest: Escape from the Black Crow completed, settlement in progress...]

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