Chapter 62: Trying to Bribe with Snacks
The Armed Detective Agency is still very quiet today.
Although he had obtained a license to open a business, the president had no intention of expanding aggressively. In such a large office, besides a dozen ordinary office clerks, there are only three people with special abilities: Edogawa Ranpo, Fukuzawa Yukichi and Yosano Akiko.
Edogawa Ranpo's condition today is very strange.
Fukuzawa Yukichi, who had a rare free time without his bodyguard job, was a little concerned and observed quietly.
Everything was normal in the morning. The young man, who was about to turn 20, still had a strong youthful spirit. He climbed out of the quilt reluctantly, and without any image, he took the opportunity to act coquettishly to him. He has a very slight grumpiness when he wakes up, and will be in a bad mood for more than ten minutes. Over time, this period of time has been jokingly called Ranpo Time. During Ranpo Time, detective commissions cannot be taken and Ranpo cannot be allowed to walk alone, otherwise innocent bystanders will definitely be hurt.
But this morning's wandering lasted a very short time. Not long after getting up, those clear eyes like emerald green glass beads suddenly lit up.
For the whole morning after that, Edogawa Ranpo, who rarely sat in a daze or doing nothing, concentrated on sorting out the news about Aomori and Hokkaido. There were all kinds of strange symbols drawn on the whiteboard in the office, and no one could understand them except him. The more you analyze his expression, the more serious it becomes, but his eyes are exceptionally lively. When he encounters a problem, he will show this expression.
Because he was excited, and it also meant that the issue was very important.
Fukuzawa Yukichi quietly tensed up his nerves and began to think in his mind whether anything major had happened in Yokohama recently. Gang war? Internal strife among port mafia? Hospital assassination? International war?
The last time Edogawa Ranpo showed such an expression was during the incident of the red-haired kid in the port mafia. The last time was a serial murder case that left 13 people dead or injured. The last time before that...
The fact that he showed such an excited expression meant that this matter might develop into an extremely terrifying situation.
Sometimes Fukuzawa Yukichi would feel like he had a cat holding a nuclear launcher. Oh no, when he thought about it, could it be a nuclear attack?
"Haha, don't worry, President! It's not a serious matter!" Noticing his expression, Edogawa Ranpo smiled.
"Are we just encountering some difficulties? Will anyone get hurt?" Fukuzawa Yukichi asked cautiously.
"It's probably the extent that all of Japan will be destroyed within ten years~" The cat, biting a whiteboard pen and holding the nuclear bomb launch button, turned around in his office chair.
...Isn't this quite serious!
Japan is about to be destroyed! ! !
"It's okay. Although the problem is serious, someone is here to help! He's a super cunning guy, but Lord Ranpo quite likes him." Edogawa Ranpo looked refreshed.
As the guardian of an unparalleled genius, Fukuzawa Yukichi was constantly wavering between feeling safe and secure and feeling terrified. He trusted Edogawa Ranpo, but it was precisely because he trusted Edogawa Ranpo that he sometimes felt really overwhelmed.
"...Ranpo." Fukuzawa Yukichi sighed, feeling quite headache.
"If you're worried, why don't we go see him together?" Edogawa Ranpo jumped off the chair, turned around to wipe the strange characters on the whiteboard, picked up the flip phone from the table with his backhand, and typed something.
Fukuzawa Yukichi looked at him for a while, but ultimately did not ask any more questions. He picked up the samurai sword that was placed aside, gathered up the sleeves of his kimono and stood at the door.
"Don't worry, President."
As he said this, the detective walked up to the president, as if he was going out as usual. He peeled off the wrapper of the apple-flavored lollipop and put the light green candy into his mouth. He held the candy in his mouth and muttered vaguely:
"It's not time to despair yet."
**
Mikazuki Munechika was experimenting with the space-time compass at the entrance of Honmaru.
It is called a 'compass', but it is actually just a square metal machine that has the ability to automatically capture time and space coordinates and transmit. The compass has fixed patrol locations with 32 coordinates in eight eras. On weekdays, you only need to choose from these 32 locations and go back in time to clean up the roadside.
However, the compass has other selection methods besides these 32 time nodes. Generally, the Government of Time issues mission requirements and intelligence, and the Shinsengumi adjusts the compass to place the sword men in the required era. This type of mission is a special mission, which requires higher qualifications of the Shinsengumi and sword training. It is more dangerous and more chaotic.
The sword men in Honmaru will not be assigned such special tasks, and sword men are generally chosen from 32 nodes. The self-planned daily routine of the Honmaru Sword Men is to patrol these 32 nodes in turn, and then expedition to four time nodes of an era every day.
The time and space compass should have been a fixed configuration of the castle tower and bound to the Shinsengumi, and this should have been explained during the Shinsengumi training. Unfortunately, Sengenmaku is obviously a self-taught person and has not received any Shinsengumi training. After experimenting and finding that he couldn't learn how to operate it in a short period of time, he simply left it to the sword shogun.
Mikazuki Munechika lowered his eyes and adjusted the densely packed white numbers on the compass.
Honmaru is actually in the gap of time. It seems that the sword tsukumogami and the Shinsengumi belong to the time government that was born in 2200, but once you enter Honmaru, all the components of the time government will be out of the established timeline. The timeline is the river beneath your feet, and Honmaru is the island floating in the air from which you can observe downward.
Just look at the timekeeping attitude of the Time Government and you will know that it is not the thousand-digit era starting with 22, but the positive accumulation starting from 0.
The so-called "Honmaru" is more like an independent space that does not exist anywhere in the world and is an isolated island. Anyone who wants to go out of the Honmaru can only use a compass to locate themselves. They cannot walk out, and all they see is darkness or repetitive silence.
Going to the outside world is very easy for Sengenmaku himself, but for the swordsmen, they need to find the appropriate coordinates and go out in battle to reach Yokohama. This is a 'rule' and also a 'constraint'.
Otherwise, if more than a hundred of them rushed out in a rush, Yokohama would be in ruins.
Xiao Huwan came over from afar, bringing a pot of tea and a stack of snacks. In this place where there was no village or shop nearby, the two of them set up a small table for two days and drank tea while doing scientific research. They were truly leisurely and comfortable.
"Mikazuki, do you have any ideas?" asked Kogunemaru.
"The time coordinates have been located, but the space coordinates...are preset to the space of our world. If they are forcibly activated, they will not be in this world."
Placing the metal compass on the table, Sanriku lowered his eyes and drank tea, with a hint of distress on his elegant and beautiful face.
"In order to facilitate the sword man to convey information, the compass can capture the current coordinates and transmit them to Honmaru. It may be possible to use it in reverse, but it must also capture the space-time fluctuations in the outside space."
As soon as he finished speaking, the compass suddenly made a beeping sound. Mikazuki Munechika lowered his head and suddenly saw a string of new numbers appear on the compass.
……?
"Three-day Moon Palace, please look..."
Kogumaru pointed in a direction in astonishment.
Mikazuki looked back and saw a paper airplane floating in from the darkness at the entrance of the Honmaru.
**
“This place looks abandoned for a long time.”
Holding a few boxes, Fukuzawa Yukichi looked at the shrine in front of him and sighed.
Indeed, this place has been abandoned for a long time. The red pillars are full of cracks and the interior is full of rotten leaves. Under the thick fallen leaves are the remains of dead animals.
The dark shrine is hidden in the shadows, with living or withered vines climbing all over the walls, weeds growing everywhere, and a few wild flowers blooming in the cracks of the stone pavement. The wind blew through the empty houses, and there was no sound of any living creature except the wailing sound of ghosts. The deep and dead silence makes people feel inexplicably uncomfortable.
It doesn't look like anyone lives here. Even a killer wouldn't live in such a shabby place. Fukuzawa Yukichi reflexively assessed the environment and concluded that no one had been here for many years.
However, Edogawa Ranpo was strolling around with great interest, looking down at the patterns on the ground, or gazing at the five buildings of the Port Mafia from afar. Slowly, as if in amazement, he uttered, "Wow."
Before he knew it, Edogawa Ranpo ran into a pile of weeds, which rustled. The small animals hiding in the weeds were frightened and ran out. Fukuzawa Yukichi looked at him helplessly. After a while, Ranpo suddenly stretched out a hand.
“Found it!”
He was holding a paper airplane in his hand.
This paper airplane is no different from ordinary paper airplanes, but it is particularly eye-catching in this environment. The paper is obviously softer rice paper, which will be torn into pieces if it gets wet with a little dew, but this paper airplane is still brand new, as if it had just landed here.
With a few fallen leaves stuck to his body, Edogawa Ranpo picked up a few paper airplanes from nearby, collected them all and brought them back to Fukuzawa Yukichi. When he looked closer, he could feel the incongruity of the paper airplanes appearing here.
The texture of this paper is excellent and very thick. It looks like a very high-end retro craft, combining the texture of ancient methods with modern quality. There were a few strings of numbers written on it in calligraphy, with dots of silver seeping through the ink. Upon closer inspection, they looked like flowing stars.
Edogawa Ranpo spread his coat on the ground and took apart the paper airplanes with great interest. The numbers on them were not the same and there was no pattern at all. Fukuzawa Yukichi lowered his head to read, but before he finished reading, he saw Edogawa Ranpo laughing and saying:
"I get it! This guy is so funny!"
What do you know now?
Edogawa Ranpo sat up and changed the way he folded the paper airplanes. Several strings of numbers were intercepted and reorganized to form crooked Japanese. Fukuzawa Yukichi looked carefully and found that it was actually the Japanese word for apple soda. Meanwhile, Edogawa Ranpo refolded the other paper planes, each time in a new way, and each folding method formed a new word. He took a few steps back holding the stack of paper airplanes and waved to Fukuzawa Yukichi.
Fukuzawa Yukichi walked up to him.
The youthful man raised a paper airplane, blew on it lightly and meaninglessly, and threw it into the shrine.
The paper plane took off in the wind amidst the greenery, and flew slowly towards the interior of the shrine. At a certain subtle critical point, the paper plane strangely slowed down a lot, and finally, with a faint "pop" sound, the paper plane suddenly disappeared.
Fukuzawa Yukichi, who witnessed the entire process of the paper plane disappearing, showed a confused and shocked expression.
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