12 | Exclusive from Jinjiang Literature City · 12
The second gorilla.
Plump grains of rice are wrapped in seaweed, topped with slices of fresh food as thick as a finger, and various sushi are placed on palm-sized plates and transported to customers by conveyor belt.
"Try this foie gras nigiri, it tastes great!"
Amuro Tooru, carrying two plates in his hands, pushed them towards Yomi Raikawa from the top of the conveyor belt with a smile.
"Thanks."
Smiling as she fed the foie gras sushi into her mouth, Yomi Laichuan glanced at the various sushi dishes spinning in front of her, but her thoughts were elsewhere—would Amuro Tooru be scared if she ate more than twenty plates in one go?
Damn it, if only Kenji Hagiwara had brought her here, she wouldn't have needed to pretend in front of him and could have eaten as much as she wanted.
Lai Chuan Huang Quan stayed up all night to go through all the materials. She had no choice but to expose herself in front of Hagiwara Kenji and Matsuda Jinpei. She will be extra careful in the next mission.
Even if this world is just an insignificant 21st century, a world where three employees have failed in succession, she cannot afford to be careless.
Lai Chuan Huang Quan chewed on a grain of rice, lost in thought, while Amuro Tooru tilted his head and secretly observed and sized her up.
The woman acted and spoke no differently than any ordinary person, as if his previous behavior was merely an illusion. But during the two days he took her phone, there was no communication or phone call; she seemed in no hurry to look for it, and no one seemed to be looking for her.
Amuro Tooru bit the tip of his hand, then looked away, lost in thought.
He could take his time with the probing; he wasn't in a rush. But before that, he needed to come up with a reason to exchange contact information with Lai Chuan Huang Quan.
After a moment's thought, Amuro Tooru smiled and looked at Yomi Yorikawa: "Miss Yorikawa, if possible, I hope..."
"ah!!"
A sharp scream interrupted Amuro Tooru's unfinished words. His pupils contracted, and as he turned to look at the source of the sound, he suddenly stood up, knocking the chair he was sitting on backward to the ground.
In a corner at the other end of the sushi restaurant, a man lay on the ground foaming at the mouth. He clutched his throat, convulsed twice in pain, and then died.
Amuro Tooru rushed to the man's side and knelt down. He pressed his fingers on the man's pulse, his brow furrowed with regret: "He's beyond saving."
Amuro Tooru stood up and turned to look at Yorikawa Yomi: "Yorikawa, thank you for calling the police."
He then instructed the others in the restaurant: "Everyone stay where you are and don't move. Don't disturb the scene! Head chef, do you have any extra gloves, clean ones?"
Amuro Tooru remained calm and composed, handling everything meticulously. As he crouched on the ground to inspect the scene, his grey-purple eyes were filled with focused concentration.
Amuro Tooru deduced the culprit in the entire murder case with lightning speed. When he coldly identified the killer, the Metropolitan Police Department officers hadn't even arrived yet. The evidence was overwhelming. The victim's face was pale, his lips moved, but he couldn't utter a single word of defense.
Lai Chuan Huang Quan sat in his original position, resting his chin on his hand, and observed the back of Amuro Tooru as he seriously investigated him. He understood more or less why this man had been specially marked.
Amuro Tooru turned to look at Yomi Raikawa: "How much longer until the Metropolitan Police Department arrives?"
Lai Chuan Huang Quan: "I just called and asked, it will probably take another fifteen to twenty minutes."
A traffic accident occurred on the main road, and the police car with its flashing lights and the officers inside were all stuck in traffic.
"Yes, thank you for your hard work."
"You! Get out of the way!"
Seeing that he had been exposed, the murderer turned red in the face, shouted desperately in a rough voice, and turned to run out of the restaurant.
Amuro Tooru rushed forward and, before the man could take a few steps, grabbed his arm and slammed him to the ground: "Don't even think about escaping!"
Everyone around them hunched over and retreated to the side, whispering amongst themselves. No one dared to step forward to help, except for Amuro Tooru, who was holding onto the man who was trying to escape. Yomi Laichuan chewed on a grain of rice, glanced at the crowd who had chosen to remain indifferent and protect themselves, licked her fingers, picked up the half-wall-length soy sauce bottle on the table, and walked towards Amuro Tooru.
"Lai Chuan, you've come at the right time. Help me see if you can find anything like a rope."
Lai Chuan Huang Quan didn't speak. She simply squatted down in front of Amuro Tooru and the murderer he was holding down, resting her chin on her hand. Under their questioning gazes, she raised her hand, took the half-empty soy sauce bottle, and gently tapped the man's forehead.
"drop--"
"Skill - 100% Chance of Stun Successfully Checked, Stun Duration: 20 Minutes."
The man, who had been so aggressive and whose veins were bulging on his forehead, suddenly collapsed to the ground and fell asleep like a dead fish.
The turn of events came unexpectedly. Amuro Tooru was stunned for a moment, then fell silent as he pressed down on the motionless man beneath him.
"Huh? How did he faint?" Lai Chuan Huang Quan feigned surprise, his almond-shaped eyes filled with a mixture of amazement and admiration, brimming with innocence: "Mr. Amuro, you're amazing!"
Toru Amuro: "..."
Amuro Tooru's lips twitched, and he hesitated, wanting to say something but stopping himself. He hadn't done anything. With a sigh, Amuro Tooru decided to deal with the more urgent matter at hand: "Raikawa, go to the kitchen and ask if they have any rope. The seafood store should have knots for tying crabs."
Examining the man who had suddenly fallen into a coma, Amuro Tooru couldn't find any external injuries or signs of poisoning on him. His heartbeat and breathing were stable; it seemed he really had just fallen asleep. He looked up at Yomi Laichuan, who had already sat back in her chair, crossed her legs, and was happily stuffing half a hand-held food into her mouth, her cheeks puffed out.
When tying up the man, Amuro Tooru was careful and deliberately did not choose the commonly used reverse binding method, but instead tied the man's two hands in front of his body.
"It's really lucky that he just happened to faint at that moment. It's all too coincidental." Amuro Tooru sat back down next to Yomi Yorikawa, smiling as he spoke pointedly, every word a test.
Yomi Lai took a new plate of nijiri from the constantly running conveyor belt, not even glancing at Tooru Amuro. She puffed out her cheeks, her eyes crinkling, and mumbled, "Yeah, I'm so lucky! Mr. Amuro is practically a god of luck!"
“Not at all,” Amuro Tooru laughed. “It’s you, Raikawa, who’s been blessed by Lady Luck. When you hit him with the soy sauce bottle, he just happened to faint. It looked like you were the one who knocked him out.”
Ignoring Amuro Tooru's probing, Raikawa opened his mouth wide and ate the last hand-held food in one bite. He licked his fingers clean, which were covered with white sesame seeds, before cupping his face in his hands and saying, "Mr. Amuro is really joking. How could I possibly knock out an adult with a soy sauce bottle? Besides, you can tell whether I used force or not."
Amuro chuckled a few times, then said nothing more.
Indeed, Lai Chuan Huang Quan didn't use any force at all. Besides, a mere 150ml plastic soy sauce bottle, which wasn't even filled with ice, couldn't possibly knock someone unconscious.
Just as the officers of the Hagiwara squad in the Explosives Division could never bring themselves to admit that they were knocked unconscious by a newspaper through their riot helmets, Amuro Tooru simply did not believe or understand that a bottle of fresh soy sauce, which was not even as long as his forearm, could knock out an adult man.
Furthermore, rather than believing he's an intruder from another dimension, Amuro Tooru is more inclined to believe that Yomi Kurokawa possesses advanced technology he's unaware of. Even the National Police Agency hasn't been able to track all the scientists' movements. Alternatively, Yomi Kurokawa might suffer from some kind of mental illness and be somewhat abnormal.
Lai Chuan Huang Quan was completely unaware that Amuro Tooru had imagined her as a science assistant or a mental patient. She simply wiped her hands clean, tilted her head, and looked at Amuro Tooru: "But Mr. Amuro is really amazing. His reasoning ability is so strong, not inferior to that of the police at all! And it seems that he has also learned some grappling techniques?"
In fact, the official documents clearly state Amuro Tooru's real name, age, and occupation in the biographical information provided. Compared to the relief list, the biographical information on the priority list only lacks the biographical details of the individual's real-time location, cause of death, and time of death.
——Name: Toru Amuro
...
—Occupation: Police officer, undercover agent, coffee shop waiter
—Tags: Deduction Genius, Intelligence Genius, Explosive Combat Power, Straight Man, Perfect Cooking Skills (Not Yet Acquired), High Emotional Intelligence (Acquired), Workaholic (Acquired)
In the tag section, apart from the first three words being black, the next row of tags, including "straight man," are all gray, symbolizing that these tags have not yet been fully acquired or are disappearing.
“Mr. Amuro is really amazing,” Yomi Lai said with a smile. “Not only is he handsome, but he also has a strong sense of justice. He looks incredibly cool when he pins people to the ground! I feel like Mr. Amuro would be perfect as a policeman!”
With his overflowing sense of justice and his righteous indignation when reprimanding criminals, Amuro Tooru practically had "I am a policeman" written all over his face.
And that striking blonde hair is practically unique, even in the police academy. Logically, undercover agents should be people who are easily overlooked, or have a kind, honest, and trustworthy appearance. Is it really okay for Amuro Tooru to have that unique mixed-race face as an undercover agent? Won't he be exposed in a second?
With his heart filled with conflicting emotions, Lai Chuan Huang Quan couldn't help but begin to question the logic of how this world operates.
The word "police" stung Amuro Tooru's nerves. At this time, he had not yet been tempered by time and matured, and his words and actions still occasionally revealed a faint trace of naivety.
He is like an apple about to ripen, with a faint fruity fragrance that is tempting but also tart.
"Thank you for the compliment," Amuro Tooru replied with a smile, suppressing the turmoil in his heart. "However, my dream is to become a detective rather than a policeman."
"A detective?"
“Oh right,” Amuro Tooru casually pulled a business card from his bag and handed it to Yomi Raikawa: “Ms. Raikawa, if you need my help, please feel free to call me anytime.”
"Don't worry about the price, because we haven't made a name for ourselves yet, so the price is very cheap. Don't let my appearance fool you, I'm very capable."
Raikawa Yomi took the business card and, in front of Amuro Tooru, saved his phone number into the phone that Hagiwara Kenji had just bought for her.
Lai Chuan Huang Quan certainly didn't doubt Amuro Tooru's abilities; after all, he was a man who had been labeled a genius by the central system. She was just unsure how to treat Amuro Tooru. Her mission this time involved traversing a very long timeline, and building a good relationship with Amuro Tooru might allow her to turn him into her workforce and intelligence network.
But before Lai Chuan and Huang Quan could figure things out, a phone call broke the two's tentative back-and-forth.
It’s Kenji Hagihara.
The moment he pressed the answer button, a deep and sweet voice came through the receiver, stirring Lai Chuan Huang Quan's heart.
Kenji Hagiwara chuckled twice before slowly saying, "Soft bread, I'm off work."
Lai Chuan Huang Quan curled his lip and said disdainfully, "Just go home after get off work, why do you need to report to me?"
A strange emotion lingered in my heart, like a wisp of smoke, which vanished in the blink of an eye.
Matsuda Jinpei's voice came from the other end of the phone; he was not far behind Hagiwara: "Hey Hagi, I'm leaving now."
"Okay, bye-bye~"
After waving goodbye to the person behind him, Kenji Hagiwara continued into the phone, "Where are you now? I'll come pick you up."
"On the street."
Where on the street?
"Hmm..."
Lai Chuan Huang Quan glanced at the seven empty plates stacked together by her and fell silent.
The man on the other end of the phone seemed to have a camera installed in Lai Chuan Huang Quan's mind. He chuckled, his indulgent tone tinged with sweetness: "Hesitated? You really are eating at a food store, aren't you?"
Lai Chuan Huang Quan instantly flew into a rage: "N-no way!"
"Okay, okay, not at the grocery store. So, my lovely soft bread, where are you now saving the world?"
Raising her hand to touch her nose, Yomi Raikawa whispered, "The conveyor belt sushi restaurant at 172 Beika Nicho Street..."
"Pfft, hahahahaha!"
Knowing the other person couldn't see him, Lai Chuan Huang Quan still bared his teeth fiercely at the man on the other end of the phone: "You damn officer! Don't laugh!"
The man on the other end of the phone coughed twice to stop laughing, cleared his throat, and continued, "Is that 'soft bread' going to have dinner with that bastard officer tonight?"
"Beg me, you damn officer."
"Okay, please~"
His tone carried a subtle hint of doting affection.
Lai Chuan Huang Quan snorted, scratched her neck, and inexplicably felt her ears burning, and her whole body becoming hot. She cleared her throat, speaking with a hint of awkwardness: "...Then, then I'll reluctantly agree."
Kenji Hagiwara picked up his car keys and walked down the winding stairs of the Metropolitan Police Department: "After you finish eating, come watch a movie with me."
"See a movie?"
"Oh yeah, I've been looking forward to this for so long, and it's finally finally showing. It'll be so boring to go alone, and there won't even be anyone to have a lively discussion with afterwards. And Jinpei has something to do..." With a long sigh, Kenji Hagiwara pleaded, "Please, soft bread, just come with me."
The dating aspect was deliberately downplayed, but the itinerary was still genuinely a date.
After pursing her lips and hesitating for a moment, Yomi Laichuan agreed to Kenji Hagiwara's suggestion.
"As expected of 'Soft Bread,' she's truly an incredibly understanding girl~"
Kenji Hagiwara smiled and kept praising her; he knew all too well how to please Yomi Yorikawa.
On the other end of the phone, Lai Chuan Huang Quan also put one hand on his hip, looking so smug that his tail was practically wagging in the air.
Amuro Tooru sat to one side, quietly observing Raikawa Yomi's argument with the person on the other end of the phone. Raikawa Yomi's phone was very quiet, and he couldn't hear whether the person on the other end was male or female, let alone what they were saying.
But "damn cop"...?
With his thoughts churning, Amuro Tooru stood up and pretended to go out to answer a phone call, but instead slipped the bugging device he had just gotten from Kazami that morning into Yomi Yorikawa's handbag through his sleeve.
Half a minute later, when Amuro Tooru returned, Yomi Raikawa was sitting in her seat with her arms crossed, pouting and her face scrunched up.
That bastard police officer actually dared to flirt with her! And she actually fell for him! How infuriating!
The key point is! He didn't seem to be deliberately flirting with her, or rather, he didn't make it obvious, but she still felt like she was being flirted with! If she got angry because of this, wouldn't it make her seem like she was just being presumptuous?
Yomi Lai turned to look at Tooru Amuro, her eyes suddenly lighting up.
Toru Amuro: ...?
Wasn't Lai Chuan Huang Quan still laughing and joking with someone on the phone before he left? How could he start arguing with the person on the other end of the phone in just half a minute?
Pretending to know nothing, Amuro Tooru steadied himself and calmly returned to his seat.
Lai Chuan Huang Quan's azure eyes had been fixed on Amuro Tooru from the moment he appeared, following his every step. His gaze was intense, so fiery it seemed it could burn a hole through Amuro Tooru's face.
"Mr. Amuro!"
Lai Chuan Huang Quan sat up straight, her upper body instinctively leaning towards Amuro Tooru, as if she had seen a savior. She said, "There's something I want to ask you. You're so smart, you can definitely help me!"
Amuro Tooru maintained his usual gentle smile, but his nerves were on edge, ready to face his attack.
Is it a test, or just a simple task request? But it doesn't matter, as long as Yomi Laichuan speaks, Tooru Amuro can analyze her as a person based on the content of her request.
Attention was focused, and the gaze was drawn to Lai Chuan Huang Quan's red lips as they opened and closed.
Lai Chuan Huang Quan spoke clearly, saying, "Mr. Amuro, is there a way to address him that can both condemn him as a scumbag who likes to flirt and be tactful and friendly? At least it shouldn't make him want to flick my forehead."
Toru Amuro: ...?
Ah, that's it?
His lips twitched, and Amuro Tooru remained silent for a long while before finding his voice: "Boyfriend?"
Lai Chuan Huang Quan shook his head very seriously: "No. He's a super-corrupt official in the Metropolitan Police Department who bullies people all day long because he's tall and thinks he can do whatever he wants just because he's handsome."
Toru Amuro: ...?
With his hand pressed against his forehead, Amuro Tooru fell into an unusually silent stillness, unwilling to speak.
But Yomi Laichuan misunderstood Amuro Tooru's silence. She frowned and stared at Amuro Tooru for a while, then shrugged and sighed, "Is it really too difficult for Mr. Amuro? Suddenly wanting a nickname or something... Well, after all, Mr. Amuro doesn't look like a Japanese literature major."
Then she muttered under her breath, "But I thought Mr. Amuro was very smart, after all, he's a genius..."
"No, that's not how it is," Amuro Tooru said, rubbing his forehead, looking completely bewildered. "Let me think about it."
As soon as he finished speaking, the woman beside him lit up again, her clear, spring-like eyes filled with anticipation.
Toru Amuro:......
No, there's no need to have such high expectations. I'm not trying to come up with a nickname for you; I just want to calm down and sort out the existing information.
Before Amuro Tooru could explain, the man who had been knocked unconscious by Yomi Raikawa with a soy sauce bottle woke up first. Inspector Megure from the Metropolitan Police Department also finally arrived belatedly and pushed open the door of the sushi restaurant.
"You bastard! It's all your fault!"
The murderer's hands were bound in front of him, but he still stood up and roared as he charged toward Raikawa Yomi.
He was already strong and robust, and a sprinter. Now, he lowered his center of gravity and rushed towards the underworld, looking just like a maddened rhinoceros.
The man grabbed a chair from the side and raised it high, intending to smash it down on Lai Chuan Huang Quan's head.
"What!?"
A gray-blue chair came hurtling towards him. Lai Chuan Huang Quan's eyes widened, and he reacted quickly, jumping off his seat and running towards the door. The police officer at the door also drew his pistol, yelling at the man to drop his weapon.
However, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department has complex and cumbersome regulations and restrictions on the use of firearms. For Japanese police, handguns often serve only as a deterrent.
How could Yomi Laichuan possibly be a match for a male sprinter? Just as she was about to be overtaken and a chair was about to smash into the back of her head, Tooru Amuro, who had been observing Yomi Laichuan's reaction from the sidelines, finally made his move.
"Bang!"
After a loud bang, the man was once again subdued on the ground. The wooden board supporting his buttocks on the chair he used to attack Yomi Laichuan was about the thickness of a little finger joint, but now it had been punched right through by Rei Furuya.
As Amuro Toru withdrew his fist, Yomi Lai could even see a few tiny wood chips being shaken off from the folds of his sleeves.
Lai Chuan Huang Quan: ? ? ?
With trembling fingers, Lai Chuan Huang Quan pulled his new phone out of his bag, opened a special app, and quickly sent a string of messages.
"—Administrator, what's going on here! Why is Amuro Tooru so strong?!"
Besides tapping the earlobe, the cell phones issued by the management bureau can also be used to communicate with administrators via text. If a cell phone is lost, a replacement ordinary cell phone can be manually installed with the management bureau's proprietary software, becoming a new employee phone.
So Lai Chuan and Huang Quan weren't worried about losing their phones. First, they could buy new phones, and second, the Bureau's software required identity verification before it would be displayed, so they didn't have to worry about being discovered by outsiders.
A short while after the message was sent, the supervisor, having reviewed the real-time situation, sent back a text message:
—"Rei Furuya has always been very strong."
Lai Chuan Huang Quan:
"Then why isn't this item listed in his character tags!?"
The administrator on the other end of the phone fell silent. After a long while, the other party finally replied with two words:
--"alright."
Yomi Laichuan: ...?
With a furrowed brow, Lai Chuan Huang Quan was filled with questions.
Based on her understanding of the administrator...
After glancing around and confirming that no one was paying attention to him, Yomi Laichuan tapped twice in the air to bring up the virtual panel. On the page of the "Key Characters to Watch" list, in the character tag column for Rei Furuya, four large characters had been added in a crooked, handwritten style: "Superpowered Gorilla".
Yomi Laichuan: ...
Lai Chuan Huang Quan: Damn it!
Her anger was boiling over. Once she finished her mission in this world, she was determined to go back and fight her damn boss!
The anger continued to fester when the phone suddenly rang; it was Kenji Hagiwara calling at just the right moment.
After pressing the call button, Raikawa Yomi didn't give Hagiwara Kenji any chance to speak. She pouted, full of grievances, and almost roared, "You liar! You said there would only be one gorilla!"
Hagiwara Kenji:...?
Kenji Hagiwara frowned and tilted his head, slowly typing a question mark after being yelled at for no reason.
[Author's Note]
Mine clearance:
1. Although Huang Quan comes from a higher plane, she is only a C-level employee. She can restrain the original characters in certain special situations, but she can't be invincible or defeat three enemies at once. This is a lighthearted persecution story, not a purely wish-fulfillment story.
2. Some things that seem a little out of place may be foreshadowing.
-
The table of information about the people that Lai Chuan Huang Quan saw is as follows:
[Relief Recipient Page]
Image 1 (Front view, side view)
Image 2 (A real-time map showing the current location of the aid recipient, indicated by flashing red dots)
--Name:
--gender:
--age:
--Profession:
--cause of death:
--Label:
Time of death
Red Death Countdown
-
[Key figures to pay attention to]
It lacks death information and real-time coordinates compared to the table above.
-
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