Chapter 57

After a simple makeover and a new logo on the convenience bag in his hand, Seiryo Kono pressed down the brim of his hat and walked out of the mall unhindered.

In order not to attract attention, he and Fūya Rei agreed to separate.

There was no surveillance this time. He covered most of his face and the most conspicuous features on his body, and deliberately walked on the crowded path. The passers-by did not pay much attention to him.

It wasn't until he walked out of the street and saw Morofushi Keimitsu standing under the street light of the convenience store that Kono Seiryo breathed a sigh of relief.

He used the system map to check the surroundings along the way. Amidst the harmless white light representing passersby, a red warning dot at the edge stood out. He paused, and before he could do anything, he saw the faint red dot move slightly in two circles and flashed out of the map.

The useless function made him certain of one thing—someone was indeed following him with ill intentions.

Although he had gotten rid of it now, he was still scared. When Kono Seiryoshi pulled Morobushi Keimitsu into the convenience store, he looked behind him warily.

Seeing his expression, Morofushi Jingguang, who was originally a little surprised by his new outfit, seemed to understand something. He cooperated silently and instead took the man's hand and walked behind the shelf.

When the two figures were completely obscured from view through the glass window, he lowered his gaze and asked in a low voice: "What happened? Didn't Zero come back with you?"

"We separated, and Zero will be here a few minutes later."

Kono Seiryo briefly talked about his guess that someone was following him in the mall. After he finished talking about how Rei Furuya helped him disguise himself, he paused, smiled to lighten the mood, and said with emotion, "I didn't expect the Counter-Detective Division to be useful so early. It seems that I still need to listen carefully in class."

Zhu Fu Jingguang pursed the corners of his lips.

"Sorry, I should have gone with you." His voice was a little low, with a barely perceptible sense of regret, but he quickly suppressed the emotion and asked seriously, "Do you want to go to the mall to retrieve the surveillance footage?"

Without waiting for Kono Seiryoshi's answer, he continued to speculate, "Should we call the police? I brought my student ID card when I came out. If I show my identity as a police academy student, the mall security department should agree. Saying that I was followed is too subjective, and we have no evidence, so how about saying that something was lost? As long as the surveillance is within that period of time and range, it should be easier to negotiate."

Morofushi Jingguang came back to his senses, his eyes raised and his expression serious: "Wait for Zero to come back, then we'll go together."

Kono Seiryoshi's initial expression: ●v●?

After hearing this, his expression: Σ(°ロ°)Σ

"Jing, Jing Guang!"

He had to stop her, and after a moment's hesitation, he whispered, "Don't worry, I'm fine."

Gongye Shengliang wanted to say something but stopped himself.

He knew that this was not an illusion, but he could not tell others about the existence of the system. Just as Morobushi Jingguang analyzed, there was no evidence at all for the tracking, and in the eyes of others, it was very likely that he was just being overly sensitive.

But whether it was Furuya Rei or Morofushi Kagemitsu, after hearing his words, neither of them doubted him, but treated him calmly with an attitude that was almost too serious.

This made Gong Ye Shengliang feel warm inside, but also a little guilty.

He even began to reflect on himself, wondering if he had gotten so used to being followed when he was a member of the mafia that he had no sense of crisis at all now.

Wait—is he the one who's reacting weird?!

Kono Seira was shocked by this result. He was silent for three seconds, then smiled at Morobushi Keimitsu and said, "It's late today, let's go back to school first." Then he forgot about it and went to bed!

Zhufu Jingguang was stunned, and his thoughts slid to the completely opposite end.

"...Yes," he nodded slowly, the arc between his eyebrows still furrowed, "The criminal may still be hiding in the mall. It's easy to scare him if we go back now. Maybe he has accomplices."

Kono Seiryoshi: “…”

Jingguang will definitely be a conscientious and responsible model public servant after graduation.

Their hands had just been held together and they had not yet let go while they were talking. Kono Seira helplessly clenched his fingers, kept them intertwined, and shook them in front of Morobushi Kagemitsu.

Feeling the tightening touch on his hand, the black-haired young man's brain, which was analyzing rapidly, seemed to be paused. For a moment, he forgot his troubles and worries about the future and looked straight into a pair of clear, slightly curved golden eyes.

"Kagemitsu," the unique owner of those eyes repeated, "don't worry."

"After all, I am a - um, a policeman." As if to convince himself, when he said "policeman", Kono Seiryoshi nodded heavily.

"Didn't you say you trusted me?" He smiled. "As a police officer, I still have the ability to protect myself."

Zhu Fu Jingguang's eyes trembled.

Almost without hesitation, he squeezed the other's hand back even tighter.

"...I was just too nervous." The black-haired young man's tone returned to a gentle tone, and his blue eyes were dotted with helpless smiles. "Yuki seems to easily encounter bad people with bad intentions."

"Eh," Kouno Seira was stunned, "Is there?"

He thought hard and found that there were too few examples to use, and it was difficult to pick out a few normal people to refute.

Kono Seira had to use magic to defeat magic, "But I also met many gentle people." At this point, he smiled and stretched out his voice, "Kagemitsu is very gentle."

This was not the first time he had received such comments. From childhood to adulthood, other people's impression of him was nothing more than these words. Gentle, in a good sense, means being kind and considerate, and being patient and gentle to others; in a bad sense, it means being soft-hearted and unable to stand on his own.

Zhu Fu Jingguang thought he was used to hearing these words, but at this moment he suddenly realized that even the same words could be said so differently by different people.

Tender...?

He lowered his eyes, his gaze quietly falling on the gap between their interlocked fingers.

The curves rise and fall in perfect harmony, and the shadows in the narrow gaps not illuminated by the light gradually deepen, like a secret that is difficult to express.

...This seems to be a good idea.

--

After returning to the police academy, Kono Seiryo asked the system to retrieve the surveillance footage from that time, but it seemed that he was not the only one in disguise. It was difficult to find someone by sight in a shopping mall with a large flow of customers.

The unexpected incident of being followed has come to an end for the time being. As graduation from the police academy is approaching, Kono Seiryoshi is worried about a very realistic problem.

——The apartment he rented does not allow pets.

After graduation, the Police Department will assign dormitories to you. However, when you are a police officer, unexpected situations may arise. You never know when you will have to work overtime for several consecutive days. This is completely different from the daily routine life of police academy students. You also don’t know who your new neighbors will be, and whether they can accept having cats in the apartment...

After much deliberation, Seiyoshi Kono decided to find an apartment for himself.

He had already found a few houses and was just about to go to the property search in person with the agent, but he received a text message from a distant relative he had never contacted before. The text message said that a place had been booked for him and he could move in as soon as he graduated. The address and contact information were attached.

At that time, Seiryoshi Kono declined the offer, replying that he was also looking for a house, and that he would no longer need financial support after starting work and receiving a salary, and that he wanted to repay his relatives, etc.

A few seconds later, another message came from the other side. This time the purpose was more clear. She said directly that the rent for the apartment had been paid and she hoped that he would not mind it.

Kono Seira: ...Why does it feel like this distant relative is an NPC that issues quests?

He had no choice but to thank the other party for the kindness and added the contact information of the apartment agent.

Everything about the new apartment was good, except for the last point on the move-in manual: "No pets allowed," which was a big blow to Seiyoshi Kono.

After learning that the rent agreed upon was non-refundable, his movements while petting the cat were filled with sadness for those few days.

On one hand, there is the expensive rent and the love of relatives, and on the other hand, there is the cat with whom you have developed a deep affection. It is indeed a heartbreaking choice.

People's joys and sorrows are not shared. After hearing his worries, Jinpei Matsuda burst out laughing.

The afternoon sun was warm and bright, with a drowsy magic, shining through the glass window onto the white cat who was fighting a mechanical toy mouse.

Hanako is now four months old, and it is the period of growing and shedding hair. The first thing that Kouno Seira does when he returns to the dormitory after class every evening is to clean up the cat hair flying all over the room. Fortunately, they are already mature police academy students, and the instructors will not come to conduct surprise inspections. Otherwise, it is really hard to imagine the scene of Instructor Onizuka eating a mouthful of cat hair as soon as he enters the room.

The cat's eyes are a more transparent and beautiful blue after the blue film is removed. It looks more like a family with Jingguang. The six of them sometimes come to Kouno Seira's dormitory to play with the cat. Among the suspicious men who try to seduce the kitten, Hanako always manages to accurately ambush Jingguang, and she always acts cute and cute, making the latter covered with cat hair that can't be washed off.

In stark contrast to the warm reception that Morofushi Kagemitsu received, Matsuda Jinpei swung the cat stick the hardest but failed to even get a glance from Hanako.

No, if it were in the past, Hanako would still be willing to let him jerk off for the sake of the can.

But ever since Jinpei Matsuda casually complained about Hanako during the awkward period of its growth, "Why is it getting uglier as it grows?" - Seira Kono promptly covered Hanako's ears and tried to soothe the kitten's emotional trauma with a dried fish, but unfortunately failed - Hanako held a grudge and never paid any attention to a certain curly-haired cat again from that day on.

The afternoon sun was warm and suffocating. Kono Seiryoshi paused his toy mouse, pointed at Matsuda Jinpei who was still laughing, and whispered to the cat: "Officer Hanako, bite him."

"Why did you teach your seniors from the police academy to bully people in the workplace?" Matsuda Jinpei laughed from his nose and said lazily, "To be honest, I think there is no need for you to worry."

"People who can help you raise a cat are close at hand or far away."

He suddenly straightened his crooked sitting posture, his black pupils sparkling, and pointed at himself mysteriously and confidently.

"?"

Kouno Seiryo looked at the wall behind him in confusion, "You mean Jingguang? He's going to live in the dormitory in the future, right?"

Matsuda Jinpei's confident expression, waiting for praise, suddenly changed into a speechless half-moon eye, "...sometimes I really suspect you did it on purpose."

Seira Kono: "???"

"Wait, wait," he finally understood, and looked at the curly-haired young man with a sour face in disbelief, "Zhen Ping, are you sure?"

Among the six of us, you are the one Hanako dislikes the most! Where does your confidence come from?

Matsuda Jinping looked away and coughed uncomfortably. "...I found an apartment a few days ago. The landlord said that pets are allowed."

Kono Seiryoshi wanted to ask more, but was interrupted by him shouting, "Don't worry about the details. Anyway, I'm the only one who can take care of the flowers."

"If you want to see it, come and see it more often."

The white cat, who was still concerned about the toy he hadn't bitten enough, was picked up by someone. It was hard for him to ignore it now. Hanako meowed threateningly and raised her paw, but her soft pads were pinched by the intrusive curly-haired cat.

Matsuda Jinpei's mouth curled up in a good mood. He was obviously teasing the cat, but it seemed like he was hiding some secret message, "Thank you for your guidance, Hana."