Following the address on their membership cards, Sojuro and Nikaido found a café near Yasaka Shrine, which has a lot of customers during the day, and it's mid-afternoon, which is also the peak of the café's traffic.

"Little Kulo, if you were to see that obsidian again, would you still be able to recognize it?"

"Probably. Nikaido nodded a little uncertainly, after all, many days had passed since the last battle, and time had blurred that face in his memory, and he could barely recall anything other than the general outline.

"Then go to the store manager and ask for the previous video. ”

The two walked into the café, where the business was very good, and every clerk was busy for a moment.

"Excuse me, our seats are temporarily full, if you don't mind, please come back in half an hour, I'll reserve a seat for you." A young clerk greeted.

Nikaido took out his special ID and said lightly: "We are national government workers, may I ask where the store manager here is now? ”

"The manager, I see, please come with me. The clerk looked at the documents carefully and believed their identity.

The two followed the clerk upstairs from behind the counter to the door of the manager's office.

"The store manager, these two are staff members of the national government, and they said that they have something to ask. ”

In the room sat a middle-aged woman, facing the window and looking into the distance, she was wearing a gorgeous kimono, holding a slender cigarette stick, and from time to time her mouth exhaled some white smoke, the smell of smoke was very fragrant.

"Gray hair began to appear on the sideburns, and sure enough, a woman's face will slowly fade after this age. The woman didn't seem to hear the clerk's words, and it took a long time to react, and turned to look at Nikaido, "Oh, excuse me, is there anything I can do to help you?"

"There have been many murders in Kyoto recently, and we found the membership card of your store in the remains of one of the deceased, and it is suspected that the murderer has appeared in this vicinity, so please let us ...... the recent surveillance video."

"Ah, have you seen any strange people lately?" Sojuro interrupted him as he squeezed in front of Nikaido.

"Strange people? Ah, by the way, there was a very strange customer in the middle of the night who had a big argument with his companion in the store, and it was quiet all the time, but I saw them as if they were meeting for the first time. The clerk who was just about to leave turned back and provided information to Nikaido.

"Do you remember what that person looked like?" asked Nikaido.

"It's a black-haired boy in a kimono, not very old, and I looked at him when I received him, what do you say...... He made people feel chills, and those eyes were as if they didn't exist in this world. ”

"Jian Er, now is the time when there are the most customers, you go down and get busy, I'll receive these two. ”

"Yes, store manager. ”

The woman watched the clerk leave, sat on the chair again, sighed and said: "I don't like the customers in my store to be suspected by anyone, if you monitor, the system suddenly collapsed this morning, although someone has been found to fix it, but all the footage from before the middle of last night was lost." ”

"How could such a coincidence happen?" Sojuro was a little incredulous.

"If you don't believe me, let's take a look. The woman pushed the computer screen towards Sojuro, "I don't dare to play any tricks on the government, and besides, we don't know about these things, if it weren't for your visit today, with our civilian information network, I don't know how long it would have been before we learned about what happened recently." ”

What the woman said is not unreasonable, after all, the current obsidian level is exactly the same as humans, they have no reason to stare at a certain person alone, there are more than 100 people in and out of the store a day, and it is impossible for someone to lock on to the target at a glance.

"What he said just now is similar to what I remembered, maybe it's him, and then I'll ask Yaotome to call up the nearby surveillance, and if he comes, we'll be able to find his traces. Nikaido said with the woman behind her back, then turned and walked to the door, "In that case, we won't bother." ”

"Is there anything wrong with that woman?" asked Sojuro as he left the café.

"No, it's just that she seems to hate government people, which is very similar to little Kuro. ”

"I've already asked Yaotome to tune up the video, that's all for today's investigation, we should go back. Nikaido took out the car keys, and just as he walked to the intersection to get into the car, he found that Sojuro's eyes were attracted by something not far away.

"Little Kulo, those just now are the local police, right?" asked Sojuro, pointing to the man who had disappeared from sight.

"Police?" Nikaido glanced in the direction of the alley, but didn't see any figures, "Why are you asking this?"

"Usually when there are more than three police officers at such a time, there may be a lot of things in the vicinity, and it seems that the number of victims has increased again. Sojuro gave up the idea of going back and crossed the street in the direction where the policemen had gone.

When I came to the mouth of the alley, the cordon had already begun to be set up, the people were being evacuated, and the atmosphere at the scene was very tense.

"Walk away, there's nothing to see here. The police shoved Sojuro, but was pushed away by Nikaido.

"We're working in the national government, what's going on here?"

As soon as he saw the ID card in Nikaido's hand, the policeman immediately became respectful, hurriedly shook hands with Nikaido, and led them into the alley, saying as he walked: "There was a shooting murder, but there were no bullets found at the scene, and the surroundings were sealed, so it was impossible to kill the victim from the perspective of shooting." ”

As he spoke, he had come to the deepest part of the alley, where lay a man with glasses about thirty or forty years old, with an obvious blood hole in his left skull, and it seemed that he should have been dead for about a night, and he was not found until just now.

"It's not an obsidian-level method, Sojuro, it seems that it has nothing to do with our case, and it's gone. "Nikaido observed the death of the deceased, but he was killed with a gun, if it was done by the obsidian, this corpse would have turned into a dry corpse a long time ago, in this case, this case was handed over to the local police to deal with.

"It doesn't have to be like that...... Sojuro squatted down and looked at the dead.

"It's good to leave this kind of thing to them, we just need to concentrate on our own business. ”

"Little Kulo, do you remember that the clerk just said that last night's black-haired boy still had a companion?"

Nikaido suddenly recalled the information that the café clerk had provided to him not long ago, and he began to get serious, walked up to Sojuro's side, and asked in a low voice, "Did you say that this person is his companion?"

Sojuro pushed away the bespectacled man's head, only to see a black invisible earphone stuffed into his left ear.

"Obviously not, little Kulo, on the night you fought with the Obsidian, were there any others? With the strength of the Black Rider, it is impossible to let the Obsidian Rank go. ”

"Someone saved him, but we didn't react in the first place, and the guy who helped him escape was very smart. ”

"Indeed, and with great caution. Sojuro took out his headphones and said carefully: "He hired this man to talk to the black-haired boy, if he was right, he should have promised a considerable amount of mercenary money to stabilize the deal, but people who dare to do such things usually end up like this." ”

Nikaido glanced at the police behind him, and said, "This place is taken over by the government, you can go back with your colleagues, and someone will come to replace your work later, this is an order from the state." ”

"Yes. The policeman didn't dare to say anything, he was just an ordinary policeman, insignificant in the name of the country.

After the police left, Sojuro was relieved to investigate the surroundings.

"It's closed on three sides, and the only way to shoot is from the alley right in front of you. Sojuro examined the wound and frowned again, "This is a wound that can only be inflicted by a sniper rifle, but if you look at the angle, it looks like it is shot from a forty-five degree angle from the side, and it is absolutely impossible to shoot from the entrance of the alley." ”

Sojuro's gaze fell on a protruding corner, and the next discovery made him more sure of the direction of the bullet.

"Someone here has come and destroyed the wall where the bullet went through the deceased's head. Sojuro grabbed the rubble on the ground, and there were obvious blood stains in it, which proved that the bullet was indeed coming from an oblique direction, "It's strange......

"What's wrong?"

"Two doubts, the first one, how did the sniper rifle shoot the victim diagonally in a closed place on three sides? The second ......" Sojuro suddenly stopped in the middle of his words and changed his words, "Now there is only one left." ”

"Why?"

"As I said, if he wants this very risky trade to be successful, the equivalent chips are a necessity, and for him, money is the most important thing. Based on the time of death, he must have just walked out of the café when he received a message from his employer telling him to come here and shoot him. So during this time, the money should have been on his body, but nothing was found at the scene other than the body. ”

That is, the employer took the money back after killing him. ”

Sojuro shook his head: "No, this person's way of doing things is very cautious, he won't expose himself for some unnecessary money, even for a second." And little Kulo, look here, this wall is not smashed by tools, it is more like it was broken by a kick, so the broken stone was kicked far away, but some of the bloodstained broken stone still fell to the ground. ”

"Only obsidian and obsidian users can do this, but there is no breath of obsidian power on the scene. ”

"Yes, the only target is the dark-haired boy, and the money should be in his hands now. Sojuro smiled slightly, "What will an obsidian-level monster do if he takes the money?"

"Probably familiarize yourself with the rules of human beings and then go to consumption. ”

"No, he won't do anything, because money is not a necessity for him, but it never hurts to carry some with him. ”

"In this way, the third fragment has also been found......"