New Tokyo.

2-chome, Kasumigaseki, Chiyoda-ku.

This area is home to important ministries of Wano Province, with the Ministry of Justice to the east, the High Court to the south, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism to the west, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the south, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries to the south, and the Sakurada Gate of the Wano Imperial Palace to the north.

As for the building with the cherry blossom badge in the middle, it is the Metropolitan Police Department main store, which once appeared in Wano Kuni's morning dramas and various manga and film works.

......

The third floor of the Metropolitan Police Department.

Search the office of the head of the first section.

"What do you mean... Since September this year, that is, two months ago, there have been dozens of cases of missing teenagers in the city? A tall and thin young man was wearing a navy blue windbreaker uniform that was very different from ordinary police uniforms, and his eyes under silver-rimmed glasses were faintly unkind.

Sitting in front of him was Masato Ishikawa, the head of the first search section, a thirty-nine-year-old middle-aged police officer, but his rank was the same as that of the young and promising leader of the 13th detachment of the 3rd Investigation Group in front of him, Tsukasa Sugita.

In the face of Tsukasa Sugida's aggressive inquiry, Masato Ishikawa calmly picked up the thermos cup for work and took a sip of water, and only after putting it down did he look into the other party's eyes and say, "No... It's the beginning of September to be exact, and it's been three months now. ”

"In three months, so many missing cases, none of them have been closed?" Tsukasa Sugita lowered his head slightly, "I understand your pressure, but... Isn't that an exaggeration? ”

Masato Ishikawa shook his head and didn't look at Tsukasa Sugita's gaze, "I don't think it's an exaggeration, you should know that in our line of work, tens of millions of people go missing every year in the world, and dozens of people only account for one in ten million. ”

"That's not data." Sugita's tone was slightly cold.

"That can only be data." Masato Ishikawa looked up.

He stared silently at this police officer, who was almost ten years younger than himself, and suddenly sighed and said, "Captain Sugitta, you should know what the order and stability of Wano Country are built on, many cases that can't be investigated are not impossible to investigate, but can't be investigated, the water is too deep here..."

"I know."

Sugita Tsukasa nodded to interrupt him, then shook his head again, and said in a stiff tone, "But it doesn't mean that I accept it, all the next disappearances will be sent to me, and the thirteenth team will be responsible for a thorough investigation." ”

Masato Ishikawa was stunned when he heard this.

After a moment of silence in the air, he suddenly looked up at Tsukasa Sugita and asked, "What about the people above you?" Does Tokugawa know you do this? ”

Tokugawa chestnut tiger.

The leader of the 3rd Investigation Group.

Rank: Chief of Police.

There are nine levels of people with abilities in this world, the lower three levels are ordinary abilities, and the middle three are superpowers, but the Tokugawa Chestnut Tiger is an absolute ability of the fourth stage of the seventh order!

At the same time, he is also the ability holder of talent serial number 25 [King Kong].

It can be said that it has established the status of the 3rd Investigation Team in the Metropolitan Police Department with its strong personal strength, and even in front of the Inspector General, the highest officer of the Metropolitan Police Department, it has a great right to speak - in other words, as long as Tsukasa Sugita moves out of this Metropolitan Police Department's mountain, Masato Ishikawa, who has searched for a lesson, will definitely not say anything more.

Sugita, however, shook his head.

"Team Leader Tokugawa doesn't know."

Tokugawa Kurita is a person he respects, and his character also determines that he is not a person who can casually use others as shields.

After a moment of silence, Sugita said, "But what I did was officially to implement the belief of the Tokugawa team leader - the sword of justice, there is no haze. ”

Is it justice?

Masato Ishikawa stared at the promising young captain in front of him, and suddenly laughed, "Captain Sugida is really like a friend of mine back then, alas, it's a pity that he has retired from the police now, but if you have the opportunity to introduce you to each other, I think you will definitely have a good conversation." ”

Knock knock!

Suddenly there was a knock on the door outside the office.

"Please come in."

Masato Ishikawa said casually.

The door was pushed open, and a policeman trotted in with the file, and after saluting, he glanced at Tsukasa Sugita who was sitting on the side, and only after getting the permission of Masato Ishikawa's eyes did he report:

"Section chief, yesterday there was another case of disappearance in Ogawa Town, Edogawa Ward, the informant is a single father, and the missing girl is six years old at school..."

"A six-year-old girl..."

After listening to the report, Ishikawa Masato subconsciously glanced at the photo frame placed on the office - in the photo, he is wearing a heroic police uniform, and next to him is a five or six-year-old girl with a bright smile, who is now a single father after divorcing his wife three years ago.

If one day his daughter goes missing, there is no doubt that he will go crazy and dig all of New Tokyo into the ground, searching every corner.

"I think I understand Captain Sugita's determination."

Immediately, Ishikawa Masato said to Nunu, a subordinate who reported in a joking tone, and said with a smile, "Now start with this case in your hands, and decompress everyone in the future, and all the cases of missing teenagers in the city will be handed over to the 13th detachment to take over." ”

"Huh? Be! The subordinate was stunned for a moment, but still obeyed the order and handed over the file to Sugida Division.

Tsukasa Sugita took the file and looked at the bald middle-aged man sitting behind the desk holding a thermos cup - he had the impression that this guy was a well-known old fritter in several search sections of the Metropolitan Police Department's Criminal Department.

Before he walked into this office, he was ready to return in vain, but he didn't expect things to turn out unexpectedly.

"Thank you."

Sugita nodded.

The goal had been achieved, and he turned around and was about to leave.

"Don't thank me."

Masato Ishikawa shook his head, and offered a sentence when Tsukasa Sugita went out, "You should have guessed who is hindering the detection of the case, but you must be prepared to resist pressure in the future." ”

Celestial and human world government?

Sugita Tsukasa silently thought in his heart, his eyes became cold, his footsteps did not stop, and the person had already walked out of the company.

A minute later...

The building of the Metropolitan Police Department in Chiyoda-ku.

From top to bottom, all the members of the 13th Detachment of the 3rd Investigation Group were like a powerful and small machine, and the start button was pressed, and the gears and gears were frantically snapping and running at high speed.

......

At the same time, a black stretch car drove into the gate of a villa in Minato-ku, New Tokyo.

This is a single-family house on the coast, and there are no other houses around, so it should be desolate, but in fact, the floor-to-ceiling windows on the second floor of the villa offer a panoramic view of Tokyo Tower, two of the city's landmarks, Tokyo Tower and Rainbow Bridge.

At night, when the lights are on, the lights of the Rainbow Bridge and Tokyo Tower are particularly colorful, and the tiny waves lap quietly against the shores of Odaiba.

The atmosphere is quiet and peaceful,

It's so beautiful that it can heal people's hearts.

......

And yet, without warning,

Suddenly there was a cry of a girl in the villa.

Basement entrance of the villa.

A girl who looked like a high school student and wore a dark gold collar under her neck was about to follow the sluggish girl walking in front of her into the basement elevator.

The moment the elevator door opened, she suddenly turned around, her snot and tears were slugging, her face trembling, and she knelt on the ground and pleaded with a sturdy man behind her, "Please! I don't want the ability anymore, let me go back! Please... I want to go home! ”

The man's face has a flat nose with a distinct black stripe on each side that runs from the corner of the eye to the side of the mouth, and a pair of light brown cheetah-like ears on the head.

He looked at the girl who was kneeling on the ground, a hideous smile on his face, and a tough whip appeared in his hand at some point.

Syllable!

The whip bursts in the air!

In an instant, the clothes on the girl's body were instantly torn and flew, revealing a shocking blood mark, and the whole person was directly paralyzed to the ground.

"Said to let you.... Shut up! Inferior idiot, you found me on your own initiative. The man said contemptuously, seeing the girl slumped on the ground and not moving, he raised the whip and wanted to continue whipping.

Suddenly, a hoarse and magnetic voice came from behind him, "Dick, have you forgotten the punishment that the president gave you yesterday?" These are our precious exhibits. ”

The man of the Leopard tribe named Dick suddenly turned his head, and his eyes jumped into the eyes of a thin figure wearing a white lab coat, a hat and a mask, and the spectacle lenses refracted by the light obscured the other's eyes.

Dick's face sank, then he shrugged his shoulders indifferently and threw away the whip in his hand, "Doctor, you know that.... I just want to give these inferior races a long memory, that's all. ”

The man called "Doctor" didn't look at him, just quietly stared at the girl who was slumped on the ground...

One second, five seconds, ten seconds...

At a certain moment, the body of the girl on the ground suddenly twitched violently, and then suddenly turned over, and the collar around her neck began to flash wildly.

"Have you started?"

Dick's eyes lit up with excitement.

Unexpectedly, the 'doctor' who was watching all this calmly shook his head, turned around indifferently and said, "No, it's over." ”

As soon as the words fell, I saw the girl on the ground kick her legs a few times, and the pupils in her eyes dilated and dilated sharply, and then suddenly quieted down.

There was no more silence.

The collar around his neck also stopped flickering.

The "doctor" casually picked up a tablet on the workbench next to him, the homepage of the tablet was the words "Sigmund International Trading Company", and the company's logo was a ball surrounded by two interactive arrows.

He printed his fingerprint to unlock it, clicked it open, swiped it down a few times, and calmly clicked the "X" next to the portrait of a smiling girl - choosing to delete all information and observation data about it.

After deleting it, he returned to the tablet's home page and pressed Call.

After a while, two men of the Celestial Race in black suits walked in from outside the villa without saying a word, and with ease, they put the girl on the ground into a body bag, zipped it and moved out.

Her final destination will be in the dark and quiet deep sea under Tokyo Bay, from precious [exhibits] to insignificant waste products...

Only in a split second.

.....

"Tut-tut.... Mankind...

What a weak race. ”

Dick licked his lips, glanced disdainfully in the direction of the basement storage room of the villa, and asked the 'doctor' next to him, "This time... Less than twenty, right? ”

"Well, it's just a matter of probability."

The 'doctor' said this lightly, but his eyes fell on the smooth and plump oranges placed in the transparent glass cabinet of the laboratory table, and his face was sincerely admired:

"But they are also a very intelligent race, and the fact that they can develop this ability fruit that competes with the 'gods' for natural authority really shocks my heart every time I see it."

Dick scoffed when he heard this.

"What's the use of that? The fruit has been developed, but few humans can eat it and successfully metamorphosis, otherwise it would not have caused us to spend so much time preparing for this year's [exhibition]. ”

Speaking of the exhibition, the "doctor" also frowned slightly, because the guests of the exhibition came from all over the world.

Some of them aren't so easy to talk to.

"Is it Friday today...."

The doctor lowered his head and said as if to himself, "It seems that we have to speed up, do you want to inform Woolley... What about shortening the observation period a little longer? ”

Woolley is a celestial of the Aquila Clan, who has awakened the [True Eye] of Talent Sequence 38, and is one of several "special affairs" of the New Tokyo branch of Sigmund International Trading Company.

"Heh, that guy must be asking for it."

Dick sneered when he heard this, "Last time, he actually lost a mixed-race woman from the Tianhu Clan, so that the president had to use the above connections to put pressure on him to get people out of the Metropolitan Police Department, and this time he made a mistake again... I'm afraid it's not that simple. ”

As the two were talking, the elevator had reached the third basement level, and the fluorescent lamps on the ceiling overhead lit it up as if it were daylight, but the scene inside was shocking.

Cage... Cage... Or a cage.

Young men and women of eighteen or nineteen years old, standing, squatting, or lying down, their faces numb or frightened, trapped in steel cages, wearing dark gold collars around their necks, and electronic signs fixed to their ankles, indicating age, race, natural ability, and assessment of growth potential.

Although the people in the villa call them precious [exhibits], but at a glance... It's like a "two-legged livestock" waiting for others to pick at will in a chaotic vegetable market.....

In the corner, a little girl of five or six years old curled up on the ground, hugged the bear in her arms tightly, her breathing was a little short and disordered, and her face looked very pale.

However, although she was locked in a cage, I have to say that this is the first time she has grown up and lived in... No, it's the first time I've seen such a big and bright house.

If only this was really "home"...

The little girl thought to herself.

......

Afternoon.

Half past three,

Takehara Minami Private School Park.

Today is Friday, and after the actual combat training session, Higashinohara is packing up his things and preparing to go home.

Speaking of which, after the scene of yesterday afternoon's actual combat class, today's atmosphere was a bit strange,—— many people in the class were secretly discussing Higashinohara's training methods, and discussing whether to go to the playground to run a few laps every day in the future.

As for Hikaru Saki, who was taught a lesson yesterday, he must be unconvinced.

But the strength of the superpower school is supreme.。

He was easily broken through by Higashinohara after even the second-order technique was launched yesterday, even if he was not angry in his heart, he didn't have the confidence to find Higashinohara to compete again to save face for the time being, so he could only endure this breath for the time being.

It's a long time coming.

Anyway, it's only the first grade now.

In addition, I heard that there are "good deeds" in the class who sat in the bank and opened a market after seeing Higashinohara's performance yesterday, so I bet on whether Higashinohara, a well-known "veteran of the three wars" in the first grade, can pass the assessment and be promoted to the second grade next year.

The bets accepted by the dealer are not large, and many people have joined in the fun.

At this time, Yuta Aida, who was in the back row of Higashinohara, poked him and asked, "Higashino, do you have any arrangements for the weekend holiday?" ”

Oh yes, it's this guy who opens the banker.

"Part-time job"

Higashino Hara didn't look back.

"Except for a part-time job?" Yuta Aida asked.

"Of course, it's still a part-time job."

Higashinohara didn't have a good airway.

"Hey, Dongye, do you want to fight so hard?"

Yuta Aida couldn't help but complain.

"Didn't Mr. Nakazaki say that your strength level should be the second order and the second stage in the actual combat class this afternoon? As long as you work hard to improve 1 more stage and enter the second grade next year, you will be able to resume the accommodation subsidy and free lunch at that time, why do you work hard to earn so much money now? ”

"Huh."

Higashinohara laughed, turned his head and asked, "How much are the housing prices in New Tokyo now?" ”

Yuta Aida's parents are both real estate agents, and when he heard this, he said without thinking, "The average price is about 850,000 yen per square meter, right?" There are cheaper places in the middle of the place, what's wrong? ”

"Then think about it, if I stay in Tokyo after graduation and want to buy a second-hand apartment of 50 square meters, I will need 42.5 million yen, and according to the average annual salary after graduation, I will need to go without food or drink for about 12 years."

"According to my current part-time salary of 1,000 yen, I need to work more than 40,000 hours in one place to do the same thing before I can buy a second-hand apartment."

After finishing speaking, Higashinohara looked at Yuta Aida with a smile, "Now you still ask me why I 'make so much money'?" ”

Yuta Aida was stunned for a moment.

He has lived in New Tokyo for so many years since he was a child, and although he occasionally goes to work, he only has some pocket money to buy his favorite mountain bikes or game consoles, and he has never thought about it.

Higashinohara smiled, and at the same time he couldn't help but complain that since he had crossed over, why didn't he wear a new Tokyo native, at least he didn't have to worry about staying here in the future.

Shaking his head, he said goodbye to Yuta Aida for the time being, and Higashinohara took the train home first.

Although part-time work is the guarantee of life, he also knows what his foothold in this world is, and his daily exercise will definitely not be left behind.

......

Back at the apartment, Higashinohara had been thinking about the missing Nishimaru Miri in his heart today, and couldn't help but go to the third floor to find Satoru Aragaki of the detective agency to inquire about today's progress.

The result... There is no news yet.

Perhaps seeing that Higashinohara was a little disappointed, Aragaki Satoru smiled and patted Higashinohara on the shoulder, "Don't worry, the Metropolitan Police Department has paid attention to these missing cases, and the files have been transferred from the smiling tiger in the search lesson to the thirteenth detachment of the third investigation group, my daughter said that the captain of the thirteenth detachment is a reliable guy, and I believe that it will be found soon." ”

Third Reconnaissance Group?

Higashinohara remembered the crisp and neat arrest at the station that night, and he couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief in his heart, the people in the third investigation team were indeed much more reliable than the police in the Metropolitan Police Department.

But thinking of the orange that Shunsuke Nishimaru said, Higashinohara's brows furrowed again, and he always felt that the disappearance of Nishimaru Miri was not as simple as it seemed.

But he can't do it now if he wants to investigate.

The twenty-three administrative districts of New Tokyo have a population of 10 million, and just because he wants to find someone to come out, it is tantamount to looking for a needle in a haystack, so he can only wait for further news from the third investigation team.

Carrying his handbag and returning to the fifth floor to rent his own room, Higashino originally cooked himself a cup of ramen for dinner.

While eating noodles, he looked at the bank account he had left with the Metropolitan Police Department on his mobile phone - the wanted bounty had not yet arrived, and it was estimated that it would take seven working days to wait.

Really...

So can you eat interest if you keep some money?

Higashino Hara complained in his heart, and after eating noodles, he seemed to log in to a regular part-time APP and swiped it, looking for a suitable part-time job on Saturdays and Sundays.

He swiped the screen a few times, and the recruitment information of an [exhibition waiter] who paid the day after tomorrow jumped into his eyes.

Working hours: Sundays.

Work location: Private villa in Odaiba, Minato-ku.

Job content: greet visitors, serve dinner, and leave by yourself before the start of the exhibition.

Job requirements: excellent body and facial features are preferred, good image and temperament are preferred, and ability is preferred.....

Is this a waiter or a male publicist...

Higashinohara saw the fourth, and although he knew that he was talking about himself, he couldn't help but complain in his heart...

But he vomited halfway through and held back.

Because he saw the fifth.

Salary:

10,000 yen per hour,

Gratuities are not included.

That's ten times the hourly wage of his weekday part-time job!

......