In an old mansion in Washington, Akai walked up the stairs to the second floor.

After the rescue operation against Rice Flower International Hospital, he accepted orders from FBI headquarters and immediately left for the United States, accompanied by James and Judy.

This was not a surprising ending, long before the rescue operation began, he and Miyakoro had expected that they would most likely be transferred back to the United States in the near future.

After all, in the previous Narizawa Sanhei incident, the FBI's forces in Tokyo, Japan, suffered a near-annihilation-like blow, and the losses were extremely serious.

Whether it is the aftermath of the investigation or the redeployment of forces against Japan, they really should come back.

It's just that Akai Shuichi didn't expect that the heart of the palace would be sacrificed.

It was on the night of the rescue operation that Mamiya Kokoro was pursued by members of the organization and eventually killed while trying to attract the attention of the organization for him and Judy.

Until now, not only did they not know who killed Mamiya Xin, but they had not even been able to get his body back.

Judy also suffered a very big blow in this incident, and after returning to the American imperialists, she kept herself in her room and never saw anyone.

Shuichi Akai was really worried about her, but he didn't know how to persuade her.

As for James, after returning to the United States, his injuries have improved a lot, and today he went to an internal meeting of the FBI.

The content of the meeting is not clear, but you don't have to think about it to know that it must be related to their next move.

Maybe they will even return to Japan after this meeting.

Therefore, Shuichi Akai can only take advantage of this short period of free time to do some things that he has to deal with.

For example, what Mamiya Shin left to him.

In the basement of the night of the rescue operation, Akai Shuichi was keenly aware that his military bag seemed to have been tampered with.

Someone stuffed a note inside, and on the note was the handwriting of Mamiya Shin, writing a string of addresses in Washington.

With a hint of instinctive intuition, Shuichi Akai, who had already had a premonition that something bad was going to happen at the time, concealed the existence of the note from Judy.

Soon after, news came that some of the low-level undercover agents planted by the FBI within the organization reported that on the night of the rescue operation, the organization killed an undercover agent embedded in the organization and recovered his body.

Based on this extremely coincidental time and place, as well as the identity of the undercover agent they found out about within the organization, Akai Shuichi quickly came to a conclusion that he couldn't even believe.

The undercover agent who was killed by the organization was the heart of the palace who lost contact with them on the night of the rescue operation.

The information came so suddenly and so conclusively that they couldn't even find a place to refute or suspect.

The palace was sacrificed.

After learning this information, Judy, who couldn't bear the blow, fainted on the spot, and James had not yet woken up at the time, so Shuichi Akai immediately reported the information.

Soon after, he received an order from his headquarters to leave for the United States immediately.

To this day, Judy has not recovered from the blow, and Shuichi Akai, although equally sad, has not forgotten the important things.

After returning to the United States, Akai Shuichi first inquired with his colleagues at the headquarters, and only then did he learn that the address on the note was the address of Mamiya Shin during the period of American imperialism.

This is the old mansion he is now in.

This is a two-story villa, the decoration is ordinary, because it is not in a prosperous area, so the price is quite cheap, and it is also reasonable to buy such a small villa with the salary of the palace heart.

Of course, there is another possibility, that is, this small villa was actually delivered to him by the headquarters.

But no matter what the real situation is, in short, after Mamiya Xin left the US imperialists two years ago to go to Japan for an undercover organization, this villa was completely empty.

Akai Shuichi also got the key to the villa from the headquarters under the pretext of helping Miyashin sort out the relics.

Although no one has lived in it for two years, there is not much dust accumulated in the villa, and someone should come to clean it regularly.

This is enough to show how much attention the headquarters attaches to Mamiya Kokoro, who is indeed a very capable agent.

And his unexpected sacrifice is indeed a big blow to the headquarters.

On the second floor of the villa there is a study, there is a large bookshelf in the study, on which a pile of books are neatly and densely placed, which are from different countries and regions, very miscellaneous, it seems that their owner should be a reading lover.

Although I wanted to say this, Akai Shuichi was keenly aware that these books were actually very new, and there were basically no traces of reading, and there was a high probability that they were used to fill the bookshelf.

One of the books corresponded to the message on the note.

"Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance?"

Shuichi Akai raised his hand and took the book off the shelf.

Shuichi Akai had heard of this book, which was published a few years ago, and was hailed as a masterpiece of American imperialist postmodernism, a philosophical book rich in Zen principles, but unfortunately he was not interested in such books.

Flipping through the book, a small hand-drawn postcard falls to the floor, and Shuichi Akai reaches out and grabs it before it lands on the floor.

At the top of the postcard is written "To the heart of my best apprentice", and the signature at the bottom is ......

Black Feather Thousand Shadows.

【Heart?】 Is it the palace? So this postcard was written to the palace by this person who signed it as Kuroba Chikage? 】

And the title apprentice is used...... Is it the teacher of the palace?

Transfiguration.

In an instant, Shuichi Akai thought of this.

The heart of the palace has a very special disguise technique, and the level of disguise is not in the slightest below the thousand-faced witch Belmode of the organization.

This person named Black Feather Thousand Shadows is likely to be the one who taught the disguise technique of the heart of the palace.

【Black Feather Thousand Shadows ......】

Shuichi Akai thought about it carefully, but did not find the relevant information in his memory.

It's someone he doesn't know, and if he has a chance later, maybe he should look into it......

Holding this postcard, Shuichi Akai carefully flipped through the book in his hand, but found nothing noteworthy.

[It seems that there is only this postcard.] 】

Is this a postcard that Mamiya wants to pass on to him?

Shuichi Akai put the book back in place and looked down at the postcard in his hand.

There doesn't seem to be anything special on the postcard, it's just a simple teacher's condolences and blessings to his students.

On the other side of the postcard, Shuichi Akai saw the address from which the postcard was sent.

"New York, Queens......"

"Buzz."

At this moment, there was a noise outside the villa, and Shuichi Akai looked through the window and a black sedan was parked outside the villa.

This chapter is a complete clarification of the relationship between the heart of the palace and the Thousand Shadows of the Black Feather

(End of chapter)