Chapter 60 The Person Who Will Always Stand with Yan Shuangying

Beika Town, safe house.

A tomboyish girl wearing headphones and dressed in a masculine style was humming a tune while surfing the internet.

Sitting beside the tomboy was a [girl] dressed in a rather feminine style with a single ponytail.

They were none other than Natsuki Koshimizu and Narumi Asai, two of Nara Hikari's assistants.

"Um... Miss Koshimizu, will he be all right going there all by himself?"

After waiting for quite a long time, Narumi Asai finally couldn't help but speak up.

Although the urban legends surrounding Nara Hikari in Beika Town were becoming more and more mystical, Narumi Asai, who was the only person to have met Nara Hikari three months ago, knew that the so-called half-man, half-ghost was just an ordinary human who could still get hurt.

If slashed by a knife, he would bleed; if hit in a vital spot by a bullet, he would die just the same.

"If he went there alone, of course he'll be fine?"

Even with her headphones on, Natsuki Koshimizu could still hear what Narumi Asai had said.

She spoke casually, scrolling down the computer screen with the mouse wheel, and then said:

"To make Yan Shuangying get injured, you'd at least need heavy machine guns and high-powered explosives, right?"

"There's no way those things could be smuggled into Tokyo. The enemies he's facing at most only have a few dozen handguns and a couple of submachine guns. They don't pose any threat at all—I've seen him do this kind of thing before."

"A single man, with two handguns, wiped out an entire yakuza organization."

Narumi Asai was taken aback, and then asked with some hesitation:

"Was it the [Waguchi Group]? I saw some scattered news reports a couple of days ago in Shinjuku about the Waguchi Group being wiped out by unknown assailants..."

"No, that was over in Shikoku. What's a Waguchi Group?"

Glancing sideways at Narumi Asai, Natsuki Koshimizu replied.

As for the exact situation of the yakuza organization in Shikoku, she had no intention of going into detail.

In fact, that matter was also related to the [Lavender Villa Murder Case] in the Shikoku region.

Back then, the renowned high school detective Tokitsu Junya, who was traveling through Shikoku, in order to make his deduction hold up, forcibly claimed that a window at the crime scene—which had actually been dismantled long ago—had been removed by the suspect after the murder—

Back then, all one had to do was check the bushes to find the window nails that had already been rusted by moisture.

Yet Tokitsu Junya deliberately covered up that evidence and misled the Shikoku police, causing them to conclude that the suspect was the real killer. Afterwards, Tokitsu Junya deliberately concealed his involvement and immediately left Shikoku.

In truth, any detective arriving at the scene would have been able to figure out that the deceased had committed suicide and that there was no murderer at all...

It was a tragedy through and through. The detective doing the reasoning said the suspect was the murderer; the Shikoku police said the suspect was the murderer; even the suspect's close confidant, the old butler, said the suspect was the murderer.

The Shikoku police detained the suspect time and time again, coercing them into confessing to the murder method and the weapon.

However, the suspect had never committed a murder in the first place, so naturally there was no such thing as a murder method or a weapon, and it was utterly impossible for them to confess to something that didn't exist. And the most terrifying part of it all was the identity of the victim—

She was the only daughter of the leader of the Lavender Group, a prominent yakuza organization in Shikoku.

Because the leader of the Lavender Group dealt in heroin, someone harboring a grudge took revenge by injecting heroin into his daughter's body, causing her to become addicted, her mental state to steadily deteriorate, and forcing her to drop out of school.

The young lady of that villa, his daughter, unwilling to remain a slave to heroin, hanged herself. The suicide note she left behind exposed everything, but it was kept away by the butler of the Lavender Villa at the time and never made public—

If the daughter of the Lavender Group leader had committed suicide because of the unbearable burden of a heroin addiction, it would severely damage their reputation. Therefore, when questioned by the police about whether the deceased had left a suicide note or committed suicide, the butler insisted it must have been a homicide.

Later on, upon learning the truth of his daughter's death, the leader of the Lavender Group repeatedly pressured the Shikoku police, demanding that the killer be severely punished and brought to justice—

And so, the innocent suspect was literally driven to death.

Natsuki Koshimizu had traveled to the scene several times to investigate, but ultimately found nothing, to the point where thoughts of retaliatory murder—of making those perpetrators pay with their lives—began to brew in her heart.

She didn't get the chance to do it.

Because at that time, a man wearing a long black coat, upon seeing the news that the true culprit of the Lavender Villa murder case, Mizuguchi Kana, had committed suicide out of guilt, directly struck out against every single perpetrator involved in the case.

First, the renowned high school detective Tokitsu Junya died from a gunshot wound inflicted by an unknown assailant.

Then, several high-ranking officials of the Shikoku Prefectural Police Headquarters died in a collective accident while having a dinner party for the detectives working on the Lavender Villa case. And right after that, the entire Lavender Group was uprooted from its foundations—

Had it not been for a rival yakuza organization of the Lavender Group stepping forward to claim responsibility and announcing that the perpetrators were members of their own organization, Yan Shuangying would most likely have been placed on a nationwide wanted list.

"No one is a match for him, no matter who they are."

"Most of the time, I feel like he really is like a ghost living in some past era, but sometimes I feel like he's a god from a future era—the name Nara Hikari seems to be the one he has the least sense of identity with."

"I remember it's actually ranked behind the alias [Cheng Tang]."

Natsuki Koshimizu supported her chin with her hand, pulling her thoughts back to the present.

"However, Yan Shuangying is always a hero standing on the side of justice and innocent civilians."

"As long as you stand on the same side as him, his tolerance might even increase infinitely, but if you stand in opposition to him, no matter who blocks his way, he will eliminate them without a moment's hesitation."

"...Is there really anyone who can stand on the same side as him forever?"

Narumi Asai turned her head, looking at the former high school detective from Hokkaido.

Natsuki Koshimizu replied with certainty:

"Of course there are people like that, for instance, an accomplice like me—"

"Well, though I hate to admit it, compared to me, he seems to miss a squad that would always stand by his side even more."

"It's just that he has never been willing to mention the name of that squad to me. Although, from the name that clearly reflects his origins, I've already guessed it. But since he's unwilling to say it out loud, I won't say it either."

The former female high school detective seemed a bit displeased. She stirred her glass with a spoon and then said:

"One day, he'll abandon the identity of Nara Hikari."

"He said he uses this name and stays in Beika Town simply to repay a favor."

"I wonder if he'll ask me to come along when he finally leaves—"

Creak—

The door of the safe house was pushed open.

The man in black appeared at the doorway, his gaze sweeping over the interior before finally landing on Narumi Asai.

"It seems you have something you want from me?"

Yan Shuangying said.