"Hurry up, hurry up!"
On the Tokyo street lined with restaurant signs, Hanpe Suji walked languidly behind Kitagawa Sakisa.
"Miss, don’t rush. It’s not even time for school to end."
Kitagawa Sakisa turned around, her summer black lace dress spinning with her movement, exuding a unique girlish charm.
Actually, as a young lady, Kitagawa Sakisa was quite good-looking.
It’s just that her personality was sometimes rather arrogant.
Her outfit was rare on streets filled with ordinary citizens.
As a result, most passersby would glance at her from time to time.
"Hurry up, hurry up! Who knows, that pervert might already be waiting over there!" Kitagawa Sakisa pulled Hanpe’s arm forcefully, running forward.
Hanpe Suji followed her helplessly, passing by one roadside tree after another:
"Don’t worry, Miss, that guy is just a high school student, from your friend’s school, and he won’t come out before school ends."
Upon hearing this, Kitagawa Sakisa continued to hold onto him and move quickly forward, as she still wanted to chat with Hanabi.
Tired from pulling, she stopped in place, and the seemingly same style of black dress she wore every day also ceased swinging.
With her arms crossed, facing the afternoon sunlight filtering through the beech leaves, she nodded slightly and said:
"Don’t be so lax, it’s good to go and wait early, what is that idiom... guarding the bush to wait for a rabbit means going early to wait!"
Hanpe Suji shook his head in resignation: "It’s ’guarding a tree stump and waiting for rabbits,’ meaning sitting by the stump hoping for rabbits to collide with it, not guarding stocks and having rabbits jump into your bowl (in Japanese, [株] also means stock)."
Kitagawa Sakisa turned her head slightly: "That’s how my brother taught me. He said ’株’ means stocks, and as long as I guard my stocks, lots and lots of rabbits (money) will come running to me."
He really is a big genius.
Hanpe Suji smiled at this young lady.
He didn’t understand the affairs of the Kitagawa family.
"There’s still some time before school ends at Kamigoe, do you want to drink something nearby first?"
Kitagawa Sakisa tilted her head, "Hanpe, don’t you have no money?"
Hanpe Suji recalled how she always made tea with plain water every day: "30,000 yen is enough for two cups of tea."
Kitagawa Sakisa laughed, "I always feel like Hanpe, you’re not like my brother’s subordinates."
With his hands in his pockets, Hanpe Suji’s long face remained calm as he continued following the silhouette of the girl in the black dress.
"That stuff just became uninteresting."
Elsewhere, a plainly colored private car parked near Kamigoe High School.
In casual clothes, Hanamaru Hiroki and Ishibashi Kesuke exited the car.
On the opposite end of the street, separated by a wall, Ishibashi looked up at the teaching building of Kanzaki Togoshi Private Academy, and couldn’t help but sigh:
"The tuition here must be very expensive."
"Including educational fees, it’s 3,254,000 yen per year." With a bang, Hanamaru Hiroki closed the black door of the Toyota Crown behind him.
"That’s almost as much as my annual salary." Ishibashi Kesuke couldn’t help but curl his lips.
Hanamaru Hiroki hid the gun with the safety on, strapped to his waist, underneath his clothes:
"Kesuke, your future is promising. Work hard for a few years, and you’ll be promoted to Police Chief, and by then, the headquarters might transfer you to the Police Headquarters’ Investigative Division."
"Police Chief, is it the Investigation First Division?"
Ishibashi Kesuke’s pupils slightly trembled, and he suddenly bowed to him.
"No need to be so formal, this isn’t any special arrangement of mine."
Hanamaru Hiroki’s face showed no change of expression as he spoke with a normal tone, "This is just the typical career advancement path."
As he spoke, he glanced at the passing vehicles before him.
"Compared to other colleagues in your position, Kesuke, you lack a bit of confidence."
"Police Chief, Police Chief."
Ishibashi, turning his body, looked diagonally forward, cutting off Hanamaru Hiroki’s next words with a serious expression.
Along the pedestrian path on the opposite side of the road, Hanpe Suji was seen leaning his upper body against a tree trunk, lighting a cigarette, easily recognizable by his gaunt face.
"These guys were prepared."
In Hanamaru Hiroki’s view, this was already an action taken by the Kitagawa Association to kidnap his own daughter.
Although it’s unknown which faction within the Kitagawa Association did it, it’s not justifiable not to give these guys a thorough search for targeting his daughter.
And this smoking Hanpe Suji, he had an impression of this face in past cases, and had specially investigated the existing police records about him before the outing.
A former Zhuji Association thug, who went clean and was recruited by the young master of the Kitagawa Association.
This guy hadn’t made any noise in recent years and hadn’t committed any crimes. It seemed he was working as a guide in Kabuki-cho.
"That person has some skills, knows martial arts; don’t rush over, first observe if they have any accomplices."
Hanamaru Hiroki gestured for Ishibashi Kesuke to wait on the opposite side of the road.
"The Kitagawa Association members generally know me. You walk over there from the pedestrian path, pretend to be a passerby, flank him from behind, and you know what to do next."
Positioned as an Assistant Police Chief, Ishibashi Kesuke nodded solemnly and then walked towards the other end of the street where there were vending machines.
Hanamaru Hiroki sat back inside the Toyota Crown, staring at the small figure leaning against the tree trunk in the rearview mirror:
What is the Kitagawa Association planning by kidnapping my daughter? Do they have some new move to restrain me?
Moreover, according to little Sakura, there had already been harassing messages to Hanabi before; kidnapping shouldn’t involve such redundant things.