After Amuro came up with that theory, he eyed Anonymous, his gaze sharpening. "Where's Jiang Xia?"
There was a brief pause before Amuro couldn't help but ask again, "Did you slash my tire? You've been following us, haven't you?"
"..."
Anonymous hesitated as she adjusted her skirt.
Amuro narrowed his eyes slightly, wondering which question was the one she was actually going to answer.
But then Anonymous stepped onto the steep eaves outside the window, shook her head, and finally picked just one question to respond to. "I didn't follow you on purpose."
Amuro was skeptical. In just a few days, he'd run into Anonymous twice—once when she even approached him on her own. "You're not telling me all of this is just a coincidence, are you?"
"It's not a coincidence, but it's not intentional either." Anonymous took a step back, speaking cryptically, "I'm here just because... we're everywhere."
... After all, as we all know, there are countless anonymous clones. Anyone can be Anonymous. Anonymous can be anyone.
Amuro stared at her, thinking about it for a moment. The name was just a way to avoid answering the important stuff. It was all still a mystery.
He was about to ask another question, but before he could speak, he suddenly froze and dashed forward.
But before he even got close, Anonymous had already stepped off the eaves and vanished into the thick darkness below.
Amuro clicked his tongue, wanting to rush back under the tower. But as he turned around, he found himself face-to-face with Suzuki Sonoko, who looked absolutely horrified.
"You... you pushed them down?!" Suzuki Sonoko gasped in horror.
"..."
Amuro was silent for a moment, holding the new pot in his hand. It hit him suddenly—he'd probably been wrong about his choice of words.
He sighed, "I wanted to catch her."
...
Meanwhile, Jiang Xia's consciousness slowly returned to his body. He'd been waiting in the secret passage for what felt like ages. Then, after a while, he saw Miyano Akemi leading a bunch of souls, floating in through the wall.
The shikigami seemed pretty pleased with how things were turning out. The ghost mint hadn't gone to waste.
Jiang Xia crouched down, picking up the souls one by one, signing the contracts, and pinching them for a while before slowly placing them back into the tattoo on his body, preparing to "bump into" the people coming his way.
The castle's layout was confusing—secret paths crisscrossed everywhere, and hidden doors were scattered about. One wrong step, and you'd be lost. On top of that, someone had gone out of their way to block certain paths. So wandering around for an hour wasn't out of the question.
...
After Anonymous jumped off the tower, the four people at the top of the tower quickly gave chase. But they didn't seem too flustered—after all, they'd already seen Anonymous jump off a Shinkansen with a bomb strapped to her, so they figured she wouldn't just die from falling off a tower.
As it turned out, they were right.
There were no Anonymous corpse under the tower, and no injured Anonymous cadre waiting to be picked up. All that was left was the old lady's corpse.
Even though it seemed like a life-or-death situation, the group couldn't figure out where the others(Jiangxia) were inside the castle. So they didn't go to help with the body retrieval and instead pressed forward into the castle's secret passages to look for the others.
And they found Jiang Xia.
After meeting up with his teammates, Jiang Xia quickly gave them the lowdown and then casually mentioned that there was a skeleton in the secret passage.
The other four were immediately drawn to the body, especially the two detectives—they quickly started piecing together the story and connected it to the "old lady" who had fallen to her death under the tower. Slowly, they worked out the cause and effect.
...
The next day, the phone lines were fixed, and the police arrived quickly, along with the car that Amuro had called for.
When Amuro popped open the trunk to check the tires, Jiang Xia leaned in to take a look as well. This time, the tires were packed away in a locked metal box.
Jiang Xia blinked. "..."
He was momentarily shocked, but soon relaxed again.
—If they encountered another case later, there was no need to bite the spare tire at all. As long as no one was looking, he could hide it under the car and break the other tires on the car. Cars needed four good tires after all. It would be impossible for Amuro to take four spare tires on the road.
But unfortunately, the ride back was smooth and uneventful.
The five of them sighed in relief when they finally spotted the familiar streets of Beika-cho.
Four of them were glad to have arrived at their destination, while one of them had a hint of regret.
...
The organization had specific regulations, like writing a report after completing a task.
This was supposed to be Amuro's responsibility, but he had left it to his apprentice.
After Jiang Xia returned to Tokyo, he first went to Dr. Agasa's house and brought back the cats and dogs that had been left there. He hadn't been home the last few days, and though the bad people's search for his pets hadn't stopped, someone still had to take care of them.
So, Jiang Xia used his tool man, the grandfather, Dr. Agasa, the neighbor. In the past, when helping Dr.Agasa test his new inventions, Jiang Xia had often ended up getting blown up. So when it came to asking the neighbor for help, he felt pretty confident.
Jiang Xia brought his pets to the office, and while waiting around for work to come in, he filled out the task report based on the sample Amuro had given him.
By evening, he'd successfully finished the work.
He was about to send the report to the specified mailbox when the phone suddenly rang. He recognized the ringtone—it was the special line for contacting the organization.
Jiang Xia hesitated, then picked up the phone.
Gin's voice came through the receiver: "Where are you now?"
Jiang Xia chewed on the question and felt something was off—if it were a task, Gin would usually say something like "Come to ×××," but he wouldn't just ask "Where are you" out of the blue. It was more like a police investigation alibi question.
Yeah, the more he thought about it, the more it seemed like it.
And that tone from Gin? It sounded murderous. If only he were closer, Jiang Xia thought he could pull out some juicy details…
Jiang Xia absentmindedly fiddled with the ghost on his leg as he replied, "In the office."
He glanced out the window at the gloomy sky.
Just as he'd moved in with the cats and dogs, it started raining.
With this weather and the time of day… Jiang Xia suddenly wondered: Could it be that Sherry defected?
Sure enough, Gin mentioned her codename in the next sentence. But before he could finish, the back of the sofa Jiang Xia was leaning against was knocked on.
Jiang Xia turned around and saw Amuro standing there, having returned at some point. He was holding out his hand, seemingly asking for the phone.
*Goal #1: Top 200 fanfics published within the last 30 days by POWER STONES.
Progress: 46/50(approx) for 10 BONUS CHAPTERS
Goal #2: One BONUS CHAPTER per review for the first 10 REVIEWS.
Progress:0/10*
Glossary:
Tool Man – Refers to someone being used for menial tasks or as a helper, often with no respect or recognition.
Throw the Pot – A Chinese expression, meaning to shift blame or responsibility onto someone else.