If I don't have money to go to college, I can only go to slay the dragon.

The wine glass hit the glass table in the corner booth area hard. The harsh sound scared the people around them and involuntarily shrugged their shoulders. They looked towards the source of the sound in surprise. After seeing clearly the man sitting in the booth. When he saw his face, everyone averted their eyes and continued to do their own things, as if they had seen a ghost.

The neon lights in the nightclub were flashing brightly, and songs from the Japanese heavy metal band Loudness in the 1980s were playing on the dance floor. Okubo Ryoichi placed his hands on his thighs to beat the rhythm, and his whole body shook involuntarily to the music.

Opposite him, the nightclub owner and his wife were also trembling, but it was not because of the loud and exciting music, but because of the young man in front of them who was wearing a white suit and amber glasses.

"I remembered a joke." Okubo picked up the wine glass that cracked the glass table and poured another drink into his mouth: "You all know that people in our industry value their territory, right?"

The nightclub owner and his wife didn't dare to speak, they just nodded like sieving chaff.

Okubo Ryoi suddenly slammed the bar glass on the table, causing even bigger cracks: "You have to answer me when I ask you questions! Bastards!"

"Hi! Hi! I know, we all know, I'm really sorry." The couple's hearts trembled. If they weren't sitting on the sofa, they would have wanted to get off the couch and apologize immediately.

"Don't you know this? Next time you know it, answer it clearly for me, idiots, otherwise the joke will be meaningless!" Okubo Ryo looked at the two people expressionlessly.

"Hi! Hi! Say it, please say it." The owner of the nightclub is an old guy. Facing a man of this age who can be his son, sweat breaks out on his face. He doesn't even dare to pull out his collar without the other person's permission. wipe sweat with handkerchief.

"I suddenly have no interest in talking anymore." Okubo Ryoichi said lightly: "A senior told me that telling one or two jokes to relax the atmosphere before talking about business will help the subsequent work go smoothly, but I have always felt that in our work Talking business means carrying a knife or a loaded gun in the waistband of your back, but sometimes a joke won't save me a trip to the suit dry cleaners or a bullet."

The nightclub owner noticed that Okubo Ryoichi had a protrusion on his waist due to his sitting posture. Having been on the streets of Shinjuku for many years, he certainly knew what was underneath, and he naturally understood that things today would probably not go well.

Okubo Ryoichi took out a pack of Gentle Seven Stars from his arms, shook one out and put it in his mouth. The nightclub proprietress's hands and feet were trembling, but with a forced smile on her face, she held a lighter and lit a cigarette for him.

"There used to be a guy in our group who didn't wince." Okubo Ryoichi said: "He hid someone from a rival group at home. After he was discovered, he chose to cut off his fingers to apologize. The group leader asked for his middle finger, so he cut off his middle finger. He wrapped it in tissue and gave it to the team leader, who asked him to cut it again because what the team leader wanted was his right middle finger, so he cut it into his left hand.”

The couple in the booth did not dare to express their anger, because there was a sharp dagger with an edge on the table next to the wine bottle.

"So the unlucky man cut off the middle finger of his right hand again and sent it to the team leader, but the team leader still got angry and sent him away with a bullet." Okubo Ryoichi shrugged: "Afterwards, we asked the team leader why, then Didn’t the guy cut off both of his fingers? The team leader said that the middle finger I wanted at the beginning was the middle finger of his right foot! It was never a finger!"

In the booth, the boss and his wife had pale faces, but they had to work hard to move their muscles and let out stiff, crying laughter.

Taking a deep breath of smoke through his lungs, holding his breath, and exhaling the smoke, Okubo Ryoichi said: "The joke is over. You know why I came to visit you today. People in our industry are very reasonable. If you achieve your goal, you will stop. If you don't achieve your goal, you will stop." No matter what the means, I think you are too old. Cutting off your ears or chopping off your fingers will probably not make it to the second round, but it doesn’t matter. I heard that you have a daughter who is 17 years old and in high school."

"Please be sure not to attack Liangzi!" The boss suddenly knelt down from the sofa to the floor. The shocking joke did not make him collapse. The moment the word "daughter" came out, as a father, he was finally relieved of his useless defense.

"It depends on your attitude. Your daughter and I are only three or four years apart. Maybe you still have a chance for me to respectfully call you daddy." Okubo Ryoichi puffed out his cigarette and sneered: "I Again, give me the name I want.”

"I don't know."

Okubo Ryoichi threw down the cigarette butt, picked up the ashtray and slammed it on the glass table. The ashtray shattered into pieces, and a huge sound passed through the entire dance floor. Many guests were frightened, and they all realized when they saw the worsening situation in the booth. Seriousness, silently flowing towards the door under the cover of music.

"Don't expect anyone to call the Metropolitan Police. I didn't get the name today. If I burned your shop, no one would come to ask." Okubo Ryoichi lowered his head and carefully cleaned the glass shards left by the ashtray on his hand. .

"I told you not to provoke those people, you say it, but you say it! She's just a woman, isn't she as important as Liangzi?" The boss's wife seemed to have an emotional breakdown. She sat on the sofa and patted her hands twice. Face.

"In three months, there were 16 new missing cases in Shinjuku." Okubo Ryoichi poured wine into his glass: "4 were normal homicides, 2 were unknown, 5 were our own, and the remaining 5 are special. They are all vicious cases in nature. And these five missing human lives are what I am responsible for investigating."

"We noticed that three of the cases occurred in your store, so we thought you should know something. Your wife also let it slip just now. It seems that the person who committed the crime was a woman. I want her name." Okubo Ryoichi took a sip of wine.

"Shouldn't the Metropolitan Police Department do this kind of thing? Why would people like you do it?" The boss lay on the ground with his head hanging down and muttered to himself as if he was lost in thought.

"We will control what the Metropolitan Police Department can control, and we will control what the Metropolitan Police Department cannot control." Okubo Ryoichi said calmly: "From the moment I walked into your nightclub, shouldn't you know who I am?"

"The Ben family." The boss caught a glimpse of the colorful tattoos under the cuffs of Okubo Ryoichi's white suit and finally gave up his last chance: "I was just forced. She noticed that I noticed her, so she threatened me not to take her." Tell the truth or she will."

"Will she take revenge on you and kill your whole family, including your daughter Liangzi, who is in high school?" Okubo Ryo nodded: "It seems that you have had direct contact with the person I am looking for. Please describe her appearance to me."

"An oval face, short black shoulder-length hair, and a mole under the eye." The boss finally accepted his fate and began to tell timidly.

Okubo Ryoichi wrote down what he said one by one. At the end of the sentence, the boss paused: "Name. She said her name is Mieko. If I tell her name, she will take revenge on me and kill my whole family."

"A fake name for a bad street." Okubo Ryoichi shook his head: "The Mieko you are talking about is now suspected to be related to five lives. The victims were all men who lived alone in nightclubs. She took three men away from your nightclub. Then The mutilated bodies of the three men were found in the mixer at the construction site. She is very dangerous. If you see him in the nightclub again, don’t call the police, call us and we will deal with it.”

After that, Okubo Ryoichi took out a business card and put it on the table. After getting the information he wanted, he changed his previous violent and unreasonable attitude, and his tone instantly calmed down: "I'm sorry for causing you financial losses. The topic about your daughter is just a necessary means to extract a confession. If you want to appeal, please call our complaint hotline."

The boss knelt on the ground tremblingly and did not dare to get up. He only waited for Okubo Ryōichi to get up and walk to the door of the nightclub and leave completely before he fell to the ground like a puddle of mud. Under the heavy metal music, only the music in the booth could be heard. The wife yelled and there was the sound of glass breaking.

*

Okubo Ryoichi walked out of the nightclub. It was eight o'clock in the evening. The winter night came quickly. The streets of Shinjuku, which were bustling with lights and feasting, were already a bit drunk. The streets were full of office workers carrying briefcases after get off work looking for fun. The lights were on The light from far to near is haloed with an elliptical white light, which is dim and blurry.

He lit a cigarette, leaned against the wall, exhaled the smoke, and waited with his eyes lowered. The Shibuya girls passing by on the street winked at him and talked to him. He said nothing and waited until the cigarette in his hand was finished before throwing away the butt. He took out his mobile phone from his suit and made a call.

A few seconds later, an old man's voice rang on the phone: "This is Hasegawa Yoshitaka."

"Team leader, it's me, Ryoichi." Okubo Ryoichi said: "I found a clue. The owner of the nightclub has indeed had contact with the target person. I got the target person's pseudonym, appearance and gender information. I want to follow it. If we follow this line of investigation and use Kaguya to mobilize Shinjuku's surveillance system, we can probably follow the clues and find the target. That'll be it then."

"About this matter." The old man suddenly interrupted Okubo Ryoichi: "There are new arrangements from above. You don't need to continue to pursue it."

Okubo Ryo was stunned for a moment. The other end of the phone seemed to be waiting for him to digest the information without making a sound. After a long time, he took a long puff of cigarette and leaned against the wall, watching the people coming and going on the street: "It's an execution Has the bureau taken over the case? I understand, I will take my hand and compile all the currently known intelligence and hand it over to their people."

"Don't get emotional, Ryoichi. I know you are eager to prove yourself to my family, but sometimes there are special circumstances." The old man said calmly.

"." Okubo Ryoichi said nothing.

"What's more, the reason why your mission was interrupted is because there is a new mission to give you a mission that is more important than what you are currently investigating." The old man said.

"A mission more important than tracking down 'B+'-level dangerous hybrids?" Okubo Ryoichi, who was smoking, was stunned.

"It was issued directly by the head of the Inuyama family."

Okubo Ryoichi put down the cigarette in his hand, and his face suddenly became serious. This was a tribute to the old man sitting in the position of 'Head of the Inuyama Family'. Anyone who hangs around in the Shinjuku circle will be shocked when they hear this name. This kind of respect should be shown. In this bustling paradise, amidst the feasting and feasting, the old man undoubtedly holds absolute authority, under one person.

"What is the specific mission?" Okubo Ryoichi took a deep breath and prepared himself mentally. A mission more terrifying than tracking down dangerous hybrids, searching for a dirty bomb brought in by his family's sworn enemy in Shinjuku? Sneaking into the 'Fierce Ghosts' alone and becoming an inside agent? No matter what it was, he was ready to die for the cause.

"I remember Ryoichi, you are turning 21 this year, right?" the old man asked suddenly.

"To be precise, I'm already 21. Is there any age requirement for the task of celebrating my birthday in January?" Okubo Ryoichi raised his eyebrows.

"I heard you have a younger brother at home?" the old man asked again.

"Does this mission have anything to do with my brother?" Okubo Ryo's heart sank.

"It doesn't matter, I'm just asking to see if you have any experience in taking care of children." The old man smiled: "After all, you are the only one in our group who is the most suitable."

"Take care of the kids?"

On the streets of Shinjuku, Okubo Ryoichi's expression suddenly became strange.