Officer Furuta moved incredibly fast. From grinning to suddenly reaching out and pulling a hair from Kurozawa's head took less than a second. The shift in his movements was completely unlike what you'd expect from someone with his rounded physique.
He was indeed a well-trained veteran police officer.
However, the moment he reached out, Kurozawa noticed.
His first instinct was to slightly turn his body, intending to restrain Furuta.
But when Kurozawa realized Furuta's target wasn't to attack him, but merely to pull out a single strand of his hair, Kurozawa abruptly stopped his counter-attack.
If he had used his strength on Furuta, this government employee, already well into his fifties, might have gloriously died in the line of duty on the spot.
There was no reason to stop him.
It was because Kurozawa remembered a small method devised by a human expert to test for Parasitic Organisms.
A Parasitic Organism is a unified aggregate that can change and also split.
Something like Lefty, for example, could easily split into three, and each tiny Lefty would possess independent consciousness, though they could be centrally managed.
But their ability to split themselves wasn't unlimited.
If the split portion was very, very small, due to carrying too little consciousness, it wouldn't be enough to control a body, nor would it be able to communicate with the main consciousness.
The result was that after struggling for a moment, it would turn to dust and vanish.
Even if the Parasitic Organism discovered this, it couldn't stop the process.
Kurozawa was now completely clear about Furuta's intentions.
Although Lefty had acted alone at the time, and Kurozawa himself had hidden in a blind spot of the surveillance, providing him with an alibi, it was precisely because of Lefty's independent action that there might still be traces of human manipulation behind it.
Kurozawa, who had been present at the crime scene at the same time, was under considerable suspicion.
While the Parasitic Organisms were still underestimating humans, viewing them as mere food and prey, the human side was already secretly researching the weak points of Parasitic Organisms.
It was likely only a few individual Parasitic Organisms, similar to Ryoko Tamiya, who could realize that their situation was actually very dangerous.
"Officer Furuta, what are you doing?"
Kurozawa turned around, staring at Furuta's hand, his brows furrowed, feigning displeasure.
At the same time, Furuta pinched a short black hair between two fingers, his right hand on his waist, leaning against the door, maintaining distance, and looking at Kurozawa with vigilance.
This posture lasted for about five seconds.
Because research had shown that extremely tiny split off portions of a Parasitic Organism would die three seconds after leaving the body. If there was no change after five seconds, it essentially meant the warning was cleared.
Seeing that Kurozawa's hair was normal, Furuta scratched his head and quickly said, "Sorry, sorry, I thought I saw a spider on your hair just now, and I instinctively reached out."
"Getting old, my eyesight isn't as good as young people's. I must have been mistaken."
His right hand naturally moved away from his waist.
Kurozawa glanced out of the corner of his eye. At Furuta's waist, the hem of his coat slightly bulged, as if hiding something inside.
It was clearly a firearm.
Kurozawa didn't pursue the matter, merely nodding lightly and saying, "Officer, your eyes are getting bad. You should retire quickly."
"After all, this is the era of young people now."
This was a verbal counter-attack.
It wasn't painful or itchy, but Kurozawa didn't want to expose himself right now, so he didn't take a more aggressive approach.
Furuta's arrival, claiming to ask Kurozawa relevant questions, was a pretense. His true intention was to confirm whether he was human or a Parasitic Organism.
So, after confirming that Kurozawa was not a Parasitic Organism, Furuta had no intention of staying any longer.
Kurozawa wasn't the only suspect.
Everyone who had entered or left the police station that day, or who had interacted with Uragami, would be targeted and quickly tested one by one.
Afterward, Furuta symbolically asked Kurozawa a few questions.
For example, where he went immediately after leaving the police station that day, where he stopped along the way, and what time he returned home. Kurozawa told him everything truthfully, without any concealment.
Lefty was the one who killed the person, what did that have to do with him, Kurozawa? A few minutes later, Furuta stood by the door and said, "That's all. Thank you both for your cooperation."
"See you again sometime."
Perhaps feeling the last sentence was inappropriate, he changed it, "Or perhaps not." Encountering the police checking up on you is generally not a good thing.
Kurozawa nodded indifferently.
At the same time, his gaze subtly swept over the nearby streets, walls, corners, and other places.
There were pedestrians lingering in those places. After noticing Furuta leave, they quickly followed, without a moment's delay.
These people were generally well-built, walked with steady steps, and wore coats like trench coats. Their hands were not visible, as if they were holding something.
Coats were very suitable for concealing things they carried.
They didn't even bother to hide it a little... But then again, even if this behavior seemed strange to a high school student, it wasn't a big deal.
After watching Furuta leave, Kana poked her head out and said, "I feel like that was strange."
"Did he come to our house just to ask some irrelevant questions like that?"
Kana's thoughts were sometimes quite sharp. In the end, she clearly felt that Officer Furuta's questioning was very perfunctory. It had a feel of just going through the motions, wanting to wrap things up quickly.
Kurozawa said, "Who knows? Being a police officer is just a job, after all."
"In any job, there are always people who just half-ass it."
Kana nodded, deep in thought, but when she thought about it carefully, she couldn't come up with anything specific.
The two walked into the house. Perhaps because of the unexpected police visit, Kana seemed a bit excited and talked more than usual.
She tugged at Kurozawa, showering him with affection, not letting him go back to his room, insisting he watch TV with her for a while.
Although her actions were intimate, she maintained a certain distance, acting like a younger sister being spoiled. Because of this, Kurozawa didn't resist.
After their conversation that night, Kana had become much more well-behaved, seemingly content to just see herself as a sister. Perhaps she was afraid of annoying Kurozawa, so she had temporarily reined in her thoughts.
A children's anime was playing on the TV. Kurozawa was watching with great interest, while Kana's goal was to chat, so she took the initiative to speak to Kurozawa.
"Nii-san, what do you want to do in the future?"
Kana took off her shoes, revealing her delicate feet. She curled up her legs and nestled in the corner of the sofa.
On the surface, she was watching TV, but in reality, she was observing Kurozawa out of the corner of her eye.
Although she had seen this face for over a decade, she could never get tired of looking at it.
So, the scene now was Kurozawa watching TV with great interest, and Kana watching Kurozawa with great interest.
Kurozawa's attention was on the TV, but he still spared some thought to answer, "Open a small bookstore."
He just said it casually. A peaceful life wasn't what Kurozawa desired. Right now, he only wanted to experience the diverse and colorful world of the infinite, to meet different people and discover different things. Only that novelty could make Kurozawa feel happy.
Including his three lifetimes, his actual age was already over seventy years old. There weren't many things that could make Kurozawa happy, and he was actively pursuing happiness.
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