"Good."
Hayato did not refuse but chose a way to establish his authority: "Also, I need you to help me investigate someone."
"Who?" blonde with earrings on the other end asked cautiously.
"His name is—"
"Wait a moment, Murae," blonde with earrings shouted from his end, "You over there! Don't just stand there, get over here! Open your phone's notepad. We're doing something important! ...Murae, you can speak now."
"His name is Snake Mound George. The 'Snake' from 'poisonous snake,' the 'Mound' from 'mound of withered bones,' and that 'George' from 'George,'" Hayato said.
"That 'George'?" The person recording on the other end didn't quite understand.
"Idiot!" blonde with earrings said, "It's the George who's the brother of 'Little Turtle Peppa'—"
"Oh, oh. Got it, got it." The person recording nodded repeatedly.
Hayato was speechless. The scope of these delinquents' interests was somewhat peculiar.
"Murae, does Snake Mound George have any distinguishing features?" blonde with earrings asked.
"Yellow hair, wears earrings, has a lip ring, looks sinister, basically not a good person," Hayato said.
blonde with earrings on the phone gasped, "So similar?"
He was talking about himself, truly another version of himself in the world.
Hayato thought for a moment: "A bit darker than you."
"Alright, and then what? What do we do after we find out about him?" blonde with earrings asked.
Hayato thought for a moment: "Every time you see him, beat him up."
He had originally wanted blonde with earrings to try and penetrate deep, to extract all sorts of information about Snake Mound George, but such precise operations would likely test their intelligence. So, he chose a more stable, effective, and universally doable method.
"Understood!"
See, once it's within his professional scope, blonde with earrings agrees readily.
After hanging up the phone, Hayato smiled softly.
The delinquents going to find Snake Mound George was just a test—that guy's danger level was much higher than Aihara Yamato or East Gang, to the point where he could be considered a "creature" on a different dimension.
Hayato had to be prepared.
He interlaced his fingers, then stretched them out, his knuckles cracking with a series of crisp sounds.
He'll play with him!
Only after the class bell rang did Hayato walk into the classroom.
Sure enough, Yamamoto Sakito was still in the restroom and hadn't returned.
But a voice greeted him, "Hey, Lin."
It was Matsubara Ayumu.
Due to not communicating much recently, Hayato had almost forgotten that such a person existed.
"Look, isn't this the same Inspector who came to our school before?" Matsubara Ayumu asked, holding his phone.
Hayato had no interest in police officers or anything related.
Besides, he was still thinking about how to ensure Yayoi's safety.
Yayoi's life was very simple, basically a two-point line: the school where she worked and her home.
After something like this happened at school, Hayato just needed to give a heads-up, or have Miyajima Sakura notify the Student Council and committee members to post the news of "thieves entering the infirmary" and a drawing of Snake Mound George in the bulletin board. Then, Snake Mound George would basically not be able to cause trouble at school again.
As for her home...
Although it was directly across from Hayato's, he couldn't watch it all the time unless he moved in directly.
If he acted more assertively, Yayoi would certainly agree, but that might shock Aiya Hiroshi's young mind, and he'd have to deal with Aiya Hiroshi separately... He himself would be fine, but he was afraid Aiwu Guang wouldn't be able to accept it for a while.
Why not think of a compromise?
While Hayato was thinking, he glanced at the phone screen Matsubara Ayumu handed over.
It really was that America Inspector.
But what attracted Hayato more was the headline of the news article.
"Shocking! Black man in Shikenjaya actually did something so unsightly! Fortunately, he was stopped by the brave and fearless Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department inspector!"
Then there was a cool photo of a young Inspector wearing sunglasses, with evidence.
Below it was the main report.
Overall, it said that a Black man named "Mike" was going to rape an elementary school girl, but fortunately, a passing Inspector witnessed it. When reasoning and persuasion were completely ineffective, the Inspector reluctantly resorted to killing him.
The comments below were full of praise, such as:
"The demeanor of a Showa man!"
"This is the benchmark for our great Yamato people!"
"Expel them, leave no one behind!"
...Such replies were everywhere.
If he hadn't known the truth, Hayato would have given this Inspector a thumbs-up.
But he knew that the Black man was already a Bakugan Boy before he died. Let alone being severely injured, even if he were unharmed, he couldn't have done anything to an elementary school girl.
Hayato clicked on the video.
Goodness, there was even a blurred interview video of the elementary school girl, and of course, her voice was also processed, quite electronic.
She cried when facing the camera, cried when facing the camera, couldn't say a single word, truly pitiful... What a load of crap.
This guy even specifically found an actor!
Keep it simple! Speak simply!
Hayato looked again at the triumphant young Inspector in the photo, noticing his police badge.
Damn it, no wonder you became a Inspector at twenty-one.
"Black people are truly terrifying," Matsubara Ayumu said with lingering fear.
"Train hard and strive to become melanin in the future," Hayato patted Matsubara Ayumu's shoulder.
"Okay!" Matsubara Ayumu nodded heavily.
For the safety of elementary school girls! I must run well!
Just as the Showa man was feeling a surge of emotion, Hayato was contemplating other matters.
Mike was probably dead.
He had observed that Mike hadn't returned to the apartment during this time.
But it was only now that he dared to truly confirm it.
Hmm... If that's the case...
Hayato narrowed his eyes.
...
After school, he skipped Kendo Club activities again.
Then he went to the resident next to his own "Unit 404." Seeing no one around, he pulled out a steel wire, pressed "F," and then inserted it into the lock cylinder. With a series of wiggles, the lock groaned and began to tremble slightly.
Hayato poked it a few more times.
The lock cylinder opened.
The door's defenses also collapsed, completely opening for Hayato.
Hayato easily stepped into Mike's room.
He looked at the steel wire in his hand, then back at the lock cylinder of the door.
"...Damn it." He quickly put the steel wire away.
It felt like the steel wire had screwed the key...
The smell inside the room was not pleasant.
There was a fragrance combining dead fish and fox.
Due to the windows being closed for a long time and the frequent rain recently, there were even some mold spots in the corners of this dark, unoccupied room.
The trash in the room hadn't been thrown out either, and he didn't know if there were any insects.
However, Hayato wasn't interested in any of that.
He tiptoed into the room.
It wasn't that he was afraid of people finding traces of intrusion later; in fact, the police in this world probably didn't have such a keen sense of smell. The professional level of Inspectors here could roughly be compared to the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, which, without Conan, hired Kogoro Mouri as a consultant.
It was just pure disgust.
However, Hayato, with the help of his X-ray glasses, still found the item he wanted, as if in a garbage heap.
A surveillance camera.
Previously, Negro tried to use it against him, but his tech level was several tiers higher than Negro's, so he was counter-killed instead.
The one in Hayato's room had already been taken down, and he hadn't damaged it; it should still be usable after some tinkering.
Moreover, Hayato remembered that Negro had bought more than one.
Mike probably also wanted to install one at Yukino Fuyumi's house, but he ran into the fact that Mrs. Yukino was a vigilant single woman, who even installed an extra anti-theft door in front of her apartment, guarding the chastity of her fragile apartment door, preventing it from being easily penetrated by something else.
He rummaged through it twice more.
There really was one.
And perhaps to be on the safe side, he had actually bought an extra one, which meant Hayato now had three usable cameras in his hand.
After getting them, Hayato casually glanced around again.
Then....
Hmph, there was even an unexpected gain.
He opened the closet and took out a small box from inside, which had a seemingly professional combination lock on it; this thing couldn't be picked with a wire....
But Mike made a fatal mistake!!
He probably had some serious mental illness; although there was a lock on this box, he didn't lock it at all.
Inside were fifty thousand yen in cash.
Fifty thousand.
Even if converted to RMB, that's a huge sum of over twenty thousand yuan.
Is it that easy to make money in Tokyo for Negro? The cameras he bought weren't cheap at all... and although he might have some serious mental illness, the way he handled these fifty thousand yen so casually somewhat showed that Mike didn't really care much about it.
In other words, Negro didn't even care about these fifty thousand yen.
Then why would he rent such a dilapidated apartment?
Hayato thought about it for a moment, but since the person had gone to pick cotton in the underworld, he didn't think too much.
Adhering to the principle of "I saw it, so it's mine," he put the fifty thousand yen in his pocket.
The amount of fifty thousand was quite large.
He needed to put it in two pockets.
There was a strong sense of happiness.
He quietly exited the room door and then locked it from the inside with a wire.
Just as he was about to go back to his own home to research other things, he heard someone talking upstairs.
"Madam, you're making this very difficult for me." It was Takahashi Administrator.
"But, but... can't you give me two more days?" Yukino Fuyumi said timidly.
"Two days, then two more days, then two more days, it's almost two quarters, Madam!" Takahashi Administrator said helplessly: "...This apartment isn't mine, I'm just an administrator, I don't have the power to let you indefinitely delay paying rent."
"But, but...."
"You have to give me an answer today, Madam..." Takahashi Administrator sighed: "If you don't want to move out just like that."
Hayato originally didn't want to get involved, but after thinking about it, he still walked up and asked:
"What happened?"
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