death of hope

Chapter 909: "Wild Growth" (322) Nothing Happened in New Sapporo
Black Neck imitated the tone of the internet celebrity in the short video and said in a pretentious manner:

"Hey! Guess what!

As an old Sapporo person, I like this dish as soon as I open my eyes in the morning. It is so authentic~"

"Hahaha! You're pretty good at imitating me~" The lady boss laughed so hard that she kept coughing, and some of the soup in the bowl spilled out:
"Shut up, little brat, and eat your food."

Heibo rubbed his hands, opened the disposable chopsticks, and prepared to enjoy the long-awaited breakfast.

"いただきます!"

(I'm starting!)
It still has the familiar old taste, with strong ingredients and a strong flavor. It is too salty for the light oden, and it makes my throat choke.

The tofu, kelp, crab sticks, fish balls and udon noodles in the bowl are all pre-prepared dishes that are made with great technology and hard work, which is completely contrary to the popular organic and healthy concept today.

But in the face of ridiculously low prices, health and other things are no longer a problem.

·
All the people dining in the restaurant are old neighbors and regular customers. Without exception, they all work in tiring and low-paying jobs at the bottom of society.

At the table next to Black Neck, a cleaning lady in a blue uniform was chatting about celebrity gossip, and an electrician with a tester stuck in his chest was talking about the football playoffs.

The couriers wearing cat-ear helmets were talking about last night's gang fight. Two couriers started arguing with each other over whether the Sanno-kai or the Kyokushin group won.

The downtown area of ​​the bustling city, the forgotten slums, the bustling atmosphere of fireworks,

Ryuji Kimura likes this messy, dirty and noisy feeling. This is his territory, his home.

His mind was full of thoughts about the fight, and he was just focused on eating. He wasn't interested in what other people were talking about, and whatever they were saying went in one ear and out the other.

After filling his stomach and burping, the young man immediately became full of energy and was eager to do something big.
He walked to the front desk, dropped a few coins into the shabby jar to pay the bill, skillfully took out a piece of toilet paper, wiped his mouth, and left.

For some reason, the bus station was packed with workers in a hurry. There were usually a lot of people during the morning rush hour, but never as outrageous as today.

Heibo waited for three buses in a row but couldn't get on. He looked at his watch and it was still very early, with plenty of time to waste. He thought Xuexiao was not too far away, so he decided to walk there.

·
The motorway was extremely congested, with cars jammed one after another, and there was no end in sight.
My ears were filled with the beeping of car horns and the curses of drivers greeting each other's ancestors.

On the sidewalk, you can see students and office workers running everywhere, holding slices of bread in their mouths.

An old double-decker bus opened its doors, and the passengers inside, unable to bear the congestion any longer, poured out in droves to join the walking army of wage earners and poor students.

"Oh my god, there's a lot of traffic here. It's really lively today."

Black Neck was whistling, his hands in his pockets, and he was walking among the crowd like a classic street urchin.

As a student of Kurose, he didn't have to worry about being late for class. He would just smoke and play cards to kill time when he got to school anyway.
For these poor students who have been abandoned by society, they have already given up and drinking and fighting are the real thing.

Walking slowly through the block and arriving at the intersection, Black Neck quickly found the cause of the traffic jam.

Several Volvo trucks were parked at the intersection, and a group of workers wearing helmets were busy unloading the trucks.
The workers pieced together the iron fence boards to form a long, high wall, keeping passers-by and cars out.

·
This temporary high wall blocked two of the four lanes, and the opposite "Shimokitazawa" district was also completely blocked.
The commuter roads became extremely narrow, which caused serious traffic congestion.
Many civilians who were working and going to school in Shimokitazawa were blocked outside the wall, and they were all emotionally protesting loudly.
To prevent anyone from pushing down the wall panels, a group of explosion-proof special police wearing polymer plastic armor and holding transparent shields waved sticks and stood in a row to guard.

"This is the first time I see so many police officers~" Black Neck said to himself in surprise.

A van with a City Hall on top and a high-powered speaker on top was parked behind the riot police, playing a harsh AI-generated recording on a loop:

"Hello, citizens of Sapporo. Due to a burst underground water pipe on this road section, the relevant engineering units are carrying out emergency construction. We apologize for the inconvenience caused to everyone!"

The people stuck in the middle of the road didn’t want to hear that. The workers and students who were about to have their wages and credits deducted for being late were all cursing:
"Spicy next door! Can't you fix it in the middle of the night? Do you have to fix it during the morning rush hour?!"

·
A group of old men with crutches stood by the roadside watching the excitement. Heibo heard them talking:

"They are lying. My daughter-in-law is still washing clothes. The water supply has not been cut off at all."

"Why are they making such a big fuss, blocking roads and repairing water pipes?" "To make ends meet. If they don't force themselves to find work, how can they make money?"

"I know what happened. It was to cover up the gang fight last night."

"How can it be so exaggerated? You are such an old man, you keep talking about conspiracy theories."

"What conspiracy theory? The gunshots last night sounded like firecrackers during Chinese New Year. Didn't you hear them?"

"I didn't hear anything. I was sleeping soundly."

"I see. He doesn't wear hearing aids when he sleeps~"

After listening to the old men's conversation, Black Neck felt puzzled and asked:

"Old man, isn't the Kyokushin Group's headquarters on Matsui Street? Why are they here to fight?"

"The main battlefield is indeed on Matsui Street," the old man said, weighing the shogi pieces.

"But there is more than one battlefield. The two gangs are powerful and have more territory. Last night, they also fought on the opposite side of Shimokitazawa Street.
Judging from the sound of gunfire, many people must have died.
The colonial governor and the underworld are in cahoots, and the police pretended to block the scene to cover up the truth, but they were actually helping the underworld to clean up their name!"

"Oh, that's what's going on. You are quite knowledgeable, old man."

"I have a grandson who is not doing his job and hangs out on the streets. He occasionally delivers drinks to the Sanwangkai casino and gets some gossip."

·
Heibo handed over a cigarette, thanked the old man, and walked along the makeshift high wall until he came to a secluded place with few people.

After looking around and seeing no police, he stole a ladder from a nearby construction site, leaned it against the wall, climbed over the high wall and jumped into the Shimokitazawa neighborhood:
"Hey, let's take a shortcut and see what's going on inside."

Residents of the Shimokitazawa district seemed to have been evacuated or ordered not to go out. The streets were empty and bullet holes were clearly visible on the locked roller shutters of shops along the street.

Black Neck walked cautiously along the wall, passed through several buildings, sniffed, and detected a strong smell of blood in the wind:
(What the hell is that smell? It's fishy and smelly. Is there a slaughterhouse nearby?)

After passing another building, we heard the sound of water splashing. Several red fire trucks were parked at the intersection, and firefighters wearing gas masks were washing the road with high-pressure water guns.

Black Neck hid in the bushes of the green belt and secretly checked the nearby drainage ditch. Finally, he found the source of the stench. There was a thick layer of blood scab floating on the water.
A large group of buzzing green bean flies were greedily sucking the floating grease and coagulated blood, and crows with black feathers were pecking at the pieces of meat and brains floating in the water.

·
(The old man was right. This was one of the battlefields of gang fights.)
Heibo felt a burning pain in his esophagus and stomach acid churned up. He was so nauseous that he almost vomited his breakfast, but he covered his mouth and forced himself to hold it in.

(This is how many people died...)
Crouching along the green belt, some National Guard soldiers in camouflage uniforms were bending over to collect weapons scattered on the street. Various guns and samurai swords were stacked on a pickup truck and ready to be taken away.

As we continued to move forward, we found many medical staff wearing white plastic biohazard protective suits.

These people were putting complete bodies or shapeless body parts into body bags, loading them into refrigerated trucks and transporting them away...

Ryuji Kimura (Black Neck) prides himself on being brave and a tough guy, and he is always the first to rush forward in a group fight.

But now, after witnessing such a scene, he was so frightened that his calves cramped and his whole body trembled uncontrollably:

(Is this... a gang fight? It's different from what I imagined...

This is totally different from fighting... This is war, it's a life-threatening battle...)
·
Taking advantage of the guards' absence, Black Neck climbed out from the high wall of the blockade area.

His hands and feet were so cold from fright, his face was blue and purple, and he took out his lighter tremblingly and smoked two cigarettes before he felt better.

He began to regret his decision to take a shortcut. He saw something he shouldn't have seen and would definitely have a nightmare.

In the window of a roadside Sony electronics store, dozens of televisions of all sizes were stacked up, playing the latest Sapporo morning news.

The male and female hosts all had professional hypocritical smiles on their faces:
"The noise from last night to this morning was caused by the federal National Guard's nighttime air defense drill. This is the official and authoritative explanation. All other explanations are conspiracy theories.

Please do not believe rumors. The city is safe and the citizens live and work in peace and contentment. It is a thriving scene.
New Sapporo,
Nothing happened. ”