Demon Capital Slayer

Chapter 99 Friends of Friends
“Nogizaka Ruka,” Mitsurugi said, uttering a name.

"Huh? Junior, you know Nogizaka46 too?" Sakurai Toshio immediately raised his eyebrows, showing a rather surprised expression.

"We know each other." Yu Jian paused, then added, "We're friends."

At the same time, he looked at the other person with a very subtle expression. Calling a boy a little angel is a bit... although Nogizaka-san does have a very nice personality and is very cute.

No, that's not the point.

"So, you were a member of the paranormal club when you were in school?"

"Oh, I am Sakurai Toshio, who once served as the president of the Supernatural Society."

As he spoke, Sakurai Toshio exaggeratedly waved his hand in front of him several times. Just when Mitsurugi thought he was performing a fancy hand gesture, he then struck a standard chest-touching salute.

So it was you who left the notebook, which caused all that trouble with the psychic ritual...

I have a grudge about swordsmanship, but I'm not sure if I should say it.

The reason they were able to guess Sakurai Toshio's identity was because cultivators make up a very small percentage of the population; there might only be a few in each high school.

Combined with the other person's age, a conclusion can be drawn almost immediately.

However, with this connection, the two became familiar with each other, and their conversations naturally turned to school-related topics.

Mitsurugi's thinking was simple. Although Nogizaka might have some youthful naiveté, he was actually quite meticulous in his work, at least very discreet. The fact that his swift destruction of the old school building's corridors hadn't been exposed yet speaks volumes.

Therefore, since the other party is a friend of Nogizaka46, we can trust them to some extent, at least they are better than strangers.

After chatting for a while, Yujian learned that Sakurai Toshio had not been out of school for long and could tell that he was very similar to an ordinary male high school student in many ways, although he had some maturity of a working adult, but not much.

"How did you decide to make Nogizaka the club president? To be honest, he lacks prestige within the club."

"Mainly because he is a junior who is very passionate about paranormal research."

"..." Yu Jian glanced at it.

"And she is very kind."

Sakurai Toshio tried to deceive them, but under that indifferent gaze, he quickly chose to surrender and tell the truth.

"Well, actually it's because club activities need funding. The little money the school allocates to small clubs is barely enough to subscribe to a couple of poorly made magazines, and then they can't do anything else," the former president of the paranormal club said quite frankly.

"But shouldn't matters in the cultivation world be kept secret from ordinary people?"

"Ah, in practice, this matter isn't that strict. As long as it doesn't cause a large-scale mass incident, the countermeasures department won't hold it against you."

After all, most people only believe what they want to believe, and it's difficult for a few insiders to change public perception. This was no surprise to Toshio Sakurai.

“I see.” Yujian nodded. He had only learned of the existence of the Countermeasures Division yesterday. It was an organization on the Japanese island responsible for handling spiritual disasters. It seemed to have been newly established after the war, so it didn’t have any significant achievements.

"Junior, are you a newly debuted exorcist swordsman? You seem very academic in every way," Sakurai Toshio asked tentatively.

The term "academic" is a polite way of saying that people lack practical experience and rely entirely on books for knowledge.

"More or less, I've only seen a lot of things in the documents."

It's somewhat possible for an experienced player to pretend to be a newbie, but it's unrealistic for a newbie to pretend to be an experienced player.

Since the other party had shown such an open attitude, Yu Jian didn't try to hide anything either, since his real secrets weren't based on such superficial information.

Besides, he didn't tell the whole story. While knowledge does largely come from books, that doesn't mean there's no practical experience, especially in the realm of combat.

Yujian is quite good at this...

"Getting back to the point, junior, is there anything you need today?" Sakurai Toshio asked casually.

Yu Jian fell silent when asked the question.

"Okay, you can say that," he managed to squeeze out.

It's a bit awkward. I originally planned to check things out first, but I didn't expect everyone to know Nogizaka46. Even if a friend of a friend isn't a friend, they're practically an acquaintance. Now, I'm finding it a bit awkward to say something like "just looking, not buying."

“I originally had a request, but…” Yu Jian thought for a moment and decided to get straight to the point.

"To be honest, I was just asking if you were still hiring, and I also had some things I wanted to investigate, so... you could say I'm exchanging work for a commission?"

Yu Jian lowered his voice, but unfortunately he was really broke and things couldn't be delayed, otherwise he wouldn't have had the audacity to say such a thing.

“Uh…” Sakurai Toshio looked embarrassed. His situation was obviously far from wealthy, otherwise he wouldn’t have to live in the old town and only be able to open an office on the second floor of an old house.

Yu Jian understood perfectly. Although he was not good with words, he was very good at taking action.

He picked up the small fruit knife from the coffee table and casually tapped the empty soda bottle next to it.

With a snap, the glass soda bottle shattered into eighteen pieces.

Sakurai Toshio immediately swallowed back his words of polite refusal.

Staring wide-eyed at the smooth cut of the glass bottle, the dog god Milo beside him even stood up to look, his tail instinctively straightening.

"As you can see, I'm a newcomer." Yu Jian paused.

"Let's call him a swordsman for now."

After last night's fierce battle, his swordsmanship improved once again, and he became more and more adept at using the power to cut through iron. He vaguely realized what it meant to make heavy things seem light, and he could use the power to cut through iron in a more subtle and meticulous way.

“Aba aba…” Toshio Sakurai briefly lost the ability to speak.

It was Inugami Milo who spoke first. "Young man, to be honest, we can't afford to hire a swordsman. As for the fee for the investigation, that depends on the specifics."

"It was my oversight," Yu Jian said, taking a piece of paper out of his pocket.

The content was drawn in advance by him; it was exactly the brass brooches that the Yakuza wore in the photo.

"I would like to commission an investigation into which faction this brooch represents and to gather relevant intelligence, preferably information on their recent activities."

"The information we have suggests that the other party may belong to a certain violent group. If all else fails, we can just gather publicly available information. We can give up at any time if there are risks, the key is not to expose ourselves."

Yu Jian paused for a moment and then added, "Safety first."

“If that’s the case,” Milo pondered for a moment.

"Toshio, I think it's feasible."

"If the old man says it's okay, then of course I have no objection." Toshio Sakurai shrugged, offering no objection.

He knew his dog very well and knew that the dog god Milo had participated in various spiritual disaster relief work before his death. His experience and knowledge far surpassed his own, so he attached great importance to the old man's advice.

Speaking of which, a large dog's one-year-old is roughly equivalent to a human's teens. Rounding up, Sakurai Toshio can be considered to have an elder in the family, which is a great treasure.

"So, is there anything I can do for you, senior?" Yu Jian asked immediately. He disliked owing money and even more so, owing favors.

"No rush," Toshio Sakurai waved his hand.

"Judging from its shape, this mark seems to be a Prajna. If it's just an ordinary Yakuza, that's fine. But if it's related to the real 'Demon' clan, then I probably won't be able to help much."

The ghosts he referred to were not the spirits that people become after death as understood in China, but rather the unique monsters found in Japan.

Its appearance is similar to that of the Rakshasa in Buddhist scriptures. It is fierce and warlike, ugly in appearance but extremely strong. Its most distinctive feature is that it has horns on its head.

"Mm." Yu Jian nodded.

"As long as you can provide information, that's fine."

"Oh dear, this is a bit of a disadvantage for the junior. As long as you find the right people, collecting publicly available information isn't difficult at all," Sakurai Toshio said quite frankly.

"Minfu, you silly boy, you really don't know how to do business." Even the dog couldn't stand this attitude.

"It's my fault for troubling you, senior." Yu Jian smiled apologetically and then asked about another matter.

"Speaking of which, are there many ghosts on Japanese Island...?"

"Originally there weren't many, because for well-known reasons, all sorts of demons and monsters either went into seclusion in the mortal world or hid in remote mountainous areas. But sixteen years ago, the activity level in the Netherworld surged, and these guys started running out one by one, I don't know what they were after."

"Now, every night, Tokyo is like Heian-kyo, the legendary city where demons run rampant. It's practically turning into a demon city." Inugami Milo sighed helplessly.

It's common knowledge, but I didn't know...

Sixteen years ago...

Yu Jian secretly noted down these two things, intending to look them up when he got back.

"As for the commission, this silly boy is too embarrassed to say, but I won't stand on ceremony with you." Milo walked over to Yujian and patted his calf with his front paw.

It has to be said that old people become shrewd, and this old dog has also become adept at understanding human relationships. Milo obviously saw that Yujian was unwilling to owe favors, so he deliberately said this to put Yujian at ease.

“There’s a job that suits you perfectly. The client has been cursed. Toshio has already done the preliminary investigation. The rest is simple: just find the medium of the curse and destroy it.” Milo wagged his tail.

"I'll take you there later. Once we get there, I'll find the things, and the physical work of destroying the medium can be left to the younger ones, how about that?"

“Of course,” Yu Jian readily agreed.

"There's one thing I need to mention beforehand," Milo sniffed, a slightly helpless expression on his face.

"There are other mediums involved in this commission. After all, we're not a well-known agency; we only managed to get in by being good at finding things. We might run into some people who want to boss us around. Let's go as early as possible and avoid them if we can."

As a seasoned and experienced dog, Milo knew that young people were most susceptible to being mistreated, so he gave the other party a heads-up beforehand.

"I see." Yu Jian thought for a moment and said:

"I don't usually argue with people."

“…” Milo opened his mouth and stuck out his tongue.

I thought to myself, judging by the imposing manner you exuded when we first met, most of the guys who argued with you probably wouldn't have had a chance to speak.

Oh well, I'll just keep an eye on things myself later.

Thinking this, the dog stopped talking.

"However, is it alright for Mr. Milo not to act with his senior?"

Based on the folk legends he saw, Mitsurugi guessed that most of the Inugami's abilities were closely related to the Inugami, which is why he asked this question.

"Ha, don't underestimate Min-fu." Milo flashed his signature Samoyed smile.

"Yes, I am a senior after all."

Sakurai Toshio straightened his chest and then raised his hand to tap his temple.

"Real-life detective work is not like the fighting and killing depicted in movies or TV series; it relies on this."

(End of this chapter)