Tokyo: The Player Behind the Scenes.

Chapter 180, Section 178: The Heartless Person

The following is financial news:

Takatsukasa Group President Tatsuto Takatsukasa held a press conference at the company's Kyoto headquarters today, appearing to be in good spirits and completely dispelling rumors of deteriorating health.

[Affected by media reports last month that the company was critically ill, its stock price fell by as much as 8.8% in the past three weeks. However, after the press conference, buying poured in, and the closing price rebounded sharply by 6.2% compared to the previous day.]

Let's continue looking at the highly anticipated emerging and extraordinary sectors. Multiple antique institutions have seen consecutive days of price increases, boosting the global market. Currently, there's nothing...

Kyoto.

The Takatsukasa Group.

A company that started with hotels and restaurants has risen rapidly in recent decades under the leadership of Tatsutoshi Takashi, venturing into tourism, finance and daily chemical industries, and has become an undeniable conglomerate in the Kansai region.

Group headquarters.

The meeting had just ended, and the management team members walked out of the meeting room with expressions of joy and worry, whispering among themselves.

The man in the suit stood by the door, calmly responding to the cold and obsequious greetings. Only after those people had left did he enter the conference room and lock the door from the inside.

Inside the meeting room, the curtains were fully open, and slightly dazzling light shone through the glass.

His father, Takatsukasa, stood with his hands behind his back, facing the sunlight, overlooking the city's morning bustle.

He remembered that before his father became seriously ill, this was what he liked to do most.

Holding a cup of coffee, standing in front of the floor-to-ceiling window, looking down at the busy masses below, he said that this gave him a feeling of being in control of everything.

He would rather die than lose this feeling.

“Father, the matter has been resolved. I think we need to find someone else to handle it next time.”

"Hmm." Takatsukasa Tetsuto closed his eyes, basking in the warm sunlight, enjoying this long-lost surge of energy, before continuing after a while, "Narita Company, you can contact them, they're better at handling people."

"Yes, the quantity for tomorrow?"

"Same."

The man in the suit left the conference room, made a phone call to someone from Narita Company, and then took out a location receiving terminal. He glanced at the location information on it.

That was a nearby mountain forest.

He changed his clothes, drove a car from a nearby parking lot, then went to another parking lot, switched to another car, and repeated this process several times.

More than two hours later, on a wild mountain road.

The man in the suit saw the van parked ahead, his expression turning puzzled. He stopped the van a few dozen meters away and turned off the engine.

The surroundings suddenly became quiet; even the birds were reluctant to speak, and the sound of falling leaves could be clearly heard.

He was in a sparse forest with no tourist attractions nearby. People wouldn't leave the trails to come to such a place, as they were afraid of encountering brown bears or wild boars, and cars were likely to crash into trees.

He managed to find it only by following the locator that had been placed on the body beforehand and by relying on his experience.

This was mainly because he didn't completely trust the cleaner, especially since the body he was dealing with this time was rather unusual, and he needed to ensure that nothing went wrong.

There were nine bodies in total, which he handed over to the cleaners last night.

But the fact that the car is still sitting there untouched can only mean that either the cleaners are being lazy, or...
Something unexpected happened.

The man in the suit took out the pistol from his pocket, installed the silencer, checked the spare magazine, and after confirming that everything was in order, he gently opened the door, got out of the car, and slowly approached the van in front of him, stepping on the fallen leaves and mud.

Three days have passed since the father inserted that shriveled heart into his stomach.

Almost from the moment it was inserted, my father's health became exceptionally good. He even needed to wear makeup when holding a press conference to make his health less obvious.

However, the cost of this is that three living people are needed each day for these three days.

The man in the suit's job now is to find three targets every day that won't attract much attention even if they go missing, then use the gang to target them, gather them in a certain place, and then hand the location over to his father.

After "enjoying" the body, he would hand it over to himself to dispose of, as the corpse had become so dark and unrecognizable for some unknown reason.

The only common feature among these corpses is that the heart is open, and inside is a hard, shriveled, dark heart.

His father told him not to touch the corpses, but to put them in body bags and hand them over to the cleaners.

It was around that time that he became worried about the cleaners and secretly placed a tracking device on them.

The van was facing the man in the suit. He could see that there was nothing in the front seat, but some glass shards on the ground were reflecting sunlight, and the side window was broken.

There was a half-hole on the edge of the van's cover, and a shovel lay beside it.

He paused slightly as he saw a corpse lying face down on the ground, its head covered by a hood.

He didn't approach rashly. He first went around to the side of the van and observed the body package inside through the broken glass.

The thing was like a pupa, which was broken free from the inside out by some force.

Without any hesitation, he made no attempt to get any closer and slowly moved his body backward toward his parked car.

He didn't step on any dry branches in the usual way, but it seemed to have attracted the attention of something.

Behind a few trees, a series of dark figures emerged. They were entirely black, with a metallic sheen, their hearts exposed, and their hollow eyes exuded greed and ferocity. They let out strange growls, opened their grotesque hands, and pounced on him.

Bang bang!

The man in the suit fired a few shots decisively and quickened his pace to retreat.

But the bullets seemed to spark at the target, only slightly slowing him down. And behind him, several unsuspecting individuals appeared, charging towards him with clear intent.

He quickened his pace, wasting no more time firing, and swiftly jumped into the car and started the engine.

Bang!
The driver's side window was shattered by a punch, and a dark arm almost grazed the forehead of the man in the suit as he jerked his head back.

He reversed, floored the accelerator, and the black arm was flung out. Everything around him rushed past. The black, heartless beings, seemingly unwilling to escape such a delicious meal, roared and relentlessly pursued him.

The man in the suit was extremely focused, gripping the steering wheel tightly. Trees flashed past on both sides, and some even grazed the sides, making a sickening scraping sound.

Click.

Arriving at a relatively spacious open area, he immediately turned the steering wheel all the way, turned the car around, and shook off the group of monsters that were trying to close the distance again.

After ten minutes, he returned to the roadbed, feeling his heart pounding wildly, and gasped for breath.

The rearview mirror no longer showed those dark figures.

The mountain road was narrow, and as soon as he slowed down, he noticed a car coming towards him.

He put the passenger's hat on his head and pulled the brim down.

As the two cars passed each other, he could even hear the playful noises coming from the car next to him.

"Dad, Mom said she's hungry, are we there yet?"

"Are you hungry? You're almost there. I remember it's around here, a very beautiful place."

That was probably a family of three camping.

The man in the suit paused on the brake pedal, but ultimately did not press it down, and continued driving back the mountain road he had come from.

"Hey, Ah Jun, did that car's window get broken just now?" The woman in the back seat looked away and asked curiously.

"There might be falling rocks, everyone be careful." The husband driving nodded; he had seen it too, but didn't pay much attention.

"Dad! Am I safe like this?" The girl lay down in the back seat, protecting her head. "This is what the teacher taught me."

"You're doing this to avoid an earthquake. Don't worry, Dad will be safe driving; even falling rocks won't hit you."

After driving for a few more minutes, the man in the suit made a phone call: "I have a car that needs urgent processing."

"Place."

"136.14, 34.9."

"Wait a minute. Okay, I've sent you the location. It's in the southwest. There are three bodies of water. There's a wild path in the nearby woods that leads directly there. Just sink in. There's a car in the garage of the farm next door. The key is in the haystack by the entrance. If you need to process the bio-information, there will be an extra charge."

"No, I understand."

The man in the suit quickly found his way, sprayed something into the car, then let it sink into one of the small lakes. He then went to the farm, drove away in one of the inconspicuous cars there.

More than an hour later, he returned to the company looking exhausted and changed his clothes.

You're doing something unnecessary.

After listening to his report, Takatsukasa Tetsuto calmly gazed at his adopted son.

The man in the suit lowered his head: "I'm sorry, Father."

He wanted to ensure everything was perfect, but he himself slipped and became the biggest vulnerability.

After a few seconds of silence, Takatsukasa let out a long breath and patted the person opposite him lightly: "Come on, sit down."

After his adopted son sat down, he pointed to his heart and spoke.

"That thing is trying to control me all the time."

"But at least for now, I have the upper hand."

"Those corpses are the residue after I absorbed the 'blood of the heart'. As for why they turned into monsters, it's because I separated the killing intent of that heart into them."

"Only by doing this can I ensure that my consciousness remains dominant. Do you understand?"

The man in the suit nodded: "Can't it be incinerated?"

“It’s not that simple. That killing intent can only be released through cruelty, and the part that can’t be released will eventually come back to me. I can’t do it myself, otherwise it will corrupt my will, but if I let those walking corpses do it, then there’s no problem.” Takatsukasa shook his head.

"If the Extraordinary Measures Department conducts a full investigation..."

"That would require them to have the resources. They only have one extraordinary being at their disposal, and by the time they traced it back to me, I think I had already completely controlled this 'Heart of Withering and Flourishing'."

Moreover, I did not commit any open and aboveboard killings. Those things will disappear once I have killed enough. They can attribute the credit to themselves and give the public an explanation. If necessary, I can also put on a heroic act.

"If the Ninth Muramasa can cooperate with them, why can't I?"

Have you killed enough?

How many should we kill?

Moreover, his father did not mention how many "remnants" he needed to completely expel his murderous intent.

If a hundred or a thousand of those things came, who could stop them?

Will Koga, and even Kyoto, become a ghost town?
"This is the last risk we're taking. From now on, our Takatsukasa family will be at the forefront of the times and become an extraordinary family. Tadaya, at that time, no one will care what we did; they will elevate us to godhood."

Takatsukasa stood up, patted his adopted son's shoulder heavily, and spoke earnestly.

"The success of one general is built on the bones of ten thousand. If we don't become generals, we will only become withered bones to be trampled on. I think you understand this."

“Father, I understand. I will continue to be your most useful tool.”

"Haha, you're not my tool, you're my child, my only child. I'll handle things. You continue gathering talent. Now that the first batch of heartless people has been exposed, let's create more chaos and keep the countermeasures department busy."

Takashi held a cup of coffee, walked to the floor-to-ceiling window, and savored it.

(End of this chapter)