Tokyo Sword Saint Online Dealing

"Don't pin all the blame on me. I just came to join in the fun. Now it seems the main character has left. What a pity about a good show."

"It's alright, it's alright, it's only a matter of time."

"Oh dear, there's still a lot of miscellaneous things in the dormitory that need to be dealt with by this commoner, so I won't keep catching up with the General any longer. Farewell!"

After uttering a few nonsensical and meaningless words, the young man in white chuckled, then turned into smoke and vanished.

At this moment, the ancient armor that had been half-emerging on the young man holding the sword gradually disappeared.

Sweat beaded on his forehead, indicating considerable pressure. His expression shifted between light and shadow as he glanced at the Vermilion Bird Gate one last time before turning and leaving without a backward glance.

"Was this old fox also involved in the plot?"

"Damn it, what kind of demon king or monster king has he colluded with to overthrow the capital? What good would that do him?"

"No, we must return to the family immediately and investigate this matter!"

With just a few words, the swordsman who was worshipping Xuanwu became like a frightened bird, losing all his previous composure.

It's not that he has a bad attitude.

However, the person he had just met was someone who could command the wind and rain and cause all sorts of trouble.

We have to guard against it!

Just as these two extraordinary individuals were exchanging barbs and harboring suspicions towards each other.

Uesugi Kiyoshi's convoy had already stopped in front of a hotel that didn't look particularly high-end.

Ueno Mitsuishi parked the car and turned off the engine, then very politely opened the car door for Uesugi Kiyoshi.

Then, Uesugi Kiyoshi saw Akutagawa Ryunosuke's wry smile, who had been gone for half a month but had become extremely disheveled.

Chapter 294 The Disheveled President

Ryunosuke Akutagawa was once a brilliant and promising young man.

At the tender age of twenty, he seized an opportunity and founded the Collectors Association from scratch. He was adept at navigating both the legal and illegal worlds, and within a few years, he had thoroughly established the renowned Collectors Association in Tokyo.

This is something that no ordinary person could do.

Although he has some flaws, such as being very suspicious, being used to bureaucratic practices, and wearing a thick mask, he was not a particularly likable person when he recruited Uesugi Kiyoshi, as he used a combination of kindness and severity.

However, ever since joining the Collectors' Association, he has always been kind to Uesugi Kiyoshi.

Now, seeing familiar faces step off the train and give him a playful smile, Ryunosuke Akutagawa almost burst into tears.

He not only looked disheveled, but his clothes were also disheveled.

His left arm was in a cast and wrapped in bandages, and his face had many abrasions. His once handsome face was almost ruined. There was a sense of melancholy between his brows, making him look somewhat old. He looked like he was on the verge of death and looked very miserable.

Ryunosuke Akutagawa immediately gave Kiyoshi Uesugi a heartfelt hug.

"Uesugi, you've finally arrived."

"Ah, now I finally understand what you meant. So-called strategies are nothing but nonsense without the guarantee of military force."

"This is really strange. I've been to Kyoto for official duties more than once or twice before, and I've never encountered so many strange things!"

"This time we've really had a run of bad luck."

He muttered complaints under his breath, glanced behind Uesugi Kiyoshi, frowned, and joked, "As expected of you, you should know the situation here, right? Why did you bring all these people, even pets? Are you here for a spring outing?"

Behind Uesugi Kiyoshi were Nohara Kyoko and Higashi Maki, who were holding a cat. Further back were the Narumi siblings, who came out to stretch and looked tired. In the last car, Izumi Rin was still sleeping and had not yet woken up. Akutagawa did not see her at all.

Ryunosuke Akutagawa only knew Maki Higashi, but he didn't have a clear understanding of the current combat strength of this inheritor of the demon sword's soul, which is why he said such a thing.

Uesugi Kiyoshi pushed Akutagawa Ryunosuke away with some disdain, patted his clothes seriously, and retorted to him dismissively.

"Your judgment is still terrible. Do you think I brought a group of relatives and friends?"

"Please, apart from Anzu, you probably can't beat any of them here. The weakling seeking help should adjust their attitude, okay?"

Upon hearing this, Ryunosuke Akutagawa's expression was somewhat surprised and uncertain.

He knew Uesugi Kiyoshi; he rarely boasted and knew how to keep his jokes within limits.

Since he said that, it's highly likely to be true.

"Never mind, let's go inside and talk."

The outside was not a suitable place to discuss matters, so Ryunosuke Akutagawa pulled Kiyoshi Uesugi along and led the group into the hotel's main hall.

This should be the Kyoto headquarters of the Collectors Association. This hotel is not open to the public. As soon as he entered the lobby, Uesugi Kiyoshi saw many familiar faces.

When he was at the Collectors Association, he often went to the training ground to practice swordsmanship. The training ground was open and shared by the public. Many field agents and even investigators had sparred with him and received his guidance on swordsmanship. Although he could not name all of them, they were all familiar to him.

However, everyone was injured.

It certainly looks like they went through a fierce battle.

They didn't linger outside. They took the elevator to the top floor, where Ryunosuke Akutagawa pushed open the conference room door.

Rin Kamiizumi was woken up by Kiyoshi Uesugi. After getting out of the car, she took Nobuna Narumi and headed straight for the kitchen. Shingo Narumi followed along, somewhat reluctantly.

He didn't care. He was only there to help kill people or ghosts and spirits; he didn't care about anything else.

Xingzi was overjoyed to have a kitten for company and planned to build it a nest and feed it some goat milk. Unfortunately, she was destined to fail, as the kitten wouldn't drink goat milk.

In the end, only Maki Higashifumi followed Uesugi Kiyoshi in.

Uesugi Kiyoshi chose a comfortable spot to sit down, gestured for Higashimaki Maki to sit next to him, raised an eyebrow, looked at Akutagawa Ryunosuke, and said softly, "Alright, there are no outsiders here."

"Tell me, my president, what exactly happened?"

"I heard someone died?"

"With that attempted crime's power being so abnormal, coupled with your Rashomon army, how could things have come to this bad?"

Ryunosuke Akutagawa shook his head with a wry smile, organized his thoughts, and began to explain.

"You know, I'm here to report for duty."

"It's called a performance review, but it's really just to appease the envoy from headquarters. The Collectors Association has a headquarters, and the Tokyo branch in Japan is just one of thousands of branches overseas."

"What's unusual is that there's currently only one collectors' association in Tokyo, Japan."

"The assignment went smoothly without any problems. Because of your joining, the speed of containing ghosts and spirits has obviously accelerated in recent months. Professor Edward also seems to have contacted headquarters and said a lot of good things about you and me. He seems to admire you a lot?"

"Anyway, headquarters is very satisfied with my performance and is willing to provide more technical support."

There's not much to say about this.

"Then, I'm going to visit my sugar daddy."

"The Phoenix Inu family is one of the top six zaibatsu in Japan. The majority of the Collectors Association's funding comes from them."

"Originally, there wasn't much to discuss. It was just a matter of socializing, drinking with the wealthy tycoons, and fooling them a bit, and that would have been it."

"As a result, before I could even go to the Phoenix Inu family, the Phoenix Inu family came to find me first."

"In such large conglomerates, there are also many factions. The disputes between the main family and the branch family have existed since ancient times. Although it is not so much about splitting up in modern times, it is common for such large families to split into several branches of bloodline."

"The one who contacted me is a branch of the Phoenix Inu family, a real power holder who has a say in the zaibatsu. Their young master invited me for drinks."

"I didn't see anything wrong with it. My benefactor can't be an enemy, so I went."

"The whole process went smoothly, except that after the banquet, the young master of Phoenix Courtyard made a request of me."

"The Phoenix Inu family also has many enemies. I don't know if this is a personal grudge, but that young master said that there were signs of demonic activity in a high-end nightclub and asked us to help resolve it."

"I'm very good at this kind of thing. Most of our cooperation with the Phoenix Institute family is to solve these kinds of problems for them."

"I had no reason to refuse, and with Dazai by my side, I felt that if the two of us joined forces, we could easily defeat ordinary demons and gods, so I made a plan and prepared to make my move."

"Then, as you see."

“We were attacked halfway, which was definitely intentional. Few people knew my planned route.”

"Of course, the young master knows."

"You'll know what happens next."

"We were caught off guard by their cleverness, and suffered heavy losses!"

Chapter 295 The Breakthrough Point

Uesugi Kiyotaka is good at learning, but he is not very willing to use his brain.

He has always kept his distance from complicated matters involving intrigue and backstabbing.

But that doesn’t mean he wouldn’t do such a thing.

There were many things about what Ryunosuke Akutagawa said that puzzled him.

He tapped his fingers and asked, somewhat puzzled, "So, who exactly is our sugar daddy?"

"Alright, let me ask it another way. What are the regulations governing the funding of the Collectors Association?"

Ryunosuke Akutagawa straightened his expression and, without being mysterious, explained directly, "You're not very interested in this, so I haven't told you about it before, but it's fine to talk about it now."

"The Collectors Association is not small in scale. It also needs to maintain its armed forces and provide research funding for those who are truly knowledgeable. The funding gap is huge."

“My family and the Kudo family will contribute some funds, but it will only be a drop in the bucket.”

"The funds needed to maintain the association come mostly from other sources."

"The headquarters will give out a token amount every year. It's not much, but it's better than nothing."

“There are also government agencies, some middle-level and above tycoons, political parties, and even gangs. When they encounter problems they can't solve, they all come to us for help, and they all charge us.”

"At least in Tokyo, we have a good reputation and credibility."

"This part of the income accounts for a significant portion of our annual income."

"The rest are investments by conglomerates—have you ever seen a TV series or variety show collect sponsorship fees, or any kind of monopolistic deal?"

"Actually, it's similar to that. Every year, we receive a large sum of money from Phoenix Institute and then sell some of the extraordinary artifacts produced by the association, which are soul artifacts, to Phoenix Institute conglomerates for use."

"Of course, we don't care what they do with those things. This is just a transaction. Thanks to the technical support from headquarters, the association is at the top level in the country in terms of research on extraordinary artifacts."

"At the same time, we will share some of the research data of the prophets with the Phoenix Institute Zaibatsu."

"Finally, we will prioritize fulfilling the Phoenix Institute Zaibatsu's requests and refuse requests from the Phoenix Institute Zaibatsu's enemies. If necessary, we will also help them eliminate some troubles on the supernatural level."