Tokyo Detective Chronicles

Tokyo, Special Incidents Investigation Division, Information Department Office.

The lights were on late at night.

The air was thick with the unpleasant smell of cheap coffee and printer ink.

The Special Affairs Division is an official agency of Yingzhou, specifically tasked with dealing with crimes committed by psychics and catastrophic events.

Internally, it is divided into five departments: decision-making, equipment, field operations, information, and cleaning. With clear division of labor and mutual cooperation, it claims to be working hard to maintain the crumbling order of modern Tokyo.

The entire floor belongs to the Information Department. In the lobby, dozens of operators wearing headphones fly across keyboards, sorting and filtering the flood of citizen alarm information.

Those cases clearly unrelated to psychic abilities were transferred to the Public Security Bureau, while those with a slight connection were assigned to Special Affairs Section field agents who were always on the go and drank coffee like water, based on their initial assessments.

Alternatively, the cleaning department could take over the site.

Since the beginning of autumn, the number of cases related to psychic abilities has been soaring and has never stopped.

Every staff member looked like a sickly ghost, completely drained by life and work, as if they might suddenly die on the spot at any moment.

In the innermost private office separated by frosted glass, a man with a name tag that read "Information Department Head - Yasuo Ito" was angrily spitting into the phone.

He looked unkempt, with greasy hair, a stubble beard, and heavy eye bags that made him look like he'd been punched twice.

"How many times have I fucking told you! Those fearless psychics who die in the mortal world—it has nothing to do with the Special Affairs Division. Go find…"

"..."

"What do you mean by someone eating river delicacies brought from the mortal realm and mutating into a monster that's wreaking havoc and going berserk in the suburbs?"

"You dare eat fish from the Sanzu River as sashimi?!"

After another roar.

"Bang!" He slammed the phone down hard, and the old-fashioned landline phone jumped.

Ito Yasuo exhaled, took out a half-pack of flattened cigarettes from the drawer, shook one out and put it in his mouth, but he couldn't light it with a lighter.

Just as he was about to throw the lighter away, there was a gentle knock on the frosted glass door.

"……Enter."

He was suppressing his anger, and his voice was forced out through clenched teeth.

The door opened, and Miyazawa Rin, dressed in her field operations uniform, poked half her body in: "Good evening, Manager Ito."

"Miyazawa? What's wrong?"

Ito tossed the unlit lighter onto the table, a cigarette dangling from his lips, and looked at the girl.

He certainly knew this precious darling of the field operations department; he'd heard that with her around, the department's task processing efficiency had improved considerably.

"Mr. Kuroda asked me to retrieve the data, and I need your temporary access key."

"Kuroda?"

He glanced at the brief application on the tablet that Miyazawa Rin handed him, which involved high-level monitoring and retrieval of the area related to tonight's train incident.

"Permission code 'Delta-7-echo', valid for two hours."

As he spoke, he quickly operated the computer, completing fingerprint, iris, and voiceprint verification in one go. Finally, he pulled a silver key that looked like a USB flash drive but had a more complex design from the shelf and inserted it into a specific interface.

"Go down and find the 'turtles' yourself. You know the rules. Don't rummage through irrelevant things."

"Understood, thank you, Director."

Miyazawa Rin took the ejected physical key chip and carefully put it away.

She knew that "Turtle" was the nickname of the data retrieval team under the Information Department.

Where is Kuroda Sousuke?

"Mr. Kuroda is in the cleaning department," Miyazawa Rin answered honestly.

"Now?" Ito Yasuo raised an eyebrow.

"Um."

The other party remained silent for a full five seconds.

"What's wrong?" Miyazawa Rin asked, tilting her head.

"No, it's nothing."

As he spoke, he pulled a worn-out lighter from the corner of the drawer.

"I just suddenly realized that the work in the field operations department is quite difficult."

He finally took a puff, exhaled a puff of smoke with enjoyment, and his expression returned to its weary state.

He waved his hand, indicating that Miyazawa Rin could leave.

"OK."

The girl obediently left the office, not daring to ask any more questions since she wasn't familiar with the leader.

……

Inside the elevator leading to the underground section of the Special Affairs Building.

Kuroda Sousuke was followed by several cleaning staff members who swiped their cards and pressed the "B6" button.

The elevator descended.

On the radio, a gentle, soothing female voice broadcast in standard Kanto dialect:

"Approaching B6 level, the core working level of the cleaning department."

Please note that a Level 4 mental pollution filtering field has been activated on this floor. If you feel slightly dizzy, this is normal and you should not panic.

For assistance, please press the emergency call button. The current average response time is 147 minutes…

"bite."

The elevator doors slid open.

Since the last incident where the three floors melted down, they dug out this huge space underground, and the entire cleaning department was moved underground.

Their current office is located directly below a cold storage facility that houses hazardous waste and corpses.

The ceiling was extremely high, and the exposed concrete structure was covered with thick pipes and cables, some of which were still trembling slightly and emitting a low rumble.

The walls are a cool gray, and at intervals there stands a tall, dark red torii gate.

These torii gates are not decorations, but rather layers upon layers of barrier nodes. When activated, they emit spiritual energy fluctuations strong enough to instantly dissipate most low- to mid-level supernatural evil spirits.

The air was filled with the stench of formaldehyde.

Kuroda Sousuke strode ahead.

Behind him were two ordinary staff members from the sanitation department, both wearing white uniforms similar to biohazard suits and goggles.

He was carrying a heavy metal box containing the remains of the four monsters that Fushimi Iori had killed on the train that night.

I couldn't see their expressions behind their goggles.

Although this place is called the Cleaning Department, its main function is to clean up the scene left behind after a psychic event and to conduct a preliminary analysis of the cause of the event.

Therefore, I inevitably came into contact with the corpses of those monsters, and consequently, I was responsible for the post-war autopsy analysis and research work...

This very foolish decision from years ago has left the current mid-level officers of the Special Affairs Section in a state of constant distress.

Especially since this cleaning department supervisor is a...

Two clerks, seemingly aware of his impending visit, were waiting outside the gate.

"Commissioner Kuroda."

The young man adjusted his thick glasses, rubbed his hands together, and chuckled, "Um... you've come at a bad time, the supervisor has already left..."

Faced with this blatant nonsense, he directly gave the order:

"Open the door."

"Boss, honestly, I advise you not to go in..."

Looks like they're up to something again. Kuroda felt a throbbing pain in his forehead veins. If the cleaning department really does something they can't handle, then the field operations department will have to clean up the mess...

The thought of the field operations department, already working non-stop, being further annoyed by these bastards is unbearable.

He had little patience left and shoved the clerk aside.

He personally entered a long password on the complicated control panel next to the door, then performed iris verification, and opened the gate with special privileges.

A series of clanging sounds came from inside the heavy gate as metal latches were released, and then it slowly slid open to both sides.

The clerk pursed his lips, giving off an expression that said, "I tried my best to stop them."

A gust of cold wind rushed out from inside the door.

Kuroda stepped inside.

Then, he froze.

The first thing that catches the eye is an extremely vast underground space, with a high dome covered with crisscrossing reinforced steel beams and lighting equipment.

But these are not the main points.

The key point is that in the center of this space, there is a white giant that is difficult to describe in words.

It was bound inside a giant metal frame resembling a rocket launch pad, with twelve alloy chains as thick as manhole covers wrapped around its torso, limbs, and neck from all sides.

Each chain was covered with layers of sealing talismans, which gleamed with a dark golden light under the searchlight.

The giant's expression was dejected, his head drooping, his facial features soft, and his eyes tightly closed.

A pale, humanoid body, nearly ten meters tall...

There was a vertical crack running across its chest, with jagged edges, as if it had been forcibly torn open by some enormous force... It was filled with tubes of varying thicknesses, as if they were supplying it with energy.

Most importantly, this is not a corpse.

It's alive, just not yet conscious...

If it were to awaken at this moment, it would become a monster with a danger level of at least [Calamity]...

But what made Kuroda's blood pressure spike even more than this giant was...

It was the figure dancing and gesturing wildly on the makeshift platform in front of the giant.

He was a man who looked to be in his early forties, wearing a white lab coat so dirty that its original color was unrecognizable, with messy hair like a bird's nest, wearing goggles, and holding a megaphone.

"Colleagues! Friends! Lone travelers on the path of biological science!"

The frenzied and excited voice boomed through the loudspeaker, echoing in layers throughout the empty experimental area.

"Tonight, we've gathered here not to work overtime... oh, of course, there's overtime pay..."

"We are here to witness! To witness the greatest, the craziest, the most fucking unbelievable experiment since humans began walking upright!"

"What we are about to accomplish will be recorded in history! It will be written into textbooks!"

"It will be sung by every psionic researcher in the future—!"

"We will create a completely new and great life form!"

"We are about to resurrect... Prometheus!"

"Ahem, now!"

The supervisor swung his fist so hard he almost threw the megaphone away.

"Let us embrace this historic moment with boundless enthusiasm and a rigorous scientific attitude! Each unit is submitting its final status report!"

He pointed one finger to the sky and shouted loudly.

"Preheating of Pump No. 1 complete; pressure in the psionic conduit stabilized!"

"Purification arrays #2 and #3 are in standby mode; rune cooling system is normal!"

"The protective barrier strength is maintained at Level 4, with an error margin of plus or minus 0.5%!"

"Observation team in position, psionic wave recorder calibrated!"

"Alright! Begin the count!"

The supervisor sprinted toward the safety gate while shouting into the loudspeaker, accompanied by the deafening roar of the massive construction machinery.

"10..."

"9..."

The tunnel boring machine-like robotic arm slowly adjusted its angle, and the sharp probe at its end pressed against a spot on the inner wall of the hole in the pale body's chest.

"5..."

"4..."

The probe began to emit a low hum, and its surface lit up with complex, dark blue runes.

"1!"

The robotic arm suddenly thrust forward!

This operation is beyond what can be described as legal or illegal; Kuroda Sousuke just wants to rush up and twist that bastard's head off.

Kuroda's lips twitched as he tried to run, but the gate behind him had already closed.

He turned abruptly and yelled at the two clerks beside him, "Run!"

But they found that two seasoned veterans, carrying metal boxes, had already disappeared and nimbly rushed up the ladder not far away.

Inside the monitoring station, all the cleaning staff held their breath, their eyes fixed on the giant object.

The next moment, with a flash of blue lightning, the white giant's body actually began to move...

"Buzz—"

But just as it raised its hand and broke free of the chains, its chest was ripped open by energy, and its bright red, beating heart exploded...

"Shit!"

The supervisor's wailing echoed from the high-rise security door.

The experiment failed again, but that doesn't mean the danger is over.

An illogical surge of massive amounts of internal organs and blood gushed down...

"boom------!!!"

A terrifying sound, like a river bursting its banks or a tsunami overflowing its banks!

Countless viscous, scarlet blood gushed out from the hole!