I became Hokage in Tokyo

Chapters 36 & 037: Do I Look Human to You?

Five hours after the secret meeting at the Metropolitan Police Department ended, it was already past 3 a.m., and the night was deep.

Late at night, walking through the streets of Edogawa Ward, a suburb of Tokyo, you can see people sleeping by the roadside or squatting on the ground with their heads down every few blocks.

These homeless people don't all look like vagrants; some are fairly well-dressed and clean-cut, looking more like office workers.

Indeed, this is the case. One-third of the Japanese population lives in the Tokyo metropolitan area. The commuting radius of Tokyo, this monster city, encompasses the entire Tokyo metropolitan area, which is larger than imagined. Some people even spend four hours a day commuting.

In Tokyo, many office workers miss the last subway to get home because they work too late. They have to go back to work the next day and can't bear to spend the night in a capsule hotel or a budget business hotel. Instead, they choose to kill a few hours in an internet cafe or a 24-hour convenience store, and then find a place to take a nap until dawn before going back to work.

Fortunately, the nights in Tokyo in April aren't too cold, and they're not unbearable.

"belch--"

In Komatsugawa-cho, Edogawa Ward, a dim light shines on a pile of garbage in a small alley. A middle-aged office worker, with a tie tied around his head and drunk, opens his eyes as the night wind blows.

"How...did I get here? Oh right, I blacked out after my third drinking session after get off work...ugh!"

The middle-aged office worker struggled to climb out of the garbage heap and then vomited violently into the trash can.

After vomiting, he looked around and, seeing that no one was around, simply unbuckled his belt and relieved himself.

That's how Japanese corporate slaves are. They may seem respectable, but when they're alone, they might do whatever they want to relieve the stress they've accumulated at work. Visiting brothels and other adult entertainment venues is considered relatively normal, and there are many more bizarre things they do.

For example, the "train wolves" who have become a disgrace to the island nation, or buying women's stockings online of dubious authenticity to relieve loneliness.

Urinating or defecating indiscriminately, a behavior that violates public order and good morals, gives middle-aged office workers, who are usually bound by work and family, a sense of pleasure in trampling on social rules.

After vomiting and relieving himself, the middle-aged office worker sobered up considerably. He fastened his belt and was now somewhat drunk and half-awake.

Thinking about having to go to work tomorrow, the middle-aged office worker planned to go back to his rented room next to the company, take a shower, and change into a new set of clothes, so that he wouldn't go back to work smelling of alcohol.

Stumbling along, the middle-aged office worker steadied himself by holding onto a telephone pole and began to walk unsteadily through the alley.

After walking a few steps, he saw a slender, black-haired woman walking slowly with her back to him on another side of the alley.

The woman had thick, black hair. Although she wore a loose, long dress that concealed her figure, her supple waist could still be seen swaying like a water snake. However, she was too tall, appearing to be over 1.8 meters.

"Hey! Beautiful lady, what are you doing here so late? Do you need my help?"

Alcohol emboldens the timid. Under the influence of alcohol, and in the dead of night in a quiet alley where no one could be seen, the middle-aged office worker became bolder and did things he wouldn't normally dare to do, such as harassing women.

Normally, he might glance at her a few times to satisfy his visual cravings, but he would never dare to flirt with her. If a woman found a sore spot and complained to the police or contacted his company, it would be a matter that couldn't be resolved by simply bowing deeply.

He thought the woman would be frightened and run away after hearing his teasing, but to his surprise, she stopped, slowly turned around, and asked him in a low voice:

"Do I look like a human being?"

The androgynous, dark, and chilling voice sent shivers down the spines of the middle-aged office worker.

Although the figure from behind looked like a woman, from the front, this woman was too strange. Not only was she tall, but her heavy makeup couldn't hide her stiff, deathly pale face, which was as white as a corpse. Her features were particularly prominent, as if something was supporting her face and was about to burst out.

In particular, those yellowish-white eyes were excessively large, and the pupils were vertical like those of a snake or other reptile, making one feel terrified just by being stared at.

Did they run into something dirty?

The middle-aged office worker suddenly sobered up, and the remaining alcohol trickled out with his cold sweat.

"Haha...I have to go to work tomorrow..."

The middle-aged office worker chuckled dryly a few times, then turned and ran!

His steps were unsteady after a hangover, and he stumbled and fell to the ground after only a few steps. But he didn't care and scrambled out of the way.

The middle-aged office worker vowed that he had never exerted himself as much as he had in his high school sports meet. After wasting thirty years, he unleashed the fastest speed he had ever achieved in his life. At this moment, even Usain Bolt could not catch up with him!

After running for more than ten meters, a voice faintly reached the middle-aged office worker's ears again.

"Why did you run away? Is it because I don't look human?"

He couldn't help but turn his head and look, and there was a deformed and ugly woman's face staring at him!

The woman opened her mouth wide, revealing two sharp, snake-like fangs, and bit down on his neck!

The middle-aged man was bitten on the neck, making grunting noises but unable to utter a single word. He felt his entire body was paralyzed and unable to move.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see a long neck connecting to a body several meters away.

The head of the well pulley?

The middle-aged man recalled this famous Japanese long-necked monster, a beautiful monster that, according to legend, could stretch its neck at night, float in the air, and reach into a window to devour a man's internal organs.

But it's so ugly!

The moment this thought crossed the mind of the middle-aged office worker, he was plunged into eternal darkness.

She opened her mouth, letting the middle-aged office worker's body slam heavily to the ground. The woman's head floated in the air, and the body behind her slowly walked over, tucking its neck in.

"So it really doesn't look human? Even a drunkard like this can tell something's wrong at a glance. I even went out of my way to choose a beautiful woman, peel off her skin and put it on my face. If this sorcery could be improved, maybe it could fool the eyes of humans."

The woman gripped her eyelid with one hand, her vertical pupils wide like a python's, and tore off half of her face, revealing layers of white scales underneath.

"Well, since someone died, we can't waste anything. I'll eat every last grain of rice on the plate. The fatty meat marinated in tobacco and alcohol has a unique flavor too."

The woman opened her mouth wide, two lines splitting from the corners of her mouth all the way to the back of her head. Her jaw was dislocated, and her mouth was split open at an extremely terrifying angle. The gaping maw began to swallow the middle-aged man's head bit by bit.

"Teacher, I'm sorry to disturb your meal, but I have urgent information to report to you."

From the gutter in the alley, grayish-yellow branches resembling old tree roots emerged, twisting and intertwining to form a humanoid monster, covered in emerald green leaves and vines, like a puppet haphazardly assembled from vines and tree trunks.

At this moment, the middle-aged man's shoulders were swallowed by the "woman," and his two hands hung limply outside his mouth. The "woman" nodded slightly, signaling him to continue.

"Teacher, your old friend in the Metropolitan Police Department sent an urgent message through secret channels, saying that he has classified information to sell to us, but he is asking for a deposit of ten million yen."

She tilted her head back and swallowed the remaining two feet. The 'woman' had finished her meal. A man weighing over 150 pounds was swallowed whole by 'her'.

The woman spoke with a cold laugh:

"Ten million?! That's outrageous! That fat pig is asking for money again. What big move is the Metropolitan Police Department making this time? Are they planning another purge of Tokyo, or have they caught some monster with special abilities? This kind of information isn't worth ten million."

"Teacher, forgive me for taking the liberty, but I have already transferred the deposit to his lover's secret overseas account. After reviewing it, I believe this information is very important; it concerns the extraordinary abilities of humans..." the puppet monster said in a cold, emotionless voice.

"Humans can be supernatural? The Metropolitan Police Department is really persistent. Didn't their decade-long search prove that humans don't have supernatural abilities? Is this another hoax, or has the human experimentation at Yokosuka Port finally made a breakthrough?"

"No, the Metropolitan Police Department finally found the real superhuman last week! I've already sent the details to your email."

The woman frowned, her Adam's apple bobbing, and she began to gag, with a clearly protruding, angular foreign object in her throat.

"vomit!"

A woman spat out an iPad covered in slime from her mouth. Holding the iPad in both hands, she stuck out her long, thin tongue and skillfully swiped across the screen.

I opened the email, quickly skimmed through it, and then read it a second time from the beginning, carefully reading through it.

The woman clicked on a video and watched as the mysterious young man with red clouds and a black background spewed a huge fireball from his mouth. She fell silent.

"How much will our friend ask for the remaining files?"

"Thirty million yen!"

"Transfer it to him immediately! I need the remaining files today." The woman made a decisive decision, her tone resolute and unwavering.

"Yes, teacher," the puppet monster replied.

This huge outflow of funds, in the tone of the two monsters' conversation, seemed like nothing more than a thousand yen or three thousand yen, just an ordinary little thing.

"Kihara-kun, do you think my dream can come true?" After a long silence, the 'woman' finally spoke softly.

"If it's you, teacher, you definitely can!"

"To liberate yokai from human oppression and enable them to live in peace with humans, I must take over this country to realize this dream! I originally planned to spend ten to fifteen years to accomplish this, but now the variable of 'human superhumans' has appeared, and our dream may have to be postponed. But even so, Kihara-kun, you will definitely follow me."

"Of course! Teacher!" The puppet monster lay on the ground, its calm tone tinged with a hint of fanaticism.

"Alright! Go and inform the other monsters that although there's no set date yet, our base is being moved to safe zones B and F. We might be in a bit of trouble for the next while."

"Yes, teacher!"

(End of this chapter)