Dragon Raja: Lu Mingfei finds a Freylian

Miyamoto Shigeo suddenly realized that he was talking to the emperor of the Japanese underworld.

He was a man who could command the wind and rain and influence the fate of all of Japan. Every word he uttered could mobilize the terrifying wealth accumulated by his family over centuries, and every order he gave could make the underworld and shady circles of Japan risk their lives for him.

If there is any human being in Japan today who is qualified and capable of fighting against the god who was born to destroy the world, it is Genjiro, who is sitting at the end of the stone table with his back against the boundless black clouds.

This is a war between man and God, and in this war, no one can refuse the leader of the war.

Miyamoto Shigeo held the sword in both hands, slowly straightened his body, and then bowed deeply towards the end of the stone table.

"We will do our utmost," he said.

Chapter 806 A Great Honor

The meeting adjourned.

One by one, the heads of the families left the Xingshen Temple. The assistants tucked the black lacquered wooden box into their arms, and the quartz bottle and the analysis report swayed gently in the morning breeze.

Miyamoto Shio held the Tachibana Ichimonji Norimune tightly in his arms, and was the last to walk out of the torii gate, his expression solemn, as if he had accepted a contract to die.

Ryoma Genichiro and Fuuma Kotaro walked side by side under the bluestone corridor, exchanging information in hushed tones about the scheduling of the tunnel boring machine and the transportation route for the mercury procurement.

Not a single person turned around.

Only Yuan Zhisheng remained on the terrace, sitting listlessly at the stone table. The cold tea in front of him rippled slightly from the distant rumble of thunder.

Sakura stood half a step behind him, her hands behind her back in her black trench coat, alertly scanning every building of varying heights around her, lest a sniper rifle be hidden behind some inconspicuous window, aimed directly at the new patriarch.

Now all the yakuza in Japan know that the main family has changed hands.

The news seeped into every gang's headquarters, every underground casino's accounting office, and every corner booth of an izakaya, like the damp air before a downpour.

Almost overnight, Genjiro became the most prominent target in all of Tokyo.

Most people would rush to curry favor with him. Those who had once belonged to Tachibana Masamune were eager to re-establish their own foothold on the new power map, while the neutral gangs floating between the various factions were eager to offer a gesture of compromise to the new patriarch.

But there must be others who intend to approach him in a completely different way: the remnants of the Oni Clan, those desperate criminals who lost loved ones or were turned into experimental subjects in the Dragon Bloodline Activation Project, will see him as the embodiment of all oppression in the Japanese underworld, a head that must be removed from his neck.

However, Yuan Zhisheng's only personal bodyguard is Sakura, who also serves as his special assistant.

The position of the patriarch's special assistant was a highly prestigious one in the history of the Snake Clan. The assistant had the authority to access all classified documents, sign all orders that required the patriarch's personal signature, and perform daily affairs in the absence of the patriarch.

This position had never been held by a former assassin, but Genji insisted on it, and any objections were shattered into dust like waves crashing against rocks.

Some people say that Genjiro Yukishiro is a nepotist, handing over the family's most important administrative power to a cold-blooded killer who doesn't understand politics.

Ke Ying knew perfectly well that this had nothing to do with closeness or distance; it was purely due to Genji's personality.

He was completely out of place in this large and strict underworld family from the beginning. He received a full set of elite education from childhood, including kendo, horsemanship, law, economics, and family history, all in order to one day take over as the patriarch.

Over the years, however, he remained outside the true power core of the family, spending his time alone in a room above the garage, making coffee and watching old movies, driving his sports car to the construction site of Shinbara Middle School late at night, and carrying out the Deadpool elimination missions that other executive bureau agents considered to be a one-way trip.

He only speaks to a very small number of people: Yaksha, Crow, and Cherry.

His social circle was even narrower than that of an ordinary male escort; he had neither the skill nor the interest to control the entire Japanese underworld.

Yet, this very person has now resolved to shoulder all the responsibilities of being the head of the family.

His method of taking responsibility was not to form cliques, to install cronies, or to hide behind the scenes and manipulate a puppet. Instead, he stood directly in front of the stone table under the vermilion birdhouse, facing the faces of those friends who died for him, facing his godfather who betrayed him, and facing the fearful or greedy gazes of the various family heads, and made the decision that an emperor should make.

Sakura didn't know where Genjiro and Tachibana Masamune went or what they talked about last night. She only remembered that after he came back, he sat silently in his office for several hours.

The only thing she could be sure of was that after that night, Genji changed, becoming like a knife, a knife that had been repeatedly forged and folded, and then suddenly plunged into icy water.

Genjiro sat under the bleak daylight, gazing at the dark cumulonimbus clouds surging down from over Tokyo Bay.

The cloud base almost touched the roof of the Mori Tower in Roppongi Hills in the distance, and the churning clouds looked like a pot of boiling mud.

He hadn't slept for three days straight; even counting from that night at the Kabuki Theater, all his sleep combined probably wouldn't amount to more than a few hours.

"Still no news from Erii?" he asked.

“Not yet. But we’re still tracking her whereabouts and checking every sighting report based on her photo,” Sakura said. “Rest assured, no one in this world can hurt her. She’s the person in the world who needs no bodyguards. We will continue our search.”

“Do you know, this is her twelfth attempt to run away from home. Eleven times in total, the longest she’s ever run away from home was two hours,” Yuan Zhisheng said in a low voice.

Sakura was silent for a moment. "It seems she really hates being in that house."

"Once, she secretly slipped out of Genji Heavy Industries under the guise of a medical check-up. It was the fifth or sixth time, I can't quite remember. Just like before, everyone was mobilized to search for her all over Tokyo; the Execution Bureau's agents blocked every possible route she might take. Finally, I found her under a traffic light one block from Genji Heavy Industries. She was standing there, wearing that white shrine maiden outfit with crimson hakama, barefoot, tears streaming down her face onto the empty street. Back then, she wasn't as tall as she is now, probably only up to my shoulder. I walked up behind her, knelt down, and picked her up. She didn't struggle, nor did she cry out, only tears kept flowing. She wrote something in my palm—"

"'The world is so big'."

“Even though I don’t know how big this world really is, I still stubbornly want to see it,” Sakura said.

“Yes. That girl who would burst into tears at the first crossroads, not knowing which way to go, hasn’t come back for forty-six hours now.” Yuan Zhisheng looked at the increasingly low clouds. “I can’t say whether I’ve gotten used to it or become numb, but slowly I seem to be less anxious. Maybe girls grow up and always have to go far away. Nobody wants to spend their whole life as a weapon in someone else’s hands.”

"Raise the reward to three billion yen. Broadcast the missing person notice on all television and radio stations in Tokyo three times a day during prime time. Go to the Metropolitan Police Department to formally report the case, in the name of the Hebi-hachi family, and say that the eldest daughter of the Uesugi family has gone missing." Genji stood up, the hem of his black haori suddenly wrapping tightly around his body in the sea breeze.

"Yes," Sakura replied. "It's going to rain, let's go back first."

"I was just waiting for this rain to fall. It would actually make me feel a little bit more relaxed. You go back and rest first. Don't worry, there aren't many people in this city who can kill me."

Sakura stood quietly in the same spot.

Genjiro pulled out a dark amber bottle and a thick-bottomed whiskey glass from under the stone table and poured himself a glass of Yamazaki.

Like cigarettes, alcohol was something that could help him relax a little; it was one of the few tranquilizers that didn't involve anyone's life.

"What's wrong? Is there something you want to ask?" He took a small sip of his drink, without turning around. Just from Sakura's silence, he knew that she still had something on her mind.

"Can mercury and thermite incendiary bombs kill a god?"

Yuan Zhisheng paused slightly. He gently swirled the wine glass in his hand, and the amber liquid clumped along the glass in a thin, oily coating.

Why are you suddenly asking this?

"Because I was recalling what the head of the Miyamoto family said at the meeting. Judging from past cases of dragon slaying, what can cause fatal damage to a Dragon King-level target is often something that science cannot fully explain. For example, the material of Principal Angers' folding knife is still a mystery; or the 'Seven Deadly Sins' set of alchemical weapons forged by the King of Bronze and Fire. Even according to mythology, mercury only weakened the Yamata no Orochi; what truly ended it was the Ame no Habakiri in Susanoo's hands, a weapon that was also forged in the Heavenly Rock Cave, capable of splitting the sea, and beyond the scope of human understanding."

Genji remained silent for a long time. The aroma of sake from Yamazaki had completely dissipated into the air, leaving only the salty, fishy smell carried back by the sea breeze.

“You’re smarter than I thought,” he said.

“But you still agreed to the plan,” Sakura said.

"Yes. As you said, what can cause fatal damage to Dragon King-level targets is something that science can't explain. The war against the dragons is not essentially a technological confrontation, but a bloodline confrontation. The so-called hybrids are those who use the power of the dragons to exterminate the dragons. The legendary Heavenly Feather Blade has long since disappeared. We don't even know if it was a sword, a spear, or a spell. Whether mercury and thermite can replace the Heavenly Feather Blade, nobody knows."

Genji picked up the Yamazaki cup on the table and downed it in one gulp. "But we still have other weapons to fight back. If the Miyamoto family head's plan fails, he won't be the one to jump into the Red Well."

"I guessed it," Sakura said softly.

"My appearance will probably excite the gods. We are all food prepared by the gods for themselves. My blood contains what it craves most: high-purity dragon genes, the cleanest bloodline among all the emperors throughout history. It wants to eat me. That's good. Let it swallow the thermite incendiary bombs and five thousand tons of mercury with me. When the flesh and blood of an emperor burns inside its body, its destructive power is probably not much less than that of thermite bombs."

"Is there really no other way?" Sakura asked.

“If even I lose, then we’ll have no choice but to throw Erii into that well. She’s our last weapon. If she can’t hold on either, then there will be no one left in this world who can stop that god who is already dead.”

"If I'm not mistaken, Erii-san is actually a demon, isn't she?"

"Yes. She is a demon, the strongest demon in history. Her Word of Power 'Judgment' is the limit that human hybrids can currently master. What the family needs is that kind of absolute power that can instantly wipe out all life in the domain. She was raised as a weapon from the time she could remember, ready to be sacrificed at any time."

“No wonder you and Mr. Masamune have always been so attentive to Erii. She lives in the best room at Genji Heavy Industries, has three times the frequency of other people’s medical checkups, and even eats from white porcelain handmade in Kyoto. Every time a new batch of underwear arrives, you have Sakura feel it first to make sure there are no seams that might prick her skin. I’ve always thought that having a younger sister who is so cherished and cared for like this would be a very happy thing,” Sakura said.

"That kind of concern is extremely hypocritical. It's like a samurai wiping his sword, not because he loves the sword, but because when the samurai needs to draw his sword to kill someone, he has no choice but to draw it even if the blade will break."

Only the wind and distant thunder remained on the terrace.

“Yes,” Sakura said, bowing her head slightly. “If you want to watch the rain, I’ll go get you an umbrella.”

Yuan Zhisheng turned his head, a faint, helpless smile appearing on his lips.

In his previous remarks, he personally tore away the fig leaf that the Snake-Headed Eight Families had been hiding for twenty years, and labeled everything that Tachibana Masamune, along with himself, had done to Erii as "hypocritical" and "exploitative."

He had expected that Sakura would at least show a moment of shock or disappointment, or feel a bit of anger for the girl who had been raised as a weapon.

But she was neither surprised nor flustered, her expression indifferent, as if what she had just said was merely a routine circulation of meeting minutes.

She just wanted to ask those questions, and now that she has the answers, it's nothing unexpected. Hearing the shocking truth, she simply puts it away quietly in the folder in her heart that she never opens to the outside world.

“I don’t think so. We’re all weapons. If one breaks, it breaks. Just pull out another one.” Sakura paused. “You see yourself as a weapon too, don’t you? We’re all murder weapons. It’s enough that we share the same fate. I’ll go get an umbrella.”

Yuan Zhisheng suddenly called out to her. The sentence came out without her even thinking.

"If this matter goes smoothly, I'd like to go to the seaside in Montalivate, France. It's a small town, not far from Marseille, a truly relaxing place. Want to go on vacation together?"

Yasha, Crow, and Sakura all knew that he had no interest in being the head of the family and that all he wanted was to leave Japan and live a life where no one knew him.

But Genji never revealed to anyone that his destination was Montalivate. He didn't want too many people to know where he was going, so that he could cleanly shake off the entire Japanese underworld and start living a completely different life.

After he leaves, Sakura will manage the assets he left behind. The money she earns will be enough for Yasha and Crow to live comfortably. Everyone will go their separate ways and live their own lives, without owing each other anything.

Yuan Zhisheng never even considered taking any of them with him.

But just now, when Sakura said, "We are all murder weapons, and it's enough that we share the same fate," something in his heart was suddenly plucked, like a string in a corner that had been silent for countless years being accidentally touched, and the dust that had accumulated over the long years began to rise and fall.

Yaksha was joking with his big mouth, but upon closer inspection, it didn't seem entirely like a joke. He was going to such a far place, and he didn't understand French, so maybe he really should bring a beautiful woman with him.

If it were him and Sakura, they would probably sit side by side on the beach for a very long time without saying a word, just watching the sea and applying sunscreen to each other.

"It would be my pleasure," Sakura replied softly.

Genjiro poured the last drop of Yamazaki into his cup as he faced the churning black clouds overhead.

The rain pattered down, large raindrops splashing onto the bluestone slabs, creating a fine mist, striking the beams of the vermilion torii gate with a dull, wooden echo, and clattering into empty cups and bowls.

Yuan Zhisheng sat in the rain for a while longer before finally collapsing onto the stone table and falling into a deep sleep amidst the downpour.

Sakura, holding an umbrella, knelt beside him, tilting the umbrella entirely to his side. Her black trench coat was soaked by the rain, the wet fabric clinging tightly to her back.

Chapter 807 Psychological Monster (Part 1)

"The rain is too heavy, let's stay in the hotel instead?" Lu Mingfei wrote in his notebook for Erii to see.

Outside the window, the torrential rain felt like someone had turned the entire Tokyo Bay upside down and poured it down. Raindrops crashed against the floor-to-ceiling windows, exploding into bright white splashes. There wasn't a single pedestrian in sight on the street, and even the taxis had turned off their roof lights and were huddled on the side of the road, too afraid to move.

“Okay. Lunch will be Gomoku fried rice,” Erii wrote back, her handwriting as neat and round as ever.

“But we’re eating Five Eyes Fried Rice right now! Are you the God of Five Eyes Fried Rice? Do you eat Five Eyes Fried Rice every meal?” Lu Mingfei glanced down at the two steaming Five Eyes Fried Rice takeout boxes on the coffee table, then looked up at Erii’s serious face. He knew that his complaints probably wouldn’t produce any real results.

"I'm not the god of fried rice. I eat Hokkaido ramen for dinner and pizza for supper," Erii wrote.

After writing these lines, she looked up at Lu Mingfei, her red eyes showing no hint of joking.

“You are the God of Food. Is there anything else you need, Your Highness?” Lu Mingfei drew a crooked little crown next to the word “Princess”.

"I'll be watching Fate/Zero and Gundam 00 tonight."