A comic book, but a librarian

"I thought the Metropolitan Police Department was going to let it go completely, why did they call me again out of the blue?"

"Who knows which bastard set fire to S District and burned down several houses. Uesugi, do you have any clues? They have already transferred this matter to the Police History Compilation Office. They said there was no object that could burn and no source of fire, but a big fire broke out anyway."

Uesugi Cheng showed a somewhat awkward smile on his face, but fortunately it couldn't be seen through the phone.

"How would I know? I just found a way to get someone from District S."

"Did you make it?"

There was silence for a while on the other side, and the original tone of accusation disappeared, replaced by a more cautious tone with a little expectation.

"It should be considered a success... but it only happens once. This success was all due to luck."

"It's good to succeed... It's good to succeed. With success there is hope."

Inudo Ranko's voice sounded a little dazed, as if she was recalling something.

"The Police History Compilation Office wants to reach some cooperation with you. Don't worry, it will all be helpful to you and won't cost you anything. If you are interested, you can come to the Metropolitan Police Department to talk to me, or we can just arrange a place to meet."

Inudo Ranko said these words at last, leaving the choice to Uesugi Sumire, and then hung up the phone.

~~~~~

173

Chapter 173: Cooperation with the Metropolitan Police Department.

Late at night, Uesugi Sumire was sitting in a Yoshinoya chain store. The core area of ​​Tokyo was indeed bustling at night, but that had nothing to do with Uesugi Sumire. The hospital where a group of injured and sick people were staying was in a somewhat remote place, so Uesugi Sumire did not plan to go back there and made an appointment to meet in a chain store in the commercial street near the hospital.

"It turns out that it's better to have something big and fishy for supper..."

Inudo Ranko walked in and looked at Uesugi Sumire who was eating heartily. She seemed to have some appetite too. She took the menu and ordered a large portion of rice for herself.

"It's just that today's consumption is a bit high. By the way...you said you wanted to discuss cooperation with me. Your Police History Compilation Office is not very popular in the Metropolitan Police Department, and you don't have many resources, right? If you want to cooperate, can you afford it?"

Uesugi Cheng put down his chopsticks and snapped his fingers. The clerk who was sitting at the counter and playing with his mobile phone had a faint light in front of his eyes. Then he put down his phone in a daze and looked at the receipt on the counter intently, as if he was looking at the truth of the universe.

"Brother, although there are indeed many people in the Metropolitan Police Department who think that we are a meaningless department, to be honest, we still have a lot of power that can be mobilized, and those old hands in criminal investigations are all my friends."

Inudo Ranko took out the cigarette box and subconsciously wanted to light a cigarette, but after looking around, she smacked her lips, put the cigarette back, and drew a circle on the table with her finger.

"To be honest, the Metropolitan Police Department receives countless unsolved cases every year. Some of them are really just a bunch of useless people who do nothing, and some of them are just because they have no way to handle such things... These case files that they can't handle will eventually flow to the Police History Compilation Office and be handled by us."

"Of course, you will definitely ask what this has to do with the connections I mentioned. After all, it seems as if our existence highlights their incompetence. Haha, the troubles they encountered when handling cases were all solved by the Police History Compilation Office. Is this enough to provide help from the frontline forces?"

Uesugi Cheng shook his head.

"First of all, I'm just a high school student, not a high school detective. I won't appear at the crime scene. What's the point of you telling me this? And... Actually, I'm quite curious about something. Obviously, some families specialize in dealing with this kind of thing, but our family is Chinese after all, so why can't we find anything?"

"Oh, I don't know much about this matter. We are a small family, and we can't get involved in the affairs of big families. And don't jump to conclusions. The Metropolitan Police Department's help is not only reflected in the aspects you think."

Inudo Ranko nodded to the waiter who brought the meal, and continued speaking after the waiter walked away.

"You can get a lot of information directly from us. If there are any things you need to pay attention to or ask, our people will ask for you. This is much faster than investigating on your own, right?"

Inudo Ranko opened the disposable chopsticks and spoke slowly.

"What about the conditions? You guys don't want me to do anything, right?"

"Well, when you have time, just help our people identify whether the case is related to supernatural powers and the degree of danger. This job is very flexible. We can arrange it when you are free. Then this is my personal matter."

Seeing Uesugi Sumire's 'I knew it' expression, Inudo Ranko sighed a little embarrassedly.

"It's nothing, actually. This is just an insurance policy. If you can't contact me someday, please pay attention to a middle school in L City. I'll send you the specific name and address later."

"What is this? Are you leaving your final arrangements to outsiders? Isn't this a bit bad?"

As soon as Uesugi Cheng heard this, he knew that this was a hot potato and had no intention of taking it on at all.

"No, no, no, it's really just a backup. In fact, we have cooperated with many people with supernatural powers. Although most of the time the Metropolitan Police Department is begging them to do things, this matter is different. There is a killing stone in that place."

"Wait, the Killing Stone?"

Uesugi Cheng thought hard and finally remembered something.

"Is that the thing that sealed the nine-tailed fox in the legend? That thing is actually real? And you actually put that thing in a middle school? Are you sure you are not kidding?"

Uesugi Cheng was a little stunned. After all, the nine-tailed fox in the legend was most likely a powerful monster. The stone that sealed that thing could actually be placed in a school. He could only say that these people were very bold.

"God knows. Anyway, it was like this when I took over this thing. Normally, there won't be any big problems, but you also know that it's better to be prepared, right? So I also asked a lot of people for help. If one day I really disappear completely, you can just take a look over there to see if anything happened. If something really happened, just send a message to Feng Hai."

Inudo Ranko said this very nonchalantly, and looked very cool while chewing the beef in big mouthfuls.

"Alright, so we have reached a cooperation?"

"Of course. Do you want to sign a contract or something? If you want, I'll print you a copy. It won't have any effect anyway."

Inudo Ranko nodded as a matter of course. The general public would not recognize the existence of supernatural powers, so their agreement and cooperation were naturally verbal.

"Alright, can you help us cover up what happened in District S? There are other missing persons cases. Our school can't afford such trouble."

When it comes to this matter, Inudo Ranko becomes worried.

"We are already doing it. To be honest, I still don't understand how you guys managed to make the fire burn so fiercely without any fuel. The firefighters suspected that the fire was some kind of supernatural event and finally put it out."

"I can't tell you this. Even if I tell you, you won't be able to learn it. Anyway, I have to stay in school recently to prepare for the exams."

"Wait...exam?"

Inudo Ranko repeated the word and then looked at Uesugi Sumire as if she was watching a particularly humorous joke.

"What are you looking at? I'm still a high school student."

"Yeah, I'll be leaving now. It's time to go home and get some beauty sleep."

The middle-aged woman walked to the front desk in a graceful manner, knocked on the table, and woke up the clerk.

"Ah, I have classes tomorrow... I should go back and go to bed early."

Uesugi Cheng nodded. As for how to deal with Hiratsuka Shizuka, he would leave it for him to think about tomorrow.

~~~~~

174

Chapter 174 Back to school and new goals.

Of course, Yukinoshita Yukino still did not go to class the next day. She still needed to rest for two days. It was said that her sister was on the way to find her. However, Uesugi Sumika didn't care about these. He was sitting in the classroom at school, watching Hiratsuka Shizuka writing furiously on the blackboard, and silently turned a page of his book.

[Glimmer]: An anonymous prison diary, written by a dreamer who was detained in the "Alchemy Bottle" prison for committing "irresponsible stupidity" in his dream. (Reading requirement: 10 casts) (Complete reading to obtain [Teaching: Vision and Perception])

Of course, Uesugi Sumire directly met the reading needs and completely solved the troublesome parts of the content.

【嬗变与解放Lv.6】（7铸）＋【魂质:刚毅】（2铸）＋【回忆:先见之明】（2铸）=11铸。

The Alchemy Bottle Prison here is the second half of the Silent Bookstore. It was built in 1896 at the request of a notorious Night Watch Bureau. Its function is to imprison some "indecent and mysterious troubles". However, now the entire Alchemy Bottle Prison looks like it has been burned by a fire. The horrific fire even exceeds the damage caused by Uesugi Cheng using the Red Essence.

At least Uesugi Cheng felt a pang in his heart when he saw the steel bridge leading to the Alchemy Bottle Prison melted and twisted as if someone was dragging a burning match across a wax bridge, because it was too troublesome to repair and clean it.

"This 'Dreamer' is a great painter, but the content is..."

Uesugi Cheng didn't want to comment on the content of the painting by this 'dreamer' who was thrown into the alchemy bottle prison for some unknown crime. Snow; broken mirrors; faint sounds from heaven; white, red and black flowers; a bloody winter sunset... vivid and detailed, all of which are the most notorious symbols representing the dangers of dreams.

If it were more extreme organizations and individuals, the dreamer might not even be able to wait until he was imprisoned, and might be executed on the spot. But it’s also good this way, at least Uesugi Cheng can learn more painting skills through this book.

As for why he wanted to read this book in Shizuka Hiratsuka's class, it was certainly not intentional. He had been slowly interpreting the contents of the book "Glimmering Lights" the entire morning, and it just happened to be Shizuka Hiratsuka's turn to teach this class.

At this time, the petite puppet Himegami Sakura was working hard to clean the room above the Silent Bookstore. To be honest, she always felt that this bookstore should be called a castle. Now she was standing in front of the door of a room called the "Auditorium" next to the road leading to the top of the castle tower, listening to the gloomy voice lingering in the room to cheer herself up.

The voices of the monks who had prayed in this room lasted longer than their prayers, and perhaps even longer than their piety. These low voices lingered for a long time and even tried to rush out of the room and lingered around Himegami Sakura. They had even begun to chant Himegami Sakura's name.

"Anyway, the master said that he would get rid of you today no matter what! Last time when I was cleaning out the well, I almost made things worse. This time, I must satisfy the master!"

Himegami Sakura raised her little puppet arms to cheer herself up, then walked into the room and started to deal with this abandoned room.

-

"Is the matter resolved? Everyone is still alive... That's great."

Hiratsuka Shizuka called Uesugi Sumiya into the office again, but she didn't blame him. She just sighed as if she was relaxed.

"If you don't mind, can you tell me what happened? Of course, if it involves confidential information, you don't have to tell me. Just tell me what I can understand. Otherwise, if a student is in danger and I, as a teacher, don't even know what happened, it would be a dereliction of duty."

"This is not a man-made disaster, or it can be regarded as a link that ordinary people cannot reach, so you don't have to blame yourself. It's better to say thank you for your help. It saved a lot of time. As for what happened, I will try my best to explain it clearly."

This explanation took only a short break, but Shizuka Hiratsuka could probably sense the urgency of the situation. She could only sigh and pray silently that her students would be safe in the future and not be involved in such dangerous incidents.

"I can help you deal with these problems at school, but what about their families?"

Shizuka Hiratsuka asked a question. These children are only in high school, but they have already faced the terror of being on the verge of life and death. She didn't dare to imagine whether their families would faint from fright when they heard these things.

"Well... we have our own way to deal with it, don't worry."

Uesugi Sumire played a blind eye. The solution was that Uesugi Sumire would fabricate memories of the past few days for their family like an evil spirit. Yotsuya Miko chose this method very straightforwardly. She didn't want her family to be involved in such things at all. The best protection for them was that they knew nothing about the evil spirits. Yukinoshita Yukino thought about it for a long time and finally decided to talk to her sister Haruno, while Hikigaya Hachiman chose to reveal a little bit to his younger sister. As for their parents, it was better for them not to know.

"It's really scary... It's only been a few months, and your painting skills have gone from being a mess except for the colors to being close to perfection... I can't even imagine if in a few years someone will think your paintings are a portal to another world."

Sitting in the art classroom, Hikigaya Hachiman looked at Uesugi Sumire's paintings and said, to be honest, he could only look at them for a few times before having to look away, otherwise he was afraid that he would have nightmares about this painting at night. The reason why Yotsuya Miko did not appear here was very simple, she would probably fall into an illusion if she took a look at it.

"I haven't reached my limit yet. There is still room for improvement, but that's it for today."

Uesugi Cheng stuffed the drawing paper into his bag. He didn't dare to leave the painting he drew with his soul power in the classroom. If something really happened, he would have a hard time explaining to the old principal.

"Come to think of it... have you ever thought about comics? When talking about Japan and drawing, comics should be the first thing that comes to mind, right?"

"Although I think what I'm studying is completely different from comics... No, you're right, I think comics are also very interesting, but I'll talk about this after I draw what I want to draw the most."

Uesugi Cheng's eyes lit up. He really wanted to know what the effect of his comics would be. After all, he only came into contact with comics in his first life as a college student. Later, he entered the waking world and Mansu, and even after reincarnated into this world, he basically never touched comics again.

~~~~~

175

Chapter 175: Material accumulation and unpacking.

"I just need to say this. Ever since I've been hanging out with you, I feel like I've become less cautious with my words."

Hikigaya Hachiman had dead eyes again. Uesugi Sumire had already started studying comics. At least he went to the bookstore with them and bought a copy of the current issue of Jump to read.

"What do you mean? I didn't teach you how to speak. Didn't you learn it all by yourself?"

Uesugi Cheng was flipping through the comics. The pressure of weekly serialization was still very great. At least Uesugi Cheng could see that some of the strokes were indeed very messy. He thought about how he would feel if he had to draw the pictures for this kind of weekly magazine at that speed, and he couldn't help but shuddered.

"Come on, I didn't like to talk much before, but now I'm so talkative."

Hikigaya Hachiman flipped through two pages and found a new comic that looked okay and started reading.

"And I think if you use your skills to draw comics, regardless of whether it would be considered as bombing the fish pond, if the art teacher knew that it was me who mentioned this to you, I think I would be in big trouble."

Hikigaya Hachiman looked at the future art master and wondered if he would be beaten if someone knew that he had persuaded an art master to draw comics.

"It's okay, I just don't draw comics. Do you think I would really like to draw that kind of pictures?"

Uesugi Cheng stroked the weekly magazine. Compared with ordinary paintings, comics also had a series of things such as coherent storyboard narratives, which he had basically never been exposed to before.

"I think you're going crazy. Have you forgotten about the time you were looking for the fire painting? I was afraid you might become a pyromaniac."

Hikigaya Hachiman expressed his thoughts without hesitation. At that time, Uesugi Sumire looked like someone who might start a fire at any time just to see beautiful flames.

"Oh, that's just a little obsession, but I'm almost ready. When the time comes, I will definitely show you my masterpiece."

Uesugi Sumire showed a smile that made Hikigaya Hachiki shudder. He didn't dare to imagine what kind of horrible things Uesugi Sumire could draw based on what he had encountered recently.

"I'm a bit reluctant to accept your invitation. By the way, do you want to show your work to others?"

"Why not? The things you draw must be shown to others. Otherwise, wouldn't it be a waste?"

After hearing this, Hikigaya Hachiman felt that this person had bad intentions. After all, with his painting skills and techniques, Hikigaya Hachiman felt that even creating a fantasy world in a painting seemed not impossible.

"Then you have to tell me when the time comes. I'll take leave in advance to take my sister out for a trip and won't come to join in the fun."

Hikigaya Hachiman said this at last, and then put the weekly magazine into his bag. He felt that there were not many interesting comics, and what he had experienced recently was much more interesting and exciting than the stories in the comics, but in comparison, Komachi would definitely like this comic.

"Okay, I'll let you know anyway. It's up to you whether you come or not."

Uesugi Cheng nodded, picked up the pencil and began to sketch on the white paper. Black and white comics use very few colors, which requires him to have a more delicate control over colors, which also requires practice. Anyway, life is so long, he has to find something to do.

Uesugi Cheng carried his bag and walked slowly back home. On the way, he did not forget to take a detour to a restaurant he was familiar with to have dinner. After all, compared to going home to cook and clean up, he still preferred a restaurant where he didn't have to worry about anything after eating.

Of course, when he returned home, the diligent little butler puppet was still carefully counting the materials he brought home, including two portions of red essence (orange-red), three or four bottles of bitter black salt (black), three bottles of shining element (white), and some yellow essence (bright yellow). These were the results of his work day and night in front of the alchemy table since he recovered.

Although he could now assign different soul essences to perform different tasks, the number of workbenches suitable for refining these materials was limited after all. If he just found a random place to do the manufacturing work, he was afraid that his soul essence would be damaged before the work was finished.