After being elected as the governor of Tokyo, he will debut as a band!

Upon hearing this, Yu Jian immediately made a face as if he had swallowed a fly, and put down his chopsticks.

Inspector Itokozaki pondered for a moment, then gave a wry smile.

"I'm doing this for your own good. By first pulling Attorney Komekado to the opposite side of the Neon Group, we can reduce the chances of him causing trouble for your prosecutor's office in this matter in the future," Aoyama continued.

Yu Jian curled his lip, his expression somewhat disdainful.

"Not necessarily. If it's that vicious jackal, as long as the Ni Jing Group is willing to offer enough compensation, they'll become the other side's lawyer in no time. You'd be better off believing that the real mastermind behind the counterfeit currency case will turn himself in to Itogaku than believing that he can stick to his position."

Kensuke Komikado is a lawyer known for his ruthless pursuit of victory, his exploitation of legal gray areas, and his notorious reputation among prosecutors and police officers. For Mitsurugi to say this is already quite polite; a less polite prosecutor would have already started swearing.

However, he has rarely suffered defeats in his more than ten years of practice, only experiencing minor losses from Aoyama Munechika and a certain wind-elemental mage. Moreover, he is ruthless in demanding compensation and claiming the return of property, making him the most suitable person to help Toyokawa Shoko protect her rights at present.

It's not just the Nei Jing group; Komekado can also help secure more child support from Xiangzi's mother's family.

When Aoyama was a human rights lawyer, Komekado and he didn't have a good relationship. But when he started to enter politics and was successfully elected as a member of parliament, Komekado's attitude immediately changed. Now that he has become the governor of Tokyo, Komekado has become even closer to him than a younger brother.

"Don't worry, it won't be long before the Neon Group becomes wary of Komekado. At least in this case, they are unlikely to hire Komekado."

Ultimately, Aoyama Xiang is not some light novel protagonist who does good deeds for no reason. His concern for the interests of the Toyokawa family father and daughter is only to better control the Nekyo Group.

When the truth comes out, they will surely realize that Aoyama and Komikado are working in the same direction, and naturally they will no longer consider cooperating with Komikado.

Make way for me: 049 Hiroi and Toyokawa

Late at night, customer service representative Xiao Xiang finally finished her five-hour part-time job. After receiving her week's wages from the labor agency, she dragged her tired body onto the tram home.

Strictly speaking, customer service isn't a particularly tiring job, but it requires dealing with all sorts of difficult customers while maintaining a good temper and polite tone. Over time, this can be a severe test of one's mental health, so every time she finished work, Toyokawa Shoko felt somewhat dazed.

However, these days, her mental stress has decreased considerably compared to before.

Unlike the past few months when he would just lie in his cramped, dark rented room drinking and complaining every day, his father, Toyokawa Kei, seemed to have found something to do. He not only left early and returned late every day, but often didn't come home for a whole day or night.

Most importantly, her father started bringing money and gifts home. Although he would still get drunk from time to time and bring back little money and gifts that she used to look down on, it still gave her a sense of hope for an ordinary life.

The only worry was that her father refused to reveal what he was busy with every day, and coupled with the occasional sadness and emptiness in his eyes, Toyokawa Shoko always had a bad feeling.

But now she's just an ordinary, unremarkable high school girl. Even her part-time job is limited to telephone customer service, which requires no skills and doesn't require showing her face. Even if she has a bad feeling, she doesn't think she can do anything about it and can only hope that it's just a misperception caused by the sudden change in her living environment.

Even at its worst, it would just be going back to the days when my jerk dad was lying at home drinking.

A pang of sadness welled up in Toyokawa Shoko's heart, but she quickly shook her head and put this momentary melancholy behind her.

I still have quite a few half-price bento boxes left from the extra route I took last night. I'll heat them up in the microwave as soon as I get back, then boil some water to wash myself and go to sleep.

To be honest, Xiangzi could tolerate the small size of the apartment, but the lack of a bathroom and the need to use a gas stove to heat water for bathing was undoubtedly torture for a girl her age.

If that bastard dad can actually start earning some money, and with the money he earns from his part-time job, we should be able to move into an apartment with a bathroom.

The dim streetlights stretched Toyokawa Shoko's lonely silhouette, but her steps remained firm. Despite the hardships of life, as long as she could continue to make ends meet, she would stick to her attitude towards life.

"vomit--"

As Toyokawa Shoko walked up to the floor where her rented apartment was located, she heard a sound coming from ahead.

The sound of gagging.

There was also a strong smell of alcohol.

This made her clench her teeth.

Did Father come home drunk again?

The corridor light, dimmer than the streetlights, illuminated a petite figure; it was clearly not Xiangzi's father.

But Xiangzi quickly recognized the man.

It wasn't just her drunken, muddy state, but also the bass guitar she was using as a cushion behind her back.

Isn't this the resident of that "haunted house" on the far west side? I think his name is Hiroi...

According to the neighbors, she also organizes readings and performances, and is a well-known bassist.

Hmph, bassist...

Xiangzi has a prejudice against bass players, and she also dislikes alcoholics.

She didn't want to have anything to do with the alcoholic bassist in front of her, who didn't have a good reputation among the neighbors.

Although helping each other is a fine virtue, let's pretend we didn't see anything today.

Having made up her mind, Toyokawa Shoko decided to bypass the drunken bassist and go straight home.

But as she lifted her foot to pass the drunkard bassist, a cold hand grabbed her ankle.

She bit her lip, not uttering a sound, since it was already late at night and shouting would inevitably disturb the other tenants' rest.

Without hesitation, she pulled out a bottle of pepper spray from her pocket. Because of her job and the remote location, she often had to walk on suburban roads late at night, and her scoundrel father had neglected her for a long time. For her own safety, she had no choice but to carry pepper spray, a self-defense tool that even a young girl could easily use.

Since this thing can be used to drive away gluttons, it can also be used to deal with bassists who won't let go of you.

"Please let go, or I will be very rude."

She didn't look down at the drunkard, but looked straight at him and spoke calmly.

The drunken bassist was clearly not so drunk that he was out of his mind. When he looked up and saw the pepper spray in Xiangzi's hand, he sobered up halfway.

Clearly, this drunkard had previous experience with pepper spray and knew how lethal it was.

"Ahem, don't react so strongly. Um... I'll just call you Xiangzi..."

"Please don't use such intimate terms of address."

"Okay, alright, what a cold child... Let me introduce myself first, I'm Hiroi..."

"Can we skip the self-introduction and get straight to the point?"

Toyokawa Shoko looked down at the drunkard Hiroi with a cold expression that said, "I don't want to get involved with you."

"Hmm..." Hiroi felt her dignity had been impacted, but since she was in the intoxicating phase of the "spiral of happiness," she quickly recovered. After all, the mental blow she received from Ijichi Hoshika was much heavier than this. "Alright then, anyway, I have news about Mr. Toyokawa."

"...My father?"

Toyokawa Shoko was taken aback for a moment, but then she immediately imagined a series of rather terrible scenarios.

Could it be that my bastard father has already made a little money and is already out fooling around with women again? Or perhaps the money he brought home before was actually swindled from women, and one of them just happened to know this drunkard named Hiroi, so she sent him to warn him?

But since things have come to this, let's protect what's most important first.

"You won't get your money back from me!"

Toyokawa Shoko's hand holding the pepper spray became even more steady and powerful.

"Ahem, no matter what, I wouldn't take money from a high school student..." Hiroi blushed slightly, as if he had thought of something, and continued, "It's like this, Mr. Toyokawa has run into some trouble and probably won't be back for a while. Someone he knows asked me to take care of you. You probably haven't eaten dinner yet. Here, this is the bento I brought back, it's still warm. Would you like to eat it while it's hot?"

"...What did you say?" Toyokawa Shoko's eyes widened for a moment, but she took a deep breath to calm herself down. "That bastard father, is he finally planning to run away?"

"What... escaped?"

"Abandoning his daughter to find a place where no one can find him, to live a stress-free life? Well, that might be for the best..."

For someone who married into a wealthy family at a young age, but then suffered the loss of his wife and was met with harsh reality when he tried to support his family on his own, running away, or rather, consciously "withdrawing" from the family ties with his daughter, is not entirely impossible.

Make way for me: 050 Initial strategy failed.

"what?"

The drunkard bassist sitting on the ground tilted his head and made a strange, puzzled sound.

Is Mr. Toyokawa doing these things? Yoshishin didn't tell me either.

The drunken bassist was naturally Hiroi Kikuri. At this moment, she had already received the first "Big Sister Guidance Fund" from Aoyama. Based on the principle that if you take someone's money, you should do a good job, even if she had no idea what Toyokawa Shoko was talking about, she still insisted on pretending that she actually knew a lot.

"Actually, Xiangzi, I understand everything you're saying!"

"...?"

What do you know?

Toyokawa Shoko was completely stunned by Hiroi's words.

Have you ever been abandoned by your father?

However, judging from your current lifestyle, it really does seem like you had problems with your family of origin when you were young...

I hope I won't end up like this, so degenerate.

Shoko Toyokawa couldn't help but shudder, feeling an urge to immediately find a piano and play it hard for half an hour.

But of course, that's impossible. She definitely can't afford a piano, and the cost of a practice room is also a huge burden for her. She can only console herself with the piano master app on her phone.

"Life is full of pain and hardship, but it's impossible to be defeated! As long as you're alive, you have to keep going!"

Hiroi Kikuri suddenly uttered this sentence with a sense of emotion.

"?"

Toyokawa Shoko looked at her with some surprise.

Why is this person suddenly starting to say such nonsensical things?

Chicken soup for the soul is useless to people who are going through hardship. A casual "Don't let hardship defeat you" sounds like a disdain for people who are struggling to make a living.

However, considering that the person in front of her was not living a good life either, and that her words might be a genuine experience she had gained from her difficult life, Toyokawa Shoko decided not to make any sarcastic or mocking remarks.

Of course, she didn't want to have too much to say about this topic with Hiroi.

What useful life experience can someone who is so poor that they have to specifically seek out haunted houses to rent be given?

"Hehe, Xiangzi, you didn't think I was going to tell you about working hard to make a living, did you? I wouldn't be so foolish. Just from your eyes, I can tell you're someone who works hard to make a living. Me too, I'm paying my taxes properly! I'm doing my best in the band, writing songs, rehearsing, and everything, but I feel like my life is inevitably sliding into the abyss of failure..."

"Oh no, if this keeps up, I'll become negative again," Hiroi Kikuri frowned, then pulled out a small tin kettle (the same kind used by Chang Naichao of the 7th Provisional Division in "Bright Sword") from somewhere, unscrewed the lid, and took a big gulp. Her silly grin returned.

It appeared on her face.

"Wuhu, that's awesome!"

Toyokawa Shoko's hand, which was resting on the shoulder strap of her schoolbag, suddenly tightened its grip.

She had wanted to punch her bastard father when she saw him drunk before, but she was deterred by the power difference between men and women, and between adults and minors. Also, he was her father, and it wouldn't look good to actually hit him. So, she had long suppressed this violent urge. But this drunkard in front of her…

I should be able to beat a young woman who is about the same height and build as me (or even flatter), and who is also weakened by alcohol!

But what I want to say is!

Hiroi Kikuri suddenly raised her voice, startling Toyokawa Shoko.

She glanced worriedly at the other rooms on the same floor, fearing that one of the residents might turn on their lights after being woken up, and she might be implicated, which would be a truly undeserved disaster.

She felt uneasy, but Hiroi continued.

"To live happily in this terrible world, willpower alone is not enough! We also need to rely on external things. For example, as long as I have wine, my happiness can continue."

She raised the glass in her hand slightly higher. "Would you like to try some? Oh, by the way, you and Little Lonely are both minors, so you can't drink alcohol..."

Looking at Toyokawa Shoko's delicate face, which revealed a hint of fatigue, Hiroi Kikuri couldn't help but show a thoughtful expression. "So, besides drinking, what else can make people temporarily forget their troubles and feel happy?"

The images of Shima, Eliza, and Ijichi Seika flashed through her mind, and the words "music or friendship" unconsciously slipped out of her mouth.

Toyokawa Shoko's eyes instantly turned somewhat cold.

"Are you a child?"

She uttered such a sarcastic remark.

“I believe these two things will bring happiness… Although you look a bit disheveled, you must have had a pretty good life these past few years, right?”

"Ugh... I actually got looked down on by a high school girl for being 'sophisticated'..."

Hiroi Kikuri was deeply affected, and then she drank another mouthful of wine.

Guess what? It's done!

"Whatever, let them look down on me! I'm not a teacher or a policeman, so I don't need to be respected by others."

"In short, little sister Xiangzi, just recognize my face. I'm the big sister Hiroi who lives next door. You can come find me anytime if you need anything! Don't let my appearance fool you, even the star musician from Tsukinomori Girls' School was respectfully asking me for advice on stage performance today!"

Hiroi Kikuri's words triggered a key phrase, and Toyokawa Shoko's body stiffened.

Although Tsukimori Girls' School is famous for its music education, only a few can truly be called "stars," and one of them is Toyokawa Shoko's old friend.

"Do you know anyone from Tsuki no Mori Girls' School?"

"Of course... I even performed on stage with them tonight! Wow, that young and beautiful girl band was absolutely radiant!"