We agreed to be in a band for life, what the heck is Dragon Raja?

Toyokawa Shoko lowered her eyes, her expression full of sadness.

Nan Yun Yuyue gently patted her shoulder:

"Don't be too hard on yourself, it's not your fault."

"Moreover, on Crychic, Xiao Mu is now actively trying to participate in band activities."

"But right now... Xiao Mu really needs you. She even asked me today why you didn't come to class."

"Mm." Toyokawa Shoko nodded softly.

"Yuyue, thank you so much for going out with me tonight."

"Actually, before I became an apprentice of Master Uesugi... I suddenly realized something."

"After meeting Odin on that rainy night, I kept thinking about running away, about running away from everything that happened in the past, about running away from everything in the family vortex..."

"But deep down I know... that escaping is only, and can only be, temporary... one day, I will have to face the world that I was afraid to face in the past."

She raised her head and looked directly into Nan Yun Yuyue's eyes:

"Later today, I will announce the band's future training plans in the Crychic group."

"Tomorrow, I will go back to Tsuki no Mori to attend school."

"Tomorrow afternoon, I will go with you to Master Uesugi's place. Although I haven't ignited my own Word of Power yet, learning swordsmanship will be useful in actual combat in the future."

"Wait a few more days..."

As if she had made up her mind, a golden light flashed in Toyokawa Shoko's pupils for a moment before returning to normal.

“I’m going to return to the old Furukawa Garden to find my grandfather.”

"I'm going to question him about some things."

"Do you need me to go with you? It might be dangerous if you return to the old Furukawa Garden alone."

Nan Yun Youyue said with concern.

"No need," Toyokawa Shoko said with a smile.

"It wasn't until today that I realized... I am now the only one in the Toyokawa Group with a direct bloodline. No matter what my grandfather wants to do, he must at least 'hold the emperor hostage to command the princes'."

"Right now... I guess he's still having a headache over the recent shift in the group's strategy and the suppression of dissenting voices within the organization."

"If I go back now... he'll probably have to welcome me."

Chapter 160 Kaname Rakuna, Tsuzuki Poetry Ship, Shikari Town

[Seeking help. I haven't received any assassin missions for over a month. To save money, I don't even dare to hire young models, and I'm getting worse and worse off. I'm begging for a job opportunity. I have experience completing over ten missions, and I'm trustworthy and reliable. DM me if interested.]

[Hiring summer workers for African tribal conflict jobs. Must be proficient in handling various firearms. Daily wage $500. Tank repair experience preferred.]

[Brothers, I found a tomb in the US, but I don't know what's inside. I'm too scared to explore it alone. If any of you know anything about it, add me on WeChat and I can sell you the coordinates.]

……

Clicking refresh the page on the Duzhu Poetry Boat screen caused a flood of messages to appear.

She deleted several promotional posts for "[Kanhuang + xxxxx]" and scrolled through the forum discussions from top to bottom.

This website is known in the industry as the 'hunter website', and its nature is somewhat similar to the dark web.

Employers worldwide can upload any task to the platform, whether legal or not, while hunters can submit their resumes based on their skills and earn high rewards.

This place is not under the jurisdiction of any global power. Assassination, smuggling, tomb raiding, and mercenary missions are everywhere. There are even more bloody and bizarre missions, and these missions are accepted even faster.

The origins of the Hunter website are shrouded in mystery; no one knows when it was established or how it withstood so many hacker attacks.

Normally, the website doesn't even have a moderator, only an administrator named Nido who rarely appears.

Tsuzuki Shisen was an early user of the site and has been based in Japan ever since.

One day, the administrator Nido suddenly emailed her saying that the website had decided to grant a small number of long-time, reputable users some administrator privileges, which they could occasionally use to delete spam posts.

That's why she was able to eliminate those film and television companies that were so arrogant as to advertise pornography on the Hunter website.

What exactly is happening with the Snake Clan lately?

"How come I've heard that someone is looking for me?"

"And why are the Ghost Clan getting involved? Why are they contacting me privately? I haven't taken on any missions for years!"

Duzhu Shichuan was confused.

She is currently vacationing in a small town in Japan, built around the historic 'Shikatori Shrine,' where most of the local residents work for a living.

However, the town has now declined. A few years ago, an earthquake destroyed most of the town's houses, and many people have moved to resettlement housing in Kobe. Only a small number of elderly people who miss their homeland remain here.

Shifune Tsuzuki really enjoys exploring these decaying towns, and likes to imagine the lives of people who used to live there from the traces of life that remain.

Perhaps it was precisely because of this personality that she joined the Hunter website in her teenage years.

On the surface, she is a member of the early Japanese band "Miracle Crimson," the owner of Livehouse SPACE, and a stressful person who can make Kasumi Toyama withdraw into herself.

Secretly, he is the "hunter" with the highest mission completion rate in Japan.

As the saying goes, "Ducks are the first to know when the river warms in spring," and all the long-lived hunters on the Hunter website are invariably very perceptive of the wind direction.

As early as a year or two ago, Tsuzuki Shisen had already sensed that Tachibana Masamune, the patriarch of the Snake-Headed Eight Families, was ambitious and seemed to be preparing to use the old trick of 'pacifying the internal before resisting the external'.

So she closed her Live House Space and started a retirement life of traveling, raising cats, and spending time with her granddaughter.

By observing the trends among Japanese users on the Hunter x Hunter website, and those posts that she immediately recognized as bait from the Snake Clan, she could identify them clearly.

Tsuzuki Shisen suddenly discovered that Tachibana Masamune, the current head of the Snake-Headed Eight Families, was even more ambitious than she had imagined.

"You want to unify all the branches of Japanese mixed-race people? You've got some nerve."

Du Zhushichuan shook his head.

"Although all Japanese mixed-race families can be traced back to the Hebi-hachi family,"

"But so many years have passed, and the family is no longer the family that could command all Japanese mixed-race people without daring to disobey."

A veteran hunter would naturally attract the attention of various hybrid factions around the world, but despite his renowned reputation in the Japanese underworld, Tsuzuki Shisen has never joined any hybrid faction.

The Sheqi Eight Families' Executive Bureau once tried to win her over, but she refused.

She is currently staying in a small bamboo house.

Logically, there should be a lot of mosquitoes in this kind of room in the summer, but at this moment there wasn't a single insect chirping in the bamboo house, as if the lowly insects knew that there was a powerful presence here and had all fled.

"Let's go check out the Shikatori Shrine tomorrow morning."

Tsuzuki Shisen closed the Hunter website and began thinking about where he would travel to tomorrow.

She came here for "tourism" not only because of the unique scenery of the town after its decline, but also because of a serial murder case that intrigued her—the Shikato serial murder case also occurred here.

Although the Tsuzuki Shisen is old, its curiosity has never waned. Just like when it was young, it still enjoys exploring all sorts of strange and wonderful places.

"By the way, Lena should be on summer vacation soon too."

Thinking of his granddaughter, a smile appeared on Tsuzuki Shisen's face.

“Closing SPACE… Lena has always been somewhat reluctant.”

"Sigh... this is a last resort."

She sighed softly.

"We don't know the exact situation in Japan yet. If things continue to be chaotic like this... we'll have to consider sending Lena to Chicago."

She recalled that Lenai's parents were often away on business trips abroad and hadn't been home for a long time.

Both of them are graduates of Kassel College and joined an archaeological team under an executive branch after graduation. They are currently working in London.

Although they couldn't find the time to go back to Japan, they actually cared a lot about their daughter.

Moreover, given their contributions, it shouldn't be too difficult for them to get a letter of recommendation for admission from Principal Angers.

The couple originally planned to take their daughter, Lena, to live in England and choose a suitable secondary school for her to attend.

However, Rakuna rejected her parents' suggestion and chose to stay in Japan. She is currently studying at Hanasakigawa Girls' Academy and living with her grandmother.

However... Kaname has always had her own ideas, and as a veteran hunter, Tsuzuki Shisen is sometimes unable to go home, so Kaname has always been in a state of being left to her own devices.

Duzhu Shichuan reminisced about his youth and chuckled self-deprecatingly.

"I remember the Snake Clan sealed off this place once... what were they trying to cover up?"

The lights in the bamboo grove dimmed, with only the stars of the night sky seeping in through the half-open window.

She sent her granddaughter a few more messages, reminding her to eat more vegetables, then closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.

…………

…………

the next day,

The former site of Live House Space.

This is a long-established live music venue, once a mecca and birthplace for many major bands.

It can be said that this concert hall has played a significant role in the current band craze.

However, two years ago, the owner of the poetry boat inexplicably shut it down, and no one knows the real reason.

Two years later, no new stores have moved into the original SPACE site; instead, it has been transformed into an open-air parking lot.

On weekdays, apart from office workers who rush to park their cars and head to work, almost no one else lingers here.

Only today have we finally welcomed the uninvited guests.

At 7:40 a.m., before a Japanese junior high school student had even started class, a slender figure walked over from the street.

He didn't drive, nor did he, like most white-collar workers, hurriedly press his car key from afar, trying to get ahead of everyone else. Instead, he walked straight to a car parked in the corner and gently knocked on the window.

The curtain of the sixth-generation Toyota Camry was lowered, and the woman in the driver's seat removed her mask, revealing a pretty face.

"You came."

Before she even rolled down the car window, she could already see the figure clearly:

He wore heavy Kabuki makeup, a white dress with a pink face, and a few pale plum blossoms along the edges. No one could see his true face; they would only think he was an actor about to go on stage.

she says:

Is this your latest hobby?

The figure tossed the key to her and then said:

"I've been studying for a long time, and I've always been looking forward to a performance where I can showcase my talents."

"Ever since I saw a Kabuki performance with my brother when I was a child... I've never forgotten it."

He sighed:

"Dusk, the previous batch of new recruits to the Ghost Clan has almost been integrated. Some have adapted... the rest should have died in the missions."

"Recently, the Snake Clan has been tightening its control over all mixed-race people in Japan. I initially thought it was targeting us, but it turns out it's mainly aimed at those branch families that have separated from us."

"But it is highly likely that they are luring the snake out of its hole. If they find something is wrong, they can stop the recent mission in time."

Sakurai Kogure smiled gently:

"Okay, I understand."

She moved her face closer to the car window, letting the man stroke her face with his fair, delicate hands.

"Never refer to yourself as a subordinate."

The man said softly.

"Then perhaps I could use a different form of address?"

The woman chuckled.

"The 'Ryoma' chosen to be pushed to the forefront? The one who concealed the 'King General' and 'Dragon King' behind the scenes?"

"You're still so sensible."

The man called 'Dragon King' sighed softly, suddenly remembering the night he had invited her to listen to his performance of Bando Tamasaburo's "Yang Guifei".

That day, the girl was very gentle and compliant, following him hand in hand from downstairs to upstairs. Everyone thought something had happened between them, but in reality, he just needed an audience in the quiet night.