Tokyo Knights: The Odd Jobs X Files

This message board may seem unremarkable, but it has played a vital role in breaking down barriers between different departments within the Metropolitan Police Department.

It's important to understand that in Japan, whether it's a large company or a government department, they are all very rigid. They will resolutely refuse to do anything that isn't written in the regulations, and they will resolutely not overstep their authority in matters that are not within their jurisdiction. With so many departments in the Metropolitan Police Department, if someone goes to the Metropolitan Police Department to get something done, who knows which specific department to go to? The departments are also not familiar with each other's operations and cannot accurately tell the other person which department to go to. Most people only know that for cases like murder, you should go to the First Investigation Division, but many people don't know that you should go to the Third Investigation Division to catch thieves.

But with the message board, people in trouble can post their requests there. While waiting for their coffee, police officers can glance at the message board, find something they can handle, and proactively contact the person in trouble. This way, the officers get results, and the people in trouble get their problems resolved. Isn't that great?

Of course, if this message board hadn't been placed at Cat's Eye Cafe, and if the manager of Cat's Eye Cafe hadn't been a sexy and alluring beauty who combined heroism, charm, and glamour, and if the Metropolitan Police Department officers hadn't been vying to impress her, it wouldn't have had such a significant effect.

Regardless, Toshio Utsumi deserves a thumbs up for Rui Kisugi's groundbreaking achievement.

Lai Sheng Lei smiled and said, "Junfu, you're exaggerating. It's just a regular message board."

A smile on the surface, but in the heart, tears for the next life are actually a sigh.

So far, the notes have only contained trivial matters, nothing worth Li Xin's attention. The message board hasn't served its purpose at all!

However, it's a good thing to be able to help some people, so it's not all for nothing. It just made Cat's Eye Cafe's business better, which made her, Hitomi, and Ai even busier.

It's important to know that opening a coffee shop is just a way for the three sisters to cover their tracks. They don't make money from the coffee shop; in fact, a booming business would be a nuisance for them. Moreover, they can't hire employees to prevent their identities from being exposed. They've been so busy lately that they'd almost have to borrow cat paws (a Japanese proverb that roughly means being very busy).

Suddenly, Toshio Utsumi lowered his voice, put his hand to his mouth, and whispered to Rui Kisugi, "By the way, Rui-nee..."

"What is it, Junfu?"

"Look at that man who always sits by the window..."

Utsumi Toshio's eyes glanced at Li Xin, who was drinking water.

Lai Sheng Lei's heart tightened, but she pretended to be nonchalant and asked, "What happened to that person?"

Utsumi Toshio whispered to Kisei Rui, "From what I've observed, he's been sitting there for days on end without ordering anything, just asking for a glass of water. I strongly suspect that he was sent by the coffee shop next door to take over your coffee shop's seats and lower your coffee shop's revenue!"

Lai Sheng Lei: "..."

Okay, Toshio, you have a keen eye for observation. Don't do that next time.

With a smile, Lai Sheng Rui said to Utsumi Toshio, "Toshio, we're just doing business, we can't choose our customers, so let's just let him be."

"Sister Xiaolei, you can't say that. I think it's best to get rid of this kind of unpleasant guest. If you can't bear to do it, I can do it for you!"

Toshio Utsumi patted his chest and said.

"Forget it Toshio."

Lai Sheng Lei smiled dryly, how could she bear to let Utsumi Toshio drive away the helper she had finally found?

"Oh, Sister Xiaolei, you're just too kind!"

Toshio Utsumi sighed.

Just then, the coffee shop door opened, and a woman with large black-rimmed glasses, a mushroom haircut, and simply dressed walked in. As she passed by Toshio Utsumi, he subconsciously glanced at her back and muttered under his breath, "This woman isn't very pretty, but her back view is quite striking..."

"Junfu, what are you saying?"

Lai Sheng Lei lowered her voice and said.

"Ah, it's nothing, it's nothing. Little Tear, please don't say anything carelessly in front of Little Tong!"

Toshio Utsumi was instantly frightened.

It was the Metropolitan Police Department's break time, and most of the seats in the coffee shop were already occupied. The plain-looking woman glanced around and then sat down in the seat opposite Li Xin.

Li Xin glanced at the plain-looking woman indifferently, without saying a word.

This behavior of sharing a table without asking is undoubtedly somewhat impolite, but Li Xin didn't contribute any revenue to Cat's Eye Cafe yet he occupied a seat. To be honest, his behavior was actually even more impolite, so Li Xin kept quiet. He couldn't possibly prevent the three Lai Sheng sisters from making money, could he? What if they couldn't make money and then couldn't pay his wages in the future?

After sitting down, the unassuming woman suddenly asked, "Excuse me, are you Mr. Ashin?"

Li Xin was slightly taken aback. He hadn't told his name to many people, except for the three Lai Sheng sisters, the Ya Yue sisters, and his fellow villager A Jie from the Central Plains. It seemed like there was no one else. As for the Tainan gang, they didn't seem to be the same kind of people as this simple woman. So Li Xin was very curious as to how she knew his name.

"Who are you, and how do you know my name?"

Li Xin said in a cold voice.

Sensing Li Xin's wariness, the plain-looking woman smiled and said, "Caichai told me. I'm her colleague. She said you helped her solve a big problem and also told me you might be at Cat's Eye Cafe. I've also run into some trouble recently, so I was wondering if I could ask you for help. Of course, like Caichai, I'll pay you a reward, two million yen, okay?"

Li Xin was about to refuse, but upon hearing that the other party was willing to pay, he immediately changed his mind and said, "No problem, tell me, what is it?"

Even his tone of voice changed from its previous coldness to a much gentler one.

The plain-looking woman was taken aback, thinking that his attitude had changed too quickly, but she continued, "The thing is, my grandfather is seriously ill and is about to pass away. According to his will, all his property will be inherited by me after his death. However, my brother is unwilling to let me inherit all of my grandfather's estate, so he threatened me to give up my inheritance rights. Of course, I didn't agree, because I have no relationship with my brother at all. He used to bully me a lot when we were young, I..."

"Please get to the point."

Li Xin told the simple woman that he had no interest in this kind of melodramatic family drama; he only wanted to know how he could earn those two million yen.

The emotions she had been building up were interrupted. The simple woman took a deep breath and said, "In short, my brother sent assassins to kill me and seize the inheritance. I hope you can protect me until my grandfather passes away. After my grandfather passes away, I will automatically inherit the inheritance. I have already made a will that if I die, all my property will be donated to the 'World Children's Charity Foundation'. In other words, as long as you protect me until my grandfather dies, even if my brother kills me, he will not get a single penny, and he will have to give up the idea of ​​killing me."

Li Xin understood now, and he couldn't help but ask, "Two million yen to protect you until your grandfather passes away, right? But the problem is, how many more days can your grandfather live? Human life is very resilient. What if your grandfather survives for another year or two before passing away? Am I supposed to protect you for that long? If that's the case, it would be too much of a loss for me to only charge two million yen."

The same thing happened when he was protecting the Ya Yue sisters; there was no definite timeframe for the protection, which made things a bit difficult for Li Xin.

The plain-looking woman's lips twitched slightly. She thought to herself, "I've already told you such a tragic story. At least you should show some sympathy. How could you say such cold-blooded things?"

Taking a deep breath, the unassuming woman continued, "Don't worry, the doctor said my grandfather only has a few days left. How about this, two million yen to protect me for four days. If it's less than that, it'll still be two million yen, but if it's more than that, I'll charge you an extra 500,000 yen for each extra day. How about that? Is that okay?"

May your grandfather live to be a hundred years old!

Li Xin almost shouted it out, but he barely managed to suppress his excitement and said in as calm a voice as possible, "Okay, no problem!"

After discussing it with Li Xin, the unassuming woman didn't even order a cup of coffee and said directly to Li Xin, "Well then, I have an important appointment now, so please escort me to the meeting place."

Li Xin thought for a moment and said to the plain-looking woman, "Your grandfather is seriously ill. Instead of staying by his bedside to fulfill your filial duty, why are you going on a date?"

You're a bodyguard, and you're telling me how to be filial to my grandfather?

The plain-looking woman's face twitched slightly, then she said dryly, "This date is very important to me. I'll be spending time with my grandfather tonight, so you don't need to worry about me. Just give me a straight answer about whether you're taking this job or not!"

Sigh, what an unfilial granddaughter...

Li Xin sighed, but since they were now his benefactor, he didn't say anything more.

"catch!"

Li Xin decisively said that after waiting for several days at the Cat's Eye Cafe without any income, he would do any business that could make money.

While Lai Sheng Rui was busy dealing with a constant stream of customers, she saw Li Xin leave and wanted to call out to him to ask where he was going. However, Utsumi Toshio was still nearby, and she did not want to reveal her relationship with Li Xin for the time being, so she could only silently watch Li Xin's back as he left.

After leaving the coffee shop, the plain-looking woman led Li Xin down a side path. Seeing that she was deviating from the main road and the crowd, Li Xin reminded her, "Since someone wants to kill you, for safety's sake, let's take the main road."

The unassuming woman walked straight ahead without turning her head and said, "There's no other way, this is the shortcut. I'm going to be late for my date, so I have to take this route. You're my bodyguard, protecting me is your job, isn't it?"

Li Xin sighed and could only follow the plain-looking woman. Then he quickly thought of a problem: "Wait, you haven't paid the deposit yet."

He didn't expect the simple woman to give him all two million yen, but at least half of it should be a deposit, right?

"Do I look like I'm carrying this much money? I'll take you to the bank to withdraw some after our date!"

The simple woman's answer was reasonable and well-founded, and Li Xin felt that it was somewhat inappropriate, but he could only put the matter of the deposit aside for the time being.

Soon, the two entered a narrow alley. Suddenly, Li Xin stopped and grabbed the plain-looking woman in front of him.

The plain-looking woman was suddenly grabbed by Li Xin and almost fell over. She said angrily, "What are you doing!"

"There's a murderous aura about him."

Since killing someone, Li Xin has slowly begun to sense something called "killing aura." He has sensed this aura in many people in the Tainan Gang, especially the gang leader Gao Jie, whose killing aura is the strongest.

Sensing the murderous intent, Li Xin pulled the plain-looking woman behind him and said, "Come out!"

"Heh, you can actually sense my presence. You seem to be quite something..."

A tall man in a white suit emerged from the shadows, his hands in his pockets, and gave Li Xin a defiant look: "Get out of the way, let me kill this woman, and I'll let you go."

"impossible."

Li Xin answered firmly.

He would not let this woman die before her grandfather died and before he received the money.

"That's not up to you to decide."

The man in the white suit suddenly raised his hand, holding a gun, and fired a shot at the plain-looking woman behind Li Xin.

Li Xin opened his eyes and hurriedly pushed the plain-looking woman behind him away. But soon, the man in the white suit fired another shot at Li Xin. Li Xin had just pushed the plain-looking woman away, and there was too much of an opening in his body. It was impossible to completely avoid the bullet. He could only dodge to the side. Although he avoided the vital area of ​​his chest, the bullet still grazed his arm.

The man in the white suit was slightly surprised to see that his shot had only grazed Li Xin's arm. Then, seeing an opportunity, he fired several more shots at Li Xin.

Li Xin just felt something was off about the gunshot wound on his arm, but before he could think about it, several more bullets came flying at him, forcing him to continue to concentrate on dodging. Just as he was about to dodge, he remembered that there was a plain-looking woman standing behind him. If he dodged, wouldn't the plain-looking woman be shot?

Therefore, Li Xin could only invoke the "Wedding Dress Divine Skill," enduring excruciating pain to allow the "Wedding Dress True Qi" to protect his body and shield the plain woman from the bullets.

Bullets struck Li Xin one by one, but Li Xin remained unfazed. He had already tested it; the bullets could not cause him fatal damage.

When Li Xin went to treat the gunshot wound on his arm, Crocodile and Iwasaki Megumi both thought that Li Xin was lucky and that the bullet only grazed his arm. But in fact, the bullet hit Li Xin's arm squarely, but it was deflected by the protective "Wedding Dress True Qi", so what was left on his arm was a graze.

Use the "Wedding Dress True Qi" to withstand these bullets, then rush in and take him down before he can reload!

This is the battle plan that Li Xin has devised.

Seeing Li Xin withstand several bullets and charge towards him without flinching, the man in the white suit suddenly stepped back, put away his gun, raised his hands high at Li Xin, and shouted, "Surrender! Surrender! Saeko, hurry up and say what, or I'll be shot dead!"

Li Xin was taken aback, wondering what the man in the white suit was up to. Then he heard the plain-looking woman behind him shout, "Alright, stop! That's not an enemy."

Li Xin turned to look at the plain-looking woman, while his eyes were still fixed on the man in the white suit. The man in the white suit gave Li Xin an innocent look, but for some reason, Li Xin felt that the look was a little smug.

At this moment, the plain-looking woman had taken off her thick glasses, revealing a face that was both alluring and extremely heroic. She then removed her mushroom-shaped wig, revealing her neat, medium-length hair.

"Who...who are you?!"

Li Xin looked at the plain-looking woman who had undergone a dramatic transformation.

The unassuming woman smiled slightly, a smile that gave off a cunning, fox-like quality: "My name is Nogami Saeko, and I'm a police officer."

When Li Xin heard the woman say she was a police officer, his first reaction wasn't the fear of his actions being discovered, but rather the realization that if her previous identity was fake, then her promised reward must also be fake...

You actually lied to me, you wicked woman!

Li Xin said angrily.

Chapter Nineteen: The Contest

After revealing her identity as a police officer to Li Xin, Nogami Saeko said, "Li Xin, a man from the Central Plains, came to Tokyo more than half a month ago. You killed Inagaki Koji and Kawada Meisuke (the serial killer in Shinjuku), didn't you?"

Li Xin silently watched Nogami Saeko without saying a word.

He was absolutely certain that he had not left any evidence at the scene, and that Iwasaki Megumi and the Azuki sisters would not betray him. Without evidence, the police could not arrest people arbitrarily. If he acted too hastily now, he would only give Nogami Saeko a clue and allow her to find his weakness. Therefore, Li Xin remained very calm.

Seeing that Li Xin was wary of her, Nogami Saeko smiled slightly and said, "Don't be nervous. I'm not the kind of police officer who only cares about procedural justice. For me, achieving the goal is the most important thing, and the means are not important."

"So you always resort to those dirty tricks, right?"

The man in the white suit muttered something under his breath, then Nogami Saeko glared at him with a threatening look, which made him shut up immediately, and he even made a zipping motion with his mouth.

After silencing the man in the white suit, Saeko Nogami continued, "Both Koji Inagaki and Meisuke Kawada deserve to die. I have no reason to avenge two scumbags; that would be a crime against the people they killed."

Li Xin ignored Nogami Saeko and examined his chest. He found that the place where he was shot was only a little painful, without any scars. He had felt something was wrong when he was shot in the arm, but he didn't have time to check. Now that he saw it, the bullet was indeed problematic.

The man in the white suit smiled and said, "They're rubber bullets. I was just testing your skills."

In reality, it was also a test of Li Xin's character. If Li Xin hadn't risked his life to protect Nogami Saeko, who was his employer, and instead dodged the bullets himself, Nogami Saeko wouldn't have the attitude she has now. She would have joined forces with the man in the white suit to subdue Li Xin and imprison him, with the charge already prepared: the murder of Inagaki Koji and Kawada Meisuke.

What? No evidence? That's easy, just forge one. Anyway, Li Xin is a foreigner with no relatives or friends in Japan. Who would stand up for him? That conman who temporarily partnered with him?

These days, Saeko Nogami hasn't been idle. After investigating the Aya sisters' relationships during those days, she quickly discovered Li Xin's existence and basically confirmed that he was the one who killed Meisuke Kawada.

After confirming that Li Xin was the extraordinary person who killed Koji Inagaki and Meisuke Kawada, Saeko Nogami began to plot against Li Xin, wanting to test him.

Yes, Saeko Nogami did not report Li Xin's existence; instead, she concealed it.

Although the Japanese government's attitude towards extraordinary individuals like Li Xin is to bring them under surveillance to prevent them from doing anything that harms society, everyone knows the true nature of the Japanese government. When it comes to harming society, who can compare to them?

So Saeko Nogami kept Li Xin's existence a secret and planned to develop him into her tool... cough cough, her partner.

However, Saeko Nogami is quite selective about her partners. In addition to ability, their character also needs to be guaranteed. That's why she deliberately set up a trap to test Li Xin today.

Fortunately, Li Xin had previously chosen to take a bullet for Nogami Saeko. Both Nogami Saeko and the man in the white suit felt that Li Xin was trustworthy, at least in terms of professional ethics, meaning he could be a qualified partner.

Li Xin checked his clothes and, finding they weren't torn, turned and left, completely ignoring Nogami Saeko and the man in the white suit.

He couldn't get the money, and given his status, it wasn't good for him to clash with the police. Should he stay and continue listening to that wicked woman? Or should he go back to Cat's Eye Cafe and let the good woman, Lai Sheng Rui, soothe his wounded heart?

"and many more!"

Nogami Saeko called out to Li Xin, but Li Xin didn't stop for a moment. Seeing that she completely ignored Nogami Saeko, the man in the white suit chuckled and said, "See? You've angered her!"

He was all too familiar with the feeling of being promised a great deal and then being stood up!