Tokyo Knights: The Odd Jobs X Files

Seeing that this Taoist robe was no different from the one Mai Shiranui wore before, Li Xin couldn't help but look at Mai Shiranui.

Mai Shiranui, however, was carefully observing Li Xin's performance, and then said thoughtfully, "It seems that the same gi will look different on different people..."

Kisugi Ai immediately felt offended, as did Sakazaki Yuri—in terms of figure, she wasn't as good as Kisugi Ai!

Xiao Wu, how come the splash damage of your attack is higher than the base damage?!

Yuri Sakazaki muttered to herself.

"Wait a moment, I'll go change it."

Mai Shiranui pulled Ai Kisugi back to the room. After some time, Mai Shiranui pulled Ai Kisugi out again. This time, Ai Kisugi was wearing a red leather outfit that covered her entire body, perfectly showcasing her figure, which was considered unfair among Asian women. Moreover, the zipper on her chest seemed to be broken and could not be fastened no matter what she did. A deep "groove" was enough to drown a person in it.

This outfit covered almost every part of her body compared to the previous one, but for some reason, Kiyosa Ai felt even more ashamed than before.

"Brother Ashin, don't look!"

"Lai Sheng Ai blushed again and said."

This time, Mai Shiranui didn't pay attention to Li Xin's changing expression. Instead, she closed her eyes, seemingly listening to something, and then smiled.

"Okay, Xiao Ai, let's go change into another outfit."

Mai Shiranui once again pulled Ai Kisugi into the room.

As Li Xin waited, he looked around and then saw Yuri Sakazaki looking down at her toes.

Hmm, they're probably looking at their toes.

Yuri Sakazaki noticed Li Xin's gaze and, like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, jumped up and shouted at Li Xin, "What are you looking at! There's nothing for you to see!"

"?"

Li Xin looked puzzled. Had he shown that he wanted to see something?

Yuri Sakazaki pouted angrily, tossed her braids, and said, "I'm ignoring you all!"

At the same time, he shouted to Mai Shiranui in the room, "Mai, I'm going home. I'll come find you to play again next time!"

She felt that if she stayed here, she would be hurt even more.

"Yuri, why are you leaving? Stay and give me some advice!"

Mai Shiranui peeked out of the room, but the more she said that, the faster Yuri Sakazaki ran, and soon she fled the Shiranui-ryu dojo as if she were escaping.

Mai Shiranui shook her head in disappointment, then stared at Li Xin, who was also trying to retreat, and said, "You're not allowed to run away!"

Li Xin remained silent, feeling somewhat regretful for bringing Sheng Ai to Shiranui Mai's place to become her apprentice. He thought he should have gone to Master Zhen Yuanzhai instead.

Previously, Li Xin thought that since Master Zhen Yuanzhai already had two disciples, it would be too much trouble to teach another one, so he thought of having Ai Shiranui join the Shiranui School. Now it seems that this was a huge mistake on his part!

Afterwards, Mai Shiranui dragged Ai Kisugi to show off various taekwondo uniforms in front of Li Xin, and then judged Li Xin's reaction by listening to his heartbeat and breathing. When she felt that there was not much of a change in his reaction, she dragged Ai Kisugi back to the room to continue altering the uniforms.

As for Ai, she gradually became numb from her original shyness. Although she would still say "Brother Xin, don't look" every time, the emotion in her words became more and more bland, and in the end, it almost became a monotonous reading.

Once again, after being dressed up by Mai Shiranui, Kisugi Ai walked out of the room and said in a monotone voice, "Brother Shin, don't look..."

But then she suddenly saw that Li Xin had already turned his head away before she even said those words.

"Snapped!"

Mai Shiranui clapped her hands and said with a smile, "Alright, this is it!"

Li Xin's reaction speaks volumes more than his heartbeat and breathing.

Kisugi Ai was also stunned for a moment, then quickly ran to the full-length mirror in Mai Shiranui's room and carefully examined the taekwondo uniform she was wearing. Having been manipulated by Mai Shiranui like a puppet, Kisugi Ai was numb and had no idea what she was wearing.

Standing in front of the full-length mirror, Kijima Ai gazed at her reflection. She was wearing a light, tight-fitting purple bodysuit, which looked similar to what she wore when she worked as "Cat's Eye," but the shoulders were bare, revealing her fair skin. The sides of her waist were also cut out, but black mesh was added to the cutouts to obscure the details. Silver stripes surrounded her entire body, clearly outlining certain key areas. Kijima Ai felt a blush creep up her cheeks and her heart race as she looked at herself in the mirror.

Strange, it's similar to the combat uniform I wore before, so why does it feel so different!

"I'll blush in my next life," she said.

At that moment, Mai Shiranui came up behind Ai Kisugi, leaned on her shoulder, and said to Ai Kisugi, whose attention was entirely on the mirror, "How is it? Satisfied? My skills are pretty good, aren't they?"

The many clothes that Ai changes into in her next life are not Mai Shiranui's original stock, but rather clothes she modified based on her existing Taoist robes.

It's important to know that Mai Shiranui was raised from a young age according to the requirements of traditional Japanese women. In addition to illustration, tea ceremony, and cooking, needlework is also one of Mai Shiranui's specialties. Even the gi she wears is made by herself. Modifying and piecing together other gi to create a brand new gi is naturally a piece of cake for her.

When asked by Mai Shiranui, Ai Kisugi blushed but nodded slightly in agreement.

Mai Shiranui said happily, "In that case, I'll make some minor adjustments to this design and make you a few more sets of martial arts uniforms! By the way, Ai, what color do you like?"

"Orange is fine."

Kisugi Ai replied that her original combat uniform was this color, and she liked this color.

Mai Shiranui nodded, then opened a cabinet, leaned inside, and rummaged around for a long time before finally taking out a katana and handing it to Ai Kisugi: "Here, Ai, this is the famous sword 'Shiranui' passed down from ancient times by my 'Shiranui-ryu' school. Your skills are not strong enough right now, so I'll give you 'Shiranui' to protect yourself."

As she spoke, Mai Shiranui tied the katana with a rope and then bound it behind her back for Ai Kisei.

Kisugi Ai asked with some doubt: "Does the 'Shiranui-ryu' school even have swordsmanship?"

When she watched Mai Shiranui fight Li Xin, she only used a folding fan at most; the rest of the fighting relied on fist and foot techniques, and she didn't use swordsmanship at all!

"No, but we're ninjas, so it's normal for us to carry a katana, right?"

Mai Shiranui replied.

"..."

Lai Sheng Ai was speechless for a moment, but after thinking about it, she felt that Mai Shiranui's words didn't seem to make any mistakes.

Compared to Mai Shiranui's previous image, wearing a dark bodysuit and carrying a katana on her back is more in line with the image of a ninja.

However, Mai Shiranui gave this sword to herself for self-defense. Without the corresponding swordsmanship, what kind of self-defense can she use it for?

However, before watching, Mai Shiranui searched for a long time in the cabinet before finding this samurai sword. It was something that hadn't been used for a long time and had been pressed at the bottom of the box. Perhaps, the "Shiranui style" really doesn't have much swordsmanship, and this seemingly ancient sword is just a decoration or ornament.

Carrying a samurai sword, Kisugi Ai turned around in front of the full-length mirror again. She was quite satisfied with her current appearance. She did look a bit like a heroic and agile female ninja. If she covered her face with a mask, she would probably look even more like one.

But as he looked in the mirror, he gradually developed a strange feeling.

Hmm... why do I have this feeling that things are going to get really bad for me in the future?

A thought suddenly popped into my mind about the next life.

Chapter Forty-Three New Steps

Kisugi Ai finalized the design of the new dojo, and Li Xin's mission was finally complete. Because Kisugi Ai was going to stay at the "Shiranui-ryu" dojo to train with Shiranui Mai, she would not leave with Li Xin. At the same time, Kisugi Ai asked Li Xin not to tell her older sisters about her martial arts training.

This was partly to avoid worrying the two, and partly because Kisugi Ai was holding her breath, wanting Kisugi Rui and Kisugi Hitomi to look at her in a new light.

Li Xin promised to love her in the next life. How could Li Xin not understand and support this desire to help and protect the people he cherishes?

After leaving the Shiranui-ryu dojo, Li Xin thought for a moment and decided to go to the bank to deposit the money from the check. He was too unfamiliar with checks, and unfamiliarity made him feel unsafe, so he wanted to deposit the money from the check into the bank as soon as possible.

As for bank accounts, Li Xin himself did not have a bank account in Japan, but Crocodile did. So Li Xin decided to deposit the ten million yen into Crocodile's bank account first. Li Xin could even hand over more than three million RMB to Crocodile, so he could certainly trust Crocodile with ten million yen. Not to mention, of the ten million yen, seven million yen was actually owed to Crocodile by him.

Speaking of Crocodile Guy, I wonder if he's even reached Shibalipu Village yet...

Li Xin began to miss Crocodile. Without Crocodile, he had to handle many things on his own, and he wasn't good at those things; in fact, he was quite bad at them.

If Crocodile knew that Li Xin was thinking of him at this moment, and if he could talk to Li Xin, then Li Xin would probably be able to hear the purest Hong Kong swear words right now.

Ah-Xin, you little brat, why didn't you tell me that Shibali Village is so far away?

Of course, Li Xin was unaware of Crocodile's current situation, and Crocodile was unable to communicate with Li Xin, so all of this was just speculation.

Although he was thinking of depositing the money in the bank, Li Xin did not go to the bank immediately. The Shiranui-ryu dojo was not far from Athena Asamiya's house, so Li Xin simply went to Athena Asamiya's house to visit Master Chin Gentsai. Li Xin had always been grateful to this helpful fellow villager, and it would be inappropriate not to visit her since he was passing by.

At this time, Athena Asamiya's house was empty, with neither Athena Asamiya nor Kensou Shi in the room. Only Chin Gentsai was drinking alone. Chin Gentsai was pleased to see Li Xin and chatted with him for a few words. However, since Li Xin couldn't drink, Chin Gentsai didn't keep him any longer and told him to go about his business.

After saying goodbye to Zhenyuanzhai, Li Xin first returned to Shinjuku Ward, and then found the nearest Yotsubishi Bank. Since it was his first time doing banking business, he didn't know anything about it, but fortunately, the bank staff who handled Li Xin's business had a very good service attitude and taught Li Xin how to do the business step by step without being impatient at all.

With the help of this highly capable bank employee, Li Xin finally transferred the money from the check into Crocodile's bank account.

After completing the transaction, Li Xin nodded to the bank employee whose name tag read "Hirota Masami" and said, "Thank you."

The bank employee named Masami Hirota smiled slightly at Li Xin and said, "Please don't say that, sir. It's my honor to be able to help you. Please consider our 4M Bank first if you need any business in the future. Thank you!"

It was supposed to be Li Xin thanking Hirota Masami, but it turned out that Hirota Masami was thanking Li Xin instead. Li Xin was somewhat flattered, as this was the first time he had received such service.

Of course, Li Xin, who grew up in Shibalipu Village, could never understand just how pathological the service attitude of those who trampled on their own dignity in the Japanese service industry was. He was simply puzzled by Hirota Masami's thanks.

After completing his business, Li Xin left the bank, but quickly realized that he still had one task to finish: to burn that fat, money-lending bastard to death.

Crocodile had said that to avoid being associated with the death of that fat pig, Li Xin should wait a few days before killing him. However, Li Xin was not one to hold back and really wanted to kill that fat pig immediately. If he was allowed to live one more day, he might create one or more more victims.

But Li Xin wasn't an impulsive person. He knew that killing the fat pig was easy, but it would be much harder to absolve himself of any responsibility for his death. He could only wait for Crocodile to return.

Crocodile is the one with the most crooked and unorthodox ideas. If it were him, he would definitely be able to come up with a way to both kill the fat pig and keep himself out of trouble.

Hey, Crocodile Guy, when are you coming back?

Li Xin sighed, and then spent five days waiting for Crocodile Man.

Five days later, Crocodile still hadn't returned to Japan. Li Xin finally couldn't sit still any longer and decided to take down that fat pig by himself.

Of course, Li Xin wasn't unprepared and didn't just impulsively decide to kill Hida Mitsuhiro. In order to eliminate Hida Mitsuhiro without leaving a trace, Li Xin spent the last five days digging out newspapers from the past six months and carefully studying the murder cases in them, hoping to learn from the murder methods and design a flawless murder case.

Yes, that's right. They learned murder methods from newspapers. It's fortunate that Japanese newspapers have no bottom line. In order to sell more copies, they want to record every detail of the murder case in the newspaper, without being afraid of copycats.

The police were powerless against the newspapers because they hadn't solved the murder cases, and they couldn't use the excuse of case confidentiality to prevent the reporters from covering them.

Yes, that's right. The murder cases that appear in those newspapers are basically not solved by the police, or rather, the police solving cases doesn't have any sensational appeal, so the newspapers are too lazy to report them. Only the cases solved by ordinary people, such as high school detectives, have traffic and can make the newspapers sell a lot of money.

In Japan, newspapers are all private companies, and the content they report is determined by market preferences. People love to read news about high school students solving crimes, so they report on such news relentlessly. Basically, when such a case occurs, it's guaranteed to be the headline, while cases solved by the police can only take up a tiny space on the back page.

It can only be said that the sensationalism and sycophancy of these newspapers are one of the important reasons for the decline of the Metropolitan Police Department's prestige in recent years.

As the saying goes, "If you read three hundred Tang poems by heart, you can recite them even if you can't compose them." Similarly, after reading dozens of murder cases in the newspapers, even though Li Xin had never seriously planned a murder before and always acted directly, a plan for how to kill Hida Mitsuhiro was now vaguely forming in his mind.

Find the target, eliminate the target, and then leave the scene – that's the old three-step process. Now, Li Xin has developed a new three-step process for dealing with Mitsuhiro Hida!

That evening, as usual, Mitsuhiro Hida was counting money in his office, while the other employees in the company had already left work early.

In other Japanese companies, it's unlikely that employees would leave before the boss has even finished get off work. However, at "Hida Financial," this is possible, and the boss, Mitsuhiro Hida, will even come out and kick employees out if they stay too late.

This is certainly not because Mitsuhiro Hida is a considerate boss who lets his employees go home early to reunite with their families. Rather, for Mitsuhiro Hida, every evening after his employees get off work is his time to enjoy himself.

As the saying goes, "love what you do." Mitsuhiro Hida is a loan shark, so his favorite thing to do is count money. Every night, he would painstakingly count the money collected during the day and put it into the safe. He would never entrust this task to anyone else, and he even disliked having anyone around at this time. That's why he stipulated that employees must leave work on time at night.

In reality, he doesn't care whether his employees leave work or not; the key is not to disturb him while he's counting his money!

After counting the stack of money and putting it into the pile on his left, Mitsuhiro Hida had a look of smug satisfaction on his face: "That makes ten million yen. I really hope collecting loans every day can be as easy as today!"

Lending money at exorbitant interest rates is not an easy task. Not only is borrowing money at exorbitant interest rates very risky, but lending money at exorbitant interest rates is also quite risky, because the default rate of exorbitant interest rates is often much higher than that of regular banks, sometimes even several times higher.

This is normal, because a large portion of those who borrow money at high interest rates are gamblers. They borrow money at high interest rates to take a gamble. If they win, they can pay back the loan. But if they lose, they often lose everything and have nothing left. Naturally, they can't pay back the loan, which is a bad debt.

Of course, loan sharks often have close ties with the underworld. If they borrow money from loan sharks, the loan shark company will collect what it can. If it can't collect the money, it will ask the underworld to help collect it. It doesn't matter if the person's family is ruined or destroyed. As long as the money can be recovered, the loan shark company doesn't care about anything else!

This is why Fujii Takako's boyfriend hanged himself after accumulating high-interest loans. He simply couldn't pay back the money and was driven to desperation by the yakuza, leaving him with no choice but to end his life, turning the debt into a bad debt with his death. Otherwise, given the yakuza's modus operandi, it wouldn't be impossible for them to kidnap Fujii Takako, his girlfriend, and force her into working as a hostess or prostitute to pay off the debt. In fact, it would be a standardized procedure.

After counting all the money on the table, Mitsuhiro Hida put the money into the safe, then stretched, finally finishing his workday.

Suddenly, Mitsuhiro Hida remembered something.

Hmm, speaking of which, why haven't those two Hong Kong people come back to my place yet? Could they have run back to Hong Kong? But that can't be right, such a large sum of money, if it's not properly laundered, they can't take it with them!

Thinking about the commission he could get from the 30 million yen, Mitsuhiro Hida felt greed rising in his heart again.

His greed for money was insatiable.

I'll ask around at other branches tomorrow to see if they've laundered money at other branches. They can't possibly be using that money to launder in the Kansai region, can they?

Mitsuhiro Hida thought to himself, then left the company, got into his car, started the engine, and drove home.

Between the company and Mitsuhiro Hida's home, Mitsuhiro Hida had to go down a slope. There was a bend on the slope, and as usual, Mitsuhiro Hida stepped on the brakes in advance to prepare for the bend. However, he felt that the car's speed did not decrease at all. He quickly realized that something was wrong and hurriedly turned the steering wheel, but the brakes were gone and the car could not be slowed down. It was too late to turn the steering wheel, so Mitsuhiro Hida drove the car and crashed into the guardrail at the bend without any doubt.

Mitsuhiro Hida was driving a Japanese car, which was lightweight, and he wasn't driving too fast. So, although his car crashed into the guardrail, he was unharmed. The airbags and his thick layer of fat saved his life.

Hida Mitsuhiro was relieved to find it a close call, but inwardly cursed his bad luck. Just as he was about to get out of the car to call the police, he saw that the car door was deformed from the impact and could not be opened at all.

With no other option, Mitsuhiro Hida tried to open the other car door, but after a few attempts, he discovered that for some reason, the other door also wouldn't open.

Now, sweat began to pour down Hida Mitsuhiro's face. He hurriedly rolled over and crawled towards the back of the car, but at that moment, a spark in the car's fuel tank suddenly ignited without warning. Soon, with a loud bang, the car exploded violently, and in the towering flames, a fat figure seemed to be struggling frantically inside the car.

End.

Li Xin looked at the rising flames in the distance and said calmly.

Li Xin's method of eliminating Hida Mitsuhiro was very simple: he cut the brake line on Hida's car, but not completely. If he had cut it completely, the brakes would have been malfunctioning from the start, and Hida would have noticed. So he only cut a small part of it and let the brake fluid leak slowly. The company was quite a distance from his home, and he would have had to brake multiple times along the way. Even if the accident didn't happen at a downhill bend, it would eventually happen somewhere else.

To prevent Mitsuhiro Hida from surviving, Li Xin added something to his fuel tank—a gadget he got from Mai Shiranui. It would generate sparks when it collided or rubbed against something. She herself wouldn't release flames; the flames she emitted during battle were created using those gadgets.