“Ah…”
Hanyu Yukiki whirled around.
Sato Aoi was clutching her shoulder, blood gushing wildly from between her fingers, staining her white shirt crimson.
Her face instantly turned deathly pale, her eyes glazed over, and her body went limp, collapsing toward the side.
Momose Tadayoshi tried to reach out to catch her, but his movements were restricted by the handcuffs.
“Shot?!”
The patrol officer in the passenger seat turned ashen with fear.
Hanyu Yukiki felt a surge of hot blood rush to his head.
He shoved the car door open, leaped out, and yanked open the rear door. “Quick! Apply pressure to the wound!”
He unlocked one of Momose Tadayoshi’s handcuffs, allowing him to help press on Sato Aoi’s wound.
“To the hospital!”
“What about you?”
“I’ll stay and handle the scene! Go!”
Hanyu Yukiki slammed the car door shut and slapped the roof.
The police car, sirens blaring, sped off down the street.
On the street, the gunfire had ceased.
The superpower user had been riddled with bullets, lying on the ground like a pile of rotten meat.
The SAT-EX members were clearing the scene.
Hanyu Yukiki took a deep breath, straightened his somewhat disheveled police uniform, and strode toward the group of black-clad soldiers.
“I’m Hanyu Yukiki, temporarily assigned to the Shinjuku Station Criminal Affairs Division.”
He blocked the path of the SAT-EX commander, his voice trembling slightly with extreme anger. “Your stray bullets just hit my patrol car, seriously injuring a minor.”
The commander was a tall man, wearing a tactical face mask that revealed only a pair of cold eyes.
He looked down at Hanyu Yukiki, his gaze filled with undisguised contempt.
“So what?”
“So what?!”
Hanyu Yukiki repeated it incredulously. “You used heavy firepower in an urban area, completely disregarding civilian safety! This is a serious violation! I demand you take responsibility!”
“Responsibility?”
The commander sneered, as if hearing a joke. “Our mission is to eliminate superpowered criminals who threaten national security. In war, collateral damage is inevitable.”
“This isn’t war! This is law enforcement!” Hanyu Yukiki roared. “You are law enforcers, not butchers!”
“Times have changed, little cop.”
The commander reached out and shoved Hanyu Yukiki hard. “Those monsters have turned this world upside down. If we don’t use overwhelming force, how can we maintain order? Don’t lecture me with your outdated sense of justice.”
Hanyu Yukiki staggered back from the push but steadied himself and charged forward again, grabbing the commander by the collar.
“You must apologize for this! And visit the injured in the hospital!”
“Looking for death.”
The commander’s eyes turned icy.
Thud!
A heavy rifle butt slammed viciously into Hanyu Yukiki’s abdomen.
The excruciating pain instantly doubled him over like a shrimp, bile nearly rising in his throat.
Before he could recover, a brutal kick landed behind his knee.
Thump.
Hanyu Yukiki knelt on the wet asphalt.
“Make him see reason,” the commander said indifferently.
Two surrounding SAT-EX members closed in, kicking and punching him.
They didn’t use lethal force, but every blow landed on the most painful spots, full of humiliation.
Rain had begun to fall at some point.
Cold raindrops struck Hanyu Yukiki’s face, mixing with blood from his nose and muddy water.
He curled up on the ground, protecting his head with his hands, listening to the fading sounds of mocking laughter and footsteps.
‘Is this what the world has become now…’
Hanyu Yukiki painfully rolled onto his back, lying on the ground, staring at the pitch-black night sky.
These guys cloaked in “special forces” uniforms, preaching about national security, could shoot civilians without a shred of guilt and then trample a fellow officer seeking justice underfoot.
Hanyu Yukiki spat out a mouthful of bloody saliva, a self-mocking, bitter smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.
He struggled to pull his phone from his pocket. The screen was cracked, but it still worked.
He had to… had to confirm Sato Aoi’s condition.
If that girl died because of his insistence on following procedure…
DRG… can I trust you?
……
The following afternoon.
Hanyu Yukiki, carrying a basket of fruit, limped down the hospital corridor.
His face was bandaged, two of his ribs were broken, and every step sent a dull ache through him.
Last night’s incident had been classified as “an accident during Special Response HQ’s handling of a superpower riot” and hadn’t caused much of a stir.
No one in SAT-EX faced any disciplinary action; even the commander’s name was kept confidential.
As for Hanyu Yukiki, for “obstructing official duties” and “emotional outburst,” he received an oral reprimand from his superiors and was ordered to take three days’ leave.
How laughable.
Pushing open the hospital room door, Hanyu Yukiki saw Sato Aoi lying in bed.
The girl’s face was still pale, her shoulder thickly bandaged.
Her father, Sato, was not at her bedside.
That supervisor seemed busy with other matters, or perhaps didn’t even know his daughter was hurt.
Instead, it was Momose Tadayori, sitting on a chair, peeling an apple.
Seeing Hanyu Yukiki enter, Momose Tadayori paused his movements, his expression complex.
“You dare show your face?” Momose Tadayori snorted coldly but didn’t get up to throw him out.
“I came to apologize.”
Hanyu Yukiki walked to the bedside and bowed deeply to Sato Aoi.
“I’m sorry. If I hadn’t insisted on taking you back to the station, maybe this wouldn’t have happened.”
Sato Aoi looked at the policeman with his battered face, her gaze somewhat dazed.
“Mister…” Sato Aoi spoke, her voice hoarse. “Your face… it’s really ugly.”
Hanyu Yukiki straightened up, forcing a wry smile. “It was never handsome to begin with.”
“You did your best.”
Momose Tadayori handed the peeled apple to Sato Aoi and said gruffly, “The blame lies with the source. Those black-clad bastards are the real murderers.”
“I’ll keep filing complaints.”
Hanyu Yukiki clenched his fist. “I’ve written a report and submitted it directly to the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department’s Inspector General’s Office.”
“It’s useless.”
Momose Tadayori shook his head, a flicker of mockery in his eyes. “In this world now, the law can’t touch those with privilege. Only fists, harder than theirs, work.”
Hanyu Yukiki fell silent.
He couldn’t refute it.
Just then, the television in the room was playing a rebroadcast of the GSAC Team Free-for-All Finals.
On screen, the captain of Special Response HQ Unit 1, Yuki Asahi, was wielding a radiant two-handed sword, cleaving through Shadow Girl’s liquid metal.
“See.”
Momose Tadayori pointed at the screen, a faint smile curling his lips.
“Our ‘justice’… is about to return.”
Hanyu Yukiki watched the screen, that boy shining like a deity.
A deep doubt about his profession as a policeman took root.
If… if that’s the case…
Hanyu Yukiki returned to the corridor and dialed Koji Hattori’s number. “Mr. Hattori, there’s something I need to tell you.”
……
“Huh?”
Jiang Jian Yue, hearing Koji Hattori’s report, felt nothing but exasperation.
Cuiyue wasn’t hurt, but that easily manipulated Sato Aoi had gotten injured first.
And it seemed it wasn’t Nikolai’s doing either, just a case of violent law enforcement and collateral damage.
With Special Response HQ’s status rising and SAT-EX riding its coattails, as a violent department lacking oversight, coupled with the “desperate times call for desperate measures” backdrop, SAT-EX was no longer the useless background board they once were.
Nikolai had entered the individual competition and was now a hot favorite to win, focused on the matches.
‘Is this guy… actually decent?’
‘Then what was the point of giving that misleading shot?’
The sixteenth episode was all about the competition, with no scenes of Nikolai, and Jiang Jian Yue barely appeared either.
Jiang Jian Yue’s review after watching was: for the audience, it was a fun action-packed episode, but since she wasn’t in it… zero points!
Returning to the matter at hand, Jiang Jian Yue pondered for a long while, then shook her head.
“Right now, we’re feigning weakness, pretending to ‘leave Japan.’ We shouldn’t get involved with SAT-EX anymore. Tell that Hanyu Yukiki that Japan is rotten to the core, and we can’t be bothered.”
Jiang Jian Yue thought for a moment and continued, “Tell Cuiyue about this. Let’s see how she handles it.”
Cuiyue was still competing in the individual tournament. Though she hadn’t agreed to join DRG yet, she had already added Jiang Jian Yue on LINE—a direct line to the boss.
The girl had asked about salary, benefits, and perks. It looked like she was genuinely considering joining the Dawn Resources Group family.
Jiang Jian Yue was quite lenient with this girl who resembled her in appearance. ‘You’ll come in as the main carry, to be trained as a trusted confidant.’
When necessary, she could serve as a body double.
As for why the future “Jiang Jian Yue” sometimes became very large and sometimes very small, this is also recorded in certain… games.
Letting Cuiyue, who hasn’t joined DRG yet, handle the issue of her benefactor’s child herself was appropriate, both emotionally and logically.
‘But come to think of it, this Cuiyue… she wouldn’t actually like that supervisor, would she?’
‘Why would she be interested in someone like that?’
—Similarly, Cuiyue wondered why Jiang Jian Yue was interested in Yuki Asahi.
……
“Huh?”
Cuiyue, hearing what Koji Hattori said, felt nothing but exasperation.
“Collateral damage… the Sato family… what does that have to do with me.”
Koji Hattori shrugged. “I just suddenly remembered, the address you left was the Sato residence. I thought you were the Sato family’s daughter.”
Of course, he couldn’t say that DRG had been monitoring her.
The reason he approached Cuiyue was that Hanyu Yukiki contacted him asking for a favor, and he thought of Cuiyue, hence the visit.
Koji Hattori shook his head and sighed. “Well, if you don’t want to deal with this mess, then forget it. Our DRG is probably leaving Japan soon anyway. These small matters are beyond our reach.”
“What a shame. Brother Hanyu is absolutely furious right now. After something like this, he must be wracked with guilt. Ah, there’s nothing to be done…”
Even within the group, the official line was unified—DRG was about to leave Japan.
The Homecoming Faction was somewhat dissatisfied, but after half a year of public development, the newly joined members were solidly the “Crown Prince’s faction.”
Jiang Jian Yue had the capital to ignore the Homecoming Faction’s complaints.
“Heh… has nothing to do with me.” After bidding farewell to Koji Hattori, Cuiyue returned to her room in the Athletes’ Village.
The other three members had left; they either weren’t participating in the individual competition or had been eliminated early.
Cuiyue had advanced to the main tournament and would be staying here a while longer.
Though she said “none of my business,” when Supervisor Sato’s call came through, her heart still clenched.