Chapter 175: Mistaken Identity
Chapter 175: Mistaken Identity
The note was not meant for him.
Instead, Takami Fuyumi, the next Ki no Shou of the Takami family, found it in her shoe locker.
She was a student at Ukadai Girls’ Middle School and, aside from her training, she had to attend classes every day.
The note was originally hidden inside an envelope. Thinking nervously that it might be a love letter, Fuyumi opened it, but the first glance scared her. At first, she thought it was a threatening letter.
Later, she handed the letter to the elder Vajra, who quickly realized the information revealed in the letter was of great significance.
However, this elder had long withdrawn from the Fang Hunter Organization. He preferred to stay behind the scenes, nurturing the next generation of talents, so he did not have much connection with the Agency anymore.
It seemed he had once clashed with higher-ups and held great disdain for the bureaucratic system and factional strife within the Agency. Thus, the letter eventually ended up in his hands.
(…Putting aside other matters, just the name Kagami God Room alone would definitely not be known to outsiders. Unfortunately, the Takami side couldn’t find any clues either, and on my side… Raisuya also happened to be away from headquarters.)
His superior Raisuya had gone on a business trip to an unknown location at this critical time.
Amasue Suetora called his assistant but received no news.
“Aobanuma? It seems I’ll have to go there myself.”
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“It seems the Fang Hunter Organization didn’t take the information I gave seriously.”
The message Takami Fuyumi received naturally came from Fang Jing’s side.
He had met Takami Fuyumi before and, through Karasawa, learned about the Muhe Style and the Fang Hunter Organization’s intelligence.
Having this direction, he easily obtained information on the Muhe Style and concluded that the main family of the Muhe Style, the Takami family, had ties with the Fang Hunter Organization. To pass on the message, he approached it from this angle and arranged for his own people to infiltrate Ukadai Girls’ School.
To ensure the message was delivered properly and without leaving any clues, he put in a lot of effort.
Fang Jing was certain that the chances of the Fang Hunter Organization finding him, the messenger, were only one percent.
Moreover, the Fang Hunter Organization had no time to investigate clues, because if an attack were to happen at the Aobanuma Research Institute, it would likely occur in the near future.
“However, if the Takami family of the Muhe Style received the message, they would definitely pass it upward. I might be able to follow this trail to identify people entering and leaving the Takami family and gather some scattered clues.”
Fang Jing sat at an outdoor café, sipping the aroma of his coffee while observing the people passing by.
Fortunately, he hadn’t noticed anything unusual so far.
His extraordinary perception ability, gained from the “Fierce Wrath” Fate Grade, allowed him to see people’s anger.
If any Corpse Hounds approached, their anger would clearly show.
Although there were people who could hide their emotions and not show anything, they were ultimately a minority.
Fang Jing had been chasing leads all this time, trying to dig up information related to Aobanuma.
He handed the investigation over to the Information Broker, who sorted through the data and found three hundred areas nationwide related to “Aobanuma.” After further screening, they narrowed it down to thirty-seven suspicious locations. Then, focusing on information related to “research institute,” they selected seventeen places.
These seventeen locations were spread all over the country.
In other words, with the manpower and resources Fang Jing currently had, it was almost impossible to fully monitor all seventeen places.
“Besides, if I conducted a large-scale investigation, it would most likely draw the attention of the Fang Hunter Organization and the Corpse Hounds, which goes against my original intention of hiding myself.”
Fang Jing wanted to follow the clues, but that didn’t mean he was willing to let others trace them back to him.
He didn’t send many people to investigate the seventeen locations. Instead, he tried to obtain information from the Fang Hunter Organization’s side.
Through scattered clues from the Takami family, the Information Broker caught wind of something.
This direction was also related to another Fang Hunter he had met before, Amasue Suetora.
According to the Information Broker, they discovered this woman appearing in a certain city. After cross-referencing, Fang Jing found that the place Amasue Suetora was heading to overlapped with one of the seventeen locations.
“This way, the information matches up…”
After that, the Information Broker’s leads ran dry.
The Fang Hunter Organization wasn’t an easy entity to gather information on. As a secretive organization, once the investigation reached a certain point, the Information Broker realized it was getting tricky.
Fang Jing also felt that the current information was enough for him to make some judgments, so he didn’t investigate further.
After receiving the clues from the Information Broker, he drew his own conclusions and specifically traveled to the city where Amasue Suetora was headed.
However, after arriving, he didn’t go to the research institute.
Instead, he stayed at this outdoor café, passing the time slowly.
(This is probably the busiest intersection in the whole city. I thought that just by staying here, I could attract the Corpse Hounds’ attention…)
He stayed at the café for about four hours but didn’t notice anything unusual.
No… he faintly sensed a few presences, but they were very cautious and left very quickly.
In other words, although they noticed the Fang Hunter’s presence, they wisely chose to retreat.
Seriously, your caution is making things very inconvenient for me.
But upon second thought, this was a busy downtown area. Even if they detected his presence, those Corpse Hounds wouldn’t openly reveal themselves.
Forget it. I should leave and go to a more desolate area. I believe that way, I can lure those Corpse Hounds out.
Just as he was about to get up and leave, the café waitress handed him a letter.
“A lady just now said she was your friend. She asked me to give this to you…”
The waitress handed over a letter.
Fang Jing’s eyes widened, but he quickly composed himself and accepted the letter.
“Thank you.”
He took the letter and left the café. After opening it, he found a postcard with an address written on it.
“The Corpse Hounds are really interesting. They actually went out of their way to hand me their address…”
Fang Jing chuckled. For him, this wasn’t a bad thing.
He hailed a taxi, gave the address to the driver, and soon arrived at the designated spot.
However, unlike what he had imagined, the Corpse Hounds directed him to a large bridge in the city.
The area around the bridge was very quiet, with barely any passing vehicles even after a long time.
Fang Jing waited quietly on the bridge. After half an hour, he finally heard footsteps behind him.
It was a girl with neatly trimmed short hair who looked very lively. She ran over, panting, and stopped in front of him.
Fang Jing keenly noticed that the short-haired girl was hiding something behind her back. By its size, it should be a folding umbrella case, but the weight seemed off—whatever was inside the case must be quite heavy.
Could it be that she’s not a Corpse Hound, but a Fang Hunter?
He blinked but didn’t have time to speak before the short-haired girl started talking rapidly, scolding him intensely.
“Idiot idiot idiot idiot idiot idiot idiot idiot! What’s in your head? Carrying a knife in a place like that—are you afraid the Corpse Hounds won’t notice you’re a Fang Hunter?”
“……”
Fang Jing didn’t understand what was happening. He just looked at the girl blankly.
The girl clenched her fists and shouted, “Hey? I’m talking to you, rookie. You’re the one sent from Tateyama, right? Oh yeah, you seem to be called Oreki… Tsuyoshi.”
“Oreki Tsuyoshi.”
Fang Jing roughly guessed the name from her lip movements and speech. His reaction was quick, and after a brief thought, he pieced together the relevant information.
“So… she mistook me for another ‘Fang Hunter.’”
Just based on the short-haired girl’s behavior, he figured out what was going on.
It seemed Fang Hunters didn’t always operate as a unified group. Their training relied on mentorship or bloodline inheritance, rather than centralized selection and training.
Fang Hunters had their own internal communication channels, completely closed off from the outside world to prevent information leaks.
Well, this works for me. As long as I find a Fang Hunter, I shouldn’t have trouble locating the Aobanuma Research Institute.
“I can’t believe there’s a rookie as dumb as you.”
The short-haired girl crossed her arms, looking annoyed. She closed one eye and opened the other, saying grumpily, “My name is Kamichiruzuru. So, idiot rookie, from now on, we’re partners.”
From “idiot” to “idiot”—was that an upgrade or a downgrade?
“Well, that’s really too bad…”
After realizing her mistake, Fang Jing decided not to expose it and began playing dumb.
So now, all I have to do is act like a green, clueless rookie Fang Hunter, huh!
This is really going to test my acting skills.