Mrs. Sackcloth Sorrow (2)

Scanning Proofreading: CSH

Chapter 4: Intricacies

1The head office of Roc Construction is located in Aoyama 3-chome.

The office building is an eight-storey glass curtain building with a modern and innovative design, which fully demonstrates the flourishing performance of Dapeng Construction, and it can be said that it is a continuously growing enterprise.

That morning, Shoko entered the counter ready to visit the company.

“Ah! Mrs. Tsuruta-sensei, the Saito Sales Director is already waiting for you! Please go straight up to the eighth floor and head for the parlor!” The receptionist said, pointing to the elevator.

I think Shoko had talked to Mr. Saito on the phone before she came to the office.

Shoko stepped into the elevator and pressed the button for the eighth floor.

A week has passed since I returned to Tokyo from Sado!

After that night on Sado, Mr. Saito sent two young staff members from the General Affairs Department to the area to take care of the cremation and transportation of the ashes back to Tokyo for burial, all of which was handled by the company!

Especially at the funeral, Ryutaro Washio, the president of Roc Construction, attends in person and holds a “social funeral” at the Aoyama Funeral Parlor, and while Shoko is still confused, the people in the company have already held a grand funeral for Kouyou.

Shoko is here today to thank the company for their favor.

Minister Saito was waiting for her in the parlor.

“Ughhh! Mrs. Tsuruta, this is so hard for you!” The minister chimed in attentively.

“Where are the words! For what the company has done for us, it’s really appreciated!” After saying that, he bowed deeply.

“Where! That’s all what the company should do! I invited you here today because the company still has some formalities left to do!”

The minister asked her to sit on the couch directly in front of the table while a package of white packages sat on the table and spoke.

“May I ask what this is?”

“It’s the condolence money from the company, a small meaning, no honor, please accept it!”

“But I can’t accept this! I’m already relieved that my husband, who has caused so much trouble for the company, can still receive a social burial from the company!”

“Grace! That’s the way it should be.” Saito said with some difficulty.

Behind Shoko’s tone of voice that she had brought so much trouble to the company, there was actually a hint of shame. This “trouble” was very different from the polite words she had used before.

It turns out that the 12 million yen in cash left in the safe at the Kamo Hotel in Ryotsu is the same as the amount that Kouyou Tsuruta took away from the company in the first place, so in the end, the company did not regard Kouyou Tsuruta as a suspect for embezzlement, and the whole thing was left behind in the company only as an incestuous incident in which the head of the bidding section ran away with the female secretary.

The company not only didn’t tell the police about the shortfall, but also organized a social funeral for him in the name of the company, which made Shoko really don’t know how to be grateful.

“As a matter of fact…” Saito said with a strange look on his face as he tweaked the rims of his glasses and clasped his hands together, “Actually, we can look at your husband’s case from two perspectives, the first is that the company is giving him a generous burial, even though he’s a suspected defrauder of the company’s funds, isn’t it? Isn’t it strange? But on the other hand, he did take away the public money, but in the end the money was recovered, not a penny less, and cannot be regarded as a suspect of defalcation and absconding, and then look at the fact that he had worked hard for the company and made a lot of achievements, and we as supervisors are really very distressed by this kind of incident, so the company should organize a social funeral for him to express our sincere grief! So there’s nothing strange about that at all!” The minister tried to explain his intentions.

“I see, thank you so much!” Shoko bowed in gratitude.

“Now, we’d also like to ask you to fill out the forms required for labor insurance procedures and to stamp and sign the pension receipt.” Minister Saito took out several documents from his side, which were all paperwork.

After Shoko signed and stamped the document and informed the company that the bank would automatically transfer the money to her account number at the Azabu Bank, all the relevant procedures were finally completed.

“I’m really sorry for troubling you to make this trip! If there’s anything else I can help you with in the future, don’t hesitate to ask me directly, Saito, and the company will definitely try to help!” Saito escorted her out of the parlor.

“Anyway, thank you so much!” Shoko kept bowing to thank the minister before the elevator doors closed.

After the elevator reached the first floor, Shoko stepped out and headed for the entrance of the building, once outside the office building, she stopped to look upwards at the entire building.

Her heart was suddenly filled with emotion, looking at this building since her father’s retirement in the construction province after the transfer of Roc Construction Company, until her husband Kouyou served in the past ten years, and her office building with inexplicable relationship, is towering in the middle of the day under the bright sun, seems to be coldly contemptuous of Shoko and pedestrians on the road.

Shoko went to Ginza that day, wandered aimlessly through department stores and clothing stores, bought some things, felt better, then went around to a tea store on Namiki Street, which she hadn’t been to for a long time, drank some tea, and then took the subway back to Azabu around 2:00 pm.

During this leisurely afternoon, her memories of her committing herself to others at Atami and Sado, and the sadness of her loss, made her realize that she was alone, and she felt inexplicably lonely.

Shoko got off the subway at Hiroo Station, walked out of the intersection in the direction of Kawamiya Memorial Park, which was about a block from her house, and climbed the small slope to her left, up to the high platforms, and toward the park’s sidewalks.

In the Yukawamiya Memorial Park, the warm spring afternoon sunlight was pouring in, the dense forest stood still, the young leaves of the saplings quietly poked out, emitting a bright green scene, and the clear sound of water dripping down from the cliffs into the pool was heard endlessly! Shoko, who had climbed up to the high platform, sat down on a bench.

The thought of living alone in the future made me feel very lonely, but the thought of Tanizu’s face suddenly gave me the courage to forget that feeling of loneliness. Thinking about what I did that night in the rough Sado Hotel and throwing myself into Tanitsu’s arms was an incredible impulse. In the atmosphere of that night, it was easy to do impulsive things.

After taking a short break, Shoko stood up and headed for the park exit behind her chair.

Suddenly Shoko felt that someone was looking at her from somewhere, so she looked back and saw the sun shedding light from the leaves of the trees and the image of children running and jumping and playing in the square, but she did not see anyone watching her.

But as she turned her head back and continued on her way, she still felt as if eyes were looking right at her, which was strange!

(Am I being paranoid? No, someone should be staring at me…) Shoko then walked quickly towards the house.

2 “Wow! You’re Mr. Tanizu’s son!”

“Yes! Father was taken care of a lot by you during his days in the construction province!”

“When it comes to care, it’s the care I’ve received that’s more than enough! That’s because Mr. Tanizu is an old-timer! But you’re a strange one, the son of a politician who graduated from Waseda University but became a journalist and didn’t set foot in politics, that’s really rare! I haven’t heard of any other dignitary’s son becoming a journalist!”

“I’m so sorry for the low status!”

“No, that’s not what I meant, I was just thinking about the nature of your work, don’t you specialize in attacking the political and forum world?”

That day, Taniizu came to one of the offices of Kasumigaseki’s Construction Province, and sitting at the other end of the large table in front of him was Kameo Tokuoka, who was busy lighting a cigarette with a lighter in both hands, “I’m also considered a politician of low status! I can’t quit smoking, and every time I come across a meeting where smoking is banned, it’s a very painful experience.” He said with a bitter smile.

As the construction director of the construction province, he is considered not very bureaucratic.

“May I ask if work has begun on the Tokyo Bay Crossing Highway?”

Tanizu gets to the point and takes out his notepad to prepare his notes.

“Eh! That’s a project in the Third District area, not a job in our province, and I’m not directly involved in that case!”

“But the Tokyo Bay Development Project, known as the Water Bay Project, is a major project that is now in the spotlight, and the Director can’t be so completely unconcerned about this case!”

“Of course, it’s not that I don’t care. I have to supervise the whole project, and each project area will report the progress regularly, which means I have the right of approval. But we Japanese prefer to develop parks, like Disneyland now, and there are various other parks ready to be built, making it difficult to push the Water Bay project forward.”

Tokuoka said with a leathery smile.

Tanizu agreed with this statement and laughed along with him.

The Japanese may be bubble people! The Japanese economy is like a bubble economy.

In the case of the Tokyo Olympics, the World Expo, the restructuring of the archipelago, the development of amusement areas, and other economic development projects centered on the capital city, most of the people shouted in unison that these programs would expand domestic demand and revitalize the domestic economy!

Yukio Tsuruta, who died in a car accident in Sado, has not yet solved the mystery of the real cause of death. If the cause of death is really homicide, then the police are still continuing to investigate the case is the right direction, but there has been no news from Inspector Moriyama so far, and Taniguchi himself can’t find any clues in his investigation.

Upon his return to Tokyo, Tanitsu immediately launched an in-depth investigation into Yukiyo Tsuruta’s involvement in the bidding and planning of the Water Bay Project before his disappearance. In order to develop Tokyo Bay into an international city, the Water Bay Project was planned, with a total investment of five trillion yen, a major project!

In the capital city of Tokyo, the number of skyscrapers and traffic congestion, coupled with high land prices, have left Tokyo Bay as the only remaining development area! With a surface area of about 120,000 square kilometers, the bay has not yet been developed into any large-scale development projects, and it was not until the 21st century that this large-scale development project was planned.

The total cost of the Tokyo Bay Crossing Highway (Cross-sea Bridge) is 1,150 billion yen, which is one of the most important marine projects in the world, and it is expected to take eight years to connect the Keihin and Keiyo industrial districts, making it the “Bridge of Dreams”.

In other words, this project is more aptly called the Conquest of Tokyo Bay Program.

If this project is not as effective as the Seikan Tunnel in the end, it will be like a huge waste. Even if it connects Kawasaki and Kisarazu, there is no way to know how much traffic it can handle, so there is no way to predict whether the total investment will pay for itself. Instead, it is destroying the ecosystem of Tokyo Bay, and despite all these criticisms, last year, the Cabinet meeting quickly approved this development project, and the project was carried out immediately in the hope that it would expand domestic demand, revitalize the construction industry, and revitalize the nation’s industry, and bring about more business opportunities, making it a mega-development project.

Major construction companies are very important to this case, the project is huge, divided into many tasks program area, by many companies are responsible for, and Tsuruta Yukiyo belongs to the roc construction of course, also pay a lot of attention to this case.

But it’s not the Tokyo Bay Crossing Bridge project that’s associated with Yukio Tsuruta, it’s the first phase of the Suwannee Grand Plan. And that plan is the Tokyo Bay International Urban Renaissance Plan, which is a redevelopment plan along the area where the Sumida River joins the estuary of Tokyo Bay.

This area was originally known as the lower-middle class area of Oikawadate, where warehouses and factories were located, but the area to be developed is about 330 square kilometers from the upper reaches of the Sumida River to the mouth of the Tsukuda River in Tokyo Bay, and the estimated cost of the project will be more than one trillion yen, and the main project will be to create a jungle of skyscrapers with a height of 120 meters with the main project of commercial and cultural facilities for the twenty-first century.

The most important part of this major project is the “Central Renaissance Tower”, a huge, round, intelligent tower. In the fall of last year, the government made public the plan for this project, divided it into several project areas, and appointed ten large construction companies to bid on the project.

Roc Construction Company was on the list of ten construction companies, and after several fierce bidding rounds, their company finally won the bidding with 23 billion yen, and successfully undertook the project.

However, in the end, it was rumored that the organization in charge of the bidding, the Kanto Tsui Myung Association, seemed to be involved in the bidding process, which led the District Attorney’s Office to launch a secret investigation! However, this is just a rumor and no evidence has been found.

Tanitsu wanted to ask about this, so he asked, “I’ve heard these rumors, but did the District Attorney’s Office really find something suspicious? Can you tell me?”

(I don’t think there’s any way to find out anything from here!)

Tanitsu has tried various ways to find clues, and meeting with Director Tokuoka Construction is one of those ways.

“I heard that during the bidding process for the Renaissance Program, there was a shutdown; have you heard of a similar incident?”

“Off to say? Hmm! It’s illegal, I’ve never heard of it!”

“I heard that the people in charge of bidding at each company were originally in constant dispute, and then they all negotiated a reasonable price for private cooperation!”

“The starting point of your question is very bad, I absolutely adopt the strategy of not answering to this kind of questions, I can only assure you that Roc Construction Company absolutely won the bid with honor.”

“The so-called honorable bidding is just a formality, and the amount of money they traded privately before has long since been decided who will win the bid, hasn’t it?”

“It shouldn’t happen, I’m sure every company has a conscience.”

Tokuoka’s expression didn’t change at all.

“And did you know about the death of the Roc Construction Bid Section Chief?”

“Alas! I heard it was a car accident that killed him, he was often walking around this office, so I’m really saddened to hear this news and feel quite sorry for him!” Tokuoka said in a measured tone.

“It seems that twice as many people as usual are concerned about this Renaissance Project bidding case, and I assume that the Director has had close dealings with certain people alone?”

“The so-called acquaintances are mostly people who have had one or two encounters, and meeting someone individually, not at all.”

“Isn’t Roc Construction in bad shape? In order to grab this major project of the Tokyo Bay Bridge to create a real company performance, so they should go through a lot of effort to obtain this project, shouldn’t they?

”

Tanizu started poking around from another angle.

“For this kind of thing, please inquire from the industry! For us government agencies, we must make a comprehensive judgment on the company’s track record, creditworthiness, technology, and enthusiasm, and then submit the project to the company that is best suited to carry out the work after the judgment. As to whether the company is in good condition or not, I am not the direct person in charge of the company, so I can’t express any opinion on this issue!”

“But in this bidding case, construction companies even larger than Roc have shown their faces to bid! There are six construction companies even larger than Roc among them, and the engineering backgrounds of these companies are among the best, so they should have been a better choice!”

“I don’t agree with that statement! That Roc has taken on several public works projects with very good results and good credit, and even I agree with the results.”

“The words are good! But,” Tanizu was about to continue when the phone on Tokuoka’s desk rang just then.

“Sorry!” Tokuoka picked up the phone. I don’t know what the other party said, but I only heard Tokuoka answering immediately, “Yes! I’ll prepare the information right away!”

After hanging up the phone, he turned back toward Tanazu and said, “Ahh! I’m so sorry! We’re in the middle of a parliamentary session and it’s very busy right now, and the Undersecretary just called and asked me to come over, so I’ll have to excuse myself.”

3 He blended into the izakaya!

“Huh! Cloudbreather?” Tanizu poured his beer into the other man’s glass.

“It’s that great, huh? That Mr. Tsuruta?”

“No, I didn’t mean that! I didn’t mean that!” The young man downed his glass of beer in one gulp.

“That’s just the name of a room, Tsuruta used to go into the place called Unkami, hence the name!”

Takehiko Kagawa, a young employee of Roc Construction, put it this way.

Cloud on the top floor of the roc construction building in Castle Peak, the floor has a president’s office and the chairman’s office, and a secret meeting room, and the secret meeting room is not normally used, only in the roc construction to prepare for bidding on large public works or large cases, in order to develop winning strategies, the formation of a special secret team will use this meeting room as an office, and the door has layers of secretaries outside the door, the general company employees are unable to approach the room. The door is guarded by layers of secretaries, so ordinary company employees cannot approach the room.

That was the purpose of that room. So the people who often go in and out of that conference room are called “people on the cloud” in the mouth of the general staff of Roc Construction, of course, these people are centered on the president, chairman, permanent director, etc., so these people are people with status, but for some public relations work and information  collection, some young bidding staff will also often go in and out of this conference room to work with the top management, so this name usually represents the meaning of “the uppermost organization”. However, for some public relations work and information collection work, some young bidding staff will also often come in and out of this conference room, and work with the senior executives, so this name usually represents the meaning of the “uppermost organization”.

Takehiko Kagawa, who explained the above to Tanitsu, is an employee of the Roc Construction Sales Department.

Shoko’s father, Tsuruta Shinzaburo, had also worked at Roc Construction after retiring from the Ministry of Construction, and Kagawa Takehiko had been his subordinate at the time, and had often been in and out of Shoko Mabu’s house, so when Tanizu had said Shoko’s name, he had successfully lured him to meet him at a coffee shop in Omotesando in the evening of this day, and had gone on to invite him to an izakaya to have a chat!

He called the meeting a “memorial service for Mr. Tsuruta” for only two people, and he tried to get some clues from the conversation over drinks and conversation about Koyo Tsuruta’s work and position in the company before his death, as well as some of his assignments, for the sake of his former friend and colleague.

Kagawa, who was a basic employee of Roc Construction, was not the type of person who would tell a third party about the company’s inner workings in complete detail, but he seemed to be on good terms with Kouyou Tsuruta, who had died in Sado, so he was also a bit skeptical about the cause of Kouyou’s death, and he mostly told everything he knew about the things that Tanitsu wanted to know, one by one.

“So, did Mr. Tsuruta come in and out of that room again this time and become a member of the secret task force? Just before he disappeared?”

“This time it’s no secret, this time this Renaissance project case is related to the Water Bay Program, so everyone up and down the company is eager to get the contracting rights for this project.”

“This Water Bay project is a big project! There must be a lot of companies competing fiercely to get this project!”

“Yes, it’s really well regarded and it’s just starting to heat up! I think there’s definitely going to be more competition.”

“But in this case, wasn’t Roc Construction the first-priority contractor?”

“Having said that, this is something that our company took pains and more effort to get than any other company!”

“Expend your mind, how?”

“It’s first class, but it’s not super first class, so if you don’t put more effort into it, how can you get the case! It certainly takes more effort to win!”

Kagawa’s words indicated that even construction companies have different sizes, and that Roc Construction is considered to be a first-class company among construction companies, but it is not a super first-class company.

There are 520,000 companies in Japan, the largest industry is the construction industry, and this is all due to the reservoirs, roads, bridges, skyscrapers, camps, apartments and other projects that need to be constructed need construction personnel, and other projects that need to be constructed in a variety of ways, resulting in the construction industry’s prosperity, and even let its downstream industries also follow the development of the boom, for example, pipeline projects, air conditioning equipment and other related projects, all need specialized technical personnel to share the burden of this system was created, giving rise to small and medium-sized business opportunities! The need for specialized technical personnel to share, so the creation of this system, derived from the survival of small and medium-sized enterprises!

A construction company can be called a large construction company if it has its own series of departments related to construction, piping, and air conditioning.

At present, there are only six large-scale construction companies that are widely known and have an excellent reputation, such as Kagawa Construction, Osei Construction, Kumayama Group, Buchu Kogyo Kogyo, Zenematsu Construction, and Omori Group, etc. Among them, Kagawa, Osei, and Kumayama are three companies that are well-known in the world’s construction industry, and are therefore known as the three golden chairs of the construction kingdom of the whole country of Japan.

In the eyes of these large construction companies, Roc Construction, of which Ryutaro Washio is the president, is at best a small to medium-sized company, but not a super-class construction company.

There are sixteen subsidiaries under the umbrella of Roc Construction, and Ryutaro Washio is the head of the company! President Washio is 68 years old this year, but still has the vigor of a young man, his life can be said to be a history of Tokyo’s development from post-war barrenness to its present status as the world’s top international metropolis, which is not an exaggeration at all.

Mr. Washio, who was born in the coal mining area of Kyushu and graduated from the local old industrial school, started his own company called Washio Construction in the area when he was not yet twenty years old.

Instead of being called the president of a construction company, it is better to be called a “technician”.

In other words, when a company is just starting out as a small or medium-sized enterprise, it relies on the talents of a “technician”. Because he had the skills of a technician, he was able to start his own business at a young age of less than 20 years old and began to solicit public works related to the township office, and then started his own business.

However, due to World War II, he was drafted to serve in the South Pacific, and when he was ready to recover after the war, the major cities in Japan were in ruins due to air raids during the war, and in view of this, he thought: “From now on, the construction industry will no longer be confined to towns and villages, but will become the largest market with Tokyo as the largest concentration of construction cases! “

So, at the age of 23 or 24, he organized all the money in the township and came to Tokyo alone, where he started his ambitions in the construction industry! Washio’s ideas and ambitions were all realized.

In Arakawa-ku, he set up Washio Kogyo Shoten (Washio Engineering Shop), and later changed its name to Washio Kogyo (Washio Construction), and the capital city in the year of Showa 48 was a world of the strongest and weakest in the post-war reconstruction period. As a technician, Washio utilized his talents like a fish in water, purchasing materials, merging with other technicians in the district, applying for the right to build various public works, trying to bribe central government officials, such as the Ministry of Construction, and defeating other competitors by illegal means, and the most interesting thing about Washio is that he left several scars on his body when he negotiated with the triad of people in the past, which is a good indication of the old model of the Japanese construction industry. mode of survival in the construction industry world.

When order was easily restored to the capital, the economy stabilized, and the construction industry transformed into a modern business approach, Washio Construction grew into a large-scale enterprise and was renamed Roc Construction, which is not quite a superb enterprise, but is still at the heart of the construction industry world.

“The president is such a man, one could also call him the Kakuei Tanaka or Kenji Kozuno of the construction industry, calling him a top modern entrepreneur. Currently he wants to build a one hundred and twenty-story building in Tokyo Bay, it’s child’s play!”

Kagawa continued to illustrate.

The beer had run out at some point, and Unkai, a relatively inexpensive izakaya in Omotesando with a café-like setting, was crowded with young men and women! Amidst the smells of grilled meat and fish, the taste of tobacco, and the smell of alcohol, Tanitsu was alone, listening attentively to another man describing the life of a prominent figure in the construction industry!

“If this tie up can be appreciated by President Washio and become a Yunou-sama, it means that Mr. Kouyou Tsuruta is quite excellent!”

“Since he has become President Washio’s confidant, he should be very good right, but it seems that Mr. Tsuruta can’t be considered in the excellent category, because someone like him who specializes in dark dealings shouldn’t be called an excellent person!”

“Dark dealings…? What?”

“To be clear, it’s the type of private negotiator that has to exist in the construction industry, and there are probably several people in charge of this at each company! Usually it’s directly under the president or chairman’s office, but they don’t do much of anything, and Mr. Tsuruta is that kind of person!”

“I see, he is a negotiator! And the content of the negotiations is mostly against the law and other dark side of the content, and the outside world only think that every company, in order to prevent other companies collusion, and to improve the company’s system, must be negotiation communication, in order to summarize the views of many people, but I still heard for the first time that there is this kind of specialized departments, and has a special person.”

Tanizu poured the wine back up. “May I ask you again? What kind of things do negotiators do?”

“Whoa! You give me a break! We don’t know what they’re doing.”

“But you must know what they probably do!”

“It’s probably all about things like entertaining those contractors responsible for tendering works,  gathering relevant information, interacting with the companies, unblocking the pipeline, preparing the bids, creating quotations, and other chores!”

“I see, they all just do trivia, in other words, there are very few companies that have a bidding section!”

“Rather than being rare, I think we’re the only company that has a bidding class!”

This was an unexpected answer for Tanazu; the only construction company with a bidding division was Roc.

The two main sources of work for construction companies are simply undertaking public works from government-related organizations and contracting from the private sector.

The proportion varies according to the company’s history and business policy, but even for companies that emphasize on public works with a ratio of 64% to 73%, the bidding or communication with governmental agencies are all handled by the sales department or the sales division, and none of the companies has a bidding division as an independent department.

In addition, the relevant government units have not set up a “bidding division” for such complicated operations and procedures as contracting out various projects to the private sector, and there is no “bidding division” for such relevant units as the Construction Bureau or the Highway Bureau and the Housing Bureau, which have a wide range of bidding and tendering operations. “There is no such department.

Tanitsu thought that in the construction company, there should be a secret bidding specialist or staff, that is to say, in fact, the people in this department are secret existence.

So isn’t it strange that a company has a bidding section? So Roc Construction is kind of an anomaly in the construction industry!

This is arguably one of the more striking things about Roc Construction, and it also indicates the company’s considerable reliance on government-related entities, and arguably the company’s ambition to become a top large-scale construction company!

“Since no other company had a bidding division or a bidding division chief, Mr. Tsuruta was considered a very peculiar person, and the secretary of the chairman’s office, Kasumi Funakoshi, was considered a peculiar woman, so the elopement with Mr. Tsuruta to Sado for a trip caused a great shock within the company, didn’t it!”

“That’s right, this news really shocked the people of the company, the thought of the two of them belonging to the same cloud and being the center of attention of the company, doing something so incestuous really made the people of the company feel incredible!”

“But is it true that you’ve been embezzling money from the public coffers? Mr. Tsuruta doesn’t seem like that kind of person, does he? Because he shouldn’t be worried about living without money!”

“Yeah! Everyone in the company thinks it’s unbelievable, but it’s thought that because Mr. Tsuruta is a special member, he can use the company’s funds as he pleases, probably because he’s so used to using the money, that’s why he misappropriated some of it for himself and went on an incestuous trip with someone else!”

“But the amount he misappropriated is too big! Don’t you think it’s strange?”

“I do think it’s a bit strange, basically it’s a bit hard to believe! Mrs. Tsuruta is so pathetic!”

Kagawa sympathizes with Shoko because he was under Shinsaburo Tsuruta, Shoko’s father, as a special advisor to the chairman’s office, and was responsible for formulating countermeasures in consultation with the relevant governmental units, so he is considered to be a descendant of Yukio Tsuruta.

“I’ve always felt that the fact that Mr. Tsuruta and Kasumi Funakoshi would be traveling together in secret should have nothing to do with the subsequent development of the Water Bay Project bid case, don’t you think?”

“Follow-up…?”

“Things like how the negotiation money is distributed and how to prevent leaks.”

“Forcing me to be unclear about it!” Kagawa suddenly denied in a strong tone.

“But there’s a rumor going around that this Renaissance Project case seems to involve the Guanxi case, what’s the company’s internal opinion on this rumor?”

“Just give me a break! I’m not sure if this rumor is true or not, I’m in charge of another reservoir project right now!”

“I’ve heard that this case involves the District Attorney’s Office also starting an investigation, so it shouldn’t be a mere private negotiation! Did the company not find out which company was informing on the case, or if there were any clues of bribery?”

As Tanitsu reasoned with himself and asked, Kagawa hastily got up out of his seat and threw a hold on Tanitsu.

“Don’t bring that up again! This is an izakaya, and this is an issue that firstly I’m not aware of, and secondly there are no similar rumors circulating within the company!”

“That’s a pretty strong defense!”

“Maybe! I’m a model employee of Roc Construction!”

Kagawa seemed to be speaking with some angry impatience, and after a short while, he looked at his watch and said, “Ah! I’ve got a meeting with a college friend in Roppongi, so I’ll be going now!”

Before he was about to leave, he hadn’t forgotten to ask Taniutsu Savepei to say hello to Mrs. Tsuruta for him, and it seemed that Kagawa had been willing to talk to Taniutsu Savepei for nearly two hours, and had only reluctantly agreed to do so purely on the basis of his friendship with Shoko and her father.

4 “Hey! What’s going on?” The female white patter body said as she leaned against Tanazu.

“What’s on your mind? You’ve been acting really strange today! From just now until now, there’s no spirit at all!”

“Ugh! Nothing’s going on!” Tanizu said as he lay on his back.

This is in a hotel room on Dogenzaka. The women are busy caressing Tanitsu below the waist, but no matter how much they caress, Tanitsu’s body still doesn’t respond much.

“Hey! What the hell is wrong with you?” The female hammered at his stomach in anger.

The woman was Mika Takagi, who after showering, came out of the bathroom to caress Tanitsu with her skillful technique, but it didn’t show any results, which made her a bit angry.

“What the hell were you thinking? From just now when I asked you something, you either um! It’s just whoops! We haven’t seen each other in so long and you’re still so cold!”

It was hard for Tanizu to recover from his thoughts. “Ah..! I’m so sorry!” Then picking up Mika with her hands from behind her shoulders and pinning her down on the bed, Mika immediately let out a pouting sound and lay down on her back.

Tanitsu covered his hands over Mika’s full, plump breasts, and the round, soft touch of this part of his slender body made his arousal burn slightly.

“I’m really sorry about just now! I just happened to be thinking about something!”

“Thinking about what’s going on?”

“Thinking about Mr. Tsuruta!”

“Wow! I heard about it, he passed away in a car accident on Sado, we were all shocked.”

By us, she meant the staff of the Ginza Club’s “Maiko”!

“Really? I think something’s going on, so I’m looking into it!”

“Why does Mr. Save Plain care so much about Mr. Tsuruta!”

“Because I boarded at Mr. Azabu Tsuruta’s house for four years when I was in college, and my father and his father were close friends, so I empathized with him, so I was very concerned about it!”

“But I’ve heard that Mr. Tsuruta is the son-in-law of a family member, right? I don’t think you’re in such a favored relationship with him!”

“I’m talking about Mr. Tsuruta because it concerns the Tsuruta family, so I’m repaying the favor to the Tsuruta family!”

“Whoa! I see! I don’t suppose Mr. Save Plain has a crush on Mrs. Tsuruta?”

“No such thing!”

Tanitsu and Mika were lying on the bed together, his hand moved to Mika’s white lower abdomen, his fingers restlessly probing towards the valley of the thick forested area. Since the caress was rather short, Tanitsu was surprised that Mika’s valley was already wet and waiting for his invasion, so he accelerated the rhythm of his fingers in and out!

“Ah… don’t be so hasty!” Although Megha said this, she chanted from time to time as she moved her fingers in and out.

It’s so nice to have a young body respond immediately when it’s stimulated!

“Don’t push so hard, be nice…”

“How’s it going?”

“Don’t use your fingers, use your there for a good workout!”

“Grace! But I want to exercise later, I have something else to say.” Tanizu pulled his wet fingers out with a deep heart and caressed Mika’s hair.

“Have you asked Saori-san about Tsuruta-san since our last meeting?” The last time he asked Mika to inquire about the whereabouts of the missing Kouyou Tsuruta, it turned out that Kouyou Tsuruta was killed in a car accident in Sado, so he thought that Mika would take the initiative to react to the situation before and after Kouyou Tsuruta’s disappearance.

“Whoa! Saori’s been weird! She’s been on vacation since that day and hasn’t come back to work!”

Saori is the lady who regularly entertains Kouyou Tsuruta whenever he visits the store.

“Vacation? Since when?”

“Didn’t I meet with you at the hotel a while ago? She hasn’t been coming to work since then a couple days ago!”

“Huh? Doesn’t that make it more than a week?”

“Yeah! Even mama-san looks worried!”

“It’s really strange! How could this happen?”

“I don’t know! When I asked mama-san, her answer was that Saori seemed to be sick and wasn’t staying in the dormitory, so she probably went home to her hometown!”

Tanizu lit a cigarette, his body lying on his back, his face looking up at the ceiling in thought.

Isn’t there some connection between Saori’s disappearance and the disappearance and death of Kouyou Tsuruta?

Yet no evidence can be found to prove a connection at all.

“Wow! You’re in such high spirits now!”

“Fullness? What does that mean?”

“Look how awesome you were just now when you were hurting me! Even now when you’re thinking about things, you’re still so erect!”

Mika leaned her face towards Tanitsu’s lower abdomen once again and took the hardness in her fingers, hungrily taking the thing in her mouth and began to gulp and lick it, which caused Tanitsu to let out a low growl of excitement.

“You’re so skilled, where did you learn?”

“Wow! Innovate on your own and refer to and learn techniques from various videotapes!”

“You’re hitting all the right notes with that one!”

“Don’t talk nonsense!” Suddenly Mika moved her face away and stopped moving as if she thought of something, “I remember!”

“What do you remember?”

“Yay for Saori! I just forgot to mention it!”

“Eh! What is it?”

“Didn’t you ask me to ask about him? So even though Saori wasn’t there, I did ask the other ladies about Mr. Tsuruta and what happened to Saori. As a result, they told me that before she disappeared, Saori was said to have said something very strange, something like, ‘It’s all because of Mr. Tsuruta that I’m in so much trouble, and that there are strange men who are following me and forcing me to hand over the things that Mr. Tsuruta has sent me!’ I’ve heard that it’s a true story!”

Something sent by Kouyou Tsuruta? An unknown man followed her and threatened her to hand over something like that?

Hearing those words made Tanazu’s mind clear.

“Hello? Is that all you can think of?”

Mika’s pupils radiated light.

“Stop thinking about it!” Mika turned her head coquettishly and looked at Tanitsu’s face, seducing Tanitsu in the most bewitching way possible, with her whole body of white, delicate skin and her hair draped over her shoulders, Mika looked sexy any way she looked at it! Tanizu realized that.

He suddenly felt that the reason he had not reacted to the beauty he had just seen in front of him was entirely because he was preoccupied.

(That’s right! That’s it! Must have just been thinking too deeply!)

But Shoko’s figure kept hovering in the back of his mind, keeping him from lifting his spirits.

But at the moment carnal desires still prevail over reason, and men are very impulsive creatures.

Even though he loved Shoko in his heart, the lower part of his body was constructed with the desire to lust for other women he didn’t love, and that lust for flesh was one of life’s great pleasures. So he moved his face between Mika’s legs and began to lick the moist valley.

“Ah!” Mika chirped loudly.

Hearing her voice made Tanitsu twitch his tongue harder, sucking in the sweet love juice.

“I… I… I want it so much… Come on… Come on!”

So Tanizu adjusted his position and fought to bury his throbbing dick deep inside the woman.

Mika gasped and chanted in excitement, causing Tanazu to move in and out even more vigorously, and finally the two of them climbed to the peak of their pleasure!

5 It was nine-thirty when I woke up the next morning!

After a cloudburst yesterday, Tanitsu finally returned to Kichijoji’s dormitory.

For the phone at his bedside rang, awakening him from his sleep.

“Hello! Hello Tanizu!” The still-sober man picked up the phone and spoke.

“This is Moriyama from Aikawa!” The call was from Inspector Moriyama of Sado.

“Ah… Mr. Moriyama! I’m so sorry for your trouble the other day. Have you found any clues yet?

“I’m sorry,” Tanizu rushed to sit up from the bed.

“Still nothing too big, but I did find two or three new small clues, and I wanted to ask you to help me with something after I told you!” Moriyama had agreed back then, before Tanitsu had to go back to Tokyo, that the two of them would conduct their investigations at the same time, and if they found any clues, they would contact each other by phone.

“Good! What is it?”

“First of all, concerning the whereabouts of Mr. Yukio Tsuruta and Miss Kasumi Funakoshi, the night before the accident, they were staying at the Kamo Hotel, but before that night their whereabouts were unknown until yesterday, when we filtered out the passenger lists of those who had boarded the Sado Steamship a week before the accident, and found that they had arrived at Honshu Island at 3:45 p.m. on April 6, two days before the accident, on the Osado Steamship from Shin-Etsu! April 6, at 3:45 p.m., on the Osado from Shin-Eki!”

Moriyama reported so. The reason why it took so long to find out the information was that the two men had rented a car on the island, so the police had to investigate their whereabouts from the car rental place, and even in the direction of the jet boat. As a result, it turned out that the two men already had a car, and even came to Sado on the large-scale Osado ship together with the car, Moriyama explained.

“He obviously has a car! Why would he want to rent a car on Sado? It’s really strange! And where did his own car go?” Tanizu voiced his question.

“Yeah! That’s really strange! We have checked the car that boarded the Sado with them, it should be a long black sedan of the Mercedes Benz, and since it was a very high-class car, the crew member was quite impressed, and he remembered that the person who drove this car was Tadayoshi Iriomoto, and it was also registered in the list of travelers, so Yukiyo Tsuruta and Kasumi Funakoshi made a special effort to drive the long black sedan that was driven by Iriomoto, from Tokyo and the Atami side, to Shin-Etsu, and they also took a ride on the Great Sado to the Honshima!”

“So Yukiyo Tsuruta and Kasumi Funakoshi decided to rent a car once they were on Sado Island, which means that Iriomoto, the driver, has something else up his sleeve!”

“We think so, too, for Iriomoto, the driver, left few tracks on Sado, and the Osado, on which the three were traveling, arrived at Ryotsu at eighteen-five o’clock that night, that is to say, about six o’clock at dusk.

But Tadayoshi Iriomoto’s name doesn’t appear in the list of hotels that Tsuruta and Kasumi collapsed in, or in the lodging lists of all the hotels on the island.”

“Could he be using a false name to stay?”

“We rule it out because it’s only necessary for people like Tsuruta and Kasumi to use pseudonyms when they’re on incestuous secret trips, but there’s really no need for this Narimoto to use a pseudonym! But what happened in between is very strange!”

“Who the hell is that Iriomoto guy?”

“That’s right! That’s what we suspect and are anxious to know, so we’d like to ask for your assistance in investigating whether there is a character named Tadayoshi Iriomoto around Yukio Tsuruta and Kasumi Funakoshi?”

The man named Iriomoto, if he was from Tsuruta, then Moriyama should have been able to find out from the phone call, except that Moriyama probably couldn’t openly and formally start an investigation considering that everyone was currently assuming that the car accident was the result of an incestuous trip, which was not at all like a homicide case.

“I know!” Tanizu replied immediately.

But then Moriyama continued, “There’s one more thing I’d like you to do, and that’s to get me some photos of Mr. Yukio Tsuruta and Kasumi Funakoshi before they were born, whether it’s a headshot or a picture of their lives, and then send them to me, will you?”

“Photos?”

“Yeah! We’re trying to find out what places the two had been to on the island, but we’re struggling to get a clue because they surprisingly don’t have any photos of their excursions! If you send us some photos, maybe we’ll consider officially investigating the case as a homicide!”

After hearing this, Tanizu immediately agreed to help him find it.

“I’m very sorry! My request for you to get the photographs from Mrs. Tsuruta may have given her uneasy presumptions, so I’m afraid I’ll have to ask you to calm her down!”

“Don’t worry! It’s an honor to be asked to do something by the police. Any other leads?”

“Oh! There is another person who is not sure if she is related to the victims of the accident, that is, the night Mr. Kouyou Tsuruta and his team stayed at the Kamo Hotel, there was also a single woman from Tokyo named Yuko Umegaya who stayed at the same hotel, and she wore a red jacket, which made her stand out, but since the accident, it seems that she has suddenly disappeared, and her name was not found on the list of passengers on the ferry from Sado to Niigata. She may have met an untimely end!”

“Women who will travel alone are rare these days!”

“Yeah! But we wonder if there’s any chance she could have taken another channel, possibly taking a raft to start camping from Naoetsu or borrowing a temple to continue traveling!”

“Maybe that’s true!”

“Okay! Let’s just clear up these mysteries now, such as why Tsuruta and Kasumi rented a car when they had already driven to the island with the large limousine? And who the hell was that Iriomoto driver and where did he disappear to afterward? And where exactly were Tsuruta and Kasumi on the island before April 8th? What did they do?”

“It’s really hard work! Now I’ll quickly get the photos first, and then I’ll go and question this Iriomoto character, and if I have an answer, I’ll call you right away!”

Mrs. Sackcloth Sorrow (05)

Scanning Proofreading: CSH

Chapter V. Intruders

1 That afternoon, Shoko Tsuruta went out and wandered aimlessly; she just didn’t want to be alone at home, which was a very disturbing feeling, and to make herself feel better, she put on her most springy lavender dress and drove her favorite red BMW from Azabu to Ginza.

It was the middle of April, the cherry blossoms had already faded, and the light clouds in the sky made the streetscape slightly darker today. However, the view from the street was actually quite bright and eye-catching, and the reason why she thought it was dark was because she herself was in a downward spiral!

During this month, it seems that the devil of spring has arrived, so that Shoko has experienced the disappearance of her husband in this short period of time, and Funakoshi Choutarou to Atami, as well as receiving the bad news from Sado, all the tragic events come one after another, so that Shoko can not accept such a drastic change for a while.

One thing Shoko still can’t figure out is why her husband went to Sado and died in a car accident. Why did he go on the run with that woman, Kasumi? It’s all a confusing story, and Shoko can’t see the truth at all. All she knew was that she had suddenly been pushed into April by a pair of unseen hands, and by the time she suddenly became conscious, she was a twenty-nine-year-old widow.

Until now she still often thought of her husband, Kouyou, after all, the two of them shared six years of marriage, how could she not think of the person on her pillow who shared the same bed! Shoko sighed and shook her head as the green light turned to red.

The red BMW was heading from Hiroo toward Roppongi, and as she waited for the light to turn green, she drove across the pedestrian crossing, thinking that she hadn’t been to the clothing stores in Ginza in a while, so why not just go around there?

So at 1:00 p.m. she arrived in Ginza, and after pulling into the parking lot of the department store, she went straight to the clothing store she wanted to visit.

After chatting with the owner’s wife for almost an hour at that clothing store, two summer outfits were purchased.

“This is the time when Italian fashions become the mainstream of the world, and the Japanese are now becoming very fond of these foreign name brands!”

The boss’s wife pointed out several window models, all dressed in Italian-made imported products, whose bold designs and bright colors were too much to resist!

“Do you like that one-piece dress? Even the color palette of Italian Milanese clothing is closer to Japanese preferences these days!”

“I like it, but it’s too expensive for me to buy!”

“All right! We’ll leave it at that, is there nothing Mrs. Tsuruta would like to say?”

The boss’s wife, who had known her since her mother’s generation, opened her mouth to ask, using a prying tone as if she had thought of something.

“I have heard it mentioned that you seem to have met with some misfortune!”

“Ah! This…”

The thought of having to explain to a third party that she still had to wear black now put Shoko in a bad mood.

“I heard someone say that your husband died in a car accident while traveling, how unfortunate! I’m sorry for your loss.”

“Thanks! Is it inappropriate for me to be picking out a costume at this time of year?”

“How come? Come over here and pick out some clothes, just in time to switch things up a bit!”

“That’s a much better mood to hear you say that!”

“The dress I just picked out is colorful and just right for your current pick that you want to change your mood, wearing it might put you in a happy mood too!”

The boss’s wife continued to drum up her three-inch tongue in an effort to sell the store’s foreign brand-name clothing.

“Try it on! It’ll make you feel better! I hear you’re getting a big insurance check, and the price tag on these dresses is a fraction of what it should be!”

Shoko’s eyes suddenly looked straight at the boss’s face, and it occurred to her that she had forgotten about it, and the boss’s words were like a wake-up call.

(Insurance money…? That’s right! As the beneficiary of your insurance, I should get 60 million won!)

Shoko had completely forgotten there was such a thing because it happened so suddenly.

Thinking about it now she was still a bit bewildered, like being escorted by the boss’s wife to try on a third outfit before deciding to buy it!

“Thanks!”

Walking out of the dress store, Shoko found another black tea store to sit down and rest, and after ordering coffee, she stared blankly out the window.

(How should we use such a large sum as 60 million won?)

At the thought of this, a flicker of uneasiness swept through Shoko’s mind.

(If Kouyou changes the beneficiary, then won’t I not get this insurance money?) How she thought about it made her heart uneasy!

Also, I heard Tanitsu say that Kouyou’s car accident might be a homicide, so he wanted to start an investigation. I wonder how he’s doing? If it’s really a homicide, is there someone who’s after the insurance money?

Shoko continued to gawk as she gazed out the window at the sidewalk in the late afternoon.

Then Shoko went around to the pharmacy and florist and bought a few things before driving home, where it was about four in the afternoon when she arrived.

2 The sun was setting around the house! After Shoko parked the car, she walked through the aisle intertwined with kudzu and roses and headed for the entrance hall. As she was about to turn the key to open the door, she suddenly heard something fall to the ground with a thud, making Shoko jump!

“Who? Who is it?” The house was quiet after the outgoing inquiry.

Shoko remembered that when she left the house, she did close the doors and windows, so there shouldn’t be anyone in the house, so she stayed in the foyer and looked inside the house to make sure that no one was there before she felt relieved, and then took all the things she had bought to the living room.

She then picked out what needed to be put in the fridge from her purchases and headed for the kitchen, but it made her suddenly realize that three men she’d never seen before had run out of the house at some point, and Shoko jumped in shock and stepped back.

“Who are you guys?” Shoko asked as she backed away.

The three of them wordlessly approached Shoko.

“How did you get into the house without a key?”

“We smashed the glass window facing the courtyard and then reached in and opened it to climb in! No one says you have to have a key to get into the house!”

As the young man in the center of the room spoke without expression, Shoko suddenly felt a cold object against her back, at which point Shoko nervously and angrily asked them, “How can you just barge into someone’s house!”

“There’s something we’d like to ask ma’am!”

The man standing on the right and dressed in a dark blue suit, moved toward the window and said, then pulled the window  closed.

“Something to ask me? What to ask?”

“Ma’am! Has your husband entrusted you with something for safekeeping?”

The man continued to ask in an impish tone.

“Me sir?”

“That’s right! It’s that gentleman of yours who died in Sado!”

Shoko thought at this point that it would be best not to irritate these men, so she replied, “I don’t know what you’re talking about? This is Kouyou Tsuruta’s house, and my husband doesn’t usually give me valuable items for safekeeping, he keeps them himself.”

“You’re wrong! We were thinking the same thing, but we searched the house and couldn’t find it anywhere!”

“What exactly are you talking about not being able to find something?”

“We can’t say exactly what that thing is, we’re not sure of the details other than we know it’s supposed to be information in some sort of black leather case. It’s like it’s Louis Carton’s suitcase or something!”

Louis Cotton’s black traveling bag or suitcase was Kouyou’s favorite leather item, but Shoko had no recollection of a suitcase with information like the one they were carrying.

“That kind of thing doesn’t impress me at all, so please go back! I’ll call the police if you don’t leave!”

“Don’t make such a fuss, there’s no need to be so serious! Yanase, is the door closed?”

The man who stood behind him intervened while the man called Yanase, who stood by the window, walked to the entrance door to lock it.

Shoko suddenly felt a general sense of foreboding and headed for the phone.

Before Shoko’s hand had a chance to pick up the microphone, the man in the dark blue suit had already grabbed the microphone and intercepted Shoko with his left hand, “Ma’am, I think it’s better for you to be quiet!”

“What are you doing? I’m going to call Ro!” Shoko then yelled out.

However, she immediately realized she had an extra knife in her chin, pressed against her skin.

“Didn’t we just say we just wanted to make sure of things, didn’t you hear us tell you to be quiet?

”

“Do I have to answer when you guys are being so unreasonable?”

“If you don’t answer, we’re going to do something awesome! We are eager to familiarize ourselves with Madam’s body!” The man in the dark blue suit showed his grimace as he got behind her and just started kneading her breasts.

Shoko immediately stopped screaming, her whole body trembling with fear at the sight of the knife in her chin.

“Stop it! I’ll call the police!”

“If you want to call the police, go ahead! But it seems too late now, it’s just us and Mrs. here.

Speak up! Where are the things your husband entrusted you with for safekeeping? If you are good enough to tell us, we won’t move a hair on your head.”

“Didn’t I already tell you guys? I don’t know! Because my husband didn’t ask me to keep anything!”

“How can that be? Mr. Tsuruta must have asked his wife to keep Louis Carton’s suitcase when he left home on a business trip to Kyushu, so just hand it over quickly!”

“What are you talking about, I don’t know!”

“Yeah? Well then!” The man intensified the force on his wrist.

“Hmph! You really don’t see the coffin, Leek Saki! I’ll let you enjoy this woman!”

“Heh heh heh! Matsumura-san, it’s great!”

“You’re so low!” The man, Matsumura, said as he picked up Shoko’s body and carried her towards the bedroom.

“Stop it! What are you doing!” Shoko said as she began to struggle, only for her to be held up by two men while the man named Leek Saki put his arm around her waist.

“Heh heh! That’s a great body!” Leek Saki grinned obscenely.

Shoko was dragged to her father’s room on the first floor, a dormitory that was not being used right now.

Then Shoko was pinned down on the bed while the hem of her dress was lifted up.

Shoko struggled in fear and screamed, “Stop it! I’ll call someone!”

Completely ignoring Shoko’s struggles, the man took a knife and cut the zipper on the back of her dress and split the zipper up to her buttocks, and then tore off Shoko’s clothes. Shoko had no strength to struggle anymore and could only let him do what he wanted.

“You guys are so over the top, why are you doing this to me!”

The man standing next to the bed pulls up Shoko’s hair and cuts it off in his hand with a knife, and intentionally spreads it over Shoko’s breasts as fear buys through Shoko’s entire body.

“That’s right! It’s good to be good like this! Just shaving your hair doesn’t seem awesome enough, you should shave somewhere else, but it’s not too late when we’ve had enough fun! Leek Saki! Let’s do it!”

As soon as she heard the two of them say such nasty words in such a way as if no one else was there, it made Shoko’s whole body stiffen.

(Who the hell are these men?)

“Ma’am, it’s not too late for you to confess! Speak up! Where exactly are the things Mr. Tsuruta asked you to keep?”

“I really don’t know!”

“Hmph! What a stubborn woman, looks like I’ll have to show you some color before I can do that!”

The man who spoke, Leek Saki, seemed to enjoy touching Shoko all over her body and reached for her private parts, lifting the hem of her skirt and causing Shoko to feel a chill in her lower abdomen. The man’s hand slipped into her panties without a second thought, a move that frightened Shoko and made her want to curl her body to protect herself from being violated.

“Help! Somebody help me!”

She screamed, but the next second her mouth was gagged by her panties, and Shoko immediately and instinctively threw her head back and spit them out. When she spat out her panties, her mind was in a state of panic, completely confused as to why she was in her current perilous situation!

（Kouyou! Kouyou! What the hell are you hiding?)

Shoko’s mind panicked, while the man’s fingers were relentlessly probing the black grass of her delta, and when they touched the petalized area, Shoko begged and pleaded, “Please stop!” And with her last ounce of strength, she tightened her body, but the man pulled her legs apart with his hands, and Leek Saki was ready to strike at the secret place!

Valley up.

“Stop it! Stop it! Please!” Shoko’s whole body felt humiliated and clenched her thighs as hard as she could, but the man beat her cheeks mercilessly, causing her to yelp, and then Shoko continued to cry, thinking that whether the neighbors heard her or not, she always had to call for help in order to have a glimmer of hope!

3 Savehei Tanizu finally stops and stops in front of Shoko’s house in Azabu. Tanizu had been asked by Inspector Moriyama of the Sado Aikawa Police Department to come to Shoko’s house, which he hadn’t visited in a long time, to pick up some photographs of Yukio Tsuruta’s life before he was born.

Although the neighborhood was quiet, he always felt that something didn’t seem right! He rang the doorbell again, and suddenly there seemed to be movement inside the house, but it made Tanazu feel that something wasn’t right.

So he gently walked toward the courtyard, over the trees and walkway, to the courtyard inside the room outside, to pull the window  glass to see the movement inside the window. He saw what looked like Shoko’s woman, held by two men, heading toward the entrance, and Shoko’s pale expression, which made Tanitsu intuitive reaction, those men want to escort Shoko to answer the door.

（What the hell is going on?)

Tanitsu pushed his hand against the window glass and was surprised to find that the window was unlocked, so he gently pushed it open and crept inside, hiding his body under the beams of the house.

“What the hell? Not a single soul!” The men’s voices came from the foyer there.

“That really scared me!”

“Maybe it’s to check the meter. Leek Saki, let’s get this woman to tell the truth quickly to avoid a long night!”

After hearing those words, Tanizu saw Shoko being escorted by them towards the bedroom inside again.

“Stop! Help!” Shoko kept wailing as she was escorted.

(Looks like! My instincts were right!)

Though he didn’t know the true identities of the men, it was obvious they were supposed to be intruders!

Tanitsu walked towards the kitchen, looking for a weapon that he could defend himself with, and out of a large pile of implements he finally picked out a very long wrench, and after grabbing it, he crept to the door of the room, and the sight that he saw, just as he thought the situation would be, was the same, and the one that made his heart ache; Shoko was pinned down by them on the bed while the men were on top of her!

Tanazu stood in the doorway and roared, “Who are you people?”

As a result, the two men standing by the bed, and the man lying on top of Shoko, all three turned around at the same time, asking in dismay.

“You, who are you?” One of them let go of his grip on Shoko’s shoulder and walked towards Tanazu!

“Mr. Tanitsu, help me! These people are going to… to…”

“Who are you people?”

Long before the man flashed his knife, Tanitsu dodged his attack and took a wrench to his head.

The man groaned and fell to the ground in pain, then the other two rushed forward and attacked, while Tanitsu deftly dodged their attacks and without hesitation took a wrench and struck them in the face and head.

This wave of attack, so that the three people scared, the first man fell to the ground, shouted: “Danger! Quickly go! Go! Go! Go!

”

“You guys wait!” Tanizu was about to go after him.

But Shoko yelled, “That’s enough! Stop chasing me!”

Thirty minutes later, the living room fell into a heavy atmosphere.

“Who the hell are those guys?” Tanizu asked as he stirred the coffee in his cup.

Shoko, who had changed into a different set of clothes, with her hair still messy and in a state of shock, replied shamefully, “I don’t know who they are, but when I got home after shopping, I was just escorted by them and told to hand over the things that Kouyou had entrusted me to keep.”

Hearing Shoko’s reply, Tanitsu’s eyes stared at the stirring coffee in thought, “Something your husband entrusted you with for safekeeping?”

“Right! They said Kouyou must have asked me to keep something!”

“Keeping what?”

“I don’t know, I can’t think of anything yet!”

Tanizu stopped stirring his coffee after hearing that!

(Looking for something Kouyou Tsuruta asked his wife to keep…?)

Tanitsu remembered the content of last night’s conversation with Mika, in which Mika had said that her colleague Saori had said: “It’s really unlucky to be acquainted with Mr. Tsuruta, there are always strange men who ask me if Mr. Tsuruta had entrusted me to keep things.”

(What is it, exactly, that’s in custody?)

Tanitsu began to think hard, but couldn’t come up with anything. However, he intuitively thought that Kouyou Tsuruta must have entrusted something very important to his wife or someone for safekeeping before he disappeared, or before the car accident, and those who were afraid of something coming to light were eager to get such things back, and those people just now should be the latter.

If that’s the case, Kouyou Tsuruta might have faked a car accident in order to hide such a thing, but died accidentally Ro, Tanitsu thought so.

“Shoko, maybe Mr. Tsuruta really did hide something in the house, do you want to try to look for it carefully?”

“Okay! I’ll look for it!” Shoko’s eyes fell on her own fingers and she replied breathlessly, probably still recovering mentally from the excitement of the incident she had just witnessed.

“What’s wrong? Cheer up, just think of what just happened as a bite from a rabid dog!

”

Tanitsu encourages Shoko as he reveals that the real purpose of his visit is to get the photos of Yukio Tsuruta’s life before he was born.

“Photos? To do what?”

“Actually it was Inspector Moriyama of Sado who asked for it.”

Tanizu relayed Moriyama’s request to her one by one.

“It looks like there’s a real suspicion of homicide in this incident Lo!”

“It’s not confirmed, but Inspector Moriyama seems to have decided so.”

“Since he wants pictures of Kouyou’s life, I’ll give him even better ones.”

“Whoa! Really?”

Shoko tells him that it was when she and Shoutarou Funakoshi went to Atami that Shoutarou Funakoshi gave her some pictures of Yukio and Kasumi having a secret rendezvous.

“In that case, someone had taken pictures of their rendezvous, which means that there should have been witnesses to their every move on Sado as well!”

Tanitsu thought of what Shoko said about Shoutarou Funakoshi, he should have also visited Sado to talk to the police in order to identify Kasumi’s remains, only he probably didn’t explain it very carefully, so it’s a good idea to take the opportunity of getting the photos this time to meet and talk with him.

On that day, Tanitsu got Kouyou’s picture from Shoko and said some words of encouragement, and it was already around seven in the evening. It was already dark outside the window, and Shoko, who had escorted Tanitsu to the door, said, “Wait!” She seemed to be thinking about something.

“I always feel a bit scared when I’m home alone. I’m afraid that those people just now will come running back again, so could I ask you to stay for the night tonight?”

“But isn’t that a bit inappropriate, after all, Mr. Tsuruta only passed away a short time ago, and I’m afraid of people gossiping.”

As soon as Tanitsu thought of that night in Senkaku Bay, he immediately asked himself to calm down; that night had been an interlude in the trip, and today was a normal day when he had already returned to Tokyo!

“No one is going to gossip! Mr. Tanizu sleeps downstairs, so who’s going to gossip, and all you have to do is stay at my house tonight and spend the night with me after this horrible event today.”

“Okay! Just think of him as a college-age boarding house. It’ll just be one night for me tonight, and I’ll be alone when I go back to my apartment in Kichijoji anyway!”

That night Tanitsu really did stay at Mabu’s house. After dinner, Shoko went back to her second-floor dormitory room early in the morning to go to bed to recover her tired body, while Tanitsu slept in the guest room on the first floor; fortunately, nothing happened that night, and Tanitsu even slept until dawn.

4 “Please go slowly!”

After sending Tanitsu out the door, Shoko immediately realized that her home had fallen into silence again, making her think of what happened yesterday, so she hurriedly locked the doors and windows of her home, but she still couldn’t feel at ease.

Looking at herself in the dressing mirror, Shoko said to herself, “What a horrible face!” Since Tanitsu was staying at home, she had planned to dress up a bit in the morning, but instead she just tied her hair up and put lotion on her face, not putting on any makeup at all.

The events of yesterday had left her skin dry with her mood, and the ends of her eyes with one or two fine lines that looked really bad! So Shoko sat down in front of the dresser and picked up a jar of French-made foundation that cost over twenty thousand yen.

(For what do I need to wear makeup?) After opening the lid, I put on my makeup while muttering in my mind.

What is she going to do now that her husband has passed away and she has become a widow? Was it to try to dress up and put on a pretty dress for a new love? She was puzzled by the fact that she trusted Tanitsu so much and liked the feeling of him being close to her. How would things change between them in the future? And whether or not Tanitsu would come back here tonight, she couldn’t predict at all.

Shoko headed for the second floor window and pulled it  open, allowing bright sunlight to pour into the room.

She looked out of the window at the surroundings of the house to determine if there were any suspicious people hanging around, but she didn’t see any. Since today was the day the garbage truck came to collect the garbage, there were three or four housewives with black garbage bags standing under the utility poles on the corner, chatting and glancing at Shoko’s house from time to time.

There must be gossiping going on, Shoko felt bad, Kouyou’s disappearance and his sudden death in Sado could give rise to after-dinner gossip in a middle-class residential neighborhood where there wasn’t usually much to gossip about.

By now, those people must be rumoring that Kouyou disappeared into Atami with his beautiful secretary.

That’s not true! He should have been killed in a car accident on Sado.

It’s not right! It’s not true! These are just rumors.

What is the truth of the matter?

Maybe Kouyou was killed, or maybe it was his wife, or someone, who lied about his death in order to claim the insurance money, but in fact he was still alive..!

If that’s the case, then why did the company hold a funeral for him in such a grand manner? The company shouldn’t have been the wrongdoer, right?..!

Pity the poor young lady..!

That’s not true! Mrs. Tsuruta had already found another lover and brought her home, so she wouldn’t be lonely… at all!

Shoko moved her face away from the window and pulled it  closed!

Since she herself cared so much about what the housewives were talking about, she seemed to be fantasizing about hearing what they were talking about.

Shoko had no appetite! So she wanted to clean the house, and while she was at it, she took the opportunity to look for the black leather case of Louis Carton that the intruder had spoken of yesterday.

Sulking while organizing the house.

There was no way she could find it in the study, so Shoko walked down from the second floor to the first floor and began to look for the place where Kouyou might have hidden it. But she couldn’t find it, and when she got tired and took a break from her search, the phone rang in the living room.

“Hello! Hello, this is the Tsuruta family!”

After picking up the phone, the other end didn’t answer right away, thinking that it was a silent phone call again, Shoko continued, “Hello! Hello!”

“Ugh! Ma’am!” The voice she remembered.

“Did you find Louis Carton’s suitcase?” One of last night’s intruders said.

“I thought I told you there was nothing like that! Leave me alone!”

Shoko said in dissatisfaction, and was about to hang up the phone when the other person added, “There must be one at your house!

Have a good time looking for it! I’ll bother again, and then if I can’t find it, we’ll resume the game we played yesterday!”

(What a pervert!)

Shoko heard the man’s conversation and hung up the phone with a gasp as her fire and eyes glazed over.

May Island Construction Consultants was located on the sixth floor of the Yotsuya Toshin building. After waiting in the lobby for almost thirty minutes, Choutarou Funakoshi finally appeared in front of Tanitsu. “I’m Funakoshi, what can I do for you?”

Wearing a thin sweater, relaxed and ruffling the messy hair on her forehead with her slender fingers, she opened her mouth while asking.

It looked like he was busy with his work, so Tanitsu handed over his business card and said, “I had a brush with you on Sado, so I’d like to ask you again!”

“In that case, it does seem as if we’ve met before, what is your relationship with Mr. Tsuruta?”

“I can say I’m an old acquaintance of Mrs. Tsuruta’s!”

“Old acquaintance?” Funakoshi gave a skeptical look.

“Eh! Sort of an old acquaintance. I’m sorry to hear about what happened to your wife, but there’s something I’d like to ask you, can I have a moment of your time?”

Funakoshi guided him into the parlor.

Just after sitting down, Tanitsu bluntly stated his intention and cut to the chase, i.e., mentioning that Funakoshi had hired students from a photography school to take photos of Tsuruta and Kasumi’s rendezvous at Atami, and that he could borrow these photos?

“Photos…? Is it of any use?”

Funakoshi was obviously concerned that Tanizu was a journalist, and was afraid that Tanizu would publicize the photos or use them as the subject of a story. Tanitsu explains that Sado’s Inspector Moriyama needs the photos as a tool for his work.

“There’s a suspicion of murder?” Funakoshi looked as if he was surprised.

“Right! Don’t you know that a reaction to sleeping pills was detected in the system of your wife, who was driving the car that day?”

“Wow! I know! I remember being asked if Kasumi often took sleeping pills, and when I answered Inspector Moriyama’s question that Kasumi didn’t use them often, but occasionally, the Inspector just said, ‘Oh! That’s probably just a common reaction!”

“It’s an ordinary reaction, but there’s a chance that it’s not! Mr. Funakoshi, has it ever occurred to you that your wife might have been martyred?”

“You said martyrdom! How is that possible? Kasumi could never be this kind of woman, she’s the kind of cold, strong woman who refuses even when a man begs her to death!”

That rhetoric seems to be consistent with what Shoko said.

“Since he won’t be martyred, the likelihood of his murder is even higher! Do you have any opinion on this matter?”

“Huh! What about this one?”

Tanitsu looked at the thinking Shoutarou Funakoshi while thinking that the question he was asking was very strange.

Because the person with the most motive to kill is the man in front of him! Anyhow, Funakoshi, who seems to be in love with his wife Kasumi, and who, upon learning that Kasumi is secretly traveling with another man, immediately rushes off to Atami to prepare to intercept them, should be the one who would hate Kouyou Tsuruta and Kasumi enough to want to kill them.

“Actually, I did hate it so much that I wanted to kill someone, especially that man who seduced Kasumi, but I simply didn’t have the courage to do so. I rushed to the rendezvous place in a rage, just wanting to give that man a good beating!”

“I have heard that you have been to Atami.”

“I could have sworn! I had absolutely nothing to do with Kasumi and their car accident, and Sado’s inspector had asked me about it, but I have an alibi because I was in Tokyo the day of Kasumi’s accident.”

Even though Funakoshi rightfully stated that he wouldn’t do such a thing, Tanitsu wanted to double-check all the sticking points.

“No! I didn’t say you were a suspect, I just wanted to ask if you recognized a man named Tadayoshi Iriomoto.” Tanizu felt he still had to ask the question.

“Is this a friend of my wife’s?”

“It may or may not be, it may be an employee of your wife’s former company.”

“I have the employee roster for Roc Construction at my house, wait till I get home and check it out!”

After hearing Funakoshi’s answer, Tanitsu was mentally angry at himself for his carelessness!

(Whoops! That’s right! Shoko’s family should have a list of Roc Construction’s employees. Wouldn’t it have been better to check it yesterday?)

“So, I’ll get in touch with you another time, as for the convenience of asking you for some pictures?”

“Would it be all right if I gave you one or two?”

“Yes, as long as it’s a picture of the two of them together, one will suffice.”

“Okay! You wait, I think I have some in my company drawer.”

Funakoshi finished speaking and walked out of the parlor. Tanitsu, on the other hand, got up from the sofa and looked out the window.

When you look down at the streets of Yotsuya from the building, you can see the vibrancy of the streets with new buildings, and the Tohshin building faces the street, so you can see the cars coming and going in the street, making it look like a thriving town.

(The man’s a lot more honest than he thinks he is.)

At the thought that he would personally run to Shoko Azabu’s house and offer to go on an incestuous trip together to the Atami Sea to intercept their respective spouses, Tanitsu intuited that Funakoshi would be a man with strange proclivities and an eccentric personality.

It didn’t take long for Choutarou Funakoshi to fold back into the parlor.

“It would be great to have this picture!” Tanizu said as he looked at the photo in his hand.

The photo was taken with the sea in the background and captured Yukiyo Tsuruta and Kasumi, both of whom were walking intimately on a walkway near the Atami Hotel.

“Thank you for your help! I’ll send it to Inspector Moriyama of Sado right away.”

Tanizu thanked him and put the photo into the breast pocket of his shirt.

“By the way! I heard that Tsukishima Construction Consultants, where Mr. Funakoshi works, is also responsible for contracting the design and quotation of buildings and public constructions that the government contracts out to private citizens?” Tanizu asked another important question.

This was a point of attention for Tanitsu, as Yukio Tsuruta was the head of the bidding division, and when bidding for the Gulf Project’s work, the design of the entire engineering building and the cost of the work were mostly estimated by the construction consultant.

When governmental projects such as the construction of provincial, urban, or highway facilities are to be contracted out to private companies, these construction consultants are commissioned to estimate the cost of the project first, and then the governmental units set the base price of the project based on this estimate. Since this step is used as the basis for the planning content of the governmental units, this stage is mostly entrusted to a designated contractor to be responsible for the valuation.

And at the final bid opening, the closer the bidder’s proposed price is to this reserve price, the contractor will be awarded the contract.

Therefore, there may also be loopholes in the booking of reserve prices! Although the consultancy firms that set the reserve price will sign a contract with the government units, stating that they will never disclose this reserve price, there are occasional cases in which the reserve price has been leaked before the tender is submitted.

As for the reason why the government units will be outsourced to set the base price, because the government units are administrative organizations, the lack of professional and technical personnel, so the basic design of the project by the civil service is responsible for, but the real design of the start of the construction is more commissioned by outside design firms, or construction consultants to be responsible for.

At present, there are about a dozen construction consulting firms specializing in this type of case, and Tsukishima Construction Consultants is one of them, and there are six other such consulting firms that are in the same relationship with large construction companies, and there are also some large construction companies that have staff members who also work as employees of such consulting firms, which is a very common situation among a dozen or so consulting firms.

In other words, these construction consulting firms usually do not exist on their own, but usually exist together with large construction companies, or are related to large construction companies. If a company like this estimates the cost of the project for the Ministry of Construction or the governmental organization that is contracting for the project, it would be surprising if the base price would not be leaked to a private company! With this in mind, Tanitsu asked Funakoshi about this.

“Yes! Our company is also in charge of designing and estimating the commencement of construction works contracted by the construction province or municipal government.” Funakoshi replied with a proud pat on the back to prove that the company he worked for was a top-notch design office.

“May I ask you one more question? Is your company involved in the design and quotation of the Renaissance Building, which was awarded to Roc Construction for the Bay Program?”

“Yes! We are also in charge of this case, what are your instructions?”

“Don’t dare! Wouldn’t dare! I’m just a little curious about the case.” Tanizu asked casually again as he had already placed his hand on the door handle of the parlor and was about to leave.

“Is this estimate, in the entire Tsukishima Construction Consultants, the responsibility of you alone, Mr. Funakoshi?

”

“Actually, the actual leading person is the head of the Tsukishima parahuman, and I’m only helping out a small part.”

“So, Moon Island Construction Consultants has some kind of connection with Roc Construction Lo!”

Hearing Tanizu ask this question, Funakoshi looked at him somewhat angrily.

“What is related, we are simply related enterprises, our company’s largest shareholders are our president, the president of the Roc Construction Company, Washio Ryutaro, as well as the director of the Roc and other three, most of the funds are dispatched by the Roc Construction Company, so the company’s operation is very smooth.”

“So that’s how it is! Thank you for pointing out so many things to me today, thank you!” Tanizu bowed deeply to express his gratitude before walking out of the parlor.

It turns out that Moon Island is a really big gain for Roc’s connected businesses!

After saying goodbye to Funakoshi and taking the Tohshin Building elevator downstairs, the caller on Tanitsu’s person rang. This was the communication device that all reporters of the Chuo Daily were uniformly equipped with in order to facilitate emergency contact. When Tanitsu got out of the elevator, he headed for the public phone booth under the shade of the trees in front of the building, picked up the microphone, and pressed the extension of 1-3-9.

“Tanitsu! Where have you been since you left the press conference?” A shout of curses came from the other end of the microphone.

“Whoa! Sorry about that! I’m going to go talk to Mitsui and the Sun Goddess of Mercy about some things, and I should have some sources to go on.”

“The president of the Nippon Bank is holding an emergency press conference at five o’clock, so you’re going to cover it right away!”

“Aye! I’ll be right there!”

Tanitsu is usually in charge of running the news for the JGB line, which usually gets less news than the other lines, so he’s able to take advantage of his shift-skipping free time to investigate and learn the real story of the deaths of Yukio Tsuruta and Kasumi in a car accident on a Sado tour.

6 That night, Tanimatsu Savehei returned to Shoko’s home in Azabu.

During the press conference, Shoko called Tanizumi and said that the criminals who broke into her house yesterday had called to threaten her again and that she was very scared, and Tanizumi himself wanted to confirm as soon as possible that there was a Tadayoshi Iriomoto in the roster of employees of Roc Construction, so Tanizumi decided to go back to Shoko’s house, and that night it was already nine o’clock in the evening when he got back to her house.

Shoko was sitting in the living room tonight, dressed up in beautiful makeup and a tuxedo for a dinner party, but still seemed to be in a down mood. There was a bottle of cold Bordeaux wine on the table, and a table full of sumptuous dishes, such as sashimi, steamed scallops in wine, braised steak, etc., showing that Shoko had taken great care in preparing this table.

“Louis Carton’s black suitcase, have you found it?”

Tanitsu enjoyed the food on the table without any hesitation, it was a rare occasion for him to eat such a sumptuous dish after being used to living a single life.

“I’ve been looking for that suitcase for ages, but I can’t find it!”

“That’s strange! Did Mr. Tsuruta hide it somewhere else?”

“Does that thing really exist?”

“When you think about how many people are eager to find this thing, even to the point of threatening death, it seems like that thing is definitely a very important and confidential document.”

Shoko rested her hand on her cheek as she drank, “If that’s the case, then Kouyou didn’t keep it at home, maybe he entrusted it to someone else for safekeeping or put it somewhere to hide it.”

That’s right! Why didn’t Tanitsu think of that! If it was really important, Tsuruta would have kept it safe and not kept it out of reach.

(What exactly is in that suitcase?)

“How did the thugs threaten you?” Tanizu asked as he ate.

“They called twice and asked me to scrutinize what they wanted yesterday, and they’ll be back for more!”

“What an idiot, those guys had the audacity to blatantly threaten you, it looks like we should have called the police to deal with it better!”

“Fair enough!” Shoko replied in a low voice.

“Right! Roc Construction’s employee roster, Mr. Tsuruta should have it, right?”

“There is! He often uses it when he writes New Year’s cards!”

“Can I borrow it?”

“What are you going to do?”

“I’d like to confirm if the company has a person named Tadayoshi Iriomoto?”

As if she was thinking about something, Shoko answered immediately, “I see! I’ll go get it now!” Shoko went to her room.

Tanitsu felt as if he was a little drunk as he sipped his drink.

Soon after, Shoko brought out the staff roster to the table. After getting the staff roster, Tanitsu started to go through it page by page.

Finally his finger stopped at the frontmost part of the General Affairs Department. “Tadayoshi Iriomoto, General Affairs Department.”

The fact that there is a person with a name but no title means that there is really a person called Tadayoshi Iriomoto in the Roc Construction Company, which is a great gain. Usually, this kind of person without a title is mostly in charge of some driving or special circumstances such as weddings and funerals, and other special things happen.

(That’s the crux of the matter! I should go find this Iriomoto and ask him why he’s traveling to Sado too?)

While Tanitsu was flipping through the employee roster, Shoko, who was sitting across the table, was playing with a small key in her hand and trying to figure out what she was thinking.

“What’s wrong? Is there something wrong with that key?”

“I was just going to take out the employee roster from Kouyou’s desk drawer when this key fell out of the roster, but I don’t remember what it was meant to be used for?”

“Let me see!” Tanizu took the key into his own hands and realized that it was nothing special, like a key to one of the coin lockers or a vault.

A flash of light passed through Tanazu’s mind! Maybe the suitcase the criminals were looking for was hidden in a cabinet that could be opened with this key, if that was the case, then this key should be kept safe.

“Let’s mail this key to me for now! It’s always dangerous to leave it with you.”

“Yeah! That’s what I thought, so please do!”

After saying that, Shoko’s pupils seemed moist and shiny!

After dinner and a bath, it was about eleven o’clock when Tanizu returned to his guest room on the first floor.

Due to the fact that he had drunk a bottle of red wine, after taking a bath, Tanitsu suddenly felt the fire of desire burning inside his body! Just as he was tossing and turning, there was a knock on the door of his room.

He didn’t hear Shoko’s footsteps coming downstairs, but the knock on the door must have been Shoko who couldn’t sleep either and came downstairs to try to talk to him!

Although he didn’t hear footsteps, since he heard a knock on the door, he got out of bed and opened the door to take a look, only to see Shoko in her long pajamas standing in the doorway!

“Sorry! Are you already asleep?”

“No! I’m not ready to sleep yet!” Tanizu replied immediately.

Since they had already crossed the line of friends in Sado, there was no distance to be maintained between them, but Tanitsu saw a flicker of guilt on Shoko’s face! Tanitsu reached out and pulled Shoko into the room, and as he closed the door behind him, he felt Shoko’s palms were sweaty, could this be a sign that her body and her heart were also burning with desire.

Shoko has no outlet for the lust she has been feeling after being molested by the thugs who broke into her house yesterday.

After entering the room, Shoko had been standing against the wall. Tanitsu suddenly wanted to hold Shoko tightly as if he was in a frenzy of lust.

Tanitsu slowly approached Shoko, caressed her cheek with his hand, and began to kiss Shoko, who immediately closed her eyes, leaned her body towards Tanitsu, and tilted her head back against the wall. Tanitsu then picks up Shoko’s waist and continues to kiss her further with passion, causing Shoko to open her lips involuntarily to his gentle invasion.

Tanitsu kissed her while holding Shoko tightly, causing Shoko to moan in excitement and kiss back passionately.

Within a few minutes, the two of them collapsed on the bed together. Shoko, who was lying naked on the bed, had her full breasts perfectly displayed in front of his eyes tonight, and as her body shook, it also shook with intense volatility.

Tanitsu remembered that night in the hotel in Senkaku Bay, due to the dim lighting, he was unable to take in the beauty in front of him, but tonight, he could leisurely browse the view of Shoko’s entire body emanating the beauty of a woman in front of him under the bright light.

Tanitsu lay beside Shoko and moved his hands to the inside of Shoko’s thighs, feeling the soft, smooth skin and the white, flawless belly, so snow-white and flawless that one couldn’t help but want to suck on it.

And the thick forest between her legs, covering the soft and warm forbidden area of the valley, presented the sensual odor of Shoko’s body.

When Tanitsu thought of the sexy goddess in front of him, who had been ravaged in Atami by Shoutarou Funakoshi of Tsukishima Construction Consultants, whom he had met today, he felt jealousy emerge and wanted to compete with him.

So Tanitsu covered Shoko’s plump breasts with his hands, feeling the elastic skin under his palms, and began to suck on the hard peaks in earnest while his hands kept kneading them, which caused Shoko to close her eyes and moan out in excitement.

“You mustn’t think I’m returning the favor!” Shoko whispered between gasps.

“What?”

“Mr. Provincial Flat stayed at my house last night, and tonight, and it made me feel at ease to feel that I had company, and I don’t want you to think that I’m doing this in return for a favor you helped me with!”

“I wouldn’t think so! I actually want you!”

“Yeah? I want you a lot too! Since Kouyou wasn’t home for a month before his death, are we going to be punished for this?”

“Wouldn’t it be nice to be punished together?”

Their behavior is really incestuous then! Now both of them, even though neither of them had a spouse, always felt a strong sense of guilt when they were together!

I don’t care about it! While Tanitsu sucked on the firm, full bosoms, his hand stroked further towards Shoko’s private parts, only to find that Shoko had pulled a piece of cloth to half-cover that private part.

When he reached down and removed the cloth, Shoko said.

“Ugh! Still, you saw it! I’m so sorry!”

“What’s there to be embarrassed about! I’ve already seen it!”

“But the last time we traveled it happened in an unconscious state, and it was fairly dimly lit!

”

“Whether it’s dim or bright, the result is the same, isn’t it?”

Tanitsu said as he blew hot air in her ear while pulling back the covering.

He gazed downward at the hidden place, the first time he had seen that private place up close, and it made him hold his breath as he realized that it could take different shapes depending on the person!

The one you see in front of you is undoubtedly the most perfect in shape, with plump, full petals that just so happen to be densely wrapped around the valley, and a thick forest that softly covers the petals, gently guarding the forbidden valley.

When Shoko saw Tanitsu scrutinizing her like that, she immediately shrank back and yelled, “I’m embarrassed!”

Seeing the beauty in front of him, Tanitsu suddenly understood how appealing it was to be able to taste women with his eyes, with his hands, and with his mouth. It would be a waste not to savor the pearl in front of him.

At that thought, Tanitsu immediately bent over, pulled Shoko’s body back to a supine position, and spread her legs with his hands.

“Ah! No no no!” Shoko struggled to keep him from parting her legs.

But Tanitsu spread her legs even harder!

“I’ll be embarrassed!” Shoko said shyly, covering her face with both hands.

This action caused the petals guarding the forbidden valley to stretch out. Tanitsu obliviously buried his face between them, reveling in the love nectar flowing from the valley, and then Tanitsu used his tongue to gently tease the small pearls on the forbidden valley!

“Ah! Ah!” Shoko chirped loudly as she shook her head in excitement.

Tanitsu began to tighten his hold on Shoko’s slender waist, specializing in that pearl, teasing that pivot of pleasure that controlled the erogenous zone to his heart’s content.

“Ah! Aah! Ahh! So good!” Shoko slowly twisted her waist.

Tanitsu, on the other hand, felt a sweet flavor like nectar and cream coming from the tip of his tongue, making him feel satisfied that the desire of his mouth and stomach had been smoothed out. However, Tanitsu wasn’t satisfied with that, he wanted to make Shoko’s high as high as he could, so he slipped his fingers into the valley. This move caused Shoko’s lower body to begin to tighten, and immediately felt the love nectar springing from the deep valley.

Tanitsu then proceeded to lick the petals around the valley while using his fingers to move in and out between the valley’s letters, which caused Shoko’s entire body to shake with excitement.

“Ah! First time I’ve ever been treated like that!”

Tanitsu withdrew his fingers and brushed both hands over the graceful crossing of legs.

He pressed his hands gently on the intersection so that he could see the intimate area clearly from the front, and he saw two thick red lips covering the bright red opening of the valley channel, which was glistening with wetness, and the depths of the channel were unfathomable. Shoko again said shyly, “Please… please don’t look again!” And she slowly moved her hips.

“Save the peace! Come on in!” She began to urge his invasion.

So Tanitsu adjusted his normal position and buried his head deep into the valley, causing Shoko to cry out, “Ah!”

“Ah! Ah!” The short chants from the beginning were lightly replaced by longer moans, causing Tanitsu to work harder to move in and out of the valley channel, mixing in Shoko’s gasps and chants as he worked his way in and out of the rhythm, even wrapping his legs around Tanitsu’s body.

At that moment, the valley of Zi’s voluptuous bosom was glistening with beads of sweat. As they climbed to the peak of their pleasure, he slowly sucked on her bosoms and wrapped his arms around her waist, determined to fight those demons to the end for her.

Next week, he’ll have to start investigating the heart of the problem!

Mrs. Sackcloth Sorrow (06)

Scanning Proofreading: CSH

Chapter 6: The Figure Behind

1 It’s really a well-lit president’s room.

From the window, you can see the green forest of Hamarikyu Palace as well as the pond and the canal, and in the distance on the right hand side, you can see the bay plan area of Hamamatsu-cho! The head office of Mitamura Construction is an eight-story building facing the canal, with the president’s office on the top floor. Takeshi Shimada is wiping an antique teapot on a decorative stand with a hand towel, and sighing at the difficulties of the manager, he says, “There are a lot of opportunities for orders, and the boom has lasted for more than 40 months, and the construction industry is showing unprecedented activity, but the lack of manpower at the moment has caused difficulties in meeting the deadlines after receiving orders. However, the current shortage of manpower has made it impossible to complete the projects as scheduled.”

“Young people nowadays are not interested in jobs that involve getting dirty or heavy work. And these jobs are commonplace at construction sites!” Tanigatu Shuhei had to reply in kind.

“That’s right! Young people nowadays can’t even carry steel bars, even if they are given only one bar, they still can’t carry it, and in less than three days, they flee to work as waiters in black tea stores, and they still argue that black tea stores pay better, and the work is easier, and they can be with their girlfriends at any time!”

Takeshi Shimada was deeply dissatisfied with the recent attitude of young people. “So instead, foreign workers are more hardworking, which means Japan should open up its labor market as soon as possible!”

Shimada desperately criticizes today’s social patterns, causing Tanitsu to hastily change the subject back.

“Let’s not talk about the construction site right now, I heard that Kouyou Tsuruta had a competitor earlier in his life, right?”

Although Mitamura Construction is not a large construction company, it is still considered a stalwart in the construction industry.

Its scale is slightly smaller than that of Dapeng Construction, but it is ambitious to catch up with Dapeng Construction, especially this time when it participates in the bidding case of the Renaissance Building project, becoming a strong competitor of Dapeng Construction.

Especially President Takeshi Shimada, who is the second generation of the company, is a young man with a strong sense of ambition, and it is said that ten years ago he worked as a salesman in charge of dealing with governmental organizations, and that he once fought with Sachiyo Tsuruta of Roc Construction for the contracting rights of a public works project. Tanitsu has come here today because he would like to hear from the President about Sachiyo Tsuruta’s past life, and he would also like to think about the mystery surrounding his disappearance and death. That’s why he came to interview the president on his own behalf.

“That’s right! I heard that Mr. Tsuruta died in a car accident on Sado, and to think I was bidding on a project with him a few years ago!”

“I heard he used to be a great competitor?”

“Exactly! He’s a sight for sore eyes, and that guy stole my business card once.”

“What? Stealing your wallet with your business cards?”

“Not wallets, only stolen business cards.”

“What’s he stealing business cards for?” Tanizu asked in surprise.

He could not have imagined that such an act of stealing someone’s business card and using it for improper purposes would come from Yukiyo Tsuruta, an excellent employee of a large construction company.

“Did Mr. Tsuruta make clever use of the president’s business card?”

“Nope! He threw away all his business cards.”

“What? Throw it away?” What Shimada said made Tanitsu more and more confused.

“The guy stole 20 or 30 of my business cards and tied them up in a stack and threw them all in the gutter! That guy has been an opponent to be reckoned with from a very early age!”

I see! Tanitsu finally understood what the president meant.

This is because the initial way for a bidding clerk or salesman of a construction company to deal with government officials is to exchange business cards.

Moreover, the government unit contracted public works, no less than several hundred a year, and the contracted works are not limited to the construction of counties and cities in the province can be contracted.

In other words, large-scale national projects, such as highways, reservoirs, and river training, are actually under the control of officials from eight local construction bureaus throughout the country.

Therefore, in order to get in touch with government officials in charge of public works such as road construction, road maintenance, river training, sewerage, urban planning, housing, etc., the salesmen of construction companies and the bidding clerks would visit the officials of various bureaus and divisions on a daily basis, and would greet them and leave their business cards in order to make a deeper impression on the officials.

Whether or not they are in their seats, they will place their business cards on their desks, often resulting in a long line of business cards on the desks of those who are out of the office for the day.

Even heads of bureaus with personal offices, such as Directors and Under Secretaries, would put their business cards into the business card box even though they could not visit each one of them. In the early days, however, this card box was placed in the corridor.

At that time, Takeshi Shimada was contracting for a project, but had not been favored by government officials for a long time, and one day he could not help but come to the relevant unit to ask: “Recently, other companies are often named in the bidding, but our company has not been named, is there a misunderstanding?”

“Your company is not positive at all! We’ve never seen you show your face, and since you’re so insincere, we simply can’t feel comfortable leaving the project in your company’s hands!” Shimada was shocked when the official replied thus.

“How can that be? There must be some kind of misunderstanding, I come and show my face every day!” Rubbing his hands together in fear, he replied.

“You’re the one who hasn’t been here! Come here and look, I don’t even have one of your business cards here!” The contractor said, pointing to the cumulative table.

The cumulative table was designed by the head of the department asked the female staff to count the number of business cards of each company in  each month, so as to investigate and see which company is the most “sincere”. Shimada’s company did not have a single business card in the cumulative table.

“How can that be?” It’s true that Shimada reports to this unit every day!

It was only after that that he realized the truth about the business card going missing.

At that time, because of rival Roc Construction (known as Washio Construction in Dangda fashion), Kouyou Tsuruta took the opportunity to steal rival Shimada’s business card when he dropped his own card into the card box and threw it into the gutter! The truth is discovered too late! In the end, the project is wrapped up by Roc Construction. Competitive maneuvers like these are unexpected.

“It may sound like he’s despicable now. But since then, I’ve privately respected Mr. Tsuruta! I called him a bidding ghost god. When I became president, I told him that I’d like to hire Kouyou Tsuruta of Roc as a salesman for the company! And…” Shimada sat down on the sofa.

“Yukio Tsuruta is also famous for his train hospitality and pre-registration methods!”

“What? What’s the train reception?”

That is, when manufacturers receive general government officials, in order to gain impression points, they deliberately show their sincerity and expect to be designated for bidding.

Yet public officials do not want to be blatantly hosted because people do not want others to see that they are being bribed.

That’s why Yukiyo Tsuruta’s best trick was to put the heavyweight division chiefs or ministers of various government agencies on his reception list, and then try to find out when and where they were traveling, and pretend to be on the same train.

When he met these government officials on the train, he would pretend that it was a coincidental encounter and invite the officials to the train restaurant and then, taking advantage of the fact that the officials were in a relaxed mood when they were sitting in the train, he would buy the officials some beers while obtaining relevant information such as the tendering time and plans of public works projects from casual conversations.

“Heh heh heh! Even a news reporter should feel sweaty with his kind of maneuvering. I hear he has another knack for recording beforehand?”

“Exactly! That’s kind of his heroics!”

Shimada seemed to be chatting quite happily, so he took brandy from the liquor cabinet and poured it into two glasses. Seeing that he was talking about Tsuruta’s relevant deeds with such gusto, it should indicate that it wasn’t in a bad way!

“What’s a prior record, huh?” Tanizu asked hurriedly.

“That’s one of the reception tactics.”

Recently vendors and officials have been attracting attention due to their previous methods of hospitality in and out of restaurants, so everyone has been trying to avoid going in and out of such venues lately.

This was a method that Tsuruta recorded in advance, which was very effective in buying people’s hearts, by going to several clubs or restaurants in Ginza or Akasaka and paying the officials in advance for a few times, so that the officials could enjoy the superb services free of charge, and that the officials could go in and out of these places with peace of mind.

“So, Mr. Tsuruta was trusted by the company for coming up with these solutions and was then promoted to the position of Tender Section Chief!”

“Not at all! Don’t underestimate him, he has helped the company a lot in its business, such as the purchase of building land, which is a very difficult job, he is also responsible for helping  gather a lot of information, so that the company can buy land on the most favorable terms.”

So Koyo Tsuruta was a full-service contractor! Listening to Shimada’s explanation, it means that Kouyou Tsuruta, who died in a car accident in Sado, was really a great person!

“Rumor has it that Roc Construction seems to have been tipped off about this Gulf plan, what are the President’s thoughts?”

“That’s a pointed question! You seem to imply that I was the one who went to rat.”

“No! I definitely didn’t mean that.”

“I have also heard the rumor, as if it is said that our company people to inform well! In fact, that’s because the outside world thinks that we are the competitors of Roc Construction Company, so naturally think that we are the ones who told on them. In fact, this is simply an empty rumor!”

Shimada argued as he sipped his brandy.

“Besides, we don’t care at all that we didn’t bid for this project, probably because Dapeng Construction itself is a big tree, and they have many enemies themselves, that’s why this rumor appeared to vilify them, in other words, they used the power of the Xianmin Party to make political offerings to the construction units, and entertained those officials to play golf, and also invited the officials to drink flowery wines, which is indeed a person attracting attention to the project! In the end, they also utilized their political connections to enable their company to successfully win bids, undertake projects, etc., and their tactics were too ostentatious.”

“Would you say that a powerful person in the Constitutional Democratic Party is Mr. Yakuoin Hozo?”

“Grace! Let’s not mention it’s that guy.”

“Did this bidding case also utilize political contributions?”

“How do you get a bid without using political contributions?”

“What was the amount of the offering?”

“It’s not for me to say such things, is it!” After Shimada finished his sentence, he asked, “By the way, I heard that there was a secretary who died along with Chief Tsuruta, was there anything special about that woman.”

“You mean Funakoshi Kasumi?”

“Yes, yes, yes! It’s that beautiful secretary. I’ve noticed her before, when she was at the party with President Washio, as soon as I saw her, I thought she looked like someone.”

“Who do you think she looks like?”

“When I thought about it later, I thought she looked a lot like my sister’s friend, Ms. Chiba. That young lady was married to a very young president of a construction company, and her husband’s company’s head office was located in Funabashi, they used to be an alliance company of Roc Construction Company, but their husband and wife’s company had a dispute over compensation due to an accident on a construction site in a certain year, which resulted in the company’s financial turnover being unsuccessful, and the two couples, who had declared bankruptcy, fled the country overnight, and finally both committed suicide by taking poison! It was a real shame that they both committed suicide by poison! I always thought that the secretary, Funakoshi Kasumi, looked very much like Chiba-san in her younger days, and it was even more unbelievable to me that the president of Roc Construction, who was famous for exploiting allied companies, would find a woman who looked like the wife of the president of the company who had exploited a subsidiary in the past to serve as his secretary, and even let her accompany him, and to me, I would have thought that it was Chiba-san’s spirit that was following him! I also asked the secretary named Kasumi Funakoshi the name of her mother, but she did not answer me?”

Shimada sipped his drink as he talked about how that beautiful secretary was also a red herring, I guess!

However, Tanitsu did not continue to listen to what he was saying at this time. Because he thought that Funakoshi Kasumi, a woman with a strong character, might have a tragic past hidden inside her heart, making him suffer a shock in his heart.

Kasumi might really be the daughter of that Ms. Chiba that President Shimada was talking about! This is a point full of worthwhile in-depth investigation, and new clues may emerge.

(This needs to be double-checked!)

At that thought, Tanitsu exclaimed, “Thank you, President, for taking time out of your busy schedule to instruct me on so many things!”

By the time Tanizu got up to leave, it was about two o’clock in the afternoon.

2Shouhei Tanitsu was now based at the Roc Construction Head Office in Aoyama 3-chome. He was going to call on Tadayoshi Nishimoto, who was listed on the staff roster as an employee of the General Affairs Department. He intuited that Tadayoshi Nishimoto should be the president’s exclusive driver, so he wanted to meet him directly and ask him what his motives for coming to Sado with Yukiyo Tsuruta were.

If Iriomoto’s visit to Sado really did have a hidden agenda behind it, he might not tell the whole story. However, he wanted to capitalize on the surprise visit to see if any unexpected breaks would appear!

He wanted to take advantage of the situation and try to catch a break in the incident. It was already three o’clock in the afternoon when he arrived at Aoyama Sanchome, and the office building of the Roc Construction General Corporation, towering over the street, while the glass windows shone brilliantly.

Tanitsu walked into the lobby on the first floor, went straight to the receptionist, and handed out his business card, saying that he wanted to see Mr. Iriomoto, who was an employee of the General Affairs Department. The receptionist picked up the phone and dialed the intercom to inform the General Affairs Department, and after a short exchange, she told Tanitsu, “I heard that Mr. Iriemoto is on vacation.”

“What? A vacation?”

“That’s right! The General Affairs Department is confirming that since Mr. Irimoto has been absent from work without an excuse since three weeks ago, he is now considered to be on leave.” The receptionist put back the microphone.

“I’m so sorry! May I ask if Mr. Iriomoto is the president’s driver?”

This must be confirmed in order to find out the clues.

“That’s right! His main job is to drive the car for the president.”

“So, who is serving as the president’s driver now?”

“It’s Mr. Isaoji Kenjo! Ah! That’s the man who’s sitting in the car by the door right now, that’s Mr. Kenjouji.”

The receptionist looked towards a black car parked directly in front of the lobby of the Roc Office Building, with a man in his thirties sitting in the driver’s seat. Since that car is the president’s car, it means that President Washio Ryutaro will be leaving in that car soon on official business. Tanitsu judged it that way.

“What do you want with Mr. Kenji?”

“No, I wasn’t looking for him, I was looking for Mr. Iriomoto on something!”

After finishing his speech, Tanazu was about to head for the door just as the elevator doors opened and out stepped an older, elderly man, and a young man who looked like a secretary. And that secretary was carrying what looked like a heavy suitcase! He figured that the elder man would be Washio Ryutaro!

Tanitsu took advantage of Washio’s walk to his side to take a closer look, realizing that he had a rounded, middle-aged body and that the extra muscle seemed to be pressing against his cheeks.

Washio Ryutaro only glanced at Tanizu before looking at his watch as he walked towards his car parked outside the gate, completely ignoring Tanizu’s presence.

Tanitsu immediately followed him out and looked for a taxi at the front gate. As expected of an Aoyama street, empty taxis can be found everywhere! Tanitsu had only taken a few steps down the street in front of Roc’s office building when he found a taxi. As soon as he got into the taxi, he said to the driver, “Driver! Please follow the black sedan that’s parked there.”

The middle-aged driver was puzzled and asked, “Is it following that car Lo?”

“Don’t be so explicit! I was just following that car to see where it was going!”

“Wouldn’t that be stalking?”

“It’s okay if you want to put it that way.”

“But the roads are so congested right now, we might lose them!”

“I trust your twenty years of driving.”

The middle-aged driver laughed bitterly while starting the car.

Ryutaro Herono got in the car and it drove straight down Aoyama Street toward Shibuya!

The road was in pretty good shape, with only two traffic lights so far.

Tanizu hadn’t run into Iriomoto today, and when he thought about what the receptionist had said about his unexplained absences since three weeks ago, and the company’s treatment of them as if he was on vacation, did this clue mean anything unusual?

Wasn’t it three weeks ago, not long before the time of Kouyou Tsuruta’s car accident on Sado? And Inspector Moriyama also said that Iriomoto’s name appeared on the passenger list of the ferry, so doesn’t that mean that Iriomoto had really been to Sado?

But why is he hiding his whereabouts? Could it be that he had something to do with Tsuruta and their car accident? While looking out the window, Tanitsu thought so, while the car in front of him was already driving straight into Miyazaki Osaka.

（Where the hell is Mr. Washio going?)

Maybe visit an old friend and then return to the city!

Anyway, Tanitsu wanted to know Washio’s whereabouts! The car in front of them got onto Miyazaki Osaka, and after driving over the level crossing of the JR line next to Shibuya station, and then crossing a traffic light, the car turned into Dogen Osaka, and luckily Tanizu’s car didn’t lose him.

“Mr. Driver! What a skill!”

“Now we may have to keep some distance lo! Because that car is parked on the shoulder.”

“What?”

When he heard the driver say this, Tanitsu immediately looked ahead through the windshield and saw that the black car was parked on the way to Dogenzaka and had pulled onto the left shoulder of the road. Thinking that Washio might be getting out of the car, he was about to take money out of his pocket to pay the fare when he was stopped by the sight he saw in front of him.

Because Washio didn’t get out of the car, instead a woman in a dark blue kimono stood in front of a Japanese restaurant, approached the black sedan and got into the sedan, and the car drove off again at that moment. Tanitsu’s eyes were fixed on the woman’s back!

（I think I’ve seen this woman before.)

Tanitsu wracked his brain desperately trying to think, and finally he let remember who it was!

(Ah! That’s right!)

From a distance, the pattern of the kimono and the gorgeous dress made him think that she wasn’t the mother of the Ginza Club’s “Dancing Girl”, Morimio Chitose.

(Uh-huh! You can’t go wrong!)

Did Washio meet her during the day? Thinking that, the answer came immediately.

Not long after Chitose got into the car, the car went straight to Dogenzaka, turned left at the bridge traffic light, and drove straight into the residential area of the south platform. This is a high-class residential area that predates Tadanobu and Naruto, and although the center of the city is now filled with condominiums, there are still magnificent old mansions in this area.

“Mr. Driver, could you please slow down a bit!”

So the taxi that Tanitsu took stopped at the side of the road outside an intersection to watch for movement of the black sedan, and found it slowly sliding into the courtyard of a mansion.

“Mr. Driver, just stop here please!” Tanizu added more tips to the fare.

“I’m so sorry, just a little tip!”

“I didn’t realize it was so close, I thought it would follow a long way!”

“I’m so sorry! I didn’t let you earn more.” After saying that, Tanizu got out of the cab.

He walked to the doorway where the black sedan was parked and looked at the door plate in front of the door. He found that it said “Medicine King’s Hospital.”

。

True to the name he expected! Because the Grand Old Man of Parliament for the construction system of the Constitutional Democratic Party, he was a strong backer of Roc Construction.

If it was nighttime, it wouldn’t be surprising at all if Mio Chitose came to the Yakuoin’s house all by himself.

But it was daytime, and she was traveling with Washio and her secretary, so it seemed like there must be something very important to discuss.

Tanitsu tried his best to pull the bolt and sneak into the courtyard. As he was about to spy on the movement inside the entrance hall, he noticed footsteps behind him, and when he looked back, he saw an extremely tall man dressed in a dark blue uniform walking towards him.

“What are you doing there?” The man was still looking at him coldly.

“No! I didn’t do anything!”

“Then why are you sneaking into people’s homes?”

“I’m so sorry! When I was passing through the street, I noticed that the door sign said Yakuoin, so I looked to think that this might be the home of that famous politician, and I just wanted to get a glimpse of the politician!”

“Is that all there is?”

“Yes, that’s all there is to it.”

“If there’s nothing else, get out!”

The man in uniform is the driver, Isao Kenjo, who drove Heruo here. Tanitsu had to get out of this place right away.

(This man was never just a driver!)

Because Tanitsu felt the cold sight behind him, staring at him as he walked out of the courtyard!

3 (I feel like someone is staring at me!) Shoko Tsuruta felt the presence of such eyes again that day. As she walked out of her house to go shopping, she passed by the Arikawamiya Memorial Park, and was about to cross the Kinoshita Saka, she had the feeling that someone was staring at her from somewhere!

At first, she thought she was being paranoid. But since the day before yesterday, when her house had been invaded by thugs, she didn’t think she was being paranoid, she just wasn’t sure where the sight was coming from!

However, she was pretty sure that somewhere in the park, or in the shade of a tree or some other unknown corner, someone had been staring at her! And she was intuitively certain that it was a man’s eyes, but she just couldn’t identify his face or appearance.

It occurred to her that maybe it was those three thugs from the other day, who were watching her house again, and that it might be one of the three, Yanase, Leek Saki, and Matsumura, who had been watching her! It made Shoko’s back tingle!

So Shoko nervously ran. Luckily, she was wearing a light dress and sunglasses today, so she could move around easily.

There are many foreign embassies in the Azabu area, like the five embassies near Shoko’s house, such as the Swiss Embassy, the West German Embassy, the French Embassy, the Chinese Embassy, and the Madagascar Embassy. Therefore, Hiroo and the area around Azabu was a city with a lot of foreigners, and there were many supermarkets for foreigners to buy things.

Near the Arikawamiya Memorial Park, there was a supermarket called “AZABUSUPER”, which supplied not only foreigners’ goods, but also Japanese goods, so Shoko was able to buy special foodstuffs and daily necessities from the United States, France, Germany and other countries. Shoko enters the store and buys a few things without realizing that someone is watching her.

When Shoko finished her shopping and walked out of the supermarket, the street had become dim. She went around to the nearby florist and cake store again, and sat down at the cafe inside the cake store to have a cup of coffee, while her eyes scrutinized every move outside the window to see if she could check out where the vision was, and outside the clear glass window, the crowds of people were surging. Incredibly, she couldn’t find the gaze that was watching her!

（This is outrageous.) It’s like a game of Spy vs. Spy!

Shoko gasped as she finished her coffee. The streetscape had darkened, replaced by light from neon signs.

Shoko had to attend her friend’s opening party tonight. Looking at her watch, it was already seven o’clock in the evening, Shoko picked up her shopping bag and stood up to pay for her coffee, then walked out of the cake store into the dark street, and after returning to the front door of her house, she stopped in her tracks. When she returned to the front door of her house, she stopped in her tracks because she saw a figure by the foyer, and it was a man, and she cautiously walked towards the door.

“Ma’am! It’s me!” Isn’t that Choutarou Funakoshi reflected in the streetlights?

She was more concerned about what he was going to do than the element of surprise.

Is Funakoshi the one who’s been spying on me?

“I’ve been waiting for you at the door because you were out and away!”

“Anything?”

“Just asking what’s up? Don’t be so cold! We haven’t seen each other since Sado!”

“I should have nothing more to do with you!”

“The more you say, the more ruthless you are! Don’t be so cold, I have something to tell you! Let’s go inside and talk!”

“I’m afraid it’s not very convenient. If you have anything to say, say it here!”

“You weren’t this cold at Atami!”

“Don’t talk about that day again.”

“Is it okay to stand and talk?”

“Never mind! If you have anything to say, say it here!”

“That man Tanizu came to see me yesterday, what is that man to Mrs.?”

“I don’t have to answer that.”

“Of course you need to answer, because that man borrowed Kasumi’s picture of them from me, and he said he was going to send it to the police station in Sado, and said that Kasumi and Kouyou Tsuruta weren’t killed in a car accident, but were murdered?”

The more Funakoshi Choutarou speaks, the louder he gets.

It was easy to attract attention by talking so loudly in this silent residential area at night, but Shoko didn’t want to invite him into the house to talk. As soon as she entered an empty house, Funakoshi would definitely show his hideous face and make his hands on her again, just like that night in Atami.

Shoko hurriedly thought and said, “Mr. Funakoshi, I would like to talk to you about this too. Let’s go straight to Kishimo-saka, and after Asahi TV station in Roppongi, there’s a big cafe near Myokenji Temple on the way, so I’ll go there as soon as I put away the things I just bought, so please wait for me there first, Mr. Funakoshi!”

The store was a French bakery-café run by Shoko’s high school friend, an environment that Shoko was familiar with, and both made her feel unsafe if she went to a club or a hotel to talk to Funakoshi about things this late at night.

I didn’t expect Funakoshi to take over and say, “Then let’s go by car! My car is parked in the corner.”

“But what did I buy…?”

“It’s okay to take that thing with you! We have a car anyway.”

Funakoshi is afraid that Shoko will stand him up, so he asks her to go with him.

“Okay… only for an hour!” Shoko agreed to take his car.

Walking over to Funakoshi’s car, Funakoshi took the key and opened the door on the side of the seat next to the driver’s seat.

“I think this seat is more comfortable than the back seat, so get in!”

Shoko had to get into the driver’s seat holding her purchases.

Then Funakoshi got into the driver’s seat and said, “Going straight this way?”

“That’s right!” The car started right up.

After going up the ramp, the Madagascar Embassy is in front of you, the road splits into two forks to the left and right here, and the car continues straight ahead.

On the right hand side is Old Azabu and on the left hand side is Nishi-Azabu. On the left side of Asahi TV Street, there is a large white building called “Azabu Legend” with a coffee shop on the first floor.

“The coffee shop is right there, and it has a parking lot across the street, so turn left.”

Shoko said so, but instead of slowing down, Funakoshi accelerated forward past the entrance of that coffee shop.

“What’s the matter with you? Didn’t we have an appointment to talk here?”

“Wouldn’t it be a waste of time to order another tea and cake to talk about now at this time? So find another place where it’s quiet enough to talk.”

“Stop the car! I want to get off!”

Funakoshi extended his left hand and grabbed Shoko’s hand as she tried to open the door.

“What are you doing! Don’t mess around!”

“Shoko! If you keep messing around, we’re going to crash our car into the opposite lane!”

Funakoshi said in a rather calm tone.

“If you try anything, maybe I’ll crash the car myself!”

Funakoshi Shoutarou, this man, may not be a bad outlaw, but he just can’t control his emotions when he encounters certain things, like the last time he would make a surprise visit and lure Shoko along to Atami to catch an adulterer, and this is the same situation today.

He was probably trying to use it to vent his frustrations from his previous miserable life in the sanatorium and his wimpy life with that tough woman Kasumi!

“I’m very fond of ma’am, so I think it would be good to call you Shoko instead of ma’am from now on! The love I have for Shoko dwarfs even Kasumi! So please don’t say something as cold and heartless as you’re going to open the door and jump out of the car.”

4 Looking out the bathroom window at night!

The night scene in front of me is too sentimental and lonely. The railroad and station platforms of the Yamanote Line are reflected in fluorescent lights.

The people waiting for the train on the platform are not very visible. It was the pace of real life, watching the crowds of people enter and exit as the train entered the platform and opened its doors! She was now on the fifth floor of one of the many hotels in Yinggu.

Looking at the pace of life at hand, Shoko turned to the idea that being here was sort of a tone of the pace of life!

Shoko was taking a shower in the bathroom, completely forgetting that she was completely naked, standing by the window and looking out the window.

It had been an hour since Shoutarou Funakoshi had forcibly driven her here. Funakoshi flew Shoko in the opposite direction of Azabu to Inagaya, as if he wanted Shoko to completely forget who she was and bring her to a world she had never encountered before.

The situation in front of her made it inevitable that Shoko would have to spend the night with Funakoshi again tonight! Shoko thought that she was a self-sacrificing woman, and cried out in her heart, “Ahh! I’m such a slut!”

However, after Kouyou passed away, she lost the center of gravity in her life, and in order to make up for the emptiness in her heart, she could only follow her body’s desires to fill the emptiness in her mind. Behind her in the bathtub, Funakoshi, who was in the bath with her, was comfortably soaking in a hot bath.

“What are you looking at?” Funakoshi asked out of the blue, probably displeased that Shoko had ignored his presence from the moment he started entering the hotel until now, and voiced it. Shoko left the window speechlessly when she heard his voice.

She stepped into the bathtub completely uncovered and naked, sharing the bath with Funakoshi, whose eyes naturally focused on Shoko’s lower abdomen, staring at the part of her that was vaguely glittering with ruby highlights beneath the thick black forest covering it.

All Shoko wanted to do at this point was to leave everything behind and indulge herself in a moment of pleasure by committing herself to the man in front of her.

Then Funakoshi leaned over to Shoko’s side and wrapped his arms around Shoko’s shoulders, while his hands restlessly went to her breasts under the water, and his tongue feverishly licked and sucked back and forth between her neck and behind her ears.

“It tickles! Stop it!”

Shoko pouted, and Funakoshi’s hand wrapped around her breasts, while his other hand traveled down to Shoko’s tender and sexy area! She found that the area around the valley was not wet, but she should have already started to produce love juice!

The message from Funakoshi’s fingertips made his own excitement flourish into a confident hard-on, so he pressed his body against Shoko’s smooth skin.

“Let go of me, I’m having trouble breathing!”

Instead of letting go, Funakoshi continued to encircle Shoko’s slippery, snow-white shoulders with one arm, while his right hand spread Shoko’s thighs.

“Don’t! Don’t!”

Shoko resisted and tried to close her legs tightly, but helplessly the hand still relentlessly reached into the forbidden place between her legs, and the fingers that entered and exited had already felt the sweet love juices gushing out from the valley.

“I don’t like this, please stop!”

Funakoshi, however, still pressed Shoko’s hand tightly, while his fingers continued to move in and out!

“AH…” Shoko tilted her jaw up, while her legs spread involuntarily.

Funakoshi took advantage of this opportunity and prepared to force his high and hard object into the valley.

“I’ve already said I don’t like doing it here, don’t make it difficult for people.”

Shoko whimpered and unexpectedly shifted her upper body and stood up from the bathtub! This action caused the water in the bathtub to splash into Funakoshi’s face, and while Funakoshi was still in a daze, Shoko stepped out of the bathtub and walked slowly into the dressing room, and then Funakoshi followed her silently into the bedroom, which Shoko didn’t actually lure him to, but which made Funakoshi follow her to the bedroom with impatience.

The bedside lamp had been turned on and Shoko was lying on her back on the white sheets as if she had thrown herself on the bed, hinting at the feeling that someone else was coming to violate her soon, she closed her eyes tightly, the light reflecting her even breathing, she was closing her eyes tightly because she was thinking of Tanitsu, but she was also afraid that Tanitsu would find out about what she had done tonight in Inuyasha.

Funakoshi leaned over to her. Funakoshi began to flick his tongue over the center of Shoko’s white backside on the bed and down to the junction of her buttocks.

I think Funakoshi did the same thing to Kasumi!

(Maybe Kasumi will occasionally do the same thing in return!) While Shoko was enjoying Funakoshi’s tongue baptism, she was still thinking about these trivial matters in her mind. Funakoshi was now licking Shoko’s rounded buttocks like a loving dog, even probing into the inner part of her buttocks; then he spread her legs, and teased her ruby red erogenous zones with both his tongue and his fingers, which made her whole body shiver with excitement.

Then Funakoshi intensified his caresses all over Shoko’s body, which caused Plume to moan and groan with arousal all over her body.

(Kasumi’s husband really knows how to flirt with women!)

Shoko’s mind, however, also flashed a thought she didn’t like.

(That woman called Kasumi might do the same thing to Kouyou!) At some point, Shoko’s legs were completely spread apart, and Funakoshi took advantage of this gap to bury his hardness in the valley, at this point, Shoko’s consciousness had already traveled to all four corners of the world, while her body was immersed in the world of senses.

Once Funakoshi’s lower body was completely filled with Shoko, he began to move in and out slowly, while Shoko let out a shy moan from time to time.

(That’s outrageous! This is outrageous! You said you wanted to talk about things, but you ended up bringing me to this hotel.) During this rhythm, Shoko closed her eyes. Although she felt a little guilty in her heart, her body was enjoying the current rhythm 100%.

(What the hell was I thinking?)

When she had reached the peak of her pleasure, Shoko did not talk to Funakoshi for a long time, and it was thirty minutes later that Shoko stood up from the bed, drenched in sweat from the passion she had just experienced!

She suddenly realized with a shock that she wouldn’t be able to go to the opening party at her friend’s store that she had been scheduled to attend.

“Hey!” Shoko asked as she opened her mouth after taking out a refreshing drink from the refrigerator and sat down on a side chair, “You can start the conversation now!”

“Eh?” Funakoshi, who had been taking a nap on his bed, finally got up.

“What do you have to tell me?”

“What?” Funakoshi, on the other hand, was still sleepy-eyed.

“Didn’t you come to my door and say you were going to tell me about Kouyou and their death in a car accident?”

“Whoa! Right! I was so eager to warm up to you that I forgot something so important.”

“Think about it now! Come on!”

“I suddenly found some clues recently that made me think that if Kasumi and the others weren’t killed in a car accident, but he killed them, then those clues made me think that maybe the killer was coming for Kasumi!”

“How so?” Shoko heard this sudden statement, causing her to be quite surprised.

Because Tanitsu suggests that it may have been Kouyou’s possession of certain unknown secrets behind the Gulf Project that led to the killing.

“I found out that although Kasumi works hard for the company, she actually hates Roc Construction Company in her heart, and this incident might have happened because Kisumi has some kind of scheming attempts against the company that was discovered by the company yet.”

“Why do you think Kasumi hates the company?”

“I didn’t say she hated the company! I think she may have a grudge against Ryutaro Washio at the top of the company, or the corporate management.”

“That’s strange, according to what you said before, Ru Shoumei will entertain clients or play golf with them on Saturdays and Sundays for official business, she’s an unabashed workaholic! Even she is so appreciated and trusted by the president, it makes the outside world speculate that the relationship between them is very shallow, so you can’t stand it, can you? I don’t see how Kasumi, who works so hard for the company, could possibly hate the company.”

“Grace! It’s really hard for me to understand that, I think Kasumi probably wanted to take revenge because she hated the company! That’s why she sacrificed our family life to serve as President Washio’s secretary, and then secretly and secretly carried out her revenge plan!”

“That means you have some clues lo!”

“Not technically a very important clue.”

“But there must be some proof that you would think that, right?”

“That’s right! Currently I am in possession of two pieces of evidence.”

Choutarou Funakoshi briefly recounted two pieces of evidence.

First, when he was recently sorting through Kasumi’s belongings, he found a diary, which, although it did not contain anything important, clearly and carefully recorded the itinerary and secret meetings of the senior management of Roc Construction, as well as every move made by Ryutaro Washio, and the politicians the president met with in order to obtain bids for the project, among other things.

One more piece of evidence is Kasumi’s life.

Although Funakoshi is still not clear about her date of birth, he found that Kasumi was born in Funabashi City, Chiba Prefecture, into a family that operated a construction company, and her mother was said to have been elected Miss Chiba, so Kasumi’s beauty must have been inherited from her mother’s beauty. However, when Kasumi was in her second year of high school, her father’s company went bankrupt due to an accident at a construction site, causing her parents to ask for help from a related company, Washio Construction, but instead of getting help, her mother was humiliated by Ryutaro Washio, the president of Washio Construction, resulting in the tragic event of her parents choosing to end their lives by themselves, which filled her with hatred, right?

“I’m not sure of the details of the situation, but I once heard something similar, which is that the only reason Kasumi was able to serve as the secretary of Roc Construction was solely because of those previous grudges, which caused Ryutaro Washio to decide to adopt Kasumi, not because of Kasumi’s abilities.”

“So what?”

“How could someone like Kasumi, who was adopted by relatives and struggled through college, want to work for Roc Construction? After all, this is the company that broke her family!”

“You mean she has an ulterior motive Lo!”

“I was wondering if she would use her entry into the company while secretly carrying out a revenge plan.” Funakoshi said so.

“But Kasumi ended up in a car accident with my husband, so she didn’t avenge her father’s death at all!

”

If things really are as Funakoshi said, then Kasumi’s fate is truly tragic.

“That’s also true. I haven’t found the real reason yet, but I think there might actually be something more to this than innocence, and who the hell is trying to kill the two of them?”

Shoko took a sip of her drink before her eyes looked off into the distance again as she opened the small window and all she could see was still the station in Inuyasha.

(What a bleak street!)

White streetlights illuminated the deserted platform.

By now, Tanizumi should have returned to Shoko’s house in Azabu, but she was waiting for me in the park because the gate was locked! I don’t know why, but Shoko just didn’t want to run into Tanitsu right now, so she asked, “Mr. Funakoshi?”

“What is it?”

“Do you still have that diary of Kasumi’s? Can I borrow it?”

“Why do you want to see it?”

“Why? That diary was left by the woman who died with my husband, it’s considered a very precious relic! I think I should have the right to read it!”

Shoko thought that when she got this diary, she could go through it with Tanitsu Sahei, she thought Tanitsu would be able to find some clues in it!

5 TANIYATSU SHUHEI appeared in Ginza. It was now late at night and the street lights were illuminating the entire street, shining brightly on the corner of Rokuchome. He looked up at several buildings, searching for the words on the red, yellow, and blue neon signboards, and finally found the sign for “Mai Hime,” and he headed straight for the floor that housed the storefront. He got on the elevator, and although there was no one in the elevator, the smell of perfume was strong in the air.

Tanitsu returned to the head office in Tsukiji from the south platform in the evening, and did some writing for his monthly economic watch column until 9:00 p.m. He left the office.

The elevator stops on the fourth floor, and at the end of the hallway is the “Dancing Lady”. Open the heavy wooden door, step on the thick shag carpet, in the soft light.

However, in such a spacious venue, except for the counter and booths with seats, the rest of the facilities such as karaoke are open standing space.

Guests are about 60% now.

“Welcome!” The receptionist lady led him to the corner booth seats. Since Tanitsu wasn’t a frequent hoi polloi, he was always taken to the seat behind the pillar where fewer guests were willing to sit.

“Ugh! All you had to do was call in!” Mika finally showed up.

“Grace! I was going to call, but thought I was anxious to see Mika.”

“It’s not like you’re rich, it’s expensive to come here and spend money!”

“Luckily I’m single and noble, I can’t afford to pay for a visit once in a while, not to mention that you’ll give me a discount, Mika!”

Tanizu chatted with Mika as she looked around the store.

Instead of seeing the mama-san Bee-o Chidenshi’s people, he saw two large groups of mostly middle-aged office workers occupying the most prominent booths.

“I’ve kept you waiting!” The bartender spoke as he delivered a bottle of foreign wine.

“Should I add water?” Mega asked next.

“Whoa! Great! Your glass counts too!”

“Good! I’ll take a bow and honor it!” After Mika handed him the wine, she followed suit and poured a glass of wine and drank it herself.

“Ms. Saori still hasn’t come to the store?”

“That’s right! I wonder what the hell happened?”

“She hasn’t called back to the store?”

“No! Because she hasn’t come to collect her paycheck for a week, it made mama-san worried, and she even made many calls to her lodging place, only to have no one pick up the phone!”

“What is the address of her lodging place?”

“She lives in the Sanxuan Tea House, but it seems that she has moved, and may have stayed at the home of one of the benefactors!”

(Is that so? If only that were true.)

Tanizu wondered in his head if it was necessary to go to the place where Saori had lived and check it out.

Tanitsu always thought that Saori and Kouyou Tsuruta were so close, and now the period of time during which Saori’s whereabouts were unknown just happened to coincide with the time of Kouyou Tsuruta’s disappearance, making him keep thinking that there seemed to be a connection between them.

“The phone number of the place where Saori-san lives, can I ask mom-san for it tonight?”

“Yeah! But mama-san happens to be out right now, so I’ll ask the accounting manager.”

“Eh! Okay!” Tanizu thought of stopping by Saori’s dorm tomorrow, whether Saori was there or not, he wanted to try and get into her room to see if he could find any clues.

“Right! Where’s mama-san?”

“She just walked a guest out.”

It looks like Chitose Mineo has returned to the store from the south platform.

As Tanitsu was thinking this, there was a commotion of voices coming from the front of the store, and he saw the woman in a dark kimono, with two or three service ladies, followed by a new set of customers entering the store.

The one wearing a kimono was of course, Chitose Mineo, during the day Tanitsu had only seen the figure behind her, but now from the front, he realized that she really did have a gorgeous and deep silhouette that provoked a man’s reverie.

Tanitsu was secretly surprised as he marveled at Chidensei’s beauty, and the person who walked in with her was Ryutaro Washio, the president of Roc Construction, who was followed by a young, pretty secretary-like woman and Isao Kenji, who was the driver.

(Isao Kenji was probably a bodyguard and driver! Since Kenji worked after Irihimoto, the missing Irihimoto must have had the same job.)

Washio, the young lady, and Kenji followed the mama-san into the innermost box where the middle-aged man who had just made a loud commotion was seated.

Washio and the secretary lady sat in that seat, and only Kenji was sitting in the next box, while the box he was sitting in already had three men sitting in it, just four of them making up a table.

“Can I switch seats with you?” Tanizu spoke quietly to Mika.

Since Tanitsu was sitting in a position where he could be seen by Kenji, he switched places with Mika so that he wouldn’t be seen by Kenji. Now Tanitsu was sitting in a position where he could just see the side of one of the three people who had been sitting in the box where Kenzo was sitting.

And the moment he saw that side, it made Tanitsu shriek, wasn’t that guy the one who broke into Shoko Azabu’s house looking for something and was about to violate Shoko?

The other two were the ones who were at his beck and call! Based on what Shoko said, Tanitsu remembered that the man’s name was Matsumura, which meant that the other two people sitting there were called Yanase and Leek Sakiro!

Luckily none of the people in that box had realized Tanizu’s presence yet.

“That’s outrageous, those people are so loud!”

“The box Mr. Washio is sitting in is mostly filled with Roc Construction executives and general affairs directors, and they seem to be celebrating the company’s 40th anniversary in advance! I’ve heard that Roc will be holding a celebration banquet at the Orion Hotel in Akasaka next week, on the day of the Great Anji Day!”

“Whoa! A reception in honor of the company’s 40th anniversary?”

From the time Ryutaro Washio came to Tokyo alone after the war, from the establishment of his own work store to the establishment of the predecessor of the present company, “Washio Construction”, in Showa 25, Roc Construction is really a history of the establishment of the company’s sweat and toil.

“Grace! And it’s grandly organized!”

“Since the reception is being held at the Orleans Hotel, there will be about 2,000 people from all walks of life!”

“Wow! What an event! Isn’t this a hoot?”

“Grace! I guess we’ll be invited to the banquet too!”

“Maybe the banquet venue won’t be able to hold that many people!”

Chatting about these topics, the more Tanitsu felt that Washio Ryutaro had organized this party only to promote his social power and status. As for his visit to the private residence of the Yakuoin on the south platform today, did he want to ask the Yakuoin to attend the reception? Or is he asking for something else?

“By the way! Who is the woman sitting next to President Washio?”

“Not our lady here.”

“Of course I know it’s not your lady here, is she the new secretary?”

“Seems like it, she’s taking over the secretary job from Kasumi Funakoshi, I heard her name is Gaho Miura, and that she often stays with the president until the middle of the night, so maybe they’re already close.”

(What an animal! He’s like a flower demon!)

A sudden surge of inexplicable indignation came over Tanizu.

Then he looked over to the table where Isamu Kenji was sitting, he was sitting next door to Roc’s senior table, were Kenji and Matsumura and the rest of them also office workers who were eating people’s paychecks?

“What is the origin of the man called Kenjou, beside him, that is, the other three who sit at Mr. Washio’s table?”

“Wow! You mean Mr. Matsumura, Mr. Yanase and Mr. Leek Saki?”

“You know very well!”

“Because I was sitting at that table before you got here!”

“I see, are they employees of Roc Construction?”

“Eh! I’ve heard that it’s an employee of the Roc-connected company, Moo Sang Development Company, but in actuality it seems like it’s in charge of acquiring land.”

“How do you know?”

“From what I know from their conversation just now, they just mentioned that when they acquired the land on the road near the Tokyo Bay Crossing Bridge at a low price, the land around Kisarazu went up by as much as twenty to thirty times, it’s really a lucrative business. Is Roc Construction really making money by such means?”

“I think it’s about eight or nine!”

Although Tanitsu hadn’t yet investigated it clearly, he thought that it might be a clue! Perhaps it was because of the unresolved issues related to this transfer of benefits that those three guys were so eager to invade Shoko’s house to look for the black Louis Cotton suitcase left behind by Yukio Tsuruta. Luckily, the Louis Carton suitcase hadn’t been found yet.

Kouyou Tsuruta must have hidden that suitcase in a locker or safe somewhere!

Tanitsu only has the key to that locker now.

Although Tanitsu tried to think of the origin of that key, he couldn’t figure out where it came from.

Now those three guys must also be looking for the key that was hidden in Louis Catton’s suitcase mailer.

Where will those three guys go tonight? And what kind of company is the “Musha Development Company”? Since Isamu Kenji knew those three guys so well, and since Isamu Kenji seemed to be Ryutaro Washio’s bodyguard and chauffeur, these four guys might be the underground “personal guards”!

（Okay! Let me just stalk and see! There might be something to be gained by following these people!) Tanizu secretly decided to do so later.

So he had a few more drinks with Mika and got the address and phone number of the missing Saori that Mika had inquired about, and then he left the Maiko. After taking the elevator downstairs, he found a corner in front of a bubble tea store near the building.

It was about twenty meters from the building where the “Maiko” was located, and his eyes were fixed on the entrance of the building, watching the crowds coming in and out. After waiting for about forty minutes, he saw the noisy mama and the hotel lady escorting Washio Ryutaro and his secretary Miura Kaho downstairs, and then they got into a black car. It was the same car that Tanitsu had seen during the day, probably because of the short commute to and from the hotel today, and the fact that there would be no place to park on the side of the road, so they didn’t use a high-class car!

(Maybe he’s going to take the president’s car!)

In other words, Kenzo, who was acting as the driver, had not been drinking at the store just now.

Kenji and the three guys followed the president down the elevator as well.

They went to the two private cars parked side by side with the empty taxi in the driveway and got in, Tanazu saw this and also followed the taxi, got in and immediately handed the tip to the driver and said to the driver: “I have something to talk to the person in the car in front of me, so please follow the black car in front of you, thank you!”

Then Tanizu looked into the windshield and saw that Washio Ryutaro and Miura Kaho were both sitting in the back of the sedan, while Kenji was in the driver’s seat.

Unexpectedly those three guys were sitting in the cream-colored sedan that followed the black sedan, that’s right, those three guys Matsumura, Yanase, and Leek Saki. One of the three of them probably didn’t drink! Then the two cars drove off immediately.

At this point, Tanitsu immediately told the taxi driver: “I thought there was only one car, but now I realize that there are two cars, if the two cars split in the middle of the road, please wait for me to tell you which car to follow, then you can follow it!”

The driver didn’t say much when he heard it and pressed the meter in silence.

The two cars in front of them drove on Ginza’s congested traffic lanes and still managed to keep in touch with each other as the two cars followed each other closely from the Hibiya intersection in the direction of Horiwa, Sakuradaimon, and Miyake Hanshiro.

(Looks like they’re going somewhere together!)

Not long after climbing up Miyake Hanshiro, the car went to the right, circled around the street behind the National Theater, entered Hayabusa-cho, and then turned left on its way to Kuzu-cho, entering Hirakawa-cho, where the road was undulating. Then the car turned into the first alley of Hirakawacho and drove slowly, and finally saw two cars driving into the underground parking lot of a white building.

“Can I trouble you to park there?”

Then Tanizu got out of the cab. Cautiously, he walked toward the building where the two cars had entered.

The building was an eight-story apartment building, and the higher the floor, the higher the apartment looked like a high-rise apartment.

This building made Tanitsu wonder if this could be the place where Washio Ryutaro brought his women to rest!

(The underground parking lot here is a paid parking lot!)

Just as Tanitsu was struggling to see the parking lot sign and approaching the entrance to the underground parking lot, two figures suddenly appeared behind him, and those two figures stood Tanitsu up on his left and right. In the faint light, Tanitsu realized that it was two of the three guys.

“How did Mr. Tanizu fall into the trap again?”

“What are you talking about?” Tanizu said as he struggled to break free and look them straight in the eye.

“We’ve known you were following us for a long time, I heard you were following the president’s car during the day!”

“You’ve got it all wrong!”

“Whether we were mistaken or not, you can’t escape now! Come with us!”

With that, Tanazu was being carried by the two of them towards the ramp of the underground parking lot.

“Wait! What are you doing?”

“You know! Aren’t you one of those great journalists who specializes in exposing people’s privacy and getting to the bottom of the story?

Then you must know where Mr. Tsuruta keeps the thing he asked his wife to keep? Hand it over quickly!”

“I don’t even know what it is!”

“Don’t cover it up, weren’t you at Tsuruta’s house that day too? So you must know that the item is the black suitcase, quickly tell me where that item is kept?”

“I told you, I don’t know, I don’t know!”

“It seems like you’re not going to shed a tear until you see the coffin, so we’ll be polite!”

The man who grabbed one of Tanizu’s hands said with an evil grin on his face.

In his mind at that moment, Tanazu thought that tomorrow’s news headlines would be about a newspaper reporter being beaten to death by two thugs.

Maybe these two guys in front of him would really kill him.

“You behave yourself and go this way!” The two men racked Tanizu again into the darker parking lot.

It occurred to Tanitsu as he moved along that it would be even more dangerous if he went further in, and he immediately shrunk his entire body to the bone at that thought!

Tanitsu had practiced judo and aikido from high school to college and had done well, and had encountered dangerous situations like this one when covering violent news after he had gone out into the world.

It wasn’t long before they reached a dark corner of the parking lot, when Tanitsu realized that the man on his side had a blunt object on him, and the man on his right, without saying a word, punched him hard in the chest, which Tanitsu accepted silently, and just as the two of them were about to punch him in the chest, Tanitsu took the man on his side by surprise, knocking out the blunt object with a knife, and then kicked the man in the groin. While the man crouched down in pain, he threw up his fist and punched the man in the jaw, all of these actions were completely instinctive, and completely unexpected by the two guys.

As he tackled this one battered guy, he turned around and hooked the neck of the man behind him, grabbing the guy’s head and slamming it into the concrete wall, soundly knocking the wall.

“Damn it!” The man who had just been struck in the jaw shouted as he got up and charged at Tanazu.

Tanitsu darted his body out of the way and utilized a backhanded slash to hit the man hard in the back of the head, then threw his foot out to trip the man, finally sending both guys to the ground unsupported.

Just when Tanitsu was glad that he knocked down the two guys, another person appeared in the parking lot, due to the suddenness, when he realized that the man was holding a knife in his hand, it was too late to dodge the knife’s attack, and was cut by the knife on his thigh, under the weak light of the parking lot, Tanitsu could only feel the pain in his thighs, and the hot and wet liquid was flowing down his thighs, and the man who stood in front of him was smiling wickedly under the light, it seemed that the man in front of him was going to It seems that the man in front of him will launch the second wave of attack.

(Damn it!) This time, Tani-tsu cursed in his mind and began to launch defensive measures to avoid the man’s knife attack, although he had managed to get by with a few previous attacks, I’m afraid that this time it’s going to be a disaster! After the three guys, maybe that sword holder Isaoji will appear in the parking lot again, it’s endless!

At this point Tanitsu realized that the ramp to the parking lot was right behind him, so he began to slowly back away and turned around and ran up the ramp when the man wasn’t looking.

“Wait!” The man immediately chased after him and ran out of the slope with him, but Tanitsu hid in the darkness of the wall, and when the man was unable to see him because his vision was not clear, he walked behind him and hooked the man’s neck, and then lifted his foot forward and kicked the man’s groin hard, and then grabbed the man’s head and slammed him against the wall. After the man collapsed, Tanitsu stopped.

As he ponders the behind-the-scenes entanglements of the Tsuruta incident, he hears Kenjou’s footsteps from the parking lot, and without thinking twice, Tanitsu immediately pulls up his legs and runs towards the alleyway entrance in order to get away from the scene as quickly as possible.

In the dead of night in the center of town, with few people and no stars in sight, it looks like it’s going to rain later.