The Opportunity
"They... are in danger?" Jingūji Maki murmured, repeating the same question over and over.
Etc.
The little girl looked up at the boy in astonishment.
The meaning contained in this sentence seems to be different from her understanding.
The Mysterious Affairs Department, based in the island nation, has always claimed to be messengers of the gods from Takamanohara.
These people not only control Shintoism, which has a total of 120 million followers, but also take over shrines in various places and hold grand and mysterious rituals.
In her view, ordinary people who offend the messengers of the gods should definitely avoid them.
Moreover, after Qing Chen saved her, he had no choice but to take her into the mountains to hide. Isn't it usually the weaker people who need to hide?
But now, Qing Chen doesn't seem scared at all.
Qing Chen glanced at her. "But this time, I won't cover your eyes anymore, and you must keep your eyes open. If you close your eyes, I'll have someone send you to live somewhere else, but we'll never see each other again."
The little girl paused for a moment, hesitated for a long time, and then said, "I definitely won't close my eyes."
This struck the little girl as odd. Last time, the older brother was terrified of seeing anything gory, but this time he insisted she watch...
She suddenly realized that this might be a change in attitude.
Although she was too young to understand the reasons for this change, Jingūji Maki believed that it was a good thing.
Qing Chen gently patted her head and said softly, "Little one, you need to be prepared to face this cruel world... But it's okay, you are the same person as me, and you can walk the same path I have walked."
Jingūji Maki didn't hear a thing.
All she remembered was that she and her brother were the same kind of people.
I'm so happy.
"Should we go and fight the bad guys now?" the little girl asked.
Qing Chen thought for a moment and said, "Let's get the villagers out of danger first, and then create an opportunity for myself."
"A trigger?" The little girl's eyes were full of doubt.
She wasn't a knight yet, so she didn't understand the slang used by knights.
Shirakawa-go has a total population of 431, plus ski resort staff and tourists, totaling 943 people.
In the dead of winter, they were all taken to a village road in the center of Shirakawa-go- go by more than 400 members of the Mysterious Affairs Department.
Dozens of huge braziers, made of gasoline drums, were lit around the area, illuminating it as bright as day.
All the members of the Mysterious Affairs Department were dressed in brown trench coats, black trousers, black leather boots, with slicked-back hair and neat ties.
They stood in stark contrast to the tourists and villagers.
A middle-aged man, with his hands in his trench coat pockets, slowly walked around the crowd. "Let me introduce myself. I am Takeda Hideo, the director of the Mysterious Affairs Department. I know that one of you must be protecting that little girl. How about we play a game? Let's wager the Gassho-zukuri thatched huts in Shirakawa-go. Every ten seconds, if you don't tell me where the little girl is, I will burn down one of the thatched huts."
The Gassho-zukuri thatched houses are not only a World Heritage Site, but also the homes of these villagers.
One villager shouted, "We are all law-abiding citizens, what right do you have to do this?"
Takeda Hideo's face hardened. "The Mysterious Affairs Department exists for the future of the nation. Now you're harboring and protecting us as we search for the little girl and the murderer. How is that any different from treason? Do you know that seven members of the Mysterious Affairs Department have died at their hands?"
The villager asked, "Why are you arresting a young girl like Maki? Her life is already so hard, why are you doing this to her?"
"This is a matter for the Mysterious Affairs Department, and it's none of your business to ask," Takeda Hideo sneered, taking a red-hot piece of charcoal from the brazier and throwing it into the Gassho-zukuri traditional Japanese house) beside him.
Those carefully constructed thatched huts were engulfed in flames in the blink of an eye.
The firelight reflected in the villagers' pupils, revealing a look of despair as if they were in purgatory.
They discovered that Takeda Hideo was unharmed after grabbing the charcoal with his bare hands...
Are these people really divine messengers from Takamanohara?
Why would a messenger of God treat believers this way?
Seeing that no villagers were willing to reveal the whereabouts of Jingūji Maki, Gassho-zukuri one after another, only to have them turn into flames.
Takeda Hideo ordered his men to drag the person who had just questioned him out and pin him to the ground.
He pressed the hard heel of his leather boot against the questioner's cheek, grinding it into the earth. "You sheltered them, but where were they when your homes were burned down and your dignity was trampled into the mud?"
The questioner was in so much pain he couldn't breathe, his face a mixture of blood and dirt. "It was you who burned those who Gassho-zukuri), not them."
Takeda Hideo laughed and said, "Guess what I'll burn after all these Gassho-zukuri have been burned and no one is willing to reveal where the little girl is?"
"Tell me about it."
"After burning the Gassho-zukuri), I'll burn you."
"Wow, well done!"
Shirakawa-go suddenly fell silent, with only the crackling sound of burning remaining.
Takeda Hideo slowly turned his head towards the source of the voice, his face contorted with rage, and asked, "Who's speaking?"
In the darkness beyond the firelight, everyone could vaguely see a boy holding a little girl's hand, standing quietly in the south.
In just a moment, everyone in the Mysterious Affairs Department realized that this was their target: the little girl and the person who killed seven of their members.
Takeda Hideo asked through the Bluetooth headset, "What about the people in the south? They don't even know someone has penetrated their territory."
However, no one responded to him through the Bluetooth headset.
The people from the Mysterious Affairs Department were stunned. To prevent the villagers from escaping, there were more than a dozen people guarding the south side.
How could so many people be killed so silently?
The firelight flickered, Takeda Hideo saw that the boy was covered in blood, while the little girl was clean.
Takeda Hideo calmly said, "Be careful, surround them."
Just then, seeing people surrounding them, Jingūji Maki asked weakly in a low voice, "Onii-chan, what do we do now?"
Qing Chen whispered, "Run! Run!"
"Huh?" The little girl was stunned. Wasn't she supposed to be here to fight bad guys? Why is she running away after only saying a few words?
Something seems off about how this plot is developing.
Qing Chen casually said, "After we show up, the Mysterious Affairs Department will stop bothering the villagers."
Members of the Mysterious Affairs Department loaded their guns and slowly approached, cautiously anticipating the impending battle.
The next second, the boy turned and walked into the darkness, holding the little girl's hand.
They walked faster and faster, and gradually started running...
Moreover, the boy somehow pulled a mountain bike out of the snow pile and rode it with the little girl into the snow-covered mountains.
The boy seemed to think he wasn't moving fast enough, so he stood up and started kicking.
Takeda Hideo squinted at the boy's retreating figure on his bicycle, thinking to himself that escaping by bicycle was a bit disrespectful.
Qing Chen didn't think much of it; in fact, he even felt a bit like a guerrilla fighter fighting the Japanese behind enemy lines.
Takeda Hideo sneered, "Get in the car, everyone, let's chase them!"
The next moment, a member of the Mysterious Affairs Department suddenly reported over the communication channel, "Director Takeda, all our tires have been punctured!"
Takeda Hideo was stunned. They had brought over a hundred cars, and they had all been punctured?!
There will be another chapter at 11 PM.