Arknights, Suika's Messenger Journey

After showing their credentials, they learned what had happened here from the witnesses' testimony.

Upon hearing that Granny Wang had been attacked and robbed by three punks, Hoshiguma punched the wall beside her.

"Granny Wang has been selling morning tea here for years. Which of the nearby neighbors hasn't received her kindness? I never thought such a good person would be attacked by those bastards..."

At that moment, a witness pointed into the alley.

"Those three punks just ran away through here.

Oh, and a little girl heard about it and chased after them into the alley...

She's so small, officers. You have to bring her back out safely."

Chen looked at him. "A child? What did she look like?"

"I didn't get a clear look, but she had long, chestnut-colored hair and really, really long horns." The passerby gestured over his head as he spoke.

Chen and Hoshiguma exchanged a glance. They naturally knew a child with such distinctive features.

It was the child Hoshiguma had brought home, the one who called herself Ibuki Suika before disappearing.

There had been a robbery, and as officers of the Lungmen Guard Department, they couldn't ignore it. Now that they also had news of Ibuki Suika, the two of them chased into the alley.

Like Suika, they followed the footprints on the ground and soon reached the nearby area.

As they searched the alleys around them, several screams caught their attention.

When they rushed over, they found only three punks lying on the ground like heaps of mud.

There was no need to say it. These three were obviously the suspects in the earlier robbery.

After approaching and seeing their condition clearly, Chen and Hoshiguma's pupils contracted.

Their hands and feet were almost unrecognizable.

It was as if they had been thrown into a grinder, their skin, flesh, and bones twisted into a mess.

Even the most advanced machines could at best save their lives. From then on, though, the three of them could only live as limbless husks.

"So brutal!" Even seasoned officers like Hoshiguma and Chen felt a chill crawl down their backs at the sight.

"Call an ambulance!" After briefly checking their conditions, Chen shook her head. Given their state, she didn't dare touch them carelessly. One wrong move could cause fatal hemorrhaging.

Calling an ambulance was a helpless measure.

An ambulance couldn't enter this deep into the alley. Even if they carried the three out on stretchers, Chen believed their chance of survival was less than ten percent.

Clearly, the culprit had deliberately not killed them outright, intending for them to die in despair amid pain and terror. Even if they survived by chance, they would only become complete invalids.

"Was it her?" Hoshiguma could hardly believe it.

Chen shook her head. "I don't know. All the way here, we only found these three men's tracks. There was no sign of that child. Maybe she didn't take this route. Maybe someone else did this to them."

Would Shuten-dōji Get Drunk?

Hearing Chen's words, Hoshiguma first let out a breath of relief, then her heart tightened again.

She was relieved because this might not have had anything to do with that mysterious child. But the alleyways here were interconnected and as complicated as a spiderweb.

Someone visiting for the first time could easily get lost inside.

More importantly, the other side of the alley led to the slums, and a large part of Spider Alley belonged to slum territory as well.

There might be good people living there, but Hoshiguma couldn't guarantee that the girl named Suika would be lucky enough to meet them.

Perhaps sensing Hoshiguma's agitation, Chen reached out and patted her shoulder.

"Calm down. That child isn't the type to die young..."

Hoshiguma took several deep breaths to steady herself before speaking.

"I'll make a call!"

"Fine. Report this to the Guard Department too!" Chen knew that Hoshiguma was most likely calling old friends from her gang days.

If they wanted to find a missing person in the slums, gang members would indeed have a much better chance than the Guard Department.

Hoshiguma quickly made two calls, then returned to Chen's side. The two stood quietly at the entrance of the alley, waiting for the Guard Department and hospital staff to arrive.

More than twenty minutes later, both groups finally rushed over.

The doctor examined the three men lying on the ground, barely clinging to life, and immediately shook his head.

"Excessive blood loss, and all four limbs have suffered comminuted fractures. Honestly, the odds of saving them are less than one percent... And even if they live, that will probably be more painful than dying."

Chen and Hoshiguma had already examined them, so they naturally knew the doctor was right.

Still, they were human lives. If they simply stood there and watched the three die before their eyes, their consciences wouldn't allow it.

The doctor looked at the silent officers and understood what they meant.

"How about this? Leave them to me. I'll do everything I can to save them. Even if I can't, I'll at least make sure they suffer less during their final moments."

After speaking, the doctor gestured behind him, and several medical workers came over carrying stretchers.

They placed the three men onto the stretchers and carried them away.

"Sausage Dragon, what's going on over here? Didn't you just go out for morning tea? How did you run into a criminal case?"

Not far away, a nimble young woman walked over from the other end carrying a handbag.

If not for the Guard Department uniform she wore, anyone might have taken her for a wealthy young lady who had wandered in by mistake.

"Char Siu Cat, don't make noise when you don't know what's going on.

Hoshiguma... I'll follow up on those three. Leave finding that girl to you."

Chen couldn't be bothered to look at the provocative Swire and turned to Hoshiguma instead.

"Lungmen profanity, you Sausage Dragon! I heard something happened here, so I kindly came to help, and this is how you treat me... Lungmen profanity!"

Watching Chen Hui-chieh leave, Swire flew into a rage. Fortunately, Hoshiguma stopped her.

"Officer Swire, I need your help." Hoshiguma grabbed Swire, who had already raised her hand to throw her handbag like a meteor hammer.

"Mm... Hoshiguma, what is it?" The moment she heard Hoshiguma ask for help, Swire's expression brightened into a sweet smile.

That overly sugary look made Hoshiguma feel uncomfortable.

She quietly took two steps back. "It's like this. The child I brought home earlier has gone missing. According to the information we received, she was last seen entering this alley.

You know how interconnected these alleys are. It's hard to find someone here. I heard you're very skilled with drones, so I was hoping you could use one to search this area and see if we can find her quickly."

Swire's expression turned serious after hearing that.

"The other side of this alley is the slums. If a child wandered in there, something terrible could happen!

Fine, but my drone is in the police car. The car is parked near the alley entrance."

"I asked several old friends to keep an eye on the slum side, but there are too many exits. We can't guarantee she hasn't left through another one."

As Hoshiguma spoke, she and Swire headed toward the parked police car.

Two hours later, both Swire and Hoshiguma looked grim.

Using the drone, they found three thefts, two fights, and one wanted criminal in the alleys, but there was still no sign of Suika.

The reports from several entrances to the slums were equally fruitless.

"It's been so long. If she showed herself in these alleys, she couldn't possibly have left no trace at all.

I think that girl is probably no longer here."

Swire spoke carefully to Hoshiguma.

"Wrap it up!"

Hoshiguma rubbed the bridge of her nose. Just as Swire had said, there had been no trace of Suika leaving from outside, nor any sign of her within the alleys. It was highly likely that she was no longer there.

After returning to the Guard Department, they reported Suika's disappearance to Jiu.

Jiu didn't blame Hoshiguma. Instead, she handed another assignment to her.

After taking the case file, Hoshiguma became busy once more.

Meanwhile, back at Hoshiguma's home, Suika's heated emotions had faded. Once she calmed down, her hands and feet began to tremble uncontrollably.

Even with abilities directly stuffed into her mind as though inherited, she was ultimately just an ordinary person who had lived in a peaceful society.

When rage had overwhelmed her and her blood was up, she had been able to turn into mist and crush the three bastards' phones. But after calming down, the thought of what she had done filled her with fear.

It took more than half an hour for her to regain her composure, after which she began examining her ability.

Control of Density and Sparseness sounded unremarkable, but it actually had many possible applications.

For example, Great Fog.

She could clearly sense that, within the Great Fog, every wisp of mist was her eye, her leg, and her hand.

That was why she had been able to control all three men's movements at once.

And after turning into mist, she could evade most people's sight. It was an excellent method for spying and infiltration.

As for her Three-Step Ruin, she hadn't found an opportunity to use it yet, but...

Not using it didn't mean it was useless. Having such a trump card gave her much more confidence.

Once she had calmed down, Suika looked at Hoshiguma's spacious, empty home and sighed.

Staying in such an empty, quiet house for too long was really boring. But since Hoshiguma was nearby and might come back to check on her, she couldn't just leave.

Her gaze then fell on her gourd—the Ibuki Gourd.

Since the original was Shuten-dōji, having a couple of drinks shouldn't be a problem, right...

That evening, Hoshiguma returned home. The moment she opened the front door, she smelled a strong scent of alcohol.

Looking up, she saw Suika, who had supposedly disappeared, sprawled across the sofa with an arm hanging over the side, a wine gourd in her hand.

"Burp... Hungry, hungry, food, food... burp..."

Suika's face was flushed red as she let out a drunken burp, then rolled over and fell asleep again.

Would an Oni Get a Stiff Neck?

Hoshiguma rubbed her forehead, unsure whether she should laugh or be angry.

She had run all over the place looking for Suika, wasted effort, and owed plenty of favors, only for this brat to return at some unknown point and secretly start drinking.

"Lungmen profanity! If I find out which winery dared sell alcohol to a child, I'll Lungmen profanity!"

Hoshiguma was very angry, but she couldn't exactly argue with a child. So once Suika woke up, the shop that had dared sell her alcohol would definitely get a thorough dressing-down.

Walking over to Suika, she wanted to take away the wine gourd, but Suika's grip was unexpectedly strong, and she couldn't pull it free at all.

After several failed attempts, she helped Suika sit upright against the sofa, then went into the kitchen and took noodles and eggs from the cupboard.

Before long, a fragrant bowl of egg noodles was ready. She carried it over to Suika.

The half-awake, half-drunk Suika caught the scent of food and turned her attention to the noodles, allowing Hoshiguma to snatch away the wine gourd.

After tossing the gourd aside, she watched Suika nod off repeatedly while somehow forcing herself to finish the noodles through sheer willpower. Hoshiguma couldn't help looking impressed. This acrobatic act was much more interesting than a circus clown's performance.

At least a clown couldn't sleep and eat at the same time.

After Suika drained the entire bowl, noodles and broth alike, Hoshiguma's face softened with pity.

How long had she gone without eating to be this hungry?

But that pity vanished the moment Hoshiguma saw the wine gourd beside her.

She hadn't seen the three hundred Lungmen dollars she'd given Suika that morning. Considering the wine gourd, where the money had gone was obvious.

"You little brat, barely weaned and already learning to drink, huh!"

Hoshiguma reached out and pinched Suika's nose, then carried her into the bedroom. After settling her down, she went to the living room and called Jiu.

"Chief, the girl has been found."

"Found her?

Where?

Do you need backup?" Jiu's three rapid-fire questions made Hoshiguma feel half ashamed and half awkward.

"She... she's at my house." Usually bold and forthright, Hoshiguma sounded strangely weak as she spoke.

"?" Even through the silent receiver, Hoshiguma could tell that Jiu was speechless on the other end.