Caesar and Chu Zihang also found chairs and sat down. Chu Zihang glanced at the trench coat embroidered with "Teng Snake" on the man in the corner. "Yakuza?"
"Just a thug." Lu Mingfei shook his head. "I came in because the shop looked quiet, found him harassing the clerk, and intimidated him a little. But I accidentally frightened Miss Asō Makoto."
"Harassing?" Caesar gave the flashily dressed thug with the baseball bat at his waist an unfriendly once-over. Seeming to notice Caesar's gaze, the thug looked up, met his eyes, and immediately lowered his head again, confirming that the golden-eyed monster's "friends" were golden-eyed monsters too.
Having undergone enhancement through the Nibelungen Project, Caesar's gaze was no less intimidating than Gen Chisei's. That was also why he had been completely immune to the "warning" in Gen Chisei's eyes.
"The Japanese Branch is keeping us under close surveillance," Chu Zihang said, bringing the conversation back on track first. "But the people tailing us have kept their distance. At least they still have some reservations about headquarters, or rather, the Secret Party."
"If the Secret Party investigates what happened on the seabed in depth, those fragile reservations will break down sooner or later." Lu Mingfei took out a copy of the document Kazama Ruri had given him and handed it to them. "Read up on this. The principal is on his way to Japan by plane. The situation here is a little more complicated than we thought."
Caesar and Chu Zihang exchanged a glance, both somewhat surprised. The principal had rushed over overnight as soon as he received the news. That "little" in "a little more complicated" seemed to be another of Lu Mingfei's characteristic measures of degree.
The peace inside the shop did not last long. Caesar and Chu Zihang had