Clack!
The door swung open, and Tachibana Kirika strode into the room, closing it behind her before calling out:
"Takina, how's it looking?"
This was a room in a business hotel diagonally across from Luo Shu's apartment building, with a window that offered a perfect view of his home.
Beside the sniper rifle set up by the window, Takina Inoue, a girl in a high school uniform with straight black hair and slightly rounded cheeks, replied without turning her head:
"Nothing unusual, Chief."
"Nothing unusual? Then keep watching for another two days. Once Luo Shu gets the item, we'll end the surveillance."
Tachibana Kirika walked over as she spoke, placing one hand on her hip with a look of resignation.
"Still, I never expected the daughter of Nolan Defense's second young lady to live somewhere like this. Honestly, if that woman's family finds out what's happening here and snatches away a rare Demon-Type Abyss Item, we'll have lost big."
Thinking of Nolan Defense's influence in the Americas, Tachibana Kirika couldn't help feeling wary.
Major arms dealers like them operated far too recklessly. Without someone keeping watch, she couldn't feel comfortable letting Luo Shu deal with them.
If the young lady across the street decided to recruit him as a husband, Tachibana Kirika really couldn't guarantee that Luo Shu wouldn't defect.
"Takina, you and Chisato will have to put in some extra work over the next couple of days. Help Luo Shu get the item. Hah, things have already come this far, and I, Tachibana Kirika, don't make a habit of going home empty-handed."
"By the way, where's Chisato? What's she off doing now?"
Takina Inoue listened quietly before adding, "Chisato went to buy coffee. She said it was for staying up tonight. Also, Chief..."
Takina Inoue glanced out the window. "Luo Shu seems to have been standing at the entrance this whole time. He hasn't gone inside."
"What?" Tachibana Kirika hurried over to look out the window and immediately spotted Luo Shu standing outside the apartment building.
At the very moment she looked over, Luo Shu turned to meet her gaze, smiled, and pointed at his phone.
Bzz!
Tachibana Kirika picked up her phone, which she had set to vibrate, and answered.
Luo Shu's rich, resonant voice immediately came through:
"Chief, this whole covert protection routine is a little outdated."
Tachibana Kirika pressed a hand to her forehead, pushing her bangs up slightly as she looked at Luo Shu.
"If you already knew I'd arrange for people to protect you in secret, what are you doing now?"
Tachibana Kirika stared at Luo Shu, speechless. She had deliberately taken a detour through the underground parking lot at the hotel's rear entrance precisely because she didn't want anyone to know she was monitoring Mira Tsubakihara.
Keeping Luo Shu in the dark was an extension of that same precaution.
After all, letting a newcomer like Luo Shu approach the young heiress of the arms giant Nolan Defense while knowing he was under surveillance could easily give the game away.
And if the young lady of the Tsubakihara family made a fuss and accused SDS of spying on her, Luo Shu, who had saved her life, would be fine, but Kirika, an SDS chief, would definitely be in trouble.
Rather than offend the forces behind that woman, she would sooner offend the Japanese authorities. At least they couldn't order the stationed troops around.
If Tachibana Kirika had been any slower getting Luo Shu out of the Police Box earlier, soldiers from the garrison might have stormed in to take him away on that young lady's family's orders.
While Tachibana Kirika was grumbling inwardly, Luo Shu's voice came over the phone:
"I just wanted to remind you that you dropped your wallet again."
Tachibana Kirika instinctively felt her pocket. Finding it empty, she immediately looked at Luo Shu.
"When did..."
Standing outside the apartment building, Luo Shu lightly tossed the wallet into the air and caught it. After repeating this twice, he spoke into the phone:
"Aren't you coming to get it?"
After a brief silence, Tachibana Kirika sighed softly.
"...Keep it for now. Your priority is dealing with the young lady in your apartment building. If you can't manage it, return the wallet tomorrow. If you can, you can hold on to it for the time being."
Although losing the Lucky Wallet hurt, Tachibana Kirika knew she couldn't blame Luo Shu for this.
It was the Abyss item's damned side effect.
That damned wallet kept trying to run off to Luo Shu. This was the second time, and each incident was more ridiculous than the last. She could only let it go. At least it would stay within their own ranks.
With that thought, Tachibana Kirika hung up and said irritably:
"This is ridiculous. Is that brat the Goddess of Fortune's illegitimate son? That damned wallet keeps running into his hands. It has absolutely no shame."
She understood the reasoning, but Tachibana Kirika still felt a little numb inside.
Earlier, she hadn't even opened the car door, let alone gotten out, yet the wallet had fallen out and been picked up by Luo Shu. It wasn't even trying to hide its disdain for her!
Losing this item made her stomach hurt.
"She's leaving the wallet with me?"
After receiving her answer, Luo Shu turned to glance at the apartment building, then smiled and shook his head.
"If she's willing to stomach a loss like this, I really must have saved someone extraordinary."
With a sigh of wonder, he put the wallet away, turned to unlock the entrance, and entered the building's first floor before taking the elevator straight to the third.
Entering the corridor from the stairwell, Luo Shu stopped outside Room 302 and raised his hand to ring the bell.
Ding-dong!
The doorbell rang for a moment, and then the peephole in the door seemed to open.
The person inside seemed to take one look at Luo Shu before immediately opening the door.
The bright-eyed beauty in a house dress called out happily:
"Come on in, Luo Shu."
"Uh." Luo Shu froze, finding her warmth a little hard to get used to, but he quickly followed her lead. "Then, pardon the intrusion."
After saying that, Luo Shu stepped past Mira Tsubakihara into the entryway.
Mira Tsubakihara pulled the door shut behind him, but before closing it, she made an okay sign in a certain direction.
In the hotel diagonally opposite, Takina Inoue instantly went on alert when she saw Mira Tsubakihara gesture toward their position.
"Chief, have we been spotted?!"
"She hasn't spotted us. She's signaling to the Thor Security Group that she's safe, so they don't snipe that brat Luo Shu."
Beside her, Tachibana Kirika lit a slim cigarette and said flatly:
"Treating women from powerful families as sweet, naive fools can get you killed."
Meanwhile, in a room on a higher floor of the hotel...
A blond white man wearing an eyepatch said coldly:
"Signal received. Everyone except the designated protection detail, withdraw according to Plan B."
"YES, SIR!" × N
"Yes, sir." In the entryway of Room 301, a fully armed soldier holding a rifle answered quietly, exchanging a glance with his companion on the balcony, ready to provide close protection at any moment.
With a faint, unsettling feeling that someone was watching his back, Luo Shu stiffly slipped on a pair of bunny-eared slippers.
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