Tokyo: Rabbit Officer and Her Evil Partner
Chapter 261 - 182

Chapter 261: Chapter 182

Minamoto Tamako thought he was definitely angry, only because his personality was tsundere, so he wouldn’t get angry outwardly, and he was likely secretly holding a grudge, pondering an opportunity for revenge.

She was about to offer some words of comfort, to tell Mr. Fu Jian about the old saying that a prime minister’s mind should be as vast as the ocean, let him understand the importance of kindness to others, but suddenly saw Fushimi Roku raise his finger: "Shh... something’s not right."

Again?

Minamoto Tamako looked around, no one was nearby, worried she might get hit. She quickly covered her ears with her small hands.

Fushimi Roku, looking impatient, grabbed her wrists, used her palms to hold her small face, forcibly turned her head, making her look at the pavilion in the rain: "Do you see it?"

Only then did Minamoto Tamako notice, three figures sitting around the pavilion in the garden.

Lightning pierced the dark clouds, faintly illuminating three pale blue faces. Unable to see clearly through the rain, she could only vaguely discern they were all dressed in white hunting clothes, wearing crow hats, holding cypress fans, seeming not like living people.

Minamoto Tamako thought of the legend of the grudge spirit of Sutoku, a chill ran through her heart and she felt goosebumps rise. The mist wrapped in mountain winds came blowing at her, causing her to shiver instinctively: "Th-that... what is that..."

"Shall we take a look?"

Fushimi Roku said and moved, he lifted his windbreaker, bracing the rain and rushed into the garden. Minamoto Tamako wanted to hold him back but was a step too slow, forced to follow suit, she emulated him, lifting her windbreaker.

The two went closer, the pavilion was quiet.

Minamoto Tamako shrunk behind Fushimi Roku, peeked once, her gaze landing on the faces of the figures, only then discovering they were all puppets, with heads carved with features, painted with a layer of white, their faces smooth as if waxed.

Since they weren’t ghosts, there was nothing to fear, Minamoto Tamako breathed a sigh of relief, stood up straight, released the hem of Fushimi Roku’s clothing, began to investigate with hands on her waist.

"It’s strange, when we came for a walk in the morning, these three mannequins were definitely not here..."

Speaking, Minamoto Tamako struck a Sherlock Holmes style thinking pose, casually asked: "Mr. Fu Jian, what do you think?"

Fushimi Roku shook off the rain on his windbreaker, he bent down to examine the puppets closely, feeling an inexplicable sense of discord. Facing Minamoto Tamako’s urging, he didn’t respond, instead reaching to open the puppets’ collars.

Under the hunting clothes, was a rough patch of tree bark. The craftsman who made them seemed lazy, only meticulously crafting facial features, while the limbs and body were particularly coarse. After examining for a while, Fushimi Roku knew where the sense of discord came from.

They didn’t look like handicrafts, rather like naturally grown plants.

The tree bark’s patterns were naturally formed, rather than saying they were puppets, it would be better to say they were three humanoid tree branches, dressed in hunting clothes, with their heads decorated, becoming what was in front of them.

To verify this notion, Fushimi Roku forcefully tore off the hunting clothes. Minamoto Tamako gasped, the two of them stared and saw under the clothes a thick twisted tree trunk, the hands holding the cypress fan were two tree branches, the hem of the clothing covering tree roots anchored in the rock...

Looking from the body upwards, the top head seemed like some kind of strange fruit.

"What... is this?"

Minamoto Tamako had learned horticulture and flower arrangement. Skilled gardeners could control the direction of plant growth, making them grow into the desired shape. Some farmers would use wires to guide branches, making them grow in specific directions... even though Minamoto Tamako knew this wasn’t difficult, she was still astonished by the peculiar plant in front of her.

Fushimi Roku looked down, tapped the tree roots with his foot, but they remained unmoving, genuinely rooted there.

The pavilion’s floor was stone-made, the tree roots had penetrated through the cracks in the bricks. Minamoto Tamako also tried to shake it with her hand, discovering it grew directly from the ground and couldn’t be shaken.

This made the situation even more eerie.

If it were just three wooden puppets, Minamoto Tamako could reasonably guess perhaps someone secretly placed them here for mischief; but now it was three ’trees’ rooted in the tiles, how could they be moved casually? It wasn’t possible they grew like this within half a day, was it?

Minamoto Tamako initially thought those rumors were mere hearsay, now it seemed this notorious old house was really hiding some astonishing secret.

Fushimi Roku wandered around, studying these three tree men. At this moment, Minamoto Tamako’s nose twitched slightly, she approached one of the tree men, sniffing around like a little dog, showing a puzzled expression: "The smell... it’s so familiar..."

Fushimi Roku sniffed too, but didn’t smell anything. He was used to it by now, Minamoto Tamako had sharp senses, and one person’s physique cannot be generalized.

"Can you tell what variety it is?" he casually teased.

Minamoto Tamako wasn’t bothered, her brows furrowed, she sniffed for a while, thought hard, and compared with the memory of the scent, finally reaching a conclusion: "This is the tea that Lady Nakako brewed!"

"Are you sure?"

Fushimi Roku was genuinely uncomfortable, because he drank that tea too, initially thinking it was some rare tea leaves, now it seemed it might not be the case...

Minamoto Tamako sniffed again, repeatedly confirming, said: "Really, it’s exactly the same! It’s just that Lady Nakako’s brewed tea is more fragrant, while this puppet’s scent is milder..."

Upon hearing this, Fushimi Roji stuck his finger in his throat, vomiting up his dinner. Though the morning tea would have turned into urine by now, there’s no guarantee tonight’s dinner was clean either, propriety was irrelevant.

Minamoto Tamako was also uncomfortable, but she felt Lady Nakako probably wouldn’t harm them, vomiting in someone else’s pavilion seemed rather embarrassing, so she didn’t stick her finger down her throat.

After all, it might just be that the scent resembles coincidentally? There are things in this world that smell alike...

But she remembered Sherlock Holmes’ famous quote, there really are no coincidences in this world, everything is the result of numerous inevitabilities... Thinking like this, Lady Nakako became very suspicious. She obviously knew the origin of the rumors, yet kept it hidden from them.

In an instant, various conjectures surged in Minamoto Tamako’s mind, she simply sat down at the edge of the pavilion, biting her thumb nail and pondering.

Seeing this, Fushimi Roku didn’t disturb her, started knocking around the pavilion.

Listening to the thumping sounds, Minamoto Tamako suddenly had a flash of inspiration, remembering the story Ono Ken mentioned in the morning.

"Whenever mountain rain infiltrates the Water Bell Cave, if one holds a Gold-plated Tea Spoon and strikes the pillars of the Rain Moon Tea Room three times, one can hear the sound of tea grinding from underground."

"Twelve pale faces sitting around sipping tea, the main seat prominently occupied by the grudge spirit of Sutoku wearing a straight garment and standing crow hat."

...

"I understand now!"

Minamoto Tamako took out a pen from her windbreaker pocket, lay on the ground, pressing her ear to the surface, used the pen to continuously tap the tiles. After listening carefully for a moment, she stood up again, tapped the column with the pen, faintly hearing the sound of stone rubbing against each other beneath the tiles.

"The pavilion’s foundation is hollow!"

Minamoto Tamako’s eyes lit up, showing her excited expression unique to solving mysteries: "The sound of water bells might be caused by rainwater flooding, the rising water level could trigger some mechanism, explaining why the pavilion appeared with tree men..."

Fushimi Roku had also suspected this, but he couldn’t prove it, his ears weren’t as keen as Minamoto Tamako’s. They were about to examine further, when a sharp scream suddenly rang from the main hall, piercing the rainy night, particularly haunting under the rumbling thunder.

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.