Tokyo: Rabbit Officer and Her Evil Partner
Chapter 289 - 210

Chapter 289: Chapter 210

"Then I’ll go too."

Minamoto Tamako put down her barley tea, stood up, and patted her skirt. She was about to head to the entrance to change her shoes when Fushimi Roku gently declined, "No need."

Upon hearing this, Minamoto Tamako frowned.

They all came out here to travel, and yet they weren’t going out together? What kind of behavior was this? She secretly deducted a point from Fushimi Roku in her mind and then asked, "Why not?"

For a moment, Fushimi Roku couldn’t come up with a good reason, so he simply said, "I also need my own personal space, and right now, I want to go out alone..."

"No way!"

Minamoto Tamako immediately refused, her eyebrows raised seriously as she said, "I spent a Redemption Voucher on this trip, and you said before we left that this trip was me hiring you to accompany me... Is this how you treat your employer? Leaving me behind while you go out to have fun?"

Fushimi Roku didn’t expect her to take it so seriously, but thinking about it, it made sense. After all the hard work of accumulating Redemption Vouchers, using up half of them in an instant, of course, Minamoto Tamako would be thinking about how to get her money’s worth out of the trip.

He glanced at Taira Sakurako, signaling for her to say something to help.

Unexpectedly, Taira Sakurako just put on her mask, picked up the cardboard box, tapped the tip of her shoes, and said, "Agree, have fun, you two."

This left not only Fushimi Roku surprised but also Minamoto Tamako taken aback. She quickly caught up, standing at the entrance, looking like a mother watching her child go to kindergarten for the first time, "Huh? You’re not coming with us?"

"I have something to do."

Sakurako’s tone was calm and a bit cool when she said this, like a young girl with a bit of a rebellious streak, just too young to look imposing.

Minamoto Tamako wanted to stop her—how could they let a seven-year-old girl go out alone? Especially when they were unfamiliar with the area. What if something happened?

But then Tamako reconsidered, thinking that it was rare for Sakurako to muster the courage to go out, finally having a chance for normal social interaction, so she should be encouraged, not discouraged...

She felt it was her duty to silently support Sakurako, immediately displaying a touched expression and gently patting Sakurako’s little head, saying comfortingly, "So impressive, Sakurako-chan, being able to go out on your own. You’re really becoming quite independent!"

Sakurako’s face felt a bit hot, a warm flow surged in her heart, but her face remained expressionless. Moreover, she was wearing a mask, so Minamoto Tamako couldn’t see her expression. After a moment of silence, she merely nodded calmly and said farewell, leaving.

Just like it was the most ordinary thing in the world.

Minamoto Tamako watched her back, recalling the scene of her jumping off the train, feeling that Sakurako must have started changing from that moment, just that she hadn’t shown it before.

"Are you really going to let her go like this?"

Fushimi Roku was somewhat unwilling. Why could Sakurako run off on her own while he had to stay with Minamoto Tamako... He needed to drag her into the whole suffocating experience, like being wrapped by a python.

"No way!"

Minamoto Tamako put on a stern face, waved her small hand, and signaled for Fushimi Roku to follow her: "Let’s go, quietly follow her. Sakurako is so young; she needs an adult to accompany her."

Fushimi Roku didn’t want to be creepy, and he certainly didn’t want to stalk a seven-year-old girl: "Doesn’t she have her own personal space too?"

Minamoto Tamako didn’t care; in front of East Asian parents, children have no privacy rights.

"Sakurako is only seven years old, I even bathed her! What kind of personal space does such a young child need?"

The ninja Tamako was officially on duty. To ensure Sakurako could grow up safely, she must secretly protect her, like a shadow moving in the night, ready to help at critical moments...

She hurriedly changed her shoes and stealthily followed.

Fushimi Roku, looking helpless, had to temporarily put his plans to go out on hold, intending to sneak out after Minamoto Tamako had fallen asleep later at night.

The two of them, one after another, headed out overtly on their covert mission.

They left the small inn and immediately entered a Hot Spring Street, with lush greenery flanking the walkway. The wooden grid windows of century-old stores were gradually opening up, the steaming vapors carrying a faint sulfur scent, and the sound of wind chimes at the eaves spread through the humid air.

They crossed the vermillion Huxi Bridge, their shoe heels clattering on the bridge deck. By the riverbank, next to the ruins of "Dugu’s Bath," an old woman was pouring hot spring water over the stone Buddha using a bamboo ladle.

Not far away, with a mask on her head and ignoring the curious glances from passersby, Taira Sakurako crossed the street on her own and stuck out her thumb to hail a taxi.

"Oh no!"

Minamoto Tamako crouched behind a standing sign, her little tuft of hair sticking up. The uncle selling travel souvenirs stood inside his shop, arms crossed holding a feather duster, looking curious.

"If Sakurako gets into a car, we’ll lose track of her, won’t we?"

As she spoke, Minamoto Tamako waved at Mr. Fu Jian to squat down too, "What should we do now?"

"Nothing."

Fushimi Roku wished they would lose her, so he could be free.

As for Sakurako’s safety, he wasn’t very worried; she had a phone, the box had pepper spray, a stun gun, a few boxes of steel balls, and she even swiped his service pistol—he always felt that losing the service pistol wasn’t a big deal, he could just steal a colleague’s issue weapon and alter the serial number on it.

Minamoto Tamako was unwilling to just let it go, so she detoured ahead and found a private car specifically for tourists, instructing the driver to keep an eye on Sakurako.

Once Sakurako got into a car, the driver followed it all the way into the city, stopping in front of a newspaper agency. Sakurako wanted to go upstairs but was stopped by a security guard.

"Get back; this is no place for kids to play."

The security guard saw Sakurako wearing a mask and thought she was some mischievous child. She lowered her head and rummaged through her box, pulling out an old newspaper sealed in plastic and pointed at a missing person notice on it, saying, "Is this the Shizuoka News Agency? I saw this missing person notice..."

Lowering his head, the security guard saw that it was indeed from the Shizuoka News Agency’s "Shizuoka News," but it was printed in 1986, which was five years ago by now.

"How old is this news..."

The security guard continued to look down and saw Sakurako pointing to the middle of the newspaper, at the most inconspicuous part, where there was a missing person notice printed.

"Urgent search! Requesting public assistance!"

"Missing person information: Taira Sakurako, female, 2 years and 6 months old, with a pink star-shaped birthmark on her right scapula. Suffers from moderate autism, non-verbal, sensitive to sounds, may show behaviors like covering ears or avoiding eye contact."

"Contact information: Phone: 080-XXXX-XXXX (Available 24 hours)"

"Generous reward: Anyone providing effective clues to assist in retrieving will be rewarded 300,000 yen; those directly escorting the child to a police station will be rewarded 500,000 yen."

The security guard was about to say they could just call the number if they had clues, no need to come to the newspaper office, but then saw Sakurako suddenly pull down her collar, revealing a pink star-shaped birthmark on her scapula.

"Ah! It’s you!"

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