Tokyo: Rabbit Officer and Her Evil Partner
Chapter 296 - 217

Chapter 296: Chapter 217

"Her... everyone knows, she’s an indecent bad woman..."

"Exactly, exactly, hooking up with tourists, and ended up pregnant before marriage..."

"She’s also very lazy, always daydreaming by the sea, so improper..."

...

The innkeepers unanimously gave Koizumi Mizuki negative reviews, it was evident that her reputation in the small town was quite poor.

Minamoto Tamako was greatly shocked to learn about Koizumi Mizuki’s abortion and child abandonment; she didn’t expect there was a mother who didn’t love her daughter in this world.

Considering that Taira Sakurako was on a long journey to find her relatives, this incident must have been a huge blow to her.

"Is that so..."

Fushimi Roku listened and showed a thoughtful expression. He suddenly stood up, hands clasped behind his back, and walked back and forth in the hall with a straight posture.

The innkeepers looked up at him, feeling an inexplicable pressure which silenced them. Especially when Fushimi Roku walked behind them, the feeling of having a thorn in their backs made them particularly uneasy.

"Is it possible that Koizumi Mizuki didn’t disappear, but died instead?" Fushimi Roku circled behind everyone and asked softly.

...

The banquet hall eerily went silent for a few seconds.

"Who would know that..."

"That’s right..."

"Since she disappeared, who knows if she’s dead or alive..."

Some innkeepers mumbled quietly, even Minamoto Tamako could tell that these people seemed to be hiding something.

In her interactions with Fushimi Roku, her ability to observe and pick up cues had greatly improved. Although she was still not very good at interrogations, she could generally tell if someone was lying — at least she wouldn’t believe everything like before.

Very suspicious!

Mizutani Hiroshi and Mori Hajime exchanged a glance; as a reporter and photographer, they could also tell that these people were not quite right.

Fushimi Roku asked a few insignificant questions, such as how Koizumi Mizuki made a living before her disappearance, her usual hobbies, and with whom she associated closely...

The innkeepers answered one by one: Koizumi Mizuki used to be a Tower Keeper, she was too young and a widow, so she could only do simple and monotonous work. During the tourist season, she would work as a Dancing Girl to earn extra money; she liked to watch seagulls by the sea, occasionally painting and dancing, and was said to be very talented; as for close associations, it seemed there was only Mr. Tsuchiya, he was the president of the Town District Autonomy Association and frequently interacted with the residents...

Perhaps Fushimi Roku was pressing too hard, suddenly someone complained, "What does this have to do with the disappearance case?"

Then another person retorted, "Maybe it does, perhaps Koizumi’s spirit returned to Izu Town and took her daughter... I think the woman who emerged from the bonfire is her!"

This sparked an uproar among the crowd, forcing them to look up and examine the dancing girl on the screen closely once more.

"Now that you mention it, it does look pretty similar..."

"Indeed, especially the body..."

"Even the aura is surprisingly similar..."

The crowd voiced their opinions loudly. Fushimi Roku was about to guide their questioning when someone suddenly stood up, pointed at the screen, and shouted, "That dancing girl’s skirt is Koizumi’s clothing!"

As he spoke, he rushed forward, pointing to a corner of the long-sleeved garment, where there was a faint red stain: "This was stained when Koizumi was painting, I still remember, she complained to me that the paint wouldn’t wash out..."

The innkeepers were shocked and clamored to leave, saying they were going to Shuoshan Temple to ask the host to expel the evil spirits.

Minamoto Tamako couldn’t calm them down, she tried her best to persuade them to provide more clues. But the innkeepers were unwilling to say more, no matter how hard she tried to argue.

It’s said that a powerful dragon does not suppress a local snake, so Fushimi Roku did not stop them, allowing them to leave.

The banquet hall at East Sea Inn suddenly became empty and particularly quiet, with echoes even when speaking.

Mizutani Hiroshi jotted down today’s observations briskly in his notebook — the quest to find relatives had not been fruitful, he had almost given up, then unexpectedly gained a surprise finding.

Minamoto Tamako’s mind was buzzing with noise, she kept recalling the innkeepers’ reasoning about Koizumi Mizuki’s spirit taking away her daughter...

"Could it be that Sakurako was taken by her ghost mother?" she couldn’t help but mutter.

Otherwise, how to explain the corpses that appeared out of nowhere in the bonfire? And how to explain Sakurako and the dancing girl disappearing out of thin air?

"Of course not," Fushimi Roku said casually.

He vaguely had some suspicions in his mind, but no complete outline.

However, one thing was certain: no supernatural elements were involved in this case.

After all, Fushimi Roku still held a skeptical attitude towards the existence of ghosts and gods in this world. Even though he encountered surpassing-the-ordinary monsters at Wulin Temple, at least Ye Tea was a fungus, an entity, a presence that could be observed.

But ghosts and gods were another matter.

Hearing this, Minamoto Tamako looked vigilant and hurriedly asked, "Could it be that you’ve deduced the truth already?"

Although now wasn’t a time to nitpick, she still cared a lot about Mr. Fu Jian’s reasoning speed. If Fushimi Roku was ahead again, wouldn’t she suffer another defeat in reasoning ability compared to Mr. Fu Jian...

In the painting class once, at Sugamo Apartment once, the Heavenly Punishment Street Battle didn’t count, the Spirit Medium’s death at Wulin Temple also didn’t count, the Great Snow Mountain shooting case barely counted as half a time... in total, that’s two and a half times.

As the saying goes, ’Things don’t happen three times,’ so this time, she wouldn’t let Mr. Fu Jian surpass her!

"No, it’s just a guess."

Saying this, Fushimi Roku stretched lazily, intending to go for a hot spring. Minamoto Tamako quickly followed up, asking him what his guess was. Mizutani Hiroshi and Mori Hajime hurriedly packed up their equipment, restoring the projector to its original state, and followed with their notebooks and camera.

"You should know, Japan used to be a feudal society. After the Meiji Restoration, major cities like Tokyo became relatively civilized, but the countryside remained quite conservative and backward... simply put, old social customs were common."

Fushimi Roku said as he walked, "South Izu Town is at the very south end of the Izu Peninsula, right? Tourism has only started booming in recent years. Before that, how do you think they lived?"

Minamoto Tamako immediately thought of news about mountain villagers collectively committing murder, assaulting women, trafficking and raising, and terrible customs, becoming somewhat creepy at once, quickly asking, "Could, could it be that those residents killed Koizumi Mizuki?"

"I didn’t say that," Fushimi Roku glanced at her, crossing the corridor and turning into the hot spring pool, "but as a lone woman, she must have found it very difficult to live here, right?"

"This..."

Minamoto Tamako wanted to say this was his subjective assumption, but recalling the unprovoked malice the residents had towards Mr. Fu Jian before, momentarily she couldn’t rebut.

She wanted to continue discussing the case, but saw Fushimi Roku lifting the curtain to the hot spring pool, apparently intending to slack off again, she quickly stepped forward and grabbed Fushimi Roku’s arm, "Sakurako is missing, how can you be in the mood for a hot spring?"

"Will not bathing bring Sakurako back?" Fushimi Roku argued unreasonably, "Besides, what else can we do besides soak in a hot spring now?"

Minamoto Tamako thought there were clearly many things to do, like investigating the identity of the charred corpse, visiting tourists and local residents who hadn’t come to East Sea Inn... Before she could speak, Fushimi Roku added, "Are you going to join me? Speaking of which, the mountainside hot springs seem to be mixed gender bath..."

Minamoto Tamako’s face visibly turned red.

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