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Today, he had been busy since early morning, clearing out the room, buying bedding and sheets, and then going to pick up Aki. He was really tired.
Aki herself also ate a lot.
She did not sleep, but sat at the desk in front of the window. Outside the window was a quiet night, and the lake was sparkling under the moonlight. The moonlight was good today, and it even made people want to go out for a walk.
Aki did not take any action. There was a blank sheet of paper on the table, and the pen in her hand was suspended over the paper, but she still did not know how to start writing for a long time. She was just in a daze.
Of course she knew she should contact her hometown now, as her family would be very worried if she ran away from home. But when she really wanted to say something, she didn't know how to start.
In the pigeon cage at the corner of the desk, Snow White was cleaning feathers with her beak, cooing from time to time.
That was her carrier pigeon. Father and mother were probably waiting for Snow White to send them news, right?
She thought Snow White was lost, but luckily when she was anxiously looking for it, it flew back - maybe this forest was really too big.
She believed in her heart that Snow White would not get lost, and last year she won the championship in the National Pigeon Competition. What made her believe was certainly not the trophy, but the tacit understanding she had with Snow White over the years.
However, she was indeed anxious during those few minutes when Bai Xue did not come back after the whistle was blown today. Her confidence was perhaps not as firm as she thought.
After staring at the snow for a while, perhaps because she had absorbed too much ink, a drop of ink dripped from the tip of the pen, staining a piece of letter paper black, and then spread out in a mist.
She suddenly lost the mood to continue writing the letter. She decided to write tomorrow. She had been away from home for more than half a month, so one more day wouldn't make a difference.
As long as Bai Xue was there, she could contact her family at any time. This feeling gave her courage.
Suddenly, Aki realized that she understood a little bit. Wasn't it the same for Hachiken at that time? He was admitted to the Agricultural High School despite all the opposition from his family. He didn't go home for semesters, and even didn't reply to the letters from home. At that time, she still wanted to persuade him. Now it seems that she is the same.
She could more or less relate to that feeling. It turned out that she and Hachiken were in the same situation, and felt a strange sense of comfort.
The lights were turned off and the bedroom fell into a peaceful sleep.
As the night deepened and most people went to sleep, the TAC team base was still brightly lit.
The TAC team works in shifts 24 hours a day to ensure that there are team members working at all times.
Including but not limited to patrolling, answering citizens' reports about super beasts, etc., with no time limit, 365 hours a day, 24 days a year.
"What's wrong, Beidou? Still no clue about the carrier pigeon?"
After patrolling in the air for two hours, Shan Zhong, who had just returned for his shift change, took off his helmet, placed it in front of his seat and prepared to rest.
According to the schedule tonight, Beidou is the one who takes over his night shift.
"Yes, ordinary pigeons are easy to find, of course. But the homing pigeon, the one recorded in Tokyo, has been released because it is inconvenient for the parents to keep it. The others with clear addresses are in other cities."
"This is really tough, but even though the captain didn't urge me, I still think we should hurry up and look for it. I heard that the research in the technical department has reached a bottleneck, and they need new parameters as a reference. The earlier those automated weapons are developed, the fewer casualties on the battlefield can be."
"Well, you're right. It's just a matter of finding a carrier pigeon. It's not that difficult. The technical department has been working overtime to develop weapons. Normally, we can't help much even if we want to. Now that there is something we can do to help, we should try our best to do it."
Yamanaka patted Bokuto's shoulder.
Although this junior is impulsive, sometimes clumsy, and sometimes stubborn, he is more determined than anyone else to destroy the super beasts and protect humans. This is the only thing that Yamanaka is very sure of. This is a tiger general of the TAC team.
There are not many people who raise homing pigeons in Tokyo. After all, the urban environment is not suitable for animals. The real homing pigeons gather in the mountains and rural areas, such as Shikoku Mountain in the south and Hokkaido in the north.
"After handing over the shift tomorrow, I will go to a farther place with Team South. I think we can always find the right pigeon."
"Don't work too hard. You should take a rest after working the night shift. Don't rely on your youth. You will suffer when you reach middle age. Your hairline will take revenge on you."
Beidou answered randomly, and it was unclear whether anyone could hear him.
When he reached middle age, he had to drive the Yabo people away to have a future. If sacrificing his hairline could bring peace to the earth, then he would be fine with becoming a monk.
Of course, the hair monster cannot destroy the Yawa people.
A peaceful night passed during Beidou's patrol, and there was nothing unusual. A few weeks had passed since the previous firefly super beast, and the season had changed from midsummer to autumn. The Yabo people seemed to have stopped invading the earth.
"It's so quiet, as if the previous battle was all fake."
"That's not right, Beidou-kun. We are still at war. Remember, before the Yabo people lured the Ultra Brothers to the planet Gogda, there was peace for a while. We can't let our guard down against the Yabo people. They must be planning something terrible."
"Oh, you're awake, Nan." Unconsciously, a night had passed, and the sky outside the base was already bright. Beidou stretched his body lazily, "You're right, Captain Nan, I accept your reminder. Such a peaceful life makes people unconsciously lazy."
Anyone could let their guard down, but not them. Not as a member of TAC, and certainly not as Ace's human form.
"Besides, there might be a terrible war going on on the other side of the world."
"Ah."
Beidou's expression became serious and he nodded. The other side of the world here does not refer to the earth, but the other side of the distant galaxy.
The war between the Ultra Guard and the Balt Star People had ended completely not long ago. The assault team led by squad leader Jack tore through the Balt Star People's defense line, and the captain Ultra's father took action himself and destroyed the opponent's nest where the space dinosaur Jetton was raised.
The main force of the Baite people was completely wiped out, and the victory was achieved on all fronts. The remaining enemy spaceships fled to the depths of the universe and were no longer a concern. At this point, the plan to invade the Kingdom of Light was declared bankrupt.
Such a great victory is certainly worth celebrating.
But for some reason, some vicious monsters in the universe have become restless during this period, and some strange energy fluctuations have been detected in the monster cemetery. This is also the reason why the space guard did not kill all the remaining spaceships of the Batman.
Perhaps something is happening that is more terrifying than the Baltman, but the most troublesome thing is that the Ultra Brothers have not found any more clues about it.
They have no idea whether there really is an enemy or who the enemy is.
These have nothing to do with Ace on Earth for the time being. His only mission now is to protect the Earth.
"Nan, I'm going to talk to the captain and leave Tokyo today to go to Hokkaido or Shikoku to look for a suitable carrier pigeon. Will you come with me?"
"But you just got off work, shouldn't you go to the dormitory and get some sleep?"
"It's okay. People won't die from missing a night's sleep. Look, I'm not sleepy at all now. It's okay to work overtime for one or two nights, or go without sleep for two or three days."
However, their work can lead to many deaths due to a moment of negligence and laziness. There is no time to delay.
"About that, actually, Beidou-kun, there's something I want you to see."
Nan Xizi said this, rummaging around on her desk for a while and found a document.
"what is this?"
"Well, I asked the people from the Transportation Department to check it last night. Look at this, the Shinkansen riding records."
"Shinkansen records?" Beidou didn't ask any more questions. He glanced at the file in his hand and found a familiar name. "Mikage Aki... The time was half a month ago, from Aomori Station to Tokyo. Is the owner of 'Shirayuki' in Tokyo now?"
"Well, there is no record of her buying tickets to leave Tokyo, whether it's the Shinkansen, the train, or the long-distance bus. Although I can't rule out the possibility that she left in a private car, I think that's unlikely."
"Yeah, indeed."
In this era, not many people can own private cars. Since I came to Tokyo by Shinkansen, I will probably take public transportation when I return.
"But even if we know she is in Tokyo, Tokyo is so big that it would be difficult to find someone."
There is no so-called facial capture or big data like in 50 years. Even if the police want to arrest a suspect with a clear identity, they have to cast a wide net to check each one.
However, Mikage Aki is not a suspect. Instead, the TAC team needs help from the other party, so naturally they cannot issue a wanted notice like the police look for a suspect.
"Actually, when I found this clue yesterday, I had already asked the Public Security Department to investigate. Since he hasn't left for more than half a month, unless he's staying at a relative's house, there should be a record of him staying in a hotel or renting a house. They should be able to give me the results today."
"Ah, you're so smart, Nan," Beidou couldn't help but praise.
Nan Xizi felt a little embarrassed, because this was really just a routine measure. Even the village police who had worked in the mountain village for a few days knew it. It was just that they did not have such authority.
Apart from the Metropolitan Police Department and the Defense Forces’ top brass, the only one who could mobilize all of Tokyo’s records was their TAC team.
All military and political agencies must regard all instructions related to the super beast combat mission as the highest level, otherwise it will be regarded as delaying military orders. This is the wartime authority of the TAC team. It is a simple sentence, but the meaning is not a joke.
However, fifty years later, retrieving hotel accommodation and house rental records would only take a few minutes on a computer. But in this era, all records are still on paper, and the entire Tokyo police station needs to be mobilized to check all hotels and rental houses in the jurisdiction one by one.
Therefore, the response time of the Public Security Bureau to the request issued last night will have to be at least during the day.
Sure enough, more than an hour later, the TAC team members got up one after another, and the fax machine in the command room indicated that a new file had arrived.
That was a house rental contract.
"Sure enough, she rented a house. The tenant is Aki Mikage. The lease term is one month. The location is Honmachi 3-chome, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo... Wait, didn't Saburo, who we went to see yesterday, live in Honmachi 2-chome, Shibuya-ku? He's just one block away?"
Chapter 110 Shopping
"Mikage Aki, Mikage Aki, ah, I got it."
Most of the houses in Honmachi, Shibuya District are old, and Sanmachime is much more dilapidated than the neighboring blocks. The construction history of many houses can even be traced back to the Meiji period. They are antiques from the last century and are almost 70 or 80 years old.
When the house was being built, the Shinsengumi might have been holding swords to defend the last glory of the shogunate.
Most of these houses are already dilapidated. The remaining ones that have been renovated and are still intact are rarely inhabited by locals. They are all rented out to Beijingers who have dreamed of moving to Tokyo.
As I stepped into the building, the wooden floor under my feet made a startling creaking sound, and a musty smell wafted in from nowhere. Perhaps it was in every corner, and had long since permeated the texture of the house.
Standing in front of Beidou and Nan was the landlord of this old brick and wood house, a man in his sixties.
He doesn't live here on weekdays, he just comes here every month when he collects rent. It was the TAC team that contacted the police station and notified the landlord to come.
Even though the lease agreement was signed just last month, the old man has forgotten it. After all, there are more than one tenant here. Some rent for a few days, and some rent for a few months. There is also an endless stream of people looking to rent. After all, the rent here is already the lowest in Tokyo, and tenants come and go frequently.
Those who can find a job and settle down in Tokyo will move to the staff dormitory, where the conditions are naturally much better than here. Those who can't find a job and settle down will have to go back to their hometowns with broken dreams after spending all their money in two or three months.
So the old man would not bother to remember those tenants. He and they were just short-term visitors to each other.
"Ah, I have some impression." Looking at the agreement he signed, the old man's confused memory had a reference and remembered a little, "It was a young girl who said she came to Tokyo for tourism. Well, she didn't stay in a hotel when traveling, so she came to my place. I guess the conditions are not that good."
"So now, is she still there?"
"No, he's gone, he's moved away."
"Moved?"
This was obviously bad news for Beidou and Nan. They had probably made another wasted trip. Yesterday it was the next block, today it was here.
"Yes, she moved out. I remember now. You came at a bad time. She moved out yesterday evening. She told me in advance and handed it over to me. I saw that she had tidied the place very cleanly and even refunded her a few days' rent. If you had come yesterday afternoon, maybe we could have found her."
"Can I ask where she moved to?"
"How would I know? I'm not a household registration police officer, why would I ask this of a tenant? But I remember she left in a pickup truck, driven by a young man."
There were no other clues about the landlord, and Beidou and Nan were a little disappointed, especially when they knew that the other party really had a private car and might leave Tokyo at any time.
Back in the cockpit of the Black Panther, Beidou felt a little listless, feeling that things had not been going well in the past few days.
"Come on, Bokuto, it's okay."
Beidou responded casually and yawned. He didn't get anything done, and he felt tired from the night coming back. If he wasn't driving, he would have wanted to take a nap.
"Wait, Beidou, look up at the sky!"
"In the sky?" Beidou thought a super beast had appeared. He was shocked and stepped on the brakes to stop the car, looking up at the sky.
But the sky was empty and there was no emergency.
"What's going on in the sky? I don't see any super beasts?"