When they returned to Hokkaido a few years ago, Higashinohara and Nishimaru Miria took a passenger plane chartered by their homeroom teacher, Mr. Tatokawa Asuka, but now when they return to Tokyo, they take a railway train.
They needed to take the express train to Hakodate in Hokkaido, and then transfer to the Shinkansen train from Hakodate to return to the train station in Tokyo. It calculated that it would take about nine hours. Higashinohara chose two pictures considering that Nishimaru Miria was still young.
Sleeper.
Changes in transportation may be partly due to the fact that no one is reimbursing fares these days.
But having said that, strictly speaking, Miria Nishimaru can be considered a "little rich woman". If you really want to buy a plane ticket, you don't have to worry too much about money.
It's just that Tokugawa Ritora had given him a knife before the attack in Hokkaido, with the intention that he would take care of Nishimaru Miria. People must go through the test of conscience when they are alive. Now, as soon as Higashinohara was killed, he started to take care of Nishimaru Miria.
Money to buy tickets always made him feel a little uneasy.
Nishimaru Miria is also very sensible. This seven-year-old girl now leaves Higashinohara to decide almost all other matters except completing cultural classes every day and training her own abilities quantitatively. Unlike the girl from her hometown who has nothing to do, she can also do something from time to time.
Compared to Moko's girl of the same age, Higashino Yukino, she is so well-behaved that it's a bit heartbreaking.
The sleeper berths in Wano are also called sleeping trains. They are divided into large bunks without partitions and upper and lower bunks with slightly partitions. Higashinohara grabbed the last two special tickets, which are upper and lower bunks with partitions between each other, which is equivalent to the previous life.
Soft sleeper box.
After putting away his luggage, Higashinohara looked around at the soft and comfortable sleeper car.
He was quite satisfied with his occasionally extravagant choice today. The most important thing was that the package ticket sold by the ticket purchasing software also included a ticket for the second half of the journey after transferring to a sleeper class.
When he turned around after looking at it, Higashinohara found that Nishimaru Miria was staring blankly at the TV news broadcast on the wall of the sleeper compartment, and her originally simple and delicate face suddenly turned a little pale.
The sound on the TV sounded a little noisy, and the news was talking about an anonymous report letter published on the front page of the Asahi Shimbun in recent days:
An anonymous person who did not want to be named made a shocking exposure of the darkness behind the accident that occurred on the northern side of the Nemuro Strait in Hokkaido on New Year's Day, 1122 Tianyuan Calendar.
The report letter detailed the direct connection between a certain cabinet minister and the attack, the behind-the-scenes transactions with the Shayash Dawn Revolutionary Army, and the benefits they expected to obtain.
Although the content published by the Asahi Shimbun has concealed the specific name of a certain cabinet minister in the report letter, as long as any normal-minded person in Wano who has the ability to think independently reads the whole article, he will quickly find that almost every person in this report letter
Every sentence is directed at Cabinet Minister of Foreign Affairs Taku Amuro.
At this time, the Asahi Shimbun picture showed everything.
I saw a group of well-dressed politicians walking out of the parliament building in Chiyoda District. After passing through the green space next to the fountain in front of the building, they were surrounded by a group of media reporters. Countless microphones were used to press the fat man's face.
in front of a middle-aged man.
"Lord Amuro, we and the public would like to know, what do you want to say about the anonymous report letter published by the Asahi Shimbun?"
"Is there really a behind-the-scenes deal between us and the Dawn Revolutionary Army of the Grand Duchy of Shayash? Is there any hidden secret behind the attack on Team Leader Tokugawa?"
"I heard that the cabinet has set up a special investigation team to investigate the attack on Team Leader Tokugawa. Could you please share with us the specific progress of the investigation?"
"We all know that Captain Dragonfly or the Disciplinary Committee of New Tokyo appeared in Beihai. Does this mean that he, who upholds 'interest leads to justice', has intervened in the incident of Captain Tokugawa? Do you think he might find you because of this?
"
"."
Under the lens of countless media reporters, a dead winter leaf fell in the wind above his head. In the face of repeated questioning from reporters from major TV stations, Foreign Minister Taku Amuro's face was surprisingly calm.
He stopped and said to the many microphones with a sad face, "The death of Captain Tokugawa is a sad fact for our entire country of Wano. I think everyone can appreciate the contribution he made to the country of Wano in his life.
It is obvious to all and there is no need for me to elaborate further.”
Having said this, Foreign Minister Taku Amuro paused, his tone full of endless helplessness and sorrow, "But now! Some people with unknown intentions are trying to control us through public opinion to divide this country! To interfere and prevent us from
Investigate the truth behind it!"
"Here, I want to reassure everyone that if I am really guilty, then I will personally go into the prison. Even if I don't go into the prison, the 'Captain Dragonfly' you are talking about will judge me!"
"But as you can see, I have a clear conscience! That's why I'm still standing here today!"
"I don't want it at this time! Because my personal public opinion takes up too many social and public resources, I will not answer such questions in the future. Thank you all."
In the cold wind under the sunset leaves in winter, Foreign Minister Taku Amuro bowed deeply to the camera.
The news footage on the TV ended here, TV Asahi switched back to the studio, and the host began to broadcast other news content.
In the soft sleeper compartment of the train.
"He's lying!"
Nishimaru Miria, who was sitting not far from Higashinohara, suddenly raised her little finger and pointed at the TV screen and said crisply, her delicate and white face was filled with a rare kind of stubborn stubbornness.
After saying this, Nishimaru Miria seemed a little uneasy and raised her head to look at Higashinohara timidly.
After all, the tone of the minister on TV was too confident, too clear-minded, and his posture was too sincere. It would be easy for ordinary people to become suspicious after watching this.
Is that report letter really fake?
Are we really being taken advantage of?
What's more, the little girl Nishimaru Miria's harsh words are more like idealistic accusations without any strong evidence to support them. I'm afraid anyone else would be stunned when they hear this.
However, after hearing what Nishimaru Miria said, Higashinohara's face remained very calm, and he nodded to Nishimaru Miria without thinking.
"I know."
Now it was Nishimaru Miria's turn to be surprised.
However, considering the incredible power of his elder brother and the "little secret" that the whole world only existed between the two of them, Miria Nishimaru was not so surprised.
She twitched her small nose, recalled the contents of the report letter just now, raised her head and looked at Higashinohara seriously, "Brother, does dad's matter really have anything to do with that minister?"
Higashinohara thought of what he saw in the opponent's [Character Profile] after beheading the Northern Army Commander Searle of the Dawn Revolutionary Army that day. He originally didn't want Nishimaru Miri to be tainted too much by the filth behind these shameless politicians.
Dirty transaction.
Before the accident, Tokugawa Ritora had entrusted him to take good care of Nishimaru Miria in the noodle shop. Higashinohara naturally did not want Nishimaru Miria to live in the shadow of revenge at such a young age.
But now I don’t know who reported Taku Amuro through that anonymous letter. Higashinohara didn’t want to deceive the little girl. He pondered for a moment and then nodded and said, “There is some connection, but he is not the only one. I will investigate and deal with the following matters.
."
Nishimaru Miria knew Higashinohara's other identity and how great his big brother was, so of course he would not doubt anything and nodded without saying anything.
It was just that she made up her mind in her little heart.
You must grow up quickly!
In this way, even if something happens in the future, she won't have to rely on her big brother all the time. Now that she has no relatives, she actually relies on Higashinohara in her heart, but she doesn't want to live like a burden.
The train started at a quarter past nine.
Accompanied by the pleasant female announcer's prompts, people and things on both sides of the platform outside the train window began to gradually accelerate and move backwards.
Nishimaru Miria sat cross-legged on the bed in the lower bunk of the box. The slightly curly ends of her light blond hair swayed as the train moved. The morning sunlight reflected from the window shone on her delicate little face, and she could vaguely see it.
Her long eyelashes trembled slightly.
She is not Higashinohara, so naturally she cannot perform any "intracranial sword training".
In fact, Nishimaru Miria is currently undergoing meditation training for the telekinesis system talent ability [Wang Yu], which is also a relatively common training method for people with telekinesis abilities.
In the past, she followed the steps at Takehara Minami Private Academy, and her improvement rate was many times faster than other classmates who were older than her. However, Nishimaru Miria was not so eager for strength, so she followed the school's teaching progress slowly.
Come.
Now after Tokugawa Ritora's accident, the little girl realized that she was lucky enough to have such outstanding talents despite her death.
In addition, I have been exposed to Higashinohara's hard training on weekdays, and I can't help but think that even someone as powerful as my elder brother works so hard, and now I don't want to relax for a moment.
Higashinohara didn't say much about this.
in this world,
The harder you work, the luckier you will be.
Although Nishimaru Miria's efforts were a little early, she lost the childhood that a normal child should have.
But since fate has already made arrangements for her, if she doesn't work hard to gain something from fate, her life will be a bit of a loss.
Higashinohara was thinking about whether he should also do "internal sword training" and brush his Kodachi 2-sword style to [Grandmaster level] as soon as possible - now his progress is stuck at 77/100, but the progress below has become extremely slow.
Higashinohara is still trying to rule out what went wrong.
At this time, there was a sound of heavy footsteps in the aisle outside the sleeper box. Four strong, tall, white-skinned men with blue eyes, sunken eye sockets, high noses passed by their box.
The four of them looked inside with vigilant eyes. After seeing a boy about half the age of a high school student and a little girl, they were obviously relieved. Their eyes only stayed on the little girl's light golden hair for a second.
Quickly look away.
Higashinohara, who was sitting on the lower bunk, did not open his eyes, but now he opened his second [Nine Eyes and Six Paths] eyes, and became aware of the wind and grass around him, but the other party seemed to be just passing by, even though he acted a little more wary.
But he didn't care too much.
Judging from their appearance, these people should have come from the Grand Duchy of Shayash in the north. The Grand Duchy of Shayash has recently disintegrated, and several forces within the country have launched a fierce struggle in an attempt to regain power in that cold land that is frozen by ice and snow all year round.
Throughout history, the people who suffer most when something like this happens in any country are definitely the ordinary people.
Therefore, recently there have been many people from the Grand Duchy of Sayash who have smuggled themselves over in Hokkaido legally or illegally. As for the few people just now, whether they belong to the former or the latter is not within the scope of Higashinohara's concern.
However, there seems to be a woman behind the four men who is wearing a hat, with the brim of the hat lowered to cover her eyebrows. Her facial curves are very soft, and the most eye-catching thing is her pale golden hair, which is like the sparkling sea in the sun.
.
Xiao Weili's hair may look like this when she grows up.
For some reason, Higashinohara had such an idea in his mind.
By the time he came to his senses, a group of five people had already passed by their box, arrived at the box at the far end of the corridor, opened the door and walked in.
In the soft sleeper box, a blond woman with her hat lowered sat on the inside, and four men and three others sat on the outside, guarding the door like door gods.
Inside, a slightly older man sat down with difficulty, covered his red belly, took a deep breath and said:
"Madam, please rest assured, we should have gotten rid of the hyenas of the Storm Revolutionary Army. As soon as we arrive at the capital of Wano Country, someone will pick us up soon. The birthday of the Emperor of Wano Country is this month, and someone will make arrangements then.
Let’s enter the Sakurada Gate.”
After hearing his words, the woman spoke softly, "Then I'll take care of you."
"It is my honor to do my best for my wife." The man said in a sincere tone.
After the words fell, the soft sleeper box fell into silence again.
Because they know very well:
Even if he really escaped the pursuit of the Storm Revolutionary Army,
However, after the current Grand Duke of the Grand Duchy of Sayash was brutally murdered by the Northern Army of the Dawn Revolutionary Army, he still wanted to rely on the blood of the previous generation of Grand Dukes who had been exiled to use the country of Wano to plead with the World Government to re-intervene in the Grand Duchy of Sayash to realize the Grand Duke.
The road to bloodline restoration is also full of thorns and ups and downs.
An accident.
Maybe I have to make wedding clothes for others.
However, now we have reached this point under the pursuit of the Storm Revolutionary Army, the three largest revolutionary forces in the country.
From now on, they only have the road ahead,
There is no body left.
I don't know how long it took.
In the soft sleeper box.
Higashinohara recovered from the state of [Cranial Sword Training], the tip of his nose twitched slightly, his brows furrowed slightly, and he inexplicably smelled a faint smell of blood.
He immediately glanced at Miria Nishimaru next to him, who was still in the middle of meditation training. He felt slightly relieved, and then looked out the car window at the scenery passing by quickly, but his eyes couldn't help but narrow slightly.
The faint smell of blood seemed to come from the inside of the aisle of the carriage. In Higashinohara's mind, he subconsciously thought of the people from the Grand Duchy of Shayash who passed by when he first got on the carriage.
What happened?
At this time, Nishimaru Miria seemed to have noticed something was wrong. She opened her eyes and glanced at Higashinohara with a little uneasiness on her face, "What's wrong, big brother?"
Shh!
Higashinohara suddenly raised his index finger, and Nishimaru Miria immediately stopped talking. Then he also noticed something was wrong, and footsteps came from the other side of the corridor.
Ta-ta-ta-!
It seemed like someone was walking over.
The next moment, the footsteps suddenly stopped.
Higashinohara narrowed his eyes slightly.
He realized that the owner of that step should have stopped in the soft sleeper box next to them.
The next moment, there was the sound of the door curtain being pulled.
Quiet and silent.
Higashinohara calmly took out his sword from his backpack - the two small dachi swords he bought from the second-hand market, and gently placed them on the inside of his thighs.
After a while, the door curtain was gently lowered.
"Feel sorry."
A voice sounded.
no respond.
Immediately afterwards, footsteps sounded again, this time coming towards the soft sleeper box where they were.
Nishimaru Miria glanced at Higashinohara nervously. Higashinohara shook his head gently, smiled at the little girl, and said it was okay.
After a while, the footsteps stopped in front of their soft sleeper door.
A hand opened the door curtain from the outside, revealing a tall man with sunken eyes and a high nose. The top of his head almost touched the top of the carriage above, at least 1.9 meters tall.
There was a certain indifference in those blue eyes, and his body was filled with a chilling aura, which had a huge sense of oppression on ordinary people.
Higashinohara's eyes met with his in the air.
He originally thought that the smell of blood would trigger something in the "Guidebook of Sin" in his mind.
But strangely, there was no response at all this time.
The moment the other party opened the door curtain, his eyes swept across the narrow soft sleeper box very quickly, he quickly looked away, put down the door curtain, turned around and continued forward.
Listening to the footsteps moving away, although the two parties didn't say anything at that moment, Higashinohara read a message:
The other party is obviously looking for someone.
Who are you looking for?
This was somewhat unknown to him.
Just at this moment, the nervous whispers of two girls came from the berth next to them.
There is a soft sleeper box next door.
A girl with chestnut hair in twin ponytails swallowed nervously, looking like she wanted to lift the door curtain to look outside but was afraid that the person wouldn't be far away before she dared to lift it.
She said to the female companion next to her, who had refreshing short black hair that lightly covered her ears, and a pretty face that gave off a sense of tranquility and comfort, "Qin Mei, did that guy just kill someone?"
Yonezu Kotomi shook her head slightly when she heard this. There was not much nervousness on her clear and beautiful face, and she said with a faint light in her eyes, "He doesn't smell of blood."
She is 18 years old. She graduated from Tianming Private Academy, one of the four major esper academies in New Tokyo. She is now a student of New Tokyo University's special admissions class for escapists. She can be said to be the leader of the young generation in New Tokyo.
This time, I went to Hokkaido for vacation with my high school and college classmate, the lovelorn Yuko Miyamura.
Miyamura Yuko was stunned for a moment, and soon realized something, and said nervously, "That means, he may have accomplices, Kotomi, what should we do now? Those guys won't keep silent, right? By the way! You are ours
The best ability user in the class, that person just now shouldn’t be your opponent, right?”
Yonezu Qin's beautiful eyes shook her head.
As an outstanding graduate of the New Tokyo Four University Campus, Yonezu Kotomi's talent has not been concealed after entering Tokyo University, which is full of talents. However, when facing that man, she felt an unprecedented sense of oppression.
If not necessary,
She really didn't want to fight with that man.
At this time, there was a sudden knock on the door at the end of the corridor on the other side of the carriage.
Dong dong dong—!
Dong dong dong—!
Not impatient, very rhythmic.
He was knocking on the compartment bathroom door.
Miyamura Yuko was stunned for a moment, then quickly realized something, and suddenly exclaimed, "It's that woman, I seemed to have seen her going to the bathroom just now."
A soft sleeper compartment separated by a wall.
Higashinohara was helplessly forced to listen to the "whispering" next door - there was nothing he could do about it, the soundproofing of the compartments on this kind of sleeping platform train was really poor.
But at this time, the unanswered sound of knocking on the door in the train bathroom seemed to have attracted the attention of the man at the other end of the corridor and his companions.
Soon, there was a burst of neat and powerful footsteps.
