"Slap!"
A crisp slap echoed through the old wooden house.
Kayako's father struck her fiercely.
The thin girl staggered back two steps. Five finger marks appeared on her pale cheek, and a faint trace of blood seeped from the corner of her mouth.
A flash of anger crossed her eyes, but nearly twenty years of timidity and submission made her shrink back, not daring to resist. She stood in the corner of the room with her head lowered, her long hair hanging down.
"Where did you get this money? Huh?"
The head of the Kawamata family held a stack of ten-thousand-yen bills and roared at her. "Tell me, where did this money come from?"
"Oh, I get it now. You didn't go out and sell yourself, did you? Tsk, with your disgusting appearance, would anyone even pay for you?"
He fell into thought.
If Kayako could earn money by selling herself, he would not mind using his daughter as a tool for him and his wife to squander.
He had tried once before, but after seeing Kayako, the buyer showed obvious disgust and left without hesitation, just like the neighbors, classmates, and teachers at school.
It had left him frustrated, feeling that this daughter was truly useless, she could not even be sold.
Now, seeing the yen hidden inside her books, suspicion rose again. Maybe not everyone disliked her. Maybe someone was still willing to pay.
However, now was not the time to look into it too deeply.
He counted the bills in his hand. There were more than one hundred thousand yen in total.
It was not much, but it was enough for a few days of drinking.
Stuffing the money into his pocket, he pointed at his daughter and continued to curse. "I gave you a place to live and let you stay here for so many years. It is already generous of me not to charge you rent."
"This dirty money is mine now. When I get back, I will properly question you about where it came from."
Kayako opened her mouth slightly, but her long-standing cowardice left her unable to say a single word of protest.
That money was all her savings.
Sometimes, when Toru was busy and could not bring her food every day, he would give her some money in advance so she could buy something when she was hungry.
Kayako had always been frugal since childhood, spending very little each day. Slowly, she managed to save this amount.
It was not much, but to her, it was given by Fujiwara-kun, so she treasured it.
And now, her father had taken it, and resentment slowly grew in her heart.
"Meow!"
"Ah! You damn cat, how dare you bite me!"
"Meow!"
Seeing its owner being hit, Komuro suddenly rushed forward and bit the head of the Kawamata family.
His wife stepped forward and kicked the black cat away. It let out a sharp cry.
She pretended to worry about her husband. "Are you alright? Forget that cat. Let us go out for a drink."
She had her eye on the money and wanted a drink as well.
The head of the Kawamata family glared at the black cat and said angrily, "Wait a minute. I have always disliked this cat. Today it even dared to bite me. See if I do not beat it to death."
He stepped forward in fury, clearly intending to kill Komuro.
The last thread of Kayako's cowardice snapped at that moment. She suddenly rushed forward, scooped Komuro into her arms, and screamed, "You are not allowed to hurt Komuro!"
The piercing scream spread like a wave, and even the flimsy wooden house seemed to tremble.
Her fierce gaze fixed on her father. Her black-and-white eyes seemed to roll upward, and a deep fear rose from the bottom of his heart.
He suddenly felt that he might die.
Swallowing under that fear, he said stiffly, "For the sake of this money, I will spare this cat today."
"If it bites me again next time, I will throw it out."
He did not dare to mention killing it again.
"Let us go. We will not bother with her. Let us go drink."
A chill ran down his spine. The house suddenly felt eerie, and he did not want to stay any longer. He pulled his wife and quickly left.
After they were gone, the house fell silent.
Kayako hugged Komuro and asked softly, "Are you hurt, Komuro?"
"Meow."
Komuro licked her palm.
Seeing that it was not injured, she felt relieved.
Just now, when her parents said they would kill Komuro, boundless malice had risen in her heart.
Even now, that malice was hard to suppress.
She carried Komuro back to her room, which smelled of rotting wood, and took a notebook from beneath her bed.
Opening it, the pages were filled with scribbled writing that looked like ghostly scrawl.
These were things she had written when she felt stressed, a way to vent.
Picking up a pen, she took a deep breath, as if pouring all her resentment and anger about Toru's money being taken and Komuro being beaten onto the paper.
"Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die!"
Large characters covered the page. After writing the word dozens of times, her mood finally eased slightly.
She closed the notebook and carefully put it away.
Her parents must never see it, or they would beat her again.
But Kayako did not notice that the black ink she had used had slowly turned red, like flowing blood, staining the entire notebook.
...
Curacao, disguised as a man, sat in the driver's seat of an SUV.
In the passenger seat beside her was a man slumped over, reeking of alcohol.
He was the scapegoat she had carefully chosen.
This man had once driven drunk and killed an innocent mother and son, yet because of his family connections and money, along with flaws in the judicial system, he had received almost no punishment.
After receiving Toru's order, Curacao selected him.
As a former member of the Black Organization, she only had sympathy for children. Her moral standards were not high.
Choosing him made sense. With his criminal record, another fatal drunk driving accident would be believable.
Toru had only asked her to kill an ordinary couple. If she did not need to stage it as a traffic accident, she would not have waited several days before acting.
"The target has appeared."
In a small alley beside the main road, Curacao saw the Kawamata couple.
This intersection was the accident scene she had prepared, with enough distance for the vehicle to accelerate.
The couple was about to cross the road. She calculated the timing precisely and pressed the accelerator hard.
However, before her SUV could move, a sharp horn suddenly blared at the intersection ahead.
To her astonishment, the couple was struck directly by an overloaded truck and sent flying dozens of meters.
She slammed on the brakes and silently watched their bodies hit the ground.
Their bodies were almost torn apart. From her experience, they were beyond saving. Unless someone could bring back the dead, there was no chance of survival.
After a moment of silence, she took out her phone and sent a report to Toru.
Downstairs at the hotel, Toru felt his phone vibrate. He glanced at the message and fell silent.
Kayako's parents had died in a car accident just like that.
And it happened just as Curacao was about to make her move.
[Curacao, investigate their cause of death and check if it was homicide.]
A mysterious monk from Thailand had been monitoring the Kawamata family.
Now that the couple had suddenly died in a traffic accident, Toru suspected it might be related to that monk.
Or perhaps there was a third party involved.
No matter the reason, one thing was certain. Kayako's special nature had likely been discovered.
[Received, Boss.]
At the intersection, Curacao remained expressionless.
Like Toru, she suspected someone might be manipulating events behind the scenes.
To uncover the truth, the starting point was the truck driver. If it was intentional, investigating him could lead to whoever was behind it.
She would need to infiltrate the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department.
Since a fatal accident had occurred, the truck driver would definitely be taken there.
Impersonating police personnel was nothing new to her.
This was not infiltrating an intelligence agency. For someone of her level, the difficulty was minimal.
Downstairs at the hotel, after giving instructions, Toru disguised himself and checked into a room under a false identity.
Holding the key card, he entered the elevator. Instead of going to his own room, he stopped at another door.
Knock, knock.
"Who is it?"
"It is me."
Rena cautiously approached. After confirming through the peephole that it was him, she opened the door slightly.
Once he entered, she carefully checked the corridor to ensure no one was watching before quietly closing the door.
Inside the room was a set of delicate equipment attached to the wall, resembling a stethoscope.
It was a listening device that could clearly capture sounds from the adjacent room.
"How is your recovery?"
"Since I was mistaken for a spy and injured by Gin, the Organization gave me some time off as compensation."
Rena shrugged and touched her right shoulder, where the bullet had struck.
"Not bad. That Organization even gives employees like you vacation time."
Toru teased lightly before asking, "How is the task progressing?"
"The target has been going out occasionally these past few days. While he was out, I secretly entered his room and installed surveillance cameras. I have recorded all his movements and sounds over the past few days."
Rena stepped aside.
On the desk, a laptop displayed the surveillance footage from the adjacent room.
(To be continued.)
◇◇◇
◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 200 Power Stones.
◇ You can read the ahead chapter on Pat if you're interested: p-atreon.c-om/Blownleaves (Just remove the hyphen to access normally.)