Jiangxia Tongzhi sat crouched on a rooftop not far from the compound, quietly watching the bald uncle inside.
He was hoping that once the man realized the gemstone was fake, he'd show at least some murderous intent. You know—enough to drop some loot.
Meanwhile, Kid glanced up at the shadowy figure on the roof, then boldly turned to Snake's boss.
"By the way," he said, "that lord of ours clearly isn't short on gold or jewels. Why's he so hung up on gems specifically?"
It was a weird thing to ask so bluntly—like casually psychoanalyzing your boss in front of the interns.
But the bald uncle didn't seem to notice or care. Maybe he was one of those science-popularizer types.
The uncle looked down at the sapphire in his hand and smiled mysteriously.
"Of course, our lord doesn't want just any gem. He's after what's hidden inside—a stone of life called Pandora."
"There's an old legend," he continued, clearly loving the sound of his own voice, "'When the stone of life is exposed to the full moon, it will shed tears. Whoever drinks the tears of the gem will live forever.'"
"We don't know which gem has Pandora, so we have to collect them one by one."
Jiangxia, listening in via puppet surveillance, frowned.
Pandora, huh…? Sounds like some high-level ghost dish with fancy plating. I'm calling scam.
Kid, for his part, was shocked at how easy this was. He hadn't even used any tricks—just casually asked, and the guy dumped the whole backstory.
Seeing how chatty this uncle was, Kid decided to keep going.
"So… how can you tell which gem has Pandora?"
The bald uncle raised the sapphire like a kindergarten teacher with a show-and-tell prop.
"Just hold it up to the moon. If Pandora's inside, the gem will glow red under moonlight."
He lifted it, peered around—then froze.
Because instead of a mysterious red glow, he saw a tiny engraved chibi version of Kid's smug face, winking from inside the gem.
"…?!"
He stared at it, and his expression morphed from smug to oh no.
At that moment, a lackey came running in from the front yard, out of breath.
"Police! There are tons of police outside!!"
The bald uncle, who had just managed to muster a little murderous aura, promptly collapsed like a broken balloon. Thud.
A moment later, a hidden trapdoor in the courtyard opened up, and the men in black scrambled out through a secret passage.
Kid, having blown his cover, noped out immediately and slipped away from the fleeing mob.
Now that he knew what the organization was really after, going any deeper into this base felt like pressing the "self-destruct" button.
He ducked under a section of courtyard wall and paused, glancing back.
He wanted to warn the Tengu to bail before the cops arrived and dissected it as an "unidentified winged corpse."
But when he turned back to the roof—nothing.
Gone.
Empty tiles. Not a feather in sight.
Kid blinked, then slowly turned his gaze around the silent courtyard.
…Did I get abandoned by a Tengu? Is this what betrayal feels like? Are winged people just inherently unreliable?
Still, no time for brooding.
As the cops stormed the front, Kid hopped the back wall and vanished into the woods.
Hope Grandpa Terai covered his tracks well, he thought. Don't want him ending up in a holding cell again…
…
Back on the rooftop, Jiangxia yawned.
He'd gotten what he came for—a light sprinkle of murderous aura from the bald uncle, plus the energy core from earlier. Nothing major, but not bad.
He dismissed the puppet form, let the Tengu vacuum up the murderous aura scrap, and his consciousness returned to his real body.
As for Kid?
He'll be fine, Jiangxia figured.
The bald uncle didn't seem very bright, and with the cops on scene… yeah, should be fine.
His actual body, in pajamas and surrounded by ghost detritus, opened its eyes back home.
He'd just flown across half the city in puppet form. That always drained his energy.
Luckily, psychic energy could be replenished by sleep.
Jiangxia closed his eyes again, ready to hibernate.
But right then, his phone started ringing.
He frowned, pulled the quilt over his head like a moody dumpling, and ignored it.
But in the process, he accidentally elbowed the ghost lying on top of the blanket.
Jiangxia paused, then sighed.
Ghosts → Ghost mint → Low inventory.
And calls at this hour usually meant someone wanted to deliver either a murderous aura or a haunted object.
Resigned, he picked up the phone and switched to business mode.
"Hello? This is Jiangxia."
Only now did he realize—it was the organization's burner phone ringing.
He hadn't received any calls while he was out at sea and on Mermaid Island; the signal had been spotty.
He'd checked his phone a few times after returning, but there were no new messages. Either no one had tried to contact him, or someone had, and then used black tech to erase all traces of it afterward.
So far, only Gin used this number to contact him.
Sherry had already defected.
Amuro Toru never assigned him any tasks, and Jiangxia usually just tagged along on his own. When Amuro called, he used regular numbers.
He glanced at the caller ID—yep, it was Gin.
Just to be safe, Jiangxia explained his earlier radio silence.
"I won a travel ticket in a lottery, so I went on a trip. Reception was pretty bad out at sea. Couldn't really get a signal."
He remembered Gin once said there was no need to report vacations, so this should be fine.
Gin didn't seem bothered.
"I know."
Right now, Gin was standing with Vodka, sifting through case files.
Five dead. One missing.
Except for the last one (still unsolved), all cases were closed.
The locations of the murders matched Jiangxia's travel itinerary exactly.
The method, frequency, sheer density of corpses… even if the name "Jiangxia" had been mosaicked out in every report, Gin could still recognize the pattern instantly.
He scrolled past the files, then paused at one: Hatamoto Gozo.
Patriarch of the Roben family. Official representative of the Hatamoto group.
Well—used to be. After sharing a boat with Ouzo, Gozo had ended up thoroughly stabbed and very much deceased.
Gin glanced away from the file and spoke into the phone.
"When you meet people like that in the future, hold back a little. Not everyone is our enemy."
Jiangxia: "…"
He caught the pot Gin casually lobbed over like a dodgeball, and sighed inwardly.
This might be hard. The little death god next door believes in equality. He doesn't discriminate based on net worth.
In fact, high-profile people seem to get targeted more often by death's power…
Of course, Jiangxia didn't say any of this out loud.
Instead, he asked carefully,
"Wait… that Hatamoto guy… he was one of ours?"
Gin didn't answer. He just let out a low sneer.
Silence crackled across the line like static, soaking the room in vague menace.
*Goal #1: Top 200 fanfics published within the last 31 - 90 days by POWER STONES.
Progress: 44/60(approx) for 10 BONUS CHAPTERS
Goal #2: One BONUS CHAPTER per review for the first 10 REVIEWS.
Progress:2/10*