CHAPTER 136: CHAPTER 134 PRINCE, PLEASE HAVE YOUR MEAL_1

The boy slept so soundly that once he fell asleep, he never woke up in the middle of the night to pee. He just kept sleeping.

At 6 a.m., the alarm on the cell phone on the bedside table went off on time, and Aozawa reached out to swipe the screen. He gave a big stretch in bed, then got up, took off his pajamas, and put on his black school uniform. Aozawa walked toward the door with an energetic pace.

"Good morning, Chitose."

Morimoto Chiyoda wasn’t doing yoga in the living room but was busy in the kitchen instead. Her long black hair was tied back in a single ponytail. She wore a beige checked t-shirt with loose sweatpants, which concealed her peach-like curves. She had suffered a bit of insomnia last night, thinking too much, which caused her to get up a little late this morning.

"Go wash your face and brush your teeth; the noodles will be ready in no time."

"Chitose, you’ve been a bit lax in looking after me lately. Go stand in the corner and reflect on your behavior."

"Do you want super salty noodles?"

"If possible, I’d like to have seafood-flavored noodles."

Aozawa replied with a grin and walked into the washroom. Looking at himself in the mirror, it seemed his hair had gotten a bit long. He would go to the barbershop on Sunday. He didn’t like long hair; he preferred a short crop that highlighted his youthful vigor.

Aozawa squeezed out toothpaste and took a cup of water. The current weather didn’t require mixing hot and cold water.

After brushing his teeth and washing his face, Aozawa combed his hair. He turned to leave the washroom and said to Chitose at the kitchen bar, "Chitose, aren’t your noodles ready yet? I’m so hungry!"

"Shut up."

Morimoto Chiyoda turned and rolled her eyes at him. She knew in her heart that he wasn’t as hungry as he claimed, just being mouthy for the sake of it.

Aozawa didn’t persist. He propped his chin with his hands, looking at Morimoto Chiyoda’s slender back. From this angle, it looked as if a newlywed wife was preparing breakfast for her husband. If Chitose were wearing just an apron, it would have been even more attractive. Thinking this, his heart fluttered, and he was tempted to use his transparency Superpower to see Morimoto Chiyoda as she was now. He wrestled with the idea for a while but resisted the temptation.

Morimoto Chiyoda turned off the induction cooker, lifted the noodles out, turned around, and handed them to him, saying, "Eat up."

"Chitose, you’ve delayed my meal. If you don’t say ’His Royal Highness The Prince, please eat,’ I’m not going to pick up my chopsticks," Aozawa answered with a serious expression.

Morimoto Chiyoda replied irritably, "Take it or leave it."

Seeing Aozawa’s smirk, and considering she had been a bit busy lately, Morimoto Chiyoda said with a smile, "Alright, His Royal Highness The Prince, please enjoy your meal."

"Since you’ve said it that way, I’ll reluctantly try your noodles."

"You’re not a prince; you’re clearly my spoiled little master," Morimoto Chiyoda teased, turning around to serve herself some noodles.

「After breakfast.」

Aozawa went off to school.

Morimoto Chiyoda threw the dishes in the dishwasher. After drying her hands with a paper towel, she grabbed her keys and headed out the door. For the first time, she felt an insane urge to rush to work. Not just Emily, but Morimoto Chiyoda too was a bit intrigued by Dio. She wanted to ask Dio if Superpower Users could see so-called spirits. For her, this was a very important matter.

Morimoto Chiyoda locked the door and headed for Ayase Station to catch a train to Okubo in Shinjuku. When she reached the front door of Hisamatsu Apartment 201, she rang the doorbell.

DING-DONG. The door opened after one ring.

Okayama Buji stood there in the typical T-shirt and trousers of a young college student, smiling as he said, "Morimoto, you’re here."

"Mm," Morimoto Chiyoda nodded and entered the house.

Emily had not yet changed into her outdoor clothes and was instead wearing bunny suit pajamas with two long bunny ears atop the hood, her golden hair a mess over her shoulders. She yawned and said, "Have a seat for a bit. I’ll assign tasks in a moment." With her loli-like face and these pajamas, she looked like a cute girl of thirteen or fourteen.

Morimoto Chiyoda resisted the urge to compliment her cuteness, wanting to avoid provoking her temper, and said with a smile, "This is rare. You overslept."

"With such unbelievable things happening, it would be strange if I could sleep soundly," Emily murmured. She had stayed up late pondering the previous night. All sorts of information were converging, increasing the likelihood of Dio being a Superpower User. On one hand, her lifelong belief system was tearing at her, telling her there was no such thing as Superpower Users; it must be advanced technology. Yet, it was hard to explain what kind of advanced technology could achieve these things.

First and foremost, the Iwasaki family’s external defenses were top-notch. Surveillance, hunting dogs, drones—a triple-layered security system that current technology couldn’t infiltrate unnoticed. Even if an acquaintance allowed the killer to bypass the defenses, murder someone in the control room, and paralyze the drones, how could one explain the killer continuously murdering people all around from the control room without being detected? Considering the size of the Iwasaki estate, even if the killer drove through, shooting, it would still be impossible to kill everyone within fifteen minutes. People aren’t targets, just standing there motionless. The moment they saw someone driving by and shooting, their first instinct would definitely be to run or find cover to fight back, not be killed one-sidedly without any ability to resist.

No chemical substances were found in the bodies of the deceased, indicating that the possibility of the perpetrator using gas or drugs to incapacitate them was zero. Emily couldn’t come up with a reasonable explanation for how Dio could accomplish this with only a gun. Additionally, those bodyguards were not ordinary people; they were security personnel trained by well-known security companies.

No matter how much Emily refused to believe, she had no choice but to consider the possibility that Dio was a Superpower User as her primary line of thought. For her, this was a matter that completely shattered her worldview, making her feel like her entire life had been turned upside down.

She walked into the bathroom to wash her face and brush her teeth.

「Later, in the spacious living room」

Morimoto Chiyoda sat on the sofa. Katerina was performing weighted squats. Wearing a tank top and shorts, she looked even more muscular. The barbell had four plates on each side, each so large one might think they were made of plastic, totaling six hundred kilograms. Morimoto Chiyoda tried to lift it and found it extremely difficult, even using all her strength. She had checked: the current known maximum weightlifting record in the Guinness World Records was five hundred kilograms. It was unimaginable that Katerina could routinely perform weighted squats with a six-hundred-kilogram barbell; this indicated the terrifying extent of her true strength. In the past, Morimoto Chiyoda had thought of her as a monster. Now, thinking about it, with Superpowers existing, Katerina’s Strange Strength seemed rather ordinary. Her monster index was simply too low.

Okayama Buji poured her a cup of tea and said in a gentle voice, "It seems that people from the SAT will be coming today."

"Are they going to take over the task force?" Morimoto Chiyoda was taken aback for a moment, but then felt that such a decision was quite normal. If Dio was truly a Superpower User, then to the Japanese government, he was not only a ruthless criminal but also a person of significant talent. A single person was enough for the Metropolitan Police Department to deploy the SAT’s armed forces. Compared to them, the task force’s arsenal was too weak, lacking even a submachine gun.

"No, the Police Director intends to further expand the task force’s authority, granting them the power to mobilize the SAT at any moment," Okayama Buji said, sitting across from her and sighing. "Our task force has become a true monster department within the Metropolitan Police Department."

Normally, the government prefers balance, with different departments managing different matters, or even setting up multiple departments for the same issue, to prevent the emergence of departments with excessively concentrated power. But now, with the support of Yasuda Masao and the Police Director, the task force’s authority had grown far beyond that of a normal task force. Anyone they suspected could be investigated, monitored, or even have the SAT storm their premises; the higher-ups granted the task force the privilege to act first and report later.

Morimoto Chiyoda expressed her surprise, asking, "Is Dio’s value so significant that the higher-ups are actually comfortable letting Emily, an outsider, lead the task force?"

Okayama Buji whispered, "The higher-ups don’t want many people to know about this, not even the SAT. They just need to command them."

"Is the news about Superpower Users only being circulated among top government officials?"

Okayama Buji nodded. "The task force will report directly to the Police Director, and above that, to the Minister of State and the Prime Minister. In addition, there’s no need to report to anyone else, nor can we disclose this matter to others."

"That’s going to be difficult. Mayers’ report was provided by the Sumitomo Group, and the leaders of the six major conglomerates aren’t fools. They’ll have suspicions of their own to some extent," Morimoto Chiyoda said, taking a sip of her tea.

Okayama Buji didn’t refute the possibility, simply shrugging. "Don’t worry, the Prime Minister and the others are well aware. The major conglomerates are deeply integrated into all aspects of the country, so it’s hard to conceal anything from them. What we need to do is prevent the information from spreading to other politicians."

Morimoto Chiyoda made no comment on that and just quietly savored her black tea.

The DING-DONG of the doorbell sounded again.

Okayama Buji stood up and walked towards the door, instinctively looking through the peephole.

Just then, BANG! He quickly turned around.

Someone had smashed through the balcony’s glass sliding door and charged into the living room, holding a submachine gun.

?! Okayama Buji’s pupils dilated.

BANG! BANG! BANG! Morimoto Chiyoda moved swiftly as a cat, flipping over the sofa and drawing her gun to fire. In that brief moment, she fired three accurate shots at the gunman’s trigger finger, disrupting his attack. Then Katerina threw the barbell she had been squatting with straight at the intruder.

THUD! The heavy barbell pinned the intruder to the ground, and the sound of breaking bones was faintly audible.

All of this happened in the blink of an eye; Morimoto Chiyoda and Katerina didn’t even have time to consider who the enemy was. The mere sight of the gun triggered their immediate, instinctive counterattack. Only after they had taken down the intruder did they realize his attire looked somewhat like one of their own.

But Morimoto Chiyoda remained vigilant, shouting, "You better not move! Don’t even think about reaching for your gun, or I’ll cripple you on the spot!"

"COUGH."

The intruder spat out a mouthful of blood and said, "Very good. No wonder the higher-ups want us in the SAT to follow your command. Your strength is indeed formidable."