Chapter 8 - Brown Bears Aren't Cute

The second morning on the cruise ship was not as nice as yesterday.

There was no more Uesugi Yui posing in a cute sleeping position on the opposite bed, and there was no more murmuring to make people think.

Also, there was no confidence that the next morning would come.

Young people have a habit of thinking there will be a tomorrow, so when that habit is broken, the strong sense of absence will seriously undermine one's mental stability.

There are still four hours until the cruise ship arrives in port.

The instability on this steel ark is still stubbornly present: a time bomb, in the last room on the bottom floor - this is the riddle that Ziongzong has answered.

When it will explode, it is not clear; where the bomb is, Ziongzong knows, but can not enter.

This is like a benign tumor in the human body, perhaps a lifetime will only be so gentle slowly grow, perhaps the next second to change the nature of the invasion of other cells, and began to eat life.

When the risk is too great to bear, the possibility is too small to ignore, so it is not possible to remove.

Ziongzong last night miserable only one hour of sleep, or in order to prevent Uesugi Yui back to deliberately take out an hour of sleep.

"I'm not sure I'm going to be able to do that.

After folding the blanket, Ziongzong said this to Uesugi Yui's bed and went out.

Last night did not go well, he mobilized all the knowledge in his life, finally got a key, the key to open the steel fence, but this is not enough, the key needs at least one more, and the time is not optimistic.

The less optimistic, the more you can not give up.

Most of life's games are upwind games, and that's why it's the joy of life to be able to swim against the current and resonate with the following, the joy of suffering.

Early in the morning, there are not many people in the police station yet, most of those who are already in the police station are the miserable guys who did not go back last night for overtime.

Tojo and Akira are also among this group of miserable guys.

In his opinion, if he couldn't even hold on to himself who was leading the team, what face would he have to order others.

"Do you want me to bring breakfast for you, Officer Tsuchijo?

"The same as usual."

"Okay."

Despite the superior-subordinate command relationship at work, Kazuaki Tsuchijo had a good relationship with his subordinates, fellow officers, and superiors, which was probably due to his personality. After all, Kazuaki Tojo doesn't usually smile much, and he, who specializes in playing blackface in the police department, has never been associated with such feelings as affability.

However, whenever there is a general situation, there is a special situation, and in the case of Kazuaki Tojo, this special situation refers to when his daughter calls him.

Moreover, he has more than one daughter, two in total, lovingly called by him as Little Sorrow and Little Company respectively.

The content of the phone call has always been simple and everyday, just what you want to eat in the evening, or the price of peppers has increased, replace the cucumber instead of okay and other trivial topics.

This is enough to change Kazuaki from a hard-faced policeman to a kind and generous father.

His wife is gone, so he gives all his love to his two daughters.

Even in a profession like policing, which is often out of his hands, he still does better than most fathers.

Recently, he had been so busy with a difficult case that he hadn't even come home last night, so at this dawn of the bird's cry, he was troubled with the wording of how to apologize to his daughters when he returned home for the weekend.

"Officer Tsuchijo, I brought your breakfast. Where should I put it?"

"There's no time to dawdle. We'll be back to work in ten minutes.

Work is work.

The tenderness of Kazuaki Tsuchijo was limited to his daughters.

The impatience of the cruise ship passengers was written on their faces as they arrived at the port.

Many of them ordered a hearty breakfast but only ate two or three bites, then put it aside and talked to others with great enthusiasm.

Kyudo's group was no different, with Mayumi Araki, who was dancing and disregarding her image as a teacher, leading the way, and everyone was much more open than usual.

"Whoever is over there, don't you know how to dance the indigenous dance?

"So-and-so over there, isn't he strong? Want to show me?"

"......"

"Mr. Araki! Please behave yourself!"

Uesugi Yui was kept busy by a group of guys who had fallen into the landing syndrome.

Among the group of demons, only two are not included.

One is Eiji Hayamizu, who is still bedridden and is the antithesis of the importance of friendly diplomacy.

The second is Ziongzong Uesugi, whom no one has seen since yesterday's dinner, and who has not appeared until today's breakfast.

"K."

"Correct, K --------"

Uesugi Yui mediated to the end, and finally brought everyone back to a relatively peaceful state. Everyone continued to play the hangman's guessing game as they had yesterday, which was addictive because of the punishment element in it.

"Next."

"Snatch, Kilometer!"

"No! Punishment!

"......"

"I've decided, the punishment is to confess to the waiter over there!

"But I'm a man!"

"That's what makes it fun. Go, go, go!"

As the game heated up, the punishment became more and more severe, and gradually became more and more inhumane.

"He's not ready yet, but he's really having a hard time this time.

After playing for a while, someone noticed the missing members.

"This is the lesson of molesting a good woman, remember it.

"Speaking of which, I didn't see Ziongzong, either.

"I think I overslept."

"I really can't do it without Ziyou-senpai~"

"Hey, what do you mean by that?

"

"Three more hours to go!"

"Well, I'm looking forward to it!"

"Hey, who's that? Don't try to run away, the punishment hasn't been carried out yet!

The more we played, the more we had fun, and the more we made a mess, similar to last night.

And because it was similar to last night, there was a third person, Katagiri Mai, who was independent of the commotion.

She noticed early on that Ziongzong Uesugi hadn't come to breakfast, but thought it was no big deal, so she never mentioned it.

But then someone brought it up again, and Katagiri Mai inadvertently remembered Ziongzong's unusual behavior last night and began to gather uneasy emotions in her heart.

In Katagiri Mai's eyes, Ziongzong Uesugi was not such an outlier.

She wanted to talk to Uesugi Yui about it, but she hesitated when she thought of what Uesugi Yui had told her the other day.

--Ma-chan, don't keep worshiping me like a schoolmate.

"I've had my fill, so I'll go back and pack.

Katagiri Mai didn't have much luggage with her, so she didn't really have anything to pack.

She didn't go back to her room, she just left the restaurant for a reason.

Since she couldn't talk to Uesugi Yui, she thought of her own solution - the simple one was to walk around and maybe she would meet someone.

Fortunately, as Katagiri Mai expected, she saw Ziongzong Uesugi on the deck.

Ziongzong Uesugi was leaning against the railing looking out at the sea, a usual sight that made Katagiri Mai relieved at last, but ......

in the next moment, when a person walked past Katagiri Mai, blocking her view for less than two seconds, Ziongzong Uesugi disappeared.

For just such a brief moment, Ziongzong Uesugi disappeared.

--

Katagiri Mai looked around in a panic, bumping into several passengers in a row and not being able to apologize, her heart that had been easily put down hung again, she did not understand why she was so anxious, but there was a vague feeling of bad luck hovering in her mind that she could not ignore.

After running around several places, she looked back and looked up.

Finally, Katagiri Mai was in sight, and she caught the last moment before Ziongzong Uesugi entered the cabin.

She followed immediately without a second thought, and after catching up with Ziongzong Uesugi, she realized that the person she was following was not only her, but the person she was following, Ziongzong Uesugi, was also following someone else -- a grown man so tall that no one would veto him even as a pillar.

--What the hell was he thinking.

--It's a time like this and he's still doing all this nonsense ......

Katagiri Mai walked up behind Ziongzong Uesugi and tapped him on the shoulder.

''Hey, what are you doing.''

However, the reaction of Ziongzong Uesugi to this action was something Katagiri Mai was far from expecting.

Katagiri Mai's hand was not even able to pull away from Ziongzong Uesugi's shoulder before Ziongzong Uesugi held her wrist tightly, and then she felt a strong impulse at her ankle, and then lost her balance and fell face down on the ground. She then lost her balance and fell face down on the ground, her hands and feet joints were pressed so hard that she could not move.

The clock rotated back ten minutes.

Due to time constraints, Ziongzong did not have a good breakfast in the restaurant, but did not choose the taste, quickly replenished the sugar and calories, and then hastily left.

As Ziongzong was about to start to steal the second key, he saw the previous one on the deck, the pillar-like lanky man.

Fortunately, this 'see' is one-sided, the other party did not see Ziongzong, so Ziongzong quietly through the crowd hidden, while trailing this man.

He knew that this man and the man with the long bow must have a relationship, if we can create a 'alone' opportunity, we may be able to know something.

Ziongzong said do it, after following for a while, he noticed that while he was following others, someone was also following him, but he had to spend most of his energy to follow the man with the pillar, previous experience has proved how sharp this guy is ...... So, Ziongzong just kept an eye on this person behind him until this guy was too close to him to get in, Ziongzong only suddenly struck.

But I never thought this person would be her.

"Uh, how could it be you?"

"What are you following me for?"

Ziongzong could confirm that it was Katagiri Mai just by looking at the back, and the slim arms and thin shoulders were not the first time he had seen her.

"...... Let go of me."

"Ah, sorry."

Ziongzong released the pressure on Katagiri Mai's joints and thought about how to explain the current situation to her, however, before the conversation could begin, a new situation emerged.

The pillar-like man dropped his head and started walking towards Ziongzong.

--Did he find out about the stalking?

--Or did he simply notice the situation and came to take a look?

Anyway, what's a guy pinning a girl to the deck in a grappling position if not a "situation"?

"What are you doing?

The man's Japanese had a strong Russian accent, and when he spoke, his gaze, which was looking down from a great height, caused a great sense of oppression to Ziongzong with its drop.

It was like a child caught doing something bad.

"Ah, it's nothing, I was just playing around, I'm sorry to disturb you.

In front of this man, Ziongzong completely lost the will to stand up, so it was better to just crouch down.

"No, I won't.''

The man shook his head, turned and walked away, his broad back completely covering Ziongzong and Katagiri Mai, and more than enough.

Combined with his looks, body and accent, this man should be of mixed Asian and Russian descent - such a guy, what would be the connection with the man with the bow?

Ziongzong could not guess.

After dealing with the pillar man without any risk, Ziongzong and Katagiri Mai returned together to the cabin where their room was located.

Along the way, Katagiri Mai's aloofness surprised Ziongzong. After such an incident, she was still able to keep her mouth shut and not ask a single question, which was really hard for Ziongzong to understand.

However, after Ziongzong noticed another thing, he did not care about Katagiri Mai's cold performance.

Earlier, the pillar man he was following was now tailing him in turn.

The reason why I say tailing instead of following is because the pillar man himself is huge, it is difficult to follow without being exposed, not to mention that he has no intention to hide, such naked tailing, the purpose is obvious, is to tell Ziongzong: those conversations just now are just polite, if you do not want to involve the girls around you, then hurry up and solve it yourself.

--Damn.

It was a situation where every second counts, and now it's being pushed even further over the cliff.

Ziongzong clenched his fists.

"I'm going to the bathroom, you can go back first."

『...... hmm.』

Katagiri Mai didn't get suspicious and nodded her head.

But after nodding, she didn't go immediately, as if she was still thinking about something.

She paused, so Ziongzong's original fast and furious state of mind was affected, and suddenly became heavy.

--- not to be so simple to bring the mood chaos.

---The brave and heroic thing doesn't fit my image.

"Katagome-san."

"There is one thing I want to ask you, please don't hit me if I offend you."

Ziongzong took a deep breath and prepared himself for a beating.

To say the following words will have to pay the price.

"Murphy ...... you like me?"

Ziongzong's question just finished, Katagiri Mai immediately followed is not hesitant to Ziongzong a kick, Ziongzong already guessed this reaction, deftly jumped back to avoid.

"Well, it's good that you don't like it."

Ziongzong laughed.

"Because you feel weird, so I'm joking, don't mind.

The smile was complicated, a little despondent, a little self-deprecating.

"Then, I'm leaving."

With that, Ziongzong walked in the exact opposite direction of Katagiri Mai's place of return.

After separating from Katagiri Mai, Ziongzong found a bathroom away from the room, and when there was no one else inside, Ziongzong put the 'cleaning in progress' sign on the door, and then quickly changed into Ito Xuanhong.

The disguise was originally intended as a precautionary measure, but Ziongzong didn't expect it to come in handy.

Considering that the pillar man should soon come in to find him, Ziongzong dressed as Ito Xuanhong made some small moves as quickly as possible: turning off most of the lighting in the bathroom, pouring detergent at the entrance, and then ambushing behind the door, waiting for the pillar man to enter.

Thirty seconds later, the pillar man arrived as promised.

The moment he entered, he was attacked from behind by Ito Xuanhong - a powerful front stomp kick hit him squarely in the back, causing him to stagger a few steps, but he was still able to stand, but he didn't expect to step on the detergent and lost his balance. At that moment, before Pillar Boy turned around, Ito Xuanhong fell to the ground and swept Pillar Boy to the ground.

The fallen pillar man, colliding with the floor, made a loud and extraordinary noise, as if a real pillar had fallen.

But this is not the end of the attack of Ito Xuanhong, he leaped up, his body in mid-air horizontal, all the power concentrated in the right elbow, ruthlessly hit the pillar man's chest.

Pillar Boy covered his chest with a painful expression, his eyebrows knitted together.

It seemed inevitable to Ito Xuanhong that he had used an attack that would be lethal to an ordinary person, a landing elbow that pressed his whole body weight and struck straight to the heart.

However, the dull reaction of the pillar man was not what Ito Xuanhong expected, and there was not even a little cry of pain.

This is not normal, even mute should make some sound, but this pillar man, he held on without saying a word ......

Ito Xuanhong cautiously back away, followed by something that Ito Xuanhong could not believe.

The pillar man hammered the ground, regained his footing, twisted his neck, broke his arm, and made all kinds of kada kada sounds at his joints, as if nothing had just happened.

--The man's joints made all sorts of rattling sounds as if nothing had happened.

The strength of an ordinary person, Ito Xuanhong is sure to break two to three ribs in that blow just now, but this pillar man, but in a short time, he quickly recovered, as if the painful expression just now was fake.

"Hey, where did that kid go just now."

The pillar man opened his nearly rectangular eyes wide and asked Ito Xuanhong in a tone that would not allow him to disobey.

His hands clenched and unclenched, and he waved his fingers in an eager manner.

"I'll tell you if you beat me.

Ito Xuanhong stretched out his right hand and hooked it at Pillar Boy, provoking him with a contemptuous expression.

"You don't know what you're doing."

Pillar Boy raised one eyebrow and pounded his chest with his right hand in a fist.

"Atlas Brown Bear, I hope that won't be the last name you hear.

After calling himself Atlas Brown Bear, Pillar Boy announced himself, stepping with small steps, and quickly approached Ito Xuanhong. Before Ito Xuanhong retreated, Atlas Brown Bear had already delivered a straight punch, which Ito Xuanhong barely avoided, but could not pull his body away to a safe distance in time, and had to take Atlas Brown Bear's knee strike immediately after the straight punch with both hands, and was bounced away for more than a meter and crashed into the wall of the bathroom.

The Atlas brown bear's mouth raised a smile, the feet stand one behind the other, hands clenched torso, set up a standard boxing stance, half-jumping half-walking dodge to the not yet adjusted Ito Xuanhong front.

A whoosh is a jab, Ito Xuanhong did not see, with the body instincts barely close to avoid.

The evaded punch hit the wall and immediately shattered the wall tiles.

As the wall tiles scattered, Ito Xuanhong quickly crouched down and lunged out of the enclosed space formed by the Atlas brown bear and the wall, and at the same time, picked up a broken tile in his hand.

--This guy is still human.

This Atlas brown bear is not only strong and frightening, speed and reaction is also ridiculously fast, it is simply a fighting machine.

Originally, Ito Xuanhong had planned to pin down the pillar man and torture him about the man with the back bow, but now it seemed that this plan was a pipe dream, and even his own safety was in question.

"It's a pity that this won't be the last name I hear.

Ito Xuanhong pretended to be relaxed and patted the dust on his body.

--At least, he didn't figure out that Ziongzong and I were actually the same person.

"If you want to find that kid, then ......"

Ito Xuanhong deliberately lengthened his tail, gripped the brick and slammed it with all his might into the Atlas brown bear, then turned around and ran wildly.

This is called a temporary retreat, more bluntly, is to escape.

This is shameful in the eyes of people who practice martial arts, but Ito Xuanhong knows very well what is more important now, face such things most of the time is used to delay, not to mention that you can not expect to rely on face in the critical time to explode the small universe - completely unreliable things.

After escaping from the bathroom, Ito Xuanhong blended into the crowd, in the crowd, the tall Atlas brown bear is in the light, and he was in the dark, after a patient hiding position, Ito Xuanhong finally escaped from the vision of this dangerous fighting machine.

--Miscalculation.

There were still two hours to go before arriving at the port.

"We can see the pier now.

"Yeah, it's huge."

"We're half an hour away, finally. ......"

"Oh, not yet. We have an eight-hour train ride ahead of us."

Uesugi Yui and Katagiri Mai were standing at the edge of the deck chatting.

In their view, they can already see Shanghai, China clearly.

Their girlishness was in full effect here, and they couldn't help but talk excitedly about the new things they saw.

At a certain point in the heated discussion, they both paused in unison.

"Just now, ......?

The reason for the pause was that they both felt the ship suddenly give a slight vibration, although it then returned to calm.

"What happened? It seems to have shaken a little?

"I felt it too, but it seemed to stop."

"Yes, it's true. ...... It was very faint, maybe it was the current or something."

"By the way, why isn't Ziongzong here yet?"

"I saw him when I went out, but then we separated on the way back together."

"Why? Can't you get along with him?"

"Yes, it's a bit hard to get along with him. ...... But it's not because of this reason that we separated."

Uesugi Yui said "Oh..." in a deep voice.

"I'll go back to my room and wait for him.

At this time, Uesugi Yui did not know that she would not be able to see Ziongzong on the ship anymore.