Awakening

“Hey, you two are so noisy, can you keep your voice down?” Lei Yin can’t endure anymore and loudly protested.

But no one cared his protest, the two people indulging in the game completely forgot the other person’s existence.

The protester somewhat reluctantly said: “I really don’t understand, what’s the fun playing this RPG game. Always staying in one place, not only a waste of time, but it’s also meaningless.”

“You shut up, this is the first time I play again King of Fighters 97 which I found it in an elderly’s antique store, so you’re unworthy to say such a thing.” Takeda continued the journey of treasure hunting while loudly refute. (TL: the author clearly never played KOF)

“Then how come the two of you just casually come in and out to someone else’s house, and also secretly wrest away and hog other people’s TV set to play that d*mn game.” Lei Yin expressed his dissatisfaction again.

“We sympathize with you living here all alone, so we especially come over to liven up the atmosphere.” Yoshikawa didn’t even show a trace of repentance.

“Since the two of you are so determined, when you leave, please clean your garbage and sweep the floor.”

“Eh, Takeda, which way to go next?”

“Go left, no, go right.”

The rebellious duo calmly shielded their minds off from that last sentence.

Lei Yin turned around and saw sitting across him Akira Shiraishi was still thinking. He didn’t push him but gently picked up the cup to take a sip of tea. They were not playing fast chest, so they could take the time to think about their next move. But life is not necessarily like this. If everything is according to the plan, where’s the fun in that? People who do so should not be a lot.

Lei Yin was interrupted once again, this time, it came from the outside doorbell.

Kazumi, troublemaker, salesperson, a few words appeared in Lei Yin’s mind.

When he opened the door, he found all of his guesses seemed wrong.

Outside stood five people, three boys, and two girls, all were college students. Nothing in their hands can be regarded as weapons, nor there were items to sell.

“Excuse me, are you student Gennai?” A boy with a flat head first asked.

“I am Gennai Masashi, what can I do for you?” Lei Yin abandoned his pointless speculation and concentrated on listening to their purpose of coming here.

“We are all Chinese students enrolled at Teikyo University, this time, we come to express our sincere gratitude to student Gennai.” That boy earnestly said.

”Gratitude? Let’s look for a place outside to talk about it. One moment please.” Taking into account that their group members were many, plus his place was already occupied, Lei Yin thought it would be better to find some other place to talk.

“Akira, I’m going out.” Lei Yin went back to the house and said to Akira Shiraishi.

“Come back quickly.” Akira Shiraishi didn’t want their game to be over.

“It should not be too long.” Lei Yin went out.

Not that Lei Yin is particularly fond of coffee, he just thought the cafe was quieter, so he brought the several college students to the nearby coffee shop.

After the waiter had delivered their cups of steaming coffee, Lei Yin asked the student who talked first, “Can you make it clear? I remember that I don’t seem to know any of you, let alone helping you about something.”

“Student Gennai, I would like to introduce myself, I am Zhang Mingyu, from Xiamen, Fujian, now studying Business in Teikyo University for the third year. The other are also like me, all are Chinese students.”

After being introduced one by one, Lei Yin nodded to everyone as a way of greeting.

Apart from Zhang Mingyu, the other two boys names were Wu Yanfang and Zhang Donghai, respectively come from Hubei and Zhejiang. As for the two girls, one named Fang Xiaolei, also come from Zhejiang. Another one is called Zhang Shan, an equally quiet Sichuan girl.

Zhang Mingyu was the longest in Japan as he had followed his father to Japan when he was still in high school. That was five years ago. The shortest time in Japan is the boy called Zhang Donghai, he was this year’s freshman just like Lei Yin. Perhaps because he was still not too skilled in Japanese, he didn’t always make a sound.

“Student Gennai, the reason why this time we come to you, is because we wanted to thank you for speaking with a sense of justice in that history lesson. Once we know of your performance that day, all of us Chinese and Korea’s International students are very excited. For your righteous words and deed, all of us students are very grateful. So, the few of us on behalf of all the Chinese students now give you our sincere gratitude.” Zhang Mingyu was getting more and more excited.

“You’re welcome, I was just speaking the truth.”

“You....” The several people were startled because he just spoke with fluent Chinese.

“Is it strange? Or I still have problems with my pronunciation?” Lei Yin continued to say fluent Chinese with a smile.

“Unexpectedly student Gennai can speak Chinese so well. This really surprised us.” Zhang Donghai of Zhejiang still could not conceal the surprise in his face.

“Student Gennai, may I ask where did you learn Chinese? Do you have family members that are Chinese?” The square faced Wu Yanfang asked.

“I have long admired the Chinese culture, so I taught myself Chinese.” Lei Yin didn’t want to use Chinese surname to deceive them.

Hearing his answer, Wu Yanfang was slightly disappointed.

“We know some people who maliciously slander you from behind. If student Gennai does not mind, all of us are willing to help you.” Zhang Mingyu said sincerely.

“Thank you for your kindness, but I don’t need any help. You all came here from far away to study, I don’t want you to meddle in this matter. Every big rumor will one day subside. Therefore, you don’t need to pay attention to the words of those people.” Lei Yin asserted his rejection.

“But....”

“There’s this saying, ‘the more you touch things up, the darker they get’ (to only make matters worse), I believe you should understand what I mean.” Lei Yin didn’t want to discuss this topic.

Lei Yin totally wanted them to stay out of this. Now inside the campus there were only some students who extremely hate “Gennai Masashi,” but if these students meddle in this matter, then it could turn into a confrontation between Japanese and Chinese students. At that time, the situation will become very complicated.

Zhang Mingyu bowed his head to think for a moment, and then said: “I think I understand what student Gennai means. If you need us in the future, we will certainly help you as best as we can.”

“Thank you.”

Over time, the topic slowly turned into a form of gossip. Lei Yin, because it has been quite a long time didn’t talk to his own people, engaged in a deep conversation with them. These several Chinese students were surprised to find this Chinese-speaking Japanese guy’s understanding of China is far beyond their imagination.

There were many historical events about China and some local native product that they heard for the first time. In the face of this Japanese who was more Chinese than the Chinese, Zhang Mingyu and the other boys couldn’t help but blush with shame. But the other two girls were getting more and more curious with this mysterious boy.

After chatting with ease for almost an hour, Lei Yin finally said goodbye to them. Those several students were reluctant to part with him, and only after they exchanged contact information, did they bid him farewell.

Returned to the apartment, Lei Yin saw Yoshikawa and Takeda were still playing games, but he did not know where Akira Shiraishi went.

“He went to buy the cigarette.” Eating chips while holding the controller easily, Takeda vaguely replied.

“Hey, what times are you guys going to go? Tonight, I have to go back home.” Lei Yin has arranged a date with Naoko tonight.

“Do not send, remember to bring back some souvenirs for us.” Yoshikawa seemed to hear only the last sentence.

Looking at their stubborn look, Lei Yin had no other choice.

At this time, the door was opened, Akira Shiraishi came back.

“Masashi, there’s a letter outside the door.” After taking off his shoes at the entrance, Akira Shiraishi handed Lei Yin a letter.

“Is that a challenge letter?” Takeda hurriedly paused the game and turned over.

Since Lei Yin safely came out of the Karate Club, for several days nobody sent challenge letters to him, but the number of cursing letters continued to increase unabated.

“See for yourself, I want to take a bath.” Lei Yin casually threw the letter to him, and then went to the room to get a change of clothes.

When Masashi finished his shower, still dripping with water walking out into the living room, Takeda suddenly said to him in a loud voice: “Masashi, this is not a challenge letter, this is a love letter.”

—-

In the metropolitan police underground firing range, the sound of gunfire constantly blared out.

After firing the last bullet, Eiko Kotoshi put down her earmuffs.

This firing range is the place that she often comes. This young female police who always tries to outdo others is not willing to be treated as a person who only knows how to write reports while sitting in the office. Therefore, since she took over the position of a staff officer, as long as there is time, she will insist on coming here for shooting practice. But today, she spent more than half the usual amount of bullets.

After handing over the gun at the reception desk, this female adviser felt a bit tired.

For over a week, the so-called trapping plan seemed to have no effect at all.

Cooperating with various districts police station, they’ve sent their people posing as ordinary persons in the areas the killer may appear as bait to lure him out. But now, it appeared that the results were unsatisfactory. Every two or three days, somewhere they’ll find victims with blood being sucked out. As with the previous Tokyo Ripper, it’s hard to lie to the public anymore. The folk started to spread various version of vampire stories. Some people even hung cross with garlic on their entrance door. Although it seemed amusing, it also showed that the public anxiety continued to expand. The pressure from the top was also growing.

Although the local police have been working overtime to catch the murderer, the investment was not directly proportional to the results, making a lot of people depressed.

The blood-sucking freak seemed to know about the police movement, and so far never appeared in the sight of the police. ‘Does this mean we neglected all of those victims?’ The policewoman pondered as she continued to drive.

Although such driving habit is not conducive to the traffic safety, at least, so far, there have never been rumors about a report of a female police inspector negligent driving causing an accident.

But this rumor seemed to appear tonight. Because she failed to hit the brake on time, this female police officer’s car hit some road sign railing.

This kind of result happened not because of the bad driving habit of the female police officer, but because she heard a sharp scream.

Having no time to feel guilty about the crooked road sign, the female police officer fiercely turned the steering wheel toward the direction of the scream.

Although the overly rational Eiko Kotoshi did not believe in something as vague as intuition that has no scientific basis, at the moment, she felt she was getting closer and closer to the murderer.

Now it’s 10 PM, although most parts of Tokyo are equipped with adequate lighting, this doesn’t guarantee that there would be light in all the dark areas. And this was precisely the place where the scream came from, in one of those neglected corners.

When Eiko Kotoshi drove her car to a place near the residential park, she no longer heard the sound.

Under the lighting of the street lights, there was only her.

The trained policewoman knew that in this dark environment, getting out of the car is a very dangerous thing. So, she did not do that, and only held the pistol with her right hand while slowing down the car speed to search forward.

After driving half-way through the park, just as she was about to turn the car back, she finally saw something like a human body lying on the ground.

If you want to know the temperature of the water, the best way to do it is to try it by hand. In order to determine the real situation, Eiko Kotoshi finally opened the door to go out of the car.

Just like a person who usually does not believe in ghost, if late at night, that person found himself in a deserted graveyard, he would still feel afraid. In this circumstances Eiko Kotoshi also felt very nervous, her right hand that was holding the gun was numb because she was holding it too tightly.

She has determined that the object a few steps away in front of her is a person. She just didn’t know whether that person was alive or dead.

When she touched that person’s hand, she felt it was somewhat warm, but she knew he was already dead. Because he has lost his breath.

When she turned the dead man over, she saw the person was a man of about 30 years of age, and he also had a strong smell of alcohol. Opening his collar, sure enough, on his neck artery, she found a gruesome teeth marks, a trace of blood poured out of the wound.

Seeing that flow of blood, Eiko Kotoshi’s heart moved. According to previous autopsy reports, all of the victims are being drained out of blood, nothing was left behind. This trace of blood flow was the first time she saw it. Therefore, there was only one possible explanation, that is, before the murderer sucked all the blood out, he was interrupted by her arrival. If this assumption is true, that means, the killer has just left, or....He was still nearby.

Suddenly, she felt goosebumps all over her body, forcing her to immediately stand up.

She seemed to hear a burst of beast-like panting sound resounded in the vicinity.