Qingyao Town Police Station.
"Huff huff"
Kai-chan, covered in injuries, arrived at the police station entrance, standing still, panting heavily.
"Creak~"
Just then, the guard room door was pushed open.
A man in a trench coat stood at the doorway, shining a flashlight on Kai-chan. The strong, dazzling light forced Kai-chan to close his eyes, raising his arm to shield his face.
"Kai-chan?"
The person at the door recognized him, calling out his name.
"Uncle Fujibayashi?"
Kai-chan also recognized the guard's voice, and with a joyful heart, walked towards the guard room.
"Come in quickly."
Fujibayashi pulled Kai-chan into the guard room, making him sit on a chair.
"Why are you at the police station so late? And only wearing so few clothes."
Fujibayashi looked at Kai-chan, who was thinly dressed, then shook off his own trench coat, taking it off and draping it over Kai-chan.
"Why are you covered in injuries?"
As Fujibayashi draped the coat over him, he saw the scratches and bloodstains on Kai-chan's face and arms. He reached out, pinched his chin, and gently turned his head left and right.
Both sides of his face had numerous scratches and bloodstains from branches and vegetation.
"What happened?"
Fujibayashi's brows immediately furrowed tightly. This child, Kai-chan, they had watched him grow up.
Ever since Kai-chan's father, Aozuke, died of illness, Kai-chan's family had lived extremely frugally.
The people in the town had all received help from Aozuke in the past, so they would help Kai-chan's family whenever they could.
"Uncle Fujibayashi..."
Kai-chan took a deep breath, looked at Fujibayashi, his voice trembling slightly.
"My mother, she..."
Kai-chan recounted everything he had discovered, suspected, seen, and felt since going up the mountain to Fujibayashi.
After listening, Fujibayashi lowered his head in thought. The guard room fell into a brief silence.
A moment later, Fujibayashi snapped out of his contemplation. He looked at Kai-chan's blood-streaked face, patted his shoulder, and comforted him.
"Get some sleep, Kai-chan."
Kai-chan heard this and shifted his gaze to Fujibayashi, his eyes still holding the terror he had felt.
"No matter what happened, we will investigate thoroughly."
Fujibayashi's face broke into a reassuring smile, comforting him again and giving him a definite answer.
Kai-chan's fear subsided slightly, but he was still unsettled.
"Whoosh..."
Fujibayashi walked to the window, opened it, and looked out at the dark Qingyao Mountain behind the town. Then he turned back to Kai-chan, seeing his terrified expression, and felt even more surprised and suspicious.
What Kai-chan said was hard to believe.
But he also understood that anyone could lie, but Kai-chan was definitely not that kind of person.
He was an honest, kind-hearted child who, to ensure his mother and younger siblings had a good life, would walk five or six hours through a snowstorm just to sell a basket of charcoal.
Fujibayashi had Kai-chan lie down on the only single bed in the guard room to sleep, while he himself guarded the police station entrance until dawn.
The southern region of the Island Nation, due to inconvenient transportation, formed a stark contrast with the developed northern coastal areas in terms of its backwardness.
In the northern coastal regions of the country, cities were brightly lit, with tall buildings everywhere, and traffic flowing incessantly.
In the southern part of the country, apart from Shiraishi City, many areas' economies could not develop due to transportation issues.
For example, a rural town like Qingyao Town still maintained the poverty and backwardness of a century ago, only able to warm themselves by burning charcoal in winter.
Morning, 09:10 AM.
"Duanjie, Yun."
Inside the police station, a middle-aged man in a police uniform selected two young police officers from a group of ten.
"You two go up the mountain with Kai-chan and investigate what happened at his home."
After saying this, the middle-aged man looked at the fatigued Fujibayashi.
"Brother Hishimura, you haven't slept all night. Get some good rest."
"Brother Hishimura, I'll go too."
But Fujibayashi refused, proposing to go up the mountain with Kai-chan.
"You haven't been up the mountain in a long time, are you sure you're okay?"
Hishimura came and stood in front of him, frowning with concern.
"Don't worry, I haven't been slacking off. I've been consistently doing basic training."
"A mountain path of an hour or two won't trouble me."
Fujibayashi looked confident. Hishimura nodded, patted his shoulder, and agreed.
In his opinion, Kai-chan's words were unclear, and the information contained within was limited.
After all, he was just a thirteen-year-old child. Perhaps there was some misunderstanding when he went home at night.
But since the child had run to the police station for help overnight, he had no choice but to send people to follow him back and investigate.
"Let's go."
At the police station entrance, Fujibayashi smiled and patted Kai-chan's shoulder. The two, along with the other two police officers, walked towards Qingyao Mountain.
At this time, the most developed area in the southern region of the Island Nation, Shiraishi Mountain, hundreds of kilometers away from Qingyao Town.
"Last night, we felt an explosion..."
An old woman with white hair was being interviewed by a reporter from a newspaper in Shiraishi City.
Shiraishi Pass was now blocked by the Shiraishi City police.
But many local residents still gathered there. They strolled through Shiraishi Canyon, marveling as the once picturesque scenery had, overnight, transformed into a desolate landscape riddled with craters.
After interviewing the local residents who witnessed the night's explosion, the reporter, with the police's permission, took his cameraman and proceeded along Shiraishi Canyon.
"Around 1:00 AM on the 21st, a violent explosion occurred in Shiraishi Canyon."
"Viewers, we can see that in Shiraishi Canyon, there are numerous circular craters everywhere, as if meteorites have fallen into it."
The reporter and his team walked through Shiraishi Canyon, the camera filming continuously. On the rock walls, in the riverbed, there were craters everywhere, a shocking sight.
It was hard to imagine what kind of explosion had happened last night.
"I heard a sound like a wolf howling..."
"It's yokai! A battle between gods and yokai!"
"Those foreign tourists, their actions on Shiraishi Mountain angered the gods of Shiraishi Mountain. This is the wrath of the gods..."
Along the way, the reporter interviewed many different people, all claiming to have personally witnessed the explosion in the early hours of the night.
"What do they think this place is!?"
"Evacuate all these people!"
A group of officials in black suits arrived at Shiraishi Pass, scanned the local residents gathered in the canyon, and ordered the police to evacuate them.
Subsequently, the police, amidst the local residents' dissatisfied protests, evacuated all irrelevant personnel.
"Hiss hiss..."
After an unknown period, three black multi-purpose SUVs stopped at Shiraishi Pass. Three men in black suits and black trench coats stepped out.
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