Finally, it was over.
Aozawa sighed to himself. He was currently a crow, perched on a branch outside the tropolitan Police Departnt eting room.
Initially, the ntion of Dio’s na had drawn him to the eting. He had transford into a gecko, clinging to the window fra to listen in.
After a while, he grew bored, crawled behind a tree, transford back into a crow, and watched the eting room lights from afar.
Aozawa didn’t fly away or go exploring. He simply had a burning determination in his heart. He wanted to see how long these people could keep their eting going.
The truth was, he had underestimated their ability to hold etings.
A very small matter, in the mouths of these elites, beca an overly complex and convoluted issue.
All the specialized jargon and divisions of departntal responsibility made Aozawa acutely aware of his own lack of knowledge.
But he didn’t feel any envy, only that this group really had nothing better to do with their ti.
A matter that could be settled with one sentence.
Yet they insisted on countless roundabout probes before uttering that sentence. Using their clever brains to delve into such matters truly left him speechless.
Aozawa flapped his wings and left.
His trip wasn’t without gain; among those at the eting, he had identified soone unusual.
It was Emily, wearing a Western-style dress, her face like a doll’s.
Not wearing formal attire on such an occasion was strange.
Not to ntion, those elites had actually let Emily speak at the podium.
Clearly, she held a special status in the special case unit.
...
The fourth eting officially concluded.
Suppressing the anger in her heart, Emily strode quickly out of the tropolitan Police Departnt toward the parking area.
Her bottled-up rage burst forth. She fiercely kicked a car tire, exclaiming angrily, "A bunch of idiots! They promised to expand the special case unit, but not a single word was ntioned about it! All of them just shirking responsibility! What a waste of my ti!"
In response to her outburst, Okayama Buji just shrugged and said, "Co on, don’t be angry. Everything is moving in a positive direction."
At his words, Emily’s azure eyes widened in shock. "I thought you hated those kinds of etings just like I do. Could it be that you have a masochistic streak, finding joy in pain?"
"I don’t have that kind of fetish. I just see the true purpose behind this eting," Okayama Buji replied, opening his car door.
Emily got into the back seat.
Beside her was the tall Katerina.
"What’s the point of all this buck-passing?" Emily asked.
Hearing her question, Okayama Buji patiently explained, "The person who wants to expand the special case unit is Republic Party councilor, Yasuda Masao. He wants to catch Dio to prove his authority and make it clear what happens to those who cross people under his protection.
"But our Police Director belongs to the Liberal Democratic Party. Rather than solving Dio’s case, he’s more interested in causing Yasuda Masao a setback to undermine the Republic Party’s reputation.
"Yasuda Masao cannot bypass the Police Director to expand the special case unit. He also has to deal with the Public Security Commission’s six mbers questioning his interference with the tropolitan Police Departnt. To achieve these two conditions, Yasuda Masao must escalate the situation, drawing in more people and departnts.
"He needs them to realize that if Dio’s case is exposed, they could beco scapegoats forced to resign. Just you watch. At the end of tomorrow’s eting, soone from the Republic Party will definitely offer to take full responsibility for the Dio incident.
"The precondition will be that the special case unit must be expanded as soon as possible. At that point, various departnts will unite to help Yasuda Masao expand the special case unit, reciprocating the goodwill he has shown.
"An exchange of interests. This is the tacit understanding among politicians."
After listening to Okayama Buji’s explanation, Emily pouted. "What a hassle!"
"As long as it involves power, there are no trivial matters." Okayama Buji shrugged.
He was born into a police family, and his father had begun teaching him from a very young age about the objectives behind leaders’ etings.
All etings weren’t established to solve problems but to negotiate the distribution of power.
Solving problems was rely a secondary task, addressed after power had been distributed.
Of course, not all problems could be resolved.
When it ca to matters involving public livelihood and infrastructure, no matter how much power was allocated, no one was willing to genuinely tackle them.
Benefiting the public would inevitably an cutting into the "cake" of those with vested interests.
How could capitalism undertake sothing tantamount to its own revolution?
Moreover, such matters took a long ti to resolve and even longer to yield returns.
For the ruling party, it was better to make grandiose promises to win voter support than to tarnish their own reputation while letting the next administration reap the benefits.
...
They chatted leisurely along the way.
Okayama Buji parked the car in front of Emily’s house.
It was a two-story mansion. Thick iron plates had been lowered over the doors and windows, sealing them shut.
In the yard, there were surveillance caras and an infrared alarm system. The system wouldn’t sound an alarm on-site but would instead alert Emily on her phone to any intrusions.
As a detective who easily made enemies, Emily was very cautious about her personal safety.
The iron plates sealing the doors and windows could only be opened remotely from the outside.
To avoid the embarrassnt of being trapped by hackers, a manual override for the doors had been added inside.
This house was her self-made safe haven.
"I’ll co pick you up tomorrow morning."
"Okay," Emily sighed deeply.
To expand the special case unit and catch Dio as soon as possible, she just had to tolerate those people’s nonsense.
"Be careful," Okayama Buji reminded her.
Emily smiled. "Don’t worry. Once I’m in this safe house, no one can hurt ."
Katerina took the control key for the door out of her pocket, first disabling the infrared alarm at the entrance, then raising the iron plates that blocked the doors and windows.
Emily and Katerina walked inside.
anwhile, above the safe house, Aozawa transford from a peregrine falcon into a mosquito and quickly approached the balcony.
His thinking was simple: no matter what security devices Emily had, they were designed to guard against people, not mosquitoes.
Unless there was a very inconspicuous electric net at the doorway.
Aozawa glanced inside and didn’t spot any dangerous devices that could kill a mosquito.
Furthermore, the balcony door was not shut. With the iron plates previously lowered, Emily indeed hadn’t seen a need to also close the balcony door.
Aozawa flew in easily. Reaching a corner near the wall, he transford back into a gecko.
The darkness inside was actually more conducive to a gecko’s vision. He quickly scanned the second-floor living room and explored further, confirming there were no surveillance caras in any corner of the house.
They probably thought the iron plates made the house impenetrable, that no one could sneak in.
In front of the couch, Aozawa swiftly transford into Dio’s at-ho appearance—shirtless, his upper garnt simultaneously transforming into a book with an intricately designed cover.
He sat down nonchalantly, crossed his legs, and opened the book. Its pages were entirely blank. He quietly waited for the lights to co on.
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