Chapter 200: Cranberry Cookies
Beside the hospital bed, Shirai Anko opened her eyes, revealing pupils that were filled with a surging darkness.

She took a deep breath. The black fog that had required great effort to suppress in the past was now extremely obedient and automatically retreated and returned to normal, even the eye that was covered. She no longer needed to suppress the darkness and evil because they had already merged with each other.

Okamura Tokuo lying on the hospital bed trembled and opened his eyes, which were filled with tears.

He looked around in a trance, and finally his gaze stopped on Shirai's face. His expression suddenly turned full of regret and self-blame.

"I, I was really wrong. I am guilty! I am deeply sinful! Lord Shirai!"

He suddenly burst into tears, as if he was infected by Shirai's ability and completely turned over a new leaf.

Shirai watched his performance quietly, calm and collected.

She didn't know whether the other party had really woken up or was just acting, but she only knew that the dead would not be resurrected and sins needed to be judged.

"Perhaps, all this is the retribution for my past absurdities! Lord Shirai, Amaterasu must have sent you here to let me start a new life, try my best to be a good person who repays the society, and save more people from suffering - cough cough!" Okamura burst into tears, covered his heart, and coughed wildly when he got excited.

The door of the ward was opened and the subordinate guarding the door looked in nervously.

"Get out! Can't you see that Lord Shirai and I are talking about something?!" Okamura's face turned red due to coughing, and he did not forget to point at the subordinate who opened the door and scolded.

The subordinate hastily apologized and quickly and quietly closed the door.

"Hey, I feel like I'm feeling a lot better. Lord Shirai, am I fully recovered?" Okamura stroked his chest, looked closely at Shirai and asked softly, hoping to get a promise to stay alive.

"Your illness is too serious." The first sentence Shirai said made Okamura's heart rise, but fortunately, he heard the next sentence, "You need multiple treatments."

"Huh." Okamura suddenly felt full of hope again. "So, it can be cured, right?"

Shirai lowered his eyes and nodded, "Yes."

Okamura couldn't suppress a smile on his face, and said eagerly, "So, Master Shirai, when will the next treatment be arranged? I don't mean to rush you, I'm just afraid that my body can't hold out for too much longer. I also want to set up a charity as soon as possible and devote the rest of my life to it."

"You are in your current condition and can go home for recuperation. Please arrange for someone to pick me up in three days. In the next few days, you should maintain your mental state and avoid emotional fluctuations." Shirai gave advice like a doctor.

"Thank you, thank you so much! Lord Shirai, if you have any instructions, just tell me. Although our Okamura family is not a big family, we believe we can still do our part and perhaps be of help in some areas." Okamura thanked him sincerely.

"No need, just wait for me to come, and then you won't have to suffer anymore."

Having said everything he wanted to say, Shirai had no intention of staying to chat, nor did he mention anything in the other person's memory. He left at the same leisurely pace as when he came.

After Shirai left the room, Okamura's bright smile gradually faded, and his expression showed a little hesitation, as if he was thinking about something.

"Okamura-sama, Shirai-sama has left."

The subordinate came back to report.

Okamura nodded and said, "Give me the paper information about Shirai Kyoko that you mentioned last time. Keep it confidential."

"Yes."

After his subordinates left, Okamura turned to look at the sunlight outside the window and stretched out his hand impatiently, as if he wanted to catch a ray of light full of vitality.

"This is the extraordinary. Wonderful, amazing, the resurrection of the extraordinary. Maybe, in this life, I am indeed a demon sword that has not yet awakened. However, there is still one person missing, just one person. I need to create another work of art with my own hands. Be patient, be patient."

Special Affairs Bureau.

Takashima came back from handling chores, and before he had a chance to rest, Noguchi told him that Shirai had gone to treat Okamura.

In the entire Special Affairs Bureau, if we were to say who knows Shirai best, it would be Takashima.

She had a bad feeling in her heart and found Shirai in the restaurant.

"Eating noodles again?" Takashima glanced at the noodles on her table and sat down opposite her.

"Well, I'm used to it."

"Was the Okonomiyaki delicious? It was just a little too long since I brought it back, so it's cold."

"I ate this with Kondo, it was delicious, thank you Takashima-san."

Takashima chatted with him tentatively and found that Shirai's emotions seemed to be normal. Instead, he was unusually stable.

This is better than remaining silent.

Once upon a time, Takashima entered this system with a passion for ideals, but her ambitions were worn out step by step. She had to face the reality, and fortunately she met her guide, Takeshi Noguchi. In the system, Noguchi can be regarded as the one who is most fearless of power. In his eyes, crimes committed by the powerful can be investigated without any warning, but most of the time the judiciary does not stand on his side.

"Don't forget, I promised to take you to eat puffer fish sashimi, but I've been busy. After this, let's go together."

"Yes, definitely."

".Are you sure you want to join the Holy Infant Society, regard it as your new family, unite under the Holy Infant, and never betray it?"

"I am sure!"

".You are still young, so keep everything simple for now. From now on, you are an apprentice member of the Holy Infant Society. Once you pass the assessment, you will go through the formal initiation ceremony with the others."

In Huajin Hotel, an activity room of the Holy Infant Society, a group of core members witnessed the joining of a new member.

Somewhat different from the past, this young member had already been quite popular among the members. Everyone, even as an intern, expressed a warm welcome to her joining, and some girls even prepared cakes by themselves.

Nakai Shun ignored the noise and handed the trainee member badge with Inukai Komomo's name to Komomo, who touched and looked at it curiously. This may subvert the imagination of many people outside. The Holy Infant Society is actually not serious. It is completely different from those sects that set up many restrictions to create a mysterious atmosphere and recite "classics" every day. Except for daily homework and Sunday rituals, the rest of the time is quite relaxed. At least on the surface, there is no gap between members and they cooperate sincerely.

Hirosue Yoshimiya, who came on behalf of the family, took a piece of cake, stood aside, brushed off the greasy cream, and ate it slowly.

These days, she has been following the routine. Apart from going to school, she has been studying the ability of [forgery] and has figured out some new things.

According to the Ninth Protector's instructions, she no longer conducts awakening experiments, but instead assists Nakai Hayabusa in selecting members to join the club, creating files, and examining those who are suitable for taking the elixir.

Unlike in the college where she seemed to be able to talk to everyone, she was extremely low-key in the company and was just casual acquaintance with most people.

Although in fact she didn't have any close friends in the academy, she herself didn't like socializing. In the company, she could take off her mask and just maintain her role in the hearts of the Nine Protectors.

After eating cake for lunch, she said hello to Nakai Hayabusa and left.

She had classes in the afternoon, so she took time to come here.

Learning is still useful to her, even if the teacher is teaching, she will learn her own things below.

Shengying College, after class.

As usual, people gathered around Hirosue Yoshimiya, talking about some interesting things that happened recently, and according to the family's instructions, asked her for some inside information about Shinagawa District.

"Really? For something so big like this, we only got two days off."

“You can be a volunteer for up to half a month.”

"Hey~ I don't want to touch those homeless people. The skin care products I use on my hands are more precious than their lives."

"Haha, how can you say that? They don't want to do that either."

"Just think about it, the conditions there might be difficult to even take a shower, and the water supply has to be concentrated in one place, so it must be very dirty."

In such a small circle, and given their age as college students, many things they say are blunt and explicit.

Hirosue did not participate in it, but just maintained her standard smile and talked to others from time to time.

"Hirosuehiromiya."

A voice came from the doorway, calling her by her full name, causing the students still in the classroom to turn their heads curiously.

"It's Kondo-san."

"Why did she come to see Hirosue?"

"Who knows."

Standing at the door was Saki Kondo from another class.

Guang Mo stood up and walked to the door: "What do you want to talk to me about?"

".Shirai asked me to give it to you." Kondo's face did not look good, and he was holding a bag of biscuits in his hand.

Guang Mo's eyes froze for a moment, but soon returned to normal: "Oh, she actually thought of making snacks for me, she didn't poison me, did she?"

"Don't think everyone else is as dirty as you!"

Kondo glared at her murderously, stuffed the bag of biscuits into her hands, turned around and left, not wanting to see Hirosue again.

Hirosue's smile slowly faded, and as he looked at the biscuit bag in his hand, which was as exquisitely packaged as before, he felt more confused.

She is not omniscient. For example, after Shirai entered the Special Affairs Bureau, she did not know much about her. She could only guess that she would most likely become a guest of honor for many important figures, and she did not know whether her personality would change.

However, what she just said about poisoning was just to test Kondo's reaction and see if she knew something.

But it seems that Shirai really just asked her to give him this bag of cookies, and given Kondo's personality, he would definitely not open it, so.
After putting away the cookies and saying goodbye to his curious classmates, Hirosue returned home a little earlier than usual.

The Shinagawa District monster incident had far-reaching implications, and their Hananishiki Group also suffered a lot of losses. However, these were not important. It was just that there were a lot more things to do, resulting in her being the only one left at home, and even her mother was dragged away to help. That was why she took the time out to participate in the new member activity on behalf of the Hirosue family at noon today.

Returning to the room, she sat down at the desk, spread a layer of paper towels, took out the biscuits from the bag, and poured them out.

Unlike the last time when she was disdainful, she was extra careful this time.

After a few tries, sure enough, there was a folded piece of paper in there that was about the same color as the biscuit.

When I opened it, there was only the time and place written on it.

"Such a careful contact can only be made to avoid the Special Affairs Bureau, so why?" Thinking about the clues she knew so far, she picked up a cranberry biscuit and put it in her mouth.

She didn't eat the cranberry cookies last time, so she didn't know what they tasted like, but she had eaten the honey cookies made by Anzu Shirai before, and they were sweet.

And this is bitter.

Swallowing the bitterness, she took out the camouflage mask she made with [Forgery] from the cabinet and stroked the crying face pattern on it.

"I hope you have really thought it through."

(End of this chapter)