Chapter 142: The Kamikawa Family

Director Takahashi paused in his steps.

Not long ago, after the incident involving Master Konghai, the Extraordinary Response Division held a meeting that mentioned the "Lost King," and during that meeting, they discussed investigating Wang Zun, a person suspected of being connected to the "Lost King."

The "Lost King" is mysterious and powerful, almost certainly of extremely high status; to avoid provoking the "Lost King," the Extraordinary Response Division adopted a gentle policy toward investigating Wang Zun, with Tian Wu and Yoshimura Yoshikichi serving as the lead investigators.

For the past week, they have surveilled Wang Zun, hoping to find any link between him and the "Lost King" to prove his connection to it.

Simultaneously, they conducted a family investigation into Wang Zun.

The reason is simple: the "Lost King" is of extremely high status and immense power, very likely an ancient figure; if Wang Zun is connected to him, his background may also be extraordinary.

Director Takahashi knew that after a week of surveillance, Wang Zun showed no signs of connection to the "Lost King."

It is nearly certain that Wang Zun has no link to the Lost King.

Yet Tian Wu specifically came by helicopter to report—clearly, he has discovered something unexpected.

"What were the results of the family investigation on Wang Zun?"

Director Takahashi grew curious; the higher-ups of the Extraordinary Response Division had often wondered about Wang Zun's family, running through every famous person with the surname "Kamikawa," even consulting Professor Beishan, a historian, to ask if any notable historical figures bore the Kamikawa surname.

Then they discovered that historically, the Kamikawa surname had produced no illustrious figures.

Even Professor Beishan did not recognize any prominent names—how could Tian Wu's team uncover any notable family lineage?

"We found that Wang Zun's family is not native to Tokyo; according to household registration records, his ancestors settled in Tokyo during the generation of his great-grandfather, having originally come from the border region between Honshu and Shikoku."

Since the Ceng Zufu generation is over a hundred years ago, pinpointing their exact location within the Honshu-Shikoku border region is extremely difficult.

We spent several days, enlisted help from local household registration offices, even mobilized the police, yet still found nothing.

We were about to give up, until a staff member at the household registration office reminded us—only then did we finally locate Wang Zun's ancestral homeland."

Tian Wu handed Director Takahashi a file containing details on Wang Zun's ancestral homeland and his Ceng Zufu's generation.

He took the documents.

Director Takahashi was astonished.

Finding a person's ancestral origin is like searching for a needle in a haystack—Tian Wu actually managed it.

You have to understand that when it comes to tracing a family's ancestral hometown, the first issue is time—because the historical era is so far back, a great deal of information has long been lost to history and is impossible to track down.

On top of that, the border area between Honshu and Shikoku may sound at first like a very small search range.

But no matter how small, it is still a very large area with a huge population, and as the times have developed, transportation has become increasingly convenient, so population movement has been enormous—not everyone stays in one place for a lifetime. Therefore, the people currently living in the border area are not all native to it; some may have moved in from elsewhere, while others have moved out.

So if you want to find people who lived in the Honshu–Shikoku border area during your great-grandfather's generation, you can't just go to the border area and expect to find them at random—it really is like searching for a needle in a haystack.

To put it bluntly, this isn't a TV drama or a novel, where someone says "find your family's records" and you locate them effortlessly without breaking a sweat. Don't kid yourself—what do you think this is, a game? Reality is far harsher than that.

"You found this?" Director Takahashi exclaimed repeatedly—he had no hope at all, yet they actually succeeded: "What did that household registration staff member remind you of?"

According to Tian Wu, that staff member's reminder played a decisive role.

As he spoke, Director Takahashi opened the file.

"Seto Inland Sea? This is Wang Zun's ancestral homeland?"

Seto Inland Sea refers to a narrow strait between Honshu and Shikoku, named so because it lies within multiple straits, formed by tectonic subsidence.

"This is the location where Wang Zun's Ceng Zufu generation resided; reportedly, his Ceng Zufu's parents also lived there. Tracing further back may not have been in the Seto Inland Sea—if we tried, it would be extremely difficult."

"But we have already made discoveries regarding Wang Zun's family lineage—no need to trace further."

In his tone, one could sense Tian Wu's excitement.

Anyone could see that Tian Wu had made a major discovery—otherwise, he wouldn't be this elated.

Then Tian Wu spoke.

"The border region between Honshu and Shikoku is vast and densely populated; checking every household one by one would take months. We had to narrow the scope—Mr. Murata helped us with this. Oh, Mr. Murata is the elderly staff member from the household registration office."

He was born in the Seto Inland Sea and has lived there since childhood—he knows the area intimately.

Mr. Murata advised us that we didn't need to search the entire border region; we only needed to look in the upstream areas near rivers and waterways."

Everyone was confused.

How had Mr. Murata narrowed the search? Why focus only on upstream river areas?

Only Professor Beishan, the historian, seemed to grasp something—his eyes lit up: "Could it be…"

At that moment, Tian Wu spoke plainly.

"I was initially curious why Mr. Murata wanted us to search those places. Later, he told me it was because of Wang Zun's surname, Kamikawa."

He explained that in ancient Japan, surnames were symbols of honor—only the imperial family could bestow them, and anyone granted a surname was invariably illustrious.

Not everyone had a surname; only nobles and elites did. Commoners had only given names.

Later, during the Meiji era, to facilitate conscription, taxation, and household registration, Emperor Meiji issued the "Edict Allowing Commoners to Adopt Surnames," permitting all Japanese—including former commoners who had been forbidden surnames—to take one.

It was from then that every Japanese person acquired a surname.

But at that time, most commoners lacked education, and given the conditions, they cared only about practical matters like livelihood and income when choosing surnames, so they picked them arbitrarily.

How arbitrary?

Japanese surnames often contain characters like "kawa" (river), "ta" (field), "yama" (mountain), "no" (field)—not because people admired nature, but because uneducated commoners could only use familiar terms: from sun, moon, stars, to flowers, birds, fish, insects; from occupations and residences to natural phenomena—all could become surnames.

For example, a farming family in the countryside might take "Murano" as their surname; one living near a ferry crossing might take "Watanabe"; one residing on Matsushima Island might take "Matsushima."

As Tian Wu spoke, everyone suddenly understood.

Mr. Murata had deduced the river-upstream search based on Wang Zun's surname, Kamikawa.

"Kawa" means river or waterway; wherever there is a river, there is usually flat land, so "kawa" also refers to low-lying, flat areas between mountains or plateaus—flat plains.

Given the commoners' habit of choosing surnames, "Kami-kawa" almost certainly meant their home was located along a river or waterway, specifically in its upper reaches.

Given that the Seto Inland Sea is full of straits, it's safe to conclude that "Kamikawa" here refers not to a plain, but to the upper reaches of rivers or waterways.

At this point, Tian Wu continued.

"We narrowed our search accordingly and, after extensive inquiries, found several households in the Seto Inland Sea bearing the surname Kamikawa. One of them had a man named Kamikawa Shingo—same name, same surname, same location as Wang Zun's grandfather; we can confirm they are the same person."

"Additionally, by interviewing descendants of families who lived in the Seto Inland Sea during the Ceng Zufu generation, we learned that an ancient great figure once resided there."

Before Mori Tian Wu could open his mouth to speak, Professor Beishan spoke first.

"Ashiya Dōman!"

……