Chapter 128: Would you be willing to let me take care of you? (Third update!)

Tokyo, mid-December, at the funeral site.

The funeral home staff were shocked by the scene: so many important figures had actually come to the funeral of a female university student!

From Director Ukai of the Tokyo Medical and Dental University Hospital Medical Department downwards, every department head and professor was present, and over a hundred doctors holding mid-to-high-level medical titles had arrived.

From Criminal Investigation Department Chief Mouri Takayoshi of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department downwards, over a hundred police officers with the rank of Police Inspector or Assistant Police Inspector had also arrived, and Chief of the Public Relations Division Togasaki Tomonobu had even brought the entire Public Relations Division band to perform music at the site.

Half in black suits, half in navy blue police uniforms, the scene was grand and imposing; they had even brought the large cherry blossom emblem flag of the Metropolitan Police Department.

"I can swear that this is the greatest honor of Ms. Saito's entire life."

Dressed in a standard winter Metropolitan Police Department office uniform skirt, the young lady Minami watched the many gray-haired heads bowing toward the black sedan, and said meaningfully to Uesugi Muneyuki: "If we set aside your Peerage status, if it were you who died, would the entire hospital show up?"

"That is an inappropriate joke." Uesugi Muneyuki was in a heavy black suit, with a black vest, white shirt, and black tie underneath. The stark black and white contrast, paired with his cold and sharp temperament, made him the most conspicuous person even without standing in the front row. Hearing Minami's words, he glared at her.

"Hmmph~" Minami felt displeased. She secretly glanced at Ikeda Erena, who was standing beside Uesugi Muneyuki, her eyes filled only with the man's figure, looking at Uesugi Muneyuki with an infatuated gaze: "Are you satisfied with my arrangements?"

"Very satisfied." Erena answered preemptively, her face always shrouded in a moving, brilliant halo, her eyes so soft they could spin silk.

Is this man really that great?

Minami raised her eyebrows, feeling a secret joy in her heart, calculating that she had finally tested it out.

If I hadn't given instructions to the hospital, would you two have thought that no one outside would know once you closed the hospital room door?

However, even though she could see that these two had already engaged in relations, Minami did not really care. To her, while Uesugi Muneyuki was indeed the savior of the Metropolitan Police Department, the KPI God, the Corpse Examination Immortal, and the Case Solving King, there were two rather troublesome aspects to him.

The first was that Uesugi Muneyuki's personality was particularly direct and rather explosive; Minami handled this by acting as an isolation layer between him and the Metropolitan Police Department to ensure that the two sides would not have direct conflicts.

The second was that Uesugi Muneyuki's social connections were complex and his private life was rather chaotic. The arrangement for this was to let Ikeda Erena serve as an isolation layer, both satisfying Uesugi Muneyuki's needs and isolating his channels of contact with outside women.

The grand funeral ceremony continued. Because Tokyo Medical and Dental University covered all the expenses, the entire farewell ceremony was held very solemnly. Large groups of men and women in suits gathered to take turns stepping forward to pay their respects; at a glance, one would think some great person had passed away.

"Let's go, we're going over." Uesugi Muneyuki looked into the distance at the high school girl standing before the spirit tablet, her eyes red but unable to shed a single tear. He sighed and signaled: who among you is coming with me?

"I'll go." On this point, Minami was duty-bound.

And so, the two moved forward together.

On the way, Uesugi Muneyuki was still thinking rapidly.

Due to Erena's efforts and the full reimbursement by Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Uesugi Muneyuki had stayed in the VIP ward for about ten days before coming out, and Erena's presence meant that apart from writing his thesis and preparing for exams, he had almost no time to think about anything else.

Erena arrived at the hospital at seven every morning. After they finished breakfast together, they would cling to each other for a while; then, while Uesugi Muneyuki reviewed in the morning, she would stay in the room lifting weights or practicing martial arts. They would eat lunch together and cling to each other again afterward. In the afternoon, while Uesugi Muneyuki wrote his graduation thesis, she would also cling to him, and the same went for the evening... Erena usually wouldn't leave until the last train was about to arrive, and sometimes she wouldn't even leave at all.

After these ten days, Uesugi Muneyuki was certain that if it had been any other average man, he would have long been sucked dry by Erena.

It was only because he himself had the dual blessings of the Aizen Wisdom King and the Vajra Yaksha that he was able to contend with this "Black Hole Master."

But this also caused Uesugi Muneyuki to lose his perception of outside news.

It wasn't until two days ago, when Tanaka Laodeng found Uesugi Muneyuki (Erena, whose world for two had been disturbed, was very unhappy and watched him with murderous eyes) and said the funeral arrangements were ready, that Uesugi Muneyuki felt it was time to be discharged.

He hadn't expected that Saito had a younger sister.

Uesugi Muneyuki stared at the little flower swaying in the cold wind before the spirit tablet, unable to describe the feeling in his heart.

Strange, Nanami had never told me about this!

Heh, well.

I had also never told Nanami about my affairs, why would she tell me about hers?

"That child, what should be done?" Uesugi Muneyuki asked Minami in a low voice.

"That child, it's a bit difficult." Minami still had a bit of a conscience, though she didn't know where it had been thrown; it should still exist in this world. She said with a sigh: "You should know the system of this country, right?"

"Mm." Uesugi Muneyuki did not say more: "Does she have any other relatives?"

"At least from the Metropolitan Police Department's investigation, there are none." Minami also sighed: "We still haven't figured out what happened that day. Do you have any leads?"

"It's all my fault."

Uesugi Muneyuki clenched his fists.

He did not intend to tell anyone about matters of the Inner World.

But at the very least, he should do something about this matter now.

Uesugi Muneyuki walked to the spirit tablet and offered incense with Minami. Afterward, according to custom, mourners only needed to say "please accept my condolences" to Saito Asuka, and the entire ceremony would be complete, allowing them to leave.

Saito Asuka just stood there blankly, having no reaction to external affairs. Her expression was wooden, and her beautiful eyes were dead. Among the grand crowd of people from the Metropolitan Police Department and Tokyo Medical and Dental University who had come to mourn, there was not a single person she had a connection with, and she did not recognize the representative sent by Musashino University. The world in her eyes was dead, black and white.

Until another man in a suit arrived before her.

"Hello, Ms. Saito Asuka, please accept my condolences."

"…………"

"May I borrow a moment of your time to speak?"

"…………"

The girl opposite him had no reaction.

Uesugi Muneyuki thought it was normal; she felt like a stranger to everything here.

"Ms. Asuka, did Nanami never mention me to you?" Uesugi Muneyuki continued: "Do you know who I am?"

"...!!" The girl had been maintaining her dazed, distracted state, but when Uesugi Muneyuki said the second half of the sentence, she suddenly raised her head and stared at the man in front of her with an incredulous look!

A cold appearance, a very clean and tidy slim-fit suit, sharp and piercing black pupils, yet there was a unique nobility in his every gesture.

"You..." The girl finally spoke. She opened her mouth and realized she could only make a very hoarse sound: "Who are you?"

"You should know who I am, right?" Uesugi Muneyuki's expression was serious, and he nodded gently. Remembering everything the girl had encountered these days, even he, who was usually relatively indifferent to worldly affairs, sighed for her, not to mention that it was related to him.

"Mm, I know, I know..." A glimmer of light finally appeared in the girl's eyes, which had already been swollen from crying: "Yes, she mentioned... it's... just..."

It really is him!

Although they had never met, although she had never been described, the girl relied on some kind of instinct and innate intuition, and she understood immediately that the tall, handsome young man in the suit before her was definitely "that person" her sister spoke of!

He came! He really came!

Saito Asuka instinctively wanted to acknowledge him, but some things were just too embarrassing to say, such as the nature of their relationship, or the fact that her sister had repeatedly accepted large gifts and high-quality food from this man.

"I'm glad you could recognize me, Asuka. You don't mind if I call you that, do you?" Uesugi Muneyuki nodded, his expression much gentler: "I am very sorry that you encountered such a thing. I can tell you, it is all my fault."

"............" Saito Asuka's expression changed; her face was a mixture of hatred and fear as she stared fixedly at Uesugi Muneyuki's face.

Yes, if it weren't for him... if it weren't for him...

But, if it weren't for him... if it weren't for her...

The girl's heart was a battlefield, chaotic and conflicted; the man before her seemed one moment like a divine messenger from the High Plain of Heaven, and the next like a demon from the Avici Hell, at times feeling deeply intimate, at others repulsive.

In the end, she gradually calmed down and turned her head: "Regardless, thank you for coming today, um..."

She had no reason to hate him; they had already received too much from him. She had eaten at least thirty meals packed from him, and everything she wore besides her school uniform—her pantyhose, shoes, scarf, shampoo, and body wash—had been swiped from him, and she didn't even know his name!

"My name is Uesugi, Uesugi Muneyuki," the man said softly.

"Thank you, Mr. Uesugi," Saito Asuka said, bowing slightly to show her gratitude.

"Very well," Uesugi Muneyuki nodded, then said very solemnly: "Then, I am going to ask you a very serious question, Miss Saito Asuka."

"Would you be willing to live with me from now on?"

As soon as Uesugi Muneyuki said this, the young lady Minami beside him suddenly raised her head, a look of shock appearing on her face.

What???

Likewise, upon hearing Uesugi Muneyuki's words, the girl was also stunned: "Eh?"

"Then let me repeat myself, Ms. Saito Asuka. As a friend of your sister Saito Nanami and the indirect party involved in her death, would you be willing to give me a chance to take care of you and live with me from now on?" Uesugi Muneyuki repeated very earnestly.

"I..." The girl chosen by the gods opened her eyes wide and her mouth agape, her eye sockets instantly moistening.

Looking at the scene, the room was full of guests, yet she didn't know a single person; looking back at "that person" before her, he was the only trace of color she could feel in her black-and-white world.

"Wah!" The girl finally couldn't help but cry out: "Sob sob sob, why did you only come now, sob sob sob~"

"I will, I am very willing, I only have you, I only have you, waaaaaah~"

(End of this chapter)