Chapter 822: , Advancing Pigeon!

Uesugi Muneyuki and Ikeda Erena returned to Tokyo the next day.

The next morning, the early autumn sunlight of Tokyo streamed through the glass windows of the Metropolitan Police Department headquarters building, casting neat shafts of light and shadow on the hallway floor. Uesugi Muneyuki had greeted Kashiwagi Misa in advance and immediately bustled into the Personnel Division.

The Personnel Division is an important department within the Metropolitan Police Department. It is well known that the essential nature of the primary power of an organization, or even a country, fundamentally consists of three types: financial authority, personnel authority, and military authority.

This is also the humorous point for those who command eight hundred thousand troops on the border yet are recalled to the capital by a single imperial edict to commit suicide: if you can control eight hundred thousand border troops, it means you at least hold the financial authority to supply them; if you hold the financial authority to supply eight hundred thousand troops, you find it hard not to hold personnel authority; and since you then have both personnel and financial authority, plus military authority, you find it hard not to be the emperor. Of course, if upon returning to the capital you discover the emperor is the one seated on the golden throne, with thousands of imperial guards, thirteen imperial regents, countless silent nuns, and original-forged interstellar warriors at his side, and he hastily declares that the sovereign must die and the subject has no choice but to die!

Setting that aside, in short, the influence of the Personnel Division is not insignificant; otherwise, Watanabe Eiji would not have let Minami work there in the first place.

The layout of the Personnel Division office is completely different from that of the Special Mission Division. There is no tense atmosphere of constant readiness for deployment here; the air is filled with the smell of printing paper and toner. Several female administrative officials in uniform sit at their respective workstations—some answering phones, some typing on keyboards, some organizing documents.

Near the window, a young woman stands beside the photocopier, holding a stack of freshly printed documents, her head lowered, carefully aligning the edges of the paper with her fingertips.

Yamada Nanase.

Uesugi Muneyuki stood at the doorway for two seconds, observing her appearance.

She wore a light gray suit jacket, a white crew-neck shirt underneath, and a dark blue knee-length skirt, with black flat leather shoes on her feet—not a uniform, but the regular attire commonly worn by administrative officials, proper and proper, not overstepping the line by a step; her stockings were also the most ordinary thick spring-autumn flesh-colored pantyhose issued universally by the Metropolitan Police Department.

Her hair was medium-length dark brown, naturally falling over her shoulders, with no signs of perming or dyeing; her bangs slightly covered her eyebrows, revealing a pair of round, slightly timid eyes. Her features were not of the stunning type, but very pleasant to look at—her nose bridge neither high nor low, the curve of her lips gentle, her skin nearly translucent in its whiteness, her jawline rounded, giving her the appearance of a docile, timid small animal that dares not meet people's gazes directly. She was twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old.

Counting from the year her husband passed away, she had already been working in this building for one and a half years.

One and a half years is enough time for an ordinary person to learn many things, but she seems to have learned only how to minimize her own presence—avoiding attention as much as possible, avoiding causing trouble for others as much as possible, shrinking herself into a background that would not get in the way and could be ignored. When Uesugi Muneyuki entered the Personnel Division office, the middle-aged female administrative official nearest the doorway noticed him first.

Her expression changed instantly—not to surprise, but to a nervous "Oh my god, why is he here?" She immediately stood up from her chair and gave a slight bow: "Mr. Uesugi!"

This exclamation was like a stone dropped into still water. Almost everyone in the office simultaneously lifted their heads, their gazes turning in unison toward the doorway. Beside the photocopier, Yamada Nanase also lifted her head; the documents in her hands nearly slipped, a few sheets fluttering to the floor. She hurriedly bent down to pick them up, but halfway through remembered she should first bow to this suddenly visiting important figure, so she half-crouched and bowed, her posture awkward like a cat suddenly called upon to salute.

"Yamada Nanase." Uesugi Muneyuki said, his voice not loud, but everyone in the office heard him clearly: "Come here, appointment." Everyone's gaze then turned in unison toward Yamada Nanase.

She was still crouched on the floor picking up papers, hearing her name, her whole body froze, like a rabbit caught in a hunter's flashlight beam. She slowly stood up, clutching those few sheets of paper, her face already red to the earlobes, her lips slightly parted, emitting a sound almost inaudible: "... Yes." Uesugi Muneyuki looked at her; his gaze held neither impatience nor sympathy, just his usual calm, unemotional regard.

"Come with me for a moment."

Having said that, he turned and walked away, giving her no room to refuse.

Uesugi Muneyuki took her up to the eighth floor, not entering the large office of the Special Mission Division, but pushing open the door of a small meeting room.

The meeting room was not large—a long rectangular table, six chairs, a whiteboard on the wall, the window facing south, offering a view of the treetops of the Imperial Palace. He gestured for Yamada Nanase to sit, then walked to the window, turned around, and did not sit down.

"You know about the matter, right?" Uesugi Muneyuki said, looking out the window, his voice low.

He had already asked Kashiwagi Misa to say it.

"Yes." Her voice was as small as a mosquito's buzz, she sat on the very edge of the chair, both hands placed on her knees, fingers intertwined, the joints whitening slightly from the pressure.

"We need your help." Uesugi Muneyuki said.

"I... I?" Her voice trembled: "But I'm just... I can't do anything... I can't even pass the administrative scrivener exam... I..."

"You don't need to know anything." Uesugi Muneyuki interrupted her: "You just need to be yourself. You were married, you were a housewife, you've used a social media account for six or seven years, your current status is that of a bereaved family member of the Metropolitan Police Department—your persona is naturally flawless. These are things we could not forge no matter how much money or time we spent."

Yamada Nanase remained silent, she weakly glanced at Uesugi Muneyuki, wanting to refuse, but found herself unable to speak due to intimidation.

Having said all this, how could I possibly refuse? I feel it would be rude, offensive, and moreover, the other party is the notorious Pervert of the Metropolitan Police and the Japanese Police's Final Weapon—if I refuse him, will I still be able to hang around Sakuradamon afterward? Won't they transfer me to Hachijo Island?

"If you are willing to participate in this operation," Uesugi Muneyuki said, his voice as steady as reading an official document: "After the operation ends, I will apply to the Personnel Division to have you officially transferred to the Special Mission Division to perform clerical work. Not this current temporary hire status for bereaved family members, but a formal, establishment-positioned clerical role in the Special Mission Division."

Yamada Nanase's eyes widened slightly.

"You should have heard about the benefits and welfare of the Special Mission Division. The base salary is fifteen percent higher than other departments in the Metropolitan Police Department, plus special duty allowances, housing subsidies, transportation subsidies, and two performance bonuses per year. On average, monthly income is roughly double what you currently earn, of course, this does not include the bereaved family pension." Uesugi Muneyuki smiled: "Think it over?"

She softly repeated it, the light in her eyes flickered and then dimmed: "But I... I what can I do? The people in the Special Mission Division are so capable... I can't even handle a paper jam in the photocopier without calling for help..."

"The Special Mission Division also needs someone to do clerical work." Uesugi Muneyuki said with a smile: "Organizing documents, managing supplies, coordinating logistics—these are all clerical tasks. You're not going to be a detective; you're doing clerical work. Your current worries are like worrying whether an accountant can fly a plane—you don't need to fly a plane, you just need to keep the books straight; for field work, you just sit in the office."

Yamada Nanase lowered her head, looking at her fingers.

"But I..." Her voice grew smaller and smaller, so small that Uesugi Muneyuki needed to slightly tilt his ear to hear clearly: "Can I pull it off? I... I'm not very good at lying..."

"You don't need to lie." Uesugi Muneyuki said: "You just need to be yourself. You were a housewife, you know what that life is like. You just need to post some photos on social media—your cooking, your home, your new purchases. These don't require acting skills." He paused.

"The only thing you need to do is allow us to place you in a position where you might be noticed by the perpetrator. The rest—surveillance, protection, apprehension—is all our responsibility."

Yamada Nanase fell silent for a long time.

Her fingers were no longer intertwined, but lay flat on her knees, palms down, pressing against the fabric of her skirt.

Her breathing was very shallow, her chest barely rising and falling, but Uesugi Muneyuki noticed her eyelashes trembling slightly, like a butterfly's wings trembling before takeoff.

"Then... I still have a question... just..." Her voice was so soft it was almost inaudible, her face "whoosh" reddening to the earlobes, spreading from her cheeks to her neck, her whole body like a boiled shrimp: "If I join the Special Mission Division, will I also have to wear... wear that?"

Uesugi Muneyuki slightly frowned: "Which one? The uniform? For desk duty, it's still uniform..."

Yamada Nanase bowed her head even lower, nearly burying it in her chest. Her voice was so soft that Uesugi Muneyuki had to take a step forward to hear clearly: "It's... stockings... I don't really like wearing stockings..."

The air in the meeting room suddenly solidified.

Uesugi Muneyuki's face turned completely black.

Uesugi Muneyuki likes stockings—this rumor has circulated in Sakuradamon for a long time, as if everyone knows.

Damn it, who has been spreading rumors about me?

I've kept this secret very well; aside from these few people in the harem, basically no one knows!

Who is spouting nonsense outside? Is it Kashiwagi Misa? I think she deserves a beating!

How outrageous! What do these female officers of Sakuradamon really think of me?

At this moment, Yamada Nanase kept her head down, her ears red as if about to bleed, her whole body exuding a sense of "I just said what? Why did I say that?" embarrassment.

Mainly, Chief Kashiwagi Misa has mentioned it before, and it seems she has prepared many kinds of stockings in her drawer...

Uesugi Muneyuki stood before her, silent for about two seconds, then said a sentence with no substantive content: "That... you don't need to worry about it, just do as you like."

Yamada Nanase lowered her head even further: "Then, that's fine..."

Uesugi Muneyuki did not look back, nodded once, and pushed the door open to leave.

In the hallway, Ikeda Erena leaned against the wall, arms crossed, the corner of her mouth bearing a meaningful smile.

She had obviously heard.

"Stockings?" she said in a voice only two people could hear, the ending tone rising, carrying a teasing tone that made Uesugi Muneyuki want to throw her from the eighth-floor window. Uesugi Muneyuki's face flushed, he snorted through his nose, pretending not to hear: "Notify Okada and Minami, the person has agreed. We can proceed." Ikeda Erena watched his straight-backed figure disappear down the end of the hallway, silently laughing, laughing like a cat that had stolen a fish.

Uesugi Muneyuki's face flushed, he snorted through his nose, pretending not to hear: "Notify Okada and Minami, the person has agreed. We can proceed." Ikeda Erena watched his straight-backed figure disappear down the end of the hallway, silently laughing, laughing like a cat that had stolen a fish.

"Stockings."

This is Uesugi, as Ikeda Wei said: a pure person, one who has detached from refined tastes, a pervert with an unyielding pure heart, a Teddy bear who loses control after an autopsy!

That afternoon, all departments of the Metropolitan Police Department began operating at high speed.

On the Personnel Division side, Uesugi Muneyuki personally called the Section Chief, without specifying the concrete action plan, only saying: "The Special Mission Division needs to borrow Yamada Nanase for a period of time to participate in an important task."

The Personnel Division Section Chief is a fat man in his fifties, usually not very courteous to anyone, but in front of Uesugi Muneyuki he behaves like a cat whose scruff has been pinched, repeatedly saying "Okay, okay, Uesugi Chief, you decide, I'll write the report."

Meanwhile, the Public Security Police side had already begun crafting a virtual "remarriage prospect" tailored for Yamada Nanase.

The candidate was quickly decided: the person in charge of the Business Marketing Department at Japan Cisco Systems Company, Matsuo Masasada (alias), of Franco-Japanese mixed blood. Forty-two years old, take-home annual income approximately 15 million yen—3 million yen more than the 12 million yen initially proposed by Uesugi Muneyuki. This was not Uesugi Muneyuki's idea; it was Minami Ojou-sama who proactively raised it after discussing with Ozawa Sumiko.

"Since we want to create a psychological gap, let's do it thoroughly." Ozawa Sumiko of the Public Security Special Mission Division said to Uesugi Minami: "15 million yen and 12 million yen—on social media, the displayed quality of life is not on the same level. A 12 million yen house is roughly 70 square meters, while 15 million yen can get over 100 square meters, even with a yard."

"A 12 million yen car is roughly an Audi A3, while 15 million yen can get a BMW X5. These details will naturally show up in photos, no need for deliberate showing off, but observant people will definitely notice."

"The take-home annual salary for mid-level staff at foreign enterprises stationed in Japan is roughly 100,000 US dollars, which converts to over 15 million yen—let alone being a mid-level department head." Ozawa Sumiko said coldly: "It should be even higher."

"An annual income of only 100,000 US dollars isn't even above the execution line safety threshold—one careless toothache causing bleeding that soaks your pants could get you fired, leaving you only able to become a rockman in Osaka West District!" Date Nagamune joked in the video conference.

"Stupid." Ozawa Sumiko's reply was clean and neat.

Date Nagamune found it unamusing, while Maeda Toshihide beside him suppressed laughter until he suffered internal injury, even spraying mucus.

You women like this will never find a boyfriend! Date Nagamune thought maliciously: MIT-graduated female geniuses only look up to University of Tokyo PhDs, but University of Tokyo PhDs won't want women like these!

Indeed, Akane-chan is still the most suitable!

Over the next three days, the Public Security Police began high-intensity "persona setting" work.

Through the Public Security intelligence network, they received strong support from Japan Cisco Systems; the actual person in charge of the Japan Cisco Business Marketing Department, Namita Hiro, and his daughter Namita Erika assisted the Public Security Police in fabricating a perfect virtual identity.

Yamada Nanase, begin operation!