Chapter 962

The hospital hallway at night was much quieter than during the day.

The fluorescent tubes chimed and clinked, emitting a steady, unwavering white light that spread across the floor like a temperatureless phantom, as if the very air had been dyed a still, unmoving pale white, suspended between breath and the cessation of breath.

Occasionally, a night-shift nurse in white silk and nursing shoes would pass by, her footsteps largely absorbed by the rubber soles, the faint remainder swallowed by the walls before she even reached the turn.

Debuki Etsuko's hospital room was located by the window at the end of the hallway; the door was unlocked, and a thin line of warm yellow shimmer seeped from beneath it.

She was looking at her phone, the screen displaying an article about prenatal precautions, about to scroll down, when footsteps echoed down the hallway.

Not the steady, even-paced steps of a nurse, but quicker, laced with a sense of urgency, like someone who had run all the way from somewhere and hadn't yet fully regulated their breathing.

Those footsteps paused outside her hospital room door, then the door was pushed open.

"Kai???" Debuki Etsuko exclaimed in surprise: "Why are you here at this hour? I was about to go to sleep!"

Kai Toru stood in the doorway, his coat still damp with rainwater brought in from outside, his hair half-dried after being soaked by the rain, a few strands still clinging to his forehead, the bloodstain at the corner of his mouth already dried but he hadn't wiped it away; at this moment, Kai Toru resembled a tree just swept through by a storm—unbroken, yet its branches still held the bent shape from the wind, not yet fully returned to their original form.

Seeing his girlfriend, he opened his mouth, but couldn't utter a single word; his chest ached, he staggered a few steps, and this man who had countless times proclaimed himself the embodiment of justice sank to his knees beside the bed, burying his face in the blankets above her knees.

He said nothing.

He was quietly sobbing, sniffing, trying not to let anyone see his expression, yet a pained sound escaped him.

Debuki Etsuko froze for a moment, her finger paused on the phone screen without scrolling, then she put the phone down and reached out to touch his hair: "What's wrong?"

She asked again, her voice carrying a gentleness she herself might not fully discern: "What happened, the father of the child?"

Upon hearing "the father of the child," Kai Toru broke into even harder sobs.

His shoulders kept trembling, and Debuki Etsuko said nothing.

She simply continued to stroke the back of his head, her fingers moving slowly through his hair, as if confirming his temperature was returning to normal.

After a long while, his voice emerged again from beneath the fabric, lower than before: "I just————made a very important decision."

"What decision?"

"I used to think I was doing the right thing. I felt that those whom the law couldn't reach should be dealt with by someone. I felt that as long as I wasn't doing those things for myself, I was on the right side. I felt that as long as I didn't cross that line, I remained a decent person."

He fell silent for a moment, as if something was lodged in his throat, needing to be swallowed before he could continue: "But today I realized that line has always been there. It's not drawn on the ground—it's that when my feet move, I notice with each step I'm approaching that line, thinking I can stop. I can't stop. But if he hadn't stopped me today, I might have already crossed it completely, with no way back. I understand now. I am about to become a father. If I continue doing those things, once discovered, I won't just destroy myself—I'll drag you down, drag our child down, drag the Special Mission Division down, drag everyone down."

Debuki Etsuko's hand paused, her expression shifted, and in an instant she connected it to something.

But in the end, she said nothing: "You just said he stopped you. So you've stopped now, right?

You won't do those things again?"

"No. I won't do those things again. He gave me a chance, but I won't use him again."

He drew a deep breath, as if gathering the last remnants of something still worthy of being called "confidence": "If he is a mountain, then I am willing to be a stone at his feet. I am not doing this to repay him, nor to atone for what I've done. Simply————I feel he is the one worthy of my standing behind him."

"He is my Park Chung-hee, and I am willing to be his Chun Doo-hwan!" Kai Toru finally revealed his face, marked with many scars and an air of weariness and dejection: "Heaven has no two suns, Uesugi-san is my only sun! As long as he gives the word, I can now go assassinate Itō Hirobumi and Ii Naomasa! Sehisehiseu bitter tta!"

"Eh? Chun Doo-hwan? Who's that? Park Chung-hee, is he the president of South Korea?" Debuki Etsuko blinked, confused.

"He is————the former president of South Korea. Never mind, I might have mixed it up—just pretend you didn't hear that." Kai Toru ultimately lacked the courage to admit he was actually the Dark Knight.

Perhaps his girlfriend had already guessed something, but there's a difference between tacit understanding and speaking it aloud.

Indeed, Debuki Etsuko didn't press further, merely reaching out to gently lift his face from the blankets: "You're about to become a father. From now on, you can't be so impulsive. No matter what happens, we are a family. You still have me, and our unborn child. You're not alone anymore; before making any decision from now on, you must think of us first."

Kai Toru looked at her, he didn't say "okay," nor did he nod.

His lips twitched slightly, then he reached out and gently took hold of the hand she had placed on the blankets: "I understand. I will be steady. I won't make you worry anymore.

"Hmm, this is good, wearefamily huh!" Debuki Etsuko guided her boyfriend to place his hand on her belly.

"】family!!!"

Kai Toru swore this was the most sincere and fervent shout he had ever made in his life.

He had always scoffed at the idea of family.

However, when all the grand narratives faded, when his ideals and actions were proven to be mere foolish self-indulgence, when Uesugi Muneyuki told him he had come perilously close to touching that red line, when his lifelong self-satisfaction was dismantled to nothing—

The sole remaining anchor of his faith and spiritual pillar turned out to be his girlfriend and the child in her womb!

He had a weakness now, he was no longer pure, he could no longer eat his fill while his family starved, he could no longer act however he pleased without a care—

Because, he had a family!

This was also the very sentence Uesugi Muneyuki used to truly move him—he was about to become a father, just like him!

Family!!!

The midnight street, washed clean by rain, appeared especially clear and transparent in the damp air, the pavement gleaming from the rain, the streetlights casting long, hazy reflections on the wet asphalt.

Ikeda Erena drove, her hands gripping the steering wheel, her eyes fixed ahead. She drove slowly but steadily, as if using the act of driving to organize her thoughts.

Uesugi Muneyuki leaned against the seatback in the front passenger seat, letting his gaze drift with the passing street scenery outside the window.

————————

Minami in the back seat slightly tilted her head, gazing at the night scenery outside the window, silent.

The car interior remained quiet for a long stretch, until the vehicle stopped at a red light, Ikeda Erena's fingertip lightly tapped the steering wheel: "Muneyuki~ I still think, you let him go mainly because he's in the Special Mission Division, because of his father, and because you don't want the Special Mission Division implicated, right? I understand, but I think you shouldn't have done that."

She paused, as if searching for a phrasing closer to her true intent: "I think you're not being 'Uesugi' enough." Uesugi Kenshin and Uesugi Kagekatsu weren't like that!"

"Wow! Master! You actually know Kenshin Kō and Lord of Celebration!" Uesugi Muneyuki exclaimed in surprise.

"Damn it, Muneyuki, what do you mean? I, I also read the Spring and Autumn Annals!" Ikeda Erena said, a bit annoyed, she wouldn't admit she had specifically watched Heaven and Earth Chronicles to bone up on Uesugi family knowledge.

However, watching the Taiga Drama to supplement knowledge, Saito Asuka at home found it utterly speechless.

Although the Taiga Drama can't be said to have nothing to do with Japanese history, it can only be said to be three parts truth, seven parts fiction, as mentioned earlier, the Taiga Drama has always been whoever is the protagonist gets infinitely glorified, and the protagonist is always portrayed as having very high moral standards and a touch of obsessive cleanliness, then they try to have him participate in all major historical events.

"Pfft~" Minami in the back seat couldn't help but chuckle: "Muneyuki, don't believe her, she has no idea what kind of lot the Uesugi family really is."

Uesugi Muneyuki turned his head slightly, the corner of his mouth twitching a little, the movement small but still discernible in the car's dim light: "Nonsense. I don't practice favoritism toward relatives, do I TMD have to practice favoritism toward strangers instead?"

"Master, would you let a group of people you don't know or aren't familiar with serve as your Hatamoto? What a joke? Commanding troops naturally requires favoritism toward kin, our Special Mission Division is built around my case-solving ability and Minami's administrative ability! It's the ace department of the Metropolitan Police Department, I don't practice favoritism toward kin, do I then have to let a group of people who don't know me and oppose me come work with me?" Uesugi Muneyuki was amused by Ikeda Erena: "Master, you say Uesugi Kenshin and Uesugi Kagekatsu aren't like that, then tell me, who did Uesugi Kenshin actually trust? He actually only trusted Naoe Kanetsugu; among the Four Heavenly Kings of Echigo, only Naoe Kanetsugu received his unreserved trust, Uesugi Kagekatsu? He only trusted Naoe Kanetsugu, Uesugi Kagekatsu is a man poor with words, prone to misspeaking, he even never let Naoe Kanetsugu speak in his place!"

"You may have only seen things like Hokuto Kōkō and Yanagita Group Honzō Shigeruchō, Sebu Shōchō Zanbenji that lot, those who defected, rebelled, defected again, rebelled again, but that was only because Kenshin Kō had no choice, it doesn't mean he was truly magnanimous—no need to say more, even if it were the most lenient, most ungrudging Ieyasu, facing the Mikawa lot of those defectors, wouldn't he trust Ii Naomasa, who came from Tōtōmi and was raised by himself? Then there's Honda Tadakatsu and Fukai Kangzheng, also raised by him? The head of the Tokugawa Four Heavenly Kings, the Sakai clan, was only finally granted thirty thousand koku—" Uesugi Muneyuki spat: "How can you proceed if the people around you are unreliable?"

Ikeda Erena's finger paused on the steering wheel, the green light came on, she released the brake, the car crept forward slowly. She listened to those words, seeming to take them in, yet also seeming to still digest: "So your meaning is————Hatamoto must be trustworthy? Others can all be replaced?"

Uesugi Muneyuki leaned back against the seatback: "Just understand it that way."

"That means I'm definitely the person you trust the most!" Eirina was now satisfied, her face showing a contented expression: "I've been with you for so long—if you didn't trust me, how could you have brought me along? And even specifically designated me?"

Uesugi Muneyuki nodded desperately: "Just understand it like that!"

Minami covered her mouth in the back seat, laughing for a while before saying: "However, looking at this matter, Muneyuki, this isn't that simple. Kai Toru's involvement—came too conveniently. The Dark Knight has been causing trouble for so long, we all thought he was Kanzuka Makoto. But tonight we discovered, Kai Toru is the real Dark Knight. Don't you think this timing is a bit delicate? He acted so covertly—why did we bump into him precisely these two days? And right when we were about to close the case."

Uesugi Muneyuki's gaze withdrew from outside the window, falling onto the white headlight tracks extending ahead on the road: "Yes, I thought the same—so perhaps someone pushed from behind. Someone wants the Dark Knight's true identity exposed."

"Choosing this timing shows the other party's purpose isn't just to find Kai Toru, but to make this matter cause a major uproar before the public. If we really expose Kai Toru, the Special Mission Division will be dragged down, and the entire Metropolitan Police Department will be implicated."

"So from this perspective, I also have no choice but to let Kai Toru go, just as we said before—whether it's exposure or not, as long as we proactively handle Kai Toru, we'll give the other side an opening, possibly exposing Kai Toru, or possibly suffering heavy damage because we're forced to expose him as the Dark Knight, even leading to the indefinite suspension of the entire Special Mission Division."

"Once you convince him, he won't do it again. Then the other side will have no leverage. But if we just passively respond, you'll never know their next move, never know who their so-called 'self-marker' really is. So we must take the initiative. We need to find out exactly who's behind this and what their goal is. Since the opponent has already made a move, then next, we'll locate them, and then decide our next step."

Minami Ojou-sama swept her scattered hair behind her ears: "This matter would be best discussed with Father. He has more information than we do. If someone is watching the Special Mission Division from the shadows, he should have heard something."

"Ah, shouldn't our Special Mission Division be upholding justice? Why would someone target us?" Eirina still wondered.

"Hmph, it's precisely because we are just that someone targets us, Reina-chan. Our Special Mission Division has always been fighting the system's darkness with... steamed tofu tooth sounds!" Minami waved her small fists: "So we must unite internally! Present a united front externally— tooth sounds!"

"Look, now our Uesugi Seven Spears—Okada, Nanxiang, Date, Kai, Maeda, Igarashi, Meng Shao Zhi!"

"Forward! Forward! Forward! Break into the enemy formation! Enemy chief, I'll strip him of his clothes! As for me, I'll reluctantly take on the roles of Uesugi Female Lord + Female Taikō + Minami Omitaidokoro!" Minami Ojou-sama said proudly.

"And what about me?" Uesugi Muneyuki blinked in confusion.

"Muneyuki, you'll just have to reluctantly be Chē Zhìchè, serving as the head of my lord's guard room!" Minami said with a chuckle: "Voice tubes and manipulators—like stars, revolving around me, the sun!"

"Will I also be shot by Director Jin?" Uesugi Muneyuki hummed a tune: "Yeyeye~ Yeyeyeyeyeye~ Yeyeye~"

"Oh oh, so that's how it is!" Eirina half-understood, only feeling it was impressive.

The car continued forward on the midnight street, passing one intersection, then another. Streetlight glow skimmed over the roof and slid rearward, those light and shadow alternating appearing and disappearing on the windshield.

Along with the burial, all the Dark Knight's secrets were buried too.

Oh, no!

The Special Mission Division has no secrets!

The Special Mission Division has only daytime, no night, only light, no darkness!

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