Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens Volume 4 Chapter 6

Top of the Sixth Inning

At that moment, Enokida had gotten on the subway and fled out of Nakasu. He then walked around the city of Tenjin, blending in with the crowd. He looked behind him multiple times, but no one was following him. His battle strategy was a success.

There was no meaning in taking down the site if the original people who put up his bounty knew his whereabouts. So Enokida decided to use his laptop as a decoy. He hid the laptop he had infected a remote virus with in the restroom so he could trick his enemies of his location. He then moved to another location while his enemies were nailed down to one spot and remotely shut down the server for undergroundjobs.

Enokida glanced at the clock. The website's server would recover soon, and his enemies would have figured out his plan. And it would be only a matter of time for them to confiscate his laptop and look through every nook and cranny in it. They would regain composure and attempt to track Enokida again.

At any rate, Enokida at least needed the bounty hunters' attention off of him. The less people after him the better. He would be able to move around easier with them gone.

Once undergroundjobs was up and running again, Enokida accessed the site and opened the page to the forum. He then immediately began to write a post: another decoy. 'I will pay 10,000,000 yen for the person who captures this man.'

"Good luck, Saitou-kun."

Enokida spoke to himself and hit the b.u.t.ton to post the message on the forum.

Now then, what should I do next? He had to predict their mixed pitches. What would they pitch and where would they aim? Would it be a straight ball? A curve ball? Would it be an inside pitch or an outside pitch?

Enokida questioned to himself. If he was in his enemies' shoes, what would he do?

His laptop was now completely in the enemies' hands. They would trace him with his laptop and try to hack his smartphone. It would be better to a.s.sume they would go through all of his calls, messages, and internet history.

Then he had to take the chance. The enemy had a grasp on all of his movements. Enokida had to turn the tables on them.

To take advantage, Enokida needed to get them to stand at an even higher ground. The more he could open a distance between them, the more likely they would be unwilling to relieve the pitcher from their winning streak. Enokida needed to make them think they got him, to make them relax. If he could make that happen, then they would let their guard down. Enokida could sneakily get around them.

And to do that, he needed a.s.sistants. Capable bots (friends) who could take action where the enemy would not see them.

First, Enokida had to make contact with his friends without the enemy noticing. He wrote a few quick messages:

'Thank you for the present. I like it.'

'I told you to treat me next time, right? I'd like to go out and have yakiniku.'

'About that celebration party, I reserved us a spot at a restaurant next to the national highway. At 11 pm.'

'Yamato was good at stealing bases during the last match at Gannosu.'

The messages were all addressed to different people. Enokida sent them all out at once.

Only using high tech did not equivalate an intelligence battle. Spies had used pigeons to make contact with people in the past after all.

There were tasks Enokida could do even without a computer – more simple and primitive methods.

That day, Saitou was in high spirits. After he had quit working for Murder Inc, his life had tumbled down. The days of his life being targeted by hitmen for something and running into danger still had persisted. But at long last, he could possibly say farewell to that checkered life. He finally found another job. And this time, it was a completely normal corporation that was fairly known in f.u.kuoka.

"That's good to hear. Congrats." Genzo, hearing the news from Saitou, gave him a broad smile which made wrinkles form at the edges of his eyes. "Here, this is my treat."

Saitou had a bashful smile as he took the alcohol he was given for celebration. "Thank you so much!"

"This is the beginning of your second life."

Saitou toasted with Genzo and gulped down his beer. This is a good evening, he thought. It had been a long time since he had last had such a delicious drink. He was unbearably happy. He finally would be working as a normal corporate employee.

The company had told him, "you can start first thing tomorrow." It would be a disgrace if he was late for his first day of work; he had to be there at all costs. I guess I shouldn't drink too much, Saitou quickly cut himself short and left Genzo's restaurant.

He walked through Nakasu partially tipsy. The night breeze felt great against him. He felt peaceful, undisturbed by the other drunkards on the street or the noisy groups of university students. He was almost home. He would go home early and get ready for work the next day, and so he picked up his pace.

Just as Saitou turned the corner, a figure came into his field of vision abruptly. A man stood before his apartment. He was a ill-bred-looking, large man.

The man looked over at Saitou and smirked.

"You Saitou?"

For some reason, the man knew his name.

"……Yes?" Saitou's mouth dropped open and tilted his head in confusion. He was unfamiliar with the man. So why did he know his name?

When Saitou examined him closer, he saw that the man held a metal pipe. An ominous feeling came over him.

"I found it. The bounty worth 10,000,000."

"Eh?"

……What did he say just now?

Saitou frowned deeply. "Bounty?"

"You're listed on that undergroundjobs site. Said I'd get 10,000,000 yen if I catch you."

"……Haa!?"

Undergroundjobs, site, 10,000,000. This came out of nowhere. What was going on?

Saitou instantly became sober. What's the meaning of this? I don't recall having a bounty put on my head. ……Could it be Murder Inc's doing? No, it can't be.

The man sidled up closer to the dumbfounded Saitou, and Saitou took steps back. "Wai-wait. Please hold on-"

"Prepare yourself."

The next moment, the man threw up his metal pipe and came at him.

"Heee!"

Saitou yelled and quickly dashed off.

What is this? What's going on?

Banba came back to the office thirty minutes after his call with Lin. Lin expected him to have brought Enokida in with him, but Banba came back alone.

"Where's the mushroom?" Lin asked.

"We went off somewhere." Banba shrugged. "Seemed like he got some sort of plan."

"A plan……"

Lin knew full well how sharp that man was. However, no matter how skilled Enokida was, he was just a powerless hacker. If he got attacked by bounty hunters or hitmen, he would be at a huge disadvantage. He would be forced into submission. He could not physically fight with hacking or use a computer as a weapon.

"Looks like he couldn't delete the post." Lin glanced over to his own computer set up in the office. The post regarding Enokida was still on the undergroundjobs site page. Lin thought that man would have easily been able to get on the server and delete it with his abilities.

"Seems like he can't. When he did, another one would be made with his location on it."

Banba explained everything that had happened from beginning to end.

Lin more or less understood. The enemy's objective was to rob Enokida's means of hacking. Once they cut him from the network and took away his means of offense, he would be vulnerable.

And in the end, it had an effect. Lin looked at the post. The information on Enokida's position would update after a few seconds, but then it stopped. This indicated that Enokida had stayed still in one place. That or  he tossed away his laptop.

"……What is that mushroom's doing?"

Just as Lin tilted his head, pondering to himself, he got an incoming call.

He immediately hit the b.u.t.ton to accept. "h.e.l.lo?"

'Do you know where Enokidsan is?!'

This voice was Saitou's.

"What's with the sudden call?" Lin grimaced. "You're not even going to give me a proper greeting?"

He only got Saitou's worked up yell. 'I need Enokidsan for something, but he isn't picking up!'

I don't doubt that, Lin thought. He did not have the time to take a long phone call.

"He's held up with something at the moment. I don't think you'll catch him anytime soon."

'N-no waaaay……' Saitou sounded like he was in tears.

"What's wrong?"

'I don't really get it, but someone seemed to have made a post about me! Someone could get 10,000,000 for catching me-'

"Wh," Lin had an inkling. "Could it be he-……"

He immediately turned back to face the computer and opened the to the top page of undergroundjobs. He began making a search under 10,000,000 on the forum.

He found one post.

'I will pay 10,000,000 yen for the person who captures this man.'

'Name: Saitou.'

'Characteristics: Early twenties, slim, about 170 centimeters tall.'

'Address: Haruyoshi 3-Chome Central Ward, f.u.kuoka City. Haruyoshi Corporated House room 403.

And Saitou's photo was even posted on there. Saitou was most likely running away from the bounty hunters at the moment. Lin understood why he was so hasty now.

'I thought I could ask Enokidsan to get rid of that post……'

"That's not possible," Lin replied with a sigh. "Since that post is likely his doing."

'Ha?'

"Anyway, hide somewhere. You can hide in Shigematsu's house. Just don't go outside."

'I can't!' Saitou exclaimed. 'I have work tomor-'

Lin dropped the call.

"What was that now?" Banba looked closely at his face. "Was that Saitou-kun?"

"That mushroom made Saitou a decoy." Li turned the computer screen towards Banba. "Look at this. He put a bounty on Saitou twice the size of his."

Enokida attempted to make the bounty hunters focus on Saitou instead of him by making them a new target. That man was something else. "Is it normal to use your friends as bait?"

"Well, he must have thought about it. Although Enokida had betrayed his friends before, he has never abandoned them away."

"That's fine if that's the case, I guess." This is what he meant by a plan? Lin groaned. "He's just doing things as it goes."

Guess I should contact Shigematsu first. Just as Lin turned to look at his cell phone again, he noticed he got a message. This one was from Enokida.

"I got a message from the mushroom. 'About that celebration party, I reserved us a spot at a restaurant next to the national highway. At 11 pm.' A map with the restaurant marked on it was attached.

"Ah, I got one too." Banba also opened up his cell phone. "'Yamato was good at stealing bases during the last match at Gannosu.' It says."

Lin and Banba read each of their messages and tilted their heads in confusion.

"What the h.e.l.l are these messages?"

"I wonder what these are."

Enokida was not in the position to send these nonchalant messages while his life was being targeted. What on earth is he thinking? Lin only got more confused.

"What do you reckon' he means by celebration party?"

"Don't know," the term did not ring any bells. "Did he send these to the wrong people?"

"No," Banba shook his head. "Yamato-kun failed to steal bases this last game."

Now that he mentioned it, Lin realized it was true. Enokida and Banba were the only two who succeeded in stealing a base during their game the other day.

"Then these messages are-"

"Yamato, steal, national highway, eleven……" After Banba muttered to himself, he smirked. "I get it. So that's it."

"What do you mean?" Lin did not understand.

"Enokidkun told me he'd contact me when he needs help."

So what he meant by contact was sending an SOS message like this?

"……So it's a secret code?"

"Exactly."

There had to be a reason for that man to make contact them in this roundabout way. Perhaps the enemy was intercepting his cell phone. So he devised these messages in a way for only them to figure out their true meaning.

"Ah, h.e.l.lo? Yamato-kun." Banba had made a call right away. "I have a favor to ask of you to do."

Bottom of the Sixth Inning

"A remote operated virus……That's blackleg for you. He's really something." Siva sounded impressed, but his expression looked annoyed. His usual smile was a little forced.

"He used his own malware and gave instructions from his cell phone."

Blackleg infected his laptop with a virus during the power outage in the building. He left it in the restroom and got away from Nakasu Kawahashi Station. He then remotely controlled the device from a safe area, making it seem as if he was still in the station.

They never expected blackleg to use his equipment as a decoy. That was a risky battle plan.

"He probably intended to give himself more time. Well, it doesn't really matter. It just means we can attack his cell phone then."

Siva focused his attention on the screen again and started typing away on his keyboard with incredible speed.

"Please take a look at this."

It seemed Siva easily got in. Blackleg's cellular device log was displayed on one of the screens.

"Looks like he sent some messages. He sent them to various people."

Chegar looked at the screen with him. Blackleg had indeed sent a few messages minutes apart.

'Thank you for the present. I like it.'

'I told you to treat me next time, right? I'd like to go out and have yakiniku.'

'About that celebration party, I reserved us a spot at a restaurant next to the national highway. At 11 pm.'

'Yamato was good at stealing bases during the last match at Gannosu.'

At first glance, they all looked like regular small talk, but there was a catch.

"……Is it normal for someone to send messages like this in the situation he's in?"

Perhaps it was a secret code made to look like small talk. Either that, or perhaps it was a scheme to unhinge them. Chegar needed to keep both in mind.

"First things first," Chegar ordered Siva. "Get into any transaction information recorded on his cell phone and find out his back account. Pull out his card information and clean his used credit history."

"Understood."

Siva sat down in front of a different computer and worked swiftly. After a few minutes –

"Here it is. I purchased a shinkansen ticket on the internet several minutes ago. It's heading for Tokyo."

"He plans on leaving f.u.kuoka?"

"It's scheduled to leave at 6:30 tomorrow morning."

They had eight hours left before the train was scheduled for departure.

"Irasawa," Chegar immediately called him. "Head to Hakata Station. He may appear there."

'Got it.'

After dropping the call, Chegar tilted his head, pondering to himself. "……This seems far too easy."

Then maybe there was another catch. Was blackleg really planning on escaping on a shinkansen?

"Ah, here's another one." Siva raised his voice. There was an update on the credit history log. "He bought an airplane ticket for Busan."

"Is this his true course of action?" Then they could just get on the same plane.

"I don't know. This one could be a fake."

Which way would blackleg plan on taking? The shinkansen or the airplane? Tokyo or Busan?

Or maybe his objective was something entirely different. Maybe he split their attention towards two options in an attempt to throw them off his trail.

If that was the case, then –

"Figure out blackleg's whereabouts and capture him."

They should not wait for him to make his move; they needed to move before he did and finish this.

"Where's he currently at?"

Siva stopped typing. "I don't know. Apparently he turned off his phone."

"But you can at least find his activities until he turned it off, right?"

"I can't. He's using a smartphone case that blocks radiowaves."

"……A counter-measure against cracking, huh."

If it completely shut out all calls, GPS, and faint magnetic waves, then there was no way they could track him.

Chegar then ordered their next move. "Attack the control system for the surveillance cameras in the city. We'll find him with video footage."

Chegar looked over the transaction history. Blackleg had purchased a couple of books a few minutes ago at a large bookstore that was open until late at night. The store was located in Imaizumi 1-Chome in the central ward. So blackleg should have been spotted by one of the cameras in the area there.

"I'm already doing that."

Siva told him as he typed on the keys of another computer. He changed the page on the screen. What he brought up was a street in Tenjin. It was footage from one of the surveillance cameras set up in the city.

"I found him."

A young male wearing a gaudy outfit and had a striking hairstyle was shown at one of the corners of the screen. He had silver mushroom-like hair. He wore a vibrant yellow parka and red skinny jeans. It was definitely blackleg.

"Alright, keep an eye on him. And continue checking his calls and messages on his smartphone and his log too, just in case."

They used the surveillance camera footage to track where blackleg was going. Siva changed the screen often.

Blackleg kept walking amongst the crowd of people. He was on a street alongside the national highway. A young man b.u.mped into him there. As they pa.s.sed each other, the man bowed his head and looked like he said, "I'm sorry."

"Where do you think he plans on going?"

"Don't know."

Blackleg kept changing places. He went to a late-night cafe, a rental video store, and a convenient store. He seemed to just be going around to places where there was public eye. It was probably so that he could not be attacked.

But that just meant they had to wait for the moment when he was all alone. "Guess we'll be keeping watch on him for a while."