Why are there only loser heroines around me?

Are his fingers made of iron?

"My Maria~! Are you a human or a cultist's steam demon!"

Catching bullets with bare hands is not an advanced skill in the circle of paranormal detectives. It is indeed intimidating in the early stages, but in the later stages of the paranormal resurgence, after many people's physical fitness has inexplicably improved, it is no longer something too incredible.

But this is Greater London.

Old Jack had never seen such a scene before. The thought of "this idea is difficult to use" just flashed through his mind. Before he could even react and run, he was hit on the back of the neck by the other party and fainted.

Ukyo turned his face over.

Try to recall if this person's appearance appears on any wanted posters issued by the London Metropolitan Police.

The answer is no.

But the person who could get the gun is definitely not an ordinary person. Maybe he has a criminal record. If we take him back to the police station for interrogation, we might be able to find out something.

...

.....

"You have to come to the dock with me before our evening shopping begins. I have a case today as well."

Kotoko is actually as busy as Arthur. She doesn't want Yanami to go to the opera house with Arthur. That is something only husband and wife would do. Although Ukyo would never misunderstand that they are in love, some unnecessary problems should be avoided as much as possible.

"Your case is at the dock?" Yanai asked.

"Yes." Unlike Ukyo, whose tone would become solemn when talking about work, Kotoko still sounded relaxed and casual. "I received a call at four this morning from a captain who said one of his crew members had mysteriously died in the cabin. I asked him why he didn't call the police, and he was stunned for a moment before saying that calling a detective and the police aren't the same thing. Hahahahaha~~~, every time I hear this kind of talk, I have to remind the other party that detectives charge commission fees for investigating cases, so they don't refuse to pay."

..........

...

ten minutes later.

London Docks.

The coolness of the night still lingered on the surface of the Thames.

Kotoko and Yanami, two fair-skinned girls, looked completely out of place here. Workers were unloading cargo from the ship with thick ropes. On the river, the smoke from the steamship's huge chimney intertwined with the mist... cold, icy, and suffocating, until Yanami emerged from the thick fog, carrying a long sword.

It was hard for such a girl to not attract everyone's attention when she suddenly appeared on the smoky dock. She was wearing a white cloth skirt and brown mid-heeled leather shoes. Her plain face was not made up, and her blue eyes were as clear as the color of the sea level. She looked like the male protagonist's first love who had walked out of an opera script.

The workers looked at the knife in her hand.

That was the Great Xia Dragon Bird forged with antique craftsmanship that Youjing bought for her at the auction.

How would the workers know about the Dragon Sparrow Sword?

They only knew that anyone who could afford to carry such a beautiful sword must be a lady from an aristocratic family, and they couldn't afford to offend her, so they all made way for her.

This ensured that the two of them encountered no difficulties along the way and entered the cabin where the incident occurred smoothly.

The captain of the ocean-going cargo ship had been waiting for them here for a long time.

"Miss Kotoko, you are finally here!" The captain was a young nobleman with a powdered look on his body. He must have made love with a woman's belly last night. Kotoko said nothing, but just looked down at the dead body on the ground.

The floor of the room was soaked with blood, there were severe gnawing marks and tooth marks on the body, one leg was missing, and there were blood splatters on the wall.

"It's like a hungry tiger rushed into the cabin, tearing it apart without mercy and feasting on its flesh. The missing leg was most likely eaten." Yanami asked the senior humbly, "Am I right?"

"Judging from the scene, it should be some kind of large beast, but let's not jump to conclusions just yet..." Kotoko squatted on the ground and used a square handkerchief to make a rubbing of the footprints in the blood.

On the white square scarf, the pattern of the footprints resembles a triangle, and you can clearly see the triangular sole of the foot and three protruding toes.

Qinzi said calmly: "It's something familiar, isn't it?"

Yanami nodded, "Those are the footprints of a low-level demon."

"After all these days, things are finally starting to get better." Kotoko unconsciously clenched her drooping left hand into a fist. "Yana, the cherry blossoms in Ishifugao should be blooming, right? Maybe we can go home now."

日本各个地区的樱花盛开时间不一样，比如青森的樱花在4月17日至4月22日盛开，大阪的樱花在3月25日至4月1日盛开。

The cherry blossoms in Toyohashi are expected to bloom from March 3 to April 27 this year. The cherry blossoms only bloom for one week, so the exact opening time of each tree is accurate to the specific day.

The day they disappeared was December 12th.

A few of them traveled around Greater London for a month. In the real world, it should have just been January, and it was actually still early for the cherry blossoms to bloom.

Ms. Kotoko probably said this because she missed home.

"Hey, Miss Detective..." The captain rubbed his hands aside, "What exactly is going on at this scene? Is the murderer easy to catch?"

The two of them were talking about this and that, and the captain was completely confused. He just wanted to know whether they could catch the monster. He paid people to come just to ensure that his ship could operate normally.

"You're not really looking to solve the case, you're just looking for someone to help you search the cabin, right?" Kotoko pointed out the captain's thoughts. "We're also looking for lower-level demons. How many floors does your cabin have? How many rooms are there? Are there any cells or secret rooms? A detailed map would be best. Don't worry, if a lower-level demon is still hiding in the cabin after committing a crime, we will catch it."

Having said that, Qinzi sighed and said, "But lower-level demons are usually not so honest. After eating people, they will not stay in one place for too long."

"Yana." Kotoko looked at the imitation knife in Yana's hand and said with some concern, "I've rarely seen you fight... Let me tell you in advance, I'm a complete drag in combat, so you have to be able to lead two people before we can enter the cabin. If you can't, then we can go to the police station to call for help. There's nothing shameful about it. I have a lot of connections in the police station. Although those ordinary people may not be able to help, it's always good to have more guns."

"I'm fine." Yanami's expression showed no signs of stress. "I've chopped up a lot of low-level demons during the school holidays. They're very crisp, like cutting fruit."

Volume 146: Chapter 4: I Never Saw Him Leave Anyone Alive (5k)

"Do you have a dagger?" Yanaijian suddenly asked.

Image: "Image", Location: "Images/1734449077-100416414-112459148.jpg"

"What do you need a dagger for?" Kotoko didn't say anything, but her eyes fell on the ancient imitation Dragon Sparrow Sword in Yanami's hand. This thing was obviously more useful than a dagger, and it also had a natural special attack against supernatural creatures.

"Typical amateur thinking." Yana saw the disdainful look in her eyes. "The cabin is narrow. Long-bladed weapons are not only difficult to unsheathe, but if you swing them in a narrow corridor, they will easily get stuck in the wall. For street fighting, you need a short blade, Kotoko-san."

Yes, every profession has its own specialization.

Kotoko glanced at the dagger and gun hanging from the captain's waist.

"Can I borrow it?"

"No problem!" The captain smiled and handed over the dagger and gun. "You two detective ladies are incomparably brave. I wish you can defeat the devil soon. I won't go down. I'll wait for you to howl up there~"

The noble captain spoke with a slight American accent, likely from his frequent trips to America for export trade. Yanami suddenly wondered... what was Japan like during this period? What would it be like if she took a boat across the sea and returned directly to Japan?

Kotoko interrupted his thoughts.

"Don't dwell on such things in a fictional world. Even if we all went to another continent, we wouldn't be able to return home. Besides, fictional worlds all have boundaries. The fact that Ukyo didn't reach the border of Greater London only proves that this world is huge, or that there's some kind of barrier at the edge of the world, like a 'ghost wall.' But the ocean is a completely unfamiliar territory."

"You should know that humankind's fantasies about the ocean have always been filled with mystery and terror."

"Don't ever try to walk across the sea. There's only an inlet, no outlet, into that abyss."

An "old detective" like Ukyo, who is experienced and has superb physical skills, has been to so many places, but has never been to the sea. There is no need to elaborate on how dangerous this seemingly clear sea is.

"I'm just thinking about it," Yanami added, "I wouldn't dare go out to sea on a boat like this."

Qinzi was stunned.

Yanami must be pointing to the cabin in front of him.

She also didn't know why the cabin of a freighter, often called a freighter, looked so old and scary.

Qinzi casually ran her hand across the wall. The tip of her middle finger was covered with a layer of dust that had been peeled off, like a corner forgotten by time...

"This floor seems to be used for storing goods." Yanaijian pushed open the first cabin in the dilapidated corridor. The smell of tea leaves inside was very strong. This was not a good thing. The smell of lower-level demons was similar to the corpse odor emitted by mammals three days after death. That smell was very strong, but the smell of tea leaves was also very strong. When the two were superimposed together, it was difficult to judge the former.

Yanaijian sniffed the air and said, "The smell is too mixed, and there's some kind of pungent smell of smoke. It seems to be... opium?"

Her nose is quite useful. A paranormal detective must have some special skills.

But a human nose is not a dog's nose after all, and if there is odor interference, it will be difficult for her to identify.

"The probability of a demon staying at the scene after committing a crime is already low," Kotoko said. "Our operation this time can only be considered a routine inspection. Even if we find nothing, it's okay. Just do your best."

The wooden board under Kotoko's feet had become mottled due to years of erosion, and the surface was covered with a thick layer of moss and uneven marks similar to barnacles. If you stepped on it with your heels, you would sprain your ankle if you were not careful.

Yanami carefully pushed open the second door on the cabin aisle.

Unlike the situation at the first door, the first thing that greets you is a pungent smell mixed with the salty smell of sea water, rotten wood, and unknown mold. It seems to be able to penetrate the clothes and reach the bone marrow. Both of them frowned unconsciously at the same time.

Faint light stubbornly seeped in from the cracks in the broken deck above, barely outlining the vague outline of the cabin, but most places were still immersed in chaotic darkness. Only the occasional glimmer of phosphorescent light from a corner could bring a fleeting ray of life to this dead space.

The nails on the bulkheads had long since rusted, and the wooden planks had cracked or even fallen off in many places, revealing the jagged skeleton within, like the exposed ribs of a giant beast. Some old navigational instruments were scattered everywhere, the compass needle no longer pointed in any direction, and the nautical charts on the wall were blurred by the erosion of the sea...

This doesn't seem to be a warehouse, but a crew member's trophy storage room, or a captain's room or something like that, because only the captain's room would have a nautical chart hanging in it.

The room had once been submerged in seawater, which is why there were so many phosphorescent organisms around it.

These shimmering things crawled as slowly as snails in the dim room. The light they cast formed a kind of diffuse reflection in the room. Yanai saw his own shadow in the light.

"Stand back!" She stretched out her slender arms and stopped Qinzi behind her.

Kotoko also knew the reason why she did this.

Since the light refracted by these phosphorescent creatures can be connected together to reflect human images, they are also a kind of "mirror". They are both old detectives, so there is no need to explain the rest.

Kotoko could hear those phosphorescent creatures making some slight sounds, like the low hum of some unknown creature or the whimper of the wind blowing through a hole. These sounds echoed in the narrow space, intensifying the horror atmosphere here. It seemed that the owner of this place did not welcome them. Yanami felt that her steps became heavier, as if there was an invisible repulsive force like the wind, resisting the two outsiders.

"She seems scared?"

Kotoko faced the strange wind and said to Yanami.

"I don't know." Yanami said, "There's no reason for a low-level demon to be afraid of humans, but the owner of this room seems to be trying to drive us away. It's not very smart. If it were really scared, it would just keep quiet and we would leave, but it's deliberately creating a terrifying atmosphere to try to drive us away. Kotoko, take out the things."

Hearing this, Qinzi was stunned.

thing?

What do you want to take?

Yanami said something out of the blue and she didn't react, but based on the situation at the scene, she was able to draw a conclusion quickly. A quick mind is also a necessary quality for a psychic detective. What Yanami said should be something that can pull lower-level demons out of the mirror.

Then Kotoko raised her cane.

Even if her cane is just an ordinary means of transportation...

The next moment, a rapid and chaotic gasp came from the mirror connected by the light, and a black shadow appeared like a ghost. Before Kotoko could see its appearance clearly, Yana saw the dagger in his hand stabbing towards a certain direction of fluctuation in the air.

She held the dagger in her backhand, and with ease and familiarity, she stabbed it precisely into a gray-green head.

The moment Yanajian attacked, she knew she was in trouble. She should have left the victim alive, but fighting in a small space was quite disadvantageous for humans. The limbs of lower-level demons could cling to the wall like geckos, and their range of movement was extremely large, so the simplest and most advantageous way was to deliver a fatal blow at the first encounter!

The dead demon fell out of the "reflection".

Kotoko covered her nose to drive away the pungent smell of the demon.

This demon is gray-green, while ordinary lower-level demons have dark brown bodies similar to rotting fungi, or gray-white bodies similar to skinned bullfrogs.

As for the gray-green...

A demon that is slightly more evolved than the lower level, but not yet at the middle level.

This thing is indeed more difficult to deal with than ordinary lower-level creatures. It is right to kill it with one blow. If you engage in a tug-of-war with it in a narrow cabin, even an experienced old hunter may fail.

"I'm sorry..." Yanai put away the dagger with a bit of self-blame, "I drew the knife too quickly."

"That's a good thing." Kotoko couldn't stand the smell in the room anymore and had already left the room. "At least we know that demons do exist in this world. This is a major constructive breakthrough. None of us are detectives who excel at 'hunting'. We usually focus on solving cases. The only one in the six-member group who's good at hunting is Arthur. Doesn't that guy call himself a demon hunter?"

"When we get back tonight, we'll tell Arthur the news that demons exist in Greater London. That old hunter is the expert in hunting demons."

"But then again," Kotoko suddenly asked, "Is Ukyo good at hunting demons?"

"Not very good at it." Yanaijian said, "When we worked together to investigate a case, he never left anyone alive."

"No wonder then." Kotoko looked at Yanami deeply.

......

...

at the same time.

London Police Station, torture chamber.

London in the late 19th century did not have as many rules as in later generations. Although police regulations stated that lynching of criminals was prohibited, there were no cameras in that era and detectives never abided by the regulations.

There's even an 18th-century dungeon beneath Greater London, complete with rusty torture instruments.

You Jing looked at the "criminal" he had just captured, and he was in no hurry to interrogate him. He just sat on a wooden bench and said like an old man, "Have you heard of the crushing punishment?"

"To put it simply, the prisoner is tied naked in a cell, tied with ropes in several places, and iron, stone, or lead blocks are placed on the body until the victim is crushed to death."

His voice was calm.

"This punishment is actually quite humane. I guess you're not very familiar with the double-headed fork."

Ukyo had wanted to educate the assassin on the various tortures used in the old British society, but the man opposite him seemed to be an expert in this field. He spoke to Ukyo in a rather arrogant tone, saying, "A fork is made up of a double-headed fork and a leather belt. The belt is tied around the prisoner's neck, with one end of the fork resting on the chin and the other on the sternum..."