Dragon Raja 3; Chapter 104: Every Tortoise longs for its puddle (8)

Dragon Raja 3

“Now I will formally announce the family’s punishment for you. You are Noda Shou of the Noda Group, correct?” Sakura asked.

“Yes! Noda Shou of the Noda Group in Kabukicho, Shinjuku, Tokyo, serving under the group leader Kozo!” Shou said with his head held high.

“You’re eighteen, correct?”

“Yes!” Shou gripped the knife handle, blood boiling in his chest.

“You have a crush on Miss Makoto?”

“Poof!” Lu Mingfei spat his tea all over Shou’s head. Shou jerked his head up like a small animal that had its tail stepped on, his eyes filled with shock and then rage.

“N-no… No!” he stammered.

“As a candidate for the third leader of the Noda Group, you’ve been staying in a toy store for little girls watching manga for over twenty hours this past week. Not only that, you even bought coffee with your own money every time you came. Your clothes are neat, which doesn’t suit someone like you—it’s obvious you changed them specially before coming, and you even styled your hair,” Sakura said, throwing an aluminum baseball bat in front of Shou. “You also carved Miss Ma’s name on the bat.”

“Whoa! You carved it so carefully!” Lu Mingfei picked up the bat, full of praise.

“Ah!” Makoto covered her face when she saw the engraving on the bat.

“We men…” Shou still tried to struggle.

“Middle schooler, shut up!” Sakura chopped down on Shou’s forehead, leaving a mark in his meticulously styled hair.

“Oh wow! Sakura is amazing—I didn’t even notice his bat while I was holding it,” Lu Mingfei said.

“Actually, these are just reference points. The most important evidence is a woman’s intuition,” Sakura said calmly. “Someone once paid the same kind of attention to me before, and I noticed it, so I can feel it.”

Chisei felt a slight stir inside. Although he had worked with Yasha, Crow, and Sakura for a long time, seeing them around him daily, he realized that he actually knew very little about them and their pasts. He had never imagined that someone could have a crush on Sakura. He had grown so used to Sakura’s understated demeanor and agility that it was difficult to even notice her beauty anymore. To him, she was just like a ninja always shrouded in black clothing, with no need for an identity, only a code name. It wasn’t until he overheard Caesar and Lu Mingfei discussing her that he remembered his assistant might actually have some attraction for men.

“Apologize to Miss Makoto and work here as an assistant for three months. The family has no rule for protection fees on toy stores, so this fee is exempt. During your assistantship, follow the store’s rules,” Sakura sheathed her short knife. “That’s the punishment—now go.”

Makoto had already hurried back to the counter with her face covered. Sakura lowered her voice and asked Shou, “A guy like you shouldn’t be into someone gentle. Why her?”

“A man needs a good wife and mother to set his mind at ease so he can take on the world!”

Another chop from Sakura.

“Sorry about the mix-up,” Chisei said, “There are some good nightclubs around here—want to check them out?”

Lu Mingfei looked longingly at the shelves filled with manga. During high school at Shilan Middle School, there was a small manga shop behind the school gate. Most of the manga sold were pirated copies, but there were a few legitimate ones imported from Taiwan, translated from the Japanese originals—far superior in quality to the pirated versions. Behind the store was a separate section filled with premium editions, only accessible to those who spent money in the shop and earned the owner’s invitation to see the latest good stuff. As a broke guy, Lu Mingfei could only sneak glances at those back shelves, while Zhao Menghua, a true rich guy, never wasted time with the pirated manga on the front shelves and went straight to buy legitimate editions, some of which even came in gift boxes—holding them just made you feel classy.

Now, seeing all these authentic manga neatly stacked, just touching them made Lu Mingfei happy. He actually wanted to stay in this store a bit longer, but he had no standing in the team, so he could only wait for Caesar’s decision.

“How about we wait here until the rain lightens up?” Chu Zihang suddenly suggested.

Chisei looked over at Caesar.

“Isn’t tonight supposed to be our ‘yakuza night’? But here we are, drinking instant coffee in a toy store—is this what commoners’ coffee tastes like?” Caesar said, sipping on the instant coffee Makoto had made.

Ma came over with a tray of sakura mochi.

“Arigato! Good coffee!” Caesar raised his cup with a big smile at the girl. Of course, Makoto couldn’t understand his Chinese, but for someone like Caesar, he would never show disdain for a commoner’s coffee in front of the young girl who made it.

“How quickly his attitude changes,” Lu Mingfei muttered. He stuffed the sakura mochi into his pocket, ready to leave.

“Well, let’s drink our commoners’ coffee here then,” Caesar continued, “Though it’s a bit thin and overly sweet, it’s still nice to chat on a rainy day.”

Lu Mingfei was momentarily stunned, not understanding why Caesar would willingly spend time in such an ordinary toy store.

“Can I have a look? Aberu! Aberu!” Caesar pointed at a model on the shelf and asked Makoto Surprisingly, his pronunciation of “aberu” in Japanese was quite accurate.

On the shelf was Albel from “Star Ocean III.” Lu Mingfei hadn’t expected Caesar to recognize such an obscure character.

Sakura entered from outside and leaned close to Chisei’s ear: “The people from the Crow Gang and the Fire Hall Group are heading this way. There might be a conflict. To avoid disturbing the guests, we should leave.”

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