Chapter 58 Street Artist
The Sugamo in Toyota District are like some kind of nocturnal animal, dormant in the steel and concrete during the day, and gradually boiling at night, extending colorful tentacles around.
The vertical signs hanging on the street lit up one by one. Fushimi Shika held up the map and took notes as he walked. The shops along the street opened their rolling shutters one by one, and the signboard above their heads lit up the characters "Sugamo Jizo Shopping Street". Due to poor contact, the word "Jizou" flashed in red.
People poured into the street from the west, including migrant workers after get off work, bosozoku who bombed the street, and violent gangs watching the show... The chaotic crowd gathered together, dazzling Minamoto Tamako.
Fushimi Lu looked at the map and realized that Sugamo is divided into two parts. The place near Ikebukuro Station is Nishi Sugamo. The environment there is clean and tidy, with two primary schools, a historical landmark, the newly built Sunshine City shopping mall, and office buildings for major companies, making it a gathering place for the upper class elite;
The area where Fushimi deer is located is Higashi Sugamo. There is no place name "Higashi Sugamo" on the landmark, only "Nishi Sugamo" is marked separately, but the locals will call it that - Higashi Sugamo is synonymous with the poor.
"Ghost in the Shell will be released in a few years, right?" He sighed in his heart, finally understanding why Japan in the 1990s was able to carry forward cyberpunk culture.
Even if the economic bubble bursts, the elites who are truly in power can still take advantage of the situation to expand capital. In a few decades, it is estimated that even Higashi Sugamo will be demolished and renovated, and salary-earners will either rent a house in Adachi City to catch up with their commute, or they will go into the bridge cave wilderness to survive.
Minamoto Tamako looked as confused as Grandma Liu entering the Grand View Garden, following Fushimi Deer and looking left and right. Occasionally, a drunk passerby shouted at her, "Get out of here!" She didn't understand what it meant, so she tugged on Fushimi Shika's clothes and said, "The people here don't seem to welcome us."
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"You don't understand this," Fushimi Shikama said deceptively: "'Mapo' refers to a kind of evil spirit. There is a special custom in Sugamo. When locals encounter foreign tourists, they shout 'Mapo, get out' , meaning to help the other party catch the wind and drive away evil spirits. The more sinister the expression, the better the effect of exorcising evil spirits. ”
"Eh...is that so?"
Yuan Yuzi remembered that her grandma had a similar custom, but they just sprinkled salt on people and muttered strange spells.
The commercial street is not large in area. Apart from the izakayas, there are also cheap and trendy shops, which take the word "food and sex" to the extreme. It only took them less than twenty minutes to walk around from start to finish. They felt that the public security was good, at least no one was drunk and causing trouble on the street.
Fushimi Lu kept walking, following the map marks, and turned into the alley between the shops.
Next, they have to inspect residential buildings, which is the bulk of the inspection work.
There are eleven old-fashioned apartment buildings on both sides of Sugamo Street. After the war, it was unclear whose property rights belonged to them. Some of the vacant houses even had no one to collect rent, and there were some people who were not allowed to live in them. Naturally, they became harbors of filth and evil. Feng shui treasure land.
The alley was very dark. Fushimi Shika squinted and saw a punk man standing at the end, spray-painting the wall. The latter noticed that a patrol policeman had come in, subconsciously pulled up his mask, and said in a vicious voice: "What are you doing here, Damn Po? Get out of here!"
Yuan Yuzi was stunned, thinking that the local residents were so welcoming. She straightened her back and said seriously: "Thank you very much! I will work hard!"
"Huh? Ma Po should get out, this is not the place you should be -"
"Yoshi! Thank you for your encouragement! I will definitely patrol carefully and protect Sugamo's safety!"
"Uh, you, here, I'm graffiti here..."
"I'm very sorry to disturb your creation, we are just passing by," Minamoto Tamako tugged Fushimi Lu's sleeves and whispered: "Go quickly, don't disturb the artist's work." Minamoto Tamako didn't seem to be joking, but the punk man was a little uncomfortable. Good riddance. He rolled his tongue and cursed, and the other person said thank you and even praised him as an artist.
This female patrol officer has a very cool face, she is probably a fresh graduate. Even though she looks cute, she still speaks so nicely. It feels silly and seems like she could be teased...
Just as he thought this, he saw another patrolman put his right hand on the holster of his gun and looked down at him. The aura in his eyes was as if a gangster was preparing to kill someone himself.
People who hang out on the streets all year round know at a glance who they shouldn't mess with. The punk man said nothing, turned sideways, and continued to stand by the wall and devote himself to 'art painting'.
When Yuan Yuzi passed by, she took a sneak peek and saw that he had spray-painted a black-smoking factory on the wall, hidden deep in the cave between his thighs. She blushed and looked away in a hurry.
The entrance to the apartment building was very low, so Fushimi had to bend down slightly to avoid hitting his head. After entering, the corridor was slightly wider, but not much better. There was not even a sensor light, and it was completely dark.
Minamoto Tamako was a little afraid of the dark, so she subconsciously grabbed the corner of Fushimi Shika's clothes and pulled out the flashlight from her waist. With a click, a beam of light lit up in the corridor.
"It's so spooky. Does anyone really live here?" She held up a flashlight and looked around at the mottled walls. The corners were crowded with black spider webs.
Fushimi Shika thought to himself that the eldest lady really didn't know the sufferings of the world. If he didn't go to the police academy for training, he would probably end up here as a sewer rat - that is, it would be a bit old and worn out, and it would be pretty good without piles of garbage.
The two walked up the stairs. Each apartment was in a zigzag structure, which meant that they had to go around each floor to complete their patrol.
Yes, the job of a Japanese patrol officer is so trivial. In addition to daily patrols, they also need to visit community residents regularly to understand the flow of people in the community, the composition of the community, and their needs.
Check out the 16-9 book bar to see the correct version!
Although this was the rule, Fushimi Shika had no intention of complying with it. He stood at the entrance of the corridor and waved the flashlight around. He had completed patrolling the first floor.
Such perfunctory work naturally made Yuan Yuzi dissatisfied. She would drag Fushimi Deer no matter what, knock on doors and register to make herself familiar, and also investigate where the gunshots during the day came from.
Fushimi Shika flatly refused. If she patrolled like this, working 12 hours a day would not be enough. This bad sign of involution must be nipped in the bud.
The two were arguing in the corridor. Fushimi Shika was about to take out his trump card and cast a spell and chant, when suddenly a faint and ethereal singing voice came from deep in the corridor:
"This ghost is a soul or a monster. It will be obvious when the bow is heard..."
Fushimi Lu didn't feel anything special, but Minamoto Tamako was so frightened that her scalp was numb. She could tell that these were lines from the Noh ghost play "Aoi Kame". This familiar yet bizarre feeling is difficult to describe in words, just like when Chinese people hear a woman singing at the top of her voice in an old apartment building late at night.
She turned the flashlight, and the beam of light shot towards the end of the corridor. Under the gaze of the two people, a door in the corridor creaked open. The singing voice became particularly clear, with a vague accompaniment of the babbling shamisen, as if a ghost was whispering in the ear.
"The sky is pure...the earth is pure...the inside and outside are pure...the six roots are pure..."
(End of chapter)