Tokyo: Rabbit Officer and Her Evil Partner

He picked up the money while urging, "Do you remember those bad people in the hospital, those perverts who tied you up?"

Uesugi Shion blinked her eyes, looked up at him for a moment, and then continued to wave the chair leg.

"Can you understand what I'm saying?" Fushimi Roku waved his hand in front of her.

Uesugi Shion reacted but not much, she just called out "Dad."

Fushimi Roku initially thought she was enduring the humiliation, but now he felt this person was mentally confused and couldn't communicate normally at all.

The soft approach failed, so he had no choice but to try the hard one.

Fushimi Roku grabbed the chair leg from her hand, gesturing as if to hit, trying to scare her away.

Uesugi Shion was indeed frightened, but she didn't run away; instead, she hid in the bathroom, curled up in a corner of the bathtub, trembling.

"..."

Fushimi Roku gave up.

He heard Minamoto Tamako finishing her call and approaching the room. Continuing to entangle any further was meaningless, so he could only hurry to hide the money in the unbroken vase.

If he remembered correctly, organic brain damage was almost impossible to recover from, and the chances of Uesugi Shion becoming clear-headed again were very slim... If all else failed, they would have to take a risk.

"I've already arranged with Doctor Arima; he said his assistant will come to pick someone up shortly."

Minamoto Tamako curiously poked her head in, lowered her voice, and asked, "Why did she hide in the bathroom?"

"No idea." Fushimi Roku feigned a clueless look.

"That's good!" Minamoto Tamako snorted, showing a small expression of vengeance: "Lock her inside, so she won't cause trouble everywhere!"

Fushimi Roku remained silent, leaning against the vase and nodding in agreement.

...

While they waited for Doctor Arima's assistant to come, Taira Sakurako, who left a note and went out, was not playing with her little friends.

At that moment, she was sitting across from the National Science Museum, holding binoculars with both hands, observing the museum entrance across the street.

Nine-year-old Mai crouched behind her, her face filled with worry, and whispered, "Um, Sakurako-chan, is it really okay to do this..."

"Shh."

Taira Sakurako did not explain, instead quietly telling Mai to hush.

In fact, even without binoculars, they could clearly see what was happening across the street. Taira Sakurako wanted to observe the details, which was why she brought the binoculars.

Mai let out a deep sigh, and when she looked up, she saw Mayu swaggering out of the museum, and the security alarm at the entrance suddenly went off.

Beep boop—beep boop—

"Stop that girl!" The security guard shouted.

Two gatekeepers simultaneously surrounded Mayu, gripping her arms. She was kicking in the air, struggling back and forth, screaming something.

The guard caught up, starting to search Mayu without further ado, but they found nothing.

Taira Sakurako motioned to Mai, indicating it was her turn to act. Mai sighed, steeled herself, stepped across the street with small legs, feigning surprise, and loudly asked, "Mayu-chan, what's wrong?"

"These guys, they accused me of stealing! I didn't steal anything!"

Mayu shouted in anger, threatening to report this to her parents.

Mai chimed in, "You're going to be in big trouble! Mayu's dad is a member of the Diet! You guys will definitely lose your jobs, just wait to be fired!"

After saying that, Mai was a bit nervous, feeling particularly uneasy. These words were taught by Taira Sakurako, supposedly very impactful, and adults who heard them would surely back off.

The security guard and gatekeepers glanced at each other, and one of them whispered, "The alarm did go off..."

"I didn't steal, I didn't steal, I didn't steal!!"

Mayu cried, rolling on the ground, unable to bear the injustice.

The gatekeeper suggested it might have been a false alarm and asked Mayu to take out what she had on her and pass them one by one through the door alarm.

By 1991, Japan already had alarm technology for the mall entrances. Although the technology at the time might not be as advanced as it is now, it had basic functionalities.

The electronic tag system used for anti-theft in goods has begun to gain popularity. Shops can install radio frequency tags on products, and if a tagged item passes through the shop's RF sensing device without demagnetization, it triggers an alarm.

At that time, the false alarm rate of the anti-theft alarm system was quite high, especially for second-hand alarm systems where previous identification codes hadn't been erased. The National Science Museum's alarm system was second-hand, bought from a bankrupt shop, and the procurement staff had pocketed profits, which is a traditional trick of Japanese companies.

Mayu had no intention of cooperating with this baseless accusation.

Mai whispered from the side, saying if she didn't prove her innocence, wouldn't she really become a thief?

Mayu thought it made sense and decided to comply.

She was wearing a pink dress, looking small in her pockets, but as she poured out her things, they scattered in a pile:

One pebble, one ice pop stick, three glass marbles, two rolls of rubber bands, one pager, a wad of tissues used for blowing her nose, and a half-eaten box of cookies.

Mayu stretched each item past the door alarm system, and when she raised the box of cookies, the alarm sounded again.

Just to be safe, they dismantled her cookie box outside the door, confirmed there were only cookies inside, and finally breathed a sigh of relief, though with a headache.

"I told you I didn't steal! You bad guys, I'm going to tell my parents..."

Mayu yelled again, planning to cause a scene.

Mai, having memorized the words taught by Taira Sakurako for any sudden situation, quickly interjected, "Just apologize, and Mayu-chan won't pursue it further!"

"That's right, you must apologize!"

Mayu crossed her arms and pouted.

The security guards and gatekeepers shrugged; they were just doing their jobs diligently and hadn't done anything wrong, it was just a misunderstanding, so naturally, they didn't want to apologize to a little brat.

But avoiding trouble is better; after all, it was the museum's alarm system that had issues. As security personnel, they also had the responsibility to soothe the guests, so they offered a fake smile and apologized to Mayu.

Mayu accepted their apology and strutted down the museum steps like a victorious rooster.

Mai followed beside her with small steps, leading her across the street.

The two chatted as they walked, with Mayu constantly complaining that her magical pebble was not obedient after being touched, and she must go find a wild pebble just for her, carry it for a month without letting others touch it to tame it completely.

As she spoke, Mayu suddenly remembered something, holding her head and asking while walking:

"Speaking of which, where did Sakurako-chan go? She asked me to meet at the museum, but I haven't seen her..."

Taira Sakurako made a timely entrance, packed away the binoculars into her backpack, dusted herself off, and walked towards Mayu, "Sorry, I'm late."

Mayu didn't mind her friend's tardiness because she was often late herself. Now that the trio was together, Mayu suggested going to Taira Sakurako's house to play video games.

Taira Sakurako vetoed it, reminding, "Don't forget, we agreed to meet at the museum to wander around."

"Museum again? Why do we visit the museum every day? It's so boring! I don't want to!"

Mayu was unhappy. The first visit to the museum was somewhat novel, but after three consecutive days with Taira Sakurako, the novelty faded, leaving only boredom. Walking around the museum wasn't fun at all.

"One last time," Taira Sakurako lured, "I'll let you play video games for half an hour longer when we go home."

"Yay!"

Mayu cheered excitedly, pushing Taira Sakurako back towards the museum. Passing the gatekeepers, she deliberately made a funny face, which they pretended not to see.

The trio wandered around the museum with Taira Sakurako constantly observing the surveillance.

Japanese surveillance cameras were extremely expensive, even in high-end locations, at most just equipped with one or two cameras for show.

In large spaces with insufficient cameras, the cameras had to rotate back and forth to increase the monitoring area, leading to gaps and blind spots during rotation.

Taira Sakurako had been surveying for two days and now was the time to close the net.

She took Mayu's cookie box, ice pop stick, and pebble, directed Mai to distract Mayu, and then seized the opportunity during the camera rotation gaps to confirm no one was around, quickly using the ice pop stick to pry open the special specimen box and take out the exhibited rust-colored meteorite.

To prevent the security from noticing anything amiss, Taira Sakurako had planned ahead.

She lightly tapped, causing the debris stuck to the surface of the pebble to fall off, revealing a stone extremely similar to the exhibited meteorite fragment. Seizing the moment before the camera rotated back, she placed the 'pebble' back into the special exhibition specimen box and closed it.

Finally, Taira Sakurako stuffed the meteorite fragment into Mayu's cookie box and let Mayu leave the museum swaggering with the cookie box.

The alarm sounded again, but the gatekeepers didn't stop them.