Outside the prison, the afternoon sun was splendid.
Rumi Yoshizawa stood at the entrance, looking out at the world, feeling as if it had been renewed.
Her short forty-six days in prison had taught her one thing: she must act with even greater boldness in the future and not allow herself to be imprisoned over trivial matters. When taking action, she couldn't hesitate. Only by being more ruthless than those villains could she punish them.
In this way, I'll be one step closer to Lord Dio.
As Rumi Yoshizawa thought this, she took out her phone, which still had half its battery. Because she had previously handled company business that involved significant phone usage and had topped up her phone credit substantially, her mobile service hadn't been suspended.
She walked down the road outside the prison, opened TikTok, and checked for recent events.
The moment she opened TikTok, the first short video pushed to her depicted a miracle.
A critically ill ICU patient was now up and about, full of life.
What kind of joke is this?
Rumi Yoshizawa didn't quite understand. Have I been locked up for so little time that such preposterous fake videos are already being published? TikTok has truly fallen.
With this in mind, she didn't immediately look away but watched patiently, observing the joyful families of the patients amidst sentimental music and explanatory text. From this, she identified a few key elements:
Blond hair, a tall Caucasian man, a very reassuring voice.
Taking these characteristics together, I'm almost certain they're talking about Lord Dio. Only he could possess such miraculous abilities.
Rumi Yoshizawa was excited. She began leaving comments under such short videos.
"That is Lord Dio! Only he could possess such miraculous power!"
It was like copy-pasting, but she typed out each sentence by hand. In her view, only this could prove her loyalty to Lord Dio.
That kind of copy-pasting shows complete disregard for him.
Dio.
In Japan's internet sphere, this name had become a fixed target for the CIA; anyone typing it online was likely to be flagged by the CIA.
At the same time, all information about the phone's owner was delivered to Jack's desk.
Rumi Yoshizawa.
She had once witnessed Dio commit murder and subsequently committed a copycat crime. Her attempt on May 11th was unsuccessful, leading to her arrest and imprisonment. Now released after serving her sentence, her thoughts immediately turned back to Dio, whom she couldn't forget.
Jack looked at the report and fell into deep thought.
It would be simple for the CIA to deal with this person, but is it necessary? This first woman to imitate Dio's crimes... perhaps keeping her around could be useful.
Jack considered it. There was still no news from Durant, the CIA's undercover operative, and it remained unclear whether he had gained Dio's trust.
Perhaps it's time to deploy the second chess piece. This foolish woman might be the CIA's stepping stone to get closer to Dio.
After a moment of contemplation, Jack decided the plan was sound. He used the CIA's secure line to dial a number.
"Dohashi Shinjiro, there's been a change of mission. You are to get close to a woman named Rumi Yoshizawa and assist her in her activities."
「Tokyo, Minami Senju in the Arakawa District.」
Rumi Yoshizawa arrived at the apartment she had once rented.
It didn't look at all upscale from the outside; the rental property was a rectangular, two-story building.
Directly across from the rentals stood the landlady's family's traditional Japanese mansion, where an elderly woman with silver hair, wearing an apron, was sweeping the yard.
Rumi Yoshizawa pushed open the low gate and entered the yard, asking, "Mrs. Kana, where are my luggage and clothes?"
"Yoshizawa, you're out." The landlady glanced at her and turned, saying, "Follow me. Your room has been rented out, but I've packed your clothes and luggage into a suitcase for you."
"Hmm."
Rumi Yoshizawa wasn't surprised her room had been rented out; the low rent always attracted working people. She was, however, somewhat surprised that the landlady had kept her luggage and clothes.
To be honest, I had been prepared: if my belongings were gone, I would find time to deal with this annoying old woman. But it turned out the old woman was quite decent, not as harsh as her words sometimes suggested.
She followed the landlady to the storage area and retrieved her suitcase.
Despite having been in Tokyo for several years, her belongings were so few they all fit into a single suitcase.
Rumi Yoshizawa walked outside, pulling her suitcase. Her phone's battery was low; she needed to find a place to stay quickly so she could proceed with her next plan.
She searched online and suddenly found a promising rental listing.
It was in the Arakawa District, Machiya. The rent was an astonishingly cheap fifty thousand Yen, far below the average for the Arakawa District. It was an eighty-square-meter apartment with two bedrooms and a living room, and paying rent after moving in was acceptable.
Did the landlord get their head slammed in a door?
Rumi Yoshizawa was excited. Freshly out of prison, she didn't have much cash, and 'robbing the rich to aid the poor' would take time to organize.
How fortunate! This must be Lord Dio watching over me.
Rumi Yoshizawa glanced at the landlord's name: Dohashi Shinjiro.
She quickly dialed the number. "Hello, I saw your rental listing. Is it true that the eighty-square-meter apartment is fifty thousand Yen a month, and it's possible to move in before paying rent?"
"Of course! All this is to celebrate the miracle. My mother had late-stage cancer and was essentially in the hospital waiting to die.
"Just yesterday at noon, a blond man suddenly appeared and healed her with his miraculous powers.
"This is God showing his power! I want to do some good deeds to repay God's grace!"
Listening to the excited voice on the phone, Rumi Yoshizawa frowned and interjected, "That was not God!"
"What do you mean by that?"
"Let's discuss the details when we meet."
Rumi Yoshizawa hung up, her excitement growing.
As long as I stand with Lord Dio, fate will favor me.
Encountering such good fortune right after being released from prison, Rumi Yoshizawa felt that this time she would be even more successful than the last.
Of course, Dohashi Shinjiro was a fake name.
The mother "saved by Dio" was a real person, just not his. The CIA had used some maneuvering to establish him as her son. To prevent any inconsistencies, the "cured" mother had already been relocated to the countryside to "retire." The Tokyo property was inherited by Dohashi Shinjiro.
This wasn't a spur-of-the-moment action but part of a plan initiated the previous day. Originally, the idea was for him to approach Dio under the guise of a healed patient's relative. Today, however, his orders from above changed, instructing him to get close to Rumi Yoshizawa.
The rental listing was specifically pushed to Rumi Yoshizawa's phone by the CIA using their network control. For the CIA, with its control over the internet, accomplishing such a task was exceedingly simple.
Dohashi Shinjiro held a broom, slowly sweeping in front of the apartment building.
The building was only four stories high, had no elevator, and was quite old. It housed eleven tenants, all ordinary people with no connection to the CIA. The vacant apartment was the one Dohashi Shinjiro had specifically prepared for Rumi Yoshizawa.
He was leisurely sweeping dust from the street, watching dusk gradually descend, when the sound of rolling luggage wheels reached his ears. A tall figure pulling a suitcase appeared before him.
"Are you the landlord here, Dohashi Shinjiro? My name is Rumi Yoshizawa. I'm the one who called you earlier about the rental."
The woman's tone was forceful. It was hard to imagine that just last month she had been an ordinary office worker. Even before she went to prison, Dohashi Shinjiro recalled the photograph she had left behind; he could still sense the restlessness and distortion in it. Now, that aura had completely vanished. She seemed to have been reforged in a furnace, now exuding a steel-like hardness from head to toe.
"Ms.Yoshizawa, let me show you to the room. It's on the first floor. The previous tenant just moved out."
"Those are minor details. You said you wanted to do something for the one who healed your mother, right?" Rumi Yoshizawa, in no rush to see the apartment, spoke gravely, "Let me tell you, he's not some vague entity like God. Lord Dio is a real person who exists in this world."
Listening to her, Dohashi Shinjiro knew prison had forged her will but done nothing for her intellect. Based on that speech alone, if he hadn't been under orders to get close to Rumi Yoshizawa, he would never have believed her.
"Do you know him?"
"Of course. I was fortunate enough to witness Lord Dio's magnificence with my own eyes, and I understand the kind of mission His Lordship is undertaking. Eliminating the wicked, saving the suffering—His Lordship will reign over Japan! No, he will become the king who conquers the world!"
Rumi Yoshizawa's expression and tone were utterly serious, showing not the slightest hint of deception.
A cold sweat broke out on Dohashi Shinjiro's face. He asked with feigned alarm, "You're not joking with me, are you?"
"Of course not. Your mother's incident should make you understand the greatness of Lord Dio's power." Rumi Yoshizawa casually slung an arm over Dohashi Shinjiro's shoulder. The first thing she learned in prison was that one person alone has limits. To fulfill Lord Dio's wishes, she had to find like-minded individuals. Such people must be daring and utterly loyal to Lord Dio.
"This country is already corrupt. Only Lord Dio can save us." Rumi Yoshizawa put her arm around Dohashi Shinjiro as they entered the apartment, declaring confidently, "We must clear some obstacles for His Lordship. Only then can we repay his immense kindness."
"How do we clear them?" Dohashi Shinjiro was somewhat curious about her plans. His orders were to help her achieve her goals to attract Dio's attention.
"First, we get guns! Second, we gather people like you, who have received Lord Dio's grace, and form the Dior Salvation Committee!
"Third, we take the Prime Minister hostage! Fourth, we make the Prime Minister publicly declare on all media outlets that he is ceding his position to Lord Dio, establishing Lord Dio's great empire!"
Rumi Yoshizawa was brimming with confidence in her plan. She believed that once Lord Dio appeared, all resistance would be crushed.
Dohashi Shinjiro was dumbfounded. For a moment, he thought he wasn't in the 'East Asia Monster Room' but in some minor African nation.
How could such a harebrained scheme possibly succeed?!