—The collective is both an advantage and a disadvantage.
Shell City’s beaches were, as always, scorching hot. Amidst the endless stream of people enjoying the sun, Ke Yiyi found no leisure to partake. Standing by a coconut tree, she gazed out at the ocean, her hands clenching and unclenching repeatedly, a clear sign of the unease stirring within her.
Despite the intense heat, she remained clad in the standard police uniform of the Vega Academy of Sciences. Given Shell City’s geographical location and climate, she ought to have been wearing a cooler summer police uniform; yet, for reasons unknown, she was not.
The navy blue jacket and matching skirt, which should have conveyed solemnity, were unexpectedly paired with a white shirt and a red tie, thereby breaking the intended gravity of the ensemble.
This was the new uniform issued to the ‘police force’ by the Vega Academy of Sciences after the World War. Its style, design, and materials were chosen to resemble ordinary civilian attire as closely as possible, fostering a sense of closeness with the public and avoiding any perception of detachment.
Were it not for the shoulder holster visible beneath her shirt, few would have associated her with Vega’s ‘Detective Division’. Though her firearm was not presently in the holster, the space where it should have been was instead filled with several spare pistol magazines.
“Come on, come on! Big Sister Ke! Have some juice!”
Ke Yiyi glanced sideways and froze, momentarily stunned. Though the person was not tall, their one-piece swimsuit utterly failed to conceal the ample… assets.
Sakakibara Ai held up the juice with a puzzled expression, clearly not understanding why Ke Yiyi had suddenly paused. But then, a moment later, realization dawned… ‘It must be these two mounds of flesh…’
“No, thank you.”
Ke Yiyi declined, her gaze still fixed on the sea, her hands ceaselessly clenching and unclenching.
“Don’t worry! Harukaze will handle it! She’s an excellent swimmer. The fact that she hasn’t returned yet simply means the search area is quite large, and she can’t cover every corner all at once.”
Sakakibara Ai pressed the juice into Ke Yiyi’s hand, then gestured towards a nearby bench, indicating she should sit.
Ke Yiyi nodded, a pang of guilt stirring within her.
“My apologies for troubling you two.”
“No trouble at all, no trouble. You know how it is with the police force; no matter where we are, if something happens nearby, we have to go investigate. Even on a beach holiday, it’s no exception. We’re long used to it.”
Sakakibara Ai took a sip of juice, then added,
“Besides, it’s Harukaze who went into the water to retrieve the item. To be precise, only ‘she’ was troubled; it has nothing to do with me at all.”
With that, her eyes crinkled into slits of amusement, but Ke Yiyi’s gaze had already returned to the sea.
The criminal had tossed the ‘item’ they carried into the sea. Normally, the ‘Naval Department’ would have been called upon for assistance, but by chance, Ke Yiyi had encountered Harukaze Shizuku and Sakakibara Ai, who were on holiday at the beach. Thus, she could only impose upon them to retrieve it.
“Speaking of which, Big Sister Ke, I don’t recall you ever taking a holiday. Is that legend true?”
“What legend?”
“The Ever-Vigilant Light of Shell City.”
Ke Yiyi couldn’t help but feel a wave of exasperation, yet her naturally optimistic disposition quickly allowed her to brush it off.
“What a strange title! You didn’t just make that up on the spot, did you?”
“No, no, no! That’s what Section Chief Aiye calls you! I didn’t make it up.”
Observing Sakakibara Ai’s earnest expression, Ke Yiyi recalled the harmless face of Section Chief Aiye of the Shell City Police Department’s Detective Division—it was utterly impossible to imagine her coming up with such an odd moniker.
“But is it true?”
Sakakibara Ai tilted her head, looking up with curiosity as she asked.
“Holidays do exist, it’s just that…” Ke Yiyi hesitated, unsure how to reasonably explain, for the situation was truly baffling.
Every time she took a holiday, she invariably encountered unforeseen incidents. Given her profession as a police officer, she simply couldn’t stand by idly, which led to her inevitably becoming entangled in the vortex of resolving these events….
Taking this very beach as an example, the last time she came here on holiday with Gudang Weixiao, they stumbled upon a capsized boat accident… While it was only a small vessel, and ultimately only a few people were injured with no fatalities, that entire day was consumed. It was a holiday, yet offered not a shred of relaxation, to the point that Section Chief Aiye had even remarked, “It’s as if you’re working year-round, always getting caught up in all sorts of accidents.”
‘Hmm? Could Sakakibara Ai’s title for me have originated from that?’
Come to think of it, it wasn’t as if she carried some ‘unlucky aura’; it was purely coincidental. Over time, the more accidents she encountered during her holidays, the more she found herself enjoying wandering around during her time off, seeing if she could stumble upon anything to help resolve….
Perhaps she had grown accustomed to it! If she didn’t encounter any unusual situations during her holidays, she might even feel out of sorts….
How did that saying go? “The more one likes to meddle, the more meddlesome affairs one will encounter.”
Be that as it may, she didn’t consider those matters to be meddlesome. While specific individuals were designated to handle such issues, she was, after all, a police officer. If she was nearby, she would simply assist in their resolution… it was truly nothing major.
“Speaking of which, Big Sister Ke, is the Detective Division very busy these days?” Seeing Ke Yiyi’s somewhat ambiguous response, Sakakibara Ai decided not to press further and changed the subject.
“I always see people from the Detective Division rushing around.”
“It’s alright. Teams One, Two, and Three all have their own matters to attend to. I’m not too clear about Team Four.”
“How can you say ‘it’s alright’ then? That sounds incredibly busy!”
“Because although there are incidents every day, they aren’t difficult to handle, so I say ‘it’s alright.’ If we encountered truly challenging matters, *then* we’d be swamped.”
Ke Yiyi watched the sea, awaiting news from Harukaze Shizuku.
If the ‘Naval Department’ had been assisting with the salvage, rather than Harukaze Shizuku, she might not have felt so uneasy. It wasn’t a lack of trust in Harukaze Shizuku, but rather the profound discomfort of burdening someone with work that wasn’t theirs during their precious holiday.
“How is the ‘Armed Forces Department’ faring these days?”
Ke Yiyi found the atmosphere growing awkward and felt compelled to say something to conceal her true feelings.
“It’s alright! You know it’s peacetime now, so the Armed Forces Department mostly assists other departments with their tasks. If the Armed Forces Department ever gets truly busy, that’s when things would be absolutely dreadful! It would surely mean war.”
“With the situation so favorable now, there shouldn’t be any possibility of war.”
“That’s hard to say, Big Sister Ke! Do you remember the ’emergency situation’ from two years ago?”
Ke Yiyi suddenly turned her head to look at Sakakibara Ai, as if recalling that night two years prior.
At that time, the Shell City Police Department had made emergency combat preparations overnight: the Naval Department’s vessels set sail, the Aviation Department’s planes took to the skies, the Armed Forces Department began distributing weapons and ammunition, and all other departments were in position, ready to be deployed at any moment.
The incident was reportedly triggered by an event on ‘Stern Island,’ located southwest of Shell City, where the Xuanji Star Academy of Sciences had deployed troops, invading the local area. Police superiors demanded that neighboring regions immediately enter a state of emergency. Besides Shell City, ‘Last Night’s Sparse Rain and Fierce Wind City,’ ‘Fifty-Two Millennium Trees City,’ ‘Trilobite City,’ and ‘What City’ on Scarlet Cloud Island also swiftly entered emergency status.
Beyond Vega, the coastal regions of the ‘Zhaoyao Star Autonomous Academy of Sciences,’ an affiliate of the Southern Dipper Star Federation Academy of Sciences on the other side of the ocean, also entered a state of alert. For a time, both sides were on tenterhooks, each wary of the Xuanji Star Academy of Sciences’ activities on Stern Island.
War was, one might say, on the brink of breaking out. Fortunately, Xuanji Star swiftly withdrew from Stern Island, and both Southern Dipper Star and Vega likewise lifted their alert statuses. Everything returned to tranquility, as if nothing had ever transpired.
Had a conflict truly erupted then, it would inevitably have escalated into a full-scale war. Xuanji Star would once again descend south from the snowy Jiangnan region in the northern Yunshan Peninsula, unleashing another torrent of bloodshed and chaos across the entire Yunshan Peninsula.
Thankfully, all three parties exerted their utmost restraint. While Stern Island undeniably held strategic value, a resolution through war would have been a net loss for all involved—after the World War, no one desired to fight again.
“I remember.”
“How dangerous that was! If Xuanji Star had insisted on controlling Stern Island, who knows how it would have ended! Vega would never have allowed them to station troops there, nor would Southern Dipper Star have…”
Ke Yiyi’s brow lifted as she spotted a familiar head emerging from the sea—it was Harukaze Shizuku!
Sakakibara Ai noticed the change in Ke Yiyi’s expression, ceased speaking, and turned her gaze towards the sea as well.
“Harukaze! Good job! Did you find it?”
The young woman swept her wet, disheveled long hair aside, looking towards the two figures on the shore. She seemed not to have clearly heard what they called out, merely lifting the metal box in her hand.
In terms of facial features and appearance, she actually bore some resemblance to Ke Yiyi. However, unlike Ke Yiyi’s adherence to rules, Harukaze Shizuku had a history of rather unconventional actions, which had led to a less-than-smooth career path.
Being an excellent swimmer, she quickly reached the shore despite carrying a heavy box. Sakakibara Ai and Ke Yiyi swiftly pulled her out.
“Mission accomplished.”
Ke Yiyi took the metal box, observing that it was entirely sealed except for its handle. Not a single seam was visible, making it impossible for water to have entered its interior.
“Thank you both for your help. I apologize for wasting your valuable holiday time.”
“What exactly is this thing?” Harukaze Shizuku took the juice and sat on the bench, taking a long, deep gulp.
“It’s terrifyingly heavy, not to mention. Thankfully, it was in shallow water; if it had been any further out, I wouldn’t have found it even if I’d dived.”
“Actually, I don’t know what’s inside either, but it’s certainly an important item for the criminal’s transactions. I truly apologize for disturbing your holiday. I need to get it back to the Custody Department as soon as possible.”
“It’s alright, the mission is important. Let’s head back!”
Watching Ke Yiyi’s departing back, Harukaze Shizuku quickly tidied her hair, while Sakakibara Ai’s head popped up from behind the bench.
“I asked her myself! The Ever-Vigilant Light of Shell City *does* take holidays!”
“You’re truly bored, aren’t you? Isn’t that obvious? People aren’t machines; how could they never rest?”
“The fun in many things lies precisely in the process of confirming them yourself! You should have a little curiosity, too! Otherwise, how dull life would be!”
Harukaze Shizuku glanced at Sakakibara Ai, then, holding her juice, returned to the beach.
“Hey, hey, hey! Harukaze! Wait for me! I won’t say you’re dull anymore, okay?”