He had been communicating with a hidden observer, someone who was actively watching over the shrine from the shadows.
At that exact microsecond, the bus driver suddenly jumped upright, went to walk in Josuke's direction, and fell face first onto the floor. Josuke slowly walked forward, a bit confused, looking down at the fallen man, only to look up and see the plant appraiser they had been searching for now sitting in the driver's seat.
Casually, the appraiser told them not to get the wrong idea. He was here because Josuke had leaked his information, and now they needed to protect him. A bit confused, Josuke and Yasuho exchanged looks of pure bewilderment, realising that the man they had been looking for was just sitting there driving.
Over the roaring engine, the plant appraiser quickly explained that he had heard from Norisuke and had a bit of information about what had been going on. However, he continued, he had not confirmed that he would work with him yet — and then he cast a sharp glance at Yasuho. He demanded to know who she was, noting that he had zero record of her. Josuke explained that she had saved him, but that if the man would rather drop her back home, then that really was not an issue.
Guessing that it was probably too late for that at this point, the man casually predicted that if Yasuho attempted to return to Morio or to jump off the bus, the probability of her death stood at 95.5 per cent. The reason, as he had said before, was that someone was currently tailing him from behind.
Behind them, the cabin erupted into total chaos. The passengers screamed that the bus was being hijacked and frantically pulled out their phones to call emergency services. The appraiser did not care. He got things back on track and revealed that he had taken the precaution of smashing the onboard security cameras before boarding the bus.
Josuke demanded to know exactly where they were heading, and the appraiser said he was not a hundred per cent sure and did not want to say, because somebody could possibly be listening to them. The reason they even knew about him and this entire situation was because Josuke had been overheard openly speaking about it to someone — obviously Dolomite, earlier, and the fact that Dolomite had been speaking to someone in the shadows.
Even though the streets looked completely clear out the rear window, the appraiser insisted that an invisible predator was actively tracking their every movement, which made his personal survival their absolute number one priority.
Swerving the bus into a desolate parking lot, he slammed the brakes, bringing it to a halt. As Josuke and Yasuho were about to leave, he casually mentioned that their current chance of survival out in the open was 7.5 per cent.
Noticing that a few passengers were still recording their faces, the appraiser told Josuke to forcefully confiscate their devices. But Yasuho let him know that her stand had already broken into every single network and completely wiped their video data from evidence. She casually stepped out into the parking lot, leaving the eccentric appraiser genuinely impressed with her ability. Curious herself, Yasuho wondered aloud exactly how he calculated their chances of survival.
But Josuke interrupted her. He demanded to know what the man knew, the identity of this new foe, and whether they were a rock human. The appraiser admitted that he honestly did not know. He lived in the mountains and had been roped into this. He had never met Damo, but he specified that a dark entity had flawlessly embedded itself into the very fabric of human society, and that they would absolutely never stop killing until the Locacaca was back in their possession.
Suddenly he pointed at Yasuho and told her not to doubt his probabilities. As it turned out, he was not exactly pointing at Yasuho, but at the corner of the parking lot.
To Josuke and Yasuho's absolute horror, a cluster of trees near the wood line began to shake before they rotated and shifted, physically tearing through the solid concrete as they drove themselves unnaturally towards the trio. Swarming at the churned-up roots of the moving trees were the mangled corpses of rats, their tiny bodies completely riddled with microscopic holes.
The appraiser revealed that whoever was behind these moving trees had already launched a direct assault on him back at his place, which was precisely what had forced him out of hiding. Due to the way parts of whatever it was were digging into the concrete, though, the tracking side of this ability was being slowed. If they stepped back onto soil, they would be sentencing themselves to death. He urged them to move and to follow him to a secure stronghold.
Turning and getting him to calm down, Josuke reminded him that he did not even know who he was. Finally the man introduced himself as Rai Mamezuku, a thirty-two-year-old fruit grower who only worked with Norisuke.
Seizing the moment, Josuke pulled out the secret photographs he had taken at the Higashikata estate and begged Rai to identify the grafted branch. He thought the enemy was currently only after him. So if he could find it, he and Yasuho would leave, most probably putting Rai out of danger.
Examining the images, Rai instantly spotted the graft, but he refused to reveal which branch it was. He warned Josuke that the situation was infinitely more complex than he realised. The hidden syndicate could not locate the branch, and they certainly lacked the expertise to cultivate it, as the only remaining branch would instantly wilt or die under pretty much any condition. Rai was the only master botanist capable of keeping the graft alive, and for that reason the syndicate needed him. Realising that he had almost exposed him to them, a humbled Josuke sincerely apologised.
To escape the approaching threat, the trio boarded a rustic chairlift, which slowly took them up the mountain. Looking down, an anxious Yasuho asked what exactly awaited them at the summit. But to her and Josuke's astonishment, Rai abruptly halted the entire mechanical lift.
Leaping gracefully off the chair, Rai scaled the metal structure and unlatched a hidden compartment. Inside the hollow pole sat a fully functioning, meticulously organised kitchen. Quickly, the entire system swung out to form a makeshift dining table, high above the forest floor. Flanked by the roaring wind, Rai deployed a parasol and custom air cushions to ensure his guests were comfortable.
With them settled, he casually began to cook. He described his high-end culinary process in detail, mixing rich mascarpone cheese and raw egg yolk inside a bowl. In a separate dish, he whipped fresh cream to a perfect consistency, smoothly folding the two mixtures together. Finally, in a third bowl, he brought egg whites and sugar into a flawless stiff meringue, gently incorporating it into the base to create a decadent Romanoff cream.
Josuke and Yasuho sat there flabbergasted, staring at the midair kitchen. The reality finally dawned on them. Rai Mamezuku literally lived inside the structural framework of a mountain chairlift, and this absurd high-altitude perch was the safe place he had promised them.
Completely ignoring any of their questions, Rai set down the dessert, explaining that while identifying the Locacaca branch was simple for a master, the true challenge lay in successfully harvesting the fruit. As a final theatrical flourish to his Romanoff cream, he unleashed his stand, and the flesh on his hand unravelled to form razor-sharp strings stretching out across the mountainside. Reeling the stringy flesh back in, he had used it to delicately pluck wild strawberries to top their dishes off.
He proudly explained that this entire mountain was his personal orchard, and that living above it was extremely convenient for his work. Then he asked what they thought of his Romanoff cream, and told them to finish up before they discussed the next portion of their plan.