Chapter 11
"...Since that's the case, when needed, you can be responsible for route planning."
Not quite understanding what this "good at finding routes" situation was about, Furuya Rei spoke very cautiously according to his character setting, his tone carrying some probing: "However, route planning is basic operation for people in our line of work. For you to specifically mention it, I'm really curious how professional you are in this area."
Usuha Izuki pondered: "You'll know when you're at your wit's end."
Furuya Rei: "...?"
—Did this kid's speech suddenly become more aggressive? Where was that shy, air-reading-impaired good student from just now?
[Usuha, acting! Acting!] The system anxiously reminded Usuha Izuki while jumping around in the consciousness space.
Usuha Izuki: "Because when there are other methods available, it's best not to use my methods."
Furuya Rei looked at him with a subtle expression, letting this topic pass for now.
But internally he quietly contributed some suspicion value for the inconsistency.
The system was stunned for a moment, then seemed to understand, suddenly realizing: [Oh, you're doing this to grind suspicion values, right? You keep saying to gain trust within the Organization first—I almost forgot.]
Usuha Izuki: [No, I really couldn't hold back just now and accidentally said it out loud.]
System: [...??? I thought you were just being modest, but your acting really is terrible... What's with this acting where you accidentally expose your true nature at the slightest slip? You're not taking this seriously enough!]
Usuha Izuki said righteously: [I'm just an ordinary person, not a movie star. Staying in character all the time and constantly suppressing my true nature is too exhausting. My previous life was already very repressive—I even died because of it. Can't I relax a little in this life?]
[What exactly did you do in your previous life?]
[I was a law-abiding good student~]
System: [...Do I look like an idiot to you?]
Regardless of whether Furuya Rei believed Usuha Izuki's vague explanation, he at least treated it as this kid being uncooperative.
Morofushi Hiromitsu also sensed that the current Usuha Izuki was subtly provocative. He tried to smooth things over: "Maybe we all prefer working alone, but this mission was assigned to the three of us. The consequences of mission failure aren't pleasant... especially for Usuha-kun—you want to avenge your father, right?"
"Mm." Usuha Izuki's acting barely came online as his expression became somewhat tense.
Morofushi Hiromitsu started with a tone like he was guiding a naive child: "So you should also hope the mission is completed properly, right? At times like this, we should cooperate more. If you're only going to drag us down..."
As he spoke, his smile remained unchanged, but his tone became cold: "I'll have to find a way to eliminate unstable factors. I imagine as long as the mission is completed, the Organization won't mind such small matters."
Furuya Rei wasn't used to Morofushi Hiromitsu's performance: "..." What kind of character setting had his childhood friend created?
But since Morofushi Hiromitsu had already set up the framework, Furuya Rei followed suit, planning to deal with the only stranger among the three.
"Midorikawa is right. We need to cooperate now, and we need to understand each other better to cooperate well... Speaking of which, did you join the Organization to avenge your father?"
Furuya Rei began gathering intelligence.
"Yes, the Organization said they could help me get revenge. If I don't join, I can't find other work and would starve to death, so I joined." Usuha Izuki frowned. "After all, I'm alone and really don't know what else to do."
Both undercover agents began frantically analyzing internally.
If he were just an ordinary person, even if they were short-staffed, the Organization wouldn't go to such lengths to make someone join. He must have some outstanding talent, right?
That "good at leading the way"—what deeper meaning did it really have...
"Since we need to understand each other to cooperate, it's your turn, right?" Usuha Izuki asked. "What are you good at?"
Furuya Rei: "I'm an information broker. I'll handle gathering intelligence for this mission."
Morofushi Hiromitsu: "I'm a sniper. Only after intelligence is gathered can we determine if sniping is needed."
And that was it.
The two of them were allies and didn't need to say much. Maintaining their current mutually wary character settings didn't affect trust and understanding, but when facing others, they kept things hidden.
Usuha Izuki silently complained about these two undercover agents bullying outsiders: "Alright, then let's wait for Mr. Amuro's intelligence."
The first meeting barely managed introductions with no substantial progress.
Usuha Izuki dragged his suitcase into his room and immediately received an email from Vodka.
[You've met them for over ten minutes. What conclusions has your people-reading skill reached?]
Vodka felt that since Usuha Izuki could tell at a glance who on the street wanted to kill someone, after all this time, he should be able to see something, right?
He still found it absurd and really wanted to know what the principle behind this was.
So while Boss Gin was getting out of the car, he sent an email to gather some information.
Usuha Izuki quickly replied: [They both want to bully me. They're not good people.]
After seeing this, Vodka was very speechless. You acted so out of place—who else would they ostracize if not you? Who asked for such a subjective conclusion!
So he sent back a long email.
First, he explicitly said this couldn't be so superficial and needed deeper analysis. Then he subtly hinted that Usuha Izuki deserved it—you acted too much, they might have noticed something wrong. Finally, he said that after monitoring their meeting, he felt Usuha Izuki was very bad at extracting information, asking whether he was being deliberately uncooperative or truly didn't understand the art of conversation.
After a while, Usuha Izuki replied.
[Thank you, you make good points. I'll go gain their trust first, so I can better extract information from them.]
Vodka stared at this reply, inexplicably feeling numb.
This Usuha Izuki kid... since when was he so receptive to advice?
Something abnormal must be brewing!
But he wasn't there now, so even if Usuha Izuki wanted to cause trouble, it wouldn't affect him, right...
Thinking this, Vodka's anxious heart settled back down.
However, before he could feel secure for even a few minutes, he heard strange movement from a certain monitoring device's line. This noise felt like... had someone discovered the bug?
Discovery was normal—after all, anyone specifically brought to this safe house for evaluation was very capable. Knowing it was an evaluation period and the house was provided by the Organization, monitoring devices were naturally the Organization's arrangement. Most would tacitly agree and perform well under surveillance.
But the next second, Vodka's headphones suddenly went completely silent.
Not that no one was talking, but no sound at all—as if all the wiretaps had been instantly removed.
Were new recruits this brazen?
What was there that he couldn't hear?!
Vodka quickly sent Usuha Izuki an email: [Someone's removing the monitoring devices. Go see who it is!]
After a while, Vodka received Usuha Izuki's reply.
[I'm the one removing them. You said so yourself—I need to gain their trust. Thanks for the reminder. I'll take the monitoring devices to claim credit soon.]
Vodka: "...???"
When the hell did I tell you to remove monitoring devices! Don't randomly slander people!!
Vodka absolutely didn't believe Usuha Izuki was being so "obedient" to work seriously.
He was convinced Usuha Izuki's purpose was definitely to cause him trouble!
This person is sick!!
Not only was Vodka somewhat collapsing, but Furuya Rei and Morofushi Hiromitsu were actually quite speechless too.
The two were organizing their luggage in their respective rooms when they suddenly heard strange sounds from the living room. At first, neither paid much attention, but after a few seconds, the power suddenly went out.
They first waited alertly in their rooms for a while. After confirming there was no danger, they opened their doors to see what was happening.
Upon opening their doors, they saw Usuha Izuki squatting in front of the TV cabinet in the dark living room, a small flashlight in his mouth, cabinet door open, intently working on something. His white hair reflected an eerie light in the flashlight beam.
"..."
The scene inexplicably made them feel uneasy and horrifying.
Usuha Izuki was the least trustworthy person in this house, so Furuya Rei asked very warily.
"What are you doing?"
Usuha Izuki had the small flashlight in his mouth and could only mumble, but when Furuya Rei approached for a look, he immediately understood.
"...You're removing monitoring devices?!"
Usuha Izuki nodded.
In the 'Universal Navigation app,' entering keywords revealed all nearby monitoring device locations.
These monitoring devices weren't worried about being discovered, so for long-term operation and considering power supply, they were brazenly placed near power sources.
[Sigh, I'm just an ordinary person. The skills for removing this stuff are all on Samukawa Shinryu. I can only use the most crude method—cutting power then violently removing them...]
The system couldn't stand it: [Stop complaining. The compensation has been given to you. Consider your colleagues' feelings right now—they don't look grateful at all...]
Indeed, after Furuya Rei and Morofushi Hiromitsu realized what Usuha Izuki was doing, their mentalities somewhat collapsed.
Before entering the Organization, they'd made so much mental preparation, rehearsing all kinds of difficulties and troubles. They never imagined they'd encounter the problem of a partner rushing in the opposite direction!
Many times, being monitored and surveilled was actually good—they could perform well in front of Organization members through the monitoring!
There was no need to immediately oppose the Organization!
Where did this hothead come from, so unable to tolerate any sand in his eyes!
"Why are you removing these?" Furuya Rei tried to reason with Usuha Izuki. "These are the Organization's monitoring devices. No need to remove them."
Usuha Izuki removed the flashlight and wiped the end with tissue, his tone displeased: "I don't like being monitored. They're the ones who insisted I join, and now they're monitoring people. Is there no privacy anymore? Do you prefer living under surveillance?"
Morofushi Hiromitsu also tried reasoning with him: "This is also part of the assessment. Otherwise, without examiners present, how would they know what our problem-solving process is like?"
"Just completing the mission should be enough."
"It's different. We're new recruits—the Organization doesn't trust our abilities enough. If our plans have serious flaws, the Organization can stop us in time. This is actually good for us too."
The two undercover agents worked so hard to preserve the Organization's monitoring devices that if Vodka could hear them, he'd be deeply moved.
After much persuasion, they finally got Usuha Izuki to abandon the idea of removing all the monitoring devices and convinced him to return to his room.
The two people remaining in the living room wiped cold sweat and began figuring out how to restore the monitoring devices.
Don't you think before acting? What kind of person is this!
"This child is too reckless..." Morofushi Hiromitsu felt somewhat headache-inducing.
Although Usuha Izuki looked only three or four years younger than them, his psychological maturity compared to people like them who'd received special training and experienced much in childhood seemed far less mature.
Why did the Organization insist on recruiting such amateurs?
"He seems to have quite a few complaints about the Organization." Even if the monitoring devices were broken, Furuya Rei could openly say such things. "Hope he doesn't drag us down."
Furuya Rei now felt he probably understood why Usuha Izuki had spoken provocatively earlier.
He probably disliked the Organization and consequently felt they weren't good people either. He'd originally wanted to pretend, but was too shallow and accidentally revealed traces.
In that case, Usuha Izuki's several interruptions of Vodka and Gin's conversational rhythm might have been intentional too.
Knowing he couldn't shake them, he could only needle them on unimportant details...
How many originally promising young people had the Organization forced to join using such methods?!
Furuya Rei added another mark against the Organization.
In the room, the system looked at the growing suspicion values with great emotion: [They're now suspecting you're actually an innocent good person forced to join the Organization, disloyal to them...]
Finally entering the normal route!
To grind suspicion values in the Organization, wasn't the point to make people suspect your faith was unsteady, like you were an undercover agent or easily bought off?
[Although your acting is poor, you're lucky—somehow you still achieved your goal... Wait, what are you doing?]
Usuha Izuki: [Huh? I'm putting on equipment. We'll need to eat soon, and there's no ingredients here, so we'll definitely go out to eat. This is the Conan world—what if we encounter situations? I need to be prepared.]
[No, you finally created the image of an ordinary person bearing a heavy past...]
[Equipment attributes are most important. Everything else can wait. Just think of me as an ordinary person in a rebellious phase.]
System: [............]
—It doesn't matter what I think! You should consider what those two people outside will think!!