Chapter 15
For Usuha Izuki, achieving the current situation wasn't difficult.
When he worked in Fukuoka, relying on his general knowledge of some plot points, he purposefully got to know certain people, which helped him this time.
From the moment Usuha Izuki learned about this mission's content, he'd been paying attention to the news, matching it bit by bit with subsequent developments in his memory.
So although he'd only called an information broker before going out, in reality he already knew what he needed to know—he just had to confirm a few key points.
Lin Xianming—the cross-dresser Usuha Izuki had targeted for work—had just staged a strike at Kakyu-kai today. Kakyu-kai had ordered him to kill a detective, but he'd gone to protect the person instead. When Usuha Izuki met Lin Xianming earlier, seeing him carrying a box of mentaiko, he was running errands for that detective.
And that detective was actually Fukuoka's famous strongest assassin, Baba Zenji, who was also currently investigating matters related to the mayor.
One had his sister nearly killed by the mayor's son, the other was planning to take down the mayor—wasn't this a perfect match?
But Furuya Rei and Morofushi Hiromitsu both felt Usuha Izuki was being too casual. This mission wasn't so simple to complete.
"You're thinking too optimistically. What if it fails and they trace it back to you, then expose the Organization?"
Furuya Rei felt like he had a major headache.
Like getting enough sleep but waking up with his head buzzing, only to check surveillance and find the house cat had been hitting him all night—and he couldn't even hit back after being hit.
When he'd followed along, he hadn't expected Usuha Izuki to be so swift and decisive!
Morofushi Hiromitsu had watched Usuha Izuki slack off for days and thought it would take at least several days of fussing to realize that idea was unreliable. They'd come out just to see what Usuha Izuki planned to do and gather intelligence—who could have expected that in just a few sentences, Usuha Izuki had already arranged everything perfectly!
If this mission failed and exposed something, and the Organization wanted to eliminate them all, they'd die too unjustly!
But Usuha Izuki assured them: "Even if investigated, they'll only trace it to me. I've been wandering around Fukuoka the whole time—they might implicate my old employer but not the Organization."
Old employer: Awesome.
Because Usuha Izuki didn't want to explain his arrangements in detail, to the two undercover agents, he'd just found an assassin with a grudge against the mayor's son and was hoping this assassin would succeed in everything... Honestly, they weren't optimistic.
But the deed was done and they hadn't been able to stop it, so they could only quickly discuss what to do next.
Furuya Rei hurriedly wrote a report and sent it to Vodka, emphasizing that this was all Usuha Izuki's unauthorized action and that he and Midorikawa were already trying to remedy the situation.
However, Vodka and Gin were on a mission in a place with no signal and only saw Furuya Rei's email the next morning, causing immediate shock.
"Boss!" Vodka voiced what he'd been thinking for a long time. "That Usuha kid really screwed up!!"
Gin, who was maintaining his gun, looked cold as he snatched Vodka's phone. After reading the email, he couldn't help gripping the phone tightly.
Usuha Izuki!!!
This wasn't even his evaluation mission—why was he meddling? Couldn't he just slack off like before?!
"It's been a whole night. Ask about the current situation." Gin forcibly suppressed his dissatisfaction with Usuha Izuki and turned his thoughts to how to clean up if the Organization was really exposed.
After all, the Boss wanted to protect him, so he couldn't just eliminate him as usual and could only help clean up the mess.
...Finding Usuha Izuki so quickly back then might not have been luck but misfortune. Because of this, whenever something happened to Usuha Izuki, the Boss would think of him first...
Vodka quickly took back his phone and called.
Furuya Rei answered quickly: "Vodka? Your call comes at a good time. I have something to report..."
Vodka was very nervous: "What?"
Had that Usuha kid realized he'd screwed up and just run away?! What about the Middle East?!
Furuya Rei said on the other end: "The mission is complete."
"Oh, the mission is complete... Wait, the mission is complete?!"
Vodka had been nervous but was now completely confused: "How was it completed?!"
Gin raised an eyebrow and looked over. Vodka very perceptively pressed speakerphone.
Furuya Rei said with a subtle tone: "It was completed according to Usuha-kun's plan. The assassin he picked succeeded. Today's morning news was replaced with a confession video of the mayor's son due to signal hijacking. He's still revealing some dirt on Mayor Harada. I estimate he probably can't continue being mayor..."
Vodka: "............"
How was that possible! That kid actually pulled it off?!
When thinking Usuha Izuki had failed, Vodka was very dissatisfied. Now knowing Usuha Izuki had succeeded, somehow he was even more dissatisfied.
If it was this easy to handle, wouldn't that make him and his boss look like jokes for solemnly assigning this as an evaluation mission?!
And why could Usuha Izuki succeed?! That plan was like a joke! The kind that if reported to him, he'd definitely reject and tell them to check their brains!!
"Hey, Vodka?" Usuha Izuki took the phone. "The mission is complete. Don't forget to transfer the mission money to my account. This was entirely my achievement—don't split it with those two... Is there anything else? If not, I'm leaving."
Mentioning the mission money was bad enough, but claiming it was entirely his achievement made Vodka finally explode.
"What mission money! Was this mission for you to complete?! This was a mission to test those two guys! What does it mean for you to complete it!"
"I do the work and you're still not satisfied?" Usuha Izuki's voice was even louder than Vodka's. "Fine! From now on I'll just take salary without working! If anyone asks, I'll say you told me to!!!"
"That's not what I meant..." Vodka's momentum weakened a bit.
Usuha Izuki suddenly calmed down: "I understand."
Vodka might have been gaslighted, because hearing Usuha Izuki rarely say something reasonable actually moved him a little: "You really understand?"
"I completely understand." Usuha Izuki said somewhat melancholically. "This is the legendary workplace bullying, right?"
Vodka: "...Huh?"
"I've heard about it long ago—some veteran employees worry that new employees are too capable and might replace them, so they deliberately trip up new employees or pretend to be friendly while saying things like 'you don't need to work so hard, I'll teach you how to slack off,' but actually secretly tell the boss that the kid is no good... I never thought I'd encounter it myself. You really can't let your guard down around people!"
Vodka: "...Huh???"
What was this all about?! Were they talking about the same thing?! Had his understanding of ordinary people focused entirely on conspiracy theories about colleagues?!
Just as Vodka was about to refute, he suddenly realized he seemed to be led around by Usuha Izuki and quickly pulled the topic back: "Who's tripping you up? Your job isn't to complete missions at all. You insisted on stealing others' work and affected me—can't I say a few words?"
Usuha Izuki sighed deeply: "Can't help it. I'm just too diligent—I can't stand seeing work undone. Seeing them struggle for so long without any progress, I righteously helped them out."
Furuya Rei, who hadn't left yet: "...?"
This shameless lying ability—truly worthy of someone who used to do human resources management. HR mouths, deceiving ghosts.
And what did he mean by helping us? He didn't take any less money!
Vodka was speechless and didn't want to argue about this nonsense anymore, directly asking: "Did you clean up that assassin? It won't trace back to the Organization, right?"
"What do you mean clean up!" Usuha Izuki was indignant. "Your thinking is too scary. We ordinary people can't listen to this."
Furuya Rei said sarcastically: "What's the point of pretending to be ordinary now?"
Vodka silently gave him a thumbs up.
Usuha Izuki snorted: "Anyway, stop worrying unnecessarily. This is Fukuoka—Mayor Harada can't even take care of himself, and his son isn't dead, so he won't have time to worry about who did it. He has plenty of enemies. When the backlash comes, he'll be lucky not to die in office. I'll write you a report later."
Vodka didn't want to continue verbal communication with Usuha Izuki either. After giving a few instructions, he quickly hung up, probably going to investigate the situation personally since he couldn't just rely on the mission-doer's self-praise.
Usuha Izuki returned the phone to Furuya Rei, who took it and asked with a fake smile.
"'Your job isn't to complete missions at all'... Then may I have the honor of knowing what Usuha-kun's job actually is?"
"Nothing much. Vodka asked me to write observation reports about you two." Usuha Izuki answered openly without any guilt.
"Oh? Then may I know what you wrote?"
Usuha Izuki pondered: "You two badmouth me in private. That's not good and doesn't promote unity."
Furuya Rei: "............"
"But I'm not petty. Even though you badmouth me, I still completed the mission for you. No need to thank me."
Usuha Izuki smiled: "It's just that Vodka will probably have to pick a new mission to evaluate you. Next time I won't be helping—good luck!"
Furuya Rei gritted his teeth: "...That's really kind of you."
This was petty behavior, right? Because we badmouthed you, you made our evaluation worthless and we have to start over?
This kind of help was worse than none!
But Usuha Izuki's appearance had taught them a lesson—they really shouldn't underestimate anyone. No matter how harmless someone looked or how unlike Organization members they seemed, they couldn't let their guard down.
Good thing he and Hiromitsu hadn't relaxed their vigilance, or being discovered as undercover agents before even officially joining the Organization would have been too ridiculous.
Recalling the words on Usuha Izuki's sweater from the first day, Furuya Rei secretly clenched his fists.
This time he'd been completely played by Usuha Izuki. The other party had clearly told them—
Usuha Izuki really was the [Boss's Confidant]!!!
"Oh right, since we're all friends now, let me give each of you a parting gift."
Usuha Izuki seemed to suddenly remember something and started rummaging in his pockets.
Furuya Rei was still in the doldrums of being played and couldn't help being sarcastic: "How could someone who didn't even complete his evaluation mission become Usuha-kun's friend?"
Usuha Izuki comforted him: "Don't give up on yourself. I actually think highly of you. Here, your gift."
Furuya Rei glanced at the gift: "An omamori? I don't need it."
"Take it—I think it really suits you."
Usuha Izuki smiled: "I specially picked it for you. It has cherry blossoms on it."
Furuya Rei appeared calm on the surface but felt like a boulder had suddenly crashed into his heart.
Cherry blossoms—Japanese police.
...Was Usuha Izuki just speaking casually, or had he discovered something?!