Chapter 17
After completing the Organization's assigned mission, Usuha Izuki welcomed a very leisurely period.
After probably witnessing his mission report, Gin and Vodka no longer expected his eye to discern anything useful and simply let him slack off, so they hadn't contacted him.
Usuha Izuki pondered—staying at internet cafes was ultimately inconvenient. Since the Organization probably wouldn't look for him again in the short term, he should find a stable place to settle down.
Company dorms, the Middle East, internet cafes, safe houses... Now that he was free, he really wanted to live peacefully in his own place and have somewhere to put all the stuff he'd gotten from lottery draws.
The Usuha Izuki identity was easy—he could casually buy a house and move right in.
But the Samukawa Shinryu identity... required more careful handling. After all, the people who'd likely visit his home in the future would probably be police. Getting arrested over suspicious funding sources would be completely unnecessary.
With Samukawa Shinryu's orphan background, he couldn't produce much money and could only rent. But with the 'Black Screen Aura' active, when he entered real estate agencies, they could only say they had no suitable properties to introduce.
Usuha Izuki with the 'Black Screen Aura' asked: "Don't you even have haunted houses where people died? I won't kill anyone inside."
The agent looked at him with wary yet cautious eyes: "...Sorry, we don't have any at the moment."
Usuha Izuki: "..."
System: [After shocking others every day, karma finally came back to you.]
[...At least I harvested suspicion values.] Usuha Izuki tried to save face.
Usuha Izuki's expression wasn't good, and combined with Samukawa Shinryu's gloomy aura, walking down the street made no one dare approach him. Even flyer distributors would retreat into shops to avoid him when they saw him from afar.
[Why didn't the lucky bags give me a house?] Usuha Izuki asked unhappily. [If you'd given me a house, wouldn't all these problems be solved?]
The system retorted: [Even if you'd won a house, how would you explain the source to police? You're not using the Organization's money to buy the alias a house because you're worried about this, right?]
Usuha Izuki pondered: [I could say I owed loan sharks and wouldn't repay, so the debt collection company tried to target my family when they saw I was stubborn. After discovering I was an orphan, they somehow helped me find a wealthy biological father. The father didn't like me and used a house to sever the parent-child relationship...]
System: [Why make it so complicated? Can't you just turn off the 'Black Screen Aura' and find an agent again?]
[That's only if there's really no other way. After all, my acting is so terrible that the 'Black Screen Aura' is my last resort. What if I encounter a situation in that brief moment when it's turned off?]
Usuha Izuki was a bit dejected but felt things hadn't reached an irreversible point: [How about I ask Hagiwara Kenji for help? With police guarantee, renting should definitely be no problem, right?]
Usuha Izuki acted on this immediately, sending Hagiwara Kenji a help request email that day.
Hagiwara Kenji warmly replied immediately, saying he happened to have a day off tomorrow and could meet. The Metropolitan Police Academy exam was starting soon, so he also wanted to ask how preparations were going.
Matsuda Jinpei watched Hagiwara Kenji typing rapidly and raised an eyebrow: "Another mixer?"
"No, it's Samukawa-kun." Hagiwara Kenji didn't look up. "He wants to rent a place but encountered problems with the agent and hopes I can help guarantee."
Matsuda Jinpei frowned, somewhat worried his childhood friend was being seen as a sucker: "...It seems like every time he contacts you, it's to ask for help, but he normally disappears completely."
Not that Samukawa Shinryu wasn't a good person, but this way of handling relationships wasn't great. He worried Hagiwara Kenji was constantly accommodating due to the life-saving debt.
"Don't say that. If he knew you said this, he'd definitely never feel comfortable contacting me again."
Hagiwara Kenji finally finished composing his email and sent it, smiling: "With Samukawa-kun's personality, maybe it's because he has other solutions, so he doesn't want to trouble me. Since he's asking me now, he must have really encountered an unsolvable problem... Plus, didn't I receive his gift last week?"
Matsuda Jinpei hadn't thought much about it, just feeling Samukawa Shinryu's pattern of only appearing when needed was problematic. Hearing Hagiwara Kenji's explanation, he relaxed.
True, Samukawa Shinryu looked like someone who wasn't good at interpersonal relationships and preferred self-reliance. He'd probably been isolated by others often, so his handling of social details wasn't perfect—understandable.
Since Hagiwara could see clearly, he felt at ease.
And thinking carefully... Matsuda Jinpei probably understood why Samukawa Shinryu would choose to ask Hagiwara Kenji for help.
After all, with Samukawa Shinryu's aura, police guarantees would have more credibility...
Hagiwara Kenji thought the same, so his attitude was quite optimistic, feeling simple rental problems could be quickly resolved.
The next day, after the meeting, Hagiwara Kenji enthusiastically wanted to help look at houses: "Which place have you chosen?"
Usuha Izuki confidently gave the address.
Hagiwara Kenji initially didn't react, thinking it was good: "This area is nice, convenient for shopping and such. The security used to be good too, but last month there was a case here—"
His words suddenly stuck as he looked hesitantly at Usuha Izuki, belatedly realizing something.
Usuha Izuki calmly answered: "I know. I want to rent the room where someone died."
Hagiwara Kenji: "............"
Usuha Izuki was very calm: "Haunted houses are cheaper but hard to rent. As long as they can rent it out, that's good enough. I didn't expect the agent to refuse. I guess they misunderstood me. Anyone with a brain knows that even if I wanted to kill someone, I wouldn't do it in a place I rented myself. Unfortunately, they probably won't listen to my explanation, so I wanted to ask you to guarantee."
"Ah, mm, I understand..."
Hagiwara Kenji rarely stammered.
No, why do you have to emphasize that even if you wanted to kill someone, you wouldn't do it in your rental?!
Coming from someone else, this might reassure people, but coming from you, it somehow makes people feel even more panicked!
But Hagiwara Kenji thought about it and felt he couldn't blame him.
Sigh, Samukawa-kun really wasn't good with words! And anyone with money wouldn't want to rent a haunted house, right?
He really didn't need to judge others—he'd help if he could!
With Hagiwara Kenji, an active police officer, as guarantor, the apparently responsible agent finally relented and agreed to rent to Usuha Izuki.
But behind Usuha Izuki's back, the agent quietly asked Hagiwara Kenji: "Um, are you really just friends?"
Hagiwara Kenji was often asked this kind of question.
The other party in the question was usually a girl, and the asker was generally curious if they were dating.
In this context, being suddenly asked if he and Samukawa Shinryu were friends gave Hagiwara Kenji a strange sense of displacement. He almost said his sexual orientation was female—fortunately, he reacted quickly and understood the agent's meaning.
Hagiwara Kenji answered with mixed feelings: "Yes, we really are friends. We met when he acted heroically... he's not someone I met in prison. He looks fierce but is really a good person."
Only then did the agent reluctantly relax: "No, Mr. Samukawa doesn't look fierce. He just..."
The agent didn't continue.
—He just looked very dangerous.
The agent had to assist police in handling murder cases in properties he managed. He'd seen killers caught red-handed—some were desperately vicious, some were weak people driven to explode, some had killed unintentionally and regretted it deeply...
But none of these people who'd killed were as scary as this person called Samukawa Shinryu.
This handsome young man with dark blue hair and red eyes might not have a drop of blood on his hands, yet somehow made people feel as if countless had died because of him.
Maybe he just sat before a chessboard, gently moving pieces, or maybe he just casually said a few words while talking with others... The dead, even after death, wouldn't know why they'd died.
He gave people this kind of dangerously negative charismatic impression.
The agent naturally believed he wouldn't kill anyone in his rental.
How could someone like this dirty his own hands? He shouldn't even be living in such a modest place!
Discovering that Samukawa Shinryu wanted to rent such an unworthy house, the agent had immediately been afraid, worried this person wasn't seriously planning to live there but wanted to use the property for some scheme...
If he, the agent, got dragged into some conflict between powerful people, losing his job would be minor—losing his life would be truly unjust!
—Yes, the agent's refusal to rent wasn't the simple reason Usuha Izuki thought of worrying about murder, but a convoluted, eighteen-turn thought process that would make Usuha Izuki say "amazing" if he knew.
Fortunately, with police guarantee now, the agent finally had some confidence and quickly signed a contract with Usuha Izuki.
"Thank you. Without you, I probably couldn't have rented such a good place." Usuha Izuki thanked Hagiwara Kenji. "Let me treat you to dinner later."
Hagiwara Kenji didn't refuse. He felt that with someone with such strong pride, rejecting their thanks might actually hurt them: "Sure, though I didn't really do much..."
Usuha Izuki insisted: "Just being a police officer helped enormously."
"Aha ha..." Hagiwara Kenji laughed embarrassedly. "If you become a police officer, you won't need my help anymore."
He'd already inquired—the person in charge of interviews for the Metropolitan Police Academy this time was his instructor from Police Academy, Onizuka.
Based on his understanding of Instructor Onizuka, he wasn't someone who liked judging by appearance. If Samukawa Shinryu wrote about his experience helping police catch the bomber in his resume, his chances would increase.
...But to be safe, he'd go discuss topics like the impact of prejudice on people with Instructor Onizuka before the interview... He couldn't openly pull strings, but this much could be mentioned.
Sigh, if Samukawa-kun just looked a bit fierce, that would actually be good! Jinpei was often called fierce too, and those police dealing with yakuza groups weren't denied admission for having intimidating faces.
But Samukawa-kun inexplicably had the aura of a mastermind like Moriarty. He felt the interviewer might ask strange questions...
"Samukawa-kun." Hagiwara Kenji suddenly asked. "If during the interview, the interviewer asks, 'If someone did something that violated your rights but the law can't give you justice, what would you do?', how do you plan to answer?"
"Is there something wrong with the law..."
Hagiwara Kenji said with a headache: "You can't answer like that. Try another approach—the question is asking what you plan to do."
"Hmm..." Samukawa Shinryu looked serene, his tone calm: "I wouldn't do anything. When he wants to kill me, I'll be able to collect enough evidence."
This answer was too strange. Hagiwara Kenji felt his hair standing on end: "Why would he want to kill you?"
"Because no one can sleep peacefully after offending me."
The young man's dark eyes were like a cursed red moon, carrying a cold, melancholy brilliance.
"Before driving himself crazy, he can only kill me to end the nightmare."