Chapter 44
When Morofushi Hiromitsu returned to his safe house, after habitually checking for signs of intrusion, he sat on the sofa and stared blankly at the empty wall ahead.
He had many questions in his mind, but his current identity as an undercover investigator meant he couldn't obtain answers through normal channels, and couldn't even investigate himself, lest the organization notice something was amiss.
After a long time, Morofushi Hiromitsu finally took out his phone and dialed Furuya Rei's number.
Although both were undercover in the organization, as long as they didn't engage in suspicious behavior or cause incidents that would draw suspicion to themselves, the organization wouldn't put effort into surveillance, giving them quite a few opportunities to communicate.
The call was answered quickly: "Midorikawa?"
"It's me. I have some intelligence I'd like to ask you about. Is it convenient to talk?"
He heard the sound of windows closing from the other end, and the tone changed from slightly frivolous to his familiar attitude: "No problem on my end."
Seemed like it was an environment where they could chat safely.
Morofushi Hiromitsu opened his mouth but didn't know where to start for a moment: "...I ran into Hagiwara today."
Furuya Rei's tone became serious: "What happened?"
Just running into an acquaintance shouldn't warrant a phone call to him—mentioning it in passing when they had a chance would suffice. Making a special call meant something unexpected must have occurred.
"There was a very dangerous guy with him." Morofushi Hiromitsu began recalling. "They came out of an apartment building. There were police cars nearby—seemed like some kind of case had happened."
Furuya Rei tried to understand what Morofushi Hiromitsu was worried about: "Was he being held hostage by criminals?!"
Morofushi Hiromitsu: "......"
Morofushi Hiromitsu: "No, he seemed very relaxed around the other person. They should be acquaintances. I'm just a bit worried about Hagiwara's choice of friends."
Furuya Rei breathed a sigh of relief: "Hagiwara is a police officer after all—he knows what he's doing. Some people don't look like good people but are actually decent. Appearance can't represent everything."
Morofushi Hiromitsu was a bit anxious. Zero hadn't seen that guy and couldn't understand why he was so worried: "It's not simply about not looking like a good person. He felt very familiar to me..."
Furuya Rei's tone became serious: "Someone you've seen in the organization?"
Morofushi Hiromitsu thought hard: "It did feel very similar, but I actually didn't see clearly—just caught a glimpse of his profile..."
The factors people use to judge others are often secondary to appearance—it's more about the ineffable aura, roughly composed of body posture and the feeling when moving.
So many people can immediately identify someone even from seeing just their back, relying on bearing.
From that brief, less-than-a-second glance, Morofushi Hiromitsu actually found it difficult to determine whether he thought the face was familiar or something else.
At least when he reviewed it, what stood out more was the strong, dangerous impression that person left on him. He couldn't quite remember the appearance, and the more he recalled, the more that profile seemed shrouded in a terrifying shadow.
Following this strong impression, he tried to find the familiar points and reached a conclusion—
"Anyway, very similar to Gin, even more dangerous feeling than Gin." Morofushi Hiromitsu said. "Do you understand why I'm worried now?"
This comparison was too persuasive. Furuya Rei immediately took it seriously.
He imagined Hagiwara Kenji chatting and laughing with Gin, and shuddered: "I understand. Actually, Hagiwara's situation is indeed a bit off recently."
"What's wrong with him?"
"He left the Explosive Ordnance Disposal unit and became an Assistant Instructor at the Police Academy." Furuya Rei frowned. "I don't quite understand this choice, and that guy Usuha also mentioned the Police Academy... To be safe, I had my people investigate the Police Academy situation further."
Both public security undercover agents fell silent for several seconds.
Morofushi Hiromitsu spoke first: "I trust Hagiwara."
"Did I say I wanted to suspect him?" Furuya Rei pressed his temples with a headache. "But necessary investigations must be conducted. Honestly, I hope Usuha was just making random excuses, but this is too coincidental..."
Speaking of Usuha Izuki, Morofushi Hiromitsu couldn't help asking: "Has he actually discovered your identity or not?"
"...Some things he says are too targeted, but if he really knew, on one hand I don't understand why he wouldn't tell the organization, on the other hand I don't understand how he discovered it. After all, during our first collaborative mission, he seemed to be hinting at something, and during that period I felt I had no flaws. Can't rule out the possibility that he's randomly testing with keywords everywhere."
Furuya Rei answered cautiously: "The organization hasn't taken any action against me either. Even Vodka's relationship with me has improved because he dislikes Usuha."
Morofushi Hiromitsu: "..........."
"This guy Usuha Izuki is hard to judge by common sense. He might not be pretending—he might really have mental problems, or his interests don't align with the organization's. For now, I'll respond to changes with consistency. Don't try to test him either."
"I know. I actually don't have many chances to see him..."
As it turned out, people shouldn't set flags casually.
The next day, Morofushi Hiromitsu encountered Usuha Izuki at one of the organization's Tokyo bases.
As soon as he pushed open the door, he was completely unprepared to hear Usuha Izuki's rhythmic chatter.
"Considering you found all my things, I'll waive the remaining week of being out of contact. You should be happy to see me, so why the long face? Vodka, not to criticize you, but you need to be more careful when hiring in the future. Can't hire incompetents who make a mess of my place during undercover investigations. Look, you're the one cleaning up the mess in the end. Even Gin doesn't take you on missions anymore, which fully demonstrates how one incompetent can drag down an entire team..."
Morofushi Hiromitsu stood at the doorway for several seconds, somewhat reluctant to enter, but still endured and walked inside.
Vodka's tone sounded full of suppressed frustration and breakdown: "If you think they're all incompetents, then go find some useful people instead of spouting nonsense here. You're supposed to be recruiting, and you've been in the organization for half a year without bringing in a single person, yet now you're complaining that subordinates are useless... Let me tell you, if you don't start working, we'll switch to performance-based pay. Base salary will be half of what you get now, and you'll get bonuses for each successful recruit. That's how ordinary people calculate salaries..."
After getting back Usuha Izuki's precious vase and such, the research lab spent ages on it only to discover it was just ordinary store-bought items with nothing valuable hidden inside, not even codes. Vodka had to quickly return everything to Usuha Izuki, hoping to restore contact soon, only to suffer this torment.
"How am I not working? Didn't I approve of Amuro Toru and Midorikawa Yui? I wrote it clearly in my reports to you—these two people can't be used!"
Morofushi Hiromitsu's heart jumped.
Vodka nodded at the entering Morofushi Hiromitsu as a greeting while still complaining about Usuha Izuki: "Just because they don't understand teamwork? Weren't you the one who insisted on ditching them to work alone? Can an interviewer please not mix personal grudges into work? Who's going to trust you like this?"
He asked several rhetorical questions in a row, clearly having held this in for a long time.
Morofushi Hiromitsu: "..........."
After all this time, he finally knew how Usuha Izuki had badmouthed him and Zero in his reports.
How to put it—a bit childish. Having the organization let this kind of person handle new recruit evaluations, were they finding life too comfortable and wanting to add some difficulty?
But Morofushi Hiromitsu immediately remembered the cherry blossom charm and tests about being "Top of Police Academy," momentarily unsure whether to trust the organization's caution or believe that Usuha Izuki was just a mentally ill person who didn't listen to the organization yet acted so arrogantly.
Honestly, the organization's attitude toward Usuha Izuki was really strange. Maybe he should understand Usuha Izuki better to comprehend his behavior and methods.
After complaining about Usuha Izuki for a while, Vodka smoothly suggested: "Can you handle this or not? If not, stop doing this job. I'll reassign you. The lab still needs a security person. If you're good at reading people, you could watch for suspicious individuals."
Vodka had been planning this idea for a long time.
Probably because Vodka and Gin had found Usuha Izuki first, plus Gin was somewhat of a jack-of-all-trades in the Boss's mind, the Boss directly had Gin handle Usuha Izuki, occasionally asking for reports and such.
Such a capable person like big brother shouldn't have to focus energy on these trivial matters, which of course fell to Vodka.
So Vodka was very dissatisfied with Usuha Izuki's habit of disappearing without notice, figuring the Boss was probably equally dissatisfied. He'd tentatively suggested to Gin whether they should give Usuha Izuki an office job.
After all, initially everyone just wanted to stabilize Yalijiu's Middle Eastern connections, so whatever Usuha Izuki said went—the goal was to get him into the organization first, with everything else to be discussed later.
Now that he was in the organization, though he seemed mentally unstable, at least he knew not to use Middle Eastern connections over trivial matters.
Office work would make it easier to track his whereabouts, everyone could feel at ease, and testing a bit shouldn't be a big deal. If he was unwilling, so be it—surely he wouldn't complain about this?
Usuha Izuki saw right through Vodka's little schemes.
Just kidding—he still had several months before graduating from the Police Academy. Where would he find time for office work!
The system popped up as if triggered by keywords: [Office work is fine! You could buy a body double puppet—I'll give you a 10% discount...]
[Last time you said 5% off was already rock bottom.]
System: [......]
You're not even buying! Why remember so clearly!
Usuha Izuki sneered: [Always discounting, always rock bottom, right?]
He saw right through this routine. He absolutely wouldn't fall for it. Until the price dropped to his psychological threshold, he definitely wouldn't buy this obvious money-trap body double puppet.
The system felt wronged. Other systems could earn points just by lying flat, but why was it so difficult here, unable to sell anything no matter what: [Most people would buy it. This is standard equipment—otherwise wouldn't it be easy to get exposed? You just changed hair and eye color...]
[First, I'm farming suspicion values, so looking similar to someone else when there are so many similar-looking people in this world is actually good—being noticed for resemblance is beneficial. Second, I've said this many times—Furuya Rei didn't even change his hair color and still hasn't been exposed! I can't be worse than him!]
System: [........]
Still competing with Furuya Rei across dimensions! Can you tone down this meaningless competitive spirit!
[Besides, Morofushi Hiromitsu saw me walking with Kenji yesterday, and seeing me now still has no reaction, right?]
An expert actor's skills were like plastic surgery.
Standing out when needed, blending in when necessary—others would just say you looked a bit like some celebrity, not think you were the actual person.
Usuha Izuki's own acting wasn't great, but relying on the "Black Screen Aura" could barely achieve plastic surgery-level atmosphere.
Honestly, when he and Hagiwara Kenji were looking for the car yesterday, Morofushi Hiromitsu suddenly gave him 100 suspicion values, which puzzled him. Using Samukawa Shinryu's spy skills, he barely detected that Morofushi Hiromitsu was nearby.
Then he waited and waited all night, only getting sporadic suspicion values, clearly only suspicious of Samukawa Shinryu's position, not suspecting Usuha Izuki at all.
Now that Morofushi Hiromitsu entered and saw him without adding any suspicion values, Usuha Izuki finally confirmed that Morofushi Hiromitsu really hadn't recognized him.
[Is it possible he just didn't see Samukawa's face clearly?] the system asked weakly.
[Trust the quality of the "Black Screen Aura." But the more important issue now is the job transfer.]
As soon as Vodka made his suggestion, Usuha Izuki knew he had to do some work.
Although the Middle Eastern buddies said to contact them if there were difficulties, friendships could be depleted, and when the organization didn't know how crazy he could get when angry, that was the best time for him.
Maybe now that the smuggling lines were relatively stable, the Boss would love for him to bother the Middle Eastern buddies over small matters, making them quickly lose their filter about him being a friend's orphan. Then he couldn't act rashly and would have to solve things himself.
"Who says I'm not working? I recently discovered a good prospect."
Usuha Izuki immediately said: "I spent a few days in a religion and felt that Cult Leader was pretty good at brainwashing and scamming money. I heard even congressmen believe in this stuff. Japan's religious tax exemptions are really sweet... I think he'd suit our organization. What do you think?"
Vodka looked at Usuha Izuki with speechless expression: "How did you end up in a cult..."
Usuha Izuki corrected: "What are you talking about! Japan doesn't have cults! As long as you register, it's a legitimate religion! It's called something like Happiness Truth or whatever. If I were a con artist, I'd love Japan too."
Public Security officer Morofushi Hiromitsu: "..........."
Vodka: "...You just said brainwashing and scamming money! Isn't that implying it's a cult?!"
"You said that yourself—I didn't say anything." Usuha Izuki snorted. "Anyway, that's how it is. I'll go develop him and see if I can get him into the organization."
Vodka no longer wanted to talk to him: "Go ahead, go ahead. Just be careful not to expose the organization, or even Yalijiu's resurrection couldn't save you."
He'd heard of that religion too—indeed good at making money, and since it was a newly established religion without backing for now, if they could join the organization, the organization could make great strides in the religious field. After evaluation, he thought it was feasible.
As long as there was no exposure, success would be win-win, and failure wouldn't have any consequences.
Usuha Izuki: "Then give me a sniper."
Vodka: "...Huh? What do you need a sniper for?"
"You don't understand this, do you? That Cult Leader is very cautious—hired quite a few bodyguards, even has hitmen on standby. What if I say something wrong and anger him, and he wants to silence me? I'm so fragile, I need protection! If recruitment fails, we'll directly silence that Cult Leader! Look how thoughtful I am, saving Gin so much trouble!"
Vodka: "..........."
Although Vodka really wanted to say "You know others don't want to hear you talk? Then just die there!" he knew the organization currently couldn't let Usuha Izuki die.
Actually, when the organization went "recruiting" before, they often brought snipers. This was a rare time Usuha Izuki's style was correct!
And Usuha Izuki was actually asking for personnel—wasn't this a ready-made reason for surveillance?
Vodka's gaze shifted to Morofushi Hiromitsu: "A sniper, right? Midorikawa, you don't have any missions recently. Work with Botanist for a while."
Since Morofushi Hiromitsu didn't have a codename yet, Vodka could still order him around.
Morofushi Hiromitsu hadn't expected to just come deliver a mission report and immediately get assigned a new mission. He couldn't help but pause.
He noticed Vodka winking at him and immediately understood he'd probably have to write an observation report on Usuha Izuki when he returned.
"...Alright, Botanist, please take care of me during this time."
—Usuha Izuki, after testing Zero, was it his turn now?