Chapter 55
Hagiwara Kenji knocked on the door with a bit more force. Normally, with Samukawa Shinryu's level of alertness, he should have woken up even if asleep, and even if he didn't want to see anyone, he would ask who it was. But inside remained completely silent.
It was basically confirmed that Samukawa Shinryu really wasn't there.
He had requested leave saying he'd return to the dorm, but wasn't in the dorm and most likely wasn't in the school either. At a Police Academy, this counted as a serious disciplinary violation.
If Hagiwara Kenji were merely a Police Academy Assistant Instructor, he should now go find the administrator for spare keys, open the door to confirm whether anyone was inside, and report to the instructor.
But at this moment, Hagiwara Kenji simply stood before this closed door, rapidly speculating about Samukawa Shinryu's whereabouts.
Something that couldn't be done through normal leave requests, that could only be done by sneaking out of the Police Academy this way, Little Shinryu's recent abnormal behavior, things that would make Little Shinryu continuously worry and be troubled...
And before thinking about these things, there was a very serious question before him—should this matter be reported to Instructor Onizuka?
Hagiwara Kenji wasn't a good student in the traditional sense. During the Police Academy, he'd done plenty of rule-breaking things and helped friends hide many things from instructors. But being a student was one mindset, becoming an Assistant Instructor was another.
Now, he needed to be responsible for the Police Academy's reputation, student safety, and many other things.
Hagiwara Kenji returned to the office.
Instructor Onizuka casually asked him: "How's Samukawa doing?"
At this instant, Hagiwara Kenji reflexively put on his usual smile and answered matter-of-factly.
"Let Little Shinryu have some quiet time alone. It's not really appropriate for me to disturb him right now."
—He would take responsibility for the judgment and decision he made.
Usuha Izuki had set special attention for Hagiwara Kenji, so when Hagiwara Kenji started contributing large amounts of suspicion values, he received a notification.
He glanced at the amount and understood: [Kenji discovered I skipped school.]
The system couldn't help itself: [This can't just be summarized as casual skipping anymore, right? This is a Police Academy! Having business but not taking proper leave, insisting on sneaking away—no matter how you look at it, it's suspicious... He's your friend at least. When farming suspicion values, spare him. Didn't you say before you'd treat friends well?]
[I didn't deliberately farm his suspicion values. Though him coming to check on me wasn't entirely unexpected.]
Usuha Izuki pondered: [But last time with that incident, he chose to trust me. Sometimes I can't help wanting to test just how much he trusts me...]
The system reminded him: [Human hearts can't withstand testing, especially with friends. It seems you don't have equivalent trust in him.]
[I didn't deliberately want to test him this time. This just happened coincidentally, didn't it?]
Usuha Izuki said dissatisfiedly: [Besides, it's not that I don't trust Kenji. I just simply think I'm not worthy of trust, so I'm curious about how much he actually trusts me.]
System: [...You're quite self-aware.]
[For me, being suspected is the normal state. Suddenly having someone who trusts me so much—it's normal for me to feel unaccustomed.]
System: [...???]
What exactly was your situation before you died, kid?!
[Anyway, when I go back I'll know what Kenji thinks.] Usuha Izuki skipped this topic. [Let's handle the organization's business first. Morofushi Hiromitsu keeps urging me—his patience is really poor.]
Morofushi Hiromitsu himself didn't think his patience was poor.
Most snipers had good patience and could maintain the same position for long periods until prey entered the net.
But with Usuha Izuki as the core figure of this operation not showing up when he should have assembled, insisting on only appearing on the day of action, Gin had already been blocked, Vodka didn't want to get involved in this matter, so only he, Usuha Izuki's partner, could urge him. His email frequency had increased by 30%, which was also helpless.
...Though Morofushi Hiromitsu himself was indeed worried that Usuha Izuki would stand them up, since Usuha Izuki looked exactly like someone who would do such a thing.
If that were really the case, then he, as the partner, would have to make up for the mistake and snipe the target.
Then he'd have to write a report reflecting on why he let Usuha Izuki go on Friday without being able to keep him.
With only half an hour left until the scheduled operation time, Gin glanced at his watch, and Vodka read between the lines and questioned Morofushi Hiromitsu.
"Midorikawa, are you sure Botanist will come?"
Some organization members' habit was to work separately—the process didn't matter, changing people was fine, as long as the mission was completed. But Gin was used to controlling the overall situation and scouting beforehand. Usuha Izuki's behavior of clearly being late was already doing a frenzied tap dance on Gin's bottom line.
Morofushi Hiromitsu maintained a smile without warmth, crossing his arms and leaning against the wall. On his black shirt, the silver cross necklace was particularly eye-catching.
"That's what he said, but I can't guarantee the final outcome—you should understand Botanist's personality better than me."
"But you're his partner." Vodka said half-warning, half-reminding. "You have to take responsibility for the trouble he causes."
"...I know. When I became his partner, I was already prepared for this."
Morofushi Hiromitsu also glanced at the time, then picked up the bass case at his feet, planning to start assembling the sniper rifle.
Just then, there was a knock on the room door.
They hadn't chosen a rooftop this time but a room in a building near the hotel where the target was located. Given Japanese neighborhood relations, there usually wouldn't be anyone knocking.
Was it Usuha Izuki?
Vodka was closer to the door and was about to approach to look through the peephole when he heard the person outside speak.
"Hello, is anyone there? I'm from NHK television—"[TN: NHK; Nippon Hoso Kyokai (Japan Broadcasting Corporation)]
Vodka's mouth twitched as he opened the door to let the person in: "Don't say that nonsense! Why NHK television?!"
Usuha Izuki: "Because only NHK television goes door-to-door for fees. I actually originally wanted to pretend to be a missionary..."
"You don't need to be so complicated! Just knock normally—why are you adding drama for yourself!" Vodka's complaining soul awakened again when encountering Usuha Izuki. "With your outfit, no one would believe you're a missionary!"
Today's Usuha Izuki was, as always, dressed flamboyantly. Buddhist prayer beads, four-leaf clovers, Daoist prayer beads, crosses—everything was there, especially this cross necklace, more blindingly flashy than any previous version. That sparkling, highly decorative appearance clearly showed he wasn't a proper believer.
He wore a purple shirt under his bright red haori, and the loose threads on his ripped jeans made anyone with OCD want to burn the pants directly.
This outfit walking in a crowd would be the most dazzling, completely at odds with the organization's low-key operational style.
Gin closed his eyes: "...Don't dress like this during missions."
"Why not? I always dressed like this before. If you had objections, why didn't you say so earlier?"
Vodka wanted to say something but felt he couldn't convince him, so he gave Morofushi Hiromitsu a look.
Morofushi Hiromitsu was silent for a moment, trying to explain using Usuha Izuki's logic: "You were in charge of recruitment before, so no one cared about your casual clothes. Now it's team building—it's better to wear work uniforms to show we're from the same company... Our work uniform is black with quite high freedom."
Usuha Izuki clicked his tongue: "Are you sure you want to waste time on such trivial matters? There's not much time left until the scheduled time. You really have no sense of time."
Everyone: "............"
—You're the least qualified person here to say such things!!!
Gin laughed coldly in anger: "This is your mission. Whether time is being wasted depends entirely on your mission completion rate."
"My mission is just to assist with sniping, right? You haven't even set up the gun yet—what is this if not purely wasting my time!" Usuha Izuki sat on the sofa in the room, his gestures revealing casual disrespect. "Hurry up, or if the mission fails, it'll all be yours and Vodka's fault."
Vodka slowly looked toward Morofushi Hiromitsu, who was responsible for sniping, hadn't set up his gun, but was excluded from Usuha Izuki's range of blame.
Facing Vodka's look that said "traitor," Morofushi Hiromitsu showed an awkward but polite smile, began assembling the sniper rifle, and changed the subject: "You said you went to investigate before—how did that go?"
"Not bad." Usuha Izuki picked up binoculars to look around. "Where are the people responsible for guiding positioning?"
"There aren't any." Vodka said. "Last time there weren't any positioning guides either, and you still succeeded, didn't you?"
This was a lie.
Given Usuha Izuki's unpredictability, Gin certainly wouldn't place the mission's success entirely on him. Everything that should be arranged was arranged.
Last time there were no positioning guides only because that Cult Leader was sitting on a sofa chair by the bed, essentially stationary. If you did your homework in advance and remembered the sofa's position to snipe there, there was indeed some probability of success—the problem was, according to Midorikawa's account, Usuha Izuki wasn't even present. How did he determine that such commands would succeed?
This mission was mainly to see what Usuha Izuki's command was really about.
If Usuha Izuki said it wouldn't work without positioning guides, they'd say they were just joking and actually had such arrangements, thus step by step determining what Usuha Izuki could actually achieve.
However, after hearing Vodka's words, Usuha Izuki's reaction was abnormally calm.
"Oh, if there aren't any, forget it. They wouldn't be very useful anyway."
Usuha Izuki picked up the binoculars from the sofa and looked at the opposite side for a while. After Morofushi Hiromitsu quietly said "ready," he put down the binoculars and walked to the window, then pointed at a spot by the window: "Put it here."
Morofushi Hiromitsu cooperatively set up the gun at that position.
He half-crouched at the window opening. Usuha Izuki stood behind him, one hand braced beside the sniper rifle, the other holding binoculars to observe the opposite side.
"Move the whole thing half a centimeter to the right, raise the muzzle a bit... a bit more up, until I say stop... stop, that's good."
Usuha Izuki's voice, usually full of various emotions, now carried a somewhat inorganic coldness.
He spoke using amateur terminology, but none of the professionals present interrupted, only listening silently.
"Now turn left five millimeters, too much, come back a little..."
Though Morofushi Hiromitsu was full of questions, he still followed the commands until Usuha Izuki said okay.
"Okay, just like that. Maintain this direction and wait a bit."
Morofushi Hiromitsu wanted to speak but hesitated.
Gin silently picked up binoculars to look at the opposite side again.
There were some people scattered around the hotel's huge floor-to-ceiling windows, but none of them was the target.
...After all that commanding from Usuha Izuki, was he aiming at air?
Gin looked at Usuha Izuki suspiciously, his eyes clearly saying "explain this."
The silver-haired youth looked utterly bored as he put down the binoculars, yawned lazily, and directly shifted his gaze away from the destination, seemingly not thinking there was any problem.
"Wait a bit more."
He predicted carelessly.
"The target will appear there."