Chapter 57
Hagiwara Kenji sat at the desk in the dormitory, absentmindedly waiting.
The room's lights weren't on, and outside the night was hazy, with only a bit of moonlight providing illumination.
Hagiwara Kenji sat patiently in this pitch-black room.
After an unknown amount of time, there was a slight sound from outside the window. Hagiwara Kenji, who had been resting with his eyes closed, opened them, his bright eyes focusing intently on the window.
Within a few seconds, the window was opened from outside, followed by a figure nimbly jumping in.
Hagiwara Kenji, who had been lurking in the shadows ready to strike since hearing the sound, agilely emerged and threw a punch. The person reflexively tried to counter-attack but stopped at the last moment, merely deflecting Hagiwara Kenji's force.
But Hagiwara Kenji didn't withdraw because his opponent had yielded. Instead, he pressed his advantage, taking advantage of the other's unwillingness to fight back and directly using arrest techniques to pin the person on the bed, mercilessly snapping handcuffs onto their wrists.
"Caught in the act."
The person pinned face-down on the bed spoke in a somewhat muffled but calm tone: "Why not turn on the lights?"
Hagiwara Kenji: "............"
He was shocked by this guy's nonchalant attitude.
You know you've been caught seriously violating rules, right?! How can you still be so self-righteous!
Hagiwara Kenji somewhat speechlessly released the hand pressing down on the other's back and reached up to turn on the bedside lamp.
Light illuminated this small space.
In the dim lighting, the originally night sky-like deep blue short hair seemed to merge with the shadows, making the pale complexion of the youth lying on the bed appear even whiter.
He didn't resist, maintaining a relaxed posture with his arms restrained behind his back, slightly turning his head to look at his captor. Under his disheveled bangs, crimson eyes reflected the dim yellow lamplight, like a bright flame lit in a pool of blood.
Hagiwara Kenji's figure was at the center of this flame.
Samukawa Shinryu's compliant attitude made Hagiwara Kenji, who had wanted to teach him a lesson, feel like he was punching cotton.
Hagiwara Kenji silently sighed and used the hand cuffed together with Samukawa Shinryu to pull him up, freeing him from this uncomfortable position and letting him sit normally on the bedside.
Just because one hand was still connected to Hagiwara Kenji's, it hung unnaturally in the air until Hagiwara Kenji sat on the chair opposite, and his hand finally dropped along with Hagiwara Kenji's.
Hagiwara Kenji's tone carried dangerous implications: "You still know to come back?"
Samukawa Shinryu lowered his head guiltily and even tried to flatter Hagiwara Kenji rather clumsily: "I knew you would discover it."
Hagiwara Kenji was actually amused by his anger: "And then you thought I'd help you cover it up, right?"
While speaking, Hagiwara Kenji quickly looked over the person across from him.
Good, he wasn't wearing the Police Academy uniform but civilian clothes. At least Little Shinryu knew to change clothes when doing bad things, otherwise if someone reported it to the Police Academy, he wouldn't be able to continue covering for him.
There was some white powder on his black pants, probably from climbing walls, and his gray shirt had gotten a bit messy in the earlier scuffle with a crooked collar, but overall he didn't appear injured.
Samukawa Shinryu's tone was calm with underlying confidence: "Kenji did help me cover it up, didn't you?"
"Only temporarily." Hagiwara Kenji raised his hand to shake the handcuffs binding them together, coldly threatening, "Explain clearly what you went to do, and I'll consider whether to report it based on the situation."
"......Mm." Samukawa Shinryu seemed to be thinking about how to respond.
Hagiwara Kenji was also thinking.
Even as friends, he couldn't keep covering for everything, especially when the other party kept hiding things from him—he believed Little Shinryu wouldn't really do anything criminal, but Little Shinryu's attitude wasn't how you treat a friend either.
He could understand that Little Shinryu was inexperienced with friendship and was willing to teach, but if Little Shinryu didn't cooperate, then he could only be a bit cold.
"You'd better think carefully before answering." Hagiwara Kenji reminded. "Even as friends, my patience has limits."
Samukawa Shinryu looked directly at Hagiwara Kenji, speaking slowly with barely perceptible probing: "I went to meet some very troublesome and dangerous people, so I had to hide it from the school."
Hagiwara Kenji's expression relaxed a bit.
Even if Little Shinryu refused to continue talking, just from this sentence, Hagiwara Kenji understood that the other party did consider him a friend.
"I guessed as much." Hagiwara Kenji replied. "What exactly happened?"
Samukawa Shinryu recalled and summarized: "They think I have ability and want to buy me with money, also want to threaten me with my future. If I hadn't gone today, someone would have suffered, so I had no choice."
After hearing this, Hagiwara Kenji felt this was completely normal development for Samukawa Shinryu. Besides, there was nothing worth lying about—this was basically the standard process. Even without Samukawa Shinryu saying it, he had guessed it. He was just somewhat puzzled: "Which gang is so arrogant?"
"If you knew, you'd also be in danger. Don't worry, I'll handle it properly."
Although Samukawa Shinryu spoke as if it was nothing, Hagiwara Kenji could tell the problem was probably very serious. The level of trouble was beyond his expectations: "I think you shouldn't be too stubborn. Asking for appropriate help is also okay. I know people at the Metropolitan Police—"
"They have people in the Metropolitan Police high ranks too."
Samukawa Shinryu calmly revealed: "Don't get involved in this matter. If you want to go deeper, I'll have no choice but to drop out and leave. I originally didn't want to make you worry."
On Hagiwara Kenji's usually smiling face, there was now worry and shock, but not a trace of doubt.
He just stared at Samukawa Shinryu for a while, then sighed: "......I understand. I won't go deeper, but if you need help, I'll be waiting for you anytime."
Samukawa Shinryu suddenly smiled faintly.
Not the kind of smile that would become a threat and psychological shadow in others' eyes, but clear and pure, yet hazy like a mirage, as fleeting as dewdrops—a faint smile as unreal as a dream.
"I know......Thank you, Kenji."
Hagiwara Kenji was stunned for a moment and wanted to rub his eyes, but when he raised his hand he found he was still wearing handcuffs, which was somewhat embarrassing. He quickly used his other hand to look for the key.
But Samukawa Shinryu glanced at the handcuffs, snapped his fingers, and the handcuffs automatically opened and fell.
Hagiwara Kenji: "............"
Thanks so much for being so cooperative just now!
You doing this really breaks the mood continuity!
Fortunately, at this moment Instructor Onizuka suddenly sent Hagiwara Kenji a text saying he couldn't find some document, which rescued them from this awkward atmosphere.
No matter what else Hagiwara Kenji originally wanted to say, he wasn't in the mood now anyway. Plus the information overload required careful consideration. This was a perfect excuse, so after a few words of comfort, he hurriedly left.
After seeing off Hagiwara Kenji, Usuha Izuki finally completely relaxed.
System was stunned: [They think you have ability and want to buy you with money, also want to threaten you with your future?]
Usuha Izuki calmly replied: [They covet my sniping command ability, bought me with overtime pay, and if I refuse they want to change my job content.]
The system continued asking: [So if you didn't go, someone would suffer......]
[Morofushi Hiromitsu as my partner would definitely have to face Gin and Vodka's anger at being stood up. Sigh, I'm really too sincere with friends, telling him everything!]
[......Why don't you say that when you went, someone suffered too? Isn't that dead person worth remembering???]
The system couldn't help complaining: [And why did you directly tell Hagiwara Kenji? This way when you continue disappearing in the future, won't you be unable to farm his suspicion values?]
[Weren't you just saying I wouldn't even spare friends?]
[You weren't doing it on purpose. If you can farm suspicion values, why not farm them? Now even this bit of suspicion values is gone!]
Usuha Izuki was speechless: [......Do you really not use your brain at all? In the future, although Kenji won't suspect what I'm doing when I disappear, he'll suspect whether I've taken on some organization mission, whether I'm struggling with how to maintain justice and protect him......]
The system was greatly shocked: [It can work like that too! Was this also in your plan?!]
[No, I just think I should be more sincere with friends.]
The system expressed doubt: [Fine, I believe you.]
[......Can't your suspicion values really count as score points? Go apply to your supervisor.]
The next day, Usuha Izuki was fully revived, returning to his original vitality, eating when he should eat, attending classes when he should attend. Instructor Onizuka was very relieved, thinking he had finally figured things out.
Only Hagiwara Kenji, remembering last night's conversation, couldn't quite smile.
He said not to worry, but how could he not worry! An organization with people even in Metropolitan Police high ranks definitely couldn't be a small gang. What level of trouble had Little Shinryu been dragged into?
In that case, there really was no way to seek help from above—they might drag the person being asked for help into trouble too.
Already a police officer but still unable to escape entanglement from that world......Little Shinryu's life was simply hell difficulty.
Usuha Izuki was indeed good to friends. He felt he couldn't let Hagiwara Kenji have any new pressure, so recently he had been particularly restrained, not actively doing anything suspicious or actively getting involved in cases, merely using his [Black Screen Aura] to routinely farm some suspicion values.
It was just that with reduced income on Samukawa Shinryu's side, Usuha Izuki couldn't help working a bit harder on the organization side, wanting to compensate for the losses here.
A few months later, Usuha Izuki skillfully sent another email to Morofushi Hiromitsu.
[Midorikawa, I found another good prospect! Look at this person—how about it, not bad right? He's a serial killer who hasn't been discovered yet, very suitable for the organization. Come with me to recruit him!]
After receiving this email, Morofushi Hiromitsu's mouth twitched as he silently forwarded it to Vodka.
After reading the email, Vodka held back and held back, but ultimately couldn't hold back and complained to Gin.
"Big Brother, Botanist found another person, says he wants to recruit them......All his recruitment attempts these past few months have failed! Every time he fails, he directly has Midorikawa silence them! This is simply using organization manpower to clean up social garbage! People who don't know might think he's an undercover agent!......No wait, even undercover agents aren't this brazen!"
—Big Brother! Please control Botanist! If he keeps this up, he'll become a vigilante from urban legends!!!