Chapter 62
To be safe, Morofushi Hiromitsu and Furuya Rei split—one agreed, one refused—to avoid both falling into the same trap.
Morofushi Hiromitsu naturally chose to agree, since his current persona was to support Usuha Izuki as much as possible with only occasional persuasion. Furuya Rei went along and chose to refuse.
The reason was ready-made too.
Furuya Rei said: "I don't think Boss even knows who I am. Me speaking up for you wouldn't have much effect."
Very reasonable.
Usuha Izuki pretended to be convinced and let Furuya Rei off, then dragged Morofushi Hiromitsu to call Boss.
The first call went unanswered.
Furuya Rei suppressed his laughter—he felt Boss's reason for not answering was probably the same as his earlier one. He never expected to find common ground with the organization's boss in such a place.
Usuha Izuki didn't give up. This position with extremely high freedom was most suitable for him—he couldn't let Gin keep scheming to change his job. Today this complaint call had to get through!
Through Usuha Izuki's persistent efforts, when they met up with Gin's group the next day, they successfully saw Gin's face radiating dark energy.
Clearly, Boss had indeed passed along Usuha Izuki's report to Gin.
Yesterday Boss had been very dismissive of Usuha Izuki's so-called evidence, but worthy of being Boss, he quickly grasped the key point and discovered this was Usuha Izuki's magical reasoning stemming from Gin wanting him to change jobs and work overtime.
So to avoid receiving such harassment calls in the future, Boss had no choice but to tell Gin not to pressure Usuha Izuki too hard. As for other matters, they could wait until the organization fully controlled the Middle East line.
Gin, who had been backstabbed again, was in a terrible mood. After arriving at the base, he didn't even look at Usuha Izuki and just smoked in the corner.
The workload was what it was. If Usuha Izuki didn't work, others' workload would increase. Gin was so busy yet had to watch Usuha Izuki slack off daily. Even knowing Usuha Izuki's greatest function was as a mascot, since he was under Gin's management, Gin couldn't help wanting to push him, and Boss had supported this before.
But now Boss couldn't stand it first, so Gin could only lower his flag and continue tolerating having a troublesome thing under him who would stab him in the back if he didn't work.
Vodka knew this wasn't good, but seeing Gin's treatment, he was glad he wasn't the one being cut off by Usuha Izuki...
Seeing Gin didn't plan to speak, Vodka took on the responsibility of greeting others and explaining the specific mission situation.
Simply put, Gin had discovered intelligence leakage in a mission. After investigations from all sides, they caught a traitor bought by the CIA who had once worked under Arak Wine in the Middle East.
After the Middle East changed supervisors, he was also transferred back to Japan. Probably because he'd been in that far-from-oversight Middle East environment too long, his vigilance decreased. After returning to Japan, he continued passing information to CIA operatives in Japan and was exposed.
This time they were conducting a fishing operation based on intelligence provided by the captured person.
Because the target might be very vigilant, Gin had Usuha Izuki come early to use his previously demonstrated environmental assessment abilities and superior people-reading skills to see if he could find suspicious people or guess movement patterns.
Usuha Izuki kept saying: "If you hadn't said this person might have caused my foster father's death, I wouldn't have come! This isn't my job at all!"
Vodka kept agreeing: "Right, right, right, thanks for the trouble. Arak Wine's revenge still depends on you, his filial son! Isn't this a rare chance to screw over the CIA? Can you bear to just give up this opportunity?"
After appeasing Usuha Izuki and giving him the materials, Vodka finally relaxed and went to find Morofushi Hiromitsu.
Yes, even Morofushi Hiromitsu, who didn't have a codename, was participating in this mission.
Just as Morofushi Hiromitsu had thought, Vodka and Gin indeed didn't want to face Usuha Izuki and had brought him as insurance.
"Congratulations in advance." Vodka told Morofushi Hiromitsu. "Boss seems to already be considering giving you a codename, so you participating in this mission isn't really breaking protocol... You were forced by Botanist to testify for him yesterday, right?"
Morofushi Hiromitsu showed a helpless smile: "My first conversation with Boss was to say Gin is an undercover agent. I..."
Vodka comforted him: "It's fine. Boss saying he'll give you a codename means he understands you were also forced. Now you're remembered by Boss too. I already thought your abilities were good and you'd get a codename sooner or later. I praised you plenty in reports, but even so I didn't expect it this early. This shows the call wasn't wasted... uh, don't tell Big Brother I said that."
Morofushi Hiromitsu: "......Okay."
He knew that mixing with Usuha Izuki, though stressful, might be a shortcut, so he seized the opportunity and became Usuha Izuki's partner.
He just hadn't expected the effect to be this explosive. How long had it been? He was already remembered by the organization's boss in this way and about to be given a codename.
This promotion reason and efficiency would be quite shocking even in the undercover world. It sounded so surreal he felt like he was dreaming.
When he wrote his report to Public Security, his superiors would probably make him take a mental evaluation to see if excessive stress had caused delusional symptoms.
But honestly, not even paranoid delusionals would dare dream this beautifully!!
Looking at Vodka, who seemed to have a lot of complaints he wanted to share, Morofushi Hiromitsu couldn't help feeling his undercover path was going disturbingly smoothly.
Vodka and Morofushi Hiromitsu whispered among themselves, Usuha Izuki absentmindedly looked at materials, and Gin stayed in the corner smoking while checking emails, apparently coordinating with subordinates to arrange lower-level members to ambush around the area during this operation.
Only Vodka felt most comfortable here, since he didn't dare complain to Gin about many things but had fewer concerns with Morofushi Hiromitsu.
After reading the materials, Usuha Izuki got up to leave: "I'm going to look around the scene."
With [Universal Navigation], Usuha Izuki actually didn't need on-site reconnaissance at all, but one couldn't be too arrogant or they'd be dragged off to be exploited for labor. He was also too lazy to waste time with Gin here—he couldn't farm any suspicion values anyway. Better to go out and let Gin suspect whether he was slacking off somewhere unseen.
Once Usuha Izuki left, the room's atmosphere immediately relaxed considerably.
Vodka even raised his voice: "Getting him to do any work is really difficult!"
"For matters related to Arak Wine, we should still be able to get him moving." Morofushi Hiromitsu casually gathered intelligence. "He and his foster father should have had a good relationship."
Vodka pondered: "Hard to say. Arak Wine probably doted on this guy, never letting Botanist join the organization. He seemed to always look for chances to send Botanist back to Japan for an ordinary life. The organization didn't even know he had a foster son before. But as for Botanist, I really haven't seen him very sad about Arak Wine's death. Though he claims he's very sad inside and doesn't need physical and facial expressions to let others know how sad he is, what the real situation is, who knows? He's a psychopath."
"But I think there's still affection. Yesterday he called Boss because he felt people shouldn't constantly slander Arak Wine as a Soviet undercover agent... Speaking of which, what exactly did Arak Wine do?"
"Used organization money for Middle East aid, I suppose." Vodka's mouth twitched. "Though he wrote reports and his reasoning made sense, looking at it suddenly, this behavior was indeed quite outrageous. No wonder there are such strange rumors."
"Arak Wine is Japanese, right?"
"Soviet undercover agents can be of any nationality." Vodka curled his lip. "Besides, everyone who met him thought he was a good person. Look, he even picked up Botanist in a war zone to raise—he was too kind... But real undercover agents wouldn't so openly have the organization spend money on Middle East aid. It should have been to consolidate smuggling routes."
Morofushi Hiromitsu inquired further: "Botanist should be Japanese, right? Why was he in the Middle East?"
"Uh, I don't know what happened with his parents either. Maybe war correspondents or something. Anyway, Botanist was abandoned at a hospital Arak Wine was supporting shortly after birth, so Arak Wine adopted him."
Vodka recalled: "People from the Middle East mentioned that Arak Wine wanted his foster son to be an ordinary person. Since that was the case but he never returned to Japan, he was probably looking for the boy's biological parents... but I estimate they're thoroughly dead."
Morofushi Hiromitsu looked thoughtful: "......So Botanist wants to be an ordinary person because of Arak Wine."
Vodka complained: "Maybe psychopaths express deep feelings differently than us. When he learned Arak Wine died, he was so calm, yet he still remembers Arak Wine's expectations for him to be ordinary... So strange."
Before long, Usuha Izuki suddenly called.
Under Gin's gaze, Morofushi Hiromitsu put it on speaker: "How's the investigation going?"
Usuha Izuki said casually: "Not bad. I've already found the person you want to catch. Stop waiting for rabbits—he's already arrived early and discovered something's wrong, about to run."
Vodka: "Huh? How did you discover this? Are you sure it's him?"
"Very obvious. Near the place you mentioned, only his positioning and way of reducing his presence were particularly agent-like. Oh, I estimate he'll escape directly through the west side bathroom window on the eighth floor."
"The eighth floor window???"
Usuha Izuki's tone remained calm: "With his leg strength, he can jump to that illegally built glass room on the seventh floor of the opposite building, then climb down using the water pipes. The balcony downstairs isn't enclosed, so he can illegally enter. So you'd better not just watch this mall—include the adjacent building's area too..."
Hearing this workload, Vodka was speechless: "What exactly were you doing in the mall? How did you discover such a weird route? Are you sure he'll take this path?... And since you've already discovered him, won't you do something?"
"I already called to notify you—what else should I do? I'm an ordinary person with no strength to tie up a chicken. Asking me to stop an agent—isn't that too demanding?"
Usuha Izuki slacked off completely openly: "You guys hurry up. I've explained everything in such detail—if you can't catch him, it's definitely because you, this undercover agent, are delaying military affairs."
Vodka: "......???"
At a time like this, Gin still had courage. He extinguished his cigarette and said coldly: "Listen to him."
While speaking, Gin personally made calls to direct operations. Vodka quickly followed up, using another phone to notify the person in charge below.
Although Vodka always felt the route Usuha Izuki indicated was very strange and normal people wouldn't go that way, shockingly, subordinates reported they'd caught the person, and indeed according to the route Usuha Izuki described.
Usuha Izuki said proudly: "I told you I'm very good at giving directions. No one understands escape routes better than me."
What's there to be proud of about that!
Vodka frantically complained internally but didn't dare criticize the hero even slightly: "We've caught him. But where are you? Aren't you coming back?"
"Ah... I won't go back." Usuha Izuki said. "I discovered a bomb in the mall and just called the police. You guys should evacuate quickly."
Vodka: "......???"
You're an organization member doing a mission and you're calling the police?! This ordinary person persona doesn't need to be maintained to this extent!!
This is all Arak Wine's fault! How did he raise this kid!