Chapter 99
Usuha Izuki came out of the room deep in thought.
Scotland and Akai Shuichi were both buried in writing self-criticisms. During this time, each person had written about one copy.
Usuha Izuki picked them up to look.
Scotland was Japanese after all. Although he'd indeed written according to his requirements and the meaning was still the same, he'd written it more tactfully. The level of passive-aggressiveness was very low—to the degree where it would make people feel uncomfortable but wonder if they were overthinking it. He really played word games well.
Moreover, even at a time like this, Scotland remained very cautious, completely avoiding personal habits in his word choice. Worthy of a professional undercover—truly vigilant at all times.
This was within Usuha Izuki's expectations. He knew that with Scotland's personality, what he'd write would definitely feel like this.
Akai Shuichi hadn't considered what treatment Usuha Izuki would get for submitting such a provocative "self-criticism." He'd written it completely unrestrained—any supervisor seeing this kind of self-criticism would be furious and want to scold the person.
Usuha Izuki commented: "Scotland wrote it well. If you didn't know better, you'd really think you were a civil servant."
Scotland smiled: "Thank you for the praise. This is very simple."
When asked, just say it's simple and easy to learn, firmly refusing any derived topics, not giving Usuha Izuki a chance to ask questions like "You didn't really take the civil service exam, did you?"
Akai Shuichi, who was writing his second self-criticism, saw this scene and indicated he'd learned something.
Getting along with Usuha Izuki was a profound academic discipline.
Scotland was indeed a senior—truly masterful in this regard.
Usuha Izuki didn't get any suspicion values from Scotland and wasn't disappointed. Anyway, he was currently just casting a wide net regardless of big or small fish. Any harvest was a pleasant surprise; no harvest meant continuing to work hard next time.
His target shifted to Akai Shuichi: "As for Moroboshi Dai's..."
Akai Shuichi remained unmoved, not believing Usuha Izuki could say anything about civil servants regarding his style of self-criticism.
"...very FBI."
Akai Shuichi really couldn't help it and asked: "Where exactly is it FBI?"
Why did he still insist on attributing it to FBI! He wasn't convinced!
Usuha Izuki evaluated: "It's very much like those FBI protagonists in American blockbusters—the supervisors are all idiots, clearly he did nothing wrong but they still make him write self-criticisms. What he writes gives exactly this feeling. You rarely see this kind of character setup in Japanese TV dramas. Most protagonists endure it for the greater good. America really is freer—Japan is full of ninjas. I really hate this kind of Japanese person. Can't they just say what they want to say directly?"
Akai Shuichi: "You talk as if you're not Japanese."
"I'm a returnee from the Middle East with very low identification with Japan. Actually, I prefer the Soviet Union."
Scotland's mouth twitched: "Don't say that in front of Gin. Be careful he suspects you're a Soviet undercover. Your foster father is already suspected of being a Soviet undercover."
"Let him suspect." Usuha Izuki complained. "Can't even let people tell the truth—this workplace atmosphere is really finished. I'm going to complain to Boss."
Akai Shuichi: "...???"
Returnee from the Middle East... No wonder he had that passive-aggressive feeling toward America. Looks like he really hates America.
But is it really okay to directly express pro-Soviet views in the organization?
And his foster father is also suspected of being a Soviet undercover... Usuha Izuki himself so brazenly displays pro-Soviet attitudes, yet seems to still be very trusted...?
He felt like the materials he'd seen before going undercover and the organization he'd personally encountered seemed somewhat different...
Akai Shuichi felt his brain wasn't sufficient. The organization seemed tolerantly excessive, or was it simply that Usuha Izuki as a person was too valuable?
If he was valuable, where was it reflected?
He looked like the intellectual type, but investigating backgrounds relied on calling for help, so he probably wasn't responsible for intelligence. He had no gun calluses on his hands, so he probably didn't use guns often. Sniping missions were all assigned to others—he couldn't possibly be the combat type. His whole body was always in a relaxed state, seeming completely unafraid of angering people into violence. He didn't know if he lacked this awareness or simply hadn't received training.
...Could he be a hacker? With the internet developing now, there was indeed demand for this kind of talent. But Usuha Izuki didn't have dark circles and his hair was quite thick—didn't seem like it. Plus he just said he came back from the Middle East... The Middle East didn't seem to cultivate hackers, right?
It couldn't possibly be that he was simply responsible for recruiting people for the organization or assigning outsourcing... How could this kind of person hold a high position in the organization?!
Usuha Izuki harvested quite a few suspicion values from Akai Shuichi and was very satisfied.
He'd originally planned to use Scotland's self-criticism template, modify it a bit, and submit it to fool his supervisor.
But now he planned to use Akai Shuichi's version, because he wanted to skip work on the 25th.
Although directly disappearing would get more suspicion values, that might affect his subsequent transfer to Criminal Investigation Division One, and Hagiwara Kenji, who already had doubts about him, would definitely not be able to resist coming to settle accounts.
He didn't want to reveal everything or make too big a fuss that would affect his internship evaluation, so he needed to be more tactful. In that case, using Akai Shuichi's arrogant self-criticism to anger others, then using verbal techniques to guide things, would allow him to smoothly and safely get a result of being confined for reflection.
Hmm... Captain Kikyo was on his side and had strong tolerance—probably not easy to anger... As for the Criminal Affairs Department Director, it wasn't convenient to directly submit the self-criticism to the top supervisor...
It's decided—it's you, Shima-senpai!
So Usuha Izuki delayed for several days until the next time Group 404 was on rotation, when Officer Shima indeed asked.
"Have you finished writing your self-criticism? Why haven't you submitted it?"
Although it was a rotation every few days, submitting self-criticisms didn't have to be done during work hours. This delay was way too long.
Usuha Izuki said: "I finished writing it. Do you want to look at it?"
Officer Shima immediately agreed.
Originally, writing self-criticisms was such a small matter that he really wouldn't pay too much attention, but Samukawa Shinryu's casual yet unhesitating gunshot at that time had shocked him too much. He was very concerned about whether the other party truly realized the inappropriateness of that behavior.
Ibuki Ai had arrived early and roughly scanned it: "Samukawa-kun wrote very seriously! Several pages densely packed! Worthy of an honor student!"
But the more Officer Shima read the self-criticism, the more his brow furrowed.
The beginning still had some disguise, but the end was blatantly undisciplined, completely not feeling he'd done anything wrong. He even somewhat mockingly indicated that having him write a self-criticism couldn't cover up the correctness of his decision. By the time the command center's two factions of "every person's life matters" and "it's fine to sacrifice a few to save the majority" finished arguing, everyone would already be cold.
This couldn't be called a self-criticism at all!
Officer Shima was very angry, vigorously waving the stack of papers: "You think you're very smart, don't you? You think only you are correct, don't you? Haven't you considered that if your hand had shaken, that bullet would have directly hit the person's head—"
Usuha Izuki was very calm: "My hand won't shake."
"I'm saying what if..."
"There is no 'what if.' My judgment has never been wrong."
Officer Shima was completely enraged.
Samukawa Shinryu's attitude and what he said reminded Officer Shima of his partner from when he was in Criminal Investigation Division One.
That partner trusted his own judgment too much. To achieve his goals, he didn't hesitate to fabricate evidence just to catch the suspect he'd determined was guilty—however, the partner's judgment was wrong. The real culprit was someone else, and the partner had to pay the price for illegal evidence gathering.
The partner had to resign, but died on the night he submitted his resignation letter. Because someone had witnessed Officer Shima and his partner arguing about the fabricated evidence, there were even rumors in the Metropolitan Police that he had killed his partner.
Now, Samukawa Shinryu's attitude triggered Officer Shima's psychological trauma. He felt he couldn't let Samukawa Shinryu continue like this, or the trouble Samukawa Shinryu caused would only get bigger.
"This isn't about whether your judgment has been wrong or not. You don't follow procedures and only do what you think is right to achieve your goals... Someone like you isn't suitable to be a police officer."
People couldn't always be right, and as a police officer, being wrong once could affect someone else's entire life. One absolutely couldn't have such a cavalier and confident attitude.
Officer Shima's vision began flashing with scenes of his former partner admitting to fabricating evidence and his memory of seeing his former partner's corpse: "If you don't change your attitude, I can't accept you being in my group. You should leave right now..."
Usuha Izuki had been waiting for exactly this: "Understood. I'll leave right now."
He politely took back his self-criticism, then turned and left the room.
This straightforward response left both Officer Shima and Ibuki Ai stunned.
Ibuki Ai didn't say anything, just hurriedly followed after him. Officer Shima supported himself on the table, slowly sat down, and calmed his violently beating heart.
Samukawa Shinryu wasn't suitable to be a police officer. If he didn't change his attitude, this kind of behavior would escalate in the future and he'd eventually go completely astray... He hadn't done anything wrong.
It was just that maybe he'd been a bit too harsh and should have been more tactful... For Samukawa Shinryu, being a police officer was also a kind of restraint on himself. What if he really stopped being a police officer because of what he'd said...
Officer Shima spaced out for a while, then took out his phone and called Hagiwara Kenji.
Hagiwara Kenji quickly answered and very skillfully asked: "Officer Shima? What did Little Shinryu do now?"
"His self-criticism..." Officer Shima started to say this but found it difficult to continue. He was really uncomfortable, and he'd thought of too much—for a moment he didn't even know where to start.
Hagiwara Kenji immediately got it: "His self-criticism has problems? I originally helped him with suggestions, but because I had other things to do, I couldn't supervise him finishing it. He said he'd have Ibuki-senpai help look it over..."
Officer Shima: "............"
Hagiwara Kenji: "...?"
Officer Shima was expressionless: "Ibuki does have rich experience writing self-criticisms, but for giving others suggestions, he'd only suggest 'write the characters bigger so you can take up more pages.'"
Hagiwara Kenji: "............"
Rich experience writing self-criticisms meant he also often caused trouble, and his suggestions were completely meaningless...
Little Shinryu!!! Did you never plan to write the self-criticism properly?! What exactly did you write that made Officer Shima complain to me?!!
Would he really have to provide lifetime after-sales service for this Assistant Instructor position he'd only held for half a year?!