Chapter 133
Although Amuro Toru currently had no codename and theoretically had no right to refuse whatever Vodka told him to do, he still cautiously reported this situation to Rum.
Rum, after all, had never truly met Usuha Izuki. Though he found the person quite annoying, his irritation was limited. After hearing Amuro Toru's report, he casually said: "Since Vodka said so, you should agree."
Amuro Toru then replied to Usuha Izuki, informing him of the meeting location.
Usuha Izuki picked a time and leisurely went over.
The meeting point was one of the organization's safe houses. As soon as Usuha Izuki entered, he complained: "How come you're also in Tokyo? I thought I could get a company-paid trip."
Amuro Toru quickly closed the door to prevent this guy from saying something outrageous again: "It just happens that the person I need to investigate is in Tokyo."
Usuha Izuki looked around and commented: "A bit monotonous."
Amuro Toru didn't mind: "Can't compare to your home, obviously. This is just a safe house."
Though furnished as a disguise, it indeed lacked some living atmosphere—they wouldn't buy a bunch of useless stuff to put here... And based on his impression of Usuha Izuki's house from last time, even Versailles would seem minimalist compared to that place.
Usuha Izuki's house really had all sorts of random junk. He'd even seen a meter-tall Easter Island statue model, and on the side cabinet was a funeral wreath with the character [悼] written on it... Even a Hawaiian lei would have been better... Anyway, after looking around last time, he felt that the previous skeleton frame and pink piano were actually normal.
Usuha Izuki sat on the sofa, waiting like a master for Amuro Toru to pour him a drink: "I want cola."
Amuro Toru thought: if he poisoned Usuha Izuki to death right now, then found a way to make the Middle East think the organization did it, breaking the organization's smuggling chain, wouldn't the organization suffer massive damage?
Very tempting, but such an impactful plan needed to be reported to the National Police Agency...
And if possible, it would be best to extract his own people and frame someone else to maximize benefits. One-for-one exchange was still a bit reluctant.
Amuro Toru got Usuha Izuki the cola.
But Usuha Izuki didn't drink it, just left it on the table, then asked: "So what exactly is your mission? Who are you killing?"
"...Not killing anyone. I'm in intelligence! Rum just has me investigating someone." From this opening, Amuro Toru felt things weren't looking good, but fortunately he hadn't expected Usuha Izuki to help him with anything.
His purpose was very clear—to build a relationship with Usuha Izuki and learn more about him, so when formulating plans targeting Usuha Izuki, having more intelligence would allow for greater precision.
For this, just enduring some exhaustion from being criticized, or heart-pounding from being tested, or even having some setbacks, was completely tolerable.
Usuha Izuki became interested: "Investigating who?"
Amuro Toru pulled out several papers and handed them to Usuha Izuki: "Metropolitan Police Third Regional Headquarters Chief, Police Superintendent Kitami Katsuyoshi."
Usuha Izuki took them and looked: "Why investigate him? Someone wants to assassinate him?"
Amuro Toru: "...No, besides assassination, our organization also recruits high officials."
This guy wasn't pretending to be a normal person now!
Casually talking about assassination—real organization member!
The exasperated Amuro Toru patiently explained the mission situation to Usuha Izuki.
Simply put, the area Police Superintendent Kitami was recently responsible for was investigating a case related to the organization. The organization had previously sent someone to investigate whether they needed to have Gin silence some incompetent fool.
After investigating, the person said Police Superintendent Kitami seemed problematic and could be approached to see if they could threaten or buy him off.
If successful, the organization would gain another high-ranking police contact.
But this unlucky guy somehow got involved in a murder case and was killed directly. Rum had to send Amuro Toru to take over, and there was also another person investigating. They didn't know who the other was—it was mutual competition and supervision, creating urgency to speed up investigation while also collecting intelligence more comprehensively.
However, after bringing Usuha Izuki to Amuro Toru's side, Rum had already stopped caring about the competition results... He felt that Amuro Toru's side not making mistakes or getting reported to the boss or himself would already be quite difficult...
Usuha Izuki asked: "How far have you investigated?"
Speaking of this, Amuro Toru couldn't help frowning: "Because the previous investigator's materials are gone, and Police Superintendent Kitami himself is very careful, making investigation somewhat difficult, so everything has to start from scratch. But that investigator reported in a very short time that he could be threatened and recruited, so I felt the investigation direction might be wrong and switched to investigating his son..."
As he spoke, he indicated for Usuha Izuki to look at the bottom paper.
Usuha Izuki flipped to that page and took a closer look. Good lord, this Police Superintendent Kitami's son—drinking, gambling, and prostitution were just basics. Street racing, rape, drug use... Even Gin only killed people, he wasn't this depraved!
"These were things he let slip while drinking with friends. Based on his friends' reactions, they're probably true."
Usuha Izuki nodded: "Did his father cover them up?"
"Most likely. After all, he's the only son, and this son is currently at the Metropolitan Police. If this got exposed it would be troublesome. If we can investigate evidence, we can use it to 'persuade' Police Superintendent Kitami."
Amuro Toru suppressed his anger, pretending he didn't care about these matters, and continued.
"The trouble is these are all from several years ago, so investigation takes a lot of time, and evidence might be long gone. Without sufficient evidence, even as leverage, the other party could well claim it's framing or political enemy attacks... And the organization isn't prepared to kill such a high-ranking official, since if a Police Superintendent is murdered, there would definitely be serious investigation."
"Mm-hm..." Usuha Izuki browsed through the materials and suddenly said, "Can't you just call him by name? Why do you call him Police Superintendent so smoothly, like a police officer?"
Amuro Toru, who was suppressing anger: "............"
His emotions suddenly became disjointed.
Usuha Izuki really could find any opening!
He'd expected Usuha Izuki to try this, but hadn't expected this angle!
Amuro Toru's mouth twitched as he explained: "Because you don't seem to remember other people's names very well, I wanted to use it to distinguish the Police Superintendent from his son."
"I see."
For some reason, Usuha Izuki looked quite disappointed.
Of course he was disappointed, because he found Amuro Toru was giving fewer suspicion values.
You're an undercover agent being suspected of being police, yet you're not worried about whether I discovered something. You're being too unprofessional as an undercover!
System: [Making you always use the same trick. Even Saint Seiya becomes immune to the same technique—isn't this inevitable?]
[Tricks don't need to be new, just useful. Now that it's not useful, it's not too late to switch to other methods.]
Usuha Izuki sighed: [It's time to let him discover that Arak Wine was a Japanese Public Security undercover!]
But the operation method needed consideration. For now, he'd set it aside.
He wasn't here specifically to grind suspicion values this time anyway—mainly he felt he hadn't played enough in Hawaii and wanted to find fun elsewhere.
Intelligence group really had more fun. He was quite interested in police-related missions.
Usuha Izuki skipped the previous topic as naturally as if he'd just asked "have you eaten?": "So what's your plan now?"
Amuro Toru looked at him: "The plan requires your cooperation."
Usuha Izuki asked: "How do I cooperate?"
"I hope you can get to know Police Superintendent Kitami's son and see if you can get him to talk." Amuro Toru smiled. "As an ordinary person, making friends shouldn't be impossible for you, right?"
Usuha Izuki frowned: "What will you be doing?"
"I'll investigate whether anyone around him during school disappeared or could testify against him." Amuro Toru said flatly. "If you want to switch tasks, that's not impossible, just involves running around a lot."
This was a leading choice.
Amuro Toru naturally didn't want to switch mission content with Usuha Izuki, because there might be more police around the Police Superintendent's son, and it would be troublesome if any of them recognized him.
This seemingly busy task involving running around everywhere, he could completely delegate to Japanese Public Security subordinates to investigate, freeing up his own time for other matters.
Sure enough, the obviously hedonistic Usuha Izuki chose not to switch tasks: "...I'll go be friends with him then. That Kitami... what was it?"
Amuro Toru was speechless: "Kitami Hitoshi. The materials are in your hands—you just looked at them."
Usuha Izuki said without changing expression: "Right, I know. Leave it to me."
His confidence made Amuro Toru feel uneasy instead, worried this guy would suddenly go crazy during the mission and drag down his evaluation with Rum: "Are you sure you're okay? Do you need my help?"
"No need!" Usuha Izuki lifted his chin. "It's just making friends—watch me. Just relax!"
Amuro Toru: "............"
He was already starting to worry.
The materials Amuro Toru provided were quite detailed, including things like where Kitami Hitoshi liked to drink and his usual hobbies—all investigated to facilitate Usuha Izuki's staged encounter.
Usuha Izuki acted decisively, setting out that very evening for the bar, prepared for a chance encounter—getting intelligence from police, how interesting! Asking Amuro Toru to help pass time was really the right choice!
But when he stood at the bar entrance, looking at the nearby map displayed in [Universal Navigation], Usuha Izuki couldn't help falling into contemplation.
...Running into acquaintances even here—wasn't Tokyo a bit too small?