Chapter 144
When Amuro Toru was fishing for information, he naturally hoped the other party would directly reveal the intelligence he wanted to know, but he didn't want them to directly expose his ulterior motives!!!
His approach had no flaws—completely extending from the topic of "possibly needing to kill Police Superintendent Kitami" to "needing to find a sniper," "I heard you're skilled," then slightly extending to "Did you learn in the Middle East?" This route was very safe. Normal people wouldn't immediately think he was trying to find out about Arak Wine.
But what was up with Usuha Izuki? Why could he see through it in one second?! Was his acting that bad?!
Amuro Toru quickly organized his thoughts and suddenly realized that maybe it wasn't his poor acting, but rather the other party had been waiting for someone to ask him about Arak Wine-related matters. So at the slightest hint, he could immediately react.
How could Usuha Izuki be certain that those asking him about Arak Wine were allies?
...Could it be like how Usuha Izuki went around identifying undercover agents—casting a wide net, then looking for allies among those who asked him about Arak Wine?
That efficiency would be too low...
Amuro Toru couldn't figure it out. Before confirming the other party was really an ally, he didn't dare expose anything and could only respond nonchalantly: "Why would I ask about Arak Wine? I was asking about your sniping... ah, did you learn sniping from Arak Wine? I thought Arak Wine was from intelligence."
Usuha Izuki told the system: [See? He's definitely here for Arak Wine.]
System: [Isn't this just normal conversation following the topic...]
Usuha Izuki was exasperated: [With others, that would be normal conversation flow, at most considering it an intelligence person's habitual information gathering. But with me, if he had no interest in Arak Wine, he should have changed topics or even hung up long ago!]
System: [............]
So this guy was very aware of how annoying he was...
Who would have thought this equal-opportunity troublemaking style could actually be used to distinguish whether the other party was casually chatting or purposefully conversing... Brilliant! This move was truly brilliant! But ordinary people couldn't use it! It had no learning value!
"I learned sniping from someone else, but Arak Wine definitely knew some. After all, it's the Middle East—learning more skills is always right." Usuha Izuki improvised.
He wasn't clear whether Arak Wine could snipe. After all, that undercover system had gone for maintenance without properly briefing the suspicion value system, and still hadn't finished maintenance, leaving him unaware of many things he should have known. When people asked, he could only deploy deflection techniques.
He mainly knew about Arak Wine's situation from chatting with Middle Eastern friends.
Anyway, he was someone with good connections—everyone was happy doing business with him. As for what Arak Wine could do... according to the Middle Eastern friends, he could mix drinks, drive—including tanks and planes—had exceptional language talent, could quickly learn even remote dialects. No one mentioned whether he could snipe, but with handguns, his marksmanship was very accurate.
So Usuha Izuki wasn't deliberately unwilling to tell Amuro Toru about Arak Wine's intelligence—it was just that Amuro Toru was asking about the wrong things.
His perfunctory answer could easily lead to the topic ending. Since Amuro Toru finally seemed interested in Arak Wine, and Usuha Izuki wanted the other party to know Arak Wine was Japanese Public Security, he said a bit more.
"It's been so long since anyone talked to me about Arak Wine. The organization is really cold and heartless—once someone dies, they can act like they never existed? He always said he wanted to return to Japan to see cherry blossoms, but only came back after dying... After being busy in the Middle East for so long, the organization wouldn't even approve home leave. What nerve!"
Amuro Toru probed: "How long was he in the Middle East?"
"Mm, let me calculate... he arrived in the Middle East twelve years ago, then died two years ago, right?" Usuha Izuki sighed. "Ten years! He didn't even dare vacation in Hawaii, afraid of FBI or CIA assassination... What kind of life is that? Having money but what's the point? Still couldn't spend it all before dying—might as well have donated it all for infrastructure!"
"...Arak Wine really liked infrastructure aid."
"He was just like that. I think he really longed for ordinary people's lives, so I'm now working hard to realize his dream! Being an ordinary person!"
Amuro Toru: "............"
No, you're not ordinary at all!
The subsequent conversation yielded nothing useful from Usuha Izuki, and Amuro Toru successfully ended the chat safely and hung up.
Amuro Toru sat on the sofa in a daze for a while, then couldn't help painfully covering his head: "It really was twelve years ago..."
Although he'd heard before that Arak Wine went to the Middle East over ten years ago, there had never been an exact number. After all, nineteen years ago also counted as over ten years.
If that were the case, Arak Wine would have no connection to his undercover predecessor, because the predecessor only lost contact twelve years ago when Inspector Kuroda fell into a coma. Half a year before Inspector Kuroda's coma, he'd still received materials from the undercover predecessor. Around that time, Inspector Kuroda had written words like "Middle East" in his notes, meaning the time of going to the Middle East couldn't be earlier than twelve years ago, or else this last contact wouldn't match up.
But Arak Wine's side was precisely twelve years ago...
He'd done so much mental preparation, thinking if it was a misunderstanding and he'd guessed wrong, finding people meeting the criteria would be a huge project requiring patience... But the more he learned about Arak Wine, the more he fit.
Arak Wine also wanted to return to Japan to see cherry blossoms...
Cherry blossoms were the symbol of Japanese police. What Arak Wine wanted to see—was it real cherry blossoms, or this kind of cherry blossom?
Or was he over-interpreting again? Maybe the guy simply wanted to view blossoms? After all, for Japanese people, cherry blossom viewing was a very common recreational activity.
Amuro Toru sighed deeply.
Generally speaking, intelligence gathering being difficult and tortuous was normal. This kind of particularly smooth situation—just getting materials and immediately having suspected candidates who looked more and more likely—would make one feel very uncertain.
Did he deserve this good fortune?
If Arak Wine really was a Public Security undercover, when Usuha Izuki said these things, was it from unknowing casual chat, or knowing attempts to find a contact?
"...Arak Wine, couldn't you have adopted a normal person..." Amuro Toru muttered painfully. "Figuring out mental patients is really hard..."
No wait, maybe when Arak Wine adopted Usuha Izuki, Usuha Izuki was still normal, only becoming like this after falling from the car and hitting his head.
Given the Middle East's development level, cars and weapons were probably smuggled from foreign countries. Based on various countries' market share of Middle East smuggling over the years, and the organization's smuggling proportions from various countries—the car that caused Usuha Izuki to hit his head was most likely American!
As expected! It's all America's fault! He knew they were no good!
Amuro Toru contributed suspicion values to Usuha Izuki in a rush, while Usuha Izuki hung up the phone and sighed mournfully.
[I don't want to work overtime, especially a week of overtime. It's a nightmare.]
System said: [Then solve the case.]
Usuha Izuki said: [That's what I'm thinking. Between working overtime one night versus several days, anyone knows how to choose.]
So Usuha Izuki found a restroom, switched to his main body, used "Universal Navigation" to locate where that Kitami Hitoshi kid was, while searching for "Strawberry Night" victim bodies.
After all, only two bodies were dredged from the lake, clearly not matching the count. Where the rest were hadn't been found yet. Searching now to see if he could report back to Inspector Megure.
After checking the intelligence he wanted, Usuha Izuki began calling Inspector Megure.
Inspector Megure had been anxiously waiting for his news, somewhat worried he might have an accident acting alone, and afraid he might cause others accidents. He wanted to call but didn't dare. He'd just been discussing with Hagiwara Kenji whether to ask how Samukawa Shinryu was doing when the call came, nearly making Inspector Megure cry with joy.
"Oh oh! Samukawa-kun! Did you finally finish investigating? What useful intelligence did you discover?"
"Mm, I got what should be fairly useful information." Usuha Izuki said thoughtfully. "This lake is a new body dumping location with only two bodies inside..."
Inspector Megure nodded: "Right, we mentioned before wanting to find where he used to dump bodies, but Tokyo has too many suitable dumping spots. It's hard to determine the original location. If we could know, we might be able to analyze changes in the perpetrator's living environment..." At this point, Inspector Megure suddenly realized: "You're bringing this up suddenly—could you already know the answer?"
Usuha Izuki responded: "Yes, Toda Rowing Course. I suggest investigating there."
Theoretically, Inspector Megure should ask how the person who gave Samukawa Shinryu intelligence knew this, but now he only wanted to ask: "How is the person who gave you intelligence? Are they involved? Should we arrest them?"
Is the person okay? You didn't torture them for information, right?! If there are problems and evidence, just bring them back directly! Don't take matters into your own hands!
Having heard various strange rumors, Inspector Megure was very worried about Samukawa Shinryu's hobby of toying with others being performed during solo action... If this got complained about, as the supervisor who agreed to let Samukawa Shinryu act independently, he'd also be responsible.
Usuha Izuki had nowhere to find Inspector Megure such a knowledgeable informant, so he could only say: "He's just someone with strong curiosity who realized something was wrong after following, but didn't do anything excessive."
"That's good, that's good. If he's an ordinary person, let's leave it at that. I'll have people dredge for bodies at Toda Rowing Course. What else did he say? Since he followed them, does he also know that location?"
Usuha Izuki checked his watch: "Mm, I already know, but to avoid alerting them, please don't tell others yet, Inspector... I have a plan that needs your cooperation."
This confident, calm tone... this attitude of seemingly having seen through everything and just waiting for cooperation...
Inspector Megure asked somewhat hesitantly: "...You don't already know who the perpetrator is, do you?"
"Still need confirmation."
Inspector Megure: "............"
I know you're capable, Samukawa Shinryu, but this is only one day! What exactly were you doing during solo action?! Why is one person's progress so much faster than a group of police?!
This made him want to get to know more fringe people—they might provide lots of useful intelligence... Samukawa Shinryu was really naturally gifted in this area! So enviable!