Chapter 225
Tropical Land—
Two men in black walked silently in the shadows when suddenly, one of them shuddered.
The tall man beside him noticed his movement and glanced at him: "Vodka, what's wrong?"
Vodka looked around alertly: "Big brother, I think I just saw Botanist..."
Gin: "..........."
Mm, probably Vodka's "Botanist allergy symptoms" acting up again.
This was an amusement park with lots of colorful things everywhere. Vodka might have accidentally mistaken some random color combination for Usuha Izuki's bizarre fashion sense... But hadn't the psychologist said half a year ago that Vodka's symptoms had improved? Why was it starting again?
Gin usually wasn't short on words, but whenever it came to Usuha Izuki-related matters, he would temporarily become mute, not wanting to say a single word.
Vodka was also used to this style of his. After looking around and not finding anyone, he suspiciously withdrew his gaze: "Sorry, big brother. I probably saw wrong."
"Mm."
Gin could understand Vodka's current behavior—he was actually secretly relieved too.
After all... ever since Akai Shuichi was exposed two years ago, Usuha Izuki's arrogance had immediately become much more brazen, never having anything good to say when they met.
If Gin's missions succeeded, it was fine, but once they failed, he'd be met with cold sarcasm like "only an undercover agent would fail this kind of mission."
The boss had always been somewhat biased, and after discovering that not only had the Middle East situation not improved over the years but had become increasingly complex, with the organization still only able to rely on the personal assets left by the dead Arisu even after several years, he became even more openly biased toward Usuha Izuki.
And many things couldn't be started—once started, the bottom line would keep dropping.
In the past, when Usuha Izuki was displeased with Gin and complained to the boss, the boss would say "mm-hmm" on the surface but actually take no action against Gin, even comforting him privately.
But after Akai Shuichi was confirmed to actually be FBI two years ago, Gin having specifically investigated but found nothing became somewhat problematic, leading to him being temporarily removed from the organization's core. Since then, Gin discovered he seemed to be marginalized every few months.
Maybe because of mission failures, maybe because of Usuha Izuki's complaints, maybe because of anonymous reports from other members...
Gin had offended too many people over the years. Previously, when he had no flaws, the boss could suppress others' bad-mouthing, but now that he'd shown what wasn't really a flaw but was treated as one, quite a few people took the opportunity to retaliate.
Things like mission failures, which anyone could experience and weren't significant before, were now subject to conspiracy theories...
Even the boss couldn't withstand a group of people saying such things and could only occasionally wrong the loyal Gin.
After all, "Boss, I've spent considerable energy on your matters—what's wrong with you suffering a little grievance?"
Besides, it was just occasionally doing less important missions—this couldn't really be called grievance. For Gin, wasn't it basically like vacation!
If this would lead to betraying the organization, it would only show Gin's loyalty was nothing special, and those people were all right!
The boss successfully convinced himself.
Since the boss had this attitude, those responsible for arranging missions looked at Gin's side with just a few people, then at the many people Gin had offended, especially Botanist... and knew what they should do.
For example, today's one-hundred-million-yen transaction normally wouldn't require an executive like Gin to handle, but it was still thrown to Gin.
Although the boss's explanation to Gin was to let him relax frequently, everyone understood the actual situation.
When Vodka had free time, he occasionally couldn't help thinking about how he and big brother had fallen to this state. Tracing back to the source, thinking and thinking... he felt it was Usuha Izuki's problem.
No choice—his presence was too high, and he was the most disruptive. While others did small schemes behind the scenes, Usuha Izuki really did mock them to their faces. Even Chianti, who was recruited by Usuha Izuki, looked at Gin like nothing was right about him. When they rarely cooperated, Gin felt the command difficulty had increased considerably.
Fortunately, Usuha Izuki had said he was traveling abroad this past year and hadn't appeared much in the organization, so Gin's pressure in the organization had decreased somewhat.
"Thinking about it, that kid should still be abroad. I'm really being paranoid." Vodka self-deprecatingly tried to ease the awkward atmosphere. "Big brother, we..."
Before he could finish, the voice that triggered his psychological trauma suddenly appeared behind them.
"Oh, isn't this Gin? Haven't seen you for a while—how did you become so pathetic?"
Gin: "..........."
Vodka: "..........."
The horror story came true again!!!
Vodka's heart nearly jumped out of his throat. He turned around, looking at the other party in disbelief: "Weren't you traveling abroad?"
"Right, didn't I just come back from traveling?"
The silver-haired youth in gaudy, jingling clothes smiled and waved: "You two dressed like this coming to an amusement park—are you afraid people won't think you're suspicious enough?"
Alarm bells immediately rang in Vodka's mind.
Based on experience, he smoothly continued the thought process: Soon, this Usuha Izuki kid would start questioning whether they were doing it on purpose, deliberately wanting to be exposed and arrested, then openly exchange intelligence with contacts through entering the police station, then have the organization's people rescue them, wasting the organization's armed forces blah blah blah... Finally, he'd label them as undercover agents and email secretly taken photos to Rum and the boss.
Damn, they were indeed a bit conspicuous, but didn't they have other missions tonight and didn't want to waste time and energy changing clothes? How troublesome!
Besides, this was just a simple transaction mission—couldn't they relax a bit?!
...If no one discovered them and the mission completed smoothly, there probably wouldn't be problems, but being discovered by Usuha Izuki and having him make a big deal of it would be troublesome.
So Vodka decisively said: "That's not important. Big brother and I are going to ride the roller coaster. Want to come along?"
That's right! After all these years! He, Vodka! Had evolved!
Faced with Usuha Izuki, explaining was covering up, and covering up was useless. The best method was to change the subject, and it had to be changed to a topic Usuha Izuki was interested in.
That way, even if Usuha Izuki clearly knew you were changing the subject, he wouldn't keep pursuing it.
Sure enough, Usuha Izuki abandoned the previous dangerous topic and followed Vodka's words: "Ew... didn't expect you guys liked riding roller coasters. I'll come along too."
Vodka secretly breathed a sigh of relief, then explained: "Just going up high to check the situation around the transaction location..."
Gin: "..........."
Who told you to invite him?!
But forget it—this could indeed reduce the probability of saying useless things...
Gin forgave Vodka but didn't want to talk to Usuha Izuki, so he could only start walking.
Mute Gin's steps were much larger than before, clearly leaving the two of them behind. Vodka felt bitter but could only deal with Usuha Izuki alone.
Usuha Izuki sighed: "Gin is really rude. He doesn't take me, a fellow executive, seriously at all. Does he think he's already the boss?"
Vodka: "...No, big brother is just..."
Usuha Izuki even comforted him: "It's fine, I won't tell the boss. But mainly, everyone thinks so..."
Vodka felt he understood the subtext and his fists hardened: "Don't spread rumors!"
"What do you mean spread rumors? Doesn't he always not take everyone seriously?" Usuha Izuki sighed and shook his head. "It's just that others aren't as honest as me and won't say this to your faces. Privately, everyone thinks Gin takes himself too seriously. Clearly we're all codename executives, yet he acts as arrogantly as if he'll inherit the organization..."
Vodka's forehead was sweating: "Botanist, did big brother offend you again recently?"
"Hmm—not really, just that he transferred Akemi away from me, and I'm a bit unused to it."
Vodka: "..........."
So it really was because of this!!
The boss also knew doing this would displease Usuha Izuki, which was why he specifically had big brother, who had already been blacklisted by Usuha Izuki, implement this matter... Did he think big brother already had so many debts he wouldn't mind one more?!
"Especially doing this kind of thing without permission while I was abroad." Usuha Izuki said with a smile. "If Vermouth hadn't told me, I'd still be in the dark."
"This, didn't we explain? It was an emergency situation." Vodka wiped his sweat. "It seems there were FBI trying to contact Miyano Akemi again. Letting her stay with you would actually be dangerous for you... Akai Shuichi really isn't human—doesn't he know his cousin would suffer if he did this?"
Usuha Izuki sighed: "Maybe the FBI people acted on their own without telling Akai Shuichi. They're always good at this kind of operation."
Vodka quite agreed with Usuha Izuki on this point: "You're right. The FBI indeed has no integrity—doing this kind of thing secretly is normal. Anyway, this was also for your good. You don't want to suddenly be kidnapped by the FBI someday, right?"
"Hmph."
Usuha Izuki said nothing more, and it seemed this topic could finally pass.
Vodka breathed a sigh of relief.
The queue wasn't particularly long or short. When they walked over, one car was just about to depart.
The people in front had already seated themselves and were focused on chatting. Even when Gin forcibly pushed through others to cut in line, the people ahead didn't notice.
Vodka looked at the last empty seat beside Gin and fell silent.
Uh... if Usuha Izuki wanted to watch the show, he'd probably want this seat, right? But if he voluntarily gave up his seat, big brother would definitely be unhappy...
However, Usuha Izuki looked at the several people already seated in front and suddenly said: "Forget it, just one seat. You guys go play."
He pushed Vodka up, watched the staff lower the safety bar, then walked away without looking back.
Vodka: "...???"
He said confusedly: "Big brother, Botanist seems a bit off."
Gin showed hesitation.
Indeed something was off. At such a good opportunity to watch drama, why would Usuha Izuki leave?! Could it be...
However, because their last two seats had already delayed too much time, before he could say they'd take the next ride, the roller coaster departed.
Vodka's voice was trembling, whether from psychological reasons or the jolting—unclear which.
"Big brother, Botanist is indeed pretty good at reading people. Looking at these mechanical devices wouldn't have much effect, right?"
He didn't see through the roller coaster having some derailment or other accident that would kill everyone on board and so didn't get on, right?!
Gin: "...Don't overthink it. This kind of thing can't be seen."
If you could tell with the naked eye whether equipment would malfunction, there'd be no need for regular maintenance!
"But..."
Vodka's heart was panicking!
But that was Usuha Izuki! Someone with mystical things about him! What if, what if...
The roller coaster rushed into darkness. The various scary illusions projected and the weightlessness brought to Gin and Vodka were nothing compared to the unknown terror Usuha Izuki brought them.
Fortunately, Vodka soon learned why Usuha Izuki had that reaction—no need to be so worried.
The roller coaster burst out of the tunnel.
After enduring unknown fears and returning to light, Vodka opened his eyes to see a headless corpse sitting directly in front of him, spouting blood like a volcanic eruption.
Vodka, who had been silent the whole way: "Ahhhhhhhhh!!!"
Usuha Izuki ahhhhh!!!
So that's why you suddenly changed your mind and ran away! Would it kill you to give me a heads up?!