Chapter 244
The root cause of the communication problems between both sides was naturally Usuha Izuki himself.
What Usuha Izuki told Miyano Akemi was to find a way to trick Gin into silencing her, and leave the rest to him.
Honestly, Miyano Akemi felt very uneasy, but thinking that if Usuha Izuki wanted to kill her, he wouldn't need to go through so much trouble, she cooperated.
As for what exactly Usuha Izuki's "leave the rest to him" part entailed, she knew nothing. Only when she received the bulletproof vest did she confirm that Usuha Izuki hadn't forgotten about this matter.
From Usuha Izuki's perspective, he actually didn't do much either. He just waited until Miyano Akemi's side was on track, then found an opportunity to call Scotland.
When Scotland first answered the phone, he was a bit confused: "Hah? You want me to help you clean... Botanist, did you forget that I'm no longer your partner?"
"I know, but Gin wants to kill Miyano Akemi. I have no one here, and I don't want strangers coming to clean..."
Scotland: "...???"
Scotland, who had originally thought this was another episode of Usuha Izuki going crazy and looking for trouble out of boredom, had already prepared how to brush him off. But upon hearing the keywords and discovering that his friend's first love's daughter was about to be killed by Gin, he immediately changed his mind.
"Why does Gin want to kill your housekeeper?"
While he asked this, Scotland actually had some idea why. After all, due to his childhood friend connection, he'd been paying relatively close attention to Miyano Akemi's situation. In short, she was implicated by the FBI again.
It's just that Scotland's relationship with Miyano Akemi was only so-so, so it wasn't appropriate for him to inquire everywhere. Thus his related intelligence was both slow and sparse. But he also knew that with Gin's personality, having murderous intent wasn't impossible. Fortunately, Usuha Izuki had called him, otherwise he might not have heard anything even after she died.
Usuha Izuki gritted his teeth resentfully: "Isn't it all because of that FBI! Even after running away, they can't stay quiet! Still implicating my housekeeper! Gin is really useless. Didn't he already go to America last year to kill Akai Shuichi? He actually came back dejected without even causing the slightest scratch. Anyone who saw that would say Gin was going easy on the FBI!"
Scotland: "...Yes."
"Anyway, that's how it is. Are you free recently?"
Scotland pondered for a moment and began fishing for information: "When is Gin planning to kill her? Is Miyano Akemi completely unable to spare any time to clean for you today?"
Usuha Izuki replied: "He'll kill her tomorrow. I can't very well tell Miyano Akemi that Gin is deceiving you, he never intended to let you go, so clean for me today and I'll send you off tomorrow, can I? Akemi and I have such a good relationship!"
Scotland couldn't help but complain: "If your relationship is so good, won't you even warn her?"
"I'm different from you undercover agents. Since it's the boss's order, I naturally have to obey it."
Scotland: "............"
If this had been Scotland when he first entered the organization, his heart rate would probably be at 120 by now. But now, he had evolved. He was Nirvana Scotland, and hearing these words left his heart unmoved.
After all these years, Scotland and Bourbon had actually been able to confirm that Usuha Izuki had long known about their undercover identities.
It's just that for unknown reasons—whether out of malicious amusement, respect for his foster father, or worry that if they were exposed, they might in turn reveal Akai's undercover identity and affect his enjoyment in the organization—he hadn't produced evidence to expose them.
So they also pretended not to know that Usuha Izuki was the undercover agent's foster son, maintaining this balance.
The consequence of doing this was that they couldn't determine Usuha Izuki's true stance.
If you said he stood with justice... Usuha Izuki had helped the organization drive away the FBI's undercover agent, and upon seeing they were undercover agents, he very directly reported them as Public Security undercover agents.
But if you said he stood with the organization... Usuha Izuki never provided evidence when identifying undercover agents, saying it was based on intuition when asked, and he didn't do any real work, idling around. If there was a final reckoning, he had committed fewer crimes than these undercover agents.
Bourbon and Scotland had discussed it and felt that Usuha Izuki seemed to approach the organization with an attitude of just getting by on the surface. Since he was in HR, if he recognized undercover agents, he naturally had to report it. Whether they believed it was their business.
But if it affected his mood, then his main approach was disliking whatever he saw, whether it was for love or justice—everyone could get lost.
In other words, if they tried to threaten Usuha Izuki with "you're an undercover agent's foster son, you must stand with us," their undercover careers would probably end.
Usuha Izuki's completely willful approach, ignoring right and wrong and only caring about his own comfort, occasionally revealing some incomprehensible logic that might be real or an act—this attitude was truly mentally ill, making the story about falling off a tank and hitting his head quite believable.
To the point where Scotland didn't know whether Usuha Izuki's current call was really asking him to help clean, or deliberately leaking intelligence...
Uh, it probably wasn't leaking intelligence, right? After all, on the surface, he really had no relationship with Miyano Akemi. It wouldn't be worth saving someone just because he knew them. If he was soft-hearted to that extent, what kind of undercover agent would he be?
As for discovering the relationship between him and Bourbon, and knowing about Bourbon's concern for Miyano Akemi... that was even more impossible.
So it was probably just casual complaining.
"Does it have to be today?" Scotland sighed. For the sake of his senior, he still wanted to look after the little lunatic. "I'm not in Tokyo right now. I could pass by Tokyo Port tomorrow though."
Although Gin still hadn't told Chianti the mission content and location, this didn't stump Usuha Izuki.
When Miyano Akemi and Gin had already arranged a meeting place, he had already located it through "Universal Navigation."
"Oh, then tomorrow it is. If you're lucky, you might just see Gin killing someone at the port warehouse."
Scotland: "............"
After agreeing to go clean at Usuha Izuki's house tomorrow and also make tempura, Scotland immediately contacted Bourbon and relayed his new intelligence.
Bourbon: "...??? Isn't this basically confirming the time and place?"
Although Usuha Izuki had given a vague timeframe of "tomorrow," starting surveillance from midnight wouldn't miss anything.
Such important intelligence was easily obtained just because Miyano Akemi couldn't clean for Usuha Izuki. Bourbon found it surreal no matter how he thought about it.
"Isn't that guy deliberately telling you?" Bourbon suspected.
"...If he doesn't know about your attention to Miss Miyano, then it probably wasn't deliberate..."
Bourbon nervously recalled: "...I think I met with Akemi in front of him. Did I expose anything then?"
Scotland was helpless: "I don't know. His ability to read people... is completely unreasonable."
Both fell silent for a while.
"Well, if he didn't notice, it was just casual talk. If he did notice and deliberately told you this... does he want me to save Akemi?"
After many years, Bourbon had to start trying to figure out Usuha Izuki's thoughts again. He felt a bit rusty and couldn't quite grasp the mental patient's thought process.
Scotland's personality was originally quite tolerant. For the sake of his senior's foster son, as long as it didn't involve matters of principle, he generally didn't hold grudges against Usuha Izuki. At this moment, he couldn't help but start thinking positively: "This child really isn't bad at heart. Maybe he's on our side..."
"I think you're overthinking it." Bourbon cruelly shattered Scotland's fantasy. "First, him deliberately leaking intelligence is just our speculation. Most likely he's simply explaining why he wants you to be his housekeeper. Second... saying he wants Akemi to live to spite Gin, or the organization recently did something he found displeasing so he wants to find fault... even saying he lacks maternal love and doesn't want to see familiar women die would all be more reliable than your guess."
Scotland: "............"
"Anyway, I'll arrange things on this end. After all, she's an executive's older sister, so there's some justification for mobilizing Public Security personnel." Bourbon almost wanted to thank Sherry. Otherwise, with just an ordinary identity—at most being an executive's housekeeper—it would be hard to use Public Security forces to save someone.
With just himself, he might be exposed.
Fortunately, there was Sherry as an executive. He could tell his superiors that after rescuing her, she could be used as capital to make contact with Sherry.
If Gin was going to act tomorrow, he needed to move quickly... Usuha Izuki definitely wasn't that kind-hearted. If he was really kind, couldn't he have said something a few days earlier?! Only half a day left was too tight!
Meanwhile, Scotland, as agreed, came to cook and clean for Usuha Izuki that day.
When Usuha Izuki opened the door for him, his smile was extremely bright and infectious.
If he hadn't still been worried about Miyano Akemi and Bourbon's situation, Scotland would have almost smiled along. But out of curiosity, he still asked casually: "Did something good happen?"
"Ah, I guess it's good news. Chianti just called and said it's done."
Scotland: "...What's done?"
Usuha Izuki's light green eyes, reminiscent of spring, sparkled with obvious happiness. His tone was satisfied, his expression carrying a childlike innocent cruelty.
"I had her act before Gin, making Gin disgusted for at least a week. Chianti succeeded!"
Scotland: "............"
His heart sank.