Chapter 4
“Due to the influence of the typhoon, heavy rain is expected around 6 pm today. A lightning warning has been issued for the Koto Ward. Residents are advised to pay attention to their personal safety…”
The radio host’s voice was calm. Asuka Kazuya, pretending to play games, glanced at the information on his phone and deleted it a few seconds later.
“Why do I feel a chill down my spine? Is someone cursing me?” After the car stopped, Asuka Kazuya put away his phone and got out of the car, expressionless, carrying his luggage.
“It would be strange if no one was cursing you.”
Retorting to Asuka Kazuya had almost become Bourbon’s subconscious habit. He glanced at him sideways, suspecting that the traffic police suddenly checking their car had something to do with this person.
The safe house door opened automatically after verifying fingerprints. Scotch and Rye were both snipers, and they each carried a violin case to disguise their rifles—
Such a disguise, coupled with their attire, was very conspicuous, but for some reason, the police who checked the trunk weren’t interested.
Asuka Kazuya had even been prepared to yell that he was just an innocent passenger taking a ride-sharing service.
“…Why aren’t you guys going in?”
Too lazy to argue with Bourbon, Asuka Kazuya rolled his eyes and then noticed something was wrong.
The safe house door was still open, but everyone was pretending to be busy—like Scotch, who had checked three times to see if the car was locked.
“Aha!” Asuka Kazuya realized. “Don’t tell me you think there’s a trap and want me to go in and test the waters? Scotch, where’s your conscience?”
Scotch, who was called out, was baffled. He was silent for a moment, then remembered that he was supposed to be a character without a conscience.
“Calvados,” he said, “we’ve never been here before. You gave us the address.”
Just because he gave the address, he had to be responsible for everything? Since when did criminal organizations implement a place-based responsibility system?
Asuka Kazuya was expressionless: “I haven’t been here either—how about we each put in one foot for fairness’ sake?”
Bourbon narrowed his eyes, not believing a word: “If you haven’t been here, who gave you the address?”
“How dare you!” Asuka Kazuya retorted righteously. “Of course, Big Brother Gin gave it to me. He even scolded me when I asked him to repeat it because I didn’t remember it the first time. Hateful Bourbon, are you an undercover agent? How dare you question my Big Brother!”
Undercover Whiskey Trio: “…”
“Well, isn’t that perfect?” Bourbon, realizing what was happening, smiled, instantly changing his strategy to prevent this guy from actually catching him. “This is a good opportunity to prove your trust in Gin, Calvados. You don’t think your Big Brother wants to harm you, do you?”
“…”
“Oh, the way you put it.”
Asuka Kazuya didn’t fall for it, letting out a couple of insincere laughs.
“Big Brother Gin gives me one bullet in the morning, two in the afternoon. When does he not harm me?”
Bourbon: “…”
Bourbon: Is your brain okay? You admit it so cheerfully 🙂
The two of them bickered at the door. Scotch sighed, about to stop them, when he saw Rye walk in first.
His back was swaggering and cool, not forgetting to pause and turn around to ask the stunned Asuka Kazuya, “Did Gin tell you where the armory is?”
Asuka Kazuya blinked, instantly feeling that Rye was unusual. Not only was his style refreshingly handsome, but upon closer inspection, he looked a bit like Gin, who loved to shoot him.
Top-tier jungler mindset—
Feint, take other people’s resources, use others to set yourself off.
Bourbon was expressionless, inexplicably feeling provoked.
“Calvados,” he reminded, “If you switch affections, I’ll tell Gin about this.”
Asuka Kazuya: ?
Asuka Kazuya: ??
He opened his mouth, seemingly wanting to say something, but perhaps because the other’s expression was too unpleasant, Asuka Kazuya looked away and swallowed his words.
Truly evil, Bourbon was indeed a criminal handpicked by Vermouth.
Asuka Kazuya didn’t speak, secretly making a mental note, further strengthening his resolve to annoy all the criminals in the organization to death.
Unlike Bourbon and Scotch, the seemingly impassive Rye actually knew the most about Asuka Kazuya.
As for why, it was probably because Calvados and Miyano Akemi had a good relationship.
Of course, Miyano Akemi, a peripheral member of the organization, wasn’t allowed to reveal anything about Calvados. The reason Rye knew was simply because he had looked at the emails on her phone.
There was a lot of easily overlooked information in Calvados’s emails, but as an FBI agent, Rye could tell that they were sentences that required special methods to decipher.
Rye relayed this information to other FBI members still in Japan, and just yesterday, he received a call from Jodie at a phone booth.
—Miyano Akemi might have betrayed the organization.
Although this was just speculation, they didn’t have any actual evidence. The FBI had no clue how to crack those emails, but Miyano Akemi had recently been in close contact with an organization of unknown origin.
Thinking of this, Rye, who had already formulated a plan, leaned against the door, quietly watching Calvados enter the password and retrieve the forged ID documents prepared by the organization from the safe.
“Akemi asked me to keep an eye on you.”
He didn’t know until he said it, and he was shocked when he did.
Asuka Kazuya turned his head suspiciously, glancing at Rye leaning against the doorframe, then recalling that Miyano Akemi had mentioned having a boyfriend before.
Rye… Rye? Oh, so it was Rye!
Asuka Kazuya suddenly realized. He didn’t immediately classify Rye as one of his own, but his attitude did improve considerably.
“How did a cold person like you get to know Akemi-nee?”
Rye was silent, not really thinking of himself as cold.
“I should be the one asking that question.” Rye straightened up, calmly posing a question to Calvados. “Why would a prospective executive of the organization be interested in Akemi?”
“Akemi-nee is also a member of the organization.” Asuka Kazuya put the ID in his pocket and stood up, supporting himself on his knees. “It was about a year ago? Sherry might have been going through a rebellious phase, so to prevent her from running away, Big Brother Gin asked me to keep an eye on Akemi-nee for a while.”
The results of the investigation were obvious. Miyano Akemi was only willing to work for the organization for her sister’s safety, hoping that one day she and her sister could leave the organization.
Asuka Kazuya felt this was a good entry point.
Sherry’s abilities were highly sought after even in the Special Abilities Division. If he could become friends with Akemi, maybe one day when they left the organization, they would choose to join the Special Abilities Division’s protection program.
And after he reported this matter to the executive officer, the Special Abilities Division officially made contact with Miyano Akemi.
Despicable? Of course. Although the Special Abilities Division was nominally a government agency, Asuka Kazuya didn’t consider himself a good person.
“But don’t worry, I didn’t do anything to Akemi-nee.” Asuka Kazuya waved his hand, nonchalantly walking past Rye. “I even learned some cooking from Akemi-nee for a while. Although every time I said I wanted to show Big Brother Gin my cooking skills, he would threaten me, saying if he wasn’t being too patient with me.”
He paused for a second, staring at the ceiling thoughtfully, then suddenly backed up and asked in a low voice.
“By the way, why is your relationship with Bourbon so bad?”
Rye pondered the purpose of this question for a few seconds, but Calvados’s green eyes blinked, filled with nothing but curiosity.
Then Rye understood.
—This guy was just gossiping.
“I don’t know.” Rye glanced at the figure behind the wall in the distance, answering sincerely. “Have you ever seen Bourbon being nice to anyone?”
Asuka Kazuya: “…”
Seemed reasonable.
“Maybe he’s discriminated against because he looks like a foreigner.” Asuka Kazuya nodded, walking out as he spoke. “Childhood trauma can cause aggressive behavior in adulthood. Bourbon might have been a serial killer before joining the organization.”
Insinuating things about someone right in front of them.
Bourbon knew Calvados had spotted him long ago, but he still stood there, watching him approach, then exaggeratedly acting surprised. “Whoa! Why are you eavesdropping here?!”
Playing along, Bourbon scoffed: “You watch too much useless TV.”
Asuka Kazuya: “Where did I watch TV? I only read properly published books, okay?”
“Oh.” Bourbon narrowed his eyes. “What books do you read?”
Asuka Kazuya looked innocent.
“FBI—”
Rye, an undercover FBI investigator, felt a chill down his spine.
“—Criminal Psychology.”
Rye: “…”
Bourbon: “…”
There were many points worth pondering in this sentence, but it was Scotch, who was detached from the situation, who interrupted.
“Enough,” he said. “Calvados, we should be making plans now.”
Asuka Kazuya glanced at Rye, feigning profoundness: “It’s okay, just keep driving west.”
Scotch felt there was a trap in that statement.
The baffling thing about Calvados was that you knew there was a trap, but you still had to jump in.
So Scotch took a deep breath.
“Alright,” he said. “Is Matsumoto Yamato currently in the west? A cautious person like him should have changed his appearance. If we only rely on searching…”
“Wait, wait, wait.”
Scotch said too much at once, so Asuka Kazuya made a “STOP” gesture.
“I didn’t say Matsumoto Yamato was in the west, just that the Port Mafia went west.”
Scotch: “…”
Scotch: “And then?”
Asuka Kazuya: “We’ll wait for them to find Matsumoto, and then we’ll act first, wouldn’t that be better?”
After he finished speaking, he put on a reproachful “how do you not even know this” expression.
“Calvados.” Bourbon interrupted him sharply. “Weren’t you just afraid of running into the Port Mafia?”
“Who said I was afraid? I just find it troublesome.”
Besides, Asuka Kazuya suddenly thought, if the Port Mafia eliminated these people, Gin wouldn’t be able to blame him, right?
Moreover, he had secretly used his ability quite a few times recently while on missions with Gin, and his luck had been very good.
Thinking of this, Asuka Kazuya pointed to his earpiece.
The voices of the Black Lizard discussing the mission came from it, occasionally punctuated by screams.
“In this day and age, exchanging undercover agents is how mafias express their respect for each other.”
Asuka Kazuya shook his head, pretending to be mysterious.
“So, little Bourbon, you’re still too young, aren’t you?”
Bourbon—no, it should be Amuro Tooru, the Japanese Public Security agent.
He was expressionless, wishing there was something in this world that could grant wishes.
If he could travel back to Calvados’s childhood, he would put Calvados over his knee and spank him, letting Calvados experience what adult discipline was like.
After so long on this mission, Amuro Tooru had finally been reduced to comforting himself with his imagination.
The top graduate of the police academy, who slept at 3 am and woke up at 5 am, looked away, finally letting out a sarcastic laugh under Asuka Kazuya’s questioning gaze.
“Heh.”
