Chapter 155 Fifty-Eight Weeks (3)

Seeing Shuichi Akai annoys Rei Furuya.

I'm annoyed by his black clothes, his long black hair, his cold, sour face, his indifferent green eyes like Gin's, his old-fashioned knitted hat, his pungent smell of smoke, and everything about him.

Now there's another reason to be annoyed by him: the love story between Shuichi Akai and Akemi Miyano is definitely an important part of the game's main storyline.

Therefore, when he first tried to stop Shuichi Akai from meeting Akemi Miyano, he was in so much pain that he almost died suddenly.

Thinking of this, Furuya Rei paused in his turn, then suddenly turned back to look at Akai Shuichi, his gaze even sharper.

Shuichi Akai looked up: "?"

He saw the blond youth give a strange look, then sneer and turn away.

Akai Shuichi: "..."

What did he do to offend Bourbon this time?

Rei Furuya walked toward Gin and Vodka with a dark expression.

He thought, no wonder Shuichi Akai is so highly regarded by the world, because that guy has two girlfriends who are also closely connected to the main mystery plot!

Those two love lines involving that bastard FBI agent are indeed quite convoluted and interesting, and could easily be considered important romantic storylines in the game.

Ha, what a scumbag.

He absolutely had to keep Mingmei away from this guy! He had to separate them this time too!

Whether emotionally or physically, Shuichi Akai will not allow himself to hurt any of his childhood friends this time!!!

Shuichi Akai stopped in his tracks after being glared at fiercely by Bourbon for the third time.

He fell into deep thought.

Or should we just call it a day?

Anyway, Bourbon seems to be fine, lively and energetic, and safe. Let's leave the intelligence gathering for another time when he's in a better mood.

Otherwise, he always feels that if he goes now or in the past, he will be targeted by Bourbon, who is inexplicably even angrier. Going there now would definitely be asking for a scolding. Let Gin enjoy Bourbon's sharp tongue.

Shuichi Akai ultimately did not participate in the mission with Bourbon, Gin, and Vodka. Gin did not ask him why he suddenly wanted to join and then leave. Vodka mentioned it in a silly way, and Bourbon immediately made sarcastic remarks about it.

Of course, the one who got the most criticism was Lai.

After Shuichi Akai left, he also thought about it from Rae's perspective: why Bourbon disliked him even more than before after only three days apart.

To others, it might seem the same, but Shuichi Akai's intuition told him that Bourbon truly, truly hated him now, and there was no possibility of reconciliation even though they were both undercover partners.

It's not that I didn't really hate it before, it's just...

Shuichi Akai tapped his fingers lightly on the steering wheel, his eyes slightly lowered.

The feeling right now is as if he took something very, very important from Bourbon.

No, it doesn't seem to have reached that point yet? My current feeling is... that I've hurt someone very, very important to Bourbon?

It wasn't like this before.

What happened during the three days that Bourbon was taken away from Scotland?

Is it related to Scotland?

Shuichi Akai frowned in thought.

Or is it related to cherry blossoms?

If I were to speculate a bit, the time he and Scotland tricked Bourbon, he discovered that Bourbon and Sakura actually had a good relationship, and that Bourbon might be an undercover police officer.

He wasn't the only one who discovered this; Scotland did too.

Then Scotland used Bourbon's undercover identity and the cherry blossom incident as leverage to threaten Bourbon.

Now Scotland has successfully become a favorite of the organization's boss, serving as the head of the intelligence team and gaining considerable power and status.

Did he discover Sakura's true identity and harm her while threatening Bourbon, who is a very important person to Bourbon?

This is the only possibility that Shuichi Akai can think of right now.

The man with long black hair and pale skin extinguished his cigarette, sighed silently, and took out his phone to ask someone to check on Sakura's recent situation.

He rarely wished that his reasoning would be wrong.

*

Three months later.

Scotland and Bourbon, entangled in their own affairs, surprisingly remained quiet and didn't actively undertake any missions except for dealing with matters related to Rum.

Rye seized the opportunity to perform well and rose through the ranks like a rocket, quickly gaining the position and intelligence he desired, but it seems that was all he achieved.

Shuichi Akai plans to try for another three months at most. If he finds that he cannot go any further into the organization, he will leave the organization and return to the FBI to continue searching for news of his father through other channels.

Because he was busy with his promotion and intelligence gathering, Shuichi Akai temporarily put aside the matter of the Bourbon cherry blossoms in Scotland. Now that he has finished his work, he finally remembered their matter and, while urging the FBI for intelligence, he also checked the intelligence online.

He mainly went to the programmer and hacker circles to gather information. He didn't find anything about Sakura, but he saw many people discussing a genius boy who died young.

His name is... Hiroki Sawada?

He should really be called a child, even though he is only 10 years old. Despite his great talent, he was exploited by capital and driven to suicide.

Shuichi Akai wasn't interested; he glanced at it briefly and, finding it unrelated to cherry blossoms, skipped over it.

Sakura has been relatively inactive lately, and the few times she has acted have been rather strange, though no one can quite put their finger on why, and it's difficult to find anyone who knows the details.

A few days later, the FBI sent Shuichi Akai information about the super hacker Sakura.

Although most people didn't notice anything amiss, the FBI came to a different conclusion.

It seems the cherry blossoms have changed hands.

Shuichi Akai's expression hardened slightly, and his body stiffened a little.

After quickly reviewing all the information, he leaned back in his chair and took out a cigarette.

The match crackled and sparked in the dim, quiet room, igniting a cigarette whose red glow flickered in the darkness.

According to intelligence, the first time they noticed something was wrong was two months ago during the New Year period. As usual, Sakura discovered the darkness and began to fight against evil, but almost crashed and burned due to a mistake.

That mistake was really unacceptable for Sakura. Although it was indeed dangerous and difficult, it was not a problem at all for a super hacker like Sakura who is one of the best in the world.

At this point, most people just thought that Sakura was deliberately playing a trick on them, since the follow-up was perfect and nothing really happened.

However, several similar incidents occurred later, which made the FBI, which was used to controlling the entire world situation, feel a little strange.

After that, Sakura didn't make any more mistakes, but his methods and style changed a bit.

How to put it? It gives the impression of a highly talented new hacker who has grown at an astonishing speed.

But that's impossible. Without such a talented newcomer, how could there be such a terrifying newcomer?

If that's really the case, then how far can the other person grow?

So it's probably just that cherry blossoms are coming up with some new tricks.

If Shuichi Akai hadn't warned them beforehand that Sakura might be in danger, prompting the FBI to keep a close eye on the investigation... without that premise, the FBI probably wouldn't have even considered this possibility.

But there are no "what ifs".

Shuichi Akai pushed back his chair, opened the door, and walked onto the balcony.

The cold night wind tousled his long black hair and the white smoke from his cigarette. He simply stared expressionlessly at the distant city skyline, took a deep drag of his cigarette, and slowly exhaled.

The cherry blossoms have changed.

This is the second generation of cherry blossoms.

So where did the first generation of cherry blossoms go?

Was he dead or injured?

Was it made in Scotland?

Because of Bourbon?

Is there something special about the relationship between Bourbon and cherry blossoms?

That's why Bourbon directed his hatred at Rye, who had previously helped Scotland.

Or is it that the cherry blossoms are just playing some kind of game?

After all, if it's true, then the second-generation Sakura would be an incredibly terrifying genius hacker, and she would also inherit the same chuunibyou (delusional) ideals as the first-generation Sakura, clearly a young brat.

However, if it's their kind of adolescent delusions, they might actually be able to change the world in the end.

If they can live on.

*

The day before his defection, Shuichi Akai learned something that shocked him immensely.

Not only Miyano Akemi, but Bourbon also knew his true identity long ago.

However, even though Bourbon hated him so much, he never exposed him, much less used it to threaten him.

Bourbon seems to really be an undercover agent.

So, cherry blossoms...

On the day of his defection, Shuichi Akai thought it over and over again, and finally sent a message to Bourbon.

I'm very sorry about what happened to him.