Soaked chicken and wound

"Cough cough—"

In the darkness, the cacophony seemed amplified several times over, with screams, curses, and accusations erupting incessantly. The glamorous banquet was now a chaotic mess, and the pitch-black environment seemed to offer some kind of convenience.

Tsurumi Kagawa propped himself up on the floor, his palms resting on cold tiles and shards of glass mixed with champagne. He was soaking wet and reeked of champagne, as if he had just been pulled out of a barrel of it.

But it doesn't matter now. A whole champagne tower is tilted over him, and the pale amber liquor is poured over his head and body. Tsurumi Kawakami, who is not particularly fond of alcohol, is like a cat that has gotten wet, shaking his hands and his wet hair, and sneezing incessantly.

The sudden darkness caught most people off guard, including Gin. He quickly slipped under the table and reached into a hidden pocket in his coat. Once his eyes adjusted and he could hear the other sounds in the hall, Gin glanced at the unfortunate Tsurumi Ryu, who was sitting on the floor a meter away. He then narrowed his eyes; there was no metallic smell of blood in the air.

Vogart, with his muscular build, was surprisingly agile. He appeared out of nowhere and whispered, "Brother, we've checked it. It seems like an accident."

But no one believed it was an accident. Gin turned his gaze away from Tsurumi Nagare and gestured for Vodka to help him up, while also checking the condition of the floor.

Gin didn't miss the fact that Tsurumi Kawakami had accidentally slipped and bumped into the champagne tower.

Tsurumi Kawakami tossed his hair, splashing the cold liquid onto Vodka's face and sunglasses. Vodka gritted his teeth in anger, ripped off his sunglasses and stuffed them into his coat pocket, then grabbed Tsurumi Kawakami's wet arm and pulled him up.

The broken glass got all over Tsurumi Kawakami along with the alcohol, covering his hair, neck, arms, and clothes. Vodka didn't notice and got a shard of glass stuck in his palm.

Vodka released his grip, glanced at the glass, removed the shards, wiped the blood with a tissue, then wrapped it up and put it back in his pocket. He never dared to be careless with things that could expose a organism's genetic material, and Gin had warned him about it many times.

Vodka: "Are you hurt?"

Tsurumi Kawakami was still sneezing, as if he was allergic to champagne. He wiped his face and shook his head: "No."

Vodka was somewhat surprised. He quickly checked the ground where he had slipped. The liquor was spilled everywhere. He wiped it up, smelled it, and then his expression changed.

Vodka brought Tsurumi Ryu back to Gin's side, and said with a grim expression, "Brother, there's oil on the ground."

The slip was not an accident, and whether it was a setup or not, tonight's banquet is anything but simple.

Gin glanced up at the still noisy banquet hall in the darkness and made a decisive decision: "Withdraw."

They retreated from the banquet hall in the dark. There were no lights in the corridor outside, only the escape route signs emitting a bright green glow. Tsurumi followed Gin and Vodka down the stairs to the ninth floor. The bright lights dispelled the darkness behind them, indicating that only the tenth floor was without power.

The hotel staff on the ninth floor seemed unaware of the power outage upstairs, remaining calm and smiling as they greeted guests coming and going. Tsurumi Kawakami followed behind Gin, and before attracting attention, they quickly left the hotel.

Meanwhile, on the rooftop of a building opposite the hotel, Rae had already noticed the power outage through a magnifying glass. Seeing the hotel suddenly plunged into darkness, Rae thought for a moment and took the initiative to contact Gin.

After leaving the hotel, the cool night breeze made Tsurumi Kawaru sneeze. He was not only soaking wet, but also smelled strongly of champagne from head to toe.

Feeling sticky and chilly all over, Tsurumi rubbed his nose and stopped, calling out to Gin: "Gin, where are we going next?"

Gin glanced at Suz, who looked like a drowned rat, and snorted. Just as he was about to speak, he received a call from Ray. He gestured to Vodka, then walked to the car to answer the phone.

Tsurumi Kawakami rubbed his arm, then looked at Vodka with a puzzled expression: "

Vodka raised his hand and pressed down on his black top hat. His muscular physique and all-black attire gave off an intimidating aura. He walked straight up to Tsurumi Kawa and said in a gruff voice, "Come on, my brother told me to take you to change your clothes."

Tsurumi Kawa looked back at Gin with some surprise, then followed Vodka away.

Gin opened the car door and got in, holding his phone in one hand and fiddling with the lighter in the other.

"GIN, what's going on?" As soon as the call connected, Lai's slightly distorted voice came from the other end.

Gin narrowed his eyes, his voice cold and displeased as he said, "Ray, are you questioning me?"

Gin was already somewhat dissatisfied because Rum had temporarily assigned him the task of contacting Onogawa. Now, he was in a bad mood because the assassination mission was forced to retreat due to an unexpected situation. At this moment, Ray, who was carrying out the mission, actually called to question him. All these dissatisfactions came together and completely triggered Gin.

"No, I just want to know what exactly happened inside the hotel. If it alerts the target and prevents us from completing the mission, I don't think this matter will be so easily forgotten."

"You'd better think of it this way. The plans have changed, and there are other people at this party." After saying this, Gin hung up the phone, lit a cigarette with a lighter, and stared coldly at the hotel entrance.

After changing his clothes, Tsurumi Kawaru got into the car and immediately clung to the back of the seat in front of him, peering at Gin: "Are we going to a hotel again later?"

Vodka wanted to ask too, but as soon as he got in the car, he sensed that his older brother Gin was not in a good mood, so he kept his mouth shut and didn't dare to say anything, for fear of offending Gin.

Now, seeing Tsurumi Kawaru step forward to stroke Gin's beard, he felt a surge of admiration and respect for this newcomer. He gripped the steering wheel and listened intently to the movements of his older brother, Gin, beside him.

Gin didn't even need to look to know what those two were thinking, especially Tsurumi Kawaru, whose emotions were always written all over his face. So, Gin kept a cold expression and gave the order without any explanation.

"Vodka, drive back to the organization."

"Okay, big brother."

Upon receiving the order, Vodka immediately started the car, turned around, and drove towards the organization.

Tsurumi Kawa was somewhat surprised and was about to speak when Vodka coughed heavily, interrupting him, and then glanced at him through the rearview mirror.

My brother already said to go back, how can you be so insensitive, still asking so many questions?

Tsurumi Kawaru opened his mouth, but ultimately kept it closed. He sat back down, looking out the window. He had wanted to ask Rae about it, but after thinking about it, he decided against it.

He hadn't seen Ray since the last time they met because of the Scotland incident. Of the three, he and Amuro Tooru were in the same group. Although they didn't see each other during missions, they still had reasons to go and see each other.

But Lei is different.

After thinking for a moment, Tsurumi Nagare decided to ask Amuro Tooru about Rai's recent situation when he returned to the organization.

-

On the other side, Ray looked at the phone that had been hung up with a somewhat unpleasant expression. He put away his phone with an ambiguous look, glanced at the sniper rifle propped up on the ground, and then quickly disassembled it and put it into the guitar bag next to him.

A short while later, Lai, wearing a knitted hat and carrying a guitar bag, appeared on the street like an ordinary young man involved in underground music.

The mission failed, and it's no longer realistic to assassinate the target today, but Ray still wants to know what happened inside the hotel.

He stood outside a dessert shop across from the hotel, seemingly waiting for someone, his gaze occasionally drifting towards the hotel entrance. After about ten minutes, several ladies and gentlemen in formal attire emerged, each accompanied by bodyguards.

If such an incident were merely a power outage, it might only damage the reputation of the banquet hosts, and the subsequent solution would likely involve holding the hotel accountable, which is something that can be remedied.

However, if it's not just a power outage and something else happened at the banquet, then the safety of all the guests attending the banquet becomes a concern.

Not only the hotel, but even the banquet host cannot bear this responsibility. In particular, the hotel dares not take responsibility for any accidents that happen to guests at the hotel, so they will only provide 100% service and send bodyguards to escort guests to safety.

In just a few minutes, Lai deduced what had happened inside the hotel from the events there. He glanced at the heavily guarded target and finally turned to leave.

-

After returning to the accommodation arranged by the organization, Tsurumi Kawaru really wanted to go find Amuro Tooru and tell him what had happened that day, but remembering Amuro Tooru's words of advice before they left their last meeting, he could only suppress the thought and decided to go tomorrow.

After delivering the Suz wine, Vodka followed his older brother Gin to the safe house. After entering, Gin checked the layout of the safe house as usual, and then relaxed a little and sat on the sofa.

He glanced at the vodka standing in front of him and suddenly asked a seemingly unrelated question: "When you took Suz to change his clothes, did you notice any wounds on his body?"

Vodka paused for a second before reacting, then shook his head after a moment's thought: "Brother, I didn't notice anything. What's wrong? Is there something wrong with that kid?"

Gin narrowed his eyes upon hearing this answer. He lit a cigarette, took a puff, and a dark glint flashed in his dark green eyes amidst the swirling smoke.

"Interesting," he said with a sneer.

Vodka was a little confused, but seeing his older brother's cold smile, he shut his mouth and didn't ask any more questions. As long as he listened to his older brother, that was all that mattered to him; the rest was not his concern.

After Gin finished his cold laugh, he glanced up at him and then instructed, "You'd better pay more attention to Suzju from now on."

Vodka immediately straightened up and nodded in response.

Meanwhile, Tsurumi Kawakami, unaware that Gin had his eye on him, was having a sweet dream.

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