Chapter 96, how about it? I told you I'd support you, right...?

One sentence made Bourbon target me for a whole year. I angered Bourbon and challenged him. You should try it too.

For a whole year, ever since Rye stepped into the safe house and said those presumptuous words to Bourbon, Bourbon's "special attention" had been a constant companion.

Are any minor mistakes during a mission deliberately provoked and magnified? Shuichi Akai: It's commonplace.

Are you always assigned the most dangerous and tricky parts when working on joint missions? Shuichi Akai: It's just part of the job.

When reporting to superiors, he was "objectively" told that he was "highly capable but his teamwork skills need improvement"? Shuichi Akai: Of course.

Bourbon, with his superb intelligence skills and the connections he cultivated within the organization, meticulously planned this attack on the packaging. While seemingly a business transaction, it was in fact a series of obstructive tactics. The sheer duration, patience, and innovative methods he employed even impressed FBI ace Shuichi Akai.

He even suspected that Bourbon had included "making things difficult for Ray" in his daily to-do list, or used it as a way to relieve stress!

Could it be that Bourbon was inspired by his composure, calmness, efficiency, and occasional ability to turn the tables on others, no matter how he was targeted?

Bourbon's "special attention" only came to an end a year later when they left Paris and their interactions dwindled.

Bourbon: Regret.

Ray: ...

The FBI ace, who had been relentlessly targeted and forced to grow weary, remarked sincerely: "Bourbon has quite the temper."

Rei Furuya, who is trying to find an opportunity to eliminate the organization's rising criminal star, is a troublesome character.

...

The events take place after Bourbon's unpleasant first encounter with Ray, and before Bourbon's year-long "special attention" to Ray begins. Morofushi Kagemitsu and Nekono Ikuya find an opportunity to meet privately in a safe and secluded place.

As Nekono Ikuya listened to Morofushi Kagemitsu recount the legendary "I have a girlfriend," he couldn't help but slap the table and laugh: "Hahaha, really? Rai really said that to Zero?"

Morofushi Kagemitsu affirmed, a slightly amused expression on his face: "Yes, Rai really said that."

It's hard to believe, considering how cold and aloof Ray would say something like that. It's unimaginable. However, Zero did observe Ray's eyes for quite a while, so it's not impossible that Ray misunderstood.

“Oh my god…” Nekono Ikuya laughed until tears almost streamed down his face. He could almost picture Furuya Rei’s dark expression at that moment: “Rei must have been furious, with his temper…”

Morofushi Kagemitsu nodded vigorously in deep agreement, his tone revealing his profound understanding of Furuya Rei: "He was more than just furious; I felt like the air around him could explode if you lit a fire."

He paused, his tone tinged with sympathy for the foreseeable turmoil in Lai's life: "I bet Lai won't have a peaceful day ahead of him. Zero... he definitely won't let Lai off easily."

Nekono Ikuya stopped laughing: "There's no need to bet on this, right? We'll definitely get targeted! Rei can be quite temperamental sometimes."

She's the type who favors men. Her love can sometimes feel heavy, and her other emotions aren't light either.

Nekono Ikuya's eyes crinkled into a smile, but he really liked it.

After laughing and predicting Lei's tragic future (Lei: ..., Lei: Is anyone going to speak up for me?), Morofushi Kagemitsu's expression became more serious.

He asked the crucial question he'd been wanting to ask: "But Ikuya, putting them aside for now, how did you end up here? And why are you involved in the organization's affairs? That's too dangerous."

Nekono Ikuya blinked innocently: "It was an accident. The organization had been eyeing our family's businesses in the United States, so I did some research."

He explained his experiences in the United States and France to Morofushi Hiromitsu in detail, his expression somewhat helpless: "I only recently found out that the organization that provoked me is also the same organization you're investigating undercover." This is enough to show how powerful the organization is. How come I'm involved with the organization everywhere I go?

After a pause, Nekono Ikuya's gaze turned to concern. He looked at Morofushi Kagemitsu with a puzzled expression: "Let's not talk about that. But Kagemitsu, how come you also infiltrated this organization like Zero? Childhood friends who know each other inside and out, infiltrating the same organization together... Is that okay?"

Nekono Ikuya tilted her head in confusion. Wouldn't this increase the probability of being exposed? And might it lead to one person being exposed while the other is easily implicated?

Is this... a situation permitted by the regulations for undercover police officers?

In principle, it is absolutely not allowed!

Upon hearing this question, Zhu Fujingguang paused for a moment, his eyes filled with complex emotions: "...I think the police probably still don't know about this."

Although both the Metropolitan Police Department's Public Security Bureau and the National Police Agency's Public Security Bureau are called "public security," they are not actually the same department, and some information may not be shared between them.

So even now, it's hard to say whether the two departments actually knew they had sent a pair of undercover agents with a childhood friendship into an organization.

Morobuchi Kagemitsu was inclined to believe that they were unaware of this yet.

However, Morofushi Kagemitsu's eyes were filled with complex emotions. But wouldn't it be too difficult to evaluate the Public Security Bureau's competence in this case? What were the people in charge of handling the undercover data doing? Didn't they realize anything was wrong when they were erasing traces of their past lives with Zero?

That's absurd.

Nekono Ikuya also fell silent.

Is it really that absurd?

“…What a makeshift platform.” Nekono Ikumi, who wasn’t a public official and wouldn’t give face to official forces, remarked sharply.

However, he felt that his family might also be partly to blame.

The Nekono family is quite concerned about the information security of their members, and they have even handled the information of Furuya Rei, who is considered half a son of theirs, and Morofushi Kagemitsu, who they have watched grow up.

When preparing for an undercover operation, it's incredibly easy for the police to erase their past traces. It's understandable that they didn't discover that their colleagues were doing the same thing.

Perhaps there are some extenuating circumstances...?

Morofushi Kagemitsu nodded silently, thinking that it was indeed quite amateurish at times.

They looked at each other in silence, letting the absurd emotions linger for a while, before Nekono Ikuya suddenly straightened her expression.

"I understand." The official operation is so shoddy that even the undercover agent deployment process has flaws; it's really hard to feel at ease with them.

“Jingguang, since you and Ling are both inside, and the situation is so complicated, then I’ll stay outside. Perhaps I can still do something from outside.”

Some things that are inconvenient for Bourbon and Scotland, which are under the organization's scrutiny, to do.

Nekono Ikuya's expression became firm and reliable: "I will find a way to support you from outside the organization." I won't let you fight alone.

"Support?" Morobushi Kagemitsu felt a warmth in his heart, but his worry deepened: "Ikuya, what do you plan to do? This is too dangerous, I don't want to involve you too much."

But how could he not get involved when his lover and best friend were already embroiled in this mess?

Nekono Ikuya suddenly winked slyly at Morofushi Kagemitsu, her tone relaxed yet reassuringly confident: "Don't worry, I have my own way, you'll see when the time comes."

How to provide support? Of course, it's—

...

"Of course, that's how we should support them!"

The wind whistled in his ears. At the edge of the abandoned rooftop, Morofushi Kagemitsu clearly felt the chill emanating from the void behind him.

There was no way to retreat behind them, and ahead of them was Ray, who was approaching with a dark gun barrel raised high.

Morofushi Kagemitsu knew that, out of his sight, more members of the organization were rushing toward this place, and the organization's encirclement was rapidly closing in.

His undercover identity was exposed! But it was too late to wait for the police to provide support.

Rae, gun in hand, slowly approached, his tall figure exuding immense pressure.

The dim moonlight cast a pale, silvery-gray hue over the abandoned rooftop. His expression was obscured by the darkness, but the emotions surging in his dark green eyes were complex, seemingly not the bloodthirsty ruthlessness one would show when dealing with a traitor to the organization.

His lips moved, as if he wanted to say something—

"Scotland, actually I am..."

But Morofushi Hiromitsu had no time to pay attention to what Rae wanted to say; he was anxiously feeling the phone pressed against his chest. Even though he carefully erased any unwanted traces each time, he couldn't guarantee that the organization's programmers wouldn't be able to recover the information he didn't want the organization to know.

Zero is still infiltrating the organization! We absolutely cannot implicate Zero!

There was no time to hesitate! He had only one choice: destroy the phone, and destroy himself in the process!

Morofushi Kagemitsu stared at the gun in Ray's hand, poised to fire.

In the night sky, the moon, which had been obscured by thin clouds, suddenly broke free and its cool light poured down, illuminating the dim rooftop.

"Gurgle"

Several spherical objects fell onto the rooftop from somewhere, rolled around on the ground, and then burst into a thick cloud of grayish-white smoke with a soft "poof" sound at just the right spot.

The grayish-white smoke spread rapidly, instantly engulfing the moonlit rooftop and also swallowing Lai's vision.

The words that Shuichi Akai hadn't yet uttered were also swallowed by the smoke.

"Who goes there?!" Ray shouted sharply, his gun subconsciously adjusting as he warily looked in the direction the smoke ball had initially rolled down, relying on his memory.

At the same time, a nimble figure, like a bat in the night, glided through the cold moonlight hanging in the sky. The figure, adorned with a streamlined hang glider, seemed to possess its own wings, swooping down with incredible lightness and fluidity.

Almost silently, the flying figure swept towards Morofushi Kagemitsu.

"It's me, hold on tight!"

A whisper-like voice sounded in his ear, and a hand tightly grabbed the arm of Morofushi Kagemitsu, who was trying to take the opportunity to snatch the Ray gun.

It's Ikuya's voice!

Zhu Fujingguang subconsciously stopped his attempt to retaliate.

Before they could even think about this unconventional rescue method, their bodies, driven by trust and instinct, obeyed Nekono Ikuya's commands and grabbed him firmly.

Under the cover of the grayish-white mist, Nekono Ikuya seemed to smile slightly.

"Walk!"

All of this happened in an instant. A tremendous pulling force came, and Morofushi Kagemitsu felt his feet lighten. He was instantly lifted into the air and merged into the hazy moonlight.

Nekono Ikuya moved as lightly as a breeze across a lake, leaving only tiny ripples, her toes never even touching the rooftop.

But Morofushi Kagemitsu, who was standing in the same spot in the fog, disappeared.

In the howling wind, Nekono Ikuya gave Morofushi Kagemitsu a relaxed and smug smile.

"Well? I told you I'd support you, didn't I?"

The moonlight remained bright.