Chapter 135: External Forces
At 5pm, Ace returned to the office outside Moriou with a cup of fruit tea, a cup of milk tea, two boxes of packaged omelet rice and four boxes of tempura in his right hand, and ate a large cup of milk tea in his left hand while walking.
As soon as the office door was closed, a pile of plastic bags were piled on the table outside Sen Ou.
Morio paused, his eyes moved from the documents to the pile of packaging bags. Ace was taking out the things in the bags and laying them out one by one. Alice next to him immediately came over and took the fruit tea on the table first.
He didn't know if it was his illusion, but he often felt that there was a smell of something frying on his desk.
He didn't ask Ace where he went at night or why he didn't come back all night. He should have gotten used to it by now. Ace would often go out to play too late and just sleep at someone else's house. A room was specially vacated for him at Akutagawa's house; one of the bedrooms in the suite where Chuuya Nakahara usually lived was also cleared out for him to occasionally stay overnight; even at Albatross, because Chuuya was on a long business trip, he became Ace's first choice for learning to drive and racing, and they eventually made a guest room for Ace.
In other words, Dazai Osamu's family did not have a fixed place to stay overnight, otherwise they would have provided Aceton with a place to stay overnight before they defected.
Mori Ouwai watched Ace and Alice holding a cup of milk tea and fruit tea respectively, and the remaining cup of milk tea was pushed to Mori Ouwai's hand by Ace.
Mori Ouwai looked at Alice aggrievedly: "Alice-chan, this cup of milk tea is yours~"
In Japan, milk tea is a drink for girls, just like candy is for girls and children. Men who have passed the childhood stage will be considered childish if they eat these. This is not the first time that Ace has brought food and drinks to Mori Ogai and Alice, so this fruit tea is for Mori Ogai and the milk tea is for Alice.
But now the milk tea has been taken away by Alice.
“No, I want to drink fruit tea today!” Alice snorted coquettishly, “I want to watch Rintaro drink milk tea! Rintaro is childish anyway!”
Mori Ougai suddenly felt wronged and tears welled up in his eyes: "Alice-chan——"
Before he could do anything more, a chicken leg was stuffed into his mouth. Mori Ouwai paused, looked up, and Ace grinned and said, "Mr. Ouwai, eat the chicken leg!"
Mori Owl: "..."
The dinner was very unhealthy, but tasted good. Mori Ogai thought about his physical condition which was often dissed by Ace, and felt extremely puzzled.
Although Ace is a mutant now, so no matter what he eats, it will not affect his health, and it will be okay if he does not eat, but just looking at his usual diet, you can tell what his eating habits were when he was alive. And then look at the mutant that was created by comparing him to his original body, this really doesn't make it right!
With this kind of eating habits, how can he grow so strong?
I obviously used to eat much healthier than him!
...The reason why I said it was in the past is because since he met Ace, he has been unable to stick to his healthy eating habits. For example, today, Ace brought back dinner (junk food), and of course he chose to eat it!
Today's dinner was relatively early, and by the time Sen Ou finished his dinner, it was almost time for them to switch.
Ace sat in the chief's desk chair and picked up the document he was reading before dinner.
"Huh? Another foreign organization is coming to Yokohama?" Ace became alert as soon as he saw that it was a foreign organization.
Last time a foreign organization came to Yokohama, Mori Ogai was behind the scenes doing something like that. Now that another foreign organization is coming, he immediately started to be suspicious again: "Mr. Ogai, you are not planning to do anything again, are you?"
Mori Ogai: [……]
Is that a reasonable question? As if there is something wrong with me if I don't cause trouble! What do you mean by causing trouble or not? And "again"? Am I that kind of person?
...Oh, it seems to be true :)
[It's not that I want to cause trouble, but if they want to cause trouble, I can't just not have any countermeasures, right? ]
"...That's true." Ace continued to read on with doubt, "This Guild...is from the United States. The colonel should have more information, right?"
[The colonel is still sorting it out and will be able to send it over in the evening. ]
As soon as he saw the foreign organization enter Yokohama, Mori Ogai prepared to collect intelligence. There were ready-made people in the United States, and the Guild was not an unknown small organization. This organization must have been included in the intelligence collected by the colonel in the past.
Although this document does not have detailed information, it still contains basic information.
"Hmm... Is this an organization that has only emerged in recent years? The leader controls the organization with capital."
The word "capital" is a bit too professional for Ace. In his cognition, capital is equal to money. However, Ace still finds it a bit strange to use money to control an organization similar to the Mafia.
【The leader of the Guild, Francis, is a very famous capitalist who has emerged in recent years. The United States is a country controlled by capital. The more capital, the stronger the power. Such upper-class capitalists are not only wealthy themselves, but can also use capital to participate in state affairs and secretly have dealings with some black organizations. It is said that there are many people with special abilities in the Guild. Although the members are unknown, I speculate that these people joined the Guild because Francis gave them a lot of money. 】
After all, what capitalists lack the least is money.
"But if he only has money, he won't be able to control the people below, right?" Ace asked in confusion.
In their world, such a leader who has money but no real power can easily be overthrown and robbed of money by his subordinates. It is not uncommon for those who rely on money to rule the organization to be killed, robbed of treasures, and robbed of positions.
[So this Francis leader also has special abilities, but I'm not sure what they are. Based on his past experiences, it could be physical enhancement or something like that.]
"Isn't that the same as the military color?" Ace slowly turned the page. "So what are they doing in Yokohama? They wouldn't come here to commit suicide like Mimic did last time, right?"
[There must be some conspiracy. Wasn't there a $7 billion bounty for catching Tiger before?] Mori Ogai reminded, [That bounty was jointly proposed by three parties, one of which was Guild.]
Ace: “…”
[What's wrong?] Ace's silence made Moriogai feel a little uneasy.
Ace smiled a little sheepishly and said, "Well, um, it seems we can't get the 7 billion."
Mori Owl: ? ?
Mori Ou's heart was also lifted: [Why? ]
"Hmm... I discovered that the tiger might be a person with special abilities."
Mori Ogai had actually considered this possibility before.
An ordinary tiger is not worth 7 billion US dollars at any rate, let alone the three organizations that announced the bounty. Apart from the Guild, an emerging organization whose intelligence is not very detailed, the Rat of the Dead House is a well-known transnational underground criminal intelligence organization in recent years. The nature of this organization can be seen from this definition. It is impossible for them to participate in this bounty just for a tiger.
Not to mention the Clocktower Servants, the most powerful official supernatural organization in Europe. If there was nothing special about them, they would not even be interested in a tiger from a rural area like Yokohama.
So there must be some other value in this tiger.
Since all the people attracted here are supernatural organizations, we can infer that this tiger is either someone's supernatural ability or some kind of supernatural creature. No matter which one it is, there must be a secret behind it that may be worth more than 70 US dollars.
Although Mori Ogai wanted to find the tiger in exchange for a $7 billion bounty, how could he really catch it and exchange it for the bounty? Of course, he planned to catch it first and see if he could find the extremely valuable secret himself. If he couldn't find it, he would give it to exchange for the bounty!
Besides, the bounty order didn't say that he had to be alive. If the Port Mafia couldn't find the secret, sending him to death would reduce the possibility of others using the secret. After all, if others become stronger, the external threat to oneself will increase. Since he couldn't get it, it would be better for everyone to keep it as it is.
But Ace obviously hadn't finished his words, and from the very beginning he could tell that his way of speaking was like squeezing toothpaste. Moriogai already had a feeling that he was going to say something he didn't like to hear.
Mori Ou said calmly, "Hmm", and then asked him: [And then? ]
"And now, that person with special abilities has joined Ryunosuke's pirate group." Ace said quickly and closed his mouth.
[But...wait! ? What does it mean to join Akutagawa's pirate group? ? ] Mori Ogai, who was calm as water, was about to continue "and then", but suddenly reacted and his whole defense was broken.
The tiger psychic joined Akutagawa's pirate group. Akutagawa is Ace's student, which means the tiger psychic is also Ace's companion, which means he can't do anything to the tiger! Otherwise, the last Mimic is a lesson for us!
Why does it become so difficult every time we get involved with foreign organizations?
And how long did we tell you about the bounty on Tiger? Two days? You are so quick, aren’t you!?
"That's exactly what happened. I went to Akutagawa's house last night and saw a new face there..."
Ace grunted as he explained the matter to Mori Ogai. When he got to the part where Akutagawa Ryunosuke and his companions joined forces to subdue the White Tiger, he excitedly added various descriptions, which made Mori Ogai, who only wanted to hear the key points, very tired.
After listening to this series of descriptions with various onomatopoeias, Mori Ogai finally understood the cause and effect of this matter, and basically confirmed that the tiger mentioned in the bounty was this psychic. But when he thought about such a valuable tiger just flying away like this, he was still very heartbroken!
Not only can it not be used to exchange for money, but the ability itself, which seemed to have great development prospects, is no longer his own!
Heart pain.
Why don't we ask someone to check the background of this Nakajima Atsushi later, just in case he can get some influence?