Chapter 136: A sudden change
Things are changing faster than Mori Ouwai expected.
Within two days after he received the intelligence about the Guild that the colonel had passed on to him, A sent him news that his people had captured the leader of the Rat of the Death House, the demon Fyodor, and he was preparing to take him over.
Mori Ogai was very happy at that time, because the Rat of the Death House was one of the three forces that wanted the White Tiger, and they were good at intelligence. If they caught the leader of the Rat of the Death House, he could find a way to force the demon to tell him the reason why they wanted the White Tiger.
…Then that night he heard the news of A’s death.
That's too fast!
Good news came during the day and bad news came at night, what are you doing?! ?
Although he really just treated A as an ATM and usually looked down on A's behavior, he didn't expect A to send the money like this!
"There is one more thing. Because of A's death, the list of people with special abilities in our organization has most likely been leaked." Ozaki Koyo reported.
After the news of A's accident came, the intelligence department immediately conducted a thorough investigation. Not only did the demon Fyodor, who A had originally mentioned, escape and lose his whereabouts, they also discovered that A had been secretly collecting information on the superpowers of the organization's superpowers over the years, but now even the list of superpowers he compiled has been lost.
"I suspect that the list has now fallen into the hands of the demon. Moreover," Ozaki Koiyo said solemnly, "it is very likely that the demon was not really captured by A's people, but was deliberately captured in order to obtain the list of superpowers collected by A."
"That's really troublesome."
Mori Ogai felt that the situation was a bit tricky. The port mafia had almost no contact with the demons, but it was not that they had no contact at all. However, he was just suspicious every time. The other party was slippery and he caught a little bit of it a few times. He suspected that the demons were behind it, but because the information he caught was not clear, he could not say for sure that it was the demons who did it.
This guy who has a ten-point mind and hides in the shadows is the most troublesome. You know exactly how he wants to deal with you with that list.
Even though A usually has no presence except when he gives money, as an official, he still has a lot of important work under him. Once A dies, although the work under him can be temporarily taken over by the current job holder, it cannot be done forever, and another person must be arranged as soon as possible.
Moreover, with A's way of defending himself, it is hard to say whether the person currently on top will have any problems.
Why not let Karen take over A's job temporarily? Although she is not very capable in handling these tasks, she is still very suitable in terms of loyalty. Not only herself, but also her lover is a member of the Port Mafia, which provides double protection. Moreover, she is an offensive psychic and can convince others with her strength.
As for the position of an officer, Mori Guwai is not going to give it to her yet. Although Karen is loyal enough and capable, she is not experienced enough, has not made enough contributions, and is not capable enough for Mori Guwai to ignore her qualifications and make her an officer. Her intelligence is not high enough for Mori Guwai to ignore her other aspects.
However, she can be given a position as a quasi-cadre.
"Don't worry about the list in advance." It's already lost, and the possibility of getting it back is basically zero. What's more, the people who got the list must have read it and may have copied it. There is no point in getting it back, it's just a waste of effort. "Let's hold a staff meeting first. A's work needs to be reassigned. Send a copy of the meeting minutes to those who can't come now after the meeting."
"yes!"
…
The cadre meeting mainly discussed A's problem and the group's affairs, briefly mentioned the matter of the Rat in the Dead House, arranged for Karen's promotion to quasi-cadre, and some miscellaneous matters.
After the meeting, the organization started to move on.
That evening, Mori Ogai received news that the Akutagawa residence had been attacked.
Ace, who was sitting at the side of the table eating with Alice at the time, instinctively looked up at Moriogai with a suspicious expression as if he was wondering if he had done something again.
Damn it, he really didn't do anything this time! He hasn't even reacted yet!
Mori Ou looked back at him expressionlessly: "Look at what I'm doing."
Ace didn't hide his suspicion at all, stared at him and asked, "It really wasn't you who did it?"
Veins bulged on Mori Ou's face as he looked at him quietly and smiled.
Ace slowly retracted his gaze, "That's strange. Why would they attack Akutagawa and the others without any reason? They haven't had any contact with each other, right?"
"It's not without reason." Mori Ougai said slowly.
"Why?"
"Have you forgotten that the Guild was one of the three forces that had previously put a bounty on the tiger, and isn't that tiger in the Akutagawa family now?"
Ace finally realized what was happening. He said solemnly, "When did this happen? How are Akutagawa and the others now?"
"It happened this afternoon, but don't worry, Akutagawa and his men have repelled the enemy." Ace was always impatient about this kind of thing. In order to prevent him from making trouble halfway through listening to his orders, Mori Ogai answered Ace's questions first before continuing, "The other side has a sniper and a psychic who can control plants. I'm afraid they have confirmed that Tiger is at Akutagawa's house. They didn't succeed this time, so they may send a stronger or more targeted psychic to attack them next time."
After Mori Ogai finished speaking, he cast a probing look at Ace, "Ace, is there a new user with special abilities on Akutagawa-kun's ship?"
“No.”
Mori Ogai's eyes turned dark, and he asked casually, "Is that so? But I seem to have heard that a person with green tentacles appeared in their house?"
This is not good. Is Ace lying to him without batting an eyelid?
He never spoke without purpose. He asked Ace this question because his people had already found out when they were investigating the attack. He certainly knew what kind of superpowers had appeared at the scene. He asked him now just because he wanted to know more detailed information about this superpower user.
However, Ace's answer once again exceeded his expectations: "You mean Howard? Those tentacles are not supernatural powers, they should be his racial characteristics, just like an octopus has six arms and two legs."
Mori Oogai: “……?”
Alice exclaimed "Wow" and propped her face up with her hands. "So he's also an octopus... Um, is he an octopus mermaid? So he has a lot of tentacles, but he looks more like a human?"
Ace actually thought about this question seriously: "No way? Howard looks exactly like a human, but his limbs become tentacles. For mermaids, their appearance is fixed. If there really are octopus mermaids, then the parts below the waist should be octopus legs, right?"
Alice complained: "You sound like the witch in The Little Mermaid who made potions."
"Wait, wait a minute--" Mori Owl showed an expression of confusion: "In our world, are there humanoid creatures other than humans? Are you mistaken? Maybe it's just a superpower? This kind of appearance is human, but when using the power, it changes. It must be a superpower!"
Ace raised his hand: "But he can live underwater. Ryunosuke said he fished Howard out of the sea."
"...Maybe he just encountered a shipwreck?"
"But Howard said that he had been sleeping in the sea for several years before being rescued by Ryunosuke."
Mori Owl: "..."
He forcibly rescued a wave: "Maybe there is a submarine below, and he is deceiving you?"
"Isn't that necessary? Hasn't he been soaking under the Tsurumi River recently? A few days ago, I ran into Zhi in the water and pulled him out of the Tsurumi River."
Mori Owl: "..."
He had nothing to say about this. Entering the water was a common method of suicide for Dazai Osamu. He could find out if he met her in the water by investigating. There was no need to lie.
Mori Ogai finally accepted the fact that there were unknown humanoid creatures in his world. He sighed, "Okay, let's not talk about this for now, let's get back to the Guild. The Guild will definitely send people to attack them again. What are you going to do?"
Ace sat on the sofa with a lamb chop in his mouth, "Forget it, let them solve it themselves."
?
Mori Ouwai turned his head and looked at him with a strange expression, "Let them solve it themselves? You're not going to help?"
In the Mimic incident, he personally went into battle to avenge Akutagawa and the others, but he doesn't intend to care about the Guild's attack?
"If they meet, we can help them. If not, they can solve it themselves." Ace looked at Moriogai in confusion and said as a matter of course, "The Guild attacked them because of Atsushi. Since Ryunosuke wants Atsushi to be their companion, then the danger to Atsushi must be solved by Ryunosuke as the captain and his companions themselves! If he doesn't even try his best to solve the troubles of his companions, then he doesn't deserve to have this companion."
Mori Ogai's expression suddenly became a little subtle, "I thought you would go to help them deal with the Guild, or wait at Akutagawa's house until the attackers come again and help them deal with it together."
So Ace gave him a strange look, with a look that said "Why would you think that?"
"They have already gone out to sea. No matter what troubles they encounter, they should find ways to solve them themselves. I can't just treat him like a child and watch over him like a hen."
As he always said, no matter if he was a younger brother or a student, they all had their own journeys, whether it was towards glory or towards death, it was the path they chose. Maybe sometimes their paths would cross, but after crossing, everyone would go on their own path and never look back.
"Ryunosuke is also a student I am proud of. I believe he can solve it."