Chapter 22 Bourbon: Bourbon: Ugh, but I have to smile. ...
Rei Furuya woke up with a start the moment the phone rang, having slept for less than two hours in the hotel.
The alarm clock by my bed shows it's 7:00 AM.
"Hello?" Without any pause, Rei Furuya's voice was clear the moment the call connected, completely belying his previous deep sleep: "Vermouth?"
This is a habit he developed in the United States over the past two years.
We must not let our guard down around us, and we must not miss any information around us.
Especially with a woman by his side who is so perceptive that one might suspect she has mind-reading abilities, he needs to ensure that every word he utters is carefully considered.
"Ah~ Good afternoon, Amuro-kun," a woman's languid and charming voice rang in my ears, reminiscent of roses glistening with dew at dusk: "You've arrived in Japan?"
Ignoring the 13-hour time difference, Furuya Rei and she greeted each other separately: "Good morning, is it important for the organization that you're calling so early?"
On the other end of the phone, Vermouth chuckled softly, "It's good news."
"The organization has approved your code name—Bourbon."
“Bourbon Whiskey.”
Upon suddenly hearing the news, there was a fleeting moment of joy and relief in Furuya Rei's eyes, unseen by the other party.
He rolled the code name between his lips and teeth, then sighed, "Truly satisfying."
"The person who wrote the alternate name has good taste."
"Haha, you're still as funny as ever. I regret agreeing to let you go back," Vermouth's laughter was much more sincere now. "I hope you enjoy life as a codename member. Have a good time, Bourbon~"
His voice was smiling, and his tone was firm: "I will."
The call ended.
The next second, Furuya Rei spread his arms and fell back onto the bed, staring blankly at the ceiling, processing the news he had just received.
Who am I? Where am I? What am I supposed to do now?
The sudden relaxation of the highly tense mind upon opening one's eyes leaves one feeling lost and disoriented.
A few seconds later he sat up and began to get dressed.
At the same time, Rei Furuya received a text message from the organization, which included an address:
[Meeting point, go meet your teammates.]
The signature reads "Gin".
The concise and clear content perfectly matched his stereotype of the organization's top killer.
Rei Furuya replied with one hand while brushing his teeth, wearing slippers.
He habitually tried to glean some useful information from this text message—
The location in the text message differed from the bars where the organization usually met; it was a high-end apartment building with good privacy, catering to young people with a certain level of financial means. Furthermore, the location was specified down to the floor and apartment, suggesting it might be a shared safe house used by the organization in Tokyo.
The text message didn't specify a meeting time, which means that it doesn't matter when Furuya Rei goes; he'll still be able to meet the other person.
So this teammate is very likely living there right now, or they are about to settle in this safe house.
Combined with Gin's use of the word "teammate," it can be inferred that the other party is likely to be at the same level as him, belonging to the same organization's codename members.
Is this the organization's attempt to control and test the members with the new codenames?
After packing his luggage, Rei Furuya planned to head over as soon as possible.
In any case, he has passed the organization's test of his abilities. The difficulties he will face next are the same as those of the past two years; he can deal with them as they come.
What he needs to do now is to gain the organization's trust further, access more core secrets, and make contact with his contact as soon as possible.
The most urgent task is to meet with the teammate mentioned in the text message and eliminate any potential problems with the future residence.
As soon as Rei Furuya checked out of the hotel lobby and stepped out, he saw the organization's members waiting for him.
Before going to sleep, he mentioned to the lower-level members of the organization that they should send a car over, and now the car keys and the car were right in front of him.
The vehicle was still the same Mazda he usually drove in the United States.
That's incredibly efficient...
Thinking this, Furuya Rei's face darkened, and he gained a deeper understanding of the wide distribution and large number of the organization's lower-level members.
The man who brought the car was trembling, not knowing what he had done to offend this newly returned codenamed member. He dared not move under the other man's icy gaze.
"Sir?"
Rei Furuya snapped out of his daze, a cryptic smile appearing on his face, his gloom vanishing, and his voice becoming warm: "Thank you."
"You're welcome!" The man immediately breathed a sigh of relief, bowed deeply at a ninety-degree angle, and hid his face from view, secretly wiping away his sweat.
Sure enough, none of these codenamed members were easy to mess with.
He secretly thought to himself, "They're all newcomers, and the other two whiskeys I met yesterday weren't exactly pushovers either."
With a driver's seat, there was no need to wait for a taxi like last night. Half an hour later, Furuya Rei found the apartment Gin had mentioned in his text message.
Without a key, he could only raise his hand and press the doorbell.
Ding-dong—
There are people in the house.
There was no response from the other party, but Furuya Rei could hear footsteps walking towards the door.
"I hope his teammates will be more sensible in the upcoming missions," Furuya Rei thought expressionlessly.
Otherwise, he wouldn't mind letting the other party experience a minor, harmless accident during the mission—
"Click".
Before he could finish thinking, the door opened from the inside, and Furuya Rei looked up.
...
Then I saw my childhood friend.
Rei Furuya's smile, which he was about to display, froze on the spot.
What's going on here?
The young man before him, with his face and blue eyes, clearly identified himself; even with his beard, Furuya Rei couldn't possibly mistake him.
These are the images of the Buddha.
The teammates assigned to him by the organization.
What are they doing? Teaming up two undercover agents from the same place—is the organization serious?
After a moment of intense thought, Rei Furuya immediately launched into a brainstorming session.
Could they have been discovered? Impossible, Furuya Rei immediately denied this worst possible answer.
The organization will not waste its energy playing house with undercover agents.
Having already seen Rei Furuya through the peephole and having experienced a mental shock, Kagemitsu Morofushi was much calmer than him at this moment.
It wasn't safe to talk in the hallway, so he nodded calmly and said, "Come in first."
There seemed to be no other choice, and Furuya Rei walked in with a dazed look on his face.
Zhu Fujingguang closed the door and turned around.
"Hikaru Midorikawa, codename Scotch Whisky".
"Toru Amuro, codename Bourbon Whiskey".
The two people, who hadn't seen each other for a long time, completed their first round of information exchange entirely through tacit understanding.
These two codenames seemed to silently symbolize something. Morofushi Kagemitsu sighed, poured a glass of water for his still dazed childhood friend, and handed it to him, thinking, "It seems our new teammate is you."
"How have you been doing in the United States these past two years?" he asked.
“It’s alright. The organization’s headquarters is in Japan, so I applied for a transfer back.” Not noticing his choice of words, Furuya Rei finished his water in one gulp to calm himself down, and looked at him with a complicated gaze: “But Hiro, you’ve really changed a lot.”
He's like a颓废 (颓废 is a difficult word to translate directly, but it conveys a sense of decadence, apathy, or disillusionment) wandering singer, completely lacking the righteous aura he had when he was in police academy.
On the contrary, a certain indescribable aura was more obvious.
Just as he was thinking this, he saw Morofushi Kagemitsu sitting upright on the sofa glance at him, and then smile slightly as his gaze fell on the water in his teacup: "Is that so? Then you really should go and see Ryusei."
He paused, seemingly not intending to finish his sentence.
Jianggu Ling: "..."
Hiro, it's been years since I last saw you, and your perverse sense of humor has only gotten worse! Where have you hidden my gentle and reliable childhood friend? QAQ
The person who knows best how to manipulate you is always the one who knows you best.
With just this one sentence, the emotions that Rei Furuya had been habitually suppressing burst forth in an instant.
The flash floods that breached the dikes were more rapid and powerful than ever before.
Meeting his childhood friend's teasing gaze, Furuya Rei avoided eye contact: "You've seen him? How is Ryu... Ryuo doing now?"
Even though I had recited the name countless times in my heart, I still couldn't help but feel hesitant when I said it out loud for the first time in two years.
Two years, more than twice as long as they've known each other.
During my two years in the United States, whenever I had a moment of leisure, I would ask myself:
Does Kitagawa Ryusei, who is now living in Japan, still like him?
At such times, he would always think for a moment and then come to a positive answer.
Yes, it will.
In this way, he can use the satisfaction and self-comforting feeling of success to throw himself into the next task and the next test from the organization.
But Rei Furuya knew the fear hidden deep within his heart.
He just didn't dare to think about it too deeply.
Especially considering that he left without saying goodbye under those circumstances...
...I'm afraid they'll die a terrible death.
Before Morofushi Kagemitsu could say anything, he saw Furuya Rei, without uttering a word, suddenly bury his face in his palms, putting on a show of self-isolation.
The secret they were going to keep hidden suddenly became impossible to reveal.
Having never been in a relationship and not understanding what "disease" his childhood friend had contracted in America, Morofushi Kagemitsu, after joining the organization, unusually showed kindness and spoke frankly: "The changes are so great that they are refreshing."
Rei Furuya: Oh no... this is making me even more uneasy.
There was no point in wallowing in self-pity now that things had come to this point, so Rei Furuya finally pulled his face away from his hands and tried to change the subject.
He looked around and then noticed that although the apartment was clean and tidy, it still bore undeniable traces of life.
Some of the items are arranged in a style and manner that Rei Furuya is familiar with.
But these traces clearly belong to more than one person.
So he asked curiously, "Hiro, is this your safe house? Who else lives here?"
"Huh?" Upon hearing this, Morofushi Kagemitsu was also surprised, his cat-like eyes widening: "Didn't I just tell you?"
He explained, "I am currently teammates with another member of the organization's action team, whose name is Dai Moroboshi and codename is Ray."
No sooner had he finished speaking than the sound of a key unlocking came from the apartment door.
Their eyes were drawn to it at the same time.
The door was pushed open, and a man walked in wearing a black collared leather jacket, a gray-black shirt, a black knitted hat, and long black hair that reached his waist. He looked up in surprise when he noticed there was a second person in the living room.
Those emerald green eyes first glanced warily at Furuya Rei, then turned to Morofushi Kagemitsu with confusion.
Realizing the other person's identity instantly, Furuya Rei slowly curled the corners of his mouth, revealing a honey-like fake smile.
...That's great. It's been two years since I last saw her. Not only is her boyfriend probably gone, but her childhood friend has also secretly found another teammate behind her back.
And this guy named Laiyi is really an eyesore.
*
The sound of mouse clicks was particularly noticeable in the quiet study.
The curtains were drawn tightly shut. Kitagawa Ryusei didn't turn on the light, but instead sat curled up comfortably in the chair.
Except for the hand that was moving the mouse, he remained motionless like a statue, having sat there for almost two hours.
Only his eyes moved left and right, following the video playing at double speed on the computer screen, the monitor serving as the only light source in the dimly lit study.
After another segment of the surveillance video finished playing, Kitagawa Ryusei skillfully switched to the next camera and pressed play.
After spending hours reviewing the footage without finding anyone suspicious, he was prepared for the possibility that the other party might have taken another route to leave the hotel, or even be so bold as to stay there after taking action.
There were no other reports of clues coming in on the phone.
He picked up the coffee on the table and took a sip.
The coffee cup fell back onto the table with a click.
The sound overlapped with the sound of Kitagawa Ryusei pressing the mouse button.
The screen was completely black, seemingly empty, yet something felt off.
He rewound the video a few seconds and played it again.
Click.
The crisp sound of the mouse clicked again.
Kitagawa Ryusei slowly sat up straight and slid his chair closer to the desk.
The black shadow that had just flashed by in the video now appeared as a blurry outline.
It was a long-haired man wearing a black hat, carrying a conspicuous violin case, and whose face could only be vaguely seen as having a cigarette dangling from his lips.
Releasing the mouse, which had been gripped with a thin layer of sweat, Kitagawa Ryusei leaned back in his chair, his gaze shifting from the monitor to the documents spread out on the desk.
I've finally found you, Mr. 800.
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