Chapter 38 Promise I promise you.
Rei Furuya's words were half-joking and half-serious.
If you do the math, they dated for over two years – including the time they were unilaterally broken up – but the only time they were truly intimate was in one night!
This is simply unbelievable, horrific, and outrageous!
His thoughts were interrupted by a slap to the face. Kitagawa Ryusei sneered, "You didn't take the bait. Don't try to fool me. And Zero, your thoughts are written all over your face!"
Can this really be a good way to go undercover?!
The young man's words were so decisive that they successfully plunged Rei Furuya into deep self-doubt, causing him to unconsciously touch his own face.
Has my charm really lost its effectiveness?
Seeing what he was thinking, Kitagawa Ryusei raised his hand and took off his hat, revealing the young man's dazzling blond hair and eyes.
He placed his hands over those dark-skinned hands, cradling the face that hadn't changed in two years, and with a mischievous grin, squeezed it hard, deforming the person who was lost in thought.
"Don't get distracted. Remember what I'm about to say." Kitagawa Ryusei stared into the depths of those greyish-purple eyes, his tone vicious.
Before this person arrived, he had been thinking about what had happened during the day.
Today was the first time he had witnessed Rei Furuya in danger. Even though he knew that such things had happened countless times in places he didn't know about, Ruki Kitagawa still felt a lingering fear, as if his heart had been struck by lightning.
Never before had he so clearly recognized the fragility of the lives of those before him.
And important.
The importance of Furuya Rei to Kitagawa Ryusei.
So Kitagawa Ryusei said, "If possible, please don't put yourself in danger again, okay?"
"Even if it can't be avoided, please hold on until I come to see you."
Even now, Kitagawa Ryusei can hardly imagine "Furuya Rei losing his life" in his mind.
From a very early age, the blond youth was so important that he was his anchor in this world.
If anything happens to Rei Furuya, the ropes securing the boat will break.
"Can you say yes?"
Therefore, Kitagawa Ryusei asked softly.
"..."
Faced with his young lover's earnest request, Rei Furuya did not answer immediately. He silently gazed into his eyes and asked just as earnestly, "Even if it's cruel?"
Sometimes concealing information can indeed be a form of protection for those who are unaware of the truth.
When Furuya Rei was at the bottom of the organization, he thought more than once that if he were exposed or failed in a mission, he should leave no clues and just let Kitagawa Ryusei think he was a bastard who slept with someone and ran away...
But Kitagawa Ryusei refuted him at the time in this way:
"Nothing could be more cruel than you getting hurt somewhere I don't know..."
"So please, you must promise me."
This is the third time the young man has used honorifics tonight.
Rei Furuya opened his mouth, his reason telling him he couldn't agree, because he wasn't sure if he could keep his promise.
But his emotions made it impossible for him to refuse.
"I promise you."
If it really comes to that, he will do everything in his power to survive, no matter what it takes.
I lived to see Kitagawa Ryusei.
Although he didn't know if the promise was right, he could sense that Kitagawa Ryusei had breathed a sigh of relief.
It was as if I was truly relieved by this promise.
“Alright, let’s not talk about this,” Kitagawa Ryusei released him, turning his head away to hide his earlier lapse in composure, and changed the subject as he walked towards the desk: “Actually, I have some personal discoveries about that organization…”
He seamlessly and quickly got into work mode, or perhaps not completely. He even remembered to remind Furuya Rei: "That untouched glass of milk on the table is yours. Remember to brush your teeth after you finish it. The toothbrush and cup are on the bathroom sink in the master bedroom."
Seeing Kitagawa Ryusei in his pajamas, saying heartwarming things, then sitting back at his desk with a serious expression and taking out his documents, Furuya Rei genuinely felt that he was an amazing person.
It's definitely a positive term.
Hmm...and kind of sexy.
The brown-haired youth sat with Rei Furuya's arms propped up on the seat, making it appear from a distance as if he were wrapped around the desk.
The air is filled with the faint scent of shampoo and shower gel, which hooks the heart and draws it away.
Kitagawa Ryusei said something, but received no response for a long time. He turned around, frowned, and asked, "Were you listening to me?"
“I heard you,” Furuya Rei said, quickly pulling his wandering thoughts back when their eyes met. “You said that the organization had problems with funding for these two operations.”
Kitagawa Ryusei looked suspicious, clearly disbelieving, but he gave up on pursuing the matter and continued, "While I cannot agree with this organization's mindless and violent approach, I must say they are indeed very adept at making money. According to the information you provided, the organization's influence extends to many industries, both large and small."
"But recently they have been expanding their influence in Italy and Mexico, two countries where gangs are rampant. The funds they have used to open up smuggling routes and buy trade routes are too large to be supported by ordinary conglomerates."
"None of the companies we monitor, which are of any significant size, have appeared to have financial problems recently."
Port Mafia rarely suffer from financial troubles because they have their own vaults filled with wealth unimaginable to ordinary people.
But where does such a company, which is completely hidden in the shadows and has no visible presence, and relies entirely on its Japanese headquarters to threaten its president, get such a large amount of financial resources?
Even if you emptied your pockets of all your lowly partners at once, you couldn't do it.
Kitagawa Ryusei certainly wasn't naive enough to think that the major conglomerates that controlled Japan would be completely unaware that an organization had grown to this size.
As for how much they were involved, or whose henchmen this force actually is, that remains unknown.
"Wait a minute," Furuya Rei, not quite following the train of thought, asked, "I don't recall any mention of the organization's financial expenditures in the intelligence I gathered?"
He hasn't received any information about this yet.
Upon hearing this, Kitagawa Ryusei was even more incredulous than him: "Are you an idiot?"
"Huh??"
"This single gem smuggling route alone generates profits in the hundreds of millions of dollars a year. If it weren't for the recent internal strife within the Mexican Mafia, they wouldn't have let anyone else have a piece of the pie. To secure this route as a stepping stone to establish connections with Mexico, the things the organization will use in exchange will only increase exponentially. Given that our partners are preoccupied with their own problems, I prefer that the traded goods be gold or US dollars."
He continued, "Being able to come up with so much money at once without being detected means we can basically narrow down our investigation to four conglomerates—Tomizawa, Ooka, Suzuki, and Karasuma."
"The Suzuki zaibatsu has a very high level of public information disclosure, so they are currently the least suspicious. The other three are theoretically of equal suspicion."
Kitagawa Ryusei piled up the compiled documents in front of the expressionless man: "Next, we can see which zaibatsu the investigated presidents are related to... Of course, we can't rule out the possibility that they are cautious enough that there is no connection between the two sources of income."
"After all, a cunning rabbit has three burrows."
Jianggu Ling: "..."
The young man listened in disbelief, stubbornly trying to find the most crucial point from this pile of conclusions.
How are the profits from gemstone smuggling calculated?
—The beginning is easy to understand, and the end is not difficult either, but how was this conclusion reached?
When I was in school, I was never taught how much a pound of gems Mafia would sell for.
Unexpectedly, there was a struggle over this issue. Kitagawa Ryusei paused, looked up, and stared at Furuya Rei with wide eyes.
Good question.
“Uh…” He shifted the blame without hesitation: “The conclusion drawn by Group Zero is that there might be special talents.”
Rei Furuya was stunned and almost believed it: "...Really?"
“Ahem, let’s not talk about that,” Kitagawa Ryusei said somewhat stiffly. “Do you have anything else to say? Besides seduction.”
There was no worse topic to shift the conversation to, but Furuya Rei readily complied.
He suppressed his doubts and remembered another matter he had come for: "Does Ryusei have time this weekend?"
Kitagawa Ryusei maintained his tilted-back posture: "Most of them do, so what?"
This angle makes people unconsciously widen their eyes, making their peach blossom eyes appear slightly round.
As if he had caught a cold, Furuya Rei coughed, took a card out of his pocket, and placed it in the young man's hand.
The card felt pretty good to the touch. Curious, Kitagawa Ryusei flipped it over, and when he looked up again, his eyes were filled with confusion.
This is a tennis club membership card.
"That's right, due to some special assignments, tennis coaching will be one of my part-time jobs for a long time to come..."
Furuya Rei clasped his hands together, his tone troubled: "It's so hard to find a student who can fit into my schedule. Can Ryusei save poor Tohru-chan?"
After he finished speaking, as if afraid of being rejected, he even used his tried-and-true dog-eye look.
Upon hearing Kenji Hagiwara's reminder during the day, Rei Furuya felt a mix of secret delight and worry.
Furthermore, Morofushi Kagemitsu mentioned that when he encountered Ryusei on the street, Ryusei seemed to be in a bad mood, possibly because he couldn't contact him, which is why Furuya Rei came up with this idea.
Firstly, it did solve this problem, and secondly, it gave the two more opportunities to spend time together, allowing Kitagawa Ryusei to go out more on weekends.
Seeing that Kitagawa Ryusei was somewhat lenient when he heard it was for work, he pressed on: "A coach who often skips work and doesn't have regular students... will be fired very quickly, right?"
Having vaguely guessed his true thoughts, Kitagawa Ryusei pursed his lips and said without hesitation, "Yes, I will go."
Rei Furuya's puppy-dog eyes instantly crinkled into a smile: "That's wonderful!"
He has never seen Kitagawa Ryusei wearing sportswear other than his police academy training uniform!
After finishing his business, he looked around and surveyed his surroundings.
I didn't have a chance to visit Kitagawa Ryusei's residence last time, as the villa was already uninhabitable. It wasn't until now that Furuya Rei finally saw Kitagawa Ryusei's study.
The books on the bookshelf were well protected, but they weren't exactly new; you could tell they had been read repeatedly by their owner.
He recalled that when he was in police academy, if there were no activities on weekends, Kitagawa Ryusei would always be reading a book, and the range of subjects he read was quite wide.
It's hard to figure out what this guy likes or dislikes.
Was Ryusei reading a book before I arrived?
Kitagawa Ryusei had already started tidying up the desk, putting the books with bookmarks back on the bookshelf: "Hmm, I'm reading Ranpo-san's short story collection."
Upon hearing this somewhat uncommon title, Furuya Rei was taken aback for a moment before saying, "Ryusei reads mystery novels after get off work too?"
Doesn't that mean you're "solving cases" even during your rest time?
“Sometimes I read poetry,” Kitagawa Ryusei said as he packed his things and headed to his bedroom.
Although he had anticipated that this person would be staying here today, Kitagawa Ryusei hadn't had time to find him a change of clothes: "But I'm more interested in the gossip about the literary giants."
He paused for a moment, then continued, "...For example, Mr. Dazai's grave is right across from Mr. Mori's..."
After learning about this, Kitagawa Ryusei even took the time to visit the two graves and lay flowers there.
Rei Furuya stood behind him, listening to him mutter to himself, watching the brown-haired youth kneeling in front of the wardrobe, rummaging through it.
A few strands of hair on the young man's head swayed from side to side, brazenly undermining his elite aura.
After a while, Kitagawa Ryusei stopped moving and turned around with a blank look on his face.
"What's wrong?" Furuya Rei asked.
Kitagawa Ryuse rarely looked so bewildered, and upon closer inspection, he even seemed a little embarrassed: "You said you're used to sleeping naked, so I didn't prepare any pajamas..."
It took him a while to remember when this happened. Furuya Rei was surprised that he still remembered and chuckled, "It's okay."
Then, Kitagawa Ryusei said, "...He doesn't even have underwear."
Their relationship is truly unique.
As his gaze fell, Rei's face flushed red, while Ryusei Kitagawa regained some composure: "Uh, why don't you wear mine for now? The long style shouldn't be a problem. I'll look for some other clothes."
As for underwear...
Although Kitagawa Ryusei has some unopened ones, it's estimated that they can't wear the same size.
Before he could finish speaking, Furuya Rei was still in shock.
The two of them stood facing each other in the bedroom like two tree stumps, reflecting on their mistakes.
Although we've met openly and honestly before, that was two years ago...
The thick skin that had been toughened up in the organization crumbled under the threat of being "in neutral." Furuya Rei wanted to shout in his heart, but he grabbed a towel and forced himself to stay upright: "No, no need, I'll just wrap myself in a towel when I come out."
After saying that, he was about to flee in panic.
"Don't worry, we have a dryer at home, it can be dried tomorrow."
As expected, awkwardness isn't so bad if you just shift the focus. Kitagawa Ryusei looked at the blond, dark-skinned guy's bright red ears, and his mood, which was already above average tonight, improved even more. He spoke up to remind him.
He said slowly, "Actually, not wearing clothes isn't necessarily a bad thing."
It wasn't exactly bold or direct, but it sounded like a blatant invitation to me.
Rei Furuya paused, and the look he gave her as she turned around reminded people of what happened at the hotel two years ago.
It's less naive, but just as dangerous.
“It’s just that my bath was wasted.” Kitagawa Ryusei smiled.
Without blinking, Furuya Rei answered without hesitation, "It's okay, you can wash it again later, I'll help you."
...
I don't know how much time has passed.
In the bathtub, Furuya Rei took out his hand to test the water temperature and gently placed the person in, carefully supporting the young man's neck to prevent him from slipping.
He seemed to suddenly remember something, and said softly, "We still need to buy underwear and such." His voice was full of satisfaction.
"Um……"
The young man ignored him and answered only with a nasal tone.
"I'll go with you next time."
"..."
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