Chapter 46 discusses leading to Zero's emergence from the cave.
"Little Zhufu! Are you feeling any better today?"
A few days later, Kenji Hagiwara peeked out of the ward door carrying a lunchbox and saw the blue-eyed young man leaning against the headboard reading a book glancing over, so he quickly waved.
"The second-year graduate student and Jinpei are here?"
Matsuda Jinpei was still showing his police identification to the police officers guarding the entrance.
—Although we've become somewhat familiar with him over the past few days, Morofushi Kagemitsu's safety is now of paramount importance and cannot be taken lightly.
Once the review was approved, Kenji Hagiwara immediately squeezed into the ward.
He raised the hospital bed a little, lifted the small table, and said in a cheerful voice, "Ta-da! Dinner tonight is egg and mixed vegetable porridge and honey ginger milk!"
The joy he felt upon seeing his friend was dampened by his friend's mention of dinner. Morofushi Hiromitsu put down his book and tried to argue earnestly, "Second year of graduate school, I'm not hungry right now."
"How could I not be hungry? Xiao Zhufu didn't eat much of the takeout he ordered for lunch."
Kenji Hagiwara muttered to himself as he took out lunchboxes one by one from the insulated container and arranged them on the small table.
Matsuda Jinpei, who was watching from the side, immediately recalled how this guy used to play house as a child and feed clay to Chisato's dolls.
It's exactly the same as it is now.
Ignoring the complicated look in his childhood friend's eyes, Hagiwara Kenji patted his chest confidently under Morofushi Hiromitsu's hesitant gaze: "Don't worry, this time we didn't let Jinpei into the kitchen. The class president and Ryusei had no adverse reactions within three hours of eating!"
There will never again be a situation where patients are forced to eat boxed meals when the food is inedible!
Upon hearing this, Zhu Fujingguang lowered his head in disbelief.
The dishes today were indeed vastly different from those of the past few days; the milky white mixed porridge even emitted an enticing, warm aroma.
It's completely unrecognizable as being from the same source as yesterday's pot of turquoise-colored plant corpses with a bright "I'm poisonous" sign.
Morofushi Kagemitsu, who had only hesitated before, became even more hesitant.
A beautiful, slow-acting poison sounds more deadly than a pot of burnt soup.
Seeing that he didn't move, Kenji Hagiwara kept stuffing the wooden chopsticks and spoon into his hands.
He pulled up a chair next to the hospital bed, sat down backwards, rested his hands on the backrest to support his face, and looked on expectantly: "Try it, it'll definitely taste good."
"Yeah?"
Morofushi Kagemitsu's stomach cramped in advance as if on alert, clamoring for his master to reconsider. Under the starry-eyed gaze of his friends, he picked up his chopsticks, picked up a scallion from the porridge, put it in his mouth, and said with a death-defying air: "It's really good."
What flavor could a single scallion possibly have? Yet, Morofushi Kagemitsu maintained his smile.
Yes, he is still alive.
Matsuda Jinpei couldn't stand it anymore and punched his childhood friend who was teasing the sick man, making sure it hit him squarely on the head with a loud thud: "Stop playing around, Hagi."
He took off his sunglasses and hung them on his shirt pocket, saying with a hint of speechlessness, "The food is edible."
Today I am also troubled by the abundant martial virtues of my childhood friends.
After being punched, Kenji Hagiwara finally stopped playing around, rubbing his head and explaining, "The class president's girlfriend came to see him today, and she cooked specially because she knew we were researching patient meals!"
“Miss Natalie’s cooking skills are just as good as Morofushi’s. Jinpei and I walked to the hospital today to help with our digestion.”
After his identity was exposed, Morofushi Kagemitsu's file was immediately taken over by the National Police Agency, and the Public Security Bureau took his personal safety extremely seriously.
After the surgery, he was admitted directly to a private ward in the central hospital, with two police officers on duty 24 hours a day at the door.
On the first day, considering that Morofushi Kagemitsu had just undergone surgery, the police department only inquired about Kitagawa Ryusei's condition at the time.
After explaining the entire process from hearing the noise on the rooftop to fulfilling his duty as a police officer to "heroically rescue" his colleague in distress, Kitagawa Ryusei started visiting the hospital almost every day.
Upon receiving the news, Hagiwara and the others immediately submitted a request to meet.
Kazami Yuya from Group Zero came a few times, but each time he seemed to be avoiding someone, always making a phone call beforehand to subtly inquire with Morofushi Kagemitsu whether there was anyone else in the ward.
According to his observation, this "other person" should refer to Kitagawa Ryusei.
Because whenever Ryusei and he bump into each other, within a minute, there will definitely be some "important matter" that needs to be addressed to this public security officer, Kazami-kun.
Thinking of this, Morofushi Kagemitsu asked curiously, "Didn't Ryusei come today?"
Judging from what Kenji Hagiwara said earlier, they must have had dinner together.
Kenji Hagiwara remained in the position of resting his chin on his hand, and it didn't seem strange for an adult male to do this: "It seems like there's work that requires overtime. Ryusei was called away by phone after finishing his meal. The class president went to see his girlfriend off at the station, so only Jinpei and I seem to be free."
“You just seem to have a lot of free time,” Matsuda Jinpei disagreed, retorting, “I don’t!”
Listening to the two of them talking back and forth, Morobushi Kagemitsu wore a gentle smile on his face.
The mixed porridge, suitable for patients, warmed their esophagus and stomach, making them feel so comfortable it was almost unreal.
He is currently in the process of declassifying his identity, but with Gin around, he can basically only walk on the street without any scruples once the organization is destroyed.
But for most undercover investigators, coming back alive is already an extremely lucky thing...
I wonder how Zero is doing in the organization now...
Having finally shed his Scottish mask after distancing himself from the organization, Morofushi Kagemitsu leaned against his hospital bed, eating dinner brought by a friend, his face relaxed as he looked out at the sunset.
He thought to himself.
I guess I won't fight Shuichi Akai again... right?
*
Shuichi Akai didn't fight with Rei Furuya; he was sitting face-to-face with Ruki Kitagawa in the reception room.
There was also a sofa next to it with nails that looked like they had grown on it.
Kazami looked at the sky, the ground, and the foam floating in his tea, but found it hard to look at Kitagawa Ryusei, who was talking to the FBI.
To be precise, now whenever he sees the other person, he is reminded of the terrible mess he almost made.
Even though Mr. Furuya didn't blame him too much, he just reminded him in a serious tone to remember this lesson.
...But judging from Mr. Furuya's solemn and desolate expression at the time, he must have really caused trouble. Kazami Yuya reflected on his actions for a long time.
Fortunately, Kitagawa-kun wasn't someone who couldn't be trusted, otherwise he would have really ruined his boss's life.
"...In short, we need the police department's arrest warrant and police assistance."
Unaware of the other person's ever-changing expressions, Shuichi Akai summarized the purpose of their visit.
Kitagawa Ryusei scoffed at the man's mention of an "arrest warrant," not believing the FBI would care about such a thing; his real intention, however, was to borrow police resources.
However, he still wanted to confirm again: "Are you really planning to arrest Rum at this time?"
"If something happens to him when he meets with you, your current identity will basically be useless, right?"
The FBI is planning another big heist, and they intend to target Rum directly.
The organization's second-in-command possessed far too much crucial information and was extremely adept at concealing evidence of wrongdoing.
When he was in the United States, the FBI and CIA couldn't do anything about him, and it was easy for them to spend money to solve the problem, which would only alert the enemy.
Rum rarely returns to the country and is exposed to the public, and recently he has directly assigned a mission to Ray and determined the meeting place between the two.
This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Given the very pleasant cooperation with the police department last time, they sent Shuichi Akai directly to them this time.
"We have too little information."
Shuichi Akai made no secret of the FBI's predicament, laying his intentions bare: "While Vermouth could be monitored because of her film industry connections, this enigmatic second-in-command is much harder to find. He has been infiltrating our organization from the shadows, and he will undoubtedly be a major threat to our organization."
Because Vermouth had always shown little interest in managing her subordinates, most of the intelligence team was under Rum's control.
He has eyes in all walks of life, like a fly that can see into every nook and cranny, covered in compound eyes, clinging to its target like a maggot attached to a bone.
Another reason he went to the police department was the same.
The exposure of Morofushi Kagemitsu revealed to everyone that the police force was not a monolithic entity, and they also urgently needed intelligence to remove the enemy's spies within their ranks.
Internal threats are often more terrifying than external ones; even the slightest action can bring deadly danger, and undercover police officers are the first to be affected.
Kitagawa Ryusei was well aware of this.
But instead of making a decision, he turned his gaze to another person present and posed a question: "What do you think, Kazami-kun, that the Public Security 'Zero' Team is actually responsible for handling organizational affairs within the National Police Agency?"
Unexpectedly, Kitagawa Ryusei changed the subject at this moment. Akai Shuichi followed his gaze and looked at the person next to him carefully for the first time.
The young man in the gray suit looked like a standard-issue police officer, never smiling. He sat upright, appearing overly stiff between the two people who were more comfortable than they were.
Kazami-kun... The upright Kazami-kun felt he needed to report to his superior.
The operation to arrest Rum was definitely a top-level mission, requiring Mr. Furuya's personal approval for Team Zero to carry out the order.
And I don't know if it's just my imagination.
Kazami Yuya always felt that the "zero" Kitagawa-kun used might not be the same as his own understanding of it.
For a moment, no one spoke in the reception room.
Feng Jianyu also hesitated to speak.
It was all too easy to guess what the clueless police officer was thinking. Instead of exposing the isolated and helpless Kazami Yuya, Kitagawa Ryusei very considerately said, "Of course, you can notify anyone now."
Upon hearing this, Kazami Yuya cast a grateful glance at Kitagawa Ryusei, stood up and said, "Excuse me for a moment, I'm going to make a phone call."
They have absolutely no sense of being sold out while still counting the money for the seller.
The moment the living room door closed, Kitagawa Ryusei relaxed and leaned back on the sofa.
He didn't speak, but simply crossed his arms, his fingertips tapping haphazardly on his arm, lost in thought.
Shuichi Akai had been observing this person closely.
His curiosity about Kitagawa Ryusei had been brewing for a long time, and now that he had such a good opportunity, he naturally wanted to ask him something, but he didn't know where to start.
Finally, he chose the most absurd yet most pressing question: "Are you really a police officer?"
Lost in his own thoughts, Kitagawa Ryusei didn't even look up when he heard this, returning the pointless question: "Are you really an FBI agent?"
Based on the ages of Scotland, Bourbon, and Kitagawa Ryusei, Akai Shuichi speculated that the three probably met in school, and perhaps were even in the same grade.
He had gone to great lengths to accept that Bourbon was actually a police officer maintaining social order, but at this point he couldn't help but retort, "Your police academy really does have a very unconventional talent recruitment process..."
Kitagawa Ryusei retorted, "Your FBI isn't bad either."
This was the first time he had ever seen an FBI agent whose appearance and personality were so perfectly matched.
Shuichi Akai shrugged, offering no rebuttal or further comment.
The reception room became so quiet you could hear a pin drop once again.
Kitagawa Ryusei glanced at the time, then looked up and his gaze fell on the gate.
It's like they're waiting for someone.
Shuichi Akai, puzzled, turned his emerald green eyes and looked over as well.
His doubts were soon answered.
The reception room door was pushed open again, and the blond youth strode in with a familiar, unfriendly gaze from Shuichi Akai.
Upon receiving a message from Kazami Yuya, Furuya Rei, who happened to be nearby, looked pale: "Who knows, the FBI has taken my house in..."
However, Shuichi Akai was even more puzzled than him: No, how could I possibly run into this?
He turned to look at the third person present who clearly knew the truth.
Could the person that policeman deliberately had that clueless public security officer contact be Bourbon?
Rei Furuya kept glancing at the other side of the sofa out of the corner of his eye, and for a fleeting moment, he made a barely perceptible pursing of his lips.
His affair with Kitagawa Ryusei is a private matter that needs to be discussed behind closed doors. Right now, it's more important to deal with the troublesome guy.
Rei Furuya put on his signature Bourbon smile, stepped forward to block Shuichi Akai's gaze, and said businesslike, "The FBI's Project Zero has approved it."
The next second he said with hostility, "Now, please leave my house."
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