twenty two

"So, you were in a car accident and were hospitalized for a week?"

Bourbon was driving, and after hearing his partner's explanation for his disappearance a week later, he almost wanted to step on the brakes, grab his partner's shoulders and shake him hard to see who was the one with water in his brain.

Would anyone really believe this?!

"You can understand it that way." Grappa, still wearing the same black coat, lazily sitting in the passenger seat of the bourbon car, answered perfunctorily.

"I was thinking that I had taken a week off, but it turned out to be just postponed?" Bourbon took out his cell phone, which contained a bunch of tasks sent by the higher-ups of the organization. Apparently, all the work for this week needed to be made up.

"You can file a complaint with the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare."

(In 2001, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare and the Ministry of Labor were merged into one, becoming the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare that everyone is familiar with.)

Grappa thought for a moment and suggested seriously. His face was hidden behind the mask and it was unclear whether he was joking or not. However, his voice seemed less hoarse, as if the strings were finally installed. Instead, it sounded somewhat clearer.

She can't really be still a minor, Bourbon thought silently in his heart, and finally brought the word "voice change" to his mind with great difficulty.

But he had asked me out to a bar before. Well, for someone who grew up in a winery, it's normal to violate the law protecting minors.

Grappa, or Noël, was sitting at the passenger seat of Bourbon, distracted the entire time.

【Come to think of it, his current car is not the same model as in the original book. 】

In the original novel, Bourbon's white Mazda RX-7FD3S stole the show, with all kinds of cool maneuvers that refreshed Noel's understanding of science.

[That’s right, the car he started with should only be available for sale at the end of this year, and then you can sit in his passenger seat and enjoy the fun of racing.]

【Aren’t you good at racing yourself? 】

[NONO, I'm just a normal person. I can only step on the accelerator to the bottom. I can't break the speed limit of the car or speed like a train.]

"So what did you do this week? I don't think your injury requires you to be hospitalized for a week," Bourbon's seemingly complaining tone was tinged with sarcasm, which was very consistent with the hidden dissatisfaction of a mystical intelligence agent towards his partner.

"Killed someone, put in solitary confinement."

Noel continued to speak the truth, then suddenly leaned closer to Bourbon and looked at his purple-gray pupils that suddenly shrank.

"Grappa, if you don't want to ride in my car, just jump out." Bourbon almost lost control of his temper. He wanted to destroy both the car and himself and die together, so he rubbed Grappa's car against the rock wall on the side of the road.

"I'm just curious about your reaction." Grappa quickly shrank back as if nothing had happened.

【Little Black...】

[You finally want to take action against your idol? ]

【ah?】

[I just want to see if the wound I gave him before has healed? ]

[Injured?]

Xiao Hei recalled his memory and remembered that Noel had reflexively pinched Bourbon's neck, leaving a very rough mark.

【So it’s done? 】

【alright.】

For some reason, Noel's tone sounded a little regretful, which made Xiao Hei, who realized this, speechless.

"So you're still going to the bar?" Bourbon asked.

"No, I'm in conflict with that place."

Last time he jumped off a building, last time he was in a car accident, this time he just said it was a conflict? Bourbon felt a little funny and thought that Grappa's personality was really unpredictable. He had no idea that what he said was true, which was embarrassing.

"Anyway, thanks to you, all we have for the next period of time are missions assigned by the organization." Bourbon said with a headache. Even if it weren't for the pile of missions this week, he would have had more missions than other code members since he teamed up with Grappa. Seeing Grappa's accustomed look, it was obvious that the other party had been working in this high-intensity state.

But it also means that he is valued by the organization, so Bourbon will certainly not miss this opportunity.

"Then the execution of the mission..."

"Don't you have a plan? Just do as you say." Noel said nonchalantly.

Bourbon didn't expect that the other party would directly hand over the command to him, and a flash of surprise flashed across his purple-gray eyes.

"Are you sure? I plan on having you hide on the ceiling and wait for two hours."

Bourbon was testing it, of course he knew that Grappa's physical condition could do it.

But generally people would not agree to this solution, after all, there are obviously easier ways to solve it, right? Bourbon thought about the next mission target, and he would be accompanied by a group of bodyguards at all times.

With Grappa's strength, it is completely feasible to kill all the bodyguards and then carry out the assassination. Two months of partnership is enough for Bourbon to clearly recognize Grappa's strength. It can only be said that if the ultimate goal is to kill the opponent, so far he has not seen anyone better than Grappa, not even Gin.

Grappa's bloodlust is a tacit fact among the organization's people.

"You didn't even say to just go in and kill them?"

Bourbon decided to give it a try. He didn't believe that Grappa hadn't thought about this possibility. From his own perspective, he certainly hoped that there would be as few casualties as possible, especially among innocent people, but shouldn't Grappa think the opposite?

"Haven't you heard that killing fewer people will accumulate virtue?" Noel was already reflecting on what impression he had left on the members of the organization. Except for those low-level members, he never missed a single person when performing a mission. Sometimes he would even deliberately let a few people go because of his face-blindness. However, it is worth mentioning that due to Grappa's strength, it was usually not his turn to deal with ordinary people. Most of the time, it was when gangs robbed gangs and needed hot weapons fighting. Only when there was nothing major happening in Japan during this period of time did he get the task of dealing with the organization's competitors.

But apparently, the deaths of those low-level personnel were more deeply rooted in people's minds than the mission reports that few people were authorized to see.

"Are you still doing good deeds?" Bourbon's calm expression was severely broken. Obviously, the other party's words caused him great psychological harm.

Bourbon remembered what the other party had just said, "Kill someone, put him in solitary confinement."

I managed to calm down, guessing that the organization couldn't stand Grappa's bloodlust and had to punish him accordingly. That's why they held back. It seemed that my goal of reducing casualties was what they wanted.

Grappa is a man who should not be underestimated.

———

On the eighth day, Noel still hadn't returned.

Morofuku Jingguang thought so while sitting on the sofa in the living room.

At first he thought that the other party had not come back for just a few days, but obviously, this time the duration had exceeded the usual time. In addition, the other party did not reply to text messages or answer calls, and his phone was turned off the whole time. If today's text messages had not been sent normally and showed that the other party had checked them, Zhu Fu Jingguang would have had to consider the possibility that the other party was dead somewhere.

But the other party still did not respond.

This phenomenon forced Zhu Fu Jingguang to finally put the possibility of rebellious children running away from home on the agenda.

He couldn't help but reflect on what he said that hurt him? At this time, after determining his future goal, Morobushi Jingguang had already made no secret of his filter for the kid.

Thinking about what was unusual on the day the other person left, especially his own behavior, Morofushi Kagemitsu's cat eyes widened slightly.

Probably....No,

This child, it wouldn't be that he ran away from home just because I didn't cook for him, which is two meals including the midnight snack.

It's grappa after all.

Morobushi Jingguang thought of the other party's arrogant look after killing the bomber, and in his mind he imagined a Q-version Noel dumpling complaining that he had not cooked for him, and he felt that he was not going to last.

As for the bomber, Morobushi Kagemitsu looked at his own hands. Once, in order to save a person, who was the murderer of his father and mother, he rushed into the fire scene, pulled the person out, and jumped down the stairs without hesitation, and was caught by his good friend with a cherry blossom flag.

And now, how much blood was shed during the undercover mission, and how many people were innocent among them.

He knew he was trying to save more people, but human lives are never just numbers.

In this case, what qualifications do I have to blame Grappa, a child who has always lived in this environment.

Sometimes he even felt a little bit of contempt. After fully understanding the incident, looking at the bomber's plan released by the police, he knew that if Noel hadn't killed the man, one of the two best colleagues in the explosives disposal team would probably have died on that Ferris wheel.

If things really developed like that, Morofushi Jingguang didn't dare to think about whether he would be able to find the murderer and torture him to death.

Retracting his thoughts, Zhufu Jingguang sent another message to Noel.

/Are you not coming back tonight? The newly bought pork belly is quite fresh, and it should be delicious if it is made into crispy skin. /

———

"Your phone keeps ringing. Is it text messages from your friends?"

The two of them have completed today's tasks. During the process, Noel's text message ringtone rang every once in a while. The other party did not show any intention of muting it. His face covered by the mask could not show his expression when he read the text messages, but Bourbon could feel that every time he checked the text messages, his mood became serious.

It seems that he is a very important person. Bourbon couldn't help but start testing him again.

"Not really..." Norka paused. He didn't think that Xiaoguang and he were friends. Like a cat and a mouse?

What kind of relationship should that be?

I kidnapped him, and he cooked for me, cleaned the house for me, and ate and slept with me?

"It's a...living-in relationship, right?"

Noel wasn't sure, but this word was the most appropriate explanation.

"Is it your girlfriend?" Bourbon teased subconsciously, but the words "underage" suddenly popped up in his mind, causing the rest of the words to gradually fade away. However, Noel did not notice anything unusual, but felt that Bourbon's thoughts were a little crooked.

[My male god, does he really want to be NTR? Or is he a clay sculpture! 】