Chapter 76
Her eyes, having adjusted for a long time, found the light from the table lamp gradually softening. An’an grabbed a pillow and hugged it to her chest. The space beside her was still warm.
She had been thoroughly comforted.
Unlike that other time, he hadn’t left without a sound. Instead, he had deliberately made a noise, lingering for a long time before leaving.
The light that dispelled the darkness, the low voice that had woken her, checking his bullets in front of her—he had shown his attitude with his actions.
“So clever,” An’an said, kneading the pillow in her arms as if it were someone’s face. “If I had woken up in the middle of the night and not seen him, he would have been eliminated.”
She would absolutely not give him a second chance. Her ex-boyfriend would be demoted overnight. From then on, a certain someone’s status in An’an’s heart would be permanently reduced to “Blond Host Bro,” sitting in a row with Sunglasses Bodyguard Bro and Twisted Deep-Closet Bro, eating bullets.
Since he had learned to report in, this relationship could continue.
“But speaking of which, what exactly is Bourbon’s mission?” An’an asked, pulling the pillow into a pancake shape.
According to Mentor Scotch, Bourbon was an intelligence operative for the distillery.
“An intelligence operative. Is that the same as an info broker?” An’an’s mind conjured up the face of Shinjuku’s number one info broker, Orihara Izaya.
A troublemaker who stirred up trouble everywhere, while shouting, “I love humans! I love humans the most!”, running wildly through the streets, a life-or-death race, with the blond bartender, Heiwajima-kun, chasing behind him, holding a vending machine high.
An’an: No, no, according to his hair color, Bourbon should be the blond bartender.
An exclusive photo of Furuya Rei uprooting a vending machine appeared in her mind.
“He can’t do that,” the girl said, hesitatingly gesturing. “With his body fat percentage…”
A vending machine is a bit too much to ask of a person. Holding her with one arm, on the other hand, was more than enough.
An’an shook her head forcefully. “Enough! Stop thinking about the vending machine! No matter what bad things Bourbon is doing in the middle of the night, the probability of him being hit in the foot by a vending machine is one in a million. Stop it.”
Ring, ring, ring!
The phone on the bedside table rang. An’an threw the pillow aside and picked up the phone.
Can you really slack off and chat with your girlfriend on the phone in the middle of a distillery mission?
The girl, while answering the phone, sighed. How many wage thieves are hidden in the Black Organization? Is this a distortion of human nature or a moral decay?
“An’an,” Furuya’s slightly rushed breathing came through the phone, so clear in the empty night it was as if he were panting in her ear. “Can you come and find me now?”
“I accidentally got a little hurt. I’m near the vending machine five hundred meters southwest of the hotel…”
An’an: What! A vending machine?!
She was shocked. “That’s a one in a million chance! Is this some kind of law of attraction?”
Furuya: Hm? What one in a million?
The undercover Public Security officer, puzzled, moved the phone away and turned his head to look at the quiet and refined vending machine beside him.
“I’ll be right there,” the girl’s anxious voice came through the phone. “Stay where you are. Don’t move.”
In less than ten minutes, the dark-haired girl, who had rushed out with just a coat thrown over her, arrived at the vending machine, carrying a first-aid kit she had gotten from the front desk.
“Are you okay?” An’an asked nervously. “Do we need to call an ambulance and tell the hospital to prepare for an amputation?”
Furuya hesitated. “I don’t think I’m that badly hurt…”
An’an: Human, are you underestimating the vending machine?
With a beep, a drink dropped from the vending machine’s dispensing slot. Furuya bent down, picked up the orange soda, and handed it to the girl, who was sweating from running.
He moved freely. Not only did he not need an amputation, but An’an couldn’t even see where he was hurt.
The girl’s gaze went from anxious to suspicious. Furuya let her look him up and down.
He pulled the coat An’an had casually thrown over her shoulders tighter and buttoned it up for her. “Although it’s already spring, the nights are still a little cold. Be careful not to catch a cold.”
“Who do you think I came out for in the middle of the night?” the dark-haired girl said grumpily. “The moon is already asleep, and only I can’t rest.”
It sounded as if Furuya’s call had once again woken her from her sleep.
But Furuya knew that An’an couldn’t possibly be asleep.
After he had left, she had probably been sitting on the bed, hugging a pillow, and while beating the pillow as if she were beating him, her mind had been wandering.
From Bourbon’s rebellion against the ruthless distillery’s exploitation of labor, with a single call bringing countless followers, to the failure of the rebellion, Bourbon being suppressed by the evil forces, and tragically imprisoned, the two of them looking at each other through iron bars with tears in their eyes…
“Of course not,” An’an denied. “My imagination isn’t that wild. I was just thinking about you uprooting a vending machine.”
Furuya: Uprooting a vending machine? Me? (cat confusion.jpg)
This was a blind spot in the undercover Public Security officer’s knowledge. In any case, Beika people should play less with Ikebukuro people.
“Didn’t you say you were hurt?” An’an hadn’t forgotten the reason she had left the hotel in the middle of the night. “Where’s the wound?”
Furuya raised his hand.
The dark-haired, dark-eyed girl’s eyes widened. She strained her vision to the limit to find the wound.
No luck. She took out her phone and turned on the flashlight.
Her hard work paid off. Finally, An’an found a thin, bleeding scratch on the pad of his left ring finger.
Her: “…”
Her: “If I had come a little later, it would have healed, right?”
Apologize to your platelets! Apologize now!
“But it hurts a lot,” the blond young man said, frowning, a pained expression on his face. “I was scratched by a sharp weapon while chasing an enemy. It seems the enemy coated the blade with chili water.”
Chili water? An’an couldn’t help but frown, her nose wrinkling. It did indeed sound very painful.
But the wound was so shallow…
“Does it really hurt that much?” the girl asked hesitantly.
Furuya nodded.
An’an lowered her head and took his ring finger into her mouth.
The cool, moist saliva soaked the wound. She licked the thin trail of blood.
“Is it better?” An’an said, letting go and gently blowing on the scratch.
The wound had almost healed, and she hadn’t tasted any spiciness. Although the possibility that some people were particularly sensitive to pain could not be ruled out, she had most likely been deceived.
In the middle of the night, luring her out of the hotel. What was Bourbon trying to do?
If it was to come to the conclusion that “she’s so easy to deceive, it’s so satisfying to deceive her, I’ll continue to deceive her in the future”… An’an’s gaze fell on the scalpel in the first-aid kit.
It was said to be a gift left by a certain Dr. Mori who had stayed at the hotel. An ability-user helping an ability-user. She would not be merciful!
The wind was strong at night. Furuya had An’an stand in a sheltered spot, and he blocked the wind.
“I was thinking that since An’an couldn’t sleep tonight anyway, I might as well introduce you to a new person,” Furuya began.
A car’s headlights lit up in the distance. a figure gradually walked towards the vending machine.
“The culprit has been apprehended and taken back to Public Security for interrogation. The results will be reported to you within tomorrow, Mr. Furuya.”
A short-haired man in a suit with glasses said in a stiff tone, the tablet in his hand displaying the culprit’s file.
Kazami Yuya had only just finished reporting to his superior when he discovered that there was another person standing behind Furuya.
An’an looked at him in shock.
He looked at An’an in shock.
“Ahem,” Furuya interrupted the strange, thousand-year-stare atmosphere between his subordinate and his girlfriend and introduced them. “This is An’an, my girlfriend.”
“This is Kazami, my subordinate at Public Security.”
Kazami: “H-hello! I’ve been watching Teacher An’an’s new drama. Yoko-san recommended it. She loves it very much.”
An’an: “Miss Okino Yoko? I like her very much too.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you. Thank you for your support.”
The girl, after finishing her pleasantries, had a blank expression. “Now please tell me, what is Public Security?”
“And who is Furuya?”
Kazami: Wait a minute! Why are you asking me?!
Are you just casually throwing a life-or-death question at an innocent bystander? Isn’t this your couple’s internal problem?
The honest man was drenched in sweat.
He was just a corporate beast of burden who had come to report on his work. Mr. Furuya, how long are you going to stay out of this?
“You can send me the report before tomorrow afternoon,” Furuya said, timely rescuing his innocent, victimized subordinate. “Thank you for your hard work. You can go back now.”
Kazami ran away without hesitation, rushing out of the eye of the storm.
“Public Security refers to a special department in the police system, subordinate to the Security Planning Division of the National Police Agency’s Security Bureau,” Furuya said, taking out his police badge. “My rank is inspector.”
His name was printed on the police badge. An’an read it out. “Furuya… Rei?”
“Mhm,” the blond young man smiled. “Just call me Rei.”
The girl felt her worldview had been shattered. “Then who is Amuro Tooru?”
Furuya: “A fake name.”
“And Bourbon?”
“A codename.”
He answered fluently.
The dark-haired girl was enlightened. “I see—you’re a con artist!”
Using the fake name “Amuro Tooru” to walk among people, deceiving an innocent girl’s sincere feelings, and then transforming into “Bourbon” to play with people in the palm of his hand, and finally retreating completely with the identity of “Furuya Rei,” leaving in a carefree manner.
What a well-thought-out con artist. Terrifying!
An’an really wanted to call the police right now.
“Please,” Furuya considerately handed her his phone. “As long as An’an doesn’t mind that the person who responds to the call is also me.”
An’an: I mind very much!
“A con artist and a police officer are in cahoots. This country is doomed,” the dark-haired girl said sorrowfully. “I’m going to emigrate. Right now. I’ll contact my kind-hearted Russian friend in Yokohama immediately.”
“Hasn’t your kind-hearted Russian friend been wanted for a long time?” if Furuya remembered correctly. “I’ve seen the wanted poster for the demon Fyodor issued by the Special Division for Unusual Powers on the internal network.”
The internal network, a subordinate of Public Security, a police handbook recited from memory, a mysterious obsession with teaching Suspect An the criminal law—all the past doubts had been explained.
‘I was thinking that since An’an couldn’t sleep tonight anyway, I might as well introduce you to a new person.’
The new person was not Kazami Yuya.
It was Furuya Rei himself.
This was all he had been hiding. All the truths were revealed to An’an tonight.
“Tricking you to come out by pretending to be hurt was the last time I will lie to you.”
Furuya said seriously, “After tonight, I will have no more secrets from you.”
This was the heaviest trust an undercover agent could give.
An’an’s brain struggled to process the information.
First, her boyfriend was a super-duper con artist.
After they had gone through the process of confession, dating, breaking up, getting back together, and dating again, she had finally learned his real name.
A name, information that should have been known at their first meeting, had gone through such a tortuous process before she knew it.
Fan An: No, you guys who don’t even dare to show your real names, what right do you have to play with my Fan family’s puns?
Just by not changing my name, I’m already dozens of streets ahead of him!
Second, who needs a fake name?
An’an had been in and out of the police station seven times. The police officers she knew all wore their badges honestly. No one’s real name was something that couldn’t be seen.
Unless it was a secret mission.
Finally, why was a Public Security officer a waiter at a café, and why was he a beast of burden at a distillery?
An’an: It’s here! A more stylish theme than my mentor being a body double in the distillery has appeared!
“My Boyfriend is an Undercover Agent” is currently airing on a dark channel. Please look for the new best actor, Furuya Rei, a man who is not in the entertainment industry but can act better than anyone.
The professional actress Miss An was about to face the biggest Waterloo of her career. What do I do if my boyfriend has been acting all along?
Break up?
What An’an minded the most was being kept in the dark. But Furuya had confessed everything today. Logically, he should be praised.
Angry?
It didn’t seem very useful. Whether she got angry at him or beat him up, the end result would definitely be being coaxed and deceived, kissed and hugged, and then she would be shamelessly coaxed.
So confusing. Her brain was overloaded.
The dark-haired girl had spiral eyes, looking both pitiful and cute. Furuya carefully pulled her into his arms and lovingly stroked the girl’s hot head.
I’m sorry. The amount of information was a bit much. He had had the same reaction when he had learned that Hiromitsu was resurrected. His brain had almost short-circuited.
An’an had made him short-circuit once. He was returning the favor once. Very fair.
“…The Special Division for Unusual Powers,” the girl, muffled in Furuya’s arms, said in a ghostly voice.
“You know I’m an ability-user,” An’an said, pointing to the core of the matter. “This is definitely not something you found out on your own.”
No one could find out her ability. Before An’an herself went to the Special Division for Unusual Powers to update her file, even Edogawa Ranpo would have to scratch his head at the blank space in [My Respected ■■ Mentor].
Her ability had been leaked to Furuya.
There was only one suspect.
“Confess!” the sole direct disciple of Mentor Scotch was enraged. “When did Hiro betray me and go to your side?”
So, the traitor was on the inside!