Inside the dim bar, orange-yellow lights flickered on and off, casting an atmosphere of elusive intimacy amid the occasional murmur of low conversation and the swaying of glasses.
—This was a bar owned by the Black Organization.
Everyone inside this bar was the sort of criminal who moved through the gray and black margins of society.
Still, anyone with even a little sense knew better than to disturb the few people sitting in the corner of the bar, much less try to eavesdrop on their conversation.
Akai Shuichi, the FBI’s ace investigator, had infiltrated the Black Organization under the alias Moroboshi Dai. With his exceptional sniping ability, he had only recently obtained the codename “Rye Whiskey,” making him one of the people others instinctively knew better than to provoke.
At that moment, he sat at the bar, his thoughts drifting.
Just two days earlier, when he had contacted his direct FBI superior, James Black, to report that he had obtained a codename, he had unexpectedly received another piece of news.
His junior, Palmer Gary—the FBI’s dazzling new all-purpose prodigy, said to be the finest ace investigator to emerge since Akai Shuichi himself—had arrived in Japan.
Yes, that kind.
The kind who left behind a brief report saying, “I’m going to investigate the Black Organization because someone I care deeply about is connected to them,” and then walked off in grand style.
The key problem was that no one had managed to stop him.
His superiors had, in fact, been rather baffled.
—After all, based on years of psychological evaluations, Palmer was actually an extremely rational and cold-hearted person. He was simply very good at wearing an approachable, flirtatious mask, to the point that he had built up terrifyingly extensive connections in social circles...
So just who had the power to make a man like that directly betray his own reason???
Even though no one in the FBI who knew Palmer Gary could make sense of it, the FBI had moved to intercept him the very moment they discovered his report. They stopped him from leaving the country, made it impossible for him to board a flight or use any other means of transportation to get out of the United States, and yet...
All that could be said in the end was that he truly lived up to his reputation. No one knew where he had gotten it from, but he had somehow acquired a plane and then dramatically flown himself all the way from the United States to Japan.
When Akai Shuichi learned the details, he fell silent.
...Have junior FBI agents really evolved into this now?
Otherwise, James would never have gone out of his way to contact him. Even over text, the weariness practically seeped through.
After James confirmed that Akai Shuichi’s surroundings were secure, he sent over a photograph that would self-destruct after viewing.
It was an ID photo. The man in it had brown wolf-cut hair and strikingly handsome features. Even through the plain blue background, his powerful presence came through clearly. His eyes were a rare amber, and even in an ID photo he was smiling in a way that was just a little too casual, softening what would otherwise have been a sharper edge.
Akai Shuichi, however, had no special reaction. He simply memorized the man’s facial features and gave him one straightforward assessment.
It would have been a waste for that face not to go to Hollywood.
James had said, “...Here’s the situation. He left the United States five days ago, and we got word from him two days ago.”
“—He said he has already obtained a codename, and that he’ll be meeting you very soon.”
Akai Shuichi: “.......”
A codename in three days???
Even Akai Shuichi could not help falling silent for a moment. “What identity is he using right now?”
After all, when they met, it was not as though he could simply walk up and say, “Hello, Palmer, I’m your senior, Akai Shuichi.”
To his surprise, his superior was even more silent than he was.
“...He’s currently calling himself Fick Naim,” James finally said with difficulty after quite a while.
Palmer’s direct superior happened to be on good terms with James, and James had the distinct impression that the man had aged visibly in just a few days.
Which was only fair.
First, Palmer had casually flown off in his own plane and vanished so completely that no one could contact him.
Then, after three whole days, when he finally took the initiative to contact the FBI again, all he gave them was a brief “I got a codename,” followed by “Please fabricate a background and life history for ‘Fick Naim’ in the United States. Make up whatever you want. He just needs to have existed.”
His direct superior: “............”
A whole fistful of hair had probably fallen out overnight.
What was that supposed to mean, he got a codename?
And what in the world was “Fick Naim”...? Could he possibly have put any less thought into it?
And finally, the most ridiculous part of all—
“Make up whatever you want”!!
If one were being serious about it, Palmer was undercover right now, not playing some kind of game. What undercover agent did not prepare an entire airtight disguise, undergo training, memorize a fabricated life story, and make all kinds of detailed arrangements beforehand? And yet this idiot had simply said, “Make something up”?
What if the Black Organization member assigned to check his file discovered that his behavior did not match the fabricated background at all?
Palmer’s superior had been just about to sit him down and have a proper talk, only to discover that he had vanished again.
His superior: “..................”
What kind of sins had he committed in a past life to deserve this?
What if, later on, a member of the Black Organization asked him, “I heard you used to do so-and-so in the States. You must be very experienced. Show us what you can do”?
At this point, his superior felt quite certain that this once unfailingly reliable all-purpose junior would just smile and say, “Really? Thank you. I only learned today that I apparently used to do that.”
Just imagining the scene, the man had quietly pinched the bridge of his nose.
...But what else could he do? It was still his subordinate. He could only spoil him through tears.
Of course, something like this would inevitably go onto the record, but Palmer was so obviously unconcerned that no one could even summon the energy to argue with him.
Well, in any case, obtaining a codename in three days certainly did justice to his halo as “the strongest ace investigator of the FBI’s new generation.” As for the details, Palmer definitely was not going to explain them. So the FBI could only hurry up and finish the necessary background files, logistics, and intelligence support on their end.
In the end, James had added one tactful remark.
“I’m on good terms with Palmer’s superior. He very much wants to know who this person Palmer cares about actually is...”
According to Palmer, that person was already entangled with the Black Organization. So as long as it did not interfere with the original mission, it would be worth making contact where possible.
After hearing all that, Akai Shuichi pressed at his brow. “I understand.”
He slowly let out a breath as he sorted through the current intelligence and situation in his mind. “So, Palmer... I mean Fick. Does he know my identity over here?”
James replied, “We didn’t tell him your specific identity. In theory, he only knows that we have an undercover operative inside the Black Organization.”
He deliberately stressed the words “in theory.”
Akai Shuichi: “.......All right. Fine. I understand.”
Sure enough.
When Gin sent out a message summoning the members currently active in the area, Akai Shuichi immediately had a feeling that this most likely had something to do with that junior he had never even met.
An old-fashioned clock hung on the bar’s wall, its hands ticking forward.
And at the precise moment they returned to zero— the door opened.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
The sound of leather shoes striking the floor was instantly recognizable, measured and unhurried.
“—In tribute to my great predecessor.”
A glass of Rye Whiskey was held out before him. Akai Shuichi frowned, his expression cold. “Take your drink away, rookie.”
Though he still maintained the coldness appropriate to Rye’s persona, Akai Shuichi could not help sighing inwardly.
—He definitely already knew that Rye in the Organization was the FBI’s undercover operative.
Although the available intelligence described him as the FBI’s top ace of the last two years, Akai Shuichi had never actually had direct contact with the man himself. And on top of that, he currently seemed rather difficult to control...
So Akai Shuichi was not about to trust him completely.
Whether the man was truly loyal to the FBI, whether he was trustworthy at all—in this undercover life, where danger lurked at every step, Akai Shuichi would much rather rely on his own judgment.
The deep green of Akai’s gaze collided with the warm amber of the other’s, and the newly risen wolf king bared his fangs at his predecessor.
At the side, Gin let out a cold laugh and ground out the cigarette in his hand. “Blue Hawaii.”
He cut through the undercurrent between Fick and Rye. A chill killing intent radiated from him as he offered what could just barely be called an introduction. “Blue Hawaii. A newly inducted codename member.”
Those same wolf-green eyes turned toward Akai Shuichi. “Rye, did you know Blue Whiskey before this?”
Rye: “......”
I only heard about him two days ago. He’s my junior. Does that count?
Instead of answering Gin directly, Rye turned the question back on Fick, who was watching the exchange with obvious interest.
“I’d like to know that too.”
There was danger in his voice.
“—Where exactly would Blue Whiskey have met me?”
“Oh my.” At the side, the thousand-faced witch Vermouth let out a laugh without the slightest attempt to hide it, her lips as red as flame. “How entertaining.”
“The honor is mine, if I have earned your smile.”
Blue Hawaii smiled faintly. Those amber eyes practically overflowed with honeyed sweetness, carrying a captivating charm.
And yet although he spoke words of sweet affection, the moment he finished speaking, the ambiguous atmosphere around him dissipated so subtly that it was almost enough to make one wonder whether it had been an illusion at all. He controlled it with complete ease.
Vermouth raised her glass toward Fick, then drained it in one swallow. “You really are delightful.”
Blue Hawaii slowly removed the leather glove from his right hand, picked up the glass of Rye Whiskey that Akai Shuichi had refused to take, and touched it toward Vermouth in return before downing it as well. Every gesture he made was filled with an indefinable elegance and sensual ease.
“Now is not the time for flirting.”
Gin’s interruption carried a faint warning as he fixed his gaze on the man with the wolf-tail haircut. “Blue Whiskey, you still haven’t answered my question.”
Blue Hawaii said, “All right, all right~ No need to be so tense.”
He sighed softly, his brows relaxing. “We met at driving school.”
Gin: “......Driving school?”
“Mhm. Flight school.”
Blue Hawaii tilted his head slightly and looked toward the silent Rye Whiskey. “He was my senior there.”
Akai Shuichi, who knew the man had flown himself across the Pacific: “......”
Gin asked, “What flight school?”
The man answered without hesitation. “Hawaii.”
Akai Shuichi, once again: “.”
Good. The moment I get back, I’m having James arrange a Hawaii flight-school backstory for Moroboshi Dai and Fick Naim.
The system watched Yuki’s entire sequence of operations in stunned silence. 【? What if your cover blows?......】
Yuki said calmly, 【Don’t panic. I know what I’m doing.】
He sighed. 【After all, [Beika] is firmly on the red side at the moment, so in the early stage it would be pretty difficult to get close enough to these core black-side members to farm Recognition Level. But with Shinichi not yet having become Conan, it feels like too much of a waste not to farm the Black Organization’s Recognition Level right now.......】
The system took a beat to catch up with Yuki’s thinking. 【So you’re going to use the [Hawaii] persona to deliberately draw the black side’s attention toward [Beika]?】
Yuki: 【Bingo~】
Gin stared at Blue Hawaii for a long moment before warning him, “Do not let me catch you with any weaknesses.”
Blue Hawaii merely shrugged. The lines of muscle hidden beneath his suit shifted faintly beneath the dim light, while the smile on his face never wavered. “If that is what you desire, Mr. Gin.”
Gin clicked his tongue. He hated this kind of insincere, affected person most of all, but Blue Hawaii had been assigned by that Gentleman himself... Gin could not be bothered to continue sparring with him. Today’s task was only to introduce him and pass along the message.
“Midorikawa Hikaru. Amuro Tooru.”
He indicated the two men who had been listening quietly from the side and said in an offhand tone, “Their codename qualification test will be your responsibility, Blue Hawaii.”
Gin rose to his feet, the black hem of his coat slicing a sharp arc through the air.
“—Do not disappoint that Gentleman.”
With that, he turned and left, and Vodka hurried after him.
At that very moment, Akai Shuichi’s mind was completely occupied by one question:
How exactly had Palmer Gary managed this???
Not only did he seem to have made contact with that Gentleman himself... in only three days! He had even been put in charge of the codename qualification test for Midorikawa Hikaru and Amuro Tooru, who had joined the Organization at roughly the same time as Akai!
If Akai himself had not gotten his codename one step ahead of them... would he be standing there alongside those two as a candidate under evaluation right now? :D
And yet under everyone’s gaze, Blue Hawaii did not seem remotely nervous. Instead, with perfect composure, he took a folded map from his pocket— and from inside the map, a photograph slipped out.
The man placed the photograph on the table with an almost cherishing care. Even Vermouth, some distance away, cast it an interested glance.
“He is your codename qualification assignment.”
The photograph showed, unmistakably, the distinctively colored-haired young Public Security officer. He was lying on what appeared to be a sofa, eyes closed, brows faintly drawn together, his complexion carrying a sickly pallor.
Having heard about Yuki Mu from Kazami, Amuro Tooru imperceptibly clenched his fist and then released it. Yet on his face there appeared only a trace of killing intent. “Do we kill him?”
The casual disregard for a human life in his tone was perfectly convincing.
“No.” Blue Hawaii smiled and shook his head. His tone was almost gentle. “—Your task is to get close to him. Report everything he does, and everyone he comes into contact with, back to me.”
He tossed a ring of keys onto the table, gave a light blink, tugged at his tie, and turned away in a smooth, handsome motion, leaving behind only an easy, stylish silhouette and words heavy with implication.
“That is the key to the apartment next door to this gentleman’s residence.”
“—Do not disappoint me.”
When he reached the door of the bar, he seemed to remember something else. One hand braced against the door, he looked back over his shoulder, tilted his head slightly, and offered an open, easy wink with those amber eyes.
“But mind your limits. His health is not very good, so do not go too far~”
He smiled, his handsome, flirtatious face half bathed in warm orange light and half hidden in the darkness outside.
“Otherwise, I really will be angry... so please be careful.”
Only after giving a final, impeccably courteous nod did Blue Hawaii leave the bar completely.
Snap.
The door closed behind him, neither too heavily nor too lightly.
Left behind inside the bar, Midorikawa Hikaru and Amuro Tooru both fell silent.
What kind of punchable client was that guy supposed to be? .jpg
As for Akai Shuichi, his mood had become rather strangely complicated.
That attitude of his...
There was no mistake now, was there? The man in that photograph was the very reason his junior had flown himself across the Pacific in the first place...?
But then how exactly was he supposed to explain this to James?
—It was not that the person Palmer cared about had gotten entangled with the Black Organization, and that was why he came.
It was that after Palmer came to Japan, he himself dragged the person he cared about into entanglement with the Black Organization???