"This morning, you contacted the FBI?"
Furuya Rei repeated.
Holding his glass, he rubbed the tip of his thumb over the rim, staining it with some of the wet liquor, "'You'?"
It wasn't the police who contacted the FBI, it was Morofushi Hiromitsu.
So: "'FBI'?"
Morofushi Hiromitsu contacted the FBI privately, or...
"It's Mr. Moroboshi," Morofushi Hiromitsu's eyes lowered to his amber-colored glass, "He'll be in Tokyo in three days."
Mr. Moroboshi was Moroboshi Dai.
He was a former member of the organization's code name, Rye Whiskey, an undercover agent sent into the organization by the FBI, who withdrew from the organization when his identity was revealed, and has since disappeared from the organization's radar.
Moroboshi Dai is a pseudonym; the FBI agent's real name is Akai Shūichi.
Morofushi Hiromitsu explains why he contacted Akai Shūichi on a personal basis, "Mr. Moroboshi had worked with 'Messiah' for some time and knew a part of his past,"
He pauses for a moment when referring to Ichijō Mirai, who, being more than just a personal matter, ends up calling him by his nickname.
"He wants to share information about 'Satan' and 'Messiah' with us."
Akai Shūichi is the FBI, and Morofushi Hiromitsu is the Neon police, so there's no way they'd be in private contact with the police behind the FBI's back.
And the FBI doesn't necessarily know Ichijō Mirai's important secret.
Even if Ichijō Mirai went to the FBI after leaving the police academy, Akai Shūichi probably spent more time with him than Morofushi Hiromitsu did with him in a few months, but there's no definite correlation between the closeness of a relationship and the amount of time spent together.
It's not always clear who knows more, and it's not always clear if there's any major overlap in their information.
At first, Morofushi Hiromitsu didn't agree, especially since the information shared was designated as 'Satan' and 'Messiah'.
But, "He said-"
Morofushi Hiromitsu lowered his eyes, looking at the colorful colored lights haloing in the liquor in splashes of brilliant colors, his tone was calm, his bite soft, "He entered the organization knowing that the organization knew that he was FBI."
This sentence is a bit of a tongue twister, a bit of cpu burning, Furuya Rei but immediately reacted to a piece of information: from the very beginning, the organization knew that Akai Shūichi was the FBI.
This message hit the nail on the head: did the organization know about his and Morofushi Hiromitsu's identities?
Furuya Rei had been thinking about this since he downloaded and unzipped Morofushi Hiromitsu's zip file and learned that the Ichijō family had two children, both of whom had joined the Organization.
The two children, one of whom had been taken from the organization at birth and the other after the death of the two Ichijō police officers, had grown up together in the organization.
One grew into 'Satan' in a deserted garden, irrigated by blood, while the other endured in a bloody garden, growing into 'Messiah' with the sunshine and rain of memories, and then escaping to bask in the sunshine and rain again, two sides of the same coin, almost entirely different from each other.
Given the size and means of the organization, Ichijō Mirai's escape must have been very difficult.
He was just a young man, and when he escaped, how did he do it?
One grew up in the abandoned garden, irrigated by blood, and became Satan. The other endured in the bloody garden, grew up to become Messiah with the sunshine and rain in his memories, and escaped after growing up, and was bathed in sunshine and rain again. They are two sides of the same coin, but they are completely different.
If it is the former, then while Ichijō Mirai breathes the sunny air, there is a good chance that the Organization's henchmen are nearby, providing him with protection and surveillance.
...That organization would have been watching his classmates, and would have seen the police's undercover operation clearly.
Furuya Rei doesn't want it to be the former, believing that Ichijō Mirai is capable of doing the latter, but reason tells him that it probably won't be the latter: during his time at the police academy, Ichijō Mirai has not been hunted down by the mafia in any way.
In contrast, during his training as a criminal in disguise, he'd been a real handful in Tokyo, as if he'd been given a lot of subtle help.
Which begs the question: if the organization knew about it, why did they put up with the undercover agent without even a bleat when the wool was pulled over their backs like a sheep?
He's more submissive than a sleeping husband in a porno.
Since the police don't know the organization, they could have just eliminated the undercover agents without a trace, so why let them get into a position where they'd have access to secrets?
Besides, Furuya Rei is in charge of intelligence.
He couldn't understand.
Or rather, he realized, but didn't want to accept it.
Because of Ichijō Mirai.
Because of 'Satan'.
The organization always cares about the principle of confidentiality and does not want to appear in the sight of the police of various countries. It finds that if some excellent police officers notice its existence, they will immediately kill it. The reason why it tolerates the existence of undercover agents is because Ichijō Mirai did something and said something that made the organization tolerate it after weighing the pros and cons.
As for what Ichijō Mirai did or said, it's easy to speculate in light of his current status: ... 'Satan's' actions also violated the organization's principle of remaining in the shadows.
It's more acceptable for the organization to turn a blind eye to an undercover agent than to say, 'Satan is at it again, and 100 people are dead in XX' or some other tragedy that would shock the world and draw the world's attention.
Furuya Rei was reluctant to accept this because it was easy to speculate: Who is 'Satan'?
He's a cold-blooded guy who is recognized as ruthless by the black world.
In order to play such a guy and provide shelter for the undercover agents, Ichijō Mirai would probably have to do something consistent with 'Satan' so that the organization wouldn't suspect his identity.
But what would be consistent with Satan's identity...?
Even if Ichijō Mirai had entered the organization in disguise after cooperating with the police, there were still some things for which he had to pay the penalty at the end of his undercover mission.
The bar was crowded with people, and the raucous accompaniment of singing and flirting muffled Furuya Rei's voice, who paused for half a second before asking in the ear-splitting silence, "So, who are we..."
"The way Me- 'Messiah' convinced the organization..."
"That's exactly what I'm saying," Morofushi Hiromitsu said, "I didn't know the truth from the beginning, it was nearly a year after joining the organization that I slowly noticed some strange anomalies and found traces of Mirai in the organization,"
At that time, he thought that 'Satan' had heard about his existence from Ichijō Mirai, and had created some traces that he couldn't tell whether they were cared for or targeted.
'Almost a year after joining the organization'.
It sounds like Morofushi Hiromitsu thought he was too slow to realize it.
Furuya Rei: "..."
I'm sorry, it took him almost seven years to realize...
"It's normal that you didn't notice," Morofushi Hiromitsu added, sensing the subtle silence, "the organization's main philosophy is to be mysterious, so mysterious that not even the members of the organization know who their colleagues are, and each member of the organization has access to a limited number of codename members without overlap,"
"The member of the organization I'm always in contact with is Gin, and the member of the organization you're always in contact with is Belmode."
"...so it's normal that you didn't notice."
He paused for a moment, his tone subtle, "And when you started contacting Gin, you realized it, didn't you?"
"If you'd been in contact with Gin before, you might have realized it sooner, in a month or two instead of a year."
Uh-huh?
That's a strange thing to say.
It's not the first time Morofushi Hiromitsu has associated Ichijō Mirai with Gin, and it's not the first time he's said something so strange.
It's as if Ichijō Mirai and Gin are companions who have a close relationship.
But that's impossible.
...It can't be?
Even though Ichijō Mirai had fully utilized the spirit of a miscreant dog during his time at the police academy, Furuya Rei couldn't imagine him disguising himself as 'Satan' and doing the necessary disguises to fit his identity on the way to a mission, let alone being a companion to that ruthless, cold-blooded guy that the organization was known for.
"He's not 'Satan'," Morofushi Hiromitsu said, "It's bound to be tough to dispel the organization's suspicions, and I'm guessing that, for some reason or another, he's probably working with Gin in some way,"
"...Cooperation regarding 'Satan in disguise'."
"Gin knew his true identity, knew that we were his friends, assisted him in disguising himself as 'Satan', and also assisted him in avoiding us," His tone was subtle once again, "because of that knowledge, Gin's attitude towards us was strange, so disgusted, yet offering help as if he valued it highly,"
"For example."
The lights in the living room were so colorful that the dappled light shone on Morofushi Hiromitsu's face, but not his expression, he turned the lights off, and the surroundings quickly fell into a deep darkness.
In the darkness, only the light from the screen of his cell phone waved faintly, barely outlining his tense jaw as he said to Furuya Rei on the other end of the phone, "The time my identity was exposed."
Of course, being an undercover agent involves the risk of having one's cover blown, and Morofushi Hiromitsu's cover was blown.
It was a subtle, unexpected moment when Morofushi Hiromitsu had just finished a mission and was telling Gin about it and getting his next assignment when he saw a new message pop up on Gin's cell phone screen.
The message was sent by a member of Codename, explaining that he had detected an undercover agent in the organization, and after some clever investigation, he had traced it back to Morofushi Hiromitsu, and asked Gin what to do about it.
The screen of the cell phone was so bright that the whole car seemed to be a stage under the spotlight.
The world was quiet, so quiet that Gin and Morofushi Hiromitsu seemed to have died at the same time.
One of them was staring at his cell phone in silence for a long time, unable to return to his senses, and could have gone to a coffin and competed with the Aborigines without moving a muscle, except for his face, while the other one was staring at Gin's cell phone for a long time, quietly contemplating the truths of life.
After a few minutes of silence, one of them put the black screened phone into his pocket, nodded his head calmly as if it was an ordinary company receiving a report on an employee, and said in a calm tone of voice something about how the organization would probably start investigating the accuracy of this piece of information in about three days' time, and asked Morofushi Hiromitsu to take a leave of absence from work and wait for the organization to take care of the situation.
One put his eyes back, nodded his head calmly, and said that although the organization had never investigated members suspected of being undercover agents, and had never done so, and had never had much experience in investigations, he was sure that the organization would do a good job of investigating and clearing his name, and that he would be staying in Tokyo for the time being, and would wait for the decision of the organization to be made by his home inspector.
…
Morofushi Hiromitsu couldn't understand why Gin, who had always been a hardened warrior and a staunch defender of the organization's purity, didn't just shoot himself on the spot and let himself go.
In the absence of sufficient information, he couldn't bet that Gin was one of Satan's men, and knew that he was a friend of Ichijō Mirai's who cared about him, and was harboring him, but could only conclude that the organization was trying to catch a big fish.
He activated the emergency signal, telling the police not to move or contact him, and like an undercover police officer who panics at being exposed, he hurriedly fled, only to be caught up by members of the organization.
In doing so, Morofushi Hiromitsu had already prepared for his own death, and had cleared all traces of himself in advance to ensure that even if he died, the police, his colleagues and his family would not be exposed to any information.
Then he was caught up on the rooftop.
"...At that time, a Codename member who caught up with me was Rye Whiskey," Morofushi Hiromitsu said slowly after a long pause, "As I was about to shoot myself, he suddenly reached out his hand and handed me a pistol bullet."
"It was an ordinary bullet."
But it meant something.
"He said..."
In another pause, Morofushi Hiromitsu closed his eyes. It was as if he could hear the cold wind on the rooftop, the sound of his own rapid breathing, and the sound of hurried footsteps that sounded abruptly from the stairwell.
He still had the only remaining piece of information that needed to be destroyed: a cell phone to contact the police.
Akai Shūichi might be trustworthy, but the footsteps coming after him were probably members of the organization, and they could not be trusted.
The cell phone must be destroyed.
But just before Morofushi Hiromitsu pulled the trigger, Akai Shūichi stretched his spread palms a little further, and his face didn't change even a little when he heard the footsteps.
He said, "That guy will take care of it for you."
"There's no need for you to die in the line of duty," Said the FBI with what looked like a sneer on his face, "Even if you try to assassinate that gentleman, as long as you don't die on the spot, that guy can take care of it for you,"
"You think the organization doesn't know who you are?"
"Gin also reminded you to have your police colleagues process your information in three days, so that your background can pass muster and everyone can turn a blind eye and pretend they don't know, right?"
"They won't try to provoke 'Satan', or Ichijō Mirai again."
Akai Shūichi's bite was a little odd as he said this, as if he was paying extra attention to the wording and wasn't quite happy with the way he said it.
"Should we try it, the owner of the footsteps is either a guy with the same identity as us," he inquired, 'or a member of the organization who saw you about to shoot yourself and immediately shouted, 'The organization has already investigated, Mr. Scotch, you're not an undercover agent, please calm down'?"
Footsteps came up.
It was Furuya Rei.
The moment he realized that Morofushi Hiromitsu was pointing a gun at him and was about to shoot himself, his expression changed to one of police panic.
In less than a second, it changed to one of the code-named members being upset that Akai Shūichi had arrived before him.
He and Akai Shūichi raised their guns.
Another rush of footsteps came up.
One of the Organization members crawled up to the rooftop and desperately shouted out, "Mr. Scotch! The organization has found out that you are not an undercover agent!"
"Please don't be angry, the guy who dared to slander you has been dealt with by Mr. Gin!"
"All three of you calm down and put down your guns!!!"