Feeling lost at this, Morofushi Hiromitsu could only look at them, having no idea what was going on.
"It's just.." Matsuda Jinpei gave two chuckles, a mischievous grin spreading across his face as if he were planning something wicked.
Keidan, do you and Furuya have any secure communication channels so that I can notify him in advance?
Morofushi Hiromitsu: ".."
“Alright then.” Morofushi Hiromitsu gave a gentle smile. “But Matsuda, you have to tell me your plan first.”
..
Then, amidst Morofushi Hiromitsu's stunned expression, Kisaragi Chiyo waved her hand, watching the white-gloved Black cat depart under the moonlight.
*
By the time Furuya Rei returned to his temporary safehouse, exhausted, it was already four in the morning. His eyes were bloodshot, the moment he closed the door, he could no longer maintain his composure.
It could only be described as a stroke of luck amidst misfortune. Compared to Rye, who had let Scotland escape after being chased, Furuya Rei faced far less suspicion and targeting, as he had been assigned to carry out an Organization mission elsewhere and arrived a step late.
Moreover, since he belonged to Rum's faction, while Rye and Scotland were part of the action group and had some connection to Gin, the pressure on him was ultimately somewhat lessened by Rum's interference, given that Rum was at odds with Gin.
But in the end, he was still under suspicion from the Organization, even with Rye, who was even more suspicious, acting as a shield in front of him. However, the suspicions of Rum and Gin forced him to face two choices that he had to make.
Either he would capture Scotland or kill him to prove his innocence; or he would work even harder to demonstrate his loyalty to the Organization until the suspicion surrounding him was eliminated.
Furuya Rei collapsed onto the bed. In the darkness, the surroundings were so quiet that not a single other sound could be heard, only his own breathing and the heavy thumping of his heart rising and falling together.
"That's such a relief.." Furuya Rei covered his eyes with his arms; only at this moment did he finally allow himself to show a hint of vulnerability.
It's truly a relief that Hiromitsu could escape.
No one knew except Furuya Rei himself—the moment he received the message from Gin stating that 'Scotland is the mole,' a massive wave of panic surged through his entire body.
Who is the undercover agent.. Scotland? Hiro's identity has been exposed..
Furuya Rei's brain processed these questions sluggishly, but on the surface, he had to maintain an expression of humiliated anger and contempt, as if he had been fooled upon seeing this news.
“A rat has been discovered.”
Bourbon had a cruel smile on his face. He could imagine that once this news was relayed to the members of various organizations, those looking to climb the ranks would be like sharks smelling blood, relentlessly pursuing and tearing into Scotland until they had sucked out every last drop of marrow.
But now, Scotland had escaped. Seeing the grim expression on Gin's face, Furuya Rei almost couldn't help but burst out laughing.
That's wonderful! As expected of Hiromitsu!
Furuya Rei wanted to roll around on the bed in excitement.
But just as he was planning how to get in touch with Morofushi Hiromitsu to offer him assistance, Furuya Rei suddenly heard an extremely faint creak.
It was the sound of the window being opened.
Furuya Rei lunged up from the bed, raising the gun he had kept under his pillow and aiming the muzzle at the long, dark shadow squeezing through the half-open window.
"A cat?" Furuya Rei frowned, looking at the cat whose eyes were emitting an eerie glow in the darkness.
-----------------------
Author's Note: Thank you for the support, my little angels! Mwah 030
Chapter 105
“A cat?”
A soft murmur to himself; he had thought his words would fall upon the pitch-black room without response. To his surprise, an uninvited guest squeezing through the window crack happened to let out a 'meow,' its teal, rounded eyes appearing bright and clear under the meager moonlight falling into the room.
"Where did this cat come from?" Furuya Rei couldn't help but frown.
He lowered his eyes, maintaining a distance of three paces from the uninvited guest. With a gaze full of scrutiny and suspicion, he observed the cat as it leaped gracefully from the windowsill.
It was a large cat that appeared to be an adult. Its limbs were long, strong, powerful; only its paws were pure white, while the rest of its body was a lustrous, solid black.
The cat began to patrol its territory within the room with an air of familiarity. It first walked from the desk to the sofa, then circled back from the other side of the sofa, completing a full loop.
In the meantime, Furuya Rei's gaze remained firmly locked on this uninvited cat, he suspected in his heart that this was a test from the Organization.
But who would use a cat to test him?
Furuya Rei acted very cautiously; his brow furrowed deeper and deeper as various preset possibilities flashed repeatedly through his mind.
For instance, if this were a mechanical cat, its bright eyes would be cameras, someone would be hiding behind the surveillance, analyzing every subtle expression and movement on his face.
Furuya Rei did not think he suffered from paranoia; after all, this was too specific a time, so specific that he had to be extremely, extremely careful, he had to treat every sound with repeated and thorough suspicion.
The cat stopped.
Furuya Rei watched the cat, which had jumped lightly onto his bed and was crouching beside his phone, as if facing a formidable enemy.
Furuya Rei: ".."
Furuya Rei: "Get down."
Don't think that by putting on an air of nonchalantly licking its fur, it could prevent him from noticing that, even in such a dark environment, the fluff falling from the cat like dandelion seeds with every movement must have surely landed on his pillow and bedding.
Furuya Rei made a shooing gesture, but he did not step forward directly, because he could not confirm whether this cat posed a risk of biting.
After he made a waving gesture, the cat suddenly revealed a very human-like expression of disdain. It tilted its head back, its cyan eyes looking down at Furuya Rei with a gaze that was truly that of someone looking at an idiot.
Furuya Rei: ".."
What a hateful cat.
"This is my room," Furuya Rei pointed at the floor.
"This is my bed." Furuya Rei pointed at the bed that was being forcibly occupied by the uninvited cat.
"So, get out!" Furuya Rei's voice rose slightly as he turned and pointed toward the gap in the half-open window where the cat had squeezed itself through.
Hmph.
The sound dissolved into the air as quickly as snowflakes, if he hadn't been certain that his mind was still clear, Furuya Rei might have thought that the scoff just now was nothing more than a hallucination.
But that was simply the truth.
Furuya Rei, the grand Bourbon who wanders the dark world burdened by a mission and can act out a hundred different faces for you, has just been mocked by a cat.
What a hateful cat, just like a certain someone.
Furuya Rei muttered to himself that, as expected, besides Hiromitsu, he didn't really get along with any other cats.
Just as Furuya Rei was preparing to initiate Plan B, the phone lying on the bed suddenly lit up.
Furuya Rei looked at the glowing phone screen, his heart suddenly tightening, because this was his private phone; unless it was an extremely special circumstance, almost no one would contact him through this phone.
So.. could it be Hiromitsu?
His heart began to pound rapidly. Even in the darkness, the handsome blond young man maintained a calm expression, but his hands, which had subconsciously clenched into fists, betrayed his true feelings at this moment.
A cat paw with pink pads pressed down on the phone with moderate force.
With the other's movement, Furuya Rei's heart skipped a beat as well.
The cat lowered its head and looked at the glowing phone screen, seemingly interested in this toy; it looked up at Furuya Rei, then back at the phone.
For some reason, an inexplicable sense of profundity flickered within those teal cat eyes.
It was clearly just a cat.. Furuya Rei felt that perhaps he was overthinking things.
Seeing that the cat showed no signs of aggression, he reached out and took the phone from beneath its paw.
After unlocking it, Furuya Rei entered a heavily encrypted file in the backend, as expected, there was an unfamiliar letter inside one of the hidden folders.
He is in our custody and is currently in good condition. Our liaison officer will visit at 4:30 tonight; please be sure to prepare dried sardines, curry rice, grape juice.
After reading the few short lines, Furuya Rei slowly typed out a question mark. Unwilling to accept it, he exited and re-entered the chat several times to confirm once more that this message had indeed been sent by Hiro to him.
What did he mean by "the person is in our hands"? Such a ridiculous message gave Furuya Rei a heart-pounding sense of dread. He could now be absolutely certain that this message did not come from Morofushi Hiromitsu, but this encrypted communication channel was indeed known only to the two of them.
Thinking of this, Furuya Rei's gaze fell upon the last few words.
Dried fish, curry rice, grape juice..
Dried small fish might be a match for the cat in front of him, even if the liaison officer meant this cat, a cat clearly can't eat curry rice, can it?
Furuya Rei's expression was about to break; he felt like he was being played.
But even so, he still looked at the cat without hope, asking with a bitter smile, "Are you the so-called liaison officer?"
"It is I." After he asked that question, something unexpected happened.
The cat spoke.
Furuya Rei: ".."
In the next second, the muzzle was aimed at the cat's head.
"What on earth are you?" Furuya Rei narrowed his eyes, looking dangerously at the cat sitting upright on his bed.
It was a living thing, not a mechanical creation; its eyes were not monitors, it carried nothing that could transmit sound remotely.. Furthermore, even though it was only two words, Furuya Rei still sensed a sense of familiarity in that response.
That was clearly the voice of that guy, Matsuda Jinpei.
A massive storm surged within Furuya Rei's heart.
Who on earth is it? How could it be Matsuda Jinpei's voice? Is someone trying to use the deceased Matsuda to do something to him? Does Hiromitsu know about this? Where is he right now? And what is the person behind this trying to achieve?
Countless questions kept surfacing in his mind, but Furuya Rei maintained an unmoved expression.
He asked in a low voice, "Are you playing with me?"
Hearing his words, the Black cat let out a sigh; seeing that look of disdain, Furuya Rei finally understood why he had found this cat so annoying.
Yeah." The cat replied righteously, "I just want to tease you.
.." Furuya Rei was momentarily choked by the other's bluntness, then he asked with a cold laugh, "So, what's next? Are you going to tell me you're Matsuda Jinpei?
Furuya Rei felt that this had already exceeded the scope of the Organization's probing; a cat that could speak human language was, no matter how one looked at it, a non-scientific existence.
Although Furuya Rei had not yet reached the stage where he could touch upon the Organization's core secrets, he could already see that the Organization believed in technology and evolution, had absolutely nothing to do with the supernatural or the paranormal.
"I am Matsuda Jinpei," the cat replied, holding its head high, its teal eyes looking down at him as if he were the one making a fuss and making a big deal out of nothing.
Without saying anything else, Furuya Rei thought that this cat had learned about seventy to eighty percent of Matsuda Jinpei's infuriating personality and way of speaking.
".. Then how can you prove that you are Matsuda?" Furuya Rei fell silent for a moment before continuing his question.