Chapter 62: Vodka: Utterly Deranged!

Vodka frowned. "However, July has helped the Metropolitan Police Department catch quite a few wanted criminals. He's getting a bit too close to the Japanese Public Security. Could he be a police hound for them?"

"Investigating can't hurt." Gin continued typing on his phone.

The fact that July came all the way to a place like this alone to buy a gun revealed certain underlying details:

First, July had no backing force whatsoever and was likely operating alone. Otherwise, he wouldn't need to purchase firearms himself. Even if he had an accomplice, there wouldn't be more than two of them.

After all, most factions possessed their own channels and didn't need to personally run to smugglers to acquire weapons; someone would simply have the cargo delivered to a designated location.

Second, July displayed a subtle, earnest dedication to bounty missions. Someone skilled in disguise who was willing to work as a bounty hunter shouldn't be obscure.

He was either an old hunter who had encountered a major upheaval and abandoned his original codename, or a newcomer entering the bounty industry.

Gin leaned toward the latter. Although his brief contact with the man just now showed him to be calm, veteran, and composed, having reviewed the relevant intelligence, he didn't take the fellow for an old man.

Therefore, July should be a young newcomer, no older than twenty-five.

Third, while July appeared to interact frequently with the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, many covert missions were never publicized. One couldn't simply conclude that July was close to the Japanese police. Moreover, precisely because he seemed close to the Japanese Public Security, the likelihood that he was a plant released by them to confuse others was actually quite low.

Of course, the exact situation still required verification...

Gin pressed send, and after watching the screen pop up with the words [Sent Successfully], he put his phone away. "It doesn't matter if he's an enemy. Once we find out the truth, we'll eliminate him ahead of time!"

"True. An enemy who can use disguise would be quite troublesome if we don't understand him well enough. Investigating really can't hurt," Vodka remarked. "Still, Boss, that guy sure is ugly. That face was way too fat. No matter how you disguise yourself, you can't disguise away fatness. It's such a waste of the art of disguise."

"That face we saw might not be his true appearance," Gin analyzed calmly. "The reason he peeled off his disguise in the arcade was because the disguised face had been scratched by a key, and a wound without blood would look suspicious. Yet he discarded that cover without the slightest hesitation, which also indicates he wasn't concerned about others seeing the face underneath. That doesn't match his usual mysterious and cautious style. Furthermore, judging by the speed with which he caught the key, his reflexes are extremely sharp. The reason he was still grazed by the key on the face is that the disguised face differed too drastically from his true facial structure. In the split second the key flew at him, he instinctively judged based on his original facial contours that he wouldn't be clipped. In other words, there might be more than one layer of disguise on his face."

"More than one layer of disguise?" Vodka was speechless. "As the rumors say about July being cautious, he really is cautious enough..."

"Sometimes being cautious isn't a bad thing," Gin concluded, saying no more.

Intelligence gathering wasn't his responsibility. Having run into July by chance, analyzing and judging the situation for himself was enough. Confirming those matters would be left to the people whose job it was.

He was very busy...

...

2:21 AM, Blue Sky Bar.

The bar was situated beside a quiet street. When patrons pushed the door open to leave, soft music drifted out through the gap, only to be quickly shut back inside.

By the roadside, a white car pulled to a stop.

In front of the bar, Gin and Vodka halted, turning to stare quietly at the occupant of that vehicle.

They ran into him again!

Was that bounty hunter following them?

Torii Feichi was also staring at the two men, in no hurry to get out of the car.

Tokyo was neither large nor small, but running into each other twice in succession was just a bit too coincidental.

Was it mere coincidence, or...

Feimo squatted on the passenger seat. "What's wrong?"

Torii Feichi held down Feimo, who looked ready to take flight, and whispered a warning, "Don't move around."

Pets easily exposed one's identity. Not many people kept crows, and if both 'Torii Feichi' and 'July' kept crows, it would be too easy for people to connect the two identities.

"Master, their hands have been resting in their pockets all along. Judging by the state of their fingers, I'm afraid they're gripping guns," Feichi observed, pressing against the car door where she was completely invisible from the outside. "Are they coming for us? What should we do now?"

"Get out," Torii Feichi muttered as he quietly attached a silencer to his PPKS and slipped it into his pocket. "I'll leave the car window open for a bit. Feimo, after we go inside, keep watch outside. If anyone messes with the car, let me know immediately. Feichi, come inside with me and keep an eye on their movements."

The two pets nodded solemnly.

Once Feichi had quietly crawled into his sleeve, Torii Feichi opened the car door and stepped out.

Vodka's nerves tightened as his hand inside his pocket slowly slid outward.

"Master," Feichi whispered, "they're holding guns in their hands and slowly pulling them out."

Torii Feichi felt rather relieved instead. If they had intended to target him, Gin and Vodka could have directly launched an armed attack the moment he parked.

Hesitating like this probably meant that, because this second encounter was too coincidental, Gin and Vodka weren't sure if it was a trap.

In that case, all he needed to do was demonstrate that he bore no hostility...

After getting out of the car, Torii Feichi silently peeled off the young fat man's face, revealing the bald middle-aged man's face underneath, shook the fake face a bit, and tossed it back into the car.

Tearing off a face felt great once, and tearing off faces always felt great.

Vodka: "..."

According to the boss's judgment, the target was extremely cautious and would never casually reveal his true visage. That meant this bald middle-aged man appearance was fake as well?

Just how many layers of disguise did this guy have on?

It was simply maddening!

Realizing that the other party was signaling a lack of hostility, Gin slowly returned his hand to his trench coat pocket. However, instead of turning to enter the bar, he took a step back to clear the path to the doorway.

After shutting the car door, Torii Feichi entered the bar first. Clearly, Gin was guarding against the possibility of him shooting them in the back, but Torii Feichi harbored no such worries.

With Feichi acting as eyes behind his back and constantly watching, he would be able to react immediately to any abnormal actions by Gin and Vodka without losing the initiative.

The two parties entered one after the other, maintaining a distance and taking seats at opposite ends of the bar counter.

The bar wasn't particularly crowded. At the counter, a man and a woman were chatting and laughing while a bachelor came over to pick up a drink; among the seating areas were also a group of partying youngsters and a middle-aged man drinking alone.

"Good evening, sir. What would you like to drink?" A young male bartender wore a polite smile on his face.

Torii Feichi swept his gaze around without staring excessively at anyone, lowering his voice. "Non-alcoholic cocktail, dealer's choice."

Usually, for a pre-arranged transaction, both parties would arrive at the designated location at that specific time.

Perhaps the other party had arrived early, blending into the crowd and only approaching when the time came, or perhaps they would walk through the door right on the dot... In short, until the time arrived, it was difficult to determine who was handing over the goods.

"Understood, please wait a moment." The bartender turned to busy himself.

At the other end of the bar, Vodka couldn't help turning to look at Torii Feichi.

This time, he had figured it out.

Whether he couldn't drink, didn't like to drink, or simply didn't want to drink, for this guy to come to a bar alone and order a non-alcoholic cocktail meant he definitely wasn't here to drink; he was here to conduct some shady business!

Still, whether he drank alcohol or not was one thing, but couldn't he at least order an alcoholic drink as a cover?

A non-alcoholic cocktail was essentially a mocktail or mixed fruit juice, usually ordered by young girls who rarely frequented bars.

Oh, wait... It seemed he had discovered something incredible... Could it be that July wasn't good with alcohol?

Suddenly wanting to let out a whistle to provoke him—what should he do?

Feichi hid in the sleeve, though she perceived the situation outside with absolute clarity. "Master, they aren't making any strange moves, but that big guy keeps looking at you..."

Torii Feichi didn't turn his head. Whether Vodka wearing sunglasses in a bar at midnight was eccentric or not aside, even if he looked, he wouldn't be able to tell where Vodka was looking or what he was thinking, so it was better not to look at all.

Amidst the soothing music, Torii Feichi's drink was served to the table.

During this time, two more people came to the counter to order drinks, but neither lingered.

Although the bartender stayed at the counter the entire time, if the items were supposed to be handed to the bartender, there would have been no need to set an appointment time—they could have just said to leave it at the counter or give it directly to the bartender. Setting a time would only cause misdirection and risk the items failing to change hands.

Torii Feichi took a sip of the non-alcoholic cocktail in his glass. It was sweet and sour with a hint of coolness, making it genuinely pleasant as a beverage.

Estimating that the time was nearly right, he pulled out his phone to check the hour.

2:29 AM.

If the time came and the other party hadn't shown up, he would simply leave.

Never gamble against accidents; it was an easy way to get burned.

At the other end of the bar, Vodka also took out his phone to check the time. "Is that guy playing us?"

"We leave when the time is up," Gin replied coldly.

2:30 AM.

At the bar counter, aside from the bartender who was busy turning about, there was only Torii Feichi and the men-in-black duo at the opposite end.

Torii Feichi suddenly thought of a possibility and turned to look in the direction of Gin and Vodka...

Gin also turned his head for a look, stood up, walked over, and sat down beside him, lowering his voice. "I thought Mr. Murashita would come in person. I didn't expect him to send someone else."

It was a very standard probe.

Hearing the name 'Murashita' confirmed it for Torii Feichi; the signature on the client's message was indeed 'Murashita'. He handed over a sealed Kuroneko Yamato parcel box. "He asked me to pass along a message: the goods are for you, payment is unnecessary, and please don't bother him ever again."

"Consider him sensible." Gin passed the box to Vodka, who had followed and taken a seat nearby.

Vodka looked at the courier box. Using a box was one thing, but sealing every edge with tape was going a bit too far...

He remained silent for two seconds, pulled a folding knife from his pocket, and started slicing open the courier while grumbling, "Did he really have to package it in a cardboard box? Isn't that a bit too troublesome?"

"Envelopes don't look very secure, and delivering things requires ensuring they arrive intact," Torii Feichi explained without lifting his head. "Besides, opening a box has a sense of ritual."

Vodka: "..."

Right! Sitting in a bar, using a small blade to slice through the tape on a box, and then opening it to retrieve items—that certainly possessed a rich sense of ritual!

Yet they weren't performing some sacred rite; what did they need a sense of ritual for?

Receiving an envelope, tearing it open, and checking the contents to finish the job—wasn't that much more convenient?

And yet, he actually found himself somewhat at a loss for how to refute that preceding reason!