As soon as Rei Furuya arrived in England, he immediately began investigating those incidents. Before long, he discovered a mafia syndicate operating beneath the surface of London.
"Salvador?" Vermouth raised an eyebrow, holding Rei Furuya's investigative report in one hand. "You believe this gang has been working against The Organization?"
"No." Rei Furuya shook his head. Rather than this obscure faction, he suspected someone was using them as a front.
Clearly, he wasn't the only one who thought so.
"Whatever the reason, if it stands in The Organization's way, it had better prepare to vanish." Vermouth tossed the report onto the desk and reached out to contact Gin.
Rei Furuya knew that after tonight, the African-dominated syndicate would cease to exist.
Yet his predictions proved inaccurate. A hitman named Scarlet from that syndicate managed to escape Gin's hunt.
Rei Furuya fell silent, staring at the photograph in his hand.
It was a blurry image. A woman stood before a sea of fire, her head turned slightly. Though an explosion had smudged a patch of her cheek with soot, it failed to conceal her beauty.
And that stunning beauty was matched only by her danger.
Rei Furuya knew that the peripheral members sent to encircle and annihilate her had been completely wiped out.
Still, Rei Furuya could not bring himself to connect the woman in the photograph with the one who had hit on him a few months prior, even though they looked identical.
...
"You know this person?" Vermouth pulled the photo from Rei Furuya's hand. "She's gorgeous," she remarked.
"I met her in the middle of a mission." Rei Furuya recalled the encounter with the woman. The more he remembered, the grimmer his expression grew.
The Organization's missions had begun failing with suspicious frequency right around the time he met her. Could it be that everything back then had been part of her plan?
In an instant, various conspiracies flashed through Rei Furuya's mind.
"Is there something wrong with her?" Vermouth was unaware of that incident; she was simply appreciating the female hitman who had brought such trouble to The Organization.
Hesitating for a moment, Rei Furuya recounted his previous encounter. Even if he kept quiet, The Organization would eventually get the answers from Scotch and Rye. "This person... she seemed interested in pursuing me."
Hearing Bourbon's words, Vermouth froze for a second, then covered her mouth and laughed silently.
Displeasure crossed Rei Furuya's face. He knew his looks were exceptional; back in school, girls would often steal glances at him while boys disparaged him behind his back, calling him a pretty boy who relied on his face.
Yet he had never considered his appearance a hindrance. After all, he had leveraged his high attractiveness to successfully complete numerous missions assigned by The Organization.
Only this time was different—his striking looks had brought him trouble.
Seeing Bourbon's expression grow darker and darker, Vermouth finally stopped laughing.
"So this whole mess was actually caused by you?" she teased.
"It was a coincidence!" Rei Furuya gritted his teeth, refusing to admit he had drawn the trouble upon himself.
Vermouth smiled without a word. Her fingers flew across her phone, forwarding Bourbon's findings straight to the Boss.
She wanted to see how the Boss would react.
Yet a long time passed, and no reply came.
"How boring." The amusement vanished from Vermouth's face, leaving it flat. She had expected a bit of fun, but the other end offered no reaction whatsoever.
"I'm heading back." She clicked away in her high heels. True to her word, Vermouth boarded a flight out of England that very day.
However, not everyone remained indifferent to the matter.
Far away in Neon, Rum reviewed the report on the entire affair and formed a new idea. Here was someone with formidable combat strength and a "weakness." If handled properly, she could become a blade in his own hands. With that thought, he immediately sent an order to Bourbon.
*Recruit her for me, Bourbon.*
*— Rum.*
Receiving the order gave Rei Furuya a massive headache. He tossed his phone aside, remembering those green, possessive eyes, and sighed. He couldn't shake the feeling that the woman was a persistent nuisance.
She had slapped Gin across the face before she even knew what The Organization was, and now Rum wanted to recruit her. He could already picture how taking on this assignment would put him directly at odds with Gin, who was eager to vent his grudge.
Rei Furuya pondered Rum's motive. This mission wasn't just about recruiting the woman; it was also a forced loyalty test. He believed Rum was secretly building his own faction.
He knew that completing the mission meant falling out with Gin, and apart from Rum, he currently had no other backers within The Organization.
To be honest, Rei Furuya didn't want to pick a side too early—skirting between multiple factions suited him best. Unfortunately, that plan was now ruined. To keep climbing the ranks, he had no choice but to hitch his wagon firmly to Rum.
Realizing he had no other option, Rei Furuya resigned himself to his fate and began searching for information. Through relentless tracking and surveillance, he finally pinned down Scarlet's location on the third night.
As it turned out, Gin had also managed to track down Scarlet's whereabouts.
Rei Furuya and Gin were rushing toward Scarlet's location, while Scarlet herself—the target of both men—stood on a rooftop, watching the orange-haired woman lying prone not far away.
Chianti had been flat on the roof all afternoon, peering through her sniper scope at the target. Unfortunately, the woman targeted by Gin had remained locked inside her room the entire time.
The room's curtains were drawn tight, and only a single silhouette indicated that the person she aimed at hadn't left.
"Korn, how are you holding up on your end?"
Maintaining the same posture for so long was tedious, and Chianti couldn't resist reaching out to a comrade to share the gossip she'd heard today.
In a low, raspy voice, Korn assured Chianti that everything was normal on his end.
"You know, these recent mission failures are all tied to someone who just earned a codename?"
Without waiting for Korn to reply, Chianti launched into an endless stream of chatter. "I heard Bourbon pissed off a female hitman while finishing a job. That hitman took a fancy to Bourbon's face, which is why she's been targeting The Organization ever since. Speaking of which, have you ever seen Bourbon? I have no idea how much charm he has to pull in someone like that. Too bad once we take out that clueless hitman, we're going to have to deal with him too... Ah, I think I saw her move!"
Chianti licked her lips in excitement, her finger slowly tightening on the trigger.
The shadow projected onto the curtain by her target was growing larger. Chianti guessed the woman might be walking toward the window.
"Come on, hurry up and get over here so I can end your life with a single shot~"
Chianti narrowed her eyes. Just as she prepared to squeeze the trigger, a tickling sensation brushed the back of her neck, followed immediately by a woman's voice ringing in her ear: "Are you little bugs the ones who've been tailing me this whole time?"