The moment he opened his eyes, the cabin announcement chimed, "We will soon be arriving in Tokyo, Japan..." It seemed this persona had just been reassigned back to Japan. Tamazawa Shuxin thought to himself as he patted his body down and fished out a phone. After getting off the plane and turning on the device, he saw a single unsigned, anonymous message: "Back in Japan. Gin will come to pick you up."
It looked like the sender was the boss of The Organization. After all, nobody else could possibly order around the top killer of The Organization. Stepping out of the airport, Tamazawa Shuxin spotted a Porsche 356A parked by the roadside and walked straight toward it.
He knocked on the window. As it rolled down, he was met with the menacing glare of a silver-haired, green-eyed man. "Gin?" "Get in!" With that brief exchange, Tamazawa Shuxin climbed into the car. Glenlivet’s public persona was that of an arrogant, solitary wolf—a razor-sharp blade—so he needed to act a little more aloof. Tamazawa Shuxin recalled a video he had seen earlier. Were these two the workaholic duo?
*Ping.*
At the sound of the notification, Tamazawa Shuxin lifted his gaze to Gin. "What's the meaning of this?"
Gin had known Glenlivet would wear that impatient look. Aside from direct orders from the boss, Glenlivet was completely unmanageable. Just how much of this was by the boss's deliberate design? Gin lit a cigarette, the smoke drifting over toward Tamazawa Shuxin.
"Orders from the boss, Glenlivet!" Tamazawa Shuxin pondered the implication of those words and checked his phone. Another unsigned, anonymous message. Talk about being cautious. "With you? Heh, let's go."
After they got out of the car, Gin handed over an M9 pistol. Tamazawa Shuxin glanced at it briefly before taking it. "You stay here. I'll go!" Since he was a lone wolf, he didn't need accomplices.
An hour later, Tamazawa Shuxin emerged covered in blood and tossed a briefcase to Vodka. "Hmph! Pathetically weak. Gin, did it really take both of us for that? If this is all it takes, it's about time someone else took over as top killer."
Upon hearing this, Vodka immediately caught sight of Gin's darkened expression. With haughty detachment, Tamazawa Shuxin continued, "Where's Rum? Gathering intelligence is his department. Tch, what an eyesore!" Then Vodka noticed Gin's expression improve slightly.
Tamazawa Shuxin looked back at the two men still standing there. "Not moving? Or does our diligent top killer want to keep going? I'd be happy to oblige!" With a provocative glance at Gin, Tamazawa Shuxin spent the rest of the night killing people under the guise of Glenlivet.
When daytime came, Tamazawa Shuxin was grateful that the mental states of his two identities weren't synced; otherwise, running 24 hours a day would surely cause him to drop dead from overwork. Checking Glenlivet's current status, it showed as "sleeping." In a sense, he had become a perpetual motion machine running continuously without a pause. Gin had actually spent the entire night doing missions with him without taking a single break. Did this count as earning merit points? After all, black-ops performance metrics were still performance metrics! Moreover, even though his mind felt completely lucid, for some reason he felt an overwhelming exhaustion, as if his brain had crashed from a system overload.
"Why are you so lifeless bright and early in the morning, Tamazawa? You didn't go out partying again after leaving the roof last night, did you?" Matsuda Jinpei sidestepped over with a teasing grin. Tamazawa Shuxin figured he had better catch up on some sleep during the day. He was bone-tired—a fatigue that felt as though it originated from his very soul, unless it was simply because he hadn't touched blood in so long and hadn't adjusted yet.
"Hey, hey! Tamazawa, don't ignore me, you jerk!"
Tamazawa Shuxin snapped out of his daze and looked at a disgruntled Matsuda Jinpei. "Matsuda, do me a favor!"
Later in class, Matsuda Jinpei gritted his teeth as he watched Tamazawa Shuxin snoring softly. "This jerk!" Even Furuya Rei curiously asked Matsuda if he knew what Tamazawa had been up to last night.
After class, Date Wataru shook Tamazawa awake. "Tamazawa, wake up. Class is over, time for lunch."
Tamazawa Shuxin blinked sleepily, his eyes still misty with sleep. "Squad Leader? Squad Leader, could you help me back to the dorms? I'm still kind of sleepy."
And so, Tamazawa Shuxin was supported back to his room by the Squad Leader. The moment he opened his eyes again, five faces were looming directly over him, though he himself felt thoroughly groggy.
"Hey, Tamazawa, you've got a fever."
"Don't be like that, Matsuda-kun. Little Tamazawa probably just caught a chill last night."
"Alright, everyone, stop disturbing Tamazawa's rest and head back out. Tamazawa, I've already asked for leave for you. Here's your medicine, make sure to drink it. Hiromitsu, you stay behind to look after him."
Tamazawa Shuxin couldn't figure out how he'd managed to catch a fever. He wanted to swear; he felt so dizzy. "Squad Leader, let me stay and take care of Tamazawa-kun too. With both Hiro and me here, it'll be better."
And with that, Furuya Rei and Morofushi Hiromitsu stayed behind.
"I must say, we aren't close enough for this kind of treatment, are we?" Tamazawa Shuxin muttered with difficulty.
Furuya Rei and Morofushi Hiromitsu watched as he put on a deliberately unwelcoming front. "At a time like this, can't you just accept it wholeheartedly? Tamazawa-kun really isn't honest with himself, is he?" Morofushi Hiromitsu remarked with a sigh.
"Hah... hah... you guys are all hiding things in your hearts, what's even enjoyable about hanging out with you?" Tamazawa Shuxin gritted his teeth, fighting through the wave of dizziness.
Neither Furuya Rei nor Morofushi Hiromitsu had expected Tamazawa Shuxin to view them that way. Immediately afterward, they heard him mutter, "Why am I even helping these bastards? Writing anonymous letters all afternoon exhausted me to death. The upper echelons of the police academy are all brain-damaged idiots!"
The two exchanged glances, their pupils dilated in shock.
"Tamazawa? Tamazawa Shuxin?" Morofushi Hiromitsu gently shook Tamazawa, but received no response.
"Looks like he fell asleep while delirious. Zero, Tamazawa turns out to be quite interesting, don't you think?"
"Yeah! I'm really looking forward to being partners with Tamazawa."
Unable to bear the dizziness in his head any longer, Tamazawa Shuxin instantly switched back to his Glenlivet persona. He opened his eyes, sat up, and walked downstairs to find Gin sitting on the sofa smoking.
"This is a private safehouse, Gin. You've crossed the line!" Tamazawa Shuxin's gaze was filled with murderous intent. Vodka thought for a second that his big boss and Glenlivet were going to tear into each other, but instead, Glenlivet simply turned around and walked back to his room after dropping those words.
Tamazawa Shuxin went back to his room to change clothes. He needed to buy a new place to live in Japan, and besides, Gin had shown up out of nowhere. Tamazawa Shuxin now felt full of energy. He checked his system panel and saw that his main body was still running a fever. Well, since someone was looking after him, it wouldn't hurt to wait until his fever broke before going back.
With that thought, Tamazawa Shuxin went back downstairs and sat on the sofa. There was no food in this safehouse, and he was feeling a bit hungry. "Vodka, go buy some dinner."
Vodka didn't move right away; instead, he looked at Gin. Seeing that Gin offered no objection, Vodka stood up and left. Now, only Gin and Tamazawa Shuxin remained in the house.
"Mission?"
"There's a meeting tonight."
Tamazawa Shuxin didn't speak. He picked up his phone to check out properties in the area when a notification popped up telling him to attend a meeting. They really did like keeping tabs on everything, didn't they? Tamazawa Shuxin's gaze darkened.
"Tattletale?" Tamazawa Shuxin looked over at Gin. Gin said nothing, but without a second thought, Tamazawa Shuxin threw a punch at Gin—which played right into Gin's hands as the two of them instantly started brawling.
When Vodka returned to the safehouse, he found the entire place in shambles. Both his big boss and Glenlivet had bruises on their faces. Then he watched in horror as his big boss drew a Beretta while Glenlivet pulled out an M9 pistol.
"Boss! Glenlivet! I brought dinner back, let's eat together!"
Tamazawa Shuxin glared at the steaming hot takeout, lowered his gun, and looked back at Gin. Gin also put his weapon away and sat back down on the sofa. For a while, the only sound in the room was the chewing of food.
That night in the car, Tamazawa Shuxin casually checked his merit points. After spending 60 draws earlier and grinding missions all through the previous night, his points had shot up by 1,100. Checking the log, one specific mission had yielded 700 points—it seemed it had involved some crucial intelligence belonging to the organization. Tamazawa Shuxin thought back to the USB drive inside the briefcase. For the sake of intelligence and merit points, he would grind—grind himself to the bone. Since he was playing the black-ops role, he had nothing to fear; his main body could just coast and slack off to its heart's content.
Inside an Organization factory, Tamazawa Shuxin arrived at the conference room and unhesitatingly took the head seat. Gin, walking in behind him, didn't look surprised at all; he was actually rather curious to see what Rum's face would look like out of sheer rage. Tamazawa Shuxin mentally reviewed the plot: at this point in time, organization members like Pisco and Tequila should still be alive, along with Rum and Vermouth—probably just those few. But Tamazawa Shuxin had no desire to see them. The message had simply instructed him to attend the meeting; he had shown up, and now he was leaving. Even the Boss couldn't complain about that. Rather than sitting here listening to people yammer on, he'd rather go farm missions.
With that thought, Tamazawa Shuxin stood up, ready to walk out of the conference room. The action squad still had plenty of unfinished operations; he wanted to grind them out, and kicking off a major operation wouldn't hurt either. With a wicked glint in his eye, Tamazawa Shuxin looked over at Gin. "Gin, missions?"
Gin raised his head and caught that malevolent look. But rather than listening to Rum waste everyone's time here, going out on a mission sounded far better. It was like dozing off and immediately being handed a pillow. "Vodka, let's move!"
Tamazawa Shuxin also left the conference room to tackle missions with Gin. As for Rum's furious swearing echoing inside the conference room, that was well beyond anything Tamazawa Shuxin cared to hear.
In the dead of night, Tamazawa Shuxin finally switched his identity back. His fever had broken. He opened his eyes, sat up, and found Morofushi Hiromitsu sleeping on a makeshift pallet on the floor.
"Morofushi, Morofushi, get up. Go back to your own dorm to sleep, my fever's gone."
Woken up by the call, Morofushi Hiromitsu instantly snapped to attention. "Tamazawa, you're awake! How do you feel?"
He scrambled up, preparing to check Tamazawa Shuxin's temperature, but Tamazawa gestured that he was much better.
"I'm fine, Morofushi. The most important thing right now is for you to hurry back to your dorm and get some sleep. I can take care of yourself now."
After seeing Morofushi Hiromitsu safely back to his dorm, Tamazawa Shuxin lay back in bed and watched his merit points tick up by another 500.
"Too bad Gin got called away for something else halfway through our grinding session, otherwise I could've farmed a bit more."
Tamazawa Shuxin thought of Glenlivet's face, and of *Echoes of the Past* gathering dust in the warehouse. "Tch, I really don't want to explore this persona's past. With these retroactive background settings, I have a feeling something bad is going to happen. Oh well, and besides, I said I would never use that thing. Absolutely never!"
And just like that, Tamazawa embarked on a grueling lifestyle: police academy training by day, Organization overtime by night. It was an endless cycle even worse than a 996 work schedule, and thanks to that damn side effect, he was practically guaranteed to earn a frail-health label any day now.