Someone very skilled with a dagger.
.. That's true.
Hiromitsu Morofushi brushed away the stray hairs clinging to the side of his neck, preventing them from falling into his collar in a moment, yet he still couldn't bear to let such a good opportunity pass. "That person should be considered your teacher, shouldn't he? Are you two still in contact?"
He died many years ago.
“I'm sorry.”
“There is nothing to apologize for, he committed suicide.”
.. This story sounds somewhat familiar.
Hiromitsu Morofushi's hand suddenly stopped: "A suicide pact?"
The Yamawashi dagger was actually learned from the original user of the dagger?!
His hand holding the scissors tightened.
If the truth was that a teacher killed their own child after death, snatched away the weapons passed down to the next generation, then he found it even harder to understand why Yamawashi had to go to such lengths.
He told himself once again that many things within the Organization could not be viewed through the eyes of ordinary people; being in the midst of it, he should be even more aware that this was another side of the world that few people knew, a completely different world.
In the living room, the scissors opened, the "snip-snip" sound rang out once again.
His suicide was too sudden. His child wouldn't have ended up struggling for survival in Training Camp No. 57; most people there are orphans who don't even know their own names, or desperate outlaws looking to take a gamble.
Hiromitsu Morofushi was very interested in the information regarding the Organization, accepting every piece of it, followed up by asking, "Can one obtain a codename just by surviving Training Camp No. 57?"
He was asking a question he already knew the answer to; the Organization didn't have that many codenamed members, so he only said this to guide Yamawashi into revealing more intelligence regarding the internal workings of the Organization.
“If you can make it out of the Training Camp alive, you can at least stay alive for a while.”
".." That wasn't wrong.
The two of them fell silent at the same time.
After trimming the side of the hair he had cut himself in Yamawashi, Hiromitsu Morofushi went around to the other side, comparing it to the cut to guide his knife.
He leaned forward slightly, able to hear almost nothing but his own breathing; even though there were clearly two people in this house, it was always so quiet.
“Those two people.. what exactly do you mean by the Organization member and the police undercover agent you mentioned last night being inextricably linked?”
Just like you right now." Yamawashi always used a casual tone to expose the truth hidden beneath the illusions. "Falling in love with someone you shouldn't, not forgetting your responsibilities because of it, yet both of you end up loving each other a little more than you imagined.
Hiromitsu Morofushi fell silent.
Knowing what happened to your predecessor, are you afraid?" Yamawashi's tone remained indifferent. "It's not too late to kill me while you have the chance.
Don't make jokes like that, Yamawashi. I've never once thought about wanting you dead," Hiromitsu Morofushi managed a weak smile, using a joke to move past the topic as quickly as possible. "I certainly can't beat you; you nearly cracked my ribs last time.
The way your hand is positioned right now.. if you were to plunge the scissors in and twist, or find the artery and cut it, you wouldn't even need to be able to beat me. Killing me is much simpler than you imagine.
The scissors in his hand suddenly felt scorching hot, Hiromitsu Morofushi said, ".. There's no need for such a detailed breakdown; I've never thought about such a thing."
He stiffly changed the subject. "It doesn't seem quite symmetrical here, don't you think?"
Yamawashi, however, had no intention of letting him off the hook and continued with that topic: "Those two have had many opportunities to kill each other, yet they have hesitated to act for various reasons. Neither of them is naive; those must all be excuses."
Hiromitsu Morofushi did not respond to the voice behind him, only lowering his head and quickening his pace. "Wait a moment, I'm going to get the mirror. Once you confirm the length, I'll continue cutting."
"You.." Yamawashi's voice faltered for a moment, as if he were struggling to find the right way to address him, before finally deciding to skip the address altogether, since there were only the two of them there.
If you don't intend to kill me, you don't want me to die, then how do you plan to deal with me?
Hiromitsu Morofushi paused.
“Once I fail to become your achievement, I will become the greatest stain on your record. The glory you gain, the sacrifices you make—everything will be tarnished because I am still alive. I thought you understood this better than I do, or do you believe you have the chance to be the exception, rather than following in the footsteps of those before you?”
His bones felt as if they were rusted; Hiromitsu Morofushi turned his head slowly, Yamawashi was actually watching him as well.
He opened his mouth. "But.."
Yamawashi calmly finished the last sentence: "Even with the premise that I loathe you so much that I've considered how to kill you more than once."
Chapter 34
It is not difficult to understand why Yamawashi wants to kill him.
It is not difficult to understand why a killer would want to kill someone, regardless of status or position, let alone when the conflict between them was irreconcilable from the very beginning for Yamawashi.
Yamawashi still hated him, any loosening of boundaries was solely for the sake of exploiting his emotions; Hiromitsu Morofushi even felt a brief sense of relief at the murderous intent that was being forcibly suppressed beneath that seemingly calm surface.
Actually, it wasn't that he hadn't considered that question at all; it was just that, for him, it was already a thing of the distant past.
Facing that dagger alone in the dead of night, under the illusion that Yamawashi was actually watching him quietly from behind, he turned around to face the empty room, in that moment, he suddenly wondered: what if Yamawashi were still alive?
Perhaps he would be hated just like those codenamed members who later learned he was an undercover agent hiding within the Organization; perhaps he would be a source of constant anxiety, much like Aotsuki, whom they failed to arrest despite their best efforts. If Yamawashi had not died that night, there were far too many possibilities, but at that time, he still firmly believed that there were no "ifs" in this world.
When truly facing this possibility, most of his attention was focused on other more important matters, causing him to forget that fleeting confusion.
If Yamawashi had not died, what would have happened in the future?
He knew everyone's fate, including his own, except for Yamawashi.
To protect Scotland, he chose to allow Public Security to act, which was undoubtedly a betrayal of the Organization. The Organization never shows mercy to traitors, to the Organization, Yamawashi is also completely untrustworthy. Cooperation was merely a stalling tactic, not to mention that the illusion that Public Security had controlled Scotland was actually a fabrication of his own making.
Scotland does not exist; throughout the entire incident, only Yamawashi's sacrifice and devotion were real, the day the truth is completely exposed will be the true catastrophe.
After everything that has happened, making Yamawashi accept that he is Scotland might be even harder than making Yamawashi believe that Scotland is already dead.
Yamawashi did not want anyone to discover the secrets surrounding Scotch, watching his every word and action every day. He, in turn, was equally terrified that Yamawashi would perceive his true identity; one lie required countless others to maintain it, for he still did not know exactly where Yamawashi's concern for Scotch originated.
Hiromitsu Morofushi thought a lot that night, from his meeting with Yamawashi as Scotch to the first lie he was forced to tell Yamawashi out of helplessness after his rebirth, every subsequent lie he told to cover up that initial one.
As dawn broke, he moved his stiff body and walked into the kitchen, just like so many mornings in the past.
Yamawashi is not here today, so he prepared breakfast instead, though he didn't know if Yamawashi would actually eat it this time.
Yamawashi did not admit that he was Scotland; he only felt that he was a policeman who had taken control of Scotland, which was why he refused to eat the breakfast he prepared. However, once Yamawashi keenly sensed that he was hiding inappropriate feelings, Yamawashi began to eat his breakfast on purpose in order to exploit those emotions.
Flipping the fried eggs in the pan, Hiromitsu Morofushi was uncharacteristically distracted.
After getting a haircut yesterday, Yamawashi went out. Before leaving, he said he would return this morning, but he didn't know what kind of attitude Yamawashi would have toward him after the night had passed.
Yamawashi's words were definitely not spoken with their future in mind; he simply wanted to make him suffer, but that was indeed the reality.
.. No, it has nothing to do with that. Actually, Yamawashi was always this kind of person.
Words devoid of affection can actually strip away the most realistic problems. It is as if Yamawashi does not know the meaning of being indirect or testing the waters; one can never truly fathom what is on his mind, by the time it is realized, everything is often already a done deal.
Yamawashi was just as straightforward when dealing with his feelings for Scotland, posing questions while simultaneously solving them, nipping potential trouble in the bud; he felt exhausted now, because it was now his turn to shoulder this responsibility.
Whether it was to help him or to save Scotland, the fact before him was that Yamawashi had already betrayed the Organization for his sake. The Organization would not tolerate the existence of a traitor. Even if he were fortunate enough to escape the Organization's disposal, was he to repeat what had happened once before—to wait until the day the Organization falls, only to return to Public Security alone with his merits, while being completely buried alone?
Lessons from the past.. repeating the same mistakes..
He didn't need to listen to stories of past grudges or old debts; Yamawashi didn't know that between them lay their very own worst possible ending.
He couldn't drive this person to death a second time.
Aotsuki opened the door, frowned, walked quickly into the kitchen, where smoke was indeed rising from the pot.
He didn't care about the cause or the process of things that were already decided. He turned off the heat, turned on the range hood, opened the window to let the smoke and the burnt smell in the kitchen dissipate.
“.. Yamawashi.”
Aotsuki paused and turned around. Perhaps it was because of the smoke, or perhaps he had been choked by it, but the man's eyes were rimmed with red, bloodshot veins were faintly visible in them. He wasn't a busy man, but he wasn't so idle either, he didn't care about other people's sleep issues.
After waiting more than three seconds without hearing another word, he lifted his feet and continued walking out.
“Be my informant.”
The person behind him was someone unworthy of making him turn around, but listening intently to that voice had already become a habit etched into his very being. Almost at the same moment he turned his head, that person said, "You are already doing things only an assistant would do. I will apply for the Witness Protection Program for you."
The kitchen suddenly fell silent, leaving only the intermittent sizzling of the burnt fried eggs in the pan and the low hum of the range hood.
As the smoke gradually dissipated, Aotsuki found that he was understanding that man less and less.
**
Yamawashi mentioned that there had once been members of the Organization and police undercover agents who had suffered mutual losses, Hiromitsu Morofushi did not make any pointless comparisons between them and himself or Yamawashi, but he still conducted an additional investigation into the matter.
News of this level involves either insignificant minor figures or important characters who, due to their inability to speak out, prevented the subsequent gossip from spreading.
This type of old news is difficult to dig up through conventional means, but he is different from the people in the Organization; his intelligence sources are not limited to within the Organization.
That was a matter between the Organization and Public Security.
It was nothing glorious; when a deceased undercover agent is grouped with a scandalous affair, the latter will inevitably be downplayed and minimized to preserve merit and honor, may even be rewritten or erased from the records.
Most of the matters concerning Yamawashi occurred during the time he was busy planning and executing his undercover mission. He could not spare the energy to conduct a dedicated investigation, but a week later, he had more or less identified a fallen undercover investigator.
The specific timing had been blurred, but other information could be analyzed to show it was a mission from about ten years ago. The entire mission was filled with the unexpected; a mole who would have originally spent many years within the Organization to secure a certain key position had, in the early stages of joining the Organization, gained the appreciation of an important figure and gained access to the Organization's core areas.
Even though that important figure was cautious, making it impossible to obtain intelligence for a long time, the speed of progress was still shocking. Therefore, the plan was urgently revised to stay put and continue the undercover operation.
The vague wording and several gaps in information ended with the undercover investigator's death alongside that Organization member, a heroic sacrifice in the line of duty, but looking at the records from those few years, there was no substantial commendation or memorial service.
Although the intelligence pieced together was incomplete, it still represented some progress. At the same time, another question arose: how could Yamawashi know about that matter?
Whether it was this matter or the already defunct Training Camp No. 57, both were pieces of information from years ago that had never been leaked. The latter could be explained away as someone paying close attention specifically in preparation for seizing the dagger, but how did Yamawashi find out about the former?
Information does not circulate by chance; if Yamawashi could hear about such things, what position did he hold within the Organization back then?
He had suspected it long ago; Yamawashi did not hold a position in the Organization solely by relying on his ability to find opponents and his superb skills. Now it seemed that Yamawashi's involvement with the Organization ran even deeper than he had imagined.
His first mission was at sixteen.
At the same age, he was in high school, sharing lunch with friends on the rooftop during breaks, participating in club activities, talking animatedly about which university he wanted to apply to in the future.
He and Yamawashi are completely different people; peeling back even a tiny bit of Yamawashi's mysterious veil made him want to truly understand Yamawashi more and more.
Whether that unknown past was good or bad, he would accept it all; since Yamawashi did not die in December, he would take full responsibility for everything regarding this person.
As the investigation progressed, another matter also saw some progress.
The Public Security's collaborators can be anyone, as long as they are helpful to the mission and can be kept under control; even those operating in the gray areas are acceptable.
Rather, one could say that Public Security are law enforcers who exist on the boundary between black and white. Collaborating with people from another world is not uncommon; more often than not, it is referred to as a judicial deal. If the intelligence provided by a state witness is of significant help to a case, Public Security will, as appropriate, give this person a new face to live on under a different identity.
But Yamawashi did not accept his proposal.
Regarding this idea, Yamawashi initially just ignored it, but when he attempted to propose it for the third time, Yamawashi gave him a frown, an expression that suggested he thought the plans he had proposed previously were nothing more than jokes.