…Something felt a bit off from the original plotline.
Jiangxia Tongzhi stroked his chin, wondering if Vermouth had secretly snuck into Dr. Agasa's house to look for Sherry.
After hesitating for a second, he shot her an email—just casually fishing for info.
Sure, their last parting hadn't exactly been warm and fuzzy, but hey, no harm in asking. Worst case, he'd get blacklisted.
He sent it and braced himself for radio silence.
But just as he slipped his phone back into his pocket and was about to go mingle and hand out business cards, it vibrated.
He paused. Pulled it out again. Lit up the screen.
A message from Vermouth:
"Want me to come over?
Lie down and beg, and I might consider it~
[Image]"
Jiangxia opened the attachment.
It was a picture of a plush double bed in a hotel—the very one he'd napped on earlier.
"…"
One second later, his fingers flew across the screen.
Email: deleted.
Trash: emptied.
Wiped from existence.
Then, with total composure, Jiangxia walked over to the long table and casually picked up a glass of freshly squeezed grape juice.
Just as he took a sip—buzz. Another message.
Still from Vermouth.
This time, her tone was serious:
"Didn't I tell you in the car that my main identity is being watched by the FBI?
Going to a banquet in that name would attract a bunch of annoying hyenas."
Jiangxia paused.
That... didn't quite line up with his memory. Was the FBI really tailing her that hard?
Was Vermouth using "FBI heat" as an excuse to slack off, now that she had Ouzo as backup? Or had things genuinely escalated?
If it was the latter… had his minor meddling actually messed up the timeline?
He fell into deep thought.
Sure, he was planning to tip off the FBI a bit and half-sell Vermouth out… but he hadn't done anything concrete yet. He'd been holding off to avoid screwing up the mission to catch Pisco.
Now that he thought about it, when he first met Vermouth, she had mentioned the FBI. He just hadn't expected things to spiral so far that she couldn't even use her Chris Vineyard identity anymore. So what happened in between?
He thought it over but couldn't pin it down.
Then quickly gave up.
—What did the FBI's beef with Vermouth have to do with him? He was just a humble high school detective who just happened to stumble into murder scenes every five minutes.
Besides, the FBI didn't really pose a threat to him personally.
Legally, they couldn't arrest anyone in the Island Nation (Japan). To avoid diplomatic drama, they had to sneak around like all the other criminals, dodging the police and bolting the second things got spicy.
Even in a worst-case scenario—say Ouzo's alias got exposed—Jiangxia could just call the cops if the FBI tried anything sketchy.
And if, somehow, Akai Shuichi and his cheat-code team managed to corner his main body? Eh, he could just bail using a puppet and reverse the trap.
—Being a local boss was surprisingly convenient.
And anyway, unless the FBI were packing ghosts and a full tank of killing intent, there was no way they'd catch his main body that easily.
The puppet clay was basically a divine artifact. Unless Akai Shuichi was secretly camped out five blocks away with a tranquilizer rifle, Jiangxia had nothing to fear.
And if the guy did pull some honorless move like that and nailed his main body… well, Jiangxia's puppet could still get there first and drag his limp self to safety.
On the other hand, the FBI did have some upsides.
They rarely killed people.
Jiangxia hadn't met them face-to-face yet, but he was pretty sure they were all broke, had zero killing intent, and were overall useless at generating murder cases.
Take Akai Shuichi, for example—his murder-magnetism was even lower than Jodie's.
…Actually, wait.
What if he brought Akai Shuichi to Amuro Tooru?
Maybe the boss could use the FBI agent to somehow trigger Amuro's murder mode.
The problem was, Amuro's killing intent was like an endangered species—rare and fleeting. It flared up, then vanished before Jiangxia could collect it.
But ghosts were more sensitive to it than he was. Judging from how his ghosts reacted to Amuro's occasional flare-ups—and how the mermaid ghost always stared hungrily at him—Amuro's killing intent must be pretty high-quality.
…Maybe Akai Shuichi could be useful after all.
Also, if you put Akai Shuichi directly in Gin's line of sight, that might trigger some interesting reaction too…
Jiangxia imagined the possibilities and felt a faint excitement at the thought of finally meeting Akai Shuichi in person.
Snapping out of his daydream, he noticed another email on his phone.
Still from Vermouth.
Apparently she was sending thoughts one at a time as they occurred to her:
"I heard this is your first time observing a major figure's assassination. Don't stress—just watch the show.
If anything goes wrong, keep your head down.
We operate under a personal responsibility system—whoever messes up, owns it~
You're not the main executor today, so even if something happens, as long as you don't make it worse, you're fine."
"…"
Vermouth was being surprisingly… supportive.
Honestly, when she'd sent that weird first reply, Jiangxia had expected the classic bait-and-switch—maybe she'd get him to lie down, then ghost him with a smug "I said I'd consider coming, not promise," and then block him. Unless, of course, his parent ghosts clung to her leg like toddlers.
He hadn't expected her to explain things and even offer a how-to guide on strategic slacking.
Maybe… not killing her that day at her place had boosted her opinion of him?
Plus, "Ouzo" had regained his freedom and Kudo Shinichi was still alive—Vermouth probably saw that as a win.
Still, the real MVPs were definitely the parent ghosts. Come to think of it, how old was Vermouth anyway? She sure responded quickly to spiritual pressure…
Jiangxia sighed and tucked his phone away.
All things considered, she really hadn't come—not even in disguise.
The banquet had heavy ID checks, and the executor and support were already in place. If Vermouth tried to KO someone and sneak in, it'd just create unnecessary complications for what was supposed to be a nice, simple "Councilor Nomiguchi's tragic accident."
Bottom line, since Vermouth was sitting this one out, Jiangxia would have to provide a little backup for Pisco himself.
Even a plastic colleague (unreliable/backstabbing) is still a colleague—gotta help each other out to make future reports go down smoother.
That said, it wasn't like Pisco was making a move right now. No need to waste energy on work mode just yet.
With that, Jiangxia happily pushed the whole mess to the back of his mind. He looked around at the growing crowd in the banquet hall and pulled out the stack of business cards he'd brought.
*Goal #1: Top 200 fanfics published within the last 31 - 90 days by POWER STONES.
Progress: 23/60(approx) for 10 BONUS CHAPTERS
Goal #2: One BONUS CHAPTER per review for the first 10 REVIEWS.
Progress:3/10*