Jangxia Tongzhi parked under the clock tower and waited a while before Gin and Vodka showed up.
He looked through the windshield at Gin and couldn't help noticing the guy's murderous aura seemed even stronger than usual.
Still, what really caught Jangxia's eye was the brand-new ghost clinging to Gin's back.
…Not a shikigami this time, but an actual ghost. A rare one.
And unlike Xiaobai, this new ghost was a normal-sized ghost child—about the size of two hands put together, like a tiny transparent pillow.
Jangxia was a little moved.
Sure, Gin was usually terrifying, always throwing out unreasonable orders and making everyone work overtime off the clock. But seeing him now, it hit Jangxia—this scary cadre might actually be a walking fortune.
Unconsciously, Jangxia stood up, itching to pull the ghost child off Gin and hold it himself.
But rushing over now would probably get him shot.
So he had to suppress the urge and, together with Vodka, distractedly moved the stolen suitcases and bags into Gin's car.
Jangxia wanted to sneak a few glances at the ghost again, but he resisted. Gin was the paranoid type and would definitely start suspecting things. He was really not easy to get along with.
This time, Gin wasn't driving his usual Porsche 356A, but a black van—perfect for hauling corpses and cash.
From the look of pure disgust on Gin's face as he glanced at the vehicle, he was clearly enduring deep humiliation for the sake of the organization's funds.
After the luggage was loaded, Gin jerked his head toward the back seat. "Get in."
Jangxia nodded, sneaking another peek at the ghost baby hanging onto Gin.
The little ghost stared back at him, trembling, and then reached a tiny hand out, clearly in better shape than Xiaobai had been.
Which made sense.
Even though ghostly appearances changed a lot, Jangxia could still tell from the general vibe—this one was probably Miyano Akemi.
Once he got in, Gin climbed into the driver's seat.
Vodka, who usually did the driving, got in the backseat next to Jangxia.
A few minutes later, Gin casually rolled down the window and shot the fuel tank of the freight car they'd stolen from.
BOOM.
The explosion echoed, and at the same time, Vodka pulled out a gun and pointed it at Jangxia.
Jangxia flinched slightly. This… was not good.
Gin pointing a gun at someone was business as usual.
But Vodka doing it? That was weird.
And since Gin was right here, clearly giving the orders, this had to be serious.
Jangxia felt a vague sense of danger creeping in.
He had no idea what had triggered this.
But if the two of them really were planning to kill him, he prayed Vodka wouldn't be the one to pull the trigger.
…In that moment, even the terrifying Gin suddenly seemed like the better option.
Jangxia glanced at Vodka, then at the back of Gin's head, and made a mental note: if Vodka looked ready to fire, he'd start cursing out Gin. Hopefully that would piss him off enough to act first.
Still, more than the threat of death, Jangxia's attention was on his leg.
– The ghost of Miyano Akemi seemed to be scared of Gin. Once Jangxia got in the car, she slowly floated over and curled up against his leg like a koala, hugging it tightly and visibly relaxing.
Jangxia looked down, desperate to reach out and rua the ghost, and maybe even sign a contract to kidnap her home… But this clearly wasn't the time.
He looked up again.
Staring at Vodka's gun, Jangxia did his best innocent-company-employee-who-got-backstabbed face. "I finished the mission. I wasn't caught on camera or anything."
"That's not up to you to say. We'll verify it ourselves," Vodka replied, adjusting his sunglasses dramatically. The lenses flashed ominously. "Hands up."
Jangxia: "…"
He couldn't figure out what these two overachieving tool people were thinking. But fine. He raised his hands, already organizing his thoughts. If things went south, he was ready to roast Gin into action. The question was… what kind of insult would work fastest?
Admittedly, Gin's age and insane workload didn't exactly fit Jangxia's preferences.
But thinking about it, there were some upsides.
For example, if Gin killed him and he managed to possess his body, he'd get access to the Black Organization's internal structure while replenishing his ghost energy.
The Black Organization was probably the biggest villain syndicate in the world. Knowing more about them would help whether he wanted to escape or take over.
Also, Gin definitely had a stash of money and mysterious meds. He could just quietly loot the useful stuff.
The more Jangxia thought about it, the more it started to sound like a decent deal.
Although… being in Gin's body would make ghost-collecting harder.
There was no way Gin had the "high school detective" buff.
And using Gin's identity to sniff out red party murder scenes? That was basically asking to get jumped. Gin had way too many unsolved crimes to just walk into a crime scene and play innocent. Even bleach couldn't clean that reputation.
While Jangxia was deep in these very practical worries, Vodka pulled out a pair of handcuffs, looped them through a handle on the car ceiling, and cuffed Jangxia's hands. Then he pulled out a black hood from… somewhere, and popped it over Jangxia's head.
With his vision now completely black, Jangxia muttered, "So this is a kidnapping, huh…"
"Shut up," Vodka snapped, very much channeling his big brother energy.
Jangxia: "…"
Vodka put his gun away, pulled out a laptop, and opened it on his lap.
He searched Jangxia, pulled out a bunch of miscellaneous stuff—cigarettes, knives, lighters, and two phones.
He skimmed through the items, found nothing suspicious, and tossed them aside.
Then he connected Jangxia's phone to the laptop, pulled up all his call and chat logs, and started recovering deleted data.
Turns out, Gin really did intend to kill Jangxia and dispose of the body. That way, he could tell Sherry that Jangxia saw the billion yen, got blinded by greed, killed Miyano Akemi, and ran off with the money.
He didn't kill him right away because he wanted to fake a disappearance. Which was easier if they brought him to one of the Organization's corpse disposal sites.
Also, Jangxia seemed somehow connected to Miyano Akemi. And Akemi, in turn, was linked to Shuichi Akai.
Gin, being Gin, immediately jumped to the worst-case scenario—maybe Akemi had suddenly gotten brave enough to "leave the Organization with her sister" because she'd found someone powerful on the outside. Maybe Akai was involved.
The Organization had never been able to link Akemi and Akai before.
But now, seeing someone suspicious—Jangxia—Gin couldn't help connecting the dots.
Maybe Jangxia was the go-between for Akai and Akemi.
Even though both were just low-level members, unlike Akemi, Jangxia didn't have a powerful sister, and nobody in the Organization was monitoring him.
In other words, even if Jangxia was meeting up with Akai, the Organization wouldn't know unless someone happened to spot them.
Gin made a bold guess: maybe Akai contacted Jangxia, and Jangxia then contacted Akemi. Maybe he even used the package drop to pass hidden messages.
As for why Jangxia would help them…
Gin couldn't figure it out. So he chalked it up to "seduced by beauty."
…Even Gin had to admit this theory was a stretch.
Honestly, even the first assumption—that Jangxia helped Akemi rob the place—was pure guesswork with no hard proof.
But still, the possibility existed.
And catching Shuichi Akai—even a one-in-a-thousand chance—was worth it.
Besides, if it turned out to be nothing, all they'd lose was a suspicious peripheral member. And they could pin everything on Jangxia to keep Sherry from turning on the Organization over her sister's death.
—
Haven't gotten a lot of feedback but I feel that having the chapters released at once makes more sense as well. I'll do so from tomorrow onwards.
*Goal #1: Top 200 fanfics published within the last 30 days by POWER STONES.
Progress: 27/60(approx)*
Glossary:
Cadre: A mid-to-high-level member of the Black Organization. Used sarcastically or seriously depending on tone.
Rua: Internet slang for petting or cuddling something cute, especially ghosts in this fic.