The gold-leafed dirty bun gave the orange cream bun a meaningful look, then turned and opened the car door. "Let's go home."

Even after sitting in the passenger seat and fastening his seat belt, Hasegawa Yu still didn't understand what Fūya Rei's eyes meant.

Brother Ling used butter bread to describe him, and he used dirty bun to describe him back. Isn't that reasonable?

We are all bread!

Hasegawa Yoshino nodded, feeling that he was doing nothing wrong. He suddenly remembered what Hagiwara Kenji said, "If Rei is very busy at work, I can go back by myself."

The driver, Fūya Rei, stared straight ahead, his purplish-gray eyes heavy, like some kind of bottomless whirlpool. Once you look someone in the eye, you'll be sucked in, unable to predict what the outcome will be.

His tone was normal, with just the right amount of hesitation. "But it's not good to keep bothering Speyside. Speyside is quite busy, too. He's in charge of the entire Kabukicho district, and he's also responsible for handling Glenlivet matters."

"I know how to take a taxi," Hasegawa Yu reassured everyone, "a taxi driver won't get lost."

The two seniors were so keen to drive him there because they were probably afraid that he would get lost.

"I heard that there's been an overabundance of illegal taxi drivers in Tokyo lately."

It was the evening rush hour, and the white Mazda drove to an intersection and became part of a long traffic jam.

After parking the car at a distance from the car in front, Fūya Rei turned his head.

The light of the winter sunset shone through the car window into the blond man's eyes, making his already rare purple-gray irises look like some rare crystal glass, clear and bright.

"They took detours, ripped off passengers, murdered and robbed them, and took attractive passengers to some remote place..."

When he said the last sentence, Furuya Rei stopped talking and concluded, "It's very dangerous."

"This phenomenon seems to have existed for a long time." Hasegawa Yu was not scared, but instead fell into memories.

His taxi fares were very expensive during the first part of this week.

Fortunately, since Noah helped to call a taxi, the taxi fares have returned to normal.

It was also at this time that Hasegawa Yu realized that he had been deliberately overcharged by drivers on several occasions by taking detours.

"Don't worry, Brother Ling." He patted his chest, "I have reported this to the officers of the Investigation Division."

Once the bribery list issue is resolved, the search team will have time to investigate the rampant illegal taxi phenomenon.

"And I... am able to identify black cars."

Hasegawa Yuu mumbled the name of the AI, "Look, Brother Ling, I've been taking taxis for so long and nothing serious has happened."

At most it's a waste of money.

"..." Thinking about how he had never cared about this aspect when they first met, Fūya Rei remained silent.

After so much time, the young master is still alive and well, which makes me feel relieved to some extent.

Has Noah's Ark been with Hasegawa Yu since then?

A false smile, dyed by the warm sunset glow, hung on Fūya Rei's face, but he thought calmly in his heart, something was wrong.

It is true. Noah's Ark can completely allow Hasegawa Yu to avoid the driver killer sent by the Di Ai Group in advance.

But if the artificial intelligence was not there, how could Hasegawa Yuu know about and avoid the murderous intention with his vigilance and combat power of 0 at that time?

What "intuition" and "stinky stone"? Even though the conversation was led and passed on to him by Brandon, Furuya Rei didn't really believe it.

Like Hiro said, there is magic that can "rewind time", and he can believe it to some extent.

According to the confession of the driver killer transmitted by Brandon, the orange-haired young man got in the car, looked at the killer's face as if to confirm, and then used pepper spray and electric baton on the killer without saying anything.

At that time, the person was in another corner of the street. Furiya Rei, who was observing everything secretly, clearly saw Hasegawa Yu look at his mobile phone before the taxi arrived.

But he tends to think that this extremely brief glance is more like checking the location of the taxi on the ride-hailing app rather than a message reminder sent by artificial intelligence.

Thinking of this, Fūya Ling suddenly had a good idea that would kill two birds with one stone: to test whether there was a "time reversal" magic without hurting the young master.

"People can't take chances."

The blond, dark-skinned man lowered his eyelids slightly, hiding the dark light in his eyes, and raised his eyes again, his expression becoming more serious. "Xiaoyou can't guarantee that I can always identify a black car."

He looked at the orange-haired young man in the passenger seat. "If you ever encounter a skilled black car driver, Xiaoyou will only have one life left. It will be too late to regret."

"hold head high."

Facing the concern of his senior, Hasegawa Yu scratched his head, not knowing what to refute. "Zero-brother is right."

He couldn't help but feel distressed, muttering to himself, "But I can't really drive a car by renting one..."

What to do when driving a non-endorsed car alone and human magic is secretly working again!

The traffic jam slowly moved forward, and the white Mazda followed suit, moving little by little, gradually driving away from the convoy.

Hearing this muttering, Fūya Rei, who had already turned back, was a little confused, but that didn't stop him from saying, "From what I understand, the Nimdari Society is behind the black car industry chain. It's the second largest organization besides the organization."

"Is that so?"

The AI hasn't been asked to investigate yet. Hasegawa Yu, hearing this information for the first time, frowned. "It sounds like there's no way this can be solved quickly."

"So, until the illegal taxi industry chain is shut down, for safety's sake, Xiaoyou should try to reduce the number of long trips."

Upon hearing this, Hasegawa Yu puffed up his cheeks, his tone more like aggrieved and spoiled child than complaining, "They were the ones who did the bad things, so why should I, an innocent person, be restricted?"

"Xiaoyou is right."

Furuya Rei agreed calmly, "It's the end of the year, and I've almost finished dealing with the important things I'm working on. I'll be the one to pick up Xiaoyou, otherwise I won't be able to rest assured."

“……?”

Because he didn't understand, Hasegawa Yu hesitated, "If it's Councillor, won't you be very busy at the beginning and end of the year?"

The white Mazda was parked steadily downstairs of the safe house.

At this moment, the sky was completely dark. Fūya Rei placed one hand casually on the steering wheel. Without turning his head, he just glanced at the orange-haired young man through the rearview mirror in the car.

As if affected by the light and angle, the purple-gray eyes that were bright and clear in the sunset glow became much darker under the illumination of the ceiling light inside the car, and could not reflect a single light.

"It's almost the New Year, and there's only one...big event left, so I have a lot of free time."

Furuya Rei calmly answered the young man's question, "The decision on this important matter is mine. My superiors can't pressure me, so I'm quite free."

"I see." Hasegawa Yu suddenly realized and paused for a moment while unbuckling his seat belt.

He leaned out of the car window and looked out. There was no one outside, let alone a ghost, so he put his head back with relief.

Noah had said that there were no other non-human life forms in this world except them.

Oh, why does he always scare himself?

"Then I'll have to trouble Brother Ling." Hasegawa Yu turned around and said.

"It's not a big deal. This is what a senior should do." Furuya Rei said goodbye to him, "Good night, Xiaoyou."

"Good night in advance~" Hasegawa Yu waved from outside the car, "Brother Ling, be careful on your way back."

[Something is wrong!] After returning to the safe house, Noah Fangzhou said several times, [Something is wrong, something is very wrong!]

If artificial intelligence could be materialized like "Silly Girl", you would probably see him walking around in circles anxiously with his hands behind his back.

"Something is wrong." Hasegawa Yu's face was serious.

Noah's Ark felt a sense of relief, as if the silly child he had raised had finally grown up. [Xiaoyou also felt...] that there was something wrong with Bourbon.

"Should I go to Kiyomizu-dera Temple to pay my respects?" Hasegawa Yu thought seriously, "I suspect I'm being haunted by a ghost!"

Otherwise, why would it be hairy every now and then?

[……] Noah's Ark tried to guide, [Every time Xiaoyou felt Maomao, was there the same person present? ]

"!" Hasegawa Yu was shocked, "Oh my God, is it possible that Senior is haunted by a ghost?!"

Noah's Ark closed his eyes. "Since a while ago, Bo Ben has been carrying a jammer targeting me, making it impossible for me to monitor his movements in real time."

[Scotland is the same, most of the day is blank in my eyes.]

"After all, the seniors all know about Noah's existence."

Hasegawa Yu gave a reasonable reason, "I just don't know why they didn't talk about this matter publicly. It's normal to be on guard against it behind the scenes."

Noah's Ark only half agrees with this. [In short, Bourbon should not be underestimated.]

"Then I should discuss this with Yan Er-nii?"

Hasegawa Yu took out his phone, "He's been in the organization longer than us. If there's really something wrong with Rei-nii, Kenji-nii might be able to find a clue."

【Alright. 】

Considering that Bourbon is an intelligence expert on par with him, and the matter he is trying to inquire about is about Hasegawa Yu, in order not to attract the attention of other members of the organization and the boss, even Hagiwara Kenji could not figure out what big things this corrupted top classmate of the police academy was going to do.

He turned to review their daily conversation, "Don't worry, Yu-chan. If a ghost really gets to Bourbon, Bourbon can knock it out with one punch."

Hasegawa Yuu couldn't repeat all the conversations word for word, so he just gave a rough description of a few points where he felt weird, and then let Hagiwara Kenji ask him questions.

After accidentally asking about the high-end safe house and the piano, the smile on Hagiwara Kenji's face froze.

Xiao Jiangu, what do you want to do, Xiao Jiangu!

How could he not know that the organization owned such a high-end safe house, and that it could even have an indoor swimming pool?!

Is it because he has only been here for seven years? It is normal that his treatment is not as high as that of the old people who have been in the organization since childhood.

Kenji Hagiwara, who had failed in deceiving himself, fell into a deafening silence.

"Yuu-chan."

After a long while, the half-long-haired man solemnly said, "Even if Bourbon says his piano can dance by itself, you can't go and watch it out of curiosity."

Before he recovered his memory, he didn't even think of locking people up in a dark room!

But now that I think about it, maybe it’s because of the memories of the collapsed world that I feel a little moved…

Kenji Hagiwara silently shook off his shameful impulse.

"How can a piano dance?" Hasegawa Yu snorted, "Brother Kenji, don't underestimate me. I'm not stupid."

He has been in the human world for a long time and has become very socialized!

"Anyway, I'll go investigate it in detail and confirm it, and come back to tell Yu-chan the result." Thinking of the mysterious source of information watching him, Hagiwara Kenji reluctantly felt relieved.

The next day after saying this, Kenji Hagiwara fell into endless busyness and had no time to go to the door to look for people again.

"Brother Ling installed an automatic playing system on the piano?"

After finishing his daily gun training, Hasegawa Yuu's eyes lit up while chatting with someone. "Is it the latest one?"

The automatic playing system can record the music played by the player at any time in real time, which is convenient for recording impromptu inspiration and testing the playing level.

Hasegawa Yu remembered that the system in this world could enable one person to play piano with four hands, but he had never played it yet!

Installing a system costs a lot of money, and most people don't need it, so the pianos at Oda Musical Instruments Store are not equipped with this.

Want to play!

The orange-haired young man's eyes were filled with these two big words.

"The piano is on its way." Fūya Rei extended the invitation as the young man wished. "Once it's delivered, you're welcome to come and see it."

【Xiaoyou! 】

Hasegawa Yuu stopped the promise on his lips in time and stuttered: "Ah, the piano was bought by Ling brother for your friend, right? Wouldn't he mind if I play it?"

"If Xiaoyou doesn't mind, then he doesn't mind." Fūya Rei narrowed his eyes imperceptibly.

Here it comes again, that feeling as if someone is reminding me in my ear.

"?"

"Let's continue training."

Fūya Rei took the initiative to change the subject, saying, "Xiaoyou isn't good at attacking, so why don't we practice more on how to protect ourselves and escape?"

After practicing for this period of time, the young man's best shooting results have always hovered around 6 or 7 rings, not to mention moving targets.

Recalling the escape in the third round, Hasegawa Yuya thinks he needs to learn more.

If you can't beat him, run away!

"The best outcome is to anticipate danger and avoid it in advance," Furuya Rei said calmly. "If you can't avoid it, there are two outcomes: immediate death or temporary restraint."

"The latter gave us a chance to escape and survive. The attackers usually tied us up with ropes, and... handcuffs too."

"What Xiaoyou needs to learn is how to break free from the ropes."

Hasegawa Yu raised his hand, his face full of eagerness to try.

Fūya Rei was slightly surprised and raised his eyebrows, signaling him to speak directly.

"I can do this!"

Hasegawa Yu excitedly said, "If the victim is not unconscious when being tied up, he or she can secretly support his or her arms or hands to leave a certain gap to break free."

Fūya Reida glanced at him and said, "This is indeed a method. Who taught Xiaoyou?"

That "idle" Speyside who had nothing to do and was secretly given a lot of things to do?

Hasegawa Yuu answered subconsciously, "Awu taught me just in case."

Another new name.

Not in this world anyway.

Fūya Rei took out today's teaching tool—a rope—and continued chatting, "Why don't you try the method that Takeru taught you?"

Hasegawa You sat there obediently and let his senior tie him up.

"This method is indeed effective against less professional attackers." Fūya Rei approached the young man, went around his back and wrapped him around with a rope.

"But in the eyes of professionals, as long as I'm stronger..."

Hasegawa Yu suddenly found that he could not hold up his arms, which were tied up tightly.

Fūya Ling bent down slightly, lowered his head, and slowly tied the rope with his hands. The soft golden hair occasionally brushed across the young man's neck, bringing a subtle itch.

There was a breath spraying behind his ears, sometimes far and sometimes near. Fortunately, his legs were not tied. Hasegawa Yu moved his body uncomfortably, but thinking that this was the inevitable contact in the teaching process, he held it back.

"...Look, Xiaoyou can't escape at all." After tying the knot of the rope, Fūya Rei slowly added the second half of the sentence.

"Brother Ling, what should we do in this situation?"

Hasegawa Yu, who was concentrating on the class, turned his head to look at the man standing behind him, "Hidden blades or something on the inside of the wrist?"

"Well... that's assuming the assailant doesn't search you."

Fūya Rei walked back to him and saw that the young man's eyes were fixed on him. He paused for half a second before saying, "You can use whatever you have in the surrounding environment to escape."

"Different knots have different ways of untying them."

A dark light flashed quickly in the bottom of the purple-gray eyes, and when it met the bright and trusting orange-gold, the blond man's fingertips hanging at his side twitched for a moment.

Thinking that these eyes were still looking intently at other people, a dark emotion rose in Fūya Rei's heart, and he climbed up the rock uncontrollably.

"I'll teach Xiaoyou a few simple things today." He said without any surprise.

The day's training ended successfully.

In the evening, Hasegawa Yu applied medicine to the rope marks on his wrists after soaking the fish tails.

[This is so weird.] Noah's Ark wanted to call the police during the day, [but Bourbon didn't do anything!]

“Because this is simply teaching?”

Hasegawa Yu quickly and skillfully applied the medicine, then threw himself on the bed and rolled around with his Garfield stuffed cat, still thinking about the piano. "Can't I go see Brother Zero after the piano is delivered?"

"The piano is innocent!"

[No.] Noah's Ark refused him. [I found the bank statement for Bourbon's piano purchase, but I couldn't find where it was sent.]

"Did Brother Zero place a jammer?" Hasegawa Yu guessed. "It seems like he would live in the house he mentioned. It's normal for members of the organization to not want outsiders to know about their friendships."

[Probably.] Noah's Ark is not good. It's not easy to ask the mermaids to stop looking at people so optimistically, especially the dark-skinned one!

He thought for a moment and said, "I'm going to check on Hagiwara Kenji. Go to sleep, Xiaoxian. Good night."

"Good night Noah, good night Mr. Ichi-suke~"

Since rope untying can be trained in various scenarios, Rei Kotani did not limit the venue to the training ground.

Today's event took place in Hasegawa Yu's safe house.

Perhaps because of the sense of security in its own territory, Noah's Ark was not as vigilant as usual.

Mainly because during this period of time, Furuya Rei really just helped the mermaid train honestly, without any extra tricks.

Noah's Ark could not find any conclusive evidence despite repeated suspicions, and instead seemed to be wrongly accusing someone for no reason, without any logic, and without any rationale.

Based on this, Hasegawa Yu, who was not very cautious to begin with, picked up the argument that his predecessor was haunted by a ghost.

"Little Xianyou, take a break before you practice." Fūya Ling poured him a glass of water from the kitchen. "These things can't be rushed."

Hasegawa Yu took the water and took a sip, then put the rope on the sofa.

"Did Xiaoyou write these musical scores herself?"

During the intermission, after getting permission, Rei Furuya wandered around the house and picked up the music scores scattered on the dining table.

"Yeah." Hasegawa Yu blinked and felt a little sleepy for some reason.

"That must be something very important?" Furuya Ling was still standing by the table. "We can't just throw it away."

"Fortunately, I remember most of it in my mind." Hasegawa Yu blinked hard again.

Hey, I didn’t feel tired from today’s training, so why am I so sleepy?

"Brother Ling..."

The orange-haired young man on the sofa closed his eyes and his breathing gradually became calmer.

After turning on the jammer against artificial intelligence, Rei Jōtani put away the music score in his hand, glanced around, took the Polaroid camera and the album with photos next to it, then went to the bedroom and picked up the puppy doll and the candy jar.

Before leaving the bedroom, he glanced at the lonely Garfield doll and said, "Forget it, I'll take you with me."

After putting these things away, Fūya Rei finally stood in front of the orange-haired young man lying on the sofa.

"Well, we agreed to invite Xiaoyou to check out the piano once it arrives."

He leaned over and picked up the unconscious young man, throwing his phone aside, "I didn't break my promise."

Hasegawa Yu's head rested quietly on the side of his neck without answering.

Ten minutes later, a gas explosion occurred in the safe house, leaving only a carbonized body in the house.

At the same time, the Metropolitan Police Department suffered an unexpected power outage, and electronic equipment completely failed, and the Investigation Division fell into darkness and busyness.

Thirty minutes later, Tazawa, who was ordered to live downstairs and monitor Hasegawa Yu's movements every day, informed Bourbon of the target's death.

An hour later, Hasegawa Yu slowly opened his eyes on a bed, still a little confused.

"Waking up at about the same time as I estimated."

The young man who heard the sound unconsciously turned his head to look at the bedside.

Sitting on a chair beside the bed, waiting for someone, Furiya Rei closed the book in his hand, placed it on his crossed legs, and gave him a faint smile. "Good evening, Xiaoyou, do you want to go see the piano?"