Chapter 79: Confirmed once again.
Akai Shuuichi seriously tried to recall whether he had seen the boy in front of him before.
Indeed, the black-haired boy in front of him gave him a sense of familiarity... because of that face!!
Akai Shuuichi glanced subtly at the person behind him who was laughing. If he saw the boy's face, would he still be able to laugh?
"Moroboshi, I never expected this." the blond mixed-race man who had always disliked him sneered. "You actually have this kind of experience?"
As they were talking, the blond mixed-race man emerged from around the corner. His mocking expression had just begun to rise when he paused, clearly intending to see who had made such a remark.
"It must have been an accident, after all, Moroboshi-kun isn't..." The cat-eyed youth who came out next was about to smooth things over when he showed the same reaction as the other person: "Hmm?"
The only young man present with waist-length hair sighed: "Someone you know?"
Morofushi Hiromitsu hesitated and said, "No, I don't know him..."
"I guess it's fate? After all, it's amazing to meet someone who looks so similar." He smiled slightly and said to the young man who had wandered in, "Hello."
They weren't at the crime scene, and they've cleaned it up, so even if someone saw them, there wouldn't be any problem.
Having received a negative answer, Akai Shuuichi face showed no other emotion, and it was unclear whether he believed it or not. But putting everything else aside, he was the person who least believed in, and least could believe in, coincidences.
Akai Shuuichi – codename Rye, currently using the alias Moroboshi Dai, is an undercover agent sent by the FBI.
Years ago, he used his status as a boyfriend from the lower class to join the organization.
His girlfriend, on the other hand, was a regular, low-level employee who wasn't involved in the organization's intelligence, so his presence wouldn't attract the organization's attention. Meanwhile, she had a sister who was a researcher with a codename, which naturally provided him with another channel and opportunity to join the organization.
The only thing overlooked was that Miyano Akemi had another protector besides her sister.
—That man was Bourbon.
That protection wasn't romantic; it seemed that Miyano Akemi's deceased parents had some connection with Bourbon, which led to Bourbon always taking care of the Miyano sisters like an older brother.
Therefore, this "older brother" harbored great malice towards him from the very beginning.
It was only because the other party was an intelligence agent who consciously concealed his identity and information that he was targeted for a long time. He only learned of the other party's existence from his girlfriend after actually meeting him and cooperating on a mission once.
With Bourbon watching him with excessive sharpness, the process of obtaining his codename became extremely difficult, and much intelligence was hard to transmit, making it impossible to launch a capture plan.
On the contrary, because he had passed Bourbon's test, he gained experience in dealing with other codenamed individuals and found that they were much easier to deal with than Bourbon.
Moreover, despite Bourbon's meticulous attention, no problems were found in him, which indirectly showed that there were no problems with him.
Over the years, he almost got exposed several times. The most coincidental time was when he ran into his own sister at the train station.
Fortunately, he reacted quickly enough to chase his sister away before Bourbon and Scotch noticed—though Scotch's reaction made him wonder if they had seen his sister's face.
They were prepared for their identities to be exposed, but surprisingly, Scotch never spoke of it or mentioned anything similar.
So this time, if needed, Akai Shuuichi also intends to repay that favor.
The only problem was... Akai Shuuichi glanced casually at the blond man with a downturned lip.
Scotch's reaction didn't seem feigned either, so is this really just a coincidence?
Morofushi Sora'aki was also surprised to run into them here. Although Matsuda had already met them, these two were the only ones left.
The black-haired, blue-eyed boy replied, "...Hello."
There was a bit of an awkward atmosphere. Bourbon wasn't a talkative person, and Akai Shuuichi was even more taciturn. The only one who was somewhat better off was Scotch, who was probably the one who was finding the most troublesome right now.
After a few seconds of silence, Morofushi Sora'aki spoke up: "Do you know Hagiwara?"
The name was familiar to all three people present. Morofushi Hiromitsu was taken aback, but his mind subconsciously recalled the text message from that afternoon: "...You wouldn't happen to be the surprise he mentioned?"
"Probably." Morofushi Sora'aki replied.
He was a little surprised, because based on his previous conversation with Hagiwara—and from what he knew, Hagiwara shouldn't have lied.
In other words, in Hagiwara's eyes, the person he grew up with was Morofushi Hiromitsu.
However, when Hagiwara put his arm around Matsuda's shoulder and spoke in a tone that suggested they were "childhood friends", there was nothing wrong with it.
After a brief analysis, combined with the developments in other worlds and his understanding of several people, Morofushi Sora'aki roughly grasped the timeline.
Based on their past home addresses, Hagiwara Kenji and Matsuda Jinpei probably met when they were children, but they were separated later due to unforeseen circumstances on both sides.
Judging from the atmosphere at the scene, Morofushi Sora'aki has a strong suspicion that Morofushi Hiromitsu, who disappeared from Nagano when he was a child, never met Furuya Rei, who lived in Tokyo.
In other words... swapping childhood friends plus a high probability of a childhood sweetheart falling from the sky? Morofushi Sora'aki seemed to understand something in an instant.
"He mentioned to me before that he had a friend he'd known since childhood and wanted to introduce us." Sora'aki decided to test the waters one more time: "It's you, isn't it?"
Morofushi Hiromitsu realized something from those words, and a helpless smile naturally appeared on his face: "It should be me, right? That guy always does whatever comes to mind. I'm sorry to have troubled you."
"Won't."
Having nothing in common to talk about, and to avoid an awkward atmosphere, and also to satisfy his own curiosity, Morofushi Hiromitsu naturally chose to drag the person next to him into the conversation: "Speaking of which, what was that sentence you just said...?"
"You mean transgender?" This was a question that Morofushi Sora'aki was very familiar with, and he replied decisively, "Sorry, I mistook you for someone else."
"I met a woman who looked a lot like him before, which is why I said that."
There was nothing wrong with what Morofushi Sora'aki said, but he overlooked one thing.
He underestimated the relationship between the organization and the undercover agent.
In his mind, Akai Shuuichi was his older brother's friend, someone with whom jokes were just something that everyone could laugh off.
In other worlds—even in the Gender-Swapped World—it wouldn't be a problem if Morofushi Sora'aki didn't react immediately to such a joke. Because in those worlds, Furuya Rei and Morofushi Hiromitsu are both on the red team.
However, in this world, the identities and factions have been partially distorted, and neither Morofushi Hiromitsu nor Furuya Rei are on the side of justice.
Unlike Morofushi Sora'aki, who comes into contact with various different worlds, they wouldn't associate this sentence with the same person from another world.
Rather, it was just as Akai Shuuichi had guessed about the relationship between Morofushi Hiromitsu and Morofushi Sora'aki—Furuya Rei narrowed his eyes when he heard this.
Morofushi Hiromitsu also gave Akai Shuuichi a meaningful look.
Akai Shuuichi pondered for a moment whether the boy before him had seen his mother or sister before. But surely the resemblance between his mother and sister and himself shouldn't be so striking that he would mistake them for someone else?
However, such words would not be a reason for revealing one's identity.
Encountering Morofushi Sora'aki now will not have much impact on Morofushi Hiromitsu's identity.
As if he had simply bumped into a stranger who looked just like himself, Morofushi Hiromitsu casually hitchhiked a ride.
After saying that, he and his two companions planned to leave.
Just before leaving, Morofushi Hiromitsu turned around as if sensing something, and then he saw Morofushi Sora'aki calmly mouthing the words to him.
'Nice to meet you...brother.'
Seeing the slightly surprised expression on Morofushi Hiromitsu's face, Morofushi Sora'aki smiled faintly, as if he had successfully pulled off a prank.
Then he turned and left without hesitation.
This world truly was—an absolute hellish start. He confirmed this once again.