Vodka turned on the radio and listened expectantly.
Sure enough, before long, he heard a report—a minor traffic accident had occurred on the stretch of road behind him. The traffic police were handling it, and the host reminded listeners to take a detour.
"Did that guy really get stopped by Uzo?"
A flicker of joy welled up in Vodka's heart. "Uzo does act like a decent human being sometimes. Just like Big Brother said, he knows his limits and understands that, at critical moments, we need to stand united against outsiders... Huh? Wait, that's not right!"
Halfway through praising him, Vodka abruptly came to his senses. "But thinking about it carefully, if that brat hadn't suddenly called out to me, I definitely would've slipped away quietly. Akai wouldn't have noticed me at all, and I wouldn't have spent this whole trip on edge.
"He created the trouble, then solved it himself, and now I'm filled with gratitude toward him because of it..."
This realization instantly put Vodka on guard. The favorability he had just begun to feel was wiped clean in an instant. "That was close—I nearly fell into his sweet trap like those idiots who are utterly devoted to him! Good thing I saw through his true nature... Come to think of it, no wonder those people keep falling for it one after another—even I almost got caught. Those people who know nothing about 'Uzo' must have it even harder."
Feeling faintly pleased with himself, Vodka didn't dare linger. He took the opportunity to speed up and warily headed back to Tokyo.
A few minutes earlier, two kilometers behind him.
Akai Shuichi looked at the luxury car that had met him around a bend, suddenly gotten a flat tire, crashed into the mountainside, then bounced back and scraped