That was right. After a round of battle of wits, Vodka ultimately failed to return to active duty as he had hoped.
When he tactfully suggested that he wanted to keep going on missions with Brother Gin, Vodka only received a new assignment—Gin told him to keep an eye on Vermouth whenever he had time, because "she's been acting a little strange lately."
"Me? Keep tabs on that mysterious, ruthless nepotism hire?"
After a moment of silence, considering that this was not a mandatory assignment but merely an offhand reminder from Brother Gin, Vodka silently set it aside and decided to handle the other tasks Gin had assigned him first.
"I'd better go on that business trip first."
Flipping through the mission details, Vodka let out a faint sigh.
He used to dislike business trips because he worried about accidentally falling into some detestable trap on the way there or back.
Besides, when he was in Tokyo, even if something happened, he could call on Big Brother to bail him out. But if he went to Osaka, so far away, by the time Brother Gin noticed that something was wrong, Vodka's corpse would probably already be on the news, becoming that hateful colleague's achievement.
But now...
"Vermouth has been acting strange lately? How could she not? Itakura Suguru's situation has something to do with her, and since Uzo has already set his sights on Itakura Suguru, he's probably set his sights on her too. If I go watch Vermouth as well, won't I end up caught between her and Uzo, becoming unlucky material to be hauled wherever it's needed?"
Naturally, such a deadly job was something he would put off for as long as he could.
"If I can't afford to provoke them, can't I at least hide from them?"