The thought of being counter-killed by Akai Shuichi on the eve of a major accomplishment, then dying with grievance beneath the full moon... sent a chill down Vodka's spine. It felt exactly like Uzo's twisted sense of humor.
With that thought, he suddenly found himself unable to move his feet toward the duty room.
The gold-medal agent took two steps, noticed Vodka had not followed, and had no choice but to turn back in confusion. "What's wrong?"
"I..." Vodka thought it over, gritted his teeth, and said, "I'll make a call first!"
He moved a few steps away and began dialing.
"No wonder I kept wanting to call Brother Gin while I was on the ship—so that was part of Uzo's plan too." A wave of lingering fear washed over Vodka, though he also felt fortunate.
"Luckily, I only called Brother Gin when that brat switched the cards. Once I realized there might be some kind of conspiracy, I held myself back and didn't call again...
"Otherwise, if I'd kept calling Brother Gin one after another just now... then what would be waiting for me now probably wouldn't be a powerful helper, but a Big Brother who was too annoyed to answer the phone. And I would've headed toward a miserable ending by facing Akai Shuichi alone."
At that thought, his gritted determination when he had faced Uzo alone on the ship suddenly became meaningful. The happiness of unexpectedly avoiding a death ending surged through him.
With the wonderful expectation of clearing this unscathed, Vodka dialed the number in front of him. Sure enough, Gin picked up very quickly.
"Big Brother!" Vodka quietly delivered the speech he had prepared, fully displaying the competence expected of an office worker. In just a few sentences, he summarized the complicated situation here.
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