A Win-Win

"See you tomorrow, Miss Enomoto."

Azusa Enomoto withdrew her worried gaze from the attic and looked at Tooru Amuro, sighing.

"You two must have argued today, right? Tang Ze didn't even want to come down for dinner. Make sure to explain things properly to him later, Mr. Amuro." She wasn't foolish; she could naturally see the stiff atmosphere between them during the day. However, it wasn't convenient for an outsider to interfere in many conflicts, so she could only hope that her reliable and eloquent handsome colleague would communicate well. "See you tomorrow, Mr. Amuro."

After Azusa Enomoto left, Tooru Amuro slowly changed out of his uniform and stood at the bottom of the stairs, looking at the closed door with a headache.

He couldn't expose the Organization's information, nor could he reveal his identity. He also had to dispel Tang Ze's hostility and fear, which was by no means a simple task.

A "knock-knock" sound came from the door. Tang Ze, who had been lying on the bed like a salted fish, sprang up, quickly struck a pose, and tidied his expression before replying, "The door isn't locked."

When Tooru Amuro pushed the door open, the first thing he saw was the dark muzzle of a gun.

Tang Ze Zhao, with calm and despondent eyes, was curled up at the foot of the bed, holding a black handgun aimed directly at the door.

"You're all liars. Mom and Dad were, and so are you." Tang Ze's intense emotions from earlier were gone, replaced by hollow eyes. "'What a guardian should do'... it's hilarious."

Seeing Tang Ze's state, Tooru Amuro's heart softened.

Indeed, this child's guardians had always been failures.

He saw Tang Ze's hands gripping the gun. Without responding to Tang Ze's mockery, he took a step closer and said, "You've never fired a gun before, have you? Put the gun down. You'll hurt yourself like this."

"Don't come any closer!" Tang Ze immediately gritted his teeth, lifting his upper lip to bare his teeth, trying his best to put on a fierce and menacing expression. "Stay away from me."

His arm was tensed, veins bulging on the back of his hand from the tight grip. Tooru Amuro saw the bandage peeking out at his wrist and thought of the scene two days ago when he helped him bandage his wound in the attic, feeling even more helpless.

"Relax, Tang Ze. I have no intention of hurting you." Tooru Amuro raised his hands to show he was harmless and took another step closer, preparing to disarm him. "I apologize for not telling you about your parents' death sooner, but please believe me, I have no ill will towards you."

"I told you, stay away from me!" Tang Ze shouted, his finger tightening on the trigger. Tooru Amuro had to stop, to avoid further provoking him.

Although he could guess from Tang Ze's posture that he didn't hold the gun correctly, the gun in his hand had its safety off and could fire at any moment. Tooru Amuro had to avoid such an extreme situation as much as possible.

Would Tang Ze use a gun? Of course, he would.

However, when it came to acting, Tang Ze was serious. His acting skills, which hadn't been utilized during the day, were now starved and eager to perform flawlessly.

"You're working with those people, aren't you? Framing me, making me confess, and then having you monitor me... watching me ask you for help and pour out my troubles, do you find me ridiculous?" Tang Ze then genuinely let out a scoff. "Just tell me what you want me to do. Stop this charade."

Tooru Amuro looked at his agitated state and slowly weighed his options.

Tang Ze was clearly emotionally unstable right now. If he, as Bourbon, admitted to Tang Ze's assumptions and directly demanded, "Hand over the information" or "Tell me what your parents were researching," he could probably get the answers he wanted quickly, even the things the Organization had been pursuing.

But this would completely destroy the trust between Tang Ze and him. It would become impossible to get any more information about Tang Ze's case because, in Tang Ze's eyes, Tooru Amuro would also become one of the participants in the false accusation.

So, he chose to proceed with the prepared plan.

"...I am indeed monitoring you, but I am not working with those people." Tooru Amuro subtly moved a little closer. "Your parents were in a difficult situation, just like me. Neither of us are qualified guardians. But we both want to protect you. Your parents entrusted you to me. I'm sorry, I can't take you away, but I won't let them hurt you."

This was a lie.

Tooru Amuro could only guess. Tang Ze knew that the Tang Ze couple had a secret contact, but he didn't know who it was.

He intended to impersonate this contact and package the morning's conversation as part of relaying information. This was the best plan to maintain Bourbon's operations and make Tang Ze let down his guard.

"I don't believe you." Tang Ze's tense arm showed no signs of relaxing. "If that were true, why didn't you explain it clearly earlier?"

Tang Ze did know that there was a contact communicating with his parents, and he didn't know who it was. Otherwise, he wouldn't have said, "I don't believe you," but rather a denial like, "You're lying."

Believing he had gambled correctly, Tooru Amuro breathed a sigh of relief.

"As I said, we are both in difficult situations." Tooru Amuro feigned a sigh. "I'm not the only one monitoring you. They don't trust me, and telling you directly would put us both in danger."

His words were half true and half false. Considering that the person in charge of the other surveillance team was Whiskey, he felt no guilt in shifting the blame, only regretting that he couldn't shift more of it.

Tang Ze stared at his face, as if waiting for something.

Tooru Amuro met his gaze and sensed a hint of hesitation and relaxation in his expression, realizing that the conversation had reached its most critical point.

Tang Ze had not directly contacted the secret contact, but there was regular communication between them.

Based on this guess, after the conflict with Tang Ze ended during the day, Furuya Rei had urgently contacted the Zero Division and asked them to check all of Tang Ze Zhao's contact methods, whether it was phone, email, SNS, or forums. Any account that had stable periodic conversations with Tang Ze or was periodically checked needed to be investigated.

Finally, his exhausted and pitiful subordinates helped him identify a suspicious account on an anonymous forum.

Earlier today, this account had posted another meaningless post on the anonymous forum, which significantly increased the person's suspicion.

Tooru Amuro now had to say something, something that would make Tang Ze believe he was that person.

"'The weather is nice, I like spring, I hope everything is well, I'm truly sorry.'" Tooru Amuro repeated the content of the post they had found, then added hesitantly, "akira."

This was the Romanization of Tang Ze Zhao's given name "Akira," and it was also the signature used by the account for every post, which was why they had further narrowed down the suspect.

After saying this, Tooru Amuro raised his vigilance to the highest level, waiting for Tang Ze's reaction.

If he failed to gain his trust, the gun held by Tang Ze, ready to fire, would deal him a severe blow at close range.

Tang Ze slowly lowered the muzzle of the gun.

A second before Tooru Amuro prepared to smile, Tang Ze suddenly raised the gun again and pointed it at his own chin.

"Goodbye." Tang Ze showed a triumphant smile and pulled the trigger.

Tooru Amuro felt his heart clench, his blood freezing for a moment with his movement.

"No!" Tooru Amuro lunged at Tang Ze almost reflexively, trying to push away the hand holding the gun, not having time to consider that the close-range bullet could also harm him.

But as soon as he grabbed the gun in Tang Ze's hand, Tooru Amuro froze.

Tang Ze's head hit the wall as Amuro Tooru pushed him back. He hissed in pain and quickly let go, cradling his head.

Amuro Tooru looked down at the gun he had snatched.

It had been modified to some extent, with a perfect paint job. Even Amuro Tooru, who had handled many firearms, wouldn't have noticed if he hadn't examined it closely. But no matter how realistic it looked, it was still a toy gun that could only fire BB pellets.

"...Tang Ze Zhao!" Amuro Tooru enunciated each syllable of Tang Ze's name. Watching Tang Ze start laughing unrestrainedly, Amuro Tooru felt like he was about to explode with anger.

This brat had clearly believed him, yet he still had to shoot him to test his reaction!

"Hahaha, were you scared?" Tang Ze grinned childishly. "You scared me first. I've been afraid all afternoon that someone would burst in and drag me away, or just dump me into Tokyo Bay..."

"Slap!" Amuro Tooru impatiently smacked the top of Tang Ze's head. Tang Ze yelped in pain and clutched his head again, cutting off his taunting words.

...Is there such a thing as an "intermediary"? Of course not.

Tang Ze's source of information was Shuichi Akai, who had confronted him directly.

The account Amuro Tooru had investigated was the burner account of Tang Ze Zhao's original body on an anonymous message board. It was managed by a specialized timed program on a server, which sent a letter written by him to his parents at a fixed time each month – a letter that could never be sent.

Tang Ze sat up straight again, a mischievous grin on his face.

Now Amuro Tooru had a new persona, and he had new character relationships. Finally, they could start exchanging some in-depth information.

Nobody lost; it was a win-win situation, right?