Vol 1 Chapter 1 (2/2)

And with that, the Lieutenant Colonel left the hall like a shadow, leaning onto his cane.

Sak.u.ma felt a surge of bitterness at the memory of that conversation as he glanced at the fake military police before him, who were going around in the house looking for evidence.

(They didn’t even become spies for honour or out of patriotism.)

At this, a feeling of disgust welled up in his chest.

But can someone really do these things? To not love anyone in the entirety of their lives, to not believe in anything, is there a way to live like this?

In the end, the true motive that pushes them is…

—If it were me, I would definitely be able do it.

This borderline terrifying sense of pride.

To Sak.u.ma, only heartless, emotionless people are able to live such a life.

Two days ago, after Sak.u.ma had relayed the orders he had received from General Staff Headquarters, Lieutenant Colonel Yuuki had unexpectedly smiled.

“They want us to investigate this man?” Sak.u.ma had handed him the file containing John Gordon’s information, which had been cast aside on the desk by the Lieutenant Colonel after he had had a quick glance.

“Give me a reason.”

“As I had stated, the target is suspected of espionage.” Sak.u.ma had no choice but to explain once more.

“Colonel Mutou expects the school to bring back irrefutable evidence to confirm of the target’s guilt.”

“Evidence? What a fool, why would we bother to looking for it?”  The Lieutenant Colonel had muttered.

“I beg your pardon?”

“Even if we don’t look for evidence, if we just leave him alone, he’ll vanish soon enough.”

—Vanish on his own?

Sak.u.ma had thought he had misheard the Lieutenant Colonel.

“It is possible that Gordon had taken covert photographs of cryptographic ciphers of the Imperial j.a.panese Army, and suspicions are high. You just said he’ll disappear on his own? Meaning that we should ‘set him free’?”

“Once a spy is suspected, they’re finished. What purpose is left of an exposed spy? What use is there to arrest an enemy with the likes of a crippled soldier now?”

“That may be right, but…” Sak.u.ma was at a sudden loss of words, but quickly retaliated, “If we arrest him, and carry out further interrogation, we might be able to force him to reveal who else is involved in the disclosure of the ciphers, carry out investigations on unknown personnel who are also involved.”

“Judging from his behaviour, this is an individual crime. Even if we arrest him, we won’t get anything out of him.”

“As of now, the General Staff Headquarters are not only demanding training from this school, they also want actual results.” Sak.u.ma inevitably had to speak of the truth.

“Colonel Mutou had said ‘This is a good chance, we must bring back evidence.’ In other words, this is an official mission for the D-Agency.”

“What a meaningless mission.”

“Regardless, orders are orders.”

Lieutenant Colonel Yuuki had stared at the persistent Sak.u.ma with uninterested eyes.

“Understood. All we need to do is to bring back evidence, right?” The Lieutenant Colonel had said, face expressionless.

He summoned one of the students, one of the firsts to enroll in the “D-Agency” — Second Lieutenant Miyos.h.i.+.

Miyos.h.i.+ stood before Sak.u.ma, and read the reports concerning Gordon at an alarming speed, then returned them and said, “Well, how should we go about it?”

“Disguise yourselves as the military police, and raid the house.” Lieutenant Colonel Yuuki had said nonchalantly. “”Miyos.h.i.+, you’ll take command at the scene. As soon as you obtain evidence, leave immediately. You’ll have about forty minutes before the real military police arrive and start a commotion. Can you do it?”

“Thirty minutes will be suffice.” Miyos.h.i.+ offhandedly shrugged, and turned to Sak.u.ma. “I would also like to invite Sak.u.ma-san to take up the role of the captain.”

“Me as the captain?” Sak.u.ma had blinked in surprised at Miyos.h.i.+’s words. “Aren’t you supposed to be taking charge?”

“I shall accompany you as an interpreter. Judging from the information provided, this would be the best way to speak directly to the target.”

“But…”

“If it were the real military police, it would seem unnatural to not bring along an interpreter upon entering the property of a foreigner. There is no way they would be able to understand foreign languages.”

Having heard such, Sak.u.ma had nothing retort.

“Then we’ll move out at 0800 in two days. I’ll inform everyone else.”

Miyos.h.i.+ had said this casually, and prepared to leave just as Sak.u.ma hurriedly called after him.

“What if we do find any evidence after the raid?”

Miyos.h.i.+ looked at him in surprise.

“…There’s probably proof isn’t there?”

Miyos.h.i.+ grinned, much like a cat in a fairytale, and disappeared behind the door.

The day of the mission had come.

The students of the D-Agency had disguised themselves as a military police unit as planned, and raided the target’s residence.

John Gordon had initially strongly denied the entry of the military police.

“I haven’t done anything wrong. I clearly haven’t done anything wrong, so why are you investigating my home? I cannot accept this!” The tall American exclaimed loudly, blocking the door.

They had wanted to force their way inside, but Gordon stood proud, arms spread, not allowing the men before him to enter.

Gordon was a full head taller than those who were surrounding him. His face was red in anger, making him seem like an aka-oni. [1] If the unit forced their way in, it would certainly cause an uproar and attract attention. In truth, some of the neighbours had already looked out from their front doors to witness the unexpected commotion.

—There isn’t time for this stalling.

Just when Sak.u.ma was beginning to feel anxious, Gordon had suddenly spouted an odd stream of words.

“You guys better not overdo it…It’d be once if it were only once…But twice is simply unforgivable!”

—What? What did he just say?

Sak.u.ma quizzically turned to Miyos.h.i.+.

Miyos.h.i.+, seemingly interpreting Sak.u.ma’s enquiry, whispered some words to the target in a low voice.

Gordon, who had been stone-faced and adamantly refusing their entry, suddenly widened his eyes and laughed, clapping his hands.

“Oh, I understand now, you’ve really got the guts to say something like that. An impressive amount of courage, j.a.panese samurai do as they say, yes?”

Sak.u.ma had been shocked at the abrupt change in his behaviour.

“What happened? What did you say to him?”

Miyos.h.i.+ said calmly,”I told him ‘If we don’t find any evidence after our investigation, the captain will perform hara-kiri on the spot.’”

“What…”

Sak.u.ma was speechless. He had heard none of this before the investigation.

The American technician, John Gordon smirked, and moved aside from his doorway.

“I love j.a.panese culture! So far I’ve seen geishas and Mount Fuji. All that’s left is a hara-kiri show. I look forward to your performance, now if you’ll please!”

Sak.u.ma could only mentally prepare himself.

“Go!” Sak.u.ma commanded in a low voice.

The fake military police rushed into the house upon his words.

“Are you okay, Captain-san? You don’t look so good.” Gordon said to Sak.u.ma. “Are your subordinates still going to continue searching my house? You’re not going to find anything no matter how hard you look.”

He was still as confident as he had been.

—What is he planning to do after all of this?

Miyos.h.i.+, who was acting as the commander at the scene, has his face blank and expressionless as always, and stood motionless. Could it be…

Sak.u.ma suddenly thought of a certain possibility, gritting his teeth.

(Did I draw the Joker again…)

Just like that time…

That had been about half a year ago.

Sak.u.ma had found the students gathered in the dining hall playing poker, and immediately willingly joined. To be frank, Sak.u.ma had not had any other interests, poker was his only hobby.

He was quite confident in his skills.

However, Sak.u.ma had not won once after a few rounds.

It hadn’t been because of receiving poor hands.

Everytime Sak.u.ma received a good hand, the others would lower their bets; on the contrary, whenever he received a poor hand, the rest would increase their amount. Occasionally, when he had a good hand, and raised his bet, someone else would present an even better hand than his own.

Despite the constant rotation of opponents at the table, Sak.u.ma still lost incessantly.

—It can’t be helped, sometimes it’s just a matter of tough luck.

Sak.u.ma shrugged, and emptied his pockets, placing all his money onto the card table, and it was then the students had apologetically explained the mystery behind it all.

They had all been acting in collusion.

The person who stood behind Sak.u.ma would peek at his cards, and signal the ones at the table.

Sak.u.ma had been dumbfounded at this.

He had not even considered the word ‘pathetic’ due to the sheer shock of it all.

“What fun is there when you cheat to win?” Sak.u.ma had retorted in a low voice, and the students looked at one another.

“We weren’t playing poker.”

“What? Then what were you doing?”

“We call it the ‘Joker Game’…”

“Joker Game?”

“And so as to say…”

They had then explained the intriguing game.

The game at the table is a mere charade. The players would consider the ones who come and go from the dining hall as their allies, who would then peek at the opponents’ hands, and signal the players; however, there is no telling whose side one another stood at. The signals from the so-called allies may be false, the players themselves may also be able to see through the signs and change their hand, or convince the opposing spy to betray their side and join yours. Besides these, there still seemed to be a number of complicated rules, but Sak.u.ma had not been able to understand.

“Why must the rules be so complicated?”

“They’re not actually that complicated,” a student replied with a shrug. “It’s just like international politics.”

“International politics?”

“Please picture the table as a stage for an international political meeting,” another b.u.t.ted in. “If your intelligence is leaked, you certainly will not be able to win the game. It’s just like the state of j.a.pan a few years ago, when a meeting was held in London regarding the reduction of armaments. [2] The players of different countries sitting at the negotiating table had already obtained every single piece of intel, and knew the extent of how much j.a.pan was willing to yield. How is it possible to win in a game like this? Yes, metaphorically, at that time, the j.a.panese diplomatic corps were just like you, voluntarily joining the game without knowing the rules.”

The students had looked at one another at the end of the speech, and burst out in laughter.

Since then, Sak.u.ma had not neared the students even if he saw them playing poker.

What rules are they playing by? What sort of game are they playing this time?

One would never be able to pick up hints of any sort just by watching them.

But Sak.u.ma was sure of a single matter at the very least.

—To these people, everything is merely a game.

Perhaps risking their lives to carry out missions are just “interesting games” that are hard to come across to them.

Nihilists that trust no one else but themselves.

Ruthless.

Every single one of them are monsters.

The future of the country absolutely cannot be trusted to be in the hands of these mysterious, shady b.a.s.t.a.r.ds.

The mission to be carried out, ordered by General Staff Headquarters, is probably an excuse to thwart the agency.

It would be a pleasure if they find concrete evidence, and prove that John Gordon is indeed a spy sent from America. The students of the D-Agency would be able to fully experience the fear of “we could be arrested just like this in the future”, and understand that this is reality, not a game.

On the other hand, if they do not manage to find evidence, it is possible for the General Staff Headquarters to denounce the D-Agency and its dysfunctionality, and single-handedly destroy the agency. However…

The students, who were in fake military police uniforms, had completed the search in the house, and returned one after another to report before Sak.u.ma.

“Kitchen, clear!”

“Yard, clear!”

“Closets, clear!”

“Attic, clear!”

Sak.u.ma remained quiet and walked towards the house in strides after he had heard the reports, and inspected the house that is now properly tidied up. He had to admit, the students had had deftly and thoroughly searched the house.

—There wasn’t any evidence to be found in the first place.

Gordon, who had been following behind Sak.u.ma wherever he went, eagerly said with a gleeful face, “What’s the matter, Captain-san? Is it show time now?”

Sak.u.ma stopped.

Am I the one who ended up drawing the Joker again?

Sak.u.ma closed his eyes, having mentally prepared himself.

—Well, if this is it, then there’s no other choice. I’ll do my best for all of you.

He opened his eyes, and took a final glance behind him.

A small smile formed at the lowered brim of Miyos.h.i.+’s cap.

“You said you found evidence?”

Colonel Mutou sat in a chair behind his desk, shock evident on his turgid face after listening to Sak.u.ma’s report.

“How….there’s no way…”

“Sir, you had not told me that it was the second investigation,” Sak.u.ma said while standing at attention. His line of sight had been fixated on a spot above the Colonel’s head, upon the wall during his entire report.

“What?”

Mutou had stared at Sak.u.ma, seemingly surprised at his initiative in speaking.

“What did you just say?”

“Sir, you had personally gave the order ‘deploy the D-Agency to investigate John Gordon, the American spy’ a few days ago, however, I had not heard you mention the fact that a military police unit had already searched Gordon’s house.”

“That goes without saying!”

Mutou resembled a bulldog, his jowls trembling as he bellowed.

“You listen right now. You are nothing more than a liaison between us and those people. Am I supposed to explain everything to you in detail? Don’t flatter yourself!”

Sak.u.ma stood silently through the other’s paroxysm of rage. After all, a professional soldier should never talk back to their superior officers.

“That doesn’t matter. Now tell me where the evidence was hidden!” Colonel Mutou demanded.

Sak.u.ma replied with a short and firm “yes, sir”, and proceeded to tell the man the answer. The Colonel’s face was drained of all colour upon hearing it.

“Something like that actually happened…Don’t tell me that you too had…”

“No, sir, I never laid a finger on it.”

Mutou had only then let out a sigh of relief.

“Well, where’s the microfilm you found?”

“I did not bring back the evidence, sir.”

“Excuse me?”

“I merely confirmed its presence, and did not bring it back.”

“What do you mean?”

“I intentionally allowed the contents of the microfilm to be leaked.”

“To think that you did such a stupid thing…”

Colonel Mutou glared at Sak.u.ma, revealing bloodshot eyes under his thick eyebrows.

“Then…that’s what it was. The microfilm you found didn’t contain any photos of army crypto ciphers, yes?”

“No, sir. It’s exactly as you had said.”

“What kind of imbecile like you would intentionally hand information over to the enemy in a case like this?”

The Colonel slammed his fist on the desk. His roar had been so loud it certainly had made itself audible to the entire General Staff Headquarters. Flashes of fear flitted across the faces of those surrounding them, but Sak.u.ma stood firm like a mountain as he always had, and said,

“Now that we have confirmed what codes were taken, no harm would come if the encryption is to be changed. Moreover, it would benefit our own communications to let the enemy use the already meaningless ciphers.”

“What? Well, it seems to be right if it’s being said that way, but…”

Colonel Mutou waved his hand at the ones who had been staring at them as if he were swatting away flies.

“What about the spy?” He lowered his voice and asked. “You’re not letting him go as well, are you?”

“Lieutenant Colonel Yuuki is currently keeping Gordon under custody to be used as teaching material.”

“Teaching material?”

The Colonel let out an odd shriek, blinking rapidly.

“Yes, sir. Lieutenant Colonel Yuuki said that he will ‘make Gordon a double agent’.”

Colonel Mutou snarled after a short pause, his face an angry red.

“d.a.m.n that son of a b.i.t.c.h Yuuki! Now with things as they are that means he not only has the man, but also the evidence and the credit! What does he mean by ‘teaching material’? f.u.c.k, who does he think he is? I’m not a toy for him to play with!”

Sak.u.ma still stood at attention until the Colonel had finished his rant, then said,

“It appears that I have something you have forgotten, sir.”

“Something that I’ve forgotten?”

Colonel Mutou was in disbelief as he took the cigarette case Sak.u.ma had handed him.

“This is indeed mine….where did you find it?”

“Apparently it was left in the corridors of ‘Hanabis.h.i.+’.”

“Hanabis.h.i.+?”

The Colonel squinted his eyes in surprise.

“What were you doing at Hanabis.h.i.+?”

“Please allow me to report this in a private manner,” Sak.u.ma said before walking around the desk to Colonel Mutou, speaking lowly beside his ear.

“Revealing the details of a military police investigation in the residence of a suspected spy is also considered as leaking confidential military intelligence, even if the person whom you spoke to is a geisha you are familiar with, sir.”

Sak.u.ma then returned to his original position, and once again stood at attention.

“Furthermore, Lieutenant Colonel Yuuki has stated that he ‘will not disclose the incident to the public’. End of report!”

The Colonel remained silent for a while, blood draining from his face completely. He seemed to be glaring dangerously at Sak.u.ma throughout the entire time, but the latter had been focusing on a spot on the wall, refusing to make eye contact.

After a while, the Colonel gnashed his teeth and growled.

“…since when did you get on their side?”

Sak.u.ma smiled.

—Aren’t you the one who betrayed me first?

Those words had surfaced to his mind.

Once John Gordon was suspected of espionage, Colonel Mutou had personally led a military police unit to the spy’s house to investigate. The Colonel rarely left his desk, and for him to personally arrive on site had confirmed the credibility of the suspicion.

Under the command of Colonel Mutou, the unit had entered Gordon’s house by force and carried out a thorough investigation.

And yet to no avail.

Gordon had then said to the stunned Colonel Mutou, “You’re illegally searching the house of a civilian, I’ll have to make an official complaint through the emba.s.sy.”

The Colonel had not known whether Gordon had really meant it.

No, since it is known that Gordon is a spy, it is probable that he does not want to turn this incident into a bigger deal as it is, but Colonel Mutou had been deeply unnerved by Gordon’s words. If Gordon does decide to do so, it would tarnish the record he had worked so hard to earn. Promotions in the future would seem impossible…

In desperation, the Colonel had devised a plan.

He would be able to cover up his own failure by having someone else repeat the same mistake. Yes, having someone else fail at the same task would be enough to solve this.

Even if Gordon does protest to the emba.s.sy, he would be more likely to emphasize and exaggerate on the second illegal search in comparison to the first one.

—Let the D-Agency do it.

It had only been natural for the Colonel to come up with a plan like this.

If the spy agency that had always been isolated by the army, in other words, the D-Agency, had failed in the second investigation, then the Colonel’s own mistake would not stand out too much. Furthermore, if he used this as a chance to point out the error made by the D-Agency and disparage them, then his mistake would not matter much in the end.

A plan that would kill two birds with one stone.

Colonel Mutou had smiled at the thought of his plan.

However, the plan had required a person to act as a sacrifice. A third person who could accurately relay the order without knowing his intentions, a p.a.w.n that can be sacrificed at any time.

—And that would be me.

The order had been a verbal one, and lacked proof. Should questions arise in the future, Colonel Mutou would certainly plan to insist that he “had never issued such an order” and play dumb, erasing all traces of evidence.

Sak.u.ma gritted his teeth, barely suppressing the mocking expression that had threatened to show on his face.

“I had merely followed your orders and acted as a liaison, sir.”

Sak.u.ma struggled to maintain his expressionless façade.

Colonel Mutou glared murderously at Sak.u.ma as though he had killed his father.

“…you are dismissed.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“I said you are dismissed!”

“Understood, sir. First Lieutenant Sak.u.ma hereby takes his leave.”

Sak.u.ma aligned his feet and saluted.

He turned to leave, and the sound of someone delivering an aggressive kick to the desk followed.

Sak.u.ma trudged through the dimly lit hallways of the General Staff Headquarters, out of the building, and was met with sakura blossoms in full bloom.

High walls had been constructed to surround the Headquarters, blocking the line of vision of common civilians, but the blossoming sakura trees had always managed to overthrow the walls and extend their branches outwards.

Sak.u.ma closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

—The seasons are unconcerned with the actions of humans, rotating endlessly.

His body had deeply experienced this inevitable truth.

Sak.u.ma abruptly regained his senses, and found his shadow moving on its own.

He was shocked, and swallowed the breath he had intended to take.

That is not a shadow.

A white leather glove, a cane that is leaned against, a dragging left foot, a stiff gait.

Lieutenant Colonel Yuuki silently approached Sak.u.ma from the back, and walked past him.

Sak.u.ma lightly shook his head, uttered not a single word, and walked side by side with the shadow that had been ahead of him.

The Lieutenant Colonel turned a blind eye towards Sak.u.ma, who was by his side, looking straight on.

Sak.u.ma cast a glance at the Lieutenant Colonel’s shadow-like silhouette.

—Thinking carefully, that incident had been very strange right from the beginning.

Lieutenant Colonel Yuuki had always said “spies are invisible”, yet, he had deliberately let the supposedly “invisible” students of the D-Agency form an eye-catching military police unit, and enter the house in broad daylight.

Why so?

To carry out the operational plan, it is necessary to deploy a fake military police unit.

The military police had already searched the residence of the target, John Gordon. The information that had stated that Gordon was a spy was highly accurate, even Colonel Mutou had personally engaged himself in the mission, but the military had not been able to find any evidence.

This time, when the military police demanded to search the house again, Gordon had completely disregarded them, thinking:

—It’s just the same, the military police are here again to search the place, they won’t find anything.

And so he let his guard down.

Even if it’s the second time the house was being illegally searched, Gordon had merely resisted in a half-hearted manner, and went to the extent of personally inviting the military police unit into the house. After the investigation had started, he had only verbally expressed his discontent, and had not interfered with the investigation or stealthily moved the evidence to another place. When the D-Agency had found the evidence before him, he had fallen into the dilemma of having to attend a fair hearing.

However…

The military police unit had indeed carried out a thorough search.

The “notorious” military police had performed an extensive blanket search.

Therefore, when the students of the D-Agency, disguised as the military, carried out their investigation, it had only been an act. They had no intention of searching the house from the beginning, and had only planned to search “the place where the real military police would never touch”.

The place where the real military police would never touch.

—It is confirmed that he prays before the portraits of the royal couple day and night.

Gordon had a

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