The room was silent, with only the sound of wind hitting the windows.
The security guards are downstairs. If anything happens, they cannot just sit there and do nothing.
The picture on the screen seemed to be paused, and Qinwa's eyes were fixed on the puppy that took off its mask, staring at it intently and every second.
But Hojo Natsuki no longer had time to care about the content of the game. The sudden feeling of uneasiness was like a dark cloud gathering above his head, for no reason and taking a long time to dissipate. It was as if someone was spying on him, so he had to be alert and be on guard against uninvited guests at all times.
He turned off the screen and decided to go downstairs for a walk.
Xia Shu walked down the stairs slowly and lightly. This single-family house was too big for a young person living alone. When the cleaners and cooks left after work, the house was empty and uninhabited, and it was unreasonably cold.
As soon as he reached the first floor, he found a bulge on the sofa.
There were several round cans scattered on the coffee table.
Hojo Natsuki: “…”
Even though he was half the living room away, he knew who this 'uninvited guest' who was wrapped tightly in a blanket was.
"Dazai." Hojo Natsuki turned on the corridor light and asked expressionlessly, "Why are you here again?"
A black head with messy hair poked out from under the blanket.
"Good evening, Natsuki-kun." Dazai was obviously still not fully awake, "What a coincidence..."
"What a coincidence, this is my house."
Dazai paused, yawned, turned around and continued to talk nonsense: "Really? That's even more coincidental... We are so in sync."
Hojo Natsuki glanced at the messy pile of empty cans on the table and knew that this guy was here to take advantage of him again, purely aiming at the crab meat in his storage room. The plastic friendship after knowing each other for many years still has some use. When Dazai Osamu went to Nakahara Chuuya's house to take advantage of him, he burned and looted everything, took things and even blew up Chuuya's car; but with him, it was just stealing. In comparison, he felt a little inexplicably relieved (?).
"You bastard." Hojo Natsuki leaned against the decorative cabinet, crossed his shoulders and questioned, "Didn't you say you found a new job?"
Two years later, former Port Mafia cadre Dazai Osamu finally came clean and became a Yokohama Three Good Citizen with a clean resume.
A few days ago, this person sent him a text message: [Long time no see, Xia Shujun, I found a new job, please treat me to a meal when you are free~! ]
"Working in a detective agency, a detective agency." Dazai Osamu complained in a long and drawn-out voice, "I earn all my hard-earned money, and I can't even afford to rent a decent house. I envy the civil servants in the Special Ability Department, who can get paid even when they work and lie down; and the Mafia, my God, just Xia Shukun's year-end bonus is compared to my entire year's salary..."
Of course, Hojo Natsuki didn't believe his argument of playing the victim, and didn't even believe the punctuation marks.
He decided to go upstairs and sleep directly without paying any more attention to this guy, not even bothering to say a polite "You can sleep in the guest room".
"Oh, right." Hojo Natsuki suddenly remembered something and turned around to go back upstairs, "Touch my phone."
He turned on the screen again, and it was still the game interface of Traveling Frog.
During the few minutes that Hojo Natsuki went downstairs, the puppy Boss's mask had been put back on. It sat side by side with the frog, looking at the auditioning employees outside through the one-way glass.
He had done a residual supernatural energy check at Port Mafia a few days ago, but he was still inexplicably worried. Dazai Osamu's supernatural ability was called [No Longer Human], and its function was to cancel all supernatural power effects - this was much more useful than detection equipment. With a light touch, ghosts and monsters would appear on the spot.
As for why he didn't suspect it was virus software, it was because Hojo Natsuki was extremely confident in the mobile phone firewall system he designed himself.
“Is that so?” Dazai took the phone, glanced at the cartoon style on the screen, was surprised for a moment, and then began to laugh, “Pfft… What are you playing?… Hahahaha so lame hahahaha… BabyBus? This kind of seed-oriented game, you actually hahahaha…”
Hojo Natsuki was extremely ashamed and coughed twice: "... Shut up and give me back my phone.
”
Dazai Osamu obviously couldn't let go of the opportunity to laugh at others so easily. He laughed and immediately woke himself up. Then he carefully observed the characters in the game: "Is this a frog? Why do frogs have silver hair? Is this white fur ball wearing a sad frog headgear a dog?..."
The game was still running in an orderly manner and did not disappear because of Dazai's touch, which completely proved that it was not a product of supernatural powers.
"Wow, how come there's salted fish in a children's game?" Dazai Osamu adjusted his view and found the Akai Fish among the small animals. "It actually walks with its tail. It's amazing. Is this based on the Little Mermaid script?"
Hojo Natsuki: “?”
This is all true. Could this guy be playing it secretly
Dazai Osamu was still blabbering: "I can't believe this is a game of faction confrontation..."
"That's enough." Hojo Natsuki took back the phone and said ruthlessly, "Behave yourself on the sofa, or get out and sleep on the street right now."
After the confirmation of [No Longer Human], his groundless doubts about the game came to an end; and Dazai Osamu's just-talking nonsense interrupted him, and the confusion he had caused by other people's gazes gradually melted away.
Hojo Natsuki lay back on the bed with an inexplicable feeling of uneasiness.
As the audition process was drawing to a close, the director, holding the roster, knocked on the door.
It didn't dare to come in, so it stood at the door through the one-way mirror and said cautiously: "Sir, the audition is over. Do you have a favorite candidate?"
The entire cheesy script only has three main characters, as well as a number of minions of the villain boss. The heroine has been confirmed to be Vermouth, and the original male lead, Frog, refused to cooperate, so Zero had to take over. As for the villain boss, anyone would be fine, he would just be a tool to set off Frogman.
So Hojo Natsuki said: [The male protagonist is Amuro, you choose the others. ]
The director nodded obediently, turned around and left.
The input method panel was folded, and Hojo Natsuki saw the sad frog headgear on the puppy Boss's head, and suddenly thought - wait, did it put it back on by itself
He has already [uncladden] it. As an avatar that follows the main perspective 100%, it shouldn't make any moves on its own.
[Sad Frog Headgear [Original Leather] [Wearable]
[Introduction: Dear Boss of the Frog Organization, this sad frog headgear can help you perfectly integrate into the Frog Organization~]
[Do you want to wear it? [Y/N]]
I have clearly put it back on, but it is still in the [wearable] state.
In this one-sided glass room, there are only two small animals: the puppy Boss and the piano frog.
The frog's posture when sitting on the chair is quite gentlemanly, its two bouncy short legs can actually be crossed together, making it look like a frog with its legs crossed; the dog Boss is a positive example, sitting properly, just as civilized and dignified as Natsuki himself during the Port Mafia meeting... but distracted.
Hojo Natsuki felt that the case had been solved.
He felt a little hurt. The frog didn't want to see his face at all. Was it really species discrimination? After so many years of father-son affection, would it be defeated by this insignificant species gap
He asked: [Why did you put my headgear back on? ]
The frog's reaction was calm.
[Gin]：There are a lot of people here
[Natsuki]: You're talking nonsense. There's one-way glass, and the cats and dogs outside can't see me.
[Gin]：…
Hojo Natsuki became alert and asked: [Do you think I'm ugly? ]
Impossible, how can anyone think that a puppy is ugly? A white ball with small eyes drawn by stick figures, how cute!
The frog answered quickly: [No.]
So he quickly pressed the issue: [Does it look good? ]
Qinwa ignored him, stood up from his chair, and awkwardly changed the subject: [Let's go, we still have a mission.]
Hojo Natsuki saw that it was trying to escape and refused to give in.
[Natsuki]: If you don't answer me, I'll take off my hood and run out
One circle
Upon hearing this, the frog really stopped moving, turned around, and glared at its boss with its little triangular eyes, exuding coldness and anger.
[Gin]: No
Hojo Natsuki is very arrogant: [I am the boss, you can't stop me]
[Gin]：…
[Natsuki]: Unless you answer my last question
—Does it look good
Qinwa was silent for a moment, and gave a perfunctory answer: [Not bad.]
Hojo Natsuki nodded, and was immediately satisfied. As we all know, when a tsundere little frog like Kotowa replies with a twisted attitude, "It's OK" actually means "Very Good".
He swiped up the system message interface and found a message that read [[Qinwa] has seen your true face, loyalty 2], which undoubtedly indirectly confirmed this statement - yes, the seemingly shaky father-son relationship is actually quite tenacious. He loves Guagua, and Guagua loves him. This touching father-son relationship transcends species and dimensional walls.
Qinwa stared at him again and suddenly spoke.
[Gin]：Don’t show it to others
[Natsuki]：
[Gin]: Your face.
Hojo Natsuki: “?”
Damn it, isn't it because you think daddy is not good-looking
Qinwa hugged his shoulders and condescended to explain.
[Gin]: For safety reasons.
He suddenly became happy: [No one can do it? Then can I show it to you? ]
[Gin]：…
[Gin]：Yeah.
Hojo Natsuki smiled, then asked knowingly: [What does 'hmm' mean? Is it OK or not? ]
[Gin]：…Go away.
The frog, who was teased to the point of being angry and embarrassed, didn't want to pay any more attention to him and repeated, "I have a mission and I have to leave."
Hojo Natsuki decided to call it a day, said good night to it, logged off, charged his phone, and fell into a deep sleep.
From finalizing the script and casting to the official filming, the entire process took only one week in the game, which was extremely fast; but Hojo Natsuki felt that it was not fast enough. After all, there were only 4 years, 11 months and 20 days left until the first year of Konan. He had to cleanse the Frog Organization and integrate it into the Red Family before then.
In order to prevent his subordinates from slacking off while taking pay, Puppy Boss personally came to the set to provide guidance on the day of filming.
Naturally, its worried Top Killer Frog also followed.
The commercial may seem short and simple, but the shooting and production process is not as smooth as it appears.
The fox director who was always timid in front of the boss, suddenly turned into the sharp-tongued and demanding famous director when he arrived at the set, becoming the client and giving the actors all kinds of instructions.
Vermouth has not been talked about much, but she is a serious female star and a movie star with good professional skills. Directors always praise her when they see her.
On the other hand, Zero, who plays the frogman, and Akai, who plays the villain boss, even have problems breathing. The occasional "click" sound has become a nightmare for the cat and the fish. What follows is the director's humiliating guidance - they were scolded so badly last time, maybe it was because they were learning to drive at a driving school.
However, Ling Miao and Akai Yuyu are both professional traitors. No matter how challenging their endurance is, they will not act rashly.
Ling Miao put on a green mask, shook his frog-printed cape, and said righteously: [Give the princess back to me, Aka Fish! ]
It meowed very honestly, with its little body standing straight, and it looked like a fighting cat saying "FBI get out of Japan". But if you look closely, you can see that its cat paws hidden in its paws are so embarrassed that it is scratching the ground secretly.
Akai Yu Yu is wearing a long black windbreaker, with her tail standing on the tip of the ground and her body moving back and forth, as if she is expressing the changes in her body movements.
It sneered in an unfathomable way: [Frogman, you wish. If you don't leave now, today will be the day you die! ]
Ling Miao continued to scratch the ground with his claws,
Mimi: [Do you think I’m afraid of you? ]
So they started fighting.
The fighting scenes between Akai Yuyu and Rei are quite smooth, so smooth that the director applauded. However, in the eyes of Hojo Natsuki, it was just a green cat dodging and shaking with a crucian carp on a chopping board. It was not as exciting as Tom and Jerry, and even a bit eye-catching.
[Dear Frog Organization Boss, you have defeated [Zero] and [Akai Fish] in terms of shame! An overwhelming victory! ]
[Rewards: Angry Frog Headgear*1, LV Frog Headgear*1]
Hojo Natsuki: “!”
He suddenly came to his senses, but there were too many people on the set, so he had to find a corner where there were no idle people to try on the headgear secretly.
Fortunately, Director Fox was very considerate and prepared an exclusive lounge for him.
Hojo Natsuki poked the frog.
[Natsuki]：Come with me to the lounge, I'll show you something fun
—Haha! It’s the angry frog mask! So funny!
If it were any other frog, upon hearing this, he would probably have a lot of thoughts and think that the boss wanted to take advantage of him; however, as the prince, Qinwa understood Natsuki's train of thought very well, so his attitude was indifferent and perfunctory.
[Gin]: Got it. You go first.
[Natsuki]：Is there anything else you want to talk about
[Gin]: Buy coffee.
Hojo Natsuki took a look and saw that Qinwa had indeed not brought the driving pendant Fugua with him today. Perhaps he had called in sick? He did not think about it and controlled the puppy Boss to go to the lounge first.
The film set is remote and the conditions are limited. The so-called "exclusive lounge" is no more than a standard hotel room. The windows are open and the light-colored curtains are drawn, with the hanging fabric swaying and creating tiny waves.
[[Qinwa] is patrolling the area around the studio, not missing any sign of the Red Team causing trouble]
Hojo Natsuki was moved.
Qin frog works really hard!
While he was feeling moved in vain, he played the Miracle Dog Online Dress Up game by himself happily and without any conscience. He changed into one frog-style headgear after another, then tried other animal styles. He tried all the existing styles, but Guagua still didn't come back.
In the beverage vending machine on the highway, scattered blue light flows through several rows of plastic buttons.
The silver-haired killer in a black windbreaker stopped.
If Furuya Rei or Akai Shuichi were present, they would definitely be alerted by his sudden action - after all, this man codenamed 'Gin' is the organization's top killer, the coldest and sharpest knife...
However, after stopping, Kurosawa Jin just glanced at the vending machine calmly, as if thinking about something.
He remembered that he had indeed said something like "buy coffee", so he walked over, selected "canned coffee" without blinking, and put in the coins.
He bent down and took out the coffee.
When my fingertips touched the bottle, I realized that I had subconsciously bought the cold one.
Iced coffee reminded him of someone.
That nasty little liar with strange behavior patterns.
Kurosawa Jin really couldn't understand Natsuki's idea. He had already decided to call Natsuki "Natsuki". If the other party didn't call her by this name, then this name was unique to him. In short, this was just a title, not very important, so he would use this name to refer to her for the time being.
Sometimes the other party is very easy to understand, like a puppy or kitten tilting its head waiting for praise; sometimes he or she will do something incredible, as unpredictable as the existence of 'Xia Shu' itself.
For example, he is the boss of the organization.
Xia Shu is not good at disguise, or rather, he has never disguised himself, so he just walks around waiting for him to find out.
Name, Mr. N, Natuski.
As part of the "Clover Plantation Project" organized by the organization, Xia Shu gave him some clover-shaped decorations, such as a lighter that would pop out clover.
The person I saw in the dream, the one who asked him "When will you send me a postcard?", had the same light-colored scar on his hand as N.
N's obsession with frogs is so twisted that it is incomprehensible. Xia Shu gave him
Amulet with frog print.
He really had no reason to be angry. In fact, when he found out that N was Natsuki, he felt something like "as expected".
After confirming the safety of the area around the studio, Kurosawa Jin turned around and walked back. He was a bit "face-blind" and couldn't remember the faces of the dead souls under the gun. He was always familiar with the route of the mission site, so he took a step and walked straight towards the lounge.
For example, that ridiculous frog mask.
For the first time, Xia Shu took the initiative to let him pick it.
However, underneath the frog mask is an even more ridiculous white puppy mask.
Although Kurosawa Jin was angry, he was not surprised. He threw Xia Shu out, but Xia Shu fell asleep at his door and caught a cold, pretending to be sick, and he was sure that the self-torture trick would work on him.
The second time was a few days ago, when Natsuki suddenly and naturally took it off in front of Kurosawa, revealing a young boy's face with red lips and white teeth; perhaps because of the ugly and ridiculous frog headgear, his face was almost unreasonably good-looking, his messy and soft black hair was very cute, his pupils were dark red, and the corners of his eyes were upturned, but there was no aggressiveness at all.
If we have to make some associations, then he is a newborn fox, a marshmallow floating in the sky, soft and fluffy, and just a smile with his eyes curved can make people's hearts melt.
When Kurosawa Jin thought of this, he suddenly realized something, and his rushing thoughts immediately stopped.
Metaphors are dangerous things, and the "exceptions" originate from the moment of impressionistic poetry. He was on guard not to let Xia Shu become an exception.
Just as he had admonished himself every time before.
However, Kurosawa Jin walked towards the lounge step by step with one hand in his windbreaker pocket, but he couldn't help but start to wonder what the other party had prepared. He inevitably had a desire to explore, but in all other unrelated events, whether it was Kurosawa Jin or Gin, they were never curious.
Kurosawa tapped the tin can rhythmically with his slender fingers. He pushed open the half-open door while thinking absentmindedly.
The first thing he saw was Xia Shu's fair-skinned hands holding the hood.
The airflow when you opened the door and the wind outside the window blew in, bringing with it the fragrance of early autumn flowers and trees, with a hint of sweetness in the crispness.
Xia Shu looked up at him. The wind lifted the light-colored curtains, and the sunlight shone behind him, making his outline soft and blurred.
Kurosawa Jin was holding a cigarette between his teeth, and his carefree calmness faded a little. He stared at the other person's face, as if he was exploring, or as if he was recalling.
At this moment, it suddenly overlapped with an illusion that I had glimpsed many years ago.
At that time, the silver-haired boy who was being hunted by two major gangs lived in a small hotel in Yokohama, busy protecting himself in the swordplay and becoming stronger. His only "leisure" activity was chatting with the unreliable Natsuki on his phone, even though he was always annoyed by the other party's unreliable tone.
On a sunny summer afternoon, the young boy Kurosawa returned to the hotel as usual.
I still remember it, room number 205.
When he pushed the door open, he suddenly saw a black-haired boy standing by the window.
Kurosawa Jin's first reaction was also an illusion. He stared at the person for a long time, then blinked. The curtains rose and fell, and the person disappeared - like a summer-only illusion that could only stay on the retina for a moment, and its flowering period was as short as an unfinished dream.
That person also has such clear eyes, soft hair, and eyebrows that look like sunny weather when he smiles.
After many years, the person who had not changed at all stood in front of Kurosawa again.
The curtains that were blown by the wind slowly fell down again.
He is still here.
A little light leaked through the window frame, lightly outlining the outline of Hojo Natsuki, and he tilted his head slightly.
"Why are you so late?"
he asks.
(End of this chapter)