Holy Father-Style Tool-Person - Chapter 4

Chapter 4

What is an undercover agent?

It is generally the kind of character who needs to hide their name, keep their identity a secret, and say goodbye to everything in their past.

Hiiragi Eiji held no particular attachment to his own identity; the only thing he needed to consider was Furuya Rei and that group of people.

After becoming an undercover agent, he would likely evaporate directly from their world. After all, an undercover agent is not allowed to have any involvement with people from their past.

As a member of Public Security, Hiiragi Eiji had neither the right nor the necessity to refuse his superior’s arrangements, so he readily agreed.

In fact, if he was going to mingle with the underworld, it would actually make many things more convenient for him.

A mafia surely wouldn’t require him to report his itinerary everywhere like Public Security did, right? As long as he climbed the ranks well, it wasn’t impossible to get his hands on a gun that didn’t require official supervision!

Previously, he had been pondering how to reasonably save his four “brothers” who were destined to die in the future. Now, as long as he was successful enough as an undercover, skipping work to secretly save people wouldn’t be a problem at all. Brilliant—!

Once he figured this out, Hiiragi Eiji’s mood improved further. However, before that, he decided to invite the other five out for a meal, treating it as a “farewell dinner” before his disappearance into thin air.

Naturally, this matter had to be kept strictly confidential from the outside world.

Unfortunately, things did not go as planned. For this gathering of six, Date Wataru and Matsuda Jinpei were unable to make it.

“Class Rep Date is still full of energy even after graduation,” Zhufu Jingguang remarked. “But it fits his personality perfectly. After all, if you want to be transferred to the First Investigation Division, you can’t get there without hard work, right?”

“But honestly, I didn’t expect the one turning into a ‘desperate third son’ (workaholic) like the Class Rep to be Little Jinpei instead of Zero or Eiji,” Hagiwara Kenji said, looking meaningfully at Hiiragi Eiji. “I don’t know what’s gotten into him, but ever after graduation, he’s been acting like he’s on a shot of adrenaline. If you ask him, he just says he has to climb higher to have the confidence to tell someone something. Little Eiji, do you know what it is?”

Recalling Matsuda Jinpei’s expression when he spoke, Hagiwara Kenji could easily feel the other’s determination.

…Honestly, a Matsuda Jinpei like that makes one want to give him a hand.

Hearing this, the expressions of Furuya Rei and Zhufu Jingguang both froze for a moment; both immediately made a connection in their minds.

Thus, even if they understood, the two ultimately remained silent. Zhufu Jingguang inconspicuously glanced at Furuya Rei while taking a drink. Sure enough, the dark-skinned youth had started stuffing okonomiyaki into his mouth without saying a word.

…This clearly isn’t even his taste.

Meanwhile, Hiiragi Eiji, who had been called out and questioned, suddenly developed a “bitter melon” face and started roaring internally.

Holy—! Jinpei, can’t you take it easy?! Don’t you know that the path to ‘climbing up’ might not lead to the high-ranking officials but to the lid of a coffin!

But out of the three people present, no one could understand his suffering!

Fortunately, Hagiwara Kenji wasn’t actually looking for a definitive answer; he seemed more like he wanted to help Matsuda Jinpei gain some “presence” with Hiiragi Eiji.

Today was just like their usual dinners back at the Police Academy talking about everything under the sun, each complaining about the trivial trifles of work and life.

After finishing the meal and paying the bill, Hiiragi Eiji ducked into the convenience store next door. After grabbing an ice cream, he stood beside Furuya Rei.

“Where are those two?” Hiiragi Eiji asked.

“…Kenji said he wanted to go catch a claw machine doll, and Hiro went with him.”

Hiiragi Eiji nodded understandingly. “Got it, a gift for his sister.”

Furuya Rei: “Want to go watch?”

Hiiragi Eiji shook his head and lowered it to tear open the ice cream packaging. “No, let’s just wait for them here. Besides, I don’t think you really want to go either.”

Hiiragi Eiji was actually very sensitive to the emotions of others. From the start of dinner, he had sensed that Furuya Rei wasn’t particularly happy, though unfortunately, he didn’t know the reason.

…Probably only friends whose rank is higher than mine, like Jingguang or Jinpei, would know.

Thinking of Furuya Rei’s 99-point affection level that often toyed with him, Hiiragi Eiji felt a surge of grief and indignation.

He had originally intended just to keep his slightly low-spirited friend company, but after a long silence, Hiiragi Eiji suddenly heard Furuya Rei’s near-whisper.

“…It seems that regarding some things, I always find it very difficult to be as decisive as others.”

Furuya Rei curled the corners of his mouth, but the smile was tinged with self-mockery.

Hiiragi Eiji took a bite of his ice cream and gazed at the full moon in the night sky from afar. He pretended not to hear the loneliness in Furuya Rei’s voice and instead spoke as he usually did: “Is that what you think? I have the exact opposite view.”

Because his mouth was full of cream ice cream, Hiiragi Eiji’s voice was a bit muffled.

“What is it?”

“Because you are someone who considers more than others and is very considerate of others, that’s why you seem hesitant.” Hiiragi Eiji spoke those words of comfort with an air of nonchalance.

As he expected, this seemed to give Furuya Rei some help.

…Because the affection prompts in his head began to gallop again. Hiiragi Eiji bit his ice cream numbly, his heart as still as water as he bypassed the affection level that fluctuated several times before eventually stagnating at 99 again.

“So, have you thought it through? Do you want to make a decision?” After finishing the last bite, Hiiragi Eiji turned his head to ask Furuya Rei.

The boy with dark blonde hair looked at him with a heavy gaze. Hiiragi Eiji even felt him take a deep breath in secret, with words ready to burst forth from those tightly pursed lips.

…Why are you looking at me? Hiiragi Eiji was a bit confused.

But in the end, everything turned into a sigh from Furuya Rei. “…Maybe next time?”

Hiiragi Eiji: “…”

Good grief! After all that weighing, that’s your answer?!

Although he didn’t understand what it was about, he still nodded ignorantly, indicating he respected Furuya Rei’s final choice.

“Because I suddenly thought, there are actually quite a lot of opportunities?” Furuya Rei thought for a moment and gave a light laugh. “So, it seems there’s no need to be in such a hurry.”

“…What! Not again!” Hiiragi Eiji complained rarely, but soon, he smiled again. “However,” his bright eyes surveyed Furuya Rei for a moment, and only when the dark-skinned youth awkwardly tried to turn his head away did he speak leisurely: “As long as you’re happy.”

Hiiragi Eiji once again ignored the “roller coaster” prompt in his heart and calmly tossed the trash into the bin. He could already feel that Furuya Rei’s mood had truly improved.

Since that was the case, nothing else was that important.

The sight of Hiiragi Eiji’s back as he left that day was no different from usual. No one realized that this was actually Hiiragi Eiji’s subtle farewell to them.

Unlike his often baffling way of doing things, he always possessed an extraordinary gentleness in places where others least expected it.

…

Hiiragi Eiji never would have thought that a “pie in the sky” (stroke of luck) would fall so suddenly.

The moment he entered the territory of Yokohama, he received a prompt from the system.

[Detection: Multiple Main Characters exist in the Port Mafia. NPC Hiiragi Eiji, please use the Binding function to choose a Main Character within this faction to fulfill their wish.]

Hiiragi Eiji immediately opened his NPC control panel and excitedly read the new Main Character descriptions.

[Main Character: Nakahara Chuuya] Age: 17 Wish: Find the mystery of his birth, protect the Port Mafia. Background: Can only be unlocked upon reaching a certain affection level. Please keep trying, NPC Hiiragi Eiji.]

Nakahara Chuuya, is it? From the wish, he seems like a very good person, and the wish is very simple.

Hiiragi Eiji continued reading.

[Main Character: Dazai Osamu] Age: 17 Wish: Bonds of life, ???? Note: This character’s wish will formally activate in one year. Due to the high difficulty, the achievement reward will be increased to twice that of a normal character. Background: Can only be unlocked upon reaching a certain affection level. Please keep trying, NPC Hiiragi Eiji.]

Hiiragi Eiji: “??????”

Twice!?

At this moment, Hiiragi Eiji was shamelessly attracted by this sentence.

Yes, as a dedicated and professional “Tool,” once he fulfilled a Main Character’s wish, he would also gain something as long as he helped enough Main Characters, he would get one chance to make a wish.

And this wish was something he had planned from the very beginning and had never changed after going through so many worlds.

Currently, he needed to help roughly four more Main Characters fulfill their wishes to realize his own.

Therefore, Hiiragi Eiji chose to bind with Dazai Osamu without hesitation.

Although Nakahara Chuuya offered no mission reward, if possible, he also intended to do his best to help him while assisting Dazai Osamu.

This was him, a tool-type NPC who loved his profession and possessed excellent professional literacy.

[Congratulations to NPC Hiiragi Eiji for successfully binding with Dazai Osamu.] [Note: Due to the high difficulty of conquering this character, the system will open a special gift pack for NPC Hiiragi Eiji.] [Please choose the relationship you wish to achieve with him.]

…Achieve a relationship?

Hiiragi Eiji couldn’t help asking: “Can this be understood as the relationships I achieved with those Main Characters in the past?”

The system gave him an affirmative answer.

Thinking for a moment, Hiiragi Eiji spoke decisively: “I hope he can become the same kind of relationship I had with Sasuke back then,” saying this, Hiiragi Eiji scratched his head sheepishly, “which is the relationship of a best friend.”

Sasuke was Hiiragi Eiji’s first mission target, and his wish was to save his own brother. In the end, Hiiragi Eiji did it, but unfortunately, he died a sudden death right in front of Sasuke.

But it had to be admitted, Hiiragi Eiji felt that among those Main Characters, Sasuke was the one with the highest affection for him.

Who knew that after hearing Hiiragi Eiji’s words, the system would fall into a crashed state.

[Emotional description does not match NPC Hiiragi Eiji’s statement… Please wait…] [Emotional category automatically corrected. Gift pack has been credited.]

That night, without Hiiragi Eiji knowing anything about it, Dazai Osamu had an unusually realistic dream.

In the dream, he had a…

Named Eiji

Boyfriend.