Chapter Text
Even at night, the streets of Tokyo are never really dark. Seen from above, the city looks like a blazing web against a pitch-black backdrop, illuminated by giant, polychrome LED billboards and neon signs, blinking red lights on top of skyscrapers, and a multitude of streetlamps. Countless pairs of tiny white and red spots can be observed crawling along the glowing veins of the city, no matter how late it is.
Tonight, Tokyo shines even brighter than usual. The silver light of the full moon uncovers places that are hidden from view most other nights. It’s usually impossible to navigate the nocturnal labyrinth of small alleys between the old, abandoned buildings in the southernmost end of the industrial zone without a flashlight because the streetlamps died a long time ago. But tonight, broken windows reflect the radiant moonlight, casting the skeletons of former warehouses in a silvery glow.
It’s certainly not the best night to keep a white car hidden from view. Luckily, Rei has managed to find a shady spot to park his Mazda RX-7, right around the corner from an old auto repair shop. He’s absentmindedly tapping his fingers against the steering wheel, every now and then throwing a quick look into the car mirrors to check his surroundings. Not that he can see much anyway, as the alley he picked is almost shrouded in darkness. The driver’s window is lowered just a tad to let in the pleasant nightly breeze.
Rei finally hears the sharp clacking of her high heels on the asphalt, several seconds before the outline of an obscure figure appears in the rearview mirror. He closes his eyes and shakes his head, his lips curling into an amused smirk. Here he is, trying his best not to draw attention, while she’s strutting down the deserted alley as if it were a catwalk. Fortunately, there seems to be no one else around at this late hour.
After slipping into the passenger seat next to him with an elegant motion, she closes the car door with a not-so-elegant bang. So she’s in that mood again.
“Vermouth,” Rei greets her with the most charming smile he can muster. Her expensive perfume infuses the air, fragrant of lavender. The flower of loyalty.
“Hello, Bourbon,” she replies, without so much as looking at him. Her eyes are fixed on her phone, its screen glowing in her hands and illuminating the Mazda’s interior. She’s wearing a tight, dark purple dress, and her long blond hair falls over her shoulders in waves. Her fingers, armed with long, perfectly manicured nails, are ghosting over the touchscreen at mind-boggling speed as she types a text message. Her expression is a mixture of tension and annoyance, which leads Rei to the conclusion that the text is for Gin.
Rei’s smile doesn’t falter as he patiently waits for her to finish. When Vermouth finally tears her eyes from the screen to look at him, he briefly lowers his gaze to her daring décolleté. He always does, simply to please her. Maybe she’s long figured out that he’s not interested in women, considering that he’s never made a move on her during their fake dinner dates at three-star restaurants, or during the many nights they spent together in his car, scheming or surveilling targets. Any other guy would have probably already tried to hit on her. After all, Rei isn’t blind; he can tell that she must be irresistible to any man with a preference for women.
Vermouth, on the other hand, loves teasing Rei with flirtatious remarks, but he knows better than to assume he could use his looks to his advantage. Not with her. Rei is aware of the effect he has on women, and it has come in handy numerous times before. But this is Vermouth. He knows all too well that she simply enjoys playing with him, like a cat with a mouse before killing it. It’s just a way for her to demonstrate her superiority. She never tires of reminding Rei that he’s nothing more than a dog on her leash. That he has to submit and obey. In fact, if she ever were to ask him to fuck her, he would have to do it without hesitation, even if it would break him. Fortunately, Rei has a hunch that Vermouth may not really be interested in the opposite sex either. She just loves toying around with pathetic fools.
Tonight, though, she’s clearly not in the mood for flirtations. Her eyes are cold as ice when she finally tells Rei why she had to meet him on short notice at 2 a.m.
“He thinks you’re a rat.”
Rei’s first reaction is an amused huff. It’s not the first time he’s heard that. But there’s an unfamiliar sharpness in Vermouth’s voice that causes his heart to drop into his gut.
“Who thinks that?” Rei asks, trying to sound unimpressed and play it cool.
“Don’t you dare act dumb. You know who! Gin!” she spits, making that name sound like an insult.
Rei chuckles. “So? That’s not exactly news...”
Vermouth harshly cuts him off, drawing the Smith & Wesson that had been strapped to her right thigh and pointing it right against his temple. “Give me one reason not to blow your brains out right here.”
“Hold on,” Rei interjects, raising his hands and pretending not to be affected by the cold metal pressed against his forehead. “We’ve also been over this before. You know what will happen if I disappear. So what’s going on? Gin has never liked me, so what? Why do you suddenly seem to believe him?”
Vermouth’s eyes remain dangerously narrowed as her lips curve into a malicious smirk in anticipation of Rei’s reaction to the name she’s about to utter.
“Akai.”
Rei didn’t see that one coming. Unable to hide his surprise this time, his eyes widen and his mouth falls open. For an uncomfortable moment, his words seem to be stuck in his throat.
Trying to restore his poker face, he grits out through clenched teeth, “What...about him?”
In his twenty-nine years, Rei has only fallen in love with two people. Both of them died on a rooftop in the same horrible, fateful night.
His first love was also the first to go that night. Morofushi Hiromitsu had been his best friend since childhood. From a young age on, their lives had been completely intertwined. Rei and Hiro shared everything. At school, Hiro took blows from bullies who teased Rei for his different looks, never tired of defending him. And Rei offered his shoulder to Hiro whenever some silly girl had broken his heart, or when the trauma of his parents’ murder took the best of him. Later, they went to the police academy together. Infiltrated the Black Organization together.
Rei and Hiro were like brothers. That’s why Rei was never able to confess the romantic feelings for Hiro that had started to bloom within him in their teenage years. He simply couldn’t risk scaring Hiro away because the boy was the only family he’d ever had.
Rei’s first love is a secret only he knows, and it always will be. Just like so many other secrets that he’ll take to his grave one day.
Truth be told, Rei’s second love didn’t actually die on that rooftop. But ever since that night, Akai Shūichi has been dead to him. Because Akai didn’t save Hiro. Although he could have. A man of such skill... Upon seeing him standing over Hiro’s dead body, covered in Hiro’s blood and holding that damn gun in his hand, Rei’s feelings of admiration and desire for Akai turned into hatred in an instant.
Akai Shūichi.
Even now, that man keeps haunting him in his worst nightmares; even more so now that he’s forced to cooperate with him again. Rei could still kick himself for agreeing to that stupid pact under the influence of Kudō Yukiko’s outrageously expensive yet poorly prepared tea. (The deal itself was not the only reason why he left the mansion with a bitter taste in his mouth that night.)
They’d worked together before, on the dark side, as Bourbon and Rye. And even though it pains Rei to admit it to himself, it hadn’t taken him long to fall for that man back then.
Rye was the Organization’s best sniper. Gin despised him for his talent and turned green with envy whenever Rye had hit another target at a distance of a thousand yards. Initially, Rei’s competitive nature had also led him to regard Rye as a rival, but as soon as he’d been able to swallow his pride, feelings of envy turned into admiration. And it didn’t stop there.
As Bourbon and Rye worked together on more and more missions, something unexpected happened to Rei. Something that had only happened to him once before.
Rye was a tall, maddeningly handsome man with long raven hair reaching all the way down to his hips. His captivating green eyes could be cold and piercing like icicles, but sometimes – on the rare occasion that he caught one of Rye’s rare, enigmatic, omniscient smiles – the glow inside those emerald eyes would ignite a spark deep within Rei. Eventually, Rye even seemed to be able to control the frequency of Rei’s heart with the sound of his seductive baritone voice.
For the first time ever since he’d fallen for Hiro when they were teenagers, a man had lit a fire inside him. At some point, Rei even had to admit to himself, deeply ashamed, that he’d come to prefer missions with Rye over missions with Hiro. He was downright addicted to the thrill of partnering up with the man he knew as Rye.
Back then, Rei thought of him as a gifted man, if not to say brilliant. Rye could fight like a beast, with or without a gun in his hands. While there was a ruthless side to him, he was admiringly disciplined, fair, and principled. And although he always seemed a little reserved, like a king without a crown, he could even be funny. His humor was usually somewhat dry but incredibly witty. Last but not least, he saved Rei’s ass over and over again.
Of course, Rei had to keep his feelings of affection and desire locked up inside him yet again, along with his true identity. On the surface, he kept an emotional distance to Rye, sometimes going so far as to fake antipathy. One reason for that was the circumstance that Rye was dating a woman at the time (and not even just any woman...but that’s a different story). Considering Rei’s luck, Rye was probably straight, just like Hiro. And more importantly, as a double agent, Rei could have never acted on his feelings anyway, no matter how much he believed that Rye was a NOC just like him. Within the Black Organization (and even outside of it), Rei couldn’t trust anyone but Hiro.
And then, just like that, Rye took Hiro from him. Forever.
“Gin thinks you may have found out that Akai is still very much alive and kicking,” Vermouth purrs with a poisonous sweetness in her voice. “And that you’ve been keeping the news from us. Which makes me and Gin rather sad because...as you know, the two of us also want to put that damned FBI dog down!”
Rei’s heart stutters in his chest. Desperation is setting in, attempting to control the speed of his pulse, but he tries his best to stay calm. It’s never been more important than right now.
Vermouth shoves her gun harder against Rei’s temple. “I thought you’d learned by now that, in this Organization, we share. So tell me, what do you know about him?”
“I’m afraid I have to disappoint you,” Rei retorts in an arrogant tone, hiding behind Bourbon’s sinister signature smirk. “Even if I had found out that he faked his death, he would be very dead by now. Because I wanted to see him gone even more than you two ever did. That’s why I needed to make sure it’s true. And it is. Kir killed that bastard.”
Rei can barely see Vermouth now because the screen of her phone has turned off, but despite the darkness, Rei can sense her piercing eyes on him. He wouldn’t even be surprised if she had night vision, like a cat. Slowly, the pressure of the sharp metal against his temple decreases as she pulls back her gun.
“Why did you hate him so much anyway?” Vermouth asks in a condescending tone.
“Pfft,” Rei huffs, avoiding the question. “Present tense. I still hate him. His ashes included.”
“Oh, come on. Unlike Gin, you don’t have the emotional maturity of a toddler,” Vermouth scoffs. “You don’t hate Akai because he was better than you. There’s gotta be more to it. My money is on...Scotch.”
Rei is incredibly thankful that it’s dark in the car now because, once again, his poker face has fallen off like a mask.
No. This can’t be true.
After everything he’s been through, they can’t have found out about Scotch. About Scotch’s true identity. About his true identity. What they were to each other. After all, the only reason why Rei is still able to soldier on is his iron will to finish what they started together so that Hiro didn’t die for nothing. It can’t be over now...can it?
“My, my, it seems like I’ve hit a nerve,” Vermouth observes with a cold chuckle. “Oh, my dear Bourbon, I feel so sorry for you. And almost jealous in a way. Young love, so naive and pure... But didn’t you know that it’s very unhealthy to develop a crush on another member? Especially when that member turns out to be a traitor.”
A hurricane has broken loose in Rei’s mind, his thoughts spinning around like leaves in a storm. What the hell does Vermouth know?
“Although I have to admit that Scotch’s boyish charm was kind of cute. No wonder you fell for him,” she continues to tease him in a mocking tone. “So many joint stakeouts in a car, just the two of you all night long... It’s totally understandable how two young men might get too close in such an intimate situation. But I truly hope that he didn’t let you in on his dirty little secret, or else we’d have a really nasty problem on our hands now, wouldn’t we?”
Vermouth’s long fingernails suddenly dig into the skin below Rei’s chin, guiding his head in her direction. He can feel her breath on his face and smells alcohol, something sweet and spicy. If he’s not entirely mistaken, a blend of bourbon and vermouth...a cocktail called Manhattan. That’s exactly her kind of humor.
Rei still hasn’t fully managed to regain control of the turmoil in his mind. So she’s aware that he’s into guys and thinks he fell in love with Scotch, not Rye. He frantically tries to decide if that erroneous assumption could even be a good thing. It would explain why he and Scotch might have seemed closer than two members of the Organization should be, even though they tried to hide it as best they could. And it would obviously explain why he hates Akai so much. Rei considers simply going with it. It had even been true at some point, even though by the time they joined the Organization, his feelings for Hiro had already changed back into brotherly love.
“I don’t know what you’re trying to tell me,” Rei says, somehow managing to sound almost bored. “While you obviously don’t care about something so trivial, I for one have always adhered to the ‘no cocktails’ rule. I’ve never been in any kind of romantic or sexual relationship with another member of the Organization, and I never will be. That’s a fact,” he declares, boldly leaning into her in the darkness, his lips grazing hers. “Feel free to speculate about my feelings. I’m touched to hear that you give a fuck about them.”
Vermouth finally pulls away, leaning back into the passenger seat. “I hope you realize how pathetic you are. Obsessing about killing a man for something as stupid as an infatuation. Not to mention that both of those men turned out to be rats in the end. You know, a good soldier should never lose focus and get distracted by nullities, and I’ve always taken you for a good soldier, my dear. Did you know that, in tennis, love is zero?”
Rei’s heart stops...and then starts pounding like a jackhammer.
Vermouth seems to know a lot more about him than he thought. Can it really be a coincidence that she just uttered the nickname Hiro had given to him when they were kids? That she brought up tennis, a sport he excelled at as a teenager?
Fuck... Fuck! What the HELL does she know?
“I’m more of a baseball kinda guy,” Rei counters as soon as he’s sure that his voice won’t be shaking.
“In tennis lingo, the word ‘love’ means a score of zero. I like that kind of symbolism. Love makes you weak and predictable. Vulnerable.” Her voice suddenly sounds resentful. As if she’s thinking of someone in particular.
“So at the end of the day, I came here to learn life lessons from you,” Rei concludes with a forced chuckle, hoping that their meeting will be over soon. “I know that you’re way older than you look, but let me assure you that I don’t need any motherly advice.”
Not from Vermouth, at least. And as if Rei hasn’t already been way too emotional during this conversation, fond memories of Elena are suddenly popping into his mind. He immediately tries to push them back to where they’ve come from. He can’t risk giving Vermouth any more leverage. It’s bad enough that she’s started to speculate about his love life; he definitely doesn’t need her to dig into his family history as well.
Bourbon is supposed to be an enigma. But it seems like Vermouth has started to crack the code. He’s in trouble. The only reason why he’s not already freaking out completely is that he knows some of her secrets too. He can only hope that she’ll agree to continue their passive-aggressive dance around each other, guns drawn and pointed at each other’s heads.
“Oh honey, I think that’s something you should think about a little longer. There might be a time when you come to me begging for my precious advice. And then it might be too late,” Vermouth threatens, her voice sounding ironically cheerful. Rei feels her sharp, long fingernails on his chin again before she presses a brief, venomous kiss to his sealed lips. “Trust me, you don’t want to lose me as a friend.”
Rei swallows hard. She’s right. He can’t afford to ruin the more or less solid relationship he’s built with her. It’s too important for his mission. He’ll have to do whatever she asks of him.
“There’s a new guy,” Vermouth says casually, turning on the screen of her phone again. For a second, Rei is blinded by the glaring light. “I need you to babysit him tomorrow night. Take him to the Yakuza jerks down in Kamakura and show him how it’s done. I’ll text you the details later.”
“Got it,” Rei confirms, his gaze lowered to the familiar Mazda logo on the steering wheel in front of him. He feels unable to look at Vermouth, afraid his eyes might give him away.
“Better treat him well. He’ll be your new partner for a while. You know, lately, I’ve been feeling a little sick of that pretty face of yours. I’ll have to think long and hard about what I’ll do with you. Consider this a warning.” Without losing another word, Vermouth opens the passenger door and gets out of the car.
Eyes glued to the rearview mirror, Rei watches her dark silhouette vanishing into the night. Finally, he allows himself to release the stress that has accumulated inside him. His hands are shaking, and his breath bursts in and out in a fast, unsteady rhythm. He closes his eyes and tries to breathe in deeper and slower, hoping the oxygen will help calm his nerves.
They’d suspected him of being a traitor before, along with Kir. But back then, they didn’t really have anything on him. He had everything under control and most certainly didn’t need Akai, who’d had the audacity to barge in and save the day like the hero he thinks he is.
But this time, it feels different. It’s the way Vermouth had casually thrown his nickname into the conversation. And his former favorite sport...and Scotch. Rei shudders.
No. Whatever Vermouth knows about Rei, he won’t allow her to blow his cover. He’ll never surrender to them. He’d rather...
...kill himself.
The realization hits Rei like a freight train. His eyes flash wide open.
Instead of the dark alley in front of him, he suddenly sees Hiro standing on the edge of a high-rise, consumed by fear. Ready to jump.
For the first time, Rei is confronted with this fear too. The same fear Hiro must have felt when his cover had been blown. Except that Hiro’s fear must have been so much stronger because he was not only afraid for himself but also for the people in his life whom he wanted to protect. Rei, on the other hand, doesn’t even have anyone left to protect. He’s all alone.
All of a sudden, Rei understands. All those years, he’d been in denial, thinking Hiro could never have done something like that. No, not Hiro. But...
He watches Hiro stepping closer to the edge.
“Please don’t!”
It’s as if he can hear the words echoing through the night. But the desperate voice shouting those words in his head isn’t his own. It’s a low baritone he would have once described as utterly irresistible. Rye has entered the stage.
But Hiro wants to die. And maybe he even has more than one reason for it. Definitely more reasons to die than to stay alive. Reasons bigger than their friendship. Fear is certainly one of those reasons, but so is love.
Finally, the remaining pieces of the puzzle are falling into place. Pieces that Rei had simply declared lost so that he wouldn’t have to face the truth. It was Hiro’s decision, and his decision alone, to follow his parents, Jinpei and Hagi. To leave Rei behind. All alone.
For the longest time, Rei had simply refused to regard the tragedy from that angle because he wouldn’t have been able to cope with such betrayal. Such cruelty. As if Hiro had actually become just as vicious as the role that he played as Scotch. No, not Hiro...sweet, benevolent Hiro.
Now Rei realizes how selfish this reasoning was. Of course, Hiro hadn’t turned into Scotch. Neither did he willingly betray Rei. He must have done what he did to save everyone.
Save Rei. Save himself. And Akai...
Rei drops his head, and a bitter chuckle escapes him. He closes his burning eyes, feeling as if the heart in his chest has been torn to shreds...by that same bullet that Hiro used to end his life.
Come to think of it, Hiro had always been stubborn. When he’d set his mind on doing something, he wouldn’t allow anything or anyone to keep him from accomplishing his goal. Not even somebody as capable as...
Akai. All you did was try to protect me from the truth.
“You bastard,” Rei whispers voicelessly, aware of the bug that Vermouth had, without a doubt, planted somewhere in his car or even on his clothes.
Rei suddenly recalls a memory of the boy he’s recently become so fond of and has learned to admire so much. Something he said when they discussed one of Mōri’s cases over coffee at Poirot’s. With the confidence and the cheeky smirk clearly belonging to an older boy captured in a body much too small for his brilliant mind, Conan told him, “There’s only one truth.”
What would have happened if Conan had been there to inspect the crime scene? He would have surely drawn the correct conclusions right away. Because his vision wouldn’t have been blurred by the strong feelings that Rei harbored for the two other men involved in the incident.
There were three men on the rooftop that night. Three men trapped in their own subjective version of reality. Driven by their own hopes and fears.
One victim. And not two, but three potential murder suspects.
There are several viable theories one could concoct to explain what might have happened at the crime scene. But at the end of the day, there’s only one truth.
As hot tears start to trickle down his cheeks, Rei closes his eyes and finally sees it. The truth and the real extent of the tragedy: All three of them had climbed up to that rooftop with good intentions.