Chapter 9: The Dedicated Professional, Gin
Driving his beloved Porsche 356A along the road toward the inn called "Hinata House," Gin sat with a cigarette in his mouth, lost in thought.
"Gin" was his code name.
In the world before Hikigaya's reincarnation, this man—obsessed with looking cool—was highly regarded in certain circles for his flowing long hair, the fact that he never changed his clothes, and the gap moe of his love for the Porsche 356A.
As for the organization he served, under Gosho Aoyama's pen, it was a group that appeared mysterious to death on the surface but was actually a comedic mess easily infiltrated by even the Japanese Public Security.
Most appearing members couldn't survive more than one episode; they were either moles or trash that needed to be silenced.
Perhaps because the turnover rate was so high, Gosho Aoyama himself felt the organization was too "low" and couldn't even be bothered to give it a proper name.
As a result, a certain elementary school student had remained in primary school for N years without ever discovering what name the organization had actually registered at the Bureau of Industry and Commerce.
Given that everyone in the group preferred black coats or suits without exception, a certain person just called them "The Men in Black" for convenience.
That name clearly lacked effort, especially since in another world, there was a different group of Men in Black dedicated to saving the Earth—a scope of business that had zero overlap with Gin's.
By this point, it's quite obvious: the cool man known as Gin was effectively a man holding up an entire organization single-handedly. He was tragic beyond belief.
But in this world, this organization wasn't mysterious at all; it was super simple. It was merely a peripheral branch established casually by the Weapon Group. It wasn't even a real organization—just a small agency composed of external hires with the function of money laundering... or rather, creating financial reports.
In Yomi there were plenty of agencies like this. It was easy to understand: the main theme of Yomi was the inheritance and study of martial arts. Martial artists were very handy when it came to hacking people, but if you asked them to do the accounting...
Since when was 'Accountant' a sub-category of 'Martial Artist'?
However, even if the primary staff of this agency were a bunch of money-handlers, since they were handling money, they needed performance reviews, right? And to eliminate employees
who didn't meet their performance targets, you had to rely on internal enforcers, right? Thus, a Human Resources department was required.
Consequently, for the sake of a certain accounting agency's performance reviews within Yomi, Gin had worried himself sick. His hair, which had originally been yellow, had turned entirely silver...
In fact, he had wanted to jump ship a long time ago. If it weren't for the fact that quitting would lead to him being "reviewed" himself, he would have left ages ago to do justice to his once-flowing yellow hair.
Due to the broad scope of Yomi's business, Gin was aware of their existence. Though his knowledge was limited, he was very clear about how "loose" the management style of Yomi was regarding peripheral agencies—popularly known as "I don't want to do anything except hit people." The predecessor of the current leader, who often skipped work, had his head cracked open just because he missed a single digit in a laundry cycle that year.
This so-called "current" leader had actually become a predecessor as well.
Supposedly, something happened in America where a ton of people died, and this "current" leader happened to be on-site and was wiped out in one go. This was truly... a great death!
For the pittance of a salary he earned, Gin worked himself to the bone all year round, while that son of a bitch leader traveled the world every day, flirting and booking hotel rooms. If he hadn't died, Gin would have wanted to take him out himself.
For the past few days, Gin had been waiting for a call from the new BOSS. Meanwhile, he mentally complained: 'Instead of dropping in an unreliable BOSS every single time, couldn't Yomi consider a promotion track for internal employees? This really affects work morale...'
As expected, he first received an address and then a phone call. The new BOSS was as unreliable as ever; not only did his voice sound excessively young, but he wasn't even coming to the office. He wanted to meet at an inn.
Gin wouldn't reimburse the BOSS for this expense even if it killed him! As the head of both HR and Finance, he was going to stand his ground this time!
Gin never considered himself a good person; on the contrary, he took pride in being a villain. But... damn it! Villains need to have professional dedication too, okay?!
Think about it—Gin had been diligently doing bad things for all these years. Which day did he not wake up earlier than a rooster and sleep later than a dog? Setting aside the fact that he never missed work, overtime was a daily routine with zero overtime pay. He might take a taxi when going out, but the bad deeds were always done, and done beautifully! Then look at his BOSS and colleagues...
They were all freaking liabilities! The bad things those people did in a year weren't as many as what he did in a day, and their attendance records were more pathetic than the last. And now, the new BOSS didn't even plan to step foot in the office?
He couldn't take it anymore.
Gin declared he would stand up for the dignity of all the hardworking villains in the world. To that end, he had even applied an extra layer of hair gel today.
"Boss, are we really going to do this?" In the passenger seat, Gin's lackey—the burly man code-named Vodka—asked. If one looked closely, they could see sweat on his forehead.
Gin was very famous within the organization, not just for his solid technical skills, but because he was a workaholic. If that were all, people would just admire him. But this workaholic couldn't stand a single grain of sand in his eyes; if he didn't like what he saw, he'd even dock the BOSS's performance pay. One had to suspect that any sand that entered his eyes was immediately processed into concrete.
Everyone felt that it was better to be submissive to this kind of workaholic. Because if you didn't obey, he might give you a bullet, calling it a "performance deduction." Anyway, in all his years as a villain, Vodka had never seen someone so dedicated. He was awestruck, so he had remained a loyal companion by Gin's side all these years... and had a great time riding Gin's performance coattails.
"Hmph! The organization has rules!" Gin's response to his younger brother's unease was a dose of corporate "chicken soup." "If you take the organization's money, you have to work hard. Otherwise, what use is there for you?"
Vodka: "..."
'Bro, you do realize we aren't running a legitimate corporation, right? Those words just don't sound right coming from us.'
He hoped the new BOSS wouldn't have too big a temper—at least, he hoped they wouldn't start arguing on the first day. Otherwise, the one being slammed against the wall would definitely be him. The reason was simple: Gin was actually very good at "reasoning," often leaving the BOSS speechless. The BOSS, inevitably turning into a rage out of shame, would then wave a hand and have Vodka pinned to the wall and rubbed...
This really wasn't the first time... The bastards in the organization only saw his glory being by Gin's side; they had no idea of his suffering. Judging by the fact that Gin was personally driving today, his mood was definitely not smooth. Wiping the sweat from his forehead, Vodka straightened his sunglasses and mentally prepared to play the role of the "Main Tank" today.
After a while, they finally arrived. After driving into a hot spring street and making several twists and turns, the car followed an uphill path into a surface parking lot.
"This place, it looks like..." Vodka looked at the scenery outside and swallowed the last word. This place didn't look like a high-end hotel at all.
Vodka turned to look at Gin and indeed saw that his boss's expression had softened quite a bit.
'Well, regardless, this new BOSS doesn't seem like someone who enjoys extravagant waste.'
That should make Big Brother Gin feel a bit better, right? There was still hope of not acting as the tank today.
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