Chapter 55: The Uniform

Organization, bar.

"Speaking of which, I'm genuinely curious sometimes," Moray said, lying flat on the table, his voice muffled. "Gin, do you completely lack any personal life whatsoever?"

"?" Gin cast a skeptical gaze his way.

As if he had eyes on the back of his head, Moray keenly captured Gin's doubt. "Look, I have the public identity of a detective."

"Vodka loves chasing after pop idols and reads celebrity magazines every single day."

"I heard there's even some big star in the organization who shoots movies in America all the time."

"What about you?" He raised his head. "You go out on field operations every day, and once they're over? Do you just pass the time in a bar and finally go back to sleep?"

"What business is it of yours?" Gin's expression turned grim.

"I was just trying to build good coworker relations. I didn't expect you to be so cold..."

Moray lit a cigarette. "What's the mission this time? Don't tell me it's another silencing job?"

"There will be plenty of those in the future." Gin pulled out a newspaper. "Not this one."

What do you mean by *plenty*? Do I look like I enjoy silencing people?

Every single assassination mission adds a heavy burden to my kind and gentle soul!

"The *Ryujinmaru*...?" Moray took the newspaper with a hint of displeasure and read the news aloud. "The *Ryujinmaru*, which sank off the coast of Fushima due to a typhoon seven years ago, has recently been discovered at sea."

"However, the one billion yen in gold it once carried is nowhere to be found..."

Moray looked at the photograph in the paper and noticed something bizarre. "Strange, no signs of corrosion?"

"Does that mean this ship never sank? Then where did the gold go?"

"The gold is most likely still on the island." Gin pulled out a map. "If it had been battered by wind and waves on the open sea, this ship's condition could never be like this. The only possibility is that the ship was hidden on the island."

"Yet the local village mayor is making a huge public fuss about starting gold salvage operations, which means he knows nothing about the ship's true state. Over the years, no gold has ever flowed out from that island either."

"Treasure hunting, huh..." Moray grinned. "Interesting, I'll take it."

"Keep in mind, that Mouri Kogoro has also been invited to the island. You'd better finish it quickly. Eliminate him if necessary."

Gin lit a cigarette.

"Also, the organization will send someone to transport you to the island. Once you find the gold, remember to send a signal so someone can come to collect it later."

"Understood."

Moray walked out of the bar.

A solo mission with no other codenamed members present... This is a first.

Then, the first step of the plan can begin as well.

...

"Well, it was worth all my careful design."

In the back room of the agency, Moray looked at Shugen wearing his new attire and nodded continuously.

Shugen, who had previously been imprisoned following the Yamani Temple incident, had already been bailed out. Seeing that he possessed good martial arts skills and a strong personal code, Moray had intended to recruit him into his ranks, and now that wish had been fulfilled.

Shugen had faked a heart attack to die in prison and was sent off for cremation. Meanwhile, Moray used Koizumi Kyoko's channels to procure a male corpse of a similar build and swapped them out.

Thus, Shugen happily walked out of prison. Naturally, his original identity could no longer be used.

Now, he had changed into the organizational uniform carefully designed by Moray—though rather than a uniform, it looked more like armor.

His straw raincoat had been replaced by a black cape, which draped like silk beneath his shoulder pauldrons on both sides, with the jagged edges at the hem serving both as ballast and as one of his lethal weapons.

His formerly beloved monk's robes were also replaced with futuristic armor styling. The gun-metal gray full-face helmet featured a V-shaped tactical visor that didn't obstruct his vision in the slightest. The white armor plates possessed sharp, clean angles, interlocking to form the chest, abdomen, and side-waist protection, with a golden sun-ring motif emblazoned on the chest. The leg guards and greaves featured a segmented structure with silver piping.

In short, at a glance, he looked less like an underground syndicate member and more like a superhero.

Shugen sized up the figure in the mirror, opening and closing his mouth as if he had something to say. The inner lining and cape of this "uniform" were made of multi-layered Kevlar fiber, while the exterior armor plates consisted of bulletproof ceramic coated with metallic paint. Although he harbored doubts about the design of these plates, Moray assured him that runes were painted on the reverse side of the plates, so it was completely fine and he didn't need to worry about them falling off or anything.

Moray also mentioned that this set of armor would later be upgraded to "more advanced" materials, to which Shugen temporarily offered no comment.

He flexed his palms a few times to experience the sensation of wearing the uniform. Honestly, it wasn't bad at all; it didn't restrict movement in the least and was very lightweight.

Yet the design still compelled him to blurt out a sarcastic remark: "Kamen Rider?"

"Hm? What's that?" Moray asked, puzzled. "No, no, no. You are now one of the Knights of the Round Table under the Holy Grail Organization, 'Gaul'."

"I know about the Holy Grail Organization—the underground organization you founded which currently consists of just the two of us," Shugen said, feeling somewhat helpless regarding Moray's inexplicable aesthetic choices in certain areas. "And what is this Gaul supposed to mean?"

"I've decided to use the Knights of the Round Table as the codenames for the organization's members moving forward," Moray nodded. "Even though there are only two of us right now, we have to make others think we have numerous executives and form a systematic organization. Since that's the case, we need codenames with a matching theme. As for why you are Gaul..."

Naturally, because you and he both lost your brothers.

"Naturally, because you and he are both the right-hand men of our lord—indispensable and powerful assets."

Shugen nodded, accepting the explanation for now.

"Then what's your codename? Arthur?"

"I could use that. There will also be Mordred, Tristan, Lancelot, Percival, and so on."

"?"

"We are genuinely short on people right now, after all," Moray sighed. "People who are both capable and trustworthy are hard to find. Since the organization is in its infancy, I naturally have to work a bit harder."

"Acting as different codenamed members in different operations is the only way to pretend to be an organization of some scale. That's also one of the purposes for designing the full-face helmet."

"What about your uniform then?" Shugen questioned. "How many sets of uniforms are you going to make?"

"You don't need to worry about that. My uniform can support modular, customizable style accessories, and it can even change colors."

"!? Why doesn't mine have that!"

"Can you pull off playing multiple roles?" Moray replied speechlessly. "Besides, how many mystical arts passed down from Shugendo have you learned? Not a single one, right? Without those, how are you supposed to operate color-changing technology?"

Actually, changing colors only required swapping out the armor plates, but since Shugen lacked imaginary space, it was impossible for him to set aside a dedicated area to store spare plates for armor maintenance.

Shugen choked back his words: "...Fine, my bad."

Through bantering with Moray, he gradually shed his embarrassment of wearing such outlandish attire. After all, his face wasn't exposed, nor was a single inch of his skin; as long as he wasn't embarrassed, the embarrassed ones would be everyone else.

"Where did this contraption come from?" he asked casually, familiarizing himself with the box mounted on his forearm that held crow feathers.

📉 "Do you know about cosplay? It's supposed to be a rather popular subculture among young people nowadays..."

"???" Shugen finally broke character. "Wait, is this actually Kamen Rider?"

"What nonsense are you talking about? Never heard of it." Moray glanced at him. "Never mind that, just know I had it custom-made by specialists."

It was actually made by a factory under the Suzuki Group. As for the lethal weapons and accessories, Moray had added those himself.

He had paid a steep price for these items—taking several photographs alongside Sonoko Suzuki. Of course, he refused to wear the "cosplay props" during the photoshoots.

After all, if the photographs were leaked online and he exposed his face before various organizations, it would be bad if people mistakenly thought the Suzuki Financial Group had some ties to the Holy Grail Organization.

He had merely secured permission to have the Suzuki Group's subsidiary enterprises manufacture the components; Sonoko Suzuki actually had no idea what Moray was planning to do with them.