Light jazz music flowed from the speakers. Kazawa looked at the greenery outside the window, stretched slowly, rolled over, and tucked the sunlit side of his body into the shade. Then he turned toward Xingchuan Hui, who was sitting quietly with his head down, fiddling with his fingers in silence.
"Hey, cheer up," Kazawa nudged him with his toes. "I brought you on this trip to relax, but you look like I dragged you here to suffer."
Xingchuan Hui glanced sideways at him but said nothing.
"What Kazawa said is right. Hoshikawa, you're too tense." Miyano Akemi, focused on driving, raised her eyes and glanced into the rearview mirror.
Since both of them were named Akira, when the two were together, Miyano Akemi usually called him by his surname instead.
"...Is it really okay to relax like this?" Xingchuan Hui sighed helplessly. "It's not really safe for Akemi to be out like this right now, and I..."
"Relax. The organization isn't as terrifying as you think." Kazawa waved lazily and slumped further into the seat. "If they really had the resources and capability to monitor everyone, Mr. Amuro would've been exposed long ago."
In fact, not only was the organization unaware of their outing, the travel expenses for the three of them were even reimbursed from the organization's funds.
Kazawa's attitude was simple: the Phantom Thieves exist to bleed the organization dry. That was the spirit!
Kazawa wasn't entirely sure how the organization selected and monitored its codename members.
Just looking at Toru Amuro's example, it was clear the organization's grip could not be called all-encompassing—participation seemed to matter most.
Amuro not only had multiple roles, but he also came and went freely at the Metropolitan Police Headquarters, even interacting directly with Zero Division. Sometimes he even acted like a civic-minded citizen, helping old ladies cross the street or stopping petty thefts.
Thinking about that public security agent who worked as a café waiter by day and stared at him with overly sharp eyes, Xingchuan Hui adjusted his glasses wordlessly.
"Alright, we've left Tokyo. Take this off." Kazawa reached over and pulled off the large pair of glasses hiding Xingchuan Hui's face. "Even if you look exactly like 'Akechi Goro', nobody's going to recognize you with a different hairstyle. You're way too gloomy right now—let me see your eyes."
Xingchuan Hui reflexively tried to block him.
But there was no way he could overpower Kazawa's strength, especially after all his buff upgrades.
With a crisp "click," the black-rimmed glasses that Xingchuan Hui had worn for several months snapped clean in half.
Xingchuan Hui: "..."
"Hahaha, now you really don't have to wear them anymore." Kazawa twirled the broken frame in his hand, laughing as he rolled down the car window. Dust and the scent of trees rushed into the vehicle from both sides of the road.
"Hey! Kazawa!" Xingchuan Hui raised his arm to block the wind and shouted over the rush of air.
They were driving at high speed down the road to Izu. Kazawa had suddenly opened the window all the way. Xingchuan Hui tried to stop him, but it was too late—his ponytail was instantly whipped loose by the wind.
Kazawa opened his arms, letting the powerful breeze mess up his already-fluffy hair, and tossed the broken glasses out of the car.
"When you're on vacation, you're supposed to have fun!"
———
"This hotel even has a private beach..." Miyano Akemi had tied her long hair into a loose bun. Holding a swim ring in her hand, she hesitated for a moment before following Kazawa through the hotel lobby in light slippers.
"Actually, there's a VIP pool on the 9th floor. But since we're already by the sea, it'd be boring not to hit the beach, right?" Kazawa, in swimming trunks and an unbuttoned shirt, looked the most relaxed of the three.
He glanced at Xingchuan Hui, who had covered his whole face with a hoodie, and chuckled. "Since I banned the glasses, now you're hiding your entire face? Aren't you hot?"
Xingchuan Hui pressed down his hood warily, guarding against another grab, and muttered: "The sun's too strong. It's hot whether I cover up or not."
"Sunlight and heat aren't the same. Just remember to reapply sunscreen." This time, Kazawa didn't yank off his hood. Instead, he tugged his zipper all the way down. "If you're not going in the water, fine. But at least come out and get some sun. You've been cooped up indoors so long you're practically growing mold."
Before Hoshikawa Teru could reach to tug his shirt in retaliation, Kazawa had already skipped ahead and stepped onto the soft white sand.
"This guy..." Xingchuan Hui looked at Kazawa's back as he sprinted toward the shore, shook his head, and loosened his hood.
Miyano Akemi watched with a smile for a while, then walked alongside Hoshikawa Teru, stepping off the hotel's wooden boardwalk and onto the beach.
The fine sand sank beneath her feet, swallowing her soles and toes. The feeling surprised her, and she took a few light steps in place.
Not far away, Kazawa tossed his shirt aside and dove into the sea.
Miyano Akemi watched him, then bent down to remove her shoes, holding them in one hand as she followed the trail of his footprints, barefoot on the hot beach.
"Maybe Kazawa just wants us to really feel what it's like to be on vacation." She moved toward the waves, speaking to the hesitant Hoshikawa Teru beside her. "The beach, the ocean... None of us have really experienced it before."
After her parents died, Miyano Akemi had been supported by the organization until she graduated from university.
Although she wasn't an operative and never went through combat training—only learning some basic firearm skills—she still distrusted the organization. So during breaks, she always found part-time jobs and worked secretly to stash away money beyond their surveillance, hoping to create an escape route for herself and Shiho. There was no room in her life for beaches and vacations.
Let alone Xingchuan Hui.
To society, he was practically a "non-existent person."
He was either locked up in Tsuchiguchi Shigehiko's mansion, living in silence, or thrown into the organization's training centers or labs. For most of his first eighteen years, he hadn't even been to school.
Xingchuan Hui turned to look toward Kazawa.
Kazawa was a strong swimmer. Even without goggles or a snorkel, he moved effortlessly like a fish, diving and surfacing in the waves.
"...He doesn't look like someone who's never been to the beach before." Hoshikawa Teru muttered as he bent down, picked up Kazawa's discarded shirt, and sat on a nearby beach chair. "He looks completely at ease."
"That's exactly why he's doing it." Miyano Akemi curled her eyes in a smile as she sat in the chair next to him. "Kazawa's autism wasn't treated until he was ten, when his aunt and uncle stepped in. But even after that, the organization took them away overseas. He basically grew up alone on an island, treated as a hostage and never allowed to really escape."
In other words, although Kazawa had technically gone to school for eight years, he'd been just as isolated and solitary as the other two.
Xingchuan Hui paused, looked down at the shirt now dusted with fine sand in his hands, and gently hung it on the chair's armrest.
"You told me to relax…" he sighed, "but aren't you the one pretending to be happy?"
Kazawa wasn't exactly a clean freak, but he definitely liked things tidy. He'd never normally toss his clothes into the sand like that.
"He's always like that," Miyano Akemi rested her chin in her hand as she watched her brother lift his head for a breath between waves. Her face held both fondness and emotion. "You know this. He's the kind of fool who hides all his negative feelings and hates being fussed over."
Xingchuan Hui brushed the sand off Kazawa's shirt. It was made of lightweight, breathable cotton-linen, and the grains stuck fast. It wouldn't be wearable a second time.
He shook his head, took off his hooded jacket, and revealed his face.
He hung the coat on the other side of the chair's armrest, planning to give it to Kazawa once he came back from the water.
"Yeah… he's a fool."