XX (Double Cross)

Nakamura Miyuki

Kubota Yasushidaka

**XX (Double Cross) (ダブル・クロス)** is the 12th and season finale of the first season of Joker Game. The episode focuses on Odagiri as he investigates the death of a German/Soviet double agent Karl Schneider.

## Characters

**Characters in order of appearance**

1. Odagiri
2. Karl Schneider
3. Nogami Yuriko
4. Yasuhara Miyoko
5. Yuuki
6. Miyoshi
7. Kaminaga
8. Hatano
9. Jitsui
10. Amari
11. Tasaki
12. Fukumoto
13. Nishiyama Chizuru

## Synopsis

The episode begins with a young Odagiri helping a struggling fellow soldier in an arduous military exercise during a blizzard.

   However, Odagiri gets into an altercation with a higher officer and is disciplined. While in detention, Yuuki asks where Odagiri wished to go when he quits the army, to which he replied "maybe to Manchuria, become a roving bandit." Yuuki then offers Odagiri to take the exam to enter the D-Agency. Karl Schneider, a suspected German/Soviet double agent in which Odagiri was keeping surveillance on, dies from what appears to be suicide, leaving a note saying "I've lost all hope, I want to die" with two small crosses written on the corner of the note. Odagiri, having ultimately failed his task, is summoned by Yuuki, along with other members of the D-Agency.

Odagiri suspects that Schneider, being a experienced spy, couldn't have possibly committed suicide, but the suicide note appears to contradict Odagiri's theory. Yuuki sends the members of D-Agency to investigate further into the incident, with Odagiri tasked to question Schneider's actress girlfriend Nogami Yuriko, despite having an alibi that indicates she couldn't have killed Schneider. Odagiri attends a play of Yuriko's to find that she is a rising star, with an abundance of bouquets sent to her. After getting no leads from other D-Agency members, Miyoshi (another member of D-Agency) reveals that someone else may have taken over Schneider's spy network. Odagiri, surprised and aggressive as to finding out about the information, asked Miyoshi as to why he revealed this information to him. Miyoshi defensively replies "this is your case".

Miyoshi tails a florist delivering the flowers to Yuriko and finds a floral shop in which he works at. The floral shop is found to be a secret post for intelligence exchange by Soviet Spies. The spies use chamomile flowers, which were among the flowers delivered to Yuriko and the flowers that was in Schneider's apartment, as a code to communicate with each other. The florist and Yuriko's co-star, Yasuhara Miyoko, are revealed to be Soviet spies in contact with Schneider. Schneider planned on giving the movements of Soviet and German spies in Japan to the British, potentially making him a triple agent. In case of these events, the Soviets plan an assassination of Schneider, with the assassination staged to be seen as a suicide. When Yuriko and Miyoko discover the corpse of Schneider, Yuriko, as expected, panicked and fled the scene while Miyoko stayed behind and placed the "prepared" suicide note, with the double cross being an indication to the British. Schneider knew he would contact Miyoko that day, with the "suicide" note being a communique between them (along with the plant that coincides with it). After drinking spiked wine, Schneider dies.

Having the solved the case, Odagiri resigns from the D-Agency, having come to realize that his morals clash with the mentality of the agency. Yuuki asked whether Yuriko resembled Nishiyama Chizuru, the caretaker of the orphaned Odagiri. Being that the members of D-Agency are systematically emotionless, the only thing that would've distracted his surveillance would be Yuriko's uncanny resemblance to Chizuru. Odagiri is reassigned within the Imperial Army as a lieutenant stationed in Manchuria. Odagiri bows to Yuuki as a goodbye, to which he replies "Are you stupid? Who bows in a business suit?".