How Matsuda, a True Member of the Syndicate, Saved His Childhood Friend

After dying in the line of duty on the Ferris wheel, Matsuda was reborn as a child and bound to a "Black-Side Real Liquor Development System." Planning to save his childhood friend, he saw the equally suffocating futures of several others through the System, and resolved to rewrite their fates. However, by then, he had already been dragged into the liquor factory and saddled with a [Cannot Return to the Red Side] debuff. ...What a pain. To successfully avert the deaths of his childhood friend and classmates, Matsuda finally chose to cooperate with the System, setting off down the path to becoming the realest of real liquor. He thought it wouldn't be so bad to protect them from the shadows. Then he received a mission from the liquor factory: [Infiltrate the Police Academy] No problem. He'd never let his cover slip now. All he had to do was follow the same plan as in his previous life. So Matsuda kept a low profile (or so he thought), but after work, he got caught up in an incident and received a mission from the police: [Infiltrate the Liquor Factory] Matsuda: "..." Is this seriously not a joke? The other three classmates said they'd noticed Matsuda, who was as mysterious as a puzzle, from the start. But they thought Hagiwara was a little strange, too. ...Hagiwara, just because you hit it off right away doesn't mean you have to cling to Matsuda every day! And Matsuda, why are you so lenient only with Hagiwara? It seemed there had been clues to the secret from the very beginning. That feeling only grew stronger after two of them went undercover at the liquor factory. On their first day with codenames, Bourbon and Scotch watched in horror as their classmate with the villainous face sauntered in. He greeted the ill-tempered, silver-haired, green-eyed Top Killer nearby with far too familiar an air. Then he pushed up his sunglasses and gave them a playful smile. "I'm your handler, Brandy." Holy crap! Our classmate is our boss?! #My classmates seem to be imagining something weird. How do I explain that I'm just an ordinary bottle of real liquor? #To make sure everyone survives, no one can stop me from flooring it, even if I have to run everyone over(?) #Second run-through, and my childhood friend, whom I've never met, seems kind of off #Isn't it a joke to make me cause trouble with a pile of debuffs? [Reading Guide] The title and the liquor names in the blurb are tentative. 1. HagiMatsu pairing! 2. Kicking the police academy group's death flags to the curb. 3. Starts at the liquor factory and spans a long period. 4. Main plot, with indiscriminate character torment. 5. Happy ending. Theme: Though burdened by thorns, grow toward the sun.