He said, 'I am Gin.'
He said it without hesitation, with great relish, smiling almost as soon as he realized it was profitable, and even his eyes, which had been evaluating and scrutinizing, softened a little.
In all seriousness, it was shameless.
Belmode licked his lower lip, denied it, and repeated her judgment.
No, it wasn't just shamelessness, 'Ujiyu Ruri's' words were so obvious that anyone with a keen eye could realize one thing: according to her, it wasn't Gin who had come to see her in the recent past, but some other member of the organization.
It was also clear that Ujiyu Ruri was a woman who could be condescended to with pity: it was obvious that this pathetic woman possessed both face-blindness and stupidity, a face-blindness that prevented her from recognizing Gin's face, and a stupidity that made her want to believe that the person who had come to see her was Gin.
This is something that even most black people would find pathetic or laughable.
There are a lot of gaps and inconsistencies in this persona, and Belmode intentionally left room for maneuver, intending to tailor the persona to Ichijō Mirai's expressed emotional tendencies, but Ichijō Mirai clearly doesn't feel pity or ridicule, and doesn't even show her emotional tendencies, simply ignoring them without blinking an eye.
Gin said that Belmode would want to curse in the first half hour of the meeting, but she didn't. So far, she had no intention of cursing within the ten minutes of the meeting. On the contrary, she found it very interesting.
"Of course." Belmode smiled, "Whatever information you want, I'll get it."
She inquired softly, "What kind of information do you want?"
Ichijō Mirai actually cared about information again... what kind of information, what did he want to know?
In the middle of her thoughts, Belmode felt the gentle but cold eyes on her face, felt his thumb rubbing her cheek, and heard a nonchalant answer: "Medical accident."
...What?
The short answer was so general that even a spy in the presence of an actual councilor would have been confused by the keyword.
Belmode's heart sank.
At the mention of 'medical accident', the only thing she could think of was...
She looked at Ichijō Mirai, and realized that he was smiling politely as always, as if he hadn't just killed a few people not long ago, and wasn't talking to a spy, but was having a leisurely afternoon tea.
Even the force of his hand was gentle, lighter than a spoon stirring coffee.
But not as light as his words, "A medical accident eighteen years ago."
"The one where the victim was a cancer patient and his body was covered with tumors of all sizes."
...And sure enough, it was this medical accident.
Belmode automatically adds: medical malpractice caused by the organization, medical malpractice that 'Officer Ichijō' was exposed to.
That medical incident was indeed an accident, but it was an accident caused by the Organization, not an accident that the hospital and the media emphasized as nothing happening.
Eighteen years ago was a special time for the organization, a time when the pursuit of immortality had many directions that the organization wanted to capture, when drug research was still very chaotic and clueless as a fly on the wall, and when there were no professional scientists to lead the way, and when all the drug research had a certain beauty of courageous experimentation.
One of the research centers is directly below the hospital.
It was a perfect location, as the few members of the organization who could get out of the lab could simply disguise themselves as doctors or nurses, and as long as the hospital existed, the lab could remain in the shadows.
Assuming a member of the organization doesn't use the wrong drug, doesn't inject a patient with a drug the organization is working on.
When a patient dies and the body shows obvious signs of abnormality, ordinary doctors and nurses notice the subtle incongruity, the Institute's presence is revealed, and the Organization urgently cleans up the traces.
Tokyo was not Belmode's permanent residence, and she was not there when the accident occurred and the organization retreated, but that doesn't mean that she had nothing to do with the incident, on the contrary, a great deal to do with it, because she found a rat.
A few years after the accident, Tokyo citizens gradually spread the story of the accident as a legend in the city. When everything seemed to be over, she found a rat.
A rat who escaped from the organization, but instead of shivering and hiding in the sewers, a rat changed its name to a bright name, put on a disguise as bright as moonlight, and became a brilliant moon in the police world, a traitor that the organization, which had been searching the sewers, had missed many times in the dark.
A...
To have taken drugs from a time of chaos and not died, to have survived, to have retained the ability to procreate, to have given birth to a child rat.
This is certainly not something that the organization would allow, much less something that Belmode would tolerate.
Now, Ichijō Mirai is talking about the accident.
Had he discovered something?
Belmode watched without moving, and she guessed that she must have shown some change of expression, for Ichijō Mirai's smile was more patient, his gaze gentler, and the hand that had been touching his cheek had shifted downward to touch the back of his neck, one at a time.
The back of the neck is a fragile place.
"You know," He ordered politely, "speak."
"I remember the medical accident," Belmode whispered slowly, "it was a terrible accident when I was young and I accidentally ran into the body."
She narrowed her smile and lifted her eyes, letting her black eyelashes quiver, in a state that allowed her to express vulnerability and observe Ichijō Mirai's expression, and then, after an appropriate pause, "That's why I joined the organization."
"Were you forced to join the organization because you ran into a dead body?" Ichijō Mirai said, his tone flat, "That's sad."
"Go on."
"As I recall, the organization was angry, angry that its existence might be exposed by the apparently abnormal bodies of the patients," Belmode said, still slowly, ignoring the warm palm on the back of her neck as she gave a reminiscent look, "The one who was in charge of dealing with the accident, as I recall, was..."
"Rum."
She lifted the corners of her lips, telling the truth: "He was not part of the Intelligence Unit, not part of the Operations Unit, not even a scientific researcher, and was in charge of handling that medical accident only because the head of the organization cared about medical accidents."
"He's always been attentive, and he'll take care of the chief's concerns in a timely manner."
Ichijō Mirai translation: a good dog.
It didn't matter if he was capable or not, dogs, as we all know, just show enough loyalty, and that's all that mattered.
He narrowed his eyes, "Continue."
"He found me," Belmode grabbed the hand at the back of his neck and brought it back up to his cheek, letting it feel his trembling eyelashes and slightly moist eyes, "He was, he was scary, he was good."
"He told me that he had a photographic memory, and that he would never forget anything he saw with his left eye. So after I saw the body and ran away, he found me in the crowd and threatened me to either join the organization or die."
Why didn't he just execute me?
"He was going to kill me outright, I could tell, but," Belmode blinked, adding a little more moisture to his finger-touched eyeballs, "the police were already there, and he seemed to be afraid of them."
"At that time, there was a very powerful police officer, her name was..."
"'Ichijō'."
Ichijō Mirai didn't put any force on her hand, letting Belmode grab her hand and move it around, only taking care to keep it under control so as not to actually poke her in the eye, "Hmm."
"His left eye is capable of unforgettable vision, is that why he was given the codename?" He thought briefly and decided, "I see."
When Rum returns and they meet in person, he'll make a point of taking out the guy's right eye with a single shot, so that he'll be memorized with his left eye.
Just two or three notches, and he'll be so relaxed, he'll be able to show kindness to a fellow waste who can't speak.
Belmode couldn't quite figure out what the thoughtful 'I see' meant, and didn't hesitate to cut off any hint of Rum's usefulness by saying, "But he's blind in his left eye."
Ichijō Mirai: "What?"
-Rum is so good, he can memorize everything with his left eye.
-But it's blind.
...What?
"Seems like when I was on a mission," Belmode said with a look of remembrance and hesitation, "I got into an accident and went blind in my left eye."
"I was under his command, but he was in solitary confinement, I could have been disposed of, luckily Gin saved me."
She rubbed her cheek against Ichijō Mirai's hand and smiled, "That's why I like you so much, Gin, you saved me."
"Since that day, I've been thanking you from the bottom of my heart for giving me life again, and for belonging to you completely."
Ichijō Mirai ignores the bells and whistles and gets to the point: Rum is a waste.
What does it mean that he's blind in his left eye, that he's still in solitary confinement, and that even his own men were almost disposed of? It's a sign of wastefulness, an accident caused by his own mistakes.
Even the few useful left eyes are gone.
What a waste.
He replied casually, "You're welcome."
"Go on."
"Let's not talk about wastes, it's a bit disgusting, let's talk about capable guys, like Officer Ichijō you were talking about."
"She didn't notice Rum's presence?"
Known: There are 'Crows' tracking Officer Ichijō.
It is also known that Rum is a useless person who has a photographic memory but is blind in his left eye.
Current information does not indicate that Officer Ichijō is a blind loser.
Difference: Officer Ichijō found traces of Rum.
How did she react?
What about from the perspective of the organization? Does the "crow" refer to the organization?
Ichijō Mirai wanted to know.
Belmode immediately showed more hesitation, "Officer Ichijō seemed, she, she, seemed to be oblivious."
She feigned recollection, and slowly said, "She's a very good police officer, and if she found out, she would have tried to solve the case."
"Only, she seems, when I was taken away by Rum, I saw her from a distance, I had waved quietly to her for help, she probably didn't see it, so she turned away her face."
Any normal person would be able to derive the 'truth' from these hesitant words: it's not that he didn't notice, Officer Ichijō noticed the abnormality of the medical incident, and noticed that Rum was going to take away 'Ujiyu Ruri', but she didn't do anything about it, and didn't have any sense of responsibility as a police officer.
This is a conclusion that would make a normal person cringe.
Ichijō Mirai: "Smart move."
Instead of rushing to help the child, she saved herself.
Under Belmode's gaze, he took the initiative to touch his subordinate's cheek and praised her without changing his expression, "You can't shout loudly in the hospital. You are very smart."
Instead of just yelling out to get the attention of the people around him, to get Rum's attention, and not to implicate Officer Ichijō.
Belmode: "..."
She smiles happily, "Gin finally praised me."
Ichijō Mirai smiles back, "You know, I'm not Gin."
He pressed Belmode's lips with his hand, widening the forced smile on her face, "How could a woman who is so smart and can get confidential information from the congressman not be able to tell whether the person who came to see you is Gin?"
"You just have to be able to tell."
"Once you do, you won't even get to meet the fake Gin, and Gin might even dispose of you. He's already so impatient with you that he won't even bother to see you. If you weren't so useful, you'd already be dead, wouldn't you?"
This was the space Belmode had left open to tailor Ichijō Mirai's preferred direction according to his inclinations.
She let her gaze flicker a few times, "What are you saying, Gin?"
"But are you really willing," Ichijō Mirai sized Belmode up, "I can help you."
"Give me the details of the medical malpractice and a police officer's file within three days, and I'll help you see Gin."
"Help you see Gin more often."
He smiles: "There's a lot of things I want to know, like difficult cases, like emergencies."
Anything that could trigger a mission in the game.
"I need someone who can give me information whenever I need it, and in exchange, I'll let you meet Gin."
"By the way, your name is U...never mind, change it."
"From now on, your name is Inuo."
"Ms. Inuo, do you agree to this deal."
Even changing your name on your own, you don't seem to have left the option of refusing.
Belmode reacted for a moment, then reacted again, and slowly came to realize that he wanted to prostitute himself.
At first, Ichijō Mirai wanted to get some information for free, so he gladly said, "Yes, I'm Gin," without any hesitation, without any sense of propriety, and without any hesitation at all.
After getting some of the information for free, he realized that 'Ujiyu Ruri' was very useful, so he wanted to keep buying it for free.
But one-time whoring is fine, but sustainable whoring requires regular contact, and making her his own agent, even if he doesn't need to raise apple trees like he did with the congressman, he still needs to feed the apple pickers.
But he didn't want to raise trees like the Organization, or control apple pickers like Gin, and he didn't even want to send his men over periodically, just apples.
So...
"I'm not here to destroy you, I'm here to join you," Ichijō Mirai said in all seriousness, "I don't like Gin, but I kinda like you, and since you like Gin, I'll begrudgingly like Gin, too, so let's go deeper together."
"You're mine."
He thinks about it and says the known: "The game is mine."
Say what is known: "The people in the game are mine."
"Gin is mine."
"You are mine."
"OK, have fun getting to know each other better, Ms. Inoue."