After hanging up, Morofushi Hiromitsu held his cell phone for a moment.
Slowly, he typed out a question and sent it out: [What kind of person do you think Mirai-san is?]
It was a question whose answer could be guessed as soon as it was typed.
As expected, Kenji Hagiwara quickly replied: [He's a very charismatic person, isn't he?]
[Even Instructor Onidzuka defected...]
At first, almost all of the instructors agreed that it would be best if Ichijō Mirai didn't continue at the academy, but in just one afternoon, many of the instructors changed their minds, and now, with the exception of a few, most of the instructors have turned friendly, Onidzuka Hachizo being the most prominent among them.
Date Wataru also replied: [Kujō-san is very nice, helps his fellow students in every training session, doesn't give up on them, and has a very good temper; I've hardly ever seen him angry, even when he's the one the instructors are deliberately trying to make difficult].
[He's just a bit lively once in a while.]
This can be seen in the fact that he will often say things that are full of problems or scary things in a serious manner, but he says them with a nonchalant expression, and then he goes on to say normal things as if he hadn't said anything bad or scary at all.
Matsuda Jinpei: [Deserve to be punched.]
He adds seriously: [A guy with a lot of bad taste, a vindictive, careful, and handsome guy who makes you want to put a sack on him and beat him up.]
For example, on the first night of the academy, Ichijō Mirai waited in Matsuda Jinpei's dormitory, gathered a few people together, and made all sorts of excuses to happily divide up the work, so that the others couldn't do anything, and had to watch the instructors being taken care of by him alone.
...A guy who definitely needs a beating, is very mean, loves to play it cool, wants to be punched with a sack, and is seriously suspected of holding a grudge.
Furuya Rei: [No classmates love...]
The reason is simple: you watch the news, you record it, you record it, you send it out, you send it out, and you send it out over and over again.
There's no love for your classmates.
As with Date Wataru's reassurance, the group was silent again for a moment.
Matsuda Jinpei didn't go so crazy as to punch out the laugh, he sent out a message as if nothing had happened: [Why are you asking this question, isn't the answer to this question easy to guess, is there a problem?]
Taking away some of the joking element from the above responses, they all agreed on one thing: Ichijō Mirai was a very nice and charismatic person.
Morofushi Hiromitsu rubbed his cell phone, not typing a reply, but whispering, "There's a problem."
When describing the police cadets' admiration for Ichijō Mirai, he described them as moths to a flame.
It wasn't an appropriate description from the point of view of people worshipping the strong and morally upright, but Morofushi Hiromitsu thought it was appropriate because 'fire' was dazzling, sun-like, and dangerous.
Dangerous enough that if a moth were to reach a certain distance, it would be gently and mercilessly burned.
Ichijō Mirai is a...
From Morofushi Hiromitsu's point of view, he is a man who wears many masks.
The first mask is a smiley mask with beautiful flames, looking like a student of the sun who shines brightly.
The second mask is a somewhat lively smiley mask, and Ichijō Mirai is often lively, serious and mischievous.
The third mask is a somewhat devious smiley mask.
He's not a flawless savior with only positive adjectives and good words, but instead, from the very first night, Ichijō Mirai reveals himself to be a loner.
On the contrary, from the first night, Ichijō Mirai reveals himself to be a loner. There's also Matsuda Jinpei's hand-me-down grudges, his careful eye, and so on and so forth.
Then there's Matsuda Jinpei, who never gives up on a fellow student during training, who smiles like the sun and encourages each and every one of his classmates, but hardly ever speaks to the other students or even glances at them after training is over.
There is a difference between these three masks, and Morofushi Hiromitsu believes that others can sense the difference in Ichijō Mirai's personality at times, most notably in the way he treats the other students during and outside of training, but there is one thing in common: a smiley face.
So these three masks, this severed, broken, morbid character, are silently hidden under this meager common denominator, revealing only a small part of it.
After all, normal people have their ups and downs of lively and quiet personalities.
For most people, it would be difficult to be acutely aware of the fact that Ichijō Mirai does not seem to be a perfectly normal person, with huge cracks in his body, but for Morofushi Hiromitsu, it was...
From the first time they met, from the first time they stood in the same line, he warily recognized the brokenness, the cuts, the morbidity, and smelled the scent of his own kind.
Yes, 'kindred spirits'.
Although the two instructors did not go into detail in their conversation, and Morofushi Hiromitsu did not know the exact circumstances of Ichijō Mirai's parents' deaths, it was certain that the two of them were kindred spirits.
Both had witnessed the deaths of their parents as children, and had come into close contact with the murderer, and had been so traumatized that they had been burned into the curves of their lives with twisted scars that could not be healed, and were unable to be completely normal, and could only look like normal human beings of their own kind.
Morofushi Hiromitsu leaned against the window and closed his eyes. A blood-colored darkness appeared in front of his eyes, the image of his parents in a pool of blood with their eyes open, and the image of the murderer slowly walking up to the closet where he was hiding, holding a blood-stained knife, and pulling the closet open...
He clutched his cell phone, opened his eyes and adjusted his breathing without moving.
The cell phone, which had been quiet, vibrated.
It meant that Ichijō Mirai had sent a message to a large or small group, and Morofushi Hiromitsu looked down, pinpointing the message among the rapidly refreshing messages from the large group: [Meet in Shibuya in one hour...]
[Remember to bring your locator cell phone.]
After reading these two messages, Morofushi Hiromitsu slid to the bottom, letting one unrelated message pop up, and watching the various responses and voices of concern.
Soon, the phone vibrated again, prompting a new message: [If you can't make it, send me your address privately, and I'll find a way to pick up those who can't make it when we start the operation in half an hour...]
[After all, it's kind of hard to cheat on the internet...]
The second message only flickered and was quickly retracted.
The phone vibrated again.
This time it wasn't a large group, but a small one.
Ichijō Mirai; [You don't have to come.]
[You're not easy to fool.]
Once again, the second message was there for less than a second, and disappeared as Ichijō Mirai retyped a second message that appeared: [You have a more important task to perform.]
Morofushi Hiromitsu: "..."
He stares at the retyped message in all seriousness, and pushes his brow down, [Really?]
Ichijō Mirai: [Yes...]
Adding another smiley face emoji, the one Matsuda Jinpei sent, answering the question in passing: [Not like...]
[It's more like Matsuda-san if he permed his hair and dyed it black.]
[What's 'action in half an hour'?] Morofushi Hiromitsu asked, [What operation?]
After a few messages from the others, Ichijō Mirai replied again, as if he was surprised: [Huh, didn't I say?]
[Prison Break Operation...]
[The prison break has been moved up, it's in half an hour, there will be an urgent news, remember to watch it in real time.]
[Oh, Furuya-san, you don't have to watch the news if you don't want to.]
[Within half an hour of the official start of the prison break, we'll be in Shibuya Ward, meeting up with the rest of the academy to trick them...]
Message withdrawn, retype: [Meet them and discuss the next plan of action.]
[The next plan of action is not for the police, it's for the criminals.]
[I intend to wipe out the gang that attacked Matsumoto Kiyonaga tonight, and 21:00 is the official time for the operation.]
Morofushi Hiromitsu: "?"
What?
Ichijō Mirai politely explains his repeated retractions: [I'm sorry for always blurting out the truth, I'll be more careful next time.]
Morofushi Hiromitsu: "…"