He asked, "Do you trust us?"
The question was really...
Ichijō Mirai looked sideways at the white wall, he knew where Morofushi Hiromitsu was sitting, "What kind of 'trust' do you mean?"
There were many kinds of trust.
"Trust in one's fellow man," Morofushi Hiromitsu blurted out without hesitation, almost offhandedly, "We're friends,"
He paused somewhat uncertainly, adding a premise before his tone firmed up, "As far as I'm concerned, we're friends."
"I have the trust of a fellow human being in you, even if I don't know what you're thinking, why you're making decisions, why you're acting in a certain way at a certain moment."
Like the constant blabbering that doesn't change your face.
Like being in control of the scene as if you knew what was going to happen, as if you were observing everyone's actions with a cold rationality, and making predictions and judgments without any personal emotion.
And then there are those who help Ichijō Mirai with their passion.
"But if you don't want to talk, I won't ask."
Morofushi Hiromitsu often had questions.
Some of them, in the course of time, he would come to understand one of Ichijō Mirai's decisions, but some of them, in the course of time, would become more and more intense.
Based on trust, he would suppress his instinctive desire to know, and even though he was a bit uneasy because he was in a fog filled with cold white air, he would quietly follow Ichijō Mirai's instructions.
It was a trust that overcame his instincts, a trust in his companion.
But did Ichijō Mirai trust them, and did he trust him?
If any ordinary police cadet were to face this question, he or she would first be confused, then answer 'yes' without thinking. And after that, he would have wondered, 'What kind of question is that? Mirai-san surely trusts us, what a strange question'.
Because 'Savior-san', 'Messiah', 'a leader as bright and warm as the sun', 'a bright being who can make people overcome their brains and use their body's instincts to be loyal'.
Morofushi Hiromitsu, however, had a question mark about this, and closed his eyes, which were a little sore from looking directly into the light, and after a few seconds, he turned his head sideways and looked at Ichijō Mirai.
He waited silently for an answer.
Ichijō Mirai moved his body, switching to a bent leg, he rested his hand against his chin, smiling, "Like I said, Morofushi-san is smart,"
"Why do you keep asking questions you know the answers to?"
He said, "Is it because I'm trusting you in the same way as I would a companion, hmm..."
"-Of course."
There are many kinds of trust, and there are many ways to judge trust.
For most ordinary people, there's only about 'trust' and 'distrust', but for criminals who basically don't trust everyone, it can be divided in detail.
A trust level of 0.001% is still trust.
"Of course I trust you," Ichijō Mirai smiled, not mincing his sweet words, "Don't forget, I put you in charge of sniping, so if I didn't trust you, how could I let you snipe?"
"The scene was so chaotic and crowded, if the sniper had hit a passerby,"
He smiled again and didn't go on because the consequences were obvious, "Even if the sniper was very calm and paid attention to my orders and managed to snipe the mission target when I ordered him to, but if he accidentally killed the mission target,"
The consequences are equally obvious.
Ichijō Mirai slowly said, "Sniper bullets are fatal to the human body, and it's difficult to consciously hit the target, and it's even more difficult to consciously only temporarily disable the target's mobility."
The requirement to 'temporarily disable the mobility of the mission target' was a bit harsh, even if Morofushi Hiromitsu was a good shot, and he was accurate enough to grab a headshot on the night of the instructor's night raid on the dormitory, it was a pistol.
A pistol and a sniper rifle are very different.
When you shoot someone with a pistol and miss again and again, you can smartly say, "Yes, I'm torturing you," and take three steps forward in a hurry to shoot the target of the mission directly in the head in anger.
If you can't hit the target with a sniper's rifle, you can't really hit it, so you can't just take three steps forward and shoot the target with the muzzle of the rifle against his head.
The reason why Morofushi Hiromitsu and Ichijō Mirai are so strict is that the snipers themselves will break down if they kill the target...
That's the basic rule for police cadets.
Ichijō Mirai understands that the police would be devastated if they inadvertently killed an innocent person while fighting a criminal.
But you can't say that. You have to learn how to say nice things, and he says, "Would I let you snipe if I didn't trust you?"
He said with a straight face, "If you had to choose a sniper in an emergency situation, one of them would be me, and the other would be an ordinary police cadet whose name you don't remember, who would you choose?"
It would definitely be Ichijō Mirai.
Without being able to confirm the sniping skills of the two students and judging them by their past abilities, Morofushi Hiromitsu would choose Ichijō Mirai.
"Good choice, I've always been a good shot, and I've always killed people," Ichijō Mirai boasts, adding, "1, you trust me, and you'll choose me as a sniper, OK."
"2, I'll choose you as a sniper, I trust you, OK."
"1=2, perfect equation."
He concludes, "I trust you, Morofushi-san."
Morofushi Hiromitsu: "..."
Ichijō Mirai knew the strength of his 'trust', and Morofushi Hiromitsu knew the truth of that 'trust', but he didn't say anything, didn't refute, didn't agree, just laughed.
He laughed for about a minute or so before reluctantly stopping and mimicking Ichijō Mirai's relaxed tone, "OK."
"I see, you trust me, Mirai-san."
"I don't see many people like you," he said, "but I like it."
You've got a few problems.
On the surface, you look like a mild-mannered, good-tempered person, but in your private life, you like cold-blooded guys who are more or less ruthless, and most likely more or less cold-blooded as well.
Ichijō Mirai said with a grimace, and then spoke with a serious voice: "Okay, it's my turn,"
"Morofushi-san, do you like cow cats?"
He was very serious, "I think cow cat is perfect for you."
Morofushi Hiromitsu reacted for a moment, "Cow cat...?"
Quickly, he responded,
"Is that the same comment that others have said to you?" He smiled helplessly and retorted, "I don't think so."
Not that he didn't look like a cow cat, but Ichijō Mirai, "You don't look like one at all."
The reason is simple. "You're not black and white."
It's a white that's so dazzling it's admirable.
A grayish white.
"However," Morofushi Hiromitsu paused, and his tone took on a smile, "I agree with Matsuda-san's assessment."
Matsuda Jinpei's assessment?
Ichijō Mirai's memory rushed back and forth, quickly flashing back to the specifics: a bored Matsuda Jinpei boredly posting a boring picture of a boring animal in a boring group, and boringly implying that he was a fox dog with a black heart.
Gee, boring.
"You're boring," he said, standing up and slapping his leg, "Well, time to go out."
Morofushi Hiromitsu followed, "What?"
A few seconds later, he heard the faint sound of footsteps.
The footsteps came from far away, the footsteps of a group of people, a group of police officers, walking and talking in low voices, hurrying.
One of them, whom Morofushi Hiromitsu had met, was the police officer who had opened the door when he was let out of the isolation room.