The clock strikes zero and echoes in a circle.
It wasn't obvious at ground level in a busy city, but it was obvious to Ichijō Mirai in the upper floors, so he readily changed his greeting to "Last moment yesterday, first moment today, hello, Mr. Akai Shūichi of the FBI New York."
Akai Shūichi didn't say anything.
James was still talking, and since he didn't leave a beat for his partner to reply, he didn't notice Akai Shūichi's silence, but the FBI listening room was silent, and Jodie was silent as she automatically blocked out James's voice and listened intently to the noise coming out of the headset.
Ichijō Mirai has the subtle illusion of playing in public, and reflects deeply on himself: oh no, the blonde classmates have gotten the best of him.
He compliments Akai Shūichi, "Your speculation about 'Messiah' and 'Satan' was so good, I almost couldn't resist jumping on you just now."
As Ichijō Mirai spoke, the FBI in the listening room subtly lowered James' volume, lowered it, lowered it, lowered it, lowered it, lowered it as abruptly as possible to silence, and then kicked James right out.
Akai Shūichi didn't move, "Why?"
"Because I didn't fulfill your expectations and deduce your true relationship with 'Satan'?"
He said briefly, "The clues are too few to speculate from the FBI's point of view."
It was true that there were too few clues, mainly because the FBI knew almost nothing about 'Satan', not his gender, age, or ethnicity, while they knew a little more about 'Messiah', knowing his gender, approximate age, and exact ethnicity, and understanding some of his personality, but still had no idea of his origins, and couldn't find any of the previous cases he had committed to study and deliberate on.
Ichijō Mirai repeats, "From the FBI's point of view."
I emphasize, so that means, from a personal point of view, it's possible to speculate?
"But on a personal level," Akai Shūichi said, "I'm assuming that your relationship is that of enemies."
He trailed off, "You are hostile to 'Satan', aren't you, Messiah."
The reason for saying Messiah is hostile to Satan, and not whether Satan is hostile to Messiah, is that both the FBI and Akai Shūichi lack a Satan perspective.
It's easy to conclude that Ichijō Mirai has been targeting only criminals from the moment he appeared in New York, feeding the FBI a few criminals from time to time and leaving instructions behind.
Just as Hachizo Onizuka thought Ichijō Mirai was a bad shooter when he saw him miss three times in a row, and just as his classmates at the police academy thought he was a good shooter when they saw him hit a bull's-eye with a single shot, the FBI thought Ichijō Mirai was an 'enforcer' type of criminal.
This type of criminal is also a criminal himself, but the motive is usually to maintain order or to do harm to the people, and often boasts of being superior to other criminals, but 'Messiah' did not behave in such a way.
He played the criminal with a careless hand, and he played the FBI very fair and square.
So where did the code name 'Messiah' and 'targeting Satan' come from?
"Was your family, or friends," Akai Shūichi inquired, "victims of 'Bloody Hell'?"
Ichijō Mirai: "..."
Therein lies the downside of the FBI's system of dealing with criminals.
Normally, the FBI can quickly deduce the age of the murderer, childhood changes, causes of the crime, and other things that even the murderer doesn't know about based on the knowledge system, and know more about the murderer than the murderer does, but in the absence of that information, it can be misleading.
He made a tone of voice, very courteous, very friendly to say: "Very interesting speculation."
"Guess, isn't it right?"
He sounded all smiles, already implying that he was wrong.
But Akai Shūichi didn't blink, and calmly repeated, "There are too few clues,"
"I guess I was right."
Therein lies the pitfall of human beings, trusting their own conjecture more than what they hear from others.
Ichijō Mirai smiled and nodded, "Well,"
"One thing I've heard," he said slowly, "is that the FBI and the Tokyo police are not on the same page, which is a bit surprising to me,"
Simply, Akai Shūichi didn't realize that every victim of the Bloody Hell, except the FBI investigators, was a criminal.
The first case was so obvious that the FBI didn't need to go through police channels to find out that a group of people had moved into the neighborhood and all of them had died, so there was no way to hide it, and there was no need to hide it.
The third case, where the victims were all FBI, was a special case.
The only thing the Japanese Police could have concealed was the congressman's sniper case. With all the people at the scene, keeping his mouth shut and watching the bodies would have made it look like Satan was on a random killing spree, not a premeditated plan to take out the enemy.
It's hard to keep your mouth shut and keep an eye on the body, but with the strength of the Japanese Police, it really worked... It seems that the top management of the police force has put a lot of money into it.
There's also the fact that the FBI's strength is a bit of a concern.
Ichijō Mirai thought idly, and heard Akai Shūichi's unmoving reply, "What?"
When it came to the conversation, this guy was almost obedient, following whatever topic he heard, like a sheep rather than a wolf.
After a few seconds of thought, Ichijō Mirai said coldly, "Do you know how I figured out the FBI's anti-surveillance?"
He held up the first finger, "For two reasons. One, you made it too obvious."
It's very obvious, a guy who chased for three hours without saying a word, not paying attention to any provocative behavior, only chasing with green eyes, like a lone wolf who chases his prey to the point of becoming accustomed to it, and even talking to his companions, most of the time, briefly picking up on the words that his companions pass to him, but then suddenly taking the initiative to ask questions, and starting to pass the words to himself...
Just like the way he was obediently answering, it was easy to see the difference.
"Two."
Ichijō Mirai held up a second finger, waving his hand absently as if in a pièce de résistance, "There's a current sound," he said with a smile.
He grinned, "Your technology doesn't seem to be working too well, it's affecting the signal a bit."
"I'm sorry, I didn't want to say anything, but considering you asked 'did I meet your expectations' or something like that, I thought I'd ask anyway,"
"The FBI investigator who was eavesdropping on me was probably just a member of your team on an ad hoc basis, that's why he wasn't very skillful, right?"
"...Right?"
Akai Shūichi: "..."
It wasn't a question, it was the back of his hand smacking the FBI Elite in the face like the back of his hand smacking Inuo in the face.
How the FBI elite changed their palette of faces in the listening room was unknown to Akai Shūichi, who replied flatly, "I don't know."
"Well," Ichijō Mirai didn't press the issue, "then the time for light chit-chat is over, so let's move on to the second segment,"
He lowered his voice and said with a smile, "I answered your question,"
-Was Ms. Black Swan the first victim.
-Yes.
"You have two choices. One, protect Ms. Black Swan by sending an FBI investigator to protect her, even if it scares off the killer,"
"Two, focus on catching the murderer, do not tell the victim that she is already the target of the murderer, watch her enter the murderer's trap, and when the murderer emerges, swarm to rescue the victim successfully,"
"...Or fail."
Ichijō Mirai and Akai Shūichi don't talk directly to each other, they listen in on each other, and it often takes a few seconds before they hear each other's voices under the two layers of listening.
Akai Shūichi heard the sound of the cold wind from above two seconds ago, and Ichijō Mirai's laughing, compelling voice.
"The life of one immediate victim, or the lives of several, dozens of future victims, it's a good choice, isn't it, it's like an unbalanced scale."
Ichijō Mirai gently inquired, "Which one would you choose, the enforcer of justice who is different from the criminal?"
"I'm looking forward to it."