It was an idea so preposterous and incredible, yet so probable, that it sent shivers down the spine.
But what else but 'Ichijō Mirai's mother was pregnant with twins' could explain a six-month pregnancy with a belly that looked as if it was about to give birth?
What else could explain Ichijō Mirai's mother's constant moping, other than 'losing a child'?
Apart from 'the lost child is not actually dead, but was taken away by someone', how else can we explain the man who went to the kindergarten and tried to kidnap Ichijō Mirai saying 'a child is a bit lonely' and 'what about true blood relatives?'
No.
Then the question arises: a man who is able to investigate the data of a current police officer, who regularly spies on a good and outstanding police officer, and who has taken one of her children...
Who could that be?
Morofushi Hiromitsu skimmed through the file, and realized that it wasn't that he had missed it, but that there was really no record of the Ichijō family calling the police to report the loss of their child, nor was there a death certificate for the child from the hospital, and there was only one copy of the birth certificate, a copy that was a bit blurry.
The 'lost child' seems to have disappeared naturally without any written proof, and even the police are unaware of it.
"A police officer of a special nature?" Morofushi Hiromitsu whispered to himself and guessed, "A police officer who can silence the active police while taking away a child."
Even a good police officer.
This is a very high probability, 0.001%, because the police don't wear black clothes all the time when they're watching someone, and they don't sneak around and abduct children.
...They wouldn't be sneaking around abducting children, would they?
"Convicts?" Morofushi Hiromitsu was a bit uncertain, so he hesitantly said the second guess he felt was more appropriate, "'Officer Ichijō' seemed to be hiding from someone in the early days of the police academy,"
If the person she was hiding from was the same person who took the child from the hospital, flattened out the traces of the child's existence, kept a long term watch, and tried to take Ichijō Mirai away a few years later, then it all adds up.
In that case, there is still the question: where is the child, the child who is related to Ichijō Mirai by blood, who could be Ichijō Mirai's older brother or sister, or Ichijō Mirai's younger brother or sister?
The child seems to be a bit... based on the assumption that the person who took the child is most likely a black person.
Also: after the death of his parents, Ichijō Mirai disappeared from the scene of the crime, and only recently, he suddenly appeared.
Where did he go in the meantime?
Was he taken by those convicts? Did he reunite with his only remaining blood relative? And why did he come to the police academy?
Is it to find out why his parents died, free from the control of the convicts? Is it revenge?
Morofushi Hiromitsu frowned as he tried to sort through the complicated thoughts and questions.
As he went through the pages of the file, his frown grew tighter and tighter.
Suddenly, there were footsteps.
Not footsteps coming up the stairs, but footsteps coming out of the computer room, it was Furuya Rei.
Morofushi Hiromitsu immediately organized the file, put it back in order, and stepped out of the stacked file shelves, pretending to be looking for something.
Almost immediately after he finished his disguise, footsteps came up to the door of the file room, and Furuya Rei looked in, "What's wrong?"
He was confused, "What are you looking for?"
Then he immediately responded, "Mirai's file?"
Ichijō Mirai's file wasn't lost for no reason, nor was it taken by someone else and not returned, but it was in the 'Officer Ichijō' file.
His file was similar to the new student's, with simple personal information, but with an additional notation that there was a period of missing persons who needed to be alerted to their whereabouts.
Morofushi Hiromitsu had already seen it when he was going through the file, but hesitated for a moment, and when he turned his head at the sound of the voice, he didn't retort, "Uh-huh."
About Ichijō Mirai, he knew that he had overheard the exchange between the instructors, but Furuya Rei didn't know about it, so to relay it...
At least Ichijō Mirai himself, or be present and acquiesce, right?
"I think the police took it," Furuya Rei said as he walked over to the newest class's file rack, "Our class has a special file, did you look at it?"
He pulled out the file that was a little thicker than a student file, "All the grades are in one file."
"There's a copy of the usual way of recording,"
Regular records, of course, are those recorded according to normal training procedures, such as the cross-country running program, which honestly records who came in first place and how long it took to reach the finish line.
"There's also a record by name."
Recorded in order of name, naturally, the results are all messed up a bit, fast and slow intertwined together, seems a bit chaotic.
Normally, the academy does not keep such records, because the results are not clear, and other cadets do not keep such records.
But this year's academy kept such records, naturally, because they could mess up the grades.
"The last one, by..."
Furuya Rei spoke oddly for a few seconds, "The number of times you helped your classmates."
When this record appeared, it became obvious why the second record was sorted by name.
"Mirai-san hardly ever comes in first place in every training session, even in solo training."
Because 'we're a team' and because 'I won't let anyone get left behind', such as in the case of cross-country running with weights, he would return again and again to help his classmates, so naturally, he wouldn't come in first place.
But when the results are announced, can we say he wasn't first?
Not to mention the 99% chance that the cadets will protest, the instructor himself is too weak to say so, so if he can't convince himself, how can he convince the public?
Morofushi Hiromitsu: "..."
He understood subtly, and had a complicated expression for a few seconds.
"If the targeting isn't that obvious," Furuya Rei said, "and it's just a slight targeting by an individual instructor, or a teacher in the archive room."
"Understandable..."
Increasing the workload of Ichijō Mirai is unforgivable!
Morofushi Hiromitsu coughed low, "But no."
They looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders.
"Hurry up and put the files back," Furuya Rei gestured to the location of the file he was in and turned to walk out, "There's more later..."
Before he could finish his sentence, he was interrupted by Matsuda Jinpei's voice.
"Fu-ru-ya-Rei-!"
It came from the first floor.
Furuya Rei accelerated his steps and went out.
Morofushi Hiromitsu shook his head, looked again at the location of the 'Officer Ichijō' file, walked over to the newest file rack, and was just about to shove the file in when he heard Matsuda Jinpei's voice, still coming from a distance, "You lied about the military!"
And Furuya Rei's reply, "Huh?"
"What's wrong?"
Matsuda Jinpei: "Date-san isn't even at the training ground!"
Then came Ichijō Mirai's super loud voice, "Date Date-san and Kenji Hagiwara-san went out over the wall!"
"Matsuda Jinpei is also going over the wall!"
His voice was so loud that it carried throughout the entire school building, and his bite was clear as he read out the victims' names in full, "Furuya Rei-san, you too,"
"Go! Out! Over! The! Wall!"
"What?"
The whole school building seemed to go silent for a moment.
Morofushi Hiromitsu: "..."
He couldn't help but look out and see Furuya Rei, who was jumping around in fear and looked like he wanted to jump downstairs and beat up Ichijō Mirai right away, and heard Matsuda Jinpei's anxious mouth covering and terrified protests, "What are you doing?!"
"Don't run away if you can!!!"
"Stop!"