The phone's light came on, dyed in the colorful flashing lights of the bar, went off, and came on again.
Before it went off again, a hand picked up the cell phone.
Morofushi Hiromitsu lowered his eyes to see a message from Amuro Tōru. His eyes fixed on the text message, and with little thought, he came up with the information that Amuro Tōru had met Ichijō Mirai.
There were two text messages, appearing one after the other, the second being: [Does he have a red mole on the back of his neck?]
There wasn't much time between messages.
The first text was the one that broke the ice, breaking the tacit 'I know Ichijō Mirai isn't dead, I know you know Ichijō Mirai isn't dead, and I know you know I know, but I pretend don't know' deadlock.
This text message meant one thing: no matter how much Morofushi Hiromitsu knew about Ichijō Mirai's 'death', how much he helped to hide, and how many secrets he kept, Amuro Tōru wouldn't pursue it too far.
When Ichijō Mirai was paid off, he paid off Morofushi Hiromitsu as well, so that they could settle their accounts together...
'By the way'.
The second message was the reason why Amuro Tōru suddenly gave up pursuing Morofushi Hiromitsu first.
He had something to ask.
"Red Mole...?"
Morofushi Hiromitsu's eyes flickered for a few moments as he exited the screen for viewing text messages, entered the screen for editing messages, and sent a text message to a number right from this phone, canceling tonight's meeting.
Then returning to Amuro Tōru's text message screen, his smile faded to nothing as he looked at the black text on the white screen.
No.
Ichijō Mirai doesn't have a red mole.
Morofushi Hiromitsu was sure of it.
Red moles, birthmarks, or other features are nothing. People change, and moles are not fixed from the start. Many people have black moles that pop up on their bodies when they become adults, but red moles don't mean anything.
If Ichijō Mirai was an only child.
But...
The third text message came, the phone vibrated slightly, and Morofushi Hiromitsu's eyes shook slightly as he looked over: [He caught a cold after a few minutes in the snow, do you know why he's so weak?]
[Or has he been injured recently?]
Weakness is nothing, even if he used to be a police officer, used to be in very good physical condition, so good that even the police cadets, instructors and police officers can't stand it, rather like a weak and helpless mistress who runs wildly on a leash while walking her dog, it doesn't mean anything, a serious illness can destroy a person's body, make a person go from being lively and energetic to being extremely weak.
If Ichijō Mirai had been an only child.
The weakness of his body, the sudden appearance of a red mole...
Morofushi Hiromitsu inevitably recalled the time of Ichijō Mirai's 'death', when the police academy was about to graduate, and the instructors had already chosen the outstanding cadet who would speak at the graduation ceremony, but before the ceremony could begin, news came from the hospital that the rescue had failed.
It was a fire.
It was a fire that burned and covered the entire building, and the vivid colors of the fire were reflected in Morofushi Hiromitsu's eyes, and he had thought that he would be deeply impressed by the scene where Ichijō Mirai didn't come out of the building, and the feeling of standing in front of the dark building after the fire had been extinguished, feeling the cold wind cool his body a little bit.
But now, when he recalled it, he could only recall a blur, and he had to work very hard to recall one or two fragments, almost all of which were blazing flames, with little useful information.
Time, it seemed, had made him forget.
The surging feelings and memories that had been deep in his bones became blurred and indistinguishable as if they had been put into a box, just as after the death of Morofushi's parents, Morofushi Hiromitsu couldn't recall the exact circumstances of their deaths for a long time.
He had become skillful at dealing with the feeling of having a piece of his memory and feelings covered by someone's outstretched hand.
So after only a few seconds' pause, Morofushi Hiromitsu regained his breath, stopped remembering the burning fire, and replied to Amuro Tōru: [You met him?]
It was a sentence that both the sender and the receiver of the message knew to be nonsense, but it was necessary to set the stage by sending it first, so that the following sentence could be sent: [After many years of not seeing him, do you think he's become unfamiliar?]
After sending it, he kept looking at his cell phone, and saw Amuro Tōru's almost second reply: [Unfamiliar.]
Unfamiliar.
Morofushi Hiromitsu: "..."
His already lowered eyes lowered a bit more, and he closed them.
Two changes, plus 'unfamiliar', the 'Ichijō Mirai' that Amuro Tōru met...
Is it 'Satan' or 'Messiah'?
Morofushi Hiromitsu sincerely hoped that it was their 'Messiah', but the truth seemed to be denying it.
The cell phone in his hand vibrated again, and he took a deep breath, opening his eyes to see the screen of the cell phone light up, and the black font on it: [But familiar.]
[It's strange.]
Amuro Tōru was thinking, and the text messages he sent were intermittent, [I feel like he...]
[He's exactly the same as he was at the police academy.]
[No, it's not exactly the same. When I heard his voice, I had the feeling that 'he's the Kujō Mirai from the police academy'.]
It's a strange thing that the flow of time hasn't left a single trace on Ichijō Mirai's body.
He seems to have matured a bit, not so flirty and hateful, he behaves in a gentlemanly manner, and is very popular with the girls, but Amuro Tōru feels that he hasn't changed at all.
During the first contact, which was only indirect, he had thought that Ichijō Mirai had changed and grown a lot, but the moment he heard Ichijō Mirai's voice, he changed his judgment abruptly.
In contrast, he was himself.
From Furuya Rei at the police academy to Amuro Tōru.
Amuro Tōru had changed a lot, and had almost grown into a very different person from the blonde police cadet, which was why he had a subtle feeling when he was confronted with Ichijō Mirai, who hadn't changed at all, and seemed to have been stopped in time at the moment of their first meeting.
A subtle feeling that he couldn't explain, and it was this subtle feeling that prompted him to add the title "
This subtle emotion, weakened a little by the intermittent text messages, appeared in front of Morofushi Hiromitsu's eyes.
He looked at the screen.
After the intermittent text messages, Amuro Tōru was silent for some time before sending another message: [It's not a red mole...]
[I've just received a message...] It's from Suzuki Sonoko, who Yuuya Kazami is not sure of, but is still in a hurry and has been asking around a lot.
[The mole on the back of his neck isn't red, it's a wound.]
Amuro Tōru paraphrased Suzuki Sonoko's words: ['It looks like a wound left by a needle, but it's just a needle, and wounds heal quickly, right? Mr. Mirai's wound hasn't healed, so it's probably either a wound or a red mole... But when I look at it from close up, I feel that it looks like a wound'].
Then added some of his own words: [I don't know why, but I care about this matter very much.]
[By the way, that guy's healing quickly, right?]
Amuro Tōru remembers how quickly Ichijō Mirai came back to life whenever he was injured.
Morofushi Hiromitsu remembers it too.
So, what kind of needle wound stays like a red mole?
Was there a special medicine applied to the needle? Did the needle enter the back of the neck? Or was it stabbed repeatedly, so that the healing ability was not utilized, and the wound was left as a scar?
If it's the first two, then we need to consider what kind of fluid.
If it's the latter, then one needs to consider why the needle was repeatedly pierced, what happened, what was to be done, the 'red mole' left unintentionally, or what was done in order to leave the 'red mole' behind.
Morofushi Hiromitsu's eyes kept falling on the cell phone screen, on Amuro Tōru's question, and only after half a second did he suddenly send out a text message: ['Satan' hasn't appeared for a long time, has he?]
In the public eye.
[But he's not dead.]
In the eyes of the organization, 'Satan' is not dead.
Then as a code name member of the organization, Morofushi Hiromitsu's first correct statement would have been: ['Satan' hasn't been able to slaughter with impunity for a long time.]
He pressed the button: [I'm happy.]
It wasn't their Messiah who died.
Morofushi Hiromitsu is happy.