Jodie was stunned: "?"
What, what do you mean?
From Ichijō Mirai's reaction, she sensed something bad and realized that there was something Akai Shūichi knew but she didn't know.
Referring to the keyword 'organization' mentioned just now, and referring to Akai Shūichi's purpose of joining the FBI, within a few breaths, Jodie had already reacted: the thing she didn't know was related to the organization.
She immediately opened her mouth to change her words urgently, but as soon as she uttered a sharp syllable, Ichijō Mirai clapped his hands together, interrupting with the sound of clapping, "Yes."
"Your request, I hear you," He was smiling, "and I agree."
As he spoke, Ichijō Mirai was nonchalant, his smile a little nasty, with a bright 'Are you going to regret this? It's too late', and 'Yes, you've suffered a loss, a big loss', and the tone of voice was not like the one who initiated the deal agreeing to the request, but like a light promise from a god who heard the prayers of the believers.
It's very unorthodox.
Jodie could see it in the curved red eyes under the brim of her hat, and she could also see that Ichijō Mirai knew how angry he was, and that his nonchalant tone of voice was meant to draw other people's eyes to his own face, to notice his own flirtatious smile, and then to become more and more depressed, his blood pressure rising, and his eyes blackening with anger.
But...
Ichijō Mirai is now dressed in a casual style, like a student out for the weekend with friends, and Asian, with a typical Asian face, looking smaller.
So that the carelessness, the provocation of dialing the value of other people's blood pressure, in a quiet moment will be eased some, sharp and flamboyant is still there, the lethality is also still there.
But it's no longer a blood-curdling killing power, but a...
It's not a bloodbath, it's the kind of kill that comes with being a teenager on the court after a big win and an easy win.
The provocation worked.
Jodie's eyes paused for a moment, "You."
Ichijō Mirai lowers the brim of his hat.
As he did so, he smoothed out the line of his mouth, and as if he hadn't noticed Jodie's interruption, he said lightly, "I know a little bit about the organization, so tell me what you're looking into."
He smiled a little and lightened the mood, "Is it possible that your father also disappeared because of the organization?"
No.
But almost.
"You said," Jodie looked at Ichijō Mirai a few more times, catching something keenly, "'also'?"
Her eyes swept over Ichijō Mirai's chin, which was not covered by the brim of his hat, and her heart fluttered.
Back when Ichijō Mirai first appeared on the scene, she had explained to many people that Ichijō Mirai was not a minor, but was just ethnically small, and that her real age was probably about the same as hers.
It had been explained many times, corrected many times.
But just now, she almost subconsciously asked, 'Are you a minor?'
There are many types of spirituality, and the spirituality of an adult always carries an indefinable something, probably the intoxicating aura of power, and a sense of maturity.
As a result, it is like a spider's web made up of layers and layers of spider's threads, and the 'spider's threads' are companies, assets, connections, and other social things.
Ichijō Mirai's spirit has no such thing. He seems to be reckless, provoking when he wants to, pulling down the brim of his hat when he's not happy, doing what he wants, and when he doesn't want to be tactful, he doesn't have the tactfulness of a grown-up, but only the spirit of a young man who has no constraints.
No, the youthful exuberance has some 'threads' of school, clubs, friends, and so on.
These 'threads' are inevitable; humans are social creatures, and while almost all of us, except for babies who don't know what's going on in the world, are connected to society in various ways, Ichijō Mirai has a very peculiar aura that conveys that he's not connected to society at all.
There's no 'spiders'.
This kind of person...
Is he really alive?
The FBI sometimes takes on special cases, and sometimes she encounters special cases, and Jodie has encountered more or less special cases, except for one or two of the suicide cases where she encountered a being with an aura similar to the peculiar aura of Ichijō Mirai.
It was like a cigarette that appeared silently at the moment when someone put a gun in his mouth and was about to pull the trigger, or when someone stood on the edge of a rooftop and looked back down, hovering and rising, leaving a faint scent in the air that was too much for the perceptive to take in.
In those moments, those with a death wish are like a dead tree.
Not Ichijō Mirai.
He was obviously a lush and green tree, but just at a certain moment, when he showed his provocative smile, he had a morbid feeling of 'I'll die if I die, as long as I had fun' like a cigarette.
Jodie couldn't make the connection between those dead trees and Ichijō Mirai, nor did she miss the line of Ichijō Mirai's mouth that flattened out the moment he noticed the change in her eyes.
She furrowed her brow, mentally mulled over the two responses for a few seconds, and was just pondering them when she watched the person across from her speak slowly, in a tone that was somewhat provocative, but also seemed overly vital, "Yes, 'also'."
"Mr. Akai asked me to help investigate a murder related to his father's disappearance, and asked me to find out which member of the organization was responsible for that murder."
"So he didn't tell you? That's a shame," Ichijō Mirai said, "I would have thought that since you were coworkers, he would have told you something, after all,"
He gave a grin, his red eyes fixed on Jodie like a moment before a predator attacks, "You're coworkers."
"Even I, a criminal, know what you don't know, Mr. Akai is too cold and heartless, isn't he?"
It was a provocation, a very obvious and cheap one, but the speaker's tone was so careless that it seemed like a casual remark.
Jodie said, "I know."
She and Akai Shūichi, both of whom had joined the FBI with ulterior motives, were vague allies, and of course knew something of each other's business, only: "I didn't think you knew,"
"What's more, I didn't expect that you had already reached a cooperative relationship."
There's a difference between hearing a rumor about your life and being told about it, and this partnership isn't a superficial one, it's a close one.
It's a close cooperation, not just a superficial cooperation, but a close cooperation.
"Since Mr. Akai has asked you to investigate the organization," Jodie sighed on the bright side, "then it seems that I made the wrong request just now, no wonder you were smiling so happily just now,"
Her light blue pupils twitched as she watched Ichijō Mirai's expression and joked as if it were a casual compliment, "But now, I can somewhat understand why that 'blonde sweetheart' lady was impressed with you,"
"You are indeed a person who is very good at gaining people's favor, and even I would have a hard time feeling bad about you."
Almost instantly, the lines of Ichijō Mirai's mouth flattened out once more as he put his fingers on the brim of his hat and shifted it from side to side in a nonchalant manner, "Thank you for the compliment,"
"But I guess Mr. Akai probably has a problem with that."
His tone was as light as it had ever been since they met, "Please explain in detail what you want me to investigate."
It wasn't an illusion.
Jodie confirmed: Subtly, Ichijō Mirai didn't like the way she showed her favor when he fixed his eyes on her for a long time without moving, as if identifying something to look at.
...And yet he rejects female favor?
Why?
She pretended not to notice, and gathered her composure, getting serious: "I'm in a similar situation to Mr. Akai, and only similar, in that I'm not 'father missing', but 'dead'."
"My father was a senior FBI investigator," Jodie's tone cooled, "who accidentally picked up on the Organization's trail years ago,"
"In pursuing it, the organization became equally aware of his existence, and someone came to silence him, and it was a-"
She quirked her eyebrows, "A blonde woman,"
"She killed my parents."
"...And I want to find her."
Blonde woman?
Ichijō Mirai's fingers on the brim of his hat twitched, and his red eyes, hidden in the shadow of the brim, were thoughtful, but he didn't say anything, instead listening quietly to Jodie.
"I don't know how Mr. Akai works with you," Jodie said, "but, I hope."
In fact, she felt that her work with Ichijō Mirai, Akai Shūichi's work with Ichijō Mirai, did not overlap or conflict.
They were two cases, two directions of investigation.
"The same as you."
Jodie said, "You want to join the FBI with a straight face, I like to bring her in with a straight face."
"I have a clue about that woman," She said with a sudden shift in her steely tone to a smiling one, spoken at a pace so unhurried that she no longer seemed to be a competent FBI agent, but a flirtatious, beautiful star, "'A secret makes a woman, woman.'"
"That's what she said to me."
Blonde hair, flirty style, feminine.
Ichijō Mirai's mind already had some speculations, but he wasn't sure: he hadn't met too many Code Name members, and there might be other Code Name members that fit these traits, and would need to be tortured again...
He'd have to torture Gin some more to be sure.
"I see," He replied to Jodie, "I'll be in touch when your next operation succeeds in catching the killer."
"The good Mr. Akai gave me your contact information, remember to pick up the phone when you do."
With that, he stood up, "So, that's it for today?"
"Wait," Jodie subconsciously called out to him, and when she spoke again, there was a pause before she managed to find an impromptu sentence, "Do we need to keep today's meeting a secret?"
To the FBI, of course.
But what about Akai Shūichi?
Well...
It's the first time Jodie has met a criminal who cooperates with the FBI, and the first time she's met a criminal who cooperates with the FBI in two different ways, so she can only draw on some common sense to decide that secrecy is probably necessary.
But unexpectedly, "Secrecy? No need."
Ichijō Mirai tugged at the brim of his hat carelessly, "I'd rather ask you to tell Mr. Akai, instead."
"After all, it's been a long time coming, hasn't it?"
He didn't linger, and left at a brisk pace.
As he left, he only lightly glanced at Jodie.
Jodie watched Ichijō Mirai's departure until his back disappeared into the crowd of people on the street, then she loosened her grip and saw the cold sweat on her hand.
She let out a breath slowly, felt out her cell phone, and sent out a few short messages.
['Messiah' came to see me.]
[We're working together.]
[I've noticed two strange and contradictory traits in him. What do you know about him?]
And: [Does he have a lover?]
[I feel that,] Jodie paused for a few seconds and typed out a line of words, [he paid too much attention to me, as if he was trying to identify who I was.]
*
Akai Shūichi was in his office when he received the message.
Coincidentally, his eyes happened to rest on the screen of his cell phone, on some new text messages he had just received.
The messages were from MI6's agents.
He finally found out Messiah's full name: [Ichijō Mirai].
This is the real name, the original name of 'Messiah', the name he was given as a child, the name that was buried in the layers and layers of old cases, almost unknown now, covered by the pseudonym 'Kujō Mirai'.
Along with this name, two case files were sent.
One is a case that spans more than ten years, a hospital case that was triggered by 'Inspector Ichijō' and solved by Ichijō Mirai who helped Seicho Matsumoto to find out the truth.
A case file of the 'Ichijō Family Murder Case'.
It states that two police officers died and their son disappeared without a trace, suspected to have been murdered.
It is also written that the case is an unsolved one, and that the police have concluded that the mafia may have intended to take revenge, and that the murderer has not been caught.
It also states that in the period before the murder, there were unknown black people in the neighborhood of Ichijō's house.
And an additional piece of information that was added much later, obviously different from the yellowing color of the paper in the other entries: Five years ago, on June 14, a police officer who worked under Mr. Ichijō was killed in the XX district.
Five years ago, June 14th, location.
Akai Shūichi's eyes lingered on this additional information for a long time, and after a long time, his eyes moved again, and he slowly pronounced a code name, "Satan."
This was the time and place where 'Satan' created his first work, the starting point of his career as an executioner after he and 'Messiah' fell apart.
...The police officer was killed by 'Satan'.
Then it became obvious that the officer was involved in the deaths of Mr. and Mrs. Ichijō.
After reviewing the officer's file and seeing that the officer had been in the cold for a long time, rather than being promoted, Akai Shūichi put his seal of approval on this judgment.
He further decided that a lowly police officer, who was not powerful enough for the police to harbor, was certainly not the mastermind behind the crime, but was somehow directly or indirectly related to it.
One of the causes of death of Ichijō and his wife, and one of the enemies of 'Satan' and 'Messiah'.
Satan is seeking revenge.
What about Messiah? Does it burn with hatred?
Are they taking revenge at the same time?
And if so, are they working together, or are they not?
One joins the black, the other the light, one kills the enemy outright, the other seeks the truth...
Akai Shūichi's hand is moving.
Tapping on the desktop in an unhurried manner, with each tap, his knuckles collided with the desktop, making a rhythmic white noise.
His eyes lingered on the text message for a long time before he spoke again, word for word: "Joined the police academy out of boredom?"
Liar.