Ichijō Mirai opened the door and slowly descended the stairs.
He swept his eyes over the dessert store on the first floor, not paying much attention to it, but mostly thinking about Judy's behavior, trying to figure out what her every little expression meant, what her every action and reaction speed meant.
I was also trying to substitute her usual reactions to some special crisis moments, trying to think: is she the victim?
In the midst of the gears of thought and the very light footsteps down the stairs, his thoughts were interrupted for a moment by a voice from outside, "Mirai,"
It was Ishida Eiko.
She turned her head towards the stairs, "Come down and eat..."
"Uh, it's only after five, we haven't made dinner yet, is it lunch?"
He looked to the kitchen again, "We left some food for you at lunch, it's refrigerated, have your uncle heat it up for you."
Ichijō Mirai collected his thoughts and glanced at the time, "Okay."
He hadn't really planned to eat, but had come down for a walk.
It was just after five in the afternoon on a weekday, and the staff hadn't yet gotten over their long, heavy workloads, so the dessert store wasn't crowded, and only a few students had gotten out of school.
Ishida Eiko tidied up the counter a bit before walking into the kitchen, "By the way, Mirai, you've been prying again for the past few days."
She thought for a moment and corrected, "You guys."
Ichijō Mirai, who was watching Mr. Ishida operate the microwave to heat up a sandwich, turned her head at the words and frowned.
"It's males," Ishida Eiko was the first to state that she had noticed the reason for the prying in the first place, "and females, actually."
She had been so impressed by the somewhat oversized gentleman who lived in some unhealthy movie or TV show that she couldn't help but squeeze her heart in fear when she saw a man inquiring about Ichijō Mirai.
The reason why men and women ask about Ichijō Mirai is: "Aren't you close to Ms. Suzuki and Ms. Mouri lately? You've been going out together."
"Some people get the wrong idea and ask me if you have a girlfriend or a child."
Girlfriends, to find out if Suzuki Sonoko and Mouri Ran are Ichijō Mirai's favorites.
The children were to find out if Conan was Ichijō Mirai's child.
There's a big age difference, but Ichijō Mirai would have been in junior high and high school when Conan was born, right? With his looks, he could have gotten a girl.
It's Mouri Ran's age that's the problem...
It's outrageous.
But not in the grand scale of things, Ishida Eiko was so relieved that she corrected one thing right away: if Conan was really Ichijō Mirai's child, he wouldn't have been in junior high school when Conan was born, he'd have been in college.
Ichijō Mirai: "..."
In the real timeline, he was already 26 or 27, not in his early 20s.
Ishida Eiko's correction is correct.
...But is that really the first thing that should be corrected?!
Ichijō Mirai paused for a moment before avoiding that aspect, and reluctantly opened his mouth to say, in a meaningful and perfunctory manner, "Conan is very intelligent, and different from ordinary children, so it's only natural that some people would get the wrong idea."
After all, he is so smart, alas.
Wait, this isn't a game, it's reality.
He gathered his gamer demeanor and asked as if he were speaking for the first time, "The male you mentioned, is he also concerned about this issue?"
Another blonde who's having fun?
Can't you just assume that if you're having a good time, others are having a good time too!
"Uh," Ishida Eiko thought for a moment, "well, I guess so?"
"Not the gentleman from last time, but a gentleman who's been to the dessert store a few times, looks tall and skinny, wears a green suit a lot, I think his last name is Kazami, that's what I heard him called on the phone, and he's a police officer, and he had his wallet with his ID in it when he paid."
She wasn't sure, "Yesterday was a weekend, it was a crowded night, and there were other girls around when he asked, and the question came up."
"But he did ask first, about that Conan kid,"
"Then a few of the regulars in the neighborhood heard it, and asked about it in passing, and it came out as 'Is Conan your child'..."
Ichijō Mirai: "?"
Kazami, green suit, police license in his wallet?
The first thing he confirmed was that it wasn't the blond classmate.
Blonde students may be fun, but they have the basic skills to make a mistake like 'being seen by a normal person with a police ID in his wallet'.
And: that's a name he's heard before.
Ishida Eiko wasn't quite sure what the point was, or what Ichijō Mirai's attitude was, but based on the fact that Ichijō Mirai had agreed to go out on Valentine's Day, and had actually agreed to go to the villa at Yukiyama Villa for the vacation, she assumed that he and the two ladies were on good terms.
Or something else.
She was more inclined to the latter, so she recalled, trying to think of relevant moments, "I think it's because of the interaction between that Ms. Mouri and that child was too synchronized?"
"I hadn't paid much attention to it before, but other regulars said that every time they ate dessert together, they looked like they'd lived together for a long time, and when Ms. Mouri wanted to reach for a napkin, she looked up, and the kid wiped traces of whipped cream off her face, and they said they hadn't known each other that long."
As if to avoid suspicion, it's suspicious.
If they were the same age, regulars would have been adamant that they were 'a couple that should be put in the Valentine's Day celebratory fireworks bucket!' But with a ten-year age difference, they assume 'sister and brother' or 'mother and son'.
They suspected the latter because, "That Suzuki girl seems to,"
"seems to like you more?" Ishida Eiko looked cautiously at Ichijō Mirai for a few moments, "They talk about you a lot. They say you're good at solving crimes."
"The last time I was here, that kid was there too, and that Ms. Mouri seemed to keep complimenting that kid on how good he was, and how he'd definitely become a detective or something, just like you."
"So everyone..."
Ichijō Mirai: "..."
Everyone's so busy.
The microwave finished running and he took out the sandwiches, "Did that Mr. Kazami say anything?"
"No," Ishida Eiko recalled as she watched Ichijō Mirai take the sandwiches, "he kept listening to the regulars,"
Recalling a few more details, "Upon hearing 'Ms. Mouri complimented that boy on his intelligence, and that he might become a superb detective like Mr. Mirai,' he nodded his head as if he remembered it, so I paid a little extra attention to it."
"When he heard that people were speculating about your relationship, his cell phone rang and he went out shaking his head."
Ichijō Mirai: "..."
Shaking his head is good.
"Okay, if he comes back next time, could you please pay a little more attention," He said, "but please don't pay too much attention so that he doesn't find out."
"He's a friend of mine."
To be precise: a colleague from school.
The surname 'Kazami' was one that Ichijō Mirai had heard on the police hotline when he met the child who couldn't speak on Valentine's Day.
Considering his classmate's current status, Ichijō Mirai assumed that the 'Officer Kazami' was probably a 'kite string' that specialized in one-line contact with undercover agents, or a subordinate of the 'kite string'.
He shook his sandwich, "Nothing else, I'll go up first?"
"One more thing," Ishida Eiko said immediately, "Ms. Suzuki and Ms. Mouri seem to be inviting you to accept a commission?"
"They're going to talk to you in person, but I'm not sure about the details of the commission."
It's not another murder, is it?
These two ladies seem to have been involved in a lot of murders.
Ichijō Mirai recalled that every time he went out with these two ladies on one of his rare trips offline, he would encounter a murder.
Although it was only twice.
"I see," he responded simply, "I'll go up first then."
The freshly-warmed sandwich was perfect for eating, but Ichijō Mirai's hunger level wasn't high enough for him to eat it, so he took a few steps up the stairs, pressed the back of his neck with his other hand, and suddenly said, "...never mind."
There was no one else on the stairs, and the system tentatively lit up with a question: "What?"
Ichijō Mirai's back of his neck was sore from being online for so long, and he rubbed his fingertips over the visible wound on the back of his neck, rubbing it back and forth for a moment, "Don't want."
Don't want a lover.
Too much trouble.
Before the heart-throb incident, everyone treated Ichijō Mirai the same. He went to look for him, just like looking for the tree he planted in the forest. All he saw were rows of almost identical trees, and he couldn't find it at all.
Most importantly: "He affects me."
Ichijō Mirai increased the force of his fingers, and his tone lightened, "I don't like to be influenced, even by myself."
"I know myself, and if I go looking for myself, I might fall into a trap," his brow furrowed at the memory of the day when the subtle illusion of a tentacle slowly penetrating and rummaging through his brain came to mind, "I'm a..."
A man who couldn't imagine having a heartbeat.
He couldn't imagine a moment when his heart would beat abnormally, or when he would soften his eyes, curb his mischief, and open his arms to his lover.
But the most unimaginable of all was actually letting the victim go, saying things like 'I'm not sure if she'll ever fall in love with me again'.
That's not Ichijō Mirai.
Ichijō Mirai is a very persistent person, persistent in the sense that he's like a python, once he's wrapped around someone, he'll never let go, and even if he's feeling a little bored and wants to abandon it, he'll still have it coiled up in his tail, so that he can wrap it around again whenever he feels like it.
He's a bit of an animal.
Many of his victims are very vocal, like Gin, like Matsuda Jinpei , like Akai Shūichi.
But he's not the only one who's willing to let go...
"He has affected me somewhat," Ichijō Mirai repeats, "that the mysterious victim is like a pile of firewood weighing heavily on my somewhat skeptical and incomprehensible nature,"
And corrected, "No, it's wet firewood."
The more one cares, the more one's presence becomes apparent.
And knowing his own character, 'Ichijō Mirai' showed the ring as if he didn't even realize it, and casually talked about lovers, pointing out the important information that he was willing to let this victim go, it was a bit...
After wandering around the trap for a few moments to test it out, Ichijō Mirai didn't intend to go any further, he pressed the wound on the back of his neck again that was different from the smooth touch of his skin, "One forgetting is all, let's just ignore the interfering factors."
He sank his mind and cleared it of distractions, pausing again on the stairs to focus on the information he had just learned, "Furuya Rei focusing on Conan."
Conan.
"Actually," Ichijō Mirai said as he slowly made his way up the stairs, lowering his eyes a bit thoughtfully, "there's something about this boy that I find."
Strange?
No, not strange.
Just something very, very slight, like a finger running through a thin spider's thread.
"Conan…"
＊
"Conan, what's wrong?"
At the café, Mouri Korogō and his client were chatting animatedly, and Mouri Ran smiled and whispered to Conan, who was clearly lost in thought.
Conan, who was looking in other directions and surveying the waitresses around him, slowed down half a beat, "Eh?"
He snaps back, "I think I see a strange waiter."
"It's not strange, it's just, it's just..."
Mouri Korogō interrupted their whispered conversation with a somewhat wild laugh, "Hahahahaha! Where! Where!"
The client said repeatedly, "You're really great, not that I'm being overly complimentary,"
He looked like a social animal sincerely praising his boss, "Every time I see your news, I'm quite impressed, you're really worthy of being a famous detective in Tokyo, and you're so calm when solving a case, you can't help but be convinced!"
"The president admires you so much, that's why he asked us to invite you!"
It's a nice compliment.
It's just a bit pompous, and has the beauty of a blindfold.
Conan:"..."
Mouri Ran:"..."
She quietly glanced at the client's serious expression, and then quietly glanced at Mouri Korogō's expression of satisfaction at Shunmao's praise, and her head tilted back and laughing again, and she felt like covering her face silently.
The one thing that saved her was the waiter who came to deliver the food, "Coffee for you, gentlemen."
"Here's your Aphrodite, sir, and here's your iced Americano, Mr. Mouri."
"and Miss Mouri's vanilla iced Americano,"
"and a vanilla iced Americano for the young gentleman."
The blonde waitress smiles at Mouri Ran and Conan, "Enjoy your meal."
Mouri Ran only looks up, and is stunned, "Hey, Mr. Amuro?"
Conan looks up, looks at Amuro Tōru, and then at Mouri Ran, and is also a bit stunned, "Huh? Is it really this guy?"
When he entered the cafe, he saw that one of the waitresses seemed to be dark-skinned, and recalled Mouri Ran mentioning that he had been observing a man with 'a blonde hair and brown skin that he's been bumping into a lot lately at his part-time job at a variety of places, coincidentally'.
But nothing came of it, no more glimpses of what looked like a dark-skinned waiter.
Conan had suspected he was wrong, until now.
He winks and wonders: what kind of a neighborhood restaurant employs the same temporary part-timer?
It was no coincidence that Mouri Ran had 'happened' to run into this gentleman in the vicinity of the dessert store one after another.
Amuro Tōru was looking at Conan without realizing it, and he smiled cheerfully with curled eyes, "What a coincidence."