Marc Brandy or Rum, who has a better background?
It's a toss-up.
At least it is now, because Rum's father was a longtime member of the organization under its leader and has the power, and he inherited it like an idiot prince inheriting a throne, and was given the code name and became the second-in-command of the organization.
Even though he doesn't give a shit, occasionally does a mission and the sky falls apart, and can only pretend to be powerful by putting on a wide-assed face of his own resourcefulness, occasionally hanging out in front of Gin, and being played by Belmode in a careless manner.
He's also the second-in-command of the organization.
Rum isn't just a loser, he's capable, and even on his own, he could be a codename...or a member of the organization...
Or you can be a low-level member of the organization!
Intelligence, but not completely have IQ, have force, but not completely have force, have a keen sense of smell, but only once or twice in a lifetime, and will even lower the opponent's grade and style, so that the opponent's teammates will have 'actually will be recognized by this kind of guy, but also too incredible, right? Is my teammate asleep? Or do we have a teammate who is even more of a drag than Rum? The puzzled bottom members.
For a guy like this to be the second-in-command of the organization says a lot.
Like how powerful his backstage is, and how much of his backstage is made up of Mr. Right.
Compared to Rum, Marc Brandy...
Although, that Gentleman's attitude towards Marc Brandy was quite subtle, never critical, always with a tacit 'Oh, trouble? Is he happy? Happy is good.' and almost met him in person.
But this subtle attitude had nothing to do with that gentleman.
Anyone who met Ichijō Mirai would be friendly, and even friendlier.
Such was the case with Gin, who never criticized Ichijō Mirai, never got physical, behaved carefully, was careful not to do anything that would cause Ichijō Mirai to misunderstand him, and cared very much about Ichijō Mirai's moods, his health, his whereabouts, and whether or not he had any toys.
Is that what you want?
I have to.
It's obvious who's in charge, Marc Brandy or Rum. Rum's in charge.
It's even more obvious who's behind 'Satan' and Rum.
Satan is not a bloodthirsty second-generation black man, he has no backstage, but he creates his own backstage, and with his own strength, he forces everyone, all forces, all existences, whether it's the official forces like the FBI or the black forces like the organization, all of them are forced to be in the same camp.
The name of the camp is: World Peace.
Any dog that passes by will be kicked into the group of 'enduring for the sake of the good peace of mankind'.
So, after a long pause, Gin answered the correct answer to the fateful question, "You."
In a calm tone, he stated his question, "Why compare yourself to Rum?"
It's better to compare to Belmode than to compare to trash, to compare the 'headache level'.
Ichijō Mirai gave Gin a look, "Wow, looks like you have a pretty high opinion of me, thanks for the trust, I'll play better next time."
He pretends not to see Gin's expression, looks down, and continues to read the file.
The data recorded the twists and turns of Amanda's case, and Rum finally finished the mission without 'busy Rum busy for a whole game', sewing and mending.
It's just a little bit more alarming.
Just a little bit more.
"He said he didn't alert too many forces, just a few," Gin repeats from the file, "just the police, FBI, MI6, etc."
'Just'.
He raises his eyes, looks to Ichijō Mirai, and asks again, "What made you think of comparing yourself to Rum?"
Would a normal person walking along and seeing a dog on the road ask his companion 'Hey, am I good, or is that dog good'?
No.
...But Ichijō Mirai is indeed more powerful than a dog, more like an asshole, and has the capital for whimsy.
That's okay.
This is Ichijō Mirai's base, and Gin quickly reconciled himself to the fact that he didn't need an answer, and then said, "According to the information, Haneda Kōji, the shogi player who was involved in Amanda's case, and who was drugged and killed by Rum, is connected to MI6."
"The organization investigated the tracer in question, Akai Tsutomu, who is publicly known as a detective but is actually an agent."
"Is this the guy you're looking for?" He looked at the file, "He's dead."
Narrowed his eyes again, "But the handler is Rum, there's no body."
Akai Tsutomu is dead.
...?
Considering Rum's powers, and considering that Akai Tsutomu was no ordinary man, but an agent of MI6, and there was no body, it seemed a bit unbelievable.
And if he's not dead, then...
Thoughts crossed Gin's mind as he pondered just how much Rum had leaked about the organization, and just how many forces were now watching the organization, and how much effort the organization would have to put into wiping Rum's ass once again, after seven years.
He narrowed his dark green eyes at Ichijō Mirai, "What was that interesting person you met who was related to Akai Tsutomu?"
"The person I met who looks like you," Ichijō Mirai replied, "is Akai Tsutomu's son."
"An FBI agent."
FBI?
Almost instantly, Gin filled in a piece of the puzzle: Oh, during the three FBI purges, Ichijō Mirai had found an interesting FBI and made contact.
They probably fought during the three sweeps, and Ichijō Mirai won and became interested in the FBI.
The FBI should be in New York.
Tokyo's FBI is dying out, there are hardly any survivors, and the ones that are left are shivering in fear, so it's not like they'd impress Ichijō Mirai.
The FBI in New York who was able to fight Ichijō Mirai in Tokyo was one of the commanders of the three FBI operations?
Probably.
After filling in the puzzle himself, Gin didn't ask Ichijō Mirai how he met the FBI man, nor did he pay any attention to the emphasized 'like you', but simply said in a light tone, "Akai Tsutomu was an MI6 agent, and his son became an FBI man?"
"Is he after the organization?"
The question didn't need to be answered, he said himself, "Yes,"
"Otherwise," he looked to Ichijō Mirai, who was looking down at the file, "you wouldn't have come to me for information."
Since he's asking for information, Ichijō Mirai is going to have some fun.
Gin advised, "Don't expose too much of the organization's information."
He even took countless steps back and lowered his bottom line countless times, directly ignoring the basic but obviously unlikely requests such as 'don't reveal the existence of the organization' and 'don't disclose any information about the organization', and simply asked 'don't reveal too much information'.
Ichijō Mirai looked up at him, smiled, and did not say anything.
"You," Gin leaned forward, eyeing Ichijō Mirai with a vaguely oppressive gaze, "are going to help him against Rum?"
"Seriously?"
Ichijō Mirai said that he wanted to kill Rum, but he wasn't serious.
If he was serious, Rum wouldn't be able to escape even if he flew out of Nihon overnight, and Ichijō Mirai would do whatever it took to hunt him down like a madman without rest.
So what about this time, will it be casual teasing, a little bit of seriousness, or all-out effort?
"It's none of my business, I'm not the one who killed Rum's father," Ichijō Mirai said, lazily flipping through the pages, jotting down the information on the file, "What makes you think I'm going to help him? Seems like a tacit admission that I'm friendly to him."
He puts down the file and smiles at Gin, "Because I said you two were alike?"
There was only the coffee table between the couches, and the coffee table was narrow, so narrow that Ichijō Mirai could clearly see Gin's dark green eyes when he looked across it, and he gazed into those darker-pupilized dark green eyes and smiled, "Unfortunately, the opposite."
"I don't like the FBI."
"OK, I've finished reading the file, what an uninteresting account of a failed mission," he sat back, lazily half-lounging on the couch, flipping through the file again as if he was bored, "However, the file here shows that Rum took out a special poison that poisoned Haneda Kōji as if he had died suddenly."
"What kind of poison is this, how interesting."
The file blocked Ichijō Mirai's face, but he moved down a bit to reveal his red eyes, "Do you understand, Gin?"
The pair of red eyes are a little curved, with a smile, staring at Gin without moving, it seems that the owner of the red eyes in the somewhat boring dense text found a more interesting words, so quite interested, casually asked.
Without further ado, Gin could understand the meaning of the words 'Give me some, I'm going to play'.
It's very Ichijō Mirai that the first thing you do when you're interested in something is to play.
"...It's a poison developed by the organization, it's an unfinished product, it's called APTX4869," Gin said calmly, "It makes people die as if they were dying suddenly, it's just a side effect of the unfinished product, it can be used when there are some incidents of extermination that you don't want to leave a trace of the organization."
"Do you need it?"
The point is: use it when you don't want to leave a trace of the organization.
Ichijō Mirai didn't need to think about that, he was used to taking the organization's madness to the world.
"If you need it," Gin said in a calm tone that expressed neither expectation nor disbelief, "you can apply for it."
After a pause, he added, "I have seventeen more here, I can give them to you now."
Like the tone of his voice, his expression was calm, with a default attitude of 'early approval is against the rules, but if it's you, you can disobey the rules'.
Ichijō Mirai gazed at Gin.
His red eyes were unblinking, and his pupils were a bit deeper than before, no longer round, but rather slender, and getting narrower and narrower, as if they were going to become vertical pupils.
Before the change in pupil becomes apparent, Ichijō Mirai blinks and raises his profile again, "Interesting stuff, give me a few to play with."
He judged: Gin didn't know he was taking a special drug.
"What's your impression of this drug," He said in a rather casual tone, "it's so dangerous, wouldn't it be monstrous if someone could live and breathe after taking it?"
Almost as soon as Ichijō Mirai's words left his mouth, Gin spoke urgently, "Don't take it."
"If you think it's interesting, if you want to play, you can feed it to the others and watch them struggle before they die," his tone went a little colder, "but don't take it yourself."
Not just a little, but really completely cold, Gin said coldly, "Don't seek death."
Ichijō Mirai: "What serious medical advice."
"Don't be so serious, I'm just saying, I don't really need to take it," He said, still careless, "What's the duration of this medicine?"
Anyone's word has some credibility, even Rum's when he's serious has some credibility, just a little less, but Ichijō Mirai's does not.
"Don't take it yourself," Gin repeated, word for word, "it takes effect immediately."
"The person who takes it will not die immediately, but will suffer a period of intense pain, and will die as if it were a sudden death as his heart is overwhelmed, so that even the coroner will not be able to find out what is going on."
Immediate effect, great pain...
Ichijō Mirai pondered for a moment, then felt the cold sight of his head, and subconsciously looked up to meet an expressionless Gin.
He repeated for the third time: "Don't take it yourself."
"It will kill you."
"...If you're interested, you can go to the research lab to see the drug information, or apply for the drug and conduct multiple batches of experiments."
"...The current lethality rate of the drug is 100%, if you really want to take it, you can report to that gentleman first, and go to the lab to do it, that way you can be rescued in time."
Gin backed down.
Reluctantly, as if he knew that repeating it three times wouldn't affect Ichijō Mirai's decision, he pinched his nose and backed down.
It's as if humans know they can't reason with a cat, 'Don't push the cup', or a dog, 'Don't wag your tail', or a fox, 'Don't seduce', or Ichijō Mirai, 'Don't eat'.
Ichijō Mirai: "."
He pauses subtly for a few seconds, looking at Gin a bit more, "You're misunderstanding,"
"I was thinking, if the effect of this drug is to cause extreme pain after taking it, and present a sudden death-like appearance, so that people fall into a period of fake death, and wake up after a period of time, wouldn't that be something fun to play with?"
For example, if an organization sends someone to spy, and a member of the organization succeeds in spying, but is found to have 'died' on the spot by biting the poison in his back teeth like a dead soldier.
At the same time, the organization sends someone to intervene, directing the guards to conduct an urgent pursuit, relaxing their vigil over the 'corpse', so that after a few moments, the 'corpse' can get up on its ass, take care of the people nearby, and return with the information in its bite and walk around the corner with ease.
It's not just Black who can use this drug, but Red as well.
For example...
When you want an undercover agent to retire as a dead man and fade into darkness.
As his brain pondered, Ichijō Mirai said thoughtfully, "If the lethality rate is 0%, then if you're bored, you can take one for fun?"
"We can also send people to take the drug on a large scale in the streets, causing panic in Tokyo, if hundreds of people are struggling in pain and dying at the same time, as if they've been cursed... wow, it must be a wonderful scene."
Gin: "..."
Damn.
"Hundreds or thousands is impossible," Ge flatly refused an offer that would make the organization one of the top three terrorist organizations in the world, "the organization doesn't make a lot of drugs, only a few dozen a month, it can't be for your pleasure,"
"These drugs are taboo and must never be in the public eye."
It would cause a huge panic.
It's not something the organization should be thinking about, but since Ichijō Mirai came along, the organization has become skilled at thinking about this.
Gin: "No."
He's very serious, "If there's a huge upheaval, that Gentleman will,"
Ichijō Mirai answered, "Will come after me?"
His red eyes lit up as he locked eyes with the green-eyed Gin.
"..." Gin changed his words without hesitation, never settling for a trickster, "No."
"The gentleman won't come after you, but he'll be angry."
Extremely angry.
And angry in the extreme.
Ichijō Mirai: "..."
What's wrong with being angry when there's nothing I can do about it? I'm angry! .
He bowed his head rather speechlessly, pretending to be busy, and flipped through the information, then as if remembering something, he casually said, "By the way, help me find the contact information,"
"A blonde, pretty, woman who says things like 'A Secret Makes a Woman, Woman', you know the one, eh, you've got a strange look on your face?"
Gin's expression was a little subtle.
He stared at Ichijō Mirai, who looked like he was casually poking around Belmode, for a few seconds, and a few seconds, and a few seconds.
Hardly blinking.
After a few moments, he said slowly, in a cold tone, "You knew about the medicine."
"Belmode told you."
"She encouraged you to take it."
In every sentence, Gin was making a statement.
Ichijō Mirai's eyes twitched, catching the information he was looking for, and he smiled, "So sure."
Next, Gin's sentence was not a statement of certainty, but a question, "What is the reason for your heart's excitement?"
A question that didn't require an answer.
His dark green eyes sank, "Feeling pain? Find excitement in dying? Touching the boundaries of life? Taking pleasure in the sharpness of mortal danger?"
"What else did you play?"