[Hostage blue bar dropping, current [40%], status [Shock].]
[Hostage blue bar dropping, current [38%], status [Panic].]
[Hostage's blue bar continues to drop, decreasing by 0.1% per minute, status [Panic].]
[Hostage's blue bar dropping, hit hard, bar decreasing by 10%, current [25%], status [Cardiac Arrest].]
[Warning! When the hostage's blue bar reaches 20%, it will not be able to recover above 20%, please try to calm the hostage down as soon as possible].
Ichijō Mirai is confused.
Confusion 1: He's not human, yes, many of the victims tearfully certified it, but not human enough to be seen by a child meeting him for the first time?
He hasn't had a chance to be inhuman yet, has he?
And even if he is, shouldn't a child say 'dog', why 'fox'?
...Does he really look like a fox?
Matsuda Jinpei also used the term "Ichijō Mirai", but it's a reference to a fox dog, which is an allusion to a dog.
Why did the blue bar drop by 10%?
Even the sound of gunfire, the factory a piece of fire a song, the hostage is only scared to fall 2%, and then slowly familiarize themselves with, only 0.1% per minute.
It looks timid, but it's also resilient, like a small plant that can be easily pinched by human fingers, but can also push through boulders in order to grow.
Many ordinary people are like this, but in front of Ichijō Mirai, they can only show the former, the vulnerable side, just like this hostage.
But...
"I," Ichijō Mirai pointed to himself in confusion, "am worse than the sound of gunfire?"
His pupils had widened in confusion, and in the next second had shrunk into sharp, curved vertical pupils that looked like a faint moon-strike, "I haven't had time to be inappropriate yet, have I?"
As for that!
Just knocking on the window? Knock politely when you enter, knock politely when you enter, knock on the window, what's wrong with knocking on the window?
What's wrong with knocking on a window? There are so many robbers, isn't it normal to get a little blood on your face when you're not paying attention to what you're doing? There's no sense of ceremony without blood!
Ichijō Mirai knocked on the window again, leaving two faint marks on the dirty glass, "Speak."
"You have basic hearing skills, I know."
He gazed at Suzuki Sonoko.
A system alert popped up silently: [Hostage in shock, blue bar dropping, current [23%], status [Cardiac arrest].]
Suzuki Sonoko's eyes widened.
She was cowering underneath the desk, and from Ichijō Mirai's point of view, only part of her body could be seen, a pale cheek that was nearly half-open, shoulders that were shrunken inward, knees that were joined together, and an arm that was tightly wrapped around herself.
And a pair of eyes with a faint halo.
I don't know if it was tears or the light-absorbing reflection of human eyes.
She looked like a kitten cornered and shivering, or a cat that didn't know how to hunt, whose sharp claws had been clipped and sharpened into smooth curves that wouldn't hurt humans, and who could only wag her tail without moving to confuse them.
Now, because of extreme panic, she can not even shake her tail, originally will confuse human fluffy tail can only shrivel up and shrink behind, a kind of encounter with the natural enemy, vision of their own 100% dead miserable, so even the basic ability to fight back are stiff off the pathetic look.
[Warning: Hostages will not be able to return to their normal state when their blue bar drops below [20%], so please refrain from intentionally terrorizing the hostages.]
Ichijō Mirai didn't even look at the prompt, he guessed what the system would prompt, he stared at the two somewhat crystalline eyes in the light shadows under the desk, and defended himself, "Where's the intentional intimidation? I obviously intentionally reminded me of the location, gently asked a few questions,"
"I knock on the window, I'm polite. She doesn't answer me, she's rude."
Messiah was always kind.
Although the hostage was rude, Ichijō Mirai graciously accommodated the impolite hostage as he pushed the window open and gave a smile that could be described as gentle to the underside of the desk, "Is it the extreme panic that prevents you from speaking?"
"It's okay, from now on, you don't have to worry about safety."
Because I'm going to eat you.
Suzuki Sonoko automatically added the latter part of the sentence, her body almost stiffening like a statue to the point where she couldn't move or speak.
She wanted to crawl out from under the desk and run to the door, even if it was chained, and open her mouth to answer back, so that she wouldn't be eaten without saying a word.
But by human instinct, as if she were in the middle of the street, watching a car crash into her, she could only watch as Ichijō Mirai came through the window, approached her, and half-crouched down in front of the desk.
The smell of blood spread.
It was the fresh blood splattered on Ichijō Mirai's body.
The smell of fresh blood is much better than the smell of unfresh blood, and Ichijō Mirai personally didn't mind it much. He raised his hand to wipe his face in a daze, as if he had just realized that the blood on most of his face would frighten a small child, and raised his forefinger again, pondering.
As he wiped the blood from his face, the tip of his index finger was covered in blood.
Ichijō Mirai was watching, and so was Suzuki Sonoko.
As he watched, Ichijō Mirai shifted his gaze, glancing at Suzuki Sonoko and at his own index finger.
The tip of his nose flicked, sniffed, reluctantly moved, slowly tasted it, and immediately frowned with a crease in his brow, "Hmmm... it's not fresh anymore, it's not good."
He put down his finger again and looked at Suzuki Sonoko with a big smile, "Are you alone, little friend?"
[...Hostage in shock...]
[Hostage's blue bar is decreasing, currently [20%], status [scared to death].]
[...]
[The blue bar limit is about to drop from 100% to 20%.]
Suzuki Sonoko: "..."
She had completely frozen, her eyes staring straight at Ichijō Mirai's index finger that was missing a piece of blood, her brain was like a colorful firework that suddenly exploded, so disorganized that she couldn't organize anything, not even the thoughts of 'he really isn't a human being' and 'he's going to eat me'.
It was like a frog being watched by a snake.
Ichijō Mirai looked at her with a smile that gave her warmth, and red vertical pupils that gave her coldness, somewhat contradictory, like the human veneer that a monster struggles to maintain and the saliva that it holds back before it officially eats, "Why don't you say something?"
He curved his red eyes and changed the question, "Do you recognize me?"
No.
But I do.
No, because Suzuki Sonoko had never seen Ichijō Mirai, but yes, because she had heard of Ichijō Mirai.
Today, Suzuki Sonoko was taken by robbers near a special school.
The reason why she went to the special school was because of the club's charity aid activity, and since it wasn't a class activity, only individual members participated, and it was an elementary school club, there were only a few elementary school students who went to the special school.
They spent half an afternoon there, making friends, with curiosity, fear and pity, with children who could not speak or hear, or who had mental illnesses.
One of them was a child who couldn't speak, but she knew sign language, had white hands that danced beautifully, knew a lot, and told a lot of stories.
With a sign language interpreter, she told Suzuki Sonoko and the others many stories that mesmerized the children, including the story of the fox.
The child, who seemed to know a lot about foxes, shivered and told many stories, most of which were frighteningly spiritual, such as "It rains on a sunny day, and a fox marries his daughter.
This story is about a child who was traveling on a rainy day with sunshine, accidentally bumped into a group of foxes who were holding a wedding ceremony, and was discovered by the foxes, so he was watched by all of them, and fled home in a terrible situation, but met with retaliation.
Another example is 'Convenience Store Fox', the story of a fox disguised as a human, with black hair and red eyes, licking its fangs and teasing a small child, and then regretfully giving up its meal when another human arrives just in time and continues to disguise itself as a human, holding its big fluffy tail, looking for the next small child to smother in a single bite.
...And smothered it...
Suzuki Sonoko slowly shifted her gaze upwards to Ichijō Mirai's chin, searching for the lighter-colored mouth amongst the splattered blood.
She stares straight ahead, as if seeing her head being swallowed in three or four gulps.
[Hostage in shock, blue bar dropping, current [18%], status [scared to death].]
[Warning, hostage's blue bar is too low, falling into an irreversible sanity collapse, maximum recovery limit reduced to 20%, after getting out of danger, will randomly refresh [Acute Stress Disorder] and other debuffs, duration permanent.]
[Are you sure you want to submit the quest in its current state?]
Ichijō Mirai finally looked at the prompt.
He poked his head down into the desk, and the blue glow of the system prompt seemed to reflect in his pupils, faintly, like cold, broken stars, "You know me."
This time, he used a declarative tone.
Suzuki Sonoko couldn't even breathe.
"Seen me on the news?" Ichijō Mirai picks up Suzuki Sonoko and casually guesses, "I've heard friends talk about, ah, I've heard friends talk about me."
He laughed, "What kind of talk, not a complaint? I'm a good person."
As he spoke, Ichijō Mirai watched Suzuki Sonoko's reaction.
Because her whole body had completely stiffened, her expression didn't change much, only the fear of being shocked to the extreme, giving little information or feedback.
Ichijō Mirai sighed with regret, thought and thought again, and felt that something was missing, so he brought his red eyes a little closer, and was satisfied to hear the system prompt.
[Gostage is in shock, blue bar down, current [16%], status [scared to death].]
[Dear player, hello, when the hostage's blue bar reaches zero, it will fall into a permanent [madness], please pay attention to your words and behavior, do not intentionally scare the hostage...]
"No," Ichijō Mirai retorts casually as he pushes the window open, and after a moment's thought, admits openly, "Well, I did intentionally terrorize the hostages."
He was testing Suzuki Sonoko's resistance.
Now that he's tested it, it's really fun...no, it's really cowardly.
But it's okay, it seems to be a normal level of timidness, but with more of a child's whimsy and imagination, not so timid that it's unpleasant.
Ichijō Mirai is organizing his thoughts: this is a mission that is special at first glance, and even has a limited backlog, the robbers are not difficult, and the player will be able to take care of most of them in the first turn, and the hostages are not difficult in terms of being timid.
As long as the player does not deliberately intimidate the hostage, in the escape process, and not encountered an earthquake volcanic eruption and other accidents, the hostage should not be scared out of their wits.
So the question is: where is the difficulty?
The system's emphasis on 'appeasement'.
Ichijō Mirai glances down at the distant ground below and ponders: should he take the hostage to the police first, make sure there are no other incidents on the way, and then try to calm the hostage next turn, or should he try to calm it this turn?
Right now, the hostage's blue bar limit is 20%, but it doesn't matter, her current blue bar is 16%, so there's still room to pacify her.
After a few seconds of thought, Ichijō Mirai decides to pacify the hostage first.
Even if the remaining robbers come out to stop them, they won't be able to stop anything, and there won't be any sudden earthquakes or volcanic eruptions, so instead of wasting time waiting for the next round, he'd rather go ahead and pacify them first.
So he said, "Are you afraid?"
[Hostage in shock, current blue bar [15.5%].]
"Don't be afraid, actually..."
[Hostage in shock, current blue bar [15%].]
"I'm the FBI, huh?"
[Hostage in shock, current blue bar [13%].]
"?"
[Hostage in shock, current blue bar [12%].]
"??" Ichijō Mirai reacted for a moment and responded decisively, "It's not like I'm deliberately terrorizing anymore, it's bound to be impossible for it to be me,"
"I see, you're afraid of heights!"
[Hostage in shock, current blue bar [11%].]
"...You're really afraid of heights," Ichijō Mirai didn't change his face, and with his eyes open, he adjusted Suzuki Sonoko's position in his arms so that she could wrap her arms around his neck, "It's okay, if we're going to fall, we're going to fall in two, and if we're going to die together, I wouldn't want to let myself die, right? So don't worry, it won't fall."
He rolled out the window.
[Current blue bar [9%].]
The moment he was airborne, the feeling of weightlessness hit him, and Suzuki Sonoko subconsciously wrapped her arms tightly around Ichijō Mirai's neck, and almost screamed as her throat froze into a knot.
But only almost.
She quietly cowered in Ichijō Mirai's arms, her cheek pressed into the warmth of his neck, her arms wrapped around her black hair.
Because the bend of her legs was encircled by Ichijō Mirai, and the upper part of her body was almost tightly pressed against Ichijō Mirai's chest, Suzuki Sonoko felt a vibration.
The vibration of her heart.
It was steady, powerful, one after another, almost like the sound of a bell, and with each beat, it seemed to resonate with her jaw and chest.
Instead, Ichijō Mirai felt his neck brush against something moist.
Startled, he immediately peeled away from the shivering Suzuki Sonoko to inspect it, confirming that the source of the wetness was the teary eyes of the small brown-haired child before pretending to be merely adjusting his posture, "You're pressing on my hair, too much."
Gripping the edge of the window with one hand, as if returning from a successful rock-climbing trip, he jumped down a notch to the third-floor window, pausing for a moment to casually play with Suzuki Sonoko's front hair with his fingers.
Suzuki Sonoko had bangs, but after wearing a hair band for a long time, her bangs had a tendency to bloom upwards, and after Ichijō Mirai rubbed them with blood, they fell down and covered her tearful eyes.
"Ahem," Ichijō Mirai muttered with relief when she couldn't see the tears anymore, "There, that's better."
Intentionally terrorizing a child to the point of tears is still something that makes a dog want to look around to see if anyone else is around, and feel a little weak...
"You're weird. You're a Japanese, but you don't eat the FBI."
"Well," he pushed his face down a bit and smiled at Suzuki Sonoko, "I'm a Japanese... police officer?"
Ichijō Mirai still had some blood on his face.
Maybe it's the warmth of his neck, maybe it's the steady beat of his heart, hitting Suzuki Sonoko's ear again and again, maybe it's the gentle, human touch to his casual hair rubbing, or maybe it's the nice smile he puts in front of Suzuki Sonoko's eyes.
Or maybe it was the fact that this fox in human disguise didn't seem to be trying to eat her on the spot, but rather was just feeling a sense of vengeance and intrigue after being caught in the middle of a wedding.
Or maybe it was just that the red eyes looked good up close, like sparkling rubies, rubies that held only a human.
Suzuki Sonoko was stunned.
[Current blue bar: [18%]...]