Morofushi Hiromitsu: "Well..."
How do I say this without being vindictive for daring to speak up, while still being able to say, 'I think you're great at sharp things like fighting the enemy, and you're a complete human weapon, but you're probably a little bit less good at soft things like rescuing people'?
This is a question that needs to be considered, and if one is not careful, one may be like Furuya Rei, who is called 'the blonde student who wishes to remain anonymous' from time to time as if it were nothing, and is played with by default.
So, after a long moment of silence, Morofushi Hiromitsu moved his hand on Ichijō Mirai's shoulder and probed backwards, "I guess it's because you've always acted like you're not very good at this?"
He touched Ichijō Mirai's overgrown black hair, noticing that the black tresses that almost formed a wolf's tail had grown long enough to be tied up, "Though in front of many of your classmates, Mirai-san is always cheerful and helpful, and almost always helps out."
"For example, during the entrance exam, she refused to leave even though she had already finished her part. For example, during the night attack on the dormitory, when it was clear that you could have avoided the instructors on your own or gotten an excellent grade under their sneak attack, you woke up some of the people ahead of time and led them to stop the instructors under the dormitory building, so as to prevent the others from being attacked senselessly while they were sleeping and getting a failing grade."
In detail, Ichijō Mirai's helping deeds were almost all over the police academy, and Morofushi Hiromitsu recalls them not for the first time, so he speaks fluently, "The cross-country running incident is not to mention the fact that you went back and forth to help your classmates as if you were a superhero who would not get tired, never letting a single one of them fall behind, and the next day, everyone was so tired that they couldn't even go up and down the stairs without giving a hand to their sore legs. The next day, everyone was so tired that they couldn't help but scream from their aching legs, but you acted as if nothing had happened."
You even went up and down the stairs a few times in front of the handicapped as if you were exercising in front of them...
It's a real pain in the ass.
"It was the same during the maneuvers, both the first one and the second one, you were absolutely dominant, the first one led us all to a glorious victory, the second one led us to a glorious victory," Morofushi Hiromitsu said, "no matter what you think, but in my opinion, in our opinion, in everyone's opinion,"
"The fact that you're capable of getting a perfect score alone, and even more easily doing so, yet you're willing to take everyone with you to get a perfect score, that's helping."
He touched the tip of the black wolf's tail vainly, a gesture of appeasement lest Ichijō Mirai rise straight to his feet in defiance of the 'but' part later, "And helping customers and small children at the convenience store, on the side of the road, too,"
"That's great."
"But then again..."
Ichijō Mirai turned off the intercom and politely repeated, "'But then again'?"
"You say," he said, propping himself up on the windowsill in a tolerant manner, gazing condescendingly at Morofushi Hiromitsu, "I'm listening."
Because of the backlight, those red eyes were a bit ghostly, like flickering candlelight.
Morofushi Hiromitsu auto-translated: don't you dare tell me what to do, say your last words.
He paused for a few seconds, withdrew his hand, couldn't help but shake his head, waving away the subtle feeling, and leaned against the windowsill as well, resting his back against the edge of the windowsill, and shifted from staring at Ichijō Mirai to looking in the same direction.
"I don't think you're very good at socializing, are you? We've all had our suspicions about this."
Morofushi Hiromitsu had only guessed that Ichijō Mirai's inability to socialize was due to his parents, but now, he had added an unverified guess: 'After being taken away by the Black Organization, she had been living in a closed place, receiving abnormal teachings, and engaging in abnormal interactions with people, and had only escaped a short time ago'.
This kind of speculation, he didn't say it out loud, and without even pausing for a moment, he continued, "Although you've been helping your classmates, but,"
"Is it out of a desire to help others, or is it because 'I don't want anyone to hold me back', 'I won't allow anyone to get a bad grade for something so simple'?"
"Kenji-san went a little overboard earlier," Morofushi Hiromitsu said, "but there's some truth to it, it's like you're playing a game, Mirai-san."
It's not the normal state of a normal person.
Would a normal person help a classmate as if they were trying to get a perfect score on a test?
In the cross-country run, Ichijō Mirai is trying to help others, but most likely his attention is not on the person he's helping, and he doesn't care if they want the help or not, or what they think.
All he cares about is: I'm going to make sure that everyone passes this test.
Morofushi Hiromitsu: "That's why everyone was so in awe of you, almost as soon as the school year started, they looked up to you as the supreme commander."
Most of the students have had some contact with Ichijō Mirai as an assisted being.
Even if they weren't sharp enough, they could tell if a person was trying to help their classmates out of concern for them, or if they were concerned about getting a good grade on a test.
When human beings smell danger, their instinct is to stay away from it so that they don't get hurt.
But Ichijō Mirai is so good that he almost crushes everyone, like a tireless monster.
At a danger level of 1, humans struggle to stay out of danger, but at a danger level of 10, no matter how hard they struggle, they can't escape, and the fear of danger coalesces into a strong admiration and an unwavering sense of obedience.
This is the case with the police cadets.
They are the black and white chess pieces in the hands of the commander, the obedient sunflowers, the ordinary humans whose eyes glow with admiration, but they also converge to form the beasts that smell danger and obediently submit to Ichijō Mirai's hand, glaring green at the commander's enemies, and not hesitating to charge and tear them apart when they hear an order.
This is certainly not good.
Normally, Morofushi Hiromitsu wouldn't be friends with such a person, and Furuya Rei and the others wouldn't be friends with such a dangerous and unorthodox person.
But the police academy isn't normal either.
The school is special, and the academy is even more special, special in the sense that the fist is the truth, and the absolute strength is what makes the cadets respect each other.
Moreover, from the time when they were vaguely aware of this guy's danger to the time when they were finally sure of his danger, the police cadets had already learned to raise their sunflower faces and wag their tails, and Morofushi Hiromitsu and the others had already made friends with Ichijō Mirai for the first time.
Morofushi Hiromitsu thought and added, "Well, one-sidedly.
Until recently, this kind of 'friendship' was a two-way street.
Ichijō Mirai was having a hard time making friends, and Morofushi Hiromitsu was sure he didn't have that many friends to spend 'I have a friend' on.
"On top of that," Morofushi Hiromitsu said, "the last time we were near the convenience store, that kid."
"...Was intentionally scared to tears by you, right?"
He clenched his fist against the end of his nose, blocking his chin, and coughed lowly with restraint, knowing very well how to keep things on point, "Ahem, I thought, you've already made it obvious."
Ichijō Mirai looked sideways, scanning up and down the warrior who had dared to assassinate his own faults, and clarified, "I didn't intentionally scare her into crying, she was already crying."
Other than that, there was nothing left to clarify.
There's nothing that can be corrected.
He was positively unrepentant, "So, in your opinion, how can I please her?"
It was a direct statement, but the wording was a bit strange, so after some thought, Ichijō Mirai added, "How do I carry out the rescue, and how do I make the hostage feel absolutely at ease?"
Morofushi Hiromitsu: "What?"
He stood up straight, turned around and took a few steps back, retreated back to locking eyes with Ichijō Mirai high above him, tilted his head in confusion, and repeated his question with some dismay, "What?"
"Pleasing to the eye, making one feel secure?"
"You?"
What is the meaning of this reaction!
Ichijō Mirai, the one who dares to stab me in the face for my faults, will be punished!
Ichijō Mirai calmly asked, "What do you mean by that tone of voice?"
"I'm sorry if I overreacted a bit," Morofushi Hiromitsu apologized, but still had a very confused look on his face, "If I were the one asking that question, I'd think it was normal, but,"
"You?"
He was really confused, "Why do you need to think about it?"
"Wait, in the dozen times you rescued hostages, there weren't some unforeseen circumstances, were there?"
"For example, the first time I rescued a hostage, I accidentally and intentionally scared her to tears, just like I did with the little kid at the convenience store, so I think she probably doesn't like or feel at ease with someone like me."
Morofushi Hiromitsu's speech was fast, and as he said that, he looked at the police uniform he was wearing, and sped up his speech, "Subsequently, just like helping your classmates during a cross-country run, you wanted to get a perfect score, and you wanted to do it without hurting the hostage, and the hostage cooperated very well, in other words, the hostage was both physically and psychologically... well... a perfect score. Full marks."
He said while organizing his words, "You wanted to get the achievement of 'full marks for both the physical and mental aspects of the hostage', the former was easy for you, but the latter was a bit difficult, so you tried many reassuring methods in the rescue after that, including, but not limited to, stating that you were the police?"
"So you fetched a police uniform?"
"Wait!" In the midst of the emergency, Morofushi Hiromitsu remembered something, "You didn't put the whole 'gaining trust with a police uniform' thing into action until after you went to the weapons depot, and you didn't ask the police officer on the sidewalk to borrow a shirt before that, did you?!"
Wow.
As expected of a smart student who discovered the player's true identity and is becoming more and more interested in being a player, he knows the player so well that he was able to guess the general course of events in the player's case with a few flashes of light.
Ichijō Mirai's eyes moved.
He moved back firmly, and told the truth, "I didn't ask to borrow a police uniform except at the weapons store."
Not in this file!
As for the other archives...
He just picked up nature's gift. It's robbery, not borrowing.
"Really?" Morofushi Hiromitsu was a bit skeptical, "It doesn't matter if there is, it's just that the officers, the instructors, and the people we have to apologize to have another person to deal with."
It's really nothing.
Compared to 'robbing a weapons depot' and 'robbing the uniforms of the officers who guard the weapons depot', Ichijō Mirai was very concerned.
Ichijō Mirai insisted, "I really didn't borrow it."
He never returned it.
Correcting one of Morofushi Hiromitsu's statements as a way of urging him to stop focusing on unimportant details and get to the point, "It wasn't 'accidentally and intentionally scaring her to tears', I did it on purpose."
And then what?
Morofushi Hiromitsu had to be forced to give up on the 'unimportant details', and went on to speculate, "That means that afterward, you deliberately restrained yourself and didn't scare her again, right?"
"Let me guess... the police officer you're pretending to be is the gentle type?"
Ichijō Mirai nods, then tilts her head.
'Well', 'how do you know?' .
"Uh," Morofushi Hiromitsu translated, lifting a hand to his forehead and lowering it, "it's not hard to guess that most people would be gentle when rescuing hostages."
This majority of people did not include Ichijō Mirai, but it was so typical that Ichijō Mirai would definitely think of it first when he was in disguise, and chose to disguise himself.
"No wonder you're confused."
"Any normal police officer will always smile and placate a hostage when he has the strength to smile gently at them," Morofushi Hiromitsu said with some difficulty, 'and by choosing 'gently', you've been great."
"It's just, is there a possibility that you don't need to disguise yourself at all?"
Ichijō Mirai:"?"
"Do you know why me, Rei, Matsuda and the others became friends on the first day we met you, and the students obeyed you so well?" Morofushi Hiromitsu asked.
Ichijō Mirai: "??"
Huh?
'Became friends on the first day we met'?
...Did they?
"Of course, yes, partly, because there was no room for resistance," Morofushi Hiromitsu's voice lowered and rose again, "but partly, because you're a,"
He glanced at the walkie-talkie in Ichijō Mirai's hand, unsure of its status, and kept his face unchanged, "A 'Kujō Mirai'."
Ichijō Mirai: "???"
Huh?
"When you want to please others, gain their trust, and make them feel at ease, you don't need to pretend at all, you just need to press your hand against your chest, feel your soft and harsh heart, and play out your true nature, and we will feel at ease."
Morofushi Hiromitsu said seriously, "I hate to admit it, and it's strange to say that after leaving this place, you might even pretend to be thinking about it and put on an adult sex title like 'Wow, this is a grown-up, what a strange fetish', but,"
"We're happy and relieved that you're treating us badly."
"No, it's not 'bad'. We're happy and relieved that it's you."
He said, "Even if you were holding a dagger in your hand against our chest, as if you were about to pierce our flesh and bone in the next second, letting warm blood gush out on your face, we would just look at you with our eyes open, wondering if the dagger was a shrinking toy knife or if there were some parasites under our chest that you needed to help us pick out."
"Why did you think of the disguise?" Morofushi Hiromitsu was genuinely puzzled by the question.
He was puzzled from the moment he heard it, and he was still puzzled as he gazed into Ichijō Mirai's ovalized red pupils, "Don't you understand your own significance? But when you give orders, you are always sure and unquestioning, quite understandable?"
"If you don't, I'll tell you."
"You're the 'Messiah' who, when you appear on the battlefield, all of your classmates will bravely kill the enemy without fear, and for your sake, even when they're on the verge of death, there's no doubt that you'll be able to save them in time, and you're the 'Kujō Mirai' who, in less than a month, tamed all of the instructors and your classmates with your absolute strength and strong personal charisma."