Ichijō Mirai walked back to the dessert store.
Refreshed, he smiled at the two Ishida, who were sitting at a table with colorful and flavorful dishes, but were often distracted and somewhat unable to eat, as if they had heard some murderous noise, "You've both waited long enough, I'm back."
"Did someone come to see me just now?"
One Ishida took a piece of air with her chopsticks and shook her head nicely, "No."
Another Ishida bit into a piece of air and chewed it, also shaking her head nicely, "There were only two or three customers who wanted to pay the bill, and they didn't even look in the back kitchen."
They seemed quite calm as they answered and ate, and Ichijō Mirai, who was the first to greet them with a smile on his face when they returned home, made a cozy picture of a happy family.
Ichijō Mirai moved his eyes and smiled, "What's wrong with looking like I'm back from a killing spree, I just went out to see a friend I haven't seen in a long time, I didn't take the time to kill anyone."
"Can I kill someone and get rid of them in 20 minutes or so?"
Couldn't I?
The two Ishidas laughed, but the question was plainly on their faces.
"Well," Ichijō Mirai stopped short of frightening his two relatives too much, "you two go ahead and eat, I'm going to go upstairs, so I won't spoil your appetite."
He smiles as he covers the door, reaching up to brush his sleeve, frowning to himself, "It's a bit dirty, it's got a bad odor on it... I'll have to wash it later, or I might be in trouble, alas."
It's the smell of smoke.
Ichijō Mirai himself said it was the smell of smoke, and he himself understood it to be the smell of smoke, and after putting down his hand, he smiled at the two Ishida again, and walked out of the back kitchen as if nothing had happened, stepping on the tails of the two Ishida's exploded heads.
It was a little darker, the street lights were on, the dessert store was not too crowded, Suzuki Sonoko and Mouri Ran had not left yet, they were whispering about light topics with crooked eyes.
Between them, there was laughter and the sound of a girl's voice, which sounded youthful and energetic.
As Ichijō Mirai pushed his way out and smelled the sweet scent of the desserts lined up on the counter, he heard a somewhat relaxed, cheerful, and yet irritated whisper, "Hmph, Kudō Shinichi's..."
Because she was speaking to her closest friend, she was relaxed and cheerful, without a trace of defense, and because she was teasing her friend, she was a bit pouty and pretended to be angry, as if she was pampering her friend.
Ichijō Mirai's eyes turned to Suzuki Sonoko's face at the sound of her voice.
'Kudō'?
Kudō Yūsaku's 'Kudō'?
Suzuki Sonoko wasn't looking at the receptionist's side, but as if she were a small furry animal with a keen sense of smell, she stopped talking abruptly.
Her posture tensed, her back arched into a straight line, her eyes rounded, and if she had a fluffy tail, it would have exploded into a ball, and she blinked her eyes straight into Mouri Ran's, her lips pursed up, and her attention shifted to the counter, with her afterglow sweeping over like a light breeze.
Mouri Ran locked eyes with Suzuki Sonoko for a few seconds before her gaze moved to the front counter to meet Ichijō Mirai's, who had just closed the door, and she paused for a moment, glancing at Suzuki Sonoko very quickly, blinking her right eye rapidly to send a signal before raising her hand and greeting him with the manner of a friend who isn't exactly close, but who is more than a little bit fond of him, "M-Mr. Mirai."
Suzuki Sonoko, knowing the shame of the situation, and following the precious principle of avoidance, which is shameful but useful, turned her head to Ichijō Mirai... with great pleasure.
The hand holding the door handle.
A little nervously, she greeted seriously, "You're back, Mr. Mirai!"
Ichijō Mirai: "..."
Ichijō Mirai: "."
At first, Ichijō Mirai stopped because of the 'Kudō Shinichi' Suzuki Sonoko mentioned, but now, he stopped because of 'You're back!'
He let go of the doorknob and thoughtfully panned his hand to the front counter so that if he moved too fast or withdrew his hand, Suzuki Sonoko would panic out of the shadows and her eyes would drift around for help, "Uh, Ms. Suzuki just saw that?"
The hand that was resting on the counter moved, and her index finger casually tapped on the edge of the counter.
Suzuki Sonoko watched, and subconsciously and without thinking, "Eh? I don't see it."
She nervously followed the conversation, "Did Mr. Mirai go to move his things? Or did he go out to eat?"
"It just so happened that I had a friend running errands in the neighborhood, so I went out to meet him," Ichijō Mirai replied with a smile, "I thought the guests had seen me go out because of the visible part of the back kitchen that overlooks the back door,"
"If you didn't see me, how did Ms. Suzuki know I went out?"
He tapped the edge of the counter with his index finger every time he said something, and when he finished, his hand stopped.
Obviously, Ichijō Mirai was speaking without hesitation, with a smile and a sense of joking ease, but Suzuki Sonoko gazed at that hand, inexplicably feeling a sense of urgency, and hurriedly answered as thoughtlessly as she had just done, "Intuition."
Then she responded, scratching her cheeks in embarrassment, and her voice lowered, "That is, not long after Ms. Mirai went into the kitchen, I felt a bit panicky, and felt that the dessert store wasn't that safe, so I assumed that you might have gone out for something..."
Ichijō Mirai again: "..."
He paused for a moment, before repeating in a silent voice: "Intuition..."
There's nothing more to say...
But: Suzuki Sonoko felt insecure when Ichijō Mirai left the dessert store?
Sounds like a sweet love story.
But Suzuki Sonoko is clearly an over-enthusiastic but underpowered fool, and if she were saying sweet nothings, she would have stumbled over them instead of being so natural.
She thinks she's not talking about love, she's talking about the truth, that she's really insecure because of Ichijō Mirai's departure, and that she's subjectively aware of it.
I'm not surprised.
"I see," Even though Suzuki Sonoko couldn't see it, Ichijō Mirai let a smile grow on his face and complimented him in an easy tone, "Ms. Suzuki is very perceptive."
He glanced towards Mouri Ran, smiled politely, lowered his eyes, and instead of pursuing what seemed like common sense belonging to Suzuki Sonoko, 'I'll be at ease if Mirai-san is here, and I'll be insecure if Mirai isn't here right now,' he said, "Excuse me, but I've just overheard the name of a Mr. Kudō?"
"The name," His fingers retracted and folded back into his palm, feigning recollection, "seemed familiar."
"I think I've heard it somewhere before, it's..."
Suzuki Sonoko's eyes lit up, and she immediately bit the hook, eagerly filling in the pauses left by Ichijō Mirai, "Was it 'Kudō Shinichi'?"
Just by the sound of his voice, Ichijō Mirai could tell that this was definitely a topic Suzuki Sonoko was familiar with.
He smiled and nodded, "Yes."
"You read it in the newspaper, didn't you?" Suzuki Sonoko replied briskly, "That Kudō guy is a very famous detective, and has been on the front page of many newspapers."
He's just too much of a douchebag and likes to play it cool, especially in front of Mouri Ran.
To Kudō Shinichi, Suzuki Sonoko's attitude was between 'This asshole who stole Ran!' and 'Cute Ran's handsome boyfriend, who looks like a couple of high school students, has been married and in love for more than ten years~'.
But the former is just a joking attitude.
Ichijō Mirai, who doesn't seem to be familiar with Kudō Shinichi, takes a more serious attitude, "Well, he's got a lot of titles, like Savior of the Japanese Police and Sherlock Holmes of the
She winked at Mouri Ran and made a 'husband' gesture before joking in a more neutral manner, "Ran's boyfriend~"
As she said that, Suzuki Sonoko recalled and quickly thought of something: Mr. Mirai liked Conan a lot because he was smart, like a little detective.
She automatically came up with the formula: = Mr. Mirai likes detectives.
Kudō Shinichi is a detective, and a famous, powerful, and very good one.
Ichijō Mirai would probably like such a person.
But: Conan is a child, so he can be brought over and shown to Mr. Mirai, but that guy Kudō...
Suzuki Sonoko thought hard and asked, "Would Mr. Mirai like to meet that guy Kudō?"
"He seems to be out of the country solving cases lately," She looked sadly at Mouri Ran, "and won't be back anytime soon?"
Looking at each other, Mouri Ran subtly understood the meaning of the look of pity: it's a pity that she can't 'raise Conan to please Mr. Mirai' again.
"..." She coughed a few times before answering reluctantly, "Yes, yes, Shinichi seems to be working on a very troublesome case lately, and said he might not be able to come back for the next few months."
Ichijō Mirai was a bit surprised: a high school student, famous enough to go abroad to solve a case?
That must be one hell of a detective.
Kudō, and so powerful, he asked again with 90% certainty, "Will you be solving cases abroad on your own, or with Mr. Yūsaku?"
Suzuki Sonoko looked at Mouri Ran.
Mouri Ran replied, "By myself."
She hesitated and added, "Mr. Yūsaku and the others are on vacation."
"I see," Ichijō Mirai smiled and nodded, and then looked at Mouri Ran for a few moments to estimate Kudō Shinichi's age, and then thought about it, and couldn't help but smile even more, "I've heard of Mr. Yūsaku's name before, but unfortunately I haven't had the chance to meet him, so could you both tell me about the Mr. Kudō when he comes back? "
I didn't mean anything by it, but I thought that the one who was the father was interesting, and that it would be fun to tease him when he had time, and that the son probably inherited some of his father's interesting nature as well.
As a shameless adult, as a shameless coworker who had just pinched black cotton, Ichijō Mirai was a bit yawn-inducing, and wanted to tease the cat and the dog.
He thought for a few seconds, and then thought, 'But, in the game, Kudō Shinichi's age is much younger, right, about ten years old? Seems like it would be more fun to tease...'
"Yes, yes, yes, yes," Suzuki Sonoko responded, glancing at Mouri Ran and speaking hesitantly and tentatively, "By the way, Mr. Mirai, if you're interested in detectives, are you interested in magicians?"
It sounded like if Ichijō Mirai nodded, she'd go straight down the street and wrangle up a magician.
Ichijō Mirai gestured for her to elaborate, "Huh?"
"It's like this, I've met a group of friends online who are into magic, and recently we've been talking about having a meetup party," Suzuki Sonoko explained, "I've been chatting online for a long time, but we're strangers in real life, and I didn't feel comfortable going by myself, so I invited Ran to go with me."
"But we're both girls, so I'm a little scared that we might be in danger..."
The danger is real, the fear is not.
With Mouri Ran at her side, Suzuki Sonoko was even brave enough to wear her diamond jewelry around Paris.
...as long as the thieves, read robbers, didn't work in groups, half of them dedicating themselves to blocking Mouri Ran's steps, half of them robbing Suzuki Sonoko.
"So I thought," Suzuki Sonoko's voice trailed off as she lied, "that I would ask Mr. Mirai to protect us."
She's telling the truth, "I'm relieved to have you here."
Ichijō Mirai was still smiling, "A gathering of magic lovers?"
Instead of answering in the affirmative or in the negative, he paused for a few beats, looking at the top of Suzuki Sonoko's brown hair, which was falling down more and more.
The ends of her short brown hair looked like swallowtails hanging low, and as she paused for a few beats, Suzuki Sonoko's head lowered and lowered, almost to the point of shrinking into a ball like a small animal caught in the rain.
"By the way, I haven't asked yet," Ichijō Mirai spoke up coldly, answering the question, 'Is Mr. Suzuki's real name 'Mochidzuki'?"
"Eh?"
Suzuki Sonoko froze for a moment, her depression was swept away, she almost jumped up on the spot as if her tail had been burned, and finally looked up at Ichijō Mirai, revealing a stunned face with a large reddish blush.
The large blush that had formed during the pause in the beat, consisting of the nervousness of waiting for a reply, the depression of mistakenly believing that she was going to be rejected, the embarrassment of feeling that she was still too eager, etc., had lost three or four layers under the impact of the dismay, leaving a large rouge-like scarlet on the sides of the cheeks and the ends of the eyes and the nose.
She met Ichijō Mirai's eyes, which were rounded into rabbit's eyes, for three or four seconds, and a few strands of her hair blew up, like a rabbit's long ears, "No, it wasn't me!"
"Ah no... it's..."
"I, my real name is Suzuki!"
Not that dirty little hostage!
Don't think of a minus point during the most important test period in terms of impression points!!!!
"Oh, I'm sorry," Ichijō Mirai apologized under his breath, "I guess I was mistaken, then."
Without further pause, he agreed lightly, "Okay,"
"What time is the party?"
*
The party was in a hurry.
Suzuki Sonoko had been squatting for Ichijō Mirai for a long time, but only now had she managed to get there, and the netizen party was the next day.
This time, unlike the previous one, Mouri Ran suggested that Mouri Korogō drop them off at their destination and pick them up at the end of the party.
The reason was simple: "I checked the map in advance, and the party villa is on a hill with a long suspension bridge, in case there is another accident and someone destroys a vehicle on purpose and destroys the suspension bridge..."
She was a little worried, and inexplicably skillful to add, "I and my father agreed to a fixed time every day to send a password text message, if there is a day did not send, is that we encountered an accident lost, he will immediately call the police."
However, there should be no accidents, right?