Ichijō Mirai is used to it.
When she was young, she disliked humans because she was aware of her father's different attitudes in front of different people, and she touched the black sludge that she didn't understand.
If you still disliked humans as an adult, it was because after you succeeded in your revenge, you were still impressed by the black sludge that distorted your soul.
Now, I still dislike humans... I guess I've gotten used to it.
There's no reason to like them, and there's no reason to dislike them any more, so it stays at the dislike stage.
He didn't say anything at first, but braked sharply to avoid a pedestrian on the road ahead, and then restarted, still without saying anything.
"Huh?" Suzuki Sonoko waited, and waited, and waited, and waited, and waited, and waited, and waited, and waited, and waited, and waited, and waited, and waited, and waited, and waited, and didn't hear an answer, and was a little puzzled, "What's wrong?"
"Is there a reason why you don't like it?"
She lowered her eyelashes to look at the neck that was almost close to her cheek, and blinked, wanting to sniff it again.
"No, I was distracted by the smell of smoke from a burning fire," Ichijō Mirai denied, "Isn't the reason simple, do you hate those robbers? There are a lot of those guys in the human race, so isn't it normal to dislike humans?"
It was a bit too serious to talk to a little kid, he maneuvered the motorcycle around the corner to return to an intersection that he had just missed because he was thinking, "Attention, speeding up."
Suzuki Sonoko hugged Ichijō Mirai tightly, wondering, "There are a lot of robbers like that... but there are more good guys, aren't there?"
"There are a lot of people like me in the human race too," She said in a small, grown-up voice, having no qualms about speaking with her back to the wind, "I'm a normal kid."
"You like me a lot, so you should like humans too?"
What if a fox doesn't like humans? Of course, we have to find out the reason and explain it, otherwise, when they fall in love again in the future, won't there be a difference in concepts that may hinder them?
As for why they're sure they'll 'fall in love again'... she must have been the fox's lover in her past life, and since he's here to find his past lover, they're sure to fall in love again.
Suzuki Sonoko is very serious about why Ichijō Mirai doesn't like humans, and very serious about the fact that Ichijō Mirai doesn't dislike humans.
Ichijō Mirai: "..."
He was so shameless that it was as if he had experienced how Gin and Morofushi Hiromitsu and other victims had felt when he had been justifiably shameless.
"There are many good people," Suzuki Sonoko emphasized in case Ichijō Mirai didn't believe her, "If you're a human being, you must be a good person, and there are many police officers who wear the same uniform as you, who are good people too!"
"And,"
She mulled it over, wiggling her fingers in the air, and mentioned some good people she knew, such as uncles and aunts, and good people who had appeared on the TV news, including Ichijō Mirai in the bank robbery, and then some vague definitions of good people, such as the Tokyo police, the Neon police, the police of the world, and all the good people in the world.
And then she thought of the good guys, "And the FBI!"
"The cool ones! Super cool! The FBI who can recognize a murderer within seconds of seeing him at the scene of the murder!"
Ichijō Mirai quickly denied, "No."
He could put up with saying that the Neon Police were all good guys, after all, that could include the likes of Morofushi Hiromitsu, but to say that the FBI were all good guys was something he had to refute.
"All the good guys in the FBI are dead, there are no good guys."
Suzuki Sonoko: "Huh?"
She sensed the message in Ichijō Mirai's denial, "Did the FBI arrest you?"
Why else would you deny everything but the FBI?
It must not be the kind fox's fault, then: "The FBI is bad!"
He changed his words without hesitation, and his tone was quite confident, which was quite similar to the beauty of
Ichijō Mirai: "..."
He wanted to say and then stop, stop and then want to say, actually a little guilty: the original face of self-centered shameless people actually feel this way, colleagues and students hard work.
And then took the initiative to explain, in order to clarify King Zhou's illusion, "The FBI has a lot of people who sell their reputation, they will openly violate the law, to comply with a kind of tacit understanding of the rules of the FBI personnel, but there are rare people who adhere to their own self."
For example, the FBI man who had been chasing him for a long time...
"But such people are either assimilated into the sewage, or they're treated as deviants, and some in the FBI take it upon themselves to eliminate them for their own benefit."
Like the FBI man who'd been chasing him for a long time.
Suzuki Sonoko listened with understanding and responded thoughtfully, "Oh, no wonder you hate the FBI and robbers, they're all bad."
She corrected Ichijō Mirai in a low voice, "Then you're supposed to 'hate bad people', not dislike humans."
"You're very gentle with me," of course, it could be because she's a former lover, but Suzuki Sonoko thought for a moment, "and you know how to park a car."
Ichijō Mirai wondered: was he gentle with Suzuki Sonoko?
It was a question that he had to pause for a few seconds before he could even ask himself before he was able to speak with a straight face.
And: "Stop the car?"
"Just now, you didn't answer me, but you stopped the car because someone was crossing the street, right?" Suzuki Sonoko said, "If you don't like humans, why don't you just run them over?"
Just as many humans don't feel anything for animals and don't feel anything when they die, animals don't feel anything for humans either, so if Ichijō Mirai had ignored the pedestrians and just plowed right through them, Suzuki Sonoko would have been disgusted and thought something like, "After all, they're foxes."
But not Ichijō Mirai.
That's why she trusted her intuitive judgment and whispered, "I think you're a good fox who likes humans."
"You've also done a good job of following the laws of the human world, wearing clothes, speaking human, and driving a car."
Is that too much to ask?
It's hard for Ichijō Mirai not to be silent, partly because of Suzuki Sonoko's super-low expectations and super-high ratings, and his obsessive insistence that he's not a human being, and partly because of...
In his non-game state, he does follow a lot of intangible rules, and as long as his identity isn't revealed and he isn't being pursued by the police, he has a good guy attitude, and in his game state, he actually follows some of the intangible rules, such as handing over small children to the police when he encounters them or braking when he encounters pedestrians who are crossing the street.
It's just: most people do.
He is also a criminal, just logged into the game on a killing spree to kill all the people in the organization, in the protection mission directly kill all the enemies, play exercises do not hesitate to threaten and intimidate the ordinary residents, found the real killer of the murders do not report it, only to use to tease the FBI, encountered a murder even more do not stop, not the ability to do so, but not lazy to care about it.
If this can be called a good guy, Ichijō Mirai understands why Suzuki Sonoko thinks that the FBI are all good guys.
"Ah yes, yes, yes," he said perfunctorily, "yes, you're right, but I'm a fox, and I just don't like humans who are too weak to defend themselves."
Huh?
Suzuki Sonoko's arm around Ichijō Mirai's neck loosened slightly, and she was a little tempted to brace herself against his shoulder to see his expression, but resisted, sounding a little surprised, "You're losing your temper."
She was at a loss for words, "Weak human..."
Indeed.
I can't argue with that.
To a fox, most humans are probably weak humans, right?
The little sunflower that had been swaying around so brightly just a few moments ago fell into a zucchini that didn't open its mouth, and Suzuki Sonoko hugged Ichijō Mirai like a super-sized doll, and didn't move.
Ichijō Mirai looks at the blue bar: [90%].
It's almost full.
So you can just chat casually without showing your face, and your blue value keeps going up?
He patted Suzuki Sonoko's back rather wordlessly and said briefly, "Hold on tight, I'm going to cover your eyes."
The motorcycle stopped at a sweet store down the street.
It was a decent-sized dessert store with a sophisticated décor, and as soon as he entered, Ichijō Mirai went straight to the counter without looking back, and ordered a strawberry cake in the lower right corner of the glass case, "This one, take it with you, please."
Holding Suzuki Sonoko in one arm and covering her eyes with the other, he patted her head to signal to look down after the clerk brought out the cake, "It's dessert."
"It's not very sweet, there are popping beads in the runny filling, and when you bite into it, the sweet juice will explode in your mouth."
This was Suzuki Sonoko's favorite cake in the whole dessert store.
Suzuki Sonoko looked down at the sound of the voice, and saw a pair of eyes reflected on the glass counter, a light red color that had been lightened by the glass, looking down, looking very gentle.
She blinked.
Ichijō Mirai asked knowingly, "Do you like this cake?"
"..." Suzuki Sonoko saw the red eyes raise and lower, the darker red pupils wavering a bit as Ichijō Mirai spoke and looked around her, "Yes."
The blue bar raised.
Ichijō Mirai was satisfied, "OK."
He took the cake and carried Suzuki Sonoko in his arms as he continued on his way, "Just a few more blocks and we'll be at the police station, I notified Kudō-san and the police ahead of time, but didn't tell them my estimated time of arrival, and the police should be ready to respond at their normal rate of call-outs, so,"
Estimating, Ichijō Mirai starts the motorcycle and predicts, "The police officers who have already gone out on a mission have not returned to the station, and the police officers who have been newly notified of the mission have not yet left the station."
After getting on the bike, Suzuki Sonoko took the cupcakes.
The cupcake was packaged in a proper gift box with two transparent sides, and she carefully angled it so that the sharp corners wouldn't stick to Ichijō Mirai's back, who responded with a, "Eh?"
"Well, you don't like the Tokyo Police either."
Because the Tokyo Police are weak?
"There are good people in the Tokyo police," Suzuki Sonoko said as an example, "like that Officer Kujō I was talking about, he's so good, he robbed a bank!"
And he has red eyes.
Ichijō Mirai: "...He's really something."
At the intersection where he could see the police station, he reduced the speed of the car, checked the blue bar value, and changed the topic while stopping the car, "Here we are, get out of the car."
While carrying Suzuki Sonoko out of the car, he patted her head again, "Look over there, it's the police station, there are a few police officers brother in the police station, see? Go over there."
"Keep your head down, don't look at me, and don't look back when you run past."
Otherwise, you'll get a blue bar when you see them, and you'll trigger 'Fox!' .
Suzuki Sonoko's fingers were wrapped around the ribbon of the cake box, she stood blankly, wanted to look back at Ichijō Mirai, but looked down in time to see the hem and pants of the police uniform, "Shall I, shall I go there by myself?"
Ichijō Mirai: "Uh-huh."
He verbally ordered Suzuki Sonoko not to look at herself, but in fact, he wasn't really on guard, he was checking his cell phone for text messages, and raised an eyebrow, "Your parents will be at the door of the police station in a few moments."
"Let's go."
The security of knowing she wouldn't get hurt again seemed to fade a bit as she moved away from Ichijō Mirai, Suzuki Sonoko not only didn't leave, but also looked down and grabbed the hem of Ichijō Mirai's shirt, "Fox,"
Her voice paused as she pulled down a button.
Ichijō Mirai looked down, thought for a moment, and realized, "Oh, I grabbed the clothes too hard."
Stealing-Stealing clothes?!
Suzuki Sonoko: "..."
"Stealing is bad," She whispered, clutching the button, "You're a good fox."
"Uh-huh, uh-huh," Ichijō Mirai waved a hand down the side of her leg, "Go on bye-bye."
Very perfunctory.
Suzuki Sonoko clutched the strap of the cake box with one hand and the buckle with the other, and whispered pitifully, "But..."
There's the shrill sound of a car.
On the other side of the street, a convoy of cars came in, the lead car headed straight for the police station, traveling very fast, braking sharply in front of the police station and stopping, and in a short while, people in a hurry got out of the car.
It was Suzuki Sonoko's parents.
Suzuki Sonoko could tell when she saw the convoy, she subconsciously took a few steps towards the police station, then stopped a bit insecurely, and just as she was about to turn back, she heard the sound of a motorcycle behind her, "Let's go."
She hurriedly turned around, only to see Ichijō Mirai's back and the vibrating motorcycle, "Fox!"
Ichijō Mirai returned the way he came without looking back, waving lazily, "See you later."
This time he waved with his hand up.
"You!" Suzuki Sonoko jumped up, "Hey!"
She cried out sharply, "Will you come back for me?"
"I like foxes!"
"...I'll, I'll get up the courage to try to defend myself! Don't you hate me!"
Ichijō Mirai turned her head sideways without looking back.
Her sobbing voice was overlapped by the sound of the motorcycle starting up in the sky, and the alarming cry of "Sonoko!!!" that sounded a few seconds behind the loud sound.
It was Suzuki Sonoko's parents.
Then there was the blue bar alert: [100%].
[The current blue bar is full, and the target's sense of security has reached its maximum value, do you want to settle?]
Ichijō Mirai didn't answer.
He raised his head, sniffed the air a few times, and after confirming that the pungent scent of something burning that had been pouring into his nostrils almost all the time was even stronger, he simply exited the game, and sat up with his eyes open on the sofa in his room on the second floor of the villa.
The villa is still off the electricity, but it is no longer dark, but covered with a layer of black smoke flame orange, in the flame burning things smell, there is the pungent smell of gasoline in the spread.
The crackle of burning, the loud crash of things falling to the ground, the screams and cries for help from humans spread.
Someone had set fire to the villa.
This was something Ichijō Mirai had already predicted, so he stood up without much surprise, patted his body to get rid of the feeling of hugging Suzuki Sonoko, then walked quickly to the door and tried to press the handle.
There was a 'click' sound from the door handle, and it didn't budge, meaning that the arsonist had locked the door.
A thick gray smoke poured in through the doorway, encroaching on the oxygen, suffocating the air, and almost hitting Ichijō Mirai in the face, but he was unperturbed, breathing normally, catching wisps of air from between the smoke.
He returned to the window with his usual expression, and, glancing out, stopped his somewhat careless gaze: there were no curtains on the third floor.
The third floor was the women's room, and Suzuki Sonoko's room was directly above his.
The fact that there were no curtains hanging down from the third floor meant one thing: Suzuki Sonoko hadn't escaped.
Ichijō Mirai's brow furrowed, then loosened as he elbowed through the glass, unlocked the curtains and threw them out, but instead of climbing downward, he levered himself up over the edge of the window and tumbled to the third floor.
The fire was more intense on the third floor than on the second, with smoke sweeping through almost the entire room, the door burning, and flames coming in and licking at the floor and decorations.
The brittle glass in Suzuki Sonoko's room was intact.
Ichijō Mirai appeared outside the window with an almost wrinkled brow, he looked in, swept his eyes a few times, and quickly caught Suzuki Sonoko: she was at the door.
The source of the smoke and flames was the doorway, where the fire was the fiercest and the window was the smallest, but Suzuki Sonoko wasn't at the window, she was at the door.
She stumbled and fell by the door and was slapping her hand on the closed door.
The handle of the door was clearly deformed from a heavy blow, and there was a broken chair lying around on the floor, which appeared to be the weapon used to break down the door.
As Ichijō Mirai looked over, Suzuki Sonoko intuitively turned around amidst the smoke and flames.
She no longer had her usual sunflower smile, but her face was covered with a wet white scarf, her hair was disheveled, and some of her forehead was exposed, with gray marks across it, just like her arms.
The green eyes were smoky and watery, especially bright and sparkling, and the tears coalesced into teardrops that rolled down like broken threads when she blinked.
"Ran..."
At the sight of Ichijō Mirai, her bright green eyes rounded a bit, and those that had just cleared up a bit from the tears were quickly covered with a foggy vapor, her hand still subconsciously pounding on the sturdy door, "Ran..."
"Mr. Mirai!"
Humans are always weak, and often the smallest thing can change their entire lives, and they can die as easily as fragile glass.
Just like Ichijō Mirai's mother, just like Suzuki Sonoko who faced a sudden fire.
"Mr. Mirai, there's a fire!" Suzuki Sonoko's voice was muffled, blocked by layers of towels, smoke, and choking, and when it finally came out it was muffled and small, "Ran, Ran, she wasn't feeling well before she went to bed, she seems to have a fever!"
"She..."
She was still hammering on the wooden door that even a chair couldn't break down, not thinking about whether Ichijō Mirai had heard her or not, tears rolling down her face like pearls on a broken string, one after another, and her body shaking instinctively, struggling in vain like almost every person on the verge of death who is still hoping for salvation, unable to even say in full what she was afraid of, "She..."
But not to save herself.
It's trying to save your friend when you can't even save yourself, when the odds are that you'll die if you don't save your life and run away.
The probability of Suzuki Sonoko breaking down the door before she died was almost single digit, and after she did, she had to break down the door of Mouri Ran's room across the street.
She's a weak, unaware human being with zero chance of saving her friend, and trying to do so instead of escaping is so stupid that even in a classroom of innocent children, it would never be praised like a blade of grass trying to lift a boulder, but rather a typical example of a disapproving behavior that everyone should refrain from doing.
Especially after Suzuki Sonoko's experience of being so self-aware that she made up lies to deceive the robbers in order to protect herself, it's pretty stupid not to save herself.
Ichijō Mirai doesn't like humans.
I don't like humans who are so weak, so fragile, so unaware, so stupid that I want to hang them with a rope.
But in the smoke, in the twisting orange flames, he met Suzuki Sonoko's teary red eyes, and they twitched and stood still for a moment before slowly answering, "Oh."
Suzuki Sonoko was a mess.
Even the towel covering her face was covered in layers of gray from the flames and smoke, her hair was strewn about as her fingers ran through it, and her eyes were red and faintly swollen.
It's not pretty.
...But beautiful.
Ichijō Mirai gazed at her, and again answered half a beat too slowly, "...Oh."
Liar.
Not defending herself.
But there was courage.
His knee gave a strong blow, shattering the glass, and the crisp crack of the glass passed through the ear canal with its many tiny blood vessels, easily stirring up a sheet of heat that reverberated through the eardrums with a dull thud.
"Bang."