It was a cold night in New York.
So cold that sitting in front of the window, Belmode shivered for no apparent reason.
She looked at the neon-speckled nightscape with a heavy heart and wondered slowly, "I'm not going to have bad luck, am I?"
The glass window reflected a small table, red wine and a lighted candle, the candle flame in the flickering, leaning against the candle holder of the cell phone came out of Gin's cold voice reprimand, "Do not have nothing to do."
"If you think I'm making a fuss," Belmode said, still gazing out at the quiet New York nightscape, staring so intensely that it seemed as if New York would explode with a thud if she looked away, "Why don't you hang up?"
"I just want to hear if there is any movement from my side, and get first-hand information from the victim..."
Gin on the other end of the line was silent.
"You say," Belmode wanted to sigh, and really sighed, bright blonde hair by the candlelight covered with a thick layer of orange, more beautiful eyebrows but for no reason melancholy, "what is the meaning of human life?"
From the moment Ichijō Mirai arrived in New York, she was suddenly inspired with a deep love for New York, and every second was spent wondering, "Is something wrong in New York? Is the news breaking? Did the news say how many people died? There were no survivors at the scene, right? Are you tossing and turning in worry?
When New York was quiet and there was no breaking news, Belmode was like a native Japanese, so upset that he wanted to grab the FBI by the collar and tell them to get their asses to the cat scratching post.
As the news breaks in New York, she's still upset, so upset she's practically scratching the FBI's cat scratching board in anger.
Because: 'What's going on! Where are the dead? How many people died? No one was injured, but at least 30 people died?! Why are you so quiet! You don't want to play with the traditional enemy scratching board, do you want to play with me? No, there are so many people in New York, why don't you just kill a few cases that can be brought up as classic cases hundreds of years later and play with the FBI!'.
Gin didn't ask who was upsetting Belmode, and Belmode didn't say a word about who was upsetting him.
They both knew.
Therefore, as an experienced victim, Gin had to comfort the next victim, "He has already contacted the FBI, and it's probably in the foreplay stage, and it's about to start."
You don't have to rush.
I know you're in a hurry, but don't be in a hurry. You're a victim, you're a victim of the FBI, you're a victim of Victim N. It doesn't matter if you're a victim sooner or later.
"Yeah?"
Belmode questioned, "Do you recall your victimization and really think he's the kind of guy who prepares foreplay?"
No, he's an asshole who eats when he's hungry, doesn't think twice about making a mess at the table, and when he's full, he just lifts the table, and manages to give himself a heart attack and everyone else a heart attack.
"More than 'preparing for foreplay,'" Belmode said, growing melancholy, like a dollop of over-whipped cream dangling limply from the mouth of a glass, "I'm afraid he's trying to intimidate me."
"Isn't there a saying that some things intentionally terrorize their prey when they hunt, so that if the prey releases something in extreme fear, the meat will taste better."
"He's placing play to terrorize me, isn't he?"
"...The two FBI's he contacted both have a grudge against me... it's to terrorize me, right?"
"Just like Rum."
By the last few words, Belmode wasn't questioning Gin anymore, he was talking to himself for self-affirmation.
Gin was silent.
If he was facing any enemy, whether it was a righteous police force or an evil criminal, he would have been quite impatient to hear this kind of depressed words from Belmode, and most likely would have disliked him with some 'crap', 'it's just an enemy, he doesn't intend to kill you anyway, what's the big deal', and 'eat a lot of fish, it's good for your brain'.
But the other party is Ichijō Mirai.
Ichijō Mirai, who almost every time he appears, randomly teaches others that there is always something more horrible than death, and makes them understand that life is worse than death, and even makes criminals turn to love the world and peace.
He's scary as hell.
So Gin had to say, "You haven't offended him, have you?"
"He doesn't intentionally terrorize people who haven't offended him, he just gets rid of them."
And at the moment before he's done, the victim is still oblivious to his fate.
"Rum offended him," he said lightly, 'probably because the smugness of that stupid 'no one else deserves it but us' idea was too much for him to tolerate, and he held onto it for five years, threatening Rum with 'I'm coming to get him' but never doing anything about it, letting Rum continue to roam."
"But you, you haven't been offended lately."
Suddenly, as if remembering something, Gin paused.
At the same moment, Belmode spoke quietly, "I haven't offended Alsace lately."
"...But did five years ago."
No way, no way, no one would hold a grudge for five years, right?!
Wasn't it just a small, insignificant disagreement? What's the point!
"No," Gin denied, "If he really held a grudge for five years, he wouldn't have shown no sign of it."
He added, "So if he did go after you, it was just because he remembered you when he got to New York, and he remembered that he had a problem with you, so he took revenge."
That's very comforting.
The good thing was that not only was it not comforting at all, but it was a stabbing wound.
Belmode sighed as she looked at her reflection on the glass window, almost invisible, and was about to say something when she heard her cell phone ringing, so she sat up straight, and swept away the frustration from her eyes and raised some sternness, "Hello."
She took is another special contact 'eyes' cell phone, and is talking with Gin's cell phone is two, hear the voice, Gin also understand the silence, did not make a sound.
Only the 'eye special machine' transmitted a young female voice that sounded like she was speaking in a lowered voice, "The FBI helicopter is in position, and the footage is about to be connected to Washington."
"Would you like it synchronized?"
Belmode answered briefly, "Yes."
She followed the command with a slower, more gentle tone, "Good girl."
She hung up the phone, reached under the table and pressed a few times to bring up a light screen, before mockingly saying to Gin: "The FBI guys, here in New York, he's sorted them out himself, and they're quite good, but the ones in Washington still stink of self-righteousness."
"This time he met with Akai, those guys in Washington not only sent people in to do some 'no innocent people, all FBI' setup, listening in, but also tried to send helicopters to watch from afar to try to monitor, looking like they wanted to take advantage of the meeting to take him down in one fell swoop."
With the long term buff of 'Stupid Aversion' and the specific short term buff of 'World Peace Lovers', Belmode was annoyed with those idiots.
"So stupid." Gin commented first, and to be fair, "They didn't know Alsace was 'Satan'."
If they did, they wouldn't look like they're holding their heads up and snorting stupidity.
"That's true," Belmode acknowledged with a nod, "I remember you looking all high and mighty when you didn't know he was 'Satan'."
"Unlike me," She sighed, "I took him very seriously the first time we met."
So don't hold it against her, hold it against Gin!
Gin: "..."
Sick.
The first time he met Ichijō Mirai, that scum wasn't even 'Satan'.
Belmode, as if unaware of Gin's subtle silence or the silent scolding he was receiving, lazily propped his head up to look at the light screen, "I see him."
Tonight in New York, there is a temporary event, there are several helicopters flying in the sky, the FBI helicopter into the mix, not far from the restaurant in the vicinity of the circle, but also set up a video camera pointed at the restaurant side of the high altitude, a kind of paparazzi to capture the private life of Hollywood celebrities.
The light screen showed the images from the camera, and zoomed in to bring Ichijō Mirai and Akai Shūichi to the center of the screen.
The two of them are talking, one with his chin in his hand, smiling as he watches people drink, and the other is drinking a glass of red wine with a red flame burning in it, talking as he drinks.
I don't know what was said, but Ichijō Mirai visibly smiled, then quickly stopped smiling and frowned, and after a few seconds, he pressed the frown away with his own hand.
He doesn't look into the camera, but spots the helicopter and the camera.
Belmode saw it.
So, she's quite upset, "How does Alsace put up with this?"
That's the kind of stupid disdainful attitude that would make Belmode stomp on the FBI and make them get down and wag their tails, not to mention Ichijō Mirai, who's the number one vindictive person in the world.
Gin can not see Ichijō Mirai side of what happened, can only be heard from Belmode's curses in the FBI has done something stupid, said faintly: "When he is interested, as long as it is not too much of a thing, he can put up with it."
For fun.
But that's not a good thing; when Ichijō Mirai is in a state of amusement, it means someone is bound to have bad luck.
Belmode commented, "He does seem to be having fun."
He also has the patience to straighten his brow when he's disturbed.
It seems that it is not 'mess with Belmode, play a little with the FBI, clean them up and use them as bait in the trap', but 'interesting, fun, play a little, some annoying people come to disturb, ugh... but it's fun, forget it, keep playing'.
The enlarged image is a little blurry, but Akai Shūichi's grip on the glass is intact, and Ichijō Mirai's grinning expression is clear.
What a friendly exchange between a criminal and the FBI.
As he watched, Belmode's mind wandered, "Do you think there's a possibility that Alsace has finally decided to leave the organization alone and go to the FBI...?"
Bad news: a codename member is defecting!
Good news: it's Ichijō Mirai!
If Ichijō Mirai really defects, the organization will have to give all the members of the organization a few days off to celebrate.
...Wait, if it's Ichijō Mirai who's gone rogue, then the members of the organization won't need to come back to work after their vacation.
Ichijō Mirai could have sliced and diced the organization and fed it to the FBI.
He's got the power, and he's got the balls to do it.
Belmode couldn't even fool herself for three seconds of self-entertainment, and after a brief moment of bubbling euphoria, she was depressed again.
Gin coldly gave her the final blow: "Dream on."
"He will not let go of the organization even if he dies."
Neither of them spoke again after that statement, sharing a heartfelt silence.
After a moment's reprieve, Belmode said, "Don't tell such horrible truths."
What's the difference between this and reminding a social animal who works overtime until three o'clock every day, 'Hee hee, you're earning nine hundred dollars a month for unpaid overtime and you can't leave this shitty company for the rest of your life'?
The difference is that the members of the organization don't get paid, and they don't care about the paychecks.
Belmode sighed once again, and looked at the light screen again, and after seeing the picture on it, he couldn't help but be stunned for a moment, and subconsciously sat up straight.
On the screen, Ichijō Mirai was no longer sitting at the table, but standing by the floor-to-ceiling window, holding a glass of green wine, smiling and saying something to Akai Shūichi with his back to the camera that was quietly peeking in.
Then he touched the glass with his other hand.
Almost immediately, the moment he touched it, the entire huge window cracked from where he touched it, and suddenly exploded outward.
The shards of glass were dispersed into the air and inside the restaurant, and the cold wind from the air rushed in through the cracked window, ruffling Ichijō Mirai's white suit and white hair.
The white suit was stained red with cracks from the glass.
He was still laughing.
Across from him, about five or six meters away, Akai Shūichi raised his hand to deflect a piece of glass that had burst into his face, lowered his hand again, and, with a dark expression, said something.
Belmode, after close examination, barely recognized the words: 'You're a madman'.
To Ichijō Mirai, this was probably not an insult, but a compliment recognizing him as a human being, and so he smiled again, and raised his glass distantly, dipped his head to take a sip of the iced wine in it, and then with a sideways hand, dangled it out the window, paused for half a beat, and then let go.
The glass fell and disappeared.
It's an accident. The FBI helicopter stops hiding and starts to approach.
The helicopter kicks up a lot of wind again, and Ichijō Mirai's suit and hair sway more and more in the turbulence, and he frowns, looking back at the helicopter with impatience.
When he looked at Akai Shūichi again, he narrowed his look of impatience, pointed at the helicopter without looking back, and smiled crookedly.
Then he took a step back.
The next moment, just like the drink, he fell downward into the harsh, turbulent winds of the sky.
The FBI agent in the helicopter, obviously not expecting such madness, shook so violently that the camera shook violently, stumbled and swooped downward, and in its haste swept past Akai Shūichi, who had appeared at the window, to capture the falling white.
Ichijō Mirai was still laughing.
He let himself fall almost unopposed, and even as he fell to the height of other skyscrapers, he opened his arms and even slowly closed his eyes.
Belmode sat up straight, "Ah."
She averted her eyes, not looking at the light screen again, the look she had before faded away, her color lightened up, not that depressed look like cream that was a little weak before, "He's having fun."
Flickered his eyes a few more times, and knocked on the desktop thoughtfully, thinking: that could be a good way to tell that gentleman that he can relax these days, and not have to be so tense to prevent self-destructive assassinations...
Gin: "You've already established that he's playing with the FBI."
He used a declarative tone.
"Well," Belmode said, "he seems pretty interested in those two FBI guys, and won't be looking for me anytime soon,"
She was interrupted by the sound of a text message on her cell phone.
It was coming from the Codename member's cell phone that Gin had been talking to.
Belmode looked over and continued in a calm and unassuming tone, "Good evening, dear, have you been in New York lately? I've just arrived in New York, I'm not familiar with the city, I don't know where there are fun places to go, and I'd like to ask for your help in advising me."
"I'll pay for it."
"Can we meet tomorrow?"
"'Messiah' stays."
"..."
Huh? What?!