Chapter 339 - What?

Ichijō Mirai: "."

"It's just possible," glimpsing his expression as he smiled up, Akai Shūichi had the good sense to express himself, adding, "that she's not the most suspicious."

"There are several of today's passengers who could have just left without the FBI's blockade."

If Belmode wanted to leave as soon as possible, those through customers were her first choice.

Akai Shūichi also had a few lists of passengers who had been photographed in today's attire by the FBI while they were on their way. Ichijō Mirai picked them up, flipped through them, and found a few pages of specially labeled high-powered guests, and flipped through them roughly, "It seems that Mr. Akai has come prepared, I would have thought that you would have decided that there was a 'high probability of not catching Belmode' and would have refrained from doing too much useless work."

His tone was casual, and Akai Shūichi, leaning against the console and watching him flip through the pamphlets, replied in a casual tone, "I guess I'm trying so hard because 'Mr. Savior will be dissatisfied if I don't try hard enough'?"

If Mr. Savior isn't satisfied, then someone's going to suffer. Of course, if Mr. Savior is satisfied, someone will suffer.

Akai Shūichi would have preferred to deal with a 10-percent disaster rather than a 5-percent disaster, at least the latter made Mr. Savior remember him fondly.

Though remembering is expressed in the form of revenge...

Ichijō Mirai: "..."

Don't think he didn't hear the implication.

He smiles, "Uh-huh, good to know. Don't let me catch you slacking off."

Surveillance, the second plane passengers have come out in turn, because this plane has the FBI more important suspects, so the FBI will be more passengers divided into several groups, and specially the actor into a single lounge.

Surveillance angle is very tricky, and black and white, the picture quality is not too high definition, but in this kind of peeping under the fixed angle, the actress is even more beautiful than in reality a few points, jawline in the white exceptionally clear, shoulders and waist of the thin line and outline her partial charming Chu Chu poor.

Facing the FBI, she is smiling, even if it is obvious that the FBI's attitude towards themselves seems to be very wrong, but also smilingly thanked the FBI for leading the way for themselves, and then thanked the FBI before the murder of her help, until the FBI left, she sat down in the lounge of the only people, only a slight change in color, urgently dialed a number of phone calls.

Her lips were saying that she was under the impression that she was being targeted by the fanatics again, and that this time the fanatics were even more difficult to deal with than the last time, otherwise, why would the FBI not tell her of the danger while seriously protecting her?

...As if it were a misunderstanding, and as if it wasn't.

This lady is a famous Hollywood star, she's really pretty and full of charisma in every move, and charisma is Belmode's natural skill that she brings with her every time she appears on stage, and Ichijō Mirai can tell that she's really an actress now, but I'm not sure that she's still an actress after a while.

Especially when there's a listening device in the surveillance room, and Belmode is a member of an organization that knows there's a tiger in the woods and listens to Akai Shūichi's speculations when he dares to try to stroke the whiskers of a cow cat.

He looked at the actress on the monitor, and Akai Shūichi looked at him, and operated the console a few times to turn the monitor of the murder scene to a corner to look at it, and made sure that it was still solving the case in an orderly manner, and didn't encounter any sudden abnormal events, and then he also set his eyes on the single lounge, "Adele is very famous, and even though she lost in the competition for the award, she won the award of 'All-American Dream Girl' for the film, has Mr. Mirai seen her film?"

'Mr. Mirai'?

Akai Shūichi had mostly called her by name in a bland tone, such as Mr. Messiah and Mr. Savior, but this was the first time she had been called by name, and Ichijō Mirai reacted for a few seconds, raised an eyebrow in surprise, and replied with a crisp, "I haven't seen it."

"Wait," He put up a finger and shook it before Akai Shūichi could speak, "'Don't call me 'Mr. Mirai.'"

If Akai Shūichi had black eyes, blue eyes, or red eyes, it wouldn't have mattered if he had green eyes, and called 'Mr. Mirai' in a tone that was so flat that it sounded like a statement, with a slight sense of whispers, Ichijō Mirai would have felt a sense of fidgeting and discomfort as if he had just been put into a new body.

Akai Shūichi paused and immediately changed his direction of inquiry, "Why?"

In the face of Ichijō Mirai, there was probably no difference between subtle prying and outright prying, so he didn't hide it, he just revealed the explicit prying imagery, "'Satan' doesn't call you 'Mr. Mirai', does he?"

It's a bit too formal of a term of endearment between brothers, isn't it?

As he recalled, he understood: according to the information, the twins hadn't been together at least until their parents' deaths, and when they had been together, Ichijō Mirai had probably matured from the blood-stained nourishment of his parents' deaths, and it seemed normal that he wouldn't be close to Satan, who'd grown up in the organization.

But the reaction of Ichijō Mirai after Satan's death...

There's another thing: many twins have a special bond with each other, as if there's an invisible thread that connects them, even if they grew up alone and never knew they were twins, they still empathize with each other when they're hurt or emotionally charged, they're vaguely aware of each other's presence in normal times, and some of them even come close to empathizing with each other.

Thinking about it, Akai Shūichi quickly found an explanation for the fuzzy name, either they hadn't been on good terms during their lives, but death had dissolved some of the barriers and the loneliness of the loss of the only loved one had been acute enough, or the seemingly fuzzy name wasn't really fuzzy, but was more of a nickname.

Many women who had been married for a long time occasionally used the word 'Mr.' when addressing their husbands, and in this context, it was clearly not rusty.

Akai Shūichi is thinking.

Ichijō Mirai was watching Akai Shūichi think, and as he watched, he smiled again, neither affirmatively nor negatively, "What do you think?"

It was the smile of a corpse in thought.

It was a smile that appeared more than once or twice when Akai Shūichi was thinking about Satan, and it was hard for him not to notice it.

The strange thing is that every time he appears, Ichijō Mirai has a subtle sense of indulgence and a sense of helplessness, as if he is the serious and law-abiding FBI, watching the criminal Akai Shūichi do whatever he wants and having to endure it. It is also as if he is a human being who is working overtime at home and holding a meeting. When the cats and dogs at home are running wild and destroying the house, even if veins on his forehead are popping out, he has to hold the meeting as if nothing has happened.

But he's the one who does what he wants.

"I think," Akai Shūichi said in a questioning tone, "yes?"

Ichijō Mirai smiled at him twice, "The murder seems to have been solved, and I see that the FBI is already spreading out to look for the man... are you going to hold the murderer for a while, or send him back first?"

Obviously changing the subject, but not directly expressing that he didn't like to be speculated on the more detailed relationship between him and Satan, Akai Shūichi looked at Ichijō Mirai a few more times, and changed the subject with good grace, "Temporarily imprisoned."

"Actually, if I were dealing with you," he tapped the knuckles of his index and middle fingers on the tabletop, changing the subject even further, "I wouldn't choose to gather the FBI to arrest you, I'd go it alone."

"Bringing in other people would only reduce the chances of a successful arrest."

Ichijō Mirai pondered for a few seconds, and greeted gently, "Why did you think I didn't know?"

He had been chased and bitten several times by Akai Shūichi alone without saying a word, so he must have known! What's the point of emphasizing something like that!

"Belmode," Akai Shūichi averted his eyes from the screen as if nothing had happened, "I don't know her exact strength, but for some reason, probably because I've fought you a few times, I've always had a vague premonition: she's appeared on her own, right around the corner."

But he did not find.

"I can understand your premonition," Ichijō Mirai said kindly, 'just as I had a bad feeling when I first came here a short time ago, 'Are there rats and cockroaches in this house too?! I had a bad feeling when I first came here, and it came true almost every time."

The comforting was good, good in the sense that instead the comforted had to be comforted by the one being comforted, "You have a cleanliness problem? I'll go ahead and check and clean up at the FBI's residence for you."

It's probably not a matter of cleanliness, but people who aren't clean don't put up with rats and cockroaches on the streets.

But not to the extent of Paris where Ichijō Mirai would be permanently blackballed after one visit, he shook his head, "No, I'll take care of it myself."

Akai Shūichi immediately said, "Don't catch criminals to catch rats."

Ichijō Mirai: "?"

He didn't say it, did he? How did he guess!

What's wrong with asking a few friends to help catch rats and cockroaches and homeless people in the neighborhood? Friends are volunteers, it's not a crime!

My friend said yes, he said yes, but the FBI said no, and they're pretty lenient.

"The FBI is more strict," said Akai Shūichi, and he changed his tune after Ichijō Mirai smiled in confusion, "under certain circumstances."

When factions are fighting each other, when they're competing for promotions, when most eyes are on them, and so on and so forth.

Right now, most of the FBI's top brass are staring at Ichijō Mirai, a seemingly legitimate and not-so-legitimate consultant who, past aside, will be greeted with complaints and hungry wolves who look like they've found a nice piece of meat if he continues to get away with as much as he used to.

Of course, Akai Shūichi and Ichijō Mirai could take care of such wolves, but it would be too much trouble to beat up a few of them before they had to sit down and lick their paws.

Akai Shūichi explained.

"Oh," Ichijō Mirai understood, "whitewashing is three times weaker, I know that, but Mr. FBI, I have a question, may I ask it, please,"

He raised his hand rigorously, like a student asking a question to a professor, "How many disciplinary laws have you violated since your pursuit of me?"

Akai Shūichi: "..."

It's a bit much if you go into detail one by one. To summarize it in a few words...

It's also a bit much.

"Oh, oh," Ichijō Mirai nodded repeatedly, as if hearing a voice from the silence, "I see."

He finally did act like a gentleman, and thoughtfully changed the subject, "The third plane seems to be landing."

So Akai Shūichi looked over.

The two of them watched in silence as if the landing was important.

At the silence, Ichijō Mirai couldn't help but laugh, but he held his tongue, "Ahem, there's someone in that actress's lounge? Did you send someone to question her?"

In addition to the actress and her assistants, there were a few more FBI agents in the single lounge, led by Jodie.

One of the fbi following her, Ichijō Mirai, looked familiar, having just met her: the one in Belmode's disguise.

She's wearing a black headset, and she's smiling a bit, probably because of the lightheartedness of the conversation in the lounge.

The actress was smiling, too, with a long, thin cigarette in her fingers, leaning back on the sofa and looking at an active phone on the coffee table.

Jodie, who had been busy for a while solving the murder case, and had rushed to the lounge without even taking a break, was not smiling, her brows furrowed, and she negotiated a few more words before she led someone out of the lounge, and Akai Shūichi contacted her.

"She made inquiries and found out that the FBI was after an international criminal, so she protested on the grounds that she suspected that the FBI was holding them illegally and that she was rushing to a big director's audition, and demanded that they be let out of the airport immediately."

"It was someone from Washington who called me to intervene."

Jodie lowered her voice, "It's a former coworker of my father's, an uninformed person, I don't think he contacted you, did he?"

Akai Shūichi's brow furrowed as he watched the passengers coming off the third plane on the screen, his eyes lingering on an older looking man in a suit.

Ichijō Mirai flipped through the roster and lazily found the appropriate page: it was a powerful passenger, one of those who 'could refuse the FBI's request for a temporary stay', who had come to New York on a temporary emergency.

An emergency meant that it would be difficult for the FBI to persuade him to cooperate voluntarily, so Akai Shūichi highlighted the page, predicting that the FBI would keep him for half an hour at most.

"The first passengers have been here for over an hour," Ichijō Mirai smiled as he looked at the file, "They're probably reaching the limit of what they can tolerate without knowing anything about it. If everyone waits and the FBI gives a valid reason, that's fine, but if one of the passengers realizes that one of the passengers has left, it's probably going to be..."

"What are you gonna do?"

It was Akai Shūichi's prediction that some passengers would leave.

There were different outcomes to this, the best of which was that the FBI would be able to check out Belmode's disguise and find her while checking each passenger.

In the worst case, the FBI could not detect Belmode's disguise as if she were a different person in the world, and in that case, each passenger released would increase the probability that Belmode would be released.

In response, Akai Shūichi thought ahead by saying, "Let them go and send someone to follow them."

His eyes moved over the various monitors on the screen, "Can you do that, Jodie?"

Jodie didn't think twice, "Sure."

She understood why Akai Shūichi had picked her when it came to choosing someone to follow: the New York FBI wasn't very good, and if the person they were following was a Belmode in disguise, they'd let them off the hook 100% of the time.

But, "The third plane has landed, the family of the important person on board is in the hospital, the hospital has issued a critical note, he'll be leaving as soon as possible, and Ms. Adele has asked to leave, so I'm..."

With whom?

Whoever she's with, the other side is giving up if they're sending the FBI after her.

"I'll try to find out as soon as I can if the person I'm following is Belmode, it may not be possible to check, but it's possible to tell by looking at people close to you, it's just a disguise after all, not a memory," Jodie said, "but it's going to take two or three checks to finalize the confirmation, and it's going to take an hour or two to get there and back at the earliest."

Neither of them would wait another hour or two.

"You go with one, and the other," Akai Shūichi said, "I'd like Mr. Mirai to go with."

Suddenly named, Ichijō Mirai, already slumped in his chair, looked up, "?"

Huh?

He raised an eyebrow, "Are you sure?"

He's been in the surveillance room since the beginning of the operation. Did he want to stay?

No, it's because if he goes out, Akai Shūichi and Jodie get upset.

That's why he's always been in the surveillance room, and Akai Shūichi and Jodie have always been in a situation where one goes out and one stays behind, leaving one person in the surveillance room with him.

And now, Akai Shūichi is willing to let him out?

"If it's possible, I'd like to be the one to follow, with you in command," Akai Shūichi replied calmly, "Jodie and I, one of us can't leave."

Leaving only Ichijō Mirai in charge of directing the FBI operation would not be a cooperative operation between criminals and the FBI, it would be a criminal directing an FBI operation, and Washington would not approve of that.

"So please."

When he said "please", his expression was no different from the usual, or condensed, it was not an impromptu idea, but a premeditated one.

The Washington FBI had never dealt with Ichijō Mirai, so they didn't trust him, but Akai Shūichi had dealt with him, so they trusted him, so they wouldn't keep him under hidden custody, and if there was a chance that they could reasonably release him, then of course they would.

"I'm not afraid that I'll go rogue, you really trust me," Ichijō Mirai was truly in awe, for even Gin and Belmode, now on a mission with him, wouldn't dare to give him their backs, and he asked wistfully, "Which one are you going to use as a tracker?"

"The gentleman who just got off the plane?"

It's easier for the same sex to track the same sex, and Jodie knows the actress, so it's easier to track her.

Besides, seeing Belmode in the actress' lounge, and looking like she was eavesdropping and laughing, Ichijō Mirai thought she'd be Adele in disguise.

Let Jodie, who has a blood feud with Belmode, track her down.

That's what Ichijō Mirai thought, and that's what he suggested.

But as he watched Ichijō Mirai sit up and stretch as if he'd been sleeping, Akai Shūichi's brow furrowed, and he thought for a few seconds, his dark green eyes like a lake in a deep forest, "No," he said.

"I would like to ask you to follow Ms. Adele."