Ichijō Mirai: "…"
Bad luck, that's what it was.
In a sense, everyone he met was unlucky, even a passerby who just passed him by.
The reason was simple: to meet a criminal.
Not to mention the fact that he had crossed paths, had conversations, and spent a lot of time with him.
But 'not agreeing to be courted' doesn't count, does it?
Suzuki Sonoko is unlucky, but so far she hasn't been unlucky enough to destroy the world in her past life, because Ichijō Mirai hasn't pursued her.
Well, she has, but...
When I think of Suzuki Sonoko, Ichijō Mirai can't help but think of the blazing fire, the flickering orange light from the fire, and those tear-green eyes that reflect the orange light and appear to be glistening.
As the orange and green tinted tears crept back from his memories, he lowered his eyes and answered Matsuda Jinpei sincerely, "That's not true."
He was still hesitant, unfamiliar, uncomfortable, and trying to get used to it as quickly as possible, and hadn't yet decided whether or not to pursue Suzuki Sonoko.
Not only because she was a very different person from herself, and not only because going after her meant going down a new, unfamiliar and unadapted path, but also because she was warm and lively, and obviously harboring a little bit of naive and cute admiration.
Admiration for a young, handsome, seemingly capable, gentle, quick-witted gentleman detective.
This string of adjectives is not exactly the same as Ichijō Mirai's own, but rather unrelated...
Ichijō Mirai was still self-aware, he twirled his chopsticks and changed the subject lightly, "He was on the left side of the hall, behind the family's seat, dressed in a uniform like a janitor, security guard, or something like that, wearing a hat, seemed to be very good-tempered, with half-white hair, about fifty or sixty years old."
"That family of three just arrived in the neighborhood not long, have not yet adapted to the atmosphere of the festival, the presence of each other in the early stages of more concerned, he will not do it at this time, will wait for another half an hour or so, and so that the child and the child's parents more and more concerned about the festival, will take advantage of their not holding hands when the time to do it."
So: "We have at least half an hour, it's plenty of time, you let the students do not be nervous, while playing while watching it is good, too tight he will notice the abnormal."
He said the time is sufficient, but the speed of eating very fast, every time to speak between the head down to eat a mouthful of rice, almost not even chewing directly swallowed, swallowed cleanly before talking, finished a sentence and then to look down to eat.
When he finished speaking, he also finished eating, "OK, then we split up, I'm leaving, bye."
The translation of 'split up' is: OK, the operation starts, you guys go play, I'm going to fly solo again, from now until the end of the operation, you don't want to see me again, the next time we meet will be the end of the operation, bye bye everyone!
Almost instinctively, the others reached out at the same time and held Ichijō Mirai down with their hands, "Wait!"
Matsuda Jinpei: "Why are you acting alone again?!"
"And been alone once before," Furuya Rei smiled, "again?"
Kenji Hagiwara looked at the students who had already finished miking, then those who hadn't, and relayed, "Isn't that a bit too much?"
"Yes," Date Wataru questioned with some uncertainty, "isn't it?"
He actually thought it was normal for a police officer to act alone on a whim.
Police officers weren't supposed to act alone, but there were always special circumstances, and it was certainly better to be able to react to special circumstances and solve them in time, rather than just freeze in the middle of them.
But Ichijō Mirai has too many special situations...?
And the last two times, he's chosen to act alone in the presence of his classmates.
It's not 'special circumstances require special response to act alone', it's 'I'm not picking on someone alone, guys, I'm picking on all of you equally!'.
Date Wataru's gaze sharpened.
"Ah, it seems that even Date-san has been provoked by you," Morofushi Hiromitsu glanced sideways at the door of the room and took a few unmoving steps to block the path so that Ichijō Mirai wouldn't suddenly blink out of the way, "There's no need to act alone at a time like this, is there?"
"After all, it's about me."
It seemed reasonable, this was a mission related to Morofushi Hiromitsu after all.
From the moment he was stopped, Ichijō Mirai sat back down skillfully and raised his hands in the air, letting his classmates cross the table to press themselves down with some effort, sniffing and pondering for a few seconds.
Just as he was about to nod his head in thoughtful agreement, he heard Morofushi Hiromitsu follow up with, "That's why it's possible to work in pairs."
Uh-huh... huh?
Ichijō Mirai: "?"
He thought for a moment about whether or not he had heard correctly, and after realizing that he had, he couldn't help but look at the others.
The others were looking back at the traitor incredulously, question marks were popping up as they did so, and among the question marks that were so vivid in their presence that they were almost solid, there were a few that were particularly fluffy and jumpy, and it was Matsuda Jinpei.
Matsuda Jinpei's symbols were not only question marks for doubt, but also red tic marks for anger, and he spoke angrily, "Hey! This is your house."
Morofushi Hiromitsu was actually joking.
But halfway through Matsuda Jinpei's flame, he was interrupted by Ichijō Mirai, "You're right."
Ichijō Mirai was speaking at a normal volume, not too high, nothing like the volume of Matsuda Jinpei's rage, but the moment he spoke, the black T. rex, still spewing flames, stopped as if it had heard a demonic whisper, and looked at him in response.
The others stopped staring at Morofushi Hiromitsu and looked back at Ichijō Mirai, hearing his voice, soft but as always, bringing a great sense of despair, "I think you're right, there's more to life than just single-player and team modes, and that's true of games as well."
"There is a two-player mode!"
"Then let's go, Morofushi-san!"
He leapt out.
He found Morofushi Hiromitsu's hand amongst the seven arms and legs on his body, clasped it in his backhand, and flashed out with a lightning fast speed.
He also gave a friendly reminder to the students who were afraid to chase after the criminals, "Rushing up and forcing us to go back will attract the attention of the criminals, it really will."
Others: "..."
They already knew about it, and if they were reminded of it after a few steps before reaching the door, it would only make the person who ran away look more provocative.
Morofushi Hiromitsu: "..."
He was dragged out of the house, but afterward, he had to cooperate with Ichijō Mirai to turn his stumbling steps into active steps, and to turn his running from being dragged into a sprinting walk by the two young men who were accompanying him.
As he walked, he looked uncontrollably to the left side of the restaurant, glancing over his shoulder to see the nearly full crowd, not the criminal, and whispering to Ichijō Mirai, "Wait!"
"I was just kidding," Morofushi Hiromitsu continued to lower his voice, "Teamwork is better than two-man action, right?"
Ichijō Mirai: "No."
"The target of this mission is a rat, once we get to the arrest operation he'll be all over the place in the crowd, someone has to be on his route ahead of time to block it, we can't work together, we have to split up."
"But your suggestion is a good one," he said as he swept Morofushi Hiromitsu out of the diner without looking back, "It is a mission related to you after all, you might be able to trigger something extra if you tag along and smash the gopher with me."
"Don't look back, you're already on the pirate ship, come on, there's still fifteen minutes left, we still have time to 'make friends'."
＊
Tomori Hajime only ordered the normal set menu, with all the soup items in one bowl, which probably only filled half the ramen bowl.
He didn't really care about his own meal, he was so focused on the little kid at the next table that he didn't realize how many sushi were in the set menu he ordered, but he did notice that the little kid ate a few sushi.
She was obviously at a growing age, and even though she was small, she ate a lot, and from the moment the waiter served her food, she ate like a toy, and quickly ate four or five pieces of sushi.
Japanese people generally eat small meals, from the lunchboxes they bring to school and work to the food they sell at the diner, so after only four or five sushi, the child had eaten most of the set meal and was left with a bowl of soup with a shallow bottom.
Her parents frowned, one reprimanding her in a hushed voice, the other whispering softly in disbelief, both worrying about their child's health and the need to go to the hospital, and urging her not to eat so much in the future.
Tomori Hajime was furious.
'Yuri,' He gritted his teeth as blood dripped in his heart, 'my Yuri,'
'They took you from me, but they were stingy with your care! Realizing that you've eaten so much when you're almost done, what if you've accumulated food? And asking hypocritically if you need to go to the hospital! If you were still with me, I would have taken you to the doctor immediately!
He hurriedly looked down when the two adults seemed to be looking at him, his face distorted with anger, 'They don't really love you, only Daddy does.'
''My Yuri, you've suffered... soon, daddy will get you back, wait, wait!''
After whispering to their children, the family of three had almost finished their meal and got up to leave the restaurant.
Compared to the beginning of the meal, the child was much more wan, obediently holding the adult's hand and walking with her head down, only occasionally looking up to see the surrounding area, and even when the fireworks began to appear in the sky, she only looked up for a while, and then lowered her head again.
As she did so, she suddenly tilted her head as if she had glimpsed something of interest, and her eyes slowly widened in curiosity as she looked in one direction.
Tomori Hajime was standing only a dozen meters away from the child, pretending to look at the merchandise in front of a stall, and was filled with the thought, 'Yuri is moping around so much, and the two of you who took Yuri from me don't even try to make her feel better by letting her continue to go to such a boring festival! If it were me, I would have sent her to a fun festival! He was so distressed that he noticed the change in her expression and hurriedly looked over after her.
He saw a small stall with lights on.
The stall was a mixed bag, with two shallow pools for fishing with paper nets at the front, a cabinet for sweets such as candy apples and chocolates on the side, snapper yaki and cotton candy machines on the right, ceramic dolls on the left, and small, crystal-clear animal lamps hanging from the top.
Unlike ordinary fish ponds, this stall's fish pond is sprinkled with glitter, which looks like a river of stars under the light and makes the swimming goldfish look more and more colorful.
The child was looking at the fish pond and the lights, and her eyes were almost straight.
Instead of looking a little sickly, she shook her adult's hand with sparkling eyes and began to cry out, "Mommy, Daddy!"
Tomori Hajime walked over to her, mesmerized by her expression, and stabbed in the heart by the name she called him.
His face sank, but he perked up: if they were going to play goldfish, they wouldn't be holding hands, so he could take 'Yuri' while he was at it!
So he immediately paid urgent attention.
With permission, the child happily ran over to the stall, poking her head around and looking hesitantly at what appeared to be a very colorful but temporarily empty stall that didn't seem to be open for business yet.
But almost as soon as she had looked around, someone came up to the front of the stall from the back.
It was a young man, wearing a long, flapping hat, carrying a suitcase to the front of the stall, which was probably a bit cluttered, so he was looking down at the road, and from Tomori Hajime's point of view, she could only tell that the vendor was not very old.
Another young man comes out from behind the stall carrying a large cardboard box, also wearing a cap, but he looks like a newcomer to the business compared to the first, stumbling and hesitating as he takes a few steps back and forth.
The first vendor had already gone to squat in front of the child, and he was still looking at the back of the stall in a hesitant manner.
Tomori Hajime didn't pay much attention to the second rookie vendor, but rather focused on the first vendor who was talking to the child, and he realized that the child's eyes had brightened up again as a result of the conversation.
Obviously, she was staring at the goldfish with bright eyes just now, but now, as if she hadn't seen the goldfish in front of her, she was only staring at the first vendor with bright eyes, and even though she had already taken the paper mesh handed over by the vendor, her eyes didn't tear themselves away from the vendor, and she was still staring at the vendor.
The vendor pointed to the goldfish pond.
The child then looked down, looked up at the vendor, nodded vigorously, and with a gesture of promise to complete the task, he crouched down and began to fish in earnest.
Tomori Hajime's brows furrowed.
He looked hard at the stall owner who was actually making 'Yuri' happy, and was secretly wary: 'Does this guy think Yuri's cute too?'
'He's not trying to steal Yuri from me, is he? No way!''
This stall owner is not a good thing at the first glance!