Date Wataru was hesitating.
Ever since Ichijō Mirai took the lead in reading the case file and left, he has been hesitating, and has been distracted by the thick case file.
In fact, this hesitation had been brewing like a storm from the moment he met Ichijō Mirai in the conference room.
Bewilderment, surprise, delight, and disbelief swirled in his mind as one question after another arose: Ichijō Mirai?
How could it be Ichijō Mirai?
I thought he was dead. He didn't die, but changed his identity and infiltrated the FBI?
Why did he fake his death? Was it the police's decision, or his own?
Why did they put him undercover?
If Ichijō Mirai hadn't gone undercover, he'd have been a shining star in Japan.
He's not suited for anonymous undercover work, and to put a cop like him undercover would be like breaking up a king's bomb.
What are the police thinking?
Other questions might have been slow to be answered after a few moments in the dense stream of questions, but the moment this one popped up, Date Wataru knew the answer.
From the attitude of the instructors, from the subtle maneuvers, the answer was so clear that it left a sharp shadow on his retina even when he closed his eyes.
And so, immediately following this second-answer question, which was like a pot of cold water, was: what did the police think, obviously, but what did Ichijō Mirai think?
What did Ichijō Mirai think when he agreed to let his nominal identity fake his own death, go into hiding, and abandon his determined goal to go undercover with the FBI?
...Will he be disappointed with the police?
It's a question that knocks at the heart of Date Wataru, not just for Ichijō Mirai, but for himself.
As he carried his and the others' coffee cups, pretending to go to the pantry, he could feel the ground vibrating imperceptibly with the soles of his shoes with every step he took.
He found Ichijō Mirai in a remote corridor not in the same direction as the pantry.
Ichijō Mirai was on the phone, standing almost at the far end of the corridor, his shoulders and back pressed against the white wall, one leg slightly bent at an angle, holding the phone in one hand, the other boredly playing with the string of his jumper at the lapel, letting the black string wrap around his fingers one after another, eventually becoming a tangled mess.
He was laughing.
Date Wataru heard his cheerful and sunny voice, "Why don't you answer, I'm in trouble, do you have any idea?"
"It's familiar, it's really familiar, my head is itching, oh shit, my brain is going to grow."
"Why don't you say something?"
[Are you sure you want to say nothing in the precious time of last words?]
With little time to think, Date Wataru finished his translation.
He subconsciously took a small step back.
Not far away, Ichijō Mirai suddenly looked over sideways, his eyes fixed on the ground, on Date Wataru's small step back, his crimson pupils perked up in confusion for a few seconds, "Huh, what are you doing here,"
"...Why did you step back?"
Don't you know that?
Date Wataru looked at the cell phone held in Ichijō Mirai's hand, raised the three or four coffee cups in his hand, and answered moderately in accordance with his persona, "Uh, I'm going to pick up the coffee, and I wanted to ask Messiah-san if you need any coffee?"
Ichijō Mirai shifted his cell phone a few points away, generously giving Belmode more time to make his last words, "Just get me a disposable cup, thanks," he smiled, "Uh, I'm going to get the coffee, I'd like to ask Mr. Messiah if you'd like some."
He smiled, "'
The smile is wider, the tone sunnier and more cheerful than the ghostly interrogation of Belmode.
Date Wataru almost lost his grip on his glass, "Wh-what?"
"Your name is 'Date Wataru', isn't it? The last name Date has a special meaning to me, and one of my classmates I care about has the last name Date, so I can't really call you by your last name, so I'll have to call you by your first name, Wataru," Ichijō Mirai explains kindly, and then gently asks back, "Why, do you have a problem with that?"
The first half of the sentence is good, ignoring Ichijō Mirai's character, which sounds lively and cheerful literally and in tone, and the second half of the sentence doesn't pretend to be.
His card: Uncomfortable, right? Uncomfortable is right, it's fun, hehehe.
"..." Date Wataru looked again at Ichijō Mirai's active cell phone, and could only say, "Okay."
"Well,"
The person on the other end of the line might be someone from the FBI, and there were obviously some things he couldn't talk about, so he hesitantly said, "I'll get the water, then?"
Ichijō Mirai nodded and watched as Date Wataru hesitantly came and left.
The cell phone, which was as quiet as death, finally rang, "Do you actually have feelings for your so-called classmates?"
Belmode was surprised, "It's a bit unexpected."
Part of that surprise was true.
While Ichijō Mirai was clearly a madman who liked to play with people, there were gradations, from disposable toys to more permanent and sustainable ones.
Many people who die in peace are the former, and Belmode is the latter.
The fact that Date Wataru is also the latter means that Ichijō Mirai's friendship with his classmates is actually somewhat genuine.
Some of the surprise was fake, just a diversionary tactic.
Ichijō Mirai hears it, but is very tolerant of sustainable toys, "It's unexpected, it's okay, you're all the same to me," he says seriously.
He said seriously: "You are all my private property."
How are NPCs in a game not considered the private property of the player? They're all the player's!
How are memories not the private property of the memorizer? Of course it is.
Belmode: "..."
This is very Ichijō Mirai.
She barely opened her mouth, and then opened it again, realizing that she wanted to shake her voice and retort to that kind of captive speech, but her mind was alerting her to the fact that if she did, she'd be vindictive, and after a couple of mouthfuls of words, she could only change the subject, "So, how are you going to explain the undercover thing to him?"
She was a little hesitant when it came to what was a blessing to Gin, but a bolt from the blue to her, "Did the police really not find out that you're a member of the organization?"
When Ichijō Mirai was put undercover, did the police think, 'Huh, we've got a black guy in our ranks, oh no, kick him out! Or was it simply 'the temple is too small for a big Buddha, please move over and go hurt my father'?
"No explanation," Ichijō Mirai said casually, "he'll figure it out on his own."
"I don't think so."
He thought about Matsumoto Kiyonaga and Kudō Yūsaku, and emphasized, "Should,"
"If they found out I'm 'Satan', even the Neon Police, as useless as they are, wouldn't send them away pretending they didn't know, would they? They shouldn't know."
Changing the subject, "Do you want to know what I was thinking when I first met you?"
Belmode was alert, "What?"
"'What a member of an organization that is incompatible with Gin,'" Ichijō Mirai said, "You'd have to be kidding me if you said you worked for Gin."
Does Gin seem like someone who appreciates a woman's looks, picks out the best of them, and pushes her to become the star of the show so she can get close to high-level secrets?
No.
He's more like the guy who sees a beautiful star on the road and thinks, "Fans aren't flocking to the neighborhood, are they? That's gonna hurt the deal. It's a pain in the ass.
"Do you know how incompatible you are?" Ichijō Mirai thought for a moment, for example, "Incompatible to the point where you say to me, 'Calvados works for Rum,' with humor that makes me laugh."
Laughing. How can Rum's men be that competent!
Who wants to work under a loser with his nose in the air, except in special circumstances!
Belmode:"..."
Well, not to the extent of using Rum as an example, right?
It's insulting.
"So," Ichijō Mirai asks, "what exactly is their relationship?"
Huh?
"You seem," Belmode sniffed, "to care about this case?"
Or Rum?
Not even about settling scores! It's not Ichijō Mirai to hold her tail in her paws and not play with it, but to let it go with a few shallow arches!
Ichijō Mirai should be a nervous cow cat who makes up imaginary tails when she doesn't have one, and then gets even more aggressive when she finds one!
"Well, I'm very concerned about this case," Ichijō Mirai admitted, "Is the blonde murderer coming for you? No, it's clearly a case of "I care" and "I care" and "I care," he says.
He justified, "I have been so kind and generous to let him go, he not only do not thank you, but also hate, this is not to give me face? No, it's a disrespect to that gentleman!"
"I'm going to teach him a lesson for that gentleman, don't worry, it's just a small lesson, it won't cost the organization its precious codename members."
Really? - I don't believe it. I don't believe it.
Belmode said, thought for a few seconds, and then spoke again: "Calvados is one of mine."
"When he was fleeing, he came to New York, he was in a hurry, he didn't arrange anything, he didn't dare to go back to his old turf, he was afraid to see you when he opened the door, so he planned to go to other places, when he was in New York, he asked to borrow someone, so I gave him Calvados."
"When you were going through the case files, you saw a couple of specific cases where the killer organized the bodies of the dead, right? The ones that were organized were young blonde women," she said, "and I guess the Calvados reminded me of me."
She explained it in a casual tone, "just a loser who's too pissed off to do anything about me, so he's got to do a little something to get over it."
"Not dare to hate you, try to find reasons to anger me, but do not dare to really do to me, this kind of person is not a waste of waste what is it?"
"But that gentleman is very fond of him, if you intend to punish him..."
After a few seconds of thought, and then a few more, out of the idea that 'no one wants to offend Ichijō Mirai, not even that gentleman', Belmode mused, "Don't die?"
Her request was low, "Just don't die."
"Rum is a waste of space, but he means something different to the gentleman, he grew up in the organization, his parents did a lot of work, and the gentleman treats him well, partly because he wants to set an example, and because, well..."
"He's young."
Rum was certainly a strong young man compared to a 100 year old man, and when the leader was an old man who reeked of decay, and the second in command was young...
That's a bit subtle.
The subtlety is compounded by the mystery of the organization, where neither the regular members of the organization nor the codename members know the leader, and they only follow orders from their cell phones.
In a sense, they don't know when the leader changes.
Belmode repeats with a smile, "Just don't die."
"If you kill an important codename member, even if you already know the reputation of 'Satan', people in the organization will be afraid."
"Uh-huh, uh-huh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah," Ichijō Mirai gave a solemn promise, and then asked for the point, "Where are the Calvados now?"
"Don't worry, I'm just asking, not looking for him."
Really?
A dog would have to shake its head at that...
Belmode is silent, and reluctantly says, "You're in New York, Rum must be very careful to keep a closer eye on Calvados so you don't knock on his door."
He was afraid.
So: "I can't reach Calvados right now."
"But I know a club he hangs out at," she said before triggering ghost mode again, "and Jodie's in your group, right?"
"Calvados knows about her chasing me, and she's blonde, so maybe..."
"Can you wait for the second teaser?"