When the invitation arrived, Ichijō Mirai was watching the surveillance.
It was the first victim's side.
The killer had been on the loose for so long that the police of more than one country had failed to catch him, let alone the New York FBI, which had undergone a major overhaul in recent years. The FBI had the good sense not to expect too much in terms of solving the case, let alone arresting the killer in New York's first case to stop a murder.
The first victim, in most people's eyes, was already a dead man.
Since they couldn't stop it, they had to chew up the bones and swallow them to maximize the value of the unfortunate victim, so during the operation, they laid down a blanket of surveillance on the victim's home, and each FBI agent wore a shoulder-mounted action recorder.
This surveillance is studied and reviewed by specialists, and reviewed after the case is over, so it's top secret.
But people are alive, rules are alive, and the FBI is a living, breathing pool of water, so the line between top secret and not is flexible, so Akai Shūichi got the surveillance back.
Not only did he get the surveillance video back, but he also got the right to watch it in real time.
Ichijō Mirai was satisfied, and looked at Akai Shūichi as if he were a hunting cat who had gone out for a spin and come back with a fish in his mouth: sure, the fish was nothing, one could easily get it by going out with a rod and fishing for the afternoon, or going to the market and buying one, or simply begging for one from a stall owner without having the decency to do so.
But there is a difference between going out on your own and just paying lip service and letting other people go out to fish and buy fish and bring them back.
The hunting cat went out for a round and brought back surveillance, and went out for two rounds and brought back invitations.
He simply tells the story: "It was sent to your coffee shop, and the clerk came to me when he saw it was for you."
The point: your coffee shop.
Ichijō Mirai physically took over the coffee shop, but not programmatically.
But since Akai Shūichi said so, the odds were that it helped him occupy it legally as well, and he didn't mince words of praise, complimenting the cat that would hunt home, "Wow, as expected of a veteran FBI agent, when you're not being obnoxious, you're pretty unobnoxious, Akai-san."
He took the invitation, opened it up, glanced at the surveillance camera, and casually asked, "Guess how this victim is going to die?"
Ichijō Mirai's compliments were always a little bit eerie, and Ichijō Mirai's eerie compliments were vaguely complimentary.
Akai Shūichi had gotten used to it, and now, compared to the beginning, the compliment wouldn't even break his defenses, and he would only get an invalid attack message, "Are you sure?"
Since so asked, it must be an idea.
The large screen in the monitoring room is divided into six small screens, three of which are real-time monitoring, and three of which are previous monitoring videos. From the time Akai Shūichi pushed the door open, Jodie only glanced over initially, and then kept looking at the monitoring, and then turned her head over to look at Ichijō Mirai, and her eyes flickered for a moment.
Ichijō Mirai smiled first at Akai Shūichi, who didn't answer positively, and then at Jodie, who was staring at him, "A little," he said.
"There were many causes of death for the previous victims, in the beginning, most of the victims were strangled by the murderer at close range, attacked by gravity in the fatal area or shot, after the police started to protect the victims closely, the causes of death were poisoning, shooting in the downtown area, organs, etc.,"
If you can kill and torture at close range, if you can poison your victims with a torturous, horrific death, if you can pretend to pass by while the streets are crowded and suddenly shoot them to pieces, that's fine too.
The murderer's main focus is a victim who dies horribly.
"This time, the FBI convinced the victims to stay in their homes, not to go out 24 hours a day under surveillance, and to be well-prepared with necessities, water, and food purchased in advance," Ichijō Mirai swiveled his chair around, "so it seems that the only way the murderer could do it is to create a sudden accident and come to the house disguised as a staff member?"
That's the easiest way to do it.
This was indeed the easiest way to think of, and the task force was ready to detain and investigate all of the visitors regardless of the circumstances.
Akai Shūichi narrowed his eyes and nodded, "Yes, they did, and in addition to the possibility of a power outage, a regional release of poison into the air by the killer, and gunshots, they've already set up a back-up generator and gas masks in the house, covered the glass with curtains, and are planning to have the victims wear bulletproof vests and helmets at the time the killer is expected to make his move."
"How do you think he'll do it?"
Jodie, who was sitting on the other side of Ichijō Mirai, reached out and held down the chair, which turned 30 to 40 degrees left and right, and asked, also keenly, "Do you think the murderer would have used a method that would have had a high chance of success without those methods being detected for the time being?"
Ichijō Mirai snapped his fingers: "Sniping."
"Covering the glass, wearing bulletproof vests and helmets, and being blocked by the walls, ordinary guns are useless, but sniper rifles are."
He calmly showed a smile, "Coincidentally, I have a little dabble in sniper rifles, if it is me, I can snipe the target."
Just a little, not a lot.
We really don't know each other well, but we just happened to run into each other a few times not long ago, and then we dealt with one, two, three, four, five, six, seven people.
Heh heh heh.
Akai Shūichi and Jodie: "..."
At the mention of sniper rifles, they coincidentally thought of the case that Ichijō Mirai was thinking of, the second case produced by 'Satan': a case of indiscriminate sniping in the street.
Although they're thinking about the same case, they can't quite get it together.
Akai Shūichi, who wasn't giggling, and Ichijō Mirai, who was giggling, looked at each other, and were silent for a few seconds, "...A little bit?"
He's silent for a few more seconds, not objecting to the more cheerful Ichijō Mirai, who obviously guessed what he was thinking, and instead says, "Sniping doesn't really require much consideration for body armor, but it does require, well..."
It needs vision.
In the current situation of the victim's house, the murderer can only snipe blindly, which is unlikely to be successful, and as soon as the first two or three shots miss, the FBI will react, and the murderer will have a much harder time succeeding.
But before he could finish his sentence, Akai Shūichi stopped.
He stared fixedly at the still-smiling Ichijō Mirai for a few seconds, then slowly looked away to the surveillance screen.
On the screen, the victim was sitting in front of the computer in the study, working, and she was clearly nervous, glancing up from time to time at the FBI officer accompanying her.
Not far from her is a window with the curtains drawn.
Akai Shūichi: "..."
Wait... the murderer could have had a sniper's view...
"Is it true that there's no sniper's view?" Ichijō Mirai asked with a smirk, "But a sniper has a 360-degree field of vision."
Just need to borrow the FBI surveillance.
"..." Jodie withdrew her hand and stood up furiously, her face a little rich, "Then."
She glanced at Ichijō Mirai, her brow furrowing, "Should we have the task force take precautions then?"
"Why else would I say it?" Ichijō Mirai glanced over strangely, then realized, grinning, "Oh, because I'm a criminal who doesn't seem to have too much of a line in the sand and doesn't care much about the lives of his victims,"
"No, no, no."
He shook his head, "It depends on the situation, when I'm a law enforcer and have to carry out law enforcement missions, I'm quite concerned about the safety of each victim, it's about the completion of the mission."
It's a little bit of player sentimentality and a little bit of OCD.
"Okay," Jodie went out immediately, "I'll go remind them."
Ichijō Mirai plopped back down on the back of his chair and continued to slowly swivel his chair, flipping open the invitation and looking at it, "There really are rules."
There were rules at the club.
In addition to stating that the location was a gun range club that would be closed during party time and no outsiders would be allowed to enter, it also stated the time of the initiation ceremony, the number of people expected to participate, and the general flow of the event.
The invitations also state that entry is limited to two people with the invitation.
It was like an invitation to a high society party.
Ichijō Mirai held his chin thoughtfully and muttered to himself, "A gun club that doesn't accept outsiders, that's a bit dangerous... I'll have to choose another companion... who should I choose...?"
He was thinking hard, as hard as he had been at the police academy when he was choosing a partner for the bank robbery.
Seeing the straight hook dangling from the edge of his mouth, Akai Shūichi looked at Ichijō Mirai, who was seriously struggling, and then looked down at the number of people expected on the invitation letter, and spoke, "Take Jodie."
Ichijō Mirai did want to bring Jodie.
After all, she was the second target, and bringing her along was like bringing her own bait, appealing to the Calvados who wanted to solve Belmode's problems.
All he had to do was show some interest, not too much, just a little sidelong glance, and Rum, who didn't dare to do anything to him or Belmode, would come sniffing around.
Akai Shūichi wasn't so good.
He doesn't appeal to Calvados, and his involvement with Ichijō Mirai is too much for Rum, who's too timid and afraid of reprisals, to take his anger out on him.
But: "?"
Ichijō Mirai wondered: "Playing is fun, fooling around is fun, great players can fish with a smile on their face, but NPCs belonging to players can't not take the bait.
NPCs that don't take the bait aren't good NPCs!
"The expected number of people marked on the invitation is fifteen," Akai Shūichi said, "The club is by no means large, fifteen may be small, but it's probably the majority of the currently free members,"
"Personally, I don't think the owner of the club told them who the new members were."
He paused for a few seconds and added politely, "If he told the others, there were too many people attending."
If the owner of the club had said, 'Hi, everyone, this is the newcomer to the club who recently joined the famous [owner] Oh, yeah, that's right, the FBI guy who put a dozen people in jail,' then it would have been a good turnout if just one member of the club had attended.
Not to mention fifteen.
"I was on the news a while back," Akai Shūichi continued to explain without looking as if he hadn't cricked the great Savior in the face, "Going with you, they'd probably recognize us at first."
"But if Jodie goes with you, maybe..."
Perhaps, until they were held down and twisted to provide the great Savior-sama with a refreshing sweetness, the unlucky ones wouldn't realize who the newcomer was.
Akai Shūichi doesn't doubt that the unlucky ones won't be twisted, he's just a little unsure about when they'll be twisted.
Such is the trust placed in the great Savior.