The location of the club is quite remote.
Because it is nominally a shooting club that involves guns and ranges, the place is a bit isolated but quite professional.
At least the staff was professional.
Ichijō Mirai was picked up by a club staff member about an hour before the start of the party.
The staff member wore a long suit with a long hemline, like the servants of some movie or TV villain, and the car was freshly washed and clean enough to reflect the sun's rays.
He obviously knew the real face under the skin of the club, and also knew what kind of goods the newcomers who could join the club were, therefore, as a club man, his attitude was very respectful, immediately opened the door and got out of the car, "Good day, sir, the master instructed me to pick you up for the banquet."
And added: "If you wish to go on your own..."
It wasn't just Ichijō Mirai who heard the clerk's message, but Jodie as well.
As the theoretical female companion, she took a step behind her in a rather appropriate manner, maintaining her position in a meaningful way, but not completely, not going for an arm-twisting gesture or anything like that, but only thoughtfully surveying the respectful and unintimidating expression on the staff member's face from the back like a subordinate, quickly deciding that this was one of the unlucky ones who wasn't aware of his death.
Otherwise, there would not be only respect and a little bit of fear in the face of criminals, but not a little bit of a madman who is so afraid and suffocated that he wants to pass out on the spot.
She gives a little pity: now the back is still straight, in an hour or two, it will probably go crazy.
Just like the FBI.
Now the FBI is ashore, temporarily relieved, but the criminals are still struggling in the water.
The unlucky man didn't notice the miserly pity offered by his rivals, and after receiving Ichijō Mirai's reply that he'd casually agree to ride in the club's car, he helped to open the rear door, "Please, gentlemen."
As he drove, he politely explained the rules of the club to the 'newcomers', "The club's detailed map is in the pocket behind the front seat, and it shows the location of the various foyers, so you can check it out. Because of your status..."
"At each party, the club will prepare a certain number of clothes and masks in advance for the guests to disguise their true appearance and identity, if the guests want to have a more in-depth communication with the guests in private, you can negotiate with your own, but only in-depth communication of the contradictions that arise,"
Not only the body of the car is clean, but also clean inside the car, there is no perfume, Jodie has already taken out the map to spread into large copies, Ichijō Mirai did not go to get the map, he just rolled down the window and sniffed the air outside, heard the staff deliberately bite 'deeper communication' bite accent when he paused, slowly slanting glances over.
After gazing at the staff for a few seconds, and realizing that he had no tendency to speak without a bottom line, he withdrew his gaze, and then looked over again with great interest because he had heard the meaning of the words, and inquired with great anticipation: "The club doesn't care about members' conflicts in private?"
Is there such a good thing?
Inexplicably, when the staff member looked into the rearview mirror and met the pair of red eyes that seemed to have brightened up a bit, there was a sense of intuition as if it was not good.
He was stuck before answering, "Yes."
"The club doesn't meddle in the personal relationships of its members."
Then he reacted: "Oh, I don't know what kind of criminal this guy is, but he must be a hunter to join the club, it's normal for him to think he's so powerful that he can prey on others when he first joins, so that's why he seems to be happier."
Then, it's normal for him to feel uneasy for some reason...right?
Thinking so, the staff member became even more uneasy. He was sitting in the driver's seat, it wasn't the first time he had picked up a new member of the club, and Ichijō Mirai in the backseat hadn't pulled out any weapons, but he was on pins and needles, and he felt like he was walking on a dark road and had an illusion of a danger lurking in the darkness.
He shifted uncomfortably for a few moments before speaking again, "If you're more concerned about this, you can work or trade with other customers through the club,"
"For a small fee, the club will provide security for both parties."
"Yeah," Ichijō Mirai responded briskly, "Okay."
The backseat was a big place, Jodie was very careful about the distance when sitting, but now she had to sit over a little bit, and with a smile on her white face, she touched her fingers to Ichijō Mirai, and squeezed out very soft words from between her lips, "Calvados."
Wake up, it's more important to grab Calvados now! Don't be like, 'Well... how do I get the club to play with me a little bit, the club can't say anything even if I play with them by making private deals between the members, hehehehe' and 'Well... how do I play with the club, and give them bombs generously when paying them? I'll have to think about that'!
Besides, Ichijō Mirai probably won't have a chance to play with the club's members.
When he finds Calvados...
At the rate this guy was playing on his first day in New York, Jodie guessed that by the time he found Calvados, the club members who had attended the rookie party would have been played, and those who hadn't attended would have heard something on the grapevine and wouldn't have made a deal with him to be played on his own initiative.
...Goddammit this guy isn't going to leave the Calvados out of this so he can play the clubs as they are!
It's a scary thought, but it's something Ichijō Mirai could do.
Jodie was horrified.
Two subtle shocks spread through the car, and Ichijō Mirai's eyes, which had fallen on the staff, moved to Jodie and raised his pupils in some confusion, "Oh."
He looked at Jodie a few more times, and asked with an expression: "Are you afraid of me? But we're on the same team.
Jodie: "..."
It's not that I'm afraid.
It's just that no matter if you're a rival, companion, or stranger to Ichijō Mirai, it's hard not to be afraid of him when you know he exists, isn't it?
In particular, whether it was intuition or delusion, Jodie had a subtle feeling that Ichijō Mirai was paying attention to her during the last few meetings and transactions.
It was like he was studying something.
She was silent for a moment before subtly replying, "It's not fear of the enemy."
It was the fear of an unstable bomb.
"Really," Ichijō Mirai affirmed as he looked at Jodie a few more times, studying the good FBI man's expression carefully, "you're afraid of me."
Fear, in any sense of the word, is fear.
It's nothing, it's normal, ninety-nine percent of people are afraid, and those who aren't are abnormal, and if Jodie, like Suzuki Sonoko, wasn't afraid of him, he might be able to gain some experience in dealing with him by carefully observing Jodie, but to be afraid of him, well...
Ichijō Mirai retracts his eyes and cuts off the section as if it hadn't happened, pretending it hadn't happened, "Fine."
He looked out the window, sniffing the fresh air through his nose, his eyes drifting for a moment through the not-so-dense traffic behind him, finally coming to rest on a car.
The car was traveling in the traffic, the car is not very conspicuous, the speed is not fast or slow, extraordinarily ordinary, no different from other cars, not worth caring about.
If the car hadn't been following them.
If the stalker wasn't Akai Shūichi.
The FBI wouldn't have let two of its members go deeper.
As soon as the invitation to the club arrived, Akai Shūichi began sending disguised FBI agents to the club's neighborhood to try and infiltrate.
Without alerting the club, it was unlikely that the FBI would be able to infiltrate without alerting the club...
But when something subtle happens inside the club, like Ichijō Mirai lighting the club on fire, or Ichijō Mirai lighting the club on fire, or Ichijō Mirai lighting the club on fire, it's time for the FBI to step in.
They can swarm the club, contribute in numbers, calm down the club members who have just met Ichijō Mirai for the first time, who have been played for the first time, and whose anger bar is so short that it fills up at the first poke, and withdraw sensibly.
That is, if Ichijō Mirai is willing to let them go.
Unlike the FBI, who had picked up the schedule in advance and approached the club as if nothing had happened, Akai Shūichi was following the car directly to avoid the mishap of 'the invitation is for the invitation, but the real party is for a different place'.
However, judging from the car's current route, it was heading towards the location on the invitation even though it had made a few detours.
After looking at the car for a few seconds and locking eyes with Akai Shūichi in the driver's seat, Ichijō Mirai retracted his gaze without a change of color and asked the staff, "How much longer until we get there?"
The staff member, already intuitively looking from ear to ear and nose to nose, immediately replied, "About twenty minutes, sir."
After a moment's hesitation, not wanting to say anything, and vaguely fearing that the car would go silent, he added, "I'll do it as soon as I can."
Next, instead of making a detour for basic anti-tracking, he tried to take the shortest possible route back to the club as quickly as possible.
The club was located on a street.
The street was clean, not too crowded, there were some cafes and other stores with a few people sitting in them, there was a park not too far away, there were some public buildings to the left and right of the club, and the car stopped at the club's back door, which was relatively plain, blending into the street almost perfectly, and looking very harmless and unassuming.
Ichijō Mirai opens the door and gets out of the car, scanning the area and waiting for Jodie to get out of the car with no expression on his face.
The first thing Jodie does when she gets out of the car is to look around, and in addition to checking out the neighborhood, she also subtly looks for Akai Shūichi, who is following her, and realizes that he probably withdrew to look for other FBI agents who had lurked ahead of her when she arrived at her destination.
Instead of finding Akai Shūichi, she found one or two club staff members who appeared to be disguised as passersby watching the coffee shop, and so she kept her eyebrows down and continued to lag behind like one of her subordinates.
The staff guided them into the back door of the club, to their own familiar premises, he was more relaxed than before, a smile on his face, "There are always some ungrateful bugs who dare to target the club, so the club neighborhood is rather strict, you two should have just noticed that there seems to be a stalking guy outside,"
"Please don't misunderstand, that's the club's bait."
Please don't misunderstand the strength of the club, the club isn't the police, they wouldn't send such obvious guys to be the eyes, they just use them as the first level of bait to catch the police and opponents who think they've found the eyes and are only guarding the eyes but not the others.
Ichijō Mirai didn't pay much attention and didn't say that he had just spotted seven or eight club guys in a quick glance, "Hmm."
Those guys weren't going to have much of an impact on Akai Shūichi anyway, as long as the FBI guys who were putting up the headcount didn't come over as a group to give them away.
He carelessly followed the staff inside the club.
The club was huge, but the staff was very small, there were only two receptionists in the lobby, when they saw a colleague come in, they both reacted to the arrival of a guest, one of them immediately pressed the phone a few times, while the other one quickly walked to the elevator and swiped the card, and pressed the floor in advance.
"Sir, ma'am, please," the lead worker stopped in front of the elevator, "His Excellency is already on the second floor."
His Excellency?
Ichijō Mirai raised an eyebrow and stepped into the elevator.
In the elevator, he gives Jodie advance warning, "Wait, I might do something a little out of the ordinary, you don't have to be too surprised, and you don't have to stop me, don't worry, it's all part of the plan, I have my own rhythm."
Jodie: "?"
Her alarm bells went off, "What are you doing?!"
"Doing something a little out of the ordinary, something necessary," Ichijō Mirai stared at the red numbers jumping on the elevator screen and spoke faster, "I don't want to wake up at zero o'clock today, so don't worry, it's just a little out of the ordinary."
The elevator arrived.
He stepped out of the elevator and added, "Oh, and in case it gets too big, then I'll just go big."
Beyond the TV was a red and white hallway, red for the carpet, white for the walls, and like the first floor, the entire second floor was shrouded in silence, so quiet that Ichijō Mirai could hear him breathing.
The source of the breathing was at the end of the corridor.
There was a table and chairs and two people, a young man standing with his head bowed, facing Ichijō Mirai, and an old man in a suit sitting quietly in a chair, facing the painting on the wall at the corner of the corridor in silence, his back to Ichijō Mirai.
The old man's breathing was light but rapid, his head hung low, and his black gentleman's hat covered most of his gray hair, with the few uncovered strands peeking out from under the brim.
On the table to the right of the old man was a gun.
At the sound of footsteps, the old man took a deep breath and slowly stood up, "I've heard a lot about you, sir."
He turned around and put a moist handkerchief into his pocket, the pupils of his eyes were still trembling, but his tone was calm and unhurried, "I thought you would come alone,"
"...But you're the only one who would actually bring a companion as if you were attending a normal dinner party, right?"
It was the elderly gentleman who called.
Ichijō Mirai didn't say anything.
His eyes slowly moved downward from the old gentleman's hair, which was shaking in the air, to the lucky man's pupils that were still fluttering, the shoulders of the collar that were darker than the rest of the coat, the clenched hands, and the loose but slightly wobbly legs of the suit's pants.
As he watched, he smiled and greeted him with a slow, "Ah, hello."
The hands of the elderly are different from those of the young, the skin hangs loosely over the bones of the hand, appearing like the skin of a cooked chicken, and when the hands are clasped tightly, the creepy and uncomfortable feeling is even more prevalent.
In the face of the warm smile, the old gentleman did not speak, and the young man at his side, with a strange glance, took a step forward and spoke respectfully, "Sir, you confirm that the companion you are carrying is the lady at your side, correct?"
From the moment she arrived on the second floor, Jodie had been acutely aware of a certain subtlety in the air, a subtlety that had taken the edge off her anxious 'Wait! Business! Don't play! She swallowed all of it, and also swallowed her rebuttal to clarify 'I'm just a subordinate'.
She stood behind Ichijō Mirai like a puppet without saying a word, her eyes glancing at the painting at the end of the corridor.
It was probably a portrait painting.
It was approximate because the painting was centered on the upper body of an all-black human being, and the blackness covered everything about his image, so that Jodie could only barely make out that it was a male with short hair.
Ichijō Mirai was also looking at the painting.
He didn't even look at the young Lucky, but looked up and down at the older Lucky and the painting, and asked casually and rather leisurely, "To be emphatically sure, is that what's going on?"
"Please speak."