The old gentleman was still silent, saying nothing, as if he were competing with Jodie to see who could imitate the woodchuck more vividly.
Only he was too old.
Compared to his thin, dry body, the suit he wore to hide his old age was baggy, like a silky black waterfall that was trembling very slightly. His wrinkled hands were also shaking, and under the shaking, his thick nails, like jade, kept tapping the table.
The shaking was so slight that the abnormal Ichijō Mirai could notice it, but the normal young man and Jodie did not, and thought that the old gentleman was patiently and reservedly letting his subordinates speak.
"Well," The young man looked at the old gentleman to emphasize the importance of his superior, to make it clear that he too was observing, and then wondered why his superior seemed to be much more silent than usual today, "something did happen."
In any case, the boss did not stop, he followed the process of picking up the intercom, with a smile and commanded, "Bring up Mr. 'uninvited guest'."
Hmm?
Mr. 'Uninvited Guest'?
At this point in time, the 'uninvited guest' that the other party specifically asked to be brought here, or 'Mr.'...
Ichijō Mirai's grinning expression as he scrutinized the painting faded, and he pondered: "No way, no way, Akai Shūichi, you're not that lame, are you?
You weren't caught red-handed, were you?
Don't be embarrassed! It's okay to be a cat that hunts, but it's humiliating to be lifted up by the scruff of the neck like a cat!
It's not a big deal if you lose face, it's a big deal if the great Savior loses face!
...But Akai Shūichi doesn't look like a loser.
The disgraced guy who got caught was another FBI agent, right?
If it's another FBI, then it's only natural that he'd be caught, and Ichijō Mirai wouldn't have any "I don't know him, right?" feelings. Ichijō Mirai doesn't feel any sense of shame.
Ichijō Mirai expected it to be another FBI agent.
But it wasn't to be.
The elevator slowly ascended to the second floor, there was a crisp beep, and then a young man stepped out.
His hair was a bit long, with black tresses falling near his elbows, he wore a knit cap, his eyes were a darker shade of green, with a hint of darker coloring on the outer part of his lower eyelids, and his calm expression made him look mature and stable.
The mature and steady Mr. Akai Shūichi looks over and politely locks eyes with Ichijō Mirai.
Ichijō Mirai politely sends a more reserved signal with his eyes: Hello, Mr. Stranger, don't go out and say you don't know me.
He also sends a more aggressive signal: ...Are you doing this on purpose? You were so difficult to deal with when you were chasing me! Now you've been caught so easily! You're trying to catch a fish, aren't you? Is that right? You're the one who touched the fish while playing the book!!!!
He stared.
Akai Shūichi shifted his eyes.
Akai Shūichi was not the only one who came out of the elevator, there was also a staff member and two other men that Ichijō Mirai knew very well, but also knew very well.
The staff member was one of the receptionists, and the two men, who looked to be in their thirties or forties, were dressed in civilian clothes and stood on either side of each other, both pointing their guns vaguely at Akai Shūichi.
They were unfamiliar because Ichijō Mirai had never seen them before.
It's familiar because the smell of the FBI is so strong.
He didn't have to think about it before he got the signal that this was the FBI.
He looked at the two middle-aged men who were supposed to be FBI by the smell, but were now holding guns on their coworkers, and then he looked at Akai Shūichi, who was an FBI agent.
Oh, well.
It seems obvious: Akai Shūichi wasn't caught snooping around too much, nor was he caught sneaking into the club, but he was caught red-handed when he met with his coworker.
Because the colleague was an undercover agent.
...Is not bad.
Compared to his initial bad guess, Ichijō Mirai was still accepting of this way of being caught. However, he looked back and forth between the middle-aged people and Akai Shūichi several times before he suppressed his nagging words and nagging smiles like 'Hey, isn't this my dear Mr. FBI?'
He tried, "Things seem to be getting worse."
Akai Shūichi looked over.
Ichijō Mirai took back the accidental smile and became seriously angry like a serious FBI agent who had been caught by his colleagues, "You have a mole in the FBI? That's outrageous!"
And not just any spy.
In this dangerous action, whether Akai Shūichi took the initiative to meet him, or was forced to meet him because of 'Oops, Mr. Akai, I'm blsbla', as long as they met, he must have trusted the other party more and was more satisfied with the other party's ability.
Akai Shūichi was satisfied with their abilities, and these two were definitely not the kind of FBI that generally seemed to be fishing for money, but rather the kind of FBI that was so good that their bosses would remember them in their hearts.
How can such a guy be an inside man?
Considering the level of the FBI that he had recently gotten from playing around with them, Ichijō Mirai thought that it was unnecessary and a waste of talent.
But then he thought about it, and realized that Furuya Rei and Morofushi Hiromitsu were also undercover agents.
Although they became undercover agents because they were implicated by Savior, who was great and had no bad intentions, at least Furuya Rei became an undercover agent not because he was implicated, but because he was supposed to become an undercover agent.
So the question is, even someone like Furuya Rei was put undercover...
Ichijō Mirai evaluated the strength of the Japanese Police for a few seconds, and then evaluated the strength of Furuya Rei for a few seconds, and thought, 'Going undercover is a dangerous thing, and it's only natural to choose the best members to go undercover.'
But it's too much to choose one of the most outstanding members of your camp, isn't it?
Is the rule in this world that the best person should support the enemy organization?
But Gin didn't go undercover.
Shouldn't a person of his caliber go to the police and work 24 hours a day for a month before receiving compensation for being kicked off the force?
With that in mind, Ichijō Mirai gave Akai Shūichi a reassuring 'I'm not laughing at you, I'm just thinking of something happy' signal, and then looked at the old gentleman and the young man with a clear conscience.
The young man was scowling.
The old gentleman remained silent, like a dead man, like a corpse, but when Ichijō Mirai solemnly admonished him for 'going too far! When Ichijō Mirai's serious reprimand of 'Excessive!' came, the corpse suddenly moved, standing up straight almost before the words had left his mouth, and grabbing the young man before he could retort with disbelieving amusement, "Cough, cough, cough,"
When he opened his mouth, he coughed laboriously for a while, and said somewhat bitterly: "...It is indeed too much."
The young man, who had bowed his head at the first moment he was stopped from speaking, thinking that his superior was about to say something that would emphasize his authority, said, "????"
"After all, New York is too small," The old gentleman did not pay attention to the young man to look over the blank eyes, still with a hoarse voice like a long time not speak to explain, "any power to move a little, may stir up the water, not to mention the FBI,"
"For our own sake, we have to find out what the FBI is up to, so we can at least die knowing."
He laughed bitterly, apologizing to Ichijō Mirai, "They're young and fussy... is this gentleman all right?"
The young man's eyes bugged out at the almost blunt display of weakness, and he slowly looked at Ichijō Mirai in hindsight, realizing that his attitude just now seemed wrong.
If the young man could see it, so could Akai Shūichi and Jodie.
Jodie minimized her presence more and more, keeping her ears and nose out of the way, even withdrawing her gaze from the paintings she had been looking at.
Akai Shūichi glanced sideways at his two 'colleagues', then at the old gentleman's smiling face, paused for a few seconds, and then finally looked at the grinning Ichijō Mirai.
Ichijō Mirai gave another look, seriously affirming that he really wasn't laughing at his coworker, but just remembering something happy, and mouthed: "Ah, he seems to be quite lively, nothing serious."
"Don't worry, I'm not angry."
The old gentleman's hand on the young man's shoulder relaxed for a few moments, and in the next moment, he pressed it again.
The young man hesitantly turned his head to look at him, felt the force coming from his shoulder, saw the sweat sliding down along the hair side of his superior's head, and fell silent.
He was silent again and again, and when the hand on his shoulder almost crushed his shoulder blade, he reluctantly opened his mouth, picking up on the attitude he had just used against the uninvited guest, "Since this 'uninvited guest' has already arrived, and you, sir, came here in pairs, with no one else missing, this 'uninvited guest', sir, must be a tail?"
These were difficult words.
But the whole room was silent, both the embarrassed Akai Shūichi and the two undercover agents holding Akai Shūichi hostage were watching the young man's stiff, hard smile.
In the silence, the two undercover agents silently removed their guns.
No one said anything, except for the kind and good-hearted Ichijō Mirai who spoke up: "So what if it's the tail?"
"It's rude to let the tail follow an honored guest, but don't worry," the young man continued, his face growing stiff, "our club will, will take care of the tail for our guest."
The old gentleman had let go of his hand and stood with his head bowed as he had at the beginning, while the young man stiffened as if his shoulders were still being squeezed.
He had realized something was wrong.
The wrongness of a great problem.
"Solve it?" Akai Shūichi's gaze was still poking at his back, and Ichijō Mirai, temporarily remembering something happy, smiled brightly and answered so as not to get cold feet, "But Mr. Akai didn't try to get into the club, did he? Would it be a rude offense to just greet a hard-working colleague..."
He was very kind.
But the young man was a little too good to be true, and after looking at the old gentleman repeatedly, he stiffened and said, "Not in theory,"
"But we're not good people, we're on the fringe of non-compliance, we've always been unreasonable, so we can only feel sorry for the gentleman."
"Unless..."
He paused in mid-sentence, as if to rephrase, but the old gentleman duly rested his hand on the chair.
Ichijō Mirai chimed in, "Unless?"
"Unless, of course, this lady is not your companion, but an 'uninvited guest' who has taken you hostage," the young man said, "and this gentleman is your companion."
"Please be assured that it is also the club's duty to resolve emergencies for its guests."
"Oh," Ichijō Mirai responded, "so it's one or the other?"
He asked, looking at the young man.
The young man opened his mouth and changed his expression several times before he said, "Yes."
With the power so oppressive, the oppressed Ichijō Mirai could only sigh sadly, "Ugh, how could this happen, Mr. Akai,"
"It's as if I'm being asked to make a choice, a tram dilemma of 'one track with Ms. Jodie tied to it, one track with you tied to it, and the runaway tram is about to crash into you, am I going to watch you get hit by the tram, or pull the lever and let Ms. Jodie get hit'?"
"What's the choice?" He sighed, "It's hard."
"Ms. Jodie is young and pretty and at the most youthful age for working all night and all day, and you, on the other hand... well, eyes for eyes, mouth for mouth, and you're still a human being."
Jodie: "..."
Can't we talk about this in a nice way, and not just liven up the atmosphere and pull in the hate value?
She wanted to say, "Wake up, the atmosphere is so tense now, no matter what you say, people won't react much, and they won't give you any feedback at all!
But he didn't dare.
Akai Shūichi: "..."
"Thanks for the compliment," He said without changing his expression, and quipped back, "Compared to Mr. Mirai, in terms of being personal, I'm a lot less so."
A compliment.
Ichijō Mirai was happy to smile at the compliment, "You're secretly scolding me, I can hear it."
"But you're right."
"The easiest way to defeat an enemy like this is to raise your spirits high and beat them in one fell swoop, but right now, with my companions captured, my spirits are in tatters," he mused on how to act as an anthropomorphic creature, "I'm thinking, why don't I just shoot these guys, barge into the party, and take off the hoods of the people to see who's the Calvados?"
It's bad enough that it's obvious that it's a bad file, so let's make the most of it.
People who aren't players don't understand Ichijō Mirai.
But those who had met him for the first time and those who had known him for a while all understood one thing from Ichijō Mirai's cheerful tone: he was up to something.
Everyone's face changed slightly.
"Hey, that's too much, there are two camps here, right? Why do they all have the same look on their faces, it breaks my heart," Ichijō Mirai sighed again, "Decision made, let's use the waste."
He straightened up, intending to turn this file into a bad one with a perfunctory struggle, "I've always respected Mr. Akai, and I'm grateful to Ms. Jodie, both of them are like my hands and feet, how can I let them go if I have to cut off one of their arms in a hurry?"
"Children only choose one, I want both," he said, with a clear voice, "both are my companions!"
Akai Shūichi: "…"
Jodie: "…"
Old Gentleman:"..."
Young man: "..."
After a few short but long seconds, the young man had to speak reluctantly after the old gentleman's indication, "...Partner, there can only be one, right?"
He then explained, "Actually, I said that at first because most of the couples with the same invitation are,.
Ichijō Mirai interrupted, "Why only one?"
"Just because the law says that a person can only have one partner, does it mean that there can only be one partner? What the law says is right?"
...What if it's not?!
The young man's mouth was agape, agape, agape, and even as a criminal, he wanted to say, "What the law says is right!"
To say so would probably offend someone.
He wanted to nod his head to express his unconditional faith in Ichijō Mirai as his heart desired, but he could only be the dead man who lit the bomb as the old gentleman wished, "Are you, are you sure?"
"Sure," Ichijō Mirai babbled blithely, as bad as it was anyway, "Look, on my right, there's my wife."
"Look, on my left, there's my husband."
He said, "We're monogamous."
"Is that a problem? No problem. It's very legal."