Calvados was desperate.
He was despairing when he learned that 'Unfortunately for you, Cal-ah, no, corpse, you've been targeted by [Satan]', and slightly less despairing when he learned that 'Fortunately, however, the club manager has been implicated, and all the club's staff and party-goers are in the middle of a shakedown that day, so whoever is lucky enough to win is going to be the one who gets to die with you'.
In the discovery of the head of the club seems to have received a lot of instructions, such as 'do not be too pinched, [Satan] will not be happy if you do not have fun', 'but also not too tough, your skull is really not hard' and so on, but he only received a brief and concise 'go play, no you do not have to do anything, everything is as usual, waiting for death on the line' order, he was again in despair.
It was hard not to despair at the cruelty of 'Satan', as he had heard Belmode say a long time ago.
The despair that he had fantasized about before he was actually confronted was not as strong as the despair he felt when he was actually confronted with 'Satan' right now. Calvados' mind went blank for a few seconds as 'Neighborhood Massacre.jpg', 'Sniping in the Street.jpg' and 'FBI Survivor' played on a loop in his head.
In the middle of the loop, his raised head froze and he stared straight at Ichijō Mirai.
Ichijō Mirai was wearing a hood, and only part of his face was showing under the black fabric, and the part of his face that was showing was young, unexpectedly young for Calvados.
Young enough that if this wasn't a club for criminals and he hadn't received orders from that gentleman, he would have thought this was a high school prom.
The 'high schooler' smiled, lifting his hood a bit to reveal more of those young cheeks, his tone light and cheerful, as if he were inviting a woman of his choice to dance, "So you've heard, good boy," and added, "So you've heard."
And again: "Are you afraid of me?"
"The others are afraid of me, but how can you, a member of the organization, be afraid of me?" He raised his eyebrows in a helpless manner, "We're the same kind of people."
"Have you heard some overblown rumors?"
...Who's your kind!
Ninety-nine percent of criminals, when they hear someone say to them, 'Oh, you're a good criminal', they take it as both a compliment and an insult.
Complimentary, because 'Satan' has done something we all know, and this kind of statement is a recognition of his own ability, and abusive, because even if you kill people repeatedly, you're not on a par with a guy like 'Satan', right?
Calvados felt that he was not as bad as 'Satan' who had no limits and did whatever he wanted to do just because he had a whim, but he didn't dare to refute, not only did he not dare to refute, even his face was a bit stiff, and it was hard for him to get out the words in his throat as if it was filled with paste, he could only force out a smile and replied woefully, "No, I didn't."
Amidst the murmurs of the others, there was the sound of rapid footsteps, coming from the direction Ichijō Mirai had come from.
Calvados was looking at Ichijō Mirai when he could see two hooded figures approaching, one of them slender and obviously female, walking in such a hurry that her high heels made a sharp, clear sound on the floor.
She walked briskly to Ichijō Mirai's side, stared into numerous pairs of eyes, and whispered stiffly, "There's too much noise."
What kind of person just lifts the hoods!
There were criminals who saw the situation and ran away through the other exits!
"You."
Jodie looked at Calvados, startled by his rigid expression and faint sense of mortality, and reorganized her words a few times before saying, "Now that we've found someone, where else?"
She thought Calvados looked familiar: wasn't that the FBI not so long ago?
That's the same look the old gentleman had just had.
Calvados also thought Jodie looked familiar: the look of a man who wants to say something, who wants to stop saying something, who wants to close his eyes right there, but has no choice but to do it, and who whispers and coos...
It seems to be a little bit like Belmode who reveals that 'a newcomer to the organization has gone on a killing spree in a residential area, and it's still unclear if he's intentionally targeting the organization or if he's really doing it casually... Is this guy a cow cat? No way, I want to see it...' and 'Oh no, it's really a cow cat'.
There was a hard silence between them.
Akai Shūichi followed, breaking the silence, "Let's go to the changing room."
"I've asked the young gentleman, he said that there are many exits in the hall, and that they make a point of controlling the number of people who pass through each one, and that normally recently used exits won't be approached for a certain amount of time," he said stoically, "He said that he could help with an explanation as to why we showed up unannounced, took one of the guests away, and tried to calm and stabilize the guests in the hall."
And then waited for Ichijō Mirai to decide whether or not he wanted to order a few more waves of Lucky, now-and-then kills for a while.
...The young man didn't say it explicitly, but he understood it.
Akai Shūichi, who had heard it first-hand, understood, and Ichijō Mirai, who had heard it second-hand, understood, and after a few seconds of thought, he looked first at Jodie, who looked a bit like the helpless mistress of a dog who'd been dragged wildly by a large dog while being walked, and was clearly in a state of anxiety and determination to hold on to the leash, and then at Akai Shūichi, who was Then he looked at Akai Shūichi and realized that he was like a male passerby in a duel with a dog, clearly in a state of immobility, seriousness, and waiting.
He pondered for a few more seconds, and wondered, 'What's the point?'
It seemed that most of the people he met were treating him in a similar manner, as if he would happily ignite a volcano and let everyone die together if he didn't look away...
What a good judge of character!
"Okay, take it easy, you guys," he loosened his grip, more cheerfully, and commanded in a helpless tone of 'there's nothing you guys can do about it', "take him to the changing room."
Jodie hurriedly grabbed Calvados by the hand and led him toward the changing room.
Calvados didn't resist.
Even though it was Jodie who was holding him down, Jodie who Belmode had expressed a clear interest in, who had watched with an amused smile for some time, who had taken away some of the little attention he had received.
As he took his steps without saying a word, watching Ichijō Mirai's relaxed and jaunty pace that was more in keeping with his youthful appearance, a somewhat hesitant thought crossed his mind: the Organization, it seems, is working on... something special?
Something special?
This is a secret of the organization, a secret that most of the code members don't know about, Calvados only vaguely knew that the organization seems to be researching something magical, related to rejuvenation, because of joining Belmode and wagging his tail so attentively.
Before, he had scoffed at the idea, not believing that there was such an unscientific thing in the world, nor did he think that the organization was really researching it.
But now, he was a little shaken: if 'Satan' was as young as a high school student, how old was he when he first committed the crime?
Even if he was born with antisocial personality disorder, he wouldn't have become antisocial to the extent of 'Satan' when he was a teenager, right?
Calling 'Satan' a sociopath is an insult to sociopaths! That's not what sociopaths do!
It doesn't...
Calvados' rapid heartbeat seemed to skip a few beats as he stepped into the shadows of the changing room: no, there was really such a thing as 'rejuvenation', was there?
Just as his mind wandered for a moment, he was slapped in the face.
Ichijō Mirai pulled Calvados' hood off, wondering, "What are you thinking?"
Why are your eyes lighting up?
Why are his eyes so bright?
"...I'm warning you," He refused to trust any foreigner and was very suspicious, "I won't play any unhealthy pornographic scenes with you, such as whipping, torture, swallowing guns, etc., not when there are multiple people, and even less when there are two people,"
He pressed Calvados into a chair and added, "It's not abuse, so don't get excited."
At any other time, Calvados would have laughed at this light-hearted, light-hearted joke, and probably joked about it back, but now, he couldn't quite laugh.
Jodie wasn't laughing either, staring at Ichijō Mirai like a foe, trying to stop him if he did something shocking that would make his brain bleed again.
Akai Shūichi, on the other hand, looked at Ichijō Mirai for a few seconds, pondering for a few seconds: more than once or twice he'd emphasized something like that in jest, and he seemed to be a bit of a...
In the midst of his thoughts, he heard Ichijō Mirai's sudden, gentle questioning of the dead.
Not about the case, not about 'Satan', but about.
"By the way, what was Rum's escape route after 'Satan's' second case?"
"I'll test you. Answer in three minutes. No