"That gentleman..."
Haibara Ai lowered her voice, almost speaking at the lowest possible volume, and after only a few notes, a flash of fear crossed her face and she stopped.
"That gentleman?" Catching that crucial word, Conan's somewhat distracted state of 'there's something to learn, write it down and ask the generous teacher, Mr. Akai, about it later' instantly dissipated.
Ichijō Mirai is not only involved with Rum, but also with Mr. Akai?
He asked keenly, "Did that gentleman suffer?"
He could hear it in Haibara Ai's hesitant tone, and he could also hear that the matter between Ichijō Mirai and that gentleman must involve the organization's secrets.
But after a second of excitement and a follow-up question, Conan realized: Wait, it's Haibara Ai.
It's okay then, she probably won't disclose important secrets, let's ask Mr. Akai later.
It's true that Haibara Ai didn't want to say anything, in fact, she vaguely regretted saying the keyword right after she said it.
There were two reasons for this reluctance, one was fear of the organization and the other was...
She couldn't really remember.
It was as if an eraser had wiped her mind of the events between Mark, Rum, and the gentleman, leaving behind a fog of shadows that she couldn't recall in any detail.
She shouldn't even have this confusion of forgetting something important, she should have forgotten that a piece of her memory seemed to have been obscured.
But she was too afraid.
Even if she had forgotten something specific, Haibara Ai could still feel the distinct presence of something, and that presence was like a brand on her skin, and when she heard Ichijō Mirai's voice for a moment, it caused a phantom pain in the brand, and with it, an emotional breakdown of fear.
The feeling of fear was like seeing Gin draw his gun on the traces of the organization's traitors.
Haibara Ai didn't even have the courage to run away, she just wanted to find a place to cower and choose a corner for her beloved corpse.
But she couldn't talk to Conan about it, and if she said, "Actually, I forgot," the next thing he'd probably do was approach Ichijō Mirai more aggressively, wagging his tail like a happy puppy around the scary guy without even realizing it.
She then blanched and said, "Well, there's a relationship between them."
Of course there's a connection between the members of the organization.
Almost at the same time, Conan said, "If you don't want to talk about it, then don't, huh? You actually said it?"
He looked at Haibara Ai, who was rarely willing to reveal information about the organization, with some surprise, and immediately followed up with, "What kind of relationship?"
"Yes," After only a moment's hesitation, Haibara Ai lowered her eyes, as if recalling, "he was as high up in the organization as Rum, but unlike him, he was even more brutal than Rum, and even more feared by the members of the organization."
"He has blood on his hands, he's a good executioner, he's... he's a 'Satan' type of organization member."
So it's dangerous, you can't go near it, and if you're not careful, you'll be killed, and Mouri's office will be implicated, right?
Conan did get it: Mr. Mirai is an amazing actor!
What, to make the members of the organization afraid? That's great!
What, an executioner with blood on his hands? Did you have to kill a lot of criminals or assist the police in faking the deaths of many victims? Amazing!
What, like 'Satan'? Isn't the devil's opposite an angel? It's the
...Wait, 'Satan' hasn't appeared in so long... it can't be...
Mr. Mirai is really something!
It took Conan a great deal of effort to keep his eyes from shining brightly and then brightly again, and he feigned surprise as he looked down in contemplation, sounding surprised, "What, what? But..."
"But what," Haibara Ai cooled her face, "not only is his relationship with Gin good and common, but he was also close to Rum."
They were both trying hard.
One was trying to hide his amazement at his companion, and the other was trying to calm the fear and weakness that was mounting.
The greater the weakness, the greater the reaction, Haibara Ai said in an obviously sneering tone, "He's also very loyal to that gentleman, there are very few guys, even members of the organization, that are as loyal to that gentleman as he is, it's almost as if he's one of that gentleman's dogs."
Strangely enough, at Cricket Ichijō Mirai, she got chills down the back of her neck, and had the inexplicable fidgety feeling that if she turned around, she might see the person in question.
But when it came to Ichijō Mirai being a dog, she said it without a trace of guilt, and her tense emotions relaxed for a few seconds, as if she'd said something true.
...An illusion, right?
She paused for a moment before continuing to speak, following the admonition to Conan, barely finding fragments of memory in the fog, and speaking the uncertain ones in a certain tone: "About a few years ago, he and Rum had a confrontation, probably because he unilaterally thought that Rum was disrespectful to that gentleman."
"Then, Rum's presence in the organization continued to decrease, and by the time I defected, his presence was as low as if he had never existed."
"It was only because Rum was perceived to be disrespectful to that gentleman!"
Haibara Ai emphasized, "Before that, he and Rum were on good terms."
Half-truthfully, before Conan could press the issue, she summarized, "In short, that's a cruel guy with no boundaries. Listen to me, your priority right now is to disassociate yourself from him without a trace, even if you have to follow Gin again, it's better than having to deal with him."
Threatening, "If you get his attention, your little girlfriend could be dead someday."
Conan listened intently, thinking, 'How can Mr. Mirai be so powerful that all the members of the code name are convinced that he's absolutely loyal to that man?'
He's so good at acting, so tolerant, so powerful.
No wonder Mr. Akai...
He remembered Akai Shūichi's reaction to the exchange of information about Ichijō Mirai: an uncertain attitude, a smile, and words.
Uncertainty means trusting, but not intending to meet.
Unexplained smile is a smile like a sneer while biting on a cigarette butt.
Unexplained words...
'Why did I come to Tokyo? I guess it's because this is the new, no, old home of the husband who abandoned me.'
'What do you mean? I guess it means that my husband abandoned his old husband to be with me, and then abandoned me to find a new husband and live together in his first husband's house.'
'And I clearly wanted to develop a deeper relationship with him and his husband, and live in harmony with him as a family, but they didn't want to. One was my husband who I once separated from and reunited with in public, and the other was my newly married husband who shared the same ideals. They hadn't even dealt with the amorous guy's golden-haired lover and the dead
'Obviously, one second you're talking to each other, and the next second you're making me make room for that open-minded blonde guy who's still alive, it's really cold and heartless.'
To that, Conan: "..."
To be honest, Conan didn't get it.
There was too much 'husband', too much complexity, too much information, but he knew so little that he could hear Akai Shūichi's eerie meaning, but he couldn't translate it, and could only manage to translate one thing: Ichijō Mirai left the FBI, went undercover into the organization, met a member of the organization, formed a partnership, and then Akai Shūichi left the FBI, went undercover into the organization, met a member of the organization, formed a partnership, and then Conan couldn't understand it, to be honest.
Ichijō Mirai left the FBI, went undercover into the organization, met a member of the organization, and entered into a partnership, and then Akai Shūichi went undercover into the organization, also met a member of the organization, and entered into a three-way partnership.
Then the two parties joined forces and 'divorced' Akai Shūichi...
Hmm...
It sounds a bit subtle, an undercover agent against an undercover agent or something.
But: Mr. Mirai must have his reasons for doing this, right?
Now, Conan had deduced from Haibara Ai that the 'divorce' was probably to gain the organization's trust.
Listen, listen to what the members of the organization think of Ichijō Mirai now!
It's worth it!
As he thought about it, his cell phone rang with a new message, and Conan went to get it, rubbing his nose and promising in a dignified manner, "I know, I'll stay away."
He flicked on the screen and saw the new message.
The text was from Suzuki Sonoko: [Conan~ little~ friend~]
Conan: "..."
This kind of message was so frequent in recent times that he hardly needed to think about it to realize that Mouri Ran must have received a similar message on his end.
He also knew that if he were to meet him face-to-face, Suzuki Sonoko would probably raise her Ichijō Mirai like a Simba and make a 'It's you, Conan!
...But there's no need for that!
He thought to himself, and decided to ask Akai Shūichi 'Ichijō Mirai' about the exact relationship between 'Rum' and 'that gentleman' before he became a mascot again.
Haibara Ai's words were a bit strange and vague, but surely Akai Shūichi knew it well, right?
＊
Akai Shūichi didn't really know.
After realizing that the 'blonde murderer' who kills people every year in anger is Rum, he chases the clue to the club, finds Rum's henchman Calvados, and tortures...
No, of course the great Savior doesn't torture.
Much less tortured everyone indiscriminately.
Even if one feels tortured, it must be the old gentleman, the young man, Calvados, Jodie and Akai Shūichi themselves.
In short, after the Great Savior radiated a holy light and used the 'Forgiving Kindness' skill to trigger Calvados' 'truthful explanation', only halfway through the explanation, Akai Shūichi realized that Ichijō Mirai's expression had changed.
At first, he had the careless expression of torturing everyone equally, and when he asked, he sat backwards in his chair and propped up his chin, almost popping up a [Expecting someone to deliberately withhold information so that I can play with them] prompt box above his head.
Then, he was suddenly deep in thought.
He stared at Calvados, who was stumbling through his explanation, his eyes slowly rolling, contemplating for a few seconds, looking up, and saying in an alarmingly innocent tone, "Huh, crap."
"Actually, just now, I died in the past, and now I've come back to life, but I've coincidentally forgotten all about the 'Blonde Murderer' case... Amazing Mr. Akai, could you please tell me about the new case again?"
Akai Shūichi: "..."
It's okay, really, to just say 'I wasn't even listening, I was expecting Calvados to hide it on purpose, and I was disappointed that Calvados was actually being honest and couldn't play it straight, ugh'.
It's very Ichijō Mirai.
Everyone understands.