This silence was inevitable.
The reason is simple: if no one else knows what Ichijō Mirai is, does Akai Shūichi?
He knows very well, very well, so well that he can close his eyes at 3:00 a.m. and have a high-definition VCR playing on a loop in front of him, and open his eyes in peace because of it.
Knowing what Ichijō Mirai is isn't surprising, and given Ichijō Mirai's personality, it's rare for anyone who's ever spent time with him not to know what he is, so how on earth did he manage to get Conan to think of himself as a purely good person, innocent of revenge?
That was the question.
After a moment, Akai Shūichi managed to say, "No."
Ignoring all the slogans, such as 'Mirai-san is a victim', 'Gin is more careful than Ichijō Mirai', 'Gin is more cold-blooded and ruthless than Ichijō Mirai', he said, "It's not a retaliation against him, it's..."
"Revenge against 'Satan'."
'Satan'?
Tokyoites would never forget that name, at least not in the last few decades, Conan reacted almost immediately, and instantly realized the point: revenge against 'Satan'?
Who's so brave?
No, who's so righteous?
Wait a minute, the other side's retaliation is not very righteous, start again: who is so devious and cunning to sacrifice his own life?
But why take revenge on 'Satan' at the Beika department store? Does 'Satan' own the department store? The speculation that the fire was a demonstration against the police is more plausible.
And why did Ichijō Mirai handle the fire against Satan?
Throughout the entire fire, it was as if the person being retaliated against never showed up for a single moment, and didn't have a single presence at all.
Conan was suspicious.
"No," Akai Shūichi said, "'The person who was retaliated against didn't have a single presence' is right, even if that day was very important to that person, a fork in the road where everything was very different, and didn't have a single presence to the public, but 'the person who was retaliated against never appeared for a single moment', is wrong."
"He appeared."
This was something that he hadn't investigated, no matter how much information he had searched, no matter if he had commissioned his seniors to investigate or if he had gone to investigate himself.
It was because almost no one had found it at all.
Except for one person: Morofushi Hiromitsu.
Recalling Morofushi Hiromitsu's words, Akai Shūichi lowered his eyes, "Shortly after the fire, in the most anxious moment of rescue, a man in black was seen entering the scene of the fire."
"When I learned of the fire, Ichijō Mirai went there first, and when he had already evacuated, that guy returned, it's really..."
After a pause, he added: "And, the rescue personnel in the field seems to be wrong,"
"There are unidentified people mixed in, assisting in the rescue."
What?
Stunned, mostly because of Akai Shūichi's words, and a little because of Akai Shūichi's somewhat subtle and complex tone, Conan began to hesitate cautiously: what, what do you mean?
What did it mean that 'Satan' had been to the fire? A bloodthirsty guy like him didn't leave any traces at the scene of the crime.
What does 'that day was a very important and different fork in the road for a person' mean? It sounds...
What do you mean by "but returned"? Satan' left but returned because of Ichijō Mirai? That sounds even stranger...
And what about the unidentified person who assisted in the rescue?
It's not like 'Satan' had a conscience and allowed his subordinates to save people, is it?
It was like a horror story, it gave Conan goosebumps, "That,"
He hesitated again and again, and asked with great caution and care: "'Satan', and Mr. Mirai... what is the relationship?"
That's exactly what it sounds like!!!
It's not even a direct relationship like 'rivalry'!
But, but what kind of person is 'Satan'? That kind of cold-blooded, ruthless, bloodthirsty guy, and thinking about the Ichijō Mirai he remembered, Conan could hardly imagine that 'Satan' and 'Mirai-san' actually had a positive relationship.
"At first, I thought it was hostile," Akai Shūichi said, "then I thought they were close but distant."
If they weren't close, why would Ichijō Mirai want to avenge 'Satan'? Even if you're usually hostile, if you're avenging someone, you must care.
Ichijō Mirai would have guessed after 'Satan's' death, rather than confirming it right away.
But that guess was also wrong.
"They had been each other's reason for living, and each other's murderers," he said lightly, "brothers by blood, each other's closest existence."
*
Ichijō Mirai's closest existence wanted to call the police.
I want to call the police.
With each step, Gin asked himself, "Can we really live like this?
Can't we?
The guy who had the bright idea of 'Hey, why don't we recruit Ichijō Mirai into the organization? The guy who first thought of it, and then popped the light bulb, "Hey, why don't we recruit Ichijō Mirai into the organization?", has died, quietly and peacefully, like a cannon fodder NPC in a horror movie that's been scared to death by a ghost, and not a single person has spoken out on his behalf, and even Belmode has maintained a state of silence.
Some people die because they deserve to die.
Some live to suffer.
Gin wasn't really picky, he could even work all day and all night, twenty-four hours a day, make do, but every time he came to see Ichijō Mirai, he felt a little bit like greeting the former chief, and his feet seemed to be invisibly heavier, like dark clouds that had absorbed water.
He came by way of a detour.
Even if the fire scene everyone's spirit is tense attention on the rescue, but also because of the smoke surrounded by the clarity of vision decline, so three meters away from barely see the human form, five meters away from the human and animals are not distinguishable, did not quite realize that there have been people into the mix, in the help to rescue the trapped.
...In fact, the members of the organization also quite did not expect to be full of justice and enthusiasm to save people's day.
In addition to not being able to pay attention and not being able to see clearly, the members of the organization who blended in were not detected because they didn't wear the organization's standard black attire, but rather wore their regular clothes.
But Gin was different.
He was dressed in black, and a long black trench coat, which was too strange for a fire scene, and as long as he appeared in the field of vision, he would leave an impression on the other side of the street, so since there was more than one stairwell in the Beika department store, and since the people coming and going were all in a hurry and had obvious footsteps, he was able to sneak past the other people with a bit of care.
The unavoidable detour will also delay you from seeing the wrong guy.
...Of course, this is only incidental, but also unspeakable.
Along the way, Gin slowly gathered himself together and made a solemn decision in line with the identity of the twentieth century mafia: for the sake of love and justice, for the sake of peace in the world, to persuade the non-chief not to go on a killing spree.
If you want to kill, go to England!
If you do it in Tokyo, 'Satan's organization' will be nailed to the pillars of history, and will probably become the first lesson in some field of knowledge, like so many other unimaginable cases.
...I don't want to do this kind of thing, right?
After a few moments of walking again, and stepping out of the stairwell to look around, Gin saw Ichijō Mirai.
Ichijō Mirai was near the stairwell, half crouched on the ground, the ground at his side was a mess, and he was administering oxygen to a trapped person who had collapsed on the ground.
The trapped person, whose face was mostly black and whose neck was held high like a goose's, was in the middle of Ichijō Mirai's hand, drawing in oxygen urgently and sharply.
The hand holding the respirator was in a similar state of disarray, wrapped in layer upon layer of cloth that was indistinguishable from ash, burn marks, and blood.
But the owner of the hand is very calm, he lowered his eyes, quietly looking at the trapped people who are little by little from the death of life, the expression does not see the tender need to help the pity, nor impatient displeasure, nothing, only like the initial expression of calm.
Not like a good person, but not like a bad person either.
Not human.
Gin stopped.
He thought calmly, "No wonder the damn ex-chief had to force and twist this guy into the organization to experience the joy of dying overnight by force.
When he is not being a human, this guy looks quite inhuman and has no human nature.
In a positive way.