[156 rescued.]
[Mission accomplished. Please confirm if you want to save this file.]
[Auto-saving due to full number of people...Saved successfully!]
[Congratulations on your mission reward...]
[Mission reward details...]
[Too much information loading, closing the game...]
The moment the mission was completed, the world seemed to have pressed the pause button, no matter the weakly beating fire, or the dust and smoke that were intertwined in the air, they all came to a standstill, as if the game that was in progress had suddenly lagged.
Everything was stagnant, except for the sound of bones twisting and growing, but only for a few moments before it stopped.
Layers and layers of prompts were piled on top of each other, occupying Ichijō Mirai's field of vision. He had just sat down by the wall, moving his shoulders with little expression, and his eyes were lowered just enough to make out a bright red prompt at the top: [The game is shutting down. Important rewards for the quests are still being loaded, so please do not force it to shut down in order to avoid...].
The message is followed by a [3%] progress bar, so it seems that the intention is to complete both the rewards and the closing of the game while the bar is loading.
The progress bar is important.
But Ichijō Mirai didn't pay attention to the progress bar for the first time, and while his wounds healed quickly, he stood up and turned his head sideways in the direction of the exit, somewhat hesitantly.
It was something Ichijō Mirai had known for a long time, that the identity of Kujō Mirai would die in [Police Academy Newcomer].
He didn't intend to change it.
Changing that would cause a huge chain reaction, reshuffling the current situation, which was barely stable despite its shortcomings, and the reshuffled situation would be unforeseeable and perhaps even more troublesome, so there was no need to change it.
That's true, but when the moment came...
Ichijō Mirai continued to move his shoulders, familiarizing himself with the rusty feeling of his flesh and bones, as he took a step back towards the stairway, following a route he had repeated several times.
He wasn't a normal person, and as long as he didn't get killed in a single blow, he wouldn't die, but the others weren't, and he was more worried about some of his classmates rushing in and getting hurt when they found out that he hadn't gotten out, so he planned to do something about it while the game was still loading up and going down.
And the reward for the quest that caused the game to go down...
As he walked, Ichijō Mirai glanced at the loading progress bar and quickened his pace, he could vaguely guess what this final reward would make him realize.
For example, how 'Ichijō Mirai' was able to create a new self by erasing his previous memories, wiping out his first-person self, and creating a second-person self.
For example, how did the 'game' come into being, which is so incredible and unscientific that it can change the past, and why did 'Ichijō Mirai' choose to play the game in the way he did?
And then there are... well... some life lessons, historical lessons learned by the former, such as which rats who don't follow the rules of the road that don't involve their families need to be immediately branded with fire, such as how to protect your family, such as what your family likes and dislikes... well... these are all very easy to think of.
Such things were easy to think of, and Ichijō Mirai withdrew his eyes as if nothing had happened, and made his way through the more ruinous corridors, far enough to see the stairway.
I also saw a figure.
At the top of the stairs, the high school student who didn't know why he had been given the code name 156 was half-kneeling, half-sitting on the floor, his head half-raised as if he was looking up to speak, while Morofushi Hiromitsu was crouching on one knee, supporting the recently escaped survivor with both hands, his face facing the other way in an attentive listening posture, but his eyes were looking in the direction of the corridor.
Just in time to meet the eyes of Ichijō Mirai coming down the corridor.
Morofushi Hiromitsu was frozen in time.
But Ichijō Mirai once again looked at Matsuda Jinpei on the other side of the room as if nothing had happened.
Matsuda Jinpei was holding a walkie-talkie, his brow furrowed and his eyes fixed on the ceiling above him, as if he was reporting to someone outside the building.
In his left hand, he is holding a respirator in a half-raised position, as if to put it on. His clothes have been altered to make it easier to move around during the long rescue, and he is now in a position to rush into the danger zone after reporting the situation and calling for help.
It's dangerous.
That's why Ichijō Mirai was logically keeping his eyes on Matsuda Jinpei as he walked past, never shifting his gaze.
On the way over, he had been thinking about how to stop his classmates: it had to be simple, direct, and effective, and he had to be able to do it quickly and easily, or else they probably wouldn't be able to slow down enough to crack it, given the critical situation at the fire.
It is also important that the students are able to think about the death afterward so that they do not have time to grieve.
There are many ways to stop it, but very few of them meet all the requirements.
Excluding the unreliable methods such as 'temporarily erecting a [No Passing Here] sign', then...
After a few seconds of brief thought, Ichijō Mirai, in a daze, rummaged through himself and the others for a few moments, and muttered sadly to himself, "There's no pen and paper, so I can't just leave my last words of 'I'll be waiting for you in the wind and the rain in my undercover career,' sadly."
After the perfunctory pity, he focused on Morofushi Hiromitsu's body and managed to find a bullet.
The bullet was in the lining pocket, and even though the owner had been in and out of the fire for a long time, it was still securely fastened, and had not been lost.
It was even clean because it was always in the pocket.
Ichijō Mirai tossed the bullet, glanced at the almost fully loaded progress bar, and slipped it into Morofushi Hiromitsu's cuff.
It was in a position where the bullet would fall out if Morofushi Hiromitsu moved.
Almost as soon as the bullet was inserted, the progress bar filled up completely and a system alert popped up.
[Loading has been successful, the game will be temporarily shutting down.]
[You have been logged back in, please select [Enter Game], [Log Out].]
The former of the two options was grayed out, but only the latter was lit up, and Ichijō Mirai was too preoccupied with sensing whether or not he'd changed to pay much attention to the prompts, glancing at them and choosing to log out.
He pushed the pod open and tilted his head hesitantly.
It was loaded, but perhaps because he hadn't received any in-game rewards, he didn't have the same sense of clarity that he had the last two times he'd been in the game.
Instead, he felt a subtle sense of being submerged in the water, of the world being dull, and his thoughts seemed to be spinning a few beats slower than usual, like the human brain was slowly processing incomprehensible information, like he was drunk.
The bathroom door was pushed open.
Hearing Ichijō Mirai open the pod, but not seeing him come out, Gin opened the door alertly to check.
The first second he entered, his eyes were not on the game pod, but on the narrow window above the bathroom where even cats can't get out, and when he caught a glimpse of Ichijō Mirai leaning against the side of the pod, he turned his eyes sideways and was stunned for a second.
'I can't believe I didn't sneak out... the sun's coming out of the west?'
Gin's head seemed to be holding a hint that had coalesced into a solid word, but he had the good sense not to say it out loud, and instead immediately collected himself as if he hadn't just ventured to speculate that the great non-chief lord had once again slipped away to cheat on his wife, but rather that he had been a loyal subordinate who came in to report on the day's itinerary for his trustworthy superiors, "This afternoon is the time that Kudō Shinichi is going to ask you to go out and have fun."
After a pause, he added, "The companions are Suzuki Sonoko, Mouri Ran, and those kids."
"Are you going?"
It wasn't like he was saying 'going out', it was like he was saying 'the deceased xx, xx and xx', and apart from a faint sense of mortality, there was a very shallow, very subtle, intangible respect for the teacher of the greater body.
The tone seemed too obvious, Gin realized this and adjusted his tone without moving, he observed Ichijō Mirai who didn't answer for a few seconds and suddenly frowned, "What's wrong with you?"
"I was thinking that the sound of a bullet hitting the ground must be quite noticeable," Ichijō Mirai tilted his head to the other side and spoke slowly, "I hope we have some understanding,"
The subtle feeling of discomfort, as if the whole world was suddenly strange, no longer the familiar land but the bottom of the sea grew stronger, and the drunken-like feeling intensified, and he had to work hard to retrieve his thoughts before he could divert them from [Police Academy Newcomer] to Gin, "Um... Kudō Shinichi ..."
Gin observed Ichijō Mirai's expression.
As he watched, his brow knitted in confusion, "You're-"
"Sick?"
It was a rather strange thing to think that a normal person would be sick, but was Ichijō Mirai a normal person?
I'm not sure, let's see.
Gin looked again and again, and realized that Ichijō Mirai's expression, which seemed to be slowed down by the high fever, suddenly changed.
It became blank.
He saw Ichijō Mirai, whose expression was blank, close her eyes, open them again, and slowly call out to herself with the same sluggishness she had just experienced: "Gin?"
Huh?
Gin responded uncertainly, "Uh, I'm here."
He saw Ichijō Mirai slowly close and open his eyes again, his expression seemed blanker, and the tone of his voice again seemed a bit paler, "Conan?"
"Well," Gin was still unsure, nodding his head, changing the name of the report he had just given, "Conan agreed to go on a trip with you at two o'clock in the afternoon."
"The trip was..."
He didn't seem to pause: "An amusement park."
A crowded amusement park.
Ichijō Mirai's character would have been amused to hear Gin speak without pause in a tone as if he was ready to die peacefully.
But strangely, he realized that Ichijō Mirai didn't seem to have any intention of adjusting his blood pressure with Nikkei, and instead slowly said, "Kudō Shinichi?"
Gin: "?"
He narrowed his eyes, "Yes, Kudō Shinichi."
"What's wrong, what are you thinking?"
The reason why something's wrong has something to do with Kudō Shinichi? Gee, he's a pain in the ass. I should have checked his breathing before I left.
Ichijō Mirai lowered his head and raised his hand to pinch the back of his neck, making a deep murmuring sound, "Hmm..."
All Gin could see was the top of his black hair, and a bit of a drift like a deflected bullet, a light and heavy enunciation of the bite, "I wonder if I haven't woken up yet... or if I woke up the wrong way and have to fall back to sleep to do it all over again..."
He called again, "Gin?"
Gin: "?"
"..." He replied, "Yes."
Whatever the great Lord Nonchalant was doing, there was always a reason for it, and Gin, well aware of this truth, quickly looked as normal as ever, and calmly listened to Ichijō Mirai speak slowly once more, "You were at the amusement park-"
"Trading-"
Ichijō Mirai said it one keyword at a time, very slowly, "and was discovered by the Junior Detective-"
"And he killed him?"
Gin frowned, realizing that the question wasn't a simple one, and immediately dismissed it out of hand, "No."
He corrected, "Kudō Shinichi is still alive."
Then he added, "The trauma to his head was balanced by the drug, and it didn't affect his intelligence."
So you're not missing out on the fun.
Ichijō Mirai: "Oh."
"Kill me," He ordered, "right now."