A bullet is thrown up in the air, cuts a parabola, and comes down again.
But instead of hitting the ground, it was caught, just as it had been in the fire many years before.
The man who caught the bullet was Morofushi Hiromitsu.
He had seen the bullet thrown at him just as he pushed through the door, and now holding it, he pulled another bullet out of his pocket, his eyebrow twitching, "...You seem to care."
This is a private room in the bar, the bar is crowded, and there is more than one door, as long as a little disguise can easily blend into this colorful black crowd, and then quietly withdraw, from beginning to end so that no one can detect the trace.
It was one of the best places to meet.
On the sofa inside the box, Akai Shūichi withdrew his hand from tossing the bullet and said lightly, "Because you cared enough to use the bullet as a password to ask you out, you would have come out to the appointment."
Because it could have been Ichijō Mirai.
If you don't talk to him for a long time, as if you don't know him, and then you suddenly contact him, something urgent must have happened.
So even though he had guessed that the person he was meeting was the FBI when he saw the bullet, and even though he didn't really want to meet with the FBI to exchange information, Morofushi Hiromitsu showed up anyway.
Morofushi Hiromitsu raised an eyebrow, noncommittal, "Yes."
He closed the door behind him, walked over to the couch and sat down, stating his best guess, which he had thought about long and hard before arriving, "What's going on at Marc Brandy's?"
In some cases, the FBI would be like a hound dog chasing a target, and even if another prey came forward, he wouldn't even look at it, but would still be chasing the target with his eyes.
This was the case with Akai Shūichi.
His original target was Rum.
But after entering the organization, investigating Rum's suspicions for a long time, and getting an unbelievable lead from all sorts of small clues, and realizing that the traces he had traced led to the leader of the organization, he changed his target and started to focus on Ichijō Mirai.
The leader never appears, so if the leader is Rum, and Rum is the leader, he can't trace much of anything, and unless he gets lucky and the leader makes a personal visit and goes on a mission under Rum's code name again, he won't be able to find his enemy at all.
The only way to find the enemy was to switch methods and approach him from the side, such as Ichijō Mirai, who had a close relationship with the chief.
Every time Akai Shūichi contacted Morofushi Hiromitsu, he exchanged information about Ichijō Mirai, and this time as well, he simply nodded and admitted that something did happen there, "I told Conan about the fire."
Conan.
In different people's eyes, he could be a bear of a boy who deserves to be hammered, a smart little detective who's resourceful, a Pokémon who can be thrown around with a glint in his eye and yell, 'You're the one, go ahead and fish up Mr. Mirai, Conan!
Of course, it's more likely that it's a Pokémon that's been on the brink of death many times, but those who aren't members of the organization can't understand the subtleties of this, and can only taste the surface nuances.
The surface flavor, of course, was that Ichijō Mirai was paying attention to Conan.
As soon as this became apparent, Akai Shūichi had investigated Conan to the bone, and had taken both the organizational and police information compiled by Morofushi Hiromitsu and Amuro Tooru, and combined them to discover the incredible fact that 'Conan is Kudō Shinichi'.
Morofushi Hiromitsu was able to get to the bottom of something that none of the organization's sources had ever bitten into: it wasn't Ichijō Mirai's attention to Conan that made him promise to go out on Valentine's Day, skiing, and face-to-face with him.
He is because Suzuki Sonoko...
In most people's eyes, it was a speculation that would be even more shocking and unbelievable than 'Conan is Kudō Shinichi', and even if Morofushi Hiromitsu had said it, he felt that the others would have just been silent for a few seconds, politely smiled as if they were listening to an unfunny joke and then skimmed over it.
But he did have a vague premonition, a premonition that 'Ichijō Mirai likes Suzuki Sonoko' that had sprouted like a seed in his head when he realized that Suzuki Sonoko and Ichijō Mirai had crossed paths.
Morofushi Hiromitsu wasn't really sure, so he didn't tell the others, but after a few seconds of subtle pause, he asked keenly, without changing his color, "Only the fire?"
Akai Shūichi admitted frankly, "I also told Conan about that guy's relationship with 'Satan'."
Not only that, "They're meeting today."
What's Kudō Shinichi? A detective.
A young and energetic teenage detective.
What's more, his blood is thick, so thick, that after spending so much time with Ichijō Mirai, he didn't experience much of a spike in blood pressure.
Unlike other people who can't ask directly for various reasons, he learned about this matter and was able to ask directly.
Morofushi Hiromitsu: "..."
Between 'A detective is a detective, and his blood is really thick', 'As time passes, Ichijō Mirai's aggressiveness has been greatly reduced, and he has gradually lost the ability to regulate other people's blood pressure', and 'Suzuki Sonoko is here, and he is faking it,' he believed the last one more than the others.
So the question is: Ichijō Mirai and 'Satan' are twins.
Twins that have empathy, empathy that's like having a private channel to communicate with, not to mention something like 'hands touching something and the other person feeling it'.
And Ichijō Mirai likes Suzuki Sonoko.
So...
Although 'Satan' is probably dead, so there's no need to think about the question 'How do you twins find a love interest? But for Ichijō Mirai, who definitely remembers 'Satan', it's still a bit of a problem.
If only it had been asked when Suzuki Sonoko was in the neighborhood...
Morofushi Hiromitsu fell silent again, and after a few seconds, he inquired with difficulty, "You-"
What's with Kudō Shinichi? What's the point?
"Originally," Akai Shūichi said, "I wanted to use this as a way to find out about the cooperation between 'Satan' and 'Rum'."
The FBI's investigation revealed that Rum and the leader of the organization were one and the same.
But it seems they weren't one person from the beginning, but became one person ten years ago: in a quiet moment, the nefarious Rum had the position of leader renewed, and became the leader himself.
Ten years ago, it was a very special time.
It was ten years ago that 'Satan' first became famous.
If 'Satan' and 'Messiah' grew up in the organization, with the former surrendering to the organization and becoming a dog that guards the hell with his fangs, tearing down countless bloodshed cases, and the latter escaping, remembering his father's and mother's killers and holding a grudge against the organization, then Ichijō Mirai's attitude towards 'Satan' was so close that it made Akai Shūichi puzzled! .
But what if 'Satan' wasn't tamed by the organization, but on the contrary, turned against it the moment he gained power, dangling his fangs at the throat of the man responsible for the murder of his parents, and then falling down with a sneer?
It's true that he's a cold-blooded and ruthless executioner.
But as long as he had a presence in the events that led to Rum's becoming the leader, it seemed that he had some deep and understandable emotional pain, and that he would receive Ichijō Mirai's tolerance, favoritism, and silent support.
"But," Akai Shūichi continued, as the previous speculation slipped from his mind, "Conan listened and came up with a new idea."
He began with a known fact: "During that fire, 'Satan' appeared."
Many expected that 'Satan', who hadn't appeared for a long time, had died, and Akai Shūichi had thought so too, before he had gotten the important clue from Morofushi Hiromitsu.
The fire incident had overturned this theory, but not completely.
Satan wasn't dead at the time, but by the time Ichijō Mirai was active in New York, Satan was already dead.
This is another subtle point: if 'Satan' died in this short, short period of time, at what point could he have died?
Was it a silent, unknown event after the fire?
...Or a fire?
Akai Shūichi is a radical, and boldly speculates that 'Satan' most likely died in the fire.
Conan, on the other hand, is a conservative.
He thought Akai Shūichi was too conservative.
"Conan said," Akai Shūichi paraphrased, "that if someone died in a fire without anyone knowing."
"...Why does it have to be 'Satan'?"
Couldn't it have been Messiah?
As soon as he made that guess, Akai Shūichi suddenly thought of the subtle reaction he had detected when he first exchanged information with Morofushi Hiromitsu.
It was a test.
It was a test to see if the 'Messiah' Akai Shūichi knew and the 'Kujō Mirai' Morofushi Hiromitsu knew were the same person.
Judging from the reactions, Morofushi Hiromitsu probably confirmed that it was the same person.
But Conan had a different opinion, he was reluctant to believe that the Ichijō Mirai he knew was the 'Satan' who was feared by countless people, but the detective's radar consciously sorted out the doubts.
For example, Ichijō Mirai didn't know Suzuki Sonoko.
Normally, it's possible for a good police officer who saves lives all the time not to recognize the hostages he's saved, but the Suzuki Group's daughter's disappearance was a big deal, the Suzuki surname is a bit unusual, Suzuki Sonoko had the same hairstyle as a child and in high school, and Ichijō Mirai has an excellent memory.
How could he act as if he'd never been kidnapped at all?
It's not an absolute suspicion, there's a very good reason: Ichijō Mirai just didn't pay attention to Suzuki Sonoko's name and appearance when he rescued her, nor did he pay attention to the emergency news broadcasts, he just saved her like he was stopping by to get breakfast, and then he forgot about it.
Ichijō Mirai wasn't a computer, and even if it was, the contents of its memory had probably been changed after ten years.
As a former classmate, Morofushi Hiromitsu could have said that with a frown, but he paused: he had no proof, just an intuition that Ichijō Mirai had cared for Suzuki Sonoko after the kidnapping.
But if he cared, how could he not recognize her?
As soon as he paused, Akai Shūichi saw what was going on, and his dark green eyes narrowed, "It seems that you..."
Suddenly, his phone rang.
The caller was Jodie, and when the computer picked up, she first briefly checked if Akai Shūichi was comfortable communicating confidential matters at the moment, and after confirming that, she reported in a very fast voice, "Belmode booked an emergency flight to Tokyo."
She emphasized, "Just like before, she was fine one minute, then she suddenly lifted her headphones and listened for a while, changed her face, and booked an emergency flight."
It's happened several times.
According to Akai Shūichi's hidden research, each time Belmode had to return to Tokyo, it was because Gin had an unexpected accident.
When there's an accident, there's also an undercurrent in the organization.
But the FBI can only find out what's going on, not what's going on.
Without changing his expression, Akai Shūichi hung up the phone and said to Morofushi Hiromitsu, "It's probably Gin's heartbeat."
"The organization is equipped with heartbeat monitors for Gin and Ichijō Mirai," He explains, "and Ichijō Mirai's body... you know, so I guess it's possible that people who take the drug will experience changes in their bodies at some point, and one of the characteristics of that is that their heartbeats will accelerate abnormally, triggering the heartbeat monitor's automated alerts."
What else?
What if it's not a serious reason, but 'every time Gin's heart beats too fast, it means he's pissed off at Ichijō Mirai, and it means Ichijō Mirai's about to do something big, and this isn't a heartbeat monitor, it's an alarm for world peace'?
Morofushi Hiromitsu didn't know about this.
He was often sent on business trips to all sorts of places by the organization like butter, with the attitude of 'okay, you've got people above you, you can't be touched as an undercover agent, and if you can't be touched, then you'll be left out in the cold', and they even passed by Gin when he was on his way to Antarctica, the North Pole, and Siberia on business trips for no apparent reason.
But Gin's business trips are temporary, his business trips are always, and he usually has very little access to organizational secrets, and doesn't know a lot of things.
"So," he asked slowly under his breath, not really caring about Gin, still pondering the previous topic of Ichijō Mirai, but matching the change of subject, "now, Gin's heart is beating fast?"
*
Whether Gin's heart is beating fast or not, Ichijō Mirai doesn't know, but his heart is dying.
He was holding his chest, feeling the pounding of his heart in his palm, and felt a blackness in front of his eyes, with no light at all.
But not long after loading out, the tips belonging to the game were flashing light: [Prop name: 'Forbidden Fruit'.]
[On the first day of creation, God created the 'forbidden fruit', which enables people to know good and evil, to realize the truth, and to see the essence of the world.]
What is the nature of the world?
The world is a giant Detective Conan.
So a lot of things come to light: no wonder there's a godly organization that seeks immortality, no wonder there's a drug that can bring back youth, no wonder the police pulls so much, the FBI jumps so much, no wonder when the 'past' affects the 'reality', he doesn't become the leader after he kills the leader, he supports Rum to sit on the leader's seat, and so on and so forth.
It's bright all around him, bright sunlight streaming in through the narrow windows, snow-white incandescent lamps splashing across the ceiling, and the system's prompts are so bright you can see them even with your eyes closed, but Ichijō Mirai feels nothing but darkness in his future.
He was desperate: the world was a huge makeshift team.
...But it's too crude, isn't it?!