Ichijō Mirai is sad.
He's pretending.
He acted as if it was so perfunctory that anyone who didn't speak Japanese would think he was just blandly saying 'what are we going to eat today' or 'how long will it take to get to our destination' instead of talking about his 'family situation'.
But anyone who understands Japanese with a normal level of intelligence wouldn't think that he's just being bland because he doesn't really care.
Suzuki Sonoko: "!"
The smile that had been unconsciously blooming on her face had already been withdrawn when Ichijō Mirai said that his parents had died young, and now she frowned even more, feeling worried for a moment and wanting to comfort him, but knowing that Ichijō Mirai didn't need to be comforted if he was able to say it out loud, she had a hard time deciding whether to beat the bear boy once, twice, or three times?
Mouri Korogō, in the driver's seat, couldn't help but look in the rearview mirror a few more times.
He hadn't come into contact with Ichijō Mirai more than a few times, not really, and he hadn't said anything today, neither greeting him cheerfully nor muttering about the excellent detective who had recently gained notoriety, partly because it was clear that the detective's target was Suzuki Sonoko.
Then it's not 'a suspicious enemy sneaking around her daughter's side', but 'her daughter's friend's boyfriend', so there's no need to look at her sideways or downwards, nose to nose or eye to eye, and make a hard judgment.
The other part is Ichijō Mirai's red eyes.
Ten years ago, the red morning star that shone brightly in the sky was quite famous. Unfortunately, he died before he could become a full-time police officer, leaving only a dim arc of falling stars in the sky. In addition, ten years have passed, and most people no longer remember it. However, it is only ordinary people who have little contact with the police who no longer remember it.
However, Ichijō Mirai was an excellent detective, with red eyes, and the surname 'Ichijō', so when they saw him again, it was hard for people in the relevant fields to forget the red color that was very active for a short period of time.
So here's the question...
Is Ichijō Mirai a relative of the excellent police officer from ten years ago, or is he the officer himself?
If it's the former, it's not a big deal, since the last name is different, but if it's the latter, it's a subtle, probably police secret, question of 'why a dead good police officer is actually alive, and has changed his name to become a completely different person'.
And that means there's bound to be trouble.
Mouri Korogō wasn't drinking today, so of course he couldn't go all red in the face, and he couldn't just blurt out his question, he glanced at Conan again and muttered to himself, "This kid isn't just asking questions at the scene of a murder.
But this time the question is good, not too much to ask something that should not be asked, but also hidden edge so that people can get some want to know the situation.
…Forget it, I won't punch him right now. I'll wait until he makes trouble again at the murder scene and then I'll punch him harder than usual.
Conan was oblivious to the dark cloud slowly falling over his head, he was carefully controlling his glowing eyes, "No wonder I didn't hear about it from Mirai-brother, it's..."
His eyes lit up for two reasons, one was that he had gotten a clue, and the other was that Ichijō Mirai had been honest and hadn't lied, and the story matched Akai Shūichi's, so the probability of him being 'Satan' went down.
"Well," Ichijō Mirai smiled at Suzuki Sonoko, watching her furrowed brow unconsciously ease, and added to Conan, "there's another reason I don't talk about him too much... we're brothers, but we don't really spend a lot of time together due to the untimely deaths of our parents."
So we're not close.
This can't be said out loud, it can only be politely pressed on the empty beat button, letting people take care of themselves, after saying that, his eyes swept over Conan's thoughtful expression, and then looked at Suzuki Sonoko, he also narrowed his eyes thoughtfully, and smiled quickly, like hesitating for a few seconds, and turned his head sideways to her, "Though..."
"But we don't spend much time together, and we have different philosophies," He paused at the end of his sentence, his gaze sweeping over Suzuki Sonoko once more before he added, "Normally the relationship isn't really that good."
Conan took in the scene, and without thinking, immediately concluded that the explanation for them had already been finished, and that the more detailed explanations were for Suzuki Sonoko alone.
It's a good idea to be more detailed when you're talking to the object of your affection, but he didn't notice anything wrong, and started running down the information as soon as he'd finished defining it: 'Satan' and 'Messiah' don't have a very good relationship.
Akai Shūichi had said that, according to his initial guess, 'Messiah' didn't find out that 'Satan' was dead until long after he'd gone unheard of, so the twins probably didn't have a lot of contact and weren't on good terms with each other.
They were blood relatives who would avenge each other's death even though they were not on good terms with each other.
Although this hypothesis was disproved after sharing the information with Morofushi Hiromitsu, it's hard to believe that such a righteous person would have a good relationship with a guy like 'Satan', ignoring his New York days when he might have been acting out due to the mission, and looking at 'Messiah' during his police academy days.
After analyzing, Conan let out a sigh of relief: it's not like 'Satan' disguised as 'Messiah' can give a frank account of this kind of talk, and the probability of 'Satan' is once again decreasing.
He was just about to get up the nerve to make sure, when he heard the sudden cheering of children not far away.
It was from Dr. Agasa's car.
Ichijō Mirai looked over at the sound, still smiling, and smoothly changed the subject, "The amusement park is here."
One didn't need to look ahead to hear the children's cheers to get the message, Dr. Agasa's car was now almost a mass of children, both those in the passenger seat and those in the backseat cheering with their arms outstretched like little clusters of wiggling mushrooms.
One cluster was particularly short, almost half the height of the other 'mushrooms', and was quietly cowering in the corner, standing out among Dr. Agasa, who was busy turning his head to tell the children not to move, and the children who were so happy they wanted to fly into the amusement park right away.
When Ichijō Mirai looked over, he saw only the tops of brown hair that occasionally appeared between the children's silhouettes.
Suddenly, the brown top of hair moved.
Instead of joining the cheering children, it shrank down even further, trembling like a chicken that has been spotted by an eagle and can only shiver and crouch in place waiting to die, and almost shrank down from the seat of the car, which was noticed in time by one of the children who was cheering, and looking down, she patted her arm underneath it caringly and said something with a worried expression.
Ichijō Mirai takes a second look, not reacting at first, just looking and gathering information out of habit, only to realize halfway through: wait, Sherry?
That's...
Oh, she's a breathalyzer.
He immediately withdrew his gaze as if nothing had happened, and said to Conan, without changing his expression, as if he were just glad that Conan had made a friend and was checking him out a bit more, "Looks like you're having a good time with your friends."
"Have you guys planned anything in advance? Let's have some fun today, they're still kids after all, but..."
Ichijō Mirai gives a slight hesitant look, and doesn't continue, only smiles.
*
The hook is straight and the bait is salty.
But the intrepid detective was always good at biting the bait, and without waiting for the rides, Conan naturally took Ichijō Mirai by the hem of his shirt while Mouri Ran searched for something in the queue to enter the park.
He quietly asked, "Brother Mirai, you're acting strange today."
As Ichijō Mirai looked down, he tilted his head back up, and instead of using the tone of a child, he used the tone of an adult communicating on an equal footing, "You're treating Sonoko very, very well today."
It's obvious.
Not only did he keep looking at her from the very beginning of the meeting, but he also explained part of his family's situation, and even made a point of explaining it to her in detail.
It's almost as if he's signaling 'I want to pursue you', and that's why he's giving his personal information.
But Ichijō Mirai's previous attitude had been so ambiguous that Conan assumed he was not very good at wooing people, and that this was the first time he had ever thought of falling in love, and that he was concerned about the organization's existence.
Now there's a twist. What does it mean?
"Is it obvious?"
Ichijō Mirai asks, and explains indirectly with the volume of a whisper, "I've gotten a new lead on Rum."