[FBI Newcomer].
The office was heavy, whether it was burying their heads in information, staring at the computer screen crackling typing, or walking around, all silently tense nerves, to ensure that no matter what unexpected circumstances occur they can immediately react to the bottom of the oil slipped away, at the same time, but also suspiciously with the afterimage of every corner.
Jodie did the same.
After scanning the entire office for the umpteenth time, opening her comms for the seventh time to see if any of the agents in other departments had responded with anything out of the ordinary, she took a deep breath and looked at Ichijō Mirai at her back, realizing that there was something more to it than meets the eye.
Ichijō Mirai was in a chair, not sitting, but sprawled out, most of his body blocked by the black chair, only his hair peeking out from the back of the chair, and as he rocked, he had a startlingly well-behaved look about him.
-The goodness of a tired and exhausted player.
It's nothing. Anyway, Ichijō Mirai is either playing or on his way to play. In this respect, he seems to have a skill that makes all beings equal with one click. No matter whether they are men, women, young or old, regardless of status or even dead or alive, they are all his toys. He plays whenever he wants. If this world is a game, then other people are NPCs, and he is the player who bought the game. It is natural for him to play with all NPCs and enjoy his gaming experience. Of course, there will be a halftime break when he is tired of playing.
NPCs, enjoying their gaming experience, and when they get tired of playing, there's always an intermission.
When this happens, Jodie breathes a sigh of relief.
That is, if she knows what Ichijō Mirai is playing.
...So what the hell is he doing? He's just going to and from work...he's not doing anything...why does he look like he's having a good time?!
It's not that Ichijō Mirai was playing, it's that they couldn't find out what he was doing that made him so relaxed.
Anyone would have been alarmed to see the cow cat, who had been running around the house every day, suddenly wagging his tail.
While he was thinking about it, Akai Shūichi came over, "Don't look."
"He got beat up."
What?
Jodie reacted for a moment before glancing over at Ichijō Mirai again, seeing him with a hand to his chin as the chair shifted gently from side to side, still with a relaxed expression on his face.
Apparently, when he was playing, the person he was playing with punched him, presumably right in the jaw, but presumably the punch was so light compared to his playing that it didn't affect his relaxed and happy state in the slightest.
"Ah, yeah, no injuries, seems pretty light," observing for a few seconds before Ichijō Mirai looked over, Jodie looked up at Akai Shūichi and hid a dry smile, "I don't really care that much, haha."
Ichijō Mirai doesn't look over.
But he knew that Jodie was looking at him, and he knew that everyone in the office was looking at him, and he knew that they were racking their brains frantically thinking 'what the hell went wrong?! What the hell did he play!' .
Of course, Ichijō Mirai doesn't show it outright, but Jodie can tell from the clues that he's such a perceptive person that he just doesn't come up with the 'look at me' excuse for playing when he wants to play.
Because it's not enough.
He'd always find another excuse that was irritating enough to make your blood run cold the moment you heard it, like 'left foot in the office'.
Jodie knew, and Akai Shūichi knew, "It's 'blonde murderer'...?"
Was it the 'blonde murderer' who was played?
"No," Akai Shūichi shook his head, even easily guessing the reason for Jodie's assumption, 'although the 'Blonde Murderer's' teaser letter implied that the next target would be someone from the FBI and made it look like it was you, when it was you and that guy, that guy didn't give a damn about it at all,"
In fact, when Ichijō Mirai found out about it, he only touched his platinum blonde hair as an afterthought and realized 'Ah, I forgot, I'm a blonde...why would I admit that I'm a blonde at a time like this! Those FBI's calling white-haired scumbags don't even have the eyes of a criminal!'' .
And then there was no more.
It's very un-Ichijō Mirai.
Whether it was only afterward that he realized that he was actually the target, or that he had no intention of taking revenge on the "blonde killer", it was very un-Ichijō Mirai.
"Lately, he-"
Akai Shūichi mused, pausing for a long time before slowly stating his own findings after repeated observations and investigations, "Seems to being lazy."
The most intuitive thing was that Ichijō Mirai's victims had suddenly become much fewer, and many of the FBI and criminals who had been habitually tickled in passing recently had become unaccustomed to it.
Jodie repeats, "Lazy?"
On the one hand, she thought that the criminals recently arrested by Ichijō Mirai would cry, and on the other hand, she thought, "But if you're being lazy, doesn't it harm other people more?"
No one else is being victimized!
"But his state suggests that it has, it's just that the people who are being victimized are not on our radar, and we didn't catch the key information," Akai Shūichi said, "He's been disappearing for short periods of time lately, and I just found out today that every time he disappeared, he went back to Tokyo."
This is a somewhat sensitive issue, Tokyo is a bit unusual for Ichijō Mirai, Jodie vaguely knows something secretive, although not sure, but the moment she heard this, she nodded in understanding, temporarily relieved the anxiety of 'where did he play out', nodded in understanding, "OK, then the victim may be in Tokyo."
Great!
As if it was a bit too obvious, she coughed a few more times, meaningfully focusing on the seriousness of the matter, echoing, "If you say he's been lazy lately... it seems true."
"He seems to be quite distracted lately, a bit when it comes to solving cases."
Although he often solves cases with ease, sometimes even catching the criminals as soon as they reach for him, he often doesn't care about the things he should care about, such as being scolded by the criminals.
In the past, when he was scolded by a criminal, he would take revenge on the spot, just play a little trick to make the criminal regret not being able to control his mouth. But when he was scolded a few days ago, his attention was actually on the victim's neighbor's house. He watched the neighbor's wife and husband kiss and then go to work separately. After a few hours, he seemed to come out of his inexplicable meditation and took revenge on the guy who couldn't control his mouth according to his usual habit.
It's a wonder that the guy who always takes revenge on the spot and makes it on the spot when he doesn't have a grudge is delaying his revenge!
Akai Shūichi adds, "He's been listening too much lately."
Recently, Ichijō Mirai has been seen sprawled out on his chair, lounging around in a relaxed manner, his chair still moving, and more than one person has turned their head while chatting with someone and realized that Ichijō Mirai was nearby, a horror movie that makes you urgently remember if you've just had your daily casual crickets from the kind and generous Lord FBI.
"It's not a big deal if it's business," Jodie said, knowing this too, with an odd expression, "but some people talk about more private things."
Like talking to boyfriends, like talking to girlfriends.
Turning your head and seeing someone scary while you're relaxing with your lover is as scary as a cat seeing a cucumber, and you're lucky if you don't jump out of your skin.
Wait a minute...
"All this talk," Jodie said slowly, "makes me feel like,"
Akai Shūichi chimed in to continue the hesitant speculation, "He's focusing on romance?"
Ichijō Mirai was in love?
After a second, two seconds, three seconds of silence, they spoke in unison again, "Impossible."
"Why not!" Jodie touched her arm and just wanted to laugh dryly, "Haha, there must be something we don't know, what if it's the recent emergence of the 'behind-the-scenes type of criminals who don't come out directly, but manipulate all kinds of criminals behind the scenes to accomplish their own plans'? Maybe he's concentrating on who he's fighting. He must have his own reasons."
"Let's get down to business."
Let's not talk about scary stuff in broad daylight.
Akai Shūichi changed the subject, "Amanda..."
He had just raised the paper in his hand to speak, but then he lowered his head and stared at Ichijō Mirai, who had wandered up to them at some point.
Ichijō Mirai fell back in his chair, his chin propped up on the back of the chair, and looked at him as if he were looking at a dead man, for who knows how long.
But of course, his coworker wasn't dead, and Ichijō Mirai was too kind and generous to hold a grudge against his coworker for cricketing him openly, so he slowly spoke up when Akai Shūichi, as if he were suddenly sleepy and needed to take an urgent nap with his eyes open, said, "I've been meaning to say for a long time now that 'Amanda' is definitely an important person."
"She's Amanda!"
Akai Shūichi: "...Hmm."
"What did you 'hmm'?" Ichijō Mirai asks, "Do you know how to read? You're a guy who attacks his coworkers for free."
He wanders off again.
Ichijō Mirai isn't wandering aimlessly, rather, he's quite purposeful, stopping with a few toe taps in front of an FBI agent who's on the phone, handing over a file to indicate he's here, shaking his head as the colleague hangs up, and leaving himself.
He left, but not completely. He went around to the side and back.
The coworker, unaware of this, breathed a sigh of relief and then proceeded to the phone, his tone sweet and affectionate, "I actually drank three cups of coffee today! Three cups! It's only three o'clock, I'm going to have a great meal!"
She probably told her boyfriend that she hated coffee, so he responded with concern and pain, and then began to recommend restaurants, and hesitated to choose a restaurant with good desserts, or to go to a good dessert after dinner.
"It's not really that hard," the colleague added, "it's just the stress of the case, so I don't really feel like drinking coffee when I'm focused on the case, and it's just that I'm having a hard time wrapping up things today..."
As they chatted, Ichijō Mirai turned back to Akai Shūichi and Jodie, who were quietly staring at him, and he weighed his options and had to give up on the lessons, swinging over to them once again to give them the respect of a semi-couple who were supposed to be giving him great experience, but who didn't seem to have the same interest in him at the moment, "What's up?"
Jodie was hesitant to speak, "You..."
Ichijō Mirai: "I..."
"Why, it's not like I'm holding a 'blonde murderer' down in broad daylight and burying him alive, remember, I'm not really doing that," He reasoned, volunteering something Jodie hadn't even dared to think about, "I'm learning how to fall in love."
The trick he'd just learned seemed to work, and then it didn't, because he seemed to have learned it all by himself when he'd accidentally said the FBI's coffee was bitter.
Suzuki Sonoko knew he had a sharp tongue and didn't like bitter coffee.
"Yes, yes," Jodie nodded, "so it's, uh, it's learning..."
She couldn't go on, and rushed to look at Akai Shūichi, asking for help, 'Say something to cut through this guy's perfunctory excuses!'
Akai Shūichi, who was always righteous and reliable, spoke up, "You guys talk, I'm going to look up the information."
Jodie: "..."
She stared at Akai Shūichi's back, and only after ten seconds or so did she have to turn her head to meet Ichijō Mirai's eyes, "Haha, actually, I'm also..."
Ichijō Mirai looked at her silently.
She didn't change her face, "I'm free too."
"OK, that's great, have a seat," Ichijō Mirai nodded in satisfaction, "Although you don't have experience now, I think you'll have experience afterward, and being a normal human being, I have some doubts that I'd like to ask you about."
Jodie sat down, feeling like today was probably a dream of eating poisonous mushrooms, she barely managed to keep her face from changing, and without even spitting out 'you know you're not a normal person,' she sat down on command, "What?"
"Suppose," Ichijō Mirai said, "just suppose, I know you seem pretty unavailable for a relationship right now, working on cases, working on cases, working on cases, every day,"
He thought for a moment, realizing that most of this seemed to be trouble he'd caused, but it could be ignored, "I mean what if, if you got together with Akai Shūichi, how would you get along with him?"
Jodie:"…"
"Uh," she could only say her thoughts with careful deliberation, euphemistically and politely, 'I'm sorry, may I be asked 'if off-duty breaks are anthropomorphized and you and off-duty breaks are together, how do you get along with him'?"
"I have to work overtime today, and if you mention Mr.Akai, I'll lose my temper and have a small increase in my desire to kill."
"If you don't like 'rest from work' much, 'the number in your bank card' is fine."
Ichijō Mirai: "?"
"..." He changed his mind without mentioning that he seemed to be responsible for most of the overtime, "OK, so for the two you mentioned, if you were in love with her, how would you get along with her?"
"I mean, how do you make her happy?"
That was the question.
Jodie pondered quietly for five or six minutes before looking up, locking eyes with Ichijō Mirai, who at some point was sitting upright in his chair, and saying, "Excuse me, let me ask a question."
Then looking down, she quickly edits a message and sends it out: [Hi everyone, is this the dream world?]
Ichijō Mirai looked over at her screen and saw that the message had quickly gotten a few sympathetic replies, mostly along the lines of 'poor thing, crazy again'.
So Jodie looked up calmly, "Okay, I'm done."
As she did so, she pinched her thigh without changing her expression, which immediately became odd, "I can't believe that hurts... well, ahem,"
"Make her happy is very simple, everyone has their own preferences, some people like furry animals, some people like smooth-skinned animals, some people like more lively places, some people like and their loved ones quietly nest together, you can go to search for lovers must do things and so on, one by one to try it down, write down her more happy things?"
Ichijō Mirai, of course, did this simple thing, nodding his head and posing the question, "What about her being happy all the time?"
He gave a detailed example, "If your lover is afraid of spiders, but she stops being afraid when you pick up a spider, and you say that it's not scary and it's cute and you can come over and touch it, or something like that, she'll really want to touch it without even thinking about it, and if you get rid of it in time, she'll be happy to look at you..."
Uh-oh.
Jodie quickly realized the point: the poor lady that she admired and pitied was so happy to see spiders that she was afraid of and rejected when she was with Ichijō Mirai, not to mention other things that she didn't reject, and I'm afraid that she'd be happy to do most anything with her lover.
"She loves you," Was all she could say, looking at Ichijō Mirai with the scrutiny of 'an unreliable lover who loves a lady so much', "and since she loves you enough to be happy with most things, why don't she just pick the things you like?"
"Believe me, knowing what you like might be a satisfying and sweet summer drink for her."
"I don't have many preferences," Ichijō Mirai replied truthfully, "just a few like not liking coffee, but she knows that."
He didn't say it, but she knew.
"I don't really care about the rest," He mused, smiling as he remembered how cheerful Suzuki Sonoko's green eyes would light up with a smile no matter what she was playing, "Whether it's going to the movies, playing, skiing, swimming, I want to make her happy."
And after making her happy, he wanted to make her happier.
Jodie looked at Ichijō Mirai, and then looked again, and then looked again, and finally had to conclude that Ichijō Mirai was happy about most things when it came to her lover.
In other words: most things, the couple is happy just being with each other, even things that should be boring and tiresome.
...Is it really not a show of love?
Damn, it seems like there's something worse than the resentment of going to work!
How could this Ichijō Mirai guy find a lover! And such a lovey-dovey one at that!
"Okay," Jodie said, swallowing her 'are you trying to kill me for being alone' question. "That's fine, you like to spend time with each other, so spend more time with each other."
She then answered the 'how to get along' question, "I would, uh, try to be there for her, show love for her, interact with her intimately, and do things together that would enhance the relationship, such as playing, going to the movies, or even reading a book together in silence?"
Ichijō Mirai ponders, realizing that she does most of these things, and asks herself what she doesn't seem to be doing, "How do I 'show her I love her'?"
Jodie again: "..."
She looks at Ichijō Mirai, and never has she been more convinced of her vague suspicions that Ichijō Mirai's family must be dysfunctional.
How easy is it to show love? It's easy for most people, but it's hard for some people, and most of them have family problems, parents who didn't show love in childhood, so the children don't learn.
Childhood is very important for a person, it's like laying a foundation, even if you start to forget it after you've spent it, but the foundation is there, a good foundation can allow people to laugh and play on it, a bad foundation is so shaky that sometimes people just go up there and it collapses.
"You could read more picture books that children read, or movies and TV shows that appear to children, and observe how their parents love them," was all Jodie could say, "I don't mean anything else, but you know a lot about the psychology of criminals, you should know the flaws of many criminals, and you should be able to surmise the reasons for your own inability to show love."
Ichijō Mirai was lost in thought.
After ten seconds or so, he nodded, "Okay, I think I know the significance of the game's special chapter on childhood... do you have anything else to say, I think I'm going to forget all about you for a while, and then get off work to unlock the new game?"
What?
It's only three o'clock in the morning!
Jodie, who was expected to work until 1:00 today, was instantly angry. She didn't take the 'forgetting everything' joke seriously, but she choked for a long time before she managed to squeeze out a sentence, "I'm curious about the fact that you actually have a favorite... no, I think it's love? How do you know?"
Ichijō Mirai can't even express love!
Tell her, so she can be killed by a hateful and scheming couple!
She didn't even ask, "I can't believe I love you so much, is that lady normal? Something that she was actually questioning, but said in a provocative way!
"How do you know?" Ichijō Mirai looked at Jodie in confusion, giving her the look of a normal person looking at an abnormal person.
"When you fall in love with someone, your heart beats for her, every beat of your heart screams her name, and even the most ignorant person in the world, at that moment you know without a doubt that you're in love with her."
As Ichijō Mirai looked out the window into those tearful green eyes.