'Where is this place?'
At the same time that this question emerged from Suzuki Sonoko's mind, as if the network was finally connected, a message like common sense quickly surfaced:
[General knowledge 1: She's dead.]
[General knowledge : Every morning at 6:00 a.m., she will be 'resurrected' and dissipate when the clock strikes 0:00 a.m.]
'Resurrection' is in subtle quotation marks, because Suzuki Sonoko doesn't really come back to life, but...rather [a fragment of memory from the past materializes]? Or [traveled from the past to the future]?
For example, Suzuki Sonoko today is 17 years old, a sophomore in high school, and her memories end in her sophomore year of high school, so she has no knowledge of what happened after that, and has no idea of what kind of people she will meet in the future, what kind of stories she will have, why she will die, or even how old she will die.
Understanding the 'common sense' that came to her mind, she looked at the glowing blue arrow that appeared under her feet and followed it a few steps forward, stopping in front of an apartment door.
Suzuki Sonoko's 'resurrection' is fixed every day, but the location of each 'resurrection' is not certain, most of the time it's near her home, sometimes she needs to walk a few more steps to go home, sometimes she's at the door as soon as she opens her eyes, and because the Suzuki Sonoko that comes out of each day's resurrection is from a different period of time, there are a few times when, for example, when the one that comes out of the resurrection is from her kindergarten days.
However, no matter where she's refreshed, there will be a guide that will lead her in the right direction.
The guides are probably the blue arrows on the ground that only appear in the game.
With that in mind, Suzuki Sonoko stood at the tip of the last arrow, looked up at the door number for a moment, and then looked down at the door handle.
There was a silver rabbit clip attached to the doorknob, the rabbit's four paws clutched the doorknob tightly, its two long ears hung low on its back, and a keychain hung from its small, bulbous tail, with a shiny silver key dangling from the bottom, so it was obvious that this key was used to unlock the door.
Suzuki Sonoko held the rabbit clip in her hand and looked at it, her brain trying to process and digest a large amount of complex information for a while, putting aside the complex and frightening information and focusing on one point: 'home'?
She looked up again, re-examining the hallway and the apartment in front of her, and was a little surprised: Huh, for someone who didn't know how old she died at, but was definitely older than sixteen, was this actually home?
How strange.
Having barely digested the previous information, she took the key and opened the door, and just as the key collided with the lock, a new piece of common sense emerged:
[General knowledge 3, she has a boyfriend.]
[General knowledge 4, her boyfriend loves her, and she loves her boyfriend.]
[General knowledge 5, her boyfriend...]
Wait a minute!
Boy-boy-boyfriend?!
Suzuki Sonoko's pupils quake, and she subconsciously lowers her head to stop opening the door urgently to calm down, but then she hears a 'click' and the door opens.
She was frozen in place, her mind replaying: boyfriend, boyfriend, boyfriend...
How!
She's not looking for a boyfriend!
Suzuki Sonoko was sure of it, and the reason was simple: she had a crush.
Actually, it's more accurately called a crush, and the person is older than her, so if she had to say something unilaterally about their relationship, she'd hesitate to say that it's probably a young tamale.
The prefixes 'unilateral', 'hesitant' and 'maybe' were because she thought so, but wasn't sure if the other person would agree.
The first time they met she was four years old, just starting kindergarten, not even settled yet, coming home from school all upset and puffed up, and then she met the 'bodyguard' her father had hired, a fourteen year old 'bodyguard'.
Would anyone hire a kid as a bodyguard? Obviously, this identity is a false cover, but Suzuki Sonoko could only get the answer "It's really a bodyguard" from her father and sister.
In fact, ignoring the bodyguard's age, ignoring the family's distant and overly polite attitude towards him, ignoring her father's vague and taboo words of 'no way' and 'cooperation' when talking to other people, and ignoring her sister's hesitant reminder of 'Does Sonoko like Mr. Mirai a lot? But don't get too close to him... no, it's okay to get close to him', the bodyguard is quite qualified, and Suzuki Sonoko hasn't been hurt since she was a little girl.
Even when she was traveling alone with her friends and didn't need a bodyguard, every time she encountered a murder, seconds after the screams, she would see Mr. Bodyguard, who happened to be nearby and refreshed by the screams, in various corners.
In response, Mr. Bodyguard said, 'Perhaps the murderer will get angry and attack the other people in the room indiscriminately, Suzuki-san, I think this is the moment when you need a bodyguard'.
He was a bodyguard, but in addition to protecting Suzuki Sonoko and the others, he had another special role: teacher.
Unfortunately for Suzuki Sonoko's sister, who had thought, 'I don't want to get too close to you,' Suzuki Sonoko was a face reader, and even more unfortunately, Mr. Bodyguard was quite handsome, the kind of handsome that had a starry-eyed look, and even without looking at his face, even at a glance from a distance, most people could be sure that he was absolutely handsome.
Since she was a child, Suzuki Sonoko has been able to easily visualize his face with her eyes closed, as well as his red eyes, which would occasionally be deliberately narrowed into vertical pupils in order to scare people.
In the long childhood cry of 'I like Mr. Mirai so much! The first time she realized that she wasn't just a friend's crush, but that she really liked Mr. Bodyguard, was not long ago, when she was grinning wildly with her arms folded because she had solved a murder, and she was not tired of shouting her awesomeness to her parents, her sister, her friends, etc. to the point where her mouth got tired and other people's ears got tired of hearing her talk.
On the fourth occasion, Mr. Bodyguard was amazed by her extraordinary reasoning talent, and Mr. Bodyguard listened to her 'Awesome! Wow!'
"A real detective."
When he said that, he was sitting on a tree to avoid Suzuki Sonoko's bombardment, and perhaps because he was looking down, he somehow looked a bit more dangerous than usual, as if he was very upset.
Suzuki Sonoko sensed the distinct sense of danger and her heart beat a few beats faster than usual, she raised her head without saying anything, but Mr. Bodyguard was already talking, "Let me teach you."
"Ms. Detective who succeeded in solving a case for the first time," he said, more as if he was talking about what would happen afterward than repeating the fact that Suzuki Sonoko had succeeded in solving a case, "How about it?"
When Suzuki Sonoko still didn't answer, he changed his title, "Ms. Detective Queen?"
"I'll teach you to become a detective, and after you solve the case, why don't you come back and announce the happy news to me? I promise I'll love to hear it, even if you say it a hundred times, I'll still listen carefully."
All of a sudden, a kind of light and happy enveloped Suzuki Sonoko, making her dizzy, not knowing why, even 'I've already solved a case, I'm a detective, although I don't remember the process of solving the case...but everyone is saying that I'm very good at it! I didn't even say, but what came out of my mouth was: "Really?"
After Mr. Bodyguard nodded and said that he would teach her to become a detective, she actually asked again, "Really? You won't get annoyed even if I say it a hundred times?"
Even if it's a happy thing like 'solving the case superbly', the first time you say it, the listener will be very happy with it, the second time, the third time, the listener will be a little bit impatient after the faint happiness, the fourth time, the fifth time, the listener will be very tired of it.
If Mr. Bodyguard doesn't get annoyed even after a hundred times, what a joy it would be! It meant talking about something else, even if it was boring, he wouldn't hate it, after all, there's nothing more offensive than repeating something a hundred times.
It may have been a quick progression, but at the first moment, the joy of 'Mirai-san definitely won't hate me' made Suzuki Sonoko feel like a marshmallow, and as she was about to fluff up in surprise to rub up against Mr. Bodyguard, she realized something: it seemed like it wasn't just talk, it seemed like the 'my heart beats naturally fast' excuse she'd made at first sight wasn't enough to convince herself that she really did like him! Ichijō Mirai, as evidenced by the pounding of her heart.
If she didn't like it, why would she be so happy with a word that wasn't even a promise, but probably a whim?
But at the same time that she realized that she had a crush on Mr. Bodyguard, she also realized something else: Oh no, it seems like a crush is a lost love.
Mr. Bodyguard doesn't seem like the type to fall in love.
Suzuki Sonoko even quietly wondered about his 'human' identity and whether he was some kind of vixen, or else why a group of crows that looked like they'd been beaten into submission would come over to him coyly every now and then and then and quickly slip away.
It's very likely that this crush will end without a trace.
So, when Suzuki Sonoko was shocked to learn that she had a boyfriend, her first thought was: how did this 'boyfriend' do it?
There's no way he's better than Mr. Bodyguard, but he's her boyfriend!
...It can't be the 'second best' and 'make do' after the impossibility that so-called adults understand, can it?
She'll break up! She will!
When she pushed the door, she hadn't thought 'Is it Mr. Mirai?' not even for a second, until she stepped into the living room, passed the table and chairs, stood in front of the sofa, and saw Ichijō Mirai, who was resting with his eyes closed.