The dessert store clerk was watching a variety show, and it seemed to be a funny one, with a slight giggle coming out of the headphones she was wearing, one after another, making you worry that the artists on the show would die of laughter on the spot.
Sitting at the bar with a quick glance at the screen, Suzuki Sonoko had to see the subtitles on the screen while looking at the sky, the ground and the air.
The subtitles showed the artists' bantering: "I don't know, maybe those jealous guys will call in right away, haha."
"-If they don't get beaten up like dogs."
"Gee, the FBI is really..."
"Ahem, listen to me, 'Unfortunately, like a fragile toy in the hands of a giant, Japan is falling apart, and in order to save Japan, we're going to have to suppress it', and I'm a good person! I'm a good guy, even if I look like I'm trying to take advantage of the situation! Forget it, I swore that Japan would sink in the first place."
"Hahahahaha..."
"That's what happens to people who despise ordinary, honest, law-abiding residents, who treat law-breaking criminals as if they were precious, who prefer to turn a blind eye to fleas jumping on them rather than reach out and save the 'meat' that's being torn from them, just because it takes so much effort to fix the 'fleas'!"
"But we're different..."
As the credits continued line after line, each of the artists in the camera's view were either laughing, indignant or condescending, and even if she couldn't understand what they were talking about, Suzuki Sonoko could tell they were having a good time just by looking at the hilarity of the scene on the screen and the smiles that appeared on the faces of the shopkeepers.
But, just the banter...
It was too difficult to recognize the crooked subtitles by twisting them back to the right angle, Suzuki Sonoko could not understand them, and when her brows furrowed in order to study them, Morofushi Hiromitsu, who was sitting on her side, spoke up, "That's a popular variety show these days."
His tone was gentle, as if he were treating a child, or a child whose parents were temporarily absent.
From the moment he held up his cell phone at the window, to the moment he pushed his way in, to the moment he sat down at the bar with a nervous Suzuki Sonoko and watched Ichijō Mirai make desserts, he had always had the same attitude, gentle, seemingly good-tempered, like the kind of guy who just smiles and shakes his head when he's being teased by his friends.
Suzuki Sonoko actually felt that this chance encounter was not a coincidence, but rather, Morofushi Hiromitsu had come prepared for it. She answered hesitantly, looked at the sky and the ground and the air again, and after a moment, she asked in a low voice: "That, you know I..."
Is it a 'ghost'?
Although there seemed to be a bit of a not-so-friendly vibe flowing between Morofushi Hiromitsu, who came up to him as if it was really just a coincidence, and Ichijō Mirai, who seemed to have automatically blocked him out of his sight, the fact that she had sat down for a few minutes, and that the bouncer and chef hadn't come over to stop her, meant that the guest was open for conversation.
Of the few people she'd met today, Suzuki Sonoko couldn't talk too much to the neighbor lady for fear of fainting with a stiff smile, and the sales clerk lady was probably a bit hard to start a conversation with as she looked like she didn't exist and was just an unimportant npc, but finally there was someone else she could talk to, so of course, she had to talk about the doubts that had built up in the short time she'd been here.
"Your situation," Morofushi Hiromitsu asked before answering, "I know."
He said, "I knew when you died."
Yes?
Suzuki Sonoko was looking at Ichijō Mirai and whispered, "Aren't you afraid of me?"
She's scared!
If she hadn't been with Ichijō Mirai all this time, she would have been running around in tears screaming about ghosts the moment she realized that she'd received all the information.
"Why be afraid? It's not like you've done any harm," Morofushi Hiromitsu was looking at Ichijō Mirai as well, "and what some people are afraid of is what others want to embrace,"
"...When you came back, a lot of people breathed a sigh of relief."
Ichijō Mirai was stirring something, his head hung low and he didn't look over, as if he didn't realize that both of them were looking at him, exchanging topics related to him, a kind of tacit approval, Suzuki Sonoko unconsciously propped up her chin, her eyes fell on his fingers holding the spoon, not seeing any trace of a ring, while her mouth was slow to ask, "Huh, do a lot of people know that I'm dead Do many people know I'm dead?"
After a moment, Morofushi Hiromitsu answered, "He held a prayer meeting for you, and friends know about it and that you're back."
I see.
"So," Suzuki Sonoko asked, thinking more quietly, "how did I die?"
"If it was a murder or something like that, was the murderer arrested?"
It didn't seem necessary to ask that question; Ichijō Mirai was so good at what she did during her detective training that she hardly had to think before she was certain that her murderer would be brought to justice.
...Right?
Maybe she didn't know much about Ichijō Mirai's performance at the police academy, or maybe she was too terrified to scare herself, but inexplicably, when she thought about it without thinking, Suzuki Sonoko felt a sense of worry, a subtle sense of intuition, as if an invisible hand was squeezing her heart.
Even she didn't know what she was worried about, but after a moment's thought, she managed to find something she was worried about: Mr. Mirai was often bad, and loved to play pranks on people in a serious manner, but the bad guys who dared to kill were very bad, and it must be very difficult for him to catch the bad guys, right?
Worried, she realized that Morofushi Hiromitsu hadn't spoken for a long time, so she looked over, "Huh?"
The moment she looked over, Morofushi Hiromitsu laughed again, not letting her see his previous expression pack, "He was murdered. I was not involved in this case. When I found out about it, the case had already been closed. It seemed that his enemy or the enemy of the Suzuki Group came to seek revenge. He was well prepared and fled immediately after succeeding. However, before leaving Japanese, the murderer was-"
In the kitchen, Ichijō Mirai put something in the oven and started preparing another dessert. Morofushi Hiromitsu paused for a moment as if because of the sound of the oven shutting off, and then said the following words, "Brought to justice."
Suzuki Sonoko followed up, "Mr. Mirai wasn't hurt, was he?"
"...No," Morofushi Hiromitsu replied, "It was the other who got hurt."
The other officers involved in the arrest?
Obviously, it wasn't his responsibility, it should be the murderer's, but in front of the police, Suzuki Sonoko rubbed his cheek with his fingers in embarrassment, and then he heard the police officer whose colleague was injured speak again, "Your parents don't know about your return yet, Suzuki Group took care of the condolence payment and other follow-ups, and things are going very well right now."
It was a bit vague, and Suzuki Sonoko translated it herself: her parents didn't know about her daily 'resurrections' yet, but the Suzuki Group had provided condolence payments to officers who were injured or killed in the line of duty during arrests, and the Suzuki Group was doing very well.
She breathed a sigh of relief, a little disappointed that her parents didn't know about her situation, and a little thankful that they didn't, "That's good, thank you for telling me that."
"Someone else would have told you if it wasn't me," Morofushi Hiromitsu looked at Ichijō Mirai and was silent for a few more moments before speaking again when it was almost quiet to silence, "Actually, we should be the ones thanking you,"
"Ignoring everything," he said as if trying to be funny, "a lot of people are happy to have you back."
Hey?
The meaning of why he was happy was pretty self-explanatory, Suzuki Sonoko keenly whispered again, "Was Mr. Mirai in a bad state when I first died?"
"Not very well, but okay, much better than the others," Morofushi Hiromitsu said the first half of the sentence, and then the second half when Suzuki Sonoko thought she had misheard him, "Not very well at first, you spent much more time with him, you should have known him very well, although he,"
He seemed to smile, "would probably be a bit of a gentleman in front of you,"
"But I guess, just as he would be a gentleman, you're aware of the icebergs below the surface when you glimpse the tip of the iceberg."
"From a normal person's point of view, he probably wouldn't be a very good love interest, or even on the contrary, many would heartily lament the bad luck of his love interest, he's like a bloody shadow on the scythe of death, sick and twisted, fine when it's simply flowing down the blade, but when there's a craving for something, it's grabbed on and won't let go, more twisted than the roots of a tree that spreads under the ground."
In the kitchen, Ichijō Mirai heard or didn't hear, he didn't react, he was opening the refrigerator to get the tart shells.
Suzuki Sonoko listens patiently for a second, two seconds, three seconds, adjusting her chair repeatedly, raising her hand when Morofushi Hiromitsu stops, "That-"
She said, "There are also people who think that the person I'm in love with must be unlucky as well..."
"Either a bastard with an agenda, or an unlucky fool who fell head over heels in love, no one has ever said that to my face, but in fact, a lot of people have felt that way."
Some people think Ichijō Mirai's love interest is unlucky, others think Suzuki Sonoko's love interest is unlucky.
"Yes," Morofushi Hiromitsu smiled involuntarily, 'thank you for not saying, 'I'm his lover, so I'm in the best position to say whether I'm unlucky or not, right?' I apologize for what I just said, I was just trying to say as a friend that it's really a lucky thing."
Without waiting for Suzuki Sonoko's reaction as to whether he was calling himself lucky or Ichijō Mirai lucky, he added, "The day you came back, it was a long time after the day you died,"
Then he said, "No, not a long time, just seven days, it is said that God created the world in seven days, just seven days, in some cases it is very long."
"When you came back, it was as if you were standing in hell, everything was absurdly silent, the evening moon shone on the blossoming fields, and heaven and earth were bright."
"We're all lucky, aren't we?"
Suzuki Sonoko didn't understand, and she was about to turn her head to look over when she realized that Ichijō Mirai had approached her, and the first thing he said confirmed the suspicion that their relationship was not purely friendly, "Come on, what's it about again."
When I came over, Ichijō Mirai had just put a tart in the oven. After washing his hands, he went to get a cup of hot milk. After he came over, he first gave Suzuki Sonoko a soothing smile, handed her the milk, and introduced Morofushi Hiromitsu to her. "This guy who looks easy to bully and is actually very easy to bully is called Morofushi Hiromitsu. You should remember that he is the same blond guy who had no sense of boundaries and handcuffed me in the street and invited me to play some public play a few years ago, a police officer I know."
He's not talking about a classmate, not a friend, but a police officer he knows, it's a word that clearly draws a line in the sand, but he's smiling as he speaks, Suzuki Sonoko's eyes darting around as she greets him with a submissive, "Good day, Officer Morofushi."
Morofushi Hiromitsu smiled at her.
Ichijō Mirai glanced over and added, "Don't look like he's easy to bully, but he's actually very good, the streets under his control are very safe, there hasn't been a murder in half a year,"
"Not only in the security management so powerful, his physical skills in the police academy when it is very powerful, after graduation is specially refined, once only used three seconds to subdue a very powerful criminals it."
When he heard the first sentence, Morofushi Hiromitsu, who was already smiling, smiled more and more, but it seemed to be different from the gentle smile at the beginning, as if he was hiding his true expression so that he smiled, and when he heard the second sentence, he suddenly spoke up and interrupted, without using any name calling, "No, it's just because he trusts me more. And then he fought back."
"And then it worked because you trusted the criminal," Ichijō Mirai smiled back, repeating his initial question, "What's the matter, nothing, you don't want to see me either."
Huh?
A friendly and somewhat unfriendly atmosphere permeated the conversation, but it was generally on the friendly side, and the offensive words were polished into banter, with the last sentence being a bit more offensive.
Suzuki Sonoko put aside her previous confusion and savored the 'don't take his word for it' message she'd gotten in just a few short sentences, pretending to drink her milk as she held up her glass and quietly looked at Morofushi Hiromitsu.
Strangely enough, when she heard those unfriendly words, Morofushi Hiromitsu's first reaction was to look at her, and then to Ichijō Mirai, hesitating before saying, "There's some new information from the FBI... It's not important, but it's from a former colleague of his who sent it to us through a private channel, and he hasn't replied, so I just came over to check. I'm just checking in."
The first half of the sentence was addressed to Ichijō Mirai, the second half was explained to Suzuki Sonoko.
Suzuki Sonoko nodded her head in confusion, and thought, "Mr. Mirai is actually in contact with the FBI? If he's so powerful, it's not surprising that he's connected to the FBI.
"FBI?" Ichijō Mirai responded, "Oh, I happened to blacklist 800 of his contacts when I was experimenting with the blacklist function a while back.
"But don't worry about those messages, even if you put them away for half a year and bring them out again, they can be viewed as fresh, I thought you already knew that, why are you still being a good guy and helping to remind me?"
Sounds even more unfriendly!
Suzuki Sonoko went to see Morofushi Hiromitsu again, saw a smiley face and went to see Ichijō Mirai again, then she was bounced right in the face, she was totally unguarded, covered her forehead and froze.
"It's a work thing, you should have seen a lot of FBI appearances on TV, and yes, they're that annoying, so you have to deliberate for a few days when dealing with them, and be careful." Ichijō Mirai withdrew his hand and looked like a serious person again, as if he hadn't just made a cold mistake, "Hey, the oven seems to be working, I'll go check it out."
He calmly went to look at the motionless oven, calmly as if he wasn't slipping away at all, without any 'special gentleman in front of you' look.
But Suzuki Sonoko skillfully saw through the fog to the truth: the fox must be wagging his tail in triumph!
If you're going to be bad enough to swipe at people with a big tail, then you can woo them!
She stared at Ichijō Mirai's back for a moment, trying to see the non-existent fluffy tail, and then saw Morofushi Hiromitsu stand up to say goodbye: "Now that the message has been delivered, I'll leave you to it, Ms. Suzuki."
Suzuki Sonoko quickly shook her head, "No trouble, no trouble, I should be the one thanking you for telling me so much."
Though some of it didn't make any sense at all.
In fact, there were some things she wanted to ask in more detail, such as her parents, her sister, and Mouri Ran, but these were issues that she cared about, but outsiders might not know much about them, so as she walked Morofushi Hiromitsu to the door, she scratched off the things on her list of things she wanted to know, and after much thought, she finally asked a question, "So, Mr. Morofushi, is Japan doing okay now?"
You can go to work at 9:00 in the morning and get off at 5:00 in the afternoon!
I'm sure there's a reason why the neighbor lady has a good job and therefore good benefits, but it's also a good sign that Japan is doing well, right?
Morofushi Hiromitsu, who pushed the door open, paused, looked sideways, and after silently swallowing a large portion of the prefix of silence, he answered, "It's good."
That's good.
Some kind of intangible worry that she couldn't quite figure out what it was completely dissipated, Suzuki Sonoko happily sat back down and concentrated on watching Ichijō Mirai with her chin propped up.
After looking at her for a while, Ichijō Mirai walked up to her again and asked her helplessly, "What are you laughing at all by yourself?"
"Your tail is awesome!" Suzuki Sonoko replied, before Ichijō Mirai narrowed his eyes dangerously and hastily exclaimed, "It's really awesome!"
"Maybe it's because I've only been here for a short time and I don't understand a lot of things, but one thing I do understand is, 'Tokyo seems to have a very low crime rate right now'!"
That's awesome!
Well, it probably wasn't Ichijō Mirai alone, but surely it had something to do with her being killed? Suzuki Sonoko, who contributes to the reduction of Tokyo's crime rate and sees murders on a daily basis, is right to think that she has starry eyes for Ichijō Mirai's awesomeness.
As Ichijō Mirai paused to smile, she got really starry-eyed, "I love it!"
What's everyone saying, blah blah blah, don't understand.
Mr. Mirai was busy, so nice and kissable.
^ ^