After noon, the warmth of the sun's rays cast a white filter over the freshness of the streets.
Suzuki Sonoko was looking at the streets of Tokyo from the passenger side window with a curious look in her eyes.
The streets were neither too crowded nor too light, with cars slowly stopping for the red light just seconds before it turned green, and then speeding away when the light came on.
Occasionally, when a pedestrian stops at a crosswalk on either side of the street, all the cars will drop their speeds in unison, silently letting the pedestrian go through first, and the pedestrian walking on the crosswalk will bow to the cars on both sides as he walks briskly.
On the street, a father stops in front of a convenience store, looks at the sign outside, and walks in with his ID. The child, only two or three years old, stopped outside and waited as if he was accustomed to his parents leaving him for a while, did not wander off or cry, and greeted the adults who came sporadically with their IDs one by one, who responded kindly to him.
A cat came strolling by, and the child greeted it. After a few seconds, it circled around the child, answered the call, and then went to a small hole in the ground next to the sign of a convenience store, where it buried its head in a bowl of cat food.
The street was a scene of harmony and joy.
Along the way, Suzuki Sonoko was surprised to see that everyone was smiling, either through a polite pursing of the lips, a smile of happiness on the face, or a grin as they whispered to a friend.
Not a single person looks frustrated or angry, not a single cold face, and when someone needs help, almost everyone in the neighborhood goes out of their way to help.
Suzuki Sonoko just saw an elderly person with her ID stop at a crosswalk, and a few people in the neighborhood picked up their pace and ran almost as fast as they could, only to have a young man take her hand and ask gently if she needed any help, before the others regretfully stopped and the smiles on their faces diminished, as if they were a bit disappointed that they hadn't been able to offer their own help.
The young person who succeeded in helping turned from a polite smile to a gleeful expression on her face, and after helping the old man across the street, she looked up and waved at the traffic light.
Something on the light turned silently, a camera.
Then, Suzuki Sonoko was surprised to see cameras all over the street.
This is unbelievable. This is Tokyo!
This is Tokyo! It's a cold Tokyo!
It's reasonable for everyone to be helpful, but it's strange for no one to be cold?!
It's as strange as the cameras!
...But it looks good.
How much time had passed, and now Tokyo looked like a completely new place, one that Suzuki Sonoko didn't even know existed.
She stared at it for a while, deciding not to look too deeply into it, but turned to Ichijō Mirai, "Mr. Mirai."
What the hell did you do?
Ichijō Mirai responded, "Huh?"
He looked ahead, not turning his head to Suzuki Sonoko, but accurately stating what had just happened: "Want to ask about the sign on the store? It's nothing, I was trying to make a fuss about it for a while, so I canceled it, but people still like it, so I'm keeping it up."
There are two types of signboards: [Single Entry] and [Double Entry].
As for 'having a time to be critical'... simply put, when there is a lot of negative emotions such as irritation, Ichijō Mirai simply decides that it's not okay to be critical, and...
But the victims are all criminals.
When the guys who hurt Suzuki Sonoko are done with their revenge, he goes after the other criminals, and when the criminals who are clearly guilty are done with their revenge, he goes after the criminals who have committed crimes that have not been disclosed.
Most of the reasons are 'left foot out the door', 'today's date is single, the end of your ID number is double'.
This one's a no-brainer. This one's just a pain in the ass.
After trying to resist and finding that they couldn't, the general public behaved themselves and obeyed some rules that used to seem so outrageous that you'd roll your eyes...
They're actually quite tolerant.
Although Ichijō Mirai was like a werewolf on a killing spree in the daytime, slashing people openly, the number of people he slashed openly was a drop in the ocean compared to the number of people he slashed covertly in other things in the past.
In the above big change after a round, some survivors even found themselves creepy days better!
At least they went to work late and got off early, their friends and co-workers, neighbors and passers-by were in harmony, everyone learned to love and laugh with restraint, they no longer displayed their empty brains like they had a fetish, and when you look at it, boy, the concentration of stupidity has been reduced drastically!
Suzuki Sonoko thought, then thought again, "Oh, that must be exhausting."
As for whether Ichijō Mirai or everyone else is tired, that's...well...
Ichijō Mirai raises an eyebrow, and after a few seconds of thought while waiting at the red light, he has the self-awareness to fairly comment, "It's everyone else who's more tired."
Living is already more tiring, but dealing with a crazy person is too hard, right?
"Well..." Suzuki Sonoko pondered for a few seconds, her green eyes shining brightly in the sunlight, before asking in a low voice, "How tiring is it?"
The red light passes, the green light comes on, the car drives past, and Ichijō Mirai sidesteps through the bright green, crashing into an even lighter, more innocent green, "I thought you were going to say, 'Why are people tired'."
instead of asking how tired everyone is.
The question had an obvious meaning: she knew why Ichijō Mirai had said 'everyone is tired'.
In fact, it wasn't until she said it that Suzuki Sonoko had a hard time deciding whether to ask or not.
Her eyelashes were the same chestnut brown color as her hair, and the tips of her curled-up eyelashes were even lighter as the sunlight dappled them, making her eyes look especially bright, "I also thought I'd ask 'why are you all tired', because..."
"If you don't pretend not to notice..."
You can't help it, can you?
From a city that seemed so normal, but in fact was anything but normal, anyone who opened their eyes could easily realize the fact that Ichijō Mirai seemed to be the enemy.
An enemy of the people who live in this city, an enemy of the people who live in this country...maybe even an enemy of all of humanity.
If it were any other being, Suzuki Sonoko would have easily concluded that he was the most wanted man in the world.
Instead of having the concept of 'enemy of mankind', which seemed to be similar to wanted criminals but had a very different meaning, flashing through her mind at a certain moment, she wouldn't have seriously thought about whether 'enemy' was an inaccurate term or not.
Because it was obvious that Ichijō Mirai was not a normal person, much less a human being...
"I can't go against you," she said matter-of-factly, "not just because I like you, but because you're invincible."
How can a man defeat a god?
Maybe, but when the 'god' is Ichijō Mirai, you're going to have to go to sleep, it's going to be a lot harder to beat Ra.One with no damage.
At least in the game of Ra.One, the player can go back and start over, a little grinding, the big deal is to grind so many decades, in the only use of their own flesh and blood to fight back, human beings are the richest is the generation after generation of time.
I can beat Ichijō Mirai...he's the player, isn't he?
Suzuki Sonoko said from the bottom of her heart, "In my opinion, you are invincible and the best,"
"Though it may be because I'm a high school student and see very little, but,"
She thought about it, and then thought about it again, and firmly said, "I think that if I were a high school student, I would think you were the best, and if I were the police, I would think you were the best, and if I were the FBI, I would still think you were the best."
"You're the best."
This city, this country, is in a situation where it's just so much more than that.
"From the first time we met, I thought, you're probably not even human, are you?" She said, "But you don't even realize it."
It's as if you're well-disguised, as if you're very human, very relaxed, but that air of 'you're ordinary humans, I'm a god' or 'you're an NPC, I'm a player' is too obvious.
"Humans have no way of dealing with you, I have no way of dealing with you."
Not just because he's invincible, but because she likes him.
Suzuki Sonoko said surely, but the super powerful being who was surely surely surely seemed to be suddenly busy, even the pedestrians three hundred meters away were carefully considered whether he would hit them or not, and cared about all the people and cars on the whole road before he had to respond with deliberation: "But..."
Ichijō Mirai says, "You're really good at dealing with me."
He was helpless, "You're already dealing with me, do you realize what you're saying right now?"
Is she saying, "Wow, Mr. Mirai, you're great"?
No, what she was actually saying was, "Please don't be an enemy of humanity, okay? I don't want to be your enemy, nor do I want you to be my enemy. I want to happily rub against you, throw myself into your arms, roll around, watch you blush but be stubborn and refuse to admit it. I want to suddenly say that I like you so much and then kiss you, then run away embarrassedly after the surprise attack. I like you so much that I will wither if I can't like you anymore. But if you have a reason to be an enemy of humanity, then be one if you want, and do it bravely."
Every word she said was a solemn thing, but every word seemed to be sorrowfully dissecting her own heart, boldly holding out her soft love to receive the warmth of the sun:
'I feel that this Japan is a little bit scary, like the unreal future in a science fiction movie. Many people should be afraid of it, right?' She wants to persuade Mr. Mirai, but she doesn't know everything. She doesn't know the harm Mr. Mirai has suffered during this period. Apart from her death, what if he has encountered other very sad things and has been treated excessively? Should she rely on her ignorance to give advice that seems reasonable but is actually stabbing her beloved in the heart?
'But a city like this... but Mr. Mirai... and I only have one day!'
Love is sometimes so wonderful and unreasonable that a high school student suddenly puts on a crown and becomes a savior for a day, causing the evil final boss to pause the process of the world's destruction plan.
And the same high school student who can openly show her love is the one who says 'I have no way to deal with you' a few seconds ago.
She's already doing it, and she's doing it so well that she's giving out blows every second, but she's still showing a distressed expression as the evil, horrible, dark boss backs away from her, sighing that she can't deal with her lover.
It's too much.