By the time he went to meet Hagiwara Kenji for their meal the following afternoon, Yuki Mu still looked rather unwell.
“Hey, Yuki~” Hagiwara Kenji waved from his seat as soon as Yuki Mu stepped into the restaurant. “Over here!”
When Yuki Mu walked over and sat down, Hagiwara Kenji pointed at the handsome black-haired man beside him. “This is Little Jinpei, my childhood friend... He’s grateful to you for saving me too, so he came along.”
Yuki Mu nodded. “I know. You mentioned it in your text yesterday.”
The young man looked somewhat pale, though his expression remained perfectly calm, giving off a cold and proper first impression.
Yet when those emerald-green eyes turned toward someone, they lent his composed exterior an extra edge, as though nothing in the world was truly worthy of his notice, and only the blue sky was reflected in his gaze.
“Have you ordered yet?” Yuki Mu tapped the table lightly and asked in passing.
“No, we waited for you.” Hagiwara Kenji opened the menu for him, then studied his complexion. “Yuki, are you feeling sick?”
Yuki Mu gave a quiet “Mm.” “I’m fine. My stomach hurts. It’s not serious.”
As if.
He had been woken up by stomach pain last night, then rummaged through the apartment for painkillers and swallowed one before he managed to go back to sleep.
His gaze drifted casually to the side.
【Character [Beika] innate condition: “Stomach Pain” activated】
—Stomach pain. So Beika’s condition was stomach pain. What, had all these bizarre cases and bizarre romantic entanglements literally given the city an ulcer...?
...Although the system’s explanation was that even if Yuki Mu was merely acting as a vessel for a city consciousness persona, he still could not truly become the conceptual existence of a “city consciousness,” and so the persona itself would inevitably come with certain flaws.
Yuki Mu still found it irritating.
—I came here to work for the system and the city consciousnesses, not to suffer!
And on top of that, now that he knew [Hawaii] was tied to [Beika]... well.
It was all Conan’s fault (not really). Hawaii Trade School had practically become omnipotent!!
From bomb disposal to flying planes, Hawaii offered a full curriculum. Applications now open (?).
Honestly, they should send every agent in the world there for training. Their professional skills would definitely become first-rate, and from then on neither side, red or black, would ever have to worry about useless teammates or dead weight dragging them down again. Open your minds!
Yuki Mu glanced at Hagiwara Kenji and suppressed his urge to complain.
Whatever else might be said, as Beika, he was rather gratified right now.
—His big son knew how to care about his old father now. How heartwarming!
Concern shone plainly in Hagiwara Kenji’s violet eyes. “If your stomach’s bothering you, maybe you should eat something light... I can treat you to something good next time?”
Beside him, Matsuda Jinpei nodded as well, though he said nothing.
“It’s fine.” Yuki Mu ignored the suggestion and pointed at several dishes on the menu without the least hesitation. “This one, this one, and this one... The stomach pain was last night.”
He raised his eyes. For the first time, emotion stirred within those emerald-green irises. “I didn’t skip work to come out here just so I could drink porridge.”
Beika watched the aromas of all the city’s delicious food drifting through the air every day without ever being able to eat any of it. It was practically enough to make him cry from greed.
Hagiwara Kenji and Matsuda Jinpei: “...”
Compared with Hagiwara Kenji, it was Matsuda Jinpei who curled his lips first. “Not porridge? Fine by me.”
The black-curled officer’s voice was pleasant and lazy. “Hagi, the guy skipped work to come here.”
Hagiwara Kenji laughed helplessly, then raised a hand to call over the waitress. “Miss, we’ll have one order each of this, this, and this.”
While they waited for the food, the three of them chatted idly.
More precisely, Hagiwara Kenji did most of the work keeping the conversation going, Matsuda Jinpei occasionally chimed in, and Yuki Mu offered the briefest possible replies whenever he was asked something.
At a glance, the atmosphere was actually rather harmonious.
The food arrived quickly, but it was obvious that none of the three had any intention of observing silence while eating. They simply went on talking.
“...So it was really impressive that you were able to notice the bomber and subdue him,” Hagiwara Kenji said, resting his chin on one hand. “By the way, how did you figure it out? I’d like to learn a thing or two myself. It might help me stay alive.”
Yuki Mu picked up food at an unhurried pace without even lifting his head. “Fortune-telling.”
Hagiwara Kenji: “Oh, fortune-telling... Wait. Fortune-telling??”
Only after swallowing a bite did Yuki Mu continue. His face remained completely calm. “I divined it.”
Hagiwara Kenji laughed a little. “Yuki, you do realize I can read the statement record, right?”
“Oh? And?”
Hagiwara Kenji swore he had only thrown out the topic casually. He had not expected to get such a... well, interesting answer in return.
After all, he had read the statement. From how Yuki Mu had noticed the bomber, to how he had deduced his intentions, to how he had subdued him, everything was described clearly and in detail. Just reading the report made it impossible not to admire the man’s meticulous reasoning and adaptability.
So in truth, Hagiwara Kenji had invited him out not only to thank him, but also because he wanted to become friends. At first, when he had still thought Yuki Mu was a university student, he had even fleetingly wondered whether he could persuade him to enter the police academy.
Although Yuki Mu had seemed cold from the very beginning, for some reason Hagiwara Kenji had felt an inexplicable sense of familiarity the moment he first saw him.
After getting thoroughly beaten up by Matsuda Jinpei yesterday, Hagiwara Kenji had talked with his childhood friend about Yuki Mu.
Naturally, he had not mentioned his own mental image of a stern, disappointed parent with a cold face, but he had shared what happened after Yuki Mu walked out of the statement room, as well as the senior officer who had looked especially delighted at the time.
As expected, Matsuda Jinpei had laughed at him loudly and without restraint. He had frankly expressed his admiration for Yuki Mu, who had mercilessly roasted a certain childhood friend who thought nothing of defusing bombs without a blast suit, and had even told Hagiwara Kenji to ask in the text invitation whether Yuki Mu minded if he came along too.
The reply had been as brief as it was perfectly in character:
【.】
At the thought, the smile on Hagiwara Kenji’s face widened a little. “All right, all right. Then let me thank little Yuki’s fortune-telling for saving my life.”
Hagiwara Kenji thought about it for a moment.
...Judging from Yuki Mu’s personality, did that mean that if he was in a good mood, he would patiently explain things to you, but if he was not, he would just say he had divined it?
Of course, it was also possible that he simply could not be bothered because he was eating.
Thinking back to the rare trace of displeasure in Yuki Mu’s eyes when he had suggested porridge, Hagiwara Kenji could not help laughing again.
Compared with the full-power sarcasm mode Yuki Mu had probably entered yesterday because Hagiwara Kenji had nearly gotten himself killed (?)... yes.
Hagiwara Kenji fell into thought.
Could it be that he was the sharp-tongued, soft-hearted type?
The system was amazed.
【Hagiwara Kenji Recognition Level +200】
【Matsuda Jinpei Recognition Level +100】
【Hagiwara Kenji Recognition Level +50】
【......】
System: 【What on earth did they imagine about you for your Recognition Level to rise this much??】
【Ah, this is the advantage of dealing with clever police officers.】Yuki Mu said with satisfaction. 【I haven’t even truly started yet.】
System: 【......???】You haven’t truly started yet?
Yuki Mu set down his chopsticks, then elegantly dabbed the corner of his mouth with a napkin. His emerald eyes lifted slightly. “In a certain sense, I truly wasn’t joking.”
Hagiwara Kenji smiled with a hint of teasing. “Little Jinpei told me yesterday that when you burst into the scene, you said the exact same thing I’d said over the phone... Was that divined too?”
The dark green-haired young man neither confirmed nor denied it. He leaned back slightly in his chair.
It was such a simple motion, yet somehow it felt as though he had put on some invisible armor—solid and noble—and his entire presence changed in a subtle, indescribable way.
“The threads of fate in this city are chaotic beyond measure, tangling and intertwining, endless and unceasing.” The young man raised a hand and lightly touched his brow. “But in my eyes...”
“—not a single thread has any secrets.”
【Character [Beika] hidden skill: **** unlocked. ps. Usage level and side effects are linked to Recognition Level progression percentage. Please use with caution.】
【Hidden Skill: Eye of the City
—All things are my eyes. On this land, you are omniscient.】
“What, stunned?” Yuki Mu picked up the bottle of cola beside him and took a drink. He cast a calm glance at the two somewhat dazed officers across the table. “Officer Hagiwara, Officer Matsuda, I assume the two of you believe in materialism?”
Hagiwara Kenji recovered and covered his face with one hand. “Ah, in theory, yes... But for some reason, the aura you had just now was so strange that my faith in materialism nearly wavered.”
Yuki Mu shifted his posture slightly again. A trace of amusement flashed through his eyes so faintly that it was nearly impossible to catch, though his face remained expressionless. “Oh. I didn’t realize you officers were so easily shaken.”
Ah, teasing them was fun.
Bzzzz—Bzzzz—
Hagiwara Kenji had just been about to say something else when the increasingly urgent vibrations of the phone Yuki Mu had set on the table redirected the conversation. “...Yuki, your phone has been going off all through the meal. Is something urgent happening?”
Yuki Mu’s expression remained unchanged. “Nothing important. It’s just my superior.”
Matsuda Jinpei fell silent for a moment. Then he silently raised his own bottle of cola toward Yuki Mu before taking a long drink.
The meaning was obvious.
—A toast to the courage required to skip work and ignore your boss.
Hagiwara Kenji sighed in admiration. “That really is nice. I’d like to skip work openly and ignore my boss too...”
Then he silently lifted his bottle as well and drank nearly half of it in tribute.
Yuki Mu raised his own drink and clinked it against theirs.
—After the empty cola bottle was set down, the dark green-haired young man calmly picked up his phone.
Watching from across the table, Hagiwara Kenji noticed that he seemed to be replying to a message and could not help asking curiously, “Are you responding to your superior?”
Yuki Mu did not even lift his head. “Yes.”
“...Wow. Could I roughly know what you said?”
“Give me a moment.” Yuki Mu typed quickly, then answered Hagiwara Kenji’s question with the utmost brevity. “Doing a good deed. No time to work.”
The young man’s gaze lingered for a moment on a family of three who had just entered through the door, as though he were thinking about something. “Three birds with one stone.”
Yuki Mu looked at the notifications that had been popping up now and then in the system backend ever since yesterday.
【Officer XX Recognition Level +20】
【Kazami Yuya Recognition Level +100】
【Furuya Rei Recognition Level +50】
【......】
Line after line of Recognition Level from his Public Security colleagues or superiors rolled in dignifiedly: D
Yuki Mu: Skipping work, slacking off, successfully saving someone from a death flag, and earning Recognition Level—wasn’t that three birds with one stone!!
The moment he sent the words “doing a good deed” to his superior, Kazami Yuya, he immediately received a reply containing only a “?”
That question mark was clearly only the beginning. His phone soon started vibrating again, followed by several messages in rapid succession, so fast they practically did not pause for breath.
Yuki Mu silently marveled. Had he really just been sitting there by the phone the whole time waiting for a reply...? That was impressively fast.
Still, Yuki Mu ignored every message that followed with complete righteousness and no intention whatsoever of replying. He simply locked his phone with a perfectly natural motion.
Then, even under the mixed gaze of complexity, admiration, and faint awe from the two officers across from him, he calmly said to the system:
【You there? I’m going to draw [Hawaii]’s identity in this world now.】
With Hagiwara Kenji and Matsuda Jinpei both present... he could have someone come pick him up and earn a bit more Recognition Level at the same time.
In any case, the [Hawaii] persona was definitely going to appear sooner or later, so it hardly mattered.
...Well, mainly because he did not know how to drive, but was too lazy to walk and did not want to take a taxi either, so getting home was inconvenient.
Whereas [Hawaii] could drive anything, from fighter jets to submarines.
System: 【Very well. Please confirm once more, Host—you wish to draw the world identity of persona [Hawaii] now?】
Yuki Mu: 【Confirmed.】
System: 【Drawing in progress...】
System: 【Ding~ Draw successful!
Character: Palmer Gary (Hawaii)
Character Identity: FBI (of the United States)
Character’s Innate Skills: ......】
Bei·Yuki Mu·ka: ......
The moment he saw the character identity, his vision went black. He had no desire whatsoever to keep reading.
Hawaii did indeed belong to the United States, but...
Beika does not welcome the FBI!
FBI, get out of my Beika!!!