The Companion I Met When I Was Twenty-Two Years Old

Suzuki Sonoko remembered Amuro Tōru.

She met Amuro Tōru not long after she met Ichijō Mirai, whose first name she only knew as 'Mirai'.

At that time, Amuro Tōru was in a ramen restaurant, wearing a ramen restaurant uniform, and now, Amuro Tōru was in a sushi restaurant, wearing a sushi restaurant uniform, with only the name on his badge being the same.

She reacted by blushing and waving her hands, "No, no, no."

Amuro Tōru had complimented two people in one sentence, Ichijō Mirai, whom Suzuki Sonoko cared about, and Suzuki Sonoko herself.

She was a little embarrassed, then responded, "Huh, 'too'?"

"Do you know anyone else named 'Mirai'?"

The name was still a bit of a rarity.

"Yes," Amuro Tōru nodded with a smile, "also male."

"And both pronounced 'Mi-ai-ee', coincidentally?"

Japanese names can be pronounced in so many ways that it's possible to mispronounce them with just the kana, so Japanese often have their name cards labeled with the pronunciation of their name.

It was already surprising that the kana was repeated, but when the pronunciation was repeated, Suzuki Sonoko was even more surprised, "What a coincidence."

She thought for a moment, and said, "Mr. Mirai is a detective, and the friend you know..."

Before the words left her mouth, she saw Amuro Tōru's obvious surprise, and had a subtle feeling of foreboding, "It can't be..."

A detective, too?

"What a coincidence," Amuro Tōru's surprise was strong enough for Suzuki Sonoko to pick up on, "my friend is also a detective."

"I'm quite impressed with your sensitivity from the first time we met."

"You've known your 'Mr. Mirai' long enough to know his full name, haven't you?" He then naturally inquired, "My friend has a number in his name."

Suzuki Sonoko: "!"

"Well, what a coincidence, Mr. Mirai also has numbers in his name." She looks around and whispers, "Your friend, isn't he handsome?"

"Handsome like a piece of jade that glistens in the sun?"

He's got a good temper.

Amuro Tōru smiled and nodded, "My friend is indeed very handsome."

Suzuki Sonoko again: "!"

Her eyes change as she looks at Amuro Tōru: The friend you mentioned, is it Mr. Mirai?

Then the way she's been acting all this time...

"But," Amuro Tōru said with enough of a distressed expression as if he hadn't noticed Suzuki Sonoko's suddenly murderous eyes, "my friend doesn't seem to be like a piece of jade, not even remotely related to jade."

He lowered his eyes, letting the frame of his glasses block the look in his eyes, and slowly added, "Except that he is a little cold in nature."

As he slowly bit out the words, memories that were so long ago that Amuro Tōru thought he had slowly forgotten emerged. He recalled the overly difficult entrance examination. At a certain moment, he heard the words that were like a sword piercing from his memory:

''Furuya-san, what is your unknown past?''

The voice of the speaker was young, with a sense of youthfulness, but the attitude was not like treating fellow freshmen, but like a predator staring at his prey, or a police officer interrogating a criminal, without the slightest sense of propriety of prying into other people's privacy, not to mention reading the air, and the tone of voice was gentle, but it gave off a sense of sharpness.

And then...

Furuya Rei frowned abruptly and inclined his head, naturally giving up on remembering what happened afterward in the sudden blankness, and focusing on Suzuki Sonoko's description.

'Jade'.

The friend he remembered was never a piece of jade that could be rubbed in the palm of a soft hand, and the only thing it had in common with jade was one thing: it was cold.

"Rather than jade," Amuro Tōru said, "he was more like a sword would have suited him better."

"A sword that is already sheathed, spirited, and razor-sharp."

He collected his thoughts and smiled at Suzuki Sonoko, "My friend's last name is..."

Suzuki Sonoko held her breath and spoke cautiously, "Mr. Mirai's last name is..."

"Kujō."/"Ichijō."

Wrong answer.

The answers overlapped in some cases, but not in others. 

Amuro Tōru pushes his black-rimmed glasses with his hand to hide his expression and repeats the unexpected answer, "...Ichijō?"

Suzuki Sonoko: "Huh? Kujō?"

She breathes a sigh of relief.

Although there are many similarities: both are called 'Mirai', both have the same name pronunciation, both are detectives, both are quite handsome.

And 'Mr. Mirai isn't from Tokyo', while Amuro Tōru is blond, and even though he has a Japanese accent, he still doesn't look very Japanese either.

But...

Amuro Tōru knew too much, and Suzuki Sonoko didn't want to commit murder.

She suppressed the murderous intent that was rising up in her and said seriously, "The person we know is definitely not the same person."

"Absolutely not."

She added weakly, "I haven't seen you before, so don't tell Mr. Mirai, okay?"

He can't 'Oh yeah, and I met a lady with a hair band, she seemed to like you, she kept talking about you like a private fan'.

Amuro Tōru: "..."

He rationalized: "Okay."

You can't mess with a guy who is in a state of 'Oh no, is the person I like going to know about my indecent side?!'

"Ahem," Suzuki Sonoko searched stiffly for evidence that it definitely wasn't the same person, "If it was the same person, how could Mr. Mirai not contact you? You're friends."

That's because, of course...

Because...

Amuro Tōru only remembered the entrance exam clearly, the rest of his memories of the police academy seemed to have faded into the dust along with the name 'Furuya Rei', a name that very few people called him.

He paused in the blankness of his mind.

Suzuki Sonoko caught the momentary daze, and after a moment's hesitation, she changed her tone to, "Maybe there was no contact."

"If you wanted to make sure Mr. Mirai was your friend, you could have just gone to the dessert store and asked for him."

She realized, "No wonder you talked to me so much last time, chatting with customers about cute guys during working hours, so you were secretly asking me for information!"

You just realized that...

Amuro Tōru collected his thoughts and smiled, "I'm sorry you found out."

He said, "I'll take a look when I get the chance."

Of course you will.

It wasn't as if Amuro Tōru hadn't visited the sweet store before.

After the two unthinkable car accidents near the sweet store, he had slowly spread out from the center of the accidents to check for suspicious people.

At that time, he entered the dessert store, where only two owners named Ishida were present.

Later, when he found out that there was a guy named 'Mirai' in the store, he went back again and again.

But he never met him in person.

Amuro Tōru had been there at meal times, at non-meal times, on weekdays, on weekends, in the morning, in the afternoon, and so on.

But never met him in person.

There were only a few times when they passed by each other, such as when he entered the house and 'Mr. Mirai' had just gone upstairs for less than a minute, or when he just went out and closed the glass door, he saw the kitchen door shaking, and a young man's hand was on the door, and then he disappeared into the door as the door closed.

Amuro Tōru smiled and repeated, "I'll definitely check it out when I get the chance."

It had been a long, long time since he had seen the companion he had met when he was twenty-two years old.