Drink More Bitter Melon Juice

It's a little too much.

When one of the parties is only ten years old, even if she is the one who speaks out of turn, it's still a bit too much.

The car seemed to be silent for a moment, and even the car's speed seemed to have slowed down.

It wasn't an illusion; Amuro Tōru glanced in the rearview mirror to make sure the pursuing motorcycle had been lost, and slowly slowed down to a normal driving speed, not like a rabbit being chased by a hound.

He looked in the rearview mirror a few more times, deliberated, and didn't say anything.

Matsuda Jinpei was silent.

After a few seconds of silence, his fluffy black curly hair exploded, and his body, which was pressed against the door and the corner of the seat, stretched out, like a baby panda that subconsciously spreads its body wide in a sign of intimidation when it encounters a bear, "...What, what?"

He let out a single syllable in dismay, and then stopped short of saying, "Huh?!"

What was that? I'm gonna marry you'?

This kid has no sense of humor! That guy's obviously...

Matsuda Jinpei pauses, looks over at Ichijō Mirai, sees his smiling red eyes first, pauses for a moment, then sees his raised eyebrow, and smoothly changes his mind to say.

Don't just judge with your eyes, kid! Feel it with your heart! Does this guy look like a good guy?

No, he's not!

Does this guy look like a good guy to marry?

No!

He's an asshole who doesn't care about her feelings and can just ignore them without a blush!

The explosion was so loud that Suzuki Sonoko subconsciously turned her head from Ichijō Mirai's embrace, just in time to see the whole process of Matsuda Jinpei's explosion and fire-breathing.

She hesitated for a moment, and silently leaned into Ichijō Mirai's arms, pressing her cheek against his chest and feeling his beating heart.

The first button of the police uniform was just at the end of her eyebrow, and the second button was on her cheek, bringing a little bit of icy coolness to ease her cheeks that seemed to be ripening a little bit.

Matsuda Jinpei clearly saw her blush, saw her glance cautiously at herself, saw her turn her head in silence and bury herself completely in Ichijō Mirai's arms, revealing only her short, shaggy brown hair, like an ostrich buried obediently in the sand.

The brown hair was a bit messy, and the sunlight shone on some of the hair strands at the edges, turning them into a crystal clear color like caramel, and the caramel strands were intertwined together to cover one side of Suzuki Sonoko's ear, revealing the tip of the ear.

The tip of the ear was slowly turning red.

But the owner of the ear buried it more tightly.

The meaning is obvious: shy, but hug.

Matsuda Jinpei: "..."

"Ahem," Morofushi Hiromitsu had to speak up, "It's just a child's joke."

"This kid looks about eight or nine years old, doesn't she?"

An age when no one else can say anything even if he breaks his oath to the heavens.

A child's words can't be taken seriously, so don't take them too seriously.

Ichijō Mirai agreed, nodding casually as he plucked Suzuki Sonoko out of his arms with some interest, "Can you say that again, just now?"

That was a voice that hadn't been triggered before!

How did this voice trigger? He didn't do anything, did he?

He didn't even try to save the hostages, he just got into a car while retreating and triggered a new voice that hadn't been triggered a dozen times.

That's what it says...

"Wait," Ichijō Mirai turned sideways with Suzuki Sonoko in his arms and aimed at Matsuda Jinpei, "Okay, say it to him."

"It's always a little weird to say it to me," he muttered, 'A ten year old kid saying 'marry you' and all that."

Matsuda Jinpei: "Hey!"

He gritted his teeth, "I just hurt my arm, I'm not dead yet, hold a grudge!"

"Okay, okay," Ichijō Mirai nodded perfunctorily, "Matsuda-san, you seem to be angry all the time... Tsk, you're really bad-tempered... When you go back, remember to drink a lot of bitter gourd water to reduce the dryness and relieve the anger..."

Then he lowered his head to look at Suzuki Sonoko, urging, "Come on, say it again, ah~"

Suzuki Sonoko: "..."

Under Ichijō Mirai's gaze, she pursed her lips a little nervously, opened her mouth hesitantly, but nothing came out, as if glue had been poured down her throat again, and all she could do was to let her forehead heat up silently.

It was just like the dozen or so times I've gone back to face Ichijō Mirai.

Ichijō Mirai: "?"

He tilted his head in confusion, moved closer, and suspiciously met Suzuki Sonoko's eyes for a few seconds, "Wasn't the status okay just now?"

She also looked at the real-time alert: [Blue bar rising, current blue bar [73%].]

It's okay? Why are you speechless again? Just a few seconds ago, you were speaking to an adult as a ten year old, and you wondered if the world had gotten a little too upside down.

"Mirai," Morofushi Hiromitsu sighed, reaching out to take Ichijō Mirai's shoulder and pull him back a bit, "you're too close to her, the little one's probably a little nervous."

He was so nervous that his nose turned red, and his fingers curled around Ichijō Mirai's shoulders, making them look thinner, but he wasn't unclenching his clothes, he was clutching them very tightly in his hand.

Ichijō Mirai turned Suzuki Sonoko back on herself and looked down.

After more than ten times together, he had already familiarized himself with Suzuki Sonoko's appearance, and even with his eyes closed, he was able to picture in his mind the appearance of this difficult hostage: green eyes that were a bit like cat's eyes when rounded, short brown hair that was darker in the room but shone like blonde in the sunlight, blunt cheeks with a distinctly childish look, a cherry blossom pink, but often pursed into a shade or two darker, and lips that had a bit of a bite to them. He has a bit of a lip bite.

I also know that this guy's hands have the characteristics of a child, although not to the point of being round, but when gripping something tightly when nervous, the bones of the fingers are obvious, and appear to be a bit tough, but the finger sockets are so obvious that when poked by Ichijō Mirai's fingers, they also appear to be a small indentation, and even the fabric easily flattens out the flesh of the fingers a little bit.

He's like a child.

That's why that kind of statement was a bit of a rant, like a werewolf wagging its tail and saying 'I'm a good horse', it's very disturbing.

Ichijō Mirai:"..."

He said a few words in his stomach, and carefully scanned Suzuki Sonoko for a few moments, since the three rounds at the beginning of the mission, it was rare to look at the hostage seriously again, and realized that she was still the same as she remembered, holding her breath and rounding her eyes up, looking nervous.

Suzuki Sonoko's hair was quite messy because of the car accident, and some strands of hair were lying in front of her eyes, blocking a few of her eyes.

"Matsuda, was she too nervous to talk just now?" Ichijō Mirai smoothed Suzuki Sonoko's hair back from her forehead, revealing her bare forehead, "I was talking when I got on the bus," she said.

He pulled another smile at her, "Hello Ms. Hostage, open your eyes and look at me."

He politely introduces himself, "Adult."

And politely introduces himself to Suzuki Sonoko, "Kindergartener."

And correcting himself, he finishes his sentence, "Wait, it's elementary school student." 

Suzuki Sonoko: "..."

When she looked directly into those bright red eyes, her eyes were fixed on the dark red round pupils, and she saw her own silly reflection in the pupils, and she was robbed of her rebuttal, so her rebuttal of her own schooling was pressed between her lips and could not come out, and all she could do was to instinctively bow her head in silence, and subconsciously move her crab feet like a crab on a steamer pot.

Ichijō Mirai, curious, came over to me and said, "Huh, are you crying?"

He looked away regretfully and announced to the class, "Why are you looking at me? I'm not crying, don't worry, Ms. Hostage has a strong personality, she doesn't cry much."

"Don't look at her like she's being a good girl, but she's actually able to weave words of survival in the face of a robber."

Ichijō Mirai adds, "But she's also really nice."

Even though the robber scared him to death every time, he was a good boy, he didn't cause any crying fits, he didn't shiver, he didn't get weak in the knees when things went wrong, he didn't try to survive, he had a strong desire to live, and he was a bamboo that didn't talk, so that was quite satisfying.

Of course, the premise is: "Ignore what you just said."

"Speaking as if you can understand a person just by looking at them," Matsuda Jinpei wanted to choke Ichijō Mirai, but after doing so, he paused subtly, "...it's not really possible, is it?"

Ichijō Mirai smiled, "Are you misunderstanding me? Of course it's impossible."

"Is it?" Matsuda Jinpei is even more skeptical, looking Ichijō Mirai and Suzuki Sonoko up and down for a few seconds before answering the question, "That's not true... she was just politely thanking us for saving her,"

He agrees with Ichijō Mirai's assessment of Suzuki Sonoko's preferences, "Kid's pretty calm, and she's got the ability to make judgments in a situation like this, and she believed us as soon as she heard we were the police... that's the reason why..."

From the driver's seat, Furuya Rei casually chimed in, "'Brother looks stupid...young! There's no one as kind looking as you in that group of robber uncles', good reason."

"Oh," Ichijō Mirai realized, "Matsuda-san gained the precious trust of the hostages by being silly."

And added, "That's 65, that's pretty good."

While he was talking, Suzuki Sonoko was buried in his arms again, in the exact same position as the dozen or so times she'd been back in his arms before, with only the back of her head showing. Ichijō Mirai had gotten used to it, and glanced down at it before looking up and continuing to smile a provocative smile that pulled in the hate value for Matsuda Jinpei.

Hard, hard, hard.

Matsuda Jinpei's fists are hard.

Without realizing it, his hands clenched up, and even his arm, which had lost some of its strength due to the injury, temporarily received a medical miracle buff, and he had the strength to tighten his fist into an iron fist that could knock someone out with a single hammer blow.

He breathed in, breathed out, breathed in, breathed out, adjusted his breathing, "Familiar smell...when the hell are we going to give this guy Conviction a nickname he can shout out in anger!"

"Hey," he turned his head to Morofushi Hiromitsu, who was located in the back of the passenger seat, "do you have some secret to adjusting your mind? Otherwise, how can you talk to this guy in private again and again and not beat him up, you're too tolerant, aren't you?"

Morofushi Hiromitsu withdrew his gaze from Ichijō Mirai and Suzuki Sonoko, and smiled back, "The secret is probably to say 'I can't beat him' a hundred times, 'I'll be remembered for a hundred years if I beat him up', and 'Think about Rei and Matsuda-san', right?"

Matsuda Jinpei:"?"

The question mark almost popped out, and Morofushi Hiromitsu had already turned back to Suzuki Sonoko, his eyes lingering on the obviously red tips of her ears for a few seconds, hesitantly clenching his fists under his nose, not quite sure whether or not he should speak up to stop her.

At ten years old, a child has little to do with love, and even if she makes a bold statement that could be described as having the guts of a bear, it would only make the adults look at each other with a smile.

But she already had to keep her distance from adults of the opposite sex.

But Suzuki Sonoko was a hostage who had just gotten out of danger, and she was still a child, so if a hug could make her feel safe...

Before Morofushi Hiromitsu could finish his hesitation, as the car passed an intersection, Ichijō Mirai ended his contemplation, looked down, and very naturally gave Suzuki Sonoko a handful of times, pulling her next to him and helping him to fasten her seatbelt, "The car's going at a good speed now, so just wear your seatbelt, and remember to look out the window. Remember to pay attention to the window, when you see a motorcycle or suspected robbers, you must immediately lower your head and get down."

The second half of the sentence, of course, would never happen, Ichijō Mirai would be the first to react when the robbers appeared, but it was necessary to keep the children busy, and he gave a few words of explanation and then turned his head to Matsuda Jinpei, pondering, "You mean, this guy was able to thank you just now?"

How could he?

Shouldn't he have been too scared to speak? There was a shootout at the factory!

He had to talk to the hostage every time he went through the window.

"Did you coax her?"

Matsuda Jinpei was stunned. "Coax?"

"Uh, well," He snapped, looking busily to his left and then to his right, "I'll contact Kenji and the others to see how they're doing!"

He raised the walkie-talkie quickly, and when he heard Ichijō Mirai's "huh?" When he heard Ichijō Mirai's "Huh?", he lowered the walkie-talkie sheepishly, "The robbers found us not long after we received her, so we didn't have time to calm them down... but this hostage lady doesn't look like she's in much need of urgent calming down, does she?"

Matsuda Jinpei didn't.

Hostages can talk.

Ichijō Mirai runs through it: he shows up, and the hostage doesn't talk.

What does that mean?

He turned his head to Suzuki Sonoko, glanced at her face, which was again covered by her hair, smoothed it up again to reveal her bare forehead, and gave her a quick, incredibly natural flick on the forehead as she looked up with rounded eyes, "How come you won't talk when you're facing me?"

The force wasn't too strong, Suzuki Sonoko didn't even lean back a bit, a light red mark appeared on the center of her forehead, she was surprised and subconsciously covered her forehead with her hand, "Oooh?"

"Nervous?" Ichijō Mirai guessed one by one, "Scared?"

"Shy?"

At the last word, Suzuki Sonoko shifted.

"Okay, it's outrageous, but the answer's obvious," Ichijō Mirai released her and leaned back a bit, resting on Morofushi Hiromitsu's shoulder, "I'm sure, then."

Sure of what Suzuki Sonoko's individual blue bar hints were for, and 'inspired' for what.

He still thought it was outrageous: a child that young, actually...

If it was a girl of 17 or 18 years old or older, he would have realized the effect of his appearance in the first two times he went back to the file, and immediately and unashamedly made use of it to make the hostages feel more at ease.

However, "Sixty-five points, the hostage doesn't think you're as handsome as me."

Ichijō Mirai smiled innocently, "I'm honored."

Matsuda Jinpei: "???"

"Huh?!"

As he looked at Ichijō Mirai with a stiff fist, Ichijō Mirai smiled at him again and quickly clicked offline.

"Take a break for the intermission, bye bye everyone, and remember to drink lots of bitter melon juice."