Tokyo: After years of stagnation, the heiress of the yakuza arrives.

"Minister, what are you saying? I don't understand..."

After a brief moment of shock, Shido Kuroba's expression returned to normal, and he even blinked twice quite naturally, as if he wasn't the one who had just been looking at someone with a bunch of question marks on their head.

Despite not knowing, not understanding, and not comprehending, the impoverished boy remained as steady as a rock, showing no sign of being intimidated by Miyazaki Kiyoshi's few words!

Ahhhhhhh... I feel like I'm about to drool...

But... is that really the case?

It's an egg!

I was drenched in sweat, I was so scared I almost peed my pants!

Okay, just kidding, Shi is out too! What a joke, how would the department head know about Amamiya Kaoru's family affairs?

Although this wasn't a serious crime like murder or arson, strictly speaking, he had simply stayed overnight at his teacher's house due to various unavoidable objective reasons. However, once this matter reached the ears of certain people, it was no longer just a simple matter of staying overnight.

Especially Jingu Aoko, that vicious woman wouldn't care about any objective reasons, nor would she give him a chance to explain what happened. She would automatically delete all irrelevant information, leaving only the most dangerous keywords: "Kuroba Shido," "went to a woman's house," and "spent the night." Then she would show a rather gentle smile and ask him what kind of death he wanted.

No, perhaps he wouldn't even have the chance to choose how he died. Kuroba Shido's mind was filled with the image of Jingu Aoko holding a pistol, a wooden sword, a chainsaw, and a cement bucket she'd somehow acquired, earnestly agonizing over four options. A bead of cold sweat slowly slid down his cheek.

Stay calm. It's precisely at times like these that you mustn't reveal any flaws! As long as you don't admit it, the minister's information is just unverified gossip, at most unsubstantiated rumors with unclear sources and questionable veracity, and absolutely cannot be used as evidence in court.

In the video, Miyazaki Kiyoshi stared at him without moving, and Kuroba Shido also stared at Miyazaki Kiyoshi without moving, with the corners of his mouth even naturally turning up slightly, revealing the honest, pure, and guiltless smile of a poor boy facing slander.

Three seconds passed, and Miyazaki Kiyoshi remained silent. Kuroba Shido's smile gradually froze.

Wait a minute, why isn't the minister reacting at all? Is he bluffing, or has he already obtained more detailed evidence?

Could it be that……

A terrifying thought suddenly appeared in Shido Kuroba's mind, and he felt as if he had been struck by lightning. His pupils suddenly contracted, and the hand holding the phone trembled uncontrollably.

He remembered that the apartment he was currently living in was originally arranged by Miyazaki Kiyoshi. The house belonged to him, the door locks were his, and there might even be an invisible eye growing in the corner of the bedroom.

If surveillance cameras can be installed inside the apartment building, what about outside?

From the apartment to the school, and from the school to Kaoru Amamiya's house, the roads, shops, stations, and various security cameras along the way—if the Minister wanted, he could piece together his entire route bit by bit.

Thinking about it from a more dangerous perspective, perhaps from the moment he entered Amamiya Kaoru's house, his every move had already come under the watchful eye of some mysterious investigation department.

The more Kuroba Shido thought about it, the more reasonable it seemed, and the more shocked he became. Finally, he looked at Miyazaki Kiyoshi on his phone screen with disbelief.

"You investigated me!"

As the sound faded, the car and the kitchen fell silent. Miyazaki Kiyoshi neither denied nor admitted it, but simply watched Kuroba Shido on the screen, waiting for his next performance.

"Your Excellency, I originally thought that there was at least a basic level of trust between us..."

That's right, it's a performance.

When Kuroba Shido said those words, he had already prepared a whole set of follow-up plans. The surprise was just the beginning, the questioning was just the prelude, and the real core was the impromptu performance that followed, themed around the breakdown of trust, which was enough to make the audience feel sad and shed tears.

The boy on the screen slumped down, his bright eyes quickly lost their luster, and the forced smile on his lips slowly disappeared. In just a few seconds, Shido Kuroba seemed to have been hit hard, and even the surrounding air seemed to darken.

At this point, Shido Kuroba paused, his gaze slowly lowering, as if unwilling to let Kiyoshi Miyazaki see the disappointment in his eyes.

"I moved into the apartment you arranged because I trust you, and also because I trust our normal, pure, and healthy relationship between the minister and his staff."

"But I never imagined that while I regarded you as the most respected minister, you would be investigating a poor, destitute, and disabled member of the department who had come to Tokyo alone to struggle for a living..."

Kuroba Shido raised his head, his lips trembling slightly, his eyes filled with the stubbornness of trying to maintain the last bit of dignity despite being betrayed.

"If you want to know something, you can just ask me directly. I might forget something temporarily because I'm nervous, or my injuries might affect my expression, or I might selectively tell you parts because of the pride of a poor boy. But at least... at least it shouldn't be like this."

As he finished speaking, Kuroba Shido slowly closed his eyes and turned his face to the side.

Disappointment, loneliness, and heartbreak.

Combined with the morning sunlight streaming into the kitchen through the window, and the bead of cold sweat on the side of his face, which was caused by shock but is now being perfectly used, the whole scene is filled with the sense of devastation caused by betrayal by someone he trusted.

If Yamamoto Shinto were here, he would probably be crying while hugging the rice ball. If Ito Fusei were here, he would probably be clapping while asking why such acting skills weren't used to give the correct option to the wood in some corner.

Unfortunately, the person on the other end of the video was Kiyoshi Miyazaki. She simply held her phone calmly, watching Shido Kuroba go through a whole series of emotional changes, from shock, questioning, hurt, disappointment to despair, without any obvious fluctuation in her eyes.

Kuroba Shido turned his head to the side and waited for two seconds without a response. He waited for another two seconds, but still received no response.

isn't it?

Is the minister's heart made of stone? Such sincere eyes, such a trembling voice, such a nuanced performance—even a stray dog ​​on the street would come over and rub its head against his trouser leg, offering the poor boy some comfort from a stranger, right?

Or……

Kuroba Shido's heart skipped a beat. Had his acting skills deteriorated?

impossible!

The poor boy's ability to survive in Tokyo is half due to his shamelessness, half to his resourcefulness, and the majority to his superb acting skills. Although he is slightly over the top in math, survival cannot be measured by ordinary addition and subtraction.

His acting skills are absolutely fine, so there's probably only one thing left.

Kiyoshi Miyazaki is reading his mind right now!

Kuroba Shido's outward sadness remained unchanged, but his brain instantly activated.

I think this pasta should be mixed with No. 42 concrete, because the length of the screw directly affects the excavator's matrix. When the fries hit the ground, they instantly release a nuclear explosion, producing high-energy proteins. Next door, Yamamoto's rice ball is using Noah's Spark to deliver a sow's baby. Ito Fusei is standing next to him shouting that Gakka is the best in the world. Amamiya-sensei is riding a shared bicycle, drifting around a bend on the surface of the moon...

Familiar magical incantation, activate!

While Kuroba Shido was still verbally lamenting the breakdown of trust and maintaining the pain of being hurt, his mind was completely filled with images of No. 42 concrete, spaghetti, excavators, and Noah's Spark. He truly embodied the idea of ​​saying one thing, doing another, and thinking another.

The mouth is responsible for delivering sad lines, the facial muscles are responsible for maintaining a forlorn expression, and the brain is responsible for using illogical junk information to mount a high-intensity defense against possible mind-reading attempts.

Strictly speaking, this can no longer be called the brain working in two ways, but rather three drives starting simultaneously, without interfering with each other, and operating independently!

Ordinary people should never imitate this. If your IQ isn't 180, let alone running three circuits at the same time, you might accidentally say "pasta" out of your mouth, stuff sad lines into your head, and end up shouting "Concrete No. 42" in front of Miyazaki Kiyoshi, turning yourself from a victim into a mentally unstable person who needs to be rushed to the hospital for observation.

Only a wild genius like Shido Kuroba, who has struggled in the complex environment of Tokyo and experienced countless life-or-death crises, could accomplish such a difficult operation.

In the video, Miyazaki Kiyoshi's eyes narrowed slightly, and Kuroba Shido's heart skipped a beat.

Did I see it... or not?

Can the minister's abilities really be utilized through a mobile phone?

Logically, with electronic devices, wireless networks, and distances of unknown distance between people, mind-reading ability shouldn't be effective. However, the phrase "normal logic" doesn't hold much credibility when applied to Kiyoshi Miyazaki.

After all, it's impossible for a normal person to turn someone's hidden thoughts into a clear portrait just by looking at them.

Just to be on the safe side, we can't stop.

Demon Brain, increase the power!

The pasta began its second mixing with concrete No. 42, the excavator matrix upgraded from two-dimensional to three-dimensional, Noah's Spark completed its solar charging, Yamamoto's rice ball head was installed on the front of a shared bicycle, and Amamiya Kaoru rode all the way from the moon back to Tokyo, getting twelve points deducted from her license by alien traffic police for running red lights along the way...

Kuroba Shido's heart was in turmoil, a state so chaotic that even Cthulhu would be speechless, yet on the surface he maintained the sorrow of being betrayed.

Miyazaki Kiyoshi stared at him for a while, and the driver in the driver's seat also dared not make a sound.

The driver had no idea what a complex counter-surveillance war was raging inside Kuroba Shido's head; he could only hear the accusations coming from the phone and his young mistress's unchanging, calm breathing.

From the driver's perspective, the whole thing doesn't seem complicated. The guy upstairs thinks the young lady investigated him and is now very disappointed. He's complaining in a rather sad tone about the lost trust between the two of them.

As for what exactly happened, the driver didn't know, and absolutely dared not know. Right now, he only hoped that he could shrink into the steering wheel and become an ordinary, lifeless, thoughtless part of the car that would never reveal any secrets it heard.

After a few seconds of silence, Miyazaki Kiyoshi finally spoke.

I didn't investigate you.

The voice was soft and calm, but the moment those words were spoken, Shido Kuroba almost lost control of the sadness on his face, and Kaoru Amamiya, who was riding a shared bicycle in his mind, nearly crashed into a lunar crater.

Explained?

The minister actually offered an explanation?

Is this still the same Miyazaki Kiyoshi who is too lazy to say a word in the face of any misunderstanding, and who doesn't care at all what others think of her?

Kuroba Shido's first reaction was not to believe, but to suspect that the video footage had been replaced by some kind of alien technology, and that the person in front of him who looked exactly like Miyazaki Kiyoshi was likely a clone who imitated the club president's behavior patterns but failed to learn the essence.

The driver's reaction was even more direct than Shido Kuroba's; his hands on the steering wheel tightened slightly, and his gaze almost involuntarily drifted to the rearview mirror.

Is the young lady explaining?

She actually offered an explanation just to prove she hadn't investigated anyone?

Having followed Miyazaki Kiyoshi for so many years, the driver has seen too many people misunderstand her, fear her, or draw completely wrong conclusions based on a little superficial information. But the young lady never cares, and she will never waste time changing other people's judgments.

Whether you think she's cold, arrogant, or even a problem child who can't be interacted with normally, it's all just worthless external noise to Miyazaki Kiyoshi. What the other person thinks is unimportant, and explaining is even less necessary.

But now, Miyazaki Kiyoshi not only explained, but also seriously denied the "investigation" after the boy upstairs put on a clearly excessive performance of sadness.

Just as the driver was getting into that thought, Miyazaki Kiyoshi in the rearview mirror looked up and calmly glanced at him.

The driver felt a chill run down his spine and immediately straightened up, suppressing any further thoughts that might have arisen before he could fully develop his mind, fixing his gaze firmly on the road ahead.

Nothing happened; the young lady was simply clarifying the facts.

Yes, that's it.

On the other end of the phone, Kuroba Shido also recovered from his brief shock. The dejection on his face had not completely disappeared, but a glimmer of disbelief appeared in his eyes.

If you're going to put on an act, you have to go all the way. Now that the minister has explained, I can't just go back to normal right away. Wouldn't that be the same as admitting that all the sadness I felt before was just an act?

"real?"

Kuroba Shido's voice was very soft, as if he had seen hope in the darkness, but was also afraid that hope was just another deception.

Kiyoshi Miyazaki: "..."

Is this alien classmate really getting into acting?

She did not cooperate with Shido Kuroba to continue repairing trust, but simply presented the most basic facts.

"The message came from Shimotsuki Takagi."

Shido Kuroba's expression paused for a moment.

Shuangyue Gaoli?

That seemingly gentle, mature, and reasonable married woman?

Just as Kuroba Shido's image of the other person appeared in his mind, Miyazaki Kiyoshi continued to speak.

"To be precise, she didn't tell me on her own initiative."

Kuroba Shi said, "???"

Could it be... that some despicable, underhanded method was used?