I was currently heading to my school, Yui-sei High. It's a prestigious school well-known in not just Japan but in other countries as well. This school had a high reputation and they mainly focus on nurturing students for different challenges in the world. The school also encourages its students to participate in all, yes all, international competitions in the world.
The thing that I actually like about this school is how, unlike other schools, they focus on increasing our creativity, thinking and reasoning skills, emotional and social intelligence, along with many physical aspects of our lives more than our grades and academic performance. It's something that I've come to appreciate as only focusing on academics is not good for us.
As I was reaching the school entrance, I heard a sudden voice call out to me.
"Hey Amaya!"
I turned around to see Nakamura Asami, a close friend of mine, waving at me as she approached me with a beaming smile on her face. Her long-brown hair danced as she ran up to me, with her blue eyes shining with joy. She was currently our school uniform, just like me, which consisted of a red blazer, red bow tie, a white shirt, a green skirt, white leggings and finally, black shoes.
Wearing this uniform at all times during school (except for PE) was a necessity as the school was very, and I mean very strict about it. Wear something else without an extremely good reason and you'll receive the worst humiliation of your life.
"Hey Asami. How are you feeling?" I asked her. Yesterday, a boy from our class accidently shot a soccer ball at her butt, causing her to not stop complaining about it, even after the student profusely apologized to her.
"Better, I'm still not over that but I'm okay now." She replied, seemingly bummed out by the incident. She then started yapping about how her parents said that it wasn't a big deal and that she should stop whining about it.
This was mainly because how she was physically strong and durable, along with her body being well-built. She was a genius when it came to physical education. Even some of the boys in our class would pale in comparison, which is actually quite crazy.
We then entered the school grounds which was bustling with student trying to go to class. Afterwards, we headed to our classroom which was in the second floor. Each floor was occupied by a year group. For example, the first floor was occupied by the first-year students, the second floor being occupied by the second years, and the third floor being occupied by the the third years. This, of course, automatically meant that we're second-year students.
After entering our classroom, our eyes landed on the students present. Most of them were already here, as only 10 minutes remained till homeroom. We then headed to our seats and sat down, putting our bags to the side. It's good that we're seatmates, meaning that we can spend as much quality time with each other as possible. In front of me sat another friend of mine, her dirty-blonde hair tied to a bun, her brown eyes covered by pink-framed spectacles were focused on the book she was reading.
"You're still reading that book, Akiko?" Asami, who stood up from her seat, approached Akiko, her expression betrayed confusion and curiosity.
Yep. This other friend of mine is Hanamura Akiko. Unlike Asami, she has less interest in physical activities, as seen by her smaller build, and is more interested in reading books and nurturing her intelligence. However, it seems that only I was able to able to notice that despite having a smaller build, it kind of looks very impressive.
Maybe she secretly goes to the gym or something? That's my thought on the matter.
As for the book she's reading, it's called Demons with the author being a man named Fyodor Dostoevsky. I haven't actually read the book myself so I'm not really aware of what the book is about. Akiko found it in the school's library a week ago, and after borrowing it, she reads it whenever she has free time. Asami wasn't into books as much as us, so she's a little perplexed about someone reading a book in all of their free time.
"Hah, yes I am, and good morning, Asami. Same to you, Amaya." She sighed and responded to her alongside greeting us. She isn't someone who uses honorifics when talking to others.
"Good morning." We replied to her greeting.
"Nakamura," Suddenly, we heard a boy call Asami out. We turned to look at a boy with black hair nicely combed to the left, brown eyes which possessed a hint of a gentle touch in them, and his height being around 170cm. He was wearing the uniform for boys which consisted of a red blazer, white shirt, grey sweater, red tie, green pants, and to top it all of, black shoes.
His name was Hirano Kiyoshi, a popular guy in the school known to have good grades and also have good physical capabilities.
"What is it, Hirano?" Asami asked him. However, while she seemed okay on the outside, I could tell that she wasn't really feeling okay due to her hands slowly forming into a fist.
Is she still not over it? It was the only thought that was ringing in my mind as I observed the spectacle in front of me.
"I, once again, sincerely apologize for hitting you with the soccer ball yesterday." He replied, and once again, apologized to her. Asami then took a deep sigh before landing her piercing blue eyes on the poor black-haired boy.
"I told you before, didn't I? I'm completely fine. You have nothing to worry about." She told him. However, I doubt that she completely meant it, considering her hand is still balled into a fist.
"D-does that mean that you accepted my apology?" He asked after noticing her balled fists for himself.
"Yes, I accept. You don't have to worry about me being mad anymore." She replied as she loosened her hands.
"I see. Thank you very much, Nakamura." He bowed and then went back to his seat. Honestly, he's one of the few guys in this school who are actually quite decent and nice to talk with.
Creak!
The door opened and the person who came from it is none other than the best student in this school, Fujiwara Hikaru. He is a guy with hair that seemingly possess a mixed shade of light and dark brown, alongside brown eyes which seem to stare into your soul every time you look at them, and an iron-clad expression which seems to say "Don't disturb me for stuff that is not serious".
What's even more marvelous about this guy is his performance in the school. In terms of grades, he always, and I mean always, scores an A*, as his scores never came below 90, sometimes even getting a perfect score, which is crazy, considering how difficult the questions are given in this school.
In terms of physical ability, he surpasses Asami by a long shot, which shows that he's in the upper echelons of the entire school, just like Asami. An example of this is how he outclassed Asami and the rest of the contestants of a swimming competition in a humiliating way.
To sum it up, he is someone who every student wants to be like.
"Good morning, Hikaru, are you doing well?" asked his friend, Sakaguchi Ichiro.
In terms of academic and physical abilities, he's not good as Fujiwara. However, he is still good, regardless. He has black hair, cyan eyes, and an almost emotionless expression.
"Yeah, I'm alright. What about you?"
While Fujiwara still has pretty good social skills despite his expression barely changing at all (only when he's spending time with his friends), Sakaguchi, on the other hand, has little to no social skills. It's something that I've come to notice while observing the two, as he barely talks with anyone except Fujiwara.
"Good morning class, I hope you are all well. Homeroom is about to begin." Our homeroom teacher, Maizono Shiho, entered the classroom and greeted us. Her dark-green hair which were tied to a ponytail swayed as she walked to the teacher's desk, her dark-brown eyes holding a focused gaze at us.
***
It was now time for recess, the best time in the school. Why? Because you're head doesn't go crazy in recess as much as in normal classes, especially in this school.
Currently, I'm sitting on a bench of the extremely huge cafeteria, eating peacefully.
Ah~, the bliss of peace.
"Amaya!"
Ah, jinxed it.
The culprit for this, is obviously Asami. Don't get me wrong, I like that Asami is approaching me, but why does she have to approach me when I was eating in peace and quiet?
For some reason, I feel like peace just isn't an option for me.
"Hm? What is it, Asami?" For some reason, Asami had a rather concerned expression rather than her usual bubbly one.
"There's a brawl going on!"
"Eh?"
Hearing that, both of us rushed to the scene of the brawl.
After reaching there, we saw two third-years beating someone up. Wait...
Brother!?
How dare they harm him!? These bastards...
"Why didn't you try to stop them, Asami!"
"I thought I should inform you about it first!"
This girl...she really doesn't how to make good decisions, does she?
I then rushed towards the first-years who were beating up my brother, while Asami tried to stop me.
I was able to then deliver a sharp kick to one of those bastards on the face, causing him to grunt and stumble backwards. However, before I could do anything else, the second guy grabbed my arms from behind with a tight grip.
"Huh!? Let me go you son of a-" Before I could finish, the guy holding me was suddenly grabbed by the collar before being slammed on the ground with great force.
"Tch, how pathetic." I then saw the culprit responsible, and it turned out to be Fujiwara, who always steps in to stop ongoing fights whenever he finds out about one.
"Are you alright?" He asked, directing his cold gaze to me.
"U-uh, yeah, I'm okay." I replied with a slight blush on my face.
Why am I blushing? Well, no.1, I have a big crush on him, and no.2, he's currently standing very close to me right now.
"Now then, how about we end this pointless fight? After all, the teachers are already here." Just as he finished his sentence, the teachers immediately arrive.
"It seems you three owe us an explanation, Fujisaki, Matsushita, and Tanaka. Come with us right away." Ms. Maizono told them before heading to the faculty office, followed by the two third-years and my brother.
Wait a minute, why didn't they ask me and Fujiwara to come as well? After all, we were also involved in the fight.
"Hey Fujiwara," I called out to him. While I do have a crush on him, I'm not like those anime girls who are just too embarrassed and nervous to talk to their crush.
"Hmm?"
"Were you the one who called the teachers here?"
"Yeah. Apparently, this fight was planned beforehand by the two who were attacking your brother. I just happened to find out about it during our English lesson, so as soon as recess started, I went to the teachers and told them about the fight. This is also why I was late at stopping the fight." He replied, his response calm and collective.
Usually, Fujiwara jumps in as soon as the fight starts. However, this time, he was a bit late so I was curious. Moreover, the teachers arrived just after he did, implying that they came here together. Lastly, the teachers didn't take us with them, meaning that Fujiwara had already informed them of the situation.
Suddenly, Asami rushed in and started to shake me like crazy.
"What the hell is wrong with you!? I know that you love your brother very much, but this was irrational! If Fujiwara hadn't arrived on time, you could have beaten up very badly! You dumbass!"
"Waaah! Stop shaking me!" I tried to convince her to let me go, but she wasn't even listening as she continued to yell at me about it. As I receiving the shakes of my lifetime, I spotted Akiko fixating her gaze at Fujiwara, a small smirk etched on her face as she did so. It was something she usually did whenever she spotted him, though she's very good at hiding it from others. Only Asami and I have seen her doing this often.
Thus, we came to the conclusion that she's interested in him, but doesn't have an actual crush on him. This was mainly because I noticed that that her gaze wasn't of someone who was in love. Rather, it was of someone who found an interesting toy to play with.
After a while, Asami finally released me from her hold. I then turned my gaze back to Fujiwara, who had been staring at us with usual cold look.
"A-anyway, thank you for what you did, Fujiwara." I thanked him with earnestly.
"Your welcome." He replied before walking back to his friends who were waiting for him.
I then stare at him for a moment before lamenting to myself with a sulked head.
Why did my peace have to be butchered like this?
Sigh
I need to get ready for some scolding.
***
"Why the hell were you involved in a fight, Satoru!?" My dad asked (and yelled) at my brother. Currently, my mom was making dinner while my dad, who just arrived back home, was interrogating my poor brother.
"I-it wasn't my fault, dad! Those guys just snuck up on me for no reason! I was even beaten up by them. Amaya can testify to it. Right, Amaya?" My brother asked me with a pleading look to vouch for him. However, before I could respond, dad interrupted us.
"Oh please, quit relying on your sister for everything. Besides, I was simply testing you to see if you would tell me the truth, but turns out, you failed. The teachers had actually informed me about the whole incident privately. You had apparently scammed them, hadn't you?" He said, dropping a huge bomb on my poor brother.
Wait a minute, if he knows the whole incident, then...
I tried to sneak away from the living room, where all this was taking place. However-
"And where do you think you're going, miss?" My dad, who noticed me, called out, his greyish-blue eyes piercing my head with its gaze. I slowly turned around before replying to him.
"I was heading to my room. I remembered that I have an assignment to complete." Saying then, I was about to turn back, but-
"Not so fast, don't think for even a second that you can get out of this Scot-free. What made you think that you should just charge in when you see two boys older than you beating someone up, hm? You could've been beaten up as well..." He began to scold me for my actions.
Okay, I admit, that was not a very good idea. However, imagine that you see two random people beating up your sibling, wouldn't you want to beat up their butts as well? It's a completely natural response. I have no idea as to why I'm getting scolded like this.
"...Hah, just don't be reckless like that again, ok? And don't you dare scam anyone again, Satoru!" He sighed and finished his scolding.
"Understood." We replied in unison.
"Dinner's ready!" My mother called out.
Afterward, we all then gathered together and began eating dinner in the living room.
These included my two other siblings, Izo, and Yuki. Yuki, my younger sister, is only one year younger than me and is also a first-year student in Yui-sei High. She has dark brown hair, just like my mom and elder brother, along with greyish-blue eyes, which are identical to my own, and is currently wearing a green T-shirt and grey trousers.
Izo, on the other hand, is currently at his first year of elementary school, and was gobbling down his food as his jet-black hair were disheveled while his lush-green eyes shined in joy of tasting his the food.
After a while, all of us got up after having dinner and went to our rooms while mom and I washed the dishes. Why not Yuki as well? It's because she's currently studying for her English test.
After washing the dishes, I went to my room, grabbed my phone, and then started to scroll different posts in Instagram. I then found out from there that Hatano Misa, one of my close friends from another school, was finally back online after being offline from Instagram for the past week. In her story, she wrote that she was in depression so she decided to be not be in social media for a while.
Depression? Hmm, I'll ask her about it tomorrow.
...ok, I'm thirsty.
I then got up from my room and went to the kitchen to get some water.
Gulp Gulp Gulp.
After drinking it, I washed the glass and placed it back to where I took it from. While heading back to my room, I heard the conversation between my parents.
"Did you have any leads today, honey?" Mom asked dad in a sweet tone. As the door was closed, I decided to simply listen to their conversation by standing beside it so that they cannot see the silhouette of my feet from below.
"...No. Currently I can't even determine the suspects. Apparently, all of Souei's colleagues said that he was the only person in the office at the time of the murder." He replied. Wait, murder? Dad had been trying to solve another case for a week now. However, I didn't know that he had been trying to solve a murder case, nor do I actually know who's the victim.
Wait, something doesn't add up. Dad said that a man named Souei was alone in an office, where presumably the murder took place. This means that the victim was this Souei guy. However, Souei is also the name of my dad's best friend and the father of Misa, who just so happened to be depressed and hadn't been online in social media for about a week. Not to mention that dad is referring to this Souei guy with his first name.
Please...don't tell me...
"...I see. It's sad that we don't have even a single lead on who Hatano's killer is."
Damn...I knew it. I'm sure that Misa's depression isn't fully gone yet even though she has started to use social media again. The sadness of losing a father isn't something that one can get over with within just a week. In fact, even after two years passed since grandfather's death, mom's still not over it. Hence, Misa's not over the death of her father either.
Whoever is responsible for it must be some sort of serial killer or psychopath as Mr. Hatano was not anyone special. In fact, he could be considered to be at the very ordinary part of the middle class of society. Killing him wouldn't really benefit anyone, so the purpose behind it is honestly foreign to me.
"This case," My dad began. "it's too complex. No evidence. No suspects. No where to begin. The killer seems to have hidden his tracks perfectly. We even checked his body for potential clues. However, we still found nothing." He finished. Why? Why did this killer murder someone who didn't have a big impact in society and not even leave a single trace of it? Does he perhaps want to murder someone else as well?
If that's the case, then there is a chance that Mr. Hatano's entire family might be targeted as well. Wait... that would mean-
"No where to begin? Even the Karito case from two years at least had somewhere to begin." She remarked. I heard about how dad once couldn't solve a case known as the Karito case alone and required the help of the world's greatest detective, X, to help him solve the case.
"This case is even more difficult than that one. I guess that we'll require his help again." Dad replied to her statement. Wait, him? Does he mean X?
"Hah, I guess you're right. Anyway, do you want water?" Mom sighed and asked him. Hearing her question, I quickly went back to my room to not be caught.
As for him, I have a feeling that they're talking about X. If this case is more difficult to solve than the Karito case, then X's help is certainly required. I guess I'll pay my condolences to Misa later.
I am curious though, who is actually X?