As the bell chimed that ended the afternoon classes, Ken and Fujima quickly stood up and went to the batting center. It was a weekday so it's understandable that the place wasn't so crowded. There were 4 batting cages in total. Two were already occupied. The first cage was occupied by boys from another school considering how they are wearing different uniforms from Ken and Fujima. The other batting cage was occupied by 4 college students. 2 boys and 2 girls.
"Lucky! We won't have to wait in queue. I'm so pumped up to go all out today!" Remarked Ken who looked all excited as they went to the counter and booked the open batting cage right at the very corner.
"I don't know how to play baseball." Said Fujima with a cold and straight face.
"You, a top class assassin. Can't play baseball? I guess we'll have a masterclass about baseball today."
"You don't want to be disposed of by me right? Then shut your mouth about that."
"Oh yeah. I totally forgot about that." Said Ken, smiling while scratching the back of his head.
Fujima sat down as he tried to learn from Ken who was teaching him detail by detail how to strike the bat in baseball. With his utmost attention, Fujima tried to learn this so-called "batting".
Ken batted the ball 3 consecutive times, even hitting the target in every bat. Fujima was amazed by the skill demonstrated by Ken.
"Why don't you join our baseball team? I may not be too knowledgeable about the sport but I'm pretty sure you're good at this."
"Just wait, I'll be trying out next week. I'm about to take on the world's baseball scene in 4 years. Mark my words. If I won't be able to do that, you have my approval to dispose of me."
"Well, sure I guess."
"No Fujima! You're supposed to object!"
"Whatever I guess."
"Ah. Such a cold hearted dude you are."
Ken laughed and Fujima smiled briefly.
"See! You can smile after all. Now it's your turn! Go show me your skills, my apprentice."
Fujima stood up and went to the platform copying the stance Ken showed him a while ago but with a little bit of missed detail which made Ken hold his laughter. The first bat was decent. He hit the ball dead center because he didn't hit the target that signifies a home run which Ken hit 3 consecutive times. Despite the disappointment in Fujima's face as he turned towards Ken, he saw Ken standing up as if he saw a ghost.
"What? Is it really your first time?!"
"Why are you surprised? I didn't even hit the target."
"Dude, you are holding the bat the other way around! I didn't tell you because I want to make fun of you but you hit the ball well while holding the bat like that."
"Not so good of an instructor are you? Making fun of his students."
"Anyway, hold the bat on the other end and try again. I might have found a genius in baseball!"
Fujima then corrected his mistake and stood on the platform once again preparing for the next ball to come at him. As he was about to bat the ball, a scream from the cage where the 4 college students were playing was heard all throughout the batting center.
Fujima and Ken quickly looked at the direction where the scream came from. The ball that Fujima was supposed to strike even hit him in the head but he didn't even noticed. He saw the 3 college students worried. It was the other girl screaming at the sight they just saw. The other two just stood there in shock as if frozen in place.
Fujima hurried to the other cage as he saw one of the college girls with blonde curly hair lying on the ground, her eyes and mouth opened wide. Beside her was a shattered glass of soda.
"What happened here?" Asked Fujima.
The college boy wearing a blue jacket and a blue cap answered. "I-i-i don't know. I handed her my glass of soda because she said she's getting a little thirsty then a few seconds later she started choking and couldn't breathe. The next thing we knew is she's already lying here."
"Poison? Or was she allergic? I guess we'll have to wait for the police." Fujima thought to himself as he tried to find any pulse in the girl lying on the ground but had no luck. The girl was already lifeless.
"I-i-is she dead?" Asked the other boy who looked handsome.
"Unfortunately. Yes." Answered Fujima. "Go to the staff and ask them to call the police Ken."
"Y-yeah got it."
Fujima instructed everyone to not leave the place until the police arrive because everyone including themselves might be a suspect if this is indeed a murder case.
"Does she have any allergies?" Fujima asked.
"None that we know of. Naomi never told us anything about it. So I guess none." Answered the other girl.
Knowing that the girl is not allergic to anything, he mostly concluded that the girl named Naomi is poisoned. Most likely by one of her three companions here.
As soon as the police arrived, Fujima explained the situation to the police and the inspector who just arrived. He also asked them to do a forensic autopsy on the victim. He also instructed them to analyze the contents of the soda.
After doing the tests, it was confirmed that the cause of death is poisoning through VX nerve agents. It was also found in some of the soda spilled on the floor.
"Hearing this, the most suspicious person right now is Kenji. The guy who gave Naomi the drink. But there is no evidence aside from him giving the drink himself."
"I didn't kill her! Why would I? I'm her bestfriend! You can even look up the footage of the CCTVs here if I even put something on the drink."
Upon reviewing the CCTV footage of the batting center, Kenji got the drink from one of the staff and didn't do anything to it. The staff is also not suspicious since he just got the soda from the machine where no poison got detected. So how was Naomi poisoned? And how did it get into Kenji's glass of soda? Nothing unusual happened even. Was it possible that Naomi put the poison herself? But she never had the time. After coming from the restroom, Naomi sat at their table not even touching anything. So how did the poison even get there?" Fujima thought to himself.