Murder Study/

1

“Mikiya, is it true that you’re going out with Ryohgi?”

I almost spew out my coffee milk to Gakuto’s words. I look around while coughing. Fortunately, the lunchtime classroom is loud and no one seems to have heard Gakuto’s nonsense.

“What do you mean by that, Gakuto?”

Gakuto looks rather amazed when I question him.

“What are you saying? It’s a known fact for everyone that Kokutoh of class 1-C has a crush on Ryohgi. The only ones who doesn’t know are you two.”

I think I frowned to those words.

It’s been seven months since I first met Shiki. It’s already November, right near winter.

… Certainly it’s not weird for anyone to start going out after that much time.

“Gakuto, that’s just a misunderstanding. We’re just friends, and nothing more.”

“Really?”

The hopeful of the judo club frowns his face. In contrast to his name, which means “educated person”, this friend of mine since elementary school is the athletic type. From our long relationship, he must have figured out I wasn’t lying.

“But you call her by her first name. There’s no way that Ryohgi would allow just a classmate to call her like that.”

“Hey now. Shiki doesn’t like that. She glared at me when I called her Ryohgi-san before. People say you can kill someone by looking at them, but Shiki has that potential. Anyways, she says she hates people calling her by her last name, so she says it’s fine if I just call her “you”. But since I didn’t like that, I compromised with “Shiki-san”. She didn’t like that either, so it ended up with just Shiki. How is this boring truth.”

Telling Gakuto about what happened in April, he agrees that it indeed was a boring development.

“I see. That sure is an unromantic story.”

Gakuto says so disappointedly. …What kind of an answer was he hoping for?

“So that thing last week at the school entrance was nothing either? Damn, it was a waste of time coming here. I should’ve stayed in my classroom and ate lunch.”

“… Hold on. How do you know about that?”

“I told you that you guys are famous. Everyone at the school already knows you and Ryohgi were getting shelter from the rain together by the entrance last Saturday. Since its Ryohgi, even small things like that catches everyone’s attention.”

I sigh and look up. All I can hope for now is that Shiki will never hear about this.

“This is a school to get you ready for college right? I’m starting to wonder if everyone’s really studying.”

“According to the teachers, employment rate is good for students who graduated from here.”

… I have to question at how this school is run.

“But man, why Ryohgi? It just doesn’t fit you.”

I remember being said something like that by my Senpais.

They told me a quiet, gentle girl would suit me. I guess Gakuto is on the same line too.

… I get a bit angry.

“Shiki isn’t such a scary girl.”

I let it slip out my mouth..

Gakuto grins. …He looks like he knows I didn’t mean to say that out loud.

“What do you mean she’s just your friend? That’s definitely a hard girl. The fact that you don’t see it is proof that you’re too crazy about that girl.”

He must mean hard-headed when he says hard. I know he’s right, but I didn’t want to just give in and nod.

“I already know that.”

“Then what’s so good about her? Her looks?”

Gakuto is holding nothing back.

Indeed Shiki is beautiful. But with that aside, Shiki attracts me. Shiki always seems like she’s about to get hurt. In reality, she’s firm enough not to get hurt, but she seems to be really fragile. That’s probably why I can’t ignore her. I don’t want to see her get hurt.

“It’s just that you don’t notice. Even Shiki has her cute points. …Let’s see, if I suppose her as an animal, she’s cute enough to be a rabbit.”

Saying that… I regret I did.

“Don’t be stupid. She’s definitely in the cat family, and probably the beast ones too. A rabbit is too far off, just too far. Is Ryohgi the one that would die out of lonliness?”

Gakuto laughs his ass off.

But I think she’s like a rabbit in that she doesn’t become attached to people and how she looks at others from a distance. … Huh, if that’s just me, then fine.

“All right. I won’t talk to you about girls anymore.”

Gakuto quits laughing once I tell him that.

“You might be right. A rabbit suits her well.”

“Gakuto, a frank agreement is rather offensive.”

“I mean it. I remembered that rabbits were dangerous too. In this world, there are rabbits that chop off your head if you’re unlucky.”

I hesitate being said that in a serious tone.

“That’s a pretty amazing rabbit.”

Gakuto nods.

“Of course, cause I’m talking about the world of gaming.”