Chapter 24: The Fifth Playthrough (5)

"Cough cough cough..." Kenji Hagiwara coughed a few times, touching his throat, and sighed, "I accidentally got too high yesterday, and my throat hurts a little."

"You always do this, you really never learn." Matsuda Jinpei said speechlessly.

Almost every time they go out to karaoke together, Kenji Hagiwara gets a sore throat the next day, and then it happens again the next time.

"After all, it's not easy to go out and have fun, so of course we should enjoy ourselves to the fullest," Kenji Hagiwara said matter-of-factly.

After laughing and joking with his childhood friend, Kenji Hagiwara turned around and found a young man with blue, upturned cat eyes staring blankly at a handbag with a wine glass pattern that a passing girl was carrying, looking rather strange.

"Hiss, isn't it time to settle the matter of Komobushi?" Kenji Hagiwara whispered.

“Great! I’ve been wanting to watch him investigate all by himself for ages,” Matsuda Jinpei immediately agreed.

“But didn’t Furuya say to wait a bit longer?” Date Wataru looked at Furuya Rei, who was walking over to talk to his childhood friend. “He wanted Morofushi to prepare himself mentally before telling us, right?”

"Why don't we just investigate secretly on our own without telling Morofushi?" Kenji Hagiwara suggested. "We can bring Furuya along, and the four of us can investigate thoroughly before telling him, right? We'll know what to do once we understand everything, won't we?"

Morofushi Kagemitsu had been investigating the murder of the Nagano couple, which was no secret to the astute group of people who had spent more than three months together.

Rei Furuya, who was secretly pulled into a small group of four excluding Kagemitsu Morofushi: "..."

He suddenly realized that back when they had memories, did they exclude him and the other three create a small group specifically to talk about him?

No wonder he said that everyone in that cycle always gave him strange looks and did so many strange things. He thought they were just discussing things privately, but he didn't expect that they would also create a discussion group online.

Rei Furuya watched the three people in the group chat having a heated discussion about Morofushi Kagemitsu, who were both worried and muttering to themselves, and even discussing how to investigate things behind his back. He had a strong sense of déjà vu.

At the same time, he felt a sense of despair at the prospect of his later dark past.

But Rei Furuya had no choice, and he never had a way out.

In the end, the blond youth was forced by Kenji Hagiwara to dress up in all sorts of strange costumes, and together with three other equally strange guys, they sneaked out of the school to begin investigating the murder of the Nagano couple.

At this point, it needs to be emphasized that Furuya Rei and Matsuda Jinpei's hairstyles were still the middle part after the bangs were salvaged. The already ruined hair, combined with those strange outfits, resulted in a disastrous effect. Hagiwara Kenji and Date Takeshi, who were trying not to laugh, took many photos of them.

Of course, they often work together with a division of labor.

For example, this weekend, Rei Furuya was responsible for keeping his childhood friend occupied so as not to arouse his suspicion, while the other three went to investigate.

"There's nothing I can do. After all, you're usually with Morofushi, Kofuya. If you leave him alone every weekend, he'll definitely get suspicious." The half-long black-haired youth smiled and winked at him before pulling Matsuda Jinpei and Date Wataru away.

Rei Furuya no longer feels uneasy or anxious when they leave his sight, but he still can't handle the three of them doing dangerous things alone with a normal mindset.

However, he was more afraid of the butterfly effect that his actions might cause.

He no longer wanted to see any more red butterflies appear in this world.

Although the biggest butterfly in reality should be his rebirth, he could never kill this butterfly, not even if he killed himself.

The largest red butterfly will always coexist with him, representing both hope and despair, and he can only try his best to control it.

Fortunately, Rei Furuya has always been very experienced in controlling himself, and he is as skilled at acting as breathing.

Since he has already persevered for four months, he can also perfectly finish the performance in the remaining two months.

"I have a feeling that the class president and Hagiwara have been busy with something lately?" Morofushi Kagemitsu thought for a moment. "It seems to have started about three weeks ago? Did something happen?"

Morofushi Kagemitsu did indeed spend most of his rest time investigating cases by himself, but that doesn't mean he was completely oblivious to the strange changes in his friends.

Unfortunately, given his important goals and deep-seated PTSD, it was easy for him to be fooled by his childhood friend, Rei Furuya.

After failing to uncover anything this time, the three on the other side gradually gave up on continuing their relentless investigation.

"We've been searching for a month, and all we've found are things you can find online." Matsuda Jinpei was getting impatient. "Why don't we just go ask Morofushi directly?"

“But asking won’t help.” Rei Furuya disagreed. “Hiro suffered too much trauma back then, and he not only developed aphasia but also doesn’t remember anything.”

"Sigh, this is a bit troublesome." Kenji Hagiwara sighed and leaned against the wall. "So many years have passed, and the investigation is already difficult enough. The only person involved has lost his memory, so it's no wonder that it remains an unsolved case."

"It's alright, at least we know what Morofushi is investigating all by himself," Date Wataru laughed. "Now that we understand, things will be much easier, won't they?"

“Well, I still suggest we wait and let Hiro tell us himself,” Rei Furuya said helplessly. “Given Hiro’s personality, if we get involved in this, it might make him even more nervous, worried, and uneasy.”

“After all, it’s just Morofushi,” Kenji Hagiwara sighed.

“But if we delay any longer, he’ll be graduating soon,” Matsuda Jinpei pointed out sharply. “With his current obvious and severe PTSD, becoming a police officer after graduation would be really dangerous.”

"Let's wait until after the sports meet," Date Wataru decided. "If Morofushi still doesn't plan to tell us after the sports meet, then we'll go and talk to him."

"Even if we can't solve the case for the time being, we have to cure his PTSD before he graduates."

*

September arrived, and it was time for the police academy's sports meet. Each class began preparing for the meet.

Autumn has arrived, and the leaves are gradually turning yellow.

They were no longer sweeping up petals, but fallen leaves.

Matsuda Jinpei suddenly remembered the scene when he fought with a blond, dark-skinned guy under a cherry blossom tree when he entered school in the spring, and couldn't help but laugh, sighing at how fast time flies.

At that time, he never expected that he would end up getting along so well with that blond jerk. The relationships between people are truly amazing.

"Hey, Zero, do you remember that fight we had under the cherry blossom tree?" Matsuda Jinpei nudged the blond youth next to him with his elbow and laughed, "I won that time, don't forget that."

"Are you kidding me? I clearly won." Rei Furuya corrected him. "Have you forgotten that I knocked out your dentures and that you spent half a month's allowance on getting them fixed?"

Of course he remembered. He experienced it six times that night, and he even remembered the traces of cherry blossoms falling from the sky.

Matsuda Jinpei's forehead vein throbbed, and his smile gradually turned ferocious: "You blond bastard, do you want another fight? This time I'll make sure you remember who won."

Rei Furuya glared at him defiantly: "Then let's try it. I'll show you who's stronger."

Rei Furuya is actually someone who can't stand being challenged, especially in terms of strength, ability, or ranking. He has a very obvious perfectionism and obsession with being at the top.

Even later, when they went undercover, they could still see some of this.

Morofushi Kagemitsu blinked and reminded them, "But do you still want to stand in front of the whole class holding hands for a whole period of time as punishment? Oh no, this time it should be that the whole school sees you."

Matsuda Jinpei: "..."

Jianggu Ling: "..."

The two exchanged a glance, then immediately looked away with disgust, quickly moving three meters away from each other.

Kenji Hagiwara and Wataru Date burst out laughing.

*

At 6 p.m., the last class ended, and most people left the classroom one after another, leaving only five people.

Rei Furuya and Wataru Date were on duty wiping the blackboard and cleaning, while the other three were gathered together discussing what their class flag for the sports meet should look like.

"How about using cherry blossoms as the main subject? Like a complete five-petaled cherry blossom," suggested Morofushi Kagemitsu.

Rei Furuya paused in his act of erasing the blackboard.

"That's a great idea!" Kenji Hagiwara's eyes lit up. "What background color should we use? What are we going to write on it?"

Matsuda Jinpei wasn't very interested in this, so he let the two people who had a good eye for aesthetics discuss it while he went over to help with the chores and cause trouble.

For Matsuda Jinpei, helping and causing trouble are not mutually exclusive.

Just like now, when he was sweeping the blackboard meticulously next to the blond youth, he suddenly couldn't resist reaching out to tickle his armpit.

Rei Furuya's hand holding the blackboard brush trembled, and the brush fell and hit him on the head, instantly turning most of his blond hair white with chalk dust.

Jianggu Ling: "..."

Rei Furuya gritted his teeth and abruptly turned to hunt down the culprit: "Matsuda Jinpei!!!"

Matsuda Jinpei took off running, nimbly dodging between desks while laughing arrogantly: "Hahahaha! White hair actually goes better with your dark skin, I'm serious, why don't you try dyeing your hair white next time? It's super fashionable!"

Rei Furuya raised a blackboard eraser and slammed it at him: "I also think you look good with white hair, so let me dye your hair white too, you curly-haired bastard, take this!"

Matsuda Jinpei jumped up to dodge: "I don't want to! Hey, hey, hey! Stop it! I didn't mean to! Who knew you were so ticklish! Ugh, my curly hair is so hard to clean with chalk dust, you white-haired bastard!"

The commotion caused by the two suddenly starting to playfully fight attracted the attention of the other three. They were already used to it, but when they looked up and saw Furuya Rei's new look, they couldn't help but laugh.

"Haha, now that you mention it, it's true. How about Furuya tries dyeing his hair white? It would definitely look nice!" Kenji Hagiwara said as he took out his phone and quickly captured Furuya Rei's new "white hair and black skin" look, which she had finally managed to revert to her original hairstyle.

After ignoring his childhood friend's pleas for help, he also took a picture of the curly-haired youth with his face and head covered in chalk dust.

Ida Kou was about to tell them not to make the classroom even messier, but before he could finish speaking, a blackboard eraser hit him squarely in the face.

Date Wataru: "..."

Ida Kou: "You two—"

Matsuda Jinpei and Fukiya Rei: "!!!"

After Date Wataru joined the battle, the classroom became even more chaotic.

Unwitting bystanders Morofushi Kagemitsu and Hagiwara Kenji were inevitably dragged into the melee.

Finally, the story ends with five disheveled youths being scolded by a passing instructor, after which they obediently work together to clean up.

The five of them looked at each other while cleaning, and eventually they were all amused by each other's funny appearances.

The youths' hearty laughter drifted out of the window, causing the little bird perched on the tree to tilt its head, flutter its wings a few times, and finally fly away into the sky.

A pure white feather drifted slowly through the window into the classroom and landed at the feet of a blond youth surrounded by four friends, who was all smiles.

Even excluding the thrilling and exciting things, they never felt bored during their time at the police academy.

As long as the five of us are together, we're happy doing anything.