Chapter 7 The idiot is staring at me... does he want to challenge me to a fight?

"...Wai Shouyi, that laundry shop owner, he is the murderer who killed my parents back then."

Morofushi Kagemitsu buried his face in his palms, and when he took a deep breath, his nasal cavity was filled with the smell of blood and hospital disinfectant.

This is a story that even Rei Furuya doesn't know.

When Morofushi Kagemitsu was a child, he had a playmate named Tomomori Yuri, a little girl who liked to wear braids and always followed behind him.

Yuri Tomori passed away from illness fifteen years ago. Her father, who was Yuri Tomori's teacher at the time, was responsible for taking her to the hospital.

Everyone grieved over the loss of a life, yet they were all helpless in their struggle against death.

However, no one expected that Tomori would refuse to accept his daughter's death and even stubbornly believed that Morofushi Kagemitsu's parents had kidnapped Tomori Yuri.

“I was hiding in the closet, and all I could hear were my parents calling for help and moaning outside. I clearly saw his tattoo... How could I forget this?”

Without shouting or weeping in regret, he questioned himself in a hoarse voice, using the most bewildered tone.

Why would you forget something so important?

“He still feels that I hid his daughter, following her from Nagano to Tokyo…” Morofushi Kagemitsu raised his face and stared at his hands: “Those three children, I only met them once.”

Perhaps they glanced at each other in the park, or perhaps they just passed each other by in the convenience store... This should not be a reason for their misfortune.

Once again, he sat on a hospital bench, this time accompanied by five people.

After finishing their work, the police officers and doctors who came and went chose not to disturb the young man any further, and those who were with him also tacitly remained silent.

For so long, what has sustained the young man has been his strong core strength.

Perhaps he needs silent support more than empty words of comfort.

Morofushi Kagemitsu's gaze lingered on the victim's family not far away.

He turned his head away awkwardly when the police and his family thanked him.

Without him, perhaps none of this would have happened at all...

"No matter how you look at it, this isn't your fault, Mr. Zhufu. Shouldn't the murderer be at fault?"

This sound drew Morofushi Kagemitsu's attention once again.

Rather than offering words of comfort, Kitagawa Ryusei genuinely felt bewildered.

His upbringing meant he couldn't understand this sense of guilt, but since Morofushi Kagemitsu had left everything to the law to judge: "The handcuffs were ultimately on the guilty, and you were the one who caught him."

"For your parents, and for the kidnapped girl."

With a calm and frank tone, there was no element of comforting. Kitagawa Ryusei spoke these words as if stating facts, yet they seemed to have a magical power that made Morofushi Kagemitsu's stiff shoulders unconsciously relax.

He saved the child and has the ability to protect others even when there is crime.

No longer just helpless children facing blades.

He will save even more people in the future.

Pulling himself out of his bad mood, Morofushi Kagemitsu looked up, his blue eyes once again filled with the familiar gentleness, and his voice was still as warm as jade: "Thank you all, and Ryusei-kun is really good at comforting people."

"...Is there?"

This time, it was Kitagawa Ryusei who felt uncomfortable, and he looked away.

This is clearly not a consolation...

*

"This is not an excuse for you to violate school rules!!"

A new day dawned with a furious roar from Instructor Onizuka.

Kitagawa Ryusei was startled by the shout and moved backward little by little until he was completely hidden behind Furuya Rei in the first row, before reaching out to rub his ears.

Having already been reprimanded for their risky bomb-defusing adventures, Matsuda and Hagiwara Kenji were now obediently crouching down, one on each side, with their heads in their hands.

Rei Furuya, Kagemitsu Morofushi, and Sergeant Date stood ramrod straight, facing the onslaught of Hachizo Onizuka.

"It's only been a few days since school started, and four out of six of you are already injured! Do you guys have an extra life to keep up this mess?!" Onizuka Hachizo was furious, and out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of a head of reddish-brown hair swaying behind Furuya Rei: "Kitagawa Ryusei, stop hiding! Even bombs can't deafen you, so what if you're afraid of my little voice?"

"..." His little trick was discovered, so Kitagawa Ryusei had no choice but to come out.

His eyes drooped, and he pursed his lips, looking up at the instructor, intending to use the same trick again.

Unexpectedly, Onizuka Hachizo didn't fall for it this time, interrupting the spellcasting in advance: "If you know you're wrong, then obediently accept your punishment! Kitagawa Ryusei, starting this week, you'll run two kilometers more than everyone else in your daily heavy equipment training!"

Kitagawa Ryusei's eyes widened instantly in disbelief: "Instructor... this is too cruel!"

Onizuka Hachizo snorted coldly, ignoring him: "Furuya, Morofushi, you two will be checking dorm rooms for a week starting today; Class Monitor, Hagiwara, Matsuda, you three go and organize the archives!"

As soon as he finished speaking, all six of them wailed in unison.

"Instructor Onizuka, can't you come up with a different punishment? Organizing files is so boring!"

"Reporting, Instructor! I'm willing to go for a run!"

"Objection overruled! Report rejected!" Having successfully seized the opportunity to kill everyone, Onizuka Hachizo turned around with a sinister smile and left without looking back: "A bunch of brats, did you really think I couldn't handle you!"

He didn't know about others, but Onizuka Hachizo had definitely grasped Kitagawa Ryusei's fatal weakness.

Or rather, everyone in the Onizuka squad knew how much Kitagawa Ryusei hated heavy equipment training.

As soon as you arrive at the training location, you'll see a young man grumbling and cursing from the moment he starts putting on his gear until the end of training, completely unlike his usual well-behaved self.

"I hate heavy gear! The sweat and dust make me feel terrible!"

"Won't wearing such heavy things make us all look shorter?"

"This clothing is digging into my neck and it hurts!"

"Don't you think we look a lot like a herd of migrating wild horses?!"

Everyone, dressed in weighted gear, gathered on the training field to run laps. The dust kicked up by their shoes flew everywhere, and the word "migration" couldn't be more apt to describe the scene.

Sweat soaked the young man's hair, and a few strands of hair fell across his face due to gravity, only to be brushed aside by his hand.

A section of the uniform hem peeked out from under the weighted clothing, vaguely revealing the fair skin beneath the soaked hem.

Kitagawa Ryusei's irritability gradually increased with the number of laps he ran with weights.

Not only his classmates got used to it, but even Instructor Onizuka, after repeatedly reminding him to no avail, let him mutter in the group, treating it as a cat whining and complaining when it's unhappy.

Despite his constant complaining, Kitagawa Ryusei steadily kept up with the other five, leaving his classmates far behind.

The weight on his body didn't seem to have any effect on him... except for the neck pain, of course.

Finding that the other person only becomes "full of energy" during this kind of training, Furuya Rei, who was leading the way with Date Wataru, couldn't help but chuckle.

However, he still turned around and whispered a reminder: "Save your energy, you still have two kilometers to run later."

"Oh no..."

It would have been better if he hadn't mentioned it, because once it was brought up, Kitagawa Ryusei completely deflated, and his lamentation grew even louder: "I want to go home!"

He missed the private, en-suite indoor training facility and his dedicated sparring partners!

Kitagawa Ryusei originally looked much thinner than the others, with long limbs and skin that never tanned. The youthful aura surrounding him always made people doubt his real age.

But at this moment, the young man, like everyone else, had beads of sweat on his face, and his eyes were slightly closed, unable to open fully due to the sunlight and sweat. It was then that Furuya Rei realized that he actually had a pair of beautiful peach blossom eyes.

When one's gaze inadvertently glances over, a hint of condescension always inadvertently slips out.

It's not offensive or jarring; on the contrary, it makes people want to explore his true personality and experiences.

A future police officer who instinctively protects others in dangerous situations, yet considers himself to lack a sense of justice and is unaccustomed to being thanked for doing good deeds.

What kind of past does he have?

After the idea popped into his head, Reiichi Furuya spent the entire day thinking about it, becoming more and more engrossed in it.

Perhaps it was his curiosity about mysteries as an amateur detective. Rei Furuya, who had always been interested in the profession of "detective," gave himself this excuse.

An afternoon of high-intensity training left muscles feeling sore and burning. Some people didn't care about the dust on the ground and just lay down, leaving a clear human-shaped sweat mark when they turned over.

Some students were helping each other walk toward their dormitories, seemingly planning to rest for a while before dealing with personal hygiene issues.

But Kitagawa Ryusei couldn't wait a moment longer. As soon as the disbandment was announced, he grabbed his change of clothes that he had prepared earlier and rushed to the bathhouse.

The instructor, Onizuka, stared at his retreating figure for a long time, seemingly contemplating whether to drag him back and make him run another two kilometers.

"The squad leader and the others are going to the archives. I'm going to eat first. What about you, Zero?" Morofushi Kagemitsu asked Furuya Rei after calming his breathing.

"I'm going to the bathroom. Hiro, could you please bring me dinner?" Furuya Rei ran off without looking back, flashing a big smile at her childhood friend behind her.

Upon hearing this, Morofushi Kagemitsu was taken aback. He watched as the man ran off, not even having a chance to remind him, "Zero, you don't seem to have prepared any clothes..."

...

By the time Rei Furuya realized this problem, it was already too late.

He glanced at his already soaked clothes, then at his naked self, who was completely unfit to go out and face anyone. He thought about going back half an hour to the self that had made the decision to take a shower and then killing him.

Jianggu Ling: "..."

After standing naked in the bathhouse for half a day, he closed his eyes, steeled his resolve, and asked the quiet bathhouse, "Excuse me, is anyone here?"

If I remember correctly, there is only one other person here besides him.

Kitagawa Ryusei.

Sure enough, a calm and unhurried footstep gradually approached and stopped not far away.

Kitagawa Ryusei asked疑惑地问道：“Furuya? Do you need help?”

Even without seeing it with my own eyes, Rei Furuya could practically picture the puzzled look on his face when he said those words.

"...Could you please send a message to Hiro for me? I don't have any spare clothes with me."

How embarrassing... I just want to turn into water and flow down the drain into the Sea of ​​Japan, never to come back.

Even though he knew the other person couldn't see him, Furuya Rei still squatted down in the cubicle and buried his face in his hands.

"Oh." Kitagawa Ryusei, completely unaware of this, replied with only a single syllable, then considerately asked, "Did you bring a towel?"

Furuya Reiichi choked, burying his head even lower, his voice muffled as it came from between his arms: "...No, not either."

He saw Kitagawa Ryusei walking towards the bathhouse and, on a whim, followed him, without ever thinking about any of this.

Just as he was immersed in endless regret, Furuya Rei suddenly heard the other person's words, which sounded like a blessing: "I brought extra portable disposable bath towels, you can use them."

……bath towel.

At that moment, even the gaze of a lost traveler in the desert upon seeing an oasis wouldn't be as dazzling as that of Rei Furuya. He felt as if he'd been granted a pardon, and nodded hastily, only to remember the other was blind, and quickly said:

"Thank you, Ryusei!"

For young people of this age, face is something they would defend with anything.

For example, if Kitagawa Ryusei were to ask him again at this moment whether he believed in God, he would definitely say more devoutly than any believer that he believed in Kitagawa Ryusei!

The top student at the police academy has finally escaped the miserable situation of standing naked in the bathhouse!

Rei Furuya, wrapped in a bath towel, was still a little embarrassed as he walked out.

Nothing more. The person in front of him, Kitagawa Ryusei, was dressed neatly, her collarbone clearly visible under her round-neck T-shirt, and there was a blush on her cheeks from the hot water.

The reddish-brown, naturally curly hair lay flat and docile, water droplets dripping from the ends of his hair wetting the back of his clothes. Kitagawa Ryusei was drying his hair with a towel.

Seeing Furuya Rei come out, he looked up at him and said, "By the way, Furuya, did you need something from me?"

Caught off guard by their gazes meeting, Rei Furuya took a small step back almost imperceptibly, shifting his gaze to the floor tiles, barely maintaining a semblance of composure: "No, why do you ask?"

"Because you've been looking at me all day," Kitagawa Ryusei said bluntly. "I thought you had something to ask me."

Is it too late to go back to the cubicle now?

Rei Furuya once again asked himself this question from the bottom of his heart.

For a moment he didn't know how to answer the question, or to be more precise, he didn't know the answer.

...But perhaps Kitagawa Ryusei could give him an answer. Furuya Rei thought.

The bathhouse was shrouded in a thick layer of steam, and the floor was slippery with water droplets.

With his cheeks slightly flushed from the steam, Rei Furuya countered, "So what do you think?"

"If Furuya-kun keeps looking at me like that..."

Believe it or not, Kitagawa Ryusei had actually thought about this question seriously. He stopped halfway through his sentence, looking somewhat troubled.

In the misty bathhouse, only the two of them could be seen. At a distance, where Kitagawa Ryusei couldn't see clearly, Furuya Rei's face, flushed from the steam, gradually rose behind his ears.

It was just a casual question, but I inexplicably became nervous.

He made a swallowing motion, and Furuya Rei's heartbeat became unusually louder. He began to regret throwing the problem at the other person.

However, before he could explain...

Then Kitagawa Ryusei continued, "I thought you wanted to fight me."

Rei Furuya's words caught in his throat: "...Eh?!"

How did you figure that out?

"Wasn't that so before?"

Unexpectedly, he reacted this way. Kitagawa Ryusei realized he might have misunderstood something, and looked even more incredulous than Furuya Rei: "Could I have guessed wrong?"

Caught off guard by his train of thought, Rei Furuya's head, which had been seemingly suffocated by the steam, instantly cleared: "..."

No, what is all this?!

Why are they discussing a fight in a bathhouse?!

Realizing he might have made a blunder, Kitagawa Ryusei bent his index finger and rubbed it against the mole on the bridge of his nose, avoiding Furuya Rei's complex yet strongly condemning gaze.

"Well, since there's nothing else, I'll head back to my dorm now...?"

I have a feeling that Rei Furuya's aura is a bit off right now, and something unexpected might happen if I stay any longer.

Without waiting for a response, he turned and fled.

Rei Furuya stood there alone, his gaze distant, having completely forgotten the awkwardness of the moment.

At the doorway, Morofushi Kagemitsu, holding his clothes in one hand, was still in the position of preparing to enter.

He stood at the door for an unknown amount of time, noticing the faint blush behind the blond youth's ears as he fell into deep thought. Looking at Furuya Rei, he hesitated, as if about to speak: "Zero, you..."

Just as Furuya Rei understood him, Morofushi Kagemitsu also understood his childhood friend.

His expression was complicated, but his words were extremely tactful: "Isn't something a little off?"