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“So, how’s it going with Naegi?”
The question had been phrased innocently enough. Hoshi gave her a wise glance through the corner of his eye, but there was an odd teasing lilt that made Kirigiri press her fingers to her temples, her eyebrows furrowing. And, in that moment, she decided to take precisely seven and a half seconds to reflect on the chain of events that had gotten her here in the first place.
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Eight months ago, the grand assembly marking the beginning of the new school year had taken place. Naturally, being a more analytical person than most, Kirigiri had taken the time to research those in the newly accepted class, including their talents, personalities, and backgrounds. Among the biographies she had scrolled through, there had been one student who had caught her eye - Ryoma Hoshi, the Ultimate Tennis Pro. Naturally, she had distrusted him, as well as the idea of a convicted serial killer being released from prison to attend school within those hallowed halls. What on earth had her blasted idiot of a father been thinking ? So, she had confronted Hoshi … only to find that he was nothing more than a shell of his former self, one who didn’t seem as though he possessed the mental fortitude to take another life again.
Kirigiri understood that being a prisoner was an experience that changed a person’s course forever; it was both a mentally and an emotionally taxing experience, not to mention the abuse prisoners likely faced within the bounds of those four walls. For as long as she’d lived, she had chosen to try not to focus on that aspect of society too much, wishing to ensure her detective work remained her first and foremost priority. However, well … things had happened, and she was both skeptical and curious about his entire story, so they’d talked … and, somehow, they’d talked again.
And it had happened again, and again, and again.
At first, their conversations were rather tense; naturally, she remained on edge around him, not wishing to stoop down to the level of a common criminal. Hoshi had answered her questions, albeit begrudgingly; he had always had an odd deer-in-headlights look in his eyes when she confronted him. It was almost as though he was terrified that one slip-up on his part would cause her to send him back behind bars.
Kirigiri’s curiosity had increased, and the conversations had continued. Sometimes, they would chat about matters that didn’t even involve his memories of his time spent in prison; he would ask about her cases (and she would never tell him anything), and she would question him about his days as a tennis player. His answers would be reluctant, and minimalistic, but with an odd fervor to them, almost as though Hoshi actually missed his days of playing the sport.
Now, she had tried to remind herself that he was naught but a criminal. A murderer, to boot. He had killed thirty-two people and had intentionally thrown away any semblance of a future for himself. However, one day, he had off-handedly mentioned that he had liked mystery novels prior to ‘the Incident’, as he called it, and oddly enough, they had made a few unconventional decisions that led to the two of them on the floor of his dormitory, a murder mystery subscription box separating them.
Not only had they solved it, but … strangely enough, it had been some of the most fun Kirigiri had had in years. It was rare for someone to wish to solve cases with her without dragging her down, to boot; although she believed Hoshi’s classmate Saihara was a nice lad, he possessed a bizarrely low self-esteem that made it difficult for her to talk to him.
“You’re not secretly another Ultimate Detective, are you?” Kirigiri had narrowed her eyes at the boy across from him, wondering just where his deductive skills had come from.
Hoshi had merely given her a dismissive shrug in response. “Hey, I’m just a guy who’s thrown away his humanity long ago. If you want the best insight into how criminals think, it’d probably be most effective to ask another one. Give me a holler if you need help again sometime.”
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And now, Ryoma Hoshi - the Tennis Killer , of all people - was asking her how things were currently progressing with the boy she had admired from a rather close distance. If she had travelled back in time to that day eight months ago to give herself the TL;DR summary on all that had happened since then, there would have been no way her past self would have believed her. In fact, Kirigiri believed it would probably have been wise for that past version of herself to call her an impostor, chokeslam her into a wall and threaten to find her true identity, and to have her locked behind bars for twenty thousand years.
Was opening up to a murderer her best idea to boot? Well, certainly not, but … oddly enough, Kirigiri believed there was something different about Hoshi. He at least was able to own up to his mistakes - a small feat, but something she (to this day ) felt her father was incapable of, so she would acknowledge it nonetheless. Additionally, if she opened her mind up to consider his circumstances, then she could - well, not rationalize his actions. Understanding them, yes. But not rationalizing them.
Appreciating his company in spite of the horrific things he had done in the past and trusting he would not try the same on him was the (lengthy) term she would coin for him, for now.
And it seemed as though this same man was chewing on the end of a candy cigarette as he gave her a pointed stare. “Um, hello. Earth to Kirigiri. Or did Naegi get your tongue?”
“Oh - my apologies, Hoshi-kun.” She coughed lightly before continuing. “I … come now, where is this coming from?”
They had briefly touched on the subject of crushes a while ago. Kirigiri had taken a bit longer than usual to get back on track, on one of their mystery-solving nights, when her cell phone had buzzed, revealing a message from Naegi that had been promising her that he would meet her at the amusement park for a day out last week. Though she had initially been unwilling to discuss the matter further, Hoshi had teased her enough for her to lay out the full story to her. He had also alluded to something … something she had looked into, and something she understood she could use against him whenever she so pleased.
“Oh, don’t even pretend you don’t know.” A bizarre smirk took over the former tennis player’s face as he continued. “You told me. Amusement park, with Naegi, right? I’ve been to the one nearby before; there’s a big ol’ ferris wheel, their flagship wooden coaster, and way too many scam carnival games lining the paths. Like - well, it’s not like I could do much, being three foot five and all, but I know what’s there.” A bit of frustration had lined these words - was Hoshi truly unhappy about missing up on amusement park rides and all of that? - but, as a whole, he was careful to maintain his generally lighthearted tone. “What, you guys didn’t kiss on the Fer -”
“I - that’s hardly appropriate,” Kirigiri cut in, shaking her head violently, no longer wishing for Hoshi to continue his sentence. This only elicited an even larger smirk from him.
“Oh? So something did happen.”
“My lips are sealed.”
“Come off it -”
“I touched his arm.” This feeling of her face completely heating up was one that was relatively foreign to her - she had only felt herself burning up to this extent once, and that had been in that instant - and it was a tad embarrassing, especially in the company of one of her peers. The butterflies that had decided to dance around in her stomach were nauseating, but not completely unpleasant, seeing as they had decided to surface as soon as a conversation about someone she held dear to her had commenced. However … it was still humiliating, having her stoic demeanor be broken only because of one boy! Baffled by her behaviour, Kirigiri covered her lips with a gloved hand. “Per - perhaps this is a foolish thing to be this flustered over, seeing as I was, well … nervous, at the time. The world had never seemed so low to me before, but …”
“Aha. So you made the first move? That’s a surprise.” Kirigiri resisted the temptation to smack the boy on the arm as he continued to stare her down, smugly chewing on that thing he had in his mouth.
“I - I did not , it was an unintentional movement that will never happen again -”
“Look.” With a knowing glance, Hoshi used two fingers to pull the candy cigarette from his mouth, cutting her short by waving his free hand dismissively. “I get it. Even if you’re a detective, you’re still a high school girl , first and foremost. It’s understandable to get a little excited during cuffing season.”
"I fail to see your point,” Kirigiri responded, eyes narrowed. “When crime rates rise, so does my workload. Although solving crimes and looking at problems through an analytical viewpoint are things I feel I can enjoy from time to time, the increased arrests that are made as a direct result of this influx of criminal activity are not -”
“I … don’t think that’s what cuffing season means.”
“Then what -”
“You know what? Let’s just move on.”
For once, she would comply with Hoshi’s request, taking the bottle beside her and taking a long draught from it. Ramune was … an odd drink, to say the least, and the far cry from the teas she’d been raised to enjoy. However, although she wasn’t used to it, the bubbling sensation wasn’t unpleasant, and the artificial flavours had a sort of charm to them she never would have believed she would have understood until she tried it for the first time. However, Hoshi had had some extra bottles in his fridge, he’d said Akamatsu had given him too many to drink on his own, and Kirigiri had accepted.
The way he talked about Akamatsu, she was almost reminded of an uncle musing about a niece he saw every month for dinner … but she would stay silent about that, for his sake.
“Why don’t you just - you know, confess?” Hoshi’s question was a bit blunt, but genuine. It was enough to garner a sigh from Kirigiri; this would take a little while to respond to.
Now, then, where would she even begin ?
“Because it would interfere with my work. Being a detective takes time, and so does being someone’s girlfriend, and I do not feel I would be able to commit to -”
"Oldest excuse in the book.” His gaze was steady as he lifted his ramune bottle to his parted lips, swallowing a good amount of the lime-flavoured beverage before continuing to speak. “You can have a boyfriend and be a detective, you know. I bet whoever raised you was able to handle that.”
“Perhaps that may be true, but, quite friendly, I believe Naegi-kun’s friendship is valu -”
“And I’m gonna stop you right there. Trust the guy if you really think he’s worthy of your attention, romantic-styles. Even if things maybe don’t go as they would have in your ideal fantasy, it’s not like a guy as good as him is going to just up and ditch you if you ask him out. Like, yeah, it’ll be awkward for a few days. But that’ll be about it, if he’s really as good as you say.”
“It’s not as though I would even get the chance to be in a relationship with Naegi-kun to begin with, Hoshi-kun. After all, my grandfather -”
“ Kirigiri. ”
Hoshi’s voice wasn’t unkind, but it was firm at the same time. Strangely enough, it was enough to halt the train of bizarre thoughts that had been stubbornly chugging through Kirigiri’s head for all this time, stopping her from even remotely envisioning a future in which she and Naegi were joined through a bond that went even slightly beyond friendship. Oddly enough, she wasn’t sure she’d heard something so commanding yet so kind from a parent, let alone a grandparent. This was … an odd thing to help her feel slightly more at ease, but a thing nonetheless.
“Yes?”
The boy before her sighed, slumping forwards slightly. “Look. It sounds like you’ve got a lot - and I mean, a lot of baggage and shit to unpack. Work and family and stuff is always gonna get in the way before you even have a shot at sharing a good relationship with this guy. But - seriously, take my word for it. I’m speaking from experience. You’re gonna want to go for it, and you’re gonna want to go for it as soon as you can, okay? I get that I’m probably here sounding like encouraging you to be hasty or something like that, but you’re the Ultimate Detective. Overthinking is literally in the job description, if being around Saihara every day for eight months has taught me anything. So, you’ve probably given this enough thought - and it sounds like you like the guy a whole lot. Ask him out. You never know when you’re gonna get another chance.”
There was a bizarre sadness lacing Hoshi’s eyes as he spoke. His words emerged oddly heavily, and it was enough for Kirigiri to tell that there was some sort of memory holding him down. She may have been the Ultimate Detective, but it didn’t take a genius to understand that he had to be referring to the girlfriend he’d loved before her untimely death.
If anything, the experience he said he spoke from really did solidify his claims and make them all the more convincing …
“You’re right,” she confessed, exhaling slightly. “Thank you. Though, I -”
“Let me guess, ‘you’re sorry’? Don’t sweat it. You’re not the one who killed her.” Though her lips tightened slightly at the mention of the term, Hoshi only took some more ramune into his mouth. “Well, it - and, you know, *everything* -” he waved his hands around vaguely as though emphasizing his point - “that’s stuff I’m working through right now. I’m a lot better than I was, like, at the start of the year, or at the end of the spring semester, or even three weeks ago. You should stop apologizing for things that aren’t your fault to begin with.” He paused for a moment before continuing. “Also, there’s no need to thank me. Someone like me doesn’t exactly deserve it - not after what I’ve done.”
Satisfied with his answer, he made the decision to drain his ramune bottle … however, Kirigiri did have one more query for him, even if she was willing to admit defeat to their battle of logic a few moments ago.
“Hoshi-kun, have you actually considered taking your own advice?”
“Huh? Look, I’m not proud of a lot, but I like to think I give okay advice, even if I don’t exactly deserve to follow it -”
“Then, are things progressing smoothly with Gokuhara-kun?”
A loud splutter was enough to tell her that Hoshi had choked on his drink.
“ How did you know? ”
“Easy.” Kirigiri visibly straightened up, evidently a bit too excited to be able to show her deductive abilities off to someone else - even if they did solve mysteries together every week. “When I asked you about the person you were interested in at the time of our conversation on August 29th, at 16:51 JST, you used the pronoun ‘they’ to describe them. ‘She’ would have sufficed, if you were interested in pursuing a relationship with a woman, as Kuwata-kun of my class so crassly demonstrates over dinner practically every day. However, the usage of the pronoun ‘they’ seems to insinuate that you are not wishing to lie, and are interested in partaking in a relationship with someone of the same sex as yourself. The source for this is conversations I have had with individuals such as Ishimaru-kun, Maizono-san and myself, during a certain period in my life, all of whom were either interested in or romantically involved with someone of the same sex as themselves, but worried about admitting it due to the current state of affairs when it comes to LGBTQ+ rights in Japan, or among their own families. So, out of curiosity, I began looking into possibilities for men in your class you may have been interested in. Naturally, Saihara-kun and Amami-kun were ruled out, seeing as the two of them are romantically involved with each other, as well as Akamatsu-san. I did not want to believe it was Oma-kun for reasons I am choosing not to disclose -” he reminded her too much of a certain pigtailed gambler for comfort - “nor did I believe Shinguji-kun was your type. As you said, he was ‘too obssessed with humanity’ for you. Yes, I am quoting you exactly on this. To my knowledge, Momota-kun is currently seeing Harukawa-san, you expressed that K1-B0-kun was too hard for you to understand, and … that ruled out everyone except for one possible suspect. Would I be correct in making this assumption?
For once, Hoshi was lost for words. He gawked at her for a moment, before leaning back on his hands, unsure of what to say. “... Fuck,” he sighed, at last, tucking the candy cigarette back between his lips. It seemed as though the jig was up for him. “Yeah. You got me.”
“Naturally,” Kirigiri smirked, downing more ramune. “I do not believe I’ve ever seen you lose your composure before, by the way.”
“Yeah? Well, last time that happened, I … well, I’d rather not talk about it.”
“And I won’t force you to.”
“Right. Well - I haven’t followed my advice for … reasons.”
“Reasons such as? Perhaps we will be able to combat these, as well - just as we did a couple of minutes ago.”
Hoshi took a second to clear his throat, before continuing. “Well, for starters - let’s get the most obvious one out of the way. I am a convicted murderer who will more than likely be going back to jail after -”
“Who’s saying you’ll have to go back to jail? I am not saying I’d pull some strings, as that would be perfectly illegitimate of me, but … that’s not guaranteed .”
“Yeah, but it’s v -”
“Very likely? To my knowledge, there will be another hearing after your tenure here as a student, and … well, my father -” she spoke the word with such venom that Hoshi couldn’t help but be concerned - “seems fairly insistent on ensuring you ‘live to your full potential’, whatever that means.”
“Um -”
“So, what I’m saying is that we shall have to see once we get to that point. More immediately, however, you’re saying you worry about Gokuhara-kun refusing to accept you due to your past? I believe you know better than I how untrue that is.” Kirigiri didn’t fraternize with the 79th Class all too much, but that didn’t mean she didn’t know roughly what each student was like. “I believe Gokuhara-kun is only too happy to fraternize with some rather shady characters himself. I’ve seen him follow Oma-kun around like a d -”
“ Please do not say what I think you’re going to say. ”
“Very well. My point still stands, however. Additionally, I believe you two are on speaking terms - perhaps a bit beyond speaking terms. Friends, perhaps?”
“That’s too big an -”
“‘honor for someone like me’ is how you intended to complete that sentence, correct?”
“ How did you - ”
“Detective’s intuition,” Kirigiri responded smoothly, leaving a dumbfounded Hoshi to his own devices. “Any other concerns?”
“Well …”
“Well?”
Hoshi let out a grumble, pulling his hat further over his eyes, “There’s also the slight issue of him being three feet taller than me.”
Kirigiri paused for a second - before letting out the beginnings of a giggle.
“ What? ”
“I - I apologize,” she breathed, quickly regaining her composure and waving her hand, almost as though she was wiping the entire interaction from existence. “However … I do not think you need to worry about it. I believe he can … well, he can pick you up , and -”
“This conversation is over.”
“Yes. Yes, indeed,” responded Kirigiri, whose face had grown very pink indeed. “This conversation is over.”
Silence fell over the room, interrupted only by Hoshi, flipping through the booklet the murder mystery box had provided them with. It seemed as though he was reviewing the evidence they had been given, but where he believed that would get them - especially after they had annotated the entirety of the leaflet - she couldn’t even begin to say. Then, after this seemingly aimless endeavour, she heard him speak.
“Kirigiri. Thanks,” came the mutter. “I guess I’ve got to give it a shot, huh?”
“Likewise.”
It seemed that Kirigiri had a new task she needed to complete, as well. Whether asking Naegi out would end in disaster or with resounding success, she couldn’t say; requesting Hagakure’s assistance would get her nowhere, either, seeing as she didn’t wish for fate to dictate her future - well, that, and the fact that her classmate was only accurate about thirty percent of the time. However, the least she could do was try.
And try she would.