The Eccentric, the Beauty, and the Detective: Kiriki Junka's Mystery Log Volume 1 Chapter 9

Second block was next on the schedule and my heart battled over whether I wanted school to end quickly or not. I felt like a grade schooler going to get a painful shot in the gymnasium. Every minute felt like an hour, but every hour rushed past like a minute. We finished cleaning homeroom at the end of the day. After preparing my things for the trip home, I took a deep breath and proceeded to Nao’s desk. She was still packing up her notes and school supplies. My throat horrendously dry, I said my bit.

“We can’t talk here. Let’s go somewhere else.”

“All right.”

I took Nao out of the classroom, and searched my mind for a place where we could talk alone. Standing on the edge of a connecting hallway seemed good enough, and so that’s where I headed. Nao followed silently. Had she figured out what I was going to say? She didn’t look nervous at all.

We finally arrived, and while there were a few students passing by, none of them would care enough to stop and listen.

I did an about face, and looked straight at Nao, taking another deep breath.

“So, I’d like you to listen to what I have to say.”

“Sure.”

I looked deep into her clear eyes as she gazed back up at me.

“Well…”

“Yes?”

I gave rise to the words in my throat, but ended up saying something safe.

“Sorry about taking the trash out on my own when we had day duty.”

She smiled.

“That… I should be thanking you.”

Intending to turn to the real topic, my head began to spin, nearly going blank.

“Iidsan, do you have a boyfriend?”

It was a good question. First the main topic had to be brought up, that much was important. But what to do if she nods? I might not recover.

Nao, however, responded outside of my expectations by shaking her head.

“I don’t.”

My chest swelled in relief, but the words she spoke next seemed to carry some mystical power to instill a sense of unease.

“Aren’t I still a kid?”

“Eh?”

Ignoring my subtle expression, she continued, “Not just me, but you too Suzaku-kun, and everyone. We’re all first years in high school. We’re children.”

“Yeah…”

“I think children should study. The matter of a boyfriend or girlfriend should wait until we’re more adult.”

The situation had taken a turn down a dark, steep cliff.

“I’m going to stay uninvolved with the opposite sex and study all three years of high school. Isn’t that what you plan on doing, Suzaku-kun?”

My mouth was zipped shut. When I forced them open what spewed out of my lungs was an agreement.

“Yeah… that’s right.”

“Isn’t it?”

Nao checked her watch.

“I have to make dinner tonight, is our talk finished?”

I swallowed my spit. Say it. Say it, Suzaku Rouji. Tell her you love her like a man. I was violently conflicted. I formed suitable words deep inside, but should I have let them fly, or waited for another opportunity? Say it. Say it.

I mustered all of my strength, and, “Yeah, that’s all.”

“Aight. Later, then, Suzaku-kun.”

Nao turned and ran to the shoe lockers after her easy parting words without looking back. Finally, she receded from view, leaving behind nothing but a foolish boy; a coward who couldn’t even confess.

“Focus on studying, eh?”

All the nerves and expectations I had until the last few minutes brought ten year old memories to mind.

“Looks like you got shot down before you could confess.”

I almost screamed as Junka suddenly appeared from hiding.

“What, so you were watching?”

“Sorry. You can call me a voyeur.”

The fancy word doesn’t change the meaning.

“Well, Rouji-kun, don’t be down. There are as many women as stars. If one girl happens to shout 'Unclean! You rat! Ew! Pervert! Don’t get your hopes up! Retard!' just put up with it.”

Could you not make fun of me in a fake Nao voice?

“Have you never fallen for someone before?”

Junka took a photo of my face with his smartphone.

“We’ll be able to laugh at this in a year.”

What are you doing, just what?

He stuffed the phone back into his pocket.

“The last time was a while ago. Around when I was in elementary school, there was a girl three years older than me who I had a crush on. That’s about it. Oddly enough, there’s no one in particular right now.”

It didn’t matter how much of a genius he was, being that eccentric would keep people away.

“Even still,” Junka began, “Looks like Iidsan’s in the go-home club. Do you think she prefers to study at home or in a cram school?”

“Like I’d know.”

I slowly walked to the entrance while desperately hiding my wounded heart.

It couldn’t be helped that I wanted to skip school the following Tuesday, but I really didn’t want Junka to hit the nail on the head and say something like “he’s embarrassed from getting rejected.” I played it cool when I left my house, met Junka just outside the door, and headed to school with him.

“I did a lot of thinking yesterday,” he said, rubbing his hands together.

“There’s a high probability that the chalk will be broken today after school, or tomorrow morning.”

I was surprised, “How could you know that?”

“There’s a pattern. There were three incidents with the 1, 3 chalk: all of them when the room was empty. I’ve said this before, but try to remember when the first chalk was broken.”

“Like I would remember something like that… wasn’t it for Thursday’s homeroom two weeks ago?”

“That’s it. More accurately, it was evening homeroom when Miyako-sensei got angry by noticing the broken chalk. When was the next one?”

“No clue, I forgot.”

“That’s just no good, Rouji-kun,” Junka reprimanded, “You’re a member of the detective association so you mustn’t overlook anything. The second incident was last Wednesday morning. And again, Miyako-sensei noticed the already broken chalk, and got upset. Now then, the third was?”

I tilted my head.

“Pretty sure that was last Thursday when you dragged me to the classroom after soccer. When Yahara cross-examined you, right?”

“Good, good, that’s exactly it. That was the third incident. Miyako-sensei uses the chalk to write important information in morning and evening homeroom. Basically, the chalk is broken before then.”

Junka was explaining almost like a teacher, and looked at the palms of his hands.

“Morning was without incident on the first Thursday, so it happened between then and afternoon homeroom.”

He folded down his thumb.

“The next incident, on a Wednesday, occurred either that morning, or after school on the Tuesday before it.”

He tucked in his index finger.

“Then our most recent incident this Thursday happened between homeroom and second block.”

His middle finger went down.

“Now then, gaze upon this 1, 3 schedule of ours.”

Junka took a piece of paper out from his bag.

“First is Tuesday. First block: biology, second block: modern-lit, third block: geography A, fourth block: English I, fifth block: classical-lit, sixth block: mathematics A.”

I was confused.

“What? Does that have anything to do with the incidents?”

Junka ignored me.

“Next was Thursday. First block: mathematics A, second block: PE, third block: English I, fourth block: family studies, fifth block: family studies. Well, isn’t it interesting?”

I had no idea. I looked at the paper in his hand.

“What’s so interesting? Hm? This…”

“Have you noticed?”

I pointed, “Is it after mathematics A that the culprit breaks the chalk?”

Junka clapped as if a bad student had gotten good marks.

“That’s exactly it, Rouji-kun! You do have a good head on you, eh? That’s right, we'll catch our culprit when there’s nobody in the room after Miyako-sensei’s mathematics A. Either after sixth block today, or on Wednesday morning tomorrow, our culprit will break the chalk. Then on the Thursday, he'll sneak out when we go for PE to break the chalk clean in half. He probably did the same on the Thursday two weeks ago.

I was impressed.

“I see, so that’s the pattern. So that’s it, that’s why it’ll happen either today after school, or tomorrow in the morning. We have Miyako-sensei’s mathematics A in sixth block.”

“That’s it.”

Perhaps feeling liberated from his formal explanation, Junka stripped his uniform and struck an imposing stance in nothing but his boxers.

“Haaaa, I’m refreshed… refreshed!”

Is he a degenerate?

Translator's Note:

The whole voyeur bit was originally "peeper" but in Engrish. The tsukkomi was "English doesn't change the meaning." A tsukkomi is… a witty retort to something ridiculous that has been said. That's probably not the best definition, but I don't quite understand it myself. They seem to need to be negative in either the sense of basically calling the other party an idiot, or negating the faulty premise of the previous statement.

Editor’s Note:

Mhnn.. Alright thus far but, I'm getting a weird vibe from this Iide girl…

Chapter end