The Eccentric, the Beauty, and the Detective: Kiriki Junka's Mystery Log Volume 2 Chapter 16

We bore our arms, thick or thin. We had completed the transition to our seasonal uniforms. It was June 24th.

The wind was strong that day. Taking attendance in 1, 3, our homeroom teacher Miyako Hiroshi sat down and began to talk of the matter at hand.

“We have a transfer student starting here today.”

She loosened her expression as the class stirred. Somebody let out a high pitched whistle. She surveyed the class, and called out with extreme arrogance.

“Oi, get in here,” she called to the other side of the door.

When it opened, what appeared was…

“So small!” Hosokawa, our class' number one fan of rumors and festivals, accidentally let the impolite remark slip.
　
There wasn't a soul in the room, however, who would disagree with her statement, for a petite young man had entered the room, not even close to 150cm in height.

He was clearly expressing his displeasure with Hosokawa's stinging comment as he stepped up to the platform. After Miyako-sensei shot Hosokawa a glare, she wrote his name on the board: Sannomiya Eiji.
「彼が転校生、三宮英二だ。仲良くしてやってくれ」
“He's the transfer student: Sannomiya Eiji. Treat him well.”

Comparing Eiji's looks to Junka's, what stood out was his diminutive stature. Rather than cool, he fell into the category of cute. He had brown, unruly hair that looked difficult to take care of. His pure eyes had a rustic charm, and his nose looked cheeky.

“Sannomiya, say something.”

He lowered his head, “I'll be in your care from here on out. My name is Sannomiya Eiji. Nice to meet you.”

It looked like Junka's romcom rival had appeared. With that thought in mind, I stole a glance at Junka who was forcefully solving a rubik's cube. Perhaps unable to solve it, he was removing the stickers to impose his will upon the colouration of the faces. Rubik's cubes could get to people like that.

“Alright Sannomiya,” ordered Miyako-sensei, “that seat in the back's open. Sit there.”

“Thank you.”

Before he could even set out, Kanno Yuuki, a girl who normally didn't stand out much, had placed a chair at the empty desk. He sat down with pride, and she bowed politely like she was his personal maid.

Miyako-sensei sought clarification, “What, you two know each other?”

Her response came, “I had been attending Shibuyamadai High School to determine its suitability as a place of education for Eiji-sama, and it passed. Naturally, as his personal maid, I shall be carrying out my duties from here on out.”

She'd given a professional delivery. Her uniform was wrinkle free, and the depths of her grey eyes were unfathomable behind her silver glasses. Intellectual in appearance, her presentation was sharp. Chestnut hair reached halfway down her back.

The confession wasn't quite enough to get Miyako-sensei to recoil.

“A maid, eh? Well… that's fine, I guess. Okay, Yuuko, look after him.”

“Yes ma'am.”

“Sit down.”

“Okay.”

We were all taken aback at her pompous demeanor. Nobody could have predicted such a high school debut.

When the teacher left, he was immediately surrounded by the boys of the class.

“I'm Kaigawa, nice to meet you Eiji.”

“If you've got a maid, but have you got it made?”

“I'm Shinoda. I'll show you around at lunch.”

“Hey, hey, where'd you even transfer from?”

Eiji did not respond, standing suddenly instead. He wove through the surprised classmates and approached Junka's seat. Junka having finally finished replacing the stickers.

“Solved at last.”

You didn't solve anything, Junka.

“Hey, you!” called Eiji, loudly.

Junka finally noticed his existence, and glanced at the blackboard where his name was still written.

“Yo, you're… Sannomiya Eiji-kun, eh? What's up?”

Eiji seemed displeased.

“Isn't it rude to play with your rubik's cube this whole time?”

“Oh, sorry,” Junka properly apologised, “I was thinking I might attend a national rubik's cube conference, so I immersed myself in practice.”

He had clearly been breaking the rules, and he shouldn't have made his shame public in the first place.

Yuuki whispered into his ear, “Eiji-sama, this boy is Kiriki Junka, the head of the detective association. He is the eccentric of the school, and I advise you avoid interacting with him
.”

“Eccentric, eh? That's obvious,” Eiji scoffed, “I mean, you probably weren't raised well, was never taught manners, and lived a sloppy life until now. It's only natural for you to be so uncouth. My bad, Kiriki, don't worry about it.”

After his mean spirited derrision, he turned to face Hosokawa's desk, slapping a hand down on the surface of it. She jerked back.

“You called me small, didn't you. Let's hear an apology.”

Hosokawa's expression cramped, “It just slipped out. It isn't like it really meant anything, or like I was making fun of you. You don't need to get so upset.”

“Apologise.”

“Excuse me?”

“I told you to apologise. Or did you not hear me? Or maybe you're too slow? What is it?”

Hosokawa scanned the classroom for some salvation, but nobody followed up. I stayed quiet so she could get her just desserts. After a few seconds of silence, she caved in.

“Sorry, Sannomiya.”

Glaring at her one more time, he declared, “As long as you understand,” in a voice that resounded through the class.

His voice was so high that he sounded like a child.

“Listen up. Don't make fun of me cause I'm small. I'm a human being with real value. Please get that through your skulls. Got it?”

The little tyrant probably took the silence as agreement, and returned to his seat. Yuuki, of course, pulled out his seat for him. I made sure to remember the unforgettable entrance of Sannomiya Eiji, an oddball comparable to Junka.

On Monday, Junka and I began to make our way to the music room for music class. On the way, we looked at the bulletin board. Our new recruitment leaflets were posted.

“Unravelers of mystery: the Detective Association needs you!” was copied with a portrait of Junka that the art teacher had painted. Junka was depicted as if an illustration in a book, and was shown wearing a deerstalker and an inverness coat in the style of the world famous detective Sherlock Holmes. Despite being a high school student, he was smoking a pipe; even the briefest of glances would reveal that he was the very image of a detective. Surely it would draw in some interested students. All we needed was time. Not that anybody had come yet.

We waited a while for the teacher to come and saw the impressive portrait of Chopin in its proper place. Junka gazed nostalgically upon it.

“It's already been over two and a half months. The case of the tears of blood was our first job…”

The door to the class opened, and Hatanaka Shouko-sensei's first leg through the door was wrapped in a cast.

“Sensei?”

All our gazes fixed on her in surprise. The rain outside was intense as she bowed.

“I'm sorry. I broke my leg a little…”

She smiled to smooth things over.

“It won't impede our lessons, so we're going to start. Who's on duty today?”

Our music lessons progressed without any further clarification. Certainly, it wasn't impeding her piano playing beyond making it more difficult to press the peddle, but just what had happened? I felt bad for her since I didn't dislike her as a teacher.

The students were leaving the class in groups, and right in the middle of it all, Eiji went straight up to Hatanaksensei

Translator's Note:

Hatanaksensei asked for the person on day duty to do, well, the day duty. That was by saying “Day duty person.” It just didn't quite work out as politely in Canadian English that way, so I made it a little more culturally acceptable.

Editor's Note:

Since I don't put in much effort to the sentences when I translate (the idea being an editor will at some point actually help out and relieve me of some of the burden) some of my sentence constructions are a little unnatural. *Filler content to be replaced when actually edited by someone else.*

Chapter end