Tokyo Detective Chronicles

The next day, at noon

Qingchengtai Private College

Fushimi, carrying the bento that Hoshizaki Rina had prepared for him that morning, appeared unusually in the corridor of the first-year students' area.

He wasn't wearing his glasses today; his bangs hung down over his forehead, obscuring his eyes and making him look somewhat gloomy.

His walking posture was very natural, with his shoulders and back straight and his stride even. He showed no signs of the hunchback and timidity that often sullen high school students have.

Although he tried his best to appear as ordinary as possible.

At 1.8 meters tall, he still stood out quite a bit among the group of Yingzhou High School students who were generally half a head shorter.

With that expressionless face, even the most talkative boys would subconsciously lower their voices as they walked along.

……

In a corner of the first-grade C class classroom, Akiyama Aiko and several other girls were sitting around Hayakawa Chiho.

On the surface, they were all laughing and joking, talking about recent events.

Hayakawa was smiling, but his head was down and his hands on his knees were trembling slightly.

She felt the air in the classroom was so thick it was suffocating, and she had a slight difficulty breathing. She gripped her lunchbox tightly with her fingers, refusing to put it on the table.

All of this was observed by Akiyama Aiko, who was sitting opposite her.

She pursed her lips; this trembling appearance was truly disgusting...

"Hey, Hayakawa—"

Akiyama drew out the last syllable, his cloyingly sweet and affected voice coming from across the room.

"Don't be so stingy, let me try your bento too."

Akiyama Aiko rested her chin on her hand, crossed her legs, and deliberately shortened her skirt to a point where she wouldn't accidentally expose herself.

Her two henchmen leaned against the table next to Hayakawa, one chewing gum and the other applying lip gloss in a small mirror, glancing at Hayakawa every now and then with an undisguised smirk.

Several students nearby were secretly glancing over; some were peeking at Akiyama's thighs, while others were watching Hayakawa...

But what they have in common is that they are all trying to avoid any visual contact with the center of the conflict.

A boy wearing glasses opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something, but was nudged hard by his friend with his elbow. In the end, he lowered his head and frantically ate the food in his lunchbox.

Hayakawa really didn't know how to respond to Akiyama's request to try the bento.

She smiled rather reluctantly. If Akiyama really just wanted to try her bento, she would have happily agreed and shared it with him.

If she really liked it, she wouldn't mind giving the whole thing to the other person, but...

How could Akiyama Aiko possibly eat that?

She would probably just say, without any sense of reason, that the food was spoiled, cover her mouth and nose and loudly say "It stinks!" before dumping it directly into the trash can.

Or pretend to be careless and slap the lunchbox onto the ground and onto her.

I did this just to embarrass her.

Hayakawa's fingers unconsciously rubbed against the lid of the bento box.

In a daze, she could even feel the faint warmth left by her mother's hand on the lunchbox.

Hayakawa didn't want things to turn out that way.

Why does this bento box smell bad?

It's fresh; it was a lunchbox that my mom specially prepared for me this morning after she came back from a long night shift at the hospital, exhausted.

It was full of her favorite foods, and she didn't want it to go to waste.

I also don't want to dirty the classroom floor that my classmates have worked so hard to clean.

"I just wanted to try it~ Hayakawa, you wouldn't be so stingy, would you? Sharing lunchboxes among classmates is perfectly normal, isn't it?"

Because of Akiyama's decent looks and her precocious and fashionable style, she was quite popular in both the club and her class.

There are even rumors that her brother is a delinquent outside of school...

Therefore, when faced with this bullying that everyone knew was happening, the people around either stayed away or just watched with amusement.

The collective indifference of this nation of Yingzhou affects everyone.

No one would risk offending Akiyama by doing anything unnecessary.

Even if someone stops him and tells the teacher, Akiyama will put on a pitiful act and apologize to Hayakawa, saying that he didn't mean it.

But anyone with eyes can see that she did it on purpose.

But the teacher won't investigate further; it wouldn't do him any good, and he might even be targeted by such a bad student.

Now that there's a way out, the matter can be downplayed, and naturally, she won't be punished.

In the end... it was just an ordinary bento box that was spilled.

It's really not worth making a big deal out of it.

Hayakawa will subsequently suffer even more severe and relentless bullying.

"I said...do you have a problem with me?"

Aiko Akiyama, blowing on her nails which she had just painted yesterday, looked up.

Hayakawa Chiho's breath hitched.

No, that's not it.

It all started two weeks ago when Hayakawa received a strange love letter and gift from her classmate, Kano Ikuto.

She makes this request every day at noon, and it's been... countless times already.

No matter how she explained it to the other party, returning the gift was useless.

Hayakawa felt a little sad. She felt sorry for her mother... She felt uncomfortable because she wasted this innocent bento, even though she still had that smile on her face.

What was happening right now was even more agonizing for her than being splashed with dirty water.

And who knows how long this torment will continue, day after day...

At that moment, Aiko Akiyama suddenly leaned forward.

With a face heavily made up, she leaned close to Hayakawa and whispered with a smile in a voice only the two of them could hear:

"Who gave you permission to leave early yesterday?"

"..."

"Hurry up and bring the lunchbox up, while I'm still in a good mood." Akiyama Aiko winked playfully. "Otherwise, I'll still be waiting for you in the classroom after school~"

Yesterday, I was locked in the mop cabinet because I refused her request.

The sticky, damp feeling all over my body was very uncomfortable, and the room was filled with a suffocating mix of musty and dirty water smells...

At this moment, Akiyama Aiko seemed to have become tall and ferocious in her eyes, making it hard for her to breathe.

The cicadas chirping outside the window, the girls laughing and joking not far away, the footsteps running through the corridor... all the sounds came through a layer of frosted glass, blurry and distant.

Only my own heartbeat made my chest ache with every beat.

She didn't even dare to look up at the piercing gazes around her.

Honestly, she suddenly really, really, really wanted to taste a bite of her mother's bento box, just one bite...

"Hayakawa, what's wrong? You look terrible. Did your bento go bad? You can't eat stale food."

"yes……"

"..."

I opened my mouth and felt a tightness in my throat.

She tried to take a deep breath, but the air she inhaled felt like sand, chafing her trachea painfully.

Starting tomorrow... I think I should stop bringing lunch to school.

I can just go to the corner store and buy some bread. Although Mom will be sad, it's better than this happening again and again...

The lunchbox on her lap became scalding hot, almost burning her skin. Instinctively, she raised her trembling hand and picked up the lunchbox.

Hayakawa felt that his current expression must be an ugly smile.

Why?

Why is this the case?

What did I do wrong to deserve this treatment?

"It's okay, Hayakawa, just bear with it... it's just lunch."

She slowly raised her hand, and a faint pain came from the bandaged wound on her arm.

"This isn't the first time something like this has happened..."

She kept telling herself that if she got covered in water again after school today, Fushimi-senpai wouldn't be there to help her anymore...

Fushimi...senpai...

She suddenly remembered Fushimi's face.

Yesterday... I guess I used up all the good luck I've ever had in my life.

When I looked up again, the beautifully packaged lunchbox was already on the table.

On Akiyama's face, which was magnified countless times in Hayakawa's eyes, a disgusting smile that made her uncomfortable reappeared, and powder was falling down in a flurry.

"Open."

A voice, like a pronouncement of a verdict, rang in her ears...

Hayakawa felt she should cry, but she seemed to have a condition that prevented her from having the ability to "cry," but that didn't mean she wouldn't feel sad.

The fear, heartache, and anxiety in my heart kept pressing in, but I couldn't get any release.

Akiyama's smile became increasingly distorted, while Hayakawa's smile grew more strained, even appearing somewhat comical, causing the two people around him to burst into laughter.

The sound was not loud, but it became increasingly shrill and piercing.

"Hey, Hayakawa, what's with that disgusting expression you're making...?"

"Hayakawa, if you really don't want to, just refuse. Akiyama-kun isn't a bad person..."

"Yeah, Hayakawa, don't act like everyone's bullying you..."

"Hayakawa, your smile is getting more and more unsettling..."

"Hayakawa, Hayakawa, Hayakawa, Hayakawa, Hayakawa..."

Surname.

It's that surname again.

Each shout made her even more dazed; a buzzing sound began to appear in her ears, her voice gradually became blurry, and her vision became somewhat blurred.

Is she about to faint?

It'll be fine if he just faints, right?

Then I won't be able to hear or see... Maybe then they won't bother me.

Hearing her name mentioned again and again, she began to feel a deep sense of nausea and disgust at her surname... She felt like she was about to collapse.

She raised her hand to cover her trembling lips...

until.

A voice, not loud at all, rang out from not far away, yet it reached Hayakawa Chiho's ears with such clarity.

"Chiho".

In an instant, everything around fell silent.

Everyone's eyes, including Hayakawa Chiho's, turned to the doorway.

Standing at the back door of the classroom was Fushimi Iori, carrying a lunchbox.