109 Act 18: Scene 3
"Good morning, Ayanokouji-kun," Suzune bowed her head in greeting as she stood outside of his dorm room.
"...good morning, Horikita. You're earlier than I expected," he raised an eyebrow at her curiously.
This was truly a strange occurrence. Horikita has never been this early before and yet here she was, already dressed in their school uniform and ready to leave. Was she here to invite him to walk with her? He hasn't even taken a bath yet. In fact, what time did she even wake up for her to be this early...?
"I apologize for bothering you instead of waiting for you outside, but could you please let me in? I need to discuss something important with you," she stated.
"Now? Can't we just talk about it on the way to school?"
"I'm afraid that's not possible. It is of the utmost importance, and no one other than you must know about it. If we discuss it out in the open, then... there's a chance that someone else could overhear what I tell you..." she explained, as her face started turning red by the end of her words.
"She's... not going to confess her feelings, is she?" Kiyotaka asked himself, noticing the color on her face. He shook his head immediately afterwards, realizing how ridiculous that assumption was. "Wait, I'm thinking about it too much. Surely this is something related to Miyake's case, nothing more."
He cleared his throat to get the girl's attention, before looking behind him. He was already done with the dishes so he would only have to fix his bed and nothing else. If Suzune stepped inside his dorm, she would instantly notice that the way his bed was arranged would make it seem like two people were sleeping on it and not one.
He couldn't let that happen.
"Give me a moment, I'll let you in."
Suzune only gave a nod and stood back as Kiyotaka closed the door. After a while, he opened the door again and gestured for her to come in. The girl bowed her head in thanks and went inside her friend's dorm, where she was hit by a wave of realization.
Suzune blushed; this was the first time that she had ever been to Kiyotaka's room, even though they were neighbors. What should she do while she's here? Compliment his living conditions? Stand by the door so she wouldn't intrude? Let Kiyotaka dictate the flow of their conversation?
"No. I need to remain composed. I'm not here to think about how embarrassing this is," she reminded herself in her mind, shaking her head furiously to snap herself out of her funk.
"You okay?" Suzune heard Kiyotaka ask.
"I-I'm fine," she stammered while trying to keep her composure.
Kiyotaka sweat-dropped, knowing that she was obviously bothered by something but didn't push the issue further. He led her to the table and gestured for her to take her seat, which she did right away. He then sat on the opposite side, facing her while resting his elbows on the table.
"So what is it that you wanted to tell me? I imagine this is important to the point that you can't wait to tell me about it," he began.
Suzune took a deep breath, reminding herself of why she was here in the first place before she spoke, "It's about Miyake-kun's case. I found out some crucial information about it that I believe will be helpful in the future."
"I knew it," Kiyotaka remarked in his mind. Good thing he didn't make the same mistake as he did with Kei this time around. "If this was about his case, then why didn't you bring it up yesterday?"
"I wanted to consult you about it."
"You couldn't have done that with Kushida around? Isn't she our friend too?" he pointed out.
"You make a good point, but you need to hear this more. It's not that I don't trust Kushida-san, but the two of us in particular agreed that we would make our class into the new Class A, and this information could take us one step closer to that."
"We did, didn't we?" he asked rhetorically, remembering their conversation outside of the teacher's lounge months ago. "All right, what have you learned?"
"Yesterday, while Kushida-san and I were speaking with Shiina-san about what she knew regarding her classmates, she mentioned a person named 'Ryuuen' who is supposedly the leader of Class C. She said that he's someone who is violent and won't hesitate to rely on violence to make his classmates follow him."
Kiyotaka remained silent at first. He had just been discussing the topic of Ryuuen Kakeru earlier with Ichika and what he could do to mess up their progress with Akito's case so far, so this was a pretty hefty coincidence. A quick thought crossed his mind wherein Suzune had heard the two of them earlier, but he quickly brushed it off.
"And what do you think about this Ryuuen?" he asked, genuinely interested in what the black-haired girl wanted to share with him.
"We agreed yesterday that the attack on Miyake-kun had to have been planned, remember?" Kiyotaka nodded. "Then I believe that he was the mastermind behind it all. He concocted the plan to have his classmates target one of our own and attack him someplace where there are no cameras."
Kiyotaka hummed in thought, before he raised an eyebrow. "You really believe that he's to blame?"
"Do you see any other plausible reason why Miyake-kun was beaten up, then?" asked Suzune. "We are already sure that the whole incident had been planned from the beginning, but the question of who came up with it still doesn't have an answer. Until now."
"But why would Ryuuen come up with a plan like this, then? What do you think is his endgame here?" he asked her, wanting to know how much she thought about this.
"I don't know. That's the question that I've been asking myself since yesterday. I haven't met Ryuuen-kun to get a grasp on what he's like and how he operates other than what I've learned from Shiina-san," she admitted, hanging her head before looking up at her friend. "You believe me though, right? That Ryuuen-kun is the one behind it all. You trust me?"
All Kiyotaka did was nod.
"I do. However, we shouldn't focus on him right now. He could be the one who orchestrated the whole scheme, but he didn't attack our classmate directly. Ishizaki, Komiya, and Kondo remain our persons of interest. Accusing someone else of being involved will do nothing but make us look like idiots who try to shift the blame to anyone they can think of. Much less when we have no proof that Ryuuen was even in on it."
Suzune's shoulders slumped. She really wanted to put an end to this case by focusing her attention on whom she assumed to be the mastermind, but after those words from Kiyotaka, she realized that she couldn't go through with it.
They would have to continue on with their original plan, which is to search for their witness so she could give her testimony on the matter and save their classmate from possible expulsion.
"You're right. As much as I hate it, we can only focus on the three pawns in his plan. Though I would have liked to know what he has to gain from all of this. Risking being caught, the hearing, the possibility of his classmates being exposed, it doesn't make sense."
"Don't worry about it too much. Once we win this case for Miyake, we can start focusing on Ryuuen and Class C as a whole. The next time he tries something against our class, we'll be ready for him.
Horikita heaved a massive sigh. "I understand, Ayanokouji-kun."
Ayanokouji nodded in satisfaction. "With that being said, would you mind waiting outside? I know you're itching to walk to school with me, but unless you plan on waiting for me to take a bath then change my clothes, I'm afraid you'll be feeling uncomfortable if you stay for long."
It was there that Suzune was hit with the full realization of her actions. She was ready to leave for class way earlier than usual, and then she paid her neighbor a visit before he even took a bath. All of this made her realize that maybe she went too far with this... maybe it really would have been better if she told him about this on the way to school instead...
"O-Of course," she blushed and looked down, completely embarrassed by her actions. "I apologize for taking up your time."
"It's fine. I assume you'll be waiting in your dorm until I'm done?"
"Yes..." she muttered, before throwing him an angry look. Well, she tried at least. It's hard to take her seriously with that cute blush on her face. "You better not leave without me, got it?"
"I know that already," Kiyotaka nodded.
With that, Suzune stood up from her seat and bowed her head before she made her way out the door, closing it behind her. As soon as she left, Kiyotaka breathed out a sigh of relief. That went well. She also didn't recognize the presence of his roommate, which meant they were safe from their living conditions being exposed to someone else.
Speaking of which...
"Amasawa, you can get out of the bathroom now," he called out to the younger girl who was still in the bathroom, only to receive no reply from her. "Amasawa?"
He turned to the bathroom door and waited for his roommate to come out, but she didn't. Moments later, the door opened but Ichika didn't come out. Instead, she simply poked her head outside, looking worried for some reason. It was an expression that he had never seen from her before, and it quickly caused him to keep his guard up.
"Are you sure, senpai? I don't really want to go out if it's not safe yet..." she muttered nervously, a tone that he had never heard her use before.
"I'm saying your name out in the open. Why would I say it if Horikita was still around?" he said in a rhetorical manner.
"I don't know... I don't want to get caught being here, senpai. Horikita-senpai may have heard my voice earlier, which could be the reason why she went here. I don't want to disappoint you more than I already have," she spoke with her head down.
Kiyotaka shook his head. He had no idea why the girl was acting this way when she was perfectly fine earlier. But the look on her face was something that acted as a warning to him and if his instincts were to be trusted, he had to tread carefully from here.
"Come on already, you already said that you weren't that loud. She didn't hear you at all, so you can get out now."
"I don't know, senpai... what if she's still outside of our room, listening?" Ichika replied nervously, before retreating back into the bathroom.
The young man sighed as he walked towards the bathroom. He really didn't know why Ichika was acting strange out of nowhere, but he needs to deal with this before her sad state triggers the system's dreaded skill.
"Amasawa, this is getting ridiculous. Horikita's gone, so I can't understand why you're still not coming out of the bathroom. I have to get ready for—"
Kiyotaka cut himself off just as he opened the bathroom, where Ichika stood before him with her usual smile. The sad look on her face was completely gone, as thought she was never like that in the first place.
"Ta-da! I prepared the bath for you, senpai~!" she exclaimed, pointing to the tub that was already swimming with soap and bubbles. A towel was also nearby, ready to be used anytime.
Oh, how the young man wished he could turn back time to prevent himself from falling for this girl's tricks and games...
"I should have known. You're losing your composure, me. You would have been able to tell that she was only faking it in the past, but you were too focused on avoiding the possibility of making her sad."
Kiyotaka sighed mentally after saying those words to himself. His dating sim power had changed him to the point that he could only focus on keeping his heroines happy while disregarding everything else, but it's not like he could do anything about it. All he could do was adapt to his situation, even if it can be infuriating and frustrating to deal with.
Still, the old Kiyotaka would never fall for Ichika's bait and he would have warned her to stop playing games with him.
"Thanks for preparing it for me, but you really shouldn't have," he told the scarlet-haired girl, managing to hide his agitation behind his usual poker face.
Ichika giggled. "Well, I didn't want to just sit around and wait here for you and Horikita-senpai to be finished with your little talk. I'm a bit taken aback that you're not that affected by my little surprise for you, but I guess that's to be expected from the Masterpiece himself, hehe~"
"Then I suppose you should leave the bathroom now, Amasawa. I would like to put the bath you prepared into good use."
The scarlet-haired girl let out another cute giggle, before she shook her head.
"What are you saying, senpai? Why would I leave the bathroom now when it's also the perfect time for me to take a bath?" she smirked.
"So this was her plan..." he sighed mentally. Honestly, Kiyotaka had a lingering hunch that his roommate wanted to bathe with him ever since she revealed that she prepared the bath for him, but he ignored it because he didn't even want to think of the implications.
But now, that desire of Ichika's was now out in the open.
"What are you up to now, Amasawa?" he asked, pretending that he had no idea what she was talking about.
"I'm just saying, senpai... it's the perfect time for us to get in the tub together~ Don't you want to spend some quality time with your adorable kouhai~?" she suggested, walking up to her favorite person in the whole school while sending him a wink.
"I don't have time for your games. Would you please leave the bathroom now so I can get ready for school?"
"But senpai, I'm already ready to step into the tub with you..."
While she continued to smirk at him, Ichika's hands traveled down to the set of buttons on her pajama shirt, undoing them one by one without a care in the world.
