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Moonlight poured through the half-open window, casting mottled silver patterns beside Hiromitsu Morofushi's pillow.
Since classes officially started tomorrow and they had to wake up at six for morning drills, the freshmen—including him—had turned off their lights early, hoping to face the upcoming training with full energy.
Perhaps because he was still unaccustomed to his new environment, miscellaneous thoughts swirled in his mind, making it hard to fall into a deep sleep. He tossed and turned, the rustling sound of cotton duvet covers rubbing against the bedsheets exceptionally clear in the silence.
After dinner, Zero had helped tidy up the dishes and hadn't stayed at his place for long before returning to Room 146.
I wonder how Zero and Student Matsuda are getting along... It would be great if they could become friends.
Then again, was he failing to sleep soundly precisely because there was another person in the room? Had Hisano Nozomi fallen asleep?
Hiromitsu opened his eyes to look over, only to find that the opposite bed was empty at some unknown point. Replacing it was a dark silhouette standing before the window.
He instinctively held his breath, his muscles tensing, but relaxed abruptly the moment he recognized the person's face.
"...Nozomi-kun? It's you."
Startled by his ghost-like roommate, Hiromitsu propped up half his body and asked, "What are you doing there so late? I thought a criminal had snuck into the school."
In a sense, that's not entirely wrong.
The slender youth stood by the window, the tips of his black hair bathed in a layer of hazy moonlight. He gazed at the distant night scenery, countering with a question: "Aren't you awake too, Hiro-kun?"
"Yeah... but if we don't rest well tonight, tomorrow will be terrible. You should head back to bed early too."
"Okay~ I get it."
Though he agreed verbally, Satoru Gojo stood firm as a mountain, as if waiting for something. Leaving aside the existence of the Reverse Cursed Technique, sleep had long ceased to be a necessity for him... and right now, compared to sleeping, there was something far more noteworthy.
Ah, here they come.
His crimson eyes narrowed slightly, his gaze piercing through the glass to land squarely on two familiar figures far below in the courtyard—Jinpei Matsuda and Furuya Rei were walking one after the other toward the edge of the training grounds.
The man with curly black hair had his hands in his pockets, his shoulders rigid, clearly in a foul mood. The mixed-race youth walking diagonally behind him maintained a calm expression, yet his knuckles unconsciously clenched and released.
As expected, right in line with the development of the original manga, these two had specifically picked the dead of night to have a showdown. Rather than helplessly watching them fight within an inch of their lives, it was better to head down later to harvest some impression points and claim a piece of the pie.
Seeing him staring unblinkingly out the window, Hiromitsu asked curiously, "What's wrong? Is there something outside?"
"Well..."
Satoru Gojo retracted his gaze, his face appearing almost translucent under the moonlight, as if it might dissolve into mist the next second. Accompanied by a meaningful tone, his smile was as sweet as melting toffee: "The moon is beautiful tonight, isn't it?"
"Eh?"
Hearing Soseki Natsume's famous phrase, Hiromitsu froze for a second, a trace of helplessness soon surfacing in the depths of his eyes.
"...When you say things like that, you should look at who you're talking to, Nozomi-kun."
I really can't tell if he genuinely lacks common sense, or if he's just airheaded to an extraordinary degree.
Having intentionally teased his roommate, Satoru Gojo blinked innocently: "So, do you want to go moon-viewing together?"
"Moon-viewing?" Hiromitsu shook his head, refusing the other's startling whim. "It's already very late, go to sleep."
Perhaps because the moonlight was truly too gentle, a wave of drowsiness hit him, and he lay back down. Gradually, the rhythm of his breathing slowed significantly, becoming long and steady.
"What a pity," Satoru Gojo murmured. "And here I thought there was a good show to watch."
Down below, Matsuda Jinpei's fist grazed past Furuya Rei's ear, making a sharp whistling sound through the air. Furuya tilted his head to dodge a hook, snapping his hand out to grab the other's wrist.
"You blond bastard, are you ever going to stop!" Matsuda shouted, forcefully flinging Furuya aside.
The handsome youth with dark skin stabilized his stance and shot back, "That should be my line, shouldn't it?"
Originally, under Hiromitsu's persuasion, he had truly intended to coexist peacefully with Matsuda. However, the moment they returned to the dorm, the two of them began bickering over trivial matters, and it was hard to say who had started it... Long story short, it resulted in this late-night duel.
Furuya Rei chopped his left hand toward the inner side of Matsuda's elbow joint, bending his knee to attack the moment Matsuda was forced to release his grip, only for his strike to be sharply parried by the outer side of Matsuda's thigh.
They retreated half a step simultaneously, dust kicking up into small vortices from the friction of their soles.
"To think there's someone who can stand perfectly fine after taking my punch... truly surprising," Furuya Rei breathed, speaking in a low voice.
Matsuda Jinpei shook his numbed wrist. "Likewise."
"Matsuda, I don't know what exactly your problem is with me, but I will absolutely become an excellent police officer!" Furuya threw a punch. "Don't even think about getting in my way!"
Matsuda lunged sideways to avoid it, yet his flank was still grazed, causing him to gasp from the sharp pain. Enduring the sting, his lips curled into a smirk instead: "Exactly, it's that right there!"
"What?"
"Just like a naive little boy who desperately wants to be a 'hero of justice,' that nature of yours... truly rubs me the wrong way!"
"What kind of stupid nonsense are you talking about?!" As Matsuda launched an attack, Furuya countered with a sharp elbow strike. "Weren't you the one who came to this school with the goal of becoming a police officer too?!"
Matsuda dodged just in time, seizing the momentum to grab Furuya's shoulder and executing an over-the-shoulder throw. "I'm nothing like you, a guy whose brain is filled to the brim with benevolence and morality!"
Furuya Rei let out a muffled grunt, clutching Matsuda's collar to use the leverage to flip himself back up. The two put distance between each other once more, their shadows intertwining under the same moon. Neither had claimed victory, yet neither had any intention of backing down.
"Is benevolence and morality a mistake in your eyes, Matsuda?" Furuya raised a hand to wipe the blood from the corner of his mouth, speaking seriously, "Helping the citizens and protecting the weak is the duty of a police officer!"
"You bastard..." Matsuda Jinpei seemed at a loss for how to counter, letting out a "Tch" as he fell into a temporary stalemate with his opponent.
At that moment, a lighthearted voice suddenly dropped from right above their heads—
"Is what Furuya-kun just said what they call 'righteous claptrap'?"
Never expecting a bystander to be present, the pupils of the two combatants contracted as they looked up simultaneously.
The black-haired, red-eyed youth was lazily leaning against the branch of a cherry blossom tree, his long legs casually crossed. His right hand gently toyed with a nearby cherry blossom branch, causing petals to flutter down like rain, a scene of breathtaking beauty.
"Me, I absolutely hate 'righteous claptrap.'"
Furuya Rei stared at him, blurting out, "Hisano?! Why are you here?"
Matsuda Jinpei instinctively took half a step back, his Adam's apple bobbing. "Just when did he..."
He hadn't detected the other party's presence at all!
[Ding! Impression points from plot character Jinpei Matsuda +100! Composition analysis... Surprise.]
"Don't mind me, I'm just a passing moon-viewer~" The youth idly rolled a petal between his fingers. "It just so happens that I caught you two communicating your feelings with your fists, and heard some rather interesting theories."
"Passing... moon-viewer?!"
No matter how you look at it, that's absurd!
Fortunately, Furuya Rei had spent some time with him earlier and had built up a decent immunity to his bizarre logic. Thus, he didn't dwell on it and pivoted instead: "If 'righteous claptrap' means speaking the truth, I don't believe I am in the wrong. Why would you say that, Hisano-kun?"
Satoru Gojo lowered his gaze, staring at the cherry blossom petal in his palm before slowly closing his fingers around it.
"Furuya-kun, if a police officer's duty is to protect the weak..."
The petal crushed soundlessly in his palm, oozing a rouge-colored juice that meandered down his wrist like a fresh trail of blood.
"Then who is going to protect the police?"
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