Disclaimer: Detective Conan is not mine. This fanfic is a translation.
Enjoy Reading!
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After finishing the cleaning duties, they headed to the cafeteria for dinner.
Ritsu carefully picked out all the green peppers from his plate. Bitter foods like that were simply an anti-human invention, at least in his opinion.
At the next table, some students from Onizuka's class were quietly discussing tomorrow morning's cultural studies class.
Ichirō Fujio took a sip of his udon soup and sighed.
"I just remembered… I didn't preview my English lesson. This is bad. English is the subject I'm worst at."
His English grades were near the bottom of the class. He sighed again.
"The English instructor has been watching me closely. If I get called on tomorrow, I'm doomed."
Yūdai Nakagawa, who was picking his teeth with a toothpick, said casually,
"If it's English, why don't you ask Furuya to help you?"
"Oh right. Judging from his appearance, Furuya's English should be pretty good, right?"
Rei, who was busy slurping noodles, didn't expect to be brought into the conversation.
He glanced at the person across from him who was still carefully removing green peppers.
"My English… it's so-so."
"Hehe, as expected of a blond mixed-blood~"
"It's probably even better than the instructor's, right? Your pronunciation must be perfect."
At that moment, Date suddenly stood up with a frown.
He walked straight to Nakagawa and grabbed him by the collar.
"Hey. Don't judge people by their appearance."
"Huh?!" Nakagawa was clearly startled and instinctively shut his eyes, afraid the class leader might hit him.
Seeing how cowardly he looked, Date pulled the toothpick from his mouth and said coldly,
"And another thing… stop walking around chewing toothpicks and acting cool. It's disgusting."
"S-Sorry!"
"Alright, as long as you understand. Just be more careful next time."
One second he looked like a roaring tiger, and the next he was back to being the smiling, dependable class leader.
Date really could switch expressions in an instant.
Hagiwara, who had been watching with an amused look, narrowed his droopy eyes and grinned mischievously.
"Hey, Class Rep… could it be that you like Furuya?"
"Cough—!"
"What?!"
Rei choked on his noodles instantly.
Sitting beside him, Morofushi patted his back with a red face while thinking to himself.
'Wait… does Class Rep really like Zero?'
'But Zero probably isn't into that kind of thing…'
Hagiwara flashed a thumbs-up and said cheerfully,
"Don't worry, you don't have to hide it~ I don't mind that sort of thing. Feelings can be complicated, you know. I understand, I understand."
Date really wanted to say,
'You understand my ass.'
But he swallowed the words and said helplessly,
"Come on, that's impossible! I have a girlfriend!!"
"Huh?!"
Aside from Ritsu, who had already heard this before and calmly continued eating his green-pepper-free fried noodles, everyone else froze with wide, stunned eyes.
A second later, all four of them showed exaggerated expressions of shock, almost like they had seen a ghost.
Date narrowed his eyes.
"Your expressions… are pretty ugly."
"Class Rep, you really have a girlfriend?" Morofushi asked curiously. "You don't seem like the type to start dating that early."
Date scratched his head awkwardly.
"Yeah… we met in middle school. We started dating last year."
"The reason I was sensitive about the 'mixed-blood' comment earlier is because my girlfriend, like Furuya, she also has blond hair."
"Ohhh."
Everyone nodded with expressions of understanding.
Hagiwara leaned his chin on his hand with interest.
"So how far have things progressed? You're already twenty-one… shouldn't you be thinking about marriage soon?"
"I've thought about it," Date admitted with a smile that he couldn't suppress. "But I want to wait a bit."
"After both of us meet each other's parents… I plan to propose."
"What?!"
"That's amazing…"
"I haven't even dated anyone yet, and Class Rep's already planning to propose."
"Yeah~ I'm jealous!"
Suddenly, Ritsu, who had stayed silent the whole time, looked up at Hagiwara.
"Hagiwara… you've never dated either?"
Jinpei immediately started exposing his friend.
"Don't be fooled by how often this guy hangs around girls. He's never actually dated anyone."
"In high school he almost got forcefully kissed by a girl!"
"Jinpei!!"
The two of them started sparring with chopsticks, while the others watched with expressions that clearly said.
'So this is the real you, Hagiwara.'
Hagiwara eventually asked,
"So… do you guys want to come to the mixer this weekend?"
"No."
Ritsu answered instantly.
After he refused, Rei and Morofushi also waved their hands to decline. Date, who already had a girlfriend, was obviously a pass too.
"You're kidding. None of you are going?"
"Being a playboy suits only you, Kenji," Jinpei said after finishing the last sip of his soup.
"Besides, the place you booked is a bar. Sasajima's only eighteen, he can't go to places like that."
"Fine, fine. Next time I'll book a good restaurant," Hagiwara said. "Then you guys can come hang out too. Think of it as a life experience."
"Alright."
Police academy training included many practical subjects—judo, kendo, aikido, arrest techniques, shooting practice, and more.
Usually, male classes trained in judo, while female classes focused on aikido.
After a week of training, Ritsu had already demonstrated his combat ability.
His greatest strength wasn't power, it was speed.
The moment he spotted an opponent's opening, he could strike instantly, catching them completely off guard.
Even Rei had difficulty scoring points against him.
After several rounds, Hagiwara, who wasn't good at hand-to-hand combat to begin with, raised both hands in surrender.
"Sasajima-kun, at least go easy on me… shutting me out completely is too harsh… whew, I'm exhausted."
Ritsu replied seriously,
"Combat training must be taken seriously. If that wasn't practice just now… you'd already be dead."
In some ways, Ritsu could be quite old-fashioned. To him, giving his all was a sign of respect for his opponent.
Hagiwara sighed.
For someone so young, Ritsu sometimes felt like a grumpy old professor in a young body.
Luckily his personality was still good.
Otherwise he would look exactly like an old scholar wearing a young man's skin.
"That's it for today's kendo training," the instructor announced.
"Next week we'll have an outdoor pursuit exercise. So rest well this weekend!"
"Don't show up to class looking half-dead, got it?"
"Yes, Instructor!!"
"Alright, Onizuka class dismissed!"
"Yes!!"
Since Hagiwara had plans to attend a mixer with the female trainee class, Jinpei, who usually stuck with him, ended up hanging out in Ritsu's room instead.
Eventually they got bored.
So the five of them decided to go out for dinner together.
"I'm going to withdraw some money first."
Ritsu didn't like carrying too little cash. Without cash, he didn't feel safe.
Jinpei insisted on following him inside the ATM area.
Ritsu didn't bother hiding anything and simply inserted his bank card.
Jinpei had only come in to enjoy the air conditioning.
But when he casually glanced at the screen, he saw a long string of numbers.
"…ten, hundred, thousand, ten thousand… million… ten million…"
He stopped counting halfway.
His eyes widened.
"Did you rob a bank?!"
"…What nonsense are you talking about?"
Ritsu rolled his eyes.
He calmly withdrew 500,000 yen, stuffed it into his wallet, and pulled out the card.
"My parents left it for me. After they passed away, the bank mailed the card to my school."
"I never really used it before."
"Oh… I see. S-Sorry."
"It's fine. Let's go, I'll treat you guys to something good."
"Hehe… well, if you insist."
Ritsu narrowed his eyes as he looked at Jinpei's overly excited grin.
'Could you look any happier?'
The moment Jinpei ran out of the bank, he shouted like an excited kid.
"Ritsu's treating us to a big meal! Yakiniku! Yakiniku! Yakiniku!"
"Huh? But Ritsu's the youngest," Morofushi said. "Isn't it a bit unfair to make him pay?"
Knowing exactly how much money Ritsu had, he added with a smile,
"Don't worry. We won't bankrupt him."
#Best yakiniku restaurants in Asahi-cho?#
Since they got their phones back for the weekend, Ritsu immediately started searching on Yahoo.
After reading the recommendations, he simply chose the most expensive one.
"There's a yakiniku place called 'Kyūrin' with really good reviews. Want to go?"
"Let's go!"