Hachiman lowered his head to read the textbook, not raising his eyes to look at Hiratsuka.
What Hiratsuka said this time was practically the same as before, only she added that they shouldn’t act alone.
These words sounded like safety reminders for students, but upon closer inspection, they were also an admission of helplessness.
This was all the school could do.
Investigating cases was the police’s job, but protecting students at home was the parents’ responsibility.
All the school could do was hold an assembly to remind them.
As for living alone, all you could do was wish them luck, and then everything would go on as usual.
If this word were used in a modern classroom or school, it would be like a dark joke.
“After all, if you really encounter this masked killer, no matter how many times you call the police for help, it won’t help.”
“In the end, even if you call the police, they won’t arrive immediately. But this killer’s knife is unpredictable. This is clear from the two cases with Tobe and Ooka, which happened in their homes.”
“The killer has enough patience to scout out locations, and must be confident enough to finish everything before the target can react, while police patrol cars can be parked at the school gates, but you can’t put one in everyone’s living room.”
Hachiman thought to himself, considering this idea somewhat pessimistic.
Once you were targeted, there was no way out.
But this was reality.
The first class this morning was math.
The math teacher was a middle-aged man in his thirties, wearing black glasses.
He looked very kind and spoke in a gentle tone.
Renji remembered his name was Tsukada Shin.
Today, he adjusted his glasses much more often than usual, pausing and insisting after every few questions, as if he didn’t know how to look at the silent students in the room.
Today he was teaching derivative applications, writing formulas on the board, and sometimes the chalk in his hand would make a sharp scraping sound.
Hachiman stared at the textbook but didn’t read a single word.
His mind was filled with thoughts about his recent conversation with Renji.
He glanced at Yamato’s empty seat, then lowered his eyes to the textbook.
Miura hadn’t asked for leave, but Yamato had.
Perhaps Yamato had some secret about the three of them.
Perhaps that secret was related to the deaths of Tobe and Ooka.
After class, Hachiman wanted to share this opinion with Renji.
When the bell rang, Hachiman turned to Renji.
“What’s up?”
Hachiman turned his head and saw Renji leaning back in his chair, spinning that iconic fountain pen.
Renji was neatly dressed in his school uniform, his hair perfectly styled, looking completely out of place with the atmosphere in this classroom.
“I saw you kept looking at Yamato’s seat during class.”
Renji put down the pen, folded his arms on the desk, leaned forward slightly, and lowered his voice.
“Did he discover something? Like, Yamato left out of fear. He knows some secret.”
“And that secret is the reason for the deaths of Tobe and Ooka.”
“How did you guess?”
Hachiman wasn’t surprised by how Renji had noticed him looking at Yamato from behind; he was more curious about how Renji had accurately guessed his thoughts.
“Because the logical chain is right here, and by combining what has already happened with a little inference, we can come to that conclusion.”
Renji said casually, and Hachiman felt that Renji was quite formidable.
“Maybe you should go challenge Shinichi Kudo?”
Hachiman said half-jokingly.
“That’s exactly what I’m thinking. Could there be some secret between them? One of them is something that only Tobe, Ooka, and Yamato know — even Hayato Hayama might not know.”
Renji tilted his head, his expression as if he was seriously considering such a possibility.
He leaned back in his chair, looking at the ceiling.
“If that’s the case, then what kind of secret could make three people become targets one after another, and then bring mortal danger?”
“And if Yamato really does know something, then his request for leave might be the right move, but the real worry is that he doesn’t know enough — not enough knowledge.”
“Just enough to scare Yamato, but not enough for him to know how to protect himself. It might even make him unwilling to tell the police, or even a secret that no one can uncover.”
Renji spun the story with wide-eyed seriousness, following Hachiman’s thoughts and making everything up.
After all, he was the one who did it, so he couldn’t not know the reason.
There was no so-called little secret between the three, but that didn’t stop Renji from talking about it.
“If Yamato really becomes the next target, do you think he’ll die the same way as Tobe and the others?”
Hachiman didn’t answer Renji’s question — more precisely, Hachiman couldn’t answer right now, because Yamato hadn’t been killed yet and was still alive.
Hachiman didn’t want to guess correctly — that the next target was Yamato.
And for some reason, Hachiman felt that if he guessed Yamato’s method of death, then Yamato, who originally wasn’t supposed to die, might actually die.
The second class was social studies with Teacher Kanashi Kunami.
A rather diminutive teacher who was still half-distracted, and Renji was the same.
Because Renji’s mind wasn’t focused on the plan for the third target.
In one thing, Hachiman was right — his sudden premonition during the break conversation was correct: the third person to die would be Yamato.
Now Renji was thinking about Hachiman’s words about challenging Shinichi Kudo.
Now, after eliminating two in a row, both from the same class and good friends, there was still no news of Shinichi Kudo intervening in this case.
“But if a third death happens in a row…”
“You should intervene, great detective.”
Renji knew about the person named Kudo Shinichi, but he didn’t attend Teitan High School, and there was no Teitan School here.
Renji was confident that no clues or biological information about him would be left at each scene, but he knew that in this world, there were many strange and highly capable people.
Suddenly, Renji couldn’t imagine that after Shinichi Kudo intervened, the killer wouldn’t be found, and the number of victims would continue to rise steadily.
At that moment, people would still be trying to find him.