Chapter 26
Hagiwara Kenji returned to the Police Academy.
Although they had just gone on break, since this incident had occurred, thinking that they might need to be contacted when the case was solved, Hagiwara Kenji simply brought him straight back to school.
Usuha Izuki didn't mind either. After all, even though only half a day had passed, he had spent that half day very colorfully, frantically harvesting suspicion values—completely worth the price of admission.
If they were returning to school, so be it. He had said enough for now, and could spend the next week being a silent, steady man again.
Hagiwara Kenji didn't want him to face the instructor directly, so he had Usuha Izuki return to the dormitory to rest properly first, while he went to explain things to the instructor.
Instructor Onizuka was waiting for an explanation. Seeing only him, he accepted it: "What exactly happened? It wasn't clear over the phone, give me the details."
Hagiwara Kenji explained what he understood: "...That's the situation. It was completely a misunderstanding, such a coincidence. But although the start wasn't great, Little Shinryu still helped decode the cipher without holding grudges afterward. I think in terms of character, Little Shinryu is completely a mature police officer."
Instructor Onizuka breathed a sigh of relief.
However, the instructor from the neighboring class who had come over to listen in looked not at all relaxed, still inexplicably tense: "Ah, I see, that's good then..."
The phrase "police character" placed alongside the name Samukawa Shinryu made him feel inexplicably pressured, unable to relax at all.
Hagiwara Kenji looked at the neighboring instructor, narrowed his eyes slightly, and suddenly said: "Speaking of which, since this was completely a wrongful case caused by answering a phone call, I asked Little Shinryu if he regretted it."
Instructor Onizuka instinctively responded: "What did he answer?"
"He said he didn't regret it, and that Instructor Onizuka had specifically told him today not to forget his identity when out and about..."
Instructor Onizuka: "..........."
Neighboring class instructor: "...He's quite obedient."
Instructor Onizuka's mouth twitched: "Well... if you put it that way, Samukawa has indeed always been very obedient, much better behaved than certain people."
Though he was praising with his words, Instructor Onizuka was somewhat breaking down inside.
Ah! Was it because of him?! Just because he had said that one extra thing, causing today's mess?!
He felt a bit guilty. If Samukawa hadn't meddled in other people's business, he might have had a normal day off today instead of going through this ordeal at the police station...
How could this kid be so earnest? You really can't judge a book by its cover!
Probably seeing through Instructor Onizuka's thoughts, one of the "certain people" the instructor mentioned consoled: "It's fine. Little Shinryu said himself that even if he hadn't gotten involved in this matter, the patrolling police would have questioned him anyway. He's used to it."
Instructor Onizuka: "..........."
Great, now he felt even worse somehow...
Hagiwara Kenji said with a smile: "Next, we just wait for news from the police station. If they really solve the case using the cipher Little Shinryu decoded as a major clue, shouldn't the school give him some recognition? It would also encourage other students—everyone can learn from Little Shinryu."
The instructors: "..........."
They couldn't guarantee anything else, but this year's students definitely had rock-solid psychological resilience.
Hagiwara Kenji pre-reserved the honor that Usuha Izuki deserved, then returned to his seat satisfied to continue working.
Sigh, Little Shinryu was always being misunderstood and didn't like to explain—only he could do it!
Having done this sort of thing many times, Hagiwara Kenji was even somewhat enjoying it, watching others' expressions change back and forth as they constantly adjusted their mindsets gave him a sense of "there's still hope" relief.
Now they just had to wait for results from the police station. Hopefully everything would go smoothly.
Day and night alternated, and soon it was a new week.
The innocent students never expected that during Monday's opening assembly, the usually unremarkable regular meeting would suddenly have an additional segment.
They were going to commend a certain student who had helped the police solve a kidnapping case last Friday.
The principal droned on above while the students below quietly asked each other about it.
"Who was it? Weren't we all in closed training at school last Friday?"
"We were released Friday afternoon..."
"So just that little bit of time from afternoon to evening, and they managed to help solve a kidnapping case? Don't know if that's good luck or bad luck, running into something like that."
"You don't understand—this is called an accident-prone constitution. Famous detectives are all like this, and famous detectives too. Wherever they go, incidents happen."
At this point, the students were still simply either envious or admiring of this classmate who had achieved merit before even graduating, until the principal called out that person's name.
"—Samukawa Shinryu, please come up to receive your certificate."
The auditorium was as if swept by a ghostly wind. The previous whispered conversations suddenly fell silent, leaving only the sound of Samukawa Shinryu's unhurried footsteps walking toward the stage.
He wore the Police Academy uniform, walked to the center of the platform, saluted the principal with clean, efficient movements, then received the certificate from the principal's hands, turned around, and displayed it to the people below.
The young man still had no expression, cold and indifferent, standing upright with perfect posture like he was at attention, his crimson eyes casually sweeping over the audience below.
The students below: ".................."
—Family, who understands? Watching a commendation at a Japanese Police Academy, it somehow felt like being back in WWII, watching a Third Reich medal ceremony...
This eerie silence lasted less than two seconds before being broken by applause.
Hagiwara Kenji wore a gratified smile as he led the applause, and the instructors also followed suit to liven up the atmosphere.
Japanese people are very conformist. With someone taking the lead and others following, soon the entire auditorium was filled with applause, as if that awkward moment had never existed.
Moreover, with the atmosphere in place, many people's rationality, influenced by the "Black Screen Aura," recovered considerably.
Police Academy students were mostly people with a sense of justice, and admiring strength was also natural.
Even if Samukawa Shinryu did look heart-stoppingly scary, the fact that the school had accepted him meant he had no criminal record and was a law-abiding citizen.
Moreover, in the previous week's various training exercises, Samukawa Shinryu had also ranked at the top. Without considering impression points, even the student representative of this year couldn't compare to him.
Though everyone seemed afraid to approach Samukawa Shinryu on the surface, they actually discussed him frequently in private, including quite a few words of praise.
Speaking objectively, from his current performance, Samukawa Shinryu was practically the uncrowned king of this year. Even his cold personality was appealing to some people, who felt that the strong walked alone while the weak huddled together—perfectly normal.
Most of the time, everyone didn't approach him to chat not so much because they feared him personally, but rather because they worried about disturbing him.
It was just that many courses hadn't begun yet. Samukawa Shinryu didn't look like much of a fighter, so he might fall behind in subjects like judo and grappling techniques, which is why everyone didn't dare speak too definitively when discussing these topics.
Now, this uncrowned king who was already a prominent figure had actually helped solve a major kidnapping case in his very first week at the Police Academy. Many of those who admired strength, after coming back to their senses, had clapped their palms red and were still extremely excited.
This unexpected event at Monday's assembly could be said to have topped the Police Academy's trending topics. Everyone discussed it more or less privately, either expressing their own desire to participate in major cases or hoping the school would release more detailed information—everyone was very curious.
Of course, some people made snide remarks privately, with unpleasant speculations like "maybe he could only provide clues because he was involved" or "maybe it's gang members infiltrating the police force as part of some scheme," but they were also scolded by students full of justice.
"Just because you can't do it, you think others can only achieve it through schemes and conspiracies?" This student said angrily. "If you're so righteous, why don't you dare speak loudly instead of just whispering quietly?"
The student making snide comments felt a bit embarrassed but also unconvinced, because some people he knew who disliked or feared Samukawa Shinryu also agreed with his thinking. Echo chambers easily make people feel they're not wrong.
"I didn't say he definitely did that. It's just that we're all students, and on his very first vacation after enrollment, he encounters a kidnapping case and happens to know information to provide to the police... What kind of detective drama protagonist script is this? Don't you think it's too coincidental? Can't I reasonably speculate?"
This was indeed what a small portion of people thought.
Students at the Police Academy didn't all mean they were excellent talent. Mediocre people, those who considered problems with mediocre thinking, were very common.
But most Police Academy students had very upright values. Even if they kept their distance from Samukawa Shinryu respectfully, they still respected him and were happy about the honor he received, because it meant a case was solved and a family was saved.
The person who stepped forward to stop the dark-minded person from talking nonsense belonged to the latter category.
She found the other's sophistry disgusting: "If you don't know, you can ask. If you don't ask and then wildly speculate, is that reasonable?"
The other person felt no shame but was instead self-righteous: "Have you asked? You don't dare either!"
Because he was too absorbed in the argument, he didn't even notice that the expressions of people around him had subtly changed, and they were looking at him with eyes full of pity and schadenfreude.
It wasn't until a voice that seemed frozen in the Arctic for thousands of years rang out coldly behind him that he realized something was wrong.
"What don't I dare?"
This person shivered and turned around tremblingly, not even daring to look up at the other's face, only able to deceive himself by looking at the name tag on the clothes of the person behind him.
Samukawa Shinryu.
These four characters he desperately wanted to avoid appeared before his eyes.
It could be said that this was the first time since enrollment that Samukawa Shinryu had actively started a conversation with someone. No one expected it would be under these circumstances, and the person involved certainly didn't expect it either. He was completely stunned and couldn't speak.
"I... I..."
"He wants to know how you helped the police solve the case, after all, the detailed situation of this case hasn't been announced."
Accompanied by her best friend's sharp intake of breath and other people's looks at a brave warrior, the female student who had been arguing with this person earlier stepped forward fearlessly, facing Samukawa Shinryu with complete composure.
"I'm Sato Miwako, from the same class as you. I'm also curious about what you did in this case. Could you tell us?"
Samukawa Shinryu looked down at her, his gaze as coldly indifferent as always.
When Sato Miwako thought he disliked being involved in this kind of trouble and was about to refuse, she heard him answer.
"I'm just relatively good at decoding ciphers. I just helped decode a cipher."
Sato Miwako was stunned for a moment, not expecting Samukawa Shinryu to actually answer her question.
...It seemed like he wasn't that unapproachable after all.
But decoding ciphers... he said it simply, but this was actually a highly technical skill, with a low threshold but high ceiling.
What even official police officers couldn't accomplish, Samukawa Shinryu had solved. It was clearly something worth being proud of, yet he spoke of it so lightly... Could it be that he really considered cipher decoding insignificant?
Thinking this, Sato Miwako couldn't help but curiously ask one more question: "Besides decoding ciphers, what else are you good at?"
Samukawa Shinryu: "Scaring people."
Sato Miwako: "Oh, scaring people... Huh??? Scaring people???"
Others: "...???"
—Was this a very cold joke, or did it have deeper meaning?! It had to have deeper meaning, right?!