Chapter 120
When Hagiwara Kenji received Usuha Izuki's call, he was quite confused: "Why are you suddenly going to Hawaii?"
"I caught a thief, and he wants to thank me by treating me to a trip."
Hagiwara Kenji was very alert: "Just for catching a thief, he's thanking you this much? Is this person reliable?"
Given how Little Shinryu appeared to outsiders, how could such good fortune happen? Could it be some foreign illegal organization that had taken a liking to Little Shinryu and wanted to kidnap him abroad first, then discuss other matters?
The next time he saw Little Shinryu, Little Shinryu might already be some Black X Gang executive...
Hagiwara Kenji's imagination ran wild, and he couldn't help saying: "Little Shinryu, don't trust others too easily!"
Usuha Izuki: "...Kenji, get a grip."
Hagiwara Kenji came to his senses and felt a bit embarrassed after realizing what he'd just said.
Though Matsuda Jinpei always complained that he had filters regarding Samukawa Shinryu, Hagiwara Kenji knew he actually didn't have much of a filter. He understood better than anyone how dangerous Samukawa Shinryu was.
Not to mention anything else, just the fact that Samukawa Shinryu had already infiltrated illegal organizations while still at the Police Academy would have removed any filters long ago.
He always tried to defend Samukawa Shinryu not only because he believed in him, but more so out of wanting to make Samukawa Shinryu's experience on the bright side better, to prevent him from being hurt too much and completely falling into darkness.
Plus, Samukawa Shinryu seemed to easily attract strange people. He was worried that too much contact with such people might have a bad influence on Samukawa Shinryu. His apparent overprotectiveness made it seem like he had filters...
It was fine with others—like Matsuda Jinpei constantly complaining, Hagiwara Kenji was too lazy to explain. But if Samukawa Shinryu also misunderstood that he had filters, that would be troublesome, because he remembered that Samukawa Shinryu had once particularly enjoyed testing him, specifically not wanting him to have strange filters!
Hagiwara Kenji took a deep breath and began explaining: "Sorry, I just thought this sounded like a scam."
"It's not a scam. It's Kokonoe-kun's friend. The place that was broken into was an apartment his mother bought before marriage—it seems to have some commemorative significance."
Oh, that sounded much more reliable.
Such a young master's friend indeed didn't seem short of money. Casually treating someone to international travel as thanks sounded quite normal...
Hagiwara Kenji breathed a sigh of relief: "Then go ahead. You still have vacation time anyway."
An orphan already had a miserable New Year, and even going out with friends didn't go well, inexplicably turning into overtime work... Going to Hawaii shouldn't cause any more problems. With American police in charge there, even if Little Shinryu wanted to help, the American police probably wouldn't let him.
...Ah, speaking of which, with Little Shinryu going abroad alone without any familiar people around, if he got misunderstood again, who would vouch for him?
Just as he was worrying, Hagiwara Kenji heard Usuha Izuki ask: "Do you want to come too?"
"...Eh? Me?"
"Aren't you also on vacation?"
Hagiwara Kenji felt it wasn't quite appropriate: "Vacation is vacation, but... when someone invites just you, I—"
Usuha Izuki answered calmly: "I can bring several people."
Hagiwara Kenji: "??? The other party is that considerate?"
"Mm, because I said going alone would be boring, so he said I could bring friends."
Hagiwara Kenji: "............"
He wanted to say the other's attitude seemed a bit obsequious, but thinking about Samukawa Shinryu's aura, it was understandable. Besides, for rich people, one or two more people really didn't make much difference.
Since his friend had said this much, refusing further would be disrespectful. Hagiwara Kenji began changing his thinking: "According to our vacation schedules, we'd be fine within a week... Should I ask Jinpei? If he switches shifts with someone and adds annual leave, he should be able to come out too."
As for the class representative, he was currently on vacation with his girlfriend and probably wouldn't want to go to Hawaii—forget about him.
"Sure."
The system expressed satisfaction with both Hagiwara Kenji and Matsuda Jinpei coming along: [Exactly! What's the point of going to Hawaii alone? You need these weighted important characters by your side.]
Usuha Izuki couldn't help saying: [Is it possible that I'm simply going on vacation? I haven't had a proper vacation since coming to this world! Something always happens! I'm human too—I want to relax!]
[...You don't seem like someone who wants to vacation. If you hadn't gone next door to check the situation and just pretended nothing happened, couldn't you have had a nice vacation at home?]
Usuha Izuki sighed: [Who told me I'm curious? Besides, the suspicion values were practically hitting me in the face—it would be too wasteful not to collect them... But going to Hawaii will be fine. Being far from Japan will be safer.]
System: [...]
Is it possible that even in Hawaii, you'll encounter situations where not collecting suspicion values feels wasteful?
Matsuda Jinpei agreed readily, so the group quickly packed their luggage and prepared to depart for Hawaii.
With limited vacation time and police officers being quite decisive, they discussed it on the first day, and on the second day, Hagiwara Kenji's sister drove them to the airport.
Sister Hagiwara was a woman with a strong heart. Though she contributed some suspicion values after seeing Usuha Izuki, probably trusting her brother's judgment, her suspicion was quite restrained, and she quickly returned to smiling: "You must be Kenji's new friend, Samukawa Shinryu, right? I'm his sister, Hagiwara Chihaya. Just call me Chihaya-nee."
Usuha Izuki was polite to his friend's sister: "Chihaya-nee."
Hagiwara Chihaya smiled and responded: "Yes~"
Matsuda Jinpei looked at Sister Hagiwara with admiration—worthy of being Hagi's sister, able to calmly accept being called sister by Samukawa Shinryu... He'd heard from Hagi that Samukawa Shinryu's classmates still couldn't get used to him using honorific language with them even at graduation...
Hagiwara Chihaya was also a police officer, specifically traffic police. But to take everyone to the airport, she certainly couldn't use a police car or motorcycle, so she was driving Hagiwara Kenji's car and would drive it back after dropping them off.
Having heard about Samukawa Shinryu's accident-prone constitution, she was quite tense on the road, worried about unexpected accidents that would make everyone go solve cases and miss their flight.
But perhaps Usuha Izuki's desire to vacation was too strong—this time nothing happened along the way, and the group safely arrived at the airport.
"Great!" Matsuda Jinpei breathed a huge sigh of relief. "Chihaya-nee really is a lucky goddess."
Hagiwara Chihaya laughed heartily: "Not at all, you guys were probably exaggerating before. Besides, things like accident-prone constitutions, how could—"
Just as she finished speaking, they heard a scream.
"Help! Someone's dead!!!"
Hagiwara Chihaya: "............"
Usuha Izuki: "Ah, I just heard that line yesterday."
Matsuda Jinpei sighed helplessly: "...So something happened after all... For some reason, I feel like the weight on my heart has finally lifted."
Hagiwara Kenji held his forehead: "Anyway, we still have time before boarding. Let's go take a look."
The murder had occurred in the parking garage restroom. When they rushed over, there was already a circle of people gathered around.
"Excuse me, excuse me, we're police..."
Hagiwara Kenji, as a Criminal Investigation Division One detective in the right field, showed his police ID trying to go in and assess the situation.
Usuha Izuki also wanted to follow, but his shoulder was suddenly grabbed by Matsuda Jinpei and held in place: "Don't move. You stay here. Chihaya-nee, watch him. Hagi and I will go check first."
Although Hagiwara Chihaya had an outgoing personality, she was still Japanese after all. Matsuda Jinpei's rather disrespectful and even discriminatory behavior shocked her considerably—it felt quite impolite: "Ah? This..."
Matsuda Jinpei finished giving instructions without waiting for Hagiwara Chihaya's response and rushed after Hagiwara Kenji.
Hagiwara Chihaya: "............"
She turned to look at Usuha Izuki with an apologetic smile, apologizing for those two immature boys: "I'm really sorry, Samukawa-kun."
"It's fine, I'm used to it." Usuha Izuki said. "They didn't bring me before either."
Hagiwara Chihaya felt even more embarrassed. She actually understood it was probably because they were afraid of Samukawa Shinryu's aura being misunderstood, but what it looked like was isolation!
Usuha Izuki understood those two's concerns. Besides, he wasn't particularly interested in joining that commotion. He had decided this time he really wanted to vacation properly and relax. These scattered suspicion values were like 10-yen coins—even if they fell all over the ground, he was too lazy to bend down and pick them up.
Standing around waiting was stupid. Usuha Izuki even planned to find somewhere to sit and slowly wait for Hagiwara Kenji and the others to solve the case or hand it over to the arriving police.
He asked: "Can I wait in the car?"
Hagiwara Chihaya: "............"
No, those two guys not bringing you is their problem, but as a police officer yourself, facing this kind of murder case, how can you be so indifferent?!
Even she, a traffic cop, wanted to go in and help solve the case. Why was this guy not only uninterested but even acting like nothing happened, wanting to run away and rest?
Really no sense of justice at all?! How did her brother make friends like this?!
Oh no... Did Kenji misjudge him?!