Chapter 8: The Game

Something was definitely off. Furuya Rei felt like there was a malfunctioning part in his brain.

Late at night, even though he was so sleepy during the dormitory patrol that he felt like he was sleepwalking, he couldn’t fall asleep once he lay down in bed.

The quiet environment and the emotions amplified by the night made the feelings Furuya Rei had managed to suppress surge once again.

After another failed attempt to sleep, Furuya Rei sat up, the blanket slipping down to his waist. He covered his face and let out a long, ambiguous howl: “Ah!”

It must have been because what happened during the day was too embarrassing!

What was he thinking? Why did he insist on following them to the bathhouse as if he were possessed?

The clock’s hands ticked beside his ear, and Furuya Rei counted to three hundred in his mind, yet he was still as awake as if he had drunk a cup of black coffee. He finally realized:

In the police academy, where rest time was so precious, he had indulged himself—

He was suffering from insomnia!

Realizing this, Furuya Rei gave up resisting and lay back on the bed, staring at the ceiling with unfocused eyes, planning to trace back his mental journey through today’s series of foolish actions.

“Zero, are you… not quite right?”

The words of his childhood friend replayed in his mind, but the accompanying image changed from Morofushi Hiromitsu’s hesitant face to the steamy bathhouse.

Through a thin mist, Kitagawa Ryusei stood not far away, seriously drying his hair. His T-shirt slid down as he raised his arm.

Details that he hadn’t had time to notice at the time now flooded back, the most prominent being the droplet of water on Kitagawa Ryusei’s bangs.

It dripped from his hair onto his fair hand, slid along his wrist bone, and then down his forearm.

At the time, Furuya Rei quickly looked away.

What exactly was wrong?

Furuya Rei raised his hand, looking at his tanned hand in the moonlight, then through his fingers at the exposed moon.

He asked himself.

If it had been him embarrassing himself in front of Matsuda Jinpei today, would he have reacted this way?

Furuya Rei spent two seconds pondering this question and quickly came to a negative conclusion.

—If that curly-haired jerk dared to laugh at him, Furuya Rei would dare to knock out his newly fixed tooth again.

So… why couldn’t he be so straightforward when facing Kitagawa Ryusei?

Answer: Unknown.

Furuya Rei turned over, changed to a side-lying position, his cheek against the pillow, his gray-purple eyes blinking twice in the dark.

Was the problem with Kitagawa Ryusei?

*

Before he could find a complete answer, Furuya Rei began consciously avoiding Kitagawa Ryusei.

This included but was not limited to lining up at window B when Kitagawa Ryusei was at window A during meals; giving up the seat next to Hiro to sit beside Matsuda Jinpei; rushing to the front during training, speeding up the entire class’s training pace…

Until a confused Morofushi Hiromitsu forcibly dragged him back, looking worried and puzzled: “Zero, what’s wrong with you today?”

Yesterday, he was just not quite right, but today, his every move was baffling.

However, Furuya Rei was completely unaware, casting an inquiring glance at the people around him, repeating Morofushi Hiromitsu’s words: “What’s wrong with me?”

Beside him, Date Wataru used the same scrutinizing gaze he used in footprint analysis class to quietly stare at him: “Very strange!”

The four people standing behind him nodded in unison.

“Was the dormitory patrol exhausting? Did the instructor punish you into a daze?” Kitagawa Ryusei boldly hypothesized, but observing Morofushi Hiromitsu, who was also punished, he internally dismissed this guess.

The other person might indeed not have rested well, but it didn’t seem like he was hit hard; rather, he seemed a bit guilty.

So he asked, “Did you break the rules again last night?”

Furuya Rei’s eyes narrowed, instantly forgetting to keep his distance: “How could that be!”

Having just been punished, he didn’t have the guts to break the rules again!

Eager to clear his name, he appeared overly agitated, which instead made him seem suspicious, drawing the attention of other students on the athletic field.

However, Hagiwara Kenji stroked his chin: “I don’t think so either. Little Furuya is too upright; he wouldn’t break the rules without someone egging him on.”

Matsuda Jinpei, who had instigated a fight on the first day, was more straightforward: “Could it be that he took the wrong medicine? Heartbroken?”

Hearing this, Furuya Rei’s forehead veins throbbed uncontrollably, gritting his teeth: “Get lost, you jerk!”

Listening to everyone’s increasingly outrageous guesses, Morofushi Hiromitsu seemed to remember something, his gaze falling thoughtfully on his childhood friend’s eyes, which started to dodge after just a couple of sentences.

“Alright, why are you all staring at me,” finally unable to bear the almost dissecting gazes of everyone, Furuya Rei’s back instinctively stiffened, changing the subject: “If we don’t hurry to the training hall, we’ll be late!”

As it turns out, when you deliberately try to avoid someone, that person’s presence becomes even stronger.

Their every move gets magnified and analyzed in your mind. To avoid them, you first have to know what they’re doing and what they’re going to do.

In just a few days, Furuya Rei discovered many small details about Kitagawa Ryusei that he had previously overlooked.

For instance, although Kitagawa Ryusei’s overall grades were only above average in the class, 80% of that was due to theoretical courses like police administration and police organization.

In contrast, his scores in physical tactics, weapon usage, and criminal investigation subjects were outstanding, as if he had been exposed to them from a young age.

In cultural courses, Kitagawa Ryusei’s English proficiency was high.

He even dabbled in Italian, Russian, and Spanish, with Italian being his strongest.

He seemed to have also studied calligraphy, writing with a vigorous and elegant style.

However, when asked about these, Kitagawa Ryusei’s gaze dodged: “My family used to do business, so I learned a bit while traveling around with the adults.”

Before he could ask further, Furuya Rei suddenly remembered his plan to stay away from the other person, and in a moment of distraction, Kitagawa Ryusei was called away by someone else.

“Zero?”

It wasn’t until his childhood friend patted him awake that Furuya Rei realized he had been staring at Kitagawa Ryusei’s profile in a daze.

He once again fell into self-doubt: “What am I even doing…”

…

Days passed in the police academy, and not many people knew about Furuya Rei’s troubles. Everyone, more or less, had their own worries.

After finishing a day’s tasks, Furuya Rei hadn’t even had a chance to rest when he heard a knock on the dormitory door.

“Knock, knock, knock.”

Three very rhythmic knocks, judging by the rhythm, it was Morofushi Hiromitsu.

“Hiro? What’s up?” he asked, opening the door.

Some window in the corridor was left open, letting a cool breeze through.

Morofushi Hiromitsu and Hagiwara Kenji stood side by side, looking solemn: “We have something to ask for your help with…”

Without a word, Furuya Rei went back to grab his phone and put on a jacket, closing the door behind him as he came out: “What is it? Is it urgent?”

Seeing him on high alert, Morofushi Hiromitsu suddenly felt a bit embarrassed: “Uh… it’s actually not a big deal.”

“It’s about little Ryusei! He’s already won three rounds! Only the class president is still holding on, and we need someone who can beat him!”

Hagiwara Kenji said without any burden.

“Huh?”

After roughly understanding the situation, Furuya Rei incredulously questioned: “So you guys lost in a simulation game and came to me at night to back you up?!”

He accused: “And you didn’t even call me!”

“We thought you looked like you needed sleep every day, going straight back to the dorm after training, so we wanted to let you rest well.”

Hagiwara Kenji, immune to his gaze, patted Furuya Rei’s shoulder as if entrusting him with a heavy responsibility: “But now, we urgently need you, the number one in the police academy, to stand up and defeat the darkness!”

Furuya Rei: …Has it really gotten that serious?

This was actually a card-based tabletop game that police academy students often played, simulating a game between police and criminals, distributing resources and conditions through card draws.

If the police successfully subdued the criminals or the criminals successfully escaped, one side would be considered victorious.

It wasn’t without reason that they dug Furuya Rei out of the dormitory at night; Kitagawa Ryusei had indeed gone on a rampage.

Morofushi Hiromitsu half-jokingly pushed him into the room, saying: “Mainly because Ryusei has been the criminal every round and won every time. If this continues, I’m afraid my faith won’t even make it out of school before being completely wiped out by ‘evil forces.'”

The atmosphere in the room was tense, with a small folding table covered in cards.

On one end, Matsuda and the class president had solemn expressions, their eyes on Date Wataru’s cards eerily similar to the way they looked at test papers today.

In stark contrast was Kitagawa Ryusei. He sat steadily on the other end, a long black coat casually draped over him, his posture relaxed, his expression calm and unhurried.

If someone handed him a glass of red wine or champagne, it would be even more fitting, Furuya Rei thought, his mind wandering.

Noticing the newcomers, Kitagawa Ryusei first remained expressionless, pinching a card between two fingers and lightly tapping it on the table, making Date Wataru’s gaze even more serious. Only then did he turn his head, glancing at them from the corner of his eye, his tone indifferent: “The last hope has arrived?”

Furuya Rei: …It must be that his way of opening the door was wrong!

Otherwise, why did this scene increasingly resemble a lawless gambler setting a trap for poor students??

Once pushed to the game table, Furuya Rei quickly found his position: another victim pushed into the abyss by his misguided classmates.

He struggled to maintain his composure: “So many of you bullying just him?” And yet, you haven’t won a single time.

As soon as he spoke, everyone turned to look at him, their gazes deep.

Morofushi Hiromitsu: “It’s him.”

Hagiwara Kenji: “Just one person.”

Matsuda Jinpei: “Bullying us!”

Date Wataru, still holding on, had eyes like a dragon warrior carrying a long sword: “I haven’t lost yet! Don’t give up so early, everyone!”

Furuya Rei: “…”

Matsuda Jinpei, who had been at the scene from the start, briefly explained the current game situation.

“A convenience store robbery case, Kitagawa currently has two robbers and twenty hostages, including the elderly, women, and children, and he has basically taken control of the entire convenience store…”

“The class president is known to have only one person, a baton, and a car… Now the police identity is exposed, being targeted by the criminals, but fortunately, the police’s initial combat value is quite high, resistant to beatings.”

“Not much chance of winning,” Hagiwara Kenji quickly got into the mood, stroking his chin and sighing: “Although I don’t know what other cards little Ryusei is hiding, you still have hope, class president!”

“…Is that so,” although verbally not very convinced, Date Wataru’s eyes sharpened, pressing the card firmly on the table:

“Natural disaster—sudden power outage in the convenience store, one of the robbers needs to leave for five minutes to check the situation!”

Everyone present was a professional, able to automatically fill in the subsequent case developments in their minds without explanation.

—With one robber leaving, the police would certainly take this opportunity to counterattack, and the next step would be to ensure suppression of combat value and the safety of the hostages—

“Robber No. 3 appears, the store clerk is also my person.” Kitagawa Ryusei’s one sentence shattered the hope in everyone else’s eyes.

Matsuda Jinpei was dumbfounded: “How many people do you have?!”

“You guess.” Kitagawa Ryusei feigned mystery, giving everyone a single-eye wink.

No playfulness, all evil.

Is there really no room for a turnaround… Date Wataru gritted his teeth, slapping his last card on the table:

“Weapon—a small knife.”

Even if injured, he would bring the criminals to justice!

Having faced too many police officers, Kitagawa Ryusei easily saw through the other’s intentions, sighing: “Class president, doing this is likely to provoke the robbers.”

“Robbers No. 4 and 5 appear, bringing a van to pick up their three accomplices.”

He flipped over all the cards in his hand, thought for a moment, and still didn’t let the robbers harm the hostages or the police: “In the face of a sea of people, combat power is actually hard to play a role.”

Everyone fell silent.

The outcome was already clear, Date Wataru exhaled, looking at the cards on the table, ready to admit defeat: “I…”

Before he could finish his sentence, a tanned hand reached over from the side.

Furuya Rei picked up a card that Date Wataru had forgotten from the start.

“Then how about using more people to counter the sea of people?”

Furuya Rei chuckled softly: “Everything the police did was to buy time; he notified his colleagues from the very beginning.”

Saying this, he raised the card in his hand, revealing the card face: Mobile Phone No. 2.

Holding the card between two fingers, the blond youth’s smile grew more confident: “Caught them all, Kitagawa-kun.”

“Wow… really,” the unexpected reversal left Kitagawa Ryusei momentarily stunned. Inappropriately, he looked at Furuya Rei’s blond hair under the light and sincerely said: “Super cool, Furuya-kun.”

This time, it was Furuya Rei who was caught off guard, his entire face turning red in an instant, though fortunately, no one noticed.

He quietly glanced at Kitagawa Ryusei, whose light brown eyes appeared even more pure and sincere under the light, not feeling like he had said anything remarkable.

“Yay!” Matsuda Jinpei cheered.

Morofushi Hiromitsu was still pondering: “Seeking help to buy time is indeed the best response when the enemy’s situation is unknown.”

Hagiwara Kenji’s focus drifted: “Quick, quick, truth or dare! Class president, you must avenge us!”

“What truth or dare? A punishment for losing?” Furuya Rei asked, pulling his thoughts back.

Seeing Date Wataru still in a daze, Morofushi Hiromitsu smiled and answered: “That’s right, Hagiwara and I chose truth, while Matsuda has to attend a social event before next week.”

At the game table, Kitagawa Ryusei accepted his loss: “I choose truth.”

The dares here were boring, and compared to the “climb down from the fiftieth floor,” “free dive for thirty minutes,” “catch a bird flying a hundred meters high” he played with the Port Mafia, they were nothing.

He waited for a while, not hearing Date Wataru speak, and asked in confusion: “Class president?”

The others also cast concerned glances.

“Sorry!” Date Wataru snapped out of his thoughts, smiling: “I’m not very good at asking questions, how about giving this opportunity to little Morofushi?”

“I don’t mind.” Kitagawa Ryusei was indifferent.

Morofushi Hiromitsu’s smile deepened: “I’d love to.”

Hagiwara Kenji, eager to seize the opportunity, was suppressed by Matsuda Jinpei with one hand.

“Although Mr. Morofushi looks gentle, he also has many cunning ideas.” The intuitive curly-haired one said.

A table’s distance away, Kitagawa Ryusei heard this clearly.

Wait… no way.

Furuya Rei finally let the heat on his face subside, watching from the side. Although his face remained calm, his eyes were slightly wider than usual.

Morofushi Hiromitsu saw it clearly.

His gaze slowly moved from his childhood friend to the young man, Morofushi Hiromitsu still maintaining a friendly smile, but his expression made Kitagawa Ryusei unconsciously swallow, his whole being seemingly sensing danger, every cell on high alert.

“My question is—Ryusei, what’s your ideal type?”