Entry 2 - Transfer

"Today, class, we will proceed session as usual, but I would like you to meet your new classmate." Hiyama drew away right as Akise stepped into the classroom, standing in front of the blackboard and meeting all of his peers' eyes. Mixed gazes of admiration, adoration, suspicion, confusion, and mischief were met with his own. However, none of those gazes caught his eye as much as hers did, or lack of hers did. She was writing something down in that planner of hers, and only a few delayed seconds later, she picked her head up and stared at him wondrously, and seeing that he was staring straight at her, her cheeks colored and she averted her eyes elsewhere. He smiled.

"Well?" Hiyama raised a brow. "Introduce yourself."

Akise nodded to his teacher, and returned to staring at his peers.

"My name is Akise Aru. I wish to be a world-class detective. If anyone of you notices something aloof, let me know. I will take any case you're willing to give up. However, if it's anything but, I'm not interested. Besides all of that, that is basically who I am. It's nice to meet you." He beamed, bowing once and when he stood back up, the class was laughing at him.

"What a freak."

"A detective? Isn't that supposed to be a secret?"

"Oi, don't be getting FBI agents and detectives confused, Ryhouei!"

"As if you're any better, Kosaka."

"That's enough, class." said Hiyama firmly, adding more quietly. "Of course the new student had to be an oddball."

Despite all of that, Akise wryly smiled and made his way over to the only empty desk, judging eyes following his back. He unzipped his backpack and pulled all of his belongings out of the bag, prepared for the notes they would be taking. He stared down at the lined, blank pages in front of him, the voices remarking him becoming quieter and the lines in front of him becoming squigglier as they squirmed away from his sight. That was when he realized he had been nodding himself to sleep.

"Akise!" cried Hiyama loudly, and the albino involuntarily jumped in his seat, eliciting classroom laughter once again. "You fall asleep during my lecture? That's a detention!"

"..." Akise sighed. His first day and already he had a date with detention for his first lunch. The laughter quieted, and Akise pressed the heel of his palm against his chin as he struggled to stay awake. It wasn't that the teaching was boring him or anything. He understood the math enough without reviewing. Why did he have to subject himself to relearning it again?

Glancing around, he saw that these new classmates weren't far from his way of thinking either, but he was sure that most of them weren't as much of passable material as he was. Some whispered, talking about what they would do for lunch and where they would go (lucky for them). Some played games on their devices, knowing just when to gaze up at Hiyama and when to look back down for the right score (they were definitely adepts at that). Really, the school wasn't that different than the one he had been attending previously, and he wouldn't have needed to attend if his parents hadn't decided to move to that house. Well, he couldn't be all that disappointed about moving, either. It wasn't like he had any friends, and he didn't. He smirked against the heel of his palm. It wasn't like he needed any, either. He just needed revenue for cases.

He didn't realize she'd been staring until he chanced a glance at her. She blushed darkly and turned away. Yuno Gasai, the class representative and the teacher's assistant. She had the highest score in all of her classes. She was the prodigy of the entire school. All of that was exposited from the papers pinned on the bulletin boards beside their classes. She was well-respected, and to cross her in any way was the demise of your own reputation. He tilted his head, staring at her. If she was that prodigy, why was she so shy? Or was she behaving this way only towards him?

Now, he was curious about Yuno Gasai.

-2-

The detention was a drag. Akise had spent most of it finishing his homework from his classes before lunch, and didn't have the chance to eat any of his lunch. Hiyama had sat at his desk, reading a book rather than eat his own lunch either. While homework was more or less out of the way, Akise was still upset. That hour and twenty-five minutes stolen away from that wretched detention could have been used for a worthwhile investigation of a crime scene. Or instead of the crime scene, he could have been investigating the prodigy that was Yuno Gasai.

"I'm home." He called out, but no one answered. Shrugging, he handled the door and slipped out of his dress shoes. It was normal for him to be home alone, what with busybody parents. His father was a businessman, and though his mother often stayed home to take care of the house and Akise, she would have to tag along in business trips. She tagged along, only to emphasize her title as his wife. It was stupid, Akise thought, but who was he to argue that adult logic?

He hung his jacket on the rack and walked into the kitchen, warming himself up an instant meal with his favorite chamomile tea. If he didn't have any cases to solve or any homework to do, he would just sleep off all the possible hours he slept and it would still be the best sleep he had had. He got so attentive in solving cases he often forgot he needed to sleep and eat. After all, he didn't have his parents around to question him about it.

The kitchen was very spacious and aesthetically pleasing in the way that it had everything, but the space only served to emphasize how small and alone Akise truly was. The new house was so unfamiliar, so big, and so… not home. It would take some getting used to.

His old house was smaller. The kitchen was cluttered with the dining room; the living room was the only spacious room of the first level and it was the impromptu foyer; and upstairs had the two bedrooms (one master) and bathroom. The house that Akise used to live in would make most people uncomfortable or question its pleasantries, but for Akise simplicity was the best. Now that he was in a bigger and better house, he really missed his old house. Why was there such a big kitchen for a family of three? Why was the dining room separate from the kitchen? Why have so many extra rooms with extra space?

"Akise Aru, your tea is burning!"

"Hmm? Ah… Ah!" Akise blinked, and then, he blinked again as he barely registered the howling of the tea kettle. He sighed, pulling the kettle to the side on top of an opposite burner, turning the other one off, and checked on his boiling noodles. Of course the noodles weren't done. Even for instant noodles, they took longer to prepare. He turned his attention to the short creature next to him.

"Hello there." He smiled.

"..." She never understood why no one screamed at the sight of her. What the hell were these humans taking her for? What? Was she something or someone to stare down at and laugh at? Face flaming in anger, she puffed her cheeks. "Akise Aru, you are the final contestant to earn your diary today."

"Final contestant? Diary?" Akise tilted his head, narrowing his eyes. Was he dreaming? There was something odd about a humanlike creature with an arrowed tail and horns, but there was even something more farfetched about diaries and contestants.

"The rules will be explained in later time. For now, First, I give you…" She snapped. Appearing within Akise's reach of thin air was a light blue flip phone. He caught it before gravity claimed it instead, and checked it over, curious. "The Detective Diary! The Detective Diary will predict incidents, suspicions, and actions of things and others around you. While these are the strengths of your diary, beware the weaknesses; all of these strengths rely on your perspective, and because it is not omniscient, it can lead to your death. So, treat this diary with care. Do you understand?"

There was silence, and then, soft laughter.

"Do you have to ask, mysterious creature?"

"My name is Murmur!"

"It's not my fault you weren't polite enough to introduce yourself before helping yourself inside of my home." He chuckled, and Murmur fumed. "By the way, when is later time of the explanation?"

"That would be 8:35 PM."

"In the meantime, would you like to have tea with me?"

"..."

Akise stared at the silhouettes surrounding him on their own platforms. The platforms reminded him of pedestals. The whole construction of the stone platform stretching out and all meeting at the immense throne, reminded him a lot of the Greek tales he learned within Literature Class and how all of the gods were inferior to an almighty, Zeus. He chuckled. The concept of the game was simple enough; to kill or be killed, and the last one standing was the winner. The winner became Deus's heir to throne of Space and Time.

While he wasn't interested in winning the game in the slightest, Akise couldn't help his own excitement. The prospect of a chase always had him eager. Sure, he was reckless, but he wasn't entirely reckless for the sake of being reckless. He glanced around him.

All eleven contestants in their varying silhouettes stood on their platforms. Some were engaging in heated arguments of promises of death, and others silently watched, amused or horrified. The silhouette next to Akise caught his eye. They were trembling slightly, clutching to their diary for dear life, and Akise couldn't help noticing that if they clutched any tighter, the poor contraption would break.

"Excuse me, Second-san," he said. "You should calm down, or you'll break your diary."

The silhouette gasped in shock.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." He laughed. "I just noticed that you were holding it a bit too tight-"

"And?" barked another voice. Akise glanced over, it came from the ninth pedestal. "Let Second break the diary, it gives me less work to do." He could feel the grin in her smug voice.

"Unlike you, Ninth-san," He stared right at her, smirking. "I want a fair game."

"Fair games are booooring!" cried a smaller voice, the fifth pedestal. "Whatever, it'll be more fun when I find everyone!"

"Don't get cocky!" Ninth sneered.

The meeting was eventually dismissed, silhouettes whirling into thin air in silence. Akise sat upright in his bed, thinking. He was the last to leave the meeting, but his mind was consumed by Second's behavior. The trembling, the sound of surprise, and he didn't miss the way Second was staring right at him in his peripheral vision when speaking to Ninth. Whoever Second was, they were more normal than the rest of them, including him. He grinned. He should've been nervous. He should've been scared. He wasn't either in the slightest, instead, a rush of adrenaline and excitement had him up all night as he planned out his next investigating escapade.