"Sayori!" Miho exclaimed, exasperated as she looked down at her quivering daughter. The little girl held two stuffed toys in her arms: one was a bunny and the other was a bear.

"B-but..." Sayori's bottom lip trembled, her eyes welling up with unshed tears. "It's... Its mine."

"Stop being so selfish," Miho reprimanded, snatching the bear toy from Sayori. "Your sister doesn't have her toys here. Do you not want her to recover fast? Honestly, Sayori, dear..."

"... Okay." Sayori sniffed. I have to... Shino-chan is injured and I'm being a bad sister... She rubbed at her eyes to try and chase the tears away. They dribbled down her chubby cheeks instead.

Mournfully, she watched her mother turn her back to her, stuffed bear in hand, and knock on the door of Shino's hospital room. "Honey, it's me~ I've brought something for you."


The first thing she did that morning was find Oikawa, which proved to be more troublesome than she had expected. She asked a third year girl with red hair for his whereabouts, but she had simply scowled at her.

"You're not part of the club!" the red-haired girl hissed. "Get out of my face, freak. Like hell I'm telling you where Oikawa is."

"Anzu!" someone called to her.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm coming..." Anzu stormed away, leaving Shino to stand in the middle of the hallway, staring after her.

"Troublesome," Shino murmured as she looked around, wondering which third year she should ask next. She tapped the shoulder of a purple-haired girl with twin drills. "Excuse me, senpai, do you know where I can find Oikawa Tooru-san?"

The girl smiled. "Sure! He's in class 3-4. If you need any other help from me, just ask for Ayame!" Ayame winked at her. "Good luck~"

"Eh?" Shino tilted her head to one side as Ayame pranced off, joining up with another third year girl with green hair. "Why did she wink at me like that...?"

Dismissing Ayame's strange behavior, Shino made her way down to Oikawa's classroom, intent on apologizing. She had been out of line today, and had noticed that there'd been an awkward atmosphere the entire practice.

Her day made a turn for the better when she ran into him near his classroom. "Oikawa-san."

"Eh? Iwasaki-chan...?" Oikawa blinked at her.

"I wanted to apologize for yesterday's outburst." Closing her eyes, Shino bowed to him at the waist. "It was out of line. Whatever happened in the past was not your fault." It's mine.

"Iwasaki-chan... I..." Oikawa trailed off, a small, troubled frown on his face. "I'm sorry about her."

"I know. You couldn't have known." She straightened.

Awkwardly, Oikawa rubbed the back of his head. "Are we cool then? Can we put this behind us?"

Shino nodded. "That would be best."

"Well, then..." Oikawa perked up and slung an arm around her shoulders, though his eyes were still a little sad. "Welcome to the team, Iwasaki-chan~! I'm Oikawa Tooru, captain of the boy's volleyball team!" If she's anything like Sayori-chan was, she'll be fun to have around. A new dynamic. Guilt pricked at his heart but he chased it away. "Are you ready to take on your manager duties?"

"Yes."

"Good! I'll see you at practice, then. Don't be shy, Iwasaki-chan." Oikawa paused. "Can I call you Shino-chan?"

"Yes."

He'd been hoping to get more than a one word answer from her, but it would do, he supposed. They parted ways with halfhearted waves, Oikawa disappearing into his classroom and Shino heading down to the first floor, where the first year classrooms were.

Oikawa held in a sigh as he sat down, a few of his fangirls turning their heads in his direction. Sayori-chan... I'm sorry. I thought I'd moved on, but apparently not. It's like you're haunting me through your sister. Save for her longer hair, Shino could almost be considered a carbon copy of Sayori. But Sayori had been bubbly and energetic, while Shino...

Was simply not.


"How does it feel to be a murderer?"

The sheer intensity that she said those words with still shook Kindaichi to the core, and he was suddenly very, very aware of her presence behind him in the classroom. His neck ached from stiffly turning around without the teacher noticing every five minutes, even if he always knew what he was going to see: Iwasaki Shino, her head buried in her arms and seemingly fast asleep.

Kindaichi's grip on his pen tightened. What the hell did she mean? Oikawa-senpai, a murderer? That's... He turned around again, and his already stiff neck protested. Ridiculous. She'd made things so incredibly awkward that practice had been suffocating. None of them had been able to pay much attention to practice, and so Oikawa and the coaches all made the decision to end that disastrous session early.

What's her deal? Kindaichi narrowed his eyes at the blackboard. She's so... frustrating. She had had absolutely no right to accuse Oikawa of such a ludicrous thing, and to ruin their practice with her poisonous words.

She sounded so angry as well. It'd been the most emotion he'd ever heard in her bland, colorless voice. What if... Kindaichi shook his head. No way! There's no way Oikawa could ever kill somebody. Yes, Oikawa could be an ass at times, especially with girls. Yes, he could be immature. But a murderer?

Right, and Kunimi has a fetish for slippers, Kindaichi thought sardonically.

Beside him, Kunimi sneezed, proceeding to wipe his nose after that.

"Iwasaki-san!" Their gorilla of a teacher barked, his teeth grinding angrily as he stood to the side to allow the students to see the math equations he'd written on the board.

Aw, shit, he's doing it again. Kindaichi grimaced. Their math teacher, who also happened to be their homeroom teacher, had a very annoying habit of getting students to answer questions about content the class hadn't even covered yet. Iwasaki-san's in big trouble now...

Shino lifted her head from the desk, eyes at half-mast. "Yes, sensei?"

"Come here and solve this equation from the board."

"Yes, sensei." Her chair squeaked as she got up, yawning as she took the chalk from the teacher and held it up in the air, eyes scanning the question. "We haven't learnt this, sir."

There was a collective gasp from the class, and Kindaichi was ashamed to admit that he was the source of one of those gasps. Kunimi shot him a sideways glance, seemingly unconcerned. If this girl could top even Kunimi in math, then she could probably solve this ridiculous question.

"Talk back to me again and I'll send you to the principal's office," the teacher growled, a dark aura exuding from his skin. "Well, Iwasaki?! What are you waiting for? Do it! Maybe if you spent less time sleeping in class, then you'd know!"

Sighing softly, Shino read the question again in her head.

From a point A, the angle of elevation to the top of a tower due north of it is 20 degrees. From B, due east of the tower, the angle of elevation is 18 degrees. A and B are 100 meters apart. Let the top of the tower be point T and the base point C. Show the height h of the tower is given by: h = 100/[tan^2(72)+tan^2(70)]^1/2.

Shino woke up a little bit more. Konami-chan would know how to do this. Konami-chan knows how to do everything. Unfortunately, she was not Ueno Konami, but she could try. If she remembered correctly, Konami had showed her a textbook on three-dimensional trigonometry problems once.

They'd only been eight.

Shino began to draw, starting first with a slanted compass shaped like a cross, labeling the appropriate angles and points.

Kindaichi exchanged a glance with Kunimi. Is she actually...?

Once she was satisfied with her drawing, she began to solve the question, feeling the gaze of her classmates on her back. Everyone had clearly expected her to give up and not even attempt the question, but...

There was no harm in trying.

Once she was finished, she stepped to the side, opposite the teacher, and allowed him and the class to check her working out.

In Triangle ATC, AC/h = tan(70) AC = htan(70)

In Triangle BTC, BC/h = tan(72) BC = htan(72)

AB^2 = BC^2+AC^2

100^2 = h^2tan^2(72)+h^2tan^2(70)

100^2 = h^2[tan^2(72)+tan^2(70)]

h^2 = 100^2/[tan^2(72)+tan^2(70)]

h = 100/[tan^2(72)+tan^2(70)]^1/2

Accompanying the equations were some little triangles with additional angles solved using basic trigonometry, something that was learned in middle school.

"... You may go back to your seat, Iwasaki-san." The teacher kept his gaze fixed on her.

"Yes, sensei."

The bell rang promptly, and there would be a ten minute break before the next class, English, began. Kindaichi's desk lurched as he leaned forward to grab Shino's vest. "Hey, Iwasaki-chan! What was that all about?"

Kunimi had also turned his chair to face her, forming some kind of barrier around her. There seemed to be many other students wondering the same thing, but none of them approached her, seeing as Kindaichi and Kunimi seemed to be protecting her.

"How could you have done such a complex question?" Kindaichi all but demanded, his eyebrows knitted in a frown. Is she some kind of genius?

"My friend taught me," Shino said shortly. "Kunimi-san, you left one of your textbooks on your desk one day. It was a trigonometry textbook with questions just like the one I did. You understood the question too, didn't you?"

"What?!" Kindaichi turned to his best friend. Kunimi too?! "Is she right...?"

A very, very slight blush adorned Kunimi's face. "Maybe. I didn't start doing that textbook until last week, and even then, I haven't done much of it. It was simply luck that Shino was given one of the simpler questions from the textbook... You could have probably figured it out too, Kindaichi."

"I haven't done those kinds of questions since young," Shino added, "When my friend was still around. Kunimi's right—if you thought about it long enough, you could have solved it too."

"Still..." A bead of sweat on his cheek, Kindaichi puffed a sigh. "You two make me feel inadequate."

"You can catch up easily enough when we do get to the content," Kunimi stated. "Just because we're studying ahead doesn't mean we're smarter than you."

"I guess..." It was then Kindaichi realized just how relaxed he felt in Shino's presence. After yesterday, he wasn't sure if he would be able to ever feel that way around her. "Hey, Iwasaki-san?"

"Yes, Tu—Kindaichi-san?"

Ignoring the fact that she had obviously been about to call him a turnip again, Kindaichi went on, "About yesterday... When you snapped at Oikawa-senpai..."

"I'm curious about that too," Kunimi voiced, eyebrows lifting ever so slightly. "You did accuse him of being a murderer, you know."

Shino closed her eyes. "Oikawa-san and I have already resolved the matter. It's nothing you need to worry about. It won't ever happen again."

"It better not." Kindaichi propped his head up on his hand. "Do you have any idea how awkward it was?"

Kunimi hummed in agreement. "Even Mizoguchi-san was in favor of ending practice early." God knows that man has it out for me.

"Mizoguchi-san...?" Shino looked just a tad more interested, her hand reaching for her head. That's right, he was there, wasn't he? The man who hit me with his van.

They decided to change the subject to something less heavy.

"How do you normally study, Iwasaki-san?" Kindaichi inquired. "With your friends? Or by yourself?"

"I don't really study much. But when I do, it's by myself," Shino answered calmly. "I was only able to do that question out of sheer luck and logic. It was a childhood friend of mine who taught me how to use my brain analytically."

Kunimi observed her with lazy eyes. She's only ever mentioned this one friend. They obviously don't see each other very often anymore. She never talks to anyone in this class either. Well, except for them now. He couldn't speak for what she did outside of class or school, but he was willing to bet that she had very little friends, if any at all. He tilted his head to see Kurokawa Najimi doodling inappropriate drawings on the blackboard, her tongue sticking out cheekily at a friend.

"...nimi! Kunimi!" Kindaichi nudged his best friend with his foot.

"What?"

"I was just saying that you prefer studying alone as well," Kindaichi informed him. "What were you thinking about?"

Kunimi saw no point in beating around the bush. "Iwasaki-san, do you have any friends at school?"

Kindaichi recoiled slightly at his friend's forthrightness. He could have phrased it a lot better. But he couldn't really blame Kunimi, especially since he'd been thinking the same thing. Until she had moved into their neighborhood and joined the volleyball team, the two boys hadn't really acknowledged her existence much. Until recently, she had just been another face in the crowd.

"None." Shino's voice did not waver as she said this, and her posture remained relaxed.

"Doesn't that bother you?" Kindaichi wondered.

"No, it doesn't."

Kunimi and Kindaichi exchanged a glance. And before he knew it, Kindaichi blurted, "Why don't you hang out with us—er, the team—after school then? You're our manager now, so..."

"She might have other commitments," Kunimi mused, flicking his gaze toward her. "Do you, Iwasaki-san?"

Shino shook her head. "No, I don't. I... don't mind hanging out, if you'll have me." Odd. How did a confrontation about a math problem turn into this? Her fingers twitched, and she suddenly found herself longing for her piano, or perhaps the three dimensional puzzle that she took out once in a while.

"Then it's settled. Oikawa-senpai says that we're going to the rollerskating rink after practice to enjoy ourselves; you can come with us," Kindaichi decided. "Not everyone's going to be there because some of the third and second years have homework part time jobs, but it'll still be fun."

"Have you checked the LINE yet to see who's coming?" Kunimi asked.

Kindaichi took out his phone. "Let me check now..." It turned out that there were less people going that he expected: Just them—now including Shino—Oikawa, Iwaizumi, and Yahaba.

"After practice?" Shino said just to confirm.

"Yeah. Don't stress out too much if you don't know how to skate—we can teach you." I still kind of owe you one for getting me in the classroom when Kurokawa-san was blocking it.

Shino nodded distractedly, watching Kurokawa Najimi frantically rub at her rude drawings before the teacher came in. "I'd like that."


"Uwooohhh!" Oikawa grinned as Shino walked with them to the gates after practice. "Kindaichi-san wasn't kidding when he said that you were tagging along. We're glad to have you here, Shino-chan—finally, we can get to know you better~"

"Thank you for having me," Shino said politely.

"Hey, no thanks needed," Iwaizumi replied, smiling. "You're part of the team now, Iwasaki-san."

In the setting sun, Shino pulled something out of her book bag, Yahaba being the only one to notice. "What's that you've got there, Iwasaki-chan?"

"Rubik's Cube," she answered shortly, fiddling with the puzzle. "It helps me relax."

"Are we making you feel tense?" Kunimi asked.

"No, not really. I don't really feel anything around you."

They all sweatdropped. Was that supposed to be an insult? It sure sounded like one, but they knew that it wasn't her intention. She seemed like a very forthright type of person.

They stopped walking when they reached a van, Mizoguchi leaning against it, arms crossed. "Oh, hey, there you guys are." He made some sort of grimace-smirk. "After that dismal practice, I'm reconsidering my decision to drive you to the rink."

"Ah, Mizoguchi-san," Oikawa said, "The team tried hard today and I think we deserve to unwind a bit after school. We'll owe you one?"

"It's fine." Mizoguchi waved his hand at them. "I agreed to this weeks ago. Kids these days..." He cleared his throat. "Just don't expect me to be driving you around everywhere. You just happened to catch me in a good mood the other day."

"Duly noted," Oikawa chuckled.

As the boys climbed into his van one by one, buckling their seat belts, Mizoguchi noticed Shino lingering behind the pack, having been covered up by Kindaichi and Kunimi before.

"Oh, Iwasaki-san." Mizoguchi's face became apologetic. "Again, sorry about the other day." That'll teach me not to try and pick up my phone while I'm driving... even it was a deserted street.

"It's fine, Mizoguchi-san."

She sat in the middle row, next the window. To her right was Kindaichi; to his right was Kunimi, who was scrolling through his phone.

"Did you mean what you said before?" Kindaichi said to Shino as the others began their own conversations. The girl looked up from her cube. She had already solved that thing four times and was in the process of mixing it up again. "How you didn't feel anything around us?" How can she not feel anything? Surely, she had to feel something around them. Happy, excited, joyful...Heck, he'd even take nervous or anxious. Maybe she was just being defensive because she's shy. But Shino definitely wasn't the shy type—she didn't fit the criteria of a shy girl. Shy girls didn't regularly defy their beastly math teacher, or accuse the volleyball captain of being a murderer.

"Yes," she admitted, her fingers working the cube even as she remained her eye contact with him. "Why do you ask?"

"Dunno. I was just... expecting you to feel something around us, I guess. Weren't you nervous? Most girls get nervous around lots of guys, I guess..."

Shino shook her head. "I cannot feel nervous."

Kindaichi blinked at her odd lexical choice. 'Cannot'? What does she mean, 'cannot'? She makes it sound like she's physically incapable of feeling nervous. Heh, I forgot how weird she is...

"Why not?" Kindaichi nearly jumped when Kunimi's voice sounded next to his ear. He'd been under the impression that his best friend was lost in the world of music.

If Shino heard, she ignored him.

It was then Mizoguchi announced, "We're here!"


"Whee! Nee-chan, catch me!" Five year old Shino rolled over to Sayori, arms spread wide.

"Whoa, there!" Sayori let out a small "oomph" when she caught Shino, knees bending inward. Grinning, Sayori swung her sister around. "Fly, fly, fly, Shino-chan!"

"I'm flying!" Shino shrieked excitedly, her bangs blowing upward momentarily to reveal her unblemished forehead. "Can't catch me, Sayori-nee~!"

"We'll see about that!"


"Kindaichi-san?" Shino said as she tied her skates, straight-faced. Idly, she scratched the area around the scar on the front of her head, the one that crept down her forehead and her parietal ridge.

The boy turned to her. "Yeah?"

"Do you know how to do the 'helicopter'?"

"Ehh?!"


Pochi climbed into bed with her, tail thumping against the mattress as Shino stroked his fur. He whined contently, burying his face into her side, his cold nose tickling her skin underneath her pyjamas.

"Today," she told the dog as her eyes shut, "Was nice."

She did not dream of the white room that night.


A/N: Thank you for reviewing!

Daughter of the Oceans, please do read it~ It's not the best story to ever exist so no promises, but it's still my pride and joy, kek xD

Guest Huh: I wouldn't blame the guy either, unless he was directly involved (like being abusive), but there's more to it than that, which will be revealed as the story progresses. Her and Oikawa's breakup was simply badly timed trigger that led her to... Gosh, so much spoilers in this A/N, I cri ;3;

Also, I should give credit to my inspiration for this story: DR. FROST. It's a frickin great webtoon that was the main inspiration for Shino, scar, Rubik's Cube and all. And one of the arcs in that story inspired Sayori and her fate.

And yes, these three nerds (Kindaichi, Kunimi, Shino) bonded over math. Did anyone try to solve the question alongside her? Because it was a legit question.