Disclaimer: Detective Conan and all of its characters belong to Aoyama Gosho. I only own my story and my OCs.

Chapter 8

Club Activities

"…The heroine is supposed to be strong both physically and mentally, but she changes for the worse after she was saved by the hero once. Since then, every time she's in trouble, she becomes weak, passive, and pretty much just like a damsel in distress. She always needs the hero to save her even though she should've been able to save herself. As for the hero, he is supposed to be a reluctant hero who only cares about himself, but when the heroine is in trouble, he doesn't seem to be reluctant at all, not even when they first met even though at the time, the heroine was pretty much a stranger whom he only saw at a glance once. This is a blatant inconsistency. Therefore, I conclude that while the author was able to construct a solid plot and come up with an interesting premise, he failed rather badly in the characterization," Asagi paused before adding, "That is all about my review. Thank you very much for your attention."

There were applauses before a particular girl nodded at him. "Thank you, Nagayama-kun. You may sit down."

Asagi sat down on his seat, placing the paper of his novel review on the desk in front of him. The girl who led the discussion, Yamamoto Sora, was sweeping her gaze through the whole class before asking them, "What do you think about Nagayama-kun's review? Is there anyone here who has read the same novel?"

"Senpai," one girl raised her hand. "I haven't read the novel, but I have an argument about the review."

"Go ahead," the club president permitted her, so she started to speak out her mind.

"According to the review, the hero doesn't hesitate to save the heroine since the beginning even though in the beginning, they were only strangers, but even strangers can help each other in times of need. That kind of thing isn't impossible, so maybe the author only wanted to convey that the hero is someone with a kind heart."

"What do you think, Nagayama-kun?" Yamamoto asked him once the girl was done presenting her argument.

"If the author really wanted to convey how kindhearted the hero is, then in my opinion, he did it in the wrong way," Asagi replied. "Like I said before, the hero was supposed to be a reluctant hero who only thought about himself. It's fine if he changes as the story develops, but realistically, it's impossible for anyone with that personality to change drastically only after meeting someone once."

"Perhaps it was love at first sight?" another girl argued.

"He didn't even know that the girl in trouble was the heroine. He only knew that someone was in trouble. Why did he have to save her if he never had the need to save anyone before?" Asagi argued back. "Also, he was supposed to be a person who only cared about himself. He was supposed to be selfish and indifferent, not compassionate or selfless to the point he would help anyone voluntarily like a typical hero. His first time rescuing the heroine is totally unreasonable because he did it without any hesitation and without anyone or anything forcing him."

After that, Asagi had to argue several more times with the club members before finally they all moved on to the student on the next turn. Asagi breathed in relief as he listened to the other student reciting her own review. His tense body slowly relaxed after he finished his turn.

Currently, Asagi was attending his club activity. Friday had finally arrived and luckily, he had finished reading the novel assignment. Today, they all gathered in this classroom to discuss the result of their winter assignment. Their advisor, a Japanese language teacher, was supposed to be here as well, but due to an urgent matter, he was unable to attend.

The classroom they used did not belong to any regular class, so it was given to the literature club in which more than 20 students had joined. It was arranged like the student council room, with a bunch of desks forming a rectangle instead of being arranged in rows like a normal classroom. The majority of members in the literature club were females. The ratio was very one-sided to the point males could be counted with fingers. However, even though they were in the minority, they did not feel inferior because apparently, the most talented member in the club was also a male: Asagi.

Asagi was not too happy when he knew that he was such a big shot in his club. He did have been warned by Yoshino and Inaba during their outing in Poirot, but he thought it was not this big. When he said big, it meant that Asagi was not only outstanding in school; he had won the Kanto's Senior High School Literature Competition with his essay regarding underage crime—it was obvious where he got his inspiration from—during his freshman year! The medal and certificate were not displayed at home or school; it was stored inside a cardboard box together with all his old club assignments and placed under his bed, so Asagi only found out recently when he was cleaning his room. He also just figured out recently that his trophy was displayed in the headmaster's office thanks to Yoshino who one day made some comments when they passed by the trophy hall, so it was obvious he who had never been in headmaster's office ever since he was transmigrated would not know that the real Asagi had such an achievement.

He was the student council president, the literary-talented student, and the son of a crime journalist. Asagi wondered if there were still more about his other-self. He felt more and more conspicuous, more and more like a Gary Stu. His peaceful life was getting farther away from his reach!

But I can't do anything about it, he thought in despair. Asagi of this world was similar to him, but they were not completely identical. For instances, Asagi of this world was such an accomplished student while he himself was just a bookworm student without any notable achievement during high school. He had never been in the student council, never joined any club, never won any competition, and did not like competing with others. However, Asagi of this world was different. Not only did he join the student council and the literature club, he had also won a competition. This guy clearly did not hate competing! In fact, he might even love it!

He was here to take the role of this world's Asagi, so no matter how much he hated it, he could not do anything about his counterpart's past and achievement. The only thing he could do was to prevent himself from being even more conspicuous. He could not possibly leave the student council and the literature club; that would be too irresponsible and may result on him getting attention from the whole school. Besides, he would not be able to leave without good reason. That meant he could only avoid competition which should be no problem because he disliked competition. If someone asked him why he did not enter competition anymore, he could just say that he was too busy with student council and club activity or he wanted to give a chance to other students. Those sounded good enough as an excuse.

Asagi paid attention to the club members as they presented their reviews. Sometimes he commented, sometimes he kept silent. After two hours of discussing and debating, finally, it was time to end the club meeting.

"Alright, guys, the time's up, so let's end this session. For now, please hand over the review to the club secretary. We will hand it over to our advisor to be assessed. Those who haven't presented the review will get a chance at the next meeting. Don't worry, you will get your review back," Yamamoto said. "But before we close our meeting today, there is a topic I wish to discuss here."

Asagi did not expect that. He thought she would dismiss the meeting right after her closing speech. Who would have thought she had something else to discuss? And strangely, she turned her eyes at him. What was the meaning of that?

"Nagayama-kun, I've been hearing a certain rumor here and there and for some reason, the same rumor has also been discussed within our club," she said. "To avoid confusion, I believe I need to address this in front of you and everyone else. Rather than from others, I believe we need a confirmation from your own mouth since you're the student council president."

"Oh." He suddenly had a premonition. He had a feeling he knew what she was talking about. "What kind of rumor?"

"It's about Kudo Shinichi and Mouri Ran."

Well, just as he thought. It was about them again. Asagi swept his gaze across the entire class, witnessing that how the mention of the protagonists' names had changed the atmosphere in the club. All members stared at him curiously with excitement and worry at the same time. It seemed the rumor was not the only thing they had heard. They had also heard how dangerous it could be.

"What rumor about them?" Asagi asked again.

"Confession."

"What else have you heard about it?"

"Well, some students are speaking like it's a secret, that we can't let others know, that it will be dangerous," Yamamoto said. "And that it was the student council who warned them to shut up."

"Yamamoto, which class are you in?"

"Class E. You already know that," Yamamoto answered impatiently. "So?"

Asagi did not answer immediately. He was thinking for a while. Yamamoto was from class E, a class without any main member of the student council. No wonder she did not know that the student council had warned each of their class about the rumor. The students from class A to class D might have warned their friends from different class and that might be the case for Yamamoto. She heard the rumor and the warning from another class, but she was not sure if she could trust it. She was confused, just like the others who did not receive direct warning from the student council.

"I see, so you want me to confirm this," Asagi said after a while, taking a note in his head to ask the other members of the student council to warn their clubs and even better, perhaps they should also gather the class representatives to warn all students in the school. "Alright. I will confirm. What they said is true. The student council warn you all to be quiet about this. Don't let this rumor be spread outside our school because yes, it may bring danger to us. Not only us, to Kudo as well."

"Does that mean the rumor is true?" Someone asked him.

Asagi shrugged. "Who knows? But regardless of whether it's true or not, the student council will still ask you all to keep this secret." After that, he explained why they needed to keep the rumor secret. He first explained like he did to Yoshino, simple and step by step. After that, he added an explanation based on the incident during the last school festival when Shinichi appeared. He ended it with him asking them to keep quiet about not just the confession rumor, but also about anything related to Kudo for the safety of everyone in the school and for Shinichi who was working on a big case. He also asked them to remind their classmates and other students in Teitan High so that the rumor would not spread further. Only after that did Yamamoto dismiss the club activity and allow everyone to go home.

"You aren't going home?" Asagi who was already on the way to the door asked the club president when he noticed that she did not leave the classroom with the other members. When he looked around again, he also noticed that she was not the only one who stayed.

"Ah, I will go with Haruna to deliver the assignments to Sensei's desk. You can leave first," she said.

Asagi glanced at the girl named Haruna, the club secretary, who looked back at him with a smile. It seemed they would not keep the collected reviews in the club room and instead chose to directly deliver it to the advisor's desk. Knowing their plan, Asagi did not ask anymore. He left after bidding goodbye to them.

As he walked along the corridors, sometimes Asagi heard other students' voices in the classrooms he was passing by. He could even swear he heard Yoshino's excited voice. When he took a look around him, he found the journalist club room not far from where he stood, so it was very likely he just heard her. Sometimes he also saw a group of students passing by the corridor, bringing things like cooking equipment, costumes, or cleaning tools or even garbage. Asagi was so fascinated by them. Seeing such busyness among students during club activities made him feel as if he was back in his high school days. At that time, he who did not have any interest in any club was of course never paid much attention to such students. He never felt lonely or alienated because he was not the only one without a club, but now that he thought about it again, he felt a bit regretful because he just realized his high school years were so boring.

Feeling nostalgic, Asagi decided to take a look around the school to see if he could watch more club activities. He visited the tea ceremony club who just finished their activity. He stopped by the music room only to feel disappointed because the choir and the brass band did not have any schedule today. He went to the baseball field to see the baseball club training hard. He went to the soccer field to watch the soccer club play a match. He visited the karate dojo, taking a brief time to watch as the club members including Ran beat up each other for the sake of the upcoming tournament. And the last, he went to the gym to see if his vice president's basketball club was doing well.

"They seem to be doing well," he mumbled to himself as he watched the members train by playing a game. It was the sophomores versus the seniors with the freshmen being the audience. Asagi did not see any adult among the freshmen nor did he see such a person on the bench, so he was wondering where the coach was. He just thought about it when suddenly his eyes caught a brown-haired figure watching the game with a whistle hanging on his neck, acting as a referee. Asagi's eyes widened in an instant.

Araide? He blinked in surprise when he recognized who that figure was. Wait, isn't he a doctor? Why is he here? That appearance—waitwaitwait—he's the coach?!

Asagi was shocked. He knew Araide also worked in Teitan High as a school nurse, but he did not know Araide was also a basketball coach here. Did he forget about it? Or maybe it was not mentioned in the manga? Whatever it was, it did not change the fact that he had no idea that Araide was a basketball coach. He was really surprised, but his surprise did not stay long because shortly after, his eyes caught another figure that he knew very well. It was Inaba in his training outfit playing in the game.

"He's really tall," he muttered. And athletic, he added in his mind with a thoughtful look. Inaba in his training outfit looked different from his image in the school uniform. The training outfit—a plain T-shirt under a jersey, a pair of shorts, and a pair of athletic shoes—which did not completely cover his limbs showed the muscles formed due to the years of exercising. Without a pair of trousers, his legs looked longer than usual. It was then Asagi suddenly felt a crisis. He looked down at his own body. Average height, skinny, and unathletic. He suddenly wanted to cry. Inaba had a great body! He was so envious!

Although not as muscular as the average athletes', Asagi's body in the real world could be considered quite athletic due to his hobby of swimming. He was very good at it, but he never went to any swimming club and competition because he disliked competition while swimming club would obviously encourage him to compete even when they were training. To him, swimming was simply a hobby and stress reliever and since he did it almost routinely, his former body had formed muscles, making it look quite pleasing to the eyes. However, his current body was feeble with only minimum amount of muscle. Asagi felt lost and disappointed when he realized how pathetic he currently looked.

Actually, Asagi was not the type who cared much about appearance because his career never demanded him to care about such things. He never even thought much about his swimmer body because he was not a narcissist and unless he was swimming, nobody but himself would see it. He never cared if his body had muscles or if he was good-looking or not. What use of that kind of thing to him? To attract women? He did like women, but he did not need their superficial attraction to keep on living. He also did not need to be handsome to make good novels. As long as he could drink, eat, swim, read, and write, anything else would not matter to him. And yet after he saw Inaba's perfect body, he was envious. He, an adult, was envious of a teenager! Was this due to the teenage hormones? He might be an adult mentally, but physically, he was still a teenager. In the end, Asagi blamed it on the teenage hormones because there was no other explanation to his sudden jealousy when he in his adult body never cared about all those things.

At least I'm not short, he comforted himself. He could accept being skinny and not athletic, but he did not think he would be okay with being short. He did not mean to offend short people, of course. It was just that he thought he would not be able to bear it if suddenly he had to have a short stature because he was never short in the real world.

Still, sports clubs are different from academic clubs, huh, he thought again, comparing his club to every sports club he had been visiting. Compared to the sports club, his club was less demanding and did not take too much time. In two hours, he already finished his club activity while his fellow students in sports clubs like karate, soccer, baseball, and basketball were still training rigorously. According to his experience, it was not uncommon for the sports clubs to train until night, especially for those that could train indoor like karate and basketball. They could even sleepover at school near the time of competition. It seemed the same thing also applied in this fictional world.

Having had enough of watching, Asagi turned his back, but just before he walked away from the gym, he remembered he needed to ask the student council members to warn their clubs about Kudo's rumor and to ask them if they needed to gather class representatives to spread out the warning. He took out his phone from his trousers pocket, typing a few words in the chat group, and then clicked the button send. After confirming that his chat had been sent, He put his phone back inside his pocket before taking a step to leave, but he stopped immediately after he heard someone calling him.

"President!" it was a girl he did not know approaching him from inside the gym. "Are you here to see Inaba-senpai?" she asked once she was right in front of him.

Asagi sized up the girl with a frown. He thought he would have remembered her like how he suddenly remembered the student council members, but it did not happen. Did this mean he really did not know her?

"You are?" he asked.

"I'm one of the managers of the basketball club, Suzuhara Kyoko," She answered. "Inaba-senpai is still playing, so if you want to see him, please wait a moment. We will end today's training after this last game."

"Oh? I thought you're going to train a bit longer."

"Well, we've trained harder during vacation, so the coach wants us to take it easy today."

"Hmm…" Asagi did not intend to meet Inaba when he visited the basketball club. He only wanted to watch them for a while. Just now, he was almost going home. If it was not due to this girl calling him out of the blue, perhaps he had left the gym by now.

But it won't hurt to wait a bit more, he thought. Inaba's home was in the same direction as his. If he went home with him, Asagi did not need to worry about getting lost or getting into trouble along the way. Despite having been back and forth from home to school a few times, he still felt nervous at the thought of going back on his own. He had memorized the way, but he still felt unfamiliar with his new environment. It made him feel insecure every time he was alone.

"Alright, I'll wait," he said to the girl. The girl who claimed to be the basketball club's manager smiled after hearing his answer. She politely excused herself before going back to assist her club, leaving the student council president to wait on the sidelines.

When the girl named Suzuhara said that he only needed to wait a moment, she really meant it literary. Asagi did not even need to wait for two minutes until the game ended. The winner was the senior year, but it was a close call with only 3 points difference. After that, the members of the club listened to the evaluation of their coach, Araide, while the managers—Asagi noticed that there were two of them, both were girls including Suzuhara—noted it in their book. Shortly after, Araide dismissed the club and without further ado, he left the gym with a hurried pace.

"Nagayama!"

Asagi was still watching Araide leaving the gym when he heard a familiar voice calling him. He turned his head and smiled. "Inaba."

"Suzuhara told me you've been waiting," he said as he wiped his sweaty head with a towel. "What's up?"

"Actually, I just passed by. That girl told me that your club activity would end soon and asked to wait. She thought I wanted to meet you."

"But you're still here."

"Yeah. I thought I might as well wait if what she said was true. After all, our houses are in the same direction." Then, suddenly Asagi realized something. "Sorry, do you have a plan already? I don't mean to intrude."

"No, it's okay," Inaba smiled. "Wait a moment. I need to help clean the court and then change to my uniform."

After that, he immediately ran to join his friends again, preparing to clean the court with them. Once they finished cleaning, Asagi saw them going to the changing room together. The president waited again for another few minutes until Inaba returned. He had changed his training outfit to school uniform under his parka. It seemed he had also taken the time to wash his face judging by how fresh and clean it looked compared to before. After that, the two of them bid goodbye to the club members before heading home.

"Araide-sensei seemed to be in a hurry. He left even before you all started cleaning," Asagi said as he walked alongside Inaba.

"Well, he has patients waiting at his clinic. It's almost time for his evening practice," Inaba replied.

"I wonder why he's coaching when he's already busy as a doctor."

"I thought you already know that's because Tabuchi-sensei got a fractured bone? Araide-sensei's only coaching us temporarily until he heals."

"No, I mean why he willingly coaches you even though he's already busy," Asagi hurriedly changed his question to avoid suspicion. He had no idea who Tabuchi-sensei was, but judging from the way Inaba spoke, it was likely Tabuchi-sensei was the basketball club's official coach. "You know he's a doctor, needs to practice at his clinic, and he's also a nurse in our school. Is being a medic really that free?"

"No way. He's busy, alright, but he told us that he used to join the basketball club during high school. On top of that, he's also our alumnus," Inaba said. "It's something like paying back your teacher and alma mater. Besides, even a doctor needs to work out to stay healthy, right?"

"Oh. I guess you're right," Asagi agreed while silently recording Inaba's answer in his head. "Araide-sensei is amazing, isn't he?"

"Damn right he is! And not only that, he's also cool! Thanks to him, our club is becoming more popular in school. The girls like watching us. The boys want to join us. Araide-sensei is really amazing!"

"Heeh? I thought you'd be jealous of him," Asagi teased.

"W-well…" Inaba scratched his cheek awkwardly. "We were at first, but not anymore."

"Why?"

"Because it's true that Araide-sensei's popular among girls, but due to his popularity, the girls also start to pay attention to us. One of us even gets a girlfriend after Araide-sensei started coaching us! And there were so many girls applying when we opened recruitment for the second manager! Suzuhara is the best among them, that's why she's our manager now. Man, it was such a tight competition!"

Asagi deadpanned. Girls. Was that all they cared about? "How is your basketball compared to before Araide-sensei came?" he asked again.

"Compared to before… hmm, I think we've got more knowledge about healthcare? Araide-sensei taught us how to take care of our health during the game like how to avoid injury, the consequence of it, and how to treat it in an emergency. Our managers are definitely learning so much to take care of us," Inaba smiled thoughtfully. "Also, Araide-sensei's still young and has pretty good stamina, so he often plays with us as he teaches. It's more fun and easier that way, so I guess there's quite a lot of improvement."

"I see." Asagi pondered over the things he just heard. According to Inaba's point of view, it seemed Araide was quite a fit doctor. He had both the brain and the brawn. As expected of the protagonist's doctor. "Well, it's good that you're improving under his supervision. If this continues, maybe he'll be hired as your coach permanently."

Inaba laughed. "That will be nice. Tabuchi-sensei can just be our advisor while Araide-sensei will be our coach. Perfect!"

Asagi chuckled, but inside, he started to feel worried. Actually, he did not care much if Araide would be hired permanently as the coach, but he did care about the doctor himself because he remembered that Vermouth used to disguise as Araide to infiltrate Teitan High and get close to Conan and the Mouris. It made him wary thinking that it might be possible for someone to infiltrate his school without his knowledge. Vermouth might have left, but who knows if there will be others replacing her? When Asagi arrived in this world, the manga in the real world had not finished yet, so everything was still possible.

Recalling the fact about Araide and Vermouth, Asagi was becoming even more certain that any rumor about Shinichi and Ran had to be suppressed. The school, especially class 2-B, needed to get used to keeping any information about them secret as soon as possible. That way, even if they were infiltrated by the organization again, it would not be easy for them to obtain any information. At least they would not get it by blending in and asking people because by that time, everyone in the school would have learned to never talk about Shinichi carelessly even with their own classmate.

But Ran, Sonoko, and Sera are lost causes. I can't depend on them, he thought as he remembered how the three girls sometimes talked about Shinichi casually in the manga. Sera was even more annoying because not only did she talk about him, she was also investigating him. But on the bright side, Ran was the protagonist while Sonoko and Sera each had an important role in the story. All of them had plot armor, so most likely nothing bad would happen even if they made some blunders. However, things might become problematic if others made the same kind of mistake. After all, they were just extras in the story. Asagi was even less significant because he was not supposed to be here in the first place. The plot might not protect them. For that reason, Asagi had to make sure that aside from those three girls, nobody would speak about Shinichi outside the school. It would be better if class B could keep any rumor about him inside their class.

"Nagayama? Oi?"

Asagi was startled when he saw Inaba's hand waving in front of him. It made him realize that he was lost in thought just now.

"What?" he asked back.

"What's wrong with you? Suddenly fell silent like that."

"Oh, I was just thinking about something."

"About what?"

"Um… about the chat I've sent to the group," Asagi made up an excuse. He could not possibly tell Inaba about Araide and Vermouth, but if he did not answer him, he was afraid Inaba would only pester him much longer. That was why in the end he could only make an excuse.

"Oh, that? Don't worry, I read it when I was in the changing room. I've told my club members there, but I couldn't warn everyone. A few members weren't with me that time, like the managers for example. But I've asked our captain to tell the others. I can also tell them again at tomorrow's practice, so it's okay," Inaba grinned. "I was a bit surprised when you told us in the chat group that we needed to warn our clubs because some students were confused about the rumor and our warning. I never thought there would be confusion in the school just because we only warned our classes. It's good that you remind us this time."

"Neither did I," Asagi admitted. Even he never expected that by warning only the student council's classes, he would create confusion among students. It was his club who made him realize this. "Thanks a lot, Inaba. You've really helped me."

"No need to thank me. It's my duty. And perhaps you're right about gathering the class representatives to spread out the warning."

"Well, let's see if Yoshino and Asakura have the same thought."

After that, the two of them started chatting about other things as they walked home, no longer mentioning anything about the rumor. They kept chatting until they had to part ways. Only then did Asagi start thinking about the rumor again, about this world that was so scary to him, but it was not long before he realized that he had taken the wrong path only because he was so absorbed in his own thoughts.

Asagi sighed as he turned back to the right path, blaming himself for making such a serious mistake. Now was not the right time to think about this world and all the scary wonders it had. He could not get lost by himself if he did not want to get into trouble in Beika. He really had to get home soon.

~o0o~

Dear readers, please forgive me for the late update. I've been busy with my job, so it's really hard for me to think about fanfiction nowadays. I hope you like this chapter. Thank you so much for all your support, and see you again at the next chapter!

Review please:)