chapter two

It had been only a few days after the events around the park and Naegi hadn't been able to make any progress in uncovering the identity of the mysterious hero who saved both him and his kite. Granted, he hadn't been too occupied in finding out who it was, but it still bothered him every now and then.

"Naegi-kun," Maizono said happily, slipping into the desk beside him. "I got an A!" She flipped over the paper in her hands to reveal her test score where she indeed got a bright red A written in the corner of the page. Her smile said it all; she was very excited about her score.

Naegi managed a smile. "That's great, Maizono-san!" he said sincerely. "I only got a C…" He held his paper up to her to reveal his semi-decent grade with a rather lamely and comically sad looking face printed in the corner.

Maizono's face fell, concerned, and she looked up at Naegi again. Seeing her look so sad made Naegi's cheeks warm up, maybe because he felt so small being sympathised and slightly judged by the pop idol. She reached a hand over and placed her palm over his hand, tilting her head.

"What's wrong, Naegi-kun?" she asked. "Is there something bothering you?"

Naegi opened his mouth to answer, but no words would come out. He had to think about what had been on his mind for him to feel so bothered and distracted when he was doing his test. But his mind only drifted to one answer: the mysterious hero hiding in the tree.

"Is this about your kite?" He blinked, looking up at Maizono with wide confused eyes. How did she…?

"I'm psychic, Naegi-kun."

Naegi paused again, still looking at Maizono with a look of pure curiosity and surprise. "…Just kidding?"

Maizono didn't let on a smile and stood up in her seat, and stood looking over Naegi, motioning for him to stand up with a move of her head. He stood up slowly, slipping his paper into his backpack and standing in front of Maizono. Her eyebrows narrowed slightly, and she folded her hands together.

"Where did your paper go-"

"We're gonna solve your problems, Naegi-kun," Maizono said, her tone strict. "We're gonna get to the bottom of what's bothering you and…and solve it!" She reached for his wrist and dragged him out of the class, causing him to nearly stumble.

Once they were out of the class, they were met with two of their classmates: the twins, Enoshima and Ikusaba.

Why they were twins with different surnames still boggled the mind, but Naegi had decided that maybe it was best to just leave it be with Enoshima's attitudes towards it. Speaking of the busty blonde, she was currently wearing some very in fashion clothes, with a very large pair of stylish sunglasses over her eyes which had caught Maizono's attention, causing the duo to stop.

"H-Hello Enoshima-san, Ikusaba-san," Naegi greeted softly to break the silence, with Maizono following suit. Enoshima grabbed the frames from off her eyes and flashed an award winning smile to him and Maizono.

"Heya Makoto-chan," Enoshima said gleefully, appearing to have ignored Maizono outright. "We're having a party this Friday, you gonna come?"

"This Friday?" Naegi repeated, calculating how far away that was. He and Maizono had gone to the park last Sunday, and it had been three days since then, meaning it was Wednesday. That would mean that the party was in two days time. Yay for math.

"Yeah. This Friday," Enoshima retorted, rolling her eyes. "Everyone's going to be there. Even this sad sack." As she said the last words, she rather vigorously slung an arm around Ikusaba's neck, pulling her close to her side. Ikusaba flushed, and looked down at the ground.

Enoshima caught sight of that and grinned towards Naegi. "Don't worry about her. It's her first party too."

Naegi almost flinched, turning a little red out of embarrassment. "Too…? H-Hey, I've been to parties before!"

"Oh, I didn't think you were really a party type," Enoshima replied, genuinely a little surprised. "What kind of parties?'

"Uh," Naegi didn't mean to stutter, but he felt his cheeks turn red when he remember the last big party he went to. "M-Middle school graduation party…?" Behind him he could almost hear Maizono's face fall.

Enoshima's expression didn't change, but her brow was creased into a slight frown. "Well, that's embarrassing. You know Yamada-kun's been to more parties, right?" Hearing that the Ultimate Otaku Nerd had been to more parties than he had made Naegi's cheeks heat up. It wasn't entirely his fault that he wasn't popular, and that most of the parties he was invited to were often hosted by his older neighbours who just wanted to talk and barbecue.

"Where is the party?" Maizono asked, breaking the awkward silence. Finally averting her gaze from Naegi to look and Maizono, Enoshima put her hands on her hips and shifted to her side.

"The gym! And don't worry about it, I've already gotten permission from Kirigiri-sensei. He just doesn't want Oowada-kun or Kuwata-kun breaking anything," Enoshima explained. "And afterwards, we gotta clean up too, but I've already sorted that out so don't worry about it."

Maizono nodded her head. "If that's the case, I'll be happy to attend!"

Already waving her off, Enoshima turned to Naegi with another stretched grin and leaned forward. "And you, Makoto-chan? Ready for your first big boy party?"

Blushing a little red, Naegi nodded his head. Satisfied with his response, Enoshima straightened herself up. "Alright! Don't be late Makoto-chan, or I'll send Oneesan after you!" She held onto the last syllable as she walked away, waving her hand. "See ya!"

As she disappeared around the corner, Naegi and Maizono were left with the silent Ikusaba who hadn't said a word about anything for what felt like a while. As Naegi went to ask her if anything was wrong, her head shot up and she looked at them.

"I wish to see you both at the party on Friday too," she said in a soft but firm tone. Ikusaba bowed her head and quickly chased after her sister. The whole time, she had avoided looking directly at Naegi and kept her gaze distant. It sparked curiosity in Naegi, but he decided not to comment on it. Those twins were a mystery to him.

He'd tried to be nice to them on several occasions, and had invited Ikusaba especially to sit with him and Maizono a fair few times, but she'd politely declined every request. And something he'd just realised then was that he'd never seen her look at him directly in the eyes when replying.

Though they were friends, and shared many classes together with just the two of them, he had rarely, if ever, seen her look back at him. She always seemed distracted or flustered, and he never knew why.

Shaking his head, he turned back to Maizono who was still eager to find the solution to his problem. Grabbing his wrist again, she dragged him down the halls all the way to where they needed to go.

It hadn't taken them long to get where Maizono needed to go, which was right at the dorms. Specifically, the dorm of a certain lavender haired individual. Once they had stopped walking, Naegi's eyes had gone wide with realisation and he was very hesitant to stand outside her door by the doorbell.

She could definitely solve his problem, Naegi had no doubt about that. But he already felt hopeless when he had all these clues as to who it was, but no idea how to piece the clues together. It wasn't like he had any experience in this before.

Maizono turned her head to him and with a curt nod said, "Ring the bell."

Naegi nodded back at her, hunched over somewhat in embarrassment, and rang the doorbell. The pleasant ringing sound echoed softly, and it didn't take too long after for the door to open.

"Kirigiri-san!" Maizono said gleefully, smiling widely at the girl. Kirigiri eyed her curiously, and drifted her gaze off to Naegi, examining his somewhat nervous and embarrassed expression.

She made no effort to greet either of them and said, in her monotonous and stoic tone, "What's Naegi-kun done?"

And then came more embarrassment where Maizono explained to Kirigiri everything that happened on that day, and more. Naegi felt himself sink lower and lower, and had turned such a red colour that if was a miracle that he hadn't been noticed yet.

Once they had done recounting the events, both of the girls looked over at Naegi, bringing their eyes onto him. He didn't even have to look at them to know that they were watching, and that's what made him feel even more flustered.

"Naegi-kun," Kirigiri began, as Naegi's eyes shot straight up to meet her purple ones. "Is all this true?"

There was a delayed reaction to Kirigiri's question, before his cheeks turned from the rosy hue to a deeper darker red. Naegi stood up straight and rubbed his neck with obvious hints of embarrassment.

"Uh yeah," he replied, finding it difficult to meet her intense stare. He looked over to Maizono instead, who was smiling innocently, as if she hadn't just put him on the spot. Turning back to Kirigiri sinking his head just a little, he added, "Um, I was wondering if you could help me."

At this Kirigiri jutted her chin upwards. "Help you, how?"

Maizono didn't offer to help him again either, leaving Naegi feeling more susceptible to his own embarrassment. He struggled to find the words needed, wanting to be short and quick but able to stop Kirigiri from asking questions.

"Well uh, when I was trying to get my kite, I fell…" His cheeks began heating up as Maizono stifled a giggle. "But when I landed safely, and after Maizono-san and I left, I saw someone in the tree." This perked up Kirigiri's interest as she lowered her chin down to stare at Naegi, almost certain now about his request. He nevertheless continued. "So I was wondering if, uh, you could help me find out who it was…?"

Kirigiri's eyes bored into Naegi's as she listened to his story, and nodded her head. "If finding out the identity of the person who's been on your mind will stop you from worrying Maizono-san, and keep you focused on your school work, then I will help."

Naegi froze for a moment before a large grin stretched out across his face and he seemed to light up. Holding his head up high, he said with enthusiasm, "Really? Thank you so much!"

Kirigiri closed her eyes graciously, nodding her chin and smiling faintly to herself. "We should start by investigating the scene of the crime." She looked up and turned to Maizono who had been watching the recent exchange with a smile. "Shall we head off?"

And with a cheerful response, the trio headed out towards the park.

first of all, sorry for the delay in this chapter, and sorry for how short it was! but i hope the introduction of enoshima, ikusaba and kirigiri can make up for it!

i must say though, those three are rather hard to write IC, so if you have any tips or comments of any of their characterisations let me know what i did well/what i could improve on! it's my first time writing for them, so any feedback is greatly appreciated c:

and once again, awkward!naegi is my absolute fav :3

- blue