Hiroshi was five minutes late to his next class. Realizing he was late after his encounter with Ayame, Hiroshi ran down the hall, remembered that he had no idea where he was going, stopped, and pulled out his class list. His next class was physical education, which was outside of the school building.
Hiroshi sprinted, running through the halls, trying to find the nearest exit to the outside. After four minutes of loudly running through the halls (no doubt disrupting many classes as he did so), he finally found a door that led outside. The door was nowhere near where the field was however, so after another minute of running, Hiroshi finally came up to the P.E. coach, panting heavily, already exhausted from his panic induced running. Hiroshi thought that his run should've been counted as a physical education exercise, but the teacher did not agree (not that Hiroshi tried to say this), and made Hiroshi run extra laps while the other students tried not to laugh at him. After completing these extra exercises, Hiroshi was allowed to join the other students, and the class resumed.
With his run to the outside of the school, combined with his punishment exercises, the regular P.E. activities drained all of the energy out of Hiroshi. By the time he was done with physical education, he was staggering around like a zombie, his legs reduced to jelly by the exercises. As he practically limped back to the school building, he noticed the other students who he had exercised with, also walking to the school building, yet they were not physically drained like Hiroshi was.
He noticed that some students were side-eyeing him and whispering.
"God he's such a wuss," a large cheetah whispered to his friend. "I know that he had to do extra laps, but we've had to do way worse before."
"Yeah," the cheetah's friend, a black feline, responded. "He needs to toughen up. For a canidae he really doesn't have much strength or endurance."
The black cat looked at Hiroshi while the cheetah continued to talk about the exercises they all had done and how easy they were. Hiroshi looked away from the cat's eyes and focused on the doors that would lead him back to the main building.
Easy for you to say. Running is easy for you. Cheetahs are practically built for short distance running. And that feline is just agreeing with that cheetah to seem cool, I know that cat was not doing any better than I was.
The cheetah did have a point though. Hiroshi had never been good at physical activities. Ever since he was a pup he always ran out of breath after only minutes of running, and he did not have any strength either. Whenever he tried to do a pull-up for the yearly fitness check-up, it became a struggle of trying to do just one single pull-up, which usually ended in him either succeeding, then falling to the floor after letting go, or him not being able to do one single pull-up and just hanging on the bar, all the other students watching and snickering.
Hiroshi's lack of physical prowess always made him feel terrible, after all, he was a canidae, known for being strong and fierce. Yet Hiroshi was never a fierce or intimidating canidae, he only ever became angry when he saw something he deemed unfair unfold in front of him, like the black panthers terrorizing Ayame. But Hiroshi's fierceness was backed up by nothing, he had no physical strength to defend Ayame, the bullies had only left because they were disgusted by Hiroshi's lack of strength.
Great, now I feel horrible. I hate when other carnivores judge me. I just want to go inside and leave this group of P.E. students.
Hiroshi opened the doors and entered the school building. Upon stepping into the building, Hiroshi walked to a wall that was relatively free from the bustling hallway of carnivores and herbivores to catch his breath. His heavy panting attracted the concerned looks of some beasts, but his breathing wasn't distracting enough to turn the attention of the entire hallway onto him.
After calming his breathing Hiroshi took out his class list and looked at his next class.
History. Alright, that's not so bad.
With his breathing calmed and his legs somewhat stable, Hiroshi set off towards the history classroom, glad that he did not have to make a mad dash to the classroom in order to not be late.
The rest of Hiroshi's first, official school day at Cherryton went well. The rest of Hiroshi's classes weren't difficult at all, and were not as terrifying as his marine language class with Legoshi, or as exhausting as his physical education class. As Hiroshi's final class ended and he began walking towards the student dorms, he reflected on his encounter with Legoshi in the marine language class.
Was Legoshi staring at me because he had been up to something suspicious last night and thought I knew something? Or was he just spacing out, and didn't realize he was looking at me? Jack did say that he was quiet and awkward.
Hiroshi exited the school building and made his way to the student dorms. The fresh air that greeted him felt amazing on his fur, and the unclouded sky brightened Hiroshi's mood considerably.
I hope that Jack's right and Legoshi is just awkward, because the last thing I need is a roommate who's angry at me.
Hiroshi sat down at a nearby bench to enjoy the scenery and to work on his history homework. He inhaled the fresh air as he opened his history textbook and took out his homework paper from his backpack. He read about the war between carnivores and herbivores that happened over 100 years ago, it was a topic that Hiroshi knew plenty about, resulting in him finishing the assignment pretty quickly.
What I lack in strength I make up for in intelligence. At least that's something good about me.
As he was putting his book and paper away, he noticed another beast walking up to him. He looked up and saw Ayame, standing with her bag in her paws.
"Hello." She smiled and gave a little wave.
"Hey," Hiroshi's face brightened at the sight of the red panda. He finished putting his homework items back into his bag and stood up, looking down at Ayame.
"What are you doing here?" Hiroshi asked, and immediately regretted it.
She obviously just got done with class and is walking to her dorm, that's what she's doing here!
"I was just walking back to the dorms," Ayame, not bothered by Hiroshi's question, responded in her signature gentle, quiet tone.
"I just wanted to say thank you for h-helping me out earlier today." Ayame said, fidgeting with her bag while looking down at the ground.
"You don't need to thank me," Hiroshi said, "I didn't even save you, I just made a fool of myself."
Hiroshi sat down on the bench, now depressed, thinking about the fight that took place earlier that day. He hated thinking about it, he had barely put up a fight. If those panthers had actually wanted to hurt him, he would've been in serious trouble.
If only life was like a video game. I could take some points out of my intelligence and put them into strength. That would benefit me greatly.
"Well, your failure did save me from those guys." Ayame's voice broke through Hiroshi's thoughts, making him look into her face. He noticed that her fur was very well kept, and looked smooth to the touch. "So there's that." Ayame removed one paw from her bag and scratched her head.
"That doesn't really make me feel better." Hiroshi said rather bluntly. Sure, his failing did save Ayame, but it was a pathetic win, a victory that no one would be happy with.
"Oh I'm sorry," Ayame said, tensing up while looking at the ground, "I was just trying to make you feel better, what a stupid thing to say." Her voice turned to a whisper as she stopped talking.
"You were trying to make me feel better though, I can appreciate that." Hiroshi said, smiling, not wanting to make the red panda feel bad. Ayame's eyes widened, taken aback by Hiroshi's acceptance to her apology. After a few seconds she calmed down, smiled, and said, "Well thank you."
Hiroshi stood up, now feeling much better, and looked down at Ayame.
"Do you want to walk back to the dorms together?"
"S-Sure."
The two began to walk to the dorms, making awkward small talk along the way. Hiroshi did not know what to say to her, but he still tried to make conversation, asking things like: "what are your favorite classes?", "what do you like to do?" etcetera. Ayame answered his questions with short responses that showed how shy she really was. Hiroshi hoped that he wasn't being too personal or nosy with his questions, so after a couple questions, he let her guide the conversation.
Ayame, however, was not very good at starting conversations. She would ask very basic questions that Hiroshi would answer very easily, and they were questions that couldn't be expanded into full conversations. Things like "how are you?" or "what do you think about the weather?"
Hiroshi did not mind Ayame's awkwardness though, in fact, he found it kind of cute how she tried her best to keep a conversation going.
Eventually, the two reached Ayame's dorm room, number 651.
"Goodbye," Ayame said, "it was nice to talk to you." With these words she gave a little bow before unlocking her dorm room door, opened it, gave a little wave, then walked inside, shutting the door behind her.
After watching Ayame leave, Hiroshi went up the stairs to find room 701. As he walked through the halls, occasionally passing by beasts of different species, he thought about Ayame. Hiroshi thought that she was a kind, if a little awkward, red panda. He didn't even really view her awkwardness as something negative, in fact, he found it adorable how she tried her best to keep up a conversation.
She's honestly adorable. I guess I've always liked shy females.
Hiroshi then blushed, shaking his head.
What am I thinking? She's a different species! Are interspecies relationships even common, or allowed? Wait, why am I thinking about relationships already? I hardly even know her!
Hiroshi shook his head again, removing the thoughts from his mind. He came to the door to room 701. The husky knocked on the door, hoping one of his roommates was inside to open it. His hopes were fulfilled when the door was opened by an enthusiastic Jack.
"Hiroshi! You're just in time, the movie's about to start." With a wave of his paw, he gestured Hiroshi inside, where he saw a small, old looking box television sitting on a desk. Gathered around the TV were all of the dorm 701 students, including Legoshi. As soon as Hiroshi saw the gray wolf, he froze up, before quickly regaining his composure.
I'm not going to worry everyone in the dorm just because I had a strange encounter with Legoshi.
At Jack's gesture, Hiroshi walked into the room and sat down next to Collot, who greeted him, along with all of the other canidae present in the room, even Legoshi.
Legoshi greeted Hiroshi as if nothing strange had happened that day, making Hiroshi hope that Legoshi's strange behavior was due to his awkwardness. He still did not let his guard down though.
On the TV, a commercial for some carnivore toothpaste was finishing. After the commercial ended the movie started.
"What's the movie about, Jack?" Hiroshi asked.
"It's an old murder mystery movie," Jack said. "I don't know what the premise is though, but I think it'll be interesting."
A murder mystery! Those are my favorites!
Hiroshi perked up, now eager to watch the film. The film was thankfully one he had never seen before.
Perfect! New clues to discover, and a new killer to figure out!
The movie's setup was seven animals on an island. They came to the island to celebrate one of the guest's birthdays, but as soon as they came to the island, a horrible storm started, making travel back to the mainland impossible. And even worse, one by one the guests start turning up dead, with little clues as to who the murderer is. Luckily, one of the guests happens to be an amateur detective, and he slowly starts to uncover clues as to who the killer is.
The movie was very thrilling, with new clues popping up, keeping you guessing as to who the murderer was. During commercial breaks, everyone discussed their theories as to who the killer was.
"I think it's the boyfriend, he seems way too nice and he always seems nervous around the crime scenes." Durham said.
"I think it's Maria, the birthday girl," Jack said, "I think she planned this whole thing to kill everyone for reasons we don't know yet."
"I think that would be too obvious," Hiroshi said, "they want you to think it's the birthday girl, because why would she set up all these gruesome murders?"
"Well who do you think it is smart guy?" Jack said with a playful tone to his voice.
"The birthday girl's brother, Henry. In every crime scene investigation he always seems to know way too much about each murder. And," Hiroshi paused for dramatic effect, "I believe he slipped up. During the butler's murder investigation, Percy, the detective, finds a diary that belonged to the butler. As soon as Percy reads it, he finds it contains entries that basically confirm that the butler's the killer."
Hiroshi paused again to catch his breath. "As soon as Percy reads these passages, Henry says 'well that confirms it, all of the information's correct.'"
"But here's the thing, Percy never told anyone much about his investigations into the killings, so the potential murderer couldn't change his or her story to match the information given. So why would Henry say that the information is correct, when everyone hardly knows the information?"
Hiroshi ended his explanation with that question. He had gathered this information from focusing on Henry's movements and actions, and came to the conclusion towards what he thought was the film's conclusion.
"Wow! That does make a lot of sense!" Jack said, his eyes widening in surprise. "You're smart Hiroshi, though your theory hasn't been proven yet."
The movie started up again, and Hiroshi's explanation was proven to be correct. His exact reasoning was used by Percy in the film. It was revealed that Henry had murdered the victims because he had a fascination with murder mysteries, and wanted to create his own. With his hatred and jealousy of his sister, he decided to stage the murders on her birthday, on the island that their family had reserved for her party. Henry's downfall had been trying to be too innocent, trying to make sure others didn't think he was the killer, but doing too much of a good job at it, resulting in Percy finding out his true motive.
"You figured out Henry's downfall before it was explained by Percy!" Collot exclaimed in surprise. "Are you an amateur detective or something?"
Hiroshi blushed, and scratched the back of his head. "Don't give me too much credit, after all, I didn't even figure out his motive."
"You still found out that he was the killer from the evidence alone!" Jack said, looking rather excited. "Like Collot said, are you some kind of detective?"
"Come on, you're making me sound like I'm some kind of genius." Hiroshi looked down, still blushing at all of the attention he was getting. "I do hope that someday I can be a detective though, I've dreamed about it ever since I was young."
"Well keep up what you're doing." Legoshi's soft voice made Hiroshi's ears perk up. "Maybe one day you will be a detective." Legoshi smiled a gentle smile, one that made Hiroshi feel calm and relaxed.
"T-Thank you," Hiroshi said, startled by Legoshi's compliment. Legoshi had barely spoken during the whole movie, only talking about who he thought the killer was.
This evening had turned out better than Hiroshi thought it would, for two reasons. First, Legoshi talked to him like a regular beast, still quiet, but normal. His complement had made Hiroshi feel less afraid of him. Second, Hiroshi realized that he had a strength that he had never really thought about until now, his power of deduction. He was not a master at it, but the skill was clearly there, with some more nurturing, the skill could become his gateway to achieving his dream of becoming a detective. This realization had made Hiroshi feel better about his lack of physical strength, he really did make up for it in his intelligence and critical thinking.
Hiroshi smiled, and along with everyone else, went to the bathroom to brush his teeth and get ready for bed. As he brushed, he thought about what detective novel he would read before going to bed.