The whiteboard prominently displayed an image of an ordinary looking fish. Certain parts of the fish were labeled, though Hiroshi did not understand why so many parts were labeled when the anatomy of sea creatures was not the focus of the class. The focus was seaspeak, so why was the teacher giving an anatomy lesson?

The substitute clearly does not know what he's talking about. Does he even know this is a seaspeak class?

Other students were thinking the same thing, judging by their bored expressions, and their hands moving, no doubt sketching pointless things in their notebooks. Even Hiroshi, who was normally an ace student, was finding it difficult to pay attention to the substitute's misunderstanding of the class he was teaching.

Hiroshi looked down at his blank notebook and sighed. As if seaspeak wasn't hard enough. Hiroshi picked his head up and turned towards Legoshi. Legoshi also seemed to have a hard time paying attention to the class. His eyes were halfway open, his head resting in his right paw, he looked as if he would nod off any second.

Influenced by Ayame's advice, Hiroshi decided to try and talk to him.

"Psst"

Legoshi's ears perked up, startled. He turned to look at Hiroshi.

"Hm?"

"As if seaspeak couldn't get more boring. Does the teacher even know what he's teaching?"

Legoshi grinned and nodded his head.

Hiroshi continued. "If he's teaching the art of how to fall asleep, he's doing a phenomenal job."

Legoshi let out a low chuckle. Hiroshi grinned before turning away, proud that someone found his attempt at comedy humorous.

Ayame's advice had really helped Hiroshi, he now felt comfortable talking to Legoshi. He was ashamed that he needed someone to tell him that it was okay to talk to beasts that you are wary of. Hiroshi also felt bad about blaming Legoshi for being involved in the murder, even though he had solid evidence to go off of, though Hiroshi still considered the things Legoshi did odd.

But now Hiroshi did not consider Legoshi an immediate suspect in the murders, thanks to the previously stated advice. He would still watch and make sure Legoshi didn't do anything suspicious however.

Hiroshi focused on his blank piece of paper again, the droning of the teacher becoming incoherent sounds that resembled speech.

God, when will this class end?

"There's no way that's true! A detective?"

A female student's voice reached Hiroshi's ears. He turned his head to see where the voice was coming from. Behind him, there were two female zebra students whispering, not giving the teacher's voice a second thought (who could blame them)?

"I swear it's true! I hear the police are sending a detective to investigate that murder!" The second zebra told her friend, who still was unsure as to whether what she was saying was true.

"Where'd you hear this from?"

"I don't know, some random group of koalas in the halls."

"Are you serious?" The second zebra let out a sigh and shook her head. "Just because you hear something in the halls doesn't make it automatically true."

The two zebra girls kept on talking. The rumor had intrigued Hiroshi, but the fact the zebra had just randomly heard the rumor in the hallway did not make the rumor credible. Almost all rumors were never believable anyway.

It would be nice to have a detective at the school. They could investigate the murder and see who the true culprit is.

Hiroshi reluctantly turned his attention back to the front of the room. The anatomy lesson was still going on, the teacher not realizing that he was teaching the wrong subject. Hiroshi rested his head in his hand and looked at the clock.

There's still 30 minutes left of this class?!

Hiroshi let out a small huff and continued staring at the lizard professor, not absorbing any of the information he was speaking. At that moment, Hiroshi wished that he had brought his Super Sleuth Francis novel to read, but he had forgotten it at his dorm. In order to prevent himself from dying of boredom, he began to think about the possibility of a detective coming to the school.

The chances of a detective coming to the school are very slim. If what that female zebra said was true, and that she heard it from a random group of students in the halls, then the rumor is definitely not true. But what if that group of koalas actually had reliable sources and weren't lying? Wait, why am I thinking so much about this? I'm taking it too seriously.

Shaking his head, Hiroshi began making scribbles in his notebook, hoping that the next 30 minutes wouldn't be painfully long.

The class couldn't have ended sooner. The seemingly endless babble of the substitute teacher never seemed to end. When the bell rang, Hiroshi felt as if a massive weight had been lifted from his body. He quickly gathered his things and left the class. He entered the hallway and watched Legoshi, who had been behind him, walk the opposite way from where he was going.

It's nice not worrying about him as much as I used to.

Hiroshi smiled and began to walk towards his next class. The halls were very crowded, and Hiroshi soon became annoyed at having to constantly dodge and try not to run into smaller beasts.

There's so many beasts in this hallway! I guess the bell did just ring though.

Suddenly, Hiroshi came to a large, unmoving crowd of animals. There was an excited murmur that was shared by everyone in the crowd, both beasts big and small. Large beasts looked in awe at whatever was beyond, while smaller animals desperately tried to look over the large beasts. A squirrel student was picked up by a kind elephant so they could both see the commotion.

Curious as to what was going on, Hiroshi entered the crowd, muttering "excuse me" and "sorry" during his struggle to get a good view of what everyone else was so captivated by.

Hiroshi didn't really know what to expect to see when he got near to the front of the crowd. Maybe someone fell down the stairs and was badly injured, or some famous celebrity came to school. Hiroshi wanted the latter to be true, and he got his wish somewhat.

Looking down the landing that led to the floor, Hiroshi saw two rhino police officers escorting what looked like a lion behind them. As the two officers walked up the stairs, the murmurs turned to excited talking, with the occasional excited shout from random students.

In between the officers was a lion, dressed in the male Cherryton uniform. He had a disinterested look on his face, one that resembled the faces of many Cherryton students in the seaspeak room that day. He appeared to not notice, or just chose to not acknowledge, the crowd of onlookers before him, only appearing to acknowledge the words of the two officers accompanying him.

Hiroshi could not make out what the officers were saying, but he did not care about the rhinos' words. He wanted to know who this mysterious lion was.

As he went to nudge a nearby feline to ask for information, Hiroshi already had a sneaking suspicion as to who the lion was.

"Excuse me, who is that? Is he some celebrity?"

The cat straightened up, before looking at Hiroshi.

"You don't know who that is? His name's Ginjiro, I think." The cat leaned closer to Hiroshi's face as he continued. "He's a famous junior detective, apparently he works with the police and helps them solve crimes. He started helping the police here not too long ago, but he's already gained somewhat of a following!"

"Strange, I've never heard of him." Hiroshi wasn't too surprised about this though, he lived far away from Cherryton, so he never saw or interacted with the police force in the city.

The cat turned away from Hiroshi, not hearing what he muttered, and continued to look onward at Ginjiro.

So that zebra girl wasn't just spreading false rumors after all.

Hiroshi quickly became excited. There was a detective in the school, and if that zebra girl's rumor still proved to be correct, he would be staying here. Why else would two police officers be giving him a tour of the school? If he was only there to temporarily investigate the crime, surely they would only show him the crime scene.

Hiroshi's thoughts were interrupted by the booming voice of one of the police officers.

"Alright, alright move along! Step back everyone!" One of the officers moved his hands, motioning the crowd to move away. Hardly anyone listened though, continuing to watch the junior detective, who continued to acknowledge no one but the officers. As the rhino gave his order, Ginjiro looked to the rhino on his right, who told him something Hiroshi could not decipher.

The rhino nodded his head, and moved towards the upstairs staircase, while Ginjiro followed. The rhino who had given the order to step back noticed the pair moving away and went to join them. As the three were moving upstairs, the crowd quickly followed, the excited talking becoming all the more loud.

Following the crowd, Hiroshi soon stood a little ways from the foot of the stairs, many different beasts squirming to get a look at Ginjiro in front of him. Some beasts were starting to walk up the steps, eager to talk to the famous detective. One of the officers noticed this, and was about to put a stop to it, when Ginjiro turned around and looked at his crowd of admirers.

His face contorted with disgust, he yelled. "Will you all please shut up!" His voice was deep, filled with the rage of a police officer yelling at a criminal who wouldn't admit to a crime.

"I cannot think with all of this yelping! I am not here to chat and make friends, I am here to solve a gruesome murder, that is why I am here. As I walk around this academy I am analyzing every possible solution to this murder, and all of this yelling is not helping my concentration. So shut up! All of you!" With those harsh words Ginjiro turned and headed up the stairs, the rhinos following behind.

The crowd was stunned into silence. Most were simply shocked, while some of the more dedicated fans were on the verge of tears. Being yelled at by their idol while at the same time seeing him for the very first time cut deeply, especially to the hardcore fans. In an instant, the once raging crowd had become like a funeral procession.

Hiroshi stood towards the front, a line of beasts separating him from the stairs the lion and the rhinos had gone up. He too was in shock of the outburst the detective had just had. Hiroshi thought that the scolding had been somewhat reasonable. The crowd was very loud and Ginjiro was probably trying to analyze the area for potential areas of suspicion.

At least that's the idea that Hiroshi got. He had only read fictional detective novels after all, many of them with supernatural elements that wouldn't fit in with the real world. Hiroshi had never met a real detective, so he did not know how a real one would think. Though he got a pretty decent idea from seeing them on the news and on the internet.

By now the crowd had begun to disperse, disappointed chatter and sniffling now taking over. Hiroshi still stood, looking up at the stairs. Despite the detective's rude nature, Hiroshi was overjoyed at him coming to the school.

With a real detective attending Cherryton, the real murderer will hopefully be caught soon! The gruff and rude detectives are usually the ones that get stuff done. At least in my mystery novels. This is real life though! Not everything is a…

"Will you please get out of my way?"

Hiroshi's thoughts were interrupted by the voice of Ginjiro. Pulled out of his thoughts, Hiroshi turned to face the detective. Ginjiro was a few inches taller than Hiroshi, but did not tower over him. His mane was neatly combed back, likely in an attempt to not seem threatening to herbivores.

"Don't just stand there. Move. Or do you need something? Come on, speak."

Author's Note:

Hello! Author here! I just wanted to apologize for the delay and inconsistent chapter releases. I got a job and things have been busy in my life, though I will still be trying to get Detective Hiroshi chapters out at a faster pace than I have been. Thank you for reading and I hope you continue to enjoy this little fanfic! The story will start to get more thrilling from this point (at least I hope).