Standing before the lion's frown and downward eyebrows, Hiroshi was intimidated, as if he were a small herbivore before an enormous, wild carnivore. The two were roughly the same height, but Ginjiro had such an intimidating presence that made Hiroshi feel tiny.
"What do you need? I don't have time for indecisive beasts."
Hiroshi was still surprised by Ginjiro's overwhelming presence, making his thoughts unorganized, his words difficult to choose. Hiroshi stepped back. As soon as he did Ginjiro began to walk towards the downstairs staircase. He didn't really walk even, he had a stride that made him appear to glide wherever he went. Hiroshi assumed he got this stride from his job as a junior detective, always having to move to analyze areas quickly and effectively.
Just as Ginjiro was about to descend the staircase, Hiroshi spoke up.
"Were you sent here to solve the murder?" He knew it was a stupid question to ask, but it was all he could think of.
Ginjiro turned his head towards Hiroshi, still halfway down the stairs, and spoke.
"Of course I'm going to solve the murder, idiot. Why else would I be here? Though I would have rather taken any other murder case."
Hiroshi's face bunched up in confusion. Any other murder case? Why's that?
Hiroshi's ears perked up, catching the last part of Ginjiro's words. "I do not care about this school, or the murdered student. In my opinion, he's just another nobody." Ginjiro proceeded to walk down the stairs, leaving Hiroshi to process what he just heard.
He doesn't even care about the school? Or the student who was murdered?
To be honest, Hiroshi hadn't been at Cherryton for a long period of time, and he had not known Tem, so he could, theoretically, be in the same position as Ginjiro. But he still cared about Tem, just thinking about the grief his family must be in made Hiroshi very depressed, and being a student of Cherryton, he did have a level of respect for the school, even if he hadn't been attending for a while.
Hiroshi moved to look down the now empty staircase, thinking about how disrespectful Ginjiro had been to Tem. He also found it strange that he felt like a parent being angry at their child for being rude to an adult.
What an ass! I guess it's true when beasts say that celebrities are assholes.
He wished that he could give Ginjiro a piece of his mind, but decided against it. Not only would he look like an angry parent, he also had a feeling that Ginjiro wouldn't care, or worse, he would be enraged at Hiroshi's scolding and would attack him.
I really doubt he'd be that angry though. He would be annoyed though. There's no point, I doubt I could change his opinions.
Hiroshi began to walk to his next class, though he hadn't heard a bell announcing the end, or beginning of a new class. He figured that Ginjiro's entrance into Cherryton had caused the classes for that day to be delayed. Hiroshi was surprised to see the hallways almost empty though, when classes were delayed students were usually out and about, making the most of not having to sit in a classroom all day.
I guess all the students decided to show up to class super early? That's odd.
As Hiroshi continued to walk to his next class, he saw two students that he recognized. A raccoon and red panda, Jessica and Ayame. They appeared to be talking to each other, though Jessica looked to be doing most of the talking. Ayame occasionally nodded her head, in response to Jessica's talking.
Hiroshi waved at the two, and Ayame, already not paying much attention to Jessica's chatter, perked up and turned to look at him. Jessica, noticing where Ayame's attention had gone, turned to look also.
"Hey." Hiroshi gave another small wave. Ayame smiled in response. Jessica looked at Ayame, then at Hiroshi. She let out a small "oh", as her eyes widened.
"You're that guy that was asking me about Ayame yesterday." Jessica nodded in confirmation, satisfied with making the connection. After hearing Jessica speak, Ayame turned her head sideways and said, "what did you ask about me?"
Hiroshi rubbed his neck and turned his head away. Shit I hope she won't think I'm creepy if I tell her why I was talking to Jessica.
"I wanted to talk to you, so I asked Jessica where I could find you." Hiroshi said, looking back at Ayame.
Ayame glanced back at Jessica, who shrugged.
"Oh, okay." Ayame smiled and held her hands together.
She doesn't look weirded out.
"Did my advice help you?"
"Yes it did, very much."
Jessica looked like she was about to speak, when Ayame spoke, much to Hiroshi's surprise. She never wanted to start conversations.
"Did you hear about that detective coming to the school?"
Before Hiroshi could respond, Jessica chimed in, apparently having forgotten about Ayame talking about her advice.
"Oh I heard about that, this detective's a lion right? And he's pretty famous too, so I hear."
"I actually saw him, his name's Ginjiro."
At this information, Ayame and Jessica were surprised, though Jessica showed her surprise. She opened her mouth, and her eyes went wide.
"You saw him?! What was he like? What did he look like?" Jessica began bombarding Hiroshi with questions, unable to resist the opportunity to get some juicy information she could share with her friends. Ayame looked unaffected, clearly used to her friend's hyperactive behavior regarding gossip, though she too was intrigued by Hiroshi's sighting of this celebrity.
The two small beasts both walked closer to Hiroshi, eager to hear more about the junior detective.
"Well his name's Ginjiro and his mane was all slicked back, and he had this mean, intimidating look on his face, like he didn't want to talk to anyone. He was rude too, he told all of us to shut up and that we were annoying him and interrupting his examination of the school."
Hiroshi left out the part about Ginjiro saying he did not care about Tem, or the school. He felt that if Jessica spread those words around the school, he would get in huge trouble by Ginjiro if he found out.
"Damn, so he's a mean detective. And here I was hoping to get his autograph." Jessica sulked. "At least I'll have some gossip to tell the girls." She said, dejectedly.
"I can understand being annoyed by onlookers though." Ayame said. "I mean, celebrity paparazzi are known for being very rude and irritating."
Hiroshi agreed with Ayame, but he still did not agree with Ginjiro's words regarding not caring about the victim and the school.
"I agree with Ayame. Regardless I'm just glad to have a detective attending the school, it'll make us feel way safer, I'm sure."
Ayame and Jessica nodded. Hiroshi was about to leave the two, when he thought of another question.
"Were classes delayed because of Ginjiro coming here? Or were they canceled?"
"Oh, classes were canceled. You can still go into the classrooms to work on homework but the teachers aren't teaching." Jessica responded. "I guess this detective's presence has really shaken up the school."
Jessica smiled and waved goodbye, followed by Ayame, who did the same.
I knew it was strange that there's no one in the halls. And I don't hear the voices of teachers lecturing either.
After watching Ayame and Jessica walk off, Hiroshi began to make his way to his own dorm, thinking about Ginjiro and his boorish behavior. No matter how hard Hiroshi thought, he couldn't sympathize with Ginjiro's words. In Hiroshi's mind, a detective should always care about whoever he or she was trying to help (or rather, the case he/she was trying to solve).
You can't truly solve a case when you don't care.
At least, that's what Hiroshi thought from reading his many detective novels. The detectives he admired were always dedicated, and willing to do anything to close their cases. Again though, these were all fictional characters, though Hiroshi also hoped that real detectives were dedicated too.
Hiroshi continued to ponder the ethics of real and fictional detectives as he walked up the stairs to his dorm. Deep down, he was a little relieved that a detective would be attending the school. But what little relief he had was overshadowed by worry of Ginjiro's behavior. What if Ginjiro didn't try to solve the case and just sat around? What if he went so far as to blame a random beast for the murder?
No, I'm being ridiculous, stuff like that only happens in the novels that I read, not in real life. We have a detective at the school, the murderer will be caught!
But no matter how much Hiroshi tried to convince himself, he still felt that there was something off about Ginjiro. Like he was hiding something. He tried to chalk it up to his rude behavior, but he still had that nagging feeling. He tried to dismiss it as he opened the door to dorm 701, where he was sure Jack or Legoshi would be. And he would tell them about the detective attending the school, even though he was sure that they knew already.
