Being stared at by the two children, Kyogoku Makoto felt a little embarrassed. "Sorry to make you worry, but it's really nothing."
"What if we hadn't come? What if you couldn't stop?" Haibara Ai asked with half-moon eyes.
"Wouldn't happen." Chi Feichi denied this speculation.
Kyogoku Makoto explained, "The combat situation changes rapidly. As long as one person's stamina can't keep up, the other can slow down and gradually stop. With our combat awareness and eyesight, we can detect if either side's stamina is failing in time and use the opportunity to adjust!"
It's just that the injuries would be a bit more severe, requiring a hospital stay for a while...
However, growing up, he had been injured too many times during training and competitions, and seen even more injuries. Some people had to rest for half a year or a year; these injuries really weren't much.
Chi Feichi was the same. He had walked Kyogoku Makoto's path in his past life. Accidentally hitting too hard or accidents during sparring were common occurrences.
Kyogoku Makoto remembered the previous agreement. "By the way, I didn't win this time, so it seems I won't get the answer to my question today..."
"But you didn't lose either," Chi Feichi said.
If they really continued fighting, he couldn't say who would win or lose. A small change could determine the outcome.
Kyogoku Makoto shook his head and insisted, "A draw, but I didn't count as winning either."
"Then let's ask each other," Chi Feichi didn't dwell on winning or losing. "You ask yours, I ask mine. Who goes first?"
Kyogoku Makoto thought for a moment. "You go first. You made the first move earlier too."
Conan and Haibara Ai, quietly eating melon (watching the drama): "..."
Can priority be decided like this?
Are all people who like fighting this eccentric?
Actually, Kyogoku Makoto didn't explain clearly.
At that time, both were slowly adjusting their state and mobilizing their fighting spirit. Chi Feichi attacking first wasn't because he was impatient, but because he entered the state faster than him. Fortunately, he wasn't much slower.
Just think about it: if one person adjusts to peak condition and strikes first, while the other hasn't reached peak condition, the latter is likely to be suppressed from the start, and their condition will worsen as the fight goes on.
In this step, he felt he still lost to Chi Feichi.
Chi Feichi didn't decline and asked frankly, "Do you like Sonoko?"
His tone was like stating a fact.
Kyogoku Makoto was stunned, then blushed. "How did you know?"
Conan looked at Kyogoku Makoto in astonishment. No way, really likes Sonoko?
Chi Feichi said calmly, "You followed us all the way tonight. Your gaze was on Sonoko most of the time. Occasionally, when Sonoko held my arm and laughed, it lingered on me."
Conan: "..."
He actually didn't realize someone was following them!
Kyogoku Makoto couldn't figure it out either. "When did you notice?"
"Since we came out of the hot springs," Chi Feichi said. "As for the gaze... when you stare at me, I feel uncomfortable, like thorns in my back. No need to look back, the feeling is obvious."
"No, I was just wondering what your relationship with Sonoko is," Kyogoku Makoto blushed, trying his best to deny he was glaring daggers. "Maybe I was thinking too seriously, so my gaze was a bit... a bit heavy. Actually, the question I wanted to ask you is also this. Are you and Sonoko... dating?"
"Not dating, no intention of dating," Chi Feichi said. "Just friends. Because of family relations, we might be a bit closer."
Kyogoku Makoto's eyes turned into dots. "T-That's good... No, I mean... well, that's pretty good."
Chi Feichi: "..."
Actually, he could understand Suzuki Sonoko's behavior of taking photos of couples everywhere earlier.
Although this behavior was disrespectful, it seemed the season of love had arrived recently. If one's mindset wasn't good, it was easy to smell the sour stench of love, leading to an unbalanced mentality.
After resting for a while, the group returned the way they came.
Regarding the fact that these two fought just to ask two simple questions, Conan was speechless and was shooed off to sleep by Chi Feichi...
Seeing the two could walk back as if nothing happened and seemed to want to chat more, Haibara Ai, tired from running back and forth, rubbed her eyes. "I'm going to sleep first too."
As Haibara Ai went upstairs, Chi Feichi reminded her, "Remember to wash your face."
Haibara Ai froze, then immediately ran upstairs, patter-patter, to look in the bathroom mirror.
Having been covered in dust in the woods earlier, she had only wiped it casually. Rubbing her eyes just now made her face look like a tabby cat...
Conan was also washing his face. Seeing Haibara Ai enter, he turned his head and couldn't help but snicker.
"What's so funny?" Haibara Ai turned on the tap with a straight face.
"I just think..." The smile on Conan's face froze, and he slapped his forehead in annoyance. "If I had known, I should have taken a picture of Chi Feichi lying on the ground just now. Maybe I could have swapped my video back."
Chi Feichi lying on the ground covered in dust must have been his most unpresentable moment. It's a pity he was scared by the fierceness of the two fighting and missed the opportunity...
Haibara Ai washed her face calmly. "I don't think that would be enough to swap your video back."
"At least show some concern," Conan gave her half-moon eyes. "Don't you want your photos deleted too?"
"Didn't I entrust it to you?" Haibara Ai wiped her face with a towel. Although she tacitly allowed Chi Feichi to keep the photos, if Conan could delete them, she would be happy to see it happen. Thinking this might be hard on Conan, she added, "I will pay you."
Conan got a headache. Teammates are unreliable; looks like I have to find an opportunity myself...
First floor.
Kyogoku Makoto dug out some medicine and bandages for external injuries and began skillfully treating the wounds on his hands.
Chi Feichi also treated the scrapes on his own hands.
"Senior Chi, um..." Kyogoku Makoto hesitated to speak.
Chi Feichi looked up. "What is it?"
"I didn't pay much attention to the rumors in school before, and even if I heard them, I didn't believe them," Kyogoku Makoto looked serious, feeling this matter needed to be clarified. "After knowing you, I feel even less that you are the kind of person who is cold and arrogant because of family background."
Chi Feichi nodded. "I know."
Kyogoku Makoto hesitated. "I heard that the senior sister who started saying such things was rejected by you when she confessed? Is it because of this?"
"Probably, but it's not entirely her fault." Chi Feichi didn't take it to heart.
That girl was in his memory, one year younger than him. When he was in the second year of middle school, she did confess to him.
However, the original consciousness was an introverted person who wasn't good with words. His rejection at the time was simply—'Sorry, I don't like you', and he rejected her three times in a row.
Once, that girl even specially folded a jar of paper cranes for him, but feelings couldn't be forced.
After that, rumors of his arrogance spread, from the second year of middle school all the way to high school.
At Haido High School, the original consciousness met that girl again. She apologized and explained what happened back then.
Girls usually have one or two close friends. Seeing her sad at the time, her friends complained to others about him being too heartless, and as the rumors spread, he became cold and arrogant.
Later, someone mentioned his family background, and the rumors turned into him looking down on classmates because of his family status. If he had Sonoko's personality, it would have been fine, but the original consciousness chose silence.
Or perhaps, finding a common 'enemy' is the best way to strengthen friendship. Isolation sometimes requires too many reasons, or even no truth at all.
You think so, I think so too; you don't want to talk to him, neither do I. Then we are the same kind. And when others want to gain or maintain this 'friendship', they have to be like the others.
In the end, even that girl didn't understand why it turned out like this.
Judging from the vague emotions he could feel in the memory, the original consciousness cared very much at first.
Clumsily trying to make friends, before seeing any results, he suddenly found himself isolated. How could he not care?
Even with his family situation preventing any school bullying, alienation was painful enough.
Just like at home, servants always stood aside, and he was the only one sitting at the dining table, day after day.
From a certain day, classmates at school also became distant and polite. Occasionally, when he tried to talk to them, they would respond briefly and leave in a hurry.
Then, the original consciousness became more afraid of interacting with people. The less he interacted, the easier it was to develop problems.
He felt he was much better off than the original consciousness. Regardless of what Fukuyama Zhiming thought, he felt so anyway.
At least in the short time since he came to this world, there were quite a few people he could call friends...