After finishing a day of busy work, Saiki returned to the dormitory, preparing to rest a little and then go home.
'With so many people in the class helping, I probably won't be needed. That's if there's no progress afterwards.' Saiki thought this in his heart.
And just at that moment, he suddenly caught a few familiar inner voices, and a few seconds later, knocking on the door came right on cue.
'Should I pretend I'm not in the dorm? No, I came back with them…'
After thinking for a few seconds, Saiki had no choice but to walk forward and open the door.
"Saiki-kun!"
Standing at the door were still the same troublesome group from before: Kushida, the idiot trio, and Ayanokoji Kiyotaka.
"What is it?" Saiki asked, even though he knew asking this question was meaningless.
"Let's discuss what to do next. After all, we have less than a week left." Kushida said very seriously, and then entered Saiki's room with the others.
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka's eyes wandered around Saiki's room, looking for valuable details, but didn't find anything useful.
Everyone quickly started discussing their next action plan in Saiki's room, how to help Sudo Ken clear his name as quickly as possible.
Saiki didn't speak at all and could only look at everyone with a cold expression.
[Feels like Saiki's room is so clean, very suitable to be our base of operations from now on.]
'Hey hey hey, do you guys seriously have to discuss in my room? Clearly, this can be done on the chat app on your phones too.'
[Later I'll secretly try to get a few of Saiki-kun's room keys.]
'I advise you not to even think about it.'
[If we discuss face to face, I can be closer to Kushida-san!]
'Can you at least not do it in my room?'
Everyone talked noisily without reaching any conclusions, but at that moment, knocking came from the door again.
'Another troublesome person.'
Saiki, using his telepathy, judged that the person standing outside the door was Suzune, but very quickly, Saiki read her purpose for coming and took the initiative to open the door.
"Horikita, why did you come?" Ike Kanji, upon seeing Suzune, was a bit surprised.
[These guys wasted an entire afternoon doing meaningless work? The witness was clearly right next to us, and no one even noticed.]
'Actually, someone noticed. We all just pretended not to know.'
"Seeing you all working hard for nothing all afternoon, I came to give you a little hint."
Suzune shook her head with a bit of helplessness, then continued, "The eyewitness is actually right beside us."
"Who is it?" Hearing Suzune's words, Sudo Ken immediately asked impatiently.
"It's Sakura from our class." Suzune gave her answer.
"Sakura… Sakura Airi?"
The others were a bit surprised to hear this name from Suzune, because Sakura Airi was practically invisible in class.
"When Hirata gave his speech asking others to help Sudo earlier, Sakura's expression was very unnatural. She definitely knows something."
[Actually, Sakura already revealed a flaw at the beginning, but Horikita still saw it in the end.]
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka's inner voice rang in Saiki's ears, and the other people's inner voices followed right after.
[Even that, Horikita noticed? That's amazing!] The idiot trio, surprisingly, had the same thought.
[Tch, she didn't say anything earlier and only now brings it up. Is she trying to show off her ability?]
And in Kushida's heart, her annoyance toward Suzune grew stronger. But she didn't show it and instead took out her phone to immediately call Sakura Airi, but the call wasn't answered.
"She didn't answer..."
"Just when we finally found a clue..." Sudo Ken lay down on the bed and spoke with frustration.
'Hey hey hey, that's my bed. Even though I usually don't sleep there, if you dare get any dust on it, every basketball you shoot from now on will be flat.'
"But even if she's willing to testify in court, it's meaningless. Whether it was self-defense or not, this is just a minor issue."
After saying this, Suzune directly left the room, leaving behind a bunch of confused people.
Soon after, everyone else also gradually left the room, leaving only Kushida still inside.
"Saiki-kun, what do you think Horikita's words just now meant?" Kushida deliberately asked.
'Obviously, she was talking about Sudo's personality. Because of Sudo's easily agitated nature, that's why something like this happened.'
Saiki thought this in his heart, but still only shook his head.
"Not too sure."
"Is that so?" Kushida slightly pressed her lips together and looked at Saiki's face.
[Does Saiki really not know? Saiki seems to have a so-so relationship with that Horikita girl. Instead, it seems like Horikita somewhat cares about Saiki. If one day I completely fall out with Suzune, maybe Saiki could become my ally.]
'Please, don't include me in that.'
"Then forget it, I'll go ask Sakura-san myself tomorrow! She doesn't look like someone who likes to talk. If there are too many people, she might get scared!"
"Yeah." Saiki nodded, finally ending today's conversation with Kushida.
'Since Kushida is going to take the initiative to talk to Sakura, what comes next should have nothing to do with me.' Saiki thought this in his heart.
———
Next day, during the morning break, just like she said before, Kushida took the initiative to find Sakura Airi.
"Sakura-san!"
Kushida greeted Sakura Airi very warmly, and the latter clearly showed some surprise and discomfort on her face.
"W-what is it?"
On the other side, Suzune, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, and Saiki, were watching the two of them from a distance at the corner of the hallway.
'Why did I have to come along too...'
Saiki felt a bit helpless in his heart, but he had no choice. This was Suzune's request, and there seemed to be no room to refuse.
[Kushida... Why is Kushida-san suddenly talking to me… I… I'm not good at looking people in the eyes when speaking… I don't know how to communicate… Don't tell me… don't tell me… they know I'm the eyewitness?]
Saiki could not only hear Sakura Airi's inner voice, but with his X-ray vision bonus, he could clearly see that Sakura Airi's breathing and heartbeat had both quickened.
'When it comes to interacting with people, Sakura is even more extreme than Shiina.' Saiki thought this in his heart.
Shiina Hiyori also had issues with communication, but she was still very different from Sakura Airi.
Shiina Hiyori wasn't good at talking to people, but deep down, she really wanted to find someone she could share common interests with.
But Sakura Airi might actually be resistant to interacting with others.
One is "not good at," the other is "not willing to."
[According to the cultural anthropologist Edward Hall, personal space is divided into four kinds. One of them is called intimate distance. When someone gets close enough to hug you, that is called extremely close intimate distance, and people naturally show a strong sense of rejection.]
[However, if it's a lover or a close friend, this distance doesn't feel uncomfortable. In Kushida's case, even if she enters the extremely close distance of someone she doesn't have a deep relationship with, generally, it doesn't cause rejection. You could say she makes people unaware that she's entered their intimate distance…]
Looking at the two from a distance, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka thought this in his heart.
'Who are you? And now you're even analyzing things here? Quoting famous scholars in your mind, you're the first one I've seen do that.' Saiki mentally complained.
Originally, he thought today's events had nothing to do with him. But Suzune still "invited" him here, saying it was to prevent unexpected events.
Saiki looked at Sakura Airi. In her hand was a small camera. Using his telepathy, Saiki knew that she had unintentionally captured a related image earlier.
"Um, I want to ask you something about Sudo-kun." Kushida politely asked, with a gentle smile on her face.
"I-I don't know! I don't know anything!"
Facing Kushida's question, Sakura Airi looked like she had been threatened, backing away repeatedly, and her eyes avoided Kushida, never landing on her at all.
"It won't take long. This matter is very important!" Kushida continued. Sakura Airi's reaction was a bit unexpected for her.
"I really don't know anything!"
Sakura Airi turned to run away, but her body suddenly lost balance, and she fell to the ground. The camera in her hand also fell and made a crisp sound.
Sakura Airi didn't care about the pain in her body and rushed forward to check if her camera was damaged.
"S-sorry! Are you okay?"
Kushida hadn't expected things to turn out like this either.
[She fell on her own, right? It has nothing to do with me! Damn it, if others misunderstand this later, it'll be trouble!]
Sakura Airi stared nervously at her camera, unable to turn it on for a long time.
"S-sorry…"
"No, I wasn't being careful…"
Sakura Airi left only this sentence, then hugged the camera and quickly ran away.
[I… I don't want others to know the real me…]
"Sakura-san…"
Kushida didn't know for a moment whether to chase her or not. By the time she reacted, Sakura Airi had already vanished without a trace.
"Ah, looks like the situation has become troublesome."
Ayanokouji Kiyotaka slowly said, and Horikita Suzune at the side also nodded to express agreement, but she also had no intention of intervening and soon left the place.
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