Act 15: Scene 6

After all of their morning classes were over, it was now time for their lunch break. Unfortunately for Kiyotaka, he wouldn't get a chance to even get a bite during this whole period because as soon as the bell rang, Haruka wasted no time by running to his desk with a smile and looking eager for some reason.

"Come on, let's go! The sooner we work on finding our witness, the better!" she exclaimed, sending him a warm smile.

After getting over a brief moment of surprise, Kiyotaka only nodded slowly, knowing that he really didn't have any choice in the matter. Declining her wasn't an option as it would make the girl sad. Plus, he did agree to be her partner in their little mission to search for evidence that can help in Akito's case.

Still, do they have to do this as early as their lunch break when they could just do this after class? Their free time right now was supposed to be dedicated to eating lunch...

"Can we eat first before we do this, Hasebe?" he asked as he stood up from his seat.

"Of course we'll eat something before we go look for our mystery person. We'll head to the cafeteria, buy something we can eat on the way, and start looking from there!" she explained happily. It should be noted that her demeanor was happier compared to her earlier state. "Now, are you ready to begin our search, Kiyopon?"

Well, at least he'd be able to buy and eat something before doing this. Maybe a burger or a hotdog sandwich would do. And then a can of soda or a bottle of juice. His thoughts didn't linger on food for long though, because his attention was quickly directed to the name that Haruka used to refer to him.

"Who the hell is 'Kiyopon'?" he said in a deadpan voice.

Haruka began to giggle in amusement at seeing his reaction. "It's a nickname, silly! Jeez, it was so obvious!"

"Oh, yeah... she likes making nicknames for other people. But still... the one she gave me could have been better. She could just call me by my name instead," he thought to himself, remembering a particular quirk about Haruka in her 'heroine summary'. Still, it didn't stop him from feeling a little weird about the name itself. It honestly sounded too cute for his liking and he was sure that Kikyo, Chiaki, and Kei would never let him live it down if they learn about it. "What kind of nickname is 'Kiyopon'?"

"It's what I'll call you from now on!"

Haruka looked really proud of herself for coming up with the nickname, while Kiyotaka just stared at her, unsure of what to feel about it.

"You get used to it..."

Hearing someone's voice cutting into their conversation, Kiyotaka turned his head to see Akito with a bored look on his face, looking like all signs of life had left his body. The magenta-haired boy felt frustrated that he couldn't do anything to help his friends in proving his own innocence, but he knew that it was for his own good.

"Come to think of it, Hasebe calls him 'Miyacchi', and not by his name," the brown-haired teen thought to himself as he stared at Akito for a moment, before shrugging in defeat. "I'll keep it in mind."

"Oh, why are you complaining about it now, Miyacchi? I've called you the same way ever since we were kids!" Haruka placed her hands on her hips and smirked at her friend in a teasing manner.

Akito sighed and shook his head. "I'm not complaining about anything."

The girl turned towards him next. "What about you, Kiyopon? Do you have a problem with what I call you? If you do, well... just say so, okay? I don't want to make you uncomfortable."

Even though there was a part of him that felt awkward about the nickname that she wanted for him, it wasn't really that big of a deal in the end. Who knows? The name might grow on him eventually and he'd have no problem with it when the time comes.

"...it's fine."

The smile that appeared on Haruka's face afterwards could light up and keep the whole campus powered for a full year with its radiance, which was a sight that caught Kiyotaka off guard just for a moment, as two new notifications appeared before him.

[Congratulations! You unlocked the Achievement: 'The Nickname Stuck'! You gained +5 in Charm!]

[You gained 10 Affection Points with Hasebe Haruka!]

"Nice to know!" she exclaimed happily before grabbing his arm. Afterwards, Haruka then began to lead him out of the classroom. "Come on, let's get going. Even I'm feeling hungry about sitting here for hours."

"Yeah..." he muttered, unable to do anything but follow after his blue-haired classmate.

Before the two could leave the room, however, two girls with shoulder-length brown hair had walked past them which got their attention and caused them to turn around. Both of them were surprised to see the two girls stopping right in front of Akito's desk as though they had something to talk to him about.

"Are you feeling okay, Miyake-kun?"

Akito blinked in surprise at seeing two of his classmates standing right in front of him with concerned looks on their faces. He was even more surprised that both of them were people whom he had never really interacted with before, though he knew who they were.

"I'm fine. Why are you asking, uh... Inogashira?" he replied, pausing in his words temporarily when he scrambled his brain while thinking of the name of the girl who just spoke.

"I can't imagine the kind of pain you had to go through..." Inogashira Kokoro bore a downcast look on her face, before she placed a comforting hand on Akito's shoulder. The gesture surprised him greatly. "Are you sure you're fine? Sensei did say that you were up against three students..."

"I'm still alive, aren't I?" he asked rhetorically, as he began to wonder why this girl was here and asking about how he's feeling. Akito wouldn't even say that they're friends, just classmates.

"Are you sure? You didn't suffer from any serious injuries when it happened?" Inogashira's companion asked, having the same disheartened look on her face.

Akito scratched the back of his neck, continuing to feel confused on why these two girls were here. "Er, yeah... other than bruises, a busted lip, and some scratches, nothing more. I didn't get any broken bones or anything like that. I'm completely fine, Mori."

"I hope that's the case..." Mori Nene clasped her hands together and released a huge sigh of relief, before smiling at the magenta-haired boy. "I'm just glad to see you're okay, Miyake-kun."

"Why are you two ask—"

"Is there anything I can do to help you, Miyake-kun?"

"Me too. I want to help as well! I already talked to my friends a while ago and they said they'll help with finding the person who saw the whole thing."

Akito stared at them with a dumbfounded look. "Don't worry about me. I'm okay."

Seriously, why were these girls being overly concerned about him? It really confused him, because Kokoro and Nene had never really talked to him before. The only time that they even interacted was when they were cheering for him during the swimming race two months ago, but can that even be called an 'interaction'?

"Are you sure? You don't feel sad that our classmates didn't believe you earlier?" Inogashira asked, squeezing his shoulder slightly as a sign of concern.

"Yeah, the nerve of them..." Mori frowned and turned her head slightly to glance at their classmates, especially the boys. "I can't believe they would suspect their own classmate right away without even thinking about it a lot more!"

"Seriously, I'm fine... you two have nothing to worry about..."

Kiyotaka watched the interaction between the three individuals before him with a look of interest in his eyes. He didn't know why, but it kind of felt amusing to see Miyake talking with Inogashira and Mori. It's like seeing Sudo talking with Onodera after he admitted that he liked her. Perhaps it's because the scenario was a reminder of his own situation regarding his heroines?

"We better leave them alone, Kiyopon. I think they deserve some privacy~"

The young man turned towards Haruka, who was also watching her friend with a smug look on her face, like she was thinking of something devious in mind. He simply shrugged in response, as they continued on their way out of the classroom.

As they walked through the hallway while heading to the cafeteria to buy something to eat, Kiyotaka decided to strike up a conversation between them out of pure curiosity on his part. The question on his mind being the relationship between Miyake and Hasebe, even though he already knew what it was from her 'summary' alone. Plus, in Hasebe's eyes, he doesn't know about their close relationship at all.

"You and Miyake seem to be close," he commented.

"Well yeah, I mean... we're friends. Isn't it typical for friends to be close to each other?" Haruka replied, curious on why he would say something that was completely obvious.

"No, I mean, you seem to know a lot about Miyake. More than anyone else in the classroom. Is there some history between you two?"

"Oh, that's because we've known each other for years. We've been classmates ever since grade school, and now we ended up in the same high school even though we didn't tell each other where we'd go!"

"So... childhood friends?"

"I guess? Our parents aren't really close friends or anything like that. We've just known each other since we were kids, which is why I know that he didn't do anything wrong. Miyacchi would never start a fight with anyone else, even if he does get into a lot of arguments. He's not like that."

Kiyotaka raised an eyebrow at her. "Oh? Would you mind enlightening me then? What is Miyake like?"

Haruka shook her head and shifted her gaze to the ground. "Miyacchi's not that complicated. He's honest and straightforward with what he feels, and he can be pretty blunt with his words most of the time. That's the reason why he got into a lot of disagreements in our old school, because other people keep on misinterpreting what he says. It doesn't help that he didn't really care about his studies much and liked to focus more on archery."

"Sounds like he's a bit of a delinquent."

"Yeah... it was hard to help get out of those situations because Miyacchi would always fight back when someone pushes him first. Luckily, he promised to never involve himself in those situations again when we started high school here. And Miyacchi did that by staying quiet, because he noticed that it's because of his mouth that he gets into trouble."

"That explains why he's quiet most of the time," he commented, thinking back on the times when he observed his classmates from afar. Compared to most of the boys, Akito was relatively quiet and didn't speak unless he was spoken to. The only person whom he regularly talked to was Haruka and for good reason.

"Mmhm. And it's the biggest reason why I don't believe that Miyacchi started that fight. Other than him being my friend, of course."

Kiyotaka nodded slowly, now understanding why this girl was deeply motivated to show that Akito didn't do anything wrong. An admirable trait, if he had to be honest. Akito himself didn't look like he cared about defending himself at first, but Haruka went ahead and did the work for him by asking for his, Kushida, and Karuizawa's help.

"So that's why you're protective of him."

"Protective?" she asked curiously.

"It's just something I've noticed while observing the two of you yesterday. Miyake didn't seem to care about proving his innocence at first, which was surprising considering how you spoke of him. But you were very determined to convince us to help you. You were even a lot more serious yesterday than how you are right now."

Haruka thought about that explanation for a moment, before she found herself agreeing with it. "Well, I guess you can say that I'm a bit protective of Miyacchi. He's a very dear friend to me, and I'm not gonna let him take the blame for something he didn't do."

"You're a good friend, Hasebe. Miyake's lucky to have you by his side," he said in the most sincere tone he could muster at the moment.

The girl snapped her head to the right as she looked at Kiyotaka with wide eyes, an intense blush quickly forming on her cheeks. She didn't expect to hear such a thing from Kiyotaka, which was even more significant coming from him because he chose to help her in proving Akito's innocence.

"Ah, t-thanks..." she mumbled, before snapping herself out of her embarrassment by forcing a smile on her face. "J-Jeez, is this why Kushida-san and Karuizawa-san like you? Your mouth is a dangerous weapon~"

As he felt Haruka slapping him on the shoulder a few times, Kiyotaka took notice of another notification that had popped up just now.

[You gained 5 Affection Points with Hasebe Haruka!]

"I guess..." he muttered while dismissing it, as the young man couldn't help but think about how quick he was gaining Affection Points with Haruka, which was very reminiscent of what happened with Kikyo at first.

Hmm, surely Haruka didn't have a hidden side like Kikyo, right?