The Fear of the Past //Saiouma (Pregame)

Chapter 8

A/N: People actually read this? Also, this chapter may be extra long, so do please prepare yourself.

Shuichi felt he didn't deserve the title he currently held.

Shuichi was called the Ultimate Detective. But he felt nothing like a detective. Even when he solved cases, he didn't feel like he completed an achievement or something.

Detective's were supposed to help people by uncovering the truth. Shuichi had uncovered the truth, but he didn't help anyone with it. It actually made people despise him for doing so.

Shuichi didn't deserve to be a detective. After all, what kind of detective was scared of the truth?

After the case that completely changed his life, he stumbled across another homicide. The thing was, he knew who the culprit was. But he insisted kept his mouth shut. After all, he didn't want what happened before to be repeated.

The culprit was caught, which caused Shuchi some relief. Other people were thankful that the culprit was caught as well. Because of this, Shuichi wondered what people would say to him if he was the one who caught the culprit. Would they praise him? Or would they look at him with pure hatred in their eyes?

He really didn't want to know.

But now, maybe his talent can be useful for something.

His classmate, Rantaro Amami, talent unknown, was murdered by one of them. If he wasn't able to figure out who killed him, everyone else except the killer would die.

'Maybe. Just maybe. If I solve this case, maybe I'll finally be worthy of the title of the Ultimate Detective...'

-----------------------

Shuichi was investigating alone.

It's not like he insisted that he wanted to investigate alone. In fact, he'd rather have a companion. He didn't really trust his own work, so he wished to use whatever knowledge he had to help another.

No, others insisted that he work alone.

"Shuichi, as the Ultimate Detective, I can conclude that it'd be better if you investigate alone. After all, we wouldn't want amateurs slowing you down. Or at least according to my calculations." K1-B0, or Kiibo, the Ultimate Robot, explained. At this, he recived nods from everyone.

"B-but, I'm not really a detective..." Shuichi tried to insist. He quickly stopped arguing as soon as everyone else turned to look at him. He hated being stared at. He'd rather just fade into the background. If he was stared at, he'd just go along with whatever the others wanted to do.

"Hey! Stop saying that! You are a real detective. Just be more confident in yourself, and I know that you can do it!" Kaede, the Ultimate Pianist, said with courage that she wished to pass on to Shuichi.

Shuichi was a little startled. Other people have tried to reassure him like that, but never this intense. He could feel that she meant it too. "Kaede..." he wanted to say more, but he still felt small as the others stared at him.

The other students started saying words of encouragement. Even Maki said a "you can do it" silently. This made Shuichi relize that they were all counting on him. He couldn't let them down.

"Okay! You can count on me. I'll make sure to find the answers we're looking for." With this, everyone smiled and left Shuichi to do his job.

-----------------------

Shuichi was a very organized person.

So when he decided it'd be best to start with alibis, it was no suprise that he'd pull out a notebook in order to write them in.