"Quick on the uptake, aren't you?" Hayashi Shuichi remarked with a dry chuckle. "Do you really think I'm going to fall for—"
Before he could finish his sentence, a heavy, deliberate cough echoed from right behind him.
Shuichi's entire body went rigid.
He turned his head slowly, only to find Murakami-sensei, their homeroom teacher, standing there with her arms crossed. Her expression was unreadable, which was usually a sign of impending doom.
"Hayashi Shuichi," Murakami-sensei said, her voice dropping to a glacial temperature. "I recall telling you to help our new student get acclimated to the school environment. I don't recall giving you permission to use that as an opportunity to harass and bully her."
"Teacher, you've got it all wrong!" Shuichi laughed nervously, quickly releasing his grip on Akane's shoulders. "She started it! She—"
"What did Koizumi-san do?" Murakami-sensei huffed, her gaze darting suspiciously between the two of them. "Go on, tell me."
"She... she was trying to curse me..."
Shuichi held out his hands helplessly, his voice trailing off as he realized how insane he sounded.
Predictably, Murakami-sensei let out a sharp, mocking laugh.
"What century do you think we're living in? You actually expect to fool me with that?" The teacher shook her fist with feigned irritation. "From where I'm standing, it looks like you saw how pretty Koizumi-san is and decided to mess with her! If the school didn't have a policy against hitting students, I would have already..."
"I'm being framed, Teacher!" Shuichi cried out in protest. "Sure, her face is alright, but what else does she have? Yukiko has a better face and a much better figure, and I've never once harassed her. Why would I suddenly be overcome with lust for this one?"
"Hmm... that actually makes a fair bit of sense," Murakami-sensei muttered, nodding thoughtfully.
"What do you mean, 'what else do I have'!?" Akane puffed out her flat chest, shouting in defiance. "Who is this Yukiko? Bring her out here right now! I'll take her on!"
"Yukiko is Mt. Fuji; you're a landing strip," Shuichi quipped with a disdainful curl of his lip. "There's no comparison."
"You...!" Akane clenched her fists, her eyes practically spitting fire. "You obnoxious jerk! Just you wait. I'm going back to cursing you the second I get a chance. Enjoy sneezing your brains out all day!"
"See, Teacher? You heard that, right?" Shuichi immediately turned back to Murakami-sensei. "She admitted to cursing me!"
"Enough!" Murakami-sensei rubbed her temples, feeling a headache coming on. "The both of you are high schoolers. Can you try to act a little less juvenile?"
"Forget it. I don't have the energy to deal with your drama. Kids these days are such a pain..."
Grumbling to herself, Murakami-sensei turned on her heel and headed back toward the faculty office.
Once she was out of sight, Shuichi and Akane turned to glare at each other. Simultaneously, they both let out a sharp "Hmph!" and whipped their heads in opposite directions, neither wanting to endure another second of the other's presence.
"What was that you said? You still want to curse me?" Shuichi narrowed his eyes. "I'm starting to think that if I really do influence your destiny, it's only because you brought it on yourself by being so insufferable."
"Liars! That has nothing to do with it!" Akane's face was flushed red, looking for all the world like a ruffled kitten.
"The logic is simple," Shuichi began, his tone slow and analytical. "I want nothing to do with you, yet you insist on cursing me. That means you're the one who keeps forcing a connection between us."
"I most certainly do not!" Akane stomped her foot. "You're a pest! I'd like nothing more than to be miles away from you."
"Then it's settled!" Shuichi said, his expression suddenly turning serious. "You don't curse me, and I don't go near you. If we avoid each other entirely, that 'Wheel of Fate' or whatever you call it should naturally spin back to where it belongs."
"I... I guess that could work," Akane said tentatively. "Mother never really taught me the specifics of destiny manipulation, but..."
"Then let's test it out," Shuichi shrugged. "Neither of us bothers the other. We'll check the results in a few days. Deal?"
Faced with no other options and a desperate desire to return to her quiet life at home, Akane had no choice but to nod in agreement.
After school...
Having identified the person supposedly distorting her fate, Akane—a true homebody at heart—couldn't wait to flee back to her sanctuary.
However, the moment she stepped out of the school gates, she spotted Hayashi Shuichi and Eri Kisaki walking together, clearly heading toward the Izakaya.
Akane stopped dead in her tracks, her face a mask of suspicion and irritation. "Why are you following me!?"
"My dear lady, I'm just going home!" Shuichi sighed, pointing toward the road ahead. "I have to go this way. What about you?"
"I have to go this way too," Akane said after a moment of thought. "Fine. Let me go first! Wait until I turn into that alleyway ahead before you start moving!"
"Fine by me," Shuichi said, making a 'ladies first' gesture.
As Akane passed him, she treated him like a carrier of the plague. She held her schoolbag in front of her like a shield, maintaining as much distance as the sidewalk allowed, terrified that even a stray brush of their sleeves might trigger another cosmic catastrophe.
Watching Akane's retreating figure, Eri couldn't help but ask, "What exactly is going on between the two of you?"
"You probably wouldn't believe me if I told you," Shuichi said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out the crumpled piece of paper.
"What's this?" Eri looked at it with a confused frown. "Why did she write your name? It doesn't exactly look like a love letter."
"It's a curse," Shuichi whispered. "My name is in the center, and those symbols around it are a magic circle."
"Hah!" Eri let out a genuine laugh. "Shuichi, we stopped being elementary schoolers a long time ago. You don't actually believe in this stuff, do you?"
"I didn't want to," Shuichi said, running a hand through his hair. "But during math class this morning, every time she whispered something to this paper, I started sneezing. The second I snatched the paper away, it stopped."
"A coincidence, nothing more," Eri said dismissively. She crumpled the paper into a ball and tossed it into a nearby trash can. "You're either coming down with a cold or you've developed a sudden allergy."
"That's what I thought, too, but..."
Shuichi's words died in his throat. His eyes widened.
In an alleyway not far ahead—the same one Akane had just entered—a figure mounted on a broomstick was slowly ascending into the sky.
Wait... even if this is a world governed by 'Conan-logic,' shouldn't we still follow the basic laws of physics? What kind of aerodynamic principle allows a cleaning tool to achieve lift-off?!
"Let's go. You aren't actually going to wait for her to get all the way home, are you?" Eri asked, tugging on her childhood friend's sleeve when she noticed him staring blankly into the distance.
"Over there," Shuichi said, his voice sounding hollow and airy as he pointed toward the sky. "Akane Koizumi just flew out of that alley on a broomstick. Did you see that?"
"...Shuichi, are you sure you don't have a fever?"
Eri stood on her tiptoes, pressing her forehead against his to check his temperature.
"Your head isn't hot. Why are you talking nonsense?"
"You really didn't see anything just now?" Shuichi asked, desperate for confirmation.
"Shuichi, stop it!" Eri snapped, giving him an annoyed look. "Flying on a broom? Do you honestly think Akane Koizumi is some kind of witch?"
(End of Chapter)
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