Everyone nodded in strong agreement with the vivid mental image of Saiki hoisting a piano while practicing calligraphy.
(What exactly are you all picturing in your heads?)
Saiki finished the last of his ice cream in one bite. At this point, he had nothing but admiration for this group's imagination.
Seeing that Saiki had finished his ice cream, Shikimori cautiously stepped forward and said:
"Saiki-kun, do you want to try mine?"
Saiki had just stood up when Shikimori held out her chocolate ice cream toward him.
Saiki looked at the offered ice cream, pondering whether to eat it or...
"Bang bang bang bang..."
Just as Shikimori's heart pounded with anticipation, waiting for Saiki to take a bite.
"Ahm~"
Inuzuka Shu suddenly appeared from the side, took a huge bite, and showed a satisfied smile.
"Mm, so good!"
Shikimori: "My ice cream!!"
"Isn't this Saiki's?"
"You..."
...
[It's about time to head back, right?]
Saiki reminded them it was already 3:30, almost 4. By the time they took the train home, it'd be close to 5.
"Yeah, we should probably go. Today was really fun!"
Sure enough, when the group got off the train, it was already 4 o'clock. And the homebody duo—Izumi and Hachimitsu Yui—were so exhausted they needed to be supported.
Today's little outing came to an end here.
.....
(Yare yare daze.)
"Saiki, Saiki, what's gonna happen in the next part of the plot?"
At Akihisa's house, Akihisa shook Saiki excitedly while watching TV.
[You're so annoying. If I tell you, it'd be a spoiler, wouldn't it? And didn't you say you'd already read the novel?]
Saiki looked speechlessly at Akihisa, who had interrupted his relaxed TV-watching.
As for why Saiki was even here? It was all because Akihisa kept calling and insisting they had to watch "Detective Conan" together—no matter what.
"Fine... Oh oh, someone's dead! Someone's dead!"
Akihisa jumped up and shouted excitedly.
[So noisy.]
Sakamoto Yuuji, annoyed from the side, slapped Akihisa away with one hand.
"Don't block my view!"
"Sorry, sorry! Oh, so you're watching too, Kuma-ji!"
Sakamoto Yuuji: "Didn't you call me over to watch?"
"Because you weren't saying anything, I forgot!"
"You!"
Saiki ignored the two and kept eating chips while watching TV.
On the screen, "Detective Conan" had reached an exciting part. The police were in a standoff.
A short-haired girl with brown hair walked up to a bespectacled little boy and whispered:
"Kudou, is this case really that hard to solve? The culprit still hasn't been found?"
The bespectacled little boy lowered his head slightly. A glint of white light flashed in his eyes as he gave a meaningful smile.
"No, I already know who the culprit is!"
"Really? Who is it?"
Edogawa Conan: "It's that glasses-wearing uncle over there."
"Really?"
"Yes, definitely. After killing the victim, he knelt down crying but secretly smiled. It has to be him!"
"I see. So, have you found any evidence? How are you going to deduce it later..."
Edogawa Conan looked at Haibara in confusion: "Deduce what?"
"You're not going to do a deduction?"
Edogawa Conan silently pulled out his watch and explained: "This is Professor Agasa's invention—the anesthesia needle watch. With this!"
"Hah!!!"
Edogawa Conan let out a low growl. The needle from his watch shot into the back of the culprit Tofu's neck.
The man immediately collapsed onto the sofa. Edogawa Conan walked behind the sofa, pulled out the voice-changing bowtie, adjusted it, and spoke in the culprit Tofu's voice:
"The culprit is me!!"
The police rushed over.
Haibara: "What the hell, you can do it like that!"
...
With that demonic BGM, the episode ended abruptly.
"Finally over. Alright, Akihisa, I'm gonna use your bathroom to take a shower!"
Sakamoto Yuuji got up and left the living room. Only Saiki and Akihisa remained. Just as Saiki was about to make an excuse to leave,
Akihisa spoke up: "Saiki, let's play some games! I've got tons of different kinds at home."
[Games again!]
"Yeah! Anything you can think of, I've probably got it. Pretty much every genre. If you get hooked, I can even lend them to you."
[Games, huh. I have a lot at home too, though I didn't bring any. I don't really play the popular story-driven ones much—once you know the plot, half the fun is gone. If there were some obscure games, that'd be great!]
"Hmm, you like story games? And obscure ones at that? Your tastes are pretty unique. But I've got plenty of those!"
Akihisa pulled Saiki over to the bookshelf. Two full rows were dedicated to games, with several boxes underneath.
[Wow, you really have a ton of games at home! And this is after you sold some recently.]
"Right? Too bad, though. The new ones I bought recently got listed online and sold right away~"
Akihisa looked dejected, clearly missing the rare out-of-print games he'd once owned.
[If you hadn't sold them, you wouldn't have been able to eat, right!]
"Yeah, true..."
Akihisa rummaged for a while, pulled out a box, and handed it to Saiki while explaining: "Here, Saiki—the games in this box are basically all obscure. Hardly anyone plays them. Some are straight-up trash, full of weird bugs. There are super high-difficulty ones that almost no one has beaten, and some really bizarre ones..."
Saiki casually picked one up and opened the packaging. It was a disc game.
[Chaos World. Never heard of it. This should work.]
Akihisa saw the game Saiki picked and said calmly: "Saiki, I'd advise you to pick something else. This one's known as an anti-addiction game!"
[It's fine. I want this one.]
"Oh, alright then. You can look up some commentary videos of people who've played it later. There should be some, though I haven't watched them."
[Got it, got it. Just lend me this one for now. I'll return it after I beat it.]
Saiki gave a casual reply, but there was no way he'd actually look them up. Who did Saiki think he was? From childhood to now, he'd played no fewer than twenty or fifty games, and he always cleared them blind without guides.
Saiki put the game away. Akihisa only grabbed three games total, then went to the living room, hooked everything up to the TV, and started playing.
"Saiki, watch my controls! Watch how I play. We'll do co-op later."
(This one I already beat a month ago.)
Saiki looked at the game Akihisa was playing. It was exactly the one he'd cleared a month earlier. His interest dropped sharply.
At that moment, a scream came from the bathroom.
"Ah!"
...