***
He had joined the throngs of students making their way to Aki Guro. Of course, their numbers were evading his presence. He was through the front gate when he could sense Noda’s cheery perseverance approaching him from behind.
“Hey there, partner!” She gave him a chummy swat on the shoulder.
“What are you on about now?” he said, not bothering to look at her.
Her output was too bright for this early in the morning. Did her parents have to sedate her before putting her to bed every night?
“Nothing, nothing at all. Why would you think that?”
“I just have a feeling...”
How could he forget, this one had another side to her. She liked to only unveil it when she had to, catching fellow socialites off guard when they had already labeled her as a dimwit. It was almost scheming in a manner, but more practical and forthcoming.
‘Oh boy, here it comes...’
“So I was thinking about what happened last night.”
“Wow, you too? Man, and I thought it was just me.”
Noda tipped her nose up with a sideways look and an annoyed expression. “Ya know, you’re really starting to irritate me a little. You wouldn’t want me to go all out on you. Don’t forget, I have a camera.”
“Then I’ll be sure to never leave my house.”
“Come on! We really had something going there. If we hadn’t shown up, those guys would have had their eyes on another school by now.”
“Yes, yes, those poor tech geeks...” Eiichi shook his head. “What would they do without their processors and flat screens, is there nothing sacred?”
“And teamwork.” She clenched a fist. “That never could have happened if you didn’t have my back and I didn’t have yours.”
“Go team...”
Noda’s face became sullen, since her attempts at rousing his enthusiasm to a level that matched her own had failed.
“You...at least felt something about what happened, didn’t you...” she said, her high voice taking a flow down into damper.
“I remember being in fear for our lives. I remember wanting to make sure you didn’t wind up hurt, and that we both came out of it vertical and breathing.”
“Y...yeah...”
He could feel her recalling the fear she had experienced as she smoothed her arm subconsciously. She may have been an optimist, but she still had her doubts. She had been aware there was the chance that her own plans would not work out. She had not been faking the fear in those moments, when both their lives were in danger.
“But we still managed to kick butt!” she bounced back, pumping her fist in the air.
Eiichi shut his eyes. “And just barely scrape by getting into some serious trouble.”
“Don’t think of it as just that. Come on, how many kids our age get to say they stopped a school robbery all on their own?”
“We didn’t stop anything. We just happened to make a big mess of things before the police could show and clean everything up.”
“Are you kidding? What about how we figured it out all on our own? What about all that stuff you knew about those guys, and how you read them like books? What about what that officer said about us assisting in an investigation, hmmm?” She leered at him with a smirk.
Her quick responses were getting just a bit annoying, and that ‘reading them like books’ comment was too close for comfort.
“That one just fell into our laps and I just happened to know the guys involved.”
Noda wagged a finger, “If you keep thinking like such a realist, you’re never going to open your mind up to the possibilities.”
“Says the sensationalist!” Eiichi turned on her with an irritation in his eyes that she seemed completely impervious to now. “And just what ‘possibilities’ did you have in mind?”
He already knew she was hiding something, and from her output retracting so immediately at the question, it was now just blatantly obvious.
“Oh, um...you don’t need to worry about that.” She ended this with a polite smile that Eiichi could not take at face value, not even if there was a free meal and a pack of smokes in it for him.
“Uh-huh, and why am I getting this feeling that you don’t really mean that?”
“I’m just saying keep it in mind is all. Well, I gotta’ make it to my room before class starts. See ya later!”
‘Funny, one little inquiry and suddenly she leaves all on her own…’
He knew this wasn’t going to last long.
Eiichi P.I., Vol. 1 Page 11
