Chapter 10

Parsed with an automated reader. The content accuracy is not guranteed.

Whitelist us. Ad revenue gives additional support to the translator and keeps the site running.

Interested in being a part of the Nocturne TL team?

We are looking for Chinese, Korean, and Japanese translators. Join us on Discord and look for Mystique to guide you through recruitment.

===================================================================================================

The last person they went to visit was Tomami Washizu. She met Shouma in the University’s common room.

Shouma thought that she would refuse as she did yesterday, but surprisingly Tomami was very cooperative. Although there was a reason for this.

“Yamato-kun said something like ’it seems Shouma is trying to catch the random assailant, so please help him’.”

“That bastard…”

Shouma unintentionally pressed his forehead. His head began to hurt.

Shouma only asked Yamato, who has a wide circle of friends, for information about the street attack victims at the University.

Apparently, when his friend asked, ’Why are you asking me that?’ Shouma only answered with a ’I just wanted to talk to them…’ which turned out to be the worst idea. According to Tomami, Yamato seemed to tell people at the University that ’Shouma is trying to catch the random assailant all by himself!’.

(I’ve never even said anything about catching it…)

Tomami swapped her gaze and looked at Tendou who sat down next to Shouma.

“Um, Shouma-kun. This man is…?”

“Well…”

“Just an acquaintance of Shouma, whose occupation is a detective. He asked me to look into the case of these attacks.”

With a friendly smile, he held out his business card to Tomami.

To tell the truth, it was Tendou who requested Shouma to ask around about this case, but explaining that now would complicate things so he thought it would be better to just keep quiet about this.

Even though Tomami was a little suspicious of Tendou, she seemed to accept him for the time being.

“Would you tell us your story then?”

“Yes, but I don’t remember much about it.”

Something had eventually come into her mind about yesterday’s experience, since Tomami’s face suddenly turned pale.

“In the evening, I went to the supermarket near the shopping street to buy some ingredients. It happened on my way to home as I took an unpopular side street as a shortcut. Then suddenly from behind, somebody covered my face with a cloth like thing…”

Tomami pressed her hand to her mouth.

“I was in agony and my consciousness started to fade away and when I woke up, I found myself lying in the street. Then I rushed home and called the police.”

“What about the attacker?”

“I haven’t seen it. It was out of the blue…”

“Was there anything taken from you or was there any disarray in your clothing?

“No, not at all…”

Tomami tightly squeezed her chest.

“Was there anything else that caught your attention?”

Tomami shook her head. She was so scared that her knuckles were white, her body was also shaking a little.

From the expression on her face and her appearance, a feeling of guiltiness began to arise in Shouma. Despite the circumstances, Shouma thought he might be rubbing salt in the wound. He just felt a sense of remorse.

After a couple of additional questions, Tendou released Tomami. As the girl left, Shouma called out to her.

“Washizu-san!”

Just as she turned, Shouma ran to Tomami and bowed his head apologetically.

“I’m so sorry, I reminded you of those horrible things.”

“No, no. Don’t worry about it. I’m glad I could help.” She said reassuringly and smiled.

“More importantly, don’t be reckless about this case. I’ve heard that some men have been attacked too…”

“Okay, but you should be careful on the road at night too, Washizu-san.”

Tomami nodded as an answer to Shouma’s concern, then a bitter smile appeared on her face.

“I’ve always had a tutor job on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, but after what happened, today I’ve decided to stop. No matter what I did I was always finishing at a late hour. I’m even going to avoid going out at night for a while.”

“I see.” He was relieved after hearing that the girl was safe for the time being.

Tomami giggled at the sight of a clearly relieved Shouma.

“Shouma-kun is as kind as they say he is. You are seriously worried about me even though we didn’t talk as much before.”

“Hehe….I’ll always be nothing but a nice guy.”

“It’s better than being a horrible person, isn’t it?”

“Do you think so?”

“Yes, I think so.”

The exchange lasted only a few minutes, but the colour gradually came back to Tomami’s face. She then turned on her heels. As she looked back to him over her shoulder, an affectionate smile appeared on her face, which was slightly different from the one when they spoke a few moments ago.

“See you tomorrow then.”

“Yes, see you tomorrow.”

They waved to each other, then Shouma stood there until Tomami’s back disappeared.

(She was as pretty and sweet as they say. What a kind girl…)

Tomami’s kindness and concern for Shouma after her scary experience was heart-warming. Shouma felt he knew now why she was so popular.

“She’s lovely. Is she your girlfriend? Or is she the one you’re after?”

“Whoa!”

As if to interrupt his pondering, a voice came from next to him. When Shouma jumped up in surprise, the person who made the sudden call just laughed happily at his reaction.

“Tendou-san, please don’t do that!”

“Why? I didn’t interrupt you, did I?”

“That’s not the point!”

As Shouma felt he was being made fun of, his mouth curved into a crooked line. Sometimes he didn’t know exactly what the hell the always aloof Tendou had in his brain.

“Well, now we have gathered all the information we need.”

Tendou wrote the information they got from Tomami in Shouma’s notebook then slammed it shut.

Shouma twisted his head. “Have you gathered any useful information?”

“I’ve got enough, yes… So, Shouma. I’ll meet you at the office at 05:00 pm. today.”

“Wha..?”

“Let’s go and catch whatever it is that’s threatening Washizu-san.”

While Tendou said this, his unchanged fishy smile showed up on his face.

===================================================================================================

This translation is hosted by Nocturne Translations.

Related