[Hayata Saotome Arc 8] I don’t know

—Just before dawn, at Shinjuku Police Station.

Amid the clutter of paperwork and the buzz of voices echoing through the station,

Kosuke Kaname walked over with two cans of coffee from the vending machine.

“Here.”

“Ah—thank you! …sir.”

The can was so hot, Hayata had to hold it through the sleeve of his hoodie.

“I’ll give you a ride. The trains aren’t running yet, right?”

“…Y-yeah!”

—

Inside the car.

The city still lay in silence, as if asleep.

Pale blue light from early morning filtered through the windshield.

Cradling the can in both hands in the passenger seat,

Hayata still couldn’t calm the pounding in his chest.

“That was insane. The police are seriously amazing! I’ve never seen anything like that before!”

—

Back when he was in elementary school—

The world outside was always noisy.

Cars passing during his walk to school, teachers and classmates talking, the PA system echoing through the halls…

It all rang painfully in his ears, making his head throb.

So during breaks, he’d always hide in the library.

He’d read the same old manga, the ones nobody else picked up, over and over again.

One day, while flipping through a page he’d read dozens of times—

he suddenly heard a classmate’s voice.

“Hayata’s always in the library. Isn’t that, like, creepy?”

He hadn’t been eavesdropping. The voice just slipped in on its own.

He pretended he didn’t hear. Pretended he didn’t notice.

But—he probably gave himself away through his expression, his body language.

After that, little by little, people stopped talking to him.

It happened more than once.

These ears of his never brought anything good.

Being able to hear—for him, had always felt like a curse.

But—

—

“You’re Hayata, right? You a student?”

The sudden question snapped Hayata back to the present.

“…Yeah, I mean, kind of—college student!”

“What’s your last name again? Sa—”

“Sa-o-to-me! ‘Quick,’ ‘Sound,’ and ‘Woman.’ I told you already!”

“Interesting kanji.”

Kaname’s voice was lazy and casual, but there was something cheerful about it.

After a while, they stopped at a red light.

“You did good today.”

“Y-yeah! …It’s the first time I’ve ever been useful to someone because of what I heard! It made me really happy!”

Hayata beamed as he looked over at Kaname’s profile.

“Is that so.”

Kaname adjusted his grip on the steering wheel, voice soft, but his eyes focused beyond the windshield.

“There are tons of cases out there like tonight—

things most people would just overlook.”

Hayata held his breath.

“I want to build an unofficial unit that solves those cases with unconventional methods. Not your typical textbook detective work.”

The weight of his words seeped into Hayata’s chest, along with the low rumble of the engine.

“…!”

Hayata opened his mouth to respond—

but the light turned green, and the car began to move again.

Eventually, they pulled up in front of Hayata’s apartment building.

“Ah, this is it!”

“Got it.”

As soon as he opened the door, the sharp difference in temperature made him shiver.

The chill of morning air sank deep into his lungs.

—Something this amazing… it’s probably never going to happen again.

That’s what he was thinking when—

“Hey.”

A quiet voice called out to him, and he instinctively turned back.

Kaname was looking at him from the driver’s seat.

“…If you had the chance to help someone again—

what would you do?”

Hayata’s eyes widened.

He didn’t have an answer. He didn’t know anything yet.

But—

today, his voice had reached someone.

“…I don’t know.”

At that answer, Kaname gave a slow, easy smile.

“—I’ll be in touch.”

“…Okay!”

Hayata answered without thinking, and Kaname gave him a quiet wave.

“I’ll be in touch.”

That phrase echoed in his ears.

Morning light began to spill between the high-rise buildings in the distance.

[End of: Hayata Saotome Arc]