Time Of Our Lives; Kirisuna

Chapter 55: Analysis

Kirito POV:

For the past few weeks, I gathered as much information as I could on everyone in school. While I failed to get the pictures for some documents last time, I was confident I managed to narrow down the candidates.

I looked over the list of people who I suspected to be Shiro's partner. There were seven left and I already talked to each of them to see what they were like.

-List of Suspects-

1. Ayumi Chika (2-A) (F)

2. Akira Daisuke (3-C) (M)

3. Osamu Haruto (2-A) (M)

4. Kiyoshi Ryoko (3-B) (M)

5. Emiko Misaki (1-A) (F)

6. Aki Chiyo (3-A) (F)

7. Masayuki Hiroshi (1-A) (M)

I yawned and looked at the clock above my bedroom door. It was 11:39 pm. I usually slept at 10 when dad didn't have a project for me, but I've been crossing out names all night as the day I was supposed to meet up with Shiro was tomorrow.

I already had the 500 million yen they wanted ready if I was wrong. I'd definitely need to take a rain check on buying anything for a while if that were the case.

I opened my desk drawer and took out some chewing gum to stimulate my brain and stop me from dozing off. As I chewed on the gum and grabbed a pen, I got back to work and recalled the times I talked to the people on the list.

I started with Ayumi Chika, who transferred this year.  Unlike most transfer students, she came from a school in the Miyagi prefecture instead of Tokyo Metropolitan High.

After searching her background, I discovered she transferred because her father was recently promoted to site director in the company he worked for rather than my popularity.

Her timid nature and shy personality made it difficult for her to open up, but I was already experienced with people like her. If you talked about a topic they were interested in, they'd open up immediately. 

What piqued my interest, however, was when that topic happened to be technology. When I brought up Argus, it was the only time she showed passion and enthusiasm in our conversation that I considered her a possible partner for Shiro.

To confirm whether this was outside the norm, I talked to her friends and they said similar comments about how she kept to herself and rarely spoke up unless it had to do with tech.

With all this considered, her being Shiro's partner was next to zero. The person I spoke to over the phone was cold and calculating from his words alone. Ayumi's opposite in every way. 

I crossed out her name and moved down the list.

Akira Daisuke. An old student who's been at the school since before I transferred. He was quite hotheaded, being the most aggressive one on this list.

He used to be on the basketball team but was kicked out due to his rough play. Ever since then, he's gotten into several fights and was regarded as among the best fighters in our year.

The only reason why the school has kept him despite his behavior was his grades.

While he often skipped his classes, he's always been in the top 10 of our year in academic ability, much to the frustration of other top students.

I tried talking to him during our breaks, but he always shrugged me off. So, I decided to take an alternate approach and skipped my third period to talk to him.

I managed to gain his attention with this since I wasn't the type to do so. After I offered to talk to Quinella-sensei about getting him back on the basketball team, he agreed to answer my questions.