A Crow and his Flock of Robins

Faith and Fortune

Reading in the library has become a hobby for Akechi Goro ever since he came to Tokyo.

That's a lie. He spent most of his days in the local library back home. There was something so relaxing about being surrounded by books, reading stories about thieves and detectives. Something to keep his mind going when the days were slow and nobody could play with him.

Those days are long gone now.

Now he was studying for the upcoming exams. It had been only three days since Suguru Kamoshida had his heart stolen. He should be resting. But no, here he is studying after school. Just because he's on probation doesn't mean he should lose his honors student grades. Even if he's not one anymore.

The material was something he had already learned before coming to Tokyo. Nothing new to him. Reviewing couldn't hurt though. That's what he told himself two hours ago.

Two hours later, Akechi Goro was close to finishing the stack of books he had grabbed. He just needed to read this last quarter and he was good on today's review.

"Oh wow, that's a lot of books." Akechi Goro looked up to see a girl in front of him.

She looked very familiar. She had decently long red hair that was a bit unkempt. Her bangs reached down to her eyebrows, slightly covering her dark red eyes. She had glasses covering her eyes. Her skin was pale, a bit sickly looking in the lighting of the library. She was wearing the Shujin uniform. She was looking at him with a curious expression. "Do you plan on reading them all?"

"Oh, this is the last book."

"Huh?!" The girl was shocked. If he had to guess, she was a year or two younger than him. He nodded. "That's amazing! I wish I could study like this."

"You probably will be when you're a third year."

"Huh. Good to know when I become one."

An awkward silence.

"So, I take it you came here to study?"

"Huh? Oh. Yeah. I didn't have practice today so I came straight here." She's lying, at least partially. That's what Akechi Goro can tell about her. He won't pry, he isn't one to pry into others secrets. "Sorry, I'm being awkward right now. I wasn't expecting to see anyone from school here today."

"You're fine. I'll be out of your hair soon." He didn't really need to finish the rest of the book. But it was also quite interesting, so he decided to continue reading it. He was almost done with it anyways, might as well finish it.

"I've just realized I never introduced myself. I'm Yoshizawa Sumire. I'm an honors student alongside my twin Kasumi, we're both doing gymnastics right now."

Yoshizawa Sumire, younger twin sister to Yoshizawa Kasumi. The same Yoshizawa Kasumi that's part of Kurusu Akira's band of assholes. He's seen the two sisters around, Yoshizawa Sumire always being in her sister's shadow whenever he saw the group together. He empathized with that in that aspect. Back when They were around...

No need to get caught up in the past now. He has yet to introduce himself.

"Akechi Goro. Pleasure to meet you, Yoshizawa-san."

"You're the new transfer student, right? The one that's on probation? Wait, no. That's only a rumor."

"It's true."

"Really?!" He was expecting the same look of disgust her sister gave him, he wasn't expecting... sympathy? Pity? "I was hoping the rumors weren't true and you were here by free will since Shujin is a top school."

"Unfortunately they are." He wanted to drop the subject. Luckily, it seemed that Yoshizawa Sumire understood that.

"Well, since we're both new to Shujin, wanna stick together? Not in a literal sense, of course, since my sister's friend group isn't that fond of newcomers. More like we tell each other of what's going on around the school and our findings. If that's fine with you, of course."