Detective Kanji

Chapter 3: New Note?

Begin!

~Normal POV

Today it was raining. And Kanji had forgotten to check the weather forecast before leaving for school. He wasn't alone in this however, as while he was running to school, he ran into Yosuke who had the same problem. Both of them had forgotten their umbrellas. As luck would have it, they eventually found Yu and Naoto on the road. The two of them had their own umbrellas, and had stopped to chat.

Yosuke quickly ran up first and ducked himself under Yu's umbrella. "Sorry to barge in! Phew! That was a pain..."

Yu didn't mind it though and held his umbrella over both of them without any care. Unfortunately, this left Kanji stuck in the rain still.

"Hey- that ain't fair! Make room for me too!" Kanji shouted.

"This one's already full, dumbass!" Yosuke argued. "Get Naoto to make room under hers." Kanji blushed and glanced at Naoto.

Naoto smiled and said, "By all means, Kanji-kun. You'll catch a cold at this rate if you don't." She held up her umbrella a little higher as an invitation.

Kanji's heart started pounding. Sure, he was getting soaked in the rain, but he didn't know if he was ready to do this. Getting under her umbrella would mean being close to her... really close. What if she didn't want to be close to him? What if he did something stupid and made her upset? Damn, he was getting all jumpy just thinking about it. Not to mention, it was in front of Yu and Yosuke, both of whom already knew that he liked her. (Since they playfully teased him about it sometimes.)

"Wha-?! Me and her under the same umbrella...?" Kanji said, in a slightly panicked tone. He quickly looked away. "To hell with that! If I did that, um, it'd mean..." His blush darkened. "W-We'd practically be like a couple!"

Yu and Yosuke shared a knowing but frustrated look. Yu had tried giving Kanji a little advice on how to charm a girl, but it looked like Kanji was too scared to try to use it. While they were distracted by this, none of the boys noticed Naoto's reaction.

Her face had turned bright pink. She tried to brush it off, but the idea did fluster her a little. No, nevermind that, she was offering because Kanji might get sick, that's all. Right? Right. She didn't want him to catch a cold. He might miss the festival, or worse, be out of commission if something happened with the case! The rain was supposed to last all day, but it was going to stop before midnight at least, which was comforting. And nobody had turned up missing yet. So they were still waiting on any new case updates. And they needed to be healthy to fight. Thus, let Kanji share an umbrella with her. It was the most logical option.

"And that's a problem because...?" Yosuke asked, "Dude, how old are you?"

Kanji glared at him. "Shut up! Come on, let's trade spots!"

Yu held back a sigh and subtly rolled his eyes. "Kanji, we're trying to wingman for you and you're being a dumbass."

"You know how stupid that sounds right?" Yosuke said, dryly. He sighed and looked at Naoto. "Well, it's fine with me. Naoto, mind if I walk with you?"

Naoto thought about it. In choosing between the two, she really would rather walk with Kanji. Before she joined the team, Yosuke had given her the absolute worst in terms of a first impression. Calling her "shorty," because he didn't know her name, and also the various "killjoy" comments when they were at the club during the school trip. But the worst was a teasing comment about her being "lonely," that one hit like a bullet. And it had taken a lot of willpower not to show it. Of course, once they confronted her Shadow and learned how messed up her life really was, he was quick to apologize. She got an apology from Rise too, for a similar reason, but she felt that Yosuke had done worse than her. Naoto did accept these without question, she could tell they were genuine.