Psychic Detective Yakumo / Shinrei Tantei Yakumo

File 01 - Each Wish: Chapter 1

1

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Takagishi Akemi opened the classroom door at the same time as the chime went off and stood at the lectern.

The students were still noisy from the break.

Akemi put both hands on the lectern, looked around the classroom and waited for the students to quiet down on their own.

Takagishi knew that if you told children of this age to be quiet, they would just grow noisier.

Children in puberty didn't like being told what to do, even if it was a little thing like that.

Rather than being taught that, Akemi had learnt it naturally through her life as a teacher.

The students grew calmer.

'Now, let's start.'

Akemi opened the attendance record and looked around the classroom again, when she noticed there was an empty seat.

The second seat from the back of the row by the corridor -

Somebody had been there during homeroom this morning.

'Where's Saitou-kun?'

Akemi asked that question to all the students.

'Isn't he just skipping again?'

The one who spoke with blatant dislike was Tsukasa, who sat in the very front row and had a leader role in the class.

- Again?

'How long's he been gone?'

Akemi asked that question to Tsukasa, but the reply was an innocent 'I don't know'.

'Sacchan, do you know?'

Akemi looked at Sachiko, who sat beside the empty seat.

'Ah, er, he was here until the end of the first class, but he left during break... I'm sorry.'

Sachiko spoke like a mother apologising for her child's misconduct.

'It's OK. It's not your fault.'

Though Akemi said that to Sachiko, she sighed.

If he had been gone since the second class, there should have been some contact from the other teachers, but nobody had noticed that he was gone.

Akemi couldn't understand at all why something like this had been let pass.

'Let's have class already. I'm seriously itching to study,' said Tsukasa.

'Liar!'

Youhei, in the seat right behind Tsukasa, made fun of him.

There was stifled laughter from all over the classroom.

Akemi couldn't stop class for one person. She knew that. But -

'Please open to page 168 of the textbook and read that passage. I'll be right back.'

The whole class let out a shrill 'Ehhhh!' at Akemi's words.

However, she still couldn't continue class while ignoring a student who had skipped.

Akemi wrote the words 'Self Study' on the blackboard and left the classroom.

She knew where he would be.

He was always in the same place, as if waiting for someone to bring him back.

Akemi ran to the end of the corridor, took the stairs up and opened the door to the rooftop.