My Service Club was not Dead as I Expected

Chapter One: Return of the Room

Facing that window, I was reminded just how blinding the sun could be in the afternoon.

This was a sight that I had been cursed to seeing for two years in my youth, and I was blessed to have been freed from it for the next ten years.

Oh, how the past loves to come biting back.

"This reminds you of those years, I guess?" I heard a woman's voice say.

I turned back around to face the doorway into the room. I hadn't seen the woman for a few years, and even then, our reunions were quick lunch breaks when I could get off for a little bit from the office. Even so, I would never forget who this woman was, for the role she played in my life all those years ago still looms over my life to this day.

"You know it. It may have been ten years since the last time I walked into this room, but those feelings and memories still remain."

"Do you think the bastard who's doing this shares such 'fond' memories of this room?"

"They definitely have some connection to this room, specifically. Is it safe to say that no other clubs have been started here before or since the Service Club?"

"Nope. You three were the first and the last to use this room as a club room."

"I see."

I looked around the room, and picked up on some things that, despite being a hardened Chiba Police detective, still creeped the hell out of me. The first was pretty obvious, on the front chalkboard. A message was written in red...

'This room holds my heart.'

If the message was written in blood, then this investigation would get a lot more serious.

I noticed the other creepy thing when I took a good look at the layout of the room.

I froze.

'No... It can't be...'

"Hachiman...What's wrong?" Hiratsuka-sensei walked towards me "You look as pale as a ghost."

I walked forward and sat down in the seat that was on the end of the table closer to the door. The seat didn't face the opposing window. Rather, it faced the chalkboard at the front of the room.

I believe Hiratsuka-sensei noticed right then what I had noticed. There were two more seats, both at the end of the table. The closer one to my seat faced the front chalkboard, while the one at the very end of the table faced my end and the door.

I took a look around the rest of the room. Stacked desks were in the back corner, and looking at the window, I noticed that, in front of it, was a desk which had a tea pot on it.

"Hiratsuka-sensei... You didn't preserve the room after we left... Did you?"

"Even if I wanted to, I couldn't. The custodians come in here once a month to reset the room to its standard configuration..."

"Which means that the person who did this was the culprit... And I think they wanted to send a message to me..."

"Hachiman?"

"Yes... This makes it easier. The pool of suspects is now people who entered this Service Club room during the two years we were active... And it couldn't be some silent observer, like a custodian... No, it had to be someone who knew me well enough to know I would understand the significance of the layout of the room..."

"You don't think it could be one of the other two though, right?"

I couldn't contain my laughter at that prospect, and let out a laugh perhaps louder than I should have.

In response, Hiratsuka-sensei brought back another old memory: Her gut punch.

"Agh!"

"No need to be a jackass about this, Hachiman. They fit the descriptions of what you laid out better than anyone else."

"Tch, demon superwoman."

"What was that?!"

"Anyways, I'm going to say right now that there's no chance that it's one of those two. They are too successful to even consider participating in these types of games, and I'm sure them stepping even one foot in this room would make them sick after what happened ten years ago."

"Perhaps. But do you think that our perp had some relation with one of those two?"

"Alright, Hiratsuka-sensei, first thing's first. Don't ever say 'perp' near me again. It's nonexistant, or at best, olden slang from inaccurate dramatic crime dramas."

Hiratsuka-sensei cocked her fist back to make another dent in my intestines.

"And secondly, that is a very good possibility. I doubt our POI had much relation with me, considering my history of relations in my school days."

"POI?"

"Person of Interest."

"And don't even try saying that you're not as much of a loner now as you were back in school. I know the whole reason you chose to be a detective was so that you could spend most of your day in a lonesome office space, in the name of figuring out a case."

"You're getting us sidetracked, Hiratsuka-sensei."

Hiratsuka-sensei huffed at that assessment.

"Yuigahama and Yukinoshita could be targets by our POI."

"So do you want to give them some..." Hiratuska-sensei did her best to speak in a sultry voice "Protection?"

'Agh! Too creepy! Don't do this to me! You may still be single and I'm out of the education system, but you're still my teacher, damn it!'

I did my best to regain my composure.

"No, I don't think that'll be necessary. Due to their rather... Successful careers, they already have 5-star security details. Our POI couldn't reach them even if he wanted to."

Talking seriously now, Hiratsuka-sensei inquired "But shouldn't you let them know that there's some creep targeting the club?"

"No, there's no need to worry them with something that won't involve them. And don't talk like the Service Club is some active entity. It is long dead. That's for the best."

"You and I both know that you're avoiding this because you don't want to talk to them after what happened ten years ago."

"That's not... Entirely true."

"It is. Hell, I'm not even sure myself the extent of everything that happened then. Is it really as major as you've made it out to be? Is it really something that ten years apart won't heal, or at least, feel not so bad about?"

I gave a sigh.

"If they were ever to see my face, or anything related to this room again, I'm relatively certain that both would be unrecognizable the next day."

"Do you want to tell me what really happened, then?"

"... Not right now. Perhaps another day. I'm still on the clock for the force at this second, so I really can't spend more time than necessary here."

"Fine. But could you at least make an attempt to talk to them again? I'm sure your thought-out reactions are just products of paranoia. I'm certain that, for how close you three were, seeing them or talking to them again would bring about some kind of happiness, just for a second, even with the baggage in between you."

"Perhaps I will. They are busy people too, and I don't think I have their updated contact information."

"That's a pathetic excuse. You're a member of the police force. Figuring out the phone number of an old classmate should be very easy."

"You really don't believe in the privacy rights of people, do you?"

"Eh, there are times when they can be disregarded."

"You'd be a terrible policewoman."

"That's why I stick to being a high school teacher, after all."

"Alright, so before I head out now, I'll take a note of the locations on the doors those identical red messages were on, and I'll call out forensics to take a look. I'll also have the data team try and retrieve the deleted security footage from the hard drive. I'll try to call all these people in after school and club hours so as not to alert the students. Is that alright to you?"

"Those are matters you should probably take up with the principal, but I have no objections to them."

"Then thank you for having me today, Hiratsuka-sensei." I gave a bow. "I think I'll have some time soon for ramen."

"Fantastic. Remember to get in touch with Yui and Yukino too, hopefully tonight. If I find out you didn't, the next time I see you, I'm kicking your ass!"

"Good luck with that. I got some combat training when I was a new recruit for the force."

"But you still can't stomach a gut punch."

"I don't think any man can stomach what you give out."

I realized the double meaning of what I just said, and I made a mad dash, running as far as I could from the pursuing demon.

A/N: New Story? Yup! I don't want to be a one-trick pony with stories, so I came up with a different kind of story from the One Night-America universe I've written up until this point. Don't get me wrong, I'm still writing the America story. Now, I'll be able to have two universes to escape to. I hope you enjoyed, and thank you for reading!