Disclaimer: Detective Conan is not mine. This fanfic is a translation.
Enjoy Reading!
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The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Academy is located at 1-15 Asahi-cho, Fuchū City, Tokyo.
The school does not conduct fully closed training, but during the six-month program all police academy students are required to live on campus.
Just yesterday it had been cold enough to snow, yet today the sky was perfectly clear.
Wearing the long-sleeved academy uniform with light blue as the primary color, Ritsu Ritsu stood in front of the mirror and carefully fastened every button. After securing the standard-issue belt over his navy slacks and confirming that everything looked fine, he finally stepped out of the bedroom.
"Police uniforms really do look good. Once we become full officers, we probably won't have many chances to wear something like this," Morofushi said as he stood in front of the mirror in the living room, examining himself from every angle, clearly satisfied with his outfit.
"Sounds like you have pretty ambitious goals. Patrol officers still have to wear uniforms."
"Haha~ Did you catch on?"
Standing in the bathroom and facing the mirror, Rei carefully shaved off his stubble with a razor. He didn't like electric shavers, there was something about them that felt outside his control. Shaving by hand felt much more comfortable.
Ritsu glanced at him briefly before looking away. He wasn't at the age where he grew facial hair yet.
"Ritsu, you really do suit wearing a uniform. Huh? Aren't your pants a bit short?" Morofushi looked at the slacks that clearly exposed Ritsu's ankles and laughed. "Ah~ I'm jealous of people with long legs. You're wearing normal pants but somehow they look like cropped pants."
"It's a bit troublesome. I don't know whether I should wear socks or not… If I do, it'll look kind of tacky." Ritsu had a strange obsession with fashion and absolutely refused to appear in leather shoes with visible socks.
"Then why not wear no-show socks?"
"That's probably my only option."
Unless he absolutely had no choice, Ritsu would never choose no-show socks. They tended to slip off the heel, and every time it happened he had to pretend to tie his shoelaces while secretly pulling the socks back into place. Unfortunately, the academy-issued leather shoes didn't even have shoelaces.
"I'm ready. Let's get going. Ritsu still has to give the representative oath today."
"Yeah."
They walked to Shinjuku Station, took the Keio Line to Fuchū Station, and after walking north for less than ten minutes, the main gate of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Academy came into view.
Dragging his suitcase, Morofushi suddenly remembered something. Turning his head toward Ritsu, who was always about twenty centimeters behind them, he asked,
"Ritsu, did you write your oath speech?"
"No need. The oath is fixed."
"I see. Then do your best as the representative. When we graduate, you'll probably have to give a speech too~"
Ritsu shrugged. He had indeed entered the police academy with the top score, but that didn't necessarily mean he would graduate in first place.
At the main entrance, students wearing blue police uniforms handed their admission notices to the guards while holding their luggage. After confirming everything was in order, the guards informed them of their assigned classes.
The guard flipped through the files of the three of them. When he saw their class assignment, he smiled.
"You're all in the Onizuka Class of the Initial Training Course. Please keep your admission notices safe."
Looking at Ritsu, whose expression was tense, the guard assumed he was nervous and reassured him.
"Good luck with the representative oath later!"
But Ritsu wasn't nervous about that. He had been worried that he might not be assigned to the same class as Morofushi and Rei, since his exam date had been delayed by a few days due to his age.
Hearing they were all in the same class, Ritsu's face returned to its usual expressionless look. After nodding in thanks, he followed the two of them into the academy.
The school's main auditorium was on the left side after entering the gate. Following the crowd, they entered the hall. Since Ritsu was the one giving the oath, his seat had been arranged in the very center of the first row.
Naturally, his "guards" on both sides were Morofushi and Rei.
Although neither of them wanted to sit in such a conspicuous spot, the hand gripping their arms was impossible to shake off. The kid looked slim, but he was surprisingly strong.
"That's Ritsu Ritsu, right? The top scorer."
"If he's sitting there, it must be him. He really does look young. I heard he's only eighteen… but even from the side you can tell he's good-looking!"
"Hey, are you into guys or something? I'm moving away from you."
"Guys can appreciate other guys too! Though I still prefer beautiful women. Hey, the guy next to him has blond hair, is he a foreigner or mixed?"
"Shh, keep it down. That blond guy just looked over."
Rei hated being called "that blond guy" by strangers. When he was young, people often mocked him for his hair color because of his mixed heritage, which was one of the reasons he used to get into fights.
"Zero, calm down. They didn't mean any harm," Morofushi quickly said to calm him. Starting a fight here would be bad.
"Do I look that short-tempered? I'm not a kid anymore," Rei muttered with a pout. He just wanted to warn those guys not to talk about people so openly behind their backs.
"Your blond hair looks good. You don't need to worry about it so much."
"Your eyes look good too."
Listening to the two of them compliment each other, Morofushi realized he might have worried too much. Back when they were kids, whenever he stepped in to break up a fight and ended up getting hurt, Rei would beat the other person half to death.
The clock struck nine o'clock sharp.
No matter where you are, listening to reports or lectures like this is always the most boring and sleep-inducing thing imaginable.
The man speaking on stage was Kazuma Toya, the chief of the First Personnel Division of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. Holding a microphone, he went on endlessly about the rules and precautions inside the academy, his spit spraying wildly onto the microphone.
Ritsu couldn't help worrying.
'Surely I'm not going to have to use that microphone next…'
"Inside the police academy, mobile phones are not allowed to be carried on your person. All communication devices must be stored with the instructors. Contact with the outside world can only be made using the public telephones on campus. Electronic devices such as laptops are also prohibited, though there is a computer room available—"
A naturally curly-haired student sitting behind Ritsu let out a huge yawn and muttered quietly,
"This old guy sure talks a lot of nonsense… Stuff like this must already be in the student handbook. Why bother saying it all again… I'm so sleepy."
"Jinpei, tone it down. We're sitting right in the middle of the second row."
"I know, I know. The tall guy in front is sitting so straight he definitely can't see me. If I just hunch a little and hide behind him, I can sleep and no one will—"
Before he could finish, Kazuma Toya, still holding the microphone, said sternly,
"The curly-haired student sitting in the center of the second row! Sit up straight and stop talking!"
"Huh?"
Jinpei Matsuda, suddenly called out, looked completely bewildered. How could he possibly have been noticed? Clearly the guy in front of him—
At some point, Ritsu had slightly shifted his body to the side, fully exposing Jinpei's hunched-over whispering to the view of the man on stage. It felt like trying to cover one's ears while stealing a bell.
'Damn it. That guy did it on purpose.'
A hint of slyness flashed in Ritsu's eyes as he calmly moved his body back against Morofushi.
"That concludes my speech. Next, please welcome the new student representative, Sasajima Ritsu, to lead all the freshmen in the oath!"
As expected, that same microphone was handed to him.
Holding it with clear distaste, Ritsu kept it a little farther away from his mouth and recited the oath in a flat voice.
"I solemnly swear to respect and uphold the Constitution and laws of the nation, to obey orders…"
Behind him, Jinpei glared at the tall figure standing in front of him.
'Sasajima Ritsu, was it? Just you wait…'
'You've officially made it onto the very top of my blacklist.'
Noticing his friend's expression, Hagiwara Kenji shook his head helplessly.
Jinpei was probably going to cause trouble for the student representative sooner or later.
—The Police Academy Arc officially begins!