Toothache

The whole room was silent.

The new students were silent because they were really shocked by Onidzuka Hachizo's serious expression and stern tone.

They looked at Onidzuka Hachizo in silence, finding a little bit of shame in the panic of being suddenly dragged up in the early morning.

The instructors were silent, also calmed by Onidzuka Hachizo.

They all looked at the serious Onidzuka Hachizo with admiration: How did you say that so confidently? You don't even feel guilty at all, amazing.

In the old police academy, there were no cases of midnight raids.

Not to mention the freshmen, even the instructors, if they were caught by surprise at 2 a.m. without any preparation, would be dragged on the ground by the collar for a while, at a loss.

'You're the worst class I've ever had' is really embarrassing for the new students.

It's only hard for the new freshmen who don't know anything.

"Ahem," Onidzuka Hachizo's face remained unchanged as he swept his stern eyes over the group of freshmen in front of the eyes of the whole room, "There are only a few people who have resisted, and you can see who they are."

It was Matsuda Jinpei and the others.

"You unresisting, poorly behaved freshmen, you're going to have to go through the examination again, if not be expelled from the academy right away," he shouted solemnly, "Stand up straight! What are you doing? It's just that you've been standing in military posture for three hours."

"You guys even took a break and went to the infirmary to apply medicine and massage your wounds."

Some of them didn't take a break and didn't go to the infirmary, they just took the medicine given by the instructor and reported to the dormitory as if they were fine.

Onidzuka Hachizo emphasized Ichijō Mirai's excellence without moving to impress the new students, and then slowed his tone, "Do any of you know where Kujō-san is?"

There was no sound from the group.

"It's 2:30," Onidzuka Hachizo raised his wrist, "and he's still not in the dormitory."

Before an instructor could immediately tell him sternly, 'If you don't go back to bed at night, you will be expelled!', he said to himself in a stern tone, "Is he going to training at night?"

The instructor who was about to speak out choked, "Night uh...?"

"There are no dormitories," Onidzuka Hachizo pretended not to hear the funny voice and waved his hand, "divide into groups of two and go find Kujō-san!"

"Listen carefully, go back to the dormitory first and put on your clothes, dress neatly and don't scare the others."

"Disperse!"

The freshmen dispersed.

Almost all the freshmen flocked to the dormitory building, only a few of them resisted when the instructor attacked, so they were not immediately ordered to gather in the open space, and those who had time to dress did not flock.

In the crowd, Furuya Rei, who hadn't slept at all and was dressed very neatly, found Matsuda Jinpei, who was also dressed very neatly, and said, "Hey."

He lowered his voice, "Where's Kujō Mirai?"

Matsuda Jinpei glanced at Furuya Rei, "How should I know."

"I told you I couldn't find him, I looked for him two or three times, eight o'clock, ten o'clock, zero o'clock, two o'clock, he wasn't in his dormitory."

"If I had known to look for you first," he said, a little annoyed, "I wouldn't have been the one searching around."

Furuya Rei frowned, "Well..."

He glanced at the instructor, and Matsuda Jinpei walked away from the dormitory building, heading outside, pretending to look for Ichijō Mirai, "Kujō-san wasn't there at eight o'clock?"

Eight o'clock, after dinner.

"He wasn't in the cafeteria," Matsuda Jinpei replied crisply, knowing what he was going to ask, "I looked all over the cafeteria and saw you guys, but I didn't see him."

"Either he went to the cafeteria earlier, or he never went to the cafeteria at all."

And, "He didn't go back to the dormitory."

"I've been to his dorm room, and every time it's in pristine condition, with only the sheets and bedding that the academy prepares a day in advance, all folded up and untouched," he asked, rhetorically, "You went to dry the quilts, didn't you?"

Although the sun was setting by the time they finished their postures, most of them rushed to dry their quilts.

The quilts provided by the police academy, which had been kept in storage until the new students arrived, obviously didn't fit well with the living humans. 

"He didn't dry."

Matsuda Jinpei said succinctly, "There was no smell of medicine in the room, and the number of uniforms prepared by the police academy in the closet was correct. He took medicine when he left, but there was no medicine bottle in the room."

"When I went to the cafeteria, I passed by his dormitory and took a look at it, and his dormitory was still locked."

If you pass by Ichijō Mirai's room on your way to the cafeteria, even if you walk a few steps in the opposite direction, you're still passing by.

Furuya Rei explains, "At dinner time, someone would remove all the latches from the dormitory doors, so when you came back, his door was open."

But this does not mean that Ichijō Mirai has returned.

In other words, "He didn't come back to the dormitory."

They looked at each other and frowned.

Furuya Rei ruled out one or two items: "He did not go to the medical room, and did not stay in the drill ground where he was standing at attention."

"Nor did he go to the on-campus convenience store," Matsuda Jinpei also ruled out two, "the cafeteria."

...If not in these places, where else?

Matsuda Jinpei was puzzled. "Besides these places and the girls' dormitory, it could only be the school building, right?"

"What's he doing in the school building?"

"There's a file room in the school building," Furuya Rei said, "From the attitude of Instructor Onidzuka, I think he knew Kujō-san, and if nothing else, one of Kujō-san's parents must have been in the police force, and probably graduated from this academy."

The academy was so exclusive, probably because his parents demanded it.

He thought for a moment, "If that's the case, there's information on past students in the archives."

"And..."

"In addition to the field, medical room, cafeteria, and teaching building," Furuya Rei said slowly, "there are other places in the police academy."

Matsuda Jinpei stopped dead in his tracks, "The training grounds."

There are many courses in the police academy, and there are many training grounds, the most basic of which is a place like a martial arts field.

"If," Furuya Rei said slowly, "if Kujō-san went to the training grounds instead of taking a break, then he would have gone to..."

Matsuda Jinpei was equally slow: "Kujō-san himself said that he 'wasn't good at marksmanship' and 'aiming with the prongs of a firearm', then, he would have gone to..."

"The shooting range." X2

The answer was the same.

They looked at each other again, and saw the word 'damn' in each other's expressions.

"Actually, aside from intuition," Furuya Rei recalled the location of the shooting range and headed that way, reluctantly looking for a reason, "the martial arts fields and such are near the outdoor field, and only the indoor shooting range is at the very edge of the police academy."

"If Kujō-san was at the edge of the outdoor field, he would have heard the instructors passing by, and I personally think he would have come back before the instructors arrived and blended into the crowd."

Matsuda Jinpei nodded repeatedly, "So, Kujō-san didn't necessarily go to the shooting range without medication or food, it's likely that..."

The sound of gunfire was heard far from the dormitory building, near the edge of the police academy, where the indoor live-fire range could be seen.

The indoor range was professionally equipped and soundproofed, so the sound of gunfire was small, just like peanuts falling off a table, 'bang' and 'bang'.

Matsuda Jinpei shut up.

He stopped and stared fixedly in the direction of the shooting range, realizing once again the dearth of words in his vocabulary.

This... this...

Not eating, not sleeping, the shooting range, this...

Matsuda Jinpei at the end of the 20th century had not yet experienced the rich vocabulary of the 21st century and could not accurately describe his complex feelings that made him want to curse.

He could only put his hand over his jaw and said, "Why does my tooth hurt so much? Did you knock out my real tooth?"