Chapter Text
Let me ask you a bit of a childish question. What do you believe in? Do you believe in God? What about fate? Maybe even supernatural creatures? They’re all interesting. When I was younger, I believed in almost all of the above. Although I never saw them, it was still comforting to think there was a greater power no one knows about. Hell, it fascinated me so much so that even when I was younger, I was writing about these supernatural entities. Now, of course, I know better. None of the like exists; aliens, ghosts, and time travelers are just science fiction and paranormal myths to keep kids entertained with the world around them. Now that we've got that out of the way, is it such a childish thing to wish those existed?
Of course it is. Reality is harsh.
Speaking of reality, my train of thought took me through my new routine for the school year: I changed into my uniform, fed my pet raccoon, and walked to my classroom. I say my ‘new routine’, but there’s nothing that has changed about it. As a junior, I’ve been doing the same thing for the third year in a row. Maybe there was a change in pace once in a while, but it was generally just the same thing. With the lack of variety leading me through my day once more, I barely realized I was in first period or that students in the class were introducing themselves. However, what I did notice and what unfortunately foreshadowed what path my life was going to head down was a certain person’s introduction. It was when I met him.
“I am Edogawa Ranpo, a third year from Seihokuten Institute. I don’t want to talk to anyone ordinary. I only talk to supernatural beings, time travelers, and the like, so if you fall under that category, please see me.”
His arms were crossed as he waited for some sort of reaction from the class. When he was only met with blank stares, he silently sat back down. I wish I could say I wasn’t a part of the majority, but I couldn’t take my eyes off him, and I swore his brown eyes gazed at me for a split second, too. However, after the moment passed and he sat down, a wave of confusion hit me like whiplash. It took me a moment to process. What the hell was that? Was that the whole introduction? Though I’m sure even if I did listen to the whole thing through, no amount of context would assist me. It made me wonder if that was his version of a joke. If that was the case, then what was the punchline? I didn’t have much time to think about it because it was my turn to introduce myself. I stood up hesitantly before stating the introduction I had practiced word for word in the mirror this morning.
“My name is Edgar Allan Poe. Third year. Nice to meet you all, and I hope we get along.”
Edogawa Ranpo just happened to sit behind me. Other than that introduction, he seemed like a normal and, dare I say, objectively attractive high school boy. I would be a fool not to use this seating arrangement to my advantage. I turned to face him, readying my conversation starter.
“So, were you joking about what you were saying in your introduction?”
Ranpo, who was fidgeting with a piece of his hair, glared up at me.
“Does it matter? What about it?”
Ah, I wasn’t very prepared for that response. Yet, I didn’t lose hope.
“Well, all that supernatural stu-“
Ranpo quickly pointed his finger at me accusingly, his eyes narrowing even more as his nose scrunched up in annoyance.
“What? Are you a part of the supernatural? If not, then you’re just wasting my time. Why the hell would I want to talk to you?”
I know when I’m not wanted… I suppose. My realization was better late than never. I sighed before turning back to face the front of my desk, where I could see through my peripheral vision a small group of my classmates snickering at my feeble attempts.
Correction, I know when I’m not wanted and will falter unless spite is involved. As I said, he’s objectively attractive. Why wouldn’t I want to shoot my shot? Though my shot would’ve ended with Ranpo’s dismissal if I weren’t being mocked for it.
Of course, such eccentricity would have piqued my curiosity, but the way people spoke of him even further piqued it.
“Ranpo? Don’t even try talking to him,” one of my classmates said. That specific classmate was Lucy. We had been friends since sophomore year after she had transferred from the same institute Ranpo had, along with my other friend, Louisa. Lucy took a bite of her food before continuing.
“He’s a fucking nut job. On the quad’s field during junior high, he wrote a bunch of weird symbols. I doubt they meant anything, but it was still weird.”
Louisa, who was rebraiding Lucy’s red braids, chimed in.
“I think I heard about it before I attended the institute. It was in the daily newspaper. He admitted to it too…”
Lucy nodded in agreement as her utensil darted to take a bite out of my food. However, my attention was drifting back to Ranpo. It wasn’t until Lucy was snapping in my face that I finally returned my attention to our conversation.
“Poe! What is with you? You stayed holed up in your room for a whole summer, and suddenly you’re more interested in random guys than in us?”
Her green eyes bore into my soul with a glare as I tensed up. When I didn’t respond immediately, she furrowed her eyebrows at me and crossed her arms in apparent distrust.
“N-No! It’s not like that.. It’s just.. he threw me off.”
“Lucy, you shouldn’t joke like that. You know Poe couldn’t do much this year! He promised to make up for it by going out on some outings with us, right?”
Louisa’s light brown hair bobbed as she nodded towards me before following my gaze to Ranpo’s general direction. He didn’t look that bad. His black hair complemented his tan skin tone. His brown eyes were closed as he picked at his rice.
Lucy paused for a moment before sporting a mischievous expression.
“You know, if you have to go for a guy, I think that one sophomore is a cutie!”
Louisa raised her eyebrow as she tried to figure out who she was talking about.
“Atsushi?”
Lucy quickly shushed her with a pinch that made her yelp.
“Not too loud, Louisa! Anyway, yes! He’s a ten in my book.”
Louisa only pursed her lips and focused on finishing the other braid. After a moment, she murmured,
“If you’re planning on becoming friends with Ranpo, I don’t think you’ll get very far. He’s like talking to a wall.. at least from what I’ve seen. Conversations with him don’t last long, and I’ve barely seen him associate with someone for more than a day.”
Lucy hummed,
“The longest I’ve seen him date a girl was five minutes.”
I blinked in surprise and looked back at Ranpo. He continued to pick at his rice, but he momentarily stopped to glare at the group in annoyance. Of course, we quickly turned back around and kept to ourselves, yet some innate interest in him kept me from entirely withdrawing my efforts.
Infact, I may have done an investigation of my own during the first month of school. It wasn’t really an investigation; it was more of what I saw over the month. When I mentioned these observations during lunch once, Lucy called me a creep, but I think it was very much justified. After all, this was what caused me and Ranpo to genuinely talk anyhow. I originally thought that apart from the previous dialogue from Ranpo, he was inherently normal, but his eccentricities were already starting to show themselves.
Firstly, true to his word, he didn’t talk to anyone he thought was human. Or at least, he was dismissive of them. Like he did with me, he would glare up with an annoyed look and respond with as little words as possible to get them to leave him alone. Any more than a few sentences out of him, and he was off to somewhere else.
Secondly, he seemed to be far from stupid. At most, he just had an active imagination. According to Lucy, he had great grades, but from what I saw, he barely paid attention in class. On top of that, he took only a few minutes on his class work just to sit down and look bored.. It made me wonder why he transferred from that institute to begin with.
Third point, he was always bored. This is an elaboration on the second point. He joined almost every club but never stayed in any club for more than a week. I saw him read a book, but never saw him read that book for more than a day.
Finally, he wore a brown hair clip every day of the week. One for Monday, two for Tuesday, and every number up until 5 for Friday. When it was Wednesday, he would have two symmetrical brown clips in his hair and then accumulate the three on his school uniform’s tie. I could only imagine what he did on weekends when he didn’t have his tie. These habits, or more so eccentricities, were odd but didn’t scare me off.
With these observations in mind, one day during class, I turned to Ranpo just as I did our first encounter. I’m not entirely sure why I expected a different result. From what I was aware of, I wasn’t an alien, a time traveler, or a part of the supernatural in any way. He had no reason not to ignore me. Regardless, I decided to try again anyway.
“Are the hair clips to stop supernatural beings from recognizing you?”
Ranpo didn’t look my way. Instead, he furrowed his eyebrows and gazed off to the side, but still answered.
“Aliens. How’d you know?”
Despite this being such a normal conversation (as normal as it could get with Ranpo), I couldn’t help but get excited. I was finally talking to Ranpo.
“Well, I had a theory. You wouldn’t mind confirming it for me, would you? Every number of hair clips correlates to a day; zero for Sunday, one for Monday, two for Tuesday, and so on. It’s so aliens can’t identify you and take your identity, right? My question is, why are all of them brown? Wouldn’t that pattern make you more recognizable? It creates a common identity with the pattern.”
Ranpo remained silent for a while, his gaze unwavering. Finally, after a moment, he turned to Poe.
After a few moments of silence, Ranpo finally turns to Poe.
“Yes, I use it to hide my identity, but I also use some consistency to sustain it, or more so, remind me of my identity. You know, as an extra precaution. Incase something attempted to steal it or something.”
His hand came up to fidget with the hair clip on his tie, but stopped when he noticed. He leaned forward, his interest in me piqued.
“Are you an alien?”
I couldn’t help but laugh. Ranpo looked offended before pouting. With that, I quickly reassured him,
“I’m not making fun of you! I'm not an alien - not that I know of anyway. I just tried thinking like you.”
Ranpo stopped pouting. Instead, he crossed his arms and focused his attention on the book on his desk, effectively ending the conversation.
The next day, the pattern of his hair clips had stopped. Instead, two sat on his tie with a more aesthetic use than a superstitious one.