「Foreigner
is back again!」
「Foreigner...
Foreigner...」
「…Ahaha」
I
smile at the kids who are following me around.
In my
heart, I want to hit them very badly.
Especially
the kid with the shaved head who pats my butt. My ass is not cheap. I'll send him
a bill with interest when he comes of age.
But as
soon as they saw Fumio Kijima and Saori Moribe enter the park, the kids'
annoying attention shifted to them.
「Fumio,
you're late! Stupid!」
「Fumio!
You're so stupid!」
「Shut
up, you little brat! I won't stamp it!」
「No..
the stamp! Even though, you’re Fumio! I'll tell auntie!」
「Yes,
yes, I get it, I get it」
Fumio
bows lightly to me as he brushes aside the kids who are clinging to him.
「Well,
let's get started. Saori-chan, please!」
「Yes!
Onii-chan」
Saori
presses the play button on an old-fashioned boom box with an unfamiliar brand
name “Aiwa” on the bench.
The
long beginning start was characteristic of cassette tapes. The first second or
so of the sound was distorted, as if the tape was being stretched.
Nevertheless,
somehow, a light piano sound in D major resounds, and the radio gymnastics
starts.
The
kids started to do the exercises as hard as they could when the music started.
They finish the second part of the exercise, and Saori presses the stop button
to end the exercise.
I
walked up to Saori as the kids lined up in front of Fumio to get their stamps.
「Good
work」
「You
too. Claudia, why are you come here again?」
「I've
been thinking that I should integrate myself into the neighborhood community.
I'm an outsider in many ways...」
「You
certainly look like a foreigner, don't you?」
「Inside,
though, I'm very much Japanese. Anyway, how is my Onee-chan? Is she strict?」
「Yeah...
Coach is... a little scary... I guess. And Teruya-senpai too... She's loud」
「I see」
（She's
really like a little animal. This girl...)
I
couldn't help but laugh at Saori, who turned her head and let out a faint
voice.
Yesterday
and today, I participated in radio gymnastics and talked to her, but she
doesn't seem to have sold her soul to the devil or anything like that.
Except
for the fact that my abilities don't work on her, she's just a girl, a girl
who's more weak-minded than most.
I
wonder if it's Fumio who's suspicious after all.
At
least, I had Tachioka keep an eye on Saori, but it might have been in vain.
Oh
well... It's Tachioka anyway.
While
I was thinking about this, Fumio came up to me after stamping.
「Good
morning, Claudia-san, you're early again」
The
smiling Fumio is ugly, but he has a surprisingly high likability in my mind. To
be honest, I'm not sure what it is about him.
「Actually,
I'm a nocturnal person, but I'm putting my best effort. Even now, my eyes are
watery」
「So
you're going home to sleep?」
「Yes,
I'm going to sleep, sleep a lot. Sleep, sleep, sleep」
「Ahaha」
An
idle exchange.
↓ Continue to Read ↓
↓ Continue to Read ↓
To
tell you the truth, I'd like to quickly ask a critical question and settle the
matter black and white, but I don't want to get to the core of the matter and
have to bare my fangs now.
After
all, for Detective JK, all we need is to find out who did it and make it
public. That's enough to get our name out there. It's the police's job to catch
them.
However,
the powerful maid I encountered last night saw my face too. If Fumio or Saori
is the culprit, it would seem that they should be more careful....
「Even
so, Fumio and Saori seem to be good friends. Maybe you guys are dating?」
「Buha!?」
It was
an unthinking comment, but Saori reacted excessively.
「W-we're
not dating! We're not in a relationship! Oh, yes, childhood friend! We're
childhood friends, so it's only natural that we're close! O-onii-chan!」
「Eh,
yes...」
Her
face was red, and she was screaming, waving her hands in the air. I can only
imagine how she must be feeling.
「Well,
of course... Onii-chan is so cool and popular... I mean, I... If I had the
chance... You know...」
While
Saori is mumbling in the direction of the day after tomorrow, Fumio whispers to
me in a whisper.
「Don't
tease her.... Saori-chan is a very sensitive girl, she can't say no even if she
doesn't want to. If you were to tell her that you're going out with me, that
would be a problem, wouldn't it?」
（I
wonder... These guys are so troublesome. Especially when Fumio has no intention
of lying in his statement...)
「Hey,
Fumio, is Saori and you like this all the time?」
If so,
I pity Saori.
「I
mean... It's only recently that I've started talking to Saori-chan. We used to
go to school together when we were in elementary school, but I don't remember
much about it...」
「Is that
so? Saori」
「Well,
I happened to be helped by Onii-chan, and we only started talking again last
month... I think」
「Hmm...」
After
we parted ways, on the way back to my house, I tried to sort out the details of
the incident.
If I
could get access to the police investigation information, I would be able to
get a clearer picture, but for now, my sources are newspapers, magazines, the
Internet, Tachioka's story, and Teruya's story.
The
first person who went missing was a female student named Misuzu Kurosawa.
She
went missing after arriving at school and was found in front of the school in
the middle of the night 13 days later.
Misuzu
Kurosawa was followed by Masaki Haneda, who went missing.
And
after that...
Tachioka
encountered a devil and had part of his memory stolen.
That
man was abducted from a love hotel.
Tachioka
says he was invited there by a girl named Mai Fujiwara, but that's a lie.
I
heard from Teruya that Mai Fujiwara was a regular prostitute. Tachioka probably
bought her for money.
What
complicates matters is that Mai Fujiwara is crazy about Fumio.
The
relationship between the two is not clear.
It
might be better to ask Tachioka more about it.
↓ Continue to Read ↓
↓ Continue to Read ↓
Then,
eighteen members of the track and field club went missing.
This
is where the story suddenly starts to get complicated. There is a lot of
missing information.
One of
the girls went missing after Fumio told the police that he was suspicious.
However,
the girl was just trying to make Fumio feel guilty for rejecting her.
（Fumio,
you're really popular. Why is that? Even though, he's so ugly)
And
the first student who went missing, Misuzu Kurosawa, is on her way home with
Fumio when men in a large black car kidnap her. It seems that not only Fumio
but also Misuzu Kurosawa's boyfriend witnessed this, so it is not a crazy
story.
As for
the other kidnappings, it is known “that door” was not used for this one.
What I
don't understand is what happened after that.
After
all, the next day, Fumio “suddenly” rushed into the office of the Kamishima
clan.
A
summary site on the Internet says that he saw a black van carrying Misuzu
Kurosawa, but honestly speaking, a person who can raid a yakuza's office for
such a reason must be crazy.
Moreover,
right after Fumio's raid, the police conveniently followed him into the office.
It's a
convenient turn of events that would make a novel.
The
police found Misuzu Kurosawa, Masaki Haneda and several other women in the
office, all members of the track and field club except for four first-year
students.
According
to Teruya, the powerful maid who came after her the other day is one of the
four first-year students who are still missing.
In
other words, it is safe to assume that these four students are still in the
hands of the devil.
Teruya's
sister, Anna Kamishima, and the other members of the gang were arrested. Fumio
was arrested as well, but was released soon after.
On the
Internet, there was an atmosphere of heroism toward Fumio at first, but as soon
as his middle school graduation photo was exposed, it was concluded that he was
just a bullied kid who lost his temper and attacked the gang while crying and
screaming.
Even
now, when someone writes an angry post on the Internet, they say, “He’s strong
when he’s angry!“ and is often used as an ASCII art[1].
Anyway,
the timing of Saori's “saved” seems to be right here.
『All
the time, I mean... I've been talking to Saori-chan only recently. We used to
go to school together when we were in elementary school, but I don't remember
much about it』
Fumio
was not lying when he said this.
In
other words, it's impossible that the two of them conspired to do something.
It was
Tachioka who started the story that Fumio was suspicious.
Misuzu
Kurosawa and Masaki Haneda, who were rescued, are currently in a close
relationship with Kijima. He has a lot of girls with him. Looking at this
situation, I can understand what Tachioka is saying. Fumio is the one who
benefited the most from the “Mysterious Disappearance Case”.
On the
other hand, the reason why Saori is suspicious is because my ability doesn't
work on her.
If the
blessing given to me by the angels doesn't work, I can't help but suspect that
some non-human being is involved.
After
returning home, I stepped into the dining room and found my sister eating
breakfast.
「Welcome
home」
「I'm
home… Oh, I'm hungry! I want a fried egg with both eyes! And toast with jam!」
My
sister looks at me as if she's annoyed.
「Claudia...
Why don't you do it yourself?」
「Well.
Onee-chan's fried eggs are better than mine, no matter what anyone thinks」
「...Really」
She
puts the toast on her plate and stands up.
Then,
when she put her hand on the refrigerator door, she turned around as if she
remembered something.
「By the
way, there was a mail from Tachioka」
「Hmm,
what its saying?」
「He's
writing in a very pompous way, but he wants me to call him back for details」
As she
says this, she pulls out her phone from the hip pocket of her jeans, starts up
a mail application, and slides it across the table.
I
looked at the phone that had slipped into my hand and raised one eyebrow.
There
was a sentence written on it.
It
read....
『Saori
Moribe has already died once』
(1)
ASCII art, computer text art created with ASCII (American
Standard Code For Information Interchange) code. ASCII art uses ASCII
characters to produce images ranging from simple and functional emoticons to
elaborate works of art.
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