Vol. 2 Chapter 4.3

Translated by SoundDestiny Edited by SoundDestiny

I left Ryoko and『passed through』 to the men’s toilet.

As soon as I leave the toilet with an unsuspecting face, the chime for the end of fourth period rings, and students’ voices begin to echo in the corridor.

As teachers leave the classrooms, students flood out into the corridors. Some went to the store to buy bread, others to the toilets, and a couple grabbed their lunch boxes and headed towards the courtyard. All at once, the quiet school building was flooded with sound.

“Hatsu-chan, if you’re going to eat with Hiratsuka-kun, I’ll eat alone.”

“No, did you say you have something to ask him? Just ask him, don’t be shy.”

Two girls come out of the next classroom, lunch boxes in hand and walk past me.

I know one of them well. She is a girl who was in the same class with me in the first grade. Her name is Hatsu Tashiro.

(田代初)

I never really spoke to her but at the time she was a class committee member, and her steadfast attitude towards everyone left me with feelings of respect and admiration.

I remember hearing that she was dating the head of the judo club in the same class as me, Hiratsuka-kun.

I don’t know the other girl with short hair very well. I feel like I’ve seen her before, but then again, she’s in the next class, so it’s not surprising that I’ve seen her before.

But the next moment, the girl with the short hair said something that sent a cold chill down my spine.

“I just want to ask if there was anything unusual before Masaki left.”

‘…..you’re checking up on Masaki-chan!?’

When I stopped, the girl in front of me, the one with short hair, turned around and I thought I saw a small movement of her mouth[ah].

But at about the same time, a very cheerful voice echoed through the air.

“Fuーmin, I saw you!　It’s already lunchtime, let’s eat lunch! Eat your lunchー!”

When Fujiwara–san saw me, she ran up to me with a drawstring bag containing my lunch in her hand. Then, Tashiro-san and the short haired girl entered my class, passing Fujiwara–san.

‘I’m curious……Well, there’s no chance they’ll find out about the 『Room』but ….’

“Moooー……Fuーmin, you were gone for the whole fourth period, I was so worried.”

“You’re overreacting, I was just holed up in the bathroom.”

Fujiwara-san’s lips pout and I giggle involuntarily. She immediately smiled and took my hand.

“Well, let’s go to the courtyard, then! We’re officially lovers now, so let’s make out like crazy!”

“What official are you talking about…..?”

In fact,lunchtime on a good sunny day sounds good. The courtyard is a hangout for flirting couples. Hence, single students are not allowed to go near the courtyard at all……or rather, they don’t go near it.

“….. well, okay.”

“Yay! Nfufu! Now that we’ve decided that, we’d better hurry before other couples steal our benches!”

Fujiwara-san hurriedly takes my hand and runs out.

Apparently, she longed to have lunch while making out on the courtyard.

Then the peaceful lunch break and the tedious afternoon classes pass  and the after-school hours.

In the end, Tachioka-kun, who had headed for the headmaster’s office that day, never returned to the classroom.

×××

“That’s why I went to you……. Shiratori, I thought you might know something.”

After school, behind the club building. As soon as I finished changing into my training clothes, I – Shiratori Saki – was taken out by Shima-senpai, and I was stunned at how ridiculous the story was.

Currently, two people are missing from this school. One is the school’s most famous person, Kurosawa-senpai, a reader model for a famous fashion magazine. The other seems to be a friend of Shima-senpai.

It seems that this senior, who is a waste of time and social contact, is concerned in her own way, and has gathered a lot of information for her friends.

“So it’s that Kijima person, then, isn’t it?”

If the information she has gathered is correct, it can conclude only one answer.

If the first person bullied Kijima before she went missing and the reason for this was because he had sent a love letter to the second person, it would be strange if he was not suspected first.

The first went missing soon after school. If I also consider the story that the guard witnessed her at the school gate but she went missing before reaching the classroom, the possibility of an outsider being the culprit is also extremely slim.

However, Shima-senpai flapped her hands as if to say that it was ridiculous.

“I don’t think so, Kijima doesn’t have that kind of guts. Besides, on the day Kurosawa went missing, he was in class from the first period.”

It seems that Shima-senpai does not have any suspicion, as she confirmed Kijima-senpai’s alibi. But that does not prove that he is not the culprit. He may have handed her over to a collaborator, or he may have restrained her and hidden her somewhere until he was able to act.

“I know him well. He’s small-minded, he’s not strong and he doesn’t have the guts to kidnap anyone without a care in the world. There’s no way he could do it.”

I look at Shima-senpai, who cries on her shoulders, with a sense of dismay.

What if he came up with a way to do it?　The more depressed and uptight a person is, the easier it is to unshackle him or herself once the means are in hand. If he is obsessed with the means, he will lose sight of the essence.

Benefit is always at the bottom of human behaviour.

Every single human action is determined by comparing the risks with the rewards. Profit is not just about money. It is also a great benefit to get rid of a grudge.

He kidnaps a woman who has humiliated him to get rid of a grudge, and he kidnaps a woman he has a crush on and makes her, his. Who has the most to gain from kidnapping them? Only Kijima.

Of course, it would be a different story if other crucial information has appeared, but at the moment my guess is unshakeable that the kidnapper is Fumio Kijima.

But to be honest, it doesn’t matter. It has nothing to do with me.

It’s just a dispute between people I have no contact with.

I have no obligation to prove it, and no reason to take risks to rescue those kidnapped girls. I just have to make sure I don’t get involved myself. That’s all.

“If that’s what you think, that’s fine. But, well, you shouldn’t get too close to this Kijima, either, Shima-senpai. You know what they say. You don’t want to get too close to someone who’s dangerous”

“I don’t want to get close to him, but….even if I want to, we don’t have any kind of relationship.”

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