As for Hime-chan. Ichihime Yukariki.
When I realized that if I wasn’t careful, I could get that girl caught up in it─what I was doing took on at least a smidgen of meaning. I laughed at myself even as I thought this, amused that I had ended up with so much sympathy for this girl I had only met a few hours ago. Was it just that I conflated Hime-chan with “her”? I didn’t want to think so. But either way, I couldn’t draw a bystander any further into my private game of repentance.
“And, hence, ends the nonsense.”
I’m pretty sure Aikawa had said the staff room was right below us, so taking care to make as little noise as I possibly could, I headed for the same emergency stairs we had come up. Happily there didn’t seem to be anyone around, and I quickly effected my escape from the faculty building. Let’s see now, where am I─I had just been following Aikawa on the way there, so I had no clue where I was. I had no idea which way to go or what I would find when I went there, nor even which direction we had come from.
“…Well, whatever.”
I decided to just start strolling…and with any luck, I hoped to run into Shiogi Hagihara. Seeing as Shiogi was, in the words of Aikawa, “like me.” I didn’t dislike─meeting people who were like me. Why, I don’t know. Did I have some admirable notion that I could maybe become close with someone who was like myself, or that they would understand me?
Visibility was poor. There didn’t seem to be any lighting installed─which made perfect sense, since a school is not primarily meant for nocturnal use. Seemingly Sumiyuri Academy─no, no need to keep calling it by such a classy name at this point─Hang ’Em High didn’t appear to have a night school. Or maybe they just had no need to distinguish between day and night.
“Seriously though, there really isn’t anyone around…”
Aikawa may’ve driven everybody off, but still, they didn’t seem like folks who would give up so easily. And I had a hard time believing there was a curfew…besides which I doubted the “faculty” was going to stay on the sidelines forever.
At which point─I realized something.
When the hell had the person responsible for the murder of the Director, Noa Origami─leaving aside whether you could call someone who did something like that a “person”─perpetrated it? From what Aikawa and Hime-chan had said, it seemed as though the current state of emergency had been declared by the Director herself. Which meant that, if nothing else, she must’ve been killed after she gave that order. And the smell of the blood, the texture of the flesh, hadn’t been all that old. At the very least it couldn’t have been more than a day.
And when it came to motive─those were “a dime a dozen.” Noa Origami’s hobby was being hated by people, being detested by people, being resented by people, being cursed by people… She sounded like quite a lady, by all accounts.
“Then is a struggle for power─a reasonable assumption?”
Pinning the crime on a fugitive and a couple of outsiders was an excellent gambit. And giving the students the opportunity to take revenge would boost their morale. If there was one thing we could turn to our advantage, I suppose it was the fact that the Director’s murder didn’t seem to have come to light as of yet.
Ahh. So that’s why Aikawa is holed up in there. By the time I came to this belated realization, a school building I recognized had appeared before me. This was─yeah, it was the one containing “Year 2, Class A,” where I’d first met up with Hime-chan. Though that seemed like ages ago now.
“Oh, right. The photo…”
At this point the map was irrelevant, but that reminded me that I’d dropped the photo of Hime-chan at some point while we were running around. Should I look for it? That might also be irrelevant, but─I couldn’t think of anything else I particularly wanted to do. I could just barely recall the way to the main gate from where I was, but I was enough of a pessimist to assume there’d be some kind of trap set there. And my intention hadn’t been to leave the school. I simply wanted to get the hell out of that room. That discomfiting room.
I’d said all kinds of things to Hime-chan…but the truth is probably just that it was oppressive to be in there with Aikawa. Just that old boring pride. Though pride is always boring.
“Hm…doesn’t happen every day…that someone affects me this much.”
Was Aikawa just special? No, I had a feeling it wasn’t that. Only one person was special to me─and that person wasn’t present. Someone similar to that person, but not that person.
I went into the building, found the stairs, and went up them. The lights were off. It was dim, but I somehow felt like the visibility was better than it had been outside. Probably a question of concentration. Now then, where was “Year 2, Class A”? Seemed as though I’d be most likely to find the photo if I began the search there. Had someone already found it, perhaps?
As I searched for it, my thoughts returned to the locked room of the Director’s office. There were two windows in addition to the door, but of course those had been locked as well. Double-locked, with no way to open them from the outside. And Aikawa had immediately checked every space where a person could conceivably hide…hm.
Which reminded me, there was something strange. Aikawa was right, the fact that it was a locked room was significant. It meant that we were being framed for the crime. In which case, there was one other thing… What about the fact that the Director had been “dismembered”? And was there some significance to the grotesque way the head was suspended from the ceiling?
It might not take all that long to dismember someone with a chainsaw…but why take the trouble? Had the corpse been dismembered because of some pent-up grudge, or had there been some necessity for doing so? There was no way it was as simple as It’s called Hang ’Em High so I hung the head up high.
“‘Dismemberment,’ huh…” Dismemberment, dissection, biotechnology, ecology. “Kinda reminds me of the Prof.”
Not that I had any desire to be reminded.
Just as I was beginning to lose myself in dark memories of my time as a student in the ER Program.
“Swayyy…”
A figure appeared before me.
“SWAYyy…”
Wait, that’s not right. She was already there in front of me, so why would I describe her as a “figure”? I should obviously just say “person.” And yet─I couldn’t get a clear fix on her, flickering there amid the gloom, ever so creepy and ever so mysterious.
Her figure was indistinct, almost like she existed in a different dimension, or like there was some kind of membrane between us.
“…Stup.”
And she stopped moving.
Cropped hair and a black sailor uniform. Which was in tatters, as if she’d been beaten up by a gang of thugs, but that just seemed to be her style. And the arms poking out of its sleeves held─
“Hey. Lemme introduce myself─I’m Tamamo Saijo. A first-year.”
Right hand: an Eliminator 00.
Left hand: a Griffon Hard Custom.
She─Tamamo─had these two oversized knives, which were too unrefined and too deadly for the hands of a girl, at the ready. She held them both in a reverse grip as she stood staring at me, rigid and motionless, almost as if that were her natural stance. A hazy, vacant presence, with vacant eyes.
Guess I got a little ahead of myself.
Definitely wasn’t expecting the knives to come out. Can’t believe things are getting this unusual this time around… That island full of geniuses and that serial slasher were both way more straightforward in comparison. Who the hell was going to come out of the woodwork next?
I mean, this girl was overloaded with laughable features, from her clothes to her equipment, but where to start?
“School let out hours ago, kiddo.”
“That’s all you’ve got?” she quibbled with my jibe.
At least it seemed we could establish some kind of communication; Tamamo narrowed her eyes at me and smiled. Then, muttering, “Swayyy…SWAYyy,” she shook her head as if to clear it. It seemed like she had a migraine or something, like she was struggling to bear up under the pain. Or maybe she just had low blood pressure. She did look kind of sleepy. Perhaps noticing my stare, Tamamo collected herself with an ah.
“Hmm? Oh, these knives are just for fun… No need to worry.”
“Okay, good…”
I had happened upon a liar.
“Let’s see…yes. I was looking for you guys…yes. Hold on, though, weren’t the three of you…supposed to be together? Can I just not see ’em? Weird. Glasses, glasses…”
“…”