Eventually, I found myself getting on the bus without anything actually being explained to me. True, we hadn’t had much time, and there had been a lot of people around us, but I was sure that he was just being mean and withholding the explanation from me. If you figured something out, tell me! I was truly getting the full experience of being Watson while Sherlock, Mizuto, was seemingly having a lively conversation with his seat partner, Higashira-san.
“Isana, can I see your guidebook real quick?” Mizuto asked.
“Sure, but what happened to yours?”
“I put it in my luggage before we got on the bus.”
“Oh, in that case, here you go.”
“Hm... Wow, it’s clean. Not a single mark or anything.”
“Ehe heh heh. What a wonderful feeling, to be complimented... I take good care of my textbooks and notebooks. They’ve practically never been touched!”
“No, you should actually be using those.”
Amid the anxiety that I felt during the entire bus ride, we reached our destination for the day—the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium. Being here reminded me of the date that Mizuto and I had gone on a year ago, though this aquarium was at least twice as huge as that one.
After taking our commemorative photo by the whale shark statue in front of the aquarium, we walked inside the building, which was as spacious as an airport terminal. We took the escalator down and as we did, we all fell in awe at the beautiful blue of the ocean in front of us. Though this was nothing more than the entrance to the aquarium, there was a high ceiling that made it easier for us to get a great view of the huge ocean in front of us.
After getting off the escalator, we went to the right and finally gave our admittance tickets. For some reason, we were on the third floor. Apparently the route we were supposed to follow started from the entrance on this floor, then led to the second floor, and finally the ground floor.
“So what’s the plan?” I asked Mizuto in a low voice while walking next to him.
We didn’t have to stay in our groups at the aquarium, so we could essentially just go around with whomever we wanted. Aquariums were typical date spots, but it’s not like I was in the mood to boldly walk around with Mizuto. He, on the other hand, seemed perfectly normal.
“We’re tying up loose ends for the other incident that occurred on this trip, not the peeping culprit.”
“Do you mean the guidebooks getting stolen? What does that have to do with anything? All I want to do is figure out what’s on Asuhain’s mind.”
“If I’m reading things right, then the incidents are very closely related. After all, Asuhain’s the one behind that.”
“Huh?”
I couldn’t help but express my surprise at his statement and look at him. As I did, a large tank with planted coral (or something?) came into view.
While Mizuto watched the fish, which were such vivid blues and yellows that they almost looked painted, he began his explanation. “More specifically, she was an accomplice.”
“An accomplice...? Why would Asuhain-san do all that?!”
“I’m not sure, but I have a good guess. That’s why we need to clear things up.”
As we passed by the tank with the coral, we entered the tropical fish area. Students from our school and tourists alike were loudly clamoring over the brightly colored fish swimming around. Though I’d always envisioned aquariums being quiet places, it was the exact opposite here.
The top of the tanks here faced the outside, so the rays of the sun were reflected through them. The blue that came through the tanks illuminated the path as well as the guests. As I walked through, I gazed at the tropical fish through the crowd.
“I wish I could take a better look at everything since we came all the way here...”
“But you can’t focus like this, right?” Mizuto said, sympathetically. “We’ll just have to come again some time with Minami-san, Asuhain-san, and the others.”
“Yeah...”
Previously, I’d thought that if we were to come again, I’d want it to be the two of us. After all, if we were going on a trip, I wouldn’t want our time together to be interrupted by other people. But honestly, now, I was thinking that it wouldn’t be too bad to go on a trip with Asuhain-san and the others. The fact that I could think like this now was a show of how blessed I’d become. How’d I get all these people that I want to go on a trip with—a boyfriend and so many friends?
Past the large tanks, we walked a narrow path to get to the next area. The light reflecting through the tanks began to lessen and suddenly, it was like we were in a dimly lit movie theater. Partway through there, I saw some girls from our class that I recognized. They were from the group that’d been late yesterday. They were cackling and talking loudly.
“Hey, got a sec?” Mizuto asked, calling out to them.
The three of them turned around, surprised expressions on their faces.
“I-Irido-kun? Need something?” the girl in the middle, their leader, asked, clearly confused and surprised.
I was in the same boat. I’d thought we’d be talking to Yoshino-san’s group since we were investigating their theft case.
“Sorry, but could I see your guidebooks? Just wanna check something real quick,” he asked.
“O-Oh. W-Well, that’s kinda...”
The three of them looked at each other uncomfortably. Huh? Why are they reacting like this? But my confusion was answered by Mizuto’s next statement.
“They were stolen, weren’t they?”
The three of them gasped simultaneously. They had theirs stolen too? Seeing them freeze up, Mizuto continued to put on the pressure.
“You don’t have to be so scared—I’m here as a friend. To be honest, I think I know who stole them, but I’m gonna need the guidebooks you three have right now to prove it.”
Huh? But you just said theirs were stolen! They can’t show you guidebooks they don’t have! I was extremely confused, but Mizuto turned around to me.
“Don’t you remember what I said about how they just talked on their own?”
“Oh, you mean when we spoke with Yoshino-san and her group?”
“Yeah.”
Yesterday morning, Mizuto and I’d gone to their room, and during our conversation, Mizuto had picked up on something but decided to keep his mouth shut because he wanted to bully me.
“They said that the four of them couldn’t find their guidebooks, so they concluded that they’d been stolen. They were very emphatic about that. You could interpret that as them having woken up, checked their bags, and immediately jumped to conclusions. It’s clear that, in their minds, all of their guidebooks had been stolen.”
Now that he’s laying it out like this, it does seem a little odd. If I’d checked inside my bag and seen that the guidebook was missing, I wouldn’t immediately think that it was stolen; I’d think that I’d lost it.
“I can only think of one reason that the simple act of checking in their bags would lead them to confidently declare that their guidebooks had been stolen.”
“What is it?”
“Their guidebooks were switched out with other ones.”
“Oh!” As soon as I reacted, an awkward look spread across the faces of the other three girls. That makes sense. If they were switched out, then it’d be obvious that they’d been stolen, not lost.
“But...the contents of the guidebooks are all the same, right? How’d they know that they were switched out? Was it because a different class number was on them? Or that something was written inside them?”
“If they had a different class’s guidebook, they could just go straight to a teacher. After all, it’d be clear as day to anyone that the guidebooks had been switched. But if your guidebook got switched with one from the same class, then there’s no way for a teacher to be a hundred percent sure that it was actually stolen. After all, it doesn’t really matter what’s written in there. That’s not something teachers are concerned about.”
“So was the writing in the guidebooks the culprit’s objective?”
“At the very least, that’s the only possibility I can think of.”