Higashira-san screamed as Maki-san continued to squeeze her like a stuffed animal. Since it was obvious I had a boyfriend due to how I’d turned other people down, Maki-san was the only one out of the four of us that had hung out in our first year without a special someone. As such, she’d only recently developed this jealous trait. For the record, though, Akatsuki-san doesn’t have a boyfriend either, but since she has something like a childhood friend, she counts as “taken” in Maki-san’s eyes.
“Chill,” Nasuka-san, sporting her usual bob cut and gentle aura, said, gently soothing Maki-san. “Even if you try to interfere with the romance of others, it’s not gonna make you any more successful yourself.”
“How can you say that with a smile?! Are you tryin’ to kill me?!”
Contrary to her peaceful appearance, Nasuka-san’s words cut deep, making Maki-san release Higashira-san.
Using that as an opening, Mizuto approached Akatsuki-san.
“Minami-san, you mind showing me where the bathroom is?”
That’s a really weird question. Why would you ask her and not your best friend, Higashira-san? At first, Akatsuki-san also seemed confused by the question. But then she cryptically smiled.
“The bathroom’s right back where we came from. I don’t mind showing you the way.”
“Thanks.”
“Sorry, gonna go to the bathroom real fast. Go on without me!” Akatsuki-san said to Maki-san and the others before going back the way we came with Mizuto.
I nonchalantly followed them as well. We passed back through the Whale Shark and Manta Ray Corner and headed to the narrow path where the toilets were at the end of the hall. When we reached there, Akatsuki-san leaned against the blue wall, her ponytail swinging a bit as she turned to Mizuto.
“So, what’s up?” Akatsuki-san asked, jumping right into the topic. It was as if she knew that she’d be talking with Mizuto here today.
“Got some questions, obviously,” Mizuto said, not hesitating at all, just like Akatsuki-san. “After dinner on the first night, where were you, and what were you doing?”
After dinner? Did something happen then? But even though I was confused, she began cryptically smiling, intertwining her fingers behind her back.
“If you’re asking that, I’m assuming you saw something around then?” Akatsuki-san asked.
“Not really. I didn’t see anything at a decisive time, but I saw Asuhain being surrounded by Yoshino and her two friends. They were telling her off, saying something about not trying to put any moves on me.”
“That happened to her?” I asked.
I was a little surprised, but I could kind of imagine those three doing something like that. They were the people who joked about Mizuto and Higashira-san’s relationship, so I could easily imagine that they’d tell off Asuhain-san, who had asked Mizuto out due to some kind of sense of justice or lone-wolf mentality. None of them would be too happy about Asuhain-san asking out Mizuto. I hadn’t seen Asuhain-san do it myself, but they had probably witnessed her putting the moves on Mizuto. Personally, I couldn’t even imagine Asuhain-san getting close to a guy.
“I didn’t really care about the contents of their conversation, so I didn’t try to butt in or anything. The one thing I can say with absolute certainty is that Yoshino-san and her friends weren’t in their room at that time.”
“What do you mean... Oh!” When I realized what he was saying, I couldn’t help but turn my mumbling into a gasp. “You’re saying that’s when their guidebooks were stolen?”
“When dinner ended, there weren’t any particular plans until lights out. So if you wanted to steal them, you’d have to wait for the opportunity for Yoshino and the rest to leave their room. To avoid that, you chose right after dinner.”
It’s true that it would’ve been impossible to precisely guess when they’d be out of their room since there weren’t any planned activities that would’ve required them to leave. In that case, it’d be best to go right after dinner. All she’d need would be for someone to buy her time.
“You said that Asuhain-san was an accomplice, right? Is this what you meant?” I asked.
Akatsuki-san tilted her head slightly, a troubled expression on her face. “Hm... I don’t really get what’s going on, but since things are starting to heat up, I’ll say something like a culprit would. You’re talking about how someone sneaked into their room to steal their guidebooks, right? Sounds kinda impossible. After all, how’d they even do that without a key?”
“By having someone who has the key open it. There was one more girl in their room who isn’t part of Yoshino-san’s usual trio. She was your spy, wasn’t she?”
Oh... In that case, she wouldn’t need to sneak in. She could simply have her spy stealthily switch out the guidebooks when Yoshino-san and the others weren’t in the room, and then hide them so they couldn’t find them. It’s that simple.
“It was important for all four of them to have their books switched out. Otherwise, one of them might’ve been a suspect. Maybe they even helped with the secret messages.”
Wow, just like a spy. That girl doesn’t really seem the type to me, but I guess you can’t judge a book by its cover.
“Interesting. Okay then, onto my next question. Why are you coming to me? If what you just said is right, then you’re sure that Asuhain-san was involved, but I’m not sure where I really fit into this,” Akatsuki-san asked.
“Because you’re an integral part of the entire scheme.”
“How’s that?”
“That’s just how things add up.”
“Addition? Like one plus one equals me?”
“Yeah.”
“Huh?” I muttered. His answer surprised me, so I found myself looking at him.
“There were seven girls total whose guidebooks had been stolen—four from Yoshino’s group and then three others. All of them had their guidebooks switched out, but the spy’s one could be reused, so really, that means there were at least six guidebooks that the culprit needed.”
“So...four used for Yoshino-san’s group, but one was the spy’s, so excluding that one, six total?”
Mizuto nodded at me as I counted, using my fingers. “In other words, excluding the spy, there were six other culprits. And as I said before, the victims—including the spy—were seven people. Furthermore, the only people involved in this incident were the girls, and there aren’t any extra guidebook copies since the teachers only made enough for each student.”
“So in other words, only the girls in our class... Oh...” As I said this out loud, it clicked. He’s right. It is simple math. After all... “There are fifteen girls in our class...”
“There were thirteen guidebooks in play, both the victims’ and perpetrators’. There were only two girls in our class who weren’t involved.”
Fifteen minus thirteen...two. With the number of victims confirmed, and the two people who weren’t affected at all, it was only natural that the remaining six were the perpetrators. It was also really easy to identify who at least one of the two uninvolved parties was.