Mizuto Irido
I’ll be frank. At this point in time, I haven’t pinpointed who saw my secret tryst with Yume. After all, I don’t have any clear information about them at all. The only thing I could be certain of was that the culprit had hidden herself in a locker in the girls’ locker room, avoiding detection. In other words, the culprit was a girl. Out of all the second-years, there were about a hundred girls; adding in the female guests at the hotel, there were countless people who could’ve walked in on us.
However, I had a theory that if I obtained just one more piece of the puzzle, this mystery would be blown wide open. If there was something that I noticed, it’d be just that. If just one more condition was met, then out of over a hundred potential suspects, that number would magically be narrowed down to just one.
If my theory was right, then I could say that I was almost a hundred-percent certain who the culprit was. That’s why from here on out, I needed to work to change my theory into truth.
Personally, I didn’t really care whether we figured out the culprit’s identity, but I was sure that it would continue to weigh on Yume’s mind. More importantly, if my theory was right, then the culprit’s memories of this trip would be soured as well.
It wasn’t exactly in character for me, but somebody had to solve this mystery. As long as everything ended without incident, then it’d be okay. I’ll make sure that this once-in-a-lifetime school trip ends on a positive note. But it’s not like I had to do too much legwork at this point. I’d already set the stage. All I had to do was wait, and the information I wanted would come to me. Isn’t that right, Yako Yoshino?
✦ ✦ ✦
On the fourth and last day of the school trip, the only thing on our itinerary was sightseeing at Shuri Castle. Going off the picture I saw of the red-tile roof, I thought that it’d be similar to the Heian Shrine, but I was wrong. In reality, nearly everything around the castle were homes that people actually lived in. Shuri Castle was in the middle, at the top of a small hill.
But apparently there were rules for the appearance of the buildings in the area, which most likely explained why all of the homes had white walls and red roofs. They really stood out the most.
What excited us students the most was finding a Lawson. We’d only ever seen their signs in blue, but here, it was red. Even their usual blue lines on the outside of the store were all red. It was so unexpected that, at first, it didn’t even register in my mind that it was a Lawson.
In Kyoto, McDonald’s was famous for its signs being brown instead of red, and as someone who lived there, it was exciting to see other differently designed signs.
After climbing the stone-paved road on the wide hill, a pure-red gate came into view. It was apparently the entrance to Shuri Castle—the Shurei Gate. Upon arriving, each of our classes took turns going through it.
Once we entered, we were allowed to go off with our own individual groups. Our group of six followed the stone walls and eventually found the inner gate in the castle walls.
Unlike the Shurei Gate, this was a plain gate that looked as if someone had opened a hole in the castle walls. On either side of it were completely gray Shisa.
After passing through the gate, we entered an area that had walls as curvy as waves. There was a stone path in the middle of the grass that stretched to a staircase, which led to another small gate, but this one was painted a beautiful red.
After climbing the stairs and passing through the gate, we came face-to-face with a castle wall that was about five meters in height. The path continued straight to the left, and at the end of it was another staircase and gate.
“Th-There are too many stairs...” Isana complained in a weak voice.
I was honestly starting to get a little fatigued in my legs too. “It’s a castle on top of a hill. The more stairs, the more hill to climb, right?”
“Ugh...” Isana grumbled dejectedly.
But I was right there with her. After climbing the stairs and passing through the gate, we entered a somewhat open space. I was wondering why all the tourists were gathered on the left side, but it seemed that there was about a waist-high wall from which you could see the entire landscape.
“Wow, we’re so high! Kawanami, take some pics of us!” Minami-san demanded.
“Yeah, yeah.”
As if it were the most natural thing in the world, Kawanami became the cameraman and took the flip phone. The four girls of our group put their backs to the wall with the Naha scenery as their backdrop. Of course, Minami-san was used to taking pictures and it seemed that Yume was too, but Isana did the typical I-don’t-go-out-much peace sign, while Asuhain wore a stiff expression.
I kept myself out of it because taking pictures wasn’t really my thing, but things hardly go as planned. Ultimately, Kawanami forcibly dragged me into frame, and we all took a group picture.
After that, we went through another gate, arrived at a large, stone-paved open space, and then an even bigger gate—the Hoshin Gate. It was so tall that we had to strain our necks to look up, and its roof, walls, and pillars were all the same shade of red. This was the gate to the castle, but it was pretty much its own building too. If someone had told me that this was the castle, I’d have believed them.
Normally, the area past the gate was supposed to be red and gold. Apparently, the main temple that used to be there had since burned down, and they were in the process of restoring it. Currently, there was scaffolding, largely in the shape of the temple. So we’re finally halfway to the castle, huh? Of course, we still had to go back, so we were more like a fourth of the way done.
“Phew...” Isana sighed in the corner of the plaza by the Hoshin Gate. “Hill, stairs, hill stairs... This is too much for a shut-in...”
“Really? Gettin’ tired out from somethin’ like this? Lazybones,” Kawanami, her fated enemy, teased her, but Isana didn’t even react.
“Humans aren’t required to climb hills. It’s fine...” she said as if she’d reached some form of enlightenment. She squatted in front of the red gate and looked up at it.
Seeing Isana, Yume called out to Minami-san. “Wanna take a break? We won’t get in anyone’s way in this spacious area either.”
“Sure, why not?”
And with that, we took a break and looked around the area. This was perfect for me since she would catch up if we waited long enough. I aimlessly walked around the area, covertly distancing myself from Yume and Isana. As I did, a group of students who’d entered after us caught up, and among them was a certain individual.
“Hey...”
There you are. I turned around upon hearing her voice. Standing there was a girl with flashy hair and an outfit that revealed her belly button—Yako Yoshino. Her shoulders, stomach, and thighs were on full display. It was an outfit that really didn’t fit the historical nature of the place we were visiting. Currently, she was shooting me a look. I couldn’t read whether her expression contained fear or doubt, but either way, I knew it wasn’t friendly.
It was good that I’d moved to the tree that was planted at the edge of this area, because neither Isana or Yume could see us. Like this, I could cut straight to the chase with Yoshino.
“Need something?”