I was just taking a little break, which is to say, leaning casually against the wall after having walked around the whole casino─and I hadn’t intended to let my guard down, but when I looked over, he was standing right next to me.
Mr. Businessman.
The unforgettable fellow with the slicked-back hair who had set this whole case in motion a few days earlier.
“Ah, uh, um─”
I was obviously and completely flustered.
How could I respond properly to such an unexpected question?
No, unexpected was the wrong word─this was what they call “pre-established harmony,” that is, the natural plot line that I should have been expecting and so should have been prepared for. After all, we hadn’t come to play around (Mr. Bare-Legs excluded).
We had come to investigate this enigmatic man who had dropped a wad of cash and then given me a tenth of it─and to discover the real reason he had hidden invitations inside those anti-cost-performance counterfeit bills.
So it was actually inevitable that I’d have to confront the man in question at some point tonight─I just hadn’t thought I’d be doing it alone, and so directly.
I wasn’t prepared for that─which is why I panicked.
But Mr. Businessman paid it no mind.
“My dear sir,” he began politely, “you don’t seem to be enjoying yourself. Tell me, what might be the problem?”
In fact, he was so excessively polite that I couldn’t relax.
“Oh, no, it’s not that I’m not enjoying myself…”
Somehow I managed to answer him, however incoherently.
Part of the problem was that since I didn’t know his position, I wasn’t sure what attitude to take toward him─he’d been very polite to me and his question seemed like something casino management would ask, not to mention the fact that he was wearing a tuxedo, quite unlike the suit he’d had on the other day.
It was almost like he was more dressed up than the dressed-up guests. He gave me the same uneasy feeling as last time, but I still didn’t know what was causing it.
“I-It’s just, a gi─I mean, a guy like me doesn’t really know the rules of these games. I only came with my friends…”
I’d remembered my current appearance just in time to frantically switch the “girl” to “guy.”
Right now, I was a pretty boy.
Of course, if I were as mature as the student council president, I probably could have turned it into some sort of elegant joke.
“Your friends? I see.” He nodded significantly. “In that case, what would you say to joining me in a nostalgic game of Othello?”
He pointed to a table tucked into one corner of the hall.
It looked to be in some kind of lounge area. I hadn’t come across it in my tour of the hall, but when I took a closer look, I saw shogi and go boards laid out on the table─along with the Othello board Mr. Businessman had mentioned.
Okay then.
Even I know how to play Othello.
I’m not an idiot, you know.
“A-And─um, you are…” I asked haltingly.
If I ran after him without a second thought, that would be just as bad as letting him foist the hundred thousand yen (of invitation-stuffed counterfeit bills) on me─so I figured I should at least ask who he was first.
“Oh, how inconsiderate of me,” he replied. “My name is Fudatsuki, and I have the good fortune to be the manager and overseer here in famous Kamikazari’s Reasonable Doubt Casino.”
“Infamous?”
“I also happen to be the president of the student council─please, follow me.”
On that suave note, Mr. Businessmen─er, I mean, student council president?─led me over to the table.
So he wasn’t a businessman after all!
He was a middle school student!
That must be why he made me feel uneasy! He wasn’t just childlike, he was actually a child! With those thoughts running through my mind, I followed after him─but seriously, a middle school student?
“Heheheh, I wear makeup to make me look more grown-up─a person can turn into anyone they want, you know.”
I somehow felt as if he was referring to my boy’s getup, and my heart skipped a beat─but after all, I knew a fifth grader who blended in perfectly well with middle school students, so the idea of a middle school student who could pull off a suit or a tuxedo wasn’t all that strange… But if he was student council president, did that mean he was in year 3?
“Oh no, I’m in year 2. The old make way for the young nice and early at our school─unlike Yubiwa Academy.”
“…”
So he knew that I went to Yubiwa Academy─I guess that made sense, since I’d been wearing a uniform the last time we met.
And he─Fudatsuki─apparently remembered that encounter.
When I thought about the possibility that he’d approached me because he recognized me, I tensed up all over again─I’d been tense to start with, but now I realized that this might not be a simple case of the manager showing concern for a “bored customer.”
In which case, I’d better proceed with care.
As a member of the Pretty Boy Detective Club.
…I had no idea how I, the newbie, ended up having to deal head-on with this situation while all the other members got to gamble the night away, but nevertheless, a mission is a mission.
I might have unexpectedly managed to ferret out his name and position, but I still didn’t understand his purpose─and I had to find that out.
He ordered a drink from a bunny girl and sat down at the table.
“Black or white, whichever you prefer.”
He presented me with the choice like a sommelier offering me a glass of wine, but I honestly didn’t care─was there even an advantage to going first or second in Othello? I had a vague idea that going second was better.
“Most likely that’s because if you choose to go second, the option arises of placing your disc at a diagonal─while if you go first, it doesn’t matter where you place your disc, it’s all the same. Which amounts to not having a choice.”
What a logical explanation.
Hmm, so that’s the situation─but what was I supposed to do with a lecture on Othello?
I chose to go first; that is, I chose black.
If I could get away without agonizing over a choice, then I would.
I’d just kind of gotten swept along into playing this game─even though this was no time to be killing time.
Anyway, the Othello board had the discs built into it.
This wasn’t my first time playing the game, but it was my first time with that kind of set.
I’d figured it would be convenient because you can’t lose the discs, but now that I was actually using it, I realized how annoying it was to turn the pieces over… Every time I tried to turn a white piece black only to spin it the wrong way and end up with a blank face, I felt slightly irritated.
I just can’t keep up with the latest technology.
“So tell me, is something bothering you?”
“Oh, yes, um…”
Even though we went to different schools, we were in the same year, so figured it was fine to use casual language with him, but he was so prim and proper that I was having a hard time finding the right moment to make the switch.