“Ladies and gentlemen.
“I did not conduct the investigation which I am about to discuss in my capacity as a member of the Pretty Boy Detective Club, but rather as president of the Yubiwa Middle School student council─my aim was to maintain the peace, or perhaps one might say to establish public order.
“There was a community connection as well.
“In short, I had been hearing rumors about Kamikazari Middle School for quite some time─vague rumors about unsavory activities taking place there.
“Kamikazari is located a bit too close for me to simply dismiss it as another school’s business; I could not ignore the problem.
“Neither could I guarantee that the students of Yubiwa Academy would suffer no negative impact─and so I decided I must take preventive measures.
“As student council president, I have a responsibility to protect the students of our school.
“I had been looking into the matter for some time, but with limited success─I sensed very strongly that the students at Kamikazari Middle were putting up a united front. None would talk, which was naturally incomprehensible to a person like me, whose only strength lies in speech.
“No matter how persistently I pursued the rumors, the trail inevitably fizzled out. To be frank, I was at my wit’s end.
“Of course, since our schools are rivals, students no doubt felt especially reluctant to leak information to me… Their silence was more or less monolithic.
“Yet Kamikazari Middle was not always like that─when I was a first-year student, it was a much freer, more open place, for both better and worse.
“And it only became such a tightly controlled school, for both better and worse, after he enrolled.
“He.
“Yes, Fudatsuki─while he has only recently become student council president, his influence, or perhaps I should say his charisma, has been operating since he entered the school.
“He stood out more brilliantly even than I, it seems.
“And we might just as well call his charisma what it is: business acumen─because despite being a middle school student, he has launched a series of ventures with Kamikazari students as his staff.
“The casino may be the most emblematic of these ventures, but there seem to be many others, as well─although their nature remains a mystery.
“Here at our school we have a child genius involved in running a foundation, but Fudatsuki’s gift is different─in the blink of an eye, he had Kamikazari Middle under his thumb.
“Saying he did it with the power of money has a nasty ring to it.
“But there is no question that Fudatsuki brought a certain order to Kamikazari Middle─and I naturally must credit him for the achievement.
“Nevertheless, as the student council president of a neighboring school, I saw his skill as a threat─because his actions were by no means those of a moderate.
“As Ms. Dojima has already guessed, he and I had crossed paths in our capacity as student council presidents─and so I knew what kind of person he was.
“Appearances to the contrary, he is intensely ambitious.
“Make no mistake, he is not the type to be satisfied controlling the affairs of his own school alone─and I feared he would soon move to seize control of others.
“They call him ‘maestro.’
“A fitting title indeed, for one who aspires to be master of all he surveys.
“These are the reasons that I, as student council president, had begun taking preventive measures─though without much success, as I mentioned a moment ago.
“In all honesty, I did not know what Fudatsuki was doing or planning─but when I heard Ms. Dojima describe her ‘Mr. Businessman’ the other day, I sensed the critical moment had arrived.
“Fudatsuki, it seemed, had finally set his nefarious sights on Yubiwa Academy.”
✦ ✦ ✦
About that boundary line between Yubiwa Academy and Kamikazari Middle School.
We’d crossed it to visit the Reasonable Doubt Casino, but from the opposite perspective, you could just as well invade Yubiwa Academy’s territory from the Kamikazari side.
In fact, that’s precisely what Fudatsuki was doing when I saw him on my way to school─he was using that counterfeit million yen as literal groundbait to lure Yubiwa Academy students to his casino.
Oh so carelessly.
And you could say he hooked me─if I hadn’t seen the kuroko, my impression of Kamikazari would probably have changed for the better.
I’d be lying if I said Fudatsuki hadn’t charmed me when he so politely offered me a game of Othello, standing around twiddling my thumbs as I was─and I’m sure he looked really cool to everyone else when he was up there on the stage, winning big.
As long as they didn’t know the trick─yes, the trick.
“…I understand about Fudatsuki─but Sakiguchi…” I began.
I now understood the connection between the two student council presidents, and why Sakiguchi had approached Kamikazari Middle School with ulterior motives in the first place─but neither was my real concern.
What I really wanted to understand was the trick─that is, the presence of the kuroko.
Or rather, the absence.
“What should we make of that?”
Given that he wasn’t able to see the figure, he couldn’t have predicted it, could he? He wouldn’t have lost like that if he knew about the kuroko, right?
“No, I predicted that, too,” he nodded. “I can only wish that I hadn’t─but all my precautions had no effect, and the situation only got progressively worse. However…”
Sakiguchi looked over at the leader.
Sotoin tilted his head, looking perplexed.
How can he always guess what the blank-faced child genius is thinking yet be so bad at picking up on this kind of explanation? I’m beginning to wonder if our fifth-grade Kogoro is really suited to being the world’s greatest detective.
Inevitably (I’m sorry to say), Sakiguchi picked up the thread of his own trailing sentence.
“However, the answer to your question is the concern of the Pretty Boy Detective Club, not the Yubiwa Academy student council─Ms. Dojima, do you remember the Twenties?”