“The Twenties?! Did the guy with the lolicon just say the Twenties?!” Mr. Bare-Legs broke in, leaping up in response to Sakiguchi’s mellifluous voice.
Whether it was thanks to the quality of the bedsprings or because his legs are that powerful even in a reclining position, he literally sprang to his feet─a reaction so excessive that I half wondered if he’d bust through the canopy like some cartoon character.
“I did say ‘the Twenties,’ but I don’t have a lolicon,” Mr. Lolicon countered curtly.
“Never mind that, you did say ‘the Twenties’!” Mr. Bare-Legs shouted, instantly shaking off all signs of sleepiness as he raced over to Sakiguchi with incredible, and unnecessary, speed.
But maybe his reaction wasn’t excessive after all.
Since during the Pretty Boy Detective Club’s last tangle with the organization in question, it was Mr. Bare-Legs─angel on the surface, physical dynamo underneath─who laid his life on the line more than any of us, and it would come as no surprise if that experience had traumatized him.
The Twenties.
I don’t even know how to properly describe them─but basically, they’re a criminal organization.
A bona fide criminal organization, though you’d never guess it from that poppy name of theirs, which makes them sound like a baseball team or something─and they’d kidnapped Sotoin and me with unimaginable aplomb.
Mr. Bare-Legs had fallen into their clutches as well, in his attempt to rescue us─but if that experience was etched into his mind…
“So, then, I get to see Rei again?! That gorgeous woman?! The one with the revealing outfits?! The Rei-vishing Beauty with Twenty Faces?!”
…There was no sign of any emotional scarring as he leaned forward eagerly and inquired about his erstwhile captor. Well, I suppose that level of victimization might not inflict much trauma on a guy who’d been kidnapped three times already.
To the contrary, the enemy’s ringleader had stolen his heart.
Though I have to admit she’s the kind of jaw-dropping beauty who could put just about any guy under her spell…
“No, you will not get to see her,” Sakiguchi scolded him sharply─and with impressive rationality. He, at least, was apparently immune to the charms of jaw-dropping leaders of criminal organizations.
Or maybe that was his standard stance with regard to older women?
“That would not be a desirable outcome,” he continued, “which is why I’ve been attempting to devise a strategy that allows us to avoid any further contact with her organization.”
“Oh,” Mr. Bare-Legs muttered, losing interest immediately.
But instead of returning to the bed, he sat down on the sofa, snatched the plate of yakisoba the child genius had been in the middle of eating, and began scarfing it down without so much as a by-your-leave.
What a free spirit.
“Then I won’t get to see those voluptuous legs again? Just because you prefer slender legs─”
“I most certainly do not prefer slender legs. The legs of the young lady my parents selected as my fiancée just happen to be slender, that’s all.”
If you ask me, that explanation just happened to be rather suspicious… So suspicious, in fact, that if I had a cell phone, I’d have reported him to the police immediately.
But maybe since Sakiguchi is closer to a criminal than any of us, he’s also more hostile toward other criminals, and more likely to take the moral high ground─in fact, our leader Sotoin had made some comments that suggested he wasn’t entirely disapproving of Rei himself.
Which was perhaps what motivated his next words.
“Ahem. Nagahiro, do tell. How are the Twenties involved with the casino?” he asked with interest─although our boundlessly curious leader seems interested in just about everything.
“I’ll explain everything in good time… And Hyota, please feel free to continue your nap. We’ve had quite enough of your refreshing perspective.”
“Thanks, I’m good. But don’t worry, I’ll keep my thoughts to myself,” Mr. Bare-Legs replied, rejecting the suggestion from Sakiguchi, who was apparently tired of being interrupted─although he’d shared plenty of his refreshing perspective already.
The delinquent, meanwhile, was providing refreshment of a different sort in the form of another round of tea─as long as he kept his mouth shut, he came off like a genuine waiter.
Sakiguchi shrugged and continued.
“In our last encounter, we successfully─or rather, fortuitously─managed to drive back the Twenties, but I feared we would not be so lucky next time,” he began. “To put the matter in extreme terms, even engaging with that woman and her organization would be a defeat of sorts─in this world, there are certain people with whom one should never get involved.”
He sounded deadly serious.
And coming from the vice president of the Pretty Boy Detective Club, which everyone at school said you should never get involved with, those words bore all the more weight.
The fact is, he was probably right.
The last time I saw Rei, she’d hinted that our paths would cross again, but I couldn’t think of anything I wanted more than to avoid such a reunion.
“And so I decided to request Sosaku’s assistance in investigating her organization─its structure, its activities, its scale... The likelihood of crossing paths once more, and if we do, how to extricate ourselves from the situation... The two of us have been secretly looking into these matters.”
They had?
True enough, that was work for the vice president of the Pretty Boy Detective Club, not the student council president. And just like last time, he’d gotten the child genius (and his formidable foundation) to help.
I couldn’t help wondering why he hadn’t called on the Yubiwa Foundation for help in investigating Kamikazari Middle School as well, but he seemed to keep the two completely separate in his mind.
His conscientious personality might’ve had something to do with that, but it was also probably related to the odd relationships between the members of the Pretty Boy Detective Club, which is to say, the fact that when they weren’t at HQ or doing club work, they refused to have anything to do with one another.
The club existed entirely thanks to its leader.
Sakiguchi and the child genius had no direct connection─even I could say that much.