“And? Did ya find anything out?” asked the delinquent, who was even more at odds with the student council president outside the art room than any of us (inside it, he was our waiter).
“We did,” Sakiguchi nodded. “Simply put, the Twenties are, as you may recall, a delivery service─their business is to bring whatever they are asked to bring, be it people or goods, to the location where they are asked to bring it. They appear to have no political positions or ideology whatsoever.”
“Hmmm. And yet, I sensed a certain faint aesthetic,” Sotoin mused.
His standard for making such judgements was hard to grasp, but to tell the truth, I got what he was trying to say─after all, Rei could have treated us far worse when we were at her mercy.
It’s true that they transported us like a bunch of parcels, but we were actually handled with a fair amount of care.
“Yes indeed. They certainly have standards, if not exactly an aesthetic─call it the pride that professional criminals take in their work. At the very least, I do not believe they will seek revenge on us. That should offer some sense of relief.”
Interesting… So revenge was the thing he was most worried about, having run afoul of a criminal organization. A few superficial wins are no better than a loss if you have to spend the rest of your life watching your back─I’d assumed everything was over, and hadn’t really been thinking about revenge, but I guess it was a pretty obvious concern.
Given how careful Sakiguchi had to be that his reputation wasn’t ruined by the situation with his fiancée, I wasn’t surprised he was on top of risk management─too bad for him he still couldn’t rest easy when it came to the fiancée thing, though.
“As long as we proceed with caution, we will not cross paths with the Twenties again. I can guarantee you that much.”
“…”
His statement was meant to be reassuring, but considering that the Pretty Boy Detective Club didn’t know the first thing about proceeding with caution, that condition left me a little anxious.
Still, if that had been all he had to say, I would’ve taken it as good news, but Sakiguchi’s expression remained dark.
“Well,” he continued. “In the course of our investigation, we came across a piece of unexpected information, totally by accident─and that information made the whole situation infinitely more complex and suggestive.”
“Suggestive, like Rei’s figure?”
“Hyota. We’re finished talking about Rei. She wasn’t even included in the illustrations, now, was she?”
“Hmph. What’s your problem? Just because you prefer a boyish figure─”
“If by boyish figure you are referring to the fiancée that my parents chose for me without my permission, then in the name of her honor, I would like to point out that her figure is not all that boyish─but as for the unexpected information, it had to do with Kamikazari Middle School.”
“Kamikazari Middle School? Oho, and where might that be?”
The leader’s eyes sparkled.
Does he have amnesia or something?
His curiosity must only have one channel─to put a positive spin on it, he’s got an excellent capacity for concentrating on the matter at hand, but how could he have so quickly forgotten the name of the school where we’d just been conducting an undercover investigation?
And on top of that, our schools are neighbors!
But the leader’s scatterbrained reaction was an unexpected blessing, because it helped soften my own shock.
What on earth did the Twenties have to do with Kamikazari Middle School?
“We arrived at this information in the course of investigating the nature of the Twenties’ activities. At the time, I couldn’t believe my ears, but the source was a very reliable one─there is evidence that Fudatsuki, the school’s current student council president, is engaged in business dealings with the Twenties.”
“Business dealings…?”
A middle school student doing business with a criminal organization?
My first reaction was to blurt out that the very idea was ridiculous, but while Fudatsuki may be a middle school student, he’s a middle school student who runs a casino in the school gym at night, along with a variety of other activities. Doing business with criminals might not be so surprising for a guy like him─in fact, even if it was total coincidence that his business partner was the Twenties, it actually seemed natural that he would be involved with an illegal organization.
“The Twenties being essentially a delivery service, they’re acting as middleman in this situation─they seem to be making regular deliveries to Fudatsuki.”
“He’s m-meeting with her regularly…? That bastard, meeting with Rei?”
Mr. Bare-Legs seemed mysteriously jealous (honestly, “that bastard”?), but that aside─deliveries?
“You mean like the slot machines and poker tables? So that’s how he got his hands on that stuff!”
“Yes, Michiru. I do believe the Twenties acted as middleman in those transactions as well─otherwise, it would be almost inconceivable for a middle school student to put together that kind of facility. That is not the essential point here, however─you see, a…private-sector company seems to be sending him consignments of products they have in development.”
Hm?
For once, the skilled orator stumbled, and seemed for a moment to be at a loss for words… What was going on here?
The involvement of the Twenties, who were up to their elbows in illegal activity, was definitely a problem, but having business dealings with a private company didn’t in and of itself seem like anything to get so worked up about.
“They appear to be paying Fudatsuki to beta test items under development─and it seems that the student council president’s main source of income derives from reporting his impressions of the products he’s tested.”
“What the hell? That’s his main source of income? So all he’s gotta do is say if it was easy to use or not? Tell them whether he liked it or not?”
Sounds like one hell of a cushy job, the delinquent added sardonically.
“And that’s how he’s able to run the casino?”
“To the contrary, I’d say that’s why he’s running the casino─to test the product he’s currently been commissioned to report on,” Sakiguchi answered. “Those invisible black clothes Ms. Dojima told us about, the ones the kuroko was wearing.”