With that, all became clear.
That’s how it felt, anyway, but it was just my imagination─there was still plenty I didn’t know about the situation, though at least now I understood how Fudatsuki operated that casino.
Sakiguchi’s words had pierced the heart of the matter.
It wasn’t that he got the money to run the casino from his other “work,” but that he ran the casino in order to do that work.
Yes, I do believe he was using the whole place for his own ends.
Using the eyes of the audience.
To test out those invisible black clothes.
To test them out… Or rather, to try them on for size.
He definitely wasn’t using them to cheat his guests out of their money.
His customers were not the students of our neighboring school.
His customer was a corporation.
But─
“D-Does that kind of clothing really exist? I-I mean… It’s like something out of Harry Potter…”
Garments no one could see. No one but me.
It sounded too sci-fi to be real…
“I know. I could hardly believe it myself until I saw it─that is, until I didn’t see it. But when I heard your story the other day, Ms. Dojima, something clicked for me.”
Even after investigating the matter with Sosaku, he said, he didn’t have a concrete idea of what the product was.
“A man who vanished into thin air. I thought he must have used the clothes to do that─and from your description, I was at least seventy-five percent sure that your ‘Mr. Businessman’ was my old acquaintance, the student council president of Kamikazari Middle.”
“…”
The pieces were falling into place.
That’s why Sakiguchi had been so enthusiastic from the start─when his two parallel investigations unexpectedly coalesced into one, he probably felt he’d had a stroke of luck, even if he wasn’t consciously trying to kill two birds with one stone.
…And it had all panned out.
He’d unexpectedly been able to carry out an undercover investigation of Fudatsuki’s illegal activities at Kamikazari Middle, and─even more unexpectedly─been able to observe a test of the product Fudatsuki was reviewing, thanks to my eyesight.
To observe an invisible body.
Mayumi the Seer─?
“B-But… Any way you slice it, the development of a sci-fi product like that must be a trade secret, right?”
Even an ignorant middle schooler like me could well imagine that if a product like that got out into the world, an unimaginable sum of money would be at play─and that wasn’t all. My mind naturally went to money first because this whole episode had started with a wad of counterfeit cash, but this went beyond money.
A product like that could change the world.
Just as airplanes had made the world smaller, and TVs had shaken it up, and cell phones had made it feel claustrophobic.
The world could be remade from the ground up.
This was the kind of thing that flipped common sense on its head─and very much not the kind of thing anyone should be entrusting to a middle school student.
A conservative, hard-headed adult should be in charge of this.
No matter how good Fudatsuki’s head for business was─but what if the company had some other reason for asking him to do it?
Could something have necessitated them going through a middle school student and an illegal organization like the Twenties─
“No upstanding citizen would take on the job.”
A quiet yet clear voice─the child genius’s voice.
Sosaku Yubiwa had spoken.
Not as an artist, but as a businessman involved in running a foundation.
“You see, the developers have every intention of putting it to an evil use.”
✦ ✦ ✦
An evil use.
What did he mean? Well, we probably weren’t talking about cheating at cards.
Invisible black clothes─a cloak of invisibility.
There’s no way something like that would be used for a heartwarming purpose like one of Doraemon’s fantastical gadgets. Simply put, these clothes turned you into the Invisible Man, at which point you could probably carry out any crime imaginable.
I’m sure there would be plenty of demand for a product like that from above-board sectors of the economy, but in a surveillance society so overrun with security cameras, the demand from the underworld would surely be even greater.
A person who doesn’t exist can’t be caught, no matter what crime they commit─but even that was just the simple imaginings of a middle school student.
Without a doubt, the setting where this technology would be most in demand and most likely to be used, even if it were illegal, was the battlefield.
Military application.
The very idea was horrifying, but if the Twenties were involved, then it wasn’t so far-fetched─after all, the last time we’d gotten involved with Rei and her cronies, the case had involved military weaponry as well.
This company must be a regular client of theirs.
As a delivery service.
And even if it wasn’t the same company as last time, the fact remained that the private-sector company Fudatsuki was involved with was a military contractor.
The arms industry… We were getting in deep.
An organization that wouldn’t hesitate to flout the law.
“With that kind of backing, making some over-spec counterfeit bills would be a piece of cake─shit!”
The delinquent was really pissed.
“That asshole acts all full of himself, but he’s just another dog at the feet of his masters. I’m as disappointed as I was when I realized that the saying ‘dogs are man’s best friend’ really means that humanity’s best friend isn’t humanity.”
The satire cut like a knife.
Apparently, he couldn’t stand being sucked dry by a casino─and this casino in particular.
“I suspect Fudatsuki doesn’t see himself as some kind of subcontractor─he probably thinks he’s playing hardball with this arms manufacturer. The two parties are certainly using each other; a two-way street, if you will. Having such a hefty pipeline to a company like that must have allowed him to expand his operations… But I hardly need point out that the situation is extremely dangerous.”
Yes, it probably was dangerous.
In a sense, even more dangerous than a Lolita complex.
You definitely couldn’t call Fudatsuki’s business transparent.
After all, he wasn’t the only one affected by his business dealings and economic activities.
Every one of the middle school students innocently trading chips back and forth in that dazzling casino was an unwitting party to his illegal activities─and that wasn’t all.
The smallest misstep posed a huge risk.
Like how I’d unintentionally seen something I shouldn’t have in the sky, and ended up getting kidnapped by the Twenties─an unexpected yet pre-ordained “unfortunate event” could befall those innocent boys and girls.
And not just the customers.
The Kamikazari students who’d signed on as bunny girls and dealers were at risk, too─they’d never get away with claiming it was just job training.
Of course, Fudatsuki’s inner circle probably knew what was going on, but I couldn’t imagine the entire staff did.
The casino itself probably violated Japanese law, but he’d stepped way over that line, and the next one as well.
No two ways about it, this operation went far beyond a “playful” or “boyish” spirit. If such things as right and wrong exist in this world, Fudatsuki’s actions were clearly the latter.
“If clothes like that exist, they should just use them to sneak into the girls’ locker room and call it a day,” Mr. Bare-Legs muttered.
Um, no, that wouldn’t be okay, either…
“So, Mr. President, whadda we do?”
Ignoring the comment from Mr. Bare-Legs, the delinquent darted a glance at the child genius, who had returned to his usual silent artiste routine, before turning to Sotoin for direction.
“Whaddaya think? Knowing you, I bet you see some kind of aesthetic beauty in what the Twenties are doing, and in Fudatsuki’s casino─but even you’ve gotta admit they’ve gone too far, right?”
“Heh.”
The president spread his hands in response to the delinquent’s question.
“Michiru, if I’m not mistaken, you are asking if I think we should return to the Reasonable Doubt Casino and seek our revenge, seizing the right to run the business by beating the manager in another onstage showdown and smashing to smithereens the proving ground where he’s been testing out those black clothes, before they can become a military weapon?”
Because in that case, my answer is yes, Sotoin continued. “Of course it is! Anything else would violate my personal aesthetic. To see the eye’s delight and not pursue it is want of courage─ahem! Young Dojima! That is, Mayumi the Seer!”
“Y-Yes?”
I jumped a little to suddenly hear my name like that.
Manabu the Aesthete gave me an enthusiastic thumbs up.
“Rejoice. The time has arrived for you to offer up your eyesight in service to the greater good.”