3

Ooouch.

I pulled at Haruta"s ear until we entered the preparation room next to the music room and closed the door with a bang to the point that the room was shaking.

"Well, aren"t you br.i.m.m.i.n.g with motivation?"

For a moment Haruta got teary eyed and crouched down, but then he stood up and said, "... I guess I look forward to the cultural festival after all." He continued with a serious look. "I"m gradually not liking the thought of it getting shut down."

When I heard those words, I plopped myself down in the corner of the preparation room.

"What should we do? Haruta."

"It"s about the lost crystal we talked about yesterday, huh. Did you find anything this morning?"

I shook my head dejectedly. We didn"t find anything.

"I guess that means that someone inside the school took it off the school grounds after all." Haruta made a sound on the xylophone and continued. "The Chemistry Club member took his eyes off the scene for only about five minutes, right?"

"Indeed."

"If that"s the case, rather than an overlap of impulse and chance, it"s more natural to think that they aimed for that interval and took it away. In other words, the criminal planned on stealing that crystal."

I understood if I thought about it normally. Despite this I wanted to avoid thinking about that as much as possible. Somehow I wanted it to be done out of impulse or chance -- Everyone"s thoughts was on delaying reporting to the teachers and notifying the police, and until today we ended up moving about in confusion.

"Aah. Of all things it was the theft of that crystal. Even though it would have been so much more healthier if the penicillium that was grown with great care and even nicknamed by the president of the Chemistry Club, had been stolen."

I ignored Haruta"s words.

"Were those threatening letters for real?"

"What do you think, Chika-chan?"

I turned my head since I was asked a question.

"... They clipped characters out of a newspaper, went through the trouble of copying them in a larger size and put the letter on the bulletin board. Their demand is also a joke. It would be fine if we were in an era without word processors, but I can"t think of doing a performance that takes up such time and effort nowadays as anything but simply playing to crowd."

"In our era that kind of antique-looking shapes have more atmosphere and are more amusing. Generally, if they were truly aiming to shut down the cultural festival, they"d write using a ruler so that their handwriting isn"t exposed, send it to the princ.i.p.al or vice princ.i.p.al, send it through email like you said yesterday or make a phone call."

I hummed. Certainly it"s like that.

"This year"s letter makes the third threatening letter. I have no idea why they came with a crime that seems to suggest the realization of the threat"s contents on the third letter. Besides, if it"s a poison theft the social impact will be big and the police will do a serious investigation on the charges of theft. Something like the vice princ.i.p.al"s hair wig doesn"t compare."

I pondered. "But what if the threatening letter and the crystal theft are separate cases?"

"Separate cases, huh. But I cannot conclusively say that they are entirely separate," Haruta suggested. I knew he was testing me. Uugh. I"m getting fired up. I can"t get beaten by at least this guy.

This year"s threatening letter makes the third one -- I attacked Haruta"s words. In other words, it was done by the same hand in a timespan of three years. The person behind the threatening letters could be a third year student at this school. However, there are eight third year cla.s.ses in total. That"s more than 250 students. It"s impossible to aimlessly search among that number.

"Chika-chan. What are you grumbling about?"

"Shut up."

Haruta pretended as if he were handling a spitz dog that barked at him.

"How should I put it. I feel like the two cases are connected in strange parts."

"... Strange parts?"

"It made me think that way especially when I hear about what you guys have been doing in the past days. Understand? I said it many times, but this time it"s possible that there was a poison theft. You should have reported it to the teachers and contacted the police right when it happened."

"That is," I said and suddenly I realized something. Wait a minute. Who was among the executive committee members hindered us from reporting to the teachers at first? About close to half of the members were against reporting. Among those there were also those who believe in the conscience of the students at this school, but if there are members who don"t think that way in the least --. Gradually I felt able to see the full story of this case.

"Haruta. Give me something to write on."

Haruta fumbled in his pockets without saying anything. What came out was a shortened pencil about the size of a pinky"s first knuckle joint. He"s definitely pestering me.

I picked up a sheet of music paper with footprints of hallway slippers on it and began to write. There were eighteen sports clubs and twenty cultural clubs. One name was chosen from each of those twenty cultural clubs for the executive committee of the cultural festival.

Flower Arrangement Devotees
Magic a.s.sociation
Railroad Research Society
Astronomical Observation Club
Household Club

"Huh..." Haruta muttered as he peeked. "You"re only writing down the minor cultural clubs. What do you intend to do after this?"

"Among the cultural clubs that hinder us from informing the teachers, these are the ones that have third years in the executive committee."

"Go on," Haruta said.

"If the one who wrote the threatening letter is among these executive committee members, we will know if there"s truly a person who is moving to the next stage of their plan. Even though that person did it for laughs every year, the joke will be lost once it"s reported to the police. Even if they know that they can say it"s unrelated afterward it will be viewed as a problem."

"You"re saying that"s why they don"t want to report it to the teachers?"

I nodded vigorously. "Perhaps the person who wrote the threatening letters has an idea of who did the crystal theft. They have confidence that it will be found in a couple of days."

"I see. It"s only a hypothesis, but it comes together coherently," Haruta admired.

"Right? If we get in touch with the executive committee members of those five clubs from now on, these cases will naturally be solved one after another.

Haruta made a difficult face. I huffed at his reaction.

"What. Have any objections to my thoughts?"

"No objections. But."

"But?"

"What if the sender of those crucial threatening letters still can"t find them?" Haruta said and revealed a wrist.w.a.tch from his cuff. "If the time limit for reporting to the police is today after school, then there"s only about three hours left."

"That"s why we have to keep at it."

"If it"s according to Chika-chan"s hypothesis, then the sender of the threatening letters must be desperately searching for the crystal thief about this time. Perhaps they may have tracked them down and are making a fuss about it."

"Let"s go, Haruta."

I forcibly dragged the displeased Haruta by his arm out of the preparation room.

"Why do I have to," Haruta turned his head. "Aah. The pencil I sharpened is rolling away..."

"Leave that for later."

Haruta and I hurriedly went downstairs and headed to the old school building. The cultural clubrooms were cl.u.s.tered on the first floor. We were about to visit the Flower Arrangement Devotees first, but then we overheard a shout from the Pen Drawing Club. When we looked closer, members of the Pen Drawing Club came out into the hallway and worriedly looked through the windows.

Haruta peeked into the clubroom with agility.

"Bingo."

I peeked a look. In the clubroom there was a third year student who was an executive committee member belonging to the Magic a.s.sociation. He raised a loud voice and scolded Nozomi one-sidedly.

I was petrified.

No way. It can"t be. Nozomi is the crystal thief?
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