"But enough about that, the film, the film."

Yoshino-san launched a surprise attack and took the film from Tsutako-san. Well, it may be impolite, but "stole" would be a more fitting description.

"If we have a look inside, we"ll crack this case immediately. The criminal"s dying message is undoubtedly in here."

"Aaah - !"

While Yoshino-san was talking, Yumi and Tsutako-san worked together to relieve her of the film. There was a time and place to joke about criminals and dying messages, but now was not that time. Yumi grabbed Yoshino-san"s arms and held them behind her back, while Tsutako-san deftly caught the film that she dropped.

"Two on one, that"s unfair."

Yoshino-san grumbled as she freed herself from Yumi"s grasp.

"Unfair, huh."

What"s that, great detective? Just what were you planning to do? But now the mask of the great detective had been cast aside and the samurai warrior"s features shone through.

"You can"t expose undeveloped film to light."

Tsutako-san said, as though she were chiding a pre-schooler.

"Oh, well of course I knew that."

Yoshino-san laughed it off, but it was hard to tell if that was the truth or not.

"But still. If you got that developed, you"d be able to tell whose it was, right?"

"I would, but I can"t do that."

"Can"t you just pretend that it"s yours and get it developed? You could just say that you got it developed because you thought it was yours after some first-year gave it to you. No-one"s at fault then."

"But it"s not mine."

"You"re such a stiff, Tsutako-san."

"And you"re way too loose, Yoshino-san."

So in the end, Yoshino-san had merely caused a commotion and hadn"t provided them with any constructive input, leaving them back at the beginning. Yumi folded her arms and thought about what they should do.

"It has to go to lost property."

Tsutako-san said.

"That seems best."

Yumi concurred. Rather than continuing to sit around, look at each other and wonder what to do it would be better to let a specialist (official) handle this. Sure, they were interested in finding out what was inside and who it belonged to, but that wasn"t strictly necessary. Yumi volunteered to take it to the lost property office tomorrow. Then Tsutako-san said that she"d accompany her.

"If I don"t go and explain what happened, it"ll just end up coming back to me."

Tsutako-san said. After all, it had "Takeshima Tsutako" clearly written on it, so they"d obviously think it was hers. The name must be that of the owner, right?

"Sorry."

Yumi bowed her head, apologizing for saddling Tsutako-san with this burden.

"It"s okay. It all started with those kind first-years anyway."

Right at that moment, Toudou Shimako-san entered the room.

"Sorry I"m late. I apologize for keeping you waiting."

She had a worn-out expression on her face.

"No, we weren"t waiting &h.e.l.lip; as such."

"Huh? Oh, darn."

It looked like Shimako-san had forgotten that they didn"t have a meeting scheduled for today.

"That would explain why Noriko isn"t here."

Rosa Gigantea gave an embarra.s.sed smile as she put her bag down. She looked completely exhausted.

"Were you meeting with that first-year?"

Yoshino-san inquired and Shimako-san responded in the affirmative. "That first-year" was the winner of the Valentine"s Day treasure hunt. Although she (from memory, her name was Igawa Ami-san) hadn"t been able to partic.i.p.ate on the day, she entered the white card"s hiding spot in the absentee"s draw and, as a result, won the prize of a date with Shimako-san. Igawa Ami-san proved to be a bit of an eccentric character, saying that she didn"t want to be seen with Shimako-san. This must have caused all sorts of problems in their discussions about the date.

"Dealing with first-years is much harder than I thought. It"s so much easier with Noriko."

Unusually, Shimako-san was complaining. Still, Shimako-san and her pet.i.t soeur Noriko-chan were 100% compatible with each other and got along incredibly well. So if Noriko-chan was used as the basis of comparison then the vast majority of first-years would be labeled as troublemakers.

"That"s true. For a second-year, thoughts aren"t vocalized as much, instead they"re expressed through a change in behavior."

Tsutako-san said, as though she were speaking to herself.

"Say what?"

The trio of future Roses took notice of this seemingly profound utterance. It was unusual for Shimako-san to grumble, but this sort of thing was unheard of from Tsutako-san.

Yumi was wondering if something had happened with Shouko-chan, but apparently that wasn"t the case. Tsutako-san soon followed up on her earlier statement, apparently feeling she was being misunderstood:

"I"m not talking about myself."

Then, as the conversation continued around her, Tsutako-san returned to work, sorting through the photographs. She picked up a new envelope, then set it off to the side without opening it.

"What"s this?"

"Checking those would be a waste of time."

Covering the entire front of the envelope was the word "Unpublishable." These were photos that, for one reason or another, couldn"t be shown to other people.

"But why?"

Shimako-san curiously inquired.

"I thought you destroyed even the negatives if the subject didn"t like them."

"Ahh, that"s right."

Yumi nodded in agreement. It was supposedly part of Tsutako-san"s moral code that no traces would remain on earth in those situations.

"The subjects were happy with them, and I have permission to keep them. But even so, they can"t be displayed."

"Oh, are they nude photos or something?"

Yoshino-san joked. Tsutako-san responded seriously with, "In a sense."

Her smiling profile indicated that they were all brilliant photographs and that Tsutako-san probably felt a sense of regret about not being able to show them. The other girls also felt a similar sense of regret about not getting to see those photographs.