In the central portion of the great Japanese country there flows a dirty and repulsive river, which for many a long year served as a barrier against the advance of civilisation.
This same river is the one I have to get across every day to get to the place where I have to go to conform with society rules. Do I need to go there, junior high school, full of underqualified teachers and useless homework? Or should I use that time to polish my abilities? That’s something that I can only know after I get enough evidence, and that’s still far from now. And my pop wouldn’t let me drop it anyway.
It’s in this school, a simple set of two main buildings interconnected, where you can find the objective of my investigation: The Society of World’s Fate.
The members as of now are: Iwaki, Holland, Minamoto, and Matsuyama. All but Iwaki are in 1-3, my class, so they fell under my careful observation.
The three of them were investigated as each of them committed crimes. Even when there was proof of those crimes since long ago, you can’t make theories until you have all the evidence.
After conducting interrogations with other members of the student body and analysing all the clues, I had confirmed my hypotheses. The cases were complete.
Holland Jake was first. His offences were perjury, vandalism, and preventing the course of justice. I found him reading about deep sea creatures in the recess.
“Excuse my interruption, Holland, do you have a moment?”
He looked at me without moving his head. Grimpoteuthis discoveryi was the title of the page on his book. His eyebrows moved a tad. He didn’t like interruptions.
“What’s up?”
“I noticed you carry a permanent marker with you,” I said, starting with the lesser of his offences.
“Mhm…”
“I believe you used it on the second day of class.”
This caught his interest. He put down the book and turned to me.
“Do you realise that was over a month ago?”
“Thirty five days, to be exact.”
He pulled out the marker from his pocket.
“Do you think I would remember if I used this marker thirty five days ago?”
“No, you didn’t. That’s a new marker, you ran out of ink in the other one.”
“Well, I tend to use my marker every day, so yeah, you’re probably right.”
“I also noticed the sushi club sign now reads headquarters, by means of certain marker scribbles.”
“Impressive game of words, right? I’m happy to get some recognition here.”
He was minimising the felony as expected. Now it was time to add the other charges.
“After reading your declarations to Mr. Watanabe I noticed you omitted how Iwaki didn’t fall from the ladder. He also used fake blood. Are you all right with lying to the authorities?”
“How do you know this? Did Minamoto tell you?”
His eyes were wide open. I got him.
“Iwaki was bleeding from the top of his head... After falling from a ladder you would expect blood to come out from the back of the head. He was also bleeding from his nose and the colour was different. There were also the paint stains on his uniform the next day.”
“Oh, that’s nice. If Minamoto said nothing then it’s fine.”
“There’s no way to deny it, the evidence is— wait, wait… Is this a confession?”
“Yeah, whatever,” he said, and went back to his book.
It wasn’t as exciting as I thought it would be. A disappointing experience, in fact. I had two more to go, though, so I didn’t lose my spirit.
Amaya Mari was back from buying a yakisoba bread for lunch. Her crimes were identity theft and bribery.
She sat and opened her portable gaming system. I forgot why I wanted to talk with her for a second there.
“A-Amaya! Could that be the new Professor—” but then I saw the title screen. Three boys were smiling to the player. The name of the game was under them. Dokidoki Memories.
Amaya looked at me, the bread in her mouth, waiting for me to finish the question.
“Never mind. Can I have a minute? I need to talk to you.”
She put the system down and looked at me with a smile. She was my age, but acted like a senpai, or an older sister. That made it harder to confront her.
“Can… Can you tell me your name?”
“You just said it: Amaya.”
“Your full name, please.”
“Mari Amaya.”
She was interested in what I was saying and I thought she could be a good friend. Maybe her misdemeanors weren’t as bad.
“Take this as a caution for I have no motifs to take it to any authority. You shouldn’t ask your cousin for her ID…”
She blushed. Her hand moved to the pocket where she had the ID.
“I know you want to get those games, but the rating is just informative…” I continued.
“H-how? T-This is embarrassing…”
She was not looking at me and her smile was not there anymore. I felt uncomfortable.
“It is… but it’s more embarrassing to buy yakisoba bread every day because you have no money after paying your cousin for the card…”
She turned away and opened her math book to a random page, faking to read it. The back of her ears went red.
“F-forget it, Amaya. J-just forget it,” I said, and went back to my seat.
I couldn’t look at her for the rest of the day. I shouldn’t have said anything to her, the offences were trivial. I was just showing off, and I wished I was more diplomatic…
At the end of the day, Minamoto Hikari was waiting for them outside of the classroom. I thought about leaving it for the next day, but she was the last one, and I had to do it. Her charges were stalking and aggravated assault.
“Minamoto, could you give me a moment?”
“Certainly. What can I do for you?” she said.
“Have you paid for the window you broke?”
“What window?”
“The one in the hallway. You broke it with your shinai.”
“Murasaki. It’s a katana.”
She showed me her weapon. It was a shinai.
“That looks like a shinai, does it—”
“It’s a katana. It has been a katana for hundreds of years.”
The shinai looked almost new, but it was clear she wouldn’t accept that fact.
“You broke it with Murasaki,” said I, incapable of admitting it was a katana.
“It wasn’t just a window, it was the whole wall.”
What?
“I just came from that building, the wall is intact. I saw staff replacing the window.”
“He must have repaired it.”
“Who’s ‘he’?”
“Iwaki-dono. As expected from him.”
“Wait, wait, you said you destroyed the whole wall, then Iwaki rebuilt it and nobody noticed?”
“He must have been fast.”
If the wall was in fact destroyed and rebuilt, it would mean this case was much more difficult than expected. I needed more evidence. I frowned.
“What do you do in The Society of World’s Fate?”
“That’s top secret.”
She was playing with me.
“Don’t you wonder how I knew about the window?”
“I destroyed the whole wall, why are we talking about the window?”
It was too much, she wouldn’t make a fool of me anymore. I bowed to her, then walked away.
I was waiting for the train home when I found the last member of The Society. Trying not to think of what happened during the day, I was playing the game I thought Amaya had.
“Still having trouble with that puzzle, Suzuki-san?”
“Yes! It seems to be impossible… Wait, wait, what do you mean, still?”
“Oh, nothing, I saw you were stuck with it, it is a very difficult—”
“W-what do you mean you saw me? When? How do you know my name?”
“I have been following you around for a couple of days now.”
I never saw him. And even when he said that, he could have been onto me since he realised I was investigating his group.
I was tired. So tired. It was supposed to be a day where everyone would end up surprised of my skills, but instead I felt ignored, guilty, and fooled. He was a good spy, to be able to go unseen by me, but at that moment he was just an annoyance.
“Oh, is that so?” I said.
It was not my day, sorry, Iwaki. I pulled out the pepper spray from my backpack and pressed the button.
The next day I waited outside of 3-1. Iwaki was wearing black glasses.
“Suzuki-san, long time no see. Not that I can see much at the moment.”
I looked away.
“What brings you here?” he asked.
“I-I’m sorry.”
“Oh, no, no. It was my bad. I did not use the correct approach, I got distracted by what you were doing.”
“But still… I shouldn’t have—”
“Well, if you want, we can forget this incident ever happened…”
He made a pause until I looked at him.
“Under one condition,” he said, giving me a piece of paper. “Bureaucracy, I hate it, but I have to deliver one of these.“
I looked at it. Application to join The Society of World’s Fate. It was a free pass to get information about the society from the inside… but just before taking the sheet, I hesitated.
“You may want to reconsider.”
“I said I have been following you—”
He stepped back and showed me his palms, as if asking me to not attack him again. I showed him mine, shaking my head, as a sign of peace.
“You were, so you know I investigated them,” I said.
“That is why I want you to join.”
“What do you mean?”
“You are a marvelous detective, Meitantei Suzuki.”
I frowned to try and stop myself from smiling, signed the application, and gave it to him. He, on the other hand, grinned wide as he entered his classroom.
I thought I was a good detective myself, but it was the first time someone told me so. Now I was sure of it. All the times people ignored or underestimated me didn’t matter anymore. Like the Roman miser:
Populus me sibilat, at mihi plaudo ipse domi simul ac nummos contemplar in arca.
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