“If there’s blood, no matter how minute, this reagent will emit light. The floor was just waxed at the end of the school year. If Jounouchi injured his foot and bled, only those footprints will glow.”
How many sprays was it? Mizusaki, still kneeling, continued spraying with unusual seriousness.
“Whoa!”
Mizusaki’s loud voice. I approached carefully and peered down to see something glowing pale blue in spots on the pitch-dark floor. And it wasn’t random. They formed a line at almost regular intervals.
“Yes! It glowed!”
I’d involuntarily spoken aloud too.
“Amazing… like forensic investigation.”
Iwama was completely absorbed, staring at the glowing floor at a distance where our shoulders touched.
In the dark biology room, the light sound of Mizusaki spraying the luminescent reagent echoed. In the darkness spreading at our feet, more footprints began to light up in dots.
I was beginning to be captivated by that faint light.
To think that the chemistry knowledge we’d acquired could actually be useful in solving a problem right before our eyes.
Truly scientific.
The reason the cherry blossom heart had collapsed. The reason the ginkgo tree’s age had been hidden. I’d begun to notice, taught by Iwama, the unexpected fascination that comes from scientifically examining the mysteries around us.
For me, who had lived in a narrow world, this was truly what could be called a Copernican revolution.
Until then, I felt I’d been putting some kind of partition between studying science and living daily life. But science doesn’t belong only to scientists.
It’s fine to use it to resolve questions, fine to use it to achieve goals.
Is this what it means to look down at the town where you live from the shoulders of giants?
The intermittent spray sounds echoed.
The glowing footprints continued to under the sink by the window. There was a small cabinet there, with one spot not quite closed. Mizusaki signaled to me from in front of it. I went to the biology room entrance and turned on the light.
Watched by Iwama and Kannabi, Mizusaki slowly opened the cabinet.
“Wow, we did it!”
Iwama clapped. Victory for science. Kannabi’s eyes widened as she showed a rarely seen happy smile.
Standing up, Mizusaki had Jounouchi sitting neatly on his palm.
Karato-senpai returned shortly after, out of breath, while we were cleaning the floor.
It had taken far too long just to use the bathroom, and if she’d used the restroom nearby, there wouldn’t have been any need to run. She must have decided not to waste time trying to convince me and instead went after the trio to question them herself. Still, since my senior didn’t mention anything, I chose not to bring it up either.
When told that Jounouchi had been found, senpai’s eyes welled up with joy, and she repeated “Thank you, thank you so much.” Even when told about the packing tape and the injury, she didn’t get angry.
“I’m so glad you found him. That’s all that matters. Thank you so much.”
Tears even spilled from the corners of her eyes.
Karato-senpai’s family runs a veterinary hospital. Senpai called Tokumura-sensei and told him she’d be bringing Jōnouchi home today. From what she could see, the injuries didn’t appear too serious. However, he would need to focus on recuperating for a while. The maze would have to wait.
It was almost five o’clock, time to go home.
Just as we were about to head home, Senpai noticed that a drawer in the cabinet had been left open. An album lay there, still opened.
“Ah, how embarrassing.”
Saying this, Senpai gently closed the album with tender hands.
“I look at it sometimes, you know. Even though I’m supposed to have no interest in humanity.”
She slowly closed the drawer.
“Rō-chan, ohayo!”
“That’s right, Rō-chan, good morning~”
Even though it was already evening, Karato-senpai responded to the parakeet that way.
“The senpais used to call both me and Rot-Gelb “Rō-chan.” So even now, we still call each other that..”
Perhaps to hide her embarrassment, she said this, then muttered thoughtfully.
“Come to think of it, there are four of you. I don’t suppose that’s a coincidence… honestly, that person…”
“…What do you mean?”
To Mizusaki’s question, Karato-senpai shook her head.
“No, it’s nothing. By the way, was there any paper or anything tucked into the album?”
“Paper? Gamma-san, do you remember?”
“No, I didn’t notice anything in particular… Senpai, are you looking for something?”
“No, if there wasn’t anything, that’s fine. Our next activity is the day after tomorrow. I need to go to the faculty office once to return this room’s key. You can all head home first~”
Then she added:
“Welcome to the Biology Club, young birds.”
READ THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATION AT LOCALIZERMEERKAT.GITHUB.IO
When I rushed back to the entrance, only Iwama was waiting for me.
“Huh, where are Mizusaki and Kannabi?”
“They said they had something urgent to do, so they both went home first.”
“In just these few minutes? What kind of urgent business?”
“Who knows.”
After tilting her head slightly, Iwama added as if remembering:
“Rei said to tell Del-chan ‘bye-bye.'”
That guy… she’s completely making fun of me.
Kannabi’s comment could only be interpreted as provocation, and there’s no way Mizusaki had any urgent business. This was clearly a scheme to make Iwama and me go home together. Those two seem to be on the same wavelength about this sort of thing. In fact, they’d already done similar things with the cherry blossom incident and the Saturday affair.
I’ll never tell you guys the truth.
That’s right—the truth.
We had left the biology room and were about to go home together as a group of four, but there was something bothering me that I absolutely had to check, so I went back to the biology room alone.
There was one question.
Was what Senpai wanted to hide really the album?
“If it was just the album, I don’t think it was something worth hiding to that extent.”
That’s what Mizusaki’s observation had triggered.
“Delta was searching for Jōnouchi, so there was no reason to stop him from approaching the cabinet. If she didn’t want us to see the contents of the album, she should have just left it alone. By trying to stop him, she actually ended up causing the album to be opened.”
Perhaps something more incriminating had actually been hidden there.
“I also thought the question about whether paper was tucked in was strange for just hiding embarrassment.”
Kannabi had thought the same thing. It did seem like an odd thing to ask.
That’s when it hit me.
That must be hidden there—
Telling the three of them to wait at the entrance, while Senpai went to the faculty office to get the key, I confirmed the actual item in the biology room. Just as I’d thought, it was hidden exactly where I expected.
And when I returned, Mizusaki and Kannabi, who should have been waiting, had disappeared.
Left with no choice, I ended up going home with just Iwama.
We descended the slope lined with ginkgo trees. The leaves had grown much thicker than when we’d gone to see the cherry blossoms.
Iwama walked right beside me. The distance was close. Even trying to glance at her profile, the sun floating in the western sky was too dazzling.
“…Did you find it? What Karato-senpai was trying to hide?”
Asked by Iwama, I nodded.
As I was wondering if I should say anything, Iwama spoke first.
“It was the care manual, wasn’t it?”
So she already knew. Then there was no reason to keep it hidden. I nodded again.
“That’s right. The ring binder used for the album had clear pockets for storing A4-sized documents. The drawing paper stored in them was also A4. The sides without photos were placed back-to-back, and between that gap, B5-sized care manuals were hidden.”
It had been a paper-hiding scheme.
As soon as I confirmed their existence, I left the biology room, so I didn’t know how many pages there were in total. However, quite a number of pages were hidden in the album’s pockets.
“I thought that album was hard to flip through,”
Iwama said with a faint smile.
That’s right. The first time we saw that album was when Mizusaki and I visited the biology room with Mikage Aya. Tokumura-sensei had given it to us. Mizusaki had been flipping through the pages.
But today, when Iwama opened the album we found in that cabinet, the pages seemed difficult to turn. Even when I tried to look for photos of Jōnouchi, there was an uneven thickness to the pages.
The album’s form had changed.
Only Iwama and I, who had actually opened the album today, knew about that strange feeling with the pockets.
“You noticed from the moment you opened it?”
“…Yeah.”
But she hadn’t told Mizusaki or Kannabi. These were things someone had hidden, things they wanted to keep hidden. They shouldn’t be casually spread around. However, if it was just Iwama and me, who both knew the truth, discussing it to some extent wouldn’t hurt anyone.
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