“Seriously? I don’t care about the motive or trick of the crime, but you don’t know where the crucial will is hidden?”
Naomi-san scratched her head. Just a moment ago she was laughing enjoyably at my flustering, but now she’s nervously tapping her foot.
Meanwhile, Koyomin was calm. I don’t know which of us is more adult.
“I see, a foreign language. Was it English?”
I shook my head vigorously.
“I have no idea. English? Chinese? Italian? Brazilian? I don’t even know that much.”
“You really do have a severe foreign language allergy.”
“That’s right, don’t underestimate my listening ability.”
Koyomin gave me a cold look as I puffed out my chest.
That’s right, I’m terrible at English… especially listening, and I was continuously called the “Famous Mistranslation Manufacturing Machine.”
(Ever since then, I’ve developed a complete foreign language allergy, and whether it’s English, Chinese, or Italian, nothing gets through to my head.)
Koyomin, who knows my manufacturing machine tendencies well, had a “that figures” expression.
“As expected of someone who misheard ‘funny’ as ‘honey’ in English class and mistranslated the sentence ‘He is a funny man’ as ‘He is a honey man.'”
“Don’t bring up that story, Koyomin.”
After that, my classmates teased me with “The birth of the mysterious Honey Man.”
While my little sister’s cold gaze pierced through me, Naomi-san ignored our sisterly comedy routine and was fiddling with her smartphone.
“Arima Kakeru. A veteran from the bar association with generally good evaluations from those around him. It’s surprising that someone like this is the culprit.”
“Is he a foreigner? Or does he have experience studying abroad?” asked Koyomin.
Naomi-san shook her head.
“From what I’ve researched, there’s no overseas study experience, and his birthplace is listed as Japan.”
“If we at least knew what language it was, we could deal with it.”
“Even if we knew what language, this is Oba Kanako with a [severe] foreign language allergy. Even knowing what language wouldn’t make it much easier… Should we shift away from relying on mind-reading and focus on exposing the trick? Just knowing that Arima is the culprit is already a stroke of luck.”
I feel some mysterious trust from Naomi-san… in my lack of academic ability.
“That’s true, but…”
I can only scratch my cheek since I have no comeback.
Yes, as Koyomin demonstrated earlier, my foolish episodes are countless, especially failures related to English are too numerous to mention. Because of that, foreign languages have become a proper trauma, and I can’t even watch movies unless they’re dubbed.
In the somewhat resigned atmosphere, Koyomin returned a serious gaze to Naomi-san.
“Wait. This girl may be stupid, but she has more grit than anyone.”
“Huh? What about grit?”
Naomi-san’s appraising look.
Without being intimidated, Koyomin answered:
“Due to her numerous failures, Kanako has developed a strong inferiority complex about English and other foreign languages. If she overcomes that trauma, I’m sure she can read any language. Exposing Arima’s trick, exploring Arima’s mental language – why don’t we investigate along both these lines?”
(What nice things to say!)
I couldn’t help but hug her without hesitation at this statement.
“Waah! Koyomin! As expected of my little sister.”
“I’m not your sister, and please let go. You’ll get soft-serve ice cream on me.”
“I’m putting it there on purpose, to show you’re my property!”
“That’s awful.”
“Hehe, no matter what you say, I know what you really think, Koyomin! Alright! I’ll work hard for Koyomin’s sake too.”
With renewed determination, I drank down my cream soda.
Naomi-san laughed at me with an exasperated villainous expression.
“Well, can’t be helped. For Koyomi’s expectations and my promotion, work hard, Kanako.”
From the outside, I probably look like a junior being taught bad things by a senior. At least no one would think she’s with the police.
She slapped her knee and stood up vigorously.
“Alright, we’ve decided what to do. I’ll investigate Arima-sensei’s background. I’ll go back to headquarters and check whether his parents are foreigners, pursuing that angle. You guys return to the scene tomorrow and investigate thoroughly, in [various ways].”
Naomi-san winked. She probably means to gather information through mind-reading.
“Arima’s mental language, motives, where the will is hidden, and so on… the other people might know something. The plan is for the stupid girl to read minds and gather clues while Koyomi deduces from them! And once we figure out what language it is, we’ll have a fun study session to overcome trauma, so be prepared!”
Koyomin sighed at Naomi-san’s thumbs up.
“A study session, you say. What a troublesome great detective…”
“Don’t say that, I want to solve it quickly too.”
I’m well aware that my brain isn’t sufficient! Just wait and see…
“Anyway, I’ll find out what Arima-sensei says when he gets excited, and I’ll become able to understand it!”
Just because I can read minds doesn’t make me omnipotent. Even though the harsh reality of being far from a great detective has been beaten into me mercilessly, I have my pride.
To solve the case and meet my little sister’s expectations, I snorted with determination to overcome my trauma.
Later.
After finishing Saturday’s half-day classes, we arrived again in front of Logic Consulting’s office building. Today we’re also appearing in our school uniforms.
High school girls standing in front of a major company’s entrance.
Being somewhat out of place, we were constantly stared at by the company employees.
“After all, this appearance really stands out, doesn’t it?”
“It can’t be helped, we wouldn’t make it in time if we went back to the office.”
It’s more efficient to conduct interviews during hours when there are at least some people around.
“……”
A security guard who sat there calmly without staring at us caught my eye, completely unfazed by our presence.
“Just like before, he has that veteran presence. He doesn’t get flustered even with us here.”
“Yeah, he certainly looks like he’s alert and ready to act in case of emergency, but…”
But what’s going on in his mind is…
“……”
[Alright! I’m definitely going to win the next race! A long-shot bet!]
(The reason he’s been silent this whole time is because he’s listening to horse racing radio.)
When I told Koyomin about this, she let exasperation show on her face.
“……The camera was stopped for an hour on Saturday during this time, right? From what I know, this is also the time when the most exciting horse races begin. In other words…”
“There’s a high possibility he doesn’t remember who passed by?”
“The general public would call this ‘negligent security.'”
Is that security guard only working with his face?
While we stood loitering at the entrance like that, someone familiar called out to us.
“Excuse me, you two are……”
“Ah, you are…”
A softly wafting perfume.
It was Adeno Fujiko-san, a thirty-something beautiful witch (actually 60).
Koyomin, who learned about her being sixty years old afterward, stared at her with an incredible expression. She didn’t even blink.
“Seriously?”
“Seriously.”
“……Seriously?”
Koyomin was pressing her temples, saying “I need to update my recognition.” This girl has quite a variety of reactions.
“Um, what’s wrong? Detective-san?”
[A high school girl!? What overwhelming youthful presence! Even with our fictional age gap, it’s double! In real age terms, she’s my daughter! No, maybe even my granddaughter at this point!?]
(I can hear her inner voice even without trying to eavesdrop. Just by appearing in a school uniform…)
Despite her composed expression, she seems quite shocked. It’s hard to approach her.
Then Koyomin, having finished her recognition update, whispered in my ear.
“Let’s get various information about Arima-san from this person.”
“Well, that’s the plan, but Adeno-san is confused right now……”
“Why?”
“Why, you ask……”
I glanced over at Adeno-san.
“……”
[I was a student once too! In the era shortly after the war! Working hard to make ends meet in an apartment that cost less than ten thousand yen──]
READ THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATION AT LOCALIZERMEERKAT.GITHUB.IO
“It’s hard to explain,” whisper
“I see,” whisper
It seems like seeing a high school girl is causing her past to flash back, but what kind of phenomenon is this?
Koyomin, who’s not perceptive about such subtleties and doesn’t pay much attention to them, rolled up her sleeves.
“I don’t really understand, but I’ll skillfully extract information, so please read her mind.”
“Roger.”
Koyomin is seriously reliable at times like this… Let’s ignore the question of which one of us is more like a detective for now.
“By the way, Adeno-sama.”
“──Um, what is it?”
“You’re very beautiful. Do you have any beauty secrets?”
Visit the request page If there’s a Japanese Light Novel (LN) or Web Novel (WN) you’d like me to translate
When the donation goal progress bar above hit 100% one novel will be chosen for translation
| Table of Contents | Next* |
Support the Author by Buying the Original Books!
