章 34: Finding culprit 2
Yukinoshita cleared her throat as if to redirect the conversation. "Hayama,
you said these messages were about your friends, right? So who are you
going with for the work visit?"
"O-oh, yeah… Now that you mention it, I haven't decided yet. I think I'll
just end up with a couple of the guys from the usual threesome, though."
"I think I might have figured out who it is…," Yuigahama said, her
expression somewhat downcast.
"Could you explain?" asked Yukinoshita.
"Yeah, well, like, basically, he's got this group of guys who are always
with him, but one of them is gonna get left out, right? One guy out of their
group of four won't get included. Being the one left hanging sucks." She said
this as if speaking from personal experience. Everyone fell silent.
To find a criminal, it's best to start with the motive. If you can think of
someone who would benefit from the act, there's your answer right there. In
this situation, the motive was not to be left out. In our class, Hayama was part
of a clique of four boys. It stood to reason, then, that if they had to form a
group of three, one person wouldn't make it in. Anyone who didn't want to
be the one on the outs would have no choice but to get someone else booted.
That was probably how the cyber-assailant saw it.
"Then it would be correct to assume that the culprit is among those
three?" Yukinoshita concluded.
Hayama, who so rarely raised his voice, did so now. "H-hold on a second!
I don't want to think that one of them is doing this. Plus, these e-mails
slammed everybody in the group, you know? How could one of them be
doing it?"
"Ha! Are you stupid?" I asked. "How much of a wide-eyed innocent are
you? Are you an anime character or what? The culprit would do it to deflect
suspicion, duh. Though if it had been me, I'd have deliberately singled
somebody out and said nothing just to make it look like they did it."
"You're a terrible person, Hikki."
Call me a smooth criminal, please.
Hayama bit his lips in frustration. He probably hadn't imagined something
like this, that there was hate so close to home, that dark feelings surged
beneath those ingratiating smiles.
"For now, could you just tell us about these people?" Yukinoshita
requested.
Hayama lifted his head as if resolved. There was conviction in his eyes. It
was probably motivated by some noble desire to clear his friends' names.
"Tobe is in the soccer club, like me. He's got blond hair, and he comes off
like a tough guy, but he's actually really good at setting an upbeat mood. He
goes out of his way to help out with the cultural and the athletic festivals and
stuff. He's a good guy."
"So he's a frivolous party type who has no talents aside from being loud?"
Yukinoshita's remark left Hayama speechless.
"Hmm? What's wrong? Continue." Yukinoshita prodded Hayama,
perplexed by his sudden silence.
Hayama pulled himself together and proceeded to his next character
profile. "Yamato's in the rugby club. He's levelheaded and a good listener. I
guess you'd say he's the calm, easygoing, and quiet type, and that puts
people at ease. He's shy and kinda cautious. He's a good guy."
"Dull-witted and indecisive…"
Hayama was silent and radiating disapproval. Then he sighed and
continued. "Ooka is in the baseball club. He's nice, friendly, and always
ready to help you out. He's polite and respectful, too. He's a good guy."
"Deferential and always worried about what others think, hmm?"
Hayama was not the only one at a loss for words. Yuigahama and I both
watched agape. Yukinoshita, wow. I was starting to think her ideal job would
be a prosecutor.
The scariest part was that her evaluations were not necessarily incorrect.
Perspective can have a major impact on your impressions of a person.
Hayama would always take the optimistic outlook, and that made him biased.
On the other hand, Yukinoshita avoided all that when she could, so her
impressions were naturally salty. Very salty. You could soak your feet in her
opinions.
Yukinoshita hmmed as she gazed at the notes she'd taken. "Any of them
could be the culprit…"
"Well, you're the most likely culprit here. Or is that just my imagination?"
I remarked. How dare she interpret people so harshly? In a way, she was even
crueler than whoever wrote those e-mails.
Looking quite offended, Yukinoshita set her hands on her hips and
glowered indignantly. "I would never do something like that. I would crush
someone in person."
Did this girl not realize that while their methods were different, her goal
of "crushing" was exactly the same as that of our mastermind? But this was
Yukinoshita, so I wasn't surprised that the idea of making peace didn't even
cross her mind.
After so many hits from Yukinoshita, Hayama had this awkward smile on
his face like he didn't know if he should be angry or upset. Yukinoshita was
Yukinoshita, but Hayama was also Hayama. At the end of the day all he had
was worthless and superficial information. I thought he was a good guy, but
his perspective was so different from ours that he wasn't suited to looking for
the culprit.
Perhaps Yukinoshita was thinking the same thing, as she turned around to
ask our opinions. "I don't think Hayama's information is going to be very
useful. Yuigahama, Hikigaya. What do you think of them?"
"Huh? I-I dunno how to answer that…," stuttered Yuigahama.
"I don't really know them." Actually, I didn't really know any of the
students at this school. I had zero friends and only a few more acquaintances
than that.
"Then could you look into it for me? The groups are going to be decided
the day after tomorrow, right? You have a full day until then."
"O-okay." Yuigahama seemed rather hesitant about obeying. Well, she
was trying to be friends with everyone in the class, so this was exactly the
kind of thing she'd have been disinclined to do. Picking out other people's
faults reveals your own. It's fairly risky social behavior.
Apparently, Yukinoshita understood that as well, as she quietly dropped
her gaze. "I'm sorry. That wasn't a nice thing to ask. Forget about it."
I guess that means the task falls to me, but that's a given. "I'll do it. It's
not like I care what our class thinks of me, anyway," I said.
Yukinoshita glanced at me, then smiled with a chuckle. "I'll be waiting,
but I won't expect much."
"Leave it to me. Fault finding is included in my vast array of skills." What
other talents might I have, do you ask? Cat's cradle and stuff. Yeah, I was
basically Nobita.
"W-wait! I'll do it, too! U-um, I can't just leave it up to Hikki!" Red faced, Yuigahama's voice faded to a mumble, but a moment later she
clenched her fists tight. "P-plus! If you're the one asking, Yukinon, I can't
say no!"
"I see," Yukinoshita replied, and then jerked her head away. Her cheeks
seemed flushed. Perhaps she was embarrassed, or perhaps it was just the
glow of the sunset.
Uh, but like I said, I'm doing it, too. Why does Yuigahama always get the
special treatment?
Hayama had a wonderful, breezy smile on his face as he watched the two
of them. "You're such good friends."
"Huh? Oh, yeah, they are," I replied.
"I mean you, too, Hikitani."
What was he talking about? There was no one named Hikitani in this club.
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