Case 7: Trials and Calculations

“Amari-kun, are you ready for my judgment?”

Being hit with that sentence the very moment I entered the room, I was obviously more than a little confused. This sounded like the line of some anime character.

“I beg your pardon?”

Yua sighed and put away the bag of chocolatey rice puffs she was working on. “I’m talking about your trial period, silly.”

“Oh… that.”

About two weeks have passed since I first entered the small detective’s service. I actually forgot all about that so-called trial period she mentioned on our first day.

I just figured she already accepted me and didn’t think too hard about it.

“Well? So how did I do?”

Hearing my question, Yua wore a mysterious smile. She then reached out to her bag, got a grid notebook, scribbled something inside it, tore the paper and presented it to me.

“This is your score,” she told me.

It simply said “10”.

I spent a few moments examining it, then tilted my head.

Depending on the scale she used, this could be a perfect score or a total failure. Since only that number existed here, I couldn’t tell either way.

Raising my gaze, I asked, “Uh… is this good or not?”

Yua’s smile remained unchanged. “You’d like to know, wouldn’t you? How about you try and figure it out?”

“…Oh, so you’re testing me, are you?”

“You did want to be a detective’s assistant. You should at least be able to understand something as basic as this.”

I sighed. This girl had some really weird ideas sometime. But rather than focus on that, I continued to gaze at the paper.

“Am I allowed questions?”

“If you think they’ll help you, go ahead. —I can’t promise I’ll answer all of them, though.”

In other words, she probably wasn’t going to help me.

Hmm… was the trick here that this was actually a straightforward answer masquerading as a complex one? Well, it was rather unlikely it meant a perfect score, since I definitely wasn’t that good. On a similar note, I wasn’t as horrendous as to merit an abysmal score, either.

But Yua wouldn’t leave me an unsolvable mystery, surely? If she thought that this was enough information, the solution should be within grasp.

“Giving up already?”

“What? I’m only getting started.”

“Very well.”

The number 10… Was this some sort of wordplay, perhaps? But even thinking of the various ways to pronounce and write it in both Japanese and English, nothing came up.

“Do I have enough information to reach the answer here?” I asked out loud.

“Maybe, maybe not,” she said.

I raised my face. “Is this even fair?”

“What, do you think life is fair?” she said teasingly. “It’s not like I immediately know the answer the moment I enter the crime scene, you know.”

“I… suppose so.” I sank into silence.

“So? Giving up?”

“No, I’m only getting started.”

Admittedly, her smug smile was cute, but I couldn’t let her get the better of me!

Could this “ten” be the number of cases we handled together? Clearly that wasn’t the case. Nor did that number seem to refer to anything else that we… no, wait a minute.

There was one other thing.

Sighing, I raised my face again. “Seriously, Shiomi-san? Is this your answer?”

“And what answer would that be?” she asked, innocently fluttering her eyelashes.

Seeing that this page came from a grid notebook, it might imply that the number was mathematical in nature. And in that case…

“Is this score simply…” I used a pencil to add a slanted line and two small circles. “My so-called salary?”

After quite the heavy negotiation, we settled on the respectable 10%. That was the one time that number came up between us.

Yua gave a small clap. “Well done! I knew you could do it, Amari-kun. I even considered raising it a little if you got it quickly, but no such luck.”

I gave another huge sigh. “What does this mean, anyway? I can’t tell if it’s a pass or a failure.”

“Oh, don’t you worry, it’s a pass,” she said, tapping the paper. “I needed to perform some very difficult calculations to reach that, too.”

“…Sure you did.”

“I have! Let me walk you through? First of all, you received a lot of points for your way of approaching me. It takes some guts to offer being the detective’s assistant,” she claimed. I didn’t think it was a big deal, but it was fine if she thought so. “Although you also lost a lot of points for the way you first approached me.”

“Uh… wait, so which is it?”

“I’m talking about your motive. If I’m being honest, normally I would’ve said no on the spot, because of the reason you first came to me. After all, I don’t give love advice.”

“You’ve said as much before, but… is there any particular reason?”

“Love’s stupid, that’s all.”

While I imagined there was a deeper meaning behind this and wanted to dig in, we were obviously not at the stage where we could freely discuss past traumas or anything like that, so I pulled back for now.

“Sure… what else?”

“On our very first case,” she continued, “you disregarded my orders and went off on your own.” She pouted.

I smiled apologetically. “Yeah, uh… sorry about that.”

“But,” she continued, “you also showed initiative in that moment, so it’s not all bad. I’d say this more or less cancels itself out.”

Phew. While she often sounded strict, she was actually a relatively lenient girl.

“Well, you’ve done some nice work reorganizing my snack closet, and you’ve also done decently well enough on our later cases.”

“Oh? Sounds like I’m in the positive, then,” I noted.

Yua raised her finger and shook it to the sides. “Not so fast. There’s one major flaw you possess.”

“A major flaw?” I leaned forward, listening with my very being. “What is it?”

If there was anything that might hinder my plan, I wanted to hear about it ASAP so I could eliminate it. Especially if it was something that bothered Yua to this extent.

She also leaned forward and spoke softly as if she was telling me a secret.

“You’re a boy.”

“…I beg your pardon?”

I never expected Yua to be so sexist.

Yua pulled back. “I can’t help it. You have this playboy air about you, so for a while I wondered whether you were in this not for the job, but for me. Such is the fate of a girl as smart and cute as me.”

“I’m not a playboy,” I complained.

I couldn’t deny the rest, however. She was smart, and she was cute. I did have my ulterior motives here.

“Sure. For now, you get a passing grade. You do seem to be serious about your work as an assistant, despite your flaws.”

“Well, yes. I am always serious,” I said.

“Mhm. Therefore—the current percentage stays. Sorry about that.”

…No, I didn’t care about snacks in the first place.

“Hmm? What’s with the smile?” she asked me, narrowing her eyes.

“No, it’s nothing. Just glad I passed your meticulous test.”

She nodded. “Great job! As a reward, I’ll let you choose the next 10% you will receive. Enjoy yourself.”

No, I didn’t care about snacks in the first place…

Instead, I just gazed at the torn paper that still remained between us.

Even if it wasn’t meant as an actual grade, I could imagine that this number more or less indicated how far I made it into Yua’s heart.

I still had a long road ahead of me, but that was fine. Now that I found my challenge, I wasn’t going to give up so easily.