Case 10: All’s Fair in Love and Sports (Part III)

Seeing Yua finally open her eyes, I was immensely relieved. “Wh…wha,” she immediately sputtered, sitting up. “Where am I?”

“In the infirmary.”

Obviously, after what happened to her not long before. I barely managed to catch her before she fell, then carried her all the way here.

While I heard before that she had a phobia of blood, I never expected it to be this bad.

“How are you feeling?” I asked carefully.

She narrowed her eyes. “Did you carry me here?”

“Yup.” She wasn’t going to blame me for being a perv or something, right?

“Good job, assistant,” she said.

Alright, so she was sensible. Good.

Yua then tried shuffling out of bed. “Then we need to go back to… ugh.” She apparently grew dizzy, because she held her head.

“No leaving until the patient is fully healed!” snapped a voice from nearby. Emerging from the other side of the nearby curtain was the face of the hawk-eyed nurse, a woman who pretty much looked like the dictionary definition of her job.

“But… the sports festival! I’m fine, really. I just need a little snack and I’ll be back on my feet… Hand it over, Amari-kun!”

“…Why would I have snacks on me right now?”

She clicked her tongue. “What kind of assistant are you?”

“You’re not allowed to leave after fainting like that. And no snacks either,” the nurse said, narrowing her eyes at me as well. She put two fingers near her eyes, then turned them at me. I’m watching you, she seemed to say.

I gave an exaggerated sigh and waved her away.

“Grr… fine then. We’ll continue the plan, just stay in touch with me and I’ll—”

“Shiomi-san,” I interjected gently. She frowned at me. “There’s no need for that.”

“What?”

“It’s over.”

“…What?”

I shook my head. “It’s over. This case… this job.”

Slowly but surely, she seemed to understand the meaning of my words.

“Wha… what do you mean?”

I scratched my head and averted my gaze; even in the ten-odd minutes it took for Yua to regain consciousness, it was hard for me to think about how to explain this to her.

“Spit it out already!” she ordered me.

“What do you remember from that relay race?” I asked.

“Nakayama-san was about to run, so I turned my gaze to Kawamoto-kun… but then I heard shouts… and when I looked at the source of the commotion, there w-was b-b-b…”

“Alright, alright, no need to remember that much,” I hurriedly stopped her, since she was clearly turning paler again. I worried about the nurse’s response as well. “So there was this girl who fell while running and got injured, right?”

“Have they stopped the race over that?” asked Yua.

“There’s that, too.”

The girl narrowed her eyes. “Why are you being so vague? There’s nothing I hate more than that as a detective. Say it already.”

“The moment that girl fell down, one of the boys immediately rushed to help her. And he carried her all the way here. It was actually kinda funny, walking here with them side by side. Anyway, that boy… was Kawamoto.”

Yua’s eyes widened. “You’re kidding.”

I shook my head. “Seems like the culprit revealed herself already… but it’s too late.”

Yua almost looked sicker now than she did even when she saw that blood.

I could understand how she felt.

After her huge string of successes—perhaps barring the unmasking of the Love Sage, which she seemed to put on the back burner for now—for her to fail at this point, in no small part thanks to her own shortcomings and weakness, must’ve felt horrible.

“T-that doesn’t necessarily mean that…” she mumbled, refusing to admit defeat.

“It does. Sorry,” I said, thrusting the painful truth at her. “I saw the way they looked at each other… they already left the office a little before you came to, but it’s obviously a new, blossoming relationship.”

“I have no cure for a broken heart, I’m afraid,” said the nurse’s voice all of a sudden.

Was she eavesdropping on us? And she totally misunderstood the situation, too.

Well, no matter.

“So I failed…” she mumbled.

I shrugged. “Nah, you didn’t really? Remember, it’s not your job to set up people.”

However, Yua shook her head hard, her ponytail swinging. “I took on this job and promised I’d find the culprit. The fact I had to retire like that in the middle… is shameful.” Now rather than pale, her face was slightly red as she gripped the thin blanket.

I was feeling a bit guilty about this entire thing.

I never could have imagined that things would turn out this way.

Yua mumbled something in a soft voice.

“What was that?” I asked.

“Leave… leave me alone for a while, Amari-kun.”

“Are you sure about that?” I asked her.

“Yes! No undue pressure on the patient!” said the nurse again, still eavesdropping.

I thought Yua was bummed at her absolute failure, but maybe that was also the fact she was showing her weakness like this to me?

“I’m your assistant, after all,” I said with a smile. “If there’s anything I can—”

“Please, just get out for now,” she said weakly. “I’ll be fine by tomorrow, I promise. But I really need to think right now…”

I nodded. “Fine. I mean, I understand… Get well, Shiomi-san.”

She gave me no reply and didn’t even look in my direction, so I just stepped outside the curtain, ignored the looks the nurse gave me, and headed to the exit.

It was there that I found myself face to face with another fearsome opponent.

“Hello, I need—”

Or rather, I apparently pulled the door open at the very moment the girl grabbed the handle, for she was flung forward. Like some scene out of a manga, this girl—Takai Hana—fell right on top of me.

I was overwhelmed and buried by the round softness of a certain source.

“…Why is it always like this with you! You creep!”

That very soft yet a little heavy sensation was, however, soon replaced with a sharp, ringing slap. Whatever she wanted to do in here originally, Takai immediately got up and left, leaving the casualty on the floor.

“My work never ends…” The nurse sighed near me.