Case 16: Love Letters Redux (Part I)

An unexpected development happened a few days after our heart-to-heart talk.

“Amari-kun,” Yua told me the moment I entered the room that afternoon, her voice subdued, “I’ve been issued a challenge.”

“A… challenge?”

She took out some sort of bundle from her bag and pounded it on the desk. It scattered a little, with one item sliding until it almost fell over, but I caught it.

“A love letter?” I said in surprise.

“Look inside,” she told me with a fierce smile.

Obliging, I opened the envelope. It contained unadorned paper with the following words.

Roses are red,

Violets are blue

Stupid love detective

I’ll never forgive you.

I couldn’t help but frown at this. “Seriously?” I groaned. “Are all of them like this?”

“Well, I only opened a few and they had different contents, but more or less,” she said, taking the letter back. “This one’s especially foolish, but the meaning is clear: it’s a challenge straight from the Love Sage!”

“…Is it now?”

The Love Sage wasn’t the sort of person to issue this sort of stupid challenge.

“Okay, maybe it’s not them, but the timing’s suspicious, surely you can agree on that?”

“Uh, maybe.”

There was no trace of her hesitation or sadness from a few days back. A wide smile was plastered on her face, and her eyes sparkled like usual.

“I found all those letters this morning,” she said. “Do you know what this means?”

I sighed. “We’re going through that again, huh?”

She grinned, but I smiled as well. This expression of hers was infectious.

“This time, I doubt they’ll fall for such a simple trick as that stupid Kamiya-sensei.”

“Actually, don’t you think it might be directly influenced by that incident?” I noted.

Before she could answer me, there was a sound from behind us.

“Shiomi-san.” I shuddered as I recognized that voice as none other than Takai’s. Even though she came here quite a lot lately, I never got used to it. “Can you explain what this means?”

She waltzed inside while holding something in her hand.

Another letter!

“Oh-ho? So you got one too?” Yua asked excitedly.

“Your warning? Yes, I have.”

A beat passed.

“Her warning?” I finally spoke.

Takai approached us and handed the letter to me. While reading it, my eyes widened.

Stop butting into my business or I’ll make sure you regret it, bitch.

Shiomi Yua

“What? Who wrote this?!” gasped Yua, peeking from around my shoulder.

Takai looked at her suspiciously. “Is this some sort of trick of yours?”

“What? No, I… Wait, is this payback for me accusing you the other day?”

Takai hmphed in response. “It wasn’t my intention, but I can certainly use some of your arguments from back then to accuse you here, yes.”

Despite the situation, Yua didn’t sound angry. “Yes, I’m sorry, that might’ve been a bit too rash of me… But wait, when did you find this?”

“Minutes ago, and I came straight here to complain,” the other girl answered.

“When was the last time you used your shoe locker?”

“Only this morning when I first arrived.”

“Yeah, me too…” mumbled Yua. “So it could’ve been at any time between then and now, huh.”

“But you got yours in the morning, so it goes back even further,” I noted.

“That’s if the two are connected, yes.”

“…You mean there’s a chance they aren’t?” I asked in surprise.

Yua shrugged. “It could be a coincidence… even if the chances are slim. At the very least, even if the goal is the same, it doesn’t guarantee the messenger is the same.”

“That’s a lot of words for saying you don’t know anything, right?” said Takai, crossing her arms.

Yua frowned. “You’ve really abandoned your Miss Perfect image as of late, huh?”

“I never asked for it, anyway.”

“Hmph. Anyway, don’t you worry—I’ll be starting my investigation shortly.”

Yua just made to rise from her seat as yet another person arrived at the doorway.

“…Hi, Seiji-kun, Shiomi-san.” This time, it was Hitomi.

Yua frowned hard. “Let me guess… did you also get a letter from me?”

“I… yes,” Hitomi said, looking surprised. She looked around us, seeing both the letter Takai was holding as well as the entire bundle on the nearby desk. “What’s going on?”

“Don’t worry, I intend to get to the bottom of this,” Yua said, cracking her knuckles. But rather than anger, there was clear excitement in her voice and her eyes. After all, she was clearly being challenged. “Come with me.”

And she started half-running out of the room.

Where was she going? Clearly there wasn’t anything to do at this point, since the culprit would be far gone by now. Perhaps she was trying to see if they left any clues behind? Or was she going to set up some new trap?

Regardless, after exchanging confused glances with the two other girls, I followed her.

As expected, we came to the entrance with all the shoe lockers. And to my utter shock Yua started going through them, one by one, and examining their contents.

“Help me out, Amari-kun,” she mumbled while continuing this action.

“Help you? You mean rummaging through the lockers? Give me a break…”

“That’s… definitely not a good look,” said Hitomi, who joined us at this point.

“If anything, it makes you more suspicious,” added Takai.

“I need to see who else got this crap,” Yua explained.

And just as I was wondering how to stop Yua—

“Shiomi Yua. What on earth are you doing?”

—This voice came from the nearby corridor, startling all of us. Standing there was a bespectacled woman with a serious expression. She was none other than Sawatari-sensei.

“Sorry, I’m a little busy right now…” Yua mumbled absentmindedly, as if this wasn’t of any interest.

“Busy planting letters in students’ lockers, are you?” said the woman, crossing her arms. “I have just received a complaint from a student about it.”

“…Yes, I’m investigating that right now,” Yua said calmly, opening yet another locker. “I’m clearly being framed.”

“Framed, are you?” asked Sawatari, her eyes as sharp as ever beneath her glasses. “Despite the fact people saw you?”

Yua raised a confused face from the lockers. I wasn’t sure I heard her right, either.

“What do you mean, saw me?”

“Two different students reported seeing you placing those letters, Shiomi! How do you explain that?”