Case 16: Love Letters Redux (Part IV)

According to Itou, both he and Shinohara—a girl he only came to know as part of this incident—had received messages that compelled them to participate in this wicked plan to frame Yua.

Yua grilled him pretty hard about this, but the boy really didn’t seem to know anything about the sender.

He claimed to have deleted it already, but apparently the message said something like this:

I know you’ve been wronged by the love detective before, and I can help you get revenge on her. It’s a very simple plan.

His motive had apparently been his past experiences with Yua; I completely forgot about that, but Yua obviously remembered, and was thus able to deduce his part in this.

I wouldn’t have expected it from a guy like Itou, but even someone so weak-willed somehow mustered the drive for a plan like that. Maybe because he had a very small part in it or something.

Later, we confirmed with Sawatari-sensei the fact that Shinohara had indeed been late to class that fateful day, so we went to confront her as well.

“I-I’m so sorry…” said the girl, also half in tears. She was honestly a lot like the female version of Itou. “Please don’t report me to the teachers…”

Technically that was too late, but we remained silent about that.

“And why would you do that?” Yua asked her, somewhat impatiently.

“I… well… it was for the sake of revenge,” she answered uncomfortably.

Again, this was just like Itou told us.

Yua narrowed her eyes. “Revenge, huh… wait a minute. Shinohara, Shinohara… Oh, right. Didn’t another girl ask me about you?”

The girl twitched.

Yua then snapped her fingers. “Right, I remember now! You put something in the boy’s locker, and the other girl asked me to find out who—”

“Eee, eee, enough! It’s fine, I admit it… I did have a reason to take revenge on you for exposing me like that, alright? B-but I wasn’t the one who came up with this plan! I’m a victim, just like you!”

“A victim? You? Give me a break. Well, I suppose I’ll accept your words for the time being. But are you absolutely sure you don’t know who the sender is? …Have you ever talked to the Love Sage?”

“Love Sage? What’s that?”

I wasn’t sure whether Yua being so obsessed with the Sage was something positive or not.

She kept thinking. “Hmm. Amari-kun, do you think our sleep-deprived friend would be able to help us here?”

“What? Oh.” She was probably referring to Inspector Mochizuki. “Err, I don’t know. It’s still barely more than a prank at this point, right?”

“Yeah, I guess he can’t use his connections for something like that.”

“Umm… I really am sorry,” the girl repeated. “Can I go now?”

Yua sighed. “Fine, share with me one final piece of information, and I’ll make sure nothing happens to you.”

“Y-yes?” the girl twitched.

“The letters,” said Yua. “Did you write them?”

The girl enthusiastically shook her head. “N-no! I have no idea who did! After I got the message and instructions, I just found everything ready in my own shoe locker… that’s it, honest!”

Yua glared at her for a few tense moments, but then sighed. “Fine, I guess that’s good enough.”

“So am I…?”

“Yeah, yeah. Just go away before I change my mind,” she said with a smile and a twinkle in her eyes.

Shinohara ran away even faster than I did during the sports festival.

I turned to face Yua. “I know that expression of yours… do you have a plan?”

Her smile was infectious, and I found myself smiling in excitement as well. “Oh, you’ll see. I’m still not sure about the details, so… just play along for now.”

“Are you going to gather the suspects and announce the culprit?”

“Hmm? No, there’s no need for that. After all, I’ll make the culprit come to me.”

After being left with those mysterious words, I carried on with my normal school day. And when I headed to the empty classroom, our usual “office”, I found to my surprise that it was empty.

Was Yua busy somewhere else, then?

I tried sending her a message, but even after a few minutes there was no reply. Odd.

Normally she would respond pretty quickly.

Maybe she just really needed to use the bathroom? I sat down and waited for a while, but once about half an hour passed I started growing worried. It was very much unlike her.

Then I recalled the fact she mentioned something about the culprit coming to her—and shuddered.

What if something happened?

Gritting my teeth, I rose from my seat and started running away to look for her.

She couldn’t be that rash, right?

True, she often had thoughts and ideas she told me nothing about, and several times she set up traps without letting me know.

All so she could wow me and the others with her achievements.

But if the culprit was someone who wanted to humiliate her for some reason—to enact revenge on her—didn’t it make it just a bit dangerous?

Where could Yua be? I tried her class, but it was empty by now. I had no idea where else she might go.

Right… she doesn’t have any friends. And she’s not in any club, either…

I was stumped.

Desperate, I tried the only other person that might possibly know anything.

“Shiomi?” asked Sawatari. “Oh, she’s been here earlier today.”

Left with no choice, I turned to Yua’s homeroom teacher. Her answer actually surprised me.

“Do you happen to know where she could be right now?”

I was somewhat expecting the teacher to shrug and tell me she had no idea, but reality was different.

“Well… she actually dropped in earlier to ask if we knew anything about the case. And that if anyone came here looking for her, that she was going to wait in the nearby park, in case someone wanted to discreetly confess their crimes, or something like that,” Sawatari explained, looking dubious. “I don’t know what you are to her, exactly, but try and keep her in line, alright?”

I vaguely nodded and turned away, my thoughts in disarray.

Waiting in the nearby park… all alone?

But why?

I’ll make the culprit come to me, she’d told me.

I broke into a run again.

For some reason, the park near our school was almost always deserted, at least during this time of the day. It was the perfect place to spend some time alone.

It was also the perfect place to set up an ambush.

If my thinking was correct, Yua had set a trap for the culprit there, but I couldn’t let her face this alone.

Just as expected, I could hear the girl’s voice the moment I entered the park.

“I kept thinking this incident was influenced by the earlier one—but I was wrong, right? It wasn’t inspired by it, but based on it. As was your desire for revenge.”

She was clearly talking so someone. Where was she? I couldn’t see her from my current position. I walked past some trees.

“A person who wants revenge against me, who has a way of getting unrelated students’ phone numbers, as well as access to the school and contacts within it… only one person fits all these criteria.”

I finally found them.

Determined as always, Yua spoke loudly as she faced someone—standing there was a person I hadn’t seen in a while.

“You bitch,” hissed none other than my former teacher, Kamiya Akihiro.

He stood there, half-hidden in shadows, his eyes invisible behind his glasses. He looked haggard, tired, and twitchy.

“Who was your informant, hmm? I seem to recall you were friendly with Narita-sensei… Well, that doesn’t particularly matter. The point was to leave a message and draw you out here after foiling yet another one of your plans.”

“Stupid girl,” the teacher muttered. “You shouldn’t have messed with me like that.”

Shocked, I watched as Kamiya-sensei reached out into his pocket and pulled out a certain object.

A gun.

…Just to be clear, the type that sprays out water.

However, just because it was a child’s toy didn’t necessarily mean it wasn’t dangerous. Who knows what he put inside it?

“Stop!” I called. Both finally noticed my presence and turned to look at me.

“Amari-kun?” asked the surprised Yua. “What are you doing here?”

“That’s my question! Why did you come here without me?”

Yua clicked her tongue. “I needed him to target me when I’m the most vulnerable—meaning, without any protection!” she explained. “Just trust in my plan!”

“Idiot, that’s way too dangerous!”

Kamiya started laughing. “I wanted to get her alone, but you’re her lapdog, so you’re equally guilty.”

Hey! At least call me something cooler, like a watchdog…

“There’s something I want to confirm,” said Yua, sounding as calm as ever even while I was tense. “You couldn’t possibly be the Love Sage, right?”

“Him?” I said, shocked out of my mind.

“Are you stupid? Obviously not. I did ask for advice about those love letters… but that idiot failed me! Or maybe I’m the idiot for relying on some stupid anonymous student.”

…So it all led back to this, huh? Unbelievable that the Love Sage was related even to this shit.

“Hmm. Very well. Just to be clear, you admit you were instigating students to frame me and that you’re here to enact your revenge on me, right?”

“Yes! I’m sick of you, love detective!” Kamiya began sounding a bit deranged and unhinged, so I prepared myself to leap on him—

“Take him away, then,” Yua said.

At first I was confused, wondering whether Yua talked to me—but then another man seemed to emerge from nowhere, as if he’d melted within the shadows until that moment.

“Right, I heard everything. I suggest you drop your weapon and raise your hands.”

“…Mochizuki-san?” I said in surprise.

The startled ex-teacher looked back into the face of a middle-aged man with great, dark circles under his eyes. There was none of his usual jovial expression there.

“W-when did you…” Kamiya sputtered.

“You deaf or something? I’m a police officer, so you’d better not step into deeper shit than the one you’ve already landed yourself in, eh?”

Did an off-duty plainclothes detective even have the authority to arrest a person? I doubted that, but at the very least Kamiya seemed to believe so; he apparently reached his limits, because he dropped the water gun and started shaking all over.

Glancing at my side, Yua was as elated as ever at solving yet another mystery.