Zaregoto

Between using people as things, and using things as people, the question is not which one is more insane, and it is crystal clear which is more bothersome to others -- the rest of the story is completely truncated, and some bit of time passed.

I was hospitalized in a hospital within Kyoto. One week for full recovery. That was the diagnosis for my body. As to how I ended up like this, there is no need to explain. If I may be allowed one thing, for the weakest to be by the strongest you cannot simply take, and must pay some price. I think it was a fairly inexpensive purchase for only needed a few bones. I am going on a bit of a trip at the start of next month with Kunagisa, so as long as I can get out by then it is fine.

As for whether hospitalized life is boring, not particularly. I was still in the middle of reading the book I had borrowed from Miiko-san, and to begin with, as long as I have enough space to sleep with my legs out, it does not matter to me the place. Well, as long as that is not an abnormal place.

It was the day before I was expected to leave the hospital that Aikawa Jun showed up at my hospital room. This time she did not knock. It appeared the knocking trend inside Aikawa-san had ended. Had she refitted it, or perhaps she had many of the same design, but in any case she was in her normal crimson suit.

"Yoo, long time no see and wait-. I was called and I arrive Beethoven! Hey, hey, you've got a personal room! You're rich, man."

"I just cannot stand sleeping in the same room as someone else. I feel goosebumps just by imagining someone I do not know looking at my sleeping self. It costs a bit, but it cannot be helped."

"Mmm. Good news for you, then."

Aikawa-san said, robotic-ally tossing an envelope onto my bed. It was thick. But there needed no questioning nor asking as to its contents.

"Well, you did help me out, so your share."

"I have no need, of money. With the state Hime-chan ended up in, Jun-san could not have made much money either, so I am fine with going without pay this time."

"Pretty stoic, huh. You should take these, though. When you have no money it's the same as having no neck, they say."

"Necks, cut it or strangle it or hang it, it does not make a difference. And your words simply means that money is not absolutely necessary."

"Hah, your shepherd."

She chuckled, as she sat in the pipe chair for visitors. Not that I could imagine that Aikawa-san had come to visit, but, I also could not tell her to not sit.

"But forcing you to help and then doing nothing in return goes against my policy. Alright then. How about this, I'll let you hear moaning with Hikari's voice."

"Please stop."

"Ah, no, no! That's! Stop playing with me! Ahh, no! I said stop!"

"You stop!"

"You actually snapped!" Aikawa-san seemed genuinely surprised as she put both of her hands up. "Wow, I'm shocked. ... I'm sorry. I didn't think you treated her with that much reverence. ... Sorry. Please forgive me. I was wrong."

Her apologetic voice was that of Maki-san.

She knew what she was doing.

"... So, what really did you come for?"

"Nothing really. Didn't you want me to come? You ended up not knowing anything to the end, after all. I came to answer questions."

"Huh... it is my policy to avoid probing and stepping into things that seem dangerous. But, I shall ask," I began, unable to figure out Aikawa-san's true intent. "Hime-chan, what happened to her?"

"You start off with the toughest one to answer. Ahh. Himecchi," Aikawa-san stuck her hand into the gift basket she had brought, took out an apple, and bit into it without peeling off the skin. "That stungun really did work. She's got amnesia, and is in a secret hospital."

"Huh..."

"Her body's pretty messed up, too. She was already being forced through some whack training so her body was all messed up here and there, and then that damage, y'know? Her whole body was burnt. Especially her fingers, since they were tied to thestring. Those gloves were made up seventy-percent of non-conducive material, so that helped a bit, but it's like she can hold a pencil but not chopsticks. You know? Ohm's Law. Jule's Law."

"... So she will be stuck with aftereffects."

Even though a stungun had been used to capture her without hurting her, but I guess this was still better than actually taking on Aikawa-san.

"That's why it's tough," she said. "Because she's got amnesia, it means Origami Noa and the other faculty, or maybe even Hagihara Shiogi or Saijou Tamamo, that she'd killed them... and even the Hanging High School, she might have forgotten everything. And for her fingers to be damaged, as long as that never heals, she can't use Zig Zag anymore. You get it, right?"

For a moment, I thought Aikawa-san had taken off the limiter for the stungun for that exact purpose. Zig Zag along with the accursed memory, all sealed away in one swoop. Even if this is too much sentimentalism and too storybook-like.

"It's tough. Because it doesn't mean what she's done goes away. The ones who were killed wouldn't be able to rest easy. The Origami housheold and Rule, they're all going nuts trying to find the suspect."

Just because the perpetrator forgot does not mean the crime disappears and that no punishment is needed. No matter what, for whatever reason, responsibility must be taken. That is obvious, but still.

"And if I were to say none of this happen and forgive Ichihime, I feel like you would reject me forever."

"That is rather unexpected. Jun-san, do you mind other peoples' opinions?"

"No? If the opinion is someone else's, I don't care."

She grinned, a terrible smile. I did not know why, but it seemed she was teasing me, so I just shrugged my shoulders and changed the question.

"So how did everything end?"

"The Hanging High School was broken up. Exactly the way Ichihime wanted. The students... no clue. That part is still a bit hazy. And then, no one's figured out that we're the suspects."

I have been turned into an accomplice.

"Don't worry, I'm talking around... and the Origami house owes me some so that's fine. Rule might be a problem... but I'll make sure that never swings over to you. But Ichihime... I'd like to cover for her, but I don't know if that's the right thing to do."

"Even Jun-san hesitates?"

"Not that I want to. Her memories might come back and her fingers might heal. I also don't want to dote over her too much, you know. Although it'd be different if she were to ask me directly to cover up the killings."

And that she did not -- was because Hime-chan was unable to believe in Aikawa-san all the way through. That was neither Aikawa-san's fault nor Hime-chan's fault, and just unfortunate. Like me, probably, Hime-chan could fundamentally not trust other people. And because of that, because we end up relying on others -- we end up with half-assed strategies like the one she had used, and as a result, fall apart because of it. More than fear or terror -- it may simply be pride and admiration.

"... but, why did Hime-chan kill the dean in the first place... no, what did she want to eliminate the school? What sort of plan was this at the start, anyways?"

"Before that, let me apologize," Aikawa-san scooted her chair closer, and then leaned toward me. "When I said Ask Ichihime herself about specifics... she will be able to explain better at the start, that was a lie, sorry."

"... of course."

I figured that from just speaking to her. Hime-chan could not explain the situation. Regardless of lies or acting, I could definitely state that.

"Hime-chan has trouble with Japanese, so there was no shot at her actually explaining anything."

"I figured it'd go better if you didn't know the details. But I didn't think Ichihime herself would deceive you so aggressively. ... what'd you hear was the reason for her language problems?"

"Umm. She said she was raised in America."

"I see. But, that's wrong," Aikawa-san poked my temple with her index finger. "The frontal lobe. She's got a posteriori obstruction to her frontal lobe."

"....."

"You know what the frontal lobe is for? Personality and self-consciousness, and communication with others. Ichihime was damaged there. That's why she gets troubled by language. Or rather, she doesn't comprehend it."

"Comprehend..."

Language comprehension.

No, noun comprehension.

"That's why when you talk to her, there'll always be some misunderstanding. It's like a Japanese person and a Chinese person conversing in Korean, there's always something off somewhere."

Like a zigzag, Aikawa-san laughed.

"That's why -- no matter how much you ask Ichihime, you'll never find out the true motive. It's hard for her to really verbalize. What she thought as she threw herself into that is an eternal mystery."

"That's the same for anyone."

There cannot exist any two who can fully express themselves to each other. It is simply an issue of whether the two can believe that they can, whether they can dupe themselves into believing as such.

Probably, Aikawa-san nodded.

"So if I'm to say something roughly with some reasoning. She'd been calculating everything from the start. Drag me into it, embrace me, and then in the form of tricking me, pull me into her scheme. First, before there was that fuss about escaping, she took care of the dean and the other faculty. ... on a side note, they discovered a mass of dismembered corpses from the faculty room. Belonging to roughly thirty-seven people."

"..."

I knew beforehand, but when given a number, I could do nothing but become agape. Thirty-seven -- if you add Shiogi-chan and Tamamo-chan, and Origami Noa you would get forty. Even the human failure from the previous month had only gone a third of that.

To be honest, once the murdered go over ten or twenty, I lose the ability to perform proper valuation. Rather, I could almost feel some awe at Hime-chan for being able to pull that off in that sealed academy. A rather crass story.

One inside the sealed-off dean's room. Thirty-eight in the sealed area called the faculty ward. And then -- within the sealed area known as the Hanging High School, forty.

A sealed dimension. From the outside, you could not know what was happening inside. Because it was a battlefield -- because it was a sealed battlefield.

That was probably an extremely simple story.

A sealed room is a sealed room because it is sealed, but whether that is sealed toward the inside, or sealed toward the outside -- changes everything.

That was why, more importantly, you would do that.

That action, could it be accepted?

What do you say. Failed product.

"Her Zig Zag was originally for going against masses of people, after all. And it's fundamentally not a tool of murder but rather a tool of capturing. String is more effective than rope at tying humans up. So, tie them up, and then cut them with a chainsaw. Hmm, and then. Take the dean's personal transmission device and communicate with Hagihara, and announce Yukariki Ichihime's escape. The scheme being discovered by the time you entered, wasn't because she screwed up, but because she'd let it out herself."

"And that was where Aikawa-san was supposed to arrive."

"But, I first sent you in. Ichihime was able to respond pretty well... but in the end, it was pretty dangerous. She got taken by surprise and was caught. And it wasn't like she could use Zig Zag in front of you."

That was why... Hime-chan had pressed for staying in the classroom. But that could be rejected, I had already taken the initiative. Indeed, I was quite a miscalculation for Hime-chan.

"And then as she expected, I went to the dean's room to negotiate... even if you weren't around, this would always happen. It'd be one thing if we weren't discovered yet, but given that the escape was already known, I'd go to Noa's place. Hahah, she read me like a book."

"Does that mean Hime-chan can imitate voices and read minds to some extent?"

"Well, yeah. But it's not like she's an apprentice of mine. And then with me, this is important, she discovers the dean. She became a victim that had been framed."

"But that's a pretty dangerous ruse..."

"Better that it's dangerous, to Ichihime anyways. It's the same as hiding under the podium. It'd be harder to suspect her when it's that obvious. I did think the killing was similar to Zig Zag... but you start thinking that it might be a fake to frame her. And other such stupid things."

"Jun-san knew about Zig Zag, I see."

"Yeah. Ichihime seemed to want to hide it from you, so I didn't tell you. Aside from the fact that it's her trump card, it's also not really something you want people telling everyone. But, why did you realize that she's a string user? Saijou's case aside, when it comes to the dean's death, there's no need for a string user."

"My thoughts all came together. It was like a chain. I am the type where when I realize one thing I realize everything. One is all, all is one, of sorts. Of course the reverse is that if I never realize one, then I will never realize everything... But there is a reason. It was unnatural that she had so much string despite not being a string user. Hime-chan tried to cover it up with words, but you know. Even though it was the most effective way of escaping there... even though she had to use string to kill Tamamo-chan without me noticing... she was careless."

Though that was probably just her taking me lightly. But with regards to that, I could say nothing but that she was right to do so. If I did not think backwards from the truth about the sealed room, I would never have realized it.

"Also, she was paying too much attention to Shiogi-chan. Shiogi-chan's strategy was too elaborate for dealing with a failure. What was the reason that she did not just rely on mass, if you will. Of course, that was because numbers would only end badly against Zig Zag."

"Mmm."

"And... someone trying to fool Aikawa Jun cannot be a failure. Similar to how a user of nonsense like myself cannot become an enemy of the mankind's strongest, a simple Yukariki Ichihime may be able to become Aikawa Jun's friend, but not an enemy. And of the remaining cast, the only remaining seat for Hime-chan to fit into was Zig Zag."

And -- more than anything.

There cannot exist a cast member around me who is simply cute and weak and pitiable, and that conviction was the most important clue.

"I see. But it's not necessarily a lie that she's a failure. She... can't do anything aside from that trick."

"... for Jun-san to know obviously means... that Zig Zag was a skill she had acquired long before entering the academy... i assume."

"Pretty much. It was five years ago. I had an acquaintance that failed at becoming a string user -- her nickname was Zig Zag. She used to be called something else. I paired up with her for a certain job. And at the time we rescued a twelve-year-old Yukariki Ichihime... after that, Ichihime looked up to her and I. I couldn't really pay her much attention, though..."

The frontal lobe damage must have occurred then. But that was not the question I needed to ask. The question I needed to ask was but one.

"And that person's name was Shisei Yuma."

"Hmm?" Aikawa-san looked up, surprised. "You know? She wasn't that famous."

"No... not really. And, that person..."

"Yup. Her Master." Aikawa-san laughed cynically. "And, a former teacher at Hanging High School. That was why Ichihime entered a middle school related to Hanging High School, and afterwards ended up where she did. Now, let's get the topic back. Umm, how much did I tell you already/ Right, right. The decision to become suspected with us. Yeah. she was right on target with the expectation that even if the door were closed, I could force it open. ... Jeez, she really loves coming up with little plots. You're pretty knowledgeable about the rest. So I'll skip everything after that."

"She did not want to be thought of as the suspect behind the dean's killing... but how about the mountain of dead faculty?"

"She probably thought that if she's not the suspect behind the dean, then she wouldn't be the one behind the other murders. But she definitely went too far. After you and Ichihime left, I was like bleh and left that room to look for you guys, and when I went to greet the faculty and went down the stairs... Hah. No matter how abnormal the Hanging High School is -- the only one who could do that alone is Yukariki Ichihime."

That -- was the point where everything cleared up. Not suspicion but rather trust, was why she was found out. But, even so, it was not like she could leave the faculty alive. Then Hime-chan's strategy was broken from the start.

..... No.

That is probably wrong. Aikawa-san probably -- up to the hallway, when she heard Hime-chan and I's conversation, she truly did not realize the truth. Regardless of how she felt, I thought that must be the case.

This person is like that.

"But sealed room or whatever, I do not think such a thing has an effect. On anyone other than Jun-san."

"That's why all she had to do was trick me. Otherwise why would she need to kill you... ah, wait, there is a reason. You're annoying."

"... but, if she had not called Jun-san to the academy, there would never have been a need to cover it. Rather than hang onto a secret that may be found out, she chose a definitive way of deceiving... and then the more you plan, the more you succumb to your plan."

"Or you know. A long time ago, I made a promise, with her. When she became Shisei's apprentice. That she wouldn't use Zig Zag for killing people."

"But, that skill... ahh. It was originally self-defense for capturing."

That was why she wanted to hide it from Jun-san... that probably was not all, but it sounded like at least part of the reason. Motives for murder tend to be a mixing pot of complex thoughts, and it is difficult to put into words the reason... but one would be Hime-chan's master, Shisei Yuma, and another would be Aikawa Jun, I could say that much with absolution.

"But the academy didn't allow that... or rather, why would someone like that enter a school, you'd think. Hurry up and get over someone who's dead... stupid brat."

Shisei Yuma -- well, I had figured as much.

"Well, the dean and Shisei, I guess if you think along that line you can get what the gist of what she was thinking -- nah, I still can't."

"But -- if I may, Jun-san, you are too soft. What is your mind-reading for? In retrospect, that sealed room, could not have been the doing of anyone other than Hime-chan--"

"You didn't notice either."

"I am just a fool."

Or rather, from my perspective it was no time to be solving riddles.

"Hah. I'm not Maeda Keiji Toshimasu, but rather than suspect people in the name of safety, I feel better trusting and then being betrayed."

Aikawa-san laughed, showing no hint of remorse. She did not seem to be regretting anything, and she did not seem to be hurt any.

"--Jun-san, what is the truth?"

"Nothing. Me liking Ichihime, and Ichihime's actions have no relation. Hahah, that's why I'm not mad that Ii-tan came close to betraying me."

She saw through me.

"But you're carefree, too. When you were about to die, you were fine with selling out Ichihime. What do you mean, come to my place. You betrayed her five minutes ago!"

Completely through me.

"I did not feel like I betrayed..."

... in the end, Aikawa-san's soft on friends was just her expecting too much from the world. Because she is so talented, she could not understand weaklings like Hime-chan and I. And even though she did not understand, she felt no need to compromise.

"Leaving aside me being soft, you couldn't support her beliefs, either. When you're in such a murderer-training facility, anyone would end up like that. Anyone would think about doing such a thing. And Ichihime had the skills to pull it off. That's all."

"Skills..."

"When you think about her abnormal stature, you can figure what sort of life she lived, can't you? She only weighs thirty kilograms, you know? Although I guess you wouldn't get it, because you know Kunagisa-chan. Although Ichihime and Kunagisa have different circumstances."

"....."

"But I'm not telling you to sympathize. But, just because you hate like things, don't rag on her too much."

"I had no intention of ragging on her. This time I was completely absent and unrelated, after all. If it were not for you dragging me into it, I could not care less who did what."

"That's good."

In any case, Hime-chan... was unable to escape from that place alone. Zig Zag was indeed an effective skill, but it is fundamentally a defensive skill. Unless she sets up a trap and waits, like she did with Shiogi-chan, it was no different than using a knife. As long as it is not a surprise attack, you did not need to be Aikawa-san to evade. That was why -- yes, it was the same as Aikawa-san's tactic -- first you strike the core. Massacre the faculty, then get Aikawa-san's help...

"No... things do not add up. If she simply wanted to escape, she could have just left it to Jun-san. That would have been plenty. She wanted to kill, that must have been the primary motive. If her Master's death had something to do with the changing of deans, then she may have even entered the school with the intent of killing."

"I wouldn't say they're unrelated... but I think that's thinking too much--"

If she wanted to just kill, then Hime-chan alone was sufficient. But she needed Aikawa-san's help for escaping afterwards. She wanted Aikawa-san to help her escape after murder, but also, prevent that Aikawa-san from seeing through the murders. That was why the plan was completely zigzag and paradoxical -- but in any case, that must have been the concept behind Hime-chan's strategy.

"Or alternatively, she may have wanted me to see through the killing," Aikawa-san said. "Confession of guilt, something like that? Pretty stupid, though."

Ahh... that did seem the most likely. Perform her goal completely, then be punished by Aikawa-san. Even to a person like myself, such a concept was seductive. If you are going to be killed -- then at the hands of the most precious of existences.

A confused desire after exhausting every scheme.

Because I was unable to select my friends, at the very least, I wanted to choose the enemy that would eradicate me.

"She deceived with the intent to be discovered all along... but that is too irresponsible."

"Responsible... strange word."

"Yes. I do not really understand it."

"Yeah. I don't really get it. You know, she might have just wanted to place with me. At the very end."

At the very end...

She had no intention of living, or hiding, from the start... I could not think that to be the case, but I also could not refute that possibility. I could not understand Hime-chan's feelings to the end. Just the same that I still cannot understand what that is thinking.

-- a waste of thought.

The story of the defeated is never told.

Warriors die in battle, strategist die in confusion.

In conclusion.

Hime-chan was not a replacement for that. That much was certain. Kunagisa Tomo -- did not break that easily.

"Well, if you theorize this much, you probably hit somewhere."

And then silence befell the hospital room. Aikawa-san ate the apple down to its core, and then stuck her hand back into the basket.

"Hmm -- you're gonna eat this?"

Aikawa-san pulled out from the basket a 5x5x5 Rubiks' Cube just the size of an apple.

"No, that is a toy that Kunagisa left behind when she came to visit. I cannot solve it, so I left it there."

"She came to visit? She can't climb stairs alone outside of home, can she?"

"She said she was carried here by a friend named Hii-chan."

"Ah, so that's why Ii-tan's in a bad mood..."

As she spoke, Aikawa-san solved the cube without even looking at it, and then placed it back in the fruit basket. And then, "but still," she said. Her lackadaisical attitude alerted me that we were finally going to talk about why she had come.

"This time, finally, I've figured out that special trait of yours."

"My trait? Shiogi-chan called it Aimless Equation."

"Ahh... yeah. Honestly, I'm regretting it a bit. That bringing you into this incident this time was a mistake. Right? If it weren't for you, Hagihara Shiogi and Saijou Tamamo wouldn't have died. Ichihime wanted to avoid killing students whom were in the same situation as her, after all. Faculty were there of their own accord, but -- students had no other choice."

Shiogi-chan was saying that she could not imagine a more suitable place -- but I can say with certainty. There probably is. Shiogi-chan and Tamamo-chan simply did not know. They simply could not find other goals and purposes. I simply could not tell them answers.

"But saying that the two died was my fault is going too far. It had nothing to do with me."

"Catastrophes always occur around you, and people always die around you. You -- how should I put it, you make it so people can't relax. You freak them out. That's why, people around you are forced into situations they would never usually find themselves in -- and as a result, they show cracks. That's why I used you this time -- but that trait identify friend or foe. Ichihime was dragged into it, too. Ichihime killed Tamamo for your safety, and the reason she killed Shiogi, more than because the truth was found, but rather to save you, because you were becoming very intimate with a strategist after being captured to let her escape -- right? Ichihime just wanted to hide the crimes from me, and once the bodies are found, the sealed room doesn't matter."

"... I see, that is one way of looking at it."

"Just by being there, you startle others, just by being there, you make people lose their grip on themselves... there're a bunch of people like that. You can't relax when you're with them, it annoys you, things don't go as planned... people like that, you know, they're even scientifically explainable. In other words, the missing part. Because the missing part for the observer ends up looking the same, it feels like the person is having their ineptitude pointed out to them, and it startles them. Some think that's a romantic feeling, and some think that's enmity. The former are the type that wants to lick each other's wounds, the latter hates similar types. You're a high-end version of that. You yourself don't have any characteristics and aren't anything like anyone -- but you have too many missing parts. That's why you're just like everyone. And that picks at peoples' subconscious, that's why you're aimless. And yet you still manage to come out on top. You don't stand up to it nor do you parry it, and yet somehow you welcome it. You let them do as they want and then flip it around and evade. You wave around your nonsense and then escape and escape and run away. Even though you being there makes them anxious -- no one around you can touch you. It's no different than being next to a ghost or a demon. That's why the gears always mess up around you, and switches are flicked. Think about April, think about May."

"I said it to Shiogi-chan too, but... you are greatly overvaluing me." I shook my head. "I am nothing that big. I just get tossed about by the currents."

"If there is any hope of salvation..."

Ignoring my retort, Aikawa-san continued.

"It's that you have no motive. To be honest, I'm a bit scared. If you ever find a goal... if you ever point somewhere, what'll happen. When something like that happens, the only ones who won't get affected are guys exactly like you, like Zerozaki-kun. If someone's even slightly different... which means everyone, they'll go insane. On a level far beyond anything up to this point, you'll drag everyone into chaos, causing accidents one after another."

Yes -- just like.

When I broke Kunagisa Tomo.

"You make it sound like a horror novel."

I joked, but Aikawa-san's expression remained unchanged--

As she raised her index finger.

"-- that's why, I think it's not a bad idea to kill you now."

And then she lowered her finger.

"..."

Nothing -- happened.

Nothing, happened.

"... that is a rough joke."

"Joke? A joke?"

Aikawa-san looked incredibly astonished.

"Of course, yeah. I want that."

"....."

"Hahah. I mean, if you disappear, who's gonna be my straightman?"

And then she stood up and said cynically, "oh well, I'll head back now," and folded the seat back up and placed it where it originally was. And she plucked out another apple, like payment for leaving, and

"If the strings of fate would like to entangle us once again. Super misfortune and pathetic fortune to your future."

She was about to leave the hospital room.

I asked, to her back.

"Hime-chan--"

"Hmm? What about Ichihime?"

"Why did she called me that way?"

"That's easy. Or, rather," Aikawa-san responded by asking back, "Don't you get why she was hiding her identity as Zig Zag from you? Aside from mental issues, there's nothing to be lost by you knowing that she's the string user, but up to the very bitter end, she tried to act like a simple failure. You really don't get why?"

"... I do not," after all I was the one who asked, so I hunched over, shirking my eyes from Aikawa-san. "Maybe she just wanted to let down my guard? As long as she acts like a dumb high school girl, I would not be as wary of her."

"Nah, idiot. Hah, it means you overlapped. Mr. I'm like no one but I'm like everyone. She placed the image over you--" Aikawa-san mischievously laughed. "The same way you projected Kunagisa Tomo onto her. It was an amazing display of misunderstanding."

The same way I saw Kunagisa in Hime-chan.

Hime-chan saw something in me.

"..... Will I be able to see Hime-chan again?"

"Don't worry. Even if you don't want to, you'll see her soon."

And with that, the contractor disappeared from my sight. Like always, at the end of the end, she would rustle my mind, and then leave. Even though she did not solve a mystery that seemed like it had already been solved this time, she left behind new things to ponder.

Indeed... the empress of making you think, the queen of deep meaning behind her words, Her Majesty of suggestion, she raises all sorts of flags and leaves them be. After all, aside from Tamamo-chan's case, she had completely rewritten the situation behind Shiogi-chan's death, too, I wanted to point out.

"Not having any characteristics means that people can say whatever they want about you... Gosh, everyone and everyone expects too much from me... give me a break."

I am just a somewhat talkative delusional, defective, emo nineteen-year-old.

As I was thinking such things, as if coming in to switch places with Aikawa-san, my nurse walked in with a food tray. It seemed Aikawa-san had noticed the nurse's presence and decided to leave. She was like a ninja.

"That cool beauty that just walked out of here like a new user, who was that? Iiii's visitor?"

The nurse asked with significant interest as she glanced at the door behind her.

"Iiii's big sister? Cousin?"

It seemed being a relative would be the easiest excuse.

"... Ahh, girlfriend, she is my girlfriend."

"Eeehhh?"

She was obviously dubious.

"You know, she is completely infatuated with me. Gosh, it is quite a bother, you know, she even forced herself all the way here. I would much rather be alone when I am hospitalized."

"Yes yes. I unnastaaaaan."

The nurse clearly did not believe me.

"Despite her looks, when we are alone, she is ridiculous. She does everything I ask."

"Huh huh right right. I get it already. Iiii so attractive with the ladies."

She said as she placed the plastic tray on the table.

"Love~♪ Love love~♪"

Did this hospital have a reason in mind when hiring such unique nurses? I started getting annoyed (or rather I felt if this continued I would feel more sorry for myself) and decided to change the subject.

"Nurse, do you read mystery novels?"

"I'm a nurse practitioner!" she corrected me. That was basically just the difference a strategist and a tactician - how small-minded. "Well, I do, but what do you want?"

"A quiz," I said, as I picked up the envelope Aikawa-san had left behind and checked its contents. "There is a room. The room is protected by a palm-checking ID lock, and so without being the room's inhabitant you cannot open or lock the door from outside. Now, one day, you, and two of your friends, three in total, come to that room. The room was locked, so you forced your way in, and you found the corpse of the inhabitant sliced to bits."

"Ahh, a sealed room mystery. How nostalgic," the nurse smiled. "Palm... reminds me of Lupin III."

"Now, how did the suspect perform this impossible task?"

"Hmm. Ah, I know. Simple, simple," the nurse said after preparing the meal, and she turned to me, "They dismembered the victim inside the room, and then took just one of the hands from the dismembered corpse, stepped outside, and locked the door with it, right? Dismembering the corpse was camouflage, and they actually just wanted the hand. In other words, the door's key is just the palm, and as long as you do it right after they die, it still reacts to the lock. Nyahahah, now I want a cat's palm, get it?"

"....."

"If you see a dismembered corpse in front of you, you panic a bit and don't realize that one part is missing, after all. That's why one of the three is the suspect. Probably the last one to enter. Until they, they hid it in like a pouchette, and while the other two are surprised by the corpse, they leave the hand in the corner of the room. Wham. Pretty simple trick."

"....."

While listening to the nurse's answer -- I was mesmerized by the content of the envelope. It was a lot of cash -- and, one photo. That was, probably, what she had collected from Hime-chan after she had swiped it from my shirt. That photo.

That photo where Hime-chan was smiling, without any acting.

"Don't worry. Even if you don't want to, you'll see her soon."

I see, contractor.

You -- really get it.

You pull off some of the cleverest tricks.

I do not know what went through Hime-chan's mind when she swiped this photo from me. I do not know, but I sort of understand. You could say this is a memory. A memory of when Aikawa-san and Hime-chan met. A memory that went by the name "the past," -- one that was totally different from the future, and could not be called hazy.

"Mmm? Hey, hey, when people are responding to a boring quiz, don't go off chewing up a photo, Iiii. Who's that, your girlfriend?"

"Does this one look like a girlfriend..." I wondered what this nurse thought I am. "No. This is just... a friend."

"For a friend it looked like you were looking at her rather lovingly. Like you were looking at a daughter or an apprentice."

"Do you think so? ... Perhaps."

Hime-chan taking this from me was perhaps the only falsification that was unrelated to crime and murder. It was an action that had absolutely no malice. Hime-chan probably wanted this herself, and took it from me. Then Hime-chan would have to come before me once more, to reclaim this photo. I do not know where Hime-chan is right now and what she is doing -- nor do I know what Aikawa-san plans to do with Hime-chan... but if that is the percentages, then I am fine giving up in the name of being deceived.

Hime-chan cannot be a replacement for that, but -- well, that is that, and I would like to teach Hime-chan some things.

Yes, for instance, how to use nonsense.

Because Hime-chan, like me -- needs a teacher for falsification.

"Hmm. If you say so. Well, not that it matters. What's the answer to the quiz? That was correct, right? Hey, Iiii,answer me."

The nurse leaned in, asking. I irritably waved my hand to distance her, and answered. Of course, there is no rejecting the answer. There exists no person in the world who cannot solve this pitiful quiz--

Well, aside from one.

Mankind's strongest and, too softhearted.

"Completely wrong. You are a horrible person, suspecting your friend."

"Big liar."

"Yeah."

1. It's also a subtle pun in Japanese. 戦士 (warrior/senshi) 戦死 (death in battle/senshi) 策士 (strategist/sakushi) 錯死 (confused death/sakushi).