Rena had been sick ever since that day, and she hadn't been able to join in on club activities as often since.

"...Yeah.

I still feel feverish."

"...You do, huh...

That's a pity..."

"Hey, Rena!

Why don't you just try and play with us today?

I think you'll feel a lot better if you blow off some steam with us."

"Mm-hm, you got this ol' man's agreement."

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

"......Sometimes, resting too much is bad for you."

"They're quite correct.

All illness comes from the mind, don't you know?"

Everybody had suspected for a while that Rena isn't really sick, at least physically.

It's just that many things happened to her at once. She caught a mental cold.

That's why I thought she would get better once she played with us, just like we used to.

It seemed like Rena was aware of that, too.

She knew that she had to get out of her state of depression soon. She wanted to get better, and she wanted to have fun again every day.

"...Okay!

I'll do it!"

"Great!

That's the spirit!

Considering the fact that Rena is still recovering from her illness, let's play a tabletop game today.

...Let me see... Let me see..."

Mion started rummaging through her locker, humming to herself.

She took one game after another from the locker, and put them aside.

That locker definitely didn't obey the laws of physics.

The amount of games she took out from the locker was more than what it could physically hold.

"Oh, I forgot about this one.

Let's try this.

Today, we'll be playing this detective game!"

"Oh!!

What's that?

Sounds interesting!"

"Well, this is a game where you guess the culprit, the murder weapon, and the scene of the crime.

It's a game where you use your brain."

"......You'll pick it up as you play.

All you need to do is to note down the information you have."

"Ho ho ho!

In other words, you need to learn the trick of note-taking!

This is a game for intelligent people like myself!!"

The rules don't seem that difficult.

In short, it's a game where you sound out the cards each player holds in order to try and reason out the identity of the cards first drawn out of the deck.

There are plenty of games in different formats where you try to identify something hidden in the least number of steps.

This one just happens to be a competitive one of those.

The key to winning this game would be how well you can organize your information.

...We usually like to play athletic games so that we can run around a lot, but in our club, you have to excel both academically and athletically.

"Alright, alright! This is gonna be great!!

Let's play!!

Rena, do you remember how we still haven't decided the winner of the water gun battle? I'm going to settle it today once and for all!"

"Oh, are you?

Then I'm not going to go easy on you!!"

"......If Rena is getting serious, I'll have to get serious, too."

"Yes indeed!

Since that water gun battle, I have reevaluated Keiichi-san and Rena-san.

I'm going to be merciless today!!"

"Ah ha ha ha!

This is getting exciting!!

This ol' man's been waiting for everyone to get this fired up!

Excellent!

Let's do this!!"

"Are you ready?

'I'

did it with a 'Knife'

in the 'Library'."

"Okay!

My turn.

'Keiichi-kun'

did it with 'Poison'

in the 'Hall'!"

"My turn...

'Mion'

did it with a 'Pistol'

in the 'Lounge'!"

"...Heh heh heh!

You're holding the 'Pistol', aren't you?

You're bluffing!"

"......I think I know the suspect and the murder weapon.

I've narrowed the scene of the crime down to two."

"Hau!

You're good, Rika-chan.

I've narrowed the suspect down to two, but it's hard to pin down which one it is!"

"I'll give you a tip. There's always a hint in the questions the other players ask you.

If you figure it out, you can even solve the whole mystery by the order of the cards the others put down on the table!"

"I-I see!

Damn it, I underestimated the depth of this game!

...Oh no... My notes are such a mess! I can't even read my own handwriting!"

"Ahahahaha!

Once you acquire the skill of note-taking, you'll have a 70% chance to win this game.

But even a 70% chance won't be enough to defeat me!"

I kind of knew I didn't stand a chance of winning this game, but I gradually started picking it up.

Rena seemed to be getting her energy back as she played along.

It was the right decision to force her to play with us today.

While we were in the middle of the game, Chie-sensei came into the classroom.

"My, you look like you're having fun.

Anyway, is Ryuugu-san here?"

"Hau?"

"You have a visitor."

Everybody looked puzzled.

...Parents sometimes showed up at school for some reason, but Chie-sensei never called them "visitors".

...It's rare to have a visitor at school.

"...I wonder who it is.

Well, I have to go.

You can continue without me!"

Rena left the classroom at a run.

"...What should we do?

Should we wait for her?"

"Well, we don't know how long it's going to take.

Rena told us we could continue.

So, let's do that!"

"""Yeah!!"""

Around the entrance, the glaring sun and the cool shade made for a clear contrast.

An old man who's holding his jacket on his arm was waiting for me. He looked like he was overheating, and his tie was limp.

"Are you Ryuugu-san?

Reina Ryuugu-san."

Ever since Rina called me Reina, I've hated that name more than ever. Because of that, I didn't have a good first impression of this man.

"Yes, that's me.

...May I ask who you are?"

"My car has air conditioning, so why don't we move this into there?

Aren't you hot out here?"

He ignored my question and started walking towards the car parked in front of the school gate.

...If he wanted to talk about something normal, he would've used the teacher's office.

But he wanted to talk in his car instead. I couldn't help but feel suspicious.

Chie-sensei let him see me, though.

That meant he wasn't a suspicious individual as far as she was concerned.

...Who was he...?

"I don't bite, you know.

Please, this way."

He called out to me while opening the rear door.

...Is he a policeman...?

Did... the police find out that I killed those two...?

I felt anxious all of a sudden.

...Was this what they called a "voluntary interview"?

...I didn't want to go in that car. But if I rejected his offer, it'd only make me look suspicious.

I prepared myself

...and got in.

It was really cool inside the car.

A car A/C must cost a fortune.

At least, my father's car doesn't have one.

"Please let me know if it's too cold.

I like keeping it that way."

"So, what's this talk about?"

In retaliation, I ignored his question and got to the point like he did.

He pulled a small notebook out of his breast pocket and flipped through it. He picked out a photo from it.

The photo showed... the face of a goofy-looking man.

"Please tell me if there's anything you know about this person."

The man in the picture was expressionless and looked half asleep.

Sometimes you can't even recognize your own family members in a photo where they don't have an expression.

...So there's no way I would recognize a person who wasn't related to me.

......But anyway, that was a bit of a relief.

...This had nothing to do with Rina or her partner.

"There were scribbles on his shirt,

and we found the signatures of students at this school, including yours, Ryuugu-san."

"...Eh...... Is this... Tomitake-san?!"

I don't feel his usual carefree unreliableness from this picture at all.

From this half-awake, emotionless face...

"How about this woman, then?"

I knew what he was going to show.

"Her name is Miyo-san.

Miyo Takano-san."

"When did you see them last?"

"I think it was right after the Watanagashi festival."

"Didn't you notice anything strange?

Anything.

Please tell me."

"Did something happen to them?"

"Yeah!!

I got it!!

To tell you the truth, I wasn't sure if it was 'Rena' or 'Mion'."

"So, you gambled?!

...How risky...!"

"......It doesn't matter how he won. What matters is that he won."

"Oh, Rena.

Welcome back!

What took you so long?"

Mion noticed that Rena had returned.

She looked exhausted.

...I have no idea what she talked about with the visitor, but it was obvious it wasn't something fun.

"Rena... are you okay?"

"...What?

What's okay?

What?"

"I'm talking about you.

You look pale.

...Are you sure you're alright?"

Rena tried to convince us she was fine, but her face clouded over for a moment and she decided to leave early.

...I shouldn't have forced her to join the game.

I was regretting it a little.

Rena probably forced herself to play with us, even though she wasn't feeling well at all.

Rena put her stuff in her bag, apologized to us for leaving early, and left the classroom.

"Well, she's gone now.

...I guess we have to keep playing until we have a loser!"

"That's right!

Whose turn is it?"

"......Meep!"

"Okay, Rika-chan!

Come on!!!"