With the usual rules apparently still in effect, came the dinnertime.
Almost everyone was gathered around the table.
Almost.
Naturally, Kanami-san wasn't around, and Akane-san was absent as well. Additionally missing were Akari-san and Teruko-san. Apparently, they had crossed to the mainland. The reason for this was that they needed to contact our dear detective, "Aikawa-san."
"Couldn't you just call or e-mail him?" I asked.
"We can't," Hikari-san said. "Aikawa-san is famously difficult to reach. It's a busy life, I guess, and I believe there's something going on in Aichi Prefecture right now. So Akari and Teruko won't be back until tomorrow."
"Busy life, huh? What's this person do?"
"Independent contracting."
What's that?
I wasn't entirely familiar with that kind of lingo.
This night's dinner was Chinese food. According to Sashirono Yayoi, master of flavors, Chinese was the quickest and easiest food to make. Of course, that was from her perspective, so it probably wouldn't serve as a reference for me in my own cooking anytime soon.
"By the way, Kunagisa-san," Iria-san said just as dinner was ending. "I hear you were conducting some covert ops this afternoon. Did you figure anything out? I thought you were a mechanical specialist, but you can conduct these types of investigations as well, huh?"
"I do all sorts of stuff," Kunagisa said with sweet-and-sour pork crammed into her mouth. "No need to tie me down with specialties and such."
That sounded familiar.
Ah… Right. They were Kanami-san's words.
The words of a style-free painter.
Regardless of your strengths and weaknesses, likes and dislikes, there's no need to specialize. This was fundamental teaching at the ER program as well. Yet in a world that categorizes everything, that was no easy teaching to adhere to. It began and ended with the likes of Kunagisa Tomo, Ibuki Kanami, and Sonoyama Akane.
For me, it was an impossibility.
"So, did you figure anything out? About how they broke into the room or who the killer was or anything?"
It sounded more like she didn't want Kunagisa to figure anything out. I recalled what Rei-san had said earlier. Granted, if the case was solved before Aikawa-san got here, it would be something of a killjoy for Iria-san.
"I know it all. I know so much, I don't know."
Nobody seemed to understand what Kunagisa was talking about, instead eyeing her skeptically and saying nothing.
"Himena-san," Iria-san switched the conversation from the engineer to the fortune-teller. "Since coming here, you've put all your effort into harassing the other guests, and have yet to do any fortune-telling. So how about it? Don't you think it's time to tell us what's going to happen next?"
"It'll cost you."
She was living here for free and receiving a regular salary, and she still had the nerve to demand a fee? What a money-grubbing atrocity of a human being. I had never met a person like this before. She was like the devil.
"You're one to talk."
She was glaring at me.
I wasn't talking, dammit.
"Well, it sounds the same to me. I use my abilities to make a profit. I'm not so young that I can stay motivated by morality and humanity alone. Especially in terms of emotional age."
I understood what she was saying. But she must have already had enough. Ten-thousand-yen bills to fill ten Tokyo Domes, so what more did she want? It wouldn't hurt for her to tell fortunes for free every once in a while.
"Who gave you the right to think that?"
She snapped her attention back to Iria-san.
"Of course I'll pay for it." Iria-san put her hands together. "Please, I'm asking you."
"It ends soon."
Maki-san spoke without even changing her tone of voice. Everybody waited for her to continue, but she was already fully invested in her twice-cooked pork. It looked like that was all she had to say.
"Is that all?" Iria-san asked, evidently somewhat surprised. "I have to say, that was a little, um…"
"That was a charity. Since somebody over there has so many complaints about me, I thought I'd be a little generous. Don't worry about it. It has nothing to do with the fortune."
Himena Maki.
Just what is it like to know everything and stay silent about it? For someone like me who knows nothing, it was impossible to even imagine. In that sense, Maki-san was, for me, the biggest mystery on this whole island. So much so that the mystery of the headless body and the locked door and river of paint were all blotted out.
After that, Maki-san said nothing more, and so the fourth night's dinner ended without any significant developments. Maki-san and Kunagisa made a few bizarre comments as usual, and that was it.
Yet there was one thing that bothered me. Shinya-san and Yayoi-san hadn't said a single word the entire time, and they didn't even appear to be listening to anyone else's conversation. They just sat there putting food in their mouths, just because it was there. It wasn't so remarkable, but there was definitely something unnatural about the two of them. It was one thing for Shinya-san, who had lost Kanami-san, to be like that, but what was Yayoi-san's issue? Granted, she had complained of feeling "under the weather" earlier, but…