Our class became temporarily excited by that fairy tale, but we were soon pulled back to reality. After school we resumed the search for a witness. I hung behind Kushida, Ike, and the others, trailing them like a ghost. I was impressed, surprised, and in awe of their natural conversation skills. It was clear as day that I, someone who couldn't even converse with my fellow classmates, was not well suited to this task. How could they talk with people they'd never met before and behave like old friends? Monsters.
In this investigation, we sought not just names, but also contact information. Perhaps they felt compelled to give Kushida their information because of her personality. What a wonderful talent…
Though Kushida and the others spent a good amount of time going to the second-year classrooms and talking to upperclassmen, they didn't turn up any good leads. As time passed, the number of students who remained after class was dwindling. With a lack of new students to speak with, we decided to stop our investigation for the day.
"Looks like we didn't have any luck today, either."
Everyone went back to my room to reevaluate our strategy. Sudou came by shortly afterward and joined our discussion.
"What happened today? Did you make any progress?" he asked.
"None at all. Sudou, are you sure there was a witness?"
I understood Ike's doubts. Even though the school had said that's what happened, there wasn't any new information.
"Huh? I never said there was someone there. I said that it felt like someone was there."
"Huh. Is that so?"
"It's certainly true that Sudou-kun didn't say he saw anyone. He said that he had a feeling that someone was there."
"Maybe Sudou was hallucinating? He must be taking some pretty potent drugs or something."
Man, that was going a bit too far. Sudou put Ike into a headlock.
"Gyahh! I give, I give!" Ike cried.
While the two of them messed around, Kushida and Yamauchi were wracking their brains. After discussing the matter for about 10 minutes, Kushida spoke up.
"We might want to change our methods a little. For example, let's look for someone who might have found a witness."
"Look for someone who found a witness? I don't get what you mean."
"Are you going to look for the people who went to the special building on the day of the incident?"
"Yeah. What do you think?"
That wasn't a bad idea. Not many students went to the special building, but the entrance was well within eyeshot. In other words, if someone testified to seeing another person enter the special building, we'd be much closer to finding the witness.
"That sounds great! Let's start asking right away."
I noticed then that the person of interest, Sudou, was completely engrossed in some kind of digital basketball game on his phone. It was completely draining his battery. I think the game was called Generation of Miracles or something, but I still didn't quite understand. After he won the match, he struck a victory pose.
Even though Sudou couldn't really help, Ike and Yamauchi still appeared disgruntled at the sight of him. However, they concealed their dissatisfaction, probably because they were scared of Sudou's counterattack. They both chose to ignore him instead.
Tomorrow was Friday. Ferreting out information would be no easier when Saturday came around.
That meant we actually had less time than we thought. Just then, my doorbell rang and a visitor appeared. The small group of normal visitors was mostly accounted for already. While I considered who this new visitor might be, she peered through the door.
"Have you made any progress finding the witness?" asked Horikita, looking as if she already knew the response.
"No. Not yet."
"I'm only telling you this because it's you, but I may have found out something—"
While she was talking, Horikita noticed that there were several pairs of shoes lined up by my door.
She stopped and made a hard heel turn, apparently ready to run. Kushida peered over at the entrance, probably concerned that Horikita wouldn't return.
"Ah, Horikita-san!" Kushida said.
Kushida smiled and waved to Horikita. Horikita, upon noticing Kushida, naturally let out a sigh.
"Looks like your only choice is to come in, huh?"
"Looks that way," Horikita grumped.
Looking exasperated, she entered my room.
"Oh, Horikita!"
Of course, Sudou was happiest to see her. He paused his game and stood.
"Did you decide to help out? I'm super glad you're here."
"I didn't particularly plan on helping. You don't appear to have found the witness yet, right?"
Kushida nodded despondently. "If you didn't come here to help, then why did you come?" she asked.
"I was wondering what kind of plan you'd come up with."
"Well, I'm happy if you just want to listen to us talk. I hoped you could give some advice."
Kushida then relayed her plan to Horikita, whose expression remained neutral from start to finish.
"I wouldn't say it's a bad plan. Provided you have sufficient time, your labors may actually bear fruit."
Time was indeed the issue here. Considering we had a mere few days left, it was doubtful we'd see any results.
"Well. Now that I'm abreast of the current situation, I'll be leaving."
In the end, Horikita was going to leave without ever having sat down. She was no lingerer.
"Did you come up with something? Like information about the witness?" I asked.
When Horikita had shown up at my door, it seemed like she'd wanted to say something. She wasn't exactly the friendly type, certainly not the sort who'd come to my room for casual conversation.
"I'll give you just one piece of advice, to help your pathetic odds," she said. "It's hard to see what's right in front of you. If someone actually witnessed Sudou's incident, then that person is close by."
Horikita's information was much more significant than I'd imagined. She spoke as if she had already found the hypothetical witness.
"What do you mean, Horikita? Are you seriously implying that you found this person?"
Sudou appeared more shocked and doubtful than joyous. That was understandable. No one, myself included, really believed her…until we heard her next words.
"Sakura-san."
Horikita spoke a most unexpected name.
"Sakura-san? From our class?"
Yamauchi and Sudou exchanged looks. They didn't seem to know who Sakura even was. That was probably to be expected, though. To be honest, I had to wrack my own memory for a moment.
"She's the witness. She saw the incident."
"Why do you say that?"
"When Kushida-san said that she was looking for a witness in class, Sakura looked down. A lot of students were staring at Kushida-san. Sakura was the only one who didn't appear interested. She wouldn't have acted that way without some connection to the incident."
I hadn't noticed that at all. I was genuinely impressed by Horikita's observational prowess.
She'd noticed a classmate's very minor gesture.
"Since you were one of the people who also stares at Kushida-san, it's not surprising you didn't notice," Horikita said to me, her tone heavily sarcastic.
"So you're saying that there's a high probability that this Sakura, or Kokura, or whoever is the witness?" inquired Sudou. A sharp observation, something a fool would be unlikely to say.
"No, Sakura-san is undoubtedly the witness. Her actions confirmed it. Although she may not admit to it, she is definitely the one."
While we'd been paralyzed by uncertainty, Horikita had stepped up and taken control. That Horikita had done so for our class's sake was particularly moving.
"Did you really do this for me, after all?!" Sudou looked especially moved.
"Don't misunderstand. I just didn't want to waste more time looking for the witness, and letting other classes see us in such a shameful light. That's all."
"Umm. But still, the point is that you saved us, right?"
"You are free to interpret things however you wish, but I'm telling you that you're wrong."
"Come on, don't lie! You're a tsundere, Horikita!"
Ike went to hit Horikita's shoulders playfully, as if teasing her. Horikita grabbed his arm and tossed him to the ground.
"Oww!" he cried.
"Don't touch me. This is your one warning. The next time you try it, I'll despise you all the way to graduation."
"I-I won't touch you. Not even if I wanted to…ow, owww!"
She put him in a headlock. It was unfortunate for Ike, but you reap what you sow. Anyway, those weren't the defensive moves of a normal girl. Since I knew that her older brother practiced karate and aikido, she might have learned something, too?
"Ooh. My arm!"
"Ike-kun," said Horikita as Ike writhed on the floor in agony.
I thought she was taking things too far.
"Should I amend my previous statement, and say 'I shall continue to despise you long past our graduation'?"
"Ohh! So mean!"
After delivering what seemed to be his last words on the matter, Ike's energy was exhausted.
Sakura, though. Of all people, the witness was from Class D. It was difficult to know whether this was good news or not.
"Isn't this great, Sudou? If the student's from Class D, then we can definitely get her to testify!"
"Yeah. I'm happy there's a witness, but who's Sakura? Do you know her?"
Sudou didn't seem to have any idea. Yamauchi appeared quite surprised.
"Are you serious? She sits behind you, Sudou!"
"No, that's not it. She sits diagonally ahead of you and to the left, I thought?"
"No, you're both wrong. She sits diagonally ahead of Sudou-kun to the right." Kushida corrected them, a slightly pouty look on her face.
"Diagonally ahead to the right? I can't remember at all. I'm sure there's someone there, though."
That was obvious. A permanently empty seat would have been bizarre. Sakura certainly didn't stand out very much. The fact we didn't really know her was a problem.
"I probably know her. I feel like I've heard her name somewhere before," I offered.
I felt like I almost had something, but not quite.
"Can you tell us about her?"
"Well, I suppose there's one thing. Would it help if I said she has the biggest boobs in class? Her boobs are insanely huge." Ike, having returned to the land of the living, discussed one of Sakura's chief physical characteristics. Personally, I couldn't identify her based on that information alone.
"Oh, she's that plain girl with glasses, right?"
How did you jump to that? I was a little stunned.
"It's not good to remember people based on something like that, Ike-kun! That's pathetic," Kushida cried.
"N-no, no, it's not like that, Kushida-chan. It's just, you know. I wasn't trying to say anything indecent or anything. You know, it's like how you can remember a tall guy because of his height, right? It's the same kind of thing, but I'm just remembering her based on another physical characteristic!"
Kushida was rapidly losing faith as Ike frantically tried to smooth things over. It seemed like it was too late.
"Damn it! No, it's not like that, it's not! I absolutely do not like plain girls like her! Don't get the wrong idea!"
I doubted anyone had the wrong idea. While Ike broke down in tears, the rest of us started talking about Sakura.
"Then we should see how much Sakura-san knows. Any ideas?"
"None. We just have to confirm with her directly."
"Can't we just go to Sakura's room right now? We don't have much time."
I thought that Yamauchi's proposal seemed innocuous, but it all came down to Sakura's personality and behavior. Sakura was an unusually shy girl. It wasn't difficult to imagine that if unfamiliar people suddenly showed up, she'd be perplexed.
"Okay, so should we try calling her?"
I recalled that Kushida already knew everyone's information, including Horikita's. She listened to her phone ring for about 20 seconds, but then she shook her head and hung up.
"No luck. The call didn't go through. I can try again later, but this may be a delicate matter."
"What do you mean by delicate?"
"She gave me her contact information, but she doesn't know me very well. She might be confused if I tried to call her. Also, she might not even have been there to answer the phone."
Sakura might just be pretending to be out, too.
"So she's kind of like Horikita?" Ike said.
Why would you say something like that when the person you're talking about was standing right in front of you, Ike? Horikita probably didn't care, though. Really, she seemed pretty uninterested in what Ike said at all.
"Goodbye."
"Ah, Horikita-san!"
Horikita stood quickly and headed for the door. By the time I managed to get up, the door had clicked shut.
"What a tsundere."
Sudou wore a happy smile, chuckling and scratching his nose with his finger. She wasn't tsun and she wasn't dere. She wasn't anything, I thought. She was a non-tsun, non-dere. Since we couldn't prevent Horikita from leaving, we resumed our conversation.
"I get the feeling that Sakura-san's just a shy person. That was my first impression of her."
It was strange to discuss someone you'd never talked to.
"She's plain, that's it. Talk about a waste, man. Like pearls before swine." While Yamauchi spoke, he gestured with his hands near his chest, to represent Sakura's breasts.
"Yeah, for sure. Her boobs are huge, though. It's really cute!"
Ike seemed to have already forgotten the shame of his earlier remarks, and was now excited again.
Kushida gave him another bitter smile. After noticing Kushida's expression, Ike's regret returned. He was the type of hapless creature that made the same mistake over and over.
Even though I hadn't said anything, I felt like I was being lumped into the same category as Ike and Yamauchi. Kushida's bitter smile seemed to say, You're also fixated on boobs, aren't you? You disgusting pervert. Granted, that was my persecution complex speaking.
"What about Sakura's face, though? It's no use, I just can't remember anything."
I could barely match Sakura's name to a face. I recalled seeing her back when we were making bets. The bet had been about boobs, though. I guess we were birds of a feather after all.
My image of Sakura was of her quietly sitting by herself, hunched over her desk.
"I don't know if Sakura talks to anyone. Yamauchi?
Wait, hold on… Yamauchi, you said you confessed your feelings to her before, right? If you did, then you can talk to her easily, yeah?"
Oh, Ike was right. Yamauchi had said that. They'd mentioned it before.
"Uh, ahh…well, I may or may not have said something like that." Yamauchi feigned ignorance.
"So you were lying?"
"N-no, I wasn't. I wasn't lying. It was just a misunderstanding. It wasn't Sakura; it was a girl from the next class over. Not a gloomy and ugly girl like Sakura. Err, hold on. Sorry, I got a message."
Yamauchi dodged the question by whipping out his phone. It's certainly true that Sakura was plain, but she wasn't ugly. I'd never gotten a good look at her face before, but she seemed to have very nice features. Even so, I couldn't say that with complete confidence, probably because Sakura had so little presence.
"Well, I'll try to talk to her myself tomorrow. I think she might be on her guard if a lot of people approach her," Kushida said.
"That sounds good."
If Kushida couldn't manage it, then I doubted anyone else would be able to get through to Sakura.