Fujino was quite helpless when it came to Sonoko.
This girl was just like Sister Zhou—she was a fine girl as long as she kept her mouth shut.
The moment she opened it, all illusions were shattered.
After thinking for a moment, he asked her, "Sonoko, you mean four days in a row?"
"That's right."
Sonoko nodded and said excitedly, "For four days straight, someone found the same four books!"
Fujino rubbed his chin and asked quietly, "The library is locked at night. If someone wanted to place those books in the library, they could only do it at night, or before closing. The librarian should inspect the library before leaving. Didn't she notice the books then?"
Ran explained, "I heard her say that the books were all placed beneath bookshelves or tables. If she didn't inspect carefully, she wouldn't find them at all."
Fujino focused on the key point. "Then here's the question: since all those books were ones Hosaka borrowed before his death, the person behind these pranks must have been close to Hosaka two years ago."
"Hosaka has been dead for two years. If someone hadn't been close to him, they definitely wouldn't know that he regularly borrowed those four books. And unless they deliberately remembered it, ordinary people wouldn't recall what books someone who died two years ago often borrowed."
"Looking at it that way, the third-years from a year ago were second-years, while the third-years from two years ago were first-years. Now, those former second- and third-years have all graduated and gone to college, so naturally they wouldn't come back to Teitan to pull this kind of prank."
"That means the only people we can narrow it down to are the current third-years."
As he spoke, he chuckled. "Of course, that isn't absolute. We can't