Chapter Two: Yukino Yukinoshita Always Stays True to Herself (cont.)

"That's right. That's exactly what I mean."

"Then we need to find out who did it first."

"Yeah, please... Huh? Wait a second, why did this turn out like this?"

Hayama's face flashed with bewilderment when he saw his earlier idea being completely ignored. However, the next second, he put on a smile and calmly asked Yukino what she intended to do.

Wearing an icy expression that was the complete opposite of Hayama's, Yukino first chose her words carefully in her mind before slowly speaking.

"Chain letters trample on human dignity. They are the worst kind of behavior. The person writing them leaves neither a name nor shows their face, doing everything possible to slander and insult others simply to hurt them. As for those who spread that malice, they may not necessarily do so maliciously, but they are just as bad. Perhaps it is out of curiosity or a momentary kindness, but they only allow the malice to spread further... If we want to stop this, we have to pull it out by the roots. The above information came from my own experience."

"So it was something you went through personally..."

Could you please not put your own land mines on display? Even though her tone was calm, I could see black flames burning behind her. Boom, boom, boom... Should I add sound effects for her?

"Honestly, is it fun to spread messages insulting other people everywhere? I don't think that would do Sagawa or Shimoda any good."

"So you actually found the culprit..."

Yuihama-san's smile was a little stiff. This was exactly why you should never make an enemy of someone this sharp. Terrifying.

"Sounds like the middle school you attended was on the cutting edge of trends. I never ran into anything like that back then."

"...Wasn't that just because nobody exchanged phone email addresses with you?"

"What? Hey, are you an idiot? I was fulfilling my duty of confidentiality! Haven't you heard of the Personal Information Protection Act?"

"That is certainly a novel legal interpretation..."

Yukino looked exasperated as she brushed aside the hair hanging over her shoulder.

Still, the reason I had never gotten caught up in trouble over letters like that was because nobody even asked for my phone email address. That was the difference between Yukino and me. Everyone hated her, while as for me? They could not even be bothered to hate me. If I ran into something like that, I definitely would not be able to expose the person behind it. I would just go home, sigh deeply, and cry until my pillow was soaked.

"Anyway, whoever did something so disgusting should be eliminated. My principle is tooth for tooth, eye for eye, blood debt for blood debt."

Yuihama-san immediately reacted to the very familiar phrase.

"Ah, we studied this in world history today! It was the Magna Carta, right?"

"The Code of Hammurabi."

After Yukino bluntly corrected her, she continued speaking to Hayama.

"I'll find the person who sent those letters and talk to them. They probably won't do it again. As for what to do with them afterward, I'll leave that to you. Is that acceptable?"

"...Yeah, all right."

And so, Hayama gave up on his original idea.

Actually, I agreed with Yukino. The fact that the sender had deliberately kept changing locations meant they did not want to be discovered. They were even afraid their identity would be exposed. In that case, if we dragged that person out into the open, they would naturally stop. So the fastest method was to find the bastard directly.

Yukino stared intently at the phone Yuihama-san had placed on the table, resting a hand against her chin as she began to think.

"When did these letters start appearing?"

"Last weekend. Right, ☆★Yui★☆?"

After Hayama answered, Yuihama-san nodded in agreement.

Hey, Hayama, you've been calling Yuihama by her first name this whole time. How should I put it? People with high status at school seemed to naturally call girls by their first names. If it were me, I would definitely stammer and bite my tongue on top of that. Seeing Hayama casually do something so embarrassing made me feel a little respect for him... but at the same time, it also annoyed me. What? Are you American or something?

"They suddenly started last weekend. Yuihama-san, Hayama, did anything happen in your class last weekend?"

"I don't remember anything in particular."

"Yeah... It was the same as usual."

The two of them looked at each other.

"I should ask you too, just in case. Hikigaya-kun, what about you?"

"What do you mean, 'just in case'..."

I'm in the same class as them, you know. Besides, I occupy a different position from them, so I see things from a different angle. There might be something only I noticed.

Last weekend... So this had only started recently. Things that happened recently, things that happened recently... I thought back for a while, but still could not come up with anything.

If I had to name something, yesterday's headline was that I called Totsuka by his first name for the first time.

"Summoning courage, I called him Saika. He was so cute that yesterday became Saika Day."

Come to think of it, why had I talked to Totsuka in the first place...? After thinking more carefully, I remembered.

"Oh, right. Yesterday, the class was discussing groups for the Workplace Internship."

That's right. The conclusion that Totsuka was super cute had branched off from there.

When Yuihama-san heard that, she seemed to remember something too.

"Ah... Right! It was because of the group assignments!"

"Huh? You figured it out from that?"

Hayama and I asked in unison. The next moment, Hayama smiled and said to me, "We're really in sync." Since it was such a completely meaningless thing to say, all I could reply was, "Oh, yeah..." Still, the fact that I said the same thing as Hayama proved that I, too, was a handsome normie. QED, proof complete... Could something that good really exist?

Hayama looked at Yuihama-san, and she answered with a laugh.

"Well, whenever there is some event that requires groups, it affects everyone's relationships afterward. Some people are always kind of immature..."

As she said that, a gloomy shadow fell over her expression, making Hayama and Yukino look at her in surprise.

Something like that would never happen to Hayama, and Yukino had no interest in it either, so naturally they could not understand.

But I understood. Yuihama-san was used to reading people's expressions and had experienced all sorts of interpersonal problems, so her words carried a lot of credibility.

Yukino gave a light cough and brought the conversation back on track.

"Hayama, you said those letters were all about your friends, correct? Who are your group members?"

"Hmm... Now that you mention it, I haven't decided yet. But I'll probably choose from those three."

"The culprit may already be fairly obvious..."

Yuihama-san's face grew even more dejected.

"Could you explain?"

"Yeah. Basically, for these Workplace Internship groups, one person has to leave this group of friends, right? Out of four people, only one gets left out. Wouldn't that person be really pitiful?"

Her voice was full of sincerity, and we all listened quietly.

If we wanted to find the culprit, we could start by considering motive. If we found someone who stood to benefit from those actions, the answer would naturally become obvious.

Applied to the situation today, the culprit's motive was "avoiding being left out."

Hayama had three close friends in class. In other words, if a group could only have three people, one of them was bound to be kicked out.

The culprit surely did not want to be that one person, and therefore had to drive the others out.

"...Then, for now, we can at least conclude that the suspect is among those three."

After Yukino reached that conclusion, Hayama grew flustered in a way that was rare for him.

"W-Wait! I don't think there could be a culprit among them. Besides, those letters insulted all three of them. So there must be some mistake somewhere, right?"

"Huh? Are you an idiot? It's not New Year's, so why are you so optimistic? Of course he did that to avoid suspicion! If it were me, I wouldn't just badmouth one person. I'd find a way to frame that person instead."

"That's awful, shut-in boy..."

Please call it an intellectual crime! An intellectual crime!

Hayama bit down hard on his lip in frustration. He must never have expected things to develop this way. Tangled feelings of love and hate were happening right beside him. Behind the outwardly harmonious smiles lay a whirlpool of dark emotions.

"Anyway, could you tell us about those people?"

Yukino asked Hayama to provide information.

Hayama raised his head as though making up his mind. His eyes were filled with conviction. He surely had the noble goal of clearing his friends of suspicion.

"Tobe is in the Soccer Club with me. His blond hair makes him look a little like a delinquent at first glance, but he's the best at getting everyone energized. He took the initiative to help out a lot during the school festival and sports day. He's a good guy."

"He has no talent besides being loud and gets carried away easily. Right?"

"..."

Yukino's single comment immediately left Hayama speechless.

"What? Go on."

When Hayama suddenly fell silent, Yukino seemed to find it strange and asked him.

Hayama collected himself a little and continued describing the second person.

"Yamato is a member of the Rugby Club. He's calm, good at listening to others, and his relaxed, steady demeanor puts people at ease. He doesn't talk much, and he's careful by nature. He's a good guy."

"Slow to react and indecisive..."

"..."

Hayama fell silent again. The expression on his face was unpleasant, but he could not think of anything to say. He sighed in surrender, then described the third person.

"Ooka is in the Baseball Club. He's very friendly and is happy to stand on the same side as other people. He also places great importance on seniority and hierarchy, and he's very polite. He's a good guy."

"Always watching other people's faces and changing with the wind. Right?"

"..."

Before I knew it, Hayama was not the only one who had fallen silent. Yuihama-san and I were also staring blankly with our mouths open, not knowing what to say.

So amazing! Miss Yukino! You would definitely make a great prosecutor.

But the scary part about this woman was that her comments about those people were not actually wrong. Different viewpoints naturally created different impressions of the same person. Hayama always looked at the good side, so some bias was inevitable. Yukino, by contrast, excluded all emotional factors and naturally made harsher comments. Though these were a little too harsh. Were they twenty-times-spicier LEE curry or something?

Yukino studied the notes she had made while muttering quietly.

"No matter which one is the culprit, it wouldn't be particularly strange..."

"I think you look the most like the culprit. Is that just my imagination?"

In a sense, twisting someone's personality to that extent was even worse than sending those chain letters.

When Yukino heard me say that, she immediately put her hands on her hips and said with a very displeased expression.

"There's no way I would do something like that, is there? I would crush them head-on."

Her methods differed from the culprit's, but was not the goal still to "crush" other people? Just as expected of Yukino. The thought of "getting along properly with the other person" never even occurred to her.

As for Hayama, who had been thoroughly defeated by her, he did not know whether he should be angry or sigh, so he could only smile with a troubled expression.

Actually, Yukino and Hayama were cut from the same cloth. In the end, all the information Hayama had provided was nothing but superficial and useless. He was a good person, but his perspective was too different from ours, so it was no help in finding the culprit. Yukino seemed to think so too, and turned to ask for our opinions.

"The information Hayama provided has little value as reference. Yuihama-san, Hikigaya-kun, what do you think of those three?"

"Huh? I-I mean, if you ask me that..."

"I don't know anything about them."

If I had to say it, there were hardly any people at school I knew well in the first place. What could I do? I had no friends, and barely any acquaintances either.

"Then, could you investigate? The groups won't be decided until the day after tomorrow, so we still have one day."

"...Yeah, okay."

Yuihama-san looked troubled by Yukino's request. Since she always wanted to get along with her classmates, she probably did not like this sort of job.

While probing other people's flaws, you had to lay your own flaws out in the sunlight as well. In a group, that was a high-risk move.

Yukino probably understood that too, and lowered her gaze.

"...Sorry. This isn't a pleasant thing to do. Forget what I just said."

Then nobody would do it, right? It seemed the outcome was already quite obvious.

"Leave it to me. No matter how my classmates see me, I don't care."

Yukino glanced at me, then gave a small smile.

"...All right. But I won't have very high expectations."

"Leave it to me. This is one of my eighteen skills."

If you asked what else I could do, it was probably something like cat's cradle. Hey, was I some kind of ○o?

"W-Wait! I'm joining too! Y-You can't leave something like this entirely to the shut-in boy!"

Yuihama-san said, her face red and the end of her sentence trembling slightly, but she immediately clenched her fists.

"A-And besides, since it's little Yukino's request, how could I not listen?"